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Raising Retail Wages Would Boost Economy
A study by Demos finds that “raising wages in the retails sector at the
largest employers to a threshold of $25,000 a year for full-time, yearround
workers would bring a million and a half people out of poverty,
generate between $11 and $15 billion in GDP, and create between 100,000
and 132,000 new jobs.” Corporations would benefit, too, from a more
loyal work force and greater consumer spending power.
Disaster Officials Offer Loans, Not Aid
Federal officials are more concerned with generating loans to fatten
the $1 billion a year disaster loan service industry, than in providing direct
aid to victims of Hurricane Sandy, according to a study by Strike Debt, an
offshoot of the Occupy Movement. Credit-worthiness, rather than need,
becomes the watchword, said Strike Debt spokesperson Pamela Brown.
“By using the lens of debt, they are exacerbating any kinds of inequalities
that are already existing” in disaster-struck areas, “putting renters and
minority communities” in additional jeopardy.
No Charge, No Trial, No Justice
Civil and human rights activists gathered at Central Connecticut State
University, at New Britain, for a conference on preventive detention, last
weekend. President Obama’s preventive detention law, part of the National
Defense Authorization Act, was designed to target “those who are engage
in dissent,” said conference organizer Daniel Adams. Activists should also
oppose more recent legislation that might exempt U.S. citizens from
detention without charge or trial. “It’s got to be all of us or none of us,”
said Adams.
Labor:
Economy:
Cuban state grudgingly cedes ground to business cooperatives
By
Marc Frank