Whenever I think of the labor movement and the sacrifice and struggle of the masses of workers to win a better life for themselves and their families, I think of A. Phillip Randolph, one of the greatest leaders and most skilled organizers of the labor and civil rights movement. I think of the rich lessons he left in both word and deed, especially the emphasis he placed on the labor movement as a key means, not only of achieving economic justice, but also social justice in the larger sense. “Social and political freedom cannot be sustained in the midst of economic insecurity and exploitation,” he said. “Freedom requires a material foundation. Social justice and economic reform have become inextricably intertwined in our time.”

And so, when the word came last week that the four-year struggle which the Service Employees International Union and the community had waged to win the right of security officers to unionize in the buildings of the largest property owner in downtown Los Angeles, I thought of him. I thought how he would interpret this beginning but meaningful victory in the larger ongoing effort to organize all the security officers in Los Angeles and in the whole country.

Certainly, he would begin by reminding us to give proper praise to the masses of our people who marched and rallied in rain and heat, who blocked streets, who were arrested in civil disobedience, who occupied buildings and disrupted daily business as usual, and who participated in the negotiations to defend and secure the security officers rights. He would tell us that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s later intervention was important, but without the struggle of the masses in their own interest, neither the Mayor nor the rich employers would have had any reason or push to negotiate, regardless of how worthy the cause. Indeed, Mr. Randolph said, “The virtue or rightness of a cause are not alone the conditions and cause of its acceptance.” It is the “power and pressure...from the masses” that are decisive.

Praise, then, is due to the Stand For Security Coalition which was composed of security officers, SEIU and a broad range of community organizations, activists, clergy and politicians including the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, Bethel AME Church, Say Yes to Children, Community Call to Action and Accountability, SCLC, the Organization Us, the NAACP, Mt. Gilead Baptist Church, the Nation of Islam, Community Coalition, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, Ward A.M.E. Church, Agenda, Frontier Democratic Club, Congresswomen Maxine Waters and Diane Watson, Assemblymembers Karen Bass, Mervyn Dymally, Mark Ridley-Thomas, Jerome Horton and others.

Also, we learn from Mr. Randolph that in the struggles for economic justice, we must not see it as a struggle between employees and employer, but as a historic moment and matter of interest for the community itself. Thus, the struggle around unionizing security officers was posed and pursued in terms of three basic and yet broad issues: justice for the security officers, respect for the community, and security for the public.

The struggle is first about justice in a broad, deep and demanding sense. Certainly, it is and remains about decent wages, affordable health care insurance and other benefits, and advancement opportunities, professional training —none of which they had. But it was in a larger sense about the right to respect, as men, women and workers, worthy without question, of living lives of dignity and decency and of having the means from their work to do this, to care for their families, and be free from unwarranted fear for the future of their children. And this, of necessity, is tied to their right to choose and organize a union of their choice and to be represented in defense and promotion of their rights and interests.

Second, the struggle is about respect for the African American community and in several ways. It is about: respect for the rights of all its members to freedom, justice, equality, shared power and decision-making in the workplace and for the community’s interest in strong working families, the economic strength that well-paid workers bring to the community and what these things mean in terms of the health and wholeness of the community and each and all of its members. And it is about the community’s commitment to economic justice as an indispensable principle and practice of a just and good society.

And finally, there is the issue of security for the public itself and the contradiction of having a security force which is insecure itself and lacks the employment conditions and training to do the security work for which they are hired. It is clearly in the interest of the public, the building owners and the security officers themselves to be well-paid, justly treated, professionally trained, and effectively linked with other similarly-engaged agencies as first responders in coordination and cooperation. They, of course, have none of this and thus the need and urgency of struggle.

But if the victory in this battle is going to be a solid step in the larger struggle for justice for the workers and the rebuilding and strengthening of the labor movement, certain things still must be done. First, the union must insure that African Americans who have won this important struggle and who represent 70% of the security officers are not replaced in manipulation by employers or current organizing emphasis of the union which is mostly on Latinos. Moreover, it must build projects of cooperation among African Americans and Latinos and not imitate employers by initiating policies which divide rather than unite them. It must also allocate an equitable amount of resources for organizing and training Black workers; put more Blacks in leadership positions; place the organizing and training of Blacks in the Black community as well as build cooperative projects with and in the Black community. For this will build a strong alliance with labor. As Mr. Randolph told the AFL-CIO Convention in1963, if the labor movement embraces the “(Black) struggle for freedom...it will rise to its full moral stature.” And if they do this, “when labor’s rights are threatened, you will see an outpouring of Black Americans into the streets in defense of their own rights.”

Finally, Mr. Randolph, who made history organizing the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in the midst of raw-meat racism and ice-cold terror (1925-1937) reminds us not to mistake the victorious battle for a truly won war and to remember we are own liberators and must continue the struggle until final victory. “Salvation for any race nation or class must come from within.” He said, “Freedom is never granted; it is won. Justice is never given; it is extracted. Freedom and justice must be struggled for by the oppressed of all lands and races and the struggle must be continuous—for freedom is never a final fact, but a continuing evolving process to higher and higher levels of human social, economic, political and religious relationships.”

Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor of Black Studies, California State University-Long Beach, Chair of The Organization Us, Creator of Kwanzaa, and author of Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture.