January 31, 2004 Inglewood CA
This was the largest march and rally to date in the 17week old grocery strike and lockout. UFCW rank and file received support from across a wide spectrum of the community. In the 15,000 to 20,000 strong crowd stood union members and their allies who were finally witness to a strong take action series of speeches by union, governmental and religious leaders.
Update 2/9/04 From the eastside to the westside follow links to two actions on Wednesday
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“This struggle didn’t start a few months ago, this struggle started long before… we came from this struggle…” ILWU
Take Part in the Struggle - click here for details.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 15th 1929 to April 4th 1968
You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. . . . We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
The words of MLK
Martin Luther King, Jr. (just off centre), with other civil-rights supporters at a march on Washington, D.C., in August 1963
Update 2-18-04 Move Bush! Get out the way! Get out the way! An
insider's account of the day Bush tried to crash MLK's birthday.