Atlanta Democratic Socialist Program

Saturday, November 10, 2012 Paschal’s Restaurant • 180 Northside Dr SW • Atlanta, GA

Metro Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America

2 Douglass-Debs Dinner 2012 www.dsa-atlanta.org

Welcome George K. Johnson

Minister at Big Bethel AME Church and Atlanta Jobs with Justice Worker Rights Board Chair

Adam Shapiro MemoriamBarbara Joye

Recording Secretary, Metro Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America

DinnerKeynote Address

José La LuzDSA Vice Chair, veteran trade unionist and Latino civil rights activist

AwardsPresentation of Douglass-Debs award to

Reverend Anthony Motley Pastor, Lindsay Street Baptist Church

by Hattie Dorsey President and CEO, Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership

Presentation of Douglass-Debs award to Larry Pellegrini

Executive Director, Georgia Rural Urban Summitby Ben Speight Organizing Director, Teamsters Local 728

Presentation of Douglass-Debs award to Occupy Our Homes Atlanta

by Vincent Fort, Georgia State Senator, District 39

Singing led by Craig Rafuse

2012 Douglass-Debs Dinner Program

www.dsa-atlanta.org Douglass-Debs Dinner 2012 3

Welcome to the Metro Atlanta Dem-ocratic Socialists of America Sixth Annual Frederick Douglass-Eugene

V. Debs Awards Dinner.During this past year the right wing assault

on workers and the poor has intensified. In this class war, “going nuclear” means slash-ing social programs, shrinking collective bar-gaining rights, consolidating the power of corporations and escalating the redistribution of wealth from the 99% to the 1%. To counter these attacks, progressive forces have had to fight on many fronts.

Atlanta DSA activists saw building a strong Jobs with Justice coalition as crucial in ad-vancing the movement for economic justice in Atlanta and Georgia. As a member organi-zation of Atlanta JwJ, our local has provided the coalition with critical support. We helped raise funds which made it possible to hire full-time staffer Roger Sikes. Through our joint work, Atlanta JwJ has become a leading organization speaking out and advocating for the unemployed.

When Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler denied unem-ployment benefits to 64,000 contract school workers over the summer, Atlanta JwJ sprang into action. Unemployed school workers throughout the state were mobilized, and demonstra-tions took place at the labor commissioner’s office. After the U.S. Department of Labor notified Butler that his actions violated state and federal unemployment insurance guidelines, a Worker Rights Board hearing was convened, which put the commissioner on trial before a people’s court in August. The severe economic hardships resulting from the loss of benefits were dramatically detailed in the personal testimony of workers at the hearing. Nine civic leaders serving on the Worker Rights Board ruled that the commissioner’s action was both illegal and inhumane.

Earlier in the year, in collaboration with Occupy Atlanta, a dem-onstration was held to protest AT&T layoffs of Communications Workers of America (CWA) members. Four DSA activists were among those arrested at the sit-in. That action resulted in the company sharply reducing the number of workers laid off. Build-ing on Occupy’s success in drawing public attention to income and wealth disparity, Atlanta DSA developed a PowerPoint pre-sentation on grassroots economics that was featured in an Atlan-ta North Georgia Labor Council’s program on the consequences of social inaction.

During the 2011 session of the Georgia General Assembly, DSA joined Atlanta JwJ, Occupy Atlanta and 37 other organizations to oppose SB 469, the right wing’s attack on labor unions and peaceful protests such as the AT&T sit-in. Thanks to our mobiliza-tion and ability to maintain solidarity and a presence at the Capi-tol, the bill was allowed to die with no vote, despite last-minute

amendments intended to divide our coalition. We expect and are prepared to repeat these efforts again this year.

