San Diego Largest Ever Labor Rally

from San Diego DSA
Jan. 25, 2004

Many DSA members marched in solidarity at the largest labor rally in San Diego that anyone can remember last Friday, Jan. 23, 2004. The Union Tribune reported a crowd of 700 but there were clearly double that. The volume of the crowd drew spectators from high-rise office desks to their windows as labor and community supporters marched through downtown San Diego from the Civic Center to Ralphs supermarket at 2nd and G.

Not only was this an impressive demonstration, but the joint efforts of many San Diego unions there spoke to the importance of the grocery workers’ struggle to the future of the labor movement. The companies actions are driven by the belief that this struggle will be a model for labor-management disputes everywhere, and that the labor movement can be fatally weakened by the defeat of UFCW. For this reason the entire US labor movement is rallying to the support of the UFCW strikers and is determined that this battle will be won.

San Diego DSA is making support of the grocery workers a top priority. Our members are attending the rallies called by the Labor Council, we’ve participated in the holiday food drive, we’re distributing support information to our email lists, and we are providing a link to national DSA and the nationwide effort by the AFL-CIO to bring pressure on Safeway, the corporate parent of Vons.