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At One Nation Working Together, Liberals Promote Liberalism – and Rally for Jobs
Sunday, October 03, 2010 at 9:25 am
- 71 Comments
Attendees of the mass rally head for the Lincoln Memorial on Oct. 2. (Jesse Zwick/TWI)
Members of the Socialist Party lined the tree-shaded walkway that guided tens of thousands of self-dubbed progressives and union members of all stripes to the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Passing out a newspaper with the headline, “Tax The Rich, End The Wars,” one eager party member beseeched the passers-by. “You can’t disagree with this,” he kept saying.
[Congress1] “Get your ‘End The War’ sign. Good for the next war,” yelled a good-natured peace activist who stood nearby. Code Pink, the group for antiwar women, and a sizable contingent of D.C. Statehood activists tabled not far away.
But the majority of the marchers, attending alongside their local union or progressive group members, moved steadily on in order to get a good spot on the National Mall and remind the nation that liberalism, as a concept, was not dead. It’s just been hibernating.
Indeed, the main focus of yesterday’s gathering, called One Nation Working Together and sponsored by nearly 500 progressive organizations, was jobs, and how the government should do more to promote them. This was evidenced by the thousands of signs and t-shirts that promoted the event’s main theme — “Jobs, Justice, and Education” — as well as its heavily unionized supporters.
“We bailed out the banks and the insurance companies. Now it’s time to bail out the American people,” urged the Rev. Al Sharpton, who drew some of the loudest cheers of the afternoon.
“I hope they look at the mall, because this is what America looks like,” he added. “Not one color or one gender.”
Sharpton’s remark about the diversity of the crowd, whose ranks included teamsters, electrical workers, teachers, auto workers, peace activists, and immigration reformers of all colors, rang true. But it may have also been an implicit dig against the tea party movement, whose rally the event was designed, in part, to rival.
Most signs stuck to bland, nonpartisan one-word cries like “Together,” “Forward,” or “Jobs,” but a few got at the nature of the rivalry as well. “I Want My Country Forward, Not Back,” read one of them, subtly challenging a common tea party trope. “Tea Parties are for Little Girls and their Imaginary Friends,” read another, less subtle one-liner.
But the largely broad, noncontroversial themes touted by the event succeeded in allowing the many progressive groups who signed on to join forces and put on a show of force the likes of which have been seldom seen since President Obama took office in 2008.
“We’re just so excited that all the progressives are working together because we notice a lot of times progressives each have their own little cause, but this time we’re all in it,” gushed Alice Hoffman, from the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers Local Three.
As to the main demand — jobs — attendees from all the groups agreed the country needed far more, but they posed a wide variety of responses about how to get them.
“We really believe that the people are hurting because the money is going to the wrong place,” noted Jane Dugdale of Mainline Peace Action, a group in suburban Philadelphia. “The military is being used to build an empire around the world that is breaking and bankrupting our country.”
“The jobs, the jobs, the jobs, the jobs,” said Michael Bartlett of the New York Teachers Union in response to what the most important issue for Obama should be. “It’s as simple as that. 90 percent of the old jobs have left here and we’ve become a service economy, but we still have to encourage [companies] to employ more people instead of laying off more people.”
“We have to start building up America again,” agreed Helen Lugo of the United Auto Workers, who’d travelled along with her local union by bus from Georgia. “We need to start exporting and stop importing,” she noted. “Something’s got to be equalized over here.”
The slashing of state and local social and educational services also ranked high on attendees’ list of grievances.
“Most of my childhood friends died over some dumb stuff, it’s like we all on some slum stuff, whatever happened to that we shall overcome stuff?” rapped Black Ice, a poet who provided entertainment between speakers. “What’s a young boy to do when he want to do right but there’s a lock on the right door? When he has the heart of a soldier and the aggression of a prize fighter but no one’s taught him what to fight for?”
Beyond putting pressure on the federal government for more jobs and services, however, the event was designed to encourage turnout for the 2010 midterm elections during a year that many Democrats have fretted about a lack of voter enthusiasm coming from their side of the political spectrum.
