"Free The Land!" Chokwe Lumumba addresses 30th annual Black Workers for Justice MLK Banquet

Award recipients at BWFJ 30th Annual "MLK Support for Labor Banquet

This year, Black Workers for Justice held their 30th Annual Martin Luther King Support for Labor Banquet. This historic dinner actually represents more than three decades of activism. BWfJ began as the result of a battle initiated by Black women workers at a K-Mart in Rocky Mount, NC in 1981. Your correspondent has been to more than a few of BWfJ's MLK dinners over the years, but this is the first time I've attended two years in a row.

While last year's banquet was a serious  "must attend" affair for a People's Organization for Progress member such as myself (POP's chairman, Lawrence Hamm was the 2012 keynote speaker), the event this year was even more exciting. The spirited response of the crowd to BWfJ's  exhilarating Fruit of Labor singing ensemble was palpable. 

Ajamu Dillahunt, founding member and elder of BWFJ, grooves to the Fruit of Labor's excellent performance

While last year's rousing keynote by POP's Larry Hamm certainly had the crowd on their feet, Jackson, Mississippi Mayoral Candidate and City Councilmember Chokwe Lumumba moved the attendees to "love offerings" in support of his candidacy. But the most impressive aspect of the 2013 BWfJ banquet was the level of youth participation. The Durham, NC based organization People's Durham (a new organization similar to POP in its campaigns and goals, click on  the link People's Durham for more information), was represented by a very youthful contingent of members. People's Durham, along with Larsene Taylor and longtime activist Jim Campbell were recipients of BWfJ Self-Determination Awards (click the link Black Workers for Justice 2013 MLK Dinner to view three pages of additional photos by labor photographer, and friend of the Fire on the Mountain blog page, Jon Levine).

The thrilling spirit of this exciting event was evident in poetry and dance as well as the singing of the Fruit of Labor and others. Erin Byrd read an excellent poem and Laprince Smith led the gathering in singing the Black National Anthem (Lift Every Voice and Sing).

Jackson, MS City Councilman, and Mayoral Candidate, Chokwe Lumumba was the Keynote Speaker.

The truly moving presentation by brother Chokwe Lumumba was informed by his years of activism, both in Jackson, MS and throughout the Black Belt South, as well as the entire US.

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April 4th, Part II: Workers Rights are Human Rights

"Workers rights are human rights!
Union rights are civil rights!"

At it's height, the march stretched all the way from the corner of Broad & Market Streets to City Hall at Green St

Reflecting on Monday's successful march and rally for Jobs, Peace, Equality & Justice (see Black NJ: POP remembers King by Uniting Labor & Community Forces) Lawrence Hamm, NJ state chairman of the People's Organization for Progress, noted, "this march was clearly smaller than the massive 2007 Peace & Justice Coalition event, but it certainly felt bigger, more significant…"

Larry went on to observe that the coalition of forces supporting and participating in the April 4th March & Rally for Jobs, Peace, Equality & Justice included a broader range of unions than came out in 2007.

Communication Workers of America-District 1 and CWA Local 1037 attended in significant numbers

The AFL-CIO together the National NAACP issued a call for "We Are One" rallies across the country for April 4, 2011 to show solidarity with the state workers under attack in Wisconsin. In Newark, NJ, Raleigh, NC and around the country labor and union leaders wisely united with existing events. This included POP's April 4th  rally, events of our sister organization, Black Workers for Justice, in Raleigh-Durham and many many other gatherings (click here to see photos from Raleigh).

This important development represents an acknowledgement of the intersection of labor struggle and community struggle, or as Larry Hamm put it, "Our unions fight for us while we're on the job. We get home in the evening and we are the community! We need community-based organizations to continue the struggle. These are natural allies, we must unite the two fronts of battle." 

Hundreds upon hundreds fill the plaza at North Carolina's Capital Building

We must build on this new unity. Community groups like POP are on the front lines every day. National organizations like the NAACP have lobbying clout and pull media response, and the labor movement can mobilize quickly. The struggle of public workers in Wisconsin (and New Jersey, North Carolina, and many other places in the US) is basically a conflict over simple democracy, but the campaign against right-wing forces is, in fact, a people's battle that we can't afford to lose…

Thanks to Ajamu of BWfJ in North Carolina, Jon of POP and Tom Dinges at the Star Ledger for photos (Click here to view more photos from the POP March & Rally in Newark).

