The final decades of the 20th century saw an upsurge in democracy—from the fall of communism in the former Soviet bloc to the end of apartheid in South Africa to authoritarian governments ousted by elections in nations as diverse as Chile, Spain, and Taiwan. As we begin the 21st century, democracy is threatened in new ways. Terrorism and extremism have gained a foothold around the globe. Societies are fracturing along the lines of ethnicity, race, and religion. Civic participation is in decline. And, while market economies were booming, the "globalization gap" was widening, creating growing tensions between rich and poor and feeding frustration, anger, crime, and corruption. The Albert Shanker Institute promotes discussions and sponsors research on the new challenges facing the world’s democracies, with an emphasis on the role of freedom of association, unions and other civic institutions, and universal education in a democratic society. The following are among these efforts:

Shanker, Labor, the Democrats and Foreign Policy
On Feb. 20, 2008, the Shanker Institute, Freedom House, and the Progressive Policy Institute co-sponsored a forum in Washington, D.C., titled “Should Labor and the Democrats Revive the Muscular Liberal Internationalism of Albert Shanker?” in which participants talked about Al Shanker’s stance on numerous international questions. Presenters recalled Shanker’s work with Lane Kirkland, former AFL-CIO president, Thomas R. Donahue, former AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer and president, Tom Kahn, special assistant to Kirkland and later AFL-CIO international affairs director, and Irving Brown, to help ensure the survival of the independent Polish union Solidarnosc, bring down apartheid in South Africa, restore political and trade union rights in Chile, build free trade unions in Eastern Europe after the demise of communism there, and promote academic freedom. At the AFT, Shanker built one of the strongest international affairs operations in the labor movement and launched a project called Education for Democracy/International, designed to help teacher unions in Eastern Europe, Nicaragua, South Africa, and other countries emerging from dictatorship to become leaders in the civic education of students. Panelists differed on the degree to which Shanker’s labor internationalism had declined within the labor movement, but most agreed much more could be done, both in terms of labor’s international role and also within the Democratic Party.

& Click here to read a story from a St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer.
& Read the remarks by ASI board member Herb Magidson, former vice president of AFT and chair of its Democracy Committee.

Chinese Workers Reveal Reality Behind “Economic Miracle”
A new report, released in January 2008 by the Albert Shanker Institute, reveals that China’s “economic miracle” relies on pressuring the Chinese labor force to its limits and brutally suppressing worker rights. Chinese workers face a different reality than that portrayed by the Chinese government: delayed or unpaid wages, work-related illnesses, harsh working conditions, and severe repression for attempting independent organization at the workplace. A Cry for Justice: the Voices of Chinese Workers tells the stories of workers demonstrating in open defiance – from the Oilfields of Daqing, the Ferroally workers of Liaoyang, the Heavenly King Textile workers of Xianyang, the Gold Peak Battery factory workers of Huizhou, coal miners from Wanbao, teachers from Suizhou and ex-soldiers who work in factories around the country run by the People’s Liberation Army. The accounts are based on extraordinary first-hand interviews conducted by Han Dongfang, China’s leading labor rights advocate, with workers across China.
Copies are available for $7 each; $5 each for orders of ten or more.

& Read the press release for this and a companion report.
& Download the full report.
& Read a related story from a New Republic blogger.

Middle East Leadership Study Trip
The Albert Shanker Institute, in partnership with the AFT International Affairs Department, organized an eight-person union leadership study trip to the Middle East in May 2007. The trip included an intensive schedule of meetings with teachers and other unionists from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Iraq, and Yemen, as well as with country and regional representatives of the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center, the Democratic Party’s National Democratic Institute, and U.S. Embassies. The group investigated the current situation in the region and the role of education unions and unions generally in promoting democracy and peace. The group returned from the trip recommending that the AFT amplify its role in facilitating communication among conflicting parties in the region. In addition to AFT vice president and Institute board member Ted Kirsch, who led the study group, participants included Paul Babich (United Teachers of Wichita), Ken Brynien (York State Public Employees Federation), Louis Malfaro (Education Austin), Cathleen McCann (AFT Great Lakes Region), and Mary Cathryn Ricker (St. Paul Federation of Teachers).

& See here and here to read Mary Cathryn Ricker's blog on the trip.

The Challenge for Democracy in the Middle East:

The Art of the Possible was the focus of a forum on Feb. 6 & 7 which stressed support for democracy and independent, democratic trade unions and challenged participants to help conceive innovative, practical program approaches for the Middle East region. (Full Agenda, List of Participants.)

Democracy & Worker Rights: Labor’s Approach to China
On April 6-7, 2006, the Albert Shanker Institute sponsored a lively discussion among representatives from nine AFL-CIO and Change to Win unions on the U.S. labor movement’s differing approaches to the increasing economic dominance of and ongoing worker rights repression  in mainland China. After opening remarks by AFT and Shanker Institute President Ed McElroy, participants heard from two prominent China experts, Andrew Nathan (Columbia University) and James Mann (School for Advanced International Studies). The day-long meeting also included presentations by Han Dongfang, a Chinese labor and democracy activist arrested during the Tiananmen Square protests and founder of the China Labour Bulletin, and Lee Cheuk Yan, General Secretary of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU). Shanker Institute Board member Herb Magidson also led a discussion about the nature of U.S. labor’s response to ongoing abuse of worker rights in China.

