Experience LaborFest, an annual festival celebrating the history and culture of working people through film, art, lectures, and exhibits all over the Bay Area from July 1-31, 2017.
On Friday, July 21st, watch the free screening of “Island of Shadows” at First Unitarian Universalist Church and Center in San Francisco, California at 7:00 pm.
The festival commemorates the 83rd anniversary of 1934’s “Bloody Thursday” when two workers were shot and killed in San Francisco for supporting the longshoremen and maritime workers strike. The incident brought about the San Francisco General Strike.
This year also marks the 80th anniversary of the 1937 sit-down strikes. LaborFest will be commemorating this with films about these struggles and the recent struggles of workers in Madison, Wisconsin against Scott Walker.
About the film: “Island of Shadows shows the history of Korean Hanjin shipyard workers to defend their health and safety building a union. They built one of the most industrialized countries in the world yet now face the destruction of their lives because of company unions and government corruption.
Conditions are so horrific that it is acceptable that workers are regularly getting killed on the job. Slowly workers began to set up a union to fight for their human and labor rights; we hear from the voice of workers about this experience, their victories and defeats.
It also shows the despair that led union leaders to commit suicide in protest over their conditions. To understand the horrific conditions and sacrifices that these workers make to change their lives is to understand the power of the working class and how they can succeed despite repression and workplace bullying.
One of the worker leaders is Jinsook Kim, a welder at the shipyard who challenged the workers to support their rights by occupying the top of a crane for 309 days.
Following the film there will be an update on the Korean elections and a discussion about how U.S. workers can support the struggle of Korean workers.”
