2007 Festival Schedule
Chicago Labor & Arts Festival Eleven: Borders & Barriers
Read much more detail about the festival events on the Chicago Labor & Arts Festival blog
FORGETTING/4
Chicago is full of factories. There are even factories right in the center of the city, around the worlds tallest building. Chicago is full of factories. Chicago is full of workers.
Arriving in the Haymarket district, I ask my friends to show me the place where the workers whom the whole world salutes every May 1st were hanged in 1886.
"'It must be around here,' they tell me. But nobody knows where.
No statue has been erected in memory of the martyrs of Chicago in the city of Chicago. Not a statue, not a monolith, not a bronze plaque. Nothing.
May 1st is the only truly universal day of all humanity, the only day when all histories and all geographies, all languages and religions and cultures of the world coincide. But in the United States May 1st is a day like any other. On that day, people work normally and no one, or almost no one, remembers that the rights of the working class did not spring whole from the ear of a goat, or from the hand of God or the boss.
After my fruitless exploration of the Haymarket, my friends take me to the largest bookstore in the city. [Galeano was praising Guild books, at which he was reading, by hyperbole and irony] And there, by poking around, just by accident, I discover an old poster that seems to be waiting for me, stuck among the many movie and rock posters. The poster displays an African proverb: Until lions have their own historians, histories of the hunt will glorify the hunter."
[p. 117, Book of Embraces, Eduardo Galeano]
It's especially appropriate to revisit this story of from the work of Eduardo Galeano each May Day.
One hundred twenty years ago, Chicago became the epicenter of a national movement. Thousands of workers demonstrated for the eight-hour day. Controversy swirled among the activists involved in the movement, and those who chose to stand apart from it. Some said that it was too revolutionary, others that it was not revolutionary enough. Some said, rely on the ballot; others preached that the street was the natural element of the working class. As Galeano wrote in the excerpt above, May 1st became the "only truly universal day of all humanity" after that year, except in its country of origin.
The movement that is now arising, as if all at once, is the movement for immigrant rights. And what a movement it is, both in quantity and in quality. It is such a movement that it has leaders rushing every which way to find the head of it so they can lead it. Witness the many politicians with their fingers in the air trying to figure which side to come down on, and how far. If in 1886 the national movement to restrict the length of the working day struck at the heart of the increasing rapacious greed of the robber barons, the social movement for immigrant rights asserts the demands of a working class without borders. It also asserts the demands of a global class increasingly excluded from the ability to find work.
Eduardo Galeano has spent a good deal of his life as an immigrant, fleeing a fascist coup in Urugay to find a home temporarily in Argentina; then fleeing a coup there to live in Catalan Spain until his return to Montevideo, where he lives today. Leaving Argentina in 1976 he wrote an essay entitled "In Defense of the Word," collected in We Say No, (WW Norton, 1992). He writes: "A literature born in the process of crisis and change, and deeply immersed in the risks and events of its time, can indeed help to create the symbols of the new reality, and perhaps -- if talent and courage are not lacking -- throw light on the signs along the road." He goes on to say, "To claim that literature on its own is going to change reality would be an act of madness or arrogance. It seems to me no less foolish to deny that it can aid in making this change. . . I believe in my vocation; I believe in my instrument."
Galeano has used that instrument. He reminds us that he claims no special freedoms or privileges as a writer more than any other worker. His writing in Memory of Fire most vividly reminds us that our histories are inextricably bound together, this hemisphere and beyond.
He closes his fragment above, "Forgetting 4," with an African proverb that seemed to leap out from among other posters. In We Say No he approaches it from a different angle: ". . .I think it would be a midsummer night's dream to imagine that the creative potential of the people could be realized through cultural means alone--the people who were lulled to sleep long ago by harsh conditions of existence and the exigencies of life. How many talents have been extinguished in Latin America before they could reveal themselves? How many writers and artists have never had the opportunity to recognize themselves as such?"
