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Los Mineros and Napoleon Gomez’s Exile

Prince George, British Columbia I wanted to hear Napoleon Gomez Urrutia speak to the British Columbia Government Employees Union (BCGEU) leaders gathered in the northern part of the province to look at how their union connects to the community.  Gomez is Secretary General of the 250,000+ member Union of Mining, Metallurgical, Steel and [...]

Union Puzzle in Vietnam

Hanoi There was no question that the Organizers’ Forum delegation debated more ardently than the proposition of the independence and effectiveness of the Vietnamese General Federation of Labor.  At the end of our visit we were clear that their role in Vietnamese society was critical, their voice within government was not trivial, their sincerity and [...]

Birdseye on Citizens’ Wealth in Atlanta

Atlanta It’s not often I get something that seems like a focus group on Citizen Wealth and the issues it raises, but that’s almost exactly what I enjoyed in Atlanta in a class of 35 on the “Economics of Poverty” where as part of the required reading they had gone through my book with a [...]

Clinton’s Anti-Union Rant

Montreal It wasn’t a surprise that Halter lost against Senator Lincoln in the Arkansas Democratic primary the other day. He had been running a “come from behind” effort from the beginning against a well financed incumbent in a conservative southern state. His win was always unlikely when ballots were really cast. [...]

Kenya Campaigns Coming

Johannesburg Sitting here with a day to kill in the Joberg airport and ruing having just spent 75 rand for a special South African adapter so I can make it through and finding the young clerk at the “Electronics Megastore” joining me in commiseration that there was no free wireless anywhere in the airport, it [...]

Finally Left Leverage on Healthcare

Niagara Falls, Ontario           Maybe progressives and liberals are finally willing to exercise some leverage rather than watching painfully as conservatives and moderates strip every bill that arises down to the bone with health care reform being the latest front page casualty?  There are signs of a stirring.

            SEIU and Andy Stern after having seemed for [...]