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(Info & form)2008 Booklet -PDF
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2008 poster
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To order poster, send $15 to LaborFest, POB 40983, SF, CA 94140Past LaborFest
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2008 schedule
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LaborFest 2009 Schedule
July 2 (Thursday) 6:00 PM (Free) -California Historical Society- 678 Mission St. SF
The History of Public Funding and the Arts
The Legacy of the New Deal Speakers: Lincoln Cushing, Tim Drescher and Mark Johnson Moderator: Gray Brechin
Funding public artwork benefits more than the artists – viewers witness their space transformed as the art enhances the urban landscape.
The arts were greatly supported during the New Deal era and many WPA projects are located in the San Francisco Bay Area. With the recent election of a new president, will money be used to fund art and culture? Panelists speak to the similarities between the present era and the New Deal as they relate to public arts and government funding during the New Deal era.
http://www.californiahistoricalsociety.org/cal/index.htmlJuly 3 (Friday) 9.00 - 4:00 PM (Free) - Marine Firemen’s Hall - 240 2nd St., SF
The 1934 San Francisco General Strike: An Educational Conference
The San Francico General Strike and West Coast Maritime Strike was a pivotal point for the working people in San Francisco and the West. This strike which was organized from the bottom up showed that the rank and file have the power to successfully form a union despite the resistance of the bosses, the media, the politicians and the government. The lessons of workers today for this strike are vital when millions of workers are unorganized and facing concession after concession with the economic collapse of our enconomy.
Videos Harry Bridges, A Man And His Union will be shown. This conference will also be streamed on the web for those who are unable to attend the conference.
Speakers including: Harvey Schwartz, Ralph Schoenman, Brad Weidemier, Akio Masuda, Cleophus Williams, Gifford Hartman, Clarence Thomas and Jack Heyman.
Hosted by ILWU Local 34 & Local 10, Transport Workers Solidarity Committee
www.sfgeneralstrike.orgJuly 4 (Saturday) 11:00 AM (Free) 522 Valencia St. at 16th St. SF
Teachers, Education & Militarization In Japan & The US
Activist anti-war teachers from Japan have been organizing to oppose the militarization of the schools by refusing to stand and sing the nationalist anthem “Kimigayo” that supports the emperor system. As a result of their protest, they have been threatened with firing and discipline. Hundreds of them are now engaged in court cases in Tokyo and around the country to fight this repression for their anti-war views. They have received support from the Los Angeles UTLA and many other unions in the US. They will be joined by teachers and other organizers against militization in US schools.
Visiting Teachers are: Yoshie Yoneyama, Etsuko Sato, Eriko Kojima and Tadashi Misumi.
For information call (415)424-8311 or (415)867-0628
http://stopdismissal.blogspot.comJuly5 (Sunday) 9:00 AM (Free) - Meet at Music Concourse - Steuart & Market St. SF
Bloody Thursday 75th Anniversary Procession
On the 75th anniversary of “Bloody Thursday,” thousands of maritime workers and trade unionists from San Francisco and from around the world will join in remembrance of the workers who were killed and injured in their struggle to establish a union and a union controlled hiring hall.
Please join.
Hosted by BALMA, ILWU Local 10, 34, 91, 75 & ILWU Pensioners. (Somber procession, uniformed, respectful and orderly.)
July 5 (Sunday) 12:00 Noon ($15-50 sliding scale donation to
CounterPULSE - Bring a bag lunch) ) - Meet at 1310 Mission St. at 9th, SF
Labor Bike Tour
Leisurely bicycle tour with labor historian Chris Carlsson. Learn labor history from the pre-urban history of Indian Slavery to the earliest 8-hour day movement in the U.S., and ebb and flow of class war. SF’s radical working class organizations are shaped in part by racist complicity in genocide and slavery, but from the 1870s to the 1940s there were dozens of epic battles between owners and workers, culminating in the 1934 General Strike and its aftermath. This is an entirely different look, during a four-hour bike tour, at San Francisco labor history.
For more info: call Chris Carlsson (415) 608 9035
carlsson.chris@gmail.comJuly 5 (Sunday) 6:00 PM (Free) ILWU 34 Hall - 801 Second St. Next to AT&T Park, SF
Labor Report On Asian Labor Struggles
With KCTU Seoul Region Union, Japanese Doro Chiba Railway Workers Delegation, Turkish DISK Healthcare Workers Union, and Philippine Airline Workers Union.
Global labor is under attack, and this forum will have reports on the attack on Korean, Japanese, Philippine and Turkish workers. The economic crisis in Asia, like the US, has been used by the corporations and governments to attack the labor movement with attacks on the right to strike and organize. At the same time, the drive toward militarization and national chauvinism has been used as a pretext to repress the unions. These unionists will report on the economic conditions and what unions are doing to organize and fight back.
Hosted by LaborFest and Transport Workers Solidarity CommitteeJuly 6 (Monday) 9:00 - 5:00 PM (Free) ILWU 34 Hall - 801 Second St. Next to AT&T Park, SF
The Lessons of The Past For The Struggles Today
International Labor Conference
Working people are under attack through out the world as well as in the US. The labor conference will look at the use of policies such as deregulation, privatization and free trade agreements to attack working people on a global level. The conference will also look at the increasing repression of labor and working people through legislation and militarization of society. Hosted by ILWU Local 10 & Local 34, Transport Workers Solidarity Committee, LaborFest
http://www.sfgeneralstrike.org/LaborConfStatement.htm
Document by Pietrasanta Marco, Italy
Brazilian document from Conlutas, Brazil
Turkish document by Tufan, TurkyJuly 6 (Monday) 7:30 PM (Free) ILWU 34 Hall - 801 Second St. Next to AT&T Park, SF
International Music Night
International Labor Music Night with singers from around the world and labor musicians Anne Feeney and Jack Chernos.
Join in on a night of labor music. We will have labor solidarity songs about workers’ lives from Japan, Korea, Turkey, Italy and the Philippines. Bring your instruments, your tunes and music for an international music solidarity night.
http://www.annefeeney.com/July 7 (Tuesday) 7:00 PM ($5-10 donation requested, no one turned away) Women’s Building - Audre Lorde Room - 3543 18th Street, near Valencia St. SF
Jobs for Artists! Building Momentum for a New Deal for the Arts in 21st Century America
A panel discussion on the legacy of federal jobs programs for artists and writers, such as the Depression-era Works Progress Administration and the 1970s CETA program, and reports on current grassroots efforts to promote federal funding for arts jobs today. Featuring Gray Brechin, New Deal historian, UC Berkeley, Jeff Chang, hip-hop journalist and arts activist, and Arlene Goldbard, co-organizer of a May 2009 White House briefing on community arts and national recovery. With short readings and performances honoring the great work of WPA-sponsored artists and writers.
Call 415-710-0187 for more information.July 8 (Wednesday) 7:00 PM (Free) Modern Times Bookstore - 888 Valencia St., SF
Blood Passion: The Ludlow Massacre and Class War in the American West
By Scott Martelle
During the Colorado Ludlow massacre, seventy-five miners and their families were killed, showing the brutal face of Rockefeller and the early robber barons who used the national militia and US Army to destroy the power of working people. This massacre also led to open class warfare in Colorado between the state and the workers, and included Mother Jones, who came to the aid of these workers and their families.
http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/acatalog/__Blood_Passion_1832.htlm
http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/06/28/ludlow-massacre-site-dedicated-as-national-landmark/
http://www.du.edu/ludlow/index.htmlJuly 9 (Thursday) 12:00 - 1:00 PM (Free) Clinical Science Building, Room c-517, UCSF Main Campus, San Francisco
Presention of Turkish Healthcare Workers Union DISK Leader Tufan Sertlek
Tufan Sertlek is a leader of healthcare workers in Turkey has come to the ILWU 75th Anniversary Commemoration march on July 5 for the San Francisco General Strike and to attend the International labor conference. He is a member in the Executive Committee of the Dev-Saglik Is Sendikasi Union and is the current General Secretary. He would like to meet with healthcare workers at UC. Here is a great opportunity to meet with and discuss what other healthcare workers are doing in other parts of the world to confront this worldwide financial and social crisis.
