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IN THIS ISSUE:

🎭 Weekend Labor Arts Calendar: Virtual labor stories, live music at El Golfo, and powerful immigrant histories

📋 Labor Arts News Briefs: New union contracts show culture workers flexing power

🎧 This Week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: “We Are Union, Hallelujah!”

🎥 Labor Video of the Week: The Hamilton Mixtape: Immigrants

🪧 Picket Sign of the Week: From the AFSCME Council 33 strike in Philadelphia

🎵 Labor Song of the Week: Keb’ Mo’s “This Is My Home” from Oklahoma*

🗣️ Labor Quote of the Week: LL Cool J stands with workers

📝 Labor Poem of the Week: “My America” by Carlee Wilson

📅 Today in Labor History: Wobblies deported, Karloff organizes

🎙️ Labor History Today Podcast: Pete Seeger, in his own words, still marching on

Labor History Quiz: Why did SF waiters strike in 1883? Take a guess!

LABOR ARTS NEWS BRIEFS

AFM Members at Annapolis Symphony Orchestra Sign New 3-Year Contract: Workers at the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, represented by the Musicians’ Association of Metropolitan Baltimore, American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 40-543, ratified a new three-year contract.

WGAE Members Secure First Union Contract with Garden Slate Productions with Unanimous Vote: Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) members at award-winning entertainment development and production company Garden Slate Productions reached a deal on their first collective bargaining agreement.

WEEKEND LABOR ARTS CALENDAR

Sat: Laborfest: Labor Report From Namibia (Virtual)

Sat: Open Auditions: Forgotten - The Murder at the Ford Rouge Plant

Sat: Laborfest: The History of The War on Immigrants and US Imperialism (Virtual)

Sat: Joe and Anna Grace Uelein at El Golfo Restaurant (MD)

At the strike (now settled) by 9,000 Philadelphia municipal workers; more @PhillyAFLCIO

The Hamilton Mixtape: Immigrants (We Get The Job Done)

This Is My Home - Oklahoma - Keb' Mo'

“We Are Union, Hallelujah!”: Laborpalooza and More

This week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour features highlights from the 2025 Laborpalooza concert, a candid artist-to-artist talk with Eric Ruin, and a tribute to labor legend Mother Bloor.

Like this newsletter? Help us spread labor art by passing it along!

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

1917: Bisbee, Ariz. deports Wobblies; 1,186 miners sent into desert in manure-laden boxcars. They had been fighting for improved safety and working conditions.

1933: The Screen Actors Guild holds its first meeting. Among those attending: future horror movie star (Frankenstein’s Monster) and union activist Boris Karloff.

“There is absolutely no way I can perform across a picket line”

LL Cool J, explaining why he would not perform at Wawa Welcome America in Philadelphia on July 4th because of union strike. He also said “I’m not going to cross a picket line and perform for money when people are hurting.”

My America

here we practice sardine-can sorcery,

stretch our mayonnaise longer

than the lines for payday loans.

we tan the hungry hides of our stomachs

with barely there food stamps,

hang dollar-store jewelry

on the church of our bodies

to feel holy. we know we are prey,

and your chasing us

has happened for so long

it feels natural. until the earth

calls our names, we'll belly up

to your billionaires' bar, a reprieve

arriving when we're finally

dirt-ready. this welcome break

like soap to sore hands, our

fingers no longer blackened

by coupons and coal mines.

Carlee Wilson, in The Blue Collar Review; read more here.

This week on Labor History Today, hear folk legend Pete Seeger in his own words—singing, strumming, and reflecting on a life fighting for labor rights, peace, and the environment.

Recorded in 1999 and newly released on the podcast A Weekend With Pete Seeger, these conversations bring Seeger’s spirit vividly to life.

Why did San Francisco waiters strike in 1883?

LAST WEEK’S QUIZ: The Battle of Rincon Hill took place on July 5, 1934 in San Francisco, during a longshore strike. 5,000 strikers fought 1,000 police, scabs and national guardsmen. Two strikers were killed, and 109 people injured. The incident led to a General Strike.

"The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too."

Please CLICK HERE NOW to pledge your financial support to our 2025 program, which includes our annual Solidarity Forever Award, the Great Labor Arts Exchange, the DC Labor FilmFest and much more (check out our website for details!).

Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. 

Anne Feeney Hellraiser Fund Offers New Grants for Activist Artists (7/4)

Mall Protest Art Channels Mother Jones’ Spirit (6/27)

2025 Great Labor Arts Exchange Kicks Off Today! (6/20)

"We Got to Move It, Move It!" (6/13)

Dropkick Murphys: “Who’ll Stand With Us?” (6/6)

Trump Fires National Portrait Gallery director; Arts Advocates Push Back (5/31)

AFM Defends Springsteen and Swift After Trump Attacks (5/23)

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