X-Originating-IP: [130.207.177.31] From: "Stewart Roberts" To: labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu Subject: SAWSJ (fwd) Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1998 00:10:56 EDT ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1998 14:19:13 -0400 From: SAWSJ To: SAWSJ Subject: Getting back in touch TO: SAWSJ members FROM: Coordinating Committee RE: Getting back in touch April's teach-in and annual meeting were a clear success. In the coming year we need to create an organizational base and get known for some major projects. Since the conference we've collected 800 signatures supporting the GM strikers; those will soon run as an ad in the Nation, but there's been very little other communication with members. Now, however, SAWSJ has a solid base and the opportunity to grow. This message provides information about our leadership and office, asks for volunteers (and gives you a chance to become a temporary member of the Steering Committee), and describes a dozen projects to work on. ***************************************************************** READY TO ROLL SAWSJ's new base includes, for the first time, by-laws and an elected Coordinating Committee along with a permanent location at the Labor Relations and Research Center of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, which is providing us a computer, a phone line, use of xerox and fax machines, and an address. We've also hired a staff person, Amy Armenia. Here is the new permanent information for SAWSJ: email: sawsj@lrrc.umass.edu (for staff, coordinating committee, activities) sawsj@sage.edu (if you have a notice to post to our email list) Website: www.sage.edu/html/SAWSJ phone: 413-545-3541 fax: 413-545-0110 address: SAWSJ, c/o Labor Relations and Research Center, University of Massachusetts, 125 Draper Hall, Box 32020, Amherst MA 01003 We will soon have a listserv for members only, so we can communicate with each other. Information about that will be sent separately when the list is established, we hope within the next month. Here are the email addresses for the Coordinating Committee: Dan Clawson clawson@sadri.umass.edu Michael Denning michael.denning@yale.edu Dorothy Fennell def7@cornell.edu Steve Fraser fraser927@aol.com Adam Green a-green@nwu.edu Margaret Levi mlevi@u.washington.edu Jenny Stevens jennystevens@yahoo.com Jamal Watson jamalwats@aol.com ***************************************************************** VOLUNTEERS NEEDED Summer months tend to be a slack period, but we are trying to put things in place so that we can hit the ground running in the fall. If you are part of an ongoing reading/study group or activist group of scholars, artists, or writers in your area, consider affiliating with SAWSJ, and have one of your members serve as liason to other SAWSJ members and activities. To make things happen, people need to volunteer to work on, or better yet to help coordinate and lead, one or more of these activities. Don't be bashful. VOLUNTEER. This is an invitation to become a temporary member of the Steering Committee. Temporary members hold office for six months, and during that time try to get a chapter or project up and running; when that happens, they or someone else the group chooses become a permanent member. The Steering Committee consists of representatives of activist networks, working committees, and local chapters. ***************************************************************** PROJECTS IN SEARCH OF OUR ENERGY The following dozen projects were proposed in workshops and discussions at the annual meeting. What SAWSJ actually does, and the kind of organization it becomes, depends on which projects attract people with energy who make things happen. In many cases, of course, other groups are working on similar projects, and we want to coordinate with them. If half these campaigns succeed, SAWSJ and the left will have a great year and contribute to reshaping political reality. 1. TEACH-IN -- It's our signature event. Each is different, and we have a long way to go before we've reached everyone who needs to hear the message. These could be general, or focus on a specific theme. 