News & Updates

Like this newsletter? Share the wealth and pass it along to colleagues, friends and family!

Dockworkers' Song - Alex Hickey

Different struggle, same militance. (NOTE: The ILA reached a tentative agreement on wages late yesterday afternoon and have agreed to return to the bargaining table to resolve remaining outstanding issues)

Posted by @MachinistsUnion

The Man in Black-Johnny Cash

"I wear the black for the poor and

the beaten down

livin' in the hopeless, hungry

side of town

I wear it for the prisoner who has

long paid for his crime,

but is there because he's a victim

of the times"

These words are inscribed on the pedestal for the sculpture of Johnny Cash given by the state of Arkansas to the National Statuary Hall on September 24, the first statue in the collection to honor a musician. Read more here.

“[Charleston, SC is] the place that imported more enslaved Africans than anywhere in this country,” Leonard Riley, a longtime dockworker and leader of International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA) Local 1422, said in a video posted to the local’s social media earlier this year. “We were the cargo on the ships that came into the harbor. And now, we control the cargo coming through here.”

This quote by Riley captures what makes the strike by the ILA and the power of the union so significant – it is at once both an expression of worker power and of the long struggle for freedom and self-determination for Black workers, particularly in the U.S. South.

From the Southern Workers Assembly newsletter, find out more at southernworker.org | info@southernworker.org. Thanks to Gene Bruskin for sending this in.

Thank a longshoreman

This morning, while you get ready for work and drink your favourite coffee, thank a longshoreman

While you put on your clothes, thank a longshoreman

While you check the weather on your phone, thank a longshoreman

While you drive your car to work, thank a longshoreman

While you eat your favorite lunch, thank a longshoreman

While you use your computers at work, thank a longshoreman

While you give your child their life-saving medication, thank a longshoreman

When you order your dinner, thank a longshoreman

While you strap up your kids soccer cleats, thank longshoreman

While you finally lay down in your comfortable bed and

cover yourself with your sheets, thank a longshoreman

Because without them, you wouldn’t have any of that

In the rain, in the snow, in the excessive heat, throughout Covid, for 24 hours a day, every day, these men and women work…To ensure you and your family have what you need.

Often overlooked, they are the foundation of our country. As they fight for fair wages and job security, stand beside them proudly. Tonight, at midnight, when they go on strike, think of them, their families, and the blood, sweat and tears they have poured into their jobs, to get you and your families both the necessities and luxuries you have.

Sent in by a longshore worker's daughter.

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

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Film)

Friday, October 4, 2024, 7:30 PM until 9:45 PM, Dryden Theatre, 900 East Avenue, Rochester, NY 14607

Fierce and darkly comic swipe at modern day Romanian life. Overworked and underpaid production assistant Angela is assigned to film a workplace safety video for a multinational corporation in Bucharest, and on the side, vise-signals through her TicTok alter ego, Bobita. When one of the interviewees makes a statement that refutes the company’s blame-the-worker campaign, Angela has to re-invent the story. This anarchic satire is a wild and unforgettable ride through the vulgar indignities of the “new economy.” 

The Farmer-Labor Movement: A Minnesota Story (Film)

Friday, October 4, 6:00 PM until 8:00 PM, Goodhue County Historical Society, 1166 Oak Street, Red Wing, MN

From the early 1920s to its merger with the Democrats in 1944 to create the modern DFL, Farmer Laborites united urban and rural Minnesotans in a powerful movement for social justice. The issues they fought for remain as relevant today as they were back in the 1930s.

The Cradle Will Rock (Folk Opera)

Saturday, October 5, 2024, 7:30 PM & Sunday, October 6, 2024

Cecile Goldman Theater DCJCC, 1529 16th St NW, Washington, DC 

This piece became a thundering work of American history when governments and unions alike tried to ban its legendary first performance. Artists defied those orders to bring this searing work that celebrates the labor movement to life from the seats of a packed theater while the work’s composer and librettist Marc Blitzstein sat alone at the piano onstage. Originally directed by Orson Welles and dedicated to Kurt Weill, this imaginative new version honors the story of this rarely heard classic’s origin with new energy, humor, melody, and a thirst for justice. The production features a cast of the area’s best young vocalists, led by the newly named Artistic Director of DC’s own Theatre Alliance, Shanara Gabrielle, and IN Series Head of Music Emily Baltzer (“The Promised End”).

October 4, 1927

Work begins on the carving of Mt. Rushmore, a task 400 craftsmen would eventually complete in 1941. Despite the dangerous nature of the project, not one worker died.

Bill Lucy on Black Power: William Lucy – an icon of the labor movement -- died September 25 at the age of 90. 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,” said AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler, 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.

LAST WEEK’S QUIZ: The 1909 "Uprising of the 20,000" refers to a strike against Triangle Shirtwaist Company. The International Ladies' Garment Workers Union began a strike against Triangle on September 27, which resulted in 339 of 352 struck firms—but not Triangle—signing agreements with the union. The Triangle fire that killed 246 would occur less than two years later. 

Bill Lucy: “Change is possible” (9/27)

‘Equal Pay for Equal Paint!’ (9/20)

Dallas Black Dancers Fight for Their Union (9/13)

Netflix hit “The Union” is a miss (9/6)

Labor Day weekend films, music & more! (8/30)

No justice, no dancing (8/23)

Beyoncé’s labor anthem (8/16)