July 2017 S M T W T F S 2
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LaborFest 2017 Schedule
July 1 (Saturday) 12:00 (sliding scale) Meet at 518 valencia St. - near 16th St., SF
Labor History Bike Tour
(sliding scale &15 - $50) benefiting shaping San francisco)
By Chris Carlsson
From the pre-urban history of Indian Slavery to the earliest 8-hour day movement in the U.S., the ebb and flow of class war is traced. SF’s radical working class organizations are shaped in part by racist complicity in genocide and slavery. From the 1870s to the 1940s there are 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 information: (415) 608-9035
http://shapingsf.org/tours.htmlJuly 1 (Saturday) 1:00 PM (Free) National Japanese American Historical Society - 1684 Post St., SF
Internment, Japanese Americans, Labor and The Lessons for Today
This year is the 75th anniversary of the internment of over 120,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese Peruvians in concentration camps during World War II under the executive order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Today the Trump administration is justifying this action by arguing that it would be acceptable today for Muslims and other select groups be incarcerated again.This panel will look at the struggle against the internment and lessons for today with California historian Charles Wollenberg, who is currently completing a book about civil rights attorney Wayne M. Collins. During the 1940s, Collins bucked prejudice and war hysteria to take cases related to Japanese American evacuation and internment. Among others, Collins defended Fred Korematsu, a Japanese American citizen who refused to report for the camps and was imprisoned. The high profile Korematsu case reached the Supreme Court. Wollenberg’s talk is entitled “Wayne Collins: Rebel with a Cause.” In it, Wollenberg will discuss Collins’ legal defense of Nikkei (second generation) rights and liberties, including the Korematsu case. Author Laura Atkins, who is co-author with Stan Yogi of “Fred Korematsu Speaks,” will also discuss this important book for young people about the life of Fred Korematsu. Civil Rights Activist Grace Shimizu is Director of the Japanese Peruvian Oral History Project and the Campaign for Justice: Redress Now for Japanese Latin American Internees. She will speak about the ongoing fight for the Peruvian Japanese who were kidnapped from Peru by the FBI and brought to the United States to be used to trade for US prisoners of war. Panel member ILWU historian Harvey Schwartz has written about the role of the ILWU in fighting discrimination after the war against Japanese Americans. Larry Yamamoto, Bay Area artist, camp survivor, and retired ILWU longshore worker, will serve as commentator for the event.Peter Yamamoto of the National Japanese American Historical Society will chair the program.July 1, 2 2:00 PM (Free) 1300 Rose St. & Chestnut St., Berkeley
July 4 2:00 PM (Free) Dolores Park - 18th & Dolores, SF
SF Mime Troupe - Walls
WALLS asks the question:How can a nation of immigrants declare war on immigration? The answer: FEAR!
L. Mary Jones (Velina Brown) knows all about fear. As a top agent for I.C.E. - Immigration and Customs Enforcement - she knows how to stoke fear to keep her country safe. Fear of people like Bahdoon Samakab (Rotimi Agbabiaka), a Somali refugee escaping oppression, fear of Cliodhna Aghabullogue (Lizzie Calogero), an Irish woman yearning to be American, and fear of Zaniyah Nahuatl (Marilet Martinez), whose family comes from... here. As a foreigner in a land her people have worked for thousands of years, Zaniyah is suddenly a criminal, an illegal, a “bad hombre.” What part of herself will this American give up to pass as “American?” Will she? Can she? Should she? Can someone leave part of themselves behind without losing their mind? And is it better or worse that she crossed the border to find Agent L. Mary Jones - the woman she loves?
Check other schedule at www.sfmt.org
July 2 (Sunday) 7:00 PM (Free) Meet at 165 Grove St., SF - (at Please Touch Gommunity Garden)
The EPIC Struggle for California
By David Giesen
Historian David Giesen surveys with film and talk the magnificent political performance piece which became a political movement in 1934. Deep in the Great Depression, muck-raking author Upton Sinclair (The Jungle) wrote a booklet in 1933 detailing a program for (E)nding (P)overty (i)n (C)alifornia. The Unapologetically socialist program for putting abandoned farms and factories into the hands of workers captured the hope and energy of millions of Californians. In short order California had a Democratic Party majority for the first time, and the state’s quick step towards nation-leading social programs was launched.
The program is outdoors, so dress appropriately.
For further information contact: info@TheCommonsSF.org
July 5 (Wednesday) 7:00 PM (Free) ILWU LOCAL 34 HALL - next to AT&T Ball Park, SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
American Socialist: The Life and Times of Eugene Victor Debs (97 min.) 2017
By Yale Strom
Eugene Victor Debs is unknown to most people in the United States, yet, he is one of the most important working-class figures in our history. Debs was a railroad worker during the 1877 national railway strike in July. This strike took place when the railroad bosses cut the wages of railroad workers 20%. The national strike shook the country as rebellions broke out not only in Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Chicago, but even in west coast Sacramento. It was only put down when President Garfield sent US army troops to break it. It also led to the creation of the National Guard in cities throughout the US.
This experience formed Deb’s views of the nature of U.S. social and economic structure, and he later became a leader of the railroad workers, the American Railroad Workers (ARW). He later ran for president as a Socialist.
The oligarchy that ran the U.S. then is obviously still in charge. This film charts why Debs became a Socialist and why he opposed war. He was jailed for his political views. While in prison, Debs ran for president on the Socialist Party ticket, and received over One million votes.
With the present oligarchy and endless wars, the lessons of his struggle for today are relevant and important. His words are still invaluable, and in his article, Labor, the Genius of Civilization, he remarks; “Labor is the power that moves the world.” This is still the case.
The director will be attending for Q & A.
July 6 (Thursday) 7:00 PM (Free) Green Arcade Bookstore - 1680 Market St., SF
Refinery Town - Book Reading
by: Steve Early
Home to one of the largest oil refineries in the state, Richmond, California, was once a typical company town bankrolled by Chevron. This largely nonwhite, working-class city of a hundred thousand had experienced the by-products of decades’ worth of poverty, substandard housing, and poorly funded public education. It had one of the highest homicide rates, per capita, in the country and a jobless rate often twice the national average.
But in 2012, when veteran labor reporter Steve Early moved from New England to Richmond, he witnessed a surprising transformation. In Refinery Town, Early chronicles the ten years of successful community organizing in Richmond that raised the minimum wage, defeated a casino development project, created a municipal ID to aid undocumented workers, reduced crime through “community policing,” challenged home foreclosures, and took on big oil giant, Chevron. This compelling story of a city remade provides a model for citizens engaged in local politics and community building anywhere.
