Natl Writers Union FAQ, Part 1/4: Introduction and History
nwu...@vicric.com
Posting-frequency: monthly
Last-modified: 2004 Sep 30
Version: 7.1.9 7.1.9vr-usenet
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS & CHARTER
National Writers Union
Usenet newsgroup: alt.union.natl-writers
Maintained by: nwu...@vicric.com (Vicki Richman)
URL: http://vicric.com/
NWU staff: n...@nwu.org
NWU URL: http://www.nwu.org/
PART ONE
Quick Hints: This FAQ is divided into four parts. You are
reading Part One. The complete contents are
in only this part. Every other part has only
its own contents.
The Charter to alt.union.natl-writers is in
Part Four. Go to Part Four first for guidelines
on posting and advice from Emily Postliterate.
Please read the Charter before you post.
For an NWU membership application, go to
http://www.nwu.org/ or read Part Three.
Note the Last-Modified date above. If this
version is more than 45 days old, it is
obsolete and should be discarded.
NWU-FAQ v. 7.1.9 7.1.9vr-usenet
Copyright 2000 Vicki Richman.
All rights reserved.
******************************************************************
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** tribute this document without payment or recompense, for **
** noncommercial purposes only. But permission is so granted **
** only for copying the entire text, without changes, dele- **
** tions, editing or cutting. Permission must be sought and **
** received for any commercial use of this text. Any copy **
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PART ONE
Section 0: Introduction and Disclaimers
---------------------------------------
0.0 What are the contents of this FAQ?
---------------------------------------
o Section 0: Introduction and Disclaimers
0.0. What are the contents of this FAQ?
0.0.1. How does this version differ from previous versions?
0.1. Who maintains this FAQ?
0.1.1. Who died and made Vicki Richman the boss of the NWU
FAQ?
0.2. How did this FAQ get on rtfm.mit.edu?
o Section 1: History
1.0. What is NWU?
1.1. If you're a UAW local, why don't you call yourselves the
Local Writers Union?
1.1.1. Exactly when was the NWU founded?
1.2. How can the NWU both have locals and be a local?
PART TWO
o Section 2: Freelance Writing and the Labor Movement
2.0. What have automobiles to do with writing?
2.1. I thought it was illegal for freelance writers to have
a union.
2.1.1. What's union scale for 5000 muckraking words exposing
the corrupt FAQ-maintaining industry?
2.1.2. My publisher says my theater reviews serve the gay
community, so I should be proud to work for zilch.
2.2. That's great, but what makes you a union?
2.2.1. "Sweeping changes" in "the publishing industry"? You
mean "industries," right?
2.2.2. I got an offer to ghostwrite academic theses. Does
that make me a kind of dope dealer to the fuzz?
2.2.3. Do "the benefits of solidarity" mean you offer
group health insurance?
2.2.4. So what you're saying is you're a union because you
rig your elections and claim to be a democracy.
2.3. Get real. If you're contractors, you need a professional
association, not a labor union.
2.4. Okay, you're a real union. So real that a publisher would
have to be crazy to use my work if I joined the NWU.
2.5. But a real *freelance* union. So how come your president
gets a full-time salary?
PART THREE
o Section 3: Electronic Writing
3.0. What are you doing online?
3.1. I've HTML-ized my work for my Web site, but my publisher
claims all rights to it and won't let me post it.
3.2. What are electronic rights?
3.3. I write code. Why should I join a union that puts me in
the same campaign as an advertising copywriter?
o Section 4: Membership
4.0. So, how can I join?
PART FOUR
o Section 5: NWU Groups on the Net
5.0. What are the online NWU groups?
5.0.1. What is alt.union.natl-writers?
5.0.2. Vicki again! Don't tell me that any rank-and-filer
may run a BBS forum in the name of the NWU.
5.1. What is the charter of alt.union.natl-writers?
-----------------------------------------------------------
0.0.1. How does this version differ from previous versions?
-----------------------------------------------------------
After challengers to the 2001 election for NWU president and
other officers charged improper use of union funds and
resources to support the slate headed by incumbent Jonathan
Tasini, who was re-elected, the Oversight Committee has
vacated the results of all contested elections and ordered
new ballots within 90 days. The Tasini team has vowed a
vigorous appeal, to the courts if necessary.
The 2001 Delegates Assembly voted to pay the elected
president a "part-time salary" of about $25,000 per year,
and to hire a full-time executive director, who reports to
the president and the National Executive Board, at about
$60,000 per year. Hence Question 2.5 is changed.
The text of the passed amendment to the By-Laws:
http://vicric.com/restruct.html
The number of NWU members is now about 7200.
In a lawsuit financed and primarily supported by the
National Writers Union, President Jonathan Tasini and six
other writers prevailed before the U.S. Supreme Court in
gaining copyright protection for freelance articles archived
in profit-seeking databases. The answer to Question 2.4, on
putative blacklisting of NWU members, has been changed to
note the decision.
The number of locals is now nineteen, with the addition of
San Diego and Tucson, formerly At-Large sublocals.
Westchester(NY)/Fairfield(CT) has elected to remain separate
from the New York City local, while the Miami Area
Organizing Committee is no longer cited as a local. See the
updated Question 4.0 for the latest list of locals.
The NWU membership application is now excluded from the
FAQ. The citation of fees and request for financial data was
inconsistent with Usenet netiquette. Question 4.0 cites only
the professional data requested by the application and
advises readers how to get the application.
----------------------------
0.1. Who maintains this FAQ?
----------------------------
The version you are now reading is by Vicki Richman
<nwu...@vicric.com>. Other versions may have other
maintainers. In maintaining this FAQ, Vicki does not speak
for the union leadership and is independent of it. Vicki is
only a rank-and-file union member.
----------------------------------------------------------
0.1.1. Who died and made Vicki Richman the boss of the NWU
FAQ?
----------------------------------------------------------
o Vicki's answer:
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, bozo -- read
it and weep!
o The disclamatory answer:
FAQ-writing -- or *maintaining*, as it's called -- has
become a literary genre. A genre has conventions, which
invoke one of two fates when violated:
a. The envelope is pushed, and the genre is never again the
same; or
b. The document and its author are discredited or ignored.
One of the FAQ conventions is that no FAQ should deny the
authenticity of any other FAQ on the same subject. Anyone may
write a FAQ; only the audience chooses among them. (The
audience of course includes the MIT moderators of the Usenet
newsgroup news.answers -- see Question 0.2.)
