Union Voice/Readers Write
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)CIO HQ Location? “I've been wondering for some time where precisely the
CIO headquarters were (Vigorous
Discussions, Song & Labor Walk Highlight NLC Residency Program 11/27
UC),” writes Glenn Perusek at the AFL-CIO Center for Strategic
Research. “Is this the Rust Building, near 15th and I?” Also, he adds,
“I'd be interested in taking the Labor History Walking Tour next time you
offer it.”
That was the site of the CIO HQ in 1938-39; their last office
before the merger in 1955 was at 718 Jackson Place NW (on the west side of
Lafayette Park). You can see markers for these and other historic DC labor sites
on our online DC
Labor Map which has all kinds of other cool local labor sites as well. Watch
Union City for our next Labor Walk, or, if you have a group that’s interested,
email streetheat@dclaborarchives.org
to schedule one.
Joe Hill’s Ashes: “Regarding the item on
the National Labor College and the walking tour” writes Ken Kann, father of Metro Council Assistant
Mobilizer Julia Kann, “I see that Joe Hill's ashes were on the tour. Are those
ashes in Washington DC?”
After his 1915 execution in Utah, famous Wobbly
Joe Hill’s ashes were sent to IWW locals and allies around the world to be
released in the wind on May Day. However, one of the envelopes wound up in the
National Archives after being seized by the Postal Service for their
“subversive potential”; more details are available on our online DC Labor Map or in William
Adler’s new, definitive biography, The
Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor
Icon, which includes explosive new evidence pointing to Hill’s innocence
of the crime for which he was executed nearly a century ago.
Pins
& Needles Songs on YouTube: “Thanks for running the history/foto of
Pins & Needles in today's Union City (Today’s Labor History 11/27
UC),” writes retired ILGWU, UNITE and UNITE HERE member Carl
Proper. “If you'd like to hear songs from a time when U.S. labor was riding
high, here are links to some Pins & Needles songs (from the 1962 album
commemorating the musical's 25th anniversary) on YouTube, all by Harold Rome,
originally performed by ILGWU members at the Labor Stage in New York City: "Doing the Reactionary",
"Nobody
Makes a Pass at Me", "It’s
Not Cricket to Picket", all sung by Barbra Streisand, and "Sing Me a
Song With Social Significance", sung by Rose Marie Jun.