LaborFest

Forum / Reading Events

July 8 (Sunday) 1:00 PM (Free) SF Main Library Latino Room Lower Level - 100 Larkin St. SF
Forum: The Commons, Public Spaces & Privatization
The economic collapse in 2008 has been used as justification for the sell-off of public spaces, buildings and the privatization of public services and parks. San Francisco is turning into a billionaire’s dream, as every city property from City Hall to the waterfront becomes a source for profit.
The growing lack of regulation and transparency is part and parcel of this development and this forum will also look at how environmental protection and right to information also are in jeopardy.
This panel will look at how our commons and public spaces are being threatened, who is doing it, who is helping them do it and how we can defend our public spaces and stop the privatization of public spaces and resources.
Speakers:
Gray Brechin, UCB Geographer and author of Imperial San Francisco
James Chaffee, Keep Civic Center Public
Aysha Massell, Environmental Worker
Don Santina, Cultural Historian and writer
Peter Warfield, Library Users Association/Executive Director
Sponsord by United Public Workers for Action
www.upwa.info

July 8 (Sunday) 5:00 PM (Free) City Lights Bookstore - 261 Columbus at Broadway, SF
City Lights Reading
Special Appearance by writer, organizer and activist Stewart Acuff, opening statements by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, hosted with poetry by Alice Rogoff.
Stewart Acuff is the Chief of Staff and Assistant to the President of the Utility Workers Union of America and has been a labor organizer for more than 30 years. He has written articles for the Atlanta Constitution, Labor Research Review, In These Times, The Nation, Foreign Policy and Focus Magazine, New Labor Forum, and several Georgia newspapers. He has also written essays for Which Direction for Organized Labor (edited by Bruce Nissen) and Organizing for Justice in Our Communities (edited by Immanuel Ness and Stuart Eimer.) He is the co-author with Dr. Richard Levins of Getting America Back to Work.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is an educator, feminist activist, writer, and life-long activist. She has produced many scholarly books and articles and has published 3 memoirs, Red Dirt: Growing Up Okie (1997), Outlaw Woman: A Memoir of the War Years 1960-1975, and Blood on the Border, about what she saw during the Nicaraguan Contra War against the Sandinistas.
Alice Rogoff is a local poet, activist, and organizer. She is a member of the Pacific Media Workers (CWA) Freelance unit.
http://www.citylights.com/bookstore/?fa=event&event_id=1509

July 10 (Tuesday) 6:00 PM (Free) Modern Times Bookstore - 2919 24th St. at Florida, SF
Book reading: Carlo Tresca: Anarcho-Syndicalist and…Bohemian?
With F.S. Rosa and Dr. Susan Greene
Italian immigrant Carlo Tresca was involved in some of the foremost labor struggles and fights for immigrant rights and against fascism and Stalinism of the early 20th century. Tresca was dedicated to anarcho-syndicalism--the principle that all workers, regardless of gender or ethnic group, should work together in solidarity and direct action to improve their working conditions and, ideally, to create worker-run collectives. The textile strikes in Lawrence, Massachusetts and Paterson, New Jersey were run along these principles; Tresca was involved in both of them.
F.S. Rosa, who is a member of SEIU 1021, will read from her novel, The Divine Comedy of Carlo Tresca, and discuss Tresca’s relationship to both anarcho-syndicalism and the arts.
Susan Greene will discuss plans to incorporate Carlo Tresca’s image into her mural “Re/Membering American Anarchism.”

