Archive for the ‘WERC’ Category
Only organized labor has the capacity to stand up to the powerful elite by mobilizing the majority of working people to force the politicians to pass legislation that will ensure that every single individual has the opportunity to receive a quality education, work at a job with a comfortable wage, receive proper health care when needed, and retire in dignity. Now is the time for working people to unite and use their collective strength to fight for a society that operates in everyone’s interests. Together we can make a difference.
It would be easy to miss the meaning of the October 2nd One Nation demonstration in Washington, D.C., given that all the media — and many on the left — focused their attention almost exclusively on the calls by top organizers of the action to vote for the Democrats in the coming election. This was, no doubt, part of the picture. But it was not the most important part.
Tags: Solidarity Day III
Flyer PDF, click here:WERC After Oct 2_fin-1
The October 2nd demonstration in Washington, D.C., is a great step forward. We are now beginning to take matters into our own hands, relying on ourselves, and acting collectively.
Working people have been patiently waiting for the politicians to address our needs. Instead, they bailed out the banks and [...]
The official organizing for the October 2nd Washington, D.C. demonstration, which we hope will be massive, has allowed us to catch a glimpse of a crucial ambiguity underlying the event. Will this demonstration be aimed at demanding that the government finally address the real needs of working people, now that it has made the banks whole, despite everyone’s objections? Or will its real purpose be to get Democrats elected to office, in which case demands will be carefully crafted, trimmed, and pre-packaged so as not to embarrass the Democrats and then be used only as bait to lure working people into the election campaigns, not as true goals in themselves?
Tags: AFL-CIO, Solidarity Day III
The significance of the AFL-CIO adopting the strategic approach underlying its rallying cry, “Working people can make a difference when we rely on ourselves and act collectively,” cannot be emphasized enough. This approach points in the direction of organizing massive demonstrations in the streets, not simply sending working people to voting booths once every several years to vote for politicians who fail to keep most of their campaign promises.
Tags: 2010, AFL-CIO, October 2, One Nation
Not enough jobs are being created in the private sector to keep up with the number of new workers who are entering the labor market. According to an AFL-CIO blog (June 7, 2010), 38 percent of Americans report that either they or someone close to them has lost a job. There are officially almost 15 million Americans now out of work, mostly due to the current economic crisis. But if those who are involuntarily working part-time and if discouraged workers are taken into account, the number is much higher.
May 15, 2010
We are disappointed to inform you that a Solidarity Day III event where the labor movement would mobilize and demand that the government institute a massive jobs-creation program is not going to take place — for now.
Unfortunately, the top officials of the AFL-CIO failed to move on this proposal at the AFL-CIO’s special [...]
Tags: AFL-CIO, Solidarity Day III
March 19, 2010
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
The Executive Council of the California Labor Federation, representing two million organized workers, over one-sixth of the membership of the AFL-CIO, passed a resolution on Feb. 23, 2010, calling on the AFL-CIO and Change to Win to organize a Solidarity Day III demonstration in Washington, D.C. for Jobs, Peace and [...]
This coming April 12 is the deadline for submitting the 1 million signatures required to get the California Democracy Act (CDA) on the November 2010 ballot in California. CDA is an essential step toward winning progressive taxation. It would return majority rule to the California State Assembly (instead of the current two-thirds requirement) for all decisions regarding budget AND revenue.
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
Rank-and-file unions from various parts of the country, as well as Central Labor Councils, have been passing resolutions calling on the AFL-CIO and Change to Win to organize a massive Solidarity Day III demonstration in Washington to demand job-creation programs as well as other programs vital to working people. [See initial list [...]
Tags: WERC
As Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, recently announced in response to the Massachusetts elections: “It’s not time to leave it to any political party to take care of us once we put them in office. It’s time to organize and mobilize as never before to make every elected or aspiring leader PROVE he or she will create the jobs we need in an economy we need with the health care we need. I know we are the people who can mobilize a massive army to force elected leaders to deliver.”
Tags: AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka, single payer, Solidarity Day III
We have good news. We have learned that there is a growing recognition among leading labor officials in the AFL-CIO that a massive mobilization in the streets of trade unionists and our allies will be necessary in order to ensure that the needs of working people, which have been exacerbated as a result of this devastating economic crisis, are addressed.
Tags: Solidarity Day III
Campaign for Solidarity Day III in DC Next Spring to Demand Jobs, Peace, Affordable Health Care For All and Ending Foreclosures and Evictions
Tags: Cynthia McKinney, labor unions, Solidarity Day III, WERC
We think it is crucial to mount a campaign directed at all the diverse issues that are economically crippling working people. In this way we can create a broad, powerful movement. In unity there is strength.
Tags: g20, HR676, labor unions, WERC
BY ALAN BENJAMIN
[Note: The following talk was presented by Alan Benjamin to the May 9 Teach-In in San Francisco to "Bail Out Working People -- NOT the Banks!" Benjamin is a member of the Executive Committee of the San Francisco Labor Council and is a co-chair of the Council's Economic Crisis Committee. This talk was [...]