Wisconsin Labor History Society News

The first step was taken in getting labor history as a required part of Wisconsin school curricula as the State Senate voted 19-14 on Feb. 19 to pass SB 108.

Five State Senators have introduced Senate Bill 108 which would call for schools to follow an educational goal to provide: “Knowledge of state, national, and world history, including the history of organized labor in America and the collective bargaining process.” The bill proposes adding the words shown in italics to Sec. 118.01 (2) (c) 6 of the State Statutes, a section that provides guidance on educating children in preparing them for citizenship.

This is the fifth time in the last 15 years that efforts have been made to pass a measure requiring the teaching of labor history in the schools. All previous attempts have failed, usually due to almost solid opposition of Republican legislators in one or more Houses of the Legislature. (Note: The measure has passed the State Senate in the past, with some Republican support, only to be stalled and never brought to a vote in the Assembly.)

The Feb. 19 vote found all 18 Democrats and one Republican, Sen. Mike Ellis, Neenah, voting "yes." The measure now goes to the Republican-controlled Assembly, where it may be left to die without any vote being taken. Efforts will be made, however, to urge the Assembly to move on the bill.

SB 108 was given wide support in testimony at a public hearing on Thursday, Dec. 6, by the Senate Education Committee, chaired by Sen. John Lehman (D-Racine). Testimony in support of the bill came from Phil Neuenfeldt, secretary-treasurer of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, who told the committee: “Senate Bill 108 is here because of what union leaders have told us over the years. They see younger workers coming into the workforce without any knowledge of the labor movement they are about to join. Labor history is really the greatest story never told."

Don Garner-Gerhardt, government affairs director of Teamsters Joint Council 39, said the history of labor is a “seminal” in teaching about the history of Wisconsin.

Others testifying in support were State Senator Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay), the key sponsor of the bill; Russell R. Retzack, retired member of the Operating Engineer Local 139; and Jim Cook, NECA-IBEW Apprenticeship Program. Fourteen others registered in favor of the bill.

The only persons registering against the bill represented school management interests, the School Administrators Alliance and the Wisconsin Association of School Boards. On the other hand, representatives of the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the American Federation of Teachers and AFSCME registered in support.

Sponsors of the bill (all Democrats) include Senators Hansen; Lehman; Bob Wirch, of Kenosha; Jeff Plale of South Milwaukee; Fred Risser of Madison and Jim Sullivan of Wauwatosa; and Representatives Josh Zepnick, of Milwaukee, Mike Sheridan of Janesville, Chris Sinicki of Milwaukee, Gary Hebl of Sun Pairie, Spencer Black of Madison, Andy Jorgensen, of Fort Atkinson, Mark Pocan of Madison; Bob Turner of Racine, Terese Berceau, of Madison,, Tamara Grigsby of Milwaukee, and Amy Sue Vruwink, of Milladore..

SB 108 Discussed on Public Radio

The Bill was discussed several days later on the Wisconsin Ideas Network of Wisconsin Public Radio for an hour-long program hosted by Joy Cardin. Ken Germanson, president of the Wisconsin Labor History Society, said the organization supported the bill because Wisconsin children “are missing out on a significant part of Wisconsin history” when they are not told about organized labor. He said that school children, when asked, rarely know of key labor leaders like Samuel Gompers, but do have knowledge of industrialists like J. P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller.

John Ashley, executive director, Wisconsin Association of School Boards, argued against the bill, saying that the Legislature should not intrude into curriculum. He said labor history is already being taught in the schools during regular classes, and that the bill was not necessary.

Most of the callers supported the bill; several disputed Ashley’s claim that labor history was being taught fully in the schools. Another said that it’s the Legislature’s role, as elected representatives of the people, to make such decisions as determining the topics children should be taught.

The Next Steps

The future of the Bill rests on action in the second session of the current Legislature. Now that the Democrats passed the bill in the Senate, it goes to the Assembly; however, in order for it to be scheduled for a vote in the Assembly, some Republicans will need to understand the need for the bill.

