Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands
Made High Art Out of Desperate Timeswith
author Susan Quinn

President Roosevelt on Unemployment and the
Works Progress Administration (WPA)

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Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands
Made High Art Out of Desperate Times
with
author Susan Quinn

A vivid portrait of the turbulent 1930s and the Roosevelt administration
as seen through the WPA’s Federal Theater Project which managed to
turn a WPA unemployment program into a platform for some of the most
cutting-edge theater of its time. It electrified audiences with exciting,
controversial productions, created by some of the greatest figures in
20th century American arts—including Orson Welles, John Houseman
and Sinclair Lewis. Plays like Voodoo Macbeth and The Cradle Will
Rock stirred up politicians by defying segregation and putting the
spotlight on the inequities that led to the Great Depression.
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President Roosevelt on Unemployment and the
Works Progress Administration (WPA)

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1935 fireside chat broadcast to
a national radio audience on unemployment, public job creation through
the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and the pending Social
Security Act.

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For Wall Street It’s Paradise, But For Main Street It’s Hell:
A Conversation With Rev. Jesse Jackson On Rebuilding Our Street
With
Rev. Jesse Jackson, Founder & Pres. RainbowPUSH Coalition

The Rev. Jackson spoke with us about the “jobless recovery” and continuing foreclosure crisis, amidst what some claim is an economic recovery. Jackson will talk about his call for the bailed out banks to reinvest in America and for establishing a national infrastructure bank, providing guarantees for pension funds, to put people to work and invest in education. He’ll highlight the theme for this year’s summit Rainbow Push Economic Summit “Targeted Stimulus: a Call for Equity and Parity" and focus on strategies to directly invest in job creation, minority businesses and underserved communities. According to Jackson, “We have to get the stimulus down to the people.”

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Nation’s Largest RN Organization Says Healthcare Bill Cedes Too Much to Insurance Industry
With
Jean Ross, Co-President, National Nurses United

San Francisco Hotel Workers Heat Up the New Year
Produced by
The Labor Video Project

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Nation’s Largest RN Organization Says Healthcare Bill Cedes Too Much to Insurance Industry
With
Jean Ross, Co-President, National Nurses United

National Nurses United, the nation’s largest union of registered nurses, criticized the healthcare bill passed by the U.S. Senate saying “it is tragic to see the promise from Washington this year for genuine, comprehensive reform ground down to a seriously flawed bill that could actually exacerbate the healthcare crisis and financial insecurity for American families, and that cedes far too much additional power to the tyranny of a callous insurance industry.” NNU believes that the bill seems more likely to be eroded, not improved, in future years due to the unchecked influence of the healthcare industry.
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San Francisco Hotel Workers Heat Up the New Year
Produced by
The Labor Video Project

Over 1400 hotel workers and their community allies demonstrated in down-
town San Francisco, on Jan 5 against major hotel corporations’ refusal to
settle fair contracts. They were joined by Richard Trumka, President of the
AFL-CIO, and UNITE HERE President John Wilhelm, who along with over
150 union members and community supporters sat down in front of the Hilton
Hotel to launch a customer boycott of the Hilton San Francisco Union Square.
The action comes after nearly five months of negotiations and street actions
(including strikes), in which Hotel Managements have called for cutbacks while
the workers have been seeking modest increases to sustain health care and
retirement benefits. Meanwhile, despite the economic downturn, major hotel
companies have continued to prosper.

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Argentina: This is What a Labor Movement Looks Like
With
Marina Kabat, Prof., Argentinean History, Univ. of Buenos Aires; Coordinator, Working-Class Studies Workshop, Center for the Study & Investigation of Social Sciences (CEICS)
and
Immanuel Ness, Prof., Brooklyn College, CUNY and author The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest: 1500 to the Present

Fighting Unemployment and Poverty:Evergreen Laundry and Worker Cooperatives in Cleveland OhioProduced
by the Evergreen Cooperative Initiative

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Argentina: This is What a Labor Movement Looks Like
With
Marina Kabat, Prof., Argentinean History, Univ. of Buenos Aires; Coordinator, Working-Class Studies Workshop, Center for the Study & Investigation of Social Sciences (CEICS)
and
Immanuel Ness, Prof., Brooklyn College, CUNY and author The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest: 1500 to the Present

The economic collapse in Argentina has created a new labor movement for dignity and control over the work process and democratization of their communities. Recently, the Kraft food workers’ insurgent union successfully fought firings with a strike & plant occupation which receivedmass community and labor support despite violent state repression. The United Education Workers, a militant worker-led union, struck for living wages, closing all schools in the Buenos Aires region, to resist the government's austerity plan. Workers have also shut down the Buenos Aires subway system, suspended major construction projects & defended wages against government cutbacks. The piqueteros, unemployed & low-wage workers movements, are successfully staging mass actions, including blocking major roads & highways, even as police brutality grows. They have occupied & taken over factories leading to a national cooperative movement which has democratized workplaces for more
than a million workers.
*****************
Fighting Unemployment and Poverty:Evergreen Laundry and Worker Cooperatives in Cleveland Ohio
Produced by the Evergreen Cooperative Initiative

“Something important is happening in Cleveland.” With the opening of the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry on October 21st – a worker-owned commercial-scale “green” business based in the Glenville neighborhood, one of the most severely disinvested areas in Cleveland. Mayor Frank Jackson called the laundry, “a model for how we can put our people back to work and rebuild our community.” This new model for economic development was inspired by the network of worker cooperative in Mondragon, Spain. It is the first in a network of worker cooperatives that is being launched in the city by the Evergreen Cooperative Initiative.

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