Black Workers For Justice’s MLK labor banquet

Holding their award, from left, are NC HEAT members Seth Keel; Elena Everett, adult adviser; Raul Jimenez and Luis Rangel.

Black Workers For Justice held its 28th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Support for Labor banquet on April 2 at the North Carolina Association of Educators Hall in Raleigh, N.C. Founded 30 years ago, BWFJ has organized mass campaigns for union and civil rights for all workers in the global South, with a special emphasis on African-American and women workers.

North Carolina has the lowest number of unionized workers of any other state due to repressive “right-to-work” laws that deny public sector workers the right to collective bargaining. BWFJ has a close working relationship with United Electrical Local 150, the NC Public Service Workers Union, which is carrying out organizing drives all over the state among the lowest paid, oppressed workers. Recently the union introduced a historic Mental Health Workers Bill of Rights before the North Carolina state legislature by setting up statewide public hearings.

Ajamu Baraka

This year’s keynote banquet speaker was Ajamu Baraka, executive director of the U.S. Human Rights Network, based in Atlanta. Founded in 2003, the network has documented numerous human rights violations in the U.S. in the areas of displacement, education, unemployment, incarcerations and other issues suffered by the poor and people of color. The network has used language in United Nations international human rights treaties to expose these U.S. violations, which have been systematically downplayed and ignored by the big-business-owned press.

The Self-Determination Award, named in honor of the late Abner Berry, one of the founding members of BWFJ, recognized the contributions made by activists. A youth self-determination award was presented to NC Heroes Emerging Among Teens, a member of the NC Coalition to Defend Education. HEAT has played a critical role in mass actions opposing right-wing efforts to resegregate public schools in Wake County.

— Report & photos by Monica Moorehead