Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, covering the National March for Jobs in Pittsburgh on September 20, 2009. The event was held in the historic 'Hill District' and started off a week of protests surrounding the G20 summit. (Photo: Alan
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
Commemorate the 75th anniversary of the WPA on April 10, 2010!
We need the same kind of bold sweeping public jobs program today!
Whereas, 75 years ago, on April 8, 1935, Congress passed legislation creating the largest public works program in U.S. history. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) created 8.5 million jobs during the Depression of the 1930s; and
Whereas, organized labor and all working people and communities need to mark the 75th anniversary of the creation of the WPA by telling the government that today's jobless crisis is as bad today as it was back then. We need the same kind of bold, sweeping jobs program that the people demanded in the 1930s; and
Whereas, Martin Luther King Jr. dedicated the final months of his life to starting a movement for the right of all to a job or a guaranteed income – and we need that movement now more than ever; and
Whereas, what we have now is at best a jobless recovery… an economy based on permanent high unemployment and low wages… a political and economic system that provides trillions of $ for Wall Street, and trillions of $ for war but nothing for large numbers of workers and the poor, who are facing joblessness, foreclosures, evictions, layoffs, low wages, hunger and homelessness; and
Whereas, there are more than 20 million unemployed and underemployed people in the country today. We need a real WPA-type program that is big enough to ensure that those who need work get work -- work that is socially useful and paying union wages and benefits – a real jobs program fully funded by the government; and
Whereas, a national labor/community protest will take place on Saturday, April 10, 2010 in Washington, D.C., commemorating the 75th anniversary of the WPA and demanding enactment of a similar bold, sweeping public jobs program today; and
Whereas, the issue of jobs is on the front burner: all it needs is a flame. The April 10th commemoration of the WPA’s 75th anniversary is consistent with the AFL-CIO’s 5-point Jobs Plan. April 10th would be a great stepping stone for a possible labor-led Solidarity Day III march on Washington in the fall of 2010, demanding that a real jobs program like the WPA be enacted today; therefore be it
Resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council endorse the April 10, 2010 national demonstration in Washington DC, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the WPA, part of the largest public works program in history, which created 8.5 million jobs during the Depression of the 1930s, and demanding enactment of a similar bold sweeping jobs program today;
And be it further resolved, that copies of this resolution be sent to Bay Area labor councils, California Labor Federation, Change to Win, the AFL-CIO and key community allies, urging adoption.
Resolution adopted by the San Francisco Labor Council, February 8, 2010, in San Francisco, California, by unanimous vote.
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