Paul Robeson and the 1948 Library of Congress cafeteria workers’ strike

<p>With 95% of DC’s hotel and restaurant workers out of work because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we look back at the history of cafeteria workers’ struggle for a union at the Library of Congress and how singer and activist Paul Robeson supported their 1948 strike.</p> <p>Former AFSCME organizer and DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts tells how a showdown with New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller over the right of state workers to organize led to her being jailed for two weeks in December, 1968.</p> <p>The Heartland Labor Forum talks with Mark Bradley, author of <a href='https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/665665/blood-runs-coal-by-mark-a-bradley/9780393652536'>Blood Runs Coal</a>, about the brutal 1968 murder of Jock Yablonski and his family by United Mineworkers president Tony Boyle, and how it inspired a surge in union democracy. </p> <p>And, on this week’s Labor History in 2:00, Rick Smith tells us about The Beginning of the End of Apartheid.</p> <p>Music: Joe Hill and Old Man River, by Paul Robeson; The Jablonski Murder, by Hazel Dickens. Produced and edited by Chris Garlock. To contribute a labor history item, email <a href='mailto:laborhistorytoday@gmail.com'>laborhistorytoday@gmail.com</a></p> <p>Labor History Today is produced by the Metro Washington Council’s Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University. We're a proud founding member of the <a href='https://www.laborradionetwork.org/'>Labor Radio Podcast Network</a>, nearly 80 shows focusing on working people’s issues and concerns. #LaborRadioPod </p>