More cuts on the way in California: Occupy movement must offer a political alternative

California's governor, Jerry Brown, the former KPFA talk show host and lefty demagogue is presiding over further cuts in an already depressed state where workers and youth have borne the brunt of the economic crisis caused by Jerry's buddies.

Some $981 million in "pre-approved"  (sort of like a car loan isn't it.) budget cuts are about to kick in including $200 million from the state universities and $100 million from home health care fir the elderly.

The 1 percent's politicians like Brown and Obama regret that they inflict such pain on America's workers and the poor.  After all, these are the people whose Labor contributed to the great wealth and advances the nation made over 200 years and their sons and daughters are those who sacrificed their lives defending the interests of US capitalism abroad, slaughtering fellow workers who they have no real quarrel with.

Brown shares his grief at savaging the lives of the elderly, "None of this is pleasant" he whines.  "But the alternative is to do what we've done for years. which is to borrow and obfuscate."

Well thanks Jerry, that will make that 83 year old woman relying on state aid feel more secure, knowing it's not pleasant for you. Unfortunately, it's Jerry's class brethren that encourage debt, make lots of money off the interest on it and are increasingly making it harder to acquire any of the products we make without doing so through debt.  In numerous states, due to the refusal of the capitalist class to break their strike of capital and invest in the real economy, cash strapped workers are be able to buy lottery tickets with their credit cards in the hope they can win a few bucks in the absence of productive Labor.

John A Perez, another California Democrat and Assembly Speaker is really hurt, remarking that the cuts are "painful" but, he adds, "responsible".

These people are thugs.  Our jails are full of working class people who, if given an opportunity would have taken a different path but capitalism cannot provide the basic necessities of life or the work to provide them in this richest country in the world. More billionaires live here than any other country. In California the school cuts can be avoided the thugs tell us but only by "trimming other parts of their budgets".  The mayor of Oakland calls the port shutdown violence but what is this?  We are terrorized and blackmailed by these people. One section of the working class  can avoid cuts only if we agree to forcing them on another section.

The Occupy movement which is still very much alive in California has an opportunity to put forward from within its ranks an alternative to the Democrats and Republicans in the political sphere. Each area where the Occupy movement is strongest like here in Oakland the movement can put candidates forward with a clear platform that speaks to the immediate needs of workers and youth; candidates rooted in a grass root movement, independent of all corporate influence and monies with a platform that would include:

Jobs for all at Union rates with Union rights and benefits
A $20 per hour minimum wage
No cuts in education--fully funded education at all levels
Class sizes of fifteen in all public schools
Fully funded health care
No foreclosures, return stolen homes to the occupants
Bring all troops home.
Increase taxes on corporations, tax all stock market transactions
Public access to the books of all corporations claiming hardship.
Public ownership under workers/consumers  control and management of the major corporations, agriculture, finance industry, health industry and transportation etc that constitute a dictatorship in US society.

These are just some suggestions.  Health care, jobs and education, the basic insecurity of life in the US, these are some of the the main things on people's minds.  Politically, workers in the US are crying out for an alternative.  The formation of a mass workers political party is an objective development that will occur whenever the ranks of any movement become saturated with the millions of workers and youth in this country whose voices have been silenced or who have given up through the lack of any real alternative.  The Occupy Wall Street movement has begun to change this situation but is focused entirely on action it seems.  A genuine mass working class movement which will attempt to reform the system will inevitably throw up organizational political form in the shape of a mass workers party.

The 1% will attempt to avoid taxes in many ways including shifting their capital abroad. Their politicians in the two Wall Street parties will not, excepting the possibility of ruin,  introduce measures that prevent this.  In the aftermath of the crash the capitalists themselves called for the nationalization of the banks.  The mortgage industry is pretty much nationalized.  The auto industry was temporarily nationalized so that the industry could more easily be rescued by public funds. Losses were taken in to public ownership and profits remained private.  They simply made workers and the middle class pay for their crisis. The taxpayer foots the bill but the same guys are in charge and determine the direction of the resources under their control.

Meanwhile, Paul Allen, the co-founder of Micrsoft has announced he will commit $200 million of what he calls "his wealth" to build the world's largest airplane that will be a mobile platform for launching satelites and hopefully speeding up the privatization of space. This money is not "his wealth" it is the collective product, the surplus value generated by the Labor of workers, primarily those in the third world or "emerging economies" the  Bill Gates, Paul Allen and the now deceased Steve Jobs theater of operations. We have to ask ourselves if this is the best allocation of capital and the right of Allen to own and to determine its allocation.  The obvious answer is no on both counts.

When the special election took place in California due to Gray Davis' recall, there were some 28 candidates vying for the job of governor from former porno stars to small business people and others.  The leaders of the potentially powerful California Labor movement threw their weight and their members money in to Gray Davis' hat and they will do the same in the coming election with Obama.

The Occupy Movement can begin to transform the political scene in this country by offering an alternative to workers at election time.  It can present and argue for a different economic structure, for different solutions than cutting medical care, slashing jobs and imprisoning millions of workers and youth. It can present a different face of America to the world that won't increase recruits for al Qaeda whatever al Qaeda is.

Mass direct action on the ground coupled with independent political action will be able to transform the balance of class forces in a serious way and transform also the consciousness of the working class, opening the door to the revolutionary process that can end the rule of capital and introduce the rule of the collective, a global society where production is for human need not profit and is carried out in harmony with the natural world in which we live.

Occupy Oakland and the OSW must respond to Jerry Brown's assault

Oakland:cops practicing for the future on the taxpayer's tab

The Occupy Wall Street movement has changed the debate in US society over who is at fault for the economic crisis.  It has put the bankers, speculators and other wasters on the defensive.  The police response to the movement as witnessed in Oakland and NYC is in preparation for things to come. The US capitalist class, bogged down in wars it cannot win and facing stiff competition for the plunder of the planet’s resources is forced to put the US working class on rations in order to pay for its imperial ambitions.

As the young people take to the streets, here in California, the former left wing demagogue and free speech radio talk show host Jerry Brown announced his latest plans to shift the cost of the economic crisis on to workers and youth.  Brown proposes raising the retirement age at which some workers’ can retire from 55 to 67.  As a representative of the banks and Wall Street he also proposes “increasing pension contributions by current workers” while forcing newly hired workers in to retirement plans that rely more on the stock market according to the Wall Street Journal. It is a stunning example of the arrogance (and overconfidence) of the capitalist class that they are forcing workers to depend more for our material well-being on the same market forces that brought us this far and a system that was dragged from the edge of the abyss through a taxpayer bailout. They are trying to divide older workers from young, we must not let this happen.

After significantly curtailing the rights benefits and wages of auto workers, the unelected billionaires that rule society are determined to smash the public sector Unions whose members enjoy a somewhat better living standard and work environment than our private sector counterparts, especially the youth and the millions of workers outside organized Labor. Union wages and benefits are, on average, around 35% higher than non-union and the public sector has a much higher unionization rate than the private.  Democratic and Republican state governors alike are following suit carefully gauging the mood and the best time to act.  The police are being suited up and made ready for the social unrest that will inevitably develop in response.

Here in Oakland, as our readers are aware, the police and city officials responded with savage brutality in an attempt to drive back the momentum of the Occupy Oakland movement and discourage workers from joining it. In response, the General Assembly of the Occupy Oakland movement called a general strike for Wednesday November the 2^nd and activists are in the process of mobilizing for it.  Leaving aside whether or not this approach is right at this time or not, the vote has been taken and the movement must move forward.

