Viewing page 14 of 56

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

FREEDOMWAYS                 SECOND QUARTER 1980

shift from a policy of economic strangulation to a policy of economic stimulation in the public sector. The poor must be equipped to fight inflation and jobs are the best equipment. We reject fighting inflation with unemployment. After all, unemployment is inflationary. For every additional one percent increase in unemployment, one million more people are without work, which amounts to an estimated thirty billion dollar loss to the national economy.

Our first priority is jobs in the private sector, which is collapsing certainly through no fault of poor people. Our second priority is public service jobs. If they fail, in desperation we will accept welfare, unemployment insurance or subsidy. But we want to work. We want to rebuild central cities. We want to clean the sewers, pave the roads, build mass transit, build schools, teach children, build houses and provide services for people who cannot help themselves.

We want to work. We want an economic stimulus package of $25 billion. Three years ago, the economic stimulus package of $20 billion reduced unemployment from nine percent to six percent in a 15-month period.

We want a new focus. The unpatriotic despotism of private industry has ripped off the sweat and money of the American laborer. Undercutting U.S. labor in the world market must stop. The new focus that we seek is not a pipe dream. We will work for it. We will accomplish it. We will march and make the poor visible. We will challenge every official to be accountable to the people. 

We want Parren Mitchell's "Human Needs Amendment" enacted as legislation. We want a better way. The humanity of women must be affirmed. We must affirm the personhood of our mothers and sisters, our aunts and daughters. Any many that would condemn his mother or wife or sister to the eternal damnation of second-class status must examine himself. And any woman who would volunteer for such status, likewise needs self-examination. Women are first-class people; we must reject their second-class status. Justice is indivisible. We start with the simple premise-human rights for human beings. No longer will we accept superior rights for some and inferior rights for others. We demand equal rights for all.

This is called simple justice. Simple justice is, of course, a threat to the hardened arteries of the status quo who cling to the past by habit or culture, ignorance, superstition, economic exploitation or any combination of the above. Our judicial system, which implements our laws, must catch up with natural law.

We in the U.S. are just four percent of the world. We ned everybody in the race for productivity. All minds must be used at optimum capacity for us to survive. Furthermore, we must be concerned about foreign policy. Millions of us came here on foreign policy.

76