{"id":5264,"date":"2011-04-04T16:58:14","date_gmt":"2011-04-04T20:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=5264"},"modified":"2011-04-05T08:46:10","modified_gmt":"2011-04-05T12:46:10","slug":"decades-after-mlks-death-fight-for-labor-rights-persists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=5264","title":{"rendered":"Decades After MLK’s Death, Fight For Labor Rights Persists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Forty-three years ago, while in Memphis to support striking sanitation workers, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr<\/strong>. was assassinated. While this date is marked with the laying of wreaths and glowing speeches, many will commemorate this historic tragedy by reading his works and asking the question, “If Dr. King<\/strong> were alive today…what would he say?”<\/p>\n

Fortunately, his words are well documented and his speeches and writings are archived. When one looks back at his historic words and actions it is clear to even the most casual observer that Dr. King’s<\/strong> past was prologue.<\/p>\n

In 2011, America is grappling with many of the same issues and conflicts that Dr. King<\/strong> fought for in 1968. He would look at state government’s attacks on unions, unrest in the Middle East, and America’s unnecessary ongoing wars and say as he did in 1968; “The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land. Confusion all around.”<\/p>\n

In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich <\/strong>recently signed legislation curtailing public employee’s rights to strike and collectively bargain over health coverage and pensions. In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker<\/strong> recently signed into law legislation stripping public workers of most of their collective bargaining rights. Republican lawmakers in Tennessee are feverishly trying to pass legislation that would overturn the 1978 law that gave teachers the power to form unions and negotiate collectively with local school districts.<\/p>\n

The night before he was assassinated, Dr. King<\/strong> stood before a packed room of supporters of the striking sanitation workers in Memphis and spoke to the injustices that the city was imposing upon its public servants. Dr. King<\/strong> stated, “The issue is injustice. The issue is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers.”<\/p>\n

The issue today is fairness and honesty. For example, the so-called “fiscal crisis” in Wisconsin was created by Gov. Walker’s <\/strong>tax policies not by the benefits being paid to unionized pubic employees. According to US News and World Report, “What was Walker<\/strong> thinking, cutting taxes by $117.2 million as his first act when his state faced a deficit of $137 million…The rich will take advantage of that boondoggle and it won’t create jobs.” He created the budget short-fall and then attacked the unions to solve the problem he created. At the national level, the “tax breaks for the wealthy” are having the same impact.<\/p>\n

Dr. King<\/strong> also saw organized labor as a key to addressing racial strife in America. In Where Do We go From Here he wrote, “This potential strength (of the Negro worker) is magnified further by the fact of their unity with millions of white workers…As co-workers there is a basic community of interest that transcends many of the ugly divisive elements of traditional prejudice…In days to come, organized labor will increase its importance in the destinies of Negroes.”<\/p>\n

As the people in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, and other countries struggle for freedom and democracy, Western governments, despite years of economic and military support for the dictators in these countries, are now claiming support for democracy and freedom. Dr. King<\/strong> tied the plight of sanitation workers in Memphis to people struggling for freedom all over the world. He stated, “… something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee — the cry is always the same — “We want to be free.””<\/p>\n

Finally, whether it is the war in Iraq, Afghanistan, or the no-fly zone over Libya, Dr. King<\/strong> would say no. In his speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence”, he called the Vietnam War an “enemy of the poor.” It drained precious financial and human capital away from important poverty and other social programs of the time, “…like some demonic suction tube” of a “society gone mad on war…”<\/p>\n

In this time of catastrophic domestic and global economic recession and as Congress struggles to deal with the $1.48 trillion US deficit, according to the Congressional Research Service as of 2010 Congress approved, “…a total of $1.121 trillion for military operations, (and associated costs) … for the three operations initiated since the 9\/11 attacks: Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) Afghanistan and other counter terror operations; Operation Noble Eagle (ONE), providing enhanced security at military bases; and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF).”<\/p>\n

In terms of actions in Libya, according to the Philadelphia Daily News every Tomahawk cruise missile sets us back $1.2 million, and as of March 23, we had fired 161 of “those puppies” at Gadhafi<\/strong>. The F15 fighter jet we lost? Another $31 million.<\/p>\n

For those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it. The past is prologue.<\/p>\n

If Dr. King<\/strong> were alive today, what would he say? He would believe today as he did in 1968 that, “The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land. Confusion all around.” He would demand of us today as he did of us in Memphis on April 3, 1968, “Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation.”<\/p>\n

Dr. Wilmer Leon<\/strong> is the Producer\/ Host of the nationally broadcast call-in talk radio program “Inside the Issues with Wilmer Leon,” and a Teaching Associate in the Department of Political Science at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Go to www.wilmerleon.com or email: wjl3us@yahoo.com. www.twitter.com\/drwleon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forty-three years ago, while in Memphis to support striking sanitation workers, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. While this date is marked with the laying of wreaths and glowing speeches, many will commemorate this historic tragedy by reading his works and asking the question, “If Dr. King were alive today…what would he say?” Fortunately, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5264\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}