In solidarity with the striking writers, we’re showing a rerun / re-post. Here’s a blogpost from this time last year (with minor update tweaks).

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. And hey, for some good progressive Thanksgiving mojo, listen to Howard Zinn talking to Tavis Smiley about Thanksgiving (also a rerun): www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1524095
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Is it just me, or are there a lot of things to be thankful for these days?

Along with public education (such as it is), voting rights (such as they are), the endangered species act, the earned income tax credit, community health centers, NC’s excellent voter-verified paper ballot legislation, Plan B emergency contraception and Jon Stewart, you can add FESTIVUS to the list of things you’re thankful for. Oh, and the promise of a new direction for the country!

Yes, that’s right: it’s time for Traction’s [3rd] Annual Festivus for the Left of Us! holiday-ish fundraiser with silent auction. Food, drink, and feats of strength! Shopping, cool people and a great cause! Plus fabulous games, dancing, airings of grievances, feats of strength [now including mental strength — a new Festivus game show] [and the return of the Festivus Foto booth!]

[When: Sat, Dec 8th, starting at 7pm
Where: 108 Morris St. (a hot Greenfire Development property) in downtown Durham]
Write to festivus07@getTraction.org to volunteer, donate items, or RSVP.

But back to you…

What are YOU thankful for this year? Post it in the comments!

Traction is throwing a salsa party!

Here’s the scoop…

What: Salsa Doble (hips and dip)
When: Sunday August 19

• 6pm salsa-making workshop
• 7pm dance lesson
• 8pm party

Where: the fabulous porch of Parker and Otis (formerly Fowler’s) in Durham
Who: Traction, El Pueblo, El Centro, SEEDS, Locopops and a porchload of your favorite Tractivists
Cost: $10 donation for the workshop or the dance party; get both for $17
Get your tickets here.

Since we’ll be both EATING and DANCING, we’re calling it Salsa Doble (hips and dip). And because it’s Traction, you know you’ll find spicy info about progressive issues — this time it’s immigration, farmworkers’ rights and local food — and ways to take action.
That’s right, local food. It would be WRONG to let peak tomato season pass without making some badass salsa. (Remember, friends don’t let friends buy El Paso.) So we’re throwing a salsa-making workshop. Spaces are limited…

Make a donation and get your tix here.

Hey, you know how you’ve been waiting for just the right occasion to volunteer for Traction? I think this is it. Write to salsa@getTraction.org to get in the mix…
Good food, good friends, good politics, and you’re supporting a great cause. Get your ticket now, and we’ll see you on the 19th!

Traction was honored to be part of H K on J, or Historic Thousands on Jones St., on Saturday.
Thousands of North Carolinians gathered in an NAACP-led People’s Assembly and adopted (by roaring acclamation) a bold 14-point progressive agenda:

1. High quality, well-funded, diverse schools for all children
2. Living wages
3. Health care for all
4. Government redress for the Wilmington Race Riots of 1898 and the forced sterilization of black women from 1947 to 1977
5. Same-day voter registration and public financing for elections
6. More funding for historically black colleges and universities
7. Redress for 200 years of discrimination in state hiring and contracting
8. Affordable housing and consumer protection
9. Criminal justice reform including abolition of the death penalty
10. Creation of an environmental job corps for youth
11. Collective bargaining for public employees
12. Immigrant rights
13. More funding for civil rights enforcement agencies
14. Bringing troops home from Iraq

Then we marched to the General Assembly and posted it there for our state legislators to see.

Thanks to Tractivist Robert S., who posted lots of H K on J clips on You Tube! Here’s one featuring several Tractivists on stage, including yours truly…

Traction represented well, with Dave, Celeste, Bria, Anne, Tamara, Brandi, Jim, Adam and many more among the marchers.

Did you take pictures? Post them to flickr and tag them HKonJ and Traction!

“… and that time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.”
—Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This year, Traction and the Durham Food Co-op add our collective voices to the chorus celebrating the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King.

Join us on Tuesday 1/16 to learn from our elders as we watch an episode of Eyes on the Prize, and talk with local civil rights leaders. We’ll watch Episode 10: The Promised Land (1967-68), wherein Dr. King speaks out against the war in Vietnam and embarks on a Poor People’s Campaign, calling for a radical redistribution of economic power.

