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“Fossil fuel executives and their lobbyists have maintained their dominance by pretending to have the best interest of workers and communities at heart,” said one organizer. “That’s why we’re out here floating with fossil fuel workers.”
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“Unless these abortion bans are stopped, Oklahomans will be robbed of the freedom to control their own bodies and futures,” said one reproductive rights advocate.
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“There is vast, bipartisan support for this policy because the public knows oil and gas billionaires are responsible for the pain at the pump,” said one advocate.
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This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on April 27, 2022. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
Republican lawmakers on Wednesday inadvertently acknowledged that President Joe Biden has the power to wipe out federal student loan debt with the stroke of a pen, a move the White House is considering amid sustained pressure from progressive advocates and congressional Democrats.
Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) unveiled a bill that would constrain the executive branch’s ability to provide relief to federal borrowers by taking away the Secretary of Education’s unilateral authority to cancel outstanding loan balances, limiting the amount of time a presidential administration can suspend payments while adding congressional oversight to the process, and excluding people above a certain income threshold from potential benefits.
Although the legislation has virtually no chance of passing and is intended to be a vehicle for the GOP’s widely debunked talking point that reducing or eliminating student debt would be a “fiscally irresponsible… bailout [of] high-income earners,” The American Prospect‘s David Dayen responded to its introduction by asking, “Aren’t Republican senators admitting that student debt cancellation is within the authority of the president?”
Thune’s bill, co-sponsored by Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy (LA), Richard Burr (NC), Mike Braun (IN), and Roger Marshall (KS), comes just one day after multiple news outlets reported that Biden is exploring options for canceling at least some federal student debt after he extended the repayment moratorium through Aug. 31.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently estimated that the two-year pause on student loans held directly by the federal government, first enacted at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and extended multiple times by the Trump and Biden administrations, has saved nearly 37 million borrowers almost $200 billion collectively through April.
While welcoming Biden’s fourth extension of the payment and interest rate freeze earlier this month, progressives stressed that it only postpones economic hardship for millions of borrowers—many of whom are struggling to make ends meet amid widespread price gouging and disappearing federal relief programs.
A new survey released last week found that over half of student loan borrowers in the US would not currently be able to make a single monthly payment—the national average is estimated to be $460—if they were required to.
It has been more than a year since the Biden administration received a memo from the Department of Education (DOE) outlining the extent of his authority to broadly cancel federal student debt without legislation. Despite repeated demands from dozens of Democratic lawmakers, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has not yet made the concealed memo public.
Legal experts and Democratic lawmakers say the Higher Education Act of 1965 clearly empowers Cardona to wipe out roughly $1.6 trillion in student debt for all 45 million federal borrowers nationwide.
Section 432(a) of the law states that the education secretary has the authority to modify loan terms and “enforce, pay, compromise, waive, or release any right, title, claim, lien, or demand, however acquired, including any equity or any right of redemption”—a provision the DOE has invoked to unilaterally eliminate more than $17 billion in student debt for hundreds of thousands of borrowers in the past year.
The Debt Collective has drafted an executive order for the president directing Cardona to “cancel all obligations to repay federal student loans,” which would save borrowers hundreds of dollars per month and boost the nation’s gross domestic product by more than $173 billion in the first year alone.
Recent polling shows that a majority of adults in the US, including those without education loans to repay, support student debt cancellation. Demands for action are especially pronounced among young voters.
Uncertainty over what Biden—who has yet to fulfill his modest campaign promise to eliminate up to $10,000 of debt for certain borrowers—may do to address the student debt crisis comes as Democrats face a looming battle for control of Congress in this year’s midterm elections.
Many Democratic lawmakers have urged the White House to wipe out at least $50,000 per federal borrower while economic justice advocates continue to call for the cancellation of all outstanding federal student debt as a step toward free higher education for all.
Biden’s approval rating among people under the age of 35 has plummeted during his time in office, a collapse that political observers have attributed to the Democratic Party’s failure to advance downwardly redistributive policies through legislative or executive channels.
“Inaction is going to be really dangerous for us in the midterms,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who has urged Biden to eliminate all student debt, said earlier this month.
“Enthusiasm is really low,” Omar said of Democratic voters. “It’s important to listen to the people who have sent us to represent them… and I know that student debt cancellation is a priority.”
