North Texas Jobs with Justice and our affiliate, the Workers Rights Board, are throwing ourselves into the battle against the jobs crisis, along with national Jobs with Justice, the NAACP, and the AFL-CIO. The 17 million American families suffering unemployment and underemployment may feel like they were hit by a tornado, but it was no natural disaster. The economic crisis we’re in was man-made! Human beings made this mess, and human beings have the power to fix it.
Texas, of course, is the worst place in the union to be unemployed. It’s harder to get Unemployment Insurance, food stamps, and just about any kind of help. Food banks and other charities are straining to keep up. The people on the street aren’t the same ones; some of them had good jobs and homes just a few months ago!
A lot can be done. For openers, we can demand that Congress act on the jobs bill that’s pending. If they don’t extend unemployment benefits and the subsidy for COBRA, a million more families will be left without health care and income in January! The AFL-CIO has put forward a five-point program to resolve the crisis. Most of it involves government spending along the same lines as the New Deal program of the 1930s, when the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps built most of the parks we enjoy today while saving American families from destitution.
Government spending for jobs works. It has worked before and it must be made to work again. We must fight against those who voted billions for the banks when they say they can’t spend a nickel on the people!
Next Texas JwJ meeting: 7 PM on the 2nd Wednesday, January 13, at UAW 848 hall, 2218 E Main in Grand Prairie. We’ll carry “Jobs Now” signs when we participate in Martin Luther King activities. Our Workers Rights Board has already scheduled an open hearing on the jobs crisis for the afternoon of February 12. Please work with us!
Jobs with Justice extends our congratulations to the Dallas labor movement. Led by the teachers, we really showed some clout in the December 8 school board election!
Gene Lantz is a leader with North Texas Jobs with Justice.