The heads of the local Labor movement could, if they were to change course from concessions and a defensive struggle relying on “friendly” Democrats, religious leaders and celebrities, mobilize their members, link these two forces and movements together and undoubtedly shut down Oakland which is a major port city, one of the top container ports in the country.  This makes the Occupy Oakland movement’s task somewhat harder. But there is also a major weakness within the OWS movement as far as I can see given my limited involvement, and this is how to draw in to the movement the hundreds of thousands of workers around us in the workplaces and communities. There is a strong opposition to raising demands by some influential groups within the movement

The supporters of this blog states for the record hat this is a serious weakness that lessens the possibility of the movement growing and drawing in workers and our families; older workers, younger workers etc.  What a serious mistake it is not to put the issue of pensions, retirement, jobs, Social Security, housing (some 65% of Oakland are renters, many pay rotten slumlords) police brutality (a major issue in Oakland and all inner cities) on the front of our banner.  The state’s governor, the Wall Street representative Jerry Brown, boldly announces intentions to destroy any chance of security and retirement for today’s young workers while ate the same time forcing older workers to work longer and contribute more of our already shrinking disposal income to their own retirement and the movement doesn’t make a major issue of this---that’s a mistake.  If we want workers to join this movement the movement has to fight for their bread and butter interests.

Some in the movement are philosophically opposed to raising demands.  They have said to me that they don’t have to ask politicians for anything; we need a new society as this one doesn’t work.  This is all true, but we do not make demands because we have illusions in Mitt Romney or Barack Obama who represent Wall Street and capital.  We raise our demands in order to announce to the millions of workers that are watching that our movement demands a society that provides such things---demands are an organizing tool.  We will not rid ourselves of this dysfunctional system until a considerable section of the working class comes to the conclusion that it must be so, that there is no way it can be made human friendly. And we draw this conclusion through struggle, by trying to change the world around us and resolving the immediate crises we are facing. In struggle for what workers see as just and fair demands we come up against the forces of a state that cannot provide even these; then we begin to question the nature of the state itself. It is through the struggle for reform that we learn the need for revolutionary transformation.

Jerry Brown says in today’s WSJ that his goal with these proposals “is to provide a fair but sustainable income security plan”.  Mike Genest, who has recently retired as public finance director under Schwarzenegger likes Brown’s plan.  Genest receives a pension of $125,000 a year and is a “consultant” for a capital management firm; these are the thugs we are up against mike.genest@gmail.com.

No worker believes Brown’s crap about fairness.  We must have a broad and vocal response to Brown’s proposals and alternative proposals of our own.  And for the millions of workers who are watching this movement and cautiously supporting it while differing with the methods and tactics and direction of it, we say that you cannot leave it to someone else any longer.  We are in a different historical era as the capitalist class is forced to save their rotten system on our backs and at the expense of the environment of the planet.  Join this movement, help it grow and influence its methods and direction.  What can neutralize the police is a movement of thousands of workers from all walks of life.  No one can do this for us----the emancipation of the working class can only be accomplished by the working class itself.

Jerry Brown wants to "impose" taxes on Californians to "save" education.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports this morning that California’s deficit has declined by some $5 billion due to increased revenues from an expanding economy. The revenues are primarily from increased taxes from upper earners which shows which section of society is expanding.

Jerry Brown, the state’s Democratic governor was going to put the issue of increasing taxes to the voters but now plans to seek “approval from the legislature to impose” them. He is feeling quite confident eliminating voters rights as the president of the teachers' Union in California and numerous other top Union officials support this position as we pointed out in an earlier blog.

Brown, the Democrats and the top trade Union leaders have all been painting a horrific scene if Californian’s don’t vote to lower our disposable income through higher taxes. The taxes are needed to “save” education. There will be “massive “ cuts in education, public safety and social services if workers and the middle class don’t cough up; it will be our fault. This is the line we hear time after time. We have saved nothing we have only gone backwards. If we vote to cut our disposable income education will be “saved” will be kept in its present inadequate state for another year or two then it will have to be “saved” again and we know who will be asked to "save" it.

Brown, the candidate of the Labor leaders in the state has made no issue of taxing oil as it comes from the ground.  California is the only state that does not do this.

The coercion and economic terrorism is intense. If we don’t cough up, estimates claim Brown and the corporate politicians will cut $5 billion to public schools, cut $1 billion from the University of California and California State University systems as well as cut fire protection, public parks, health and human services.

Do these men represent your aspirations?

This is from the capitalist party that claims to be the party of the people; it the former party of the Southern Slaveocracy. The other party of Wall Street, the Republicans, has basically the same agenda except deeper cuts and no or fewer tax increases. These are the choices workers and the middle class are left with in a so-called democracy, cut services or pay more taxes.

Jim Nielsen, a Republican State Assembleyman is cautiously optimistic about his Democratic colleagues' assault on the American working class but reminds us that the plan will still “grow government by 31%.”. “In these tough times I don’t think the citizens of California will embrace having government grow…Raising taxes will only encourage profligate spending.”

They love that word, “profligate”. This is what my dictionary says about profligate:
(1) utterly and shamelessly immoral or dissipated; thoroughly dissolute.
(2). recklessly prodigal or extravagant.

The representatives of Wall Street in these two parties consider spending on education, social services, decent housing and public transportation “profligate”. $4 trillion to bankers, $3 trillion invading countries on behalf of the energy and other industries is not “profligate” to them. It all depends on one’s class point of view.

We don’t have to passively accept the shifting of the crisis of society on to our backs, on to the backs of workers and the middle class. We have the power and social weight to stop them. We don’t have to emulate the top leaders of the workers organizations who cower at their feet and refuse to fight them.

I have written many times about the emerging English capitalist class that challenged the feudal aristocracy in the form of Charles 1st in the mid 17th century. The historian Christopher Hill wrote that as heroic as these people were, including religious dissenters like Bunyan who served 11 years in jail for his views, they couldn’t get over what Hill called the “stop in the mind”. He was referring to the acceptance in their own consciousness of the prevailing ideology of the day----“The Divine Right of Kings.” It’s hard to challenge, let alone remove a social structure and it’s human representatives if you believe that its origins are divine.

Cromwell and others tried something different, “Let’s cut off his head” they said, “and we’ll see what happens.”  A bold move, but lo and behold, a new day is born. We are in a similar situation. Why do we passively accept this war that is being waged against our very existence, against our living standards, rights and desires for a secure and safe future? Why do we buy their nonsense about the rest of the world hating us and US capitalism being a force for democracy and freedom in the world?  We have to overcome our own fear that if we act only chaos awaits. There is no god given right that states 90 Californians can be billionaires and the rest of us can go to hell. There is nothing that says that 400 Americans should have more wealth than 155 million of the rest of us. There is no divine right of capitalists to steal everything that isn't nailed down and to not do any productive work.

Trillions of dollars of our money is wasted massacring human beings throughout the world, a million Iraqi’s for example, three million Vietnamese. The world is awash with cash, as the Wall Street Journal has repeatedly said. There are numerous examples of where the money is on this blog. The problem is that they have it, a small group of people who have no right to it and no right to govern.

One important step we must take is the building of an independent political party of our own, a mass workers party that would draw to it all the victims of Wall Street and global capitalism including small community businesses and other sections of the middle class crushed under the weight of corporations.

