Kurt Nicklas
2008-11-01 15:15:06 UTC
{Like Hussein, the Communists like wealth redistribution
by government force.)
http://pww.org/article/articleview/13934/
EDITORIAL: Reclaiming our country
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 10/31/08 11:25
The United States now stands at one of the most significant crossroads
in our history. The choice before voters on Nov. 4 is crystal clear:
Continue the catastrophic slide of the last eight years into the abyss
of economic disintegration, growing human misery at home and costly,
deadly adventurism abroad. Or, continue instead to build the broad
labor-led coalition which can help a new administration and Congress
chart a path to peaceful, cooperative international relations and an
economy where people earn decent wages for producing needed goods and
services and are assured quality affordable health care and other human
needs, while protecting our environment.
Such a new administration and Congress will have much to overcome. On
the heels of two decades of Reaganomics and provocative military
skirmishing, the eight Bush years have seen the burgeoning of the
military-industrial complex and the further hollowing-out of the economy
under the impact of parasitic and rapacious finance capital.
In the Bush years, Americans have lost jobs, pensions, health care and
homes, and have become ensnared in the lenders? web as they struggled to
meet their families? needs. Infrastructure has decayed, education has
deteriorated, human services and safety nets have been shredded, and
racism and chauvinism have been cultivated under the banner of national
security. The Supreme Court has been pushed farther to the right, the
foreign incursions of the late 20th century have morphed into disastrous
and devastating wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the environment has been
strip-mined, and the gap between the incomes of the top 1 percent and
the majority of people has become a yawning gulf.
Finally, even the powerful financial industry has overreached itself,
and cries out for help at the expense of the very taxpayers who have
borne the brunt of its excesses.
But enough of that legacy. Ordinary Americans know it well. What?s
ahead? A very broad coalition of labor, environment and community
organizations is bringing forward shorter- and longer-term programs to
resolve the present financial crisis and build a stable and expanding
economy meeting the needs of the vast majority of Americans.
Under the auspices of the Campaign for America?s Future, over 30
national organizations including the AFL-CIO and SEIU have issued a
?common sense? program to overcome the immediate financial crisis.
Included are public oversight of ?bailout? measures with participation
of workers and consumers, re-regulation of the finance industry, major
public investment in new energy and infrastructure projects, extending
and expanding unemployment insurance and food stamps, measures to keep
threatened homeowners in their homes and help to states so they can
avoid catastrophic cuts in human services.
The Communications Workers of America?s long-range economic recovery
program focuses on quality jobs and worker bargaining rights,
emphasizing passage of the Employee Free Choice Act to level the playing
field for organizing unions and building a world-class health care
system funded by a broad-based tax.
The Apollo Alliance, uniting labor, environmental, community and
business, projects a program for national energy efficiency, renewable
energy, infrastructure and public transit and rebuilding American
manufacturing based on a clean energy future.
Peace organizations are demanding an end to the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, the return home of all troops and contractors, elimination
of nuclear weapons and development of a foreign policy based on
cooperation and peace.
Racial justice and immigrant rights organizations are demanding a new
push to end injustice and move toward equality in all areas of life,
from jobs and workers? rights to housing, education and health care.
What all these programs have in common is ending actions that devastate
people and the environment, and rebuilding a productive economy and
society to meet the needs of workers and their families through
producing needed goods and services, assuring sufficient income for a
decent living standard, upholding labor and human rights and protecting
the environment.
Putting them forward are the same forces that have come together to
elect a president and Congress with a new, positive approach to the
functioning of the United States in the 21st century. That president and
that Congress will need guidance, help and ?yes ? pressure from this
broad coalition if the changes so urgently needed are to be won.
by government force.)
http://pww.org/article/articleview/13934/
EDITORIAL: Reclaiming our country
Archive - Front Page Headline
Author: PWW Editorial BoardPeople's Weekly World Newspaper, 10/31/08 11:25
The United States now stands at one of the most significant crossroads
in our history. The choice before voters on Nov. 4 is crystal clear:
Continue the catastrophic slide of the last eight years into the abyss
of economic disintegration, growing human misery at home and costly,
deadly adventurism abroad. Or, continue instead to build the broad
labor-led coalition which can help a new administration and Congress
chart a path to peaceful, cooperative international relations and an
economy where people earn decent wages for producing needed goods and
services and are assured quality affordable health care and other human
needs, while protecting our environment.
Such a new administration and Congress will have much to overcome. On
the heels of two decades of Reaganomics and provocative military
skirmishing, the eight Bush years have seen the burgeoning of the
military-industrial complex and the further hollowing-out of the economy
under the impact of parasitic and rapacious finance capital.
In the Bush years, Americans have lost jobs, pensions, health care and
homes, and have become ensnared in the lenders? web as they struggled to
meet their families? needs. Infrastructure has decayed, education has
deteriorated, human services and safety nets have been shredded, and
racism and chauvinism have been cultivated under the banner of national
security. The Supreme Court has been pushed farther to the right, the
foreign incursions of the late 20th century have morphed into disastrous
and devastating wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the environment has been
strip-mined, and the gap between the incomes of the top 1 percent and
the majority of people has become a yawning gulf.
Finally, even the powerful financial industry has overreached itself,
and cries out for help at the expense of the very taxpayers who have
borne the brunt of its excesses.
But enough of that legacy. Ordinary Americans know it well. What?s
ahead? A very broad coalition of labor, environment and community
organizations is bringing forward shorter- and longer-term programs to
resolve the present financial crisis and build a stable and expanding
economy meeting the needs of the vast majority of Americans.
Under the auspices of the Campaign for America?s Future, over 30
national organizations including the AFL-CIO and SEIU have issued a
?common sense? program to overcome the immediate financial crisis.
Included are public oversight of ?bailout? measures with participation
of workers and consumers, re-regulation of the finance industry, major
public investment in new energy and infrastructure projects, extending
and expanding unemployment insurance and food stamps, measures to keep
threatened homeowners in their homes and help to states so they can
avoid catastrophic cuts in human services.
The Communications Workers of America?s long-range economic recovery
program focuses on quality jobs and worker bargaining rights,
emphasizing passage of the Employee Free Choice Act to level the playing
field for organizing unions and building a world-class health care
system funded by a broad-based tax.
The Apollo Alliance, uniting labor, environmental, community and
business, projects a program for national energy efficiency, renewable
energy, infrastructure and public transit and rebuilding American
manufacturing based on a clean energy future.
Peace organizations are demanding an end to the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, the return home of all troops and contractors, elimination
of nuclear weapons and development of a foreign policy based on
cooperation and peace.
Racial justice and immigrant rights organizations are demanding a new
push to end injustice and move toward equality in all areas of life,
from jobs and workers? rights to housing, education and health care.
What all these programs have in common is ending actions that devastate
people and the environment, and rebuilding a productive economy and
society to meet the needs of workers and their families through
producing needed goods and services, assuring sufficient income for a
decent living standard, upholding labor and human rights and protecting
the environment.
Putting them forward are the same forces that have come together to
elect a president and Congress with a new, positive approach to the
functioning of the United States in the 21st century. That president and
that Congress will need guidance, help and ?yes ? pressure from this
broad coalition if the changes so urgently needed are to be won.