Steve Early has been an active labor journalist and organizer for over forty years. His work appears in the New York Times, Boston Globe, and The Nation, among other publications. He is the author of four books, including Save Our Unions: Dispatches of a Movement in Distress. He lives in Richmond, CA.July 7 (Friday) 7:00 PM (Donation) 518 Valencia- near 16th St., SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Ludlow and Greek American in the Colorado Coal War(71 min.) (2016)
Producer: Frosso Tsouka, Director: Leonidas Vardaros
The racist war on immigrants in the US has a long history and this film tells the story of Greek Americans and other immigrants who came to work in the mines of Colorado. This film shows the conditions that these miners and their children worked under and how immigrant workers were terrorized and exploited.
This story is not only about their conditions but also how they fought back despite major obstacles, including organizing themselves to form a union and stand up to the goliath capitalist John D. Rockefeller.
The Colorado Ludlow massacre of 1914, which killed 26 at a workers camp, was a coordinated effort by Rockefeller and the politicians he controlled to use the Colorado National Guard and Colorado Fuel & Iron Company camp guards to murder and destroy their fight for a union. This massacre of mine workers and their families was called by labor historian Howard Zinn “the culminating act of perhaps the most violent struggle between corporate power and laboring men in American history.” It is a hidden part of our history today as workers fight for human and labor rights.
Film maker Frosso Tsouka and San Francisco State professor Zeese Papanikolas will take questions after the film. Professor Papanikolas is author of Buried Unsung: Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre. This book helped encourage filmmakers from the U.S. and Greece to focus on this important American story.
July 8 (Saturday) 2:00 PM (Free) Meet at Fort Point - at the south anchorage o Golden Gate Bridge
Walk - The Building and Labor Struggles at Fort Point
Walk with Matthew Britten (Fort Point Guide)
Fort Point in San Francisco was built by the US military between 1853 and the 1860’s as a seacoast defense site. At the same time, construction was taking place of what was to become Fort Alcatraz. While this construction was moving forward, laborers were under attack. In the midst of civil war in 1863, a telegram from Washington was read to the laborers cutting their pay. After hearing the telegram, the workers walked out at Fort Point and Alcatraz. This was one of the only labor actions during the Civil War in California, and with the shortage of labor construction workers at the time, laborers were able to make major gains in wages and conditions. The issue of housing and pay led to unrest, a work stoppage, and an eventual strike on all defense projects in the Bay.
Participants of the walk will learn about the construction of Fort Point and Alcatraz through the eyes of the workers who did the work.
Direction:
By car from San Francisco and points south, take Highway 101 north and exit right at the Golden Gate Bridge toll plaza before getting on bridge. Turn right at end of exit ramp and then left onto Lincoln Boulevard. Take the first left onto Long Avenue and follow onto Marine Drive. Fort Point is located at the end of Marine Drive.
By car from the north, take Highway 101 across the Golden Gate Bridge. Stay in right toll lane and exit immediately past the bridge toll plaza. Turn right at end of exit ramp and loop under toll plaza. At end of road, turn left onto Lincoln Boulevard. Take the first left onto Long Avenue and follow onto Marine Drive. Fort Point is located at the end of Marine Drive.
By public transit, San Francisco Muni 28 and Presidio buses stop at bridge toll plaza. Follow trail signs northeast of plaza area to Fort Point at base of bluffs.
http://www.presidio.gov/transportation/public-transitJuly 8 (Saturday) 4:00 PM (Free) Meet at Harry Bridges Plaza Tower - Embarcadero at Market, SF
Meet at Harry Bridges Plaza - in front of the Ferry Building, at the south side tower
Walk - San Francisco General Strike
TJoin the walk with Gifford Hartman and others.
Eighty-three years ago at this location, a great battle took place by workers and 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 from 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 8 (Saturday) 7:00 PM (Free) Green Arcade Bookstore - 1680 Market St., SF
San Francisco General Strike: Principles, Philosophies, and Applicability
Presentation by Gifford Hartman and David Duckworth.
Launching from the historic General Strike of 1934, historians David Duckworth and Gifford Hartman converse on the broader ramifications of this moment in West Coast labor unity. Considering the scope and tactics of that defining moment, examples of other significant strikes are examined and contrasted, principles and philosophies are drawn out, and analysis of effects assessed. Within a rich matrix of historical precedent, the question is raised as to the applicability of the general strike in today’s socio-economic world.July 8 (Saturday) 7:00 PM (Free) 518 Valencia - near 16th St., SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Fascism inc. (83 min.) (2014) Producer: Frosso Tsouka, Director: Aris Chatzistefanou (Greece)
Director Aris Chatzistefanou’s films look at Greece during the time of neo-nazi and fascist movements, pointing to capitalism’s attempt to profit by attacking the working class and trade unionism from banning strikes to complete deregulation, allowing the wealthy to acquire land and resources. Chatzistefanou’s film Fascism Inc. explores the role of fascism in Greece during World War II, and its development in contemporary times. The film also looks at the growth and politics of the Greek neo-fascist group Golden Dawn, and how their ideology and methods are encouraged by corporate-controlled media, which blames immigrants for the growing economic crisis.
The rise of immigrant bashing which is taking place in the U.S. is, as the film shows, directly correlated to the growing economic crisis, and this well-edited film makes the connection concrete.
Following the film, producer Frosso Tsouka and San Francisco State professor Zeese Papanikolas will discuss the economic and social developments in Greece and the rise of Golden Dawn and other neo-nazi groups.July 9 (Sunday) 10:00 AM ($25) Meet in front of Bill Graham Auditorium - 99 Grove, SF Civic Center
WPA Bus Tour
Tour with Gray Brechin and Harvey Smith
Join Gray Brechin and Harvey Smith as they travel through history on a bus tour of sites built by the New Deal’s “alphabet 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.
Some of the locations they will take you to are: Rincon Annex Post Office Murals, Sunshine School, The New Mint and the Old UC Extension, Golden Gate Park Stables and Fly Casting Pools, Beach Chalet Murals.
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.
(Please bring your own lunch. There will be some sandwiches available for a small cost.)
Reservation required:
Send e-mail to: 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 can contact you in case of any changes.)
Make reservation, then send check ($25/person) to: LaborFest, P.O. Box 40983, SF, CA 94140July 9 (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
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 9 (Sunday) 7:00 PM (Free) ILWU Local 34 Hall - 801 2nd St. next to AT&T Ball Park
Labor, War in Asia and the Lessons of the Comfort Women
The growing dangers of a war in Asia are accelerating, particularly with the U.S. strategy of “Asian Pivot”. This forum will examine what the “Asian Pivot” is and the militarization of Asia, including the construction of more bases in Okinawa and Jeju, Korea.
The Korean trade unions are against further militarization and the San Francisco Labor Council also has opposed war moves. The forum will also discuss the lessons of the “Comfort Women” and why the international effort for memorials including one in San Francisco is relevant to these issues.
