Solutions for the Social Economy • Stop the Bail Out! Stop War Funding! Stop Paying the Rich!
• Stop the Bail Out!
• Sound the Alarm: We Are Being Robbed!
• Resistance Grows to Banker’s Coup D’Etat • No Money for Wall Street & War! Bail Out the Workers and the Poor! • Immediate Moratorium on Foreclosures & Evictions
SOLUTIONS FOR THE SOCIAL ECONOMY
Stop the Bail Out! Stop War Funding!
Stop Paying the Rich!
Increase Funding for Social Programs!
President George W. Bush announced the largest bailout yet for the rich, a plan for $700 billion in public funds. Already, the various bailouts — including $200 billion for mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, $85 billion for AIG, $25 billion for General Motors — will easily be more than $1 trillion dollars. Alongside this is a military machine that is also grabbing close to $1 trillion yearly. Thus between handouts to the rich and war, an estimated $2 trillion of the federal budget of $2.5 trillion is being taken for actions against the interests of the public. Add to this the $400 billion to service government debt and there remains only $100 billion for social programs — which require a minimum of $1.3 trillion. We say Stop the Bail Out! Stop Paying the Rich! Stop War Funding! Cancel All State and Local Debts! Increase Funding for Social Programs Now! There is an alternative to the demands of the rich to secure the entire public treasury — Let Wall Street Fall! Public ownership of the banking system and organizing it to provide for the rights of the people and the needs of the social economy can be done.
The government itself admits the giant payout is “risky” and that it is the government that is taking the risk, not the monopolies. These same monopolies have shown that they are incapable of organizing the economy without crises. Their monopoly system of private ownership of the social economy simply does not permit an economy that provides for the people. Their claim that the socialized economy will fail without the bailouts are lies and disinformation — just as their claims that there is “no money” when it comes to social programs are lies and disinformation. This disinformation is designed to justify monopoly control of the economy, even in the face of their failure. It hides the reality that the rich elite demands that government serve private monopoly control of the social economy and use public resources to pay the rich. It is aimed at diverting the people from the necessity for an alternative and from organizing for power to implement that alternative. It is vital to reject this disinformation of the rich and step up the work for political empowerment of the people to govern and decide.
These latest measures of the government only intensify the contradictions of the system, which is on a path of fascism and war. More war and more paying the rich are not solutions! Definite measures that would assist the economy and point it in the direction of one that serves the people are immediately possible:
1) Instead of bailing out the financiers, organize for public control of the banking system and organize that system as a public banking system without private profit. It should be chartered to serve nation-building, a sustainable economy and the needs of the people and small businesses with interest-free credit and only small administrative fees.
Wall Street is not necessary to run the economy. Indeed it is a parasite on it, making conditions worse, as the current situation shows. The monopoly rulers have shown their profit drive is insatiable, their rivalries, here and abroad, unstoppable, giving rise to wars and environmental catastrophe. Not only are the parasites demanding more public funds for their failures, they also refuse to pay taxes. Putting the banking system under public control provides a mechanism to block the parasites and provide the financing needed for projects necessary for the nation, like infrastructure, disaster recovery and rebuilding, investments in the well-being of the environment and more. It also helps provide conditions for financial stability in the future. The current government plans, by Bush’s own admission, do not.
2) Government control of wholesale prices, including those for oil. This will block the monopoly pricing which invariably is inconsistent with the actual value of the goods produced.
3) Securing the wealth needed for society as a whole, including its vital social programs like housing, education and healthcare, at the point of production.
The vast majority of monopolies refuse to pay taxes. Then the financiers double and triple the social funds they seize through use of debts and debt financing. This too is parasitism and greatly harms the economy. The government needs to secure its claim on the wealth produced at the point of production, so that it can then invest it to meet the needs of the people.
