AFL-CIO Backs October 2nd March in Washington DC for Jobs, Justice and Peace

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

We learned this morning that the National Executive Council of the AFL-CIO has voted to support and mobilize its members for the October 2, 2010, march on Washington to demand “jobs, economic security, comprehensive immigration reform, a safe and renewable energy policy and a reversal of national priorities from making wars to meeting human needs.” This march was initiated by SEIU Local 1199 and the NAACP.

NAACP President Ben Jealous announced the October 2nd march at the NAACP convention in Kansas City in early July, explaining that “marchers will demand the change they voted for when Barack Obama was elected,” and emphasizing the urgent need to “create jobs and stop moving money out of education and into wars and prisons.” (Kansas City Star, July 12, 2010).

Indeed, while there are many issues of concern among working people, having a job ranks by far at the very top of the list, since so many other basic needs are directly tied to employment. The current Great Recession — some are calling it a depression — has spawned a surge in joblessness, with little recovery in sight. Temporary downward dips in the unemployment rate are resulting from workers becoming discouraged; they stop looking for work because they do not think they can find any, so they are no longer counted as unemployed.

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.

Claiming that the federal deficit is the greatest threat to the economy, politicians of both major parties are displaying a stark lack of interest in aggressively attacking the problem of joblessness. Recently, Congress callously refused to extend unemployment benefits, thereby cutting a crucial lifeline for over one million unemployed workers. Many believe that this inflated focus on the deficit is simply an excuse by politicians to terminate popular government programs, where the politicians claim the government simply cannot afford to maintain them. Motivated by special interests instead of what is good for the country as a whole, these politicians propose privatizing the programs or eliminating them altogether.

It is within this context that we applaud two significant developments. First, as we have already mentioned, SEIU Local 1199 and the NAACP are organizing the October 2 march on Washington, D.C. SEIU Local 1199 President George Gresham has predicted that this demonstration will be a “massive — and we believe historic — march.” It might, in fact, mark a turning point for organized labor as it launches this fight-back.

Secondly, in Detroit, the United Auto Workers (UAW) and Jesse Jackson with his Rainbow PUSH Coalition have joined forces to spearhead a campaign to demand the creation of jobs. This campaign will be kicked off by a march in Detroit on August 28, 2010, the anniversary of the 1963 massive rally in Washington, D.C. where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.

The significance of these events cannot be emphasized enough. Here, working people are not sitting back passively, hoping the politicians will throw them a few leftover crumbs after bestowing bountiful favors on the banks and corporations. Rather, workers are relying first and foremost on themselves. They are acting independently of the two major political parties, which are controlled above all by corporate and Wall Street interests.

Politicians act in their own self-interest. But often their self-interest lies in responding positively to whichever sector of the population is exerting the most pressure on them. The rich exert pressure routinely by showering politicians with generous campaign contributions and unleashing a herd of lobbyists on them. In contrast, the most effective weapon of working people is to organize massive demonstrations where their monumental size confirms that they have the support of the majority of the population.

Such demonstrations have succeeded in bringing down governments. Every major gain for working people in this country has resulted from huge demonstrations, including the right to unionize, the 8-hour day, Social Security, unemployment benefits, civil rights, women’s suffrage, immigrant rights, and the list goes on.

A massive government jobs-creation program that would put 15 million people back to work would not simply benefit working people, it would benefit the entire country, especially when linked to the demand that Wall Street and the rich pay for it.

As AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka argued before President Obama’s Deficit Reduction Commission on June 30, 2010, an economic stimulus in the form of a jobs-creation program will help place the country on a stronger economic foundation. For example, it will help avoid a double-dip recession, which happened in 1937 when the government chose to switch course and reduce the deficit rather than stimulate the economy. Also, when people are put back to work, they pay taxes, which contribute to lowering the deficit. Moreover, by creating jobs through rebuilding the country’s public infrastructure, a strong foundation is laid for a future vibrant economy.

