BARBWIRE by ANDREW BARBANO

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When ex-communists tried to kill Ukraine's leading presidential candidate and then steal his election, people took to the streets and wouldn't leave until the real winner took office.

When Bush the Lesser stole his election, somebody threw a tomato at his inauguration day limo.

That's what I told Ukraine's Svitlana Matiivienko last Monday at the Northern Nevada Labor Temple in Sparks.

At the request of the Northern Nevada International Center, the Northern Nevada Central Labor Council hosted a delegation here to learn about U.S. non-governmental organizations.

We informed them of the most tightly-regulated NGO's (unions) and the most lightly-overseen (secret tax-subsidized political fronts).

With Grzegorz Kot of Krakow, we talked of Lech Walesa, the Solidarity Union electrician who became president of Poland.

I told him how the Central Labor Council used a TV spot Walesa recorded on a 1989 U.S. visit to spark major northern Nevada organizing drives.

Ana Novakovic of Montenegro raised the question of union divisiveness, noting that in her country, some unions support the government and others oppose.

She wanted to know if American workers are willing to fight.

Are we courageous like the citizens of the Philippines and Ukraine when their elections were stolen?

Tough enough to take to the streets like the people of Dubai, Tunisia and Egypt?

George Mayamiko Jobe told us how his fellow Malawi citizens coalesced behind the country's largest labor union when the government wanted to oust its entire leadership.

"In many ways, we are victims of our own success," stated longtime Painters & Allied Trades leader Todd Koch, adding that so much is now taken for granted.

Many don't remember who gave them Social Security, retirement plans, health care, safety and overtime laws, the weekend, the increasingly endangered eight-hour day and 40-hour workweek.

You can read detailed U.S. labor history in schoolbooks in other countries but not here, Building & Construction Trades Council of Northern Nevada Executive Secretary-Treasurer Paul McKenzie told our six visitors (including Rotanark Soy of Cambodia and State Department representative Marcelo Gandaria from the U.S. embassy in Argentina).

Our young people today don't learn about workers' rights in school or in the media, he noted.

He cautioned our visitors to nurture manufacturing, the loss of which is a principal reason causing union shrinkage in the U.S. and "turning us into a third-world country."

In response to a question from Ms. Matiivienko, Koch noted that U.S. labor political action today is defensive, "trying to keep things from being taken from us as opposed to winning things for our members."

Like trade unionists nationwide, no Nevadans in the room disagreed with the palpable disappointment in President Obama for making broad promises in 2008 "and giving us nothing," then returning to labor for support in 2012.

Mr. Gandaria ask me to give a quick history of American unionism.

I strongly emphasized how the AFL-CIO was used as a conduit to support Walesa and future Pope John Paul II as communism crumbled in Poland a quarter century ago.

Paul Alan of the Industrial Workers of the World (aka The Wobblies) told them how organized labor in the western U.S. was born in Virginia City, which they had just visited.

I have been honored to participate in several such events and they always leave me with a feeling of hope for the world and a sense of foreboding about us.

Are we tough enough to fight back anymore?

If our fragile, fragmented, weak, selective and sporadic economic recovery turns into Great Depression II, we may find out the hard way.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.

WEB EXTRAS...

HONOR YOUR DON. Keep sending comments supporting legendary Nevada photographer Don Dondero (1920-2003) for the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame.

His life's work appeared worldwide, including this newspaper.

Enlist in the campaign to install Big Don.

Please send me your memories and endorsements via e-mail or to P.O. Box 10034, Reno NV 89510.

The Barbwire got the late Reno Gazette-Journal columnist Guy Richardson elected last year.

Let's go for a repeat.

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If last year's elections didn't convince you of the need, the 2013 legislature certainly should have.

Join up. You may donate at ReSurge.TV or contact me.

This is important.

Thank you.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)

____________

Andrew Barbano is a 44-year Nevadan, chair of the Nevada César Chávez Committee, producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. Check local listings for other Nevada cable systems. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Daily Sparks Tribune since 1988.

Smoking Guns... Other NevadaLabor.com/Barbwire International Incidents In 2005, I had the honor of educating a university law school dean from Thailand about the besieged state of American unions. Dr. Khettai Langkarpint was shocked to find out that the United States is far from being a workers' rights paradise. In 2008 at the once and future Reno-Sparks community TV station, I got to meet with a group of journalists from throughout Africa. I obtained their e-mail addresses and still stay in contact with my "Africa Corps." In 2009, I met with a group of radio and TV news people from the dictatorship of Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic in south central Asia near Afghanistan. They were afraid to say anything either thru a State Department interpreter or on-air. I was only able to convince them all to say "hello" and wave to the audience on my live TV talk show. I sent them all home with "Union Yes" lapel pins from Laborers' Union Local 169. All of the July 29 guests spoke English and they all left with Northern Nevada Central Labor Council and Union-Yes pins. — Andrew Barbano Read more about our 2013 visitors ...and more ammo... We Don't Need No Education The continuing Barbwire series The Post-Dated Recession: Pay me now or pay me later Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-6-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune The Post-dated Recession By Joshua H. Silavent / Daily Sparks Tribune / 5-3-2011 Union decline and rising inequality in two charts by Colin Gordon Economic Policy Institute / 6-5-2012 Used in journalist Mark Robison's extensive Hard Labor: Nevada unions tout role in helping workers, firms, economy (Sunday 2 Sept. 2012 Reno Gazette-Journal, page one, Reno Rebirth section of the print edition). Union men Jim Burrell, Paul McKenzie and Guy Louis Rocha did the movement proud. Not included in the RGJ online edition. WOMEN AND UNIONS — ORPHAN MAJORITIES The Barbwire Labor Day column Reno Gazette-Journal / 9-3-2012 Nevada Press Assn. Better Newspaper Contest HAT TRICK: Barbwire takes first place three years in a row. The winning entries Suing for Schools: The 20-year shuck Expanded from the 2-21-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune Click here to view the show on your desktop RED flags flying low over Sparks Expanded from the 1-10-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune The wrath of self-righteous racism Expanded from the 11-8-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune Government contacts Nev. congressional delegation Nevada Legislature State of Nevada Secretary of State Carson City Clark County City of Las Vegas Douglas County Reno City Council Sparks City Council Washoe County Commission Washoe Registrar of Voters The campaign against forcibly-paid newspaper obituaries And they wonder why the newspaper business is dying?   The Dean's List    The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites. RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006 The 2009 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners Tony the Tiger & the flaky NFL Barbwire / 11-30-2008 Deregulation is never having to say you're sorry Barbwire / 8-3-2008 Nevada: A good place to visit, but do you want to live here? Barbwire / 6-15-2008 The 2008 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners The price of a piece / 6-17-2007 Boxing Pandora /9-23-2007 The Lady in the Red Dress 10-28-2007 1997 Pulitzer Prize entries ...and more ammo yet The life and times of Travus T. Hipp The best who ever was

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Copyright © 1982-2013 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 44-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee, He is producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president, political action chair and webmaster of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

Barbwire by Barbano moved to Nevada's Daily Sparks Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

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