July 11 (Wednesday) 6:00 PM (Free) SF Main Library Koret Auditorium - 100 Larkin St., SF
Which Side Are You On? Harry Hay and Labor Organizing
Panel Discussion with Chris Carlsson, Bettina Aptheker and others, moderated by Joey Cain.
Gay labor activist Harry Hay helped lay the foundation for the modern lesbian and gay rights movement.
In 1934, Harry Hay attended the legendary Longshoreman’s Strike in San Francisco, known as the San Francisco General Strike, to perform agit-prop theatre with his lover Will Geer. During one of their performances, bullets rang out as the National Guard opened fire on the workers. Several workers were killed in that melee, but more would be killed before the government’s crack down on the strike ended. The strike culminated with a funeral march on Market Street, San Francisco’s main street, which was the largest public demonstration to take place in its day.
Radically Gay: The Life Of Harry Hay: An Exhibition on the Founder of the Gay Rights Movement, Main Library.
The exhibition includes his early years through his labor activism, and strong involvement with the Communist Party, to his founding of the Mattachine Society, the first gay activist group in America, and co-founding of the gay men’s spirit group, the Radical Faeries. An actor, Communist labor organizer, musicologist, gay theoretician and political activist, Hay left a lasting mark that continues well into the 21st century.

July 12 (Thursday) 7:00 PM (Free) Berkeley City College Auditorium - 2050 Center St., Berkeley
The Paris Commune of 1871 - The Original Government of the 99%
Come hear a presentation on the Paris Commune, by Anne Hansen, French postal worker and union militant. With the slogan, “We are the 99%”, the Occupy movement asked – “What gives the top 1% of society the right to run everything in their interest? Why should the rest of us, the 99%, have to suffer the consequences of their decisions”? All over the U.S., thousands of people participated in demonstrations, meetings and occupations of public space. And in the process, people could begin to imagine a different world where the 99% decided our own fate. In 1871, the people of Paris engaged in their own version of “occupy” – the Paris Commune. But they didn’t just protest. They created a new form of government - from the bottom up, where the 99% decided and acted in the interest of the majority. We can learn from these lessons of the past to create a new future. Anne will also talk about the current situation in France.
Sponsored by the Berkeley City College Global Studies Program and Speak Out Now!

July 14 (Saturday) 1:00 PM (Free) Canessa Gallery - 708 Montgomery St., SF
Coit Tower, Anton Refregier and Sargent Johnson: Past and Current Efforts to Protect New Deal Art
With Jon Golinger, Grey Brechin and Harvey Smith
This gathering at the historic Canessa Gallery will describe the post-election efforts of the Protect Coit Tower campagin, tell the remarkable story of Anton Refregier and how the Rincon Annex murals were saved, and provide an update on the saga of the lost Sargent Johnson relief.
For more information: harveysmithberkeley@yahoo.com

July 14 (Saturday) 2:00 PM (Free) SEIU 1021 Oakland -155 Myrtle Street, Oakland
Good Union Jobs Under Attack In The Black Community
This meeting was canceled.

July 14 (Saturday) 4:00 PM (Free) Events Sports Basement Store -1590 Bryant Street, S.F.
Labor, Mumia, Hoshino And The Lessons For Today
The growing repression of labor and political activists continues as the “war on terror” is used to silence political dissidents. Mumia Abu-Jamal, a journalist, and Fumiaki Hoshino, an anti-war activist, have been jailed for decades in a political frame-up because of their political views and opposition to militarization and repression.
This forum will look at both of these cases, the labor movement and the historical role of the International Labor Defense, which was a united front defense committee for working class prisoners in the US. The ILD was set up as a non-partisan body that would defend any member of the working class movement, without regard to personal political views. Any working class activist who came under the thumb of persecution by the capitalist legal system would be supported legally, morally, and financially. It lasted from 1925 to 1946.
Today as legislation is passed that allows the government to arrest even US citizens and to hold them indefinitely without charges and without any constitutional rights the need for a broad working class defense organization is growing.
Video of West Coast Strike To Free Mumia
Speakers include: Jack Heyman and Jerrold Sanders, Labor Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal; Representative from Hoshino Defense Committee and US Committee To Free Hoshino. Kevin Cooper from San Quentin prison will call into the meeting and report on his struggle. Mike Daly ( for David Gilbert ) Haiku for Mumia

July 14 (Saturday) 2:00 PM (Donation) Manilatown Center -868 Kearny St., SF (Please note that the time on the booklet was wrong)
Tribute to Filipino American Trade Unionists
Join us in saluting two outstanding trade union leaders, and native sons of working class San Francisco, Fred Basconcillo and Bill Sorro.
Fred Basconcillo, Ironworkers 790, fiercely met every challenge, using his intelligence, creative skills, sincerity and amazing effort to become President of Ironworkers Local 790, something unthinkable for any non-white building trades unionist in the United States at that time. Here in the Bay Area, Fred is directly responsible for the fair contracts between the Western Steel Council and Shop Ironworkers, which delivered world renown labor productivity and peace to California.
Bill Sorro, Ironworkers 378, became a founding member of Ironworkers for Union Democracy. Bill was a driving force in the determined effort to save the International Hotel, and to establish a permanent home for Manilatown.

