Labor History Today

Chris talks with labor historian Dana Frank; her new book is What Can We Learn From the Great Depression? Stories of Ordinary People and Collective Action in Hard Times. The book takes a new look at working-class activism during the 1930s from the perspective of our own time, examining mutual aid, eviction protests, the expulsion of a million Mexicans, a sit-down strike by African American women working as wet-nurses, and a white supremacist fascist organization in Ohio known as the Black Legion. Dana will be in conversation with Bill Fletcher Jr. this Tuesday, October 7, at the K Street Busboys and Poets; click here for details. On this week’s Labor History in Two: the year was 1918. That was the evening that a series of explosions began at the T.A. Gillespie Company near Morgan, New Jersey. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

William Lucy – an icon of the labor movement -- died this past Wednesday at the age of 90. “Bill Lucy served as a brilliant strategist whose words instantly cut to the heart of an issue,” said AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler, who called Lucy “a bridge across generations of our movement; and a leader in connecting the fights of working people all across the world.” As Shuler noted, when Lucy was just 34 years old, “he wrote four simple words—'I Am a Man’—that would change the course of history in Memphis, Tennessee,” helping “all Americans see the humanity of Black sanitation workers in their struggle for dignity and respect on the job.” Bill Lucy also co-founded the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, and it’s that aspect of his extraordinary career that we’re going to explore on today’s show. In January 2021, Lucy talked with the Black Work Talk podcast about the relationship between Black unionists, the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, and the labor movement during the 60s and 70s. Labor Movement Celebrates Extraordinary Life and Career of Bill Lucy “Tired of Going to Funerals”: The 1972 National Black Political Convention in Gary Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

The Animation Guild (TAG), Local 839 of the Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), resumed negotiations with Hollywood studios this week and are fighting for pay equity for color designers, a job historically staffed by women. Today’s show originally ran on July 6, 2023, when the strike by Hollywood writers was in its’ 10th week. Among those turning out to support that strike were members of the Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839); in March of 2023, 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. (Original airdate 7/6/2023) 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 [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory @jakesfriedman #thedisneyrevolt @WGAWest #WGAStrike

Labor journalist Hamilton Nolan on the labor movement past, present and future and his new book “The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor.” Recorded live at the eighth annual Reuther-Pollack Labor History Symposium on August 31 in Wheeling, West Virginia. Music by the Pittsburgh Labor Choir. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The year was 1970; that was the day 350,000 GM workers kicked off a 67-day strike. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Today’s show recorded by Patrick Dixon and produced by Chris Garlock; photo by Garlock. @hamiltonnolan @FoundationWals #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

J. Albert Mann, author of “Shift Happens: The History of Labor in the United States,” a children’s book that’s unusual not just in its subject matter but in the way it treats kids seriously as the future citizens they are. Recorded live at the Reuther-Pollack Labor History Symposium in Wheeling, West Virginia on August 31, 2024. Recording by Patrick Dixon, produced by Chris Garlock. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The year was 2011; that was the day hundreds of ILWU strikers blocked railroad tracks near Longview, Washington. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. @JAlbertMann @FoundationWals #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

Walter Reuther’s name is forever linked to Detroit, Michigan, where he and his brother Victor built the United Automobile Workers -- the UAW -- into one of the largest and most progressive labor unions in American history. In Wheeling, West Virginia, where he was born on September 1, 1907, Reuther is a hometown boy who made good. Each year for the last eight years, the Wheeling Academy of Law and Science Foundation (WALS) has organized the Reuther-Pollack Labor History Symposium on Labor Day weekend. The annual event also celebrates the life and work of local stogie maker -- and union supporter -- Augustus Pollack. LHT producers Chris Garlock and Patrick Dixon drove out to Wheeling last Friday to cover the symposium, which included presentations by “Shift Happens” author J. Albert Mann, labor journalist Hamilton Nolan, West Virginia Mine Wars Museum co-founder Lou Martin and the Pittsburgh Labor Choir. We’ll be sharing audio from those presentations in upcoming shows. West Virginia historian Hal Gorby led a walking tour on Saturday to statues of both Reuther and Pollack in a park along the Ohio River in downtown Wheeling. The noontime walk was interrupted by an intense but thankfully brief mountain thunderstorm, so you’ll hear the rain and thunder in the background as we took shelter and the intrepid Dr. Gorby continued his local history talk beneath his oversized umbrella. On this week’s Labor History in Two: the year was 1921. On that day the “Battle of Blair Mountain” raged in Logan County, West Virginia. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. @FoundationWals @hamiltonnolan @JAlbertMann @WarsWV @UAW_Archivist @ReutherLibrary #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

Labor action is effectively one of two things: political action, or direct action. This week, from the Solidarity Forever podcast, we learn about political action, in the courts through the landmark Pullis decision, and charting the rise and fall of the Working Man's Parties in the days of Andy Jackson. On this week’s Labor History in Two: the year was 1925. Five hundred African American sleeping car porters gathered at the Elks Hall at 129th Street in Harlem. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

Blood in the Streets, photographer Chuck Avery’s illustrated history of American labor struggles, and Kurt Stand shares an excerpt from his essay, Peekskill, 1949: What Was Lost, What Remained, What It Means Today. On this week’s Labor History in Two: the year was 1918; that was the day that 101 leaders of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) or Wobblies were convicted in a Chicago Federal Court. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

Labor historian Peter Rachleff on how a Midwest strike helped shape national labor law plus a preview of his talk on the 1886 takeover of the Richmond (VA) City Council by black and white union activists. On this week’s Labor History in Two: the birth of the original Rebel Girl, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