The likes of Brown and others are confident they can do what they want and the American working class will accept it forever.  History proves otherwise but by passively accepting the solutions put forward by the two political parties of capital and their allies atop organized Labor we’re digging a deeper hole for ourselves that makes the coming battles much harder than they need be.

The youth have shown what must be done if we want a future. Mass action, a fight to win strategy which means stopping production, preventing profit taking, this is what hurts them. Most of all we must demand what we need; we must raise our expectations and ignore their nonsense about no money or what society can and cannot afford. We must present a different face and different American ideals to the rest of the world  than those of George Bush, Barack Obama or Bill Gates and other representatives of this den of thieves. 

It’s time to overcome that “stop in the mind”

Jerry Brown and Democrats wage war of terror aimed at convincing Calif voters to increase taxes..

Cal Students fighting 32% fee hikes in 2009. More to come?

Economic terrorism is heating up in California as Democrats and the Democratic governor, Jerry Brown are promising to slash education and services even further if voters don't vote to cut their disposable income by extending taxes that are due to expire in a month.  Increasing taxes would bring in just over $14 billion, almost enough to fill the budget deficit hole of $15 billion; until next time anyway.

If voters don't vote yes on the taxes the politicians are saying another $500 million would have to be cut from education on top of $500 million already taken. Fees at the California State University system would increase another 32%, classes would be cut, more staff laid off.  In other words, catastrophe awaits if the voters aren't coerced in to a yes vote on taxes.

"There are no good options, only extreme choices", says Charles Reed, Cal State Chancellor.  They should get their way as the governor, the Democrats in the legislature, the capitalist mass media and the leaders of organized labor in the state are all for raising taxes and making workers and the middle class pay for this crisis in one way or another, increased fees and cuts, or increased taxes and cuts.

This proposed budget is what Labor leaders have laughingly called, fair and balanced. We are doing pour bit, our "fair share" to help society in hard times. The budget deficit in the eight economy in the world equals about 25% of the wealth of the Walton family, the owners of Wal Mart. That's fair isn't it?

Of course, the voters of California may well surprise us, ignore the blackmail and the attempt to terrorize us in to a yes vote and vote against increased taxes anyway.  I will not vote to increase my taxes or the taxes of any other worker or middle class person, or small business, by that I mean mom and pops. It is not the money, but the principle.  Firstly, it will not save education it will just make us poorer.  But we must at some point move forward. We must go after the money, and they have it.  We have bailed them out and they want more and more.  I do not accept there is no money. I do not accept that these are the only choices.  We have blogged many times with examples of where the money is and what we can do to get it.

What thugs these people are, all this "could be avoided if voters agree to end taxes due to expire at the need of June", threatens the CSU chancellor.   Three hedge fund managers made $0 billion between them last year, that would almost cover the state's deficit.  What right do they have to that?  I  don't accept they have the right to own that money, they never earned it.  They bet on food prices, oil prices, anything they can bet on and the consequences of their actions is destroyed lives. 

We cannot move forward, cannot turn this concessionary tide if we continue to passively accept their lies and explanations and solutions for the crisis of their system.  The pathetic strategy that the heads of organized Labor put forward, endless rallies that accomplish nothing, wearing pink at demonstrations, writing our Congressperson asking them to "be fair" praying; all this is designed failure.

Wisconsin cold have been the event that began a new course but the Labor leaders and their allies diverted that potential independent movement in to the Democratic Party and electoral masturbation recalling millionaire politicians of one capitalist party replacing them with millionaire politicians of another.

We know that the Labor leaders won't fight as they are wedded to capitalism and the market, they have no independent ideas or alternative. So what's the point of mobilizing the power of Labor, it can only lead to chaos.  I was talking to some of my former co-workers the other day and they were not very happy with the Union because they said the leaders wouldn't fight.  The role of leadership is crucial, but we all have a responsibility, and if we don't agree with the direction our Union is going in we have to actively fight to change it, not just throw insults.

By accepting the choices that we are offered by the bosses' politicians as well as the heads of organized Labor, we are betraying future generations.  We are handing over to the capitalist class what those before us fought heroically to attain. We are telling our youth that we're hanging on to what we have and you can f$#&k  off.

I'm grateful the old timers didn't do that to me.

US corporations paying taxes as small businesses

I went up to the Sacramento yesterday for the first day of what is planned to be a week of rallies and occupations to protest the attacks on public services and education. There was a rally and press conference held by the California Teachers Association, the Union and NEA affiliate that represents some 300,000 teachers in the state. I didn’t get a chance to hear all the speakers but those I heard gave a push for governor Jerry Brown’s budget proposals that include extending tax increases that have expired or are about to expire.

Brown, the Democratic Party and trade Union leaders in the state all paint a horrific scene if the voters don’t vote to cut our own throats. We are expected to increase taxes that will cut further in to our disposable income. The consequences of workers failing to bear our share of the sacrifice will be devastating. Without the tax increases, John Perez, California’s Assembly speaker told us a while ago, the cuts would amount to the full $25 billion instead of the governor's "balanced" proposal of $12.5 billion.  Brown told the San Francisco Chronicle he won't reveal what will happen without the tax increases because, "It's so horrible".  A Brown spokesperson says that the cuts would be made in "public and higher education, public safety and health and social services". This is coercion, and a form of economic terrorism.  it isn't freedom by any stretch of the imagination.

We have numerous examples on this blog of other revenue sources, including Bernie Sanders’ top ten, but a political party is not an abstract thing, it represents forces in society; class interests. Both Democrats and Republicans will do their job which is to ensure that the crisis of their system is laid squarely at the feet of workers and the middle class and that the interests of capital are not threatened. Democrats and Republicans differ only on the details but are in full agreement that the working class will pay and the heads of organized labor go along with this.

It’s criminal really that Union officials at the highest levels are praising Jerry Brown and Barack Obama’s vicious assault on working people given the money that exists in society, often referring to the assault as “fair and balanced”. In the 1950's corporate taxes were 4.7% of US GDP and 30% of federal revenue. But from 2000 to 2009 the figures are 1.9% and 11% respectively.

We have blogged previously about the capitalists' efforts to change their tax code. They want to reduce the corporate tax rate from 35% to the “upper 20’s” in order to put more money in their own pockets but they can’t reduce overall revenue. One area of concern, even to some of their political representatives is the issue “Pass Through’s” What are “Pass Throughs” the average person might ask? It sounds like information we might find on a pamphlet on local bus routes but Pass Through’s are “big businesses that are currently taxed as small ones” the Wall Street Journal writes. They are corporations that the law allows to pay tax through their owners' personal returns.

The law allows (and who writes, introduces and passes legislation?)) for an increasing number of corporations to avoid corporate taxes as a “pass through”. They are allowed “to pay tax through their owners’ personal tax returns.” the Wall Street Journal writes admitting that it is a “way of avoiding corporate-level tax.”

Naturally, with such a gift as this, multi-billion dollar corporations are accepting it with gratitude. “Pass throughs” have “exploded in the US over the last 30 years” the WSJ adds pointing out that they presently account for “half of business net income and employ more than half of private sector workers.”.