4) Stop War Funding, All U.S. Troops Home Now
5) Cancel the Debts
Actions now being taken by government will not provide solutions to the demands of the people to have their rights guaranteed. Working people are facing conditions of wage cuts or freezes, worsening unemployment, homelessness and hunger. Millions of manufacturing jobs have been lost and tens of thousands more job cuts have recently been announced. Foreclosures are still occurring on a massive scale across the country, with an estimated 8,000 losing their homes every day.
The government refusal to end wars abroad and economic uncertainty at home are confirming for the large majority that the country is headed in the wrong direction. Most importantly, the ruling monopolies at the helm of the economy have proven themselves incapable of running it. Their narrow interests and competition with rivals at home and abroad is such that they are striving to lay claim to the entire social product. Cities and states nationwide are being forced to fend for themselves. Governments at all levels are imposing more cuts and layoffs, further wrecking education, healthcare and other social programs. It is time to eliminate monopoly control over the government and to change the direction of the economy. It is the rights of the people that must be provided with a guarantee. The government needed is a government of the people themselves.
Let All Join in Stepping Up the Work for Political Empowerment!
Stop Paying the Rich!
Fight for a Pro-Social, Anti-War Program
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Across the country hundreds of demonstrations have been organized to oppose the bail out and demand that the rights of the people take center stage. More than 150,000 signatures against the bail out on two petitions were gathered within days of the announcement by President George W. Bush that the public must pay for the crimes of Wall Street. Everywhere, people were saying No Bail Out! Save homes, jobs and provide healthcare. We reprint below materials on some of the actions organized. Now is the time to organize to discussalternatives that defend the rights of the people and thus assist the stability of the economy.
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Sound the Alarm: We Are Being Robbed!
Cindy Sheehan for Congress demands that not one of our tax dollars be used to bail out Wall Street corporate pirates.
Cindy Sheehan for Congress demands a personal bottom-up bail out plan. The Bush crime family plan would cost each and every American (regardless of political party) more than $2300.00 to help rescue an irresponsible and greedy industry that is failing because of unregulated speculation and predatory lending and trading practices.
This is our money, people, and if we don’t speak up loudly to have our voices heard, we are participating in the biggest robbery in American history. We may as well be driving the get-away car. A crime of historic proportions is about to be perpetrated that you know will go unpunished by the complicit Democrats. The evidence is clear: this incestuous corporate/government co-operation throws it in our face once again that the establishment elite are in it together — against We the People. Nancy Pelosi (D-SF) is not the only Congress member that receives money from these industries or is invested in these same industries, in a clear conflict of interest!
It is not time for a Bi-partisan solution since we know the two party monopoly is only there to protect itself and its cronies. NO, the time is now for a non-partisan people’s revolution to get to the root of the problem, not throw our money at it.
Cindy for Congress is calling for a demonstration September 25, in San Francisco, 4pm, in front of the Federal Reserve Bank (Corner of Market and Spear).
Bring your past-due mortgage bills.
Bring your past-due rent or utility bills.
Bring your student loan and medical bills.
Bring your credit card bills with usurious interest rates and immoral fee structures.
Bring your bills to send to Nancy Pelosi in DC so we can demand that We the People be bailed out. No “stimulus” plans, but a bottom up, effective approach. (See: Cindy Sheehan for Congress and a Progressive Response to the Economic Crisis).
Bring your Monopoly or other play money that we can burn to symbolize our government’s burning of its fiat currency in wholly inappropriate response to the economy and to show our opposition to the apparent onset of a hyper-inflation cycle.
Above all, bring your righteous and very appropriate anger.
What this government is planning now is the final collapse of our socio-economic system and we cannot allow them to get away with it this time!
This is the beginning of We the People finally standing up and saying: “Hell, no.”
“Not with my money.”
“Not with my child’s future.”
“Not with my consent!”
Please call the campaign office for more info: 415-621-5027
Progressive Response to Financial Crisis
Presently, everything is so cosmically urgent that we must put partisan politics behind us and humanity in the forefront. — Cindy Sheehan
There are four human rights that Cindy for Congress believes are basic to everyone, everywhere:
Peace: Not just the absence of war, but the absence of an economy that is always preparing for war. Not just the absence of violence, but the importance of solving problems without the use, or the threat of violence. Protection of the human right to not be “bombed to the stone ages” or not to be tortured for seeming barbaric sport, are rights that are of paramount importance.
