Faculty and students at the California Labor School entertain pickets in San Francisco during the 1948 longshore strike.

Following passage of the Taft-Hartley "Slave Labor" Law in 1947, the waterfront employers attempted to use the "non-Communist affidavit" provision of the law (later declared unconstitutional) to weaken the union. Their efforts came to naught when the ILWU conducted a successful strike in 1948 that gathered support from unions across the country and around the world.

Throughout this period, the California Labor School, at which noted academics helped to educate workers on the history and problems of trade unionism, played a significant role on the west coast labor scene. Here, its faculty and students use their talents to entertain the striking ILWU workers.