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.
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“The deadly heat this week in India and Pakistan should dominate the news everywhere,” said one environmentalist. “It’s a horrifying event in its own right—and a glimpse of what is likely to become routine.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
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By introducing a bill to prevent Joe Biden from wiping out student debt, “aren’t Republican senators admitting that student debt cancellation is within the authority of the president?” asked one journalist.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
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New data reveals a massive “transfer of wealth” from the working class, which is paying higher prices as consumers, to the investor class reaping the financial benefits.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
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“In the face of this gathering storm of adversity, we must come together as an international community,” said United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed.
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One day after Elon Musk took over Twitter, a top European regulator gave the world’s richest man a “reality check” about how they will respond if he loosens the platform’s content moderation policies.
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This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on April 24, 2022. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
On a day billed as “Solidarity Sunday,” Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez visited Amazon workers in New York City less than 24 hours before they start casting ballots on whether to form a union, after which Sanders departed to Richmond, Virginia to talk with Starbucks workers who have been organizing coffee shops around the nation.
Voting at Amazon’s 1,500-employee LDJ5 facility—located across the street from the JFK8 warehouse that made history just three weeks ago by becoming the first of the e-commerce giant’s US workplaces to unionize—is set to begin on April 25.
A recent poll found that 75% of US adults support unionization efforts at Amazon, and organizing is also underway at other powerful companies that have enjoyed record-breaking profits while workers get hammered by the pandemic and price gouging, including Starbucks and Apple.
“If [Jeff] Bezos can afford a $500 million yacht,” Sanders (I-VT) said, referring to the company’s billionaire founder in a video promoting Sunday’s event, “he can afford to pay his workers at Amazon decent wages, decent benefits, and provide good working conditions.”
Speaking from a stage in Staten Island, Sanders told Amazon workers that they are “sending a message to every worker in America that the time is now to stand up to our oligarchy, to stand up to this excessive corporate greed, and create an economy that works for all, not just a few.”
Taking the mic from “Tío Bernie,” Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) congratulated the organizing committee of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) on its groundbreaking victory earlier this month, saying that it “reminded the world that you don’t need millions of dollars to stand up to multibillion-dollar corporations, you just gotta do the work. You just need solidarity, you need to show people that you give a damn about them, and they will come together and organize and demand better for their lives.”
ALU’s successful union drive at JFK8 “was the first domino to fall,” said Ocasio-Cortez, who called on Amazon to drop the dubious objections that it filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in a bid to overturn the results.
Derrick Palmer, ALU’s vice president of organizing, said: “I’m glad that everyone is finally waking up and realizing the power that we have as an organization, as people… I think that’s been lost throughout these years, and I’m glad that it’s finally back.”
“We’ve woken the country up, and I want us to continue on this journey,” said Palmer. “I want us to win LDJ5.”
Amazon—which is notorious for mistreating its workers and spent $4.3 million on anti-union consultants in 2021 alone—has intensified its union-busting tactics in the lead-up to the election that starts Monday.
But “LDJ5 has been busting their ass, organizing day-in and day-out,” said Palmer. “We need to support them. And also we need to support all the Amazon facilities around the world who want to organize as well.”
ALU president Christian Smalls—terminated by Amazon in March 2020 after he organized a walkout at JFK8 to protest management’s refusal to adequately protect workers during the early weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic—admitted that he has a vendetta against the company that fired him.
“From that moment forward we never looked back,” said Smalls. “We said… we’re gonna go anywhere it’s necessary to advocate for worker’s rights,” and after Amazon defeated the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union last year in an Alabama election the NLRB invalidated due to corporate interference, he and his comrades decided to “bring it back home to New York.”
“We beat them, right here,” said Smalls, pointing to the JFK8 warehouse. “I’m so proud that our team expanded, the workers that are organizing expanded, and now we got to a point where the workers are now organizing themselves.”
Earlier this month, Sanders argued that ALU’s victory at JFK8 has the potential to spur “a national, sweeping movement.” A recent poll found that 75% of US adults support unionization efforts at Amazon, and organizing is also underway at other powerful companies that have enjoyed record-breaking profits while workers get hammered by the pandemic and price gouging, including Starbucks and Apple.
