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Labor History Bike Tour

Meet at 518 Valencia Street 518 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA, United States

Sliding scale $15 - $50 | by Chris Carlsson | Benefiting shaping San Francisco. This is an entirely different look, during a four-hour bike tour, at San Francisco labor history.

sliding scale

Internment, Japanese Americans, Labor And The Lessons For Today

National Japanese American Historical Society 1684 Post St., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | This year is the 75th anniversary of the internment of over 120,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese Peruvians in concentration camps during World War II under the executive order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Free

SF Mime Troupe – Walls

Cedar Rose Park 1300 Rose St, Berkeley, CA, United States

Free | WALLS asks the question: How can a nation of immigrants declare war on immigration? The answer: FEAR!

Free

SF Mime Troupe – Walls

Cedar Rose Park 1300 Rose St, Berkeley, CA, United States

Free | WALLS asks the question: How can a nation of immigrants declare war on immigration? The answer: FEAR!

SF Mime Troupe – Walls

Dolores Park Dolores Park, San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | WALLS asks the question: How can a nation of immigrants declare war on immigration? The answer: FEAR!

Free

Film: American Socialist: The Life and Times of Eugene Victor Debs

ILWU Local 34 Hall 801 2nd St., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | by Yale Strom | Eugene Victor Debs is unknown to most people in the United States, yet, he is one of the most important working-class figures in our history. Debs was a railroad worker during the 1877 national railway strike in July. This strike took place when the railroad bosses cut the wages of railroad workers 20%.

Free

Book reading – Refinery Town by Steve Early

Green Arcade Bookstore 1680 Market St., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | by Steve Early | Steve Early has been an active labor journalist and organizer for over forty years. His work appears in the New York Times, Boston Globe, and The Nation, among other publications. He is the author of four books, including Save Our Unions: Dispatches of a Movement in Distress. He lives in Richmond, CA.

Free

Film: Ludlow, Greek Americans In Colorado Coal War (71 min.) 2016

518 Valencia 518 Valencia, San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | Producer: Frosso Tsouka, Director: Leonidas Vardaros | The racist war on immigrants in the US has a long history and this film tells the story of Greek Americans and other immigrants who came to work in the mines of Colorado. This film shows the conditions that these miners and their children worked under and how immigrant workers were terrorized and exploited.

Free

Walk – The Building and Labor Struggles at Fort Point

Fort Point Long Ave & Marine Dr, San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | with Matthew Britten | Participants of the walk will learn about the construction of Fort Point and Alcatraz through the eyes of the workers who did the work.

Free

SF General Strike Walk

Harry Bridges Plaza Tower in front of Ferry Building Plaza Tower in front of Ferry Building, San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | with Gifford Hartman | How was the strike organized and why are the issues from that strike still relevant to working people today? We will view some of the key historical sites in this important US labor struggle.

Free

SF General Strike: Principles, Philosophies, Applicabilities

Green Arcade Bookstore 1680 Market St., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | by Gifford Hartman and David Duckworth | Launching from the historic General Strike of 1934, historians David Duckworth and Gifford Hartman converse on the broader ramifications of this moment in West Coast labor unity. Considering the scope and tactics of that defining moment, examples of other significant strikes are examined and contrasted, principles and philosophies are drawn out, and analysis of effects assessed. .

Free

Film: Fascism inc. (83 min.) 2014

518 Valencia 518 Valencia, San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | Producer: Frosso Tsouka, Director: Aris Chatzistefanou | Following the film, producer Frosso Tsouka and San Francisco State professor Zeese Papanikolas will discuss the economic and social developments in Greece and the rise of Golden Dawn and other neo-nazi groups.

Free

WPA Bus Tour

Bill Graham Auditorium 99 Grove, San Francisco, CA, United States

$25 | with Gray Brechin and Harvey Smith | Join Gray Brechin and Harvey Smith as they travel through history on a bus tour of sites built by the New Deal’s “alphabet soup” agencies. You will learn about the major contribution government-paid workers made during the depression- era New Deal programs.

$25

Irish Labor History Walk

Marine Firemen’s Hall 240 2nd St., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | with IBEW electrician Peter O’Driscoll | This tour will focus on the history of San Francisco’s famed waterfront and the role of its Irish and Irish-American workers, leaders, and martyrs. It will also include the cases of Tom Mooney and Warren Billings who faced a labor frame-up in the Preparedness Day Bombing in San Francisco in July 1916, and the successful struggle for their release.

