Million Worker March strides into nation’s capitol

n Sunday, October 17^th many thousand union members and supporters of labor from across the nation rallied at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. As the country prepares to go to the polls to elect a president, these activists wanted to draw attention to the problems facing millions of workers in the United States and around the world who they represent. Hence their name: Million Worker March.

Standing on the steps where the slain civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King made his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963, laborers and activists brought across their message that King's vision of social and economic equality remains more a dream than a reality.

"The majority of working people in America are not doing well," declared Clarence Thomas (called by his friends the real Clarence Thomas), an official with the International Longshoremen and Warehouse Union Local 10 in San Francisco and one of the event’s chief organizers. "With jobs being offshored, outsourced and privatized, our young people are looking at a much more dismal future than we faced."

"Both union and non-union workers realize that they're losing more and more every day," declared Chris Silvera, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 808 in Long Island City. "The fact is, neither political party is really addressing the issues of the working class."

Among the thousands of people who gathered at the foot of the memorial and along the sides of the Reflecting Pool were postal workers, longshoremen, maintenance workers, school bus drivers, teachers, telephone workers, department store staff and railway workers. The mood was thoughtful yet festive as the demonstrators cheered the speakers, chanted, and waved signs and banners with messages such as "Workers Rights Are Human Rights," "End For-Profit Health Care," "Stand Against War and Racism," and "Union Jobs & Health Care, Not War!"

While the purpose of the rally was to send a strong message to legislators, this was not a day for political speeches. Rather, this demonstration provided a voice for union leaders, rank and file union members and other workers, including immigrant workers, as well as civil rights leaders and community activists who strongly support labor here and abroad. Some very fine socially conscious entertainment was also in the mix.

Among some of the most well known speakers were Martin Luther King III, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, actor Danny Glover, entertainer and activist Dick Gregory and Former US Atty Ramsey Clark. Also speaking were the renowned Brenda Stokely, President of AFSCME, District Council 1707; Roger Toussaint, President of the Transport Workers Union Local 100; Donna DeWitt, President of the South Carolina State Federation of Labor; and William "Bill" Lucy, President of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists.

Represented, too, were such organizations as the Haiti Action Committee, Guyanese American Workers United, and the Immigrant Solidarity Network.

Dorothy Benton Lewis from the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA) spoke as well about the fact that for hundreds of years, Black people of African descent were compelled into forced labor without compensation. "Reparations for uncompensated Black labor," she said, "is America’s oldest unresolved labor issue."

Along with the wide array of speakers, there were issue-oriented organizing tents where activists engaged in many different struggles could come together to share information and ideas, and talk about strategies to carry the labor movement forward. For those who wished to take part, there was also a solidarity march to the Hotel Washington in support of District hotel workers, who are in the midst of contract negotiations.

Leading up to the Million Worker March, organizers had issued a 22-point List of Demands. They included:

• Universal health care from cradle to grave.
• A national living wage that lifts people permanently out of poverty.
• Cancellation of all corporate "free" trade agreements, including NAFTA, MAI and FTAA.
• An end to privatization, contracting out, deregulation and pitting of workers against each other across national boundaries.
• Repeal of all anti-labor legislation.
• Fund a crash program to restore decaying public schools and a vast army of teachers to unleash the potential of our children.
• Put an end to the criminalization of poverty and the prison-industrial complex.
• Rebuild decaying inner cities with affordable housing and eliminate homelessness.
• Increase taxation on corporations and the rich while providing relief for the working class and poor.
• End the poisoning of the atmosphere, soil, water and food supply.
• Repeal the Patriot Act, Anti-Terrorism Act and all such repressive legislation.
• Slash the military budget and recover the trillions stolen from our labor.
• End the U.S. occupation of Iraq - bring the troops home now.
• Aggressively enforce all civil rights.
• Mobilize nationally against all racist and discriminatory acts in the work place and in our communities.
• Amnesty for all undocumented workers.

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