Why We Must Organize: Democracy and Demographics

If the Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) training event in Atlanta that I attended on February 11-12, 2012 is an indication of the depth and breadth of organizing going on across the country today, then we have good reason to be encouraged. The event was attended by 30 people, 18 women and 12 men. All but one of the participants now lives in the United States, but the gathering had the feel of a new diaspora. People came to the United States from Mexico (5), Guatemala (1), El Salvador (1), Nigeria (1) and Germany (2). Spanish was the first language for approximately one-third of the participants and all discussion was bilingual.

One of the participants, Glory Kilanko, now living in Atlanta, organized Women Watch Africa in 1994 when she lived her native land, Nigeria. Since leaving Nigeria she has participated in UN conferences on women’s rights. Another participant, Carlos Rosales, was an organizer in El Salvador in the 1980s before moving to the U.S. He is now the Coordinator for the Immigrant Worker Center Coalition in Boston and also serves as a consultant with United for a Fair Economy. Five people came from Nashville, where in 2006 twenty thousand people marched for immigrant rights. Stacy Arnold is organizing fast food workers in Florida. She is motivated by her personal experience, and inspired by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. In 2001 this coalition launched the Campaign for Fair Food with the first-ever successful farm worker boycott of a major fast-food company.

The organizers attending this IWJ training event came not only from many parts of the world but also from several states: Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Michigan, Massachusetts and yours truly from Kansas. Depending on local conditions and priorities, people are organizing around health care, immigration, construction, race or gender discrimination, wage theft, gay rights and worker justice. The workshop covered best practices for recruitment, fundraising, coalition building, methods for organizing campaigns and the use of social media. In addition to the information shared, I especially appreciated the opportunity to network with people around the country. I want to thank the AFL-CIO Wichita-Hutchinson Labor Federation for their generous support, which made it possible for me to attend this event.

I returned to Kansas in time to attend the rally on Feb. 15, 2012 in Topeka, which was organized by Sunflower Community Action and Kansans Concerned. Voter suppression, immigration rights and support for public education were some of the issues that galvanized the 300 people who attended this rally. I talked with six leaders that I knew of the faith community that I knew who attended this event. Reverend Tobias Schlingensiepen, the pastor of the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Topeka, was one of the featured speakers.

On Sunday night, Feb. 19, I attended the 10th anniversary celebration at the Hindu temple in Wichita. At the celebration dinner I had a conversation with a small group of Muslims from Turkey who now make Wichita their home. The keynote speaker at the celebration identified herself as a member of the new Asian diaspora living in the U.S. In her remarks she spoke several times of the need to fight against racism and bullying, and of the imperative to prepare a new generation of leaders ready to take their place in the struggle to create a more generous and open society. In her address she mentioned Ronald Takaki, an emeritus professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

In his book, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1993, 2008), Takaki makes the point that demography is destiny. I experienced the truth of this statement in these first two weeks of February. No political party is going to change the demographic reality of the United States where by the end of this century the majority of people will trace their origin to Latin America. It is estimated that by 2050, one-third to one-half of the U.S. population will come from the South. Mexico, the largest Spanish speaking country in the world, will be the primary source of this new population.

Immigration, economics, education and human rights are all interrelated. Moving toward equalizing living conditions between countries and among racial and ethnic communities within the U.S. is against the current trend, which now leads in the direction of a greater concentration of wealth in the hands of a small percent of the population. The way to create greater equality is to bring together the resources of faith communities and labor and social justice advocates around shared values of human dignity, the dignity of work and democracy. This is what I learned at the training in Atlanta, experienced during the gathering in Topeka and celebrated at the Hindu temple.

Now is a hope-filled time for hopeful people to come together. Interfaith Worker Justice is one of the local and national organizations dedicated to the cause of improving the lives of all working men and women and their families. I urge you to get involved and I invite you to contact me for more information about Interfaith Worker Justice Kansas.