Organizing the Un- and Underemployed:

Unleashing the Mass Potential and Winning

By Tony Romano and Bill Fletcher, Jr.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The depression is deepening. More people in the United States than ever before are being
denied the basic right to work and are suffering greatly. At the same time, only a small
percentage of the un- and underemployed are organized. Thus, the millions who are
hardest hit by the economic crisis are not collectively advocating for their interests and
leading the change we need. In fact, those responsible for the economic crisis are still
calling the shots, while the conservative movement is gaining in strength and threatening
to pull the country further rightward. This proposal goes to the heart of the contradiction
and seeks to put the most important people in this crisis in the position they belong in --
front and center!

Vision

Our proposal is to initiate a multi-racial national project in 3-5 cities that will organize
thousands of un- and underemployed workers to advocate for their rights. This project
will be an important seed that contributes to building a militant and democratic mass
movement in the United States to a level of scale and vision necessary to win jobs,
training and relief for the millions in need. The vision seeks to create a massive and
constant presence of those directly impacted in the street, in the media, in the halls of
government and in the headquarters of banks and corporations. The ultimate aim is to
shift the national debate around work and jobs to the perspective of those hardest hit,
and to win short-term local and long-term national victories. We believe these next two
years must be a time of aggressive experimentation and escalation of un- and
underemployed organizing that includes collaboration and strategizing amongst all those
engaged in the work. In each of the 3-5 cities of our national project, we will launch new
initiatives and/or build upon existing ones. We will follow a common vision and strategy
and engage in a high level of sharing and coordination. Given the strategic importance of
the South and the limited organizing there, one site will be Atlanta, Georgia. The other
participating cities will be chosen within the next two months. Ultimately, through this
national project and collaborating with others engaged in this work, including the AFL-
CIO, Jobs with Justice, Right to the City, and numerous unaffiliated projects, we seek to
be an integral part of building a national unified movement of un- and underemployed
workers that is vitally needed at this time.

Amongst the un- and underemployed, we will target those hardest hit--lower wage
workers. They have the least cushion and the most insecurity. While this is a multi-racial
project organizing people of color and whites, we will prioritize people of color,
particularly Blacks and Latinas/os, who are the last hired, first fired and most exploited
due to structural racism. It is no surprise that people of color had the highest un- and
underemployment rates going into the crisis and now disproportionately are losing the
most jobs and work hours. White workers, favored through race privilege, have been
deeply affected by the economic crisis and are an important part of this effort due to their
sheer numbers and their critical role in challenging racism. Building unity across race
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and nationality will be vital to the success of this project. Without it, workers will be
divided and our movement will not reach the level of scale and shared vision necessary.
This unity will by no means be automatic and must be deliberately built through robust
leadership development and ongoing joint practice in the streets. A clear anti-racist
mission and platform will be at the core of all our organizing, and will at times impact the
pace of growth.

Our vision is based on a human rights framework, the idea that each human being has
fundamental rights to which they are entitled and to which all governments and entities
including corporations must recognize and insure. The right to work is one of these
human rights. By “right to work” we do not refer to the anti-worker law in the South, but
rather a right to a job that allows one to live with dignity and to meet their needs. Work
is an activity through which we fulfill our potential as human beings to be productive,
creative and use and develop all our capacities. All work must be fairly remunerated
including currently unpaid labor like childcare, workfare and domestic work, all done
generally by women. The right to work does not exist in isolation, but rather exists
alongside the right of every person to leisure, the right to subsist and farm, and all other
human rights that are collectively essential for each of us to live with dignity, security and
happiness. Furthermore, the right to work must be fought for people internationally.
The right must be lifted up simultaneously in the US and around the world, particularly
in the Global South.

The Opportunity

Drawing lessons from history, the two keys to winning are clear: scale and vision. In the
1930’s, the movement of workers and unemployed reached levels of scale in the hundreds
of thousands (at times millions) and were guided by left and progressive organizations
that had clear long-term visions challenging racism and economic injustice. The results
were some of the greatest progressive victories in the history of the US—including the
National Labor Relations Act, Works Progress Administration, unemployment relief, and
social security.

Despite this rich history and the significant organizing efforts currently underway, the
progressive workers’ movement today is generally weak while the political Right is visible,
vocal and gaining strength. However, the number of un- and underemployed is over 25
million and steady growing. The official unemployment rates, which fail to count many,
are 16.6% for Blacks, 12.2% for Hispanics and 8.7% for whites. For each group, this is an
increase of over 60% from just 2 years ago. Furthermore, youth and students have the
highest unemployment rates--44.2% of Blacks between 16 and 19 years old, 35% of
Hispanic youth and 23.2% of white youth. Thus, with the economy in crisis and the
growing numbers being impacted and looking for answers, the opportunity is ripe for a
progressive alternative. We must seize the moment and take the bold move that is
necessary—to launch an aggressive effort to organize the growing masses of un- and
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underemployed workers and build the necessary power to win. Our proposal for action
below details what this entails.

Proposal for Action

This proposal addresses how to achieve both the scale and vision we need to win.

Scale

To reach scale, our model must be designed for growth and to allow hundreds of
thousands to join, benefit, transform and be active. The structure must allow for a large
membership in each neighborhood formation, but more importantly the ability to
initiate, nurture and grow hundreds if not thousands of smaller branches; this is where
scale will ultimately be achieved. The structure must be simple. Everyone from leader to
basic member must know and understand it.

To reach scale, the ratio of staff to member has to drastically increase from what is
common today in many community organizations (one staff to 200 members). Beyond a
core of paid central staff, the goal should be one full-time paid staff organizer to
thousands of members. We must rely heavily on volunteer leadership. We will
deliberately target groups that have a level of skill, discipline, enthusiasm and experience
to facilitate their assuming leadership and membership roles. The primary two groups we
will target are 1) laid off or former union workers and 2) community college/state
university students and recent graduates. We will implement internships for students
that will allow them to get course credit and training for future membership roles. Scale
also requires a sophisticated communications strategy that has tight and clear branding,
messaging and framing. In terms of resources, we must seek in-kind donations and
volunteer labor. The main sources of revenue must be individual donations from middle
and upper class allies, grassroots fundraising, and membership dues. Foundation money
must be considered a secondary source of funding due to the shrinking coffers and the
limited will to fund this work.

Vision

Achieving scale, without a clear vision, will not bring success. Scale may yield wins like
more jobs but alone will not yield the long term power necessary to hold on to the wins
and to fundamentally transform society’s structural inequities.

To win requires scale and vision. By vision, first and foremost, we mean a clear mission,
vision and value system that guides the organization in all its strategies and practices.
The mission, vision and values must address both people’s immediate needs and the root
causes of the problems they face-- racism, sexism, environmental destruction and
economic injustice. They must allow us to connect our local work to national and
international movements.
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Vision is only attainable and maintainable with a vibrant and in depth leadership
development program. Establishing and implementing this program will be one of the
greatest challenges of this project. The small staff to member ratio in organizations today
has been an important factor in effective leadership development. Given that this ratio
must shift, we will employ the “train the trainer” model in which staff and veteran leaders
train dedicated new members in each branch to be leaders, organizers and spokespeople,
as well as to conduct their own trainings.

The Work

The work of this new national project will be twofold: 1) To provide direct support and
services to un- and underemployed members, and 2) To develop and implement
campaigns to win short- and long-term demands.

Sustainability and Services:

Learning from history, campaigns alone will not build membership and the organization.
Members will have immediate needs that our campaigns will likely not address in the
short-term. Members will be short of money, have trouble meeting basic needs, and may
be facing eviction. Each branch must provide a level of immediate support and services
that tap into the strengths of our collectivity. Sustainability programs will both meet
immediate needs of members and develop their abilities and consciousness including in
self-governance. They may include providing food through community gardens and food
banks, free medical services through volunteer doctors, eviction defense, member
exchanges of skills and services, work cooperatives of members with similar skills, access
to accounts/loans through a community credit union and assistance in accessing public
benefits.

