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Labor’s Allies Move the World
Dallas
Marches
The
Cesar Chavez March for Dignity and Amnesty began at the
Guadalupe
Cathedral in downtown Dallas on March 31
About 1,200
Americans stood up against oppression and spoke up for Democracy in downtown
Dallas on March 31. The occasion was the Cesar Chavez March for Dignity and
Amnesty. Instead of one big statewide march this year, the birthday of the
labor legend was celebrated all over the state. Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Steve
Salazar brought joy to the crowd when he announced an initiative to make the
birthday a paid holiday for City workers. Salazar said he had five votes on the
City Council for the idea already. Council members John Loza and Leon Chaney
were there to back him up.
U.S.
Senator Phil Gramm was a popular target. At the rally by the Old Red
Courthouse, children with sticks beat up a pinata
that looked amazingly like him. Gramm has earned the disgust of immigrants-rights
supporters by opposing any form of amnesty and by advocating programs that
would bring “guest” workers from other lands. The “guests” would have no rights
and would work for the lowest possible wages while in this country.
The
march was much broader than similar amnesty marches held in years past. Unions
and environmentalists took a much bigger role. They pushed for an end to the
world-wide corporate demand for more "globalization without
representation." The speaker from the Jobs with Justice coalition called
for another downtown gathering on April 21, when worldwide protests will occur
over the proposed new "Free Trade for the Americas." One of the
banners proclaimed, "Globalization Causes Immigration."
In
addition to having labor participants and speakers at the Dallas rally, the
United Farm Workers received hundreds of signup cards from the crowd. The
UNITE! needletrades union also had an especially strong presence.
**
North Texans Review Choices and Challenges
On February
17, leaders of North Texas unions, churches, student groups, protest
organizations, environmentalists, and civil rights groups gave their views on
the challenges and choices before Americans at the Jobs with Justice meeting at
2218 E Main Street in Grand Prairie. With 65 people attending, it was the
largest monthly meeting that Jobs with Justice ever had.
Labor Council
for Latin American Advancement leader cooked an excellent lunch and signed up
several new members. 
The first speaker was Dallas AFL-CIO leader Gene Freeland. He set the
tone by outlining labor’s recent accomplishments and the problems we now face.
He said that labor’s enemies had initiated a number of direct and indirect
attempts to muzzle America’s working people. He concluded, “We are in danger.
We are prepared to fight. We are prepared to fight every minute. We are
determined to win. We have to win. We have to win, or this will be the largest
non-union nation in the world!”
City
Councilman Steve Salazar stressed the massive voting power of the growing
minority population. Along with many of
the speakers, he encouraged everyone to be involved in their local
elections. A particular issue for working people is the campaigns to win
“Living Wage” resolutions. Salazar was the first councilman to support a
resolution in Dallas.
Reverend L
Charles Stovall, President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference made
a dramatic call for unity among all progressive organizations. “We are in a
critical period in the life of our country,” he pointed out. His prescription:
“Work to build the kind of coalition that can make a difference. You can’t do
it by yourself and we can’t do it by ourselves.” The Reverend added, “I hope
that you who are working in the a labor 
movement establish some kind of relationship with God.... Start
somewhere, and build a relationship so that you can have a spiritual
foundation. You’re going to need it in these coming years!”
Civil rights
leader Lee Alcorn said, “This meeting is what we need; to have these kind of
small meetings across the country; to understand what is happening and what to
do. We 
need to understand what is happening so we can prevent the kinds of
things that are happening in this country. We have people now who don’t care
about anybody’s rights anymore.”
High school
student Byron LaMasters, pictured with Anna Casey and Monica Wood, was
extremely well received as he outlined his continuing political activities
since last 
November. He had used his internet skills to help organize a number of
public demonstrations against reactionary political figures. The last one was
three days before, and he invited the crowd to another two days after!
Activist Ann
Casey stressed the consistent failure of the commercial media to report the
truth. She said, “I am outraged at the theft of the truth. If we don’t overcome
that, how can we overcome anything else?” Public activity was the remedy, Casey
said. “The failure of the commercial media to report the truth is forcing
working people to the streets,” she concluded.
