July 2015 S M T W T F S 5 20 26
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LaborFest 2015 Booklet PDF
Total 40 pages 10 MB
LaborFest 2014 Booklet PDF
Total 44 pages 6.9 MB
LaborFest 2013 Booklet PDF
Total 44 pages 7.5 MB
LaborFest 2012 Booklet PDF
Total 44 pages 5.7 MB
LaborFest 2011 Booklet PDF
Total 44 pages 7.5 MB
LaborFest 2011 Poster PDF
428 KB
LaborFest 2010 Poster PDF
(204KB)
LaborFest 2010 Booklet PDF
( Total 42 pgs - 12.2MB)2009 Booklet-PDF
44 pages
2008 Booklet -PDF
36 pg (5 MB)
2008 poster
(588KB)
To order poster, send $15 to LaborFest, POB 40983, SF, CA 94140
LaborFest 2015 Schedule
July 3, 4, 5 2:00 PM (Free) Dolores Park - 18th & Dolores, SF , SF
SF Mime Troupe - Freedomland
A door is blown off its hinges! Into a blasted room of scarred walls and shattered windows, armed with M-16’s, America’s bravest duck and dodge for cover, finally training their deadly gun sights on... an old black man watching TV on his couch? This isn’t Baghdad or Kandahar - its home, and for ex- Black Panther Malcolm Haywood, it’s just another wrong door police raid in the War on Drugs. So of course Malcolm is horrified when the grandson he’s tried to protect, Nathaniel, returns from serving in Afghanistan only to find another war zone at home - and one where young Black men like Nathaniel are in the crosshairs! Meanwhile the Mayor and the Police Chief - one desperate for votes, the other desperate to fund his militarized police force - ramp up the fear (and their shiny new tank) to fight the newest, drug threat to America. Worse than weed, meth, coke, crack, or crank, it’s... SNORF!!
Please check the full schedule at the website:
www.sfmt.org/scheduleJuly 3 - 25 (Free) Redstone Building - 2940 16th St., SF ball park
The Underground Art Gallery in the Historic San Francisco Labor Temple
Art celebrating cultural resistance and workers’ movements.
Friday, July 3, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. - Opening reception
Saturday, July 25, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. - Closing reception and end of silent auction; live auctions on both dates and showings by appointment.
For more information, contact the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition, 415-863-1225 or sflivingwage@riseup.netJuly 5 (Sunday) 9:45 (Free) Meet at Coit Tower entrance - 1 Telegraph Hill Blvd, SF
Coit Tower Mural Walk
With Peter O’Driscoll and Harvey Smith
In the past few years there has been a growing community effort to defend the Coit tower murals from leaking water and to stop plans for privatization of the site. This led to the critical renovation of the murals on their 80th anniversary. They were being painted during the time of the 1934 general strike in San Francisco. LaborFest will hold its annual guided tour of the murals with Peter O’Driscoll and Harvey Smith. At the time of their installation, an organized effort was made to destroy them because of the leftist themes. The artists and their supporters had to physically defend the site. The murals were successfully defended and we have them today as our heritage. The artists were working under the Civil Works Administration and Public Works of Art program, which was later extended to many buildings and sites throughout the U.S.July 5 (Sunday) 12:00 Noon Meet at 518 Valencia St., SF
Cycles of Labor History Bicycle Tour
With Chris Carlsson
($15-50 sliding scale donation requested to benefit Shaping San Francisco)
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. SF’s radical working class organizations were shaped in part by racist complicity in genocide and slavery. 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 four-hour bike tour, of San Francisco labor history will introduce you to a new view of the city. Tour ends at Spear and Market.July 5 (Sunday) 7:00 PM (Donation) ILWU Local 34 Hall - 801 2nd St. SF, next to AT&T Ball Park
“I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night”
Join LaborFest on The 100th Anniversary Concert on Death of Joe Hill with David Rovics
You can watch this event from this site.
In 1915 in Salt Lake City, Utah, IWW union organizer and labor troubadour Joe Hill was murdered by a firing squad. The effort to silence him failed and he has become one of the most famous labor organizers and musicians in the world.
It is a sick irony that Utah this year has reinstituted the firing squad for executions! Over 2 million mostly Black and Latino workers are in prison today in the United States and in California, more money is spent on the prison industry than on education.
Joe’s struggle for union and labor rights is as relevant today as it was in 1915. Millions of workers would like to have unions but are intimidated and bullied by companies like Walmart and Macdonald’s to fire workers who speak up. Walmart this year closed five stores including one in Pico Rivera, California for supposed “plumbing problems” which were really threats of union organizing.
Although this Walmart’s act is illegal, the corporations who run America and the world flagrantly ignore the laws and protections workers are supposed to have in this country.
Over 10,000 workers are fired every year in this country for union organizing and these are only the workers that have pursued NLRB lawsuits.
Joe Hill saw the struggle of workers and union rights as the most important struggle in his life, and he paid for it with his life.
LaborFest will honor the 100th anniversary of his death with a concert with labor troubadour David Rovics. Throughout the year, Rovics has been traveling in Europe in a series of concerts to commemorate the life and struggles of Joe Hill.
Rovics has performed throughout the world. His hard hitting songs for workers and human rights are powerful and moving. Also performing at the commemoration will be Carol Denney and Marcus Duskin.
http://joehill100.com
Parking space available at the union hall parking lot. The entrance is at the corner of King St. and 2nd, right next to the AT&T Ball Park.July 6 (Monday) 10:00 AM (Free) Meet at Harry Bridges Plaza Tower
SF General Strike Walk
Meet at Harry Bridges Plaza - Plaza in front of Ferry Building, at the south side tower, San Francisco.
Join the walk with Gifford Hartman and others.
Eighty-one years ago at this location, a great battle took place by the workers and the residents of San Francisco against the police and National Guard.
We will look at the causes of the 1934 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? We will also view some of the key historical sites in this important US labor struggle.July 7 (Tuesday) 10:00 AM (Free) San Francisco Labor Council Office - 1188 Franklin St., SF
Bread & Roses with Retired Union Members
Come to an open regular meeting of FORUM (Federation of Retired Union Members), an organization of retirees affiliated with the San Francisco Labor Council. Retirees come from a spectrum of unions with members and workers in San Francisco. FORUM supports alliances between working people and retired people to preserve and improve health care, social security and pension benefits. The July program will briefly highlight members’ current activities and primarily focus on personal recollections of the 1934 General Strike and other significant labor actions. Anyone with stories to tell about labor history is especially invited to come and share memories. Refreshments will be served.July 7 (Tuesday) 6:00 PM (Free) Hotel Whitcomb - 1231 Market St., near 8th St., SF
35th Anniversary of SF Hotel Strike “Wake-Up Time”
Join Unite Here! Local 2 union veterans and labor supporters to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the San Francisco hotel workers strike and honor its veterans. This was the most important hotel strike in the post war period and came with an upsurge of rank and file activism.
Pots and pans were used by housekeepers in front of Hyatt Regency and other hotels to let the bosses know that hotel workers were not taking it anymore and wanted better conditions and benefits.
This commemoration will include stories from the strikers and a video by videographer Mary Ellen Churchill.
For information, call 415-642-8066, or e-mail:
laborfest@laborfest.net
Sponsored by 1980 Hotel Strike Commemoration CommitteeJuly 8 (Wednesday) 7:00 PM (Free) ILWU Local 10 - Henry Schmidt Romm - 400 Northpoint, at Mason
An Injury To One Is An Injury To All
The Lessons of May Day 2015 and ILWU Local 10
You can watch this event from here.
