LaborFest was established in 1994 to institutionalize the history and culture of working people in an annual labor, cultural, film, and arts festival. This year, Modern Times is proud to host a number of LaborFest events:

Elizabeth (Betita) Martinez 500 Years of Chicana Women's History
Tuesday, July 10 7:00
A LaborFest Event
Activist and author Elizabeth (Betita) Martinez's newest work uncovers a critical history of the struggle and lives of Latina women workers in the United States. Their strength and perseverance give testimony to their power in the true history of this country.

Richard D. Vogel Stolen Birthright: The U.S. Conquest and Exploitation of the Mexican People
Friday, July 13 7:00
A LaborFest Event
A ghost from the past is haunting America. But this ghost is no hallucination -- it is the emergence of millions of Mexicans and Mexican Americans, descendants of the people who were dispossessed of their land and denied their birthright in the southwestern United States, who are growing in power and hungering for justice.

Jack Rasmus From Us To Them: the Trillion Dollar Income Shift
Wednesday, July 18 7:00
A LaborFest Event
The growing disparity of wealth and real decline in living standards of working people in the US is a story that is generally covered up by the corporate controlled mainstream media. In this book, Rasmus critically looks at the massive and historic shift in income in the US.

Stephen Pitti The Devil in Silicon Valley: Northern California, Race and Mexican Americans
Sunday, July 22 3:00
A LaborFest Event
Celebrate Cuba-Simon Bolivar's Birthday with Stephen Pitti! In his sweeping history, Devil in Silicon Valley, Pitti reveals far more than any label of the moment, the devil of racism has long been Silicon Valley's defining force, and ethnic Mexicans--rather than computer programmers--should take center stage in any contemporary discussion of the "new West."

Ruthie Gilmore Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis and Opposition in Globalizing California
Thursday, July 26 7:00
A LaborFest Event
Gilmore shows the roots of California's drive to build more prisons. Both political parties are now fully engaged in pushing billions more for criminalization of large parts of the population. With more money being spent on prisons than education in California the need to understand this insidious development is vital for the future of our society.