Labor History Today

By laborhistorytoday

What's Labor History Today about?

Gripping stories of the historic battles for worker rights and how they fuel today’s struggles. Part of the Labor Radio/Podcast Network: #LaborRadioPod

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Labor History Today episodes:

06.02.2024
Pride on the line (Encore)
Today’s show is excerpted from “Pride on the Line: The UAW and Queer-Labor Solidarity after Stonewall” by Jamie McQuaid, part of the Our Daily Work Our Daily Lives Brown Bag series from Michigan State University. The talk took place in...
05.26.2024
The Memorial Day Massacre (Encore)
Joe McCartin, Ben Blake and Julie Greene remember the 1937 Memorial Day Massacre, when police opened fire on striking steelworkers at Republic Steel in South Chicago, killing ten and wounding more than 160. Patrick Dixon interviews Tom Sito on the...
05.20.2024
“The Black Wobbly” gets a mural
A mural celebrating Ben Fletcher – “The Black Wobbly” – was unveiled in Philadelphia on May 18; check out our audio postcard.On this week’s Labor History in Two: Remembering C.L.R. James Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out...
05.12.2024
The 1938 Crisfield Crab Pickers Strike
Before last Friday, to know about the 1938 crab pickers strike in Crisfield, Maryland, you had to know about it. This is the story of so many worker struggles in this country; hard-fought fights that unlike other battles – the...
05.05.2024
“I'm taking pictures of the history of today”
In 1946, as part of a strike-ending agreement negotiated between the Department of the Interior and the United Mine Workers of America, photographer Russell Lee went into coal communities located in remote areas across the United States, documenting miners in 13...
04.28.2024
“UAW’s Southern Gamble” pays off
To call the April 19 vote by Volkswagen AG workers in Tennessee to unionize historic may be a bit of an understatement. Not only was it the first foreign-owned auto plant in the South to organize, the vote was a...
04.21.2024
The Return of John Brown
Abolitionist John Brown is mistaken for a Black Lives Matter activist in Gene Bruskin’s latest labor musical, and a tour guide keeps Black worker history alive.Excerpted from the Labor Heritage Power Hour radio show.Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and...
04.14.2024
The ’34 Toledo Auto-Lite strike
The 1934 Toledo Auto-Lite strike is one of the three most important in U.S. history, yet it’s largely unknown; why? Plus: CBTU president Terry Melvin on why the AFL-CIO’s Gompers Room was renamed the Solidarity Room. On this week’s Labor...
04.07.2024
Trumka remembers Pittston
On the 35th anniversary of the Pittston Coal strike, we revisit our 2019 interview with Richard Trumka about the historic strike.On this week’s Labor History in Two: The Upper Big Branch mine disaster.Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to...
03.31.2024
Connecting the ACLU, NRA and IWW
Labor historian Joe McCartin on the labor connection to National Rifle Association v. Vullo. On this week’s Labor History in Two: Remembering ILWU leader Harry Bridges. Read more: New York's Coercion of Private Companies to Blacklist the NRA Has a...
03.24.2024
“Changing Lives, Changing L.A.”
Today’s show comes to us from Re:Work, a woman-led radio show and podcast from the UCLA Labor Center, spotlighting the voices of workers, immigrants, and people of color. “Changing Lives, Changing L.A.” is a play created from transcripts from the...
03.17.2024
B.C.’s Tough and Fearless Truck-Driving Woman
From On The Line, the story of Diana Kilmury, the bold and fearless truck driver who took on both sexist attitudes on the job and a corrupt union.On this week’s Labor History in Two: Big Bill Haywood Talks General Strike. Questions,...
03.10.2024
The 2024 Labor Oscar winners!
The Power at Work podcast’s Joseph Brant reveals the winners of their Labor Oscars, all of which are classics of the genre. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The Slovak Strike. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find...
03.08.2024
When Mother Jones teamed up with a U.S. Senator to battle West Virginia feudalism
David Corn, Washington D.C. Bureau Chief for Mother Jones, brings us “A Story of Mother Jones (the Labor Organizer) That’s Relevant a Century Later”. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to find out how you can be a part...
03.03.2024
We Were There
The history of Women's History Month, and Women in the U.S. Labor Movement, a special report from the Work Stoppage podcast, plus “We Were There” by Bev Grant and the New York City Labor Chorus, and, on Labor History in...
02.25.2024
Life and Times of a Black Wobbly (Encore)
Ben Fletcher was one of the most important black labor leaders in American history. Yet he’s almost entirely unknown. In today’s show, from the Working Class History podcast, and in honor of Black History Month, we learn about this little-known...
02.18.2024
Mingo, Matewan and the Coal Wars of West Virginia
