INTRODUCTIO
ChaIrman Ron Brown. you've done difficult job
well. You have brought down barriers. Your or
rna proud.
President Bill ainton. You ve urvived tough
pring. It will make you tronger for the f 11. With your
stripes you m t heal and make better. the hopes of
many depend upon your q t. Be comforted that you
do not stand lion.
Vice President AI Gore comes to this te ted and
prepared. He h s been a re oned voice for en
vironomental anity, upporter of ocial justice, an
original sponsor of DC tatehood. And I, for one, look
forward to the vice-pre idential deb teo
THE MORAL CE TER
We stand as witnesses to a pregnant moment in
history. Across the globe, e feel the pain that comes
with new birth. Here, in our country pain abounds. We
must be certain that it too leads to ne birth, and not a
tragic miscarriage of opportunity. .
We m t tum pain to power, pain into partnership,
not pain into polarization. '
The great temptation in these difficult days of racial
polarlzationand economic injustice is to makepolitica1
arguments Bl ck and white, aod miss the more impera
tive of wrong and righL Vanity b-is it popular?
Politics asks-will it win? Morality and conscience
ask-is it right?
We are part of a contipuing struggle for justice and
decency, links in a chain that began long before we
were bom and wlll extend long !ter we are gODe.
History will remember us not for our positionina, but
ror our principles. Not by our move to the pollUCil
center, left or right, but rather by our grasp on the moral
and ethical center of wrong and right.
We who stand with working people and poor bave
a special burden. We must stand for what is right, tand
up to those who have the might. We do so grounded in
the failh; that that which is morally wrong will never
be politically righL But if it is morally sound, it will
eventually be politically righL
When I look at you gathered here this today, I hear
the pain and see the truggles that prepared the ground
that you tand on. we have come a long way from
where we started.
A generation ago-in 1964, Fanny Lou Hamer had
to fight even to it in this convention. Tonight, 28 years
later, the chair of the Party is Ron Brown from Harl.em;
the manager is Alexis Herman, an African Amencan
woman from Mobile, Alabama. We have come a long
way from where we started.
We are more interdependent that we realize. Not
only African Americans benefitted from the movement
for justice. It was only when African Americans were
free to win and sit in these seats, that Bill Clinton and
AI Gore from the new South could be able to stand on
this rostrum. We are inextricably bound together in a
ingle prment of destiny. Red, yellow, brown, black
and white, we are all precious in God's sight. We have
come a long way from where we started. ,
Tonight we face another challenge. Ten million
Americans are unemployed, 2S mlllton on food
stamps 35 million in poverty, 40 million have no
health �re. From the coal miners in Bigstone Gap, '
West Virginia to the loggers and environomentalis_ts in .
Roseburg, Oregon, from dfaplaced �xtile workel'l in .
my home town of Greenville, South Carolina to plants
closing in Van Nuys, Califomia, pain abounds. PlantS
are closiag jobs leaving on a fast track, more are
working for less, trapped by repressive anti-labor
laws. The homeless are a source of national sbare and
disgrace.
there il a harshness to America that comes from not
seeing and a growing mindless materialism. Our
television sets bring the world into our living rooms,
but too often we overlook our neighbors.
We have a president who has traveled the world, but
has never been to Hamlet, North Carolina. Yet we m t
not overlook Hamlet.
It was there that 25 workers died in a fire at Imperial
Foods, more women than men, more white than Black.
They worked making chicken parts in vats heated to
400 degree , with few window and no fans. The
owners locked the doors on the outside. The workers
died trapped by economic desperation and oppressive
work laws.
One woman came up to me after the flre--ehe sai�
"I want to work. I don't want to go on welfare. I have
three children and no husband," she said. "We pluck 90
wings a minute. Now I. can't bend my wrist, I lot the
carpel thing. Then when we're hurt they fire us, and we
have no health insurance, and no union to help UI. We
can't get another job because we're crippled, 10 they
put us on welfare and call us lazy bitch. "
I said you are not lazy. You are not a bitch. You
are not alone. We tand with you.
Her friend, a white woman came up and said: "I'm
seven months pregnant. We stand in two inches of
water with two five-minute bathroom breab. Some
times we can't hold our water, and then ow: bowels, and
we faint." We wept together.
If we ke�p Hamlet in our hearts and before our eyes,
we will act to empower working people: We will
protect the nght to organize and to strike. We will
empower workers to enforce health and safety laws.
We ill provide tio he Itb care y tern, mini
mum cient to brin worke out of poverty,
paid p rental Ie vee We m t build a movement for
conomic j nee c the I 00.
