Newark, NJ – Thousands of high school students in New Jersey walked out of their schools on April 27 to oppose $820 million in cuts to state aid by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Newark had the largest number of students who chose to walk out, with about 2000 students taking over the steps and the street in front of City Hall for their protest. The statewide protest was triggered by a Facebook page posted by Michelle Ryan Lauto, a college freshman.

Irvington, NJ – The People’s Organization for Progress (POP) held a protest at the Irvington, New Jersey branch of Wachovia, a subsidiary of Wells Fargo, April 17. Irvington has been devastated by foreclosures, with many boarded-up houses on every residential block in town.

Newark, NJ – Community forces here, led by the United Front to Defend Public Education (UFDPE) are opposing funding cutbacks and the privatization of public schools. There have been marches and rallies, speakers at public forums and literature distribution to oppose the cutbacks.

St. Paul, MN – Protesters assembled in the rotunda of the Minnesota state capitol here on April 15 for a rally to demand that the state government not “balance the state budget on the backs of working and low-income people.” The rally called on politicians to instead, “tax the rich.”

San Bruno, CA – In March, 162,000 new jobs were created, according to a monthly survey of businesses taken by the Labor Department. This was the largest number of new jobs created in a month in three years. This positive report may be a sign that the labor market has finally turned a corner following the worst recession in 70 years.

The March 4 national day of action for education was a huge success! Over 100,000 people marched, rallied and took action at over 100 schools and colleges. The biggest protests were in California, both on college campuses and in city streets. College students and union members joined parents with their children, as well as high school students, to demand education funding from the state government. Across the country, students, union workers and faculty marched across campuses and rallied outside administration buildings, while administrators hid or snuck out the back door. In some cases university chancellors and presidents locked themselves inside their offices surrounded by police while students tried to deliver petitions.

_The Good, the Bad and the Ugly _

San Bruno, CA – On Feb. 5 the Department of Labor released their report on the January 2010 job market. The good news in the report was that the official unemployment rate fell from 10.0% in December to 9.7% in January. This is the biggest drop in the unemployment rate since the recession began in December 2007.

St. Paul, MN – About 100 people gathered here Feb. 4 on the steps of the Minnesota State Capitol for a protest that coincided with the opening of the Minnesota State Legislature. The Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout organized the protest. Standing at the top of a giant banner reading, “Tax the rich, no cuts to poor and working people,” Angel Buechner of the Welfare Rights Committee led the chant, “Hey politicians, here’s the fix – tax the rich! Tax the rich!”

St. Paul, MN – The battle is under way to put a moratorium on home forecloses in Minnesota. The first legislative hearing on an bill to put a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions began with a joint hearing by State Senate Economic Development and Housing Budget Division and Health and Housing and Family Security Committee, Jan. 27 at the Minnesota state capitol.

Minneapolis, MN – More than 75 workers, students and community supporters rallied at Morrill Hall, the central administration building here, Jan. 21, to oppose attempts by President Bruininks and senior administrators to balance the budget on the backs of staff and students.

Chicago, IL – Over 200 workers, faculty and students at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) marched here, Jan. 21, to demand full funding for higher education and an end to threatened furloughs and layoffs. The rally was held outside the meeting of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. It was called by a coalition of unions, including SEIU and the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO), as well UIC Concerned Faculty, an ad hoc group, and student activists.

San José, CA – On Friday, Jan. 15, the Department of Labor released reports on inflation and real earnings (wages adjusted for inflation) for 2009. The rate of increases in prices for workers who live in cities was moderate, at 3.4%. This figure was higher than the official inflation rate of 2.7%. However wages failed to keep up with the rise in prices, so weekly real earnings, or the purchasing power of workers' weekly wages, fell by 1.6% in 2009. This fall in wages was mainly because the average increase in hourly wages was less than the rise in prices. This reflected the lack of raises and spreading wage cuts last year. Cuts in workers' hours, which also reduced weekly pay, also played a role.

_Put a Tax on Wall Street! _

In September of 2008 the New York Federal Reserve gave the U.S. insurer American International Group (AIG) an $85 billion loan as part of the bailout of Wall Street. The NY Fed told AIG to pay big banks in full the $62 billion AIG owed for credit default swaps. In addition, the NY Fed told AIG not to tell the public how much they owed or who they were paying off. The government bailout of AIG has been increased three times since then and now totals more than $180 billion.

San José, CA – On Friday, Jan. 8, the Labor Department reported that 85,000 more jobs were lost in December of 2009. This was much worse than mainstream economists predicted and shows that another ‘job-loss’ recovery may be underway. Following the last official recession in 2001, the economy began to grow in November of 2001 but workers continued to lose jobs until the summer of 2003.

En todo el país, mas trabajadores estamos perdiendo nuestros trabajos y nuestras casas. Cada semana, la cantidad de personas que llegan al fin de sus beneficios del desempleo crece. En cada estado, están cortando los presupuestos de las escuelas publicas y los programas que sirven a los pobres y a los trabajadores. La salud esta en crisis y el congreso esta debatiendo un rescate para las corporaciones de seguro medico. Las nacionalidades oprimidas – la gente afro-americana, los chicano y latinos, los asiáticos y los nativo-americanos son los mas fuertemente golpeados por la crisis económica.

Across the country, more working people are losing our jobs and our homes. Each week, the ranks of those running out of our unemployment benefits grow. In every state, public schools and programs that serve poor and working people are being cut. Health care is in crisis and congress is debating another bailout for the insurance companies. Oppressed nationality – Black, Chicano, Latino, Asians and Native Americans – are hit the hardest by the economic crisis.

Minneapolis, MN – Leslie Parks and her backers went to housing court Dec. 9 and filed papers against IndyMac/One West for doing an unlawful lockout. Leslie Parks had arrived home the night before only to find that all the locks had been changed on her home.

Minneapolis, MN – On the night of Dec. 8, in a freezing blizzard, Leslie Parks returned from her job to find that IndyMac/One West had changed the locks to her home.

San Bruno, CA – On Nov. 18, the California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) announced that the state was facing budget deficits of $20 billion each year for five more years . Over the past fifteen months, California responded to a total budget deficit of $77 billion with a combination of cuts in spending, increases in taxes on working people, federal economic stimulus monies and accounting tricks.