News 2023: Conference on intersection of race and labor to bring national experts to campus

"Waging Liberation: Dynamics of Race & Labor" will feature discussions and presentations by scholars and activists

Waging Liberation: Dynamics of Race & Labor

On Thursday, November 16, from 9am to 5pm, UMass Dartmouth is bringing together local and national racial justice leaders and labor organizers for "Waging Liberation: The Dynamics of Race & Labor," a day of dialogue around race, labor, and the politics of liberation.

Topics and speakers

The conference will explore the intersectional racial and economic justice struggles through keynote addresses, panel discussions, and interactive workshops with prominent scholars and activists. The keynote presentation, "Is It 'Race' Or 'Class'? How U.S. History Has Confounded Organized Labor," will be delivered by Bill Fletcher, Jr., a national expert on Workers' Rights and Racial Justice. Fletcher has worked for several labor unions, served as a senior staff person in the national AFL-CIO, and written several books on race and labor.

Panels of experts will discuss topics including "The Impact of Policies on Racial Health Disparities: In Search of an Inclusive Approach at the Intersection of Workers' Rights and Health" and "Legal Barriers to Racial and Economic Justice Then and Now."

Waging Liberation: The Dynamics of Race & Labor conference program

Register for the conference

RSVP to the Waging Liberation: Dynamics of Race & Labor conference.
This event is free and open to the public.

The conference will occur in the Marketplace on UMass Dartmouth's main campus at 285 Old Westport Road, Dartmouth. Attendees should park in Lots 5 or 6.

Co-sponsors

The Waging Liberation: The Dynamics of Race and Labor Conference is the combined efforts of the Frederick Douglass Unity House, The Labor Ed Center, the Center for Women, Gender, and Sexuality, Black Studies, the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and the New Bedford Chapter of the NAACP. The Conference is being supported by the UMass Dartmouth Crime and Justice, History, English Departments, the College of Visual and Performing Arts, and the UMass Dartmouth Faculty Federation, AFT Local 1895, AFL-CIO.

After the conference

The conference will be followed by the 48th Annual Arnold M. Dubin Labor Education Center Awards ceremony at 6:30pm in the Marketplace. The keynote speaker and recipient of the Arnold M. Dubin Award will be Reverend Dr. William Joseph Barber II, who is the Founding Director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School. The Richard M. Fontera Award will be presented to Lisa Jochim, Director of the Workers' Education Program since 1988. The event will also honor Steven A. Tolman, recent past president of the MA AFL-CIO since 2011 and University of Massachusetts Trustee.

RSVP for the 48th Annual Arnold M. Dubin Labor Education Center Awards.