On May 1, 2006 a group of immigrants rights organizations and trades unions, joined by local dj's and, when it became clear that they would have no workers at all, even by some employers, held the largest demonstration yet seen in the city of Chicago . They marched, 3/4 of a million strong, from Union Park, past the Haymarket monument (since Galeano wrote the piece above a memorial has been erected in what was Haymarket Square) to the Thompson Center. May Day was celebrated in Chicago as it had not been in many years.
We at the Chicago Labor & Arts Festival believe in our vocations as well, we believe in our instruments, we believe in the broad range of artistry needed. More than ever, we challenge our colleagues, as our mission says, to respond individually or collectively, to the changing political, social and economic environment.
Look at the calendar (in progress) and mark your own calendars appropriately. Come to as much as you can (most events are free).
T-shirts for the 2007 festival will be available soon.
Finally, please consider a financial contribution to help ensure the continuation of the festival. Checks can be made out to Chicago Labor & Arts Festival and mailed to:
Lew Rosenbaum
1122 W Lunt Ave
Chicago, IL 60626
See you in May. Please come up and say hello when you see us at an event!
Lew Rosenbaum, for the Festival Committee
May Day March, Rally
Read a detailed description of this event on the Chicago Labor & Arts Festival blog
Labor Trail Talk and Tour
Lead by Joe Berry, Professor at the Labor Education Center at UIC
Watch a film on the 1877 General Strike that predated Haymarket
Then walk to Haymarket Square and listen to a talk on significance of Haymarket
Open Univ. of the Left Film Presentation and Discussion
At 7pm, Open University of the Left presents the film "American Jobs" with a discussion hosted by James Thindwa at In These Times, 2040 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago.
Gale School Poetry Walk
Gale Academy Poets present a poetry walk at the school, 1631 W. Jonquil Ter., Chicago, from 1 to 3pm. Students from Head Start through Eighth grade will present their work, curated by Lori Viera and Dayanara Garcia.
Georg Leidenberger discusses Chicago's Progressive Alliance: Labor and the Bid for Public Streetcars
A Newberry public program at 11:00 am
Book talk and signing by Georg Leidenberger
Chicago's Progressive Alliance
at Newberry Library
60 West Walton Street
Chicago, IL 60610-7324
For information, please call (312) 255-3700.
Georg Leidenberger is Professor of History at Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana in Mexico City, Mexico
" ...Leidenberger provides an interesting, provocative, and readable analysis of labor's role in the Progressive Movement. The strength of his work is in documenting labor's active participation in reform issues that went beyond job-related concerns. Histories of the progressive era have often treated labor as an issue; Leidenberger effectively adds labor to the cast of players in urban reform and his book deserves the attention of anyone interested in understanding the Progressive Era. " -- David J. St. Clair,Professor of Economics at California State University, East Bay (Read the complete review)
Previews of Widowers' Houses by George Bernard Shaw
See May 13 for complete information.
Labor Trade Show & Fashion Show at Mess Hall
Sewing Rebellion and Labor Trade Show featuring work curated by Frau Fiber. Frau Fiber’s background as a former textile worker taught her the trade secrets that she now gladly shares in her workshops.
Labor, trade, rebel, sew. Mess Hall has been reaping the benefits of the Rebellion so far this year, and we invite you to join us!
Mess Hall
6932 N Glenwood Ave
Chicago IL 60626
FrauFiber@gmail.com
http://www.messhall.org
The Sewing Rebellion is a cultural revolution where participants are invited to emancipate themselves from the global garment industry by learning the skills to produce your own garments. Frau Fiber, an artist, activist and former textile worker hosts free weekly workshops at Mess Hall where she shares her knowledge of the garment industry, pattern making, and sewing. She hopes to encourage the reuse, renovation and recycling of existing garments and textiles into ?new? unique garments tailored to individual tastes and body shapes.
The Sewing Rebellion is hosting a celebration of labor practices at Mess Hall: The Labor Trade Show and Fashion show. You are invited to contribute by exhibiting your labor practice within the context of a "trade show". The Labor Trade Show will be held in conjunction with a fashion show of garments produced in the Sewing Rebellion workshops and a performance from the Synchronized Sewing Manufacturing Squad.
