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Teaching for Change: Popular Education and the Labor Movement. INSTITUTION California Univ., Los Angeles

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Teaching for Change: Popular Education and the Labor Movement. INSTITUTION California Univ., Los Angeles DOCUMENT RESUME ED 477 383 CE 084 907 AUTHOR Delp, Linda, Ed.; Outman-Kramer, Miranda, Ed.; Schurman, Susan J., Ed.; Wong, Kent, Ed. TITLE Teaching for Change: Popular Education and the Labor Movement. INSTITUTION California Univ., Los Angeles. ISBN ISBN-0-615-12275-2 PUB DATE 2002-12-00 NOTE 268p.; Produced by the Center for Labor Research and Education and the George Meany Center for Labor Studies, The National Labor College. AVAILABLE FROM UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education, Box 951478, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1478 ($20). Tel: 310-794-5982; Web site: http://www.labor.ucla.edu/ . PUB TYPE Collected Works General (020) Opinion Papers (120) Reports Descriptive (141) EDRS PRICE EDRS Price MFO1 /PC11 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Activism; Adult Education; Collective Bargaining; *Community Involvement; Consciousness Raising; Economics Education; Employe.i. Employee Relationship; Empowerment; *Labor Education; Labor Relations; *Leadership Training; Literacy Education; Nonschool Educational Programs; Occupational Safety and Health; *Popular Education; Social Change; Theater Arts; Union Members; *Unions; *Workplace Literacy IDENTIFIERS Canada; Labor Organizers; United States ABSTRACT These 28 essays recount popular education's history and its multiple uses in the labor movement today: to organize the unorganized, to develop new leaders and activists, and to strengthen labor and community alliances. They explore its other facets: theater and culture, economics education, workplace safety and health, and classroom use and address experiences from Canada and the United States (US)-Mexico border. The essays are "Popular Education" (Bernard); "Popular Education, Labor, and Social Change" (Hurst); "Highlander and Labor" (Williams, Sessions); "Organizing Public Sector Workers in Puerto Rico" (Delp, Outman-Kramer); "Stamford, Connecticut, Case Study" (McAlevey); "Paolo Freire Hits L.A.'s Mean Streets" (Bacon); "Year 2000 Justice for Janitors Campaign" (Arellano); "Las Vegas Hotel Workers Find a Voice" (Lee, Baker); "Empowering the Members' Voice" (Del Valle); "Economic Justice in the Los Angeles Figueroa Corridor" (Haas); "Fighting for a Living Wage in Santa Monica" (Rothstein); "Just Transition Alliance" (View); "Power of Voices" (Williams); "Battle in Seattle" (Brown); "On Theater and the Labor Movement" (Delp, Outman-Kramer); "Forum Theater" (Delp); "Theater for Worker Health and Safety" (Dooley); "Experiences with Popular Economic Education" (Teninty); "Justice for Avondale Workers" (Washington); "Building a Worker Health and Safety Movement" (Delp); "Workplace Learning, Literacy, and English for Speakers of Other Languages" (Chenven); "English Classes at the Union Hall" (Utech); "Labor in the Schools" (Tubach); "Labor Deserves Credit" (Schurman); "Case Method in Labor Leadership Education" (Bernard); "Confronting Trade Policies from the Bottom Up" (Delp, De Lara); and "Worker-Educators and Union Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Transformation" (Thomas, Martin). A resources list consists of 18 United States, 5 Canadian, 2 Latin American, and 1 Asian organizations and 2 international networks.(YLB) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. L -MR 1 0 en alEug:nantdu Lax oo en N 71- PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 1 U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) *This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy TEACHINGFORCHANGE Popular Education and the Labor Movement Edited by Linda Delp, Miranda Outman-Kramer, Susan J. Schurman, Kent Wong UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education, Los Angeles, Calif. George Meany Center for Labor Studies-The National Labor College, Silver Spring, Md. 3 Contributing editors Parijat Desai Luu Doan Julie Monroe Photo editor Catherine Jun Fact checker Lorraine Rag lin Book design Lauren Iverson Cover photo: Deisy Cabrera from the Los Angeles Justice for Janitors campaign participates ina March 8 International Womens Day Action. Courtesy Stephanie Arellano. UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education, Box 951478, Los Angeles CA 90095-1478 © 2002 by UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education All rights reserved. Published 2002 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Control Number: 2002114538 ISBN 0-615-12275-2 A Contents Introduction, Kent Wong 1 Chapter One: History of Popular Education in the Labor Movement 1. Popular