Problem

The same real estate speculators that threaten to displace poor and working class people from all of San Francisco are now targeting the Redstone Labor Temple.

Solution

We, the undersigned, are committed to supporting the current tenants in their efforts to maintain the building as a center for non-profits and cultural groups. We call on the City of San Francisco to preserve this 103-year-old building as a sanctuary space for our community.

The Labor Temple Story

For more than a century, the Redstone Labor Temple has served as a progressive think tank and cultural center in San Francisco. Built in 1914 by the San Francisco Labor Council, for 50 years the building was a place where unions made history, advocating for living wages, reasonable working hours, health care, gender equity, and civil rights. It was an epicenter of organizing for the San Francisco General Strike of 1934 and home to the first women's union, Bookbinder's Local 125. After 1968, the building became a center for social service organizations, independent media, and art and theater spaces.

Adapting to changing economic and social conditions, the small but mighty organizations of the Labor Temple have had an extraordinary impact on the lives of workers, artists, Latinx, LGBTQ, and the displaced. Collectively, its 20 organizations and 30 community advocates serve over 50,000 people in the city of San Francisco. The small size of these nonprofit organizations and businesses enable them to address community needs quickly and effectively. For every $1 invested by the city in the Labor Temple, its organizations provide $1,000 to the community in return. In this way, the Redstone Labor Temple delivers a measurable benefit to the City of San Francisco. In the face of an unprecedented displacement crisis, this building is a community destination and it provides an incalculable source of civic pride. It is a public commons where we gather to imagine and model better living and working conditions, it is a space to celebrate our culture, and it gives us hope.

We ask that Mayor London Breed save the Redstone Labor Temple as a center for arts and human rights advocacy. The Labor Temple belongs to the people!

Want to get involved?

Send an email to redstoneevents@yahoo.com to receive updates, join our Facebook page at fb.com/savetheredstonelabortemple, or support our campaign gofundme.com/save-redstone-labor-temple.



We appreciate you.