MARIE RIVAS-BOUCHER ## “THE PEOPLE WHO BUILD THIS COUNTRY DESERVE TO OWN A PIECE OF ITS FUTURE.” *U.S. Senate Democratic Primary — Chicago, Illinois* *\[The crowd is loud. Union flags wave above the floor. Behind the stage, enormous letters read: WORK. DIGNITY. JUSTICE. Marie approaches the podium. She waits for the applause to settle, looks across the room, and begins without consulting her prepared remarks.\]* My friends! Look around you! Look at this room! Look at the hands that built this city! The hands that laid its bricks, drove its buses, stocked its shelves, cleaned its hospitals, taught its children, welded its steel, harvested its food, and kept its factories running! Look at the people who get up before the sun rises and come home long after it sets! And tell me something. **When did we decide that the people who do the most work should have to beg for the smallest share of its rewards?** When did we decide that a person could work forty hours, fifty hours, sixty hours a week—and still lie awake at night wondering whether the rent will be paid? When did we decide that a full-time job could mean an empty refrigerator? When did we decide that the people who make our economy possible should be the very people who struggle to survive inside it? I say: enough! ENOUGH! *\[The crowd erupts. Marie steps away from the podium.\]* For too long, working people have been told to be patient. Be patient when your wages fall behind the cost of living. Be patient when your landlord raises your rent. Be patient when your employer tells you there isn't enough money for a raise—but somehow there is enough money for another executive bonus. Be patient when the factory closes, when the pension disappears, when your hours are cut, when your health insurance vanishes, when the job you devoted twenty years of your life to is reduced to a line in a spreadsheet. And then, when you finally raise your voice, when you organize, when you march, when you demand a fair contract, they tell you that you're being unreasonable! Well, I have a message for anyone who believes that demanding dignity is unreasonable. **There is nothing unreasonable about wanting to live from the work of your own two hands!** There is nothing radical about wanting a safe workplace! There is nothing extravagant about wanting paid leave when your child is sick! There is nothing outrageous about wanting to retire without fear! And there is absolutely nothing wrong with a worker asking to be paid enough to live! *\[Applause. Marie pauses, allowing the crowd to respond.\]* Because let us be honest about what is happening in this country. We have an economy capable of extraordinary things. We can build skyscrapers that touch the clouds. We can invent technologies that would have seemed like science fiction to our grandparents. We can move billions of dollars across the world in seconds. But somehow, somehow, we are told that guaranteeing a worker a decent life is too complicated. We are told that protecting a union is too expensive. We are told that raising wages is too dangerous. We are told that demanding accountability from powerful corporations is somehow an attack on the American dream. **I want to know: whose dream are we protecting when the people who keep this country running cannot afford to live in it?** *\[The crowd cheers.\]* And I want to be clear about something. I am not running for the United States Senate because I believe working people need another politician to feel sorry for them. Working people do not need pity. They need power! They need a seat at the negotiating table. They need enforceable labor protections. They need wages that reflect the value of their work. They need the freedom to organize without intimidation and the assurance that when an employer breaks the law, there will be consequences. They need a government that understands something far too many people in Washington seem to have forgotten: **An economy is not a stock ticker. An economy is not a quarterly earnings report. An economy is not a billionaire's net worth.** An economy is the family sitting around the kitchen table trying to make the numbers work. It is the nurse finishing another exhausting shift. It is the apprentice learning a trade. It is the grocery clerk who knows every customer on the block. It is the truck driver carrying the goods that keep our communities supplied. It is the union member who understands that one worker can be ignored—but thousands of workers standing together can change history. That is the economy I believe in. An economy measured not only by what it produces, but by what it gives back to the people who produce it. And that is the economy I intend to fight for. *\[Music begins softly beneath her voice.\]* So let us talk about what that means. It means fighting wage theft with real enforcement and meaningful penalties. It means defending collective bargaining and protecting the right to organize. It means expanding paid apprenticeships and investing in the skilled trades. It means strengthening workplace safety so that no worker has to choose between a paycheck and their health. It means protecting retirement security, defending earned benefits, and ensuring that employers cannot simply walk away from their obligations. It means confronting the power of corporate monopolies and demanding that public subsidies serve the public good. It means building homes working people can afford, expanding access to health care, and recognizing that a wage increase means very little if every additional dollar disappears into rent, medical bills, and child care. And it means remembering that the working class is not one occupation, one neighborhood, one generation, or one kind of person. The working class is the people who make this country function. And their rights should never depend on whether they work in an office or a warehouse, whether they punch a clock or wear a uniform, whether they belong to a union already or are still fighting for the opportunity to form one. **Every worker deserves dignity. Every worker deserves protection. Every worker deserves a voice.