Free | with Brad Wiedmaier, SEIU 2015 member & architectural historian | San Francisco has a rich political and labor history that is also connected to its buildings. In this history-by-the-buildings walk, Brad Wiedmaier will outline artifacts and events, and their connections to San Francisco’s past and present. For more information call (415) 694-3605.
Free | The development of technology, including artificial intelligence, automation and platforms like UBER, Lyft, and Airbnb, are making trillions for the tech and media companies that now dominate the world. Growing marginalization of labor and complete deregulation now means that hundreds of thousands of workers are being forced to travel hundreds of miles to work on temp jobs as independent contractors.
Free | Director: Terry sterenberg & Laurie Simons | This is a documentary film about our current healthcare system, why it doesn't work, and what you can do about it. The filmmakers interview doctors and nurses, patients, economists and politicians to see what they think about our current healthcare system.
Free | Director: Xiaoyu Qin and Feiyue Wu (Iron Moon), Director: Gyuri Byun (Play On) | The new film from China Iron Moon is a powerful artistic view of the massive industrialization of China through the eyes and words of the workers who have made the new China. At Foxconn, which has over 200,000 workers and produces most of our Apple phones, workers face a life of despair. One of them who committed suicide at the age of 24, left 200 poems of despair, “I swallowed an iron moon…” Using poetry as a tool to chip away at the ice of silence, they and other workers in this film express the hidden stories and life experiences of millions of the workers who are the foundation of the new China.
Free | LaborFest Writers explore the issues that we face today within our families, communities and government, whether it’s housing, jobs, ageism, race and sex discrimination, immigration or homelessness. Their work gives voice to what has gone before and why we must continue to fight for our rights. Come hear Margaret Cooley, Keith Cooley, Richard Chen, Susan Ford, Phyllis Holliday, Jerry Path, Alice Rogoff and Nellie Wong as they share their memoir, storytelling, oral history, poetry, and song.
Donation $5-20 sliding scale, free to strikers and locked-out workers, No one will be turned away due to cost | by Ann Feeney and Roy Zimmerman | LaborFest closes its annual festival with terrific artists Ann Feeney and Roy Zimmerman.
Sliding scale $15 – $50 : benefiting shaping San Francisco By Chris Carlsson From the pre-urban history of Indian Slavery to the earliest 8-hour day movement in the U.S., the […]
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival Directed by Wen Hai (China) China has become the factory workshop of the world. The film “We The Worker” is a […]
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival Directed by Jan Hoon (Korea) Gwangju, Korea is a historic center of struggle for the Korean people and this powerful dramatic […]
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival Directed by Matthew Barr Narrated by Danny Glover In 1993, a group of employees at the Smithfield Pork Processing Plant in […]
Directed by Robert Greene (2018) The hidden history of the American working class is exposed in this new film Bisbee ’17 by Robert Green. This film is centered around the […]
Come to share an inspiring labor event or leader in your life. It could be in San Francisco or elsewhere in the U.S.A. or the world. Photos, news clippings, prose, […]
Written by Rotimi Agbabiaka with Joan Holden Music & Lyrics by Ira Marlowe Directed by Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe It's Election Night 2018 and Bob swears she'll never vote again. A lifetime […]
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival Directed by Lixin Fan (China) When this documentary was made 8 years ago, the number of the migrant workers from rural […]
Join the walk with Gifford Hartman. Eighty-four years ago at this location, a great battle took place by workers and residents of San Francisco against the police and National Guard. […]
Tour 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 […]
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival Directed by Raoul Peck (Germany) On the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx, many of his ideas are as […]
Millions of workers have come to the Bay Area and Silicon Valley to work and live. The conference will hear from workers who are fighting for union and worker rights […]
The collection includes a selection of works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry by writers Phyllis Holliday, Margaret Cooley, Keith Cooley, Adele Kearney, Nellie Wong, Jerry Path, and Alice Rogoff. Hear […]
The escalation of open racist attacks is happening not only in our communities but on our jobs. There is a national epidemic of “hanging nooses” and workplace bullying to terrorize […]
Two independently produced videos will explore San Francisco labor movement history and current efforts to protect the Redstone Labor Temple (yet again!) from redevelopers and keep it as a community […]
Presented by Robbin Henderson Matilda Rabinowitz’s memoir challenges assumptions about the lives of early twentieth-century women. In Immigrant Girl, Radical Woman, Rabinowitz describes the ways in which she and her […]
Mike Stout has spent his life rocking the world with his music. Based in Pittsburgh, he is known as the “World’s Grievance Man” and his music has a powerful punch. […]
The deregulation of taxi workers began in San Francisco during the 1970’s. It has escalated with the introduction of tech platforms for Uber and Lyft, which have allowed the massive […]
The SAG-AFTRA san Francisco-Northern California Local in conjunction with LaborFest presents: The Performance of Public Speaking Join us for a presentation on how to engage audiences and the media. SAG-AFTRA […]
This commemorative event honors the 50th anniversary of the San Francisco State Strike. What are the lessons of that strike for today when students have to go into debt to […]
Directed by Lixin Fan (China) When this documentary was made 8 years ago, the number of the migrant workers from rural area of China to big cities were 130 […]
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival Directed by Anne Lewis This new film by Anne Lewis and associate producer Laura Vare, A Strike and an Uprising, illuminates […]
