An interesting article in Perush: An Online Journal of Jewish Scholarship and Interpretation has an interesting article which includes contributions from The Workmen's Circle! It's called "Socialism, Radicalism, and the Jewish Labor Movement in Los Angeles: History and Historiography" by Caroline Luce (UCLA).

Read it by clicking here.

Workmen's Circle has a rich but almost forgotten history in the labor and cooperative history of Los Angeles!  LA WORCS! The Los Angeles Worker Ownership Resources and Cooperative Services is doing a feasibility study as a first step in creating local cooperative bakeries in Los Angeles once again and would like to acknowledge the long history of cooperation and baking in Los Angeles by putting pictures of the original Cooperative Bakery on the walls of our bakeries.  Please search your personal collections of photos and allow us to copy and preserve any that are depicting any aspect of the Baker's struggle and Cooperative Bakery circa roughly 1926. 

If you do have photos of interest, email Liz Ryder

Join LA WORCS: Los Angeles Worker Ownership Resources and Cooperative Services (MeetUp.com/LAWORCS and WORCS.us)

 

MARCH 16TH AT 7 PM, screening of Shift Change

 

SHIFT CHANGE is a documentary film by veteran award-winning filmmakers Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin. It tells the little known stories of employee owned businesses that compete successfully in today's economy while providing secure, dignified jobs in democratic workplaces.

Equal Exchange workers discuss risk and innovation.

With the long decline in US manufacturing and today's economic crisis, millions have been thrown out of work, and many are losing their homes. The usual economic solutions are not working, so some citizens and public officials are ready to think outside of the box, to reinvent our failing economy in order to restore long term community stability and a more egalitarian way of  life. There is growing interest in firms that are owned and managed by their workers. Such firms tend to be more profitable and innovative, and more committed to the communities where they are based. Yet the public has little knowledge of their success, and the promise they offer for a better life.

 

SHIFT CHANGE encourages support for employee ownership, and provides on-the-ground experience from a variety of enterprises and locations. Screenings have already occurred, and more are being planned, in cities around the world. The film is also expected to be presented on television, as well as in academic, public planning, business and community settings. 

Westside Neighborhood School
5101 Beethoven Street, Los Angeles, CA 90066.

Time to RSVP and make plans to attend the Sholem Community's Passover Seder. The family program will begin at noon at the Westside Neighborhood School. Sholem's secular celebration of Passover acknowledges its roots as a spring festival and honors the powerful tradition of "Exodus," a symbol of freedom. As usual, we'll be reading from the Sholem hagada; we'll feature group singing; and there'll be plenty of opportunities for participation by children.

 

Note: We have some new plans this year. There is no admission fee, but we will be passing a hat to cover our costs. In addition, the Seder meal will be 100% potluck! Please click here to sign up for your potluck contribution and to RSVP.