LaborFest 2013 Schedule

LaborFest 2013 Schedule

July 2 (Tuesday) 9:30 AM (Free) San Francisco Labor Council Office - 1188 Franklin St., Suite 203, SF
Share BREAD AND ROSES with Retired Union Members
Come to an open regular meeting of FORUM (Federation of Retired Union Members), an organization of retirees sponsored by the San Francisco Labor Council. Retirees come from a spectrum of unions with members and workers in San Francisco. FORUM supports alliances between working people and retired people to preserve and improve social security, pension and health benefits. The July program will highlight members’ current activities as well as personal recollections of the 1934 General Strike and other strikes in San Francisco. Those who have stories to tell are especially invited to come share memories. Refreshments will be served.

July 2 (Tuesday) 7:00 PM (Free) Berkeley Community College, Basement Auditorium - 2050 Center St., Berkeley
The Contis, the Struggle Contimues 95 min. 2010 France
By Philippe Clatot
(Click here for more information on the film)

July 4 (Thursday) 2:00 PM (Free) Dolores Park - 18th St. & Dolores, SF
Oil and Water - SF Mime Troupe
OIL & WATER is actually two shorter plays - CRUDE INTENTIONS and DEAL WITH THE DEVIL
Climate change, pollution, water scarcity, and fossil fuel dependence, and issues too big to be dealt with in just one story, so this year’s Mime Troupe production presents two one-act musicals linked by environmental themes depicting the abusive relationships society has with our natural resources and the lengths we go to satisfy our thirsts.
A poisoned rainforest river, a senator mysteriously murdered in his office, a sinister criminal conspiracy, and an oil refinery ablaze in the Bay Area – with the survival of the human race in question, the stakes could not be any higher.
http://www.sfmt.org
For more info: http://www.sfmt.org

July 5 (Friday) 7:00 PM ($7.00) Victoria Theatre - 2961 16th St. near Mission St., SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
The Spirit of ‘45 (94 min. 2013) UK, SF Premiere
By Ken Loach
(Click here for more information)

July 5 (Friday) 7:00 PM (Free) Eastside Arts Alliance - 2277 International Blvd., Oakland
Innocent! The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal
The struggle to free America’s most famous political prisoner, former Black Panther and revolutionary journalist, member of NABET, Mumia Abu-Jamal. Speakers will include; Rachel Wolkenstein, investigative attorney for Mumia, speaking on the evidence of innocence and the state frame-up of Mumia; a family spokesman, Bob Wells, Oakland Teachers for Mumia; and, Jack Heyman, ILWU organizer of the 1999 San Francisco longshore union West Coast port shutdown in defense of Mumia. A 5 minute video by the Labor Video Project of the SF Mumia march of 25,000 will also be shown.

July 6 (Saturday) 11:00 AM (Free) Meet at Fort Point - at the south anchorage of Golden Gate Bridge
Golden Gate Bridge Walk
Tour led by Mike Daly (Retired Ironworkers Local 377)
Join us for an exciting event at the Bridge, viewing it from Fort Point, a perspective that enables an understanding of the challenges of the original construction as well as the continual operations that keep the bridge operational. Hear clear explanations of the recent seismic projects, and the ongoing Presidio Parkway.

DIRECTION to Fort Point: Fort Point is located at the south anchorage of the Golden Gate Bridge at the end of Marine Drive on the Presidio of San Francisco.
By bus: Muni 28 and PresidiGo buses stop at bridge toll plaza. Follow trail signs northeast of plaza area to Fort Point at base of bluffs.
By car from north: 101 north and exit right at the Golden Gate Bridge toll plaza before getting on bridge. Turn right at end of exit ramp and then left onto Lincoln Boulevard. Take the first left onto Long Avenue and follow onto Marine Drive and Fort Point at its end.
By car from south: take Highway 101 across the Golden Gate Bridge. Stay in right toll lane and exit immediately past the bridge toll plaza. Turn right at end of exit ramp and loop under toll plaza. At end of road, turn left onto Lincoln Boulevard. Take the first left onto Long Avenue and follow onto Marine Drive and Fort Point at its end.
(Ample parking and rest room facilities at Fort Point
Excellent vantage point to see the structures from this location.)

July 6 (Saturday) 12:00 Noon Meet at 518 Valencia St. near 16th St., SF
Labor Bike Tour by Chris Carlsson
($15-50 sliding scale donation requested to benefit Shaping San Francisco)
From the pre-urban history of Indian slavery to the earliest 8-hour day movement in the U.S., the ebb and flow of class war is traced. SF’s radical working class organizations are shaped in part by racist complicity in genocide and slavery, but from the 1870s to the 1940s there are dozens of epic battles between owners and workers, culminating in the 1934 General Strike and its aftermath. This is an entirely different look, during a four-hour bike tour, at San Francisco labor history.
For more info: (415) 608-9035, carlsson.chris [at] gmail.com

July 6 (Saturday) 2:00 PM (Train Fares & film ticket) Meet at Niles Station - 37001 Mission Blvd, Freemont
All Aboard the Niles Canyon Steam Train
(Click here for more information)

July 6 (Saturday) 7:00 PM (Donations) 518 Valencia St., near 16th St. SF
San Francisco history in three one-act plays
By David Giesen
Enjoy an evening of historical fiction theater taking up the stories of two significant San Franciscans who shaped the city we love with policies that haunt us still. In Henry Meiggs Wanted to Die for His Sins, local playwright David Giesen treats the provocative history of Henry Meiggs, entrepreneur and land developer, who came to San Francisco in 1849, established a successful lumber company serving the pioneer boom town, but who also engaged in real estate shenanigans in North Beach that anticipated the high rent struggles of today. But there’s a twist, Meiggs tried to undo part of the wrong he did. Was he a good man? A bad man? Or just like you and me?
In Dogs and Coyotes, Baseballs and Rabbits, Giesen recovers a slice of life in 1914 San Francisco emblematic of every working class family’s experience. Drawing from the public record, this story portrays from teenagers’ perspectives the self-serving power-wanking of long-time San Francisco Mayor “Sunny” Jim Rolph as he displaced a working class family in Bernal Heights . . . with an unexpected sweet and sour ending.
The evening concludes with a short comic romp taking up very recent history . . . indeed still living history in the making . . . as King Kong comes to San Francisco to defend working families from home mortgage foreclosure.
Contact: Ack-Act Theater, http://www.TheCommonsSF.org