July 9 (Thursday) Reception - 5:00 PM (Free) SOMArts Cultural Center - 934 Brannan St. at 8th St. SF
LaborFest Art Exhibition Opening Reception:
Art and Labor Today
In this multimedia show, curated by David Duckworth, contemporary artists from the United States and France provide provocative and compelling views on the effects of capitalism and the state of labor today. Artists include Skylaar Amann, Philippe Barnoud, Joe Blum, Paul Bouchard, Lenny Bové, Sherri Cavan, Michael Chomick, Mike Connor, Slobodan Dimitrov, Chris Dunker, Tom Griscom, Trudi Hauptman, Véronique Held, Mike Kimball, Anthony Lazorko, Jr., Kyle Levinger and Holley Coley, Doug McGoldrick, Douglas Minkler, Mimi Plumb, Aubrey Rhodes, John Robinson, Rachel Schreiber, Elizabeth Sibilia, elin o’Hara slavick, Angela Franks Wells, Marcia Weisbrot, Steve Zeltzer and Holly Wong. Margot Smith’s documentary film, WPA Murals in San Francisco / The WPA Murals of Bernard Zakheim / New Deal Public Art: The Works Progress Administration, will be screened throughout the run of the show.
A reception will be held on Thursday, July 9th, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. A free screening follows of the Tim Robbins-directed The Cradle Will Rock, based on the story of the Federal Theatre Project’s aborted 1937 production of Marc Blitzstein’s labor musical. A host of characters include John Houseman, Diego Rivera, Nelson Rockefeller and Orson Welles.
Hours: Tuesday through Friday, 2:00 to 7:00 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 5:00 p.m. The show will continue through July 25th.July 10 (Friday) 4:00 PM (Free) Martin Luther King Library - 150 E San Fernando St., SJ
Grapes of Wrath - Film and Presentation
Screening of Grapes of Wrath and Presentation by SJSU Professor Susan Shillinglaw
This is the 70th anniversary of the publication of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes Of Wrath. This book was so hated by some of the agricultural owners that there were burnings of it in San Jose and Monterey. The conditions of farmworkers are still a critical issue today for the people of California and the United States and this hidden history of bookburning is part of the hysteria of that period.
http://www.steinbeck.sjsu.edu/home/index.jsp
July 10 (Friday) 5:30, 7:30 PM $5.00 Roxie Theatre - 3117 16th St., at Valencia, SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
5:30 Show
La Huelga, The Struggle of UFW (18 m) 2009 By Alex Ivany
Alex Ivany as a high school student started this project for Santa Cruz High, fascinated by the achievements of Chavez and the early days of the United Farm Workers Movement.
alexivany@baymoon.com
www.reelwork.org/schedule.htm
Bracero (57 min.) 2008 By Patrick Mullins
The Bracero Program, which operated in the US between 1942-1964 has relevance today as business and some unions are pushing this again. Otherwise known as the “Guest Worker” program, this allowed for workers to be brought into the US and to work under specific farm owners and others. Their exploitative conditions were intensified as a result of this program. This film gives a real life look at the workers and how the program really worked. This documentary puts a human face on the lives of these “guest workers” and raises the issue of why unions should continue to support this type of program.
pmullins@utep.edu
www.cherrylaneproductions.com
7:30 Show
Ironeaters (85 min.) Bangladesh by Shaheen Dill-Riaz
The Ironeaters is a beautiful film about the workers in the ship dismantling industry. This industry, which now employs three million workers has replaced the jute textile industry which was destroyed by the IMF and World Bank in order to eliminate competition to the international chemical companies.
The workers in the Ironeaters face a brutal exploitation at 70 cents a day, and deadly health and safety conditions, which destroy their bodies and their lives. This non-union industry, with contractors pushing the workers to get the job doneregardless of the costs, and they are deadly as they disfigure many of the workers. The systemic poverty used by the contractors drives these workers to desperation. This is the first film to show the workers in this industry and the work they do as “the rope carriers go home without a penny of wages.”
info@lemmefilm.de
www.eisenfresser-film.de
www.lemmefilm.de
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2009/06/21/chiou.ecosolutions.ship.recycle.cnn
Silicosis (Silikozis) (45 min.) 2009 Turkey
by Ethem Özgüven, Petra Holzer, Selçuk Erzurumlu
At one end of the chain of distribution, there are the popular blue jeans. While on the other end are the unregistered workshops. The workers who make these jeans have contracted life threatening lung diseases. The expensive stonewashed jeans shine while the worker’s lives fade away from their dangerous work.
petramh@gmail.com
July 10 (Friday) 7:00 PM (Free) Modern Times Bookstore - 888 Valencia St., SF
Carol Tarlen Lives! Celebrating A Rebel Worker Poet
Family and friends of radical labor activist and poet Carol Tarlen (1943-2004) will swap stories, read poems, present a slide show, and sing songs to honor her work and spirit. Poets, writers, filmmakers and performers include: Derek Dabkoski, Marcus Duskin, Sara Menefee, Louise Nayer, Kristy Rodgers, Julie Stein, Alicia Tarlen, and Nellie Wong.
http://www.caroltarlenlives.wordpress.com/July 10 (Friday) 7:00 PM (Donation) Niebyl Proctor Library -6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Tanaka-San Will Not Do Calisthenics (75 min.) 2008 Australia
By Maree Delofski
This striking film shows the struggle of Japanese Oki Electric Manufacturing worker and singer Tetsuro Tanaka. Tanaka refused to accept the militarization of his job through calisthenics and the mind control of the company. As result, he is harassed and fired by the company. Rather than giving up, he decides to sing every day in front of the factory. He has continued this battle for 28 years, and in the process, has exposed the nature of this corporate management system. Tanaka has been to LaborFest before, and his music continues to ring out. His words “Never import the corporate fascism of Japan!” continue to have meaning.
http://www.tanakafilm.com
http://www.din.or.jp/~okidentt/eigohome.htm
http://unionsong.com/u218.html
Race To The Bottom (20 m) US 2008
By Jonathan King, Michael Hamm
This story is about the 2,000 independent truck drivers working at the Port of Oakland, The film gives us a look into the lives of the drivers and their struggles to earn a living wage, support their families, and stay healthy as they do their jobs, transporting goods in and out of the port. It also shows their efforts to build a community coalition to protect their jobs and their health and make their voices heard.
jonathanrk@hotmail.comJuly 11 (Saturday) 10:00 AM (Free) Meet at Coit Tower entrance, SF
Coit Tower Walk and 75th Anniversary of the Murals
With labor archivist Lincoln Cushing, historian Peter O’Driscoll and Tim Drescher.
Seventy-five years ago this month artists who were working with the Works Progress Administration (WPA) were working on the Coit Tower murals. These political artists were very much influenced by the general strike, and this is reflected in these historic murals.