On May 1, 2015 ILWU Local 10 called for a stop work meeting to protest the police terror and murders of African Americans, Latinos and other working people. Two thousand marched to demand justice and human rights. ILWU made history as the only union in the United States to not only to challenge the epidemic of police murders, but also to take action on the job.
This educational forum will look at why the ILWU Local 10 took this action and how their members have been affected by the increasing militarization of the police and repression in working class communities.
There will also be a screening of a new documentary about the ILWU Local 10’s initiated action.
Henry Schmidt room is on the second floor of the smaller building at the location.July 8 (Wennesday) 6:30 PM (Free) Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library - -6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Wisconsin Rising
(60 min) (2014) by Sam Mayfield
This film documents the days, weeks and months when Wisconsinites fought back against power, authority and injustice. They were fighting back against newly elected Republican Governor Scott Walker’s action stripping collective bargaining rights from public employees. This fight took place in the same period as the Arab spring, and workers in both struggles saw their common fight.
Discussion to follow.
Sponsored by Speak Out Now and PM Press.July 9 (Thursday) 7:00 PM (Donation) 518 Valencia - near 16th St., SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Palikari - Louis Tikas and The Ludlow Massacre
(92 min.)(2014) Greece (in English)
By Director Nikos Ventouras and Producer Lamprini Thoma.
The history of immigrants is a story of struggle, and one of the sharpest in our history took place on April 20, 1914 Ludlow massacre of miners and their families in Colorado.
Greek Director Nikos Ventouras and Producer Lamprini Thoma came to the US to do a story on the travels of Jack Kerouac and discovered the hidden story of the Lundlow massacre in Colorado. This includes the story of Greek immigrant Louis Tikas Palikari who they had never heard of.
They learned that Palikari, an immigrant with military training in the Balkan wars, had become one of the leaders of the miner’s strike, and was assassinated by a lieutenant in the Colorado National Guard for leading this strike.
The story of Ludlow is part of our history that has been buried to cover the real contours of US working class history. As Mother Jones said at the time, “No one listened, no one cared, then, came Ludlow and the nation heard”.
Part of their reason for making this film was also the need to fight the growing racism and xenophobia in Greece, which has been a result of the economic crisis. They show that racism and discrimination against immigrants is not limited by borders.
Joining the screening will be SFSU professor Zeese Papaikolas. His book “Buried Unsung: Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre” was an important link for the filmmakers and all working people about our history. Papaikolas will introduce the film and there will be a discussion following the screening.July 9 (Thursday) 7:00 PM (Suggested donation $5-10 No one turned away) Historic Fellowship Hall - 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita, Berkeley
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Joe Hill
(1971)(115min)(Sweden) by Bo Widerberg
In the early 1900's, the legendary Joe Hill emigrates from Sweden with his brother to the United States. Joe joined and became active in the IWW, the Industrial Workers of the World. In some places unconstitutional laws were passed to forbid freedom of speech and demonstrations. Joe sometimes got around that by singing his songs to the tunes of the day sung by the Salvation Army, which then would feed starving workers if they would listen to a sermon first. Joe had a significant impact and became popular as an IWW singer. Joe Hill also made powerful enemies by doing that. In Utah he was framed on a murder charge. During the trial he fired his lawyer and defended himself to no avail. He was murdered by a state of Utah firing squad.
Sponsored by BFUU Social Justice CommitteeJuly 10 (Friday) 7:00 PM (Donation) 518 Valencia - near 16th St., SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Rise of The Oppressed
(18 min) (2012) Pakistan, by Labor Education Foundation
This film shows the conditions of Pakistani textile loom workers and their struggle for human and union rights.
Driving For Hire (84 min) (2015) USA, by John Han
San Francisco has become the ground zero in new applications and tech that is touted as “disrupting” the world as we know it. Taxi driver and journalist Jon Han looks at how UBER and other apps are affecting the public, users and taxi drivers.
This documentary is the most significant report on this revolution in the industry and what it means for the future of drivers.
John Han will introduce the film and discussion will follow.July 10 (Friday) 6:30 PM (Donation)First Unitarian Universalist Church - 1187 Franklin Street, SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
10,000 Black Men Named George
(95 min) (2003) by Robert Townsend
10,000 Black Men Named George is filmmaker Robert Townsend’s stirring civil rights drama about the founding of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
The film gives a dramatic look at A. Phillip Randolph, a pioneering black journalist and union leader, who put his life on the line to establish a voice for the forgotten workers by creating the first African-American union.
It was a bold gesture which proved to have a major impact in both labor and race relations in America in the 1920s, as well as today.
For more information please contact: Larry Danos (415) 722-6480
July 11 (Saturday) 9:00 AM (Free) Mutiny Radio - 2781 21st at Florida St., SF
Why Labor Matters In The Schools?
Labor history is mostly unknown and that is where “Labor In The Schools” comes in. The California Federation of Teachers has set up a program and educational material to help teachers and educators make labor part of curriculum in the schools.
“Labor in the Schools” is a workshop for teachers, people who work with K-12 students, and anyone else who is interested. It will feature materials designed by the Labor in the Schools Committee, some interactive activities and simulations that focus on cooperation, worldwide wealth inequality, and strategies for children.
Participants will receive free materials and view the Hall of Labor, a Big Poster gallery of famous labor leaders and their bios. Nothing is more important to our movement than to educate our base - working class young people.
For information contact Bill Morgan (415) 516-5822
http://www.cft.org/about-cft/committees/labor-in-the-schools-committee.htmlJuly 11 (Saturday) 9:30 - 3:30 PM (Free) SEIU 1021 Hall - 350 Rhode Island - Entrance on Kansas St. near 17th, SF
Workplace Bullying Labor Educational Conference
What It Is and How to Stop It!
Lunch included with pre-registration (by 7/9)
(For pre-registration, call Brenda Barros: 925-437-0593)
The bullying of working people on the jobs and in the communities is escalating. There is both a California and a national campaign to pass legislation against workplace bullying which is a serious health and safety concern for workers and the public. This workshop will draw the links between an epidemic of bullying and police terror evident in places like Ferguson, Baltimore and North Charleston. Bullying on the job and police harassment of Black and minority people are two sides of the same coin. Bullying is also connected to the growing militarization of the police with billions for armored vehicles and machine guns while social services are cut and public education is privatized and destroyed for the poor and oppressed.
Speakers Include:
Greg Sorozan, SEIU NAGE 282 President
Brenda Barros, SEIU 1021 San Francisco General Hospital Chapter President
Dr. Derek Kerr, Former Doctor at Laguna Honda Hospital and Whistleblower
Carrie Clark, California Healthy Workplaces And Former Teacher/Whistleblower
Jamie Tillotson, Former San Francisco Public Defender Who Was Arrested For Defending African American clients rights at Hall of Justice
Derrick Boutte, SEIU 1021, Chair SEJ
Yolanda Williams, SFOFJ
Daryle Washington, IBT 350 Whistleblower Against Racist Noose incidents at Recology
July 11 (Saturday) 10:00 AM (Free) San Bruno Mountain Watch Office - 44 Visitation Ave., Brisbane
San Bruno Mountain Wilderness Walk
Labor unionists and environmentalists both confront the same commercial interests. In 1968, David Schooley chained himself to a bulldozer at the foot of the San Bruno Mountain. As a result, houses have never been constructed in Guadeloupe Canyon. You’re invited to walk with David in the Mountain habitat of the Mission Blue Butterfly, which he’s defended for 50 years. The fight on this Mountain helped to inspire the Endangered Species Act. This is now a space in the local area where working people can enjoy the beauty of the canyon.
To sign up call: 415-467-6631.
Meet at 10:00 AM at the San Bruno Mountain Watch Office, Room 206, 44 Visitation Avenue in Brisbane.
