Friends, please post and circulate. Thanks, Matt Noyes

1. New Audio:from the 10/06 AUD conference "Confronting Corruption in Labor Unions --Rank-and-file insurgency? Government intervention? Internal reform?Assessing a helf century of effort."

Carl Biers assesses the progress made in reforming Longshore Local 1588
Carl Biers is Education Director of International Longshoremen's Association Local 1588 and former Director of AUD. ILA 1588 is under a government monitorship as a result of a government effort to rid the local of mob influence.

"The most important thing that a monitorship can do to reform a local is to encourage honest union members to come forward...without that you have a situation ripe for reinfiltration by racketeers...Creating an atmosphere where people are willing to step forward in a local that has been dominated by organized crime is impossible unless you are in a postion to protect their rights on the job..."

Barbara Harvey reflects on the role of the Consent Decree in the fight against corruption in the Teamsters
Barbara Harvey is a labor lawyer in Detroit, representing Teamsters fora Democratic Union in the 2001 and 2006 International elections. She has devoted most of her 31 year career to defending the rights of union reformers and idealists, and is on AUD's Board of Directors.

"The Consent Decree in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters is the most significant experiment with Government intervention in unions for the purpose of eliminating organized crime and racketeering and it deserves careful observation..."

Robert Fitch advocates looking at union democracy "with both eyes."
Robert Fitch is the author of Solidarity for Sale, and other books and articles on Labor and Urban Affairs and a lifelong union member.

"We can't fight corruption without clarity on the meaning of democracy...Herman Benson justly defines democracy as the kind of rights written into the US Constitution and the LMRDA... but he is wrong to limit democracy just to rights. That's not democracy, it's just what we've come to settle for in America..."

Hear these and other talks: http://www.uniondemocracy.org/Education/audconffightingcorruption.htm