A media hysteria was also whipped up against the art and the artists in an effort to censor them. Fortunately this failed and the murals remain a testament to the people of San Francisco and the labor movement.July 11 (Saturday) 2:00 PM ($5.00 Pier entry fee - good for one year) Hyde Street Pier - at SF Maritime National Historic Park , Hyde & Jefferson St. SF
Living history: Henry George, Newspaperman, Floats Labor’s Boat
By David Giesen
Living history: Henry George, Newspaperman, Floats Labor’s Boat
Henry George, San Francisco’s 1870s champion of workers’ rights, used his newspaper to rein in the bully boss in 1873 in a celebrated maritime case. Come hear living history veteran David Giesen portray George telling his side of the “Sunrise” incident. Three sailors committed suicide rather than endure the tyranny of a brutal captain on a New York to San Francisco voyage in the Spring of 1873. George’s San Francisco Post bucked the maritime bosses, pressing the case with its own special counsel, and challenging the absolute rule of ship captains. Are you ready to rock the boat? George will have you on your feet as he licks into everything that capsizes workers’ rights.July 11 (Saturday) 12:00 - 1:00, 3:00 - 4:00 PM ($5.00 Pier entry fee - good for one year) Hyde Street Pier - at SF Maritime National Historic Park , Hyde & Jefferson St. SF
Living history: SF Waterfront Strike 1901
Join San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park's Living History players in reenactment of the 1901 waterfront strike. From July 13 to October 2, 1901, San Francisco's waterfront was shut down by sailors, longshoremen, and teamsters striking for better pay and working conditions. Experience the sights and sounds of SF history through a reenactment. Hear impassioned speeches and voice your own opinion! Take part in a march as strikers implore ships crews to join their ranks. Watch as soldiers arrive to maintain order and see a ship's captain defy the strikers.
July 11 (Saturday) 7:00 PM Suggested donation-$5 - 10 (no one turned away for lack of funds)
San Jose Peace & Justice Center - 48 South 7th St. San Jose (one block from City Hall)
Struggle for Healthcare Workers & Healthcare in Turkey
A talk by Tufan Sertlek (General Secretary of the Progressive Healthcare Workers Union, Istanbul
While the Progressive Health Care Workers' Union (63,000 members) takes up a wide range of economic and political struggles of health care workers in Turkey, it is now focusing its attention on contract workers. Contract workers have been growing in numbers, but until recently their rights and struggles have been largely neglected by mainstream trade unions. Mr. Sertlek has spent four years in prison for his political struggles for social justice. He and other full-time and part-time leaders of the union work as unpaid volunteers.
For more info: 408-297-2299
http://www.SanJosePeace.orgJuly 11 (Saturday) 2:00, 5:00, 730 PM $5.00 Roxie Theatre - 3117 16th St., at Valencia, SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
2:00 Show
Heart of the Factory (129 min.) 2008 Argentina
By Virna Molina and Ernesto Ardito
The Ceramic Zanon - Fasinpat workers work in one of the most important and largest ceramic factories of South America. As a result of the owners plan to close it, the workers occupied the factory and are now running the factory themselves under workers control without bosses or owners. New threats emerged as they struggle against a political and economic system that tries to crush them and their control of the factory.
5:00 Show
The Big Sell Out (94 min.) Germany
By Florian Optiz
This film exposes the role of the IMF and World Bank by showing the effect of their policies on the lives of working people from around the world. They include an UK RMT railroad activist fighting to protect the UK railroad system, a Bolivian community activists fighting water privatization and a South African activist fighting to keep the lights on in Soweto which leads to a fight against the ANC government. This international film draws the connection of the policies of global capitalism of privatization and deregulation to the destruction of public services and the ruination of the environment and the people of the world.
flopitz@spring-productions.de
http://www.thebigsellout.org
Swiped? (6 min.) US By Fivel Rothberg
Through a New York City cab driver, this short documentary investigates how cabbies are faring under the TLC’s “Technology Enhancement” program.
fivel.rothberg@gmail.com
www.fivelrothberg.com
7:30 Show
Workers Dreams (50 min.) 2007 Vietnam
By Tran Phuong Thao (With English subtitles)
Thousands of young women now work in foreign owned factories in Vietnam for approximately $2 a day. This film shows the lives of these young rural women who end up in a Japanese Canon factory in the Hanoi area. Hoping to make a new life with many consumer goods around them they are ground up in the capitalist system and their dreams and illusions about the new Vietnam are crushed.
Bill Snyder's review
9 Star Hotel (78 min.) 2006 (Please note: This program has been changed from the printed schedule)
By Ido Haar
In Israel's occupied territories, thousands of Palestinians work illegally as construction laborers. After an arduous and dangerous journey, loaded with blankets and bags, they cross the hills to the places where they can find employment. At night, they sleep on the hillcrests in improvised huts and coffin-like sleeping cubicles, a stark contrast to the luxury apartment complexes they build by day.
In 9 Star Hotel, the filmmakers follow Ahmed and Muhammad, they share food, belongings and stories, and live under the constant threat of getting arrested. With raw, handheld images, this disconcerting yet touching film documents friendship, nostalgia and the uncompromising urge to survive.
Edeb ProductionJuly 12 (Sunday) 10:00 AM ($15.00) Meet at front of Bill Graham Auditorium - 99 Grove St., SF
WPA Bus Tour
Tiches are sold out
With Gray Brechin & Harvey Smith
Join Gray Brechin and Harvey Smith as they travel through history on a bus tour of historic sites built by unionized labor. You will learn about the major contribution workers made during the depression era of the New Deal program. They will discuss 75 years of the WPA. Please be aware that the tour will take about 5 hours depending on the traffic and the discussions.
Meet at the San Francisco Civic Center, in front of Bill Graham Auditorium
99 Grove St., SF, CA 94102
Reservation required: Call (415) 642-8066 or by e-mail: laborfest@laborfest.net and leave your name, # of reservations and phone number to get back to you in case of any changes. Make reservation, then send check to: LaborFest, P.O. Box 40983, SF, CA 94140
(Sandwiches and drinks will be available on the bus.) Bus will return to Civic Center. Tour lasts about 5 hours.July 12 (Sunday) 12:00 Noon (Free) Meet at the Gift Shop ~ Visitors Center, San Francisco side of bridge(Muni #28 or GG Transit, or bring 8 quarters for meter)
Labor Walk of Golden Gate Bridge
A walk led by Ironworkers 377 member Mike Daly, IFPTE Local 21 members and other building trades workers who will conduct the walk onto the Bridge. Hear explanations of the structural engineering and fabrication that led to steel erection; see the arch over Fort Point, and then hear the stories about the crews who built the bridge. Also, hear an explanation of current projects, and meet some of the trades members who maintain the bridge today.
July 12 (Sunday) 2:00 PM (Free) The Redstone Building - 2940 16th St. at Capp St. SF
Mission Walk - Labor, Art & The Politics of The Mission Dist.
By Louis Prisco
This labor tour of the Mission by labor historian Louis Prisco will start at the old San Francisco Labor Temple where the San Francisco Labor Council voted for a general strike in 1934. Today the building is run by the Redstone Tenants Association, which works to maintain it as a working space. It is also the site of important labor murals on the front two floors. These murals portray important parts of San Francisco labor history including the murder of San Francisco Painters Union leader Dow Wilson by contractors, and the Chinese Ladies Garment Workers Union Local 341’s picket scene. Please sign-up for this tour by calling Louis Prisco at 415-841-1254 or e-mail to:
penguinflow@hotmail.com
http://www.creativeworkfund.org/modern/bios/aaron_noble.html
Photos of the eventsJuly 12 (Sunday) 5:00 PM (Free) City Lights Bookstore - 261 Columbus at Broadway, SF
Poetry and Prose Reading
Poetry and Prose Reading by Authors Sue Doro, Dee Allen, and Sally Anne Frye.