To get there by car, follow Bayshore Boulevard to Brisbane; or take the #249 SamTrans bus.July 11 (Saturday) 10:00 - 2:00 PM (Free) City College Mission Campus - 1125 Valencia, Room 109, SF
Workers' Voices, Workers' Lives
Join City College Labor and Community Studies and the Fund for Labor Culture and History for an afternoon celebrating workers’ lives. The janitors of SEIU Local 87, the convention workers of Sign and Display Local 510 and the domestic workers of La Colectiva de Mujeres will perform excerpts from oral history theater celebrations of their lives, struggles and victories. They’ll participate in guided conversations of their laborlore, work culture, and discuss the humor, hardship and solidarity of their work and organizations. Join us for an illuminating day investigating work and workers’ lives.
For more information, contact Bill Shields at 415-550-4473 or
wshields@ccsf.eduJuly 11 (Saturday) 12:00 Noon, 3:00 PM (Free) Hyde Street Pier - 2905 Hyde Street, SF
1901 SF Waterfront Strike Reenactment
From July 13 to October 2, 1901, San Francisco’s waterfront was shut down by sailors, teamsters, and longshoremen striking for better pay and working conditions. Experience the sights and sounds of San Francisco history. Hear impassioned speeches and voice your own opinion! Take part in a march as strikers implore ships crews to join their ranks, and see a representative of the shipowners defy the strikers.
Free admission to Hyde Street Pier activities. Ships boarding fees: Adults, $5. Ages 15 and under, free. Free with national park passes and for active military with current I.D.
Join us as our park’s costumed Living History players present an afternoon depicting events during the 1901 San Francisco waterfront strike.
July 11 (Saturday) 7:00 PM (Donation) 518 Valencia - near 16th St., SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
A Day’s Work (54 min.) (2014) USA, by Dave DeSario & David M. Garcia
Every day workers are killed on the job in the United States, yet there are only 2,000 Federal OSHA inspectors nationally. Thirty percent of Workers today are in the rapidly growing classification of temporary workers.
A Day’s Work is about the death of 21 year old Day Davis after only 90 minutes on he job. The film shines a light on the failure of health and safety protections in the $100 billion temp industry. This temp industry is a direct result of deregulation of workers from FedEx to Kaiser. Today in California, there are only around 200 Cal-OSHA inspectors for 18.5 million workers and the deregulation of Workers Comp has led to seriously injured workers not getting medical treatment for their injuries. Employers are shifting this expense to social security disability, so the taxpayer ends up with the cost.
Discussion to follow the film with health and safety advocates.
https://vimeo.com/125719950July 12 (Sunday) 10:00 AM (Free) Meet at 75 Folsom St. - Entrance of Hills Brothers Coffee Building
San Francisco Waterfront Labor History Walk 1835 - 1934
With Lawrence Shoup and Peter O’Driscoll
There are many stories about labor struggles in San Francisco. The walk will focus on the maritime industry from 1835 until the burning of the blue book in 1934. Also, labor historian Larry Shoup will discuss the history of the 1901 transportation workers strike led by the Teamsters which the San Francisco police attempted, but failed to smash. After an over two month long struggle, the workers emerged victorious, and the Union Labor Party won the election of 1901, taking control of the city. This was the first large city in the United States to have a union labor party in office.July 12 (Sunday) 10:00 AM ($25) Meet in front of Bill Graham Auditorium - 99 Grove, SF Civic Center
WPA Bus Tour
With Gray Brechin & Harvey Smith
Join Gray Brechin and Harvey Smith as they travel through history on a bus tour of sites built by the New Deal’s “alphabet soup” agencies. You will learn about the major contribution government-paid workers made during the depression era New Deal programs. Gray and Harvey will discuss the art, architecture and social programs that effectively dealt with the period’s economic meltdown in contrast with today’s response. Please be aware that the tour will take about 5 hours depending on the traffic and the discussions.
Meet in front of Bill Graham Auditorium, between City Hall and the Main Library.
Reservation required:
Send e-mail: laborfest@laborfest.net or call: (415) 642-8066, and leave your name, number of reservations and phone number (this is to let you know that we have space for your reservation and contact you in case of any changes.)
Make reservation, then send check ($25/person) to: LaborFest, P.O. Box 40983, SF, CA 94140
Please bring your own lunch. For those who can’t bring one, we will have sandwiches and drinks on the bus for a small cost. Bus will return to Civic Center.
Tour lasts about 5 hours.July 12 (Sunday) 2:00 - 5:00 PM (Free) Bayview Library - 5075 3rd St, SF
Militarization, War, Labor and History Education Conference
San Francisco has played a historic role in US wars. San Francisco ship workers built war ships at Union Ironworks, which were used in the war with Spain and then the occupation of the Philippines. Also, in the post war period, contaminated ships from nuclear weapon tests in the Pacific were brought to Hunters Point shipyard. They were sandblasted which spread the radioactive material into the area and the communities that surrounded the shipyard.
This forum will look at how these wars have affected San Francisco, and how the US is now expanding the militarization of Japan, Korea and the Philippines as well as Europe and Ukraine.
Speakers:
Ray Tomkins Ph.D; Health and Safety Advocate
George Wright; AFT 1473 Retired Professor Skyline College
Galina Gerasimova; AFT 2121 CCSF Professor
Misuk Nam; UTR Teacher, Sewol Support Committee
Chizu Hamada; No Nukes Action Committee
Cindy Sheehan; Anti-war ActivistJuly 13 (Monday) 7:00 PM (Free) Canessa Gallery - 708 Montgomery St., SF
A Victory in the Fight to Save our Historic Post Offices
With members of the Committee to Save the Berkeley Post Office
The U.S. Postal Service, now headed by those favoring privatization, is closing and selling off many post offices listed on the National Register of Historic Places, reducing postal services and cutting public sector union jobs. Many of these historic post offices have murals and art created during the New Deal. The City of Berkeley, however, prevailed in federal court saving the historic post office building and setting a precedent for others. The case promises to save union jobs by requiring the USPS to follow the law. Come hear the story of how a spirited group of Berkeley residents set a national precedent.
Citizens to Save the Berkeley Post Office fought for their historic building and art for three years. They made the nation aware of the issue with articles in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.
For information: harveysmithberkeley@yahoo.com
or call 510-684-0414July 14 (Tuesday) 1:00 - 2:30 PM (Free) Meet at South West Corner of Geary and Laguna intersection
Union Sponsored Affordable Housing in San Francisco:
St. Francis Square Cooperative - Tour
(Meet near #38 Geary in-bound bus stop)
Join our walking tour and institutional and development history discussion of the now fifty-one-year-old 299 affordable multi family garden apartments sponsored by the Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). This complex created a new community that mitigated some of the destructive displacement effects of Western Addition Redevelopment. The buildings and landscaping were designed by renowned architects Robert Marquis, Claude Stoller and Lawrence Halprin. The Square is still home to a number of union leaders, although it has now evolved to a market rate coop. Residents and coop leaders Norm Young and Nan Park, will be tour guides.July 14 (Tuesday) 7:00 PM (Free) Green Arcade Bookstore - 1680 Market St. at Gough, SF
Berkeley and The New Deal
By Harvey Smith
Like the heritage of the New Deal in San Francisco, Berkeley’s 1930s and early 1940s New Deal left a lasting legacy of utilitarian and beautiful infrastructure. These public buildings, schools, parks, and artworks helped shape the city and thus the lives of its residents. It is hard to imagine Berkeley without them. The artists and architects of these projects mention several themes: working for the community, responsibility, the importance of government support, collaboration, and creating a cultural renaissance. These New Deal projects, however, can be called “hidden history” because their legacies have been mostly ignored and forgotten. Comprehending the impact of the New Deal on one American city is only possible when viewed as a whole. More than history, this book shows the period’s relevance to today’s social, political, and economic realities. The times may again call for comprehensive public policy that reaches Main Street.July 14 (Tuesday) 7:00 PM (Free) First Unitarian Universalist Church - 1187 Franklin Street, SF
Bastille Day, Words on the Anniversary of Joe Hill’s Death
Voices for labor, human rights and justice on Bastille Day and the 100th Anniversary of the Murder of Joe Hill, first martyr for workers’ rights and the labor movement.
