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Roger Hickey 202-270-0300
Jacob Sorrells: 301-807-1459
A large and growing number of Democratic activists and thinkers have joined together to pledge to fight for an economic agenda that can win the support of a broad majority of American voters. And they are demanding that politicians - including presidential candidates - tell voters where they stand on the 11 planks of the group's economic agenda. And they vow to share candidates' answers online.
The 90 well-known progressives - many of them leaders of the "resistance" to Trump and organizers of 2018 election victories - who wrote and signed the Agenda for Good Jobs, Sustainable Prosperity and Economic Justice represent a group that goes well beyond any one issue or activist network. They are a diverse mix of millennials, GenXers and Baby Boomers, and many of them have long histories of working on one or more of the 11 planks of their shared economic agenda. All agree that the country needs bold systemic change. And they believe that "for too long, leaders of both major political parties have allowed the wealthy and the giant corporations to exercise far too much influence over the political decisions that shape American life."
To talk with Pledge Signers, contact Jacob Sorrells: 301-807-1459
The full Pledge/Agenda has been signed by over 20,000 people.
One of the organizers of the group, Roger Hickey, Co-Director of the Campaign for America's Future, said the Pledge represents yet another indication that the country is moving in a progressive direction. And, he said, "This economic agenda is broadly popular with strong majorities of American voters." He cited a section of the group's new website which assembles recent polling showing great support for the 11 planks of the economic agenda. "Most Americans - base voters, a majority of independents, and many disillusioned Trump voters - all hard-hit by growing inequality and angry about a system they see as rigged by the wealthy - will vote in great numbers for candidates who campaign for a comprehensive plan for growth, investment and economic justice."
Another signer, Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works, said, "Criticizing Trump is important - and there is plenty to criticize - but it's not enough. Visionary political leaders, FDR among them, have always fought for working Americans. The roadmap in the Pledge to Fight for Good Jobs, Sustainable Prosperity, and Economic Justice, of which I am a proud signer, shows the way."
Other Pledge signers include former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, economists Thea Lee, Robert Pollin and James K. Galbraith, African-American activists Rashad Robinson and Janet Dewart Bell and Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, feminist leaders Gloria Steinem, Nita Chaudhary and Toni Van Pelt, think tank directors Heather McGhee, Dorian Warren, Chuck Collins, and Angela Glover Blackwell, environmental leaders Bill McKibben, Annie Leonard and Michael Brune, labor leaders Leo Gerard, Larry Cohen, Randi Weingarten, Chris Shelton, and Bonnie Castillo, business leaders, like Leo Hindery Jr. and Charles Rodgers, activists and public intellectuals, like Manuel Pastor, Robert Borosage, Maria Echaveste, Jeff Faux, Heather Gautney, Eddie Glaude Jr., Zephyr Teachout, Richard Eskow, and Naomi Klein. Signers also include leaders of "resistance movement" groups, including MoveOn, People's Action, Democracy for America, Solidaire, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Center for Popular Democracy Network, Public Citizen, Working Families Party, Ultra-Violet, Progressive Democrats of America, and Our Revolution.
As they release their agenda, signers made it clear that the group will not endorse candidates; however they will ask candidates - including candidates for president - to outline publicly their plan for addressing 11 planks of their Pledge. And make those answers public on a website that compares all the candidates.
They also make it clear that, no matter the outcome of the next elections, they will continue to honor their pledge to build a movement for economic change - a movement that all future office-holders will have to deal with.
Below is a simple version of the Pledge and its economic agenda - grouped into 5 broad themes - followed by the complete, detailed version that has now been signed by 20,000 people and counting.
We will (continue to) resist Trump. But resistance is not enough.
We therefore pledge that:
- We will fight for good jobs, sustainable prosperity and economic justice.
- We will work to build a movement that can make that agenda a reality.
Real change begins with a clear and coherent vision of a better America, and with citizens' movements dedicated to bringing that world into being. We offer this agenda for economic change in that spirit. (See full Agenda here - or below - view the prominent signers.)
I. Jobs for All - by Investing in Rebuilding America and a Green New Deal
II. Fight Inequality
III. A New Social Contract - for Income and Retirement Security - and Healthcare and Education for All
IV. Stop Corporations, Banks and the Wealthy from Controlling Our Economy and Our Democracy
V. A Global Economic Strategy for Working People
Full Agenda (below and online at this link):
Pledge to Fight for Good Jobs, Sustainable Prosperity and Economic Justice
I. Jobs for All - by Investing in Rebuilding America and a Green New Deal
1. Jobs for All - Created by Rebuilding America
We should commit ourselves to providing a high quality job (with good wages and benefits) for everyone willing and able to work. This cannot be achieved through tax cuts for the rich.
