Revolutionary Teamsters: The Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934

Strike!

REVOLUTIONARY TEAMSTERS: THE MINNEAPOLIS TEAMSTERS STRIKE OF 1934

BRYAN PALMER

NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK FROM HAYMARKET BOOKS

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“Palmer’s superb micro-history of the Minneapolis General Strike provides readers with an unprecedented view of a Depression-era class struggle from the inside out. Revolutionary Teamsters offers invaluable ‘dancing lessons’ — still relevant today — for labor radicals and protest organizers.” — MIKE DAVIS, author of Ecology of Fear, Planet of Slums, and Buda’s Wagon

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Minneapolis in the early 1930s was anything but a union stronghold. An employers’ association known as the Citizens’ Alliance kept labor organizations in check, at the same time as it cultivated opposition to radicalism in all forms. This all changed in 1934. The year saw three strikes, violent picket-line confrontations, and tens of thousands of workers protesting in the streets.

Bryan D. Palmer tells the compelling story of how a handful of revolutionary Trotskyists, working in the largely non-union trucking sector, led the drive to organize the unorganized, to build one large industrial union. What emerges is a compelling narrative of class struggle, a reminder of what can indeed be accomplished, even in the worst of circumstances, with a principled and far-seeing leadership.

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PRAISE FOR REVOLUTIONARY TEAMSTERS

“A stirring study worthy of the epic struggles it describes. Palmer’s account situates the creativity, seriousness, and heroism of revolutionaries and rank-and-filers in an historical moment while trusting that they speak to our moment as well.”

—David R. Roediger, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and co-author of The Production of Difference

“Revolutionary Teamsters … is not only a fresh look at a critical set of historical events in the history of both the left and the labor movement, but also an invitation to engage in a creative reconsideration of the relationship between the past and the present. Like any really good historian, Palmer reveals himself to be more interested in the future than in the past.”

—Peter Rachleff, Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota

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BRYAN D. PALMER, Ph.D. (1977), SUNY-Binghamton, is Canada Research Chair in the Department of Canadian Studies, Trent University. His prize-winning monographs, edited collections, and articles on the history of labour and the Left, historiography and theory, have been translated and published in Greek, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and other languages.

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ISBN: 9781608463794 / $28 / Paperback / 352 pages

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For more information or to buy the book visit: www.haymarketbooks.org

First published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/paperback-from-haymarket-books-revolutionary-teamsters-the-minneapolis-teamsters-strike-of-1934-by-bryan-palmer

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski?ev=hdr_xprf

Online Publications at The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

How Revolutionary were the Bourgeois Revolutions? Book Launch

Revolution

HOW REVOLUTIONARY WERE THE BOURGEOIS REVOLUTIONS? BOOK LAUNCH

You are invited to the launch of Neil Davidson’s new book:

How Revolutionary Were the Bourgeois Revolutions?
(Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2012)
7.00pm-1.00am
Saturday 13 October 2012
The Radisson BLU Hotel, 80 High Street, the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, EH1 1TH
http://www.radissonblu.co.uk/hotel-edinburgh/location
The venue is a 5 minute walk from Waverley Station via Cockburn Street, Carrubbers Close or North Bridge (see link above). Parking is available on Blackfriars Street; there is disabled access.

The evening will begin at 7.00 in the Dunedin Room where Neil will give a talk on the themes raised by his book, followed by a discussion chaired by Professor Alex Law of Abertay University, Dundee. From around 8.30 guests will be invited to move downstairs to the St Giles Suite for canapés, a paying bar, music from DJ Wattrax and dancing until 1.00. For those whose musical tastes do not extend to funk, soul, disco, hip-hop and jazz, space will be available for quieter conversation and drinking outside the St Giles Suite. Bookmarks: the Socialist Bookshop will have stall open throughout the event.

