Is the USa Failed State with Michael Hudson (tags)
It’s a failed state because its economy is paralyzed and we’re in a debt deflation, an economic polarization, that is just transferring all wealth and income away from labor, away from industry, into really the financial sector and what I call the finance, insurance, and real estate sector.
The inflation debate and The inflation conundrum (tags)
If inflation is the result of a distributional conflict, it can be deliberately stopped by governments. Governments could skim off the higher profits through a tax in order to subsidize energy costs for consumers. Governments could also raise taxes (on the rich).
Bidenomics, One Year Later (tags)
The Center for American Progress takes a different approach, examining the successes of President Biden’s bold economic policies and calling for the continuation and expansion of those policies in the years ahead by making permanent expansions to the safety net.
Top Economist: As Pandemic Recedes, a Chance to Rethink Unemployment (tags)
The Chamber of Commerce, for example, has pushed the U.S. to stop expanded unemployment insurance benefits so that people will be forced to return to low-wage jobs. Some Republican-dominated states have jumped on board with this idea.
The US economy needs Joe Biden (tags)
The economic and socio-political record of US President Donald Trump is devastating. Wages stagnated even before the Corona crisis. Instead, the national debt increased because he lowered taxes for the rich - without any economic benefit. Joe Biden knows the reasons for the misery and knows what to do.
The new normality is characterized by fear, social distancing and increasing state control. Many fear that the current situation could become permanent and that our liberal democratic legal system could be transformed into a dictatorial system of injustice.
How to generate unemployment and deflation (tags)
The theory put forward by fair-weather philosophers that the pandemic will be a salutary shock leading to a better, more sustainable world is wrong. Less is not more, but less. Corona is not an opportunity, it is an evil. We can only hope that one day it will pass.
The finance-dominated regime of accumulation and the crisis in Europe (tags)
Prof. Demirovic gives us charts on profits, private indebtedness and wages that show profits explode and wages and investments stagnate in 40 years of neoliberalism.
Females Do 70% Work, Get 10% Wages, And 1% Wealth (tags)
Women worldwide do 70% of the work, get 10% of the wages and only have 1% of the wealth.
Driven to Consumption and Money out of Nothng (tags)
Growth originally created a material prosperity about which earlier generations could only dream. However, more economic growth does not lead to people becoming happier. We are prisoners of a system that forces us to permanent growth. Banks create credits.
Addendum: Benjamin Tucker American Mutualist: Tucker Did Not Advocate Voting in Businesses (tags)
This series is supposed to present the ideas of Tucker in an accurate fashion. So this article will focus on how Tucker himself intended businesses to be operated.
Community Rallies in Santa Barbara in Solidarity with Inmate Firefighters (tags)
Could the brave firefighter who risked life and limb to save your home have been paid only $1 per hour to do it? Up and down the state of California, on the front lines of deadly wildfires, thousands of prison inmates employed through the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s California Conservation Corps (CCC) program face the blazing heat and choking smoke for, on average, $2 per day plus $1 per hour of work. As southern California faces a new wave of inferno, at least one community gathered for a rally to call attention to these overlooked firefighters
Trillions in deficits will be paid for by trillions in cuts to vital programs necessary for low- and middle-income Americans: Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps, WIC food assistance, SNAP, Pell grants, The Legal Corporation, PBS, EPA, heating assistance, school lunches, Meals-on-Wheels...
Benjamin Tucker: American Mutualist Part 1 (tags)
In an Individualist Mutualist market economy of Josiah Warren, Benjamin Tucker, or Stephen Pearl Andrews employers can indeed pay themselves more money than their employees for equal time worked however even though they can pay themselves more money than their employees for equal time worked they are still Mutualists and not Capitalists. Why is this?
San Antonio workforce bludgeneod by Levis's Cuts Over Years Women Respond (tags)
Texas has always been in a good position to deliver consumer goods to US markets. Levis jeans made for over 150 years and started by an immigrant who took tent material and redid it is worn by 10's of millions domestically and abroad in 2nd world locations.
Can Keynes Rescue Europe from the Euro Crisis? (tags)
Keynes' theories and concepts were pushed back with the rise of neoliberalism in the 1980s. A complete change of course occurred when state spending cuts, lower wages and devaluations failed. The state spent money to create demand for products and services.
social injustice
Obama
The Uber-fication of the Democratic Party (tags)
For decades, the Democrats have been the workingperson's party, but no longer. Many important muck-e-mucks have abandoned the beleaguered worker.
Organized Labor in America Today (tags)
labor
A term becomes a myth; the myth becomes a religion. We are all conditioned by the misguided use of terms and connections so a way of looking at things seems absurd. The German economy acts like a bulldozer rather than a locomotive.
Apple, the State and Social Rights (tags)
Apple only gained its profits with the iPhone through state promotion and investments in the Internet and language recognition software. The state suffers a revenue crisis in part because Apple, Google and dominant corporations transfer profits to tax havens or dummy Irish corporations.
Wages For Housework Memes (Male) (tags)
I'm kind of wondering if "womyn" should be simply called "feminism".
