http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=22886723581 [1]

Event Info
Host: Workers International League
Type: Party - Barbecue
Location: Sons of Rest Pavilion in Tower Grove Park
Street: 4256 Magnolia Avenue
City/Town: Saint Louis, MO

Contact Info
Phone: 13144352493
Email: jl@newyouth.com [2]

Do you know the origins of Fair St. Louis? Everyone has heard of the fair,
but few remember that it was originally established as the "Veiled Prophet"
Parade, a celebration of the crushing of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877,
known also as the "Reign of the Rabble" and the "St. Louis Commune".

What began as a national railway strike spread westwards, and when it
reached St. Louis the strike was joined by workers in other industries to
become the first city-wide General Strike in American history. The strike
cut across all racial and ethnic lines, uniting Black workers and white,
immigrant and native-born. Although it lasted just a few days, the strike
showed Labor's huge potential power. St. Louis today remains a strong Labor
city, which is due to the rich heritage of the struggles of the past. But
this rich history is largely forgotten today, and all that is left is the
Fair.

We need a Labor & working people's alternative to the bosses Fair, an
event that can be a celebration of our rich Labor history, heritage and
traditions and also be a platform to highlight the issues important to us
today: the economy, the right to join a union, health care for all, jobs for
all, education, ending the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, fighting racism, protecting the
environment, and the struggle of immigrant workers for equal rights and
wages.

Last year on the 130th anniversary of the strike, a commemoration event was
held in Tower Grove Park, "1877: When the River City Was Red," which
featured Rose Feurer (author of *Radical Unionism in the Midwest*), live
music, food and lively discussion of labor's history and also on the
situation facing working people today. Many of those who attended said that
the 1877 commemoration should be an annual event, so we're taking that
suggestion up and reaching out to organize a commemoration event for 2008.

We hope to make this an annual event that can draw together the local Labor
Movement, progressive organizations and campaigns, working people of all
backgrounds and youth. We also hope to get people involved from other parts
of the country - the strike we're commemorating was a national strike.