Steve Ongerth
Steve Ongerth (born April 24, 1971) is an American labor activist, environmentalist, political activist, and webmaster. He is the author and editor of the forthcoming One Big Union: Judi Bari’s Vision of Green-Worker Alliances in Redwood Country.
Biography
Steve Ongerth was born in Houston, Texas and lived in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Redlands, California, El Cerrito, California, and Ennis, Texas before moving back to the San Francisco Bay Area with his family in 1978. Since that date he has been a resident of the Bay Area.
Ongerth is a graduate of El Cerrito High School. He attended the University of California at Berkeley from 1989 to 1994 and received two Bachelor's degrees, one in Architecture and the other in Art History.
Ongerth has been a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) since 1995. He became involved with the IWW after reading Timber Wars and meeting Judi Bari, who inspired him to join the storied organization. Ongerth has been a union activist since that time, having helped maintain the IWW website for over a decade and participating in numerous union organizing campaigns.
Ongerth was a programmer at Free Radio Berkeley from 1995 to 1999, hosting a weekly labor and environmental program inspired by the work of Judi Bari. Ongerth interviewed Bari three times on the air during the years 1995 and 1996.
Ongerth also joined in the campaign to save Headwaters Forest in 1995, continuing with that project through 1999. He often supported non-violent direct actions organized and carried out by Earth First!.
Steve Ongerth began compiling the information for his book in 1997 after the death of Judi Bari from cancer. He worked on that project from that date until its completion in 2010.
Since 1998, he has also worked as a deckhand on San Francisco Bay. He received his captain's license in 2009.
External links
- Steve Ongerth, One Big Union: Judi Bari’s Vision of Green-Worker Alliances in Redwood Country. 2010.