Labor returns to Memphis for
Martin Luther King Jr. Day event
By JAMES PARKS
National AFL-CIO
In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr.
told striking sanitation workers that
we all are “tied together in a single
garment of destiny. If one black per-
son suffers, if one black person is
down, we’re all down. It is a crime for
people to live in this rich nation and
receive slave wages.”
With studies showing that 45 per-
cent of African Americans who were
born in the late 1960s into middle-
class families have fallen into the bot-
tom 20 percent of income, more than
600 union and civil rights activists are
gathering in Memphis this week to
reaffirm their commitment to making
King’s dream a reality.
The annual AFL-CIO King Day
celebration Jan. 17–21 in Memphis —
the city where King died 40 years ago
while helping striking sanitation
worker — will focus on taking politi-
cal action, helping workers form
unions and building coalitions to en-
sure that King’s dream becomes a re-
ality.
“In 1961, Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. told the AFL-CIO convention that
‘when the Negro wins, labor wins,’
and that is just as true now as it was
then,” said AFL-CIO Executive Vice
President Arlene Holt Baker. “He
warned us that the forces that fought
against unions also tried to keep Ne-
groes from voting and in poverty.”
Holt Baker continued: “He said,
‘Those who in the second half of the
19th century could not tolerate organ-
ized labor have had a rebirth of power
and seek to regain the despotism of
that era while retaining the wealth and
privileges of the 20th century. Their
target is labor, liberals and the Negro
people.’ ”
Holt Baker said the big change is
that the list of those most disdained by
the ultraconservative right wing has
only expanded. “It no longer includes
just labor, liberals and the Negro — it
now includes new immigrants of all
races, young people, gays and lesbians
and the working poor, who are dispro-
portionately single mothers and peo-
ple of color.”
Holt Baker said it is those on that
list “that we in the labor movement
have aligned ourselves with in a coali-
tion that will make possible the real-
ization of the dream we all
share for the economic and
social justice Dr. King lived
and died for.”
The activists will celebrate
King’s life by taking a look
back at what the Memphis sanitation
workers strike meant to working peo-
ple and people of color. The 64-day
strike ended with a union contract for
some 1,300 members of the American
Federation of State, County and Mu-
nicipal Employees Local 1733. The
strike is credited with reviving a dor-
mant union movement in Memphis
and initiating a wave of public em-
ployee union organizing in other parts
of the South.
The activists will hear about the
strike and its impact from speakers in-
cluding the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who
was one of King’s aides; the Rev.
James Lawson, Vanderbilt University
distinguished professor, who helped
the sanitation workers; Michael
Honey, author of Going Down Jericho
Road, which chronicles events in the
strike and King’s assassination; and
AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Bill
Lucy, who was a union organizer dur-
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ing the strike.
On Friday, Jan. 18, Lucy will lead a
special roundtable discussion with
veterans of the strike, including mem-
bers of the clergy, community organ-
izers and sanitation workers.
But the conference will not just
look back — the participants will look
forward to find ways to bolster the
movement for economic and social
justice. An entire afternoon of the con-
ference will be devoted to political ed-
ucation and training.
Ronald Walters, a political analyst
and professor at the University of
Maryland, will discuss the importance
of the 2008 elections for people of
color, and AFL-CIO Political Director
Karen Ackerman will address how
workers can win in 2008. Participants
also will spend almost four hours Fri-
day afternoon in get-out-the vote
training sessions.
The weekend will be devoted to
community service projects designed
to serving the community that King
worked to help — the poor and disad-
vantaged. AFL-CIO President John
Sweeney will present a computer lab
paid for by union members to a local
elementary school, and AFSCME and
the Transport Workers will make con-
tributions to schools and the Head
Start program.
IN MEMORIAM
Gary Thrasher, a former president
of Graphic Communications Interna-
tional Union Local 43, passed away
Dec. 22 of cancer. He was 58.
Thrasher grew up in Southeast Port-
land, where he attended Washington
High School and Portland Community
College. He entered the field of com-
mercial printing in 1972 and worked as
a journeyman press operator and press-
room foreman for 35 years.
A member of the Choctaw Nation,
Thrasher served as Local 43’s president
for 10 years. He was a volunteer bell-
ringer for Salvation Army and volun-
teer for the Oregon Peace Institute.
He is survived by his wife, Suzanne;
daughter, Keely LeDoux; stepdaugh-
ters, Randi Adai and Mikki Adair-
Berens; son, Tyler; brothers, Harold
and Darrell; and five grandchildren. Re-
membrances can be sent to Mercy
Corp.
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JANUARY 18, 2008