CFL’s Don Villar Speaking September 18

The Historic Pullman Foundation (HPF) is hosting Chicago Federation of Labor Secretary –Treas-urer and ILHS board member on September 18, 4p.m., part of their on-going speakers’ series.

Villar will speak on “Filipinos and Pullman.”  As African-American Pullman Porters began organizing in 1925, the Pullman Company brought in Filipinos as possible strike-breakers. Instead, the Filipino workers joined in solidarity with the Porters and stymied the Pullman Company.

Villar is a labor activist, an Emmy award-winning former broadcast news journalist, and civil rights attorney. Villar is the current Secretary-Treasurer of the Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL). He was elected to the post in 2018. Prior to his election to the CFL, Villar was President of NABET-CWA Local 41. He was elected as Local 41 President in 2015, representing broadcast TV workers across Chicago. For nearly 25 years, Villar was a news writer/producer at WLS-TV/ABC7 covering local, state, national, and international stories that impacted the people across Chicago. While working full-time in television news and moving up the ranks of leadership at his Union,

Villar also began studies at Loyola University of Chicago Law School in 2008. Villar received his Bachelor of Liberal Arts & Sciences from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Tickets are $10 for the talk, free to HPF members.  For tickets, go to: https://tinyurl.com/3mw2ha6x

At HPF’s Exhibit Hall, the Railroaders photography exhibit continues through December 31. 

During World War II, Office of War Information photographer Jack Delano was sent to Chicago to capture everyday railroad workers aiding the war effort.  These stunning “on the job” portraits reveal the subject’s working class commitment to the Homefront effort.  The Exhibit Hall is open Tuesday–Sunday, 11 a.m.—3 p.m. at 11141 S. Cottage Grove Ave.  Admission is $10, free to HPF members.  It will be open on Labor Day.

The Illinois Labor History Society will join with the National Park Service (NPS) Pullman National Monument (PNM), the State Historic Site and other partners to celebrate Labor Day in Pullman on Monday, September 5.

Activities are located in the NPS Visitor Center and on the IDNR factory grounds at 111th and S. Cottage Grove Ave.  Opening remarks at the tent start at noon followed by four additional performances.  Adjacent tents will host partners celebrating the theme "Building Solidarity Through Diversity."  All activities are free and family-friendly.    

From 1—2 p.m. ILHS member Bucky Halker, along with mandolin virtuoso Don Stiernberg will play labor music.  Union actor and ILHS board member

Alma Washington and friends will present a short theatrical presentation.

The ILHS will offer Pullman Labor History tours at 12:00 and 2:00 p.m., leaving from the reconstructed workers gate at 111th Street.  Additionally, NPS Rangers are leading "Pullman Strikes Over Decades" tours of the historic grounds at 1 and 3 p.m..

Steelworkers were on strike, 25,000 strong. It was a warm, sunny holiday, a mass picket line and rally took place in a field near the Republic Steel Plant, led by the Steelworkers Organizing Committee of the newly formed CIO. As the rally proceeded, police launched a sudden attack, killing 10 attendees and injuring at least 100, including women and children.
The Massacre is commemorated annually, this year on Saturday, May 21 at 1 pm, outdoors weather permitting, otherwise in the Steelworkers Hall at 11731 S Ave "O".

To learn more, check out these two videos: https://www.usw.org/video/the-memorial-day-massacre and, available at the ILHS online bookstore, http://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/shop/the-1937-memorial-day-massacre-dvd.

A Matter of Moral Justice: Black Women Laundry Workers and the Fight for Justice.

On Monday May 16, at 7 p.m., at Gage Gallery, Roosevelt University, 425 S Wabash, in Chicago, the Illinois Labor History Society will host Jenny Carson, for a talk on her book A Matter of Moral Justice: Black Women Laundry Workers and the Fight For Justice.  

Recently published by the University of Illinois press, this book tells the history of how women working in New York’s power laundry industry in the 1930s, including Trinidadian-born Garveyite Charlotte Adelmond, fought back against substandard working conditions, racial and gender discrimination, and poor pay by forming a union.

This book highlights how race and gender shaped worker conditions, labor organizing, and union politics across the country in the twentieth century.

Jenny Carson is an Associate Professor of History in Toronto, Canada. 

Her book talk will also feature a guest appearance by Bea Lumpkin, ILHS Labor Hall of Honor member and long time Chicago labor activist, who was on the frontlines of the effort to organize laundry workers.

Copies of A Matter of Moral Justice will be available for purchase at the event, and light refreshments will be served.