Accordingly, every FAQ should have a disclaimer -- like the
answers to Questions 0.1.x, which you are now reading --
acknowledging at least the possibility of another FAQ,
inviting contributions, corrections and addenda from diverse
sources, and identifying a person or a small group of
collaborators as solely and independently responsible for
the content.
Another convention is that no FAQ is carved in stone.
FAQs necessarily shatter the stone into electrons, which
continually flutter, float, flit about and displace each
other.
If the National Writers Union wrote its own FAQ, or
empowered an official FAQ-maintainer, its FAQ would be more
permanent, more authentic, than any other FAQ on the union.
It would be constitutional, biblical in nature, changeable
only clumsily -- by committee perhaps -- antithetical to the
FAQ genre. Such a FAQ would be like a candidate's press
release or a TV commercial that pretends to interview a
person on the street. Neither is journalism -- either is a
parody of journalism for political advantage or corporate
gain.
An official NWU FAQ would either push the envelope of
FAQ-maintaining to include public relations, advertising and
self-promotion, or be scoffed at by the FAQ congnescenti,
who would make it an object of Net ridicule.
In its present form, a FAQ is a cross between a dry, objective
technical manual and an intense confession of the author's
most secret vanities, fears and, of course, obsessions. It
reveals not so much about its subject as about its author's
personal relationship to its subject.
------------------------------------------
0.2. How did this FAQ get on rtfm.mit.edu?
------------------------------------------
Almost all FAQs are regularly posted to Usenet newsgroups,
and many seek to be voices for their groups. This FAQ is
connected to the newsgroup alt.union.natl-writers. Some faculty
and students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have
taken it upon themselves to archive Usenet FAQs as:
with the asterisk representing the archive name at the top
of the FAQ. In fact, by popular consensus, acceptance for
such archiving has come to be a minimum standard of FAQ
quality.
Any other site may seek to accomplish the same end. Several
sites mirror some or all of the MIT site.
To be archived at MIT, the FAQ must satisfy many technical
niceties. Most of the check is by digital code, with minimal
human intervention.
The maintainer of a FAQ that passes the digital and human
screening typically posts it to news.answers and to the
various *.answers groups that are in the same hierarchies as
the newsgroups in which the FAQ appears.
Section 1: History
-----------------
1.0. What is NWU?
-----------------
The National Writers Union is the labor union for freelance
writers. It is Local 1981 of the United Automobile Workers
(UAW), a member of the American Federation of Labor and the
Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL/CIO).
-------------------------------------------------------------
1.1. If you're a UAW local, why don't you call yourselves the
Local Writers Union?
-------------------------------------------------------------
Beginning in 1979, _Nation_ magazine hosted national writers
conferences at different U.S. cities. Hoping to found a
writers' union, the participants at two of the conferences
-- in New York, sometimes called "the publishing capital of
the world," and in San Francisco -- set up organizing
committees in Boston, New York, San Francisco, Washington
D.C. and several other major U.S. centers.
In 1981, those committees sent delegates to the convention
that founded the NWU. Each committee with a delegate became
an NWU local. Later, writers in other geographical areas
organized their own locals. Writers remote from their
colleagues organized the At-Large Local, which is the only
NWU local that seeks to grow smaller. When At-Large members
find that their neighbors are also NWU members, they form
their own geographical local, with blessings and assistance
from the At-Large officers.
We now have nineteen locals. The number grows faster than we
can write FAQs.
Our members now number about 7200. They live in every part
of the U.S. and in 35 other countries. The international
members are either emigrated Americans or writers who have
contracts with U.S. publishers.
Therefore we are truly the *National* Writers Union.
----------------------------------------
1.1.1. Exactly when was the NWU founded?
----------------------------------------
We celebrate our anniversary on November 19. The year, of
course, is our UAW local number: 1981.
-----------------------------------------------------
1.2. How can the NWU both have locals and be a local?
-----------------------------------------------------
The NWU locals elect Delegates to convene at the annual NWU
Assembly. The 1989 Delegates Assembly voted to affiliate
with the United Automobile Workers after considering offers
from two other historic U.S. unions. We did that to gain the
labor-union benefits that the UAW fought hard to achieve for
most of the 20th century; the UAW took us to gain strength
through solidarity.
The UAW is a federation of locals, so we had to become a UAW
local, even though we're a national union. Taking the year
of our founding, we became UAW Local 1981. So the rest of
the world sees us as a single local. But, what's in a word
(besides the writer's tool of the trade)?
Internally, we have maintained our federal structure:
national officers and staff, with bicoastal offices; and at
least nineteen independent locals (okay, call them "units"
or "sublocals"), each with its own officers and staff.
--------END PART 1/4--------CONTINUED IN PART 2--------
nwu...@vicric.com
Posting-frequency: monthly
Last-modified: 2004 Sep 30
Version: 7.1.9 7.1.9vr-usenet
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS & CHARTER
National Writers Union
Usenet newsgroup: alt.union.natl-writers
Maintained by: nwu...@vicric.com (Vicki Richman)
URL: http://vicric.com/
NWU staff: n...@nwu.org
NWU URL: http://www.nwu.org/
PART TWO
Quick Hints: This FAQ is divided into four parts. You are
reading Part Two. The complete contents are
in the first part. This part has only its own
contents.
The Charter to alt.union.natl-writers is in
Part Four. Go to Part Four first for guidelines
on posting and advice from Emily Postliterate.
Please read the Charter before you post.
For an NWU membership application, go to
http://www.nwu.org/ or read Part Three.
Note the Last-Modified date above. If this
version is more than 45 days old, it is
obsolete and should be discarded.
NWU-FAQ v. 7.1.9 7.1.9vr-usenet
Copyright 2000 Vicki Richman.
All rights reserved.
******************************************************************
** **
** Permission is hereby granted to copy, reprint and dis- **
** tribute this document without payment or recompense, for **
** noncommercial purposes only. But permission is so granted **
** only for copying the entire text, without changes, dele- **
** tions, editing or cutting. Permission must be sought and **
** received for any commercial use of this text. Any copy **
** must retain the copyright line and this permission notice. **
** **
******************************************************************
PART TWO
o Section 2: Freelance Writing and the Labor Movement
2.0. What have automobiles to do with writing?
2.1. I thought it was illegal for freelance writers to have
a union.
