Holly Sklar

Holly Sklar

Template:TOCnestleft Holly Sklar is an author and activist. "Raise the Floor: Wages and Policies That Work" was co-written by Holly Sklar, Laryssa Mykyta and Susan Wefald.

Exposing the Trilateral Commission

In 1980, Democratic Socialists of America member Holly Sklar authored a book entitled "Trilateralism: the Trilateral Commission and elite planning for world management" about the Trilateral Commission. In the Acknowledgements section she writes,

"My special thanks to Leah Margulies, Dahlia Rudavsky, and especially Ros Everdell for ongoing support and assistance; to Lisa Wheaton, Terry Murphy, Mark Ritchie, and the National Coalition for Development Action with whom I launched the initial project."

• Leah Margulies
• Dahlia Rudavsky
• Ros Everdell
• Lisa Wheaton
• Terry Murphy
• Mark Ritchie - Ritchie has been associated with a leftist group Institute for Agricultural and Trade Policy, later (2006) became the Secretary of State in Minnesota and was suspected of throwing the vote count to leftist Democratic candidate for Senate, Al Franken. See his KW page for much more information including the new information, discovered in 2010, about his participation as a "non-party friend" of the Minnesota Communist Party".
• National Coalition for Development Action NCDA

1986 Book "Reagan, Trilateralism, and the Neoliberals"

An ad listing books by published by the radical South End Press appeared in the November 5, 1986 Fall Book Supplement to the marxist/maoist "Guardian", p. S-6. Among those promoted was one by Holly Sklar, described as follows:

"Reagan, Trilateralism, and The Neoliberals: Containment and the Intervention in the 1980s", Holly Sklar

"Sklar demystifies the dominant foreign policy options for the 1980s - Rollback, Moderate Containment and Neoliberal Containment - and analyzes the strategies behind them to map out just how far U.S. elites are willing to go in accommodating or opposing change in Central America and the Third World." 76 pp., $4.75

Also in the same Guardian ad was:

"Liberating Theory", Michael Albert, Leslie Cagan, Noam Chomsky, Robin Hahnel, Mel King, Lydia Sargent and Holly Sklar, 230 pp., $8.50

"Not a collection of separate essays, but a collectively authored volume, "Liberating Theory" addresses economics, governance, gender, race and culture in a unique conceptual framework that elevates no sing 'oppression' to primary importance. The authors provide a dynamic and inclusive theory capable of explaining our complicated, interconnected society."

{KW: This was a collection of some of the leading marxist activists of the 1980s and 1990s)

New York Marxist School Panelist October 30, 1986

Holly Sklar was listed as being on a "panel discussion" with Sara Miles, Thursday, October 30, "Low Intensity Conflict in Central America", 8:00 PM

Notice in the Guardian, November 5, 1986, p. 10, Calendar: New York Marxist School. New York Marxist School, 151 West 19 Street, 7th floor, NYC, NY.

Nicaragua book

In 1988 Sklar published "Washington's War on Nicaragua".

A book review column about this book can be found in the Communist Party USA newspaper, the People's Daily World , Jan. 13, 1989, p. 11, "Key to U.S. actions against Latin America", Jose Palacio. He wrote the following:

"The Reagan Administration's eight year war against the people of Nicaragua is examined from both the official U.S. government point of view and the point of view of the Nicaraguan people: the major players in this sordid development in U.S. foreign policy."

"...Sklar demonstrates clearly that the actions of the Reagan Administration were not aberrations, but the result of a well-thought-out policy shift. The U.S. government would stop at nothing -- including violating the U.S. Constitution, lying to Congress and deceiving the American people -- to achieve its goal of re-establishing U.S. imperialism's upper hand in the Third World."

""Washington's War on Nicaragua" is indispensable reading for those who wish to understand the chronology, the events, the cover-up, and the players of this major policy-event of the 1980's."

