Weekly Audit: Curbing the Deficit, Cat Food, and You
by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger
The deficit commission released its much anticipated list of helpful money-saving tips for the federal government last week. These tips include tax cuts for the rich, reducing unnecessary printing costs, and cutting the jobs of federal contractors.
Sometimes stories happen because of planning; other times serendipity intervenes, which is how we got to the conversation we'll be having today.
In an exchange of comments on the Blue Hampshire site, I proposed an idea that could be of real value to unions, workers...and surprisingly, employers.
If things worked out correctly, not only would lots of people feel a real desire to have unions represent them, but employers would potentially be coming to unions looking to forge relationships, and, just to make it better, this plan bypasses virtually all of the tools and techniques employers use to shut out union organizers.
Since I just thought this up myself, I'm really not sure exactly how practical the whole thing is, and the last part of the discussion today will be provided by you, as I ask you to sound off on whether this plan could work, and if so, how it could be made better.
It's a new week...so let's all put our heads together and rebuild the labor movement, shall we?
This is the first of three parts of an interview with Baldemar Velasquez, President and Founder of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee. In Part One, Mr. Velasquez describes the biggest challenges and abuses farm workers face in the U.S., and what it was like for his family to work in America's agricultural sector. Cross posted from Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet.
Name: Baldemar Velasquez
Affiliation: President and Founder, Farm Labor Organizing Committee, FLOC, AFL-CIO
Location: Toledo, Ohio
Bio: Incensed by the injustices suffered by his family and other farm workers, Baldemar Velasquez founded the union of migrant farm workers, Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) in 1967. FLOC works tirelessly to give voice to migrant farm workers across the country and include them in decision-making processes on conditions that affect their lives. Mr. Velasquez is a highly respected national and international leader, not only in the farm labor movement, but also in the Latino and immigrant rights movements.
The Rand Paul campaign was really proud of the $2500 their campaign received from the National Right to Work for Less Committee. Of course there is a very good reason for that. The National Right to Work Committee is an extremist group and as we all have seen Rand Paul is an especially extremist candidate. He opposes the right of Americans to have and maintain a middle-class and falls into the most helpless realm of corporate apology and welfare condoned by his new mentor, Mitch McConnell. The difference is, Rand Paul was undisciplined enough to tell you how Republicans really feel about you.
Two things that have taken a lot of heat lately is the Economic Stimulus and the Social Security insurance for America. In front of the federal budget deficit commission he argued that deficit spending is the best way to reduce and stabilize the national debt by stabilizing the economy and creating jobs. Meanwhile, others are defending Social Security against those who would continue to eliminate or privatize it.
The debate over measures to fix America's broken labor laws took a back seat during the long debate on health care. Now that the focus has shifted to efforts to stimulate economic growth and job creation, it's time to put workers' rights front and center.
It is no secret that in this current environment with so many workers unemployed, underemployed and making less money that anger is rampant among American workers. It is understandable as working America watches the bankers who crashed our economy costing them millions of jobs get bailed out while in every town in America they are still hurting. This on top of the fact that Corporate America has stagnated wages on jobs they have not shipped overseas to virtual slave markets. Yes, anger is justified and rampant in many unemployment lines and workplaces. However, working America must be very careful of how to channel this understandable anger. You see, just like in past days forces of hatred are seeking to divide workers keeping them from forming a united front to really change this country and their own lots in life.
Do you wish that your nurse had a gag order preventing her from speaking up on behalf of patients? Should RNs be fired for reporting on hospital safety errors? What about prosecuted for blowing the whistle on quack doctors or heartless healthcare corporations?
Unfortunately this is exactly what too many hospitals are trying to do in our nation today. While the healthcare bill may have passed, there remain life and death patient safety and care issues that we as a nation need to address.
If you are a supporter of America's nurses, please read what we're talking about, below, and then offer your solidarity with RNs. We believe this story will outrage you.
Just hopped off the conference call with Richard Trumka from the AFL-CIO.
This morning, the AFL-CIO leadership voted in overwhelming favor (higher than 90%) of "active support" for the current health care proposals in the face of slight changes to the excise tax agreement.
Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.
The bus ride from Lusaka, Zambia to Harare, Zimbabwe with a company called EasyGo Bus company lasted four hours longer than it should have (total trip was nearly 12 hours). We spent four hours at the border crossing, where everyone’s belongings were examined, less for security and more to squeeze as much money as they could from undeclared goods. Baboons outnumbered people at the crossing, they have mastered the art of swiping food from unaware passengers, and they seemed to want to be near the humans most afraid of them (ie. me).
Once we got going our bus abruptly stopped. A wild elephant stood in the middle of the road, staring down our bus, ears flaring. It was mad, and ready to charge. Seeing all the Zimbabwean passengers freak out made me really scared about our safety. Slowly the bus began to reverse away, even the driver was scared, and we sat and waited in silence till the elephant got bored.
