The 44th annual Pacific Northwest Labor History Association Conference will
be held May 18-20th at the Washington State History Museum,1911 Pacific
Avenue, Tacoma.
Theme of the conference is A Century of Bread and Roses and commemorates
the 100th anniversary of the Lawrence, Massachusetts strike in 1912 of
10,000 workers in the textile industry — mostly women and many children.
The slogan appeals for both fair wages and dignified conditions. The slogan
"Bread and Roses" originated in a poem by James Oppenheim, published in
December 1911. It is commonly associated with the textile strike in
Lawrence, Massachusetts during January–March 1912, known as the "Bread and
Roses strike".
A highly diversified collection of presentations from both students and
academics will be scheduled Saturday and Sunday morning.
For full program information, visit www.pnlha.org
Additional Details
The Friday evening Keynote presenters will present Massachusetts folk
singers Karen Brandow and Charlie King in “Occupy Lawrence: Bread and
Roses”, a word and music presentation describing the 100 year ago event.
King and Brandow are well known to folk music audiences.
The Saturday morning Keynote speaker will be a presentation “A Century of
Bread and Roses: Then and Now” from Elaine Bernard, Director of the Labor
and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School. Bernard is well known for her
incisive analyses of the world of work and its history in North America.
PNLHA annually awards individual and organizations at its conference
banquet. This year’s Bread and Roses Awards Banquet will be held at the
Hotel Murano on Saturday evening.
The annual Labor History Person Award will be presented to Dr Ron Magden, a
retired Tacoma Community College professor and historian of Puget Sound
longshoreworkers and waterfront workers.
The annual Making Labor History Award will be presented to International
Longshore Workers’ Union, Local 21, Longview, Washington in honor of their
epic struggle with Export Grain Terminal, EGT, the new operators of a grain
terminal in that port.
For more information, contact Ross Rieder, PNLHA President, at
pnlha1 [at] aol.com or206.406.2604.