“2008 was not the end but the beginning,” urged Rev. Sharpton. “When I was in school we had midterm exams…. Well, we’ve got four weeks until the midterm exam and we’ve all got to go home and hit that pavement, knock on doors, and get ready for it.”
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka sounded a similar appeal to union workers and progressive groups at the event as well. “Promise you won’t let anyone quiet us or turn us against each other. Promise to make your voices heard for jobs, justice, and education today — and on election day,” he urged the crowd. “Our best days are ahead, not behind us, and we will fight for them, and we won’t let anyone stand in our way.”
Attendees at the event yesterday appeared to get the message, but whether it translates into ramped up voter turnout for Democrats in November remains an open question.
“I think we will still support Obama, but he has to understand the plight of the ordinary man on the street,” noted Bartlett. “We realize that [doing more] is a difficult proposition for him, but he must also realize that we’re the same group who helped him get elected, so he can’t forget Main Street.”
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Comment posted October 3, 2010 @ 5:32 pm
THE RALLY WAS NICE, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE 99ERS? I LIKE MANY OF US WILL BE HOMELESS IN A MATTER OF DAYS, I HAVE BEEN UNEMPLOYES FOR TWO YEARS, SINCE I LOST MY JOB AS A SALES MANAGER IN THE AUTO INDUSTRY. I HAVE BEEN TOLD THAT I AM TOO OLD TO BE HIRE, I AM 60, AND YES DO NOT BE APPALLED SOME EMPLOYERS ARE VERY UPFRONT WITH THEIR AGE DISCRIMINATION, AND TOO YOUNG TO COLLECT SOCIAL SECURITY. WHAT WILL I DO, LIKE SO MANY OF US I WILL PACK MY BAGS, SURRENDER MY BELOVED DOGS TO THE ASPCA WHO WILL PROBABLY EUTHANIZE THEM, AND MOVE INTO MY 1999 PONTIAC SUNFIRE. HOW CAN OUR GOVERNMENT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN TO MILLIONS OF US, AND STILL ASK FOR OUR VOTES. GOD BLESS ED SCHULTZ
Comment posted October 3, 2010 @ 6:26 pm
Because they don't care. It is and has always been about control. Ed Schultz got caught up in a “bigger dick contest” and ended up stepping on it. I don't know where you live but the only people I see without jobs are those choosing to stay on unemployment as another form on welfare.
Comment posted October 3, 2010 @ 8:33 pm
The title was “Jobs, Peace and Justice” and your article definitely did not do the rally justice. You can certainly tell what direction you are coming from. It was an amazing rally
Comment posted October 3, 2010 @ 10:36 pm
Crabber7 your ignorant, which no matter what response was given will not win, because you can't argue with ignorance. I say same on you and I will pray for you.
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Comment posted October 4, 2010 @ 12:57 am
I'd love to hear more about the rally from an insider's perspective. Couldn't tell much from some of the video. I'm wondering what it felt like to be there. What was the energy like? By some reports, it was lame, energy-less, and the crowd dissipated well before the event was done.
I'd hate to believe that, but one never knows.
Comment posted October 4, 2010 @ 1:01 am
Many Democrats DO care. Very much. The thing is that we don't have a super-majority and a big tent. Some Democrats (Blue-Dog Dems) are pretty conservative. But, by far the issue that should be headline news every single day is that the Republican party chose to obstruct everything Obama wanted to get done. So much so that 400 bills are stalled in the Senate. They have stalled and blocked everything – even the Lilly Leadbetter Bill. Even health care for 911 First Responders. Even legislation they themselves wrote!
They care, but they're up against an enemy that has no heart. They have shown over the past 20 months just what they're made of. It has been the most shameful exhibition of dirty politics and demonization I've ever seen.
Obama cares. He's just dealing with a crazy amount of things, and on top of it, half the people he's working with want him to fail – and actively pursue that goal.