Unionism and Democracy: the Experience, the Legacy, the Future
The AFT must continue to fulfill its historic role in supporting union democracy throughout the world and work to ensure that we all fully appreciate the depth of the union's commitment in this area, AFT president Edward J. McElroy told AFT leaders at an April 2005 seminar, "Unionism and Democracy: the Experience, the Legacy, the Future." The program outlined how a commitment to democratic values has shaped the American labor movement, and how that legacy must shape our response to globalization and a significantly undemocratic world, a declining understanding of the role of unions in building democracy, and the inadequacy of civic and history education in the United States. The three-day event, sponsored by the Albert Shanker Institute in cooperation with the AFT international affairs department, included AFT national officers, members of the AFT democracy committee, veteran and newly elected AFT vice presidents and other divisional leaders. Among the presenters was Thomas R. Donahue, a member of the Albert Shanker Institute board of directors and former secretary-treasurer and president of the AFL-CIO, who noted that independent unions could not exist without democracy and that democracy itself is strengthened by the civic involvement of trade unions. Other presenters included Diane Ravitch, another ASI board member and research professor of education at New York University; exiled Chinese trade union activist Han Dongfang; Walid Hamdan of the International Labor Organization in Beirut; Fred Van Leeuwen, general secretary of Education International (EI); and Thulas Nxesi, EI president and general secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers' Union.

Seminar on Education To Build Democracy
On May 6, 2003, the institute hosted a forum on international civic education. An invited group of academics, program developers, and leaders from the AFT, the U.S. State Dept., USAID, the National Democratic Institute, the National Endowment for Democracy, the AFL-CIO, and private industry attended the Washington, DC, meeting, to discuss effective program design, content, and strategy for civic education and democracy promotion abroad. The meeting provided those who are involved – funders, researchers, and practitioners – with a chance to share their knowledge and experience. According to participants, the seminar was unprecedented in its promotion of open interaction among the many diverse elements of the civic education community.

Bayard Rustin Film Premiere                                                          On January 8, 2003, the Institute jointly hosted the Washington premiere of "Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin" at the National Press Club, with the AFL-CIO, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, Freedom House, the Rustin Fund, the International Rescue Committee, Social Democrats, U.S.A., the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, AFT President Sandra Feldman, and U.S. Representatives John Lewis and Eleanor Holmes Norton. A longtime friend and ally of Al Shanker's, Rustin, a gay socialist, pacifist, civil rights leader, international democracy activist, and master strategist--best remembered as the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington--is the subject of this new documentary film, which was aired nationwide by PBS on January 20, Martin Luther King Day, and will be featured in the 2003 Sundance Film Festival.

& To read more Rustin and this film, go to http://www.rustin.org.
& Read a Wall Street Journal editorial on the film.
& Read a film review from Africana.com.

Chinese Dissidents Urge Focus on Rights
Two leading Chinese dissidents urged President George Bush and President Jiang Zemin to make human and worker rights the centerpiece of their October summit and called for the release of political prisoners and freedom for Chinese workers to form free and independent trade unions. Han Dongfang, a labor leader who was jailed for his participation in the Tiananmen Square demonstrations and now continues his dissident activities from Hong Kong, and Harry Wu, a dissident who spent 19 years in Chinese prisons and is now a U.S. citizen, called on Bush and Jiang to address these issues.

& Read full text of press release.

Hong Kong Democracy Leader Gives First Shanker Lecture
Szeto Wah, founder of Hong Kong's teachers' union, was the featured speaker at the institute's inaugural Albert Shanker Lecture on May 15. Szeto, labeled "democracy's foot soldier" by Time magazine, told the Washington, D.C., crowd that Shanker was a mentor from whom he learned how to combine professionalism and labor rights to build a union and how to employ trade unionism to build democracy. In addition to building Hong Kong's largest democratic union, Szeto helped to found Hong Kong's democratic party, leads the alliance that supports and commemorates China’s Tiananmen Square democracy movement, and is a popularly elected member of the Hong Kong legislature.

& Read press release on this event.
& Read Time magazine's 1997 profile of Szeto Wah.
& Download a copy of the full lecture by Szeto Wah.

Pilot Project on Civic Education, Crime, and Corruption
The most successful means of enforcing the rule of law is through the consent of the governed. Average citizens must come to have faith in the justice of the legal system and the fair enforcement of the law. Where such shared expectations, values, and consequent daily behaviors do not exist, democratic government can't function effectively and a culture of crime and corruption can easily take hold. It was in response to just this situation that educators in Palermo, Sicily, Hong Kong, Botswana, and on the US-Mexican border developed school-based programs to teach children a "culture of lawfulness." One of the key ingredients in the success of these programs was a curriculum designed to promote the civic and legal education of young people. Through a grant to the National Strategy Information Center, the institute has supported the adaptation of these curricula for pilot implementations in several U.S. secondary schools.

& Read an article on educating against the Mafia in Palermo, Sicily.
& Read an article on educating for morality in Hong Kong.
& Download sample lesson plans from the U.S. project.
& Get more information.

The Concord Review: Giving Young Scholars a Forum
Thomas Jefferson argued that all citizens need a general education, not just for the few but for all citizens, so that each of us could make our own decisions about what will "secure or endanger [our] freedom." To be meaningful, this type of education for democracy must go deeper than dry documents, helping student to understand how and when the democratic idea developed, in whose minds, impelled and impeded by what circumstances. To help determine where we, as a country, are going, students should be given a knowledge of history that is broad and deep enough to understand where we came from and why. As a means of fostering this kind of historical learning, the institute has helped to support the work of The Concord Review, a journal that recognizes and publishes exemplary history essays by high school students.

& Review sample essays from The Concord Review.
& Get more information on the journal.
& Get subscription information.