News & Updates

EDITOR’S NOTE: Both editions of the LHF newsletter will be on summer hiatus July 1-15; look for our next edition on Friday, July 19. The Labor Heritage Power Hour will also be on hiatus July 4 and 11, tune in on July 18 for our next show.

Chris Garlock

LABOR ARTS NEWS

Guthrie Theater Front-Facing Crew Votes to Join IATSE: Front-of-house workers at Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theater voted to join Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 13 earlier this month, with more than 70% of the ballots cast in favor of joining the union. 

- AFL-CIO Daily Brief

Blue Cubicle Press’ latest a “cornucopia of great writing”: “What a cornucopia of great writing comprises the latest offering in the Workers Write! series from Blue Cubicle Press, Further Tales from the Cubicle,” reports John Beck in the Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives newsletter. “Though the whole volume is a pleasure to read, there were a few standouts. Ida Bettis Fogle's "Efficiency Leads to Fulfillment" is a wicked look into the future…David LaBounty's own contribution, "The Intern and the Eagle," is another wry look at corporate life…There are a set of three great "Black and Brown" sonnets exploring service work in the corporate tower in the midst of Covid.” Check it out here.

More than “Finding The Money’: MMT, Political Strategy, and the State: Maxwell Rott’s report in the Washington Socialist on the DC Labor FilmFest screening last month of Finding The Money, is an excellent – and brief -- review/overview of the 2023 documentary on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). “As Kelton effectively puts it in the film, how can the U.S. government run a deficit when it has sovereignty over the medium of exchange?” 

"The Poor People's March on Washington" - Dave Rovics The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and the Poor People’s Campaign are uniting with the AFL-CIO and other economic justice organizations to fight poverty by launching efforts to empower voters, including the June 29th Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington, D.C. and to the Polls. 10a Saturday, 3rd and Pennsylvania Ave NW; details here

CLICK HERE for our complete labor arts calendar; look for our Labor Arts Calendar edition on Monday

FILM: 'Woman On Fire'

Friday, June 28-Sunday, June 30

In Honor of Pride Month: Follow Brooke Guinan, the first openly transgender firefighter in New York City. Hosted by the Workers Unite! Film Festival and sponsored in part by the DC Labor Film Fest and the Global Labor Film Festival Network.

Book Talk: "Making A Way Out of No Way" with Merideth Taylor

Sunday, June 30, 6:00 PM until 7:00 PM; Busboys & Poets – Hyattsville, 5331 Baltimore Avenue, Hyattsville, MD 

For over 165 years, plantation owners in Southern Maryland depended on the labor of enslaved men, women, and children to bring in the tobacco crop. The photographs and stories in this book grew out of the author’s quest to understand how these people, who were subjected to a system that made every attempt to brutalize and dehumanize them, were able not only to survive but to build families and meaningful lives.

ONGOING

1934 & Now, Connections of the Minneapolis Truckers’ Strike of 1934: ART EXHIBITION

We Are One – Honoring Immigrant Garment Workers

Remember 1934: "Voters in Revolt" art exhibit

June 28, 1894

President Grover Cleveland signs legislation declaring Labor Day an official U.S. holiday. 

On this week’s Labor History Today podcast: Organizing Your Own: The White Fight for Black Power in Detroit

LAST WEEK’S QUIZ: Twenty drag queen performers at Spokane’s Globe Bar and Kitchen walked off the job on June 21, 2021 in a protest over wages and conditions. In fact there weren’t any wages: performers’ only income was whatever tips they were able to collect. 

Enter our Labor Heritage Power Hour Theme Song Contest! (6/14)

Taylor Swift’s labor song (6/7)

1934 and Now: The Minneapolis Teamsters’ Strikes (5/31)

“Dreams come true,” as Disneyland character workers unionize (5/24)

1934 Minneapolis Truckers’ Strike Commemorated (5/17) 

“Finding the Money” sleeper hit at DC Labor FilmFest (5/10)

“Art uplifts us”: Redmond and Bryant honored (5/3)