Campaigns:

Campaign demands will center on full employment, millions of public jobs,

unemployment relief, progressive taxation and other priorities determined by the
collective leadership. Given the government’s budget crisis, revenue generation will be
one our core demands. We will explicitly call for 1) progressive taxation to capture the
billions of corporate profits not benefitting the public as well as a financial transaction tax
to recoup some of the enormous profits from the financial sector and 2) shifting resources
from prisons, police, and military to job creation and other more beneficial social uses.
The short-term demands may vary based on each local branch but can include expanding
unemployment relief, moratorium on evictions, government land transfers to
unemployed for entrepreneurial endeavors, a ban the box campaign to prohibit the
excluding of formerly incarcerated and undocumented persons from jobs, and initiating
public jobs/works programs including converting empty condo towers to public housing
and empty warehouses to green energy businesses that employ and/or are run by the
unemployed.

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Each branch must have a strong presence in their communities or sector of work (i.e.
college students, former auto worker, etc). They will reach out to thousands and build
their membership. The branches will strive to support their members and confront
campaign targets. Townhall meetings, rallies, marches, and civil disobedience will be
common practices. Leaders and core members will seek to be regulars on TV, radio and
in newspapers. They will directly engage those in power over the changes that must
happen. Each branch will document and promulgate the experience and skills of their
members, and at every opportunity put forward members’ faces, stories and solutions to
replace the currently faceless “unemployed.” The branches will have common campaigns
they all take on and move utilizing a diversity of militant and creative tactics. They will
also have the autonomy to develop and implement their own local campaigns. In the
end, the branches must win. Small victories will lead to bigger ones, ultimately at the
national level.

This initiative allows for experimentation both in our organizing model and campaign
work. Thus, we will have a vibrant process of ongoing coordination and sharing amongst
all the branches to learn from each others’ successes and failures and build a common
national model and campaign strategy that is effective.

Conclusion

This proposal seeks to address one of the most pressing issues of our time: mass un- and
underemployment and the denial of the right to work to millions. Our vision offers a
rationale and concrete program to boldly respond to the opportunity at hand. In cities
across the country, we will organize thousands of un- and underemployed workers,
unleashing their energy, ideas and collective power to build our movement to a level of
scale and vision that will shift the debate, transform structural inequities and win gains to
benefit the millions in need

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THE FULL PROPOSAL: Unleashing the Mass Potential and Winning

The depression is deepening. More people in the United States than ever before are being
denied the basic right to work and are suffering greatly. At the same time, only a tiny
percentage of the un- and underemployed are organized. Thus, the millions who are
hardest hit by the economic crisis are not collectively advocating for their interests and
leading the change we need. In fact, those responsible for the economic crisis are still
calling the shots, while the conservative movement is gaining in strength and threatening
to pull the country further rightward. This proposal goes to the heart of the contradiction
and seeks to put the most important people in this crisis in the position they belong in --
front and center!

Vision

Our proposal is to initiate a multi-racial national project in 3-5 cities that will organize
thousands of un- and underemployed workers to advocate for their rights. This project
will be an important seed that contributes to building a militant and democratic mass
movement in the United States to a level of scale and vision necessary to win. The vision
seeks to create a massive and constant presence of those directly impacted in the street,
in the media, in the halls of government and in the headquarters of banks and
corporations. The ultimate aim is to shift the national debate around work and jobs to
the perspective of those hardest hit, and to win short-term local and long-term national
victories yielding training, jobs and relief for the millions in need. We believe these next
two years must be a time of aggressive experimentation and escalation of un- and
underemployed organizing that includes collaboration and strategizing amongst all those
engaged in the work. In each of the 3-5 cities of our national project, we will launch new
initiatives and/or build upon existing ones. We will follow a common vision and strategy
and engage in a high level of sharing and coordination. Given the strategic importance of
the South and the limited organizing there, one site will be Atlanta, Georgia. The other
participating cities will be chosen over the next two months through dialogue with those
engaged in this work. Ultimately, through this national project and collaborating with
others engaged in this work, including the AFL-CIO, Jobs with Justice, Right to the City,
and numerous unaffiliated projects, we seek to be an integral part of building a national
unified movement of un- and underemployed workers that is vitally needed at this time.

Framework

Our vision is based on a human rights framework, the idea that each human being has
fundamental rights to which they are entitled and to which all governments and entities
including corporations must recognize and insure. The right to work is one of these
7
human rights. This right entails not only the right to a job, but the right to work that
allows one to live with dignity and to meet their needs. Work is an activity through
which we fulfill our potential as human beings to be productive, creative and use and
develop all our capacities. All work must be fairly remunerated including currently
unpaid labor like childcare, workfare and domestic work, all done generally by women.
The right to work goes hand in hand with the right to organize that allows workers to
build and act collectively to protect their interests, including through forming unions.
Furthermore, the right to work and the right to organize are both encompassed within a
broader human right, the right of people and their communities to a fair economy that
serves their interests and meets their needs. From this point forward in this proposal
when we refer to the right to work, we will also be referring to the right to organize and
to a fair economy.

Within our human rights framework, all human rights are seen in relation to one another.
Thus, the right to work exists alongside the right of every person to leisure, to subsist and
farm, to healthcare, to housing, to education, to transportation and to all other
fundamental human rights that are collectively essential for each of us to live with
dignity, security and happiness. They are all interconnected. For example, without work
how does one cover medical costs, pay rent, or visit a museum? Without access to
transportation one will be severely hindered in finding work/getting to work, attending a
concert, or getting their child to daycare.

The scope of the human rights framework is international. Thus, as we fight for the right
to work and other human rights in the US we must insure that our orientation and
demands uplift people everywhere, particularly, people of color within the US and around
the world.

Who

In deciding who to target, we operate by a simple premise that those most directly
impacted by the problem must be organized and lead the change. Those most directly
impacted by this economic crisis are un- and underemployed workers in general and
more specifically lower wage workers. They have the least cushion and the most
insecurity. When employed, they live pay check to pay check unable to meet all their
basic needs. They generally have no savings to fall back on. Furthermore, unemployment
compensation is generally paltry and short-term. Thus, unemployment or even
underemployment creates an immediate crisis for the worker and their family.

First, in targeting the un- and underemployed, we want to understand what role they play
in the economy. Historically, as today, they serve a critical role for corporations in their
drive to maximize profits. The pool of unemployed creates competition in the labor
market driving down wages. Generally, the larger the unemployed pool the greater the
downward pressure on wages. Unemployed and underemployed workers (both
8
disproportionately people of color) have been used to break strikes and as scapegoats and
targets of racism in efforts to divide workers and distract people from the deeper
structural problems in society. With shifts in our economy away from manufacturing and
the decline in jobs exacerbated by the current depression, the role of unemployed
workers in the economy has been changing. In fact, a growing number of unemployed
workers are not needed or desired as workers at all. They are viewed as expendable and
generally either discarded by government and corporations as is evidenced by the
significant disinvestment in public education and social benefits (which historically were
critical in preparing people to be workers), or they are incarcerated and/or deported
leading to the growth of prison system and industry. Every prisoner draws upwards of
$129 per day or $47,085 per year. (Pamela Gardapee 09.09, eHow)

Furthermore, given the shifts in the economy, a growing number of those working are
underemployed, meaning they do not have sufficient hours and/or remuneration to meet
their needs. The rise of underemployment and subcontracting also coincides with
corporations’ pursuit for higher profits through eliminating benefits like heath insurance
and retirement. More and more underemployed workers hold more than one job at a
time, while the time they remain in any given job continues to shorten. The age of one
job for life is all but over. Many who are underemployed are losing hours and one or
more of their multiple jobs. They are sliding closer and closer to unemployment; many
are already there. The level of insecurity in the lives of workers is at an all time high.

Amongst lower wage un- and underemployed, people of color are the most severely
impacted. They had the highest unemployment rates going into the crisis and their
numbers continue to soar. In the US, the official Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
unemployment rate in 2008 for Blacks was 10.1%, Hispanics 7.6% and whites 5.2%. As of
June 2010, the rates have increased to 16.6% for Blacks, 12.2% for Hispanics and 8.7% for
whites. This is an increase of over 60% across the board. Furthermore, Blacks between 16
and 19 years old have an official unemployment rate of 44.2%, Hispanics 35% and whites
23.2%.

