Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 13, 1990                   TAG: 9005130061
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                LENGTH: Medium

JACKSON SAYS `RISE TOGETHER'

Jackson spoke to about 250 people Friday at the invitation of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 400, which is trying to organize supermarkets in the Hampton Roads area.

"We must rise together. We are one people. This is our country," Jackson said.

"The challenge of the New South is justice at the work place. We must move from the battleground of racial hatred to the economic common ground and from there to an ethical higher ground.

"We must lift the living standards of the working people everywhere - that is the challenge of the New South," he said.

Last month the union kicked off its campaign by sending 60 organizers into the Hampton Roads area. Without organization the working poor can never rise above poverty, Jackson said.

"Our challenge to the supermarkets is to be fair. If you are going to feed the people, feed your own workers first. Profits should be made; workers should be paid; and health care should be for everybody," he said.

Jackson called for a reinvestment in America. He proposed cutting the military budget given the changing world conditions, but also said defense workers should not be thrown out of their jobs. He proposed converting those industries to peacetime production.

Part of the cost of that conversion could be covered by an "American Bank," similar to the World Bank, which provides low-interest loans to Third World countries. Jackson said the bank could be funded using 10 percent of the nation's pension funds, estimated at $800 billion.

Jackson urged that money be spent for health care, education and housing. He said the costs of the programs are much less than the costs of prisons, welfare and drugs.