(Fall 2017) Learn about California’s Labor History

The class is taught by longtime 2121 member and CFT Communications Director Fred Glass.  Learn about the 1934 San Francisco General Strike, the most important event in local history most people have never heard of, when the city was shut tight for four days to protest police killings of striking workers. You may not know it, but the hidden legacy of the General Strike surrounds and protects us still.

You will find out, via Glass’s new book, From Mission to Microchip:  A History of the California Labor Movement (UC Press), and his public television documentary Golden Lands, Working Hands, how public sector workers gained collective bargaining rights and defended them; how Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta organized the United Farm Workers, and about earlier farm labor struggles; how civil rights activists and unionists joined to eliminate legal race discrimination from California jobs; how thousands, including 2121 members, came together in November 2011 to shut the Oakland Port in support of the 99%; and how organized labor, bastion of anti-immigrant xenophobia in nineteenth century San Francisco, evolved into today’s staunch defender of immigrant worker rights.

ESL instructor and 2121 officer Jessica Buchsbaum: “Taking the class was a great introduction to labor history in California.  It’s given me a better understanding and appreciation of AFT 2121’s achievements over the last 30 plus years.”