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Moe FonerMoe Foner
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union. A new way that you've done that in recent years is the Cafe 2000 and 2001. Do you want to talk a little bit about that?

Foner:

I'll talk about that and a few other things. In Cafe 2001 we decided -- it was Esther's idea -- that we would give our talented members who write poetry, who sing, who dance, an opportunity to perform and also get members to come to the thing. So we developed this thing of a cafe. Once a month, people would audition to appear, and a program would be organized. Members would come and members would perform. It became very popular.

The last one we did was on the subject of gospel, and we had 300 people there. The person who's organizing that, who recently came to the staff, who's wonderful, is Bill Johnson. Now, let me say a word about Bill. Bill Johnson was, until he came on our staff, he was cleaning the floors on our floor. He was a porter. I have known him --

Q:

And before that, he worked for Angelica Laundry, I believe.

Foner:

Yes, he was a laundry worker. But I knew him in a strange -- it's a circumstance that's too complicated -- and I knew that he was a --

[END TAPE ONE, SIDE ONE; BEGIN TAPE ONE, SIDE TWO]

Foner:

February 26, 2001, interview with Moe Foner, and you were just telling about Bill Johnson and his involvement with Cafe 2001.

Foner:

For Bill to come on staff was a really wonderful thing for us. He is very, very smart and a very hard worker, and he knows the members and he relates to members very well. He acts as the emcee at the cafe, and he's been a tremendous asset to us.

Other things that I wanted to talk to you about and mention in passing, is that another project we're working on now is a project with the [Shelly &] Donald Rubin Foundation. We are launching a labor arts website that will honor the artistic contributions of working people on the labor movement in the past and to anticipate the support of artistic expressions of labor that will emerge in the future. In other words, we are collecting now banners, buttons, pens, posters, music on labor history, from unions going back a long time. All of this stuff will be collected and put up on the website, which will be available to unions, scholars, workers, etc., to tell about the glorious past of the labor movement.

Q:

When you say “we,” who is involved in this project?





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