Great Labor Arts Exchange: Celebrating Unions’ Future

by James Parks, Jun 28, 2008

The ‘Truth Squad’ attacks ‘Corporate Greed’ at the Great Labor Arts Exchange.

Imagine this: A larger than life-sized puppet calling itself “Corporate Greed” is strutting through your neighborhood selling toxic toys to your kids. Suddenly, to the rescue comes a group of superheroes called the “Truth Squad” who topple Corporate Greed and restore calm and order.

That was just one of the innovative ideas from this year’s Great Labor Arts Exchange and Conference on Creative Organizing. The giant puppet show comes from two members of the United Steelworkers (USW) who showed participants one way to use street theater to deliver a message.

For 30 years, the Great Labor Arts Exchange has celebrated the rich cultural heritage of working people and served as a forum that brings together talented labor artists, activists, cultural workers, educators and students. The Conference on Creative Organizing trains union staff, organizers and activists to use songs, chants, skits, game shows, costumes, theater and other creative tactics when reaching out to working people.

This year there was a wealth of new, young talent on display as about 100 union and social justice activists came together to teach and learn ways to combine union mobilization and outreach with songs, skits, art, poetry, theater, posters, cartoons and film. 

Says Elise Bryant, chairwoman of the Labor Heritage Foundation, which sponsors the three-day conference:

If you are worried about the future of the union movement, this year’s Great Labor Arts Exchange will inspire you. There are a lot of creative, dedicated young activists with great new ideas that connect with people and deliver our message in ways we hadn’t thought of. 

Tayo Aluko, a Nigerian who now lives in Liverpool, England, was among the new activists at the three-day conference on the National Labor College campus in Silver Spring, Md. Aluko performed a one-man show on the life of actor and human rights activist Paul Robeson. The show highlights how Robeson stood for human rights both on and off the stage.

Another presentation, by the group “Teaching For Change,” demonstrated strategies for educating children, parents, teachers and the community about social justice by having them work jointly on a quilt depicting different social issues.

Bryant adds that these creative activities help union members return to the roots of the movement:

If you cut off a tree from its roots, it will die. And if you don’t foster new growth, it will die. The Great Labor Arts Exchange reconnects labor with its roots and celebrates its future.

While the conference was looking to the future, it also remembered its past in two tribute performances. A longtime friend of Utah Phillips remembered the folk and labor song legend in a touching memorial and video. Phillips died in May.

Participants also saluted Peter Jones, who resigned this year after nine years as executive director of Labor Heritage. Various performers sang some of the multitude of songs Jones has written over the past 30 years.  His successor, Darryl! L.C. Moch, began working this month.  

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