Dear (Contact First Name),
Mitt Romney went to Ohio last week, talked about bloated government and urged people to "look around."
Had they looked, people would have found a state that is aggressively throwing its poorest people off cash assistance because of cuts to public spending and Ohio is not alone.
In chilling terms, Georgetown University Law Center Professor Peter Edelman talked to me recently about his new book, So Rich, So Poor: Why It's So Hard to End Poverty in America and the way that welfare-cuts and the proliferation of low-wage work have thrust millions of Americans into "deep poverty." Some six million, today, are living on nothing but food stamps, like tens of thousands of Ohioans.
Watch my interview with Edelman and read my thoughts here: Do We Need a Poor People's Coming-Out Movement?
There exist plenty of creative ideas when it comes to creating good jobs. President Obama was in the right town, when he went to Cleveland, home of the Evergreen cooperatives, to talk about the economy. He didn't touch on Evergreen, of course, but the idea of worker-ownership is catching on.
Some of the workers who famously occupied the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago in '08, facing lay-offs again, have set up a co-op. I had a chase to talk to UE organizer Leah Fried about that at Labor Notes; Chicago Workers' Economic Plan: Go Co-Operative!
Pass on this email to those who haven't signed up yet. There is a lot more coming up. Including
Amber Hollibaugh, a veteran LGBT organizer on revolution vs. "pride."
Dr. Margaret Flowers, of Physicians for a National Healthcare Plan on Obama's health plan and the Supreme Court.
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Thank you 
Laura Flanders |