Please feel free to bring partners, colleagues or comrades.
RSVP to cauther.ha@btinternet.com

About the Book
Once of central importance to left historians and activists alike, recently the concept of the “bourgeois revolution” has come in for sustained criticism from both Marxists and conservatives. In this comprehensive rejoinder, Neil Davidson seeks to answer the question “how revolutionary were the bourgeois revolutions” by systematically examining the approach taken by a wide range of thinkers to explaining the causes, outcomes, and content of the French, English, Dutch, and other revolutions. Through far-reaching research and comprehensive analysis, Davidson demonstrates that what’s at stake is far from a stale issue for the history books–understanding these struggles of the past offer far reaching lessons for today’s radicals.
***
About the Author
Neil Davidson teaches sociology at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. He is the author of The Origins of Scottish Nationhood (2000) and Discovering the Scottish Revolution (2003), for which he was awarded the Deutscher Memorial Prize and the Fletcher of Saltoun award. He has also co-edited and contributed to Alasdair MacIntyre’s Engagement with Marxism (2008) and Neoliberal Scotland (2010). He is on the Editorial Board of International Socialism.
***
Reviews
“I was frankly pole-axed by this magnificent book. Davidson resets the entire debate on the character of revolutions: bourgeois, democratic and socialist. He’s sending me, at least, back to the library.” — Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums
*
“What should our conception of a bourgeois revolution be, if it is to enlighten rather than to mislead? Neil Davidson’s instructive and provocative answer is given through a history both of a set of concepts and of those social settings in which they found application. His book is an impressive contribution both to the history of ideas and to political philosophy.” —Alasdair MacIntyre, author of After Virtue
*
“Neil Davidson wends his way through the jagged terrain of a wide range of Marxist writings and debates to distil their lessons in what is unquestionably the most thorough discussion of the subject to date. If the paradox at the heart of the bourgeois revolutions was that the emergence of the modern bourgeois state had little to do with the agency of the bourgeoisie, then Davidson’s study is by far the most nuanced and illuminating discussion of this complex fact. A brilliant and fascinating book, wide-ranging and lucidly written.” —Jairus Banaji, author of Theory as History
*
“[This] is a monumental work. Neil Davidson has given us what is easily the most comprehensive account yet of the ‘life and times’ of the concept of ‘bourgeois revolution’ … This would have been enough. However, Davidson has also provided us with a refined set of theoretical tools for understanding the often complex interactions between political revolutions which overturn state institutions and social revolutions which involve a more thorough-going transformation of social relations.” —Colin Moores, author of The Making of Bourgeois Europe

 

First published at: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/book-launch-neil-davidson-how-revolutionary-were-the-bourgeois-revolutions-edinburgh-13-october

 

**END**

 

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

 

I ♥ Transcontinental: http://ihearttranscontinental.blogspot.co.uk/

What We Are Fighting For: A Radical Collective Manifesto

Revolt

WHAT WE ARE FIGHTING FOR: A RADICAL COLLECTIVE MANIFESTO

 

Visions of a different society run in the interests of the 99%. Leading activist voices answer the question the media loves to ask the protesters

 

What We Are Fighting For: A Radical Collective Manifesto 

Edited by Federico Campagna and Emanuele Campiglio 

Contributors include David Graeber, John Holloway, Nina Power, Mark Fisher, Ann Pettifor, and Owen Jones

Released October 29th 

PB / £ 14.99 / 9780745332857 / 198mm x 129mm / 224 pp 

“Here are the first flowers of spring: the beginning of an epochal dialogue about the human future. Inspired by the Occupy movements across the world, What We Are Fighting For should inspire all of us to join the conversation.” — Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums and City of Quartz 

“This collection provides a rallying point for all those who resist the dogmas of contemporary politics and seek a fresh set of alternatives. What We Are Fighting For is a manifesto full of urgent, articulate responses to the current situation.” — Simon Critchley, Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School, New York, and author of The Faith of the Faithless (2012). 

The age of austerity has brought a new generation of protesters on to the streets across the world. As the economic crisis meets the environmental crisis, millions fear what the future will bring but also dare to dream of a different society. 

What We Are Fighting For tries to answer the question that the mainstream media loves to ask the protesters. The first radical, collective manifesto of the new decade, it brings together some of the key theorists and activists from the new networked and creative social movements. Contributors include Owen Jones, David Graeber, John Holloway, Nina Power, Mark Fisher, Franco Berardi Bifo and Marina Sitrin. 

