Why the Rich Oppose Unions

Tractorcade in Madison

Farmers joined other protesters today to protest Governor Walker's coup against the people.

More photos here.

Solidarity

Politico reports:

MADISON, Wis. — Someone in Egypt has been paying attention to what’s happening in Madison and wanted to send a message of solidarity from across the globe — so they ordered pizza.

It might seem like a small gesture, but it’s overwhelming to the staff at Ian’s on State Street — a campus staple mere blocks from the Capitol — where in the last few days, they’ve fielded calls from concerned citizens of 12 countries, and 38 out of 50 states looking to donate money to provide free pizza to the Wisconsinites who have congregated here.

Happy V-Day!

If We Run Short on Undocumented Workers

. . . there's always child labor.



(Thanks, Ben!)

ART WORK: Readings

A few photos here (thanks, Ben!) Again, a great turn-out. This was the last of the three events in the ART WORK in dallas series inspired by Temporary Services' ART WORK newspaper project.

Thanks again to Undermain Theater for their support for the actors' fees, to Mark Ridlen, a.k.a. DJ DeLuxe, for the "audio surprise," to my collaborators at S.M.U. and CentralTrak, and to everyone else who worked so hard to make this series a success.

(You can also see visuals of the symposium here, and of the exhibition here. You can download a complete copy of the ART WORK newspaper issue here. For more info about the ART WORK project, see here. For more info about the ART WORK in dallas series, see here.)

What Happened to the Middle Class?

From "Zombie Nation," posted at MUTE, 2006-05-10 by Paul Helliwell :

The term zombie entered the English language as a result of slavery, in Robert Southey’s History of Brazil. William B. Seabrook’s book The Magic Island, a first-person account of Haitian voodoo rituals (like Maya Deren’s much later Divine Horsemen), inspired White Zombie, 1931, the first zombie movie. In this we see a sugar plantation owned by Bela Lugosi and staffed by zombies. One of the shambling beasts falls into the grinding machinery and becomes at one with the product. This images anxiety about stolen labour on the part of both producer and consumer embodied in what at once unites them and keeps them separate – the commodity. By 1968 and George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, filmed in de-industrialising Pittsburgh, their passivity was the passivity of the mass non-violent resisters campaigning for civil rights. They lumbered because they were inevitable, the mass in human flesh to be sadistically destroyed, interested only in increasing the number of zombies – apocryphally by eating their victim’s brains. By Dawn of the Dead, 1978, their very existence is overproduction: ‘When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth’ – zombies were the proletarian dead proletarian shopping. ‘But why have they all come to the Mall?’ asks one of the living, ‘I don't know… I guess it must have meant something to them in their lives.’ For Web 2.0 users, like the human survivors in Dawn, incarcerated by the zombie hordes in a shopping mall where everything is free, this anxiety of stolen labour can only increase (despite the muzak). Beneath the glossy reflective surface of the commodity is putrifying zombie flesh – humanity is not superfluous in the age of globalised production but only its ‘creative’ part is recognised (leading to its haunting by the latest in a long line of unquiet Marxist spectres).

More at the link above. See also Elizabeth Warren.

Mark Your Calenders: "ART WORK" in Dallas

. . . a conversation about art, labor, and economics.

A series of events will be presented relating to the newspaper issue, ART WORK, published by the Chicago-based collective, Temporary Services, on the subject of how hard economic times affect artistic process and compensation and how artists respond in their own and others' behalf. The series is produced through a collaboration among S.M.U.'s Michael Corris and Noah Simblist, U.T.D./CentralTrak's Kate Sheerin, and Carolyn Sortor.

Exhibition at U.T.D.'s CentralTrak: "The Non-Profit Margin"
Where: 800 Exposition Ave. at Ash, Dallas, TX
When: Opening Sat., May 22, 6:00 - 10:00 pm; exhibition through July 24

Works that confront the global economic crisis by challenging the avenues for exhibition and consumption of art and the art experience, by Richie Budd, Gary Farrelly, Thomas Riccio and Frank Dufour, Ludwig Schwarz, Marjorie Schwarz, give up, and Temporary Services. The ART WORK corridor will also include materials on works and/or writings by Gregory Sholette, Harrell Fletcher, Liam Gillick, Not an Alternative, Mel Chin, Lize Mogel, Maria Lind, Research and Destroy, Robert Projansky and Seth Siegelaub, W.A.G.E., Michael Corris, Hollis Frampton, Don Celender, and Julius Getman. The opening reception will also include "Son of Trunk Show," presented by Shelby Cunningham and featuring eight other artists. Organized by CentralTrak Director Kate Sheerin and Carolyn Sortor. Gallery hours Wed. - Sat., noon - 5:00 pm.