The total number of un- and underemployed according to BLS is 16.5% of the total labor
force. In real numbers, this is 25,521,870 people. Official government statistics never
capture the full extent of the un- and underemployment. A more accurate assessment is
made by looking at how many people are employed full-time and subtracting this number
from the total number of working age adults who are eligible and capable to work. These
numbers are hard to come by but reveal a far higher number of people impacted. For
example, as of July 2010, 51.9% of Blacks were employed, leaving 48.1% unemployed
(National Employment Law Project report, July 2010).

It is not a coincidence that proportionately the largest percentages of un- and

underemployed workers are people of color, with the highest percentage being amongst
African Americans; the same holds true for incarceration rates. Race is a significant factor
barring people of color from jobs, limiting their pay and hours, placing them first on the

9
chopping block for layoffs and firings, and determining who is incarcerated or deported.
These statistics and the pervasive structural racism that underlie them are the reason we
will prioritize Blacks, Latinas/os and communities of color in this organizing effort.

White workers, while favored by race privilege, are deeply affected by the economic crisis
and are critical to the success of this project. While their percentages of un- and
underemployed are lower proportionately than Blacks and Latinas/os, their overall
numbers are still high. And the economic crisis in which they find themselves has
contributed to a level of disorientation with which they are unfamiliar, making many of
them susceptible to right-wing populist appeals that look for racial, religious or other
scapegoats. Furthermore, racism amongst white workers has historically kept workers
divided by pitting white workers against workers of color. While the system of racism has
yielded some privileges for whites, over the long-term they and all workers are hurt by it.
To challenge racism and unite workers across race, we will need a strong core of anti-
racist white workers that will unite with Black and Latinas/os in building a common mass
movement. Without this unity, our movement will not reach the level of scale and
unified vision necessary to win.

Unity across race and nationality will by no means be automatic and must be deliberately
built. Both through robust leadership development and ongoing joint practice in the
streets, we will seek to raise consciousness of members around race, as well as deepen
workers’ understanding of their shared economic interests and their appreciation of each
others’ histories and differences. A clear organizational mission and platform that
challenges racism will be at the core of all our organizing. We will prioritize maintaining
clarity and unity around an anti-racist program over the pressing need for expansion.

Scope

The scope of our vision is national. This project is an important seed in what must
ultimately become a full scale national movement. This seed will be planted and grown
in several cities across the country. This will allow for experimentation and practice that
will enable us to draw lessons and develop strategy that will apply nationally, and not just
to one region or city.

Atlanta, Georgia will be one of the sites for this project, the others will be determined
soon. We ascribe to Dubois’ prophetic statement, “As the South goes, so goes the nation.”
Today, the following realities in the South make it a strategic part of the country: 1) the
South’s political and economic influence is growing, 2) the South, with its anti-worker
laws, low wage rates and high levels of incarceration, sets the tone and standard for the
rest of the country, and 3) the South is home to some of the highest un- and
underemployment and incarceration rates in the country, particularly for people of color.

Already with one third of the nation’s population, the South is the fastest growing region
10
of the country, largely due to a growing immigrant population. After the 2010 census,
southern states are expected to gain 7 to 9 congressional seats. Over 40% of all African
Americans live in the South. Nine out of 10 of the states with the fastest growing
immigrant populations are in the South. Economically, the South is now the
manufacturing center of the US. In fact, Alabama has surpassed Detroit as the auto
capital of the country. More Fortune 500 companies are in the South than ever before,
and the South is now a hub for banking and finance, with Charlotte, North Carolina being
the second largest banking center in the country. (Institute for Southern Studies,
“Southern Scan”)

Atlanta, in particular, is politically and economically significant. Its tremendous growth

and shifting demographics have elevated its political importance. Within the US, it is one
of the twelve largest metropolitan statistical areas and has one of the highest
concentrations of Blacks and Latinas/os. The greater metropolitan Atlanta area already
has one county, Gwinnett, which is majority people of color, and another, Cobb County,
which is almost there. The entire state of Georgia will soon become majority people of
color, following in Texas’ footsteps. In addition, Atlanta is an economic engine for the
South and entire country ranking 5th nationally as home to Fortune 500 headquarters
(Institute for Southern Studies, “Southern Scan”). In terms of unemployment, Atlanta has
a job loss rate that exceeds the national average. From May 2009 to May 2010, the city
lost 36,500 jobs. (US Bureau of Labor Statistics)

In sum, our vision seeks to address the glaring contradiction before us--millions being
denied the right to work while having little say over what is happening. In the following
sections, we will expound on the historical context for this proposal and the important
organizing that is already underway. With our vision and this context, we will then lay
out the details of our proposal for action that serves as a template for building this
national organizing project.

Historical Context

Looking at the historical context is critical for us to draw lessons from the rich history of
struggle by workers, both unemployed and employed. We will particularly look at the
unemployment organizing in the 1930’s in the United States. More in depth details and
analysis is available in the Appendix.

First, the idea that the right to work is a human right is not new. In fact, it is included in
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) adopted in 1948 by the United
Nations General Assembly.

Article 23.1-4 of the UDHR states:

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"(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and
favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.”

(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for
himself [herself] and his [her] family an existence worthy of human dignity, and
supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

(4) Everyone has the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his [her]
interests.”

While the United States government voted in favor of the UDHR, it has failed to insure
the right to work for all its inhabitants. However, at different points in US history, the
government has passed laws that benefitted workers and moved us closer to realizing the
right to work. Organized workers both employed and unemployed played the central
role in bringing about these progressive changes. One of the most prominent examples
is the winning of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA was the largest
New Deal agency. Between 1935 and 1943, the WPA directly created almost eight million
jobs, employing people to carry out public works projects, including the construction of
public buildings and roads. The WPA operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy
projects. It distributed food, clothing, and housing to families and individuals in need.
Almost every community in the United States had a park, bridge or school constructed by
the agency. Until it was ended by Congress in 1943, the WPA was the largest employer in
the country.

The New Deal benefits, including through the WPA, were extended to Blacks and women
which translated into unprecedented access to thousands of jobs. However, despite its
creation of anti-discrimination legislation, the federal government failed to aggressively
enforce these laws which led to white men generally being privileged over Blacks,
immigrants and women with regard to who got a job, and the position and rate of pay.
The FDR administration allowed the privileging of whites in order to appease the
Dixiecrats and pass the New Deal as a whole. This ultimately meant that, while Blacks
were granted access to some jobs at the bottom of the ladder, the federal government
would not seriously challenge the institutions of Jim Crow segregation in the South and
throughout the country.

Robust unemployment organizing was the main factor in bringing about the WPA. The
first nationwide protest against unemployment was called by the Trade Union Unity
League (TUUL) and the Communist Party on March 6, 1930. Across the country, over one
million unemployed participated in demonstrations and meetings. (Boyer/Morais,
Labor’s Untold Story, 260-61)

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The National Unemployed Council was founded at a convention in Chicago on July 4,
1930 attended by 1,320 delegates. It had councils and branches in 46 states and almost
every city and town in the nation (Boyer/Morais, 260). In Chicago alone there were 45
branches in 1932 with a total membership of 22,000 (Zinn, A People’s History of the
United States, 385). For the first time in history, there was no scabbing during the
Depression. The unemployed instead appeared on picket lines in support of strikers.
The Unemployment Council’s goal and main function was to increase relief allotments
and unemployment insurance to millions, campaign for jobs through public works, fight
racism, and stop evictions. In New York in 1932 some 185,794 were served with eviction
notices. But 77,000 of these families were moved back into their premises by members of
Unemployment Councils. Blacks, hardest hit by the Depression, were among the most
active in the Councils. (Boyer/Morais 261)

Unemployment organizing also occurred in the South. In Atlanta, in March 1930,

unemployment activism kicked off with a gathering in the Black Business District in
observation of Unemployment Day, however, it was shut down as Atlanta Police raided
the event and arrested two organizers. Though redbaiting and state repression were
fierce, the movement in Atlanta and the South continued to grow as exemplified by the
formation of the Atlanta Negro Labor Council and the defense campaign for the Atlanta
Six, which including the initial two arrested in March 1930. (Lorence, 30-32, The
Unemployed People’s Movement in Georgia 1929-1941)

