EDITORIAL
We salute the Million Worker March
We extend our heartfelt solidarity to all who are marching
in the historic Million Worker March, a beautiful demonstration
of class unity. And we especially salute Local 10 of the
International Longshore & Ware house Union in San
Francisco, for their tenacity, vision and courage in initiating
this march.
Part of the power of the MWM is its strategic timing, coming
before the Nov. 2 elections. The choice of Oct. 17 was not
primarily based on trying to politically influence either of
the big-business candidates, George W. Bush or John Kerry.
While the top leadership of the AFL-CIO is spending tens of
millions of dollars in union dues to elect "the lesser evil"
candidate, Kerry, the message of the Million Worker March is
that a new, dynamic workers' movement is on the horizon--a
movement that will speak and fight in its own name for full
social justice.
The MWM is a clarion call for unity. The billionaire moneyed
class, the real rulers of the United States, have grown rich
off profits produced by the labor of the multinational working
class. These bosses use racism, sexism and lesbian, gay, bi and
trans oppression to divide the workers in order to keep them
from coming together to organize for union jobs, health care,
housing, education and other human needs.
These divisions help profits soar while impoverishment and
disfranchisement deepen. The tiny minority of the rich get even
richer while the vast majority of the workers become even
poorer.
This same ruling class uses its government and the
mainstream media to justify its wars for empire abroad by
pitting workers here against workers in other countries. The
capitalist bosses mask their drive for super-profits under the
guise of "fighting terrorism" or "defending national security."
This kind of jingoistic frenzy helped to justify the repressive
Patriot Act after Sept. 11, 2001, targeting Arabs, South Asians
and Muslims.
The initiators of the MWM have taken a clear stand against
these dangerous divisions--in word and in action. They have
stretched out a hand of solidarity to all currents of the
anti-war movement that have been mobilizing in the streets
against war and occupation in Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti,
Palestine and elsewhere.
The MWM is a revolutionary concept.
The MWM has some similarities to the 1995 Million Man March
in Washington, D.C., the 1997 Million Women's March in
Philadelphia, the 1998 Million Youth March in Harlem and the
1999 Millions for Mumia demonstration in Philadelphia. These
mass demonstrations were not just about bringing out large
numbers of people but about building unity based on a political
program of fighting repression.
The 1995, 1997 and 1998 marches brought out predominantly
African American masses with implicit demands for long-denied
political representation and economic empowerment. Those in the
leadership of these marches were grassroots Black community and
political activists.
Local 10 is a Black-led union that has fought against
apartheid in South Africa and supported a new trial for African
American death-row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. The
Black leadership of Local 10 is attempting with the MWM to
build an independent, grassroots movement based on broad
class-wide solidarity to embrace all nationalities--including
immigrant workers, documented or undocumented.
This merging of anti-racist and class issues by the MWM
shows the potential of this movement to ignite revolutionary
struggle.
It is in the interests of the entire U.S. progressive
movement to help strengthen this exciting new phase of the
workers' upsurge that we are witnessing by providing concrete
solidarity.
Reprinted from the Oct. 21, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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