In the spring, Larry Keating, Georgia Tech profes-sor emeritus, led DSAers on a second bus tour of At-lanta neighborhoods impacted by the construction of Turner Field during the 1996 Olympics and sites in the English Avenue and Vine City communities that are now being considered for a new professional football stadium. When we were challenged by resi-dent activists to provide concrete support around their issues, Ray Miklethun, working with commu-nity representatives, developed a PowerPoint pre-sentation called “The Stadium Story: A Struggle for Community Equity.” Thanks to this collaborative experience, we gained a renewed understanding of the class nature of major urban development projects and an appreciation of the determination of residents to fight for their community, and we

forged a close working relationship with a talented group of activists.Our DSA local has issued several newsletters, conducted educa-

tional programs on the political economy, hosted public forums on abolishing the death penalty and the 9 to 5 Fair Eats campaign and shown the film “Michael Harrington and Today’s Other Amer-ica.” Our local’s activists have also participated in voter registra-tion campaigns, promoted the Caravan for Peace With Justice and Dignity tour, engaged in the reenactment of the Moore’s Ford Bridge Lynching and joined in weekly protests at Colony Square calling for an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The funds raised from last year’s Douglass-Debs dinner, the pri-mary source of funding for Metro Atlanta DSA, supported not only our activities but also our coalition partners -- Atlanta JwJ, Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition and the Georgia Rural Urban Summit. We also contributed to the American Friends Service Committee, Women’s Action for New Directions, Occupy Our Homes Atlanta, WRFG and National DSA. Our website: www.dsa-atlanta.org pro-vides information on our activities and links to other sites and to our national organization at www.dsausa.org.

Tonight we are honored to have DSA Vice Chair Jose La Luz, vet-eran trade unionist and Latino civil rights activist, as our keynote speaker. We are privileged to present awards to Rev. Anthony Motley, Larry Pellegrini and Occupy Our Homes Atlanta. We are saddened by the loss of Adam Shapiro and will be paying tribute to him tonight as well. Special thanks to our local officers Mar-cia Borowski, Barbara Joye, Barbara Landay, Norm Markel, Ray Miklethun, Barbara Segal and webmaster Bob Wohlhueter and to the Dinner Committee and all those who made this evening pos-sible. Finally, we are deeply grateful to the Open Door Community for allowing us to make them our home by providing us meeting space and the use of their facilities. t – Milt Tambor

Organizing on Many Fronts

Pastor Anthony Avery Wagner Mot-ley was born in Tuskegee, Alabama and moved with his family to Cincin-nati, Ohio, where he attended high

school. He began college at Ohio State Uni-versity in Columbus, Ohio, then transferred to Morehouse College, majoring in religion and minoring in philosophy. After receiving his bachelor’s degree he earned a master’s degree in Christian education from the Inter-denominational Theological Center.

Rev. Motley comes from a deeply reli-gious family that has included many minis-ters. He received Christ at the age of eight and was called to the ministry when he was 18 years old. His father, the late Dr. D. L. Motley, Sr., the renowned and respected Pastor Emeritus of the Peace Baptist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, li-censed and ordained him in 1971 and 1973, respectively. Rev. Mot-ley has served the following churches: Mt. Sinai Baptist Church, Tallapoosa, Georgia; Wares Grove Baptist Church, Cedartown, Georgia; and Flat Rock Baptist Church, Rome, Georgia.

Rev. Motley accepted the pastorship of the Lindsay Street Bap-tist Church on Sept. 7, 1980. This historic church in the English Av-enue neighborhood of Atlanta is celebrating its 100th anniversary

in 2012. Under the leadership of Rev. Motley, the congregation completed a major wor-ship edifice, which seats upwards of 1,000 people.

Pastor Motley is deeply involved in com-munity activities, seeking to improve the conditions of the socially and economically oppressed and the spiritually impoverished. He is active with many organizations, includ-ing the Concerned Black Clergy, the Progres-sive National Baptist Convention, and the American Baptist Convention, and is past President of the New Era State Convention of Georgia and the Atlanta Baptist Ministers’ Union, board member of the Vine City Hous-ing Ministry and chairman of the English Av-enue Community Development Corporation.

He was an adjunct professor at Morris Brown College, 1998-2002. Rev. Motley is much sought after as a speaker, lecturer, teacher and preacher.

Currently, Rev. Motley is instrumental in leading English Av-enue and Vine City residents in an effort to be included in deci-sions related to the construction of a new football stadium in their area, which will have a dramatic impact on their neighborhoods. If there is one word to describe Reverend Motley, it is “visionary.” t


Larry Pellegrini is executive direc-tor of the Georgia Rural Urban Summit, which seeks to bridge the gap between rural and urban com-

munities and create a stronger statewide grassroots movement for progressive change through networking, communica-tion, public education on key public policy issues, and non-partisan voter education. He is known as one of the most dedicated and effective public interest lobbyists at the Georgia State Capitol in behalf of di-verse citizen groups and a tireless advo-cate for a wide variety of social and eco-nomic justice issues.

