Defend Each Other – Demand Democracy!

The Western Mass Area Labor Federation, is proud to join with many of our brothers and sisters in the Massachusetts labor movement in signing on to the following open letter. 

Our country stands at a moment of peril.  A rejected president threatens to overturn the clear verdict of the American people.

We urge everyone to take President Trump’s threats seriously, and prepare to act: to defend democracy in the courts, in the streets and in our workplaces, if Trump tries to steal the election.

The Biden/Harris victory by nearly six million votes resulted from the massive turnout of Black, Brown and Native voters in the large cities like Atlanta and Detroit, and in Arizona, Nevada and other states, and of union voters in key swing states

The record Biden/Harris vote was the expression in the electoral arena of the strike wave of educators against the destruction of our public school system, of the 24 million people who took to the streets in the Black Lives Matter uprising against systemic white supremacy, and of the Women’s March.  This was a democratic uprisings against systematic voter suppression and intimidation, the result of many years of grass-roots organizing.  These movements can rightfully claim this victory as their own.

President – elect Biden has promised to bring America together. 

We too, want to bring the country together: around a program that that serves the vast working class majority who suffered during the pandemic while the billionaires enriched themselves.  We speak of the healthcare workers, the food service workers, the first responders, the postal workers, the educators who risked their lives. We speak of the poor and immigrant communities, hardest hit by the pandemic due to inadequate housing, health care and job safety protections.

This means passing a Green New Deal to protect our imperiled planet by providing millions of good union jobs. It means passing the Heroes Act and more, to protect workers and small businesses and the cities and states during the COVID-19 crisis.  It means defending the vote with the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. It means expanding Medicare to cover us all. It means passing the PRO act to make it easier for workers to form unions -- a democratic voice in the workplace.  It means making the District of Columbia a state, giving those largely Black communities a say in their governance. It means investment in infrastructure – another broken promise by Trump.  It means defending LGBTQ rights.  It means comprehensive immigration reform. It means rejecting the free trade deals that benefited the multinational corporations at the expense of workers here and abroad.

These measures are widely popular.  Only the billionaires - the one percent - and the unwillingness of many of our leaders to fight for them, stand between us and progress.

Here in Massachusetts, Governor Baker and the state legislature have failed to provide criminal justice reform, protections from evictions and foreclosures, drivers’ licenses for undocumented residents and much needed revenue from progressive tax measures.  We need increased unemployment insurance for mothers and fathers who have to stay home, emergency paid sick time, equitably funded and safe k-12 and public higher education, and safety protections and paid leave for essential workers.

We did not win the presidential election to return to the status quo. The teachers' strikes, the mobilizations of the Black Lives Matter uprising and the Women’s March will be our models in the struggle ahead.  We won to seek justice for all – and we will fight for it, starting today.