Where Do We Go From Here

By Robby Stern

When you read this column, the 2010 election will be over and we will learn whether Washington voters and voters across the country have decided to move us forward or take us backwards. As I write this column in the last week of Oct., PSARA members are casting their votes (I KNOW PSARA members vote!) and many of us are anxiously awaiting the results.

Whatever the outcome of the election, PSARA is preparing for the next stage of our fight to achieve a society where people are encouraged to care about each other and work together to make the lives of all of our broader community better. PSARA has our short term focus, which includes developing our goals for the 2011 Legislative session. At the federal level, we are organizing to stop any cuts to Social Security and Medicare and supporting efforts to improve those essential programs. We are also supporting efforts to achieve Comprehensive Immigration Reform and all genuine efforts to create jobs and help the victims of this Wall Street generated economic crisis.

In the 2010 election, we have witnessed the pernicious impact of corporate greed as multi national corporations spent historically unprecedented amounts of money to gain advantage at the expense of the vast majority of the American people. We have also experienced a reactionary resurgence that longs for mythical days of yore when white, mostly men, ruled and government was a hand maiden to oppression of the vulnerable.

At the same time, on Oct. 2, in Washington D.C. (with a satellite action in Seattle) tens of thousands of people, reflecting the real diversity, of our country, came together under the theme “One Nation Working Together”. There is a real battle taking place for the “soul” of America and PSARA intends to be part of the side that works to create what Dr. Martin Luther King described as “The Beloved Community”.

I recently completed Going Down Jericho Road, The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King’s Last Campaign, by U.W. Professor Michael K. Honey. Michael Honey has given us a gift with this book. The book left me with a much better understanding of the forces at play in the strike by Memphis sanitation workers. It sparked emotions of hope, of deep sadness, and also a sense of what we need to be building for the long haul in order to achieve the vision of “The Beloved Community”.

In Memphis, led by truly heroic African American sanitation workers, a community-wide coalition was forged including the labor movement, led by AFSCME, the union representing the sanitation workers and the Memphis Central Labor Council. Playing a key role in the coalition were the African American Churches and African American civic organizations, most notably the NAACP. This coalition faced off against an unbelievably racist Mayor, Henry Loeb, a predominantly racist and gutless City Council, a white media and a white community that was poisoned with racism and ignorance. The sanitation workers, their union and the African American community stood strong in the face of terrible violence, culminating in the assassination of Dr. King (Honey refers to it as a crucifixion), vilification and betrayal reaching as far as the FBI and the White House. The sanitation workers, the union, and the community won the battle at a huge cost to themselves and to the nation…but they WON!

The lessons from Memphis as well as other successful struggles for social and economic justice are clear. Every activity, every struggle in which PSARA engages we will keep in mind the need to build a broader movement for progressive change. We will work hard to be constructive members of the coalitions to which we commit. By working together with other sectors of the community, we are building the capacity to create a movement for progressive change.

The forces arrayed against us are strong, they have unlimited money, they control the media, and they will try to make us believe that our efforts are hopeless. But if we are determined, brave and smart; if we are genuinely loyal to those with whom we coalesce; if we are prepared to make sacrifices, then we will follow the example of the great victory of the sanitation workers and their allies in Memphis and we will prevail.