Labor History Today

The Minneapolis general strike; “Mongrel Firebugs and Men of Property”

“On Tuesday, May 22nd the picketers took the offensive and succeeded in driving both the police and the deputies from the market and the area around the union's headquarters.”Political scientist and historian Michael Munk connects what’s going on in Minneapolis today as workers and the community react to the killing of Michael Floyd with the general strike that took place there in 1934…“It's one of the great mysteries of human history, about when people rise up and why they don't rise up much more frequently than they do given the kinds of indignities and abuses and exploitation that have been the lot of most working people in American history.”Steve Fraser, author of the new book “Mongrel Firebugs and Men of Property: Capitalism and Class Conflict in American History”…“Vast impregnable and immovable barricades of automobiles were set up, blocking all the main arteries into the Ford fortress.”With the AFL-CIO planning car caravans around the country this Wednesday to demand swift action on the pending Heroes bill in Congress to help American workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Meany Archives' Ben Blake reveals that the labor movement has used this technique effectively in the past.“I worked in this quarry 21 years. I was head derrick man. See that shack on the other side? I operated from there awhile. I worked all through here. It's one of the biggest quarries on the hill. There’s still a lot of good stone left in there. All kinds of good stone…”  The latest episode of the “En Masse” podcast takes us inside the New England quarries nearly a century ago, when workers blasted, dug and pried out the stone that built many of the buildings that still stand today in our towns and cities.   Plus we celebrate the life of Rosie the Riveter on Labor History in 2.  
Produced by Chris Garlock with editing 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. Links:Minneapolis general strike of 1934Mongrel Firebugs and Men of Property: Capitalism and Class Conflict in American HistorySteve Fraser on "Your Rights At Work" on WPFW 89.3FMAFL-CIO // Workers First Caravan (DC)En Masse Episode 6: "Poor Devil"Labor History in 2

“Politics of the Pantry”; “We Just Come to Work Here”

"This period of time in the Thirties struck me as a period of great innovation and resilience that women organized around the need to provide certain services. And I see that happening in my community today around the pandemic." Emily Twarog, author of “Politics of the Pantry: Housewives, Food, and Consumer Protest in Twentieth Century America.” Her study of how women used institutions built on patriarchy and consumer capitalism to cultivate a political voice resonates strongly today in the midst of both the COVID-19 pandemic and an election year. Joyce McCawley talked with Twarog on the Heartland Labor Forum, the labor radio show airing weekly in Kansas City on KKFI. Plus: Ben Grosscup with a new version of “We Just Come to Work Here” and Joe Glazer on the Memorial Day Massacre. Produced by Chris Garlock with editing 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. Links:“Politics of the Pantry: Housewives, Food, and Consumer Protest in Twentieth Century America.”Heartland Labor Forum"We Just Come to Work Here," by Harry Stamper; new lyrics by Paul McKenna and Ben Grosscup May 2020; performed by Ben Grosscup.

“The Long Deep Grudge: A Story of Big Capital, Radical Labor, and Class War in the American Heartland”

Labor historian, activist and writer Toni Gilpin, author of the new book “The Long Deep Grudge: A Story of Big Capital, Radical Labor, and Class War in the American Heartland.” This rich history details the bitter, deep-rooted conflict between industrial behemoth International Harvester and the uniquely radical Farm Equipment Workers union. The Long Deep Grudge makes clear that class warfare has been, and remains, integral to the American experience, providing up-close-and-personal and long-view perspectives from both sides of the battle lines. PLUS: David Fernandez-Barrial, Saul Schniderman and Hazel Dickens on the Matewan Massacre.Produced by Chris Garlock and Patrick Dixon; to contribute a labor history item, email laborhistorytoday@gmail.com

“Strike for Your Life!”; labor history's lessons for the COVID-19 crisis

Jeremy Brecher's “Strike for Your Life!”; Peter Rachleff and labor history's lessons for the COVID-19 crisis; plus a preview of Debs In Canton.  “The current situation has led us to reconsider the Minneapolis teamster strikes of 1934; their dramatic story shows that the labor movement is strongest when unions boldly organized workers on the job and in the community around a shared vision of fairness and justice.” Peter Rachleff, co-director of the East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul, Minnesota, on how “Lessons from labor history can inform our labor movement during the COVID-19 crisis.” “As a labor historian, the closest thing I can think of to the spread of coronavirus strikes is the epidemic of sitdown strikes to spread across the country in the mid-1930s.” Historian and writer Jeremy Brecher, from “Strike for Your Life!” Also this week, we preview Debs In Canton, a new audio/radio drama from the filmmakers of American Socialist: The Life And Times Of Eugene Victor Debs. Produced 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.

