| REAL ID, the quasi national ID program and to support the workers at Superior Health Linen in Madison who have been trying to form a union. It was almost a flash from the past to see Danny Glover marching up W. Washington Avenue, holding a banner and shouting slogans in support of the workers. In my favorite Lethal Weapon movie, the second of the series, Glover, as Sergeant Roger Murtaugh, distracts the personnel at the South African consulate in Los Angeles as Martin Riggs, played by Mel Gibson, sneaks into the consulate to investigate a lead. Murtaugh is demanding a visa to South Africa as picketers marching against South African apartheid are visible outside. As Murtaugh is escorted out of the consulate, he joins the protestors in their opposition to apartheid. Glover marching up W. Washington Ave. was almost life imitating art, except Glover is very serious about the social causes he espouses. Through the selection of movies he has starred in, one can tell that Glover means it when he joins a protest march. He isn't at the march to promote himself. He only began to sign autographs after the children followed him to the side of the state capitol after he had given his speech. He autographed the t-shirts the children had on because that was the only thing available. He patiently signed all of them even though he was late to meeting his departure time at the airport. He truly is of the people. Glover sees a higher purpose than just the rights of Latino workers. "The people united can never be defeated," Glover shouted several times as he began his speech. Glover sees the fight against REAL ID and sweatshops as a part of a larger struggle. "You are a part of a much larger movement that is happening in this country and around the world," Glover said. "It's a movement for real justice. It's a movement for the right to exist, the right to work, and to work hard and make a living to support one's family and one's children. This is the movement you are involved in. It is a historical movement. It is a movement that has been built by immigrant workers. It is a movement in which immigrant workers have made enormous contributions over time and history. It was workers who came by boat; it was workers who came by foot; it was workers who came from all ways and all different places from all different means to come here and build this country. And when we say no to REAL ID, when we say no to guest worker programs, we are honoring their memory. We're standing up for what they fought for, what they worked hard for and what they died for." "It's a fight about and a struggle for our future," Glover continued. "We want to control our future. We want to empower ourselves and control our lives. It is a fight none of us can be absent from. We cannot take a vacation from this fight. We cannot take a sabbatical from this fight. It is a struggle and a fight that we must continue with day in and day out, building a movement to fight the injustice. Immigrant workers are being used as scapegoats for what's wrong with the economy. It isn't the immigrant workers who bring so much of themselves. It isn't the immigrant workers who try to support their families here and who support their families back home. You are those workers. You have to tell people right now that you are here to stand up for liberty and justice for all. Immigrant workers are being used as scapegoats for those who make more money off our backs. We have to stand up and say 'Not on our backs. Not on the backs of our brothers and our sisters.' We have to stand up and say that as African Americans, as European Americans, as Asian Americans, as all Americans." Glover indeed is a student of history. After the rally, when asked why African Americans should be concerned about an issue that has been portrayed as a "Latino' issues, Glover responded that history has taught a lesson about that. "The communities of color and poor people have always been pitted against each other," Glover said. "It was the poor people in the South who were pitted against workers and ex-slaves during the Jim Crow period. It was African Americans and Native Americans pitted against each other. It was African Americans and Chinese pitted against each other. The fact is that has always been the case. But there have been real moments that we have to celebrate, moments when there has been solidarity between people who understand that we struggle together. It's important that we fight beside each other and hold hands as we fight for justice. That happened through the civil rights movement when people from all persuasions came and embraced the civil rights movement. When Cesar Chavez and Delores Huerta, leaders of the United Farm Workers movement, came and supported the efforts of the civil rights movement. The reality is that we have more instances where we come together and celebrate each other and celebrate each other's struggle and support each other's struggle than we have those other moments. So let's find those moments when we have common bonds, when we can stand with each other, all of us across the spectrum, all races and nationalities and struggle for what is just. All of us here are part of a family, the human family." While many Hollywood stars use their fame for their own aggrandizement, it is important to remember that there are others who use their fame for a higher calling, working to better the conditions of the family of man. Next Issue: A look at Superior Health Linen |
| Danny Glover marches against REAL ID and sweatshops MUTUAL SUPPORT By Jonathan Gramling |
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| Danny Glover, the acclaimed actor, was in Madison March 24. No, he wasn't in town to attend a film festival or to promote his latest movie. No, he was in town to promote basic human rights as a part of the REAL ID march and rally that was held to protest the implementation of |
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