Eric Mann
1973 Cheremoya Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90068
(323) 461-9888

ORGANIZING EXPERIENCE:

Director, Labor/Community Strategy Center (a think tank and organizing institute for labor, civil rights, social justice and the environment) January 1989 to present.

Co-Chair Bus Riders Union, 1994 to present.

Visiting Lecturer, California State University, Northridge, Department of Chicano Studies, "The Social Movement of the 1960s and Their Implications", 1990.

Director of Organizing, California Faculty Association, Los Angeles, California, November 1986 to January 1989.

Coordinator, Campaign to Keep GM Van Nuys Open, United Auto Workers Local 645, Van Nuys, California, 1981-1986.

Chair, Labor/Community Coalition to Keep GM Van Nuys Open, 1982-1992.

California Labor Chairperson, Jesse Jackson Campaign, 1984.

Political Action Committee, Liaison with United Farm Workers, United Auto Workers Local 560, Milpitas, California, 1978-1981.

New England Regional Organizer, Students for a Democratic Society, Boston, Massachusetts, 1968-1971.

Community Organizer, Newark Community Union Project, Newark, New Jersey, 1965-1968.

Campaign Director, Newark, New Jersey, David Frost for U.S. Senate Campaign, 1966 (A peace candidate, Democratic Primary).

North East Regional Field Secretary, Congress of Racial Equality, New York, N.Y., 1964-1965.

EDUCATION:

B.A. Cornell University, 1964, Major in Political Science, Minors in History, Industrial and Labor Relations.
PUBLICATIONS:

Books:

Dispatches from Durban: Firsthand Commentaries on the World Conference Against Racism and Post September 11 Movement Strategies, Los Angeles, Frontlines Press, 2002

A New Vision for Urban Transportation (principal author), Los Angeles: Labor/Community Strategy Center, 1996.

Immigrant Rights and Wrongs, Los Angeles: Labor/Community Strategy Center, 1994.

Reconstructing Los Angeles from the Bottom Up (principal author), Los Angeles: Labor/Community Strategy Center, 1993.

L.A.'s Lethal Air: New Strategies for Policy, Organizing and Action,
Los Angeles: Labor/Community Strategy Center, 1991.

Taking on General Motors: A Case Study of the UAW Campaign to Keep GM Van Nuys Open, Los Angeles: UCLA Institute of Industrial Relations, 1988.

Comrade George: The Life, Political Thought and Assassination of George Jackson, New York: Harper and Row, 1973.

RECENT LECTURES:

NGO Representative, United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, South Africa, September 2, 2002

Featured Speaker, African National Congress Urumbulo “Let’s Talk Politics” Series, World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, South Africa, August 29, 2002

Keynote Speaker, Planners Network 2001 National Conference, “Planning in the Cities of the Empire: An Anti-Imperialist Challenge,” University of Rochester, New York,
June 23, 2001.

Plenary Speaker, Pacifica Radio L.A. Media Forum 2000, “Developing alternative Media Strategy,” Los Angeles, October 14, 2000.

Bus Riders Union Film Showings—Featured Speaker, Harvard Film Archives, January 2000; Directors Guild Theater, Los Angeles, February 2000; University of Toronto, Clark Atlanta Environmental Justice Resource Center, March 2000.

Keynote Speaker, Urban Leadership Institute, “Politics, Ethics and Religion: A New Synthesis,” November 18, 1998.

Plenary Speaker, Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) Conference, “Bus Riders Union: New Theories of Legal Strategies and Movement Building,” October 17, 1998.

AhoraNow Forum Lecture, “Anti-imperialism: The Key to Reconstructing Marxism,” September 10, 1998.
Keynote Speaker, International Society for Environmental Epidemiology Conference, “Grassroots Movements, Grassroots Science,” Boston, Massachusetts, August 16, 1998.

Plenary Speaker, Moving the Economy: Opportunities for Labour Conference, “Confronting Transit Racism in Los Angeles: The Bus Riders Union,” Toronto, Canada, July 11, 1998.

Plenary Speaker, Sustainable Communities Environmental Justice Conference, Clark Atlanta University, “Lessons from the Los Angeles Bus Riders Union for Organizers and Activists,” March 21, 1997.