“Now is the time for those who care about teaching our school children about labor to contact their state senators and state representatives,” commented Ken Germanson, WLHS President.

Labor History in Schools Proposal Resources

The Labor History in the Schools Bill (SB 108) being offered in the Wisconsin Legislature has generated much attention. At least four times in the past dozen years, the Wisconsin Labor History Society and others have sought to pass a bill in the state legislature that would require the teaching of labor history in Wisconsin schools. Each time, the bills failed to pass in the legislature, usually due to opposition by Republicans, though there has been some Republican supporters from time to time.

This year, the introduction of the bill, sponsored by Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay), has gained extra attention.

There was a full hour devoted to the issue on Wisconsin Public Radio’s Idea Network when Ken Germanson, president of the Wisconsin Labor History Society, discussed the bill, with an opposing viewpoint from John Ashley, executive director, Wisconsin Association of School Boards. (Listen to this program at http://www.wpr.org. and click on “View All of Joy Cardin’s Audio Archives,” and then scroll down to program # 071211A for the 6 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 11 program.)

The Milwaukee Journal on Monday, Dec. 17, ran pro-con op-ed pieces on the bill. The “pro” side was written by Phil Neuenfeldt, secretary-treasurer of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO and Ken Germanson, president of the Wisconsin Labor History Society. (See http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=696867.) The “con” side was by the Center for Union Facts, a notoriously anti-union group. (See http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=696866.)

A week later, on Monday, Dec. 24, there were three letters in the Journal Sentinel, basically citing general agreement with the “pro” position. Please see: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=699308.

Coincidentally, there have been two recent articles that point to how important unions are to a healthy economy and to restoring a strong and viable middle class in our nation. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman outlines how the drop in union membership has been caused largely by U.S. corporations that have figured out ways, with the help of a pro-business National Labor Relations Board, to undercut the ability of unions to organize. He notes further the value that a strong union movement would have for all Americans. (See http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/24/opinion/24krugman.html?hp.)

New York Observer Columnist Nicholas von Hoffman likewise states the value unions have for a healthy society. (See http://www.observer.com/2007/unions-may-be-flawed-they-re-needed.)

Boy Scouts Learn About Labor History

Some 70 Boy Scouts took studies to earn their Labor Merit Badge at two locations in Wisconsin in November; they learned about labor law and collective bargaining as well as Wisconsin Labor History. Some 40 Scouts participated in the IBEW Local 2150 Hall in Milwaukee and 26 participated at UAW Local 95 Hall in Janesville. (Top Photo) Mike Sheridan, President of UAW Local 95, gives greetings to scouts in Janesville and (Next Photo) Tracey Cook, of the local's Education Committee signs in scouts.

Labor’s Role in U.S. Foreign Policy

Affected Strength of Unions at Home

Speakers examine labor’s action from World War I to Iraq at annual WLHS meeting

(Note: Following is a summary of the day's events. More complete summaries are available in PDF format. Click on Morning Panel, for summary of morning events. Click on Grandin Address for summary of his keynote. Click on Afternoon Panel, for summary of afternoon events.)

If there was any doubt that labor and workers should be involved in our nation’s foreign policy that was dispelled at the day-long 26^th Annual Conference of the Wisconsin Labor History Society in Madison on April 28.

Participants give moment of
silence for Workers Memorial Day at WLHS
Annual Meeting in Madison April 2More than 80 persons attended the annual event at the Union South on the University of Wisconsin Campus, hearing how labor’s sometime proud and sometimes shameful role affected our nation’s policies from World War I to the present day. With the sons and daughters of working people being called upon to do most of the fighting on our nation’s wars, speaker after speaker told of the need of workers and their families to help bring their views into the nation’s political discussions about war.

Labor played a major role in decisions that either took U.S. into wars or supported wars, ranging from the little-known expedition into North Russia at the end of World War I, to the blind support of the Cold War, the involvement in Vietnam and the suppressions of Central American democracies and free trade unions. In many cases these actions had the result of weakening the unions in the United States, the speakers said. Yet, as David Newby, president of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, said in an afternoon panel discussion, the labor’s leadership in the current day has changed and is now in the forefront of urging an early removal of our troops from Iraq.