Free

Labor, War in Asia and the Lessons of the Comfort Women

ILWU Local 34 Hall 801 2nd St., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | The growing dangers of a war in Asia are accelerating, particularly with the U.S. strategy of “Asian Pivot”. This forum will examine what the “Asian Pivot” is and the militarization of Asia, including the construction of more bases in Okinawa and Jeju, Korea.

Free

Film: Divided We Fall (90 min.) 2016, The Great Sitdown (52 min.) 1976

ILWU Local 34 Hall 801 2nd St., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | "Divided We Fall", Director: Katherine Acosta, "The Great Sitdown", BBC Documentary | Scott Houldieson, Vice President UAW 551 Ford Assembly Plant Chicago, Illinois, will introduce the film “The Great Sitdown” and discuss the relevance today.

Free

Bread & Roses Labor History Story Telling

San Francisco Labor Council Office 1188 Franklin Street, Suite 203, San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | Come to share an interesting labor story you’ve led or experienced. It could be a memory of a key labor figure or event locally or internationally. This will be an open regular meeting of FORUM (Federation of Retired Union Members), an organization of retirees affiliated with the San Francisco Labor Council.

Free

The Golden Spike: Chinese and Irish Labor versus The Big Four

Chinese Historical Society of America 965 Clay St., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | May 10, 2019 will be the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, a momentous accomplishment which has excluded recognition of the contribution of Chinese railroad workers to the wealth of The Big Four and the building of the American Empire, which connected East Coast to West across the Pacific to the China Trade.

Free

Film: Killing Floor (114 min) 1984

ILWU Local 34 Hall 801 2nd St., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | Producer-Writerr: Elsa Rassbach | Director: Bill Duke (1985 Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Award) | One hundred years ago, a critical struggle was taking place in the slaughterhouses in Chicago to organize a union. This powerful dramatic film focuses on the Polish and African American workers and their conditions as they fight to overcome racism and class hate and greed, in order to build a union of black and white workers.

Free

Comme des Lions “Like lions” Lets Fight Like Lions (115 min.) 2016

Berkeley City College Auditorium 2050 Center St., Berkeley, CA, United States

Free | Director: Françoise Davisse | This documentary film traces the struggle of workers of the PSA plant in Aulnay-sous-Bois, a poor suburb of Paris, against management’s threat to close the plant. The title comes from the slogan of the strikers, “Let’s fight like lions!” The conflict is experienced “from the inside,” showing the workers’ debates and reactions on a day-to-day basis, from 2013-2015.

Free

Woody Guthrie’s Birthday & Homestead Strike : The River Ran Red (58 min.) 2012

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall 1924 Cedar St., Berkeley, CA, United States

Free | by Steffi domike & Nicole fauteux (The River Ran Red) and Jimmy Kelly (music) | Join labor musician Jimmy Kelly in commemorating the life and songs of Woody Guthrie and his birthday. Guthrie, a people and worker’s musician, traveled coast-to-coast singing about striking workers and people in struggle.

Free

Building Bridges, Not Walls

Canessa Gallery 708 Montgomery St., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | Art and Poetry Exhibit
“Building Bridges, Not Walls” acknowledges the contributions of the multicultural population of the Bay Area and its role in creating world-renown infrastructure. This exhibit features Bay Area artists and poets whose work celebrates these contributions. Three themes will be highlighted to celebrate the bridges, the people who built them and the impact on our lives today: Immigrants, Diversity, and Internationalism.

Free

Woody Guthrie’s Birthday & Homestead Strike : The River Ran Red (58 min.) 2012

San Jose Peace & Justice Center 48 S. 7th St., San Jose, CA, United States

Free | by Steffi domike & Nicole fauteux (The River Ran Red) and Jimmy Kelly (music) | Join labor musician Jimmy Kelly in commemorating the life and songs of Woody Guthrie and his birthday. Guthrie, a people and worker’s musician, traveled coast-to-coast singing about striking workers and people in struggle.

