lecturers greet their new contract as a game changer

UCB LECTURERS GREET THE NEW CONTRACT AS "A GAME CHANGER" AND "ONLY THE BEGINNING" By Jane Hundertmark and David Bacon CFT United, 11/18/21 https://www.cft.org/article/uc-lecturers-greet-new-contract-game-changer-and-only-beginning Bargaining teams members Tiffany Page and Ben Brown tell the crowd of lecturer that the new contract is a game changer. More articles about the history of the lecturers' fight for a contract: https://www.cft.org/article/job-security-still-table-uc-lecturers-members-vote-authorize-strike https://www.cft.org/article/back-classroom-no-contract https://www.cft.org/article/lecturers-rally-nine-uc-campuses-statewide-action https://www.cft.org/article/what-does-uc-aft-strike-look UC lecturers were ready on Thursday to set up morning picket lines at the entrances to all nine University of California campuses.  At Berkeley, the strike lines normally go up first between Bancroft Way and the famous Sather Gate.  But instead of going on strike no angry lines appeared.  And at noon lecturers massed in front of the MLK Student Union in what was almost a festive atmosphere. Cheers broke out as members of the lecturers' bargaining team announced that agreement had been reached with university administrators the night before.  "Whose University?  Our University!" - the chant familiar in every lecturers' rally, became a victory cry.  It echoed across the plaza against the windows of Sproul Hall, from which students were dragged sixty years ago at the beginning of the modern era of university activism.  It would have seemed familiar to them - a sign that lecturers and their students had taken another step, a generation later, toward the same goal. One lecturer, Khalil Kadir, called "beloved" by rally chair Crystal Chang-Cohen, told the crowd, "We need to continue to assert this is our university."  Kadir explained the obvious reason why administrators had agreed the night before:  "They didn't stay up until 5 am because they wanted to. They stayed up until 5 am for a reason - they were terrified that the moment we stop working the university stops working.  We make the university function.  It only works because we do." Crystal Chang-Cohen holds Khalil Kadir's son, and gives him the chance to put in his two cents. The biggest cheers at the rally greeted the announcement that the union had broken through on what has been one of the most important issues for the last 50 years - the precarious nature of lecturer jobs.  The agreement summary posted by the union Thursday morning says it "revolutionizes the first six years of a lecturer's career at the UC."   Lecturers now will get a formal review after their first year and a preference for classes the next year before any new hire.  After two more years, another review and a continuing appointment.  And finally, a third three-year appointment leads to another review, and a permanent appointment.  "Unlike the current system of complete precarity through the first five years of a lecturer's career with a requirement that lecturers apply for their jobs each year, after the first year all the contracts are multi-year." The new agreement also contains wage raises that Ben Brown, a bargaining team member, told the Berkeley crowd amounted to "an average salary increase between 30 and 38 percent."

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PHOTOESSAY ON POVERTY IN TULARE COUNTY WINS SF PRESS CLUB AWARD

A photo series about the San Joaquin Valley during the pandemic just won the first place award from the San Francisco Press Club 2021 awards:

TULARE COUNTY DURING THE PANDEMIC - THE HARD PRICE OF POVERTY
By David Bacon
Capital and Main, 8/3/20
https://capitalandmain.com/tulare-county-during-pandemic-price-of-poverty-0803
http://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2020/08/tulare-county-during-pandemic-hard.html

This series, and two additional ones, also swept the first place awards for photography from the California Newspaper Publishers Association.
 

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COMING EXHIBITIONS

IN THE FIELDS OF THE NORTH / EN LOS CAMPOS DEL NORTE
October 24 - December 19, 2021
Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, KS

January 23 – March 20, 2022.
San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum
11793 Micke Grove Rd, Lodi, CA

MORE THAN A WALL - THE SOCIAL MOVEMENTS OF THE BORDER
February 22 - May 22, 2022
San Francisco Public Library

DEPORTATIONS
Rescheduled for a date when the gallery reopens
Uri-Eichen Gallery, Chicago
 

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Online Interviews and Presentations
 
Exploitation or Dignity - What Future for Farmworkers
UCLA Latin American Institute
Based on a new report by the Oakland Institute, journalist and photographer David Bacon documents the systematic abuse of workers in the H-2A program and its impact on the resident farmworker communities, confronted with a race to the bottom in wages and working conditions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXKa2lHJXMs

David Bacon on union solidarity with Iraqi oil worker unions
Free City Radio - CKUT 27/10/2021 -
https://soundcloud.com/freecityradio/oct-27-2021-ckut-27102021-david-bacon-on-union-solidarity-with-iraqi-oil-worker-unions
 
Organizing during COVID, the intrinsic value of the people who grow our food
Sylvia Richardson - Latin Waves Media
How community and union organizers came together to get rights for farm workers during COVID, and how surviving COVID has literally been an act of resistance.
https://latinwavesmedia.com/wordpress/organizing-during-covid-the-intrinsic-value-of-the-people-who-grow-our-food/
 