David Nack, Madison, of the UW-Extension School for Workers, said the Russian Revolution of 1917 worried many labor leaders then, particularly Samuel Gompers, the founder of the American Federation of Labor and its leader until his death in 1924. As a major supporter of President Woodrow Wilson, he approved the action which some 6,000 soldiers recruited mainly

from Wisconsin and Michigan were sent into North Russia in the late summer of 1918 to battle the Bolshevik troops of the Communists. He called it a “forgotten war,” in which the troops had no idea why they were there spending the winter freezing in North Russia, suffering some 2,400 casualties.

Panelists discussing impacts of foreign policies
on families were (from left) David Nack,
Susanna Rasmussen and Frank Emspak.

Nack said Gompers believed there was a need to suppress the Bolsheviks. He noted Gompers was concerned about the effect that a Bolshevik success would have in causing similar uprisings among American workers and endorsed the action of sending the troops to North Russia in 1917.

It was for Frank Emspak, of Madison, director of the Workers Independent News Service, to show how families were affected by the anti-Communist extremism that was rampant within the labor movement during the Cold War period that began in the 1940s after World War II. His father, Julius Emspak was secretary-treasurer of the United Electrical Workers union (UE) which became a target of the anti-Communist crusade.

In Emspak’s family, every one got fired from GE in Schenectady, NY, for their progressive leadership in the union, he said. “The real affect on our family and others was this terrible destruction on humans and of a whole intellectual and political movement in our country,” Emspak concluded.

The purging of the so-called union movement of many of the most liberal labor organizations had three effects, Emspak said:

The organized destruction of the left wing in the movement. “The entire intellectual memory of those people taking on the company was lost because those people were fired.”
The destruction of a progressive trade union in the South, he said, through labor’s “Operation Dixie” which paid for organizers to do away with the Food and Tobacco Workers in North Carolina which had elected a Black woman Communist as president and the Mine Mill and Smelter Workers in Birmingham, AL, which had elected a black Communist as president as President of 17,000 integrated local. Not only didn’t the South get organized, but Operation Dixie helped to spell the end of a progress labor movement in the South that would have had a moderating effect upon the racism of the 1950s.
The separation of the labor movement from all of the progressive movements of the period of the 1950s and 1960s, affecting efforts for a single payer health care system, the rights to equal education, etc.

Susanna Rasmussen, a UW graduate now an outreach worker in the New York public schools, told of her grandmother, Darina Rasmussen, who was an office worker at UE Local 1111 (Allen-Bradley in Milwaukee) and was accused of being a Communist. Darina was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, where she risked being jailed for pleading the Fifth Amendment.

Rasmussen searched the FBI files to learn the question of whether Darina, a young widow with children who had moved to Cudahy after her husband’s death, was a Communist. She concluded her grandparents may have joined the party at one time. The FBI had accused Darina of being the fifth member of a Communist cell that met at the UE.

“Does this mean my grandmother was a threat to national security, that she was smuggling secrets to the Soviet Bolsheviks. I seriously doubt it. My grandparents were hard-working rural idealists. They believed in workers’ rights. I’m sure they did not consider themselves subservient to the Kremlin.”

The files discussed a meeting that was to take place at UE1111 office in Milwaukee, and that Darina was approached by two FBI agents and asked to become a labor spy for the FBI against the UE. Darina did not take the bait to become an informant; yet, she felt threatened, perhaps the reason she went public with the claim that she had been approached, Rasmussen said.

Her study of the issue with her family told her that her family’s involvement with Communism was much more dynamic than she had perceived. Rasmussen concluded that her grandparents’ “Communism was the result of loving books, appreciating religion and philosophy while making day-to-day decisions. . . They believed in the power of choice and the freedom of speech and the joy and blessings of life and when the government took away the ‘freedom of voice,’ my grandmother combated it with what she could: silence.”

Darina Rasmussen was a founder of the Labor History Society; she died in 1997 at the age of 84. For a more complete summary of Darina's activities, click here.