Chapters outline the alternative vision that animates the new global movement – from ‘new economics’ and ‘new governance’ to ‘new public’ and ‘new social imagination’. The book concludes by exploring ‘new tactics of struggle’. 

Federico Campagna is a writer and activist. He is one of the founders of the journal Through Europe and contributes to a number of magazines and radio programmes in Italy and the UK. He organised the ‘What are we struggling for?’ conference at the ICA, London, and is the editor of Franco Berardi Bifo’s forthcoming reader. 

Emanuele Campiglio is a Researcher at the New Economics Foundation. 

For further information, to request a review copy or to speak to the author please contact Jon Wheatley at jonw@plutobooks.com or on 0208 374 6424 

First published at: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/what-we-are-fighting-for-a-radical-collective-manifesto-new-from-pluto-press

 

**END**

 

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

 

I ♥ Transcontinental: http://ihearttranscontinental.blogspot.co.uk/

 

 

How Revolutionary were the Bourgeois Revolutions?

Revolution

HOW REVOLUTIONARY WERE THE BOURGEOIS REVOLUTIONS?

NOW AVAILABLE

BY NEIL DAVIDSON

———————————–

“I was frankly pole-axed by this magnificent book.  Davidson resets the entire debate on the character of revolutions: bourgeois, democratic and socialist. He’s sending me, at least, back to the library.”

—Mike Davis, author, Planet of Slums

———————————–

Once of central importance to left historians and activists alike, recently the concept of the “bourgeois revolution” has come in for sustained criticism from both marxists and conservatives. In this comprehensive rejoinder, Neil Davidson seeks to answer the question “how revolutionary were the bourgeois revolutions” by systematically examining the approach taken by a wide range of thinkers to explaining the causes, outcomes, and content of the French, English, Dutch, and other revolutions. Through far reaching research and comprehensive analysis, Davidson demonstrates that what’s at stake is far from a stale issue for the history books – understanding these struggles of the past offer far reaching lessons for today’s radicals.

———————————–

PRAISE FOR HOW REVOLUTIONARY WERE THE BOURGEOIS REVOLUTIONS?

“Neil Davidson wends his way through the jagged terrain of a wide range of Marxist writings and debates to distil their lessons in what is unquestionably the most thorough discussion of the subject to date. If the paradox at the heart of the bourgeois revolutions was that the emergence of the modern bourgeois state had little to do with the agency of the bourgeoisie, then Davidson’s study is by far the most nuanced and illuminating discussion of this complex fact. A brilliant and fascinating book, wide-ranging and lucidly written.”

—Jairus Banaji, author, Theory as History

“[This] is a monumental work. Neil Davidson has given us what is easily the most comprehensive account yet of the ‘life and times’ of the concept of ‘bourgeois revolution’ … This would have been enough. However, Davidson has also provided us with a refined set of theoretical tools for understanding the often complex interactions between political revolutions which overturn state institutions and social revolutions which involve a more thorough-going transformation of social relations.”

—Colin Mooers, author, The Making of Bourgeois Europe

———————————–

NEIL DAVIDSON teaches at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow where he is the Vice-President of the local University and College Union branch. He is the author of The Origins of Scottish Nationhood (2000), Discovering the Scottish Revolution (2003), for which he was awarded the Deutscher Memorial Prize, and also co-edited Alasdair MacIntyre’s Engagement With Marxism (2008) and Neoliberal Scotland (2010). Davidson is on the Editorial Board of International Socialism.

———————————–

ISBN: 978-1-60846-067-0 / $32 / Paperback / 813 pages

———————————–

For more information or to buy the book visit: www.haymarketbooks.org. To request review or examination copies, please write tojohn@haymarketbooks.org

Originally at: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/out-now-how-revolutionary-were-the-bourgeois-revolutions-by-neil-davidson  

**END**

 

‘Maximum levels of boredom

Disguised as maximum fun’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales)  

 

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

 

 

Centre for the Study of Education and Work – Update 8th May 2011

CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION AND WORK – UPDATE 8th MAY 2011

EVENTS

DYING FOR A HOME: FIGHTING FOR OUR SOCIAL PROGRAMS

Thursday, May 19
7 pm
Toronto Reference Library, Atrium
Yonge Street, north of Bloor

Join Toronto street nurse Cathy Crowe for a street-level perspective on the need for social housing and why we need social programs now more than ever. Crowe has been a street nurse in downtown Toronto for more than seventeen years and co-founded the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee. Music provided by the Common Thread Community Choir. Hosted by Councillor Adam Vaughan.

