City Council Presentation for Tuesday, December 13, 2011 by WILPF / Occupy on the two resolutions: Support Occupy / Support People's Budget Resolution - A Beginning;
Speaker #1- Intro
Mayor Kevin Johnson, City Council Members, Sacramento Residents and Occupiers across the nation, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Sacramento Valley Branch comes before the council today, along with community members, and as part of the Occupy Wall Street Movement, to encourage you to pass two resolutions. The Support Occupy Resolution calls on you to cease the arrest and harassment of Occupiers for exercising First Amendment rights in Sacramento and to give amnesty to those already arrested.
Our related resolution is called Support the People's Budget - A Beginning. The People's Budget aims to "ensure that ALL Americans are put on the path to prosperity, not just the wealthiest 1%."
We come to you today with these related solutions, as our city's jobs and services are disappearing quickly. In contrast to this unraveling of the fabric of our society, we ask you, Mayor and Council Members, to imagine Occupiers in city after city, putting our bodies on the line, practicing nonviolent civil disobedience in support of a national People's Budget. Would you then publicly convey a resolution in support of the People's Budget to our local representatives and senators in the U.S. Congress?
Even if you say yes, this will not happen until Sacramento residents, Occupiers across the nation, the 99% know that the People's Budget even exists.
With the unanimous support of the Occupy Sacramento General Assembly to educate on the existence of the People's Budget and to present the People's Budget Resolution, I now focus my attention on Sacramento residents and Occupiers across the nation.
It's also important for us to know about the existence of the 76 member group at the highest level of U.S. elected office, which has had the backs of the 99% for decades, and which has been hidden from us by the 1%'s commercial corporate media. It's this group of 76 that wrote the People's Budget.
One of the 76 is our Oakland neighbor's fearless Congresswoman Barbara Lee. Just after 9/11 she was the only one out of 535 members of Congress to speak up to Resident Bush and say don't bomb Afghanistan, "Let us not become that which we deplore." For that she received death threats.
Speaker #2
Mayor Kevin Johnson, City Council Members, Sacramento residents and Occupiers across the nation -
We encourage you to stand with us to stop the city, county, statewide, cross country budget cuts. The People's Budget has found $5.6 trillion dollars in savings to increase affordable housing, close the widening income gap, increase funding for HIV/AIDS, maternal health and services for our vets. It provides job training and a good jobs program across the nation, helping to slow down the pipeline to prison, violence and crime.
The corporatocracy 1% has our government in lockdown. You'll need the support of Occupiers in Sacramento and across the nation voting with our bodies, practicing our First Amendment rights to nonviolent protest and peaceful assembly.
Our government is in lockdown, yet the money is there, in the People's Budget. The National Nurses United have also written an alternative federal budget. They know the money is there. The People's Budget - A Beginning Resolution provides links to this alternative budget, along with Zeese's Alternative Budget from Occupy Washington D.C.
We all know the money is there!
As we say at Occupy, "Government: It's not that it's too big. It's that it's too bought."
We invite you to gain courage through the existence of Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Sacramento. Support our two resolutions and make it clear that our government is not for sale.
And if we, the 99%, increase our ability to identify those who have our back, and isolate those who are bought by the 1%, the 99% will prevail!
As one of the people in high elected office who has our back, Senator Bernie Sanders, one of the writers of the People's Budget says:
"Here's the issue: The issue is that in fact, this country does have a serious deficit problem. But the reality is that the deficit was caused by two wars not paid for, huge tax breaks for the wealthiest people in this country, and a recession as the result of the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior on Wall Street. And if those are the causes of the deficit and the national debt, I will be damned if we're going to balance the budget on the backs of the elderly, the sick, the children, and the poor. That's wrong."
Speaker #3
Mayor Kevin Johnson, City Council Members,
I am a Sacramento community member and I support the Occupy movement. Our government and economic system are in crisis. The Joint Congressional Committee on the Deficit ended in stalemate on how to reduce the deficit.
In the midst of this, the People's Budget exists! Introduced in April of this year by the 76-member Congressional Progressive Caucus, it eliminates the deficit and raises a $31 billion surplus in 10 years. It does this while protecting Social Security, Medicaid and Medi-Cal, and Medicare, along with other middle-class and low-income safety nets. Instead of cutting these popular programs, it targets the deficit’s main drivers: the Bush tax cuts, the wars overseas, and the causes and effects of the recent recession.
The General Assembly of Occupy Sacramento unanimously approved our presentation of the People's Budget Resolution because the values of Occupy and the values in the People’s Budget are one and the same.
Occupy says, “Tax the Rich!”
The People’s Budget calls for an end to the Bush tax cuts on schedule at the end of 2012, while extending the tax cuts for middle and low-income families. The People's Budget also calls for new tax rates for millionaires and billionaires.
Occupy says, “Make Banks Pay!”