July 7 (Sunday) 11:00 AM (Free) Meet at 18th Street & Tennessee, SF
Dogpatch & Portrero Point Walk
With SF City Guides (by Natalie Wisniewsli)
Designated as a San Francisco Historic District, this colorful neighborhood has important ties to many of the city’s past commercial industries. From its historic working class cottages and industrial age relics to the current proliferation of ultra-modern lofts, we’ll explore the past and present of this surprising, eclectic neighborhood in transition. (Muni 22 or 3rd St. train)

July 7 (Sunday) 11:00 AM (Free) Departs from the cable-car turnaround - Powell at Market, SF
Empires, Kings, and Labor Walking Tour
By David Giesen
Come along on a one hour and fifteen minute stomp navigating Union Square (and nearby blocks) that tells in microcosm the whole story of labor struggles. From sugar and cotton plantations to Texas-sized cattle empires to railroad kingdoms and on to latter day virtual latifundias, workers in San Francisco and beyond have faced the crushing millstones of tantalizingly ubiquitous but just out of reach capital for small business start-up from above, and inexorable, obdurate high rents from below. The buildings and urban features around Union Square illuminate the enduring struggles of workers down the ages.
David Giesen: commonwealth1234 [at] yahoo.com

July 7 (Sunday) 2:00 PM (Free) 518 Valencia St., near 16th St. SF
Innocent! The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal
(This program will be the same as July 5th, with different location.)

July7 (Sunday) 2:00 PM (Train Fares & film ticket) Meet at Niles Station - 37001 Mission Blvd, Freemont
All Aboard the Niles Canyon Steam Train
This program is a repeat of the Saturday July 6th's program, except there is no music by the Spirit of '29 Dixieland Jazz Band and no lecture by Lary Shoup.
(Click here for more information)

July 8 (Monday) 10:00 AM (Free) Meet at Portsmouth Square -Washington Street side near the elevator at Kearny, SF
Chinatown Walk
(With SF City Guides - by Mae Schoening)
Learn about Chinese Labor History in California, discrimination by both governments and unions, sweat shops, housing issues, but throughout, a determination to persist. Walk through the unique hidden alleyways to hear the history of America’s oldest and largest Chinese community. Learn how immigrant labor struggled for fair treatment while mining gold, building railroads, and working in the garment and building trades. Meet inside Portsmouth Square Park in front of Parking Garage Elevators adjacent corner of Walter P. Lum Pl. & Washington St. Public transportation: Muni lines 1, 30, and 45.

July 9 (Tuesday) 10:30 AM (Free) Meet at Potrero Hill Neighborhood House - Southern Heights & DeHaro, SF
Potrero Hill Walk
(With SF City Guides - by Paul Cooney)
Potrero Hill is a diverse neighborhood on one of our many hills that has an interesting history, fascinating characters, vistas to the four winds and great weather. This hill even has a unique brewery and a one-of-a kind church across the street from each other. This neighborhood has amazing architecture. Potrero Hill was and is home to many working class families who made vital contributions to San Francisco’s industrial and maritime heritage.

July 9 (Tuesday) 1:30 PM (Free) Meet in East end of Rincon Center lobby - Mission at Steuart, SF
Controversial Murals of Rincon Center
(With SF City Guides - by Al Ciabattoni)
Scandalous! Shocking! Revolting! Partisan hysteria echoed from San Francisco to Washington D.C. when these murals were unveiled. Powerful voices called for their destruction, yet 30 years later,the building was saved from demolition. The murals tell many stories, from SF history to Cold War politics. Discover the artistic and political drama behind these treasures.

July 9 (Tuesday) 2:00 PM (Free) Rosie The Riveter Education Center - 1414 Harbor Way South # 3000, Richmond
Home Front Heroes And The Role of Black Workers
With Betty Reid Soskin
Betty Reid Soskin who is now a US Park Ranger at the Rosie The Riveter Education Center saw the segregation against black workers in the shipyards where she worked during the World War II. Tens of thousands of not only black workers but also women were able to get decent paying jobs for the first time but they faced discriminatory treatment and had to fight for their rights.
This discrimination continued after the war when they were laid off and other workers were rehired to replace them. Soskin was there face to face with this history and will be screening some videos about these issues. She will also be joining the LaborFest Maritime boat trip on July 21.

Direction: From San Francisco/Oakland: I-80 East, then take the I-580 West split after the Gilman St. off ramp. EXIT Harbour Way South, then turn Right onto Cutting Blvd, now make a Right at the next stop light onto Harbour Way South and Continue for 0.8 miles. Make a left into the Gated lot passing the guard shack. Follow signs from there ending at Suite #3000. The entrance is on the south side of the building by the water

July 9 (Tuesday) 7:00 PM (Free) City Lights Bookstore - 261 Columbus at Broadway, SF
City Lights Poetry Reading - Honoring Carol Tarlen
With Aggie Falk, Jack Hirschman, David Joseph, Sarah Menefee, Leslie Simon, andJulia Stein celebrating the release of Every Day Is an Act of Resistance: Selected Poems by Carol Tarlen from Mongrel Empire Press. With MC Alice Rogoff.
Carol Tarlen was a long time North Beach resident, mother, wife, activist, UCSF AFSCME medical school worker and brilliant poet. She got arrested for Food Not Bombs as well as published widely in magazines and in every major anthology of working class poetry, including American Working Class Literature: An Anthology (Oxford University Press). She wrote poetry as if Whitman and Mother Jones were alive and writing in North Beach. She died in 2004, and Every Day Is an Act of Resistance is her first published book.
“Carol Tarlen’s poems bring the human and political together in rich, heart-felt ways.... She had an uncompromising commitment to the truth without sentimentality or condescension. Carol Tarlen was a Straight Shooter. In Nellie Perkiss Speaks Her Mind, she writes ‘The news don’t never tell the way it really is.’ Well, Carol Tarlen always told things the way they really are. These poems deserve a wide and diverse readership-read this book, and pass it on.” -Jim Daniels, Poet & Professor, Carnegie Mellon University.

