Domestic Forums

2007

Ian Ruskin, founder of the Harry Bridges Project in San Francisco, in From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks a one-man play about the life of Harry Bridges. A special labor history event. (October 5, 2007)

Majora Carter, Executive Director, Sustainable South Bronx speaking on Green the Ghetto First: Why, How, and What Happens if We Don’t (September 19, 2007)

Dave Zirin, Author of Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics, and Promise of Sports and What’s My Name Fool?: Sports and Resistance in the United States; Toni Smith, protested the war in Iraq as Co-Captain of the Women’s basketball team at Manhattanville College in 2003; and Peter Kaufman, Professor of Sociology, SUNY-New Paltz, Research Fellow, Center for the Study of Sport in Society speaking on Athletes as Social Activists: Pushing the Boundaries of the Sports World (June 22, 2007)

Faleh Abood Umara, General Secretary, Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions, Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein, President, Iraqi Electrical Utility Workers Union speaking on Voices of Iraqi Workers: U.S. Solidarity (June 18_, 2007)

Dennis Rivera, President, 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East; Marie Gottschalk, author of The Shadow Welfare State: Labor, Business, and the Politics of Health Care in the United States; and Ed Ott, Executive Director, NYC Central Labor Council speaking on On the Brink of Health Care Reform: Labor’s Role (May 31, 2007)

Jason Furman, Director, The Hamilton Project, Mark Levinson, Senior Fellow, The Economic Policy Institute, and Ed Ott, Executive Director, NYC Central Labor Council speaking on It’s My Party: Two Leading Think Tanks Debate the Future of the Democratic Party (March 23, 2007)

David Bacon, journalist, photographer, and author of The Children of NAFTA and Communities without Borders: Images and Voices from the World of Migration; Margarita Vasques, Smithfield former worker and campaign activist; Siddhartha Sanchez, Community Liaison for Immigration Affairs in Congressman Jose E. Serrano’s Office; and Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editor of The Nation speaking on Shifting Borders: Immigrant Lives and the Policies that Shape Them (February 9, 2007)

2006

Ed Ott, Executive Director, New York City Central Labor Council, Juan Gonzales, columnist for the New York Daily News; Susan Jennik, Esq., former Executive Director of the Association for Union Democracy—attorney assigned to clean up corrupt teamster locals; Tom Robbins, author and reporter for the Village Voice; and Bob Fitch, independent journalist and author Solidarity for Sale: How Corruption Destroyed the Labor Movement speaking on “Betrayal in the Labor Movement”: What happens when union leaders betray the trust of the workers who elected them, and what can be done about it? (December 8, 2006)

Muzaffar Chishti, Director, Migration Policy Institute at NYU Law School; Ana Avendano, Director, AFL-CIO Immigrant Worker Program; and May Chen, International Vice President, UNITE-HERE!, speaking on Guest Workers in the House of Labor? Unions Debate Immigration Reform (March 31, 2006)

Nelson Lichtenstein, Professor of History at the University of California at Santa Barbara and editor, Wal-Mart: The Face of Twenty-First Century Capitalism; author of State of the Union: A Century of American Labor and Walter Reuther: The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit, speaking on Wal-Mart: Template for Twenty-First Century Global Capitalism (February 8, 2006)

2005

J.J. Johnson, editor of Our Life and Times published by 1199 SEIU; Howard Styles, Training Director of Local 94 of the International Union of Operating Engineers; and Lee Smith, Managing Director, National Photovoltaic Construction Partnership speaking on New Energy for New Jobs (December 16, 2005)

Barbara Bowen, President, CUNY Professional Staff Congress, AFT; Julie Kushner, Organizing Director and Sub-Regional Director, UAW, Region 9A; and Andrew Ross, Professor, NYU Department of Social and Cultural Analysis and Co-Chair, AAUP, NYU Chapter speaking on In the Groves of Academe: The Political Economy of Intellectual Labor (November 18, 2005)

Adam Green, Professor of American Studies and History at NYU; Tanya Harris, Louisiana Representative of ACORN; and Rosalyn Pelles, Director of the Civil, Human, and Women’s Rights Department, AFL-CIO, speaking on Gulf Coast Reconstruction: 40 Acres and a Boat? (October 28, 2005)

Jonathan Tasini, President of Economics Future Group, President Emeritus of the National Writers Union, and blogger; Ruth Milkman, Professor of Sociology and Director of the University of California’s Institute of Industrial Relations; and Jeff Crosby, President of IUE-CWA Local 201 and President of the North Shore Labor Council, speaking on The Big Rift: Labor Ventures Into the Unknown (September 30, 2005)

Ed Ott, Director of Public Policy, NYC Central Labor Council, and James Steele, Special Assistant to Congressman Gregory Meeks, speaking on Election 2004: Debriefing and Prognosis (November 12, 2004)

Derrick Bell, Visiting Professor of Law, New York University, and author of Silent Covenants: Brown v. Board of Education and the Unfulfilled Hopes for Racial Reform (September 10, 2004)

