LIFEBOAT Option

F o r t H o p e

by William Floyd, PDWAmerica

In the middle of the 1930s Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt took the United States off the Gold Standard. 10 million workers were unemployed for 4 or more years. Neither mom and pop businesses nor conglomerates had customers.

FDR started the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the National Recovery Administration (NRA), and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The Federal government directly hired 11 million unemployed (and starving) Citizens.

To pay for this crisis emergency, Roosevelt doubled the currency of the United States.

After WWII, these US dollars were retired and the Gold Standard was re-adopted.

However, decades later, after killing over 1 million Vietnamese, 58,000 Americans dead, and years sinking trillions of dollars into the Vietnam quicksand, President Richard Nixon took the United States off the Gold Standard once and for all in 1973.

Today, our Gold sits in FORT KNOX performing no government function. Our Gross Domestic Product, central role in global trade less our Debt are the basis for the Dollar's fluctuation.

The British sold half of their “Strategic Gold Reserves” in 1999. At it's current stratospheric level, our Fort Knox Gold is worth about $6.5 trillion dollars. $6,500,000,000,000.

President Obama as Executive in Chief can sell a portion of this Fort Knox Gold. Our President could directly hire 20 million long term unemployed Americans for about $450 Billion per year. He can continue this growingly popular “Obama's Hire America First Program” for 2 to 3 years, if necessary, without raising Taxes. Excuse our repetition: “Without-raising-taxes,” or tea party cloned faxes.

It might be prudent to pay down the Cheney War deficits, and chronic damage from Bush's wealthy tax breaks with a 2^nd small portion of our Fort Knox Gold.

This Fort Hope program is presented as the “Lifeboat Option” by Union leaders, shop stewards, and Democratic Party leaders of

Progressive Democratic Workers for America, 9/5/11.

http://PDWAmerica.blogspot.com

JUSTICE Option

Justice Option

by William Floyd, PDWA

Temporary Income Maximum Excise - T.I.M.E.

Whereas many wealthy Americans, and huge global Corporations pay Zero Income tax, however they have used and profited from our Mail service, our roads, rivers, canals, bridges, dams, electricity, national transmission grid, internet, monopoly control of TV news, newspaper editorials, and ads, public schools, colleges, Police, Fire, first responders, public libraries, truck drivers, commercial aircraft, local, state and federal court system, delivery personnel, railroads, national telephone and wifi networks, and beleaguered armed forces fighting multiple trillion dollar Wars, while millions of average Americans are forced to pay 35% Federal Income tax (plus Social Security Payroll tax, state income, sales, and property taxes).

Whereas the majority of Republicans in the 212^th Congress signed allegiance to the Club for Growth's rejection of all Revenue sources for Federal government expenses. This is a violation of their Oath of Office to Defend the Constitution (raise necessary funds for the U.S. Government).

Be it resolved, that for a temporary period of two (2) years, all personal income and capital gains in excess of $2,000,000. (2 million dollars) annually, shall enjoy an Income/Capital gains Tax rate of 100%.

Furthermore, all pay, salaries, or bonuses, stock option payouts, foreign delivery schemes, as well as any other future compensation, stock, pay or bonus, intended or unintended to circumvent this timely Law, shall be punishable as a 20 year felony under the United States Code.

This T.I.M.E. legislation is submitted to the Progressive Caucus 9-5-11 as the

'Justice Option'

by Union executives, shop stewards and Democratic Party leaders of the

Progressive Democratic Workers for America

Save the Post Office

Fixing the United States Postal Service

by William Floyd, NALC Shop Steward, ret.

The first Postal roads connected Boston to New York and then to on to Philadelphia, in the late 1600s. President George Washington established the first Postmaster General to oversee all the village Post Offices and Post Roads in 1789. Today, we can choose from Fed Ex or United Parcel, or dozens of other delivery options. However, for over 100 million Americans, the NALC Mail Carrier brings important personal family messages and cards. At the same time, the Union carrier often represents the only friendly contact people have with their Government. The secure careers in the Postal Service have been favored by War Veterans. Especially Veterans of color. The Post Office was a safe haven from discriminatory practices, and whites-only rules and Laws in too many small towns and private businesses.

Congress and US Postal Service claim USPS is in the red for $4+ Billion.