Jeff Barnes was born and raised in Tazewell, Virginia, in the heart of coal country. He lives, writes, and practices law in Richmond. His novel “Mingo”, published in 2021, was inspired by his childhood fascination with the 1919 Matewan Massacre,...
02.13.2024
The myth of “highly paid” Alabama auto workers
The Valley Labor Report reports.Today’s labor history: Striking Hollywood writers return to work.Today’s labor quote: Bill Fletcher Jr. @LaborReporters @BillFletcherJr @wpfwdc @AFLCIO #1u #UnionStrong #LaborRadioPod Proud founding member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network
02.11.2024
Art Shields: The People’s Scribe
Art Shields covered it all, as a reporter for the Daily Worker on the front lines in Spain, as a labor journalist, and organizer himself. He covered many key events for the left including the defense of Sacco & Vanzetti, the...
02.04.2024
Saving "the Diego Rivera of Pittsburgh"
David Byrne called him "the Diego Rivera of Pittsburgh." The Steel Workers’Solidarity Works podcast talks with two of their union’s members who are dedicating their time and expertise to saving the historic murals of Croatian painter and immigrant Maxo Vanka,...
01.28.2024
The lost Matchgirl Strike leader
Last October, Union Dues podcast host Simon Sapper took LHT’s Chris Garlock on a labor history walk in London; our November 5 episode covers our visit to the site of the factory where the 1888 Matchgirls Strike took place. Simon...
01.21.2024
MLK at the AFL-CIO in 1961 (Encore)
Original airdate January 16, 2022On December 11, 1961, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the AFL-CIO’s Fourth Constitutional Convention at the Americana Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida.The speech is not long, just 30 minutes, but it’s tremendously historic, both...
01.14.2024
Woody’s resolutions
Labor historian Julie Greene on why Woody Guthrie’s 1943 New Year’s resolutions still resonate today.On this week’s Labor History in Two: the year was 1968; that was the day Johnny Cash played Folsom Prison. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome,...
01.07.2024
”Please Buy My Last Paper, I Want to Go Home”
Back in the day of publishers William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, newsboys were essential players in the circulation pipeline, cheap labor that made the highly competitive industry profitable. The newsboy became an America cultural trope or archetype, a focus...
12.31.2023
Bayard Rustin, leader and lover
Labor Heritage Power Hour co-host Elise Bryant talks with two young activists --Pride@Work’s Jarel Sanders and the A. Philip Randolph Institute’s Denicia Montford Williams -- about the new film “Rustin”, which tells the story of charismatic gay civil rights activist...
12.24.2023
Capital’s Terrorists
From the Gilded Age to the 1920s, employers and allies used terrorism to control workplaces and communities. Our colleagues at the Heartland Labor Forum radio show talk to Chad Pearson, author of Capital’s Terrorists: Klansmen, Lawmen & Employers to find...
12.17.2023
Woody’s ”1913 Massacre”
In our first segment, Woody Guthrie Center Director Cady Shaw on the story behind Woody Guthrie’s song "1913 Massacre". Check out the video here.Then, Central Oregonizing, Radical Songbook podcast host Michael Funke’s brief history of unions at sawmills in Bend,...
12.10.2023
A People’s History of Alcohol in Australia
Melbourne’s Solidarity Breakfast podcast talks to Alex Ettling, co-editor ofKnocking The Top Off: A People's History of Alcohol in Australia. On this week’s Labor History in Two: The Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor. Questions, comments, or suggestions...
12.03.2023
Labor history, justice, and Jesuits
All Who Labor podcast host Anna Nowalk speaks with Georgetown University’s Brother Ken Homan about the distance between what we say we believe and how those values are lived out, particularly as it relates to the Jesuits. The conversation stretches...
11.26.2023
The Leadville Irish Miners’ Memorial
"In Ludlow, the workers were killed by bullets and kerosene; here they died from poverty. The names are illuminated at night. People are claiming the memorial. They're leaving items, artifacts, relics, coins, stones, gifts for the dead, telling them that...
11.19.2023
Art/Work: Women Printmakers of the WPA
Virginia Anderson, Curator of American Art at the Baltimore Museum of Art walks us through the BMA’s brand-new exhibit, Art/Work: Women Printmakers of the WPA, which explores the importance of women artists many of whom are unknown today, yet who...
11.12.2023
Under the Iron Heel: Repressing the IWW and free speech
Yesterday, the IWW -- the Industrial Workers of the World -- hosted a dedication ceremony for a new monument in Centralia, Washington. The Centralia Tragedy, also known as the Centralia Conspiracy and the Armistice Day Riot, was a violent and...
11.05.2023
How matchgirls sparked the British labour movement
LHT’s Chris Garlock tours the East London site of the 1888 Matchgirls Strike with Union Dues podcast host Simon Sapper. On this week’s Labor History in 2:00: Birth of populist Will Rogers. Questions, comments, or suggestions are welcome, and to...
