Time to March
Jesse Jackson
On Aug. 28, citizens will gather from across the country in Detroit to march for jobs and justice. The United Auto Workers, the Rainbow Coalition and dozens of other organizations will help sponsor the march. Bob King, the newly elected UAW president, describes its purpose: “We need to make our voices heard. We have millions unemployed, families losing their homes, teachers being laid off.” King is committed to cooperative action, promising that his members would be campaigning for jobs, for a moratorium on home foreclosures, for civil and human rights and against the abuse of immigrants.
In Washington, Congress is frozen, failing even to agree extend unemployment insurance. Legislators seem to have forgotten the harsh reality of more than 20 million Americans unemployed or forced to work part-time. They offer insult rather than support. Arizona Sen. John Kyl suggests that unemployment insurance creates a “disincentive” for seeking work. Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch calls for drug testing those on unemployment, implying that the jobless are getting high rather than getting work. With five applicants for every job opening, this is ugly stuff. It is time for working people and the unemployed and the poor to make their voices heard once more.
King can recite the staggering losses suffered by autoworkers who are now working for less, but he says this isn’t just about autoworkers. “We have to march for working people across the country — indeed across the world. This crisis is driving down wages and driving up unemployment and misery. We need jobs. We need the right to organize unions. We need justice in enforcing laws against discrimination, for the right to organize, for fair labor standards. As unemployment goes up, wages go down and abuses of basic worker rights soar.”
King reminds his members of legendary UAW President Walter Reuther who in 1968 gave largely black sanitation workers struggling to organize in Memphis their single biggest contribution. When Reuther received criticism from within the union, he reminded his members of who came to their side when they were getting shot at and beaten up trying to organize. “Who helped us? The coal miners . . . the clothing workers . . . as long as I am identified with the leadership of this great union, we are going to extend a hand of solidarity to every group of workers who are struggling for justice.”
We will march in Detroit because the country has been slow to recognize the depths of the crisis that we are in. A recent Pew study showed that 55 percent of Americans — a majority — have been personally affected by the Great Recession — losing a job, suffering pay cuts, losing health care and retirement benefits.
Moreover, as President Obama has said, we can’t simply “recover” from this downturn. Before the bottom fell out, the U.S. was borrowing $2 billion a day, largely from the Chinese. Wages were stagnant; we were hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs. The economy was sustained by a housing bubble that enabled Americans to take on ever more debt. Well the bubble has burst; Americans are tightening their belts — and we must figure out how to build a new economy out of the ruins of the old.
We’ve got to make things in America once more. We need to rebuild our basic infrastructure that is falling apart — sewers, roads and bridges, public facilities. We need to build the new 21st century infrastructure vital for a competitive economy — fast trains, a smart electric grid, fast broadband and more. We need to train and educate workers and citizens, and invest in research and development. We need to wean ourselves of our addiction to oil, and capture a leading edge in the green industrial revolution that will dominate the next decades.
All this offers an opportunity to put people to work and get our economy moving. But it involves wrenching change. We’ve got to export more, make more here, and import less. We’ve got to provide aid to states and localities so that 300,000 teachers and education workers don’t lose their jobs next year, and so vital services like school breakfasts, after-school programs, summer school and more aren’t cut.
Congress must act to put people back to work. This will cost money — particularly with the private sector still reluctant to hire and expand since they don’t see consumers for their goods. With interest rates low, it’s a good time to borrow long term to finance core investments. And we could tax the banks to help repay the costs of their bailout and the crisis. We need immediate action but, at this point, Congress is frozen.
Legislators are hearing too little from those who are in pain. On Aug. 28 in Detroit, we will lay out a common agenda, demanding jobs and justice. When people organize and speak out, they can level mountains, cross oceans and transform countries.
It is time to march.
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