Sicko: Commenting on commentaries
by James Clay Fuller
JIM FULLER is a veteran journalist who reported about business for the
Minneapolis Star Tribune for 30 years. Semi-retired, he writes a blog at
http://www.jamesclayfuller.com/

The reviews of Michael Moore's "Sicko" have been fascinating, the
editorial and op-ed commentaries on the film even more so.

Apparently there is a rule in corporate journalism that every mention of
Moore and his films, or Moore without his films, must contain at least
two snide observations about his biases, his ever so naughty attacks on
rich and powerful but somehow –- in the eyes of the corporate
journalists -- defenseless people such as the chairman of General
Motors, and, if you can slide it in, Moore's physical appearance.

Four snide comments, two or three misrepresentations and an outright lie
or two about Moore or the films is better, I gather.

(A quick digression: No, I don't know Moore, have never met him or
corresponded with him.)

The "Sicko" reviews and commentary are running pretty much true to form,
but, interestingly enough, after all the snideness is done, every writer
I've come across has had to admit that it is a good film, and that,
sonofagun, the United States health care "system" truly is a bloody
awful mess, pretty much as Moore says.

Of course, I haven't read the comments in the insurance and
pharmaceutical industries publications, though if I run across one I
might. The level of unintentional humor should be high.

Speaking of humor: "Sicko" is full of laughs. They're mostly the kind
that burst from you when confronted by a lie so outrageous and obvious
that the absurdity is overwhelming, but they're real laughs. They get
little or no mention in most of the reviews and op-ed pieces I've seen.

Moore knew we'd laugh at the obvious self-serving absurdities of the
super rich guys, and I guess that's one of the ways his biases show in
the eyes of the corporate press commentators. Perhaps they think he
should have paraphrased their idiocies to make them look less foolish,
rather than letting them speak for themselves.

A July 5 op-ed piece in the New York Times by Philip M. Boffey is quite
representative of the 10 or 12 I've read, I think. He calls the new film
"unashamedly one-sided, superficial, overstated and occasionally suspect
in its details," before admitting, in the same sentence, that on the
"big picture" of the failure of our health care system "Mr. Moore is right."

Boffey, who writes editorials on health care for the Times, does not
elucidate on his claims that the case Moore builds against our health
care "providers" is overstated or "suspect in its details."

I'll give him this, however. "Sicko" is one sided. Moore doesn't spend
any time defending our broken down health care system, which leaves 45
million Americans without health insurance, which is ranked is ranked
37th among nations in quality of care and which overcharges us – often
to the point of bankruptcy – and makes deliberate decisions to deny
health care to individuals and, as Moore clearly demonstrates, allows
people to die needlessly for the sake of protecting overblown profits.

Oops. Was that one-sided, too?

As someone who spent about 45 years in newsrooms, I very strongly
suspect Boffey is somebody who is too close to some of his sources. But
again I digress.

He says it is "hard to know how true" are the stories Moore puts on film
-– stories such as that of a young woman who was retroactively denied
health care insurance because of a minor yeast infection that was cured
years before she applied for and got the insurance that was taken away
when she needed it.

Well, I'll tell him. There is not the slightest reason to doubt any of
the individual stories Moore has used in the film.

First, the director is too smart to use a phony story, and risk getting
caught, when there are, as he says, countless such stories. When he put
out a request on his Web site for personal stories of being screwed by
health insurers, Moore was inundated. Within days, he had more than
20,000 such stories.

Second, I can recount four or five such tales from the years I was the
primary caregiver for my aged mother, and another dozen from among my
acquaintances. This moment, I am deeply concerned about a friend who is
in despair because of the years-long battle he has had to wage with his
health insurer in order to get care he must have to live, and the debt
that has piled up as a result.

Anyone who hasn't experienced such a situation, or doesn't at least know
someone who has had to fight for his or her life in such a way, must
live in another country.

My favorite criticism of Moore, however, is one employed by at least
half the commentaries I've read: That the director didn't give the
insurance and pharmaceutical industries time in his film to tell their
side of the story.

That, folks, is grandly absurd.

Moore is laying out facts. The industries that profit so hugely from our
illnesses spend hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising, public
relations and lobbying to "tell their side of the story." One month's
expenditure by the insurance industry for those activities substantially
exceeds the cost of making "Sicko." And Moore doesn't own a single
member of Congress; they've bought dozens. (The insurance industry's
almost $400,000 in contributions to Hillary Clinton's campaign purse
alone would have covered a substantial portion of the cost of making the
film.)

Let them tell their lies on their own dime.

Boffey, like almost all of the others whose "Sicko" commentaries I've
read, also complains that Moore is to unfailingly kind to the health
care systems of other countries. (The film has episodes shot in England,
Canada, France, Italy and Cuba.)

What makes Boffey and one or two of the others most annoyed is that
Moore doesn't mention "the months-long waits to see specialists in
Canada and Britain..."

Well, actually, it does come up in the Canadian interviews, and the
Canadians snort in disbelief when the claim is made, though they admit
that there sometimes is a wait of a few weeks to see a specialist for an
elective or entirely non-threatening treatment or condition.

And the critics fail to note that under our system of money-vacuuming
HMOs and profit-building insurance companies, the waits to see
specialists in this country often are every bit as long, and longer,
than those the defenders of our system claim are the rule in other
countries.

The very large network of clinics through which I get my health care and
which has close ties to the HMO that provides my health coverage, has
made a deliberate decision to limit the number of specialists of several
types in its network in order to maximize its nonprofits. (Some
specialties, such as cardiology are big revenue producers and so not
tightly limited.) When I've complained about long waits to see a
specialist, several people within the organization, including four
doctors, have confirmed my suspicion on that issue.

Because of a couple of chronic conditions – not life threatening, at
least for now, though they have that potential – I must occasionally see
specialists in three different areas of medicine. The last two times I
had such a need, it took three to four months from the time I placed the
first call seeking an appointment until I actually got into the doc's
offices. In another case, it was almost five months.

I am not alone in that, despite all the phony denials the HMOs and
clinics might produce. Give me 24 hours and I assure you I can provide
the names of at least 20 others who have had the same experience. (And
it could be 100 others or more if I put the word out on the Net.)

All of the pieces I've read about "Sicko," have what I find to be a
glaring omission.

Not one mentions the comments by Tony Benn, a former member of Britain's
Parliament. Yet Benn's statements probably are the most profound element
of the film.

He notes, as other good people often do, that "if we have the money to
kill (in war), we've got the money to help people."

But, more importantly, Benn tells Moore, that all of Europe and many
other places have good health care systems while the United States lacks
such a basic service because in Europe and elsewhere, "the politicians
are afraid of the people" when the people get angry and demand some
action. In the United States, he observes, "the people are afraid of
those in power" because they fear losing their jobs, fear being cut off
from health care or other services if they speak up and make demands.

"How do you control people?" Benn asks, and he answers: "Through fear
and debt."

His point is that in the United States we have a great overabundance of
both.

Having ignored Benn's succinct analysis, some of the writers, and
especially Boffey, state as fact that Americans would reject out of hand
any attempt to create a government-run universal health care system.
They produce no facts to support the claim, so apparently they just
"know" it.

If someone conducted a poll today, asking a section of Americans if they
want "socialized medicine," the results might seem to support the claim
of Boffey and others.

But if the gutless Democrats went out and explained, clearly and often,
how a government run single payer system actually works, and what it
really costs, and what the people of Canada, France, Britain, Germany
and other countries really think of their health care systems, the
ignorance-rooted suspicion could be reversed in a matter of months. And
I believe that is true even assuming the inevitable all-out ad and PR
campaign by the insurance and pharmaceutical industries to protect their
enormous profits.

(Does it occur to anyone that the profits they suck from our system,
while we struggle for and often are refused decent health care, are
truly enormous if the industries are willing and able to spend hundreds
of millions of dollars a year to protect those profits?)

Every American I know is fed up with our present health care mess, and
more and more are deeply angry.

Go see "Sicko." It's a marvelous film, it's full of laughs and, yes, it
will give an edge to your anger. Then do something useful with that
anger. Members of Congress and state legislatures are just a phone call,
a letter or an email away.

And don't be conned by the less-than-half measures proposed by the
present gaggle of corporation-serving presidential candidates.

JIM FULLER was the business reporter for the MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
for 30 years. H e writes a regular blog at http://www.jamesclayfuller.com/

Wednesday, June 27, 2007
The "liberal media" shibboleth redux
by JIM FULLER

Candidates for office in 2008 already are in full cry, sadly, and so are
the party organizations, conscienceless consultants and tunnel-vision
corporate press and television pundits.

We also have an early start on the high-volume touting of myths that
have worked for one side or another in the past, and truth be damned.

One of the most effective of those groundless myths is the claim that
"the press" is overwhelmingly prejudiced in favor of liberals – or maybe
it's against conservatives. Either way, it's widely believed, even by
some who work for "the press."

(I've been trying to point out for some time now that the level of
perception in news rooms has tailed off from moderate to dim, mostly in
the past decade.)

Even as my home town, once good, newspaper, the Star Tribune, slides its
news coverage farther and farther to the right, many right wing true
believers continue to refer to it as "the Red Star," which is, like much
of their rhetoric, a throwback to the cold war era, a period for which
the old "I Need Sombody to Hate" singers are profoundly nostalgic.

But, hey, the repeated charge works to intimidate reporters and,
especially, already right-leaning editors.

If you're someone who appreciates a nicely executed fraud, this one is a
truly great scam.

The latest claim for press liberalism, and one likely to do a good deal
of harm to truth because of the identity of its author, appeared a few
days ago on an interesting and often informative on-line Twin Cities
newspaper, the TCDailyplanet (http://www.tcdailyplanet.com) – which
frequently also carries my stuff, by the way.

It was written by Eric Black, who spent about as long at the Star
Tribune as I did, and who has a carefully nurtured reputation for calm
observation and erudition. For years, he wrote analyses of political and
social situations and issues with a somewhat scholarly tone.

He's written pretty much the same thing before about supposed
journalistic liberalism, as he acknowledged.

Black makes some defense of journalists in his brief essay. He says that
liberal reporters "perceive the world differently than conservative
reporters do," and that, he says, "is bound to come across in their work
in some way." But, he graciously adds, "they try to rise above their
biases and they generally make considerable progress..."

He hangs his latest claim of reporter liberalism largely on a long piece
by MSNBC reporter Bill Dedman. In the piece, Dedman analyzed Federal
Election Commission records and identified 144 journalists across the
country who made political contributions over the past three years. Of
those, 125 gave to Democrats and "liberal causes," Dedman said, and only
17 gave to Republicans, while two gave to both parties.

Black also mentioned a 1996 survey – I haven't been able to find it –
that claimed 89 percent of reporters who cover Congress or who head a
Washington news bureau voted for Bill Clinton in 1992. If so, big deal.

The Dedman figures are at the same time undoubtedly accurate and
unmitigated bullshit in terms of what they imply to readers.

Both pieces, Dedman's and Black's, will provide considerable fodder for
the right wing Republican campaign propaganda mill, however, bullshit or
not.

Let's start with the Dedman report:

Wow: 144 journalists gave to candidates or causes, and 125 of those sent
their money (how much not stated) to Democrats or "liberal causes" as
identified by Dedman. Personally, I don't think some of the causes he
lists are all that liberal, but that's a minor point. Most clearly are
liberal.

At the time of the research for the MSNBC story, there were somewhere
around 120,000 working journalists in the country, not counting
stringers for country weeklies and the like. That makes 144 pretty small
potatoes. Again: just 144 of roughly 120,000 people made political
donations -– far too small a number to be at all meaningful. It simply
is not a representative number. If anything, it shows how clean of overt
political activity the vast majority of journalists keep themselves.