We support a large national investment program to put millions of American to work rebuilding America, creating useful employment for young people and for the millions of workers made unemployed by the deindustrialization of America.
The rebuilding and modernization of our basic infrastructure -- from roads to rail to water and energy systems --will stimulate robust growth and it will make our economy more productive. This initiative should be linked to public service jobs -- in everything from national service to cleaning up parks and cities. As a first step, the next administration should guarantee that every young person graduating from school can get a decent job.
2. Invest in a Green Economy
Catastrophic climate change is a clear and present danger. The United States should lead the global green industrial revolution that builds strong and resilient communities.
That requires strategic public investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency that will replace a carbon-based economy with a clean and sustainable energy system, creating jobs and opportunity, particularly in communities of color that have borne the worst consequences of toxic corporate practices.
Renewable energy and energy efficiency are already rapidly expanding. But we need a public commitment to meet clear goals to replace carbon-based energy sources, create new green energy industries, and meet global emission targets. The country that leads in these areas will capture jobs generated from markets across the world.
II. Fight Inequality
3. Empower Workers to Reduce Inequality
Inequality has reached new extremes. As the corporate elite pulls in incomes, perks, and tax breaks beyond the imagination of kings, wages for the rest of us have stagnated or declined - and more and more jobs have become contingent and part-time, with low pay and few benefits.
Robust economic growth and full employment, if we can achieve it, will force employers to bid up wages. But the key to reversing inequality is strong unions. We pledge to fight for the right of workers to form unions and bargain collectively for better wages and benefits. Guaranteed labor rights should be complemented by action to lift the floor under every worker by guaranteeing a living wage, paid sick and vacation days, and affordable health care. We must curb CEO compensation policies that give executives personal incentives to plunder their own companies. And we should use the tax system to reward companies that pay their workers a decent proportion to what they pay their executives.
4. Opportunity and Justice for All - With Focus on Communities Harmed by Racism
Full employment should provide opportunity for all. But special attention must be invested in those communities harmed by the legacy of Jim Crow, segregation, discrimination, deindustrialization, and destruction of the public sector.
Scapegoating on the basis of race, nationality, gender, or sexual orientation works to the detriment of all of us and to the benefit of those minions of corporate and Wall Street power who would divide us. Neglected urban and rural communities, working people victimized by the worst economic and social effects of neoliberalism must be given targeted attention and investment. Fundamental reform of our criminal justice system, an end to mass incarceration, and targeted investment in areas of need are all central to meeting the promise of economic justice.
Establishing a fair and humane immigration policy that stops the criminalization of communities of color should be a top priority. Our immigration policy should put the sanctity of families at the forefront--grounded in human, civil, and labor rights. We cannot allow our communities to be divided by anti-immigrant and xenophobic hysteria. And we must all work hard to end the racism and xenophobia that have historically been used to divide America's working class majority from working together to win economic justice and prosperity for all.
5. Guarantee Women's Economic Equality
Until 1920 most women could not vote in federal and local elections. And until very recently, women's economic rights -- to own a business or even control wealth or property -- were severely limited.
We have now gone from a society in which women were expected to handle home and family work to one where women are expected to earn money in the workplace -- and still take care of home, children, and family.
We should guarantee that women earn the same pay, protections and opportunities as men in the workplace and in society - including strengthened laws for reporting and preventing sexual harassment. Women must also be guaranteed affordable health care and the right to make choices about their own health and reproduction. Families must have access to high-quality child care, and all women must be guaranteed paid leave from the workplace for childbirth, illness and vacation, and a secure retirement -- with Social Security credit for work in the household.
III. A New Social Contract - for Income and Retirement Security--and Healthcare and Education for All
6. Medicare for All - And Shared Economic Security
Health care is a right, not a privilege. And that requires moving to a Medicare for All universal public health care system. Our fight to defend Obamacare from Trump and his allies is a crucial first step to a promise of quality health care for everyone. In addition, America needs a more robust social insurance system.
Every worker deserves a secure retirement-- and we will work to create new pension systems, while we secure Social Security by "lifting the cap" that now exempts wealthy people from paying their fair share of Social Security taxes. We will strengthen and expand America's shared security programs -- Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment, food support and housing assistance. No one in America should go hungry or homeless. Greater shared security makes the economy more robust by making our society more fair - and giving all people the confidence that comes from solidarity.