Symposum at S.M.U.: "ART WORK: A Local Conversation About Art, Labor, and Economics"
Where: O’Donnell Hall in Owen Arts Center, on Hillcrest at Grenada, Dallas, TX (FREE PARKING in the "U-Lot" just south of Owen Arts Center)
When: Sat., June 12, 1:00 - 5:00 pm

A symposium on how cultural workers have responded to depressed economies past and present and the aesthetic contexts for Temporary Services' ART WORK project. The symposium is co-sponsored by S.M.U. and U.T.D.'s CentralTrak. Speakers will include Michael Corris, Chair of the Div. of Art at SMU's Meadows School of the Arts; New York-based artist Maureen Connor; artist Bryce Dwyer of the Chicago collective inCUBATE; Marc Herbst, co-Editor of The Journal of Aesthetics & Protest; and Brent Brown of bcWORKSHOP. A panel discussion with the speakers, moderated by Noah Simblist, associate prof. of art at SMU's Meadows School, will follow. Free parking in the "U Lot" just south of the building.

Program at CentralTrak: "ART WORK: Readings"
Where: 800 Exposition Ave. at Ash, Dallas, TX
When: Sat., June 19, 7:30 - 10:00 pm

Readings of excerpts from ART WORK, including history, fiction, autobio, and other writings by Temporary Services, Artforum writer Gregory Sholette, artist Nicolas Lampert, author Cooley Windsor, writer Brian Holmes, "Anonymous," and others. Support for actors' fees is provided by Undermain Theatre; organized by Carolyn Sortor. Doors open at 7:30; program starts at 8:00 pm.

For more info, see the facebook page for "Temporary Services "Art Work" in Dallas." You can also download a complete copy of the newsprint issue here. There's also more info and links re- Temporary Services and the ART WORK issue/project here.

UPDATE: For a review of the exhibition at CentralTrak, see Art Lies. For visuals of the exhibition, see here; for visuals of the symposium, see here; and for visuals of the readings program, see here (thanks to everyone for turning out!) To "like" the ART WORK in dallas series on Facebook, go here. For some of my reasons for instigating this project, see here.

A flashmob infiltrates the Westin St. Francis hotel in San Francisco in support of a boycott called by the hotel workers, who are fighting to win a fair contract and affordable healthcare:

Temporary Services: "ART WORK"

The Chicago-based artists' collective, Temporary Services, has published a one-off newspaper issue on how depressed economies affect artistic process, compensation, and property, including artists' initiatives to organize in their own and others' behalf.

You can download a complete copy of the issue here or here (please share these links!) A limited number of hard copies are also being distributed at select locations across the U.S.

Contributors to the newspaper include artists, critics, writers, and educators "seeking to articulate the ways in which artists and culture-makers both respond to and deal with the economic depressions of the world," including Holland Cotter, New York Times art critic and 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner for criticism; writer/artist Gregory Shollette, contributor to Artforum and co-editor of The Interventionists: Users' Manual for the Creative Disruption of Everyday Life; Julia Bryan-Wilson, author of Art Workers: Radical Practice in the Vietnam Era (2009) and Work Ethic (2003); Christina Ulke, Marc Herbst, and Robby Herbst, editors for The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest; Harrell Fletcher, visual artist; Futurefarmers, a collective design studio that supports art projects, artists in residencies and research interests; Nicolas Lampert, interdisciplinary artist; Lize Mogel, interdisciplinary artist; Linda Frye Burnham, writer and founder of High Performance magazine; Scott Berzofsky and John Duda, organizers of City from Below; Cooley Windsor, author of Visit Me in California; and many more.

TS has been described as "working out of a Situationist tradition"; their projects or publications have been featured at Mass MoCA, The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, the Smart Museum of Art, the Creative Time Summit, and elsewhere.

UPDATE: Additional hard copies of the issue are available for the cost of shipping, through Half Letter Press; but due to the limited supply, orders of additional copies are being limited to 10 each; so get yours soon. Also, Temporary Services' Art Work website has the issue in the now-traditional interactive format, plus additional materials that could not be included in the hard copy because of monetary or time constraints.

Political Art Month

You can now see artists' and art professionals' responses to Political Art Month so far here. They're interesting, inspiring, and funny.

Founder Gene Elder writes, "Our goal [among others] is to alert galleries across America to devote some thought and time to either political, social or religious subject matter for July." For more on P.A.M., see my previous post.

What are you planning for P.A.M.? Let Elder and the world know; send him the details at elder4tomato at yahoo dot com.

Wealth Disparity Now Greatest in U.S. History

. . . since the collection of such data began in 1917 (per Emmanuel Saez via Paul Krugman).

Hoffa

Unions, co-ops, etc.: they got made; most got broken (by bigger bros).

Saw Hoffa last nite; woke at 4am re-piecing it.

One of Mamet's lines worth quoting, re- the unionized: They'd rather some people die for your mistake, than that they lived, but that they lacked a leader.

Another interesting aspect: at least per this version, blue-collars had to be seriously bullied into helping themselves.

Their choices boiled down to, one feudal lord to whom you are mere fodder vs. another who kinda cares but who could be shafted at any moment by nexts-in-command who either don't care or aren't as competent. I pick (b).

('Spose Nicholson has insurance on his left eyebrow?)

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