UTAH AFL-CIO CONVENTION
JUNE 26th
Utah Cultural Celebration Center
West Valley City, UT
MORNING SESSION KEYNOTE:
JIM HIGHTOWER - National radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author, Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow, Jim Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.The Hightower Lowdown," which now has more than 135,000 subscribers and is the fastest growing political publication in America. The hardhitting Lowdown has received both the Alternative Press Award and the Independent Press Association Award for best national newsletter
Twice elected Texas Agriculture Commissioner, Hightower believes that the true political spectrum is not right to left but top to bottom, and he has become a leading national voice for the 80 percent of the public who no longer find themselves within shouting distance of theWashington and Wall Street powers at the top.
Hightower is a modern-day Johnny Appleseed, spreading the message of progressive populism all across the American grassroots.
He broadcasts daily radio commentaries that are carried in more than 150 commercial and public stations, on the web, on Armed ForcesRadio, and on Radio for Peace International. He also does a weekly video blog that is carried on many popular websites.
Each month, he publishes a populist political newsletter, "
A popular public speaker who is fiery and funny, he is a populist road warrior who delivers more than 100 speeches a year to all kinds of groups.
LUNCH SESSION KEYNOTE
RICHARD LEVINS- AUTHOR OF:
MIDDLE CLASS - UNION MADE
Winning the War for the Middle Class
Dr. Richard A. Levins is a native of Florida. He received his BA in Mathematics and his MS in Food and Resource Economics from the University of Florida in Gainesville. His doctorate in Agricultural Economics was earned at Mississippi State University. Before joining the University of Minnesota in 1988, he served on the faculty of the University of Maryland and the University of Florida.
Dr. Levins has authored or co-authored over 150 professional papers, popular articles, books, book reviews, and conference presentations. His professional articles have appeared in American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Choices, Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, American Journal of Alternative Agriculture, Journal of Production Agriculture, and Land Economics. His book Willard Cochrane and the American Family Farm, a story of farm policy and family farming in the twentieth century, won the American Agricultural Economics Association Quality of Communication Award.
Dr. Levins was honored as a Food and Society Policy Fellow during 2001-2003. His writing has appeared in many major newspapers including the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and the Detroit Free Press. He also writes regularly for major trade publications including Hoard's Dairyman and Successful Farming. He often does radio interviews and has been a guest on CNN's In the Money program.
Dr. Levins retired in 2003 from an academic life that included Extension appointments and teaching first-year economics, the history of U.S. agriculture, and resaerch methods for graduate students. He maintains an active practice in consulting, writing, and speaking.
Dr. Levins's book Market Power for Farmers: What It Is, How to Get It, How to Use It can be purchased from the Institute for Rural America at 1-800-858-6636.
Dr. Levins's book Middle Class * Union Made is available at www.middleclassunionmade.com.
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