Phone: (773) 465-4033 on day of events.
It"s quicker to get us by email: messhall8@yahoo.com
Check us out at http://www.messhall.org for calendar updates and more. And feel free to forward this information on to the rest of the known universe.
Deadly Writers Patrol at the Vietnam Veterans' Museum
A reading and reception with Craig Werner and other Deadly Writers Patrol contributors, 5-7 pm, Vietnam Veterans' Museum
The second issue of the Deadly Writers Patrol Magazine has been printed and is ready for distribution. DWP is a publication based in a Vietnam vets' writing group. Craig Werner, Professor at University of Wisconsin, Madison, says, "It's one of the most valuable things I've been involved with, and I think that the contributors have a lot to say that's worth listening to." The price is reasonable given the high quality production supervised by DWP member Howard "Doc" Sherpe. $5 for a single issue, $20 for a four issue subscription.
With issue two, we've begun to expand beyond our base in DWP, with contributions from Lee Ballinger, Barbara Zimmerman, and photographic contributions from Colorado based vet Jeff Dahlstrom.
Appearing at the event:
Thomas Deits is a counselor at the Vet Center in Madison, Wisconsin, where he has worked since the center opened in November 1981. He is a Vietnam War combat veteran who served with 2nd Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division "Big Red One" from February 1969 to April 1970.
Tom Helgeson is a Wisconsin native who served as an infantryman with the Americal Division in Vietnam from 12/67-12/68. He is a retired disability examiner who lives in Madison.
Craig Werner teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of several books including Up Around the Bend: An Oral History of Creedence Clearwater Revival; and A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race & the Soul of America. A native of Colorado Springs, he worked extensively in veterans' networks during the Vietnam War and was invited to join the Deadly Writers Patrol in 2004.
Vishal Rawlley discusses Legend of the Sea Lord at Mess Hall
7-9 pm at Mess Hall
6932 N. Glenwood Ave., Chicago
Bombay-based artist Vishal Rawlley works in film and video, print and web design, illustration, animation, installation, and more. His work largely concerns the propagation and preservation of various indigenous urban art forms and artistic practices; the city of Bombay is a regular motif in his projects. Join us for a talk with Vishal, in which he will discuss past projects such as TypoCity and introduce his current project, VOICE WAVE.
Vishal Rawlley holds a degree in film and video communication from St. Xavier's Institute of Fine Arts in Bombay. He has been awarded grants from the Daniel Langlois Foundation (Montreal), PUKAR (Bombay), and SARAI (Delhi). In March and April of this year he was a resident at OBORO in Montreal. Vishal's website is: www.bombay-arts.com.
More information on VOICE WAVE ("The Legend of the Sea Lord")
Vishal Rawlley's visit is made possible by the South Asia Language and Area Center at the University of Chicago.
Local Reporting and Human Rights Abuses in Chicago: A Conference
Ever wonder why some things just don't get the coverage you think they deserve in Chicago's media? Come hear award-winning media professionals talk about the challenges and efficacy of writing on human rights abuses in our city.
Jamie Kalven — independent journalist and founder of the Invisible Institute
John Conroy — staff reporter for the Chicago Reader
Beauty Turner — assistant editor and reporter of Residents' Journal
Salome Chasnoff — executive director of Beyondmedia Education
Moderated by Steve Edwards, host of 848 on WBEZ-FM
5:30pm @ Experimental Station (6100 Blackstone Ave)
For more information log on at http://shr.uchicago.edu
Opening of a Ghetto Gallery
6pm @ Ghetto Gallery
7911 South Evans
Info — Ms. Beauty Turner: 312-745-2686 (wk); 773-297-5619
$10 donation; $12 at the door.
