About Us

LAWCHA is an organization of scholars, teachers, students, labor educators, and activists who seek to promote public and scholarly awareness of labor and working-class history through research, writing, and organizing.

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  • LAWCHA Pandemic Book Talk :Alice L Baumgartner, South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War

    July 22 at 7 PM EST
    •
    via Zoom

    South to Freedom Alice L. Baumgartner tells the story of why Mexico abolished slavery and how its increasingly radical antislavery policies fueled the sectional crisis in the United States. Southerners hoped that annexing Texas and invading Mexico in the 1840s would stop runaways and secure slavery’s future. Instead, the seizure of Alta California and Nuevo México upset the delicate political balance between free and slave states. This is a revelatory and essential new perspective on antebellum America and the causes of the Civil War. Register here!

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  • LABOR OnScreen :Inaugural Session

    Thursday, July 29th, 7 – 9 p.m. ET
    •
    via Zoom

    Introducing the LAWCHA Film Club! LABOR OnScreen Inaugural Session: Thursday, July 29th, 7 – 9 p.m. EST Register here!

    • Spirited and Comradely Conversation Devoted to Essential Working Class Films Each Zoom session will consider two narrative (non-documentary) movies, linked by theme or genre; participants should view the films on their own beforehand (we’ll provide info about where they can be streamed)
    • Come with a question related to one or both films, and dive into discussion about great labor-related movies!
    • Open to Labor Historians and Educators, Union Members (and Supporters), Organizers and Activists, Movie Buffs, Students, and Anyone Passionate about Cinematic Explorations of Workers’ Lives
    This month’s theme: Unions and Organizing The films: Salt of the Earth and The Killing Floor  Watch Salt of the Earth for free on YouTube; The Killing Floor is available to subscribers of The Criterion Channel and through Kanopy (available free through many public and university libraries) or can be rented from Amazon or iTunes.

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Welcome to LAWCHA

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LABORonline

LaborOnline features commentary on a host of issues, contemporary and historical, as well as “instant” dialogue and debate among readers and authors about the contents of the journal. Looking for the journal? Visit Labor at Duke University Press. Contact Rosemary Feurer ([email protected]) to propose ideas or stories. Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter, @LAWCHA_ORG! Subscribe to the LAWCHA RSS Feed!

Emmett Till & United Packinghouse Workers by Matthew Nichter – Free Access til August 1

by Rosemary Feurer

This recent issue of the Labor: Studies in Working Class History features a terrific essay “Did Emmett Till Die in Vain? Organized Labor Says No!”: The United Packinghouse Workers and Civil Rights Unionism in the Mid-1950s by Matthew Nichter that brings new light to the Emmett Till story. You can access it for free until August 1. Read more →

May 24th, 2021
May 17th, 2021

Teaching Labor’s Story: Writing Workshop

by Nikki Mandell
April 23rd, 2021

The Legacy of Bessemer: The Amazon Campaign is a Gift to the Labor Movement

by John Logan
April 13th, 2021

Postmortem on Bessemer Amazon Defeat

by Michael Goldfield
March 22nd, 2021

How Amazon’s Anti-Union Consultants Are Trying to Crush the Labor Movement

by John Logan