LaborFest 2018: Angel Island & Trial of Harry Bridges | SF

Submitted by the Event Organizer

San Francisco 2021 LaborFest (July 1-31)

LaborFest is an annual festival celebrating the history and culture of working people through film, art, lectures, tours, and exhibits all over the Bay Area from July 1-31, 2021

LaborFest opens its 28th annual festival with a month of timely events inspired by local and international labor activists and labor history. The program schedule includes both international and local films and videos, a labor history walk and bike tour, lectures, forums, readings, theatrical and musical performances. Most events are free of charge but donations by the public will be accepted.

LaborFest is the premier labor cultural arts and film festival in the United States.  LaborFest recognizes the role of working people in the building of America and making it work even in this time of COVID-19.  The festival is self-funded with contributions from unions and other organizations that support and celebrate the contributions of working people.

LaborFest 2021
July 1-31, 2021

• See schedule of Online/Zoom Events
• In person LaborFest events – See the full schedule

In Person Events Schedule

7/1 Thursday 7:00pm: Theatre play: “Hold These Truths”
Location: San Francisco Playhouse
Tickets $15-$100

7/3 Saturday 12pm: Labor History Bike Tour by Chris Carlsson
Meet at 518 Valencia, near 16th Street, in San Francisco, at 12noon
Donation requested

7/4 Sunday 10:00am: San Bruno Mountain Walk with David Schooley
Meet at 10:00 AM at the San Bruno Mountain Watch office (44 Visitacion Avenue, Suite 206, in Brisbane)
FREE

7/5 Monday 12:00pm: 1934 SF General Strike Walk and presentation with Gifford Hartman
Meet at the south column at Harry Bridges Plaza (across from the Ferry Building) in San Francisco
FREE

7/10 Saturday 2:00pm: Book reading: Mobilizing in OUR OWN NAME with Clarence Thomas
Location: ILWU 10 hall – 400 N. Point St., SF Henry Schmidt room
FREE

7/17 Saturday 10:00am: WPA Harvey Smith Berkeley Walk
Meet at the Main Berkeley Post Office – corner of Milvia & Alston
FREE

7/18 Sunday 7:00pm: Revolutionary Poets: Building Socialism, Fighting Fascism
Location: Specs Bar, 12 William Saroyan Place, San Francisco, CA
FREE

7/23 Friday 4:00pm: Concert “BlackRock, Stop Union Busting”
Location: 400 Howard St. at 1st Street
FREE

7/24 Saturday 12pm: Tom Mooney and Preparatory Day Bombing Walk
Meet at One Market Street in San Francisco
FREE

7/25 Sunday 10:00am: Labor Politics and Architecture of San Francisco – Walk with Brad Wiedmaier
Meet at ILWU Sculpture at Mission & Steuart in San Francisco
FREE

7/30 Friday 6:00pm: Eleventh Annual San Francisco Living Wage Coalition Awards Dinner
Location: San Jalisco Restaurant, 901 South Van Ness Avenue at 20th Street in San Francisco
$35 per ticket in advance or a group rate of $250 for eight tickets in advance

7/31 Saturday 12:00pm: Oakland General Strike Walk with Gifford Hartman
Meet at the fountain in Latham Square, at the intersection where Telegraph and Broadway converge, across from the Rotunda Building (Oakland City Center/12th St. BART)
FREE

7/31 Saturday 6pm: Labor Maritime History Boat Tour
3-hour boat tour of the Bay from Pier 41
$60

Sunday, July 22, 2018
San Francisco 2021 LaborFest (July 1-31)

Harry Bridges, the Australian-born founding president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, was hounded by government investigations, hearings, and trials from 1934 to 1955. As the leader of the famous 1934 Pacific Coast Maritime and San Francisco General Strikes, Bridges was the target of powerful conservative forces in and out of government. In 1939, U.S. federal authorities conducted a hearing on Angel Island to determine whether there were legal grounds to deport the foreign-born labor leader as an alien Communist. The Angel Island hearing attracted major media attention and remains an important historical event in Bay Area labor and immigration history. The 1939 Bridges inquiry was a prelude to the later witch-hunts of the McCarthy era, with its persecution of immigrants, radicals, labor activists, and dissenters of every stripe. Harvey Schwartz, curator of the ILWU Oral History Collection, will explore the circumstances surrounding the Bridges hearing and describe the trials that followed it, which reached the U.S. Supreme Court twice. In an era of difficult times for organized labor, renewed intolerance, and anti-immigrant national politics, knowledge of the Bridges Angel Island hearing remains as relevant today as it was in 1939.

Meet at the benches in front of the entrance stairs to the U.S. Immigration Station. You can reach the Immigration Station by hiking a 1.5 mile trail uphill or by paying $ 7 to ride the Island’s shuttle. Please check our website (www.laborfest.net) or call LaborFest (415-642-8066) for any changes.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.