Among these “big businesses” that are paying tax as small business is Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Co. the global private equity firm. Older Safeway workers will know that name as it was the firm that bought Safeway for some $5 billion 25 years go slashing wages and eliminating jobs. Henry Kravis, one of its founders is worth some $5 billion and a big supporter of George W Bush. Another corporation paying small business tax is Price Waterhouse co. PW has offices in 757 cities in154 countries and employs over 161,000 people. It had total revenues of $26.6 billion in 2010.  Quite a successful small business I would say.

The capitalist media always talks about the “rule of law” and that we are a society of laws. The legislatures that makes the laws of society are populated by representatives of these corporations. The US Congress is an institution full of millionaires and billionaires in political parties that represent the interests of these people and this class in all aspects of life.

The building of a mass workers political party, an alternative to the two parties of capital, is a crucial first step along the road to controlling the resources and wealth in society that our Labor creates. And many genuine small businesses like the coffee house I am sitting in at the moment can be drawn to a mass party of the working class, would become an ally of Labor as we fought for their interests and helped free them from the clutches of the global corporations, the insurance and health giants. It is the small proprietor, the deli, the coffee shop, the family plumbing business or the barber shop that might hire one or two workers that workers think of as small business, not the silicone valley startup employing 300 people and funded by Warren Buffet’s holding company. The small business we refer to are very much a part of and integrated in to our communities.

Look at the resources that have been disbursed, to the bankers, speculators and other financial charlatans by their political representatives. These resources are ours and we have no say in their allocation; they give our money away as they attack already insufficient wages, benefits and public services. The genuine small business, the classical “middle class” are sandwiched between two great classes, the capitalists and workers and they can be swayed either way, to the left or the right. Imagine the cheap credit that could be offered to small business by a workers' party in power that took the banks in to public ownership.

The US capitalists are putting us on rations. The Union leaders are going along with it in a desperate hope that things will get better but that is ruled out. We cannot avoid a fight; we cannot do nothing and expect it to go away. But we have the numbers and our role in the productive process gives us the power to turn the tide.

California Union leadership supports Jerry Brown's solution to education crisis: increase taxes on workers and middle class

What a disaster. The leadership of CTA (California Teachers Association) is calling for rallies and actions in California from May 9th to 13th to do what: raise taxes on workers and the middle class. How divisive is that? It is no wonder the right has made gains, these right wingers tap in to the anger that exists in US society. Not only that, it won't save public education. Working people are being assaulted on all sides from higher gas prices, home losses, job losses, wage reductions you name it, and the solution from the heads of organized Labor is concessions and increase taxes on workers. This, in the wake of massive bailouts received by corporations from workers and the middle class and billions spent on predatory wars. Paulsen, who bet that old folks would default on their mortgages and profited from the subprime made $5 billion in 2007 and another $5 billion last year. Make the rich pay: Bernie sanders compiled a list of folks we can go after a strategy that would unite people not divide us:

1) Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings.

2) Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion.

3) Over the past five years, while General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States, it received a $4.1 billion refund from the IRS.

4) Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009.

5) Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year.

6) Valero Energy, the 25th largest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, it received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction.

7) Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department.

8) Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury.

9) ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2007 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction.

10) Over the past five years, Carnival Cruise Lines made more than $11 billion in profits, but its federal income tax rate during those years was just 1.1 percent.

Yeah, lets support Jerry Brown's tax extension blackmail.

California's Jerry Brown has secret meeting with the folks he really represents

California's new governor, Jerry Brown, is not dishonest. He serves and always has served the interests of big business.  He warned before the election that workers and the middle class should  pay for the crisis and that he would vigorously pursue that avenue in office, making sure that we all learn to "Live within our means". He's been pretty straight all along and the top Union officials in the state supported him, pouring millions of dollars of their members' hard earned dues money in to his and other big business politicians campaign coffers.

When workers have no political choices except the candidates of the banks and Wall Street, Democrats or Republicans, the candidates don't care so much that they savage the very people whose votes put them in to office, or if they say one thing and do the opposite as they always do.  I don't have to go in to details on that here, we've written lots about that on this blog.  Why should they care?  Where are we to go politically. The great thing about the political situation here in the US is the capitalists have a monopoly, in fact a dictatorship, not only of economic life but in the electoral arena also; their candidate always gets elected.

Berggruen with trophy's. Do you trust this man with your future?

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Brown met last Friday with the members of the "Think Long Committee."  This committee was founded by a French billionaire, Nicolas Berggruen and is a sort of bi-partisan think tank.  Berggruen made his money coupon clipping as a hedge fund player.  He is known as the "homeless billionaire". "He has given up most of his home and most of his material possessions (except for his art collection and a private jet) to live out of hotels and advocate good government. says one source.

Berggruen on himself:
 “…for me, possessing things is not that interesting. Living in a grand environment to show myself and others that I have wealth has zero appeal. Whatever I own is temporary, since we’re only here for a short period of time. It’s what we do and produce; it’s our actions that will last forever. That’s real value.” – Nicolas Berggruen

What a hero.  I am going to write to the papers about this.  Somebody's got to stop this poor man form starving himself this way. How can someone live with only an art collection and a private jet? What about his TV Guide collection?  He has a right to possessions too.

So in this private meeting members of the two capitalist parties can discuss better ways to govern the state which is among the top ten economies of the world and about 13% of US GDP. And they can do it without having to pretend they're on different sides of some imaginary aisle like they have to in Congress or when they play party politics for public consumption. The problem the Chronicle, and others have it seems, is that there was no notice to the public or the press from Brown's office and that Brown is a bit more secretive about who he meets with than he lets on.

Not so, says Gil Duran, Brown spokesperson. Brown doesn't have to notify the public or the press because this was a "private meeting" and Brown was well within the law.  "There's a difference between a public event and a group private meeting." says Duran.

It doesn't matter as far as workers are concerned.  The point is that Brown is meeting to discuss with the people who actually rule society and whose interests he serves as governor of the state.  Firstly, the "Think Long Committee" was founded by a French billionaire Nicolas Berggruen to improve government, California's government in particular.  Berggruen, "...envisions a California government that is competent, flexible and efficient able to close the innovation and entrepreneurship gap that is emerging between California and places such as Singapore and China."  says the LA Times.

This means making workers more competitive through lower wages, increased workloads and less protection on the job, and government more streamlined through fewer jobs and fewer public services. All workers need to know is whose on the committee.  Let's see:  There's Eric Schmidt CEO of Google; Schmidt is Forbes' 52nd richest American with a net worth of $4 billion.  Google announced this year that it will give Schmidt a "parting gift" of $100 million as he is being succeeded at Google CEO by Larry Page. (WSJ).  

Broad in Aspen. Lots of great ideas that help workers come from Aspen.

Moving right along we come across another committee member, Eli Broad.  Eli Broad is described in the capitalist press as a philanthropist and developer, land pimp I like to call them. Broad's net worth according to Forbes is $5.8 billion. Broad's public education reform program promotes  policies based on the idea that public school systems should be run like private businesses and is a strong proponent of downsizing public education by closing neighborhood schools and increasing Charter schools. A Broad pushed education Czar in Detroit, Robert Bobb, is closing half of the city schools as class sizes increase to as high as 60.

Also on the board is George Schultz who served in the Nixon administration and was the US Secretary of State under Reagan.  He is an Ivy Leaguer with good connections trained throughout his life as they are to manage and govern the rest of us. Schultz has been called the father of the Bush Doctrine and was an adviser to the imbecile George W Bush during his 2000 campaign for the presidency. Schultz counts among his friends and confidants, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and Condoleeza

Condoleeza Rice is also on the committee as is former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and former California governor Gray Davis.