After growing up in Florida and gradu-ating from Eckard College, Pellegrini came to Georgia and embarked upon a 20-year career in human resources with Rich’s Department Store. This position allowed him time to be involved in community volun-teer work that included 12 years as a Little League coach and

working with the Big Brother Program. He also served as chairman of the board of the Downtown Child Development Center, the country’s first consortium of businesses that supported day care centers for their employees’ children. Working with people exposed him to the kinds of problems that average working families have to deal with. Concerned about the social and economic inequalities he saw, Pellegrini decided he wanted a second career working on issues that would make Georgia a better place.

He admits that going to the state Capi-tol was a scary proposition at first, but he quickly saw the value in coalition building among under-represented constituencies. He says that walking the halls of the Gold Dome as a registered lobbyist highlighted

the enormous disconnect between elected officials and the needs of average Georgians, especially the disrespect for labor and workers’ rights.

Larry Pellegrini

Rev. Anthony A. W. Motley


José La Luz is a labor activist and in-tellectual who organizes, promotes and advocates for worker rights in Puerto Rico and the United States.

He is currently associate director of the leadership academy of the American Fed-eration of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and a vice chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. La Luz is credited as the architect of a grass-roots campaign that resulted in a 1998 law granting bargaining rights and the right of unionization to 120,000 public employees in Puerto Rico, and in 2011 led a successful campaign to restore those rights after the Republican governor Rico Luis Fortuño passed fiscal austerity legislation that had nullified the law.

A native of Santurce, Puerto Rico, La Luz comes from a working-class family and spent his primary school years on the island. La Luz’s grandfather used to take him to the to-bacco, coffee and sugarcane fields, where he saw first hand the plight of poor Puerto Ricans toiling in the fields for a meager livelihood and malnourished children with swollen bellies living in unhygienic shacks with no running water or electricity. The fight for basic rights and justice for all people became his life’s passion.

His role models were his grandfather, who worked in a New Deal program: the Puerto Rican Reconstruction Administra-tion; two progressive governors of Puerto Rico: Luis Munoz Marin and Rexford Guy Tugwell; and President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Without their efforts to create efficient public ser-

vices and low-cost housing for poor and working class families, most Puerto Ri-cans, including La Luz’s family, would have remained poor, illiterate, and without ac-cess to healthcare, housing and other ba-sic needs.

La Luz graduated from the State Univer-sity of New York’s Empire State College with a B.A. in labor studies and earned a M.A. in labor studies at Rutgers Univer-sity. He has been a visiting labor leader in residence at Cornell University and a Wurf Fellow in the Kennedy School State and Local Government Program at Harvard University, and received a lifetime award as an outstanding labor educator from the United Association for Labor Education.

During his college years, La Luz joined Students for a Democratic Society and local Puerto Rican farm workers’ organizations in the Tobacco Valley in Connecti-cut and Massachusetts. He also worked with Cesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers of America and the Puerto Rico Socialist Party, which later expelled him for being a “social democrat” instead of primarily nationalist. He eventually became active in Democratic Party politics while he launched his labor organiz-ing career, which included serving as international director of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union during the 1990s and playing a prominent role in the debates over NAFTA, advocating for strong labor rights and environmental protection. As staff of AFSCME, in 2008 he was “on loan” to Hillary Clinton’s primary election campaign and later trained Hispanic activists in the Obama presidential campaign. t

The first issues Pellegrini worked on as a lobbyist were the campaign to change the Georgia state flag and advocacy for LGBT rights by protests against discrimination in the Cracker Barrel restaurant. He spent the last 20 years working on leg-islative proposals addressing hotly debated issues such as anti-predatory lending, hate crimes, non-discrimination in employment, voting rights, ex-offender re-enfranchisement, health care reform, and raising the minimum wage. Fighting the anti-gay marriage amendment to the state constitution and the ongoing anti-immigrant proposals have been among his toughest battles. On the local level he was the lead lobbyist at the Atlanta City Council for the passage of domestic partner benefits legislation.

