Black Lives Matter groups joining forces with wage activists
A cluster of Black Lives Matter groups and the organization leading the push for a $15-an-hour wage are joining forces to combine the struggle for racial justice with the fight for economic equality, just as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. tried to do in the last year of his life.
They are launching their first national joint action on April 4, the 49th anniversary of King’s assassination, with “Fight Racism, Raise Pay” protests in two dozen cities, including Atlanta; Milwaukee; Memphis, Tennessee; Chicago; Boston; Denver; and Las Vegas.
King was gunned down in 1968 while on a visit to Memphis to support striking black sanitation workers.
“When MLK was assassinated, he was talking to workers who were dealing with union-busting, unfair wages,” said Kendall Fells, organizing director for the Fight for $15. “The bottom line is that every day, workers of colour across the country face deep-seated racism that would seem to be out of Dr. King’s era, but sadly it’s still happening today.”