Art Exhibit to Prompt Conversations About Solidarity Between Workers and Farmers
From its founding in the 1920s through its political dominance in the 1930s and its merger with the Democratic Party in 1944, the Farmer-Labor movement united Minnesota workers, farmers, and the unemployed, building solidarity across regional, political, and racial/ethnic divides. Combining electoral politics, year-round organizing, and political education toward a vision of a “Cooperative Commonwealth,” this movement created a model for progressive change that continues to be relevant today.
Lost to history by political repression and the Cold War ideology of the 1950s, in the 1970s the Farmer-Labor tradition was rediscovered by a group of labor activists and educators who formed the Farmer-Labor Education Committee (FLEC), as a non-profit organization with a mission to educate members of the public about the history and continued relevance of the state’s progressive Farmer-Labor tradition. Much like the movement they study and whose story they tell, FLEC's members are diverse and multi-generational, with rural and urban roots. In 2022, FLEC produced The Farmer-Labor Movement: A Minnesota Story, a feature-length documentary directed by Randy Croce about the history of the movement. The film has been screened widely around the state and on public television, and it has prompted passionate conversations. There has been particular interest in the film's contention that the Farmer Labor Party is best understood as part of a broader social movement which included co-operatives, educational institutions, newspapers and libraries, and cultural groups.
Now, FLEC has launched a new project, centered on art and artists. FLEC's activists write: "Today, as much as ever, our desire to rekindle the solidarity of the Farmer-Labor movement is profound. In honor of the 100th anniversary of the Farmer-Labor Party and the remarkable movement of solidarity that supported it, FLEC, with financial support from Monument Lab’s Re-Generation initiative, commissioned public artist and teacher, Gita Ghei (www.stareyeart.com) to create a permanent traveling art exhibit, commemorating the Farmer-Labor movement in Minnesota. FLEC, Gita, and her team of artists have been working on the concept over much of last year and participating in a community engagement process that connects with the history and with Minnesotans throughout the state. " Their work has been informed by their participation in community discussions following screenings of "The Farmer-Labor Movement," and their goals to promote further conversations not only between rural and urban residents, workers and farmers, and members of different generations, but also between the past and the present.
FLEC members write: "By engaging Minnesota communities in processes of both remembering and visioning, “You Betcha” is a project of hope in challenging times. Over the past decade, we have witnessed the resurgence of fascism and ultra-conservative organizing extending across the state in rural, urban, and suburban settings. At the same time, a divisive and reductive characterization of state political divisions has emerged, framing the Twin Cities as a progressive haven pitted against a white, conservative, and “backwards” rural monolith. “You Betcha” uses history as a way to trouble those narratives and engage Minnesotans in dialogue that might both build and unearth solidarity across differences."
"You Betcha" will make its first public appearance on Thursday, February 20, 6:30-8:30pm, at the East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier Street, St. Paul. Artists and FLEC members will be present to engage audience members in conversation. Before heading out to tour other towns and cities, "You Betcha" will be on display at ESFL until May 4. All are welcome to join in this conversation between the past and the present, and in the imagination of a better future.
Peter Rachleff
Co-Executive Director Emeritus, East Side Freedom Library
I admit my thinking on Farmer/Labor needs more input. And I think in the 20’s farmers were individual, rather than the small businesses most of them have become. I can see a coalition, but not an alliance as I see the probability of interests diverging. I think farming cooperatives are a different animal than farmers. Open to being more educated on this and will see the film when available.
Democratic Party leadership speaks to those who doubt the human capacity for working together to achieve a peaceful sharing of resources, and instead grasp onto a fictional future where they and their children, as members of the elite, won't have to adapt their lifestyle to global climate change, environmental degradation, or the world's shrinking resource base. They fail to see that after sacrificing democracy and human rights, they and their children will also find themselves divested of their material wealth and their existence superfluous to the Mammon of the high tech economy.
The reasons to work for programs that will support workers, not just those whose income is from stocks, is about to happen: the Greatest Recession. There was a reason that Democrats held sway after the Recession of the 1920s.
Democrats failed to stop funding the genocide in order to force cease fire, they failed to hold Trump accountable and some of the insurrectionist even got promoted, the minimum wage didn’t help cover the inflation, nor the inflated cost of housing, so we still have a large unhoused population. Biden showed a lot of weakness dealing with foreign affairs and domestic.
The working class have been disgruntled for decades now.
Under fascism things will only get worse.
America needs a functioning third party, so that people aren’t forced to pick between the two lesser evil.
Honestly, I have tried, but I cannot, for the life of me, understand how, or why any intelligent enquiring mind would give Farreed Zakaria the time of day….