Trumka specifically mentioned such infrastructure examples as roads, bridges, urban transit, schools and university facilities, green generating plants, along with many other sound proposals. He further argued that the current crisis is in part due to the growing inequalities in wealth. When working people’s wages stagnate or disappear altogether because of layoffs, their ability to consume declines accordingly. With a drop in demand, businesses must cut back, lay off more workers, and demand drops even further.

As Trumka noted, making Wall Street and the rich pay for a jobs program reflects a basic sense of fairness: “We believe it is only fitting to ask Wall Street to pay to rebuild the economy it helped destroy.” As for the rich, he observed: “It would also be fitting to ask the wealthiest Americans who benefited most from the failed economic policies of the past 30 years to pay their fair share for rebuilding the 21st century economy and stabilizing the national debt.” He called for a raise in their tax rate, pointing out that “effective tax rates applicable to high-income taxpayers (earning over $250,000 in 2009 dollars) reached their lowest level in at least half a century in 2008.”

Trumka’s campaign for a jobs-creation program and higher taxes on the rich as the best medicine for the economy stands in stark opposition to the alternatives that many politicians are urging, including cutting Social Security benefits. As he argued: “While a jobs-centered approach to debt stabilization would help reverse income inequality and bring us closer to sustainable, broadly shared prosperity, several approaches now under discussion in the debate over deficit reduction would take us in the opposite direction. These approaches include prolonged unemployment, which would permanently cripple the earnings potential of millions of workers, exert downward pressure on workers’ wages, and condemn millions of children to poverty unnecessarily; cuts to Social Security benefits; and cuts to Medicare benefits.” Actually, Social Security has been generating a surplus almost since its inception and has in no way contributed to the deficit, although the media have been intent on giving the opposite impression. Trumka correctly added: “In fact, Social Security should be strengthened to compensate for the decline of traditional pensions and for the stock market losses of retirement savings plans.”

In order to ensure that the turnout for these demonstrations in Detroit and Washington, DC is massive, the demands must reflect the real needs of working people, not what the politicians say is possible after giving the corporations and Wall Street all they want, both of which have been pushing hard on the politicians.

We must push back even harder. President Trumka has called for the creation of 15 million jobs. We should demand nothing less; asking for crumbs will only demoralize our own ranks. If our demands are measured to fit our needs and they are just and fair, and with AFL-CIO resources building October 2, working people will see that a serious fight is being waged, and they will be inspired to join. Under such circumstances, this demonstration could indeed be historic.

We are asking you, our readers and supporters, to get your unions, state labor federations, regional central labor councils, civil rights organizations, antiwar coalitions, and community groups to endorse these demonstrations and to help build them, especially if you are located in the general vicinity of either event. The more people we can bring into the streets, the greater our prospects of success in influencing government policy in favor of the creation of more jobs.

Working people can make a difference when we rely on ourselves and act collectively. After all, we are the majority.

• Jobs for All!
• Hands Off Social Security!
• Tax the Rich and the Corporations!
• Money for Jobs, Not for Wars and Prisons

In solidarity,

Bill Leumer and Alan Benjamin,
Co-Conveners,
Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign

Librarians Guild  AFSCME Local 2626  514 Shatto Place, 3rd Floor  Los Angeles, CA  90020

WHEREAS in the aftermath of the Massachusetts special senatorial election, AFL-CIO President  Richard Trumka issued a statement declaring, “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 healthcare we need. I know we are the people who can mobilize a massive army to force  elected leaders to deliver;” and

WHEREAS despite the so-called economic recovery, the economic crisis for working people has  continued unabated, with growing unemployment and underemployment, rising home foreclosures and  evictions, and the underfunding of public education and vitally needed social services; and

WHEREAS the government has bestowed billions of bailout dollars on the financial institutions whose  recklessness and greed created this economic crisis and who are rewarding those responsible with  obscene gigantic bonuses; and

WHEREAS the labor movement’s legislative priorities — a massive program for jobs, true universal  healthcare, and enactment of the Employee Free Choice Act — are all in great peril; and

WHEREAS while the government has no problem allocating a trillion dollars for two wars thousands  of miles away, it has not committed funds critically needed to put America back to work, with  healthcare and quality education for all; and