Free

Woody Guthrie’s Birthday & Homestead Strike : The River Ran Red (58 min.) 2012

Santa Cruz Public Library 224 Church St, Santa Cruz, CA, United States

Free | by Steffi domike & Nicole fauteux (The River Ran Red) and Jimmy Kelly (music) | Join labor musician Jimmy Kelly in commemorating the life and songs of Woody Guthrie and his birthday. Guthrie, a people and worker’s musician, traveled coast-to-coast singing about striking workers and people in struggle.

Free

SF Waterfront Labor History Walk 1835-1934

75 Folsom St. 75 Folsom St., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | with Lawrence Shoup and Peter O’Driscoll | There are many stories about labor struggles in San Francisco. The walk will focus on the maritime industry from 1835 until the burning of the blue book in 1934. Also, labor historian Larry Shoup will discuss the history of the 1901 transportation workers strike led by the Teamsters, which the San Francisco police attempted, but failed, to smash.

Longshore Work, Automation, Technology and the Future of Our Work and Lives

ILWU Local 10 Henry Schmidt Room 400 North Point St., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | The drive to automate the docks and the maritime industry is moving forward rapidly and, in some European ports, the transfer of cargo has been automated forcing thousands of longshore workers out of the industry.

Free

Not Our Brothers And Sisters !! Against Deportations And Racism

Beat Museum 540 Broadway St., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | with The Revolutionary Poets Brigade & The Juana Briones Cultural Committee | Capitalism uses racist attacks on African-Americans and threats of deportation on Latinos and Muslims to divide the working-class revolution in this country. The Revolutionary Poets Brigade and the Juana Briones Cultural Committee in this neo-fascist Trump period will soundly refuse those betrayals.

Free

Coit Tower Mural Walk

Coit Tower 1 Telegraph Hill Blvd., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | with Peter O’Driscoll and Harvey Smith | In the past few years there has been a growing community effort to defend the Coit Tower murals from leaking water and to stop plans for privatization of the site. This led to the critical renovation of the murals on their 80th anniversary. They were being painted during the time of the 1934 general strike in San Francisco.

Free

San Bruno Mountain Wilderness Walk

San Bruno Mountain Watch Office 44 Visitation Ave., Rm 206, Brisbane, CA, United States

Free | with David Schooley | Labor unionists and environmentalists both confront the same commercial interests. In 1968, David Schooley chained himself to a bulldozer at the foot of the San Bruno Mountain. The activism of David and many other community members were crucial in protecting much of the mountain, allowing for the creation of a public park where working people can find tremendous beauty and peace nearby the cities where they live and work.

Free

Play reading: Painting Coit Tower

Canessa Gallery 708 Montgomery St., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | with Jon Golinger, founder of Protect Coit Tower | “What do powerful men fear most? Honest questions from free minds. Brush fresh paint on a blank slate – who knows what you may find?” So says artist Bernard Zakheim in a scene from “Painting Coit Tower,” a new play that tells the amazing story of the Coit Tower murals – how they came to be and why they remain just as meaningful today as when they were painted 83 years ago.

Free

The Origins of the US Military in the Indian Wars

518 Valencia 518 Valencia, San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz | Professor Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz in this talk will look at the history of the U.S. military in expanding U.S. imperial interests and establishing a state based on genocide and slavery.

Free

Building Bridges and Labor Maritime History Boat Tour

Pier 41 next to Pier 39 near RocktBoat PIER 41, San Francisco, CA, United States

Adult / $45, children 6 to 12 / $25, under 6 / free | Join the best labor maritime trip in the world. Learn about the great labor history of the Bay Area, from the 1934 Maritime Strike, which help shape the charactor of San Francisco to the effort to save the EPA to ensure the Bay stay clean.

$45

The Destruction of City College of San Francisco

Bernal Public Library 500 Cortland Ave., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | Public education has been under attack for many years. The forms of attack include inadequate funding, privatization, corporatization, and hostility towards teacher and staff unions. Many students and public school employees have been harmed. One college that has been relentlessly assaulted is City College of San Francisco (CCSF). It is a very popular public institution as reflected in the fact that over 80% of voters approved a parcel tax to help fund CCSF in the November 2016 election.