With Peter O’Driscoll (IBEW), Lawrence Shoup (UAW-NWU) There are many stories about labor struggles in San Francisco. The walk will focus on the maritime industry from 1835 until the burning […]
Videos and Presentation The privatization of public services, transportation, and education is a threat not only to unions but to the public in the U.S. and globally. This forum will […]
Living History re-creates the 1901 Waterfront Strike that paralyzed San Francisco for five months. From July 13 to October 2, 1901, San Francisco’s waterfront was shut down by sailors,Teamsters, and […]
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 […]
By Donna T. Haverty-Stacke The 1934 Minneapolis Teamster general strike coincided with the San Francisco General Strike. After the Minneapolis strike, the government, the companies and more conservative union officials […]
5:45 PM Boarding, 6:00 PM Departure Boat leaves promptly at 6:00 PM Please arrive 30 minutes before the boarding time. Tour lasts 3 hours A complimentary meal will be provided, […]
Airbnb has had a profound effect not just in San Francisco but around the world. For cities, it has turned neighborhoods into hotel districts. One example of the role of […]
San Francisco Bay Area is ground zero for the world tech transformation from platforms at Uber and Lyft to social media networks like Facebook and search engines like Google. The […]
Presentation and Discussion of Sol Nitzberg:Sponsored by California Historical Society Join Barry Nitzberg, grandson of tar-and-feathering victim Sol Nitzberg, and historian Ken Kann, for a retrospective on early farm labor […]
Whistleblowers on the job are under attack. This forum will hear from whistleblowers about their struggle to defend health and safety and the public. Their actions are taking place in […]
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival Directed by Matthew Warchus (UK) The unity of workers and oppressed minorities is the story of Pride. In a successful effort […]
Labor Woman of the Year Award - Juana Flores, Executive Director, Mujeres Unidas y Activas, Labor Man of the Year Award - Arnulfo De La Cruz, Executive Vice President, SEIU […]
The Rockin’ Solidarity Labor Chorus presents a history of immigration, told through the lens of family and policy and illustrated by songs old and new. Chorus members will share their […]
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival Directed by Jea-Pierre Thorn (France) 50th Anniversary of May-June General Strike France In the middle of the May-June French General Strike […]
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 […]
With Gifford Hartman, 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 […]
French Social Movements: There have been ongoing rail strikes, major demonstrations, and university occupations protesting Macron’s government’s attacks. Come to a skype presentation by trade unionists from the Fraction l’Etincelle […]
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival Directed by Matthew Warchus (UK) The unity of workers and oppressed minorities is the story of Pride. In a successful effort […]
With Harvey Schwartz Harry Bridges, the Australian-born founding president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, was hounded by government investigations, hearings, and trials from 1934 to 1955. As the […]
Book reading by Jonathan Karmel Writer and labor lawyer Jonathan Karmel has written a book about the cost to workers and their families of the lack of health and safety […]
Slavery, observed Frederick Douglass, is a “hydra-headed monster.” In California this monster appeared and reappeared as if shape-shifting. The history of slavery in California unsettles the North/South view of American […]
Sharat Lin is an international labor researcher looking at the lessons of the Spanish Mondagron Cooperative system. He reports on how it works and how workers who are using their […]
American-Swedish trade unionist Jordin Williams will discuss how workers are organized across the Nordic spectrum: Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark. He will give a Powerpoint presentation to discuss labor […]
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival Directed by Jeffrey Gould This film by Jeffrey Gould, a history professor at the University of Indiana, looks at an important […]
Part of the so-called American Dream is the notion that if you work hard and get a good education you will make a decent living. However, many of our most […]
The dystopian world we live in will be challenged by words and music that will bring solidarity and unity of all working people. Poets: Mahnaz Badihian, Lisbit Bailey, Kristina Brown, […]
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival Reserve Slaves (Schiavi di Riserva) 2018 (30 min.) Italy Directed by Michelangelo Severgnini The result of the U.S./European attack on Libya […]
Directed by Imre Azem, 2018 (53 min.) Turkey. Four following years the Gezi Resistance, great political and social changes were instituted in Turkey. Director İmre Azem follows four people striving for […]
Thousands of drivers now come into San Francisco and other cities on the coast to drive for Uber and Lyft. These workers are forced to leave their homes because they […]
Meet at the fountain in Latham Square, at the intersection where Telegraph and Broadway converge, across from the Rotunda Building (Oakland City Center/12th St. BART). With Gifford Hartman of the […]
Walk 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 […]
Walk with Brad Wiedmaier, SEIU 2015 member & architectural historian San Francisco has a rich political and labor history that is also connected to its buildings. In this historyby- the-buildings […]
Registration: 9:30 AM The survival of public education is now at stake in California and throughout the country. Trump’s Secretary of Education Betsy Devos is continuing the complete privatization of […]
Labor musician and political satirist Charlie King will sing about the struggle of working people in the age of Trump. Pete Seeger nominated Charlie for the Sacco- Vanzetti Social Justice […]
Workers Rights has no borders and the struggle and lives of Palestinian workers are the focus of this forum. Palestinian journalists have been targeted by Israeli snipers in increasing numbers. […]
San Francisco actor and writer Howard Petrick takes a look at the 1934 Minneapolis general strike through the eyes of one of its leaders, V.R. Dunne. The Minneapolis Teamster General […]