WHEREAS right wing, anti-labor forces, such as the Tea Bag movement, have brought hundreds of  thousands of people into the streets to advance their reactionary demands; and WHEREAS there is a  growing movement within the House of Labor to counter the right-wing offensive against workers’  living standards with our own massive mobilization; and

WHEREAS various union bodies, including the South Carolina AFL-CIO, the South Bay Labor  Council (CA), acting on a resolution submitted by Plumbers and Fitters Local 393, Troy Area Labor  Council (NY), and the San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO, have adopted resolutions calling upon  the AFL-CIO and Change to Win to organize a Solidarity Day III March on Washington D.C. in the  spring of 2010 to demand jobs, healthcare, housing, full funding for public education and social  services, and peace; now therefore be it

RESOLVED that the Librarians’ Guild, AFSCME Local 2626, joins with our brothers and sisters in  calling for a labor-sponsored march on Washington for jobs, peace and justice, which would have the  capability of mobilizing the kind of massive army Brother Trumka spoke of; and be it finally

RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be sent to the AFL-CIO and Change to Win.

(Adopted by  the Librarians’ Guild, AFSCME Local 2626 Executive Board  -  February 11, 2010)

National March on Washington for Jobs, Peace, Affordable Healthcare For All 

and Ending Foreclosures and Evictions

Whereas, despite the so-called economic recovery, the economic crisis for working people has continued unabated with growing unemployment and rising home foreclosures and evictions, and

Whereas this economic crisis has resulted in the underfunding and degrading of public education and social services, and

Whereas the government has bestowed billions of dollars of bailout money on the financial institutions whose recklessness and greed created this economic crisis, and

Whereas there is growing opposition to the wars and occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq by a majority of the people here in the United States, not to mention the great and ever-growing opposition by the citizens in Afghanistan and Iraq, and

Whereas these wars are costing billions of dollars each month, therefore be it

Resolved that the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council calls on the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win coalition to organize a Solidarity Day III march on Washington D.C. in the spring of 2010 to demand jobs, housing, healthcare, full funding for public education and social services, and peace, and be it

Further Resolved that we send this resolution for concurrence and action to the Santa Clara County Building and Construction Trades Council, the California State Building and Construction Trades Council, and the California Federation of Labor.

1) RESOLUTION:
For a Comprehensive Labor-Led Campaign for Economic Recovery, including a National March in the spring of 2010 in Washington, D.C. for Jobs, an End to the Wars and Occupations, Affordable Healthcare and Housing For All, a Sharp Increase in Corporate Taxation, and Full Funding for Public Education and Social Services

Whereas, despite media claims of some economic recovery, the economic crisis for working people is continuing unabated with growing unemployment and spreading home foreclosures and evictions, and

Whereas, the economic crisis is producing severe public budget deficits, underfunding public education and state and municipal services, and pressuring public officials to privatize the public’s resources and well-being, and

Whereas, the government and the Federal Reserve have funneled trillions of public dollars to the financial institutions whose recklessness and greed created this economic crisis, while continuing to fund two major wars that are draining our economy, dismantling our public institutions, and preventing any meaningful economic recovery, and

Whereas, the government should bail out working people, not the banks, and

Whereas, there exists a standing demand by a majority of the American people to end the continued war and occupation of Iraq, with growing mainstream opposition to the war and occupation in Afghanistan.

Therefore be it resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council calls upon the AFL-CIO and Change to Win leadership and affiliates to mobilize all possible union members and their allies and friends in a massive SOLIDARITY DAY III MARCH on Washington D.C. in the spring of 2010 to demand redirecting the economy toward peacetime jobs for the American people and Green investment, an end to the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, affordable housing and healthcare for all, a sharp increase in taxation on the wealthy and corporations, and full funding for public education and social services, as part of a strategic campaign for an economic recovery plan for working people, and

Be it further resolved that the San Francisco Labor Council hereby establishes a committee to mobilize our affiliates and their members to participate in the above strategic campaign and Solidarity Day III, and

Be it finally resolved that this resolution be forwarded immediately to the Bay Area Central Labor Councils, the California Federation of Labor, the USLAW National Assembly in Chicago and our community allies.

