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BOOKS
 | Obama's Challenge: America's Economic Crisis and the Power of a Transformative Presidency
If Sen. Barack Obama is elected president after one of the nation's most historic political campaigns, that may turn out to be the easy part. As the respected economist and journalist Robert Kuttner points out, Obama would face "simultaneous crises of war, the environment, health care, but especially the economy." But if Obama "is able to rise to the moment, he could join the ranks of a small handful of previous presidents who have been truly transformative, succeeding in fundamentally changing our economy, society, and democracy." Kuttner sets out what Obama needs to do and why he is uniquely equipped to do it. Available from .™ |
 | Blood Passion: The Ludlow Massacre and Class War in the American West
The 1914 Ludlow Massacre in Colorado was a titanic struggle of striking immigrant coal miners and union organizers against the might of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and the business class, as journalist Scott Martelle describes in this dramatic account. Today, the miners' demands may seem modest: an eight-hour workday, the freedom to join a union and a system to make sure coal was weighed fairly so miners would be paid what they were owed. But the struggle between workers and bosses led to the famous battle between strikers and the Colorado National Guard—the most violent labor battle in American history—that left eight striking men, two women and 11 children as martyrs. Available from .™ |
 | Wrestling with Starbucks: Conscience, Capital, Cappuccino
"We want to be the kind of business...that does the right thing," Starbucks president Howard Schultz declared to Kim Fellner. But is that the real Starbucks? Not quite. For example, Fellner points out that it provides better health insurance than most retail businesses, but whenever employees dare to seek their own unions—including the roasting-plant workers who organized into the Operating Engineers—management goes full throttle to force the union out. "Some dregs lurk in that coffee cup," Fellner notes in this subtle, engaging book that tells a lot about moral values in the global economy. Available from . |
WEBSITE
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It was nearly 30 years ago when Joe Glazer, widely beloved as "labor's troubadour," invited 14 other labor musicians to the George Meany Center in Maryland for three days of great music-making. So began the annual Great Labor Arts Exchange, which eventually expanded into the Labor Heritage Foundation. These days, the Foundation sponsors the Exchange and other get-togethers of labor artists and sells through its website a splendid variety of music, art, books and films about workers and their unions. As AFL-CIO President John Sweeney wrote to the Foundation, "You thrill us, move us, charm us, make us angry, make us laugh, and sometimes you even get us to sing along." |
CD
 | Folkways' The Original Vision: Songs of Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly
No one could tell stories of work and hardship and dreams like the songs of Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie. One an African American blues musician and the other a white folk musician, their roots were quite different, but each has shaped American popular music for the better part of a century. This CD from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings contains their most famous songs, including Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" and Lead Belly's "Midnight Special" and "Goodnight, Irene." But it also revives splendid and mainly forgotten songs like Guthrie's "Talking Hard Work." Years have passed and a thousand musical fads have come and gone, but the power of this music doesn't wane. Available from . |
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