OCAW HISTORY MURALS
The artwork on the top page, "Keeping the Dream," is panel five of a 50-foot history mural commissioned by the OCAW in 1994 and painted by New Jersey muralist Mike Alewitz. Alewitz is the Labor Artist-in-Residence for the New Jersey Industrial Union Council, AFL-CIO, at the Labor Education Department of Rutgers University and is the Director of the Labor Art and Mural Project.
OCAW's influence nationally and ability to move issues far outweighed our numbers in the past and still does today. Our agenda for the future, portrayed in this panel, once again provides the opportunity to advance the cause of working people by leading the fight for a national health program, a Labor Party, and a new political and social agenda based on economic security and social justice.
"Keeping the Dream by Organizing for the Future" incorporates the major programs of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union.
All of these programs, plans of action, and struggles represent the best in terms of our tradition as an industrial union. Those themes, starting with the struggle to build a national organization, the struggle to build a democratic organization, and the struggle to build an industrial union, all come together in this final panel, which represents the vision of our union for building a social movement.