Last year I posted a diary at Daily Kos called Coalition Building 101 , calling for a massive march on Washington, using the image from the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
On October 2, 2010, from noon till 4 PM, a broad based coalition is doing just that.
Using the image from the historic march in 1963, the organizers have sent out a call to action.
They have called that coalition “One Nation Working Together” and they have the following mission statement:
We are One Nation, born from many, determined to build a more united America – with jobs, justice and education for all.
We are young people, frustrated that society seems willing to spend more locking up our bodies than educating our minds, yet still we find ways to succeed and shine.
We are students and newly-returned veterans – persevering in the face of mounting debt – determined not to be the first generation to end up worse off than our parents.
We are baby boomers and seniors – who saw hope killed in 1968 and will not let the dream of a united America be taken from us again.
We are conservatives and moderates, progressives and liberals, non-believers and people of deep faith, united by escalating assaults on our reason, our environment, and our rights.
We are workers of every age, faith, race, sex, nationality, gender identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and ability – who have suffered discrimination but never stopped loving our neighbors, or our nation.
We are American Indians and Alaska Natives – citizens of Native nations – who maintain our cultures, protect our sovereignty, and strength America’s economy.
We are the new immigrants, raising our children in the torchlight of the Statue of Liberty, while confronting the shadows that are bigotry and mass deportations.
We are the native born. We inherited the divided legacies of settlers and American Indians, black slaves and white and Asian indentured servants. And yet, in this moment of shared suffering, we rejoice in newfound friendships and new alliances.
We are people who got thrown out – thrown out of our jobs, schools, houses, farms and small businesses – while Wall Street’s wrongdoers got bailed out. We are families who pray every day – for peace and prosperity; for deliverance from foreclosures; for good jobs to come back to urban and rural America.
We are unemployed workers – forced to watch hopes for bold action dashed – because some Senators threaten filibusters, and other would-be champions fold in fear.
And yet, we are the majority – fueled by hope, not hate. We have the pride, power and determination to keep ourselves – and our country – moving up and out of the valley greed created.
And most importantly – from ensuring women are treated fairly at work, to expanding health care coverage for millions- we have been victorious whenever we worked together. We have proven the only thing we need to succeed is each other.
What can you do?
Use your facebook, twitter, email lists, telephone and personal contacts to get out the word.
Make flyers and post them in your local supermarket, or Laundromat.
If you can’t go, you can donate money to help provide transportation. Or volunteer to help with online efforts.
Donations
Please make out all Checks and Money Orders to:
One Nation Working Together
1825 K St. NW, Suite 210
Washington DC 20001Or call our office: 202-263-4568.
Some of you weren’t born at the time of that march in 1963. Some of you may have been there.
That march was successful because folks got up off their assets, no matter how much or how little they had, and showed up.
The organizers of that historic march didn’t have much money – they sold buttons to raise the funds.
they didn’t have the internet, or you tube.
What they did have was a commitment to struggle.
We don’t need corporate faux news power.
We need Progressive People Power.
This March is not the be all and end all, because there is still so much work to be done. But it’s about time we show the world (and ourselves) what people power is really about.
I am sick and tired of keyboard warriors, on some other blogs carping and complaining about what the President or the Congress are or are not doing.
My question to them is – What are you going to do?
I am sick and tired of too much focus on the right-wing, and wing-nuts and not enough emphasis on what we need to do as progressives.
This is a call to Action!
I believe in People Power. That’s how the Civil Rights movement got things done, the Labor movement, the anti-Vietnam War movement, the Women’s Suffrage Movement…all showed up in strength to make their voices heard.
So in the words of Bobby Seale:
Seize the time.
Get on a bus, a train, a plane or in car-pool and I’ll see you in DC!
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