January, 06 2022, 07:44am EDT
We Need to Defend and Heal Our Democracy to Win 2022
People's Action released the following statement by Movement Politics Director Brooke Adams on the anniversary of the armed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021:
WASHINGTON
People's Action released the following statement by Movement Politics Director Brooke Adams on the anniversary of the armed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021:
"One year ago, an armed mob whipped up by right-wing lies about the election, attacked the Capitol and tried to overturn the results of the election. Today's anniversary is a reminder of that day and also of right wing forces' ongoing efforts to rig election rules, pack election boards in small towns across the country, and attack fair voting districts. Corporations and their right-wing, fascist allies want minority rule in this country, and are funding disinformation campaigns alongside their takeover of local election commissions to overthrow democracy.
"We know that what happened one year ago was made possible by decades of disinvestment thanks to neoliberal policies and neglect by political parties to do the real work of organizing. At People's Action, we talk to people in these communities every day using our groundbreaking deep canvassing tactic. We listen, share our stories, and change hearts and minds on issues that the right is exploiting to divide us. At the same time, we're running progressive champions up and down the ballot all over the nation. We need more people who will fight for us and not the monied elites.
"The right wing is building towards a midterm bloodbath and another attempted presidential coup. Today we recommit to organizing everyday people around a progressive agenda that hits at kitchen table issues and to electing the people who will win that agenda for us at every level of government. Our future depends on it."
People's Action builds the power of poor and working people, in rural, suburban, and urban areas to win change through issue campaigns and elections.
LATEST NEWS
‘Morally Obscene’: UK Approves Massive Undeveloped Oil and Gas Field in North Sea
"The disgraceful decision to give Rosebank the green light shows the extent of the U.K. government's climate denial," one activist said.
Sep 27, 2023
Regulators in the United Kingdom on Wednesday greenlit the Rosebank oilfield in the North Sea, which campaigners warn contains enough oil and gas to match the yearly emissions of 28 low-income countries.
The U.K. government said it welcomed the approval, in a statement that comes one week after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced he was delaying some elements of the country's net-zero plan.
"By approving Rosebank, Rishi Sunak has confirmed he couldn't care less about climate change," climate lawyer and executive director of the advocacy group Uplift Tessa Khan said in a statement. "As we've heard repeatedly, our world can no longer sustain new oil and gas drilling. And when we're witnessing scorching temperatures, wildfires, devastating flooding, and heatwaves in our seas, it could not be clearer that this is a decision by the prime minister to add more fuel to the fire."
Rosebank, which is located off the northwest coast of the Shetland Islands, is the largest currently undeveloped oil field in the U.K., CNBCreported. Equinor, Norway's state-owned oil company, has an 80% share in the project, with British company Ithaca Energy holding the remaining 20%.
Equinor said it expected development to begin in 2026-2027 and for the field to produce more than 300 million barrels of oil overall, while Friends of the Earth Scotland said it contained 500 million barrels.
The approval comes despite the fact that the International Energy Agency concluded in 2021 that no new fossil fuel projects should be launched if world leaders wanted to limit global heating to 1.5°C. It also comes on the heels of a government report finding that a record number of people in England died of heat-related causes in 2022.
"This decision is nothing but carte blanche to fossil fuel companies to ruin the climate, punish bill payers, and siphon off obscene profits."
Green Member of Parliament Caroline Lucas called the approval "the greatest act of environmental vandalism in my lifetime" in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
"This is morally obscene," she added in a second post. "It won't improve energy security or lower bills—but it will shatter our climate commitments and demolish global leadership. Govt is complicit in this climate crime—as is Labour unless they pledge to do all possible to revoke it."
Sunak, a conservative, promised to approve hundreds of oil and gas drilling licenses in the North Sea in July, arguing it was necessary for energy security. The opposition Labour Party says it will prioritize renewable energy if it takes power, but will respect any licenses or approvals already in place, according to Reuters.
"The disgraceful decision to give Rosebank the green light shows the extent of the U.K. government's climate denial," Friends of the Earth Scotland's oil and gas campaigner Freya Aitchison said in a statement. "Fossil fuels are driving both climate breakdown and the cost of living crisis yet the U.K. Government is slamming its foot down on the accelerator."
Aitchison also called on the Scottish government specifically to oppose the project.
