Five Book Friday
by Tove H., June 3, 2022 8:53 AM
Books and labor are two of my favorite topics to talk effusively about, so I’m delighted to be able to combine them in this blog post, and sorry that you won’t get the full IRL experience, which includes wide eyes, occasional swears, and lots of gesticulating. Here are five books about labor I think you should read (and if you like the sound of these, might I also recommend everything in this collection?):
Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor
by Kim Kelly
This one was a shoo-in for my top five books of the year long before I got my hands on a copy. In Fight Like Hell, Kim Kelly celebrates the untold stories and unsung heroes of the American labor movement, taking great care to center voices that have historically been sidelined or silenced in mainstream conversations around workers' rights. The result is an inclusive, fascinating, and galvanizing retrospective that mines the depths of the history of the working class to extract precious insight and inspiration for its future. The fact that this book hit shelves just in time for May Day, in a year of widespread and history-making union organizing efforts is just *chef's kiss*. A word of caution: your TBR list will spiral out of control as you work your way through this book and learn about all the activists and struggles your history textbooks failed to mention, and all the published works you can turn to if you want to know more. (I’m picturing Kim Kelly’s home library right now, and I’m very, very jealous.)
A Silent Fury: The El Bordo Mine Fire
by Yuri Herrera
This devastating little book came out in the summer of 2020, when many bookstores were shuttered, so it didn’t get the fanfare it so rightly deserved. This chronicle of the 1920 El Bordo mine fire in Pachuca, Mexico is a brave, diligent, and heartbreakingly beautiful act of solidarity. Award-winning author Yuri Herrera travels back in time to restore dignity and a voice to workers who were afforded neither for nearly a hundred years; to show kindness to their families, who were interrogated and humiliated as they mourned; and to condemn their employer, who declared his workers dead as they still drew breath. You’ll be able to read this one in a day, but may never shake its impact.
“All Labor Has Dignity”
by Martin Luther King, Jr. (edited and introduced by Michael K. Honey)
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is remembered first and foremost as a civil rights leader, but his kinship to the poor, to working people, and to unions helped shape his dynamic legacy. The speeches gathered here — delivered to crowds of union members and striking workers between 1957 and 1968, then left unpublished and largely unknown for decades after — show Dr. King’s dedication to workers’ rights and economic justice, and the scope of his unfinished agenda. This is a powerful and prescient collection.
Solidarity Stories: An Oral History of the ILWU
by Harvey Schwartz
Did you know that Powell's Books is a union shop? Powell's workers chartered their own Local within the ILWU (International Longshore and Warehouse Union) in 2000, and the origin story of ILWU Local 5 appears here, alongside other inspiring tales from and about our ILWU siblings. Labor historian Harvey Schwartz honors the rank and file-led traditions of our Union by allowing workers to tell their own stories, and the result is an engaging, illuminating history we're so proud to be a part of.
The Portland Red Guide
by Michael Munk
The coolest guide to our city doesn’t mention donuts even once. Instead, it celebrates Portland’s radical past — the people, organizations, protests, strikes, and movements that have made their mark on the City of Roses, and the vestiges of that past that can still be found today (using one of the maps that accompanies each section, or by following one of the walking tours outlined at the end). My endorsement of this guide has nothing to do with the author photo at the back of the book, which shows Michael Munk standing in a crowd of striking Powell's Books workers on May Day, 2000, but that certainly doesn’t hurt.
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