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 of endorsers below.]

This campaign just took a qualitative leap forward when the statewide South Carolina AFL-CIO passed a similar resolution, which you will find below.

These resolutions have a receptive audience. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka recently argued: “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 healthcare we need. Š I know we are the people who can mobilize a massive army to force elected leaders to deliver.”

Together, these developments signal that now is the time to act. We want to encourage all of you to raise similar resolutions in your union locals and labor/community organizations. Every resolution will help, and any single resolution might just provide the essential tipping point that results in a nationwide call for a Solidarity Day III demonstration.

Every recent poll has concluded that job loss is the top concern of the American public. If we succeed in winning a call for Solidarity Day III march in Washington, this diffuse sentiment will achieve concrete expression in the streets as working people across the country mobilize under the banner of a demand for job-creation programs, single-payer healthcare, an end to home foreclosures and evictions and war, money for education and vital social services, and so on.

The labor movement in this country represents the interests of the majority of the people in this country. The bankers do not. We have a solemn duty to press for Solidarity Day III so that the collective voice of the majority of working people can be heard across the nation.

In Solidarity,

Alan Benjamin and Bill Leumer
WERC Co-Conveners

********************
SOUTH CAROLINA AFL-CIO
Post Office Box 39 * Swansea, S.C. 29160 *
(803) 798-8300 * Toll free 866-798-8300 * FAX (803) 798-2231 *
E-Mail: scaflcio@bellsouth.net
———-

Resolution in Support of a Labor-Sponsored March on Washington
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 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 South Carolina AFL-CIO 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 to Change to Win.
(Adopted by the SC AFL-CIO Executive Board – February 2nd, 2010)

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

Initial list of endorsers of Call for a Labor-Sponsored
Demonstration in Washington for Jobs, Peace and Justice

- South Carolina State AFL-CIO
- San Francisco Labor Council
- South Bay Labor Council (San Jose, Calif.)
- San Mateo Central Labor Council
- Hartford (CT) Central Labor Council
- Troy (NY) Central Labor Council
- AFT Local 1021 (Los Angeles)
- Executive Council, AFT Missouri
- California Peace and Freedom Party
- Harlem Tenants Council
- Harlem Antiwar Coalition
- Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace and Justice
- Ohio State Labor Party
- Railroad Workers United
- Painters and Dry Wall workers Local 93 (Bay Area)

- Glen Ford (Black Agenda Report)
- Donna Smith, American SiCKO, American Patients United
- Harry Kelber (Labor Educator)
- Sharon Black (Organizer, Bail Out the People Movement)
- Monadel Herzallah (Arab American Union Members Council)
- Andy Griggs (UTLA member)
- Don Bechler (chair, Single Payer Now!)
- Larry Duncan (Labor Beat-Chicago)
- Allan Fisher (AFT 2121)
- Fred Hirsch (South Bay Labor Council)
- Jerry Gordon (Ohio State Labor Party)
- Bill Balderston (Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace and Justice)

WERC Interim National Committee Members:

- 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 & org. for id. 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
website: www.wercampaign.org

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:

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TEL

EMAIL

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

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

The Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign is a proud co-sponsor of the May 9 teach-in and mobilizing meeting, which we believe is an important first step in building unity among working people to defend our interests.

This economic crisis is not going away anytime soon. Foreclosures and evictions are continuing across the country, with over one million homeowners on the brink of defaulting. Unemployment is predicted to continue to rise with no end in sight. Many of us have been waging courageous battles over specific injustices. We have protested home foreclosures and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have fought for single-payer healthcare for all, and we have opposed exploitation by attempting to unionize workplaces. And the list goes on.

But while we are waging many separate battles, our economic misery stems from a single source: The very rich, who own the banks and the corporations, exert enormous power in Washington, far beyond what their small numbers warrant. They are in the process of lobbying against and virtually killing the Employee Free Choice Act that would greatly facilitate union organizing. They recently defeated a bill in the Senate that would have helped homeowners hold on to their houses by allowing bankruptcy judges to alter the mortgage loans. They lobbied intensely and succeeded in convincing the government to use our taxpayer money to bail out the same financial institutions that drove the economy over the cliff. Meanwhile, the salaries of these emperors of finance have rebounded back to their lavish pre-2007 levels, thereby laying the foundation for even more recklessness in the future.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), in a rare moment of frankness, captured the essence of our predicament: “And the banks — hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created — are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place.” (Bill Moyers Journal, May 1, 2009)

For those who insist that President Barack Obama is steadfastly defending working people, The New York Times (May 2, 2009) offered a sobering counter-reflection in its analysis of his role in the Chrysler debacle: “This may come to be seen as Mr. Obama’s ‘Nixon in China’ moment. Just as it took a conservative Republican to open relations with the largest Communist country in the world, it took a liberal Democrat to break the U.A.W.”

