Updates – Page 30 – Alliance for a Just Society

Higher Wages Are Really an Economic Win-Win

Part 4 in Our Series on Wages and Work.

A common concern in the movement for fair wages is that employers who want to pay better are convinced they cannot afford to. But a look at the big picture reveals living wages are actually good for business. It adds to their competitiveness, workers who are paid well spend more. Spending more means more business. In essence, better wages enable workers to better provide for their families, while strengthening our economy and leveling the playing field for small businesses that find themselves competing against large corporations.

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Profiles of Poverty: Who Benefits from Fair Wages?

Singles Moms, Children, the Elderly and Students Have Much at Stake in the Living Wage Debate

Opponents of raising the minimum wage frequently argue that low-wage jobs are transitional, for teenagers seeking experience before life in the “real world.” Granted, many teenagers work to contribute money desperately needed for their family, or are raising families themselves. And many teens are trying to save up for college.

But, like young people, these facts apparently don’t seem to matter to profit-at-all-costs corporations. Nor do actual statistics of minimum wage workers and people in poverty.Continue reading “Profiles of Poverty: Who Benefits from Fair Wages?”

McGimmick Budgeting No Substitute for Living Wage

Making Ends Meet: Part 2

We’ve certainly seen some sobering statistics regarding low-wage jobs out there. But — lucky us — one of the most profitable companies in the history of the world has kindly stepped up with tips for how its employees can manage their embarrassingly inadequate minimum-wage salaries.

McDonald’s recently launched a handy-dandy website that includes a wide variety of resources to help the average low-wage worker manage his or her finances. The homepage provides an informative video, asking viewers, “Do you ever wonder where all of your money goes?” The site also provides an informative workbook for workers to budget their monthly expenses and “plan for the future.”Continue reading “McGimmick Budgeting No Substitute for Living Wage”

Low-Wage Workers Not Covering Basic Needs

Today’s minimum wages are a far cry of what it actually takes to survive.

Last Thursday, thousands of fast food workers staged a strike in 50 cities across the country to draw attention to corporate wage gaps. Fast food workers are demanding $15 hourly wages; currently, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Perhaps it is easy for profit-hungry corporations to forget, but low-wage workers are human beings; anyone working full-time should be able to make enough to live.

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Native Americans Train to Defend Mother Earth

On August 23^rd, Alliance affiliate, Indian People’s Action of Montana opened camp for a 3 day Direct Action training camp. Indian People’s Action brought Moccasins On The Ground to Montana. Drawing Native Americans from across the country to defend Mother Earth they trained activists in nonviolent direct action to stop the Keystone Pipeline that the Canadian developer, TransCanada is building to carry crude oil from the Boreal Forests of Albert, Canada across the United States to the Gulf Coast.

Many Native groups believe that the Environmental Impact Study did not adequately consider potential damage to American Indian Tribes and Tribal members in Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, whose water aquifers, water ways, cultural sites, agricultural lands, animal life, public drinking water sources and other vital resources could be damaged by the project.

100 trained defenders of Mother Earth and Sacred Waters

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MARCHING ONWARD!

Sing a song, full of the faith that the dark past has taught us
Sing a song, full of the hope that the present has brought us
Facing the rising sum of our new day begun
Let us march on till victory is won

Excerpts of The Negro National Anthem

—by James Weldon Johnson

“Lift every voice and sing till Earth and heaven ring, ring with the harmony of liberty…”

Whites and Blacks, young and old, rich and poor took to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial roaring demands to address the devastating plight of African Americans facing discrimination and income inequality. The marchers understood that the crisis faced by black men, women, and children were actually an American crisis wedded together and born out of the twin evils of racism and economic deprivation. Such evils robbed all people, both Blacks and Whites, of dignity, self-respect, and freedom. Together, they sang in harmony to redress old grievances affecting Black life.

Their marching orders were clear: they demanded an end to discrimination. Continue reading “MARCHING ONWARD!”

“No One Should Live in Fear…” Courts Rule on NYPD “Stop and Frisk”

A simple premise behind every law that gets created: No one should live in fear. The laws we create should support that basic assumption by reducing crime. But when laws have no bearing on crime rates, yet become the very source of fear that people live with, we have crossed the Constitutional boundary, and law enforcement itself becomes the source of fear.

New York City’s Stop and Frisk law is one of the in-depth discussions the Alliance will lead this October at our 5^th Institute for Pragmatic Practice symposium. Students, activists, organizers, policymakers and scholars will address the increase in racially charged, discriminatory and dehumanizing practices by law enforcement; actions reinforced by new ever-more draconian laws; and the increased boot print of prisons and detention centers on the everyday lives of Americans. Continue reading ““No One Should Live in Fear…” Courts Rule on NYPD “Stop and Frisk””

Will SEC order a dose of sunlight for corporate political spending?

Mary Jo White, the new Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, was recently confirmed to a five-year term that secures her position until 2019. With that kind of job security, Ms. White should be able to rise above the partisan pressures of Washington politics and advance a proactive agenda at the SEC that furthers its mission of protecting investors and promoting transparent, well-functioning markets.

But already, Chair White’s resolve is being put to the test through the debate on a proposed SEC rule that would require disclosure of public companies’ political spending.Continue reading “Will SEC order a dose of sunlight for corporate political spending?”

Sorting through the business lobbies’ diverse interests on tax reform

This fall a major showdown is brewing over tax and budget priorities in our nation’s capital. Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana) and Congressman Dave Camp (R-Michigan) have been laying groundwork for a rewrite of the U.S. tax code.

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CellBlocks and Border Stops

The Institute for Pragmatic Practice, Union Theological Seminary and the Alliance for a Just Society are hosting our fifth symposium,

Cell Blocks & Border Stops. Hundreds of organizers, academics, policy leaders, journalists, theologians and grassroots activists will convene and examine the intersection of immigration control and mass incarceration, and to consider the future of activism and organizing in these areas.

Today, more than seven million people are under control of the criminal justice system (prison, probation, parole or detention) exceeding the combined populations of Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and Staten Island.

Eleven million immigrants-roughly the population of Ohio-are out of compliance with federal immigration law, and at constant risk for harassment, detention, and deportation.

Counting friends, families, colleagues, and neighbors, tens of millions of people today are directly affected by the sprawling immigrant control and criminal justice systems. Poor Black and Brown people have been born this burden most heavily, driven by long-standing beliefs in racial inferiority and white supremacy.

REGISTER HERE– http://bit.ly/clblocks

But these systems leave few untouched.

Join us and noted scholars and activists Cornel West and Pramila Jayapal among many other noted speakers to end the dehumanization of millions of mothers, fathers, sons and daughters by law enforcement and the criminal justice system.

[Click here for a full event Agenda.]