The workers are few

15th April 2011   ·   0 Comments

The workers are few

Monday, April 4, marked the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of the Rev.  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee.

When it comes to defending the rights of poor and working-class Americans, it seems like the number of people willing to lay it all on the line in the name of justice and equality continues to drop exponentially. As the Christian bible says, “the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.”

Fewer Americans appear to be committed to fighting the good fight in the name of economic justice and standing up for the least among us. That’s a glaring  departure from the worldview of Dr. King, who understood the connection between political and economic activism and divine purpose.

Much has changed since King’s assassination. Companies that once hired Americans have moved their operations overseas in order to take advantage of cheaper labor cost, while financial institutions have fine-tuned and amplified their predatory-lending practices.

What hasn’t changed is the federal government’s lack of support and respect for poor and working-class Americans. Aligning themselves with powerful companies, some federal lawmakers have made it clear that they are more interested in lining their pockets and maintaining their political power than helping the little man to get what he deserves in the workplace.

While the federal government has bailed out financial institutions and the auto industry, it has done comparatively very little to bail out struggling American families who work hard but can barely pay their bills and keep food on the table. Among these hard-working Americans are military soldiers and war veterans whose families risk everything but must rely on local food banks to feed their families.

Even less is done to ensure that American unions and companies iron out their differences on level playing fields.

Here in New Orleans, not enough has been done to address the many unfair practices that exploit immigrant workers and make it impossible for them to achieve the American dream.

Rather than seek to address these problems, some lawmakers have tried to more narrowly define what constitutes American citizenship and severely impede the ability of these exploited workers to enjoy equal protection under the law.

Efforts to increase the minimum wage must be linked with campaigns to end income inequality, legislation to halt predatory lending and other efforts aimed at ending economic exploitation, whether it takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana, Philadelphia, Miss. or Cairo, Egypt. We must also all speak out loudly when we see powerful institutions make moves to prevent unions from being organized and lawmakers using the power we give them to give tax breaks to those who need them the least.

Ultimately, the so-called War on Poverty failed because it did not address the root causes of poverty, particularly the laws and practices that make it easy for companies to exploit workers and give them little in the way of remedies to address issues like unfair pay and the inequitable distribution of wealth.

As we reflect on King’s legacy and his fight for workers’ rights, let us remember that economic injustice here affects economic justice everywhere and  that each of us has a role to play in making sure that this nation lives out the true meaning of its creed

A year before his death, King wrote in Where Do We Go From Here, “A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth.”

Those words are as true and compelling today as they were in 1967.