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March for justice in New York City
Keep the dream alive

by ARIELLA COHEN | August 17, 2001 | Page 16

NEW YORK--In the spirit of the civil rights movement, thousands of people involved in community groups, civil rights organizations, churches and others will rally at the United Nations (UN) August 25 for social and economic justice across the world.

The rally, named "Keep the Dream Alive," will be held on the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

The rally at the UN will address a wide range of issues, including police brutality and racial profiling, the economic ruin of neighborhoods like Harlem, U.S. bombing on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, crumbling schools and much more.

The main sponsor of the rally is Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network (NAN). Sharpton has spent the last 90 days in jail on orders of a federal judge--as punishment for demonstrating against the Navy's use of Vieques as a bombing range.

NAN has specifically reached out to Puerto Rican organizations and antiglobalization groups to bridge the gap between the emerging movements for social justice.

"The issues of racial profiling and police brutality are not contained, isolated issues," NAN wrote on its Web site.

"They arise from the diseased soul of this nation. This diseased soul stems from what Dr. King termed as 'the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism.' In the age of globalization, and with the U.S. as the world's only superpower, the effects of our foreign and even domestic policy have a dramatic international impact."

This rally is an important step in building a united movement that can raise the demands of working people in the U.S. and around the world.

 

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