Secondly, as pointed out June 22 by Jamison Foser, a writer for Media
Matters, an outfit that keeps a clear eye on news operations here and
abroad, many of the 144 journalistic contributors mentioned in the
Dedman piece are in no position to influence political coverage. They
include a sports statistician for the Boston Globe, sports columnists
for the South Florida Sun-Sentinal and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and
a sports editor for the San Jose Mercury News among others removed from
any influence on political or social coverage.

Dedman acknowledges that many of the journalists listed as donors "cover
topics far from politics" such as food, fashion and sports, but that
doesn't change the thrust of the piece for most readers.

Third, the Dedman and Black pieces fail to mention, as Foser does, the
hundreds of thousands of dollars donated to politicians – Republicans
over Democrats by considerably more than two to one -– by publishers,
other corporate officers and top-level editors of newspaper and magazine
companies. They are, of course, people with the power, often used, to
influence coverage.

In a note to me, Dedman said his piece was not an article about liberal
bias but about journalistic ethics and so he looked only at journalists
and not publishers and other corporate ethics. To my mind, the question
of "ethics" and "not bias" is splitting hairs too fine to grow on a
human head, but you can make your own judgement on that.

The idea of examining the donations of writers and editors without
looking at those of others in positions of great power over the news
operations, even though he acknowledged that is what he was doing, is,
as I said to him in a responsive note, like publishing a critique of a
new car model while ruling out any comment on the engine.

Other factors that show the the B.S. Quotient in reports of "liberal
bias" among journalists are not so easily reduced to numbers, but
they're more important.

Black says anyone who has spent many years in newsrooms "knows" that
most journalists are liberals.

Well, I have 10 or 15 more years in newsrooms than Black, and what I
"know" is quite different from what he seems to "know."

I'll give him this: A majority of journalists – they really don't get
out much -- think of themselves as liberals or, more often, "centrists."

That's even with the unstated distinction between various groups within
any newsroom. A sports department in any fairly large newspaper is going
to have a much closer balance between liberals and conservatives, for
example. Copy editors, who do have considerable influence on what
articles say and who write the headlines and also have a voice in
placement of stories, tend on average to be considerably more
conservative than, say, arts critics and features writers, who have no
voice in political coverage.

In any case, given what newspapers or magazines print, you have to ask
what kind of "liberals" are those in that self-proclaimed liberal-center
majority?

I'll tell you what my 40-plus years in the business showed me:

There's been a considerable move to the right -– they'd say toward that
elusive, indefinable "center" -- over the past two-plus decades.

The "center" also has been moved to the right with their active help, by
the way.

Today's journalists are solidly upper middle class. They tend to live in
affluent suburbs and have dispelled among their neighbors the mistaken
idea that journalists are left wingers.

They call rich guys in suits "Mister" and the people who speak for peace
organizations and neighborhood groups by their first names.

Like the vast majority of Americans, they are deferential to those in
power and firmly believe that this is pretty close to the best of all
possible worlds –- that it just needs a little tweaking.

A majority, but on some of these issues a slim majority, believe in
abortion rights, civil unions if not the right of marriage for gays, and
that it's time for a woman president.

If some candidate now were to push an agenda containing the major goals
of Franklin D. Roosevelt, they would consider that candidate "extreme"
or "fringe," and their coverage, what little was granted, would clearly
convey their opinion.

On a personal level, the average journalist today espouses some vague
plan for improved health coverage and better schools in this country -–
but they have health coverage that is about as good as anyone other than
a member of Congress gets these days, and their kids' suburban schools
still are in pretty good shape and neither of those issues really
interests them except in a casual, intellectual way. They sure as hell
aren't advocating for action.

While they are aware that under George Bush/Cheney the U.S. tax system
has been powerfully skewed to favor the very rich, they're like their
neighbors in being a uneasy with talk of fixing the system because,
heaven forbid, their own income taxes might rise a little.

(Remember, like Black and Dedman, I'm talking majorities here. There
are, to my certain knowledge, journalists who feel differently on all of
the issues I mention.)

A very large majority of today's journalists are, without question,
"against" the Iraq war at this point -– but don't look for much in the
way of passion on that score, or so much concern that it might slant
coverage of the war or the Bush propaganda machine's output. Quite the
contrary.

Very few of today's journalists have served in the military -- almost
all of my generation did – and it is extremely unlikely that their
children will serve. They tsk, tsk at the war, but it doesn't affect
them personally any more than it does their fellow upper middle class
suburbanites. Their objections are distantly intellectual.

What I'm talking about with the war: An editorial writer who left the
paper in the latest round of staff cuts wrote a signed piece for the
op-ed page at about the time of the Iraq invasion. He was disdainful of
peace demonstrators, even though he was "against" the war in some
unspecified way. He was too old to be out on the streets carrying a
sign, he said, and besides he wasn't about to offend his good suburban
neighbors (he made that designation, not me) by performing in such a
non-mainstream way.

That, I think, pretty much sums up a majority of today's journalists in
terms of advocacy, open or covert.

(I'm more than a decade older than the editorial writer, by the way. I
also live in a quite affluent neighborhood, although it is a central
city neighborhood. I was out there with signs for quite awhile, starting
well before the invasion we knew to be coming even if the "journalists"
didn't or pretended they didn't. I was already retired, of course.)

All of those attitudinal quirks play out in the news you see.

Never forget -– and I do mean never –- that the Iraq invasion couldn't
have taken place without the complicity of the corporate news outfits.
They let the administration perpetrate lie after lie, often knowingly,
and continue to excuse their miserable performance on the grounds of
"balance."

The unchanged attitude in the news racket these days is that balance in
the news means giving a liar equality of coverage with a truth-telling
opponent, even when the lies are easily demonstrable. Reporters simply
don't point out even the most blatant of lies, especially from the
intimidating right, and when they occasionally slip on that point, the
editors see that such "bias" is taken out before a story is printed or
broadcast.

As after every recent election, there is an occasional round of
admissions of error about the war, even as the news outlets and the
reporters who mumble a mea culpa or two continue doing exactly as they
have been doing.

Deference to power also means that virtually every issue and every
argument is couched in terms chosen by the political right, and
especially by the White House.

Recently, an escalation in troop numbers in Iraq is routinely called a
"surge," simply because that's what White House spinners settled on.

Every time the White House and the right wingers in Congress want to
make another change to favor their rich individual and corporate
sponsors, they call it a "reform." They have pushed bills to "reform"
the electoral system by purging the rolls of minority voters, and many
bills to "reform" the tax system, and national land management policies
and countless other systems.

The press always –- always -- refers to those moves as the this-or-that
"reform" effort, because that's what those with the power call it.

Hillary Clinton, a conservative or, as liberals call her and others of
her ilk, a Republican Lite, has been designated as the Democratic "front
runner" since the very beginning of coverage of the upcoming
presidential campaign. She got that designation as the result of a small
poll or two before anyone knew who else might run, and I can't recall
seeing any story about the candidates in the past year that failed to
give her that designation.

The Washington press bunch decided very early, as they always do, who
they'd push and who they would ignore or denigrate, and no facts will
move them from their determined effort to give us candidates that they,
in their basic conservatism, see as qualified. To change their minds
would be to lose face among their colleagues at the Press Club, apparently.

Remember a couple of decades ago when the news was full of references to
"activist judges?" Now that we have a truly activist court rewriting our
laws to give even more power to the rich and powerful, the term has
disappeared. Deference to power.

Whenever someone from what today's journalists define as "the left"
tries to blow the whistle on one or another of the countless right-wing
scams on the American public, an early reaction in the news outlets is
to scornfully chant "conspiracy theory."
That's true even after dozens of real White House and other Republican
conspiracies have been uncovered.

News stories are published, once they hit a level that can't be ignored,
but the journalists rarely, if ever, use the word conspiracy in
describing the scams. We don't have conspiracies, only conspiracy
theories, in their world.

Note over the next months how those "liberal" journalists refer to
people who intend to, and will, protest during the Republican National
Convention in St. Paul.

I'll start you off with two examples from the past week.

A story by two Star Tribune staff writers began this way:

"Anarchists and antiwar organizations preparing for the Republican
National Convention are planning dozens of traffic blockades, are
targeting perceived vulnerable spots in the Twin Cities metro area and
are readying to spring from Internet promises to real-world action."

Anarchists? If there are more than two dozen actual anarchists in the
entire country, I'll eat raw toad.

There are some troublesome punks, looking for excitement, who call
themselves anarchists, undoubtedly, but they probably couldn't even
define the word. And in going "Boo!" about their supposed plans, the
Strib writers deeply color the public's perception of all protests and
demonstrators even though they undoubtedly know that 98 percent of those
who show up to protest the Bush/Cheney actions against this country will
be peaceful, average Americans.

And a St. Paul Pioneer Press story on the probability of convention
protests said in the third paragraph that the anti-war coalition
planning at least some of those protests is made up of 1,400
organizations "-- from activists to communists to pacifists."

Activists, of course. Communists? Not one in 10,000 likely protesters,
but it sure will widen the eyes of readers. Pacifists? Some undoubtedly,
but, again, a small percentage of those likely to demonstrate against
Bush/Cheney in St. Paul. The focus is on a tiny minority; one would
think Karl Rove sent in the notes for the stories.

People who are angered by our illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq are
not necessarily or even mostly pacifists in the true sense of that word.
A majority of the older male anti-war folks I know, and there are many
of them, are veterans of the American armed services, and we're anything
but ashamed of that fact.

And here are some other never varying cliches you'll see time and again
from those "liberal" journalists: Ralph Nader is driven by egomania.
(But not Cheney, Karl Rove or the Bumbler in Chief?) Michael Moore is
tiresome and petty. (He's also accurate, but what does that count for?)
Remember the campaign-long mocking of Howard Dean for one somewhat over
the top action?

In another vein, here's a goody, one of many: Americans don't want a
government operated universal health care system.

Right. That was true at the time of Bill Clinton's first presidential
campaign, after the pharmaceuticals, HMOs, insurance companies and other
equally objective organizations had spent $100 million or so on
misleading and flat-out lying television ads against health care reform.
My sense is that right now a majority of our fellow citizens would be
delighted to see a real government-run, single payer system installed.
Oddly enough, no one seems to have done a survey on that subject recently.

But undoubtedly the worst characteristic of our supposedly liberal news
media these days lies in what it doesn't cover. Story after story
showing the effects of White House actions, actions by the
Republican-led Congress and the powerful corporations that now control
large segments of our government as well as our economy go unpublished
in most of the corporate media, though they can be found elsewhere.

(Come to think of it, it's time for a partial roundup of some of those
hidden stories. Will get to that as soon as I have time.)

The latest celebrity scandal or personal tragedy gets play that used to
be reserved for declarations of war, but the real stories are ignored or
buried.

There's your liberal news media, folks, and 144 contributors to
politicians or social causes hasn't made the tiniest dent in the real
nature of the corporate media today.

posted by James @ 8:49 PM

Check Your PULSE Online--the Grassroots Alternative Newspaper of the
Twin Cities, updated Mon. thru Fri. at http;//www.pulsetc.com

MOVING MOUNTAINS a daily column
Exercising Your Rights At Work
by Lydia Howell
Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Politicians and pundits refer to 'the middle-class' like a mantra—all
the while, respectively, promoting and passing legislation that is an
all-out assault on staying middle-class or becoming so. This week the
U.S. Senate votes on a law that could help level the playing field
between Corporate America and the people who's labor actually creates
profits—that is, you and your fellow workers; the Employee Free Choice
Act. This bi-partisan bill, which passed the House, would remove some
of the boss-based barriers to employees joining a union.

