Thousands of Illinoisans ralled in Chicago on Saturday  to show solidarity with workers in Wisconsin and other states, renew the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King who gave his life 43 years ago in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, and stand up for the American middle class against political and corporate-funded attacks.
 
The Chicago rally will be the largest of more than a dozen such"We Are One" events held throughout Illinois next week, including in Bloomington, Carbondale, Champaign, Collinsville, Decatur, Gurnee, Kankakee, Ottawa, Peoria, Rock Island, Rockford and Springfield. They are part of the national "We Are One"campaign by the AFL-CIO and allied groups.
 
The week of April 4 through 9 was chosen in honor of Dr. King, who was assassinated on April 4, 1968, while in Memphis to march with sanitation workers represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). King gave his life for the right of workers to bargain collectively for a betterlife and a pathway to the middle class  the same rights and freedoms that Republican Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin and his counterparts in otherstates are trying to strip from teachers and other public- and private-sector workers.