Our regular Second Wednesday North Texas Jobs with Justice meeting
It will concern itself mostly about the devastating American jobs crisis. As you know, the "official" unemployment rate remains at 10%, but only because 660,000 discouraged workers quit trying to find decent jobs! We lost 85,000 more jobs over Christmas!
With a little bit of leadership, workers can and will fight back. Both labor federations, AFL-CIO and Change to Win, are heading a new coalition that includes national Jobs with Justice and dozens of other important progressive organizations. I have been bugging them for petitions and model resolutions. We may have to write our own, as we have in the past, until the standardized ones are released.
Spanish speaking workers are critical for a unified fightback. We have the ability to produce good Spanish materials, and we must do it.
National call-in day for health care is Wednesday, January 13. We need to thank Congresswoman Johnson for her great work. For the rest of them, the AFL-CIO says to demand a health care reform bill that:
Contact information is on this site's front page
We voted to march in the Fort Worth MLK parade on January 18 with the slogan "Jobs Now!". Let's prepare our signs and make plans on Wednesday evening. Diane Wood says that the march begins at 11 AM at the corner of Commerce & 12th Streets. Her group is gathering at 10 AM at the Intermodal Building at the Corner of 9th and Jones. Gerardo Contreras is building a float for us. Should we bring literature on the jobs crisis?
The U.S. Social forum is set for June 22-26 in Detroit, the city most ruined by the jobs crisis! National JwJ calls on us to make our biggest effort ever to participate in actions there. Everybody who wants to go, who wants to help pay for somebody else to go, or who wants to help organize for it should contact me asap. There is a planning meeting on January 15th, this Friday!
It never is. There are at least a half dozen progressive organizations and actions in North Texas that need our help. Among them are the Amalgamated Transit Union, the American Professional Flight Attendants, NAACP, and the Southwest Organizing Drive. Let's do what we can while keeping our eyes on the prize: JOBS NOW!
Gene