Americans need to know that unions are largely responsible for creating
the post-WWII middle-class. Unions raise workers' wages, gain benefits,
promote higher productivity and like one of my favorite bumper stickers
says, 'Unions—The Folks Who Brought You The Weekend!'

Since Ronald Reagan's 1980 election, we've heard a steady stream of
anti-union propaganda coupled with a green light for employers to break
the law in order to stop workers from organizing. Corporate mythology is
common in so-called 'Right to Work' states across the South-- a place
as traditionally hostile to unions as to civil rights for
African-Americans—keeping white workers confused with racism and keeping
all workers down. In states restricting unions, all workers wages
average 14.4 per cent less than where unions are; in service jobs, the
gap widens to 25 per cent or more.

For almost 30 years, conservative think tanks like the Minneapolis-based
Center for the American Experiment , have claimed that decent wages for
workers—but, somehow never the tens of millions of dollars for
executives-- destroy businesses. This false claim that unions destroy
businesses is debunked by Professors Richard Freeman and Morris Kleiner
, in Industrial Labor Relations Review in July 1999.

In fact, a recent survey of 73 independent studies showed that unionized
workforces had between 10 and 22 percent higher productivity than
non-union ones. Unionized workers tend to be better trained, too.

Since Bill Clinton's 'welfare reform', we;'ve heard over and over 'a
job is the best anti-poverty program'–but, not if you're paid
rock-bottom wages and can be fired without recourse,. A union job is a
clear path out of poverty—even for relatively unskilled workers. For
example, a cashier with a union card averages $11 an hour—compared to
barely above the current $5.25 minimum-wage. Not being in a union, that
same cashier is living almost $4,000 a year under the poverty line.

Health care is the #! reason for personal bankruptcies and almost 50
million Americans have no health insurance benefits from their job. But,
80 per cent of workers in a union have health insurance—and pensions,
too. Members of Congress get great health benefits--- while dragging
their feet on universal, single-payer health care for the rest of us.
Depending on years of service, members of Congress retire with pensions
that average, $46,908 to $50,616—at least three times what ordinary
Americans retire. For more on Congress' pensions see;
http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/pensions.asp

At the end of the 1930s Great Depression, labor unions had made gains
and by the 1950s, almost 35 per cent of American workers were union
members. Today, about 12 per cent of workers are in unions.

What happened?
What happened is that the laws protecting workers right to organize on
the job for a union have been ignored, courts have undermined ordinary
workers at every turn and corporations have been given more and more
power while workers have been reduced to disposable widgets. Every day
people are illegally threatened or actually fired from their jobs.
Companies spy on their employees and illegally keep union literature out
of the workplace. Corporations do all sorts of dirty tricks to try to
stop workers from voting on a union. If they do vote and win a union,
then, employers drag their feet on negotiating a contract.

The Employees Free Choice Act (Senate bill 1041 House Resolution 800)
would establish stronger penalties for employers who violate workers'
rights to organize for a union and negotiating contracts, providing
mediation and arbitration during negotiations, Workers would be able to
form a union by signing cards authorizing union representation. Don't
buy the corporate hype that somehow this right to sign cards 'violates
the secret ballot'. That's just more anti-union propaganda from the
same folks who are outsourcing jobs to sweatshop countries –where union
organizers are beaten and murdered—which America's Big Business used to
do here from the 19th century through the 1930s.

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar has vowed support for the Employees Free
Choice Act S 1041, but, Senator Norm Coleman is waffling. You can let
him know that his constituents would like the chance to make living
wages, have health care and a pension—just like he does—by emailing;
Opinion@coleman-senate.gov

To have a chance to join the middle class, you have to have working
class consciousness--- and it really helps to have a union card, too.

For more information, see;
http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/whatis.cfm

UPDATE; The Senate just voted 51 to 49 on this bill. Votes to pass are 60. IT'S NOT OVER. Contact your senator.

Check Your PULSE On-line, updated Mon. thru Fri.
http;//www,pulsetc.com

MOVING MOUNTAINS a daily column
B-Girl Be; a very different kind of T and A
by Lydia Howell
Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Lady Pink is slim and appears almost fragile---until this
graffiti-artist ground-breaker speaks. Starting at 15, in 1979, she was
the only female among about 10,000 young men, tagging the New York City
subway trains.

"I didn't know about feminism. Just what I saw on TV—like Marcia Brady
standing up. Guys would say I couldn't do graffiti, but, all I thought
was, 'you need testicles to paint graffiti?' All you need is a little
bit of courage and a little bit of skill and you're good to go---- as
long as you can run from police."

She's part of the third annual B-Girl Be; Women and Hip Hop Summit,
organized and hosted by Intermedia Arts in south Minneapolis, ( with
some events and other venues), from Thursday, June 28th through Sunday,
July 1st. Women from New York to Los Angeles, Sweden to South Africa and
Puerto Rico and across the Midwest express and explore the full range of
mediums in the international hip hop movement from a decidedly female
perspective; MC-ing, break-dancing, spoken word, video and visual art in
diverse mediums.

In the aftermath of Don Imus, I can't think of a better antidote than
B-Girl Be and hell, yes, men are welcome—even encouraged to discover
women in hip hop are so much more than scantily-clad booty in videos or
the occasional lone woman in a crew of guys. Part of the joy of this
annual convergence is to see both established innovators and fresh
talent, to experience the creative energy of new work, created out of
the gathering itself. There's plenty of workshops, gallery tours with
artist talks, and performance showcases. All are free or mostly $5.


DeAnna Cummings curated the visual art exhibit, 'The Art of T and
A;Truth and Activism', opening reception Thursday, June 28th, 6pm to 9pm
and up through the end of summer. The exhibit title could stand in for
the themes of the 2007 B-Girl Be. She weighs in on the national debate
about misogyny and other destructive elements in the corporate-sponsored
hip hop that's all most people hear.

"I think today's commercial hip hop is the theme music for today's
commercial, commodified culture. If rock and roll was the theme music
was the 1960s and -70, then, commercial rap is the theme music for
today..it's only a reflection of the broader society's misogyny,
violence and pursuit of material things,' Cummings points out. 'I mostly
tune it out, ignore it and pay attention only as much as I need, in
order to stay in connection to the youth I work with are into. I think
that women's quandary is what birthed B-Girl Be."

Lady Pink has gone from the streets to galleries and places like the
Brooklyn Museum, but, the risk-taking of her first endeavors with a
spray can remains vivid. She makes me recall my own late night
adventures doing political graffiti in my twenties to age 35, when a
scary arrest by Minneapolis police ended by own graffiti career.

''I started because I lost a boyfriend. He was taken from me and I
started writing his name in grief. Eventually, I fell in love with the
adventure and excitement. I met guys were painting the subway trains.
That was a thrill that couldn't be beat,'' she says. ''Sneaking around
creepy tunnels at night with a bunch of guys, painting trains couldn't
be beat. Seeing your name running on the train the next morning, all
colorful and beautiful. That's the point of art by the masses for the
masses. I painted trains for five years and then moved on to
galleries—where you want to say more than just writing your name.'"

On Friday, June 29th at noon, Lady Pink gives a gallery talk about her
installation in the visual art exhibit. What she's created is an
essential response to the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

''It's called 'Women Breeding Soldiers' [and speaks to] claim that
that's what women are put on Earth to do—breed soldiers, for this
senseless war. Women sending their children, boys and girls, to die for
no reason at all—except for maybe a little profit for the oil companies
or some obscure government reason.'' Lady Pink says with quiet
intensity. ''I'm not a mother so I don't know the sadness of losing a
child to war. A hero to me is Cindy Sheehan, losing her child and
protesting. I can empathize with her."

Twenty-five visual artists are in the Truth and Activism show. They
paint on canvas, wood and vinyl records, take photographs, make videos
and toys, to explore burning questions of our time.

"The title 'Art of T and A; Truth and Activism' was born out of the
contradictions in hip hop, to catch people's attention and turn it on
its head,' Cummings explains. ''The show is many-faceted, from
traditional ways that women are seen and work looking at truth, activism
or both."

Again, that could stand for all of the 2007 B-Girl Be. Here's a few
highlights. which will be at Intermedia Arts, unless otherwise noted

Friday, June 29, 7pm and 9;30pm Dance Showcase, including a 2007 Fringe
Fest hit, Universal Dance Destiny.$7 general/$5 youth
9pm-2pm at Nomad World Pub on the West Bank; Spoken Word Showcase. 21+ $7

Saturday, June 30 10;30am to 4;30pm workshops in different mediums $15 each
7pm-10pm Performance Showcase featuring Wonda Woman Project, Tish Jones,
Black Blondie and more. $7 general/$5 youth

Sunday, July 1 Noon-2pm, 3;30-5pm Films

Intermedia Arts, 2822 Lyndale Ave. S. in Minneapolis. Complete schedule
at; http;www.intermediaarts.or (612) 871-4444

Hear more of my conversation with Lady Pink and DeAnna Cummings on KFAI
Radio's 'Catalyst politics and culture', archived for 2 weeks at
www.kfai.org

Check Your PULSE ON-LINE
http;//www.pulsetc.com

Working Class Hollywood
by LYDIA HOWELL
http://pulsetc.com/article.php?sid=3312
MOVING MOUNTAINS column updated Monday thru Friday at PULSE
I've loved the movies ever since I can remember, but too often most of
what Hollywood shows is simply a variation of "Lifestyles of the Rich
and Famous." The stories of working class and poor people—who make up
the majority of humanity-- are too rarely told. Seventy-five percent of
roles are for white men, while all the rest of us struggle to be seen at
all, much less with our rich complexity. This week's Working Class
Culture and Counter-Culture Conference, June 14-17 at Macalester College
in St. Paul, got me thinking about class and the cinema.

The first film about labor unions I saw was the 1954 "On The
Waterfront"--beautifully made but with a decidedly mixed message.
Mob-boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) has corrupted the union so that
the longshoremen are no more certain of having work than they would be
without a union—and if they complain, they face violence or even death.
Marlon Brando heads up the all-star cast as Terry Malloy, a has-been
boxer, now "doing favors" for his older brother, a henchman of
Friendly's. Part of the beauty of this black and white classic is how it
centers on working class life. In Malloy's moment of personal
redemption, the film seems to come down on the side of individualism,
instead of solidarity. When Hollywood has shown so little of the labor
movement, why focus on a corrupt union—except to discourage people from
joining one?

Decades fighting for the eight-hour day, strikes in factories, mills and
mines have inherent drama. Filmmaker John Sayles' "Matewan" tells the
true story of that West Virginia coal-mining town's 1920 battle for a
union. Mixing historical figures with two fictional characters, Sayles
tells a story of survival and resistance against the powerful wealthy
who are willing to resort to violence in order to control workers, who
simply want a decent life for their daily sweat and risk. "Matewan" is a
cinematic introduction to the Wobblies—the Industrial Workers of the
World--showing the United Mine Workers and what it took to establish
workers' rights that have been under attack for the last 30 years.
Unlike "Waterfront," this film's hero, John Kenehan, a WWI veteran and
union organizer, understands that his fate is indelibly tied to his
fellow workers. Of special note is how the miners' struggle united
across racial lines, as well as bringing in the native-born and
immigrants. Check out historian Eric Forner's thoughts on the historical
events that inspired the film:
www.films42.com


My fave fictional labor movie might be the 1979 "Norma Rae" that won
tp://pulsetc.com/article.php?sid=3312Sally Field her first Oscar for her
role as the title character, a worker in a 1970s Southern textile mill.
How glorious to have a female protagonist coming to political
consciousness! Discovering she's more than she's been told and beginning
to act on her new-found strengths--mentored by a New York organizer--she
tries to unionize her fellow mill workers. The film doesn't ignore the
almost inevitable marital strife that results but shows the internal and
external struggles that women still have balancing "personal" life with
self-definition.

