Working class anger

June 8, 2010

Working class anger centers on Wall Street greed, but the right wing is trying to channel that anger in dangerous directions, said panelists at the America's Future Now conference. But a focus on jobs and a working family economy can turn that anger into election wins this fall.

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Jobs, Economic Fears--Not Love of Right--Fuel Workers' Anger
http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/06/07/jobs-economic-fearsnot-love-of-rightfuel-workers

Wall Street Reform a First Step to Taking Back America
http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/06/07/wall-street-reform-a-first-step-to-taking-back-america

Make Wall Street Pay

Richard Trumka: Make Wall Street Pay

So now we learn that as millions of America's families were losing their homes, Goldman Sachs cheeredbecause it stood to make huge money betting on a housing market gone bad. Is that Wall Street's vision of American values? It's not mine. And it's not the values of the thousands of working Americans who are marching on Wall Street today in person with me and online.

Our message is simple: Big Banks tanked our economy and took our money when they needed a bailout. Now they're thumbing their noses at our communities but making billions in profits. It's time they pay up.

Pay up by investing in communities to create jobs for the millions of unemployed workers -- like Terry in Florida, who was laid off a week before Christmas. Being forced to return his family's Christmas gifts to the store was just the beginning of his pain. While the corporation he worked for is turning a profit, he fears his family will be homeless by summer.

Meanwhile, in 2009, 25 hedge fund managers were paid the equivalent of the salaries of 680,000 school teachers. That's in 2009, when we taxpayers spent billions of dollars bailing out the financial sector. If Goldman Sachs is cheering at the collapse of the housing market, what's the rest of Wall Street saying? Thanks, suckers?

Those may be Wall Street's values. They're not America's.

In a stunning new Pew poll, more than half of those surveyed say within the past year a member of their household has been out of work -- up 15 percentage points since last year. Fully 70 percent of Americans say they have faced one or more job- or financial-related problems in the past year, up from 59 percent in February 2009.

And homelessness no longer is a scourge of the most troubled of our society. Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, describes the nation's epidemic of homelessness as reaching crisis proportions not seen since the Great Depression -- and it stems directly from the Big Bank-fueled recession in which millions of workers lost jobs and savings and can no longer afford their mortgage or rent.

Meanwhile, the Big Banks announced massive first quarter earnings -- Citigroup, $4.4 billion; Bank of America, $4.2 billion; Goldman Sachs, $3.46 billion; JPMorgan Chase, $3.3 billion; and Morgan Stanley, $1.8 billion. It turns out that much of that money was made by the same risky trading practices that cost taxpayers a $700 billion bank bailout.

The damage inflicted has deepened economic inequality, which has gotten worse since 2007. The richest 10 percent now control nearly 70 percent of the wealth. Those with incomes in the bottom 50 percent have a little more than 2 percent of the wealth.

The bottom line is Wall Street should pay to clean up the mess they made and Congress must enact strong Wall Street reform. We are supporting four ways for the Big Banks to pay -- President Obama's bank tax, a special tax on bank bonuses, closing the carried interest tax loophole for hedge funds and private equity and, most important, a financial speculation tax levied on all financial transactions -- including derivatives -- that would raise more than $150 billion a year, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The financial speculation tax would have a negligible impact on long-term investors but would discourage the short-termism in the capital markets that led to so much destruction over the past decade.

Congress also must aggressively address the jobs crisis now -- if not because it's the right thing to do, then because of November 2010. That Pew poll I cited above? It found Americans united in the belief that the economy is in bad shape: 92 percent give it a negative rating.

Wall Street's values are based on greed. The American people's values are rooted in working hard, playing fairly and doing right by our family, neighbors and friends.

If you can't march and rally with us on The Street, join us live online today at 4 p.m. EDT. We'll be 10,000 strong on the ground and marching for tens of thousands more who have signed up to take part in our virtual march.

Working people are angry -- and we are right to be angry at the betrayal of our economic future. Help us turn that anger into the energy to create jobs, fix our economy and build a stronger nation.

 

Related News On Huffington Post:

Make Wall Street Pay

Jobs Now Rally

Over 400 workers, many of  them now unemployed,  marched  on the California State Capitol  for a a Jobs Now rally in Sacramento California.  The major chant was Jobs ! Jobs! Jobs!