2. BIG CHILL -- Beverly Enterprises has sued Kate Bronfenbrenner, one of the leading pro-labor researchers in the country, for her statement that Beverly is "one of the most notorious labor law violators" in the country. Beverly is demanding a half million dollars in damages, and access to all of Bronfenbrenner's research materials, including confidential interviews with union organizers who talked to her about what worked and what didn't, what they saw as the keys to their success or failure in each campaign. In effect, Beverly Enterprises is trying to do to academics what employers have long done to workers trying to organize -- harass and intimidate them, raise the costs to such a level that they abandon support for the union. If Beverly's attack succeeds, researchers will be reluctant to ever criticize corporations. Workers have found their only defense is solidarity and militance. We need to show our solidarity with Kate, and make people aware of Beverly's record; otherwise, other pro-labor researchers will be sued and de facto silenced. (Clayton Sinyai, csinyai@rci.rutgers.edu has volunteered to be a lead organizer for this campaign; write to him if you'd like to help.) We'd like to collect support signatures, get academic and other associations to speak out for freedom of research, make Beverly's record the issue, and turn this issue around. 3. ANTI-SWEATSHOP ACTION -- College and universities sell t-shirts and sweatshirts with the college logo. Who makes that clothing, under what conditions? Campaigns are under way to get colleges and universities to pledge that clothing with their logo will meet certain standards. We need to be sure this campaign includes a SAWSJ presence. 4. RIGHT TO ORGANIZE -- This is perhaps the AFL-CIO's highest priority and was the subject of our recent teach-in. In 1960 in Mississippi, in theory black people had the right to vote; in fact, they risked their lives if they tried to exercise that right. In the United States today, in theory workers have the right to organize; in fact, they risk their jobs if they try to exercise that right. Resear ch shows that in one out of three union organizing drives, workers are fired for their union activity; in almost all drives they are forced to attend "captive audience" meetings to hear why they should oppose the union (the union, of course, does not get equal access) and must meet one-on-one with their supervisors to be browbeaten with the same message. We'd like to prepare a pamphlet explaining the issue and discussing actual examples, and also a short statement to be used as a petition and ad, then collect thousands of signatures, get prominent names to support the cause, have people commit themselves to show up whenever workers' rights are violated, and help make this a national debate. 5. WORKFARE/WELFARE -- This forcefully demonstrates the inter-relation between welfare and labor issues, desperately needs research and ideas about innovative approaches, and focuses attention on a host of politically critical problems. 6. ON-CAMPUS ORGANIZING -- Whether it's graduate students, adjuncts, clericals, maintenance workers, or faculty, the academy is the work-site many of us are best positioned to organize; we can build alliances among these groups, and develop innovative approaches to the issues we confront. 7. RACE AND CAMPUS ACCESS -- What sort of campus, and what sort of labor movement, will we have? Who will be included and who will be excluded? What can we do to bring to the forefront issues that many are trying to ignore? 8. McJOBS -- The UPS strike demonstrated that part-time and contingent work are issues with wide public appeal -- and victories can be won. Many of us don't need to look beyond our own campuses to see the expansion of these jobs (along with privatization and contracting out). 9. OP-ED AND MEDIA PROJECT(S) -- When labor has a story to tell, how does it get into the news? How can we help? We'd like to have a network of people available, and be able to say -- for a local area, or nationally -- "When an issue comes up, if labor people prepare a packet of materials and are prepared to talk with us, we have people who will write letters and articles about it, in order to get the word out." Ideally, our people would attend a training session or workshop preparing them to be more effective. The Right operates such networks; SAWSJ should take the lead in developing our own network. A similar approach applies to other media contact: Can we help train ourselves and others, and then work to secure better media coverage of labor issues? 