 November
29 - Charleston, South Carolina |
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Unions
and other groups from the Labor Party greeted the Freedom
Bus as we rolled into Charleston, South Carolina. We attended
a "Workers Rights are Human Rights" forum sponsored
by the Labor Party and hosted at the ILA Longshoreman's
Association Local 1422 union hall.
Mire
este sitio en espanol.
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Tommy Crenshaw, outgoing president of the Greater Charleston
Labor Council, welcomed the Freedom Bus Riders and lead them
to a delicious Fish Fry dinner at the Longshoreman's Union
Hall. |
Donna
Dewitt, President of the South Carolina AFL-CIO and Labor
Party INC member, welcomed the Freedom Riders. She noted
the support of many labor and community groups from across
South Carolina, including the CWA, ILS, UNITE and others.
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Thirty years
after the Memphis sanitation workers won their historic
victory, Charleston sanitation workers are once again fighting
to unionize and obtain decent wages and working conditions.
Daryl Haywood,
leader of the Almagamated Transit Union Local 610 said "Over
40 years later we are in this city in the same fight. We
have sanitation workers in the city of Charleston who face
injustice and discimination; these workers want a voice."
Until recently,
South Carolina State Law essentially prevented public employees
from unionizing.
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Cheri Honkala (left) KWRU Director and member of the Interim
National Council of the Labor Party; Mark Dudzic (center),
National Organizer of the Labor Party; and Adolph Reed (right),
renown African-American studies scholar and Labor Party INC
member; discuss experiences of organizing with leaders from
Brazil and El Salvador.
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Mark
Dudzic, National Organizer of the Labor Party, spoke to
the assembly, "I think we can learn from South Carolina,
where the struggle is much more open, where there is much
less attempts by reformist politicians to mask things. These
issues of workers rights are at the core of what is happening
in this country..." read
more
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The
next morning, we held a workers' rights rally at the union
hall, and then loaded back onto the bus for the drive to
Durham, North Carolina.
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Press
November 30, 2002: "Anti-poverty
group's bus tour comes to area", Charleston
Post and Courier
Mark Dudzic
National Organizer for the Labor
Party
Remarks at the "Workers Rights are Human Rights"
Forum
Thank you brother Reilly and the Charleston Longshoreman for
hosting us. Its not easy to carry the message of organized
labor in South Carolina.
I’ve just become the National Organizier of the Labor
Party. I’m taking over from a dear brother of mine,
Tony Mazzochi, who has been very inspired by the vigorous
movement in South Carolina, and the unity that has developed
around the issues.
I think we can learn from South Carolina, where the struggle
is much more open, where there is much less attempts by reformist
politicians to mask things. These issues of workers rights
are at the core of what is happening in this country.
When you have to work for a living, you abandon all of your
rights. You give up your constitutional rights to speak, to
assemble, and to act collectively. If you have a union, you
get some of those rights back. You have the right to act collectively,
and to due process. Unions make things better... read
more
Daily
Prayer for the New Freedom Bus Tour
The Rev.
Noelle Damico, Catalyst, School of Theology, University
of the Poor
Friday, November 29
It's that time
of year again, God, when we are suddenly remembered. Turkey
baskets, a strike check, mitten trees, gifts for our kids,
maybe even a check for the heating. Don't get us wrong, we
need all we can get; we want to preserve a kind of joyful
normalcy for our families -- even for a few weeks. But what
we really need are jobs; jobs that pay so that we can support
ourselves and our loved ones. Throughout our land unions are
being busted, people are working full time and still living
in shelters, people are earning just a little too much to
get Medicaid but not enough to get medical care. And so while
we receive with relief the charitable gifts that come our
way this season, we acknowledge our anger as well. The affront
it is to always be in the situation of begging. During this
time when so many suddenly remember us -- out of compassion,
or out of fear that they could, one day, be us -- help us
not to buckle under the burden of charity. Help us find the
truthful and compassionate words to help those who have suddenly
"seen" us to also "see" the systems that
keep us poor and all of us vulnerable. Amen.
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