LaborFest2003 "A War On All Fronts"

LaborFest 10th Anniversary Celebration
"A War On All Fronts"
LaborFest 2003 Schedule
For Further Updates Go To http://www.labornet.net



July 5 Saturday 7:00 PM SOMA Cultural Center $7.00-$10.00 Sliding Scale
Premier of Nancy Schiesari's "Hansel Mieth: Vagabond Photographer"
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~hansel/About%20the%20Documentary.html
& Special Guest Musicians
Hansel Mieth, an immigrant photographer escaping Germany arrived in San Francisco during the 1930's in the middle of the massive labor struggles. Despite being a women photographer in the midst of men, Hansel stood her ground and won the respect of Harry Bridges and the working people she shot. Hansel and her husband Otto Hegel joined the struggle for workers and human rights in the United States from the docks of San Francisco to Heart Mountain concentration camp for Japanese Americans . Hansel was there with her eyes and her camera docmenting the farmworkers of the Central Valley, the San Francisco longshoremen and the Navajo Indian people. This moving story shows that the struggle for worker and human rights never ends and is as relevant today as it was 70 years ago.
We will also screen "Labor On The March" & "SF Hotel Workers Strike of 1941". This historic footage shows the 1941 San Francisco labor day march and the 1941 hotel worker's strike. The strike which hit major SF hotel also includes and "union fashion show" of striking Mark Hopkins Hotel and Restaurant workers. AFM Local 6 musician and participant in these events Earl Watkins will provide a first hand account of this historic footage.

July 6 Sunday 12:30 PM 113 Steuart Street/Mission (Free)
(Space limited to 25, for reservations, call 415-841-1254)
1934 Strike Memorial Labor Maritime History Walk with Lewis Prisco.
A four-hour walk along San Francisco's Waterfront, revisiting the terrain of the maritime strikes and general strike which established organized labor on the West Coast. We will stop at the sites of major events: including the burning of the "Blue Books," Battle of Rincon Hill and scene of the fatalities on "Bloody Thursday," July 5, 1934. The walk will be free and a new history pamphlet with a map will also be available for a small charge. Each walk will be limited to 25 persons. To sign up for either the Sunday or Wednesday walk please call (415) 841-1254 after June 29th. Following each walk, there will be optional coffee, beers or dinner stop at the historic Eagle Café on Pier 39. Repeated on July 9th.

July 6 Sunday 5:00 PM City Lights Book Store (Free)
"Hands and Hearts"- Labor & Working Class Poetry
Strong words from poets and unionists conjuring farm workers in Salinas to San Francisco's MUNI, and life under gentrification. The writers are associated with Machinists, Sign and Display Workers, U.C. California Medical Center, and the National Writers Union. George Tsongas will read from My Workingmen's Poems. Sue Doro is the author of Blue Collar Goodbyes.
Sue Doro, Kristen Jensen, George Tsongas, Dan O, Maria Garcia Tabor
Sponsored by NWU-UAW Local 3 Bay Area http://www.unionwriters.org

July 7 Monday 7:00 PM New College Theater $10.00
"From Piers to Plantations, A Union in Hawaii" A performance by Ian Ruskin
Harry Bridges in Hawaii is the subject of Ian Ruskin's latest work about the life of Harry Bridges and the organizing struggle going on in Hawaii. http://www.theharrybridgesproject.org
"Putting it in fairly crude terms," said Ruskin, "in the late '30s in Hawaii, the system was that workers were brought in from other countries, and the way plantations were run, the workers were segregated (by nationality). This was a very effective way of controlling workers because you contain bad feelings people have about another race."
Efforts to unionize great masses of workers had previously failed, in part because unions themselves refused to bridge racial barriers. A work force crippled by fragmentation (including separate Japanese, Filipino and Chinese unions) played directly into the hands of the islands' Big Five firms.
"Harry Bridges was adamant about having a union open to all workers," said Ruskin. "If you worked on a plantation or on the shore you could join, and it didn't matter what race or religion you were. That idea of a multiracial and ethnic union was obviously a very powerful idea in Hawaii, where workers were brought in from 25 countries to work on plantations."
http://starbulletin.com/2001/10/25/features/story2.html
Labor songs by Marie Shell, Eric Lenchner and Japanese labor troubadour TetsurouTanaka http://www.din.or.jp/~okidentt
To listen to live audio webcast: http://newmedia.newcollege.edu:8000

