The American Federation of Government Employees is echoing calls from 218 lawmakers, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, for Congress to take immediate action to prevent the White House from undermining the collective bargaining rights of federal employees. In a letter sent yesterday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House appropriations leaders, the lawmakers say that agency budgets being finalized this month by Senate and House appropriators must include House-passed language that would prevent President Trump’s political appointees from unilaterally stripping federal employees of their collective bargaining rights and protections against whistleblower retaliation and other mismanagement. “Without this provision, the Trump administration will likely succeed in crushing the federal employee unions, making a mockery of the collective bargaining guarantee and rendering the task of effectively representing union members all but impossible,” lawmakers state in the letter, which was initiated by AFGE members and organized with help from nearly a dozen other federal labor unions. Read more here
In a bipartisan deal that one anti-war critic said demonstrates how thoroughly “broken and captured Washington is by the Pentagon,” 219 House Democrats and 65 Republicans on Thursday voted to approve a budget agreement that includes $1.48 trillion in military spending over the next two years.
Just 16 Democrats—including Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.)—voted against the two-year, $2.7 trillion budget agreement. Largely due to expressed concerns about the deficit, 132 Republicans and Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.) also voted no.
The House passage of the budget deal, which President Donald Trump quickly applauded on Twitter as a victory for the military, comes after the Congressional Progressive Caucus threatened in April to tank the measure in opposition to its out-of-control Pentagon outlays.
But most of the Progressive Caucus voted for the agreement on Thursday, pointing to increases in domestic spending.
“It’s not a perfect deal by any means,” Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), co-chairs of the Progressive Caucus, said in a statement ahead of the vote. “This deal does not address the bloated Pentagon budget, but it does begin to close the gap in funding for families, by allocating more new non-defense spending than defense spending for the first time in many years.”
Stephen Miles, executive director of Win Without War, took issue with the latter claim in a series of tweets Thursday.
“You’re no doubt hearing a lot of crowing from Democrats about how the deal they struck with Trump gives more money to ‘non-defense’ spending than to ‘defense,’” Miles wrote. “Let’s be clear that by every measure, save the one they’re using, that’s simply not true.”
“Under this deal, the Pentagon and its affiliated programs will get $1.48 trillion over the next two years. The entire rest of gov’t, including the VA btw, will get $1.30 trillion. That’s $178.6 billion more for the Pentagon than the whole rest of gov’t,” Miles wrote. “So, for the love of god, can we all stop pretending like this is somehow anything other than a continued orgy of unprecedented, wasteful, and obscene spending at the Pentagon.”
William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy, wrote for Forbes this week that the budget deal “vastly overpays for the Pentagon.”
“At $738 billion for Fiscal Year 2020 and $740 billion for Fiscal Year 2021,” wrote Hartung, “the agreement sets the table for two of the highest budgets for the Pentagon and related work on nuclear warheads at the Department of Energy since World War II….”
This September, millions of us will walk out of our workplaces, schools, and homes to join youth climate strikers on the streets and demand an end to the age of fossil fuels.
Our house is one fire — let’s act like it. We demand climate justice for everyone. In the words of Greta Thunberg, “We must now do the impossible”.
Madison strikers are demanding that Governor Evers, our county, and our city government declare a climate emergency. Our private sector demands to MG&E are that it divest and transition completely to 100% renewable energy by 2030 by closing the Columbia & Elm Road Coal Plants still in use.
Can’t strike? Protest in solidarity by disrupting the status quo and striking for 11 minutes to symbolize our looming deadline. Teachers, students, employees, kids, and many more will step out to show solidarity in this crucial climate movement.
LOCATION:
-Signs will be posted to guide you!
-1915 E Kenilworth Place, basement of UWM’s Kenilworth Studios
-Enter the building from the alley behind Urban Outfitters or on South Side of building from Prospect
-Basement door by loading dock will be open
Come through for this event to help trace, paint, screenprint, and trim the banners and patches that will be the centerpieces of the Milwaukee flagship of the global climate strike on September 20th.
Direct questions to Ayanna Lee, ayan2na@gmail.com
Presented by the Youth Climate Action Team of Wisconsin, in partnership with the Art Build Workers.
