That's Silver Spring

Which Side Are You on?

There seemed to be no question which side a small group of activists was on when they gathered for a May Day wreath laying at a plaque honoring labor icon Mother Jones in front of Hillandale Baptist Church.

Obviously, they were on the side of workers as they staked a claim to restoring May 1 as America's national labor day. At the same time, the event underscored how the nation's swing to the right has relegated union strength to the nostalgia cutout bin. But the traditional holiday is still marked around much of the world with raucous demonstrations against brutal regimes, where it can can cost you your life to seek better pay and safer conditions for wage slaves toiling in the fields, factories and offices.  http://www.chinapost.com.tw/international/europe/2014/05/02/406708/Protests-erupt.htm

But near the local site where Mother Jones died, there was confusion about which side those honoring her were on geographically as they marked the official launch of the first annual DC LaborFest, a month-long celebration of labor arts in the nation’s capital.  http://www.dclabor.org/ht/display/ArticleDetails/i/118487

A small article on the AFL-CIO Washington DC Metro Council's website summed up the event. “Mother Jones always said that ‘The first thing is to raise hell,” Saul Schniderman reminded the small crowd gathered in Silver Spring Thursday to commemorate the feisty labor icon’s birthday and kick off the DC LaborFest. “She said ‘That’s always the first thing to do when you’re faced with an injustice and you feel powerless.’”
http://www.dclabor.org/ht/display/ArticleDetails/i/118496/pid/525

While the labor sentiment is apt, the location was wrong, because the Mother Jones memorial plaque is in Adelphi, not Silver Spring.

The confusion is understandable, given the name Hillandale Baptist. That reflects the church's spiritual foundation in the Silver Spring neighborhood that straddles Montgomery and Prince George's counties. But the only physical home it has ever had is at 2601 Powder Mill Road Adelphi, MD 20783. If the address is not a clue to the location, the back-to-back "Welcome to Adelphi" and  "Welcome to Hillandale" signs at the county line one block west of the church provide a clear station of the crossing out of Silver Spring.
 http://www.hillandalebc.org/church_history.html

Organizers of the May Day event hope to expand on the success of the DC Labor FilmFest, which began in 2001 and brings crowds to the Art Deco AFI Theater in downtown Silver Spring. Events are built around live theater, music and representative arts, all driving home the message that workers everywhere must be valued.

Mother Jones is a likely poster child for the festival, having spent her last days at the Burgess Farm on Powder Mill Road. As a paid United Mine Workers organizer or a volunteer, she confronted injustice around the nation, whether she found it deep in coal mines, along railroad lines or on factory floors. She never backed down from a fight, even when confronted by management security, hired strike-breakers, or National Guard units.

So which side is Mother Jones on? Well, her body is buried in Illinois. But Powder Mill Road just might be her true spiritual home, because that's where her plaque faces off across the street from the Adelphi Maryland Army National Guard Readiness Center.