Well I guess it is about time I respond to the historic Presidential election just passed. I guess three weeks is long enough to recover from election fatigue. Most of my free time in the past few months was devoted to the Omar Lopez campaign, a long time leader in the immigrant rights movement who ran for congress on the Green Party ticket here in Illinois’s 4th congressional district. The 4th encompasses Pilsen & La Vilita, as well has Humboldt Park and large stretches of the North side and west Suburbs. It is one of the countries most important Latino districts and has been represented by Luis Gutierrez for decades. Gutierrez’s support of anti-immigrant legislation such as the STRIVE Act and his less than principled stand on issues from relations with Cuba and Israel to de-regulation, finally created a backlash of which the Lopez campaign was one result. Sadly, the meager 8.3% of the vote that Omar received was quite disheartening as was the Green Party’s overall performance thi...

Hi Labor Express listners, For more on the Affordable Power to the People coalition, see the following website... http://affordablepower.org/

This was sent to me by Alan Benjamin, Executive Board Member of the San Francisco Labor Council... RESOLUTION TO ESTABLISH AN ECONOMIC CRISIS COMMITTEE TO RECOMMEND TO THE San Francisco LABOR COUNCIL A PROGRAM FOR ACTIONTO BE CONVEYED TO THE California Labor Federation and the AFL-CIO & Change To Win Whereas, On Monday, September 22, 2008, the San Francisco Labor Council Delegates adopted a "Resolution to U.S. Congress Demanding their Opposition to the Bailout of the Bad Debts of the Financial Industry." Whereas, none of this Council's recommendations of Sept. 22, 2008 have been implemented, and Whereas, the Bush Administration/Paulson bailouts have not forced the banks to lend money or restricted the use of the tax dollar bailout; and Whereas, Naomi Klein reports that, "The more details emerge, the clearer it becomes that Washington's handling of the Wall Street bailout is not merely incompetent. It is borderline criminal." And Congressman Barney Fran...

Hey fellow UAW members, did you hear our fearless leader on the Rachel Maddow show tonight. What the hell!!! He spent most of the interview defending the criminal management of the big three! And than he goes on to describe the current products of the U.S. auto industry as if they represented the green technology of the future! WHAT!!! My god, no wonder our union is in such trouble. Compare Mr. Gettelfinger’s lame defense of the bosses with Michael Moore’s righteous indignation which I discussed in my last post. Come on man! Don’t you see by now that sucking up to management is not going to save the U.S. auto worker. You should be demanding that the Congress pass a bailout that includes those guys complete removal. Hell, you should be asking for the plants to be turned over to the workers, but I am not holding my breath on that one. Come on, get a freaking backbone for once. First you lay-down and let management walk all over the union in the last round on contract negotiations, than y...

Leave it to Michael Moore to put the eminent demise of the U.S. Auto industry and the general economic crisis in general in the proper context. On Larry King Live tonight, Moore responded with total disgust to the sight of the CEO’s of the big three U.S. auto makers begging Congress for bailout funds… “What we are seeing here right now, with them, with the banks, we seeing the end of capitalism, the end of capitalism as we know it, and I say good riddance. It hasn’t help the people or the planet.” While Michael’s forecast of the collapse of capitalism might be a bit premature, you can’t but totally agree with the sentiment of his words. Moore also has some interesting advice for the Congress as they consider a bailout for the big three. In particular I like his suggestion that the factories be re-focused on building mass transit vehicles. Moore comes the closest that I have seen yet in calling for the real short term answer to the auto industry – nationalization and workers control. He...

Hi pilsenprole readers, I apologize for such a long break from my previous entry, especially given the importance of the just past election. I have been quite ill over the past few weeks and it has really slowed me down. I will post my own reflections on the election within the next couple days. In the meantime, I encourage you to read this article by Bill Fletcher Jr. Fletcher is the author of the recently published book Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice , an excellent analysis of the current state of the labor movement in the United States (I encourage all of you to buy a copy). He is also the former President of the TransAfrica Forum and the former Director of Education for the AFL-CIO. He is one of the founders of the Center for Labor Renewal. Fletcher provides a well thought-out plan for Obama’s first hundred days… http://www.centerforlaborrenewal.org/?P=A&Category_ID=25&Article=229&PHPSESSID=9e495a97f476e18bed3c0a55...