Martin Luther King Jr., Campaign 2012 and the American Dream

http://www.afscme.org/blog/martin-luther-king-jr-campaign-2012-and-the-american-dream

by Secretary-Treasurer Lee A. Saunders | January 16, 2012

Each year, the commemoration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a reminder of the remarkable contribution he made to all of us through his courageous defense of civil rights, human dignity and economic justice. Dr. King was a longtime champion of the labor movement, and he died in 1968 while marching with sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn., all members of AFSCME Local 1733. Those workers were fighting for the recognition of their union, for collective bargaining rights and for the respect that every person is entitled to.

Dr. King often spoke of the links between the struggle for workers' rights and the cause of civil rights. "The coalition that can have the greatest impact in the struggle for human dignity here in America is that of the Negro and the forces of labor, because their fortunes are so closely intertwined," he wrote in 1962. He knew that the labor movement had been at the forefront of social and economic progress in the United States, and he wanted to harness the power of working people to transform our society into a more just and prosperous land.

Reflecting on the progress that American workers made since the Great Depression to the 1960s, Dr. King noted that: "The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old age pensions, government relief for the destitute, and above all new wage levels that meant not mere survival, but a tolerable life. The captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they resisted it until they were overcome."

Today, the captains of industry, the Wall Street 1 percent and the politicians who seek to implement their agenda continue their resistance to programs and policies that benefit the poor and the working middle class. In the past two years, they have ramped up their efforts to undermine the rights of workers and minorities throughout the country. They have used the economic crisis brought on by Wall Street greed to place greater burdens on working families while ensuring that more resources continue to flow to the most wealthy members of our society.

FULL story at link.