Philly rallies for $15 wage

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queers, national minorities, etc. We support the right of self-determination for oppressed nationalities, including Blacks, Chicanos, and Puerto Ricans. We are internationalists, and Socialist Action is a national organization of activists committed to the emancipation of hold that workers of one country have more in common with workers of another than with workers and the oppressed. We strive to revitalize the antiwar, environmental, labor, anti- their own nation’s capitalist class. We seek to link struggles across national boundaries, and racist, feminist, student, and other social movements with a mass-action perspective. In the to build an international revolutionary movement that will facilitate the sharing of experiences process we hope to bring activists together from different backgrounds into a revolutionary and political lessons. That is why we maintain fraternal relations with the Fourth International workers’ party that can successfully challenge the wealthy elite—whose profit-driven system Recognizing the divisions that exist on the left and within the workers’ movement, we seek to form united front type organizations around specific issues where various groups have Our ultimate goal is a truly democratic, environmentally sustainable, and egalitarian agreement. In this way we seek to maximize our impact and demonstrate the power and society organized to satisfy human needs rather than corporate greed. We invite you to join Socialist Action believes that the capitalist state and its institutions are instruments of the We are active partisans of the working class and believe in the need for independent ruling class, and that therefore they cannot be used as tools of the working class but have to working-class politics—not alliances with the bosses’ parties. That is why we call for workers be smashed. That is why we fight for revolution, instead of seeking to merely reform or work in the U.S. to break from the Democratic and Republican parties to build a Labor Party based within the system. When we fight for specific reforms, we do so with the understanding that in the final analysis real social change can only come about with the overthrow of capitalism, We support the struggles of those who are specially oppressed under capitalism—women, Socialist Action (ISSN 0747-4237) is published monthly by Socialist Action Publishing Association, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610.

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Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of Socialist Action. These are expressed in editorials. Socialist Action is edited, Subscribe to Socialist Action Forty-seven years ago, Martin Luther King was shot down while engaged in an ambitious effort called the “Poor People’s Campaign.” The goal was to organize a massive march to the seat of government in Washington, which had tolerated poverty throughout the country while wasting billions of dollars on the war in Vietnam. The marchers, King explained, would proclaim: “We are here; we are poor; we don’t have any money; you made us this way; … and we’ve come to stay until you do something about it.”

As part of the Poor People’s Campaign, King traveled to Memphis, Tenn., to help sanitation workers who were on strike. He was assassinated there on April 4, 1968.

On April 4 of this year, in Philadelphia, the MLK Dare Coalition organized an event to commemorate Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s Campaign and to highlight the cause of ending poverty today. Participants brought the issues of 1968 up to the present, raising the call for Socialist Action: Where we stand is driving down living standards and threatens all life on this planet.

us in the struggle to make the world a better place!

on the trade unions.

SOCIALIST ACTION Closing news date: April 6, 2015 Editor: Michael Schreiber Canada Editor: Barry Weisleder designed, and laid out entirely by volunteer labor. $5 for 6 months / $10 for 12 months a $15-an-hour minimum wage and the right to a union. As the Rev. Mark Tyler of Mother Bethel AME Church explained, “Fifty years later, we’re still marching for the same thing.” He pointed out that the demand for “$15 an hour” is “the same amount that King was calling for with the $2-an-hour wage back in the 1960s—when you adjust it for inflation.”

Over 250 people rallied in New Vision Church in North Philadelphia’s Black community—the poorest neighbor­ hood of any big city in the nation. Speakers included fast-food workers at McDonald’s and other businesses. The crowd then marched up Broad Street, chanting, “We work, we sweat; put $15 on our checks.” The march and rally were seen as a building action for the nationwide strike for $15 an hour on April 15.

Two days earlier, low-wage workers organized an­ other stirring event in Philadelphia. About 500 baggage handlers, wheelchair attendants, and airplane cleaners walked off the job at Philadelphia International Airport and briefly occupied a five-story stairwell in City Hall.

effectiveness of mass action. the establishment of a workers’ government, and the fight for socialism.

• Ashland, Ore.: damonjure@earthlink. net (Left) Rev. Mark Tyler of Mother Bethel AME Church holds megaphone for Rabbi Shawn Zevit at rally calling for $15 an hour minimum wage.

They dropped two huge banners from a railing, one of which stated, “Poverty wages don’t fly!”

The workers, who work for independent contractors and are not unionized, charged that their employers had failed to raise their wages after the mayor had signed an executive order mandating a minimum raise to $10.88 an hour for new or renewing contracts. After the protest, a member of Philadelphia’s city council told the press that the body would look at whether airport contractors that do not pay the higher wages are in violation of their leases with the city. n (continued from page 1: “Fight for $15 on April 15”)

us, not just the wealthy few.

“Powerful CEOs could pay people more, but they simply choose not to. When large, profit­ able companies attempt to pay as little as they can get away with, even full-time jobs can pay so little that workers qualify for food stamps.

Working moms and dads can’t afford basic needs for their kids. Young people can’t afford to go to school to upgrade their skills. Entire neighborhoods fall behind.

“When we demand and win a higher floor for wages, we will help not just individuals and families but also our communities and the larg­ er economy. That’s why it’s so important that you are with us to Fight for $15 on 4/15.”

Though we’ve said it before, it deserves re­ peating—this Fight for Fifteen is, in my opinion, the single most important venue for working-class action in the USA today. Socialist Action urges every reader to join the April 15 action in your area and to try to bring along some family, friends, and coworkers too.

Please go to http://april15.org/ to RSVP and endorse the action. You will be offered a search box to locate the demonstration nearest your Zip Code. All Out 4/15! n • Portland, Ore.: (503) 233-1629

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