We have all been fighting the same battle, but on different fields of engagement. Now is the time to unite our separate struggles — not only here in the Bay Area but nationwide — into a single movement that embraces our most pressing issues and thereby consolidates our power. In unity there is strength. Only in this way can we begin to build a massive movement that will have the power to turn things around in the interests of working people. Our country cannot survive economically, let alone socially, if it operates in the interests of the bankers and warmakers. Working people constitute the vast majority of the population. We need to ensure that our society operates in the interests of the majority.

In conclusion, we propose that these teach-ins be replicated across the country and that Workers Emergency Recovery committees be established with the aim of bringing working people together in national, massive demonstrations. For our part, we pledge to do everything in our power, in conjunction with the labor movement, to take your example and your message to cities nationwide where we have supporters. Your message is our message.

While huge mobilizations are routinely denigrated by the political pundits, they have already succeeded in forcing governments across Europe to heed the workers’ legitimate demands. Huge demonstrations allow working people to experience first-hand our fundamental unity and the power we can wield when we unite.

We call on the labor movement to return to the fighting roots that gave birth to unions, reach out to workers and community organizations, and bring massive numbers of people into the streets on Labor Day in order to press for our demands: Bail out working people, NOT the banks!

– Bill Leumer and Alan Benjamin

On behalf of the Interim National Steering Committee of the

Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign (WERC)

* * *

Members of the 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, Representative on WERC, 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)

Complete List as of May 3, 2009

AFT Local 2121
ANSWER Coalition
Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace and Justice
Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists;
Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center
Black&Brown Equitable Drug Policies Collective
California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee
Chinese Progressive Association
Code Pink
Council of Community Housing Organizations
Day Labor Program
Dolores Street Community Services
Education Not Incarceration, SF Chapter
El Organizador
Frente de Mexicanos en el Exterior
Gabriela Network
Green Party of California
Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club
Housing Justice
Idriss Stelley Action & Resource Center
International Action Center (LA and San Diego)
International Socialist Organization
Labor and Community Studies, CCSF
LaborFest
LAGAI – Queer Insurrection
May 1st Alliance for Land, Work and Power
Meikeljohn Civil Liberties Institute
Movimiento por una Amnistía Incondicional
Mujeres Unidas y Activas
National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW)
Oakland Education Association
Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 3
People Organized to Win Employment Rights
Revolutionary Workers Group(POWER)
Sacramento LCLAA
Scientists without Borders
SF ACORN
SF Green Party
SF Gray Panthers
SF LCLAA
SF Peace and Freedom Party
SF Unitarian Universalists for Peace
SF Web Pressmen & Prepress Workers Local 4N
GCC-IBT
SFSU Labor Studies
Single Payer Now
Socialist Action
Socialist Organizer
Solidarity
South of Market Community Action Network
St. Peter’s Housing Committee;
Tenderloin Neighborhood Housing Development
United Public Workers For Action
US Federation of Scholars and Scientists
Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club
Workers Action

It is being organized correctly on a united front basis. That is, we seek to bring people together as workers, regardless of their political affiliation, into an organization that is run democratically so that we can effectively fight for our interests. As isolated individuals we are weak, but together we can wield tremendous power, so we do not want to restrict this movement to only workers who have adopted a specific political outlook.

We think this campaign at this time is crucial because the employers and those in power will attempt to resolve this economic crisis on the backs of working people. That is why we have set out to win over the majority of working people to this campaign, including Blacks, Latinos, immigrant rights groups, and more to the WERC’s ten-point program. The more workers who join the campaign, the more powerful we become.

Working people now face the worst crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Workers are losing their jobs to the tune of roughly 19,000 per day, and there is no end in sight. The average work week has been reduced to 33 hours, down from a work week that was well over 40 hours. More than 2.3 million home owners suffered foreclosures last year, which was an increase of 81 percent over 2007. This number could rise to over 10 million in the coming years, as housing prices continue to careen downward.

The country’s cities, counties, and states are facing fiscal crises that is greatly exacerbated by the economic crisis, thus resulting in massive budget cuts in government spending that adversely affects social services needed by working people, including education, health care, and virtually every other social service imaginable.

Even before this recession/depression set in, working people faced the largest wealth disparity in American history between ourselves and the fabulously rich who are a small minority. And this disparity could get worse. If this were not bad enough, the banks are slated to receive $2.5 trillion of taxpayers’ money. In other words, the people who caused this crisis because of their unbridled pursuit of profits are reaping the biggest benefits from the Obama administration bailout.

Working people are beginning to put an end to playing the role of passive, helpless victims, waiting patiently for the Democratic Party or their employers to throw them some crumbs, as the successful struggle of the United Electric workers in Chicago testifies. More recently, the United Teachers of Los Angeles held a protest rally on January 26 against the budget cuts that drew 15,000 people. And 3000 steel workers in Granite City, Illinios, protested layoffs.

Rallies and marches are occurring in cities like Reno, Nevada, to speak out against unemployment. Tomorrow (Monday, February, 16, 2009) in Olympia, Washington, unions will be protesting budget cuts. And in California community college teachers are organizing a protest demonstration in Sacramento in March.