Panelists: Tadashi Seto, International Solidarity Committee Doro-Chiba; Grace Shimuzu, Director of the Japanese Peruvian Oral History Project and the Campaign for Justice; Rodger Scott, AFT 2121 Executive Board CCSF and Delegate to SF Labor Council; Tomomi Kinukawa, Comfort Women Coalition For Justice CWCFJ and Lecturer at SFSU; Steve Zeltzer, CWA 39521 Pacific Media Workers Guild Human Rights Chair, KPFA WorkWeek Radio
Sponsored by Campaign for Justice, KPFA WorkWeek Radio
https://www.facebook.com/comfortwomenjusticecoalition/
http://sflaborcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/06-27-16RessptComfortWomenMemorial.pdf
July 10 (Monday) 7:00 PM (Free) ILWU 34 Hall - 801 2nd St., next to AT&T Ball Park
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Divided We Fall (90 min.) (2016) Directed by: Katherine Acosta
In one of the largest mobilizations of labor during the last decade, hundreds of thousands of workers from throughout the country joined together to oppose the union-busting attack by Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. This film by Katherine Acosta looks at the important mobilization, including the Wisconsin University Graduate Student Assistants and workers throughout the state who mobilized to stop the attacks on labor and democratic rights.
Wisconsin was one of the strongest unionized states in the country and the result of the failure of labor to stop his attack has left unions like AFSCME and AFT decimated with a loss of over 50% of the membership. Katherine Acosta provides lessons from how labor and the community fought back.The Great Sitdown (52 min.) (1976) BBC Documentary
This year we also commemorate the 80th anniversary of the autoworker sit-down of GM Fisher Number 1 in 1937. This sit-down and occupation was a critical turning point in the fight to unionize General Motors, which was the largest industrial corporation in the United States. Auto worker organizers and a Women’s Brigade planned the sit-down at critical plants that if occupied would shutdown the entire company. Women in this struggle also played a critical role by preventing the police from entering the plants and thereby allowing time for mobilization of strike supporters.
This historic struggle shows that despite the massive power of the largest corporations in the world, workers can win their fight for unionization.July 11 (Tuesday) 10:00 AM (Free) San Francisco Labor Council Office - 1188 Franklin St., #203, SF
Bread & Roses Labor History Story Telling with Retired Union Members
Come to share an interesting labor story you’ve led or experienced. It could be a memory of a key labor figure or event locally or internationally. This will be 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 broad range 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.
Refreshments will be served.July 11 (Tuesday) 7:30 PM (Check below) Roosevelt Middle School Auditorium - 460 arguello Bvd., SF
Victor Arnautoff: San Francisco's Master Muralist of The 1930s
(Fee: Free to current SF Museum & Historical Society members. Admission for non-members is $10 per person or $5 for seniors, students)
Presentation by Robert Cherny
Between 1931 and 1942, Victor Arnautoff was arguably San Francisco’s leading artist of pubic murals. His murals may still be seen today at the former Palo Alto Health Clinic, Coit Tower, the former Protestant chapel at the Presidio of San Francisco, George Washington High School, the San Francisco Art Institute, and at three post offices including South San Francisco. From his service as a cavalry officer during the Russian Civil War, his politics moved left, joining the Communist Party in 1938. This lecture will survey Arnautoff’s career, from his birth in Russia in 1896 to his death in the Soviet Union in 1979, focusing on his art and politics during his years in San Francisco from 1931 to 1963.
http://www.sfhistory.org/events/monthly-programs/24-general-monthly-program-informationJuly 12 (Wednesday) 7:00 PM (Free) ILWU 34 Hall - 801 2nd St., next to AT&T Ball Park
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Killing Floor (114 min.) (1984) Directed by: Elsa Rassback
One hundred years ago, a critical struggle was taking place in the slaughterhouses in Chicago to organize a union. This powerful dramatic film focuses on the Polish and African American workers and their conditions as they fight to overcome racism and class hate and greed, in order to build a union of black and white workers.
African American workers traveled to Chicago for jobs and the continuing struggles that led to race riots in Chicago in 1919.
Elsa Rassbach will present the film and take questions after the screening. She fought for PBS to do a series of films on working class history but this was the only one that was able to get funded.
July 12 (Wednesday) 5:00 PM (Free) Chinese Historical Society of America - 965 Clay St. near Powell, SF
The Golden Spike: Chinese and Irish Labor versus The Big Four
May 10, 2019 will be the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, a momentous accomplishment which has excluded recognition of the contribution of Chinese railroad workers to the wealth of The Big Four and the building of the American Empire, which connected East Coast to West across the Pacific to the China Trade.
This labor story will be told by descendant Paulette Liang and Stanford professor Hilton Obenzinger with analysis by CCSF labor studies professor Bill Shields and global supply chain researcher Gifford Hartman. Music will be performed by folklorist Charlie Chin and Loni Ding’s 25-min. video The Canton Army in the High Sierras will be screened.
For more information: lyfong@pacbell.netJuly 13 (Thursday) 6:00 PM (Free) Berkeley City College Auditorium - 2050 Center St., Berkeley
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Comme des Lions (Like lions) Let’s Fight Like Lions (115 min.) (2016) Directed by: IFrançoise Davisse
This documentary film traces the struggle of workers of the PSA plant in Aulnay-sous-Bois, a poor suburb of Paris, against management’s threat to close the plant. The title comes from the slogan of the strikers, “Let’s fight like lions!” The conflict is experienced “from the inside,” showing the workers’ debates and reactions on a day-to-day basis, from 2013-2015.
Sponsored by the BCC Students for Socialism Club
(Contact jberezin@peralta.edu)July 13 (Thursday) 7:00 PM (Donation) Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall - 1924 Cedar St., Berkeley
Woody Guthrie’s Birthday & Homestead Strike
Join labor musician Jimmy Kelly in commemorating the life and songs of Woody Guthrie and his birthday. Guthrie, a people and worker’s musician, traveled coast-to-coast singing about striking workers and people in struggle.
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
The River Ran Red (58 min.) 2012
By Steffi domike & Nicole fauteux
Also, this year is the 125th anniversary of the Homestead Strike, and there will be a screening of The River Ran Red about the 1872 Homestead Steel Works strike in Pennsylvania. Andrew Carnegie and the other owners of the steel mill brought in Pinkerton gun thugs to break the strike and the union. This struggle was a lesson on how the robber barons treated their workers and kept their power.
(Please check the detail of the film The River Ran Red on July 24 calender).July 14 (Friday) 6:00 PM (Free) Canessa Gallery - 708 Montgomery St. in North Beach, SF
Building Bridges, Not Walls - Art and Poetry Exhibit
“Building Bridges, Not Walls” acknowledges the contributions of the multicultural population of the Bay Area and its role in creating world-renown infrastructure. This exhibit features Bay Area artists and poets whose work celebrates these contributions. Three themes will be highlighted to celebrate the bridges, the people who built them and the impact on our lives today: Immigrants, Diversity, and Internationalism.