Liquidate ONE Hundred Billion Dollars of Fort Knox Gold ¹

• Absolutely NO Layoffs of NALC, APWU, nor any other Union workers

• Raise Retirement/Health benefits 22% from last NALC/APWU contracts

• Co-Sponsor House bill HR 1351 – Stephen Lynch, 193 Co-Sponsors

• Hire Two million Youth under 25: New Postal Assistants (NPAs)

• Longest unemployed Youth hired first, inner cities, barrios, suburbs

• NPAs deliver Christmas packages, Special Delivery, Registered mail

• NPAs Ride Bicycles (where, and when practical)

• NPAs learn to fix, and later maintain their own, and Team Bikes

• One third of NPA income can be diverted to Parents-in-poverty,

separated spouses with children, or disabled family members.

• Saturday and Half-Sunday delivery, clerical duties by the new NPAs

*******************************************************

• Initiate new Postal Service SAVINGS ACCOUNTS for the general public, and possible 'victims-of-banking-by-phony-mortgage-papers'.

• Fund Postal Service MICRO-LOANS to Micro businesses, Women's and small businesses for the poor, Senior Art or Activity centers, and Centers for our maimed heroes from the Wars, and their children.

PAY – GO

PDWAmerica is committed to paying for each and every program. No risky private stock accounts for Social Security or Medicare crucial to blind, deaf, IED flamed Vets, and Iraq/Afghanistan para / quadriplegics.

Liquidate ONE Hundred Billion Dollars of Fort Knox Gold

1 - Please see “Lifeboat Option” by W. Floyd PDWA

Submitted by AFL-CIO unions, NALC shop stewards, and Veterans of Progressive Democratic Workers for America

FORD Unemployed Hunger March of 1932

The FORD unemployed workers proceeded across the Baby Creek Bridge, and gathered at the corner of Fort Street and Miller Road. A dense throng around a waiting truck.

[The marchers numbered about 3000. They were led by progressive Union leaders Albert Goetz, Tony Gerlach, and William Reynolds from the Union and the Detroit Unemployed Council. -pdwa]

They were still in Detroit. Albert Goetz swung up on the truck and began to speak. He restated the purpose of their march: to have a committee present their demands to the FORD Motor Company. He called on the workers to form an orderly and disciplined march.

“We don't want any violence,” he said sharply. “Remember, all we are going to do is to walk to the FORD Employment Office. No trouble. No fighting. Stay in line. Be orderly.”

Goetz paused a moment. The crowd was silent. “I understand,” he continued, “the Dearborn Police is planning to stop us. Well, we will try to get through somehow. But remember, no trouble.”

A tremendous cheer greeted his remarks and the march began.

Eight abreast, singing and cheering, the marchers proceeded toward the Dearborn City limits.

50 Dearborn and FORD Police, in uniform, were lined up across the road. An Officer yelled, “Who are your leaders?”

“We are all leaders,” the marchers shouted back.

“Stop, or we’ll shoot,” threatened the cops, and immediately they fired large amounts of tear gas into the ranks of the marchers.

The marchers hesitated. Blinded and choked by the tear gas, they retreated. Some ran up a railroad trestle on one side of the road. The officers now came forward with their night sticks and attacked others as they were standing, some alone, and some in small groups.

The workers fought back. A group rescued one marcher from an officer on the trestle. One of the officers shot at the workers as they ran from the trestle…

The workers filled the air with a hail of stones. The police were pushed back, and when their tear gas ran out, the police turned and ran.

For almost a half-mile the marchers continued down the highway toward the plant. The police retreated before them.

Then they reached the first street intersection, where they were confronted with two fire engines equipped with ladders and hoses. The Firemen were frantically trying to make the hose connections. Before they succeeded, the workers reached them, and they joined the police in retreat.

This retreat was continued for another half-mile until the employment gate – Gate 3 of the plant, was reached.

At this point the Fire Department units made their water connections. About 30 feet above the road and extending across it was a bridge used for the passage of workmen into the factory without interference by traffic.

Stationed on the road below the bridge were a large number of police officers. From the top of the bridge the Firemen poured streams of icy water on the workers below. From the bridge and from the road below came a steady rain of tear gas bombs.

According to the marchers, it was at this bridge that the Dearborn Police were joined by a large number of FORD Motor Company private police, by a strong force of officers from the Detroit Police Department, and by the State police.

A regular siege developed. The workers, now grimy with sweat and dust, their eyes red from gas fumes, kept up a regular barrage of stones they had carried from the field.