The History of the Packinghouse Worker Thursday, May 5th, 2022 4:00 - 7:00PM at 4859 S Wabash Ave, Chicago, IL To celebrate May Day, Chicago Public Art Group (CPAG) in collaboration with the Chicago Housing Authority, Illinois Labor History Society, United Food and Commercial Union, and Chicago Blues Revival is unveiling the restored labor mural, The History of the Packinghouse Worker,” one of the few remaining exterior murals by renowned African American artist William “Bill” Walker (1927-2011). Walker created this mural as a dedication to workers’ dignity. Bernard Williams and Damon Lamar Reed restored this mural in the Fall of 2021. The restoration was made possible by the generous funding of the National Academy of Design/ Edwin Austin Abbey Memorial Trust Fund for Mural Painting, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Chicago Housing Authority. Special appearance from Grammy award-winning blues artist Dom Flemons, one hour prior to the unveiling at 4:00 pm. Schedule of Event: 4:00pm - 4:45pm Performance by Dom Flemons 5:00pm - 5:53pm Speaking commences 5:53pm - 6:00pm Ribbon cutting ceremony 6:00pm - 7:00pm Post-event activities including Folks and Labor Singer, Bucky Halker and local musical hero,Toronzo Canon

Sponsored by the U.S. - Canada Labor History Network, a group of organizations dedicated to preserving worker history in North America.

Speakers include:

Will Jones, professor of history at University of Minnesota, immediate past president of the Labor and Working Class History Assn., and author of "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963."

Alvin Finkel, emeritus professor of history, Athabasca University, Athabasca, Alberta. Author of 13 books on Canadian history, specializing on worker history and ethnic studies.

Open Discussion. No Charge. Registration required at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-forum-the-struggle-for-the-8-hour-day-is-it-relevant-today-tickets-319009565197?fbclid=IwAR3gKJBheVutomtlLKfHUJho9UTl6gyVL48iOhzbYfw09BVNul2dwpCTHn8

A live celebration Mother Jones Birthday Party is Sunday May 1,  4-6 p.m. at the Irish American Heritage Center, 4626 N Knox Ave, Chicago.

Admission is free.  Guest will include Flight Attendants President Sara Nelson, Irish General Consul Kevin Byrne, artist Lindsay Hand, musicians Paddy Homan, Kathy Cowen and the SAG-AFTRA singers, with emcee Chicago Federation of Labor Secretary-Treasurer Don Villar.

Free cake and attendees are eligible for unique door prizes. Mother Jones celebrated May 1 as her birthday because she was “Reborn in the Labor Movement,” and you can be too! Mother Jones is expected to make a guest appearance. For more information, check out "events" at motherjonesmuseum.org. "

Italian unionists from the Federation of Metallurgical and Office Workers (FiOM) will join the ILHS at 12:30 p.m. on May Day, Sunday, May 1, to unveil their commemorative plaque on the Haymarket’s Square statue’s base.  The base features plaques from labor movements around the globe, marking May 1 as International Workers’ Day.

The FiOM was scheduled last year but because of COVID could not attend.  Since 2005 the ILHS and the Chicago Federation of Labor have co-sponsored the annual May 1 gathering.  The statue is on Des Plaines Street, just north of Randolph, in Chicago’s west loop.  This is where on May 4, 1886 an eight-hour day rally took place, which was attacked by the police, who were then the victims of an unknown bomb thrower.

The FiOM was founded in 1901 as Italy’s first industrial union.  The organization helped found the General Italian Confederation of Labor (CGIL) in 1906.

The union achieved strong gains through the World War I period through factory occupations and other militant actions.  Benito Mussolini’s 1922 fascist take-over repressed unions.  The union lost leaders either killed or imprisoned by the fascist regime.  During World War II union activist aided the resistance.

After the war contract gains were won and in 1969 the union linked support with student and women’s movements.  The over 300,000 member strong union continues to fight for workers’ rights in the globalization age.

ILHS President Larry Spivack welcomes all to the May 1 event, saying, “We hope you can join us once again to honor and celebrate the events from the Haymarket Affair that led to the creation of International Labor Day. This is the one place where workers of the world actually unite!”

The Mother Jones Museum Mt. Olive, Illinois, the Union Miners Cemetery association, and the City of Mt. Olive present a May Day program honoring Mother Jones, her family, and legacy in Macoupin County.

Sunday, May first, 12:00 pm, at the Union Miners Cemetery there will be a procession of labor banners, dedication of a commemorative bench dedicated to the memory of Mother Jones’ husband and children, tributes to Mother Jones and General Bradley by actors Loretta Williams and Dale Hawkins, labor music by Wildflower Conspiracy and Nick Krumwiede. Speakers include  Illinois AFL-CIO  President, Tim Drea, UMWA District 12 VP Steve Earl and greetings from Cork, Ireland and West Virginia.

At 2 pm at Main Street program will begin. A magic-ian and fire engine visit for children, local foods including Mt. Olive coffee roaster, Kazoo coffee with their Mother Jones Hellraiser coffee, will line Main St.

Three writers and historians will discuss their current books and projects. Prof. Fawn-Amber Montoya, James Madison University, will dis-cuss her work with Colorado mining community oral his-tories. Ginny Ayers, West Virginia historian will discuss her new book on Mother Jones in West Virginia. Elizabeth Rodenz, Pennsylvania. writer and therapist, will discuss her new book on the women in the Pennsylvania coalfields, in-cluding Mother Jones activities there.

The Mother Jones Museum will be open, a quilt honoring Mother Jones in Mt. Olive will be displayed at City Hall,

Wildflower and Nick Krumwiede will perform during the afternoon.

For more information, please call 618 659 8759 or email friendsofthemotherjonesmuseum@gmail.com, or jcondellone@gmail.com.