Community College Labor Studies offer courses for Democratic Socialists
Labor Studies classes are smaller than similar classes in universities with more access to instructors and real word relevance due to experienced union practitioners doing the teaching. (photo by Fred Glass)
The California community college system is one of the great jewels of working class power in the state. For very little money, and in some locations free, the multiracial working class gets to take courses leading to improved skills, an occupation, or a degree that in the four-year university world would cost thousands of dollars a semester.
The transformation of what used to be a motley system of agricultural schools and junior colleges focused on associate degrees into a multidimensional, accessible institution of higher learning came about through the advocacy of the labor movement at its peak in the late 1950s and early 1960s. And within that effort, in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, the labor movement also created small but feisty programs to teach the specific skills and knowledge important to defending and advancing worker rights—labor studies departments.
Spring Semester is enrolling now
The largest program, offered at Los Angeles Trade Tech, offers nine in person classes in the spring semester: US Labor History; Labor and Political Action; The Working Class and Cinema (two sections); Organizing for Political Action; Union Leadership Skills; Workers’ Legal Rights; Issues in Labor Arbitration; and Workers’ Compensation. Five courses are offered on line. For more information, go here, or contact Kathleen Yasuda, department chair.
In City College San Francisco, spring semester features four classes: California Labor History (in person at the Mission Campus), Who Built America? (online), Organizing for Economic Justice (online), and Labor Relations in the Modern American Workplace (in person, Mission Campus). For more information, go here, or contact James Tracy, department chair.
San Diego City College offers a dynamic course in Labor and Community Organizing: Labor Studies 107 (Tuesday nights 6-9:10pm in AH 419) taught by two longtime labor organizers and activists, Satomi Rash-Zeigler and Cheryl Coney. The class offers a hands-on curriculum designed to help students learn about the labor movement, current organizing efforts, and how to organize students' own community or labor campaigns. The instructors frequently bring in guest speakers to provide windows into the sorts of actions happening all over San Diego. For more information, go here, or contact Kelly Mayhew, City College Labor Studies Coordinator.
The instructors in these programs are all practitioners, drawn from the local labor movement, with years of experience. But one of the best things about these courses is getting to meet your fellow students, many of whom are rank and file activists and leaders in unions. Make connections and organize!