The police drew their pistols. Suddenly they began shooting into the crowd. It was here that 19-year old Joe York was shot and killed, then Coleman Lenny, and Joe DeBlasio.

The police were shooting left and right. Besides the 3 fatalities, they were 22 workers known wounded by gunshot. Perhaps 50 more were hit, escaping to their homes or places of hiding for medical attention.

In the face of the downpour of icy water and the rain of bullets. almost all the marchers withdrew. It was then that the leaders of the Union and Unemployed Council decided to call off the demonstration.

A Union speaker mounted the back of a car and yelled that “the tear gas, clubbing and shooting were FORD’s bloody answer to the demands of the unemployed workers.”

Written by Maurice Singer - Heroic U.A.W. leader

American Civil Liberties Union’s Report
on the FORD Hunger March

“Such of the FORD and Dearborn police as were injured appear, without exception, to have been injured by stones. There are among the police no injuries whatsoever by any bullet or firearm.”

“The acts of violence of the paraders consisted of the use of sticks and stones, apparently in defense of what they regarded as their right to parade, and demonstrate and in self-defense.”

“The injuries of the paraders were inflicted by FORD Company and City police. They consist of gunshot wounds almost without exception in the sides and backs of the paraders. We cannot too strongly emphasize the difference between the injuries sustained by the paraders and those admitted by the police...”

“As a matter of public policy, the Highways of the State, - and Miller Road, where this shooting occurred, was a State Highway - should be open to parades and demonstrations of this kind….the police provoked such violence…by refusing to accord them their right to parade on a State Highway…It appears the workers were peaceful until they were attacked...” -- Roger Baldwin and Walter Nelson, ACLU 1932

Profiteers of Multiple Wars

FedEx and Pepsi Are Top Defense Contractors? 5 Corporate Brands Making a Killing on America’s Wars

Chances are, if you’ve ever sent a package overnight, bought a PC or a can of soda, you’ve paid your hard-earned money to a major Pentagon contractor. While large defense corporations that make fighter jets and armored vehicles garner the most attention, tens of thousands of “civilian” companies, from multi-national corporations hawking toothpaste and shampoo to big oil behemoths and even local restaurants scattered across the United States, all supply the Pentagon with the necessities used to carry on day-to-day operations and wage America’s wars. And they’ve made a killing doing it since 9/11.

In 2001, the massive arms dealers Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman ranked one, two and five among Department of Defense contractors, raking in $14.7 billion, $13.3 billion and $5.2 billion, respectively, in contracts. Last year, Lockheed’s contract dollars were almost double their pre-9/11 level, clocking in at $28 billion, while Boeing’s had jumped to almost $19 billion and Northrop Grumman, still in the five spot, had more than doubled its 2001 take, with $12.8 billion in contracts.

America’s recent wars have obviously been good to these companies. On September 10, 2001, Lockheed’s share price was $38.32. Today, it tops $70 per share. In 2001, the company’s net sales reached $24 billion. Last year, they were almost $46 billion. Likewise, Northrop Grumman’s net income has more than quadrupled in the last decade, according to the investment analysis website, Seeking Alpha. Still, these corporations are just a fraction of the story when it comes to the massive sums of money made by the military contractors since September 11, 2001.

Chris Hellman of the National Priorities Project, writing recently at TomDispatch.com, noted that since the 9/11 attacks, the United States has spent about $8 trillion on national security. Even accounting for all the funds paid out for troop salaries, overseas base construction and the training and equipping indigenous allies in Iraq and Afghanistan, among many other costs, it’s clear that vast sums of Pentagon money are flowing somewhere other than to the top weapons-makers. Unknown to most U.S. taxpayers and even many Pentagon-watchers, some of the largest and most recognizable corporations in the world have also been getting rich on America’s wars. Below are five examples of “civilian” companies that have reaped major rewards from the Pentagon during its last decade at war:

1. BP (British Petroleum): The UK foreign oil giant, perhaps most famous for dumping 206 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico last year, is also a perennial power when it comes to Pentagon contracts. Back in 2001, BP nabbed a cool $357 million in contracts from the Department of Defense. Last year, the number hit $1 billion and it’s no secret why. As defense-tech writer Noah Shachtman noted at Foreign Policy last year, the U.S. military burns “22 gallons of diesel [fuel] per soldier per day in Afghanistan, at a cost of more than $100,000 a person annually.” (Why is our Pentagon buying foreign oil?-PDWA ed)

