Southern Oregon Jobs With Justice

Towards Full and Fair Employment and a New Economy

National Day of Action – September 15

Declare a Jobs Emergency!

Protest members of Congress and their corporate backers that are blocking good jobs and a real recovery

We will not accept a “Jobless Recovery”!

We demand:

• Full and Fair Employment, starting with the Local Jobs for America Act
• Make Wall Street speculators pay to fix the crisis they caused.

The Economic Emergency:

15 million Americans are out of work, and without a major federal investment in creating jobs, (official) jobless rates will be 8-13% into the next decade.

This “jobs deficit” is eroding State and local revenues, threatening vital public services – not to mention putting another 500,000-700,000 more people out of work.

Corporate America is getting their “jobless recovery.”  The bailed-out banks are making “bumper earnings,” while major US corporations that laid off millions of workers are sitting on $8.4 Trillion in cash reserves (yes, that’s Trillion, with a “T”) – the highest level since 1963.  With only 20% of those corporate cash reserves, we could put 5 million Americans to work at $70,000/year … for five years.

The Political Emergency:

Corporate apologists in Congress are strangling a real recovery for the rest of us, hiding behind budget deficit grandstanding.  If Congress cannot recognize we’re in a state of economic emergency, and that the jobs deficit is top priority, we the people need to declare it – loudly.

After all, the best way to address our public budget deficits is to get people back to work and paying their fair share of taxes (and making Wall Street pay its fair share as well).

September 15 National Day of Action:   Declare a Jobs Emergency!

• Targets:  Senators and Representatives that have been standing with Wall Street and Corporate America rather than workers and communities.
• Demands to Congress:
  • Recognize the jobs emergency; Stop blocking a real recovery; Fix the jobs deficit first
  • Full and Fair Employment, starting with the Local Jobs for America Act, which will save or create one million good jobs providing needed public services in local communities
  • Make Wall Street pay for the mess it made (taxing speculation provides $200-500B/yr)
  • Possible tactics:  be bold & creative!
    • Hang a large “Declaration of Jobs State of Emergency” banner
    • Blockade your target’s office, because s/he is blocking a jobs recovery
    • March with emergency vehicles and/or sirens, delivering the ‘declaration of emergency’

Free Soup!

We will gather at the State of Oregon Employment Offices, 119 N Oakdale Avenue, Medford, for a show of solidarity and demand jobs for working class people.  In the spirit of the WPA, free soup will be served for all!

Sponsored locally by Southern Oregon Jobs With Justice.
for more information please call 541-482-6988

First, we talk about free trade, in particular, the Korea Free Trade Agreement. On the campaign trail in 2008 Barack Obama called the trade agreement “bad for America workers”, but now he’s announced that he’s moving forward on the deal. What’s with the change of heart? And how could the deal affect working people in Oregon? Then, we turn out attention to young workers who have been hit particularly hard by the economy. Be it high levels of unemployment or lack of insurance, young workers seem have inherited an economic mess. But, does this mean that young workers are clamoring to join the labor movement. We will speak with a young organizer who is working with the next generation of rank-and-file union activists to build strong leaders for decades to come. ~Arthur Stamoulis, Director of the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign. The Oregon Fair Trade Campaign’s affiliates include labor unions, community organizations and environmental groups across the state that recognize that trade agreements ~Lydia Hallay, founder and organizer of the Next Wave, a committee of Oregon AFSCME that engages members 35 and younger.

via KBOO Labor Radio … Click Here

This years’ event will be held Monday, September 6^th at Tou Velle State Park located at 8425 Table Rock Road, Central Point, Oregon.  Please be prepared to pay a $3.00 parking fee and bring chairs as there are limited tables.

Labor-Day-2010-Picnic-Flyer

Sponsored by the Southern Oregon Central Labor Council.

Fun begins at 11:00 a.m., continues till 4:00 p.m.

• Guest Speakers
• Labor Music
  • Broadway Phil & Shouters
  • Patrick Dodd
  • Tami Marston
• Entertainment
• Mickey Balloonman
• Food

If you can’t get time to officially speak during an upcoming meeting or public events, you can still hand out leaflets to people as they come in or exit.  You should also use these leaflets at any upcoming tabling opportunities, such as conferences, fairs or farmers’ markets.  (If tabling, be sure to also take along a few copies of our petition.)  Our leaflets are designed so that, if printed double-sided, they can be cut down the middle to help save paper.  The following leaflets are all identical, with the exception that they list different local phone numbers for Senator Wyden’s offices across the state:

If your organization, place of worship or union has a newsletter or website, or if you have your own blog, please publish a short article about the Korea FTA.  You can write an article yourself or use one of our templates.  You’re welcome to edit our template articles however you like, and can use them with or without attribution.  We currently have two basic articles available:

You can use the factsheets below to help educate yourself, to spread the word at meetings, to offer more background while tabling and to help craft a Letter to the Editor:

In a “historic shift of power” from Wall Street to Main Street, President Obama approved sweeping Wall Street reform legislation.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, says the bill, which will rein-in some of the most reckless Wall Street/Big Bank practices that shoved the nation’s economy over the cliff,

represents a historic shift of power—away from big bankers and CEOs to working families and Main Street.  For years, Big Banks have profited on the backs of working families. Millions of working families lost their jobs and still can’t find work because of the reckless and selfish actions of Wall Street and the big banks.