Music with Troubadour Vic Sadot
POETS: Judith Ayne Bernard, Dorothy Payne, John Curl, Mahmaz Badihian, Jack Hirschman, Agneta Falk, Karen Melander Magoon and others.
Sponsored by FUUS, Revolutionary Poets BrigadeJuly 15 (Wednesday) 7:00 PM (Free) ILWU Local 34 Hall - 801 2nd St. next to AT&T Ball Park
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
The Ballad of Joe Hill
(1971)(115min)(Sweden) by Bo Widerberg
This year is the 100th anniversary of the death of troubadour and union organizer Joe Hill. His songs still resonate today in the US and around the world. This dramatic film tells his story as an immigrant coming to the United States. This rarely seen Academy Award nominated film is about an ingenious immigrant labor organizer who is framed on a murder charge in a highly sensationalized trial with little evidence. Despite worldwide appeals by the King of Sweden and the President of the USA, Hill is martyred by a Utah firing squad after one of the most controversial capital punishment trials of the 20th Century. Today, on the hundredth anniversary of his death the state of Utah has reinstituted the firing squad. Despite the bullets that ended his life, his legacy, humor, principles and solidarity with workers of the world live on.
Parking space available at the union hall parking lot. The entrance is at the corner of King St. and 2nd, right next to the AT&T ball park.July 16 (Thursday) 7:00 PM (Donatione) Redstone Building - 2940 16th St. at Capp, SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Claiming Our Voice
(2013)(20.5 min)(USA) by Jennifer Pritheevea
The struggle of immigrant South Asian workers in the US is the focus of the group Andolan. This film tells the stories of these South Asian women who have become domestic workers and their struggle for decent working conditions and labor rights. The Domestic Workers United and the National Domestic Workers Alliance have defended and supported the organization of 1.8 million domestic workers. More than 99% of these workers are foreign born, and 93% are women. The video also tells the story through a play called Sukh aur Dukh ki Kahani (Stories of Joy and Sorrow). This theater project puts the workers’ talents and skills to work in expressing their lives and hopes.Schoolidarity (2014)(90 min)(USA) by Andrew Friend
This documentary looks at the attack on teachers in Chicago who are members of the Chicago Teachers Union CTU and links it to Governor Scott Walker’s attack on public workers in Wisconsin.
The documentary exposes the scapegoating of teachers and the push to privatize education by Obama’s former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, exposes the forces behind privatization and who will benefit from privatization.
The film also looks at efforts to move toward a general strike in Wisconsin against Walker’s program instead of a strategy of electing Democrats in the legislature.July 17 (Friday) 4:00 - 6:00 PM (Free) ILWU 34 Hall - next to AT&T ball park, SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
One Generation’s Time: The Legacy of Silme Domingo & Gene Viernes (59:44) (2013) by Shannon Gee
This is a documentary on the lives and legacy of Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes. Both men were leaders of ILWU Local 37, and members of the KDP (Union of Democratic Filipinos), an organization, which had chapters in the major cities of the West Coast during the 1970s and 1980s. KDP had a two-prong program: In its international work, it focused on exposing and advocating for the overthrow of the brutal Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines while fighting for workers’ rights in this country. Viernes and Domingo were elected union officers of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 37 in Seattle, WA. They were elected on a reform platform pledging to end the corruption that had taken over their union local; the union, which represented the mostly Filipino cannery workers in Alaska. On June 1, 1981, Viernes and Domingo were gunned down in the union hall. The local president was convicted, but the trial subsequently proved that the assassinations of both Viernes and Domingo were ordered and paid for by the Marcos regime; a regime propped-up and supported by the U.S. government.
Introduction and discussion led by members of the Committee for Justice for Domingo & Viernes, including Cindy Domingo (sister of Silme) and Terri Mast (widow of Domingo). Terri is currently ILWU Secretary-Treasurer of the Inlandboatmen’s Union, Local 37.July 17 (Friday) 6:30 PM SEIU 1021 Hall - Entrance on Kansas St., Between 16th & 17th, SF
SF Living Wage Coalition Fourth Annual Awards Dinner
The Living Wage Coalition is a grassroots movement of low-wage workers and their allies who have been fighting for economic justice since 1998 to change political priorities so that government does not subsidize poverty wage employers. We are engaged in rethinking of the economy towards the goals of economic development and a more prosperous, healthier and livable community for all working people.
Labor Woman of the Year Award will go to Alysabeth Alexander, Vice President of Politics, SEIU Local 1021. Labor Man of the Year Award will go to Rudy Gonzalez, Vice President and Organizing Coordinator, Teamsters Local 856.
For information or to purchase tickets: San Francisco Living Wage Coalition, (415) 863-1225, or go to
www. livingwage-sf.org, sflivingwage@riseup.netJuly 17 (Friday) 7:30 PM (Donation) ILWU 34 Hall - next to AT&T ball park, SF
Song and Story from Occupy
Rockin’ Solidarity Labor Chorus presents a celebration of the Occupy movement, in song and story. The audience is invited to sing along: lyric sheets will be provided. Founded in 1999, the Labor Chorus helps keeps working-class culture alive, in four-part harmony. We will also have special guests.
www.laborchorus.orgJuly 18(Saturday) 10:00 - 3:00 PM (Free) ILWU 34 Hall - 801 2nd St. next to AT&T ball park
Nuclear Power, Health and Safety, Labor and Fight in a Court - International Educational Conference
There are hundreds of aging nuclear plants in the US and around the world that are becoming increasingly dangerous. The Fukushima plant in Japan continues to release thousands of tons of radioactive water into the Pacific and a growing epidemic of thyroid cancer of children and people is developing in Japan. At the same time, the Japan’s Abe government is seeking to restart the remaining nuclear plants and also export nuclear plants throughout the world. There are also lawsuits against the manufacturers of nuclear plants and a successful lawsuit against a Korean nuclear plant where a woman got cancer from that plant. The Korean lawsuit’s success is an important step in protecting the communities near nuclear plants not only in Korea but throughout the world. This international education conference will discuss the growing dangers in the nuclear industry, problems facing nuclear whistleblowers and their efforts to protect the workers, public and communities that live around nuclear plants.
Speakers include:
Lee Ji Seop : Filed a successful lawsuit against the Korean nuclear power plant on behalf of his wife who had thyroid cancer
Choi Seung-koo : founder of the law suit against the Japanese and international nuclear reactor makers
Rev. Lee, Dae-soo
Dr. Robert Gould : President SF-Bay Area Physicians For Social Responsibility
Dr. Larry Rose : Former Medical Director of Cal-OSHA
Bob Rowen : Nuclear power plant whistleblower, former Humboldt PG&E nuclear plant worker and member of IBEW 1245
Darrell Whitman: Federal OSHA lawyer and investigator of nuclear workers who are health and safety whistleblowers. He was fired on May 5, 2015 by OSHA chief David Michaels for whistleblowing about the collusion of PG&E and other companies with OSHA management officials to protect these companies.
Donna Gilmore : Founder, San Onofre Safety
Kei Sugaoka : Former GE Nuclear Plant inspector who exposed nuclear safety issues at Fukushima Daiichi and was retaliated aainst.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJjbNw07OUA
July 18 (Saturday) 10:45 - 3:45 PM (Free) Angel Island - at Ayala Cover where ferry boat arrives
Angel Island Walk: Labor, Imperialism & Immigration
With James Dexter-Lee
This walk will be 5 miles, 5 hours, including stops.
