The Peasants Need Pitchforks

The Peasants Need Pitchforks/By Robert Scheer

A “working class hero,” John Lennon told us in his song of that title, “is something to be/ Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV/ And you think you’re so clever and classless and free/ But you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see.”

The delusion of a classless America in which opportunity is equally distributed is the most effective deception perpetrated by the moneyed elite that controls all the key levers of power in what passes for our democracy. It is a myth blown away by Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz in the current issue of Vanity Fair. In an article titled “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%” Stiglitz states that the top thin layer of the superwealthy controls 40 percent of all wealth in what is now the most sharply class-divided of all developed nations: “Americans have been watching protests against repressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet, in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.” 

That is the harsh reality obscured by the media’s focus on celebrity gossip, sports rivalries and lotteries, situations in which the average person can pretend that he or she is plugged into the winning side. The illusion of personal power substitutes consumer sovereignty—which smartphone to purchase—for real power over the decisions that affect our lives. Even though most Americans accept that the political game is rigged, we have long assumed that the choices we make in the economic sphere as to career and home are matters that respond to our wisdom and will. But the banking tsunami that wiped out so many jobs and so much homeownership has demonstrated that most Americans have no real control over any of that, and while they suffer, the corporate rich reward themselves in direct proportion to the amount of suffering they have caused. 

Instead of taxing the superrich on the bonuses dispensed by top corporations such as Exxon, Bank of America, General Electric, Chevron and Boeing, all of which managed to avoid paying any federal corporate taxes last year, the politicians of both parties in Congress are about to accede to the Republican demand that programs that help ordinary folks be cut to pay for the programs that bailed out the banks.

It is a reality further obscured by the academic elite, led by economists who receive enormous payoffs from Wall Street in speaking and consulting fees, and their less privileged university colleagues who are so often dependent upon wealthy sponsors for their research funding. Then there are the media, which are indistinguishable parts of the corporate-owned culture and which with rare exception pretend that we are all in the same lifeboat while they fawn in their coverage of those who bilk us and also dispense fat fees to top pundits. Complementing all that is the dark distraction of the faux populists, led by tea party demagogues, who blame unions and immigrants for the crimes of Wall Street hustlers.

My book on the banking meltdown, “The Great American Stickup,” begins with the following words. “They did it. Yes, there is a ‘they’: the captains of finance, their lobbyists, and allies among leading politicians of both parties, who together destroyed an American regulatory system that had been functioning splendidly. …” They got to rewrite the laws to enable their massive greed over everything from the tax codes to the sale of toxic derivatives over the past quarter century, smashing the American middle class and with it the nation’s experiment in democracy.

The lobbyists are deliberately bipartisan in their bribery, and the authors of our demise are equally marked as Democrats and Republicans. Ronald Reagan first effectively sang the siren song of ending government’s role in corporate crime prevention, but it was Democrat Bill Clinton who accomplished much of that goal. It is the enduring conceit of the top Democratic leaders that they are valiantly holding back the forces of evil when they actually have continuously been complicit.

The veterans of the Clinton years, so prominent in the Obama administration, still deny their role in the disaster of the last 25 years. Yet the sad tale of income inequality that Stiglitz laments is as much a result of their policies as those of their Republican rivals. In one of the best studies of this growing gap in income, economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty found that during Clinton’s tenure in the White House the income of the top 1 percent increased by 10.1 percent per year, while that of the other 99 percent of Americans increased by only 2.4 percent a year. Thanks to President Clinton’s deregulation and the save-the-rich policies of George W. Bush, the situation deteriorated further from 2002 to 2006, a period in which the top 1 percent increased its income 11 percent annually while the rest of Americans had a truly paltry gain of 1 percent per year. 

And that was before the meltdown that wiped out the jobs and home values of so many tens of millions of American families. “The top 1 percent have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors, and the best lifestyles,” Stiglitz concludes, “but there is one thing that money doesn’t seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live. Throughout history, this is something that the top 1 percent eventually do learn. Too late.”

Why We Must Raise Taxes on the Rich - Reich

Why We Must Raise Taxes on the Rich, ASAP!

