US workers marched on Washington to blast the loss of jobs and the occupation of Iraq, reports Anayat Durrani Thousands of workers and anti-war and civil rights activists gathered at the Lincoln Memorial at the nation's Capitol on Sunday with demands ranging from universal health care, jobs, a national living wage and an end to the occupation of Iraq. Marchers carrying anti-Bush signs walked in the footsteps of civil rights leader Reverend Martin Luther King Junior. Thirty-six years ago King's "Poor Peoples' March" called on workers nationwide to march on Washington to inaugurate "a war on poverty at home". Organisers of the Million Worker March say the situation for workers has become much worse today as millions of jobs have been lost, and social services and funding for schools, libraries, affordable housing and health care have been cut or eliminated while Congress turns a blind eye. Standing in the same spot where his father made his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963, Martin Luther King Junior III urged the crowd of marchers to "vote like we never have before". The event included speeches by comedian and human rights campaigner Dick Gregory, actor turned activist Danny Glover, and several trade union activists. Organisers said that the working class has not suffered such hardships since the Great Depression. Calling it a "great movement for social change" they said they want to restore democracy, secure power for working people and restore America. "The gathering is to call together those who want to build a workers' movement to change the United States," Pat Hilliard, an organiser of the Million Workers March in New York told Al-Ahram Weekly. "Our message to our own working people is that we need to wake up and take control because George Bush and John Kerry are not steering us in a direction that will benefit us or any of the world's poor people." Teachers, postal workers, auto mechanics and hotel workers came by car, bus and plane to take part in the Million Worker March and make their feelings known. The march comes in the crucial last days before the presidential election. Many in the crowd were supporters of Democratic candidate Senator John Kerry and Reform Party candidate Ralph Nader. However, while Bush was not a favourite in this crowd, there were many marchers that held little faith in Kerry's ability to do anything for the workers. "A Kerry victory will do very little for US labour," Catherine Osborne, a student activist and a local San Diego, California, organiser for the Million Worker March told the Weekly. "One of the biggest debates in modern American Labour Studies is whether the labour movement should continue to fully fund and support the Democrats, a party that has really done very little for the movement given their pivotal contributions whenever it comes time to get another Democrat in office," said Osborne. The Million Worker March represented a historic moment in that it joined working people with the anti-war movement. The rally included peace and civil rights organisations like the International Action Centre, the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism Coalition (ANSWER), Iraqi Veterans Against the War and the National Lawyers Guild. United, marchers blasted the Bush administration for pushing the US into an unjustified war with Iraq, costing billions of dollars that could have been used instead for schools and communities. Former US attorney-general Ramsey Clark called for the impeachment of Bush for war crimes. Actor Danny Glover urged people to vote and called Bush "a thug". "Many working people want to march now because we don't believe either the Republicans or the Democrats are going to get us out of the war in Iraq. We also feel they do not have a solution to the world-wide economic crisis," Hilliard told the Weekly. "We as workers feel that we need to speak from our own point of view. This means focussing on human needs not war for the big oil corporations that seek super-profits." Key demands of the Million Worker March include: improved housing and education, protection of Social Security, guaranteed pensions for all workers, an end to homelessness, repeal of the Patriotic Act, amnesty for all undocumented workers, the right to organise, cancellation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Free Trade Agreement for the Americas (FTAA) and an end to racism and discrimination at the workplace and in the communities. The event was organised by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10 in San Francisco. It was endorsed by unions representing 3.5 million workers, including the United Auto Workers, the American Postal Workers Union, the National Education Association, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, and the National Teamsters' Black Caucus. At the march, activists stressed that the workers represented their own political agenda -- independent of conventional US party politics. "The important thing for people to take away from this event, and from any other large, collective action, is that the power to make change is in our hands," Osborne told the Weekly. "I think the Million Worker March organisers have not compromised their demands and made it clear that whether millionaire Bush or billionaire Kerry take office, we still have a long struggle ahead." The rally ended with a solidarity march from the Lincoln Memorial to the Hotel Washington, where workers are expected to go on strike.