Rejecting TTIP, AFDL-CIO's Trumka Calls for "Global New Deal" (tags)
The demonization of anyone who talks about the dangers of concentrated wealth is based on a misreading of both the past and the present. Such talk isn’t un-American; it’s very much in the American tradition. So who will be this generation’s Teddy Roosevelt? (Paul Krugman)
TTIP Attacks on Wages, the Social and the Environment (tags)
The belief that growth and prosperity for all people are promoted by free trade is as old as capitalism. This is often wonderfully represented in the model worlds of economists. But reality looks different. Specific particular interests are sold as the general interest.
Our Triple Jobs Problem (tags)
First, even as unemployment has inched down, the economy has created barely enough jobs to match population growth. Second, this enormous labor-market “slack” has stifled workers’ bargaining power and kept wages low. Third, policies over 30 years have undermined workers
The UAW Takes One Step Forward, and One Backward (tags)
Trying to rebound off the ropes, where it has been pummeled for the past several decades, The United Auto Workers (UAW) has launched an aggressive organizing campaign in the South, in line with an AFL-CIO resolution emphasizing organizing there, where unionization rates are weak across the board.
Geekout's Links 9.7.2013 (tags)
This time around, it's some Syrian history, Chelsea Manning, race in Jamaica, and thoughts about the future of labor.
Wage Slavery in the American Auto Industry: Obama’s Shame (tags)
The American auto industry is back in business in a big way. The carmakers are making enormous profits, direct from the blood, sweat and tears of autoworkers.
VIDEO: Durviving the New American Economy, 56min (tags)
Bill Moyers interviewed two Milwaukee families struggling against a downhill economy in a changing city. Deindustrialization isn't a law of nature like falling rain but a political decision. After deindustrialization, state jobs were a way to middle class life.
Strategies Of Containment (tags)
Many of us on the left have been kettled at demonstrations: surrounded by a wall of police, herded into a small area, and prevented from reaching our goal. But we are also kettled by the thought police, and that's even more insidious. This strategy of containment is used politically to confine potentially revolutionary energy into an area where it can't reach its goal. Instead of by cops, we are corralled by institutions that purport to be progressive or even socialist. This pseudo-left diverts our energies away from organizing a militant working class and towards supporting the Democratic Party. Their base is not in the working class but among slightly-left-of-liberal professionals who prefer progressive policies because they will benefit from them. They are well educated and have access to financial and political power. They communicate professionally and persuasively. Like the wall of cops, their message is clear: You must stay here.
The Argument for Amnesty: An Immigration Policy That Works for All (tags)
Millions experience the repressive nature of the U.S. immigration system on a daily basis, lifting its need for reform to a level of urgency. And fixing this broken program is integral to building the unity among U.S. workers that is required to challenge corporate America’s attacks on our wages, rights, public social services, and living conditions.
Three Approaches to the Economic Crisis (tags)
Before 1980, wages, productivity, investments and production pushed one another and ensured general prosperity. After 1980 wages were dropped as a driving force of economic demand. Demand gaps were filled by consumer credits.
New York Times Supports Austerity Harshness (tags)
class wa
From Financial Crisis to Stagnation: An Interview with Thomas Palley (tags)
"The way economies are organized and function is significantly the product of social choices, not the product of nature. Over the past thirty years we (society) have embraced a set of economic ideas..."
Bangladesh Sweatshop Fire (tags)
class war
Workers Denounce Destruction of Regular Jobs in Coca-Cola – Philippines (tags)
Manila, Philippines: “Every time you open a bottle of Coca-Cola, please remind the company to respect workers’ rights,” this is the plea made by Coca-Cola union leaders this morning during a press conference. They are asking the patrons of the soft drink giant to support their struggle against employment policies that destroys regular jobs.
Workers Denounce Destruction of Regular Jobs in Coca-Cola – Philippines (tags)
Manila, Philippines: “Every time you open a bottle of Coca-Cola, please remind the company to respect workers’ rights,” this is the plea made by Coca-Cola union leaders this morning during a press conference. They are asking the patrons of the soft drink giant to support their struggle against employment policies that destroys regular jobs.
The formation of cooperatives doesn’t by itself eliminate competition (tags)
Wages — and thus the human beings who work for the wages — are commodities in capitalism, or any system in which distribution is monopolized or largely controlled by capitalist-style market relations.
GLP Expands Safety Net from Soc Sec & Public Assistance in Times of Economic Uncertainty (tags)
While the establishment Republicans and Democrats are dependent on corporations for lobbyist funding and thus return the favor by rewarding corporations with taxpayer subsidies, the Green Liberty Party is immune to the disease of corporate dependency.
Out of the Slump: The Only Road (tags)
A real analysis of the United State’s economic history is rarely discussed by politicians or media alike, since the conclusions that would be inevitably drawn would be out of step with what politicians are currently advocating.
European monetary fables tell a story, but for whom? (tags)
It's German wage cuts, not "lazy" Greeks
The Error is in the System (tags)
The financial crisis mutated into a global economic crisis and a state debt crisis. The financial crisis was not a "bump in the road" or an industrial accident but a systemic and structural crisis that caused $11 trillion of wealth to vanish while millions lost their jobs. homes and pension
The Rule of Supply-Side Economists (tags)
Supply-side economists dominate wherever one looks in politics, economics and the media. That wages and salaries are not onl.y costs but also demand usually doesn't interest supply-side economists.
