Million Worker March Committee Report Back on Boston DNC Protests

Million Worker March Co-Chair Clarence Thomas and Publicity Co-Chair Ralph Schoenman will report back on the protests at the Democratic National Convention and the movement for the Million Worker march planned for October 17, 2004 at the Lincoln memorial in Washington DC. There will also be footage of the march in Boston. Based on a clarion call by the militant longshore union, the march will take place Sunday, October 17 in Washington, D.C.

“Working people say enough is enough,” stated Million Worker March co-chair Clarence Thomas, “For the past twenty years we have been subjected to unrestrained corporate assault. The time has come,” notes Thomas, former secretary-treasurer of ILWU Local 10, “for working people to unite, to advance our own demands and to mobilize around our own agenda, in our own name.”



True to its legacy of struggle, ILWU Local 10 passed a resolution calling upon organized and unorganized workers, community, activist and interfaith organizations to mobilize their constituencies. Harkening back to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s summons to working people 36 years ago for a Poor Peoples’ March on Washington, ILWU Local 10 is galvanizing workers and their families with the Million Worker March resolution, demands and mission statement.

With the support of labor councils, such as, the 2.7 million strong National Education Association (the largest union of workers in the United States) the San Francisco Labor Council and the South Carolina Labor Council, as well as labor affinity groups, such as the Northern California Chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and the San Francisco Chapter of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, rank and file workers as well as union leaders are mobilizing workers from the trades, industry, public and service sectors as well as farm labor.



Actor Danny Glover, comedian Dick Gregory and radio personality Casey Kasem, known for their committment to social activism, are rousing others in the Hollywood community to support the Million Worker March, just as cultural icons recognized the significance of Poor People’s March nearly a generation ago.

“We cannot wait any longer,” Thomas remarked. “We must proclaim a political agenda that serves our vital interests and hold all elected and other officials accountable no matter what people’s expectations may be of the national elections.”