Friday, November 30, 2012
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Sunday, November 25, 2012
DSA Rejects the Fiscal Cliff- Says Fight for Fiscal Sanity
A statement of the National Political Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America
November 20, 2012
DSA rejects the “fiscal cliff” hysteria of the corporate establishment and the pressure for a “Grand Bargain” that would cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. While unemployment remains high and economic growth slow, the government should not impose austerity measures that reduce essential programs that benefit the middle and working classes and that further shred the safety net for the most vulnerable. Rather, government policy should prioritize investments in job creation, public education and healthcare reform, while raising
essential revenues by taxing the large corporations and wealthiest citizens who can afford to pay.
Immediately after the election, Wall Street-backed foundations such as Third Way and the Concord Coalition organized a “Campaign to Fix the Debt” to spin the election results as a mandate for a “bi-partisan” focus on reducing the deficit as the highest national priority. For decades the billionaire Pete Peterson has funded groups that claim that the universal entitlement programs Social Security and Medicare are bankrupting the nation and that their future growth must thus be drastically trimmed.
These neoliberals scored an initial success in 2011 when the Simpson-Bowles Congressional Commission put to a vote a long-term “budget compromise” that would have instituted three times as much in budget cuts than in tax increases. But despite President Obama’s
evident willingness to reach such a one-sided compromise, Tea Party insistence on no tax increases, even on the wealthiest, scuttled the deal. The “resolution” of this manufactured, alleged “budget crisis” was to postpone a decision on further deficit reduction until the end of 2012, hence the contrived “fiscal cliff.”
Friday, November 23, 2012
Walmart Workers and Respect
A Statement of Jobs with Justice
(Nov
22) In a historic move, nearly a thousand actions have begun around the
country as a part of a rolling series of walk-outs by Walmart’s store
associates. The Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart),
called for the strike after numerous unfair labor practices (ULPs) the
company committed against worker and in protest of Walmart’s ongoing
attempts to silence workers for speaking out for better jobs. This
strike follow successful direct action by warehouse workers and seafood
workers along the company’s vast supply chain.In response, the company continued to make illegal threats to workers in the stores—even going so far as to file a bogus ULP claim with the National Labor Relations Board.
However, public support has been widespread, with many mobilizing to stores over the holidays to support workers who are walking out. Over $125,000 has already been raised for strike support. Jobs with Justice coalitions alone are responsible for mobilizing to over 50 store actions around the country.
This new movement of the Walmart 99% is only going to grow, and more rapidly each day. It has become clear that the company cannot deflect it forever.
The only solution is for Walmart to sit down with all of its workers, from factory to store, to collectively negotiate better conditions for the people the company depends on.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Why are we standing up to live better?- Support WalMart workers
Walmart workers around the country are mobilizing for a “Black Friday” strike to protest working conditions, wages and retaliation against workers who speak out. Meanwhile workers and their allies at a Walmart warehouse are picketing and rallying today in front of the Riverside County, Calif., facility followingWednesday’s strike by some two dozen warehouse workers.
Walmart store workers are asking people nationwide to support them on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year. They ask that supporters take action that spreads the word about their strikes and demonstrates to Walmart a wave of support for workers who are speaking out about poor working conditions, low wages, irregular hours and more.
http://forrespect.org
Instead of listening to and learning from its workers, Walmart has sought to silence us and retaliate against those who dare to speak up. Warehouse workers who work for Walmart contractors have also experienced retaliation for speaking out. Now, Walmart workers have had enough.
http://forrespect.org
Instead of listening to and learning from its workers, Walmart has sought to silence us and retaliate against those who dare to speak up. Warehouse workers who work for Walmart contractors have also experienced retaliation for speaking out. Now, Walmart workers have had enough.
It's not an easy decision. But without an end to the retaliation in sight, Walmart workers in the Sacramento area plan to join together with others from coast to coast who are walking off the job in protest.
On Black Friday, and throughout the Holiday Season, we're standing up for an end to the retaliation against workers who speak out for what's right for our families, our communities, and our country. Will you show your support?
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Friday, November 16, 2012
We are not broke. We have been robbed !
DSA is a part of the Coalition on Human Needs. ( See list at end of post). We ask that each of you contact your Senators and Congress people to preserve essential human needs from Republican budget cuts. Do not allow the Corporate CEO's who are funding the Fix the Debt campaign to cut the budgets for poor and working people. The Progressive Alliance Board voted today to join this campaign.
