EDWARD LINKELMAN: I owe a great deal to the United Steelworkers of America. Not only was my father a member his whole working life, but I attended college on a very generous scholarship sponsored by our local chapter. So while I’m not perhaps the most objective observer of their role in the increasingly global economy, I am extremely grateful to them for what they’ve given my family and almost heart-breakingly proud of the speech below, given by AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Richard Trumka recently. I’ll be honest, I know more people than I care to count who will not vote for Barack Obama in this election because he’s not white. Many of them hide their racism behind a vision of America they believe goes hand in hand with patriotism, baseball, Christianity, and the values of hard-working people. They hide their racism even from themselves sometimes, but that doesn’t make it any less real. This speech is remarkable and long overdue:
[AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Richard Trumka blasts racism and underlines why workers should vote Obama in 2008. Excerpt of speech given at Steelworkers convention July 1, 2008]
Amen.