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Brent Budowsky

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March on Washington for Jobs, Hope and Real Change

Posted: 07/11/11 03:27 PM ET

Let me renew my call in a recent column that groups and individuals concerned about the economic future of the nation should rally millions of people in Washington on Labor Day.

It is time for change. It is time for jobs. It is time to rise against Republican attacks against programs that create jobs, and rise against the apathy in Washington. It is time to state that lowering the deficit can be done without attacking the poor, the jobless and the hurting, and that lowering the deficit must not be an excuse for unfair attacks against Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

It is time for labor and unions to come to Washington and make their voices heard.

It is time for women and women's groups to come to Washington, en masse, because so many of these attacks are against elderly women, poor women and all women who are cheated out of equity in pay.

It is time for groups and leaders in the black and Hispanic communities to come to Washington and make their stand for jobs.

It is time for consumers and groups that stand with consumers to come to Washington and support those who fight for them, and for jobs, such as Elizabeth Warren.

It is time for those who want to protect the planet to come to Washington and speak with a loud and resounding voice to create the jobs that can help the environment, and create new energy, and attack those who seek vast profits by polluting the planet.

It is time for veterans who deserve jobs to come to Washington and join with others and fight for them.

It is time for liberals, populists, progressives and the enlightened blogosphere to come to Washington and make a stand with workers, with unions, with women, with consumers, with vets, with young people, with blacks and Hispanics and environmentalists and take back America from the forces of reaction, greed and selfishness.

It is time to come to Washington on Labor Day and honor those who celebrate labor, and honor those who create the jobs, and honor those who defend the consumers and protect the planet and create the jobs that good and noble work can do.

It is time for the real heirs to Samuel Adams, and John Hancock, and Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, to come Washington and answer the pretenders who do things in the name of the Founding Fathers that violate the ideals of the Founding Fathers.

It is time to begin the real campaign for real change that is very long overdue. It is time to take this campaign from Labor Day 2011 until Election Day 2012.

This column was originally published at The Hill.

 
 
 
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11:15 PM on 07/13/2011
Ron Paul is already in Washington!
04:23 PM on 07/12/2011
You have a great idea!!! It is time to stop the politicians!! They can not fix anything talking out of both sides of their mouths at the same time. They are a bunch of insider trading, back-room dealing lobbyist loving degenerates.

They will give their campaign donating buddies every tax break they can come up with and take every chance they can get to take away and cut to the bare minimum the paltry benefits senior citizens get doled out to them once a month!!! Take the massive oil company tax breaks, look at the signing and granting of waivers alleviating them from following the laws they make the rest of us follow. Look at how much stocks these politicians own in the companies they regulate. Why are not the bankers who looted our treasury going to jail? King Obama can do anything he wants, and the congress justs abdicates their authority. Our founding fathers must be spinning in their graves wondering why we put up with these perpetual politicians who can not do anything for the people they serve!!! Does anybody remember why this country was founded? How we fleed from England and the tyrannical rule and war warmongering of King Henry the 8th, how many Obamas are we going to have?
01:47 AM on 07/12/2011
we need to send a signal to dc but i cant do it along.stop giving politicians blank checks /we the people made washington dc.now we need to stop letting the legislators or anybody else in dc give themselves a pay raise lets put astop to this nonsense we need to draw up a petition to stop this when taxpayers are suffuring at their hands wake up america let our voices be heard now or never if we have to march on washinton dc so b it.wake up american people let them know we been snowballed long enough.lets send a messagr to d.c and shake it up. i bet they will make reforms then/we cannot b quiet anymore.
06:54 PM on 07/11/2011
This call is overdue. Why hasn't this been started yet? I see there is another Vietnam Vet on here that knows what reality is like. What has happened to us? I enlisted in the Army in 1968 at the heigth of the anti-war movement and was sent to 'Nam. I didn't enlist because I wanted to kill, I was trying to learn something I could use in the future, being a Helicopter pilot. I didn't make it but I did get a chance to see what was really happening over there and came back with an anti-war attitude of my own.

What has happened to us? We, Americans, stopped a needless war. We told a President of the United States he was not above us. We built a good life in a country that included women, blacks, asians, gays, everyone. We didn't have a "leader" as such but we changed a country. Why aren't we doing it now? Has life become too "good" to risk some displeasure, like a long drive? The progressives need to cause another rift in the universe, go to Washington, VOTE, be Americans!
05:46 PM on 07/11/2011
We have been off-shorin¬g jobs for 30 years and most likely, will never recover those jobs. It would take every man woman and child in the U.S. boycotting and not buying goods from any company manufactur¬ing goods outside of the U.S. Yes, I know that this is not the cure all answer and I know that this is a complex issue.

But let me suggest that the Department of Defense only extend contracts to American companies that build in America, given that the ball-less congress is looking the other way while war profiteeri¬ng explodes under an Out Of Control DoD. Some of you have seen this example as I have ranted about this Texas company before.

Not to worry, I have found new jobs. A new contract from the Department of Defense was awarded to a Texas company...¬¬...almost quarter of Billion$$$¬$., to build new trucks. Check it out. Oshi T, just one problem. The Tx company is building the trucks in Afffffffff¬¬ffrrrrrrr¬r¬rrrrrrri¬ii¬iiiiiii¬icaa.

Critical Solutions Internatio¬nal, Inc., Carrollton¬¬, Texas, was awarded on March 16 a $214,284,9¬32 firm-fixe¬¬-price contract. The award will provide for the procurem¬t of 118 vehicle mounted mine-dete¬¬tion MKK II Type II systems. Work will be performed in Gauteng, South Africa, with an estimated completion date of Oct. 16, 2012.

American company gets quarter billion contract and to build the trucks in Africa.


No one is even watching the war profiteeri¬ng scandal.
Grab the pitchfork on Labor Day weekend.
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04:08 PM on 07/11/2011
Good.

This is what is missing. Movement politics. The corporate sponsored tea party got all kinds of attention from the corporate media.

Only a large demonstration of strength will get the attention of the media as a counterforce.