------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Aug. 05, 2004 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
DNC PROTESTERS SHOW SOLIDARITY WITH MILLION WORKER MARCH By Bryan G. Pfeifer Boston Setting the tone for the week of protests at the Democratic National Convention here, Million Worker March organizers issued an uncompromising message at a rally on the Boston Common July 25: "We are not only building for the Oct. 17 MWM, we are building an independent class-wide movement." MWM organizers were invited to speak at the rally and march called by the Coalition to Protest the DNC. "There is a war at home as well as the war abroad. The reason for the Million Worker March is that we are organizing this march in our own name because of the fact that the only time that working people gain any concessions from the system is when we organize independently from the Democratic and Republican parties," declared Clarence Thomas, executive board member of International Long shore and Warehouse Union Local 10 and MWM co-convener. Thomas is known internationally for his union's militant stance against apartheid and the Iraq war, as well as supporting a new trial for political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. "The war on Iraq and the war on working people in America are connected. It's very important that we come together, the anti-war and the labor movement, to oppose the war, bring the troops home now and push for a workers' agenda," said Thomas. Sharing the stage with Thomas were Brenda Stokely, president of AFSCME District Council 1707 and a MWM co-convener; Steve Gillis, president of Steel workers Local 8751, the Boston school bus drivers' and monitors' union; and Ralph Schoenman, co-producer of the Pacifica Radio program "Taking Aim." A beautiful banner called on the crowd to join with the MWM. Many buttons reading "Oct. 17, 2004, Washington D.C.: Organizing in our own name," were sold at the rally. The MWM organizers made it clear that organized labor must break with the two capitalist parties to forge an independent workers' movement, and put special emphasis on the anti-worker history of both John Kerry and John Edwards. This history includes Kerry voting for NAFTA, the so-called "free trade" agreement that has been a colossal disaster for all workers, especially the oppressed; his opposition to same-sex marriage rights; and his failure to return to the Senate from the campaign trail to vote on a recent bill to extend unemployment benefits for workers. The bill needed just one more vote to pass. Kerry's partner-in-crime Edwards, hail ing from the notorious "right to work" or scab state of North Carolina, voted for NAFTA as well. Both support Israel's oppres sion of the Palestinians, voted for the Patriot Act and the bill authorizing the use of military force against Iraq, and are for internationalizing the Iraq war as well as sending more U.S. troops and resources to that occupied country and worldwide. Brenda Stokely, president of New York's District Council 1707 of AFSCME, which represents 23,000 workers, mainly women and people of color who work in the home health care and day care sectors, gave a rousing, militant speech about the contempt and disrespect for workers of ruling class figures like billionaire New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. "The Million Worker March is all about what Malcolm X said, 'Break the chains off of your mind' ... fight for your interests." Stokely added, "Why do we have to beg the U.S., the richest country on earth, for healthcare when Cuba, after all the years of being embargoed, can provide free healthcare?" She ended her talk with this warning to the ruling class, "Get off my back, get off my mind and get off my foot." Stokely, along with other progressive and anti-war delegates, helped get a resolution passed at the recent AFSCME national convention to end the occupation of Iraq and bring the troops home now. After the rally, MWM organizers joined the front of the march to the Fleet Center, site of the Democratic National Conven tion. The MWM banner was carried alongside the lead banner, which read "Bring the troops home now: End occupation from Palestine to Iraq to Haiti. Money for jobs, education and healthcare, not war." MWM organizers and other trade unionists marched shoulder-to-shoulder with thousands of their progressive allies. The AFL-CIO national leadership has sent out a letter discouraging organized labor from supporting the MWM. Instead it orders unions to devote their resources to supporting the Democratic Party ticket of Kerry and Edwards. Nevertheless, this independent workers' struggle is gathering momentum and a national character. MWM organizers have already spoken to scores of labor and community organizations to build for what promises to be an historic event. Kickoff rallies took place in San Francisco on May 22, Washington, D.C., on July 14, and New York City on July 15. Leaders of Local 10 attended, along with unionists from the Service Employ ees, the Teamsters, Food and Commercial Workers, the Newspaper Guild of the Com munications Workers and AFSCME. Chris Silvera, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Joint Council 808, president of the Black Caucus of the Teamsters and co- convener of the MWM, spoke at the D.C. rally. Jobs with Justice, the International Action Center and ANSWER also attended. Endorsers of MWM thus far include all West Coast ILWU locals, the 2.7- million member National Education Association, International Action Center, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, South Carolina State AFL- CIO, South Carolina Interna tional Longshoremen's Association, Cali fornia State Association of Letter Carr iers, Coalition of University Employees Local 3, the Labor Council of Albany, N.Y., and the Harlem Unemployment League. Also endor sing are the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union of Britain and the Doro Chiba Railroad Workers of Japan. Indi vidual endorsers include Danny Glover, Dick Gregory, Howard Zinn, Casey Kasem, Michael Franti, Noam Chomsky and Utah Phillips. For more information and to support the Million Worker March, see www.millionworkermarch.org. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. 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