July 8 Tuesday 7:00 PM South Of Market Cultural Center $5-$10 Sliding Scale
"Art For The New Empire"
Celebrate the 70th birthday of Mime Troupe founder and artist RG Davis. This event will include a panel with RG Davis, David Solnit, Chaba Puloni and a performance.
How is art being used today in the labor and community struggles and perspectives for the future.

July 9 Wednesday 12:30 AM 113 Steuart Street/Mission (free) Call For reservations
Labor Maritime Walk with Louis Prisco

July 9 Wednesday 7:00 PM La Pena Cultural Center $10.00
"From Piers To Plantations, A Union in Hawaii"
by Ian Ruskin
http://www.theharrybridgesproject.org
Japanese Labor Songs by Tetsurou Tanaka

July 10 Thursday 7:00 PM MCCLA $5.00
International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Japanese Labor Songs by Tesurou Tanaka

"Be Human" By Video Press, Tokyo Japan

July 11 Friday 8:00 PM MCCLA
($15 pre-performance, $20 at the door)
"Fire on Pier 32"
A Play by Jack Rasmus
This premier production of "Fire on Pier 32" takes its title from the true historic event which occurred in late 1933, when longshoremen rank and file militants gathered on Pier 32 to burn their pre-ILWU company union 'blue books'. This event marked the defeat of the employer anti-Labor offensive at that time, and the rise of the ILWU and the new unionism in San Francisco.
The play, with eight new labor songs, starts from the period of 1934 General strikes in San Francisco, up to the current period 2002-03.
Tickets: call 415-437-4040


July 12 Saturday 10:00 AM Harry Bridges Plaza
Labor Maritime History Bike Ride with Chris Carlsson
"The typical approach to 'labor history' tends to be a romanticized look at a glorious past of noble workers forming unions. This tour offers something quite different. For one thing, as we proceed through the city, we will see architectural and natural remnants of a different San Francisco. The new businesses, new landscapes and infrastructure that we will traverse are all products of human labor.
See San Francisco labor history as you bike with labor historian and author Chris Carlsson
http://www.shapingsfbay.org

July 12 Saturday 2:00 PM Modern Times Book Store (free)
Working Class Summer Camps: A Unique Cultural Phenomenon
June Levine, a former camper, and Gene Gordon, the authors of "Tales of Wo-Chi-Ca" , a unique integrated summer camp with a working class bent, and home to children of workers for over 30 years will present the fascinating story of its rise and demise through their eyes. Hear from Bobbie Rabinowitz, longtime camper and counselor, about Camp Kinderland, a progressive Jewish secular integrated camp, now in Tolland, Mass., with its own special outlook on workers history and culture, which was and still is, an oasis in a harsh political world. Learn about Camp Circle Pines, a progressive interracial cooperative camp venture in the midwest from bay area resident, photograpaher and videographer and former camper Rufus Diamont. Both camps are still in existence and thriving. See video clips from Camp Circle Pines 60th Anniversary

July 12 Saturday 8:00 PM MCCLA
Play "Fire On Pier 32"

July 13 Sunday 2:00 PM MCCLA $5.00
International Working Class Film & Video Festival

July 13 Sunday 7:00 PM New College Theater $5.00
Words on Labor & the War with the Bay Area Labor Heritage Rockin' Solidarity Chorus
Join poets, writers and readers from around the world as they speak out about the costs of war to working people. How has this ware effected our lives and what are the costs to working people here and around the world. Poets Bob Carson, Milihe Razazan, Nellie Wong, Ahmet Yazgan, Nat Turner and Zigi Lowenberg of Upsurge http://www.upsurgejazz.com/ and others will let it fly.

July 14 Monday 5:00 PM SOMA
Labor Art Hits Home- Reception-Celebration
Labor Murals By Mike Alewitz, , Richard Bermack's photo essay exhibit "The Heroes Of Social Work & John Robinson's photographs on the building of the new Al Zampa bridge in Crockett, California & Cartoons by Khalil Bendib
Mike Alewitz has created some of the most radical art about working class people all over the world. He consistently challenged not only big capital but also big labor with his human and allegorical portrayals of struggles and movements. From the Hormel Strike to the Centralia memorial from Nicaragua to Tennesee, his murals are powerful, complex and original. (From ILWU Local 6 Powell Bookstore site). "Mike Alewitz's art has given eloquent voice to the aspirations of working people throughout the world. His heroic figures and vibrant colors are powerful weapons in the hands of the oppressed." - Martin Sheen
Photographer John Robinson is now documenting the new Al Zampa bridge as it goes up. This is the first major bridge in the world named after an iron worker and there will be a major celebration of the bridge and the builders in October 2003. We need to celebrate the workers who build and maintain the bridges that span our waterways. You can learn more about the Al Zampa Bridge at
http://www.alzbridge.com/bio.html and you can also watch the bridge being constructed on the web at http://c-bridge.home.attbi.com/index.htm.
Khalil Bendib will also present his cartoons on politics and the struggle of working people along with the publication of his new book. http://www.bendib.com

July 14 Monday 6:00 PM SOMA (free)
Honor The Bridge Builders
In honor of the new Al Zampa bridge we will screen "Halfway To Hell, The Workers and Unions That Built The Golden Gate Bridge". This documentary narrated by Danny Glover interviews Al Zampa and other workers who built the Golden Gate Bridge and made it a 100% union job. Al Zampa worked both on the Carquinez Straits Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge.

July 14 Monday 7:00 PM SOMA $7.00
Bastille Day Celebration
Stories, poetry, music and song. Celebrate the French rebellion for freedom and Solidarity with
Carol Denney, Larry Shaw, Samsara, Gail Ryall, Josee Andrei, Tetsurou Tanaka, Rolando Carrillo, Moh Alileche and others.
Gail Ryall, a retired Children's Librarian and job steward with
Stationary Engineers Local 39, used to tell folktales to school children in Sacramento. When she retired, she did not want to give up the art of story telling, and decided to combine her interests as a Labor History Storyteller. She has performed in Sacramento, San Francisco (at last year's LaborFest), Oakland, Los Angeles, New York, and Arizona, at events sponsored by unions and other progressive groups.
The story she will tell at the LaborFest this year, "The Detroit
Woolworth Sit-Down Strike," is an upbeat, sometimes humorous tale about a successful strike by the young woman employees of the Woolworth chain of Five and Dime stores in 1937. "I hope this story will be an inspiration to people seeking to organize today in large chains like
WalMart," she says.


July 15 Tuesday 7:00 PM Modern Times Bookstore
Mike Alewitz co-author of "Insurgent Images"
Alewitz is one of the most important and prolific labor muralists in the world. He will discuss his art, worker's struggles and the defense of worker & human rights. His magnificent book "Insurgent Images" co-authored by labor historian Paul Buhle provides a critical grounding in understanding the power, history and value of the resurgent mural movement. "Labor Solidarity Has Not Borders".
http://www.monthlyreview.org/insurgentimages.htm

July 16 Wednesday 7:00 PM New College $7-$10 Donation Sliding Scale
International Working Class Film & Video Festival &
Benefit for Right To A Roof
First US/International Labor Short Competition (3 minute labor videos) &
Labor Videos From Argentina also Molotov Mouths Outspoken Word Troupe
As the national housing crisis continues despite the dot.com bust, building links between housing organizing and labor organizing becomes all the more crucial. Come learn about efforts to build these alliances, enjoy some poltical poetry from the Molotov Mouths Outspoken Word Troupe along with a few musical surprises and a film screenings. Partial proceeds will benefit the defense fund of Camilo Vivieros, a housing organizer with the National Alliance of HUD Tenants, who is the only protester still facing charges stemming from the Republican National Convention in 2000. To learn more about his case visit http://www.friendsofcamilo.org.

