Political Action

 

  

 IT’S ABOUT JOBS!

Republicans, Mass. Senator Scott Brown block Unemployment extension – and stop $19 Billion tax on big banks!

 

Did Massachusetts send Sen. Brown to Washington to protect us?  Or the big banks?

 

Early this week, a vote in U.S. Senate to extend Unemployment Benefits to laid-off workers – like former Joint Board members at closed Liz Claiborne distribution center – was BLOCKED by unanimous Republican opposition, including new Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown.  Republicans also SAVED THEIR BIG BANK FRIENDS FROM A $19 BILLION TAX to help pay for jobs. 

 

(To see some of the possible effects of NO unemployment insurance, see below what happened in the LAST Depression, when 15 million Americans (same number as today) were out of work – and there WAS no unemployment insurance, check out this photo, and photo at bottom of this story.)

HoovervilleTrain Tracks 

"Hooverville" housing for unemployed, Great Depression, USA, 1930s.

During the 1930s Depression – which could be repeating itself now – Republican President Herbert Hoover cut spending to prevent a deficit.  The result – jobless and homeless families were forced to move into makeshift shacks along railroad tracks or in other vacant land.  The name given to these poverty villages – “Hoovervilles.”

 

In 1932, American voters turned Hoover and the Republicans out of office, and elected a Democratic President, Franklin Roosevelt, and a Democratic Congress.  The result – millions of new jobs in government programs like:  Civilian Conservation Corps, Rural Electrification Agency (brought electricity for first time to rural America), Works Progress Administration (public buildings – and energy-creating dams like the Grand Coulee dam in Washington State); and:

  • First-ever unemployment insurance
  • First-ever Social Security
  • First-ever National Labor Relations Act – allowed peaceful formation of labor unions.
  • First-ever minimum wage -- 25¢ an hour!
  • First-ever – child labor prohibited

 

The result:

            Yes, huge deficits – BUT ALSO, jobs and economic growth

            Creation of the American middle class!

You've got a problem with that??

..

Let’s remember:

 

            WE bailed out the banks already

 

            NOW, when we want JOBS and UNEMPLOYMENT PROTECTION

.. the banks – supported by all Republicans, and a few Democrats want tax breaks for themselves, even if 15 million people have no jobs and no Unemployment Insurance.

 

            THEY SAY:  “We’ve got ours, Jack!” We can’t afford jobs or Unemployment.

 

            WE SAY: IT’S TIME FOR OUR BAILOUT -JOBS & JUSTICE FIRST!

 

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?

Hooverville, NYC