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Marching on Wall St. to Fulfill King’s Dream: A Jobs Program
from NYC City Council Member Charles Barron and Chris Silvera, Secretary
Treasurer of Local 808 International Brotherhood of Teamsters
posted March 29, 2009
NYC City Council Member Charles Barron
/ Chris Silvera, Secretary Treasurer of Local 808 International Brotherhood
of Teamsters
We will
be amongst the many speakers at the “Bail Out People, Not Banks” rally
on Wall St. on Friday, April 3.
On Friday morning, just a few hours before the Wall St. rally, the bureau
of labor statistics is going to announce that another two-thirds of
a million workers got laid off in March.
This is one of the reasons why we intend to use the time allotted us
to speak, to call for the creation of a massive jobs program. We are
going to call it the “Fulfill King’s Dream Jobs Program” in honor of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
We have four reasons for associating King’s name with the jobs program.
The first reason is that April 4 will mark the 41st anniversary of Dr.
King’s martyrdom. The second reason is that King devoted the final months
of his life to launching a movement for the right of all to either a
job or an income.
King saw the struggle for the right to a job or an income as nothing
less than the second phase of the civil rights movement. Securing a
job at a living wage for all was the central demand of the poor people's
campaign that King initiated in late 1967.
The third reason is that at no time in our lifetime has the need for
the massive jobs program that King dreamed about been more urgently
needed. Depression-level layoffs and home foreclosures are populating
new tent cities from coast to coast. Whole families are living under
bridges and in parks on the outskirts of cities.
The real unemployment rate, if you count those who want full-time jobs
but can only find part-time or temporary work, is upwards of 15 percent.
Everyone from the World Bank to the National Urban League says that
the jobless rate is only going to get worse.
The latest “State of Black America” report, issued by the National Urban
League, confirms what everyone already knows. While very few, regardless
of race and gender, are not harmed or threatened by the biggest worldwide
economic collapse since the 1930s, it is the Black and Latin@ communities
that are the most devastated by the crisis--especially Black and Latin@
youth. Jail is not the jobs program for young people that King dreamed
about; it is his and should be our worst nightmare.
The unemployment crisis demands a real jobs program, something equal
to the size and scope of the Work Projects Administration created by
Congress in 1935 to put millions of jobless people to work.
In its first year the WPA created more than 3.4 million jobs (the equivalent
of about 10 million jobs today). Under the WPA, workers were paid the
prevailing wage in the industry or vocation they worked in.
The stimulus legislation passed by Congress in February may help ease
the suffering of some, but it’s not going to reverse or even halt the
soaring jobless rate. There is no jobs program currently in effect or
even under serious consideration by the government that comes even close
to the seriousness and size of the WPA.
Where do we get the money for such a jobs program? When the government
is prepared to pump trillions of dollars into the banking system, the
question is not where will the money come from, but rather what need
should it be devoted to. The $200 billion that the government has given
AIG alone could have created anywhere between 3 to 4 million jobs that
pay a living wage.
There is another important point that makes the WPA jobs program relevant
to today’s crisis. The WPA should have started at an earlier stage of
the U.S. and global depression 75 years ago. However, the government
delayed putting a serious jobs program in place until it was painfully
clear that waiting for the banks to be fixed before putting the jobless
back to work was a huge mistake. We must not make the same mistake again.
We don’t think King believed that meeting the needs of the poor and
the unemployed must be contingent upon the solvency of JP Morgan Chase,
Citicorp, Bank Of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, etc.; or contingent
on the power of these big banks to turn the economy on and off depending
on what makes them richer.
The belief that until the banks are fixed, there can be no jobs, no
economy and nothing but layoffs, evictions, cutbacks, fare hikes, tuition
increases, etc., is not some commandment decreed by heaven; it’s a rule
made down here on Earth to protect the interest of the few against that
of the many.
We refuse to accept the rules that say that the only good way to do
things is the way that makes rich capitalists happy and leaves the rest
of us at their mercy. Such rules must be changed. The only certain thing
is that nothing will change unless people demand it.
Here’s our fourth reason for naming the jobs program after Dr. King.
The election of an African-American president is without a doubt the
realization of a part of King’s dream. But a president is not a substitute
for a mass movement for social justice.
King knew that the captains of industry were not going to suddenly wake
up one morning believing that the cause of economic and social justice
was superior to their profit motive and thus create good paying jobs
for the poor. King knew that it would take a mass social movement to
get the job done.
It is a mistake--and a dangerous one--for those of us who are still
rejoicing over how we made history last November to simply sit on the
sidelines and wait to see how things turn out, instead of raising hell.
King served the interests of the downtrodden and oppressed. Obama must
serve all sides. To the extent that Obama wants to do things that directly
bail out poor and working people, don’t forget that there are powerful
people in Washington and on Wall St. who are dedicated to stopping him.
Those powerful people will prevail unless they see and hear the angry
masses marching in the streets below their ivory towers.
The popular outrage over the bailout of the banks is a precious and
powerful force. It should not--it must not--be wasted. Let’s focus that
anger into the struggle for the things that we need.
We’ll be on Wall St. on Friday, April 3 demanding that the unemployed
be bailed out with a real jobs program. We invite you to join us.
Bail Out the People Movement
Solidarity Center
55 W. 17th St. #5C
New York, NY 10011
212.633.6646
www.BailOutPeople.org
Email: bailoutpeople.org/cmnt.shtml
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