July 17 Thursday 7:00 PM MCCLA $5.00
International Working Class Film & Video Festival
" The Stars Look Down" 1939 Directed by Carol Reed 110 minutes with Michael Regrave and Margaret Lockwood
This powerful dramatic film actually shot at the St. Helens Siddick Colliery at Workinton in Cumberland England shows the lives of the miners and their struggle to survive. A group of miners are buried alive because of the greed of their pit owner boss. What little has changed today, as we see the struggle to have a decent life against the efforts of the owners to make greater profits. The sharp eyed realism exposes the life and death struggle of the miner's community and their families.

"Couch Encounter" 2003 by Samantha Davidson Green 10 minutes
San Francisco Premier: Misconceptions lead to disaster on an L.A. freeway when a wealthy Beverly Hills socialite hired two Mexican day-workers to move a couch for her "very special party". This film through comedy shows the dependence of white America on immigrant labor, the absurdity of fear and the jeopardy immigrant workers face as they try to make a living.
sdavi1013 [at] aol.com



July 18 Friday 7:00 PM MCCLA $7-$10 Sliding Scale
International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Celebrate The 50th Anniversary of "Salt of The Earth" screening & music
Join with film participants miner and organizer Lorenzo Torrez and ILWU Local 10 longshoremen Larry Wright as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of this historic film of the fight to organize the mines. We will also discuss the relevance of the film in the context of the "Patriot Act" and other such legislation.
http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/salt.html
video clip-http://www.organa.com/saltclip.htm


July 19 Saturday 3:00 PM Modern Times
"3 Strikes" - A book reading by author and UCSC professor Dana Franks
"We need to start talking about using politics to constrain corporate behavior," says Frank. Her book, co-authored with Howard Zinn and Robin D. G. Kelley, is called "Three Strikes." In it, Frank and her co-authors each tell the story of a major U.S. labor action during the 20th century. Frank chose the 1937 Detroit Woolworth strike by women clerks and waitresses, hoping to reach today's audience of young people interested in direct action, consumer awareness, and chain stores' responsibility for the conditions in which their products are made. "Students are deeply concerned about sweatshop labor," said Frank. "I try to get them to look closer to home, as well, and at their own jobs."
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/lab/82/br_6.html

July 19 Saturday 8:00 PM 885 Clayton St. at Carl St., San Francisco (free)
Song and Poetry Swap With The Freedom Song Network
Hosted by Bernard Gilbert
The Freedom Song Network has been building labor music and culture for many years in the Bay Area. Join with them when they sing out/speak out for working people. From picket lines and labor rallies to labor cultural festivals, the Freedom Song Network is on the frontlines of struggle.
For more info: (415) 648-3457

July 19 Saturday 8:00 PM MCCLA
Play "Fire On Pier 32"

July 20 Sunday 11:00 AM Terminal E $25.00
Labor Maritime History Boat Tour Call (415)642-8066 For Reservations & send check to LaborFest
Join author Gray Brechin, labor videographer Maria Brooks, historian Sue Englander, ILWU historian Harvey Schwartz, UBC 34 pile driver historian Mike Munoz and other maritime and bridge workers as we see the bay in a new light. We will hear about the labor, social, environmental and political history of the bay area from the people who know it. We will also see the 1934 strike sites, the old Union Iron site and many other sites that make the bay area a unique geographical historical jewel of the United States.
This year also offers us the opportunity to take a bird's eye look at the new bridge being built between the East Bay and Treasure Island and hear how it is being put together from the workers who do it.

