On the false dichotomy between race and gender issues and class distinctions:

[Damansarajaya]

I am far from an expert on these matters, so I'll defer to those who are:

A. Philip Randolph--a self-proclaimed socialist, he organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first mainly African-American labor union

From Wiki: "He met Columbia University Law student Chandler Owen, and the two developed a synthesis of Marxist economics and the sociological ideas of Lester Frank Ward, arguing that people could only be free if not subject to economic deprivation. At this point, Randolph developed what would become his distinctive form of civil rights activism, which emphasized the importance of collective action as a way for black people to gain legal and economic equality. To this end, he and Owen opened an employment office in Harlem to provide job training for southern migrants and encourage them to join trade unions." (original source: Pfeffer, Paula F. (2000). "Randolph; Asa Philip". American National Biography Online. Oxford U P. Retrieved 2013-2-27.)

Bayard Rustin--self defining as gay and socialist, Rustin is remembered for organizing the world-changing 1963 March on Washington.

Wiki defines his views as follows:

After the passage of the civil-rights legislation of 1964–65, Rustin focused attention on the economic problems of working-class and unemployed African Americans, suggesting that the civil-rights movement had left its period of "protest" and had entered an era of "politics", in which the black community had to ally with the labor movement. Rustin became the head of the AFL–CIO's A. Philip Randolph Institute, which promoted the integration of formerly all-white unions and promoted the unionization of African Americans. The Institute under Rustin's leadership also advanced and campaigned for (from 1966 to 1968) A Freedom Budget for All Americans, linking the concepts of racial justice with economic justice. Supported by over 200 prominent civil-rights activists, trade unionists, religious leaders, academics and others, it outlined a plan to eliminate poverty and unemployment in the United States within a ten-year period.

Diane Nash--raised into a family in which her step-father was a member of the Pullman Porter Union, Diane nearly single-handedly integrated Nashville's lunch counters by publicly asking the mayor of the city if he believed people should be treated unequally based on their race. He admitted that he didn't. (From Wiki) "In August 1961, Diane Nash participated in a picket line, which was protesting a local supermarket's refusal to hire blacks."

Malcolm X-- (Wiki) In his speeches at the Militant Labor Forum, which was sponsored by the Socialist Workers Party, Malcolm X criticized capitalism. After one such speech, when he was asked what political and economic system he wanted, he said he didn't know, but that it was no coincidence the newly independent countries in the Third World were turning toward socialism. When a reporter asked him what he thought about socialism, Malcolm X asked whether it was good for black people. When the reporter told him it seemed to be, Malcolm X told him, "Then I'm for it."

Martin Luther King, Jr-- “In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as ‘right to work.’ It is a law to rob us of our civil rights and job rights.

"Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining by which unions have improved wages and working conditions of everyone. . . Wherever these laws have been passed, wages are lower, job opportunities are fewer and there are no civil rights. We do not intend to let them do this to us. We demand this fraud be stopped. Our weapon is our vote.” 1961

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2014/01/20/3177871/martin-luther-king-radicalism/ (ThinkProgress)

King pushed for a government-guaranteed right to a job. In the years before his assassination, King re-shifted his focus on economic justice in northern cities as well as the South. He launched the Poor People’s Campaign and put forth an economic and social bill of rights that espoused “a national responsibility to provide work for all.” King advocated for a jobs guarantee, which would require the government to provide jobs to anyone who could not find one and end unemployment. The bill of rights also included “the right of every citizen to a minimum income” and “the right to an adequate education.”

He was a critic of capitalism and materialism. King was a strident critic of capitalism and materialistic society, and urged Americans to “move toward a democratic socialism.” Referring to the now iconic Greensboro Lunch Counter sit-ins, he asked, “What good is having the right to sit at a lunch counter if you can’t afford to buy a hamburger?”

King also explicitly linked the problem of capitalism with the problem of racism. “When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered,” he argued in a speech at Riverside Church in 1967.

The reverend was very aware that this kind of challenge was even more dangerous than his work on segregation and civil rights. “You can’t talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can’t talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums,” he warned his staff in 1966. “You’re really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry. Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong with capitalism.”

*****

As far as protecting rights, I know of no better activist than the union in my workplace--it established zero-tolerance for pay inequality years ago on any basis: age, gender, race, or sexual preference. In a non-unionized workplace, employees are subject to firing by even disclosing how much they make to other employees.

[bravenak]

1. We have studied these issues in the intervening years.

I totally do not understand what you are trying to say.

[Damansarajaya]

2. There's no division except for the people who delight in dividing

the progressive movement.

If the Cons can pit the feminists against the white laboring man and the poor whites against the blacks and everybody against the gays and "immigrants," they can maintain power for themselves.

[bravenak]

4. Or, there are racists and sexists and homophobes, and xenophobes.

The ptb just use the biases that are already there to keep power. There are always divisions. Telling blacks that racism is not the real problem is problematic. It is the real problem for us. The racial wage gap is huge. We need to stop shushing people and work for everyone.

[Damansarajaya]

6. Racism is a real problem. It's part of an unequal and unfair system.

Working together with labor on economic issues was one way these civil rights leaders believed that some of the worst effects of racism could be combated.

[bravenak]

7. We need to rush it.

It's been taking too long. I'm sure you agree with that.

[Damansarajaya]

8. Yes, I saw a study out from a few years back that sent out

identical resumes under "white" names and "black" names.

Guess what? The response for interviews was markedly skewed toward the white names:

http://www.nber.org/digest/sep03/w9873.html

The results indicate large racial differences in callback rates to a phone line with a voice mailbox attached and a message recorded by someone of the appropriate race and gender. Job applicants with white names needed to send about 10 resumes to get one callback; those with African-American names needed to send around 15 resumes to get one callback. This would suggest either employer prejudice or employer perception that race signals lower productivity.

[bravenak]

9. I remember that. I already knew it because I have a hispanic name.

With an Arabic middle name on top of that. I turn in Resumes in person for that very reason. I had only been getting call backs for bilingual jobs, insurance jobs, etc. my spanish is not good enough for that kind of position. My reading is flawless but I can barely hold a good conversation in Spanish. Nobody out her to talk to in Spanish that I know that well.
It is so frustrating!!!
If I hand it in in person, I can usually get a call back. It's seems hard for hispanics too. I have literally been treated like I do not know english on the phone, and end up just hanging up. People talk to you so LOUD, if they think you are hispanic. Like yr hard of hearing.

[Damansarajaya]

10. Hah. Yes, I've seen that happen.

It helps to talk more slowly to non-native speakers . . . not louder, duh.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

3. I don't think it's aimed at you personally.

But there are certainly those on site who are willing to ignore economic flaws in certain candidates under the banner of proclaiming them 'liberal enough' in terms of other issues, which, as is noted in the headline is a false dichotomy. Economic justice is inextricably linked with every other form of social justice, so candidates who refuse to address it are undercutting any work they might claim to do for any given minority population. As you say, though, the OP doesn't actually come out and say what prompted the posting, so we can't be sure where he's going.

[bravenak]

5. Oh, ok.

I want to look at all the details of every candidate. I think refusing to discuss the ussues like reasonable adults leads to the division. There are democrats good on the economy, war, and social justice. I'd like to be able to choose from among the many instead of the few.