South African Scholar to Discuss Mine Strike

This past August, a wildcat strike of mine workers in South Africa made international news when police opened fire, leaving more than 30 workers dead.

Next week, Wednesday, October 31, South African historian Keith Breckenridge will give a talk titled "Legacies of Migrant Labor, Masculinity, and Violence: The Crisis in the South African Mining Industry."

The talk promises insight into the historical context of the strike and the state violence directed towards it. | Read more

BRIDGES CENTER EVENTS

Wednesday, October 31
Lecture: Legacies of Migrant Labor, Masculinity, and Violence: The Crisis in the South African Mining Industry

Keith Breckenridge, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

2:00-3:30 pm. Communications, Room 202, UW Seattle.

Keith Breckenridge, a historian based at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research in Johannesburg, South Africa, will give a talk on the recent labor conflicts and state violence in the South African mining industry.

Breckenridge has conducted extensive research on the history of South Africa’s mining industry and the idea that South Africa serves as a global laboratory for forms of biometric government. He has published widely including in Africa, History Workshop Journal, the Journal of Southern African Studies, and Public Culture, and his volume co-edited with Simon Szreter, Registration and Recognition: Documenting the Person in World History has just been published by Oxford University Press.

Keith's visit to the University of Washington is co-sponsored by the Department of History, the History of Science Fund, the Department of Anthropology, the African Studies Program, the Program on Values in Society, the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies, and Biological Futures in a Globalized World.

Thursday, November 8
Book Release: This Is Not Civil Rights: Discovering Rights Talk in 1939

6:00pm. University Bookstore, 4326 University Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105.

"George I. Lovell has written a fascinating, important, and page-turning account of how ordinary people in American history have insisted that government take into account and respond to their vision of what constitutes fundamental rights. This is both an instant classic in law and society and a vital resource for proponents of popular constitutionalism." - Mark Graber, University of Maryland

Join us for a special event marking the release of the new book by Bridges Chair George Lovell, This Is Not Civil Rights, a fascinating look at complaint letters written by ordinary Americans to the Justice Department during the Great Depression. | Read more

Friday, November 16
Celebration of Life for David J. Olson

3:00-4:30 pm. Kane Hall, Room 210, UW Seattle.

The UW Department of Political Science is planning to hold a campus Celebration of Life for David Olson, inaugural holder of the Harry Bridges Chair, who passed away September 15th.

David was firmly dedicated to ensuring working people had, as he often put it, "a seat at the table," at the University of Washington. Both through his civic commitments and his charming personality, David brought together the unique constituencies represented by the Bridges Center: organized labor, civil servants, and university students and faculty. He will be remembered fondly by them all.

The event will feature a short program and reception. Please direct any questions about the event to Catherine Quinn in the UW Political Science department at cquinn83@uw.edu.

Friday, November 16
20th Anniversary of the Bridges Chair

6:00pm-8:00pm. Kane Hall, Room 120. UW Seattle. FREE.

On November 16 and 17, 2012, we celebrate 20 years of the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies! On Friday evening, we kick everything off with a keynote lecture by labor lawyer Tom Geoghegan, author of several notable books on labor law and the labor movement and a regular contributor to national publications like The New York Times and The Nation.

Co-sponsored by UW Department of Geography and UW Department of History. For more information, call the Bridges Center at 206-543-7946 or e-mail hbcls@uw.edu.

Saturday, November 17
20th Anniversary of the Bridges Chair

Conference: Labor, Labor Studies, and the Future: The Bridges Chair at 20 Years

12:15pm-4:30pm. Husky Union Building (HUB), Room 334. UW Seattle. FREE.

Marking 20 years of the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies, a special conference will discuss the accomplishments of the Bridges Chair, the state of the labor movement, and the hard work that lies ahead. The schedule includes:

• 12:15am-1:30pm. Opening Plenary
  The Harry Bridges Chair: Creation, Evolution and Impact
  The creation of the Bridges Chair as a grassroots fundraising initiative, and its many achievements since.


• 1:45pm-3:00pm. Two Panels (Choose One)
  Union Democracy and Civil Rights
  A reflection on the legacy of two distinctive, core commitments of Harry Bridges: Rank and File Democracy and non-discrimination/civil rights.
  
  Youth and the Labor Movement
  A new generation of labor activists is emerging. What is the history of student activism at the University of Washington? What is going on now, on campus and off?


• 3:15pm-4:30pm. Closing Plenary
  The 2012 Elections and Labor's Future
  A review of the outcome of the 2012 elections, and a look at the bigger picture, including attacks on collective bargaining rights and public sector unions.

