This year is the 90th anniversary of both the Minneapolis Teamster General Strike and the San Francisco General Strike. This panel will look at the victories and lessons of those strikes for today.
Readers from the LaborFest Writers Group share poetry, memoir, fiction and nonfiction during a live event at the renowned San Francisco bookstore - Bird and Beckett.
The American Dream. It used to mean a job, a house, a car, a spouse, 2.5 kids, and a .4 dog. But what does it mean now? For Gabriel Pearce, a Black man tired of liberal failures, on the day after the presidential election it means victory!
Ninety years ago (1934), a great battle took place between striking workers and the police and National Guard along the waterfront alongside the piers of San Francisco’s Embarcadero.
Ninety years ago. San Francisco's class relations were transformed by the General Strike, This commemorative event "Bloody Thursday" (this year it's on Friday), when police shot more than five dozen and killed two strikers.
The destruction of workers in Southern African including in South Africa and Namibia is escalating. Workers are being forced into contract labor which was the type of labor under apartheid conditions.
From the pre-urban history of Indian Slavery to the earliest 8-hour day movement in the U.S., the ebb and flow of class war is traced.
This panel will look at the historic struggle against white supremacy in the labor movement and the growth of fascism in the US today.
Identity politics which pits workers against workers has been used within the labor movement to stop unionization and weaken the labor movement.
Today, the Tesla service workers in Sweden who are members of IF Metal union have been on strike since October 2023. Their union sees the struggle as a fundamental struggle to defend union rights.
The introduction of UBER and Lyft has decimated the taxi industry and led to a massive growth of the gig economy in the US and internationally. Now Google with Waymo, GM with Cruise and other companies are developing autonomous vehicles in San Francisco and California.
Public workers are under attack in San Francisco, the US and the world. The privatization of all public services are at epidemic proportions and in San Francisco, so called “non-profit” workers are doing public work.
The ongoing battle to prevent the development by UC of People’s Park in Berkeley continues. The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and an important Court of Appeal victory was won. However,...
An intimate and dramatic narrative history of Munich residents Benno and Anna Neuburger and their circle of relatives and friends drawn from family stories, interviews, and archival documents, including those from the Gestapo and the Nazi People's Court.
The political and economic attack on public education is escalating under agencies called the FCMAT and ACCJC.
Walk with Harvey Smith
This walk will explore Berkeley's "New Deal nexus" that includes Post Office art, Berkeley High School, the Community Theater, Civic Center Park, and the old Farm Credit Building.
At: Tenderloin Museum - 398 Eddy St., SF, CA94102 (Presentation) The development of AI and robotics threatens millions of jobs. This meeting will look at what AI is and what it means for the working class and the public. A study of Goldman Sachs said that 350 million workers will lose their jobs globally. Many […]
(Zoom event) The AFL-CIO since its formation has been tied to the Israeli trade union called Histadrut. This union grouping has been central in not only supporting the Israeli state but also operated internationally to support the South African apartheid regime and intervene in countries around the world. In collaboration with the CIA and AFL-CIO […]
Walk - 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 was crucial in protecting much of the mountain....
Celebrate Woody Guthrie's birthday month with music.
Three presentations on Angel Island - Angel Island Immigration Station has an important history in California of immigration and labor. Many immigrants from around the world were held at the station and screened with many discriminatory rules particularly against Chinese and Asians.
(Zoom event) With AL Stein This panel will draw upon the experiences of two historians who have written administrative and cultural histories of the New Deal, by focusing on Frances Perkins, FDR’s Secretary of Labor (1933-1945) who was an advocate for workers rights, and the pro-labor legislation passed by the Roosevelt administration during the Great […]
The organized effort to target and retaliate against professors and students in the United States who are critical of Israel is going on at many colleges.
This forum will have members of the KPFA LSB and activists at KPFA who want more coverage of the South Bay on KPFA, and discuss why independent media is critical in this dire and critical time of war, peace, and justice.
In 2010, a commemoration was held of the merger between the Black and White local of the Musicians union in San Francisco.
Revolutionary Poets reading.
Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza is a 10-minute play by British playwright Caryl Churchill, written in response to the 2008-2009 Israel military strike on Gaza.
At: SEIU Local 1021 hall - 350 Rhode Island, San Francisco (entrance on Kansas Street, between 16th and 17th Streets) Street parking available, wheel-chair accessible Honorees: Labor Woman of the Year award – Kim Evon, Executive Vice President, Service Employees International Union Local 1021. Labor Man of the Year award – David Williams, retired member, […]
This month, Sensible Cinema along with SF LaborFest remembers the letter carriers strike of March 1970 beginning in New York City and spreading across the nation.
Walk with Harvey Smith - The McGee-Spaulding District could be considered a hotbed of Berkeley 1960s radicalism and counterculture given the number of noted activists and alternative living communities located in the neighborhood.
This community labor forum will look at the role of EPA, OSHA, DPH in San Francisco and the State Of California, East Palestine and other toxic sites.
Al Stein will lead a discussion about film as art, propaganda and documentary expression in 1930s America, focusing on Pare Lorentz, FDR’s cameraman and his colleagues Ralph Steiner, Paul Strand, Leo Hurwitz, and Willard Van Dyke.
A Night of solidarity song honoring Pat Wynne and the Rockin’ Solidarity Chorus
At: Medicine For Nightmares Bookstore - 3036 24th St, San Francisco, CA 94110 With Guillermo Kane Guillermo Kane, member of the Partido Obrero (Workers Party) in Argentina and an elected legislator at the Buenos Aires Province Regional Parliament, and a professor at the University of Buenos Aires, will be speaking about the current struggles in […]
Labor Notes Conference/Area Organizing Campaigns Report Back and Discussion.
Alcatraz Tour workers have been fighting for a union contract for decades and faced one union busting attack after another.
The latest book by SFSU labor historian and author Robert Cherny is a major contribution on the role of the Communist Party and their members in the Bay Area and California history.
Apple in silicon valley had an office built on a toxic dump site and workers were getting sick from the fumes. When Apple's senior engineering program manager reported it to Apple, they refused to take action to defend the workers.
In the face of the election of the fascist Javier Milei in Argentina, there is a major attack on the working class, unions and oppressed. Guillermo Kane will report on the formation of the Workers’ Left Front. How it was organized and the struggle to defend against Milei and his supporters.
panel - Many workers say that workers comp has been captured by the employers, insurance companies and a State and Federal administration that is representing this interests rather than workers.
Walk with Gifford Hartman
This year is the 78th anniversary of the Oakland General Strike.
This walk will revisit the sites of Oakland’s “Work Holiday” that spontaneously began with rank-and-file solidarity with the striking, mostly women retail clerks at Kahn’s and Hastings department stores.
The massive investment and speculation around AI and robotics is already having a major effect for workers in California, the US and the world. This event will look at AI in logistics and what it means for workers in this industry.
At: ILWU local 6 - 99 Hegenberger Rd, Oakland, CA There has been a growing movement of trade unions and unionists defending the Palestinian workers and unions. Trade unionists are supporting the call of the Palestinian trade union movement for a blockade of all trade and cargo to Israel along with military and economic aid […]
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.
Join the best labor maritime boat trip in the world as we go to historical sites on the bay and the Oakland container port. This is the 90th anniversary of the San Francisco General Strike.
The history of ILWU, the longshore union, has been one of the most militant unions when it comes to solidarity actions.
The rise of fascism not only in the US but in Argentina, France, Turkey, India and around the world is a life and death question for working people and the entire population.
