Laura Flanders of GRITtv reminds viewers what Martin Luther King was doing towards the end of his life:
"It's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, the holiday that celebrates the Nobel Peace Prize-winner's birth and life. The Reverend King wasn't assassinated, as Rep. Gabrielle Giffords almost was, at a Congress on Your Corner. Or on a civil rights march.
He was assassinated in Memphis, where he was showing up to support the right of public employees to organize and strike.
What have civil rights got to do with public workers' rights? To use President Obama's language in Tucson, we need to "widen our circle of concern"--as King did--when it comes to civil rights. ..."
Here's an excerpt from King's last speech in Memphis, in support of sanitation workers represented by AFSCME:
"... Now, what does all of this mean in this great period of history? It means that we've got to stay together. We've got to stay together and maintain unity. You know, whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula for doing it. What was that? He kept the slaves fighting among themselves. But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in Pharaoh's court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, that's the beginning of getting out of slavery. Now let us maintain unity.
Secondly, let us keep the issues where they are. The issue is injustice. The issue is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers. Now, we've got to keep attention on that. ..."
Today, that struggle to ensure the right of public workers, and eventually all workers, to have a democratic say in their workplace and quality of life goes on.
Below are some recent articles covering the latest conservative attacks on sanitation workers, teachers, firefighters, police, civil engineers, bus drivers, and everyone else who makes our states and cities work for the rest of us:
- Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism: NJ Public Pension Slugfest Reporting Omits 15 Years of Governors Stealing From Workers: "New Jersey, one of the richest states in the US, has mismanaged its way into this mess."
- Dave Johnson, Campaign for America's Future: Understanding the attacks on public employees; Pension Envy: "They tell people to oppose unions, saying, "Why should they have it so good?" The real question you should ask is, "Why should we have it so bad?""
- Joseph, ModernEsquire, at Plunderbund: Governor's office salaries going WAY up under Kasich; What do Kasich's staffer salaries say about his rhetoric against public unions?: "After months of deriding public unions for creating a situation that they claim leads to positions in the public sector paying better than the private sector, Kasich gives his own staff a raise above what Strickland was paying."
- Laura Clawson, DailyKos: Kasich: Public work is too good for thee, not good enough for me
- Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium: We welcome our new plutocratic overlords: "Hence the misleading statistic that public sector workers earn $11.90 more per hour than "comparable" private sector workers. However, when you take education and work experience into account, employees of state and local governments typically earn 11% to 12% less than private sector workers with comparable qualifications."
- Robert Reich, Alternet: The Problem Is That America's Richest 1% Are Raking It in -- Not Public Employee Pensions: "Republicans would rather deflect attention from corporate executive pay that continues to rise as corporate profits soar, even as corporations refuse to hire more workers. They don't want stories about Wall Street bonuses, now higher than before taxpayers bailed out the Street. And they'd like to avoid a spotlight on the billions raked in by hedge-fund and private-equity managers whose income is treated as capital gains and subject to only a 15 percent tax, due to a loophole in the tax laws designed specifically for them."
- Kevin Drum, Mother Jones: The war against public sector unions: "Conservatives succeeded spectacularly over the past few decades in destroying private sector unions (and doing considerable damage to the Democratic Party in the process), and this means that most people no longer belong to a union or even know anyone who does."
- Doug Halonen, Pensions & Investments: Gingrich seeks bill allowing state bankruptcy to avert bailouts; Move afoot to help states escape benefit obligations: "Former House Speaker and possible GOP presidential contender Newt Gingrich is pushing for federal legislation giving financially strapped states the right to file for bankruptcy and renege on pension and other benefit promises made to state employees."
- Meteor Blades, DailyKos: Public employees work for less, not more: "On average, state and local employees earn $6,061 per year less than their private-sector counterparts. Add in health and insurance benefits and the average public worker earns $2,001 less per year than her peer in the private sector."
- David Dayen, FireDogLake: The war on public employees, cont'd: "The reason state and local budgets are in trouble simply has nothing to do with their spending on public employees. It's about the financial crisis which triggered the Great Recession. In 2009, the recession dipped state tax revenues by 1/3. There's no way on earth to attribute that to public workers."
- Christian E. Weller, Center for American Progress: Conservatives need to understand that attacking public servants isn't the answer: "These cuts mean fewer public services. Less health care, larger class sizes, and slower snow removal are just some of the examples that come to mind."
