I AM 2018: Fifty years later, the struggle continues
Maurice Spivey, a Memphis sanitation worker and member of AFSCME Local 1733, takes pride in serving his community. Every day, he and his co-workers give back to their neighbors and to the city they call home.
Just as important, Spivey says, “We’re holding up Dr. King’s blood-soaked banner.”
He’s referring to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s role in the 1968 Memphis, Tennessee, Sanitation Workers’ Strike, and the 1,300 sanitation workers of AFSCME Local 1733 – Spivey’s forebears – whose historic strike for better pay, better treatment and above all, for dignity, forced the city of Memphis to meet the union’s long-ignored demands. It was in Memphis that Dr. King fought in solidarity with the workers and where, on April 4, 1968, he gave his life for their cause. Read the rest of this story at AFSCME Now: https://www.afscme.org/now/fifty-years-later-the-struggle-continues
Joining Spivey next week will be a delegation of members from the Washington Federation of State Employees/AFSCME Council 28 will be in Memphis next week for a series of commemorations on this 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination. WFSE/AFSCME was an early leader in advancing the principles being celebrated next week – we established a Civil Rights Committee in 1962. Watch for updates.
Honoring the Past, Shaping the Future
Just as their AFSCME sisters and brothers from across the country united behind the Memphis sanitation workers in 1968, AFSCME continues shape the conversation about freedom and opportunity for all working people in this country.
AFSCME, in cooperation with The Church of God in Christ (COGIC), has launched the I AM 2018 campaign to renew our commitment to the cause of the Memphis strikers and Dr. King.
On April 2-4, tens of thousands of workers and their allies will gather in Memphis to make their voices heard. Through rallies, workshops, panel discussions, concerts and more, the vital lessons of the past will be used to chart the way forward.
Through I AM 2018, AFSCME and COGIC will train grassroots activists to re-ignite a national conversation around the issues of racial and economic justice, and lift up the voices of working people in the 2018 elections and beyond.
Learn more about I AM 2018: https://iam2018.org/home/