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Black NJ: POP Remembers King By Uniting Labor and Community Forces

"This is, no doubt, the biggest march and rally Newark's seen since the People's Organization for Progress pulled together the Peace & Justice Coalition for the massive August 2007 protest," one long-time activist told me. That march had well over 1,ooo participants. Today's numbers, after a much briefer period of organizing, tapped right into a new current of struggle in the labor movement.

Only after the notorious attack on organized labor by Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin (who has tried to style himself after our own Krispy Creme Christie of NJ), did the national AFL-CIO, many local and state feds, and local unions of government workers began calling for "We Are One" days of action for April 4.

This new spirit of labor struggle brought many union locals to the streets of Newark, and not just the public workers who are under attack by Walker, Christie, and other Koch-sponsored politicos around the country. While the largest union contingent was Communication Workers of America Local 1037, who organize state workers in New Jersey, and many other public-sector unions turned out members, IBEW 827, and three International Longshoremen's Association locals (ILA Local 1233 from Newark; ILA Local 1588 from Bayonne; and ILA Local 333, United Marine Division) were also represented. Both the Essex & Union County Chapters of the A. Philip Randolph Association had contingents present.

Honoring the April 4th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has been a tradition for the People's Organization for Progress as well as sister-organizations like Black Workers for Justice for years (a follow-up Fire on the Mountain will feature photos and information from the BWfJ supported April 4 "We are One" march in the Raleigh-Durham area). The significant turnout from the labor movement shows promise of being the foundation of an important coalition to be concretized and built on. As POP chairman Lawrence Hamm observed, "Our unions fight for us while we're on the job. We get home in the evening and we are the community! We need community-based organizations to continue the struggle. These are natural allies, we must unite the two fronts of battle."

The actual number of participants was difficult to judge. One experienced community activist suggested that there were "well over 1,000 demonstrators" while another long-time organizer counted the march at 650. Because several union locals joined at different points along the line of march from Broad & Market to City Hall, and then on to Essex County College, while some participants left the march when they reached where they'd parked their cars, my judgment is that while the crowd may not have ever exceeded 700 at any given time, as many as a thousand demonstrators probably participated in the course of the afternoon and evening…

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POP Unites with Labor, Community Groups to Honor Dr. King's Real Legacy

The New Jersey-based People's Organization for Progress will this year once again observe the April 4th anniversary of the death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. together with the New Jersey (and national) labor movement and dozens of other community-based and progressive organizations.

When an assassin's bullet felled Dr. King forty-three years ago this coming Monday, the murderous intent of the rulers of this country went far beyond eliminating a single troublesome leader.

They aimed to murder a movement.

During the previous year, Dr. King had spoken out against the War in Vietnam, begun developing plans for the Poor People's Campaign (a multi-ethnic, multi-national march that would place one-million homeless and poor people on the Mall in Washington DC), preached that "every bomb dropped over Vietnam explodes on a poor community in the US" (developing the war-at-home/war-abroad analysis), and marched with striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee demanding both dignity and a living wage.

During his last year, Dr. King was helping hundreds of thousands of activists grasp the imperialist character of the racists who rule this country, and the movement he was building was becoming implicitly and throughly revolutionary.

This is why they wanted to kill the movement, even more than see Martin himself dead.

Honoring Dr. King's legacy while remembering his assassination has become the banner of numerous events in early April. For nearly 30 years, POP's friends in Black Workers for Justice in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina have held an annual "Martin Luther King Salute to Labor Banquet" and it's happening again this weekend.

This year, the People's Organization for Progress is again joining this tradition while uniting with the AFL-CIO's call for April 4th labor support actions.

On Monday, April 4, 2011 POP will join with Communication Workers of America - District 1, CWA Local 1037, the NJ State N.A.A.C.P., the International Longshoremen's Association Local 1233, New Jersey Black Issues Convention, NJ Immigration and Workers Rights Coalition, the New Black Panther Party, Veterans for Peace-Chapter 21, Essex County Women of Color and Allies NOW Chapter, Newark Anti-Violence Coalition, Black Telephone Workers for Justice, Postal Workers Against the War, Sierra Club, CODEPINK, New Jersey Tenants Association, the Enough is Enough Coalition, the NJ Industrial Union Council, and the Union County A. Philip Randolph Institute (among many, many others)…

Assemble at the corners of Broad & Market Streets in Newark, New Jersey at 5:30 P.M.

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