Ms. Beauty Turner, National Award winning Journalist /Activist/ Ground Breaking Researcher, is opening a photo gallery to savor the flavor of public housings. Turner lived 16 years in the bowels of the ghetto of the infamous Robert Taylor Homes — during that time She took pictures, wrote stories and documented key events and she wants to share them with the world so she lined the walls with her photos.
Widowers' Houses and special Panel Discussion
TimeLine Theatre Company presents:
WIDOWERS' HOUSES
by George Bernard Shaw
Directed by Kevin Fox
May 5 through July 1, 2007 (previews are May 1 - 4)
THU & FRI at 8 pm; SAT at 4 pm & 8 pm; SUN at 2 pm
Also Wednesdays 5/30, 6/6, 6/13, 6/20 and 6/27
At TimeLine Theatre
615 W. Wellington Ave., Chicago
George Bernard Shaw's first play is a hilarious yet scathing look at the ethics of making money. When a young doctor learns that his future father-in-law has earned his wealth by renting slum housing to the poor, the doctor refuses the dirty dowry that awaits him. But he must reconsider his righteous stance when he discovers alarming news about the source of his own income. Written and set in 1892, Widowers' Houses established Shaw's talent for presenting a romantic feast of social and political ideas delivered with humorous dialogue and colorful characters - a talent that secured his reputation as one of the wittiest and most widely produced writers of his generation.
For complete information, visit:
http://www.timelinetheatre.com/widowers_houses
For tickets, call (773) 281-8463 x24 or visit:
http://www.timelinetheatre.com/tickets
Schedule for May 13 Special Program:
1:30 pm - house opens for seating
2 pm - performance
4 pm - show ends
4:05/4:15 pm (approximate) - post-show panel begins, lasts one hour
5:15 pm (approximate) - event ends
Anyone who attends the performance that day may stay for the panel discussion
Post performance panel includes:
Francis X. Tobin
Fran Tobin has been a community and coalition organizer and social justice activist for 20 years — since leaving college to fight Reaganomics in the 1980's. He has worked in the peace movement as well as campaigns for affordable housing, living wages, economic justice and sustainability in groups ranging from Chicago oalition for the Homeless to Rogers Park Community Action Network to Sane/Freeze (now Peace Action). Currently Midwest Regional Field Organizer for National Jobs with Justice, a coalition of labor, faith-based, community and student organizations. Fran has also done volunteer activism work in several other countries, most recently as part of the "Shell to Sea" campaign in Ireland, which is challenging Shell Oil's proposed gas pipeline through fragile bogland in County Mayo.
Beauty Turner
Beauty Turner lived in the Robert Taylor Homes, one of the nation's most infamous public housing high-rise buildings, for sixteen years . She now serves as Residents' Journal's Assistant Editor, writing award-winning investigative articles and commentaries and co-directing the Advocacy and Outreach Initiative. Beauty is a well-known community activist as well as a regular columnist for the Hyde Park Herald and other community newspapers. For the last several years, Beauty has worked as a research assistant for Professor Sudhir Venkatesh, a sociologist at Columbia University. Beauty has spoken at many events, panels, and universities. She has served on the Executive Committee of the Coalition to Protect Public Housing and also on the Steering Committee of the October 22 Coalition, a campaign against police brutality.
Beauty is now a National award winning Journalist recognized by her peers with the First New America Award of it kind by the National Society of Professional Journalists, also a winner of a Studs Terkel, Peter Lisagore, Associate Press award, Chicago Association for Black Journalist award, Courageous voice award for her activism, Black Pearl award, Woman of the Century award, and a Shero award from the Empowerment Zone Committee.
Turner has been featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal in January 2006. A cartoon picture of her is on the right hand side of the paper and on the left hand side a cartoon picture of President Bush — a combo she fondly calls "Beauty and the beast."
Turner has also been featured as a cover story in the Chicago Tribune Magazine ("Beauty Treatment," January 7, 2007)
Beauty's mottos: "A closed mouth will never get fed"; "Nobody knows your pain unless you tell them"; and "I have yet to begin to fight or write for human rights!"