July 20 Sunday 2:00 PM MCCLA
Play "Fire On Pier 32"

July 21 Monday 7:00 PM Modern Times (free)
Take Back Your Time Day: A New Campaign For Shorter Hours
Video & book reading by John De Graaf. Learn why a shorter workweek would benefit not just individual workers but society as a whole. John De Graaf, interim coordinator of the campaign is also author of Affluenza and a PBS television producer in Seattle.
jdegraaf [at] kcts.org


July 22 Tuesday 7:00 PM Modern Times (free)
Labor Globalization & the Struggle in Europe
With Labournet Austria founders Karl Fischbacker & Irmi Voglmayr from Vienna with video. First hand report on the European labor movement and the battle to defend workers rights. http://www.web.utanet.at/labournet.austria

July 23 Wednesday 7:00 PM New College $5.00
Conductors, Drivers Pilots Galore! Jobs on the Move - Drivers Stories
Join cabbies and other transportation workers as the rap and sing about the battle to survive the gridlock and the collapse of the economy.
http://www.utw.us/


July 24 Thursday 7:00 PM MCCLA $5.00
International Working Class Film & Video Festival


July 25 Friday 7:00 PM MCCLA $5.00
International Working Class Film & Video Festival
"From Swastika To Jim Crow" with Jim McWilliams & other videos.

July 26 Saturday 9:30 AM Aquatic Park ($15 reservations required)
Call (415)642-8066 to make reservation and send check to LaborFest
New Deal - WPA Structures Bus Tour
With WPA historian Harvey Smith & historian/author Gray Brechin
Learn about the major contribution construction workers made during the WPA in the building of San Francisco. Their monuments stand as important landmarks for all working people.
Itinerary
9:30 a.m. Assemble at Aquatic Park
10:00 a.m. Depart for Rincon Annex - View lobby and murals;
View Treasure Island (across Bay)
10:30 a.m. Depart for Sunshine School (Bryant & 25th) via the old Federal Building - View interior of Sunshine School
11:15 a.m. Depart for Golden Gate Park Stables via the U.S. Mint - View public and police stables
12:30 p.m. Depart for Beach Chalet - View mural, mosaics and wood carvings and have lunch
2:00 p.m. Return to Aquatic Park

July 26 Saturday 3:00 PM Modern Times
Work & The State of Labor
Retired longshoremen Reg Therialt who is author of "The Unmaking Of The American Working Class" will discusses his views on work, the trade unions and the growing assaults on our human rights.

July 26 Saturday 8:00 PM MCCLA
Play "Fire on Pier 32"


July 27 Sunday 2:00 PM MCCLA
Play "Fire On Pier 32"

July 27 Sunday 7:00 PM La Pena Cultural Center $7.00-$10.00 Sliding Scale
"Red Riot Revue"
Folk This! performs in these mad mad times. They get crazier by the day. If you don't laugh you might cry as W and the cabal run wild over this country and the world. Join Folk This! as they chart the depths of this new epic. Folk This! has performed for the working people of the Bay Area.

July 28 Monday 7:00 PM SEIU 790 1390 Market St Suite 1118 (free)
"Smokin' Word"
By Sex Workers Organized for Labor, Human and Civil Rights
An evening of Smokin' Word with Daisy Anarchy and other multi-talented activists and poets. Come hear poetry and updates on sex worker organizing happening in the Bay Area and elsewhere.
For information contatct (415)575-1740 #420