Pellegrini is also talented in media, having done the pho-tography and jacket design for a local recording artist’s al-bum; earned credit for camera work for the award-winning documentary “Out at Work,” on difficulties faced in the

workplace by LGBT people; and written, filmed and edited two commercials for United Way/Rich’s Department Store campaigns. He showed a flair for drama in several street theater actions at recent protest demonstrations, enacting the roles of Robin Hood; a corporation buying and marrying “Miss Congress”; and the prosecutor in a People’s Trial of Georgia’s labor commissioner.

He also served 20 years as a member of the ACLU of Geor-gia’s board of directors and has served on the boards of Geor-gians for Choice; the Lambda Community Center; Atlanta Jobs With Justice; the Stonewall Democrats and other progressive groups. He has been honored for civic and community service by various groups including the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Edu-cational Fund, Southern Voice/Georgia Voice, Georgia Clients’ Council, and the Human Rights Campaign, and was twice se-lected as a grand marshal for the Atlanta Gay Pride Parade. t

José La Luz


Occupy our Homes Atlanta spun off from last fall’s Occupy movement to focus its energy and innova-tive tactics on one of the major sources of suffer-ing for the 99 percent in our city. Even before the

eviction of the original Occupy encampment from Troy Davis Park, Occupy activists were responding to calls from Atlantans desperate to stay in their homes in the face of unfair and of-ten fraudulent practices by lenders and loan servicers. Their actions have saved homes and churches, and carried the fight against foreclosures in our city a giant step forward.

“Everyone deserves to have a roof over their head and a place to call home,” their brochure proclaims. “In 2008, we discovered bankers and speculators had been gambling with our most valuable asset, our homes. . . Not only do we have thousands of people without homes, we have thousands of homes without people. Boarded-up houses are sitting empty – increasing crime, lowering the value of other homes in the neighborhood, erasing the wealth that lifts families into the middle class.”

They are a grassroots, member-led organization that seeks to build power in Metro Atlanta neighborhoods highly impact-ed by the housing crisis. By mobilizing communities around foreclosure, eviction, tenant rights and public land rights – with an emphasis on leadership development and fostering a culture of resistance through non-violent direct action – they strive to transform our city’s approach to housing. They be-lieve that housing is a human right regardless of race, national

or ethnic origin, economic background, religion, disability, sex-ual orientation, gender identification, or immigration status.

Based in a group home/office in one of the neighbor-hoods they seek to defend, the Occupy our Homes Atlanta activists have camped out in beleaguered home owners’ yards, called upon elected officials to help, petitioned, held rallies and press conferences, and formed strong bonds with many of those they fought for, including Vine City’s Higher Ground Empowerment Center. This 108-year-old church received its deed back after difficulties with a loan for repairs from tornado damage had led to foreclosure and a threatened eviction.

Some other beneficiaries of the group’s actions include a 22-year military veteran and her family who received a loan modification from Chase Bank, which had repeatedly “lost” their paperwork, and an Old Fourth Ward family who were foreclosed on because Chase Bank had given their late grand-mother an extremely predatory loan (Chase finally modified that one as well). Currently they are fighting for a retired po-licewoman with blood cancer who is raising four grandchil-dren and is the victim of “dual tracking,” a common practice, meaning that the mortgage servicer proceeded with foreclo-sure and sold her home to U.S. Bank even after telling her they were working to modify her loan.

Occupy our Homes Atlanta has also addressed broad public policy issues, joining national demonstrations against Freddie Mac and Fannie May, government-backed institutions that own or guarantee a majority of the nation’s home loans. Their vision includes “building communities through direct democ-racy, that place human need above corporate greed” and “striving toward a system where people have more control over the communities they call home.” t

Occupy Our Homes Atlanta


In Memoriam: Adam Shapiro 1953-2012

Adam Shapiro – a member of Metro Atlanta DSA’s steering committee, co-chair of the Georgia Green Party, a dedicated all-around progressive activist and a good friend to many of us – died in his sleep in

mid-September in his apartment in the Briarcliff Summit build-ing on Ponce deLeon Avenue.