When we finally arrived in Harare, it was nearly midnight, and the bus station isn't exactly the friendliest place for a bunch of Americans to chill out at that hour looking for a taxi. Our backpackers hostel is called "One Small World" and every room is named after the capital city of a different African country (we stayed in Windhoek, Namibia). We had a series of jam-packed days ahead, so we passed out, only to awaken to the fact that the water didn't work and the power was out. Power outages are something we've gotten used to, spending nearly three days in the dark in Lilongwe, and facing outages nearly everywhere in East Africa.
After the economic collapse here, inflation skyrocketed the Zimbabwe currency out of control (ever seen a trillion dollar bill?) As of today, they are using the US dollar as the main currency for the country (with several people telling us that it will soon switch to the South African Rand).
We started the day meeting with Raol DuToit, who'd spent twenty years with the World Wildlife Fund and now works directly for rhino conversation. Listening to Raoul, he was an encyclopedia on every major conservation issue relating to Southern Africa. Following that meeting, we visited an Italian restaurant called Leonardo's to break bread with a true hero of mine: Wellington Chibebe, the Secretary-General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. A dedicated activist his whole life, Wellington is arguably the most important public figure in the fight for freedom and democracy in Zimbabwe. Despite having been jailed numerous times, badly beaten, and under constant surveillance -- this brilliant, mild-mannered man spent a few hours passionately telling us about the struggle to bring change to his country, the heroic role the labor movement plays in the movement for democracy, and the spirit of the people to overcome fear.
ZCTU was the force behind creating the first successful electoral opposition to President Robert Mugabe, winning a presidential and parliamentary elections for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), whose leader and the current Prime Minister under the 2008 power sharing agreement Morgan Tsvangirai, is also the former Secretary-General of the ZCTU. They won against seemingly insurmountable odds: almost all print, television and radio was controlled by the ruling party, people faced massive voter intimidation and suppression, and opposition activists were routinely arrested and jailed.
Wellington spoke with great hope and urgency about the direction of the country, feeling that some progress is being made under the 2008 power sharing agreement (Mugabe refused to give up power, but shares the government with the MDC), and also stressed that the labor movement belonged to no political party and would be an independent voice holding politicians accountable and standing strong behind policies of good governance and democracy. He reminded us that even good politicians sometimes lose their way.
Afterwards we visited the editor of "The Worker", Ben Madzimure. This newspaper, sponsored by ZCTU and supported by the Solidarity Center. "The Worker" is one of the five independent print media sources not controlled by the government, and one of it's most important watchdogs. The newspaper reaches deep into the country thanks to the structure of the ZCTU. Zimbabwe is one of the most literate on the African continent (approximately 90 percent), so their role in distributing alternative perspectives is so critical. I can't say enough about how important a role they serve, when almost all other print, television, and radio is government controlled.
The next day we spent with the leadership of ZCTU. Having the time to learn and listen from these courageous men was an experience I will never forget. As much horror that I felt about what continues to happen in Zimbabwe against the poor and basic democratic freedoms, as I looked at these strong and resolute leaders in the eyes, I couldn't help but feel so much hope for the future, especially after meeting with many rank and file members at the local level later that day.
We also spent the morning meeting with the General Secretary of the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers' Union of Zimbabwe, Getrude Hambira. She spoke about the current conditions for farm workers, many of whom are terribly exploited with few ways to adequately redress exploitation.
In addition, we visited the research arm of ZCTU, the Labour and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe. They are part of a regional alliance of labor researchers, called African Labour Research Network (ALRN), also supported in part by the Solidarity Center and the Canadian Labor Congress. They've put together a training manual that outlines ZCTU’s "8 core socio-economic rights" and are using that material to train union activists across the country.
More than 80 percent of jobs in Zimbabwe have been informalized resulting in a very large informal sector. These informal sector workers, often the most exploited and the most ignored, formed a union in 2002 called Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations, an associate of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), to help win a voice in government.
We were given the opportunity to visit two community projects coordinated by the informal workers association with President Beauty Mugijima and program coordinator Elijah Mutemeri.
The first project was a village where they were working with the local community to build a school in an area where hundreds of people were forced to relocate during "Operation Restore Order." As part of a de-urbanization program under Mugabe, the controversal leader of the country, nearly 2 million workers were forcibly removed from their homes in cities, stripped of their belongings, and forced to live in rural areas, without any agriculture skills or training. We met with this community, who although they had very little resources and volunteer support, where trying to build a school to teach area children. They recently succeeded in getting accredited by the local government and the community is pushing local public officials for additional resources to build the school. The visit was especially inspiring because the teachers working there endured long commutes because they believed in helping the community. Many families in the makeshift town were also raising orphan or abandoned children, as well their own.
The second project we visited was an orphanage for children that the union was helping support. As we arrived children were singing, clapping, and rushing to us to offer hugs and high fives. Most of these hundreds of kids lost their parents to HIV/AIDS, and the orphanage provides them not only a place to go to learn and go to school, but also gives them a family.
The teachers and caretakers who work there are mostly volunteers and you can see that they shared a deep commitment and passion for the future of these kids.
Lots more to say about Zimbabwe, but I am well above 1,000 words. I just want to publicly thank Fisseha Tekie of the Solidarity Center and all the incredible people we met during our short visit.
