By James Thompson

WASHINGTON, DC – I attended the ‘One Nation’ rally in Washington, DC on 10/02/2010. I was gratified to see an ocean of progressive people standing together against the negative assault by the ultra-right wing Tea Partiers and their partners, Fox News and Glenn Beck.

Organizers estimated the crowd at 175,000, but it was really impossible to say. Many people were coming and going all day long, so getting an accurate crowd estimate was not feasible. In any case, the crowd was definitely awe inspiring.

DC has an admirable public transportation system and I took it to get to the rally Saturday morning. Although I started fairly early at 9am, the subway was jam packed with enthusiastic union members who were loud and visible. I happened to be with a large group of UAW members as I made my way to the rally site. Being a UAW member, this really made me happy. Some people said later in the day there were so many people in the subway they had to stop the escalators abruptly since there were too many people on them. There were reports that some people fell as a result and were hurt.

I was disappointed to find out that some subway lines were delayed because of maintenance. One would think that with such a big event, the transportation planners would have cooperated fully and kept all lines moving to accommodate the massive crowd.

Union members and NAACP members were everywhere. They really dominated the scene. Also, a lot of people were there to express their opposition to the wars in the Middle East. Many people were pushing for universal health care, universal education and jobs. A lot of people held signs demanding an end to the senseless wars, as well as bailouts for banks and the ultra wealthy. The anger at the ultra-wealthy and ultra right-wing’s drive for increased profits for corporations was palpable.

I spoke with one young African American man from Baltimore who was incensed that the ultra wealthy in this country are not taxed at a level comparable to working people. He thought the country’s problems could be solved if everyone paid their fair share of taxes. He was a big supporter of Obama and felt our President is not getting the support from progressive forces that he deserves.

People were openly talking about the ugly face of racism and how it has served to divide our country and make working people easy prey for corporations and capitalists.

The most striking thing about the rally was its diversity and focus on unity. I watched an Asian dance troupe and a number of young African Americans joined right in with them in a show of solidarity.

Peace groups such as the U.S. Peace Council stood shoulder to shoulder with union members and civil rights activists.

The CPUSA was present and visible. Two banners, one for the CPUSA and one for the YCL were very prominent. People distributing a copy of a People’s World article by Jarvis Tyner welcoming people to the rally and declaring “Hope is stronger than hate!” were everywhere. There was a table for the CPUSA located near the table for the national office of NAACP. The CPUSA table was well received and distributed a lot of party literature. There was a great demand for YCL tee shirts, clappers as well as other items.

The rally was a great example of what is needed from progressives to move the nation forward. One man at the top cannot do much. We have to make him do what is right for working people. He is undoubtedly under extraordinary pressure from the wealthy to do the wrong thing. Massive shows of solidarity are needed to demand real solutions to the economic crisis facing this country and the world.

PHill1917@comcast.net

The CPUSA is listed on the ONWT website, with a link to the CPUSA
home page, as one of the over 150 coalition partners for the ONWT
march on Oct. 2.

