Public Employee Press

The Progressive Agenda - de Blasio's call for action

On the steps of the nation's Capitol in Washington, D.C., on May 12, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio presented a bold plan for action that addresses the needs of working families across the country.

Joined by AFSCME President Lee Saunders, other labor leaders and members of the U.S. Congress, Mayor de Blasio outlined a 13-point plan he calls The Progressive Agenda to Combat Income Inequality.

This Progressive Agenda is the first policy plan put forth by a major progressive political leader that directly addresses one of the greatest problems the United States faces today - income inequality.

In the speech, de Blasio set forth a set of clear principles for basic reforms of an economic system that has crushed generation of ordinary middle- and working-class Americans and reduced the aspirations of a rising generation of young people.

"It's time to listen to the people all over this country, to listen to their hunger for a change," de Blasio said. "It's up to us to answer their call - their strong demand, in fact - that we create a more just nation."

Saunders, president of DC 37's national union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), spoke strongly in favor of the Progressive Agenda, telling the Capitol gathering, "We support The new Progressive Agenda because it will advance the principle that the working women and men who help create America's prosperity should share in America's prosperity."

The agenda is a set of focused economic and social policy principles that will move the United States from near-oligarchy to a truly representative democracy, with economic opportunity for all.

The Progressive Agenda envisions a different, radical approach to the economic needs of working Americans. The agenda calls for passing comprehensive immigration reform to grow our economy and to protect workers from wage exploitation.

It calls for nationwide paid sick and family leave, a demand to raise the minimum wage to $15 dollars an hour (indexed to inflation), a plan that would allow students to refinance education loans and an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit.

To bridge the abyss that lies between the 1 percent and the rest of the nation, de Blasio's Progressive Agenda demands an end to tax breaks for companies that abandon American workers for overseas sweatshops; labor law reform; opposition to trade deals that constantly hand power to corporate boards and a tax on the wealthy.

For more information about the new Progressive Agenda, visit www.progressiveagenda.us.

— Mike Lee