'One Nation' rally draws thousands to Mall to counter conservatives

'One Nation' rally draws thousands to Mall to counter conservatives
By Krissah Thompson and Spencer S. Hsu
Saturday, October 2, 2010; 1:17 PM

A rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial kicked off Saturday with tens of thousands of progressive activists hoping to energize supporters worried about the conservative tea party movement and the possibility that Democrats could lose control of Congress.

The "One Nation Working Together" march is the culmination of months of planning begun by civil rights organizations and labor unions. In recent weeks, more than 400 supporting groups signed on to the rally set to span four hours beginning at noon and featuring speeches, poetry and musical entertainment.

The groups backing the march - including the National Council of La Raza, the NAACP, the AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union, USAction and the U.S. Student Association - are looking to make a political statement in response to conservative commentator Glenn Beck's rally in August. That gathering partly filled the Mall with tens of thousands of his supporters, and tea party groups across the country have held anti-tax rallies.

By mid-morning Saturday, "One Nation" supporters were already heading to the Mall. On the city's Metro system, which opened an hour early to accommodate the crowds, rally attendees carried signs like "We March for Hope Not Hate" and "Standing Up for All the Change We Voted For." Others wore blue "One Nation Working Together" T-shirts handed out by the American Federation of Teachers union.

The march promises to bring together people with diverse political interests and causes.

NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, a lead organizer of the event, has said it will be the most "diverse march in the nation's history."

"What unites our coalition is a common goal to pull America back together and put America back to work," Jealous said. "We are unified through a deep concern over a lack of civility in the political discourse. We are unified around our common vision of an America where we acknowledge our differences and work together to solve problems."

On the grassy lawn in front of the U.S. Capitol, supporters of a plan to overhaul immigration reform listened to bachata music blasting from speakers as they prepared to march to the Lincoln Memorial.

The march is "the beginning of all the different sectors of our country coming together to say we want the change we voted for," said Eliseo Medina, secretary-treasurer of SEIU. "Jobs, immigration reform, the environment. We know the president is doing everything he can, but we voted him president not king. We're here ready to fight. We're no longer going to be silos. We're going to be one nation. We've all got to turn out to vote in November."

Erika Andiola, a 23-year-old college graduate and undocumented immigrant who grew up in Arizona, said she came to the rally to impress on Congress the importance of overhauling immigration law so that illegal immigrants can have a shot a citizenship.

"I can't get a job. I can't get a driver's license," she said. "I've been here since I'm little. I want to push the people in power to do something about the issue. We have to fight for a lot of things, but we all have to fight together."

Over at RFK Stadium, thousands of union-mobilized marchers streamed off buses and were greeted by a bracing message from UCubed, an Internet-driven effort to turn out the vote.

"The recession was caused by the banks, greed and deregulation," said Edrie Irvine, 58, a laid-off legal secretary from Silver Spring and an activist who roused the crowd. "It didn't have anything to do with me, but I lost my job."

The morning rally by UCubed - a project of Rick Sloan, head of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers - was one of several labor-driven pre-march events aimed at constituencies such as the unemployed, young workers and others. The events sought to stoke anger and mobilize voters hard-hit by the recession to turn out for Democrats, countering tea party activists.

Speaker after speaker blasted politicians for what they called feckless and passionless response to the poor economy and the real-life misery of jobless Americans.

"The unemployed aren't lazy. They're not on drugs. They're our progeny. They're good neighbors and best friends," said Sloan. "This fight is about survival, and the red meat you hear here should be part of every Democrats' message."

Many of the groups involved in Saturday's event are stepping outside their usual parameters. Socially conservative African American church groups have signed on to a march that supports equality for gays and lesbians. A miners union has endorsed the rally along with environmental groups.

The "One Nation Working Together" groups are focusing on three issues: jobs, justice and education. They define those in a set of principles that also lays out a list of causes largely supported by liberals, such as ending discrimination in the criminal justice system, protecting Social Security, spending federal money to create jobs and improving public education.

"This really will look like the America of the 21st century, and we have a shared set of concerns that revolves around the economy," said Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

March organizers hope to motivate constituencies that have traditionally supported Democrats to turn out to vote in the midterm elections a month away. Polls have indicated that supporters of Republicans are more enthusiastic about going to the polls.

James Keane, who was carrying a sign that read "Jesus Christ is a Liberal," drove from New York City after he heard about the rally on MSNBC's liberal "Ed Show."

"It's about time the Democrats marched. We've stood by and watched the tea party people go crazy every couple of months," said Keane, who is unemployed. "It's time for Democrats to stand up and fight for what they believe in. Obama has been a great leader but so many in the Democratic leadership have been playing the fence."

Paul Wilber, who wore an tie-dyed shirt and anti-war button, said he "came out to support the president and to counter what I found is a backward agenda being pushed by the tea party. I thought Beck's rally was self-centered, regressive and just the total wrong direction for the country. I hope [this rally] will bring all the voters who voted for Obama back to the polls. His message is still right for the times."

Kimberly Hall took a bus from the Detroit area with 45 other people representing the local NAACP chapter and the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Hall said frustration brought her to the rally. "I don't like the direction the country is going in. The auto industry built this country and we are giving it away. We need to take care of home before we start to support other nations."

The rally has stirred a rivalry between Beck's supporters and "One Nation." In recent days, both sides have been slinging mud. Beck spent a segment of his Fox News show decrying the march.

"All of these groups, and the president of the United States, want nothing short of fundamental transformation of America," Beck said on a recent show. "Do not allow them to get away with the lies. Do not allow them to say that we are just 'one nation, working together.' 'We're just trying to put America back to work and putting America back together.' These people, a lot of them, have fought their entire life to destroy America."

Jealous, who has criticized Beck and the tea party movement as divisive, said the "One Nation" rally is the antidote to the tea party. The NAACP has launched a Web site called Tea Party Tracker, which collects photos of racist signs that have been displayed at some tea party functions. Tea party supporters have condemned the site, suggesting that the signs may have been planted by tea party detractors.

The rivalry between the two groups even surfaced in a last-minute lawsuit. The Chantilly-based event-staging company that helped produce the Beck rally sued unsuccessfully Wednesday to stop the "One Nation" event. The company, National Events, alleged that the groups organizing the Saturday's rally solicited a bid sheet from the company to help stage the event and then used its proprietary information to secure lower prices from other vendors.

The Tides Center, a nonprofit organization doing business as One Nation Working Together and also known as USAction, said that it never contracted with National Events and that it never agreed to keep National Events' bid information private.

A judge said Friday that the "One Nation" event could go on as planned.