UMagazine August-September 2009
August-September 2009
read more »For two days in December of 1946, the streets of Oakland were host to a worker’s holiday. Nearly 130,000 workers refused to work, shutting down commerce in the East Bay, and instead they flooded the streets in a show of solidarity against union busting. What started off as a small retail clerk strike grew into […]
read more »On August 24, 1939, three men stood above a small metal trashcan with a copy of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath in hand. As a newspaper photographer snaps a shot, Clell Pruett, a local sharecropper, tosses the book into the trashcan, which was then followed by a match. Pruett, along with his boss, the […]
read more »In the early hours of a hot August morning in 1917, the body of a young union organizer hanged off a railroad trestle near Butte, Montana. The body, beaten and bloody, was that of Frank Little, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Pinned to the body was a note that cautioned, […]
read more »Cultural diversity is one of the modern Labor Movement’s greatest strengths. Labor celebrates the richness of mutliculturalism and recognizes that the united voice above all else is the fabric that holds this Movement together. But the Labor Movement has not always been a bastion of racial understanding. In 1903 in the beet fields of Oxnard, […]
read more »British Historian, G.R. Elton, once wrote, “It is the essence of the poor that they do not appear in history.” While this quote was said in context of the peasantry of Tudor England, it is a statement that can also be made about the Labor Movement in U.S. history. It could be argued that labor […]
read more »In the early 20th century, Orange County sat in the heart of what was known as the citrus belt. As the decades passed, cement and high-rise buildings replaced the once abundant orchards. Still, the names of the cities, streets and even the county name itself act as constant reminders that this was once citrus country. […]
read more »History books tell the tale of America, from the beginning of the country’s origins to our greatest accomplishments. In rare moments, one may even find a nod to the accomplishments of labor. However the true story of the American worker can only be found among campfire stories and folk songs. It is among the narrative […]
read more »Throughout our history, a specific lexicon of songs has been burned into our nation’s consciousness. These songs have acted as a link, unifying generations through a common culture. Among these ballads one song in particular, This Land is Our Land, has come to represent the heart and soul of the American spirit. However, few realize […]
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