A View From The Left- Tax Day is coming, and...People's BudgetTell Congress: Vote for the People's Budget!

Tax Day is coming, and...Tell Congress: Vote for the People's Budget!

Each year, the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) offers an alternative budget resolution to the “austerity” budgets supported by the House Majority and Speaker Ryan. The People's Budget offers a solid blueprint to:

·                     Invest more than $1 trillion in housing, education, transportation, clean energy and safe water to create millions of jobs

·                     Prevent cuts, restore social spending and reduce poverty by half in 10 years

·                     Increase educational opportunities, provide Pre-K and debt-free college for all

·                     Increase, not cut, Social Security and health care

·                     Close corporate tax loopholes, tax Wall Street speculation and raise taxes on the top 2%

·                     Redirect wasteful Pentagon spending and direct to peoples needs, ending Pentagon pork and the overseas contingency "slush fund" 

The People's Budget is backed by hard numbers and research by the Economic Policy Institute.

Send your message to Congress here.

 

 #MakeGEPay: Longtime DPP Project Pays Off

During the Great Recession six years ago, DPP and other local peace groups launched the “25% campaign,” saying that 25% of the Pentagon budget should be redirected toward economic and racial equity. The idea spread far and wide. Nationally, the New Priorities Network inspired exciting projects in several states (a statewide coalition that took on Lockheed Martin in Maryland, a coalition that tried to start converting a military truck manufacturer that was cutting jobs in Wisconsin), and Peace Action is still sponsoring Move the Money trainings across the country. Locally, the 25% Coalition brought together people of color to talk and strategize about peace and justice in Boston.

 

Most of these efforts dwindled and disappeared when the money didn’t move, but one has survived thanks above all to Massachusetts Peace Action and the Mass Alliance of HUD Tenants: the Budget for All campaign. On Monday they staged a “Make GE Pay” rally outside the welcome party for GE execs hosted by Governor Baker and Mayor Walsh. “[A] few dozen protesters braved a wintry mix standing outside the press conference to question why a company that generates $117 billion in revenue needs a penny from the government,” reported Globe business columnist Shirley Leung. “This as GE brass hobnobbed 33 stories in the sky in the swanky State Room, with beef Wellington and lobster roll canapes.”

The Globe doesn’t often stoop to cover protests, but this was the Globe’s second piece covering Monday’s rally. The first, a straight news report the day after, linked GE’s $25 million pledge for Boston schools to the protestors’ demand. Then the reporter let us respond to GE: “I think it’s outrageous that we would give millions of dollars of tax cuts to an extremely abusive transnational corporation while our MBTA, our schools, and our public services are vastly underfunded,” said Ari Rubenstein, a Boston resident with the group, Corporate Accountability International. In a remarkable third mention, the Globe actually advertised the rally two days earlier – on the front page.

 

Organizing the rally was a good call for the Budget for All coalition, which usually focuses on federal spending. The Union of Minority Neighborhoods, No Boston 2024, Jewish Voices for Peace, and other organizations joined the protest. A lot of people in Boston think GE is getting away with a lot of our tax money, and the rally gave voice to that. GE is scrambling to respond, with its CEO doing local radio interviews this week and City Hall trumpeting how much the company will pay in property taxes.

“I hope the #MakeGEpay movement sticks around,” Leung ended her column, “if only to keep up the pressure to make sure [the $120 million in city and state subsidies to] GE is money well spent.”

 

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Support Just Cause Eviction – Call the City Council

Real estate interests are lobbying our city councilors to deep-six Boston’s proposed Just Cause Eviction ordinance. Call now and protect our neighborhoods from outside profiteers! If you are a property owner or landlord, please say so when you call.

We are asking for 5-7 calls: the 4 At-Large City Councilors, your district councilor, and Housing Committee leaders Josh Zakim and Frank Baker.

Annissa Essaibi-George, at-large   617-635-4376

Michael Flaherty, at-large   617-635-4205

Ayanna Pressley, at-large   617-635-4217

Council President Michelle Wu, at-large   617-635-3115

Frank Baker, district 3, Dorchester    617-635-3455

Josh Zakim, district 8, Beacon Hill, etc.   617-635-4225 

Andrea Campbell, district 4, Dorchester-Mattapan   617-635-3131

 

Here is a sample script:

"My name is ____________, in (neighborhood, Dorchester) .  I am a (landlord, tenant, homeowner) and I'm calling to urge Councilor_________________ to support Just Cause Evictions.

I don’t see this as a landlord vs tenant issue. It’s an issue of neighborhood stability. I've lived in my neighborhood for _______ years and I don't want it destabilized by outside investors!

Do you know how the Councilor is planning to vote on Just Cause Evictions?

 

Can you have the Councilor call me and tell me if she/he will support and work for getting this bill introduced and passed ASAP?"

 

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DPP Hosts Peace Walkers

Dear Friends at DPP,

Once again DPP hosted the walkers from the Peace Pagoda at a breakfast meeting in Dorchester. Thanks to all who joined in and brought goodies for breakfast. Brief report follows.

Hayat

 

 “Our security in this country depends on advancing the shared security for all…” This is the theme for the 2016 Walk for a New Spring by the Monks and Friends of the New England Peace Pagoda. For the past 15 years this group has walked from Leverett, Mass to Boston, and beyond, to highlight the need to end wars, poverty and racism; to inspire and lead in the work of addressing climate change, and bring an end to nuclear weapons. Founded by the Niponzan Myohoji Buddhist Order of Japan, the Peace Pagoda brings to mind all those lost in the nuclear holocaust of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

 

Dorchester is an annual stop for the Walk, where they are hosted by the First Parish Church and Dorchester People for Peace. At a breakfast gathering this week, the group explained that they are walking all the way to Washington D.C. carrying the ideas from a Quaker working paper by the American Friends Service Committee called “Shared Security, Re-imagining US Foreign Policy” to communities along the route and to our legislators in Washington, DC. In an interdependent world, foreign policies that are based on an “us vs. them” paradigm have produced nothing but negative results. Only a foreign policy that advances the human dignity and opportunities for all, can lay the foundation for lasting peace and security. This will lead to a world of shared security.

 

Tim Bullock, the organizer of the Walk, says they like to stop in Dorchester because it is a community where people acutely feel the challenges and stresses of insecurity but, at the same time, the Dorchester community also has the vision and energy to take care of their neighborhoods and work towards shared security for everyone.

 

In this precarious world, we applaud this critical effort at tackling the key issues of our times.

 

Lead, Flint, Boston, and crime – against whom?

First the lead-in-the-drinking-water crisis in Flint, Michigan hit the news. Now we’re discovering lead in Boston school drinking fountains. But did you know there’s a link between lead poisoning, crime, and Black Lives Matter? Read on...