Rick Prelinger: Lost Landscapes of San Francisco 4, Fri. Dec 4

Rick Prelinger: Lost Landscapes of San Francisco 4 – The Long Now.

Rick Prelinger, a guerrilla archivist who collects the uncollected and makes it accessible, presents the fourth of his annual Lost Landscapes of San Francisco screenings. You’ll see an eclectic montage of rediscovered and rarely-seen film clips showing life, landscapes, labor and leisure in a vanished San Francisco as captured by amateurs, newsreel cameramen and industrial filmmakers.

How we remember and record the past reveals much about how we address the future. Prelinger will preface the screening with a brief talk on how historical memory is shifting away from mass culture towards individual expression, and what consequences will arise from the emerging massive matrix of personal records.

Join us for a reception with no-host bar following the Seminar in the main Lobby of the Herbst Theater.

Doors open 7 pm, Talk begins 7:30pm lasting ~1.5 hours

Herbst Theatre on Van Ness Ave. San Francisco, California

 

Lawmakers want apology for anti-Chinese measures | Sacramento Bee

Lawmakers want apology for anti-Chinese measures – Sacramento Politics – California Politics | Sacramento Bee.

Lawmakers want apology for anti-Chinese measures

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By Susan Ferriss
sferriss@sacbee.com

Published: Monday, Jul. 6, 2009 – 12:00 am | Page 4A
Last Modified: Monday, Jul. 6, 2009 – 10:16 am

It’s not a pretty history.

But, two California legislators say, it’s time to admit it and apologize for how Chinese immigrants were treated during and after the Gold Rush.

Assemblymen Paul Fong and Kevin de Leon are sponsoring a resolution that recognizes Chinese laborers for mining ore, building levees to create farmland and constructing — at great peril and for less pay than whites — 80 percent of the western half of the transcontinental railroad.

While the Chinese toiled, the assemblymen say, California’s 19th-century politicians passed law after law segregating the Chinese and, when their labor was no longer in high demand, tried to drive them out.

Assembly Concurrent Resolution 42 calls for an apology for forcing the Chinese to pay higher taxes on gold than whites; barring them from holding certain jobs, owning property or testifying in trials; and segregating them and forbidding them from marrying whites or bringing family from China.

California politicians, the authors also note, were instrumental in persuading Congress to pass the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred more Chinese immigration.

“It’s a shameful chapter in California legislative history,” said Fong, D-Cupertino, who is of Chinese descent.

“We should recognize this as part of our history,” he said, “say our regrets and move on.”

Fong’s great-grandfather worked in California, but when Fong’s grandfather wanted to immigrate to the state in 1939, the only way he could do it was with fake papers identifying him as the Chinese-born son of a family in California that pre-dated the Exclusion Act, Fong said.

“That was the system for getting in at that time,” he said.

Fong’s grandfather farmed near San Francisco but had to rent land. State laws on the books until 1952 barred him from owning property.

De Leon, D-Los Angeles, the son of Mexican immigrants, approached Fong about a legislative resolution to make amends for this history.

De Leon’s district contains the city’s Chinatown and one of the nation’s most diverse immigrant populations.

“The Chinese deserve an acknowledgment, even if it’s a century late,” de Leon said.

Californians, he said, have a long history of benefiting from foreigners’ labor and lashing out at them during tough economic times.

“The Central Pacific Railroad went across the Pacific to recruit the Chinese. And then as soon as a project was done, the state legislators initiated ways to chase them out,” de Leon said. “I don’t think a lot of people today know that.”

In 1879, California’s Legislature targeted the Chinese by voting to “impose conditions” to remove foreigners and protect the state from “the burdens and evils arising from the presence of aliens, who are, or may become vagrants, paupers, mendicants, criminals, or invalids afflicted with contagious or infectious diseases.”

The law was passed just 10 years after thousands of Chinese recruits hand-drilled through the Sierra Nevada to help finish the transcontinental railroad.

To prepare their resolution, Fong and de Leon consulted Bill Hing, a UC Davis immigration law and history professor.

“What happened to the Chinese,” Hing said, “is what’s happening today — let’s face it — to the Mexicans.”

Just as they have since, Hing said, California politicians then called for voter referendums on immigrants. In 1879, Californians voted overwhelmingly against Chinese immigration.

