By Doug Cunningham

At The Take Back America conference in Washington D.C. labor was part of the mix of activists exploring progressive political and media strategies. From Washington D.C., WIN’s Frank Emspak describes labor’s role in the conference.

[Frank Emspak 1]: "You have a lot of local Democratic Party officials, a lot of local elected officials who are not necessarily labor. So this conference provides a means for labor leadership and people associated with the labor movement to try to talk to people about what a labor-oriented agenda would look like. That's, I think, the real value of having labor participation here."

United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard got an award presented by Robert Redford for the union’s role in the Apollo Project – a labor – environmental movement alliance.

[Emspak 2]: "And this an attempt by the steelworkers to work with the environmental movement - the Sierra Club primarily - to build green. To come up with designs for green building, to produce in such a way that it doesn't harm the environment."

Other labor leaders participating in the conference included AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, Change To Win’s Anna Burger, Jeffrey Rechenbach from the Communications Workers of America and SEIU’s Jaime Contreras.