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STOP SIGNS: CARS AND CAPITALISM ON THE ROAD TO ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND ECOLOGICAL DECAY

Thursday, May 12
7pm
Bahen Centre, Room 1200
40 St. George St., Toronto

In North America, human beings have become enthralled by the automobile: A quarter of our working lives are spent paying for them; communities fight each other for the right to build more of them; our cities have been torn down, remade and planned with their needs as the overriding concern; wars are fought to keep their fuel tanks filled; songs are written to praise them; cathedrals are built to worship them.

Drawing on their new book Stop Signs: Cars and Capitalism on the Road to Economic, Social and Ecological Decay, authors Bianca Mugyenyi and Yves Engler will describe how the automobile’s ascendance is inextricably linked to capitalism and involved corporate malfeasance, political intrigue, backroom payoffs, media manipulation, racism, academic corruption, third world coups, secret armies, environmental destruction and war.

To locate this discussion in the Toronto context, local activist Jordy Cummings will describe the work of the campaign for Free and Accessible public transit, which is being spearheaded by the Greater Toronto Workers’ Assembly.

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COUNCILLOR JOSH MATLOW’S TOWN HALL DEBATE ON GARBAGE PRIVATIZATION

Tuesday, May 10th 2011
7:00 – 9:00 pm
North Toronto Collegiate Institute, 17 Broadway Ave – SCHOOL AUDITORIUM

Councillor Josh Matlow will be holding a Town Hall debate on the garbage privatization issue which will be coming to City Council in mid-May, to ensure residents have an opportunity to become informed on both sides of this important issue. It will be moderated by TVO’s Steve Paikin and will feature Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, Chair of Toronto Public Works Committee and Hugh Mackenzie of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

For additional information, please contact Josh Matlow’s office at (416) 392-7906 or email councillor_matlow@toronto.ca

+++++

STOP WAGE THEFT! CAMPAIGN LAUNCH

Friday May 13, 2011
7:00pm * FREE!
Beit Zatoun – 612 Markham Street
(Bathurst St. and Bloor St.)

Celebrate our shared resistance with performances by:

* Ruben ‘Beny’ Esguerra and New Tradition Drum and Dance live Afro-Colombian percussion
* Spoken word by Lishai

Hear from Workers’ Action Centre leaders on our fight to stop employers from stealing our wages.    

Watch undercover footage of employers breaking the law, and see how workers are resisting through Bad Boss actions around the city.

Find Out how you can get involved!

Workers’ Action Centre is releasing a series of videos on wage theft. Watch the latest video at http://www.workersactioncentre.org

For more information: call Sonia at (416) 531-0778, ext. 221.

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(UN)LAWFUL ACCESS: CYBER-SURVEILLANCE, SECURITY AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

May 12, 2011
5:00pm- :00pm
Campbell Conference Facility
Munk School of Global Affairs, U of T
1 Devonshire Place
Toronto, ON

Join moderator Dr. Ron Deibert for an insightful and lively discussion into some of the most pressing social issues surrounding our rights and freedoms as cyber-surveillance becomes an ubiquitous part of our lives, on-line and off.

Digitally mediated surveillance is an increasingly prevalent, but still largely invisible, aspect of everyday life. As we work, play and negotiate public spaces, on-line and off, we produce a growing stream of personal digital data of interest to unseen others. CCTV cameras hosted by private and public actors survey and record our movements in public space, as well as in the workplace. Corporate interests track our behaviour as we navigate both social and transactional cyberspaces, data mining our digital doubles and packaging users as commodities for sale to the highest bidder. Governments continue to collect personal information on-line with unclear guidelines for retention and use, while law enforcement increasingly use internet technology to monitor not only criminals but activists and political dissidents as well, with worrisome implications for democracy.

