CNY PROGRESSIVE ACTION NEWSLETTER
MARCH 12, 2015
Vol. 2, No. 6
NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTRAL NEW YORK CITIZENS IN ACTION, INC. (ESTABLISHED IN 1997)
You can view newsletter on:
https://cnycitizenaction.wordpress.com
HEADLINES
TELL YOUR FEDERAL REPRESENTATIVE TO OPPOSE FAST-TRACK
UTICA COLLEGE TO HOST COMMUNITY
FORUM ON UKRAINE
A BUDGET WITH MORE WASTE OR MORE INVESTMENTS? TELL CONGRESS THE CHOICE IS CLEAR.
FISCAL POLICY INSTITUTE, LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS HOLD COMMUNITY FORUM ON NYS BUDGET
“CINCINNATI CREEK” TO PERFORM AT SHERRILL
COMMUNITY COFFEE HOUSE ON MARCH 14
TELL YOUR FEDERAL REPRESENTATIVE TO OPPOSE FAST-TRACK
Please contact your Congressperson and ask him/her to vote “No” on Fast Track for the Trans Pacific Partnership and all over trade agreements. Please find the phone numbers below. Let them know that you are a constituent, give your name and what town you are calling from. It’s unlikely that you will be able to speak with the Congressperson. So let his staffs know that you would like to leave the following message: “I’m a constituent that would like Representative to vote “no” on any legislation that would give President Obama “Fast Track” authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Fast Tracking the TPP is undemocratic and Congress needs to debate and amend trade agreements that affect all of us.”
FEDERAL REPRESENTATIVES
Rep. Richard L. Hanna
The Honorable Richard L. Hanna
22nd District
United States House of Representatives
319 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-3222
DC Phone:
202-225-3665
DC Fax:
202-225-1891
Contact Representative Hanna:
https://hanna.house.gov/email-me
Representative Elise Stefanik
21ST Congressional District
512 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
DC Phone: (202) 225-4611
DC Fax: (202) 226-0621
Email: https://stefanik.house.gov/contact/email
Representative John M. Katko
24th Congressional District
1123 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
DC Phone: (202) 225-3701
DC Fax: (202) 225-4042
Email: https://katko.house.gov/contact/email
· Fast track legislation is designed to pave the road for new trade deals like the TPP by forcing Congress to relinquish their constitutional authority to review and amend a trade deal. That’s dangerous because it removes any possibility of improving sections of a deal that hurt working people.
· No trade deal has ever been defeated under fast track procedures no matter how bad it is for wages, jobs, small business and the environment.
· Fast Track forces Congress to make a take-it-or-leave-it decision on a 29 chapter, 1,000 page agreement that was negotiated in secret. It’s more important to do trade deals right than fast.
· Nearly two-thirds of American voters oppose granting the President fast track authority. That’s because they believe it gives too much power to one person.
· Congressional leaders were afraid to bring Fast Track up for a vote last year because they were afraid of the political consequences. Politicians should know better than to try now. Voters have long memories.
· Working families can have leverage over the outcomes of trade deals—but only until fast track is passed. That’s why stopping fast track is among our highest priorities. We can’t afford any more failed policies from the past.
To ensure trade agreements are a fair deal for workers, they must put shared prosperity and sustainable social and economic development first.
For too long, our leaders have let multi-national corporations dictate our trade rules at the expense of the middle class. The results have been tragic: a growing trade deficit, stagnating wages and the disappearance of too many good jobs.
· We know the harm that trade deals like NAFTA and the more recent Korea FTA have caused. We cannot afford another agreement that prioritizes corporate profits over worker paychecks.
· Instead of these job-killing policies, American working families need a trade policy that strengthens labor and human rights, protects us from unsafe imports, and promotes the export of goods instead of jobs. We don’t need more outsourcing to countries that abuse workers and the environment.
· We want future trade deals to create a new gold standard for international trade, but that can only happen if the agreement prioritizing raising wages and shared prosperity. It won’t happen when the President is negotiating thousand-page trade deals behind closed doors and then presented to the public on a take-it-or-leave basis.
· New trade deals are opportunities to get trade and globalization policy right, but only if they are negotiated in an open manner that puts people before profits. We can’t make the same mistakes that we have made in the past—we can’t give corporations more power over our economy and trust that this time they won’t offshore jobs and cut wages and benefits.
· Buy American must be more than a slogan—it must be at the center of every decision the President makes.
We are ready to stand with President Obama in realizing the vision of a fair global economy. But first he has to decide if his vision of trade puts working families and shared prosperity first.
Some stats:
· The U.S. economy is shedding manufacturing jobs like there is no tomorrow, having lost about 6 million manufacturing jobs and more than 60,000 factories just since 2001.
· About 3.2 million of those lost jobs are due to trade with China, 60,000 have been lost to Korea since the Korea FTA, and another nearly 700,000 have been displaced due to Mexico due to NAFTA .
