Kellogg Locks Out BCTGM-Represented Workers

BCTGM | Kellogg Locks Out BCTGM-Represented Workers

Memphis DSA stands in solidarity with Kelloggs workers locked-out of their jobs.

On Tuesday October 22, 2013 global cereal and snack giant Kellogg Company locked out workers represented by BCTGM Local Union 252G at the company’s Memphis cereal facility.

The $14 billion dollar company wants to replace steady, middle-class, full-time jobs with casual, part-time employees who would make significantly lower wages and substandard benefits. This will hurt these working families, the Memphis community, and ultimately, the company.

CLICK HERE to download a full Fact Sheet on the situation in Memphis. (PDF)

Commercial Appeal: Kellogg Lockout Idles 220 Cereal Plant Workers

For more information and to support the Kelloggs workers visit the BCTMG Website

GOP Senate Candidate Addressed Conference Hosted by Neo-Confederate Group That Promotes Secessionism

GOP Senate Candidate Addressed Conference Hosted by Neo-Confederate Group That Promotes 
Secessionism | Mother Jones

Mississippi Republican Chris McDaniel, who is challenging Sen. Thad Cochran and backed by the Senate Conservatives Fund and the Club for Growth, took the stage with a historian who says Lincoln was a Marxist.

Prepare for Battle: Fighting Austerity

Now that the government shutdown has been avoided, progressives and the democratic left must prepare for an even bigger battle: fighting more austerity budget cuts.  The Republican Party, and much of the Democratic Party establishment, including President Obama, have already signaled they will accept a budget deal, a "Grand Bargain"  that will drastically cut "entitlements" (i.e., Social Security and Medicare).  We must prepare to fight back!

Instead of cutting Social Security, we must expand it, to cover more people. Instead of raising the retirement age to get SS benefits, we should lower it.   There is no Social Security "crisis," the trust fund has nearly $3 Trillion, the problem is Congress has stolen part of the surplus to cover other spending.  What should be cut is military spending.

The long term national debt can be addressed by cutting military spending, corporate welfare programs, and by RAISING taxes on the corporate rich, like the "Robin Hood Tax" on Wall Street transactions, and returning to the pre-Reagan top tax rates.

Austerity  budget cuts have already cost millions of jobs.  The federal government must spend MORE to create jobs,  we need a national policy to guarantee Full Employment (John Conyers has re-introduced the Humphreys-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment and Training Act  HR 870 to address the jobs crisis)

Government Shutdown Ended, Austerity Drive Lives On

The Government is Open. Now Fight for Just Government Policies

The Coming Debt Ceiling Settlement

It's the Austerity, Stupid: How We Were Sold an Economy-Killing Lie

Deal or No Deal on Shutdown and Debt Ceiling, Biggest Fiscal Policy Crisis Remains

Robin Hood Tax Petition

Join DSA!

Inequality for All

Inequality for All | A documentary film about income inequality, public policy, and economics and features professor Robert Reich.

Opens Friday in Memphis (Studio on the Square)
See the Film

Frances Fox Piven to Speak at Healthcare-NOW! Strategy Conference

Healthcare-NOW! - Frances Fox Piven to Speak at Healthcare-NOW! Strategy Conference

We are thrilled to announce that Frances Fox Piven, professor of political science and sociology at City University of New York, will give the keynote address at our National Strategy Conference in Nashville on October 5th and 6th. She will speak about lessons from social movements that transformed American life.

Frances is the author of many books, such as Poor People’s Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail and Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America.

Here she is talking about inequality and the importance of social movements. And here’s her seminal article on welfare rights, “The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty.”

If you haven’t already, go here to register for the conference today!

Also, we’re happy to release the first draft of the conference agenda. You can download it here (.pdf).

Workshops will be led by activists from Physicians for a National Health Program, National Nurses United, Public Citizen, Single Payer Now, Health Care for All Colorado, Healthcare-NOW! New York City, The Labor Campaign for Single Payer, and All Unions for Single Payer.

Don’t forget: You or your organization can sponsor an ad in our conference booklet. All ads include one free registration to the conference. Ads are a great way to congratulate one of 2013′s honorees. We will be honoring Tim Carpenter, of Progressive Democrats of America, with the Marilyn Clement Award for the Pursuit of Healthcare Justice. The Divestment Campaign for Healthcare will receive the Healthcare-NOW! Organizational Achievement Award. More information here.

Thanks for your support and we hope to see you in Nashville!

Why American Workers are Angry, Disgusted, Frustrated

Sen. Bernie Sanders Explains what the new census data on poverty and income means for the American working class
Angry, Disgusted, Frustrated - YouTube

R.I.P. American Middle Class 1946-2013

New Poverty and Income Data

Poverty Stuck at 15 Percent, Record 46.5 Million

The nation's poverty rate remained stuck at 15 percent last year despite America's slowly reviving economy, a discouraging lack of improvement for the record 46.5 million poor.

More than 1 in 7 Americans were living in poverty, not statistically different from the 46.2 million of 2011 and the sixth straight year the rate had failed to improve, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

Other census findings:

—Poverty remained largely unchanged across race and ethnic groups. Blacks had the highest rate at 27.2 percent, compared to 25.6 percent for Hispanics and 11.7 percent for Asian-Americans. Whites had a rate of 9.7 percent.

—Child poverty stood at 21.8 percent.

—Poverty among people 65 and older was basically unchanged at 9.1 percent, after hitting a record low of 8.9 percent in 2009.

The Top 3 Things You Need to Know About the New Poverty and Income Data | Center for American Progress

As Congress prepares for yet another fiscal showdown, new data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau should be a wake-up call that it is time to move away from a wrong-headed austerity agenda and pivot to a focus on creating jobs, boosting wages, and investing in family economic security.

The new data on poverty and income show that despite economic growth, there was no statistically significant improvement in the poverty rate or median household income in 2012.

Behind these topline numbers are data that contain real warning signs for American families and the overall economy if Congress continues down its current path.

Here are three things you need to know about the new data and how they affect the budget and policy choices before us:

1. Income inequality has widened since the end of the Great Recession.
2. Our safety net is working overtime to compensate for rising income inequality and the proliferation of low-wage work.
3. High poverty rates among young children of color have long-term implications for our economic competitiveness.