CONTENTS
- THOUSANDS PROTEST IN THE USA – WISCONSIN, GEORGIA, IDAHO, INDIANA, MONTANA, OHIO, TENNESSEE, WASHINGTON
- CEO SALARIES IN CANADA
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1. THOUSANDS PROTEST IN THE USA – WISCONSIN, GEORGIA, IDAHO, INDIANA, MONTANA, OHIO, TENNESSEE, WASHINGTON
QUESTION: Is this being reported in the mainstream news? I don’t watch enough of it to know. /Sandra
Thanks to Janet:
What would get Canadians off our butts…………eh??
Price of gas or a case of beer going up?
Anything else????
Shame on us……
Begin forwarded message:
Date: February 25, 2011 9:54:36 AM GMT-05:00
Subject: FW: Most people don’t know it yet, but we may be experiencing the Lexington and Concord of the second American Revolution
Main Street Movement Erupts as Thousands Across Country Protest War on the Middle Class
Thursday 24 February 2011
by: Zaid Jilani | Think Progress | Report
In support of workers in Wisconsin, hundreds of middle-class workers from the DC area gather for a solidarity rally outside the offices of Gov. Scott Walker on February 23, 2011. (Photo: David Sachs / SEIU)
Last week, 14 Wisconsin Senate Democrats inspired the nation when they decided to flee the state rather than allow quorum for a vote on a bill that would have decimated the state’s public employee unions and dealt a crippling blow to the state’s hard-working teachers, sanitation employees, and other middle class union members. Since then, tens of thousands of Wisconsinites have taken to the streets in even greater number than before the walkout in support of the fleeing legislators and in opposition to Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) anti-middle class agenda.
Inspired by the events in Wisconsin, thousands of Americans all over the country are taking action to battle legislation that would attack their labor rights, defund their schools, threaten their health and safety, and decimate the American middle class. Here are just some of the places across the nation that are taking part in this new “Main Street Movement”to defend and rebuild the American middle class:
– GEORGIA: Hundreds of workers demonstrated outside the Georgia capitol yesterday, declaring their solidarity with striking Wisconsin workers. Some demonstrators wore “cheesehead” hats, a clear reference to a cultural tradition in Wisconsin.
– IDAHO: Hundreds of teachers marched against legislation that would layoff 770 teachers and leave schools severely understaffed.
– INDIANA: In Indiana, House Democrats fled the state, preventing a vote on legislation that would enact “right-to-work” laws that would’ve crippled the right to organize. After the House Democrats took off, hundreds of workers and students marched into the capitol building and staged a massive sit-in, pledging not to leave until the radical legislation was withdrawn. Yesterday, Indiana’s Main Street Movement scored its first victory as Republican lawmakers withdrew the anti-union bill. Indiana Democrats are refusing to come back until right-wing legislators withdraw legislation to undermine the state’s public education system.
– MONTANA: More than a thousand “conservationists, sportsmen, firefighters, teachers, correctional officers and others” descended on the Montana capitol to protest against “unprecedented GOP attacks on public services and education and laws that protect land, air, water and wildlife.” Students carried signs that read “Keep Us In School,” protesting crippling cuts to the state’s education system.
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– OHIO: In Ohio, thousands of ordinary Americans who rely on the right to organize to earn good, middle class incomes are facing off with Wisconsin-style legislation backed by Gov. John Kasich (R). Nearly 10,000 protesters demonstrated in Columbus, Ohio, gaining the support of former Gov. Ted Strickland (D-OH) and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). So many demonstrators showed up that the Ohio Highway Patrol was ordered to lock the doors of the state capitol to stop more demonstrators from getting into the building.
– TENNESSEE: Hundreds of Tennesseans gathered to protest a bill that would completely strip Tennesee teachers of collective bargaining rights. “What you have right now is 300 or so of us, standing and asking the state legislature to focus on what the priorities are right now, instead of attacking working people,” said Mary Mancini, executive director of Tennessee Citizen Action. “If they listen to us, well then that’s great. … If not, I can see this thing growing.”
