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SCHREIER ON ORGANIZING STRESS
ADDRESS (excerpts)
By John Schreier, Assistant
Director of Organization
AFL-CIO Washington, D.C.
April 17, 1957
In Detroit I was Director in Michigan and since that
time you know there has been a merger and we now have a united labor
merger of AFL-CIO. Our organizing staff has increased, along, of course,
with our membership. Any group in society with a membership of 16
million becomes a factor and a problem in our way of life. We have
certain responsibilities. Our organizing staff increased from 130 to well over 300 people. (I believe it was 340.)
Since the merger to the present time, we have lost 67 men, some through
death, some through resignation, retirement and some leaving us and
going with their own International Unions to carry on the work of their
own Internationals. Our staff amounts to 275 organizers. Of course, ours
is the largest department within the AFL-CIO and the one that naturally
is looked on to carry out the policies of the Federation.
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Since the merger we have increased vacations and try to make the job
a little easier, but we also realize this and that is why we have been
insisting on forced vacations where men must take it and it is not a
question of saying 'I would rather take the money'. . . . We sometime
wonder, when a fellow drops dead, if he had taken a voluntary
retirement, if he might have lived a few years longer. We are not sure
about that, but we have been discussing it. The thing that bothers us is
that a lot of these fellows who have died suddenly were rather young
men. We don't want to keep a man in the harness when there is a chance
for him to retire and he can do so in comfort.
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Greenback Planet: How the Dollar Conquered
the World and Threatened Civilization as We Know It
By H. W. Brands
In Greenback Planet, acclaimed historian H. W. Brands charts the dollar's astonishing rise to become the world's principal currency. Telling the story with the verve of a novelist, he recounts key episodes in U.S. monetary history, from the Civil War debate over fiat money (greenbacks) to the recent worldwide financial crisis. Brands explores the dollar's changing relations to gold and silver and to other currencies and cogently explains how America's economic might made the dollar the fundamental standard of value in world finance. He vividly describes the 1869 Black Friday attempt to corner the gold market, banker J. P. Morgan's bailout of the U.S. treasury, the creation of the Federal Reserve, and President Franklin Roosevelt's handling of the bank panic of 1933. Brands shows how lessons learned (and not learned) in the Great Depression have influenced subsequent U.S. monetary policy, and how the dollar's dominance helped transform economies in countries ranging from Germany and Japan after World War II to Russia and China today. He concludes with a sobering dissection of the 2008 world financial debacle, which exposed the power--and the enormous risks--of the dollar's worldwide reign. The Economy |
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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