Art Exhibit to Prompt Conversations About Solidarity Between Workers and Farmers
From its founding in the 1920s through its political dominance in the 1930s and its merger with the Democratic Party in 1944, the Farmer-Labor movement united Minnesota workers, farmers, and the unemployed, building solidarity across regional, political, and racial/ethnic divides. Combining electoral politics, year-round organizing, and political education toward a vision of a “Cooperative Commonwealth,” this movement created a model for progressive change that continues to be relevant today.
Lost to history by political repression and the Cold War ideology of the 1950s, in the 1970s the Farmer-Labor tradition was rediscovered by a group of labor activists and educators who formed the Farmer-Labor Education Committee (FLEC), as a non-profit organization with a mission to educate members of the public about the history and continued relevance of the state’s progressive Farmer-Labor tradition. Much like the movement they study and whose story they tell, FLEC's members are diverse and multi-generational, with rural and urban roots. In 2022, FLEC produced The Farmer-Labor Movement: A Minnesota Story, a feature-length documentary directed by Randy Croce about the history of the movement. The film has been screened widely around the state and on public television, and it has prompted passionate conversations. There has been particular interest in the film's contention that the Farmer Labor Party is best understood as part of a broader social movement which included co-operatives, educational institutions, newspapers and libraries, and cultural groups.
Now, FLEC has launched a new project, centered on art and artists. FLEC's activists write: "Today, as much as ever, our desire to rekindle the solidarity of the Farmer-Labor movement is profound. In honor of the 100th anniversary of the Farmer-Labor Party and the remarkable movement of solidarity that supported it, FLEC, with financial support from Monument Lab’s Re-Generation initiative, commissioned public artist and teacher, Gita Ghei (www.stareyeart.com) to create a permanent traveling art exhibit, commemorating the Farmer-Labor movement in Minnesota. FLEC, Gita, and her team of artists have been working on the concept over much of last year and participating in a community engagement process that connects with the history and with Minnesotans throughout the state. " Their work has been informed by their participation in community discussions following screenings of "The Farmer-Labor Movement," and their goals to promote further conversations not only between rural and urban residents, workers and farmers, and members of different generations, but also between the past and the present.
FLEC members write: "By engaging Minnesota communities in processes of both remembering and visioning, “You Betcha” is a project of hope in challenging times. Over the past decade, we have witnessed the resurgence of fascism and ultra-conservative organizing extending across the state in rural, urban, and suburban settings. At the same time, a divisive and reductive characterization of state political divisions has emerged, framing the Twin Cities as a progressive haven pitted against a white, conservative, and “backwards” rural monolith. “You Betcha” uses history as a way to trouble those narratives and engage Minnesotans in dialogue that might both build and unearth solidarity across differences."
"You Betcha" will make its first public appearance on Thursday, February 20, 6:30-8:30pm, at the East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier Street, St. Paul. Artists and FLEC members will be present to engage audience members in conversation. Before heading out to tour other towns and cities, "You Betcha" will be on display at ESFL until May 4. All are welcome to join in this conversation between the past and the present, and in the imagination of a better future.
Peter Rachleff
Co-Executive Director Emeritus, East Side Freedom Library
https://eastsidefreedomlibrary.org/event/exhibit-opening-you-betcha-farmer-labor-solidarity-is-possible-art-and-history/
I admit my thinking on Farmer/Labor needs more input. And I think in the 20’s farmers were individual, rather than the small businesses most of them have become. I can see a coalition, but not an alliance as I see the probability of interests diverging. I think farming cooperatives are a different animal than farmers. Open to being more educated on this and will see the film when available.
video: https://youtu.be/0jZi1BvK3-A?si=zhxcxDA2zE5PHkiL
So great to see these quotes paired, Les.
Democratic Party leadership speaks to those who doubt the human capacity for working together to achieve a peaceful sharing of resources, and instead grasp onto a fictional future where they and their children, as members of the elite, won't have to adapt their lifestyle to global climate change, environmental degradation, or the world's shrinking resource base. They fail to see that after sacrificing democracy and human rights, they and their children will also find themselves divested of their material wealth and their existence superfluous to the Mammon of the high tech economy.
The reasons to work for programs that will support workers, not just those whose income is from stocks, is about to happen: the Greatest Recession. There was a reason that Democrats held sway after the Recession of the 1920s.
Democrats failed to stop funding the genocide in order to force cease fire, they failed to hold Trump accountable and some of the insurrectionist even got promoted, the minimum wage didn’t help cover the inflation, nor the inflated cost of housing, so we still have a large unhoused population. Biden showed a lot of weakness dealing with foreign affairs and domestic.
The working class have been disgruntled for decades now.
Under fascism things will only get worse.
America needs a functioning third party, so that people aren’t forced to pick between the two lesser evil.
Honestly, I have tried, but I cannot, for the life of me, understand how, or why any intelligent enquiring mind would give Farreed Zakaria the time of day….
Good point, but I couldn't let his Washington Post piece go unchallenged.
Of course not! That’s why I snort rather ungracefully, while you pen a brilliant essay!