Addressed Communist Party USA, front meeting

An ad/notice was placed in the Guardian, November 8, 1989, concerning an upcoming U.S. Peace Council national conference. The text of the notice was:

"End The Cold War Fund Human Needs" U.S. Peace Council's Tenth Anniversary National Conference - Boston, Mass., Nov. 10-12, 1989

Speakers Included:

• Leslie Cagan
• Rep. John Conyers - (D-Mich)
• Prof. Gerald Horne
• Prof. Michio Kaku
• Robert Krimsky
• Prof. Manning Marable
• Jack O'Dell - Rainbow Coalition Operation PUSH
• Dennis Rivera - Local 1199 Drug & Hospital Workers Union
• Angela Sanbrano- CISPES
• Bernie Sanders
• Holly Sklar
• Zehdi Terzi - Palestine Liberation Organisation
• Dessima Williams - Grenada Foundation

Socialist Scholars Conference 1990

The Socialist Scholars Conference 1990, held September 6-8, at the Hotel Commodore, New York, included panels such as:

Nicaragua's 1990 Elections: The US War Continues

• Sponsor: South End Press
• Phil Agee, Author, Inside the Company: CIA
• Holly Sklar author: Washington's War on Nicaragua

DSA connections

Holly Sklar, Detroit 2005

Holly Sklar has long history of involvement with Democratic Socialists of America.

In November 1997 Sklaraddressed a Center for Democratic Values (DSA's educational arm) Conference: Arguing with the Right; in Columbus Ohio.

Author Holly Sklar argued that media is key. We need to fund media projects and make them a priority.

At the Democratic Socialists of America National convention in Philadelphia in 2001, described the loss of purchasing power represented by the minimum wage at the Saturday afternoon plenary.

On September 20-22 2002 Frances Fox Piven, Deepak Bhargava and Holly Sklar were billed as keynote speakers at “Confronting the Low-Wage Economy” at the First Congregational Church-Washington, DC.

This conference will kick off DSA’s Low Wage Justice Project, which is designed to bring the human consequences of the low wage economy to the attention of the American people.

In 2003 Holly Sklar addresseda DSA Conference in Berkeley, California, along with Gus Newport and Bob Wing.

Sklar spoke twice at DSA's 2003 National Conference in Detroit.

Firstly at a Saturday plenary session “The Left Response to the Global Economy,” with David Bonior then a Saturday evening’s outreach event featuring Cornel West, John Conyers, Sklar and DSA Vice Chair Harold Meyerson.

In June 2004 Sklar contributedan article-The Rich Bank on Bush to Boston DSA's The Yankee Radical-described as a local activist.

Boston DSA post election 2004 forum

On November 19, 2004 Boston DSA held a post election 2004 forum at the Community Church, 565 Boylston St. Speakers were;

• Holly Sklar, a long time activist and author whose works include Raise The Floor: Wages and Policies That Work For All of Us; Streets of Hope The Fall and Rise of an Urban Neighborhood (about Roxbury's Dudley Street Initiative); and Trilateralism: The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management,which foretold the global corporate economy long before globalization was a buzzword. She has also written for Z Magazine, The Nation and USA Today,and is a consultant for United for a Fair Economy.
• Michael Hirsch, a labor journalist and union staffer who is a member of the National Political Committee of Democratic Socialists of America, the editorial committee of Democratic Left, and the editorial board of the journal New Politics. In the 1970s he was a member of International Socialists and active with the United Steelworkers Union in Gary, Indiana through 1985.
• Harris Gruman, has headed DSA locals in Boulder, CO, Baltimore, MD, and Boston, MA. He is now Director of Massachusetts Neighbor to Neighbor, which organizes low income urban neighborhoods on economic justice issues and has focused its electoral work on the state legislature and , since August, pro-Kerry swing state phone banking.

DSA member

At the Democratic Socialists of America National Political Committee Meeting of September 26-27, 2009, members "brainstormed" on who could replace the late Ruth Spitz and one other opening for a woman among the DSA vice chairs. Suggestions were: Teresa Ghilarducci "at times a member", Katha Pollitt, Christine Kelly "joined at conference", Judith Deutsch, Theda Skocpol "if Joe approaches her to ask her to rejoin", Juliet Schor "a member on and off", "less likely": Holly Sklar, Peg Strobel. All names were referred to the Steering Committee.

IPS connections

In 2002 Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy a national organization based in Boston that spotlights growing economic inequality issued a report, "CEOs Who Cooked the Books Earned 70% More".

The report was authored by Scott Klinger, Sarah Anderson, Chris Hartman, John Cavanagh and Holly Sklar and was the ninth annual CEO pay study by the two organizations.

Demos Involvement

In 2009 Holly Sklar was an affiliate staff member for New York based think tank Demos.

See the November 2010 new entry on Miles Rapoport, the head of Demos for updated information on that group.

References

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