Resolutions
Here are the resolutions of the conference. They will be published as they become available, so keep checking back!
- Proposal to initiate The Network to Fight for Economic Justice
- Resolution from Welfare Rights Committee
- Public Education Resolution
- Resolution on Health Care
- Proposal for a National Day of Protest for Education Rights: November 10th 2009
- Support SK Hand Tool Strike!
- Resolution on Immigrant Rights & the Economic Crisis
Proposal to initiate The Network to Fight for Economic Justice
Whereas:
We are now in the midst of the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930’s. The rich and powerful say that things are beginning to recover. There is no recovery for working people. Millions of homes are in foreclosure. Unemployment is growing. Massive cuts are taking place to the programs that benefit poor and working people, while the government tries to balance budgets on our backs. Inequality is growing, oppressed people–African-Americans, Chicanos, Latinos, and others, are the hardest hit by foreclosures, unemployment, and budget cuts. Immigrant workers are facing mass firings, raids and deportations.
Whereas:
The rich are taking the opportunity of the economic crisis to attack poor and working people and many of us are responding by fighting back. In cities around the country there are sharp struggles to stop evictions and to demand a moratorium on home foreclosures. At places like Chicago’s Republic Windows and Doors there have been intense battles in response to plant closures. From California to New York, people have taken to the streets to protest cuts to schools and programs that serve our communities.
Therefore Be It Resolved:
Just as we have come together at the We Say Fight Back! conference in Chicago, Illinois to further the resistance of working people to the economic crisis, we will put our collective muscle behind local fights for justice. Where there is a fight back, like those that have taken place at Republic Windows and SK Hand Tools to name just a few, we will use our local strengths to build regional and national campaigns to fight back.
Anyone who endorsed the conference would be welcome to join the steering committee for the network. Membership in the steering committee will not be limited to those who endorsed before the conference.
The steering committee will develop proposals and hold meetings on an as needed basis via conference call and through electronic means. Decisions will be made by a majority vote.
Organizationally the network would speak only for the network and not for it’s member organizations.
Initially we propose that the conveners of the We Say Fight Back! Conference be the conveners/coordinators of the steering committee and take responsibility for implementing the decisions of the conference.
The Steering Committee, or those it designates will take responsibility for organizing future national conferences of the Network.
Resolution from Welfare Rights Committee
Whereas,
We are facing the greatest economic crisis since the 1930s,
Employment rates are not expected to recover for many years,
More people are and will be in dire economic need,
The banks and financial institutions that helped cause the crisis got trillions in bailout money,
States are facing massive budget deficits, made worse by years of tax cuts to the rich,
Despite the greater human needs, state governments are legislating historic cuts to public services, benefits and public assistance to balance the state budgets,
Therefore Be it resolved that,
The We Say Fight Back Conference supports the protection and expansion of public services and public assistance.
Whereas, the September 24th UC Walkout was one of the largest coordinated protests in the 141 year history of the University of California.
Whereas, students, workers, and the community have come together in mass, to take action against the privatization of their public universities in California. People walked out on September 24th at nearly every campus, and nearly 5000 people who rallied at UC Berkeley and 1000 at UCLA, an occupation at UC Santa Cruz, and new actions happening every day, most recently students handcuffing themselves inside the library at California State University at Fullerton.
Whereas, the UC administration has increased tuition/fees over 30% this school year. There are layoffs, furlough days, and pay cuts hitting the lowest paid workers. And top administrators are still getting pay increases while keeping the public university’s budget secret.
Whereas, cuts to public higher education, all across the United States, disproportionately balance the budget on the backs of those least able to pay; and increasingly excludes low income people, disproportionately Latin@s and African Americans from higher education and living wage jobs at these institutions.
Therefore be it resolved:
- We stand with the students, workers, and community of the public universities in California
- We stand against any use of violence, discipline or retaliation against those protesting at these universities.
- We will not allow our public universities be privatized and destroyed anymore.
- We will take action in solidarity with the students, workers and community of the public universities in California by the following:
- Call UC President Yudoff (510-987-9074) and personally let him know how you feel.
- Write a personal letter of support and publicly post on blogs, websites, facebook, letters to the editor, and newsletters
- If violence or retaliation is used against those protesting, we will show our strong support for those attacked.
- Plan solidarity efforts with future protests at the public universities in California
- We will fight back against cut backs and the erosion of public education in our own communities as well.
WHEREAS, we believe health care is a human right and access to it should be denied to no one because of age, gender, nationality, race, immigration status, or ability to pay, and
WHEREAS, the United States, with the world’s most profit-driven health care system, spends twice as much on health care as other countries and its medical outcomes still rank 37th in the world, according to the World Health Organization, and
WHEREAS, the United States is the only country in the world which relies on competing private insurance firms to finance its health care system, and for most Americans carrying private insurance is virtually a prerequisite for access to care, and
WHEREAS, the administrative costs of maintaining a private insurance system consume 30% of our health care dollars, contributing nothing to actual medical care and making private insurance increasingly unaffordable, and
WHEREAS, an estimated 45,000 residents of this country die needlessly every year because they could not get access to treatment when they needed it, and
WHEREAS, 17,000 people in this country file for bankruptcy every week because of medical expenses, and
WHEREAS, private insurance is so unreliable that 75% of those declaring bankruptcy for medical reasons actually had insurance, and
WHEREAS, private health insurers have four lobbyists for every member of Congress and have spent millions on campaign contributions and disinformation campaigns in a thus far successful effort to block real health care reform, and
WHEREAS, the proposed health care legislation coming out of the Senate Finance Committee, drafted by Congressional staffer who formerly worked as an insurance industry executive, would require all Americans to purchase private insurance, whether or not they can afford it, and represents nothing more than a cynical bailout of the insurance industry in the guise of reform, and or face stiff fines, and
WHEREAS, proposed government subsidies for those who can’t afford to pay insurance premiums are actually a taxpayer bailout of the insurance industry and represent money which could be better spent actually providing people with medical treatment, and
WHEREAS, only a single payer system where the government pays for health care out of the federal budget holds out real promise of controlling health care costs and insuring access for all, and
WHEREAS, H.R. 676, the Expanded and Improved Medicare Act, would establish such a system, now therefore be it
RESOLVED that this conference go on record in support of HR 676, and be it further
RESOLVED that we will do all that all in our power in the coming weeks and months, up to and including civil disobedience, to expose and challenge the role of the insurance industry in corrupting the political process and preventing millions of US residents from receiving the health care which should be theirs as a matter of right.