Many Atlantans will remember Shapiro as the outspoken but open-minded host of the call-in show “Current Events,” the Thursday edition of WRFG’s noontime public affairs

program. Earlier, he had created and hosted “ ’Capped but Able,” which focused on disability issues and activism. Before moving with his family to Atlanta from New York City in 1981 he had volunteered for his college radio station while attending Adelphi University on Long Island.

Blind from birth, Shapiro devoted much of his considerable energy to advocacy for blind and disabled people on issues such as access to public transportation. He was a past presi-dent of the Metro Atlanta chapter of the Georgia Council of

the Blind; participated in a men’s group at the Center for the Visually Impaired; and was a member of the National Federa-tion of the Blind and the Elderly and Handicapped Advisory Committee to the MARTA Board. He also did not hesitate to remind others gently but firmly when we fell short in making it possible for people with disabilities to participate fully in community life. However, as WRFG’s Charone Pagett points out, Shapiro was never content to limit his efforts to disabil-ity issues. “He urged disabled people to join the broader pro-

gressive movement,” she recalls, though he often expressed frus-tration in this effort, “and one of his biggest gripes was that the progressive community did not make an effort to include dis-abled people and their issues.”

Shapiro practiced what he preached, not only by broaden-ing his radio work to encompass a wide range of current politi-cal issues but also by serving as an officer of the Georgia Green Party and DSA and through de-cades of service on WRFG’s of-ten contentious board of direc-tors and volunteer committees. Using Braille and recorded books and periodicals, he kept well in-formed on most of the many controversies that interested him and was rarely without an opinion or at least a question. He attended all sorts of meetings and demonstrations, sometimes recording them for broadcast and at other times bringing his guitar and singing topical folk songs to uplift the crowd. “Just a couple of weeks before

he died Adam helped set up a ‘Labor in the Pulpit’ event at his synagogue, Bet Haverim,” says Roger Sikes of Atlanta Jobs with Justice. “We were able to speak about the Justice for School Workers campaign. After the service Adam was pushing really hard for his congregation to take meaningful action to support the school workers. He wouldn’t take no for an answer . . . Adam always got his voice out there no matter what. Atlanta will miss such a true fighter and com-munity builder.” t

Adam Shapiro sings at a fundraiser for progressive radio station WRFG.

The Metro Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America are proud to again hold our annual awards dinner at Paschal’s Restaurant, a site of historic significance for Atlanta progressives.

The brothers James Vaughn Paschal and Robert Paschal opened Paschal’s Restaurant in 1959 on Hunter Street (now M.L.K., Jr., Drive) then a year later La Carrousel Lounge, which quickly became Atlanta’s “Jazz Mecca.” In the 1960’s the Paschal brothers were deeply involved in the civil rights struggle. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dr. Ralph David Abernathy, and their lieutenants plotted strategy in a private room set aside for them at Paschal’s. Mayor Maynard Jackson; Ambassador, Congressman and Mayor Andrew Young; State Senator Julian Bond; and Congressman John Lewis frequented the restaurant. It has been reported that the decision to march from Selma to Montgomery was made at Paschal’s. During the student protests, Paschal’s offered refuge to protestors of all races – quietly, without fanfare or publicity.

The Paschal brothers also opened a hotel and formed a joint venture with the principal concessionaire at Hartsfield

International Airport, where a Paschal’s restaurant continues to operate. The brothers sold the original Paschal’s to Clark Atlanta University in 1996. In 1997, the Atlanta City Council voted to rename a street Paschal Boulevard. A new Paschal’s opened at Castleberry Hills in 2002, in partnership with the builder Herman J. Russell. Following the deaths of James and Robert Paschal, family members and loyal employees continue to operate the business. t

Paschal’s Restaurant


www.cwa-district3.org

Communications Workers of AmericaDistrict 3

“The Union For The Information Age”

CWA District 3 3516 Covington HwyDecatur, GA 30032

P: 404-296-5553F: 404-299-6165

Don LaRotonda Treasurer

Judith R. Dennis Vice President


Individual Contributors

Myron Boyko

Louise and Gerald Blume

Krista Brewer

Roy Hegenbart

William Horton

PatronsMarcia and Oded Borowski

Janine Brown

CWA Local 3250

Bill Cozzens

Rev. Kempton Haynes

Barbara Joye

Henry Kahn

Larry Keating

Barbara and Jay Landay

Philip LaPorte

Linda Lieberman

Norm Markel

Diane Matesic

Ray and Betsey Miklethun

Andrea Noel

Brian and Barbara Sherman

Brian Spears

Dale Stratford

John Sweet

Milt Tambor

Bob and Judy Wohlhueter

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.“You can’t talk about solving theeconomic problem of the Negrowithout talking about billions ofdollars. You can’t talk about endingthe slums without first sayingprofit must be taken out of slums.