Video: Robert Pollin onOccupy Movement and Demands (tags)
Social justice, solidarity and sharing open doors while unrestrained deregulation leads to exploding inequality and generalized insecurity.
Supermarket Strike is Looming (tags)
The UFCW announced that they cancelled their contract, and are giving 72 hours notice that they may strike.
AMERICAN ELITE IMITATES THE BRAZILIAN ELITE (tags)
Who looks to Brazil, it thinks that the Brazilians imitated the USA. But the truth is exactly the opposite happened always.
Israel: Rogue State Land of Inequality (tags)
inequality
On the Failure of the Mainstream Economy (tags)
The neoliberal mainstream economy and its political backers experienced their Waterloo with the most serious financial and economic crisis in eight decades. States bailed out banks and banks made money by lending back to states. A policy of reduced working hours is necessary.
Striking for Health Care (tags)
The supermarket workers in So Cal have gone over three months without agreeing on a new contract. The fight is mostly over health care benefits; if they lose, all workers in retail will see benefits decline.
Working America's Dismal State (tags)
depression
Illegal Labor on the Farm Produces Big Profits for Agribusiness (tags)
NAFTA induced illegal immigration is providing agribusiness corporations with incredible profits, while legal workers and consumers reap few rewards. At some point people need to face the reality that the U.S. must withdraw from and repeal NAFTA!
PHILIPPINES: Employers win again: P22 COLA too little, too late (tags)
?If the objective is to increase the capacity of workers and their families to weather economic woes, an increase of P22 a day at this point is simply too little, too late,? Akbayan Representative Walden Bello said on Tuesday morning following the announcement of a P22-increase in minimum wage earners? cost of living allowance (COLA).
Thousands of militant workers march for higher pay in the Philippines (tags)
Manila, Philippines - Thousands of workers led by the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) and its allied organizations converged in key cities on Labor Day to reiterate their demand for better wages, improved economy, jobs, security of tenure for workers and an end to demolition of squatter shanties.
Press Release Immediate Contact: Anonymous
Reactionary Extremism in Wisconsin and Ohio (tags)
worker struggles
Why All Workers Should Support Unions (tags)
It's official: Republicans have declared war on organized labor. Unclear to millions of unorganized workers is whether or not they should care. Thanks to years of right wing propaganda -- and labor union inertia -- millions of Americans are "union skeptics," unsure as to the nature of the union animal. These fence-straddlers have no direct experience with organized labor, but they will be absolutely crucial participants in this war of corporate power versus working people.
Strikes, workers’ protests spread throughout Egypt (tags)
“According to a detailed account published by Al Ahram, the dictator had intended to step down but was persuaded by his wife and son Gamal not to. When this threatened to provoke a further upsurge in the revolutionary movement, the military stepped in and seized power to try to maintain control over the situation. Notably, none of the official middle class “opposition” parties—including the Muslim Brotherhood and Mohamed ElBaradei’s National Association for Change—has condemned the military’s threats against the working class. Striving to maintain illusions in the role of the army, these forces have urged an end to the demonstrations and strikes. ElBaradei and his colleagues are now preparing to enter the military regime. Britain’s Foreign Minister William Hague said yesterday that Egypt’s Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq told him that the current government would be reshuffled to include opposition figures by next week. While the successful elevation of these “opposition” forces would open up opportunities for the individuals involved, for the Egyptian working class it would signify no more than providing a civilian fig-leaf for the military government.”
Philippine labor party calls for stop to trainee nurse fees (tags)
The labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM - Workers Party) called for a stop to the practice of charging fees to trainee or on-the-job-trainee (OJT) nurses in the wake of a Senate hearing yesterday on the issue. Renato Magtubo, PM chairperson, attended the hearing and supported the position of nurses groups for an end to the “exploitation of hundreds of thousands of young registered nurses.”
2011: Another bleak year for the workers in the Philippines (tags)
2011: Another bleak year for the workers, militant labor leaders lamented in a breakfast forum
Social Injustice in Israel (tags)
the data will surprise most people
The KPFA/KPFK/Pacifica NPR Evening News (tags)
One segment on the Tuesday broadcast demonstrates the ongoing disconnect between the news staff and some station staffers and the political and economic reality that Obama has brought us and make many ask why contribute to a second NPR.
In the 1960s, JKGalbraith warned of two worlds: private affluence and public squalor. Now after the neoliberal counter-offensive, more than half of US states struggle with deficits. Without the social contract, we become wolves to each other.
The Neoliberal Experiment and Europe's anti-Austerity Strikes (tags)
"The neoliberals are fully in control of the bureaucracy, and they are reviving Margaret Thatcher's slogan, TINA: There Is No Alternative. But there is, of course. In the small Baltic economies, pro-labor parties have made it clear that the alternative to government shrinkage is to simply repeal the debts, withdraw from the Euro and break the banks. It is either the banks or labor - and Europe has just realized that this is truly a fight to the economic death. And the first test will come this Saturday, when Latvia holds its national parliamentary elections."
