I have been promoting WV labor films since the day I came to WV in Sept. 1978 and found a new 16 mm print of “Harlan County, USA” in my new office in the Culture Center. Now, 32 years latter, there is a group that wants everyone in the state to study and promote awareness of our great state’s labor history – West Virginia Labor History Week Coalition.
The West Virginia Library Commission . has joined the campaign, alerting its 173 public libraries to the poster contest and the Resolution passed by the WV Legislature this year. They are building a resource webpage that will include filmographies and bibliographies on WV labor history. Joe Geiger, state archivist, is also aware of the event and will be putting information about it in their coming newsletter. Hopefully, the WV State Board of Education will also get involved and send info to all of its history and social science teachers.
Bill Ramsey, a retired state worker living in Clarksburg, is the official head of the group. He will be meeting with others this coming Saturday, August 14th at 10 am at the Marriott in downtown Charleston to finalize the 2010 program.
I hope to attend the meeting and I hope that the media – newspapers, TV, radio, etc. all joing the campaign and do new stories on WV’s great labor history during the week after Labor Day 2010.
The West Virginia Labor History Association is one of the many groups involved. In May it co-sponsored the WV premiere of a new film on WV native son Walter Reuther, “Brothers in Line.”
Contact info for WV AFL-CIO labor councils that are part of this campaign can be found here.
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