July 29 Tuesday 7:00 PM New College $7.00 - $10.00 Sliding Scale
International Working Class Film & Video Festival
"Bitter Sweat" or "Sudo Amargo" by Alba Nydia Diaz & Sonia Valenin of Copelar Productions 120 minutes (Spanish with English subtitles)
Are you ready to leave your job? You are face to face with women workers in a tuna factory in Puerto Rico when they are told that their plant will shutdown to move to an even lower wage country. This is the bitter face of the US/IMF "Globalization" It is based on the real story of a group of women that work in a tuna processing plant and whose lives are drastically changed with the announcement of it's closure.
copelarny [at] aol.com copelar.com
Also we will have a short film on SF Day Workers


July 30 Wednesday 7:00 PM Modern Times (free)
Panel Documenting work through video & photography
Videographer Maria Brooks, photographer Joe Blum, photographer Kamau Amen Ra and others

July 31 Thursday 6:00 PM Musicians Union Hall (free)
Closing Party with rapper and muscian Sparhla Swa!






LaborFest 2003
International Working Class Film & Video Schedule
For Further Updates Go To http://www.laborfest.net


July 5 Saturday 7:00 PM SOMA Cultural Center $7.00-$10.00 Sliding Scale
"Hansel Mieth: Vagabond Photographer"2003 by Nancy Schiesari 60minutes
& Special Guest Musicians
Hansel Mieth, an immigrant photographer escaping Germany arrived in San Francisco in the midst of the massive labor struggles during the 1930s. Despite being one of the only women photographers in the United Sates, Hansel stood her ground and won the respect of Harry Bridges and the working people she shot. Hansel and her husband Otto Hegel joined the struggle for workers and human rights in the United States from the docks of San Francisco to Heart Mountain concentration camp for Japanese Americans . From the farm fields of the central valley to the streets of San Francisco, Hansel was there with her eyes and her camera. This moving story shows that the struggle for worker and human rights never ends and is as critical today as it was 70 years ago.
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~hansel/About%20the%20Documentary.html
We will also screen "SF Labor On The March" & SF Hotel Workers Strike of 1941". This historic footage shows the 1941 San Francisco labor day march and the 1941 hotel worker's strike. The strike which hit major SF hotel also includes and "union fashion show" of striking Mark Hopkins Hotel and Restaurant workers. AFM Local 6 Executive Board member, musician and participant in these events Earl Watkins will provide a first hand account of this historic footage. Celebrate the victory of the Marriott workers and the battles of yesterday.



July 10 Thursday 7:00 PM MCCLA $5.00
International Working Class Film & Video Festival
"Be More Human"2003 1hr 40 min by Video Press, Tokyo Japan with Labor Troubadour Tetsurou Tanaka
This film recounts the long struggle against the privatization of Japan Railways by the Nakasone government. The government's privatization of the railways led to the suicide of over 200 workers and the illegal firing of 1046 workers who were members of the militant trade union Kokuro. These workers formed co-ops to survive and built a solidarity campaign to defend themselves and their families. Nakasone in a later interview said that one of the reasons he privatized JR was to destroy the Kokuro trade union.
http://member.nifty.ne.jp/vidoepress/hito.html
Japanese labor singer Tetsurou Tanaka was the inspiration for the title of this film. He was also fired for union organizing and sang outside the Oki electronic plant every morning for over 17 years. His songs against corporate fascism and the attack on human rights have struck a chord with many Japanese activist workers and youth. This is his first visit to the United States.
http://www.din.or.jp/~okidentt



July 13 Sunday 2:00 PM MCCLA $5.00
International Working Class Film & Video Festival
"Pilebutts, Working Under the Hammer " 2003 by Maria Brooks 30 minutes
This film shows the history of pile butts and their talents, skills and sweat in building this country. With interviews and footage we see the tough jobs that pilebutts do and the proud traditions of their work. See the people who helped build the Bay Area. Maria Brooks, Archie Green, Mike Munoz and others involved the production of this film will attend.
(510) 635-4227
sailorsEye [at] aol.com
"It's Hard to Tell A Singer By the Song" 2001 by Mimi Pickering 60 minutes
From the coalfields of West Virginia to the factories of Baltimore, Hazel Dickens has lived the songs she sings. The music is from her heart and the mines and factories she comes from.
http://www.appalshop.org/film