2. FedEx: The overnight shipping giant is a long-time defense-contracting powerhouse that has also seen an exponential increase in contract dollars since September 10, 2001, when its stock was trading at just under $40 per share. By the end of that year, FedEx had been awarded about $211 million in contracts from the Pentagon. In 2010, the company received $1.4 billion from the Department of Defense and this year, with its stock closing in on $80 per share, has already passed the $1 billion mark, again. This includes a $182 million deal, inked in August, to pack and ship fresh fruit and vegetables to U.S. military bases overseas and a joint agreement, which also includes United Parcel Service (UPS) and Polar Air Cargo, which could last up to five years and potentially net the companies a combined $853 million. (No wonder the Post Office is bankrupt and canceling Saturday delivery-ed PDWA)

3. Dell: If you’re in the military and you want to pilot a drone, transfer supplies or write a memo, you need a computer. That’s just what Dell provides. The desktop- and laptop-maker has been plying the Pentagon with computers for many years and, just like Lockheed, Boeing and Northrop Grumman, has done especially well by the Department of Defense since 2001. That year, Dell was awarded $65 million in Pentagon contracts. By 2009, that number had jumped to $731 million and, over the course of the decade, has added up to a total of $4.3 billion in contracts for the PC manufacturer.

4. Kraft – From A-1 steak sauce, their signature mayonnaise and Oreo cookies to Oscar Meyer hot dogs, Planters peanuts and Wheat Thins crackers, this company ranks as one of the largest and best known food concerns in the world. Not surprisingly, it also does a brisk business with the Pentagon which has grown ever larger during the last decade. Back in 2001, Kraft inked $148 million in deals with the Department of Defense, by 2010, its yearly take had risen to $373 million.

5. Pepsi – Once upon a time it was the “choice of a new generation.” These days, it’s the choice of the Pentagon. In 2010, PepsiCo washed down $217 million in Defense Department contract dollars, compared to the mere $61 million in deals it inked back in 2001. Earlier this year, the company continued the trend by signing a multi-million dollar deal to provide the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps with “bag-in-box beverages.” (That very same day, Coca-Cola also received a slightly larger contract to provide drinks for the military.)

Other big-name firms that are regularly awarded large, lucrative deals from the Defense Department include tire titans Goodrich and Goodyear, oil giants Shell and Exxon Mobil, big food suppliers like Nestle, General Mills, Tyson, ConAgra and Campbell's Soup, and tech and telecom stalwarts including AT&T, Oracle, Sony and Verizon.

A decade of waging wars abroad, from Iraq and Afghanistan to Pakistan and Libya to Yemen and Somalia hasn’t been kind to average Americans.

As the United States poured nearly $8 trillion into national war and security spending, and the national debt ballooned from $6 trillion to $14.3 trillion, the official unemployment rate has more than doubled -- from 4.5% to 9.1%.

The number of children living in poverty in the U.S. has jumped nearly 20% since according to the National Center for Children in Poverty. And for older Americans, the risk of hunger has spiked almost 80% since 2001, according to recent report by AARP. From car companies to candy makers and even the biggest brands in organic food, so many of the world’s favorite companies have, over these years, cashed in on America’s wars.

In his famous 1961 farewell address, President Dwight Eisenhower warned of the "acquisition of unwarranted influence" by what he called the "military-industrial complex.” Today, however, the "large arms industry" that Eisenhower warned about is only part of the equation. Civilian firms such as FedEx and PepsiCo form the backbone of what more accurately can be described as a military-corporate complex of “civilian” businesses that enable the Pentagon to function, to make War and to carry out foreign occupations.

CORPORATIONS in the “Gilded Age”

“The Corporation is a convenient cloak for the rascality of the individual. It is also his protection. His share in the Profits has no limits...”

“These Corporations are the Federal Barons of this Century. Their Directors live in lordly Palaces and Castles. Their Yachts are on the sea, their Parlour Cars on the rails. They spread feasts that would feed a starving factory town. They throw away on the decorations on a Ball Room enough to clothe the children of a City.

