Thousands of workers and activists from around the country
converged on Washington, D.C., Oct. 17 for the Million Worker March,
a rally that fell short numerically but stood tall in spirit. A fired-up
DC 37 contingent of activists from a dozen locals included Tyrone Evans,
a School Crossing Guard and member of Local 372. Mr. Evans came from
Brooklyn before dawn with several members of his local to take one of
the four DC 37 buses.
Bush is cutting back on education and health care. And the job
situation keeps getting worse, said Mr. Evans. DC 37 participants
also included Treasurer Maf Misbah Uddin, Local 420 President Carmen
Charles and Local 372 Vice President Santos Crespo. The organizers of
the demonstration issued several demands, among them universal single-payer
health coverage, amnesty for all undocumented workers, halting privatization,
repealing the Patriot Act and ending the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
We know what working people are facing, millions have lost their
jobs, said Mr. Uddin, who addressed the crowd on the steps of
the Washington Monument. We need jobs, we need health care and
we need our right to strike.
Other speakers included actor Danny Glover, the Rev. Jesse Jackson,
former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark and Martin Luther King III.
The most important step we can take is the short step to the ballot
box, said Mr. King, speaking from the spot where his father stood
41 years ago to deliver his famous I Have a Dream speech.
We must vote like we never have before.
Mr. Clark blasted the Bush administrations foreign policy. It
is the most openly destructive in the history of the United States,
said Mr. Clark. It enriches the rich and impoverishes the poor.
Alfredo Alvarado