America's wealthiest are paying a pittance in taxes, while the country is chipping away at its central foundations to meet budget shortfalls.

 It’s tax time. It’s also a time when right-wing Republicans are setting the agenda for massive spending cuts that will hurt most Americans.

Here’s the truth: The only way America can reduce the long-term budget deficit, maintain vital services, protect Social Security and Medicare, invest more in education and infrastructure, and not raise taxes on the working middle class is by raising taxes on the super rich. Even if we got rid of corporate welfare subsidies for big oil, big agriculture, and big Pharma – even if we cut back on our bloated defense budget – it wouldn’t be nearly enough.

The vast majority of Americans can’t afford to pay more. Despite an economy that’s twice as large as it was thirty years ago, the bottom 90 percent are still stuck in the mud. If they’re employed they’re earning on average only about $280 more a year than thirty years ago, adjusted for inflation. That’s less than a 1 percent gain over more than a third of a century. (Families are doing somewhat better but that’s only because so many families now have to rely on two incomes.)

Yet even as their share of the nation’s total income has withered, the tax burden on the middle has grown. Today’s working and middle-class taxpayers are shelling out a bigger chunk of income in payroll taxes, sales taxes, and property taxes than thirty years ago.It’s just the opposite for super rich.

The top 1 percent’s share of national income has doubled over the past three decades (from 10 percent in 1981 to well over 20 percent now). The richest one-tenth of 1 percent’s share has tripled. And they’re doing better than ever. According to a new analysis by the Wall Street Journal, total compensation and benefits at publicly-traded Wall Street banks and securities firms hit a record in 2010 — $135 billion. That’s up 5.7 percent from 2009.

Yet, remarkably, taxes on the top have plummeted. From the 1940s until 1980, the top tax income tax rate on the highest earners in America was at least 70 percent. In the 1950s, it was 91 percent. Now it’s 35 percent. Even if you include deductions and credits, the rich are now paying a far lower share of their incomes in taxes than at any time since World War II.

The estate tax (which only hits the top 2 percent) has also been slashed. In 2000 it was 55 percent and kicked in after $1 million. Today it’s 35 percent and kicks in at $5 million. Capital gains – comprising most of the income of the super-rich – were taxed at 35 percent in the late 1980s. They’re now taxed at 15 percent.

If the rich were taxed at the same rates they were half a century ago, they’d be paying in over $350 billion more this year alone, which translates into trillions over the next decade. That’s enough to accomplish everything the nation needs while also reducing future deficits.

If we also cut what we don’t need (corporate welfare and bloated defense), taxes could be reduced for everyone earning under $80,000, too. And with a single payer health-care system – Medicare for all – instead of a gaggle of for-profit providers, the nation could save billions more.

Yes, the rich will find ways to avoid paying more taxes courtesy of clever accountants and tax attorneys. But this has always been the case regardless of where the tax rate is set. That’s why the government should aim high. (During the 1950s, when the top rate was 91 percent, the rich exploited loopholes and deductions that as a practical matter reduced the effective top rate 50 to 60 percent – still substantial by today’s standards.)

                 Read the entire piece at Robert Reich.com

Sacramento Teach In- National Teach In- on the economic crisis

On Tuesday, April 5, over 100  universities,  schools and community groups will participate in a teach-in on debt, austerity and how people are fighting back hosted by Cornel West and Frances Fox Piven from 11Am- 2PM.  A national teach-in will be streamed live from New York City, followed by local teach-ins and strategy discussions around the country.

Our Sac State  event will be in the Foothill Suite  of the  University Union from 11am- 2pm, April 5. Sponsored by DSA and the Campus Progressive Alliance.

It will be used to build for CFA day of Class Action on April 13.

Please see http://www.fightbackteachin.org for more information. 
and  http://talkingunion.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/national-teach-in/


Wall Street Banks, American corporations and their political allies have declared a one-sided war on the American people. This war is being waged at our schools and colleges, the workplace and in our communities.
 
Today, we are all  working harder and earning less while corporate profits soar .

Please encourage your friends, colleagues, co-workers and students to participate.

 For more information contact Duane Campbell at campd227@pacbell.net. Or see our blog at 

http://progressiveforum07.blogspot.com/.

