Emelle Israel, AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow, is in Minneapolis for the Next Up Young Workers Summit and sends us this report.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka came to Minneapolis today to help send off the 800 attendees concluding the Next Up Young Workers Summit. He capped off a successful weekend with an inspiring speech that called for young people to use their “critical imagination,” their ability to look at problems and come up with new and different solutions.

He told the crowd, “America needs a good dose of critical imagination right about now. We need ideas and energy. We need enthusiasm, optimism, that sense that everything is possible.…You are the future of this movement, and all of us—all of America’s working people—need and your critical imagination in a big way.”
 

At a time when the country is experiencing record poverty levels and young people and communities of color are experiencing rates of unemployment almost double the national average, Trumka encouraged Next Up attendees to draw upon themselves to find the strength to beat back attacks on the middle class:

“Our most critical resource is right here: the passion we feel, the love, the determination in our gut! We need to tap it for all it’s worth!”

He also encouraged attendees to take the next step and follow up their participation in the summit by taking on concrete leadership positions when they get back to their local unions and organizations:

“Each of us needs to provide leadership—forceful, ground-level leadership. We need to challenge ourselves and push each other to take risks, and that means to risk failure. We need to create strategic plans, put them into action and hold ourselves and each other accountable, so we actually carry through, and build our plans to the next level….Together we are the most powerful progressive force on the face of the earth.”