July 10 (Wednesday) 7:00 PM (Donation) 518 Valencia - Near 16th St., SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Shift Cahnge (70 min. 2012) USA
By Mark Dwarkin & Melissa Young
One Shot, One Kill (102 min. 2009) Japan
By Yukihisa Fujimoto
(Click here for more information)

July 10 (Wednesday) 6:00 - 8:00 PM (Free) City College of SF, Mission Campus - 1125 Valencia St., SF
Teach In on Privatization and Accreditation
AFT 2121 and the California Federation of Teachers have filed suit against the conflicts of interest and unequal treatment by the accreditation board. The privately run board has demanded attacks on teacher healthcare and benefits as well as seeking to privatize the community college system. California Federation of Teachers Past CFT President Marty Hittelman will speak on Accreditation and the ACCJC.
Sponsored by Save CCSF Coalition and AFT 2121, ACCJC Gone Wild

July 11 (Thursday) 5:30 PM (Free) San Francisco City Hall Ground floor - 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
The Bridge Builders - Photo Show by Joseph A. Blum
From the Bridge project’s inception in 1989, Blum has been dutifully documenting the process of its expansion, and intends to continue until the Bridge’s completion and formal opening.
Twenty-five years as a boilermaker, shipfitter, and welder, provide Blum with an informed eye, an expansive mechanical vocabulary, and a unique ability to focus on the important human component of the bridge’s construction. While the artist has photographed all aspects of the structure’s erection, the people who labor to build the new bridge hold the greatest interest for Blum. He explains, “In so far as possible, I have attempted to photograph the building of this bridge from their perspective, and I think that the public should get to see their work from that point of view, and hopefully honor and celebrate it, as I do. There would not be a bridge without the men and women who are building it. They are the ones who have transformed the ideas of the bridge designers, architects and engineers from blueprints and drawings into a living structure of steel and concrete.”

July 11 (Thursday) 7:00 PM (Free) First Unitarian Universalist Church - 1187 Franklin St. at Geary
Too Big to Name?
How the Press — and specifically the SF Chronicle — suppresses embarrassing information about those who own the country
The mass media has been almost entirely missing in action on the story of why the U.S. Postal Service is being destroyed, and who is profiting from the selloff of its PUBLIC property by CBRE, a company controlled and chaired by Senator Feinstein’s billionaire husband, Richard C. Blum. This dereliction of duty is in keeping with the traditional power of the press to define who are the city’s — and the nation’s —“best people.” Except now it’s worse.
Gray Brechin and a panel of journalists will discuss what has happened to investigative journalism as the mass media has become increasingly corporatized, commercialized, and monopolized. Panel: Gray Brechin, UC Berkeley geographer, Richard Brenneman, formerly at the Berkeley Daily Planet and many other newspapers; Savanah Blackwell, journalist formerly with the Bay Guardian; George Wooding, publisher of Westside Observer.

July 11 (Thursday) 7:00 PM (Free) Niebyl Proctor Marxist Library - 6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland
France: Citroen Auto Workers Fight Back Against Plant Closures - Speak-Out
Join Speak Out Now for a presentation and video showing from the group L’Etincelle, on the current situation in France, and the strike at the Citroen Aulnay plant. In 2012 alone, 266 factories of more than ten workers were closed – one every work day of the year in France. Workers in the factory of PSA Aulnay-sous-Bois, near Paris, went on strike January 16 to fight against the closing of their plant and elimination the jobs of 11,200 workers. Hundreds of strikers have occupied their factory and met daily in a general assembly to renew the strike and to decide on their plans of action. They have gone to other workplaces on strike and facing layoffs to try to build a common fight back. They have held demonstrations in Paris with other workers who are also trying to fight back.

July 12 (Friday) 7:00 PM ($7.00) ILWU Local 34 Hall - 801 2nd St., SF next to AT&T Stadium
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
The Contis, the Struggle Contimues (95 min. 2010) France
By Philippe Clatot
On the Art o War (85 min. 2010) Italy
By Silvia Luzi & Luca Bellino
(Click here for more information)

July 13 (Saturday) 9:45 AM (Free) Meet at Coit Tower entrance, SF
Coit Tower Mural Walk
With Peter O’Driscoll, Harvey Smith
Seventy-nine years ago this month, artists who were working under Civil Works Administration and the Public Works of Art Project program were painting the Coit Tower murals. These political artists were very much influenced by the General Strike, and this is reflected in these historic murals.
A media hysteria was also whipped up against the art and the artists in an effort to censor them. Fortunately this failed and the murals remain a testament to the people of San Francisco and the labor movement.
(City Guides tour starts 11:00 AM)

July 13 (Saturday) 12:00 Noon (Free) Met in front of One Market Street, SF
Labor History and Market Street - Walk
(With SF City Guides - by Chuck Schwartz)
The guide will start with the streetcar strike of 1907, talk about the events that led up to Bloody Thursday 1934; then, Bloody Thursday and the General Strike and funerals on Market Street; Thomas J Mooney and the So Called Bomb Trials; then walk up Market Street to the Mechanics Monument where the tour ends the walk with stories about the monument; the sculptor Douglas Tilden and how the Mechanics Monument became a favorite gathering place for labor because of the unusual way it depicts the nobility of labor rather than captains of industry or military heroes.

July 13 (Saturday) 2:00 PM (Free) National Japanese American Historical Society - 1684 Post St., SF
The ILWU and Asian Americans
Presentation by Harvey Schwartz, moderated by Rachel Inouye
On February 23, 1942, four days after President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans in World War II “relocation” camps, ILWU stalwart Louis Goldblatt was serving as secretary-treasurer of the California State Industrial Union Council, CIO. A few months later, he would begin his remarkable 44 year run as ILWU International secretary-treasurer, but on that February day, just weeks removed from Imperial Japan’s raid on Pearl Harbor, Goldblatt testified before the Select Committee Investigating National Defense Migration of the U.S. House of Representatives. There, he condemned America’s resort to concentration camps and charged that “this entire episode of hysteria and mob chant against the native-born Japanese will form a dark page of American history.”
Goldblatt’s prediction, of course, came true. In this forum, we will explore Goldblatt’s courageous 1942 stand and as well as numerous other phases of the multi-racial ILWU’s historical experience with the Japanese-American and other Asian-American communities. From its beginning in the mid-1930s under Harry Bridges, legendary founding president, the ILWU has stood against discrimination and for civil rights, civil liberties, social justice, and equal opportunity for all. By and large, it has carried this out in practice from its early days through its 1943-1945 organizing of 25,000 Japanese and Filipino agricultural workers in Hawaii and well beyond. We will trace these aspects of the ILWU’s history in our forum, which will be moderated by Rachel Inouye, Program Coordinator for the National Japanese American Historical Society. Harvey Schwartz, Curator of the ILWU Oral History Collection, will be our main presenter.

