Labor and Equity
The Lies of Emancipation: The Failure of Reconstruction, the Development of Sharecropping, and the Growth of Convict Labor
MN, United StatesThe East Side Freedom Library and the St. Paul Recovery Act Reparations Book Group invite you to a discussion: 'The Lies of Emancipation: The Failure of Reconstruction, the Development of Sharecropping, and the Growth of Convict Labor" Six months ago, our project began discussing the long-term consequences of uncompensated African American labor in the perpetuation of […]
Give Me Shelter! Challenging the Landlord- Tenant Paradigm
The East Side Freedom Library invites you to the next conversation in our series "Learning from the Past, Fighting for the Future" The crises of 2020 have left millions unable to pay rent. In a society where almost all rental housing is in private hands, tenants are demanding a shift in power. New […]
Labor History Reading Group: “When the Seattle General Strike and the 1918 Flu Collided”
At the East Side Freedom Library, we have been particularly concerned with the Pandemic's impact on working people—putting healthcare, grocery, transit, and meatpacking workers, and many others, at risk. We have also paid attention to its disparate impacts on immigrants and communities of color. We have been encouraged by conversations and movements which insist that we […]
“Racial Justice Protests and Social Change: Connecting Local Movements – Stories, and Analysis from Minneapolis, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C.” An Interdisciplinary Collaborative Workshop Online Teach-In
The Interdisciplinary Collaborative Workshop on Democracy under Threat: Public Scholarship and Teaching is organizing two online teach-ins in July “Racial Justice Protests and Social Change: Connecting Local Movements - Stories, and Analysis from Minneapolis, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C.” An Interdisciplinary Collaborative Workshop Online Teach-In Wednesday, July 29, 2020, 12:00-3:00 p.m. (CST), 1:00-4:00 (EST) In recent weeks, […]
History Revealed: Black Women’s Struggle for the Right to Vote
The East Side Freedom Library and the Ramsey County Historical Society invite you to the next conversation in our “History Revealed" series Black Women's Struggle for the Right to Vote A Conversation with Dr. Martha S. Jones Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University Wednesday, August 12, 2020, 7pm Amidst all the turmoil of 2020, it […]
Virtual Screening and Discussion: Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl
Join us to watch and discuss the film "Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl: Immigrant Women in the Turn of the Century" This virtual event will premiere on ESFL's Facebook page and YouTube channel Immigration is a hot topic today. What can we learn from studying the experiences of immigrants a century ago? What challenges […]
Reparations Reading Group: The Great Migration and the Red Summer
Register here for an invitation to the Zoom meeting As we continue our investigation into the development of institutional and systemic racism in the United States, we turn our attention to the Great Migration in which millions of African Americans left the South in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the explosion of […]
Labor History Reading Group: Teamsters, Class Identity, and Domesticity in 1950s-1960s America
with Ryan Murphy, activist/scholar Associate Professor of History, Earlham College Tuesday, August 25, 2020, 7:00PM Via Zoom Register here for an invitation to the Zoom meeting The study of labor history is more than the uncovering of untold stories. It also involves the reinterpretation of subjects that we might think we already know. Jimmy Hoffa, […]
Confederate Monuments, The Knights of Labor, and Working Class History
The East Side Freedom Library invites you to a conversation with ESFL Co-Executive Director, Peter Rachleff, and SF Labor Video Project Director, Steve Zeltzer This virtual event will premiere on ESFL's Facebook page and YouTube channel We are living in an era of unprecedented challenging of historical monuments, statues, and paintings. Much can be learned when […]
Putting the “Public” in Public Health: Global Organizing in a Time of Pandemic
The East Side Freedom Library invites you to the third conversation in our series, “Learning from the Past, Fighting for the Future” When the topic of health comes up, most Americans think of their personal health and how they are going to pay their health care bills. Often taken for granted is the public dimension: a […]
Labor Day Ain’t No Picnic
ZoomLabor Day Ain't No PicnicAn event about Amazon, workers' rights, and our communityMade possible in part with support from Cummins and Cummins A century ago, farmer, labor, and community activists used an octopus to depict the ways they saw capitalist greed grasping control over work, business, community, and political life. Today, it is hard to imagine […]
The Crisis of the Postal Service: What’s Behind It? What’s at Stake? What Can We Do?
Wednesday, September 9, 2020, 7pm This event will premiere on ESFL’s Facebook page and YouTube channel Carolyn Sue Olson, Letter Carrier, from her series, “Essential Workers” In the last month, funding, staffing, and operating of the U.S. Postal Service has become a central political issue. Is President Trump seeking to undermine the U.S.P.S. to sabotage […]
Reparations Reading Group: The Great Depression, the New Deal, and the Birth of Industrial Unionism
How Did These Historic Developments Impact Black Americans? And How Did Black Americans Impact these Historic Developments? Register here for a link to the Zoom conversation. The current economic crisis and movement against institutionalized racism provide a great vantage point from which to consider the 1930s and engage in a conversation between the past and […]
Virtual Screening and Discussion of “Up South”
This virtual event will premiere on ESFL’s Facebook page and YouTube channel This is the next in ESFL's monthly series of labor history films. It is important that we understand "labor history" to include the histories of working people, not just the histories of unions. How was the American working class made and unmade, in era […]
Labor History Reading Group—African American Dining Car Waiters: An Overlooked Chapter in an Overlooked History
Register here for an invitation to the Zoom meeting. The stories of American workers' lives are much too little known. Similarly, the stories of African Americans' lives are too rarely told. What happens when we investigate the intersection of these two narratives? Such a journey can yield significant insight into the making and remaking of […]
Learning from the Past, Fighting for the Future: The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party
The East Side Freedom Library invites you to the next conversation with Tom O’Connell, “Learning from the Past, Fighting for the Future” Tom will talk with Nation Magazine’s John Nichols to discuss his new book The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party: The Enduring Legacy of Henry Wallace’s Antifascist Antiracist Politics Monday, September […]
History Revealed: Suffrage at 100
Suffrage at 100: Women in American Politics since 1920 a conversation with authors/editors Stacie Taranto & Leandra Zarnow Thursday, October 1, 2020 at 7:00 pm Live presentation on Zoom Register for this meeting here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. The presentation will be recorded and put on […]
Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor with Steven Greenhouse
The East Side Freedom Library invites you to a conversation about the new book, Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor, by Steven Greenhouse Tuesday, October 6, 2020, 7pm This event will premiere on ESFL’s Facebook page & YouTube channel Join author Steve Greenhouse and Twin Cities labor leaders Javier […]
Virtual Screening and Discussion: The River Ran Red
The East Side Freedom Library invites you our monthly screening & discussion of a Labor History film The River Ran Red Friday, October 9, 2020, 7pm This event will premiere on ESFL’s Facebook page & YouTube channel The violence that erupted at Carnegie Steel's giant Homestead mill near Pittsburgh on July 6. 1892, caused a […]
Reparations Reading Group: How Did Japanese-Americans Get Reparations? What Can We Learn From Their Experience?
The East Side Freedom Library & the St. Paul Recovery Act Reading Group invite you to the October meeting of the Reparations Reading Group How Did Japanese-Americans Get Reparations? What Can We Learn From Their Experience? Tuesday, October 13, 2020, 6:30pm This meeting will be on Zoom. You must register here to participate. During World […]