Council members Nicolas O’Rourke and Kendra Brooks led City Council in passing a resolution honoring Ben Fletcher — the Philly born Black labor leader who shut down the city’s port on this day in 1913 and built one of the most successful multiracial unions in US history.
The Philly Black Worker Project and our partners testified in support. And we made it clear: A resolution is a sign of respect, but it’s not the finish line. The temp workers leading the #AllDueRespect campaign — disproportionately Black, disproportionately justice-impacted — are still fighting the same exclusions Fletcher faced a century ago.
We will be back at City Hall to win what we deserve. For now check out our members reflect on Fletcher’s legacy 👏🏾👏🏾
I was glad to join @phillyblackworkers and @kendraphlcouncil in honoring Ben Fletcher, the Black radical unionist who organized on Philly’s docks 113 years ago — leading a strike that won better wages and the right for Black, Irish, and immigrant workers to organize into a union.
A member of the Industrial Workers of the World, Fletcher reminds me to stay aspirational in pursuit of power for Black workers by being grounded in everyday struggles.
So excited to be part of the PBWP’s All Due Respect campaign! 💪🏾🔥
On May 14, 1913, Ben Fletcher and more than 4,000 Philadelphian shipyard and dock workers shut down one of the busiest ports in the country. During their two-week strike, they joined the Industrial Workers of the World, forming the Local 8 chapter of IWW, which became one of the most successful and durable examples of multiracial, multiethnic labor organizing in US history. Philly’s City Council is finally putting his name in the record 📜
This Thursday, City Council will present @phillyblackworkers with a resolution celebrating Ben Fletcher and the tradition of Philly’s Black-led movements for worker power ✊🌹
We’re definitely showing up, and we hope you will too!
📅 Thursday, May 14
📍 NE corner of City Hall
⏰ 8:30am
Congrats to our policy intern @siarra.kima for her graduation and completion of her Masters degree in communication & social change!! Show some love! We’re so proud of you, Siarra 🎊🥳🔥
Join Us at our Toward Liberation Gathering on Thursday, June 18th at 1pm 🤲🏾✊🏾
As economic instability deepens across the country, Black workers are once again facing the sharpest impacts - disproportionate job loss, wage stagnation, and growing economic precarity driven by structural racism and long-standing policy failure.
Toward Liberation: Building a Black Agenda During Economic Crisis is a timely gathering that brings together organizers and policy experts to respond to this moment with urgency and strategy. Through panels and facilitated discussions, participants will explore the organizing strategies and policy interventions needed to build local power, strengthen worker leadership, and advance a transformative economic agenda.
The event will be followed by a happy hour with soul food bites and a DJ to bring us into Juneteenth.
Where: Friends Center, 1501 Cherry St. Philly, PA
When: Thursday, June 18th, 1-6:30pm
RSVP @ Link in Bio 🔗🔗
Next week, Movie Mondays is back! 🎬🔥
On Monday, May 11, join cinéSPEAK x @TwoLocals Brewing Company, alongside @PhillyBlackWorkers , for Sorry to Bother You - @BootsRiley ‘s bold, genre-bending satire about labor, capitalism, and survival in an alternate Oakland. If you have never seen it with a crowd, this is your moment.
🎥 Program runs 6–8:30 PM — welcome conversation hosted by @PhillyBlackWorkers
🍹 Happy Hour 5–7 PM
🍿 Free popcorn
🥡 BYO dinner
Free to attend and donations encouraged to keep this series going.
Secure your spot - tickets in the link in bio! 🎟️
Happy May Day ✊🏾 Today we honor the power of Black workers to build a more beautiful and liberatory future. Rooted in struggle and collective action, today reminds us that our labor has always built the world — and that we have the power to remake it.
May Day calls us to organize, to resist, and to imagine beyond what is, toward a future where Black workers are respected and free! Let’s get free ✊🏾✊🏾
No ICE. No war. We must love and protect each other! On International Workers Day, this Friday, May 1, GGJ members are mobilizing across the country to demand:
🚨 No work, no school, and no shopping! 🚨
We will flex our collective power as communities fight back against authoritarian repression, ICE attacks, senseless wars, and billionaires swindling our public resources.
Hundreds of thousands of workers, students, and every day people will march, rally, train, walk out, and take action to demand:
📣 No ICE. No war. 📣 No private army serving authoritarian power.
💰Tax the rich. 💰 Everyone needs to pay their fair share.
🗳 Expand democracy. 🗳 Hands off our vote.
💜 A People’s Care Agenda. 💜 An economy that supports working families instead of an economy rooted in violence and death.
Find your local action at: maydaystrong.org
#MayDay #Primerodemayo
A fearless Black organizer. A powerful voice. A Philly organizer.
On May 14, we honor Ben Fletcher - a founding force of IWW Local 8 - whose leadership helped unite over 4,000 longshore workers in 1913 to shut down one of the busiest ports in the country. Rooted in the belief that “an injury to one is an injury to all,” his legacy lives on in the ongoing fight for dignity, respect, and justice at work.
📍 NE corner of City Hall 🗓 Thursday, May 14 ⏰ 8:30 AM
City Council will honor Fletcher’s legacy and the power of worker organizing.
Pull up. Bring your people. Keep building.
Another Advocacy Day Down ✅ Head over to the link in our bio to sign the All Due Respect Campaign petition and stand alongside Black Workers in our fight for dignity and respect at work 🔗🖇️
Movie Mondays is back! 🎬🍻
Join cinéSPEAK x @TwoLocals Brewing Company and @PhillyBlackWorkers on Monday, May 11 for Sorry to Bother You, the wildly inventive cult hit from @BootsRiley . We are centering workers and labor organizing this month with a film that is sharp, surreal, and still too real.
🎥 Program runs 6–8:30 PM — pre-screening conversation hosted by @PhillyBlackWorkers
🍹 Happy Hour 5–7 PM
🍿 Free popcorn
🥡 BYO dinner
Free to attend! Donations encouraged to support film licensing and local artist-organizer honoraria.
Grab your ticket - link in bio. 🎟️
