[URPE] Meeting Face to Face - the tour documentary

[mzweig at notes.cc.sunysb.edu]

PLEASE FORWARD TO INTERESTED LISTS AND INDIVIDUALS

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

I am writing to ask for your help in completing Meeting Face to Face: 
Iraqi Labor Leaders Tour the U.S., the documentary of last June’s tour 
sponsored by U.S. Labor Against the War that I am producing through the 
Center for Study of Working Class Life in co-operation with USLAW.   We 
need your help in the next six weeks to raise money, through your personal 
contribution or from a peace, labor, or educational organization you could 
interest in this project.

Anyone contributing $100 to the creation of Meeting Face to Face: Iraqi 
Labor Leaders Tour the U.S. will receive a copy of the finished DVD as 
soon as it is complete (expected December 1, 2005).  See below for 
instructions for the check.  Any contribution of $500 or more will receive 
on-screen credit as well as the DVD.  And thank you to those who have 
already contributed.

(The DVD will have quite a few features beyond the documentary, including 
complete footage of the July 2005 AFL-CIO convention debate leading to 
passage of an anti-war resolution, footage of the negotiations among the 
Iraqis and USLAW leaders hammering out the tour's final joint statement, 
and footage of the labor contingent in the September 24 anti-war march and 
rally in Washington DC.)

You can see the seven-minute trailer/preview directed and edited by 
filmmaker Jonathan Levin on the Center’s Website - click here. 

We are now working to create a full 27-minute documentary that will convey 
the energy and emotions of the tour while expressing the important 
substantive message Iraqi workers want to convey to all Americans: 
        end the occupation; 
        oppose the privatization of Iraqi national resources; and 
        support the right of all Iraqi workers to organize free and 
independent trade unions. 

The documentary will be a resource distributed through a wide network of 
organizations, including United for Peace and Justice, Code Pink, U.S. 
Labor Against the War, Educators to Stop the War, and other labor, peace, 
and educational organizations.  We expect it to be something that will be 
used and make a difference.

If you would like a free DVD (preferred) or VHS copy of the trailer to use 
in a fundraising event for Meeting Face to Face, please let me know by 
return e-mail with the following information: 

- the audience and type of event you will organize (union meeting, house 
party, peace group, etc.); 

- the approximate date of the event; 

- the name and address to which the DVD or video should be sent. We will 
send a DVD unless you specify VHS format. 

To contribute, checks should be payable to "The Stony Brook Foundation" 
and indicate on it or in a cover letter that it is "for Iraq Labor Tour 
Documentary." Send to

Meeting Face to Face
Center for Study of Working Class Life
Department of Economics
State University of New York
Stony Brook, NY 11794-4384

The tour was a significant accomplishment and powerful event for those who 
attended.  Please help complete Meeting Face to Face so thousands of 
others can share the experience.  Thank you.

All the best,

Michael

Michael Zweig
Director, Center for Study of Working Class Life
631.632.7536
michael zweig at stonybrook.edu
www.workingclass.sunysb.edu