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Labor Fights Back - San Francisco's Labor Fest
For eighteen years, Labor Fest, an annual labor cultural arts festival, has commemorated the 1934 General Strike. This year's Labor Fest, entitled, "Labor Fights Back From Egypt to Wisconsin and San Francisco" will also commemorate the 150th anniversary of the US civil war and the role of slavery in California, the 125th anniversary of May Day, and the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Fire In New York where 146 mostly immigrant Jewish and Italian garment workers perished in a fire. The month long festival, beginning July 2nd through July 31st will include the Film Works United Festival, theatrical and musical performances, a BookFair and labor history cultural walks, and presentations. At a time when history, reality, labor is under constant attack from the corporate press, the stories and histories of struggle, resistance, the triumphs of collective actions, solidarity, the human spirit over injustice, tyranny and fascism deserve our attention. This festival has expanded to Japan, Korea, Argentina, Turkey internationally. This festival is also the largest labor cultural arts festival in the United States.
A founder of Labor Fest, Steve Zeltzer is also a founder of the Labor Video Projectand has been producing labor video documentaries since 1983. Some of them such as "Halfway To Hell, The Workers and Unions That Built The Golden Gate Bridge" narrated by Danny Glover have been on PBS and KQED in San Francisco. He produces a bi-weekly show called "Labor On The Job" which is the longest running labor television show in the United States and has helped establish an bi-annual labor communication media conference called LaborTech.Steve Zeltzer is a tireless activist, organizer, extremely knowledgeable about labor history, as well as the current struggles taking place, as technology breakdowns and breakthroughs occur, challenging all on many fronts. The full calendar of events and the entire program are posted at the LaborFest website.