Contact: (312) 745-2686 or
http://www.beauty@wethepeoplemedia.org
María de Jesús Estrada, Ph.D.
Born into a farm-worker community in Yuma, Arizona, Jesú Estrada has been a longtime anti-poverty and equal rights activist. She received her doctorate in Rhetoric and Composition from Washington State University. She is currently a professor of English at Harold Washington College, where she emphasizes race, class, and gender studies. She teaches a wide range of literature from proletarian literature to children's literature. Jesú Estrada also sits on the editorial board of the Tribuno del Pueblo, a bilingual-anti poverty newspaper based out of Chicago. Currently, Dr. Estrada is working on a co-written book on peace.
Willie "J.R." Fleming
Cabrini Green resident/organizer/documentarian/website designer and researcher with the Coalition to Protect Public Housing. Fleming Presented Testimony before the U.N. Office of the High Commission on Human Rights this Year. Fleming also led the March on Right to return with public housing residents and leaders in New Orleans during the Katrina one year memorial. He filmed and edited a gospelmentary titled "Voice of the Voiceless" along with several other short videos on housing that can be found at www.housingisahumanright.com. Before joining the Coalition to Protect Public Housing, Fleming was the director of a gang intervention music program for young men in Cabrini Green, and is currently the Chairman for the Hip Hop Congress Community Chapter in Chicago which deals with issues of social and economic injustice using music as a platform to unite the people. This year Willie protested the U.S. Olympic Committee in Chicago noting that the olympics causes poor people to forcefully evicted from their communities and homes. He also took part in training housing and homelessness advocates on how to utilize housing as a human rights mechanisms in the united states and and educating their communities in fighting for housing as a human right.
Read more about this event on the Chicago Labor & Arts Festival blog
Author discussion of Blackwater
7pm at Northwestern University's Harris Hall
1881 N. Sheridan Rd., Evanston
Jeremy Scahill discusses his new book Blackwater and the culture of war profiteering
REGINA POLK WOMEN'S LABOR LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE
The annual Polk Conference will take place at Pheasant Run Resort. Again, the focus will be on collective bargaining. A mailing to all Polk women including scholarship applications has been sent out and applications are being accepted now.
Contact:
Helena Worthen
hworthen@uiuc.edu
Chicago Labor Education Program
Suite 110, The Rice Building
815 West Van Buren Street
Chicago, IL 60607
312-996-8733
Author discussion of Blackwater
7:30pm at Barbara's Books
1100 Lake St., Oak Park
Jeremy Scahill discusses his new book Blackwater and the culture of war profiteering
John Starrs and Jehan Whittaker at Coffee Chicago
7 pm at Coffee Chicago
5256 N. Broadway Ave.
(Broadway and Berwyn)
There is no charge for this performance
John Starrs performs work from Carl Sandburg
John Starrs is an actor and poet who has done readings of Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman for Schools and Libraries and at the Chicago Cultural Center and an earlier Labor Arts Festival. He has written a book of poetry called The Suburban Poems published as an Art Book and as a paperback. As an actor, he recently played King Duncan in a production of Macbeth that he also directed for the 18th annual Rhino Fest.
John Starrs is a member of Depaul's School for New Learning Visiting Faculty and teaches Theater and Poetry.
He hosts the weekly open mic venue at Coffee Chicago on Friday nights.
Jehan Whittaker performs works from Susan Lori-Parks, Sojourner Truth, and Adrienne Kennedy
Jehan Whittaker received her B.A. in Theatre Arts from Point Park University and studied theatre and women's issues in 12 countries with the University of Pittsburgh's Semester at Sea program. While living in Chicago and Pittsburgh she has worked as, among many things, an actor, teacher, dramaturg, and Artist-in-Residence. She has also volunteered with Chicago Cares, Vets4Vets (an outreach to Iraq War Veterans) and Pittsburgh Playback Theatre. She currently serves as the Director of Youth and Educational programming for the Estrojam Music and Culture Festival.
