February 04, 2022

The Alliance and the AFL-CIO Celebrate Black History Month, Lunar New Year

“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now,” Martin Luther King Jr. famously said.

Since February 1 was both the Lunar New Year — also known as the Chinese New Year — and the first day of Black History Month, the Alliance joins the AFL-CIO in taking this opportunity to note that the Black and Asian American communities have worked proudly together for working people and for civil rights for many years.

“Corporate power players have historically taken control most easily when allies in the labor and civil rights movements fight amongst ourselves,” said Robert Roach, Jr., President of the Alliance. “Do not fall into their trap when our political opponents attempt to divide us with their misleading rhetoric.”

As Team AFL-CIO noted earlier this week, Frederick Douglass spoke against anti-Chinese immigration policies; Grace Lee Boggs fought for civil and worker rights and helped organize Black autoworkers in Detroit for more than 60 years; and Asian organizers created Letters for Black Lives to talk about anti-Blackness with Asian families in their own language.

“There has never been a more appropriate time than now to remember that our fight for justice will be shared until the day we are all free,” President Roach stated.