Labor History Today

“Despotism on Demand”

Sociologist Alex Wood on the history of the relationship between bosses and workers and how that’s playing out in the age of COVID-19. On Labor History in 2: The Wreck of The Old ‘97.Produced and edited by Chris Garlock. To contribute a labor history item, email laborhistorytoday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by the Metro Washington Council’s Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University. We're a proud founding member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network, 70+ shows focusing on working people’s issues and concerns. #LaborRadioPod

Escape on the Pearl; Black Labor Week

DC Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton connects a historic slave escape attempt with today’s fight for DC statehood; AFGE’s Black Labor Week explores “Black History, Race and Racism in America,” and on Labor History in 2: The Fight for Equality in 1830.Music: Troubled Waters, written by Joe DeFilippo and performed by the R.J. Phillips Band, a group of Baltimore musicians.Produced and edited by Chris Garlock. To contribute a labor history item, email laborhistorytoday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by the Metro Washington Council’s Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University. We're a proud founding member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network, 70 shows focusing on working people’s issues and concerns. #LaborRadioPod

Labor Day: no picnic in a pandemic

Peter Rachleff on the history and significance of Labor Day on the Union Yes Iowa podcast; anthropologist Paul Shackel remembers the 1897 Lattimer Massacre; from the Library of Congress’s brand-new America Works podcast, Greg Vaught, the singing gold mine worker from Elko, Nevada. Plus, Pete Seeger remembers textile mill striker Ella Mae Wiggins, and on Labor History in 2: The Making of a National Treasure.   Produced and edited by Chris Garlock. To contribute a labor history item, email laborhistorytoday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by the Metro Washington Council’s Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University. We're a proud founding member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network, 70 shows focusing on working people’s issues and concerns. #LaborRadioPod

“Boomer Jones": Vintage labor radio show (LHT podcast extra)

First aired in 1950, Boomer Jones, produced by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, was the first radio program of its kind ever attempted by a union and told the story of the old time "Boomers" – as IAM union organizers were called -- who helped build one of the largest industrial trade unions in American history. Major roles were played by three of the top Hollywood stars of the time, William Holden, Marie McDonald, and Brian Donlevy, who all donated their time and talent.For the 70th anniversary re-broadcast on WCPT in Chicago, the IAM’s Tanya Hutchins interviewed retiree Charlie McAuliffe, who brings both a historic and modern-day perspective.
LHT is produced by Chris Garlock; to contribute a labor history item, email laborhistorytoday@gmail.comLabor History Today is produced by the Metro Washington Council’s Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University. We're a proud founding member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network, more than 60 shows focusing on working people’s issues and concerns. #LaborRadioPod

We Do The Work; Working History

“Learn Yourself” is part of “We Do The Work,” airing weekly on Skagit Valley Community Radio KSVR. Today we hear about LELO, formerly known as the Northwest Labor and Employment Law Office, and founded in Seattle, Washington in 1972 when Black, Asian and Latino workers came together to work for racial and economic justice. Ismael García Colón discusses his new book, “Colonial Migrants at the Heart of Empire,” about Puerto Rican migrant farmworkers and their labor experiences in the post-World War II United States, on the Working History podcast. Plus we preview the re-broadcast of the IAM’s 1950 “Boomer Jones” radio show and on this week’s Labor History in 2: Jane Addams is born. Produced by Chris Garlock; edited by Patrick Dixon. To contribute a labor history item, email laborhistorytoday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by the Metro Washington Council’s Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University. We're a proud founding member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network, nearly 70 shows focusing on working people’s issues and concerns. #LaborRadioPod

Cutting along the Color Line

EMTs, nurses, bus drivers, and supermarket clerks; they're all what are now known as essential workers. But by about June of this year, a lot of people were starting to argue that barbers provided an essential service that they had lived too long without. Quincy Mills, Professor of History at the University of Maryland in College Park, talks about black barbers, the evolution of their trade, and its political meaning as a skilled form of labor. Plus: poet Martin Espada reads his poem "Castles for the Laborers and Ballgames on the Radio," written for his friend, historian Howard Zinn. This week’s Labor History in 2: The Amistad. Produced by Chris Garlock; edited by Patrick Dixon. To contribute a labor history item, email laborhistorytoday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by the Metro Washington Council’s Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University. We're a proud founding member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network, more than 60 shows focusing on working people’s issues and concerns. #LaborRadioPod

A travel guide to labor landmarks

"There's an inscription on the monument by one of the martyrs who was hung, it says 'The day will come, when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today.'”On today’s show, Saul Schniderman takes us on a road trip to discover the markers, memorials and monuments commemorating the history and heritage of America's workers. Saul directs the Inventory of American Labor Landmarks, a project of the Labor Heritage Foundation.
Plus this week’s Labor History in 2: Breaking the Glass Ceiling. Produced by Chris Garlock; edited by Patrick Dixon. To contribute a labor history item, email laborhistorytoday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by the Metro Washington Council’s Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University.The Saul Schniderman interview originally aired on the Heartland Labor Forum. You’ll find more Labor History in 2:00 here. 

“The Flintstones” and class struggle; The Ford Hunger March

Labor History Today producers Patrick Dixon and Alan Wierdak explore the labor history and class struggle lurking not too far beneath the surface of Fred's New Job, an episode from the third season of The Flintstones that originally aired in February 1963.Empathy Media Lab host Evan Papp visits the hallowed ground in Detroit where the labor battle known as the Ford Hunger March and Massacre took place.Plus this week’s Labor History in 2:00: Singing a Union Tune. Produced by Chris Garlock; edited by Patrick Dixon. To contribute a labor history item, email laborhistorytoday@gmail.com
Labor History Today is produced by the Metro Washington Council’s Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University.You’ll find more Labor History in 2:00 here.