Sunday, November 24, 2013

Wyndham Mortimer was labor's voice against fascism and war; for democracy and peace.

"...If our enormous productivity is diverted to a peace time economy, and trade re-opened with all the world, it would certainly result in a 'swift expansion of the material well being' for all the world.

"The threat of widespread unemployment would vanish, and we could look forward to generations of peace.

"The continuation of the present insane war economy can result only in more taxes, more misery; more of our sons wasting their precious lives; abysmal poverty for generations to come, a lower standard of living, a complete loss of all the liberties we praise so highly..."

Wyndham Mortimer writing in 1953 to members of the United Auto Workers union.

Mortimer had been the UAW Vice-President in charge of the Flint Sit-Down Strike and he signed the first contract with General Motors on behalf of the UAW.

Mortimer was expelled from the UAW in 1938 for being a "Red;" but a few months later militant rank-and-file members won his re-instatement in the union.

Mortimer joined the Socialist Party of Eugene Debs in 1908; in 1932 he joined the Communist Party and remained a member until his death in 1966.


HOW CLASS WORKS - 2014

PLEASE POST AND FORWARD WIDELY - DEADLINE DECEMBER 11, 2013

PLEASE SEND ALL QUERIES AND PROPOSALS DIRECTLY TO <michael.zweig@stonybrook.edu> 

DO NOT REPLY DIRECTLY TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT

          HOW CLASS WORKS - 2014
CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS
A Conference at SUNY Stony Brook
June 5-7, 2014

The Center for Study of Working Class Life is pleased to announce the How Class Works 2014 Conference, to be held at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, June 5-7, 2014.  Proposals for papers, presentations, and sessions are welcome until December 11, 2013 according to the guidelines below.  For more information, visit our Web site at <www.stonybrook.edu/workingclass>.
Purpose and orientation: The conference seeks to explore ways in which an explicit recognition of class helps to understand the social world in which we live, and ways in which analysis of society can deepen our understanding of class as a social relationship. Presentations should take as their point of reference the lived experience of class; proposed theoretical contributions should be rooted in and illuminate social realities. Presentations are welcome from people outside academic life when they sum up social experience in a way that contributes to the themes of the conference.  Formal papers will be welcome but are not required. All presentations should be accessible to an interdisciplinary audience.
Conference themes: The conference welcomes proposals for presentations that advance our understanding of any of the following themes.

The mosaic of class, race, and gender. To explore how class shapes racial, gender, and ethnic experience and how different racial, gender, and ethnic experiences within various classes shape the meaning of class. 
Class dimensions of poverty. To explore why and how poverty is something that happens to the working class, not some marginal "other" at the bottom of society..  

Class, power, and social structure. To explore the social content of working, middle, and capitalist classes in terms of various aspects of power; to explore ways in which class and structures of power interact, at the workplace and in the broader society.

Class and community. To explore ways in which class operates outside the workplace in the communities where people of various classes live.

Class in a global economy. To explore how class identity and class dynamics are influenced by globalization, including experience of cross-border organizing, capitalist class dynamics, international labor standards.
Middle class? Working class? What's the difference and why does it matter? To explore the claim that the U.S. is a middle class society and contrast it with the notion that the working class is the majority; to explore the relationships between the middle class and the working class, and between the middle class and the capitalist class.
                                         

Class, public policy, and electoral politics. To explore how class affects public policy, with special attention to health care, the criminal justice system, labor law, poverty, tax and other economic policy, housing, and education; to explore the place of electoral politics in the arrangement of class forces on policy matters.

Class and culture: To explore ways in which culture transmits and transforms class dynamics.
Pedagogy of class. To explore techniques and materials useful for teaching about class, at K-12 levels, in college and university courses, and in labor studies and adult education courses.

How to submit proposals for How Class Works – 2014 Conference

Proposals for presentations must include the following information: a) title; b) which of the eight conference themes will be addressed; c) a maximum 250 word summary of the main points, methodology, and slice of experience that will be summed up; d) relevant personal information indicating institutional affiliation (if any) and what training or experience the presenter brings to the proposal; e) presenter's name, address, telephone, fax, and e-mail address. A person may present in at most two conference sessions. To allow time for discussion, sessions will be limited to three twenty-minute or four fifteen-minute principal presentations. Sessions will not include official discussants.  Proposals for poster sessions are welcome.  Presentations may be assigned to a poster session.

Proposals for sessions are welcome. A single session proposal must include proposal information for all presentations expected to be part of it, as detailed above, with some indication of willingness to participate from each proposed session member.

Submit proposals as an e-mail attachment to 
michael.zweig@stonybrook.edu or as hard copy by mail to the How Class Works  - 2014 Conference, Center for Study of Working Class Life, Department of Economics, SUNY, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4384.

Timetable:  Proposals must be received by December 11, 2013. After review by the program committee, notifications will be mailed on January 17, 2014. The conference will be at SUNY Stony Brook June 5-7, 2014.  Conference registration and housing reservations will be possible after March 3, 2014. Details and updates will be posted at http://www.stonybrook.edu/workingclass.

Conference coordinator:
Michael Zweig
Director, Center for Study of Working Class Life
Department of Economics
State University of New York 
Stony Brook, NY 11794-4384
631.632.7536    
michael.zweig@stonybrook.edu                 
##

The FBI makes an "error."

The Guardian published a list in spreadsheet form of the 2013 Mass Surveillance revelations. 

Among the revelations is this little gem:

"FBI monitored anti-war website in error for six years, documents show (November 6)"

An "error;" ya, sure; you betcha.

And no one gets canned.