SAVE for All
Strengthening America’s Values and Economy for All
Last year, organizations from across the country came together to endorse basic principles to address America’s short- and long-term economic and budgetary problems. These are the imperatives of Strengthening America’s Values and Economy (SAVE) for All: to protect low-income and vulnerable people; promote job creation to strengthen the economy; increase revenues from fair sources; and seek responsible savings by targeting wasteful spending in the Pentagon and in other areas that do not serve the public interest.
We call on you to follow these principles as you face budgetary decisions of immediate and long-lasting national consequence. To achieve sustained growth, fiscal stability, and economic security for all our people we must invest in job creation, ensure that job seekers have the opportunity to work, and protect vulnerable people from hardship. We cannot promote the common good by cutting more and more services and jobs. But we can meet our nation’s needs responsibly by ending tax reductions benefiting the wealthiest two percent and by seeking savings that do not compromise human or military security.
Putting the most vulnerable people at risk is the wrong response to our nation’s fiscal situation. Automatic cuts to domestic programs that are scheduled to take effect in January 2013 under the sequestration provisions of the Budget Control Act will inflict devastating harm. Estimated conservatively, a year of sequestration cuts1 will deny WIC nutrition aid to 750,000 mothers and young children, prevent more than 413,000 adults and youth from getting job training and deny education and training to more than 51,000 veterans, eliminate reading and math help to more than 1.8 million low-income public school children, deny child care to the low- to moderate-income families of 80,000 children, stop nearly 34,000 women from being screened for breast and cervical cancer, prevent nearly 27,000 infants and toddlers from benefiting from special education early intervention services, force 185,000 households to lose rental assistance vouchers, and stop 734,000 households from receiving home heating and cooling aid. These are only a few examples of the impact of the scheduled cuts. They threaten children’s healthy development, deny security to seniors, throw roadblocks in the way of a competitive labor force, and allow preventable disabilities to hold back our children.
These and other cuts have steep costs, among them hundreds of thousands of lost jobs, lagging productivity, and escalating medical expenditures in the years to come. Coming on top of cuts written into law through FY 2021 they will drop domestic and non-military international appropriations to their lowest levels in 50 years as a share of the economy. Allowing such a wholesale abandonment of investments in education, preventive health, housing, public infrastructure, and nutrition is an affront both to conscience and to common sense. We urge you to avert these sequestration cuts.
Strengthening America’s Values and Economy for All
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Dear (Representative or Senator):
Last year, organizations from across the country came together to endorse basic principles to address America’s short- and long-term economic and budgetary problems. These are the imperatives of Strengthening America’s Values and Economy (SAVE) for All: to protect low-income and vulnerable people; promote job creation to strengthen the economy; increase revenues from fair sources; and seek responsible savings by targeting wasteful spending in the Pentagon and in other areas that do not serve the public interest.
We call on you to follow these principles as you face budgetary decisions of immediate and long-lasting national consequence. To achieve sustained growth, fiscal stability, and economic security for all our people we must invest in job creation, ensure that job seekers have the opportunity to work, and protect vulnerable people from hardship. We cannot promote the common good by cutting more and more services and jobs. But we can meet our nation’s needs responsibly by ending tax reductions benefiting the wealthiest two percent and by seeking savings that do not compromise human or military security.
Putting the most vulnerable people at risk is the wrong response to our nation’s fiscal situation. Automatic cuts to domestic programs that are scheduled to take effect in January 2013 under the sequestration provisions of the Budget Control Act will inflict devastating harm. Estimated conservatively, a year of sequestration cuts1 will deny WIC nutrition aid to 750,000 mothers and young children, prevent more than 413,000 adults and youth from getting job training and deny education and training to more than 51,000 veterans, eliminate reading and math help to more than 1.8 million low-income public school children, deny child care to the low- to moderate-income families of 80,000 children, stop nearly 34,000 women from being screened for breast and cervical cancer, prevent nearly 27,000 infants and toddlers from benefiting from special education early intervention services, force 185,000 households to lose rental assistance vouchers, and stop 734,000 households from receiving home heating and cooling aid. These are only a few examples of the impact of the scheduled cuts. They threaten children’s healthy development, deny security to seniors, throw roadblocks in the way of a competitive labor force, and allow preventable disabilities to hold back our children.