Security: The importance of a person’s right to not only be physically secure, but also secure from ones own government. Why is it “hacking” when a private person breaks into another’s email, but “National Security” when our government does it? The only reasonable usage for a military is to defend our nation from attack and in case of natural disasters: not to be over-extended in immoral foreign wars of aggression to be killed or kill innocent people.
Prosperity: This is the right to education, health care, housing, healthy food, clean water and a job that pays living wages. Where our retirement is provided for and our retirement accounts can’t be raped and pillaged by government or Wall Street.
Environmental sustainability: A world where fossil fuels are not needed and the capitalist polluters use their labor and profits to clean up the environment that they filthied. A world where clean and renewable sources of energy are the norm rather than the exception. A world where clean and green companies get the tax incentives and oil companies get the shaft that they so richly deserve.
• Cindy for Congress believes that every individual in the world deserves these four fundamental necessities. We also believe that the parasite class is sucking the life out of our communities and families and the recent socio-economic collapse is the result of decades of a consolidation of wealth and power that is culminating in the bankrupting of our nation to benefit this parasite class and plunge working families even farther into a financial morass.
If we are to be intellectually honest with ourselves we know that the Democratic/Republican monopoly in our political milieu are co-equally responsible for the mess and that the solution is not to bail out the finance industry, but to build protections into our economy for we citizens that unknowingly or reluctantly support the rescues and profitization of the parasites with our labor and taxes.
• Cindy for Congress calls for an indefinite moratorium on mortgage foreclosures and then reorganization or renegotiation of mortgages after home prices have adjusted to appropriate and reasonable levels with federal government support.
• Cindy for Congress calls for an indefinite extension on food stamp and unemployment benefits as an economic and social safety net for the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters.
• Cindy for Congress calls for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and the downsizing of our military industrial complex to save trillions of dollars per year.
• Cindy for Congress calls for easing bankruptcy laws for consumers that also discourage usurious interest rates and predatory credit practices.
• Cindy for Congress calls for state and federal jobs programs that put people to work rebuilding our rotting infrastructure and cleaning up our fragile environment.
• Cindy for Congress calls for lobbyist money to be completely eliminated from Capitol Hill. Both major party presidential and Congressional candidates receive millions of dollars from financial conglomerates. Public financing of campaigns will level the playing field and force our legislators to be responsive to citizen constituencies. Nancy Pelosi owns 500,000 dollars of stock in AIG and AIG is receiving 85 billion dollars in corporate welfare thanks to our hard earned tax dollars. How is that not a distinct conflict of interest?
• Cindy for Congress calls for the re-institution of the Glass-Steagall Act that was enacted during the Great Depression to prevent financial institutions from merging causing the crisis we are in today when they fail. Nancy Pelosi was a major supporter of repealing this vital act in 1999. Cindy for Congress calls for other regulatory measures that would prevent such a crisis in the future.
• Cindy for Congress calls for the protection of Social Security and demands that our retirement safety net not be placed into the hands of bankers or Wall Street. The privatization of Social Security is a likely recipe for disaster.
• Cindy for Congress demands that any company that gets “bailed-out” by our tax dollars (on a case by case basis and only after a citizen’s review) have a strict repayment schedule and a major reduction in CEO salaries, bonuses and “Golden Hand Shakes.” No blank checks or unregulated bailouts from the criminal Bush regime. A commission made up of experts, members of Labor and taxpayers must be instituted as an oversight committee on what is really a necessary restructuring of greedily destructive Capitalism.
• Cindy for Congress demands that this reverse Robin Hood affect (robbing from the poor to give to the rich) end immediately.
Call your Congress person to urge a rejection of BushCo’s “bail-out” plan that is good for crony-Capitalism but bad for everyone else.