10. DIRECTORIES -- At least two. (A) If labor (or the media) need help with a problem, on whom can they call? Who has skills and expertise on this issue, is reliably pro-labor, and is willing to assist? (B) Where are there pro-labor student groups, and how can people get in touch with them? Students often provide much of the energy, enthusiasm, and personnel for demonstrations and campaigns, but have a high turnover from one year to the next. SAWSJ (presumably our student members) could work with other groups to compile a list of existing student groups, along with faculty at each institution who can provide continuity and know what students to contact for the new year. 11. SAWSJ BUILDING -- (A) Communications. Andor Skotnes created and maintains our Web site, and operates our large email posting list. We need a newsletter editor. (B) Membership. We need an active campaign both to recruit individual members and to establish local chapters. Dues fund the organization and serve as a marker of who is willing to do work; chapters and projects are the only way things will get done. Each of us should try to recruit members, but we also need a committee to do this. (If you want to work on forming a chapter, we'll tell you who in your area is a member.) (C) Fundraising. We need 501(c)3 status and ways to raise some money. (D) Advisory board of prominent people. Most of these are not the fun issues, but they need to happen if we are to get established. 12. TEAMSTER REFORM AND TDU -- Reform of the Teamsters has been a crucial part of the revitalization of labor, Teamsters for a Democratic Union is the oldest and largest rank-and-file group, and an election is in process. For its opening event, the Amherst-Northampton SAWSJ local held a forum on Teamster reform and a fundraiser for TRF, the tax exempt research and educational fund associated with TDU -- you can't and shouldn't give to the election itself. If your group is interested in hearing about Teamster reform, TDU will help arrange an event; contact Dan Clawson (clawson@sadri.umass.edu) for more information. YOUR ISSUE -- The above list only scratches the surface of things that should be done. Write in and propose additional issues, and (ideally) volunteer to work on them. MEMBERSHIP FORM -- What follows is the new membership form. Please use it (1) to recruit new members and (2) to provide us complete information about yourself, if we do not now have some of the items listed below. Thanks. ********************************************** Scholars, Artists, and Writers for Social Justice (SAWSJ) The aim of SAWSJ is to assist in reshaping the nation's political culture and fostering the growth of a vibrant, progressive, multicultural working-class movement; in shaping the terms of political debate and contesting corporate dominance of politics and culture; in restoring the mutually empowering relationship between the labor movement and its allies in the academic and cultural communities. If you share these goals, PLEASE JOIN. Please print this form, fill it out, and send it in; or complete it via e-mail, and snail mail us a check.) Name: Email: Home Phone: ( ) Work Phone: ( ) Address: City: State: Zip: Organizational Affiliations University (if any): Work: Union (if any): Political and Cultural Groups: _____ Yes, I want to become a SAWSJ member. Dues - check one: ____ $10 student/low income ____ $25 others with incomes below $40,000 ____ $40 for those with incomes of $40,000 or above Make checks payable to SAWSJ and mail to: SAWSJ c/o Labor Relations and Research Center University of Massachusetts 125 Draper Hall Box 32020 Amherst, MA 01003 EMAIL LIST INFO -- SAWSJ maintains an informational email list. Once or at most twice a week, we send out news and information, collected from many sources, about labor and social justice issues. Please check one: _____ I am already on the list. _____ I am not on the list. Please add my e-mail _____ Please do not add my e-mail address to the list. SAWSJ ACTIVITIES - We have underway, or are working at creating, both local chapters and networks focused on particular issues. Please indicate if you'd be interested in working on one or more of the following. Check as many as you like; if you check an item, someone will be in touch with you about working on the project: ___ Joining or forming a local chapter ___ Organizing a teach-in in your area ___ Big chill - fighting attacks on labor researchers ___ Anti-sweatshop ___ Right to organize ___ Workfare-welfare ___ On-campus organizing ___ Race and campus access ___ McJobs - part-time and contingent work issues ___ Op-ed and media projects - building a left network ___ Directories - of experts, of student groups ___ Internal SAWSJ - membership, fundraising, newsletter ___ Teamster Reform ___ YOUR issue - what else would you like to work on? Please specify: -------------- Scholars, Artists and Writers for Social Justice (SAWSJ) Email: SAWSJ@LRRC.UMASS.EDU Phone: (413) 545-3541 Fax: (413) 545-0110 Internet: www.sage.edu/html/SAWSJ Address: SAWSJ c/o Labor Relations and Research Center University of Massachusetts Amherst 125 Draper Hall, Box 32020 Amherst, MA 01003 ## ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com