2.1.1. What's union scale for 5000 muckraking words exposing
the corrupt FAQ-maintaining industry?
2.1.2. My publisher says my theater reviews serve the gay
community, so I should be proud to work for zilch.
2.2. That's great, but what makes you a union?
2.2.1. "Sweeping changes" in "the publishing industry"? You
mean "industries," right?
2.2.2. I got an offer to ghostwrite academic theses. Does
that make me a kind of dope dealer to the fuzz?
2.2.3. Do "the benefits of solidarity" mean you offer
group health insurance?
2.2.4. So what you're saying is you're a union because you
rig your elections and claim to be a democracy.
2.3. Get real. If you're contractors, you need a professional
association, not a labor union.
2.4. Okay, you're a real union. So real that a publisher would
have to be crazy to use my work if I joined the NWU.
2.5. Okay, so you're a real *freelance* union. So how come
your president gets a full-time salary?
Section 2: Freelance Writing and the Labor Movement
----------------------------------------------
2.0. What have automobiles to do with writing?
----------------------------------------------
The United Automobile Workers should be renamed the Union of
All Workers. It has many professional and white-collar
locals, including lawyers, teachers, graduate students,
government workers, artists of various kinds and jai-alai
players.
-----------------------------------------------------------
2.1. I thought it was illegal for freelance writers to have
a union.
-----------------------------------------------------------
That question should probably be rephrased: Does the
National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) protect freelance
writers from antitrust legislation?
Most of the NLRA applies only to employees. Freelance
writers are considered independent contractors. But we are
free to organize ourselves into a union, take what benefits
the law now offers, and lobby for full labor protection.
Even without reform of the NLRA, we have achieved
collective-bargaining agreements with several publications.
We also achieve a kind of collective bargaining in our
standard contracts between writer and publisher. We offer
the standard contracts to our members, with training in
negotiating with the editor or publisher to gain preference
for the NWU contract over any other agreement. The contracts
-- specific to periodicals, books, and other types of
publishing -- were drafted by teams of attorneys and
seasoned writers.
------------------------------------------------------------
2.1.1. What's union scale for 5000 muckraking words exposing
the corrupt FAQ-maintaining industry?
------------------------------------------------------------
Only 5000 words?
"Union scale" can be set only by collective bargaining
between publishers and a writers' union. As freelance
writers are contractors, we don't have complete protection
of the NLRA -- yet. The National Writers Union is working
toward reform of the publishing industry to include union
scale for freelancers.
For now, union members can ask their publishers to use the
NWU standard contract. The publisher may refuse at first,
but if enough writers insist, the publisher may have to
agree or put blank pages on the stands.
Also, the NWU has published its _Guide to Freelance Rates
and Standard Practice_. It does not attempt to set union
scale, but it gives writers an idea of what to expect. It's
available in most bookstores. Anyone can order a copy from
the NWU office; there is a discount for NWU members.
It would not be ethical to quote a price for any job without
collective bargaining. Fees vary among publications. The
circulation, the advertising and the intended audience all
affect the writer's pay, just as the size and location of a
theater affect an actor's salary. Our union hopes to
quantify the industry's sliding standards so that writers
will have a reasonable estimate of what their work is worth,
but we have an uphill struggle.
Therefore any dollar amount cited in this FAQ is for
illustration only. No standard rate is implied or should be
inferred.
---------------------------------------------------------
2.1.2. My publisher says my theater reviews serve the gay
community, so I should be proud to work for zilch.
---------------------------------------------------------
In bargaining with a publisher, freelancers should remember
that, unlike wages for typical employees, our pay is not
necessarily proportional to our labor. A writer falls into
the professional or artistic category, in which the venue,
the arena or the client is more significant than the hours
worked.
A Hollywood star, who commands eight figures for a film, may
do an Off-Off-Broadway gig for the union minimum. A successful
attorney, who bills corporate clients at $300 per hour, may
waive any fee in representing a falsely accused indigent.
Likewise, a writer may contribute an article without payment
to a small-circulation journal that sees service to society
as a higher cause than selling copies. However, that same
writer may demand five grand for the same article sought by
a mainstream magazine with millions of readers and more
advertising than editorial content.
That is good union practice, with ample precedent. However,
the writer should not be hoodwinked into free work for a
publisher reaping the profits. It is common for
special-interest publishers to convince gay and lesbian
writers -- and other minorities -- that they are working for
a noble cause. We are "honor-bound" to donate our
professional services -- or so they tell us -- for some
hypothetical greater good meaning little or nothing to the
publisher.
Asking victims of societal discrimination to work for
nothing just because they are victims -- that's both
hypocrisy and discrimination, as it shams indignation
against exclusion to exploit and profit from exclusion.
Judge your venue. If it is genuine _pro bono_ work, be proud
to donate your services. The greatest writers have done
their greatest work for free. But if it is a publisher's
scam to increase profits with cheap labor, go to your union
grievance officer at once. The union may be able to help you
get the pay you have earned.
----------------------------------------------
2.2. That's great, but what makes you a union?
----------------------------------------------
o Our vision
We are fighting for the right to bargain collectively and to
have labor mediators and arbitrators hear our grievances
against unethical publishers. We have launched campaigns for
sweeping changes in the working conditions at all levels of
the publishing industry.
We don't see ourselves as entrepreneurs with dainty home
offices. We see ourselves as sweaty workers running from job
to job with notebooks and laptops. We stand in solidarity
with other workers.
o Our grievance system
Our grievance officers have recovered over $1,000,000 (yes,
a million) for our members. They did that by going directly
to the publisher -- by letter, phone and personal visit --
and presenting the facts. No wrongfully injured NWU member
has to confront a publisher alone. A trained grievance
officer will represent any member who has been ripped off
or who suffers unjust discrimination.
That often (but not always) spares our members the pain
of appearing in Small Claims and other civil courts to get
the payments denied them -- or just eating the loss to avoid
court appearances and legal expenses. If a lawsuit cannot
be avoided, the grievance officer discusses legal strategy
with the writer and the writer's attorney.
Of course, before taking action, a grievance officer must be
satisfied that the publisher has violated the law, professional
ethics or standard industry practice, and has refused the
union member's request to correct the violation.
o The benefits of solidarity
Our Publication Rights Clearinghouse (PRC) is a database of
writers who have had journalism, fiction, poetry and works
in other genres published in periodicals. It identifies the
author as the copyright owner. If any person or corporation
wishes to republish a work online -- as on the World Wide
Web or in a proprietary service -- the PRC collects a fee
and delivers it to the writer as the copyright owner.