Click here to download a poster for the event.

Parking is free on Saturday at the University of Washington beginning at noon.

A box lunch is available during the Saturday conference open plenary for $13, with option of chicken or vegetarian sandwich. Must be ordered in advance by Monday, November 12. To order, please call the Bridges Center at 206-543-7946 or e-mail hbcls@uw.edu.

Saturday, November 17
20th Anniversary of the Bridges Chair

20th Anniversary Banquet & Labor Archives Fundraiser

5:00pm-8:00pm. Husky Union Building (HUB), South Balloom. UW Seattle.

Following our afternoon conference, our 20th anniversary festivities continue into the evening with a special banquet, with food, drinks, and fundraising for the Labor Archives!

RSVP today! Space is limited, so reserve your ticket today. We ask those who can to make a donation to the Labor Archives. However, no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Support the Labor Archives! To raise funds for the Archives, we are offering the chance to sponsor the banquet, or place an ad in a special anniversary booklet. For a sponsorship form and more information, visit the Bridges Center website.

EVENTS OF INTEREST

Tuesday, October 23
Film: The Revolutionary

5:30pm. Thomson Hall, Room 101, UW Seattle.

Sidney Rittenberg arrived in China as a GI Chinese language expert at the end of World War II. Discharged there, he joined the Chinese Communist Party, and was an active participant in the Chinese communist revolution and its aftermath. An intimate of the Party's leadership, including Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, he gained prominence at the Broadcast Administration, one of the most important agencies of government. But in the convulsions of a giant country constantly reinventing itself, he twice ran afoul of the leadership, and served a total of 16 years in solitary confinement. He returned to the United States in 1980.

In the documentary film The Revolutionary, Rittenberg captivates the audience with his exceptional intellect, uncompromising honesty, and engaging personality. Over a five-year period, award-winning former-CBS journalist and China specialist, Irv Drasnin, interviewed Rittenberg to produce a compelling, complex and unique understanding of the 20th century's biggest revolution. From Sid first meeting Mao in the caves of Yan’an, to his becoming famous and powerful during the Cultural Revolution, to his battling insanity in solitary, his journey and his profound insight illuminate a much greater history — a history few Chinese are aware of, let alone many Americans, told by an American who was there.

Sidney Rittenberg will be in attendance at this screening to discuss China's current transition. | Read more

Thursday, October 25
Labor Book Group

MLK CLC Education Committee

5:30-7:00 pm. Seattle Labor Temple, 2800 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98121. Room 208.

Join the MLK CLC Education Committee Book Group in reading and discussing chapters 2-4 of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. Come on down and bring a snack!

For more information, contact Cheryl Coney at the Washington State Labor Education and Research Center at (206) 934-5350 or cheryl.coney@seattlecolleges.edu

Friday, October 26
Colloquium: Scholarship as Public Practice: Arguments and Claims

Gillian Harkins (English), Kelly Fryer Edwards (Bioethics and Humanities), and Trevor Griffey (U.S. History, The Evergreen State College)

3:30pm. Communications, Room 202, UW Seattle.

What is public scholarship? Who are its publics and audiences? What kinds of artifacts does it yield? What claims can be made about it?

The Scholarship as Public Practice colloquia series seeks to foster crossdisciplinary conversation about scholarship as public practice. The series builds on the portfolio-based curriculum that informs the graduate Certificate in Public Scholarship. It models a method for articulating the significance of publicly-engaged work for multiple audiences, inside and outside higher education. | Read more

Thursday, November 1
Lecture: Science of Empire: The South African Origins of Galtonian Eugenics

Keith Breckenridge, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

3:30-5:00pm. Communications, Room 226, UW Seattle.

Keith Breckenridge, a historian based at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research in Johannesburg, has conducted extensive research on the history of South Africa’s mining industry and the idea that South Africa serves as a global laboratory for forms of biometric government. He has published widely including in Africa, History Workshop Journal, the Journal of Southern African Studies, and Public Culture, and his volume co-edited with Simon Szreter, Registration and Recognition: Documenting the Person in World History has just been published by Oxford University Press.

Keith's visit to the University of Washington is co-sponsored by the Department of History, the History of Science Fund, the Department of Anthropology, the African Studies Program, the Program on Values in Society, the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies, and Biological Futures in a Globalized World.

Thursday, November 1 to Sunday, November 3
Conference: Rethinking Marxism: Stranger Economies

Communications, Room 202, UW Seattle.

