Labor History Today

This week's labor history: Luddites smash 63 “labor saving” textile machines near Nottingham, England; victory in the "Bread and Roses" textile strike (and in the recent West Virginia teachers’ strike); historic four-month UAW strike at General Motors; staffers strike San Francisco progressive rock station KMPX-FM.PLUS: Saul Schniderman on Casey Jones and Rebekah Padgett on the Boeing engineer’s strike.
Music this week includes the “Georgian Luddites! Heavy Metal Song” by Horrible Histories, “Bread and Roses” from the film “Pride,” including a wonderful solo by Bronwen Lewis, “Street Fighting Man” by The Rolling Stones and “We Shall Overcome” from Joan Baez. 
Joe McCartin is professor of history at Georgetown University and Executive Director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Tula Connell, an historian of the United States focusing on 20th century labor and social movements, is Senior Communications Officer at the Solidarity Center, an international labor rights organization. She’s the author of Conservative Counterrevolution. Challenging Liberalism in 1950s Milwaukee www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog…52039904.htmlChris Bangert-Drowns is a recent graduate of the University of Maryland who helped organize workers on the College Park campus. Chris Garlock, Union Cities Coordinator for the Metro Washington AFL-CIO, hosts Union City Radio on WPFW 89.3FM.
Questions, comments or suggestions 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. Engineered by Chris Garlock.Labor history sources include Today in Labor History, from Union Communication Services https://unionist.com/
This week's music:Horrible Histories: Georgian Luddites! Heavy Metal Songhttps://youtu.be/K6f6BNp1q1Y
Bread and RosesBronwen Lewis (from "Pride")https://youtu.be/E2ISkeEc-9UThe Rolling Stones - Street Fighting Manhttps://youtu.be/muJCXvvdlBU
Joan Baez - We Shall Overcome https://youtu.be/-KyfY_eN7hs

This week's labor history: FDR names Frances Perkins to be Secretary of Labor, first female cabinet member in U.S. history; Thousands of New York needle trades workers demonstrate for higher wages, shorter workday, and end to child labor; Machinists strike Eastern Airlines, soon joined by flight attendants and pilots in the nationwide walkout; César Chávez leads 5,000 striking farmworkers on a march through the streets of Salinas, Calif.; Chávez breaks a 24-day “fast for non-violence and a call to sacrifice”  
Music this week: Joe Hill’s song “There Is Power In A Union” first appeared in the IWW;s “Little Red Song Book” in 1913; we have versions of the song by Folk Hogan, Joe Glazer and Bill Friedland, Utah Phillips and Monsieur Jack.
Joe McCartin is professor of history at Georgetown University and Executive Director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Carl Goldman is the former Executive Director of AFSCME Council 26.Debbie Goldman works a the Communication Workers of America and is studying labor history at the University of Maryand.Chris Garlock, Union Cities Coordinator for the Metro Washington AFL-CIO, hosts Union City Radio on WPFW 89.3FM.
Questions, comments or suggestions 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. Engineered by tech wizard Matt Lukban, with very special thanks to Aldo Bello.Labor history sources include Today in Labor History, from Union Communication Services https://unionist.com/
This week's music:There Is Power in a Union: Folk Hoganhttps://youtu.be/az75TZuy5aE
There is Power in a Union: Joe Glazer and Bill Friedlandhttps://youtu.be/mSDh_qVXkFk
There is Power in a Union: Utah Phillipshttps://youtu.be/BSUqeAgDvc0
There Is Power in a Union: Monsieur Jackhttps://youtu.be/0LDd9MUkgT8

This week's labor history: 70,000 Southern California supermarket workers strike; birth of John Steinbeck, author of “The Grapes of Wrath”; Eugene V. Debs joins the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen; IWW strikes Portland sawmills; CIO and U.S. Steel sign a landmark contract.Plus: Dan Duncan on the merchant marine’s “Emancipation Proclamation”.
Music this week: “Oh Freedom” by Vivian Greene; “Brother Can You Spare a Dime” by Judy Collins and Tom Waits; “Wabash Cannonball” by Johnny Cash; “Hold The Fort” from the IWW songbook.
Joe McCartin is professor of history at Georgetown University and Executive Director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Carl Goldman is the former Executive Director of AFSCME Council 26.Debbie Goldman works a the Communication Workers of America and is studying labor history at the University of Maryand.Chris Garlock, Union Cities Coordinator for the Metro Washington AFL-CIO, hosts Union City Radio on WPFW 89.3FM.
Questions, comments or suggestions 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. Engineered by tech wizard Matt Lukban, with very special thanks to Aldo Bello.Labor history sources include Today in Labor History, from Union Communication Services https://unionist.com/
This week's music:“Oh Freedom” by Vivian Greenehttps://youtu.be/Gfk0BrPpGYo“Brother Can You Spare a Dime” by Judy Collins https://youtu.be/yCtIEeO-NrY“Brother Can You Spare a Dime” by Tom Waitshttps://youtu.be/uUCVVU1qVdY“Wabash Cannonball” by Johnny Cashhttps://youtu.be/aZiQ89_s67Q“Hold The Fort” from the IWW songbookhttps://youtu.be/nQWBH71UDFM