Finally, since business and government were not meeting the needs of the unemployed,
people developed ways to help one another in their unemployment councils and through
other formations. Fishermen in Seattle exchanged fish they caught for fruit and veggies
from pickers, and barbers, seamstresses, doctors and others exchanged services with each
other. By 1932, there were 330 self help organizations in 37 states with over 300,000
members. (Zinn 385)

Current Context

Unemployment organizing is currently happening in the United States. The Philadelphia

Unemployment Project has been organizing poor people and unemployed workers since
1975 and continues today fighting for unemployment relief, minimum wages and
foreclosure protection. Jobs with Justice has been organizing the unemployed through its
branches in several states. The AFL-CIO, through Working America, has signed up
millions of unemployed and employed workers without access to unions in a national
network to win reforms. The Machinists initiated an online centered “Union of the
Unemployed” which serves to connect and inform unemployed workers across the
country. Right to the City (an alliance of 40 organizations from across the USA
committed to advancing a progressive urban agenda focused on the needs of working
people) is initiating some unemployment organizing in some of its member
organizations. In addition to these examples spawned and/or supported by established
13
organizations and networks, there are countless autonomous groupings taking action
across the country unaffiliated with any existing organization. Some notable efforts
include the “Unemployed 99ers” who have a strong Internet presence and an online
community in Florida called “Unemployed Florida” who have successfully agitated for
change.

Despite these significant efforts, the progressive movement in general is weak, while the
political Right is highly visible and gaining strength. The country has 144 nativist
extremist groups and 300 anti-immigrant groups (ISS, Southern Scan). The popularity of
Fox news and conservative talk show hosts is high. Overall, the conservative movement,
particularly its Tea Party sector, is gaining ground and presents a very real threat.

What remains glaringly missing is a large scale visible and vocal national base of
hundreds of thousands of un- and underemployed members that share a common vision
and strategy and are actively engaging in direct action to put forward and ultimately win
a clear platform.

The Opportunity

Drawing lessons from history, the two keys to winning are clear: scale and vision. In the
1930’s, the movement of workers and unemployed reached levels of scale in the hundreds
of thousands (at times millions) and were guided by left and progressive organizations
that had clear long-term visions challenging racism and economic injustice. The results
were some of the greatest progressive victories in the history of the US—including the
National Labor Relations Act, Works Progress Administration, unemployment relief,
public housing and social security.

While our movement today lacks the scale and vision we need, we do have a rich history
to draw upon and significant organizing underway. Importantly, with the economy in
crisis and more and more people being impacted and looking for answers, the
opportunity is ripe. We must seize the moment and take the bold move that is
necessary—to launch an aggressive effort to organize the growing masses of un- and
underemployed workers, collaborate with existing projects and build the necessary power
to win. Our proposal for action below details what this entails.

Proposal for Action

The How

To build a movement of un- and underemployed, we believe The How is as critical as The
What. How we do the work, how we talk to one another, how we facilitate a meeting,
14
how we handle conflict, all must be an end in themselves. We must build the society we
want for our children and grandchildren now in our relationships, in our meetings, in our
committees, and in our organizations. We do this not to sound good but because we
believe this is critical to our ultimate goal of WINNING. We will strive to transform
ourselves and build our organization and movement based on our values and vision, and
actively work not to replicate oppressive, discriminatory and violent practices within our
own relationships and organization. We understand that The How will not happen
automatically and will often be counter to how we have been socialized individually and
collectively to act and orient ourselves. Thus, we must be deliberate in connecting the
process of personal transformation and political transformation in all our leadership
development programs (see below). This entails building a relationship with and seeking
guidance from practitioners and institutions like the Social Justice Leadership Institute
which are currently playing an important role in this arena.

An important part of the How includes being explicit about what values we believe in and
operating by them in our practice. As a starting point, we put forward the following four
values which will be further developed through dialogue with members and leaders as the
organization develops.

Guiding Values

We will strive to weave our values into every practice from each direct action to each
strategic retreat to each trip to the water fountain.

1. Be Bold: To win, we must be bold, act boldly, and go for what we know. We must
be confident and trust in ourselves. We must think big, out of the box, be
innovative and creative. Learn lessons from the past and adapt to the present. Be
proud. Be thorough in investigation and analysis then act boldly.

2. Be Nimble: To win, we must be nimble and flexible. Keep it simple. We must be

like water--able to freeze into a hard ball, flow like a river or become a mist that
permeates everything. We must stay rooted deep into the ground and never lose
our connection to our history and experience, but sway with the wind and grow
and reach our limbs far into the sky. We must take our hits from the targets, have
our internal quarrels, struggle over strategy, face betrayal but never become
paralyzed, never become stuck. Reflect, regroup, then act. Never be predictable.
Think but don’t over-think. Analyze, but don’t convolute. Distill.

3. Be Collective: To win, everything we do must have the collective in mind. The

individual cannot rule. Get in touch with what we have in common. Build trust in
each other and not just a few. Challenge our individualistic and selfish ways.
Think collectively, act collectively. Understand our individual desires and needs in

15
 relation to others in our family, in our organization, in our community, in our
world.

4. Laugh: To win, we must laugh now. We cannot wait until after we win. We must
have fun now. Find the joy in the moment, in each other, in the struggle. Laugh
at yourself. Laugh with one another. Feel good. Sadness and laughter can go
together. Laugh, but not to hide your true feeling. Don’t run from pain. Embrace
the pain. Support each other in our suffering. But never lose sight of the joy. If
the suffering consumes us, we can no longer laugh and experience joy; we will lose
touch with the world we want to build. Laugh to touch what is beautiful about
life. Don’t let those in power define everything. Take agency wherever we can,
and let go where you cannot.

The Transformative Model

To win not only short-term reforms but long-term structural changes, we believe in and
ascribe to a transformative model of organizing. Organizations across the country, some
for decades, have been using it and developing the model to organize in working class
communities, build power and win victories. They include the Labor/Community
Strategy Center and members of the Right to the City Alliance.

At its core and what distinguishes this model from other organizing models (i.e. the
Alinsky model) is that it seeks to build the power of those directly impacted by the
structural problems of society in order to not only improve their lives in the short-term,
but also to address and transform the root causes of the problems they face--racism,
sexism, environmental destruction and economic injustice. Thus, with this model, the
goal is not simply the reform (i.e. more affordable housing), but also always includes
building our power through growing and strengthening individual members and leaders,
our organizations and ultimately our movements so as to effectively address and
transform the structural inequities of society.

Three basic pillars of this model are:

1. Basebuilding: The active process of recruiting and building a mass democratic

membership base of those most directly impacted by society’s problems.

2. Leadership development: Both the principle and practice of deliberately

developing the skills and consciousness of members, leaders and organizers to be
able to:

i. Develop an analysis of the historical and current context through a race,

gender and class lense.

16
 ii. Develop tactics and strategies in campaigns that build our power and win
gains.

iii. Build an organization based on a transformative model of organizing.

iv. Lead their members, the mass base, allies and others in the movement.

3. Political mission, vision and values: This is what serves to guide the organization
in all its strategies and practices. The mission, vision and values must address
people’s immediate needs and the root causes of problems people face. They
should allow us to connect our local work to national and international
movements. (Mann “The 7 Components of Transformative Organizing Theory”)

Scale

To win, we must reach a level of scale in the movement we have not seen in decades. For
the most part, the existing organizing is made up of relatively small formations ranging
from 50 to 500 hundred members with a core of 25 to 50 core activists. The sum of the
membership of the larger national formations is typically in the tens of thousands.

To reach scale, our model must be designed for growth and to allow masses, ultimately
hundreds of thousands and even millions, to join, benefit, transform and be active. The
structure must allow for a large membership in each formation, but even more
importantly the ability to initiate, nurture and grow numerous smaller individual
branches. Scale will likely be achieved principally by hundreds or thousands of smaller
branches vs. fewer large branches. The structure must be simple. Complex structures
can hinder or prohibit growth and reaching scale. Everyone from leader to basic member
must know the structure and understand it. This includes all aspects from membership
criteria to decision making systems. The structure may include three basic levels.

i. Branch: The heart and soul of the structure and the most basic level will be
a branch. A branch will exist in one community or sector (i.e. students,
former auto workers, etc). It will recruit and orient members, meet
regularly, implement campaigns and democratically choose its leadership.

ii. Regional: This level will serve as a coordination and strategic development
space principally for leadership, core members and staff. Regional
gatherings will be periodic and consistent (possibly quarterly).

iii. Organization wide: This level will serve to elect organization wide
leadership and set the overall goals and direction for the organization. It
will include delegates from each branch and will meet regularly, likely at an
annual congress.