These and other cuts have steep costs, among them hundreds of thousands of lost jobs, lagging productivity, and escalating medical expenditures in the years to come. Coming on top of cuts written into law through FY 2021 they will drop domestic and non-military international appropriations to their lowest levels in 50 years as a share of the economy. Allowing such a wholesale abandonment of investments in education, preventive health, housing, public infrastructure, and nutrition is an affront both to conscience and to common sense. We urge you to avert these sequestration cuts.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Free Screening of "I Am" Friday, 11/16 at Sac State!
Campus Progressive Alliance
The Friday Night Film Series Presents
I AM
I AM
“A wake up call to the forces of good
within each of us to
write a new story
Friday, November 16
Hinde Auditorium
Sac State University Union
Shorts--6:00pm Feature Film—6:30pm
Shorts--6:00pm Feature Film—6:30pm
FREE
ADMISSION!
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
In Obama Win, a Triumph of Community Organizing
By Van Jones
President Obama’s big win last Tuesday was a victory for the middle
class, a rejection of trickle-down economics, and a statement from a new
generation of Americans that they are a force to be reckoned with
But most of all, it was a vindication for the much-maligned
community organizer.
Remember all those folks on the right who mocked the organizers who
work patiently and tirelessly in communities across the country? The way they
tried to tar President Obama for passing up lucrative opportunities to instead
take a job as an organizer on the South Side of Chicago? Recall, if you can
bear it, Sarah Palindeclaring that a small-town mayor is
“sorta like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual
responsibilities”?
It turns out, community organizers got the last laugh.
In the last days of the election, I argued that the pundits were
making far too much of the so-called “enthusiasm gap.” They were missing
the determination of voters, and the work
on the ground that was flying below the radar. When Tuesday
rolled around, the proof was in the vote count: The 2008 coalition, wrongly
regarded as a mere flash in the pan, had held. And it was community organizers
like these who made it happen:
▪
Ben Jealous and the NAACP registered and turned out more than a
million new African-American voters on election day. In Ohio, the black vote
went from 11 percent of the electorate in 2008 to 15 percent in 2012. In swing
state after swing state, the percentage of black voters in the electorate
either increased or held steady, even as the number of voters overall
increased. It was a testament to the power of deep community organizing in the
black community.
Billionaire donors are livid.
"The billionaire donors I hear are livid," one Republican
operative told The Huffington Post. "There is some holy hell
to pay. Karl Rove has a lot of explaining to do ... I don't
know how you tell your donors that we spent $390 million and
got nothing."....If conservative billionaires are looking
for something else to be mad about, I'd recommend the Romney
campaign's apparent habit of paying about 50 percent more
for TV spots than the Obama campaign. That helped line the
pockets of their media consultants and buyers, but it didn't
do much to win the election.
By Kevin Drum
November 7, 2012
Mother Jones
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/11/quote-day- americas-billionaires-are-pissed-karl-rove
November 7, 2012
Hatewatch - Southern Poverty Law Center
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2012/11/07/for-the-radical-right-obama-victory-brings-fury-and-fear/
The reaction to the re-election of our first black president
from the radical right ranged from sputtering rage and name-
calling to calls for a new Southern secession, mass
emigration to Europe, or even the break-up of the United
States. The loss of a white majority in the United States
has helped drive a truly explosive growth of the radical
right in the last three years, and now that Obama has been
re-elected, the radical right may grow more dangerous still.
Summed up on Fox News, Bill O'Reilly said: "The white
establishment is now the minority. It's not a traditional
America anymore."
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Workers on Strike at Raley's - honor the picket lines
Update. The Strike is over.
5,000 Union members of the United Food and Commercial Workers in Northern California have struck Raley’s Supermarkets a Northern California chain of 130 stores to protect their existing contract benefits. Raley’s, the largest chain in the region, claims that it can no longer afford health benefits for retirees and other union provisions due to the growth and expansion of non union supermarkets such as Wal-Mart. Safeway, the larger national chain, and Save Mart Supermarkets have already signed agreements that maintained prior wages and contract provisions. Wal-Mart has opened six new stores in the Sacramento region in the last 3 years and has gone from barely visible to a 14% share of the market by relying upon non union workers.