This week's labor history: United Mine Workers settle 10-month Pittston strike; San Francisco Examiner begins publishing articles on the “menace” of Japanese laborers; Woody Guthrie writes “This Land Is Your Land”; U.S. Supreme Court upholds Oregon state restrictions on women’s working hours. Plus: Saul Schniderman on Weingarten Rights and Korey Hartwich on the Lawrence textile strikers beaten by police.
Music this week: “This Land Is Your Land” performed by Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Baby Jay, Maxwell's AllStars, Bruce Springsteen and Woody Guthrie.
Joe McCartin is professor of history at Georgetown University and Executive Director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Leon Fink, Professor Emeritus of the Department of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago, edits the journal, "Labor: Studies in Working Class History." Chris Bangert-Drowns is a recent graduate of the University of Maryland who helped organize workers on the College Park campus. Chris Garlock, Union Cities Coordinator for the Metro Washington AFL-CIO, hosts Union City Radio on WPFW 89.3FM.
Questions, comments or suggestions 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. Engineered by tech wizard Matt Lukban, with very special thanks to Aldo Bello.Labor history sources include Today in Labor History, from Union Communication Services www.unionist.com/big-labor/today-in-labor-history
This week's music:"This Land Is Your Land": Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings https://youtu.be/XQ78uDio_ao“This Land Is Your Land”: Baby Jay https://youtu.be/cy4mDfs9m0c
“This Land is Your Land”: Maxwell's AllStarshttps://youtu.be/wPsVFVKVmxo
“This Land Is Your Land”: Bruce Springsteen https://youtu.be/24fGUsuQ50M
“This Land Is Your Land”: Woody Guthrie
https://youtu.be/wxiMrvDbq3s

This week's labor history: Memphis sanitation workers strike; Unions at Yale University strike in solidarity with teaching assistants; births of Frederick Douglass, Jimmy Hoffa and Leonora O’Reilly. Plus Jews United for Justice’s Jacob Feinspan on the New York furrier strike and Saul Schniderman on the arrest of 83-year-old Mother Jones.
Music this week from the film "Soundtrack For A Revolution," screening in this month’s Bread and Roses series:Tuesday, February 20, 6p at the Takoma Busboys and Poets, andTuesday, February 27, 6p at the Shirlington Busboys and Poets. Both screenings are free; details and RSVP link at dclabor.org, click on Calendar. 
Joe McCartin is professor of history at Georgetown University and Executive Director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Leon Fink, Professor Emeritus of the Department of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago, edits the journal, "Labor: Studies in Working Class History." Chris Bangert-Drowns is a recent graduate of the University of Maryland who helped organize workers on the College Park campus. Chris Garlock, Union Cities Coordinator for the Metro Washington AFL-CIO, hosts Union City Radio on WPFW 89.3FM.
Questions, comments or suggestions 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. Engineered by tech wizard Matt Lukban, with very special thanks to Aldo Bello.Labor history sources include Today in Labor History, from Union Communication Services www.unionist.com/big-labor/today-in-labor-history
This week's music:“Woke Up This Morning”: John Legend https://youtu.be/0pOVElQFNMs “May be My Last Time”: Anthony Hamilton with the Blind Boys of Alabamahttps://youtu.be/RM7wyzkDJx8“Aint Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around”: The Roots https://youtu.be/uJ6mhRZ8LjM

