Labor

Bricks in the Chamber Pot of Commerce

By David Swanson

The US Chamber of Commerce blew a mere $39 million on lobbying in Washington in the past three months. Lobbying for the promotion of global warming, the denial of healthcare, the further deregulation (if possible) of the financial “industry”, blockage of the right to unionize, the lowering and elimination of minimum wage laws, maintenance of tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas, and protection of the “right” of corporations to bribe politicians. Money read more

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How ACORN Used to Show Up in the News

The Fight for Higher Minimum Wage
CNN Financial: CNN Money Morning
April 3, 2002
Guest: David Swanson
Host: David Haffenreffer

DAVID HAFFENREFFER, CNNfn ANCHOR, MONEY MORNING: Most Americans would agree that the national minimum wage of $5.15 an hour isn’t really a living wage. But more individual cities and counties are joining a living wage movement. And joining us now with more on all this is David Swanson . He is with an advocacy group for lower income Americans known as ACORN. Welcome read more

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Oh Ohio

By David Swanson

Ohio may be trailing Michigan and a few other states in official unemployment statistics, but in all of these states the truth is worse than we’re told, and it’s visible. Unemployment rates do not include those who’ve given up looking for work, those with an insufficient part-time job, those who have figured out that they would pay more for childcare than they would earn working, those in prison, or those working for less than a living wage.

On a book tour in read more

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Nascence to End Work

By David Swanson

Cultures isolated from modernity have tended not to engage in anything resembling what we call work. When we began inventing modern time-saving devices and increasing productivity in our factories (and, yes, exploiting other peoples to do the factory work) we were always told we’d be able to work less — often by people who clearly imagined there were limits to human greed and cruelty.

We live in a culture now where any talk of not wanting to work is immediately understood read more

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Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union by David Swanson

Book Can Now Be Ordered, Book Tour Being Planned

You can now pre-order my book at Amazon.com at http://tinyurl.com/daybreakbook

It’s a thick book containing everything I know – and then some – for $10 (pre-order discount price).  And you can support a good cause by pre-ordering it now.

You can also call or visit your local bookstore right now and ask them to be sure to stock the book.

If you’re in California, Pennsylvania, Florida, New Mexico,
read more

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What If Labor Opposed War?

By David Swanson

I think the peace movement and every justice movement in the United States should simply overwhelm Congress members during the next two months with one and only one demand: Pass the Employee Free Choice Act in January. This is, of course, the bill that the labor movement has been trying to pass for years, and that Democrats in Congress and President Elect Obama have committed to making law: http://aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca

If the Democrats pull out victories in senate read more

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Labor Reborn: A Department of Labor Worthy of the Name

By David Swanson

According to news reports, president elect Obama is considering for Labor Secretary three people who actually know something about labor and actually support the intended mission of the labor department, which is protecting the rights of laborers. And by laborers, I mean you. If you have not recently received a government bailout, you’re one of us. Here’s the short list:

•Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of House Education and Labor Committee
•Former read more

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How to Get a Job By Shooting Up a Church

By David Swanson

Imagine being so angry that you couldn’t find a job that you were able to decide, as a man in Tennessee just did, that the way to solve your problems was to attack liberals – the people who support (albeit ineffectively) workers’ rights, union rights, and fair trade, who oppose NAFTA, oppose tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas, support investing in job creation at home rather than wars abroad, and want to tax corporations and the super-rich rather than small read more

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