In the 19th century, racism was naked and led to laws targeting immigrants by race, Hing said.

Today, he said, many people say they resent illegal immigrants because they don’t wait their turn and enter legally.

What many people don’t realize is that there is no line for many foreigners to join, Hing said, adding that the immigration system has encouraged unlawful entry because visas don’t exist anymore for most of the jobs immigrants fill in the United States.

The Assembly Judiciary Committee passed the Chinese resolution on June 23, with no opposition.

Assemblyman Steve Knight, R-Palmdale, who is a member of the committee, abstained from voting. He also requested to delay a vote in the full Assembly so he could study the bill more.

“I’m not denying that what happened, happened,” Knight said. “But our job as legislators is to move the state forward.”

He said he’s worried other wronged groups will ask for more apologies.

In fact, in 2005, the Legislature passed an act apologizing for California’s part in rounding up and deporting about 400,000 residents of Mexican descent, many U.S.-born, during the Great Depression. Nationwide, about 2 million people of Mexican descent were forced to go to Mexico.

Fong and de Leon said they believe their resolution, eventually, will easily gain approval in both the Assembly and the Senate.

They’ve received some criticism, mostly anonymous Web site postings, for pursuing a symbolic act while the state is mired in a budget crisis.

But some messages were racist, Fong said, including one that said: “Go home, gook.”

 

LaborFest Schedule Now Online: EVENTS July 2-July 31

LaborFest 2009
July 2 – July 31

LaborFest 2009 Schedule is up

This year is the 75th anniversary of the San Francisco General Strike and the West Coast maritime workers strike. The ‘34 strike and maritime strike was an important point in  strengthening organized labor and bringing hundreds of thousands of workers into our unions.  In commemoration of this significant historical anniversary for San Francisco and Northern California labor, LaborFest will be having many special events including an art exhibition, presentations, a labor jeopardy contest as well as a labor film festival that will include videos of the San Francisco general strike.

There are also plans for a commemoration march and concert in San Francisco and educational conference.

LaborFest this year will also be honoring the workers who made the strike, the role of the San Francisco Labor Council and the workers who have built the Bay Area including building the San Francisco Bay Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge and the newly constructed Al Zampa Bridge which is the first major bridge named after an iron worker. Labor faces great challenges today as it did 75 years ago and the need to learn about our history, and how we won victories in the past is vital for today.

 

Community Campfire: Unmatched Courage Japanese American Experience in the Presidio during WW II Saturday, May 16, 2009 5pm – 7pm

The National Park Service, Crissy Field Center, and the National Japanese American Historical Society will hold a “community campfire” at the Presidio on May 16, from five to seven p.m., to commemorate the courage of Japanese-Americans who were interned during World War II.  From the Golden Gate Park calendar:

Join the National Park Service, Crissy Field Center, and the National Japanese American Historical Society as they share the “untold” story of the U.S. Army’s Military Intelligence Service language school based in the Presidio. As linguists, these Japanese American (Nisei) soldiers were attached to every combat unit in the Pacific and ultimately helped Allied forces win the war. They translated documents, gathered key intelligence, and served as “goodwill” ambassadors once the war was over, helping Japan transition from occupation to democracy. Meanwhile, the families of these MIS soldiers—together with 120,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast, 62% of whom were American citizens—were sent to detention camps.

Hear stories about the many contributions and sacrifices made by both the Nisei soldiers and those interned during WW II as you gather around the outdoor campfire. Listen to traditional Japanese folk music of Ensohza whose lively vocals, bamboo flutes, and taiko drums evoke the spirit of rural Japan. Watch the sunset while munching on “hurricane pop” and rice cracker ‘smores in your beautiful national park next door. Don’t forget your picnic dinner, we’ll supply the marshmallows!

This event is the first in a series of four Community Campfires hosted by the National Park Service and Crissy Field Center, designed to introduce the Golden Gate National Parks to groups that have not historically visited. Additionally, the Community Campfire series is part of the “Untold Stories” project which filmmaker Ken Burns features in his latest PBS documentary “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea”.

For more information about the proposed establishment of the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) Historic Learning Center at Building 640 visit http://njahs.org/640/index.html

The event will be located at Building 640 Mason Street (site of the former MIS Language School) in the Presidio, across Crissy Field.

