Today’s virtual fair begins at 11 a.m.
By Brenda Verano, Staff Reporter
Name the social or environmental movement, from No Nukes in the 1980s to #metoo in the 2010s, and chances are you can draw some kind of line linking its tactics, goals or spirit to the grandmother of all modern movements of the people: the fight of labor to organize, and for workers to be treated with dignity and respect.
For more than 100 years, that movement has weathered bloody retaliation from the government, Communist witch hunts, the decline of steel and other industries, the corporate outsourcing of jobs overseas in order to maximize profits, and even Ronald Reagan.
But though bloodied, it remains unbowed. So even though our current pandemic makes it impossible to do it in person, the 11th annual Labor, Social Justice and Environmental Fair is being held online today–on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day conveniently enough.
The fair, which will consist of four panels between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. is not being held solely for continuity or to maintain some kind of normalcy among all that is so abnormal these days.
The virtual event came about, according to Dr. Vivian Price, a professor in interdisciplinary studies/PACE and Labor Studies, which organizes the fair, because workers rights are in the spotlight in America these days. The upheaval generated by the coronavirus pandemic has revealed often invisible workers as essential ones, while millions of others have lost their jobs. Workers are demanding that their unions hold employers and elected leaders to account
“I have seen throughout this pandemic more intense listening and dialogue among affected communities,” Price said. “Environmentalists are gaining a new respect for what workers are going through, what workers have at stake.
We are seeing Amazon workers go on strike, health care workers protesting on their lunch break, holding up cardboard signs on like during Occupy, demanding proper supplies to do their job.”
“I think labor has an opportunity to transform itself through all this to foster a dialogue among communities and demand a just recovery for all. We can’t afford to be divided. Covid is our immediate battle, but climate change lurks behind it.”
.”
This virtual fair will incorporate a Zoomcast which will feature activists and community organizers from different sectors, ranging from healthcare and grocery workers to tenant, immigration rights, and incarcerated and detained advocates.
The program consists of the following four panels:
11 a.m.-noon: Labor and Environment Speakers
12-1 p.m. Community and Environment Speakers
1-2 p.m. Labor and Social Justice Education (student workers and student organizers)
2:00-3 p.m. Inside Prison and Detention Camps.
Labor has been a part of CSUDH’s DNA before this campus was even here. The decision to move what was then known as California State College at Palos Verdes to present-day Carson was done in large part to provide access to higher education for the communities that were devastated by the Watts Rebellion in 1965
“Dominguez as a campus came out of the legacy of the Watts uprising of 1965,“ Price said, “and many of the faculty attracted to teaching here were interested in working in this community.”
The fair began in 2009 after a student in the Labor Studies Program, Scott A. Hill, thought that its profile should be elevated and the “labor movement needed to discover Cal State Dominguez Hills,” Price said. Initially it was called the labor and social justice fair and its date in late April was mean to coincide with International Workers Day, or May Day, held May 1.
In 2011, environmental was added to the name and more than 50 campus organization, community advocacy groups and union chapters participated.
Each year the theme has been slightly different, from its third year, “Healthy Jobs for Healthy Planets, to 2018’s Creating Safe Spaces: Resistance, resilience, solidarity.
But long before the first fair in 2009, labor studies was an important part of the university. In 1977, it became the first Southern California University to offer a labor studies program and remains only one of two that offers a bachelor’s degree in labor studies, along with a minor or certificate program.
The program’s focus is on historical and contemporary organizing to improve working conditions, especially among marginalized workers of color and immigrants. Labor studies is an interdepartmental program and students also take related classes in fields such as history, sociology, management, women’s and ethnic studies.
Today’s virtual fair begins at 11 a.m. All are invited to attend:
RSVP to register https://tinyurl.com/rbqwu2u
Twitterchat #LaborCommunityAction #EarthDay2020 #EarthDayLive2020