Fraternally submitted,

Alan Benjamin, delegate  OPEIU Local 3
Tom Edminster, delegate, UESF
Allan Fisher, delegate AFT 2121
Conny Ford, Vice pres., SFLC; Sec-Treas., OPEIU Local 3
Denis Mosgofian, delegate, GCC Division-IBT Local 4
Dave Welsh, delegate, NALC Branch 214

Reposted from the AFL-CIO Blog

Stunningly bad news on the nation’s jobless rate today: Unemployment worsened in October to 10.2 percent, a huge jump from 9.8 percent in September. That’s 15.7 million jobless workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Worse, the unemployment and underemployment rate is a shocking 17.5 percent-more than 27 million American workers without full-time jobs.

Today’s numbers show that the overall jobs situation isn’t improving any time soon, according to Economic Policy Institute Director Larry Mishel, who predicts that one-third of the U.S. workforce will be unemployed or underemployed in 2010.

In short, the nation needs jobs.

Economist Julianne Malveaux puts the case succinctly:

“Absent public job creation, it is likely that the economy will not fully recover. Help certainly isn’t coming from Wall Street or Big Business.

“Now that they have pocketed their bailout cash, Wall Streeters are impervious to the nation’s ongoing jobs disaster. In fact, an annual report by Johnson Associates on financial industry payouts projected they will be up 40 percent from 2008, when they plunged in the midst of the financial crisis.

“In 2008, Wall Street handed out nearly $20 billion in cash awards and billions more in stock and other incentives to employees based in New York.

“Wall Street is celebrating a ‘recovery’ based on a 3.5 percent increase in the gross domestic product (GDP) in the third quarter of this year. But America’s workers know there can be no recovery unless everyone who wants to work can find a good job.”

This alarming jobs report “should be a wake-up call to sleepy politicians,” says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka:

“Every day, it becomes more urgent that the federal government step up to the plate with bold actions to boost job creation. Such action should include urgently needed fiscal relief to state and local governments, community jobs programs, additional investments in infrastructure and green jobs and credit relief to small and medium-sized businesses. Failing to act puts us at very real risk of a lost generation – of hard-working Americans who can’t put food on the table and bright young people who never realize their potential.

“The nation needs to act fast to stop the hemorrhage of jobs and the economic crisis among working families.”

From: WERC Interim National Committee

To: Unionists and labor activists nationwide

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

We are writing to urge your endorsement of — and active support for — our proposal calling on the labor movement to organize a Solidarity Day III march & rally in Washington, D.C., next spring to demand jobs, housing, health care, full funding for public education and social services, and peace.

We have drafted a model resolution to be submitted to unions and other labor bodies for endorsement. This resolution [see below] was drafted with carefully chosen formulations. It does not attempt to articulate our moral indignation at the countless injustices that currently infuse our society. Nor is it aimed at a small percentage of the population who are already condemning these injustices.

Rather, it attempts to strategically reach out to the broadest layers of working people and the oppressed in general — who are bearing the burden of this economic crisis — in order to forge the greatest possible unity. In this way the labor movement can succeed in bringing together massive numbers of people in a show of force to demand that our needs be addressed.

The political climate is rapidly changing. More and more unions across the country are demanding progressive taxation to generate revenue that can be used to save jobs and social programs.

On September 14 at the AFL-CIO national convention in Pittsburgh, filmmaker Michael Moore premiered his new movie “Capitalism, A Love Story.” He also urged the AFL-CIO to call a national protest day in Washington, DC to fight for healthcare and the unemployed.

Moore’s proposal for a national march was cheered loudly by the convention delegates. One day later, the AFL-CIO convention voted to support single-payer healthcare, a giant step forward for working people.

We call on trade unionists and activists to endorse this resolution below, or a similar one along these lines, and to join the Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign (WERC) in promoting this campaign nationwide within the labor movement.

We must fight for our own interests and demand that the economy operate in the interests of the majority, not in the interests of a small, obscenely rich minority.

