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<section begin=Creating_a_People.27s_Budget /> Creating a People's Budget Participatory Budgeting Participatory Democracy in Chicago: Participatory Budgeting is Working, Important, and Going to Stay Introduction to the 49th Ward Participatory Budgeting Project from (Chicago) Alderman Joe Moore From Budget Cuts to a People's Budget? Connecting Participatory Planning and Public Budgets in New York (Vimeo) Chicago Alderman Joe Moore explains to a New York audience why "in many respects, by giving up power (to constituents) I ended up having more power, because this was the single most popular thing I had done in my 19 years as member of city council." A. Philip Randolph - Freedom Budget Freedom Budget The Freedom Budget at 45: Functional Finance and Full Employment ABSTRACT: Forty-five years ago, the A. Philip Randolph Institute issued “The Freedom Budget,” in which a program for economic transformation was proposed that included a job guarantee for everyone ready and willing to work, a guaranteed income for those unable to work or those who should not be working, and a living wage to lift the working poor out of poverty. Such policies were supported by a host of scholars, civic leaders, and institutions, including the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; indeed, they provided the cornerstones for King’s “Poor Peoples’ Campaign” and “economic bill of rights.” This paper proposes a “New Freedom Budget” for full employment based on the principles of functional finance. To counter a major obstacle to such a policy program, the paper includes a “primer” on three paradigms for understanding government budget deficits and the national debt: the deficit hawk, deficit dove, and functional finance perspectives. Finally, some of the benefits of the job guarantee are outlined, including the ways in which the program may serve as a vehicle for a variety of social policies. After the March on Washington, Dr. King, Randolph and Thomas worked together to promote the groundbreaking “Freedom Budget,” which proposed:  the abolition of poverty  guaranteed full employment  full production and high economic growth  adequate minimum wages  farm income parity  guaranteed incomes for all unable to work  a decent home for every American family  modern health services for all  full educational opportunity for all.  updated (and expanded) Social Security and welfare programs.  equitable tax and money policies Second New Deal Our Documents: Franklin Roosevelt's Address Announcing the Second New Deal Second Bill of Rights FDR Second Bill of Rights Speech Footage (YouTube) This is FDR's proposed second Bill of Rights that was filmed after he delivered his State of the Union Address via radio on January 11, 1944. Franklin Roosevelt -Second Bill of Rights (YouTube) Poor People's Campaign Poor People’s Campaign History of Poor People's Campaign The Poor People’s Campaign 43 years later through the lens of Occupy Wall Street (Superb analysis: The Poor People’s Campaign — 1968 [in contrast with] The “Occupy” Movement — 2011) Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom Statement by Dr., Martin Luther King Jr., President, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Announcing The Poor People's Campaign. Atlanta, Georgia, December 4, 1967. King Versus the Tea Party: From the Poor People's Campaign to Occupy Dr. Martin Luther King's Economics: Through Jobs, Freedom A New New Deal for the 21st Century Hire US, America: A 21-step emergency action plan for reversing the U.S. jobs crisis 21st Century WPA Act USA: Toward a 21st-Century New Deal for Public Transport A Platform to Build a New Deal for the 21st Century A New Deal for the 21st Century: Less Entitlement, More Accountability Budget of the Congressional Progressive Caucus The People’s Budget - Budget of the Congressional Progressive Caucus - Fiscal Year 2012 This document is the budget published by the Congressional Progressive Caucus for fiscal year 2012. Its Executive Summary begins with this paragraph: Budgets are more than collections of numbers; they are a statement of our values. The Congressional Progressive Caucus Budget is a reflection of the values and priorities of working families in this country. The “People’s Budget” charts a path that keeps America exceptional in the 21st century, while addressing the most pressing problems facing the nation today. Our Budget eliminates the deficit and stabilizes the debt, puts Americans back to work, and restores our economic competitiveness. The People's Budget (Basic overview of the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s “People’s Budget” highlights, drawn from source material.) Additional Articles & Resources Professor Richard D. Wolff - Class Warfare (Alternative Radio Podcast) People dread taxes. The tax code is a labyrinth few citizens dare to enter save for the rich and powerful who hire lawyers and accountants to figure out ways to game the system. One corporation paid $26,000 a year to maintain a post office box in Bermuda as its legal headquarters. That little trick saved them $40 million in corporate taxes. Not bad. Taxes on the wealthy used to be high. During the Eisenhower years in the 1950′s, a fairly conservative period which saw tremendous economic growth, the tax rate for the haves was 91 percent. Today it’s a third of that, and few actually pay that much. In true Orwellian fashion, if you raise these issues you are accused of class warfare. There is class warfare all right. It’s been successfully waged by the affluent 1 percent against everybody else. What Occupy taught the unions -- SEIU and others are embracing the movement that has succeeded as they have faded Should we create a new WPA? Unions and the movement -- Howard Zinn on class in America Pt4: A reinvigorated labor movement needed for a great social upheaval "90 percent of the workforce is unorganized. They're organizable. This 90 percent of the workforce are not people who are rich. They're people who need unions. They need to raise their wages. They need to be able to face their employers with some strength rather than the weakness of an individual facing a corporation. So there's a reservoir of possibility there for organizing." Making it real: Obama & his apocryphal "Now Make Me Do It" -- Obama Can Win Big With FDR Formula Class Warfare Waged by FDR Holds Lesson for Obama The Ninety-Five Theses on the Ills of Europe Capitalism Is The Crisis (Full Movie) (YouTube) How To Destroy The Occupy Movement And How To Prevent It From Failing A Constituent Power Greater Than its Parts: Occupy and Workers from the Port Shutdown to the Primaries Book review: Hessel & Morin — The Road to Hope See the sections "What are the problems?" and "What are the solutions?" for useful ideas. THE NEW COMMON SENSE (Pastebin) A Declaration of INTERDEPENDENCE, born of necessity, from and for the collective conscience of the "99%" to and for the oligarchic "1%" of the United States of America. Stats DEAR AMERICA: You Should Be Mad As Hell About This [CHARTS] HERE'S WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE ECONOMY... (And How To Fix It) Richard Koo's Awesome Presentation On The Real Reason Why This Recession Is Completely Different Federated General Assembly Federated General Assembly - Introduction Federated General Assembly - Description The Federated General Assembly (FGA) project is building a new web platform that combines community organizing techniques and ideas, lessons and patterns from social networks, web standards and best practices, all together with the very real ecosystem of Occupy itself: occupations & their working groups, the values and principles, and all the coordination & communication challenges. Peoples Assemblies Network Peoples Assemblies Network Includes Peoples Assemblies News and Peoples Assemblies Groups. Real Jobs Creation Tired of the bullshit from self-styled "job creators" who can't seem to stop yammering endlessly about all the mythical "jobs" that our overly generous cuts to their taxes are supposedly "creating"? Maybe there's a more straightforward way to actual, tangible, real-wage jobs... Green industry California green jobs more recession resistant, study says Where the Iberdrola money's really going Here's an emerging trend in Portland: When the city says it's handing out tax dollars to keep "green" businesses in town, chances are the money's actually being paid to those businesses' landlords. <section end=Creating_a_People.27s_Budget /> References Home Labor Solidarity Organizing Committee Organized Power Working People's Campaign Newsroom