Before the film, we’ll hear from some LOCAL civil rights heroes and sheroes, including R. Kelly Bryant, Jr. (pictured), who led a large-scale 1968 boycott calling for changes in welfare, housing, and employment practices in Durham.

And we’ll learn about ongoing civil rights work, including the VERY exciting NC NAACP-led People’s Assembly known as H K on J (Historic Thousands on Jones St.), coming up on Feb 10th in Raleigh.

“… We are dealing with issues that cannot be solved without the nation spending billions of dollars and undergoing a radical redistribution of economic power.”
—Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

When: Tues 1/16, 7pm
Where: Durham Food Co-op, 1101 W. Chapel Hill St. (at Buchanan)
Cost: FREE, but donations are appreciated
Questions & RSVPs: eyes-AT-getTraction-DOT-org

Hey Tractivists,

Join Traction this Saturday, Sept 9th to celebrate our local harvest with a two-part event: a morning conversation about local food plus an evening potluck!

We’ll meet at the Durham Farmers’ Market at 10:30am, talk with Tractivists who know their local food and sustainability issues (your chance to find out about that CSA thing), and do a little shopping for the week. Then we’ll reconvene at 7pm for a community potluck dinner. It will be fun *and delicious* to share what we and our local farmers have grown this summer.

Some Food for Thought:
– The average American meal travels 1500 miles to your table!
–> After I flew to California this spring, I decided Cali was just too far away for my organic veggies. Then I discovered the Durham Farmers’ Market and was hooked. When you come, you’ll find out why!
– Farmers’ markets enable farmers to keep 80 to 90 cents of each dollar spent by the consumer as opposed to only 9 cents by traditional groceries!
– Throughout history, humans have eaten 80,000 plant species — 3,000 of them consistently. Industrial Agriculture has narrowed it to only 8 different crops for 75% of the world’s food!
– Local food means variety, biodiversity and sustainability.
– Wonder why high-fructose corn syrup shows up in almost everything? Uh, maybe it’s the subsidies in the obscure Farm Bill, which dictates the lay of the land (millions of acres of it), the food most Americans eat and therefore our very health! It’s up for debate in 2007.
– Getting a family to quit eating factory-farmed meat will cause a greater reduction in carbon emissions than switching to a hybrid car!

Here in this Fast Food Nation of ours, folks clearly want things to be fast, easy and cheap –- especially food -– and cooking is seen as work. The Slow Food movement is about recovering relationships with food, the land, and community. What’s so powerful is how Slow Food values (buying local, eating in community) can make such an impact on so many important issues: social justice, health care, workers’ rights (Labor Day is around the corner), sustainability, animal cruelty, global warming, family farms, land conservation, and the list goes on.

Put your politics where your mouth is, and join Traction in saving the world, one delicious bite at a time:

Saturday, Sept 9 at 10:30 am
Gather for local food discussion at the Durham Farmers’ Market.
(Optional FREE yoga at 9am)

Saturday, Sept 9 at 7pm
Harvest potluck at Kelly’s apartment
Please bring a home-cooked dish (preferably vegetarian), a plate, and anything else inspiring to share.

Please RSVP for either/both events and for directions to kelly@getTraction.org, and let me know what you’re bringing.

Kindest regards,

Kelly
Tractivist, local food addict and amateur cook

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Over 80 people came out to get an early start on Labor Day when Traction showed The Uprising of ‘34 at Culture Crawl in downtown Durham on 8/18/06.

Mary Coles, whose father was president of Durham’s textile union during this walk-out and mass movement, graced us with her presence and shared memories from the perspective of an 11-year old girl. We also heard from Durham historian Jim Wise and Tractivists working on modern-day labor issues — including the Justice as Smithfield campaign — through Student Action with Farmworkers, National FarmWorker Ministries, and IUE-CWA, a local union for the employees of non-profits.
Turns out Frank Stasio (host of The State of Things) was there in the audience, and their show today will be about this historical moment, plus the fight at Smithfield. So listen in! We’re thrilled that Traction had a role in inspiring the show and raising more awareness of labor issues, past and present.