Green U.S. Senate Candidate Backs "Immediate Amnesty" For Millions of Undocumented Workers (tags)
"As a longtime defender of immigrant rights, I strongly back the idea of granting immediate amnesty for the millions of undocumented workers currently living within the United States. An overwhelming majority of them work incredibly hard, are law abiding, and make invaluable contributions to the wealth of this country."
Fight Inequality, Don't Scapegoat Immigrants (tags)
"The emergence of vast inequalities between the wealthy and the rest of us may be the biggest change in American society over the last fifty years. And it’s hardly a change that we should welcome."
Labor Day: Immigrants build the U.S. Economy (tags)
Undocumented immigrants streaming into this country from south of the border drive down wages and steal jobs that could otherwise go to out-of-work Americans. Right? Wrong. As it turns out, immigrant workers play an important role in building our economy.
If the U.S. economy eventually recovers and current trends continue, U.S. workers won’t be celebrating in the streets. The corporate establishment has made it clear that a “strong recovery” depends on U.S. workers making “great sacrifices” in the areas of wages, health care, pensions, and more ominously, reductions in so-called “entitlement programs” — Social Security, Medicare, and other social services. These plans have been discussed at length in corporate think tanks for years, and only recently has the mainstream media begun a coordinated attack to convince American workers of the “necessity” of adopting these policies. The New York Times speaks for the corporate establishment as a whole when it writes:
How Recessions Cause Wars and Revolutions (tags)
A quick glance around the globe reveals a ruined international economy, wars and more wars in the works, and revolutionary movements aplenty — all connected phenomena. No, the apocalypse is not coming; but the international economic system currently used to arrange the social order is crumbling, taking everyone down with it. The global capitalist system is in far worse shape than most people realize: it may only take the tiny economy of Greece to go bankrupt to break this camel’s back — and finally the word “recession” will be antiquated and “depression” will be in vogue.
The Economics Behind Immigration Reform (tags)
How convenient for Goldman Sachs. Just as most working people were demanding that the Goldman bosses and other Wall Street criminals either be massively fined, jailed or worse, the nation’s attention is suddenly forced to react to the racist immigration law in Arizona. And although the two incidents are not directly related, they represent a trend that is likely to increase in the months and years ahead.
End the Fed? Or End the Market Economy? (tags)
When Republican Congressman Ron Paul recently introduced legislation to audit the Federal Reserve, diverse sections of the political spectrum applauded. And rightfully so. The Fed’s role in the still-developing bank bailouts is one of utter secrecy; the total cost of which — as estimated by the bailout’s Special Inspector General, Neil Barofsky — could cost taxpayers $23.7 trillion. The fact that legislation needed to be introduced to raise the question of the whereabouts of these funds points to a larger breakdown in U.S. democracy.
Two Anniversaries: Berlin and Seattle (tags)
November 2009 was not only the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall — an historical milestone reported to death by the corporate media — it was also the anniversary of an event the corporate media chose to ignore: the 10th anniversary of the mass protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle in November and December 1999. The challenge for radicals and progressives today is not only to revitalize the spirit of Seattle but to take back the initiative in an era in which the biggest and most confrontational mass actions are being staged by the "teabag" Right.
What is at Stake with Free Trade (tags)
In the ten years since the World Trade Organization (WTO) protests in Seattle, global opposition to free trade and “globalization” has exploded. The general public now has a basic understanding of how the world economy works … against them: companies scour the globe searching for slave wages, which help push down wages in “developed” countries; any regulation that reduces profits — environmental, financial, labor, etc. — is destroyed or ignored. The two focal points of the anti-globalization movement have been dismantling of the WTO and free trade agreements; both legitimate targets. However, what happens if both goals are accomplished? Mission Accomplished?
Over 300 Homeless People Expected to Participate: Informational Picketing @ Rivers Casino (tags)
Ed Fasulo, President and COO of Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, Explain To Me, Your Customers, Your Workers and the Rest of the Pittsburgh Community on HOW The Workers at RIVERS CASINO Can Afford to Support Their Families on Poverty Wages Ranging From $8.00 to $9.50 Per Hour?
Is Growth Only Possible Through Inequality? (tags)
Does capitalism make the rich richer and the poor poorer instead of creating prosperity for everyone as promised? Inequality declined considerably between 1930 and 1970 in western industrial states.
Funding Sweatshops Globally (tags)
Brutal labor exploitation
What Obama Isn't Telling American Workers (tags)
A lot is happening in the tumultuous realm of global economics. The “Great Recession” has caused tectonic shifts internationally, with outcomes that will dramatically change the lives of millions of people in the U.S. and beyond. And while Obama is acknowledging this fact with repeated references to “a new world order,” he isn’t explaining how this adversely affects working-class Americans.
