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 This
photograph shows Charles
James about
the time he was elected St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly
President. This may appear puzzling at first. Most people
would not identify this man as a person of African heritage. |
 Woody
Guthrie songs,
or as Woody preferred "people's songs" are,
perhaps, his most recognized contribution to American
culture, the stinging honesty, humor, and wit found even in
his most vernacular prose writings exhibit Woody's fervent
belief in social, political, and spiritual justice. |
 In
1931, coal miners in Harlan
County were on strike.
Armed company deputies roamed the countryside, terrorizing
the mining communities, looking for union leaders to beat,
jail, or kill. But coal miners, brought up lean and hard in
the Kentucky mountain country, knew how to fight back, and
heads were bashed and bullets fired on both sides in Bloody
Harlan. |
 As
early as age 5, Elizabeth
Gurley Flynn already had
the "indelible impression" of working class life
and poverty where they lived in Manchester, N.H.,
"where the great mills stretched like prisons along the
bank of the Merrimac River." |
 Rosie
the Riveter - Who was she?While American men were being shipped to the
front lines in the 1940s, American women were moving to the factory
lines. |
Samuel Gompers president of the American Federation of Labor for almost forty years, between 1886 and 1924, and the nation's leading trade unionist and labor spokesman.
|
 Nellie
Stone Johnson,
the Grand Lady of Labor
and Civil Rights in Minnesota. |
 Gerald
W. McEntee is the
International President of the 1.3 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME), the second largest union in the AFL-CIO and one of
the fastest growing. |
 William
(Bill) Lucy was
elected International Secretary-Treasurer -- the second
highest ranking officer -- of the 1.3 million-member
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME), AFL-CIO, in May 1972. |
 The
Jewish
Labor Committee (JLC)
was founded to provide a presence for Jewish labor in the
councils of the American trade-union movement and in the
Jewish "establishment," and to mobilize labor in
the struggle against fascism. B.C. Vladek was the founder of
the JLC. |
 Mother
Mary Harris Jones, labor
activist; her autobiography is absolutely one of the most
stirring pieces of Labor history you will ever read. Enjoy! Read The
Autobiography of Mother Jones. |
 Labor
violence at Chicago's
Haymarket Square -
one of the most remarkable episodes in the history of
Chicago, the United States, and of working people
everywhere. Yoi u can also read Evidence
From the Haymarket Affair. |
 Joe
Hill - a labor organizer
executed by the state of Utah in 1915; PBS special, Labor
Day, 2000. |
 Eugene
Victor Debs (1855-1926) -
his career would span some of the most turbulent times in
American labor history, and he would leave a legacy as a
tenacious fighter for the common man and the good of all.
Debs ran for president five times on the socialist ticket.
His final campaign in 1920 was from prison. |
 George
M. Pullman founded the town
of Pullman as a place where his workers could live. This
town was conceived and designed on the premise of being a
model town where his workers could live, with every aspect
complete including parks and a library. The
Pullman
Strike of 1894
was the first national strike in United States history. |
 The
Bryant & May dispute was the first strike by unorganized
workers to gain national publicity. The women at the company
decided to form a Matchgirls' Union and Anne
Besant agreed to become its
leader. |
 In
1925, with A.
(Asa) Philip Randolph at
the helm, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP)
began organizing the nearly 10,000 porters. Finally, in a
hard-won victory hailed by African Americans and
progressives nationwide, the company recognized their union
in 1935. |
 Celebrating
Hispanic Heritage - Biography - Dolores
Huerta,
born 1930, the most prominent Chicana (Mexican American
woman) labor leader in the United States. She is cofounder
and first vice president of the United Farm Workers union. |
Together with Dolores Huerta, his family and others, Cesar Estrada Chávez formed the United Farm Workers and was able to organize a strike against the growers to obtain union contracts and improve conditions for agricultural laborers. Read about Cesar and the struggles of the United Farm Workers. |
Eva McDonald Valesh 'Joan of Arc' for St. Paul's working people, by Elizabeth Faue -- wrote about the "working girls" who toiled in Twin Cities sweatshops in the early 1900s. |
 Frank
Little - Little's gravestone remains a much visited site in
Butte, where he was killed. His graveston reads: "slain by
capitalist interest for organizing and inspiring his fellow men" |
 Rose
Schneiderman -
"I know from my experience it is up to the working people to save
themselves. The only way they can save themselves is by a strong
working-class movement." |
 Fannie
Sellins was a
labor organizer--and from all accounts, she was an exceptional one.
But she paid with her life. |
The
Chilean labor movement - like all labor movements in the
world-has had to confront a fierce wealthy class.
Establishing unions has not been an easy task.