Angel Island is the largest island in San Francisco Bay, 740 acres of California State Park. Located strategically just inside the Golden Gate, near the beautiful Marin Headlands, Angel Island has unparalleled views of the Bay Area.
The heritage of Angel Island lies primarily in its human history; a story that accompanies not only the history of the Bay Area and California but also the military, political, economic and social legacy of the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries. Come and explore this unique place with park volunteer and historian James Dexter-Lee. We will cover Native Americans to the Gold Rush, Angel Island at war (Civil War to Cold War), the U.S. Immigration Station (Labor & Racism), the Marine Hospital Service and more.
Bring lunch, liquids, sun protection, layers and your walking shoes! (Optional $5 for admission to U.S. Immigration Station, cash or check, pay as you enter.)
Ferry schedule:
www.blueandgoldfleet.com/ferry-services/ferry-schedules/
Leave SF – Ferry Building 9:20, Pier 41 9:45 - arrive 10:10 AM.
Return to SF – Last ferry 4:10
Ferry ticket for round trip: Adult - $18, Senior & Child(5-11) $9.50 at Blue & Gold
Leave Tibron – 10:00 to 5:00 hourly.
Return to Tibron 10:20 to 4:20 hourly
Information: jmsdxtr@gmail.com, or call 415-642-8066
www.andel-island.com/history.html
www.aiisf.org/education/station-history/life-on-angel-islandJuly 18 (Saturday) 2:00 - 3:30 PM (Free) Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library - 6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland
Fighting The Just In Time Professor: A Lesson From The SF Bay Area Metro Organizing Strategy
The dirty secret about higher education is that about two thirds of the faculty are part-time or full-time temporary adjunct professors hired by the class or semester. In the past few years, adjuncts have been organizing, striking and unionizing in record numbers. Many of them are using a new strategy known as the Metro Organizing Strategy, which organizes across a geographic region rather than campus by campus, where non faculty is included. Join a critical discussion about these organizing campaigns.
Robert Ovetz, Ph.D. is a migrant mindworker of academia who teaches at three Bay Area colleges and universities. He writes about the changing division of academic labor and strategies for resistance.
Jessica Beard is a lecturer in English and Critical Theory at San Francisco State University and the San Francisco Art Institute. She teaches in the METRO program at SFSU--a joint effort by CCSF and SFSU for first generation college students of color in the Bay Area.
Jessica Lawless was an adjunct professor in the arts and humanities for 9 years. Organizer with SEIU local 1021’s Adjunct Action campaign.
Gifford Hartman has worked in adult education for over two decades, mostly in literacy and English as a Second Language (ESL). He also participates in Labor History events, writing and talking about the history of class struggle. In 2008, he was part of a 4-day strike at a non-profit ESL school in San Francisco.
For more info: rfovetz@riseup.netJuly 18 (Saturday) 6:00 - 8:00 PM (Donation) Manilatown Center - 868 Kearny St., SF
50th Anniversary of Grape Strike, The Past, Present and Future
2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the historic Grape Strike. The strike was launched on September 8, 1965, in the Filipino Community Hall by the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), AFL-CIO, in the small farming town of Delano in the California Central Valley. This strike followed an earlier AWOC strike in the Coachella Valley. Both strikes were led by a Filipino labor leadership composed of Larry Itliong, Benjamin Gines, Pete Velasco, and Philip Vera Cruz, veterans of the decades-long struggle to bring collective-bargaining rights to this country’s agricultural sector.
The strikes highlighted the ongoing fight for basic workers rights, including minimum wage, overtime pay, sick time and recognition of their union. The strike was expanded when AWOC leadership urged the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) and its president, Cesar Chavez, to merge forces by joining its picket-line. The merger of these two-2 major organizations subsequently became the United Farmworkers, AFL-CIO. The ‘65 strike and subsequent grape boycott received support from workers’ organization both in the U.S. and around the world. This strike came to be the largest agricultural workers strike since the 1930’s and brought about a mass mobilization focused not only on conditions on the job, but the living conditions of those workers who toil to put food on our nation’s table.
Our program will summarize the victories of the 1965 Grape Strike and its aftermath. In the end, the initial Filipino leadership was all but gone marking the decline of the UFW as a militant, fighting union for all agricultural workers. We will then focus on the reasons and causes for the eventual decline of the UFW and its impact on this country’s agricultural workforce.
Today, the vast majority of agricultural workers face the very same issues that they did in 1965, including the lack of union protection and representation. Moreover, the courts and politicians in California have swung to the Right, becoming the mouthpiece of corporate Agribusiness. Our forum will examine what is needed to rebuild the labor struggle within our agricultural sector.
Panel Speakers include; Al Rojas, an original founder of the UFW; Mary Jane Galviso, Farmer, Ilokano Farms & Flipina agricultural worker; Howard Keylor, former ILWU Local 10 member, who was personally involved and acquainted with many of the Filipino labor leadership.
Film One Generation's Time: The Legacy of Silme Domingo & Gene Viernes will be shown again. (Check the detail on 7/17 schedule of this film)
July 19 (Sunday) 12:00 Noon (Free) Meet at 240 2nd St. - Front of the Marine Firemen’s Hall near Howard
Irish Labor History Walk
With IBEW electrician Peter O’Driscoll and labor writer and UAW NWU member Larry Shoup.
This tour will focus on the history of San Francisco’s famed waterfront and the role of its Irish and Irish-American workers, leaders, and martyrs. It will also include the cases of Tom Mooney and Warren Billings who faced a labor frame-up in the Preparedness Day Bombing in San Francisco in July 1916, and the successful struggle for their release. The tour will also view the sculpture dedicated to the waterfront strikers of 1934 and other historic markers along the way. The tour will end inside Rincon Center, discussing the historic murals dedicated to the labor movement in San Francisco.July 19 (Sunday) 2:00 PM (Free) Meet at Bayview Plaza- 3801 3rd St. at Evans, SF
Hunters Point/Bayview History Walk
Join former shipyard worker and local social historian Oscar James for the real history of Bayview Hunters Point, and in particular, the use of the National Guard after the murder of Harold Brooks in September 1966. James will look at the social, labor and political history of this important period for the community, and what is happening today with gentrification and displacement of the community.
For more info: oscarjames22@live.com
www.moadsf.org/volume-5/oscar-jamesJuly 19 (Sunday) 5:45 PM ($45) Pier 41, left of Pier 39 near outside ticket booth
Building Bridges and Labor Maritime History
Boat Tour
5:45 PM Boarding, 6:00 PM Departure
Join LaborFest again this year when the ILWU-IBU/MMP crew takes us out on the bay to enjoy the beauty of the San Francisco Bay. We will learn about the San Francisco General Strike, Maritime Strike, how unions built the bridges and how they keep the bay clean. We honor the workers who built the bridges.
Labor process photographer Joseph Blum will talk about the building of the new Eastern Span of the Bay Bridge. Gray Brechin and Harvey Smith will talk about the history of the WPA and how it has shaped the Bay Area. There will be speakers about ongoing union struggles for worker rights and what we can do to support these workers. We will also have labor music from the US and around the world including Chinese migrant workers musicians.
You can’t afford to miss this great time on the bay.
Boat leaves promptly at 6:00 PM
Please arrive 30 minutes before the departure time.
Tour lasts 3 hours
A complimentary meal will be provided, however, if you are on a special diet, please bring your own food.
(Sorry, we do not take any special orders for food.)