** That is not a radical demand. That is the minimum obligation of a society that claims to believe in freedom. *\[Applause grows louder.\]* And here in Illinois, we know something about fighting. We know that rights are not always handed down from the powerful. Sometimes they are won on picket lines. Sometimes they are won in crowded meeting halls. Sometimes they are won by people who are exhausted, frightened, and uncertain—but who stand together anyway because they know that the next generation deserves better. The eight-hour workday was not a gift. The weekend was not a gift. Workplace protections were not gifts. Workers organized. Workers sacrificed. Workers demanded that the law recognize their humanity. And every generation has inherited the responsibility to defend those victories and extend them. Now it is our turn. Our turn to make sure a young worker entering the labor force has more security than their parents did. Our turn to make sure a family does not have to choose between buying groceries and paying for medicine. Our turn to make sure that when a worker speaks up about abuse, the law stands beside them. Our turn to make sure that the prosperity of our communities is not measured by how much wealth can be extracted from them, but by how much opportunity can be built within them. And our turn to reject the idea that the future must belong to those who already have the most. Because the future belongs to all of us. *\[She grips the sides of the podium.\]* Now, I will not stand here and tell you that changing this country will be easy. It will not be easy. There will be lobbyists who insist that nothing can change. There will be executives who insist that accountability is an attack on business. There will be politicians who praise working people at election time and forget them the moment they reach Washington. And there will be people who tell us that our expectations are too high, our demands too expensive, and our vision too ambitious. Let them say it! Because every great advance in the history of working people began with somebody declaring that the existing arrangement was not good enough. And we do not have to accept an economy that leaves families behind. We do not have to accept workplaces where fear replaces dignity. We do not have to accept a government that listens more carefully to corporate lobbyists than to the people who elected it. We can build something better. Not tomorrow by magic. Not through one speech, one election, or one bill. But through organizing. Through legislation. Through solidarity. Through the patient, determined work of making our institutions answer to the people they are supposed to serve. That is the work ahead of us. And it is work worth doing. *\[The crowd begins chanting: “WORKERS' RIGHTS! WORKERS' RIGHTS!” Marie lets the chant continue before raising her hand.\]* So, to every worker who has ever wondered whether anybody in power sees you, I want you to hear this. Your work matters. Your time matters. Your family matters. Your future matters. And you should never have to apologize for demanding a fair share of the prosperity you help create. To every union member who has stood on a picket line in the cold, who has missed a paycheck to fight for a better contract, who has stood beside a colleague facing retaliation: your courage is part of this country's history. To every worker who has been told to keep quiet, keep your head down, and be grateful for whatever you receive: you have the right to speak. You have the right to organize where the law protects that right. You have the right to demand better. And to every young person who has begun to wonder whether the promise of a better life is still real, I say this: Do not surrender that promise. Demand that we live up to it! Demand that our laws protect it! Demand that our economy make room for it! Because hope is not sitting back and waiting for somebody else to fix things. Hope is what happens when people discover that they have the power to change what once seemed permanent. And solidarity is what happens when those people decide they will not fight alone. *\[The music swells. Marie steps away from the podium.\]* I am running for the United States Senate with a belief that has never left me: That the dignity of work must mean the dignity of the worker. That democracy must mean more than the right to cast a ballot every few years. It must mean having a voice in the decisions that shape our lives. And that a government worthy of its people must never forget who keeps the lights on, who builds the roads, who staffs the hospitals, who teaches the children, who grows the food, who delivers the goods, and who makes our communities possible. The people who work in this country are not an afterthought. They are not a line item. They are not disposable. **THEY ARE THE FOUNDATION!** And you cannot build a just economy on a foundation you refuse to respect. So let us build an Illinois where a job means security. An America where organizing is a right, not a risk. An economy where prosperity reaches the people who create it. And a future where the next generation inherits more than our struggles. Let them inherit our victories. Let them inherit stronger protections, fairer workplaces, and a country that finally understands that economic justice is not a favor bestowed upon working people. It is a promise we owe one another. My friends, the work ahead is enormous. But look around this room one more time. Look at the people beside you. Look at what we can accomplish when we refuse to stand alone. **THE FUTURE OF WORKING PEOPLE WILL NOT BE DECIDED WITHOUT WORKING PEOPLE.** Not in Illinois. Not in Washington. Not anywhere. And if we are prepared to stand together, organize together, and keep fighting together, then the future is not something we have to fear. It is something we can build. Together! Thank you, Chicago! Thank you, Illinois! And long live the dignity of working people! *\[The crowd erupts. Union flags rise above the audience. Marie raises her fist as the music reaches its crescendo. The screen behind her displays three words:\]* **DIGNITY. SOLIDARITY. JUSTICE.**