[L-I] Join AntiWar 4 Million Worker March

"Get on the bus" for the
Million Worker March,
Oct. 17, 2004, Washington, D.C.!

The struggle of working people and the struggle against 
the war are the same struggle!
  
Bring the troops home now! End the occupation of Iraq!
  
Organize a local “AntiWar 4 the Million Worker March" 
committee now!


Dear Activists and Organizers,

This fall in Washington, D.C., you will have a timely and 
historic opportunity to unite the anti-war movement with 
an unprecedented and vitally necessary mass march of 
working people speaking for themselves. This is a rare 
opportunity that serious anti-war activists can't afford 
to pass up.

Some of the strongest voices and most active groups in the 
labor movement, together with the active support and 
participation of organizations representing every 
progressive movement and cause, will be “getting on the 
bus to D.C. on Sunday, October 17, for the MILLION WORKER 
MARCH. A sea of workers from every industry, from every 
union and every place where workers want a union, from 
every part of the country, will be streaming into the 
capital to demand things like jobs, a living wage and 
workers' rights.

They will also express their anger over the senseless 
dying that is going on every day in Iraq and elsewhere, 
and their desire that it end now. Why? Because it is 
working families who bear the burden, it is their loved 
ones who are sent off to fight and die--and it is their, 
our, the workers' money that is stolen to pay for war and 
occupation.

What makes the Million Worker March unique is that the 
event´s principal organizers want to make the anti-war 
movement´s demand to “End the Occupation of Iraq, and 
Bring the Troops Home Now central to the march's message 
and the goals.

START A LOCAL “ANTI-WAR 4 THE MILLION WORKER MARCH" 
COMMITTEE RIGHT NOW!

We are asking anti-war activists to set up local “Anti-war 
4 the Million Worker March committees. Start meeting, 
planning, and reserving buses to go to Washington on 
October 17. Anti-war coalitions and groups need to let us 
know ASAP if their group can be listed as an “Anti-war 4 
Million Worker March committee in their locality or 
region.

We encourage activists to form committees in their unions, 
schools, work places, churches and communities. It is our 
hope that “Anti-war 4 MWM" committees will complement the 
labor union and community-based organizing that is going 
on across the country for Oct. 17.

We urge you to start now, before the Republican National 
Convention protests in NYC. Please get back to us so that 
we can send you information and resources that will be 
helpful to your organizing.

YOU CAN HELP

* Add your name, title and endorsement as a signer to this 
urgent call.
* Set up an Anti-War 4 the Million Worker March committee
* Send this email to your friends, co-workers, and 
neighbors.
* Commit to sending a bus from your city, town or region.

CONTACT US AT
[email protected]
39 W. 14th Street #206
NYC, NY 10011
phone (212) 633.633.6646

The call for a Million Worker March came from one of the 
most well-known labor organizations in the country, famous 
for its long history of militancy, boldness and courage in 
defense of working people—Local 10 of the International 
Longshore Workers Union in San Francisco. Over the past 
few months this call has rolled across the country, 
picking up the support of scores of labor unions, labor 
activists and leaders including:

The Coalition Of Black Trade Unionists; Bill Lucy, 
Secretary-Treasurer, AFSCME; the National Education 
Association; Transportation Workers Union Local 100 (NY); 
AFSCME District Council 1707 (NY); South Carolina AFL-CIO; 
Farm Labor Organizing Committee; AFSCME District Council 
92 (MD); D.C. Labor Against The War; International ANSWER; 
actor Danny Glover; American Indian Movement; ILWU Local 
34; Troy and Albany Labor Council (NY); National 
Immigration Solidarity Network; New York City Labor 
Against the War; Global Women´s Strike; Teamsters Black 
Caucus; comedian Dick Gregory; Myra Shone and Ralph 
Schoenman, Taking Aim, Pacifica; National Association of 
Letter Carriers, Branch 3825; Howard Wallace, co-founder, 
Pride at Work; Jim Houghton, Director, Harlem Fight Back; 
Justice 4 Homeless, SF; United Steel Workers of America 
Local 8751; International Action Center; former U.S. 
Attorney General Ramsey Clark; Nellie Bailey, Harlem 
Tenants Council; Howard Zinn, historian; Noam Chomsky, 
linguist;AFSCME Local 95, Local 205, Local 215,Local 
389,Loca167,Local 1881, Local 1930; ILWU Entire West Coast 
division; CUE Local 3; and many more.

Working people are coming to Washington, D.C. on Oct. 17 
because whether their concern is about jobs, or decent 
wages, or layoffs, or union busting, or the battle to 
protect our pensions and Social Security and to make 
health care a universal right instead of a privilege for 
the wealthy--with all we face, we had better raise our own 
voices and act in our own interests instead of relying on 
the next president, whoever that will be.

And most important, the time for us to speak in our own 
voice is not after people vote in November, but before. 
The Million Worker March on Oct. 17 is about the people 
telling the president, the candidates, the politicians and 
the corporate elite who are the real power behind the 
election campaigns and the politicians to “Shut up! and 
listen to us for a change.

Let´s make sure that after many of us march in NYC against 
the Republican convention, Nov. 2 isn´t the only important 
date this fall. We urge all of you to work to make the 
Oct. 17 Million Worker March in D.C. the next major event 
for the entire anti-war movement. If we rise to this 
challenge, we will put the next president and Congress on 
notice that we will accept no excuses for prolonging the 
occupation of Iraq and wasting lives and precious 
resources that should go toward satisfying people´s needs 
like housing and schools. Moreover, we will have helped to 
forge a critical alliance between the grass roots of the 
labor movement and the anti-war movement that would 
represent a whole new level of unity, potential and power.

Does this sound like something worth working for? Does 
this sound like something you´ve been waiting for? You can 
help make it happen.

In solidarity,

Clarence Thomas, Co-Chair, Million Workers March 
Organizing Committee, ILWU Local 10
Brenda Stokely, President, District Council 1707 AFSCME, 
Co-chair, NYC Labor Against the War
Chris Silvera, Secretary-Treasurer, Local 808 IBT, 
President National Teamsters Black Caucus
Ralph Shoenman, Communications Coordinator, Million Worker 
March
Larry Holmes, International Action Center, Steering 
Committee ANSWER
Sharon Black, Washington/Baltimore Coordinator, Million 
Worker March
Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General

Get on the bus:


* To bring the troops home now!* For money & for jobs not 
war!* For a living wage!* Against layoffs, union busting, 
& for workers´ rights!* For the rights of immigrant 
workers!* Because young people need jobs not jails!* To 
end the occupation of iraq!* To defend civil rights! * 
Because working people need to speak in their own voice!

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