During July and August, a companion exhibit at the San Francisco Main Library will display and interpret historic photos and objects from the construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and other historic San Francisco bridges – the Golden Gate, Lefty O’Doul, and Alvord Lake. These exhibits celebrate the immigrant engineers who designed the bridges, the children of immigrants who built the older bridges, the diverse workforce, including women, who built the new Bay Bridge span, and the internationalism of the Golden Gate International Exposition and of the founding conference of the United Nations.July 14 (Friday) 7:00 PM (Donation) San Jose Peace & Justice Center - 48 S. 7th St., SJ
Woody Guthrie’s Birthday & Homestead Strike
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
The River Ran Red (58 min.) 2012
By Steffi domike & Nicole fauteux
Also, this year is the 125th anniversary of the Homestead Strike, and there will be a screening of The River Ran Red about the 1872 Homestead Steel Works strike in Pennsylvania. Andrew Carnegie and the other owners of the steel mill brought in Pinkerton gun thugs to break the strike and the union. This struggle was a lesson on how the robber barons treated their workers and kept their power.
(Please check the detail of the film The River Ran Red on July 24 calender).July 15 (Saturday) 10:00 AM (Free) Santa Cruz Public Library - 224 Church St., Santa Cruz
Woody Guthrie’s Birthday & Homestead Strike
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
The River Ran Red (58 min.) 2012
By Steffi domike & Nicole fauteux
Also, this year is the 125th anniversary of the Homestead Strike, and there will be a screening of The River Ran Red about the 1872 Homestead Steel Works strike in Pennsylvania. Andrew Carnegie and the other owners of the steel mill brought in Pinkerton gun thugs to break the strike and the union. This struggle was a lesson on how the robber barons treated their workers and kept their power.
(Please check the detail of the film The River Ran Red on July 24 calender).July 15 (Saturday) 10:00 AM (Free) Meet at 75 Folsom St. - Entrance of Hills Brothers Coffee Building, SF
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 15 (Saturday) 10:00 - 4:00 PM (Free) ILWU Local 10 - Henry Schmidt Room - 400 North Point St., SF
Longshore Work, Automation, Technology and the Future of Our Work and Lives - Conference
The drive to automate the docks and the maritime industry is moving forward rapidly and, in some European ports, the transfer of cargo has been automated forcing thousands of longshore workers out of the industry.
The capitalists are also already working on designing automated ships with almost no crews to cut their labor costs and increase their profits.
This educational conference will look at the history of containerization in the past and what longshore workers face today and in the future to defend labor union and worker rights.
Initial Speakers:
Bob Carnegie: Maritime Union of Australia Queensland Branch Secretary
Raquel Varela: Instituto de História Contemporânea
Honorary Fellow IISH (Amsterdam), Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Study Group on Labor and Social Conflicts
Ken Riley, President of Charleston ILA 1422 and IDC North American Representative
Sponsored by LaborTech.net, ILWU Local 10July 15 (Saturday) 7:00 PM (Free) Beat Museum - 540 Broadway St near Columbus, SF
NOT OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS!!
Against Deportations and Racism - Poetry reading
With The Revolutionary Poets Brigade & The Juana Briones Cultural Committee
Capitalism uses racist attacks on African-Americans and threats of deportation on Latinos and Muslims to divide the working-class revolution in this country. The Revolutionary Poets Brigade and the Juana Briones Cultural Committee in this neo-fascist Trump period will soundly refuse those betrayals.
Participating poets:
Jorge Argueta, Mahnaz Badihian, Lisbit Bailey, Judith Ayn Bernhard, Charles Curtis Blackwell, Boadiba, Kristina Brown, James Cagney, Neeli Cherkovski, Pauline Craig, John Curl, Diego De Leo, Sharon Doubiago, Aja Couchois Duncan, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Agneta Falk, Mauro Fortissimo, Q.R. Hand, Christina Herrera, Francisco Herrera, Martin Hickel, Jack Hirschman, Genny Lim, Rosemary Manno, Sarah Menefee, Jorge Molina, William Moreland, Barbara Paschke, Dorothy (Dottie) Payne, Gregory Pond, Tony Robles, Maria Medina Serafin, David VolpendestaJuly 16 (Sunday) 10:00 AM (Free) San Bruno Mountain Watch Office - 44 Visitation Ave., Rm 206, Brisbane
San Bruno Mountain Wilderness Walk
Walk with David Schooley
Meet at 10:00 AM at the San Bruno Mountain Watch office
To get there by car, follow Bayshore Boulevard to Brisbane; or take the #292 SamTrans bus.
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. The activism of David and many other community members were crucial in protecting much of the mountain, allowing for the creation of a public park where working people can find tremendous beauty and peace nearby the cities where they live and work.
You’re invited to walk with David on the mountain and learn about the history of this remarkable refuge for endangered butterflies and rare native plants.
To sign up call: 415-467-6631
Or email: info@mountainwatch.org
July 16 (Sunday) 9:45 AM (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 16 (Sunday) 2:00 PM (Free) Canessa Gallery - 708 Montgonery St. in North Beach, SF
Play reading: Painting Coit Tower
Reading of scenes from new play about the Coit Tower murals and the artists who painted them
With Jon Golinger, founder of Protect Coit Tower
“What do powerful men fear most? Honest questions from free minds. Brush fresh paint on a blank slate – who knows what you may find?” So says artist Bernard Zakheim in a scene from “Painting Coit Tower,” a new play that tells the amazing story of the Coit Tower murals – how they came to be and why they remain just as meaningful today as when they were painted 83 years ago. Scenes from the play will be read in an informal setting at the Canessa Gallery, located on the very block of Montgomery Street where the Coit Tower mural story begins.
Sponsored by Protect Coit Tower. For more information email: ProtectCoitTower@gmail.comJuly 16 (Sunday) 3:00 PM (Free) 518 Valencia - near 16th St., SF
The Origins of the US Military in the Indian Wars - A Presentation
By Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz
Professor Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz in this talk will look at the history of the U.S. military in expanding U.S. imperial interests and establishing a state based on genocide and slavery.
The military built by the colonies that coalesced into the independent U.S. military developed out of continual genocidal wars against Native nations in taking the continent during the first 100 years. President Garfield in the Compromise of 1877 moved troops from the South, to stop the St. Louis Commune, which was established to support the national strike of railroad workers against wage cuts.
The military, with 3,000 federal troops and 5,000 deputized special police, killed at least eighteen people in St. Louis. The commune included not only railroad workers and other unionists but also African Americans and Native Americans. The Missouri senators who called for the military were themselves shareholders in the railroads that were being struck.
Sponsored by the Women’s International League for Peace & FreedomJuly 16 (Sunday) 5:45 PM ($45) Pier 41, left of Pier 39 near outside ticket booth - Fisherman’s Wharf, SF
Building Bridges & Labor Maritime History Boat Tour
5:45 PM Boarding, 6:00 PM Departure
Boat leaves promptly at 6:00 PM
Please arrive 30 minutes before the boarding time.