For more information contact cfcregistrationinfo@parksconservancy.org

 

Rick Prelinger is the Coolest Archivist in the World: Lost Landscapes of San Francisco May 16 the Exploratorium

After years of close interaction with the many  wonderful, quirky, and dedicated archivists in this great country of ours, I am unilaterally nominating Rick Prelinger as the coolest archivist on the planet. He will showcase his wares again on May 16 from 2 to 4 pm at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. The event is called Lost Landscapes of San Francisco and is not to be missed.

Prelinger invites people to respond out loud to an array of short clips he digs up from God knows where. Historians, residents, and hipsters alike delight in this material and Prelinger’s witty, upbeat narration of the clips.

What other archivist introduces his materials with references to Borges and citing the enclosure on the archival commons?

See the event page here.

Preview the last version of Lost Landscapes, a perennial event, here.
SF Chron article on a past version is here.

 

Book Signing with Kauko Nakane at the National Japanese American Historical Society in San Francisco, May 2

The National Japanese American Historical Society will be hosting a book-signing with Kauko Nakane, author of Nothing Left in My Hands, a moving portrait of the lives of early Japanese immigrants in Pajaro Valley, California.

Saturday, May 2, 2009, 2 – 3:30pm
In the NJAHS Gallery, 1684 Post Street San Francisco, CA 94115 – (415) 921.5007
For more information, go to the NJAHS website.

 

“Searching for Tamsen Donner” by Gabrielle Burton, reviewed in the L.A. Times by William Deverell

A new book about the Donner party, Searching for Tamsen Donner, by Gabrielle Burton, was reviewed in the Los Angeles Times, March 22, 2009, by William Deverell, director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West and professor of history at USC.

From the review:

“Searching for Tamsen Donner” is a kind of eulogy, one that recounts a trip Burton took in the late 1970s with her husband and five young daughters. An unusual variant of the “on the road” idea, the journey retraced the route the Donner Party took toward its fateful rendezvous with snow and death. Burton wanted to use the trip to research a work of fiction; those plans never came to pass. Instead, all these years hence, we have this odd, unlikely book. History lesson, memoir and intimate family portrait all at once, “Searching for Tamsen Donner” simultaneously re-creates the 1840s and the 1970s, east to west.

For the whole review, click here.

 

Selling Southern California to Anglos: an Article and a New Book

The topic of how, beginning in the 1870s and 1880s, southern California was marketed to Anglo immigrants has been treated in a recent article and a new book.

The article, “Not just a Golden State: Three Anglo ‘Rushes’ in the Making of Southern California, 1880-1920,” by Glen Gendzel, assistant professor of history at San José State University, appears in the current (Winter 2008-09, Vol. 90, No. 4) issue of Southern California Quarterly, published by the Historical Society of Southern California.

The book is Paradise Promoted: the Booster Campaign that Created Los Angeles, 1870-1930, by Tom Zimmerman, published by Angel City Press of Santa Monica (2008).

In his article, Prof. Gendzel makes the point that while the Gold Rush in northern California is typically viewed as California’s “foundational event,” southern California was settled by well-to-do Anglo immigrants who came in three “rushes” of their own: the “health rush,” the “land rush,” and the “orange rush.”  These booms were not only bigger than the Gold Rush, but they also resulted in the the south becoming the larger population center, with important impacts on culture and demographics as well.

Tom Zimmerman has based his lavishly illustrated book in large part on his own collection of ephemera from the era of boosterism, starting in 1870.  While the book, as its publishers say, may be a “must for every Southern California-lover’s coffee table,” Mr. Zimmerman has also written an extensive text (and helpfully explanatory captions for the illustrations) in which he describes not only the history of but also the techniques used in the various promotional campaigns that actualized the three “rushes” identified by Prof. Gendzel.  By extending the scope of his book through the 1920s, Mr. Zimmerman also identified a fourth rush, namely one focusing on industry, or, rather, “clean industry,” as promoted by the L.A. Chamber of Commerce.  Mr. Zimmerman also carries his narrative into the 1930s, when the Depression caused the local establishment to stop recruiting immigrants and led to the rise of labor and other social movements.