Congressional switchboard: 1-877-210-5351
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Resistance Grows to Banker’s Coup D’Etat
More than 100,000 letters have been sent to Congress demanding that they vote no on the bail out legislation. This occurred in just the first 24 hours of the campaign.
The Bush administration and the richest bankers in the country, with support of some of the top leaders in Congress, have put a gun to our head: give us your money, or we will sink your economy. Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, threatened the Senate that if they failed to pass the $700 billion plan, they would be responsible for causing recession, more joblessness, and pushing more homes into foreclosure.
The bailout package takes our money and gives it to the same bankers and executives who drove the economy into the ground. The pay for chief executives of large U.S. companies is now at 275 times that of the average worker’s salary in 2007. It was 25 times greater in 1965. The same bankers who will be given our hard-earned tax dollars refuse to support even the bailout of their own institutions if their obscene salaries are even slightly compromised. “We support the bill, but we are opposed to provisions on executive pay... It is not appropriate for government to be setting the salaries of executives,” said Scott Talbot, executive for Financial Services Roundtable, a group representing the bankers.
Below is a press release sent out by VoteNoBailout.org. Please send it to your local media and make sure they cover the growing resistance to the proposed bailout legislation.
Demand Congress Vote No on the Bail Out
VoteNoBailout.org was launched on September 22, 2008, in response to the Bush Administration’s attempt to rush Bailout legislation through Congress. In an astonishing response to its appeal, more than 100,000 letters were sent to elected officials within the first 24 hours through the VoteNoBailout.org email advocacy mechanism. People are circulating this appeal all over the internet, on web sites, blogs and between individuals.
A sample of the VoteNoBailout.org letter reads:
“Congress has no right to give the White House and its Secretary of the Treasury the power to transfer the people’s money to the richest bankers in the country. Vote No to the Bailout legislation. The Bailout legislation is being rammed through Congress in a matter of days.
“This is an illegal power grab by the White House and their richest friends on Wall Street. The Legislation allows the Treasury Department to appoint the same bankers who created the crisis to administer and dictate the use of trillions of our tax dollars. It is also one of the biggest transfers of wealth from working families to the ultra-rich in the history of the United States.
“Congress should help families stay in their homes. Wealthy executives should be forced to disgorge their obscene profits, fees and bonuses that made them ultra-rich while they ran the economy into the ground.”
We are witnessing a bankers’ coup d’etat. In the name of saving the economy from a crisis created by their own greed and immense profits, the biggest bankers have taken a country and a people hostage.
“Give us your money and tear up what’s left of your Constitution or we will sink your economy,” is the message from Wall Street and the Bush Administration. “Give us the power and money we demand or you will be left jobless from a new economic depression.”
Under the pretext of the banking crisis, the Bush Administration is changing the way this country operates. This is not simply taking trillions of dollars from the people and giving it to the richest bankers to do with as they see fit.
Congress is poised to vote to give the Executive Branch of government, and specifically the White House’s political appointees in the Treasury Department, the absolute right to take our money and give it to domestic and foreign banks and corporations without any oversight of elected officials, from the courts, or from the people.
The new legislation states: “Decisions by the Secretary [of the Treasury] pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.” The Legislation allows the Treasury Department to appoint the same bankers who created the crisis to administer and dictate the use of trillions of our tax dollars.
We will not stand by and let the Bush Administration formalize its vision of a “government of, by and for the richest bankers.”
The new system institutionalizes theft on a grand scale. Lehman Brothers bankers will receive $2.5 billion in bonuses after their company went bankrupt last week, but the new dictatorial authority under the White House and Treasury Department has ruled out any relief for the millions of working families who are being foreclosed.
We live in a $15 trillion annual economy. Instead of taking our tax dollars and giving it to the already rich and powerful, these funds should be used provide to decent paying jobs, affordable housing, health care and a good education for our children. There is another way!
Now is the time to hear the voice of the people. A spineless Congress authorized Bush’s illegal war in Iraq and rubber-stamped the Patriot Act. Now they are being herded like sheep again to give the White House and Wall Street dictatorial control over the people’s money.
