Unions, Public Actions, And Mountaintops

Today is MLK Day, a day that tends to become about a few quotes, and making a few sandwiches or reading a book or two to kids. So here are a few actions you might take to have a slightly more meaningful day.

Fight For Unions

At the turn of the century women earned approximately ten cents an hour, and men were fortunate to receive twenty cents an hour. The average work week was sixty to seventy hours. During the thirties, wages were a secondary issue; to have a job at all was the difference between the agony of starvation and a flicker of life. The nation, now so vigorous, reeled and tottered almost to total collapse. The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old age pensions, government relief for the destitute, and above all new wage levels that meant not mere survival, but a tolerable life. The captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they resisted it until they were overcome. When in the thirties the wave of union organization crested over our nation, it carried to secure shores not only itself but the whole society. (MLK Jr at Illinois AFL-CIO Convention, October 1965)

I have to say it is important to note that while we are all getting for than 10 cents a hour (though I wonder if the current minimum wage is relationally much better), the rest of this really still rings true for so many of us. 

For a brief moment during the height of COVID we seemed to be noticing the important people who bring food to our tables, serve us, provide us care, teach our children etc. but it feels like after remembering for a year or so and now have completely forgotten again.   

Ways To Fight For Unions:

• Join one if you can, organize one if you can't join yet
• Listen to Unions when they say boycott a group
• Write your politicians about the importance of unions
• Think and act on how you want to be treated as an worker 
• Know that how you treat other workers impacts how you are treated

Public Actions For Justice

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial 'outside agitator' idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds. MLK Jr 1963

True justice is hard. Very hard. It involves deep reflection and knocking down systems so they can be rebuilt more justly.  It involves those in power to giving up things so that everyone can have what they need to survive. It means doing the hard work of seeing our own intersectionality and how no matter who we are we have contributed (often inadvertently) to the oppression of others.

Public Actions:

• Supporting and amplifying the voices of those who are oppressed by society
• Providing support (material, emotional, connectional) to those who are leading public actions (after asking what they need)
• Putting our own bodies on the line like in the song "Have you been to jail for justice"
• Calling a spade a spade and calling injustice what it is injustice, or racism, or sexism
• Share our inner reflections/processing publicly so others can learn how to process themselves 

Mountaintops:

We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now because I've been to the mountaintop... I've looked over and I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.  MLK Jr "I've Been to the Mountaintop” speech, April 3, 1968

Fights against racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, internalized trauma, fill in the blank are long, so very long. This is why it is important to make sure we celebrate mountaintop moments. Mountaintop moments when we remember that while we shall not see the end of this journey, that does not mean that the journey is not important or that we are on the journey alone. 

The song "Glory" gets to this point. Sometimes all we can see are the scars and calluses and broken bones and darkness and depression and we wonder "Why? Why are we doing this." Mountaintops remind us that we are moving towards something even if it can be a bit hard to see through storms and forests and deserts wide.

Mountaintops:

• Connect with others on the journey because the fight can feel very lonely
• Take time to reflect on how far we have come and how far we yet have to go
• Prioritize our own mental health, because if we are carrying around a lot of mental junk we will not be able to keep moving
• Know it is ok if we forget the mountain top exists, it can be very hard to see, sometimes harder than a hoped for promise land
• Sing and dance and find other ways to express what we are experiencing and in order to stay alive. Being Alive means Living not existing. And we all have a hammer we can use.