Thank you for reading! If you enjoy our diary every day we invite you to get involved:
1. Comment on our daily posts—we check for comments everyday and want to have a regular ongoing discussion with you.
2. Receive regular updates—Join the weekly BorderJumpers newsletter by clicking here.
3. Help keep our research going—If you know of any great projects or contacts in West Africa please connect us connect us by emailing, commenting or sending us a message on facebook.
In Tuesday's live Web chat, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka talked about what we need to do to fix our economy in both the short term and the long term-and touched on a vital, too-infrequently discussed issue: the need to end the stranglehold neoliberal economic thinking has on our politics.
Spurred by Milton Friedman and other economists, the neoliberal agenda is based on the radical principle that it's markets, not people, that matter most. By nature, the neoliberal principle is hostile to collective bargaining, public regulation and all manner of ways to leverage community power to balance out the power of wealth. Trumka sums up Friedman's poisonous political philosophy:
He believed that anything that got in the way of the free market was something that was bad and should be eliminated. Any regulation on business is bad, so get rid of it; any tax on business is bad and distorts the marketplace, get rid of it. A union is bad and distorts the marketplace, so you have to get rid of it.
For the last 30 years, that's the system that we've had here. It brought us to this crisis.
On Dec. 15, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will host a live online conversation on the nation's jobs crisis--and you can take part.
Starting today, you can submit questions and vote on other ones submitted to the AFL-CIO's "Open for Questions About the Jobs Crisis." Trumka will answer the top-rated questions in the live online video discussion at 4 p.m. EST on Tues., Dec. 15.
• Sign in here to participate if you have a Google account.
• If you don't have a Google account, create one here.
Trumka will engage with union members and working family activists around the country and share solutions for restoring good jobs and revitalizing the nation's economy.
Tune in here at 4 p.m. EST on Dec. 15 and get involved by submitting or voting on questions.
The second in a series on the AFL-CIO's job creation proposals.
As part of the AFL-CIO's five-point plan for job creation, we're making concrete proposals to address the nation's immediate jobs crisis while keeping an eye on creating a sustainable economy in the future.
Investment in rebuilding the nation's infrastructure can put millions of people to work now and improve our country for the long term. The United States has some $2.2 trillion in unmet infrastructure needs. That's a lot of work that needs to be done, at a time when 26 million people are unemployed or underemployed.
Part 1 in a series on the AFL-CIO's plan to address the jobs crisis.
To tackle our nation's ongoing jobs crisis, the AFL-CIO has put forth a five-point plan to put people back to work and restore our economy. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka presented this five-part plan at the White House Jobs Summit last week.
The first step in this plan is to extend a lifeline to the people who have been hit the hardest by the jobs crisis.
Today at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and other leaders joined together to call for urgent action to create jobs and rebuild the economy.
In a live webcast panel discussion, the consensus was clear: Without quick action, an entire generation could be mired in economic turmoil. The nation can, and must, put people back to work-while addressing critical needs for the future of our communities.
The scale of the jobs crisis is obvious: Since the beginning of the recession, more than 8 million jobs have been lost. The official unemployment rate is at 10.2 percent, with more than 26 million unemployed or underemployed. These figures are even more severe among African American and Latino communities. Young people are at risk of permanently stunted opportunity, and the jobs crisis is rebounding throughout the country with increased hunger and poverty, massive numbers of home foreclosures and diminished access to health care.
STATE BLOGS
Name: Baldemar Velasquez
The bus ride from Lusaka, Zambia to Harare, Zimbabwe with a company called EasyGo Bus company lasted four hours longer than it should have (total trip was nearly 12 hours). We spent four hours at the border crossing, where everyone’s belongings were examined, less for security and more to squeeze as much money as they could from undeclared goods. Baboons outnumbered people at the crossing, they have mastered the art of swiping food from unaware passengers, and they seemed to want to be near the humans most afraid of them (ie. me).
Following that meeting, we visited an Italian restaurant called Leonardo's to break bread with a true hero of mine: 
Afterwards we visited the editor of "The Worker", 
The first project was a village where they were working with the local community to build a school in an area where hundreds of people were forced to relocate during "Operation Restore Order." As part of a de-urbanization program under Mugabe, the controversal leader of the country, nearly 2 million workers were forcibly removed from their homes in cities, stripped of their belongings, and forced to live in rural areas, without any agriculture skills or training. We met with this community, who although they had very little resources and volunteer support, where trying to build a school to teach area children. They recently succeeded in getting accredited by the local government and the community is pushing local public officials for additional resources to build the school. The visit was especially inspiring because the teachers working there endured long commutes because they believed in helping the community. Many families in the makeshift town were also raising orphan or abandoned children, as well their own.
The second project we visited was an orphanage for children that the union was helping support. As we arrived children were singing, clapping, and rushing to us to offer hugs and high fives. Most of these hundreds of kids lost their parents to HIV/AIDS, and the orphanage provides them not only a place to go to learn and go to school, but also gives them a family.