· The United States has a $476 billion annual trade deficit—and a whopping 60% of our trade deficit is with China. The trade deficit represents lost jobs for America’s workers.
UTICA COLLEGE TO HOST COMMUNITY
FORUM ON UKRAINE
Utica College’s Pi Sigma Alpha will sponsor a forum on “Historical Roots of the Current Ukraine Crisis.” The event will take place on Thursday, March 12 at 7 p.m. at Utica College in the Willard Conference Room, DePerno Hall. It is a part of Pi Sigma Alpha “Conversation Series” which allows students, faculty and the community to discuss and exchange ideas about important public policy issues. It is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be served. The keynote speaker will be Barry Lituchy who will talk about the historical background of the current conflict in Ukraine focusing on forces of nationalism and fascism and its implications for today.
Mr. Lituchy currently teaches European, US and World history at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, NY and has taught in the City University of New York for 25 years. He is the editor and co-author of the book, “ Jasenovac and the Holocaust in Yugoslavia: Analyses and Survivor Testimonies.” He has also written on the politics and history of the Balkans.
He testified at The Hague Tribunal (ICTY) in regard to human rights abuses in Kosovo in 2005. He served as the Assistant Coordinator of the First International Conference and Exhibition on the Jasenovac Concentration Camps held at Kingsborough in 1997. Mr. Lituchy is the founder of the Jasenovac Research Institute and currently serves as its Executive Director. He also serves as a Vice President of the Holocaust Memorial Committee in Brooklyn, NY. Most recently, he presented papers on the conflict in the Ukraine at the Left Forum in 2014 and appeared on US and Russian media to discuss the history of Ukrainian fascism. His grandfather and relatives were victims of a notorious Ukrainian pogrom in 1919.
A BUDGET WITH MORE WASTE OR MORE INVESTMENTS? TELL CONGRESS THE CHOICE IS CLEAR.
Tell Congress we need a budget that works for everyone on social media with our Thunderclap. One click today releases the message on March 16.
In less than 2 weeks, Congress will sit down to debate the FY2016 budget. This is a critical time and we need you to take action to make sure America gets a budget that supports everyone, especially our nation’s most vulnerable. Congress should help all of us, not just the powerful few, by closing tax loopholes that now shift trillions to the wealthy and corporations and by stopping Pentagon waste.
We need to keep telling lawmakers America needs a budget with less waste and more investments.
It’s time to #StopTheCuts.
In addition to our SAVE for ALL group letter, we have a petition for individuals to sign and a Thunderclap to spread the #StopTheCuts message on social media. It takes just one click to participate today and the Thunderclap will release everyone’s tweets and Facebook posts on March 16 – just like a social media flash mob.
Click here to participate in the Thunderclap and share.
Link to the Petition: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/tell-congress-to-invest-1?source=c.em&r_by=12586986
Link to the Thunderclap: https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/22917-stop-the-budget-cuts?locale=en
We need to remind Congress that strong, well-funded federal programs create jobs, grow the economy, reduce inequality, and keep millions out of poverty.
In 2013 alone, 3.7 million people were kept out of poverty by SNAP benefits. Similarly, unemployment insurance kept 1.2 million people out of poverty. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit lifted 10.1 million people, including 5.3 million children, out of poverty in 2012. And the list goes on…
If the new Congress drafts a budget anything like the one the House passed last year, many of these programs will be slashed, along with education, housing, nutrition, and other services young and old alike need to escape poverty.
These will be on top of years of cuts that are keeping us down.
Tell Congress real people are being harmed. Sign our petition and participate in the Thunderclap to raise your voice for human needs. Below are sample tweets – but we encourage you to tweet at your Senators and Reps with personal stories about why #CutsHurt, too.
Please share with your networks. Big thank you to those that have already participated and shared!
***
Sample Facebook Post:
Tell Congress to #StopTheCuts and create a budget that works for all Americans!
In a few weeks Congress will meet to decide funding for 2016. It’s time for less waste and more of what works.
Click here: https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/22917-stop-the-budget-cuts?locale=en
Sample Tweets:
Americans are calling for a federal budget that works for ALL, not just the wealthy few. Will you add your name? ow.ly/JJpGB
45.3 mil Americans live in #poverty. Tell Congress #CutsHurt America and our economy → http://ow.ly/JT5No #StopTheCuts
In 2013, 3.7 million were lifted out of poverty by #SNAP. Tell Congress #CutsHurt this progress.http://ow.ly/JT5No #StopTheCuts
Only 1 in 4 households eligible for rental assistance receive it due to lack of funding. Tell Congress #StopTheCuts → http://ow.ly/JT5No
FACT: Kids of #EITC recipients do better in school, attend college & earn more as adults. #CutsHurt this progress→ http://ow.ly/JT5No
A budget with more waste or more investments? The choice is clear. Tell Congress to #StopTheCuts: http://ow.ly/JT5No
Make sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter at @CoalitiononHN for the latest on how you can take action.