We offer our members health insurance and other benefits
that they could not get as individuals, or that would be too
costly. Faced with the challenge of finding low-cost health
care for themselves and their families, freelance writers
are sometimes forced to leave the industry. NWU tries to
answer that challenge with a group health plan for members.
We maintain confidential databases of agents and jobs for
our members. We issue press passes to eligible members.
o Our influence on the political system
Our Political Issues Committee urges Congress and state
and local legislatures:
a. to reform copyright law to protect hard-working
writers from theft and fraud, instead of merely
protecting multimillion-dollar corporations from
competition;
b. to establish freelance writers as creative
workers, not as unprotected contractors;
c. to give writers full protection of the First
Amendment;
d. to protect writers from prosecution or retaliation
against their work, and to so protect agencies that sell
or distribute their work;
e. to keep the Internet open to all writers and
readers without government interference in personal
or family decisions;
f. to end discrimination by age, color, creed,
ethnicity, gender, ideology, physical disability,
race or sexual orientation in publishing and in all
society;
-----------------------------------------------------------
2.2.1. "Sweeping changes" in "the publishing industry"? You
mean "industries," right?
-----------------------------------------------------------
Since Guttenberg, publishing has come in many guises. That
is even more true now, with CD-ROM, the Web and interactive
software, like games and teaching tools.
Artists are driven not to the genres that pay the best, but
to the genres we have spent years learning and mastering.
However, typical publishers -- Disney, Murdoch, Time-Warner
-- continually expand into new enterprises, looking to
expand their profit and impose their own idea of standard
practices on us. Almost all major newspapers now have their
own Web sites. Therefore, we don't believe we can reform
labor practices in one publishing genre without seeking
changes in all publishing.
Since our inception, however, our activists have recognized
broad publishing categories. We have mounted specific
campaigns directed at specific genres. The deepest
historical rift in publishing is between books and
periodicals. So we organized our Book and Jouralism
Campaigns. Activists worked in the field more familiar to
them, while coordinating their efforts with activists in the
other field.
For example, the Book Campaign aimed at getting accurate and
intelligible royalty statements from publishers. The
Journalism Campaign sought full payment, instead of a kill
fee, for work frivolously rejected by editors.
In the early 90s, we added the New Technologies Campaign, to
protect writers against database rip-offs and censorship. At
the same time, many of our silent members -- corporate
speechwriters, catalog writers, advertising copywriters,
writers under contract to produce text books and technical
manuals -- started to file grievances. They had typically
been ignored in favor of their more glamorous sisters and
brothers -- poets, novelists, journalists.
These commercial contract writers went on to organize the
Business, Instructional, Technical Writing Campaign
(BIT). That made four campaigns, including New
Technologies. But few of our members actually wrote code or
designed Web sites, while most of our BIT writers were
working to enrich their repertoire with electronic work. So
we folded New Technologies into BIT, to form the Business,
Instructional, Technical, Electronic Writing Campaign
(BITE).
Although we have three campaigns -- Book, Journalism, BITE
-- we see the publishing industry as one, and ourselves,
however different our genres, as co-workers with a common
cause. The separate campaigns allow activists to focus on
specific targets, while unity amplifies our diverse efforts
into one movement aimed at reform of all publishing.
Contrary to previous versions of this FAQ, the vote by the
1998 Delegates Assembly did not actually exclude "computer
programmers" from membership in the National Writers Union,
unless they meet some other membership criterion.
Presumambly, "computer programmers" means code writers and
perhaps Web designers. The vote was simply a decision not to
actively seek to organize them.
The motion was sponsored by the former and present chairs of
the New York local, who preferred that organizing funds be
spent only on authors and writers in human languages.
The maintainer of this FAQ urges solidarity among quill
scratchers, fountain-pen squirters, code writers, Web
designers, and everyone in between.
----------------------------------------------------------
2.2.2. I got an offer to ghostwrite academic theses. Does
that make me a kind of dope dealer to the fuzz?
----------------------------------------------------------
In most cases ghostwriting is legal and honorable, if
difficult, ego-bruising, and poorly rewarded. In some cases,
the *client* uses the ghostwritten work in violation of laws
and ethics governing the client.
If the client does that, it is the client who is the
violator, not the ghostwriter.
That said, it probably is not wise to respond to an
advertisement seeking ghostwriters of academic papers. If
the ghostwriter knows the client's intent to cheat, the
ghostwriter might be a collaborator in violating laws
or ethics. The ad might even be entrapment.
Slicker agencies advertise for a "research assistant," which
is a time-honored euphemism for a "ghostwriter." Call
yourself a research assistant, and anything the client does
with your work is the client's responsibility.
It is well-known that many blockbuster authors use hired
work by so-called "research assistants" on their staffs.
Such an "author" is in fact no more than an editor, handing
out assignments and assembling the work of others into a
final, best-selling version.
It is not so well-known that many academic papers are
produced the same way.
And of course the so-called "author" is virtually always the
copyright owner. Work by a "research assistant" or a
ghostwriter is work-for-hire. The ghostwriter loses all
rights if the contract is written properly.
If, however, there is no contract, or it is written badly,
the ghostwriter retains the copyright and may enforce it.
What about payment? If the client violates the contract by
failing to pay, the copyright reverts to the true human
author. If there is no contract, the true human author owns
the copyright whether or not the client pays.
Any ghostwriter should be careful to retain proof of
authorship, to be able to enforce a copyright. That may
become necessary to get paid. (In fact that scenario has
been the basis of many a murder-mystery plot.)
The National Writers Union includes ghostwriters as members
and officers, and grievance officers will support
ghostwriters. However, there is a unique problem to
ghostwriting grievances. The ghostwriter's client may also
be an NWU member. In that case, NWU grievance officers may
refrain from taking any action.
------------------------------------------------------
2.2.3. Do "the benefits of solidarity" mean you offer
group health insurance?
------------------------------------------------------
o The short answer:
Yes.
o The real answer:
The NWU represents its members in negotiating with insurers
for the best rate and most equitable policy. Then we
authorize the insurer with the winning bid to write up an
NWU group plan. We monitor the insurer's billing and
practices in the interests of our members.
