All posts by carldavidson

Economy, safety net

The Critical Battleground of Social Security

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Study: Half of Seniors at Risk for Poverty

Photo credit: Alliance for Retired Americans

By James Parks

Progressive America Rising via AFL-CIO Blog

Here’s one big reason congressional Republicans and the deficit hawks are dead wrong about cutting Social Security [1] benefits: According to a new study, nearly half (47.4 percent) of all Americans between the ages of 60 and 90 will experience at least one year of poverty or near poverty and seniors of color are twice as likely to be affected.

The study by Mark Rank, a professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis, shows that 58 percent of seniors between 60 and 84 will, at some point, not have enough liquid assets to allow them to weather an unanticipated expense or downturn in income.

But if you are a senior who is black or unmarried or have less than a high school education, the likelihood that you will be poor at some point increases dramatically. Rank found that although 32.7 percent of white older Americans will experience at least one year below the official poverty line, the percentage for black older Americans was nearly double at 64.6 percent.

Continue reading The Critical Battleground of Social Security →

Economy, labor, trade unions

UE Workers Want to Takeover Gasket Plant

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Boston-Area Union Will Block

Factory Auction to Save Jobs

By Jane Slaughter
solidarityeconomy.net

via Labor Notes

Nov. 29, 2010 – In a move to save factory jobs that evokes shades of the ’30s, the United Electrical Workers [1] are asking supporters to block a December 14 auction of presses and equipment from a plant south of Boston. The UE is calling for mass picketing and blockading of entrances to the 80-year-old plant if necessary.

Esterline Technologies Corp. of Bellevue, Washington, has refused to hold off on selling the equipment till another buyer can be found. The union’s request to buy the closed plant, which would create an employee-owned factory, has been ignored.

“They told us a year ago they did not want the presses or equipment,” said UE Local 204 President Scott Marques. “But they would rather junk them than sell them to us.”

The plant makes crucial door-seals and silicone gaskets for aircraft. Esterline is consolidating operations in Southern California and in Mexico.

Continue reading UE Workers Want to Takeover Gasket Plant →

Blue Dogs, Democrats, elections

Can the Democratic Party Survive the Blue Dogs? – A Case Study of PA 4th CD Rep. Jason Altmire

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Can the Democratic Party Survive the Blue Dogs?

by Randy Shannon

Treasurer, PA 4th CD Chapter, Progressive Democrats of America

Depressing the Vote – Depressing Democracy

“The Money & Media Election Complex,” an article in The Nation magazine, discusses the unprecedented $4 billion spent on the 2010 election and its influence on voter turnout.

To those bankrolling the system, voter cynicism and apathy are welcome…Their interests are best served by narrowing the range of debate and participation, since that makes it easier to buy the government.

This article intends to show that the analysis quoted above is valid based on the role of Jason Altmire’s campaign in the PA 4th Congressional District.

Jason Altmire’s 2010 campaign organization was well funded by corporate donors. His message depressed voter turnout and helped defeat the Democratic ticket. Altmire’s recent 2010 victory prepared the ground for a stronger Republican challenge to the Democratic Party in 2011.

If the Democratic Party is to carry forward the legacy of the New Deal, it must work for unity around a message that aggressively fights for peace and prosperity for the working families of our district and against the Republican agenda of war and austerity.

Representative Jason Altmire Wins Close Race

Congressman Jason Altmire, a member of the Blue Dog caucus and the New Democrat coalition was returned to the new 112th Congress to represent the PA 4th Congressional District. He defeated Keith Rothfus, a Republican attorney supported by local tea party activists.

Continue reading Can the Democratic Party Survive the Blue Dogs? – A Case Study of PA 4th CD Rep. Jason Altmire →

elections

Portuguese Workers Use General Strike to fight Bankster Austerity

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Poverty Fuels Anger During

General Strike in Portugal

By Emilio Rappold
Portside.org via Monsters and Critics

PNov 24, 201 – Lisbon – Fatima, 82, barely has enough to eat herself, yet she has come to distribute bread buns to pickets in front of a Lisbon post office to express her support for Wednesday’s general strike in Portugal.