July 15 (Sunday) 10:00 AM (Free) Berkeley Arts Festival Gallery - 2133 University Avenue, Berkeley
Saving The Art and Fighting Post Office Closings
With Gray Brechin; Dave Welsh, NALC; and Jose Carlos Riquelme, APWU.
Gray Brechin will provide the context of the closings within the push for privatization of the public sector and will describe how the New Deal not only built post offices, but also beautified them with public art. Representatives from the postal worker unions will describe efforts to protect services to the public and to resist the cutbacks to workers.

July 15 (Sunday) 1:00 PM (Free) Bird and Beckett Bookstore - 653 Chenery St
A Reading with LaborFest Writing Group Workshop
Members of the LaborFest Writing Group will read their work, followed by a writing exercise on the theme From Sit-down Strikes to the Occupy Movement - Inventing new ways to fight back.
LaborFest writers believe everyone has a story to tell. An afternoon of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and memoir. The sit-down strikes were new at the time. How do the past sit-down strikes inform and inspire us today? What are new ways to fight back for the 99%? Members of the group are Phyllis Holliday, Margaret Cooley, Keith Cooley, Susan Ford, Nellie Wong, Richard Tan, Jerry Path and Alice Rogoff.

July 15 (Sunday) 3:00 PM (Free) Green Arcade Bookstore -1680 Market Street at Gough, SF
Hillbillies, Hicks, Rednecks, Crackers, White Trash,
The Achilles Heel of a Unified Workers’ Movement and Culture in the US
This panel will explore the question nobody is asking: can “white trash” be revolutionary? Through personal stories and political projects, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Hilary Moore will discuss popular representation, hidden organizing legacies, combatting white supremacy, homophobia and sexism, and the poor white potential within the workers’ movement. James Tracy, author of “Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power: Community Organizing in Radical Times,” will comment and chair.
Hilary Moore was born and raised in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Currently living in Oakland, California, Hilary earns money as a nanny and works as a non-violent direct action trainer with The Ruckus Society. She is a founding member of the Mobilization for Climate Justice West. She also sits on the board and teaches with the Institute for Social Ecology. She recently co-authored “Organizing Cools the Planet: Tools and Reflections to Navigate the Climate Crisis,” out now on PM Press.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz grew up in rural Oklahoma, child of landless farmers. Veteran of the Sixties revolution, she has been involved in movements against the Vietnam War and imperialism, union organizing, and Women’s Liberation Movement. Among her published books is the memoir, “Red Dirt: Growing Up Okie.”

July 16 (Monday) 7:00 PM (Free) ILWU Local 34 -801 2nd St. next to the AT&T Ball Park, SF
Fukushima, Nuclear Power and Labor
The meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear reactors continues and the contamination of people in Fukushima, Japan and the world has not stopped. The Japanese government refuses to evacuate children, and the communities continue to be contaminated. The Japanese railway workers union, Doro-Mita this year, has launched a strike against further contamination of their members. At the same time there are two nuclear plants in Diablo Canyon and San Onofre that have serious health and safety problems while nuclear safety whistleblowers are being retaliated against.
What is going on at Fukushima, what is the meaning of this for US workers, including transportation workers and communities, and what can working people do about these conditions, will be some of the issues addressed at this forum.