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Membership

Each branch will emphasize basebuilding, aggressively recruiting and building its
membership to be maintained on an organization wide database. A branch must have a
minimum number of members to be initiated and at least one volunteer leader who is
democratically chosen. Membership will be simply defined.

Requirements for membership will be straightforward:

i. dues (or volunteer labor)
ii. pledge to follow mission, vision and values
iii. attend orientation
iv. participate

Benefits of individual membership and branch affiliation will be clear:

i) regular communication and updates through email, mail, and text
ii) participation in self support systems
iii) training
iv) eviction defense
v) member ID card
vi) access to banking services at community bank, discounted life
insurance, and health insurance
vii) affiliated branches will receive training and support for leaders and
core members (see Leadership Development section below)
viii) affiliated branches will receive research support for campaigns
ix) affiliated branches will receive communications support

Leadership

Leadership will be democratically elected and must be members in good standing.

Requirements of leadership will be:

i. participation in regional and organization wide gatherings
ii. participating in trainings provided by organization
iii. represent organization

Benefits of leadership will be:

i. Advanced trainings
ii. Attending trips and conferences to represent and build movement

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Function over Form

Because our national project will begin in multiple cities, we will need a shared structure
and clear ways of collaborating and making decisions within each city as well as across
the whole organization. Thus, the preceding section that lays out a rudimentary
structure is important as a starting point. However, given that our movement is in a
nascent stage, we must see this structure as a guideline, not a prescription. We must
remain flexible as to what the structure is, and insure that especially in the first couple of
years, function remains primary over form. This means that the structure could include
new independent formations as well as branches initiated within existing organizations
and/or networks. It also means we will be learning from each city’s practice and making
adjustments based on this.

Volunteer vs. Staff leadership

To reach scale the ratio of staff to member has to drastically increase from what it
generally is today in many community organizations (1 staff: 200 members). The goal will
be for the organization in its first 3 years to have a core of 4-6 fulltime staff that will
concentrate on overall coordination, communications, leadership development,
fundraising and expansion. Beyond this core, the goal should be one full-time paid staff
organizer to every 1 to 5 thousand members. The priority should be to hire staff from the
base. The staff role must be clear, deliberate and limited. It will be as follows:

1. Screen, initiate and nurture new branches

2. Organize regional and organization wide gatherings

3. Coordinate and create leadership development programs and trainings at all levels
-- branch, regional and organization-wide

4. Carry out duties as identified by organizational leadership body

Key Sectors to Organize

Given the centrality of volunteer leadership in this project, we intend to target groups to
organize who will have a high level of willingness and readiness to organize and assume
membership and leadership roles. We will initially focus on two groups: 1)laid off or
former union workers, and 2) community-college/state university students and recent
graduates. Both groups have high concentrations of un- and underemployed lower wage
workers.

Laid off or former union workers have a level of organizing experience, consciousness,
discipline and often leadership practice that will serve them and this project well. We
19
will develop strategic alliances with local Central Labor Council’s and unions to connect
with laid off or former union workers.

Students and younger adults have the highest levels of un- and underemployment.
Furthermore, community college/state university students generally come from a
working class background and have a level of skill, discipline, enthusiasm, and self-
interest that will facilitate their involvement in this project. We will seek to have
branches on each campus and establish internships that allow students to get credit for
volunteering with the organization and train them as leaders and members. While we
will target these two groups initially, we will by no means exclude others who are un- and
underemployed.

Built For Expansion

The organizational structure must be built for expansion. This means the structure must
serve a dual purpose: 1) To support and strengthen existing operations and processes
including support to existing branches, effective coordination, strategy development and
decision-making across the whole organization, and 2) To support and facilitate the
initiation and nurturing of new branches. Many organizations today are built to achieve
the first purpose and not the second. Our structure must be built for both. This means
there must be dedicated structures and staff for the second purpose of initiating and
nurturing new branches. Specifically, there must be trained staff to take calls from people
interested in starting new branches. They must explain the criteria for initiating a new
branch (i.e. holding an independent meeting with at a minimum number of attendees,
pay collectively an initiation fee, agree to follow mission/vision/values of organization).
With the basic criteria met, a staff member must be able to do a site visit and hold a
meeting to formally assess and if appropriate, initiate the branch. Then, there must be
ongoing staff support to conduct orientation, train local leadership and nurture the
embryonic branch. We will need to be deliberate about when we have enough capacity to
support expansion and at what pace. In the first year, great emphasis and investment will
be placed in launching and strengthening the initiatives in 3-5 cities. People will likely
learn about our initiatives and want to launch their own branches. We will have to
constantly strike a balance between supporting and running existing formations and
initiating new ones.

Leadership Development

Reaching scale while effectively doing leadership development will be one of the greatest
challenges of this project. The small staff to member ratio in organizations today has
been an important factor in effective leadership development. For this to work at scale,
we must employ the “train the trainer” model. Staff cannot develop and implement every
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training. The goal will be for staff or veteran leaders to train dedicated new members to
conduct trainings and to become organizers, leaders and spokespeople. Trainings
wherever possible can include multiple branches or even an entire region. Expansion will
have to be paced such that we can maintain the necessary level of leadership
development to insure alignment with our mission, vision and values.

We will employ four types of training and allow for flexibility in terms of the form they
take:

i. New member orientation (history, mission/vision/values, structure, campaigns)

ii. Organizing Basic Training (OBT): Open to all members, mandatory for leadership.
OBT will cover the history of organizing and our movement, strategic role of
un- and underemployed workers, race/class/gender analysis of society and our
community, transforming ourselves and our internalized systems of violence
and oppression, and organizing skills (recruitment, direct action, campaigns,
communications, etc). This training can be conducted either as a series of 2
hour sessions and/or a multi-day retreat.

iii. Organizing Advanced Training (OAT): Open to leaders and interested active
members, mandatory for leadership. OAT takes a deeper dive into same topics
covered in the OBT. This training can be conducted either as a series of 2 hour
sessions and/or a multi-day retreat.

iv. Regular political education spaces at the branch and/or regional level; each branch
can determine frequency. These spaces to discuss timely and pressing political
and organizational questions.

Resources

To reach scale, we must seek financial contributions, in-kind donations and volunteer
labor. The main sources of revenue must be individual donations from middle and upper
class allies, grassroots fundraising, and membership dues. Foundation money must be
considered a secondary source due to the shrinking coffers in general and the limited will
to fund this work. That said, kicking off this project will be advanced through a major
infusion of donor funding for the first 2-3 years of this effort.

Communications

Communications must be a core strategy we employ in all our campaigns and work.
Communications is vital to our ultimate goal of winning. This is based on the
relationship between power and dominant ideas in our society. Our premise is that

21
injustices like racism exist because of both force (whether through law, police, prisons)
and consent, which entails the majority, including those most directly impacted,
accepting the dominant ideas of society and thus, voluntarily consenting to its rules and
systems. Thus, to win, we must challenge and transform the dominant ideas of our day
that are wrong. This requires that we master and execute strategic communications to
challenge the dominant ideas and ultimately shift the debate and the entire framework
within which the debate takes place. For example, the national frame must shift from
“the economy is hurting but we can turn it around by the government helping to
strengthen banks and corporations” to “the economy is broken because it is run by
corporations, banks and corrupt politicians; it’s time people call the shots and direct
resources to meet their needs – i.e. massive public job creation, unemployment relief and
public investment in housing and education.”

