This is the rallying cry and framework affirmed for and by the first Grassroots Global Justice Membership Congress held in Raleigh, North Carolina September 16-18, 2011. The GGJ Congress was graciously hosted by member organization Black Workers for Justice.
Jobs with Justice is a proud founding and current member of GGJ and was represented by JwJ National Field Director Treston Davis-Faulkner and a delegation from the Vermont Workers’ Center/JwJ including Kate Kanelstein, Mercedes Mack, James Haslem, and Cindy Perron among a few others.. GGJ is a national alliance of grassroots organizations building a popular movement for peace, democracy and a sustainable world. Members of the Alliance support each other’s local struggles and collaborate with international allies who share our vision and commitment to building a transformative social justice movement beyond borders.
Key Outcomes of the Congress include: Moving forward our New Initiative
Affirmation of the “No War, No Warming, Build an Economy for the People and the Planet” framework as the basis for GGJ’s analysis and areas of work for the next period. This document identifies the analysis and work
The Central Florida Jobs with Justice Disappointed Citizens Chorus paid a visit to Senator Bill Nelson’s (FL-D) Orlando office to express their disappointment in not hearing his position on extending the tax cuts. Organizations have been trying to meet with the Senator’s people for weeks now without any luck, so they decided to come in with a more festive tone and demand some clarity on the Senator’s position during the lame duck session. After hearing the carols with lyrics like, “On the first day of Christmas, Congress gave to me, a job that went overseas” and “Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, The unemployed need extensions, help us right away – HEY!” the Senator’s staff agreed to a meeting right away!
The Senator’s staff heard from a 99er who has exhausted her unemployment and has no income coming in. She mentioned that she didn’t want tax cuts or unemployment, instead she wanted a job.
The Caroling came at an urgent time when Florida’s unemployment remains stagnant at 11.4%, yet elected leaders are spending
The Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act, commonly known as the DREAM Act, would give young people a chance to have an equal opportunity at the American Dream in the only place they know as home: the United States.
The DREAM Act will allow children who were brought to the United States before age 16, who have lived in the U.S. for at least five years, graduated from high school, and are of good moral character the opportunity to earn citizenship through at least two years of college or military service. Every year, 65,000 students are denied the right to an education based on the status of their documentation.
On Monday, November 29th the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the DREAM Act. Sen. Harry Reid has pledged to bring the DREAM Act up before a stand-alone vote in the Senate before the end of the 2010 Congressional session.
After Thanksgiving, 1.2 million Americans will be cut off from their existing unemployment benefits. These benefits have helped keep more than 3.3 million jobless workers and their families out of poverty. Moreover, before hitting the campaign trail Congress failed to extend the TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) emergency fund, leaving even more working people out in the cold. Never before have federal jobless benefits been cut when unemployment levels were so high (9.6%) for so long.
Republicans claim that extending such unemployment benefits and TANF would increase the nation’s deficit, which is ironic given their push to extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich. But solving the deficit requires taxing the corporations that got us into this mess, not cutting jobs and services for working people.
Most economists agree that unemployment benefits are a necessary economic component of actually sustaining other jobs in local communities that are striving to recover from the worst downturn since the 1930s. For every dollar spent on making the Bush tax cuts permanent, you get $.29 of increase in the GDP. For every dollar spent to extend
Now that the dust is settling on the mid-term elections—revealing a wave of Republican victories in the House and Senate, Democrats should have all the motivation they need to maximize their time left in the post election congressional session.
After Thanksgiving over 2 million Americans will be cut off from their existing unemployment benefits. These benefits have helped keep more than 3.3 million jobless workers and their families out of poverty. Moreover, before hitting the campaign trail Congress failed to extend the TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) emergency fund, which subsidized jobs for nearly 250,000 otherwise unemployed parents and youth. Never before have federal jobless benefits been cut when unemployment levels were so high (9.6%) for so long.
Meanwhile, corporations are sitting on more than $8 trillion in reserves that could be used to create jobs.