We thank you in advance for your support,

In solidarity,

Interim National Steering Committee of the Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign (WERC):

Kali Akuno, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Gulf Coast Reconstruction activist; Alan Benjamin,* Executive Committee member, San Francisco Labor Council; Mike Carano, Progressive Democrats of America; Colia Clark, Veteran, Civil Rights Movement; Donna Dewitt*, President, South Carolina AFL-CIO; Pat Gowens, National organizer, Welfare Warriors; Bill Leumer,* International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 853 (ret.); Luis Magaña, Coordinator, Organization of Farmworkers of California (OTAC); Cynthia McKinney, Former Member of Congress, 2009 Green Party presidential candidate; Jack Rasmus, Economist, Professor at St. Mary’s College; Al Rojas, Coordinator, Frente de Mexicanos en el Exterior; Marc Rich*, United Teachers of Los Angeles; Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star mother, antiwar activist; Clarence Thomas, Member, ILWU Local 10; Mark Vorpahl*, SEIU Local 49, Portland, OR; Nancy Wohlforth*, Co-Pres., Pride at Work/AFL-CIO, Vice Pres., California Federation of Labor

(* titles and organizations for id. purposes only)

*********************************

MODEL RESOLUTION

National March on Washington for Jobs, Peace, Affordable Health Care For All and Ending Foreclosures and Evictions

Whereas — despite the so-called economic recovery — the economic crisis for working people has continued unabated with growing unemployment and rising home foreclosures and evictions,

And whereas this economic crisis has resulted in the underfunding and degrading of public education and social services,

And whereas the government has bestowed billions of dollars of bailout money on the financial institutions whose recklessness and greed created this economic crisis,

And whereas there is growing opposition to the wars and occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq by a majority of the people here in the U.S. — not to mention the great and ever-growing opposition by the citizens in Afghanistan and Iraq,

And whereas these wars are costing billions of dollars each month,

Therefore be it resolved that ____________ call on the AFL-CIO and Change to Win to organize a Solidarity Day III march on Washington D.C. in the spring of 2010 to demand jobs, housing, health care, full funding for public education and social services, and peace.

WORKERS EMERGENCY RECOVERY CAMPAIGN

P.O. Box 40009, San Francisco, CA 94140

Tel. (415) 641-8616; fax: (415) 626-1217

Email: wercampaign@gmail.com

Web: www.wercampaign.org

The Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign (WERC), a national campaign dedicated to organizing working people to fight for their own interests, strongly supports the protest demonstration organized by the Bailout People, Not Banks at the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh, PA.

The G20 represents the wealthiest people from the wealthiest nations in the world. They are meeting in order to consolidate and expand their exorbitant wealth with little thought to the world’s billions of working people who are being forced to struggle more and more just to get by, not to mention the growing number of the world’s population who live in abject poverty.

The WERC has embraced the following 10-point platform:

1. Put a halt to the Wall Street bailout plan. Not one more penny should be earmarked to bail out the bankers and speculators. It’s time to bail out working people.

2. Enact a moratorium on all home foreclosures, utility shut-offs, evictions and rent hikes.

3. Enact H.R. 676 — the universal, single-payer healthcare plan. Take the private insurance companies out of the healthcare equation. Guarantee fully funded pensions for retirees, along with healthcare and other benefits.

4. Enact the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) so that every worker can have union representation.

5. Stop the layoffs in auto and other industries across the country. Re-tool the auto industry to build rapid mass transit, solar, and wind systems.

6. Stop the scapegoating of immigrant workers. Stop the ICE raids and deportations.

7. End all funding for the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring our troops home now. The war expenditures in these countries alone are estimated at $3 trillion. Redirect all war funding to meet human needs.

8. Enact a massive national reconstruction public works program (minimum expenditure needed of $1 trillion) to rebuild the nation’s schools, hospitals and crumbling infrastructure and to put millions of people back to work at a union-scale wage. Provide all necessary funding for a genuine Reconstruction program in the Gulf Coast; enact the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act (H.R. 4048).

9. Defend and expand the rights and economic security of those who are unable to work. Grant living-wage benefits to single parents, disabled, seniors, and the unemployed. End the arbitrary, punitive time limits, sanctions, denial of education, and forced unwaged workfare in the TANF welfare program.

