This booklet and our work in the past several years demonstrate, there are blocks to our democracy that are preventing real change. The House of Representatives under Speaker Nancy Pelosi passed more than 400 bills from 2009 through 2010 that never survived a motion to proceed in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told me that during the six years that Lyndon Johnson served as majority leader, Johnson faced one filibuster. In Reid’s first years, he faced 386.
In the federal elections alone in 2012, Republican and Democratic candidates, parties and outside groups spent a total of $7 billion. This is not what democracy looks like.
The goal of this program is to lay out the economic conditions facing workers and why we need to join together with other organizations if we are to achieve economic justice and a strong democracy.
In addition, we have included stories from CWA locals and states that have started the work of movement building.
More than 30 states passed voter suppression legislation in the past three years. These measures were designed solely to lower turnout among working, young and older Americans who would likely vote for change. Voter fraud isn’t a problem in the U.S. Blocking the democratic right of citizens to vote is.
Eleven million immigrants are currently blocked from any path to citizenship. Most, if they could vote, would vote with working Americans and against the 1% who control so much.
This booklet is about how we combine the democracy issues (voting rights, broken Senate rules, money in politics and comprehensive immigration reform) with our years of work on our four key economic justice issues (secure jobs and trade, health care, retirement security, bargaining and organizing rights). We are trying to chart a path to a movement of 50 million Americans, ready to join together and fight back!
Our bargaining and organizing, the other two sides of the CWA triangle, have never been tougher, and many ask, “Why?” This booklet helps answer that question and suggests a path forward.
Copies of this booklet in bulk quantities are available by mail. It also can be downloaded at cwa-union.org/economicjustice. CWA partner stories can be found at cwa-union.org/stories.
Together we will make a difference, not only in CWA, but in our communities.
In Solidarity,
Larry