[Marxism] Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign

[David Walsh <davidrail68@xxxxxxxxx>]

In recent months, we have witnessed billions of dollars pumped into the 
financial institutions WITH NO STRINGS ATTACHED. Reckless behavior and greed 
have been graced with the most extravagant rewards, allowing the rich to get 
even richer. After receiving their bailout, A.I.G. executives resumed their 
plans for a retreat at a lavish resort. Meanwhile, foreclosures have risen, 
unemployment has soared, and misery has spread with virtually nothing being 
done for the millions of workers suffering from these afflictions.
We cannot sit back and simply hope that things will get better. The financial 
executives have organized themselves and lobbied for bailouts. We must now do 
the same. We must organize ourselves and mount a campaign, insisting that 
government programs benefit the majority of the population first and foremost, 
not the super wealthy small minority.
At this historic crossroads, as we face the prospects of another Great 
Depression, we, the undersigned dedicate ourselves to forging the broadest 
unity in action among those in the labor movement, Black and Latino 
organizations, immigrant rights groups, and antiwar and other social justice 
protest movements to secure the emergency measures listed below.
We endorse these demands as necessary steps to address the pressing needs of 
working people and the oppressed in general so that we can all enjoy a secure 
and comfortable life and find relief from an economic crisis we had no part in 
creating. We are committed to reaching out to more workers and encouraging them 
to endorse our demands and join our movement, the Workers Emergency Recovery 
Campaign (WERC), so that we can form committees across the country, organize 
educational forums, and then aim at building a national conference to promote 
this campaign. In this way we can begin to win the majority of working people 
to this agenda. In solidarity we can win.
Here are 10 fundamental demands that we believe should be included in a 
Workersâ Emergency Recovery Plan to Bail out Working People â NOT Wall 
Street:
1. Put a halt to the Wall Street bailout plan. Not one more penny should be 
earmarked to bail out the bankers and speculators. Itâs time to bail out 
working people.
Enact a moratorium on all home foreclosures, utility shut-offs, evictions and 
rent hikes. Nationalize the mortgage industry, including Fannie Mae and Freddie 
Mac.
Enact H.R. 676 â the universal, single-payer healthcare plan. Take the 
private insurance companies out of the healthcare equation. Guarantee fully 
funded pensions for retirees, along with healthcare and other benefits.
Enact the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) so that every worker can have union 
representation.
Stop the layoffs in auto and other industries across the country. Nationalize 
the Big 3 automakers. Re-tool the auto industry to build rapid mass transit, 
solar, and wind systems.
Stop the scapegoating of immigrant workers. Stop the ICE raids and deportations.
End all funding for the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring our troops 
home now. The war expenditures in these countries alone are estimated at $3 
trillion. Redirect all war funding to meet human needs.
Enact a massive national reconstruction public works program (minimum 
expenditure needed of $1 trillion) to rebuild the nationâs schools, hospitals 
and crumbling infrastructure and to put millions of people back to work at a 
union-scale wage. Provide all necessary funding for a genuine reconstruction 
program in the Gulf Coast; enact the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act (H.R. 4048).
Defend and expand the rights and economic security of those who are unable to 
work. Grant living-wage benefits to single parents, disabled, seniors, and the 
unemployed. End the arbitrary, punitive time limits, sanctions, denial of 
education, and forced unwaged workfare in the TANF welfare program.
Tax the corporations and the rich â not working people â to finance a 
workersâ recovery plan. The rich currently enjoy historically high levels of 
wealth while being taxed at bargain-basement rates. Implement a retroactive tax 
on windfall revenue on the oil-energy industry, return capital income taxation 
to 1981 levels, and repatriate the $2 trillion from the offshore tax havens

Dave Walsh

www.socialistviewpoint.org


      

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