A few hundred hardy folks braved the wind and cold to attend the We Are One rally at the Capitol to memorialize the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination on April 4, 1968.
The event took on greater meaning this year because King was killed at a time when he had expanded his struggle for social justice to embrace the fight for economic justice through unionization and collective bargaining. Many in the crowd carried signs urging the recall of the newly elected Republican governor. Governor Rick Snyder and his fellow GOP legislators are pushing hard to pass a package of bills that would destroy collective bargaining in Michigan.
The video below provides background on the sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis, the event that lured MLK to the city where he died. Remembered and revered now for his fight for civil rights for people of color, MLK was a staunch union supporter and anti-war activist at the time of his death. He argued that social justice for any group could not be attained until we achieved economic justice for all.