http://www.onenationworkingtogether.org/pages/partner-organizations

by James Thompson

I work with a large number of working people in the community and one thing I hear about repeatedly is their lack of legal representation. Many people are under direct attack by the banks and financial institutions. These super-wealthy institutions are trying to glean every penny they can from poor and working people. This has been going on for a very long time, but intensified during the Bush administration and more recently during the economic crisis.
We have a limited social safety net in this country and the excesses of Wall Street and the banks point out that that needs to be changed. Social security benefits are woefully inadequate to meet the needs of poor people who are unable to work. These benefits need to be expanded. Medicare and Medicaid provide limited health coverage to the poor, aged and disabled and this coverage needs to be expanded. Health care should be a right and available to all who need it.
However, there is another service which is also essential to the well-being of the people. Legal services are crucial to the survival and stability of people and families in our modern culture.
Poor people have essentially no options in legal assistance when they find themselves embroiled in a legal struggle. Court appointed attorneys are available on a limited basis. Although I have known some outstanding court appointed attorneys who really care about their poor clients, for the most part these attorneys are poorly paid and this is reflected in their performance. In Russia there was an old joke “They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work.” We have all heard the stories of court appointed attorneys sleeping in the courtroom as their clients are shipped off to death row.
It is no wonder that we have such a high rate of imprisonment and executions, particularly among poor people, African Americans and Latinos. Everyone recognizes that anyone imprisoned in this country faces a long, hard road for the rest of their lives just to survive since their employment options decrease. Of course, people who have been imprisoned are also vulnerable to super-exploitation by ruthless employers who seek to lower everyone’s wages in order to raise their profits.
What working people need is a broader, stronger safety net. This would include quality education for all, quality health care for all, decent retirement benefits for all and competent legal services for all. The whole judicial system needs a massive overall with strictly enforced regulations guaranteeing quality accessible legal services for everyone, not just the ultra-wealthy.
A system comparable to the Medicare system could be built to provide legal services. People could pay into the system and have legal insurance which would guarantee competent legal services when they are in need.
Such a system would help poor people fight the attacks by unscrupulous financial institutions as well as provide competent legal defense when they are unjustly charged with crimes they did not commit. Such a system would be a bulwark against foreclosures, assist with bankruptcies filed by poor people and protect families from unnecessary loss of their children to the state. Another mission of such a system could be helping working immigrants attain citizenship.
Our country just paid a trillion dollar tab for unnecessary wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the billions in bailout money for banks and lending institutions. What about the people who paid the tax money squandered for such negative purposes? It is time for the people of this country to share in its great wealth. One way for that to happen is to expand the safety net. Legal services should be a right in a country who prides itself on the revolutionary concept that “all men (i.e., the people) are created equal.” “Equal before the law” should not just be an abstract concept, but should be reality.
PHill1917@comcast.net

Here is a link to an article on unions for the unemployed posted on Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/14/unions-for-the-jobless-un_n_716323.html

Here is a link to a speech made by Richard Trumka on September 14, 2010 on the economic crisis http://www.aflcio.org/mediacenter/prsptm/sp09142010.cfm

Here is the link to an interview with David Harvey about the capitalist crisis http://www.isreview.org/issues/73/int-harvey.shtml

HOUSTON – Real estate data provider CoreLogic and the Houston Business Journal report that 12% of homes in the Houston area have mortgage values that exceed their actual value. It also indicates that another 5.9% are nearing the point at which they will be classified as “upside down.” The negative equity situation is due to foreclosures according to the report.
Mark Fleming, chief economist of CoreLogic stated, “Negative equity continues to both drive foreclosures and impede the housing market recovery. With nearly 5 million borrowers currently in severe negative equity, defaults will remain at a high level for an extended period of time.”
Similarly, the Dallas Business Journal reports that more than 14% of homes in the Dallas area are “underwater”, i.e. the mortgage value exceeds the actual value. Another 7.3% are nearing the point of being upside down.
The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports that 28% of Georgia homeowners are upside down. Nationwide 23% of homeowners owe more than their home is worth. Nevada ranks highest in negative equity with 68%, followed by Arizona at 50%, Florida at 46%, Michigan at 38% and California at 33%.
I bought a home in Houston back in the 1980s during the Reagan deregulation frenzy and within a year of purchase I discovered that my home was worth 50% of the price I paid for it.
What does this mean for working people? For me, it represented a loss of mobility. Even though I got hired for jobs in other parts of the country, I was not free to accept those positions because I could not sell my house. I was literally stuck in a house and a job that I did not want.
People these days who find their incomes being lowered due to the current financial crisis may not be able to keep up with their mortgage payments. They do not have the option to sell their house, so that it goes into foreclosure if they cannot pay for it. As a result, the bank picks up a house for virtually nothing after receiving payments for several years. Of course, the hapless home owners who made their payments were not paying towards their equity, but were merely bilked by this get rich quick scheme for the banks.
Does swindling people out of their homes and hard earned wages meet the standards of “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”? It does for the banks, but not for working people. Working people need a government of the people, by the people and for the people that will step in and rectify these great injustices being perpetrated on them by financial institutions. As Woody Guthrie sang, “Some people will rob you with a handgun and some will rob you with a fountain pen.”

James Thompson

PHill1917@comcast.net