Last Saturday, 15 College of Wooster students embarked on a 15 hour trek at 2:30 a.m. to Washington, D.C. to take part in the “One Nation Working Together” rally. Organized by the Wooster Democratic Socialists (WDS), an off-shoot of the Young Democratic Socialists of America here on campus, they were just one of over 400 groups taking part in the rally that took place on the Lincoln Memorial in the nation’s capital. The rally took place almost one month after conservative groups, like the Tea Party, met on the same spot to gather around TV personality Glenn Beck in a march called “Restoring Honor.” The organizers of the rally stated that their intent was to show that “it was they, and not the Tea Party, that represented the nation’s majority.” Also, the organizers stated that the intent was not to counter the Glenn Beck rally since the march had been planned since April.
Beck had voiced his concern that the rally would be attended primarily by “left-wing radicals” such as Marxists, socialists, revolutionary groups and communists. In actuality, it was estimated that over 175,000 people attended the march representing various groups like the N.A.A.C.P., the National Council on La Raza, the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (A.F.L.-C.I.O.) and the Sierra Club; as well as groups like the Wooster Democratic Socialists and the Communist Party USA. According to Matthew Porter, Great Lakes Regional Coordinator and Steering Coordinator for YDS, the large variety of persons and groups attending the rally took away from the overall significance and impact of the march. “Because of the nature of the Left as a broad coalition, [the march] had too many different ideas and lacked a central focus,” stated Porter after the march. However, the “One Nation Working Together” march was not a failure in its entirety: “[the large attendance] from varied groups showed that there was indeed a coalition and that different facets of Leftist representation [were] key to the success of the March.”
After the march, the WDS contingent was invited to a Democratic Socialists of America reception where the gathering was addressed by Congressman John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan’s 14th District. There, Conyers Jr. spoke to the group his “21st Century Full Employment and Training Act,” of which he is a sponsor, that aims to have full national employment by 2020 and he is in the process of introducing this bill in the House of Representatives. Porter stated that the bill was ” a very different approach to what we see now to the problem of unemployment and it [was] akin to legislation that was around during the 1970’s.” Further, he mentioned it was good that a United States congressman was willing to address a socialist organization like he did on Saturday.
WDS plans to attend the John Stewart and Stephen Colbert Rally to be held in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 30. If you would like to attend WDS, please look for the group’s† ads in the Wooster Headline News as well as the bi-weekly Pot flyer. If you have any questions about Wooster Democrat Socialists, please contact Matthew Porter, at mporter12@wooster.edu.