Join us for a Reading on working class, labor, social justice, and street themes. Sue Doro is the author of Sugar String and Blue Collar Goodbyes chronicling her working class childhood and years as a mother and a machinist. She is the editor of Pride and a Paycheck News magazine. Dee Allen is a local activist for social and economic justice. He works with POOR Magazine, Coalition on Homelessness and has been published in Street Sheet. Sally Anne Frye has been recently published with the poetry group 23rd Street Poets. She has done office work, especially in medical settings. She lives in the Mission District. Her philosophy of social change is characterized by egalitarianism.July 12 (Sunday) 2:00, 5:00, 7:30 PM $5.00 Roxie Theatre - 3117 16th St., at Valencia, SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
2:00 Show
Greening of Southie (72 min.) 2008
By Ian Cheney & Curt Ellis
This film shows the role of skilled union labor in building an environmental friendly building in South Boston. Workers bring the building into being with the latest technologies and environmental friendly products. Contained in this construction process is making the most points for environmental standards required to get a top rating. For the workers and developers, the time and cost including ripping out new products that haven’t worked is a letdown. At the same time union building trades workers lament that with their income they themselves can’t afford to live in their own Boston neighborhood “Southie.” www.greeningofsouthie.com
3 Minutes Videos (30 min.) 2008 Japan
This collection of 3 minutes videos gives a spice of the lives of Japanese working people. The Japan LaborFesta has brought together films about the lives of workers and their families as they fight the increasing exploitation and downsizing.
www.labornetjp.org (in Japanese)
5:00 Show
Porto Marghera-The Last Firebrands (52 min.) Italy 2004
By Manuela Pellarin (English subtitles)
40th Anniversary of Italy’s “Hot Autumn.”
A film about petrochemical workers who took matters into their own hands in the giant industrial zone engulfing Venice. Porto Marghera documents autonomous workers and their experiences from the point of view of the worker-activists themselves.
“The mass refusal of literally toxic work forced hours on the job down at the same time as driving wages up. The labour hierarchy that sets white collar against blue, permanent against casual, was attacked by workers insisting on the maximum for everyone. The battle in the factory was linked to working-class life outside through direct appropriation of basic social needs.
Tanaka-San Will Not Do Calisthenics (75 min.) 2008 Australia
This striking film shows the struggle of Japanese Oki Electric Manufacturing worker and singer Tetsuro Tanaka. Tanaka refused to accept the militarization of his job through calisthenics and the mind control of the company. As result, he is harassed and fired by the company. Rather than giving up, he decides to sing every day in front of the factory. He has continued this battle for 28 years, and in the process, has exposed the nature of this corporate management system. Tanaka has been to LaborFest before, and his music continues to ring out. His words “Never import the corporate fascism of Japan!” continue to have meaning.
http://www.tanakafilm.com
http://www.din.or.jp/~okidentt/eigohome.htm
http://unionsong.com/u218.html
7:30 Show
Citizen McCaw (78 min.) 2008 US
By Sam Tyler
The film chronicles events from July 2006, when editor Jerry Roberts and five of his colleagues quit the Santa Barbara News-Press, citing owner and co-publisher Wendy McCaw’s abandonment of journalistic ethics, which McCaw denied. Since then, McCaw and dozens of her former staffers have been engaged in a fierce clash of wills that raises important national questions of journalistic ethics and media ownership. McCaw’s attorneys assert that she alone can decide how news is covered. The other side, represented by journalists and community leaders, says that journalism is a public trust, asserting that the publisher must keep out of the news operation. Citizen McCaw shows the struggle for reporters and newspaper workers rights in an atmosphere of terror as a new newspaper owner seeks to clamp down the stories that must be told. This received national publicity when the owner McCaw fired and slandered the newspaper workers.
www.citizenmccaw.comJuly 13 (Monday) 7:00 PM (Free) Modern Times Bookstore - 888 Valencia St., SF
Beyond The Fields
This book reading as a LaborFest event was Canceld
A statement on this matter from LaborFest
By Randy Shaw
Author Randy Shaw has written about the legacy of the thousands who worked for the farm workers and their role in the rest of the labor movement. Many of the UFWA activists later left the union and went to work in other unions becoming organizers and leaders. This important part of the legacy of the farm workers is unknown to most but is a significant factor in the labor movement today. Many unions including those in the Bay Area are part of this history.July 13 (Monday) 5:30, 7:30 PM $5.00 Roxie Theatre - 3117 16th St., at Valencia, SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
5:30 Show
The Women of Brukman (88 min.) (2008) Argentina
By Ishak Isitan
This is an inspirational story of female workers who take over a Buenos Aires men’s clothing factory during Argentina’s financial collapse. The owners of the Brukman Clothing Company, facing bills, deficits and wages they can’t possibly pay, ship all of the management out without mentioning a word to the garment workers. Spurred on by devotion to their craft, families and each other, the workers of Brukman decide to keep the factory running themselves. Soon the former owners and the government come knocking, leading the workers to stage a grueling peaceful protest for the simple right to earn a decent living. Director Ishak Isitan takes us through all the stages of the workers’ struggle, with footage right in the middle of the action.
www.kochlorberfilms.com
7:30 Show
Workers’ Republic (60-min.) 2009
By Andrew Freund
Three weeks before Christmas 2008, in the depths of the economic crisis, Chicago company, Republic Windows and Doors, told their workforce that the factory was closing. Three days later, when the Republic employees came in to pick up their final checks, they were informed that they would not be paid for their final week or receive their accrued vacation pay. Their insurance benefits were cut immediately, and they were denied the 60-day severance guaranteed under the federal WARN Act.
What those workers did next reverberated around the world, reminding the working class it possesses a power long forgotten. They occupied the doomed factory 24-hours a day for nearly a week, declaring they would not leave until they were given what their employer owed them.
The Murals and Art of Bernard Zakheim (27 m) 2009
By Margot Smith
Bernard Zakheim (1896 - 1985) was born in Poland and came to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1918. He was well known for his many murals and frescos financed in part by the Works Progress Administration under Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1930s New Deal. Nathan and Masha Zakheim, Bernard’s son and daughter, tell of their father’s work in Poland, the story of the Coit Tower murals, of his Holocaust paintings and his later work celebrating life.
Murals shown here include The Library at Coit Tower, The Jewish Wedding at the San Francisco Community Center, and The History of Medicine in California at Toland Hall, University of California, San Francisco.
offcentervideo@aol.com
www.offcentervideo.comJuly 14 (Tuesday) 5:30, 7:30 PM $5.00 Roxie Theatre - 3117 16th St., at Valencia, SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
5:30 Show
The World According To Monsanto (109 min.) 2008 French
By Marie-Monique Robin
Please note: the program has been changed from the printed schedule.
Marie-Monique Robin has produced a powerful and frightening film in understanding the danger on a global level of out of control genetic engineering and the food industry. Workers, farmers, consumers and the environmentalists are all threatened by the unregulated development and growth products from this industry. The US media have censored the role of Monsanto and other biotech companies in spreading genetically engineered products that are harmful to workers in the laboratory, farmers and consumers around the world.Injured biotech worker David Bell who worked at Agraquest in Davis, which was owned by a former Monsanto Pest Division molecular biologist Pam Marrone, is one of the victims of this unbridled development and cover-up by the biotech industry.
http://wideeyecinema.com/?p=105
www.MonsantoFilm.com
7:30 Show
H-2 Worker (68 min.) 1990 US
by Stephanie Black
Stephanie Black has a record of making films about the real costs of economic development including Life and Debt about the economic destruction in Jamaica because of IMF policies. In H-2 worker, we learn about the real labor conditions of agricultural workers who are brought to the US and then used virtually as slave labor in the H-2 program. These workers who are brought in to Florida’s Lake Okeechobee area from Jamaica and the Caribbean are the “slave” workers of America providing great profits for the agricultural owners and misery for the workers and their families. It also is connected with the efforts in California by some leading politicians to bring back the “guest workers” program.
http://www.lifeanddebt.org/h2worker/
July 14 (Tuesday) 8:00 PM ($20.00 advance, $25 at the door) (Show through 7/14 - 7/18, 7/21 - 7/25)
SOMArts Cultural Center - 934 Brannan St. at 8th St., SF
The Ballad of Polly Ann
By Flyaway Productions
An evening of dance celebrating women who built the Bay Area’s bridges.