Tour lasts 3 hours
A complimentary meal will be provided, however, if you are on a special diet, please bring your own food.
(Sorry, we do not take any special orders for food.)
Join the best labor maritime trip in the world. Learn about the great labor history of the Bay Area, from the 1934 Maritime Strike, which help shape the charactor of San Francisco to the effort to save the EPA to ensure the Bay stay clean.
We will hear from labor historians Gray Brechin, Harvey Schwartz, Harvey Smith, Lawrence Shoup and labor photographers like Joseph Blum. We will also hear about ongoing struggles of workers in the Bay Area.
Enjoy labor songs with troubadours and musicians. Come one, come all, and experience the beauty of sailing the San Francisco Bay.
The tour end with the spetacular view of the sunset over the Golden Bridge from the middle of the Bay.
You can’t afford to miss this great maritime tour.
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.
Who Built the Golden Gate? New Book Tells Bridge Workers’ Stories - by Peter Cole
Building Bridges and Maritime History Boat Tour - LaborFest 2014 slides - by Mike MelnykJuly 17 (Monday) 6:30 PM (Free) Bernal Public Library - 500 Cortland Ave. at Andover St., SF
The Destruction of City College of San Francisco
Public education has been under attack for many years. The forms of attack include inadequate funding, privatization, corporatization, and hostility towards teacher and staff unions. Many students and public school employees have been harmed
One college that has been relentlessly assaulted is City College of San Francisco (CCSF). It is a very popular public institution as reflected in the fact that over 80% of voters approved a parcel tax to help fund CCSF in the November 2016 election.
In 2008, more than 100,000 students were enrolled in classes at CCSF. Today, its enrollment is less than 60,000 and the number of its scheduled classes has been significantly reduced.
Why has there been an assault on this working class public institution? Who is behind it? What can be done to restore CCSF?
This panel will discuss and provide answers to these questions with help from the audience.
Rick Baum, AFT 2121 Lecturer
Medeline Mueller, CCSF Music Department Chair
Sponsored by United Public Workers For Action
www.upwa.infoJuly 19 (Wednesday) 7:00 PM (Free) ILWU 34 Hall - 801 2nd St., next to AT&T Ball Park
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
I, Daniel Blake (96 min.) (2017) (UK) Directed by Ken Loach, written by Paul Laverty
Screenwriter Paul Laverty will introduce the film by Skype.
I, Daniel Blake by Director Ken Loach and writer Paul Leverty is an important film on the destruction of the lives of workers and their families in the “welfare system”. Blake is a carpenter who has a heart attack and is then forced to go back to work despite his health conditions. While he is fighting for compensation, he befriends a woman and her children who are also being ground up in the Employment and Support Allowance welfare system in the UK.
This film, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, touches the hearts of all people about what working people are going through in their struggle for survival.
Following this film, there will be a discussion about LaborFests in the US and around the world and the fight to protect disabled workers and their families in the US.
Panel: Chris Jury UK Tolpuddle Radical Film Festival and Liberating Arts; Mehmet Bayran, LaborFest Turkey; Jimmy Kelly, ReelWorks Santa CruzJuly 21 (Friday) 7:00 PM (Free)First Unitarian Universalist Church - 1187 Franklin St., SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Island of Shadows (98 min.) (2016) (S. Korea) Directed by Chong-gun Kim
“Island of Shadows” shows the history of Korean Hanjin shipyard workers to defend their health and safety building a union. They built one of the most industrialized countries in the world yet now face the destruction of their lives because of company unions and government corruption.
Conditions are so horrific that it is acceptable that workers are regularly getting killed on the job. Slowly workers began to set up a union to fight for their human and labor rights; we hear from the voice of workers about this experience, their victories and defeats.
It also shows the despair that led union leaders to commit suicide in protest over their conditions. To understand the horrific conditions and sacrifices that these workers make to change their lives is to understand the power of the working class and how they can succeed despite repression and workplace bullying.
One of the worker leaders is Jinsook Kim, a welder at the shipyard who challenged the workers to support their rights by occupying the top of a crane for 309 days.
Her voice for justice and humanity resonates to all working people and human beings.
Following the film there will be an update on the Korean elections and a discussion about how U.S. workers can support the struggle of Korean workers.July 21 (Friday) 6:00 PM ($40, $50 at the door) SEIU 1021 Hall - Entrance on Kansas St., between 16th & 17th, SF
SF Living Wage Coalition Seventh Annual Awards Dinner
Seventh Annual San Francisco Living Wage Coalition’s Awards Dinner with cultural and musical performances.
Labor Woman of the Year Award - Lita Blanc, President of United Educators of San Francisco. Labor Man of the Year Award - Michael Theriault, Secretary-Treasurer of the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council.
The Living Wage Coalition’s current work are workshops and campaigns to educate people on a Five Point Program to reverse income inequality, including protecting and expanding union and public sector jobs; ending mass incarceration by the criminal injustice system; stopping the repressive immigration system; fixing a broken welfare-to-work system; and replacing free trade with fair trade.
For information or to purchase tickets: San Francisco Living Wage Coalition, (415) 863-1225,
sflivingwage@riseup.net
www. livingwage-sf.orgJuly 22 (Saturday) 10:00 AM (Free) Meet at The Main Berkeley Post Office - at corner of Milvia & 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 22 (Saturday) 10:00 AM (Free) Meet at One Market St., SF
Tom Mooney and Preparedness Day Bombing Walk
With Gifford Hartman, David Duckworth
During this walking tour, we visit several sites, which were integral to the unfolding of events following a bomb explosion on Steuart Street at Market Street on July 22, 1916. With fervor building to engage the United States in the war in Europe, businessmen in San Francisco embraced the cause, while labor leaders and the left denounced it. With the bomb killing ten people and wounding forty, no clear culprit was identified. But, two figures from the left, labor organizers and anarchists Tom Mooney and Warren K. Billings, were framed for the murder of the victims and spent many years in prison before being released. On this tour, we learn not only about the war between business and labor and open and closed union shops, but also the divisive issues of American aggression in the Pacific region and against Mexico, crusading and yellow journalism in the city of San Francisco, and the mood of the country regarding World War I.
The tour lasts approximately two hours.
David Duckworth is an art and cultural historian, having lectured widely, including California Institute of Integral Studies, Free University, LaborFest, New York University, Popular Culture/American Culture Association, and Treasure Island Museum.