Therefore, no, *we* don't offer health insurance. We
authorize a *health insurer* to offer an NWU group plan, and
we make sure our members are treated well.
This FAQ is on unions and freelance writing. The present NWU
group plan is beyond the scope of this FAQ. To learn what
the NWU health insurer offers, please phone the NWU office
during business hours.
-----------------------------------------------------------
2.2.4. So what you're saying is you're a union because you
rig your elections and claim to be a democracy.
-----------------------------------------------------------
No, no. We never rig our elections. We don't have to. Nobody
has dared to run against our President in our history.
Nobody, that is, until the summer of 1999, when Miryam
Williamson (Western New England), representing the RenewNWU
party, challenged the nine-year incumbent, Jonathan Tasini
(New York), representing the Leadership for Writing Power
(lwp) party.
Tasini defeated Williamson by about 58% to 42%.
Apart from the excitement and tension of our first major
personality contest, we have always had heated and close
ballots for policy issues, like raising the dues, paying
salaries to officers, and funding the Diversity Committee.
Once again, in the summer of 1999, members will vote on
whether to increase their own dues.
Earlier opposition to increasing the dues has been the
regressive nature of the proposals. While paying less,
impoverished members saw their dues increase at a greater
rate than wealthy members. The current proposal corrects
that.
Approving the proposal, the membership voted to raise the
lowest rates by about 5% and the highest by about 8%.
-------------------------------------------------------------
2.3. Get real. If you're contractors, you need a professional
association, not a labor union.
-------------------------------------------------------------
o The answer by Mike Bradley, Chief Grievance Officer:
The line between professional associations and unions may have been
clear at one time, but no longer. The difference has become one of
degree, not kind. The laws that define the organizations just hasn't
kept up.
Both types of organization work to advance their profession's prestige,
lobby legislatures, and help members improve their skills and income.
For instance, both the union and the Authors Guild have supported
programs aimed at making writers more valued in society, gone to
Washington to lobby Congress, helped members with contract problems, and
founded projects to collect royalties.
Unions were once the working class counterpart to upper-middle class
professional associations, but no longer. Doctors are in unions and
secretaries are in professional associations. Class and occupational
barriers have been transformed. So should our thinking about the
future.
o Vicki's answer:
Writers are not a monolith. We are a diverse group. Some of
us are rich and famous. Some are poor and struggling to be
heard. Some are middle-class, with families and lawns. Some
work alone in cold, drafty garrets. Some writers employ
other writers as researchers, copy editors or (shudder)
ghosts. The NWU unites all of us. It protects the integrity
of the whole writing profession, not just a segment of it,
against exploitation and injustice. It protects our right to
a decent living.
A union like Actors Equity crosses class and salary -- from
the superstar who is also a producer of the show to the boys
and girls in the chorus. Likewise, the NWU brings blockbuster
authors -- who are also publishers of a sort -- in common
cause with poets or technical writers working for only
pennies a word.
--------------------------------------------------------------
2.4. Okay, you're a real union. So real that a publisher would
have to be crazy to use my work if I joined the NWU.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Well, blacklisting of union members is a notorious
union-busting strategy by bosses. The most successful unions
respond by recruiting so many workers into the union that a
blacklisting boss would have an empty shop.
However, the NWU has no chance at a "closed shop" for
freelancers. We are such a diverse, independent, and
free-thinking profession that no union, no professional
association, could hope to recruit a significant majority of
freelancers. There will always be major players who refuse
to join.
Besides, under the NLRA, a closed shop for freelancers is
illegal.
Still, there has been no noteworthy instance of blacklisting
against NWU members in the union history. We have recovered
well over $1,000,000 in greivances for our members, but
virtually none has cited a blacklist as the reason for
failure to be paid or hired. Many have cited unlawful
discrimation, as by ethnicity or sexual preference.
There is one tangential exception. About a dozen NWU members
-- all prominent and one the union president, Jonathan
Tasini -- sued the New York Times and other publishers for
selling the plaintiffs' works through Internet databases
without paying royalties to the authors, who owned the
copyrights.
About a year into the lawsuit, there were rumors that the
Times was blacklisting certain plaintiffs -- particularly by
refusing to publish reviews of their books. The rumors were not
substantiated, but several plaintiffs withdrew from the
suit.
The NWU members who persisted in the suit eventually
won, in the U.S. Supreme Court.
So, will you be blacklisted by your publisher if you join
the NWU? It's possible, but for now highly unlikely. If it
does happen, and you can demonstrate the blacklist to the
satisifaction of our grievance officers, you may be sure
that the full weight of our 7200 members will be thrown in
support of your cause, in the courts and in legislative
lobbies. Your disaster may eventually be redressed by a new
law protecting freelancers against blacklisting.
----------------------------------------------------------
2.5. Okay, so you're a real *freelance* union. So how come
your president gets a full-time salary?
----------------------------------------------------------
He doesn't. Not any more. (And he'll remain a "he" for at
least two years.)
The 2001 Delegates Assembly has voted to pay the president a
"part-time salary" of about $25K, and to hire a full-time
executive director at about $60K.
Some members disagree with even the part-time salary. The
president, they argue, should be a voluntary position,
with a stipend, not a salary, of about $12K, in recognition
of service to the union, and an expense account.
To read the text of the amendment to the By-Laws, go to:
http://vicric.com/restruct.html
--------END PART 2/4--------CONTINUED IN PART 3--------
nwu...@vicric.com
Posting-frequency: monthly
Last-modified: 2004 Sep 30
Version: 7.1.9 7.1.9vr-usenet
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS & CHARTER
National Writers Union
Usenet newsgroup: alt.union.natl-writers
Maintained by: nwu...@vicric.com (Vicki Richman)
URL: http://vicric.com/
NWU staff: n...@nwu.org
NWU URL: http://www.nwu.org/
PART THREE
Quick Hints: This FAQ is divided into four parts. You are
reading Part Three. The complete contents are
in the first part. This part has only its own
contents.
The Charter to alt.union.natl-writers is in
Part Four. Go to Part Four first for guidelines
on posting and advice from Emily Postliterate.
Please read the Charter before you post.
For an NWU membership application, go to
http://www.nwu.org/ or read on
Note the Last-Modified date above. If this
version is more than 45 days old, it is
obsolete and should be discarded.