Sweatshop Conditions in US Cities (tags)
vicious labor exploitation
Centinela Hospital workers petition to quit SEIU and join NUHW (tags)
Caregivers cite SEIU corruption, labor law violations, and secrecy around recent contract failure
Obama's Empty Labor Day Speech (tags)
President Obama is a friend of the working people…one day a year. The rest of the year he is rewarding banks with bailouts and war contractors with more war. On Labor Day, workers were offered nothing of substance, just kind words. Obama began his speech by spending an excessive amount of time exaggerating the leadership abilities of both AFL-CIO officials and Ohio’s Democratic representatives. The motive was simple: the “partnership” between organized labor and the Democratic Party is central to the languishing existence of the two-party system, while helping to keep the labor movement in an equal state of decline and decay.
Cash for Geezers: Retirement for Boomers at 55 (tags)
Beloved Air America host in the mornings, Thom Hartmann and Eduardo Galeano could turn our days to light.
World Bankers Agree: The Recession is Over...Maybe (tags)
Few would consider the opinions of the world's central bankers to be unbiased or even accurate. These self-proclaimed wise men of international finance didn't see the recession coming until it blew up in their faces - a blast that destroyed their credibility. Nevertheless, it is interesting to hear them talk, not because they're fun to listen to, but because of "the messaging" that rich investors use religiously in placing their stock market bets, while the rest of us are given a calming sermon, so that the bankers' lackeys - the politicians - may continue ruining the country uncontested.
Democrats and Republicans Join Hands Over Immigration (tags)
Even the most optimistic Obama supporter should cringe in response to the White House’s recent “bi-partisan immigration talks.” What could Democrats and Republicans possibly have in common over immigration? Quite a lot it turns out. An enormous sell-out is being prepared for the U.S. immigrant population and Latinos especially — who came out in record numbers in many swing states to vote for Obama last year. Attached to these votes are huge expectations.
Join us for the Employee Free Choice Act Big March on Senator Feinstein's L.A. Office (tags)
We need to tell Dianne Feinstein that working families need a real shot at bargaining for better wages that will help lift themselves out of this recession. She needs to support the Employee Free Choice Act.
the Deeper Origins of the Economic Crisis (tags)
For all the horror the global economic crisis has caused for so many people, one progressive consequence has emerged: many of these people are becoming politically conscious — searching for information to better understand their political and economic system. They want to know how things got the way they did and what can be done about it. Unfortunately, much of the resulting analysis has focused too little on actual causes, and too much on abstract financial details and other consequences of deeper economic problems. Therefore, the typical explanation of the economic crisis goes as follows: depression-era financial regulations were tossed aside, and banks were allowed to merge into new institutions that then invented ways to transform debts into assets, which were gambled away on the stock exchange to the tunes of trillions of dollars. All of which is true. What’s missing, however, is why.
"Low-Wage Capitalism" Author Speaks in San Diego (tags)
Fred Goldstein, contributing editor of the Workers' World newspaper and author of the new book "Low-Wage Capitalism," spoke at the Malcolm X Library April 18 and described the current economic collapse as a classic "crisis of overproduction" in the Marxist sense. Though Wall Street greed and the bursting of the housing bubble played a part, he said, the real cause was the capitalist class's success in driving working people's wages down, not only in the U.S. but worldwide, to the point where workers can no longer afford to consume the products they produce. He called for a mass progressive movement to make explicit economic demands, especially jobs.
VIDEO: A House of Cards: Richard Wolff (tags)
Most of economics depends on consuming. When employers stop raising wages, you force a dilemma on people. Borrowing substitutes for wages. We took on unprecedented debt and built a house of cards.
VIDEO: Lessons of the Great Depression (tags)
Output per worker, efficiency or productivity, increased 25% from 1923-1930 while wages only increased 4%. The first problem is that people can't afford what they produce. The second problem is that we've been consuming the planet
VIDEO: Capitlaism Hits the Fan (tags)
Richard Wolff teaches economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. From 1820 to the 1970s, higher productivity led to higher wages. In the last 30 years there has been an explosion of profit along with stagnant wages.
Modern Slavery in America (tags)
Slavery thrives in America. Only its form has changed.
The Big Lie of Recession Politics: 'Shared Sacrifice' (tags)
It’s everywhere you look and in every speech you listen to. Every time a politician or businessmen talks about the recession, an almost in-synch, repetitive mantra can be heard: “Shared sacrifice, equality of sacrifice, hard choices.” Oh my. There must be something to it, since EVERYBODY seems to be regurgitating the phrase in harmony.
The world today is undeniably chaotic — war, abject poverty, and unimaginable wealth exist side by side. In an attempt to explain the current social turmoil, some have resorted to religion and apocalypse, while others place the blame on the few bad apples that held positions of power as the economy slid into destitution. And then there are those who blame conspiracy, immigrants, or a society-wide lack of morality. All of the above explanations seem to be missing a crucial ingredient. A simple observation should be central to any explanation of the current economic crisis: There are huge surpluses (or overproduction) of houses, cars, food stuffs, and many other products that millions of people desperately need, but cannot afford to buy. This is the essence of the problem.
Google video: Capitalism Hits the Fan-A Marxian View (tags)
Richard Wolff, a professor of economics at UMass Amherst, talks on the current "financial" crisis and capitalism in general. A form of socialism is presented as a possibility for exhausted and anxiety-ridden workers.