The only quibble I might raise about both the article and the book, is that neither mentions the impact of the oil industry in the region during the era studied.  Southern California was, after all, one of the world’s largest producers of oil in the early 20th century.  I suspect that the roughneck image of the oil industry does not jibe well with Prof. Gendzel’s argument about the impact of genteel, middle-class immigration, nor the promotion of clean industry that Mr. Zimmerman describes.

But having said that, both works are informative, and in the case of Mr. Zimmerman’s book, the pictures really are worth putting on a coffee table.

I also want to mention that I had the pleasure of attending a talk by Mr. Zimmerman on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2009, sponsored by the Santa Monica Conservancy.

–Frank Gruber

 

CALL FOR PAPERS: Cultural Studies Association, Kansas City (Deadline Sept. 15; Conference April 16-18)

FROM: H-AMST

Seventh Annual Cultural Studies Association (U.S.)
Marriott (at the Plaza), Kansas City
April 16-18, 2009

Expected plenary speakers include:
Michael Bérubé, Pennsylvania State University
Marc Bousquet, Santa Clara University
Orit Halpern, New School for Social Research
Michele Janette, Kansas State University
E. Patrick Johnson, Northwestern University
Karim Murji, Open University (U.K.)
Cary Nelson, University of Illinois
Amit Rai, Florida State University
Sangeeta Ray, University of Maryland
Maria Josefina Saldaña-Porillo, New York University
Jeff Williams, Carnegie Mellon University

Also, the popular Journal Salon feature will continue.  Journals expected
are:
Cultural Critique
Cultural Studies/ Critical Methodologies
Dialectical Anthropology
Flow
Genders
Mediations

Deadline for Proposals: September 15, 2008.

This conference, which uses Open Conference Systems developed by the Public
Knowledge Project <http://www.pkp.ubc.ca/> , enables participants to submit
abstracts online at http://www.csaus.pitt.edu/conf/submit.php?cf=5.  The
website for submissions will open August 15, 2008.

Call for Papers and Sessions

The Cultural Studies Association (U.S.) invites participation in its Seventh
Annual Meeting from all areas and on all topics of relevance to Cultural
Studies, including but not limited to literature, history, sociology,
geography, anthropology, communications, popular culture, cultural theory,
queer studies, critical race studies, feminist studies, postcolonial
studies, media and film studies, material culture studies, performance and
visual arts studies.

All participants in the Sixth Annual meeting must pay registration fees by
March 16, 2009, to be listed and participate in the program. See the
registration page of this website for details about fees.

If you have any questions about procedures for submission or other concerns,
please e-mail us at: csaus@pitt.edu. We welcome proposals in the following
four categories:

1. INDIVIDUAL PAPERS
Proposals for individual papers are due September 15, 2008.

Successful papers will reach several constituencies of the organization and
will connect analysis to social, political, economic, or ethical questions.

They should be submitted online on the conference website. Successful
submission will be acknowledged. If you do not receive an acknowledgment
within 24 hours, please resubmit. The acknowledgment will say that your
proposal has been ‘’successfully submitted,” which does NOT mean your
proposal has been accepted.

All paper proposals require:

a. The name, email address, department and institutional affiliation of the
author, entered on the website.
b. A 500-word abstract for the 20-minute paper entered on the website.
c. Any needed audio-visual equipment must be noted following the abstract in
that space on the site.

2. PRE-CONSTITUTED PAPER SESSIONS, ROUNDTABLE SESSIONS, OR WORKSHOP SESSIONS
Proposals for pre-constituted sessions are due September 15, 2008.

Roundtables are sessions in which panelists offer brief remarks, but the
bulk of the session is devoted to discussion among the panelists and
audience members. Workshops are similarly devoted primarily to discussion,
but they focus on practical problems in such areas as teaching, research, or
activism. No paper titles may be included for roundtables or workshops.

Pre-constituted sessions should NOT be submitted on the website, but should
be sent to csaus@pitt.edu with the words ”Session Proposal” in the subject
line. All proposals will be acknowledged, but please allow at least two
business days before inquiring.

All session proposals require:

a. The name, email address, phone number, and department and institutional
affiliation of the proposer.
b. The names, email addresses, and department and institutional affiliations
of each participant.
c. A 500-word overview of the session, including identifying the type of
session (panel, roundtable, workshop) proposed. For paper sessions, also
include 500-word abstracts of each of the papers. Paper sessions should have
three or four papers.
d. A request for any needed audio-visual equipment. All AV equipment must be
requested with the proposal.

