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Headlines from the front lines
D.C. protest calls for new movement
October 30, 2004 @ 08:48:25 pm
Million Worker March reclaims labor's militant roots

By Monica Moorehead

Washington, D.C. -- Timely. Unifying. Forward moving. And most of all--necessary. These adjectives and many more describe the historic Million Worker March that took place at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 17.

For almost eight hours, workers, organized and unorganized, along with anti-war and community activists heard speeches and cultural presentations that emphasized the tremendous need to build a new, independent movement that will fight in the interests of working people.

The MWM was initiated by the Black leadership of Local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in San Francisco. Clarence Thomas, a leader of Local 10 and a national co-convener of the MWM, said at the rally: "The majority of working people in America are not doing well. With jobs being offshored, outsourced, privatized, our young people are looking at a much more dismal future."

People came in buses, vans and car caravans as well as by train and airplane from all over the country to get to the MWM. In New York City, from which most buses came, union locals like Transit Workers Local 100, Teamsters Local 808, Service Employees/1199 health care workers and AFSCME District Council 1707 mobilized sizable delegations of workers.

From Pennsylvania, delegations of workers represented Service Employees Local 668, International Electrical Union Local 119, the Federation of Government Employees and 1199C. Western Massachusetts was represented by Auto Workers Local 2322, the Graduate Employee Organization and Office of ALANA Affairs at UMass Amherst, and a Worcester carpenters' union, along with students from Mt. Holyoke, Smith and Hampshire colleges.

From Virginia, IUE Local 160 from Williamsburg along with the Richmond and Blacksburg Organizing Committees of the MWM were there. The Richmond Coalition for a Living Wage brought its members to MWM.

The Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice organized welfare rights and environmental activists for the MWM.

Steel Workers Local 8751, school bus drivers and monitors in Boston, mobilized. So did International Longshore Association Local 1422 in Charleston, S.C., and the North Carolina-based Black Workers for Justice. Haitian workers and activists also came.

The police estimate of the crowd was 10,000, although some MWM organizers felt that the participation was as much as twice that number. Organizers reported that police had illegally diverted at least 30 buses to RFK Stadium, located far from the rally site.

Labor and anti-war movements join forces

When the MWM was first conceived in the beginning of 2004, the initiators had hoped the national leadership of the AFL-CIO, headed by John Sweeney, would give full political support and the resources needed to fill buses. Instead, the AFL-CIO leadership refused help to the march, and even undermined it.

To counter the AFL-CIO leadership's negative response, MWM organizers then reached out to the anti-war movement for broad political and concrete support. The International Action Center helped form "Anti-War Committees 4 the MWM" all over the country, to link the anti-war struggle and the workers' movement.

Some of the MWM's main demands were to bring the troops home from Iraq and to divert money from Pentagon wars abroad to human needs.

These struggles were linked not just in words but also in deed. For instance, the Central New Jersey Coalition for Peace and Justice shared a bus with Casa Freehold, an outgrowth of the Workers Committee for Progress and Social Welfare and Monmouth County Residents for Immigrants' Rights.

Rally speakers included Clarence Thomas, Leo Robinson and Trent Willis from Local 10; Brenda Stokely, president of AFSCME District Council 1707; International Concerned Family and Friends leader Pam Africa, who introduced an audiotaped message from Mumia Abu-Jamal; former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark; Larry Holmes, IAC co-chair and principal anti-war organizer of the MWM; d*** Gregory; Danny Glover; Martin Luther King III; Marlene Jean-Louis of Haiti's Lavalas movement; ANSWER representatives; Chris Silvera of Teamsters Local 808 and many more.

The rally co-chairs included Sharon Black, MWM's Washington regional coordinator, and Ralph Schoenman, MWM's media coordinator.

On-going issue-oriented discussions took place in tents on the Lincoln Memorial grounds during the rally, including youth and student organizing, the environment, political prisoners, reparations, the war on Iraq, women's issues and more.

Hundreds of MWM participants marched to the Hotel Washington near the White House, where hotel workers looking out the window greeted them with waves. UNITE HERE Local 25 Executive Secretary-Treasurer John A. Boardman greeted the primarily youthful marchers. He expressed appreciation to the MWM for much-needed solidarity at a crucial time, when almost 4,000 hotel workers in the D.C. area are in fierce negotiations with greedy hotel bosses for a new contract.

Leading the march to the hotel was Fight Imperialism--Stand Together (FIST), a newly formed militant youth group; Youth United for Change, a predominantly Black group from Philadelphia; and a delegation of anarchist youth.

AFL-CIO leadership & the MWM

On June 23, AFL-CIO President Sweeney had authored a letter regarding the MWM to all state federations and central labor councils of the AFL-CIO. He told them "not to sponsor or devote resources to the demonstration in Washington, D.C."

And Sweeney emphasized in the letter that "the AFL-CIO is NOT a co-sponsor of this effort and we will not be devoting resources or energies toward mobilizing demonstrations this fall," but will work instead to remove "George W. Bush from office."

In the eyes of the top AFL-CIO leadership, not only would they spend tens of millions of dollars of union dues to try to elect John Kerry, but they would prevent the mobilization of millions of workers who might come to Washington, D.C., to fight for universal health care, a living wage, amnesty for undocumented workers, guaranteed pensions, a repeal of anti-labor legislation like the Taft-Hartley Act and much more.

This approach sabotaged and undermined the full potential of the MWM. For instance, SEIU/1199's rank and file in New York City voted to endorse the MWM and arrange buses for its members. Instead, the local leadership diverted buses to take their staff and others to canvas for Kerry in Pennsylvania and other "swing" states.

At a national Black Caucus meeting of the Teamsters held in Florida over the summer, the locals voted overwhelmingly to organize buses to the MWM. Soon afterward, Teamsters President James Hoffa personally ordered the union's locals to abort those plans.

In union after union, from the Postal Workers to AFSCME to the National Edu cation Association, activists who wanted to devote their time and resources to organizing workers to attend the MWM were pressured to cease building for the MWM, and in some cases in the week before Oct. 17, to canvas for Kerry.

Despite these problems, thousands of workers and union activists came to Washington.

What's next after Oct. 17?

On Oct. 18, regional organizers of the MWM met in the D.C. area to both evaluate the march and brainstorm on proposals to move the MWM movement forward.

Among the ideas that regional coordinators agreed to bring back to their regions for further discussion were setting a national day in solidarity with the hotel workers as well as other low-wage workers struggling for contracts, and identifying International Women's Day and May Day for MWM activities.

Other ideas included setting a "Repeal the Taft-Hartley" day, setting up workers' boards, and setting dates for MWM planning meetings and conferences.

In addition to proposing to the regions that Dec. 3-10 be designated "Stop the War Now Week" for mass actions, the meeting also began discussing its posture toward next summer's AFL-CIO convention in Chicago, as well as setting a date for another MWM day of action during the fall of 2005.

Despite the efforts of those labor leaders who promote the Democratic Party as the primary organization for advancing the cause of workers, the MWM has not only arrived--but its leadership is making exciting plans to build a new movement to push the struggle for workers' rights forward. Workers World newspaper will continue its coverage and assessment of the MWM as more information becomes available in the coming period.

Reprinted from the Oct. 28, 2004, issue of Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
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