National Attack on Labor Studies

[Michael Hoover <hooverm@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Date:    Sun, 28 Dec 2003 19:28:54 -0600
From:    "Nelson N. Lichtenstein" <nelson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: The national attack on labor studies

Colleagues:

       As many of you already know, the Schwarzenegger Administration
has
eliminated funding for the UC Institute for Labor and Employment. The
ILE,
founded just three years ago by an act of the California legislature -
and
with the full support of the California labor movement - quickly
established itself as a national leader in labor education, strategic
research, and scholarly investigation of topics of interest to active
unionists and concerned academics.

       Right-wing "think tanks," including the Manhattan Institute and
the
Pacific Research Institute, began a campaign against the ILE and other
labor studies programs last summer. When Schwarzenegger became governor
his
Bushite transition team immediately targeted the ILE for elimination,
using
the state fiscal crisis as the occasion and excuse for their action. An
excellent article on this subject, "Class Warfare" by David Bacon, can
be
found in the January 12, 2004 issue of The Nation. Go to
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhml?i=20040112&s=bacon

       We know that this right wing attack on labor studies and the new
working-class studies movement is hardly limited to California.
Right-wing
journalists have also targeted programs or individual researchers at the
University of Massachusetts - Amherst, at Cornell, and at the University
of
North Carolina. We would very much like to catalogue information about
other such attacks, successful or not, that have taken place during the
last few years. We are forming a national "Committee to Defend Labor
Studies Scholarship" and will shortly be asking for your support and
participation.

       So, if you have knowledge of such instances please send
particulars to
Nelson Lichtenstein at nelson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

       In solidarity,


       Nelson Lichtenstein, History
       Richard Flacks, Sociology
       University of California, Santa Barbara

Nelson Lichtenstein
Professor of History
UC Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
nelson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(0) 805-893-4822
(h) 805-966-5745
(fax) 805-893-8795

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