All posts by carldavidson

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 →

antiwar, trade unions, unemployment

Huge Attendance at Rally in DC for Jobs, Justice, Education and Peace

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‘One Nation’ March Shows the Tough Fight

Ahead for the Emerging Progressive Majority

By Carl Davidson

Beaver County Blue

If you wanted to know what a dynamic and emerging progressive majority of Americans looked like, the place to be was the National Mall at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC on the beautiful and sunny Saturday afternoon of Oct. 2, 2010.

It was a sight to behold. Pulled together by the ‘One Nation Working Together’ coalition of some 400 groups, an estimated 175,000 people filled the area. They were the country’s trade unions, civil rights, women’s rights, and community organizations, peace and justice groups, and many more. The focus was jobs, justice and education, with sizable contingents against the wars as well.

“I hope they look at the mall today,” stated the Rev. Al Sharpton from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, referring to the GOP and the Tea Party right, “because this is what America looks like, not just one color or one gender.”

A rainbow of nationalities, men and women, young and old, and with a solid core from all sectors of the working class filled the area. The crowd’s mood was upbeat and militant, and they let it be known with a range of voices, from old-fashioned liberals to the socialist left, that they were fed up with the right wing assaults from Tea Party, the GOP neoliberals and the Blue Dog Democrats going along with them.

“This gathering is a wakeup call for the American people,” declared Harry Belafonte, in one of the strongest and most critical speeches of the day. “”Do we really believe that sending 100,000 troops to kill innocent men and women in Afghanistan and Pakistan makes any sense?” he continued, clearly and sharply criticizing Obama’s concession to the war machine. The actor-singer went on to attack the “crippling poison of racism” and “the undermining of the Constitution and the systematic attack on our most inalienable rights….At the heart of this danger is the Tea Party which is coming close to achieving its villainous ends. On November 2, in the millions, we must overburden our voting booths, and vote against those who would have us become a totalitarian state.”

Continue reading Huge Attendance at Rally in DC for Jobs, Justice, Education and Peace →

Economy, unemployment

The Unemployed Are Beginning to Get Organized

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Can The Jobless Become A Political Force?

 

From Huffington Post

Sept 22, 2010

Labor activists are hoping the nation’s nearly 15 million unemployed can be a political force in the upcoming midterm elections.

“We’re convinced that the jobless, the unemployed, are the swing vote of the 2010 midterms and if they know who their tormentors are, they will swing really hard left,” said Rick Sloan in an interview with HuffPost. To that end, Sloan, who is a spokesman for the International Association of Machinists, started a “Union of Unemployed” with a website that he says gets 35,000 visitors a month. He created a web ad and is organizing a pre-rally for unemployed folks before the One Nation Working Together rally on Oct. 2.

“These folks are registered and, for a great number of them they were the surge voters of 2008,” he said. “They were younger, they were black, they were Latino, they were blue-collar without high school, and they were college educated. That’s what the demographics of the Obama surge vote looked like. And they have suffered disproportionately in this recession.”

Continue reading The Unemployed Are Beginning to Get Organized →

antiwar, Community, health care, unemployment

Beaver County’s Big Knob Fair Meets the Peace and Jobs Movement

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Lessons Learned at the

Big Knob Grange Fair

 

By Randy Shannon and Carl Davidson

Beaver County Blue

The Big Knob Grange Fair, held Aug. 30 through Sept. 4 up in the lovely rolling hills above Rochester, PA, a distressed mill town at the confluence of the Beaver and Ohio rivers, is a “big doin’s’ in Beaver County, and has been for 70 years or so.

It features blue grass and country rock bands, tractor and truck ‘pulls,’ a demolition derby, dozens of rides for kids, booths for local politicians, hunting clubs, garden clubs, home improvement vendors, and local artisans. The Grange members serve delicious home-cooked food, display prize-winning livestock, fowl, and garden produce. The oldest and the latest in farm equipment are also on display. In recent years, the Fair draws from 30,000 to 40,000 semi-rural farmers and blue-collar workers with their families, and a horde of young people, and this year, with glorious weather, was no different.

This year the Fair had a new feature co-sponsored by Beaver County Peace Links and the 4th CD Chapter of Progressive Democrats of America. Near the middle of the big striped circus tent was a table with a large banner hanging behind it: ‘War Is Making You Poor!’ Many of the hundreds of passersby on any one of the five days stopped and did a double take. Some ambled on, but a good number stayed to chat and see what it was all about.

“We were there every day from 4pm until 10pm,” said Randy Shannon, treasurer of the 4th CD Progressive Democrats of America. “People start flowing in after work. In addition to our banner, there was a giant 4ft x 5ft poster showing that Beaver County taxpayers have shelled out $54 million per year for the last ten years for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is almost the same amount as the county’s annual general fund tax collections.”

Carl Davidson explained his contribution: “We set up an internet connection with a cell phone. With a monitor and a laptop I showed some antiwar videos picked by Beaver County Peace Links, including a looping video of an apple pie being divided like the US budget. The military got half the pie.”

Todd and Emily Davis made a unique contribution to the table. Todd, a Methodist pastor, is the chairperson of Peace Links. They labeled 10 jars with the main categories of the federal budget. They were arrayed in front of a small backdrop that read: ‘Take the penny poll: how would YOU spend your tax dollars.’

Continue reading Beaver County’s Big Knob Fair Meets the Peace and Jobs Movement →