One Big Union: the Dream, the Reality, the History
The IWW and a Century of Radical Labor Activism, 1905-2005
A Conference and a Celebration
Saturday, May 7, 2005
Paul Robeson Campus Center
Rutgers University, Newark Campus
350 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Newark, New Jersey
2005 marks one hundred years since the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World ("The Wobblies"), a profound event in American labor and radical history, and a key point from which to trace the fortunes and misfortunes of progressive and left politics in America for the rest of the century.
In the spirit of May Day, join us for a day of powerful information, thoughtful conversation, and zesty celebration of the history of the IWW. In plenaries and workshops, distinguished scholars such as Rosalyn Baxandall, Steve Golin, Joyce Kornbluh, Nunzio Pernicone, Jeffrey Perry, Salvatore Salerno, and current worker-activists from the Vermont Workers Center, the Garment Workers Solidarity Center, the International Longshoremen's Association, the Committee for Welfare and Social Progress, and the Industrial Workers of the World, will discuss the significance and relevance of the historic IWW for organizing today with scholars, actors, artists, and other worker-activists from around the country, punctuated with performances by Phyllis Capello ("The Ukulele Lady") and the Solidarity Singers, as well as book and art exhibits, including "The Traveling Wobbly Show."
Our closing "gala" celebration will be the New York City launch of Wobblies: A Graphic History, with co-editor Paul Buhle (Verso, 2005). The gathering will take place on Saturday from 6:30 pm at the historic Chumley's Bar, 86 Bedford Street, in the West Village, Manhattan -- a center of IWW organizing in New York City during the heyday of the organization. Subway: 1, 9 to Christopher Street (directions to event from Newark will be provided at conference).
Admission is free. Lunch and all-day refreshments $15. The conference, partially funded by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, is organized by the NJ May Day Committee and the Spirit of the Arts Foundation; it is cosponsored by the Rutgers University Department of History, the Rutgers Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience, and the American Social History Project (CUNY), with the American Labor Museum/Botto House and the MalECa Collective of Italian American Women as cooperating organizations.
For the full conference program seehttp://www.maliacollective.org/brochure.pdf
Write to for more info.
Jennifer Guglielmo
Assistant Professor
Department of History & American Studies Program
Smith College
Neilson Library 4/05
Northampton, MA 01063 USA
Tel (413) 585-3712
Fax (413) 585-3389