Now this means that we aretreading in difficult water, becauseit really means that we are sayingthat something is wrong withcapitalism.

There must be a better distributionof wealth ...

... AND MAYBE AMERICA MUST MOVE TOWARD ADEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM.”

Speech to his staff, Frogmore, S.C.(November, 14, 1966)

Democratic Socialists of America....of Greater Detroit


“The smartest bookstore in

town”–Creative Loafing

Open 7 Days

208 Haralson Ave. NEAtlanta, GA 30307

404-681-5128

www.acappellabooks.com

I am HungerI am HungerI am painful and dangerous.I wonder why I have to kill.I hear grumbling of stomachs.I see the pain of all.I want to stop but I don’t have a choice.I am painful and dangerousI pretend I don’t exist.I feel the pain from all. I touch the soul from all.I worry I’ll be the death of all.I cry every 5 seconds because of the deaths

by Eric Lieberman, 6th grade student at Ridgeview Middle school, 11 years old

The Voice of Georgia’s Workers

Charlie Flemming President

Yvonne T. Robinson Secretary-Treasurer

Gene O’Kelley, Jr. Executive Vice President

Vice Presidents Randy Beall Moses Dunn

Greg Fann Raymond Hawkinberry

Doyle Howard Curtis Howard Charles James

Calvin Kennedy Steve Lomax

Louis Partain J.C. Phillips

Linda Ray Tom Scott

Remonia Toombs Alan R. Williams

Tommy Wright President Emeritus

Richard A. Ray

501 Pulliam Street SW, Suite 549 Atlanta, Georgia 30312

404-525-2793 404-525-5983 (fax) www.georgiaunions.org


F rederick Douglass was born in the back country of Maryland to Harriet Bailey, a slave, and an un-known white man. His birth is registered as Febru-ary, 1818 by his first master, Aaron Anthony and his name as Frederick Augustus Bailey.

His own persistence, aided for a short while by an own-er’s wife, prevailed and he learned to read and write so that by the time he was 16, he was teaching a Sunday school class of slaves from nearby farms how to read and write when they were supposed to be “wrestling, boxing, and drinking whisky.”

When he escaped from his owner, Master Hugh, in 1838, he fled to New York City where he and Anna Murray mar-ried. There he used the name of Frederick Johnson. In a short while he adopted the surname Douglass.

Douglass rose through the ranks of the anti-slavery move-ment of the 1840’s and 1850’s to become black America’s most electrifying speaker and commanding writer. After the Civil War, Douglass dedicated his leadership to the ideal of building a racially integrated America where social values and economic options would be based on the individual’s perfor-

mance, not on skin color. Douglass used his fine literary skills to remind whites of their obligations as Americans to sup-port free and equal access for Americans of all races: “The ex-istence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your humani-ty as a base pretense, and your Christianity as a lie.”

Frederick Douglass died of a heart attack in February 20, 1895, just a few hours after he had delivered a rousing speech to a women’s rally. t

Eugene V. Debs was a militant socialist during the bloody strikes and brutal government reactions to American workers’ attempts to organize be-fore and after the turn of the 20th century.

In the early portions of his political career, Debs was a member of the Democratic Party of the United States. It was during this time that he was elected as a member of the Indiana General Assembly, which signaled the begin-ning of his career as a politician. After working with several smaller unions including the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Debs was instrumental in the founding of the American Railway Union, the nation’s first industrial union. As a member of the ARU, Debs was involved in and later imprisoned for his part in the famed Pullman strike, when workers struck the Pullman Palace Car Company over a pay cut. The effects of the strike resulted in President Grover Cleveland calling members of the United States Army into Chicago, Illinois, which led to Debs’ arrest.

