[Announce] World Wide Work

[announce-admin at comm-org.utoledo.edu]

From:     Matt Witt <mattwitt at workingfamilies.com>


This edition of the free bulletin, World Wide Work, is published by the 
American Labor Education Center, an independent nonprofit founded in 1979.

WORLD WIDE WORK

New and worth noting...
*Jarhead by Anthony Swofford (Scribner).  This unforgettable, unvarnished 
first-person account of a Marine's experience in the 1991 Gulf War provides 
a more vivid, honest picture of what war in that region is like than any of 
the media coverage of the recent invasion of Iraq.
* What Liberal Media?: The Truth About Bias and the News by Eric Alterman 
(Basic Books).  A serious, in-depth, highly readable look at the media' 
economic and social biases.
* Education for Changing Unions by Burke, Geronimo, Martin, Thomas, and 
Wall (Between the Lines/SCB Distributors).  A useful, practical resource 
for labor educators and anyone interested in improving the quality of 
workshops, meetings, and conferences.
* SPIN Works!: A Media Guidebook for Communicating Values and Shaping 
Opinion by Robert Bray.  A basic guide to effective media work from the 
SPIN Project that provides training and advice to progressive organizations.
* Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You by Norman Solomon and 
Reese Erlich (Context).  Documents the media's role in marketing the 
invasion of Iraq to the American public.
* Unlocking the Middle East by Richard Falk (Interlink).  A collection of 
essays that provide historical background on the spectrum of difficult 
issues and conflicts in the region.
* Changing the Powers That Be: How the Left Can Stop Losing and Win by G. 
William Domhoff ( Rowman and Littlefield).  Takes on strategic questions 
about the Democratic Party, populism, nonviolent resistance, the news 
media, and other issues.
* The Environmental Justice Reader edited by Adamson, Evans, and Stein 
(University of Arizona Press). Essays, interviews, and personal stories 
that provide a wide-ranging introduction to the link between pollution, 
race, and class, as well as community efforts to organize on those issues.
* The Rule of Racialization by Steve Martinot (Temple University Press).  A 
historical look at race and class in America from the founding of the 
colonies to today.
* Unions and Legitimacy by Gary Chaison and Barbara Bigelow (Cornell 
University Press).  Uses five case studies -- the 1997 UPS strike, clerical 
worker organizing at Harvard, the AFL-CIO associate membership program, the 
campaign against NAFTA, and a nurse campaign for safe care to discuss what 
does and does not increase unions' legitimacy in the eyes of workers and 
the general public.
* How the Other Half Works: Immigration and the Social Organization of 
Labor by Roger Waldinger and Michael Lichter (University of California 
Press).  Focuses on the social dynamics of the changing workforce in Los 
Angeles, what motivates employers to hire Latinos for low-wage jobs, and 
the impact on African Americans.
* No-Collar: The Human Workplace and Its Hidden Costs by Andrew Ross 
(Basic). A study of two "new economy" companies that argues that high-tech 
corporate offices have not turned out to the utopia that some promised.
* Little Stones at My Window by Mario Benedetti (Curbstone).  A bilingual 
collection of often imaginative and moving poems by the Uruguayan 
author.  Other new bilingual poetry collections from Curbstone include 
Casting Off by the Salvadoran poet Claribel Alegria and The Time Tree by 
the Vietnamese poet Huu Thinh.
* Nobody's Son by Alberto Urrea (University of Arizona Press).  A memoir by 
a writer of fiction and nonfiction who grew up in San Diego, the product of 
a Mexican father and Anglo mother.
* Psychology in Practice: Organisations by Hugh Coolican (Hodder & 
Stoughton/Oxford University Press).  A short, useful guide to basic 
concepts and terminology in the field of organizational psychology, 
including issues related to communications, leadership, motivation, and 
quality of work life.  Oddly, the book makes only a few minor references to 
the effect of unionization on the topics it discusses.
* A Loyal Character Dancer and Death of a Red Heroine by Qui Xiaolong 
(Soho).  Chinese murder mysteries with a dark view of bureaucracy and 
corruption in the country the author left in 1989.
* Border Dogs by Karen Palmer (Soho).  Airplane reading in the form of a 
mystery novel that takes place along the U.S.-Mexico border.

MUSIC
* Evolve by Ani DiFranco (Righteous Babe Records).  A wide range of styles 
and mostly low-key experimentation.

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