Jack Kelly’s "The Edge of Anarchy”; “Union Maids” director Julia Reichert (Part 2)

Jack Kelly, author of "The Edge of Anarchy: The Railroad Barons, the Gilded Age, and the Greatest Labor Uprising in America,” and Part 2 of our interview with Oscar-winning director Julia Reichert.
I'll tell you what I was thinking about when we wrote it; I was thinking about the Wobblies. Director Julia Reichert's call at the Oscars earlier this year for “workers of the world to unite” went viral; she and Steven Bognar won for their film American Factory, and we’ve got the second part of her interview with 9 to 5 founder Karen Nussbaum.
The Pullman strike was a solidarity strike. they were striking in sympathy with the Pullman workers and that idea of people pulling together I think you're seeing now.  At the peak of the Gilded Age a conflict in one of America’s largest factories exploded into the most extensive and threatening labor uprising in American history. Jack Kelly's "The Edge of Anarchy” tells the dramatic story of this historic event, transporting the reader from the fabulous White City of the 1893 World’s Fair to the nation’s industrial heartland, where unprecedented hard times are brewing rage across the continent. In the summer of 1894, more than half a million desperate railroad workers went on strike. Riots broke out in Chicago and other major cities. The nation’s commerce ground to a halt—famine threatened isolated towns. The U.S. Attorney General declared the country to be on “the ragged edge of anarchy.” 
Produced 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.

Virtual May Day rally builds on the militancy of the past to inspire workers today

Hundreds of Thousands Expected to Attend 2020 Virtual May Day Rally in Nation’s Capital; Live coverage by Mimi Rosenberg and Ken Nash May Day started in the U.S. in 1886 as a nationwide general strike by mostly immigrant workers for the 8-hour day. While celebrated throughout the rest of the world, it had become less prominent in the U.S. until recently with the revived protests by immigrant workers. But every year there is more reason for the working class to protest. And this year we find ourselves in the midst of a pandemic where the plutocrats are more willing than ever to put their profits ahead of the very lives of workers, who are taking to the streets -- appropriately socially distancing of course -- wearing brightly colored masks and now heading to the Nation’s Capital under banners declaring "We Are The Workers of the World" & "We Have Nothing to Lose But Our Chains & A World To Win," "We are the 99% and Will Reopen the Economy, Putting People Before Profits."
Partial list of speakers at today’s rally:
John L Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) and a driving force behind the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which established the United Steel Workers of America and helped organize millions of other industrial workers; Genora Dollinger, leader of the Women's Auxiliary of the Women's Strike Brigade during the Sit-Down Strikes of 1936-1937 at General Motors Corporation in Flint; A. Phillip Randolph, labor unionist, civil rights activist and socialist politician, who organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; Paul Robeson, the eloquent and highly charismatic actor and one of the most treasured names in song, who was a staunch Cold War-era advocate for human rights; Dolores Huerta, labor leader and civil rights activist who, with Cesar Chavez, is a co-founder of the National Farmworkers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW); Lisa Tiger, a member of the Muscogee Nation who comes from a family of acclaimed Native American artists, including her father, Jerome Tiger, and grew up surrounded by Native American Art; plus the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Eugene Victor Debs, Huey Long, and a cast of tens of thousands that is WE THE PEOPLE, building bridges from the militancy of the past to inspire the workers of today!
This special May Day edition of Labor History Today is produced by Building Bridges' Mimi Rosenberg and Ken Nash.

Julia Reichert: ‘We Don’t Just Interview People Once’; Montgomery Ward busted; May Day and Mother Jones

Oscar-winning director Julia Reichert, interviewed by 9 to 5 founder Karen Nussbaum; the AFL-CIO’s Damon Silvers, on how the Montgomery Ward CEO was busted for unionbusting; Saul Schniderman celebrates May Day and Mother Jones’ birthday. "Mother Mends" by The R.J. Phillips Band. 
Produced 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.

Sacco & Vanzetti at 100; What happened to MLK’s dream?

Michele Fazio on “The Crime of the Century: Remembering Sacco and Vanzetti 100 Years Later”; Michael Honey on “What Happened to Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream of Economic Justice?” Plus Saul Schniderman on Ida Mae Stull, the nation’s first woman coal miner. Produced by Chris Garlock; Michele Fazio recorded and mixed by Daniel Ouimet.
If you’d like to contribute by reading a labor history item, just shoot us a note at 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.