UAW head, Rev. Jackson announce jobs march

Solidarity House, the international headquarters of the United Auto Workers, was the scene of a packed press conference the afternoon of July 12. Recently elected UAW President Bob King joined with the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other union, political and religious leaders to announce an Aug. 28 march in Detroit that will kick off a campaign for “jobs, justice and peace.”

“We have made a decision at the UAW that to do the best job taking care of our membership we’ve got to be out there in the streets fighting for social and economic justice,” declared King.

August 28 is the anniversary of the 1963 march on Washington led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Just like in 1963 when Dr. King led the Freedom Walk of 125,000 in Detroit where he originally delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, this year’s march will also be building for a national march in Washington, this time the Oct. 2 march for “Jobs, justice and equality for all.”

A press release issued by the UAW and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition stated the reasons behind the new campaign: “No group has suffered more from [the] economic meltdown than working men and women. The auto industry was decimated and workers paid the price. Urban America is in crisis and teachers, transportation workers, and all who do the hands-on work that make our cities run are the first to feel the effects of budget cuts. Unemployment continues at around 9.8 percent. Detroit is ground zero of this national crisis. ...

“In Appalachia and the Gulf, years of unenforced regulation, driven by corporate greed and government complicity, have led to needless deaths and destruction in the coal and oil fields. Our national infrastructure is crumbling — industry, education, transportation, [the] environment — while millions of talented workers stand by, ready to stem the tide.

“Poverty is on the rise. Home and church foreclosures continue to mount and student loan defaults are increasing. Our cities are under siege. ... It’s time to revive the War on Poverty.”

The campaign calls for “jobs and economic reconstruction, reindustrialization and trade policies that will create jobs, support manufacturing and put workers first.” It demands justice by the enforcement of workers’ rights, civil rights, industrial regulation, strong urban policy, fair and just education, and economic and health policy.

It also calls for peace by “ending the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, saving lives and redirecting the war budget to rebuild” the U.S.

Bob King replied affirmatively when asked by a reporter if he supported a moratorium on foreclosures. The union leader’s support for a foreclosure moratorium was noted by the Detroit Free Press, one of two big-business-owned daily newspapers in the city. In June King joined community and religious leaders in a march on Chase Bank in downtown Detroit during the U.S. Social Forum to demand a moratorium on foreclosures and justice for North Carolina tobacco field workers.