Fiscal Crisis through the Lens of Class
A conference to help develop a coherent working-class presence
in New York City life
Friday March 28, 2003 - - 6:30 p.m.
Saturday March 29, 2003 - - 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
At the City University of New York Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue, at 34th Street, Manhattan
Friday night plenary is free and open to the public
Saturday conference fee: $10 / $5 for students, retired, unemployed
Plenary speakers include: Larian Angelo, Director, NYC Council Finance Division; Stanley Aronowitz, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Study of Culture, Technology, and Work, CUNY Graduate Center; Barbara Bowen, President, Professional Staff Congress (PSC-American Federation of Teachers); Hon. John Conyers, Jr., 14th Congressional District, Michigan; Jeff Faux, Distinguished Fellow and former President, Economic Policy Institute; Hector Figueroa, Secretary-Treasurer, SEIU Local 32BJ (tentative); Seth Klein, British Columbia Director, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), Vancouver; Frances Fox Piven, Professor of Political Science, CUNY Graduate Center; Roger Toussaint, President, Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100; Bill Scheuerman, President, United University Professions (UUP - American Federation of Teachers); Michael Zweig, Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Study of Working Class Life, SUNY Stony Brook; and others.
Topics for workshops and breakout sessions now include: Early childhood education; environment; health; higher education; housing; K-12 education; transportation; welfare / working poor - each led by labor, academic, and community leaders in the field.
Statement of Conference Purpose:
Working people in New York are facing two burdens: the fiscal crisis, and the absence of a coherent working class politics to respond to the deep suffering the fiscal crisis will entail.
This conference will bring together people from the labor movement ? both public and private sector workers - academics, and people from many different community organizations. We will explore class implications of the fiscal crisis. How does the existence of classes in the United States shape public finances? What do recent budget experiences tell us about how class works? How can knowledge of class help us develop solidarity and shape the social movements we need to redirect public finances towards the interest of working people? We will begin to develop strategies and connections so that our respective organizations can build rather than undermine a united working class response to the powers that are now shaping our future in the interests of large corporations and the capitalists who run them. We hope this conference will contribute to the creation of a coherent working class social force to determine the future of New York.
Sponsored by:
Center for Study of Working Class Life ? SUNY Stony Brook
Center for Study of Culture, Technology, and Work ? CUNY Graduate Center
supported by the DSC Adjunct Project
TO REGISTER, contact: Continuing Education & Public Programs The Graduate Center, CUNY 365 Fifth Avenue, Suite 8204 New York, NY 10016-4309 212.817.8215 continuinged at gc.cuny.edu
for detailed schedule, please visit <http://www.workingclass.sunysb.edu>
PLEASE FORWARD TO INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS AND LISTS