The project celebrates the women who contributed to the design and construction of Bay Area bridges. This performance shows their experience with physical work, tools, heights, and machinery as well as their cultural experience working in a male dominated labor force, and how that affects their sense of self, femininity, family, and self worth.
Flyaway Productions has built an international reputation of bringing the lives and struggle of working people to performance theater. One of their works on the Copra Crane in San Francisco helped move the community to defend this relic of labor history for the generation today. In this work using the oral interviews by labor historian Harvey Schwartz of women bridge workers, we get the real life experiences of construction women on the job. The artistic portrayal of the lives of working people is a critical element in helping to transform our understanding of reality.
Choreography: Jo Kreiter, in collaboration with the company, Music: Pamela Z, Dancers: Mary Ann Brooks, Melissa Caywood, Jennifer Chien, Britt Karhoff, Kelly Kemp, Raissa Simpson and Alayna Stroud
Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/61076 or 1.800.838.3006
For more info: www.flyawayproductions.com
http://www.sfarts.org/#tab=SFArts%20Monthly
SF Weekly - Rosie, Meet Polly
Don't miss: 'The Bally Ann'ad of PollJuly 15 (Wednesday) 7:00 PM (Free) Modern Times Bookstore - 888 Valencia St., SF
A Tribute To Archie Green
A Tribute to Archie Green and his last two books The San Francisco Labor Landmarks Guide Book and the Big Red Song Book. Book Presentation by labor archives director Catherine Powell and others.
Archie Green, one of the leading writers of labor culture and folklore in the US has passed on but his legacy remains. This commemoration of his life will look at his last works including the San Francisco Labor Landmarks book which was a collaborative process with the Labor Archives at San Francisco State University and The Big Red song Book, also a collaborative work.
http://www.library.sfsu.edu/about/depts/larc.phpJuly 15 (Wednesday) 5:30, 7:30 PM $5.00 Roxie Theatre - 3117 16th St., at Valencia, SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
5:30 Show
Justice In The Coal Fields (56 min.) USA 1995
by Anne Lewis
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the 1989 United Miner Workers strike against the Pittston Coal Company. This film by labor videographer Anne Lewis documents this militant strike and occupation of the company’s factory. Over 4,000 miners and their families were arrested in this struggle against union busting and the massive use of scabs to break the union and destroy the medical benefits of 1,500 pensioners, widows and disabled miners. Hundreds of state police were involved in escorting the scabs in this effort. The union also faced a $64 million dollar fine from State and Federal judges that was used to weaken the union nationally and was supported by Clinton’s NLRB Chair Bill Gould.
7:30 Show
Seeds of Peace (50 minutes) 2008
By André Kloer Holland
Seeds of Peace: workers’ rights in a legal no-mans’ land tells the story of Palestinians who work in the Israeli settlements on the West Bank. One of these settlements is Nizzane Ha Shalom (Seeds of Peace). Because of the questionable juridical status of the Israeli settlements on the West Bank, it is unclear which laws apply to Palestinians who work there. There is also a weak enforcements of the few laws that do exist.
The consequence of this juridical no-man’s land is that Palestinians work in the settlements without minimum wage and legal protection. Despite of this, more and more Palestinians are turning for work to these settlements, because the Palestinian economy is unable to create enough jobs. Jawdat Talousy was one of these workers and defended his rights for all he was worth. He tried to unite the workers in order to demand better labour conditions and was fired by the boss.
www.march21.nlJuly 16 (Thursday) Reception - 5:00 PM (Free) SF Main library, 6th floor - 100 Larkin St. SF
The Men Along the Shore and the Legacy of 1934
An Historical Exhibition and Reception: This historical exhibit by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union celebrating the 75th anniversary of the West Coast Maritime Strike and the San Francisco General Strike. The exhibit is 7 feet tall and 100 viewing feet long, comprised of historical images documenting the 1934 West Coast maritime strike that would change labor history. The exhibit was produced by Richard Bermack and Robin Walker working with ILWU Education Director & Archivist Gene Vrana. (Show from 7/11 through 8/31)
www.ilwu.orgJuly 16 (Thursday) 5:30 - 9:30 PM Oakland School of the Arts Theater - 530 18th St., Oakland
The Working Group (TWG) 20th Anniversary
Join us to celebrate the accomplishments of a group of unionists, educators and journalists who created a grassroots movement that led to the longest running series of labor programs on PBS, including Talking Union, California Working, We Do the Work, and Livelyhood. Also featured will be segments from other TWG productions including the Link TV series, The Outsourcing Report and the Not In Our Town series.
5:30 – 6:30 Test of Courage: The Making of a Firefighter (No Charge)
7:00 – 9:30 Retrospective Screening and Reception (Suggested Donation $25)
Please RSVP@theworkinggroup.orgJuly 16 (Thursday) 5:30, 7:30 PM $5.00 Roxie Theatre - 3117 16th St., at Valencia, San Francisco
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
5:30
On Strike: The Winnipeg General Strike, 1919 (19 min.) Canada 1991
By Joe Macdonald and Clair Johnstone Gilsig
This film provides the background about why the workers in Winnipeg were forced out and strike and the individuals on both sides of the struggle. The attack on the strikers on June 21, 1919 led to death and the defeat of the workers despite their bravery and just cause.
Harry Bridges, A Man And His Union (58 min.) 1992 US
By Bari Minnot
Harry Bridges was a critical and central figure in the San Francisco General Strike and this documentary provides a vivid view of his life and response not only to the issues in the strike but also to the massive effort to deport Harry Bridges starting in 1939 for accused of being a member of the Communist Party. This film using footage of the strike and his role is indispensable in showing the wit, humor and character of the founder of the ILWU.
http://www.mw-prod.com/Film/film_harry.html
7:30 Show
Labor’s Turning Point (59 min) (1981) US
By John DeGraaf
The 1934 Minneapolis truck drivers’ strike was a pivotal struggle for working people of the mid-west. As a result of new tactics developed in the successful strike, it led to the organization of over the road truckers and the growth of the Teamsters nationally into one of the most important and powerful unions in the United States. The film shows how the strike was organized and how the union broke the back of the anti-union Citizen’s Alliance and made Minneapolis a union town. It also includes the ground breaking role of the strikers’ wives in organizing for the strike and the establishment of a daily strike bulletin. These tactics are still relevant today in the struggle of labor to organize and survive.
http://www.onedayinjuly.org/
Witness To Revolution, The Story of Anna Louise Strong By Lucy Ostrander (27 minutes) 1984 US
This film contains the history of the 1916 General Strike in the context of the life of Anna Louise Strong, a partisan and a journalist, who reported on the strike and also on the Everett, Washington Massacre, which also took place in the same year. The film provides a close up look at why the strike took place and how it affected the working people of Seattle and the world. www.stourwater.com
July 17 (Friday) 7:00 PM (Donation) ILWU Local 6 Hall - 255 9th St., SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Films of The San Francisco State Strike and Panel Discussion
Screening of On Strike (26 min.)(1969) shot and edited by Saul Rouda, David Dobkins and others in the Newsreel Collective, and The Turning Point (SF State Strike) (58 minutes), about the San Francico State strike of 1968-1969. The San Francisco State strike, which lasted 6 months, was backed by the San Francisco Labor Council, ILWU and other unions. It was filmed by students at the school. We will screen the films and talk about the work of these film makers. Saul Rouda, a member of CWA NABET Local 51 and an associate of IATSE Local 16, will present his film and others will discuss the strike and the films.
