Welcome to LaborFest 2018
Surviving The Billionaire Robot AssaultIn The 21st Century
LaborFest this year commemorates its 25th anniversary and itis also the 84th anniversary of the San Francisco General Strikeand West Coast Maritime strike. That historic and criticalstrike led the way to the organization of hundreds of thousandsof workers in the Bay Area, and also helped build one of themost powerful union movements in the United States. Two workers, Howard Sperry and Nick Bordoise, were shot andkilled in front of the International Longshoremen’s Association(ILA) union headquarters, which brought about the movementfor a general strike. That strike shut down San Francisco for three days and led to a victory for a union hiring hall and theorganization of hundreds of thousandsof workers in the bay area.
Our annual festival commemoratesthis victory with many labor historyevents and also a maritime labor historyboat trip. It is working people who make SanFrancisco, the U.S., and the worldfunction and we need to know ourown history to move forward. Today, with the impetus behind Janusvs. AFSCME and so-called right-toworklaws, working people and laborface a frontal attack on worker rights.Despite this assault workers refused tobe silenced. The mass strikes of teachersin “right to work states” show that these laws cannot stopworkers from organizing and fighting back. They are fightingto defend not just teachers and staff but also the right to a publiceducation for all young people. It is time to use our powerand fight back to defend our basic rights.
Workers are also standing up against the racist attack on immigrantworkers. The millions of immigrant workers and theirfamilies in this country are being terrorized. These are theworkers that make America a great country; yet, they are beingblamed for our economic crisis. Immigrant workers also makeour city work, including the hotels, service and constructionworkers that build our great city.
There is a major fight back in this country to defend and expandour rights and everything we have built in this country.The attack on working people in the Bay Area has manyfacets. The use of technology at companies like UBER,Lyft and Airbnb is not to benefit our society but to createmore billionaires.
Workers and seniors are being driven from their neighborhoods,while tens of thousands of workers are forced tocome to San Francisco as “gig” workers at these car companies,creating more gridlock and stress. These workershave been marginalized in the new tech economy and cannotsurvive on their income where they live as everythingis deregulated and privatized. This outsourcing and tempeconomy drives down wages anddestroys our public education andpublic services.
LaborFest will examine the effectsof Airbnb on hotel workers andour neighborhoods and how taxiworkers and UBER/Lyft driversare dying on the job due to robotconditions. LaborFest will also have an internationalworking class film andvideo festival, which will programfilms that speak to our lives hereand around the world. These filmswill show how workers are fightingfor their unions and the untoldhistory of our struggles. The global economy is now beingused to pit US workers against our brothers and sisters inMexico, Europe and China, yet these multi-nationals arethe ones who benefit from xenophobia and racism.
This year is also the 50th anniversary of the San FranciscoState Strike that lasted 6 months. The strike was supportedby the Professor’s union, the San Francisco Labor Council,and ILWU 10, which helped the strikers get jobs on thedocks. LaborFest will have some of the participants at apanel on that fight for ethnic studies and open admissions.LaborFest has confidence that working people can learnfrom our history and unite to build a world for our jobs,families and communities.
In Solidarity,From The LaborFest Organizing Committee