We f: ee a difficult Challenge. Our cities have been
bandoned, farme forsaken, children neglected.
Roods in Chicago; fire in LA. They ay they can't find
$35 billion for the mayors, but the late t down payment
for the SelL b ilout w $25 billion: It is time to brea
the mold.
Now is the tim to rebuild America. We must be the
party with the plan nd the purpose. Four years go, we
fought for program to reinve t in America, paid for
by fair taxes on the rich and aving from the military.
Thi • year Governor Bill Clinton has taken a ubstantial
tep in that direction. He has expre ed Democratic
support for DC statehood, arne day on He universal
votet registration. He has vowed to challenge corpora
tions to invest home, retrain their workers nd pay their
share of taxes, He h made a commitment to raising
the ize of our opportunity. Aero the world wall are
coming down. The Cold War i over; the Soviet Union
i no more. R ia w n tojoinNATO. We can change
our prioriue ,reinv t in educating our children, train
our workers, rebuild our citie . Tod y Japan fast
trains; we make fa t mi iles, If we change our
priori tie , and build a high peed national railroad, we
could go from NY to LA in 8 hours. We could make
the steel, lay the rail, build the cars and drive them.
Scientists can top devi ing weapons we don't need and
start working on environomental advances we can't
live without. ' '
We must have an imagination trong enou to ea
beyond war. In Israel, Prime Minister .Rabin' election
is a tep toward greater ecurity and peace for the enti_� ,
region. Rabin' wi dom in affirming negotiation over
confrontation, land' for pe ce, bargaining table over
battle field has inspired hope, not only in the hearts of
democratic Israel, but on the West Bank. Israeli
security and Pale tinian elf-d termination are inex-
... ..
and indexing the minimum wage. We must build upon
that direction and go further till.
In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt ran on a 'balance-tbe
budget' platform in the middle of a recession. Working
people In motion pushed him into the New Deal. The
impetus for change will not come top down, it must
come bottom up.
. The Rainbow Coalition has put forward a 'Rebuild
America Plan.' At its heart is a proposal, with the aid
of Felix RObatyn, one of America's leading experts in
public finance, or an American Investment Bank.
There are $3 trillion in public and private pension
funds, that with lovernment guarantees, could p'rovide
SSOO billion in seed money, and attract an addition
S500 billion, to create 'a ten-year, $1 trillion plan to
rebuild America. Pension funds are the workers money.
That money is now used to prop up South Africa, for
LBO. and high risk peculation and greed. We should
UK � workers' money, with the workers' consent and
government guarantees, to secure our future by rebuild
ing America.
We must have a plan on a scale tbat corresponds
with the size of the problems we face. Tai'wan has � $1
trillion-it is the size of Pennsylv nia. Japan has a $3
trillion plan over ten years. We found the money to help,
rebuild Europe and Japan after World War II, we found
the money to help Russia ao<f Poland. We found $600
bUlion to bail out the mess left by the buccaneer
bankers. Surel y we can find the money to rebuild
America and put people back to work.
We m t have a vision ufficient to conespond with
t
tricably bound, tw sides of the arne coin. If peace
talks continue, this generation may be able to witness
a Missle East tasting the fruits of peace.
In Africa today, democracy i on the march. In
Nigeria, we witne ed successful elections tut week.
But democracy cannot flouri h amid economic ruins.
Democracy protects the right to vote; it doe not insure
that you can eat. Today, President Deuf of Senegal,
head of development for the Organization of African
Unity, i pushing for African d�velopment. Uke other
regions of the world, Africa need debt relief and credi
10 it can have the opportunity to grow.
We must understand that development in the Third
Worldand Economic prosperity at home are inextricab
ly bound. We can be a force for pe � in the Middle,
East, development to Africa and Latin America, hope
in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
THE MORAL CENTER
Politics cannot be reduced to a matter of mooey and
ambition. We must stay true to our values, or lose our
way. .
- In 1939-900 Jew were turned away from the
bores of Miami by the U.S. government, sent back to
OcllIWly haunted by Hitler. '
- In 1942-120,000 Japanc Ameri Ie
rounded up and put in American concentration camps.
- In 1992-the U.S. government i turning
Haitians away, bac into the arms of death, aod relax
ing sanctions on South Africa.
It anti-Semitic aIR! wrong in 1939 to lex
Je out. It rac t and wrong in 1942 to loe
Japa An\erica up. And it is rae' t and wro
1992 to lock the Haiti out and a on
Mandela in South Africa. South Africa rem i
roriat ta. nctio bould be reimposed unt
interim overnment is establi .bed.
