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Thursday, January 24, 2013

Grassroots Progress: A Progressive Coalition for California’s North Coast and Beyond

We believe in government of, by and for people –– not of, by and for corporations.

The power of Wall Street is undermining life for the rest of us on Main Street. This is totally unacceptable. We will continue to work for a truly democratic and sustainable future. We need to create millions of green jobs, end the tax cuts for the wealthy, close corporate tax loopholes, implement a transaction tax on stock markets and cut the overblown military budget that fuels endless wars.

Corporate power is fundamental to what ails our country. Unless civic engagement and government action are able to restrain their quest to maximize profits, the large corporations are accountable only to investors. The remedy is genuine democracy.

It’s not possible to map out a plausible path toward a green, sustainable future without directly challenging corporate power. Ominous climate change is a clear and terrible consequence of corporate dominance and government inaction. We cannot, we must not, accept the idea of “corporate personhood” that allows large companies to ravage the earth while further enriching the already rich.

The U.S. military -- the most polluting institution on the planet -- represents an apex of destructive technologies. If we don’t reorder our priorities, their cascading effects will be horrendous for future generations and, overall, for life on Earth.

As we work for social justice, for protection of nature, for human rights, for peace, we’re giving voice to our common human spirit.

After receiving more than 25,000 votes for Congress from people in California’s North Coast district in the primary election of 2012, I’m proud that our campaign is now evolving into a long-term grassroots coalition for progressive change. Looking ahead, we can organize to create and sustain multi-year, coordinated efforts to boost grassroots capacities -- and elect genuine progressives in the process.

To overcome a status quo of perpetual war, extreme Wall Street power, chronic inequities and environmental degradation, we will keep working for peace, social justice, a healthy planet -- and genuine democracy.

The imperative to create a better world continues.  Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Our challenge is to do all we can to hasten the process.

Norman Solomon
Founder
Coalition for Grassroots Progress 

GrassrootsProgress.org

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Thursday, May 9, 2013

Obama in Plunderland: Down the Corporate Rabbit Hole

By Norman Solomon
Common Dreams
May 9, 2013

The president’s new choices for Commerce secretary and FCC chair underscore how far down the rabbit hole his populist conceits have tumbled. Yet the Obama rhetoric about standing up for working people against “special interests” is as profuse as ever. Would you care for a spot of Kool-Aid at the Mad Hatter’s tea party?

Of course the Republican economic program is worse, and President Romney’s policies would have been even more corporate-driven. That doesn't in the slightest make acceptable what Obama is doing. His latest high-level appointments -- boosting corporate power and shafting the public -- are despicable.

To nominate Penny Pritzker for secretary of Commerce is to throw in the towel for any pretense of integrity that could pass a laugh test. Pritzker is “a longtime political supporter and heavyweight fundraiser,” the Chicago Tribune reported with notable understatement last week, adding: “She is on the board of Hyatt Hotels Corp., which was founded by her family and has had rocky relations with labor unions, and she could face questions about the failure of a bank partly owned by her family. With a personal fortune estimated at $1.85 billion, Pritzker is listed by Forbes magazine among the 300 wealthiest Americans.”

A more blunt assessment came from journalist Dennis Bernstein: “Her pioneering sub-prime operations, out of Superior Bank in Chicago, specifically targeted poor and working class people of color across the country. She ended up crashing Superior for a billion-dollar cost to taxpayers, and creating a personal tragedy for the 1,400 people who lost their savings when the bank failed.” Pritzker, whose family controls Hyatt Regency Hotels, has a vile anti-union record.

Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker? What’s next? Labor Secretary Donald Trump? SEC Chairman Bernie Madoff?

The choice of Penny Pritzker to run the Commerce Department is a matched set with the simultaneous pick of Tom Wheeler -- another mega-fundraiser for candidate Obama -- to chair the Federal Communications Commission.

With crucial decisions on the near horizon at the FCC, the president’s nomination of Wheeler has dire implications for the future of the Internet, digital communications and democracy. For analysis, my colleagues at the Institute for Public Accuracy turned to the progressive former FCC commissioner Nicholas Johnson, who called the choice “bizarre.”
 

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Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Don’t Vent, Organize—And “Primary” a Democrat Near You

By Norman Solomon
Common Dreams
May 1, 2013

Progressives often wonder why so many Republican lawmakers stick to their avowed principles while so many Democratic lawmakers abandon theirs. We can grasp some answers by assessing the current nationwide drive called “Primary My Congressman” -- a case study of how right-wing forces gain ground in electoral terrain where progressives fear to tread.

Sponsored by Club for Growth Action, the “Primary My Congressman” effort aims to replace “moderate Republicans” with “economic conservatives” -- in other words, GOP hardliners even more devoted to boosting corporate power and dismantling the public sector. “In districts that are heavily Republican,” the group says, “there are literally dozens of missed opportunities to elect real fiscal conservatives to Congress -- not more ‘moderates’ who will compromise with Democrats. . .”

Such threats of serious primary challenges often cause the targeted incumbents to quickly veer rightward, or they may never get through the next Republican primary.

Progressive activists and organizations could launch similar primary challenges, but -- to the delight of the Democratic Party establishment -- they rarely do. Why not?

Here are some key reasons:

*  Undue deference to elected Democrats.

Members of Congress and other elected officials deserve only the respect they earn. All too often, for example, plenty of Congressional Progressive Caucus members represent the interests of the establishment to progressives rather than the other way around.

*  Treating election campaigns more like impulse items than work that requires long-term planning and grassroots follow-through.

The same progressives who’ve spent years planning, launching and sustaining a wide range of community projects are apt to jump into election campaigns with scant lead time. Progressives need to build electoral capacity for the long haul, implementing well-planned strategic campaigns with candidates who come out of social movements and have a plausible chance to win on behalf of those movements.

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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

CLOSE TO HOME: Promise not to cut is nothing like tax pledge

By NORMAN SOLOMON
Press Democrat.com
Published: Tuesday, April 9, 2013 

President Barack Obama is proposing to reduce the Social Security cost of living
adjustment. And the president is also putting cuts in Medicare benefits on the
negotiating table. But Social Security keeps vast numbers of seniors out of poverty,
and Medicare is vital to keeping many people alive.

At this historic moment, a principled position would be to commit to fully defending
Social Security and Medicare benefits, as well as the federal Medicaid program that
funds Medi-Cal in our state. But the North Coast's new congressman, Jared Huffman,
has been hedging.

Hundreds of Huffman's constituents have urged him — via letters, petitions, phone
calls and personal visits — to take a clear stand by committing not to vote to cut any
Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits. Huffman showed notable disdain for
this no-cut plea in his public Facebook page on March 10 when he posted that he
“won't be bullied from the left or the right into signing Norquistian vote pledges to
outside groups.”

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