3. DIVISION SESSIONS
Division sessions are due September 15, 2008.

A list of divisions is available at http://www.csaus.pitt.edu
<http://www.csaus.pitt.edu/> . Divisions may elect to post calls on that
site for papers and procedures for submission to division sessions or handle
the creation of their two division sessions by other means.  Division chairs
will submit their two panels/workshops/roundtables directly to the program
committee by September 15, 2008 (directions will be sent to the division
chairs). Proposals for divisions should NOT be submitted on the website or
to csaus@pitt.edu.

4. SEMINAR PROPOSALS
Proposals for seminars are due September 15, 2008.

Seminars are small-group (maximum 15 individuals) discussion sessions for
which participants prepare in advance of the conference. In previous years,
preparation has involved shared readings, pre-circulated ”position papers”
by seminar leaders and/or participants, and other forms of pre-conference
collaboration. We particularly invite proposals for seminars designed to
advance emerging lines of inquiry and research/teaching initiatives within
Cultural Studies broadly construed. We also invite seminars designed to
generate future collaborations among conference attendees. Once a limited
number of seminar topics and leaders are chosen, the seminars will be
announced through the CSA’s various public e-mail lists. Participants will
contact the seminar leader(s) directly who will then inform the Program
Committee who will participate in the seminar.  Seminars will be marked in
the conference programs as either closed to non-participants or open to
other conference attendees as auditors (or in other roles).  Examples of
successful seminar proposals from previous years are linked in here (if you
are reading this on the website).

All seminar proposals require:
a. A 500-word overview of the topic designed to attract participants and
clear instructions about how the seminar will work, including details about
what advanced preparation will be required of seminar participants.
b. The name, email address, phone number, mailing address, and departmental
and institutional affiliation of the leader(s) proposing the seminar.
c. A brief bio or one page CV of the leader(s) proposing the seminar.
d. A request for any needed audio-visual equipment. All AV equipment must be
requested with the proposal. Since seminars typically involve discussion of
previously circulated papers, such requests must be explained.

Seminar proposals should be sent to:

Bruce Burgett, Professor and Interim Director, Interdisciplinary Arts and
Sciences
University of Washington Bothell
burgett@u.washington.edu

and

Colin Danby, Associate Professor, Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences,
University of Washington Bothell
danby@u.washington.edu

Those interested in participating in (rather than leading) a seminar should
consult the list of seminars and the instructions for signing up for them,
available at http://www.csaus.pitt.edu <http://www.csaus.pitt.edu/>  after
October 15, 2008. Deadline to sign up will be November 14, 2008.  Deadline
for seminar leaders to submit final lists of participants (minimum 8
individuals, in addition to the seminar leader or leaders) will be November
21, 2008.

 

NEWS: CSA Announces Partnership With the H-California Discussion Network

The CSA and H-California (Humanities Discussion Network, California) are proud to announce a new partnership to advance their missions to serve the communities of scholars, activists, and professionals who rely on scholarship in the humanities for their work. We are joining forces to strengthen the service we provide our communities.

In the last year, the CSA has undertaken a more robust approach to its use of the internet to serve its members by adopting a new website and a blog. These projects will be enhanced by collaborating with the editors at H-California who run a listserv (an email list), and an online forum with resources, through the international Humanities Network, h-net.org.

H-California functions as a way for scholars, activists, and nonprofit professionals to communicate about scholarly projects about California. Many of the postings are book reviews, calls for papers, event announcements, queries for projects, new resources, and so forth.

The CSA will collaborate with H-California in the following capacities:

* Shared news items, syndicated between the CSA blog and the H-California listserv.

* Promoting resources, events, and projects between the two resources.

We strongly encourage CSA members and our community to join the H-California listserv, an automated email discussion board of all news and events related to humanities scholarship in California. The CSA will list all our news, events, blog postings, and official communication on the H-California listserv.

 

OBITUARIES: LA Times Stories Report 500th Californian Killed in Iraq and Afghanistan

From Tomas Sandoval, CSA Steering Committee

Megan Garvey reported today that the death of two soldiers in the north of Afghanistan brings the death toll of Californian soldiers serving there and in Iraq has reached 500.

Steve Lopez commented on the number as it grew near several days ago in the same paper.

