An estimated three thousand people rallied for health care reform in Austin, TX on November 14.
The Texas AFL-CIO formed a very progressive coalition for health care reform under the slogan, “Health Care Can’t Wait!” A great many organizations, including North Texas Jobs with Justice, joined in. JwJ’s role was to organize transportation to the rally at the Capitol. We were extremely fortunate to be able to partner with the Texas Progressive Center, Organizing for America, and especially with Jacqueline Ban of MoveOn. By combining our efforts we transported 39 people in a chartered bus, and helped fill the buses from the Tarrant County AFL-CIO and another bus from the Dallas AFL-CIO and UAW. Dr. David Brockman did the research on other forms of transportation, which added to the crowd in Austin.
Our publicity efforts resulted in pre-action ink in the Ft Worth and Houston newspapers. Univision covered our bus launch from Oak Cliff. Our statewide publicity may have helped get major coverage in the state’s news agencies.
The featured speaker at the rally was Congressman Lloyd Doggett of Austin. He reviewed the fight that ended November 7 when the House passed a fairly good health care bill. You can see Brent Herndon’s video of his speech here.
By far the most dynamic speaker of the day was our own Margarita Alvarez. Alvarez heads Voces Por Inmigrantes, which works with our North Texas Jobs with Justice coalition. Following her speech, retiree leader Annie Banks of Houston gave an excellent talk. Then I spoke briefly on how health care reform would help the unemployment crisis. The next speaker, third after Alvarez, still pointed back at the fiery Alvarez and said that nobody should have to speak after her!
State Rep Elliott Naishtat talked about the lamentable state of health care in Texas. We are famous for being last in providing insurance for our people, just as we are last in so many other measures of decent concern.
On our charter bus’ return trip, Sister Brenda Warner, a retiree from UAW Local 276, took it on herself to intiate discussion about what kinds of actions we should do next. Several people discussed trying to find ways to change the mindset of Senator Cornyn and Senator Hutchinson, but others heeded the advice of Congressman Doggett, who had said that it was useless to expend our effort that way. Instead, he said, we should be working on the changing the minds of all our fellow Texans. MoveOn is planning house parties in which people bring their cell phones and make telephone calls to more intelligent senators in other states. Several people thought that a downtown Dallas rally might be a good idea.
What’s YOUR opinion?
–Gene www.labordallas.org
