Why labor has stake in fighting for racial equality

[Starry Messenger]

by: RICHARD TRUMKA

http://peoplesworld.org/why-labor-has-stake-in-fighting-for-racial-equality/

Now, some people might ask me why our labor movement should be involved in all that has happened since the tragic death of Michael Brown in Ferguson. And I want to answer that question directly: How can we not be involved?

Union members' lives have been profoundly damaged in ways that cannot be fixed. Lesley McSpadden, Michael Brown's mother who works in a grocery store, is our sister, an AFL-CIO union member and Darren Wilson, the officer who killed Michael Brown, is a union member too, and he is our brother. Our brother killed our sister's son, and we do not have to wait for the judgment of prosecutors or courts to tell us how terrible this is.

So I say again how can we not be involved? This tragedy and all the complexities of race and racism are a big part of our very big family as they always have been. A union is like a home. And in any home, good and bad things happen. We have to deal with all of them honestly.

But that's a philosophy. We can't leave it at that. We have to look at real life today. We cannot wash our hands of the issues raised by Michael Brown's death. That does not mean we prejudge the specifics of Michael Brown's death or deny Officer Darren Wilson or any other officer his or her rights on the job or in the courts.

But it does demand that we clearly and openly discuss the reality of racism in American life. We must take responsibility for the past. Racism is part of our inheritance as Americans. Every city, every state and every region of this country has its own deep history with racism. And so does the labor movement.

[daleanime]

1. K&R....

[yallerdawg]

2. Trumka lays it all out.

It's not ever race, it's class -- those who work (the working class) and those who don't (the capitalist class).

The capitalists will use every tool imaginable to divide us. Historically, they did use race, but organizations like the C.I.O and the IWW stood firmly against this division -- the IWW has never formed a segregated shop in its existence.

When we are all slaves and most of us living on subsistence wages, skin color doesn't mean anything.

[vlakitti]

3. Fine comment by Mr. Trumka.

Thanks for finding and posting it.