Keynote Speaker, California State University, Northridge, “Driving the Bus of History: Lessons from the Los Angeles Bus Riders Union’s Victory against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority,” March 13, 1997.

Plenary Speaker, International Forum Against Privatization, “Fighting Privatization in Los Angeles and Mexico City,” Mexico City, March 26, 1996.

Plenary Presenter, World Congress on the Environment?, "The Centrality of International Grassroots Movements: To Challenge the Bankruptcy of Market-Driven Environmentalism and to Lead a True Environmental Revolution," Hong Kong, November 8, 1994.

Plenary Speaker, Sustainable Communities Conference, "Developing New Paradigms to Challenge Profit-Driven Models of Sustainability," Oakland, California, June 1994.

Keynote Speaker, Transnational Information Exchange Conference of European Trade Unionists, "The Globalization of Capital and the Demand for a New Internationalism in the Labor Movement," Frankfurt, Germany, November 1993.

Invited Lecturer, "The U.S. Left and the Environmental Movement: Strange But Necessary Bedfellows," John F. Kennedy School, Free University of Berlin, November 1993.

"The Future of the U.S. Left," with Dr. Manning Marable, Labor/Community Strategy Center lecture series, July 9, 1993.

Keynote Speaker, Conference on Labor and the Environment, Greenwork Alliance, Toronto, Canada, October 1992.

Invited Lecturer, Globe '92 Environmental Conference, Vancouver, March 1992.

Invited Lecturer, The Environmental Crisis: Voices From The Front Lines Conference, Los Angeles, August 1991.
Labor Notes Conference, Detroit, Michigan, May 1991.

Plenary Speaker, Workers and Communities Conference, York University, Toronto, Canada, May 26-18, 1989.

"Whatever happened to the Progressive Labor Movement?", First Unitarian Church Sunday Lecture Series, Los Angeles, May 7, 1989.

"The Latino Worker and the Responsibility of the Intellectual," panel with Rodolfo Acuña and others, National Association of Chicano Studies Conference, Los Angeles, April 1, 1989.

"New Progressive Coalitions for L.A.'s Future," Plenary Speaker and Panel Chair, L.A. Weekly, "Reshaping L.A. Conference," March 11, 1989.

Distinguished Lecture Series, CSU Los Angeles, School of Business and Economics, "How Far Can You Get Taking On General Motors," May 19, 1988.

Southwest Labor Studies Association, Los Angeles, "New Strategies and Directions for Today's Labor Movement," Plenary Speaker, April 29 and April 30, 1988.

UCLA Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning, "Non-Adversarial Labor Relations: A Critique Based on the Van Nuys Case Study," April 13, 1988.

Harvard University Trade Union Program, "New Strategies for the Labor Movement," March 4, 1988.

Harvard University Labor Law Students Forum, "What Role for Lawyers in the Labor Movement?", March 3, 1988.

Columbia University Graduate School of Social Work, "The Van Nuys Model of Labor/Community Organizing," March 2, 1988.

Stanford University Faculty Colloquium, "A Critique of Japanese Labor/Management Relations Model as Applied to the U.S. Auto Industry," January 26, 1988.

Selected Articles:

“The World Summit on Sustainable Development: Defeat for Environmentalism, Opportunity for the Left,” The Ark, Newsletter of the National Organizers Alliance, January 2003,”

“The World Conference Against Racism: the Strategic Centrality of Reparations,” Antipode Magazine, a Radical Journal of Geography,” December 2002

“Planning in the Cities of the Empire: Strategy, Tactics, and Hard Choices”, The Planner’s Network Newsletter, July 2001.

“Building the Anti-Racist, Anti-Imperialist United Front: Theory and Practice from the L.A. Strategy Center and Bus Riders Union,” Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society, Spring 2001.

“Class, Race, and Gender: Lessons from the Bus Riders Union Movement in Los Angeles,” Working Classes Global Realities, Socialist Register 2001.
“Things Aren’t Getting Better on the Bus,” Los Angeles Times Op-Ed, September 15, 2000.

“El Autobús no Mejora,” La Opinión Op-Ed, September 20, 2000.

“Two Movements and the Democratic National Convention,” ARC, magazine of the National Organizers Alliance, September 2000 Issue.