The Texas
District Director for the national AFL-CIO, Rebecca Flores, was the featured
speaker, but she waited to hear 
local speakers before beginning. She went over the labor federation’s
many recent successes. She said that they were based on worker-to-worker
programs on shop floors. She encouraged everyone to take part in workplace
political activity. She also encouraged coalition building as the way to
strengthen labor in America. She complimented the many different kinds of
activists who had gathered for the meeting. Flores was particularly pleased
with the progress that North Texas labor has made in working with Hispanic
organizations.
Flores’ main
message was that Americans will have to work very hard to preserve and extend
their basic right to organize.
Immigrants-rights
leader Paul Kerr blasted labor’s enemies for pretending that they care about
immigrants when they sponsor programs to bring foreigners as “temporary guest
workers” with no rights. All they want to do, he said, is use them to lower
everybody’s wages. The real solution is to win rights on the jobs for immigrant
workers and everyone else. As some wages rise, other wages will tend to go up.
Kerr said
that union people had helped build the largest street demonstration that Dallas
had ever seen in April of 2000. He said a repeat performance is being organized
for Cesar Chavez’ birthday, March 31.
Dr. Patrick Ryan of the University of Texas at
Dallas gave a precise description of globalization: “The real purpose of the
free trade rhetoric is to 
give
corporations the ability to go to other countries and exploit the people there
because they haven’t won some of the victories we have.” He urged the crowd,
“When you hear somebody yell, ‘free trade!’ we need to respond with ‘fair
trade!’”
In between the prepared speakers, moderator
Elaine Lantz called for questions and comments from a good many of the
participants at the meeting. When she finally called on Kimberly Olsen of the
Dallas Living Wage Coalition, it was apparent that she had saved the best for
last. Many of the Jobs with Justice activists had been involved with the Dallas
Living Wage Coalition since it began almost two years earlier.
Olsen said that
the Mayor of Dallas had moved to block the Dallas Living Wage ordinance through
a legal maneuver. She asked all able activists to go to the Dallas City
Council meeting, 1600 Young Street in
Dallas, at 9 AM on Wednesday, February 28, to demand better minimum wages. Her
rousing call for united action was a fitting ending to an exceptionally good
“town hall” type meeting. If we aren’t going to start moving together, why do
all the talking?
**
Youth
Support Labor
The AFL-CIO
is again sponsoring Union Summer where about a thousand students put in 3-4
weeks on various kinds of union campaigns. The “Summeristas” have wonderful
experiences. Contact the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute at 1-800-
952-2550 or
apply online at unionsummer@aflcio.org.
**
SCLC
Is On The Move Again
The Southern
Christian Leadership Conference held a special event on January 15. Check it
out on our civil rights page.
**
Jobs
with Justice: "We Are About Winning!"
"Jobs
with Justice is the most exciting place to be in the whole American movement
today... We are about winning!" - Paul
Booth, Administrative Assistant to the President of AFSCME, a top student
activist of the 1960s, and one of many exciting speakers at the Jobs with
Justice conference at Dartmouth Massachusetts, July 20-23.
Nine North Texans and two Austinites joined over 500 JwJ
activists gathered to celebrate recent victories, analyze problems, and strategize
for the coming battles. Every one of them, and hundreds of local people,
picketed an AT&T facility in nearby Fairhaven on behalf of the
Communications Workers of America. Other major events took place around
religion-labor alliances, student-labor alliances, international labor
situations, pride at work, and a special study of job losses and social
problems caused by prison privatization. There were more than 40 smaller
workshops, mostly on the unbelievable array of successful tactics being used by
JwJ activists across the nation. Please pick a topic from the
list below:
**
Labor’s Allies Help Get Out the Vote
The story of labor’s get-out-the-vote efforts in North Texas this year
would be far from complete without mentioning our many allies. Activists in the
immigrants-rights movement, for example, registered over 1000 Spanish speaking
voters, mostly in precincts targeted by labor. They worked with the Labor
Council for Latin American Advancement and the Southwest Voter Registration and
Education League. The A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI) also registered
voters independently during the campaign. The Association of Community
Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) registered 3,000 voters, mostly in the 6th
City Council District. Below are
immigrants-rights organizer Maria Dominguez and ACORN organizer Kimberly Olsen.