“I lost my home and my family, and now I’m on the verge of being homeless,” said Rafael Guzman who has been unemployed in Orlando, Florida since August 2008. “If Congress can’t create new jobs for people like me, they have to at least provide us with the unemployment benefits to help us get through this crisis.”
With Persistent Unemployment & Record Numbers in Poverty, Protesters Demand Bold Action on Jobs.
On September 15, Jobs with Justice coalitions and allies in more than 100 cities nationwide brought the voices of workers, community members, and the unemployed into the debate on how to move forward on a jobs plan that would put people back to work immediately. With 15 million people out of work and one in seven Americans living below the official poverty line, the time is now for Congress to take bold action to move the country towards full and fair employment and to ensure that Wall Street pays their fair share.
“Joblessness is the central issue for voters in this election,” said Sarita Gupta, Jobs with Justice Executive Director. “People are angry, and for good reason. Corporate greed and recklessness have driven the country into a crisis, and leaders in Washington have yet to offer any real solutions. If Congress won’t act to create jobs, then maybe they don’t deserve to have jobs.”
Jobs with Justice coalitions organized a wide range
Today, Jobs with Justice coalitions and allies in more than 100 cities nationwide will bring the voices of workers, community members, and the unemployed into the debate on how to move forward on a jobs plan that would put people back to work immediately.
Corporate greed and recklessness have driven the country into a crisis, and leaders in Washington have yet to offer any real solutions. Banks are making bumper earnings and corporations are raking in record profits and sitting on more than $8 Trillion in cash reserves. Meanwhile, 15 million Americans are out of work. There is no such thing as a jobless recovery!
Today we are sending a message to Congress: If you won’t act to create jobs, maybe you don’t deserve to have job.
OUR DEMANDS:
Full and Fair Employment. Congress must recognize the jobs emergency.
People are angry, and for good reason. Corporate greed and recklessness have driven the country into a crisis, and leaders in Washington have yet to offer any real solutions.
Banks are making bumper earnings and corporations are raking in record profits and sitting on more than $8 Trillion in cash reserves. Meanwhile, 15 million Americans are out of work, and without a major federal investment in creating jobs, (official) jobless rates will be 8-13% into the next decade.
There is no such thing as a jobless recovery!
On Wednesday, September 15, we are taking action in cities across the country to send a message to Congress: If you won’t act to create jobs, maybe you don’t deserve to have a job.
OUR DEMANDS:
Full and Fair Employment. Congress must recognize the jobs emergency. Pass legislation like the Local Jobs for America Act, extend the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families emergency fund jobs subsidies program, extend unemployment insurance, heed President Obama’s call to renew the countries’ infrastructure and create a national infrastructure bank, and other bills that will create jobs, protect public services, and help
Wall Street has recovered. Corporate CEOs are back to their greedy ways. Meanwhile, even if trends reverse today, workers will have to wait four to six years to close this job gap. The House voted last week to extend unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed, but only through November, and they removed money to help people keep their health care coverage.
No matter what the conservative number crunchers say: there’s no such thing as a jobless recovery! Congress must act now to save and
Leroy Smith leads chants at a Chicago JwJ Unemployed Workers Council action outside the unemployment office on June 1. Jobless activists and JwJ member groups rallied and collected "applications" for the 1 million jobs that would be created by the Local Jobs for America Act.
Congress still doesn’t get it. During the Congressional recess this week, Jobs with Justice coalitions across the country are sending them a message: There is no such thing as a “Jobless Recovery”.
America is 28 months and 8 million fewer jobs into a major jobs crisis — caused by Wall Street recklessness and corporate greed. Unemployment levels are deeper and longer-lasting that any post-war recession, there are nearly six people looking for every job opening, yet Congress has yet to enact a serious job-creation program, like the “Local Jobs for America Act”. And pundits are telling us we should just wait a few more years til we can put America back to work.
The House of Representatives even stripped health care benefits for the jobless from its recent unemployment extension bill, passed on Friday. Efforts to restore the jobless benefits for long-term unemployed
