Women’s Spaces Radio Show of May 2, 2022 with host Elaine B Holtz comments and guest Dr. Harriet Fraad on Women in the Labor Union Movement. has been uploaded to the web archive. The show was broadcast in the North SF Bay and streamed worldwide over Radio KBBF 89.1 FM on Monday 5/2/2022 at 11 AM, repeats at 11 PM on KBBF, and then repeat broadcasts in Petaluma and streamed worldwide over Radio KPCA 103.3 FM on the following Wednesday 5/4/2022 at 11 AM.
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Visit the Show’s webpage to listen to the show:
www.womensspaces.com/ArchiveWSA22/WSA220502.html
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Women in the Labor Union Movement
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Featuring
Click the Name to access the Segment below
1. Commentary by Elaine B. Holtz,Hostof Women’s Spaces
2. Dr. Harriet Fraad, Author, Podcaster, Mental Health Counsellor, Feminist
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1. Commentary by Elaine B. Holtz: Sunday was May 1 which is International Workers Day. For this show we will be talking about “Women in the Union Movement,” we will also be giving some background into the Great Depression, what made it happen and some of the issues that motivated organizing of Unions. What is so interesting a lot that is going on now has a familiar ring.
On April 28, 1964, I gave birth to my daughter Susan. Happy Birthday Susan. I am so blessed to have given birth to her. Watching her be a grandmother is such a wonderful experience for me. Happy Birthday Susan.
I want to wish my dear friend Celeste Austin whose Birthday is today. She has reached a milestone, 70 years strong, 70 years young. A special Happy Birthday to you.
And a shout out to Tim and Sharon Morgan on their 50th Wedding Anniversary.
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2. Our guest Dr. Harriet Fraad gives an overview of the role women played in the labor union movement. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 took the lives of 123 women and 23 men, due to the doors being locked out of distrust of the workers. This spurred the founding of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU), which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers. The Great Depression spurred laborers to take to the streets, led by socialists and communists. All depressions and recessions are caused by the speculative rules of Capitalism. Francis Perkins had witnessed the women and girls jumping out the burning Triangle Shirtwaist factory, and she would later be picked to be FDR’s Labor Secretary, who pushed through many protections for the labor force, including Child Labor Laws. By the 1950s, 35% of workers were unionized. Joe McCarthy’s red baiting in created such distrust of socialists and communists, claimed by him to be treasonous, that unions felt more regulations hindering their organizing efforts. President Ronald Reagan fired all the Airline Controllers, which was a big blow to unions. The Glass-Steagall Act was enacted in 1935 to restore public confidence in the banks again yet was removed by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act signed by President Bill Clinton in 1999, which eliminated the Glass-Steagall Act’s restrictions against affiliations between commercial and investment banks and most likely led up to the Recession of 2008. This recession hurt those who entered into the suspect mortgages with insufficient credit, yet punishment of the banks was spared by President Obama. Today there is a resurgence of labor unionizing at Amazon warehouses, Walmart, fast-food restaurants, and call centers. Women are leading the charge for better conditions for nurses and teachers.
About our Guest: Dr. Harriet Fraad is a founding mother of the Women’s Liberation Movement in New Haven CT and has been an activist for her entire life. She is a mental health counselor and hypnotherapist in practice in New York City. Along with being a founding member of the feminist movement and the journal Rethinking Marxism, for 40 years, she has been a radical committed to transforming US personal and political life. Harriet specializes in speaking and writing about topics in which psychology and economics overlap, as these topics remain loaded with taboos, confusions, ignorance, and fear preventing us from asking big questions and daring to discuss big answers. By analyzing issues where psychology and economics collide, we can better analyze our society and our individuality as well. Books: Class Struggle on the Home Front, (w/Stephen Resnick & Richard Wolff), New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009 Imagine Living in a Socialist USA: Imagine…Personal Emotional and Sexual Life Without Capitalism (w/Tess Fraad Wolff), (Edited F. Goldin, D. & S. Smith), New York: Harper Collins, Jan 2014. Podcasts: Capitalism Hits Home; and Interpersonal Update (w/Tess Fraad Wolff), formerly broadcast on WBAI-FM, New York, Thursdays, 1-2PM EST; and is a regular guest on Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff.
