Peter Rachleff: ‘You Betcha’ art exhibit explores solidarity between MN workers, farmers

February 5, 2025 by

Sculptures by Gita Ghei will be on display at the East Side Freedom Library this spring.

From its founding in the 1920s through its political dominance in the 1930s and its merger with the Democratic Party in 1944, the Farmer-Labor movement united Minnesota workers, farmers and the unemployed, building solidarity across regional, political and racial or ethnic divides. Combining electoral politics, year-round organizing and political education toward a vision of a “cooperative commonwealth,” this movement created a model for progressive change still relevant today.

Lost to history by political repression and the Cold War ideology of the 1950s, the Farmer-Labor tradition was rediscovered by a group of labor activists and educators in the 1970s. They formed the Farmer-Labor Education Committee (FLEC),  a non-profit organization with a mission to educate members of the public about the history and continued relevance of the progressive Farmer-Labor tradition. Like the movement they study, FLEC’s members are diverse and multi-generational, with rural and urban roots.

In 2022, FLEC produced “The Farmer-Labor Movement: A Minnesota Story,” a documentary about the history of the movement that has screened widely and prompted passionate conversations. There has been particular interest in the film’s contention that the Farmer Labor Party is best understood as part of a broader social movement that included co-operatives, educational institutions, newspapers and libraries, and cultural groups.

Now, FLEC has launched a new project, centered on art and artists.  FLEC’s activists write: “Today, as much as ever, our desire to rekindle the solidarity of the Farmer-Labor movement is profound. In honor of the 100th anniversary of the Farmer-Labor Party and the remarkable movement of solidarity that supported it, FLEC, with financial support from  Monument Lab’s Re-Generation initiative, commissioned public artist and teacher Gita Ghei to create a permanent traveling art exhibit commemorating the movement. FLEC and her team of artists have been working on the concept over much of last year and participating in a community engagement process that connects with the history and with Minnesotans throughout the state.”

Their work has been informed by their participation in community discussions following screenings of “The Farmer-Labor Movement.” Their goal is to promote further conversations not only between rural and urban residents, and members of different generations, but also between the past and present.

FLEC envisions the new exhibit, “You Betcha,” as a project of hope in challenging times. “Over the past decade, we have witnessed the resurgence of fascism and ultra-conservative organizing extending across the state,” they write. “At the same time, a divisive and reductive characterization of state political divisions has emerged, framing the Twin Cities as a progressive haven pitted against a white, conservative, and ‘backwards’ rural  monolith. ‘You Betcha’ uses history as a way to trouble those narratives and engage … in dialogue that might both build and unearth solidarity across differences.”

“You Betcha” will make its first public appearance Feb. 20, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., at the East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier Street, St. Paul. Artists and FLEC members will be present to engage audience members in conversation. The exhibit will be on display at ESFL until May 4.  All are welcome to join in this conversation between past and present.

– Peter Rachleff is co-executive director emeritus of the East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul.

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Teachers look beyond ‘cookie-cutter’ signs and banners with community art build

November 8, 2017 by

A flier for the community art build shows some of the artist-submitted designs volunteers will screen print this weekend.

Teachers in St. Paul are throwing out the playbook in contract negotiations with the district this year.

Banners, signs and posters in the union’s storage closet are on the way out, too.

Educators, parents, students and community stakeholders will work together on new, artist-designed signs and banners this weekend at a “community art build” co-hosted by the St. Paul Federation of Teachers and its sister local in Minneapolis. Organizers hope the event will provide momentum – and unique visuals – for contract campaigns on both sides of the Mississippi.

The public is welcome to participate in the art build, which will take place Friday afternoon through Sunday at the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers’ offices, 67 Eighth Ave. NE, Minneapolis. (View the event page on Facebook to learn more or sign up for a shift.)

Shortly after the school year began, SPFT and MFT put out a call to local artists seeking designs that would evoke support for public education. A committee of educators selected a handful of submissions, which volunteers this weekend will screen print onto signs and paint on large banners – and even a parachute, for those looking down on a rally from above.

