Labor History Today

29:31

Whose History Gets Told?

Labor History Today ·

2026/05/17

On this week’s edition of Labor History Today: the People’s 250 campaign asks whose stories belong in America’s history, from the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike to today’s fights for worker dignity and democracy. Then historian Eric Bernardino joins America’s Work Force Radio to discuss the massive 1938 San Antonio pecan shellers strike led largely by Mexican women workers and fiery organizer Emma Tenayuca. Plus: the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum’s “Courage in the Hollers” labor history trail,

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29:26

What Haymarket’s Three Monuments Reveal

Labor History Today ·

2026/05/10

On Labor History Today: What do Chicago’s three Haymarket monuments reveal about labor history, public memory, and who gets to shape the story of the past? Labor historian Peter Cole explains. Plus: Australia’s early fight for the eight-hour day, and Labor History in 2:00 on the 1934 West Coast Maritime Strike.Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com Labor History Today is produced by the

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29:30

They Were Already Home

Labor History Today ·

2026/05/03

On this week’s Labor History Today: a powerful look at past and present struggles for worker rights and justice. We revisit the Haymarket Affair and the origins of May Day, then hear from historian Marla Ramírez on the forced “banishment” of Mexican American families in the early 20th century—and how those policies echo in today’s debates over deportation and mixed-status families. Plus, a tribute to Pete Seeger and the music that helped sustain generations of labor and social movements

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29:30

Can Resistance Revive Labor?

Labor History Today ·

2026/04/26

On this week’s Labor History Today: Can resistance to Trumpism help rebuild worker power?Jeremy Brecher, author of Strike!, joins labor historian Joe McCartin and organizer Stephen Lerner to discuss their argument that bold, disruptive action—from strikes to economic pressure campaigns—can revive the labor movement, drawing on both history and on-the-ground organizing to map a way forward. We also visit Tacoma, Washington, where Sarah Gray takes us to the gravesite of “Solidarity Forever” author

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29:29

From Haymarket to May Day 2026

Labor History Today ·

2026/04/19

This week’s Labor History Today features Labor Express Radio in Chicago, previewing May Day 2026. From the 1886 fight for the eight-hour day to today’s call for an “economic blackout,” organizers are mobilizing for what could be a major test of workers’ power. Find out more about May Day activities at maydaystrong.org Music: We Have Fed You All for a Thousand Years by George Mann. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us

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29:26

The Last Words of Joe Hill Are Still Echoing

Labor History Today ·

2026/04/12

On this week’s Labor History Today, producer producer Harold Phillips talks with Victoria McCallum and Lantz Simpson, co-writers of The Last Words of Joe Hill, a short play imagining Joe Hill in a modern coffee shop, sparking conversations about unions, work, and power. The interview is interspersed with scenes from the radio version of the play, as Hill’s voice challenges young workers navigating low wages, job insecurity, and organizing drives—echoing struggles that continue today. From the legacy

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29:22

Breaking Chains from Memphis to Baseball

Labor History Today ·

2026/04/05

On this week’s Labor History Today: In April 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. stood with striking sanitation workers in Memphis—members of AFSCME Local 1733—delivering his powerful “Mountaintop” speech just one day before his assassination. We reflect on King’s labor legacy and what it means for organizing today. With the 2026 baseball season underway, we also take a look at the business of the game, featuring a segment from the Heartland Labor Forum on how players organized to break free from a system

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29:30

When Workers Made Their Own Magic

Labor History Today ·

2026/03/29

On this week’s Labor History Today: As Women’s History Month draws to a close, we mark the founding of the Coalition of Labor Union Women in 1974, when more than 3,000 women from 58 unions came together in Chicago to demand a stronger voice in the labor movement. Then, from America’s Workforce Union Podcast, historian Carie Rael takes us inside the largest strike in Disneyland history, when workers across multiple unions joined forces in the Reagan era to challenge one of the most powerful

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29:29

Women Who Led the Fight

Labor History Today ·

2026/03/22

This week on Labor History Today, we explore moments when workers didn’t just demand change—they forced it.Detroit, 1937: sit-down strikers face a violent police raid—and resist, floor by floor, in a pivotal moment in the fight for union recognition. Seattle, 1919: Conor Casey takes us inside the Labor Temple, as workers coordinate a general strike that briefly turns organized labor into the city’s governing force. See photos on LHF’s Labor Landmarks Map. New York City, 1970: postal workers

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29:30

The Bread and Roses Strike and the Triangle...