10. Tax the corporations and the rich — not working people — to finance a workers’ recovery plan. The rich currently enjoy historically high levels of wealth while being taxed at bargain-basement rates. Implement a retroactive tax on windfall revenue on the oil-energy industry, return capital income taxation to 1981 levels, and repatriate the $2 trillion from the offshore tax havens.

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.

While the media have been trumpeting the sprouting of a “jobless recovery,” what they really mean is a recovery for the bankers and multinational corporations, while the suffering of working people grows ever worse. Already, the banks have returned to their perverse and reckless practice of offering huge bonuses to their brokers — in one case as much as $100,000,000. And by pouring millions of dollars into Congress, the bankers have succeeded in stalling any new significant legislation that would cramp their throw-caution-to-the-wind mode of operation.

However, as long as the inequalities in wealth between working people and the rich continue to rise, we will have economic crises. No economy can thrive as long as a small minority possesses the vast majority of the wealth.

On Monday, Sept. 14 at the AFL-CIO national convention in Pittsburgh, filmmaker Michael Moore premiered his new movie “Capitalism, A Love Story.” He also urged the AFL-CIO to call a national protest day in Washington, DC to fight for healthcare and the unemployed.

Moore’s proposal for a national march was cheered loudly by the convention delegates. One day later, the AFL-CIO convention voted to support single-payer healthcare, an important step forward for working people. Without a mass movement in the streets calling for single-payer, however, this resolution will remain a paper resolution. That is why it is urgent for the labor movement to call a Solidarity Day III march in the nation’s capital for single-payer, a real jobs-creation program, and a real Employee Free Choice Act, with card check. The time is now.

We also call on the Bailout People, Not Banks campaign and all other interested organizations to join the WERC in organizing a national conference in order to plan the next steps — including mass actions — in this campaign. The bankers have bought the politicians. We must fight for our own interests and demand that the economy operate in the interests of the majority, not in the interests of a small, obscenely rich minority.

Interim National Steering Committee of the
Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign (WERC):

- Kali Akuno, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Gulf Coast Reconstruction activist
- Alan Benjamin,* Executive Committee member, San Francisco Labor Council
- Mike Carano, Progressive Democrats of America
- Colia Clark, Veteran, Civil Rights Movement
- Donna Dewitt*, President, South Carolina AFL-CIO
- Pat Gowens, National organizer, Welfare Warriors
- Bill Leumer,* International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 853 (ret.)
- Luis Magaña, Coordinator, Organization of Farmworkers of California (OTAC)
- Cynthia McKinney, Former Member of Congress, 2009 Green Party presidential candidate
- Jack Rasmus, Economist, Professor at St. Mary’s College
- Al Rojas, Coordinator, Frente de Mexicanos en el Exterior
- Marc Rich*, United Teachers of Los Angeles
- Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star mother, antiwar activist
- Clarence Thomas, Member, ILWU Local 10
- Mark Vorpahl*, SEIU Local 49, Portland, OR
- Nancy Wohlforth*, Co-Pres., Pride at Work/AFL-CIO, Vice Pres., California Federation of Labor

* titles and organizations for id. purposes only

WORKERS EMERGENCY RECOVERY CAMPAIGN
P.O. Box 40009, San Francisco, CA 94140.
Tel. (415) 641-8616; fax: (415) 626-1217.
email: wercampaign@gmail.com
Web site: www.wercampaign.org

————————————————
WERC G20 PROTEST SUPPORT COUPON

[   ]  I can help distribute a WERC campaign leaflet at the G20 protests in Pittsburgh

[   ]  Please send me a PDF version of the WERC campaign leaflet. I will print out, make copies, and distribute to activists at the protest.

NAME:

UNION/ORGANIZATION

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Please fill out coupon and return to wercampaign@gmail.com

America’s workers are struggling to make ends meet. But when workers are free to choose to join a union, our economy can work for everyone again.

That’s why we need the Employee Free Choice Act—a bill in Congress that would help level the playing field and give workers the freedom to choose a union.

