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funding civil rights
In recent years the AFL-CIO has become an even bigger political powerhouse. While the federation represents 13 percent of U.S. workers it mobilizes 26 percent of voters.
==Funding the civil rights movement==
"When in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. and the children of Birmingham put 2000 protesters in jail, it was the union movement leadership -- and not just the liberal wing but leaders like AFL-CIO President [[George Meany]] often seen as more conservative -- who paid the $160,000 to bail them out so they could march again.
"[[Bayard Rustin]], the chief hands-on organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, was on union payroll in New York and using a union office when he did his organizing for the March. Reverend King himself worked out of the national [[UAW]] headquarters himself during planning of the march. Sometimes forgotten in history is the July 1963 Detroit march for civil rights in July proceeding the national march, where 200,000 people marched down the streets of Detroit with UAW head [[Walter Reuther]] leading the march with Martin Luther King. In fact, the march's official name was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Unions like the United Auto Workers bussed in large numbers to the crowd that day." [http://www.nathannewman.org/log/archives/001150.shtml]
==Related SourceWatch resources==
*[http://aflcio.org Official site]
*Beth Sims, "[http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Labor/ReaganBush_WOTWU.html Workers of the World Undermined: American Labor's role in U.S. foreign policy]", ''Third World Traveller'', 1992.
*Nathan Newman, "[http://www.nathannewman.org/log/archives/001150.shtml Labor's Support for Civil Rights]", ''NathanNewman.org'', September 05, 2003.
*Kim Scipes, "[http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?sectionID=19&itemID=8268 An Unholy Alliance: the AFL-CIO and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in Venezuela]," ''Znet'', July 10, 2005.
[[Category: Labor]]