Guest Link:
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Our history is our strength. Check out important dates to remember in herstory at the National Women’s History Alliance
May 1, 1950 – Gwendolyn Brooks becomes the first African American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, named Library of Congress’s Consultant in Poetry (later called Poet Laureate) in 1985
Herstory Birthdays:
May 1, 1830 (1930) – Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, labor leader and organizer.
May 3, 1912 (1995) – May Sarton, prolific writer, poet, and memoirist, published in Poetry magazine at 17 years of age, she also taught at several universities including Harvard and Wellesley.
May 5, 1921 (2008) – Del Martin, lesbian rights pioneer, who along with her wife Phyllis Ann Lyon founded the daughters of Bilitis in San Francisco (1955) the first social and political organization for lesbians in the U.S., they were the first same-sex couple to be married in California (2004 and 2008)
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Announcements
Tuesday, May 3, 5pm, Protest SCOTUS’ Plan to Revoke Roe v. Wade, Old Courthouse Square, Santa Rosa, Sponsored by Santa Rosa Democratic Club. Post event article in Press Democrat: https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/protesters-rally-in-santa-rosa-against-possible-anti-abortion-court-decisio/
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Friday, May 6, 2022, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm, Bans Off Our Bodies! Basta De Controlarnos!, Old Courthouse Sq, Santa Rosa. For event information: https://fb.me/e/2phWHwwvf
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Monday, May 9, 11am # repeats 11pm, the show will feature guest Marie Ramirez Downing, Director of the stage play Real Women Have Curves at the Sixth Street Playhouse. Radio KBBF 89.1 FM, North SF Bay or live streaming at https://kbbf.org/live/
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Wednesday May 11, 11am, repeat of Monday’s show, will feature guest Marie Ramirez Downing, Director of the stage play Real Women Have Curves at the Sixth Street Playhouse.. Radio KPCA 103.2 FM, Petaluma, CA. https://petalumacommunityaccess.org/kpca/
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May 12- May 29, 2022. Real Women Have Curves, 6th Street Playhouse, Monroe Stage, by Josefina López, directed by Marie Ramirez Downing, Starring Alexa Jimenez, Reilly Milton, Bethany Regan, Rosa Reynoza and Anakarina Swanson. https://6thstreetplayhouse.com/show/real-women-have-curves-2/
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Ongoing Events:
Meet our candidates for Superintendent of Sonoma County Schools, Amie Carter, Brad Coscarelli, and Ron Calloway!
For details of this past event of April 18, 2022 see http://nowsonoma.org/Events.html
Post Event Viewing: For video of event https://youtu.be/VAjoQDwgoBI
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January 22 – June 5, 2022, Exhibition, Agency: Feminist Art and Power, Sonoma County Museum, for more information visit: https://museumsc.org/exhibitions/
Music Selections
The Opening and Closing Theme song The Woman in Your Life is You is done with permission of the Composer and Singer Alix Dobkin ((August 16, 1940 – May 19, 2021) Alix Dobkin death was just announced – Thank you for all you did for Lesbians to be recognized and Women to be honored. May you rest in peace. See our Interview with Alix Dobkin on 12/1/2014 at and our Memorial to Alix Dobkin on 11/24/2021 at .
The Woman in Your Life is You by Alix Dobkin from the album Living with Lavender Jane (2010 Women’s Wax Works) – www.alixdobkin.com
Happy Birthday, sung by The Countdown Kids from the album 100 All Time Favorite Kids Songs (2001 Countdown Media, A Division of BMG Rights Media IUS).
Brother Can you Spare a Dime, sung by Thea Gilmore from the album Loft Music (2005 Compass Records).
Which Side are You On by Bev Grant from the album We Were There – Women’s Labor History (2002 Human Condition Music)
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For music purchasing opportunity, supporting the artists: