tagged w/ free speech tv
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by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger
Tens of thousands of Americans rallied for jobs and justice at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on Saturday. Organizers say that 175,000 people turned out for the One Nation Working Together rally, which was organized by labor unions, the NAACP, and other progressive groups. In an interview with GritTV’s Laura Flanders, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, a leader of the One Nation coalition, summed up the agenda: “Jobs, jobs, and more jobs.”
America isn’t working
In total, 8 million jobs have been lost in this recession and 2.5 million homes have been repossessed. According to the official figures, about 10% of Americans are unemployed. The true number may be much higher because the official stats don’t count those who have given up looking for work. In AlterNet, NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous, another featured speaker at One Nation, points out that the black unemployment rate is nearly twice that of whites. Another 11 million Americans are underemployed, according Trumka.
No end in sight
An already bleak job market is about to get even bleaker. Last week, Senate Republicans scuttled a popular emergency fund to create jobs and an extension of long-term unemployment insurance benefits, as Andy Kroll reports in Mother Jones.
Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly offers more details on the now-defunct job creation program known as the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) emergency fund. The fund provided cash to create jobs in the public and private sectors. Over 240,000 people in 32 states and the District of Columbia worked at jobs created with TANF subsidies. Last week, Senate Democrats lost their fight to extend the program for another 3 months. With the TANF money gone, layoffs will soon follow.
The Department of Labor will release the its monthly unemployment statistics on Friday. One group of independent analysts predicts that September’s unemployment rate will be higher than the previous month, according to Brian Beutler of Talking Points Memo. Unemployment rose from 9.6% in July to 9.7% in August and experts surveyed by Bloomberg News expect the trend to continue. It’s doubtful that the economy produced enough new jobs to make up for all the census workers whose temporary jobs ended.
Job skills for America
On the bright side, President Barack Obama is scheduled to unveil a new job training program this week, Annie Lowrey reports in The Michigan Messenger. The program is called Skills for America’s Future. The goal of the project is to encourage partnerships between community colleges and corporations. Colleges and companies will work together to identify areas of rapid job growth and train students to fill those jobs. So far, five companies have agreed to participate in the program, including the Gap., Accenture, United Technologies, PG&E and McDonald’s.
Lowrey argues that this kind of training program will do little to help unemployment in the short term. Right now, companies aren’t hiring because there’s an economy-wide lack of demand, not because they can’t fill positions for lack of trained workers. Demand is low because unemployment is high. Quite simply, people buy less when they don’t have jobs, or fear that they will lose their jobs. It’s a Catch-22. The jobs won’t come back because not enough people have jobs.
Food stamps are stimulus
At the most basic level, an economic stimulus package is designed to break the no jobs/no demand/no jobs impasse by injecting large amounts of cash into the economy. Extending unemployment benefits makes for very effective stimulus because the unemployed typically spend their money quickly. Food stamps are another very efficient stimulus because recipients redeem them right away. To give you some indication of how quickly, consider the Wal-Mart at Midnight effect, which Lowrey discusses in the Washington Independent.
Wal-Mart managers are noticing that increasing numbers of customers are buying staples like bread, milk, and baby formula at midnight on the first of the month. That’s because state governments directly deposit welfare and food stamp benefits into debit accounts at midnight. Wal-Mart says it brings in extra staff to keep up with the influx of customers during this period.
By contrast, tax cuts are an inefficient stimulus, especially if the cuts go to people who are already wealthy. In tough times, people who already have everything they need may prefer to save their extra money instead of blowing it on luxuries. Rich people will not throng Best Buy at midnight on tax refund day, no matter how big their checks are.
The high cost of economic inequality
It would be nice to think that unemployment is part of a cyclical downturn, but there is mounting evidence that short-term unemployment is a symptom of a deeper problem: pervasive and growing inequality. Sam Petulla of the American Prospect interviews economist Jacob Hacker and political scientist Paul Pierson about their new book, Winner Take All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer and Turned its Back on the Middle Class.
The authors note that the U.S. has greater inequality than other industrialized countries. Since the 1970s, the richest Americans have gotten much richer while the rest of us lagged further behind. The authors found that almost 40% of household income gains from 1979-2007 went to the richest 1% of households. The trend is accelerating: the top 1% of households pocketed over half of the economic gains of the 2000s. Hacker and Pierson blame tax cuts for the wealth, lax financial regulations that allow the wealthy to rake in unprecedented profits, and stagnating middle class wages for the widening gap between the ultra-rich and the rest of society.
This brings us back to the old demand/jobs paradox. Contrary to the platitudes of trickledown economics, shoveling an ever greater share of society’s resources to the ultra-rich doesn’t make everyone else better off. Shocking, right?
