Labor History Talks at Maritime Museum (SF)

Please join us on Sunday, March 24 at the Maritime Museum to welcome back Harvey Schwartz, Ph.D. and Professor Robert Cherny for a riveting conversation on the book Labor Under Siege, an oral history by Harvey Schwartz and Ronald E. Magden. They will be visiting as part of our ongoing Labor History Talks, held in partnership with San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.

Labor Under Siege chronicles the struggles of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) during a fraught time in union history, and their perseverance under the leadership of “Big Bob” Robert McEllrath, who was President of the ILWU for twelve years.

“Robert McEllrath steered the legendary, militant West Coast dockworkers union through some of its most tumultuous waters. Schwartz, a consummate oral historian, lets the voices of Big Bob and those around him describe those stormy seas.” —Peter Cole, author of Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area

Harvey Schwartz is a U.S. labor historian who specializes in oral history. His research focuses primarily on the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. He is curator of the ILWU Oral History Collection at the ILWU library in San Francisco. Schwartz is the author of numerous books and articles for scholarly journals. He writes for union newspapers, including The ILWU Dispatcher. Schwartz holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Davis.

Robert W. Cherny is professor emeritus of history at San Francisco State University. He has written extensively on U.S. history and politics, and is part of the Living New Deal project. He is author of the monumental biography Harry Bridges: Labor Radical, Labor Legend.