 This week’s Labor History Today podcast: “Politics of the Pantry”; “We Just Come to Work Here”
“This period of time in the Thirties struck me as a period of great innovation and resilience that women organized around the need to provide certain services. And I see that happening in my community today around the pandemic.” Emily Twarog, author of “Politics of the Pantry: Housewives, Food, and Consumer Protest in Twentieth Century America.” Her study of how women used institutions built on patriarchy and consumer capitalism to cultivate a political voice resonates strongly today in the midst of both the COVID-19 pandemic and an election year. Joyce McCawley talked with Twarog on the Heartland Labor Forum, the labor radio show airing weekly in Kansas City on KKFI. Plus: Ben Grosscup (photo) with a new version of “We Just Come to Work Here” and Joe Glazer on the Memorial Day Massacre. Last week’s show: “The Long Deep Grudge: A Story of Big Capital, Radical Labor, and Class War in the American Heartland” Men and women weavers in Pawtucket, R.I. stage nation's first "co-ed" strike - 1824 Western Federation of Miners members strike for eight-hour day, Cripple Creek, Colo. – 1894 Actors’ Equity is founded by 112 theater actors meeting in the Pabst Grand Circle Hotel in New York City. A strike six years later, during which membership increased from 3,000 to 14,000, loosened the control on performers’ lives by theater owners and producers - 1913 IWW Marine Transport Workers strike, Philadelphia – 1920 One hundred thousand steel workers and miners in mines owned by steel companies strike in seven states. The Memorial Day Massacre, in which ten strikers were killed by police at Republic Steel in Chicago, took place four days later, on May 30 - 1937 Battle of the Overpass, Ford thugs beat United Auto Workers organizers – 1937 - David Prosten Comments are closed.
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