Sam Yelk, an art teacher at Linwood Monroe Arts Plus school in St. Paul, served on the committee. He said the submissions, particularly from student artists, left him “impressed and pleasantly surprised.”

“In a class of 28 sixth-graders, there might be 28 different ideas,” Yelk said. “Any time I’ve given an assignment to students, whatever the level, they always come back with such powerful imagery and ideas. It’s a breath of fresh air.”

Such creativity is in keeping with the spirit of SPFT’s groundbreaking contract campaign.

Rather than focusing on wages, benefits and work rules, St. Paul teachers want the district to partner with their union in pressuring corporations and large, tax-exempt organizations to pay their fair share toward closing a projected budget shortfall of $27 million.

“We have a different set of proposals than have really ever been put forth before,” SPFT organizer Mike Asmus said. “We’re trying to facilitate a conversation that’s different, and the art build gives us an opportunity to make something different from the cookie-cutter signs and banners you normally see at union rallies.”

The idea stems from an event held by public school teachers in Milwaukee last year, and at least one Milwaukee teacher will travel to Minneapolis to share advice and show solidarity.

Yelk said he envisions a powerful, positive event that brings together families who share a belief in the promise of public schools.

“We’ll be there to have fun and to express our shared hopes,” he said. “This is what’s right for our families and our students; this is what we should be doing.”

“It’s a bunch of people getting together to do artwork. I’ve never seen that turn into a brawl.”

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Landmark Center gallery revisits Ford plant’s final years

October 14, 2016 by

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The Twin Cities Assembly Plant and its workers are the focus of a special photo exhibition hosted by St. Paul’s Landmark Center through Nov. 27.

Curated by local author and historian Brian McMahon, the retrospective showcases the work of two local photographers, David Parker and Dan Huseby. Their work helps illustrate McMahon’s forthcoming book, “The Ford Century in Minnesota.”

“This is not intended to be a history exhibit; this is intended to be an art exhibit … of what it was like to be on the assembly line,” McMahon said at an opening reception in Landmark Center’s North Gallery last night.

After 86 years of operation, Ford Motor Company shuttered the Twin Cities Assembly Plant in December 2011. The plant produced nearly 9 million vehicles and employed thousands of people, including many who lived in the nearby Highland Park neighborhood.

Former UAW Local 879 member Dan Huseby (R) was the only professional photographer granted access to the Ford Plant during its final days of operation.

Former UAW Local 879 member Dan Huseby (R) was the only professional photographer granted access to the Ford Plant during its final days of operation.

Huseby was among the roughly 800 workers, most members of United Auto Workers Local 879, who lost their jobs when the plant closed permanently. Being in the plant during its final weeks afforded Huseby, who started work on the assembly line in 2006, an opportunity to jumpstart his next career – photography.

As the final Ford Ranger made its way along the plant’s assembly line, Huseby was right there documenting the journey with his camera.

“It was kind of like watching a slow death,” he said.

But Huseby’s photographs show not only the process, but the people who built that last truck in St. Paul – people who “spent more time together with each other than they did with their own families,” he said.

“People were very proud of the work they put in and the product they built,” Huseby said, adding that it’s a feeling he shares every time he sees a Ranger on the road.

“I’m really fortunate to have had that experience working as an autoworker – the backbone of American industry – even though I know now a factory is not my place. Behind a lens is my place.”

The Landmark Center exhibition pairs Huseby’s photos with scenes from the Ford plant captured in Parker’s 2002 photo book, “By These Hands: Portraits from the Factory Floor.”

Parker, who lives in Minneapolis, has pursued dual careers as an occupational physician and epidemiologist, and as a photographer specializing in industrial scenes, including child labor. His photographs have been widely exhibited in museums throughout North America.

The exhibit, “On the Line: Autoworkers at the Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant,” is free and open to the public during Landmark Center hours. For more information, go to www.landmarkcenter.org.

Additionally, Landmark Center will host an author talk with McMahon Nov. 10, prior to the release of “The Ford Century in Minnesota.” The free event, scheduled to begin at noon in Courtroom 430, will focus on the perspectives and experiences of Ford’s Twin Cities workers. To reserve space at the talk, call 651-292-1239.

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