Syracuse Cultural Workers
20 Years Creating Tools for Change
On October 25 the Syracuse Cultural Workers (SCW) celebrated
its 20th anniversary and its wonderful, new, commercial building at 400 Lodi
St., Syracuse (corner of Hawley). Hundreds of people attended the event which
featured music by Colin Aberdeen, refreshments (Tiffany Catering, one of our
new neighbors, donated a bunch of munchies), bargains galore, free “War
on Iraq = Terrori$m for Oil” bumperstickers, building tours and lots of
great schmoozing. We recently added the huge old bench originally built by Rocco
Liuzzi for the Westcott Cafe to our corner, which is a hub of urban diversity.
Since 1987, SCW workers had labored in an old two-family wood frame house at
1419 E. Fayette St. With extreme creativity we used all four floors of the building
to the max. As we steadily grew the last five years, Randy Squillace, our shipping
and receiving supervisor, was especially adept at finding unique storage places
for new products. However, there were many indications that a larger space was
needed soon. Because of the enormous weight of our poster inventory, which was
stored in the attic, the walls on the second floor had literally started to
compress! And don’t even think about the inefficient and difficult schlepping
by staff, up three flights of stairs, to get the posters stored there!
Our new building has an actual warehouse with two ground-level loading docks
and a pallet-jack for large loads. Rather than a maze of small rooms, our shippers
now work in a large room with a specially designed shipping table and easy access
to all products. In the front we have an “actual” store, “Tools
for Change,” adorned with five beautiful flags, which provides easy accessibility
for local customers/activists and makes our peace and justice values much more
visible. Our operations and customer service department, under Rose Zappala’s
expert direction, has doubled its data entry work stations while designing and
managing the store.
SCW’s success is but one indicator that millions of people in North America
embrace progressive peace and justice values in clear opposition to Bush and
his rightist regime. It is also a tribute to our dedicated, creative staff and
artists and the broader Syracuse political community which nurtures our national
work. Let’s “carry it on” together.
–Dik Cool