We’ve teamed up with the award-winning team at Brave New Films on a hilarious new video about why we need more good union jobs. Watch the video, and then sign the petition in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.

http://www.freechoiceact.org/page/s/yournewjob?source=bnfvideo0908&subsource=youtube

March 4, 2009, 6:58 am

The A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s executive council will call on the Obama administration on Wednesday to speed the nationalization of problem banks to stimulate lending and lift the sagging economy, The New York Times’s Steven Greenhouse reported.

The labor federation, a lobbying powerhouse that represents 10 million workers, will thus become one of the first groups — and certainly the most powerful — to call for moving more aggressively on nationalization, both to counter Republican and business cries against it and to press the Obama administration not to vacillate over such a move.

A.F.L.-C.I.O. officials asserted that the administration’s practice of giving billions of dollars in dribs and drabs to distressed banks had failed to restore their solvency, leaving them as zombie banks that largely refrain from lending, thereby contributing to the economy’s decline.

The executive council is scheduled to approve a statement that criticizes the Obama administration for indulging shareholders of distressed banks by not nationalizing the banks to speed the cleanup of their balance sheets.

“We believe the debate over nationalization is delaying the inevitable bank restructuring, which is something our economy cannot afford,” a draft of the council’s statement said.

The labor leaders also asserted that the Obama administration, like the Bush administration, had failed to obtain fair value for the tens of billions it had invested in distressed banks.

“By feeding the banks public money in fits and starts, and asking little or nothing in the way of sacrifice, we are going down the path Japan took in the 1990s — a path that leads to ‘zombie banks’ and long-term economic stagnation,” the draft statement said.

The statement makes clear that the group wants to add its political and lobbying muscle to calls by Joseph E. Stiglitz, Nouriel Roubini and other economists in favor of nationalization.

Labor leaders said the administration appeared to be vacillating on nationalization partly out of fear of Republican attacks that it was adopting socialist policies.

Banking executives have spoken out against nationalization, saying it would hurt shareholders and insisting they can nurse their banks back to health.

Some Obama officials voice fears that it will be hard to manage nationalized banks and that nationalization could drive down the shares of other financial institutions by generating fears that additional banks will be taken over.

A.F.L.-C.I.O. leaders said they did not favor long-term nationalization of banks, but rather temporary trusteeships in which the government would take a controlling stake in a bank, clean up its balance sheet, then spin it off.

“The result should be banks that can either be turned over to bondholders in exchange for bondholder concessions or sold back into the public markets,” the executive council’s draft said.

James A. Baker, the Treasury secretary under President Ronald Reagan, wrote in The Financial Times on Tuesday that temporary nationalization might be necessary to inject public funds into problem banks.

“I abhor the idea of government ownership — either partial or full — even if only temporary,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, we may have no choice. But we must be very careful. The government should hold equity no longer than necessary to restructure the banks, resume normal lending and recoup at least a portion of taxpayer investment.”

The labor leaders said that 43 percent of the nation’s bank assets were held by four institutions — Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase. One A.F.L.-C.I.O. financial expert said Citigroup and Bank of America were insolvent and candidates for quick nationalization.

“When these institutions are paralyzed, our whole economy suffers,” the labor statement said, adding, “However, government interventions must be structured to protect the public interest, and not merely rescue executives or wealthy investors.”

Subject: Call The White House: Let Single Payer In

On Thursday, March 5, 2009, the White House will host a summit on how to
reform the healthcare system.

The 120 invited guests include lobbyists for various interest groups
including the private-for-profit insurance industry (AHIP), some members
of Congress including Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus who has already
ruled single payer “off the table,” and various others concerned with
healthcare.

No single payer advocates have been invited to attend.

Please urge President Obama to fulfill his promise for transparency and
openness in government

Call The White House (202) 456-1414 or (202) 456-1111.

Tell them to let single payer into the White House Summit on healthcare.

Distributed by:
All Unions Committee For Single Payer Health Care–HR 676
c/o Nurses Professional Organization (NPO)
1169 Eastern Parkway, Suite 2218
Louisville, KY 40217
(502) 636 1551
Email: nursenpo@aol.com