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50,000 March and Rally in Seattle to Stop the War
 On February 15th, JwJ joined about 50,000 people for a huge rally and march in coordination with marches for peace in over 20 cities around the world. The Seattle Center was overflowing with a diverse crowd calling to Stop the War on Iraq and Stop the War on Immigrants.
With help from our allies in the peace movement such as the Church
Council of Greater Seattle, JwJ helped integrate the low-wage immigrant
rights struggle of the Justice for Janitors campaign into the February
15th Seattle peace march. WA JwJ's Statewide Co-Chair Lynne Dodson helped chair the event's program committee and was the official media liason. These leadership roles
helped insure that the peace movement featured Sergio Salinas, SEIU 6
President, as a key speaker, broadcasted the Justice for Janitors
campaign in regional and national media, and grounded the event's slogan
"Stop the War In Iraq, Stop the War on Immigrants " in a local worker's
struggle.
As part of JwJ's role in the march and rally, JwJ led a delegation of rally participants to support an immigrant worker rights campaign with union janitors right here in our local community. Our workers' rights contingent left the rally
slightly early to get ahead of the big march on route past the Martin
Selig Building on 2nd Avenue.  By the time the immense march reached the Selig Building, our activists were ready to make noise, display banners, and pass flyers to the thousands of marchers about the Justice for Janitors campaign. In just 20 minutes, we gave away 6000 flyers to passing peace demonstrators about Selig's anti-union and anti-immigrant worker attempts to deprive hardworking janitors of living wages, benefits, and a dignified retirement.
For more information about the Justice for Janitors campaign, click on the link at left.
Background on JwJ's Immigrant Workers' Rights Priority
Facing the bold corporate attack on worker rights, our January JwJ
Steering Committee decided to prioritize the most confrontational and
public struggles in 2003: in workplaces composed of immigrant workers
and where "national security" is used as an excuse to erode rights.
Clearly, the corporate attack has focused its greatest energy in these
workplaces. Our future victories will not only impact these workplaces
but send a clear signal that our entire worker rights movement can win
even where the corporate attack judges us most vulnerable.
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