“Radical Social Movements and the Responsibility of Progressive Intellectuals,” Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, Vol. 32, No. 3, April 1999.

“Class, Community, and Empire: Toward an Anti-imperialist Strategy for Labor,” Rising from the Ashes? Labor in the Age of “Global” Capitalism, Monthly Review 1998.

“Bradleyism as Corporatism,” Los Angeles Times Op-Ed, October 4, 1998.

“Rights Theory, Social Movements, and the Courts,” Political Science Association’s Law and Courts Quarterly, Summer 1996.

"The Workers Didn't Unite and MTA Won," Los Angeles Times Op-Ed, August 4, 1994.

"The Trains Are the Robbers," Los Angeles Times Op-Ed, July 20, 1994.

"Poor People Again Take the Toxic Brunt," Los Angeles Times Op-Ed, March 10, 1994.

"Help for a Smoldering Society," Los Angeles Times Op-Ed, May 11, 1993.

"Foreign Aid for Los Angeles," New York Times Op-Ed, May 1, 1993.

"Los Angeles a Year Later," The Nation, March 29, 1993 (part I of two part series).

"The Left and the City's Future," The Nation, May 3, 1993. (part II of series).
"L.A.'s Smogbusters", The Nation, September 17, 1990.

"Environmentalism In The Corporate Climate", Tikkun, March/April 1990, pp. 60-65.

"Labor/Community Coalitions as a Tactic for Labor Insurgency," in "Building Bridges: New Strategies for Labor, by Jeremy Brecher and Tim Costello, editors, Monthly Review Press, Fall 1990.

"We Back (Poland's) Solidarity, and Bust Our Unions," New York Times, May 7, 1988, Op-Ed Page.

"Union Must Re-Establish Solidarity," Los Angeles Times, February 22, 1988, Op-Ed Page.

"Labor Must Flex Its Social Muscles: Peace, Justice More Important Goals Than Jobs at Any Cost," Los Angeles Times, July 16, 1987, Business, p. 3.

"Japanese-style Plan Aims to Bully Workers," Los Angeles Daily News, June 21, 1987,
Op-Ed Page.

"UAW Backs the Wrong Team," The Nation, February 14, 1987, pp. 171-175.

"Union Busting Made Easy: Introduce a Two-Tier Wage System," New York Times, March 21, 1986, Op-Ed Page.

"Confrontation in a Company Town: Hormel Takes On Its Workers," Los Angeles Times, March 2, 1986, Opinion, p. 3.

"Keeping GM Van Nuys Open: Regional Economic Planning from the Bottom Up," Midwest Center for Labor Research Review, Fall 1986, pp. 25-44.

"Unions Absent on Sunday are Dead on Monday," New York Times, September 1, 1986, Op-Ed Page.

"American Labor: Laid Off and Left Out," Los Angeles Times, November 10, 1985, Opinion, p. 3.

"United Pilots Bank to the Left in Union," Los Angeles Times, June 9, 1985,
Opinion, p. 3.

"Appraisals and Perspectives: Strategy for the Student Movement," University Crisis Reader: (Vol II), Emmanuel Wallerstein and Paul Starr, ed., (Random House, New York, 1971).

"A Thing Called Berkeley: Lessons of Campus Radicalism," Cosmos Reader, Robert Davis, ed. (Haurcourt, Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1971).

"Students and their Universities," American Now, John G. Kirk, ed., (Atheneum, New York, 1968).

FILMS:

Writer and co-producer, Voices from the Front Lines, documentary on 5 years of environmental justice organizing featuring the work of the Labor/Community Strategy Center.

Writer and co-producer, Tiger By the Tail, documentary about the GM Van Nuys Campaign.

HONORS AND AWARDS:

Shalan Foundation “Contributions to the Movement” award, 1997

Blue Ribbon, Best Labor Film, for Tiger By the Tail (co-produced with Michal Goldman), American Film and Video Festival, New York, 1986.

Harry and Lucy Lang Fellowship (Awarded to a trade unionist in Southern California for independent research), Center for Labor Research and Education, UCLA Institute of Industrial Relations, Los Angeles, 1985.

Revised 7/16/01

Back to Upcoming Resources page

Back to Upcoming Events page