The Ajiri Tea Company: What's in a Name?
Ajiri (v): definition: to employ; origin: Kenya [Swahili, national language].
Left Forum 2010: Muhammad Ahmad
Audio interview with Muhammad Ahmad, the former Field Chairman of the Revolutionary Action Movement and founder of African People's Party in the 1970's. Muhammad worked closely with Malcolm X, Amiri Baraka, James and Grace Lee Boggs and Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael). He is the author of We Will Return in the Whirlwind, African Americans Since 1900, and Selected Writings, Volume 1. He is a member of the Philadelphia Community Institute of Africana Studies and of N'COBRA.
Left Forum 2010: Steve Brier
Audio interview with Steve Brier, Professor of Urban Education in the History department at the CUNY Graduate Center, founder of the American Social History Project and co-author of the "Who Built America?" multimedia curriculum in History.
Further Resources:
Left Forum 2010: James Gray Pope
Audio inter
view with James Gray Pope, a Professor of Law at Rutgers University. A former worker in the metal trades, Pope was an active member of the International Association of Machinists and the Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers. He has written numerous articles about worker's rights, constitutional law, and labor history.
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Left Forum 2010: Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Audio interview with Bill Fletcher Jr., a longtime labor and international activist and the former President and chief executive officer of TransAfrica Forum, a national non-profit organization organizing, educating and advocating for policies in favor of the people's of Africa, the Carribbean and Latin America.
Left Forum 2010: Joel Shufro
Audio interview with Joel Shufro, Executive Director of NYCOSH (New York Committee for Occupational Health and Safety). For nearly forty years, NYCOSH has fought for worker health and safety in every major trade and area of New York.
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At Work with Bookforum
On Thursday, November 19th at The New School, I attended Bookforum's panel discussion on labor issues in the 21st century. The crowd was full and attentive, the participants well-informed and enthusiastic, and the general conversation thought-provoking. I know how it is, though, to have to skip an event because of prior plans (or in the case of NYC, because there's just too damn much going on!). So, as I wish would happen more often at these kinds of things, I took notes to share with those who could not make it.