According to Smalls, workers from more than 100 Amazon facilities reached out to ALU about organizing their workplaces in the first week after their stunning win on April 1.
“And it’s not just here at Amazon,” he said Sunday, adding that ALU has received emails from employees at Walmart, Target, Dollar General, Apple, and Starbucks. “The workers are gonna fight back and take over the country.”
Later on Sunday, ALU is planning to hold a rally to hear from its LDJ5 workers’ committee and national labor leaders, including Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, and Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union.
When asked if the Biden administration needs to do more to support organized labor, Sanders said, “Yes.”
Starbucks workers have defied what leaked video footage reveals is a concerted union-busting campaign.
President Joe Biden has “talked more about unions than any other president in my lifetime,” said Sanders. “But talk is not enough. What he’s gotta do is start inviting these guys to the White House, he’s gotta invite the Starbucks workers to the White House, the other unions that are organizing all over this country, and make it clear that he is on their side and that he is going to do what he can” to support the labor movement.
Sanders, who has not ruled out a third presidential bid if Biden doesn’t run in 2024, traveled directly from Staten Island to Virginia. There, he spoke with members of Starbucks Workers United, the union that has successfully organized hundreds of baristas nationwide in a matter of months, including those at five of the chain’s stores in Richmond.
“Like their Amazon brothers and sisters,” Sanders said in a promotional video, Starbucks workers “are also demanding decent wages, working conditions, and benefits. They are also taking on a billionaire who owns that company.”
Howard Schulz, an experienced union-buster who returned as Starbucks CEO this month amid an organizing wave in dozens of states—recently declared that the hugely profitable coffee chain is “being assaulted in many ways by the threat of unionization.”
Since the initial triumph of Starbucks workers in Buffalo, New York in December, employees at more than 200 of the corporation’s stores across the US have filed petitions to unionize. Organizers have won more than 20 union elections so far, including at a flagship location in the company’s hometown of Seattle, and have lost just a handful of times.
Starbucks workers have defied what leaked video footage reveals is a concerted union-busting campaign. Last week, a group of 24 of the coffee giant’s employees urged the US House of Representatives’ labor committee to compel Schultz to testify about what they called an incessant and unlawful effort to thwart a nationwide unionization push.
NLRB prosecutors on Friday formally accused Starbucks of illegally firing baristas seeking to unionize their workplace in Memphis, Tennessee, and Phoenix, Arizona.
“What we are seeing now, in this very unusual moment in American history,” Sanders said, “are working people from coast to coast standing up and saying… something is wrong here. The billionaire class during this pandemic have made out like bandits. Their wealth is increasing exponentially while working people are falling further and further behind.”
“People are saying, enough is enough,” he added. “We’re gonna organize, we’re gonna form unions, we’re gonna collectively bargain. And I think that is enormously important for our economy and for our entire country.”
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.
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French President Emmanuel Macron won a second five-year term on Sunday, but the neoliberal incumbent’s victory over far-right challenger Marine Le Pen was significantly closer than it was in 2017 — portending an ominous future for the country in the absence of far-reaching egalitarian reforms.
Macron received a projected 58% of the vote to Le Pen’s 42%, becoming the first French president since 2002 to be reelected. Macron’s 16-point margin of victory, however, underscores how much ground Le Pen’s openly xenophobic and Islamophobic party has gained since the previous election when both candidates faced off in the runoff round for the first time. Just five years ago, Macron beat Le Pen much more soundly — 66% to 34%.
Earlier this month, Daniel Zamora Vargas, an assistant professor of sociology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, argued on social media that Macron, a former investment banker who has reduced the corporate tax rate and exacerbated economic inequality and insecurity, “is no centrist.”
“He was the most right-wing president of the 5th Republic,” said Zamora. “He created the conditions for the extreme-right to be able to win the presidential election.”
Macron, who has pursued anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim policies of his own, “legitimated all the topics of the extreme-right” and “totally normalized” Le Pen, Zamora wrote as first-round votes were counted on April 10.
French people were forced to “vote for Le Pen or vote for what created a favorable environment for Le Pen’s ideas,” Zamora said last week. “It’s a choice between an evil and the cause of that evil.”