"Delivering a fair and fast transition away from fossil fuels is one of the defining challenges of Humza Yousaf's term as First Minister," Aitchison said. "This must start with unequivocally condemning Rosebank and opposing the U.K. government's decision to go ahead with a project that deliberately prioritizes the interests of Equinor while bringing little or no benefit to Scottish people."
Campaigners also questioned who would benefit from the project. While the government argued that it would inject cash into the economy and create almost 1,600 jobs, activists pointed out that Equinor made £62 billion in pre-tax profits last year and would get more than £3.75 billion in tax breaks for its work on Rosebank, meaning the U.K. would ultimately lose £750 million in tax money from the field's development.
"The ugly truth is that Sunak is pandering to vested interests, demonstrating the stranglehold the fossil fuel lobby has on government decision-making. And it's bill payers and the climate that will suffer because of it," Greenpeace U.K. climate campaigner Philip Evans said in a statement. "Why else would he make such a reckless decision?
"This decision is nothing but carte blanche to fossil fuel companies to ruin the climate, punish bill payers, and siphon off obscene profits," Evans added.
Opponents of the project have promised to take legal action to stop it.
"There are strong grounds to believe that the way this government has come to this decision is unlawful," Khan said in a statement. "We shouldn't have to fight this government for cheap, clean energy, and a liveable climate, but we will."
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'Unbelievably Cruel': GOP Pushes Astronomical Cuts to Education, Housing, and Food Aid
"The same party who provided $2 trillion tax giveaways to the wealthy wants to slash funding for WIC, devastating women and children," said Democratic Rep. Gwen Moore.
Sep 27, 2023
Democratic lawmakers and policy analysts are expressing growing alarm over the House GOP's pursuit of increasingly severe spending cuts that would decimate education programs, slash housing assistance and food aid for low-income families, undermine clean air and water safety, and compromise medical research.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, called the Republican proposals "unbelievably cruel" and accused the GOP of "playing political games on the backs of the most vulnerable, working people, families just trying to get by."
House Republicans' push for sharp cuts that would be dead on arrival in the narrowly Democratic Senate has all but guaranteed a government shutdown come midnight Saturday.
After failing twice last week to approve a rule that would have advanced a Pentagon spending measure, House Republicans on Tuesday voted to open debate on a package of appropriations bills for the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, State, and Agriculture—just four out of the 12 measures that must be approved to fully fund the federal government.
In floor remarks ahead of Tuesday's vote, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.)—the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee—warned that the GOP's agriculture appropriations bill "shamefully" cuts aid "for the most vulnerable children and families."
"This bill abandons the most vulnerable among us by slashing the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program by $800 million. Some 4.6 million women and children would also get severely reduced food and vegetable vouchers," said DeLauro.
"I do not believe we should practice this so-called 'fiscal responsibility' by taking food out of the mouths of moms and of children," she added. "Is this how Republicans seek to sell their spending cuts to the American people? By taking food from veterans and the most vulnerable?"
DeLauro also pointed to a rider in the GOP legislation that would reverse the Food and Drug Administration's decision earlier this year to allow the abortion pill mifepristone to be dispensed at certain pharmacies.
As The Washington Post's Jeff Stein reported Tuesday, House Republican leaders are aiming to cut discretionary federal spending by around 27%, ditching spending levels that they agreed to as part of a bipartisan debt ceiling agreement reached earlier this year.
The floated 27% cut, Stein observed, "appears to translate into taking more than $150 billion per year out of the part of the budget that funds childcare, education subsidies, medical research, and hundreds of additional federal operations."
Citing estimates from the Center for American Progress (CAP), Stein noted that the GOP's current appropriations bills would cut housing subsidies for the poor by 33%, force "more than 1 million women and children onto the waitlist of a nutritional assistance program for poor mothers with young children," and slash home heating assistance for low-income families by more than 70%.
CAP also estimated in a recent analysis that the House GOP's proposed appropriations measures would inflict a staggering 80% cut on Title I education grants for elementary and secondary schools in low-income areas.
Additionally, according to CAP, Republicans' bills would cut Social Security Administration funding by $183 million, slash $2.8 billion from the National Institutes of Health's budget, and curb Environmental Protection Agency funding by 39%.
