So Long, It's Been Good to Know You PETE SEEGER, LEGENDARY TROUBADOUR for was "America's tuning fork. labor, died on January 27 at the age of 94, of natural causes. Seeger His songs capture the essence leaves behind a long history of social activism. Singer, songwriter, and beauty of this country." Work History News environmental activist, anti-war opponent, Seeger was blacklisted Seeger sang "So long," with from appearing on network TV for 17 years. He returned to the folk music group, The L H A appear on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on CBS in Weavers, which he organized 1967, whereupon his anti-war anthem, "Knee Deep in the Big after World War II. For more Muddy," was censored. When it aired the following year, the song than five decades, Seeger's was credited with solidifying public opinion in opposition to the singing lifted spirits on picket New York Labor History Association, Inc. Vietnam War. lines, in migrant labor camps, Seeger was a member of the New York Labor History and all across the land. The A Bridge Between Past and Present Volume 31 No 1 Winter | Spring 2014 Association. In 2009, he played his five-string banjo and other words of the song that became his anthem, "The Hammer Song," instruments at the 90th birthday celebration of his friend and summed up his life and its commitments. He did indeed hammer comrade, Henry Foner. Oral historian Studs Terkel said that Seeger out a warning and he will be missed, but his legacy is strong. Historian Eric Foner and PSC President Working Group Profile: Courtney B. Francis Barbara Bowen Honorees ourtney Francis was born in working people throughout history have fought against oppression. By Joe Doyle Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Her The class looks at organizations like the Industrial Workers of the he Commerford Awards this past C only connection to labor unions World, the Knights of Labor, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the December 2nd was notable for comes about through her brother, a Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union, and others, looking at their goals T the eloquence of its awardees, member of Sheet Metal Workers Local and how they organized,” she said. Professional Staff Congress/CUNY 28. But her interest in history runs deep. For Courtney, “labor history, like all history, is a guide for action president Barbara Bowen and Pulitzer Prize- At age 12, she read the Autobiography today. Working people just can’t afford to lose anymore. While winning historian Eric Foner. Bowen and of Malcolm X. “I understood from this Forbes adds 200 more billionaires to their list in the last year, so now Foner delivered acceptance speeches that book that there was more going on in there are 1,426 in the world, with 44 in the U.S., the number of won cheers from a standing-room only the world, than just me and my own households living on $2 or less in income per person, per day in a audience at the Local 1199 penthouse on little world, to say the least. It made me given month increased to 1.46 million in 2011, a 130 percent growth 42nd Street in New York City. Brian Greenberg, of Monmouth think,” she said. “Malcolm X educated himself in many different from 1996. A better world for working people starts with leadership Kimberly Schiller Photos: things while in prison, which I thought was interesting. I never liked and organization of the people, to truly represent their interests. That College, NJ, presented N.Y.U. Barbara Bowen Eric Foner schooling or formal education, at least not the way it’s currently leadership and organization has to work toward a goal of a better student Sarah “Sadye” Stern NYLHA’s set up. I wanted to be like him, so I started reading and educating world for the majority of the people on the planet, not just for a Barbara Wertheimer Prize for the best won some time ago]. Leberstein reminded adjunct professors fit that description now myself in history, philosophy, economics and politics.” handful of the wealthy.” undergraduate essay on a labor history the audience that the same tidal wave of more than ever before. Bowen laments Now Courtney shares her knowledge with others through a Courtney Francis is a member of the NYLHA Working topic. Stern dug deep into the Wayne State union activism that swept in John Sweeney that we’re grappling in America with a labor history class she teaches at the Women’s Press Collective in Group and is a full-time volunteer organizer for the Women’s UFW archives to write a fascinating essay, to the helm of the AFL-CIO in 1995, swept “reform industrial complex” and a “testing Brooklyn. “It’s a three-part class, starting from colonial times up to Press Collective. To read her complete interview, visit the NYLHA “We