STAND FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE: NATIONWIDE ACTION APRIL 4

Rochester, N.Y.-- In more than a dozen states, working families are coming together to face down attacks on good jobs and the right to bargain for a middle-class life. We've seen it in Wisconsin, where more than 100,000 people flooded the Capitol in Madison multiple times. We've seen it in Ohio and Indiana, where protests against anti-worker legislation have continued for a month-- and as a result, we’re winning on many issues and standing up for the rights of working people.

photo:  Ove Overmyer

Whether you were directly involved in worker uprisings or not, you are a part of our movement. These huge efforts were made possible because of the solidarity of people like you, acting together.

We need your help to keep our movement going and growing. We’ll keep giving you opportunities to do it-- we hope you’ll take us up on those opportunities as much as you can, and also find ways to get involved in your own way.

As you know, the right to bargain collectively for a voice at work and a middle-class life are under attack as never before.

So we’re combating these new threats with unprecedented solidarity. On April 4, and on the days surrounding it, working families across the country will be organizing numerous solidarity actions. Together, we’ll stand with working people in Wisconsin and dozens of other states where corporate-bought politicians are trying to take away the rights for which Dr. King gave his life.

The legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"We are determined to be people. We are saying that we are God's children. And that we don't have to live like we are forced to live."

—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speech in Memphis, Tenn., April 3, 1968

photo:  Ove Overmyer

On April 4, we will be called on not to merely remember that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on that day in 1968, but to recall what he was about to do on the day he was shot-- and why the mission he was on that day very much matters to the struggle of poor and the working poor of this great nation.

King was in Memphis to support AFSCME sanitation workers who were caught in a struggle with the city's mayor. It is eerily similar to the battle that public employees in Wisconsin are now fighting with Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans in the state legislature.

At various times in his life, King said he was not opposed to people having wealth. What he disdained was people having wealth at the expense of other people not having wealth and ignoring the poor and disenfranchised.  Just like the 1960's, our tax dollars today are not being spent for the greater good. 

His “Poor People’s Campaign” was really about economic restructuring. His plan was to put pressure on Congress to shift its priorities from war and military spending to housing, health care, jobs and education, focusing especially on the people who were losing jobs because of automation of industry and outsourcing. His message in 1968 could not be more profound describing life in America today.

2011 is reminiscent of the 1920's and 1960's

King saw the emergence of a right-wing campaign to neutralize the power of workers, with the aim of keeping wages suppressed and minimizing business accountability for the safety or well-being of either workers or the communities in which they operated.



Over 100,000 fill the streets of Madison, Wisconsin
to fight back legislation that takes away the rights
of the working class. (photo provided)

 And today, the push-back against this campaign took full force in Madison, Wisconsin at the beginning of 2011 when thousands of citizens descended upon the state capitol building to object to Republican efforts to strip public workers of their bargaining rights. Part of their message was that they would not stand passively by while teachers and other public workers were being asked to "sacrifice" an average $8,000 in salary and benefits to balance the state budget and give up their ability to negotiate over working conditions while corporations were being given millions in state tax breaks.

WE ARE ONE

The "We Are One" movement is seeking to turn that moment into a larger grassroots effort to refocus our national leadership's attention on jobs. It is worth mentioning that in the final year of his life, King was in the process of organizing a mass demonstration in Washington to protest unemployment and poverty conditions that were actually not as worse then as they are now.

The Voice Reporter urges you to go to the "We Are One" website created to be a hub of grassroots activities focusing on today's worker's rights and economic justice issues. The site has links to actions in your region, videos and much, much more. It is important for every right-minded organization to drop your label for the day and connect with the WE ARE ONE movement.

Today, conservative economic policies are threatening to take us into a sustained period of high unemployment, continued stagnant wages and increased economic insecurity for both the poor and the middle class.

April 4 has to be a day in which we call out the people who are pushing this toxic agenda and present a different vision of an America that has a resurgent middle class standing on the foundation of a new economy of broad prosperity.

Monday, April 4 is a day of teach-ins, vigils, rallies and faith events to call for a new era of economic justice. It's a day to be creative. And, it's day to shout: WE ARE ONE.

We’ll be in touch shortly about how you can get involved on April 4 in the Rochester area.

The Voice Reporter thanks you for your continued support. So far, we’ve seen the most inspiring series of uprisings working people have done during our lifetimes-- let’s keep that energy going. Your continued support today, on or around April 4, and in the days, months and years to come will help keep this movement strong.