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Across the country we are seeing conservative governors and
legislators make it a priority to stamp out workers' rights and
eliminate unions. These lawmakers are hiding behind the guise of fiscal
austerity and budget cuts in order to move a conservative corporate
agenda that seeks to weaken the power of workers to organize and bargain
collectively for better wages and a better quality of life.
Across the country we are seeing conservative governors and
legislators make it a priority to stamp out workers' rights and
eliminate unions. These lawmakers are hiding behind the guise of fiscal
austerity and budget cuts in order to move a conservative corporate
agenda that seeks to weaken the power of workers to organize and bargain
collectively for better wages and a better quality of life.
Nowhere is this more evident than in Ohio, where GOP Governor John
Kasich has already stated that collective bargaining rights for low
income, mostly minority women workers are "toast" under his
administration. Meanwhile, in a sign that it's just politics as usual,
Gov. Kasich announced a pay raise for his own senior staff before even
coming into office.
Tonight in Cincinnati, on the eve of Martin Luther King Day, hundreds
of workers will take the conversation back by holding a gathering by
candlelight at City Hall. They will join community leaders, clergy and
union members to call on Gov. Kasich to honor Dr. King's legacy by
rebuilding the middle class and, rather than stripping them of rights,
protecting child care and home care workers who do some of the hardest
work in our society.
Ohio is a poster child of the problem around the country.
Joblessness in Ohio is at 9.8 percent and over half a million workers
are struggling to find work. But instead of focusing on how to put
Ohioans back to work, Gov. Kasich is determined to weaken the voice of
workers and weaken the middle class just to pay back big business
special interests.
Across the country, workers will take up this fight and push back on
politicians who, even at this time of record economic inequality, want
to scapegoat workers for financial conditions that were caused by Wall
Street and corporate greed.
Part of that effort will be to push back on the many myths that have
pervaded the national conversation on public workers - and the efforts
to pit private sector and public sector workers against one another.
The Truth about Public Sector Workers
- Public employees are the hard-working people who provide the vital
services we depend on. These are our firefighters, nurses, teachers,
and police officers who have committed their lives to public service.
-Republican legislators and corporate special interests are joining
together - not to create jobs, but to launch vicious attacks against
public employees.
-According to the Economy Policy Institute (EPI), after accounting
for factors including level of education, hours worked and non-cash
compensation, on average, full-time state and local employees are
undercompensated compared to "otherwise similar private-sector workers."
-Private sector workers earned average annual wages of
$55,132 - $6,061 greater than the $49,072 earned by public sector
workers.
-When looking at total compensation including
employer-provided benefits, the gap narrowed, but the private sector
workers still earned $2,001 more per year than public sector workers
($71,109 in total compensation, versus $69,108).
-Public employees are not to blame for the current budget crises in
the states. Public employees pay a significant portion of the costs of
their pensions. It's the politicians who failed to make the required
contributions and put these pension funds in a hole. Furthermore, these
are modest benefits - of the 7.7 million retired state and local
government workers in 2008, the average retirement benefit was $22,653.
Workers Fighting Back Around the Country
In the coming months, working families will join with community
members in their states to change the conversation by holding events
like the one in Ohio - by writing letters, calling lawmakers, organizing
petitions and educating the public about the effort to scapegoat
workers. Already in states workers are standing up and calling on
lawmakers to work on fixing our economy:
In Missouri: "Labor union leaders speak out against making Missouri a
Right to Work State, saying it wouldn't create jobs or increase
revenue." [Missouri.net ,1/11/11, https://bit.ly/i39y5a]
"The Missouri AFL-CIO says Missourians are looking for action by the
legislature on one issue -- jobs. And the labor organization says it will
work with business groups to get Missourians back to work."
[Missouri.net, 1/11/11, https://bit.ly/fxL6ml]
In Florida: "The AFL-CIO and two outside experts Monday disputed what
they say are "myths" that Florida's public employee retirement plans
are underfunded and provide lavish benefits.[Bloomberg, 1/10/11, https://bit.ly/fNdN7f]
In Indiana: "Opponents of a so-called "right to work" law are keeping
the pressure on at the statehouse. A day after House Democrats invoked a
seldom-used rule to force a vote to try to kill the bill without a
hearing, the Indiana AFL-CIO dispatched 75 grocery and food-processing
workers to the statehouse to lobby against the bill." [WIBC, 1/6/11, https://bit.ly/hfK2mS]
In Ohio: "Incoming state leaders plan to target public employment
laws in 2011, but this past week backers of the collective bargaining
process promised to put up a fight." [Lancaster Eagle Gazette, 1/2/11, https://bit.ly/eNteeN]
"Republicans won't be able to alleviate Ohio's budget crisis by
weakening the power of government-worker unions to bargain collectively
for their members, a liberal policy group said yesterday." [Columbus
Dispatch, 12/31/10, https://bit.ly/eIH214]
In Wisconsin: "You will find that right-to-work legislation has no
bearing on job creation. You will also find in right-to-work states that
the middle-class worker is compensated less, has no say-so about safety
or issues in the workplace and can be fired at will for no reason at
all." [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 12/28/11, https://bit.ly/gAozoj]
IN THE COMING WEEKS AND MONTHS, workers will engage with state and
local lawmakers and with the community on what state legislatures should
really be focused on - creating jobs and bringing balance back to our
economy. In Indiana, workers are unveiling a "workers' bill of rights,"
outlining the priorities of working people to create a middle-class
economy. In Wisconsin, working people are keeping close watch on Gov.
