Hmm. Maybe more than 10K will show up??? M.P.
--- In SocialistsUnmoderated at yahoogroups.com, "resistgwb" <resistgwb at y...> wrote: MILLION WORKER MARCH http://www.millionworkermarch.org E-NEWSLETTER Vol. 1 No. 2 September 9, 2004
Greetings from the Million Worker March Committee and the International Longshore and Warehouse Workers Union, ILWU Local 10, San Francisco!
FORWARD THIS NEWSLETTER TO ALL LISTSERVES
Fundraising Appeal: Please note that the Million Worker March is in the midst of a major fund raising drive. This is a rank and file and community movement. There is an avalanche of support expressed in the hundreds of endorsements received from union locals, labor councils and community organizations including the American Postal Workers Union International, the National Education Association, and District Council 37 AFSCME. WE NEED YOU and your friends and fellow workers to start fundraising for us. Please click here to donate online NOW! http://www.millionworkermarch.org/article.php?id=68
CONTENTS:
Latest Developments Why Do We Need a March and Why Now? Sign Up To Get on the Bus to DC Help Organize Your Union and Community
1. LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
American Postal Workers Union International AFL-CIO Endorses the Million Worker March
8/27/2004 – (Los Angeles, CA) The American Postal Workers Union International with 330,000 members has endorsed the MWM at their national convention held in Los Angeles at the end of August.
AFSCME District Council 37, Endorses the Million Worker March
9/09/2004 – (NY, NY) District Council 37 AFSCME, representing 125,000 municipal workers has endorsed the Million Worker March! Local MWM organizers have been in contact with DC 37 leaders and have been invited to address local membership meetings.
US Green Party Endorse the Million Worker March
9/9/2004 – (Washington, DC) The United States Green Party has officially endorsed the Million Worker March. The Coordinating Committee of the Green Party, in which 43 state Green Parties are represented, voted overwhelmingly to endorse the event.
2. WHY DO WE NEED A MARCH AND WHY NOW? By F. Christophe Silvera, Secretary-Treasurer Teamsters Local 808, Long Island, NY and Chairman of the Teamsters National Black Caucus
The labor movement has been under continuous siege for over forty years. The Democratic Party passed deregulation both in the trucking and airline industries, passing countless trade agreements including NAFTA and PNTR. There is a difference between getting a bullet in your toe and getting one in your head. The passage of these agreements were bullets in the head for the working people and their labor organizations. With a Democratic President and both houses under Democratic control we still could not pass a Striker Replacement Law. We must not make ourselves stooges of the Democratic Party. We are the collective resources of the working class in their struggle to reverse their decline from the high water mark in 1955. The Republican Party used one bullet to execute their victim when Reagan fired the air traffic controllers, giving the signal to release the final permanent assault on the working families in America and the expansion of the global exploitation of working people.
Have we become more concerned with getting handouts for our electoral support, or do we trust in the collective will and might of the working class? The members we represent want this march. The very survival of our movement calls to a Million Worker March. We must exert our energies and insert into the consciousness of this Great Nation the issues facing working families across the land. This march will change the dialogue of the candidates running for office in November. Such a display of power will allow the Labor movement to place its issues back on the table. Neither candidate is articulating positions that are of real benefit for working families. This is a crucial moment for us to hold their feet to the fire.
Our members elected us to lead. They did not elect us to ponder the fate of two Skull and Bones members. They will freely discuss with you the CIA, NSA, FBI and the Pentagon but will not speak to the direction or actions of their secret fraternity. Virtually all religious groups can agree to the concept of one God. All labor groups believe and understand the concept of the power of mass mobilization of the workers to action. We are all aware of the effects of what the Million Worker March would do for our struggle, why then do we refuse to act?
The advances of trade unionism have only come through mass mobilization of the working class to action. The developments in the second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century justifies the call to mobilize. For all the reasons that working people know and feel every day this call to mobilize is necessary. Global cabals through the General Agreement on Trade and Tariff, the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund have wreaked havoc on the advances of labor in the first half of the century.
It was defiance that allowed Local 808 members to be the first to enjoy a five day, forty hour work week in the railroad industry. It was defiance that allowed us to achieve the greatest advances for railroad workers in the history of organized labor. Through defiance, workers have achieved a high standard of living for working men, women and their families. Are we prepared to lead the twenty-first century Minneapolis Strike of 1934, the Haymarket Riot, Molly Maguire, Knights of Labor, Chicago Stockyard Strike and the list of battles that produced the outcome that we so freely squander away everyday? Workers join Labor Unions to wage their battle against the bosses. Are we the leaders of a workers1 movement or the CEOs1 of service organizations? Are we labor bureaucrats, or are we militant labor leaders with a cause?
The unorganized will be impressed with our strength and solidarity and will flock to our doors seeking to be a part of this powerful force called the labor movement. We will begin to rebuild critical mass. We must become thirty-five percent of the private sector workforce again.
For the full text click: http://www.millionworkermarch.org/article.php?id=57
3. SIGN UP TO GET ON THE BUS!
Please visit our site here http://www.millionworkermarch.org/custom.php?file=2 in order to arrange for transportation to the march. If you already are organizing busses or simply want to offer a carpool ride or need a ride, please sign in and let us know. SEE YOU IN DC!
4. HELP ORGANIZE YOUR UNION AND COMMUNITY
There's only 38 days left to October 17 and the March! Help us organize, sign up, endorse, raise funds and spread the word. Things you can do now:
Visit the website at http://www.millionworkermarch.org Click on `Tell Ten Friends' and fill in friends' email addresses We will send them a link to our site Forward this E-Newsletter to family, friends and contacts Tell them of this historic national mobilization of working people
Come Join Us!
Help Organize the Historic Million Workers March!
Meet Us At the Lincoln Memorial October 17, 2004 Washington, D.C. --- End forwarded message ---