Professor Greg Grandin, professor of history at New York University, an expert on Latin American history, said that the policies of President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s formed the “crucible” of the current Bush Administration coalitions, such as the connections to the religious right.

Prof. Greg Gradin, of NYA widely read author, Grandin drew a link between Reagan’s Latin American policies and the restructuring of the U.S. economy. He reminded the audience that the U.S. supported the Contras in Nicaragua, made up in the remnants of the anti-Sandinistas and the violent death squad states in El Salvador and Guatemala.

It was in the Central American nations where the new right cut its teeth in linking economic and foreign policy in away that would benefit the corporations and stagnate the economic fortunes of working people. Grandin outlined how the Reaganites worked on the religious right to enroll them in away that would bring a moral and/or religious justification to their causes. The struggles in the Central American nations were characterized in a way to indicate the U.S. was rescuing the nations from moral degradations.

Meanwhile at home in the United States, the increasing inequality, the gutting of labor power, the increasing insecurity and the dismantling of the middle class was occurring, he said.

“Tight money led to rising unemployment and organized labor’s bargaining power, automatic wage increases, job security, guaranteed pension were thereby consigned to the ash heap of history and American corporations began moving America’s industrial production to the south and southwest and over seas,” Grandin said.

Labor’s involvement in Third World economies, such as Central America in the 1980s and 1990s, helped to support U.S. imperialistic policies, Kim Scipes, (seated left in photo below) assistant professor of sociology at Purdue University North Central, said in opening the afternoon panel discussion. He served nine years as a member of the Graphic Communications International Union and four years as a Marine.

Scipes listed such activities as assisting the U.S. in overthrowing democratic governments in Guatemala in 1954, in Brazil in 1964 and in Chile in 1973, as well as the coup in Venezuela in 2002. He claimed labor’s involvement was key to the maintenance of dictatorships, such as supporting the right wing labor movements after coups in Brazil and Chile and in El Salvador in 1980s, in Nicaragua in the 1980s, and elsewhere.

The key point, Scipes said

, is that labor is doing this without the input of their memberships and without any kind of mandate. There is no accountability, he said.

Scipes is involved in the “Worker-to-Worker Solidarity Committee” which wants to reform AFL-CIO foreign

policy. The group’s website is http://workertoworker.net/.

David Newby, (seated center in photo at right) president of the State AFL-CIO, played a short video of a speech he made from the floor of the National AFL-CIO Convention in 2005, supporting the call for an early end of the war in Iraq, proper support for the U.S. troops, decent benefits for veterans and the development of a free labor movement in Iraq. The discussion involved a resolution that combined some 18 resolutions from State and Local councils.

All the speakers at the convention that supported the resolution were loudly applauded.

Carol Weidel, (seated right at photo at right) of Madison, a leader of the U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW), said the group grew out of a January 2003 conference in Chicago. She said the leadership of the group had all been deeply involved in leadership positions in the labor movement, and “saw the train coming down the track” in expanding the war.

The leadership sought to keep the issue focused on the potential war and its impact upon working people, whose families provide the troops and whose local and state government services would be severely affected as funds were drawn to war costs.

USLAW leaders visited Iraqi and also participated at the AFL-CIO convention mentioned above. The USLAW sponsored a tour of Iraqi labor leaders throughout the

United States, including Madison and Milwaukee. She said it was an expensive difficult feat to bring about, with concerns over funding, translations, visas and travel fatigue.

The next steps for USLAW is continuing the same work, with more demonstrations, the sponsoring of a tour of a woman Iraqi labor leader and a representative of the Iraqi oil workers union. She encouraged the participants to get active in USLAW.

Darold (Dode) and Gretchen Lowe of Madison were named winners of the Society’s annual Lifetime Achievement Award for their long activism within the Madison community in in the Madison Labor Movement and the Democratic Party. Lowe is a retired representative of AFSCME.