Gifford Hartman is an adult educator, labor trainer, working class historian, and has been a rank-and-file militant in various industries (some organized by the SEIU and ILWU, and others non-union shops) and presently works in the unorganized precarious education sector.July 22 (Saturday) 10:00 AM ($10 - No one turned away due to lack of funds) Richmond High School Auditorium - 1250 23rd St., Richmond, CA
Charters, Privatization & the Defense of Public Education
The growth of charter schools and privatization of public education in California and throughout the US is a cancer threatening students, teachers and staff at all public schools. This education/action conference will look at what charters are and how they are siphoning off billions dollars from public taxes for profiteers. It will also examine how religious tax-funded charter schools like the Gulen Magnolia chain and storefront “online schools” like Escondido Charter High are growing in California and throughout the country. We will hear from parents groups and teachers who are fighting against retaliation and discrimination. This is a life-and-death struggle to protect public education and we will learn about it and how to defend our schools.
SPEAKERS: Sharon Higgins, expert on Gulen Magnolia Charter Schools; Dr. Frank Adamson, Stanford Graduate School of Education; Carlos Taboada, Retired UTR teacher; Kristyn Jones, UTR Teacher; Debra McCaffrey, parent activist; Michael Dominguez, UTLA retired teacher; Eileen Brown, Stand With Ross Valley Schools; Steve Johnson, teacher Labor Rising; Robert Ovetz, adjunct professor, Todd Groves, former WCCSB member.
Sponsored by Defend Public Education Now
For more information, call:(510) 506-4493, (510) 439-8073
https://www.defendpubliceducationnow.org
July 23 (Sunday) 1:30 PM (Free) John F. Kennedy Library Joseph Room - 505 Santa Clara St., Vallejo
The History of the Alibi Clock in Vallejo and the K-R-C Case of 1937
By Joel Schor
Legal cases against labor have been fueled by hysteria over war abroad and radicalism at home, from Tom Mooney, charged with setting off a bomb during the Preparedness Day Parade (1916), to charges against Marine Fireman’s Union members Earl King, Charles Ramsay and Frank Conner, accused of murder aboard a ship docked in Alameda in 1937.
California politicians Culbert Olson and Earl Warren presided as governor of the state during these times. Their vacillating positions in relation to fate of the accused reflect both their own ambitions and the political climate of hysteria. The Tenney Hearings in California and the House Un-American Activities Committee under Senator McCarthy were to follow the outcome of these cases into the Second World War and its aftermath.July 23 (Sunday) 7:00 PM (Free) ILWU 34 Hall - 801 2nd St., next to AT&T Ball Park
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Watsonville on Strike (65 min.) (1989) Directed by Jon Silver
With Jon Silver & Frank Barnacke
In September 1985, 1,500 Teamster-organized, mostly immigrant women cannery workers walked out on the two largest frozen food companies in the United States — Watsonville Canning and Richard A. Shaw Frozen Foods in Watsonville, California. This was known as the “frozen food capital of the world”. The workers faced not only companies who wanted major concessions but also a white union leadership who did not speak Spanish and who accused them of not being union members.
This historic and powerful video “Watsonville on Strike” hears the voices of these workers and their struggle for justice and control of their own union. The strike lasted 17 months revealing the contradictions in management and the unions.
It also shows the internal struggle in the union against the push for a concession contract and the role of solidarity.
Joining film maker Jon Silver after the screening will be Frank Barnacke, who was a farmworker, and is author of Trampling Out the Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers.
https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC35folder/WatsonvilleStrike.htmlJuly 24 (Monday) 6:00 PM (Free) Plumbers Hall - 1621 Market St. 2nd floor, at Franklin St., SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
The River Ran Red (58 min.) (2012) Directed by Steffi Domike and Nicole Fauteux
And Labor in the Schools
The violence that erupted at Carnegie Steel’s giant Homestead mill near Pittsburgh on July 6, 1892, caused a congressional investigation and trials for treason, motivated a nearly successful assassination attempt on Frick, contributed to the defeat of President Benjamin Harrison for a second term, and changed the course of the American labor movement.
This film is aripping account of the summer of 1892, in which a bitter conflict erupted at the Carnegie Works in Homestead, Pennsylvania. The nation’s largest steel maker took on its most militant labor union, with devastating consequences for American workers. Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick head a fascinating cast of characters, which includes 300 armed Pinkerton guards and the would-be anarchist assassin, Alexander Berkman. This American tragedy still resonates 125 years later, especially in communities hard hit by the decline of heavy industry and labor’s diminishing clout.
Report on Labor in the Schools
The struggle to defend working people and our unions requires a real knowledge of history. We need to know where we come from and the lessons of the past to understand our present issues.
Labor In The Schools has been a project of the California Federation of Teachers CFT to bring labor education into the schools and to support the idea that working class history is critical for all people.
Bill Morgan who is a member of the statewide CFT committee will talk about the efforts of the union to build support for labor education in the schools and what all unionists and working people can do to help support labor education.July 25 (Tuesday) 7:00 PM (Free) 518 valencia - near 16th St., SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Where Are You Buddy? (25 min.) (2017) (Turkey) Directed by Kazim Kizil
With discussion - The Fight to Defend Academics and Journalists in Turkey
The growth of child labor in Turkey and around the world is exploding. The U.S. invasion of Iraq and Libya, the war in Syria, and now the U.S. supported bombing of Yemen, are creating millions of refugees, including many children forced to work. This film looks at the lives of these children from their own words as child workers. This new film from Turkey by director Kazim Kizil lets the children tell their own stories.
This will be followed by a discussion about the fight to defend the professors, teachers, and journalists who are under attack in Turkey by the Erodgan AKP government. Tens of thousands of teachers and public workers have been fired without a hearing or due process; many have been jailed, some have committed suicide, and others are on hunger strikes.
Sponsored by Solidarity Committee With The People Of Turkey
http://www.freeacademicians.orgJuly 26 (Wednesday) 7:00 PM (Free) Green arcade Bookstore -1680 Market St. at Gough, SF
What California Labor History Tells Us About Building the Resistance to Trump
By Fred B. Glass
At a moment when American democracy is threatened as never before, progressives need models for building an effective resistance. In California, many examples of strategy and tactics live in the hidden history of working people and their struggles for social justice.
This talk will present and interpret several iconic events that shaped the way working people live in California today, and helped create the difference between the progressive outcome of the latest election (taxing the rich to fund schools, repealing anti-immigrant laws on the books, a resounding vote against Trump) compared with the rest of the country.
Fred Glass wrote and directed Golden Lands, Working Hands, a video series (1999) on history of the California labor movement. Glass wrote From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement (2016) and wrote and directed a short animated cartoon, Tax the Rich: An Animated Fairy Tale (2012)July 26 (Wednesday) 6:00 PM (Free) SF Main Library - Koret Auditorium - 100 Larkin St., SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Bridging Urban America (87 min.) (2016) Directed by Basia Myszynski and Leonard Myszynski
This biography celebrates Ralph Modjeski, the chief engineer for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Modjeski designed bridges that had significant impact on urban development and commerce. The film is a tribute to innovative engineering and to bridge workers during two eras of transit, taking a deeper look at the scientific mind and artistic soul of a Polish-born, Paris-trained immigrant who contributed to the building of a modern America. This is a relevant film that brings awareness about the deteriorating state of our bridges and how communities search for sustainable solutions to maintain, rehabilitate and preserve these critical parts of North America’s infrastructure.