The national debate and frame is the soil within which we work and seek to grow our
national project. Right now, our seeds of change are growing rather slowly in the current
fallow soil. To move from this place, we must understand the role of branding, messaging
and framing in raising consciousness and building power. We must master the art and
science of communications. Core members, not just our leaders and staff, in our
organization must grasp this and become proficient in messaging and framing. This
means communications will be deeply integrated into leadership development programs.
While each branch will have some autonomy to engage in its own campaigns and
struggles, our core campaigns will be regional and national in scope. Our fights must be
linked. These campaigns must be clearly branded and have a tight message and frame.

Communication systems are also critical to building organization. How we communicate

internally, share information, develop systems to manage information, and maximize our
use of technology are all of primary importance. We do not have to start from scratch
and we do not have to learn only from the Right how to master communications. We
have people and institutions in the movement who are developing this expertise and
moving this agenda, including Grit TV, Applied Research Center (Racewire/Colorlines)
and the Praxis Project. We must reach out and connect with them.

The Work

The work of this new national project will be twofold: 1) To provide direct support and
services to un- and underemployed individuals, and 2) To develop and implement
campaigns to win short- and long-term demands.

Sustainability and Services:

Learning from history, campaigns alone will not build membership and the organization.
Members will have immediate needs that our campaigns likely will not address in the
short-term. Members will be short of money, have trouble meeting basic needs, and may
22
be facing eviction. Each branch must provide a level of immediate support and services
that tap into the strengths of our collectivity. Sustainability programs will both meet
immediate needs of members and develop their abilities and consciousness including in
self-governance.

Some ideas are as follows:

i. Eviction protection: Each branch and whenever possible regional members will
fight to stop any eviction of a member (this will include blockades, protests,
moving family back into home after eviction)

ii. Support System: Members will be supported in sharing and exchanging items,
skills and services they have.

iii. Establishing Work Cooperatives: Members who have similar skills and interests
will be supported in establishing and operating collectives and/or small
businesses (with support from community colleges’ entrepreneurial centers)

iv. Accessing Public Benefits: Experienced and trained branch members and legal
allies will assist other members in accessing public benefits (including
unemployment insurance, Medicaid, food stamps and welfare)

v. Free accounts and access to loans: Our organization will seek to establish a
strategic alliance with community credit unions that will allow for joint
membership between our two organizations and access to free accounts and
access to loans for our members.

vi. Free Medical Services: Our organization will seek to establish relationships with
progressive doctors and clinics in order to provide free medical services for our
members.

vii. Food: Through community gardening and connections to the local food bank, we
will provide food for our members in crisis.

Self-sustaining and service programs will play a critical role in our organizing and
addressing members’ immediate needs. However, they alone are not enough. Thus, the
campaign work will remain critical in bringing about fundamental changes. The real
tensions between the need for self-sustaining programs and campaigns for change must
be transparent and regularly grappled with by the leadership and membership.

Campaigns:

Campaign demands will center on full employment, millions of public jobs,

unemployment relief, progressive taxation and other priorities determined by the
collective leadership. Given the government’s budget crisis, revenue generation will be
one our core demands. We will explicitly call for 1) progressive taxation to capture the

23
billions of corporate profits not benefitting the public as well as a financial transaction tax
to recoup some of the enormous profits from the financial sector and 2) shifting resources
from prisons, police, and the military to job creation and other more beneficial social
uses.

The short-term demands may vary based on each local branch but can include expanding
unemployment relief, moratorium on evictions, expansion of public housing for the un-
and underemployed, government land transfers to unemployed for entrepreneurial
endeavors, a ban the box campaign to prohibit the excluding of formerly incarcerated and
undocumented persons from jobs, and initiating public jobs/works programs including
converting empty condo towers to public housing and empty warehouses to green energy
businesses that employ and/or are run by the unemployed.

Branding will be critical. We will go through a thorough process with un- and
underemployed individuals to brand our organization and campaigns. We will not be
wedded to the historical branding of “unemployment councils,” especially because many
un- and underemployed do not identify strongly with “unemployed.” We will dialogue
with people and explore what exists now. For example, Right to the City has branded a
new job initiative as a “Ready to Work Union.” The “Ready to Work” messaging goes
straight to the contradiction of the droves of workers who are ready and willing to work
but are denied the right to work.

Each branch must have a strong presence in their communities or sector of work (i.e.
college students, former auto worker, etc). They will reach out to thousands and build
their membership. The branches will strive to support their members and confront
campaign targets. Town hall meetings, rallies, marches, and civil disobedience will be
common practices. Leaders and members will seek to be regulars on TV, radio, on-line
publications and in newspapers. They will directly engage those in power over the
changes that must happen. Each branch will document and promulgate the experience
and skills of their members, and at every opportunity put forward members’ faces, stories
and solutions to replace the currently faceless “unemployed.” The branches will have
common campaigns they all take on and move utilizing a diversity of militant and
creative tactics. They will also have the autonomy to develop and implement their own
local campaigns. In the end, the branches must win. Small victories will lead to bigger
ones, ultimately at the national level.

This initiative allows for experimentation both in our organizing model and campaign
work. Thus, we will have a vibrant process of ongoing coordination and sharing amongst
all the branches to learn from each others’ successes and failures and build a common
national model and campaign strategy that is effective.

Our goals and demands will include those for the long, mid and short-term. These will
be developed and revised by the leadership body. The current thinking is as follows:

24
Long-term Goals (10 years)

External

1. An economic bill of rights guarantees full employment, right to work, right to

organize, and right to a fair economy, as well as other human rights including right
to housing, education, and transportation. This bill of rights must include the
decriminalization of people of color, lifting barriers to formerly incarcerated and
undocumented persons.

2. Frame shifted as evidenced by coverage in the media (including internet,

newspapers, magazines, TV and radio). Regular radio shows and cable TV spots
weekly in 30 cities reaching 10 million.

3. Significant federal and state revenue generation from new progressive tax
structure and financial transaction taxes that significantly increase taxes on
wealthy individuals and corporations/banks, and shifting resources from military,
police, and prisons to public benefits and jobs.

Internal

1. 1500 branches in 50 cities with 500,000 members

Midterm Goals (5 years)

External

1. Public Jobs program providing training and jobs nationally for 5 million un- and
underemployed, including undocumented and formerly incarcerated persons; also,
public start-up funding for worker cooperatives that over time become self-
sufficient

2. Extension of unemployment benefits

3. Inclusion of Medicaid with unemployment benefits (unless the national healthcare

program is sustained and fully covers the unemployed and underemployed).

4. Moratorium on evictions or noncompliance by local authorities in 10

cities/counties across the country.

5. Public debate and frame starting to shift. Regular radio and cable TV shows/spots
in 10 cities reaching 2 million

6. National recognition and credibility of organization; widely accepted that

organization is a force in the streets and winning progressive legislation improving
the lives of unemployed
25
 7. Shutting down 50 prisons/detention facilities nationally and shifting resources to
public benefits and jobs

8. Instituting progressive taxes in several states and cities that help resource job
creation and public benefits

Internal

1. 400 branches in 30 cities with 100,000 members

Short-term Goals (1-2 years)

These will vary based on area, some possibilities include:

External

1. Winning a local public jobs program at the City/County level that trains and
provides jobs for 100 people in each community. To be funded by progressive tax,
prison closing and/or police reduction. Establishing first source hiring hall (a
database of all unemployed members and residents in community).

2. Winning a First Source Hiring ordinance at the city and/or county level that
includes undocumented and formerly incarcerated persons. Securing local jobs for
at least 10 members in each branch. This demand presents a tension in that it can
pit worker and against worker. This tension must be navigated and worker unity
must be sought at all times. When tension is deemed too great, the goal should
not be pursued. This can be carried out, however, through a hiring hall-type
practice where people are deployed to jobs based on when they sign up, i.e., first
come, first serve within the branch.

3. Eviction defense. Stop and or move back in 100 members or residents.

4. Impacting frame by message being inserted in mainstream news stories;

radio/cable show or spot on 5 stations reaching 250,000

Internal

1. 25 branches in 5 cities with 10,000 members

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Targets

Generally, targets will be the local, state and federal government in terms of passing
legislation for job training/creation and progressive taxes. However, targets will include
the private sector at times i.e. fighting layoffs in from a large corporation or targeting a
developer around local hiring.