100,000 letters were sent in the first 24 hours of this campaign. Join in, send a letter to your congressional representative! Join us in organizing against the bail out.
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No Money for Wall Street & War!
Bail Out the Workers and the Poor!
No War on Iran! End War in Iraq and Afghanistan Now!
Foreclose the War — Not People’s Homes!
Bail Out People — Not Banks!
Money for Human Needs — Not War and Corporate Greed!
IN NYC:
March and Rally
Saturday SEPT 27
12 noon
Times Sq. - 42nd & 7th Ave.
— and in cities across the U.S.
Washington wants:
$1 Trillion to bail out mortgage bankers
$3 Trillion on the War in Iraq
$ Billions for War against Iran
We Demand Money for:
Housing
Health Care
Jobs with a Living Wage
Rebuilding the Gulf Coast
Education
The same institutions that profit from endless war are now demanding that the entire U.S. Treasury to be placed at their disposal to bailout corrupt banks and mortgage institutions, a declaration of endless war against people at home. Even mainstream media is describing this as the “financial equivalent of the Patriot Act,” which will give the banks and their politicians in Washington a license to seize billions of dollars for the benefit of Wall Street bankers.
This is an outright declaration of war against working people. We’re told there’s no money for health care, education, infrastructure — but in one swoop — $1 trillion has been found to prop up banks and financial institutions. This money has been stolen from working people, who will face massive cuts in every social program.
Saturday’s Day of Action was originally called by the Stop War on Iran Campaign to protest the Bush Administration’s drive to war against Iran, and the demand “Stop War On Iran” will remain a central theme of the demonstration.
No Bail Out! Immediate Moratorium On Foreclosures And Evictions, Now!
(For more information, call 212-633-6646)
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Immediate Moratorium on Foreclosures & Evictions
Tell the new conservator of Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac, the Treasury Secretary and the House and Senate banking and finance committees: Moratorium on foreclosures and evictions now!
The federal government has now taken over Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac, which control more than half of the mortgages in the U.S! Please join in supporting the following letter to the federal government and sign the on-line petition.
To: Federal Housing Finance Agency Director and Conservator for Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac James Lockhart
CC: President Bush, Treasury Secretary Paulson, members of the House and Senate Banking and Finance Committees, Congressional leaders, and members of the media
Dear Director Lockhart,
As one who is deeply concerned that we are currently experiencing the greatest home foreclosure crisis since the Great Depression, I call upon you as the appointed conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to Declare an Emergency Federal Moratorium on home foreclosures.
The takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by the federal government is a de facto declaration of a State of Emergency by the federal government, brought on by the foreclosure epidemic.
The federal government now holds or insures the majority of the country’s mortgages. Under current U.S. law, when there is a federal declaration of a State of Emergency, there is an automatic mandatory 90 day Moratorium on Foreclosures on all FHA-insured homes. This mandatory Moratorium on Foreclosures is outlined in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Handbook 4330.1 REV-5 and also in the HUD Mortgagee Letter 2005-33, dated August 31, 2005. Most recently, a Moratorium on Foreclosures was implemented in areas affected by Hurricane Gustav. The 90 day foreclosure moratoriums have often been extended until the crisis subsides.
Likewise, the first action of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the agency set up to take over and/or insure all Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages, should be to automatically impose a moratorium on foreclosures of mortgages held or insured by this new agency.
Such an action, mandated under federal law, would ensure that the benefits of the takeover extend to the real victims of this crisis, the homeowners entering foreclosure nationwide.
On September 17 and September 20, homeowners and activists will be demonstrating in Michigan, California and Massachusetts in support of legislation or executive action at the state level that would enact an emergency moratorium on home foreclosures. However, clearly it would be preferable for a moratorium on foreclosures to be enacted on a national basis. All three demonstrations will be raising the demand for a national, federal moratorium on foreclosures.
If the U.S. government can bail out Wall Street banks and take over the two largest mortgage institutions, which will cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars and put the U.S. government in more or less direct control of the entire mortgage industry, why can’t it stop between 8,000 and 9,000 families from losing their homes to foreclosures every single day?
