- “…and Sweet’s the Air with Curly Smoke…” (2/21/2006) - I called it a year (and four days) ago. The President of Harvard University, Lawrence Summers, has resigned. I'm reminded, at this time, of my friend and advisor Josh Freeman who was cool to the movement to oust our Queens College President, Allen Lee Sessoms, back in 1999. What comes next is not necessarily better, he reasoned. It's not hard to imagine this episode being used in the right-wing assault on the Ivory Tower. Those… …
- Paul Avrich, Anarchist and Historian 1931 – 2006 (2/21/2006) - Paul Avrich died last week, aged 74. He was a respected anarchist, and a historian of anarchism (particularly Haymarket and the Sacco and Vanzetti trial) and the Russian Revolution. He was a Professor Emeritus at Queens College. I was fortunate enough to have been a student in the last regular undergraduate course that Dr. Avrich taught at Queens College. It was an invaluable experience to learn about the Russian Revolution from a talented and diligent… …
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- My, Oh MySpace (2/6/2006) - This phenomenom of "social networking" websites certainly seems a lot odder when described by the mainstream media. To me and my friends, sites like Friendster and MySpace are harmlessly kooky ways to keep in touch and embarass each other with sarcastic tributary testimonials. They sound a lot more sinister when described by the AP in this wire story on a rash of statutory rape cases in Connecticut: MySpace, one of several popular social networking sites,… …
- Year Two (2/2/2006) - I posted my first blarg article one year ago, on February 2, 2005. This website has been a wonderful outlet, and I thank all of you who have joined as readers. The frequency of my postings has declined as of late. I've been a bit sidetracked by duck and the floozies, computer problems, an organizing campaign that's heating up and my studies. I find my two research projects, in particular, very exciting, and will try… …
- “It’s Educational!” (1/19/2006) - I'm back from Amherst and I'm really excited. The Master's degree that I'm working towards seems so besides the point. I hate the idea of ever having to stop going to ULA. The real value of the program is the ability to step back from my day-to-day work and see the forest from the trees. I found the Labor Education class that I took to be a stumbling, fumbling frustration for nine of the ten… …
- In the Papers (1/17/2006) - Amherst is one of those funny, left-liberal college towns. The cover story of yesterday's Springfield Republican had a hysterical sob story profile of some of the town's poor maligned conservative minority. "In Amherst, I can't watch a production of 'West Side Story' but I can see the 'Vagina Monologues' at the high school and watch a junior throw up her arms like (Olympic gymnast) Mary Lou Retton and shout the c-word," said fifth-generation Amherst resident… …
- Pro-Union Bumper Stickers on Toyotas (1/15/2006) - We have a great mix of people at the ULA program here in Amherst. That's one of the biggest appeals that this program held for me when I applied. In my narrow corner of the New York labor movement, I'm just not likely to make friends with Machinists and Auto Workers, nor with Canadian trade unionists or union activists from the South. My brother Dave Rossi, a Canadian Auto Worker (he's the guy with the… …
- Scholastic Update (1/10/2006) - I forgot to mention that I'm away at school in Amherst this week and next. In a stab at credibility as an actual UMass student, I try to do as many "regular student" things on campus as possible. So, yesterday, a few of my union brothers and I went to a Minutemen basketball game (they beat St. Joe's 68-58). I've never been to school where there were cheerleaders before. …
- Cover Controversy (1/5/2006) - The new issue of "The Socialist" magazine is out in the mail, and, to my utter befuddlement, its cover is provoking some controversy. Apparently, some comrades take exception to linking Rosa Parks' image and legacy with a stupid teevee show, no matter the ironic effect intended. The party's female Co-Chair thinks that linking Parks with "Desperate Housewives" is "historically inaccurate, belittling to her as an individual, and demeaning to the Civil Rights movement." Our young,… …
- Six Dollar Movie Review: Capote (1/1/2006) - Phillip Seymour Hoffman perfectly impersonates the late author (as far as I can tell, based upon the clips I have seen of his later TeeVee appearances as a professional celebrity), and brings a subtle complexity to the role of Truman Capote as he uses (and abuses) everyone around him while researching and writing "In Cold Blood." Capote traveled to a sleepy Kansas town that was the site of a grisly quadruple murder in 1959 to… …