For the past five years Jehan has done youth programming with various organizations throughout Illinois and Pennsylvania teaching students how to use the arts to push for social, economic, and political change. She will soon be leaving Chicago to work as an Adolescent Support Specialist for Milton Hershey School in Hershey, Pennsylvania where she will use the Experiential Learning Theory to help the Springboard Academy students perform at their peak potential.
Barbara Kingsolver Book Event: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year in Food Life
Swedish American Museum Center, 5211 N. Clark St.
Note: This is a ticketed event. Admission is free with the purchase of a book ($26.95 plus tax).
Companion tickets are available for $5.00. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Angelic Organics, a community-supported agricultural farm located in Caledonia, IL.
Barbara Kingsolver & Steven L. Hopp
7:30 p.m.: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year in Food Life
In her first book of narrative non-fiction, novelist and essayist Kingsolver (The Bean Trees, The Poisonwood Bible) details the year she and her family ate only locally produced food, much of which they grew or raised themselves. For Kingsolver, who trained as a biologist, the colorful events of the year provide a springboard for deeper exploration of the larger issue at stake: the effects of Agribusiness on the quality of our lives. Part memoir and part investigative journalism, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is vintage Kingsolver - wry, candid, levelheaded, wise, humble, intelligent, rueful, and undeniably entertaining. Kingsolver will be joined in tonight's discussion and presentation by her husband and co-author, biologist Steven L. Hopp.
"Animal, Vegetable, Miracle"
By BARBARA KINGSOLVER
Reviewed by JANET MASLIN
"Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" is a wonderfully neighborly account of stunt eating.
See the full review
NVVAM Photo & Art Exhibit — A Concrete of Images: Back from Iraq
1-5pm at the National Vietnam Veteran's Art Museum
1801 S. Indiana, Chicago
Photos and paintings by 3 Iraq War veterans: Eric Edmondson, Steve Danyluk, and Bill Smock.
Lifeline Theatre: If This Neighborhood Could Talk
Sunday, May 20th at 2:00pm at Lifeline Theatre - 6912 N Glenwood Avenue.
Lifeline Theatre is hosting one performance only of:
If This Neighborhood Could Talk
Initiated by Next Theatre of Evanston, it is part of their Next Communities project, which brings community people together with professional artists to create new plays, focused on community issues. Playwright Ebony Joy was commissioned to create this piece about affordable housing issues in Evanston and Rogers Park based out of workshops with members from these communities.
Admission is free (donations accepted). Reservations are suggested by calling 847-475-1875 x2.
About the play:
Last fall, Next Communities Director Julie Ganey headed into the community to discover what issues were top of mind for citizens of Evanston and Rogers Park. Over coffee with aldermen, city workers, community leaders and lots of people who just like living in these neighborhoods, the answer came back: "Housing. Gentrification. Affordability. Development." Community members join forces with Evanston playwright (and Fleetwood Jourdain Artistic Director) Ebony Joy to take a close look at some tough questions about how these communities are growing. How can Evanston and Rogers Park prosper without leaving neighbors out in the cold? Who should bear the cost of affordable housing? And what makes a healthy community?
About the participants:
Next Communities contributors and performers include developers, real estate professionals, affordable housing advocates, landlords, tenants, homeowners, and long term residents of every economic stratum. "It is an ambitious thing to bring a group of strong minded citizens with divergent views into a room together to form an ensemble and create art," noted Ganey. "At the very first workshop, we agreed as a group that we were not there to change each others' minds as much as understand why others might feel the way they do."
Political Discussion: Labor and the Chicago City Council Elections
Monday, May 21st, 5:30-7:00
Labor and the Chicago City Council Elections
The Rice Building Suite #110
815 W. VanBuren Chicago, IL 60607
Are you interested in what the recent Chicago City Council elections mean for labor and Chicago's working-class communities? Please join us for a conversation about politics and class in Chicago this month. We hope you can attend.