A parallel film, "Bread and Roses," set in contemporary Los Angeles,
looks at Mexican immigrants working as janitors. The amazing Pillar
Padilla plays Marya, encouraged by an American union organizer (Adrian
Brody) to stand up to ruthless employers. The film is based on a true
story that's still unfolding around the country with Justice for
Janitors campaigns.

For laughs, "Nine to Five" still works, with its trio of female office
workers--sexy-with-spunk Dolly Parton, smart but-taken-for-granted Lilly
Tomlin and a dowdy Jane Fonda, emerging into independence after divorce.
Both the fantasy sequences and the real revenge they take on their
overbearing boss (Dabney Coleman) remain true for 21st century women
still being paid less, struggling for equal promotions and just rebuffed
by the Supreme Court when it comes to legal redress for discrimination
on the job.

Boxing remains the main Hollywood metaphor for working class struggle.
"Cinderella Man" has Russell Crowe as James Braddock, real life underdog
champion especially beloved by his fellow Irish-Americans in the depths
of the 1930s Great Depression. Renee Zellweger plays his wife, Mae.
Seeing love's endurance against poverty's pressures on family life
should be required viewing for the conservatives who talk of "the
pathological culture of poverty." It's a great film that shows how a
sport can create class solidarity--just as it's also done for
communities of color. Will Smith as Mohamed Ali is another true-life
triumphant hero who carries his people with him to victory in the ring.

"Million Dollar Baby" marries this working class trope to gender with
Hillary Swank as a waitress who comes from what is commonly called
tp://pulsetc.com/article.php?sid=3312"trailer trash." I'm not sure I
could have believed anyone else in the role of a female boxer. While the
film ends melodramatically, it retains its gritty truth with a working
class heroine who goes for broke. Morgan Freeman's Oscar-winning
supporting role of an aging boxer living on the skids lingers.

But, there are so many films NOT yet made!

Emma Goldman, early 20th century anarchist, feminist, labor
organizer—who also had a passionate love life outside of marriage--would
make a great film. In an election year, it would be fun to see a movie
about Eugene Debs, union leader/socialist and the only candidate to run
for president from a prison cell, winning a million votes. With all the
discussion about reviving a guest worker program, how about a film about
Cesar Chavez organizing the United Farm Workers? My favorite idea for a
film not yet made is the story of the African-American union of Pullman
porters who worked on trains from right after the Civil War to 1969.
These men have been stock characters of subservient stereotypes in
Hollywood films. Their story of wit, tenacity and battle for respect is
tp://pulsetc.com/article.php?sid=3312a missing part of the freedom
struggle. Larry Tye's history "Rising From The Rails" would be a
terrific basis for a script.

Independent films are an integral part of Macalester's June 14-17
Working Class Culture and Counter-Culture Conference, including "My
People Are My Home," about Minnesota working class writer, poet and
lifelong activist Meridel LeSueur, which will be shown as part of a film
festival Saturday, June 16. For more information, call Professor Peter
Rachleff at 651-696-6371.
www.macalester.edu

NOTE: MINNEAPOLIS/ST PAUL people can come to this conference as PAY WHAT YOU CAN/NO ONE TURNED AWAY. confernce info below.

THURS.JUNE 14 thru SUN. JUNE 17, 2007
WORKING CLASS CULTURE AND COUNTER CULTURE
AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
SPONSORED BY
THE WORKING CLASS STUDIES ASSOCIATION
MACALESTER COLLEGE, ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA
COST; $50 or PAY WHAT YOU CAN

CONTACT:Conference co-chairs:
Peter Rachleff rachleff@macalester.edu
Barb Jensen bjensen@umn.edu

FOR MORE INFO and the conference registration form:
*******************************************************************************************
http://www.macalester.edu/history/workingclass/index.html

***DAYS OF CONFERNCE SEPARATED BY DOUBLE ***LINES

***ROOM CODES:
GEORGE DRAPER DAYTON DORMITORY (GDD)
CAMPUS CENTER (CC)
INCLUDES GRILLE, SECOND FLOOR, & JOHN B. DAVIS AUDITORIUM
JOHN B. DAVIS AUDITORIUM (JBD) – THIS IS IN THE CC/CAMPUS cTR.
WEYERHAUESER CHAPEL (CHAPEL)
OLD MAIN (OM)
CARNEGIE (C)
ALUMNI HOUSE
KAGIN COMMONS (KAGIN)
WEYERHAUESER HALL
ART GALLERY***CONFERENCE REGISTRATION opens 11 :00 AM (Campus
Center)***

******************************************************************
***BOOK SALES AND DISPLAYS AND ALL LITERATURE AND INFORMATION
WILL BE LOCATED IN THE CAMPUS CENTER
***FOOD: CONTINENTAL BREAKFASTS ON FRIDAY AND BREAK REFRESHMENTS WILL
BE SERVED ON THE SECOND FLOOR OF THE CC. HOT BREAKFAST WILL BE SERVED IN
THE GRILLE ON SATURDAY MORNING LUNCHES WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR $7.50
PRE-PURCHASE ON THURSDAY, FRIDAY, AND SATURDAY IN THE GRILLE
***ART SHOW: COLLEGE GALLERY (DAY
HOURS)*******************************************************************************************
********************************************************************
PRE-CONFERENCE ACTIVITIES

WED. JUNE 13, 7 – 10 PM Social gathering (Alumni House)CURRENT
***********************************************************************CONFERENCE


REGISTRATION opens THRUSDAY JUNE 14:11 :00 AM (Campus Center)***
*********************************************************************************THURSDAY
*******************************************************************************************
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE:

THURSDAY JUNE 14 9 am – 11 :30 am
***CONFERENCE REGISTRATION opens 11 :00 AM (Campus Center)***
1.TOURS (pick up outside Weyerhaueser Hall on Macalester Street, just
south of Snelling)
Deindustrialization of St. Paul
- David Riehle, local labor historian and activist
Telling the Stories of Working Class Neighborhoods
- Paul Schadewald
2.FILM SCREENINGS : Two New Documentaries on Italian Immigrant
Stonecutters (JBD) Se le pietra sapesse parlare – If Stone Could Speak
Randy Croce, University of Minnesota, filmmaker. "The Road From
Alfedena" Christine Zinni, Randforce Associate,
Buffalo, NY, filmmaker. Both filmmakers will be present for discussion.
***CONFERENCE REGISTRATION opens 11 :00 AM (Campus Center)***

*THUR.6/14: NOON – 1pm
Preliminary meeting of Working Class Studies Chorus with Janet
Stecher (JBD)

*THUR.6/14: 1-3 pm
WORKING CLASS CULTURE AND COUNTER-CULTURE (JBD)
Betsy Leondar-Wright, author of Class Matters and co-author of The
Color of Wealth; David Roediger, author, Wages of Whitneness and Prof of
History, U. of Illinois; Ricardo Levins-Morales, Northland Poster
Collective; David Greene, Professor of Psychology, Ramapo College

*THUR.6/14: 3 :30- 5 pm

ROUNDTABLE: THE MAKING OF AMERICAN WORKING CLASS LITERATURE (JBD)
Chair and Comment : Janet Zandy, ed., American Working Class
Literature : An Anthology; Jeanne Bryner, Community Affiliate, Center
for Working Class Studies, Youngstown State;Nick Coles, University of
Pittsburgh; John Gilgun, Missouri Western University; Larry Smith,
Bowling Green State University and Bottom Dog Press; John Crawford,
University of New Mexico and West End Press and others …


CLASS, HISTORY, AND SELF-REPRESENTATION (OM 009)
"Modern in Every Respect": Black Chicago's Culture of Class Mobility,
1941 – 1949 Jeff Helgeson, grad student, History, University of
Illinois-Chicago; St. Paul Workers Celebrate Labor Day
Steve Trimble, independent scholar, St. Paul
Teachers, Uniuonism, and the Politics of Class
David Rathke, Illinois Educatrion Association


TWO FILMS; WORKING CLASS HISTORY: (OM 002)
"Uneasy Pieces": Voicing the History of Homestead's Steel Workers (45
mins) James V. Catano, Prof, English, Lousiana State Univ
"Mother Jones : America's Most Dangerous Woman" (22 mins)
Rosemary Feurer, Assoc Prof, History, Northern Illinois University


LATINO LABOR RIGHTS ORGANIZING: ALTERNATIVES TO GLOBALIZATION
WORKSHOP (OM 011)
Eduardo Cardenas and Teresa Ortiz, Research Center of the Americas


WORKING CLASS CULTURE AND MEDIA ACTIVISTS, I (OM 010)
Moderator: Howard Kling, Labor Education Service, Univ of MN
Working Class Culture, Women Activists, and the New Media
Christine Zinni, Randforce Associate cfzinni@hotmail.com
Ruth Meyerowitz, Professor, American Studies, SUNY-Buffalo***CONFERENCE
REGISTRATION opens 11 :00 AM (Campus Center)***


Torn Between Capital and Labor: Media Workers and the Coverage of
Industrial Relations in Nigeria, Funmi Adewumi, senior lecturer,
University of Lagos (Nigeria)
"What Is to Be Done?" Can the New Media Save the Working Class
Ed Felien, editor/publisher, THE PULSE OF THE TWIN CITIES

WORKING CLASS STUDIES ON YOUR CAMPUS/IN YOUR COMMUNITY:
ORGANIZING STRATEGIES (Chapel)
Sherry Linkon & John Russo, Center for Working Class Studies, Youngstown
State University; Michael Zweig, Center for the Study of Working Class
Life, SUNY-Stonybrook; Liesl Orenic, Chicago Center for Working Class
Studies; John Beck, "Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives," Labor and
Industrial Relations, Michigan State University

*THUR.6/14: 5 :15 – 6 :45pm CHOIR REHEARSAL (JBD)

*THUR.6/14: 7 :30- 9 :30 pm
CULTURAL PLENARY: POETRY, PROSE, AND PERFORMANCE (JBD)
Mix of scheduled perfortmers and open mic.MN Poet Mark Nowak, curator
*******************************************************************************************FRIDAY
**************************************************************************************************

*FRIDAY JUNE 15; 15; 8 :30 am – 10 :00 am


COMBATTING INTERNALIZED OPPRESSION:WORKSHOP FOR LABOR ACTIVISTS (OM 011)
David Forrest, » factory worker, activist, and author

WORKING CLASS WOMEN: LITERATURE, REPRESENTATIONS, AND
AUTHORSHIP (OM 002)
Sentiment and Squalor: Picking Through the Wreckage to Find Meaning in
Carolyn Chute's "Letourneau's Used Auto Parts"; Samantha Maziarz, grad
student, Youngstown State UnivERSITY. Alice Munro: As Working Class
Fiction WriteR BY Larry Smith, Prof Emeritus, Bowling Green State Univ
The Isolation Myth: Exploring the History and Contemporary Work Roles of
Wisconsin Farm Women Jeanie Geurink, Asst Prof, Journalism, Univ of
Wisconsin-Eau Claire

EX-INMATES STRUGGLE TO JOIN THE WORKING CLASS (Chapel)

