Tag Archives: Economics

Social Security Champions Sound Alarm After Trump Picks Wall Street Titan to Run SSA

“Nothing in Mr. Bisignano’s career suggests that he understands the unique needs of older and disabled Americans,” said the Alliance for Retired Americans’ leader.

By Eloise Goldsmith. Published 12-6-2024 by Common Dreams

*Frank Bisignano.. Photo Fiserv/Facebook*

Critics of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to run the Social Security Administration, Frank Bisignano, warned this week that the Wall Street veteran may not be the best choice to run an agency that provides one of America’s most important social safety nets.

“President-elect Trump has nominated financial software CEO and GOP donor Frank Bisignano to head the agency that administers Social Security benefits for some 70 million Americans. If confirmed, Bisignano will be accountable—not to corporate boards or stockholders—but to the American people, who depend on their Social Security benefits and pay for them over a lifetime of work,” said Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, in a Thursday statement.

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‘Monumental Victory’: Wisconsin Judge Axes Walker-Era Attack on Union Rights

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“All Wisconsinites deserve the opportunity to live in a state that treats all workers with respect and dignity,” one state representative said.

By Olivia Rosane. Published 12-3-2024 by Common Dreams

More than a decade after it sparked massive protests in the state capital, a Wisconsin judge on Monday struck down a controversial law that effectively ended public sector collective bargaining in the state.

In his final judgement, Dane County Circuit Judge Jacob Frost crossed out 85 sections of the 2011 law known as Act 10, which was championed by then-Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Frost’s ruling restored the union rights of teachers, sanitation workers, nurses, and other public sector employees.

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‘Monumental Victory for the Ocean’: Norway Halts Plans for Deep-Sea Mining

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One campaigner called it “a testament to the power of principled, courageous political action, and… a moment to celebrate for environmental advocates, ocean ecosystems, and future generations alike.”

By Olivia Rosane. Published 12-2-2024 by Common Dreams

*Kirsti Bergstø, leader of the Socialist Left Party, speaks at a protest against deep-sea mining outside Norwegian Parliament. Photo: Greenpeace*

Environmental organizations cheered as Norway’s controversial plans to move forward with deep-sea mining in the vulnerable Arctic Ocean were iced on Sunday.

The pause was won in Norway’s parliament by the small Socialist Left (SV) Party in exchange for its support in passing the government’s 2025 budget.

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Major Plastic Polluters Win as UN Treaty Talks Conclude Without Agreement

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“Every day that governments allow polluters to continue flooding the world with plastic, we all pay the price,” said one campaigner.

By Jon Queally. Published 12-1-2024 by Common Dreams

*A bale of crushed PET drink bottles at a recycling facility in San Jose, California Photo: Grendelkhan/Wikimedia Commons/CC*

Environmental groups on Sunday decried the conclusion of a United Nations summit designed to secure an international treaty to combat plastic pollution after powerful oil- and gas-producing nations refused to agree to production limits and other more aggressive measures to curb pollution.

Failure to reach an agreement means the talks—known as the INC-5 round that took place in Busan, South Korea—will be extended to another round, but campaigners said the sabotage of a far-reaching treaty by fossil fuel interests is wasting precious time that the world’s ecosystems, wildlife, and people can no longer afford.

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What would it mean if President-elect Trump dismantled the US Department of Education?

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By Kevin Welner. Published 11-21-2024 by The Conversation

*Republicans have sought to destroy the Education Department almost since its inception*. *Photo: Thomas Hawk/flickr/CC*

In her role as former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, Linda McMahon oversaw an enterprise that popularized the “takedown” for millions of wrestling fans. But as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of education, the Trump loyalist may be tasked with taking down the very department Trump has asked her to lead.

If Trump does dismantle the Department of Education as he has promised to do, he will have succeeded at something that President Ronald Reagan vowed to do in 1980. Just like Trump, Reagan campaigned on abolishing the department, which at the time was only a year old. Since then, the Republican Party platform has repeatedly called for eliminating the Education Department, which oversees a range of programs and initiatives. These include special funding for schools in low-income communities – known as Title I – and safeguarding the rights of students with disabilities.

