Northern Illinois Jobs With Justice (NIJWJ) has been holding monthly events and rallies on the first Friday of every month when unemployment numbers are released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The last rally was covered by The Voice (Not an on-line article, but their website tells where you can pick up a copy), and The Beacon News.
August unemploymet numbers (9.1% unemployed) showed little improvement in the economic crisis facing millions of American families. The Chicago Political Economy Group (CPEG) points out that adding the 13.9 million unemployed together with the 6.5 million discouraged workers means that over 20 million American families are still suffering even though the Great Recession was declared “over” more than two years ago.
The question is, what are we going to do about it?
During this month’s NIJWJ meeting, Moveon.org Council member, Jenny Tompkins suggested that we start pushing our member of congress harder, and more directly to address the jobs crisis that is impacting so many of us.
In addition to holding the September 2nd Jobs rally at Representative Hultgren’s office, we decided to start attending Hultgren’s town hall meetings (THM) to ask him to support HR 870, a federal jobs program. HR 870 is deficit neutral because it uses a Wall Street Speculation Tax to fund job creation.
Here are some upcoming opportunities to voice your support for HR 870 and ask your congressman, “where are the jobs?” You can sign up for these events on MoveOn.org’s website by following this link on each event.
Hultgren THM
Wednesday, August 17th, 6:00 PM
City Council Chambers
128 E. Railroad St
Sandwich, IL 60548
Hultgren THM
Thursday, August 18th, 6:00 PM
Public Works Facility,
1801 S. Street
Geneva, IL 60134
Hultgren THM
Thursday, August 25th, 6:00 PM
Yorkville City Council Chambers
800 Game Farm Rd.
Yorkville, IL 60560
Rally – Where are the Jobs!?!
Friday, Sept. 2, 3:00 PM
1797 State Street Suite A
Geneva, IL 60134
At this point in the game, it is fair to say that neither the Republican elites or the Democratic elites are taking the jobs crisis seriously. At the end of the long, painful effort to raise the debt ceiling, it was encouraging to hear the president give the jobs crisis a wink and nod, but we need more substance. We also need our members of congress to hear our voices!
Tags: Beacon News, Chicago Political Economy Group, Fox Valley Labor Paper, Illinois, Jobs with Justice, speculation tax, the voice newspaper, unemployment, Wall Street
