A movement that cannot be stopped!

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

I’m excited to tell you that yesterday over 1,000 actions took place not only around the country but around the world in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his assassination 43 years ago. We were able to talk about his role in the Memphis sanitation workers’ strike and unionization campaign and how he viewed unions as a path way to a true democracy. It was with this thought, honor, and respect that we fought to keep progressing the struggle for social and economic justice moving forward yesterday. SLAP, Jobs with Justice and United States Student Association took part in over 50 of the actions yesterday, ranging from rallies to teach-ins held on campuses.

In Philadelphia: Over 1,000 community members, faith, students, young people and workers came out to rally in solidarity with the labor movement and battles happening around the country.
In Ann Arbor: At the University of Michigan, hundreds of students covered the campus as they demanded the right to an affordable and accessible education and demanded that our communities be run by us, not corporations.
In Altanta: Hundreds of workers, students, young people, faith and community came out to a march and rally to stand against the attacks being launched on our communities that included MLK III as a speaker.

These actions did not go unheard, either. The New York Times uplifted USSA’s role in an article re-capping the actions and explaining Martin Luther King, Jr.’s role in the day of action.

But the fight is just beginning – and we have more to say. Today SLAP is proud to be participating in a national teach-in lead by Francis Fox Piven and Cornel West called: “Fight Back USA!” that will discuss austerity, debt, and corporate greed and how we as young people can fight back. You can tune into the national broadcast that will be online from 2-3:30 EST and then there nearly 225 local teach-ins scheduled.

And after today more will be happening. The United States Student Association Board of Directors, composed of students from around the country, have declared April a month of action. We will be fighting every day to make higher education a priority, workers’ rights mandatory and scale back the corporate greed that is trying to take over our country.

It is in this struggle that all members of our communities – elderly and young, working and unemployed – share the same interests. The fight happening right now is simply “public need verses corporate greed.” It is time for us to set our priorities as neighborhoods, communities, cities, states and a country.

In Solidarity,

Chris Hicks
Student Labor Action Project Coordinator

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 5th, 2011 at 3:42 pm. It is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.