Brazil’s Lula hails Mississippi Nissan workers

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, popularly known as Lula, issued a stirring call for international worker solidarity, speaking at a United Auto Workers conference here last week. He addressed a crowd of 1,500 UAW delegates at the union’s annual Community Action Program conference.

“We cannot accept that a company like Nissan comes to America and says they will not accept workers organizing. We cannot allow that to happen,” Lula said.

Workers at Nissan’s Canton, Miss., plant are battling the company for their right to have a union. It has spurred a broad new civil rights coalition: the Mississippi Alliance for Fairness at Nissan.