All presenters work with the Council on Crime and Justice, Minneapolis:
Sam Grant, Director of Projects; Guy Gambill, Advocacy
Coordinator;Joshua Bertsch, Administrative Assistant

CLASS & RACE IN THE CLASSROOM: TEACHING STRATEGIES (JBD)

Discourse Community as a Foundation for Teaching Research and Writing
Tess Evans, grad student, English, Wright State Univ
Jacqueline Preston, grad student, English, Univ of Wisconsin-Madison
Resisting Tradition, Inviting Experience: Using Literature Ladders
On-Line Jan Schmittauer,, Ohio University - Chillicola;Sue Lape,
Columbus State Community College; Teaching the Problem of Whiteness:
Thoughts on Race and Class: Ray Mazurek, Assoc Prof, English, Penn State
Univ-Berks Campus


COUNTRY MUSIC: WORKING CLASS LIVES AND STORIES (OM 009)

Something to be Proud of: The Irony of Class Consciousness in
Contemporary Country Music;Reece Peck, grad student, Communications, U
of Cal at San Diego; The Hillbilly Jamboree: Working Class Cultural
Values in Branson, Missouri Joanna Dee, grad student, American Studies, NYU


WORKING CLASS CULTURE AND MEDIA ACTIVISTS, II (OM 010)

The Elimination of the Working Class From the Airwaves and the Fight to
Take Back the Broadcast Media Frank Emspak, Executive Producer
WIN-Workers Independent News, on leave from the School for Workers,
University of Wisconsin-Extension. Laborfests, Consciousness, and the
New Communications Technology and Media Steve Zeltzer, Labor Video
Project, San Francisco. The First Ten Years of the Chicago Labor and
Arts Festival Lew Rosenbaum, Editor, Chicago Labor and Arts Notes


WORKERS' ORGANIZATION: IDENTITY, CULTURE, AND UNIONS (OM 001)

Corporate Co-optation in Practice: The Target Corporation
lex Urquhart, grad student, Amrican Studies, Univ of Minnesota;
Changing Nature of Working Class Culture under Nigerian Banking
Sector Reform Ifeanyi Onyeonoru, Prof, Sociology, University of Ibadan
(Nigeria). What It Meant to be "Worker" for 1980s South African Retail
Workers: Articulating Worplace and Home;Bridget Kenny, Sociology, Univ
of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)
The Industrial (Net)Workers of the World: Solidarity Unionism and the
Reconstruction of the Working Class
"E.F.", activist, Twin Cities

*FRIDAY 6/15; 10:30 am- Noon

TILLIE OLSEN: HER LEGACY TO WORKING CLASS STUDIES (PLENARY) (JBD)
by Janet Zandy, Julie Olsen Edwards, Barbara Jensen, Sherry Linkon
Steve Zeltzer, Cherie Rankin And others …

*FRIDAY 6/15: NOON- 1:30 pm :
WORKING CLASS STUDIES ASSOCIATION BUSINESS MEETING (JBD)

*FRIDAY 6/15; 1:30 pm- 3:00 pm

BIG RED SONGBOOK: FANNING THE FLAMES OF DISCONTENT
ROUNDTABLE WITH THE EDITORS/AUTHORS (Chapel)
Archie Green, Laborlore Foundation, Oakland, California
David Roediger, Prof, History, Univ of Illinois-Champaign-Urbana
Sal Salerno, Prof, Sociology, Minneapolis Community & Technical
College

LABOR MILITANCY IN THE INDUSTRIAL ERA (OM 002)

Industrial Unionism and the Chicago Idea
Nate Holdren, grad student, Comp Lit, Univ of Minnesota
"The State Constabulary Must Go!" Labor and the Left's response to the
Pennsylvania State Police, 1890-1917; Gary Jones, History, Muhlenberg
College; "An Alien Mob of Idlers, Tramps, and Criminals": Irish
Immigrants and the 1870s Anti-Chinese Movement in San Francisco
Andy Urban, grad student, History, U of MN; Working Class Opposition to
WWI: Macalester's Working Class Hero and the IWW,Tom Copeland,
independent scholar, St. Paul

AMERICAN INDIAN HISTORY AS WORKING CLASS HISTORY (OM 010)

Gatherers of Acorns and Souls: Work and Identity in Indian-Spanish
California, 1769-1815 Albert Lacson, Asst Prof, History, Grinnell
College; Working on the River: Race, Labor, and the Colonization of the
Mississippi River Valley Adam Waterman, Visiting Instructor, American
Studies, Macalester College; On the Water: Ojibwe in the Lake Superior
Commercial Fishing Industry, 1870-1942 Chantal Norrgard, grad student,
History, Univ of Minnesota;Commentator: Larry Nesper, Prof,
Anthropology, U of WI

REPRESENTATIONS OF WORKING CLASS LIFE (OM 009)
From 'Grace' to 'Joy': The Impact of Stereotypical Portrayals of
Working Class Women in the Media Bettina Spencer, grad student, New
School University; Romancing Immigrant Working Class Daughters and Care
Work: Remaking Class;Dynamics in the Film 'Spanglish'Mary Romero, Prof,
School of Justice and Social Inquiry, Arizona State Univ; Here I am
Stuck in the Middle With You": Defining Class in America, Jacqueline
Preston, grad student, English, Univ of Wisconsin

HOMELESSNESS & THE CRISIS OF THE WORKING-CLASS: ROUNDTABLE (OM 111)

Moderator: Carolyn Whitson, Assoc Prof, Metropolitan State University
Minda Martin, Asst Prof, Communication, Cal State University-San Marcos
and director/ producer of documentary Free Country, which will be
screened Saturday night; Reyne Branchaud-Linsk, Dakota Woodlands
Homeless Shelter Mikkel Beckman, St. Stephen's Church Homeless Shelter
Pam Wynn, Asst Prof, St. Paul's Theological Seminary

CLASS AND PUBLIC EDUCATION (OM 001)

Starting Young: Presenting Working Class Life in Children's Picture
Books:A Student Action Project ulie Olsen Edwards, Early Childhood
Education Faculty, Cabrillo Community College,Santa Cruz, California;
Does School Mediate the Relationship Between Social Class and the
Effects of Parental Involvement? Stefanie Estes, grad student, Notre
Dame; Capital's Daisy Chain: Exposing Chicago's Corporate Coalition
Lisa Arrastia, grad student, American Studies, U of MN
Re-inventing the Sensibilities of the Craft: Dick Johns and the
Education of Working Class Youth in 20th Century Winnipeg
Nolan Reilly, Prof, History, Univ of Winnipeg

*FRIDAY 6/15: 1:30 – 3:00 pm CHORUS REHEARSAL (JBD)

*FRIDAY 6/15; 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm

THE CURRENT LABOR CRISIS: NORTHWEST AIRLINES AS A MODEL (OM 002)

FILM SCREENING The Red Tail (film in progress)
Dawn Mikkleson, producer and director
PANEL; Ted Ludwig, president, AMFA Local 33
Karen Schultz, flight attendant and activist, AFA-CWA
Kip Hedges, baggage handler and activist, IAM Local 1833

THE SOUND AND THE FURY: WORKING CLASS PROTEST MUSIC (OM 010)

Moderator: Sumanth Gopinath, Asst. Prof of Music, U of Minnesota
Billy Bragg's Revival of Aging Anthems: Radical Nostalgia or Activist
Inspiration? David Walls, Prof. Emeritus, Sonoma State University
Songs of Free Men: Paul Robeson and the World Proletariat
Shana Redmond, grad student, African American Studies, Yale
The Folk Process: Protest Sons from Mass Communication to Intellectual
Property, Eleanor Walden, independent scholar, Berkeley, California
Something Called the Politics of Lonely: The Politics of the
'Weakerthans' Jonah Butovsky, Asst. Prof. of Labor Studies, Brock Univ.,
Ontario AND Tim Fowler, undergrad student, Brock University, Ontario

WORKING CLASS LIFE: DISCOVERY, DEFINITION, AND..OM 009)

View From Martin's Mountain,Margaret Costello, independent scholar and
electrician; "You're Supposed to be Nice": Women, Work, and Conflict in
Peer Relations, Julie Withers, instructor, Sociology, Butte Community
College


WORKING CLASS LITERATURE: TEXTS, CHARACTERS, PROJECTS (OM 111)

Answerability and Working Class Text, John Kirk, Research Fellow,
Working Lives Research Institute (London) From Hard-Boiled to
Tender-Hearted: Changing Images of the Fictional
Private Eye, Tim Sheard, author Literature's Influence on Working Class
Radicalism, Mitchell Newton-Manza, College of DuPage (Chicago)
The New Deal: Burkean Identification and Working Class Poetics
William DeGennaro, Asst Prof, Rhetoric, Univ of Michigan-Dearborn


LABOR HISTORY AND THE POLITICS OF DIFFERENCE (Chapel)

"The Union of All Oppressed Peoples Against Imperialism": Diasporic
Black Radicals and Anti-Colonial Internationalism in the League Against
Imperialism, 1927-1929 Minkah Makalani, Asst Prof. History, Rutgers Univ
"At the Frontier of Service": The Work of Negro Labor Intellectual Women
and The Construction of Black Historical Knowledge
James Robinson, grad student, Univ of Iowa;
Intersectionality and/or Simultaneity: A Feminist Historical Perspective
Lois Helmbold, Chairperson, Women's Studies, Univ of Nevada-Las Vegas

CREATIVE ORGANIZING: WORKSHOP (OM 003)

Satire, Cartoons, Collages: A Hands On Workshop
Gary Huck, United Electrical Workers, Labor Cartoonist

A VIEW FROM THE CHEAP SEATS: ADJUNCT INSTRUCTORS, WORKING
CLASS STUDENTS, AND THE COMMODIFICATION OF COLLEGE (JBD)

Moderator: Renny Christopher, Interim Assoc V-P for Academic
Affairs, Cal State Univ at Channel Islands; White Collar, Pink Collar,
White Tassel, Pink Tassel: Tenured and Contingent Labor United Together
in California John Yudelson, Business & Communications, Cal State Univ
at Channel Islands; Class and Stress: Working Class Emergencies and
Academic Routines, Robert Gremore, Prof, Lit and Language, Metropolitan
StatE University, St. Paul; First Class or Working Class? Problems and
Possibilities in Online Humanities Courses for the Working Class Student
Carolyn Whitson, Assoc Prof, Metropolitan State Univ, St. Paul


*FRIDAY 6/15; 5:00 pm- 6:30 pm (CC 216)

GRADUATE STUDENT SOLIDARITY MEETING

FRIDAY 7:00 pm- 9:00 pm BANQUET (Kagin)
The Conference Labor Chrous, organized by Janet Stecher will perform
Working Class Studies Association Awards to be announced

PERFORMANCE 9:00 pm- 11:00 pm (JBD)
POST-BANQUET CULTURAL CELEBRATION Mark Nowak, curator
**************************************************************************************SATURDAY
***************************************************************************************************

SATURDAY JUNE 16;

8:30am – 10am

THE WORKING CLASS AS COUNTER-CULTURE TO THE MIDDLE CLASS (Chapel)

Class in the Culture Wars: Manners, Morals, and Money on "Roseanne"
Melissa Williams, grad student, American Studies, U of MN
"Overrun with Lawless, Drunken, Filthy Bands of Motorcycle Fiends": The
Working Class and Motorcycle Culture in Postwar America, 1940s – 1960s
Randy McBee, Assoc. Prof. of History, Texas Tech University
"Go Get 'Em Tigers": The 1968 Detroit Tigers and Working Class Culture
Ryan Pettengill, grad student, History, Michigan State University
Amateur Soccer Clubs and Neighborhood Organizations in Working Class Sao
Paolo,Brazil, 1945 – 1978 Paolo Fontes, Visiting Scholar, Latin American
Studies, Princeton University