Screened in conjunction with the exhibits “Building Bridges, Not Walls” during July and August at the San Francisco History Center, 6th Floor of the Main Library, and at the Canessa Gallery in North Beach.
July 26 (Wednesday) 8:00 PM (Call for ticket) San Jose Improv - 62 S. 2nd St., San Jose
LaborFest Comedy Night
Hosted by Danny Cruzz
LaborFest 2017 brings a night of comedy to all working class people to laugh and enjoy a night of relaxation. As labor is forefront for us all, we need to unwind and enjoy the fruits of our labor.
All comics are labor friendly-performers.
Must be 18 or older. 2 items minimum order required - 21 or older for drink order.
Door open at 7:15 at SJ Improv.
Call for reservation.
Ticket info: call Danny Cruzz (408) 504-9370
Email- dannycruzzlaughs@yahoo.com
San Jose Improv: (408) 280-7475
Donation welcome to LaborFest
July 27 (Thursday) 7:00 PM (Free) Niebyl Proctor Marxist Library - 6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland
All of Us or None: An Evening of Poetry in Resistance to The Trumpoline Regime and The Corporate Horse It Rode In On!! - Open Mike
Working people are under attack on the job, in their homes and on the streets. The struggle to survive in the Bay Area with gentrification, gig jobs and the daily fears and stresses of our lives will be heard at this open mike. It is time for working people to speak up with their words and songs and rally a collective response to our battle to build a new world.
July 27 (Thursday) 7:00 PM (Free) ILWU Local 34 Hall - 801 2nd St. next to AT&T Ball Park
California in the Progressive Era: The Union Labor Party and the Socialist Party in the San Francisco Bay Area
With history lecturer John Holmes, SFSU Professor Bill Issel and moderated by SFSU Professor Bob Cherney
One of the most tumultuous periods in San Francisco labor and working class history was the formation of the Union Labor Party (ULP) and the role of the Socialist Party in the early 20th century.
San Francisco was the first major city in the United States to have a labor mayor but later the mayor and the board of supervisors were removed in a financial scandal pushed and funded by major San Francisco capitalists who were angry that organized labor had political control of the city.
This panel will look at this history including the 1907 Carmen’s strike that cost the lives of 33 people. The long strike was broken when the company brought in armed company thugs who shot strikers and their supporters and injured many because of their inability to run the cars. On the 110th anniversary of this strike this panel will examine the lessons for today.July 27 (Thursday) 7:00 PM (Free) Green Arcade Bookstore - 1680 Market St. at Gough, SF
Song of The Stubborn One Thousand
The Watsonville Canning Strike, 1985 – 87
Book reading by Peter Shapiro
On September 9, 1985, one thousand mainly Mexican women workers in Watsonville, California, the “frozen food capital of the world,” were forced out on strike in an attempt by Watsonville Canning’s owner, Mort Console, to break their union. They returned to work eighteen months later. Not one had crossed the picket line. A moribund local union had been revitalized, and Watsonville’s Latino majority emerged as a major force in local politics.
At a time when organized labor was in headlong retreat, the Watsonville Canning strike was a dramatic show of the power of women workers, whose struggle became a rallying point for the Chicano movement.
Apart from its sheer drama, the strikers’ story illuminates the challenges facing a group of ordinary working people who waged a protracted and ultimately successful struggle against seemingly insurmountable odds.July 28 (Friday) 7:00 PM (Free) 518 Valencia - near 16th St., SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Care (60 min.) (2016) Directed by: Deirdre Fishel
& The Defense of Our Elderly and Panel of Homecare and Disabled Care Workers
Care by director Deirdre Fishel tells the story of home elder care and the homecare workers who do the work to protect our elderly. The humanity of both the elderly and disabled and their caregivers gives the film strength and shows the living reality for a growing part of our population. Millions of seniors need this care and the workers who do this job. These workers are doing critical public work, yet, are underpaid, many struggling to survive themselves.
A panel discussion follows after the film:
Brett Miller, SEIU 1021; Brad Wiedmaier, SEIU Local 2015 California long term care; moderated by David Duckworth SEIU 1021.July 29 (Saturday) 10:00 - 4:00 PM (Free) Location to be announced (in Sacramento)
Time To Unite Our Struggles No Borders No Walls
International Conference
The attack on immigrants and workers on both sides of the borders is escalating with more ICE, police and terror round-ups of working people in the U.S.. Trump blamed Mexicans for the economic crisis in the U.S. but the reality is that US and European multinationals have colluded with the Mexican government to prevent unionization and continue slave labor conditions, as in San Quintin, Baja, where 80,000 farmworkers and their families are exploited by U.S.-based Driscoll Company. NAFTA, in fact, was used to bust unions, privatize education, telecom, and railroads, and the land of the indigenous people of Mexico. Now Trump and the corporations want another secret NAFTA deal to make conditions even worse for working people on both sides of the border. They want to bring in tens of thousands of “guest workers,” who will be enslaved in the U.S. for greater profits and put more U.S. workers out of jobs.
It is time to fight for workers on both sides of the border and against the growing racist attacks and walls, built to control and exploit workers while militarizing borders.
Solidarity Has No Borders For Working PeopleSponsored by Labor Council For Latin American Advancement-Sacramento Chapter
Please call the following numbers to get the location and other information:
(916) 712-4251 or (916) 862-0209
https://www.facebook.com/lclaasacramento/?fref=tsJuly 29 (Saturday) 12:00 Noon (Free) Meet at the fountain in Latham Square - Telegraph and Broadway, Oakland
Oakland 1946 General Strike Walk - “We Called It a Work Holiday”
With Gifford Hartman of the Flying Picket Historical Society.
This year is the 70th anniversary of the Oakland General Strike. 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.
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).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCKs-lhBgiMJuly 29 (Saturday) 7:00 PM (Donation) ILWU Local 34 Hall - 801 2nd St. next to AT&T Ball Park
Paul Robeson: A Portrait in Story & Song
By The Rockin’ Solidarity Labor Chorus
The Rockin’ Solidarity Labor Chorus presents a musical biography of Paul Robeson, the great African American artist, athlete, and activist.
The script is based on material gathered from primary sources by Alex Bagwell, a Chorus member and ILWU retiree, who interviewed many of Robeson’s associates while they were still alive.
Robeson crossed paths with notable figures of his era, including W.E.B. DuBois, Lena Horne, and Harry Belafonte, but he also touched the lives of countless working men and women. He said, “I have always put my faith and confidence in the working people in all countries and of all colors. I truly believe that they constitute the greatest force in the world for the advancement of all people.”