In solidarity,
Nancy MacLean and Liesl Orenic
Co-chairs, Chicago Center for Working-Class Studies
The Politics of the Working Class: Labor and the Chicago City Council Elections
A Discussion Featuring:
Jorge Ramirez, Secretary Treasurer of the Chicago Federation of Labor
Jerry Morrison, Executive Director Service Employees International Union, Illinois State Council
The Chicago Labor Education Program
The Rice Building
Suite #110
815 W. VanBuren
Chicago, IL 60607
Sponsored by
The Chicago Labor Education Program, Institute for Labor and Industrial Relations, University of Illinois
Chicago Center for Working Class Studies
Café Society Discussion: Workers of the World...Can They Unite?
For more info, contact: The Public Square at the IHC
As major corporations expand beyond national boundaries and locate branches and headquarters oversees, the United States' economy has become increasingly globalized. More and more production and service centers are positioned throughout Asia and Latin America where workers are paid less than a fraction of the wages U.S. citizens earn.
At the beginning of this trend segments of U.S. labor rallied behind a nationalistic campaign to "Buy American." However, as the world economy has matured and globalization continued, some have argued that the economic importance of the nation-state has declined. How should changes in the economy affect the efforts of labor organizing?
Many believe that the very forces fueling globalization undercut the labor force. They explain the emergence of a "corporate state" in which companies have no allegiance or accountability to a particular nation. While raising standards abroad and exporting 21st-century business practices like product assembly and computer programming overseas, the United States is also exporting 19th-century labor conditions, wages and rights. Does a global labor force make global organizing inevitable?
What are the barriers to transnational organization of workers? How does labor organizing in the U.S. need to adjust to meet the needs of workers in other countries? What criteria should be used to define labor standards? What are the most realistic incentives for developing nations to organize if corporations can simply relocate? Will the U.S. worker suffer if union resources are diverted to organizing workers in other countries? Has the shift to a global economy affected the immigration of undocumented workers to the U.S.?
Join us this week at Café Society to share your thoughts on this important issue.
Read more about this event on the Chicago Labor & Arts Festival blog
70th Anniversary of the Memorial Day Massacre
Sunday, May 27, 2:00 p.m
11731 S. Avenue O, Chicago
Featured Speaker: Leo Gerard, President, USWA
For more information call Victor Storino, 773-646-0800
Memorial Day Massacre of 1937
Ten demonstrators were killed by police bullets during the "Little Steel Strike" of 1937. When several smaller steelmakers, including Republic Steel, refused to follow the lead of U.S. Steel (Big Steel) by signing a union contract, a strike was called by the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).
As a show of support, hundreds of SWOC sympathizers from all around Chicago gathered on Memorial Day at Sam's Place, where the SWOC had its strike headquarters. After a round of speeches, the crowd began a march across the prairie and toward the Republic Steel mill. They were stopped midway by a formation of Chicago police. While demonstrators in front were arguing for their right to proceed, police fired into the crowd and pursued the people as they fled. Mollie West, a Typographical Union Local 16 member and a youthful demonstrator at the time, still recalls the command addressed to her: "Get off the field, or I'll put a bullet in your back."
The union hall of USWA Local 1033 now occupies the area where Sam's Place once stood. A memorial to the ten who died can be found there at 11731 Ave. O, about a 10-minute drive from Pullman. From Pullman take I-94 northbound to the 103rd St exit. Go east to Torrence Ave, then south to 106th. Turn left past the rotting hulk of Wisconsin Steel. When you cross the Calumet River watch for Ave O. Turn south to 117th. Look for the flagpole. The phone is (773) 646-0800.
Read more details about this event on the Chicago Labor & Arts Festival blog
Learning Curves: the Neighborhood Writing Alliance on Formal and Informal Education
Whose education counts? What does it mean to be educated? Are schools the only places we learn? What do we learn from our cultures, families, games, media, etc? Through poetry and storytelling, writers from the Neighborhood Writing Alliance consider these and other questions about formal and informal education.
Tuesday, May 29th, 6:00-7:30pm
King Branch Library
3436 S King Drive, Chicago
For more information, please call 773 684 2742 or email rsoni@jot.org.