July 16 Wednesday 7:00 PM New College $7-$10 Donation Sliding Scale
International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Benefit for Right To A Roof
First US/International Labor Short Competition (3 minute labor videos) &
Labor Videos From Argentina also
As the national housing crisis continues despite the dot.com bust, building links between housing organizing and labor organizing becomes all the more crucial. Come learn about efforts to build these alliances, enjoy some poltical poetry from the Molotov Mouths Outspoken Word Troupe along with a few musical surprises. Partial proceeds will benefit the defense fund of Camilo Vivieros, a housing organizer with the National Alliance of HUD Tenants, who is the only protester still facing charges stemming from the Republican National Convention in 2000. To learn more about his case visit http://www.friendsofcamilo.org.



July 17 Thursday 7:00 PM MCCLA $5.00
International Working Class Film & Video Festival
" The Stars Look Down" 1939 Directed by Carol Reed 110 minutes with Michael Regrave and Margaret Lockwood
This powerful dramatic film actually shot at the St. Helens Siddick Colliery at Workinton in Cumberland England shows the lives of the miners and their struggle to survive. A group of miners are buried alive because of the greed of their pit owner boss. What little has changed today, as we see the struggle to have a decent life against the efforts of the owners to make greater profits. The sharp eyed realism exposes the life and death struggle of the miner's community and their families.

"Couch Encounter" 2003 by Samantha Davidson Green 10 minutes
San Francisco Premier: Misconceptions lead to disaster on an L.A. freeway when a wealthy Beverly Hills socialite hired two Mexican day-workers to move a couch for her "very special party". This film through comedy shows the dependence of white America on immigrant labor, the absurdity of fear and the jeopardy immigrant workers face as they try to make a living.
sdavi1013 [at] aol.com


July 18 Friday 7:00 PM MCCLA $7-$10 Sliding Scale
International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Celebrate The 50th Anniversary of "Salt of The Earth" Screening & Music
Join with film participants Lorenzo Torrez and Larry Wright as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of "Salt Of The Earth and discuss the lessons of the film for today. "Salt of the Earth" is one of the most important films ever made on working class struggle and the effort to destroy organized labor using the McCarthy witchhunt as a weapon. From the fight of women to lead and get respect to the effort to destroy the unionization effort this classic film is hard hitting and even more relevant today than in years past. Made by black listed film workers and with real miners, organizers and their families, this powerful film exposes the many battles to win union rights. As Bush and his cabal plot against labor this film has important meaning with the effort to blacklist the Dixie Chicks, Michael Moore and others who speak out against the policies of the government.
http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/salt.html


July 24 Thursday 7:00 PM MCCLA $5.00
International Working Class Film & Video Festival
"I Always Dream of Tomorrow" 38 minutes produced by Korean Women Workers Association and United Korean Women's Trade Union, this film tells the story of the battle to organize part time women workers in Japan. From golf caddies to film script writers we see the overt discrimination and conditions that Korean women workers face to win their rights. Their successful effort to organize is a tribute to the strength of women workers.
http://www.spark.or.kr
chunsoonok [at] hotmail.com
"Shots On The Docks" 2003 by the Labor Video Project 28 minutes
Not since 1934 have workers and protesters been shot on the docks. This documents the picket line protesting the war on Iraq and the response of the Oakland police to peaceful pickets. Included are interviews with many of the participants on why they were there and the reaction to the attacks that received worldwide attention.
lvpsf [at] labornet.org
"Trade Secrets-The Hidden Costs of the FTAA" 2002 by Jeremy Blasi 16 minutes This shows what and who is behind the drive to open up the Americas to "Free Trade" The toxic waste of corporate "free trade" is destroying the health, environment and lives of millions of workers.
blasi [at] uclink.berkeley.edu
"New Patriots" 2002 18 minutes by Robert Richter
This film looks at the transformation of a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient , a women West Point graduate and three other military veterans and their transformation while in the military. They discover that the U.S. Army School of Americas (SOA) is in fact not fighting "terrorists" but training Latin soldiers to attack trade unionists, peasants and other poor people throughout Latin America.
http://www.RichterVideos.com





