Today is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. day. He needs no introduction; we all know about him and we are all indebted to him. His most familiar speech, "I have a dream...," is perhaps one of the most well-known and influential speeches in world history. Something less known about Dr. King is his involvement with striking garbage workers in Memphis, Tennessee, and his general support for the demands of organized labour.
Like racial minorities seeking justice and rights, organized labour has also frequently faced dogs, fire hoses, teargas, and tough guy cops with clubs. The powerless have consistently had to fight for the right to free speech, free assembly, and free association. In Memphis and elsewhere, Dr. King stood up for the rights of workers.
Have a look at this link from the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees and learn something about Dr. King that you probably didn't know.
A brief example......
Negroes are almost entirely a working people. There are pitifully few Negro millionaires, and few Negro employers. Our needs are identical with labor's needs — decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children and respect in the community. That is why Negroes support labor's demands and fight laws which curb labor. That is why the labor-hater and labor-baiter is virtually always a twin-headed creature spewing anti-Negro epithets from one mouth and anti-labor propaganda from the other mouth.
Dr. King at AFL-CIO Convention, December 1961
The real question here is why isn't Martin Luther King day celebrated in Canada. The work he did and the rights he fought for didn't stop at the 49th parallel; neither should his memory.
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