By LILLIAN ROBERTS
Executive Director
District Council 37, AFSCME

In our effort to defeat the most anti-labor, anti-minority and anti-women president ever, DC 37 members and the labor movement built the largest grassroots registration and mobilization effort in American history. More than 27 million voters from union households made up one-fourth of the electorate and voted 65 percent for John Kerry. Labor made a huge difference. While gun owners, for example, went strongly for Bush, gun owners in unions gave Kerry a 12 percent margin. The same was true for almost every demographic group.

I have great hope for the struggles ahead, because we campaigned with tremendous unity, within labor and among the progressive forces of our nation. In New York, 98 percent of the candidates we endorsed won election — including our own Diane Savino, who went from local union office to the State Senate. Our activists campaigned effectively for political leaders committed to working families’ needs — a good sign for this year’s mayoral race and the 2006 contest for governor.

While American voters don’t throw out presidents in wartime, they gave Bush the narrowest margin of victory of any incumbent since 1916. More than 55 million Americans stood with John Kerry and the Democrats.

We had many victories, but we lost the big one. We lost to a president who manipulated the fear of terrorist attacks and used cultural wedge issues such as gay marriage to distract people from shrinking pay, benefits and job opportunities. Bush won by 3.5 million votes as the Republicans expanded their hold over the Senate and the House of Representatives.

We have suffered a serious defeat, but we are not defeated. After a defeat, you have to find your inner strength. I’m done crying. Now is the time to fight back — harder and smarter than ever. That means we can’t leave it to the Republicans to focus on people’s need for deeper meaning in politics. Values matter, to me and to millions of Americans, so let’s expand the moral values debate beyond what people do in bed.

Health care for all is a moral issue (and Bush is clearly no Good Samaritan). Sacrificing the retirement security of Social Security for the false god of privatization would be immoral. Creating unemployment, taking from workers and the poor to give to the rich, and starting a war based on lies — these violate our Judeo-Christian ethics, and we need to say so.

We have to insist that the Democrats we put in Congress offer the American people a clear alternative, stand on principle and give not an inch on Bush’s unfair tax plans or Social Security privatization. Blurring the differences with compromises would tie our hands in future elections. Republican areas are colored red on voting maps. We have to insist that the Democrats stand for true blue, not pale pink.

The right to vote is a moral issue at the heart of our democracy. But when I tried to vote, three machines were out-of-order in the morning and still weren’t fixed by evening. I used a paper, “provisional” ballot — but I don’t know if it was counted.

New Yorkers also reported machines with no Democratic line, voter harassment by poorly trained officials, intimidation of campaign workers and discouragingly long lines. Nationwide, the picture was worse. Vote suppression tactics targeted urban voters, especially African Americans, and computer problems heightened suspicions of another stolen election.

As we fight nationwide for every vote to be counted, I intend to launch a movement for electoral change right here in New York City and State — a coalition of labor, civil rights, community and religious groups to replace our antiquated system with modern equipment, computerized registration information, trained personnel and professional election administration.

Can we take back America?
Dr. Martin Luther King showed us the way as he pressed America to live up to its values of opportunity and equality and stressed economic justice for all. We can build a powerful movement for change by showing that our issues — jobs, fair pay, health care for all, secure retirement, good schools and a healthy environment — are based on the fundamental values of our country.

If we raise the moral banners of jobs and justice, peace and equality, the politics of hope can defeat the politics of fear.

I hope the New Year brings peace and joy to our entire union family. I believe we should put our values to work in everyday life as well as in political action. The New Year is a time to reflect and resolve. Please stop and ask yourself, as I have done, what you can do, individually and directly, to help a fellow human being.

Whether it is a contribution to a needy person or a visit to a sick one — one special act at a time we can make our world a better place.