Jerry Brown has been touted as a politician "open" to the public because he walks around Sacramento and can be seen with his wife walking to the Capitol. That's not the "open" that matters of course. When it comes to the serious stuff, like running society and making decisions about how the wealth workers create is managed and allocated and what measures will be taken to make workers and the middle class pay for their crisis,  Brown is no different than any other bourgeois politician---that is done in secret with the people whose interests he represents.

The details might be secret but we know one thing, they're up to no good.  A bunch of billionaires meeting in private aren't meeting to help us out.  If they were helping us it's be all over TV. 

So we get to vote every four years or so for the candidates of our enemies; the Eli Broads and Bill Gates of the world can't lose.  This blog stands for the transformation of society. For the end of capitalism and the building of a democratic socialist society.  We do not believe capitalism can be reformed, can be made nice.  It cannot feed or house the people of the world despite having the resources to do so. It cannot even do so in the US, the most powerful capitalist society in history. Racism, wars and environmental destruction are its legacy.

But the importance of an independent mass workers party is that regardless of the political position of its leaders or its program, it offers workers a place to fight, a party of our own.  And every election time the capitalist class has to take in to consideration this fact, "What do we have to do to make sure they don't vote for them?" It changes the balance of class forces.  And it is through economic and political struggle, the struggle for reforms,  that we learn, that we draw certain conclusions about the world around us; that we come to realize we have to change society not just alter it.

Democrats and Republicans wage economic terrorism against workers and the middle class with their proposed budgets

Obama’s budget released yesterday revealed cuts in social spending coupled with tax increases that the capitalists through their two parties are imposing on workers and the middle class. Obama, the president of change, possessed with an audacity of hope and leader of the party that the heads of organized Labor like to call, the “friends of Labor”, proposes a five year freeze on domestic spending, and $1.1 trillion in combined spending cuts and tax increases.

Such wasteful expenditures as low income heating assistance will lose $2.5 billion, a 50% cut, along with Community Development block grants and the EPA. Two thirds of the more than $1 trillion will come from spending cuts and one-third from tax increases. The Wall Street Journal reports on clashes that will occur between the two capitalist parties over the difference between the Democratic and Republican proposals.

Clashes there will be, but these spats will have to do only with the level of cuts the working class will have to bear. The political wrangling is a squabble among thieves as they shift the burden of their economic crisis on to the backs of workers and the poor.

The Democrats are whining about how mean the Republicans are and that their proposed cuts to the Head Start program for low-income children are too severe. The Republican plan “Would cause 218,000 children to be dropped from the program.” the Democrats are saying. In the great game these two capitalist parties play, the Republicans come with the high figure and the Democrats cut it in half so only 109,000 children will be cut. The top officials of organized Labor support their Democratic friends offer and declare victory. It goes like this:

Republican Sen: “We propose a 25% cut in education spending.”

Democratic Sen in a most emphatic and militant tone, “Absolutely not, we demand justice and fairness, we propose a 15% cut in funds for education.”

Top Labor official: “Bravo, Bravo, victory at last, long live the Democratic Party”

As Obama wages war at the federal level, Jerry Brown, the former left/liberal ideologue from KPFA and now the Democratic governor of California, said last week that he didn’t believe in threatening or influencing the voters of the state. He said that because he has two options on the table for the workers and middle class of the state, he didn’t want to influence their vote. Then he went on to say that if we don’t vote to increase our taxes, terrible things will happen.

Brown, through the Legislative Analysts Office has made public what it will mean if we don’t vote to increase our taxes to accompany the $12.5 billion in cuts he proposed earlier to close the budget gap. We will be forced to cover a deficit caused by the mismanagement and plunder of our social wealth by him and his class colleagues; there are no other choices on the table from these people.

The added $13.5 billion will consist of a “$5.2 billion reduction in K-12 public school and community college programs.” According to the SF Chronicle. Another $2 billion will be cut from the University of California and Cal State University systems. These areas have already seen massive fee hikes but Brown proposes another 7% increase for UC and 10% for the CSU system. This politician supported by so-called leaders of workers’ organizations (the head of the California Labor Federation called Brown’s budget fair and balanced) will eliminate K through third grade class size limits as well as state funding for transporting students to school (this will no doubt be replaced by funding teenagers transportation to Afghanistan and other such exotic locales)

The Iraq invasion privatized that country’s oil industry by the bomb; they are now attempting to privatize public education in the US with a similar barrage of weaponry.

On top of all this Brown proposes cutting wages for those who provide in-home help for those that need it, (people whose wages are way to low as it is.) State workers are to receive a further 9% cut in wages and the state contribution to their health care will be cut 30%.

Brown and the other servants of the super rich in the legislature care about us though. They find these added cuts so abhorrent that they want to extend taxes that were due to expire. They need to take this to the voters though and these added cuts are the impetus for doing that. A Brown spokesperson told the Chronicle that these cuts offered by the LAO “add weight to the effort to have the legislature place taxes on the ballot.”  "The drastic cuts outlined by the Legislative Analysts Office lay bare the stark alternative to extending our tax rates” said Brown spokesperson, Evan Westrup.

Legislative analyst, Matt Taylor points out that “Legal challenges and federal laws could block some of the options” .He doesn’t mention the Unions because the leaders of these potentially powerful institutions are on their team, agree in principal that their members, along with all workers, have to pay.

So Barak Obama from Washington and Jerry Brown form Sacramento are holding the US workers and the middle class hostage. The politicians in the two capitalist parties, after using taxpayer funds to bail out the bankers, dragging them and their system from the edge of the abyss, are now taking advantage of their crisis to wage a war of economic and social terrorism against workers. They are driving the elderly, the youth, the poor and especially people of color and women who are a disproportionate chunk of the poor population in to peonage. But let there be no mistake, the attacks are across the board, are widespread.

But these very state workers who are taking these big hits have huge organizations. The AFL-CIO’s California Teachers Federation represents about 120,000 educational employees in the state; the California Teachers Association of the NEA another 300,000. The California Labor Federation has two million workers affiliated to it; it’s LA arm about 800,000 and its San Francisco body, 100,00 or more. The complete capitulation of the leaders of these organizations to the capitalist agenda is criminal and one of the main reasons there has yet to be a major movement in opposition to these assaults.

The university of California has 100,000 employees and 6 Unions. Yet the fight against the savage attacks there has been left primarily to the students. As we stated in a blog yesterday, the Union officials are terrified of their own members becoming active because they basically agree with the employers’ arguments that we have to tighten our belts and their members oppose this and naturally want to keep what they have. They'll bus them to a protest and rapidly bus them back out of there but their involvement in their own defense is not required beyond that. Read more about the Unions and the UC system here

For those at the top of the Union movement, opposition to cuts is just a matter of degree. The Unions provide buses and fliers and other stuff and talk about fighting back but fighting back doesn’t include a program of demands that increase rather than decrease spending on education including their own members wages. And it certainly doesn’t include uniting the 100,000 or so workers in the UC system in a powerful force that can bring that system to a halt.

In 2006 we saw one million people out in the streets in opposition to the attacks on immigrant workers. This was a powerful beginning that has not spread to include the working class as a whole. Alice Walker once said, "The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any." This is a very true statement. In fact we are so conditioned to think we have no power that we don’t even consider giving it up.

