Los Angeles Schools turned from public to charters

By Duane Campbell At their Aug.25, 2009  School Board meeting, the Los Angeles City School Board voted to turn as many as 250 schools over to Charters.  Teacher Union members and staff are not guaranteed their jobs.  In response to continuing failures in public schooling in Los Angeles the School Board, along with Mayor Antonio [...]

Protesting Whole Foods: What About a Boycott?

by David Knuttunen Boston DSA members helped round out a group of about 25-30 protestors outside a Cambridge Whole Foods store, on Friday Aug 21.  We were protesting Whole Foods CEO John Markey’s Wall St. Journal op-ed which attacked “Obamacare” and offered, instead, Libertarian “alternatives” to real health care reform. The rally was called by [...]

CWA Calls for Labor Unity, Governance Reform at AFL-CIO Convention

CWA CWA will press for constitutional amendments that call for better use of financial resources by the AFL-CIO and changes to improve governance. The constitutional amendments plus a resolution on Labor Unity have been submitted for consideration by AFL-CIO delegates next month. Rich Trumka, AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer, and certain to be the next AFL-CIO president, spoke [...]

Closer Ties between Change to Win and ACFTU

Anna Burger, president of Change to Win (CTW), and Wang Zhaoguo, president of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), shake hands after signing a memorandum to facilitate exchanges and cooperation beween the two federations. This type of agreement could be useful. The protocol reportedly includes a clause encouraging cooperation within the framework of common [...]

Schools: Race to the Top demands too much for too little

By Marty Hittelman President California Federation of Teachers The California Federation of Teachers has a number of serious concerns regarding Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s proposed “Race to the Top” competition for state education funding. The proposed regulations for federal funding would require changes that could harm California students, are not based on research, and [...]

This Friday: Tell the “Whole” Truth About Whole Foods & Health Care Reform!

Friday’s actions at Whole Foods have been postponed until Labor Day in honor of Sen. Kennedy. Massachusetts Jobs with Justice and Boston DSA will join their labor and community allies from across the state in a Labor Day march and rally to show support for real health care reform. The message from the people of [...]

NAFTA Has Failed

The governments of the United States, Canada and Mexico must take serious and comprehensive measures to address the dual impact of the global economic recession and the 15-year legacy of the North American Free Trade Agreement ([1] NAFTA), labor leaders of the three countries said in a joint declaration. The “Tri-National Labor Declaration on Social and [...]

California AFT Challenges Obama admin. testing

Image by Getty Images via Daylife by Duane Campbell There were hearings on August 26, 2009  in the California legislature to consider changing state laws to comply with the mandates of the Obama Administration rules on funding school reform–the Race to the Top initiative. The Senators asked excellent questions.  They probed some of the important [...]

Summer reading suggestions

by Michael Hirsch Tired of scanning bodice-ripping romance novels or predictable police procedurals over the summer break?  Below are seven titles — dealing with education, economics and labor — that are beach-readable and worth reading, too. Love him or lose him, Herb Kohl (the education writer, not the Wisconsin senator and Milwaukee Bucks owner) is [...]

Steelworkers and British Union Counter Lies About British Healthcare

Unions for Single Payer Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: The United Steelworkers and the British union UNITE have set up a website to counter the lies being spread about the healthcare system in the United Kingdom and the National Health Service (NHS) which provides it. Rabid right wingers and Republican office holders continue to spread outright lies about [...]