The Right to Organize: Civil Liberties, Democracy, and the Labor Movement
Pacific Northwest Labor History Association Annual Conference
May 2-4, 2003
Call for Papers
Nothing is more fundamental to North America's conception of itself than freedom. This includes the freedom to speak one's mind, associate with others, organize, walk off the job together when conditions are oppressive, and participate in the larger democratic process. Throughout our history, urban workers, immigrants, people of color, and industrial, agricultural and longshore workers have been at the forefront of asserting these rights. Unions, once deemed illegal by the government, have fought over three centuries to organize, both in the community and on the job, to participate politically, and, if necessary, to strike in order to seek a better life. The Pacific Northwest -- home of the IWW "Wobblies," the Seattle General Strike, and most recently the massive WTO protest -- has always been at the forefront of exercising, as Martin Luther King stated, "the right to protest for right."
These basic freedoms are more than ever under attack. From the brutal assaults on WTO protesters to the current "war on terror," we are in one of the most dangerous periods in our history, in which the government could void fundamental rights of workers and citizens in the name of "homeland security."
This year's PNLHA conference, "The Right to Organize: Civil Liberties, Democracy, and the Labor Movement," will examine history so that we may better understand the present and continue the long struggle for economic justice and democratic rights for all.
This year's keynote address will be given by David Montgomery, the "Dean" of American labor history, Professor Emeritus at Yale University, former President of the Organization of American Historians, an international lecturer, and one of the most well-known and widely published labor historians of our era. Also planned is a major cultural event on labor's struggle for democratic rights, as portrayed in word and song, featuring Seattle labor singers, veteran performers Barbara Dane and Bettie Mae Fikes, and others.
The PNLHA seeks papers, musical and artistic productions, films, roundtables, and other presentations that examine the historical legacy of labor struggles and protest movements as part of the struggle for an expanded democracy. Special attention will be given to the struggles of ethnic, immigrant, and racial minorities, the political left, unions, and global movements for economic
Please send proposals by 1 February 2003 to the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies at pcls@u.washington.edu or by mail at Box 353560, Seattle, WA 98195.