Courtesy of Pride At Work AFL-CIO - Special to SGN

Pride At Work has endorsed a national march for jobs scheduled for October 2 in Washington, D.C.

The One Nation Working Together march was first announced at the NAACP national convention in July. Pride At Work joins 150 national social justice, labor, and community organizations in endorsing the march.

Organized around three demands - putting America back to work, quality and affordable public education, and equality for all - the march reflects growing frustration at the slow pace of economic recovery and the apparent lack of political will to address it.

"We all deserve a just and fair chance to achieve the American dream. Our national identity is rooted in the ideal that all people - regardless of race, class, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, heritage, or ability - should have the opportunity to fulfill their potential," One Nation's website says.

"One Nation Working Together will chart a bold, pragmatic path toward a more unified, sustainable, prosperous future by building support for these core principles and policy ideals."

Pride At Work is a national LGBT labor organization affiliated with the AFL-CIO, but including members of Change To Win and independent unions and allies.

The endorsement was voted by Pride At Work's National Executive Board at its August meeting.

"This is a landmark moment," said Pride At Work Executive Director Peggy Shorey, "perhaps the first national jobs/justice march in history that specifically includes the LGBT community at a leadership level, highlighting our diversity of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, calls for an end to ALL forms of workplace discrimination, and calls for the freedom to choose a voice at work."

Pride At Work was invited by One Nation organizers to convene an "LGBT Table, creating a space for organizing, messaging and mobilization directly between national LGBT organizations and the One Nation organizers."

"We are joined by our allies the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, National Stonewall Democrats, and the National Black Justice Coalition as co-conveners of the One Nation LGBT Table and are reaching out to numerous other LGBT organizations," Shorey said.

The first meeting of national LGBT organizations involved in the One Nation march will be September 2. The LGBT Table is expected to develop outreach materials for local organizers and specific plans for mobilization to support the DC march.

Pride At Work in Seattle can be contacted at 206-261-8110 or OutFront.PrideAtWork@gmail.com.

Pride At Work's national office can be contacted through the organization's website, www.PrideAtWork.org.

 Share on Facebook

Share on MySpace!

    Share on Delicious

Share on StumbleUpon!