On 1 February 1968, two Memphis garbage collectors, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, were crushed to death by a malfunctioning truck. Twelve days later, frustrated by the city’s response to the latest event in a long pattern of neglect and abuse of its black employees, 1,300 black men from the Memphis Department of Public Works went on strike. Sanitation workers, led by garbage-collector-turned-union-organizer, T. O. Jones, and supported by the president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Jerry Wurf, demanded recognition of their union, better safety standards, and a decent wage.
On April 4, 1968 as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was getting ready for dinner, he was shot and killed on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.
"After his death, we marched. You couldn't hear a sound. You couldn't hear nothin' but leather against pavement," Rogers says, comparing the loss to what he would feel in losing a family member. "But we survived and with God's help, we came through." http://www.npr.org/...
Unions across this country are holding rallies on April 4 and the week to honor labor leaders who sacrificed everything, to remind the country of the despicable abuses of power we face now, and most importantly how we are one.
You can find more at AFSCME, SEIU, or AFL-CIO sites. There are resources there. You can download posters. There are links there that will point you to this site created to help you find a rally to attend. Get involved, contact your local organizers, and stand up and be counted so that the Scott Walkers of this country know which side working Americans are on.
Let's be very clear about what is happening in the US now. At a time when national leaders should be helping in the creation of jobs, Republicans want to put austerity measures in place. Ever the masters of FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) they've created a panic for urgent action on cutting non-defense spending while ignoring the need for jobs, living wages, and fair labor standards. Their pretense of fiscal concerns is as obvious as it is destructive. They reject all reasonable fiscal options. They want to give tax breaks to corporations and place heavier burdens on the poor and the middle class.
The Republican Governors Association, flush with cash from gifts like the one million dollar contribution from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp targeted states like WI, OH, FL, MI and got a jaw dropping line up of dictators and criminals elected.
Austerity measures don't work when unemployment is high and the Republicans know that too. They want the economy to flounder until the 2012 elections. But ask the people in the UK how their austerity programs are working. Is that where the US is headed? Can we get enough of us onto the streets now to head this off?
Please consider rec'ing this so that everyone in the DK community gets a chance to find a rally to attend.
Bring your friends, your family and your marching music...