The People’s Budget calls for a financial crisis responsibility fee and a Wall Street tax on the kinds of complex trades that were the direct cause of the financial crisis.
Occupy says, “Protect Social Security!”
The People’s Budget safeguards Social Security for the next 75 years by eliminating the individual Social Security payroll cap to make sure upper income earners pay their fair share.
Occupy says, “Bail Out Main Street Not Wall Street!”
The People’s Budget provides a nationwide good jobs program; affordable higher education, healthcare, and housing; provides foreclosure financial assistance; and rebuilds roads and bridges while investing in clean energy.
Occupy says, “End the Oil Wars!”
The People’s Budget responsibly ends our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Eliminating all emergency defense funding for these wars, starting in 2013, would save $1.6 trillion by 2021 over the 2011 baseline.
The People’s Budget is real. It is fair. It is here, now.
Make clear where your priorities lie. Pass the "People's Budget - A Beginning" Resolution.
Speaker #4
Mayor, City Council Members, residents of Sacramento, Occupiers nationwide,
Again, these resolutions are presented to you by Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) - Sacramento Valley Branch as part of the Occupy Wall Street Movement, along with community members, Occupy supporters. Our organization is intergenerational, started almost one hundred years ago, before women or Native American people got the vote, and long before African American people could vote without fear of being arrested or worse.
It may be interesting to know some background on WILPF. Women's International League for Peace and Freedom was started in the middle of World War I by Jane Addams, who, while born into money, not poverty, chose to devote her life to living among and helping the immigrant community of her day. Women from the U.S. and Europe met in the Hague, crossing borders of their own enemy countries in the middle of a war zone, in the middle of WWI to create Peace and to take down militarism nonviolently, just as we support the People's Budget as a beginning and are part of the Occupy Wall Street Movement today.
To find out more about the history of the mess we're in, check out the book, A People's History, and it's companion cartoon, People's History of American Empire, by historian and civil rights activist, Professor Howard Zinn. To find out more about the money madness of the mess we're in, check out The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, in book form or on DVD.
You can find us at www.sacwilpf.org.
The wealth of our community knowledge magnifies the power of Occupy!
Email sent to City Council prior to the meeting
December 6, 2011
Dear {Council Member / Mayor},
Below are two resolutions that will be presented to the City Council on December 13. Both of the resolutions have been endorsed for such presentation by the unanimous approval of the Occupy Sacramento General Assembly on November 30, 2011
The Sacramento Branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has worked with the Occupy Sacramento General Assembly to bring these resolution to the attention of the City Council. We believe that the Council can act powerfully to expand public awareness of the range of federal budget alternatives by supporting the People's Budget as one valuable alternative. The money our city needs for vital services is there, in the alternative federal budgets!
For your reference, I attach a one-page summary document about the People's Budget, from Representative Grijalva's website.
Sincerely, ______________, U.S. WILPF Board Member,
for the Sacramento branch of WILPF
Here are the two resolutions that Occupy Sacramento and WILPF - Sacramento, as part of Occupy, presented at Sacramento City Council on December 13, 2011.
1. The Support Occupy Resolution calls on our Mayor and City Council to cease the arrest and harassment of Occupiers, and to give amnesty to those already arrested.
2. The Support the People's Budget Resolution - A Beginning (with references for further information):
The War Dollars Home Resolution passed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors last June called on the President and U.S. Congress to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as soon as strategically possible and (emphasis added) "bring these war dollars home to meet vital human needs, promote job creation, rebuild our infrastructure, aid municipal and state governments, and develop a new economy based upon renewable, sustainable energy and reduce the federal debt."
In the People's Budget, written by the 76-member Congressional Progressive Caucus, we've found even more funds- $5.6 trillion over the next 10 years-to create good jobs, affordable higher education and affordable housing in Sacramento and across the nation, while protecting health and other safety nets for the 99%. Other organizations such as National Nurses United have developed budget proposals which identify even more funding sources while reducing the deficit, strengthening the economy and providing more jobs and public services. However, the Peoples Budget is a good beginning budget proposal and has already been presented to Congress.
We call on Mayor Kevin Johnson and the Sacramento City Council to publicly convey a resolution in support of the People's Budget to U.S. Representatives Matsui and Lungren and to Senators Feinstein and Boxer.
References:
Congressional Progressive Caucus and the People's Budget: http://www.thepeoplesbudget.org - connects directly to the one page summary; http://grijalva.house.gov/uploads/The%20CPC%20FY2012%20Budget.pdf - links directly to the Official CPC Executive Summary
National Nurses United, AFL-CIO, Alternative vision for the president's budget: http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/blog/entry/an-alternative-vision-for-the-presidents-budget/
The 99%'s Deficit Proposal: How to create jobs, reduce the wealth divide and control spending, Prepared by Occupy Washington DC, posted by Kevin Zeese - 17 November 2011:
War Dollars Home resolution: http://codepinkalert.org/article.php?id=5774