News and Views from the People's Struggle
Minneapolis, MN – More than 50 union activists, as well as OccupyMN participants and others, rallied outside the University of Minnesota’s McNamara Alumni Center on Nov. 8 to protest a speech by Wells Fargo CEO Jon Stumpf.
Minneapolis, MN – Following a march on the banks here, October 29, more than 40 people attended a teach-in organized by Freedom Road Socialist Organization. Entitled, “How capitalism works, and why it doesn’t work for the 99%,” the event brought together activists for a serious discussion on what is wrong with the capitalist system.
Minneapolis, MN – Seven people were arrested as over 100 people from OccupyMN protested outside of U.S. Bank Plaza, Oct. 20. The seven arrested set up tents outside the bank and blocked traffic at a major downtown intersection. The protest highlighted the hypocrisy of big banks foreclosing people’s homes while U.S. Bank’s bosses’ pay doubled over the past year and the bank rakes in record profits.
Winston-Salem, NC – 200 people demonstrated on the sidewalk in front of the Bank of America branch in Winston-Salem on Oct. 15. For three hours the protesters rallied against Wall Street and the big banks, exposing the Bank of America’s misuse of bailout money, as well as the ongoing loss of jobs in Winston-Salem and the rest of North Carolina, where unemployment is over 10%.
Minneapolis, MN – Occupy Minnesota, which began on October 7 in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement, continues it’s ongoing protest presence in People’s Plaza in downtown Minneapolis (the plaza between 5th & 6th Street and 3rd & 4th Avenue). Each day brings more support and more actions. The main theme of OccupyMN is “people before profits.”
On Sept. 30, the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) publicly stated that the United States economy was tipping into a new recession. This adds to the growing evidence of a serious slowdown in the U.S. economy, including the zero job growth and falling personal income in August as well as falling prices and sales of homes in August.
_Theme is ‘People before profits’ _
Minneapolis, MN – With the theme of “People before profits” and inspired by the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York, a similar occupation will start on Friday, Oct. 7 at 9:00 a.m. in Minneapolis. The Minneapolis occupation will be at Government Plaza (300 South 6th Street, downtown Minneapolis). The Occupy MN movement has already renamed it “People’s Plaza.” This is one of many ongoing occupations that have sprung up around the country since the Wall Street occupation began on Sept. 17.
On Sunday, Oct. 3, the Greek Cabinet voted on a new budget proposal for 2012 that includes 6.5 billion euros ($8.5 billion) in spending cuts and tax hikes, including cutting 30,000 government jobs. This budget will go to the Greek Parliament on Monday, Oct. 4, in hopes of getting another 8 billion euros ($10.5 billion) from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) in order to pay back German, French and other European banks that own large amounts of Greek bonds.
New York, NY – In a city of nine million people, protesters aren’t supposed to shut down a major traffic artery on a Saturday afternoon. But on Saturday, October 1, Occupy Wall Street did just that, blocking the Brooklyn Bridge and sending a loud message to the bankers and politicians from Wall Street to Washington D.C. to California that a new day is at hand.
Boston, MA – In solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street campaign, Boston is joining in with other cities across the United States.
Problems with the government debt of Greece threaten the European Union. The United States would most likely be drawn in if the financial crisis gets big enough.
The Greek predicament exposes root problems of capitalism. Production is a highly organized process. It embraces the whole of society. Yet the means of production are privately owned. The aim is profit. There is no overall plan of development. Production leaps ahead here and falls apart there; it is uneven. The outcome is frequent crisis. The Greeks have a word for it – chaos.
On October 1, Occupy Wall Street continued to grow and attract support from new sectors. Thousands marched, and the NYPD arrested more than 700 protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge. These photos show some of the spirit of the occupation and the march, before the NYPD's mass arrests. All photos by Carolyn Riccardi.
Fight Back! interviews Joe Iosbaker, the Chicago spokesperson for the United Anti War Coalition, on the protests that will coincide with the NATO/G8 Summit that is scheduled for May, 2012.
San José, CA – On Sept. 13, the Census Bureau released their annual report on income, poverty, and health insurance in the United States. The report said that the number of people below the official poverty line rose from 14.3% in 2009 to 15.1% in 2010. This meant that 2.6 million more people fell into poverty last year, and the total of 46.2 million poor was the largest number in more than 50 years of records. Worst hit were African Americans (27.4% below the official poverty line), Latinos (26.6%), and children (22.0%).
_Working people need to fight back against austerity _
The U.S. economy continues to stagnate with almost no economic growth or job creation more than three years after the great financial crisis of 2008 and more than two years after the recession officially ended in 2009. The official unemployment rate is still over 9% nationally, and millions of workers who have stopped looking for work are not included in this count. Even worse, the Obama administration projects unemployment to stay above 8% for all of 2012, which would be four years of near double-digit unemployment.
San José, CA – In a sign that the economy is on the edge of another downturn, the Labor Department reported on Sept. 2 that there was no gain in jobs in August. Not counting last summer when there were large layoffs of temporary Census workers, this is the worst jobs report since February of 2010. The Labor Department also revised down the job gains for June and July, so that average job gain over the last three months was only 35,000 net new jobs per month. This is far below the 200,000 or so jobs that a normal recovery would be generating at this stage of an economic expansion.
San José, CA – On August 5, Standard and Poors, commonly known as S&P, downgraded U.S. government bonds from the highest rating AAA to the second-highest AA+. At the same time the S&P called for even more austerity, saying that $4 trillion in cuts in U.S. government spending were needed, not the $2 trillion agreed upon earlier in the week. S&P criticized the U.S. government for not making cuts in Social Security and Medicare. In addition, S&P said that the federal government spending cuts needed to come sooner, increasing the chances of a new downturn in the economy, or the feared ‘double-dip’ recession.
San José, CA – The recent federal debt limit deal passed by the House and Senate and signed into law by president Obama promises at least $2.1 trillion in spending cuts and lower interest payments over the next ten years. This deal did not include any savings from ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, or from restoring higher taxes for the rich. It was a victory for the Tea Party-backed Republicans and benefits the rich and Wall Street. At the same time programs serving poor and working people will be the target for cuts and the deal opens the door for cuts in Social Security and Medicare.
The recession ain’t over yet, fears of a ‘double-dip’ rise
San José, CA – On July 29, the Commerce Department released its report on Gross Domestic Product or GDP for the Second Quarter (April to June) of 2011. GDP, which measures the value of goods and services produced in the United States, rose at only a 1.3% annual rate, much slower than most mainstream economists expected. Even worse, the First Quarter (January to March) economic growth was cut from an earlier estimate of 1.9% to just 0.4%.