After the event, Dode and Gretchen sent a note to the members of the society, thanking them for the award. They wrote: "The 2007 Solidarity Award as a very special meeting to us because of the message stated on the plaque and the words of President Newby. During the years we have been involved with the Labor Movement, it never occurred to us that we would someday receive such an honor. [Our activity] in the labor movement was just the right thing to do."

The Courageous Story of Darina Rasmussen: As Told by Her Granddaughter

This summer, we are featuring on this website a summary of the remarks of Susanna Rasmussen, the granddaughter of Darina Rasmussen, one of the founders of the Wisconsin Labor History Society. Susanna participated in a panel discussion at the WLHS Annual Conference on April 28 on the campus of UW-Madison.

Susanna Rasmussen told of what happened when her grandmother was accused of being a Communist. She was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, where she risked being jailed for pleading the Fifth Amendment.

She related her family’s background, which indicated a close, loving, hard-working family. Her grandfather was born in Forest County, Wisconsin, in a family that once was privileged, but which became impoverished during the Depression. Even so he was able to attend the University of Wisconsin in hopes of becoming a doctor, when tuberculosis laid him low.

He was sent to the rehabilitation institution at Tomahawk, where, Rasmussen said he met “my lovely, auburn-haired grandmother fresh out of the UW School for Women Workers serving up dinner in the cafeteria while trying to organize the sanitarium’s employees.”

“I hear it was love at first sight,” she said.

After marriage, the couple moved back to Forest County to farm, and “life was good,” until grandfather Rasmussen’s TB returned. He died shortly after in Madison, and Darina left the farm and moved to Cudahy to be close to her own family. At first she worked for the County, but the bus transportation was difficult, so she soon took a job at UE Local 1111 at Allen-Bradley Co. as a secretary.

Susanna Rasmussen said searched the FBI files to learn the question of whether Darina was a Communist, since she had been accused of being the fifth member of a Communist cell that met at the UE. “They assumed that any Communist was anti-American,” she said.

In studying the files, she discovered many sections had been whited-out, leaving lots of extraneous information, she said.

Susanna Rasmussen told of a meeting that took place at United Electrical Workers Local 1111 office in Milwaukee. There, Darina was approached by two FBI agents and asked to become a labor spy for the FBI against the UE.

Darina worked in the office and was in an ideal spot to look at people entering the office, and the fact that she did sign up for the Communist Party in the 1940s could mean they were blackmailing her. Susanna Rasmussen added: “Darina was probably a key candidate to be an informer.”

But, Darina did not take the bait to become an informant; yet, she felt threatened, perhaps the reason she went public with the claim that she had been approached, Rasmussen said.

In May 1955, she went to Washington to testify before HUAC, where the government claimed she was the “fifth member of a Communist cell that met at the UE1111 office.” Darina remained silent, refusing to answer the questions. She was protecting others.

Susanna said she concluded that the use of labels, of making things “black and white” clouds public debate.

Her study of the issue with her family told her that her family’s involvement with Communism was much more dynamic than she had perceived. “Their Communism was the result of loving books, appreciating religion and philosophy while making day-to-day decisions. . . They believed in the power of choice and the freedom of speech and the joy and blessings of life and when the government took away the ‘freedom of voice,’ my grandmother combated it with what she could: silence.”

Present at the Society’s annual event were her father, Carl Rasmussen and his sister, Yarmala Koepp, the children of Darina. Susanna currently works in New York City as an outreach worker in a public high school there for at-risk youth.

Successful New Program Inaugurated by the Society—
“American Labor History Awards” at National History Day

[Click here to see list of winners of labor awards,
photos of exhibits and winning students, a full
description of the program and other information.]

It was happening all this spring—Wisconsin kids around the state were busy researching labor history for their National History Day projects. The 2005/06 competition year had a National History Day theme perfect for labor topics—“Taking a Stand in History—People, Ideas, Events.”

