The 2001 Debs - Thomas - Harrington Dinner was held Friday, May 4th at the Holiday Inn Mart Plaza in Chicago. The honorees were Kim Bobo and Henry Bayer. The featured speaker was Miguel del Valle. The MC for the evening was Carole Travis. All photos are by Gretchen Seifert-Gram.

Carole Travis welcomes attendees.	Jackie Kendall (right) presents Kim Bobo with the 2001 Debs - Thomas - Harrington Award.
Alex Mikulich makes a pitch for DSA.	Carl Shier (right) presents Henry Bayer with the 2001 Debs - Thomas - Harrington Award.
Carole Travis introduces State Senator Miguel del Valle.	Senator del Valle makes a point.
Kim Bobo We honor you for a life built around the moral issue of justice; not justice as charity but justice as a way for people to win for themselves the dignity, respect and material means due any human being. In your work as an educator, as an organizer and as an author, you have provided countless other organizers and activists the basic skills necessary for building a just society. In your work as founder and Director of the National Interfaith Committee on Worker Justice, you have provided the tools needed for the community of faith to help in building a just society. For your work in making labor rights the civil rights struggle of this new century, the Debs - Thomas - Harrington Dinner Committee is proud to present you with its 2001 award.
Henry Bayer You have spent a lifetime successfully fighting for justice for working people. During a time when the law restricts the rights of workers to organize, for public employees to have won such rights then use them has helped and inspired the entire labor movement. You have been in the front ranks of that struggle. Your election as Executive Director of AFSCME Council 31 has continued a tradition of progressive leadership. Your work has helped establish AFSCME as one of the leading unions in Illinois, exemplifying what labor is all about: an unflinching commitment to the dignity of work and of workers and a spirit of solidarity among a membership as ethnically, culturally and politically diverse as America itself. Your leadership has sought to address some of labor's most important challenges: in making organizing new members your union's most fundamental and central tasks; in building alliances with community, civil rights, religious and senior organizations; in fighting to limit privatization; in forging one of the most aggressive political and legislative programs in the state. For this, your life's work, your dedication to building a stronger labor movement, the Debs - Thomas - Harrington Dinner Committee is proud to present you with its 2001 award.