In February 1960, Dr. Martin Luther King sent this to 11 jailed protestors:

I HAVE JUST LEARNED OF YOUR COURAGEOUS WILLINGNESS TO GO TO JAIL INSTEAD

I HAVE JUST LEARNED OF YOUR COURAGEOUS WILLINGNESS TO GO TO JAIL INSTEAD

OF PAYING FINES FOR YOUR RIGHTEOUS PROTEST AGAINST SEGREGATED

EATING FACILITIES. THROUGH THIS DECISION YOU HAVE AGAIN PROVEN THAT THERE IS NOTHING MORE MAJESTIC AND SUBLIME THAN THE DETERMINED COURAGE OF INDIVIDUALS WILLING TO SUFFER AND SACRIFICE FOR THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM. YOU HAVE DISCOVERED ANEW THE MEANING OF THE CROSS, AND AS CHRIST DIED TO MAKE MEN HOLY, YOU ARE SUFFERING TO MAKE MEN FREE. AS YOU SUFFER THE INCONVENIENCE OF REMAINING IN JAIL, PLEASE REMEMBER THAT UNEARNED SUFFERING IS REDEMPTIVE. GOING TO JAIL FOR A RIGHTEOUS

CAUSE IS A BADGE OF HONOR AND A SYMBOL OF DIGNITY. I ASSURE YOU

THAT YOUR VALIANT WITNESS IS ONE OF THE GLOWING EPICS OF OUR TIME AND YOU ARE BRINGING ALL OF AMERICA NEARER THE THRESHHOLD O F T H E WORLD’S BRIGHT TOMORROWS.

   If he was alive today, he would have been with the other 5,000 people at the rally yesterday in D.C. to protest a meeting of the CEOs of the insurance industry who were gathered at the posh Ritz Carlton (no harm to yours truly was done):

   This was inevitable and quite worrisome:

Companies are quietly and gradually moving their pension funds out of stocks. They want to reduce their investment risk and are buying more long-term bonds.

But states and other bodies of government are seeking higher returns for their pension funds, to make up for ground lost in the last couple of years and to pay all the benefits promised to present and future retirees. Higher returns come with more risk.

“In effect, they’re going to Las Vegas,” said Frederick E. Rowe, a Dallas investor and the former chairman of the Texas Pension Review Board, which oversees public plans in that state. “Double up to catch up.”

Though they generally say that their strategies are aimed at diversification and are not riskier, public pension funds are trying a wide range of investments: commodity futures, junk bonds, foreign stocks, deeply discounted mortgage-backed securities and margin investing. And some states that previously shunned hedge funds are trying them now.[emphasis added]

   If te crash of the market wasn't enough to endanger pension funds, now, the pressure to recoup may ignite a double hit on the retirement of millions of Americans.

   Here is a contrast: the Congress passed a $15 billion jobs bill that could charitably be called pathetic--it *might* create a couple of hundred thousands new jobs, when we need almost 11 million jobs just to get back to pre-crisis levels. On the other hand, any health care reform bill that seems like it might squeak through would hand the insurance industry tens of billions of dollars in new profits from all the people who will now be forced to buy insurance at insurance industry price--this is the industry that has bankrupted people and business all over the nation.

   Is there something wrong with this picture?

The greatest threat to our future is the way in which we let certain trends and norms become an almost accepted way the economy works. For example, the poverty-level minimum wage is rarely challenged and it is a fundamental part of the strategy of business in America--and a core reason for the greatest divide between rich and poor in 100 years. Today, in recognition of International Women's Day, I want to raise the on-going reality that women are still paid less than men--and that is a global truth.

   The issue of trade has sort of receded into the background. Yesterday, though, Sen. Sherrod Brown made clear that he is not thrilled with the Administration's stance:

For too long, our country has followed a Golden Rule trade policy: we treat others as we’d like them to treat us.  That’s a great rule for interpersonal relations, but it’s a disaster for international trade relations.
 
“While I appreciate that the President’s Trade Agenda is strong on trade enforcement and reciprocity, there is no emphasis on ensuring that the trade policies we are pursuing actually benefit the United States.  We still need Ambassador Kirk to develop an action plan to address any negative effects from existing trade agreements.
 
“I’ve introduced The Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act which would provide for a thorough review of our trade agreements. We need hard data on the effect our trade agreements have on American wages and jobs, so that we know what we are getting ourselves into before we move forward. We must craft our trade policy around what’s right for American workers and American businesses. I am concerned that, instead, we will cling to the same trade agreement models that have produced such poor results.  
 
“The Administration appears to be moving forward on a trade agenda without showing how it would reduce the trade deficit and create new jobs. I support the President’s National Export Initiative of doubling exports within five years, but we need to look at both sides of the trade equation. We must address the inequities in our trade policy that have resulted in record trade deficits and lost jobs. If we are going to have an aggressive export strategy, we must be willing to use all tools available – which include invoking Super 301 authority and combating currency manipulation – to advance our economic interests.”

   A footnote to the TRADE Act's prospects. Last fall, I wrote that Charles Rangel was among the people trying to derail or at least slow down the passage of the TRADE Act, using his perch as chair of the Ways and Means Committee. Hmmm...

Yesterday, I raised my concerns about the Senate's proposal to hand more power to the Federal Reserve Board and give the Fed the role of protecting consumers. Honestly, I thought it was a cruel joke and a perfect example of the Washington insiders protecting the interests of Wall Street. Barney Frank agrees.

  Here is what Rep. Frank, who is the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said yesterday:

"When I first heard it, I thought it was a joke," he said. "More consumer powers have resided in the Fed for some time than in any other agency, and they haven’t done it well."

