Teamsters Vote Official Support Of Occupy Wall Street
Teamster.org
Posted November 16, 2011
The General Executive Board of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters unanimously passed a resolution today supporting the right of protesters at Occupy Wall Street to assemble at Liberty Park. The Teamsters further commended New York Supreme Court Judge Lucy Billings for issuing a restraining order this morning restoring protesters’ constitutional rights.

“You can draw a direct line from the Wisconsin protests in the winter to Occupy Wall Street to the overwhelming rejection of an anti-union ballot question in Ohio,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. “Occupy Wall Street is bringing new energy to a fight that labor has been engaged in from the beginning: The fight for an economy that works for everybody, not just the 1 percent.”

Today’s vote by the Teamsters’ 24-

member General Executive Board came at an already-scheduled meeting at the union’s headquarters in Washington. The board, after learning of the evictions, which included a New York City councilman and a district leader, immediately ordered a resolution of support be drafted.

Hoffa said rank-and-file Teamsters have participated in Occupy Wall Street actions throughout the country. Teamsters protected encampments in San Francisco and New York, fed Occupy Oakland, led rallies in Cleveland and Chicago, marched in Occupy Chattanooga and supported the movement from Maine to California. Occupy Wall Street protesters have taken direct action against Sotheby’s for locking out 43 Teamsters art handlers in New York, while Occupy Chicago protesters rallied against private-equity firm Madison Dearborn in Chicago.
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Unions continue to stand with Occupy Wall Street and condemn eviction
Daily Kos
Posted November 16, 2011
Unions continue coming forward to condemn Mayor Michael Bloomberg's eviction of Occupy Wall Street and to offer statements of support to the protesters. SEIU:

"The 2.1 million members of SEIU continue to stand with the Occupy protesters and we agree that try as some might, you can't evict an idea whose time has come.

"That's why on November 17th, SEIU members will be marching arm in arm with unemployed workers, community members, allied groups and Occupy protesters in support of a great American idea: our nation and our economy should work for everyone, not just the richest 1%.

The Sheet Metal Workers (via email):

You cannot evict an idea whose time has come. Our democracy belongs to all of us, not big donors and corporate interests who equate mass amounts of wealth proportionally with the right to free speech.

A movement is emerging to reclaim our nation’s democracy. That is why the protesters' message and actions have resonated throughout America.  No action by a billionaire politician to silence the ninety nine percent of the America people will ever shut that down.

I urge our current generation of politicians to bear heed to how history has unkindly judged those in the past who have stood in the way of progress.  

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Are Mayors Across The Country Coordinating To Uproot The Occupations?
Think Progress
Posted November 16, 2011
Across the country, a number of mayors have ordered their police forces to move in and uproot 99 Percenters occupying town squares, parks, and other public spaces to call attention to income inequality and other social problems. In recent weeks, we’ve seen evictions in cities ranging from Oakland to Portland to New York City.

Now, evidence has emerged that these mayors may be coordinating their evictions of protesters. Speaking on a BBC radio show, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan says she was recently on a conference call with 18 cities dealing with 99 Percent occupations and that they were discussing how to handle the situation:

QUAN: I was recently on a conference call of 18 cities across the country who had the same situation where what had started as a political movement and political encampment ended up being an encampment of the people who started them.

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Surprise, Homeland Security Coordinates #OWS Crackdowns
Wonkette
Posted November 16, 2011
Rick Ellis of the Minneapolis edition of Examiner.com has this, based on a “background conversation” he had with a Justice Department official on Monday night:

Over the past ten days, more than a dozen cities have moved to evict “Occupy” protesters from city parks and other public spaces. As was the case in last night’s move in New York City, each of the police actions shares a number of characteristics. And according to one Justice official, each of those actions was coordinated with help from Homeland Security, the FBI and other federal police agencies.

[...] According to this official, in several recent conference calls and briefings, local police agencies were advised to seek a legal reason to evict residents of tent cities, focusing on zoning laws and existing curfew rules. Agencies were also advised to demonstrate a massive show of police force, including large numbers in riot gear. In particular, the FBI reportedly advised on press relations, with one presentation suggesting that any moves to evict protesters be coordinated for a time when the press was the least likely to be present.

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Raids on Occupy Protesters 'Inexcusable,' Says Trumka
AFL-CIO Now Blog
Posted November 16, 2011
“They can take away the tarps and the tents. But they can’t slow down the Occupy Wall Street movement,” says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka following today’s early morning raid on Occupy Wall Street’s Zuccotti Park site and raids and closures of Occupy sites in Oakland, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; Denver; Albany, N.Y.; Burlington, Vt.; and Chapel Hill, N.C.