To make your reservation:
By E-mail: laborfest@laborfest.net
Or call: (415) 642-8066
and leave (1) your name, (2) phone number and (3)number of people in your party. (We prefer e-mail.)
We will contact you to confirm your reservation. Then, you should mail a check ($45/person, children under 6 - free, 6 to 12 $25) to LaborFest, P.O.Box 40983, San Francisco, CA 94140.
We don’t send out tickets, but we will either e-mail or call you back to let you know that we received your check, 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 will be gathering to the left of Pier 39, toward Pier 41 (Blue & Gold Fleet).
Please be there at least 30 minutes before departure time in order to go through paper work.
We expect the tickets to be sold out quickly, so please make your reservation early.
Scene from this boat tour1
July 20 (Monday) 7:00 PM (Free) Meet at 903 Cortland Ave., SF
Martin Luther King Jr's Emergent Labor Philosophy
By 1967, MLK, both in his speeches and sermons, decisively called for either full employment or a guaranteed income in order to constructively combat poverty. The puzzle was how to pitch this advocacy to a nation hyped on 'Red Scare' rhetoric and union-bashing fulminations. Join David Giesen, local author and educator, as he charts the deepest roots of MLK's social philosophy, founded in the profoundly labor-friendly ethos of Biblical economic thought: universal guaranteed vacation time, periodic debt forgiveness, social security, and workplace autonomy. Giesen traces the writings of MLK, marking King's evolving labor-rights thinking in developing an assertion that, at the time of his assassination, King teetered on the edge of calling for the nationalization of natural resources. Throughout his public service, King regularly acknowledged the necessity of reconciling the social aims of Communism with Christianity's uplifting of the individual soul. Giesen asserts the secular economic law of the Hebrew Torah provided King with the public policy inspiration and the rhetoric with which to do just that, and to win over the Christian Right into the bargain.
Refreshments will be served, so come prepared to snack, get stoked on the long history of labor struggles reaching back 3,000 years, and to renew King's combat with low wage-creating public policy.
For more information, contact Giesen, info@TheCommonsSF.orgJuly 21 (Tuesday) 7:00 PM (Free) Bird & Beckett Books and Records - 653 Chenery St., SF
LaborFest Writers
Members of the LaborFest Writers will read their work on the theme: Our Right to the City: Fighting Against the Forces of Displacement.
LaborFest Writers believes everyone has a story to tell. An evening of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and memoir will help awaken the hidden stories within. We will be exploring past histories, our uncertain future, and new changing landscapes and paradigms.
The evening includes special musical guest Tom Wishing.
Members of the group are Phyllis Holliday, Keith Cooley, Susan Ford, Margaret Cooley, Nellie Wong, Jerry Path, Richard Chen, and Alice Rogoff.
Contact: info@laborfestwriters.orgJuly 21(Tuesday) 8:00 PM (Free/reserve by website with promo "LABOR") San Jose Improv - 62 S. 2nd St. in San Jose
July 22(Wednesday) 7:30 PM (Free/reserve by website with promo "LABOR") Tommy T’s Comedy and Steakhouse - 5104 Hopyard Rd., Pleasanton
LaborFest Comedy Night
Join us for these two great nights of comedy with labor friendly comedians who understand labor and union activists.
Enjoy their hilarious views of the world with host Danny Cruzz, who is a member of CWA 9423.
No fee, no charge for tickets by going to websites of San Jose Improv (sanjose.improv.com) or Tommy T’s (tommyts.com/pleasanton) with promo code “LABOR”. (Regular ticket is $15)
For July 21, San Jose Improv:
(408) 280-7475
For July 22, Tommy T’s Comedy and Steakhouse:
(925) 227-1800
Or call Jimmy Kelly for tickets and show info:
(408) 597-7649
Must be 18 or older. 2 items minimum order required - 21 or older for drink order.
Door open at 7:30 at SJ Improv, and 7:00 at Tommy T’s.
Donation welcome for San Jose City College Labor Studies Program.
For more info: call Danny Cruzz - 408-504-9370July 22 (Wednesday) 6:00 - 7 :30 PM (Free) SF Main Library, Koret Auditorium - 100 Larkin St., SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Zerre (The Particle)
(Drama) (80 min.) (2012) (Turkey) Directed by: Erdem TEPEGÖZ
This social drama collected the Golden St. George Award, the main prize at the 2012 Moscow Film Festival.
Erdem Tepegoz directs Jale Arikan, who won the Best Actress award at the same event, plays the character Zeynep, who lost her job and lives with disabled daughter and old mother in an abandoned apartment in Istanbul.
Tepegoz attempts to relate how particles and people take up a very tiny place with the universe.
“What about Zeynep, how much space does she take up in this immense universe?”
The director focuses on one crowded particle, Zeynep. What is her source? What is her aim? Where shall she disappear to?
The questions presented in this film remain provocative and shows the conditions the working class faces daily.
Screening sponsored by the non-profit Turkish American Gezi Platform
http://www.geziplatform.org/events/archives/06-2015
http://www.eventbrite.com/e/laborfest-cinema-sinema-with-tagp-turkish-film-screening-tickets-17549027614
July 22 (Wednesday) 7:00 PM (Free) Redstone Building - 2940 16th St. at Capp, SF
Uber, Tech, Apps and the Future of Taxi Drivers
The massive use of communication technology has had a major role in the explosive growth of Uber, Lyft and many other taxi driver apps. This forum will look how this has affected drivers and how this technology has “disrupted” the regulated taxi industry.
It will also look at the conditions of drivers who use this new technology.
Sponsored by San Francisco Taxi Workers Alliance
http://www.sftwa.org/July 23 (Thursday) 7:00 PM (Free) ILWU Local 34 Hall - 801 2nd St. next to AT&T ball park
World Factory” And Chinese Workers In The Global Economy From Theater To Music
And Honoring the Chinese Workers Who Built the Transcontinental Railway
You can watch this play here.
Chinese workers are the largest working-class in the world and 260 million of these workers are migrant workers from throughout the many regions of China. They play a central role in the world economy because China has become the central link in the “World Factory”.
Grass Stage is the production company that helped develop this play about the role of the migrant Chinese worker in this global production chain.
Playwright Zhao Chuan visited Manchester, England and from this visit developed the play reflecting the experience and lives of the Chinese workers who make the many products we use in the United States and throughout the world.
Joining Chuan to perform the segments of this play will be:
Wu Meng, theatre artist, freelance writer, founding member of Grass Stage.
Yu Kai, artist, freelance writer and teacher. Since 2006, she was the main creator and performer in many Grass Stage productions.
Wu Jiamin, the main creator, performer and executive producer of “World Factory”.
There will also be musical performance by Xu Guojian, who is with the Beijing Migrant Workers Home. Head of New Worker’s Art Troupe and Chairman of Trade Union in Pi Village Community, Leader of Workers’ Museum, and Director of Spring Festival Gala for and by Migrant workers.
Also Dong Jun, leader of Zhongdiyin Cultural Center for Workers, initiator, leader, vocalist, and percussionist of Zhongdiyin Worker’s Band, will perform.
The lives and artistic expression of this new young working class is a growing development in China, and their songs tell the story of the lives and their struggles in the new China.
There will also be a presentation by Stanford lecturer
Hilton Obenzinger who is Associate Director, Stanford Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project about the building of the Transcontinental Railway on the 150th anniversary of its construction by the 50,000 Chinese workers who came to America to build it. These Chinese workers played an important and critical role in building America and also led the first and largest strike at that time in California history starting on June 25, 1867. We honor them for the work they did in building America.
http://web.stanford.edu/group/chineserailroad/cgi-bin/wordpress/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/tcrr-strike/
For more information contact: (415) 642-8066
Sponsored by LaborFest
Parking space available at the union hall parking lot. The entrance is at the corner of King St. and 2nd, right next to the AT&T ball park.
