National Conference to Create Living Wage Jobs For All, Meet Human Needs & Sustain the Environment

NATIONAL CONFERENCE TO CREATE
LIVING-WAGE JOBS FOR ALL,
MEET HUMAN NEEDS &
SUSTAIN THE ENVIRONMENT
Friday & Saturday, November 13-14, 2009

Friday, Nov. 13:  Interchurch Center, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY
Saturday, Nov. 14:  District Council 37, 125 Barclay Street, New York, NY

Note:  Registration includes continental breakfast and buffet lunch for November 13 and 14

CALL TO ACTION:  Our country is in the throes of an economic crisis—the most severe since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Unemployment is at the disaster level. And even before the onset of our current, deep recession, chronic unemployment, low and stagnant wages, myriad unmet needs and unprecedented environmental degradation were endemic.

Current Job Crisis

• Nearly 30 million workers fully or partially jobless (June 2009)
• Most rapid job less of any downturn since the Great Depression
• 5 million fewer jobs in the U.S. economy since the onset of the recession.
• High unemployment expected to persist, even if the economy “recovers.”
• Many of the long-term unemployed will lose benefits, their savings, their homes and more

Weak Stimulus

By the Administration’s own estimate, the economic stimulus will make up for a fraction of the millions of jobs lost since the recession began. Nor will the Stimulus stem the continuing job hemorrhage.

“Good Old Days”

Even in “good” times: 5 million or more women and men were officially jobless; hidden unemployment afflicted many millions more; and poverty wages were rampant. Inequality reigned, our infrastructure was crumbling, and human services fell far short of needs.

We must not go back to those “Good Old Days.”

Instead, we should be guided by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933): We cannot be content, no matter how high the general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people … is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.

Real Reform

Now is the time to organize and mobilize to create a just economy--one that assures living wage jobs for all, sustains the environment, and repairs our social and physical infrastructure.

JOIN A COALITION of LABOR, RELIGIOUS, ANTI-POVERTY, COMMUNITY ACTION ORGANIZATIONS … & CONCERNED PEOPLE

- ATTEND & SUPPORT THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE IN NEW YORK
- HELP TO ORGANIZE SIMILAR CONFERENCES ALL OVER THE UNITED STATES
- PLAN A MASS DEMONSTRATION FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE IN WASHINGTON

INITIAL ENDORSERS OF THE CONFERENCE -- [list in formation]

• Americans for Democratic Action, Darryl Fagin, Legal Director
• Ron Baiman, Chicago Political Economy Group, Director of Budget and Policy Analysis, Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. Chicago
• Bill Barclay, Chicago Political Economy Group, Oak Park Citizens for Truth and Justice, Progressive Democrats of America
• Charles Bell, National Jobs for All Coalition, Conference Chair
• Center for Constitutional Rights, Bill Quigley, Legal Director
• Coalition on Human Needs, Deborah Weinstein, Executive Director
• Coalition for Economic and Social Justice, San Francisco & Belleville, IL, Barbara Arms, Community Organizer
• Sheila Collins, National Jobs for All Coalition, Professor of Political Science, William Paterson University
• DC 37 AFSCME, Lillian Roberts, President
• Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Senior Pastor Emeritus, Riverside Church of New York, Pres., College, City University of New York
• Greater New York Labor Religion Coalition, Rabbi Michael Feinberg, Director
• Philip Harvey, Professor of Law & Economics, Rutgers School of Law
• Haydar Kurban, Chicago Political Economy Group, Associate Professor of Economics, Howard UniversityHealing of the Nations Foundation
• Logan Martinez, Miami Valley Full Employment Council/Organize Ohio
• National Jobs for All Coalition, Trudy Goldberg, Chair
• Joseph Persky, Chicago Political Economy Group, Professor of Economics, University of  Illinois, Chicago
• Robert Pollin, Professor of Economics and Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts-Amherst
• Presbytery of New York
• Elce Redmond, Chicago Political Economy Group, South Austin Coalition, Chicago
• Marguerite G. Rosenthal, National Jobs for All Coalition, Professor Emerita of Social Work, Salem State College
• Frank Stricker, Emeritus Professor of History, California State University, Dominguez Hills
• Rev. Marcel Welty, Conference Coordinator
• Mel Rothenberg, Chicago Political Economy Group, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, University of Chicago
• June Zaccone, National Jobs for All Coalition, Associate Professor Emerita of Economics, Hofstra University
• Bill Fletcher, Jr., Executive Editor, BlackCommentator.com
• Helen Ginsburg, National Jobs for All Coalition, Professor Emerita of Economics, Brooklyn