THE VIEW FROM THE FACTORY FLOOR (OM 002)

PHOTOGRAPHS: By These Hands: Industrial Labor in Minnesota (slideshow)
Dr. David Parker, occupational epidemiologiust & photographer
The View From the Factory Floor, "David Forrest," factory worker,
author-activist; Organizing Machine and Robot Local 1: Can Machines Be
Part of Working Class Studies And What Would It Look Like If They Were?
Jeff Manuel, grad student, University of Minnesota


ENGAGING CLASS AND ETHNICITY: WORKSHOP ((OM 011)

Share the Gelt! Exploring Jewish People's Relationship to Class, Money &
Economic Justice Deborah Rosenstein, Labor Educator, U of MN
Community Organizing Through Story-Telling: The RAICES Project
Amalia Anderson, Director, The Main Street Project, Minnesota
Diane Finnerty, Institute for the Support of Latino Families and
Communities, Iowa

TELLING THE STORIES OF WORKING CLASS NEIGHBORHOODS IN THE TWIN
CITIES (JBD)

Rondo Nerighborhood – Home of Black St. Paul, Chris Wells, Asst Prof,
Environmental Studies, Macalester College; Lake Street and the New
Immigration, Paul Schadewald, asst director, Civic Engagement Center,
Macalester College, Laura Zeccardi, undergrad student, Macalester
College; Away From the Ivory Tower: Public History Collaborations Across
Class and Educational Lines, Andy Urban, grad student, History,
University of Minnesota, Caitlin Cook-Isaacson, undergrad student,
University of Minnesota

WORKING CLASS LITERATURE: TEXTS, CHARACTERS, PROJECTS (OM 001)

Answerability and Working Class Text, John Kirk, Research Fellow,
Working Lives Research Institute (London)From Hard-Boiled to
Tender-Hearted: Changing Images of the Fictional
Private Eye. Tim Sheard, author. Literature's Influence on Working Class
Radicalism, Mitchell Newton-Manza, College of DuPage (Chicago)
The New Deal: Burkean Identification and Working Class Poetics
William DeGennaro, Asst Prof, Rhetoric, Univ of Michigan-Dearborn

CULTURAL ACTIVISM AND LABOR ACTIVISM (OM 010)

SLIDESHOW:Incomplete History of Labor Cartooning
Gary Huck, labor cartoonist, United Electrical Workers, Pittburgh, PA
Solidarity Through Singing, Janet Stecher, director, Seattle Labor
Chorus; The "Culture Works" Project, Joe Uehlein, Labor Heritage Foundation

CLASS ON CAMPUS: THE TIME IS NOW? (OM 009)

Class is Never Dismissed: Making a Film About Working Class Students
Cara Sharpes and Melissa McDonald, undergrad students, Smith College
Class on Campus.Felice Yeskel, Director, Class Action


*SATURDAY 10:30 am – NOON

ACTIVISM FOR THE 21ST CENTURY (JBD)

Roger McKenzie, British Trades Union Congress
Rose Brewer, African American Studies, University of Minnesota
Jerry Tucker, Co-convenor, Center for Labor Renewal
Felice Yeskel, Director, Class Action
Javier Morillo, President, SEIU Local 26
Marv Davidov, General Strike for Peace



*SATURDAY 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm

CLASS EDUCATION IN THE WIDER COMMUNITY (OM 011)

The Rouge Forum: Workers' Self-Education, Rich Gibson, coordinator, The
Rouge Forum, Dearborn, Michigan; Representing the Winnipeg General
Strike of 1919: A Museum Exhibit; Sharon Reilly, curator, Manitoba
Museum, Winnipeg; Survival Schools: Highlander and Beyond
John Crawford, publisher, West End Press

UNION STRUGGLES: GENDER, RACE, AND SEXUALITY (JBD)

Solidarity and Sacrifice: Women on Strike, Roxanne Newton, Mitchell
Community College (North Carolina);Flight Attendant Unionism in a Moment
of Danger: Activist Histories for a New Political Agenda, Ryan Murphy,
grad student, American StudieS U of MN; Organizing Latino Construction
Workers in Arizona: A Cultural Challenge, Denisse M. Roca Servat, grad
student, Arizona State Univ; Black Self-Organization in the Trade
Unions: Resistance as Tradition, Roger McKenzie, TUC Midlands Regional
Secretary (UK)



WHO TOOK THE WORK OUT OF NEW ORLEANS WORKING CLASS CULTURE?
(slideshow and discussion) (OM 010)

Presenter: Joan Clingan, Graduate Faculty, Humanities and M.A. Program
Dir.,Prescott College, Arizona, Commentator: Phyllis Walker, Pres,
AFSCME Local 380 U of MN

CLASS ON CAMPUS: PEDAGOGIES (OM 002)

Remembering: Inviting Working Class Culture into the Classroom Through
Storytelling, Sailor Holladay, grad student, UMass;Rachel Wagner, grad
student, UMass; Successes and Failures in "Class" Cara Okopny, Assistant
Professor, Liberal Studies, Grand ValleY State Univ (Michigan)

THE WORKER AS ARTIFACT IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN LITERATURE
(OM 001)

'Selling Out': Systematizing Culture in Louise Erdrich's "The Tomahawk
Factory"Michele Fazio, grad student, English, SUNY-Stony Brook
'Commodification of Memory': Historical Authenticity in Philip K. Dick's
"The Man in The High Castle", JoAnne Ruvoli, grad student, English, Univ
of Illinois-Chicago; 'He's Interested in the Project, Not in You': The
Objectified Worker in Ellen Slezak's "If You Treat Things Right"
Cherie Rankin, grad student, English, Illinois State Univ


CULTURAL WORK AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION (OM 009)

"None of Us Have Ever Been on Stage Before": The Development of Organic,
Working Class Community Theater in DeNVER, James Walsh
Class Action: Liberatory Theater for Critical Pedagogy,Michel Coconis,
director, Online CJ Degree Program, Ohio Dominican University
The Sound of Work, David Engen, Asst Prof, Speech Communications, Minn
State Univ –Mankato, Carolyn Mager, student, Minn State Univ – Mankato
Political Uses of Ringtones Sumanth Gopinath, Asst Prof, Music, Univ of
Minnesota

SURVIVAL AND RESISTANCE IN WORKING CLASS CULTURE (OM 111)

Popular Poetry in San Diego/Tijuana Region: Embodied Communication
Jen Vernon, research fellow, University of California at San Diego
The Uses of Humour: How Working Class People Use Humour to Survive Class
Power, Jean Bridgeman, sociology, National University of Ireland
Counseling: Tool For Social Change or Maintaining the Status Quo?
Wade Hannon, Assoc Prof, Counselor Ed, North Dakota State Univ

*SATURDAY 6/16: 3:30 pm- 5:00 pm

LABOR AND THE CLIMATE CRISIS: OUR POSITION, OUR ROLE (OM 009)

Labor's Stake in the Climate Crisis Debate, Joe Uehlein, Labor Heritage
Foundation; Labor and Sustainability: Facing the Challenges
Christine Frank, IATSE Twin Cities and Labor and Sustainability
Coalition, Lynn Hinkle, UAW Local 879, Ford, St. Paul


THE PRESSURES AND POSSIBILITIES OF WORK (OM 010)

The Disappearance and Reappearance of Health Claims Against Overwork
Alan Derickson, Prof, History, Penn State Univ; Use Them Up and Wear
Them Out: Flight Attendants and the Problem of Fatigue
Drew Whitelegg, Director of Special Projects, Emory Center for
Myth and Ritual in Am Life; "We Are Not Babysitters": A Struggle for Pay
and Recognition, ulie Willett, Assoc Prof, History, Texas Tech Univ



REFLECTIONS OF WORKING CLASS TEACHERS (OM 002)

Life on the Border II : Messages to the Working Class Academics
Discussion List, David Greene, Prof of Psychology, Ramapo College
One More Dirty Secret : How Cultural Capital Divides the Working Class
Christine W. Heilman, Asst Prof, Rhetoric/Composition, College of
Mt. St. Joseph, Thoughts on a Life Less Traveled, Sara Appel, grad
student. Program in Literature, Duke University; Queering in/of Class :
A Working Class Queer Talks Pedagogy Amber Clifford-Napoleone,
Instructor, Anthropology, University of Central Missouri

ART, MEDIA, POPULAR CULTURE, AND WORKING CLASS CULTURE (OM 001)

Hip Rebellion: Counter-Cultural or Counter-Working Class
Forrest Perry, grad student, Vanderbilt; Laboring the Canvas: Artistic
Constructions of the Worker in the 1930s and What This Means for Today's
Labor Art, Laura Hapke, Prof, City University of New York and author,
SWEATSHOP: THE HISTORY OF AN AMERICAN IDEA?; Young People Fighting for
the Working Class: An Overview of the Class-Conscious Youth Culture of
the Hardcore Punk Music Scene, Monica Bielski Boris, Labor Educator,
Univ of Arkansas at Little Rock

WORKING CLASS WOMEN CHARACTERS IN FILM AND LITERATURE (OM 111)

You Can't Go Home Again … But You Can't Come in Here Either. The
Liminal Women Of Working Class Texts, Robyn Russo, grad student,
Georgetown Univ; Toward a New Myth: Bone as a Working Class Heroine in
"Bastard Out of Carolina', Jennifer Didsbury, grad student, Georgetown
Univ; All Sass and No Class: Working Class Roles by Oscar-Nominated
Women Kathryn Jett, grad student, Georgetown University

URBAN WORKING CLASS CULTURES AND POLITICAL CULTURES (JBD)

Moderator: Tom O'Connell, Metropolitan State University, St. Paul
Building a Working Class Socialist Subculture in Milwaukee
Elizabeth Jozwiak, Asst Prof of History, Univ of Wisconsin-Rock County
Why Bingo Matters: Working Class Cultures and Political Cultures
Eric Fure-Slocum, Asst Prof of History, St. Olaf College
Separate Lanes: Race, Bowling, and Working Class Solidarity in Detroit
David Lewis-Colman, Asst Prof of History, Ramapo College
commentator: Mary Wingerd, Asst Prof of History, St. Cloud State Univ.