– WASHINGTON: 2,000 demonstrators in Olympia, Washington, marched against the state’s proposed budget cuts that would harm students and middle class Washingtonians and in solidarity with workers in Wisconsin. “If Scott Walker succeeds in ending worker rights in Wisconsin, the birthplace of public servants’ liberty, it could happen here,” said Federation of State Employees President Carol Dotlich.
ThinkProgress has put together a video compilation highlighting protests by ordinary Americans all over the nation to defend the middle class from this unprecedented assault. Watch it:
Even larger demonstrations are planned this Saturday, as thousands more Main Street Americans plan to take to the streets to protest the ongoing assault against the middle class. Moveon.org is organizing protests at every single state capitol in the country, aiming to “Save the American Dream.” Meanwhile, US Uncut, an activist group inspired by United Kingdom’s UK Uncut, plans to protest against American tax dodgers, asking why the rich in the country have been able to get off easy on their taxes while low- and middle-income Americans continue to be asked to sacrifice.
UPDATE To see what the war on the middle class that the Main Street Movement is battling looks like, see this chart of the income distribution from Mother Jones:
UPDATE Dozens of parents protested yesterday outside Rep. Blake Farenthold’s (R-TX) local office, demanding that the congressman not support drastic cuts to the Head Start program.
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2. CEO SALARIES IN CANADA
Search results (on the CCPA Monitor www.policyalternatives.ca)
NOTE: The Feb 2011 issue of The Monitor has an updated article on CEO salaries. I am getting error messages when I try to get back on the website – will try again later.
Neo-Con Economics and Canadian Well-Being
$1.8 million in income to join) made extraordinary gains. CEO salaries and bonuses have skyrocketed. The average earnings of the top 100 CEOs (now $7.3 million) ballooned from 100 times the average … Mackenzie, Hugh: A Soft Landing: Recession and Canada’s 100 Highest Paid CEOs. (2010) (National …
The Monitor – October 27, 2010
Equality is the Core Value of Democracy
and the compensation of the top 100 CEOs went from an annual average of $3.5 million to $10.4 million — up 300%. … of continental Europeans who took the lead at the last G-20 meeting to curb the outrageous salaries and bonuses …
The Monitor – February 22, 2010
March 2008: Corporate Power, Voter Powerlessness
The CEOs are so confident their influence will prevail politically that they no longer care if they’ve lost … to mass outsourcing and layoffs, $100-a-barrel oil, and a looming recession. They shrug off obscene CEO salaries, pay and tax inequities, even corporate scandals. A few of the worst business rogues—the Enron …
The Monitor – April 25, 2008
March 2004: The Most Destructive Epidemic
obscenely high CEO salaries and perks–even the business takeover of our political system. We nod our heads when the CEOs and their political, academic, and media propagandists tell us that all … it can function. It’s the same with corporations. Their CEOs are also programmed to maximize …
The Monitor – September 19, 2004
April 2006: Taxing Our Credulity
their bosses divert into profits, dividends, and big CEO salaries and perks don’t show up on the T-4 slips. …
The Monitor – May 10, 2006
put on CEO salaries by President Obama. The architects of the modern democratic state knew very … policy of favouring regressive tax cuts over social spending. Canada’s top 100 CEOs, whose annual income …
The Monitor – June 18, 2009
November 2003: Corporate Crime Goes Unpunished
or “reckless.” Their high-salaried and well-dressed managers could surely never be held responsible, much less … be an exaggeration to say that Canada’s CEOs and investors are the “contract killers” of the more than 1,000 Canadian …
The Monitor – September 20, 2004
March 2007: A Special CCPA Report on Work, Wealth, and the Economy
As reported by the CCPA early in the New Year, the average annual pay of the 100 top CEOs in Canada in 2005 … that the average high-paid CEO this year received as much remuneration by 10:04 a.m. on New Year’s Day as one … salaries, bonuses and perks enjoyed by corporate executives, or to the multi-million-dollar “severance” …
The Monitor – March 30, 2007