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‘Dr. King was nation’s greatest unionist’ Millions commemorate peace, civil rights leader
Last week, Americans marched, rallied, petitioned, held community service events and worshipped in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Here are only a few of the tens of thousands of events honoring King’s legacy, the civil rights movement and the fight for peace, dignity and economic justice for all.
HOUSTON: The AFL-CIO’s national civil rights conference here, Jan. 11-15, celebrated the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. with some 500 union activists from more than 15 international unions and many different states, including New York, California, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The Rev. Joseph Lowery, president emeritus of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, called for reinvigorating the “coalition of conscience.” He said he wants to ordain labor activists as “chaplains of the common good.”
“In the old days of anticommunist hysteria,” Lowery said, “we compromised principles, we sacrificed ideals, we glorified violence, we maximized the material and minimized the spiritual, we dehumanized the poor, we trivialized social sensitivity, we castrated compassion, we demonized the saints and canonized the devils. All this in the name of fighting the evil empire.”
Lowery urged activists to “fight for peace.” He assailed the forces that divide and challenged people to resist the tactics used by the ruling elite such as homophobia and the exploitation of the trauma of 9/11.
Lowery said, “Jesus identified himself with the least. … He did not identify with the fat cats.” Referring to Dr. King, he said, “Martin gave his life for the least of us.”
He also called for a compassionate and sane attitude towards immigration and to save youth from drugs.
We need a “rebirth of the excitement of our task when we work for the common good” and “a new belly full of fire — fire that comes from doing the right thing,” he said.
AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson called for working people to organize for the fight against “the very worst president.” She urged union organizing as a way to fight poverty and discrimination.
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka said he found Bush’s escalation speech last week “chilling,” and “the only thing he left out was to say, ‘I’m going to keep on fighting until the last drop of your blood.’” He said under the Bush administration, profits have gone up and wages and vital social programs have gone down.
Read More
http://pww.org/article/articleview/10441/1/355/
The Rev. Joseph Lowery, president emeritus of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, called for reinvigorating the “coalition of conscience.” He said he wants to ordain labor activists as “chaplains of the common good.”
“In the old days of anticommunist hysteria,” Lowery said, “we compromised principles, we sacrificed ideals, we glorified violence, we maximized the material and minimized the spiritual, we dehumanized the poor, we trivialized social sensitivity, we castrated compassion, we demonized the saints and canonized the devils. All this in the name of fighting the evil empire.”
Lowery urged activists to “fight for peace.” He assailed the forces that divide and challenged people to resist the tactics used by the ruling elite such as homophobia and the exploitation of the trauma of 9/11.
Lowery said, “Jesus identified himself with the least. … He did not identify with the fat cats.” Referring to Dr. King, he said, “Martin gave his life for the least of us.”
He also called for a compassionate and sane attitude towards immigration and to save youth from drugs.
We need a “rebirth of the excitement of our task when we work for the common good” and “a new belly full of fire — fire that comes from doing the right thing,” he said.
AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson called for working people to organize for the fight against “the very worst president.” She urged union organizing as a way to fight poverty and discrimination.
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka said he found Bush’s escalation speech last week “chilling,” and “the only thing he left out was to say, ‘I’m going to keep on fighting until the last drop of your blood.’” He said under the Bush administration, profits have gone up and wages and vital social programs have gone down.
Read More
http://pww.org/article/articleview/10441/1/355/
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