NOTE: This web site for the Western Workers Labor Heritage Festival
is being replaced by westernworkersfestival.org
please bookmark it and use it!

Western Workers Labor Heritage Festival
Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s contribution
to the civil rights and labor movements
A weekend of solidarity in an era of war, racism, and hard times.

Martin Luther King Jr. weekend
January 18-20, 2013
IAM Local 1781 Hall
1511 Rollins Rd., Burlingame, CA
YouTube of 2011 festival video highlights here.

graphic by Lincoln Cushing

Registration:  $75 for the full weekend, $15 Friday night, $35 Saturday only, $60 Saturday-Sunday, $10 single workshop, $15-30 sliding scale for the concert
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Scholarship funds available for attendees under age 30- application form here.

Hotel:  Crowne Plaza, 1177 Airport Blvd Burlingame, CA (650) 342-9200. Call hotel directly and ask for the Western Workers Labor Heritage Festival rate $89 Festival rate, $10 each for a third or fourth person in a room with two double beds. Overnight Parking $18.

Jon Fromer 1946-2013

Our good friend and activist Jon Fromer made his transition after a long battle with cancer.
Photos and videos of Jon as well as a link to the CaringBridge site can be found here.
Cards can be sent to 28 Morning Sun, Mill Valley, CA 94941.
Compañero Jon, presente!

27th annual festival
Schedule of Events

Art Display: to be announced

Friday, January 18

6 pm Registration opens

7-10 pm (Machinists, Main Hall) Solidarity Circle:  Song, poetry, and story swap
Featured performer:  Lynn Marie Smith, Detroit Motown Labor Diva

Saturday, January 19

9-10 am
Muffins, juice, coffee available – donations please; informal song swap/arts exchange

10:00-noon
Workshops
(Machinists, Main Hall)
“MoTown Labor Music,” with Lynn Marie Smith

(Transport Workers Hall)
“Occupy Songs,” with Hali Hammer (10-11)  Song swap. (11-12)

(Plumbers, upstairs classroom)
“Labor Organizing (Eleanor Roosevelt, Rose Schneiderman),” with Brigid O’Farrell

Film:  (Plumbers, upstairs classroom)
"Walkout," directed by Moctezuma Esparza, 115 min.  A school boycott by Chicano students in Los Angeles protesting their unfair treatment.

12:00 – 1:00 pm
Lunch – Sandwiches and salad available at a reasonable price

1:15 – 1:45 pm
Featured Performers: La Peña Community Chorus

2:00-3:30 pm Workshops
(Machinists, Main Hall)
“For All: Using Spoken Word and Theater to Support Universal Healthcare” with James Tracy and Sarah Shourd

(Transport Workers Hall)
“Politics of Catastrophism” panel with Sasha Lilley, Jim Davis, and Eddie Yuen

(Plumbers, upstairs classroom)
“Telling Stories Through Art” with Eric Drooker

(Plumbers, Main Hall)
"Our Right to Sing," by Carolina Fuentes,45 min.  Documentary of the Popular Resistance in El Salvador, with talk by Fuentes and questions afterward.

3:45-5:15 pm
Workshops
(Machinists, Main Hall) “Latino Worker Songs” with Jose Luis Orozco

(Transport Workers Hall) Jazz workshop with Avotcja

(Plumbers, upstairs classroom) “Documenting Communities Standing Up Against Hatred:  Not In Our Town” with Patrice O’Neill and Rhian Miller

Film:  (Plumbers, upstairs classroom) “Meeting Room," by Jim Davis and Brian Gray.  A social history of the Concerned Parents Against Drugs movement in Dublin.  Davis is featured in filmmakers’ panel Sunday at 10 am.

5:30-7:00 pm
Dinner – Hot meal available at a reasonable price

7-10 pm Arts Exchange - song, poetry and story swap (Machinists, Main Hall)
Featured performers: Bay Area Rockin’ Solidarity Labor Heritage Choir

Sunday, January 20

9:00-10:00 am
Muffins, juice, coffee available – donations please; informal songswap/arts exchange

10:00-11:45
Workshops
(Transport Workers Hall)
“Post-Election Reflection” with Shelley Kessler and Owen Murphy.

(Plumbers Hall, upstairs classroom)
Independent filmmakers panel, with Jim Davis, Jai Jai Noir and Carolina Fuentes. Moderated by Mark Wright.

Film:  (Plumbers Hall, upstairs classroom)
"Shift Change," by Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young.  120 min.  Cooperatives in Mondragon, Spain and the United States.

Noon – 1 pm
Lunch - Sandwiches and salad available at a reasonable price

1:30-2:30 pm (Machinists, Main Hall)
Mid-Day Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Jimmy Collier, civil rights songs
Vukani Mawethu

3:00-4:45 pm
(Transport Workers Hall) 
Chorus group practice for concert performance, directed by Lichi Fuentes

3:00-4:00  Film:  (Plumbers Hall, upstairs classroom) "24/7 Democracy:  Living AND Working Coop" by Jai Jai Noire.  Noire interviews people who both live in, and work in (simultaneously), cooperatives.  DVDs of "This Way Out," a 4 hour course in starting a worker cooperative, will be available for sale.

4:00 - 5:25  Film:  (Plumbers Hall, upstairs classroom) "Brother Outsider," 83 min.  Documentary about Bayard Rustin, gay civil rights leader in the 60s.

