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July 20, 2010

Providence Journal
Craft Goes Digital

Does anyone in Providence have this in their recycling bin? It's the cover of the Arts section in Sunday July 11th's Providence Journal (section F1 & F4). It's a review of the exhibit at the Fuller Craft Museum that has some microRevolt pieces and my video art. The article by Bill Van Siclen is called Craft Goes Digital on-line here, but I'm looking for a hard copy for my tenure files. Email me if yes.

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Posted by cat at 06:16 AM

July 15, 2010

Joseph Frank

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google's homepage celebrates his 125th bday

Posted by cat at 01:37 PM

July 10, 2010

Poor People's Alliance play football in solidarity

As the World Cup draws to completion in South Africa, the social movements of the Poor People's Alliance continue to face off against the governing elite's escalation of harassment, displacement, repression and the violation of their human right to housing. Some of NESRI’s partners and allies (Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Picture the Homeless, Poverty Initiative) who attended the recent U.S. Social Forum in Detroit rallied a solidarity soccer game, as a sign of solidarity with the South African grassroots, in particular the Abahlali baseMjondolo and the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign who visited the United States in 2009. The poor of the US have found common cause and inspiration with the poor of South Africa in their creative struggles and visions for a better world. See photos from the solidarity soccer game. link

Posted by cat at 10:35 PM

Nike’s Love Affair with Sweatshops: Still Doing It

Folks in Portland were asking about current Nike abuses, this is a report from April

Just a few miles from Nike’s global headquarters in Oregon last night, two Honduran workers revealed Nike’s family-destroying labor practices.

Gina Cano and Lowlee Urquía testified in front of members of the Portland Area Workers’ Rights Board and a crowd of more than 100 community members.

Jobs With Justice chapters conduct such Workers’ Rights Board inquiries across the country, inviting prominent members of the clergy and academy, along with business leaders and activists, to hear testimonies, issue reports, and create an open space to air local and international labor battles.

Both Cano and Urquía had worked in Nike-contracted factories in Honduras for many years before being laid off in January 2009 without notice and without legally mandated severance pay.

“We’re here in Oregon, the home of Nike, because we want to put a face to the consequences of Nike’s behavior,” Urquía said. “We’re saying to Nike that it is responsible every step of the way.”

The two women represented more than 1,700 workers who are owed $2.2 million in severance pay. The workers are also owed health care premiums, which were deducted from their wages but never paid to the health care system. This meant that workers could not access health care in the four months before the closure. At least one worker, who had been receiving cancer treatment, died because of this denial of care, according to Cano and Urquía.

Read entire post by Margaret Butler on Labor Notes.

Posted by cat at 10:33 PM