‘I fully back the strike, because we are hungry,’ she fumes.

‘Two of my three sons have no job,’ the petite woman complains. ‘When did we last see such a situation in Portugal?’

Continue reading Portuguese Workers Use General Strike to fight Bankster Austerity →

Economy, unemployment

Where Do Jobs Come From? Hint: Not A Simple Answer

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Businesses Do Not Create Jobs

By Dave Johnson
Beaver County Blue
via Campaign for America’s Future
Nov 11, 2010

Businesses do not create jobs. In fact, the way our economy is structured the incentive is for businesses to get rid of as many jobs as they can.

Demand Creates Jobs

A job is created when demand for goods or services is greater than the existing ability to provide them. When there is a demand, people will see the need and fill it. Either someone will start filling the demand alone, or form a new business to fill it or an existing provider of the good or service will add employees as needed. (Actually a job can be created by a business, a government, a non-profit organization or just a person doing the job, depending on the nature of the good or service that is required.)

Continue reading Where Do Jobs Come From? Hint: Not A Simple Answer →

antiwar, unemployment

Wars Make Us Poor, Block New Job Creation

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Philadelphia Town Meeting For Jobs Not Wars is a rousing success

By John Grant

Over 100 people attended the eight-hour Town Meeting For Jobs Not Wars on Saturday, October 30th from 9AM to 3PM in an auditorium at Philadelphia Community College. On the same day, Jon Stewart had a major rally in Washington D.C. and President Obama made an appearance at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Organizers from the Coalition For Jobs Not Wars, the group that sponsored the town meeting, declared it a rousing success and a propitious beginning for the newly created coalition. So far, the coalition is made up of 13 Philadelphia community and activist groups. The list is expected to grow in the coming weeks and months. A follow-up meeting will be scheduled soon to evaluate the meeting and plan for the future.

The Town Meeting featured twelve speakers divided into morning and afternoon panels. US Congressman Chaka Fattah was one of the speakers. The speakers focused on the need to finance job programs, alternative energy development and other domestic needs.

Continue reading Wars Make Us Poor, Block New Job Creation →

Community, Environment

Pittsburgh Rally Defends Clean Water, Opposes Natural Gas ‘Fracking’

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Photos by Bill Allen

Western PA Activists

Deliver ‘Street Heat’ vs.

Marcellus Shale ‘Frackers’

By Carl Davidson

Beaver County Blue

“No Fracking Way! No Fracking Way!” was the chant resounding off the steel, granite and glass walls in downtown Pittsburgh on the sunny afternoon on Nov. 3, as nearly 500 environmental activists headed for the David Lawrence Convention Center. Their target was a gathering of 2000 natural gas drillers being addressed by Karl Rove, advisor to former President George W Bush.

Inside, the industry executives were meeting to discuss the “future” of hydro-fracking gas drilling and planning to use heavy explosives to blast apart the 4000-foot-deep Marcellus Shale formation to get the natural gas beneath.

“Only a dying soul,” said Stephen Cleghorn, “can contemplate the destruction of life that they’re discussing in that building right now!” Cleghorn is Reynoldsville, PA farmer, and his views reflected those of many semi-rural residents of Pennsylvania and other nearby states, where water was polluted and cattle died.

“They promise people all sorts of money,” said Bob Schmetzer, “but what’s your home worth if you have bad water? Nothing!” Schmetzer, carrying a placard demanding ‘prosecute the polluters,’ is the council president of South Heights in Beaver County, and the vice president of the 4th CD Progressive Democrats of America.

Continue reading Pittsburgh Rally Defends Clean Water, Opposes Natural Gas ‘Fracking’ →

Banks, Right Wing, trade unions

Why Finance Capital Is Making You Sick of Voting

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What To Do Nov 2?

