February Issue of Raging Chicken Press Is Up! Happy Birthday Wisconsin Uprising!

It seems like getting the February issue out took FOREVER! I don’t know if that’s what it felt like for all of you out there, but it was certainly my experience. But, the important thing is that it’s out!  And, it’s kind of cool that we published the February issue on the one year anniversary [...]

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“Let’s Take Apathy Out To The Shed And Shoot It In The Face” – MOC #45 by comedian Lee Camp

I love this guy.  Not for anyone who considers politeness and civil discourse to the only mode of political engagement.   Go get ‘em Lee.  

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Mr. Picketman – “Fight On”

Special thanks to the folks at the Rick Smith Show for turning me on to this song. It was the perfect complement to their interview with Bruce Levine, author of Get Up, Stand Up: Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated, and Battling the Corporate Elite.  If you haven’t heard the interview, you can listen to it [...]

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“students hold their fate in their own hands”

Over the past week or so, there has been renewed attention to the ways in which Pennsylvania students — students in PASSHE and the state-related universities (Temple, Lincoln, Pitt, and Penn State) — have mobilized against Gov. Corbett’s cuts.  In my conversations with some of the student organizers at KU and across the state, it [...]

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Pennsylvania Budget Battle | The Rick Smith Show

Hey all!  The Rick Smith Show just put up a new page devoted to the PA Budget Battle!  My interview from St. Patrick’s Day about the Kutztown protest is the first segment posted.  Check it out here and support the Rick Smith Show by listening in Monday-Friday 9pm-midnight on WIOO 97.9 FM and 1000 AM [...]

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APSCUF agrees to negotiate wage freeze

Just in from state APSCUF concerning our current contract negotiations: APSCUF Agrees to Negotiate Wage Freeze HARRISBURG – On Sunday, the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF), the organization representing the 6,000 faculty and coaches at the 14 state-owned universities, agreed in principle to negotiate a one-year wage freeze as called for [...]

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St. Patrick, a few hundred students, and a no show

If you haven’t already, you should check out the pics I posted of last week’s St. Patrick’s Day protest against Gov. Corbett’s cuts to education.  If I haven’t said it enough already, I was incredibly impressed with the passion and energy of Kutztown’s students.  They put together a powerful event that said in no uncertain [...]

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March 17, 2011 Show | The Rick Smith Show

Hey all…you may recall me talking up the Rick Smith show before.  He did some fantastic reporting from Wisconsin and he’s been fighting the good fight here in PA since 2005.  For those of you unfamiliar with his show, you should really check it out: The Rick Smith Show–Where Working People Come to Talk. Tonight’s [...]

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preparations for the flood

As readers of the XChange know, I am the chair of our faculty union’s Meet and Discuss team.  Over this past year, we–the APSCUF-KU Meet and Discuss team–have been pushing for the Kutztown University administration to articulate a coherent, transparent vision for the university.  Such as vision does not consist of the kind of platitudes [...]

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don’t support war on collective bargaining and the American middle class

Here’s another small thing you can to do to join in and support efforts to resist the kind of war on collective bargaining and unions we have seen in Wisconsin and Ohio and that is now rearing its head in Pennsylvania.  Thanks to Ted Hickman for passing this along (I’ve slightly edited what he sent [...]

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no, it doesn’t just *seem* like the GOP is waging class war

Last Wednesday, March 9th, the Daily Kos published a graphic that makes it crystal clear what is going on nationally with the “budget crisis.”  As I’ve argued may times before, what we are seeing in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Idaho, Michigan, and now right here in PA is nothing short of what Naomi Klein has termed, [...]

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Dear Mr. President: where is your pair of comfortable shoes?

Like my friend, APSCUF brother, and fellow blogger, Seth Kahn, I am getting a bit worked up about all the requests for donations to the Democratic Party.  Every time I get an email asking me to pledge more money, this video plays over and over in my head: Mr. President and DC Democrats: are you [...]

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latest Democracy Now focuses on Wisconsin

If you are still trying to consume as much news as possible about what went down in Wisconsin (on Ash Wednesday, no less), it will be worth your while to give today’s Democracy Now a listen.  The file below is an MP3 and should play in most browsers and on most media programs.  The show [...]

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XChange: new initiatives in preparation for a protracted struggle

Given the events of the past several weeks, I have been giving a lot of thought in how to make our work at the XChange more useful to the most number of people and to expand our work in preparation for the struggles ahead.  Last night, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now interviewed Michael Moore and [...]

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it’s on folks: WI GOP pulls legislative trick to strip collective bargaining rights

I apparently picked the wrong evening to nurse an intense sinus headache by going to bed early.  First, despite sleeping for 12 hours I still feel like crap. But, more importantly, last night–while I was sleeping–Republicans in the Wisconsin State Senate pulled a legislative trick in order to pass a bill stripping collective bargaining rights [...]

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Corbett seeks 50% cut in PASSHE funds; or, how the fight came to PA

I guess I picked the wrong day to take my son to Lake Nockamixon to throw rocks into the lake.  This week is spring break in the PA State System of Higher Education universities and I was taking one of those precious days to spend with my son.  No phones.  Unplugged.  Just me, the boy, [...]

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Wisconsin protests enter third week

Workers, students, teachers, police officers, firefighters, and citizens of all stripes have stood up and occupied the Wisconsin State Capitol building for the past two weeks.  They are protesting to defend collective bargaining rights.  As a member of a faculty union in a state that increasingly looking for ways to limit collective bargaining rights, it [...]

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Virtual Graphic

  Graphic for most recent t-shirt creations on my zazzle.com site.

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no, you won’t find them on the Sunday news shows

Welcome to the America I love.  

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why are they protesting, again?: ask a 22 year old

As anyone who’s ever been involved in activism knows, mainstream media is rarely your friend.  Earlier this evening I watched an ABC News Nightline report from 2/18/2011 on the protests, which left me a little sick to my stomach.  As if it weren’t enough for the  the anchor, Cynthia McFadden, frame the issue in ways [...]

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