July 17 (Friday) 7:00 PM (Free) Niebyl Proctor Library -6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland
Class Struggle Against the Economic Meltdown: Lessons from History for Fighting Back Today
Economic meltdown? Recession? Depression? What are we to do? How will the working class fare? Where will the catalyst for change come from? What lessons can we learn from the past and what are people already doing to fight back and create solidarity where they live and work? Featuring working class historian Gifford Hartman, who will revisit the Great Depression and how the working class self-organized survival strategies such as eviction resistance, relief office occupations, mass strikes and other direct actions for providing for basic needs and community self-defense -- that were taking off well before the New Deal began. He will also survey the history of class struggle since then, as well as exploring possibilities of applying these ideas for resistance today. Robert Ovetz will guide a brainstorming session about how we can respond to and survive the brewing storm and build and expand projects from the bottom up that already envision the “future in the present.”July 18 (Saturday) 10:00 AM (Free) Port Chicago National Memorial (Near Concord) - Reservation required
65th Anniversary of the Port Chicago Explosion
On July 17, 1944, a massive explosion shook the naval weapons station at Port Chicago, near Concord California. Three hundred and twenty mostly Black sailors and civilian workers were killed and 390 were injured. As a result of the lack of proper health and safety rules, and overt racism against the Black sailors who were used as labor to move the weapons on the ships, a mutiny strike took place to demand health and safety regulations on the job. Fifty of these Black sailors were convicted of mutiny and sentenced to long terms in prison. They became known as the Port Chicago 50 and this case of mutiny exposed the racism and lack of training and health and safety protection for sailors and workers at Port Chicago. Professor Robert Allen, Ph.D, who has written about this incident and produced a film will also attend this memorial meeting.
To attend this free event, please RSVP with your name, phone number, the number of people in your party, and any special needs to: (925) 228-8860 x26. Please go to the following web sites for more info:
www.nps.gov/poch
http://www.portchicagomemorial.org/
http://www.usmm.org/portchicago.html
Report on the event by Mike DalyJuly 18 (Saturday) 10:00 AM (Free) Meet at Harry Bridges Plaza - Front of Ferry Building, SF
San Francisco General Strike Walk
Join a walk with historian Luis Prisco, ILWU Local 10 longshoreman Jack Heyman and musician David Rovics. This walk and history talk will look at the causes of the ‘34 General Strike and why it was successful. How was the strike organized and why are the issues in that strike still relevant to working people today? Also you will walk by the key historical sites in this important US labor struggle. Bring your lunch with you. Be prepared for a long walk.
July 18 (Saturday) 3:00 PM (Doantion) ILWU Local 10 Hall- 400 North Point, SF
David Rovics Concert
David Rovics has sung out for human and labor rights here in the Bay Area and around the world. He is a prolific writer and his voice and words have hit home about the rights of immigrants, the need to defend the environment and against the corporations that are destroying the earth.
http://www.davidrovics.com/July 18 (Saturday) 1:00 PM Angel Island Immigration Post North East side of the island
70th Anniversary of Harry Bridges Immigration Trial
In 1939, the Roosevelt administration sought to expel ILWU president Harry Bridges for being a member of the Communist party. These immigration trials took place five times and eventually as a result of the support committee and the backing of the membership this witch-hunt was defeated. This was a prelude to the witch-hunts in the late 1940’s and 1950’s.
ILWU oral historian Harvey Shwartz will make the presentation on the trials of Harry Bridges, and James Dexter, former ILWU Local 5 president and historian will make a presentation on the history of immigration at Angel Island.
Meet in front yard of the Immigration Post building.
You can bring your bike on the ferry for $1.00 from Tiburon, and free from San Francisco.
From the ferry port, you can walk, bike or take a shattle to the Immigration Post building.
Ferry from Tiburon leaves every hour. $17.50
Tiburon - Angel Island Ferry (415-435-2131)
www.angelislandferry.com
Ferry from San Francisco by Blue & Gold (415-773-1188)
From Ferry Building - 9:20, 11:20 AM $15.00
From Pier 41 - 9:40, 11:45 AM (Ticket at the booth west of Pier 39)
www.blueandgoldfleet.com
www.angelisland.comJuly 18 (Saturday) 2:00 PM (Free) The California Historical Society - 678 Mission St., SF
Hobos to Street People:
Artists’ Responses to Homelessness from the New Deal to the Present
By Art Hazelwood, Tim Drescher and Jos Sances
Exhibition and mural tour
California Historical Society Exhibition with Art Hazelwood, followed by a tour of history sites. The exhibition focuses on the artwork created in response to the unprecedented poverty of the Great Depression and is mirrored by contemporary artwork that looks squarely at the economic wasteland that has resulted from the last thirty years of Reaganomics.
The mural tour will include the Rincon Annex murals by Anton Refregier, the IWW memorial nearby and the Arnett Watson mural in the Tenderloin. Transportation from the California Historical Society to other sites on your own.
http://www.californiahistoricalsociety.org/exhibits/index.htmlJuly 18 (Saturday) 8:00 PM (Free) 885 Clayton St., at Carl St., SF
Song and Poetry Swap
For over 20 years, the Freedom Song Network has been helping keep alive the spirit of labor and political song in the Bay Area, on picket lines, at rallies, on concert stages and at song swaps. Bring songs or poems to share. Everyone is welcome, regardless of musical ability or training.
For info: (415) 648-3457
July 19 (Sunday) 1:00 PM (Free) Labor Archives and Research Center - SFSU 480 Winston Dr. SF
Emblem of an Emblem: The Arm & Hammer
Presentation by Kim Munson. How did the arm and hammer end up on all those baking soda boxes? Art Historian Kim Munson shares her investigation of the origins of the arm & hammer from Greco-Roman myth and its role as an early union labor icon to its current usage as the Socialist Labor Party emblem and baking soda trademark.
Hosted by the Labor Archives and Research Center
Contact: larc@sfsu.edu Phone: 415-564-4010
July 19 (Sunday) 10:00 - 1:00 PM (Free) ILWU Local 6 Hall - 255 9th St., SF
Ten Years After the WTO, The North American Free Trade Zones
It has been ten years since the “Battle In Seattle” when tens of thousands of trade unionists, community activists and environmentalists joined together on the streets to protest and shut down the WTO conference. This meeting will commemorate that event with reports, speakers and a video Labor Battles The WTO. Speakers will include economist Richard Vogel who will present his document The North American Free Trade Zones (FTZs): US and Canadian Workers Need Not apply--Independent Trade Unions Keep Out!, labor historian and environmentalist Larry Shoup, Artist and activist David Solnit and other participants of WTO battle in Seattle.
http://www.combatingglobalization.com/
July 19 (Sunday) 4:00 - 7:00 PM 522 Valencia St. at 16th St., SF
Living Wage Video Festival
Race To The Bottom (20 min.) by Jonathan King, Michael Hamm, and Daniela Rusnokova
Film about truck drivers working at the Port of Oakland, where over 2,000 independent truck drivers operate every day. The film gives us a look into the lives of the drivers, as told by three men. From inside of their cabs we learn about their struggles to earn a living wage, support their families, and stay healthy as they do their jobs, transporting goods in and out of the Port. SF Living Wage Coalition Community Outreach Documentary (30 min)
Dinner and raffle
More info at: (415) 863-1225; sflivingwage@riseup.net
www.livingwage-sf.orgJuly 19 (Sunday) 6:00 PM ($35.00) Pier 41, West of Pier 39 near outside booth - Fisherman’s Wharf, SF
Building Bridges and Labor Maritime History
Boat Tour
Tickets are all sold out!
5:45 PM Boarding, 6:00 PM Departure
Boat leaves promptly at 6:00 PM
Tour lasts 3 hours
A complimentary meal will be provided, however, if you are on a special diet please bring your own food
Join us for this evening cruise on labor history and a close up look at the massive construction project of the eastern span of the San Francisco Bay Bridge. The skills of the ironworkers, operators, carpenters, laborers, electricians and maritime workers who are building this monument are creating a vital link and beautiful artifact of the Bay Area. Joseph Blum who is documenting the construction of this project will let us know what is being done and how they do it. Labor writers Gray Brechin, Tim Drescher, Iron workers Dick Zampa, Mike Daly and others. Music with Richard Taliafarro, Lee Anne Kruk, Carol Denney and Jack Chernos.
