PEP, June 2004: Prez must go.

Public Employee Press

Political Action 2004
What's at stake in November
Prez must go

When people unite in the same union and the same political party and vote together, the world is ours,” said labor leader and presidential candidate Eugene Debs in 1914. Ninety years later, labor is rallying around the call for unity and America’s working families are answering: “It’s time to take back the White House in 2004!”

As the country prepares for a historic election, victory is vital for members of DC 37, public employees and working people nationwide who are united to elect the labor-endorsed Democrat John Kerry for president and labor friendly candidates to Congress and the U.S. Senate.

More is at stake in November 2004 than in many election years. In the last three-and-a-half years, the Bush administration has rescinded hard-won labor protections. Bush’s policies have all but terrorized working Americans with calculated strikes to eliminate job security for public workers, decimate Medicaid, increase health insurance and drug costs, privatize Social Security, and enact a more stringent Patriot Act that would further infringe upon the basic rights to organize, enjoy free speech and gather publicly.

In spite of higher profits and rising Wall Street prices, the economy is not working for middle-class and poor Americans. Unemployment is stuck on high and for minority males hovers near 50 percent. Bush’s war against Iraq goes on long after he declared victory a year ago. No-bid contracts in Iraq cost taxpayers $150 billon and counting. And lives are still wasted daily as the sons and daughters of working families — not the rich — come home from the Middle East maimed or in body bags. Sadly, Americans feel no more secure than on Sept. 12, 2001.

“All that serves labor serves the nation. All that harms is treason,” said President Abraham Lincoln. “There is no America without labor, and to fleece the one is to rob the other.” The continuing rip-off of working people, families and retirees raises the question: Can America afford another four years of George W. Bush? Labor says no.

To counter Bush’s war on America’s families, labor has developed a two-pronged campaign to raise campaign funds and register voters so that on Nov. 2 the voice of the people will be heard.

“Politics means a lot to our pocketbooks,” said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts. Politics will determine the fate of DC 37 members’ livelihoods, their communities and their children’s futures as well. “We have to register to vote and then participate in the November elections like our lives depend on it,” she said.

DC 37 Political Action Dept. Director Wanda Williams said union members have the power — and obligation — to turn the tables on the president who came to the Big Apple after 9/11 and praised the heroism of unionized Police Officers, Firefighters, EMS crews and nurses, but returned to the White House and stripped union rights from thousands of Homeland Security workers.

“Now is the time for working people across this country to take united action as citizens where it counts — in the voting booth,” said Ms. Roberts.

— DSW