Solidarity Gift Ideas for the Holidays

It's the holiday gift season again and if you are at a loss about what to buy your favorite union activist, I've got some suggestions. And if you are a union activist, maybe you've been scratching your head trying to come up with a union-themed gift for your son, daughter, niece or nephew. Or maybe, you want to avoid that awkward moment, when you open a gift and have to feign joy on receiving a sweat-shop gift. In that case, here's a list you can pass on to family and friends.

1. A coffee table book--Agitate! Educate! Organize! American Labor Posters by Lincoln Cushing and Timothy W. Drescher. $24.95, Cornell University Press, 2009. [For more book ideas, check out the unionized on-line Powell's Books or Union Communication Services' Online Book Catalog.]

2. A magazine subscription--The American Prospect or In These Times. There are lots of liberal/progressive magazines out there, but these are two of the finest and give more extensive coverage to labor and working life issues than most.

3. A gift membership in the Union Sportsmen's Alliance. The USA is a one-of-a-kind, hunting and fishing association of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) and its trade union partners, exclusively for conservation-minded union members, retirees and their families that hunt, fish and appreciate the outdoors.

4. A labor history DVD--Rosemary Feuer amd Laura Vazquez's documentary on Mother Jones. It's just $10 plus $3 for shipping. At 24 minutes it is perfect for showing at union meetings or classrooms. And, as a bonus, there's a Spanish version. For more ideas, check out the DVD section at Labor Heritage. You can't go wrong with the classic The Inheritance or the made-for-HBO drama Ten Thousand Black Men Named George, the inspiring story of A. Philip Randolph and the formation of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

5. An intellectual journal --New Labor Forum or Working USA, Dissent or New Politics. The first two are more labor-specific, the latter two have a broader agenda. Working USA and Dissent are quarterlies, New Labor Forum appears three times a year and New Politics twice. Looking for something not quite so heavy that comes out a little more often? Try Labor Notes (monthly) or Dollars and Sense (six times a year).

6. A CD--Smithsonian Folkways has many fine CDs of labor songs, we especially like Joe Glaser's I Will Win! Songs of the IWW, which includes a 1960 speech by "Solidarity Forever" composer Ralph Chaplin to a woodworkers convention and My Darling Party Line. Labor Heritage has an extensive selection that can be ordered on-line.

7. For your favorite clergy person who is vaguely pro-union, how about Blue Collar Jesus or make a contribution to Interfaith Worker Justice and sign them up for the quarterly Faith Works newsletter.

8. A calendar. A century ago, the IWW with its advocacy of industrial unionism, was a rival to the business unionism of the American Federation of Labor. Today, it isn't what it used to be, but it still produces an attractive labor history calendar every year. They are only $12.50 and $6.50 each for 5 or more.

9. A union-made hoodie from the AFL-CIO's Union Shop. I could have just listed the Union Shop as your one-stop solidarity gift headquarters, you'll find all sorts union gifts you can buy here--books, CDs, DVDs, things for kids, and lots more.