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ACTION ALERT: All this week, there are hundreds of “solidarity” events happening all across America (and the world, actually) to bring together voices and constituencies in support of working people and their rights to organize and bargain collectively, and calling for just and democratic policies and programs that address our common needs, including health care. These events are being coordinated under the “We Are One” banner, and started on yesterday to mark the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. You can see full details, pictures, etc. at http://www.aflcio.org/splash_april4_live.cfm?continue=http://www.we-r-1.org/weareone_april4.cfm As you can see when you search for events in the NYC area, the culmination event for this week will be a mass rally in Times Square taking place this Saturday, Apr. 9 starting at 12 noon. We urge everyone to attend, to stand up for the labor and social rights for ALL of us! Today, leaders of the current Republican majority in the House of Representatives came out with a whole variety of budget proposals that will, in sum, eviscerate core social programs that working families all across our nation, and many of us here in New York, rely on daily. In particular, they are calling for the privatization of Medicare, and the “block-granting” of Medicaid. Not only are these bad ideas in and of themselves, but they fundamentally undermine the recent steps we have finally taken as a nation, after nearly a century, toward health care for all in America. These proposals are but the latest effort to undermine the new health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act. In total, looking at these proposals alongside what has also been happening in Wisconsin and Ohio and Indiana and Tennessee, and to some degree here in New York too given the recently adopted state budget, our fundamental social contract is under attack and being shredded...all in the name of keeping things very comfortable for those few among us who have the most, and powerful special interests wanting to protect and grow their own piece of the pie (...if not take and keep the whole pie!) We cannot, and WILL not, let that happen. We have enormous work in front of us in the days ahead, to beat back the forces of destruction and reassert a justice and human needs agenda. We will be keeping you informed about efforts that you can join in to push-back. In the meantime, here’s what you can do NOW:
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