(Corporations)...They keep bans of Militia to do their fighting. In Pennsylvania, it is called the “Coal and Iron Police”. In New York and Illinois it is called the “Pinkerton Detective Agency”. At the word of command, the hireling assassins will shoot down men, women and children. Time and again they have made the streets run red with the blood of innocent people. The Murderers are never punished. They are spirited away on the trains.”

“Not only do the Corporations keep armed Retainers: they keep oily and and servile Courtiers to do their bidding in other walks of life. Their paid Lobby bribes the Voter. Their paid Editor feeds the Public with lies. Their corrupt Lawyers and Judges peddle out Justice to the highest bidder. Their Attorneys go on the bench, or into Senates to vote the will of their Masters.”

“To restore the Liberties of the People, the rule of the People, the equal rights of the People is our Purpose; the Revolution of the old system must be complete...”

Written in 1892 by Tom E. Watson (a Populist Party leader)

Populist Platform in the Gilded Age

Progressive Populists at the Turn of the Century

The “Omaha Platform,” “People's Party,” later “Populist Party,” Omaha, Nebraska

“The conditions which surround us best justify our CO-OPERATION: we meet in the midst of a Nation brought to the verge of moral, political and material Ruin.”

“Corruption dominates the Ballot-box, the (State) Legislatures, the (US) Congress, and touches even the ermine of the Bench. The People are demoralized, most of the States have been compelled to isolate the Voters at the polling-places to prevent universal intimidation or bribery. The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled; public opinion silenced; business prostrated; our homes covered with Mortgages; Labor impoverished; the Land concentrating in the hands of the Capitalists.”

“The urban Workmen are denied the right of Organization for self protection; imported pauperized Labor beats down their Wages; a hireling standing Army, unrecognized by our Laws, is established to shoot them down. They are rapidly degenerating into European conditions. The fruits of the toil of Millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a Few, unprecedented in the History of Mankind; and the possessors of these, in turn, despise the Republic and endanger Liberty. From the same prolific womb of Governmental injustice we breed tbhe two great Classes - Tramps and Millionaires...”

“We declare therefore ----”

“First. That the Union of Labor forces of the United States this day consum-mated shall be permanent and perpetual; may its Spirit enter all hearts for the salvation of the Republic and the unplifting of Mankind.”

“Second. Wealth belongs to him who Creates it, and every dollar taken from Industry without equivalent is Robbery. 'If any will not work, neither shall he eat.'

The interests of rural and civic Labor are the same; their Enemies are identical.”

“Third. We believe that the time has come when the Railroad corporations will either own the People, or the People will own the Railroads; and, should the Government enter upon the work of owning and managing all Railroads, we should favor an Amendment to the Constitution by which all persons engaged in the government service shall be placed under a Civil Service regulation of the most rigid character, so as to prevent the increase of the power of the National administ-ration by the use of such additional government Employees.”

“First, Money. We demand a national Currency, safe, sound and flexible, issued by the general Government only, a full legal tender for all debts public and private, and that, without the use of Banking corporations, a just, equitable, and efficient means of distribution direct to the People, at a tax not to exceed two percent per annum, to be provided as set forth in the sub-treasury plan of the Farmers' Alliance, or a better system; also, by payments in discharge of its obligations for Public improvements.”

a) “We demand free and unlimited coinage of Silver and Gold at the present legal ratio of sixteen to one.

b) We demand that the amount of the circulating medium be speedily increased to not less than 50 dollars per capita.

c) We demand a graduated Income Tax.

d) We believe that the money of the Country should be kept as much as possible in the hands of the People, and hence we demand that all State and National revenues be limited to the necessary expenses of the government economically and honestly administered. e) We demand that Postal Savings Banks be established by the government for the Safe deposit of the earnings of the People and to facilitate exchange.”

“Second, Transportation. Transportation being a means of exchange and public Necessity, the Government should own and operate the Railroads in the interest of the People.

a) The Telegraph and Telephone, like the Post-Office system, being a Necessity for the transportation of News, should be owned and operated by the Government in the interest of the People.”

“Third, Land. The Land, including all the natural sources of Wealth, is the Heritage of the People, and should not be Mono- polized for Speculative purposes, and alien ownership of Land should be prohibited.”

“All Land that is now held by Railroads or other Corporat- ions in excess of their actual needs, and all Lands now owned by aliens, should be reclaimed by the Government and held for actual Settlers only.”

The Omaha Platform - 1892

Los Angeles Labor Day Parade - September 5, 2011