10.29.2023
Who “Oppenheimer” left out
The summer blockbuster “Oppenheimer” generated a lot of interest in the history of how nuclear weapons were developed in the United States, but the film leaves out an important part of this history: the sacrifice made by tens of thousands...
10.22.2023
The Triangle Fire: A new memorial, and ”Scenes from a Prosecution”
A talk with the writer, producer and director of Triangle: Scenes from a Prosecution, a new one-act dramatization of the criminal trial of the owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory following the 1911 fire that took 146 lives in New...
10.15.2023
Weapons of the Boss
In 1953 the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) established a set of ten guiding principles at its’ tenth biennial convention in San Francisco. This manifesto represents a fascinating historical document, a snapshot in time but also a roadmap, a...
10.08.2023
Voices of Guinness (Encore)
In 2005 the Guinness Brewery at Park Royal, West London closed after seven decades of production. Tim Strangleman spent the last six months of the Brewery’s life working with a photographer to record in words and picture the site before...
10.01.2023
“The Port of Missing Men” (Encore)
This week, labor history takes a deep dive into "True Crime" territory. Billy Gohl was called "The Ghoul of Grays Harbor" in the early 20th Century when he was accused of being the murderer who dumped several bodies into the...
09.24.2023
The labor “Parade” that flopped (Encore)
Two years before the pro-labor musical revue “Pins & Needles” became a big Broadway hit in 1937, “Parade”, another musical featuring pro-labor songs flopped after just 40 performances and the Theatre Guild -- which did so well with “Pins &...
09.15.2023
The Irish Immigrant Miners’ Memorial (Encore)
Irish immigrants, who toiled in the silver mines of Leadville, Colorado, in the late 1800s are largely forgotten. Many died penniless, buried in paupers’ graves. But now a Colorado professor has dug up their stories and their struggles. The Heartland...
09.10.2023
Colorado’s lost strike song
The story of how a popular labor song was lost, and then found. From The Labor Exchange, Colorado's only labor focused radio show, airing on KGNU Community Radio, Mondays at 6:00 PM Mountain Time.Questions, comments, and suggestions welcome, and to...
09.03.2023
Brecher’s “Strike!”
Part 1 of our 2018 interview with Jeremy Brecher, the historian, documentary filmmaker, activist, and author of books on labor and social movements, including the classic book Strike!Plus: Patrick Dixon talks with history professor Sarah Rose about the Americans with...
08.27.2023
“The waterfront is my life”
The story of Cleophas Williams, the first African American president of Local 10 of the ILWU, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Thanks to WBAI’s Building Bridges radio show, where a longer version of this originally appeared. On this week’s...
08.20.2023
Debs’ radio station
Filmmaker Yale Strom ("American Socialist: The Life and Times of Eugene Victor Debs") remembers WEVD, the Chicago radio station named for labor leader Eugene Victor Debs; Dan Duncan celebrates the founding of the AFL-CIO’s Maritime Trades Department; Saul Schniderman marks...
08.13.2023
The union archive that almost didn’t make it
The story of how the International Woodworkers of America Archive began, was almost lost, and continues to preserve the records of what was once British Columbia's largest and most powerful union. Today’s report comes from On the Line: Stories of...
08.06.2023
Coit Tower’s New Deal Murals
From 1935 to 1943 the Federal Art Project -- a project of the Works Progress Administration, or WPA-- employed some 10,000 artists and craft workers, helping them survive the Great Depression. The artists created hundreds of thousands of visual arts:...
07.30.2023
Who Killed Frank Little?
The Death In The West podcast re-opens the case of Frank Little, a union organizer whose brutal unsolved murder shocked the nation during the tumultuous summer of 1917. Features Frank Little, a brand-new song from the R.J. Phillips Band.On this...
07.23.2023
Life and Times of a Black Wobbly
Ben Fletcher was one of the most important black labor leaders in American history. Yet he’s almost entirely unknown. In today’s show, from the Working Class History podcast, we learn about this little-known dock worker and labor organizer, who helped...
07.16.2023
The Port Chicago Mutiny (Encore)
On July 17, 1944, two ammunition ships exploded at Port Chicago, Calif., killing 322, including 202 African-Americans assigned by the Navy to handle explosives. It was the worst home-front disaster of World War II. The resulting refusal of 258 African-Americans...
07.09.2023
The Disney Revolt
Among those turning out to support the strike by Hollywood writers -- now in its 10th week-- have been members of the Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839); back in March, the animators staged a “solidarity walk” around Walt Disney Studios...

