People’s Assembly for Jobs & Justice launched in Baltimore

A very determined and diverse group of Baltimore workers — young and elderly, jobless and those still working — launched a new movement for a “People’s Assembly” at an Eastside church in Baltimore on Oct. 30.

Left to right: Andre Powell, Sharon Black and Larry Holmes. photo: [email protected]

Some came to testify about the impact the economic crisis has had on their lives and others to make broad proposals on how to turn it around.

Larry Holmes, national coordinator for the Bail Out the People Movement, called for an uprising for jobs on the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in the form of protests and civil disobedience. “This may have to be expanded to budget cuts and a number of other issues,” he stated.

He analyzed the upcoming elections and urged that no one feel demoralized or down about the possible outcome, pointing out to the crowd that the Tea Party  was weak compared to the real storm that was coming — that is the organized anger of the working class, particularly the most oppressed. “You,” he said, pointing to the audience, “are the coming storm. You are the future.”

Holmes indicted capitalism as a system and called for its abolition, to cheers from the audience.

Nnamdi Lumumba, the Maryland statewide coordinator of the Ujima People’s Progress Party, which is seeking ballot status and describes itself as a party of African workers, joined the call for people’s power.

Maria Allwine, Green Party candidate for governor, decried the system’s corruption, and Max Obuszewski, an anti-war activist and spokesperson for the Iraq Pledge of Resistance, explained the connection of military spending and the entire military machine with the suffering of people in Baltimore city.

Jasmine King, a high school student, explained to Workers World newspaper that this was the first time she had spoken publicly. She stood tall and poised as she presented a statement that she had carefully prepared, calling for jobs and education for youth, not jails.

The meeting afforded many others in the community a forum to put forth their demands and make proposals for action.

Leo Burroughs Jr., chairperson of the Coalition for BGE [Baltimore Gas and Electricity] Re-regulation and the Transit Riders Action Coalition, spoke. He has been fighting for a moratorium on utility hikes and shut-offs. Burroughs is also president of his tenant association and heads an ad-hoc committee to restore cuts in  cost-of-living adjustment increases to social security.

Wayne Mobley, a West Baltimore resident, put a face on the demand for a moratorium on utility shutoffs. He and his disabled companion, who take care of small children, have been without electricity or heat for several months. They have been fighting BGE on their own but have now joined others.

State workers, steelworkers represented

Renee Washington, a state worker, proposed that the People’s Assembly join a picket line on Nov. 1 to support state workers who are being replaced by low-wage contract workers and forced on furloughs. She described how people who united together saved her home from foreclosure.

Robert Price, a steelworker from Bethlehem Steel, was outraged and angry. He spoke about saving jobs at the Sparrows Point plant and the need to march on Washington.

Helen Bell, an SSI recipient, gave a moving account of what it means to be poor and how difficult it is to access help. Lee Patterson, a Workers World Party member, gave a moving indictment of capitalism, as he explained how he and his family suffered due to cuts in his wages that ultimately led to the loss of his apartment and car.

Patterson is now living in a homeless shelter in Washington, D.C., but is determined to stay active in the struggle. His testimony at this People’s Assembly is proof of his vow.

Education was on the agenda too. Alan Rebar, a Baltimore city teacher, spoke about teachers’ rights. Vicky Harding, a member of Baltimore’s Think Tank, along with Curtis Bard, spoke about the racist use of test scores in Baltimore’s public schools.

“Soul Salsa” performed spoken word. The group is composed of Gato Martinez-Bentley and Jerry Peliquin from the D.C. Capitol Jobs Coalition. The group began the assembly with drumming. Martinez-Bentley expressed his enthusiasm for the movement that was launched. He plans to help form a People’s Assembly in Washington, D.C.

Sharon Black from the Job Is A Right Campaign and Andre Powell, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees delegate to Baltimore Metro AFL-CIO Council, co-chaired the People’s Assembly. Black explained Baltimore’s particular history, which led their group, the Job Is A Right Campaign, to conclude that the people needed to build people’s power as an alternative power to the current “dead-end political structure.”

The Assembly concluded with many resolutions: to support the state workers’ picket line on Nov. 1; to attend Justice Sunday to demand jobs, not jails and oppose the building of a new youth jail; to hold a protest in November to extend unemployment benefits; and to support the national call for “an uprising for jobs.” Other resolutions called for giving general and specific support for independent political parties, including Ujima People’s Progress Party, the Green Party and the Freedom Party; for continuing the movement for a People’s Assembly, with a call for a Statewide People’s Assembly in late winter or early spring; and demanding a national jobs program and moratorium on foreclosures, evictions and utility shutoffs.