July 13 (Saturday) 7:30 PM (Free) Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall - 1924 Cedar, Berkeley
The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), Privatization and the Destruction National Healthcare in Asia
With Dr. Claudia Chaufan UCSF and others.
The drive to remake national healthcare systems in Asia is now proceeding with the planned TPP agreement.
According to this accord, which has been shaped by drug, chemical and the healthcare insurance industry, healthcare systems in Asia will be pushed to replicate the US insurance controlled healthcare system. This is Privatization on steroids.
Co-sponsord by California Chapter of Physicians For National Healthcare and UPWA.

July 14 (Sunday) 10:00 AM (Free) Meet at Harry Bridges Plaza Tower - Embarcadero at Market St., front of the Ferry Building
SF General Strike Walk
Meet at Harry Bridges Plaza - Front of Ferry Building, at the south side tower, San Francisco.
Join a walk with retired ILWU longshoreman Jack Heyman, Herb Mills, Howard Keylor, Louis Prisco and others.
We will look at the causes of the 1934 General Strike and why it was successful. How was the strike organized and why are the issues in that strike still relevant to working people today? We will also view some of the key historical sites in this important US labor struggle. Be prepared for a long walk, slow pace and no hills.
(Herb Mills was the organizer of the ‘78 anti-Chile longshore protest in Oakland, Howard Keylor of the ‘84 anti-apartheid ship boycott action in SF and Louis, the labor historian extraordinaire and initiator of the ‘34 strike walk.)

July 14 (Sunday) 10:00 AM ($20.00) Meet at front of Bill Graham Auditorium - 99 Grove St. Civic Center, SF
WPA Bus Tour
With Gray Brechin & Harvey Smith
Join Gray Brechin and Harvey Smith as they travel through history on a bus tour of historic sites built by unionized labor. You will learn about the major contribution workers made during the depression era of the New Deal program. They will discuss the history of WPA. Please be aware that the tour will take about 5 hours depending on the traffic and the discussions.
Meet at front of Bill Graham Auditorium, between City Hall and the Main Library.
Reservation required:
Send e-mail: laborfest [at] laborfest.net or call: (415) 642-8066, and leave your name, number of reservations and phone number (this is to get back to you in case of any changes. )
Make reservation, then send check to: LaborFest, P.O. Box 40983, SF, CA 94140
Please bring your own lunch. For those who couldn’t bring one, we will have some sandwiches and drink on the bus for small cost. Bus will return to Civic Center. Tour lasts about 5 hours.

July 14 (Sunday) 1:00 PM (Free) SF Main Library, Latino room - 100 Larkin St., SF
Labor, Ideology, Privatization & the Global Struggle forPublic Education and Public Services
There is a worldwide program to privatize and destroy public education union and public education itself. This panel will look at the ideological agenda of this privatization scheme and who is carrying it out both in the US and internationally, and how the commodification of education is bringing massive profits to the 1%. It will also look at what is required to stop this privatization onslaught on our schools and public services.
Speakers: Jack Gerson, former leader OEA; Kathleen Carroll, former attorney and whistleblower Commission on Teacher Credentialing; Sharon Higgins, researcher on education and privatization; Peter Byrne, journalist.

July 14 (Sunday) 6:00 PM (Free) Green Arcade Bookstore - 1680 Market St. at Gough St. SF
May the Spirit Be Unbroken - Book Reading
By Maxine De Felice
This is a book about the parents of Maxine De Felice, Clara and Henry Fiering, who were well known union organizers. Her grandparents, who were “Wobblies,” and founders of an educational reform commune in 1915 and the story of their children is woven in. It is a story about the resilience of the human spirit.



July 15 (Monday) 10:00 AM (Free) Meet at Market Street Plaza between 525 and 555 Market Street
1906 Earthquake & Fire - Walk
(With SF City Guides - by Sue Krumbein)
Meet at Market Street Plaza benches between 525 and 555 Market Street.
Imagine, awakening before dawn on April 18, 1906 to the unthinkable--a massive earthquake has toppled chimneys and buildings, and ripped apart city water pipes. With the fire on your heels, escape from the alleyways south of Market to what should be the safety of Union Square. Learn about the experiences of the people that morning, and the emergency response they received. Hear also about controversial actions by the military in dealing with the fire and the evacuations

July 15 (Monday) 7:00 PM (Free) Green Arcade Bookstore - 1680 Market St. at Gough St. SF
A House With No Roof - Book Reading
A Book Reading by Rebecca Wilson
In 1966, Rebecca Wilson’s father, Dow Wilson, a San Francisco painters’ union leader and civil rights activist, was assassinated on the street in San Francisco. Rebecca - known throughout as “Becky” - was three years old. A House with No Roof is Wilson’s gripping memoir of how the murder of her father propelled her family into a life-long search for solace and understanding.
Following her father’s death, Becky’s mother, Barbara, desperate for closure and peace, uproots the family and moves to Bolinas, California. In this small, coastal town of hippies, artists, and “burnouts,” the family continues to unravel. To cope, Barbara turns to art and hangs a banner that loudly declares, “Wilsons are Bold.” But she still succumbs to her grief, neglecting her children in her wake. Becky’s brother turns to drugs, while her beautiful sister chooses a life on the road and becomes pregnant. As Becky fumbles and hurtles toward adulthood herself, she comes to learn the full truth of her father’s death - a truth that threatens to steal her sanity and break her spirit.
Told with humor and candor - and with love and family devotion at its heart - A House with No Roof is a brave account of one daughter’s struggle to survive.