Many thanks to Theo, JoAnne, Dave Z., Lori, Tony, Denise, Becky & Devin, Veronica, Kelly, Tom & Tema, and the Transom Gallery (and probably many others) for helping with this event! And to Wessel for taking pictures under tough conditions. We’ll see if we can resize this one and do it justice…

Labor Day is just around the corner and this year we’ll travel back in time to a largely forgotten piece of Labor Day history — right here in Durham.

Seventy two years ago this September, over 7,000 textile mill workers in Durham went on strike, joining hundreds of thousands of others around the country to demand better pay and better working conditions.

This Friday, Traction returns to Culture Crawl and we’re bringing our ReelPolitik film series with us. We’ll be showing an outdoor movie: The Uprising of ‘34, about the textile worker strike in the South that was the largest mass strike in U.S. history.This is what Labor Day is really about — celebrating and honoring the legacy of the millions of largely unknown folks who fought for things we take for granted today — like a 40-hour work week, a minimum wage and safer workplaces.

We’ll be joined by special guests Mary Cole, who lived through the strike as the 11 year old daughter of an Erwin Mill union organizer, and Jim Wise, a local historian and newspaper columnist who has written about the strike in Durham. Plus, we’ll benefit from cameo appearances by current labor organizers in North Carolina, who can update us on how to support the labor struggles of the 21st century.

The vitals:
“The Uprising of ‘34″
Fri, Aug 18th, 8pm
Outside Jo and Joe’s Pub
427 W. Main St. in downtown Durham
FREE
–> BuyYOB at everyone’s favorite local pub, Joe & Jo’s
–> BYOBlanket to sit in the grass

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It’s time for another installment of Traction’s series on saving money, living simply and getting ahead!

We’ve got a Stuff Swap and Potluck on Wednesday the 9th — we’ll be trading goods and eating good food… the ultimate form of recycling. Not just clothes either! Check your email for the details.
So what treasures are hiding in your closet or attic? Perhaps that vintage lemon juicer is just what some Tractivist has been searching for. And maybe there’s a Tractivist out there with the long lost Chili Peppers album your friend “borrowed” from you so long ago…..

In the comments, let us know what stuff you have to swap and what items you’ve been pining for. Then, be sure to come to the Stuff Swap and Potluck next Wednesday to make the score!

Everyone’s favorite Tractivist Joe Costa was quoted in Thursday’s News & Observer, in a story about resistance to raising North Carolina’s (ridiculously low) minimum wage.

“We definitely need the increase,” said Joseph Costa, a sheriff’s deputy assigned to Jordan High School in Durham and a member of Traction, a left-leaning social network of 20- and 30-somethings.

Nice work, officer! Click to read the whole article, including more quotes from Joe.

Joe met the reporter at our Strapped event on Tuesday night, which was pretty hot, if we say so ourselves. Super-sized thanks to the fabulous Tamara Draut of Demos, author of Strapped: Why America’s 20- and 30-Somethings Can’t Get Ahead — and to local cool cats Patrick Lyons of Lyons Den Capital, Roxana Hadden of CRA-NC Media and Jason Jenkins of North Carolinians for Fair Wages.
According to Jason, Traction was the very first organization to endorse NCFW’s campaign, back in April when they launched! And 23 Tractivists signed on individually on Tuesday. Have you endorsed yet? Click here to sign on, or here for a PDF on what else you can do to help, and get yourself a high-five from Joe.

It’s Hard Out Here for a Lobbyist, what with all the ethics reform in the news these days.  They’re trying to take all the fun out of being a big Washington or Raleigh lobbyist, so I guess I’ll stick with my PhD program.

At least I have ONE chance to give away special favors:
Traction just got a box of slick stuff from THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, the great new black comedy about slick lobbyists (starring William H. Macy, Katie Holmes, Robert Duvall, Rob Lowe) and I get to give it away!

I’ve got about seven very slick black T-SHIRTS, twelve bizarre plastic babies who smoke (their brand: Li’l Smokes), and about 25 FREE PASSES for two to an advance screening on Monday night in Raleigh. (more…)