Scott Walker, who pledged to create 250,000 jobs during his campaign,
demanding to know "where are the jobs?" And in Missouri, working people
are holding politicians accountable through a series of events to
highlight their record in the creation of jobs and pointing to their
corporate ties.
And that's just the beginning...
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) works tirelessly to improve the lives of working people. We are the democratic, voluntary federation of 56 national and international labor unions that represent 12.5 million working men and women.
"Today and every day let's honor King as we end racism, poverty, ecological devastation, the denial of healthcare, militarism, and this false narrative of Christian nationalism," said Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis.
To mark Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, leaders of a modern iteration of the slain civil rights champion's final campaign called on U.S. politicians from both sides of the aisle—many of whose policies and actions are like those King condemned as the "evil triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism"—to step up and meet the needs of the country's poor and low-income people.
Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival released a video demanding the Biden administration and every member of Congress "meet with poor and low-wealth people, religious leaders, economists, lawyers, and public health specialists to address the systemic policy violence that threatens the soul of our nation."
"When prophets are killed or assassinated, our job is to pick up the baton and continue the work," campaign co-chair Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II said in the video. "Sadly, many will go to King events today and claim to honor the prophet. Elected officials on both sides of the aisle will go while even today, they are standing diametrically opposed to the things he fought for: addressing systemic poverty, addressing racism, ensuring voter protection, just immigration policy, just treatment of Indigenous people, healthcare for all, and dealing with the war economy and militarism."
As they do each year, officials—including Republican lawmakers who voted against an MLK Day holiday, the U.S. government King called "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today," and its agencies like the FBI that tried to destroy King—all took to Twitter to sing his praises.
Poor People's Campaign Petition Congress to Truly Honor MLK Legacy | Press Conferencewww.youtube.com
Rev. Liz Theoharis, also a co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, said in the video that "this Martin Luther King Day, we must continue a campaign for social, political, and economic rights, not simply commemorate a man. Today and every day let's honor King as we end racism, poverty, ecological devastation, the denial of healthcare, militarism, and this false narrative of Christian nationalism. Let us fight poverty, not people."
The video also includes messages from low-income Americans and advocates calling for healthcare, living wages, "and more so everyone can thrive."
"I live in North Carolina. I work 60 hours a week and more and I still don't make enough money to live comfortably," Matthew Byars said in the video. "I'm chasing the American Dream, but I'm living the American nightmare. Raise the minimum wage. Impacted people matter too."
King, along with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, launched the original Poor People's Campaign in December 1967, months before he was assassinated in Memphis while supporting a strike by Black sanitation workers. King said the movement's demands were $30 billion for anti-poverty programs, full employment for all, a guaranteed universal income, and the annual construction of 500,000 affordable homes.
SCLC president Ralph Abernathy led the campaign after King's murder, and in May 1968—just weeks after King's murder—his widow, Coretta Scott King, led demonstrators in a two-week protest in Washington, D.C., where participants demanded an Economic Bill of Rights.
Camp life in Resurrection City 1968www.youtube.com
Thousands of poor people camped on the National Mall in a community called Resurrection City, which stood for six weeks—including on the day when Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.) was assassinated on June 5—until police violently destroyed it and evicted the protesters.
"At a time when online mobilizations were one of the few forms of protest available to the public, Twitter was seemingly asked to shield the powerful from criticism," said one campaigner. "That should worry all those who care about accountability."
Drugmaker BioNTech and the German government pushed Twitter to "hide" posts by activists calling on Big Pharma to temporarily lift patents on Covid-19 vaccines—a move which would have given people the Global South greater access to the lifesaving inoculations, a report published Monday by The Intercept revealed.
Twitter lobbyist Nina Morschhaeuser "flagged the corporate accounts of Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna, and AstraZeneca for her colleagues to monitor and shield from activists," according to The Intercept's Lee Fang. An email from Morschhaeuser said the German Federal Office for Information Security also contacted Twitter on behalf of BioNTech, whose spokesperson, Jasmina Alatovic, asked the social media giant to "hide" activist tweets targeting her company's account for two days.
Morschhaeuser, meanwhile, requested that colleagues track the hashtags #PeoplesVaccine—a movement for the temporary lifting of patent protections—and #JoinCTAP, a reference to the World Health Organization's Covid-19 Technology Access Pool. Morschhaeuser further warned that the advocacy group Global Justice Now shared an online signup form for a December 2020 People's Vaccine Day of Action.
"The allegations in this article suggest that government and industry tried to silence legitimate criticism during a crisis," Maaza Seyoum, Global South convener at the People's Vaccine Alliance, said in a statement Monday. "At a time when online mobilizations were one of the few forms of protest available to the public, Twitter was seemingly asked to shield the powerful from criticism. That should worry all those who care about accountability."
