Bill Fletcher Interview 1

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Ready? Do you have those questions in front of you?

Segment Synopsis: Bill Fletcher discusses how the more radical elements of labor history were suppressed during the cold war.

Subjects: History--Study and teaching

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: So what were they teaching then? I mean what would a labor educator teach in that period of time?

Segment Synopsis: Bill Fletcher discusses what Labor Educators taught instead of labor history, and about how he became interested in labor history.

Subjects: African American history; Historians; History--Study and teaching; Labor unions; Working class African Americans

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: So getting back to it, your sitting there in front of this room of academics and your saying that teaching labor history today is, and I guess at that point it was like 1994, you know, toady in '94 and '95 teaching labor history in the union movement could be dangerous.

Segment Synopsis: Bill Fletcher discusses how radical social movements, people of color, and women have played a major role in the development of the labor movement, and how they were later denied a voice in the movement.

Subjects: Labor unions and communism; Women in the labor movement; Working class African Americans; Working class women

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: And more generally when perusing a sort of broad labor education do you need to leave, does leftism need to be played down for greater reception?

Segment Synopsis: Bill Fletcher and Judith Helfand discuss the suppression of the history of leftist involvement in the labor union and what that means.

Subjects: Labor unions and communism

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: It was your 1994-- 1934 to 1994 you did that sort of retrospective regionally --

BILL FLETCHER: On the general strikes

Segment Synopsis: Bill Fletcher discusses how he used some footage from the Uprising of '34 to spark a conversation on labor history and how collective memory works.

Subjects: Documentary films; History--Study and teaching; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: I remember you saying you -- maybe you weren't -- but I think often people are surprised at, um, working people's levels of sort of getting this and understanding it.

Segment Synopsis: Bill Fletcher discusses why it is important for labor unions to open up about past defeats and to learn from them.

Keywords: aftermath of the strike

Subjects: History--Study and teaching; Labor unions--Officials and employees--Training of

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Now one of the things that came up at our Highlander meeting when we were talking with other labor educators was the issue of time.

Segment Synopsis: Bill Fletcher discusses how the Uprising of '34 needs to be used in an ongoing discussion of Labor History.

Subjects: History--Study and teaching