Follow the Money…

By Robert Creamer
Huffington Post

In the movie version of the story of Watergate — “All the President’s Men” – the Nixon administration source who met Bob Woodward in the underground garage to provide him clues — “Deep Throat” — famously tells Woodward to “follow the money.” Apparently those lines were never uttered in real life, but it’s good advice in politics nonetheless.

The other day, California’s Arnold Schwarzenegger – with whom I rarely agree – said something that should be repeated over and over between now and the mid-term elections. Schwarzenegger was referring to oil company financial support for California’s Proposition 23 that would shelve the state’s four-year-old climate legislation until the state’s unemployment rate hits 5.5% when he said:

“Does anyone really believe that these companies, out of the goodness of their black oil hearts, are spending millions and millions of dollars to protect jobs?” He continued. “….It’s not about jobs at all, ladies and gentlemen. It’s about their ability to pollute and thus protect their profits.”

Continue reading Why Finance Capital Is Making You Sick of Voting →

Community, health care, labor

Braddock: UPMC Wrecking Working-Class Health Care

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Braddock Fights for its Hospital

By Kay Tillow
Unions for Single Payer

Oct.17, 2010 – Braddock, the home of many a working class battle, now fights to save its hospital, the best building in town, from the wrecker’s ball. Braddock, Pennsylvania, the site of the US Steel’s Edgar Thompson Works, lies along the north bank of the Monongahela just up the river from Pittsburgh.

Braddock’s story is repeated across the country as mills close and once thriving working class communities are deserted by the hospitals they built. The people of Braddock are saying “no” to the gigantic University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) as it builds in wealthy areas while closing the hospitals where they are needed most–Braddock, Aliquippa, Southside.

The people of Braddock are fighting back. With the help of the Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Single-Payer Healthcare they organized “Save Our Community Hospitals” (SOCH). In an effort to stop the demolition they are maintaining a vigil at the hospital and seeking legal proceedings to block it. They won a victory when the demolition was halted by an invalid permit.

UPMC, an $8 billion corporation, now occupies the former US Steel building that dominates the Pittsburgh Skyline. In recent years UPMC has established itself as a global enterprise with overseas ventures in Sicily and Ireland. UPMC just announced a $16 million advertising and branding campaign with a new warm and fuzzy purple logo. It has plenty of money to keep the Braddock Hospital open.

SOCH urges supporters to call UPMC CEO, Jeffrey Romoff to demand that the hospital be saved and emergency service be restored to Braddock.

Romoff’s number is: 412-647-3555

The passage of HR 676, national single payer health care, would end the flight of hospitals and health care away from urban centers and hard hit areas that have lost manufacturing jobs. HR 676 would be publicly funded making everyone an “equally valuable” patient stopping the economic incentives that now close hospitals and physicians offices.

After you call Jeff Romoff, call your congressperson and urge co-sponsorship for HR 676.

Kay Tillow
All Unions Committee For Single Payer Health Care–HR 676
c/o Nurses Professional Organization (NPO)
1169 Eastern Parkway, Suite 2218
Louisville, KY 40217

Email: nursenpo@aol.com
http://unionsforsinglepayer.org/

Community, labor, unemployment

Marching for Jobs, Justice and Peace: A Bus Captain’s Story

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Randy and Tina Shanon, Oct 2 in DC

Photo: Randy & Tina Shannon, Oct 2 in DC

We’re One Nation Working Together

By Tina Shannon

President, PA 4th CD Chapter
Progressive Democrats of America

October 11, 2010 – It was a real pleasure to work with labor folks and other community leaders to organize four buses to leave Beaver County for the One Nation Rally that took place on Saturday Oct. 2nd. We started planning and soliciting donations in September.

The coalition quickly grew to include the local NAACP, members from many unions, who were present at various points in time, as well as the Minority Coalition. The religious community of Beaver County was also represented.

I was surprised how quickly donations rolled in from the various union locals. Our PDA chapter made our modest contribution right away. Several union organizations, namely SEIU, USW, and Beaver-Lawrence Labor Council were very supportive. The NAACP made a contribution. Individuals pitched in too.

Continue reading Marching for Jobs, Justice and Peace: A Bus Captain’s Story →