FISCAL POLICY INSTITUTE, LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS HOLD COMMUNITY FORUM ON NYS BUDGET
On Wednesday, March 4th, Central New York Citizens in Action, Inc. and the Central New York Labor Council hosted a community forum on the New York State budget at the Cornerstone Community Church in Utica. Speaker Ronald Deutsch of the Fiscal Policy Institute critiqued Gov. Cuomo’s budget and provided recommendations on how to make the budget work for middle income folks and working families.
Deutsch’s message to attendees was that the Governor’s budget overwhelming favors wealthy interests and will only make New York’s already historic income inequality even worse. According to Deutsch, the top 1% of income earners took home 11.9% of the wealth in 1980. Today, the top 1% earns over 32% of all income in New York State. Deutsch argued that forced government austerity, a regressive tax structure, and misguided economic growth initiatives will only hurt New York’s shrinking middle class.
As one example of Governor Cuomo’s misguided policies, Deutsch singled out “Startup New York.” Deutsch pointed out that the program allows businesses coming to New York to operate tax free for 10 years. This puts businesses already in New York at a severe disadvantage, as the costs of doing business for incoming companies will be lower, allowing them to undercut and out-compete long-time New York businesses. The New York based companies are making up the difference in taxes not being paid by incoming companies, which Deutsch argues is essentially an indirect and unfair subsidy from one company to another.
Deutsch and the Fiscal Policy Institute offered many ways in which to improve the NYS budget, and as a result, New York’s struggling working class. These policies include increasing New York’s minimum wage, increased funding for education, infrastructure and anti-poverty initiatives, a more progressive taxation structure, and alterations to New York’s dubious corporate tax policies and regulations. Deutsch was fiercely critical of Cuomo’s education policy, stating that blame rests with systematic and generational poverty, not overpaid or ineffective teachers.
“Budgets are a moral document,” said John Furman, President of Central New York Citizens in Action, Inc. Furman argues that budgets must reflect the values of the people of New York. These values include quality education for all, sufficient funding for physical and mental healthcare, and a fair tax code which expects more of those with an increased ability to pay.
Approximately 20 people attended the community forum, which was held the night before a major rally in support of public education in downtown Utica. The forum was opened by an original song written and performed by Albert Izzo called “Austerity.” Izzo received rousing applause from the audience when singing about government cuts to social services, a topic that many in attendance were clearly intimately familiar with. He sung, “Austerity, no not for me. You’ll never get out of the hole with austerity.”
For more information or for those who are interested in getting involved, Central New York Citizens in Action urges people in community to contact the organization by phone at (315) 725-0974 or via email at cnycitizenaction@gmail.com.
“CINCINNATI CREEK” TO PERFORM AT SHERRILL
COMMUNITY COFFEE HOUSE ON MARCH 14
BLUE GRASS BAND KNOWN THROUGHOUT NEW YORK STATE
Cincinnati Creek, a blue grass band known throughout New York State, will be performing at Christ Church United Methodist Community Coffee House in Sherrill on Saturday, March 14 at 7:00 p.m.
The church is located at 417 Park Street, Sherrill. Coffee and dessert will be served. The Christ Church Community Coffee House is open to the community. A free will offering will be accepted. Children as well as adults are welcome.
Now in their seventh season together, Cincinnati Creek offers the listener an acoustic variety of bluegrass, original compositions, and gospel. There are several new songs in the works, many of them Lori’s original compositions. No doubt, you will also hear some songs from their 2010 release, “Doing As We Please.” This CD and the 2005 release, “Little Bit of Love,” are often featured on WKTV’s local TV program “Mohawk Valley Living.” Cincinnati Creek performs songs about life, love, and local folklore. Live performances include traditional bluegrass instrumentals and songs with three and four part harmonies, sprinkled with some history and fun too.
Cincinnati Creek is online at https://www.facebook.com/cincinnaticreek. CD s are available at concerts and online at cdbaby.com.
For more information, please call 725-0974 or 363-1061. The church website is http://www.christchurchsherrillny.com.
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Your support today is an important investment in the progressive advocacy, education, research, organizing, and consumer protection work that we do to lift up the engine of our economy -hardworking Central New Yorkers and the families.
Please send your check to:
Central New York Citizens in Action, Inc., P.O. Box 411, Utica, NY 13503-0411. Because we are an advocacy group, donations are not tax deductible.
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CNY PROGRESSIVE ACTION is published by Central New York Citizens in Action, Inc., P.O. Box 411, Utica, NY 13503-0411 Our Office is located at 500 Plant Street in Utica, NY at Cornerstone Community Church./315-725-0974 cnycitizenaction@gmail.com https://cnycitizenaction.wordpress.com
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