On Sunday, British Labor Party parliamentarian Zarah Sultana made a similar point: “By trying to outdo the far-right, ‘moderates’ legitimize and mainstream them. That’s the context for Le Pen gaining 8% from 2017.”
“We need progressive anti-systemic alternatives,” she added.
Last year Macron’s Interior Minister accused Le Pen of being “soft… not tough enough” on Islam.
By trying to outdo the far-right, ‘moderates’ legitimise and mainstream them. That’s the context for Le Pen gaining 8% from 2017.
We need progressive anti-systemic alternatives.
— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) April 24, 2022
Left-wing presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon came up just short of a second-place finish in the opening round. Fortunately for Macron, Mélenchon advised his disappointed voters to “not give a single vote” to Le Pen.
In her concession speech, which she delivered shortly after polls closed, Le Pen said that “the ideas that we represent have reached new heights.” She called Sunday’s performance a “striking victory” and said that her National Rally party is “more determined than ever.”
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
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“We need progressive anti-systemic alternatives,” said a British lawmaker.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
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The Amazon Labor Union’s historic win earlier this month made the JFK8 warehouse “the first domino to fall,” said Rep. Ocasio-Cortez. Workers at LDJ5 can make their Staten Island facility the next one.
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“The president and Congress must protect our planet and the people who call Earth home—now.”
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“As the U.S. agonizes over misinformation and hate speech on social media and the harm it does to democracy,” said one journalist, the European Union passed the Digital Services Act “to tackle the problem.”
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“Do not let history repeat itself,” said the People’s Vaccine Alliance, a leading critic of global inequities in access to lifesaving medical tools.
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This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on April 21, 2022. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
Four families, a pair of medical providers, and a minister in Alabama have asked a federal court to prevent a newly enacted state law that criminalizes parents who seek and doctors who provide or suggest gender-affirming healthcare for trans children from taking effect in just over two weeks.
The families pursuing an emergency court order to block the law come from across Alabama and are proceeding anonymously, using pseudonyms, due to the risk of criminal prosecution under SB184.
The new legal challenge, Rev. Eknes-Tucker v. Ivey, was filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Middle District of Alabama – Northern Division. Because the plaintiffs face potential felonies and denial of essential medical care for their transgender children under SB 184, they asked the court to stop the punitive measure, which includes up to 10 years in prison, from going into effect while their case against it moves forward.
The so-called “Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act”—one of dozens of anti-trans bills introduced by GOP lawmakers nationwide—was passed by Alabama’s Republican-controlled Legislature on April 7 and signed into law by right-wing Gov. Kay Ivey the following day. Unless enjoined, the legislation takes effect on May 8.
The families pursuing an emergency court order to block the law come from across Alabama and are proceeding anonymously, using pseudonyms, due to the risk of criminal prosecution under SB 184. They are Brianna Boe and her 12-year-old transgender son, Michael Boe of Montgomery; James Zoe and his 13-year-old transgender son Zachary Zoe of Birmingham; Megan Poe and her 15-year-old transgender daughter Allison Poe of Northern Alabama; and Kathy Noe and her 17-year-old-transgender son Christopher Noe of Eastern Alabama.
“I know people who don’t have a transgender child may not understand my experience,” Megan Poe, mother of 15-year-old Allison of Northern Alabama, said Wednesday in a statement. “I have done everything I can to learn about what my daughter is going through and being able to seek guidance from our pediatrician and medical specialists was a turning point for our family.”
“With that support and care Allison has become a confident and social teenager who is thriving in school,” said Poe. “Without it, I’m terrified she will again become withdrawn, depressed, or even worse. I only want what’s best for my daughter, like any parent. For the state to take away my ability to provide that essential care and support is unthinkable.”
Polling published in August 2020 by Morning Consult and the Trevor Project found that LGBTQ+ youth “are significantly more likely than straight/cis youth to exhibit symptoms of depression, anxiety, and/or both.”
Of the 600 LGBTQ+ people ages 13-24 who were surveyed, 55% reported symptoms of anxiety, 53% reported symptoms of depression, and 43% reported symptoms of both in the two weeks preceding the survey. Mental health challenges are even more common among trans and nonbinary youth, with 69%, 66%, and 61% of respondents reporting symptoms of anxiety, depression, or both, respectively.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem was recently denounced for her apparent ignorance of the harmful effects of anti-trans sentiment, which she has codified into law, as many Republican officials have done despite the fact that voters overwhelmingly oppose the GOP’s assault on the rights of transgender individuals and their loved ones.