July 16 (Tuesday) 7:00 PM (Free) ILWU Local 34 Hall - 801 2nd St., next to AT&T Stadium
May Day 2013 and Using Labor Media in Our Global and National Struggles
On May Day 2013, workers’ struggles around the world were streamed on the new international labor streaming channel. This event will screen some of these May Day videos, and will discuss how developing an international labor media network is critical to defend working people and unions in the US and around the world.
Sponsored by the International Labor Media Network Working Grouphttp://ilmnetwork.org

July 17 (Wednesday) 7:00 PM (Free) ILWU Local 34 Hall - 801 2nd St. next to AT&T Stadium
Upholding the People's Right to Know
The public’s right to know about government policies and actions, and their underlying reasons is critical. It is also connected, at the same time, for the right of journalists to do their job without fear of government reprisal (such as the U.S. Justice Department’s transgression against The Associated Press); and corporate attempts (such as “ag gag” laws) to muzzle journalists.
Panelists:
Larry Bush, San Francisco political ethics and open-government activist and journalist
Peter Phillips, president, Media Freedom Foundation/Project Censored
Tracy Rosenberg, executive director, Media Alliance
Josh Wolf, freelance videographer/journalist (whom a U.S. district court in San Francisco jailed for 226 days for refusing to surrender unedited video footage sought by the San Francisco Police Department), and others.
This event is endorsed by: Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California Chapter, First Amendment Coalition, MapLight, Labor Video Project

July 18 (Thursday) 7:00 PM ($7.00) 518 Valencia - Near 16th St., SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Strike (85 min. 1925) USSR
By Sergei Eisenstein
Even The Heavens Weep: The Mine Wars of West Virginia (60 min. 1985) USA
By Danny L. McGuire
(Click here for more information)

July 19 (Friday) 6:30 PM (Free) SEIU Local 87 Hall - 240 Golden Gate Avenue, SF
3rd Annual Living Wage Awards Dinner
The Living Wage Coalition is a grassroots movement of low-wage workers and their allies fighting for economic justice since 1998 to change political priorities so that government does not subsidize poverty wage employers.
We are engaged in a radical rethinking of the economy that makes the goals of economic development a more prosperous, healthier and livable community.
This year’s award will be given to Olga Miranda, president of Janitors Local 87 SEIU, and secretary treasurer of the San Francisco Labor Council, and to Mike Casey, president of UNITE HERE Local 2, and president of the San Francisco Labor Council.
For information or to purchase tickets: San Francisco Living Wage Coalition, (415) 863-1225, www. livingwage-sf.org, sflivingwage [at] riseup.net

July 19 (Friday) 7:00 PM ($7.00) Redstone Building - 2940 16th St. at Capp, SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Newspeak (25 min) 2011 UK
By Ken Fero
Mother of Fukushima (17 min.) 2013 USA
By Kazmi Torii
Living as Brothers (90 min.) 2012 Canada
By Kevin Fraser
(Click here for more information)

July 20 (Saturday) 10:00 AM (Free) Meet at 75 Folsom St. - Entrance of Hills Brothers Coffee Building, SF
San Francisco Waterfront Labor History Walk
With Lawrence Shoup and Peter O’Driscoll
There are many stories to be told about labor struggles in San Francisco. This story is about the maritime industry from 1835 until the burning of the blue book in 1934.
Also, labor historian Larry Shoup will talk about the history of the 1901 transportation workers strike, which included the Teamsters, and was smashed by the San Francisco police. This strike, in part, led to the formation of the San Francisco Union Labor Party, which in 1905, swept the election and took control of the city.

July 20 (Saturday) 12:00 - 2:00 PM (Free) Meet N.E. corner of 9th St. and Harrison
Labor and Art in SOMA/N. Mission
Walking Tour with Susan Greene
($5-10 sliding scale - for Shaping San Francisco)
An audio walking tour connecting two murals. For more information: http://www.shapingsf.org/tours

July 20 (Saturday) 8:00 PM (Free) 885 Clayton St. - between Carl & Parnassus, SF
Song and Poetry Swap
For over 30 years, the Freedom Song Network has been helping keep alive the spirit of labor and political song in the Bay Area, on picket lines, at rallies, on concert stages and at song swaps. Bring songs or poems to share. Everyone is welcome, regardless of musical ability or training. For info: (415) 648-3457

July 21 (Sunday) 12:00 Noon (Free) Marine Firemen’s Hall - 240 2nd St. San Francisco
Irish Labor History Walk
With IBEW electrician Peter O’Driscoll and labor writer and UAW NWU member Larry Shoup.
This tour will focus on the history of San Francisco’s famed waterfront and the role of its Irish and Irish-American workers, leaders, and martyrs. It will also include the cases of Tom Mooney and Warren Billings who faced a labor frame-up in the Preparedness Day Bombing in San Francisco in July 1916, and the successful struggle for their release. The tour will also view the sculpture dedicated to the waterfront strikers of 1934 and other historic markers along the way. The tour will end inside Rincon Center, discussing the historic murals dedicated to the labor movement in San Francisco.

July 21 (Sunday) 5:45 PM ($45) Pier 41 left of Pier 39 near outside ticket booth -Fisherman’s Wharf, SF
Building Bridges and Labor Maritime History Boat Tour
5:45 PM Boarding, 6:00 PM Departure
Boat leaves promptly at 6:00 PM
Please arrive 30 minutes before the departure time
Tour lasts 3 hours
A complimentary meal will be provided, however, if you are on a special diet please bring your own food.

Join us for this evening cruise on labor history, and a close up look at the massive construction project of the eastern span of the San Francisco Bay Bridge. We will hear from labor historians, labor activists who will discuss the history of maritime labor including the 1934 General Strike and other labor struggles. We will also get up close to the nearly completed eastern span of the San Francisco Bay Bridge.
This bridge was completed without the death of one worker. There will be a report on what the new engineering problems is.
On the boat will be: UC geographer Gray Brechin; labor process photographer Joe Blum; WPA historian Harvey Smith, Rosie The Riveter park ranger Betty Reid Soskin; environmentalist reseacher Ray Tomkins and others.