Trumka says the raids have been “orchestrated by politicians acting on behalf of the 1 percent.”

But the 99 percent is undaunted. Occupy Wall Street’s message has already created a new day. This movement has created a seismic shift in our national debate—from austerity and cuts to jobs, inequality and our broken economic system.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has been committed to peaceful, nonviolent action from its inception. And, says Trumka “it will keep spreading no matter what elected officials tell police to do. But that doesn’t mean these raids are acceptable. In fact, they are inexcusable.”

The AFL-CIO will do everything in our power to make sure the free speech rights of these peaceful protesters are protected.

Click here to send a message of solidarity to Occupy Wall Street protesters.
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Trumka: Organized labor will continue standing with evicted protesters
Greg Sargent, in The Washington Post
Posted November 16, 2011
An interesting move here from AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka, who is going out with an email to his list today strongly standing by the protesters who were evicted from Zuccotti Park [...]

Conventional wisdom has it that mounting incidents of violence and outsized tactics will put pressure on institutional liberal groups and Dems to edge away from Occcupy Wall Street. Labor, in particular, has a long history of being riven by arguments over whether it should embrace such protests — during the Vietnam era, in particular, labor leaders fought bitterly over whether they should align themselves with the anti-Vietnam War protesters, which (some argued) subjected organized labor to a Communist taint. But Trumka is instead standing by the protests . Indeed, he's going even farther than Dems such as Elizabeth Warren have — while Warren has sought to shift the focus to the larger issues raised by the protests, Trumka is directly condemning police raids on the protesters.

The question of whether organized labor can succeed in tying the protests to a larger working class constituency is still unanswered. But Trumka seems to be confident that the protesters' message will continue to resonate among the working class rank and file, despite the mounting imagery of cops clashing with them across the country.
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Verizon Paid a -2.9% Tax Rate From 2008-2010
Crooks and Liars
Posted November 16, 2011
Citizens for Tax Justice released a report Tuesday that shows that anti-union telecom company Verizon not only paid no taxes in the last three years, the company received nearly $1 billion in rebates from the government.

Verizon enjoyed some $14 billion in federal and state corporate income tax subsidies in the 2008-2010 period even though it earned $33.4 billion in pre-tax U.S. income during that time.

At the federal level, Verizon should have paid about $11.4 billion at the statutory rate of 35 percent during the three-year period. Instead, it got $951 million in rebates, putting its federal tax subsidies at $12.3 billion. Its effective federal tax rate was -2.9 percent.

Verizon has also managed to avoid most state-level taxes as well while pursuing a strong anti-worker set of policies that we have reported on previously. The company has demanded $1 billion in benefit concessions from workers despite paying no taxes and raking in profits.
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Next Up in Trade Agreements: Trans-Pacific Partnership
AFL-CIO Now Blog
Posted November 16, 2011
When the recent APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Summit convened in Honolulu, Hawaii, Nov. 8-14,  the 21-member organization released the “Outline of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement” (TPP), a proposed pact that would include nine APEC members: the United States, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Peru, Chile, New Zealand and Australia.

The agreement is President Obama’s first opportunity to negotiate a brand-new trade agreement that’s not based on the model of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), one that would provide jobs and opportunities for working families rather than solely benefiting global corporations.  

Although it is too early to tell whether the TPP will give working Americans a trade agreement they can believe in, some of the declarations and statements released over the weekend are a cause for concern. Regarding labor rights, the outline reads “TPP countries are discussing elements for a labor chapter that include commitments on labor rights protection and mechanisms to ensure cooperation, coordination, and dialogue on labor issues of mutual concern,” but fails to mention the International Labor Organization’s fundamental labor standards or even whether the labor provisions will be enforceable. 
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Increased Recycling Would Create Nearly 1.5 Million Jobs, Reduce Pollution
Teamster.org
Posted November 16, 2011
Higher recycling rates hold the potential to produce millions of new jobs, would strengthen local economies, reduce pollution and improve public health, according to a new report released today.

At a National Recycling Day event at the U.S. Capitol, Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), a representative from the office of U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and a panel of environmental, labor and other leaders discussed the report, “More Jobs, Less Pollution,” which found that a 75 percent national recycling rate holds the potential to create millions of new jobs.

