Labor History Today

Ben Fletcher was one of the most important black labor leaders in American history. Yet he’s almost entirely unknown. In today’s show, from the Working Class History podcast, we learn about this little-known dock worker and labor organizer, who helped organize thousands of workers on the Philadelphia docks into the most powerful multiracial union in the country. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
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On July 17, 1944, two ammunition ships exploded at Port Chicago, Calif., killing 322, including 202 African-Americans assigned by the Navy to handle explosives. It was the worst home-front disaster of World War II. The resulting refusal of 258 African-Americans to return to the dangerous work underpinned the trial and conviction of 50 of the men in what is called the Port Chicago Mutiny.Today, the disaster and its aftermath are memorialized at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial, one of a small number of National Park sites that commemorate death and dying on the job. In October 2021, as part of "Monumental Labor," a three-part online series that explored the memory of work and working peoples in National Parks and National Historic Landmarks, a distinguished panel discussed “Tragedy and Resistance at Port Chicago Naval Magazine.” The "Monumental Labor" series was organized by Labor History Today contributor Dr. Eleanor Mahoney and Dr. Emma Silverman. Thanks also to the National Park Service, and to the National Park and Andrew W. Mellon Foundations, which helped make the series possible.On this week’s Labor History in Two: Ida B. Wells and Bloody Thursday.  
Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Editing this week by Patrick Dixon & Chris Garlock.
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Among those turning out to support the strike by Hollywood writers -- now in its 10th week-- have been members of the Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839); back in March, the animators staged a “solidarity walk” around Walt Disney Studios in Burbank with dozens of the studio’s animation production workers protesting Disney’s refusal to voluntarily recognize its unionization efforts. Those who know their Hollywood labor history will have recognized the echoes of another Hollywood strike, the 1941 walkout by hundreds of animators at Walt Disney Studios.On today’s show, animation historian Jake Friedman joins us to discuss his book The Disney Revolt: The Great Labor War of Animation’s Golden Age.On this week’s Labor History in Two: The Squeegee Strike.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
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University of Colorado law professor Ahmed White discusses his new bookon the Industrial Workers of the World, “Under The Iron Heel – The Wobblies and the Capitalist War on Radical Workers.” Today’s show is the first of a 3-part interview with White on Labor Exchange, Colorado's only labor-focused radio show, airing Mondays at 6:00 PM Mountain Time on KGNU Community Radio in Boulder, Colorado.On this week’s Labor History in Two: The year was 1998. If you were trying to drive to work on that Tuesday morning in mid-town Manhattan you were probably late. Forty thousand construction workers took to the streets in a massive protest.
Questions, comments, or suggestions welcome; to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
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They had banners demanding "We want to go to school and not the mines!" and held rallies each night in a new town. This was the famous "March of the Mill Children" in June, 1903, led by Mother Jones, from Kensington, Philadelphia, to President Theodore Roosevelt’s Summer White House in Oyster Bay, New York. The Labor Jawn podcast reports.
Harry Belafonte was not only an acclaimed actor and singer but an important fighter against racism and militarism. Work Week Radio’s Steve Zeltzer talks with Clarence Thomas, retired Secretary Treasurer of Local 10 of the ILWU, which had a longstanding connection to1 Belafonte.   On this week’s Labor History in Two: The year was 1971; at 12:51 am Battalion 12 Chief Leo Najarian of Los Angeles heard that there had been a tunnel explosion.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
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Ten thousand workers cross the color line to shut down the largest tobacco manufacturing plant in the South and win a union. From the “NC Labor History Revealed” podcast, with music from the Love Songs from the Liberation Wars labor jazz opera. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The year was 1903. Mary Harris -- better known as “Mother” Jones -- held a rally in Philadelphia, The March of the Mill Children.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
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A chat with Owen Smith, who’s directing “Don’t Iron While the Strike is Hot!”Saturday, June 17 at the Cohoes Music Hall in Cohoes, New York; the musical tells the story of the 1864 Troy Collar Laundry Union Strike. The Kate Mullany National Historic Site opened on June 10; Mullany organized the Troy Collar Laundry Union, the nation's first all-female union. On this week’s Labor History in Two:  The day Consumers Power Company employees near Flint, Michigan shut off generators and turbines at the Zilwaukee power plant.
Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
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Pod Extra: Bill Fletcher Jr. on Resisting Tyranny Through a 21st Century Labor Movement at the 12th annual conference of the Labor Research and Action Network. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
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