Celebrating Mandela's Legacy
Friday, December 6, 2013(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Nelson Mandela’s life and legacy were
honored and celebrated worldwide as news of his
death spread around the globe. “During his
visit to the United States in 1990, Mandela
spoke to the AFL-CIO and called on the labor
movement to use its history of empowering
America’s workers as a model for South
African workers,” said AFL-CIO President
Richard Trumka. “We in the labor movement
must take Mandela’s words and continue to
strive for equality and fairness for all
working people around the globe.” Metro
Washington Labor Council president Jos Williams
– who helped coordinate civil disobedience
protests at the South African Embassy in the
early 1980’s and then observed South
Africa’s first free elections in 1994 –
said that Mandela’s “example of quiet
fortitude, calm forbearance and fierce passion
for justice have guided my own struggles like a
brilliant North Star whose light shines even
more brightly today.” Saying that
Mandela—Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and first
president of a multi-racial democratic South
Africa—persevered and inspired others in the
pursuit of truth and justice until his final
days, TransAfrica president Nicole Lee pledged
that "We will continue to carry on Mandela’s
legacy of courageous activism. Even when
unjustly imprisoned on Robben Island by the
apartheid government, he and his fellow
activists in the liberation movement inspired
us all with their vision of a free, just and
democratic South Africa. No obstacle was too
great for Nelson Mandela in his quest for a
brighter tomorrow. As we work to change
powerful systems that perpetuate economic and
social injustice, we are reminded of Madiba’s
courage."
photo (l-r): early
1980's anti-apartheid protest: former DC City
Council Chair Dave Clark, former DC Mayor
Marion Barry, Richard Trumka (then President of
United Mine Workers); Jos Williams, DC Metro
Labor Council president; Moe Biller (APWU
president), Willie Baker, Jr. (then Vice
President of UFCW and Coalition of Black Trade
Unionists Vice President); Norm Hill, (then
Executive Director of A. Phillip Randolph
Institute). Photo courtesy Arlene Holt
Baker