Wall Street Got One TRILLION Dollars of Our Tax Money
When do WE get bailed out?
That's the question that people everywhere are asking. In the Hartford area, the recession means that the real unemployment rate of 12% could double in 2009, while thousands of people lose their homes and the state slashes social services, education and health care.
The federal government spent a cool trillion dollars bailing out the big corporations. Now Governor Rell plans to slash jobs and social programs instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share. Who's looking out for OUR interests? Come to a community meeting, speak-out and strategy session to talk about what we can do to fight for our survival.
COMMUNITY MEETING FOR A PEOPLE'S BAIL OUT
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7 FROM 1pm - 4pm
HARTFORD CITY HALL, 550 Main Street
No Cutbacks - No Lay offs - No Foreclosures - No Evictions
Make the Wealthy and the Corporations Pay
www.peoplesbailoutct.wordpress.com
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
A People's Bailout
Building a Movement for Economic Justice in Connecticut
Excerpted from The CT People's Economic Justice Coalition page: http://peoplesbailoutct.wordpress.com/
Posted on January 11, 2009 by pdgoselin
This is a coalition of which I'm proud to be a member and strongly urge others to join! -Todd
...
Hurricane Katrina was not a natural disaster. It was a dangerous situation that became a man-made disaster because of the government’s neglect, indifference and downright hostility toward the people in its path. It was a human catastrophe fueled by contempt for working and poor people and in particular by straight-up no chaser racism. The problem wasn’t that there was a lack of sandbags or not enough buses to evacuate people from the City of New Orleans: the problem was that those in power didn’t give a damn if people drowned as long as it couldn’t be blamed on them.
We believe that the economic situation facing working people and poor people isn’t just a “downturn” or a “recession.” Those are clean, clinical-sounding terms that the politicians use to mask the suffering that’s in store for us and for our communities. What we see on the horizon is the economic equivalent of Hurricane Katrina: an emergency situation that will become a disaster if clear-headed, urgent action in defense of the fundamental rights and basic needs of the people is not taken.
That’s the reason we formed the People’s Economic Justice Coalition and it’s the reason we are calling for a people’s bailout budget for Connecticut. Because the same indifference and contempt is at work in our state, and the assembled media circus of politicians, experts, bureaucrats, talking heads, policy wonks and commentators are more concerned with having their pictures taken lifting sandbags than they are with protecting us from drowning.
At the national level, president-elect Obama has said loud and clear that in this period of intense economic crisis, the answer is not to cut government spending but to increase it. Fund “green” jobs programs. Fund infrastructure. Fund human services so that people who are losing their jobs don’t lose their homes and don’t lose hope. Even so, there are serious questions about whether Obama’s economic stimulus package will go far enough or be implemented fast enough to actually slow much less stop the recession.
But Governor Rell and her big business allies plan to do just the opposite. “Sacrifices” must be made, says Rell. She means that working people and poor people, children and the elderly, those who are most vulnerable all get thrown into the volcano while she and her rich friends feast. Their plan is to use the recession as an excuse to do what they have always wanted to do: slash state services, slash funding for local community-based programs, lay off state workers, eliminate agencies that help people keep their heads above water. And in their greed and venality, they are hoping that the federal stimulus package will provide just enough of a cushion for poor people that it doesn’t unduly embarrass them to have too many residents of the richest state in the U.S. unemployed or homeless.
The question is: what are we proposing in response? Simply this: the only responsible answer to this economic Katrina bearing down on our communities is to say No to any budget cuts, No to any layoffs, to fully fund the needs of our communities for education, health care, housing and for relief from evictions and foreclosures. And as part and parcel of keeping working class people afloat, the State of Connecticut must shift the tax burden from working people who are barely surviving to the wealthy and the big corporations that are barely struggling.
Now, we don’t expect that we’re going to convince Governor Rell or the legislature with economic arguments or appeals to their decency. But we believe that if we organize and stand together and demand what we need, we can win a people’s bailout budget.
We’re starting with a Community Meeting for a People’s Bailout in Hartford on February 7 (1pm-4pm at Hartford City Hall). We’re inviting everyone who is worried or frightened or angry about the economic crisis to come together on that day and share their concerns, and to be prepared to talk about what we need to do to fight back and get what we need to survive. Coming out of that meeting we want to be able to articulate the most pressing and critical demands of our different communities for a genuine People’s Bailout.
Next steps? Well that depends on what people have to say on February 7, but we want to build a series of highly visible - and maybe highly confrontational - events that will highlight the urgency of this situation. And we want to be able to respond to not just the budget but every critical development that affects our communities as the economic crisis unfolds. Taking the lead from groups in other cities that have taken on this fight, we should be targeting the institutions that are profiting from the economic crisis at our expense, such as the banks and mortgage companies that foreclose on peoples’ homes even as they line their pockets with money from the federal bail out.
We in the People’s Economic Just Coalition believe it’s time to get serious about putting the needs of working class people first. We will not allow the corporations, the rich and their flunkies to force the economic crisis onto the backs of working people. February 7 is the first step. We invite you to come out and join us as we work to build a movement for justice.
---------------------------------------------------
The 5 Organizing Principals of the PEJC:
1. Agenda and Strategy Driven by the Community Members most
directly impacted by the economic depression.