Among labor topics the students investigated were:

the three Wisconsin milk strikes
Rosie the Riveter—women manufacturing workers during World War II
the 1954 Kohler (WI) Strike
the 1919 Steel Strike
the Bay View (WI) Massacre
the Lowell (MA) textile mill girls
the workers in the Manitowoc (WI) shipyards during World War II
Cesar Chavez, leader of the United Farm Workers union
the Hortonville (WI) teachers’ strike
Mother Jones, the renowned labor organizer of the late 19th century/early 20th century
Lewis Hine (a Wisconsin native) and his photographs of child labor
Harry Bridges, leader of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union
the Kenosha (WI) Comets, a women’s baseball team
the 1899 newsboys strike in New York City
Nellie Bly, a pioneering woman reporter during the late 19th century

The kids were excited about their projects. Some said that they had gotten the idea for their labor topic while talking with a family member—a parent or grandparent, an aunt or uncle. Others said they selected their labor topic precisely because they did not know anything about it and found as they learned the labor story, they were excited to share the inspiring history they found with their fellow students.

Although the National History Day program has been around for a number of years, the plethora of projects this year on labor topics by Wisconsin school kids is a new phenomenon, one prompted by the offering for the first time of a special History Day prize by the Wisconsin Labor History Society—the new prize is for the best student projects on American labor history within the scope of each year’s national theme. We are giving out two prizes at each Wisconsin regional event—both a $50 junior prize and a $50 senior prize—and two at the statewide finals—a $100 junior prize and a $100 senior prize.

For a complete list of the winners of this year’s “American Labor History Prize” of the Wisconsin Labor History Society, please see the list accompanying this article.

A primary mission of the WLHS since its founding has been to reach WI school students and their teachers regarding the many contributions the labor movement has made to our Wisconsin communities and to our country. We have offered a contest with $1,500 annually in prize money for the best essays written by Wisconsin high school students about how the labor movement has affected their family and their community. We’ve also regularly provided literature tables and workshops at Wisconsin teacher conventions. In addition, after years of labor, we were finally successful, in conjunction with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, in creating a labor history curriculum designed for use in the Wisconsin schools and which uses the National History Standards.

Last fall the Wisconsin Labor History Society board of directors determined that offering a labor prize at the National History Day regional and state events sponsored by the Wisconsin Historical Society would be an effective way to extend our outreach to schools, even enabling us to reach middle schoolers for the first time. Our special prize is known as the “American Labor History Prize.”

A unique aspect of our WLHS awards is that they are given out at every regional event, in addition to being available at the state finals in Madison. Until this year, all of the special awards offered by corporations and historical societies for the Wisconsin program have all been at the statewide event only

For the “American Labor History Prize,” winning student projects were selected from across all of the competition categories with both a $50 junior prize and a $50 senior prize available to be given out at each regional event and a $100 junior prize and a $100 senior prize at the state finals.

Altogether, we will be awarding $900 a year in prize dollars.

For the purposes of the WLHS special prize, “American labor history” was defined broadly to include the history of:

organizations, such as labor unions and political groups connected to the labor movement;
leaders of working people and their associations; or,
the experiences of workers on the job or their organized struggles to improve their work and their lives.

By awarding these prizes we hope to increase awareness in the school children and teachers of Wisconsin about the role of working people in building a more just and equitable America. Winning projects have to demonstrate strong research and analysis as defined by the National History Day evaluation criteria.

The Wisconsin Labor History Society reserves the right to not make an award, if, in the opinion of its representatives at any competition, no student project at that competition falls within the scope of the society’s labor history award or has the quality needed to merit the award.
Each History Day event was attended by one or more WLHS board members who participated in the judging for the labor history award and who were available to hand out the labor history award at the awards ceremony conducted at the close of each event.

WLHS board members who helped with this year’s judging included: Robert Agen, who covered the regionals at Green Bay and Stevens Point; John DeRosier, who covered the regional held in Eau Claire; John Jentz, who covered the regional held in Milwaukee; James Reiland, who covered the Green Bay regional; and, Laurie Wermter, who covered the regionals at Eagle River, La Crosse, and Madison. Judging at the state finals in Madison at the end of April were Robert Agen, John Jentz and Laurie Wermter.

Fox Valley labor, Rock County and UAW Local 95 honored

The Labor History Society also gave out two “Special Commendation Awards” for projects completed recently with presnetations made at the 25th Annual Convention.

