tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63243895295205929282011-04-21T12:01:29.666-07:00Lowell High School Civics Teacher Ken Tray travels to China with a delegation of labor leaders to investigate the status of unionism.Ken Trayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12950695503564009055noreply@blogger.comBlogger21100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6324389529520592928.post-42777705514693875792008-12-08T12:15:00.000-08:002008-12-08T12:19:50.874-08:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';">Unfortunately, the grand goal of a blog updated daily from China has met with the reality of technological limitations on the ground. To be more specific, the email system is not working correctly and nothing is coming through. </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';">Look for a full recap some time later this week, as Ken returns tomorrow full of stories with a camera full of compelling photos.</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6324389529520592928-4277770551469387579?l=sflabortochina.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ken Trayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12950695503564009055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6324389529520592928.post-58171314348982155502008-12-01T10:35:00.000-08:002008-12-01T11:12:17.205-08:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';"><div><br /></div>"What syllable are we seeking,</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';">Vocalissimus,</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';">In the distance of sleep?</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';">Speak it."</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';">– Wallace Stevens (To the Roaring Wind)</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';">Today Tim Paulson, Director of the </span><a href="http://www.sflaborcouncil.org/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';">San Francisco Labor Council</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';"> and I will catch a cab for SFO and a plane for Shanghai. Our China travel companions include UC Labor Studies Chairs Ken Jacobs (</span><a href="http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';">UC Berkeley)</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';"> and Kent Wong (</span><a href="http://www.labor.ucla.edu/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';">UCLA</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';">) and at some point Josie Mooney, from SEIU and also the Labor Council.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';">I remain a humble classroom teacher in the midst of labor giants...We are on a mission. Not to save souls, like in the imperial days of the infamous western concessions, but to meet with the labor leaders in Shanghai and then to forge formal relations with the Guangzhou Labor Federation. To see working conditions in China...Banquets, meetings, more meetings and visits to schools, universities and a rumored pit-stop to the Pearl River Beer Brewery before we head home (Tim writes, 'yikes')...And I get to tell you about it...</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';">China is on the cusp. Working class discontent ferments in the subterranean depths of the booming market economy of theirs. The Party priesthood must be spending long nights dissecting Das Kapital and Quotations of Mao or rather Deng Xiao Ping (or old Confucious) Communists building a capitalist system. My dear old anarchist Grandpa Abe, the tailor, must be laughing in his grave...</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'courier new';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';">I get to take a look at all this. It may not be the Gettysburg Address, but this sure as hell is history in the making...Will the workers' party allow for worker advocacy or will the iron heel of red fascism prevail...And I get to sip Jasmine tea on the shores of the spectacle...</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6324389529520592928-5817131434898215550?l=sflabortochina.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ken Trayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12950695503564009055noreply@blogger.com5