May 1 Jobs For All Convergence in NYC @ 4:00 PM

JOBS FOR ALL!

Dignified Work at Good Union Wages
for Everyone Who Wants a Job.

Tuesday, May 1
Converge:  UNION SQUARE @ 4:00 PM
Meet at Southwest Corner by the Dry Fountain
to join the May 1 City-Wide March

Download flyers

Dignified work at good union wages for everyone that wants a job.

We demand a democratically-controlled public works and public service program, with direct government employment, to create 25 million new jobs at good union wages.  The new jobs will be to build the facilities and provide the services needed to meet the needs of the 99%, including in education, healthcare, housing, transportation, and clean energy.  The program will be funded by raising taxes on the banks, corporations and the wealthiest 1%, and by ending all U.S. wars.  Employment in the program will be open to all, regardless of immigration status or criminal record.

Trabajo digno con sueldos buenos de escala sindical para cualquiera que quiera un trabajo.

Demandamos obras públicas y un programa de servicios públicos democráticamente controlados, con empleo directo del gobierno, para crear 25 millones de nuevos empleos con sueldos buenos de escala sindical. Los nuevos empleos serán para construir las instalaciones y proveer los servicios necesitados para satisfacer las necesidades del 99%, incluyendo en educación, cuidados de la salud, vivienda, transporte y energía limpia. El programa será financiado aumentando los impuestos a los bancos, las corporaciones y el 1% de los más ricos, y poniendo fin a todas las guerras por los Estados Unidos de América. Empleo en el programa estará disponible para todos, incluyendo a los inmigrantes y a las personas anteriormente encarceladas.

Endorsed by:

The 99% Direct Action Working group of
Occupy NOLA (New Orleans) Chicago Political Economy Group  
Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition Local 1180 Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO  National Jobs for All Coalition  NJ State Industrial Union Council Occupy New Brunswick (New Jersey)  Occupy the Streets Princeton
Occupy Sunset General Assembly The People's Organization for Progress Politics For A Human Community Princeton U Occupy

[list in formation]

For more information, or to endorse the demand,
email: info@jobsforallny.org

Para mas información, o para apoyar la demanda,
email: info@jobsforallny.org

NY JOBS FOR ALL COMMITTEE
www.JobsForAllNY.org
Twitter: @JobsForAllNY

Note:  We invite other Occupy, community and labor organizations and activists around the country to hold local convergences to highlight the Jobs for All demand.  Please let us know if you are doing this!  and send contact information for your group so we can stay in touch and alert the media.

Contact: info@jobsforallny.org

Posted by Chuck Bell at 4:37 AM    

comments (0)

"The Struggle for Full Employment: Not a New Idea and Not a New Struggle"
Left Forum 2012, March 17, 2012
Pace University, New York, NY

www.njfac.org
www.jobscampaign.org

The presentation explores New Deal job creation efforts and FDR's Economic Bill of Rights that began with the right to a decent job. It discusses two major attempts to secure full employment, in the immediate post-World War II period and in the 1970s, the first ending in the defeat of full employment legislation and the second, in the failure to implement a watered-down full employment act. Full employment, the presentation shows, will take a fundamental break with neo-liberalism and a reorientation of power from big business and Wall Street to middle- and working-class people and will require the full-scale social movement that both earlier struggles lacked.

Panelists:

Chuck Bell: Vice Chair, National Jobs for All Coalition, co-author of "Shared Prosperity: The Drive For Decent Work" (2006). Twenty years of experience in consumer and health care advocacy, and community movements for jobs and economic justice.

Helen Ginsburg: Professor Emerita of Economics, Brooklyn College, CUNY., and co-founder of the National Jobs for All Coalition. Author of books and articles on employment policy and strategies.

Gertrude S. Goldberg: The New Deal and Social Welfare Professor of Social Policy Emerita, Adelphi University School of Social Work where she directed the Ph.D. program. Chair of the National Jobs for All Coalition. Co-chair of the Columbia Seminar on Full Employment, Social Welfare & Equity. Author/co-author and editor of six books and numerous book chapters and articles on social policy and employment.

Moderator: Sheila D. Collins, Professor of Political Science at William Paterson University and co-founder of the National Jobs for All Coalition.

Video by Rebecca Rojer, http://rrrojer.net

Posted by Chuck Bell at 6:58 AM    

comments (0)

If US Land Were Divided Like US Wealth...

See more posters at:  http://owsposters.tumblr.com/

Posted by Chuck Bell at 7:57 AM    

comments (0)

Krugman: 'People Should Be In Jail' Because Of Financial Crisis

'People Should Be In Jail' Because Of Financial Crisis
Huffington Post, 2/17/12

"...We know, you just bought that copy of Playboy for the Paul Krugman interview.

The Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist may not be center-fold material (or maybe you're into that middle-aged bearded wonky economist sort of thing? We're not judging), but he's using the iconic magazine to discuss his views on the sexiest of topics, you guessed it: the financial crisis. Read full interview here

"It's hard for me to believe there were no crimes," Krugman told Playboy. "Given the scale of [the financial crisis], given how many corners were being cut, some people must have violated laws. I think people should be in jail."

Read more here

Posted by Chuck Bell at 7:49 AM    

comments (0)

Constanza-Nomics

" If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right." 

                                                                       -- Jerry Seinfeld

So, if you are an editorial writer at the Wall Street Journal, it's always a good time to chop wages, fire workers and ship jobs overseas.

