Bill Fletcher & Barbara Ehrenreich to Help Launch New Institute for Education and Leadership on Sunday

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)The Lucy Gonzalez Parsons Institute for Education and Leadership will hold its inaugural event, a panel discussion on “Building a Global Movement,” this Sunday, Nov. 18th at 4pm featuring authors Bill Fletcher Jr. and Barbara Ehrenreich, with video commentary from Elmer Labog, national chairman of the May First Worker Center in the Philippines. Named for early labor and women’s rights leader Lucy Gonzalez Parsons, the new DC-based political education project, which aims to build leadership and deepen analysis in the local labor movement, will follow the launch event with a series of eight seminars on different topics. The first session, “Our Movement: Stories and Lessons for Today,” is set for December 9th and will be led by Howard University Professor of Sociology Walda Katz-Fishman. “Grassroots organizers are strengthened by political education that provides analysis, historical perspective and space for debate and reflection,” said Dennis Serrette, former Director of Education for the Communications Workers of America and one of the Institute’s organizers. Later sessions will look at topics such as “Immigration: Are You in or Out?” and “Walmart and the Global Economy.” Each session will be led by a different local activist or leader and have accompanying readings. Serrette and other organizers say they hope the Institute will draw rank-and-file union members, as well as students, members of Occupy, and community leaders. “Strong movements organize, educate, fight and analyze,” said Fletcher, who will also lead one of the seminars. “Now is a critical time for working class organizers from across our movements to come together to learn and strategize.” A full schedule of classes and registration information is available online. - report by Mackenzie Baris