VALUI G THE FA
ILY
We hear a lot 0 tal about family val , even
purn abe bo l' ,on the atreeL Remember, UI
bp 10 i bomel couple, outdoo in a table, in
the win r. w the child of a single mother; When
Mary Id Joeeph not the father, e ab ed.
It she rted the baby, e wo d ve been called
immoral. If Ud the baby, ahe ould have been
called unfit, witboua family valuea. But Mary had fami
ly valuea. It w Herod-the Q yle of hia day- bo
put no val on the family.
We whO ould be leaden m t feel and be touched
by people'a paiD. How can you be a doctor and nol
touch the ? How can you be a leader and not touch
tbe hurt? OIDdhi adopted tbe untouchables. Dr. King
marched with violent JIDI members, hoping to tum
tMm to tbe diacipUne of non-violence.
Abov' aU, we mUit reach' out and touch our
children. Our children are embittered and hurt, but it
fa not a nita! dJaeaIe. They ere not born that
way. Th�y live amldlt violence and rejection, i�
broken ,treeta, broken glUl, broken aidewalb,
broken blO • Their mUlic, their rap,
their video. tbelr art reflecta their broken World. We
'mUlt reacb out IDd to tho
Before rio In LoI AlliIl'i14I:., Rep. Maxine
4 eke .. -
IOn � ID -ttl, w
pent the JIlt.with 0 chfl�D, and then visited the
youth de1eDdoQ center with Arlenio Hall and l
Almos. We Us ned to the youth deecribe their bUited
and defene4 clreaQJa. They auffer SO percent un
employment, with DO plOlpeCtl of a Job or going to,
COllege. It COlli SS,OOO to send them to high school,
S34,OOO to send them downtown to the youth deien-
f ,
don center.
For many of them, Jail II a step up. In jail, they are
safe from drive-by ahood ... In Jail, WI warm in th
winter, cool in the summer. In jail they get three
balanced mea1a, acc:eas to health care, education and
vocatioaal training. Everything they should have on
the oullide they only get on the imide. ,
Too many of OUl' children lee jail u a relief station,
and death u a laod beyond pain. We must reach out
and touch them. Surely, it is better to have dirty banda
and clean bearta than clean handa and a dirty heart.
If we reacb out, we can wi� deserve to win.
We havt beard many different arguments about a
winni. atrategy-whether to rally the base or appeal
to tboie who have strayed. But these are not choices.
We will win only if put forth a vision that correaponda
with the size of our problems and the scope of our
opportunity, if we reach out to thOle in deapatr aod
those who care, reach acroa the lines that divide by
race, region or religion .
As for the Rainbow Coalition, we will continue to
build a movement for economic justice in this land.
We will wort to mobilize working and poor people to
chan&e the courae of this countrY,. We Will join in
defeaUna George Bush in the fall-that il a necessary
fint tep.
We mUit continue to build. When Roosevelt cam
to office, a movement of working people made a new
deal poeaible. when Kennedy came to office, he did
not teach Dr. King about civil rights; Dr. King led a
movemenl that made civil rights unavoidable. When
Bill Clinton comes to office, we must build a movement
that kee.,. economic JUldce at the forefront of tbe
apoda.
I know it'a dart. But In the dart the Dame of hope
still burns.
, In LA, they focuIed on Rodney KIna beaten by
white officers, who were acquitted by an all-white jury.
But it w a white man who had the inltinet an4 the
outrage to ftlm It and take it publiC. The media focUi
wu on abe white truck driver beaten by Black youth.
But it four youna Black youth who atepped in and
lived hla Ute, good aamaritanl.
In the final analylia it comea down to a question of
charlcter. On a small Southern college campus, I once
erved a leason neVer to be forgotten. I saw a dwarf
and a giant alkins topther-tbey were al;1 odd
couple. He w Ix feet three, she w three feet tall.
When reacbed their parting paths, they embraced.
He baadccl ber ber boob and abe kipped down the
path. It to be romantic. I ked the pre ident-
t I � acelDa? He id, I thought you would
V_ ........... lt..... a ler, in act hia twin ter. By
Ie came out a giant, abe a dwarf. All the
offered him athletic cholarship . The pros
money. But he said I can only go .where my
ister can . ADd 10 he ended up bere with us.
Somewhere that young man learned ethics, caring
fa. of driven by a tailwind. Most of
_·llInIIlIle tb nda. Not all of us can be born
tall, some are born bort, motherless, abandoned,
hungry, orphaned. Somebody has to care. It m t be us.
And if we do, we will win, and d rve to win.
Keep hope lve.