Joe visits Red Square
Chris Garlock | Published on 7/29/2024
On a recent drive to Portland, Maine, musician, organizer and LHF co-founder Joe Uehlein
stopped at Red Square in New London, CT to visit with internationally acclaimed muralist Mike Alewitz. Here’s his report.
We toured the Red Square labor art museum with amazing commentary by Mike Alewitz, with whom I have conspired on numerous projects over the years. Like when I helped him with a Kent State massacre commemoration, I believe it was the tenth anniversary. He was setting up a mural exhibit on the Mall; I played music at the exhibit and I also hand-leafleted the AFL-CIO building about the exhibit. On another occasion Mike's P9 mural/banner was hanging at the George Meany Center for Labor Studies and UFCW demanded it be taken down. Mike asked me to mediate. I brought in Monsignor George Higgins, Labor's Priest, and together we arranged for the mural to remain. On another occasion the AFL-CIO’s Industrial Union Department was having a National Conference on Organizing and Coalition Building (Nov. 30, 1994) and we asked Mike to come, set up his art workshop in the back of the hall and create a mural/banner based on what he was hearing during the proceedings. Si Kahn sang, as did Laurel Blaydes and me. Mike’s amazing piece of art immediately left the hall at the end of the conference and we all marched with Jobs With Justice to Union Station where workers were organizing. The mural then found its’ way to countless picket lines around the world.
photo (l-r): Joe Uehlein, Anna Grace Uehlein, Mike Alewitz, Lane Windham.