A unique exhibit that seeks to facilitate dialogue between the labor movement in Â鶹´«Ã½ and the current Native Hawaiian Sovereignty movements, was launched at University of Â鶹´«Ã½ at Mānoa library as a and is open to the public.
As part of the exhibit, an online webinar on Wednesday, September 2, from 3 to 5 p.m. will feature a panel of community organizers and scholars discussing ±á²¹·É²¹¾±ʻ¾±¡¯²õ labor history. Participants can .
The exhibit will showcase archival collections on labor history from the Center for Labor Education and Research at UH West Oʻahu, UH ²Ñā²Ô´Ç²¹¡¯²õ and the UH law library.
It will also look at whether the contemporary Hawaiian movements to protect lands have the same appeal to broader multi-ethnic communities that the early plantation-based labor movement did.
Organizers Ellen-Rae Cachola, an archives manager, Leslie Lopez, an associate specialist at UH West °¿ʻ²¹³ó³Ü¡¯²õ Center for Labor Education and Research, and Micah Mizukami, associate director of UH ²Ñā²Ô´Ç²¹¡¯²õ Center for Oral History, reflected on the history of the interracial labor strikes during the 1940s and 1950s.
“We discussed how amazing it was for labor organizers to cross significant lines of racial and class division in order to unify to strike for unionization, better wages and working conditions,” said Cachola. “It must have taken a lot of work to build relationships and trust in a society that was organized according to the plantation oligarchic, hierarchical system that classified and divided on race, class and gender.”
To build upon the histories in the exhibit, the webinar will feature scholars and organizers of diverse backgrounds, specializing in Hawaiian politics, ethnic studies, race relations, labor and immigration to speak to contemporary relations between labor and indigenous movements.
“We know that Â鶹´«Ã½ has an illustrious labor history that challenged the oligarchical power structure of Â鶹´«Ã½ during the Territorial era,” added Cachola. “But have there been changes in ±á²¹·É²¹¾±ʻ¾±¡¯²õ socio-economic demographics since the 1950s that created inequalities across our diverse, multi-ethnic societies, challenging the sense of unity that was fostered in the labor strikes of the 1940s-1950s?”
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