Holt Baker: Collective Action Key Tool to Building King’s Dream into Reality
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Most people remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legendary 1963 Washington, D.C, “I Have a Dream” speech. But what most don’t know, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker said at the AFL-CIO’s Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Observance and National Conference in Detroit, is that “the seeds of Dr. King’s dream were sown first,” in the Motor City.
First in the speech he gave in June in Detroit, and later in his more widely known speech in Washington, Dr. King described his dream, the dream that one day the white sons of former slave owners and the black sons of those who had been enslaved would live together as brothers, judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their characters.
Yet we know that Dr. King’s dream was not merely a dream about friendship, not some story about two people communing across a great economic divide. His dream was about true equality—economic, political and social justice.
During yesterday’s opening ceremony, Holt Baker reminded the more than 550 labor and civil rights activists and leaders that King knew that “a chief tool for freedom and progress for all people was collective action”:
whether as a labor union in the workplace or as nonviolent civil disobedience in the shared spaces of this country…whether at a lunch counter or in a park near Wall Street.
She also noted the long partnership by the union movement and the civil rights movement and his close relationship with the UAW. But although the AFL-CIO endorsed the principles behind the March on Washington, the federation did not endorse the march itself. Read the rest of this entry »
AFL-CIO’s King Observance Focuses on Economic, Social Justice
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In Detroit—a historic crossroads for both the labor and civil rights movements—more than 550 activists and leaders of those movements will honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the AFL-CIO’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Observance and National Conference.
The Jan. 12-16 observance will serve as an opportunity to recommit to working toward King’s cornerstone goals of economic and social justice. AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker says union, civil rights and community activists can honor King’s legacy by:
Redoubling our efforts to make real his prophecy our time—his message of justice for all, his message that the American Dream is for all of us.
The conference opens tonight and includes an awards presentation to civil rights veteran and lawmaker Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.). Conyers, who has been in office since 1964, is one of the founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Hey, Fox—Wake UP! Here Are Demands of the 99%
While most of us know what the goal is of the Occupy Wall Street movement—economic justice for the 99 percent and all that it entails—pontificators from Fox News and other right-wingers derisively dismiss it.
Working America has provided what you might call a cheat sheet for those too intellectually lazy or politically disinclined to pay attention to what the Occupiers around the nation have been demanding for more than two months now.
Click here for the “Nine Demands of the 99%.” The first eight are commonsense policies—such as making Wall Street and the wealthy pay their fair share and investing in jobs and supporting education.
The ninth demand is up to you. You can add your own to help get the nation working again. Be sure to share the nine demands on Twitter with the hashtag #9Demands and on Facebook, where already more than 7,000 have given it a thumbs up.
Unions, Occupy Wall Street Join Together in New York, Peoria, Around the Nation
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The Occupy Wall Street movement has spread from big cities to small towns, mobilizing a diverse group of people from young workers to grandmothers. Even “The New Yorker” has taken note, with a cover this week that portrays a group of “protesters” who have occupied Wall Street since its inception—and who would like to keep it that way. Take a look here.
Meanwhile unions and union members around the country are throwing their support to the movement that is demanding Wall Street be held accountable, that financial institutions invest some of the trillions in profits they are sitting on into job creation and that Congress act to create jobs.
Transport Workers (TWU) President James Little says in this video that the Occupy Wall Street protesters have been the spark that set off this growing rebellion against greed and the huge economic inequality that has enriched the top 1 percent and left the other 99 percent behind.
If these people don’t get together and try to change some of the inequity that’s out there, no one’s going to do it. It has to be done. It’s not being changed in Washington, not by legislators. They’ve got to wake up.
Martin Luther King Jr. Gave His Life Supporting Workers’ Rights
Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday we celebrate this weekend, died fighting for the freedom of Memphis sanitation workers to form a union with AFSCME. For King, economic justice went hand in hand with civil rights and the right to join a union was critical to gaining economic justice.
Writing on AlterNet, Laura Flanders says:
King saw public workers as the first line of defense. That’s why he went to Memphis to stand by striking sanitation members of AFSCME, the public workers’ union. In his view they led the way in the fight for fair pay and benefits…and in the fight for dignity for those who shovel our snow and clean our streets.
Read her full column here. Read about the AFL-CIO’s 2011l King Day celebration here and here.
King also recognized that the anti-union politicians in the South were the same people who opposed civil rights for all Americans. That’s why he opposed union-busting ”right to work” for less laws. In fact, in 1961, he said:
In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, as “right-to-work.” It provides no “rights” and no “works.” Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining….We demand this fraud be stopped.
Jobs: Gifts We Really Need
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Edith Rasell, Ph.D., is minister for economic justice in the Justice and Witness Ministries of the United Church of Christ and serves as vice president of Interfaith Worker Justice. She reminds us that what millions of Americans really want for Christmas is a job.
This is the season of gift giving and, for millions of us, the present we really need is a job.
We know that American families need jobs. But American businesses also need jobs—rather, they need customers with jobs. When millions of unemployed workers and their families have little money to spend, businesses, big and small, have few customers. Production stalls, hiring is frozen and investments are put on hold. Firms cannot thrive and the economy will not return to health until people can afford to buy the things they need.
Keep Up with One Nation Live on Twitter
Good morning, everybody. We a have a beautiful day here in Washington, D.C., and not just weather-wise. There is also the beautiful sight we’re seeing as tens of thousands of union members, civil, human, community, faith and environmental activists are arriving to march and rally at One Nation Working Together to restore economic justice and renew the American Dream for all of us—not just for those depicted in the Republicans’ Pledge to America.
More than 1,400 buses of union members from 17 states are rolling into the nation’s capital and many of those union activists will share their observations and thoughts via Tweeter. Follow our live feed at left or at http://twitter.com/AFLCIO.
Be sure and check back later today when we will a have a more detailed look at the day’s events including video coverage.
Countdown to One Nation
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In less than 48 hours, tens of thousands of union members and civil rights, human rights, community and faith activists will be in the nation’s capital for the historic One Nation Working Together march and rally. The Oct. 2 march will call for renewing the American Dream for all people—the antithesis of the fear-mongering dominating too much of the national conversation.
Nearly 200 progressive groups, including the AFL-CIO, NAACP, National Council of La Raza and many unions, have come together in One Nation, a multiracial, labor, civil and human rights movement whose mission is to reorder our nation’s priorities to invest in our nation’s most valuable resource—our people.
In an op-ed in today’s Detroit Free Press, UAW President Bob King says the march “will carry many messages, among them jobs, peace, equality and justice.
But the most important message of all is hope and optimism.
Thomas Perez: Fighting Discrimination a Top Priority
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More than 40 years after Martin Luther King’s death, the nation still has a long way to go to achieve his dream of equality and justice, says Thomas Perez.
In a Point of View guest column at the AFL-CIO site, Perez, assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights, says if King were alive today, he would be fighting for economic justice:
He would continue his quest for economic justice for all Americans to be able to access the great wealth and promise of our nation….He would urge our nation’s leaders to move forward on health care reform, repeating his painfully accurate observation that “of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”
He would join with you, and with your fellow workers nationwide, in calling for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act to ensure that workers can stand up for their rights in the workplace.
He would ask the question: If women outnumber men in the workplace, then why are women still fighting for pay equity in the workplace?