Report Details Slavery-Like Conditions For Immigrant Guest Workers
Rising Up With Sonali Kohatkar
https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/report-details-slavery-conditions-immigrant-guest-workers

The Right to Remain
http://www.franknews.us/interviews/415/the-right-to-remain

Beware of Pity
http://www.franknews.us/interviews/525/beware-of-pity

En Español
 
Ruben Luengas - #EnContacto
Hablamos con David Bacon de los migrantes y la situación de México frente a los Estados Unidos por ser el principal país de llegada a la frontera de ese país.
https://rubenluengas.com/2021/03/video-mexico-estados-unidos-migracion-y-suenos-rotos-encontacto/

Jornaleros agrícolas en EEUU en condiciones más graves por Covid-19: David Bacon
SomosMas99 con Agustin Galo Samario
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWQSvM9s1lw

"Los fotógrafos tomamos partido"
Entrevista por Melina Balcázar Moreno - Milenio.com Laberinto
http://www.milenio.com/cultura/laberinto/david_baconm-fotografia-melina_balcazar-laberinto-milenio_0_959904035.html

David Bacon comparte su mirada del trabajo agrícola de migrantes mexicanos en el Museo Archivo de la Fotografia
http://www.cultura.cdmx.gob.mx/comunicacion/nota/0038-18
 

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Online Photography Exhibitions
 
Documentary Matters -  View from the US 
Social Documentary Network
Four SDN photographers explore themes of racial justice, migration, and #MeToo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWl-uENA7SQ&t=1641s
 
There's More Work to be Done
Housing Assistance Council and National Endowment for the Arts
This exhibition documents the work and impact of the struggle for equitable and affordable housing in rural America, inspired by the work of George “Elfie” Ballis.
https://www.thereismoreworktobedone.com/david-bacon
 
Dark Eyes
A beautiful song by Lila Downs honoring essential workers, accompanied by photographs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdC2gE3SNWw

A video about the Social Justice Photography of David Bacon:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14TvAj5nS08ENzWhw3Oxra4LMNKJCLF4z/view

In the FIelds of the North
Online Exhibit
Los Altos History Museum
https://www.losaltoshistory.org/exhibits/in-the-fields-of-the-north/

Virtual Tour - In the Fields of the North
History Museum of Tijuana
Recorrido Virtual de la Exposicion - En los campos del norte
Museo de Historia de Tijuana
https://www.facebook.com/542258639265202/videos/659536991515786
 

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WORK AND SOCIAL JUSTICE:
The David Bacon Archive exhibition at Stanford Libraries
https://exhibits.stanford.edu/bacon/browse

Exhibited throughout the pandemic in the Cecil H. Green Library at Stanford. The online exhibition (https://exhibits.stanford.edu/bacon), which includes additional content not included in the physical show, is accessible to everyone, and is part of an accessible digital spotlight collection that includes significant images from this body of work. For a catalog: (https://web.stanford.edu/dept/spec_coll/NonVendorPubOrderform2017.pdf)

 

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IN THE FIELDS OF THE NORTH / EN LOS CAMPOS DEL NORTE
Photographs and text by David Bacon
University of California Press / Colegio de la Frontera Norte
302 photographs, 450pp, 9”x9”
paperback, $34.95 (in the U.S.)

order the book on the UC Press website:
ucpress.edu/9780520296077
use source code  16M4197  at checkout, receive a 30% discount

En Mexico se puede pedir el libro en el sitio de COLEF:
https://www.colef.mx

Los Angeles Times reviews In the Fields of the North / En los Campos del Norte - click here
 

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THE REALITY CHECK - David Bacon blog
http://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com

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Other Books by David Bacon - Otros Libros

The Right to Stay Home:  How US Policy Drives Mexican Migration  (Beacon Press, 2013)
http://www.beacon.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=2328

Illegal People -- How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants  (Beacon Press, 2008)
Recipient: C.L.R. James Award, best book of 2007-2008
http://www.beacon.org/Illegal-People-P780.aspx

Communities Without Borders (Cornell University/ILR Press, 2006)
https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801473074/communities-without-borders/#bookTabs=1

The Children of NAFTA, Labor Wars on the U.S./Mexico Border (University of California, 2004)
https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520244726/the-children-of-nafta

En Español:  

EL DERECHO A QUEDARSE EN CASA  (Critica - Planeta de Libros)
http://www.planetadelibros.com.mx/el-derecho-a-quedarse-en-casa-libro-205607.html

HIJOS DE LIBRE COMERCIA (El Viejo Topo)
http://www.tienda.elviejotopo.com/prestashop/capitalismo/1080-hijos-del-libre-comercio-deslocalizaciones-y-precariedad-9788496356368.html

For more articles and images, see  http://dbacon.igc.org and http://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com
and https://www.flickr.com/photos/56646659@N05/albums