2004

William D. Hartung, Director of the Arms Trade Resource Center of the World Policy Institute, New School University, speaking on Homeland Insecurity: The War on Terror and the War on Labor (May 14, 2004)

2003

Karen Ackerman, Political Director of AFL-CIO, speaking on Election 2004: The Union Program

(November 7, 2003)

Hector Figueroa, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 32B-J, SEIU, and Dan Clawson, author of The Next Upsurge: Labor and the New Social Movements, speaking on Next Stop on the Freedom Ride (October, 23, 2003)

Stephen Lerner, Director, Building Services Division, SEIU speaking on Density Matters: An Immodest Proposal for Reversing Labor’s Decline (June 20, 2003)

Liza Featherstone, The Nation journalist and author, and Channing Hawkins, Generation S Coordinator, SEIU and staff of Jobs with Justice, speaking on Culture Clash: How the Labor Movement Eats Its Young

(March 9, 2003)

Honorable Charles Barron, New York City Council Member, speaking on Failed Reconstruction, Reparations, and Their Implications for Organized Labor (January 31, 2003)

James Parrott, Deputy Director and Chief Economist of the Fiscal Policy Institute, speaking on Learning from the ‘90s: How Poor Public Policy Choices Contributed to Income Erosion in New York City and What We Can Do About It (October 11, 2002)

2002

Peter Olney, Associate Director, Institute for Labor and Employment, University of California and former Organizing Director of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union,speaking on Reversing the Arithmetic of Decline: Proposals for Effective Large Scale Labor Organizing (May 10, 2002)

Ron Blackwell, Director of the AFL-CIO’s Corporate Affairs Department, and Tyson Slocum, Research Director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and the Environment, speaking on The Enron Scandal: Corporate America on Trial? ( April 5, 2002)

Preston Niblack, Deputy Director, NYC Independent Budget Office; Glenn Pasanen, Associate Director, The City Project; and James Parrot, Deputy Director and Chief Economist, Fiscal Policy Institute, speaking on The Municipal Budget 2002 (March 22, 2002)

Esmeralda Simmons, Executive Director, Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College; Juan Cartagena, General Counsel, Community Service Society of New York; and Evan Stavisky, Consultant, NYC Central Labor Council, moderated by James Steele, Associate Director, Queens College Labor Resource Center, speaking on Redistricting and the Labor Movement (February 22, 2002)

2001

The Terrorist Attacks & Their Aftermath: Labor’s Response & Role in a New Environment (PART II)

Gregory Meeks, Member of United States Congress; Gifford Miller, Member of NYC Council, 5th District, representing Mayor-elect Michael Bloomberg; Mitchell Moss, Advisor to Mayor-elect and Professor of Urban Planning, NYU; and Lee Saunders, Administrator, District Council 37, AFSCME, speaking on Issues of Equity in Rebuilding New York (December 14, 2001)

The Terrorist Attacks & Their Aftermath: Labor’s Response & Role in a New Environment (PART I) Kimberly Crenshaw, Professor of Law, Columbia University, on “Homeland Security and Its Implications;” Steve Shalom, Professor of Political Science, William Paterson University, on “America and the World: Context and Challenges;” Mark Levinson, Director of Research and Policy, UNITE, on “The Economic and Political Impact on the Labor Movement;” and Barbara Bowen, President, PSC-CUNY, Local 2334, AFT, speaking on How Do Unions Keep Their Issues from Being Trivialized? ( November 30, 2001)

Angelo Falcon, Senior Policy Executive and Director, Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund; Gerry Hudson, Executive Vice-President, 1199 SEIU; and Ruth Messinger, President, American Jewish World Service, speaking on New York City Elections: Who won? Who lost? Why? What does it mean for labor?

(October 19, 2001)

Jeffrey Perry, editor of Hubert Harrison: An Introductory Reader (Wesleyan University Press), speaking on Hubert Harrison: The Father of Harlem Radicalism (June 8, 2001)

Bill Fletcher Jr., Assistant to the President of AFL-CIO, and Ken Riley, President of the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1422, speaking on Race Repression and Workers’ Rights: The Case of the Charleston Five (March 30, 2001)

John Sweeney, President of AFL-CIO; Jay Mazur, President of UNITE; and William Greider, author of One World Ready or Not, speaking on The Triangle Fire Today: Sweatshops and the Global Economy

(March 27, 2001)

Greg Tarpinian, Executive Director of Labor Research Association, speaking on What Lies Ahead for the U.S. Economy: ‘Soft Landing’ or Recession? (March 9, 2001)

2000

Joshua Freeman, Professor of History, Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center, author of Working Class New York: Life and Labor in New York City, speaking on Challenges for the Future, Perspectives from the Past: Lessons for New York City’s Labor Movement from its Post-War Heyday (December 8, 2000)

David Moberg, journalist and a Senior Editor of In These Times, speaking on Donkey Days: The State of Labor’s Union with the Democratic Party (November 17, 2000)

Paul Buhle, author of Taking Care of Business: Samuel Gompers, George Meany, Lane Kirkland and the Tragedy of American Labor, speaking on The Old Guard Hangover and Labor’s Challenge in the Sweeney Era (June 16, 2000)