Read more: http://www.digitallymediatedsurveillance.ca

+++++

NEXT GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE GTWA: IN THE SPRING OF 2011 WILL STRUGGLE BLOOM?

Saturday May 14, 2011
Steelworkers Hall
25 Cecil Street, Toronto.
East side of Spadina south of College

As we exit the elections and the capitalist class continues to consolidate itself the attacks against working people will come quicker and stronger. The need for an organized resistance is greater than ever.

The Greater Toronto Workers’s Assembly (GTWA) was formed to contribute to this resistance at a time when we saw the tip of the iceberg of the “austerity” program. Looking back less than two years later our success at doing this has been both limited and mixed despite some of our successes. We need to examine the current context, our project and the challenges we face. Do we have the capacity, will and discipline to take on these challenges? Can we overcome the divisions, pressures and practices that divide us? Will we be able to help the struggle bloom?

All members and supporters are welcome. Members and supporters are encouraged to bring guests as observers.

Read more: http://www.workersassembly.ca/node/150

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+++++

NEWS & VIEWS

ANTI-AUSTERITY STRUGGLES AND THE CANADIAN ELECTION

From The Bullet

The precise political outcome of the May 2nd election may well have the NDP make an unprecedented electoral breakthrough in Canada and Quebec. This would be a major step in its long desire to displace the Liberals as the other dominant national party, partly to become something more like the Democratic Party in the U.S. and partly to become the alternate centrist political option like the British Labour Party and the German SPD. This is already what the NDP is in Western Canada and Nova Scotia. This needs to be placed in the context of an international political conjuncture where ruling class forces have, paradoxically, gained strength and momentum over the crisis to date; and set against the enduring institutional characteristics of the Canadian political and electoral systems that, if anything, the political parties and campaigns have reinforced.

Read more: http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/496.php

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ONTARIO FARM WORKERS ‘SHOCKED’ AS UNION BAN UPHELD

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that a provincial ban on farm unions is constitutional, denying more than 80,000 Ontario farm workers the ability to unionize. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that a provincial ban on farm unions is constitutional, denying more than 80,000 Ontario farm workers the ability to unionize.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2011/04/29/supreme-court.html

+++++

MURRAY DOBBIN’S BLOG – A CONSERVATIVE MAJORITY. NOW WHAT?

There is no point dwelling on the obvious other than to simply reiterate it. The election of a Conservative majority government will usher in wrenching change in Canada and we will have to witness the worse that Stephen Harper has to offer. It remains to be seen whether or not Harper actually wants to stay around for another election to win it (and therefore not go too far in a first term), and solidify the dominance of his party as the new “natural governing party.” Or whether, as his personality disorder would suggest, he will in a spirit of vengeance against the country he detests, dismantle as much of the post-war social contract he can in four years of virtually absolute power.

Read more: http://murraydobbin.ca/2011/05/03/a-conservativ-majority-now-what/

+++++

BUY THIS BOOK!

From LBO News, Doug Henwood
Excellent collection of interviews … Perfect for teaching, or just reading. Order your copies here.

Sasha Lilley, Capital and Its Discontents: Conversations with Radical Thinkers in a Time of Tumult (PM Press, 2011)

Interviewees: Ellen Meiksins Wood, David Harvey, Doug Henwood, Leo Panitch, Sam Gindin, Greg Albo, David McNally, John Bellamy Foster, Jason W Moore, Ursula Huws, Gillian Hart, Vivek Chibber, Mike Davis, Tariq Ali, John Sanbonmatsu, Andrej Grubacic, and Noam Chomsky.

Through a series of incisive conversations with some of the most eminent thinkers and political economists on the Left—including David Harvey, Ellen Meiksins Wood, Mike Davis, Leo Panitch, Tariq Ali, and Noam Chomsky—Capital and Its Discontents illuminates the dynamic contradictions undergirding capitalism and the potential for its dethroning.

