The Industrial Workers of the World presents Kim Kelly, author of Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor, in conversation with Peter Cole, professor of history at Western Illinois University, on Monday, May 16 at 8 PM Eastern. Moderated by Maxim Baru, communications officer of the IWW.
RSVP for the event and order your copy of Fight Like Hell from the IWW Store.
About Fight Like Hell
Fight Like Hell is a definitive history of the US labor movement and the people who risked everything to win necessities, like fair wages and access to employment, a safe workplace, disability and discrimination protections, and the eight-hour workday. Here, figures like “first lady of the coal mines” Ida Mae Stull, Latinx farmworkers’ heroine Maria Moreno, queer Black civil rights icon Bayard Rustin, pioneering sex worker’s rights activist Margo St. James, Ford whistleblower Suzette Wright and the indomitable Mother Jones get their due. Kim Kelly’s publishing debut is both an inspiring read and a vital contribution to history, offering a transportive look at the forgotten heroes who’ve sacrificed to make good on the United States’ promises.
About Kim Kelly
Kim Kelly is an independent journalist, author and organizer based in Philadelphia. She has been a labor columnist for Teen Vogue since 2018, and her writing on labor, class, politics and culture has appeared in The New Republic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Baffler, The Nation, Columbia Journalism Review and Esquire. She has also worked as a video correspondent for More Perfect Union, The Real News Network and Means TV. Previously, she was the heavy metal editor at Vice’s Noisey and a leader in the Vice Union. She is a member of the Industrial Workers of the World’s Freelance Journalists Union and an elected councilperson for the Writers Guild of America, East.
About Peter Cole
Peter Cole is a professor of history at Western Illinois University. Cole is the author of the award-winning Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area and Wobblies on the Waterfront: Interracial Unionism in Progressive-Era Philadelphia. He co-edited Wobblies of the World: A Global History of the IWW and, most recently, edited Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly. He also is the founder and co-director of the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project.
About the Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is a labor union representing nearly 9,000 workers across North America. Established in 1905, the IWW is known for its high standards of democracy, transparency and multinationalism, as well as active use of the right to strike.
About Maxim Baru
Maxim Baru is communications officer of the Industrial Workers of the World. Formerly head of labor organizing at Efling, Iceland’s second-largest union, Baru specializes in labor issues and organization pertaining to essential workers.
RSVP for IWW Presents Fight Like Hell: Kim Kelly Q&A with Peter Cole.