Calendar Edition

Letter from the Editor: What’s Your Favorite “Little Red Song”?

The first edition of the IWW’s “Little Red Song Book” was published on August 19, 1909. As its cover boldly proclaimed, the pocket-sized collection of labor songs was intended to “fan the flames of discontent” and build support for the union and the labor movement.

For a special anniversary edition of the Labor Heritage Power Hour, we want to hear from you: Which song from the “Little Red Song Book” is your favorite, and why?

Record a brief voice memo on your phone—be sure to include your name and where you live—and send it to info@laborheritage.org by noon ET this Wednesday. We may include it in Thursday’s show!

- Chris

LABOR ARTS CALENDAR WEEK AT A GLANCE…


Thurs: Labor Heritage Power Hour (radio/online)

Thurs: Woody Guthrie's American Song (DC)

Fri: USW Local 7-1 Oilworkers Benefit Concert (IN)

Fri: Woody Guthrie's American Song (DC)


Ongoing Events

See more on our Labor Arts Calendar


Got a labor art event to share? Email us at info@laborheritage.org

Labor Arts News Updates


Dallas Black Dance Theatre Dancers Have A Contract
Highlights include guaranteed minimum workweeks, a seniority-based wage scale and improved minimum weekly salaries. Read more.

‘End Mass Layoffs Now,’ Video Game Workers Demand

Workers and CODE-CWA will stage joint rallies on Tuesday in cities across the United States and Canada to call out layoffs and corporate greed in the video game industry. Read more.

TODAY’S LABOR HISTORY


1918: 95 members of the International Workers Of The world are jailed for resistance to World War 1.

1973: Nonviolent vineyard striker Juan De La Cruz, 60, is shot & killed on a United Farm Workers picket line near Arvin, CA by a strikebreaker firing from a passing pickup truck. The UFW later names its retirement fund, which pays pensions to retired UFW members , the Juan De La Cruz Pension Plan.

1978: The Bakery & Confectionery Workers International Union of America merges with The Tobacco Workers International Union to become Bakery, Confectionery & Tobacco Workers. The union later becomes the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union.

1985: The year long Hormel meatpackers' strike (photo) begins in Austin, Minnesota.

Richard Trumka on The Art of Solidarity


On this week’s Labor History Today: Richard Trumka traces the history of labor art from the coalfields of Harlan County and the Flint sit-down strike to the Pittston mineworkers’ strike. Speaking at the Labor Heritage Foundation’s Great Labor Arts Exchange in June 2009, the future AFL-CIO president explains how songs, murals, films and stories preserve workers’ struggles and carry solidarity from one generation to the next. Trumka was elected AFL-CIO president on September 16, 2009, and served until his death on August 5, 2021.

Questions, comments, or suggestions are 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 the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.

Woody Guthrie’s American Song

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: DC’s Theatre Alliance brings Woody Guthrie’s songs into today’s struggles, and Richard Trumka explains how labor artists preserve workers’ stories, strengthen solidarity and build the movement.

RECENT NEWSLETTERS
A weekend of labor walks, films & songs (8/14)
The People's Historian: Dave Zirin on Howard Zinn (8/7)
SF LaborFest Wraps (7/31)
A New "Bread and Roses" Musical? (7/24)
The Labor History of Soccer (7/17)

CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE LHF CALENDAR

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