By LILLIAN ROBERTS
Executive Director
District Council 37, AFSCME, AFL-CIO

ALL too often in reflecting on the progress made since the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington, the media conveniently forget the pivotal role our international union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, played in that righteous struggle. In fact, in what turned out to be his last public act, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. went to Memphis in 1968 to stand in solidarity with striking AFSCME sanitation workers.

I raise this now because today the struggle for social justice requires our renewed commitment to right our nation's glaring inequities, which have actually gotten worse in our lifetime. We owe it to future generations to step up our game. While we have made progress on racial equality, when it comes to economic justice, our city and nation have never been more tilted toward the wealthy 1 percent. For the first time in U.S. history, working people have a better shot at upward mobility in other countries than they do here.

In the next few days you have the chance to do something about that by casting your ballot for New York City Comptroller John C. Liu for Mayor. Of all the candidates in the field, Liu is the one who most frightens the vested financial interests that have had the run of this city under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. So it should come as no surprise that the corporate media, which serve the same interests, would do their best to marginalize Liu's campaign.

A fighter against wasteful contracting out

Liu has consistently been in labor's corner, taking on Mayor Bloomberg's wasteful outsourcing and executive overreach. In the process, Liu rooted out fraudulent contract payments, saving union jobs and saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. As a prudent fiscal watchdog he helped the city's public pension systems recover from the devastation wrought by the big banks in 2008, when their unbridled greed brought the world economy to the brink of collapse.

To this day the impact is still felt, with millions of unemployed young people in this nation out of school and out of work. In the New York area alone, 350,000 16-to-24-year olds are stuck in this predicament.

Of all the candidates in the Democratic field, only John Liu has an impressive private sector business resume. Only Liu has a comprehensive economic plan to end corporate welfare, lift up small and mid-size business and end contracting out to provide a real path to full employment.

If the pundits are right and just a fraction of the eligible voters turn out for the Democratic primary election on Tuesday, September 10, DC 37 members and retirees - almost 200,000 voters strong - could account for a third of the votes. That's power money can't buy and pollsters can't see coming.

The 2013 election could make a huge difference for municipal workers and the millions of New Yorkers who were marginalized during the Bloomberg era. With public employees' contracts and the fate of public housing all up in the air, there's no excuse for anyone to sit this one out.

I strongly urge all of our members to vote for Liu on Tuesday, September 10.