Darrell Stienberg, Senate Pro temp California State Senate and numerous other speakers  called for the ending of the 2/3 vote rule in the California legislature as a means of building a progressive budget.

Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO was to have been there, but the snow storm in the east kept him from attending.  

Bill  Camp; Executive  Secretary of the Sacramento Central labor Council focused the issue,  “The Banks have received millions /billions in bailouts.  When  in the hell are they going to give a bailout to the working class?”

 U.S. Representative John Garamendi  said,  “Wall street took the entire economy into the tank. And, they got a bail out.  We want the money back. “

 Garamendi said that the House has passed a $120 Billion for Jobs for Main Street bill but it is being held in the U.S. Senate by the consistent use of the filibuster by the Republicans Senators with the support of 4-6 Democratic Senators.  Congressman Garamendi called for pressure on the Senate to pass the bill – with 51 votes. 

For more see the California Labor Federation.  Here; http://www.calaborfed.org/

Congressman Garamendi 

The Crisis of Jobs

Excellent, valuable video:

http://www.aflcio.org/issues/jobseconomy/jobs/americaneedsjobsnow.cfm

President Obama at the AFL-CIO

AFL-CIO endorses Obama

Why the AFL-CIO Endorses Barack Obama

By John J. Sweeney

If ever working families needed change we can believe
in, it is now.
America's promise to working families has been broken
by the deliberate corporatization of our economy. The
basic needs and dreams of our families have been sold
to the highest corporate bidders—Big Oil, Big Pharma,
the insurance industry, the giant mortgage lenders and
the speculators.
With 80 percent of the public saying our country is
headed in the wrong direction, it's time to turn
around America.
This primary season, we were blessed with a committed
and talented group of working family champions running
for the presidency. Each would have brought special
strengths on our behalf to the White House. AFL-CIO
unions embraced and campaigned mightily on behalf of
former Sen. John Edwards and Sens. Chris Dodd, Hillary
Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.
But now the AFL-CIO's autonomous unions, representing
10.5 million working men and women from every walk of
life, have come together to pledge our energy, our
hearts and our grassroots strength to electing Barack
Obama.
The reasons are many.
As the son of a single mother, as a Chicago community
organizer and Illinois state senator, Obama saw
firsthand and addressed the struggles of working
families. And in his years in the U.S. Senate, he has
earned a 98 percent record of voting on behalf of
working families.
On the greatest priorities of America's union movement
and the millions of working people we represent,
Obama's record and proposals ensure he is the right
choice.
Good Jobs and Wages: Obama proposes an "aggressive
strategy to create good, middle-class jobs," including
hundreds of thousands of jobs in the renewable energy
sector. He opposed the Bush administration's move to
take overtime pay rights from some 10 million workers.
He strongly supports Davis-Bacon wage protections and
project labor agreements and voted repeatedly to
increase the minimum wage.
Health Care: Obama's plan would provide health care
for all, lower costs, improve quality and ensure no
one could be denied care because of a pre-existing
condition or illness.
Employee Free Choice Act: Obama is committed to
ensuring that workers can choose to gain a union voice
on the job and bargain with their employers for better
wages, benefits and working conditions—without
employer harassment or intimidation. He co-sponsored
and voted for the Employee Free Choice Act and
promises to sign it into law as president.
Fair Trade: Obama wants to end tax breaks for
companies that ship jobs overseas and will oppose new
trade agreements unless more steps are taken to
protect American jobs and the environment.
Fair Taxes: Obama's tax proposal would give families
making between $37,595 and $66,354 a year an average
tax cut of $1,042, compared with the $319 proposed by
rival John McCain.
Retirement Security: Obama opposes privatizing Social
Security and has a solid record of supporting Social
Security and Medicare, as well as opposing cuts in
benefits. He also has fought to lower the cost of
prescription drugs for seniors.
An Economy That Works for All: Obama says working
families' current economic hardships were not
"inevitable." They resulted from irresponsible
economic policies by the Bush administration that gave
tax breaks to the rich while cutting working family
priorities. Obama consistently has fought tax cuts for
the wealthy and program cuts for working families.
As president, Barack Obama can lead the change working
families need.
Find out more about Barack Obama and his positions on
key working family priorities at www.MeetObama08.org.
Then help us spread the word.

Paid for by the AFL-CIO Committee on Political
Education (COPE) Political Contributions Committee,
www.aflcio.org, and not authorized by any candidate or
candidate's committee.