Free

Film: I, Daniel Blake (96 min.) 2017, UK

ILWU Local 34 Hall 801 2nd St., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | Director: Ken Loach, Screenwriter: Paul Laverty | I, Daniel Blake by Director Ken Loach and writer Paul Leverty is an important film on the destruction of the lives of workers and their families in the “welfare system”. Blake is a carpenter who has a heart attack and is then forced to go back to work despite his health conditions. While he is fighting for compensation, he befriends a woman and her children who are also being ground up in the Employment and Support Allowance welfare system in the UK.

Free

SF Living Wage Coalition 7th Annual Awards Dinner

SEIU 1021 Hall 350 Rhode Island St, San Francisco, CA, United States

$40 (at door: $50) | Seventh Annual San Francisco Living Wage Coalition’s Awards Dinner with cultural and musical performances.
Labor Woman of the Year Award - Lita Blanc, President of United Educators of San Francisco. Labor Man of the Year Award - Michael Theriault, Secretary-Treasurer of the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council.

$40 – $50

Film: Island of Shadows : (98 min.) 2016, S. Korea

First Unitarian Universalist Church 1187 Franklin St., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | Director: Jeong-keun Kim | “Island of Shadows” shows the history of Korean Hanjin shipyard workers to defend their health and safety building a union. They built one of the most industrialized countries in the world yet now face the destruction of their lives because of company unions and government corruption.

Free

WPA Berkeley Walk

Main Berkeley Post Office 2000 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

Free | with Harvey Smith | This walk will explore the “New Deal nexus” in Berkeley that includes Berkeley High School, the Community Theater, Civic Center Park, Post Office art, the old UC Press Building (now being repurposed as the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive), and the old Farm Credit Building.

Free

Tom Mooney and Preparedness Day Bombing Walk

One Market St. One Market St., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | with Gifford Hartman and David Duckworth | During this walking tour, we visit several sites, which were integral to the unfolding of events following a bomb explosion on Steuart Street at Market Street on July 22, 1916. With fervor building to engage the United States in the war in Europe, businessmen in San Francisco embraced the cause, while labor leaders and the left denounced it. With the bomb killing ten people and wounding forty, no clear culprit was identified. But, two figures from the left, labor organizers and anarchists Tom Mooney and Warren K. Billings, were framed for the murder of the victims and spent many years in prison before being released. On this tour, we learn not only about the war between business and labor and open and closed union shops, but also the divisive issues of American aggression in the Pacific region and against Mexico, crusading and yellow journalism in the city of San Francisco, and the mood of the country regarding World War I.

Free

Charters, Privatization & the Defense of Public Education

Richmond High School Auditorium 1250 23rd St., Richmond, CA, United States

$10 - No one turned away due to lack of funds | The growth of charter schools and privatization of public education in California and throughout the US is a cancer threatening students, teachers and staff at all public schools. This education/action conference will look at what charters are and how they are siphoning off billions dollars from public taxes for profiteers. It will also examine how religious tax-funded charter schools like the Gulen Magnolia chain and storefront “online schools” like Escondido Charter High are growing in California and throughout the country.

$10

The history of the Alibi Clock in Vallejo and the K-R-C case of 1937

John F. Kennedy Library Joseph Room 505 Santa Clara Street, Vallejo, CA, United States

Free | by Joel Schor | Legal cases against labor have been fueled by hysteria over war abroad and radicalism at home, from Tom Mooney, charged with setting off a bomb during the Preparedness Day Parade (1916), to charges against Marine Fireman’s Union members Earl King, Charles Ramsay and Frank Conner, accused of murder aboard a ship docked in Alameda in 1937.

Free

Film: Watsonville On Strike (65 min.) 1989

ILWU Local 34 Hall 801 2nd St., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | Director: Jon Silver, with Jon Silver & Frank Barnacke | In September 1985, 1,500 Teamster-organized, mostly immigrant women cannery workers walked out on the two largest frozen food companies in the United States — Watsonville Canning and Richard A. Shaw Frozen Foods in Watsonville, California. This was known as the “frozen food capital of the world”. The workers faced not only companies who wanted major concessions but also a white union leadership who did not speak Spanish and who accused them of not being union members.

Free

From Killer Drones to Gentrification: The Struggle In Germany and Internationalism

ILWU Local 34 Hall 801 2nd St., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | by Elsa Rassbach and Harald Gindra | Longtime Berlin activists Elsa Rassbach and Harald Gindra will discuss from personal experience some of the key peace and justice campaigns in Germany today and will explore together with participants what can be learned for current struggles in the US.