As you know, the foreclosure crisis has long since reached beyond its original subprime mortgage holders. Today almost 10 percent of all who hold mortgages are threatened with foreclosures.
The legislation that Congress passed this summer merely promises help to those lenders who voluntarily agree to re-negotiate mortgages. This measure will only save a relatively few homes.
It is highly doubtful that any of the bankers that are being bailed out by the government were ever in danger of literally losing the roof under which they and their families sleep. Instead it is ordinary working people who are finding out daily what it is like to lose that roof.
I say enough is enough. I urge you and all others to act on behalf of the people and enact a moratorium now on all foreclosures.
Sincerely,
(Your signature will be appended here based on the contact information you enter)
Sign the Petition
JOIN THE PROTEST!
September 17 & September 20
Moratorium on Foreclosures and Eviction Actions
Lansing, Michigan | Los Angeles, California | Boston, Massachusetts
March on the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan to demand
Passage Of SB 1306 for a 2-Year Moratorium On Foreclosures And Evictions In Michigan!
Wednesday, Sept. 17, 11 AM, State Capitol, Lansing
Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions. 313-887-4344 • www.moratorium-mi.org • moratorium@moratorium-mi.org
Los Angeles Labor/Community Protest to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions and Save Our Homes
Wednesday Sept. 17, 12 Noon
Downtown Los Angeles Federal Building
Join SEIU Local 721, Neighborhood Council Block Associations, Hermandad Mexicano Nacional, South Asian Network, BAYAN-USA, International Action Center and others to -Demand that the US Government:
• Declare a State of Economic Emergency in California
• Immediately Order a Two-Year Moratorium on All Foreclosures in Los Angeles and throughout California
In the second quarter of 2008, foreclosures in California hit record levels, increasing 261 percent from one year before. Default filings rose 124.9 percent from the previous year, indicating that the worst is yet to come. In Los Angeles County 3.7 percent of all homes are in foreclosure. Because of the foreclosure epidemic, property values are in a free fall. Home prices in Los Angeles have declined 23.4 percent.
Thousands are being evicted with no notice. With the recent bailout and takeover of Freddie and Fannie to the tune of $200 billion dollars the government now controls 75 percent of all mortgages. That $200 billion dollars was stolen from the workers and this lays the basis for a demand for a national moratorium on all foreclosures.
No More Loss Of Homes - Come And Join The Protest - United We Can Win
Called by Labor/Community Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions
Contact: 310-677-6407
Boston Rally and March to Demand Governor Declare an Economic State of Emergency
Saturday, Sept 20, 12 noon, at Countrywide/Bank of America
Governor Deval Patrick,
We Demand that you declare a State of Emergency, Now!
Stop Utility Shutoffs & Restore Services Immediately!
Declare a Moratorium on Foreclosures & Evictions!
Roll Back Food & Fuel Prices!
The winter of 2008-09 is predicted to be very severe. This will be no natural disaster, but a life-threatening crisis made in government and corporate boardrooms. We will not stand by as people freeze or go without lights, while NSTAR ($7.8B in assets), National Grid and the Oil Companies make $$ billions more in profits. $150 million more a day goes to the Iraq war. We need to bring this money back to our communities, now!
The government has just taken over the largest mortgage banks in the world, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have overseen millions of families evicted from their homes. The government must not be in the business of foreclosing and evicting us from our homes. Responsible government must now use its power to declare a State of Emergency, and immediately halt all foreclosures and evictions!
This economic crisis brings with it a rise in violence against people of color, women, and lesbian/gay/bi/trans people who are scapegoated in an attempt to divert attention away from greedy corporations and banks. Poor and working families are struggling with housing, jobs, gas prices, healthcare, and feeding our children. Youth need education and good union jobs, not police roundups and more jails. Discrimination against people using Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) should be outlawed.
Heat, Housing, Jobs, Food and Fuel are Human Rights!