Stop Austerity!

In Defense of Public Services and Workers´ rights!

The Obama administration gave trillions of dollars to save big corporations & banks from the economic crisis in 2008/2009. Since then, working people have been facing increasing budget cuts, increased layoffs and attacks against workers´ rights in the name of “Austerity”. Now, Obama proposes substantial cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Is this fair?

No political support for dictator Kim Jong-un

Kim Jong-un, the young dictator of North Korea threatened the USA with nuclear Armageddon for the first week of April, promising a shower of missiles on the American continent and on American bases in Hawaii and Guam. 

Two powerful bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday afternoon, April 15, killing three people, including an 8-year-old child, and injuring more than 100, according to New York Times.

The independent mobilization that is unfolding today across the US is the product of a process of reflection and growth in the consciousness of sectors of the population that are tired of waiting for solutions for their problems from the Obama government. It is a response from the popular sectors to the Obama government's solution to the economic crisis – austerity measures and attacks on labor and civil rights (carried out on behalf of the big capitalists).

Introduction – The Context for Contract Negotiations.

2013 is already shaping up to be an important year for people fighting for free, quality public education in the United States. Using the fiction of the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’, the Obama administration, fresh from its victory last November, is preparing for a new round of austerity, with public education firmly in the firing line. Even if an 11th hour backroom deal holds us back from the ‘brink’, we know that austerity remains the weapon of choice for the ruling class in this country and globally for resolving the protracted economic crisis that began five years ago. This means that, regardless of the outcome of the Washington pantomime show, public education will continue to face budget cuts, layoffs and all-out attacks on teachers’ unions.

The actors have changed. The scripts have been rewritten. UC President Mark Yudof may be resigning and there may be a tuition freeze for 2013-14 and maybe even beyond that. But privatization and new forms of “austerity” continue to be imposed on us, and so we still need to agitate, educate, and organize.