Work of Giants: The Chinese and the Building of the First Transcontinental Railroad-SF Chinese Historical Society Exhibit
July 24(Friday) 7:00 PM (Free) 518 Valencia - near 16th St., SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Siren (2012)(60 min)(Bangladesh) by Molla Sagar
“Siren” by Bangladeshi filmmaker Molla Sagar is a documentary on the organized destruction of the jute industry, which once was the largest employer in the country with 60,000 workers. Jute was known as the golden fiber and this powerful documentary exposes the human cost for workers and their families of the privatization of the nationalized industry with the shutdown of the state-run jute mills starting in 2000. The IMF and World Bank said they were “modernizing” the industry but the real plan to was to shutter the industry. Jute is a natural competitor to DuPont and Monsanto’s synthetic fibers and the closures eliminated this competitor.
Filmed between 2007 and 2008 at Khalishpur in Khulna, the documentary shows desperate conditions as a result of the closure led some workers to commit suicide while others were forced into prostitution.
Killing Ed - Politics, Corruption and the Charter Schools of Imam Gülen (Preview) (2015)(98 min) by Director Mark S Hall
"Killing Ed - Politics, Corruption and the Charter Schools of Imam Gülen" is the new feature-length documentary by award-winning filmmaker, Mark S. Hall, that looks into the realities of ‘education reform.’ The film is an 98-minute exposé that reveals the propaganda, political greed and corruption behind the effort to privatize American public schools. Filmed in locations around the USA the film offers interviews from experts, teachers, insiders and activists - many of whom have never been on camera before. “Killing Ed” reveals the failed promises and the outright lies of education reform. Powerful foundations, corporate interests (testing!) and politicians who have abetted the growth of the privately owned (but public funded) schools are discussed as well. Public education is a $1 trillion expenditure in America; an amount that attracts private for-profit companies, which are in it to make money and are not directly accountable to parents or taxpayers. Perhaps the worst-case scenario of the privatization of American public schools is the charter school network operated by a shadowy Turkish religious group known as the Gülen Movement. It is named after Islamic imam Fethullah Gülen, who arrived in America in late 1990s and lives in a guarded compound with many of his followers in the Poconos of Pennsylvania. This organization operates 147 taxpayer-funded campuses, the second largest number of charter schools in America. “Killing Ed” discusses the Gülen Movement’s questionable practices and the alleged misuse of taxpayer funds, some of which is believed by Turkish-American groups to be used for anti-democratic activities in Turkey.“Killing Ed” offers never seen before information on a crucially important subject - the massive attempt to radically change American public education to a corporate system with little oversight and accountability.
July 25 (Saturday) 10:30 AM (Free) Treasure Island Museum - Treasure Island
With Two Feet on the Ground: Labor and the Building of Treasure Island
By David Duckworth
This slide lecture examines the labor required to create an island in the San Francisco Bay during the 1930s. Laborers and unions, tasks and equipment, technologies and labor requirements, sponsoring agencies and corporate enterprises are explored as a matrix within which to understand the challenges and achievements of labor in this particular man-made project.
David Duckworth is a San Francisco-based cultural historian who has been documenting 20th century American culture through the art, artifacts and expressions of its age. (photo: "Pontoons and Dredging Pipe" - courtesy of SF History Center, SF Public Library)
Muni bus route: #25 from Transbay Temporary TerminalJuly 25 (Saturday) 12:00 Noon (Free) Meet at the fountain in Latham Square - Telegraph and Broadway
Oakland 1946 General Strike Walk - “We Called it a Work Holiday”
With 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 stores whose picket line was being broken by scabs escorted by police.
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.. This walk and history talk will attempt to keep alive the memory of this tradition of community-wide working class solidarity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCKs-lhBgiM
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) 2:00 - 5:00 (Free) 518 Valencia - near 16th St., SF
Profiteering off Education: Charters, Union and Public Workers
A Public Forum
From the Gates Foundation and the Broad Foundation to Pearson Inc., public education is under attack with charters, testing and the commercialization of our public education system for profit.
There is no national campaign by education and public worker unions fighting privatization yet this attack on public education and services is being used to destroy the entire labor movement.
This forum will look at how education is being privatized, who is doing it and how labor and working people can launch a successful fight against the destruction of our public education system.
Speakers:
Kathleen Carroll, former Commission on Teacher Credentials lawyer and whistleblower and advocate for teachers and public education.
Brian Crowell, Berkeley Federation of Teachers BFT former steward and activist who defended teachers against the Peer Assisted Review PAR program which has been used to target African American and Latino teachers as well as senior teachers.
Rick Baum, AFT 2121 San Francisco City College Lecturer on how privatizers have sought to destroy the college using the accreditation board and the struggle to mobilize statewide for the defense of community colleges.
George Wright, AFT 1741 retired Skyline College and Chico State Professor who fought corporatization of the Community College system.
Sponsored by UPWA, www.upwa.infoJuly 25 (Saturday) 7:00 PM (Free) 518 Valencia - near 16th St., SF
Puerto Rico: Labor and The Fight Against Neoliberalism and Colonialism
Presentation by Javier Córdova
(Click here to watch this presentation)
Puerto Rico has been a US colony since 1898, and its people have resisted and fought back for self-determination and cultural rights through the organized struggle of the working class.
Today as a direct result of US economic policy, Puerto Rico is reaching a state of bankruptcy, and the US government and bankers are pushing further privatization of all public resources.
They have already privatized the healthcare system of Puerto Rico, which has been devastating to the poor and working class.
“Operation Bootstrap” was also the first “free trade zone”, are precursors to NAFTA by the US in Puerto Rico to increase the profits of multi-nationals and create a union-free environment.
Come hear about this important movement! Javier Córdova is the President of the Puerto Rican Association of University Professors (A.P.P.U.) at the University of PR-Arecibo campus and also serves on A.P.P.U.’s national board and its Executive Committee. He is also leader of the Working Peoples’ Party which participated in the 2012 election in Puerto Rico with a radical, political working class program. Javier is also involved with civil rights, environmental and other progressive movements in Puerto Rico.
For more information (510) 290-2312July 26 (Sunday) 9:00 - 6:00 PM ($50) Stanford University - Stanford Lane History Corner, Stanford
Building location: Building 200, Room 30
LaborTech Conference
(Please click here for more detail)
(Click here to watch Turkey report by Ali Ergin)
(Click here to watch Digital Working Class Content With Chinese Characteristics by Jack Linchuan Qiu)July 26 (Sunday) 7:00 PM (Free) Stanford University - Stanford Lane History Corner, Stanford
Building location: Building 200, Room 2
Parking: Free in all the regular space on Sunday. Palm Dr. (Oval road) might be the closest
World Factory” And Chinese Workers In The Global Economy From Theater To Music
And Honoring the Chinese Workers Who Built the Transcontinental Railway
Grass Stage is the production company that helped develop this play about the role of the migrant Chinese worker in this global production chain.
Playwright Zhao Chuan visited Manchester, England and from this visit developed the play reflecting the experience and lives of the Chinese workers who make the many products we use in the United States and throughout the world.
Joining Chuan to perform the segments of this play will be:
Wu Meng, theatre artist, freelance writer, founding member of Grass Stage.
Yu Kai, artist, freelance writer and teacher. Since 2006, she was the main creator and performer in many Grass Stage productions.
Wu Jiamin, the main creator, performer and executive producer of “World Factory”.
There will also be musical performance by Xu Guojian, who is with the Beijing Migrant Workers Home. Head of New Worker’s Art Troupe and Chairman of Trade Union in Pi Village Community, Leader of Workers’ Museum, and Director of Spring Festival Gala for and by Migrant workers.
