>From: Dan Clawson (clawson@sadri.umass.edu)
>To: anyone interested in labor
>Re: signing a statement, joining a group
>
>
> The revival of the American labor movement, and its openness to a
>variety of initiatives that would have been inconceivable a few years ago,
>is the most promising political initiative of recent years. A new group
>is forming to build links between academics and the labor movement. John
>Sweeney, Linda Chavez Thompson, and the New Voice leadership have
>explicitly encouraged this development. They hope that we can work to
>alter the debates taking place in public policy and on the cultural front,
>in our teaching and in every public forum, just as they are working to
>change realities in trade unions. Together we can be part of a broader
>labor movement that includes both these areas and much more.
>
> I realize it is ludicrously short notice, but an ad and press
>conference are planned announcing the formation of this group. In order
>to get your name on the ad, you need to send your name and affiliation to
>
>tnr1@columbia.edu (that's a #1, not a letter L)
>
>by Tuesday August 26. If you don't make that date, you can still join the
>group; see the address in the enclosed memo.
>
> If you'd prefer, you could send your name and affiliation to me, Dan
>Clawson, (clawson@sadri.umass.edu) and I will pass it on.
>
> Together we can build a movement for social change. You can begin by
>passing this message on to everyone you can think of who would want to
>sign.
>
>
>
>Labor Day, 1997
>
>For two decades, Labor Day has been an occasion for eulogies and epitaphs,
>as the labor movement suffered deindustrialization, downsizing and defeat.
>But Labor Day 1997 arrives with a new militance and a new hope. The
>victory of the Teamsters in the two-week UPS strike -- the largest strike
>in a generation -- was a victory for all working people, whose incomes and
>livelihoods have stagnated for nearly a quarter of a century. The UPS
>strike was also a turning point for the labor movement, and could
>determine its strength and direction for years to come.
>
>Though the right to organize has eroded in a world of contingent work --
>part-time, temporary, outsourced, and subcontracted -- organizing
>campaigns across the continent are now rebuilding the labor movement in
>old and new workplaces: from Borders bookstores to Las Vegas casinos, from
>the strawberry fields of Watsonville to the classrooms of Berkeley and
>Yale, from Federal Express to Nike sweatshops.
>
>We take this moment of struggle to announce the formation of a new
>independent, national organization: "Scholars, Artists, and Writers for
>Social Justice." In the academy and publishing, in the arts, sciences and
>entertainment, we also experience the growth of low-wage, part-time
>employment which erodes our craft and creativity. We call upon our
>colleagues and friends this Labor Day to declare their solidarity with the
>organizing drives of the new labor movement. The time is ripe to restore
>the mutually empowering relationship that once gave hope and dynamism to
>the labor movement and its allies in the academic and cultural
>communities.
>
>We envision a movement that can reshape the nation's political culture by
>combating inequality and powerlessness, and by fostering the growth of a
>vibrant, militant, multicultural working-class movement. In an era
>when elite opinion makes a fetish of the free market, unions -- with a
>commitment to solidarity, equality, and collective struggle -- remain
>fundamental institutions of a democratic society. Our confidence in
>launching SAWSJ comes from the success of the "labor teach-in" movement,
>inaugurated last fall when more than 2,000 people affirmed a new alliance
>of labor and academe at Columbia University. In more than a score of other
>teach-ins from coast to coast, students, teachers, writers, artists, and
>unionists met, talked, learned, and argued in an atmosphere of hope and
>solidarity. SAWSJ hopes to fulfill the promise of those teach-ins.
>
>> Add your name to this public statement which will be
>> released on September 1. You may do so by e-mailing Thaddeus
>> Russell at tnr1@columbia.edu. Please note that the address
>> contains the numeral one after "tnr." Please include your
> affiliation.
>>
>> At the same time you may also join Scholars, Artists,
>> and Writers for Social Justice, which is planning a
>> series of teach-ins and other events over the next several months.
>> Please send a contribution to Ellen Schrecker, 771 West End
>> Avenue #7D, New York, New York, 10025.
>>
>> Alewitz, Mike
>> Aronowitz, Stanley
>> Aronson, Ronald
>> Azcarate, Fred
>> Ballinger, Lee
>> Benjamin, Ernst
>> Bennett, Marty
>> Bernard, Elaine
>> Bonilla, Frank
>> Buhle, Paul
>> Carter, Prudence
>> Chancer, Lynn
>> Clawson, Dan
>> Cutler, Jonathan
>> Delgado, Hector
>> Denning, Michael
>> DiFazio, Bill
>> Domingo, Ligaya
>> Dubro, Alec
>> Fennell, Dorothy
>> Fletcher, Bill
>> Fraser, Steven
>> Freeman, Joshua B.
>> Gerstle, Gary
>> Gray, Lois
>> Green, Adam
>> Green, Venus
>> Hall, Jacquelyn
>> Horne, Gerald
>> Huck, Gary
>> Kaye, Harvey
>> Kazin, Michael
>> Kelley, Robin D.G.
>> Kornbluh, Felicia
>> Krupat, Kitty
>> Levi, Margaret
>> Lichtenstein, Nelson N.
>> Lie, John
>> Marquez, Dennis Bixler
>> Mendel-Reyes, Meta
>> Montgomery, David
>> Murolo, Priscilla
>> Nathan, Debbie
>> Newman, Kathy
>> Ngai, Mae
>> Piven, Frances Fox
>> Porter, Allison
>> Potter, Sarah
>> Pranis, Kevin
>> Prisock, Louis
>> Ripton, Jessica
>> Robinson, Dean
>> Rosen, Sumner M
>> Royster, Dee
>> Russell, Thad
>> Ryan, Sarah
>> Schrecker, Ellen W.
>> Semann, Ingrid
>> Simmons, Esmeralda
>> Singh, Nikhil
>> Skotnes, Andor
>> Slaughter, Jane
>> Stephens, Michelle
>> Sugrue, Tom
>> Uehlein, Joe
>> Venkatesh, Sudhir
>> Watts, Jerry
>> Willis, Ellen
>> Woodard, Komozi
>> Young, Cynthia
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
>Dan Clawson
> work = 413-545-5974 home 413-586-6235
>Contemp. Sociology = 413-545-4064 fax 413-545-1994
>email = clawson@sadri.umass.edu consoc@sadri.umass.edu
>
>