But we do have power. We also have allies. The US capitalist class due to the passivity of the Labor leadership and their ability so far to suppress the anger within these organizations is feeling overconfident. But they should beware. The situation in the US is not that unlike Egypt with some obvious exceptions. But the anger at what is going on in this country is reaching boiling point and at some point in the not so distant future it is going to boil over.

We’ll see some activity then alright.

Jerry Brown doesn't want to influence voters but if we don't vote for what he wants, the consequences will be "horrible"

The people are not our friends

Jerry Brown has offered the workers and youth of California a choice.  He has been widely applauded for giving us this choice.  The choice is to face (further) massive cuts in social services or avoid some of them by voting to extend income and sales tax increases that were instituted in 2009 and are about to expire. We have about this previously. (see the Jerry Brown label to the right).

So in actuality, we have only one choice, cuts.  Tax increases are cuts also; they cut in to our disposable income.  The top leadership of the potentially powerful California trade Union movement supports Brown's cuts so people generally feel there's not much that can be done. 

The San Francisco Chronicle has an article today that also makes no mention of any other possible sources of revenue other than workers and the middle class but I didn't know whether to laugh or cry reading it.  Brown doesn't want to be specific about what will be cut if the voters reject increasing our own taxes.

"And why is that you might ask?"

Because Brown "Does not want to appear to be threatening voters", the Chronicle informs us.

What an angel this Brown guy is.  He's been an aesthetic, an organic gardener; he had a rock star as a girl friend. And he's a pillar of democracy, giving us an opportunity to vote on the method of our own demise.

But wait!  What's this?  When  asked what his budget plan is should we reject tax increases Brown tells the Chronicle he won't reveal it because, "It's so horrible".  That isn't designed to influence voters is it?  Then one of his mouthpieces says that the cuts would be made in "public and higher education, public safety and health and social services".

Another Democrat, Assembly Speaker, John Perez, another recipient of Union members' money and support at election time no doubt, says that the voters shouldn't be "scared" in to voting to cut our own throats,  and instead  shown "respect".  What a decent man. "Show them (voters) the balanced proposal (cuts in services and tax increases) the governor's proposed, and people will understand that there are consequences if they don't support them."  Wait one more time!  Is that a threat?  I'm confused.

Perez goes on to say that without the tax increases, the cuts would amount to the full $25 billion instead of the governor's "balanced" proposal of $12.5 billion with the rest in taxes and to do that would be "disrespectful" to the voters.  We are so lucky to have politicians in office that respect us, absolutely refuse to coerce or threaten us in any way and are doing everything in their power to look after our well being. Incidentally, we can see where the heads of organized Labor get their ideas from. "Balanced" is exactly how Art Pulaski, secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation who supports these savage attacks on workers refers to Brown's budget, "Brown's proposal isn't perfect, it at least strikes a much-needed balance between cuts and revenues.", he says.  This no less than criminal and reveals the crisis of leadership in the organized Labor movement; they are ideologically bankrupt.

Another darling of the liberals, California's State Treasurer  Bill Lockyer also warns of the consequences should voters reject tax increases, or more accurately, accept the burden of solving a crisis that is not of our own making by bailing out the bankers, speculators, their politicians and the capitalist system they perpetuate.

The collaboration of the trade Union hierarchy in these attacks is the major reason there has not been a more effective fightback against the increased capitalist offensive of the last few years. Last year, students fought big battles with the police and the employers against cuts in education culminating in a day of strikes and actions on March 4th.  The trade Union leadership while paying lip service to the students' struggle refused to launch a campaign among their members and the working class of California as whole to join the students in a statewide general strike.

That they have the resources to do this is indisputable.  The heads of organized Labor in California handed over some $200 million of their members' hard earned money getting these very anti-worker politicians elected.  Strikes have been defeated primarily due to the failure of the Labor hierarchy to break their friendly relations with the employers that are based on Labor peace, relations that have had devastating effects on workers and our families, especially, the poor, the aged and disabled, youth and people of color.

Working people have the power and numbers to stop this.  We can inflict some pain of our own.  Instead of us worrying about consequences it should be Brown and the wealthy that he represents worrying about them. 

Rely on our own strength
Build a united working class movement to drive back the bosses' offensive
No concessions, increase social spending  and create jobs
Tax the rich, end all wars and occupations
For a $15 an hour minimum wage or a $5 an hour increase whichever is greater.
For a 6 hour day 5 day workweek
No support for Democrats: Build a mass independent political party for workers and youth
Build opposition caucuses in the Union based on a direct action, fight to win program

Jerry Brown's speech. He wants to re-build California. Then let's make those who tore it down pay, not workers and the poor

We have to take more cuts so the ex CEO of Paramount can keep this

My Local weekly paper has this question and answer section, with the weekly question and the responses from five or six local residents. A few weeks ago the question was put to people asking which is more important to save from cuts, health care or education?  A friend who was reading the issue that morning said to me:
“What do you think, Rich, which is more important to save from the cuts, education or health care?”

“I don’t think we should cut either, in fact we need to increase expenditure in these areas.” I responded.

He smiled as I guess he figured that’s what I would say. But why is this the only option on people’s minds? The new anti-worker, poor hating, health care destroying governor of California, Jerry Brown, is intent on filling a $25.4 billion budget hole with further attacks on workers and the poor. Year after year they take more and more. The big gem will be the pensions of public sector workers and the big business press has been manipulating public sentiment in order to alienate public sector workers from private and the rest of the working class population.

Brown gave his state of the State speech last night and laid the groundwork by reminding us that, “California faces a crisis that is real and unprecedented.” Capitalist politicians are no different from the capitalists they represent in that their strategy is divide and rule. Set women against men, black against white, workers against the unemployed and walk away with the loot. We are always in crisis they say when it comes to workers wanting a better life.

The solution, (that never actually comes) is to cut $12.5 billion from health care, higher education and other sections of the working class or, if we want to avoid that, vote for a five year extension of income and sales tax increases that were enacted in 2009.  Isn’t this a bit like choices the thousands of alchemists were given when tried as witches? They had a rock tied to them and if they sank they were innocent.

This capitalist solution to the inherent crises that befall the capitalist economic system is typical----make workers and the middle class pay.

The reason why so many people answer or attempt to answer the question, “Which arm do you want cut off?” is because there is no alternative out there. This criminal Jerry Brown says that he wants to put this tax extension to a vote because, ”My plan to re-build California requires a vote of the people.” What a shining example of democratic principles he is. He wants to lest us choose which arm.

Senator Mark Leno, another Democrat (lets remember this was the party of slavery and the only political party in human history to drop nuclear bombs on civilians) who is the chair of the Senate budget committee is another champion of the democratic process, “I think it’s indefensible to say that voters shouldn’t have a say.”Isn't that nice of him.  What are we having a "say" about though.

What we don’t have a say in is what we are voting on.

The other billionaires’ party representatives, the Republicans are pleased with Brown but they want deeper cuts and no tax increases in case they get caught up in it. “We share the governors goal of passing an honest and on time budget,” says Assembly Republican Connie Conway, in a response to Brown. "Honest?" It makes you want to puke doesn't it?  No wonder so many Americans don't vote.

I reject, and we should all reject this process. Firstly, there is no shortage of money. We on this blog repeatedly give examples of the incredible wealth that exists, particularly here in California---individual and corporate wealth. Then there is the wasteful spending of our money in wars and adventures throughout the world that slaughter people abroad while destroying our youth all to make more billionaires.