In an article and a video blog in the same paper, Hector Becerra profiled those soldiers who have been killed since 2001.

Becerra also wrote a piece on the 59 immigrant Californians who have been killed.

Tony Perry wrote a memorial piece for the paper.

And a photo gallery of a soldiers cemetery.

 

CONFERENCE: Border Governors Conference, Hollywood (Aug. 13-15)

From Louise Nelson Dyble, Chair of the CSA.

“The Border Governors Conference (BGC) is the largest binational venue to discuss and resolve some of the most important border issues affecting the United States and Mexico. The ten Border States represent the world’s most important and dynamic binational region – with a joint economy that ranks third in the world.

The XXVI Border Governors Conference will be held in Hollywood, California from August 13-15, 2008, and will be hosted by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.”

 

ANTHOLOGY: Daniel Libeskind’s Contemporary Jewish Museum opens in San Francisco

The Contemporary Jewish Museum opened its new building in the Yerba Buena cultural district on Sunday. The museum selected Daniel Libeskind ten years ago before the project was held up in financial and logistical complications. Libeskind won international acclaim–and a mountain of commissions–when he prevailed in the competition for master site planner at the World Trade Center Site in 2003. Two main features of the San Francisco building are its bizarre metaphorical angles and its post-modern hybrid of ultra-modern architecture with an existing 1907 building designed by Willis Polk, a PG&E substation, a hold-over from the post-conflagration City Beautiful movement. Here’s a re-cap of the reporting that went on and some resources for the new building.

The LA Times provided architectural criticism that questions Libeskind’s career development and discusses major features of the building.

Mathew Kuruvila discusses the Bay Area Jewish tradition in the Chronicle.

The Chronicle outlined the setbacks the museum faced in its ten year journey.

John King does a critical piece for the Chronicle’s coverage of the opening. “Is the Contemporary a great work of architecture. No.”

King also wrote a good speculative article in the Chronicle for the groundbreaking ceremony of the museum in 2006.

Kenneth Baker does a review of the new Contemporary’s exhibits: artists musing on Genesis, John Zorn’s curatorial soundscapes, William Steig’s cartoons, and submitted photos from Bay Area Jewish life.

David Basulto took some good pics in this post for ArchDaily.com

Libeskind’s firm’s website also has some cool images.

SFCurbed also did the Chronicle’s work with these reports (Number One, Number Two, Number Three, Number Four) on and array of photographs of the Contemporary Jewish Museum.

Zeek did an interview with Libeskind about the SF museum.

The Contemporary Jewish museum features an mp3 audio tour with California historian Kevin Starr about the PG&E substation as well as an mp3 audio interview with Libeskind.

 

FILM: “Hecho in Los Angeles” A Look at LA Garment Workers, Thursday May 8, in San Francisco

From FlavorpillSF, a great calendar of A&E.

Thursday, May 8, 2008. 7:30PM $6

Hecho en Los Angeles (MADE IN L.A.)

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition Film Series

a documentary about the immigrant workers struggle in honor of InternationalWorkers’ Day.

Made in L.A. traces the moving transformation of three Latina garment workers on the fault lines of global economic change who decide they must resist. Through a groundbreaking law suit and consumer boycott, they fight to establish an important legal and moral precedent holding an American retailer liable for the labor conditions under which its products are manufactured. But more than this, Made in LA provides an insider’s view into both the struggles of recent immigrants and into the organizing process itself: the enthusiasm, discouragement, hard-won victories and ultimate self-empowerment.

As director Carracedo concludes: “These women’s struggle mattered not just for its own sake but because it served as a catalyst for each of them, in her own way, to stand up and say: ‘I exist. I have rights.’” 70 min., 2007, Spanish and English with bilingual subtitles.

© 2006 Artists’ Television Access, 992 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110, (415) 824-3890. Artists’ Television Access is supported in part by Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, the San Francisco Foundation, SF Weekly, individual donors, and volunteers.

 

NEWS: May Day in California: A Snapshot

Louis Sahagun and Ronald D. White reported in the LA Times on the International Longshore and Warehouse Union’s (ILWU) West coast work stoppage yesterday in protest of the Iraq war.

Watch and listen to Democracy Now’s report on the ILWU’s West coast shutdown.

Mike Rhodes’ reported and took photographs for IndyBay on a march in Fresno.

