After Wisconsin: The Birth of a New Coalition of Conscience By Martin Luther King III

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.aflcio.org/mediacenter/speakout/martin_luther_king_iii.cfm



Martin Luther King III

By Martin Luther King III

While my father, Martin Luther King Jr., is remembered as a champion of civil rights for African Americans, he was also a steadfast champion of trade unions. As he said, when he addressed the Illinois AFL-CIO convention in 1965, “The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old age pensions, government relief for the destitute and, above all, new wage levels that meant not mere survival, but a tolerable life. The captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they resisted it until they were overcome. When in the thirties the wave of union organization crested over our nation, it carried to secure shores not only itself but the whole society.”

My father understood that racism and anti-unionism shared some similar goals—to deny working people the cornerstone human rights of respect and representation. He knew also that America’s trade unions were the most racially integrated of all major American institutions, and that a union card was the most reliable ticket to decent living standards for African American workers in particular. As the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in 2010, African American union members earned an average of $183 more per week than nonunion black workers, while the advantage for Latino, Asian and white union workers was $259, $67 and $207, respectively.

When my father was assassinated, he was striving to strengthen the bonds between the labor and civil rights movements to forge a multiracial coalition for progress. Since then, conservatives have too often successfully kept working people of different races divided.

But the events of the past few months have damaged this illusion in a wave of fury and protest far beyond the scale that any of us expected. I believe there are two major reasons:

First, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and the conservative coalition behind him let the mask they were wearing slip off—they allowed the American people to see the real right-wing philosophy that lurks behind the populist bluster and “ordinary guy” posturing.

These union-busting conservatives tried to stereotype public workers in Wisconsin as lazy, greedy, pampered parasites, gorging themselves at the expense of the taxpayers. Yet they were talking about teachers, bus drivers, sanitation workers and other hard-working public servants. This arrogant contempt awakened a sleeping giant, as millions of people across the nation began to realize “they are talking about our family members, neighbors and friends.”

FULL story at link.

[iwishiwas]

1. But don't you know that Walker now wants to work with Dems!!...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1507542

[saras]

2. The history of the twentieth century in one sentence.

"The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress."

[Omaha Steve]

3. Kick