\u201c\ud83d\udce2 REACTION: German government and @BioNTech_Group asked Twitter to censor vaccine equity critics.\n\nNew #TwitterFiles piece by @lhfang shows how they worked to silence activists demanding a #PeoplesVaccine\n\nRead our reaction: https://t.co/VyaSBIbWnS\n\n1/\u201d— The People's Vaccine (@The People's Vaccine) 1673889107
Global Justice Now director Nick Dearden also noted the troubling timing of BioNTech's censorship request during a period of global pandemic lockdowns.
"To try and stifle digital dissent during a pandemic, when tweets and emails are some of the only forms of protest available to those locked in their homes, is deeply sinister," he told The Intercept.
Fang writes:
It is not clear to what extent Twitter took any action on BioNTech's request. In response to Morschhaeuser's inquiry, several Twitter officials chimed in, debating what action could or could not be taken. Su Fern Teo, a member of the company's safety team, noted that a quick scan of the activist campaign showed nothing that violated the company's terms of service, and asked for more examples to "get a better sense of the content that may violate our policies."
But it shows the extent to which pharmaceutical giants engaged in a global lobbying blitz to ensure corporate dominance over the medical products that became central to combating the pandemic. Ultimately, the campaign to share Covid vaccine recipes around the world failed.
While U.S. President Joe Biden in 2021 heeded activists' calls and joined most of the Global South in backing a Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver at the World Trade Organization, most rich nations—including Germany—oppose the policy and have, along with Big Pharma, fought to thwart it.
"If the German government wants to show that it is now willing to side with public health over private profit, it must change its approach to pandemic response," Seyoum asserted. "That means backing efforts at the World Trade Organization to improve access to generic Covid-19 medicines and treatments, supporting the World Health Organization's mRNA Hub in South Africa, and standing up to corporate interests in negotiations over a Pandemic Treaty."
Critics rebuke U.S. climate envoy for calling Sultan al-Jaber a "terrific choice."
Progressives on Monday reacted with outrage and disbelief after U.S. climate envoy John Kerry backed the appointment of Sultan al-Jaber to lead the the United Nations' annual conference on the climate emergency, saying the CEO of the United Arab Emirates' state-run oil company was not only qualified to preside over the summit, but that his background strengthened the case for his presidency.
As Common Dreamsreported last week, the UAE named al-Jaber as president of the 28th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28), scheduled to begin in November—a decision that was met with scorn from campaigners as al-Jaber is heads the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and a renewable energy firm in which ADNOC holds a 24% stake.
"I think that Dr. Sultan al-Jaber is a terrific choice because he is the head of the company. That company knows it needs to transition," Kerry told the Associated Press Sunday, despite the fact that scientists and advocates across the globe have also known for decades that policymakers must lead a rapid transition away from oil and gas-generated energy. "He knows—and the leadership of the UAE is committed to transitioning."
Advocates have warned that the UAE has not made clear how it plans to reach its stated goal of being carbon neutral by 2050, especially as it plans to increase production of crude oil by a million barrels per day.
The UAE is expected to become "the third largest expander of oil and gas production" between 2023 and 2025 as ADNOC embarks on the second-largest expansion of oil production of any company in the world, locking in more than 2.7 gigatonnes of CO2 emissions.
But when asked by Sky News Arabia about whether al-Jaber would have a conflict of interest at the conference, where leaders are expected to be pushed to take significant emissions-reduction steps, Kerry dismissed the concern.
"That's a first blush, very simplistic way to look at this," Kerry said, adding that "the only way we will meet this crisis and protect our citizens and build an economy for the future, is by reducing emissions."
Putting the ADNOC executive—who is also the UAE's climate enjoy and minister of industry and technology—in charge of COP28 drew comparisons from Progressive International leader Yanis Varoufaki to naming "a jihadist to oversee religious tolerance" or "a Nazi to oversee racial harmony."
"What could go wrong?" labor historian Erik Loomis asked sardonically.
\u201cJeffrey Dahmer placed to oversee anti-cannibalism commission. \n\nhttps://t.co/D7Yyz2MMAw\u201d— Erik Loomis (@Erik Loomis) 1673888060
COP28 will follow the two most recent international climate conferences, held in Glasgow, Scotland and Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where hundreds of fossil fuel lobbyists were in attendance and policymakers failed to hammer out a final agreement requiring countries to phase out oil, coal, and gas extraction.
Kerry toldSky News Arabia that the UAE was not "involved in changing" the outcome of the COP26 and COP27 talks.
The former secretary of state acknowledged that there would be "a level of scrutiny" aimed at al-Jaber's appointment.
"And I think that's going to be very constructive," he told the AP. "It's going to help people, you know, stay on the line here. I think this is a time, a new time of accountability."
Acknowledging Kerry's negotiating of the Paris climate agreement in 2015—which despite its many flaws and shortcomings represents the strongest global pact ever reached on the issue—Leo Roberts of the climate think tank E3G said on social media that the U.S. politician's endorsement of el-Jaber represents "a really rather spectacular fall from grace."