[Marxism] The elephant in the budgetary room

[Aaron Aarons]

Am I the only one who notices that both these protest calls ignore what is an even larger, and far more harmful, expenditure of money by the U.S. government. Do I have to say what it is?

 - Aaron

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Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2008 22:49:05 -0400
From: "Ruthless Critic of All that Exists" <ok.president+marxml at gmail.com>
Subject: [Marxism] Demo in Cincinnati Saturday,
	was Re: Labor unions protest in New York against bailout

[SNIP]

Join us to stop Bush's financial fast track to disaster.

Join us to put America on the right track.

Protest, Demonstrate, Speak Out!
Saturday, September 27, 2008
12 Noon, Fountain Square
Downtown Cincinnati

We don't need a fast track. We need an immediate plan that saves Americans' homes, and jobs. We need a long term plan that creates a financial system that will provide health care, education, a new
national infrastructure, and sustainable development that enhances the environment. We demand:

·       No fast track financial fix.

·       No blank check to the banks.

·       Congressional representatives must hold town hall meetings to hear constituents' views.

·       Any deal must have Congressional oversight and the creation of a representative citizen council to oversee the financial arrangement.

·       The American government and people must have ownership (preferred stock) and control over institutions they bail out.

·       Protect American homeowners from foreclosure.

·       Any deal must include a broader program of national investment and reconstruction to rebuild America and create jobs.

·       No seven figure salaries, no bonuses, and no golden parachutes for those involved in the financial plan.

·       Prosecute financial swindlers and bar them from future dealings.

Cincinnati Progressive Action (CPA)

For more information contact: 513-600-9405 or DanLaBotz at gmail.com
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Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2008 21:56:37 -0400
From: bauerly at yorku.ca
Subject: [Marxism] Labor unions protest in New York against bailout

Labor unions protest in New York against bailout
Thu Sep 25, 2008 5:53pm EDT
By Christian Wiessner

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hard hats, transit workers, machinists, teachers and other labor unionists railed against the U.S. government's proposed bailout of Wall Street on Thursday in a protest steps from the New York Stock Exchange. 

Several hundred protesters yelled their enthusiastic support as union leaders decried a proposed $700 billion plan aimed at reinvigorating the credit markets by relieving financial institutions of distressed debt. 

"The Bush administration wants us to pay the freight for a Wall Street bailout that does not even begin to address the roots of our crisis," said AFL-CIO National President John Sweeney. 

"We want our tax dollars used to provide a hand up for the millions of working people who live on Main Street and not a handout to a privileged band of overpaid executives." 

Signs read "No Blank Checks For Wall Street" and "Our Hard-Earned Pensions Are Not Up For Grabs." Protesters cheered repeated calls for the government to spend money on education, health care and housing as freely and readily as it was proposing to do for Wall Street. 

"We know that the economic situation has to be solved. But we want a responsible rescue, not an opportunistic bailout," said United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. 

"And that means, just like every single boss says to me, that there should be accountability for the teachers, then there should be accountability for Wall Street," he said. 

"The bailout is a sellout unless it includes the victims of the tyranny," civil rights activist the Rev. Jesse Jackson told reporters after the rally. "The homeowners need long-term, low interest rate loans and the restructuring of loans, not the repossession of homes." 

"This is a Roosevelt moment," Jackson said, referring to former President Franklin D. Roosevelt's program to lift the United States out of the Great Depression. "It's time for reconstruction of manufacturing law, trade law and banking transparency."

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