Trumka at Take Back the American Dream Conference: ‘Bring It On!’
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Dave Johnson, a fellow at the Campaign for America’s Future, sends us this.
At the Take Back the American Dream conference this afternoon, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka described the unequal economic situation in the country today, saying:
Think about it: Bank of America, which makes about $1 billion a month, announces it’s going to charge customers $5 a month to use their own money to shop with their debit cards. Mind you this is the financial giant that paid its global banking and markets president nearly $30 million last year—and this year turned around and announced it’s going to fire 30,000 workers!
Trumka told the audience that the right wing is “banking on an upside-down America for its path to political power.” He described the right’s four-part plan:
Happy New Year from the AFL-CIO
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Happy New Year from the 12 million members of the AFL-CIO.
I wish all the best for you and your family, for our unions and for our nation in 2011. And I know you share that wish.
We’re all going to have to work hard—and together—to make it come true.
The holiday season has been a time to pause and remember the reasons we struggle so hard and pursue our aspirations.
And the start of a New Year is a time for us all to recommit to our efforts to turn today’s dreams into tomorrow’s realities.
Unemployed in America
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The unemployment figures were so bad Friday—half a million U.S. jobs lost in one month—some in the corporate media actually sounded a bit alarmed. Still, the overriding impulse of mainstream journalists is to look on the bright side.
Like NPR, for instance, which offers a handy chart showing how unemployment was worse in the early 1980s than it is now. The chart’s cutsy title: “In Case It Makes You Feel Better,” begs an answer, such as: You gotta be kidding?
Such “things could always be worse” journalism—like yeah, a plague of locusts could be in my backyard—is pretty tiresome, but imagine how it must sound to those who really are suffering from job loss?