5,000 Union members of the United Food and Commercial Workers in Northern California have struck Raley’s Supermarkets a Northern California chain of 130 stores to protect their existing contract benefits. Raley’s, the largest chain in the region, claims that it can no longer afford health benefits for retirees and other union provisions due to the growth and expansion of non union supermarkets such as Wal-Mart. Safeway, the larger national chain, and Save Mart Supermarkets have already signed agreements that maintained prior wages and contract provisions. Wal-Mart has opened six new stores in the Sacramento region in the last 3 years and has gone from barely visible to a 14% share of the market by relying upon non union workers.
Clerks at Raley’s earn from $9.10 to
$21.00 per hour. Raley’s has
imposed its last contract offer which changed workers health care plan and eliminates
premium pay for Sundays and holidays.
Raley’s has hired some 500 replacement workers and posted large ads in
the local newspapers arguing their case and giving away a number of free
groceries.
Raley's has never had a strike before. The walkout is the first in Northern
California's grocery
industry since a nine-day work stoppage in 1995. It's the
first in the state since the epic Southern California strike of 2003, which
consumed nine months and cost employers billions.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Who were the winners and the losers in the elections?
The names at the top of the ballot yesterday were Obama and Romney, but the real winners and losers are the constituents and causes who did battle on the ground and on the airwaves, and whose lives and livelihoods will be influenced by what happens over the next four years and beyond.
The winners include:
The Labor Movement: Unions mobilized their members and money in key swing states on behalf of liberal Democrats, including Obama and Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts, Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin, and many others. In California, labor helped bring out more than 40,000 volunteers and scored two major victories in California -- the defeat of the deceptive anti-union corporate power grab, Proposition 32, and the win for progressive tax ballot measure, Proposition 30. Although unions now represent only 12 percent of American workers, they still remain the most powerful and effective force for liberal issues and Democratic candidates. Union members and their family members turned out in high numbers and voted overwhelmingly for Democrats. Union loyalists also knocked on doors and staffed phone-banks on behalf of candidates and causes that support working families. Thanks to unions and their allies among community groups and faith-based organizations, the lowest-paid workers in Albuquerque, San Jose, and Long Beach will receive pay increases after voters approved ballot proposals Tuesday that will raise the minimum wage for workers in each city. Citywide minimum wage increases were passed in Albuquerque and San Jose, while Long Beach voters approved an ordinance establishing a higher minimum wage for hotel workers in the city.
Women: Women voters favored Obama over Romney by a 55 percent to 43 percent margin, according to preliminary exit polls. Liberal and progressive women candidates made an incredibly strong showing in the swing Senate and House races, notably Warren in Massachusetts and Baldwin in Wisconsin. Other women Dems -- Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota and Mazie Hirono in Hawaii -- replaced males who decided to retire. All Democratic incumbent female senators up for re-election this year won,
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Sunrise in the New America
Sunrise in the New America. Red, Black, Brown, Yellow and White, We're All Precious in God's Sight. Women and Men, Straight and Gay, Young and Old, Rich and Poor, Immigrant and Native Born... We are the 99%, and We're on the Move Now... United... Together... Forward.
Keep Hope Alive!
Thank you !
Thank You.
Great victories in California. As promised, every vote counted. We needed each and every vote.
We defeated the billionaires efforts to crush organized labor and to continue
the anti tax radicalism.
We defeated the anti labor proposition 32.
We passed Prop. 30, to fund schools, universities and social
services. This is a floor under
austerity. It raises taxes
on the rich to pay for services.
It does raise income tax by ¼ of
percent – but 90% of the tax increases are on the rich . A tax of 1-3 %
on those who make over $250,000 per year.
