The selection process to fill Dan Blue’s vacant seat is a sad reminder that in the last two and a half years our community has lost two strong advocates for the needs and rights of working and poor people. They set the bar fairly high.
Filing this vacancy comes at a unique and unprecedented time. We are calling it a “State of Emergency.” The situation is well known to all: Depression level unemployment, mortgage foreclosures, and cutbacks in services from education to mental health care, with the promise of more furloughs for state employees. This is only the tip of the iceberg. They come on top of decades of underdevelopment in our communities.
We need leadership that is bold and accountable to the community.
1.)We need Representatives who are willing to fight for our community without fear of retaliation from business lobbyist, corporations and wealthy donors. In other words we do not want a representative whose chief concern is being re-elected.
2.) We want Representatives who will RESIST efforts to use budget cuts as a way of dealing with the State financial crisis. We want them to raise revenues.
3.) We want Representatives to fight to reform our tax system so that corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes to keep our state running.
4.) We need Representatives that will continue to uphold our community’s historic tradition of supporting unions and workers rights. We want them to lead the legislative fight for collective bargaining rights for public employees.
5.) We want Representatives to be accountable to the entire community not just party leaders and activists. Our representatives should meet with the community as a whole on a regular basis. We mean a People’s Assembly of CAC’s, civic and fraternal groups, congregations and unions and young people. People’s Assemblies are being built in Raleigh, Rocky Mt. andOrange County. Many HKonJ partners are planning to build Assemblies.
In November we voted for change. Not just change in Washington but in our state and local communities. Change means real democratic participation. It means “from the bottom up.”
This is the change we need. This is the change we want. We support a new Representative who will rise to this level of accountability and leadership that our community so desperately needs. It will be our responsibility as a community to make sure this happens.
Black Workers for Justice-Raleigh/Wake Chapter
www.bwfj.org
bwfj@earthlink.net
