3/21 Million Worker March on DC Planning Meeting

Planning Meeting at ILWU Local 10 Union Hall
(400 North Point St, near Pier 39 in SF)
Sunday March 21 @ 6pm

Posted Below:
1. Open invitation to join planning meetings from Trent Willis
2. Description of Idea for March
3. ILWU Local 10 RESOLUTION PROPOSING A MILLION WORKERS MARCH ON WASHINGTON
_____________________
1. Open Invitation from Trent Willis, ILWU Local 10 and Million Worker March Committee member
(original letter from first open planning meeting last weekend 3/16)

"Million Worker March On Washington

To all recipients,

This letter is an open invitation to your organization to attend the first Million Worker March Committee meeting. The attach information explains the purpose and requirements regarding this historic event. The Meeting will be held Sunday, March 14 2004 at the ILWU Local 10 Union Hall at 6:00pm. The purpose of this meeting will be to officially form the committee and initiate the beginning stages of this historic nationwide campaign.  Please send all correspondence to the address provided below.

ILWU local 10
400 North Point St.
San Francisco, Ca 94133

In Solidarity,
Trent Willis
Coordinator, MWM Committee
E-Mail millionworkermarch [at] comcast.net
__________________________________
2. Description of Idea for March

"MILLION WORKER MARCH

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 10 recently passed a resolution proposing a million worker march on Washington in 2004.  No date has been set however, we; envision it taking place before the election in November.  This mobilization is being proposed in response to the attacks upon working families in America and the millions of jobs lost during the current Bush Administration.  The working class has not suffered such hardship since the era of the Great Depression.

The Bush Administrationˆs focus of placing the acquisition of capital and the quest for profits above the needs of the people is undermining the economic security of working people and the nation as a whole.

Now is the time for organized/unorganized labor, the interfaith and community organizations to show solidarity to demand that all elected officials address the needs of working people.

While we are in the early stages of planning this action, we are urging organizations to join us in making this march a reality.

We are encouraging everyone have the attached resolution adopted by your membership or organization. We're also asking that your organization start a Million Worker March Committee to mobilize labor in your local area, ultimately merging with a National Committee to be formed at a later date. Finally, we're asking for financial contribution from your organization to be sent to the address below until a National Committee is created.

Please contact:
MILLION WORKER MARCH COMMITTEE
ILWU, Local 10
400 North Point
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415)441-0610

In solidarity,
Trent Willis
Coordinator, MWM Committee
Email: millionworkermarch [at] comcast.net"
__________________________________
3. "RESOLUTION PROPOSING A MILLION WORKERS MARCH ON WASHINGTON

Whereas:  our ancestors fought tirelessly in this country for the right to organize unions and ensure that our government recognized this right because it is a cornerstone of democracy, and

Whereas:  that because of unions and solidarity among working people we have been able to win basic human rights, including employer paid health care, social security and retirement benefits, safe working conditions, decent hours and wages, education for our children, social services for the disadvantaged, civil liberties, and most important, the right to political influence over our nation's foreign and domestic policies, and

Whereas:  Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his State of the Union address in 1944 acknowledged our rights, saying, "We have come to the realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence.  Necessitous men are not free men.  People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made." and

Whereas:  the current administration has cooperated with big business in attacking our rights, using legislation such as the Patriot Acts I and II, denying the right of hundreds of thousands of Federal employees to belong to unions and bargain, forcing longshore workers to work under a Taft-Hartley Act injunction and threats of Federal intervention, and

Whereas:  the administration has negotiated trade agreements costing the jobs of hundreds of thousands of US workers, calling this a move towards a healthy economy, while promoting other economic policies which have resulted in the loss of over 3 million jobs since taking office, and

Whereas:  the administration has given corporations and the wealthy huge tax breaks, while cutting billions of dollars in spending for social services, education, and other government programs won by working people through decades of effort, and

Whereas:  the Bush administration has excused all these policies by using the terrible events of September 11 to label any opposition unpatriotic and a threat to national security, has taken our country into an unjust war under the false assertion that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, costing the lives of hundreds of US service members and innocent Iraqi civilians, and is whipping up fear and hysteria even further to try to stampede the public into giving it another term in office,

Be it therefore resolved:  that Local 10 of the ILWU calls on unions and working people generally to go to Washington DC for a Million Worker March, to demand that politicians and the administration listen to the people who pay their salaries, rather than the voices of big business and the rich, and

Be it further resolved:  that this resolution be forwarded to unions, labor councils and labor organizations, as well as other organizations to which workers belong, whether organized or not, so that they can take similar action to organize this March as soon as possible.

Be it finally resolved: that this event coincide with all labor organized voter registration drives planned for the next election.

02/26/04 - DB"