More Poverty, Lower Wages, Shrinking Health Care. The USA Today
New data out from the U.S. Census Bureau yesterday show a nation on the decline: Millions more Americans are in poverty and hundreds of thousands more are without health insurance compared with a year ago—and our median household income is now the lowest since 1997.
As Time’s Justin Fox puts it:
I don’t know how much of this was bad luck and how much was bad policy (nobody does), but there’s really no getting around the fact that the Bush presidency was an economic debacle. Americans got poorer on his watch.
Organizing and Mobilizing with Flair
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For four days next week, the campus of the National Labor College (NLC) in Silver Spring, Md., will reverberate with the sounds of music, poetry and creative chants and art.
From June 20-23, some 100 union and social justice activists will participate in the annual Great Labor Arts Exchange and Conference on Creative Organizing, programs that combine union mobilization and outreach with songs, skits, art, poetry, theater, posters, cartoons and film.
For 31 years, the Great Labor Arts Exchange has celebrated the rich cultural heritage of working people and served as a forum that brings together talented labor artists, activists, cultural workers, educators and students.
Last year, the Great Labor Arts Exchange featured a wealth of new, young talent. Some of last year’s featured events included a giant puppet show by two members of the United Steelworkers (USW) who showed participants one way to use street theater to deliver a message. Tayo Aluko, a Nigerian who now lives in Liverpool, England, performed a one-man show on the life of actor and human rights activist Paul Robeson.
SCLC Launches 21st Century Poor People’s Campaign
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) today announced the rebirth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Poor People’s Campaign” to fight poverty in some of the poorest regions of America. Launched in 1968, the campaign’s first major initiative sought to win economic justice for sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn. It was there on a motel balcony where King was assassinated April 4,1968.
In a press conference at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., SCLC General Counsel Dexter Wimbush said the campaign’s goal is to
finish the unfinished business of Dr. King.
It’s Time for a Global New Deal
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| The Global New Deal declares that the world’s economy should work for the poor, such as this woman who works in India for about $2.50 a day. |
More than 2,000 political leaders, trade unionists, representatives of progressive international organizations and grassroots activists last week called for a Global New Deal to change the face of the global economy.
The call came during the Global Progressive Forum meeting in Brussels following the G-20 summit. Guy Ryder, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), says the demand “shows the determination of progressive people across the planet to forge a new world.”
The declaration says progressives have been warning about the risks and injustices for people and the planet for decades. According to the declaration:
Now, the fundamental and systemic failures of the current economic system are undeniable: The time has come to restate our values, our vision and our proposals for a new direction, transforming our societies, improving the lives of our and future generations.
Up to 50 Million More Jobs Threatened by Global Crisis
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| The ILO predicts worldwide poverty will rise as the global economic crisis worsens. |
The global economic crisis could throw as many as 50 million more workers out of jobs worldwide in the next year and lead to a dramatic increase in the number of working poor, according to a new report by the International Labor Organization (ILO).
In its annual Global Employment Trends report, the ILO, an arm of the United Nations, says global unemployment between 2007 and 2009 could rise by 18 million to 30 million workers-and possibly by more than 50 million if the world economy continues to deteriorate. As a result, some 200 million workers, mostly in developing economies, could be pushed into extreme poverty. Click here to download the report.
More U.S. Children Face Poverty
Last year, the number of poor children in the United States increased by nearly half a million, to 13.3 million—and 5.8 million of those are living in extreme poverty. Nearly 9 million children have no health insurance. Those numbers are sure to rise as the nation plunges further into recession, says the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) in its recently released report, The State of America’s Children 2008.
According to the CDF report, children in the United States lag behind those in almost all industrialized nations on key indicators. Our nation has the unwanted distinction of being the worst among industrialized countries in relative child poverty, the gap between rich and poor, teen birth rates and child gun violence. In addition, the United States is first in the number of incarcerated persons.
Take a Virtual Tour and See What It’s Like to Work Hard—and Live in Poverty
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Service workers at the University of California’s (UC’s) 10 campuses and five medical centers have been trying for more than a year to negotiate a deal that would pay them a decent wage. The workers are paid so little that a recent study found as many as 96 percent of them can qualify for at least one form of public assistance.
Higher gas prices and stagnant wages are creating a crisis for many of these workers who must live paycheck to paycheck. Now, the workers are getting the message out about what it’s like to live in poverty. They invited elected officials and faith leaders into their homes to see for themselves the impact of poverty wages on their lives and their families. (Take a virtual tour of UC-created poverty through the video above or visit the Facing Poverty at UC website here.)
