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The Great Depression The Big Strike: Labor Unrest in the Great Depression This module invites an intensive study of the 1934 Pacific Coast waterfront strike and the documentary record it produced as a way to explore the broader social, political, economic, and cultural tensions of the New Deal era. A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn: Chapter 15: Self-Help in Hard Times A chapter from Howard Zinn's classic A People's History of the United States covering history of the period just after World War One, through the Great Depression and all the way up to World War Two from the perspective of ordinary Americans. <section end=A_New_Deal /> A New Deal Upon accepting the 1932 Democratic nomination for president, Franklin Roosevelt promised "a new deal for the American people." “ Throughout the Nation, men and women, forgotten in the political philosophy of the Government of the last years look to us here for guidance and for more equitable opportunity to share in the distribution of national wealth. On the farms, in the large metropolitan areas, in the smaller cities and in the villages, millions of our citizens cherish the hope that their old standards of living and of thought have not gone forever. Those millions cannot and shall not hope in vain. I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people. Let us all here assembled constitute ourselves prophets of a new order of competence and of courage. This is more than a political campaign; it is a call to arms. ” The Original New Deal <videoflash>3EZ5bx9AyI4</videoflash> FDR Second Bill of Rights Speech Footage Also See Second Bill of Rights (Wikipedia) Franklin Roosevelt -Second Bill of Rights (YouTube) NEW DEAL CHRONOLOGY 1929–1946 An excellent chronology of the New Deal era by Nick Taylor, author of American-Made, The Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR Put the Nation to Work. Discussion Guide Whether you're looking to further explore the WPA in your community or are an educator in search of classroom materials, the custom-created discussion guide offers helpful guidance and suggestions. Interactive Timeline This interactive timeline highlights selected events in the development of the WPA during the Great Depression as recounted in AMERICAN-MADE. Works Progress Administration (WPA) WPA Today This project's mission is to help preserve the history of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and to promote the idea of a new WPA for today's long-term unemployed population. Second New Deal Our Documents: Franklin Roosevelt's Address Announcing the Second New Deal Living New Deal Living New Deal The Living New Deal is documenting and mapping the living legacy of FDR’s New Deal, which put millions of Americans back to work in the depths of the Great Depression. The New Deal left a vast legacy of public works—libraries, courthouses, bridges, roads, trails, murals and much more—that are still serving America today. Living New Deal (Facebook page.) 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) Green New Deal The Green New Deal Group The global economy is facing a ‘triple crunch’. It is a combination of a credit-fuelled financial crisis, accelerating climate change and the looming peak in oil production. These three overlapping events threaten to develop into a perfect storm, the like of which has not been seen since the Great Depression. To help prevent this from happening, and to lay the foundations of the economic systems of the future, we need a Green New Deal. (Associated with Green Party of the United States.) Jill Stein: We Must Deal With The Climate Crisis Through Job Creation Stein says we need a "Green New Deal" to transition the U.S. economy from one based on fossil fuels, to one that is sustainable while providing full-employment at living-wage incomes. One critic complains that "there is no plan, there is no blue print. Not even a list of bullet points." A New New Deal for the 21st Century Future: Toward a New New Deal In the depths of the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt promised “a New Deal for the American people.” A host of public programs got the country moving again and gave common people hope. The Living New Deal is part of a growing clamor for a bold public program today, when there are so many jobless, so much work to be done, and so little faith in government. Join us in promoting a national debate on getting America working again through a NEW New Deal. America Wants to Work Action Plan Hire US, America: A 21-step emergency action plan for reversing the U.S. jobs crisis The American Jobs Act: The Impact For Low-Income Families And The Economy 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 <section end=A_New_Deal /> <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." First steps for Participatory Budgeting in Finland In April 2012, the Finnish innovation fund Sitra organized the first participatory budgeting process in Finland. As a result, among few others, a new PB project was elected to receive funding. Helsinki City Library users now have the chance to plan and decide projects for the upcoming new central library. 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 <img size=400>http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_9VGZjBQHr0s/TUE5jPj6osI/AAAAAAAAF8Y/r6Grcw1TNt0/s1600/PDJ+27+%25285%2529.jpg</img> Poor People's Campaign Poor People's Campaign - A New Poor People's Campaign for Today Poor People’s Campaign (Stanford University Encyclopedia) 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 Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice - Poverty Initiative | Kairos 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 A GUARANTEED JOBS-FOR-ALL PROGRAM IS GAINING TRACTION AMONG 2020 DEMOCRATIC HOPEFULS | Kate Aronoff | The Intercept | April 1 2018, 5:00 a.m. A federal job guarantee is exactly what it sounds like. “The private sector does not absorb stigmatized workers — those that are formerly incarcerated, black, disabled — at the same rate that it does nonstigmatized workers. A job guarantee would enable workers, particularly at the lower end of the labor market, but throughout the labor market too. It would remove the threat of unemployment and of being destitute,” [explained Darrick Hamilton, The New School]. By making living-wage work available to anyone who wants it, the program would also establish a de facto wage floor, forcing private sector employers to match the kinds of wages, working conditions, and benefits available to workers through the public sector. “It gets rid of involuntary unemployment altogether,” Hamilton said. Movement Building Should we create a new WPA? This page is for those who are interested in a modern day application of the WPA. The Eight Stages of Successful Social Movements 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 Labor What Occupy taught the unions -- SEIU and others are embracing the movement that has succeeded as they have faded 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." Tax & Income Distribution 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. 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 Prosperity Economics “ Austerity economics has prosperity backward. Prosperity doesn’t just “trickle down” from the top. It depends on the common investments and sources of security we agree on as members of a democracy, on institutions—especially unions—that ensure that gains are broadly shared, and on a healthy democracy that can sustain sound economic policies and check today’s economic winners from undermining the openness and dynamism of the economy. ”   — (From Executive Summary.) Prosperity Economics: Building an Economy for All (Economic Policy Institute) - Quick Overview - Executive Summary - Full Report - Key Policy Recommendations - Prosperity for All: Here’s the Plan (07/31/2012 | Jackie Tortora) More Why The Economy Can't Get Out of First Gear We might learn something from history. During the 1920s, income concentrated at the top. By 1928, the top 1 percent was raking in an astounding 23.94 percent of the total (close to the 23.5 percent the top 1 percent got in 2007) according to analyses of tax records by my colleague Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty. At that point the bubble popped and we fell into the Great Depression. But then came the Wagner Act, requiring employers to bargain in good faith with organized labor. Social Security and unemployment insurance. The Works Projects Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps. A national minimum wage. Taxes were hiked on the very rich. And in 1941 America went to war -- a vast mobilization that employed every able-bodied adult American, and put money in their pockets. By 1953, the top 1 percent of Americans raked in only 9.9 percent of total income. Most of the rest went to a growing middle class -- whose members fueled the greatest economic boom in the history of the world. Get it? We won't get out of first gear until the middle class regains the bargaining power it had in the first three decades after World War II to claim a much larger share of the gains from productivity growth. 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. Recovering from the Great Recession: Long Struggle Ahead for Older Americans Over the course of the Great Recession, the unemployment rate for older Americans aged 55-plus reached a level not seen during any other recession in the past 60 years. 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