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Bill Fletcher, Jr. is a public intellectual, regularly featured on television and radio.. Starting in the labor movement as a rank and file member of the Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America, he eventually became.the highest ranking African American in the AFL-CIO. He served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of TransAfrica Forum, a national non-profit organization organizing, educating and advocating for policies in favor of the peoples of Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America. After serving that role for four years, he was appointed Belle Zeller Distinguished Visiting Professor at Brooklyn College from 2005 to 2007. Fletcher was formerly the Vice President for International Trade Union Development Programs for the George Meany Center of the AFL-CIO. Combining labor and community work, he struggled to desegregate the Boston building trades. A graduate of Harvard University, Fletcher is a prolific author of dozens of articles. He co-authored The Indispensable Ally: Black Workers and the Formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, 1934-1941. Fletcher is the co-author (with Fernando Gapasin) of Solidarity Divided, The Crisis in Organized Labor and A New Path Toward Social Justice (University of California Press).He was formerly the Vice President for International Trade Union Development Programs for the George Meany Center of the AFL-CIO. Prior the George Meany Center, Fletcher served as Education Director and later Assistant to the President of the AFL-CIO. Fletcher got his start in the labor movement as a rank and file member of the Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America. Combining labor and community work, he was also involved in ongoing efforts to desegregate the |