James Zoe, father of 13-year-old Zachary of Birmingham, said that “our family is challenging this cruel law because it infringes on our ability as parents to ensure our child receives appropriate medical care, and targets transgender youth simply for being transgender.”
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem was recently denounced for her apparent ignorance of the harmful effects of anti-trans sentiment, which she has codified into law, as many Republican officials have done despite the fact that voters overwhelmingly oppose the GOP’s assault on the rights of transgender individuals and their loved ones.
“We have the choice to leave our home state of Alabama, or stay and fight,” said Zoe. “We have chosen to fight for our child and for all transgender children in Alabama. In the end, we believe this unfair law will be overturned and we will be able to continue providing our child with the medical care he needs.”
Last month, a district judge in Travis County, Texas halted far-right Gov. Greg Abbott’s attempt to investigate families who obtain gender-affirming healthcare for their children—a move that LGBTQ+ rights advocates welcomed as they vowed to continue fighting against the GOP’s attack on transgender people.
The families are joined by a private practice pediatrician in rural Southeast Alabama and a clinical psychologist with the University of Alabama at Birmingham medical system—both of whom are also proceeding pseudonymously due to the risk of criminal prosecution—along with Rev. Paul Eknes-Tucker, senior pastor at Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Birmingham.
“As a minister, I counsel parents with transgender children about how best to love and support their children. Under SB 184, those conversations now come with a risk of criminal prosecution,” Eknes-Tucker said. “This dangerous law is an unthinkable infringement on parental rights and the freedom of pastors and other faith leaders to counsel their own parishioners.”
Dr. Rachel Koe, the doctor in rural Southeast Alabama, pointed out that “parents come to me seeking trusted medical advice but under SB 184 both I and the parents consulting me are subject to a prison sentence for even discussing the best recommendations for supporting their children’s health.”
“SB 184 criminalizes effective, established medical treatment that is recognized as the standard of care in the medical field, including by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association,” she added.
The plaintiffs are represented by Lightfoot, Franklin & White LLC, King & Spalding LLP, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).
“Allowing SB 184 to go into effect will cause enormous stress and harm to families across Alabama,” said Asaf Orr, senior staff attorney at NCLR and director of its Transgender Youth Project. “A state should not criminalize parents and doctors for following medical guidelines and providing needed medical treatments.”
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An estimated 234,000 lives could have been saved with primary-series vaccination, the Kaiser Family Foundation found.
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“Anti-competitive behavior in the healthcare sector through market consolidation is a threat to the health and safety of nurses and other healthcare workers and is making our patients sicker.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
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“Our family is challenging this cruel law because it infringes on our ability as parents to ensure our child receives appropriate medical care, and targets transgender youth simply for being transgender,” said one plaintiff.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
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Amid a nationwide organizing wave, 70% of workers at one of the tech giant’s stores in Georgia have signaled their support for the Communications Workers of America to hold a vote on unionization.
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“Lithium belongs to Mexicans, not to transnational corporations,” said one legislator.
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“This ruling is a major victory for these California communities seeking their day in court against corporate polluters that spent decades lying about their products’ role in fueling the climate crisis,” said one advocate.
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The survey comes on the heels of the Amazon Labor Union’s historic election victory at the JFK8 warehouse and ahead of next week’s vote at a smaller Staten Island facility.
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“No peer nation would tolerate such a power-drunk juristocracy,” said one critic. “Our system is badly broken.”
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“Tweaking the Fund’s mandate will not do the trick,” wrote PI general coordinator David Adler. “Only strong mechanisms of accountability—changing both who decides and how—can end the Fund’s impunity.”
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The Ukrainian president’s comments come as peace activists warn Sweden and Finland against joining NATO.
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“It’s not just going to be the next few days—but the next few weeks and few months could even get more complicated than it is now,” David Beasley lamented.
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“The more money that goes toward harmful, industrial practices, the less that goes toward good conservation,” said a researcher from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s move to deport asylum-seekers to another country thousands of miles away will “only lead to more human suffering, chaos, and at huge expense to the U.K.,” said one refugee advocate.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.