The book challenges conventional wisdom on the Left about the nature of globalization, neoliberalism and imperialism, as well as the agrarian question in the Global South. It probes deeply into the roots of the global economic meltdown, the role of debt and privatization in dampening social revolt, and considers capitalism’s dynamic ability to find ever new sources of accumulation—whether through imperial or ecological plunder or the commodification of previously unpaid female labor.

Read more: https://secure.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=267

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VIDEO – ONLY KNOWN RECORDING OF MOTHER JONES

You have to see the only known audio and video recording of Mother Jones. On what is believed to be her 100th birthday in 1930, the legendary union organizer is still full of fire for worker justice.

Watch the video: http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/05/03/only-known-videoaudio-of-mother-jones/

(END)
++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++

ABOUT CSEW (CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION & WORK, OISE/UT):

Head: Peter Sawchuk
Co-ordinator: D’Arcy Martin

The Centre for the Study of Education and Work (CSEW) brings together educators from university, union, and community settings to understand and enrich the often-undervalued informal and formal learning of working people. We develop research and teaching programs at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (UofT) that strengthen feminist, anti-racist, labour movement, and working-class perspectives on learning and work.

Our major project is APCOL: Anti-Poverty Community Organizing and Learning. This five-year project (2009-2013), funded by SSHRC-CURA, brings academics and activists together in a collaborative effort to evaluate how organizations approach issues and campaigns and use popular education. For more information about this project, visit http://www.apcol.ca

For more information about CSEW, visit: http://www.csew.ca

END ***

‘I believe in the afterlife.

It starts tomorrow,

When I go to work’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Rebel, Rank and File

Books

REBEL, RANK AND FILE

NEW TITLE FROM VERSO
Edited by AARON BRENNER, ROBERT BRENNER and CAL WINSLOW
—————————–
“Extraordinary reflections….this collection dramatically reasserts the role of rank-and-file revolt in shaping American labor history and offers rich lessons to contemporary rebels.” Mike Davis

“Truly shines … By uncovering the hidden history of the 1970s, REBEL RANK AND FILE reminds us that there is another path to union renewal—a path firmly rooted in the workplace and motivated by visions of transforming society.”
– Joe Burns, IN THESE TIMES
—————————–
From the mid-1960s to 1981, rank-and-file workers in the United States engaged in a level of sustained militancy not seen since the Great Depression and World War II. Millions participated in one of the largest strike waves in US history. There were 5,716 stoppages in 1970 alone, involving more than 3 million workers. Contract rejections, collective insubordination, sabotage, organized slowdowns, and wildcat strikes were the order of the day.
Workers targeted much of their activity at union leaders, forming caucuses to fight for more democratic and combative unions that would forcefully resist the mounting offensive from employers that appeared at the end of the postwar economic boom. It was a remarkable era in the history of US class struggle, one rich in lessons for today’s labor movement.

The labor struggles in this period have been somewhat overlooked by historians, making this the first in-depth and comprehensive account. The period included strikes which had a significant and lasting impact, such as the Memphis sanitation workers strike which broke the back of racial inequality in the workplace, and the West Virginia coal miners strike which forced the passage of Black Lung legislation.

The struggles in this time also blazed a trail for a new radical and grassroots trade unionism which incorporated demands for racial and sexual equality and challenging entrenched bureaucracies within the union movement itself. The challenge to union bureaucracies led to some remarkable episodes, such as the attempt by UAW leaders to break a wildcat strike at Chrysler’s Mack Avenue stamping plant in Detroit by mobilizing one thousand armed officials and loyalists.

The struggles in this period challenge common assumptions about the US working class – that it is naturally conservative, nationalistic and inward looking. It recaptures a time when millions of ordinary working people engaged in militant action against workplace exploitation, racism and sexism. The book also includes a number of remarkable photographs of the those involved in the struggles by the veteran photojournalist Earl Dotter, a sample of which can be viewed at www.earldotter.com .
——————————-
REBEL, RANK AND FILE contains contributions from, in addition to the editors, Judith Stein, Kim Moody, Frank Bardacke, Paul J. Nyden, Dan La Botz, Marjorie Murphy, A. C. Jones, Kieran Taylor, Dorothy Sue Cobble and Steve Early.
——————————-
Praise for REBEL RANK AND FILE:

