Shopping Bag
My Account
While on the picket line during ILWU Local 5’s first contract campaign, a tired Powell’s Books employee started a chant to lift the spirits of his fellow workers: “We like to party, but the fight comes first.”
Now, after ten years, ILWU Local 5 (whose membership is comprised of workers at Powell’s Books and Aramark) is happy to announce an opportunity to party and support the fight.
On Friday, August 27, 2010, Local 5 is celebrating its ten-year anniversary with the “Rock Out to Walk Out” benefit event at The Cleaners at the Ace Hotel in downtown Portland. With the next round of contract negotiations coming up in 2011, the goal of the benefit is to raise money for the union’s strike fund, which ensures that workers are not left destitute should a strike occur.
This benefit concert will also be the CD release party for Local 5′s compilation, The Little Red Album, Vol. 1. This compilation features new music by Powell’s employees, with lyrics taken from the IWW’s Little Red Songbook. The musicians have revitalized and reworked some classic union protest-songs to bring the struggles of organized labor to a modern audience. The compilation spans musical genres, from Afrobeat Indie Rock to Cascadian Black Metal, interweaving labor’s tale through eleven songs.
The benefit will also celebrate the release of a special issue of Portland’s only misfit-driven literary magazine, The Ne’er-Do-Well. This issue casts a fresh light on the absurdity, banality, and redemption of contemporary working-class life, and includes brand-new stories and essays from favorite local authors, including Willy Vlautin (Lean on Pete), Kevin Sampsell (A Common Pornography), Suzanne Burns (Misfits and Other Heroes), Gigi Little (Portland Noir), Chris A. Bolton (Smash!), and others.
Details:
What: ILWU Local 5’s Rock Out to Walk Out
Where: The Cleaners at the Ace Hotel (SW 10th and Stark)
When: Friday, August 27, 2010, 5pm-2am
Admission: Sliding scale, $5-to-$5 billion
Sustenance: Beer, wine, water, and pop, plus two Greek-inspired plates.
Entertainment: Happy hour from 5 to 7pm, with music from the Bop Out to Walk Out jazz quartet and readings from The Ne’er-Do-Well (Kevin Sampsell, Sheila Ashdown, and Suzanne Burns). From 7pm to 2am, live music from General Strike, Nate Ashley and the Landlines, ¡Ay, Claudia!, Michael Ford, The Middle Ages, Shaky Hands, and DJ Anjali & The Incredible Kid.
About ILWU Local 5:
ILWU Local 5 was created in August 2000 by workers at Powell’s Books, Inc. who recognized bookselling as a real job that deserved real wages and benefits. Tired of working 40 hours a week and living in poverty full-time, they got together to demand better from Portland’s darling independent bookstore. Through hard negotiates marked with rallies, marches, and strikes, the workers persevered. Now, ten years of struggle later, Powell’s remains the wonderful institution it is and the workers have emerged with more equitable wages and benefits, as well as the protections only a union contract can offer. ILWU Local 5 is looking forward to another ten years of progress with Powell’s, sharing the business’s success with the workers who make it what it is.