On September 20th at 5:00 pm, the people of Rock County will gather at Upper Courthouse Park in Janesville to hear speeches from empowered youth and adults, then march to raise awareness about climate change and demand that our legislators declare a climate emergency. Hope to see you there!
This September, millions of us will walk out of our workplaces, schools, and homes to join youth climate strikers on the streets and demand an end to the age of fossil fuels.
Our house is one fire — let’s act like it. We demand climate justice for everyone. In the words of Greta Thunberg, “We must now do the impossible”.
Madison strikers are demanding that Governor Evers, our county, and our city government declare a climate emergency.
Can’t strike? Protest in solidarity by disrupting the status quo and striking for 11 minutes to symbolize our looming deadline. Teachers, students, employees, kids, and many more will step out to show solidarity in this crucial climate movement.
This September, millions of us will walk out of our workplaces, schools, and homes, joining in the streets to demand an end to the age of fossil fuels.
Participate in the Global Climate Strike locally by attending our main event, a march and demonstration outside of Ron Kind’s La Crosse office, as well as attending the other events occurring throughout the day. VISIT EVENT LINK ABOVE FOR MORE INFORMATION.
La Crosse strikers are demanding that Governor Evers, our county, and our city government declare a climate emergency. We’re gathering outside Ron Kind’s congressional office to demand he support the climate emergency resolution in congress, the Green New Deal, and other notable resolutions.
Can’t strike at our events? Protest in solidarity by disrupting the status quo and striking for 11 minutes to symbolize our looming deadline. Teachers, students, employees, kids, and many more will step out in solidarity in this crucial climate movement.
Local Contact
Questions: durallanna@gmail.com
State Contact
Questions: general@ycatwi.org
Press: press@ycatwi.org
432 W Wisconsin Avenue, Harmony Pizza, 5:30 P.M. Organizing Meeting September 15.
Final meeting for organizing the global strike on September 20th. We’ll talk about last-minute outreach and the schedule for the strike. Anyone from ages 12-25 is free to come.
It all started when a handful of Madison-area high school students met to discuss the possibility of a strike from school to demand climate justice in the state of Wisconsin. Two hours later, the group had set the roots of a global climate movement in Wisconsin.
Students from across the state started to get involved and the movement became statewide. After weeks of planning the climate strike occurred on March 15 and drew out over 2,000 people across the state and a crowd of over 1,000 in Madison. Young people chanted, occupied the capitol, and made their voices heard.
Following the Strike, organizers felt an obligation to continue to fight for climate justice and so an organization was founded to empower youth voices and advocate for climate justice.
The Youth Climate Action Team (YCAT) was created and is entirely youth run. It comprises of many youth organizers from across the state of Wisconsin and works with multiple partner organizations. We organize actions concurrent with each other at the state level so young people are always welcome to get involved and join our team, wherever they may be located! Our group focuses on organizing demonstrations and directly advocating for environmental reform in the state. We are an official 501c4 nonprofit and use our finances and resources to enhance youth climate activists across the state. We act with many partners nationally and are quasi-branch of the US Youth Climate Strike.
We demand Governor Evers, counties, and municipalities declare a climate emergency for the future of the planet and the State of Wisconsin.
We demand clean water for every community in the state of Wisconsin regardless of socioeconomic status and demand the protection of Wisconsin water systems, including honoring treaty rights.
We demand the quality of our air be protected and prioritized by the state of Wisconsin.
We demand our public lands and soil be protected from pollutants that can destroy its ability to harbor crops and demand all public lands to be accessible to humans.
We demand that the state prioritize the transition from fossil fuel-based energy to renewables to both save tax dollars and protect our environment from global warming.
We demand our agricultural systems are built to last for future growing seasons and ensuring a supportive transition from factory farms (CAFOs) to small and family farms.
We demand that marginalized communities have access to resources for them to lead a greener lifestyle and refocusing the issue of climate change around marginalized voices.
We demand that our school systems reflect the sustainable future we need for our youth and demand school boards combat wastefulness in schools.
We demand the state prioritize the reduction of carbon emissions to slow global warming and to reach 100% renewable energy by 2030.