Speakers:
•Shin’ichi Ishii, the President of Doro-Mito, a Japanese railroad workers union
•Chieko Shiina, an anti-nuke activist from Fukushima, Japan
•Ron Kaminkow, Secretary Railroad Workers United RWU (invited)
•Nuclear power plant whistleblower
Sponsored by Labor Video Project www.laborvideo.org
No Nukes Action Committee
http://nonukesaction.wordpress.com

July 17 (Tuesday) 7:00 PM (Free) ILWU Local 34 -801 2nd St. next to the AT&T Ball Park, SF
Journalists, Journalism, Labor and New Media
Thousands of professional journalists have faced layoffs throughout the United States. At the same time there are only a handful of labor journalists left at major daily papers in the United Sates.
Journalists are being pressured to work for free as bloggers and the campaign against Ariana Huffington and Huff Post was an example of a political campaign to highlight the plight of journalists in the new media.
At the same time, labor does not even have a labor radio or TV channel that could broadcast 24 hours a day from the picket line, and the life and death struggles that working people are facing.
This panel will also look at the attacks on journalists by corporate America, the censoring of labor stories and the transformation of the newspaper and news industry by the Internet. What does this mean for the future of professional journalists and the relationship of organized labor to the defense of journalists and journalism?
Speakers:
Bill Snyder, Vice Chair, Pacific Media Workers Guild Freelancers Unit,CWA 39521
Steve Early, Labor Journalist
Dick Meister, Labor journalist formerly with SF Chronicle & KQED Newsroom
Larry Goldbetter, President, National Writers Union/UAW Local 1981
Sponsored by Labor Video Project, CWA-TNG Local 39521/Pacific Media Workers
www. laborvideo.org
www.labortech.net

July 19 (Thursday) 7:00 PM (Donation) South Bay Labor Temple -2102 Almaden Road, Hall A, San Jose
South Bay Shipbuilders: How Wartime Production Changed the Bay Area’s Labor
Learn about the Sunnyvale firm, which produced the power trains for the major shipyards launching the Liberty and Victory class ships. Meet the Peninsula Shipyards, which fabricated both steel and concrete vessels at South San Francisco.
Find out about the large migrations to the Bay Area to meet the labor needs of these massive shipyards, which operated 24 hours. See the breakthroughs made during this period by African American and women workers, and how these breakthroughs were handled by the craft unions. Witness the relative labor peace that prevailed between AFL and CIO and the employers.
Most of all meet the workers themselves, whose productivity and skills generated incredible production. Then hear the challenges, which occurred when production ceased.
For info: 408-297-2299

July 21 (Saturday) 1:00 PM (Free) Richmond Main Public Library - 325 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond
The Richmond UC Synthetic Biology Laboratory, Labor Safety And The Environment
- A Speakout and Discussion
What are the potential dangers of the new proposed lab in Richmond? These will be one of the issues discussed at a meeting on the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) & U. C. Berkeley Synthetic Biology Institute (SBI) laboratory being brought to Richmond.
Speakers include:
*Richard Brenneman, Research Journalist
*Dr. Henry Clark, West Bay Toxic Coalition
*Dr. Larry Rose M.D. Retired Ca OSHA Senior Public Health Medical Officer M.P.H. Occupational Environmental Medicine Assistant Professor at UCSF
Dr. Joany Chou, Injured Workers National Network IWNN and California BioSafety Alliance (for information only)
*Jack Dwayne Thrasher, Ph.D., Toxicologist, Immunotoxicologist, Fetaltoxicologist
*A speaker From California Coalition For Workers Memorial Day
Hosted by California Coalition For Workers Memorial Day
Endorsed by United Public Workers For Action
www.workersmemorialday.org
www.upwa.info

July 21 (Saturday) 2:00 PM (Free) South Bay Labor Temple - 2102 Almaden Road, Hall A, San Jose
Organized Labor, Immigrants, and the Rights of All Workers
From the origins of May Day in the 1880s to the unprecedented immigrant rights marches of 2006, immigrants have been an integral part of organized labor, and their struggles have underlined the rights of all workers. Any attempt to separate “workers” from “immigrants” is patently ahistorical. This panel will explore the history of immigrant workers in labor organizing up to the present-day convergence of labor, immigrant rights, and social justice movements in the U.S.
Speakers:
David Bacon, Adriana Garcia, Fred Hirsch, Fritz Conle.
For info: 408-821-1394

