The spin isn't working; 68% of the American people think Obama is lying about the economy and for the first time in decades the American people look less favorably at the Democrats than the Republicans.

Obama tooted his own horn in an economic speech, appropriately delivered at DreamWorks Studio...

Declared Obama:

“America has gone farther, recovered faster than most other industrialized nations.”

But no one is buying, not even Obama's most ardent supporters, one of which is Robert Borosage whose livelihood is derived from foundation funding.

Borosage responds,

"But Americans aren’t buying and for good reasons.  They aren’t sharing in the recovery.  Mass unemployment continues. Over 20 million people are in need of full-time work. The participation rate in the economy has barely budged.  Corporate profits are at record levels, but workers aren’t sharing in the profits they help produce.  The richest Americans have pocketed virtually all the rewards of growth.  Median household incomes have lost more ground in the recovery than they did in the Great Recession.  The top 10% of Americans pocket more of the nation’s income than the bottom 90%."

But what does Borosage bring forward as the solution? Vote for more worthless Democrats like Obama.

Borosage and his outfit, Campaign for America's Future, helped provide Obama with a progressive cover for his reactionary Wall Street agenda to begin with.

Borosage and his outfit were the first to push the single-payer movement into the ditch for Obama; again, under the guise of progressivism.

Now Borosage and his buddy Dean Baker are pushing their concept of "full employment;" a concept, which even if implemented fully, would leave a huge pool of millions unemployed as a lever used to drive down wages--- what is progressive about this kind of thinking?

We need to break free from these phony progressives by launching a real progressive agenda that the majority of liberals, progressives and leftists can unite around--- and let's make something very clear; this is the majority of the American people.

The American people have defined the issues:

Peace.
Full Employment.
Real health care reform.
Protection of our living environment.

We need to articulate these concerns by bringing forward a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity" which would make the president and Congress legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment.

The next time you hear any politician or their hacks like Robert Borosage talking about jobs and full employment as a campaign gimmick, ask them if they are willing to go on record supporting legislation that will mandate the responsibility for the president and Congress to attain and maintain full employment.

A "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity" would include creating millions of new jobs through providing universal social programs like a National Public Health Care System (15 million new jobs), a National Public Child Care System (5 million new jobs), re-establishment of the WPA, CCC and CETA along with support for H.R. 1000, a jobs creating piece of legislation now lingering in Congress without any support.

Peace is the key to all of this.

If we are going to get our country on the right track, this will have to be financed by a huge "peace dividend." This means ending these dirty wars and funding human needs instead of this Military-Industrial Complex that, like Obamacare care, is a cash cow for Wall Street to profit from.

The next agenda must be a truly progressive agenda all liberals, progressives and leftists can unite around and fight for its implementation.

A grand alliance, which must include a working class based progressive people's party, struggling in our places of employment, in the streets and at the ballot box will be required.

68% of the American people aren't buying into Obama's lies.

The majority of the American people aren't buying into the spin of Democratic Party hacks as Americans now have less respect for the Democrats than the Republicans--- anyone still saying we don't need a working class based progressive party here in this country?

HOW CLASS WORKS - 2014

PLEASE POST AND FORWARD WIDELY - DEADLINE DECEMBER 11, 2013

PLEASE SEND ALL QUERIES AND PROPOSALS DIRECTLY TO <michael.zweig@stonybrook.edu> 

DO NOT REPLY DIRECTLY TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT

          HOW CLASS WORKS - 2014

CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS
A Conference at SUNY Stony Brook
June 5-7, 2014

The Center for Study of Working Class Life is pleased to announce the How Class Works –2014 Conference, to be held at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, June 5-7, 2014.  Proposals for papers, presentations, and sessions are welcome until December 11, 2013 according to the guidelines below.  For more information, visit our Web site at <www.stonybrook.edu/workingclass>.
Purpose and orientation: The conference seeks to explore ways in which an explicit recognition of class helps to understand the social world in which we live, and ways in which analysis of society can deepen our understanding of class as a social relationship. Presentations should take as their point of reference the lived experience of class; proposed theoretical contributions should be rooted in and illuminate social realities. Presentations are welcome from people outside academic life when they sum up social experience in a way that contributes to the themes of the conference.  Formal papers will be welcome but are not required. All presentations should be accessible to an interdisciplinary audience.Conference themes: The conference welcomes proposals for presentations that advance our understanding of any of the following themes.

The mosaic of class, race, and gender. To explore how class shapes racial, gender, and ethnic experience and how different racial, gender, and ethnic experiences within various classes shape the meaning of class. 

Class dimensions of poverty. To explore why and how poverty is something that happens to the working class, not some marginal "other" at the bottom of society..  

Class, power, and social structure. To explore the social content of working, middle, and capitalist classes in terms of various aspects of power; to explore ways in which class and structures of power interact, at the workplace and in the broader society.

Class and community. To explore ways in which class operates outside the workplace in the communities where people of various classes live.

Class in a global economy. To explore how class identity and class dynamics are influenced by globalization, including experience of cross-border organizing, capitalist class dynamics, international labor standards.

Middle class? Working class? What's the difference and why does it matter? To explore the claim that the U.S. is a middle class society and contrast it with the notion that the working class is the majority; to explore the relationships between the middle class and the working class, and between the middle class and the capitalist class.
                                         

Class, public policy, and electoral politics. To explore how class affects public policy, with special attention to health care, the criminal justice system, labor law, poverty, tax and other economic policy, housing, and education; to explore the place of electoral politics in the arrangement of class forces on policy matters.

Class and culture: To explore ways in which culture transmits and transforms class dynamics.

Pedagogy of class. To explore techniques and materials useful for teaching about class, at K-12 levels, in college and university courses, and in labor studies and adult education courses.

How to submit proposals for How Class Works – 2014 Conference

Proposals for presentations must include the following information: a) title; b) which of the eight conference themes will be addressed; c) a maximum 250 word summary of the main points, methodology, and slice of experience that will be summed up; d) relevant personal information indicating institutional affiliation (if any) and what training or experience the presenter brings to the proposal; e) presenter's name, address, telephone, fax, and e-mail address. A person may present in at most two conference sessions. To allow time for discussion, sessions will be limited to three twenty-minute or four fifteen-minute principal presentations. Sessions will not include official discussants.  Proposals for poster sessions are welcome.  Presentations may be assigned to a poster session.

Proposals for sessions are welcome. A single session proposal must include proposal information for all presentations expected to be part of it, as detailed above, with some indication of willingness to participate from each proposed session member.

Submit proposals as an e-mail attachment to michael.zweig@stonybrook.edu or as hard copy by mail to the How Class Works  - 2014 Conference, Center for Study of Working Class Life, Department of Economics, SUNY, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4384.

Timetable:  Proposals must be received by December 11, 2013. After review by the program committee, notifications will be mailed on January 17, 2014. The conference will be at SUNY Stony Brook June 5-7, 2014.  Conference registration and housing reservations will be possible after March 3, 2014. Details and updates will be posted at http://www.stonybrook.edu/workingclass.

Conference coordinator:

Michael Zweig

Director, Center for Study of Working Class Life
Department of Economics

State University of New York 
Stony Brook, NY 11794-4384

631.632.7536    

michael.zweig@stonybrook.edu                 

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