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A dark & stormy night on the railroad
There are borders to our lives—borders of routine, social expectation, gender, race and class. Some never stray near those boundaries, some dance on the edge and a few dare to cross. Railroad Noir: The American West at the End of the Twentieth Century (University of Indiana Press), by Linda Grant Niemann, is the story of a border crosser. Niemann, a college-educated woman, began working on the railroad in 1979. Hobo world lives in new book
“Hobo” conjures a mythic American figure, strolling along the railroad tracks in tattered clothing, a bristly chin, dirty face and a stogie clamped in the mouth, enjoying the open road but obviously poor, all his belongings tied in a bundle and hanging from a stick over his shoulder. The real hoboes, however, were the harvesters, railroad builders, miners, forest fire fighters and timber workers that powered the American economy from the Civil War through World War I. Winning against globalization“Worker power” historically was won the old fashioned way –– strikes, picket lines, sometimes bloody and violent confrontations.In a global corporate age, how do workers exert power? When corporations can roam the globe for a cheaper price, what resources do workers have, particularly when their own governments support the corporations, not the citizens? In a unique story of old-fashioned street fighting plus adept global positioning, On the Global Waterfront tells the story of Charleston, S.C. dockworkers and their valiant fight to maintain decent jobs in a changing global economy. ABCs of our current economic crisisThe ABCs of the Economic Crisis,by Fred Magdoff and Michael Yates Monthly Review Press $11.95 Reviewed by Mike Matejka If Michael Moore comically probes the underside of the American economy, a straight forward explanation of current banking and economic practices is available in The ABCs of the Economic Crisis. Understanding the deficit, Wall Street machinations, lending practices and currency fluctuations is enough to make one’s head spin. Particularly if one tries to digest all this information and wonder, “Will I have a job tomorrow?” This slim volume offers concise and easy to understand explanations. It might still leave one very frustrated with our current economy, but at least one can see who the winners and the losers are On the Ground: Labor struggles in the airline industry
Organizing workers is always a challenge, particularly with a start-up industry. This not a book about pilot or flight attendants, but rather the baggage handlers and cleaners who do the behinds the scenes work in the airline industry. The airlines were often originally seen as adventurous and glamorous, but low pay and rough conditions found workers seeking union relief. Orenic not only traces the institutional union building, but also the diverse workforce that comprised the airline industry and how those workers fared under union contracts and in an increasingly troubled, deregulated industry. Pittsburgh's people's historyPittsburgh PA is traditionally associated with heavy industry, a multi-ethnic river town where powerful industries met their match through aggressive unionization.Human dignity lives in new book, CDsA new book on folk legend John Henry and two new musical offerings, one from Tom Juravich and Teresa Healy, entitled "Tangled In Our Dreams," and a second CD from Farm Labor Organizing Committee President Baldemar Valesquez, "Justice Has No Borders," tell tales of human dignity in often difficult situations.Utah Phillips: rugged life story in new CDStarlight on the Rails: A SongbookIt’s not often that one gets an opportunity to encapsulate a life into a handy little package -- particularly if it’s a complex life. For those who have want to travel the long and sometimes meandering road that singer-songwriter-union activist and folklorist “U Utah” Phillips has walked, that package is now available in a four disc compilation, “Starlight on the Rails.” |
Michael Moore the Altar Boy?
Michael Moore, that earnest chubby guy with the baseball cap, is constantly on the lookout for life’s tragedies, sympathizing with working people and the poor and skewering the rich and their ever-faithful governmental servants. In his films, books and columns, this auto worker’s son from Flint has taken on the medical system, America’s love affair with guns and General Motors. In his latest film: Capitalism: A Love Story, Moore tackles perhaps his toughest subject of all -- our economic system. New books cover labor & religion, Decatur strugglesA new book, Justified by Work, by Bob Bruno, examines how faith and work intersect for a variety of Chicago area workers. Staley reviews the tough 1990s battles in Decatur, Illinois and a reissue of Why Unions Matter offers a concise history and explanation of what unions are and how they operate.Central Illinois coal mining roots rememberedBefore there were unions, working life was often fraught with danger. Accidents were common and there was no workers’ compensation, insurance or other protections for a family. No industry was as brutal as coal mining, which annually tallied thousands of deaths and accidents.Those early days are beautifully recalled through a reissued 1935 novel, Horse Shoe Bottoms, written by a union organizer with strong literary skills, Tom Tippett (1890-1979). Urban League's early years exploredThe relationship between organized labor and African-Americans is a sometimes inspiring, sometime tortured story.
A. Phillip Randolph organized the predominately African-American Pullman Porters in the early 1930s and then fought against internal discrimination within the AFL-CIO. Many unions maintained “whites only” clauses until the 1960s. A new book by Illinois State University Professor Toure Reed examines this story through the records of the Chicago and New York Urban Leagues, from their founding through the 1950s. "Solidarity Divided" questions labor's futureWho does the labor movement represent: union members or the working class?That’s a century-old, complicated question that gets fresh analysis from Bill Fischer and Fernando Gapasin in their new book: “Solidarity Divided.” Anne Feeney rocks with labor classicsAnne Feeney is an old-fashioned union hell-raiser, and she’s dipped deep into union roots for her latest musical effort, “Dump the Bosses Off Your Back.”Anne reaches back a century to the radical Industrial Workers of the World, a union that never had the membership numbers of the AFL or the CIO, but certainly left an imprint on labor’s culture. The IWW was a singing union, using popular songs and transforming their lyrics to send a very direct message to the working class. "The Moon:" SciFi probe of a worker's valueThe Moon A film by Duncan Jones Science fiction might seem an odd place to contemplate labor-management relations, but this new film asks probing and penetrating questions about how a corporation views its workforce. Jonatha Brooks channels loving GuthrieThe first woman, Jonatha Brooks, commissioned to put Woody Guthrie lyrics to music has produced a soulful, gentle set of love songs. 1930s Federal theater a "Furious Improvisation"In the 1930s, the federal government put millions to work to bolster the economy.The Works Progress Administration;s (WPA) most unique project was the Federal Theater Project, nicely documented in an easy-to-read new history, “Furious Improvisation.”  |