July 23 (Monday) 7:00 PM (Donation) San José Peace and Justice Center - 48 South 7th St., San Jose
Migrant labor in the Arabian Gulf & the Struggle for Democracy
An illustrated talk by Sharat G. Lin
The system of labor contracts in Saudi Arabia and other GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries was established by multinational oil companies during the early period of oil exploration, and well before the oil boom of the 1970s. This draconian system of migrant labor control remains in force to this day and is unparalleled in its systematic denial of freedom, neocolonial hierarchy, racism, and official sanction by the state. A brief opening in the mid-1980s provided a documentary glimpse into the horrors of this system, and the thirst for democratic rights and freedoms.
Sharat G. Lin provides a first-hand account. He writes on global political economy, labor migration and the Middle East, and is a contributing author to the book Studies in Inequality and Social Justice. For more information: 408-297-2299

July 24 (Tuesday) 7:00 PM (Free) ILWU Local 10 Henry Schmidt Room - 400 Northpoint at Mason, SF
Hooks Down! How Longshore Workers in San Francisco Battled Apartheid in South Africa - A Panel Discussion
With Professor Peter Cole; Howard Keylor, ILWU Local 10 retiree and others.
From its founding in the 1930s until recent times, members of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) have seen their struggles as part of larger ones for social justice. Strategically positioned workers in marine transport occasionally have expressed solidarity and support for social movements in the Bay Area, the United States, and even other nations by stopping work. As early as 1962, members of the SF Bay Area branch of the ILWU, Local 10, have been at the forefront of anti-apartheid activism locally and nationally, by refusing to unload cargo from South Africa. Through the 1970s and early 1980s, activists in Local 10 continued to use their power on behalf of the global struggle against apartheid and imperialism across southern Africa. In 1984, days after Ronald Reagan’s re-election, rank-and-file activists in Local 10 pulled off the longest “strike” of its kind by refusing to unload South Africa cargo for ten days. In 1990, when Nelson Mandela visited the Bay area, he expressly thanked the ILWU for its commitment to the cause of freedom. While activists in the ILWU continue to take such principled stands on occasion, so do militant dock workers in Durban, South Africa use their labor power on behalf of fellow workers. This impressive, if largely unknown, tradition of longshore activism and commitment to social justice continues.
Sponsored by ILWU Local 10 Education Committee, Shaping SF and LaborFest.

July 24 (Tuesday) 7:00 PM (Free) Berkeley City College Auditorium - 2050 Center St.., Berkeley
The Struggle for Free Speech at the City College of New York 1931-42
By Carol Smith
This slide/lecture of press and police surveillance photographs, political cartoons, graphics, and flyers highlights student and faculty activism at CCNY spawned by the Great Depression and the rise of fascism in Europe. Students played a major role in creating a national student movement against militarism and fascism and for free speech on campus. Faculty organized into a powerful union, and won major victories for its members. This activism brought repeated crackdowns by the CCNY college administration.
In 1940 New York State established the Rapp-Coudert Committee to investigate “subversion” in New York City’s public schools and colleges, This investigation resulted in the dismissal of 50 CCNY faculty and staff, the largest academic purge in US history. The techniques of interrogation developed by this committee become the model for the anti-communist investigations of the 1950s.
This presentation is based on a travelling exhibit, The Struggle for Free Speech at CCNY, 1931-42,” and can be viewed online at www.vny.cuny.edu
Co-sponsored by the Berkeley City College Social Science department, Professional Staff Congress (Faculty and Staff Union of the City University of New York)

July 25 (Wednesday) 7:00 PM (Free) Farley's - 1315 18th St., bet. Texas & Missouri, SF
Labor Stories for 2012
By LaborFest writing group
Sparking an evening of storytelling, memoir, solo performance, poetry, song and music, LaborFest writers perform and invite folks to participate. Come listen and share workingclass labor stories from the past to the present day from 1930s sit-down strikes, auto plant and union organizing to the greed of banks and corporations imposing foreclosures on our homes to the rise of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Open mike follows. LaborFest Writers are Margaret Cooley, Jerry Path, Phyllis Holliday, Nellie Wong, Susan Ford, Keith Cooley, Richard Tan and Alice Rogoff.