The Neighborhood Writing Alliance (NWA), publishers of the award-winning Journal of Ordinary Thought, provokes dialogue and promotes change by creating opportunities for adults to write, publish, and perform works about their lives. NWA provides ongoing opportunities for Chicago residents to engage in the literary arts through writing workshops in low-income neighborhoods, the publication of the Journal of Ordinary Thought (JOT), and readings and events. Participants in weekly writing workshops are encouraged to write about their personal experiences to create narratives and poems and connect these experiences to larger social issues. Selected writing from the workshops is published quarterly in JOT, which reflects and amplifies the strength, thoughts, and ideas of Chicago's underserved neighborhoods to a broader audience. JOT is distributed for free to the writers and their neighborhoods and is sent to a subscriber list composed of supporters, the media, and policy makers. NWA strives to amplify voices that often go unheard. Please visit the JOT website for more information.
Three Short Films and a Conversation with filmmaker Luis Valenzuela
Wednesday, May 30 at 7 pm
Mess Hall, 6932 N. Glenwood Ave, Chicago
(at the Morse stop of the red line, Rogers Park)
Meeting Face to Face: The Iraq-U.S. Labor Solidarity Tour
directed by Jonathan Levin, produced by Michael Zweig
This 27-minute documentary breaks through the media walls that keep Iraqi and labor voices out of the debate about the war in the United States. Meeting Face to Face brings the voices of Iraqi working people directly into the conversation as we consider the war and continuing occupation and what the next steps should be.
We also see American working people bringing new energy and commitment to the movement for peace, social justice, and a humane foreign policy. Produced by the Center for the Study of Working Class Life at SUNY.
Two films by Luis Valenzuela:
Pecado Menor
Follows the conflicted experience of a Latino U.S. soldier in an unnamed Latin American country. Violent and angry, the film does not mince words or images.
English Subtitles
Bar Talk
Catalogs the conversations between a regular bar patron and the bartenders at the many Chicago bars he frequents. Talk turns from personal to political, all over the patron's favorite anesthetic.
Conversation with filmmaker Luis Valenzuela after the films
Luis Valenzuela has directed and produced four short films. Two of his films have been screened in the Chicago Latino Film Festival. Luis has worked on documentary films in Brazil on the struggles of land takeovers, and many projects on education in Chicago. In 1993 he presented a video "The Voice of the Dispossessed" for the Parliament of World Religions. He currently resides in the northwest neighborhood of Hermosa in Chicago with his wife Lourdes.
Film Showing - Mess Hall in residence at Wysing, England
Face to Face: U.S. Labor meets Iraqi Trade Unionists - U.S. Labor Against the War
Pecado Amor and At The Bar - Two films by Luis Valenzuela
Illinois Humanities Council CD Release Party
Friday, June 1st from 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Martyrs' Restaurant & Pub
3855 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago
For more info, contact: Illinois Humanities Council
Please join us on Friday, June 1st from 6:00 - 8:00 pm for a CD release party at Martyrs' Restaurant & Pub (3855 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago) for the first two volumes in the Council's Folksongs of Illinois series. Performers at this concert will include Jon Langford, Janet Bean, Clark "Bucky" Halker, and more.
This concert is free and open to the public. Reservations are required. Reservations can be made on-line, via email, or by phone at 312.422.5580. Free food and a cash bar. This is an all ages show; children must be accompanied by an adult. CDs will be on sale at the concert.
Folksongs of Illinois documents -- for the first time -- the folk, multi-ethnic, and vernacular music traditions of Illinois from 1800 to 1950. Culled from archives and field recordings in collections around the state, old commercial 78s and LPs, and new studio recordings from contemporary artists, this series reflects the fact that blues, gospel, country, jazz, polka, reels, spirituals, traditional ballads, tamburitza kolos, ethnic comedy skits, corridos, and bluegrass have all enjoyed a home in Illinois. You may purchase the Folksongs of Illinois CDs on-line through the University of Illinois Press.