Extra

Photojournalist David Bacon: "Protecting Oil Companies and Attacking Unions -- US Policy in Iraq and the US", presented by Grandmothers Against the War and US Labor Against the War, 7 pm, Sunday, November 7, 2010; donation; La Peña Cultural Center; 3105 Shattuck Avenue,Berkeley, California  

David Bacon will discuss the means by which the U.S. will continue to advise and direct the proposed Iraqi "partnership" government, particularly in policies that affect foreign interests. The attack on the labor movement is now escalating as the Maliki regime seeks to thwart sources of resistance to privatization of industry and public enterprises, including oil and electricity. Unions are among the strongest opponents of the US neo-liberal plan for Iraq. David will put what is happening to the labor movement into the larger context of what is happening to Iraq generally, as the U.S. seeks not only to privatize the economy, but to privatize the occupation by replacing U.S. troops with thousands of mercenaries/security contractors. 

Bacon, who made two trips to Iraq early in the war, continues to monitor the situation of unions and the labor movement in Iraq. Based in Oakland and Berkeley he has been a reporter and documentary photographer for 18 years. He is an associate editor at Pacific News Service, and writes for TruthOut, The Nation, The American Prospect, The Progressive, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among other publications. Bacon covers issues of labor, immigration and international politics.