Right wing economists say that letting the ultra-rich accumulate still more wealth is good for the economy as a whole because the rich have more money to invest in businesses, which are the main source of jobs. The ultra-rich aren’t stupid, however. They aren’t going to start businesses unless they foresee demand for goods and services; and everyone knows that demand is flat because there are no jobs. Trying to stimulate the economy by making the rich richer is like shoving money into a black hole. The tried and true way to end a recession is to create jobs and provide social services for people who need the money enough to spend it.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about the economy by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Audit for a complete list of articles on economic issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care and immigration issues, check out The Mulch, The Pulse and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger
Tens of thousands of Americans... more
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by Erin Rosa, Media Consortium blogger
Hope for a comprehensive immigration reform bill this year has fallen by the wayside, but the Obama administration is rallying for one last hurrah before mid-term elections in November. Late last week, the White House unofficially announced plans to sue the state of Arizona over the now notorious Senate Bill 1070, a state law passed this year to crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
SB 1070 allows Arizona police to check the immigration status of a person if there is a “reasonable suspicion” that they are undocumented, and forces immigrants to carry government papers proving their identify at all times.
Meanwhile, an estimated 15,000 progressives and 1,300 organizations are meeting in Detroit this week to discuss alternative solutions to our broken immigration system at the second U. S. Social Forum (USSF).
US v. Arizona?
As Jessica Pieklo reports at Care2, “After Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s nonchalant statement on Ecuadorian television last week that the Department of Justice planned to file suit challenging Arizona immigration law SB 1070, senior administration officials confirmed that such a suit would be forthcoming.”
“Expect a suit to come soon though as the controversial measure is set to take effect in July,” Pieklo writes. “That said, it is only one of many suits already challenging the measure in federal court. Some of those cases have asked a federal judge to issue an injunction which would halt implementation of the measure while the legal issues get sorted out.”
At the Women’s Media Center, Gloria Steinem and Pramila Jayapal argue that “In the wake of Arizona’s SB 1070—the harsh anti-immigrant law that not only condones but promotes racial profiling that endangers entire groups of the innocent—all sides seem to agree that the Federal government has abdicated its responsibility to institute a fair and just immigration system….”
Eyes on Detroit
In the wake of discriminatory laws like the one in Arizona, many immigration reform activists have come to the USSF, taking place June 22-26, to make their voices heard.
“This is great because it just shows community unity,” Rocio Valerio, an activist with the Worker’s Center immigrant rights group, told GritTV. “Right now the strategy for immigrant voices is being driven by policy groups, and with the social forum we’re saying that decisions can’t be made without us.”
At New America Media, Anthony Advincula interviews Rev. Phil Reller, a coordinator for Phoenix-based Southwest Conference United Church of Christ who is attending the forum. “This is a perfect opportunity to educate people on what’s truly happening in our local communities, not just about the struggles of immigrants in Arizona, but also the momentum of hope among community leaders to repeal SB 1070,” Reller says.
ICE gets a face lift
While activists are trying to find answers in Detroit, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in Washington D.C. is attempting to turn itself into a more attractive bureaucratic juggernaut. As AlterNet explains, “This week, [ICE] announced changes to its management structure, conceived as part of a strategy to ‘re-brand’ the agency to the public.”
The agency has even gone so far as to recruit help from Hollywood, although it’s uncertain where the assistance will be coming from or if ICE agents will be portrayed as the “good guys” in movies. But not even a public relations face lift can cover ICE’s sordid record of terrorizing and deporting undocumented immigrants at a record pace.
The National Radio Project has already reported on numerous abuses in ICE-run immigration prisons. The media outlet notes that the government’s “immigrant detention is the fastest-growing form of incarceration in the U.S., with more than 30-thousand detainees behind bars on any given day.”
Filming América
While immigration problems and discrimination against Latinos continues, Oliver Stone is releasing a new film titled “South of The Border” that traces the history of popular struggles in South America and how they affect the Western Hemisphere.
According to Free Speech TV, the movie, which is set to premiere at the USSF, features interviews from “several South American heads of state, including Evo Morales of Bolivia, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela.” Stone was also interviewed about the movie on Democracy Now!