Monday, November 5, 2012
Progressive Alliance Voter Guide
Sacramento Progressive Alliance
sacramentopa.blogspot.com
Progressive Voter Guide
2012 General Election
President & Vice
President: Barack
Obama & Joe Biden (D)
U.S. Senate: Dianne
Feinstein (D)
U.S. Representative:
District 3: John
Garamendi (D)
District 4: Jack
Uppal (D)
District 5: Mike
Thompson (D)
District 6: Doris
Matsui (D)
District 7: Ami
Bera (D)
District 9: Jerry
McNerney (D)
District 10: Jose
Hernandez (D)
District 11: George
Miller (D)
District 12: Nancy
Pelosi (D)
District 13: Barbara
Lee
California Ballot Propositions:
Proposition 30: Funding for Schools and
Colleges YES
Proposition
31: Budget Revision Process NO
Proposition 32: Anti-union, Special
Exemptions NO
Proposition
33: Insurance Changes NO
Proposition 34: Repeal Death Penalty YES
Proposition
35: Tougher Penalties for Sex Trafficking YES
Proposition
36: Modify 3-Strikes Law YES
Proposition
37: Labeling Genetically Engineered Food YES
Proposition
38: Tax Initiative for K-12 Education Neutral
Proposition
39: Tax Out of State Corporations YES
Proposition
40: State Senate Districts YES
|
Sacramento City Council
|
District 2
|
Rob Kerth
|
|
Sacramento City
Council
|
District 4
|
Steve Hansen
|
|
Natomas School Board
|
Susan Heredia
|
|
|
Roseville School Board
|
Rene Aguilera
|
|
|
Sacramento Smud Baord
|
Mike Picker
|
|
California State Senate:
District 1: Julie
Griffith-Flatter (D)
District
3: Lois
Wolk (D)
District
5: Cathleen
Galgiani (D)
District
7: Mark
Desaulnier (D)
California Sate Assembly:
District 4: Mariko
Yamada (D)
District
7: Roger
Dickinson (D)
District
9: Richard
Pan (D)
District
11: Jim
Frazier (D)
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Friday, November 2, 2012
PROGRESSIVE VOTER GUIDE
2012 General Election
President: Barack Obama (D)
U.S. Senate: Dianne
Feinstein (D)
U.S. Representative:
District 3: John
Garamendi (D)
District 4: Jack
Uppal (D)
District 5: Mike
Thompson (D)
District 6: Doris
Matsui (D)
District 7: Ami
Bera (D)
District 9: Jerry
McNerney (D)
District 10: Jose
Hernandez (D)
District 11: George
Miller (D)
District 12: Nancy
Pelosi (D)
District 13: Barbara
Lee
California Ballot Propositions:
Proposition
30: Funding for Schools and Colleges YES
Proposition 31: Budget Revision
Process NO
Proposition
32: Anti-union, Special Exemptions NO
Proposition 33: Insurance Changes NO
Proposition
34: Repeal Death Penalty YES
Proposition 35: Tougher Penalties
for Sex Trafficking YES
Propostion 36: Modify 3-Strikes Law YES
Proposition 37: Labeling Genetically
Engineered Food YES
Proposition 38: Tax Initiative for
K-12 Education Neutral
Proposition 39: Tax Out of State
Corporations YES
Proposition 40: State Senate
Districts YES
California State Senate:
District 1: Julie
Griffith-Flatter (D)
District 3: Lois Wolk (D)
District 5: Cathleen Galgiani (D)
District 7: Mark Desaulnier (D)
California Sate Assembly:
District 4: Mariko
Yamada (D)
District 7: Roger Dickinson (D)
District 9: Richard Pan (D)
District 11: Jim Frazier (D)
District 12: Christopher Mateo (D)
District 13: Susan Eggman (D)
Your work is needed. Yes on Prop. 30
A new Field Poll says that if the election were
held today 48 % would vote Yes on Prop. 30 to fund schools, colleges and public
services, 38 % would vote no, and 14 % are undecided. That is too close. We need you to take action to win over that 14%. This vote is our best opportunity to
reverse the austerity cycle of budgeting used in California for the last 4
years since the economic crisis.
We formed the
Progressive Alliance to combine and coordinate our efforts in politics. Well, now is the time to combine and
coordinate. Below is a list
of 30 actions you can take this weekend. Choose at least 4.
The
California Dream was built on a system of public schools and colleges that gave
every Californian access to the education needed to get ahead.
Today,
I’m asking you to join me in supporting Proposition 30 because we can’t keep
cutting our schools and still keep the economy strong for the next
generation.
With
your YES vote on Prop. 30, we can:
▪
Stop another $6 billion in cuts to
our schools this year.
▪
Prevent steep tuition hikes for
college students and their families.
▪
Invest in our schools and colleges so
we can prepare the next generation for the jobs of the future.
Let’s
work together to invest in our children and a strong economy for California’s
future.
Join me in voting YES on Prop. 30.
Here is what we need you as a reader
of the Progressive Alliance to do:
Pick at least 4.
▪
Write a Letter to the Editor
▪
Call 30 people in the state to vote
for Prop 30
▪
Before school, place Prop 30 signs at
the corners of the school ground- public property
▪
Write everyone on your email list
Thursday, November 1, 2012
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