Between 1955 and 1965, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) investigated numerous southern institutions of higher education that had dismissed faculty members for publicly supporting desegregation and racial equality. In today’s episode, from the AAUP Presents podcast, a discussion with Joy Ann Williamson-Lott, dean of the graduate school and professor of social and cultural foundations in the College of Education at the University of Washington, drawing on her recently published article, "The AAUP and the Black Freedom Struggle, 1955–1965.” On this week’s Labor History in Two: The year was 1821. That was the day Knights of Labor founder Uriah Smith Stephens was born near Cape May, New Jersey. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. @AAUP #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

From the Fragile Juggernaut podcast; the escalating confrontation between fascism and anti-fascism in the 1930’s and ‘40’s; Was there an American fascism? Where did it come from and what did it look like? How did it relate to the labor movement? And what was the meaning of the Popular Front, the broad left coalition against fascism? Questions that still resonate today… On this week’s Labor History in Two: The year was 1932. That was the day that flames burned in the US Capitol. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. @RADIO_CIO #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

Sweet Honey in the Rock founder Bernice Johnson Reagon, on today’s Labor Heritage Power Hour Today’s labor history: First US general strike Today’s labor quote: Bernice Johnson Reagon @wpfwdc @AFLCIO #1u #UnionStrong #LaborRadioPod Proud founding member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network

The Labor and Energy podcast takes a look Today’s labor history: Alliance for Labor Action founded Today’s labor quote: Thomas Donahue @wpfwdc @AFLCIO #1u #UnionStrong #LaborRadioPod Proud founding member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network

A Teamster leader speaks out on The Real News Network Today’s labor history: Anarchist attacks steel magnate Today’s labor quote: Alexander Berkman @wpfwdc @AFLCIO #1u #UnionStrong #LaborRadioPod Proud founding member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network

On July 17, 1944, a group of sailors and civilians were loading ships with ammunition and bombs at Port Chicago, a naval magazine and barracks in the San Francisco Bay Area. Tragically, the ships blew up in a massive explosion that instantly killed 320 workers and injured hundreds more. Most of the dead were African Americans, since racial segregation consigned Black soldiers and sailors to manual labor and service, including the dangerous work of transporting munitions. When the surviving workers were ordered back on the job without any additional safety measures or training, 50 refused to return. The resisters, dubbed the “Port Chicago 50,” were found guilty of disobedience of a lawful order and mutiny and received lengthy sentences and dishonorable discharges. 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 2021, "Monumental Labor," a three-part online series, 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.” Dr. Albert Broussard, Professor of History at Texas A&M University, Tom Leatherman, former Superintendent at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial, and Dr. Erika Doss, Professor of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame, discussed African American labor in the West, the memorial’s role in shaping the memory of the Port Chicago disaster, and how the event should inform commonly-told histories of “America’s Greatest War.” The "Monumental Labor" series was organized by Dr. Eleanor Mahoney and Dr. Emma Silverman. Dr. Mahoney has contributed to Labor History Today before, and we appreciate her help bringing this discussion to the podcast as Black History Month wraps up. 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: The 1937 Woolworth Sit-Down (1937), and Criminalization of the Sit-Down (1939). Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] 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. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @NatlParkService @elbertscube

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned the historic 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion in the United States nearly 50 years ago. The decision sent shock waves across the country and through the American labor movement, which recognizes that reproductive rights are a worker issue, affecting millions of working women and their families. Labor historian Joe McCartin argues that “for most of its history, the court's just been a disaster for workers” and on today’s show, McCartin explores that history, warning that “We're not going to see a better Supreme Court…without a movement, without something happening in the streets, without a struggle.” On Labor History in 2:00: the day that American folklorist Archie Green was born in Winnipeg, Canada, and the day known as the East St. Louis Race Riot. This show originally aired on July 3, 2022. Got a question? Comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Hosted and produced by Chris Garlock. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @WomenLeadLabor @CLUWNational

I’m up in British Columbia this week for the first time since the pandemic; it’s a beautiful place and at least where my friend Phil and I go, it’s very peaceful, the perfect place to unwind and relax. But, as you'll hear, today’s show is anything but peaceful: it’s about a 1966 wildcat strike by 400 mostly women members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers at Lenkurt Electric in Burnaby, British Columbia, which was a turning point for the province's labor movement. Back then, courts and police routinely jailed and fined union members during labor disputes, and Canadian members of international unions were demanding more autonomy. Our show comes to us from the On The Line: Stories of BC Workers podcast, and the story of the Lenkurt Electric strike is described by Ian McDonald, whose book "The Red Baron of IBEW Local 213: Les McDonald, Union Politics, and the 1966 Wildcat Strike at Lenkurt Electric" will be published in 2024. You’ll also hear Bill Hood and The Gram Partisans debut their original song "Lenkurt Electric: Turning the Tide". - Chris Garlock, host Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. @BC_LHC #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @wrkclasshistory

This week, in an encore of a show we first aired on July 10, 2022, labor history takes a deep dive into "True Crime" `. Billy Gohl was called "The Ghoul of Grays Harbor" in the early 20th Century when he was accused of being the murderer who dumped several bodies into the canals around Aberdeen in Washington State. Was he one of America's first serial killers? Or was he just another in a long line of labor activists framed by the bosses? Find out when Working to Live in Southwest Washington podcast hosts Shannon and Harold talk with Aaron Goings, author of “The Port of Missing Men: Billy Gohl, Labor & Brutal Times in the Pacific Northwest”. Music for today's show: Hellbound Glory Streets of Aberdeen the ballad of Billy Gohl, by Leon Virgil Bowers. On Labor History in 2:00: the year was 1918. That was the day machinist John Connolly was fired from General Electric’s sprawling River Works in West Lynn, Massachusetts. Got a questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at [email protected] Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Hosted and produced by Chris Garlock. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @StrikeHistory #LaborHistory @SWWACLC @Red_Harbor