“More Jobs, Less Pollution” (available at www.teamster.org/morejobslesspollution), is a report from the Tellus Institute prepared for the BlueGreen Alliance, SEIU, NRDC, Teamsters, Recycling Works!, and the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA)

A 75 percent national recycling rate would also reduce CO2 emissions by 276 million metric tons by 2030—equivalent to eliminating the emissions from 72 coal-fired power plants or taking 50 million cars off the road; reduce conventional and toxic emissions that impact human and ecosystem health; and generate a stronger economy by creating a broader employment base.
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Occupy Oakland Site is Cleared, but Protest Lives
ation of Change
Posted November 16, 2011
Just 12 hours after police dismantled the Occupy Oakland tent city in a peaceful predawn raid, about 700 protesters returned to the civic center plaza Monday evening, vowing to keep their movement alive but undecided about whether to defy police and retake the site of their month long protest.

"Regardless of what they do to that encampment, this awoke something in all of us," said Iris Arcenciel, 26, of Alameda, a member of Occupy Oakland's media committee who advocated for retaking the plaza. "The important thing to remember is civil disobedience."

Protesters kept talking late into the evening Monday, planning their next moves as police officers stood by and vans filled with law enforcement backup waited around the block, poised for problems. Most protesters leaned toward re-occupying the plaza while others pressed for taking over foreclosed buildings.

Unlike recent Occupy Oakland efforts, the demonstration was not marred by violence.
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Bloomberg served with temporary restraining order requiring reopening of Zuccotti Park to protesters
Think Progress
Posted November 16, 2011
At 6:30 a.m. this morning, following a midnight police raid evicting protesters from Zuccotti Park, Justice Lucy Billings issued an order requiring the protesters to be readmitted to Zuccotti Park with their tents. ThinkProgress just spoke to one of the plantiff’s attorney’s, Gideon Orion Oliver, who confirmed that the order was served on Mayor Bloomberg and the other defendants via fax at 7:50 a.m. During his 8 a.m. press conference, Mayor Bloomberg seemed to acknowledge he was familiar with the temporary restraining order, but claimed he had not been served and was keeping the park closed. As of this writing, Zuccotti Park remains closed to protesters in direct contradiction of Justice Billing’s order.
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Keith Olbermann slams 'Tinpot tyrant' Mayor Bloomberg
The Raw Story
Posted November 16, 2011
Keith Olbermann condemned New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday after police tore down the nearly two-month-old “Occupy Wall Street” demonstration in Zuccotti Park.

“Democracy has been protected, not merely by the strenuous efforts of those of us who cherish it,” he said. “But mostly, and most profoundly, by the limitless stupidity of those who would ration it, keep it for themselves and themselves alone — or destroy it.”

“Who else but a cliche like Bloomberg could take a protest beginning to grow a little stale around the edges, and vault it back into the headlines, complete with mortifying scenes of police dressed up as storm-troopers, carrying military weapons, using figurative bazookas to kill figurative mosquitoes?” Olbermann added.
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Ehrenreich: Democratic establishment abandoned Occupy Wall Street
The Guardian
Posted November 16, 2011
Author Barbara Ehrenreich accused Barack Obama and the Democratic establishment of betraying the Occupy movement on Tuesday by failing to stop the evictions from Zuccotti Park.

Ehrenreich, who has championed the struggles of working class Americans in books such as Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America said her outrage at the police crackdowns was magnified by the acquiesence of Democratic leaders.

"One of the appalling things here is that there are so many Democratic mayors involved in these crackdowns or in Bloomberg's case, someone who is seen as a liberal," Ehrenreich said in a telephone interview. "And where in all this was Obama? Why couldn't he have picked up the phone at some point a couple of weeks ago and called the mayors of Portland and Oakland and said: 'go easy on these people. They represent the anger and aspirations of the majority'. Would that have been so difficult?"

She said Obama had been practically silent since the protesters first descended on New York two months ago. "There have been a few little muffled comments but he has practically disappeared."
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The Global Super-Rich Stash: Now $25 Trillion
Nation of Change
Posted November 16, 2011
[...] The Wealth-X research answers “how many” as well. The firm counts 185,795 individuals worldwide with at least $30 million net worth. These ultra high net-worth individuals — UHNWs — hold $25 trillion in combined wealth.

[...] “Simply put,” the Wealth-X analyst team gushes, “the world’s wealthy elite are in a class of their own.”In that class, Americans pack a bunch of the rows. Of the near 186,000 global ultra rich, 57,860 — 30 percent — carry U.S. passports. These American ultras hold a combined net worth of $7.6 trillion, an average of $131.4 million each.