The legacy of Cesar Chavez and the economic crisis of 2011

Cesar Chavez and Duane Campbell,1972

 César Chávez:

By  Duane E. Campbell

On March 31, 2011, California and ten  other states will celebrate the life and work of labor organizer Cesar Chavez.  State workers will have the day off.  Ironically, however, farm workers will not.  It is interesting that these states take a day off to recognize the contributions of a labor leader while cutting vital services for poor people.   Meanwhile the spirit of Cesar Chavez lives on in the struggle for union rights and justice in the fields of California, Ohio, and Florida as well as  in the struggles for union rights and workers dignity in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania.  What can we learn from the creation of the UFW that is useful today?

 Along with Dolores Huerta, Philip Vera Cruz, and others, César created the United Farm Workers  (UFW) the first successful union of farm workers in  U.S. history.  There had been more than ten prior attempts to build a farm workers union.

            Each of the prior attempts to organize farm worker unions were destroyed by racism and corporate power. Chávez chose to build a union that incorporated the strategies of social movements and community organizing  and allied itself  with the churches, students,  and organized labor.  The successful creation of the UFW changed the nature of labor organizing  in the Southwest  and contributed significantly to the growth  of Latino politics in the U.S. The UFW has shown unions that immigrants can  and must be organized.   

        César Chavez, Dolores Huerta,  Philip Vera Cruz, and others deliberately created a multiracial organization, Mexican immigrants,  Mexican American, Filipino, African-American, Dominican, Puerto Rican and Arab workers, among others, have been part of the UFW.  This cross racial organizing  was necessary in order to combat the  prior divisions and exploitations of workers based upon race and language. Dividing the workers on racial, language lines and immigration status  always left the corporations the winners.

            In the 60's Chávez became the pre-eminent civil rights leader for the Mexican and Chicano workers, helping with local union struggles throughout the nation.  He worked tirelessly to make people aware of the struggles of farm workers for better pay and safer working conditions. It is a testament to Cesar Chavez's skills and courage that the UFW even survived. Workers were  fired, beaten, threatened and even killed in pursuit of union benefits . Non union  farm workers today  continue to live on  sub-poverty wages while producing the abundant crops in the richest valley, in the richest state in the richest nation in the world. 

             In response to corporate power, Cesar developed new strategies, such as the boycott, based upon  his personal   commitment to  non-violence in the tradition of Ghandi and  Martin Luther King Jr.  César  Chavez died in his sleep on April 23, 1993 near Yuma, Arizona.

           

The organizing of the UFW by Chavez, Huerta, Vera Cruz and others was a milestone in union organizing.  So, where are we today?

The UFW is down from its peak of 80,000 potential members to less than 15,000.  Farm labor is largely no longer unionized. Similar declines have occurred in many other industries.  The once mighty United Auto Workers have been reduced from 1,500,000 member to less than 350,000 as corporations moved their production over seas and their  plants to non union states.  Working families suffer in an economy where unions are weak.

        The nation  including California continues to  suffer a severe recession and lack of jobs.  Twenty Six million  are unemployed and under employed. This crisis was created by finance capital and banking, mostly on Wall Street ,ie. Chase Banks, Bank of America, AIG, and others.   Finance capital received a $ 2 trillion bailout from the federal government.   Capital stole the future of many young people and, with the Republican victories in the November elections, launched a new assault on organized labor.

The  current economic decline has had a devastating impact on the  budgets- of 42  states as well as cities, school districts, and other public services.    Revenues have continued to plunge and  legislatures  made  a series of deep cuts to virtually all of the state's programs, including education, police protection, and the university systems. In Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana ( among others) Republican governors and legislators have sought to limit the right of workers to build their own unions.

This fiscal crisis in the state and the assault on unions  did not fall from the sky; it resulted from the Great Recession and the looting of our economy by Wall Street and Corporate America.  The current  budget cuts will only lengthen and deepen the recession.  Some politicians claim that we can’t afford union wages, pensions,  public education and good universities.  However, there is plenty of money  if we go where the money is; the rich who have gamed the system and accumulated vast wealth in the last three decades.