Also Dong Jun, leader of Zhongdiyin Cultural Center for Workers, initiator, leader, vocalist, and percussionist of Zhongdiyin Worker’s Band, will perform.
The lives and artistic expression of this new young working class is a growing development in China, and their songs tell the story of the lives and their struggles in the new China.
There will also be a presentation by Stanford lecturer
Hilton Obenzinger who is Associate Director, Stanford Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project about the building of the Transcontinental Railway on the 150th anniversary of its construction by the 50,000 Chinese workers who came to America to build it. These Chinese workers played an important and critical role in building America and also led the first and largest strike at that time in California history starting on June 25, 1867. We honor them for the work they did in building America.
http://web.stanford.edu/group/chineserailroad/cgi-bin/wordpress/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/tcrr-strike/
For more information contact: (415) 642-8066
Sponsored by LaborFest
Work of Giants: The Chinese and the Building of the First Transcontinental Railroad-SF Chinese Historical Society Exhibit
July 26 (Sunday) 10:00 AM (Free) Meet at The Main Berkeley Post Office - at corner of Milvia and Alston
WPA Berkeley Walk
With Harvey Smith
This walk will explore the “New Deal nexus” in Berkeley that includes Berkeley High School, the Community Theater, Civic Center Park, Post Office art, the old UC Press Building (now being repurposed as the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive), and the old Farm Credit Building. The tour will also include the incredible mosaic mural on the UC Berkeley campus and photographs of the California Folk Music Project, Western Museum Laboratory, WPA prints at the Berkeley Public Library, and WPA projects on the UC Berkeley campus.
For more info: 510-684-0414
http://www.newdeallegacy.orgJuly 26 (Sunday) 10:00 AM (Free) Meet at ILWU Sculpture at Mission and Steuart, SF
Architecture & Labor Social History of San Francisco - Walk
Walk with Brad Wiedemier, SEIU UHW 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 Wiedemier will outline artifacts and events, and their connections to San Francisco’s past and present.
For more information call (415) 694-3605.July 27 (Monday) 7:30 PM (Free) Tides Theatre- 533 Sutter (at Powell), SF
TO THE BONE - FREE Staged Reading by Lisa Ramirez
SAG-AFTRA San Francisco-NorCal Local Presents
(This event is fully booked! You can email: Vicki.Balich@sagaftra.org or call 415-874-4951 to be put on a waiting list.)
TO THE BONE is directed by nationally-renowned Lisa Peterson, and performed by SAG-AFTRA actress and playwright Lisa Ramirez and a stellar cast of SAG-AFTRA actors.
A contemporary American drama, TO THE BONE is about Latina immigrant poultry workers in the U.S. and, in the spirit of John Steinbeck, gives audiences a look inside the lives of the invisible work force that puts food on our tables. TO THE BONE was commissioned and developed by The Working Theater in New York City, and premiered Off Broadway in September, 2014, at Cherry Lane Theatre, starring Ms. Ramirez and directed by Lisa Peterson. The play was a finalist for the National New Play Network Smith Prize.
“Ramirez’s rawly poetic dialogue sears the heart while Lisa Peterson’s unflinching staging crafts images that haunt the mind.” -- Time Out New York
SAG-AFTRA brings together two great American labor unions: Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. SAG-AFTRA represents more than 160,000 performers and the San Francisco-Northern California local has over 4,500 members including film and television actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers and editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers and voiceover artists.
The staged reading is followed by a Memorial Birthday Tribute to Harry Bridges with cake, champagne and music.
July 28 (Tuesday) 7:00 PM (Free) First Unitarian Universalist Church - 1187 Franklin St./Geary St., SF
The 150th Anniversary Of The San Francisco Chronicle, Class Struggle And Labor
This year is the 150th anniversary of the San Francisco Chronicle. It has played an important role in the political and economic history of San Francisco in the development of San Francisco from the early "big four" multi-millionaires Stanford, Crocker, Hopkins and Huntington to the media tech moguls who now manipulate politics and development in San Francisco including the ethnic cleansing "redevelopment" of African Americans and Latinos and the removal of the working class and poor from San Francisco. The paper's owners in the past and present have also had a war against the workers at the San Francisco Chronicle. The printers union has been busted by outsourcing and the attacks continue on union workers at the paper. We will look at the lessons of the 1994 San Francisco Chronicle 11 day newspaper strike.
Initial Speakers:
Dr. Gray Brechin is a historical geographer,author of "Imperial San Francisco", He is currently a visiting scholar in the U.C. Berkeley Department of Geography and founder and project scholar of the Living New Deal Project. He is one of the leading experts in the history and role of the San Francisco Chronicle in San Francisco and California.
John Holmes is a retired member of the CWA Media Workers and a member of the Typographers Union unit who was active during the 1994 strike.
Tim Redmond, former editor San Francisco Bay Guardian and present editor of 48 Hills.
Carl Hall, TNG-CWA Local 39521/Pacific Media Workers Guild Executive Officer
Mark Arata, San Francisco Web Pressmen & Pre- Pressmen Local 4B GCIU President retired
Sponsored by FUUS and Labor Video Project
For more information (415) 282-1908July 29 (Wednesday) 7:00 PM (Free) ILWU Local 34 Hall - 801 2nd St. next to AT&T Ball Park
Housing, Tenants, Non-Profits, Privatization & Labor
San Francisco is rapidly turning into a city only for the super-rich. While the number of billionaires increase, tens of thousands of working people and small business people are being driven out of the city by speculators and developers who run SF city hall and the state legislature. Working people are being told they can no longer live in the Bay Area.
At the same time, the city is driving to privatize all public housing and turn the operations over to “non-profits” which have appointed boards, and whose workers are very much underpaid compared to public workers. This forum will look at who is benefiting by these policies and how the privatization of public housing will lead to the end of any poor people in public housing.
Film Screening: The Future of Parkmerced - 15 minutes
Panel:
Lynda Carson, Tenant Activist
Tony Robles, Tenant Advocate
Tenants from public housing
Brenda Barros, SEIU 1021 General Hospital Chair and COPE Co-Chair
Charles Minster, a member of Senior and Disability Action
Sponsored by United Public Workers For Action
www.upwa.infoJuly 30 (Thursday) 7:00 PM (Free) 518 Valencia - near 16th St., SF
The Lessons of NAFTA for Workers and Farmers
Premiere screening of “Corrientes de la Frontera” (16:40) 2015 by Jamie Chavez
The recent mass struggle and strike of agricultural workers in Baja is an expression of the growing working class movement in Mexico. There is growing anger about the economic attacks of the “free trade” agreements and their social and economic costs.
This forum will examine the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Central American Fair Trade Agreement (CAFTA) for workers in the Americas. The film examines the cost of these treaties on workers, farmers and indigenous people. It also looks at how the destruction of the ejidos by NAFTA pushed farmers off their lands and forced them into the immigration pipeline. The forced destruction of the economy pushed by US multinationals had the direct result of privatization and destruction of jobs and livings in Mexico. Mexico is now forced to import corn in which it was self-sufficient, and this migration has been used by US politicians to spend billions militarizing the borders, bringing racism and mass repression.
Jaime Chavez will introduce his film, lead the discussion, and also present some poetry. Al Rojas will make a report on agricultural workers in the US and Mexico and struggles in the Mexican labor movement.July 31 (Friday) 6:00 - 8:00 PM (Free) ILWU Local 34 Hall - 801 2nd St. next to AT&T Ball Park
Closing Party - Open Mic
Please join us to celebrate the last day of the LaborFest 2015 with food, music and poetry.
Closing party is open mic. Bring your instruments.