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With Edwards Out, ‘Which Candidate Will Speak for Working Families?’ |
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Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), who announced today he will suspend his campaign for president, had earned the endorsement of three AFL-CIO affiliated unions: the Mine Workers (UMWA), the United Steelworkers (USW) and the Transport Workers (TWU).
Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts says the other candidates will need to work hard to fill the gap left by Edwards’ departure.
Without Sen. Edwards in the race, we wonder about several things: Which candidate will now take up the cause of the millions of working families who have been so callously pushed aside by the current administration? Which candidate will speak so eloquently about the clear link between rebuilding the middle class and restoring the right to organize?
Edwards made his announcement today from New Orleans, the same city where he kicked off his campaign, talking about the issues of poverty and social justice raised by Hurricane Katrina.
According to The New York Times, Edwards’ decision was made over the past few days as the path to the nomination became less likely.
Edwards said that although his campaign will not continue, the fight still matters.
We as citizens and as a government have a moral responsibility to each other. What we do matters.
Edwards pointed to the challenges facing America’s working families and emphasized that political leadership was necessary to accomplish the changes needed.
We’ve listened to worker after worker say, “The economy is tearing my family apart.” Economic justice in America is our cause.
Roberts further raised the questions that with Edwards out:
Which candidate will stop giving away America’s best jobs to foreign competitors by ending unfair trade deals that destroy American industries and communities while keeping foreign workers in poverty?
And of critical importance for us, which candidate will demand safer and healthier workplaces in America, especially in America’s coal mines? These are the questions we will be seeking answers to as this campaign moves forward….
American working families need a President who will be on our side again. I believe that either of the remaining Democratic candidates can be that person. The question now is, will they step up to the plate?Both Edwards’ top competitors in the race, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), spoke with Edwards this morning before his announcement. He said both candidates pledged to make poverty and economic justice a focus of their campaigns—and of their administration next year.
Throughout his campaign, Edwards has focused on issues that matter to working families, including trade, wages and workers’ rights (he’s walked picket lines and advocated on behalf of workers trying to form unions). He was the first Democratic candidate to release a plan to provide health care to all.
Christy Hardin Smith of Firedoglake calls Edwards “the heart of the Democratic Party.”
One of the signature issues of his campaign—one that is near and dear to my own heart—was Edwards’ commitment to giving voice to those who have none in our money-driven political process. The Democratic Party has long been the champion of the downtrodden and folks in need….
John Edwards candidacy has been a daily reminder to pick up the charge of the better angels of our nature, and to speak up against those injustices that too often get shoved to the side for more monied and powerful interests.
Edwards has not made an endorsement in the presidential election.
18 Comments
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It’s true what you said about John Edwards. We have to ask the question why didn’t more unions indorse him. Bill Clinton when he was president not only broke his promise to veto NAFTA if congress passed it but he fought hard to get it passed. If the Democrats don’t develope a spine on workers issues they may not win the general election.
It is strange to me here as a union organiser in australia, that no political party speaks as a whole for working people in the United States, our combined union campaign at a national level just toppeled a right wing anti worker government in this country, We now have a government the truly represents working Australians, if any of you are interested check out or google the Your Rights at Work, campaign to see what unions can make happen if we all work together as one.
keep up the pressure on Obama he is your better horse than Clinton.
Solidarity to all the union family in the United States
Out of the three of them John Edwards is the only candidate I believe is sincere. The other two are just overhyped, politicaly correct media picks who will say anything to get elected. With 90% of the on air time and focus going to these two candidate, no one else stood a chance. The fix is in! What a disapointment.
i have to agree with the first commentor. I was extremely disappointed by the majority of Labor choosing NOT to endorse Edwards and I have to say, Labor is a large part of why the Edwards campaign couldn’t go up against Obama and Clinton. When will we ever learn?
In my opinion neither of the ‘two’ parties speak for the working families of America. Big business runs this country. Our government goes the way of the money. And big business has it all. Even Bill Gates, who I suppose is ticked off after being knocked off his ‘richest man in the world’ pedastal wants more H1B visas so he can import more ‘cheap’ overseas labor. Does he honestly expect the American people to believe that he can’t find LEGAL residents of this country to do his jobs? Please! He just can’t find any who’ll work for peanuts. Give me a candidate who’s willing to stand up and tell the world that his FIRST priority will be the LEGAL residents of the United States of America. And the rest of the world can take a backseat. After all, the president of the USA should first represent the best interests of the USA. Right?
