Commonwealth Alliance and Black Leadership Action Coalition of Kentucky are among the organizers of an evening featuring author Kim Kelly at IUE-CWA LOCAL 83761. Kelly’s new book “Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor,” profiles 19th-century New England millworkers and exploited freed slaves, and the garment-industry girls in New York a century ago. There are also stories from coal miners needing to take up arms, and metalworkers forming multicultural alliances. The incarcerated and sex workers seek understanding today. Progress is earned by laborers learning to organize — so many inspired women! — and sacrificing in the name of fairness, after they’d been exhausted and gone up against bloodletting.
Beth Howard of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) says of the event, "We hope Kentucky's working class fills up the union hall. Kim's writing is fueling the labor resurgence because she's telling our stories while also agitating us to claim our power and fight."
Besides the author’s reading, discussion, and book signing, there’ll be opportunities to connect with organizations — and the Democratic Socialists are promising an after-party at Trouble Bar.
Labor’s Fights, Then and Now will happen Thursday, Oct. 13 at 6:30 p.m. at IUE-CWA LOCAL 83761 located at 5153 Poplar Level Road.
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