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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. Not going to take it anymore? Join the Armed MadhouseDo current politics and economic policy leave you so frustrated, you aren’t sure whether to laugh or to cry?Is there a connection between high gas prices, the Iraqi war, spoiled presidential election ballots and mounting trade deficits? Then hang on tight and get ready for a wild ride, through Greg Palast’s newest book: Armed Madhouse. Perhaps the book’s subhead gives a better sense of its true direction: Who’s Afraid of Osama Wolf? China Floats, Bush Sinks, the Scheme to Steal ’08, No Child Left Behind and Other Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Class War. Haymarket bomb still reverberatesDeath in the Haymarket: A story of Chicago, the first Labor Movement and the Bombing that Divided Gilded Age America, by James Green, Pantheon Books, $26.95On May 1, 2005, I stood at DesPlaines & Randolph Street in Chicago with a brother laborer. “So this is where our first union was born,” he said. “Not quite,” I replied, “but it is a most significant place.” If there is any labor event that echoes through American history, there is none louder than the bomb thrown on May 4, 1886 in Chicago’s Haymarket Square. That tragic evening in Chicago not only shaped U.S. unions, but helped spark a world-wide movement. The gripping story has been told many times, but rarely in the accessible form that James Green does in his latest book, Death in the Haymarket. 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.” Singin' 'bout my job & unionWhether from a blues, folk or country tradition, the workplace is a dynamic inspiration for American music. People don’t just sing about lost love, but also about their jobs. The Smithsonian recently gathered 27 topical workplace and labor songs in a new collection, “Classic Labor Songs.”Forgotten: Labor history as opera“Opera” usually generates images of hefty Teutonic sopranos in body armor or else a hilarious Bugs Bunny episode.But opera is basically story-telling with music, which is the key ingredient of “Forgotten,” a labor-history jazz offering now on CD, set in 1930s Detroit. |
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. Hearing the people's voiceA new three disc set, "Folk Songs of Illinois" highlights the state's diverse ethnicities and traditions. An historic, rare, live recording of the great Woody Guthrie is available from the Woody Guthrie Foundation, and a new children's book tells the story of an Illinois farm worker woman.Comics bring Labor History to lifeRemember long summer afternoons, laying around on the front porch with a comic book?Serious collectors will tell you comic books are not just for children. And a retired building trades workers from Pennsylvania is producing intricately drawn and wonderful labor history illustrated tales, gripping stories suitable not only for children, but for adults also. Father's Day roots in workplace tragedyFather’s Day -- a backyard barbeque with dad, maybe a ball game, and a pat on the back to the good ol’ guy who brings home the paycheck and mows the lawn.Few Americans know that the first American father’s day had its inspiration in a work place tragedy. |