  Though I have been concerned that parts of the House financial reform legislation itself was watered down in the face of furious lobbying by Wall Street, at least the House bill does call for an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency. That is the proposal that I support and that is what the people of the country deserve.

  We have not lost this battle--yet. There is significant opposition to an emerging bi-partisan Senate compromise.

"Monetary policy is in the penthouse of the Fed, ‘safety and soundness’ are on the upper floors, and consumer protection has been stashed in the basement," said Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon. To accept the new proposal, he said, "I’d have to be convinced that the culture of the Fed has gone through some radical change."[emphasis added]

  And outside the Senate, this important point from John Taylor, president and chief executive of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition:

"The Fed has repeatedly shown a lack of desire to enforce the laws that are already on its books," Mr. Taylor said. Asked where he would want to house the new consumer agency, if not at the Fed, he replied: "I’d take the National Zoo over these guys. This is a place to bury it, or at least to make it ineffective."

Travis B. Plunkett, legislative director for the Consumer Federation of America, noted that the Fed acted only after a crisis emerged to rein in subprime mortgage lenders, though it had had that authority since 1994.[emphasis added]

  We need to generate very strong opposition to the Senate Banking Committee's apparent "compromise". Putting consumer protection in the hands of the Fed, as Barney Frank says, is a joke. It is almost guaranteeing future financial misconduct on the part of the interests that have drained millions of Americans of their life savings and economic security.

  ACTION:

  Call Chris Dodd (202-224-2823) and tell him that you oppose giving the Fed a power that it will not use for the benefit of the people.

  Call Barney Frank (202-225-5931) and urge him to stand strong for an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

  Thanks for your activism!

Being a sports fan, I'm even more curious about Jim Bunning denying unemployment benefit extensions to millions of workers. Bunning once pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies and Detroit Tigers and, incredible as it may seem now, was not only a union member, but also an activist.

When the players were orgnanizing the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), their current union, he was a member of the screening committee to select an exective director. Marvin Miller, who got the job and held it for the MLBPA's first 15 years, recalls in "A Whole Different Ballgame" meeting Bunning and the other two members of the committee for the first time. No sooner than he walked through the door he heard, "If you are elected executive director of this union, your general counsel will be Richard Nixon." Miller wanted to laugh, but saw all three members waiting expectantly for his answer.

Miller knew right then and there he had his work cut out for him. He told them that Nixon was a whole lot more attuned to the interests of the owners than players and that of all the people he'd like working next to him, Nixon would rank very near the bottom of the list.

So, how did Bunning digress so much from being a union activist to saying "Tough shit!" to unemployed workers? Father time is one reason.  His baseball career ended four decades ago. Another it is not as uncommon as one might think to do a 180 over the course of time. Ronald Reagan was president of the Screen Actors Guild before becoming governor of California and then President. He not only was not pro-union, but the most anti-union and anti-worker president in our history.

This is being cross-posted, with permission from MassLaborNews.com

UFCW Local 1459 gathered with some 70 workers including at least nine other local unions at a Springfield Stop and Shop hiring hall on Friday afternoon. The union and its labor allies held an information picket to draw attention to Stop & Shop's confrontational plan to use replacement workers if there is a strike.

Chanting "What do we want? Justice!" the workers made it clear to the community that Stop and Shop, which reported record profits last year, has no intention of sharing those profits with its loyal workforce, instead it would rather have inexperienced scab labor doing the work of its loyal employees.

"We are sending a message out that we believe Stop and Shop has an obligation to the community and that they are taking advantage of the unemployment rate bringing in temporary workers," says Rick Brown, Executive Vice President of Local 1459.

Brown says that the workers' hours have been cut a little more each day and those on the job are doing the work of two people, sometimes three. With $6.8 billion dollars earned last year, the workers say they just "want a piece of the dream."

"It just seems that every year a little more is taken from us," Stop and Shop employee Jay Babineau says. "And I just don't think that's right. Not for a company that made the profits they made this year."

Babineau has been working for Stop & Shop for 24 years. He says he loves his job but, enough is enough ... "We want fair wages -- and they are offering us pennies, nickels and dimes."

Brown says that the workers successfully turned temporary replacement workers around from the hiring hall hiring scab labor for Stop and Shop. "Once people were informed that they would be taking the jobs of current employees, and that these jobs were only temporary, they thought twice about applying."

Negotiations between the union and company resume Tuesday, and though the workers say that they don't want a strike, Brown says they are ready to do so if needed.

    Since humans learned to make boats, many different ships have sailed the waters – great and small – of the world.  The same is true of the ways humans have organized themselves into communities and governments. . . or gone it alone.  While all ships sail the waters, not all stay afloat, get their passengers where they need to go, or travel comfortably.

    Ocean liners are of no use on a pond, and while canoes can go on the ocean they must stick close to shore. The same goes for how we humans organize ourselves.  Human history includes communities built on slavery, child and human sacrifice, disease, starvation, as well as those that promoted learning, health, and well being.  Some communities flourished, while others struggled, foundered, and sank beneath the waves.  Small ships - small waters. Forms of government that work for families or villages are wholly inadequate to govern countries.

    So, what is our ship, and how goes our sailing?
 

   It is hard to overstate how out-of-touch the insiders in Washington are--and how much they are far more attuned to the demands of Wall Street and the financial powers-that-be. You can't find a better example than the apparent bi-partisan deal to give the Federal Reserve Board more power--and, most astonishingly, the power to protect consumers.