To make your reservation:
By E-mail: laborfest [at] laborfest.net or call: (415) 642-8066, and leave yourname, phone number and number of people in your party. (We prefer e-mail.)
We will contact you back to confirm your reservation.
Then, you should mail a check ($45/person, children under 6 - free, 6 to 12 $25) to LaborFest, P.O.Box 40983, San Francisco, CA 94140.
We don’t send you tickets, but we will either e-mail or call you back to let you know that we received your check, and as soon as we receive your check, your reservation will be confirmed. You will get your ticket at the pier before you get on the boat.
We will be gathering west side of Pier 39 (when you face the Pier 39, go toward Pier 41, toward left.)
Please be there at least 30 minutes before the departure time in order to go through paper work.
We expect the tickets to be sold out quickly, so please make your reservation early.

July 22 (Monday) 7:30 PM PM (Free) Plumbers' Hall - 1621 Market St. at Franklin St., SF
The Exception and the Rule - Play be Bertolt Brecht
Stanford Summer Theatre (SST) presents Bertolt Brecht’s Exception and the Rule, directed by Rush Rehm
In the late 1920s, the great German playwright Bertolt Brecht (1858-1956) began working on “learning plays” (Lehrstücke), short theater pieces written specifically for workers and students. The Exception and the Rule (1931-2) is such a play, although it was not staged in Germany during Brecht’s lifetime.
The Exception and the Rule has particular relevance to the labor movement. Instead of thinking about individual psychology, or pointing out the obvious inequalities in wealth distribution, Brecht’s play goes for the jugular: What kind of ethics will a capitalist system produce? Which ethical dilemmas will it value, and which will it fail to recognize? What behavior will emerge from a system in which maximizing corporate profits, personal income, and ownership of private property represent the greatest values?
Brecht wrote The Exception and the Rule as a way of encouraging workers to unionize and recognize the forces they were up against. A funny, highly physical, and thought-provoking parable about wealth and exploitation, The Exception and the Rule packs a wallop, and all in 60 minutes!
Stanford Summer Theatre (SST)

July 23 (Tuesday) 7:00 PM (Free) 518 Valencia - Near 16th St. and Mission, SF
On the 150th Anniversary of the Proclamation Emancipation
Slave Labor, Free Labor & Working People Today
With Carol Lang, CUNY Lecturer
This year is the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln. This set the stage to allow Black workers to join the Union military in the fight against slave labor and the Confederacy. The battle of Milliken’s Bend on June 4th 1863 was the first victory of recently freed Black slaves who joined the Union army and at great cost, held the line against the Confederate troops trying to keep Vicksburg in the hands of Confederate forces.
Today, after 150 years later, slave labor is growing in the US and around the world. This presentation will discuss the links with the fight against slave labor 150 years ago and the meaning for today for workers in the US and around the world.

July 24 (Wednesday) 10:00 AM (Free) Plaza on the south side of the CalTrain Station - 4th & King, SF
Mission Bay Walk - Hidden Water
(With SF City Guides - by Penny Bradshaw)
From placid waters fished by ancient peoples to the biggest construction project in San Francisco since 1906, the transformation of Mission Bay has been incredible. Gain a unique perspective on the area, and discover a hidden park and a forgotten creek. (If it’s a bay, where’s the water?) See a vibrant housing district featuring a project named for much loved San Francisco labor and community activist, Rich Sorro. Witness the new UCSF campus emerging as well as the city’s new transit infrastructure. Learn the history of working people, who once made this place the West Coast’s most important port.

July 24 (Wednesday) 10:00 - 11:30 AM (Free) Meet at S.W.corner of Geary & Laguna, SF
Union Sponsored Affordable Housing in San Francisco:
St. Francis Square Cooperative
Walking tour, and institutional and development history discussion of the now fifty year old, 299 affordable multi family garden apartments, sponsored by the Longshore and Warehouseman’s Union (ILWU). This complex created a new community that mitigated some of the destructive displacement effects of Western Addition Redevelopment. The buildings and landscaping were designed by renowned architects Robert Marquis, Claude Stoller and Lawrence Halprin. The Square is still home to a number of union leaders, although now evolved to a market rate coop. Residents and coop leaders Norm Young and Nan Park, will be tour guides. And the unofficial historian of the Square (wonderful photo archive) Carol Cuenod will share vintage photos.

July 24 (Wednesday) 6:00 - 8:45 PM PM (Free) Presidio Library - 3150 Sacramento St., SF
Workers Labor Rights Approach to Human Trafficking
It is essential to understand the labor rights approach to prostitution in addressing human trafficking, as the only way law enforcement identifies victims is to conduct costly multi lateral anti prostitution sting operation. This workshop will employ a true/false worksheet for participants to gage their knowledge against actual facts presented.
Topics covered: the political history of the trafficking discourse, the ever-changing definitions and who benefits. The Trafficking Projection Act Report, a tool of sexual and migration oppression on behalf of global capitalist interests.
Presented by Erotic Service Providers Union: info [at] espu-ca.org

July 25 (Thursday) 2:00 PM (Free)Meet at Juan Batista Circle - The center circle near 19th & SFSU, SF
The Park Merced Housing Walk
The Park Merced housing development in the southwest corner of San Francisco was built in the 1940s by Metropolitan Life Insurance as an investment in housing affordable to working people. It was a visionary mix of high-rise towers and two-story garden apartments. MetLife sold the complex in the early 1970’s, and now, the current ownership group has decided they want to keep the seismically unsafe high rise towers but demolish the two story garden apartments. Learn the issues in a walking tour with members of the Park Merced Action Committee, which is fighting to save this vital and vibrant community.