July 25 (Wednesday) 7:00 PM (Free) IFPTE Local 20 - 835 Howard St., 2nd floor, bet. 4th & 5th, SF
Kaiser’s Labor Management Partnership – Success or Disaster?
Fresh from recent national negotiations between Kaiser and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente unions, a panel consisting of Local 20‘s Kaiser Rep, Michael Aidan; John Spallone, an active Local 20 “Unit Based Team” member from Kaiser Optometry; and thirdly a Coalition staff member will review history and accomplishments of the Partnership, acknowledging past leader Ben Hudnall.   Is the Partnership as an innovative way to achieve labor peace still able to function outside Labor’s more traditional conflict model ?   Can it achieve some major challenges to lower health care costs and improve the health of Kaisers workforce and the community, grow the unions and Kaiser and not cut employee benefits? (www.LMPartnership.org) Is the partnership approach relevant to other employers?Join a lively discussion while enjoying healthy snacks..

July 26 (Thursday) 7:00 PM (Free) Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists - 1924 Cedar, Barkeley
The Berkeley You Don’t Know!
Three local Berkeley historians will discuss some of the lesser known aspects of the compelling struggles for a more democratic power structure in Berkeley and the East Bay as well as their populist & socialist traditions. Carole Kennerly (MSW/LCSW) was the first Black woman elected to the Berkeley City Council and a former Vice Mayor of Berkeley. She is also the retired Director of the Coop Federal Credit Union. Richard Schwartz is a Berkeley author and researcher resulting in fascinating books on Berkeley “eccentrics and cutthroats” as well as the environmental history. Richard Brenemann was a journalist for the Sacramento Bee for years and then covered Berkeley for the Daily Planet. Don’t miss these lively and insightful stories that built our past and can contribute to the activism of the 99% for the future generations.
Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Hall: 510-841-4824

July 27 (Friday) 6:00 PM (Donation) Marine Firemen's Hall - 240 2nd St. near Howard St., SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
We Are The 99 % (26 min.) Australian
By Shabnam Hameed
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(Between the films, there going to be a panel discussion on labor film festivals around the world)
Panel On
Labor Film Festival Around The World, Where They Are And Where They Are Going
Labor Film Festivals and LaborFests are popping up throughout the country and the world. This panel will include activists and organizers of these film festivals who will discuss what they have learned and what is happening on the ground floor.
Speakers:
•Geraldine Hecker-Popov, San Pedro Labor Fest
•Chris Garlock, Washington DC Labor Film Festival
•Mehmet Bayran, LaborFest Turkey
•Representative from LaborFest San Francisco
•Jon Garlock, Rochester Labor Film Series
•Representative from ReelWorks
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Kani-Kou-Sen (The Crab Factory Ship) 110 min. (1953) Japan
By Director-Writer Sou Yamamura, based on the novel by Takiji Kobayashi
(Click here to see the film schedule for more information)

July 28 (Saturday) 2:00 PM (Free) Meet at Shoreline Heritage Presere Visitors Center - Mare Islnd
Mare Island Naval Shipyard: The Stories of Working People
Join us for the afternoon program recalling some of the stories of the people who lived and worked at Mare Island, and made this place such a vibrant part of California’s labor heritage. Hear the story of the courageous Naval detachment who saved downtown San Francisco in the Great Fire of 1906. Listen to our narratives of the women welders and African American ship fitters who achieved incredible productivity during the war years. Study with us the way unions interacted with the US Maritime Commission. Help us learn how best to support those working families dealing with exposures to toxic materials during those periods of high productivity. Hear updates on the Port Chicago incident, and how that became a legal precedent. Understand with us the magnitude of impacts from the Base Closure Act on communities like Vallejo. Brainstorm with us as to the best possible use of this amazing place. But most of all, help us to salute those workers whose skills, creativity and effort made the Bay Area the unprecedented and unquestioned standard for shipbuilding.