That average masks a huge concentration of wealth at America’s summit. The 455 deep-pocketed Americans worth at least $1 billion hold half a trillion more in wealth than the 29,415 Americans in the Wealth-X $30-to-$50 million tier.
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Art And Occupy Wall Street
Think Progress
Posted November 16, 2011
There’s something sad, but unsurprising, about the fact that during the raid on Occupy Wall Street last night, the New York Police Department threw away the books that had been donated to the OWS library. I’m not of the position that we’re going to build a whole new sustainable society at the Occupy encampments — or even that we need a revolution. But I do think that as a spur to volunteerism, and to thinking about how to get services, from legal counsel to literacy education, to people who need them, the encampments have been valuable. And that cities from New York to Oakland could quash the movement best by — as Erik Loomis describes the strategy of the Albany, Georgia government in responding to civil rights protest—killing the protestors with kindness. The Zuccotti Park eviction could have included a plan to, say, box up the library’s books and offer to deliver them to an organization that needs them. Instead, the image of police throwing away books is now part of a narrative that includes attempts to keep reporters away from the eviction to blunt the coverage of it; the arrests of journalists; and a critically injured veteran of the war in Iraq.
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Republicans aren't closing the deal with voters
Eugene Robinson, in The Washington Post
Posted November 16, 2011
Unemployment is at 9 percent, the housing market is moribund, “consumer confidence” is an oxymoron, and three-fourths of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track. So how is it that President Obama leads each of his likely Republican opponents in the polls? And why on earth is the gap widening rather than closing?

It’s simple: Voters are paying attention to what the GOP field is saying — not just the applause-line attacks on Obama but what the candidates propose to do about the economy. The more they talk, the more discouraged the electorate seems to become.

This should be the Republicans’ election to lose. They seem well on their way.
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Sen. Harkin: Republican attacks on workers' rights won't create jobs
The Hill
Posted November 16, 2011
With working families struggling to make ends meet and Americans taking to the streets to protest the growing gap between the haves and have-nots, it is long past time for Congress to start coming up with real solutions that will create jobs and rebuild a strong American middle class. Unfortunately, it seems that congressional Republicans are still more interested in playing political games than coming up with solutions. Instead of joining with Democrats to work on job-creation proposals that Americans overwhelmingly support, Republicans are trying to convince Americans that the National Labor Relations Board — a small federal agency charged with defending workers’ rights — is somehow responsible for our nation’s economic woes.

The time and attention that House Republicans have devoted to their attack campaign against the NLRB is nothing short of astonishing. The House Committee on Education and the Workforce has held no fewer than five hearings this year specifically addressing the NLRB, but has not held a single hearing addressing any specific proposal to create jobs. The House refuses to take up the president’s jobs bill but is moving quickly ahead with legislation that would undermine the mission of the board — passing a bill that would make it easier for employers to retaliate against workers and moving a second bill that makes it harder for workers who want a union to hold an election and join one. 
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Majority Say Walker Should Be Recalled
Political Wire
Posted November 16, 2011
A new Wisconsin Public Radio/St. Norbert College poll in Wisconsin finds 58% think Gov. Scott Walker (R) should be recalled from office.

That compares to just 47% who said in April that he should be recalled.

Key findings: "The growth in support for a recall came, surprisingly, from Republicans. In the spring, only 7% of Republicans supported recalling Walker but that grew to 24% in the fall. Support among Democrats held mainly steady at 88% in the spring and 92% in the fall."
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On Behalf of Occupy Boston Participants Who Fear Second Raid, ACLU of Massachusetts & NLG Attorneys File Suit
Firedog Lake
Posted November 16, 2011
The National Lawyers Guild and the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts have filed a suit to protect the Occupy Boston encampment in Dewey Square from the kind of militarized police operation that has been carried out against occupations in New York, Portland, Oregon, and Oakland, California, in recent days.

The suit was filed in Massachusetts Superior Court today.
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IMF Authors: Banking Deregulation Worsens Economic Crises
AFL-CIO Now Blog
Posted November 16, 2011
In corporate boardrooms and right-wing gatherings, so-called "free-market principles" are hailed as the keys to a strong and growing economy. But in reality, according to the authors of a new working paper from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the global financial crisis of 2007-2009 was worse in countries where financial institutions got the deregulation for which they lobbied –and that's also true of the United State
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