*SATURDAY 6/16: 8:00 pm- 11:00 pm FILM FESTIVALl
VARIOUS LOCATIONS FOR SCREENINGS

Filmmakers will be present for discussion
Screenings at 8:00 PM and 9:15 PM
FILM: Meridel LeSueur: My People Are My Home (OM 001) Neala Schleuning,
Twin Cities Women's Film Collective (1976)
FILM: Free Country (OM 002), Minda Martin, asst prof, communications,
Cal State Univ-San Marcos
FILM: Transnational Tradeswomen (62 minutes) (OM 009)
Vivian Price, Asst Prof, IDS/PACE, Cal State Univ-Dominguez Hills
FILMS: Our 'Hood: Stories From the South Shore (30 mins.) (OM 010)
Mutilated Rest (20 mins), Stan West, producer and director, Chicago
FILM: The Ladies Bridge (27 mins) (OM 011)o
Christine Wall, Research Fellow, Working Lives project, London
FILM: Breaking Walls (47 mins) (OM 111) (Filmmaker not present)
FILM: Class Is Never Dismissed (C 06)Working Class Women at Smith make
a film about their experiences by Cara Sharpes and Melissa McDonald,
undergrad students, Smith College
FILM: Meeting Face to Face: The Iraqi-US Labor Solidarity Tour (27
mins) (C 05), Mike Zweig, SUNY-Stonybrook
FILM: Se le pietra sapesse paralre – If Stone CouldTalk (60 minutes)
(JBD) Randy Croce, University of Minnesota Labor Education Service
The Road From Alfedena, Christine Zinni, Randforce Associate, SUNY-Buffalo
***********************************************************************************************SUNDAY
********************************************************************************************************************

SUNDAY JUNE 17 9:30 am- 11:00 am

WORKING CLASS POLITICAL THEORY (OM 011)

The Futility of Politics and Property Conventions as the Basis of
Unmerited Privilege and Class, Steven Ericsson-Zenith
Contributions of Frantz Fanon to Our Understanding of Class and Race
Gary Hicks, organizer and activist, Boston
Nascent Working Class Political Economy: The Evocation of Organization
and Resistance in William Manning and David Walker
David Arenas, Saint Xavier University

DEINDUSTRIALIZATION, CULTURE, AND RESISTANCE (OM 010)

Ford, the Dam, and Corporate Welfare
Brian McMahon, independent historian, St. Paul
The Corporate Attack and the Fight Back
Earl Silbar, adult educator and labor activist, Chicago
Look Who's Not Talking: Public Discourses about Labor, Unemoployment,
and Joblessness Stephanie Martin, grad student, Univ of Cal – San Diego

CLASS ACTS: WHAT CULTURE DOES (OM 009)

The Dissertation of a Factory Worker, Paul Greider, Asst Prof,
Sociology, St. Cloud State Univ; Hope for the Future: Human Nature and
Working Class Culture, Susan Rosenthal, doctor, psychotherapist, and
author; Class Straddlers in the U.S. Women's Liberation Movement
Christie Launius, Asst. Prof. English and Director, Women's Studies,
Augusta State University

WORKING/POVERTY CLASS ACADEMICS: STRIVING TO SURVIVE IN THE
"KNOWLEDGE FACTORY": A ROUNDTABLE BOOK DISCUSSION (OM 001

Muzzati & Samarco, eds., Reflections from the Wrong Side of the
Tracks: Class, Identity and the Working Class Experience in Academe
Tokarczyk & Fay, eds., Working Class Women in the Academy: Laborers in
the Knowledge Factory; Dews & Law, eds., This Fine Place So Far From
Home: Voices of Academics from The Working Class
Ryan and Sackrey, eds., Strangers in Paradise: Academics from the
Working Class
Roundtable participants:
Caroline Rosen, Center for Teaching & Learning,U of MM, Deb Wingert,
Education Psychology,U of MN and Univ of St. Thomas; Maureen Clark, grad
student, Sociology,U OF MN Colleen Myers, Center for Teaching &
Learning, U of Mn

MID-20TH CENTURY LABOR ACTIVISM (JBD)

Doing What They Had to Do: Working Women in the Early Years of the Great
Depression, 1930-1932 Annessa Ann Babic, grad student, State Univ of
NY-Stony Brook; Oakland's Work Holiday: The 1946 General Strike
Gifford Hartman, independent scholar, San Francisco; Negotiated
Paternalism Among Steel and Pottery Workers in Northern West
Virginia, 1945-1965;Lou Martin, grad student, History, West Virginia Univ

LABOR HISTORY AND WORKING CLASS MEMORY (OM 002)

Historical Memory and the Homestead Strike of 1892
Joel Woller, Asst Prof, History, Carlow Univ, Pittsburgh
"When Hell Moves Close to Earth": Centralia as Metaphor in Contemporary
Poetry; Karen Weyant, Asst Prof, English, Jamestown Community College,
NY; "Remembering Virden": The Creation of Rank-and-File Unionism,
1898-1930 Rosemary Feurer, Assoc Prof, History, Northern Illinois Univ
Rusting Factories, Gentrified Spaces: The Commodification of Working
Class Storyscapes, Laura Hapke, author, SWEATSHOP: THE HISTORY OF AN
AMERICAN IDEA? And Professor, City University of New York

SUNDAY JUNE 17 11:30 am- 1:00 pm
CLOSING DISCUSSION: THE FUTURE OF WORKING CLASS CULTURE (JBD)

from my daily MOUVING MOUNTAINS column
at PULSE http;//www.pulsetc.com
by Lydia Howell
Monday, June 4, 2007

Presidential election theater—uh, I mean, campaigning—is starting earlier than ever, due to various states moving up their primaries to pick nominees. Of course, some of the biggest performances are candidate debates and the Democrats led off in Manchester, New Hampshire, last night.

Eight contenders alternately danced and dueled with one another, sometimes in-step with fellow Democrats, sometimes a glint of the sword trying to carve out differences. In spite of starting earlier than ever, corporate media continues to claim the right to pre-select what candidates the voters should "take seriously'. Of course, much of this is due to what's known as the "money primary"; that's the tens of millions in campaign contributions that's determined the so-called three "front-runners'.

Iraq dominated the debate, with asides for health-care, immigration and one of the few surprise issues; gays in the military. All who got to comment, agreed that gays can help prop up the U.S military but, marriage equality isn't on the table-- only civil unions. Hillary Clinton quoted the famous conservative Republican Barry Goldwater who said "You don't have to be straight to shoot straight." John Edwards asserted that the federal government shouldn't tell states and churches how to deal with same-sex marriage-- an odd comment given that it's secular, civil law—not churches—that are at issue.

New York Senator Hillary Clinton played the Iron Lady on national security, with some slightly softened 'diplomacy" edges. She opened with saying that after six years of Bush, the country is "safer than before..., but, not safe enough"-- perhaps, already jockeying against fellow New Yorker Rudy Giuliani . Continuing her refusal to acknowledge that voting to invade Iraq was a mistake, she also tried to market herself as an anti-war candidate. If U.S. troops are still there after being elected President, she said she'd bring them home.. I couldn't help but feel I was glimpsing the infamous Clintonian triangulation in that promise, just as, that Clinton ***CONFERENCE REGISTRATION opens 11 :00 AM (Campus Center)***(and Obama) seemed to count Senate votes, waiting until the last moment to vote against the latest war-funding bill. Suddenly, she's got 'a three-step plan to get out of Iraq'--that sounds a lot like Bush's, since it holds the Iraqis accountable for American troops occupying their country. Hillary Clinton quoted the famous conservative Republican Barry Goldwater who said "You don't have to be straight to shoot straight."

Illinois Senator Barak Obama's famed charisma was MIA and he actually seemed bland. His positions remained murky platitudes or like minor tweaking of existing policies. Strangely, little of Obama said was memorable, as if his political consultants had over-rehearsed him and he was taking each step with care not to fall from a straight-down-the-middle tightrope.

Former North Carolina Senator and 2004 Democratic VP candidate, John Edwards showed a fair amount of fancy footwork, going after Clinton on Iraq. He called for timetables to get out of Iraq and said now it was time to 'lead not follow'--which he accused the other two front-runners of doing. Edwards' strongest point was standing on his point that "Bush's war on terrorism is just a bumper sticker slogan", saying it was simply "a justification for everything Bush has wanted to do from the Iraq war to the PATRIOT act to torture and wiretapping Americans. 'There wasn't any opportunity for him to refer to the anti-poverty work he's been doing since his 2004 run, but, he slipped in specifics about access to health-care and education. Edwards was genuine where Clinton was hard plastic and detailed where Obama was vague. Of the three front-runner, for my money Edwards projected the best combination of personality and policy. John Edwards asserted the federal government shouldn't tell states and churches how to deal with same-sex marriage-- an odd comment given that it's secular, civil law (not churches) at issue

Frankly, I found mostly the so-called "second tier' candidates far more interesting, but, of course, corporate media never allows them nearly as much time as the candidates they've crowned.

When Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich, who ran for the 2004 Democratic nomination, spoke about issues, you knew exactly where he stands and what he wants to do. Iraq? Democrats don't need a veto-proof bill, but, should simply offer no war-funding bill at all and use money already allotted to the military to bring them home. "This is now a Democratic war, too, Kucinich said.. Health-care? He challenged other Democrats' plans by pointing out that they would all leave the insurance companies and HMOs in charge. He was the only candidate to call for renegotiating 'free trade' agreements like NAFTA and the World trade Organization that outsource American jobs. He attempted to make a point about "peace as the only security' but, wasn't given enough time to develop what he was trying to say. He called for PATRIOT ACT to be be overturned and our civil liberties restored.

Most surprising, were New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd, who it would be good to hear a lot more from.

Richardson lacked charisma, but communicates a sense of being an accessible person who's thoughtful about issues and has diverse experience for the job. As Clinton's Energy Secretary, he's savvy about renewable energy policies that he's already implementing in New Mexico. As U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. , he said he 'spent 80% of [his] time in the Middle East". He might have the most wisdom about immigration, as a governor of a U.S.-Mexico border state and opposed both a 'Berlin Wall' and the exploitive guest worker program. He called for labor rights for all workers, the only candidate besides Kucinich who remembered that labor unions and 'ordinary working people' are supposed to be a major part of the Democratic Party's base. Richardson also noted that when it comes to the infamous earmarks (also known as 'pork", funding that's slipped into unrelated bills) coming under scrutiny, the $70Billion in corporate welfare should be examined.

Dodd was sober and direct, coming across as someone who'd steer the nation steadily. He was strong on the failure of Iraq and urged the U.S. to boycott the Olympics if China refuses to pressure Sudan to stop its genocide in Darfur. When asked about making English our 'official language' , he went one refreshing step beyond rejecting that recurrent legislation. Being bi-lingual himself (in Spanish), Dodd said that in the 21st century ,far more Americans need to learn a second language. He alluded to the trade deficit with China and was the only candidate to echo Kucinich's call to restore Constitutional rights undermined by Bush. When the idea of mandatory national service for youth was raised, Dodd revealed he'd been a Peace Corp volunteer..

Delaware Senator Joe Biden, the only candidate who voted to keep funding troops in Iraq, had the abrasive personality of someone who's in a constant sate of irritation. His only stand-out moments were his obviously sincere anger about inaction regarding the genocide in Darfur and suggesting that public financing of political campaigns was the only way to get rid of earmarks. Biden voted for an immigration wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, that the other candidates rejected.

Finally, former Senator for Alaska, Mike Gravel, has been out of office for 25 years, most known for putting Daniel Ellsberg's Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record, helping to bring the Vietnam war to an end. He drew on that history to challenge the notion of an Iraqi 'genocide' if U.S. troops leave. Gravel got the least time, so where he stands, beyond opposing the occupation of Iraq is hard to know. He did challenge Obama--who's on the responsible Senate committee-- about lack of oversight of VA hospitals. Mike Gravel was a blunt curmudgeon, quick-witted with one-liners.

If presidential campaigns are gong to be drawn out for almost two yeas, I'd like to see debates between 'second tier' candidates only. Given the idea that America is "promoting democracy" at the point of a gun around the world, more real choice of candidates here at home should be in order. Otherwise, all we have, to quote investigative journalist Greg Palast, all we've got is the best democracy money can buy.

Cindy Sheehan Refuses To Be Held Hostage
by Lydia Howell
Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Cindy Sheehan, a Gold Star mother –that is, a mother who's lost a child
in military combat—the most known "face of the peace movement', has
posted her letter of resignation on the blog Daily Kos
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/28/12530/1525

It's not the right-wing, who questioned Sheehan's patriotism and
relentlessly made cruel slurs, that she dishonored her son by opposing
George Bush's war for oil and empire, that drove Sheehan to this
decision. It's a divided peace movement that did that.