July 25 (Thursday) 4:00 - 6:00 PM (Free) J.Paul Leonard Library, 4th floor, SFSU - 1630 Holloway, SF
Marching Through History with Cesar Chaez and the Farm Workers
Photos by Cathy Murphy
Sponsored by the Labor Archives and Research Center, Marching Through History with Cesar Chavez and the Farm Workers is a powerful exhibit that captures life in the fields and on the line for Cesar Chavez and members of the United Farm Workers (UFW). Photographer Cathy Murphy was also very close to Chavez, and her intimate images offer a human portrait of this iconic hero. Come visit the new home of the Labor Archives for a tour of this moving exhibit.
Campus map http://www.sfsu.edu/~sfsumap/southeast

July 25 (Thursday) 5:30 PM (Free) SEIU Local 1021 office - 350 Rhode Island Suite 100 South,
Report Back from Bay Area Unionists on a Recent CISPES Labor Delegation to El Salvador
(enter through glass door on Kansas st. side of building near 17th St.)
5:30 - 6:30 Light refreshments, 6:30 - 8:00 Speakers & panel
Learn how the U.S. Government is pushing privatization schemes on the people of El Salvador, and how labor and the social movements there are fighting back.
Speaker panel: Jamie Thompson Queiroz, SEIU - USWW; Amy Hines, CSEA; Linda Ray, SEIU 1021 (*unions listed for identification only)
Sponsored by: Bay Area CISPES, Peace & Solidarity Committee of SEIU 1021
contact person: Linda Ray dadaray2002 [at] yahoo.com
(put 7/25/13 as subject) 415 824-1505

July 25 (Thursday) 7:00 PM (Donation) First Unitarian Universalist Church - 1187 Franklin St. at Geary
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Roadmap to Apartheid (95 min.) 2012
By Ana Nogueira & Eron Davidson
(Click here for more information)

July 26 (Friday) 1:00 - 3:00 PM (Free) 518 Valencia - near 16th St., SF
LaborFest 2013 Art Show - Opening Day
This year’s LaborFest Art exhibition covers the struggle of workers not only in the Bay Area, but also globally, including garment workers and the struggle to defend their lives and health and safety. Whether the struggle for health and safety over 100 years ago in the Triangle Fire in New York or today at our workplaces, art is a powerful vehicle to show the lives, contradictions and struggle for justice, labor and human rights in our society.
Open hours:
7/26(F) - 1:00 - 3:00 PM, 7/26(F) - 7:00 - 9:30 PM, 7/28(Sun) - 12 Noon -3:00 PM, 7/31(W) - 7:00 - 9:30 PM

July 26 (Friday) 7:00 PM (Donation) 518 Valencia - near 16th St., SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
The Machinist (50 min.) 2010
By Hannan Majid & Richard York
Bhopali (89 min.) 2011
By Van Maximilian Carlson
(Click here for more information)

July 26 (Friday) 7:30 PM (Donation) Marine Fireman's Hall - 240 2nd St. near Howard St., SF
The Great Migration and Motown
By the Rockin’ Solidarity Chorus
The Great Migration was the biggest under-reported story of the twentieth century. Over the span of six decades, around six million African Americans left Jim Crow behind and started over in northern cities. In the process, they transformed this country.
The Chorus tells that story in words and song, including some reworking of classics from Motown, a record label built by children of the migration.
Under the direction of Pat Wynne, the Rockin’ Solidarity Chorus has been presenting aspects of working people’s history and culture since 1999.
Info- (415) 648-3457, wynnegilbert [at] igc.org.

July 27 (Saturday) 10:00 AM (Free) Meet at ILWU Sculpture at Mission & Steuart St.
SF Architecture & Labor Social History of San Francisco - Walk
Walk With Brad Wiedemier, Executive Board Member SEIU UHW & Architectural Historian
San Francisco has a rich political and labor history that is also connected to it’s buildings. In this history-by-the-buildings walk, Brad Wiedemier will outline artifacts and events, and their connections to San Francisco’s past and present.
For more information call (415) 694-3605.

July 27 (Saturday) 11:00 AM (Free) San Francisco Main Library-Lower Level- 100 Larkin St., SF
Fighting Post Office Closings and Privatization
With Gray Brechin, Ying Lee, Dave Welsh (NALC-retired), Harvey Smith and a representative from the APWU.
Historic post offices are being closed, postal services reduced, and public sector jobs cut. “It’s all because of email” has been the excuse, but all the major think tanks on the Right have position papers on privatizing the USPS. The post offices, many adorned with New Deal art that our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents paid for with their taxes are being sold as part of the plan to turn over profitable postal operations to private sector operations like UPS, FedEx and Pitney-Bowes. Austerity enablers in Congress, USPS management and real estate opportunists are enabling this heist. Speakers will decribe the organizing, legal and legislative efforts to resist the cuts in jobs and services and the theft of our historic legacy.
http://www.newdeallegacy.org
http://www.livingnewdeal.org
http://livingnewdeal.berkeley.edu/newsletter/march-2013/
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs180/1103359479611/archive/1112348736410.html

July 27 (Saturday) 12:00 Noon (Free) Meet at the fountain in Latham Square - Telegraph and Broadway
Oakland 1946 General Strike Walk
With Gifford Hartman of the Flying Picket Historical Society. This walk will revisit the sites of Oakland’s “Work Holiday” that began spontaneously with rank-and-file solidarity with the striking - mostly women - retail clerks at Kahn’s and Hastings department stores whose picket line was being broken by police scab herding. Within 24 hours, it involved over 100,000 workers and shut down nearly all commerce in the East Bay for 54 hours. In 1946, there were six general strikes across the U.S.; that year set the all-time record year for strikes and work stoppages. The Oakland “Work Holiday” was the last general strike to ever occur in the U.S., and the walk and history talk will attempt to keep alive the memory of this tradition of community-wide working class solidarity.
Meet at the fountain in Latham Square, in the intersection where Telegraph and Broadway converge across from the Rotunda Building (Oakland City Center/12th St. BART).