5-6 pm
Dinner – Hot meal available at reasonable price

7 pm
Benefit concert for workers in need
Labor Arts Award presented to Nina Fendel
Workers in need beneficiaries to be announced
Seattle Labor Chorus
Lynn Marie Smith, Detroit labor diva
Jimmy Collier, opener for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Festival Chorus
Owen Murphy
Chris Bricker
Reed Fromer
Roy Zimmerman
and more!


photos from WWLHF 2011

Jimmy Collier


Vukani Mawethu


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Graphic and photos by Lincoln Cushing.
Links to other labor culture sites
All Of Us Or None: Social Justice Posters of the San Francisco Bay Area - exhibition at the Oakland Museum of California

Labor Culture Research Portal, UC Berkeley
Agitate! Educate! Organize!: American Labor Posters
 Labor culture events (Labor Heritage Foundation)
David Winters sings class war testimony before AFL-CIO

Previous festival locations, Labor Arts Awards, and concert benefit recipients

1987 - #1 Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium & Santa Cruz Public Library; proceeds to striking Cannery Workers, Teamsters 912.

1988 - #2 Cupertino DeAnza College & Foothill College Auditorium, proceeds to United Farm Workers and Second Harvest Food Bank.

1989 - #3 Burlingame Union Halls: IAM 1781, Plumbers 467, TWU 505, proceeds to Santa Clara Center for Occupational Safety & Health  and  Plant Closures Project.

1990 - #4 San Francisco Sailor’s Union of the Pacific & ILWU local 34, proceeds to striking Pittston Miners, UMWA.

1991 - #5 Santa Cruz Louden Nelson Community Center, proceeds to Displaced Workers Committee.

1992 - #6 Oakland Laney College & Oakland Museum Auditorium, proceeds to Emergency Relief Fund- CLF; Labor Arts Award to HERE Local 2, culturally innovative union local.

1993 - #7 Concord Holiday Inn & Pleasant Hill Community Center. proceeds to Diamond Walnut Strikers, & Casa San Miguel Workers Labor Arts Awards to writer Millea Kenin, & poet/songwriter John Handcox (special presentation in San Diego).

1994 - #8 Burlingame Union Halls: IAM 1781, Plumbers 467, TWU 505, proceeds to United For Justice; Labor Arts Award to visual artist Irving Fromer (special presentation at La Peña Cultural Center – video at Festival of presentation).

1995 - #9 Burlingame Union Halls: IAM 1781, Plumbers 467, TWU 505, proceeds to CNU Strikers; Labor Arts Awards to bookseller Bob Lindsay & Labor Archives at San Francisco State University.

1996 - #10 Santa Cruz Louden Nelson Community Center, proceeds to Second Harvest Food Bank; Labor Arts Award to musician/Festival coordinator David Winters.

1997 - #11 San Francisco SOMART Center, proceeds to locked out/striking workers of UFCW 101 and ILWU local 6; Labor Arts Award to photographer Floyd Tucker.

1998 - #12 Burlingame Union Halls: IAM 1781, Plumbers 467, TWU 505, proceeds to Strawberry Workers, UFW and ATU strikers; Labor Arts Award to labor leader/limerickster Walter Johnson.

1999 - #13 Burlingame (Union Halls: IAM 1781, Plumbers 467, TWU 505), proceeds to striking SF newspaper workers; Labor Arts Award to singer/choir director Fundi.

2000 - #14 Oakland SEIU Local 250, proceeds to Basic Vegetable Strikers; Labor Arts Award to folksinger Faith Petric.

2001 - #15 San Francisco  City College, Phelan St. Campus, proceeds to Basic Vegetable Strikers; Labor Arts Award to labor/cultural activist Tim Sampson.

2002 - #16 San Francisco  City College, Phelan St. Campus, proceeds to striking Krug Winery Workers, UFCW; Labor Arts Award to writer Tillie Olson.

2003 - #17 Burlingame Union Halls: IAM 1781, Plumbers 467, TWU 505, proceeds to the Second Harvest Food Bank; Labor Arts Awards to folksinger/storyteller Utah Phillips & visual artist Pele deLappe.

2004 - #18 Burlingame Union Halls: IAM 1781, Plumbers 467, TWU 505, proceeds to Southern California Grocery Workers, UFCW; Labor Arts Award to Inkworks Press, Berkeley CA.

2005 - #19 San Jose IBEW local 332, proceeds to Comfort Suites Workers, HERE/UNITE local 2;        Labor Arts Awards to photographer David Bacon & activists Pete & Toshi Seeger (special presentation at their home).

2006 - #20 Burlingame Union Halls: IAM 1781, Plumbers 467, TWU 505,  proceeds to Comfort Suites Workers,  local 2; Labor Arts Award to singer/musician Jimmy Collier.

2007 – #21 Burlingame Union Halls: IAM 1781, Plumbers 467, TWU 505, proceeds to displaced workers of Inland Boatmen’s Union; Labor Arts Award to graphic artist Ricardo Levins Morales

2008 – #22 San Francisco  SEIU Local 1021 Hall, proceeds to Young Workers United & Chinese Progressive Association; Labor Arts Award to Vukani Mawethu Choir.

2009 - #23 San Mateo IBEW #617, proceeds to striking Grace Honda workers; Labor Arts Award to Doug Minkler (visual arts); Alex and Harriet Bagwell (music).

2010 - #24 Burlingame IAM 1781; proceeds to HERE Local 2; Labor Arts Award to La Peña Cultural Center

2011 - #25 Burlingame IAM 1781; proceeds to singer/songwriter Anne Feeney; Labor Arts Awards to Bernard Gilbert and Elise Bryant. Video here

“As you know, the establishment of social justice in our nation is of profound concern to me. This great struggle is in the interest of all Americans and I shall not be turned from it. Yet no sane person can afford to work for social justice within the nation unless he simultaneously resists war and clearly declares himself for non-violence in international relations.”
-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.




Chris Bricker and matrimonial guest



Sal Ventura
Avotja and musical guests Modupue


Elise Bryant and the DC Labor Chorus

For website content contact lcushing "at" igc.org
last updated 1/15/2013