"Back in May, Speaker Kevin McCarthy made a bipartisan debt ceiling deal with deep cuts and policies that hurt everyday people but with a promise to the American people that no further cuts would harm them," Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) said in a statement Tuesday.
"Today," Ramirez continued, "Speaker McCarthy's hunger for power and lack of leadership are leading him to back out of that deal and further cave into far-right Republicans' irrational demands to cut more than $150 billion per year for childcare, education, medical research, and hundreds of other federal critical programs that feed families, provide safe housing, and protect our environment. These are unacceptable demands that I WILL NOT support."
"The same party who provided $2 trillion tax giveaways to the wealthy wants to slash funding for WIC, devastating women and children."
The Senate, meanwhile, voted Tuesday to begin debate on a continuing resolution that would fund the government through November 17, a short-term solution as both chambers work on passing their appropriations bills for the coming fiscal year.
"A shutdown would be nothing short of a catastrophe for American families, our national security, and our economy," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. "It is critical that we avoid one, and that's exactly what this bipartisan legislation will do."
But a number of House Republicans, including members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, have signaled that they are opposed to any short-term government funding bill. Earlier this month, the House GOP put forth a 30-day stopgap funding measure that would have cut nonmilitary discretionary spending by 8% instead of keeping the government funded at current levels.
The House Republican leadership ultimately pulled the bill after it became clear it did not have the votes to pass.
"The House GOP doesn't serve working families," Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) wrote on social media Tuesday. "The same party who provided $2 trillion tax giveaways to the wealthy wants to slash funding for WIC, devastating women and children who depend on this program to receive fresh fruits and vegetables."
The Biden White House
warned Wednesday that in addition to threatening food aid for millions of mothers and children, a government shutdown "would have damaging impacts across the country—including risking significant delays for travelers and forcing air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Officers to work without pay."
"During an Extreme Republican Shutdown, more than 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Officers—in addition to thousands of other Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel—would have to show up to do their critical jobs without getting paid until funding becomes available," the White House said. "In previous shutdowns, this led to significant delays and longer wait times for travelers at airports across the country."
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'He Serves the Billionaire Class': UAW President Says He Won't Meet With Trump
"All you have to do is look at his track record," said United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain. "His track record speaks for itself."
Sep 27, 2023
United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain said Tuesday that he will not be meeting with Donald Trump when the former president visits Michigan, pointing to his long history of anti-worker rhetoric and policies.
"I see no point in meeting with him because I don't think the man has any bit of care about what our workers stand for, what the working class stands for," Fain said in a CNN appearance. "He serves the billionaire class, and that's what's wrong with this country."
Fain's remarks came hours before Trump's scheduled address Wednesday night at Drake Enterprises, a nonunion auto parts manufacturer in Clinton Township, Michigan. A national UAW spokesperson toldHuffPost that the union—which is nearly two weeks into its strikes against the Big Three U.S. automakers—doesn't represent any workers at Drake Enterprises, but the facility "could be home to other unions."
In his CNN interview, Fain said he finds it a "pathetic irony" that Trump—who has repeatedly bashed the UAW's leadership—is holding a purportedly pro-worker event at a nonunion business.
"All you have to do is look at his track record," said Fain. "His track record speaks for itself. In 2008 during the Great Recession, he blamed UAW members. He blamed our contracts for everything that was wrong with these companies. That's a complete lie. In 2015 when he was running for president, he talked about doing a rotation, taking all these good-paying jobs in the Midwest and moving them somewhere in the South where people work for less money, and then to make people beg for their jobs back at lower wages."
"And the ultimate show of how much he cares about our workers was in 2019 when he was the president of the United States," Fain continued. "Where was he then? GM—our workers at GM were on strike for 60 days. For two months, they were out there on the picket lines. I didn't see him hold a rally. I didn't see him stand up at the picket line. And I sure as hell didn't hear him comment about it. He's missing in action."
Earlier Tuesday, President Joe Biden joined Fain and striking autoworkers on the picket line outside of a General Motors plant in Belleville, Michigan. Labor historians say Biden is the first sitting U.S. president to walk a picket line with striking workers.
The UAW has not endorsed a candidate in the 2024 presidential race, and Fain told CNN that his comments on Trump were "not an endorsement for anyone."
"It's just flat-out how I view the former president," he said.
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