A couple of weeks ago in Portland, Oregon, the organization Jobs with Justice held a town hall meeting in a church that was packed with over 800 people who roared their approval every time one of the speakers denounced the bailout for the banks. Even the mention of the banks being taken over by the government was met with loud and long applause by the audience.

These events, and many others like them around the country, have encouraged us to put everything we can into organizing working people into a movement whose goal is to take effective massive action in defense of our standard of living, our jobs, and our homes.

We think that the favorable reception to the WERC shows that we have the possibility of establishing organizing committees in many parts of the country that can begin to reach out to many other organizations and individual activists to help promote the WERC program and help build campaigns.

We are fully aware of our modest beginnings, but the impressive endorser list, which now includes the United Teachers of Los Angeles, a union of 48,000 teachers, coupled with the recent political stirrings of workers across the country, raises our confidence in a positive outcome.

Moreover, it is important to understand that this campaign has not been mounted to benefit one organization or another’s particular agenda. Those of us who are organizing it do not see ourselves as having interests separate or apart from working people as a whole. That means that we do not seek to control this movement as if it were a private franchise, but we are dedicated to creating a movement that is democratically controlled and run by the workers who join it. Only in this way can the WERC truly represent the interests of workers as they stand up to the assaults of the employers as a class.

Finally, we are very pleased to report to you that the San Francisco organizing committee of the WERC is planning a teach-in/speak-out on the economic crisis that will be co-sponsored with the San Francisco Central Labor Council on Saturday, April 18. Invited speakers include Cindy Sheehan, Cynthia McKinney, Mark Dudzic from the Labor Party, Al Rojas, Nancy Wolforth, and a representative from the United Teachers of Los Angeles, and others.

We want you to join us. In solidarity we can win.

Learn about what is happening in the labor movement and in our communities to fight for the interests of working people.
Help organize a mass mobilization around our demands, including:

- Massive job-creation program.
- Single-payer healthcare for all.
- Moratorium on home foreclosures and  evictions.
- Pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
- Tax the rich – don’t bail out the banks.
- Money for jobs and social services, not for war

Speakers to be announced.
The bankers have organized themselves and vigorously lobbied for bailouts. We, working people,  need to organize ourselves to demand policies in the interest of working people as whole.  The government should defend our interests, not the interests of the rich. After all, we are the              majority, and we had no part in creating this crisis.
Date & Time: May 9, 2009 – 1-5 p.m.
Place:  Plumbers Hall, 1621 Market St @ Gough St. San Francisco

Initiated by the San Francisco Labor Council, South Bay Labor Council, and Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign (www.wercampaign.org).

List of co-sponsors in formation (a planning meeting with Bay Area Labor and Community organizations will be held in early April)

(* this event was initially scheduled for April 25, but it has been moved to May 9 to allow for broader participation by Bay Area trade unions and their community allies. If you would like to participate in this meeting, please call 415-641-8616.)

The deepening U.S. financial crisis has spread to all sectors of the economy, triggering a worldwide recession that is fast becoming a Depression.
For working people this has meant the loss of millions of jobs, the foreclosure of homes, and the decimation of public education, healthcare and social services. The situation for millions is catastrophic.

This is why more than 500 labor and community activists, including trade union and political leaders, sent an Open Letter to President Barack Obama on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day, calling on him to support and promote the 10-point platform of demands of the Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign (WERC).

These 10 demands express the immediate needs and aspirations of working people and all the oppressed, particularly Black and Latinos, who have been the hardest hit by the crisis. The demands call for, among other things, the launching of a massive job-creation program, single-payer healthcare, the enactment of the Employee Free Choice Act, a moratorium on home foreclosures, an end to the U.S. wars and war spending, an end to the ICE raids, and a progressive tax on the rich as a way to pay for all the programs and public services that need funding.

The Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign is moving ahead with the formation of local WERC committees in many cities across the country. The campaign is also promoting broadly based teach-ins to get out widely its 10-point platform, and, most important, to organize people to take action in defense of their interests and demands.

On Feb. 23, the San Francisco Labor Council agreed to co-sponsor a teach-in/organizing meeting jointly with the WERC and the South Bay Labor Council. This teach-in/organizing meeting for a united mass action will be held in San Francisco on Saturday, May 9. [See "Hold the Date" leaflet below.]

In recent weeks, a National Steering Committee for WERC has been formed to promote the campaign. Following is the current list of unionists and activists who have agreed to serve on this committee:

Kali Akuno, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Gulf Coast Reconstruction activist

Alan Benjamin, Editor, The Organizer; Exec. Bd., 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, Workers Action; IBT 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, Representative on WERC, United Teachers of Los Angeles

Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star mother, antiwar activist

Mark Vorpahl*, SEIU Local 49, Portland, OR

Nancy Wohlforth*, Co-Pres., Pride at Work/AFL-CIO, Vice Pres., California Federation of Labor

Clarence Thomas*, ILWU, Local 10

(* titles and organizations for identification purposes only; this is still a list in formation)

For more information, please visit the WERC website at www.wercampaign.org.