Your Contributions to Our Moving Expenses Are Very Welcome
After being located at 28 E. Jackson for more than a quarter century, the ILHS has been evicted and forced to relocate. The building where we made our home for so long has been sold and will be rehabbed as student apartments. We’re happy to report that we found modestly priced new offices at 123 W. Madison. We will retain a convenient and accessible Loop location. The costs of moving were totally unforeseen and have taken a bite out of our budget. We now face unanticipated moving expenses of at least $10,000. And this came just at one of our busiest times of the year -- during another ambitious program of May activities centered around our traditional May Day commemoration.

We’re asking members and supporters of the ILHS to help defray these extra costs. We’re confident that the move to a new and better office will strengthen our organization and its capacities. Click here to make a donation via paypal on this website. Or send your contribution via check to our old office at 28 E. Jackson, Suite 1012, Chicago, IL 60604. Thank you so much. -- Larry Spivack, President

May Day: Haymarket Lives!
Tuesday, May 1, 2012 at 11:00 AM
Haymarket Statue, Randolph & Des Plaines

Join ILHS at our annual May Day ceremony and commemoration of the Haymarket Martyrs. Benedicto Martinez Orozco, a leader of the Mexican union federation Frente Autentico de Trabajo, will preside over mounting a plaque from our Mexican brothers and sisters in the FAT. Then join the May Day demonstration assembling at Union Park at 12 noon and marching to Federal Plaza at 1:00 PM. This May Day demonstration, initiated by Occupy Chicago, is sponsored by a host of local unions and community groups.

For a full list of ILHS spring activities in Chicago, read more.

Workers’ history continues with numerous commemorations, talks and activities during May throughout the Illinois Valley, as the Smithsonian’s “The Way We Worked” exhibit concludes its area tour. The Smithsonian traveling exhibit, which looks at workers, jobs and the many changes in the work environment, will be shown at the Ottawa Historical and Scouting Heritage Museum, 1100 Canal Street in Ottawa through May 24.  The Museum is open Thursday – Monday, 10 a.m.  – 4 p.m., $3 adult admission, $2 for children.  Three other concurrent exhibits are also available.   In LaSalle at the Canal Corridor Association’s Local 16 Center, 754 First Street, is a photographic exhibit, “Waterways that Work,” about the Illinois & Michigan Canal, the Cal-Sag Channel and the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.  The LaSalle County Historical Society, 202 E Canal Street in Utica, will have ten exhibits about LaSalle County industries, as part of “The Way LaSalle Worked.” And the Peru Public Library, 1409 11^th St., will feature “The Way Peru worked.”

Labor Heroes

Labor Monuments of Illinois

Labor Murals in Illinois

Many of Illlinois' labor battles and landmark events are portrayed in an array of stunning murals in Chicago and around the state. In a world surrounded by billboards and advertisements, we can turn to murals to tell us of the lives of people that built our movements and communities. We're sharing the list of labor murals the ILHS developed for our 2011 Union Hall of Honor, when four working-class artists and muralists joined the roster of our inductees.

Now on special sale at our online bookstore: The re-released ILHS DVD "When Art Speaks Labor's Language," a tour guided by President Emeritus Les Orear of three iconic Chicago labor murals. Order your copy today.