Proposal for a National Day of Protest for Education Rights: November 10th 2009
As the U.S. continues to try and bail out the failing banks with billions of taxpayer dollars, universities across the country are in crisis. Many universities are responding to economic shortfalls by cutting vital university programs such as scholarships, women’s centers, and even jobs. These administrators are rising already skyrocketed tuition and fees, while forcing staff to take furloughs. Meanwhile, many administrator positions are increasing, and administrators are making more money than ever. All this, while the U.S. government wages two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, supports apartheid in Palestine, and continue to fund death squads in Colombia.
We as students and youth need to rise up and say: enough is enough! We will not stand by while the rich are bailed out on the backs of students and workers. The brave students in the University of California system have been fighting against these cuts with walk-outs and occupations that have united students, faculty and staff alike. We need to carry this momentum forward with a united, national student day of action where campuses across the country can rally against unjust cuts to needed programs, against cuts to staff, and against tuition hikes that would make college access even more challenging for poor, working class, immigrant and oppressed nationality students.
Therefore, we are asking that this workshop passes a proposal for a National Day of Student Action for Education Rights – to happen on November 10th – where campuses take action against cuts and tuition hikes and for education rights. Money for Jobs and Education, Not War and Occupation!
Whereas, it has been six weeks since the SK Hand Tool workers went on strike. In May their employer unlawfully withdrew their health insurance without notice. Millions of people in this country go into debt/poverty because health care isn’t covered and many of the SK strikers are beginning to face dire financial situations due to their existing health care bills. The strikers are foregoing medical treatments and check-ups for fear of the ensuing medical bills.
Whereas, the participants in the We Say Fight Back Conference believe healthcare is a human right; therefore
Be It Resolved, that the We Say Fight Back Conference calls upon all activists to support the SK Hand Tool strike and their demand to restore their health insurance.
Be It Further Resolved, that we call upon all activists to show this company they can’t get away with an attack like this.
Be It Further Resolved, that we will:
1. Call Claude Fuger, CEO of SK Hand Tools and demand that he restores health insurance for the workers: (773) 475-5218 and (800) 752-7263.
2. Call SEARS at (847) 286-2500 to protest its sale of SK products and to let SEARS know that SK workers need their health insurance! You can download the SEARS leaflet at www.743teamsters.org
3. Work to send money to the strike fund. The Pay Pal account can be found on the Teamster website or contributions can be sent to the address below. We will organize fundraising events or initiate union and community group resolutions to be sent in solidarity.
Teamsters Local 743
4620 S. Tripp Ave.
Chicago, IL 60632
(773) 254-7460
(773) 254-7111 (fax)
4. The SK strikers are on the line 24/7 and need lots of support! We will join their picket line at Chicago location: 3535 W. 47th Street; and the suburban location: 9500 W. 55th Street (McCook).
Resolution from the workshop on Immigrant Rights & the Economic Crisis
Chicago, IL
3 October 2009
Whereas, new so-called “employer sanctions” such as e-verify and the Department of Homeland Security I-9 Audits are increasingly being used in place of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) large-scale workplace raids and are causing mass firings among the immigrant community and are thus devastating workers, their families and our communities.
Whereas immigrants are an essential and integral part of the labor movement.
Whereas many families are suffering separation due to raids, deportations, and lay-offs.
Whereas, many would-be students are unable to continue their education due to lack of access to in-state tuition rates and financial aid.
Whereas, many workers in the U.S. were forced to leave their homelands as a direct result of U.S. foreign policy and intervention. (E.g. NAFTA and CAFTA)
Whereas, U.S. domestic & foreign policy has caused the forced displacement and separation of the Indigenous Peoples.
Whereas border militarization has forced undocumented workers to cross through harsh desert areas resulting in thousands of persons dying under the most brutal conditions.
Whereas, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a repressive apparatus against all immigrants that especially targets Latinos and Mexicans.
Whereas, 287-G converts local law enforcement into immigration agents, enabling further oppression of local immigrant communities.
Therefore be it resolved that:
1. We call for an immediate moratorium on the implementation of these new “employer sanctions” and their subsequent mass firings.
2. We demand full and equal rights for all workers, regardless of their immigration status.
3. We demand re-unification of families.
4. We demand immediate passage of the Dream Act, while rejecting the military requirement section, giving among other benefits–a path to citizenship for children of immigrant parents.
5. We call for an end to the military presence and build-up on the border and an end to all efforts to build a border wall.
6. We are opposed to imperialistic U.S. intervention in other countries, including but not limited to NAFTA & CAFTA, and demand a change in U.S. foreign policy.
7. We call for support of the upcoming actions on October 10th in Los Angeles, CA and Milwaukee, WI, also the October 13th protest in Washington D.C.
8. We demand legalization for all.