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Black Friday Actions in 30+ Countries Aim to ‘Make Amazon Pay’

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“When we announced our intention to protest today, our management attempted to stop us in multiple ways. We want to say to Amazon—you could not stop us today, you cannot stop us in the future,” said one union leader.

By Eloise Goldsmith. Published 11-29-2024 by Common Dreams

*Amazon workers in Bad Hersfeld, Germany participate in a demonstration as part of the “Make Amazon Pay” campaign. Photo: UNI Global Union/X*

Amazon workers and their allies are participating in a series of global actions aimed at holding the online retailer “accountable for labor abuses, environmental degradation, and threats to democracy,” according to the labor group UNI Global Union.

Dubbed “Make Amazon Pay,” the campaign is set to last from November 29 to December 2 and will include strikes and protests across six continents, according to the group—and is timed to disrupt Black Friday (or “Make Amazon Pay Day”) and Cyber Monday, two of the busiest online shopping days of the year.

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COP29 puts world on course for more extreme weather – and more deaths

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Summit proves change won’t come until floods and wildfires are killing tens of thousands in rich Global North cities

By Paul Rogers. Published 11-25-2024 by openDemocracy

While COP29 in Baku narrowly avoided collapsing, its results were bitterly disappointing for delegations from across the Global South, who ended up with barely a quarter of the annual $1.3trn of support they were seeking by 2035 to respond to climate breakdown.

Quite apart from other factors, more than 1,500 pro-carbon lobbyists worked hard to limit progress and ensure that burning oil, gas and coal at profit continues for as long as possible whatever the global consequences. After all, the world’s fossil fuel industries rake in around a trillion dollars in profits a year.

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Ahead of Plastics Treaty Talks, Millions Demand Production Cuts

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“This plastic crisis is rooted in the overproduction of single-use plastics, building for us and future generations a very toxic legacy,” said one Indonesian youth activist.

By Jessica Corbett. Published 11-24-2024 by Common Dreams

Ahead of the fifth and final round of negotiations for a global plastics treaty in Busan, South Korea, people took to the streets to demand meaningful action from world leaders. Photo: #BreakFreeFromPlastic/X

With the fifth and final round of global plastics treaty negotiations set to begin Monday in Busan, South Korea, an estimated 1,500 people took to the city’s streets and nearly 3 million more signed a petition calling for a legally binding pact “to drastically reduce production and use, and protect human health and the environment.”

The Saturday march at the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center was led by the global Break Free From Plastic (BFFP) movement and local allies from the Uproot Plastics Coalition. They want the treaty to include targets to slash production.

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Unions Note Chavez-DeRemer’s Record, ‘But Donald Trump Is the President-Elect’

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The DOL pick has sparked debates about how much she will actually “do right by workers” and whether “Teamsters president Sean O’Brien and Donald Trump are effectively dividing the labor movement.”

By Jessica Corbett. Published 11-23-2024 by Common Dreams

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, center, poses for a photo with Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) and International Brotherhood of Teamsters general president Sean O’Brien. Photo: Sean O’Brien/X

Amid a flurry of Friday night announcements about key roles in the next Trump administration, one stood out to union leaders and other advocates for working people: Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer, an Oregon Republican, for labor secretary.

Chavez-DeRemer, who lost her reelection bid to Democrat Janelle Bynum earlier this month, “has built a pro-labor record in Congress, including as one of only three Republicans to co-sponsor the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act and one of eight Republicans to co-sponsor the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act,” said AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler in a statement.

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Dr. Oz Nomination Seen as Potential Boon for Medicare Privatization

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“Dr. Oz wants to fully privatize Medicare,” warned one advocacy group. “That’s why Donald Trump put him in charge of Medicare.”

By Eloise Goldsmith. Published 11-20-2024 by Common Dreams

Dr. Mehmet Oz, whose unsuccessful 2022 Pennsylvania Senate bid included pitching voters on a plan to expand the privatized Medicare Advantage program, is now in a position to potentially actualize that plan.

President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Oz, also known by his TV personality name Dr. Oz, is his pick to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

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Occupy World Writes

The Movement Continues – Globally

Tag Archives: Economics