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about immigration by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Diaspora for a complete list of articles on immigration issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, and health care issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Pulse . This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.by Erin Rosa, Media Consortium blogger
Hope for a comprehensive immigration reform... more
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Free Speech TV interviews hip-hop journalist and community activist Davey D on a number of topics, including the controversial death of Oscar Grant.Free Speech TV interviews hip-hop journalist and community activist Davey D on a... more
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The Youth Justice Coalition examines and discusses a variety of issues and pressures facing life in urban environments.The Youth Justice Coalition examines and discusses a variety of issues and pressures... more
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Discussion with Ajamu Baraka, executive director of the U.S. Human Rights Network, on what it takes to be a successful activist, especially among today's youth.Discussion with Ajamu Baraka, executive director of the U.S. Human Rights Network, on... more
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Danny Glover discusses his upcoming movie projects, including the reality and representation of childhood experiences in Africa. For more interviews and live coverage of the US Social Forum in Detroit, visit http://www.freespeech.org.Danny Glover discusses his upcoming movie projects, including the reality and... more
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Free Speech TV's exclusive interview with Danny Glover on addressing social justice issues, such the victory of women in the attempted shut down of Hugo Boss factory in Brooklyn, Ohio that would have rendered over 300 jobs in a declining economy.Free Speech TV's exclusive interview with Danny Glover on addressing social... more
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In a Free Speech TV Exclusive interview, Sarha Vangilder, Executive Editor of Yes Magazine, talks with Danny Glover at the 2010 U.S. Social Forum, covering issues such as economic incline, failure of this economic paradigm, and many other issues.In a Free Speech TV Exclusive interview, Sarha Vangilder, Executive Editor of Yes... more
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An interview with YAYA from Pan Left Productions on social justice regarding border issues in Arizona. For more interviews and 24/7 live streaming coverage of the US Social Forum in Detroit, visit http://www.freespeech.org.An interview with YAYA from Pan Left Productions on social justice regarding border... more
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In a recent article published in the Huffington Post, the Auerbach and Parenteau write:
"Our policy making elites have discovered that the underclass doesn't matter politically anymore, so why respond to it? That indifference is extending to the middle class. Ordinary, struggling folks are all becoming so demoralized that they present:
[1] No voting threat, because none of the major political parties in Europe or the US genuinely represent their interests (and haven't for years). There have been, as a result, no political price to pay for such shameless predatory capitalism.
[2]They present no power threat, because they have been systematically destroyed over the last 30 years and what is happening now in Europe represents the final assault on the residue of the 20th century welfare state (the US social safety net eviscerated well before this).
The message from the G20 seems to be this: We're through with domestic spending to employ the underclass.
There are decent jobs for about 20% of the working-age population in the west. And for the rest? Poverty a la South America. It is extraordinary that voters around the globe continue to tolerate this corrupt state of affairs, but it's getting increasingly hard to see a way out."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marshall-auerback/he-g20-votes-for-global-d_b_603454.html
The organizers of the US Social Forum in Detroit believe organizing the "lower classes," becoming educated, and reasserting ourselves is the way out. Held in Detroit next week June 22-26, tens of thousands of participants will learn about economic alternatives, climate justice, strategies for building power, organizing labor,media justice, and more.
If you can't be there in person, there are many other ways you can participate, such as reading the USSF Writers Network blogs and watching Free Speech TV's live, streaming coverage.
For more information, visit http://www.ussf2010.org or http://www.freespeech.org.In a recent article published in the Huffington Post, the Auerbach and Parenteau... more
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Once again the global pimps get together to split the pie and throw us crumbs. The G8 will meet one last time in Hunstville, Ontario to morph into the G20 who will meet in Toronto on June 26th and 27th. These are closed door meetings where our “democratically” elected leaders make decisions not just for the countries they represent, but for the world.
The gatherings against these meetings are of the utmost importance, not only because we tell these leaders that we do no recognize their authority, but because we show show solidarity with people power movements the world over. If you need a little convincing, my peeps out east, Testament and Illogik AKA Test Their Logik with a little help from Anarkid, cranked out this dope track and video to light insurgent fires under yo ass.
subMedia.TV will be on the streets covering the rebellions in Toronto this June. Simultaneously, Free Speech TV will be covering the US Social Forum, the people's answer to the corporate elites, live from nearby Detroit--ground zero for our current economic collapse and its effect on the country's workers. Visit freespeech.org and subMedia.TV for more information.Once again the global pimps get together to split the pie and throw us crumbs. The G8... more
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Watch excerpts of BP being grilled by Senators and learn from marine biologist Rick Steiner about the full extent of damage done by the spill. Then watch Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig and Salon.com writer Glenn Greenwald debate about Elana Kagan's Supreme Court nomination.Watch excerpts of BP being grilled by Senators and learn from marine biologist Rick... more
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One of the higher-profile participants at the Cochabamba climate conference was the former president of the United Nations General Assembly, Father Miguel D’Escoto. A Roman Catholic priest from Nicaragua, D’Escoto served as foreign minister in Daniel Ortega’s government from 1979 to 1990. He joins to talk about the failures of the UN, the importance of the Bolivia climate summit, why Latin America doesn’t need the United States and much more.Then, we pay a visit to Radio Gente 94.7 FM, the Cochabamba radio station that airs Democracy Now! in Spanish. "Democracy Now!" is broadcast on more than 250 stations across Latin America. "Democracy Now!" is a daily independent newshour.One of the higher-profile participants at the Cochabamba climate conference was the... more
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