Two AFSCME locals that went on strike against the University of Minnesota will be honored with a National Lawyers Guild Social Justice Award at a dinner that will feature presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich as keynote speaker.

The Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild will hold its annual Social Justice Dinner Saturday, Feb. 21, at 6 p.m. at the UFCW Local 789 hall, 266 Hardman Ave. N. in South St. Paul.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who is seeking the Democratic Party nomination for president, will be keynote speaker. He is running on an agenda that includes national health care, preservation of Social Security, homeless assistance and the creation of a Department of Peace to further nonviolence around the world. He has been outspoken in support of international human rights and against growing abuses of corporate power.

AFSCME Locals 3800 and 3801, which represent some 2,000 clerical workers at the University of Minnesota, will receive the 2004 Social Justice Award from the Guild. The mostly female workforce walked off the job in October in the first university strike in more than 50 years. The focus of the strike was preserving wages and benefits for the university's lowest-paid employees.

Larry McDonough, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis, also will be honored at the dinner with the Paul Marino People's Lawyer Award. He will be recognized for his substantial work representing low-income people in federal and state courts and at administrative hearings.

Tickets for the dinner are $35 ($17.50 for students and low-income). For tickets and other information call 612-978-1936.