Dems call for jobless march on Washington

NOTE: show on CNN their article is not available now

Joblessness is as bad today as it was during the 1930s –
It’s time to take the fight to D.C.

On April 8, 1935, Congress passed the legislation creating the largest public works program in history. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) created 8.5 million jobs during the depression of the 1930s.

Let’s mark the 75th anniversary of the creation of the WPA by telling the government that today’s jobless crisis is as bad today as it was back then and that we need the same kind of bold, sweeping jobs program that the people demanded in the 1930s – Now!

Martin Luther King Jr. dedicated the final months of his life to starting a movement for the right of all to a job or a guaranteed income – we need that movement now more than ever.

absent-cause.blogspot.com...

It’s time to say no: to a jobless recovery - to an economy based on permanent high unemployment and low wages - to trillions of $ for Wall St., and trillions of $ for war but nothing but joblessness, foreclosures, evictions, layoffs, low wages, union busting, hunger and homelessness for workers and the poor.

There are more than 20 million unemployed and underemployed people in the country today. We need a real WPA-type program that is big enough to insure that those who need work get work – work that is socially useful that pays union wages and benefits.

Call issued bythe Bail Out the People Movement

To endorse this call go to www.bailoutpeople.org...

To volunteer or organize transportation from your area go to www.bailoutpeople.org...

To donate go to www.bailoutpeople.org...

Bail Out the People Movement
Solidarity Center
55 W. 17th St. #5C
New York, NY 10011
212.633.6646
www.BailOutPeople.org
Email: bailoutpeople.org/cmnt.shtml

[edit on 2-12-2009 by OpTiMuS_PrImE]

UPDATING: Including the article from CNN

Members of President Obama's own political party are charging that the White House and the Democratic Congressional leadership are not doing enough to help the unemployed and are threatening to organize a march on Washington of jobless Americans.

"Obviously there's something that's not getting through to them," said Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Illinois. "And we're going to let the White House and everybody who's concerned know that we have got people in our districts who are depending on us to deliver for them."

Rush and Reps. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, and Candice Miller, R-Michigan, chair the new Congressional "Jobs Now Caucus," which is comprised of 112 Democrats and 17 Republicans.

Rush and Kaptur argue that a new jobs program is more important than health care reform, but stop short of threatening to hold up a vote on one of Obama's most important domestic policy initiatives.

"We're not there yet," Kaptur said.

Some of the proposals being floated by the caucus include: redirecting existing stimulus and TARP money to jobs programs and pressing for a new jobs bill, which they're careful not to call a "stimulus."

More than one member of the caucus told CNN the stimulus was crafted without enough input from lawmakers whose districts suffer from the highest jobless rates.

"I have been very disappointed in the incomplete manner in which the jobs and the economic recession has been dealt with," said Kaptur, who added, "We don't want to be given short shrift."

Rush was more blunt in his demand. "We don't want to be handed a bill and told, 'Alright vote this bill,'" Rush said. "We want to be part of the creation."

Full Story

That story in your last post is from two years ago...
this one is an op-ed from TODAY:

Time for the jobless to march on Washington

www.cnn.com...

It's time for the left to get off its duff and turn the tables on the radical right. And our history reveals that there's an excellent method for accomplishing precisely that: a great march of the unemployed on Washington.

Recent polls reveal that Americans are decisively more concerned about the crisis of unemployment than the issue of our national debt. But as many commentators have observed in recent weeks, the results of the midterm elections, with Republicans gaining control of the House, and the associated rise of the tea party have pushed an agenda of austerity in government spending ahead of using government resources to fight unemployment.
....
A march of the unemployed might be the way to do it. And there's historical precedent for this idea, too -- not only in the still-remembered marches on the nation's capital that occurred in the 1960s, but also in the largely forgotten marches of the unemployed that occurred both in 1894 and (more consequentially) 1932.

The preparations would have to start soon if such an exercise in grass-roots activism is to stand a real chance of affecting our political balance of power next year. Is the left prepared to rise to the occasion?

So...not just ME unrest. Not just "Arab spring". This author (Striner) says go for it. Do it.

Who's ready, ATS?

If you read the article you'll see references to quite a few "controversial" figures from the past...and suggestions for programs that were not always considered great ideas by everyone....
but still...
The unrest abroad seems to have "infected" the entire world. Will the US citizens do this? Well, those who either can AFFORD to get there, or who live nearby?

It would take me 2 days to drive there, but, if it comes down to it, yeah, I'll get my carcass in gear and stand wth ya!

WT