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Recent
Activities of the Coalition
The struggle for living-wage jobs for all has never been more
urgent or important. With nearly 30 million people officially
out of work, employed fewer hours than they would like or out
of the labor force for a variety of reasons, jobs-for-all advocates
have to work harder and better than ever.
As a result of the initiative of the National Jobs for All Coalition,
more than 125 people from 50 organizations gathered in New York
City in mid-November for a two-day National Conference to
Create Living-Wage Jobs for All, Meet Human Needs & Sustain
the Environment. The diversity of participants was impressive.
While most were from New York, people also traveled from Georgia,
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, California, Illinois,
Ohio and elsewhere. Some participants were able to attend because
the conference organizers raised money to pay for their expenses.
Participating organizations and individuals spanned a broad range
of constituencies and interests-- labor, religious and faith-based
organizations, academics, welfare rights advocates and environmentalists.
NJFAC was joined in its organizing effort by DC 37, AFSCME, the
Presbytery of New York, the Healing of the Nations Foundation
(headed by the Rev. James Forbes, Senior Pastor Emeritus of New
York's famed Riverside Church) and the progressive Chicago Political
Economy Group.
Drawing on the New Deal experience but with appropriate modifications
the participants strongly supported direct job creation by government,
a more efficient means of reducing unemployment than the Obama
stimulus package. For a video that portrays some of the excitement
of this national gathering, visit: http://www.jobscampaign.org/
A high point of this spirited gathering was the formation of
a Living Wage Jobs for All Campaign which has
been meeting via conference calls since November. In addition
to a Steering Committee, the conveners have organized outreach,
legislation, education/media and fundraising/program development
committees. We invite you to join one of these committees. More
about the Campaign is available at http://www.jobscampaign.org/
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In addition to this national effort, NJFAC has been working hard
in the New York metropolitan area. In late March, NJFAC co-sponsored
a well-attended “labor breakfast” on the unemployment
crisis with the Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor
Studies (of the City University of New York). NJFAC’s Philip
Harvey outlined a compelling proposal that would employ all of
the unemployed for a sum equal to the Obama Job Stimulus. The
funds would be used solely for direct job creation in the cities
and towns where it is needed most—to renovate dilapidated
housing, provide child and elder care, expand recreational and
cultural activities, improve parks and other public spaces, undertake
energy conservation measures and the like. For Philip Harvey’s
direct job creation proposal as well as a round-up of action across
the country to stem the unemployment crisis by NJFAC chair Trudy
Goldberg, visit http://www.jobscampaign.org/
NJFAC has also taken the lead in organizing a group of New York
City activists—representing labor, social welfare, faith-based
groups and academics—who have begun to meet. Our first big
effort was to support and participate in the May Day Rally on
behalf of Labor and Immigrant Rights and Jobs for All. At the
rally, NJFAC handed out educational materials on the true extent
of the crisis and possible solutions.
First-Friday events, initiated by NJFAC’s Outreach Coordinator,
Logan Martinez (based in Dayton, Ohio), are demonstrations on
the day that the Labor Department issues its monthly unemployment
report. One such event took place May 7th in Elizabeth New Jersey
and was organized by Rev. Dr. Douglas Grote, a member of the Executive
Committee of NJFAC. First Fridays have been held in Pittsburgh,
Dayton and Cleveland, and Boston. For assistance in planning a
First Friday, contact Logan at loganmartinez2u@yahoo.com
NJFAC has been invited to join --and has been working with--a
newly-formed group of labor leaders (and others) led by Arthur
Cheliotes, President of the Communications Workers of America,
Local 1180. The goal is to work on a progressive legislative agenda
for New York State and, eventually, to develop one at the national
level, with a broad vision beyond the day-to-day struggles. NJFAC
has specifically been asked to provide expertise on the jobs issue.
At the Social Forum, held in Detroit in June, the Coalition was
represented by Outreach Coordinator Logan Martinez. Logan circulated
our literature on the unemployment crisis, recruited about 40
new individuals or organizations for the Living-Wage Jobs for
All Campaign and held a workshop on job creation with our affiliates,
the Chicago Political Economy Group. Logan has been asked to address
the South Carolina AFL-CIO Convention on the subject of job creation.
The task of conquering our current, crisis-level unemployment
and the chronic joblessness—15 million official and hidden
unemployment, even in the best of times—is formidable. NJFAC
is proposing and promulgating approaches to deal with both the
chronic problem and the current crisis. We can, like New Dealers,
take advantage of a crisis to advance the cause of economic justice.
We can take steps toward FDR’s Economic Bill of Rights that
began with The right to a useful and remunerative job….
We are inspired by FDR’s concern, even in the depths of
our nation’s Great Depression, for chronic economic deprivation:
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. (1933).
Gertrude Schaffner Goldberg,
Chair
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