Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, is the source of the quote in the headline of this post. It is taken from the speech he gave at the National Press Club last week titled, “America’s Choices: Why the Conventional Wisdom Is Wrong ,” a fiery speech that railed against the “ruling class.” When was the last time the head of the AFL-CIO did that?
Join with me in re-affirming Trumka’s words (and see the video of his talk) by signing this petition.
Creating jobs
Washington DC will host the 2011 Green Jobs Conference February 8-11. This will be the fourth year of the conference, and it will bring together thousands of labor, environmental, business, elected and community leaders – is focused putting into practice the ideas and strategies for a new green economy – and creating good green jobs – around the country.
James Galbraith has a job creating proposal at CommonDreams.org – older people who would like to retire and would do so if they could afford it should get some help. The right step is to reduce, not increase, the full-benefits retirement age. Young people who need work will be happier as there will also be more jobs. Until Congress proposes other ideas for job creation, we could suggest to them to solve the unemployment problem with green jobs and reducing the retirement age.
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Scott Marshall is a vice chair of the Communist Party and chair of its Labor Commission. Scott grew up in Virginia where he first became active in the civil rights movement in high school, working on voter registration and anti-Klan projects in rural Southern Virginia and Tennessee. He was also active against the war in Vietnam.
Scott has been a life long trade unionist and was active in rank and file reform movements in the Teamsters, Machinists and Steelworkers unions in the 1970s and '80s. He was co-chair of the Save Our Jobs committee of USWA local 1834 at Pullman Standard in Chicago and active in nationwide organizing against plant shutdowns and layoffs. He was a founder of the unemployed organization Jobs or Income Now (Join), in Chicago, and the National Congress of Unemployed Organizations in the 1980s.
Scott has worked for the Communist Party since 1987 when he became the district organizer for the party in Illinois, a post he held until he was elected chair of the National Labor Commission in 1997. Scott remains active in SOAR (Steelworkers Active Organized Retirees). He lives in Chicago.
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