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Slugging It Out with the Christian Right |
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Labor activists, like activists everywhere, often are accused of “preaching to the choir.” That is, talking about issues we all care about with people we think are most likely to be receptive to our message. The AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America defies that natural tendency and instead makes it a priority to reach out to people who, too often, have been overlooked by progressive political activists.
At the second full day of the YearlyKos convention here in Chicago, Working America Director Karen Nussbaum and two members of the Working America staff, online guru Max Toth and Field Director Tahir Duckett, were joined by political analyst and blogger Cliff Schecter for a morning workshop on Slugging It Out with the Christian Right for the Hearts and Minds of the Working Class.
As Nussbaum pointed out to the more than 40 workshop particpants, Working America has signed up 1.6 million members in the past two years, the majority of whom do not have college education, one-third of whom own guns and most of whom describe themselves as regular church-goers. The organization now has 10 offices in eight states. Working America canvassers go door to door in communities that Duckett, a former canvasser, described as commnities “where other people not had conversations with them, they have been left out.”
In short, said Duckett:
Face to face, person to person, that’s what makes Working America so successful.
Workshop participants were amazed that two of three people Working America canvassers talk with at their doors sign up with the organization (and one-third provide e-mail addresses). As Duckett said:
When you get to the door they’ve just gotten home from work, picked up their kids. But people who are not thinking about being activists become politically engaged.
And in fact, Working America already has recruited 100,000 new members this year, 25,000 of whom have taken action–for example, writing postcards urging their members of Congress to support the Employee Free Choice Act.
Toth, who coordinates the e-mail lists and runs the Working America website, noted that 20 percent of new members join online, where Working America offers programs for members such as Ask a Lawyer, which provides the opportunity to ask lawyers questions about workplace rights. Working America brings labor and class struggle to the foreground, he said.
Schecter, a familiar face on cable news shows as he counters politically right extremist commentators, said he began blogging for Working America because “it seemed a natural fit with what bloggers do online and what Working America wants to accomplish.” Schecter’s support highlights the valuable connection between labor and the netroots—and the fertile possiblites for allying with each other. As Nussbaum said, labor and the netroots:
are all here because we believe in economic populism.
Bottom line, said Nussbaum:
If you want to be part of the fight for just jobs and a good economy: Join.
3 Comments
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If you attend Church and your Pastor aligns himself with the Christian Right, send him a message and stop giving him money. He will get the message.
Are the extreme leaders of the Christian Right so wealthy that they don’t have to worry about job security, pensions, paying their bills from paycheck to paycheck? How about tainted food, unsafe buildings, proper inspections to insure that things are the best they could be, with the most qualified people to do them? Maybe they just don’t care. I think they’re scared, and they should be, because sooner or later, their house of cards is going to come crashing down as the American people begin to wake up.
with the total inaccountability of our tax dollars to the faith based initiatives, it is going to take a lot more effort than just cutting off our individual tithes to these hippocrite monsters- they will continue to steal from all of us until we hold their feet to the fire and demand accountability.