A Call for a Virginia People’s Assembly

Across Virginia, poor and working people are hurting. Companies are laying off workers. Homeowners are facing foreclosures. Renters are being evicted. Pensioners are seeing their retirement funds disappear. College and university tuition is rising.

Times are tough, and all the “experts” say they’re only going to get worse. Virginia’s current state budget is now facing a deficit of between $2.5 and $3.5 billion. When the General Assembly reconvenes Jan. 14 in Richmond, it will be talking layoffs of state workers; reduced funds for cities, towns and counties; cutbacks in health, education, cultural programs; raising fines and user fees. What it won’t be talking about is making the banks and corporations foot the bill for the economic crisis that THEY created. When the General Assembly convenes, the halls will be filled with well-paid lobbyists looking out for the interests of the rich and powerful.

But who will speak for us? Each year, the various unions, community organizations and nonprofits all pick a different day to lobby the General Assembly. Separately, none of us ever have the money, votes or numbers to make much of a difference. This year, we will hardly matter at all – unless we unite, support each others’ issues and speak with one powerful voice. The Virginia People’s Assembly can be that voice.

On Saturday, Jan. 10, people from across the state will gather in Richmond to convene a real People’s Assembly. There will be representatives from unions, community and student groups, faith-based organizations, the anti-war movement, prisoner rights advocates and more, representing all of Virginia’s regions, races and nationalities. We will talk about the issues that matter to us: jobs, housing, education, equality, peace and justice for all.

And we will develop a real People’s Agenda to present to the General Assembly. Then, on Wednesday, Jan. 14, we will hold a march and rally in downtown Richmond, after which we will present the People’s Agenda to members of the General Assembly. This year – united together, speaking in one voice – we will be heard. We will be speaking out for you. Will you be there with us?

JAN. 10 – Come to the VIRGINIA PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY

Delegates from across Virginia will put together a PEOPLE’S AGENDA to present to the  General Assembly. Among other things, we will demand a MORATORIUM ON LAYOFFS, CUTBACKS, EVICTIONS & FORECLOSURES 9 am – 4 pm, Asbury United Methodist Church, 324 N. 29th St., Richmond, VA 23223 $5 donation requested to help cover cost of lunch & space, but no one will be turned awayfor lack of funds.

JAN. 14 – Come to a RALLY to demand ‘Bail Out the People, not the Bankers!’

Gather at 4:30 pm at Kanawha Plaza opposite the FEDERAL RESERVE BLDG, 8th & Canal streets, downtown Richmond. Then we’ll MARCH to the GENERAL ASSEMBLY to to present our PEOPLE’S AGENDA & say  “Don’t balance the budget on the backs of Virginia’s working people!”

Cutbacks & layoffs are not the only solutions

Virginia is six months into its current two-year, $76 billion budget, and is now facing a $2.9 billion shortfall in revenue. That’s what Gov. Tim Kaine told state legislators Dec. 17. Almost all state governments are required by law to balance their budgets. To accomplish this, Gov. Kaine has proposed a package of layoffs and cutbacks that include:

*  eliminating 1,500 state jobs *  freezing wages for remaining workers * cutting $400 million from public schools *  slicing 15 percent from state funding for state colleges and universities and 10 percent from community colleges *  taking $400 million from health care programs, including Medicare*  freezing enrollment in some Medicare programs *  closing one of the state’s five large training centers for the intellectually disabled *  closing the last state-operated mental health hospital for children

To his credit, Kaine has made some proposals which make more sense, such as raising the state cigarette tax, currently the third-lowest in the country. He would allow some nonviolent prisoners to be released from prison up to three months early. There’s a $1 million grant to the Virginia Federation of Food Banks and a modest increase in financial aid for college and university students. But on the whole, Kaine is following the same Virginia pattern of balancing the budget on the backs of the state’s working people.

There is another way.

RAISE CORPORATE INCOME TAXES! Virginia’s corporate income tax rate of 6 percent is the seventh-lowest in the country and hasn’t been raised in more than 30 years. Raise it! Make the rich pay for the economic crisis they created!

CLOSE MORE PRISONS! We applaud Gov. Kaine’s modest proposal to release some nonviolent offenders, but much more can be done. The General Assembly should bring back and improve the parole system that racist Gov. George Allen forced on the state. Release all nonviolent offenders. Close the Red Onion SuperMax prison, which was never needed in the first place and has been the site of horrendous abuse of prisoners.

NO MORE MONEY TO HONOR PRO-SLAVERY CONFEDERATES! In 2006, Virginia spent $450,000 to clean up Richmond’s statue of the slavery-defending Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Meanwhile, important African-American historical sites, such as Richmond’s long-abandoned “Burial Ground for Negroes,” remain neglected.

END  THE  WARS  IN  IRAQ  & AFGHANISTAN! NO  WAR ON IRAN! As of Jan. 1, the war in Iraq alone has cost Virginia taxpayers $15.8 billion – five times the state’s present budget deficit.* Sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan or attacking or sanctioning Iran won’t help the people of those countries and it won’t help us. Let’s demand that Gov. Kaine and the General Assembly call on President-elect Obama and Congress to bring all the troops home now! www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home

About  the  VIRGINIA  PEOPLE’S  ASSEMBLY 

In the fall of 2008, in response to the deepening economic crisis and the prospect of severe cutbacks in the Virginia state budget, the Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality and Richmond Jobs with Justice initiated a Call for a Virginia People’s Assembly.

The organizations and individuals that responded formed an Organizing Committee (see below) that began to meet regularly and lay plans for a statewide gathering, a People’s Assembly, to take place in Richmond on Jan. 10, just before the start of the 2009 General Assembly.

The idea is to try and unite all the various movements in the state that are fighting for real social change: the Black community, the immigrant community, labor unions, the anti-war movement, students and more.Together, we will draw up a People’s Agenda of demands to present to the General Assembly.

Then, on Jan. 14, the day the General Assembly reconvenes for its 2009 session, we will hold a rally outside the Federal Reserve Building in downtown Richmond to demand the federal government bail out the people, not the banks. Then we’ll march up to the General Assembly at 9th and East Broad streets and present the politicians with our People’s Agenda.

This year, instead of each organization and community fighting each other for a piece of an ever-smaller pie, we will unite together and support each others’ issues. Together, we can be a powerful voice for Virginia’s poor and working people of all races, all communities.

Since those first oganizing meetings, dozens of other activists and organizations have endorsed the Call. (See below.) Focus Groups have been formed to reach out to unions, students, the immigrant community, the anti-war movement, women’s groups, the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender community, prisoner and disabled rights activists, active-duty GIs, veterans, the elderly, the physically and mentally challenged, environmentalists and more.

On Dec. 17, Gov. Tim Kaine addressed the money committees of the General Assembly. He presented his proposals on how to balance the state budget: eliminate 1,500 state jobs, freeze state wages and enact deep cuts in education, health care and virtually every other area of spending that effects poor and working people in Virginia. But while Gov. Kaine was inside the General Assembly Building, representatives of the VPA were outside, calling for a Moratorium on layoffs, budget cuts, evictions and foreclosures. The media reported that this was the first time in memory that anyone had protested the governor’s presentation on the state budget.

We know that Virginia is facing hard times and that all of us must be willing to tighten our belts. But why are the banks and corporations, the wealthy and the privileged being let off the hook? Because they have power. Politics is the art of who gets what and when. To influence that process, you need one of three things: money, votes or numbers. The rich have money, and the politicians make sure they control the voting. But we have the numbers – if we just get ourselves organized.

The Virginia People’s Assembly is one way we can do this. And when the members of the General Assembly go home after their 45-day session, we will continue to meet, to build, to support each other and to grow. And by the time January of 2010 rolls around – when the layoffs have snowballed, the home foreclosures are a tidal wave, when people who never waved a protest sign before in their lives are ready to come out into the streets, the Virginia People’s Assembly will convene again. And this time, we will be heard.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED *  Go online and endorse the Call for a Virginia People’s Assembly *  Come to the organizing meetings; contact us for time & place *  Volunteer to work with a Focus Group *  Come to the People’s Assembly on Jan. 10 *  Come to the Jan. 14 march & rally For more information, contact:

Virginia People’s Assembly
PO Box 38441,
Richmond, VA 23231
E-mail: vapeoplesassembly@gmail.com
Web site: www.RichmondJwJ.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=50508336564

VPA Organizing Committee

Breanne Armbrust – Organizer & Labor Leader, Richmond Jobs with Justice www.RichmondJwJ.org

Lillie (Ms. K) Branch-Kennedy – Founder & Executive Director, Resource Information Help for the Disadvantaged (R.I.H.D)  www.rihd.org

Bro Duron L. Chavis – Founder, Happily Natural Day / Black Freedom Weekend; Vice President, Prosser-Truth Division #456, UNIA-ACL www.happilynaturalday.com; www.unia-acl.org

King Salim Khalfani – Executive Director, Virginia State Conference NAACP http://www.virginianaacp.org

Ana Edwards – Chair, Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project of the Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality www.DefendersFJE.org

Allen Layman – President, Virginia Public Service Workers Union / UE Local 160 www.vaue160.org

Dennis Orton – Organizer, Black Workers for Justice http://bwfj.org

John Steinbach – Community Outreach Coordinator, Mexicanos Sin Fronteraswww.mexicanossinfronteras.org

Sis. Janet B. Taylor – Lady President, Prosser-Truth Division #456, UNIA-ACL; Trustee, Prisoners and Families for Equal Rights and Justice www.unia-acl.org

Phil Wilayto – Editor, The Richmond Defender; Founding Member, Virginia Anti-War Network www.DefendersFJE.org; www.vawn.org

Endorsers

Moya Atkinson – Northern Virginians for Peace and Justice * Coalition for Justice – Blacksburg Ed. Dickau – Retired Teacher, History and Political Science; Blogger – Alexandria Cassandra V. Shaw – Secretary-Treasurer, Richmond Jobs with Justice avid Swanson – AfterDowningStreet.org – Charlottesville The People United – Charlottesville Shaheed Omar – Social Activist, primarily focusing on the abuse of African Americans and Muslims in Virginia Department of Corrections Facilities in South Western Virginia, especially Red Onion and Wallens Ridge. Min. Dr. Jerry L. Muhammad – Prison Reform Minister, Nation of Islam – Virginia Social Justice Film Series – First Unitarian Church – Lynchburg Cherie Seise – College of William and Mary’s Tidewater Labor Support Committee, an Affiliate of United Students Against Sweatshops – Williamsburg Frank Oddo – Activist – Richmond Aledia Johnson – Activist Vanessa Price – Social Activist, Blogger, Researcher, and Professor of Criminal Justice & Criminology – Honaker, Va. & Johnson City, Tenn. Richmond Left Libertarian Alliance Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), University of Mary Washington – Fredericksburg Garrie Rouse – AylettJay Ford – Environmental Activist – Richmond John Long – Hampton Roads Peace & Justice Coalition Adele MacLean – Activist – Richmond Queen Zakia Shabazz – Founder & Director, United Parents Against Lead National, Inc. – Richmond Mothers On A Mission (MOM) – Prisoner/Family Support Group – Tidewater The Beautiful Struggle – Prisoner/Family Support Group – FairfaxHampton Roads Peace & Justice Coalition Gail Singletary – Activist Donald Allen & Family – Activist Virginia Anti-War Network (VAWN) *  Organization listed for identification purposes only

KNOW YOUR STATE

For the last three years, Forbes magazine has rated Virginia the best state in the country for businesses. Why do you think that is? It’s because Virginia is one of the worst states for working people. Virginia’s corporate income tax rate of 6 percent is the 7th lowest in the country and hasn’t been raised in more than 30 years.

1. But no other state in the region levies a personal property tax on cars.

2. Only one in 20 Virginia workers, 5.7%, are covered by a union contract. That’s the 3rd lowest percentage in the country. Only North and South Carolina are lower.

3. Virginia’s workers compensation benefits are the 4th lowest in the country.

4. 47 other states spend more per capita on Medicaid than Virginia.

5. Virginia spends less money on its state parks than any other state.

6. It spends the least amount of money on conserving natural resources.

7.  Court-appointed lawyers for indigent defendants are paid less per case here than in any other state.

8. Virginia is one of only two states that deny the right to vote to all convicted felons after they have completed their sentences. As a result of this and a racist criminal justice system, one in four Black men in Virginia cannot vote.

9 1  www.yesvirginia.org/whyvirginia/Financial_Advantages/Stable_Taxes.aspx

2 http://voices.washingtonpost.com/rawfisher/2008/01/who_pays_more_taxes_virginia_m.html

3  Fiscal Policy Institute: www.fiscalpolicy.org

4  Industry Week, Dec. 9, 2008

5  Gov. Tim Kaine in his Dec. 17, 2008, address to the GA money committees

6  www.virginiaparks.org/vap/releases/0301press.html

7  www.baconsrebellion.com/Issues05/03-28/Benson.htm

8  www.nacdl.org/public.nsf/DefenseUpdates/Virginia090 9  The Sentencing Project, Washington, D.C.