Sponsored link
Sunday, March 16, 2025

Sponsored link

UncategorizedAngela Davis says economic justice is the bottom line

Angela Davis says economic justice is the bottom line

Capacity crowed at Jobs with Justice event spellbound by legendary activist

48hillsangela

By Tim Redmond

NOVEMBER 19, 2015 – Angela Davis, the legendary writer, teacher, activist, and leader, came to the Mission Cultural Center tonight to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Jobs with Justice, which seeks to connect labor and the larger community struggles.

She did not disappoint.

Davis spoke for a little more than ten minutes, and had a capacity crowd riveted.

“Economic justice is the bottom line” she said. “There can be no racial justice without economic justice. There can be no gender justice without economic justice.”

She praised the labor groups working for a $15 an hour minimum wage, but also said that “$15 is not enough.”

She explained: “Over a century ago, working people struggled for the eight-hour work day. Once we achieved that, we stopped. We should have gone for a six-hour day with no cut in pay. The work we do is supposed to enable us to live better lives, not to provide profits to capitalist corporations.”

Sponsored link

Help us save local journalism!

Every tax-deductible donation helps us grow to cover the issues that mean the most to our community. Become a 48 Hills Hero and support the only daily progressive news source in the Bay Area.

She raised a critical question that we don’t hear much:

“Why has the prison population soared at the same time as membership in labor unions has declined?”

But she ended by saying that this is an exciting time for activists. She seemed to be talking about Black Lives Matter when she praised “a new movement against state violence that recognizes the connection between police violence in the US and military violence” around the world.

“At moments like this, we can head if a progressive direction if we do our organizing work.”

48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submit here. We also invite you to join the conversation on our FacebookTwitter, and Instagram

Tim Redmond
Tim Redmond
Tim Redmond has been a political and investigative reporter in San Francisco for more than 30 years. He spent much of that time as executive editor of the Bay Guardian. He is the founder of 48hills.

Sponsored link

Sponsored link

Featured

The magical little Grotto where writers boost up

Storied scribe support center The Writers Grotto in the Mission celebrates 30 years of collaborative wordsmithery.

A tsunami of chaos and destruction, but there may be hope

There's a car salesman in the White House and an evil billionaire in your Social Security file, yet cracks are starting to show.

What’s on next at the Trump Center for the Performing Arts (besides more booing)?

Buckle up for wrestling matches, rare earth mineral mining, and an extrajudicial spin on 'Mack the Knife'

More by this author

Lurie won’t commit to an alternative approach to the opioid crisis

Mayor doubles down on law enforcement, rejects Fielder's call for a 'Four Pillars' approach that has worked in other cities

How is SF going to approach drug dealing? There are very different proposals

Plus: A report on police misconduct, and a documentary on the vulture capital firm that is destroying local news. That's The Agenda for March 9-16

After Newsom abandons trans people, a fairly tepid response at SF City Hall

Local officials were surprisingly cautious about responding to the governor's alarming (and inaccurate) statements.

You might also likeRELATED