Cast Our Lot with the Farmworkers: Barbara Bowen into the presidency of PSC/ industrial complex”—“colonized by money” 2005. …The purpose of the class is to look at the approach of how website or the Facebook page of the Working Group. Organization, Mobilization, and Meaning CUNY five years later. and demanding a hefty slice of the $81 in the United Farm Workers’ Grape Boycott This year’s Commerford audience felt billion currently spent on public education. in New York City, 1967-70.” a surge of energy as Barbara Bowen took Education corporations add to the menace. Fighting for professorial ranks the microphone: “The only way we can They are currently seeking to cash in on Introducing the NYLHA Working Group higher education. NYLHA executive board member advance the labor movement is when we THE NYLHA WORKING GROUP is an Together they continue to work to create Bowen says: “Public educational Steve Leberstein, retired executive advance all workers.” Bowen is thrilled by energetic group of and young people who have programs and opportunities to learn about the institutions are under assault… We are in director of CUNY’s Center for Worker the fledgling efforts of low-wage workers, been holding monthly meetings since January hidden history of labor. the fight of our lives at CUNY”—where Education, introduced Barbara Bowen. fast-food workers, and “carwash-heroes” 2013. They organized a night of short films on Currently, they are working on organizing Bowen’s Commerford Award is “for to win a living wage and job security. She 74% of students are people of color. contemporary organizing drives for the very walking tours, setting up a book club, and outstanding commitment to the trade praised nail salon women, as well. “They are “They’re amazingly brave. Many of them successful Second Annual Workers Unite! Film organizing an evening of films for the upcoming union movement.” Leberstein praised Ms. starting to look up and organize in a very are the first members of their family ever to Festival in May 2013. Third Annual Workers Unite! Film Festival. Bowen’s tireless efforts to restore salaries gendered profession.” go to college.” Some leave a CUNY campus Their latest project is a poster now being Interested? E-mail them at and restore raises—and for her successful Bowen appealed to the Commerford where they are succeeding—to go home widely distributed among students, unions and [email protected], or join their campaigns to win 80% pay for sabbaticals, audience on behalf of 3,000 low-wage “to a parent who is furious with them for labor history groups. The aim of the poster is Facebook group: New York Labor History and a first-time ever “paternity leave,” for workers currently working for City getting an education.” to attract a new generation of labor activists. Association Working Group. fathers with newborns [maternity leave was University of New York. And part-time (Continued on page 10) The Celestials Wertheimer Essay Award Winner By Bette Craig Inspired by Missing History aren Shepard’s novel, The Celestials, is based on an incident in labor history. By Jane LaTour Set in the same formerly industrial K earching for a senior thesis topic in town of North Adams, Massachusetts, where the History Department at New Maynard Seider’s documentary film,Farewell York University, Sarah “Sadye” Stern to Factory Towns? takes place in the present, S consulted with her thesis advisor, Professor The Celestials looks back to 1870, when 75 Linda Gordon. A double major (History Chinese workers were brought to town by and Spanish), Stern wanted to investigate Calvin T. Sampson to break a strike being “overlaps between the labor movement and waged at his shoe factory by the Knights of the 1960s social movements…in particular, St. Crispin. a moment of overlap between the labor Recruited in San Francisco, the young movement and the women’s movement to get Chinese men (one as young as fourteen) a feeling for how individuals who potentially traveled by rail with their English-speaking belonged to both movements were organizing foreman, Charles Sing, to serve as interpreter. and expressing themselves at the time.” The photograph you see above was made Preliminary research led her to the work the day of their arrival at the Sampson Shoe of the scholar Margaret Rose, which focused Georgia Wever Factory. on the important role Chicana organizers The union members set up a rival Sadye Stern and Professor Brian Greenberg. historian, Anthony Lee, which featured Cobblers in a Nineteenth-Century Factory Town played in the success of the United Farm cooperative shoe factory in North Adams, but photographs of the Chinese workers (see by Anthony W. Lee. 312 pp. 136 half tones Workers’ grape boycott. “Rose argued that it didn’t last very long.