Julie Kushner, Director of the UAW, Region 9A; Kitty Krupat, NYU graduate teaching assistant and GSOC organizer; and Kimberly Johnson, NYU graduate teaching assistant and one of GSOC’s founders, speaking on A New Wave of Organizing: Academic Workers Challenge the Corporate University (June 2, 2000)

Bill Fletcher Jr., Assistant to the President of AFL-CIO, and Richard W. Hurd, Professor and Director of Labor Studies at Cornell University, speaking on Is Organizing Enough? Issues of Race, Gender, and Union Culture in a “Revitalized” Labor Movement (May 12, 2000)

Maurice Isserman, Professor of History, Hamilton College; Frances Fox Piven, Professor of Political Science and Sociology, CUNY Graduate School; and Charlene Mitchell, Executive Assistant to the President, Local 371, DC 37, speaking on “The Other America”: Michael Harrington’s Legacy & Relevance (March 24, 2000)

Reverend Jim Lewis, Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice; Marilyn Clement, Executive Secretary for Economic Justice; and Rabbi Michael Feinberg, Executive Director of New York City’s Labor Religion Coalition, speaking on Labor in the Pulpit: The Power of Faith-based Alliances in the Struggle for Workers’ Rights and Social Justice (February 25, 2000)

Thea M. Lee, Assistant Director for International Economics in the Public Policy Department, AFL-CIO, and Tim Shorrock, Analyst of the U.S. and International Labor Movements and the U.S.-Asian Trade Policy, speaking on The Battle After Seattle: How Can Labor and its Allies Wrest the WTO & Global Trade Policy from Corporate Control? ( January 4, 2000)

1999

Eamonn Fingleton, author of In Praise of Hard Industries, and Ron Blackwell, Director of Corporate Affairs, AFL-CIO, speaking on Manufacturing Matters: Are We Abandoning Our Economic Locomotive?

(November 12, 1999)

David Montgomery, Professor Emeritus of History, Yale University, speaking on Looking Backward, Looking Forward: Lessons from the Labor Movement for the 21st Century (September 24, 1999)

James Steele, Director, Civic Participation Incubator, Medgar Evers College, CUNY, speaking on What’s at Stake? What can Labor Do? (June 17, 1999)

Ellen Schrecker, Professor of History, Yeshiva University, and Walter Bernstein, screenwriter, speaking on Labor, Culture and the Cold War Revisited (March 12, 1999)

Dan Swinney, Executive Director of the Midwest Center for Labor Research, speaking on Defeating Casino Capitalism: Community and Labor Strategies for Taking Control of the Economy (January 8, 1999)

1998

Bill Tabb, Professor of Economics at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate School, speaking on The Global Economic Meltdown and the Failure of Neoliberal Economic Policy (November 20, 1998)

1997

Bob Ourlian (reporter), Charlie Porter (driver), Randy Carpinen (driver), and Mike Zielinski (union staff), representing striking workers from the Newspaper Guild and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 372, speaking on The Detroit Newspaper Lockout (April 14, 1997)

1996

Nelson Lichtenstein, Professor of History at the University of Virginia, and author of Walter Reuther: The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit, speaking on Walter Reuther: Architect of His Own Failure? ( May 7, 1996)

1995

Gerald Epstein, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and staff economist with the Center for Popular Economics, speaking on What’s the Federal Reserve Board’s Contract with America ? (February 24, 1995)

Max Sawicky, economist, Economic Policy Institute, speaking on Deficit Delirium: The Dangerous Debate over Deficit Reduction (January 27, 1995)

1994

Gordon Lafer, former Assistant Deputy Mayor for Economic Development in New York City, speaking on Jobs and Training Programs: Who Benefits? ( December 2, 1994)

James Rundle, Labor Education Coordinator, Cornell University and author of The Debate over Employer-Dominated Labor Organizations: What is the Evidence?, speaking on Developing a Progressive Response to the Dunlop Commission Moderator: Nick Unger, ACTWU. (June 3, 1994)

Frances Fox Piven, Ph.D., Professor, City University of New York, author of Regulating the Poor speaking on Regulating the Poor Revisited: Challenging Current Welfare Policy Assumptions (February 25, 1994)

1993

Joanne Lukominik, M.D., Columbia University School of Public Health, and member of the White House Task Force on Health, speaking on Charting Progressive Health Care Reform (November 19, 1993)

John Atlas, Attorney, President of the National Housing Institute, and Clinton appointee to the Resolution Trust Corporation, speaking on Developing a Progressive Housing Agenda Commentators: Delores Thomas and Andrew Scherer. ( October 29, 1993)

David Gordon, Professor, New School for Social Research, economist and author of After the Wasteland speaking on Labor and the Clinton Economic Plan (May 21, 1993)

Michael Dukakis, former Governor and Presidential candidate, speaking on Prospects for Progressive Social Legislation (May 7, 1993)

Richard Warden, Department of Labor, former chief lobbyist for the United Auto Workers, speaking on The Prospects for Labor Law Reform (April 23, 1993)