The North American Labor History Conference (NALHC) has been on hiatus since the 2020 pandemic, but we are coming back this year amid a presidential election campaign to consider questions about the relationship between work and democracy. The year 2024 comes at a crucial juncture for workers and labor organizations in the United States and throughout the world. We have been celebrating anniversaries of democratic movements globally; these movements fight for empowerment and political rights, causes that are embraced by many working-class radicals and labor organizers, both men and women. The rise of nationalist and other authoritarian movements threatens political and economic rights in the United States and internationally.

The working classes, people of color, ethnic minorities, women, and LGBTQ+ people are organizing against voting restrictions while struggling against apathy and fear. As labor scholars, historians, activists, archivists, and union members, we meet to consider the relationship and role of workers, labor unions, and worker organizations in democratic societies, and we discuss the importance of democratic governance in local, institutional, national, and global contexts. Your participation in this conference is an important contribution to that discussion.

Panels at this year’s NALHC will be held in either the historic Reuther Library or the Student Center. A historical exhibit down Reuther Mall on campus will show the way between buildings. Registration is free for all Wayne State students. Students who register for one day are automatically registered for each day of the conference.

CONFERENCE EVENTS, DAY THREE:

SEVENTH PANEL SESSION: 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM
PANEL 7A: The Gendered Politics of Labor
PANEL 7B: Labor Struggle and Anti-Colonial Resistance
PANEL 7C: Democracy at Work: The Civic Impact of the Drug War on Workers

EIGHTH PANEL SESSION: 10:45 AM – 12:15 PM
PANEL 8A: Work and Wellness: Causes and Solutions to Health
PANEL 8B: Rewriting the 1930s: Labor Politics, Law, and State Responses to Workers’ Power
PANEL 8C: Labor, Race, and Ethnic Politics

LUNCH BREAK AND THIRD PLENARY SESSION: 12:15 PM – 2:00 PM
Mark Gaffney, Board of Governors, Wayne State University, Welcome and Introduction
Panel Discussion: Organized to Win: Why Labor Organizing and Education Are Changing
Student Center, Hilberry D
Panelists: Barbara Madeloni, Labor Notes; Erica Smiley, Jobs with Justice; Todd Wolfson, AAUP-AFT, Rutgers University; Ethan Earle, Organizing for Power (O4P)