The concert will trace Robeson’s journey from his youth in New Jersey to Rutgers University and then to Broadway, concert stages, and picket lines around the world. It also addresses Robeson’s encounter with the House Un-American Activities Committee and the notorious Peekskill concert in 1949, at which racist thugs attacked the audience and the performers.
With solos by Bagwell and others, the Chorus will sing many of the spirituals and folk songs from Robeson’s repertoire, in new arrangements by Chorus director Pat Wynne.
Contact: Pat Wynne (415) 648-3457July 30 (Sunday) 10:00 AM (Free) ILWU Local 34 Hall - 801 2nd St. next to AT&T Ball Park
Educational ACTION Conference-The Internet, Technology, The Gig Economy and the Future of Labor
The development of technology, including artificial intelligence, automation and platforms like UBER, Lyft, and Airbnb, are making trillions for the tech and media companies that now dominate the world. Growing marginalization of labor and complete deregulation now means that hundreds of thousands of workers are being forced to travel hundreds of miles to work on temp jobs as independent contractors. This threatens our environment here in the Bay Area and around the world.
This conference will look at how our economy is being transformed in the Bay Area, nationally and globally, and how it is affecting working people, including drivers, tech workers, and workers in other industries.
The new tech world is also allowing companies like Google and Apple, and the U.S. government to know every place you go, every purchase you make, and every word or text you use in communication. We will look at how workers and unions, with the public, can challenge this new reality.
Speakers:
Steven Hill, Journalist on Technology; Ruth Silver Taube, Workers’ Rights Clinic at the Katharine and George Alexander Community Law Center at the Santa Clara University School of Law; Dr. Larry Rose, Former Medical Director Cal-OSHA; Mehmet Bayran, LaborNet; Edward Escobar, The Alliance For Independent Workers; Todd Davies, Stanford Center for the Study of Language and Information, Lisa Milos, CWA UPTE UCSF Medical Interpreter; Kemly Camacho Jiminez, Cooperative Sulá Batsú, University of Costa Rica
Sponsored by LaborTech.net, LaborNet.org
July 30 (Sunday) 10:00 AM (Free) Meet at ILWU Sculpture at Mission and Steuart, SF
Labor Politics and Architecture of San Francisco - Walk
Walk with Brad Wiedmaier, SEIU 2015 member & architectural historian.
San Francisco has a rich political and labor history that is also connected to its buildings. In this history-by-the-buildings walk, Brad Wiedmaier will outline artifacts and events, and their connections to San Francisco’s past and present. For more information call (415) 694-3605.
July 30 (Sunday) 1:00 - 4:00 PM (Free) SF Main Library, Koret Auditorium - 100 84 min St., SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Now Is The Time: Healthcare for Everybody (71 min.) 2016
Directed by Terry sterenberg & Laurie Simons
This is a documentary film about our current healthcare system, why it doesn't work, and what you can do about it. The filmmakers interview doctors and nurses, patients, economists and politicians to see what they think about our current healthcare system. You'll see what happens when advocates committed to changing the healthcare system take action. Big money for insurance companies. Fear of government taking over the nation's healthcare system. But there's something more, like a fog that keeps people from moving forward together. This film intends to remove that fog, and will leave viewers examining what it means to be American and what it takes to step into action. This documentary film is a follow-up to the filmmakers first film, The Healthcare Movie (2011).
A Q&A and panel discussion follows the screening. Speakers include Jeff Gee, MD, from Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), Barb Ryan, RN, from California Nurses Association and a representative from the Healthy California Act (SB 562).
For information, call Janet Tom, at 415.557.4460July 30 (Sunday) 6:00 PM (Free) Green Arcade Bookstore - 1680 Market St. at Gough, SF
LaborFest Writers
LaborFest Writers explore the issues that we face today within our families, communities and government, whether it’s housing, jobs, ageism, race and sex discrimination, immigration or homelessness. Their work gives voice to what has gone before and why we must continue to fight for our rights. Come hear Margaret Cooley, Keith Cooley, Richard Chen, Susan Ford, Phyllis Holliday, Jerry Path, Alice Rogoff and Nellie Wong as they share their memoir, storytelling, oral history, poetry, and song.
July 30 (Sunday) 6:00 PM (Free) ILWU Local 34 Hall - 801 2nd St. next to AT&T Ball Park, SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Iron Moon: The Poetry of Chinese Migrant Workers (84 min.) (2015) Directed by: Xiaoyu Qin and Feiyue Wu
The new film from China Iron Moon is a powerful artistic view of the massive industrialization of China through the eyes and words of the workers who have made the new China. At Foxconn, which has over 200,000 workers and produces most of our Apple phones, workers face a life of despair. One of them who committed suicide at the age of 24, left 200 poems of despair, “I swallowed an iron moon…” Using poetry as a tool to chip away at the ice of silence, they and other workers in this film express the hidden stories and life experiences of millions of the workers who are the foundation of the new China.
It weaves from worker to worker, from a female clothing factory worker who lives in poverty but writes poetry rich in dignity and love; a coal miner who works deep in the earth, trying to make peace with the spirits of his dead coworkers through his poetry; rock miner Chen Nianxi, who traveled to San Francisco this year, speaking of his life; working in the mines to support his family, gold-mine demolitions worker blasting rock several kilometers into mountainsides, while writing poetry to carry the weight of his fury, “My body carries three tons of dynamite..” These could be any of the 350 million workers in China, and yet they are also poets. These stories of the life and struggles of Chinese workers are a mournful song and tale of global capitalism.
Play On (83 min.) (2017) Directed by: Gyuri Byun
What happens when subcontracted workers turn into podcast DJs? Subcontracted workers at SK Broadband, Inc. began a podcast broadcast titled Workers Have Changed, to deliver the news about their strike for job security. The podcast studio has become a theater of their life as they share their stories—daily hardships of subcontracted labor, coping with rude customers, and their future and dreams. They finally achieved a victory to convert their employment status from non-regular to regular, yet with their monthly income cut in half. Given this “half” success complicating the picture, Bong-Keun, a union member, decided to quit the job.
July 31 (Monday) 7:00 PM (Donation) ILWU 34 Hall - 801 2nd St. next to AT&T Ball Park
Stop the War on Workers Concert
LaborFest closes its annual festival with terrific artists Ann Feeney and Roy Zimmerman. Ann speaks truth to power in her music about the struggles of working people here and around the world. As Tom Morello has said “Few have raised as much hell with an acoustic guitar as Ann has.”
Roy Zimmerman, who is based in the Bay Area, joins Ann on the Rezist Tour. Using satire and comedy, which we need more of, Zimmerman hits home about ignorance, war and greed. Join LaborFest to celebrate our past and get ready for our future.
Donation $5-20 sliding scale, free to strikers and locked-out workers, No one will be turned away due to cost.
