[lbo-talk] Class Action: The Million Worker March, October 17

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Mon Oct 18 20:59:29 PDT 2004


John Lacny makes it sound as if ILWU Local 10, the initiators and main organizers of the Million Worker March, weren't supporting hotel workers:
>In a number of the cities where the marchers probably came from in
>the first place, hotel workers are out on strike and in need of
>serious support from other people. That's a concrete struggle to get
>involved in, but the organizers of this demonstration wanted to have
>a catch-all rally in Washington instead, with lots of fiery
>speakers, but no concrete task to accomplish.

The reality is that ILWU Local 10, through the Million Worker March, chose to link a concrete short-term task of supporting hotel workers with the general long-term task of building social, economic, and political democracy:

<blockquote>Later in the afternoon, following speeches by King's son, Martin Luther King III, and other civil rights and union leaders, a few hundred marched from the Lincoln Memorial to the Hotel Washington on 15th Street NW in support of District hotel workers.

Negotiators for several major Washington hotels and the union that represents 3,800 hotel employees remain deadlocked on a new contract. Protesters chanted outside the hotel's doors as police looked on. Three hotel workers leaned out a third-floor window, looked down on the crowd and waved in support. (Manny Fernandez and David Nakamura, "Unionists Mobilize for Work, Benefits: Thousands Drawn to Rally at Lincoln Memorial in Prelude to Nov. Vote," _Washington Post_, October 18, 2004, p. B1, <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40594-2004Oct17.html>)</blockquote>

The hotel workers in D.C. understood and appreciated the Million Worker March's demonstration of solidarity -- the only one that made the _Washington Post_ on that day (or before it for that matter); and I'm sure that hotel workers in San Francisco find ILWU Local 10 among their most dependable allies. Wouldn't it have been nice if the AFL-CIO, UNITE HERE, USLAW, UfPJ, etc. had seriously mobilized for the Million Worker March and used the occasion to bring hotel workers' struggles (the lists of hotels on strike and under the strike watch: <http://www.hotellaboradvisor.info/hotelguidestrike.asp>) to national attention? -- Yoshie

* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>



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