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Thinking of Labor's Future - May 15, 2012

How Can Unions Become Bigger and Stronger
Without the Active Support of their Members?

(The Fourth in a Series of articles)

The AFL-CIO is governed by a group of national labor leaders, who run the 12 million-member labor federation like it was their personal corporate property.

They get their power because the AFL-CIO Constitution gives them a majority of convention votes that, in advance, guarantees their election and re-election, without any opposition from potential candidates
Read this story

LaborTalk - May 3, 2012

What Are the Spending Cuts Affecting Workers
Which Obama and Republicans Both Approved?

It should disturb working people that President Obama and the Republicans have agreed on a list of spending cuts, amounting to a trillion dollars or more, without revealing precisely where the cuts will take place or how deep they will be.
Read this story in LaborTalk

# # #

World of Labor – May 12, 2012

Europe May Favor ‘Growth Plan’ of French President
Death Threats Continue Under Colombian Trade Pact
788 Nigerian Doctors Are Fired, as Unions Strike
Polish Workers ‘Chain-In’ Lawmakers over Pensions
New Report Shatters DHL’s ‘Good Conduct’ Claim
Workers React to Brazil’s Rush to Build Dams in the Amazon
May 12, 2012 — Read Column

# # #

Labor Educator Harry Kelber Is Interviewed
By the Magazine’s Reporter, Josh Eidelson

April 30, 2012

Over eight decades in the labor movement, Harry Kelber has been a rank-and-file union leader, an author and an academic. At 25, he edited two weekly labor newspapers. At 57, he helped found a labor college at Empire State College. At 81, he ran for AFL-CIO vice president. Now 97, he writes three columns a week for his website, The Labor Educator. The Nation talked to Kelber about his experience of the labor movement’s past, his critique of its present and what he sees in its future. What follows is a condensed and edited transcript of our conversation.
Read this story from The Nation

Union Activist Going Strong at 97
By Matthew Rothschild, April 7, 2012, The Progressive

I’d like you to meet a great labor activist.

His name is Harry Kelber. He’s 97. “I’ll be 98 in June,” he tells me.

Read the article.

An Interview:
Harry Kelber on the Failure of
the AFL, the Decline of Unions
and How to Turn It Around

In June 2011, Corporate Crime Reporter (CCR) interviewed Labor Educator Harry Kelber. Here is a link to CCR's website and the interview.

"At one time, Harry Kelber – who just turned 97 last week – was a conservative.

"But that was in high school."

Read the full interview
The site of Corporate Crime Reporter, edited by Russell Mokhiber

# # #

Revitalizing the AFL-CIO

By Ralph Nader
May 23, 2011, Commondreams

When Harry Kelber, the 96 year old relentless labor advocate and editor of The Labor Educator speaks, the leadership of the AFL-CIO should listen. A vigorous champion for the rights of rank-and-file workers vis-à-vis their corporate employers and their labor union leaders, Kelber has recently completed a series of five articles titled “Reasons Why the AFL-CIO Is Broken; Let Us Start a Debate on How to Fix It.”
Read the article

# # #

Tools for Union Organizing and Political Action

# # #

Video, "AFL-CIO Tops Rig 2009 Election Rules To Stop Candidate Harry Kelber From Running"

Harry Kelber, a labor educator and journalist was prevented from running as a candidate for the AFL-CIO 2009 Executive Board election. Although there are 43 spots available no other candidates have even sought to get elected. In order to prevent Harry from running as he did at the last election the rules have been changed illegally to violate the constitution.
Watch Harry Kelber's Interview

Click here or above to watch video.

# # #

'My Seventy Years
in the
Labor Movement'

10 Highlights of Harry Kelber's Unique Career

1. During the Great Depression, Harry led a four-month strike at a major food market in Brooklyn, N.Y, that ended with a good union contract.

2. At age 25, Harry was editor of two independent weekly labor newspapers that covered CIO organizing campaigns, as well as the activities of teamster and construction unions.

3. At age 50, Harry earned a B.A. from Brooklyn College and an M.A. and PhD. from New York University - all within 5-1/2 years.

4. In the 1962-63 printers' strike that shut down New York City's daily newspapers for 114 days, Harry was editor of the Daily Strike Bulletin.

5. As the legislative director of the Physicians Forum, Harry played a key role in winning social security for the nation's doctors.

6. In 1968, Harry created and became the first director of Cornell University's Two-Year Labor/Liberal Arts Program.

7. In recognition of his distinguished teaching career, Empire State College created the Dr. Harry Kelber Endowment in Labor Studies.

8. At age 70, Harry became the Educational and Cultural Director of Electrical Workers Local 3, I.B.E.W., a position he held for nearly six years.

9. In 1992, Harry led a week-long seminar in Moscow for 145 labor leaders of the former Soviet Union on the theme, "Democratic Unions in a Market Economy."

10. In 1995, at age 81, Harry ran for a vice president seat on the AFL-CIO Executive Council to force the first election ever, in which a rank-and-filer challenged incumbent officers.

You will be fascinated by the stories
surrounding
each of Kelber's accomplishments
$25 per copy (includes mailing)
370 pages - 8 pages of photographs

Click here to purchase 'My Seventy Years in the Labor Movement.

Daily News, "Spotlight on Great People: His [Harry Kelber] 70-year battle for the rights of workers," by Clem Richardson, October 10, 2008
Read the article on Harry Kelber

Harry Kelber's poetic commentary on "CEO Lust,"
delivered at Labor Notes conference May 2006.
You can see and hear Harry reciting his poem by clicking below.
You can read Harry's poem by clicking here.





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