Their Field Guide to the U.S. Economy is very user-friendly and easy to understand. Great job of making economics more understandable.
Center for Popular Economics – populareconomics.org
Video: Winning Big in Hard Times: Learning from Our Ancestors
Fighting for Our Democracy
Which Side of History Are You On?
“Winning Big in Hard Times: Learning from our Ancestors” Video
This speech was filmed at the Washington State Labor Council’s 2013 annual convention in Vancouver, Washington. It is a companion video to my earlier “Making the American Dream Real for Everyone” video. “Winning Big” brings a powerful message of hope of how we, like our ancestors before us, can strengthen and broaden our democracy over the entrenched resistance of Corporate America and their political allies.
I welcome the opportunity to work with you and your organizations with this new workshop. I also welcome your comments on how to improve these tools. Feel free to use them.
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Video
NEW VIDEO: “Which Side of History Are You On?”
My latest video “Which Side of History Are You On?” was filmed at a national conference of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace in suburban Seattle in June 2015. It is the third in my video series which combines our personal and family stories with our larger history as working people to create new hope, ideas and strategies to take our country back and create a brighter, more just and sustainable future for all of us.
We gain inspiration and learn valuable lessons from the great uprisings of the people in the 1930s and 1960s that expanded our democracy and won our greatest period of shared prosperity. We also take a hard look at the mistakes of our movements in the 1960s and 1970s in which we failed to build strong durable unity across our many movements. This historic failure gave a strategic opening for the decades-long counterattack by Corporate America and their allies starting in the 1970s. Critically evaluating our successes and failures, both past and present, are key to winning today.
As we move forward to restore a broadly shared prosperity and real democracy we need to understand better the thinking of the American people today. The video concludes with an uplifting look at a series of important labor and community victories across the country that give us new hope and ideas about how we build the power we need to take our country back.
I welcome feedback on this new video and its messages. Please feel free to use it.
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Let’s Stop the Lying about the Confederate Battle Flag in South Carolina
This article was originally published for The Retiree Advocate at psara.org in August 2015.
Many of you might assume the confederate flag has been flying over the South Carolina capitol since the end of Reconstruction in the 1870’s. Here is the real story and its broader context. Continue reading “Let’s Stop the Lying about the Confederate Battle Flag in South Carolina”
I Found $3.5 Billion for the People: We Need a Permanent Alliance to Get It
This article was originally published for The Retiree Advocate at psara.org in November 2014.
For years, I have been arguing that our state’s progressive movements need to create a permanent alliance to move forward decisively. Equally important is learning from movements in other states. Our consistent failures on tax reform make this point. Continue reading “I Found $3.5 Billion for the People: We Need a Permanent Alliance to Get It”
North Carolina’s Forward Together Moral Monday Movement – “We Are a Movement, Not a Moment”
This article was originally published for The Retiree Advocate at psara.org in September 2017.
In September, my wife, Diane, and I traveled to North Carolina to meet with leaders of the “Moral Monday Movement.” We met with Rev. Curtis Gatewood of the state’s NAACP, James Andrew, President of the state AFL-CIO, and Rev. George Reed and Aleta Payne, two top leaders of the North Carolina Council of Churches. We wanted to learn about their broad movement that brought upwards of 80,000 to the steps of their state Capitol in February, the largest progressive rally in the South since 1965. They were demanding economic justice; labor rights; education equality; health care for all; environmental justice; equal protection under the law without regard to race, creed, class, gender, sexual orientation or immigration status; expansion of voting rights; and more. Why the mass organizing? Continue reading “North Carolina’s Forward Together Moral Monday Movement – “We Are a Movement, Not a Moment””
Building the Road to a Better Future
This article was originally published for The Retiree Advocate at psara.org on September 2017.
In May and June, PSARA’s Education Committee sponsored two labor/community workshops that brought together leaders from 35 labor and community-based organizations. We discussed our common ground of discontent and our shared values and vision for a better future. We also began to reflect on how our many organizations and movements might work together in more long-term strategic ways and present our shared vision and values more effectively in our many diverse communities. Continue reading “Building the Road to a Better Future”