On Friday (2/3),  the WSJ chided Mitt Romney for trying to walk back from his blunt statements that he didn't particularly care about helping the poor.

"...If Mr. Romney wanted to help the poor and stay true to his free-market principles, he'd have cited the youth and minority jobless figures and proposed a special sub-minimum wage for teenagers. It's hardly a radical position, and it would get him back on the moral and political offensive."

Yes, that's right, the way to help young workers is by doing the opposite of what would help them.  Perhaps if the minimum wage is reduced to a dime or a nickel, Apple will open FoxConn-style assembly plants here, so teenagers can have the privilege of assembling their own iPhones.  Of course they would then hardly be able to afford an iPhone, their rent, or a meal at McDonald's (which would seem like a high-road job by comparison.)  But who knows, maybe wages and prices will fall there as well, in a veritable orgy of Dickensian capitalism.

The lineage for this counterintuitive approach goes all the way back to laissez-faire and the invisible hand.  But it really hit its stride in the 1980s, when Greed became Good, shareholder value became preeminent, and "lean and mean" became a badge of honor.

When you throw away a factory, you are ripping up social contracts and often squandering the public's co-investments in education and training, research and development, roads, bridges, and ports.

But, Earth to Wall Street Journal -- America tried your approach -- remember?  You had your enterprize zones, and your subminimum wage in the maqiladoras along the border in Mexico, and many other satellite sweatshop republics -- and most of those jobs ended up going to China anyway.

Maybe the current conditions of mass unemployment and stagnant wages are a wake-up call to start doing the opposite of what the corporate raiders and corporate business heroes have been telling us.  Why not do some things that actually help workers, like improving wages and benefits?  This isn't rocket science.  Investing in infrastructure, education, clean energy, and caregiving yields many more jobs per billion, when compared to investing in the Wall St. Journal's preferred industries -- finance, military spending, and oil and gas drilling.

Yes, let's do the opposite of what we've been told.  Guarantee the right to a job for all, and develop good jobs that will stay here in the United States.   Let's see how that turns out, for a change.

George does the Opposite (Seinfeld show script)

George : It's not working, Jerry. It's just not working.
Jerry : What is it that isn't working?
George : Why did it all turn out like this for me? I had so much promise. I was personable, I was bright. Oh, maybe not academically speaking, but ... I was perceptive. I always know when someone's uncomfortable at a party. It became very clear to me sitting out there today, that every decision I've ever made, in my entire life, has been wrong. My life is the opposite of everything I want it to be. Every instinct I have, in every of life, be it something to wear, something to eat ... It's all been wrong.


( A waitress comes up to George)


Waitress : Tuna on toast, coleslaw, cup of coffee.
George : Yeah. No, no, no, wait a minute, I always have tuna on toast. Nothing's ever worked out for me with tuna on toast. I want the complete opposite of tuna on toast. Chicken salad, on rye, untoasted ... and a cup of tea.
Elaine : Well, there's no telling what can happen from this.
Jerry : You know chicken salad is not the opposite of tuna, salmon is the opposite of tuna, 'cos salmon swim against the current, and the tuna swim with it.
George : Good for the tuna.


( A blonde woman looks at George )


Elaine : Ah, George, you know, that woman just looked at you.
George : So what? What am I supposed to do?
Elaine : Go talk to her.
George : Elaine, bald men, with no jobs, and no money, who live with their parents, don't approach strange women.
Jerry : Well here's your chance to try the opposite. Instead of tuna salad and being intimidated by women, chicken salad and going right up to them.
George : Yeah, I should do the opposite, I should.
Jerry : If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right.
George : Yes, I will do the opposite. I used to sit here and do nothing, and regret it for the rest of the day, so now I will do the opposite, and I will do
something!
( He goes over to the woman )
George : Excuse me, I couldn't help but notice that you were looking in my direction.
Victoria : Oh, yes I was, you just ordered the same exact lunch as me.
( G takes a deep breath )
George : My name is George. I'm unemployed and I live with my parents.
Victoria : I'm Victoria. Hi!

Posted by Chuck Bell at 10:10 AM    

comments (0)

Kids Testify about Homelessness

CNN: Kids Testify About Homelessness

12/15/11

Watch full hearing on C-SPAN

Posted by Chuck Bell at 5:42 PM    

comments (0)

House Republican Unemployment Insurance Proposal Acts As If Economic Slump Is Over

The Party of No, having voted repeatedly to prevent investment in roads, bridges, mass transit and school construction, now wants to slash unemployment benefits and force the jobless to pee in a cup to get rent money.

House Republican Unemployment Insurance Proposal Acts As If Economic Slump Is Over

by Chad Stone, Chief Economist, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

cross posted from: Huffington Post, 12/14/11

"....House Republicans must think the job market is improving rapidly and that the Congressional Budget Office is way off base in projecting that the unemployment rate will average 8.7 percent in 2011 and 2012. How else can one explain their proposal to slash federal emergency unemployment insurance (UI) benefits?

The House Republican proposal -- part of their larger proposal to extend the payroll tax cut and UI benefits -- would slash, by 40, the number of weeks potentially available to unemployed workers who are struggling to find a job in some states that were hit the hardest by the jobs slump."

Read rest of article

Posted by Chuck Bell at 5:34 PM    

comments (0)