When Cindy Sheehan attacked Middle East policies of Bush and the
Republican Party, she was lauded by those who think all that's currently
wrong with the U.S. as the fault of one party alone. Some liberals,
tied to the Democratic Party, grew uncomfortable when Sheehan looked
more deeply, beyond "Bush's war on Iraq" to a history of American
imperialism, that's defined U.S. policy for a very long time. (Some say
since WWII, others say since the 1840s Mexican-American war that took
one third of northern Mexico—aka; the southwestern states of Texas, New
Mexico, Arizona and California—and some would point to the colonization
and founding of the nation.) Sheehan "went above her pay-grade" for
some peace activist Democrats by going to Venezuela and Cuba. Unlike
those who oppose the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq as some
isolated 'mistake', divorced from any historical context, Sheehan's
continued a quest for political consciousness. Sheehan faced the hard
truths that America's economic system itself feeds the drive for war
and that, perhaps and those Latin American countries might have
something to teach us about an alternatives.

But, Cindy Sheehan's ultimate 'crime' for some liberal Democrats was
when she challenged the Democratic Party to do what voters elected them
to do: end the occupation of Iraq and bring the troops home. It was one
thing to use the failure of Iraq against Republicans but, quite another
to hold Democrats to the same standard of accountability. It's one thing
to call George W. Bush a war-monger and quite another to expose Hillary
Rodham Clinton as one.

Who knows if Al Gore as president would have invaded Iraq in 2003?
However, it's a matter of record that during the Clinton Administration,
the U.S. continued to enforce the (illegal under international law) "no
fly zones" in Iraq by bombing Iraqis two or three times a week and
starving them with the longest sanctions in world history. Democratic
complicity with both Bush I and Bush II in Iraq has gone on for some time.

Too many liberals in the anti-war movement continue to hold the illusion
that 'If we only elect Democrats, change will happen". How many more
betrayals by the Corporate-sponsored Democratic Leadership Council (DLC)
majority of the Democratic members of Congress will it take for them to
see reality? While there are certainly a minority of
Democrats—Representatives Dennis Kucinich, Maxine Waters, Barbara Lee
come to mind-- who do reflect progressive positions, they are out of
step with the party as a whole. The DLC majority of the Democratic
Party is willing to continue "Bush's war' in hopes of riding public
disillusionment against the carnage to the White House in November 2008.

Like Ralph Nader before her, those activists held hostage to the
Democratic Party, attacked Cindy Sheehan when she told truths they
refuse to recognize.. What they fail to recognize is that social change
has never happened because of ANY politician of any political party.
Rather, all progressive victories have come due to social movements
exerting pressure on politicians they could not afford to ignore. This
is Activism 101, proven by many lessons of history.

To make the anti-war movement simply an arm of the Democratic Party is
to undermine any political power grassroots activism has. The 2004
presidential election campaign should have taught peace activists that
lesson. by summer of that year, anti-war activity began to wane in favor
of people putting their time, energy and money into working to get John
Kerry elected. This was the John Kerry who "reported for duty' at the
Democratic National Convention with a military salute and never promised
to end the U.S. war on Iraq, but, only "more effective management" of
it. It took more than a year after the November 2004 election to rebuild
the momentum of the peace movement.


With polls showing that well over 70% of Americans want to bring the
troops home from Iraq, shouldn't we be demanding that Democrats follow
the will of the people? Excuses that Democrats don't have a "veto-proof
majority" were given for last week's vote for $100B more for war, But,
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) pointed out the obvious: Democrats don't
have to pass a veto-proof bill de-funding the war. All that must be
done is to NOT offer any new 'defense"-funding bill at all.

Cindy Sheehan was not willing to have her son's death be for
Halliburton's and Bush/Cheny oil buddies' wealth-enrichment. Having her
son's death be exploited for Democratic presidential political advantage
is no better—and it shouldn't be so for any peace activist worthy of the
name.

for Cindy SHeehan's 'New declaration of indepnedence' calling for
progressives and peace activists to meet in Philadelphia ON THE 4th of
Jule, see; http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/26/10135/7518

LYDIA HOWELL is a Minneapolis journalist, winner of a 2007 Premack Award
for public interest journalism, for her reporting on homelessness in
PULSE newspaper. she's producer/host of 'Catalyst;politics and culture',
tuesdays,11am, on kFAI Radio, 90.3fm mpls 106.7fm st paul Archived for 2
weeks after broadcast at http;//www.kfai.org 9where you can also see the
CATALYST page for upcoming shows and other info0. MOVING MOUNTAINS is
updated daily Monday thru friday at puLSE online: http;//wwww.pulsetc.com

Check Your PULSE ON-LINE!
Moving Mountains is the new daily Mon-Fri. column by Lydia Howell
http://www.pulsetc.com

MOVING MOUNTAINS;
I've Seen American Torture
by Lydia Howell
Tue. May 22, 2007

I witnessed torture last week.

Thursday, May 17th, was a beautiful Minnesota spring afternoon and I
was mentally planning out the next phase of planting in my new spot in
a community garden, while out running errands. I came out to the bus
stop in the Rainbow Foods parking lot on 27th Avenue off East Lake
Street---a few blocks from where the raids on immigrants took place two
days later. Immediately, my guard went up, as a police car pulled up.

Their focus was obvious: an African-American woman. Perhaps in her early
30s, she was even more vulnerable to law enforcement by two aspects of
her situation that became apparent.

Her white jogging pants and t-shirt were dirty. She gripped a luggage
cart, with a battered overnight suitcase strapped on the bottom and
various plastic bags tied all over it. I'd bet this week's pay she was
homeless. In our age of relentless gentrification and contempt of the
poor, being homeless is treated as a crime, where one is not only
subjected to harassment and arrest, but, to beatings and theft of all
one's belongings by police.

It was also quickly clear that she was mentally ill.

In a sing-song voice she repeated the same sentence endlessly. Yet, as
the 1960s radical psychologist R.D. Laing observed in the 1960s: if one
attempts to read the "metaphors of insanity", they are often very
revealing. In fact, they often say a great deal about the insane,
everyday cruelty of our culture that drives people mad.

The woman was saying, over and over,"I'm not white and I'm not a star."

One police officer was speaking too quietly to hear, but, at one point
she said, "Talk to the store manager." Then, a Hennepin County Medical
Center ambulance drove up. The police knew they were dealing with a
mentally ill person and Mayor R.T. Rybak has made a number of reassuring
speeches about MPD's Crisis Intervention Teams—officers trained to deal
differently with mentally ill people after several mentally ill people
were gunned down by police.

There were about six of us at the bus stop, just five feet away. I
remembering thinking that surely so many witnesses present would protect
the woman from harm. The two EMT guys came forward and the second
police officer was behind the woman.

The woman made no threatening moves toward anyone, but, proclaimed with
a bit more intensity, "I'm NOT white and I'm NOT a star." She was now
surrounded by four big white men in uniforms. One cop behind her.

The officer who'd been talking to the woman put one hand on her
shoulder. Taking one step back, she jerked away and shouted,"Get your
hands OFF ME!"

Then, I heard the harsh buzz as the other police officer used a stun
gun, Taser, on the woman.

One. Two. Three. Maybe even a fourth time.

Like the woman's reaction at the first officer's touch, I just reacted.
Bursting into sobs and yelling, "STOP iT! You're FOUR BIG MEN! You
DON'T have to Taser her! STOP IT!"

The woman crumpled to the ground. I guess the EMT guys stepped in, but,
I wasn't looking since the Taser cop now turned towards me.

"She's OFF her meds! Did you want her to attack YOU?"

Actually, it was the police that had scared me from the start. But, my
body was now numb and I was in "de-escalate the cops" mode. That means;
be still, maintain eye contact, keep one's voice low and use the word
"sir" frequently. He threatened to arrest me for "interfering with a
police officer', demanding I leave.

Walking quickly across the Rainbow parking lot, I desperately hoped for
another bus. Any minute the squad car might come and then, what?
Luckily, the #7 pulled up and I jumped on.

The Taser is touted as a "non-lethal" alternative to deal with
aggressive suspects, without shooting them. No research has been done
as to its longterm health effects. As many as 200 people have been
killed by Tasers. Police departments are supposed to train officers on
when they're allowed to use this device which administers a shock of
50,000 volts. Here's what Amnesty International says:

"Many U.S. police agencies now ROUTINELY use Tasers to subdue UNARMED,
non-compliant individuals who DO NOT POSE A SERIOUS DANGER to themselves
or others...police have used Tasers against unruly school children,
mentally disabled and elderly people and people who simply argue with
officers..REPEATEDLY ADMINISTERED SHOCKS, sometimes while IN
RESTRAINTS." (Emphasis added)

The City of Minneapolis spent $160,000 on Tasers last year and plans on
spending $861,000 this year on more Tasers. The Arizona-based company
supplies thousands of U.S. police departments, and, also sells them to
human rights abusing governments world-wide.

AI also notes that these weapons are "portable...easy to sue..inflict
severe pain at the push of a button and leave no marks."

That sounds like the perfect torture device for abusing one's authority
over others while evading all accountability.

American torture didn't start in Abu-Graibe. That video of Los Angeles
cops beating Rodney King—almost 60 blows with batons—exposed this
reality more than 15 years ago.
See Amnesty International at http;//amnesty.org

Next week's WED.MAY 16th edition is the last newsprint version of PULSE,
Grassroots Alternative Newspaper of the Twin Cities. however, PULSE will
continue as an on-line journal at:

http://www.pulsetc.com

I'm delighted to report that, starting Thursday, May 17, I've been asked
to do a daily column, Monday through Friday, which PULSE publisher Ed
Felien has named "Moving Mountains".

The title comes from an old Chinese story: an old man is moving rocks
one by one and another man comes up and asks "What are you doing?" The
old man says, "I'm moving this mountain."
"But, that's ridiculous1" the other man replies.'You're just one old man!"
'Ah, but, I have children and my children have children. And there are
many people who are working to move this mountain,"the old man says,
smiling."And working together,we can do it."

Having spent my life since graduating high school in the mid-70s, as an
activist and independent journalist, that story really speaks to me, In
next week's print edition of PULSE, I'll introduce the column. I've got
lots of ideas for it and will not only write political analysis, but,
continue to do some reporting and even, consider the arts and culture as
they relate to the issues of our day. The range of issues will span
local, national and international, with the hope of fresh insights,
bridge-building and isnpring action. I'll also include links to what I
think are important stories and websites.

I also hope to sometimes write what some have called "creative
nonfiction"--that is, more personal essays. In part, this is due to the
amazing response I received for my 2007 Premack Award for Public
interest Journalism winning story about homeless teens (published in
PULSE the last week of December 2006). Unlike any other story I've
written for PULSE in almost eight years, I shared some of my own
personal history as a runaway teen--a necessity on a short deadline,
when I could only find one homeless youth available to talk to me. My
aim for that story was to communicate the visceral experience of
homelessness that hundreds of Twin Cities teens face daily and to also
give the perspective of how much harder it is for them today than it was
in the past---a profound contradiction in an era when we hear plenty
about "protecting children" and so-called "family values". The responses
for sharing a more personal voice has inspired me to want to explore
some new ground in my writing.

So, pick up the newsprint PULSE at a cafe, coffee shop, bookstore or
other places in the Twin Cities for an introduction to our reincarnation
on the web. And remember to CHECK YOUR PULSE (and share the website with
others) daily at our website:
http://www.pulsetc.com

The struggle continues! and rock by rock, together, we CAN move mountains.
solidarity,
Lydia Howell