The Fox Valley Area Labor Council was cited for its more than 20 years of conducting outreach programs to the 27 secondary schools in the area, including the distribution of books and subscriptions to labor-related magazines,participation in mock bargaining programs in the schools, matching any prizes won by area students in the WLHS annual labor history essay contests and other activities.

Accepting the award were Hugh Sloane, AFL-CIO community services liaison with the Fox Valley Council, and Rick Grissom, president of the GCIO-IBT Local 77 -P located in the area.

The second award went to the Rock County Historical Society and United Auto Workers Local 95 for colllaborating in creating a middle school activity kit, entitled, “The History of Labor and the Rise of Unions in Wisconsin and Rock County.” The kits contained age-appropriate lesson plans and reproductions of workplace documents, such as loabor contracts and work rules, along with workplace safety equipment. Accepting the award was a representative of Local 95.

‘It’s very important that we teach our younger generation how important labor history is,” commented Quass in accepting the award.
The award consisted of framed certificates.

Research paper on the living conditions of migrant farm workers gains labor history society $1,000 prize

The Wisconsin Labor History Society is pleased to announce that the 2006 Zeidler Academic Award in the graduate category for original research in the area of Wisconsin labor and working-class history has been given to Maia Surdam, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for her paper, “Migrant Camps and Family Farms: The Politics of Housing, Community, and Citizenship in Wisconsin Agriculture,
Maia Surdam (right) receiving Zeidler Scholarship
Award from Carmen Clark of WLHS Board.

1930s-1970s.” The student’s paper includes analysis of an August 1966 march by migrant farm workers from Wautoma, Wisconsin, to the state capitol with demands calling for improvements in the living and working conditions of migratory farm labor in the state.

The award, consisting of a certificate of recognition and a $1,000 cash prize, was presented at the twenty-sixth annual conference of the society, Saturday, April 28, 2006, in Madison, Wisconsin. The Zeidler Academic Awards honor Milwaukee Mayor Frank Zeidler (in office 1948-1960) for his lifelong efforts on behalf of Wisconsin’s citizens.

No award was given in the undergraduate paper category for 2006.

In receiving the award, Ms. Surdam said she received inspiration to go ahead with the project after viewing the WLHS photo exhibit, "Lucha," the story of Wisconsin farmworker organizing in the 1960s. Ms. Surdam said:

“It’s very meaningful because I first became very interested and committed in this project three years ago when I went to a photo exhibit by the Wisconsin Labor History Society put on about the Wisconsin farm labor movement and I actually was able to speak to an individual who was involved in the movement and that experience really fueled my desire to continue working on this project. This was my masters’ thesis and I intend to continue working on this and expanding the project. The monetary award, the $1,000, I plan on using to attend a language school to continue my study of Spanish because I want to incorporate oral history into the project to really fit more voices so that we can have a better understanding of who is in the working class.”

Judges for the awards were Peter Rachleff, of Macalester College in Minnesota, and Andrew Kersten, of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Both are labor historians.

Full details about the upcoming sixth year of the Zeidler Academic Awards will soon be available on the home page of the Wisconsin Labor History Society, www.wisconsinlaborhistory.org (select “Grants/Awards” on the drop-down “WLHS Web Site Menu,” then look for the hypertext link, “2007 Call for Research Papers in Wisconsin Labor and Working-Class History”). To be considered for the 2007 Zeidler Academic Awards, papers must be received by January 7, 2008.

For more information, please contact Laurie Wermter, co-chair of the Frank Zeidler Academic Awards Committee, at lwermter@library.wisc.edu.

Essay Winners: Six students win labor history honors

Six Wisconsin High School students were selected as winners in the 2007-2008 WLHS annual high school essay contest. They were chosen in the statewide competition that asks students to write on the topic “Unions Are Important to My Family Because . . .”

