AFL-CIO Joins Re-enactment of 1965 Selma to Montgomery March
The AFL-CIO is joining with civil rights, community and labor partners in the re-enactment of the historic 1965 Selma to Montgomery, Ala., civil rights march that will focus attention on new attacks on voting rights, immigrants, workers’ rights and education.
Speaking, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., this morning, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker told reporters:
The onslaught of coordinated attacks on workers’ rights, voting rights, public education and immigration reform is an affront to our democracy. During the difficult economic times that so many of our communities are facing, we would much rather see our state legislators spending their time focusing on job creation…as opposed to deconstructing our fundamental rights.
The five-day march will begin on Sunday March 4 in Selma in remembrance of 1965’s “Bloody Sunday” when more than 600 marchers calling for enactment of the Voting Rights Act were met by hundreds of local and state police with billy clubs and tear gas. 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.
ALEC’s Influence in Virginia Exposed
With the state legislative season set to get under way next month, Virginia offers us a preview of what working family activists are up against. A story in today’s The Washington Post explores some of the more than 50 bills “ghostwritten” for Republican state legislators by the extreme conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
Anna Scholl, executive director of Progress VA, tells the Post that ALEC is:
a secretive organization funded by big corporations, has been writing bills that Virginia legislators are passing off as their own work on everything from education to health care to voting rights.
ALEC bills in Virginia have included new restrictions on voter rights, anti-immigrant legislation and right-wing bills on education, tax breaks for corporations and a new law the Post says “laid the legal groundwork” for Virginia’s lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act. Read more in ProgressVA’s report, ALEC Exposed: Who’s Writing Virginia’s Laws.
Along with the more than 2,000 extreme lawmakers from every state, ALEC membership includes more than 300 major corporations such as Wal-Mart, Exxon Mobil, Kraft Foods, Bayer and Koch Industries. David and Charles Koch, the right-wing extremist billionaire brothers, are major funders of ALEC, according to a July article in The Nation. Read the rest of this entry »
Tens of Thousands March for Voting Rights
Marvin Bing, a member of the AFL-CIO Special Committee on Labor-Community Partnerships, sends us this report.
Tens of thousands of labor and civil rights activists on Saturday marched from the New York offices of Koch Industries, whose owners have supported restrictive voting legislation modeled by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a right-wing think tank funded by brothers David and Charles Koch. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), who took part in the event, put it this way:
You can’t accomplish anything if you’re not prepared to fight.
The coalition of labor, civil rights and community organizations marked Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, with the Stand for Freedom march and rally where they voted to roll back new voting rules passed in several states.
Some of the laws passed in more than a dozen states around the country include Read the rest of this entry »
Dec. 10: NYC March for Voting Rights Begins at Koch Industries
Voting rights are human rights. To bring that point home, a coalition of labor, civil rights and community organizations will celebrate Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, with a Stand for Freedom march and rally, beginning at the Manhattan headquarters of Koch Industries, and ending at the United Nations’ Dag Hammarskjold Plaza.
Where and when:
Saturday, Dec. 10
10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.: Assemble 61st Street and Madison Avenue, Koch Industries New York City office.
11:30 a.m.: March from 61st Street and Madison Avenue to Dag Hammarskjold Plaza at 47th Street and 2nd Avenue
12:30 p.m.: Rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, across from the United Nations building
Earlier this year, as anti-labor laws swept state legislatures dominated by Republicans backed by the billionaire brothers, Charles and David Koch (who together own most of Koch Industries), some of these same legislatures passed laws designed to suppress voter turnout, especially targeting African Americans and immigrants. Read the rest of this entry »
Tell Attorney General Holder to Fight Koch Brothers’ Voter Suppression
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The AFL-CIO, NAACP, the Brave New Foundation and several other groups are urging U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to enforce the Voting Rights Act to stop the discriminatory voter suppression laws the right-wing billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have pushed and financed in dozens of states. The Koch Brothers are major funders of ALEC.
You can join in the fight to protect voting rights by clicking here and signing a petition to Holder urging him to use his authority under the Voting Rights Act to protect voters’ rights.
In this video from Brave New Films examining the new voter suppression laws that could disenfranchise as many 21 million Americans, NAACP President Ben Jealous says:
We’re in a moment right now where we are seeing the most aggressive attempt to roll back voting rights in this country than we’ve seen in over a century.
Block the Vote: How the Koch-Backed American Legislative Exchange Council Aims to Keep You from Voting
Across the country, voters in a number of states will face obstacles to casting ballots in the 2012 elections, in large part because of model legislation drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the organization backed by, among others, billionaires Charles and David Koch. It was ALEC’s draft legislation that inspired a spate of recently passed voter ID laws that, if allowed to stand, are expected to marginalize the impact of students and people of color at the polls in Texas, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Kansas. (Under the Texas law, for example, a college ID is not an acceptable form of identification for voting, but a military ID is.)
In a recent article published at The American Prospect, author Patrick Caldwell sheds light on ALEC’s M.O. For all the talk about preventing voter fraud—which was been shown to be a minimal threat to voting integrity—these new laws appear to be more about deciding just what kind of person gets to vote.
One of the most jarring examples of ALEC’s influence is the recent overturning of Maine’s longstanding same-day voting law by a newly elected Republican legislature. Maine’s law had been on the books since 1973, allowing the state to boast a much higher level of civic participation than the nation at large.
Justice Dept.: Looks Like Rick Perry’s Redistricting Intended Discrimination
TPM reports that a preliminary Justice Department investigation finds that the redistricting plan approved by presidential candidate and Texas governor Rick Perry (R) appears to have been “adopted, at least in part, for the purpose of diminishing the ability of [minorities] to elect their preferred candidates of choice to Congress.”
Mainers Ready to Issue Citizen Veto on Voting Rights Attack
Andy Richards on our Field Communications staff files this report on Maine working families’ action to protect voting rights.
Another grassroots effort to overturn the partisan political agenda of extreme politicians scored a major victory in Maine today. The Coalition to Protect Maine Votes reported this morning that Maine Secretary of State Charlie Summers verified more than enough signatures to allow Mainers to put a measure on the November ballot to overturn legislation that eliminates same-day voter registration.
In a statement, the Maine AFL-CIO, part of the coalition effort, says:
After an incredible effort by more than 1,000 volunteers to collect more than 70,000 signatures, our campaign moves into the next phase: winning the election in November. This is great news for working families in Maine. We know that working people don’t need one more thing on their plates right now. For workers who do shift work, it is an additional barrier to voting to have to get more time off from work to go in and register to vote the week before an election.
Lynch’s Veto of Voter ID Sustained in New Hampshire
Voters in New Hampshire won’t be disenfranchised by what would have been one of the most regressive voter photo ID laws in in the nation after the state Senate today failed to override Gov. John Lynch’s (D) veto of the bill. In the state Senate, where Republicans hold a 19-5 majority, the vote to override was 7-17.
When Lynch vetoed the bill in June, he said it would create a real risk that voters would be denied their right to vote, adding that the state has consistently high voter turnout, no voter fraud problems and strong election laws.
An eligible voter who goes to the polls to vote on Election Day should be able to have his or her vote count on Election Day.
Studies show that in states with similar laws—such as the one Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed in May—students, seniors and people of color are the most likely to be disenfranchised because they lack state-issued photo IDs. Says New Hampshire state Rep. Terie Norelli (D), who opposed the bill when it came before the House:
We do not want to disenfranchise our seniors or our young people or low-income voters. Those are the groups that would have the most difficult time complying.
