CENTRALIA TRAGEDY OF 1919 -- Commemoration
Pacific Northwest Labor History Association, 27.10.2009 23:05
Ross Rieder is a monthly contributor to "Our View" the 15 min. television series offered on Rogue Valley Community Television (wednesdays 6PM ch#15) here in Southern Oregon.
Ross Rieder is President of the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association and editor of "Urban Works" PNLHA on the web: 
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Your Labor History Lesson for today comes from "Urban Works - Oct/Nov 2009"
On November 13 and 14 at Centralia College, there will be a commemoration of the Centralia Tragedy of 1919
A COMMEMMORATION OF THE CENTRALIA TRAGEDY OF 1919
On November 13 and 14 at Centralia College, there will be a commemoration of the Centralia Tragedy of 1919, a major event in labor history in which four Legionnaires and one member of the Industrial Workers of the World lost their lives. Lewis County residents, members of the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association, staff and faculty from Centralia College and The Evergreen State College, and rank-and-file union workers are organizing the commemoration.
The year 2009 is an anniversary year for several significant labor events: the Centralia Tragedy in 1919, the Spokane Free Speech fight in 1909, the Seattle General Strike in 1919, the West Coast Waterfront Strike in 1934, and the World Trade Organization demonstrations in 1999. Commemorations of all these events have been or are being organized in several locations around Washington State.
While it long remained a painful event that community members were reluctant to discuss, this began to change in 1997 with the creation of a mural, “The Resurrection of Wesley Everest,” on the side of a former Elks Lodge. The making of the mural is one of the subjects of Anne Fischel’s documentary film, “Lewis County: Hope and Struggle.” The film also examines the events of 1919 and interviews community residents about economic changes in Lewis County since that time.
“Lewis County: Hope and Struggle” will be screened at Corbet Hall at Centralia Community College on Friday, November 13, at 7:00 p.m. as the kick-off for the commemoration. Also shown will be a trailer for “The Forgotten: Armistice Day 1919,” an upcoming film by Michael Duffy. The screening will be preceded by a music performance from folk legend Mark Ross and followed by a discussion, and is free to the public.
Events continue at 10:00 am on Saturday, November 14, with several workshops and panels that bring relevance to today’s labor and workplace issues. Subjects include jobs in the woods, organizing in retail jobs, the I.W.W. today, excerpts of Ursula Richards-Coppola’s forthcoming feature-length film, “The Ghost of Hangman’s Bridge,” and music of the labor movement. Guests leading the panels include author and historian Sandy Polishuk, Gary Lyle of the United Food and Commercial Workers, Steve Fluke and Bill Street of the International Association of Machinists, Chip Elliott of the Industrial Woodworkers of America, Josh Simpson of Iraq Vets Against The War, musicians Brendan Phillips and Mark Ross, and labor historian Aaron Goings.
The workshops will be held at Washington Hall on the Centralia College campus, followed by a 1:30 p.m. walking tour of historic Centralia Tragedy sites. The day will conclude with a visit to Wesley Everest’s gravesite, located in the pauper’s section of the local cemetery. All events are free to the public and no registration is necessary.
Mark Ross and Brendan Phillips will perform in Olympia at the Alexander Berkman Collective at 8:00 p.m. as a fundraiser for local-area I.W.W. members. For more information contact Brendan Maslauskas Dunn at 
maslauskas84@gmail.com
For more information on the commemoration, contact Peter Kardas, Director of The Evergreen State College Labor Center, at 360-867-6526 or kardasp@evergreen.edu