      While  working people  are loosing their jobs in budget cuts, major corporations continue to use the rigged tax code to avoid paying any federal taxes at all.  Last year GE, ExxonMobil, Citibank, and Bank of America paid no taxes while the government made certain they made great profits.

            What can we apply from the creation of the UFW to the current struggles for union rights during this recession ?  Solidarity works.  Workers need to cooperate and stick together. You get worker solidarity by asking for it.  The first step to winning a battle, is to get into the fight.

             Today Mexican, Mexican American, Chicano,  and Puerto Rican union leadership is common  in our major cities and in several  industries.  U.S. labor has differing perspectives on immigration and these positions reflect who they are organizing.

             For myself  and others, the UFW was a school for organizing.  Hundreds of activists in labor and community organizations owe their skills to UFW training and experience.    Along with improved working conditions, salaries, and benefits,  training this cadre of organizers remains a major legacy of the UFW.

            César taught us that all organizations have problems, that all organizations are imperfect. But, if you wait for the perfect organization, nothing gets done. Building popular organizations builds people's power, and democracy.

In creating the UFW Chavez organized thousands into a union  and inspired millions.    The organizing effort  changed the Southwest and changed  organized labor.

            The movement led by Cesar  created a union and reduced the oppression of farm workers.  Many people,  descendents of earlier generations of farm workers, learned to take a stand for justice.  We learned to not accept poor jobs, poor pay,  unsafe working conditions as natural or inevitable.  Rather, these are social creations which can be changed through organizing for economic and political power.  Dolores Huerta continues her important education and  training of young organizers through her foundation http://www.doloreshuerta.org/

                        Today, under the leadership of UFW president Arturo Rodriguez, over 15,000 farm workers enjoy benefits on the job. They are incorporated into California's educational, health and civic communities- and they too will suffer from the state imposed budget cuts.

      Thousands of new immigrants , many indigenous people from Mexico, harvest the crops.  Since NAFTA the exploitation of farm labor has increased.  Only a small portion are in unions. These  new generations of immigrants and migrant labor hardly know Chavez’ name nor his contributions.  Yet, in other regions  immigrants are being organized into unions such as Justice for Janitors, by activists who learned their organizing skills working with the UFW.  Latino political leaders often made their first commitments on a UFW picket line. Latino politics is changing the nation and impacts the creation of unions.

            The generation that created the UFW is passing. A new generation of political activists,  have emerged since the Chavez generations.  In the 2006 massive immigrant rights movements,  several new organizing efforts and leaders  emerged.   The organizing of these demonstrations was significantly assisted by persons trained within the UFW.  A new, significant Latino  union and political base has been created that is reshaping U.S. politics.

Chavez' legacy to popular struggles, to  Chicano/Mexicano self determination and to unions for the immigrant workers is beyond measure.  The union taught us how to organize for power and for justice. My generation created a movement for social justice.  Now, it is up to the next  generation to build upon that history.   Individually we are significantly at the mercy of the corporate state.  With union solidarity we can stand together and resist.  

 Chavez  is present in all of our work.  You can find our more about this remarkable leader at www.ufw.org , http://www.chavezfoundation.org/

and, http://www.farmworkermovement.org/ 

            Good books on Chavez and the UFW include:

Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and the Struggle for Justice in the 21^st. Century,  Randy Shaw. (2008)

Why David Sometimes Wins: Leadership, Organization, and Strategy in the California Farm Worker  Movement,  Marshall Ganz. (2009)

Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants.

David Bacon. 2008.

Duane Campbell is a Professor (emeritus)  of Bilingual/Multicultural Education at Calif. State University-Sacramento and the author of Choosing Democracy; a practical guide to multicultural education.  2010.

Also see: https://sites.google.com/site/democracyandeducationorg/chicano-mexican-american-digital-history-project

Things you can do.