International WS:Back to paste the increase of productivity to increase in wages (tags)
Back to paste the increase of productivity to increase in wages. It is mandatory global cooperation so that the crisis is overcome. Need to overcoming politicaly and intellectualy neo-liberalism. Emphasize the value of work. Neo Progressive Keynesiasm
GM, The NY Times, & Marxism 101 (tags)
As Socialists, we are consistently asked to present our ideas in a clearer, easier to understand manner. To achieve this goal, I’ll enlist the help of former Governor of Massachusetts and candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination, Mitt Romney, who appeared in the New York Times Op-Ed section on Nov. 19th. Romney’s piece, entitled “Let Detroit Go Broke,” laid bare the intent behind the angry rhetoric used by politicians against the proposed bailout for the “Big Three” automakers. Whereas the giant Wall Street banks received over 1 trillion dollars — so far— without barely having to ask, an industry that actually produces something has to beg for a handout. Why the difference?
The Concept of Work for Less (tags)
Work For Less laws (otherwise known as "Right To Work") are on the march, with backers attempting to add Colorado as their twenty-third state. Coalitions of labor, business, and religious organizations are fighting the onslaught, but they could use some help.
The U.S. Economy on FIRE (tags)
The current U.S. economic crisis didn't start a few years ago when banks and financial institutions started selling "subprime" real estate loans to high-risk borrowers and then repackaging them as "mortgage-backed securities." It began in the early 1970's as a result of a long-term plan by America's major corporations and business leaders to drive down workers' wages and extract more surplus value — and the workers' response, which was to take on more debt. Any real solution that benefits working people cannot be instituted until the power of the corporate rich over the political system is broken.
Hotel Workers Rising: Call for Liveable Wages and Humane Workloads (tags)
Hotel service workers of the union Unite Here! Local 19 demonstrated in front of downtown San Jose hotels. They won community support for their 2008 contract negotiations as part of a larger struggle to transform traditionally low-wage hospitality jobs into unionized family-sustaining employment nationwide.
AJLPP Supports 5 Days UC State Wide Workers Strike (tags)
The Alliance- Philippines (AJLPP) expresses militant solidarity support to the five days strike declared by University of California (UC) workers,( many of them Filipinos) who went on a five day strike starting July 14 all over California. More than 9,000 University of California workers went on a five-day strike at UCʼs ten campuses and five medical centers. The strike will begin on July 14th and conclude on July 18th. During the strike, hundreds of medical workers mostly Filipinos manned the picket lines and refused to work.
National Petition to End Sweatshops and Slavery in the Fields (tags)
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) - an organization of low-wage workers based in Immokalee, Florida - has launched a national petition campaign to demand that Burger King and other food industry leaders work with the CIW to improve the wages & working conditions of the workers who pick their tomatoes, and join with the CIW in an industry-wide effort to eliminate modern-day slavery & human rights abuses from Florida's fields.
Daily Bruin: AFSCME Workers Demand Rights (tags)
The ongoing struggle to get raises for UCLA service workers continues.
CEO Salaries and the Minimum Wage (tags)
"After the fall of the Berlin Wall, capitalism let its mask fall. Capitalism did not have to be social any more since socialism did not exist any longer as a counter-movement..Most economic leaders act irresponsibly today toward Europe's people and the future."
Orange County Board of Supervisors ignores plight of elderly and disabled; slashes wages f (tags)
Home care providers of the United Domestic Workers (UDW) Tuesday will rally outside the Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting, criticizing the Supervisors’ failure to negotiate a fair deal to provide home care providers for seniors, the blind and people living with disabilities a fair living wage. The home care workers are part of the In-Home Supportive Services program, an alternative to institutional care that uses state, county and federal funds to provide care for IHSS consumers.
Laguna Beach Contractor Sued By State For Employee Rip-off (tags)
According to the AG “Interwall employed a sophisticated and heartless scheme, involving multiple businesses, to cheat its employees out of overtime and mandatory break periods
Justice for Young Filipina Restaurant Worker Adriane Padilla! (tags)
Recent advances in the Justice for Adriane Campaign, the unpaid wages campaign for young Filipina restaurant worker Adriane Padilla, launched last December 14, 2007, are pointing to a victory for Adriane and all Filipino youth restaurant workers. This January, Padilla and her lawyers agreed to meet with her former employers to explore a possible case settlement. Ugnayan welcomes this development to resolve the case as this could lead to a greater unity in the Filipino community towards promoting the labor rights, respect and justice for all Filipino youth restaurant workers.
The immiseration of the working class – Marx was right! (tags)
Just a couple of weeks ago, America's government tax collectors, the Internal Revenue Service, issued a new report. The IRS found that the richest 1% of Americans earned a record 21.2% of all income in 2005, up from 19% the year before. At the same time, the bottom 50% earned just 12.8% of all income in 2005, down from 13.4%. This was a record. IRS data only go back to 1986, but other academic research suggests that the last time wealthy Americans had such a high percentage of the national income was in the 1920s. And there's more. The IRS data show that the incomes of people right in the middle of all the income brackets (where half earn less and half earn more) fell 2% between 2000 and 2005 when adjusted for inflation, to $30,881. At the same time, the income level for the top 1% grew 3% to $364,657, or over ten times as much! This shows that capitalism is not only a breeder of economic crisis, war and waste, but is also a system of grotesque exploitation and injustice. When Marx wrote Das Kapital around 150 years ago, he argued that "pauperism (poverty) forms the condition of capitalist production and of the capitalist development of wealth... in proportion as capital accumulates, the situation of the worker, be his payment high or low, must grow worse".
