Labor Heritage Power Hour

Songs that Organize, Strikes that Endure

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: We dig into how culture fuels courage on the shop floor and the strike line. First, legendary organizer–songwriter Si Kahn breaks down the organizer’s “secret weapon”: parody. From Joe Hill’s “new words to old tunes” to the brand-new “Solidarity at Starbucks,” we explore why familiar melodies can turn a crowd into a chorus—fast.
Then we head to Camp Solidarity in Matewan, West Virginia for “Lessons from the Massey Strike.” UMWA veterans Charles “Hawkeye” Dixon, Howard Phillips, and Eddie Burke take us inside the 1984–85 fight with Massey: the tactics, the unity, the losses, and what it took to stop production and keep a union alive.
All hour long, it’s WPFW’s Fall Fund Drive. If the music, history, and first-person voices you hear here matter to you, help keep Jazz & Justice strong and independent: wpfwfm.org or 1-800-222-9739; $12.50/month makes you a sustainer; any amount makes you family.
Broadcast on October 23, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC and Pacifica stations and affiliates across America.Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.@LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

Laurel’s Legacy, Fannie Lou & Joe Hill’s Ashes

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: We dedicate this week's show to Laurel Blaydes (1952–2022) — singer, organizer, and former director of the Labor Heritage Foundation—on the week she would have turned 73. Co-host Elise Bryant shares reflections on Laurel’s artistry and why labor culture sustains us in hard times, before we hear Laurel’s 1981 Labor Solidarity Day performance of “Hold the Fort” with Joe Uehlein, Tommy Moran, and John Gower.Then: the work, art, and voice of Fannie Lou Hamer—sharecropper’s daughter, timekeeper, Freedom Singer, and SNCC organizer. We spin the brand-new “Fannie Lou” from Baltimore’s R.J. Phillips Band, followed by Hamer herself singing “Pick a Bale of Cotton.”In our second segment, the Heartland Labor Forum talks with historian Marcella Bencivenni about Arturo Giovannitti—Italian-born union leader, poet, and a key organizer of the 1912 Bread & Roses strike—whose free-speech trial helped define labor’s voice. Our third segment is the Labor Song of the Week: Otis Gibbs’ “Joe Hill’s Ashes,” and we go out with Laurel Blaydes singing “What Will I Leave” at the 2004 Great Labor Arts Exchange. It’s also WPFW’s Fall Fund Drive this week. If this mix of music, memory, and movement matters to you, please become a sustaining member and keep Jazz & Justice strong: wpfwfm.org or call 1-800-222-9739. Broadcast on October 16, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC and Pacifica stations across America. Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.@LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

Baristas vs. Billionaires; Roberts’ Fire & Gerard’s Grit

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: From a Buffalo coffee shop to a national movement, this week’s show pours a strong cup of worker power. Chris talks with Oscar-nominated director and former steelworker Mark Mori about “Baristas vs. Billionaires,” his new film on the Starbucks union drive. Then we head to Matewan for UMWA President Cecil Roberts’ barnburner on courage, history, and who this land belongs to. We close with street-level memories of former Steelworkers president Leo Gerard and his mic-grabbing solidarity. Plus Labor History in 2.00 and a brand-new version of Woody Guthrie’s classic “Deportee” from Colleen Kattau. Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.@LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

Donora’s Dark Air, Labor’s Bright Colors

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: A visit to the Donora Smog Museum, where a six-day inversion in 1948 trapped toxic fumes over a mill town and changed how the U.S. thinks about work, health, and accountability. Then educator and Mine Wars Museum co-founder Wilma Steele unpacks how a simple red bandana—rooted in centuries-old paisley—became a living symbol of union solidarity.  PLUS: Dropkick Murphy's frontman Ken Casey’s Favorite Labor Song, and a double helping of Labor History in 2:00, with the “Jerry Rescue” of 1851 and the 1919 Elaine Massacre. Broadcast on October 2, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC and other stations across the country. Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.@LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

