LaborFest

Schedule:

12:00 pm - 2:00 pm:  Bloody Thursday Walk
Meet at Harry Bridges Plaza south side Tower – Embarcadero at Market St., SF

Walk with Gifford Hartman (about 2 hours)
Ninety years ago (1934), a great battle took place between striking workers and the police and National Guard along the waterfront alongside the piers of San Francisco's Embarcadero. We will look at the causes of the 1934 General Strike, why it was successful, and how the issues from that strike are still relevant to working class people today. The current movement against police murder of black and brown people can draw lessons from the way strikers invited black workers into their ranks to prevent racist exclusion from breaking their strike. We explain how an 83-day West Coast Waterfront Strike exploded into the 4-day General Strike that paralyzed all commerce in San Francisco. This tour will visit the sites of those events.

Location: The Embarcadero and Ferry Building – Harry Bridges Plaza

7:30 pm - 10:00 pm: 90th Anniversary of 1934 Big Strike
Ninety years ago. San Francisco's class relations were transformed by the General Strike. This commemorative event  "Bloody Thursday" (this year it's on Friday), when police shot more than five dozen and killed two strikers, catalyzing a spontaneous work stoppage that paralyzed most of the Bay Area.  (the "official" General Strike only lasted 4 days). Learn how the 34 strike canoes through history and the International Longshore and warehouse Union. This represents an essential example of 20th century labor history, Automation, multi-tiered and solidarity among waterfront workers continue to shape our work today, whether port workers, UPS and us in between and at either end of this complex system.

Speakers:
Joel Schor – former sailor and current ILWU Local 10 member
Samantha Levens – International Transport Federation Inspector No. Cal and IBU Member
Gifford Hartman – Labor Educator

Hosted by Shaping San Francisco and Left by the Bay

Location: 518 Valencia St., SF, CA 94110