Swati Pandey commented on the last two May Days in LA in the LA Times.

Swati Pandey reviewed LA Times editorials from May Days past.

Joel Rubin and Anna Gorman reported for the LA Times on LAPD’s preparation training for May Day protests.

LA Times blog tracked the hour by hour protests and gatherings: many reports remark on the small turnout this year in LA.

Truthout’s report on the May Day violence and staff shakeup in the LAPD last year, 2007. Wikipedia has a report and a large newspaper bibliography of LA’s May Day last year.

David Swanson reported for the California Chronicle on the ILWU’s May Day work stoppage and the history of the May Day’s origins from 1886 Haymarket Revolt: “Watch this video. Clarence Thomas, National Co-Chair of the Million Worker March Movement and Executive Board member of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10, spoke on April 24th, 2008, at the Iraq Town Hall meeting, in the Grand Lake Theater, Oakland, CA. The ILWU has committed to blocking ports on May 1st in opposition to the occupation of Iraq.”

Chronicle staff writers reported on May Day in the Bay Area. The big story is the ILWU’s work stoppage in protest of the war in Iraq.

 

EXHIBIT: The Chinese of California : A Struggle for Community (through Aug. 30)

This posting comes from the California Historical Society site.

The Bancroft Library, California Historical Society and Chinese Historical Society Present

The Chinese of California: A Struggle for Community
February 7 to August 30, 2008

From the gold country of Northern California to major metropolitan areas of Southern California and beyond, Chinese of California tells the story of the Chinese American fight for civil rights and the unique challenges that characterized the formation of Chinese communities in California.

As the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and further legislation removed the constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law for people of Chinese descent, discrimination and violent attacks intensified. Since the Gold Rush to the building of the transcontinental railroad to the modern civil rights struggle, Chinese Californians have faced the challenge of organizing to fight for basic human rights—and for the very existence of their communities.

A joint project of the Bancroft Library, the California Historical Society, and the Chinese Historical Society of America, Chinese of California explores these stories, sharing from within the experiences of the Chinese communities’ struggles to survive.

 

April 22 Conference at USC: Immigrant Integration and the American Future: Lessons From and For California

As part of the University of Southern California (USC) Provost’s Initiative on Immigrant Integration, the USC School of Policy, Planning and Development, and USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences are hosting a conference entitled: “Immigrant Integration and the American Future: Lessons From and For California.”

CONFERENCE OBJECTIVES AND HIGHLIGHTS:

The conference will bring together academics, policymakers, and activists to discuss experiences and practices of immigrant integration, highlighting the interwoven interests of immigrants and host communities, and the mutuality of our fates. The aim will be to define a strategic agenda on issues and policies for successful immigrant integration, with a special focus on Los Angeles and California.

WHEN:
Tuesday, April 22, 2008, 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

WHERE:
Davidson Conference Center

University of Southern California
3415 South Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA 90080-0871

REGISTRATION DEADLINE:
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Please read on for registration information.

REGISTRATION:
To register, please complete the online registration form at usc.edu/esvp <usc.edu/esvp> (ESVP code: immigrant) or phone (213) 740-1744, no later than Tuesday, April 15, 2008. All participants must register in advance; please individually register each participant from your organization.

Participation is by RSVP only, and space is limited. RSVPs will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis. Conference fee is $20.

Full scholarships are available and the fee will be waived for USC faculty and students. Send an email to <mailto:pere@college.usc.edu> pere@college.usc.edu <mailto:pere@college.usc.edu> to request a scholarship or waiver.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION: The Davidson Conference Center at USC is served by several MTA and Dash buses with many of them stopping directly in front of the Center at the Jefferson and Figueroa intersection. Lines serving Downtown Los Angeles include the MTA #38, #81 and # 381, as well as the Dash F line. For more information please visit www.metro.net/default.asp <www.metro.net/default.asp> or call 1-800-COMMUTE.

DRIVING:
Suggested Parking
Jefferson East Parking Plaza (Parking Structure D / PSD), Open Monday – Friday, 6 a.m. – 7 p.m. Enter at the Jefferson Boulevard Entrance at Royal Street (Gate #4). Tell the parking attendant that you are here to attend the Immigrant Integration Conference at the Davidson Conference Center. The parking fee is included in the registration fee.