And while we’re on the subject of billionaires; we have written in previous blogs about the billionaires and millionaires in California. We pointed out a few examples on Jan. 10th when we wrote:

Oracle CEO, Larry Ellison's yacht.  And they're worried about my pension

"California is also home to 95 Billionaires out of 946 total worldwide, according to the
Forbes 2007 Index of World Billionaires. The state is also home to many millionaires. Los Angeles County had 268,136 millionaire households as of 2006, the largest number of millionaires among the counties in the U.S. and 23 % of the total for the state. Orange County had 116,157 millionaire households and San Diego 102,138. Santa Clara County has 74,824 millionaires."

We also pointed out that California is the only state in the nation that doesn’t tax oil as it comes out of the ground. Brown has not even mentioned this. The heads of organized Labor in the state, to their disgrace, spent $200 million of their members’ hard earned dues money getting these anti-worker politicians in to office. And they wonder why workers fall prey to right wing propaganda?  They should be savaging Brown for what he is doing; their actions are nothing less than a criminal betrayal of working people.

Also, taxes are much lower today for the wealthy than they were during the 50’s and 60’s. The top marginal rate back then was 90% for those with incomes over $400,000 today it is about 35%.

Another blog on January 26 offered some alternatives to the capitalist budgets. We don’t have to vote on their proposals, we should put forward our own. And we should not allow them to determine what we demand. We demand what we need to ensure a secure and fruitful life. We demand what is realistic for workers and the middle class not what is realistic for Goldman Sachs or Jerry Brown and his corporate backers. They make and pass laws all the time that take money and take our livelihoods from us legally. They take our jobs and our homes and use the police and the sheriffs to enforce these laws. That is how corporate/wealth taxes have declined; they make it legally possible through their political parties.

We do repeat these facts you might think, but we do it for a reason, to drum home the fact that we don’t have to accept their reality. This blog has a title, Facts For Working People. We want to counter this propaganda of the bankers and the billionaires. Our influence is limited, we are small but our readership is growing monthly. Use this information, use it in your Union newsletters and share it with your friends when they say there is no alternative; the thug Margaret Thatcher expressed this view when she used the acronym TINA. We use the acronym TIAA; there is an alternative. Contact us at the address on the right or comment on the blog if you have questions or thoughts about all this.

We also must reject the idea that we are weak. There are two million workers affiliated to the California Labor Federation AFL-CIO. There are some 800,000 workers represented by the Los Angeles County Labor Council alone. Consider that the California economy is about 12% of the nation’s GDP and the workers in the docks, transportation, public services, communication, are all Unionized. We have tremendous potential power that the leaders of the movement themselves are terrified of and do their best to hold back because their view of the world doesn't really differ from those on Wall Street. It's just a matter of degree.

I say to the leaders of locals and opposition caucuses within the Unions that we must build open caucuses that reject these policies of the leadership and recognize that we cannot avoid a major struggle to change our Unions. Rolling over contracts, accepting wage freeze and hiring freezes and concessions without a fight hoping that things will get better is the wrong strategy; a failed strategy.

There are also millions of youth, low waged, and unemployed. There are the renters who can barely earn enough to keep a roof over their heads and the victims of the banks whose roofs have been stolen from them by the moneylenders. Police abuse is rampant in the urban ghettos, our prisons are full of unemployed workers, almost 50% of them black workers  and our environment is being poisoned by these policies. We have lots of allies.

Brown say’s he wants to “Rebuild California”, well the workers of California never tore it down. We never wrecked it, Brown and his cohorts did. So we have to make them pay. We can build a movement that can force them to pay, a movement on the job, in the communities and the streets and, through the building of an independent mass workers party in the legislatures.

California Unions Endorse Jerry Brown's Vicious Cuts and Regressive Taxes

Not only did union leaders throw money and time behind Jerry Brown's campaign for governor, but now many of them are endorsing Brown's savage austerity budget.

The 340,000-member California Teachers Association (CTA) is one of the largest unions in California and, potentially, one of the most powerful forces in the state. What does CTA have to say about this budget that hits hard at all working and poor people, and especially hard at those who are worst off? CTA leadership is asking its 800-member State Council to endorse and campaign for Brown's package of vicious cuts and regressive taxes. CTA President David Sanchez says, "For the first time in seven years, we have a governor's package that includes revenues to help solve the state's $25 billion deficit." Sure. By extending Schwarzenegger's regressive taxes for another 5 years; by lopping $1.7 billion from MediCal; by cutting CalWORKS (welfare-to-work) by $1.5 billion; by decimating higher education with $1.4 billion in cuts; etc.

CTA's Sanchez isn't alone. SEIU Local 1000 President Yvonne Walker appeared on radio last week to announce her support for Brown's budget. When the stunned radio host asked her why, Walker replied, "I like its balance. It doesn't cut from just one area." (!!)

The labor bureaucrats, like the politicians in Sacramento and Washington, say that "There Is No Alternative" to making the working class pay for the huge deficits created by the $4.7-trillion bailout of Wall Street ($2 trillion of which is still unpaid) and the mega-trillion in cumulative spending on the war machine. But there are very clear alternatives:

First, increase taxes on the wealthy to increase state revenue by $14 billion. The highest-earning one percent of Californians have an average income of $1.8 million per year (sources: Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy; California Budget Project). If these high-rollers paid on average $50,000 more in income tax, the state would take in an additional $7.6 billion. The next highest-earning 4 percent of Californians earn an average of $310,000 / year. Increasing their taxes by $10,000 would bring in another $6.1 billion.

Second, amend Proposition 13 to increase taxes on corporate property but not on homeowners. This would raise more than $5 billion / year.

Third, impose a tax on oil extraction to bring in $1.5 billion / year more. (Every other oil-producing state has an oil extraction tax).

Finally, close the tax loopholes that allow more than half of California corporations to pay no tax at all.

(And of course, beyond California, labor ought to be taking the lead in organizing national protests -- including work stoppages and other job actions -- to demand that the $2 trillion in bailout money still owed by the big banks be repaid immediately and used to restore and expand essential public programs and create jobs.)

This kind of program won't win without a fight. But it's something labor ought to be fighting for. Instead, Sanchez, Walker, et al. try to convince us that not only do we need to accept the cuts, we have to enthusiastically praise Jerry Brown and the other politicians who do their best to pump up corporate profits and private wealth at our expense.

After taking millions of dollars from Unions Jerry Brown's budget sticks it to workers.

Millionaires row: LtoR, Brown Feinstein Newsome

Union leaders spent a lot of their members’ money getting Gerry Brown in to the governor’s seat in Sacramento. Today, Brown repaid the workers of California with a proposed budget that savages workers and the poor.

Brown, like all capitalist politicians, called on “all” Americans to do our bit. He asks for personal sacrifices from every citizen to fill an estimated a budget deficit hole of $25.4 billion over the next 18 months. Brown proposes $12.5 billion in spending cuts, including welfare, social services and higher education. K-12 will only be spared if we vote to extend for 5 years, sales, vehicle and income taxes that were supposed to be temporary but we know never are. Brown threatens deeper cuts if we don’t vote to raise our own taxes, and that schools could be “hard hit.”.

