Opening Night of LaborFest

Opening Night of of the 11th annual LaborFest, a 26-day festival of labor videos, films and cultural events in San Francisco and the East Bay, starts July 5, 2004 at 7:30 p.m. with the Word Premier of a movie by Haskell Wexler, "From Wharf Rats to The Lord of the Docks" and a performance by Actors Equity members. The film is based on the life of Harry Bridges, a founder of the International Longshoremen and Warehouse Workers (ILWU), and leader of the 1934 general strike, 70 years ago, which is commemorated annually with this labor festival. The cast in this movie includes PEte Seeger and Ed Asner. Actor Ian Ruskin and filmmaker Haskell Wexler are expected to attend this premiere.

This extraordinary cultural event includes videos from around the world, a walking labor tour, a boat labor tour and a bus labor tour of San Francisco, drama, poetry readings, musical gatherings with the Freedom Song Network and the Rockin' Solidarity Labor Chorus, and ends with a ceremony making the old labor temple at the Redstone Building at 2948 16th and Mission a landmark on July 31, 2004 at 7:30 p.m.

For more details, see http://www.laborfest.net