[Peace-discuss] Fw: Calling All Workers & Retirees

[David Johnson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: greggshotwell at aol.com 
To: undisclosed-recipients: 
Sent: Sunday, February 20, 2011 8:14 PM
Subject: Fwd: Calling All Workers & Retirees








-----Original Message-----
From: greggshotwell at aol.com
To: soldiersofsolidarity at googlegroups.com
Sent: Sun, Feb 20, 2011 9:05 pm
Subject: Calling All Workers & Retirees


Calling all Workers & Retirees


Workers, retirees, unionists, and activists of all stripes and sizes 
are responding to calls to protest at state capitals In Wisconsin,
Ohio, Michigan, and elsewhere.


In Michigan, where I live, Governor Snyder wants to raise taxes
on workers, poor people, and retirees so he can give businesses
a tax break of 1.8 billion dollars. 
This is the Republican version of welfare. 
Tax the poor and give to the prosperous. Or,
from each according to his humility (poor, retired, working), 
to each according to his greed.


This transfer of wealth from one group to another 
would be labeled class warfare by Republican pundits, 
but since the shift is from the less affluent to the most affluent, 
it's deemed justice—wise and benign governance.  In their book,
only corporations and wealthy investors deserve government support. 
Like my brother, Steve Shotwell, said, in regard to 
the conservative minds of our times
"Corporations have all the rights and privileges of individuals, 
but individuals don't have the right to organize." 


When individuals organize to support their rights and bargain collectively, 
Republicans call it communism, socialism, or fascism because
they don’t know the difference and clarity is not their selling point. 


But when corporations organize to promote their interests, and
screw the rest, they call it the American Way. Apparently,
in their eyes, the American Way is the Corporate State.


Snyder claims tax cuts for business will create jobs.
But since consumers will be paying more in taxes and 
making less at work, or from their pensions, 
they won't have as much to spend with businesses in Michigan. 


Businesses won't hire until there is more demand.
Snyder is killing demand with his tax-and-subsidize-business plan.
Besides, we’ve seen how many jobs Bush's tax cuts created.
The only job category that expanded under the Bush tax cut plan
was debt collectors and repo-men.


But that's not all. Diane Feeley reports:
There are a series of Emergency Manager bills 
coming up in the State House (HB4214-18) 
that would give the State Treasurer general powers to take over 
villages, townships, cities, counties and school districts that 
are considered "financially distressed." 
(75 people have already been trained as Emergency Financial Managers 
and 100 more in the pipeline.) 
This bill would allow the EMFs to break union contracts.


Already four Michigan cities— 
Benton Harbor, Pontiac, Ecore, and Highland Park— 
have EMFs, plus the Detroit public school system. 
But this piece of legislation EXPANDS what an EMF can do:
not just negotiate union contracts, but terminate them.


You can see where this strategy this leads. 
All working people will be impounded into servility.


No one likes to pay higher taxes. But 
I would not object to higher taxes IF
the extra revenue went to support schools and 
public service workers like police, firefighters, teachers, 
social workers, sanitation, street repair, and so on and so on. 
Anything paid to workers comes right back to the community 
because workers spend their money in the local economy. 
Handouts to businesses in the form of tax cuts does not 
stimulate demand. We have seen too many companies 
accept tax abatements and then not fulfill their promise 
to create jobs. Instead, they pocket the tax break and 
relocate to Mexico or China or a PO Box in Bermuda.


Business adds jobs when demand goes up,
not when taxes go down. 


If a business decides to relocate
or start up in Michigan solely because of cheap taxes,
the business plan isn’t viable in the first place.
We want to attract businesses which approve of
our education system, our infrastructure, our clean aspiring cities,
competent medical care, low crime rate, and high capacity for
inclusiveness, consensus, and expansion. 
These are attractions that require investment 
in our citizens and in public service.


We don’t want businesses that are attracted by our
Third World living standards.


The Republicans want to roll back workers’ rights and benefits 
to Depression Era standards. 
I am not willing to pave the road to poverty for my grandchildren 
with mouth watering concessions to multimillionaires like 
Limbaugh, Palin, Beck, and blah-greedy-blah-greedy-blah. 


But don’t mistake my Republican bashing for support for 
tail wagging Democrats and their union lackeys 
who want to preserve Collective Begging for old times sake. 


Collective Begging and democratic penance will not 
save workers from making all the sacrifices and paying for 
all the crimes and extravagances of the investor class. 


The Democrats are eager to please their 
corporate financiers. 
And union leaders have never shown a willingness to confront 
the gorging elephant in the middle of the US budget—
the Pentagon. 


Stop funding war and the Debt Monster will fall faster 
than a propped up military regime when it 
runs out of bullets.


We know damn well where all the money went— 
into the pockets of  war racketeers, contractors, and mercenaries.
Bring our soldiers home. 
We need them to protect US citizens from 
the enemies inside the gates of our  State Capitals.


sos, Gregg Shotwell




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