Cross-posted from Talking Union 

AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee and Sec.-Treas. Lee Saunders released a statement applauding President Obama’s message. They said:

“President Obama’s announcement today recognizes a fundamental American right – that every citizen is entitled to respect and dignity, and the equal protection of our laws.  For too long, lesbian and gay Americans have been denied the right to marry the person they love, raise a family and live as equal citizens in our country.”

With the second anniversary of the Citizens United decision approaching, this song written by Barbara Joye and performed by Atlanta singer Anita Paycheck is right on.

The AFL-CIO has a new, informative, clever website on Collective Bargaining. It features three entertaining, funny videos by director/writer Negin Farsad, producer Justin Krebs, writer Lee Camp and punchup artist Katie Halper of Vaguely Qualified productions. Here's the first one. They use humor to show why workers need collective bargaining.

On April 5 — one day after the We Are One rallies -- over 175 college campuses in 37 states will be participating in a national teach-in on debt, austerity, and corporate greed.

The teach-in is being organized by two long-time pro-labor public intellectuals, sociologist Francis Fox Piven and philosopher Cornell West.

Scheduled for April 5th at 2 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Savings Time), the event seeks to counter the drumbeat of right-wing propaganda. Content will be streamed live to teach-ins organized in local communities from the national teach-in at Judson Memorial Church in New York City. The local teach-ins will use the streamed material and add their own speakers that focus on their community. DSA has endorsed this program and is encouraging local groups and YDS chapters to organize local events that connect to the national teach-in. Jobs with Justice, the Student Labor Action Project, and others are promoting the teach-in.

It’s time to vote for the LabourStart 2010 Labor Photo of the Year. This year’s finalists dramatically illustrate the struggles of workers around the globe. The contest recognizes the talents of worker-photographers around the world, and at the same time encourages them to tell the stories of our struggles in photos.

Click here to cast your vote for the Photo of the Year. The voting ends at midnight GMT (7 p.m. EST) Dec. 31. You can vote only once.

LabourStart, the global online labor news service, will hold its 2010 Global Solidarity conferenceat a time when workers are caught in an economic tsunami and employers are using the crisis as an excuse to trample workers’ rights. Participants from more than 50 countries will hear firsthand about the struggles of working people around the world, especially under repressive regimes such as Iran and China, at the July 9–11 conference at McMaster University’s School of Labor Studies in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Powered by 800 volunteer correspondents across the globe, LabourStart daily publishes links to hundreds of labor stories in 23 languages. Working closely with national unions and global union federations, LabourStart spearheads action campaigns in multiple languages. It has promoted union use of new media through its labor website, photo and video of the year contests.

It's the holiday gift season again and if you are at a loss about what to buy your favorite union activist, I've got some suggestions. And if you are a union activist, maybe you've been scratching your head trying to come up with a union-themed gift for your son, daughter, niece or nephew. Or maybe, you want to avoid that awkward moment, when you open a gift and have to feign joy on receiving a sweat-shop gift. In that case, here's a list you can pass on to family and friends.

1. A coffee table book--Agitate! Educate! Organize! American Labor Posters by Lincoln Cushing and Timothy W. Drescher. $24.95, Cornell University Press, 2009. [For more book ideas, check out the unionized on-line Powell's Books or Union Communication Services' Online Book Catalog.]

2. A magazine subscription--The American Prospect or In These Times. There are lots of liberal/progressive magazines out there, but these are two of the finest and give more extensive coverage to labor and working life issues than most.

3. A gift membership in the Union Sportsmen's Alliance. The USA is a one-of-a-kind, hunting and fishing association of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) and its trade union partners, exclusively for conservation-minded union members, retirees and their families that hunt, fish and appreciate the outdoors.

Kansas Secretary of State candidate Kris Kobach told a not very funny joke the other day at a Republican party event in Tonganoxie. According to the Lawrence World:

Kobach asked what Obama and God had in common. He said neither had a birth certificate.

With the help of  Vice-Chair Steve Max, Democratic Socialists of America have developed a short slide show on health care that makes the case for single payer as well as the public option.

Representatives from Campus Progress were at a program hosted by Wichita State Campus Progress Thursday night, before visiting other campuses in the state. The message: students must put the pressure on Congress to pass a progressive budget and provide funds and make reforms to being to make college affordable again.