Rouge Forum Update--4/26/09--from Rich

Dear Friends,

Educators attending the Rouge Forum Conference (May 15-17, Ypsilanti, Michigan) can now gain Continuing Education Units for attending conference sessions. Please spread the word. Thanks to Joe Bishop and the Michigan work group for this big step forward.

Links to the current issue of the Rouge Forum News and conference details are here: http://richgibson.com/rouge_forum/

This week in the schools: Sacramento holds segregated assemblies to promote racist high-stakes exams: http://www.sacbee.com/education/story/1799186.html

Laguna Creek Principal Doug Craig said dividing the students by race allowed staff to talk about test scores without making any one ethnic group feel singled out in a negative manner. "Is it racist? I don't believe it is," Craig said.

Poway AFT Local Leads Southern California in Making Concessions: Concessions don't save jobs. Like giving blood to sharks, concessions only make bosses want more. It should be no surprise that the Poway district is represented by the worst union in the USA, the American Federation of Teachers, but it is of little matter now. The Poway union now sets the table for the rest of SoCal and especially San Diego. Nobody should follow their lead. http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/apr/23/bn23powcut163430/?education&zIndex=87564&disqus_reply=8639982#comment-8639982

Controversial Stanford Study on Big Tests, Girls, and Minorities, by Emily Alpert: http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2009/04/22/education/829testing042209.txt

This week on the economy: Joseph Stiglitz - One of the reasons why our economy is weak is that we have growing inequality in our society. That means that people who would spend the money don't have it. We sustained their consumption by lending but that lending was unsustainable and so unless we do something about the underlying inequalities both within our countries and across the world, it may be difficult to restore the global economy to the kind of prosperity that we would hope.

Reich: We are not at the beginning of the end: http://www.truthout.org/041309R

GM and Chrysler Bankruptcy May End Pensions: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090415/AUTO01/904150364/&imw=Y

Jackknife: The collapse of the Teamsters Union: http://www.clnews.org/forums/showthread.php?t=16368

Social Inequality and Mental Health: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2009/03/15/2003438475

This week on wars and resistance:California Towns Defeat Military Recruiters: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/14/california_towns_fight_back_against_justice

Forget Star Wars, It's Back to the Little Wars: http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis144.html

Democrats and Rockefeller backed CIA Torture: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/12/09/democrats/

With sadness, we note the death of Lindy Blake, courageous mutineer and Vietnam war resister: http://slash.autonomedia.org/node/12572

"The sky is, of course, falling. We are lambs among wolves. The core issue of our time is the relationship of rising color-coded social and economic inequality challenged by the potential of mass class-conscious resistance." http://rikowski.wordpress.com/tag/e-wayne-ross/

Thanks to Amber, Adam, Gina, Wayne, Dave, Kevin, Beau, Vanessa, Cheri, Donna, Kelly, Sarah, Marisol, Ernesto, Candace, Sally, Sandy, Ann, Ruthie, Della, Jose, Greg and Katie, Joe B, Paula, Alfie, Steve R and Rick C, Bill, and Glenn.

See you in Ypsi!

All the best andgood luck to us,
every one.

r