NWU-FAQ v. 7.1.9 7.1.9vr-usenet
Copyright 2000 Vicki Richman.
All rights reserved.
******************************************************************
** **
** Permission is hereby granted to copy, reprint and dis- **
** tribute this document without payment or recompense, for **
** noncommercial purposes only. But permission is so granted **
** only for copying the entire text, without changes, dele- **
** tions, editing or cutting. Permission must be sought and **
** received for any commercial use of this text. Any copy **
** must retain the copyright line and this permission notice. **
** **
******************************************************************
PART THREE
o Section 3: Electronic Writing
3.0. What are you doing online?
3.1. I've HTML-ized my work for my Web site, but my publisher
claims all rights to it and won't let me post it.
3.2. What are electronic rights?
3.3. I write code. Why should I join a union that puts me in
the same campaign as an advertising copywriter?
o Section 4: Membership
4.0. So, how can I join?
Section 3: Electronic Writing
-------------------------------
3.0. What are you doing online?
-------------------------------
The 1998 Delegates Assembly voted not to actively attempt to
organize "computer programmers" into the National Writers
Union, unless they meet some other membership criterion.
Presumambly, "computer programmers" means code writers and
perhaps Web designers.
The motion was sponsored by the former and present chairs of
the New York local, who preferred that Union organizing
funds be spent only on authors and writers in traditional
human languages.
Writers need an unfettered Internet as much as professors,
students and other professionals do. The electronic media
are both tools and products to us. Some of us are on the
printed page. Some of us are on multimedia disks or on the
Web. Some of us use words. Some of us write code.
We all need to protect the way we earn a living. The NWU
suite of online services adds to the protection the union
has provided since 1981, and it helps to organize the
unorganized -- electronic writers, code-writers,
online-forum moderators, multimedia artists, Web authors and
designers -- into our union of all creative workers using
the quill, pen or keyboard.
-------------------------------------------------------------
3.1. I've HTML-ized my work for my Web site, but my publisher
claims all rights to it and won't let me post it.
-------------------------------------------------------------
The copyright -- or all-rights -- grab has indeed become a
major beef for writers.
Copyright law assigns a copyright to the human author by
default. The author need do nothing to keep the copyright --
the author has to do something to lose the copyright.
To earn a living, the author typically sells -- or *leases*,
to be more precise -- certain rights to a publisher. The
various rights are defined by contract, not by law, but the
rights all derive from copyright law. That is, only the
copyright owner may sell or lease -- or simply define --
subsidiary rights to the copyrighted work.
Typically, a magazine writer sells "first serial rights" to
the publisher. That means that the magazine has the
exclusive right to publish the piece for the first time.
After publication, the writer may sell other rights to other
publishers -- or just post the piece on the Web.
Selling first serial rights worked well in the industry
until the computer and modem were invented. First,
electronic databases -- Lexis/Nexis, for example -- sold
magazine articles online. Both writers and publishers
squawked. Then the publishers realized that they could do it
themselves -- put their print articles into their own
databases or even into electronic magazines on propietary
services or on the Web.
Okay, that solved the publishers' problem, but, contrary to
their claims, a publisher is not necessarily the copyright
owner. The author, who is the default copyright owner, was
still not getting reimbursed. In fact, the author was not
even consulted, but typically found out about the electronic
infringement by chance.
The publishers fixed the electronic rip-off by running their
own chop shops, selling our intellectual property like used
automobile parts.
Finally speaking for themselves, writers replied that they
had sold only first serial rights. Only the writer, we
said, may use the article after it has been published.
Publishers answered that electronic distribution is merely
an extension of the print publication. It is not a new use
for the work, they argued. First serial rights excludes only
publishing the article in another print magazine, they
claimed, but does not exclude an electronic version of the
original print magazine. Whether that argument will stand up
in court remains to be seen.
But, wisely fearing that their argument would be held
specious by the courts, publishers began covering their
asses by offering new contracts to writers. Those contracts
changed "first serial rights" to "all rights, including
electronic rights or rights in any medium not yet invented."
Even worse, some publishers -- like the _New York Times_ --
made freelance writers sign work-for-hire contracts. That
means that the author surrenders copyright ownership to the
publisher. The owner does not merely sell all rights; the
author gives away ownership of the copyright entirely.
Work-for-hire contracts are particularly distasteful. They
use a loophole in the law. The work-for-hire sections of
copyright law were meant for salaried employees or for
writers under contract to produce technical manuals or
catalogs. Work-for-hire was never intended to include
journalists, essayists, and other creative freelancers.
So the suggestion that work-for-hire or all-rights contracts
are "common" misses the point. They may be common this year,
but they are exceptional in the history of publishing.
What can writers do? We can refuse to sign such contracts.
The National Writers Union has its own model contracts for
use by its members. We can insist on using an NWU contract
instead of the one our publishers offer. If enough writers
hold out, the publishers may agree to make NWU contracts
standard industry practice.
We can also ask for additional payment for any right beyond
first serial rights. If a contract pays $1000 for
work-for-hire, the writer may reply, "A grand is my fee for
first serial rights. I'll take another $150 for electronic
rights. Work-for-hire will cost you five grand."
The writer probably won't get more money for the piece, but
the publisher, who is really only interested in getting the
magazine on the stands, may agree to buy only first serial
rights. That is, the writer will retain all other rights for
the same fee.
(The figures cited are for anecdotal illustration only. No
union scale or standard rate is implied or should be
inferred. See Question 2.1.1 for a discussion of union
scale.)
--------------------------------
3.2. What are electronic rights?
--------------------------------
The NWU has released a position paper on E-rights. Its
principal author is Phil Mattera, a national vice-president.
Visit:
Or E-mail:
------------------------------------------------------------
3.3. I write code. Why should I join a union that puts me in
the same campaign as an advertising copywriter?
------------------------------------------------------------
Our democratic structure allows any member to work toward
organizing new and different campaigns. (See Question 2.2.1,
on our three campaigns.) That's why.
For now, we have found that business, instructional and
technical writers have too much in common with digital
artists to be in separate campaigns. Whether print or
digital, most commercial writers work under contract as
quasi-employees. Many print writers are trying to expand
into electronic writing. Many already do both.
If enough exclusively electronic writers join the union,
they may split from the Business, Instructional, Technical,
Electronic Writing Campaign (BITE) into their own campaign.