Education: Training Rebels with a Cause, Elaine Bernard 6 2. Popular Education, Labor, and Social Change, John Hurst 9 3. Highlander and Labor: Building on the Past, Looking to the Future, Susan Williams with Jim Sessions 19 Chapter Two: Organizing 1.Organizing Public Sector Workers in Puerto Rico: An Interview with Jose La Luz and Annette Gonzalez, Linda Delp and Miranda Outman-Kramer 26 2. Stamford, Connecticut, Case Study: The Whole Worker Movement, Jane McAlevey 36 3. Paolo Freire Hits L.A.'s Mean Streets: Organizing Day Laborers, David Bacon 53 Chapter Three: Leadership Development 1. Year 2000 Justice for Janitors Campaign: Reflections of a Union Organizer, Stephanie Arellano 62 2. Las Vegas Hotel Workers Find a Voice: The Power of a Popular Education Approach to Health and Safety, Pam Tau Lee and Robin Baker 72 3. Empowering the Members' Voice: SEIU Leadership Development, Katarina Davis Del Valle 84 Chapter Four: Labor-Community Alliances 1. Economic Justice in the Los Angeles Figueroa Corridor, Gilda Haas 90 2. Fighting for a Living Wage in Santa Monica, Vivian Rothstein 101 3. Just Transition Alliance: Frontline Workers and Fence line Communities United for Justice, Jenice L. View 108 4. The Power of Voices: The Tennessee Industrial Renewal Network, Susan Williams 114 5. The Battle in Seattle, Liz Brown 123 BEST COPYAVAILABLE 5 iv Contents Chapter Five: Popular Theater and Culture 1. On Theater and the Labor Movement: An Interview with Elise Bryant, Linda Delp and Miranda Outman-Kramer 128 2. Forum Theater: More than a Role Play, Linda Delp 131 3. Theater for Worker Health and Safety: Reflections, Peter Dooley 134 Chapter Six: Economics Education 1. Experiences with Popular Economic Education, Ellen Teninty and Just Economics 138 2. Justice for Avondale Workers, Susan M. Washington 148 Chapter Seven: Workplace Health and Safety 1.Building a Worker Health and Safety Movement, Linda Delp 156 Chapter Eight: Popular Education in the Classroom 1. Workplace Learning, Literacy, and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), Laura Chenven 180 2. English Classes at the Union Hall, Jenny Lee Utech 187 3. Labor in the Schools: Collective Bargaining Education Project, Linda Tubach 198 4. Labor Deserves Credit: The Popular Education Foundations of the National Labor College, Susan J. Schurman 204 5. Case Method in Labor Leadership Education, Elaine Bernard 219 Chapter Nine: Experiences from the North and South 1. Confronting Trade Policies from the Bottom Up, Linda Delp and Juan De Lara 228 2. Worker-Educators and Union Transformation: A Canadian Perspective, Barb Thomas and D'Arcy Martin 239 Contributors 251 Resources 259 i 6 Introduction By Kent Wong Popular education has played a significant role within the U.S. labor movement over the years and continues to even today. Yet its role is largely unknown among labor leaders, organizers, and even some labor educators. This is the first book of its kind to capture the stories and experiences of popular educators in the U.S. labor movement. U.S. educators have drawn inspiration from the teachings of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire and his most famous work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Within the United States, the best-known popular education school, the Highlander Research and Education Center, has served movements for social change for generations. Founded by Myles Horton in 1932 in Tennessee, the Highlander Center played a critical role in educational initiatives to support labor organizing in the 1930s and again played a central role in the civil rights movement in the 1960s. But the U.S. labor movement has not always embraced a philosophy of teaching for social change and transformation. Unlike labor movements in Canada and Brazil that have viewed education as an integral part of organizing and union building, the approach to labor education in the United States has historically been more narrow and conservative. The change in leadership within the U.S. labor movement in 1995 brought with it a renewed energy and spirit and opened the door to new ideas. Labor educators and union leaders have increasingly adopted a popular education approach to build- ing the labor movement. A primary purpose of this book is to draw from a broad cross section of labor educators who are creatively using popular education in their work, and to promote an environment where we can learn from one another. There is no unanimous opinion on what constitutes popular education, nor a uni- form popular education methodology that is consistently applied in practice. However, there are consistent themes among the voices captured in this book. Popular educators embrace a vision of education that links theory and practice, a philosophy that supports
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