July 25 Friday 7:00 PM MCCLA $5.00
International Working Class Film & Video Festival
"From Swastika To Jim Crow" 1999 by Gabriel Edgecomb 60 minutes with participant Jim McWilliams
Over 50 German Jewish professors escaping Nazi Germany ended up in the South teaching at Black universities. They discover that some of the ideology of the South had similarities to what they had left. Jim Williams a Bay Area resident who was one of the students talks about their experience and the struggle against racism in the South.
(914) 478-1900
"To The Bitter End" 2003, by Jun-sik Labor News Production, 58 min
US Premier Screening
This is the story of Korean worker Ju Bong-hee, president of the TV Irregular Workers’ Union. His life from 2000 until today has been one endless struggle to abolish the Worker Dispatch Law, supposedly legislated to protect workers like him, only to be used as a weapon to destroy their livelihoods. The infuriated Ju throws himself into the fight, but as usual, the odds continue to mount against him. Time drains his energy and elusive hope brings despair, but Ju still sheds tears of joy at the slightest sign of victory. In him we see a winner who’ll fight to the bitter end. This film is part of a series documenting the lives of true labor activists who steadfastly - or perhaps foolishly - stay put in the face of attacks, arrests and physical abuse. Even if utter despair is the foregone conclusion of their story, we dare believe that these workers are in themselves the embodiment of hope.
"Hope is never visible to the eye."
- by human rights activist Suh Joon-shik while in prison
http://www.lnp89.org

July 29 Tuesday 7:00 PM New College $7.00-$10.00 Sliding Scale
International Working Class Film & Video Festival and
Benefit For San Francisco Day Laborers Program
SF Premier Screening of "Bitter Sweat" or "Sudo Amargo" 2002
by Alba Nydia Diaz & Sonia Valenin of Copelar Productions 120 minutes
Are you ready to leave your job? You are face to face with women workers in a Puerto Rican fish factory when they are told that their plant will shutdown to move to an even lower wage country. This is the bitter face of the WTO/IMF "Globalization" It is based on the real story of a group of women that work in a
Star Kist Caribbean tuna Plant in Western Puerto Rico and whose lives are drastically changed with the announcement of it's closure. The boss is murdered and this tests the strength and courage of the workers who come under investigation.
http://www.terra.com.do/arte/articulo/html/art7790.htm
copelarny [at] aol.com copelar.com
Also we will screen a short about SF Day Workers


Sponsored by ILWU International, San Francisco Labor Council, San Francisco Bay Area & Vicinity Port Maritime Council, District Council of Ironworkers Of the State Of California & Vicinity, ILWU 34, ILWU 10, Laborers International Local 261, OPEIU 3, , AFTRA, IFPTE Local 21, SEIU 535, Sailors Union of the Pacific, IBEW Local 6, IUOE Stationary Engineers Local 39, Sheetmetal Workers Local 104, AFT Local 2121, SEIU 790, GCIU Local 4N, ATU 1555, San Francisco Pride At Work, OPEIU 29, Labor Video Project, Northern California Media Workers Guild/Typographical Union 39521-CWA, United Taxicab Workers, APWU San Francisco, Sign Display and Allied Crafts Local 510, American Federation Of Musicians Local 6, United Transportation Union Local 1740, NWU-UAW Local 3 Bay Area Chapter, Holt Labor Library, Labornet.org, Mission Cultural Center For Latino Arts, New College Center for Education & Social Action, La Pena Cultural Center, KPFA, Modern Times Bookstore, KALW, South Of Market Cultural Center, City Lights Bookstore, Inkworks