In addition to BITE, we have two largely print campaigns --
Book and Journalism. The new millenium may see a largely
digital campaign, as younger writers join the union.
Section 4: Membership
------------------------
4.0. So, how can I join?
------------------------
Membership in the NWU is open to all qualified writers, and
no one shall be barred or prejudiced within the union on
account of age, disability, gender, ideology, literary
genre, nationality, race, religion or sexual orientation.
You are eligible for membership if you have published a
book, a play, three articles, three short stories or five
poems. You are also eligible for membership if you have
gained professional assignments for an equal amount of
newsletter, public-relations, technical, commercial,
government or institution copy, or for an equal amount of
electronic code-writing, multimedia or Web work or online or
BBS copy. You are also eligible for membership if you have
written an equal amount of unpublished material and are
actively writing and attempting to publish your work.
To get an application, email to:
or visit:
http//:www.nwu.org/
Voice, fax, and snail-mail data are at the end of Part Four.
Here are some data requested by the application:
GENRES: Journalism, fiction, nonfiction, academic,
juvenile, Web design, business, technical,
literary/small press, institutional/nonprofit, labor
public relations, poetry, code-writing.
FORMATS: Books, magazines, newspapers,
miscellaneous copy, multimedia, CD ROM, software.
Please list all publishers, publications, firms, and
institutions for which you have worked as a writer in
the past three years. This information will be for
internal use only.
In which local to belong?
Boston;
Chicago;
Los Angeles;
Michigan, Southeastern;
Minneapolis/St. Paul;
New England, Western;
New Jersey;
New York City Metropolitan Area;
Oregon;
Philadelphia;
San Diego (At-Large sublocal);
San Francisco Bay Area;
Santa Cruz/Monterey Bay;
Seattle;
Tucson (At-Large sublocal);
Vermont;
Washington DC;
Westchester/Fairfield (in Connecticut and New York states);
At Large.
Please check those areas in which you can contribute to
building the union: Book Campaign, Journalism Campaign,
New Technologies Committee, Business Instructional
Technical Electronic Writing Campaign (BITE), Political
Issues Committee, African-American Caucus,
Asian-American Caucus, Latina/Latino Caucus, Native
American Caucus, Queer Caucus, Women's Caucus.
You are asked, but may opt out of citing: your gender;
your birthdate; your ethnicity or race; your sexual
orientation.
The NWU directory lists members, their genres, and a
short statement. The directory is distributed to
publishers and employers. Do you wish your name,
address, and phone number to be listed?
--------END PART 3/4--------CONTINUED IN PART 4--------
nwu...@vicric.com
Posting-frequency: monthly
Last-modified: 2004 Sep 30
Version: 7.1.9 7.1.9vr-usenet
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS & CHARTER
National Writers Union
Usenet newsgroup: alt.union.natl-writers
Maintained by: nwu...@vicric.com (Vicki Richman)
URL: http://vicric.com/
NWU staff: n...@nwu.org
NWU URL: http://www.nwu.org/
PART FOUR
Quick Hints: This FAQ is divided into four parts. You are
reading Part Four. The complete contents are
in the first part. This part has only its own
contents.
Question 5.1 is the Charter to alt.union.natl-writers,
with guidelines on posting and advice from Emily
Postliterate. Please read the Charter before you post.
For an NWU membership application, go to
http://www.nwu.org/ or read Part Three.
Note the Last-Modified date above. If this
version is more than 45 days old, it is
obsolete and should be discarded.
NWU-FAQ v. 7.1.9 7.1.9vr-usenet
Copyright 2000 Vicki Richman.
All rights reserved.
******************************************************************
** **
** Permission is hereby granted to copy, reprint and dis- **
** tribute this document without payment or recompense, for **
** noncommercial purposes only. But permission is so granted **
** only for copying the entire text, without changes, dele- **
** tions, editing or cutting. Permission must be sought and **
** received for any commercial use of this text. Any copy **
** must retain the copyright line and this permission notice. **
** **
******************************************************************
PART FOUR
o Section 5: NWU Groups on the Net
5.0. What are the online NWU groups?
5.0.1. What is alt.union.natl-writers?
5.0.2. Vicki again! Don't tell me that any rank-and-filer
may run a BBS forum in the name of the NWU.
5.1. What is the charter of alt.union.natl-writers?
Section 5: NWU Groups on the Net
------------------------------------
5.0. What are the online NWU groups?
------------------------------------
o Usenet
alt.union.natl-writers
The labor movement and the publishing industry;
civil liberties; opposition to censorship;
diversity; the art and business of writing;
trade-unionism.
o E-Mail-List
nwu-chat
The art and business of writing; internal NWU business;
the publishing industry; copyright law; protection of
writing income; job offerings; grievances; press
releases from NWU and sibling groups.
Civil liberties; opposition to censorship; diversity and
support for writers of color, queer writers; the labor
movement in general; announcements of events and
conferences.
To subscribe:
E-mail to: <nwu-chat-...@igc.topica.com>
Leave the subject line and text blank.
To unsubscribe:
E-mail to: <nwu-chat-u...@igc.topica.com>
Leave the subject line and text blank.
For more information:
http://igc.topica.com/lists/nwu-...@igc.topica.com
--------------------------------------
5.0.1. What is alt.union.natl-writers?
--------------------------------------
Well, if you continue to Question 5.1, you'll have the
charter for alt.union.natl-writers.
But if you're asking what a Usenet newsgroup is, and what
connection this one has to the union, read on.
The Usenet newsgroup a.u.n-w is by and for members of the
National Writers Union, for other publishing professionals,
for labor unionists and for civil libertarians. It was
created by Vicki Richman, following the example of Allen
Schaaf and his colleagues, who created alt.union.iatse for
the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage
Employees.
The charter for a.u.n-w is the answer to Question 5.1 of
this FAQ.
---------------------------------------------------------
5.0.2. Vicki again! Don't tell me that any rank-and-filer
may run a BBS forum in the name of the NWU.
---------------------------------------------------------
No, of course not. But a.u.n-w is a Usenet newsgroup, and
Usenet is not a BBS forum. Usenet is just another kind of
Internet connection, much like E-mail.
The difference is, instead of delivery to a private mailbox,
Usenet messages are stored in public directories, where any
user on any system may retrieve them. In practice, of
course, there is newsreading software that sorts the
messages according to group, subject, date and other
headers, before displaying them to the curious user. In look
and feel, the newsreader seems to be a proprietary BBS
forum. But the newsreader is not Usenet. Newsreaders vary
from user to user and from site to site.
