A guide to action

Following are excerpts from a Bail Out the People Movement draft document adopted at the Jan. 17 Fightback Conference in NYC. The paper outlines a plan of action including International Women’s Day; Wall Street actions on April 3 and 4; May Day; a march on Washington, D.C., in the fall, along with a People’s Assembly; support for the March 21 March on the Pentagon; as well as the need to build an army of organizers for the coming battles. The document can be read in its entirety at www.bailoutpeople.org.

In 2009, more and more lives are going to be devastated by the biggest global economic crisis since the depression of the 1930s. This crisis is the challenge of a lifetime for those of us who have made a commitment to fighting for the rights of people. What we do or fail to do will prove decisive in the coming battle over whose interests in society shall prevail.

Part of the legacy of Dr. King is the understanding that no election or president—however historical and inspiring—can be a substitute for a mass movement in the struggle against war or for social and economic rights.

The following draft program is a work in progress. It does not address every issue and concern. Like the Fightback—it will grow: A real jobs program that guarantees either a union wage job or income to all; an immediate moratorium on foreclosures, evictions, layoffs, utility shut-offs and prison construction; an indefinite extension of unemployment benefits; expand unemployment insurance to all who are unemployed; no cutbacks in social programs including tuition hikes and public transportation fare hikes; health care for all, no privatization; stop all federal raids, arrests and deportations of undocumented workers; reconstruction in the Gulf Coast; fight for right of return of Katrina/Rita survivors guided by a people’s elected reconstruction authority; prosecute racist killer police and set up civilian police accountability boards; a cleanup now of communities impacted by environmental racism and establish elected environmental control authorities; support anti-war GIs and veterans’ organizations’ demands including those for health care, benefits and jobs.