Key Strategies

Along with basebuilding, leadership development, communications and resource

generation, we will employ the following key strategies:

Building Multi-Racial Unity: This strategy entails organizing branches in communities of

color (targeting Black and Latino communities) and white communities, engaging in joint
struggles around common demands for jobs, training and relief, and developing and
implementing leadership development programs that raise consciousness around race,
class and gender.

Building Alliances: This strategy entails building strategic alliances with organized labor
and organized excluded worker sectors (i.e. Domestic Workers Union, National
Daylaborers Organizing Network) as well as with progressive religious institutions in the
Black, immigrant and white communities, environmental justice movement, small
business community, progressive elected officials and government officials. Tactical
alliances will be important with organizations/institutions in the above listing with those
who we share less unity and/or are not progressive. In addition, tactical alliances may be
made with those in the business community.

Tactics

Tactics we use will be militant, diverse and creative. We will draw from ideas, talents and
skills of our members. They will include direct action, street theatre, engagement
(meetings and negotiations) with targets and players, and aggressive and creative
communications whether email blasts or banner drops.

Timeline

Phase 1: Finalize Plan and Consolidate Initiating Committee (IC) Sept 2010 – Jan 2011

Finalize draft proposal.

27
 August 16-Sept 1: Share proposal with organizers and progressives contacts.
Receive feedback period; Do additional research on labor stats in US.

Sept 6: Final Draft Done

Sept 7-13: Share Final Draft with potential core partners

Sept 23: Finalized Proposal Done

Form Initiating Committee (IC)

Aug 16-August 30: share initial draft proposal with potential IC members.
Conduct one on one meetings with them

Sept 7: Share Final Draft with potential IC members

Sept 17: Host conference call with potential IC members to dialogue and identify
who is interested in being part of IC

Sept 20: Modify Final Draft based on input from IC members

Sept-Jan: Hold biweekly calls with IC members to finalize plan and secure funding

Secure Funding

Sept 24: Submit proposal to funders

Oct 1-Nov 15: Share finalized proposal with individual donors and foundations

Phase 2: Final Preparation to Launch Organization in 3-5 Cities January –March 2011

Surveys and outreach to potential grassroots members to shape branding,

messaging, campaigns and demands

Final IC coordination to finalize initial structures and decision-making processes

Establish service programs i.e. discounted benefits, access to community credit

union, etc

Ongoing fundraising

Hire Staff

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Phase 3: Establish first branches in cities and Launch Campaigns March –June 2011

March: Hold National Launch Press Event and hold similar events in each
participating city

Implement communications campaign to frame our movement, put faces to our

members and establish our goals

Implement self-sustaining and service programs

Phase 4: Launch Campaigns/First Annual Congress June-Dec 2011

Launch demand oriented campaigns

Dec: Hold First Annual Congress for representatives from every branch

Phase 5: Promote victories/Expansion to New Cities January-June

2012

Phase 6: Regional Gatherings/Second Annual Congress June-Dec 2012

Phase 7: Expansion to New Cities/Third Annual Congress January-Dec

2013

Conclusion

This proposal seeks to address one of the most pressing issues of our time: mass un- and
underemployment and the denial of the right to work to millions. Our vision offers a
rationale and concrete program to boldly respond to the opportunity at hand. In cities
across the country, we will organize thousands of un- and underemployed workers,
unleashing their energy, ideas and collective power to build our movement to a level of
scale and vision that will shift the debate, transform structural inequities and win gains to
benefit the millions in need.

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 About the Authors
Tony Romano is long-time community organizer and co-founder of the Miami Workers
Center. He is a native of Georgia and a veteran union organizer with the Amalgamated
Clothing and Textile Workers and UNITE. Tony was schooled in politics and organizing
as an English teacher in South Africa during the struggle against apartheid. He led a
major labor/civil rights campaign against the Kmart corporation in Greensboro, North
Carolina and arrived in Florida in 1996 to join an effort to unionize area nursing home
workers. As the Center was initiated in 1998-99, Tony worked as volunteer staff while
working a number of jobs including at a flower warehouse and an electronics factory. He
has led the organizing and leadership development efforts at the Center. This including
building two grassroots projects, Low-Income Families Fighting Together and Miami En
Accion, centered in the Black and Latino/o communities respectively and leading
campaigns that won $17 million in housing and childcare subsidies for low-income
families’ housing, preserved thousands of public housing units in the city, and brought
the first international observers to a US election. Tony also was served on the Right to
the City housing leadership team that coordinated housing work amongst member
groups and produced a national grassroots research paper on public housing entitled “We
Call These Projects Home.”

Bill Fletcher, Jr., is a long time labor, international and racial justice activist and
scholar. Bill was the Belle Zeller Visiting Professor at Brooklyn College-City University of
New York from 2005-2007. From January 2002 through April 2006 he served as the
President and chief executive officer of TransAfrica Forum, a national non-profit
organization organizing, educating and advocating for policies in favor of the peoples of
Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America. He served as Education Director and later
Assistant to the President of the AFL-CIO. His union staff experience also included the
Service Employees International Union, where his last position was Assistant to the
President for the East and South. He served as the Organizational
Secretary/Administrative Director for the National Postal Mail Handlers Union. Prior to
the Mail Handler's Union, Bill was an organizer for District 65-United Auto Workers in
Boston, Massachusetts. He got his start in the labor movement as a rank & file member
of the Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America. Combining
labor and community work, he was also involved in ongoing efforts to desegregate the
Boston building trades. He received his undergraduate education at Harvard University
and received a Masters degree from Brooklyn College-CUNY. He has authored numerous
articles published in a variety of books, newspapers and magazines. He is also the co-
author of the 1987 pictorial booklet: The Indispensable Ally: Black Workers and the
Formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, 1934-1941. He is the co-author of
Solidarity Divided (University of California Press) which focuses on the crisis in the
organized labor in the USA.

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 APPENDIX

Full Historical Context

In addition to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (also adopted by the United Nations) elaborates the
right to work in the context of individual freedoms and economic, social and cultural
development. The Covenant also articulates the role of the state in realizing this human
right. Article 6 states:

"(1) The State Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right to work, which includes
the right of everyone to the opportunity to gain his living by work which he freely chooses
or accepts, and will take appropriate steps to safeguard this right. (2) The steps to be
taken by a State party to the present Covenant to achieve the full realization of this right
shall include technical and vocational guidance and training programmes, policies and
techniques to achieve steady economic, social and cultural development and full and
productive employment under conditions safeguarding fundamental political and
economic freedoms to the individual."

In the United States, significant legislation related to unemployed and employed workers
are as follows:

1930-1940

WPA

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was the largest New Deal agency. Between
1935 and 1943, the WPA directly created almost eight million jobs, employing people to
carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads.
The WPA operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects. It distributed food,
clothing, and housing to families and individuals in need. Almost every community in
the United States had a park, bridge or school constructed by the agency. Until it was
ended by Congress in 1943, the WPA was the largest employer in the country.

The New Deal benefits, including through the WPA, were extended to Blacks and women
which translated into unprecedented access to thousands of jobs. However, despite its
creation of anti-discrimination legislation, the federal government failed to aggressively
enforce these laws which led to white men generally being privileged over Blacks,
immigrants and women with regard to who got a job, and the position and rate of pay.
The FDR administration allowed the privileging of whites in order to appease the
Dixiecrats and pass the New Deal as a whole. This ultimately meant that, while Blacks
were granted access to some jobs at the bottom of the ladder, the federal government
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would not seriously challenge the institutions of Jim Crow segregation in the South and
throughout the country.