The messages are passed from site to site. Some are posted
almost instantly. Others may take days to circle the
planet. Some sites save some messages and junk others, but
all messages manage to make their way around the planet.
Just as anyone can send a message, anyone can create a
newsgroup. Anyone can remove a newsgroup. Any site can
accept or reject a newsgroup. Any person who frivolously
creates a newsgroup incurs the wrath of serious Usenet
users, who will outnumber pranksters and remove the
mischievous group.
So, for a newsgroup to survive, it has to be created
according to rules accepted by almost all serious users.
----------------------------------------------------------
5.1. What is the charter of alt.union.natl-writers?
----------------------------------------------------------
CHARTER
Usenet newsgroup, alt.union.natl-writers
Copyright 2000 Vicki Richman.
All rights reserved.
******************************************************************
** **
** Permission is hereby granted to copy, reprint and dis- **
** tribute this document without payment or recompense, for **
** noncommercial purposes only. But permission is so granted **
** only for copying the entire text, without changes, dele- **
** tions, editing or cutting. Permission must be sought and **
** received for any commercial use of this text. Any copy **
** must retain the copyright line and this permission notice. **
** **
******************************************************************
Contents
o Purpose & Mission
o Preferred Netiquette; or Advice from Emily Postliterate
o The NWU Mail-List: nwu-chat
Purpose and Mission
The Usenet newsgroup alt.union.natl-writers is created for
and by members of the National Writers Union (NWU), which is
Local 1981 of the United Automobile Workers (UAW), which is
an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor and
Cogress of Industrial Organizations (AFL/CIO).
The newsgroup is open to all writers, editors, researchers,
digital programmers, multimedia artists, Web authors and
designers, literary agents, publishers, other workers in the
industry, civil libertarians and labor unionists. It is not
limited to NWU members, and no NWU officer or staff member
has any more influence on the newsgroup exchange than any
other Usenet user. There is no pressure or obligation to
join the NWU, but users should expect NWU members to be in
the majority.
Users of alt.union.natl-writers seek to enlighten each other
on the publishing industry, the business and art of writing,
the electronic media, civil-liberty issues, the labor
movement and NWU internal affairs. Posts may contain news,
opinion, grievances, questions, success stories and personal
observations on writing for a living and on union
activities. Employment opportunities may appear from time to
time. NWU officers or staff may also post official NWU press
releases and announcements.
Preferred Netiquette
or Advice from Emily Postliterate
The group alt.union.natl-writers is not moderated. Posts
shall appear without human intervention. Therefore, CHECK
YOUR HEADERS before you post. Your "Newsgroups:" header
should never be longer than about 512 characters and should
typically be no more than a quarter of that length.
(That's *characters*, not words.)
If you are replying to a post with a long "Newsgroups"
header, delete the irrelevant groups. You should never
repeatedly post the same text with different "Newsgroups:"
headers; that's called multi-posting or spamming.
Ask yourselves whether your text would be better privately
E-mailed to one or two recipients than publicly posted for
thousands to read.
Users should avoid chastening an errant poster publicly. If
someone is offensive or off-topic, please correct the
offender by private E-mail. NWU actively supports freedom of
speech and urges users to refrain from taking any other
action against offensive posters than speech in rebuttal. Do
not seek to deny Internet access to any user, as by
appealing to the user's sysadmin, no matter how offensive
the user's mere speech is.
The group alt.union.natl-writers is not a good place to post
samples of one's work or to ask for support in developing
writing skills. There are several other fine Usenet
newsgroups that serve that purpose.
The law and our professional ethics restrain the NWU from
recommending agents or publishers. Individuals should
likewise be so restrained in their public posts to
alt.union.natl-writers. Please use private E-mail for
inquiries or advice on how to get published. However this
group is a good place for posters to discuss promotion and
distribution of works they have already published.
When members, officers and staff discuss NWU internal
business, they should avoid posting confidential matter, as
there are no restrictions on who may read the message.
Subscribers should avoid one- or two-line posts of
congratulations or thanks. They are better sent privately.
Any post should contribute to the general discussion.
Do not post binary files. No graphics, sound clips or
proprietary word-processor output that cannot be displayed
in a human language by a generic ASCII text editor or
reader.
There may be very occasional retromoderating by Vicki
Richman <nwu...@vicric.com> and her associates or their
successors to remove what they consider a fraudulent or
specious appeal for funds directed to many disparate
newsgroups. They shall also remove binary files. They shall
try to resist the temptation to delete other useless,
frivolous, fraudulent, mean-spirited, mindless or irrelevant
ads and announcements, and they urge posters not to lead
them into the hubris of their anti-libertarian impulses.
Writers know how to make a telling point without noise.
The NWU Mail-List
nwu-chat
The electronic mail-list nwu-chat is a _pro bono_
contribution to the online writing community from the
National Writers Union (NWU). All writers, editors,
researchers, digital programmers, multimedia artists, Web
authors and designers, literary agents, publishers, civil
libertarians and trade unionists are invited to
subscribe. There is no pressure or obligation to join
the NWU, but subscribers should expect NWU members to be
in the majority.
The list nwu-chat is on the daily business of writing and
union activities. In contrast to the Usenet newsgroup
alt.union.natl-writers, the mail-list nwu-chat is largely
an official organ of the National Writers Union and of
its locals, and is more likely to reflect policies and
agenda of activists and leaders.
The list nwu-chat is also on overcoming the political
challenges faced by writers, as censorship, copyright law
and retaliation against the written word. It is also a
forum for writers of color and of the
lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgendered community.
The list is unmoderated.
o Subscriptions and Information
Mail to:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* *
* NATIONAL WRITERS UNION *
* UAW Local 1981 AFL/CIO *
* *
* http://www.nwu.org/ n...@nwu.org *
* *
* National Office East National Office West *
* 113 University Place, 6th Floor 337 17th Street, Suite 101 *
* New York NY 10003 Oakland CA 94612 *
* 212.254.0279 voice 510.839.0110 voice *
* 212.254.0673 fax 510.839.6097 fax *
* *
* "Freedom is not something anyone can be given. *
* Freedom is something people take. . . ." *
* -James Baldwin *
* *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *