By LILLIAN ROBERTS
Executive Director
District Council 37, AFSCME

I grew up in the 1930s, during the Great Depression. Back then, one-fourth of the nation was unemployed. Food was in short supply. I wore hand-me-downs and reinforced the tattered soles of my worn-out shoes with cardboard. Most families scraped just to get by. Life was hard. Dreams were our only luxury. Back then, the nation’s financial decline was triggered by the fact that too much wealth was in the grip of too few. Our economy collapsed.

I don’t want to see that happen again. But that’s the danger that lurks behind what, as PEP goes to press, is shaping up to be the biggest financial crisis of our time — a crisis triggered by Wall Street’s greed and the Bush administration’s faith in unregulated free markets.

At this writing, the House of Representatives just voted against a $700 billion bailout. The stock market suffered the biggest loss in its history. Unemployment is on the rise. Retirement savings and 401(k) accounts are on shaky ground. Vital public services and the jobs of the men and women who provide them are at risk. Our economy is tottering on the brink. Now, the predatory lenders who profited by peddling faulty mortgages to unsophisticated workers seeking a shot at the American dream want taxpayers’ dollars to bail them out—no questions asked, no strings attached.

Yes, decisive action is needed but that does not justify a blank-check for the very folks who got us into this mess in the first place — the corporate cronies of Bush and McCain.

Thankfully, labor moved swiftly and stood up to the Bush administration to demand protection not just for our members but for all working men and women. I was proud to address the September 25th Central Labor Council rally on Wall Street that brought together hard hats, teachers, subway track workers, Wall Street clerical staff and city employees.

Our message was simple: no bailout for Wall Street without a hand up for Main Street. Hard working men and women, like you who make this city run, deserve much-needed relief as the rising prices of food, fuel and other necessities erode real wages.

Learning from the financial crisis
We learn a lot in a crisis — especially who are our friends and who are our enemies. We know this financial crisis is the latest result of a Republican administration that handed control of our economy to the rich, sat on their hands while working families lost their homes and tarnished our national prestige by waging a war that is costing us dearly in lives and money.

We also know there is hope.

We in the labor movement have always known that our voice must be heard if our country is to have economic and social justice for all. We also know that this country does not need four more years of Bush, and that is what we’d get if we vote for John McCain. No. We must elect a president who cares about and listens to working people. That’s what lifted us out of the Great Depression.

Luckily, Election Day, November 4, is only weeks away. If we remember that we have nothing to fear but fear itself, we will be able to create the change we want to see in the world. We will vote for Barack Obama and make January 2009 the new beginning we so desperately need. It’s up to us. If you are not registered to vote, you have until October 10 (see page 3).

Remember: change is not only possible, it is necessary.