EUGENE–The increasingly global nature of U.S. capitalism and its affect on working people is the topic of an April 10 lecture sponsored by the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics.

Dana Frank, the 2001 University of Oregon holder of the Wayne Morse Chair, will discuss "Working People and the Challenge of Globalization" at a free public address at 7: 30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 10, at the Eugene Conference Center, Two Eugene Centre, adjacent to the Eugene Hilton on East Sixth Avenue.

Frank, the author of the award-winning book "Purchasing Power: Consumer Organizing, Gender, and the Seattle Labor Movement, 1919-1929," will touch on Boeing’s recent decision to move its corporate headquarters from Seattle. Frank is a professor of American studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Her public address will place current globalization trends into a historic context. She also will discuss current efforts to expand the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement that would include the entire Western Hemisphere. Those negotiations are scheduled to begin later this month in Quebec City.

Frank contends a new FTAA treaty would expand the power of corporations even beyond the provisions of NAFTA, increasing the downward pressure on wages, living standards, the environment, public health laws and public services in the United States and throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Frank’s lecture is part of a series of events sponsored by the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics this year under the theme "Labor in a Global Economy." Frank will be in residence at the UO history department all of spring term and teach a class on "Race, Social Justice and Modern U.S. Labor History." She will take part in a conference on May 10 which will showcase Morse Center—sponsored scholarship exploring the history, politics and local impact of globalization’s challenge for working people.

At the April 10 lecture, Frank will be welcomed with a special appearance by Eugene singer Irene Farrera, who performs Venezuelan vocals and music from her homeland.

Copies of Frank’s books, including "Buy American: The Untold Story of Economic Nationalism," will be available, along with other volumes exploring the issues of labor in a global economy.

For more information, call the Morse Center, (541) 346-3700, or visit the center’s website, <http://www.morsechair.uoregon.edu>.

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