Anti-Koch 4.4.11 rally starting in D.C.

Teamsters in Washington, D.C., joined the thousands gathering at the staging area near Koch Industries' office. Rally Girl tells us they're singing "Solidarity Forever," having just done a call-and-response chant, "When Workers' Rights Are Under Attack, Stand up, Fight Back."



In D.C., starting the march to Koch Industries.

 Ohio Teamsters will soon be gathering in downtown Cleveland, joining an AFGE rally. Later tonight, they'll take part in a march and rally organized by Local 507 at the Greater Abyssinian Baptist Church. As has been the case in Ohio for weeks now, rallies will be held all over the state.

We just learned the Teamsters semi rolled up to the Statehouse in Harrisburg. And Fox News actually reported on a 4.4.11 rally in Louisville scheduled for this afternoon. You can't count on Fox to get it right, of course. The local affiliate says it's about public sector unions. Actually, it's all about the middle class. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman gets it. He'll be at a rally in Trenton, N.J., today.

Teamsters at Local 728 in Atlanta helped organize the march from the King Center to the Statehouse, which will take place later tonight as well. Martin Luther King III will participate. Today he wrote a terrific blog explaining why his father would be supporting the union protests today. He writes,

Forty-three years ago my father, Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated while he was in Memphis, Tenn., supporting a strike of municipal sanitation workers. It was, in his eyes, more than a quest for a few more dollars in a paycheck. He saw the strike as part of the great struggle of his time—a struggle for democracy, for truth, for justice and for human dignity.


These are the same basic reasons that my father would be joining with millions of other Americans today in supporting public employees in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and other states, where collective bargaining is now under attack. 

We're hearing about Teamsters at rallies in Los Angeles, Sacramento, St. Paul and Sioux Falls. In fact, there are so many rallies, vigils, marches and teach-ins today we have a hard time keeping track. We'd love to hear from you, so send pictures and descriptions of your action here.