Attacking organizers at the RNC

Tim Newman, Campaigns Assistant, International Labor Rights Forum

Since I did a post last week which linked to videos and information about labor union leaders at the Democratic National Convention, I was hoping to do the same for the Republican National Convention this week.  Unfortunately, my reading and research so far, hasn't really unearthed much labor union activity at the RNC.  If you know of labor activities at the RNC, please do correct me in the comments section!  I would recommend checking out this recent article from The Nation on this topic.  Also, Leo Gerard, International President of United Steelworkers, wrote a response to Gov. Sarah Palin "using her husband's membership in USW as a prop."

What has stood out to me more has been the ongoing attack on community organizers throughout the RNC.  Keep reading for more on this issue.

Most of you have heard the clip from Governor Sarah Palin's speech where she said, "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities."  But Palin was joined in the organizer-bashing by former New York City Mayer Rudy Giuliani who said, "On the other hand, you have a resume from a gifted man with an Ivy League education. He worked as a community organizer. What? He worked -- I said -- I said, OK, OK, maybe this is the first problem on the resume."  Then there was Former Governor George Pataki who, despite not knowing what a community organizer is, joined the fray by saying "He was a community organizer. What in God's name is a community organizer? I don't even know if that's a job" at an RNC event.

Well, folks, as you know, community organizing has a long history in the U.S. and has led to most of the progress we've made.  Many of the people disrespecting community organizers have benefited greatly from the tireless efforts of organizers throughout history.  It's community organizing that got women to claim their right to vote and brought us the weekends that we are about to enjoy along with a ton of other important victories.  Not to mention that most politicians get elected through the essential role that community organizers play in electoral campaigns.  It's interesting that Giuliani himself even praised community organizers in his book, so obviously his recent statements were meant to try to win some kind of political point.  But is picking on community organizers who work tirelessly for justice and also have the energy, passion and skill to make or break elections the best move?  It's especially sad that the RNC started right after Labor Day, when we recognize the contributions of workers and their struggles in this country, but there was precious little that speakers at the RNC had to say about the importance of unions or even specific policies related to workers around the world -- even as it was announced that the unemployment rate hit a five year high.

Well, as you can imagine, community organizers across the country are standing up and letting their voices be heard.  Some organizers immediately started a website called Community Organizers Fight Back.  Credo Action set up an online petition calling on Palin to apologize for her insults: Click here to sign if you are or have been a community organizer and click here if you support community organizers.  Among the many major news outlets covering reactions to the attacks on community organizers were the Associated Press, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today.  Other interesting responses were written by Roland Martin, Christopher Hayes, Sally Kohn, the Center for Community Change, the Rainforest Action Network and Courtney at Feministing. Barack Obama responded as well.

In our work at ILRF, we have seen that when workers on the ground globally organize themselves and when people in the U.S. and internationally organize to support them, major improvements can be won -- even when taking on some of the biggest multinational corporations.  So let's take the recent organizer-bashing and use it as inspiration to prove the naysayers wrong.

ILRF is non-partisan and does not support any political candidate.