“An important collection … honest and thoughtful.”
– WORLD WIDE WORK

“This is an unusually high-quality effort, with an all-star cast of authors, which should attract wide interest.”
– Nelson Lichtenstein, Professor of History at University of California Santa Barbara

“Bracing and often electrifying … A primer and a call to arms for a radical rank-and-file politics.”
– Michael Watts, Professor of Geography and Development Studies at UC Berkeley
———————————
Aaron Brenner is President of Rank & File Enterprises, a financial and labor research firm. Robert Brenner is Director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA. He is the author of THE BOOM AND THE BUBBLE, MERCHANTS AND REVOLUTION, THE ECONOMICS OF GLOBAL TURBULENCE. Cal Winslow is Director of the Mendocino Institute and Fellow in Environmental Politics, UC Berkeley.
———————————
ISBN: 978 1 84467 174 8 / $29.95 / £19.99 / CAN$37.50 / Paperback / 432 Pages
———————————
For more information and to buy the book visit:
http://www.versobooks.com/books/282-rebel-rank-and-file
———————————
Become a fan of Verso on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Verso-Books-UK/122064538789

And get updates on Twitter too!
http://twitter.com/VersoBooksUK

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Socialism 2010

Socialism and Hope

SOCIALISM 2010

Ideas for Changing the World
Revolutionary politics, debate and entertainment
June 17-20, Chicago
July 1-4, Oakland
http://www.socialismconference.org

With the economy in shambles and with wars and occupations continuing, the challenge to change these conditions confronts us all. More than a year ago, millions placed their hopes in Barack Obama and the Democrats to solve these problems. But after months of broken promises and concessions to conservatives, jobs are scarce, the banks are unregulated, and full equality for LGBT people remains elusive.

Socialism 2010—to be held in both Chicago and Oakland—will provide an unparalleled opportunity for new and veteran activists and scholars to explore questions about how we got into this mess and how we can get out of it.

Last year, more than 1,800 people turned out to explore the history of struggles of ordinary people, to learn about radical figures who led social movements and to debate theoretical questions that can help us change the world.

Join us for more than 100 talks on issues such as: What is the Real Marxist Tradition?, Race in the Obama Era, Capitalism, Climate Change, and the Future of Humanity, Abortion and Women’s Liberation, and Building a New Left in the Obama Era.

Don’t miss the chance to meet, talk and socialize with hundreds of others like you who want to build an alternative to a system of greed, racism, war and oppression.

Featured Speakers:

GILBERT ACHCAR, author, The Arabs and the Holocaust; TARIQ ALI, writer, filmmaker and an editor of New Left Review; ANTHONY ARNOVE, co-producer with the late Howard Zinn of “The People Speak”; PAUL D’AMATO, author, The Meaning of Marxism; MIKE DAVIS, historian and socialist activist whose books include In Praise of Barbarians; SAM FARBER, author, The Origins of the Cuban Revolution Reconsidered; JOEL GEIER, associate editor,International Socialist Review; ANAND GOPAL, Kabul correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor; JAMES GREEN, author, Death in the Haymarket; BRIAN JONES, actor and activist in New York City, and a frequent guest on GRITtv; SONALI KOLHATKAR, host, “Uprising”, KPFK-FM, Los Angeles; PAUL LEBLANC, activist and author, whose books include Lenin and the Revolutionary Party; ALAN MAASS, editor, Socialist Worker; MARLENE MARTIN, Campaign to End the Death Penalty; JOHN RIDDELL, co-editor, Socialist Voice (Canada); HEATHER ROGERS, journalist and filmmaker and author of Green Gone Wrong; JEREMY SCAHILL, contributor to The Nation and author, Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army; LILIANA SEGURA, AlterNet staff writer on civil rights and liberties; JEFFREY ST. CLAIR and JOSHUA FRANK, authors, Greenscare: The New War on Environmentalism; LANCE SELFA, author, The Democrats: A Critical History; AHMED SHAWKI, editor, International Socialist Review; SHARON SMITH, author of Subterranean Fire and Women and Socialism; LEE SUSTAR, labor editor, Socialist Worker; SHERRY WOLF, interim governing board, Equality Across America, and author of Sexuality and Socialism; KEEANGA YAMAHTTA TAYLOR, editorial board of International Socialist Review and frequent contributor on race and class; DAVE ZIRIN, sportswriter and author, A People’s History of Sports in the United States; SOCIALISTS from France, Greece, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Britain and many more!

