2020 Labor History Calendar

The 2020 Solidarity Forever Labor History Calendar is on the press, and begins shipping in the next few days.

This year we recall the 50th anniversary of the 1970 postal workers wildcat strike, and of public sector workers’ struggles more generally. Sixteen photos mark struggles from South Africa to California, including strikes by Chicago teachers relegated to second-class teaching positions in segregated schools in the 1960s, a cross-border rally by Mexican and US workers against NAFTA, one of the last strikes by unionized foremen before they lost their collective bargaining rights under the infamous Taft-Hartley act, a protest by unemployed workers demanding the 6-hour day, and striking agricultural workers in California from 1913 to the lettuce strikes of the 1970s. These strikes won union rights, challenged segregation and discrimination, called for international labor solidarity, and asserted our dignity and our right to control the conditions of our labor. They were concrete manifestations of workers’ power, and of the possibilities of building a new world based on solidarity.

We invite you to remember these struggles, and to reflect on the possibilities for reviving a labor movement committed to solidarity, and to a vision of justice and workplace democracy. The Solidarity Forever Labor History Calendar has been published by the Hungarian Literature Fund since 1985 to inspire greater labor solidarity and preserve the memory of workers’ struggles around the world.

The 2020 calendar is 11 by 17 inches (open, folds to 8 1/2 by 11), with a color cover and black and white insides. It is union-printed. Copies are $12.95 each, post-paid, in the U.S. and Canada ($14.95 in the rest of the world); a bundle of 5 to the same address is $38.95. Please inquire for bulk rates.

Copies can be ordered at https://joehill100.com/shop/ (where we also list a variety of Joe Hill- and other Wobbly-related books, t-shirts, buttons, CDs, and other items), or by sending a check to IWW Hungarian Literature Fund, PO Box 42531, Philadelphia PA 19101.

2019 Solidarity Forever Labor History Calendar

We have sold out three printings, and are 32 days into 2019, so we’re not going back to press. Our 2019 calendar celebrates the legacy of great strikes, from the Seattle and Winnipeg general strikes of 100 years ago to last year’s teachers’ strikes which gave renewed hope to labor activists (and to parents and children) after decades of defeat and retreat. 14 photos, and more than a thousand notes. Published annually since 1985.

We welcome suggestions of important dates in labor history around the world, and especially information about photos that should be considered for inclusion.

“I want to express my gratitude for making the Labor History Calendar available. For years I have been purchasing it and find that it contains enormous information about labor history, both in the United States and internationally. As a former steelworker turned labor historian it is of immense value to me in teaching my students labor history by reminding me of the labor events that have taken place in the past.” — M.B., Houston

2018 Railroad Workers Calendar

This 11-by-17 wall calendar features a scene from rail labor history each month plus more than 150 historic dates of significance to railroad workers over the last century and a half of struggle. $15 each, free shipping.

The Rail Workers Labor History Calendar is produced with Railroad Workers United, and benefits their work organizing railroad worker solidarity across craft lines and other borders. It is printed by union labor. You can order copies directly from Railroad Workers United

2018 Solidarity Forever Labor History Calendar

Our 2018 calendar celebrates the legacy of workers’ struggles against fascism and bigotry, from the 19th century labor activists who demanded an immediate end to chattel slavery and discrimination against women to the industrial unions that toppled apartheid in South Africa. 14 photos, and more than a thousand notes. Published annually since 1985.

This 11-by-17 wall calendar is printed by union labor. $12.95, postpaid. Order at http://joehill100.com

We welcome suggestions of important dates in labor history around the world, and especially information about photos that should be considered for inclusion.

“I want to express my gratitude for making the Labor History Calendar available. For years I have been purchasing it and find that it contains enormous information about labor history, both in the United States and internationally. As a former steelworker turned labor historian it is of immense value to me in teaching my students labor history by reminding me of the labor events that have taken place in the past.” — M.B., Houston

2017 Solidarity Forever Labor History Calendar

This year we look back 100 years, to the Bisbee deportation when some 2,000 miners and their supporters were forced into manure-coated cattle cars and hauled by rail into the desert, where federal troops prevented them from returning to their homes. Those workers had organized into the Industrial Workers of the World after their previous union had proven too friendly with the employers. Among their demands was to equalize wages for the predominantly Mexican-American workers who handled the ore above ground for half the pay. That same year, federal officials raided union offices across the country, unleashing a reign of terror on dissidents and radicals and workers who saw no reason why they should be asked to work in dangerous conditions for low pay while their bosses reaped huge profits from World War I.

