From the Labor Commission of the CPUSA, updates, information, news, analysis, and organizing materials in solidarity with workers of the world.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Who’s got the power?

With all the hype around the elections, all the scandals coming to the surface around elected officials and the increased pillaging of our constitution and civil liberties, it’s time to ask ourselves what is really going on in this country.

April 4 marks the 40th anniversary of the death of one of this country’s great public servants, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. King was an agitator who spoke truth to power even when it was not politically convenient, an organizer who lent his voice to amplify the power of the movement the sanitation workers were building in Memphis, and a visionary who shared a dream of a better America, where he hoped one day his children would be free to be themselves. His dream shaped that era. But 40 years later, in many ways it seems we’re in a place very similar to where we were then.

The year 2008 presents a historic opportunity for the majority in this country who see the need to change our approach to almost everything that has been touched by the Bush administration and its predecessors. These are really our wrongs, too, because we as a country failed to prevent the invasion of Iraq, failed to hold our elected officials accountable, failed to do much beyond the click of a mouse or maybe going out to a big march. So now we must ask ourselves, who’s got the power to change this?

This week thousands of students and workers in over 100 cities are taking action in the streets, in boardrooms and in classrooms during the Student Labor Week of Action. This powerful show of solidarity is making student-labor connections around issues such as access to education, the right to bargain collectively and to have a voice on the job, ending modern day slavery whether it is in a sweatshop in Asia or in the tomato fields in Florida. Article continues here.

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