John Edwards was the real deal. He was the only candidate that understood what we are up against and what it will take to beat big corporate power. All the new ‘Political Establishment’ endorsements for Obama along with his desire to ‘nice’ The Powers of Washington D.C. into compromise show it will end badly for him and us. John Edwards had it right; these people have no interest in giving up power or compromising. It will take someone ready, willing and able to rally the masses and fight The Powers of Washington D.C. until the last shot is fired and the last man falls for us to win. Sadly, John Edwards was that man. It isn’t Barack Obama, The Democratic Establishment or Hillary Clinton. We, the masses, are in big trouble once again.
Edwards as a vice president? He would be a conscience for Hillary or an able advisor for Obama, and a voice for working America.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! “Labor endorsements”? How many rank and file members who are reading this post were polled and asked about their presidential preferences?
Only one candidate (who has since withdrawn from the race) championed a working class agenda. That person is Dennis Kucinich. From health care to NAFTA, from the war to public education, from job creation to affordable housing, from environmental safeguards to Constitutional protections, only one person spoke for us! Dennis Kucinich.
Alas, “representatives” of labor all but ignored Kucinich. They lamented “he can’t get elected”. Of course not…not if he fails to gain sufficient support. So rather than get behind a defender of working class America, they opted to go with perceived winners. And for the most part they made that decision without consulting those of us who they are pledged to represent. (Getting invited to an inaugural ball appears to trump fighting for a workers’ agenda.)
Do you like NAFTA, “market driven health care” (i.e. what we currently have), continued meddling in the mid-east (and continued squandering of billions upon billions of dollars in that pursuit)? If so, you’ll just love the Democratic Leadership Council’s candidate: Hillary Clinton.
Barack Obama provides hope for change. It’s time to turn the corner on nearly twenty years of corporate-purchased governance. In the words of every candidate - past and present - working class America has suffered. The disparity between the haves and the have-nots has grown. So why would we want to endorse a candidate who represents a neoliberal ideology that places corporate profits and “globalism” ahead of the needs of we the people? Why would we want to support the corporate-financed Democratic Leadership Council’s candidate?
Support Obama.
And after he gets elected, start going to your union meetings and participating in formulating your union’s programs and policies. It’ll take the rank and file to set things straight. It’ll take we the people to right our ship of state.
I have been a supporter of John Edwards since the 2004 presidential race, and I have been following all the actions of his “One America” since then. I am disheartened at his withdrawal from the race, but the fact is that it takes enormous amounts of money to run for President—money that the very people who need a president like John Edwards can barely eke out to support his run.
I will now be supporting Barack Obama for President, and hoping that John Edwards will accept the VP nomination should it come his way. These two men get it when it comes to the needs and concerns of American working families; sorry Hillary—but I’m not so sure I want to revisit the Clinton years, unless you can prove to me that you’re solidly with labor.
After the primaries, when the dust settles, I will support the candidate that best represents the interests of American working men and women. I sure hope it’s Obama!
The word is “politics”. All of our unions should have been there for John Edwards. We will never have anyone who would be as true as he is on workers’ issues. But no, we had to be divided. In this case, it is not a Democrat versus Republican issue. John Edwards is a worker’s representative. I am very disappointed in our international unions that they did not all get behind this candidate. Had they done so, he would not have suspended his campaign yesterday. They can still do the right thing. He suspended his campaign. It is not closed. I feel sure if all the unions got behind him, he could be right back in business, and so could we!
I can tell you who will represent labor,NONE OF THEM, here is what you can expect no matter who wins the election.
1.12 to 20 Million new citizens
2.At least another 5 years in Iraq
3.Healthcare won’t even be a topic of discussion,with two wars going on we can’t afford it
4.All the free trade deals you can stomach
5.Social Security shoved to the back burner again
6.Medicare going broke
By the way some of these people are correct in asking why the AFL-CIO doesn’t poll its membership before offering up endorsements.Oh yeah I keep forgetting that just like the government they know what’s best for us.Also the union brother in Austrailia has a very good point why does labor in this country not have a political arm it’s not like we don’t have the funds to get it started.The candidates we have are the people who helped create this mess.Go ahead send one of them to this congress that can do nothing but talk about a problem.
Hillary and Barak are just status quo candidates. Nader may run again and if he does, I’m voting for him. He’s the only one who is pro-labor.
It’s going to be very hard to bring myself to even vote in this general election, unless there is a strong “third party” candidate. I am disgusted with the unions of this country. The best choice for working people, Dennis Kucinich, got NO support from any unions. The second best choice, John Edwards, got very little. I’m beginning to believe that the unions in this country are as corrupt as all of these anti-union activists say they are. I have been a union member for 32 years and I have never been more disgusted than I am now.