To make your reservation:
By E-mail: laborfest@laborfest.net or call: (415) 642-8066, and leave your name, phone number and number of people in your party.
You should send a check ($35) to LaborFest, P.O.Box 40983, San Francisco, CA 94140.
We don’t send you tickets, but we will either reply to your e-mail or call you back to let you know that we received your reservation, and as soon as we receive your check, your reservation will be confirmed.
You will get your ticket at the pier before you get on the boat.
We expect the tickets will be sold out quickly, so please make your reservation early.
We thank the Blue & Gold Fleet for providing the boat, and the members of MMP and ILWU-IBU for volunteering their labor.
http://baybridge360.org/
http://fr.truveo.com/Building-the-San-FranciscoOakland-Bay-Bridge/id/1084376568July 20 (Monday) 7:00 PM (Free) Modern Times Bookstore - 888 Valencia St., SF
Dust-Bowl Okies in US Culture - Reading and discussion
By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
How did a people so filled with a populist and socialist tradition in Oklahoma, and in the early years as Dust Bowl migrants in California, come to form the most conservative constituencies in California bringing men like Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan to state and eventually national power? Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of Red Dirt: Growing Up Okie, will discuss and read from her own work and that of the late Wilma Elizabeth MacDaniel (the “Okie Bard” of the Central Valley), Woody Guthrie, Merle Haggard, and John Steinbeck. http://www.reddirtsite.com/July 21 (Tuesday) 7:00 PM (Free) Modern Times Bookstore - 888 Valencia St.
Solidarity Stories, An Oral History of The ILWU
A book reading by Harvey Schwartz.
Schwartz is one of the most important labor oral historians in the country and has published a new book on the 75th anniversary of the San Francisco General Strike, Solidarity Stories, An Oral History of the ILWU. Harvey has spent decades documenting the stories and lives of workers in the ILWU and other unions in Northern California. This book looks at the ILWU from the words of its rank and file members. The ILWU is one of the most democratic unions in the country and the foundation of this union is how through rank and file control this union survived and organized. The struggles and experiences of the membership are brought to life by this important work. His work on oral interviews of workers also has important meaning to the entire labor movement about the need to document the lives of working people and their victories and defeats. Harvey has also worked on histories of Carpenters Local 22 and other unions and the need to have histories of every union local has been taken forward by his continuing labor to tell our history.
http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/SCHSOL.htmlJuly 22 (Wednesday) 7:00 PM (Free) Bird & Beckett Bookstore - 653 Chenery St., SF
LaborFest Writers Group Reading
The LaborFest Writing Group will present a Reading with memoirs, non-fiction, poetry, stories, and spoken word. This group evolved out of the 2005 LaborFest Writing Workshop with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. This year’s theme will be the future of labor as embodied in the stories and histories of our working people’s past struggles. Members of the group are Phyllis Holliday, Keith Cooley, Margaret Cooley, Nellie Wong, Susan Ford, Jerry Path, Alice Rogoff, and Adele Kearney. The Reading will be followed by a writing workshop.
http://laborfestwriters.googlepages.com/home
July 23 (Thursday) 9:00 - 1:00 PM (Free) Assembling 8:30 AM at 1145 Market Street (IFPTE 21 office), First Floor Conference Room
Tour of SE Waste Treatment Plant
A tour and discussion of labor history of important but relatively unknown facility, the Southeast Waste Treatment Plant and related community facilities. A bus will will take you to the plant.
The Southeast Waste Treatment Plant treats an average dry weather flow of about 67 million gallons a day, and can treat up to 250 million gallons a day when it rains. Treated wastewater is discharged out a 900-foot-long pipe into the San Francisco Bay. The Southeast Plant treats wastewater from the east side of San Francisco, which equals about 80 percent of the City’s total wastewater flow.
There will be a limit of 24 attendees. Please call 415-554-1530 for reservations.
July 24 (Friday) 6:00 PM (Free) Redstone Building - 2940 16th St. & Capp St., SF
The Labor Temple: Past And Present
The tenants of the Redstone Building, the Redstone Labor Temple Association, invite you to an open house and evening of remembrance and entertainment at the historic San Francisco Labor Temple, 16th & Capp St. Built in 1914 by the San Francisco Labor Council, the Labor Temple housed numerous labor union offices and meeting halls through the years. It played a significant role in the 1917 United Railroads Streetcar Strike and the 1934 General Strike. It was in the auditorium of the Labor Temple where the strike vote of July 14, 1934 took place. Join us July 24, 2009 for an evening of live music, food and memories, celebrating the building’s history, murals, and tenants, past and present.
July 24 (Friday) 7:00 PM (Donation) Niebyl Proctor Library - 6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Porto Marghera-The Last Firebrands (2004) 52 min.
40th Anniversary of Italy’s “Hot Autumn.”
A film about petrochemical workers who took matters into their own hands in the giant industrial zone engulfing Venice. Porto Marghera documents autonomous workers and their experiences from the point of view of the worker-activists themselves.
“The mass refusal of literally toxic work forced hours on the job down at the same time as driving wages up. The labour hierarchy that sets white collar against blue, permanent against casual, was attacked by workers insisting on the maximum for everyone. The battle in the factory was linked to working-class life outside through direct appropriation of basic social needs (electricity, housing, food).
Unlike most more or less academic accounts of Italian Operaismo, which tend to focus on high-profile groups and individual leaders, Porto Marghera documents autonomous worker organization from the point of view of the worker-activists themselves, who talk about their experiences in the film. Many aspects and problems of this phase of class struggle are of immediate relevance today”.
To be followed by a discussion of the strike wave in Italy, sparked by the strike at FIAT’s Mirafiori plant in Turin, that set into motion the “Hot Autumn” and which resulted in nearly a decade of heightened class struggle throughout Italy.July 25 (Saturday) 10:30 AM (Free) Meet at the fountain in Latham Square - Telegraph and Broadway, Oakland
Oakland 1946 General Strike Walk
With Karin Hart of the Labor Studies Program at Laney College and Gifford Hartman of the Flying Picket Historical Society. This walk will revisit the sites of Oakland’s “Work Holiday” that began spontaneously with rank-and-file solidarity with the striking mostly women retail clerks at Kahn’s and Hastings department store whose picket line was being broken by police scab herding. Within 24 hours, it involved over 100,000 workers and shut down nearly all commerce in the East Bay for 54 hours. In 1946 there were six general strikes across the U.S.; that year set the all-time record year for strikes and work stoppages. The Oakland “Work Holiday” was the last general strike to ever occur in the U.S. and the walk and history talk will attempt to keep alive the memory of this tradition of community-wide working class solidarity.
