The Greenfield Bridge is in such bad repair that it has catch pans under it to capture falling debris. As several hundred protestors surged across the bridge – including construction workers bearing tools and equipment – a large "Good Jobs Now" banner was displayed for drivers on Interstate 376.
By:’Irishbobcat’
OhioLeft Yahoo Group
Feb 5, 2010 – The green-collar jobs movement just got another major boost: a groundbreaking new report underscores how the growing green economy can provide high quality jobs for those who need them most. The author, Professor Raquel Rivera Pinderhughes of San Francisco State University, is a leading national expert on green-collar jobs.
This report deepens our understanding of how to harness green business growth to build pathways out of poverty. Prof. Pinderhughes’ research provides us with critical guidance as we develop the Oakland Green Jobs Corps, the nation’s first attempt to carry out the model that Professor Pinderhughes describes in her report. Continue reading Green Jobs – Invest Where We Need It Most
By Carl Davidson
Beaver County Blue
When you walk into a large and stately Washington, DC hotel lobby and find it teeming with thousands of smiling, buzzing people-half in labor union jackets and ball caps, the other half dressed in 30-something hip-hop causal-you know some special is happening.
This was the lively, energized scene for three cold wintry days this Feb 4-6 at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, as nearly 3000 activists and organizers gathered for the “Good Jobs, Green Jobs” National Conference. The gathering was convened by more than 100 organizations, representing every major trade union and every major environmental group in the country, among others. Continue reading Green Jobs 2009: Steelworkers Meet Hip-Hoppers and Tree-Huggers
By Bob Bauder
Beaver County Times
Feb.1, 2009 – President Barack Obama’s plan for putting Americans to work by rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure is an old idea, dating back to the Great Depression and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal.
Among the alphabet soup of agencies created during the New Deal, the Works Progress Administration stands out as one of the most successful.
From 1935 to 1943, the WPA spent about $10.5 billion (about $159 billion in 2008 dollars) and employed about 8.5 million Americans who would have otherwise been on relief rolls. Continue reading Beaver County’s Recovery in the 1930s
We Are Responsible for Br
inging Change
by Randy Shannon
PA 4th CD Chapter, Progressive Democrats of America
While the media speculates on President-Elect Obama’s cabinet picks, much of the electorate that put him in office is anticipating decisive action from the government to address the nation’s woes. Progressive Democrats need to focus on how to help bring about the change that the Obama campaign promised. Progressive Democrats of America should adopt a program of concrete steps needed in the first hundred days of the Obama administration to lay the basis for an economic recovery.
Now is the time for mass petitions for single payer healthcare, employee free choice, a peaceful foreign policy, rebuilding the infrastructure, and full funding for college education. It’s important to correlate the tactics of mass action to the stance of the ruling political coalition. It is now time, not to call for mass protest, but mass petition of our newly elected government. Not criticism, but appeals.
500,000 people in Washington DC this coming spring break petitioning Congress for single payer healthcare, employee free choice, full funding for college education, and rebuilding, for example, the crumbling locks and dams on the Ohio River will get the nation moving in the right direction.
Continue reading “Change comes from the bottom up.” Barack Obama
Photo: Montgomery Lock and Dam, Monaca, PA
Pittsburgh owes its existence to its rivers, which first served as roads through the wilderness. To this day, the city’s economic fortunes are still linked to river traffic — this is the second-largest inland port in the United States.
Those barges plying our three rivers require an efficient, reliable system of locks and dams, which, in the region’s best interest, should be kept in good repair. As it happens, this is also in the nation’s interest. As he sets his national agenda, it is vital that President-elect Barack Obama keep this in mind because the system is under severe strain.
Continue reading Pittsburgh Post Gazette Picks up PDA Infrastructure Alert!
By Randy Shannon
Progressive Democrats of America
The Ohio River and its tributaries, the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River are the artery of commerce to the Port of Pittsburgh, the second largest inland port of the United States. Due to years of negligence and underfunding of our infrastructure this navigation system is on the verge of catastrophic failure. The Army Corps of Engineers press release linked here
states in the calmest language possible that we face a potential social, economic, and ecological disaster due to the critical disrepair of the locks and dams that make the rivers navigable. A dam failure would flood thousands of acres, starve water and sanitation facilities, and halt navigation. Most economic activity in the region will shut down, including the Pittsburgh International Airport and steel and cement production. The region would experience shortages of gasoline and basic foodstuff. Twelve coal fired electric power plants would face shutdown due to the halt of coal shipments on the rivers.
Continue reading Pittsburgh Infrastructure Emergency
Beaver County Blue: Voice of the 17th CD of Progressive Democrats of America 