It was a time of fierce repression, but also a time when workers were organizing across the racial and ethnic lines that had historically divided them. They were seeking better pay and working conditions, but also shorter hours and a new society in which workers could live in dignity and freedom.

And those struggles have continued unabated over the century that followed. This year’s calendar looks to Venetian gondoliers, who struck for safer work but also to save their city’s history; to teachers in Oaxaca shot down for defending their union and their schools; to Detroit teachers who struck for decent schools; to a time when Arab and Jewish workers could march together on May Day, hoping for a society that would respect the rights of all. And those struggles have continued unabated over the century that followed. This year’s calendar looks to Venetian gondoliers, who struck for safer work but also to save their city’s history; to teachers in Oaxaca shot down for defending their union and their schools; to Detroit teachers who struck for decent schools; to a time when Arab and Jewish workers could march together on May Day, hoping for a society that would respect the rights of all.

We remember the vicious repression that has been visited against our fellow workers, but also the solidarity of millions that spared Tom Mooney’s and Warren Billings’ life, and the recognition that an injury to one is an injury to all that led Canadian postal workers to strike to end the consignment of women postal workers to second-class status at half pay.

We invite you to remember these struggles, and to reflect on the possibilities for reviving a labor movement committed to solidarity, and to a vision of justice and workplace democracy.

The Solidarity Forever Labor History Calendar has been published by the Hungarian Literature Fund since 1985 to inspire greater labor solidarity and preserve the memory of workers’ struggles around the world. Copies can be ordered at http://joehill100.com (where we also list a variety of Joe Hill and other Wobbly-related books, t-shirts, buttons, CDs and other items)

Get your labor history calendar(s) today. Every wage slave needs one!

2016 Solidarity Forever Labor History Calendar

Our 2016 calendar looks back five decades, to an era when Australian construction workers acted in solidarity with environmentalists and women’s rights campaigners, when U.S. postal workers won the right to meaningful collective bargaining through a national wildcat strike, when farmworkers seemed on the verge of winning union conditions and representation for the first time since the IWW’s agricultural organizing in the 1910s and 1920s. We invite you to remember those struggles, and to reflect on the possibilities for reviving a labor movement committed to solidarity, and to a vision of justice and workplace democracy.

The 2016 calendar returns to our normal 11 by 17 inch (open, folds to 8 1/2 by 11) format, with color cover and black and white insides. It features 16 photographs from Australia, England and the United States.

The calendar sells for $12 ($6.50 each for 5 or more to the same address). Published by the IWW Hungarian Literature Fund in cooperation with the Greater Kansas City General Membership Branch of the IWW, and printed by union labor.

The 2016 calendar is out of print, and we can not fill additional orders.

2015 Joe Hill Centenary Calendar

The 2015 calendar features the songs of IWW songwriter Joe Hill, with photos and graphics that connect to many of his best-known works. 2015 is of course the centenary of Joe Hill’s murder by the capitalist class and the state of Utah, framed for a murder that no rational person believes he committed. (All the physical evidence pointed elsewhere, and William Adler’s recent biography demolishes the circumstantial case that the authorities pinned together to justify a case that from its beginnings was built solely on the belief that a Wobbly and writer of labor songs was a disreputable person capable of committing any crime.)

This year’s calendar is large-format (12 by 12), with a full-color cover. It features more than 20 striking photographs and images and the lyrics to some of Joe Hill’s most-loved labor songs. Extensive notes commemorate significant events in Joe Hill’s life and struggles, along with hundreds of notes commemorating important dates from hundreds of years of labor struggles. A short essay highlights Joe Hill’s importance as an IWW organizer and songwriter. It is produced in cooperation with the Boston IWW branch. Single copies are $15.95; Five copies to the same address are $50. (Please add $3 per copy for international postage.)

Great for fundraising, workplace walls and gifts. Every wage slave needs one!

2014 Solidarity Forever Labor History Calendar

The 2014 Calendar’s theme is low-wage workers’ organizing, with 13 photos covering struggles from 1909 to 2013, including a protest march by Bangladeshi garment workers days after the largest industrial “accident” in that industry’s sordid history. Several new notes commemorate important dates in labor history from around the world, and an essay reflects on recent struggles by low-wage workers for safer conditions and a living wage. The calendar is union printed, bearing both the IWW and the Allied Printing Trades bugs. The 2014 calendar was published in cooperation with the Greater Kansas City General Membership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World.

The 1985 – 2018 Solidarity Forever Labor History Calendars are out of print.