Last November, Missouri was one of five states that Ward Connerly targeted to strike down affirmative action laws. Connerly had corporate-backed support and a $1.5 million budget to get the signatures he needed to put the “Missouri Civil Rights Initiative” on the November ballot.
With a name like that on the petition, the local coalition Missouri Jobs for Justice suspected that voters would not understand what they were signing and wanted to fight it.
“We were told by numerous people that going up against big money would be a lost cause,” said Aaron Burnett, St. Louis organizer with Jobs for Justice.
The coalition, which includes over 100 labor, student, community and faith-based organizations, decided to coordinate a three-month campaign to educate voters about the initiative.
The Rev. Michael Rafahan, a JFJ leader and director of the Gateway Homeless Services, was against trying to stop the anti-affirmative action effort.
“I didn’t believe it could happen,” Rafahan said. “It had never been done before.”
Rafahan knew that every JFJ action was a well-coordinated process, and the group picks its battles carefully and strategically, he said. But he was still skeptical.
JFJ only had a $30,000 budget for hundreds of voter educators to hit the streets of their communities to find petitioners. Once they found petitioners, educators stood alongside them and made sure voters knew what the bill would do.
Their efforts were successful. The initiative never got on the ballot. And most JWJ members say that it was the most powerful action in the coalition’s history.
This month, the coalition celebrates its 10th anniversary. The Missouri Jobs with Justice is a coalition of community, labor, student and religious groups committed to fighting together for economic justice.
The membership list counts more than 100 organizations, including the American Federation of Teacher Local 420, Missouri Farmers Union and Interfaith Legal Services for Immigrants.
Rafahan said in his six years with the coalition, he hasn’t seen one unsuccessful venture.
“JFJ is not about theory, it’s about getting out in the street and stopping things,” he said. “We organize people and money to build power and to make our values real. Our values are for working families.”
It’s all done by action. In order to be a member, one must commit to “be there” at least five times a year for someone else’s fight as well as their own. That means joining picket lines, attending rallies, and participating in other actions or demonstrations for economic and social justice.
A good example of how the coalition works is the 2005 “Living Wage Student Sit In” at Washington University. About 20 students and alumni entered the university’s admissions building and said they wouldn’t leave until Chancellor Mark Wrighton accepted their demands. They stayed for 19 days, and then the administration threatened to remove the students. In one hour, JFJ organized 400 people to come and surround the building to support the students.
And that was in the middle of the night. As of result, the university promised $1 million over two years towards low-paid contract employees.
The coalition’s focus is not just on the issues, but on building intentional, ongoing relationships.
“This isn’t an organization that just goes to a rally,” Rafahan said. “It’s about building relationships that are reciprocal, productive and sustaining a movement for social justice.”
As executive director of the Gateway Homeless Services, he has seen how the coalition has affected his own organization. JFJ offers a job-training component,. His 20 staff members went through training. And in the past year and a half, Gateway has increased the number of people they help into homes each year from 70 to 300.
“I believe the training has helped our workers to achieve our goals,” he said.
In addition to assisting member organizations with “street heat,” Jobs with Justice coordinates St. Louis’ Workers Rights Board, a group of justice-oriented community leaders who are willing to use their moral authority to create a highly visible public forum to defend workers’ rights, the coalition leaders said.
For example in August, workers from the Lumiere and President Casinos had the backing of actor Danny Glover and the board to get to the bargaining table with their employer, Pinnacle Entertainment.
Currently the coalition is keeping a careful eye on how the health care reform and budget cuts will affect working families.
And with every action they initiate, the coalition is looking to get more people involved. It not only works to protect working families, but to empower the community.
“If people know we’re there to win, it gives them more confidence,” Rafahan said. “They begin to realize they do have the power to create change.”