July 27 (Saturday) 11:00 - 4:00 PM (Free) ILWU Local 34 Hall - 801 2nd St. next to AT&T Stadium
Workplace Bullying, Health and Safety
(Registration Requested: Call 415-282-1908 or e-mail to info [at] iwnn.org)
There is an epidemic of workplace bullying throughout the US and this will be the first labor national educational conference in California to address the issue. We will look at what it is, what it is costing us, and who is doing it, as well as how to stop it. Panelists will include: Dr. Gary Namie, National Director of the Bully Free Institute; Stacie Plummer, City Of Richmond Library Worker and IFPTE Local 21 Steward; Brenda Barros, SEIU Local 1021 San Francisco General Hospital; Dr. Derek Kerr, Greg Sorozan President, SEIU/NAGE Local 282 MA Healthworkplace.com; Dr. Larry Rose, former Director of the Cal Osha Medical Unit; Carrie Clark, California Health Workplace Advocates; Kathleen Carroll, attorney, and others.
This educational conference will also look at new legislation being proposed for the state of California and efforts around the country to confront this issue.
Sponsored by: Stop Workplace Bullying Group SWBG; Injured Workers National Network (IWNN); Grupo Presente; and California Healthy Workplace Advocates.
For information Contact IWNN at (415) 282-1908.

July 27 (Saturday) 7:30 PM (Free) ILWU Local 10, Henry Schmidt Room - 400 Northpoint, SF
The Almanac Singers
In the summer of 1941, a musical group of labor activists known as “The Almanac Singers” climbed into a midnight blue Buick and blazed a trail across the USA, spreading the gospel of unionism and bringing folk music back to the people. The group, with members Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Lee Hays & Mill Lampell, created a new kind of topical music, using old folk melodies to tell the stories of the times. They played in union halls, on picket lines, theaters, and radio shows, planting seeds wherever they went. The Almanacs’ now almost-mythical journey has become an inspiration for legions of musicians, free thinkers, and gasoline gypsies, and has paved the road for many of today’s singer/songwriters. At the core of it were some of the greatest labor songs ever written, including “Union Maid,” “Talking Union,” and “Which Side Are You On?”
Some seventy years later, “Totem Pole” Rik Palieri and George Mann are traveling down the road from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles, up the west coast and then from Seattle to Buffalo, singing at some of the same places and towns, and inviting local musicians to join in, as in the original tour. The Almanac Trail will be like an old-fashioned “Hootenanny”-- an evening of history, music and fun for all generations!
Sponsored by ILWU Local 10 Education Committee.
For more info:
http://www.almanactrail.com
http://www.georgemann.org

July 28 (Sunday) 10:00 AM (Free) Meet at the corner of Stockton & Maiden Lane - East of Union Square
Rising Steel: Two Centuries of San Francisco Architecture
(SF City Guides - by Jason Cohen)
Explore downtown architecture from as early as 1891 up to today. We’ll see famous buildings and little-known treasures while discussing the architects and design trends that changed the face of America. It will also look at the skills and creativity of the skilled union workers who built these artifacts.
‘Make no small plans!’ 30 buildings in two hours.

July 28 (Sunday) 10:00 AM (Free) Main Berkeley Post Office at corner of Milvia & Alston
WPA Berkeley Walk
With Harvey Smith
This walk will explore the “New Deal nexus” in Berkeley that includes Berkeley High School, the Community Theater, Civic Center Park, Post Office art and the old Farm Credit Building. The tour will also include the incredible mosaic mural on the UC Berkeley campus.
For more info: 510-684-0414.

July 28 (Sunday) 10:00 AM (Free) Mission Cultural Center for LatinArts - 2868 Mission St., SF
LaborFest BookFair
LaborFest BookFair - 6th Annual LaborFest BookFair
(Click here for more information)

July 28 (Sunday) 5:30 - 7:00 PM (Donation) Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts - First floor theater - 2868 Mission St., SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Maestra (33 min.) By Catherine Murphy
With Cuban Educator Dr. Norma Guillard, film Director Katherine Murphy and panel of adult educators.
Maestra pays homage to thousands of young Cuban women in the 1960´s that were mobilized against illiteracy on the island. A total of 250,000 volunteers taught 700,000 people to read and write in one year. While Cuba, after the revolution, was able to have a massive adult education program that educated millions of Cuban adults, today in California, the government is shutting down education for millions of immigrant workers and their families.
After the film, a panel with Cuban educator Dr. Norma Guillard, film Director Katherine Murphy, along with California adult education teachers will discuss the film and the battle today to defend adult education programs in California.

July 28 (Sunday) 7:30 PM (Donation) Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts - First floor theater - 2868 Mission St., SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
War in Paterson, the Strike that Changed the Labor Movement (15 min.) By Dana Seidel
A Witness to the Paterson Strike (5 min.) Interview with Ralph Golzio
Dreamworks China (56 min.) By Tommaso Facchin & Ivan Fraceschini
(Click here for more information)

July 29 (Monday) 7:00 PM (Free) ILWU Local 34 Hall - 801 2nd St., next to AT&T Stadium
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
The 45th Anniversary of the San Francisco State Strike, Labor and the Lessons for Today
The Turning Point - SF State '68 Strike (56 min.)
This is the 45th anniversary of the 6-month-long San Francisco State strike that established the first ethnic studies program and won support within the labor movement for a policy of open admissions. The ILWU Local 10 and ILWU Local 34 played an active part in supporting the strike. Today, the privatization of the CSU system along with UC and the growing attack on our public community colleges is directly threatening poor and working class students, particularly Black and Latin along with Asian from having an education. Students under massive debt are turned into paupers even before they are able to graduate and many cannot afford to graduate at all.
After the video, panelists will discuss the lessons of the strike and its relevance today in labor and the struggle to defend students and working people.
Initial Panelists: Jimmy Garret, former head of SF State BSU; Dr. Ray Tomkins, former BSU striker and heath advocate in Bayview-Hunters Point; Terry Collins, former BSU striker and with KPOO Radio; Clarence Thomas, former BSU striker and ILWU Local 10 Executive Board member.

July 30 (Tuesday) 7:00 PM (Free) ILWU Local 34 Hall - next to AT&T Stadium
Northern California Braceros, Immigration, Labor & Human Rights
The history of California and the Bracero Program is one of the key issues in the debate in Congress about “immigration reform”. This forum will include members of the Association of Braceros of Northern California and Al Rojas, a labor organizer and with Labor Council For Latin America Advancement, LCLAA, of Sacramento, will discuss the continuing struggle of California Braceros for justice and the connection of the struggle for immigrant rights.


July 31 (Tuesday) 7:00 PM (Free) 518 Valencia - near 16th St., SF
Closing Party
Please join us to celebrate the last day of the LaborFest with food, music and poetry.