|
|
DEMOCRATIC
SOCIALISTS
OF
AMERICA
|
July 13,
2010
|
 | ||
|
News from DSA's National Office |
||
|
Join us in
Washington, DC to March for Jobs
10/2/10
All of us have been dismayed, to say the least, by the failure of the Obama Administration to make more progress on restoring the economy, particularly in regards to job creation, fighting foreclosures and preventing further job losses resulting from budget cuts by state and local governments.
The administration's failure represents both a lack of leadership and a political shift toward the position of the "deficit hawks" - those Republicans and Democrats who believe that government spending, even counter-cyclical deficit spending to counter the impact of the Great Recession, represents a greater threat to the economy than the renewed recession the cutbacks the deficit hawks advocate would cause. The influence of the deficit hawks is the main reason that the Senate has failed to pass any re-authorization of the extension of unemployment benefits and why the version the House passed did not include an extension of subsidized COBRA (health care) benefits.
A new coalition has come together to fight back on the jobs
and the other issues necessary to save our economy. they have called for a March
for Jobs on October 2nd just three months away. The leadership for this
coalition comes from 1199, the New York based hospital workers union, and the national NAACP. Other unions, including the AFL-CIO and SEIU are already involved. A growing list of community organizations is on board. DSA has endorsed the March for Jobs, as did the U.S. Social Forum, when it convened in Detroit three weeks ago. In our view this mobilization can motivate grass roots activism that fights back against Congress' and the administration's retreat on job creation.
It is
vital that this march succeed. The risk of a double dip recession, bringing
additional large-scale job losses, increases every day. Without additional
public jobs programs and federal aid to prevent layoffs by state and local
governments, we will face another major economic
contraction.
The national office is already in touch with
the March for Jobs coalition (ONE NATION WORKING, TOGETHER).
The coalition's web site, OneNationWorkingTogether.org, is up.
In addition to calling for Jobs the march demands repair of our
immigration system, and Wall Street reform! The coalition specifically demands
the change that we voted for.
DSA is committed to doing everything
it can do to make the March for Jobs a success. We urge as many of our members
as possible to attend and to march with DSA on October 2nd. DSA's
National Political Committee has rescheduled its fall meeting around the march,
so it members will be able to attend. Local DSA groups are beginning to make
plans to hold meetings in September to build for the
march.
Coming out of the convention DSA established a task force on a new bill of economic rights. We thought that using the language of "rights" would be a productive way of framing the demands that make up our interim political program. Speaking the language of social and economic rights would also help us explain to the public some of the basic arguments in favor of public goods and social insurance.
Two weeks ago at the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit we released the bill of
rights, which we have decided to call a bill of social and economic
rights. We produced an attractive new brochure that focuses on the damage to
our society caused by excessive corporate power and outlines the new rights we
believe are necessary if all residents of the United States are to have
substantive equality of opportunity. This program and its supporting materials
are directly relevant to the March for Jobs.
Additionally, we produced a background paper - a 12-page booklet that makes a detailed case for each of the rights. At the moment we do not have the resources to print this in bulk, but you can download a copy from our web site. The booklet is on the web site now. and in
another week or two we will have individual leaflets for each of the specific
rights we enumerate.
The right is doing its best to exploit economic fears and obstruct
the administration in Washington. They are launching fierce attacks on public
employees and their unions, and on immigrants in an effort to create new groups
of scapegoats.
One goal of the coalition--One Nation Working, together is to
directly counter the divisive politics of hate that the extreme right is putting
forward.
Defending immigrant rights is a crucial struggle for a multi-racial democratic left and DSA has new resources to aid work in this arena. SB1070, the racist immigration law passed in Arizona, has spawned copycat measures in at least a dozen states. New proposals such as unconstitutional state initiatives to deny citizenship rights to U.S.-born children of undocumented people are more evidence of a growing racist hysteria focused on Latinos. The new DSA leaflet Breathing While Brown is a direct response to SB1070 and is now posted on our web site.
DSA News will be used on a regular
basis to spread the word about
important information on the March for Jobs, such as local coordinators, group
travel to Washington, where the DSA contingent in Washington will meet up, who
is speaking, etc. as it develops. What you can do now is to mark the
date--October 2, 2010 on your calendar, plan on coming and email me now to commit to marching with DSA on
October 2.
In solidarity,
Frank Llewellyn
National Director
|
|
Paid for by DSA, 75 Maiden
Lane, Suite 505, New York, N.Y. 10038 (212)
727-8610 |
|