Editor’s note: This commentary is by Ron Krupp, a gardener and author whose most recent book is “Lifting the Yoke — Local Solutions to America’s Farm and Food Crisis.” He lives in South Burlington.
When I arrived in Vermont in the fall of 1966, the first person I met when I got off the bus in Putney was Buford W. Posey, the man who exposed the June 2, 1964, murders of Micky Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman in Philadelphia, Miss. These three civil rights workers were there to sign up black people to vote.
Buford and I were students at the Antioch-Putney Graduate School of Education. He had attended the March on Washington on Aug. 28 as an organizer in 1963 to bring jobs and justice to black people. Buford was the first white member of the NAACP in the South and he just had his 88th birthday on Aug. 28, 2013. How ironic considering this was the 50th anniversary of the “I Have a Dream” speech by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
For many years, I’ve been talking to Buford from my home in Vermont to his in Mississippi. In the last year, we’ve focused on the need to have “A New March” on Washington, where millions will take to the streets for a vision to “Put People First” in the richest country in the world. These are the same issues of jobs and justice that were spoken of in August 1963.
When workers share in productivity gains, then income is recycled into the economy which increases output, creates jobs, and boosts GDP. When more people are working, the price of labor goes up, revenues increase and the economy clicks into gear. It’s not that complicated, folks.
What it all comes down to is simple. If you have a job and are provided a fair wage, you pay your taxes and bills and buy things. According to the Pew Research Center, the top 7 percent of U.S. households increased their wealth by 28 percent from 2009 to 2011, while the bottom 93 percent saw their wealth decrease by 4 percent. Labor’s share of national income has dropped sharply due to the decline of unions. And when wages don’t grow, personal consumption drops and the economy begins to falter along with the middle class. When workers share in productivity gains, then income is recycled into the economy which increases output, creates jobs, and boosts GDP. When more people are working, the price of labor goes up, revenues increase and the economy clicks into gear. It’s not that complicated, folks.
The Vermont Workers’ Center organized a protest under the Golden Dome in Montpelier last year. It was called “Put People First.” Many groups participated, including home care workers, nurses, early educators and farmworkers. These groups have begun to create a new labor movement in Vermont. Low-income and working people are uniting. Instead of tackling issues alone, each group is starting to connect with the other on such issues as “Healthcare as a Human Right.”
To sum it up, it’s clear that without decent paying jobs, the middle class will continue to decline. But until we take money out of politics and reform Wall Street, not much will change. We need universal health care and immigration reform. We need to radically slow down global warming. We need to provide affordable housing. We need to rebuild our aging infrastructure. We need to provide jobs in sustainable energy and agriculture and most critical, we need to retrain and educate our youth and others pushed out of the workforce. This kind of action will address many of the employment issues mentioned above.
Buford told me he wants to come to the “New March for Jobs and Justice” in Washington in 2015 in his wheelchair, but I doubt his health could handle the trip. But his dream of the 99 percent still burns within his heart. The question is — Who’s going to organize this effort and where will the leaders come from? Certainly not from the Beltway. We need a new Martin Luther King — Latino, black or white, a woman or a man. Do we need a new party or a new movement? Think about it. Where do you stand. Now’s the time to begin the process of organizing for a New March on Washington.
