Video '48 at San Francisco LaborFest

"Not In My Garden," a film by Video '48 documenting the struggle of Arab villagers against Israel's attempt to take their land, was screened in San Francisco at the July LaborFest (the International Working Class Film & Video Festival). Assaf Adiv, National Coordinator of the Workers Advice Center (WAC), led a discussion on the film.

LaborFest is a unique cultural and political initiative, organized annually since 1994 by union activists in San Francisco. It includes local and international films, plays, poetry readings, exhibitions and lectures, all connected to the history and present situation of working people.
Steve Seltzer, one of the organizers, told Challenge that this year, because of power shortages in California, the organizers entitled the festival, "From Power Outage To Workers' Power". The program included the play "Temp Slave, the Musical", as well as "Right to a Roof: Poetry and Music by and for Homeless People". There were lectures and tours commemorating the Waterfront Strike of 1901 and the General Strike of 1934, which laid the foundations of the labor movement in San Francisco. There were films from the labor movement in Korea, Japan, Mexico and Thailand, plus a documentary on the events of 1999 in Seattle.
Adiv presented "Not in My Garden" on two occasions: first at La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley and again at a screening organized by the local chapter of the Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

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