Alewitz (b. 1951) is an internationally known muralist and activist in the labor movement. A student leader at Kent State University in Ohio, he was a railroad worker, machinist, and sign-painter before earning an MFA from Massachusetts College of Art in 1983. Alewitz is a member of the United Scenic Artists Union, Local 829, as well as the Artistic Director of the Labor Art and Mural Project, based at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Since the early 1980s, he has painted murals for the United Farm Workers, Local P-9 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, the United Mine Workers Union, and many others. He has painted murals in Nicaragua and Chernobyl, and has been involved in a close collaboration with working-class movements in Mexico. Recent projects include a giant mural for the Teamsters in Chicago, celebrating the union's successful completion of a strike against United Parcel Service, and the Centralia (Washington) Union Mural Project, memorializing the story of the Centralia Massacre of 1919 and the events and people surrounding it. (Robin K. Dunitz, Street Gallery, Guide to over 1000 Los Angeles Murals)