The growth of monopolies in the 1890’s led to his op-position to capitalism and thus to his acceptance of for-mal socialism. World War I strengthened his opposition to capitalism and its anti-worker basis. In cooperation with

Mother Jones, Bill Haywood and oth-ers, he helped found the Industrial Work-ers of the World.

Debs served two and a half years in prison for opposing World War I as a cap-italist venture using workers as pawns. While in prison he ran for president of the United States and received over one million votes.

His vocal opposi-tion to World War I helped to strengthen freedom of speech in the United States.

Eugene Victor Debs is the father of industrial unionism and democratic socialism in the United States. t

Eugene Victor Debs (1855-1926)

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)


Metro Atlanta Democratic Socialists and friends took part in many actions in 2012, including the JwJ Atlanta -sponsored trial of Labor Commissioner Mark Butler, Stand for Peace, a WRFG yard sale fundraiser, the Caravan for Peace, anti-death penalty vigils, and the Historic Westside Cultural Arts Council Festival of Lights.


Red Cross Workers

Dekalb County Sanitation Workers


The Atlanta-North GA Labor Council AFL-CIO

congratulates this year’sFrederick Douglass-

Eugene V. Debs Award Recipients

DENISE MAYESPRESIDENT

LOUIS PARTAINSECRETARY TREASURER

ANTHONY McKINNEYRECORDING SECRETARY

Building A Union City in Atlanta

THE ATLANTA-NORTH GA LABOR COUNCIL

501 PULLIAM STREET, S.W. #517ATLANTA, GA 30312

(404) 525-3559 (678) 623-0158 fax

www.atlantalaborcouncil.org

The Open Door CommunityHospitality and Resistance in Metro Atlanta since 1981

Congratulates Rev. Anthony A.W. Motley,Larry Pellegrini, andOccupy Our Homes Atlanta

BOOKS, CARDS, MOVIES, MUSIC, JEWELRY, ART,

GIFTS AND MORE

1189 Euclid Ave. NE Atlanta, GA 30307

404.524.0304

FEMINISM, BOOKS, & BEYOND: CELEBRATING 37 YEARS OF

CHARIS COMMUNITY

www.charisbooksandmore.com

Greg Fann, Executive DirectorKathy Chatman, President

AFSCME Local 3Fulton County Employees Union

501 Pulliam St.Suite 542

Atlanta, GA 30312(404) 524-9860

[email protected]


55 Trinity Avenue, S.WCity Hall, Suite 2900

Atlanta, Georgia 30335

Tel: (404) 330 6047Fax: (404) 331 8929

E-Mail: [email protected]

Cleta M. Winslow Council Member, District 4 • Atlanta City Council

Congratulates this year’sFrederick Douglass-Eugene V. Debs

Award Recipients

Greetings from the Committees of Correspondence

for Democracy and Socialism in Atlanta.

In solidarity with all who are committed to the struggle for

democracy and socialism.

Many Thanks to Roger SikesFOR HIS PRESENTATION ON WORKER’S RIGHTS

AT OUR FRIDAY EVENING SERVICETikkum Olam (Social Justice) Committee

Congregation Bet Haverim

Georgia Federation of Teachers

Congratulates the2012 Douglass-Debs Awardees

Rev. Anthony A.W. MotleyLarry Pellegrini

Occupy Our Homes AtlantaGeorgia Federation of Teachers4 Executive Park East, Ste. 120Atlanta, GA 303029

Verdaillia Turner, President (404) 315-0222 (404) 315-0228 Fax

Walter D. Andrews ’10 Anita Beaty ’10 Elaine Bernard ’09 Kim Bobo ’10

Bill Brennan ’ 09 Helen Butler ’08 John Conyers ’11 Charlie Flemming ’07

Vincent Fort ’08

Ben Speight ’11

Alice Lovelace ‘07

Ann Mauney ’11Bill Lucy ’08 Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights ’11

Rev. Tim MacDonald ’09 Students and Workers in Solidarity ’10 Nan Orrock ’08

Bernie Sanders ’07

Atlanta Grandmothers for Peace ‘08

Atlanta Democratic Socialist Program

Documents

Transcript of Atlanta Democratic Socialist Program