VOTE DEMOCRAT!
Comment posted October 4, 2010 @ 6:00 am
Vote Democrat?
Sorry, your team has driven the car into the ditch and now it's floating down the river. We can't afford more of the same we've seen in the last 4 years that democrats have held the majority.
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Comment posted October 4, 2010 @ 3:01 pm
In 2008 during the presidential primaries when Hillary and Obama were duking it out, I wrote that progressives and independents needed to support Obama, but that their efforts needed to be focused on getting progressives and independents into Congress. Instead, people voted for Obama but sent the same old DNC establishment Dems back to Congress, where THEY have sold out the American people once again. NOW WILL PEOPLE PLEASE SUPPORT PROGRESSIVES AND INDEPENDENTS!!!! Our President can only suggest policy, and try to guide it around the DNC hacks in Congress, he cannot vote for it or fund it, and so has been forced into the position of either vetoing his own suggestions or signing it even when it is weak or half-assed. It is time for this country to wake-up and realize that the Presidency is an administrative branch of the government, overseeing the departments of government that actually run this country – not the legislative branch which creates the laws and funds the programs. Until Americans realize that the real power of this nation lies not with the President, but with a thoroughly corrupt Congress (which may soon be populated with crazies and religious fanatics as well), we will not see a national agenda that actually helps the American people. It is time for us to take to the streets and promote “Jobs, Peace, and Justice” from the ground up and in our own communities. By doing this we can create a tidal wave nationally, and this rally was a great example of that. Go to your communities and go to work, reminding people that if they want to see Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, they need to populate Congress with people who care more about them than Wall Street. Tell them about how they can create a new America where peace and justice walk hand-in-hand with jobs and security. Tell them that is what it means to be progressive and American – not the rhetoric of messianic TV commentators or the idiotic ramblings of a poorly educated religious puppet in a skirt. Tell them and get them to vote! This election, not 2008 or 2012, will determine this nation's future, and we must not let it be one of failure for us all!
Comment posted October 4, 2010 @ 5:08 pm
You can certainly see where the writer is coming from, he has no urgency about him! When will one of these great papers have a socioeconomically diverse group of writers?
Comment posted October 4, 2010 @ 7:08 pm
“Sharpton’s remark about the diversity of the crowd, whose ranks included teamsters, electrical workers, teachers, auto workers, peace activists, and immigration reformers” as well as SEIU, the Socialist and Communist Parties promoting the Obama and Pelosi agenda.
The call for jobs. The stimulous was all about jods for these people. The unions benefitted from government infrastructure and other “shovel ready” government jobs, as well as the GM union give away. The money was used to prevent lay offs of any government workers. Non government and non union Americans not only suffered lay offs but also must pay the tax bill for all those at this Tea Party protest to benefit. So how much overtime did all you get to attend this rally?
Justice? For justice you need to enforce the laws. Not sue Arizona.
Comment posted October 5, 2010 @ 1:13 pm
Hey Sharpton – The government has spent $13 TRILLION on main street bailouts with all the “means tested” giveaway programs since the war on poverty started. Paying people to be poor only results in more poor people. When are the taxpayers getting some of that bailout money back?
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Comment posted October 6, 2010 @ 10:43 pm
Just a small note regarding any and all of those persons who choose to participate in these events
I was visited DC on Sunday evening after the protest I was completely appalled at the trash left behind by those who took advantage of their right to free speech. Gather up all your trash and protest signs and leave with what you came with. It takes MY tax dollars to clean up your mess.
Thanks for listening.
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Comment posted October 21, 2010 @ 6:21 am
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Comment posted December 20, 2010 @ 1:07 am
I agree with another post here that the title was “Jobs, Peace and Justice” and your article definitely does not do the rally justice. You are not an objective reporter and not a very good writer. There were thousands of working people out there trying to get their views across, just dismissing them as “union members” and emphasizing right in the first paragraph that there were a few fringe groups there too is a real injustice. You don’t get it at all, this is a very biased and poorly written report.
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