Free

The River Ran Red : (58 min.) 2012 / And Report on Labor in the Schools

Plumbers Hall 1621 Market St. 2nd floor, San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | Director: Steffi Domike and Nicole Fauteux, and Labor in the Schools | The violence that erupted at Carnegie Steel’s giant Homestead mill near Pittsburgh on July 6, 1892, caused a congressional investigation and trials for treason, motivated a nearly successful assassination attempt on Frick, contributed to the defeat of President Benjamin Harrison for a second term, and changed the course of the American labor movement.

Free

Film: Where Are You Buddy? (25 min.) 2017, Turkey

518 Valencia 518 Valencia, San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | Director: Kazim Kizil | With discussion - The Fight to Defend Academics and Journalists in Turkey: The growth of child labor in Turkey and around the world is exploding. The U.S. invasion of Iraq and Libya, the war in Syria, and now the U.S. supported bombing of Yemen, are creating millions of refugees, including many children forced to work. This film looks at the lives of these children from their own words as child workers. This new film from Turkey by director Kazim Kizil lets the children tell their own stories.

Free

Film: Bridging Urban America (87 min.) 2016

SF Main Library - Koret Auditorium 100 Larkin St., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | Director: Basia Myszynski and Leonard Myszynski | This biography celebrates Ralph Modjeski, the chief engineer for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Modjeski designed bridges that had significant impact on urban development and commerce. The film is a tribute to innovative engineering and to bridge workers during two eras of transit, taking a deeper look at the scientific mind and artistic soul of a Polish-born, Paris-trained immigrant who contributed to the building of a modern America. This is a relevant film that brings awareness about the deteriorating state of our bridges and how communities search for sustainable solutions to maintain, rehabilitate and preserve these critical parts of North America’s infrastructure.

Free

What California Labor History Tells Us About Building the Resistance to Trump

Green Arcade Bookstore 1680 Market St., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | by Fred B. Glass | At a moment when American democracy is threatened as never before, progressives need models for building an effective resistance. In California, many examples of strategy and tactics live in the hidden history of working people and their struggles for social justice.

Free

LaborFest Comedy Night

San Jose Improv 62 S. 2nd St., San Jose, CA, United States

Hosted by Danny Cruzz | LaborFest 2017 brings a night of comedy to all working class people to laugh and enjoy a night of relaxation. As labor is forefront for us all, we need to unwind and enjoy the fruits of our labor.

All Of Us Or None

Niebyl Proctor Marxist Library 6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, CA, United States

Free | An Evening of Poetry in Resistance to The Trumpoline Regime and The Corporate Horse It Rode In On!!

Free

California in the Progressive Era

ILWU Local 34 Hall 801 2nd St., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | with history lecturer John Holmes, SFSU Professor Bill Issel and moderated by SFSU Professor Bob Cherney | One of the most tumultuous periods in San Francisco labor and working class history was the formation of the Union Labor Party (ULP) and the role of the Socialist Party in the early 20th century.

Free

Song of The Stubborn One Thousand: The Watsonville Canning Strike, 1985 – 87

Green Arcade Bookstore 1680 Market St., San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | Book reading by Peter Shapiro | On September 9, 1985, one thousand mainly Mexican women workers in Watsonville, California, the “frozen food capital of the world,” were forced out on strike in an attempt by Watsonville Canning’s owner, Mort Console, to break their union. They returned to work eighteen months later. Not one had crossed the picket line. A moribund local union had been revitalized, and Watsonville’s Latino majority emerged as a major force in local politics.

Free

The Performance of Public Speaking by The SAG-AFTRA San Francisco

518 Valencia 518 Valencia, San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | Join us for a presentation on how to engage audience and the media. SAG-AFTRA members will offer insight into the art of public speaking from the perspective of a performer and a broadcaster.

Free

Film: Care (60 min.) 2016 / Panel of Homecare and Disabled Care Workers

518 Valencia 518 Valencia, San Francisco, CA, United States

Free | Director: Deirdre Fishel
& The Defense of Our Elderly and Panel of Homecare and Disabled Care Workers
|
A panel discussion follows after the film: Brett Miller, SEIU 1021; Brad Wiedmaier, SEIU Local 2015 California long term care; moderated by David Duckworth SEIU 1021.

Free