The IRLE’s MemoryWork Research Initiative engages community partners, activists, scholars and students in a thoughtful process of collecting, preserving and sharing the rich history of organizing in Southern California.
We strive to create collaborative modes of remembrance grounded in the IRLE’s commitment to advancing quality education and employment for all.
My work with the MWRI began over 10 years ago with the “Justice for Janitors History Project,” a collaboration with SEIU Local 1877 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of their 1990 strike in Century City. I spent six months in the basement of the union hall helping the union to organize and selectively digitize the records, which, along with nearly 20 oral history interviews conducted by colleagues, were subsequently donated to UCLA Library.
The MWRI has since collaborated on similar archival projects with community partners including UNITE-HERE Local 11, the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) and Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE). Materials from these collections and others donated to us by our partners comprise the basis of the Power from the Past website, as well as the Memory Work Video Collection and IRLE Photo Collection, available through Flickr.
If you are interested in building your organization’s archives or contributing to our Memory Work Research Initiative, contact us at IRLEarchive@irle.ucla.edu.