Context:

Unemployment organizing: The first nationwide protest against unemployment was

called by the Trade Union Unity League (TUUL) and the Communist Party on March 6,
1930. Across the country, over one million unemployed participated in demonstrations
and meetings. (Boyer/Morais, Labor’s Untold Story, 260-61)

The National Unemployed Council was founded at a convention in Chicago on July 4,

1930 attended by 1,320 delegates. It had councils and branches in 46 states and almost
every city and town in the nation (Boyer/Morais, 260). In Chicago alone there were 45
branches in 1932 with a total membership of 22,000 (Zinn, A People’s History of the
United States, 385). For the first time in history, there was no scabbing during the
Depression. The unemployed instead appeared on picket lines in support of strikers.
The Unemployment Council’s goal and main function was to increase relief allotments
and unemployment insurance to millions, campaign for jobs through public works, fight
racism, and stop evictions. In New York in 1932 some 185,794 were served with eviction
notices. But 77,000 of these families were moved back into their premises by members of
Unemployment Councils. Blacks, hardest hit by the Depression, were among the most
active in the Councils. (Boyer/Morais 261)

Unemployment organizing also occurred in the South. In Atlanta, in March 1930,

unemployment activism kicked off with a gathering in the Black Business District in
observation of Unemployment Day, however, it was shut down as Atlanta Police raided
the event and arrested two organizers. Though redbaiting and state repression were
fierce, the movement in Atlanta and the South continued to grow as exemplified by the
formation of the Atlanta Negro Labor Council and the defense campaign for the Atlanta
Six, which including the initial two arrested in March 1930. (Lorence, 30-32, The
Unemployed People’s Movement in Georgia 1929-1941)

Finally, since business and government were not meeting the needs of the unemployed,
people developed ways to help one another in their unemployment councils and through
other formations. Fishermen in Seattle exchanged fish they caught for fruit and veggies
from pickers, and barbers, seamstresses, doctors and others exchanged services with each
other. By 1932, there were 330 self help organizations in 37 states with over 300,000
members. (Zinn 385)

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NLRA

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935 (also known as the Wagner Act) gave
workers the right to organize, join unions and bargain collectively. The Act also
established the National Labor Relations Board to punish unfair labor practices and to
organize elections when workers wanted to form unions. In addition, the Fair Labor
Standard Act of 1938 (FLSA) was passed prescribing maximum hours of work, minimum
wages, and overtime, as well as prohibiting child labor. (Boyer/Morais 274)

However, large sectors of workers were excluded from these laws and the right to
organize, including agricultural and domestic workers. Race was a significant factor, with
excluded sectors being comprised largely of Blacks, immigrants and women.

As with the WPA, FDR accepted exclusions of Blacks, immigrants and women in both the
NLRA and FLSA in an effort to appease conservatives in the South, as well as the AFL
which explicitly organized whites in skilled trades and was hostile to organizing industrial
workers, Blacks, immigrants and women.

Context:

Strikes: A million and a half workers in different industries went on strike in 1934. The
largest strike of all was 325,000 textile workers in the South. Within months the strike
became nationwide with over 400,000 in total. The strike was brutal, with strikers and
their families suffering through being interned as the strike was repressed. Roosevelt
directly stepped in and set up a mediation board. In 1934 and 1935, hundreds of
thousands of industrial workers began organizing in the new mass production industries
of rubber, auto and packinghouse. The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO),
formed in 1935, was instrumental in the waves of strikes that continued in 1936, 1937, 1938.
While employers generally opposed this legislation and Roosevelt was not initially an
advocate, Roosevelt’s attitude shifted with the growing strikes. He came to see these
laws playing an important role in stablizing the system, outlawing wildcat strikes and
streamlining processes of disputes. (Zinn 386-93)

The passage of the NLRA was followed by a tremendous growth in unions. Membership
grew from just over 3 million in 1935 (AFL only) (Boyer/Morais 291) to over 12 million
(combining both CIO and AFL) in 1945. However, the unions’ power was not
commensurate with this growth. In fact, in some ways their power was reduced. Unions
turned to laws and less to action. New forms of control, both internal from the unions
themselves and external by law and force from employers and the state, limited the action
and power of workers. For example, the NLRB and the Supreme Court limited union
activity and declared sit down strikes illegal. Gains from contracts and even strikes were
sometimes less than gains won through wildcat strikes prior to the NLRA. (Zinn 393)
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AAA

The Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) passed in 1933 restricted agricultural

production in the New Deal era by paying farmers to reduce crop area. Its purpose was to
reduce crop surplus so as to effectively raise the value of crops. Ultimately, the AAA
favored large farmers, and by encouraging farmers to plant less, many tenants and
sharecroppers were forced to leave the land. (Zinn 383, 388)

Context:

Strikes: In 1932, thousands of farmers in Iowa, Illinois, North Dakota, Nebraska and New
York went on strike protesting prices so low that crops were being sold below cost.
(Boyer/Morais 264)

Sharecroppers Union: The first local of the Sharecroppers Union was organized in 1931
outside of Birmingham, Alabama. By 1935, the Union had 12,000 members with chapters
in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia and North Carolina. The unions’ demands
included higher wages and an end to racism, including freeing the Scottsboro Boys. The
union faced mobs and violence often initiated by sheriffs and their deputies, and often
resisted vigorously. Numerous workers and organizers were murdered including one of
the union’s leaders, Ralph Gray. (Haywood, Black Bolshevik 397-403)

1940-1950

ECONOMIC BILL OF RIGHTS

As New Deal programs ended, the movement for economic and social justice led to FDR’s
calling for an Economic Bill of Rights during his State of the Union Address in 1944.
Roosevelt posited that the "political rights" guaranteed by the constitution and the Bill of
Rights had "proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness." This
second bill of rights, although never passed, was to include the following rights, including
the right to work, fair earnings and protection from unemployment:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or
mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give
him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of
freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or
abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
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 The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good
health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness,
accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.

Context:

The CIO and its allies ran a successful political campaign for the re-election of Roosevelt
as well as the election of a wide number of pro-labor Congressman, governors, and
mayors. Through its Political Action Committee (PAC), the labor movement put millions
of Americans in motion into a broad coalition fighting for progress including the rights
articulated in the economic bill of rights. Time declared the PAC’s communications
campaign “far and wide the slickest political propaganda produced in the United States
for a generation.” The PAC was a significant contributor to FDR’s victory and an
important factor in electing 120 representatives to Congress, 17 senators and 6 governors.
(Boyer/Morais 337)

Despite these electoral victories, a Republican majority in Congress and an aggressive

red-baiting campaign by conservatives left labor and progressives in a divided and
weakened state. As a result, the economic bill of rights and other progressive policies
(including the Employment Act of 1946—see below) sought by labor never saw the light
of day or they passed with no teeth. In fact, the Congress passed anti-worker legislation
(the Taft-Hartley Act--see below) that severely undermined previous gains in the NLRA.
Furthermore, the media helped drive a wedge between workers and soldiers by portraying
workers as constantly striking during the war and becoming “fat on the blood of their
countrymen;” this despite the fact that labor generally honored its no strike pledge during
the whole of World War II. (Boyer/Morais 337-339)

EMPLOYMENT ACT OF 1946

Given the influx of returning soldiers from the war and the shutting down of war-time
industries, the first bill addressing full employment was signed into law in 1946 by
President Truman. The act represented a concerted effort to develop a broad economic
policy for the country. Unions and progressives backed it fervently. However, with
intense opposition from industry and conservatives the guarantee of full employment was
removed and the bill had no significant impact. (Encyclopedia.com)

TAFT HARTLEY ACT

With the Republican Party taking control of both houses, Congress passed the Taft-
Hartley Act in 1946 which made organizing more difficult, abolished the closed shop,
outlawed mass picketing, gave states authority to pass “right to work” laws, outlawed
35
certain types of strikes, and facilitated breaking strikes through injunctions and
secondary boycotts. Largely as a result of Taft-Hartley, union organizing came to a
grinding halt; unions lossed millions of dollars in damage suits and fines and union
leaders faced indictment and imprisonment. Business Week called the Act, “A new deal
for America’s employers.” (Boyer/Morais 348)

1970-1980

HUMPHREY HAWKINS ACT

As unemployment rose and a recession hit, President Carter signed into law the
Humphrey-Hawkins Act in 1978 (also known as the Full Employment and Balanced
Growth Act). The law set full employment and low inflation as primary goals. If private
enterprise did not achieve full employment, the Act expressly allowed the government to
create a "reservoir of public employment." Over time, however, the goals were seen as
antagonistic to one another and full employment lost out with the government focusing
on curtailing inflation. (NY Times, 2.12.2006, “Chasing Full Employment”)

Context:

By the mid 1970’s, the civil rights, black power and labor movements were all in various
stages of decline. Thus, with the weakened resistance, the Humphrey-Hawkins Act
effectively disappeared.

36