October 2010

Recently, the National Bureau of Economic Research announced that the recession is over. They say it lasted 18 months from December 2007 until June 2009 -- the longest since WWII, longer than 1973-1975 or 1981-1982.  According to the experts, that means the recession was over a year ago.  It may have come as a surprise to you.  And, it may be extremely surprising news to the millions of people still unemployed.

Let us look at some facts.   Florida’s unemployment rate is 11.7% and growing despite the fact that some new jobs are created. Over a million people are out of work in Florida.  Sean Snaith, an economist at University of Central Florida, said the meager jobs being created do not offset the jobs loss or meet the demands of new people looking for work—he called it "a drop in a pretty empty bucket."

Naomi Klein, the author of “The Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster Capitalism”, described the idea in an interview:

[The Shock Doctrine] is a philosophy that holds that the best way, the best time, to push through radical free-market ideas is in the aftermath of a major shock. Now, that shock could be an economic meltdown. It could be a natural disaster… these crises, these disasters, these shocks soften up whole societies. They discombobulate them… in that window, you can push through what economists call "economic shock therapy."

Today, with unemployment continuing to hover around 10% nationally and some cities experiencing joblessness at rates higher than 25% (even as the government and the mass media suggest the economic recovery is well underway), corporate interests are using the heightened insecurity of working people to push through their own "economic shock therapy": lowering labor costs in order to maximize profit. Central to this agenda is undermining, at every opportunity, workers' right to organize unions and collectively bargain for wages, benefits and working conditions.

Security Threat?  This Philadelphia JwJ rally was the subject of a Homeland Security bulletin.

The Pennsylvania Department of Homeland Security is paying a private American-Israeli firm, the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response (ITRR) to monitor the activities of groups like Jobs with Justice, MoveON.org, the Ruckus Society, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the Brandywine Peace Coalition, Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, Rainforest Action Network, immigration activists opposing Arizona’s SB1070, and many more.

Bill Quigley and Rachel Meeropol reported the story last week in Counterpunch:

For almost a year, ITTR provided bi-weekly intelligence briefings to Pennsylvania Homeland Security which focused in equal part on "jihadist" communications and trainings throughout the world, and also social justice organizing and protests across the country.

In the last two weeks, Central Indiana Jobs with Justice has gotten significant local media coverage.  Why?  Because the community is taking more and more action to demand justice from local government, and in particular questioning why the billionaire Simon family should benefit from millions in taxpayer dollars while the city cuts vital public services.

Dozens packed the small hearing room and drew media coverage to the Municipal Corporations Committee meeting on September 27th to protest Mayor Ballard’s $1.5 million gift to the Simons.  The Simon family got a new scoreboard for their Pacers team, while library workers will see pink slips.

The Pell Grant will be underfunded by $5.5 billion next year.  Tuition is going up 8% every year for a national average.  Student debt is now the largest form of debt in the United States, surpassing credit card debt.  65,000 students are denied the right to an education every year based on their documentation status.

These somber facts and figures led to students walking out of classes and holding more than 75 rallies in 25 states yesterday, as higher education faces the largest crisis it has ever come up against.  Students declared a National Day of Action to Defend Higher Education, organized in part by the Student Labor Action Project.

At Wichita State University, students created a guillotine with debt as the blade coming down on their heads. “Debt is cutting us off from the jobs we used to dream of having, like being a teacher,” said Aaron Rivers, a student at Wichita State. “It forces us into the corporate sector to find a higher paying job to pay off loans… and we don’t even know if these jobs exist.”