Bring the War Dollars Home!
2011Christopher Hutchinson 2011-07Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 2 →
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5) Reduce the workweek to 30 hours with no cut in pay, and cut the retirement age to 55. Provide unemployment and retirement payments at the We propose an EMERGENCY CONGRESS OF LABOR to discuss and take 6) To combat inflation: A sliding scale of wages and pensions that match1) Bail out the people, not the bankers! Open the account books of the es the rises in comsumer prices. To combat high medical costs: A free, unibanks to full public inspection. Nationalize the banks to be supervised by 7) Immediate citizenship for all undocumented workers. No job discrimi2) No foreclosures! No forced evictions! Cancel usurious debt payments, nation; equal pay for equal work — regardless of gender, sexual orientaand reduce mortgage payments in proportion to their capitalist-caused 8) Nationalize manufacturing, big agribusiness, energy, and transporta3) Full employment at union wages! An emergency public works program tion corporations and place them under the control of elected committees to employ all jobless workers and youth! Employ people to build what we need — low-cost quality housing, efficient mass transportation, cheap and renewable sources of power, schools, clinics — and to conserve our water, CONGRESS should organize ACTION COMMITTEES in every workplace and neighborhood threatened by the crisis. These committees can draw up 4) Immediate and full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq & Afghanistan!
Close all U.S. bases abroad! No money for the military — use funds instead 10) To put all these measures into effect, we need a LABOR PARTY — for public works! Convert the war industries to making products for peo- based on a fighting union movement and all people who are oppressed and Editor: Michael Schreiber International Editor: Gerry Foley Canada Editor: Barry Weisleder Socialist Action (ISSN 0747-4237) is published monthly by Socialist Action Publishing Association, P.O. Box 460501, San Francisco, CA 94146-0501. Postmaster: Send address changes to: Socialist Action, P.O. BOX 460501, San Francisco, CA 94146-0501. RATES: For one year (12 issues, 1st-class mail): U.S., Canada, Mexico — $20. All other countries — $30. Money orders and checks should be in U.S. dollars.
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The economic crisis continues to strain our city and town budgets. Layoffs, concessions, and budget cuts have become familiar words in many homes. Yet our federal government and President Obama seek to keep the wheels of the war machine grinding on at any cost. Including new wars in Libya and Somalia, our tax dollars fund bloody attacks on workers abroad instead of health care, education, housing, and jobs at home.
How unpopular is war and war spending in the United States? Until recent weeks it was impossible to discern from the corporate media that popular sentiment in the U.S. is opposed to the wars and occupations in the Middle East.
Why then has opposition to U.S. wars seen a revival in the headlines of major media outlets such as MSNBC, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times? A recent CNN poll shows that 60 percent of Americans oppose the occupation of Afghanistan, which was at one time considered by many to be the “good war”.
Also, on June 20 in Baltimore peace activists from across the U.S. successfully urged a national convention of 1200 mayors to pass a resolution demanding that the federal government bring our war dollars home.
The movement to Bring Our War Dollars Home is rapidly growing. Activists in Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut were the first to pass resolutions through city councils. From organized labor in New Jersey to street theater in Cleveland to peace activists Name Address City Phone (Above) April 9 antiwar march in New York City sponsored by UNAC.
in Eugene, Ore., Bring Our War Dollars Home activists are working to turn sentiment against the war into action.
In Hartford, Conn., Socialist Action was one of several groups working together to pass a city council resolution that called for an immediate end to the wars. The resolution also supports public-sector workers in their fight against concessions and layoffs. The Hartford campaign to Bring Our War Dollars Home is curState Zip E-mail 9) To mobilize support for the demands it adopts, the EMERGENCY more concrete demands than the ones outlined above. • Ashland, Ore.: [email protected] • Ashland, Wis.: [email protected] • Boston: bostonsocialistaction@gmail. com (781) 630-0250 • Carrboro, N.C.: (919) 967-2866, [email protected] • Chicago: P.O. Box 578428 Chicago, IL 60657, [email protected] • Connecticut: (860) 478-5300 • Duluth, Minn.:
P.O. Box 16853, Duluth, MN 55816, [email protected], www.the-red-raven.blogspot.com • Florida: [email protected] • Kansas City: [email protected] (816) 221-3638 • Louisville area / Lexington, Ky.: [email protected], (502) 451-2193 • Minneapolis/St. Paul: (612) 802-1482, [email protected] • New York City: (212) 781-5157 rently working to put a referendum on the ballot in the 2011 municipal elections. Connecting the attacks on the livelihood of workers at home with war spending is an important part of our outreach.
As Socialist Action goes to print, Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy is preparing to lay off thousands of state workers. This unbridled attack by the so-called “friend of labor” will smash the unions by privatizing large sectors of public services.
Antiwar activists are making it absolutely clear that the budget crisis in Connecticut is nothing more than a scare tactic to force concessions from working people. There is plenty of money. It exists in the pockets of wealthy tax dodgers and in capital-intensive war production. People are outraged that President Obama will take 222 million tax dollars this year from Hartford alone to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. With that money you could provide the following for one year: 8610 Head Start slots for children or 19,369 households with renewable electricity (i.e., solar photovoltaic) or 6874 scholarships for university students or 25,627 children receiving low-income health care. These figures from costofwar.com do not include soldiers’ regular pay or the cost of new wars.
A Bring Our War Dollars Home campaign puts forward the “radical” notion that human needs should be funded instead of war. We urge our brothers and sisters to bring that message via resolutions to their unions, labor councils, city councils, school boards, student councils, communities of faith, and so on. Find out what is being coordinated nationally and plug into the larger antiwar movement by working with the United National Antiwar Committee (UNACpeace.org) and help us build a movement that shuts down the war makers once and for all. n For info about Socialist Action and how to join: Socialist Action National Office, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610, [email protected], (510) 268-9429 Socialist Action newspaper editorial offices: [email protected] Website: www.socialistaction.org WHERE TO FIND SOCIALIST ACTION • Philadelphia: [email protected] • Portland, Ore.: (503) 233-1629 [email protected] • Providence: [email protected], (401) 419-1706 • San Francisco Bay Area:
P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, Ca 94610 (510) 268-9429, [email protected] • Superior. Wis.: [email protected] • WASHINGTON, DC: [email protected] (202) 286-5493 National Office
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