Full Employment: Demand of the Unfinished March
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. understood that a full employment economy is a prerequisite for economic justice. A renewed movement demanding full employment is now more crucial than ever.
Tag: Martin Luther King
Progressives Beat Back Walmart. Now Let’s Beat Back Unemployment
Progressives won a victory in Washington this week when the D.C. City Council stood up to Walmart and passed a bill that would require the retailer, and other nonunion big-box retailers, to pay their employees a $12.50 minimum wage. Walmart promptly announced that it would halt plans to build six stores in the city, immediately […]
Elect The Dream: Strategy For Progressive Political Power
What is now more clear than ever is that building a progressive political force is a 24/7/365 effort. It’s not just work to be done during election cycles, and not just done in presidential and congressional elections.
Tuesday morning at the Take Back the American Dream conference included major sessions on how to build a lasting progressive power base, from the ground up.
Romney On The Side Of Disenfranchising Black Voters
In the fight over what little soul is left of the Republican Party, Mitt Romney has shown his willingness to double down on racial injustice.
From Resurrection City To The Occupy Movement
“We could use a massive, dramatic confrontation on behalf of the more than 27 million who are unemployed or underemployed today,” I wrote one year ago. “The spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. would certainly be in its midst.”
What MLK Might Say Today Stop Bouncing Checks From The Bank Of Justice
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. laid down this marker during his “I Have A Dream” speech in 1963:
What We Won In Wisconsin
Ignore the chest-thumping from the right following the Wisconsin recall elections Tuesday night. The fact that Democratic challengers prevailed in two of the six races, and came within less than 1,100 votes of unseating a third in a race where almost 51,000 votes were cast, is, to paraphrase Vice President Joe Biden, a big effing […]
The Fight-Back Has Begun To Reclaim The American Dream
An email the Campaign for America’s Future sent to its supporters a few weeks ago with the subject line “How Would You Take Back The American Dream?” kicked off a lively debate on a listserv of progressive activists. What do you mean when you say “the American dream”? How do you—and for that matter, why […]
From Memphis to Madison The April 4 Stand For Economic Justice
“We are determined to be people. We are saying that we are God’s children. And that we don’t have to live like we are forced to live.” —Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speech in Memphis, Tenn., April 3, 1968 On April 4, we will be called on not to merely remember that Dr. Martin Luther […]
We Need An Unemployed Peoples Campaign
When Martin Luther King Jr. gave the sermon at the National Cathedral in Washington on March 31, 1968 to highlight the Poor People’s Campaign he was organizing for later that spring, unemployment was hovering just under 7 percent—for African Americans. The nationwide average was under 4 percent. Last week the Labor Department reported unemployment rates […]