As it increasingly seems that Obama means to compromise again with the GOP on the “Fiscal Farce” that is the current fear du jour in Washington, D.C., and open the road to ending America’s already meager social-security nets, it is encouraging to see a movement rising to push against it: The United Front Against Austerity (AgainstAusterity.org). It hopes to succeed where Occupy Wall Street so miserably failed. Thus far, United Front Against Austerity coverage in progressive circles is near zero. Its Oct. 27, 2012, inaugural rally in New York City garnered no mention; not even Democracy Now! bothered to show up.
Unlike Occupy Wall Street, UFAA has demands and is not afraid to articulate them. Top on the agenda is a 1 percent tax of Wall Street levied on all stock, bond and fund trading and selling, especially the high-speed computerized trading; some estimates put this taxable revenue between $4 and $6 quadrillion dollars annually. $40 trillion to $60 trillion will fill all budget holes, real and illusionary.
These revenues would be then used for funding domestic-infrastructure renewal, creating 21st-century public-transport systems, long-term unemployment benefits, quality health care for every citizen, a national living wage, free university educations for any citizen wanting one and the restoration of meaningful regulation and enforcement of the beyond-corrupt financial industry. This would include the nationalizing of the Federal Reserve, forcing it to serve the people and not the banking class.
UFAA also supports labor organization and the repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act and “right to work” laws. In fact, everything it is for is dear to the hearts of every person struggling in an increasingly predatory and exploitative system. The only thing this new-found revenue would not be used for is expansion of militarism and covert destabilizations of other nations. It should be obvious that such a movement will have many well-heeled enemies, so, likewise, it needs many more friends. The National Nurses United is also at the forefront of the anti-austerity movement; both fledgling movements need our support.
This current push for austerity is just a false crisis manufactured by the 1 percent and their toadies to utterly destroy the gains achieved since the New Deal and re-create their new Gilded Age of opulence for them and destitution for everyone else.
For these soulless creatures, The Hunger Games is not just a movie but rather a utopian goal they seek tirelessly to achieve. Also on the website is a link to the UFAA political agenda. It is well worth the read—an informative piece of historic precedence and modern events tying together many seemingly unrelated threads.
CLEE PAUL AMES
Eureka
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