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BOOKS
 | 500 Years of Chicana Women's History
In this lavishly illustrated history of Chicana artists, politicians, healers, soldiers and musicians, pride of place is given to working Chicanas, from the early Aztec midwives to laundresses and fruit-cannery workers in 19th-century Los Angeles, striking cotton workers in the Depression and contemporary union activists such as Linda Chavez-Thompson, the AFL-CIO's first executive vice president. This is an excellent companion to "Chicana Art and Experience: Mujeres con Garbo," a free exhibition at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., Nov. 19 to May 31. The exhibit includes prints, paintings, posters and photographs focusing on working Chicanas. 500 Years of Chicana Women's History is available from .™ |
 | The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too
Economist James Galbraith clearly demonstrates how George W. Bush and his so-called conservative cronies in reality have thrown conservatism's free-market, small-government ideology overboard, expanded government and embraced what Galbraith calls "predation"—diverting vast amounts of public money to Big Oil, military contractors, agribusiness, pharmaceuticals and insurance giants. So the real question is no longer big vs. small government, but rather what big government should do. Galbraith makes a convincing case for a vast shift to economic planning ("in the absence of planning, disaster is certain"), setting fairer wages and incomes and "preparing for the day when the unlimited privilege of issuing never-to-be-paid chits to the rest of the world may come to an end." Available from . |
 | Les Miserables
It's no secret why this is one of the best loved novels ever written. Its characters—Jean Valjean, who sits in jail for years for stealing bread to feed his family, the tenacious police detective Javert, the saint-like bishop Myriel, the prostitute Fantine and her daughter Cosette—are all as vivid and powerful as ever. With its themes of justice and injustice, punishment, authoritarianism and the great struggle for equality, the Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa was on the mark when he said Les Miserables is "one of the works that has been most influential in making so many men and women of all languages and cultures desire a more just, rational and beautiful world than the one they live in." Available from . |
CD
 | Down at the Union Hall
Thousands of union members make music in their spare time and many are quite good. Kenny Winfree is great. Ask any of his many fans, from Tennessee to Japan. An aircraft assembler in Texas and member of UAW Local 848, Winfree sings his own down-the-line bluegrass tunes and infectious lyrics, generally about workers and their unions. Fortunately for us all, the late Joe Glazer recorded "Down at the Union Hall" in the 1980s on his Collector Records, which is now owned and distributed by Smithsonian's Folkways Recordings. Among the best-liked tunes here—and deservedly so—is the catchy, "I'm a Union Card" ("Don't worry about your money as long as I'm on guard; Praise the Lord, I'm a union card"). Available from . |
DVD
 | 9 to 5
This utterly hilarious, sly, outrageous 1980 comedy with Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and Dabney Coleman (and what a brilliant mix that turned out to be) opened up the discussion of workplace sexism and discrimination. "9 to 5" turned traditional paternalistic movies on their head, as secretaries join together, overthrow the "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot," of a boss, and run the office far better than he ever did. After 28 years, it's still such a wild and funny flick you barely notice how delightfully subversive it really is. Available from .™ |
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