Just this April, more than 15,000 people marched on Wall Street and in May, thousands more marched on K Street in Washington, D.C., demanding Wall Street reform. We also generated tens of thousands of e-mail messages and phone calls and rallied outside banks and Wall Street financial institutions. Such mobilization helped ensure that many of the Wall Street reforms working families advocated are in the final product.

The bill includes new rules on how banks handle derivatives. Derivatives are the complex and risky financial products developed by Wall Street and Big Banks that were at the heart of the financial collapse. The bill regulates banks’ hedge fund operations and gives shareholders more of a say on corporate governance.

It also creates a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to rein in subprime mortgages, payday lending and abusive credit practices. The bill protects taxpayers from footing the bill for failing financial institutions by giving government regulators the authority to liquidate the companies by breaking them apart, selling assets and forcing creditors and shareholders to take losses—not the taxpayers.

Southern Oregon’s MOVE YOUR MONEY campaign debuted on the main drag during Ashland’s Fourth of July parade. The parade entry from Southern Oregon Jobs with Justice (SOJwJ) included the Jefferson State Rollers. The helpful swarm of female roller derby skaters blasted Ashland with thousands of tri-fold Move Your Money brochures which rank regional banks and credit unions with the big Wall Street banks. Any guess which work best for the local economy?

People want to support local economic development and are tired of Wall Street excesses that have crippled our country. Move Your Money is a campaign to move money away from the big greedy Wall Street Banks and put the bucks where they will do the most good right here at home.

Check out July 4 parade photos below and look at the PDF brochure for a detailed description of Move Your MONEY Southern Oregon.

Southern Oregon Jobs with Justice coalition members marched proudly and displayed our colors for the excited crowd in Ashland’s Fourth of July Parade.

Thank you Bill Lawson for providing live music from our float.

Thanks to Corrine and DUDE for stepping up and running our information booth in the park.

Special thanks to the Jefferson State Rollers for bringing so much energy and helping pass out Move Your Money brochures.

Move your money today!!!

The only reason most people stay with the big banks is out of convenience. But if you consider the money and time you will save once you move to a local financial institution, it only makes sense to move your money.

Download the .PDF and find out how your bank ranks…

read more…

WHAT: Free Speech Monument Proposed for State of Jefferson
WHEN: 2011 — the Centennial of the Wobbly Walk Through the Siskiyous
WHO: Wobbly Walk Free Speech Committee
WHY: “Those Wobblies warrant memory”

Once you know the history you will understand why a blue ribbon committee has been assembled to commemorate the 1911 Wobbly Walk Through the Siskiyous

Wobbly Walk Through the Siskiyous – research report – 125K

Campaign Announcement — “Flyer” – 147K

* * * Wobbly Logo * * *

Southern Oregon JwJ
The project of establishing a monument is inspired by the research of Southern Oregon University History Professor Jay Mullen and his work “Wobbly Walk Through the Siskiyous.” “Wobbly” is the nickname for a member of the labor union known as the Industrial Workers of the World. Founded in 1905 the IWW rose to distinction during the progressive era of the early part of the 20th century.

Professor Mullen’s story about brave men of conviction whose solidarity stand for free speech is absolutely amazing and it needs to be remembered. Once you know the history you will understand why a blue ribbon committee has been assembled to commemorate the 1911 Wobbly Walk Through the Siskiyous.

Committee Members are from around Oregon and represent a very diversified group that includes labor educators, folk singers and even current dues paying Wobblies. The list of committee members: Jay Mullen, Nancy Spencer, Gerry Cavanaugh, Marko Bey, Brenda Gould, Derek Volkart, Brendan Phillips, Ross Rieder, Susan Stoner, Wes Brain, Ivend Holen, Mark Ross, Barbara Byrd, Patrick Dodd, Rich Rohde, and Scott Fife. Two elected politicians have been asked to be on the committee in an “advisory” role, Oregon State Representative Peter Buckley and Oregon’s Senator in Congress Jeff Merkley.

The following words come from Jay Mullen’s written research documenting the miraculous events which unfolded nearly 100 years ago:

“…to those men of conviction who voluntarily, for the cause of free speech, hit-the-grits and disappeared into the snowfall to confront possible death, not in the face of hostile gunfire, but in the face of an indifferent nature’s blizzard. History forgets more heroes than it remembers. Those Wobblies warrant memory.”

The Wobbly Walk Free Speech Monument is a campaign of
Southern Oregon Jobs with Justice http://www.sojwj.org