2. Flexible and Mobile enough to respond to a variety of attacks
on the Working Class.
3. Demanding the Impossible: that which has been considered
Outrageous or "off-the-table" by mainstream reformist politics.
4. Politically Independent so as to be able to Demand the
Impossible.
5. Solidarity with all Oppressed Peoples: An Injury to One is an
Injury to All!
You can learn more and get involved with the coalition by visiting the website: http://peoplesbailoutct.wordpress.com
Excerpted from The CT People's Economic Justice Coalition page: http://peoplesbailoutct.wordpress.com/
Posted on January 11, 2009 by pdgoselin
This is a coalition of which I'm proud to be a member and strongly urge others to join! -Todd
...
Hurricane Katrina was not a natural disaster. It was a dangerous situation that became a man-made disaster because of the government’s neglect, indifference and downright hostility toward the people in its path. It was a human catastrophe fueled by contempt for working and poor people and in particular by straight-up no chaser racism. The problem wasn’t that there was a lack of sandbags or not enough buses to evacuate people from the City of New Orleans: the problem was that those in power didn’t give a damn if people drowned as long as it couldn’t be blamed on them.
We believe that the economic situation facing working people and poor people isn’t just a “downturn” or a “recession.” Those are clean, clinical-sounding terms that the politicians use to mask the suffering that’s in store for us and for our communities. What we see on the horizon is the economic equivalent of Hurricane Katrina: an emergency situation that will become a disaster if clear-headed, urgent action in defense of the fundamental rights and basic needs of the people is not taken.
That’s the reason we formed the People’s Economic Justice Coalition and it’s the reason we are calling for a people’s bailout budget for Connecticut. Because the same indifference and contempt is at work in our state, and the assembled media circus of politicians, experts, bureaucrats, talking heads, policy wonks and commentators are more concerned with having their pictures taken lifting sandbags than they are with protecting us from drowning.
At the national level, president-elect Obama has said loud and clear that in this period of intense economic crisis, the answer is not to cut government spending but to increase it. Fund “green” jobs programs. Fund infrastructure. Fund human services so that people who are losing their jobs don’t lose their homes and don’t lose hope. Even so, there are serious questions about whether Obama’s economic stimulus package will go far enough or be implemented fast enough to actually slow much less stop the recession.
But Governor Rell and her big business allies plan to do just the opposite. “Sacrifices” must be made, says Rell. She means that working people and poor people, children and the elderly, those who are most vulnerable all get thrown into the volcano while she and her rich friends feast. Their plan is to use the recession as an excuse to do what they have always wanted to do: slash state services, slash funding for local community-based programs, lay off state workers, eliminate agencies that help people keep their heads above water. And in their greed and venality, they are hoping that the federal stimulus package will provide just enough of a cushion for poor people that it doesn’t unduly embarrass them to have too many residents of the richest state in the U.S. unemployed or homeless.
The question is: what are we proposing in response? Simply this: the only responsible answer to this economic Katrina bearing down on our communities is to say No to any budget cuts, No to any layoffs, to fully fund the needs of our communities for education, health care, housing and for relief from evictions and foreclosures. And as part and parcel of keeping working class people afloat, the State of Connecticut must shift the tax burden from working people who are barely surviving to the wealthy and the big corporations that are barely struggling.
Now, we don’t expect that we’re going to convince Governor Rell or the legislature with economic arguments or appeals to their decency. But we believe that if we organize and stand together and demand what we need, we can win a people’s bailout budget.
We’re starting with a Community Meeting for a People’s Bailout in Hartford on February 7 (1pm-4pm at Hartford City Hall). We’re inviting everyone who is worried or frightened or angry about the economic crisis to come together on that day and share their concerns, and to be prepared to talk about what we need to do to fight back and get what we need to survive. Coming out of that meeting we want to be able to articulate the most pressing and critical demands of our different communities for a genuine People’s Bailout.
Next steps? Well that depends on what people have to say on February 7, but we want to build a series of highly visible - and maybe highly confrontational - events that will highlight the urgency of this situation. And we want to be able to respond to not just the budget but every critical development that affects our communities as the economic crisis unfolds. Taking the lead from groups in other cities that have taken on this fight, we should be targeting the institutions that are profiting from the economic crisis at our expense, such as the banks and mortgage companies that foreclose on peoples’ homes even as they line their pockets with money from the federal bail out.
We in the People’s Economic Just Coalition believe it’s time to get serious about putting the needs of working class people first. We will not allow the corporations, the rich and their flunkies to force the economic crisis onto the backs of working people. February 7 is the first step. We invite you to come out and join us as we work to build a movement for justice.
---------------------------------------------------
The 5 Organizing Principals of the PEJC:
1. Agenda and Strategy Driven by the Community Members most
directly impacted by the economic depression.
2. Flexible and Mobile enough to respond to a variety of attacks
on the Working Class.
3. Demanding the Impossible: that which has been considered
Outrageous or "off-the-table" by mainstream reformist politics.
4. Politically Independent so as to be able to Demand the
Impossible.
5. Solidarity with all Oppressed Peoples: An Injury to One is an
Injury to All!
You can learn more and get involved with the coalition by visiting the website: http://peoplesbailoutct.wordpress.com
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