First off I would like to thank John Edwards for his effort in keeping our issues at the forefront of the campaign. Now that I got that out of the way, I’m disgusted with the whole process. A process that is run by money and has nothing to do with who the best candidate is. My two friends, Dr., and Trent both hit it on the head. What have the Democrats done for us recently? Nothing! How can they claim to represent us when a majority of the party supported the Mcain Kennedy amnesty bill? No offense to the Hispanic citizens of this country but, Illegals are bringing down wage and benefit packages across this country. It seems to me that the Dems sometimes take our vote for granted, because no matter how little they get done for us, they’re still better than republicans. That is where a labor party would be great, whatever the dems or repubs wanted to get done they would have to deal with labor. So in the meantime my choices are, a one term senator from Illinois who claims that his time in Indonesia as a child counts as foreign policy experience, or a two term senator from New York who is married to a former president and counts that as experience. Way to go early primary states, thanks for the great choices!
Having helped to sponsor a speaking tour of Australia during our election campaign last year by three American workers one was on a union industrial award the other 2 covered by minimum wages, I saw Australian workers crying at the injustices that your present industrial system supports, It is up to people and Unions to organise to fight for social change, if we rely on poorly elected political hacks to dictate to workers we are all lost. money does not always win.
Sometimes it is up to people to choose what sort of society they wish to live in. Having traveklled worked and lived in the united states, I have a great love for the rights and freedoms you enjoy, but also harbour an incredible sadness at where the working American is heading, to a class divided society headed by those with money. To a society where the right to work is suborned by a terrible at will system of employment, get you politicans to discuss the fundemental issue that effect’s your labour system.
Good luck to you all, I hope that whichever democrat wins that they trully listen to the people and not the patricians.
Trent A
Edwards is a very decent man. His heart is in the right place. His commitment to working people is genuine. Taken all together he is the best person that from a position of Attorney General could clean the corporate corruption that has swallowed Washington.
That’s the only way we could save America as we know it!
Workers who spout anti-immigrant venom should be ashamed of themselves!
By parroting the right-wing’s mantra you’re proving what P.T. Barnum said, “there’s a sucker born every minute”.
Immigrants aren’t to blame for what NAFTA did to them, and neither are they to blame for what NAFTA (and WTO, CAFTA, etc.) has done to working America and to a lesser extent to working Canada.
Who passed NAFTA? The US Congress! So let’s be suckers and blame other workers instead of [rightfully] blaming phony lawmakers? You’re telling me that makes sense?
Workers stood around with their thumbs up their butts while Congress shafted us, and now instead of recognizing the problems our apathy caused, people are instead looking for a scapegoat. That’s typical. The DNA of America stands for “Do Not Admit”. Do not admit that while baa-ing like sheep we got led to “slaughter”.
Jeez, it’s discouraging. Where has the militancy that built labor gone?. 50 years ago over 35% of America was unionized. After 50 years of “go along to get along” collaboration we’re down to around 10%. So let’s scapegoat some immigrants? Man, now there’s an answer! Jeez.
The trouble with such a bait and switch scapegoat proposition is that we’ll need some scapegoats for the 60’s, 70’s 80’s and 90’s too! (We’ve been going downhill for decades.) Hey! I’m Irish. I’ll volunteer us to be the scapegoats for the 60’s. Who’ll do the 70’s? Any takers for the 80’s? Which group will step up and become 90’s scapegoats?
When politicians and their corporate masters succeed in getting working people to fight amongst themselves they guffaw and chortle and say, “yup, yup, yup…there’s a sucker born every minute…in fact a bunch are born every minute. Hey! While they’re going at eat other’s throats let’s slap another phony trade agreement on their fannies”!
Wake up! Fellow workers aren’t selling us out. Wise up!
And rather than listening to O’Reilly, Hannity and Limbaugh, you’d be much better off listening to people outside the mainstream corporate media. Try Bill Moyers Journal, or Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now!
Or else go baa-baa-baa (i.e. doin’ what you’ve been doin’) and stop you’re whining!
I made a commitment to support John Edwards, long ago. I don’t back away from my commitments. John’s name appeared on my ballot. So, I voted for John Edwards today in the Democratic Primary because I felt he was the best candidate, in a field of excellent contenders, that represented my needs. I am a man of principles and I won’t be bullied into abandoning them. I will support the Democratic nominee later in the fall. I have no intention of backing down from that commitment, either.
I, too, have wondered why the AFL-CIO chose to remain neutral during the Primaries. I desperately wanted them to endorse John. I have wrestled with that question for some time, now. The best answer I can find is “Dick Gephardt.” All of Labor got behind him in the last election cycle and we got our asses kicked. I don’t think Labor’s leadership wanted to have a repeat. Now, their decision seems to have been the appropriate one.