McDonald's farmworker raise fought by growers (tags)
McDonald's Corp.'s high-profile deal to raise wages for Florida tomato pickers appears to have run into a major obstacle: Florida's tomato farmers.
UAW Sellout at GM and Chrysler (tags)
Corrupt UAW bosses sell out their rank and file
New, improved unions
Major Mobilization for Farmworker Justice - Three weeks to go! (tags)
In just a few short weeks, farmworkers from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and their allies will travel from Immokalee, FL – home of one of the largest farmworker communities in the country – to Chicago, IL, home of the world’s largest restaurant chain, McDonald’s. The "2007 Truth Tour: Behind the Golden Arches” will culminate in two national days of action on April 13th and 14th in the Chicago area marking a new phase in the Campaign for Fair Food. Now is the time to finalize plans to join us for these historic actions!
Stop Union Busting on the Waterfront! (tags)
In a show of solidarity ILWU Local 10 voted for a port-wide shutdown in support of the IBU & MMP workers. This is call for all union members and their allies to join us on the picket line Pier 31/33, The Embarcadero, San Francisco, December 9, 2006 at 10 AM.
Mr. President Luís Inácio Lula Da Silva, (tags)
Brazilian entrepreneurs, workers and unemployeds, we need workmanships, projects and initiatives that multiply chances, wages, jobs and businesses, and this will not happen in desirable speed while the Union to spend, as in the year of 2006, 490 billion
September 28th: End the Abuse of Immigrant Workers (tags)
250 immigrant workers, religious leaders, community members and students have already committed to risk arrest, call on others to join them
BTL:CEO Pay in Defense, Oil Industry Skyrocket, as Workers' Wages Decline (tags)
Interview with Sarah Anderson, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies & co-author of the "Executive Excess 2006" salary survey, conducted by Between the Lines' Scott Harris
Immigration opponents hiding behind the myth of stolen jobs and lost wages.. The research shows that immigration only has a tiny negative impact on local wages.
A Week in the Life of Globalization (tags)
Wages are under pressure and cost advantages need not be passed on to consumers.. Under the pressure of location competition, Germany has lmassively lowered the profit tax and the top ncome tax.
Wage war on poverty, not immigrants (tags)
"Si se puede!" Yes we can. They marched by the hundreds of thousands in Los Angeles, by the tens of thousands in Milwaukee, in Phoenix, in New York. Across the country, Hispanics dramatically entered what has been an increasingly ugly debate about immigration in this country.
Exploding Profits and Stagnant Wages (tags)
"Domestic demand has stagnated for years.. Money for investments exists in excess in Germany. However investments declined 0.7% in 2004 despite record profits. Invest-ments fell for the fourth year in a row and are 13 percent lower than the 2000 level.."
SECURITY GUARD - SECURITY OFFICER NEWS (tags)
U.S. DEPARTMENT HOMELAND SECURITY POLICE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION ANNONCES UNITE TO WIN CAMPAIGN FOR SECURITY POLICE OFFICERS NATIONWIDE http://unitetowin.homestead.com/index.html
Coalition of Minutemen and Migrant Groups? (tags)
A coalition of Minutepeople and Migrant-rights groups working together would really get the attention needed to make this nation aware. The real illegal aliens are the corporations that cross natural and cultural borders with impunity and are destroying the environment and people’s lives in the name of “global progress.” The only border that needs protecting is the moral and practical one that will shield us from this plunder and the destruction of quality living standards in ALL countries.
Googling for Fun Can Be Depressing (tags)
Pick an important story and google it. You’ll find plenty of hits, but f it’s critical of the current administration, odds are you won’t find many hits on corporate media sites—just on alternative and oversease media sites. No wonder the American public is turning away from mainstream purveyors of “news.”
East Los Angeles, California, March 23rd, a demonstration at a 99 Cents Only Store, in Montebello, was the kickoff of a campaign in support of the 99 Cents Only workers for affordable health care and decent wages.
Kucinich: Proposed Social Security price indexing would slash benefits (tags)
Kucinich added that while much attention has been focused on private accounts, price indexing, once understood by both the media and the American people generally, will create such an uproar that it will jeopardize not only the Administration’s plans, but could create great political risk for members supporting the plans.
Building Bridges Radio: Wal-Mart's Template & Attorney General Gonzales? (tags)
Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report brings you this 28 minute radio program. TO LISTEN CLICK ON WEB LINK BELOW
The High Priests of Economic Nonsense (tags)
"The rules of social state restraint of wild capitalism are ignored. The class struggle from above has long been a fact since the coalition of capital with the government is fairly stable and the media play along. Resistance is inevitable.."
Undocumented Workers Are Not The Enemy Of labor (tags)
I submitted the following article to my Local Union newsletter.