From New Orleans to Detroit: Stories of Solidarity and Survival

This week on the Labor Heritage Power Hour, host Chris Garlock is joined by guest co-host Kimmon “MacGyver” Williams. In our first segment, MacGyver talks with Matt Olson from the New Orleans Worker Center for Racial Justice about Don’t Stand Alone, a striking traveling exhibit that recovers the hidden histories of Black labor organizing in New Orleans and brings them to life through art, storytelling, and solidarity.
Then Dan Golodner, co-host of the Tales from the Reuther Library podcast, talks with Dr. Kendra Boyd, author of “Freedom Enterprise: Black Entrepreneurship and Racial Capitalism in Detroit”, which explores the history of Detroit’s Black migration, entrepreneurship, and the struggle against so-called “Negro removal” as urban renewal projects dismantled thriving Black business districts.
Plus: the latest labor arts news, including new unions at the San Diego Zoo, Broadway contract fights, Writers Guild recognition at children’s TV producers, and a remembrance of former United Steelworkers president Leo Gerard, honored for his deep support of labor art and culture.
Broadcast on September 25, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC. and other Pacifica stations. Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.@LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

High Iron and Higher Stakes — Unions, Antisemitism Myths, and a Boxcar for Labor

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: historian Joe McCartin unpacks Congress’s “Unmasking Union Antisemitism,” showing how employers have long weaponized antisemitic tropes against unions while Jewish workers helped build a pluralistic, democratic labor movement—and why the latest push is really about weakening unions and chilling speech. Then producer Patrick Dixon talks with artist-anthropologist Aubrey Edwards about High Iron, a traveling boxcar-turned-community museum honoring the immigrant and Indigenous workers who built the West’s railroads, towns, and economy. Two stories, one thread: who tells America’s story—the power brokers, or the people who built it?Broadcast on September 18, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC and other stations across America.Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.@LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

Big Tops & Big Struggles: Labor, Art, and the Circus World

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: former circus hand Chris Bricker talks with historian Andrea Ringer about her new book, Circus World: Roustabouts, Animals, and the Work of Putting on The Big Show—a deep dive into the hidden labor that built 14-acre tent cities, from riggers and animal trainers to strikes that shaped the spectacle. Then organizer and cultural strategist Ken Grossinger returns with updates on Art Works: How organizers and artists are creating a better world together and how artists and organizers are joining forces, why authoritarians target culture first, and what it takes to scale creative power across unions and communities.PLUS, on Labor History in 2:00: The Lattimer Massacre and Chicago Teachers Say, Enough!
Broadcast on September 11, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC.Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.
@LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio @kgrossinger #1u #unions #laborradiopod

A Discography of Workers’ Revolt

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: Chris Garlock sits down with Strike While the Needle is Hot: A Discography of Workers’ Revolt authors Josh MacPhee and Kennedy Block to spin and unpack strike records from the ’60s–’80s—including the rousing 1978 EP “Ford Workers on Strike.” A fast-moving tour of worker-made music and how vinyl captured picket lines, speeches, and solidarity anthems. Broadcast on September 4, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC.Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.@LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

Strike While the Needle is Hot

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: Shanara Gabrielle on Theater Alliance’s fire work, then Zoltoid, the Worker Safety Oracle with Jay Herzmark. Plus previews from our Labor Day Special—Strike While the Needle is Hot (Josh MacPhee/Kennedy Block’s strike-record book, featuring Ford Workers on Strike) and Labor 131 with Jessie Wilkerson on the 1929 Elizabethton rayon strike. Labor Day Special airs Monday, Sept 1, 11am–1pm EDT on WPFW 89.3FMBroadcast on August 28, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC and Pacifica stations across the country. Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.@LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

Poems of Work, Songs of Struggle

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: Poet Martín Espada joins Susan Eisenberg to read from Jailbreak of Sparrows—poems of work, class, and immigrant labor, including “Look at This” and “The Snake.” Then we mark the IWW’s Little Red Songbook anniversary with four classics: “Hold the Fort,” “The Internationale,” “Dump the Bosses Off Your Back,” and “Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues.”Broadcast on August 21, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC, and other stations across America on the Pacifica Network. Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.@LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod