I was walking to the march site, for what turned out to be one of the biggest an

ti-war demonstrations to date. She was sitting on the grass on the mall in Wash
ington with a hand lettered sign that said, “My husband is fighting for your ri
ght to protest.” How did she come to that conclusion I wondered? Doesn’t having
a loved one in the path of such danger make a person go beyond the political rhe
toric and try to find the real reason for things?
Whatever freedom we have and our right to protest was not fought for by a milita
ry force halfway across the world. Those rights were fought for right here on ou
r soil by people who were not wearing a military uniform, but were still shot at
and sometimes killed by people in uniform while they were fighting for the righ
t to organize, the right to vote, the right to be treated like human beings, the
right to try and stop illegal and immoral wars that our government was waging i
n our name.
There are few monuments to people like us. They don’t stand in every public park
or in center city squares. A holiday like Labor Day doesn’t quite memorialize t
he sacrifices made to win decent working conditions and the 8 hour day. Mayday d
oesn’t exist in the country in which it originated. International Woman’s Day is
not celebrated here although the event that it commemorates, the Triangle Shirt
waist Factory fire where over 140 women died many by being forced to jump from t
he building where the exits were locked to keep them in occurred in NYC.
The celebration of the history of resistance of the multinational American worki
ng class would bring to light not only our strength, resilience and creativity b
ut would also expose the illegal and violent tactics of the capitalist class tha
t continues to grow wealthy on the sweat of workers here and all over the world.
We need a cultural revolution in America; a revolution during which we rediscove
r our past and ourselves. Individually, we need to come to the conclusion that w
e have a right and responsibility to be aware and to participate as much as poss
ible in this democracy. As a class, we need to fight for the right to have time
to participate, for a right is not a right if you cannot use it because you are
working 2 jobs just to make ends meet.
The words of Eugene V. Debs are as relevant today as they were when he first utt
ered them, “I don t want you to follow me or anyone else. If you are looking for
a Moses to lead you out of the capitalist wilderness you will stay right where
you are. I would not lead you into this promised land if I could, because if I c
ould lead you in, someone else could lead you out."
And From the preamble to the constitution of the United Mineworkers of America,
“Step by step the longest march can be won, can be won. Many stones can form an
arch, singly none, singly none. And by union what we will can be accomplished st
ill. Drops of water turn a mill, singly none, singly none.
Only when we organize and fight for our rights to healthcare, education, housing
, the rights of the planet on which we depend for our survival will we become hu
man beings and not just superfluous objects of capitalism. The technology that i
ncreased productivity was paid for with our labor. We deserve a share of the pro
fit including leisure time without worrying how we will pay the bills.