Remarks made by UFCW International Secretary-Treasurer
Marc Perrone at the Voting Rights March in
On behalf of International President Joe Hansen and all 1.4 million members of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW): I bring our voice, our strength, and our commitment to action--an unyielding, an uncompromising commitment to sustained action in the fight for voting rights enforcement. For my union, this fight is our fight. It is part of our heritage and it is essential to our future.
My union is the union of civil rights activist, worker advocate and member of congress Charlie Hayes. My union is the union of the visionary leader--for civil rights, women’s rights and workers’ rights--Addie Wyatt.
Many of you here know the names of these leaders—some of you may be too young to be familiar with them—but, all of us have benefited from their work. They were the pioneers who forged the links between the labor and civil rights movements. They helped make the demand for voting rights into a moral imperative that could not be ignored or denied.
In the critical early stages of the civil rights movement—at the beginning of the voting rights’ fight in the 1950s—Charlie Hayes was raising money from unions and recruiting activists for Dr. Martin Luther King’s voter registration drives across the south. He saw that voting rights were the foundation of all other civil rights. That without the right, without the power to vote, you will not be able to control your future. You could never protect your other rights.
Addie Wyatt was demanding that all trade unions use their resources—from printing fliers to lobbying in
The voice of Addie Wyatt, the voice of Charlie Hayes helped awaken and lead the labor movement and helped inspire and lead the civil rights movement. And in 1965, the labor and civil rights movements stood united in support of the passage of the Voting Rights Law.
Now, four decades later, we must again stand united to protect voting rights. There are pervasive, calculated efforts to suppress the vote; to intimidate, to discourage and to deny voters in the exercise of their rights. These efforts are not diminishing, they are growing.
The threats to voting rights are not just some shameful episode from some distant past. The threat to the right to vote is now. It’s real. It’s shaping the outcome of national elections, and it must be stopped!
In 2004:
In
In
In
We could go on and on, but, anybody who worked in the political process in the 2000 and 2004 elections has seen the number of so-called “irregularities” explode, and we have seen government at all levels fail to protect the rights of voters.
No one will protect our rights, except us. We must protect the voting rights act. We must demand—and accept nothing less—than the extension of the Voting Rights Act. We must demand—and accept nothing less—than full enforcement of laws protecting voters: From providing adequate polling booths to criminal sanction against any attempt to intimidate or suppress voters.
In the UFCW, we are proud of our past in support of the Voting Rights Act. But, more importantly, we are committed to fighting like hell to protect the voting rights in the future.
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