What's Labor History Today about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Labor History Today episodes:

Pride on the line (Encore)

The Memorial Day Massacre (Encore)

“The Black Wobbly” gets a mural

The 1938 Crisfield Crab Pickers Strike

“I'm taking pictures of the history of today”

“UAW’s Southern Gamble” pays off

The Return of John Brown

The ’34 Toledo Auto-Lite strike

Trumka remembers Pittston

Connecting the ACLU, NRA and IWW

“Changing Lives, Changing L.A.”

B.C.’s Tough and Fearless Truck-Driving Woman

The 2024 Labor Oscar winners!

When Mother Jones teamed up with a U.S. Senator to battle West Virginia feudalism

We Were There

Life and Times of a Black Wobbly (Encore)

Mingo, Matewan and the Coal Wars of West Virginia

The myth of “highly paid” Alabama auto workers

Art Shields: The People’s Scribe

Saving "the Diego Rivera of Pittsburgh"

The lost Matchgirl Strike leader

MLK at the AFL-CIO in 1961 (Encore)

Woody’s resolutions

”Please Buy My Last Paper, I Want to Go Home”

Bayard Rustin, leader and lover

Capital’s Terrorists

Woody’s ”1913 Massacre”

A People’s History of Alcohol in Australia

Labor history, justice, and Jesuits

The Leadville Irish Miners’ Memorial

Art/Work: Women Printmakers of the WPA

Under the Iron Heel: Repressing the IWW and free speech

How matchgirls sparked the British labour movement

Who “Oppenheimer” left out

The Triangle Fire: A new memorial, and ”Scenes from a Prosecution”

Weapons of the Boss

Voices of Guinness (Encore)

“The Port of Missing Men” (Encore)

The labor “Parade” that flopped (Encore)

The Irish Immigrant Miners’ Memorial (Encore)

Colorado’s lost strike song

Brecher’s “Strike!”

“The waterfront is my life”

Debs’ radio station

The union archive that almost didn’t make it

Coit Tower’s New Deal Murals

Who Killed Frank Little?

Life and Times of a Black Wobbly

The Port Chicago Mutiny (Encore)

The Disney Revolt