7. High-Quality Public Education - Pre-K to University
Every young person must have the right to high-quality, free public education from preschool through college. Public education must be controlled by the public -- not by corporations -- and not by charter school hucksters who take public subsidies without assuming the responsibility to educate all kids, regardless of special needs.
This requires that every community, in partnership with the Federal Government must have the financing necessary to strengthen public schools, providing the necessary basics - preschool, smaller classes, summer and after-school programs, and skilled, well-paid teachers with rights on the job.
College education or skills training should be available without tuition at all public universities as a right of civic membership -- as was the policy in many states in the 1950s and 1960s. Education should be a public good that benefits all of society, not a commodity that indentures students to debt. We call for a national student debt jubilee that will cancel the debt burden imposed upon several generations seeking an education. Free college and debt cancellation will not only allow students and former students to live their lives without that burden, but it will also stimulate economic growth and unleash new civic activism.
IV. Stop Corporations, Banks and the Wealthy from Controlling Our Economy and Our Democracy
8. Make Corporations and the Wealthy Pay Their Fair Share
Our public investment/growth and justice agenda requires tax revenues. Yet the corporations and the rich do not pay their fair share in taxes--even though they pocket the greatest benefits from public investments.
Our tax code rigs the rules to favor the few. Multinationals pay lower tax rates than small domestic businesses. Billionaire investors pay lower rates than their secretaries. Top income tax rates have been lowered even as working people face ever-higher sales taxes and fees.
It is time for the rich and corporations to pay their fair share of taxes. It is time to shut down the tax havens and tax dodges that enable companies to avoid taxes altogether. We should lift the cap on Social Security taxes, so rich people pay the same percentage of their income as the rest of us. We should tax the income of investors at the same rates we tax income from work. We need clear, simple, progressive corporate and individual taxes, closing loopholes and exemptions. And a tax on financial transaction can produce significant revenues. A fair tax system will allow us to invest in an economy that will work for all.
9. Close Wall Street's Casino
Financial deregulation has devastated our economy, and it has protected banks that are too big to fail, too big to manage, and too big to jail.
The financial casino fosters ever more dangerous speculation, while investment in the real economy lags. The resulting booms and busts devastate families and small businesses.
In a new age of corporate concentration, American must revive the concept of anti-trust action to reduce corporate power. We need to break up the big banks, levy a speculation tax, and provide low-income families with safe and affordable banking services. We should crack down on payday lenders and other schemes that exploit vulnerable working families, offering instead safe and inexpensive banking via the postal system.
10. Rescue Democracy from the Special Interests
Big money has corrupted our democracy. Some might say democracy is not part of an economics agenda. But the same financial elites and corporations that buy and sell politicians use that political power to rig the economy so the top .01 percent gets massively richer while incomes decline for the rest of us.
The Citizens United decision gave corporations the right to spend unlimited money in politics. We pledge to reverse it, through a constitutional amendment, if necessary.We will stop the attack on voting rights which has escalated just as a new majority of people of color, young people and working women has begun to exercise new power. We will fight for public financing of elections that bans corporate and big money - and for electoral reforms, like public matching of small donations, so people's candidates can compete with the candidates of the plutocrats. Finally, we pledge to change national and local political party structures so that progressive candidates get a fair shake in the nominating process and in general elections. And we will build a new progressive majority that can take back our democracy and our economic system.
V. A Global Economic Strategy for Working Americans
11. A Global Economic Strategy for Working Americans
Our global trade and tax policies have been created for and by multinational companies. We must renegotiate trade deals and rethink tax policies that benefit the already-wealthy, while they encourage the export of whole American industries, drive down pay and worker protections, and harm the environment.
We need more but balanced trade, and global standards that protect the rights of workers, consumers and the environment.
That requires a crackdown on tax havens, currency manipulation, and deals that allow corporations to trample basic labor rights here and abroad. Finally, we need new policies that allow us to help existing US industries, by having our government buy American, policies that are now outlawed by trade deals. And we need active investment policies that grow new cutting-edge industries, like green energy systems. Our current national security policies commit us to policing the world. The result costs lives and drains public resources. We need a real security policy that makes military intervention a last resort, and focuses on global threats like climate change, poverty and inequality. We should reduce military budgets and properly support humanitarian programs.
The Campaign for America's Future is the strategy center for the progressive movement. Our goal is to forge the enduring progressive majority needed to realize the America of shared prosperity and equal opportunity that our country was meant to be.
"If President Trump will not even put America first when Israel murders American citizens, then this is truly an Israel First administration," said one U.S. group.
The Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Health and cousins of Sayfollah Musallat—also known as Saif al-Din Kamel Abdul Karim Musallat—said Friday that Israeli settlers beat the dual U.S.-Palestinian citizen to death while he was visiting family in the illegally occupied West Bank.
A spokesperson for the ministry, Annas Abu El Ezz, told Agence France-Press that 23-year-old Musallat "died after being severely beaten all over his body by settlers in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, this afternoon."
Abdul Samad Abdul Aziz, from the nearby village of Al-Mazraa Al-Sharqiya, said that "the young man was injured and remained so for four hours. The [Israeli] army prevented us from reaching him and did not allow us to take him away."
"When we finally managed to reach him, he was taking his last breath," he added.
The Times of Israel reported that the "ministry later said a second man, 23-year-old Mohammad Shalabi, was fatally shot by settlers," and "there have been no arrests yet."
According to the Tel Aviv-based newspaper Haaretz, "The Israeli army said it was 'aware of reports' of the incident and that it was 'being looked into by the Shin Bet security service and Israel Police.'"
Zeteo's Prem Thakker spoke with two of Musallat's cousins, Fatmah Muhammad and another granted anonymity due to safety concerns. They said that he grew up in Port Charlotte, Florida, and arrived in June to visit family in the Palestinian town of al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya.
As Thakker detailed:
Muhammad described Musallat as "one of those kids that everyone loves" with a "beautiful heart," a "sweet, gentle kid, very genuine," everyone attests as funny and bright.
In Florida, he helped run a family ice cream shop, a place where his personality shone through, his family members said.
Muhammad and the other family source said that the entire Palestinian town where the family is from is devastated.
"There's no justice there. You can't call the police. You can't call the Israeli government. The murderers just get to walk away," Muhammad said.
Since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack, the Israel Defense Forces have killed over 57,800 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip—which has led to a genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). During that time, IDF soldiers and Israeli settlers' sometimes deadly violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has also surged.
Additionally, despite the ICJ's July 2024 finding that Israel's occupation of Palestine is an illegal form of apartheid that must end as soon as possible, and Israeli settler colonization of the West Bank amounts to unlawful annexation, there are growing calls in Israel's government to formally annex the West Bank.
Musallat's death came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—a fugitive from the International Criminal Court accused of continuing the mass slaughter and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza to stay in power—returned to Israel after meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump and congressional leaders in Washington, D.C. this week.
Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group in the United States, said in a Friday statement that "we strongly condemn these racist Israeli settlers, backed and enabled by the Netanyahu government, for beating an American citizen to death in the occupied West Bank."
"This murder is only the latest killing of an American citizen by illegal Israeli settlers or soldiers," he noted. "Every other murder of an American citizen has gone unpunished by the American government, which is why the Israeli government keeps wantonly killing American Palestinians and, of course, other Palestinians. If President Trump will not even put America first when Israel murders American citizens, then this is truly an Israel First administration."
According to Thakker: "Musallat is at least the seventh American killed in the West Bank, Gaza, or Lebanon since October 7, 2023, including six killed by Israeli forces. Earlier this week, Zeteo asked several Republican senators if they knew how many Americans had been killed by Israel in the last 21 months. None of them could answer."
"ICE is out of control," said one Democratic congresswoman. "This is not law enforcement. It is state violence."
A Mexican farmworker who reportedly fell from a greenhouse while trying to hide during a Trump administration raid on a Southern California farm has died from his injuries, the United Farm Workers union announced Friday.
Federal authorities including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, many clad in military-style gear, stormed farms in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties on Thursday to execute search warrants for undocumented people. At Glass House Farms in Camarillo—which grows state-legal cannabis as well as tomatoes and cucumbers—the invading agents were met with spirited resistance from hundreds of community members who rushed to the site in support of targeted workers. Federal officers responded by firing tear gas and less-lethal projectiles at crowds of protesters who were blocking area roadways in a bid to prevent arrests.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said that officers "arrested approximately 200 illegal aliens" from Glass House Farms and another farm in Carpinteria, Santa Barbara County, where protesters also descended, and were met with tear gas and pepper balls, according to local news outlets. DHS also said they found at least 10 immigrant children on the farm.
The Associated Press reported that a farmworker, identified as Jaime Alanís, phoned his wife in Mexico and told her about the raid in progress, saying he was hiding with other workers. Alanís fell from his hiding place and suffered broken neck, fractured skull, and a rupture in an artery that pumps blood to the brain, his niece Yesenia—who did not want to give her full name—told the AP.
"They told us he won't make it and to say goodbye," she said.