This week's labor history: Births of IWW founder Big Bill Haywood and Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man launched the 1955 Montgomery, Ala. bus boycott; unemployment demonstrations and strikes during the Depression; the Seattle General Strike; state militia supports striking union miners in Cripple Creek, CO; Congress approves funding for Depression-era relief projects; Boeing engineers and technical workers strike.
Joe McCartin is professor of history at Georgetown University and Executive Director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Lane Windham is at the Kalmanovitz Initiative and co-directs the Women Innovating Labor Leadership Empower project, a joint initiative of Kalmanovitz and the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations and author of “Knocking on Labor’s Door: Union Organizing in the 1970s and the Roots of a New Economic Divide.”Julie Greene is a historian of United States labor, immigration, and empire; she teaches at the University of Maryland. She is the author of The Canal Builders: Making America's Empire at the Panama Canal (Penguin Press, 2009),Chris Garlock, Union Cities Coordinator for the Metro Washington AFL-CIO, hosts Union City Radio on WPFW 89.3FM.
Questions, comments or suggestions 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.Labor history sources include Today in Labor History, from Union Communication Services www.unionist.com/big-labor/today-in-labor-history
This week's music:Hold The Fort; The Union Boyshttps://youtu.be/zPVeujpwCHc The Red Flag; Billy Bragghttps://youtu.be/obpd9uc5HVg
Rosa Parks Equality song; Horrible Histories https://youtu.be/sHttUInZHTY
Rosa Parks; Outkast https://youtu.be/Ilf-2N6ibjg
Brother Can You Spare a Dime? - George Michaelhttps://youtu.be/Ij3ba71gtrU
How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times...Bruce Springsteenhttps://youtu.be/jYsSVNl8xmE
General Strike; Moe Shinolahttps://youtu.be/ygDeYTUoBrE
War on the Workers; Anne Feeneyhttps://youtu.be/e78TqI53bPQ
General Strike; D.O.A. https://youtu.be/JGDGqMmCcoM

This week's labor history: Responding to unrest among Irish laborers building the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Pres. Andrew Jackson orders first use of American troops to suppress a labor dispute; Dolly Parton hits number one with "9 to 5,"; Newly-elected President Barack Obama signs the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, pecan shellers in San Antonio, Texas – mostly Latino women – walk off their jobs at 400 factories; Secretaries across Chicago protest after legal secretary Iris Rivera is fired for refusing to make coffee; US Supreme Court rules the United Hatters Union violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by organizing a nationwide boycott. Plus Saul Schniderman on the end of historic table grape, lettuce and wine boycotts by the United Farm Workers of America.
Joe McCartin is professor of history at Georgetown University and Executive Director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Lane Windham is at the Kalmanovitz Initiative and co-directs the Women Innovating Labor Leadership Empower project, a joint initiative of Kalmanovitz and the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations and author of “Knocking on Labor’s Door: Union Organizing in the 1970s and the Roots of a New Economic Divide.”Julie Greene is a historian of United States labor, immigration, and empire; she teaches at the University of Maryland. She is the author of The Canal Builders: Making America's Empire at the Panama Canal (Penguin Press, 2009),Chris Garlock, Union Cities Coordinator for the Metro Washington AFL-CIO, hosts Union City Radio on WPFW 89.3FM.
Questions, comments or suggestions 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.Labor history sources include Today in Labor History, from Union Communication Services www.unionist.com/big-labor/today-in-labor-history
This week's music:Dropkick Murphys - Cadence to Arms (Scotland The Brave)https://youtu.be/s2ctpx0zYgkDolly Parton - 9 To 5https://youtu.be/UbxUSsFXYo4Alicia Keys – Superwomanhttps://youtu.be/-AphKUK8twg
Joan Baez - No nos moveranhttps://youtu.be/kKopB66ujuQ
The Gallo Song; Steve and Peter Joneshttps://libraries.ucsd.edu/farmworkermovement/media/media/TheGalloSong.mp3

This week's labor history: Births of Terence V. Powderly, leader of the Knights of Labor, and Samuel Gompers, first president of the American Federation of Labor; the Supreme Court upholds “Yellow Dog” employment contracts, which forbid membership in labor unions; working-class connections of Krueger Cream Ale, the first canned beer. Plus Rebekah Padgett on the 1913 general strike in Rochester, NY.
Joe McCartin is professor of history at Georgetown University and Executive Director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Leon Fink, Professor Emeritus of the Department of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago, edits the journal, "Labor: Studies in Working Class History."Chris Garlock, Union Cities Coordinator for the Metro Washington AFL-CIO, hosts Union City Radio on WPFW 89.3FM.
Questions, comments or suggestions 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.Labor history sources include Today in Labor History, from Union Communication Services www.unionist.com/big-labor/today-in-labor-history
This week's music:"Song for the Knights of Labor" from "Iron & Gold" a musical by Mark and Lauren Arnesthttps://youtu.be/C2lESE9yYME
Yellow Dog Blues - Gunhild Carling LIVEhttps://youtu.be/mbrL2LS4f0QOne Bourbon One Scotch One Beer - George Thorogoodhttps://youtu.be/97ECZMvbLxg