Labor History Today ·

2026/03/15

This week on Labor History Today: From the fiery tragedy that shocked the nation—the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire—to the powerful solidarity of the 1912 Bread and Roses strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. We’ll also hear how a rebellious group of DJs turned a Bay Area radio station into a labor battleground in 1968, proving that the counterculture wasn’t just about rebellion—it was also about dignity, creativity, and fair pay on the job. And we visit Idaho’s Sunshine Mine Disaster Memorial,

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29:30

Women Workers Carry Forward the Fight for Justice

Labor History Today ·

2026/03/08

On this week’s Labor History Today, we continue our look at the legacy of A. Philip Randolph and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first major Black-led union in the United States.Recorded at Georgetown University’s Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor, SEIU International President April Verrett reflects on what Randolph’s legacy means for workers today. Posting on International Women’s Day, this conversation highlights the role of women workers—especially in care and

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29:30

“Manhood Rights”: The Brotherhood at 100

Labor History Today ·

2026/03/02

On this week’s Labor History Today, historian Eric Arnesen marks the centennial of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, tracing how A. Philip Randolph and Black railway workers built the first major Black-led union in 1925, fought for what Randolph called “manhood rights”—dignity on the job—and helped lay the groundwork for the 1941 and 1963 Marches on Washington, reshaping both the labor movement and the modern civil rights struggle. Plus, on Labor History in 2:00: The Price of Demanding Equal

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29:30

Ghost Parks and Forgotten Graves: Labor’s Hidden...

Labor History Today ·

2026/02/23

On this week’s Labor History Today, host Chris Garlock explores how workers’ struggles leave lasting marks—not just on history, but on the physical landscape itself.In Hamilton, Ontario, the 1946 Stelco strike helped secure collective bargaining rights for Canadian steelworkers—but also triggered a backlash that literally reshaped Woodlands Park, once known as the “People’s Park,” to prevent workers from gathering there again. And in Marion, North Carolina, Chris traces the story of the 1929 Marion

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29:31

Striking at Kings

Labor History Today ·

2026/02/15

On this week’s Labor History Today: Labor History in 2:00 on the Sons of Vulcan’s 1865 strike, a Labor Jawn conversation with songwriter Mindy Murray about her song “Striking at Kings,” and a return to 1937 Anderson, Indiana, and the violence following the Flint sit-down strike. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.comLabor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the

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29:22

The Greensboro Sit-Ins and the Power of Direct Action

Labor History Today ·

2026/02/08

This week on Labor History Today: The 66th anniversary of the Greensboro sit-ins — a turning point that helped ignite the modern Civil Rights Movement and reshaped American politics. We feature an in-depth conversation from The Green and Red Podcast, tracing the origins of the sit-in movement, from Greensboro and Nashville to the rise of SNCC, and exploring how militant nonviolence, media exposure, and youth-led organizing forced a national reckoning — with powerful parallels to today’s struggles

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29:31

A Banjo, a Brick, and a Bible

Labor History Today ·

2026/02/01

This week on Labor History Today, we remember Pete Seeger and how his songs helped build movements—from union halls to civil rights and environmental campaigns. Then we turn to the 1933 Funsten Nut Strike in St. Louis, led by Black women who organized more than 2,000 workers, and talk with the creators of the new play A Brick and a Bible.Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com Labor

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29:30

The Poet of the Lawrence Strike

Labor History Today ·

2026/01/25

This episode of Labor History Today features historian Marcella Bencivenni on Arturo Giovannitti—Italian immigrant, poet, socialist, and labor organizer—whose role in the 1912 Lawrence textile strike made him a target of state repression and a powerful voice of labor resistance. Arrested for his words, Giovannitti turned imprisonment into poetry that helped define an era of immigrant-led radical organizing. The episode explores free speech struggles, anti-immigrant repression, and labor

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29:26

The Homestead Strike in Film and Song

Labor History Today ·

2026/01/18

This week on Labor History Today, we explore how the 1892 Homestead Strike continues to live on—not just in books and archives, but in film, music, and living memory.We begin with labor scholar and cultural critic Kathleen Newman, who takes us inside Ting Tong Chang’s The Hidden Shift, a two-screen film installation at Pittsburgh’s Mattress Factory. Inspired by the Homestead Strike, the piece layers a fictionalized labor drama with behind-the-scenes footage of museum workers making the work

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29:30

Made by Labour

Labor History Today ·

2026/01/11

This week on Labor History Today, Simon Sapper talks with historian Martin Wright, co-author of Made by Labour: A Material and Visual History of British Labor, 1780–1924. The book traces the rise of the world’s first modern labor movement through banners, boxes, coins, tools, and images created by working people during the Industrial Revolution and beyond—right up to the moment labor stood on the brink of political power in the 1920s.Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out

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29:32

When Workers Tell Their Own Stories

Labor History Today ·

2026/01/04

This week on Labor History Today, we move from repression to resistance—and from history to possibility. We begin with Labor History in Two and the 1917 trial of labor leader Tom Mooney, a stark reminder of how the justice system has been used to silence working-class dissent. Then we turn to the present with a report from the Working Class History podcast, bringing us to the 2025 Working Class Literature Festival at the occupied former GKN factory outside Florence, Italy—where workers are fighting

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