July 28 (Saturday) 3:00 PM (Free) 518 Valencia - near 16th St., SF
Why Workers Need Medicare For All
A panel discussion on protecting and expanding Medicare to all working people. Panelists include Dr. Henry Abrons, president of the Physicians for a National Healthcare Program – California and Dr. Jayshree Chander, medical doctor at a community center.
Sponsored by Single Payer Now
For more information, call 415-695-7891 or email: dbechler@value.net
www.singlepayernow.net

July 29 (Sunday) 10:00 AM (Free) 518 Valencia - near 16th St., SF
Who is Behind Privatization of Public Education?
Education, Privatization, Bill Gates, Broad, KIPP, Pearson And The Gulen Schools
A massive national and international organized plan to privatize education has been implemented over several decades. Billionaires, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation and the Pearson corporation among others, have infiltrated hundreds of governmental bodies including school boards, city councils and our local, state and regional governments. They seek to turn our education system into a profit center worth tens of billions of dollars. This also includes the Gulen Islamic cult led by Imam Fethullah Gulen, which runs the largest chain of charters in the United States funded by public money. We will also look at the criminal conflicts that have allowed politicians to personally benefit from using their public positions to profit from their votes and actions. This forum will look at how this has come about, who did it, how it is affecting us and who is profiting from it at the cost of public education and finally how to stop this attack on our public education system.
Speakers:
Madeline Mueller, Professor SF City College, AFT2121
Susan Miesenhouse, CFA CSU Longbeach
Kathleen Carroll, Lawyer and Whistleblower At Commission On Teacher Credentialing
Bruce Neuberger, AFT 4681 San Mateo Adult School
Sharon Higgins, Researcher and Blogger On Charters, Parents Across America
Sponsored By United Public Workers For Action
www.upwa.info

July 29 (Sunday) 2:00 PM (Free) Call 415-939-5148 for location and leave a phone number
Labor Story Reading
A Reading of a fictional story, “The Interview,” written by Alice Rogoff with audience participants. The story chronicles the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition’s struggle to win the San Francisco Living Wage Ordinance, raising the wages of workers on city contracts. Three women organizers from three generations confront city hall, street petitioning, labor neighbor, and almost everyone in the San Francisco labor movement. “The Interview” refers to the young and middle-aged women’s attempts to interview a mysterious woman organizer from the nineteen-thirties.
Read or listen. Refreshments and a get together after the reading. Call 415-939-5148 for location. Please leave a phone number.

July 29 (Sunday) 7:00 PM (Donation Requested $5 -$10) Unitarian Church - 1187 Franklin St./Geary St.
Lessons From The EGT ILWU Longview Battle, ILWU Boron Rio Tinto and The 2012 ILWU Convention
An ongoing union busting drive is being waged against the ILWU from the ILWU Local 30 Boron-Rio Tinto strike and the ILWU Local 21 Longview EGT strike. Now the upcoming Northwest grain contract is about to expire with the companies wanting the EGT contract.
What are the lessons of these struggles and the results of the recent ILWU convention?
With:
Mike Fuqua, ILWU Local 21 Longview*
Clarence Thomas, ILWU Local 10*
Howard Keylor, ILWU Local 10 Retired
Jack Mulcahy, ILWU Local 8 Portland* -invited
Jack Heyman, ILWU retired
Sponsored by Transport Workers Solidarity Committee TWSC
www.transportworkers.org

July 30 (Monday) 6:00 PM (Free) The Green Arcade Bookstore - 1680 Market St. at Gough St., SF
The Present Is The Past: Occupying The Commons
By David Duckworth
Author, instructor and lecturer David Duckworth explores significant moments in American history when political redress employed the occupation of visible space. Marches of the unemployed, such as the Industrial Armies marching on Washington in 1894, and labor-oriented demands, such as the Ludlow, Colorado miners’ strike of 1914 and Bonus March of 1932, show us that the Occupy Movement of today draws from a long tradition of political protest. Duckworth’s writings on this theme can be found at dpduckworth.wordpress.com. His writings appear in Film and History and The International Review of African American Art. For recommended reading on July 30th, visit http://thegreenarcade.com.