United Farm Workers (UFW) said Friday that "other workers, including U.S. citizens, remain unaccounted for."
"Our staff is on the ground supporting families," UFW said in a statement. "Many workers, including U.S. citizens, were held by federal authorities at the farm for eight hours or more. U.S. citizen workers report only being released after they were forced to delete photos and videos of the raid from their phones."
"UFW is also aware of reports of child labor on site," the union continued. "The UFW demands the immediate facilitation of independent legal representation for the minor workers, to protect them from further harm. Farmworkers are excluded from basic child labor laws."
"These violent and cruel federal actions terrorize American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives, and separate families," UFW added. "There is no city, state, or federal district where it is legal to terrorize and detain people for being brown and working in agriculture. These raids must stop immediately."
The raids appear to be ramping up, even before ICE receives an historic $46 billion funding infusion via the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by President Donald Trump last week. Video footage posted on social media in recent days showed ICE officers and other federal agents arresting people in courthouses, a hospital, and marching through a suburban Utah neighborhood.
Posts from the ice_raids
community on Reddit
Democratic U.S. lawmakers were among those condemning the Trump administration's crackdown and mourning Alanís' death.
"A farmworker has died following a federal raid in Southern California. This is a heartbreaking and deeply troubling development," Congresswoman Norma Torres (D-Calif.) said on social media. "Immigrant communities deserve safety and dignity. I'm calling for a full investigation and accountability."
"Congresswoman Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) said that "ICE is out of control."
"This is not law enforcement," she added. "It is state violence."
Some observers called on Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom—who has overseen several legal challenges to the Trump administration's crackdown on undocumented immigrants and protesters who defend them—to do more to help people targeted by ICE.
"If Newsom really cared about defending our state and our communities, he'd be on the line with other farmers by last night," Murshed Zaheed, a former U.S. Senate Democratic leadership staffer, said on the social media site Bluesky.
"The only reason" to take the rules off the books now, said one critic, "is to score points with broadband monopolies and their lobbyists, who've fought against essential and popular safeguards for the past two decades straight."
The advocacy group Free Press on Friday blasted U.S. President Donald Trump's Federal Communications Commission chief for an order that rips net neutrality rules off the books, without any time for public comment, following an unfavorable court ruling.
A panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled in January that broadband is an "information service" instead of a "telecommunications service" under federal law, and the FCC did not have the authority to prohibit internet service providers (ISPs) from creating online "fast lanes" and blocking or throttling web content.
Trump-appointed FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a Friday statement that as part of his "Delete, Delete, Delete" initiative, "we're continuing to clean house at the FCC, working to identify and eliminate rules that no longer serve a purpose, have been on our books for decades, and have no place in the current Code of Federal Regulations."
"Today's action is just the latest step the FCC is taking to follow the Trump administration's effort to usher in prosperity through deregulation," he said of the order that scraps the net neutrality rules. "And it's just one of many, with more on the horizon, so stay tuned."
Responding in a lengthy statement, Free Press vice president of policy and general counsel Matt Wood said that "the FCC's so-called deletion today is little more than political grandstanding. It's true that the rules in question were first stayed by the 6th Circuit and then struck down by that appellate court—in a poorly reasoned opinion. So today's bookkeeping maneuver changes very little in reality."
"What's sad about it is Brendan Carr, as usual, prioritizing political theater and ideological obeisance over actual legal reasoning and policy impacts," Wood continued. "There's no need to delete currently inoperative rules, much less to announce it in a summer Friday order. The only reason to do that is to score points with broadband monopolies and their lobbyists, who've fought against essential and popular safeguards for the past two decades straight."
"It also shows subservience to Elon Musk's incredibly destructive government-by-chainsaw attitude—which seems to have outlived Musk himself in some corners of the Trump administration," he argued, referring to the tech billionaire who initially spearheaded the president's Department of Government Efficiency but has since had a public breakup with Trump.
Wood noted that "the appeals process for this case has not even concluded yet, as Free Press and allies sought and got more time to consider our options at the Supreme Court."
"Today's FCC order doesn't impact either our ability to press the case there or our strategic considerations about whether to do so," he added. "It's little more than a premature housekeeping step, with Brendan Carr deciding to get out ahead of the Supreme Court in ways that someone with so-called regulatory humility might typically avoid."
The fight for net neutrality has been strongly influenced by Trump's time in office. During his first term, the FCC—led by the president's first chair, Ajit Pai—repealed the Obama administration's policies. Under former President Joe Biden, the agency voted to restore the rules, sparking a fresh legal battle with ISPs, which led to the appellate court's decision earlier this year.