Robert Gottlieb’s Reinventing Los Angeles has won the “Californiana” category of the California Book Awards given by the Commonwealth Club. The Commonwealth Club,
based in San Francisco, calls itself “the nation’s oldest and largest
public affairs forum”. The book awards were established in 1931 and are
credited with having “discovered” John Steinbeck and other now-famous
authors. More information can be found here: http://www.commonwealthclub.org/features/caBookAwards/about.php
Occidental makes sustainable chic as the first college in the nation to offer professional wet cleaning service to the campus community.
What: Professors and students model clothing that has been professionally wet cleaned by Sunny Brite Natural Cleaners. The fashion show will also highlight garments by green designer Stewart+Brown. Where: Outside Herrick in the Academic Quad When: February 12th, 2008 11:30am-1:30pm
There's more excitement about this year's presidential election than we've seen in decades. The California primary tomorrow will play a big role in which candidate gets nominated. On the Democratic side, the Los Angeles Times said today that the contest between Clinton and Obama is too close to call, according to the latest poll. Political observers are expecting a very high turnout -- similar to what we've seen in other primary states. Turnout is particularly high among first-time votes and young people.
In California, Hillary Clinton's lead over Barack Obama is narrowing. The Los Angeles Times today even says the primary is now dead even. The same is true in other states where Clinton was leading, but where now the race is very close. Although some of Obama's momentum no doubt comes from voters watching the debates and from high-profile endorsements (like Ted Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, Oprah Winfrey, and, yesterday, Maria Shriver), it is also due, in large measure, to Obama's grassroots campaign, which has recruited organizers from community groups, enviro groups, unions, and other activist organizations. They, in turn, have enlisted tens of thousands of volunteers and trained them in the skills of community organizing. Kelly Candaele and I examine this phenomenon in our article, "The Year of the Organizer," in The American Prospect.
Watch this video and send it to anyone who has ever asked, "why do we need unions?"
The AFL-CIO and/or Change to Win should make a US version of this. It would help lay the groundwork for getting the Employee Free Choice Act passed after a Democrat wins the White House, and the Democratic majority grows in Congress, in November.
[One word in the video may require some explanation: "Superannuation" is a pension scheme in Australia. It has a compulsory element whereby employers are required by law to pay a proportion of an employee's salaries and wages (currently nine percent) into a superannuation fund, which can be accessed when the employee retires].
On his TV show Friday night, Bill Moyers included a brief (7 minute)
segment on the relationship of President Johnson and Martin Luther King
(and more broadly, the civil rights movement) that was eloquent,
inspiring, and mesmerizing. It is available on YouTube and I encourage
you to view it and spread the word to others. It really cuts through a lot of the recent tempest about the respective
roles of, and credit due to, MLK and LBJ around civil rights
legislation, honors the memory of Dr. King, puts LBJ's efforts in
proper perspective, and addresses the broader theme of the importance
of having both "outside agitators" and inside deal-makers to win
progressive legislation.
Grassroots organizing is the lifeblood of progressive politics. In the 1960s, many radicals looked at politics as working either "inside" or "outside" the "system." But the reality is more complicated than this either/or perspective. The recent tempest between the Obama and Clinton campaigns about whether Martin Luther King or President Lyndon Johnson deserved the most recent for the enactment of civil rights legislation provides an opportunity to examine the way things really work -- which is that all progressive reform requires both grassroots activists organizing from "outside" as well as liberal and progressive elected officials and lobbyists working from "inside" to push and then broker compromises to get things passed. This is the point of my article with Kelly Candaele in yesterday's HuffingtonPost.
Just a week before Christmas, President Bush gave corporate America two big presents. On Tuesday, his Federal Communications Commission changed the rules to allow the nation's giant conglomerates to further consolidate their grip on the media by permitting them to purchase TV and radio stations in the same local markets where they already own daily newspapers. The following day, as a gift to the country's automobile industry, Bush's Environmental Protection Agency ruled, over the objections of the agency's staff, that California, the nation's largest and most polluted state, and 16 other states, can't impose regulations to limit greenhouse gases from cars and trucks that are stronger than the federal government's own weak standards. So far, no major politicians or editorial writers have labeled Bush's actions "class warfare," although this is precisely what he is engaged in. My piece in today's Huffington Post asks why is it that, to the mainstream media, "top-down" class warfare seems to be OK, but "bottom-up" class warfare -- waged by the burgeoning progressive movement of unions, community organizing groups, environmental activists, immigrant rights organizations, and others -- seems to be a no-no? If you don't want to read another litany of Bush's crimes and misdeeds, don't fret; my article has a happy ending.
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