Sponsored by Laney College Labor Studies (510-464-3210) and the Flying Picket Historical Society. SFBay@FlyingPicket.org
Meet at the fountain in Latham Square, in the intersection where Telegraph and Broadway converge across from the Rotunda Building (Oakland City Center/12th St. BART).July 25 (Saturday) 10:30 AM (Free) Meet at 75 Folsom St. - Entrance of Hills Brothers Coffee Building, SF
San Francisco Labor History Water Front Walk
With Peter O’Driscoll and Lawrence Shoup
There are many stories to be told about labor struggles in San Francisco. This story is about the maritime industry from 1835 until the burning of the blue book in 1934. The main points in history will include President Andrew Jacksons effort to acquire this peninsula from Mexico; Gold discovery and the urgent need to build the San Francisco Wharfs; The Gold Rush gave the laboring man a value; San Francisco’s port to the sailor was a corrupt and wicked place; Sailors life, boardinghouses for coast-wise and high-sea sailors; The secret society of crimps in 1865; Young men’s fear of shanghaied; why the crimps; Labor supports the eight hour workday; The sailor who became a politician and rabble rouser for the workingman’s party of 1877, and the party’s influence at the state constitutional convention of 1878; The friction between Capital and Labor developed into a social question; Why business owners demanded Congress to increase the size of the army; Sailors union of 1885 and their violent strike in 1886; Why the ship owners association issued the grade book; The 1790 law provides for the arrest of seamen deserters; In 1892 Andrew Furuseth led the organizing of the Sailor’s Union of the Pacific; The Seaman’s act of 1915 it is now known as the “Magna Carta” of the American Seamen; Ship owner Robert Dollar’ resentment for union sailors in 1917; Dollar’s straw bosses broke the 1919 dock strike and issues the Blue Book.
Also labor historian Larry Shoup will talk about the history of the 1901 transportation workers strike which included the Teamsters and was smashed by the San Francisco police. This strike in part led to the formation of the San Francisco Union Labor Party which in 1905 swept the election and took control of the city.July 25 (Saturday) 7:00 PM ($5.00 - no one turned away) ILWU Local 34 Hall - 801 2nd St. Next to AT&T Park, SF
Concert of the Choruses: A Tribute to Pete Seeger
The concert features El Coro Jornalero, the Day Laborers Chorus directed by Ricardo Torres. The Bay Area Rockin’ Solidarity Chorus directed by Pat Wynne will perform a piece entitled Pete Seeger: a Musical Biography. The narrative and songs will describe the life, activism, and music of Pete Seeger who recently celebrated his 90th birthday.
Included will be sections on his work with the Almanac Singers, the Weavers, his trial during the McCarthy era, and his environmental efforts. Some of the songs will be Turn, Turn, Turn, Talking Union, Waist Deep in the Big Muddy, Guantanamera, and the Ballad of Harry Bridges.
July 26 (Sunday) 9:30 - 4:00 PM (Free) Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts - 2868 Mission St., SF
2nd Annual LaborFest BookFair & Poetry Reading
Click here for more details
July 26 (Sunday) 2:00 PM (Tickets $10; seniors/students $8) The Delancy Street Screening Room - 600 Embarcadero, SF
A War In Hollywood
A Film Screening
by Oriol Porta (89 min.) 2008
A War In Hollywood is an in-depth look at the impact that the Spanish Civil War and Franco’s dictatorship had on the North American film industry. Hollywood used the Civil War as a subject in more than 50 films. The defeat of democracy in Spain left an “open wound” in the heart of liberal actors, directors and screenwriters in the US, who used affection towards democratic Spain as a symbolic feature to define the romantic spirit of their characters. This sympathy, however, was shaped according to the American political tendencies of each period. This evolution is narrated through the personal story of Alvah Bessie, a Hollywood screenwriter who fought as a member of the International Brigade. This meticulous documentary includes excerpts from Casablanca, For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Way We Were among others, and commentary by actress Susan Sarandon.
Sponsored by The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA) & LaborFest
For Information Contact 510-548-6521July 26 (Sunday) 3:00 - 9:00 PM ($25.00) Meet at surface parking lot at SJCC at the corner of Moorpark and Leigh Avenues. We will carpool to Watsonville
Human Agenda: Farmworkers Reality Tour
This tour will challenge participants to better understand the conditions of Mexican farmworkers in Northern California. We will drive to a field where a very low-income family willdemonstrate how to harvest strawberries and then show us their very modest home. Then we will drive to the Buena Vista Migrant Labor Camp near Watsonville where farmworkers will share a look at their living quarters and give testimonies on their wages, working conditions, the use of pesticides, and the challenges their children have in receiving education. A farmworker meal is included in the cost.
$25 per Person – Check Payable to “Human Agenda”. Send to Human
Agenda Treasurer, 3845 Wellington Square, San Jose, CA 95136.
Proceeds go to farmworker families hosting the tour
Contact Richard Hobbs at 408-460-2999 or richhobbs@msn.com
July 26 (Sunday) 7:30 PM ($10.00) Community Music Center - 544 Capp St., between 20th & 21st, SF
Staged Action: An evening of labor theatre and music
The Indelible Voices Project presents an evening of labor theatre and music from the 1920s and 1930s hosted by Lee Papa, Assistant Professor of Drama Studies at College of Staten Island/CUNY. Lee’s anthology of labor plays, Staged Action, has just been released by Cornell University Press.
The evening will feature staged readings from Processional by John Howard Lawson, Mill Shadows by Top Tippett, Singing Jailbirds by Upton Sinclair, and the ever popular Pins and Needles by Harold Rome. Music from Singing Jailbirds and Pins and Needles will also be performed.
For advance tickets call (415) 431-8485
or e-mail: marcusd@igc.org.July 27 (Monday) 7:00 PM (Free) Plumbers’ Hall - 1621 Market St. at Franklin St., SF
Labor Jeopardy Contest
With 2000 Questions at SF Labor Council
Who founded the American Federation of Labor? What year was the National Labor Relations Act passed? Come join us in the first ever LaborFest Jeopardy contest. Using a jeopardy format, labor organizations from throughout the Bay Area will compete for prizes and pride while answering questions covering all areas of labor history and practice. Come cheer on your favorite team and learn something new in this fun and friendly contest.
Stanislaus playwright and SSU Professor Edward Hernandez will be the master of ceremonies.
http://www.hrmgt.com/play/main.htm
http://www.sflaborcouncil.org/July 28 (Tuesday) 7:00 PM City College Mission Campus - 1125 Valencia St. Rm 215 at 22nd St., SF
53 Days Local 2 on Stage
Free to members of Local 2 - Sliding donations from $10-$20 (no one turned away due to lack of funds)
53 Days: Local 2 On Stage, is a collaboration between the Labor and Community Studies Department of City College and the Unite Here Local 2. 53 Days tells the story of Local 2’s historic 53 day strike and lock-out of 2004, using the oral history testimonies of the Chinese, Latino, African American and Filipino hotel workers who were at the forefront of the fight. It is a very inspiring, educational and unique performance. Also screening of video of 1946 Hotel Workers Strike.
Sponsored by Labor Studies San Francisco Community College And Unite Here Local 2
http://sites.google.com/site/53daysonstage/HomeJuly 29 (Wednesday) 7:00 PM (Free) ILWU Local 6 Hall - 255 9th St., SF
Labor Media & Labor Video in The Struggle
Panel discussion with labor videographers Margot Smith, Vivian Price, Judy Montell, Carl Bryant, Steve Zeltzer.
The use of video and film by labor media workers can play a crucial role in educating and building support for working people and unions. These panelists are producing labor media and will talk about how they do it, who they do it for and how it can change the dynamics of the struggle.July 30 (Thursday) 7:00 PM (Free) IFPTE Local 21 Hall - 1182 Market Street, Rm 425, SF
The Bay Bridge and The Workers
Presentations and Slide Show: Politics, The Bay Bridge and the Workers
A report on the rebuilding of the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge (SFOBB) with IFPTE Local 21 and iron worker presenters.
The massive reconstruction projects now going onthe Eastern Span of the Bay Bridge is wrought in controversy and conflict. This panel will look at the conflict and also how the skilled union building trades workers are building a new monument honoring the talents and skills of working people. We will learn about the process of building a major bridge, what goes into it and how it is done. This is an exciting story of workers’ creativity, organization and planning.
July 31 (Friday) 7:00 PM (Free) Nap’s - 3152 Mission St. at Precita, SF
Please join us to celebrate the last day of the LaborFest with food and the music of the Angry Tired Teachers Band, AT&T and others.
