Events

Southern Oregon Jobs with Justice (SOJWJ) will be in the plaza of Downtown Ashland next First Friday to celebrate and promote the labor art of Mary Stone and promote the campaign to build a Wobbly Free Speech Monument.

On Friday, May 6th 2011 in the Ashland Plaza from 5 pm - 9 pm, SOJWJ will present Scott Fife who will be performing authentic Wobbly soapbox speeches.  Professor Jay Mullen will give his lecture "Wobbly Walk Through the Siskiyous" and local singer/songwriter Patrick Dodd will play original labor songs.

The events coincide with a display at MAda Shell Gallery in Ashland of social protest art by former WPA artist Mary Perry Stone.  The exhibit entitled "Mary Perry Stone - Working For a Just World"  features the art work of former WPA and social-protest artist Mary Perry Stone (1909- 2007). The exhibit will also promote the SOJWJ campaign for a Wobbly Free Speech Memorial. Original work by Richard Van Wingerden (1893-1969) a member of the I.W.W. will be auctioned to support the campaign.

“Wobbly” is the nickname for a member of the labor union known as the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).  Founded in 1905, the IWW rose to distinction during the progressive era at the early part of the 20th century.

The Wobbly Free Speech Memorial is a campaign to honor the actions of IWW workers over one hundred years ago. On February 16, 1911, more than a hundred members of the IWW left Portland on freight trains bound for Fresno, California to join in solidarity with striking workers. The group consisted of young working men willing to die for free speech. They risked hostile gunfire and assault by strike breakers. After being kicked out of the box cars in Ashland, nearly a hundred Wobblies made the hazardous trek south by foot through the snow-covered Siskiyous. By the end of their trek they had walked roughly 150 miles across the frozen Siskiyous.

Southern Oregon Jobs with Justice is spearheading a campaign to create a Wobbly Free Speech Monument. It will be placed  along their historic route to commemorate and immortalize these workers’ virtuous trek. 

The Mary Perry Stone exhibit be on display from 5:00 P.M. - 9:00 P.M. on May 6th. Mada Shell is located upstairs on the plaza at 27 1/2 N. Main in Ashland Oregon.

For more information about the Wobbly Memorial Campaign contact Wes Brain at 541-482-6988 or email brain@mind.net

Mary Perry Stone <http://maryperrystone.com/&gt;

Southern Oregon Jobs with Justice <http://www.sojwj.org/home/&gt;

MAda Shell Gallery <http://madashellgallery.wordpress.com/&gt;