UEPI News and Commentary

Banned in Red Scare Boston - The Forgotten Story of Charlie and the MTA

Friends and Colleagues,

I've written hundreds of articles in my life, but I've never had as much fun as I did researching and writing (with my coauthor Jim Vrabel) this article about the history and politics of the "MTA" song  (made famous by the Kingston Trio in 1959) about "a man named Charlie" who was stuck on the subway and forced to "ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston." The article, Banned in Red Scare Boston:  The Forgotten Story of Charlie and the  "MTA,"  was just published in the Spring 2008 issue of Dissent magazine.  You can read the article on my website.  The Spring issue, and our article, should be up on the Dissent website in a few weeks. If you're interested in political history,  folk music,  popular culture, the Cold War, the link between politics and culture, or just want to learn about these interesting people and events, I hope you'll take the time to read the article.

Labor's Self-Inflicted Wounds

Friends and Colleagues:

Just as we are on the precipice of a resurgence of progressive politics in this country, and the election of liberal Democrat as president and a more liberal Congress,  the backbone of that movement -- organized labor -- is engaged in a self-destructive internal battle. This could not only undermine efforts to revive the labor movement, but also hurt chances of a regime change in Washington. And even if Democrats take back the White House and expand their power in Congress,  a strong labor movement will be needed to mobilize the grassroots political clout to pass health care reform, end the war in Iraq, address global warming, reduce poverty, and, ironically, pass labor law reform. Kelly Candaele and I wrote this piece for the Huffington Post about labor's recent successes (including the exciting 3-day, 28-mile "March from Hollywood to the Docks" in LA this week) as well as the threat of self-inflicted wounds among unions fighting with each other. Here's the piece.  We'd appreciate your comments.

Reinventing Los Angeles wins a California Book Award

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

The award will be presented on June 5th.

Rev. Martin Luther King: Anti-War, Pro Union

Most Americans today know that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed 40 years ago -- on April 4, 1968 --  in Memphis, Tennessee, but they may not know why he was there. He went to Memphis to support African American garbage workers, who were on strike to protest unsafe conditions, abusive white supervisors, and low wages -- and to gain recognition for their union. The previous year he made a bold and prophetic speech at the Riverside Church in New York against the war in Vietnam, linking the struggle for social justice with the struggle against militarism.   In his last book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, King wrote: "The bombs in Vietnam explode at home; they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America."

What can we learn from HUD Secretary Jackson's resignation?

This week, another top Bush administration official -- HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson -- resigned in disgrace under a cloud of corruption.  What can we learn from this?

Lessons #1: Corruption is only part of the problem.  Many newspapers have reported Jackson's alleged misdeeds, such as steering HUD contracts to personal friends and to political allies of the Bush administration. (NY Times ; Washington Post ; LA Times).  In fact, the New York Times called for Jackson's resignation two years ago:

A few papers noted that a similar HUD scandal took place under President Reagan, who, like Bush, allowed HUD to be used as a feeding trough for politically-connected developers,  while slashing housing assistance for the poor.

Lesson #2: As I point out in an article in today's Huffington Post, Jackson was unusual not only in his hubris, but also that his tenure at HUD reflected all three of the major failings of the Bush administration: corruption, yes; but also indifference (toward the poor and working people), and incompetence among top officials.   

Lesson #3: None of these failings are inevitable.  (Compare, for example, how FEMA bungled helping victims of Katrina vs. FEMA's success (in the 1990s) helping victims of the Northridge earthquake). These failings are, instead, symptoms of the Bush administration's disdain for government as a vehicle for improving society and, in particular, the lives of working families and the poor.

Lesson #4: We can do better.

Peter