Offshoring of jobs a hot issue (tags)
Typically high paid middle class Information Technology workers are learning what blue collar workers have known for decades-- the offshoring of working people's jobs sucks.
8 March 2004 - 5th GLOBAL WOMEN’S STRIKE (tags)
8 March 2004 -- Calling all women 5th GLOBAL WOMEN’S STRIKE Calling all men to join with women to STOP THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT! INVEST IN CARING NOT KILLING!
Wages up for the well-off, but not for others (tags)
The gap between workers in the 90th earning percentile and the 10th has never been wider. Said Ann Owen, economist at Hamilton College (NY) and former Federal Reserve economist (DC), "we can probably project a future growth in inequality."
Bush and Undocumented's. (tags)
More foreign workers = lower wages.
"Growth, prosperity, free trade, liberal world economy and international division of labor are all ideologically charged terms. They re-flect veiled interests more than a search for truth. The starting-point for an alternative econmics is an ideology-critical position."
Updates on Los Angeles Supermarket Workers' Strike! (tags)
The Role of Women & Asian Pacific Islanders In This Important Labor Struggle By: Lee Siu Hin October 25, 2003 Photo: Diana Truong-Davis Picket capitan from Vons supermarket, with CA assembly women Judy Chu during the Ahmabra Von's Supermarket rally, organized by APALA and CA assembly women Judy Chu on Oct 23.
ANSWER LA Wants You to Support Striking and Locked Out Grocery Workers (tags)
Join ANSWER LA's COMMUNITY ACTION PROJECT to SUPPORT LABOR (CAPSL)!
[gangbox] LA NUEVA CARA DE CONSTRUCCION (tags)
LA NUEVA CARA DE CONSTRUCCION...how mass immigration has changed the American building trades
CHERYL SEAL REPORTS: Buddy, Can You Spare a Job? (tags)
Re: U.S. Jobs - I've got some bad news and I've got some REALLY BAD news...
Where Was The Color In Seattle? Looking for reasons why the Battle was so White (tags)
"I was at the jail where a lot of protesters were being held and a big crowd of people was chanting 'This Is What Democracy Looks Like!' At first it sounded kind of nice. But then I thought: is this really what democracy looks like? Nobody here looks like me." --Jinee Kim, Bay Area youth organizer
The Minimum Wage is No Wage at All (tags)
Can't get much more "minimum"
Ending The Good Times - Exporting America’s High-Wage Jobs (tags)
The growing ability of U.S. employers to substitute cheaper foreign labor for U.S. labor is putting pressure on U.S. wages and salaries. On April 26 the New York Times reported that the real earnings of those in the top ten percent fell 1.4% over the last year. The real weekly pay for the median worker fell 1.5 percent.
BOYCOTT TACO BELL ! HUNGER STRIKE BEGINS FEB 24! (tags)
OCRC@MAIL.COM
STATE/PARTY/FASCISM/TERRORISM (tags)
HI REVOLUTIONARY MINORITY
Airline Mechanics To Picket LAX To Protest Wage Cutting (tags)
Rank and file airline mechanics from UAL, American and other carriers will be protesting wage cutting and concessions on Wed Nov 20 at LA and other aiports. They need help.
Leftists Working for Poverty! (tags)
Want more poverty in the 3d world? Don't miss the next World Bank protest! Thanks Walter E. Williams! We are so lucky to have you.
HUGE TACO BELL HEADQUARTERS PROTEST FRIDAY!!! (tags)
BOYCOTT TACO BELL!!!!
HUGE TACO BELL PROTEST THIS FRIDAY!!!! (tags)
BOYCOTT TACO BELL THIS FRIDAY!!
THIS FRIDAY BOYCOTT TACO BELL!!! (tags)
BOYCOTT TACO BELL THIS FRIDAY AT THE GLOBAL HEADQUARTERS
800 People march on Taco Bell's Corporate HQ for fair wages for tomato pickers (tags)
About 800 people from as far away as Brazil and France marched on Taco Bell's Irvine corporate headquarters in support of a 1 cent per pound raise for their tomato pickers, who are still earning the same wages they made in 1978! As the rally ended, tomato pickers were inside Taco Bell discussing a raise with executives feeling the public pressure.
Religious Supporters Declare "Season of Conscience" and Join Boycott Against Forever 21 (tags)
This is the press release for the Saturday demonstration. Forever 21 can rake in $400 million this year, but the people who make the clothes are paid sub-minimum. If this rubs you the wrong way, show up and protest.
STUDENTS AND JANITORS MARCH FOR LIVING WAGES AND RESPECT (tags)
March followed a live performance from OZOMATLI; Students demanded to rehire unlawfully fired worker, and living wages.
IWD strike leaders & participants summarize 3/8 day of protest & enjoy entertainment
D2K daily press conference - Wages for Housework segment (tags)
2 minutes from spokesperson of Wages for Housework which held a rally today.
Bread and Roses Revisited (tags)
Opening the rally with songs from the Industrial Workers of the World and concluding with a nonviolent march, close to five hundred people walked to support valuing women’s work and women’s lives.