We Are One rallies.  Around the nation.  April 4.

http://www.we-r-1.org/

National Teach In against austerity, union busting, and budget cuts.  April 5.

 www.fightbackteachin.org

California.  Take Class Action- Demand Quality Education.  Statewide demonstrations on CSU campuses.  April 13.  http://www.calfac.org/april-13-class-action

And. Actions also planned around week of April 13 at U. of California, Calif. Community Colleges and in many states including Connecticut, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania & Vermont


Teachers can get a video of Viva La Causa, the Story of Cesar Chavez free for use in classrooms  from Teaching Tolerance. www.TeachingTolerance.org

Local School Districts face financial trouble

We are told this morning that each of the major school districts in the county are in financial trouble. Last year, when Natomas was in trouble, the Sacramento Bee and County Superintendent David Gordon opined that the Board of Education was financially irresponsible. However, realistically, the economic troubles were caused by the state and national economic crisis. The state has provided schools with $18 billion less in state aid over the last three years- thus the local districts are going broke.
Note to Sacramento Bee.  It wasn't the School Board, it was the economic crisis!
How did we get into this fix? Well, first was the economic collapse caused by the bankers and the real estate fraud artists. That took 13 Trillion from the economy crashing the U.S. and the international economy. That produced a dramatic drop in sales tax and property taxes and a California economic crisis. School funding reveals the nature of crisis. We have larger classes and fewer teachers. School reform has stopped- except for the politicians hot air. School funding makes up a total of 30% of the state budget. Any crisis in the state budget and any cuts in the state budget will make school budgets worse. The crisis will get worse.
Politicians and editorial writers discuss the economic crisis as if the crisis is a neutral act, or as if a natural act. Like rain or snow. The school budgets are a disaster not because of some natural phenomena. The crisis was created by people and policies of our government and of the financial system.

"The reality is that we got into this mess because of an overwhelming excess of greed and stupidity on the part of the Wall Street bankers and the people deciding economic policy. We continue to face excessive rates of unemployment because of a continuing reluctance to pursue policies that can restore the economy to health.”says economist Dean Baker.

California will need to extend the current taxes to fund the schools and to repair the social safety net. Anti tax radicals and Republicans oppose any tax increases and they oppose allowing these issues to be placed on the ballot so the people can vote.

Here is how it works in Sacramento County. There has been a nearly 30 percent drop in sales tax for Sacramento County over the past five years. Property tax funds an even larger share of county budgets, and plummeting real estate values have meant even less income for counties to pay their bills.
During the current fiscal year (2009) , Sacramento's assessed property values dropped by 6.4 percent, and the outlook is for a continued decline into next year. And, the ongoing budget-crisis impacts from the state also caused by the financial recession, which cut funding for counties, yet still requires them to provide costly programs. The reality is that almost all of California's counties are facing significant budget shortfalls resulting in cuts in programs, services and staffing.
Natomas Unified was one of the early casualties. Now, most of the school districts in the area are facing a budget crisis and laying off thousands of teachers. Many more will follow- even with the teachers giving up salary. The states and California are in a downward spiral and it will continue for at least 3-4 years. The children, and the working people are paying for the robbery of the financial classes.
Today, Californians are working harder and earning less
while corporate profits soar. As homeowners, consumers
and students we see our wealth being stripped away by
banks. Our government plunges into debt waging
trillion-dollar wars. Meanwhile, our infrastructure
erodes and climate change proceeds unchecked. Schools,
daycare centers, senior citizen facilities, clinics,
parks and firehouses are starved for funds so that
corporations and the rich can get billions in tax
breaks!

Corporate America's unprovoked assault on working
people has been carried out by manufacturing a need for
fiscal austerity. We are told that there is no more
money for essential human services, for the care of
children, or better public schools, or to help lower
the cost of a college education. The fact is that big
banks and large corporations are hoarding trillions in
cash and using tax loopholes to bankrupt our
communities.

Spending on social needs is not the reason governments
at all levels are facing massive budget short falls.
Our debt and deficit problems are a direct result of
corporate tax rollbacks, and the extortionist policies
of banks and financial institutions that are engaged in
a coordinated and massive wealth transfer from the
people to their own coffers.
Attend the National Teach In on the economic crisis, April 5, at CSU-Sacramento.  11 A.M.
http://progressiveforum07.blogspot.com/2011/03/teach-in-april-5-national-effort.html