Brown also intends to cut state workers pay, those not covered by Union contracts, by 8% to 10%. Cutting Medi-Cal, the state's health insurance program which is somewhat of a lifeline for the poor will cause increased misery for those that need help the most. Doctors' visits would be capped at 10 per year, a $5 office co-payment and a $50 emergency room co-payment will be also added.

I have not studied Brown’s 84.6 billion budget proposals in detail by any means but I didn’t recall a mention of taxing oil extraction. We don’t have to accept their “facts” or the choices they present to us.

The Money is There
California is the only state in the nation I think that doesn’t tax oil as it comes out of the ground. Also, taxes are much lower today for the wealthy than they were during the 50’s and 60’s. The top marginal rate back then was 90% for those with incomes over $400,000, today it is about 35%. And the interest on California’s debt is not on the table. It is written in to the California constitution that interest on debt must be paid above all else. I wonder who put that in there.

California is also home to 95 Billionaires out of 946 total worldwide, according to the Forbes 2007 Index of World Billionaires. The state is also home to many millionaires. Los Angeles County had 268,136 millionaire households as of 2006, the largest number of millionaires among the counties in the U.S. and 23 % of the total for the state. Orange County had 116,157 millionaire households and San Diego 102,138. Santa Clara County has 74,824 millionaires.We have more pieces on where the money is here.

There was all this talk today from politicians and Union leaders alike about how we are one nation and how violence must be condemned. Well, Browns budget is a heavy dose of violence. This is the man the leaders of my former Union spent millions of dollars urging me to vote for. We are in a war and, as Warren Buffet reminded us, his group, the capitalist class, are winning it. We have to begin by rejecting their facts, rejecting their view of reality. What is realistic for them is not realistic for us. Those billionaires didn’t work for that money they stole it off the backs of workers and the middle class and we need to go after it.

“My job is to find some common core here that we can agree on," Brown says. "I'm just going to lay out the facts. Whatever they decide, obviously will be the will." That’s nice. But the choices are limited; the facts are not my facts. They are the chosen facts of Brown and his masters on Wall Street and in the boardrooms of the major corporations.. The Union leaders give members the same type of choice at contract time, wage and benefit cuts or no job at all. When the members choose the former the Union leaders are off the hook, the democratic process has worked, the members have spoken and choose to lower their standard of living.

California’s State Treasurer, Bill Lockyer, another Democrat and darling of the liberals issued his statement in support of Brown’s savage attack on workers and the poor. “The Governor’s proposal is realistic and provocative,” he says adding that, “a balanced remedy of spending reductions and revenues is the best cure.” He also makes it clear who the budget is designed to please when he adds, “To prevent further damage to the State’s credit rating and start restoring California’s reputation, action by the Legislature and Governor must be timely and credible. It’s time narrow interests took a back seat to California’s interests.” Have to keep the moneylenders happy, some "balance".

California has two million workers organized in Unions and millions more who are unorganized. We must build a movement of resistance in our workplaces and our communities and schools; we can shut down the California economy that is 12% of US GDP. We have the power to drive back this assault on our living standards if we do not limit ourselves to a view of the world designed on Wall Street and if we build our own independent political force rather than relying on Democrats.

One way or another, the US capitalist class is generating a major confrontation with the workers of America in the period ahead. Better we prepare for it.

Promises of Hundreds of Thousands More Jobs For Californians by the Democrats Nothing But An Election Gimmick.

I’ve received another extremely expensive glossy mailing from my former Union, AFSCME. This one has at the top the message, “Important AFSCME Message”. This time it’s telling me not to vote for Carly Fiorina and has a picture of a white-collar worker, a woman. She’s standing by a copy machine and it says alongside her, “Carly Fiorina said she’s against saving public jobs. That really burns me. She made millions off of copy machines and printers but I have to work to feed my family.”

The 8 by 10 glossy leaflet warns us that Fiorina, a Republican would allow massive job cuts, ship more jobs overseas and oppose funding for jobs at home. It points out that Congress passed legislation to “save thousands of public sector jobs” but Fiorina opposed it.

What AFSCME is referring to is the legislation passed last week in Congress that allows for a federal stimulus injection of $2.5 billion for California. Many reports on the California budget passed in the state legislature Thursday refer to these (and other) funds as “presumed” as it is simply another stimulus, a shot in the arm, and the state of the US government’s finances is such that no one is certain what will happen. “Two-thirds of the budget solutions signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday afternoon are based on one-time or temporary money - some of which may never materialize.”, writes Judy Lin in the Fresno Bee. In fact, it seems likely that the Republicans will make considerable gains in November and as most of the money has not been authorized by Congress, it could well disappear pretty quick as the election gimmick that it is.

Prior to the glossy piece on Fiorina, I received similar glossy piece attacking another Republican woman candidate, Meg Whitman, the former CEO of e  Bay. These are nasty characters for sure, no friends of working class people, but what are our alternatives? AFSCME doesn’t tell us who we might vote for, it just tells us to “Vote on November 2nd." There is an interesting backdrop to this.

In the mid nineties I think it was, I recall a definite shift from the past in the approach of the AFSCME line on electoral politics. I was a delegate at one of the biannual International conventions and there was a workshop on political education or something like this. The emphasis was shifting from a more direct association with the Democrats to supporting candidates that were "our friends" no matter what party they were in. This reflected the officialdom bowing to the growing discontent among workers with both parties.  The facilitator proudly announced that AFSCME doesn’t tell members who they should vote for, or what party more accurately. “We don’t tell you what to do” was the gist of the Union's message stressing its democratic credentials. It stressed the individual rather than party affiliation, strengthening the mistaken conclusion that workers draw that “all” politics is bad so disgusted they are with the US political system and the two capitalist parties that dominate it.

Basically, the climate is such that the Union leadership didn’t feel so comfortable championing the Democrats, a party that was even referred to as “Labor” in some Union publications, “Vote Labor, vote Democrat”

I get so annoyed when I get these propaganda pieces because it is millions of dollars of our hard earned dues money used as a gift to a Democratic Party election race. “Vote November 2nd” means vote for the Democratic candidate and every worker knows this. More and more, the leadership of our organizations, who could offer an independent alternative in the form of a working people’s party, campaign for a Wall Street party in a political process that more and more workers are abandoning, or in some cases, fleeing to right wing alternatives.

Workers have no confidence in the Democratic opponents of Fiorina and Whitman. We do not believe all the talk of hundreds of thousands of jobs being saved; we’ve heard it all before and the reality is, we are continuing to lose what took decades of struggle to win. The national debt has grown to $13.6 trillion - more than the nation's gross domestic product, and there seems to be no end to it. We’ll just lose what we have slightly more slowly with the Democrats hopefully. One of the major obstacles activists have to overcome is this view that we cannot win. We must show that if we are united and prepared to abandon the old business as usual model we can have some victories and victories attract others.

One thing is certain, we cannot sit idly by and hope things will get better. Most people don’t believe this anymore anyway. How things will develop is not easy to determine. There are numerous small struggles occurring throughout the country that the heavily censored US media refuses to cover. The movement against foreclosures, the environment, the wars abroad and the recent FBI raids on anti-war activists, not to mention the student struggle to defend education are all areas with explosive potential. The weakened but still potentially powerful trade Union movement will also be engulfed by the development of any serious resistance to this offensive of capital against workers and the middle class.

We can be optimistic that the working class will fight; we should do what we can to speed that process up and be part of it.