What you’ll find at Socialism 2010: More than 100 meetings, a bookfair, films, entertainment, and parties.

Check out http://www.socialismconference.org to register and for more information about schedule, housing, and childcare.

Sponsored by:

The Center for Economic Research and Social Change
Publisher of the International Socialist Review and Haymarket Books.

Co-sponsored by:

The International Socialist Organization
Publisher of Socialist Worker

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

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Cold Hands & Quarter Moon at MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon at: https://rikowski.wordpress.com/cold-hands-quarter-moon/

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The Situationists and the City

Situationism

THE SITUATIONISTS AND THE CITY

NEW TITLE:  The Situationists and the City

Edited and Translated by TOM MCDONOUGH

Published 15th February 2010

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“An extraordinary banquet for the subversive imagination served by the master chefs of Situationism.” – Mike Davis

“A brilliant array of reports, manifestoes, stories, and scenarios concerning architecture and urbanism, this expertly edited volume might serve as a guide in our contemporary confrontation with an urban environment once again rolled by capital.” – Hal Foster

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The Situationist International were one of the most important radical groups to have emerged in the rush of twentieth century avant-garde projects after the first world war. Led by the Hegelian philosopher, anarcho-Leninist revolutionary, avant-garde film maker, romantic, alcoholic, theorist of the ‘society of the spectacle’ and original psychogeographer Guy Debord they caused havoc in art galleries, cinemas and, most importantly, on the streets of Paris in May 1968.

The work of the Situationist International on the city has reverberated through contemporary culture. The Situationists invented the concept of psychogeography, the idea that we are drawn to or repelled from particular areas by a unique combination of emotional and historical ambiences – they saw the city as alive and the tumult of its history bleeding through its architecture and through the very planning of the streets. They also saw the city as a place of revolution and imagined that society could be changed if the urban framework was transformed.

Most of their pieces were first published in their journal INTERNATIONALE SITUATIONISTE (the style of which is replicated by the book cover). Now, for the first time, the key work of the Situationists on the city, and of key early allies such as theorist Henri Lefebvre and architect Constant, has been collected into one illustrated volume.

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Tom McDonough is Associate Professor of Modern Architecture and Urbanism in the Art History Department at Binghamton University. He is the editor of GUY DEBORD AND THE SITUATIONIST INTERNATIONAL and the author of THE BEAUTIFUL LANGUAGE OF MY CENTURY.

He is also an editor of GREY ROOM, a journal which brings together scholarly and theoretical articles from the fields of architecture, art, media, and politics to forge a cross-disciplinary discourse uniquely relevant to contemporary concerns.

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ISBN: 978 1 84467 364 3  $26.95 / £14.99 / $29.95 / Paperback / 244 pages

ISBN: 978 1 84467 332 2 $110.00 / £65.00 / $121.00 / Hardback / 244 pages

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For more information visit:
http://www.versobooks.com/books/klm/m-titles/mcdonough_tom_situationists_and_the_city.shtml

To buy the book in the UK:
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9781844673643/The-Situationists-and-the-City

or

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Situationists-City-Reader-Black-White/dp/1844673642/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265806432&sr=8-1

To buy the book in the US:
http://www.amazon.com/Situationists-City-Reader-Black-White/dp/1844673642/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265806439&sr=8-1

UPDATE 19th June 2010:

Tom McDonough and Owen Hatherley discussing Situationists in the City at the ICA on Wednesday 16th June:

http://versouk.wordpress.com/2010/06/14/tom-mcdonough-and-owen-hatherley-discussing-the-situationists-and-the-city-at-the-ica-wed-16th-june/

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon at: https://rikowski.wordpress.com/cold-hands-quarter-moon/

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

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