WORKING CLASS LITERATURE . No. 466.

Richard Meyers' site, Rebel Graphics, is dedicated to change. He has posters, cartoons, poetry and writing from the point of view of working folk engaged in the struggle for justice.

Of special interest to librarians is his annotated Working Class Literature. A sample annotation:

Brownsville: Stories — Oscar Casares. Probing underneath the surface of Tex-Mex culture, Casares's stories, with their wisecracking, temperamental, obsessive middle-aged men and their dramas straight from neighborhood gossip are in the direct line of descent from Mark Twain and Ring Lardner. [This one was an ALA Notable Book].


Take a look at Working Class Literature and then if you wish, contact Richard Myers:

i'd like to get feedback on:
other titles to include;
feedback on any inferior or inappropriate titles already on the list;
brief reviews of any titles that still need it;
any suggested links for the link section.
Feedback may be sent to:
rtmyers@h2net.net
thanks!
best wishes,
richard myers

Severely Injured Military Veterans: Fulfilling Their Dreams. No. 465.

College Counseling for Veterans.

Insdie Higher education reports:

“What we’ve found is not necessarily the need for different and new programs, but to create awareness of the programs that already exist,” said Jim Selbe, director of program evaluations for ACE, the national umbrella group for higher education.

“This allows us to fill a gap,” Selbe said. “The Department of Defense, they invest heavily in promoting the value of higher education, and they put a like investment in putting in the resources to ensure access and success in quality higher education programs. The participation is so high that a service member doesn’t need to look far to find someone who can provide them with advice and counsel and the like.

“But once they leave active duty, they lose the convenience and the access to those sorts of advisers.”

The initiative was inspired by James Wright, Dartmouth College’s president and a Marine Corps veteran, who first approached the council about beginning such a program after noting a need for greater educational guidance on his regular visits to service members at Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval Hospital, both in the Washington, D.C., area.

Wright played a prominent role in raising more than $300,000 from private sources to allow ACE to hire two full-time educational advisers. One of them, Heather Bernard, the mother of an Iraq War veteran, works with service members at Walter Reed and Bethesda. Jeff Stevens, a disabled Vietnam veteran with a doctorate from Texas A&M University, just began working with service members at Brooks Army Hospital in San Antonio three weeks ago.

INCREASING NEED FOR ADULT EDUCATION AND LITERACY. No. 464.

MOUNTING PRESSURES FACING THE U.S. WORKFORCE AND THE INCREASING NEED FOR ADULT EDUCATION AND LITERACY

This data set -- including information on international comparisons, U.S. demographic trends, U.S. education achievement levels, workforce education levels, and other variables -- calls for a dramatically expanded and more effective adult education and literacy enterprise in America.

MOUNTING PRESSURES... is available here: in color PDF format linked to the CAAL website,. Bound color copies may also be purchased directly from CAAL ($25 each plus postage, bheitner@caalusa.org for ordering instructions). [Note: This is a large document best "read" in color. Persons able to print only in black and white or having a slow speed connection may do better to order it from CAAL.]

Cultural Survival. No. 463.

In today's globalizing world indigenous peoples endure forced assimilation, discrimination, exploitation by powerful economic interests, and poorly considered development policies—all of which threaten their cultural survival. In many places indigenous peoples are marginalized and have little or no power or political voice to defend themselves. There is little accountability for governments and corporate interests that perpetrate abuses against them.

Cultural Survival partners with indigenous peoples to:

* secure their rights in international and national law;
* promote respect for their right to self-determination;
* ensure their right to full and effective participation in the political, economic, and social life of the country in which they live; and
* enjoy their rights to their lands, resources, languages, and cultures

Unions and Climate Change No. 462.

North American Labor Assembly on Climate Crisis: Building a Global Movement for Clean Energy

Unions all over the world, including the United States, are responding to the challenges posed by global warming and other environmental problems. Several national union federations are applying pressure on their governments and getting results. Other unions are operating locally or are engaging individual employers. Unions are beginning to connect organizing with global warming and other environmental issues, and are everywhere linking up with environmental groups.

Unions are also collaborating across borders. This Assembly will be the latest of a series of important historic international gatherings that began with the First Global Trade Union Assembly on Labour and the Environment in Nairobi, Kenya, in January 2006. In April 2006 Sao Paulo hosted the first ever Trade Union Regional Conference on Labour and the Environment for unions in Latin America, and in July 2006 another Regional Conference took place in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The North American Assembly will be attended by many trade unionists from outside the U.S. and Canada and will coincide with the annual meeting of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) at the United Nations. At the CSD, union representatives will be pushing for action on a range of environmental issues.

Green Libraries. No. 461.

GREEN LIBRARIES is a clearinghouse for information and resources concerning green and sustainable libraries.

Immigration. No. 460.

REFORMA and ALA on Immigration.

Please note that the REFORMA Legislative Committee worked very hard in Seattle, WA under Carol Brey-Casiano, as Chair of the Committee, to create a resolution in support of immigrant's rights. This resolution was approved by REFORMA and then taken to ALA and approved and adopted by ALA Council on Wednesday, January 22, 2007.
Resolution in Support of Immigrant Rights
January 2007.

Librarian’s Toolkit for Responding Effectively to Anti-Immigrant Sentiment
2006

Resolution in Support of Immigrants’ Rights to Free Public Library Access.
REFORMA, 2005
American Library Association, 2005.


Derechos del idioma en el siglo XXI

Language Rights Position Statement

Librarian’s Toolkit for Action on Language Rights and Linguistic Pluralism(REFORMA) 2002




REFORMA Language Rights Information Page (2002)


Public Agenda has an Issue Guide on Immigration.