This conference, coordinated with a meeting of the editorial board of Rethinking Marxism: A Journal of Economics, Culture, and Society, interrogates the nature of the economic by elucidating the workings of economy and imaginations of the economic in its strangeness and alterity. It invites participants to contemplate the strange in relation to economy in all its forms. | Read more

Wednesday, November 7
Lecture: Gender and Activism in Prison: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women

Victoria Law, journalist and activist

3:30pm. Communications, Room 202/204, UW Seattle.

Victoria Law is a freelance journalist and independent scholar who has spent more than a decade writing about and supporting the struggles of women in prison. She is the author of Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women, winner of the 2009 PASS Award and just published in a new, revised edition. She is co-editor of the new book Don't Leave Your Friends Behind, an anthology about parenting and social justice activism. Both books are published by PM Press. | Read more

Friday, November 9
to Saturday, November 10
Class: What's Up With Labor Law?

Washington State Labor Education and Research Center

6737 Corson Avenue South, Seattle, WA 98108. Cost: $125 per person.

Registration Deadline: Friday, November 2, 2012

Instructors: Labor Center Staff, Sean Leonard from the law firm of Schwerin, Campbell, Barnard, Iglitzin & Lavitt, and George Lovell, Harry Bridges Chair and faculty member in the Department of Political Science at the University of Washington.

When men and women working in the private sector in the U.S. got the legal right to organize unions and bargain collectively, it was a huge achievement and came only after more than 100 years of struggle. The Wagner Act of 1935 and subsequent state-by-state laws governing public sector collective bargaining rights have fundamentally shaped how we think about unions and workers' rights. We also know that we are living in an era of concerted and escalating attacks against organized labor that some trace all the way back to 1947 and the Taft-HartleyAct. In the past, laws have helped us, and laws have hurt us.

In this class the Labor Center will bring together experienced labor lawyers, academics, and organizers to present on a range of subjects, from recent NLRB rulings and Washington State-specific labor laws, to the broader question of how to use the law as a pillar of your union building program, without relying on it as a crutch!

Bring your legal questions and your passion for the labor movement to this class and let's see how we use the law as a tool.

For more information, contact the Washington State Labor Education and Research Center at (206) 934-5382 or sarah.laslett@seattlecolleges.edu

NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

LABOR NEWS ON CAMPUS

UW students voice concern over wage dispute (Seattle Times)

About 50 teaching and research assistants at the University of Washington on Thursday voiced their disappointment with the university in a wage dispute over mandatory fees.

Members of the UAW Local 4121, the union that represents teaching and research assistants at the UW, asked UW President Michael Young to honor a decision by an arbitrator who found that the university violated the collective-bargaining agreement with student teachers.

The students are graduate students who help teach classes and do research, and are paid for their work. They raised the issue at the end of the president's annual address to the university, in Meany Hall. | Read more

UW, Union At Odds Over Student Fees (UW Daily)

A disagreement over whether academic student employees (ASEs) should have to pay certain student fees might bring the UW to court.

Wednesday night, UAW Local 4121, the union that represents ASEs, chose to reject the university's settlement offer concerning mandatory student fees after holding a straw poll vote and gathering more than 2,000 responses from members. The response showed that 97 percent of members wanted to reject the settlement.

"They're so angry," said Jessica Pikul, vice president of UAW Local 4121. "Having been on campus for seven years, this is the most upset I've ever seen academic student employees. They're so frustrated. They're appalled that the university isn't honoring a process they agreed to." | Read more

CALL FOR PAPERS

2013 United Association for Labor Education Conference: Call for Student Papers

April 17-20, 2013

Toronto, Ontario Canada

Deadline: December 1, 2012

At its annual conference, UALE gives an award for the best paper presented by a student or a new or aspiring labor educator.

A UALE committee will review submissions and select 3-5 papers that will be presented on a joint panel.

UALE can provide some financial support for those chosen to present papers at the conference. Download the Call for Student Papers on the UALE conference website for additional details.

At the UALE conference, labor educators from unions, worker centers, colleges, university, and community-based organizations will be exploring the various strategies workers are employing to counter the politics of austerity and systematic attacks on workers' rights and union movements in nations throughout the world.

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

Washington State Labor Research Grants

Deadline: Friday, December 14, 2012

Due to a lack of applications, the deadline to apply for the Washington State Labor Research Grant has been extended to Dec. 14, 2012.

The grant provides $7,500 to UW faculty members for projects related to labor and policy in our state. | Read more