This is a cross-post from the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO by Karen Hickey in AFL-CIO Field Communications.

At more than 1,000 events across the country, communities joined together in unity to mark the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—and to protect the very rights he died to protect. Building on the momentum that started here in Wisconsin, nurses, firefighters, teachers, people of faith, students and community members stood together in streets, parks and state Capitol buildings across America.

Herbert Parson, Alvin Turner and Joe Warren, were part of the 1968 AFSCME sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed April 1968 while helping the workers fight for justice.

The nation is “facing a frontal assault on the American way of life, and the prime target is the hard-working American family,” write AFSCME President Gerald McEntee and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.)  in a column in the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Their column marking the 43rd anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.

Across the nation and around the world today–and throughout the week–working people are saying, We Are One with workers whose rights and middle-class jobs are under attack in Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere by Republican governors and legislators. They are also honoring the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death. He was gunned down fighting for the same rights for Memphis, Tenn., sanitation workers.

Around the nation today and this week union members, civil rights, community and faith activists are saying, “We are One” with working people in Wisconsin and dozens of other states where well-funded, right-wing corporate politicians are trying to take away workers’ right. As Domestic Workers United founder Ai-Jen Poo says in this new video:

If we don’t have a strong labor movement we don’t have a voice for justice.

In this guest column, Martin Luther King III, president and chief executive officer of The King Center, explains why his father would be on the front lines today supporting public employees.

Forty-three years ago my father, Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated while he was in Memphis, Tenn., supporting a strike of municipal sanitation workers. It was, in his eyes, more than a quest for a few more dollars in a paycheck. He saw the strike as part of the great struggle of his time—a struggle for democracy, for truth, for justice and for human dignity.

You can keep up with all of the We Are One events on April 4 by checking out a live Web stream, Twitter feed and photo slide show of ongoing events at the AFL-CIO site. And stop back here to get blog updates throughout the day.

The nation’s greedy corporations and insatiable wealthy are fattening themselves on workers. There’s no trickle down. It’s the opposite; the rich have been sucking the economic lifeblood from the middle class for decades.

AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow Jennifer Angarita contributed to this report.

Today, on what would have been César Chávez’s 84th birthday, students, workers and immigrants joined together to pay tribute to the legacy of Chávez.

Monday, April 4 marks the 43rd anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was assassinated while helping Memphis, Tenn., sanitation workers fight for the same workers’ rights that governors and state legislators in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and other states are now trying to eliminate. These assaults have sparked energy and built a solidarity movement to defend workers’ rights and middle-class job