Workers Preparing To Rally On Mall

[Laughing Mirror]

War, Jobs, Schools On List of Issues
By Manny Fernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 14, 2004; Page B01

Thousands of workers from across the United States -- bus drivers, postal clerks, educators, longshoremen, farm laborers -- plan to converge Sunday on Washington to rally for jobs, universal health care and an end to the war in Iraq.

Organizers of the Million Worker March said they want to draw attention to problems facing workers in America and around the world, hoping to have their voices heard days before U.S. voters head to the polls to elect a president. They said labor unions of all sizes and trades, representing more than 3.5 million workers, have pledged support, from the Transport Workers Union in New York to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in Houston.
Points for the Protest

"Both union and nonunion workers realize that they're losing more and more every day," said Chris Silvera, 48, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 808 in Long Island City, N.Y., which is sending three 40-seat buses of union members to Washington. "The fact is, neither party is really addressing the issues of the working class."

Though organizers said they expect tens of thousands, some pointed out that the "million" in the march title is intended to evoke the powerful imagery of the Million Man March in 1995, not to reflect a crowd count. Organizers estimated 100,000 on their permit application to the National Park Service.

Wash Post

Important article buried in the Metro section of the Washington Post.

[Bandit]

1. I'm sorry but every time I hear a Teamster bitch about how bad

things are and are becoming I feel anger. They broke with their fellow unions and backed Bush* and the Republicans in 2000 and 2002. Fuck the Teamsters. I am glad they are trying to get back into the fold but I am still very angry at them. I am far more angry at the Teamsters than I am with Nader or any of his followers. When the Teamsters in Houston built their new Teamster Hall in 2001 they used scab labor. Fuck the Teamsters.

[Laughing Mirror]

2. This is much more than your beef with the teamsters

I hope you can agree on at least some of the 22 demands the hundreds of thousands of marchers on Sunday will be making:

• Universal, single-payer health care "from cradle to grave."

• A national living wage to lift people out of poverty.

• Protection and enhancement of Social Security.

• Guaranteed pensions for all workers.

• Cancellation of "corporate" free trade agreements.

• An end to privatization, contracting out and other economic policies that pit workers against each other.

• Repeal of all anti-labor legislation and the honoring of workers' rights to organize.

• Funding of public education to restore decaying schools.

• Funding for a "vast army" of teachers to end functional illiteracy.

• Launch of a national training program and an end to the "criminalization of poverty" and the "prison-industrial complex."

• Rebuilding of inner cities with affordable housing and eliminate homelessness.

• Progressive taxation for relief to the working class and poor along with increased taxes on corporations and the rich.

• A national program to restore the environment, end global warming and "preserve our endangered eco-system."

• Creation of efficient, modern and free mass transit in every city and town.

• Repeal of the Patriot Act and "all such repressive legislation."

• A slash in the military budget and recovery of money "stolen from our labor to enrich the corporations that profit from war."

• The opening of the "secret budgets" of the Pentagon and intelligence agencies.

• An end to the U.S. war and occupation in Iraq.

• Extension of democracy to the economic structure.

• Amnesty for all undocumented workers.

• Aggressive enforcement of all civil rights and the launch of a national educational campaign against discrimination.

• A democratic media that oppose monopolization, union-busting of media workers and allow "all voices to be heard."

[Bandit]

3. No I agree with the workers on most issues

I just had to vent about the Teamsters as it was a Teamster who's statement made the article. Not sure about the amnesty for undocumented workers. I have to give that one much more thought.