Daniel Flucke, a senior at Fond du Lac High School, won first prize award of $500 for his essay on comparing his father’s work in a nonunion job with his current role as member of IBEW Local 494. Daniel is active in the band program in his school and in his church group, having participated in church trips to Belize and Appalachia. He plans to attend Luther College in Decorah IA to study computer technology.

The second prize went to Amanda Zickert, a senior at Marshall High School, for telling how her family was affected during a strike of Goodyear Tire by her father’s union, the Steelworkers. Her mother is a member of the American Federation of Teachers. She is active in the Family Career and Community Leaders of America group and the Future Farmers of America and is president of a group, Students Working Against Peer Pressure. She plans to begin her college at Madison Area Technical College, majoring in biotechnology.

Tied for third place awards of $200 each were Michelle Babbitts, a senior at Neenah High School, and Angela Stensberg, a junior at Lincoln High School, in Wisconsin Rapids.

Babbitts plans on continuing her education at Fox ValleyTech in early childhood education. Her essay outlined her father’s work as an officer of Steelworkers Local 148.

Stensberg’s essay also highlighted her father’s role as an officer of Steelworkers Local 2-94, and particularly how union membership benefited his family during a plant closure. Her activities include participating in ballet.

Two students won $100 prizes for honorable mention. They were:

Jesse Koerner, a senior at Medford High School, whose father is a member of AFSCME Local 617.

Jake E. Loewen, a senior at Mary D. Bradford High School in Kenosha, whose father is a former member of UAW Local 72 and currently with Firefighters Local 414.

The awards will be presented at the annual meeting of the WLHS on April 26 in Milwaukee. The Society has been running this contest for over 25 years and prizes are made possible through the generous donations of Wisconsin labor organizations.

(The essays and pictures of the top four winners are shown in the March 2008 Newsletter. Also, see Page 5 for list of donors that are supporting this year’s “Labor History in the Schools” programs, including the essay and History Day efforts.)

Books by our Members

Several members of the WLHS Executive Board are authors of recent books of history. The latest to publish is James J. Lorence, who rejoined the WLHS Board this year after his return to Wisconsin. His new book is A Hard Journey: The Life of Don West (University of Illinois Press, NOVEMBER 2007. 292 pages. 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 inches. 22 photographs. Cloth, ISBN 0-252-03231-4. $39.95)

A Hard Journey brings to life Don West, poet, ordained Congregationalist minister, labor organizer, educator, leftist activist, and one of the most important literary and political figures in the southern Appalachians during the middle years of the twentieth century. Motivated by religious conviction and driven by a vision of an open, democratic, and nonracist society, West was also a passionate advocate for the region's traditional values.

Rather than focus on his literary achievements alone, James J. Lorence's biography balances his literary work with political and educational activities, placing West's poetry in the context of his fight for social justice and racial equality. Uncovering the ethical and religious roots of West's militant antifascism, Lorence uses previously unexamined sources to explore his early involvement in organizing miners and other workers for the Socialist and Communist Parties during the 1930s. In detailing West's participation in the Communist Party and founding role in the Highlander Folk School and other training grounds for radically cooperative, democratic ways of living, Lorence also describes West's lifelong commitment to defending mountain culture as an advocate for exploited workers and the rural poor. In documenting West's lifetime commitment to creating a nonracist, egalitarian south, A Hard Journey furnishes the spotlight he deserves as a pioneering figure in twentieth-century southern radicalism.

James J. Lorence is a professor emeritus of the University of Wisconsin, Marathon County, and served as Eminent Scholar of History at Gainesville State College, Gainesville, Georgia, when writing A Hard Journey. He is the author of several books, including The Suppression of Salt of the Earth: How Hollywood, Big Labor, and Politicians Blacklisted a Film in Cold War America, which won the Western History Association's Robert G. Athearn Award for best book on the twentieth-century West.

Events and Announcements

Newsletters in PDF for download

Successful New Program Inaugurated by the Society— “American Labor History Awards” at National History Day

Fox Valley labor, Rock County and UAW Local 95 honored

Essay Winners: Six students win labor history honors

Books by our Members

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Successful New Program Inaugurated by the Society—
“American Labor History Awards” at National History Day