PWA Statement of Solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement
PWA Statement of Solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement
The San Francisco Progressive Workers Alliance (PWA) is proud to stand in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Together, and other Social Movements across the globe organizing on behalf of the 99%.
We Too, Are the 99%!
We are an alliance of nine grassroots groups who are organizing low-wage workers and unemployed workers in communities of color, and we too, are the 99%.
We are Black, Latino, Asian, and Queer Workers united across differences, and we too, are the 99%.
We are unemployed workers, day laborers, restaurant workers, caregivers, security guards, construction workers, domestic workers, beauty salon workers, janitors, retail workers, and more, and we too, are the 99%.
We speak English, Tagalog, Cantonese, Spanish, and many other languages, and we, too, are the 99%.
We are the 99%, but we didn’t just wake up to this because of Wall Street’s crash. As Black, Latino, Asian and Queer low-wage and unemployed workers, we saw that the economy always benefitted a few at the exclusion of most. For many years our communities have organized against injustices that have only worsened since 2008:
- unemployment from racism and the corporate outsourcing of jobs overseas; (Black unemployment is now at 18%, twice as high as white unemployment);
- sweatshop working conditions, low wages and rampant wage theft such as no minimum wage, no overtime pay, working off the clock and stolen tips, with little recourse; (a 2009 study found that 68% of low-wage workers experienced wage theft nationally)
- discrimination based on sexuality, race, immigration status, and even what neighborhood we live in (for-profit prisons are pocketing billions in taxpayer dollars to criminalize and imprison immigrants and people of color)
- unsafe working conditions, polluted neighborhoods and lack of healthcare.
- growing attacks on a woefully inadequate social safety net, with the biggest cuts coming when we need it the most.
What Happened to the American Dream?
Some of us came to this country seeking the “American Dream,” escaping poverty and war that the 1% are creating in our home countries for profit and power.
Some of us never believed the American Dream, because our ancestors built “America” and the 1%’s wealth with their slave labor, and have fought to overturn racial oppression ever since.
Regardless of our diverse histories, we break our backs to keep the economy going while often excluded from basic rights and opportunity.
We are scapegoated for the country’s problems and criminalized, so that the rest of the 99% will turn on us immigrants, people of color, low-wage workers, and queer people, instead of uniting to demand change from the 1%.
The Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Together movements shows us the real problem is not immigrants, unions, or everyday people, but rather an economic and political system that allows 1% of the population to hold 42% of the wealth, a system where “economic recovery” means banks and corporations make record profits off of taxpayers while slashing jobs, wages and benefits. This is a system designed to benefit the 1%, not the 99%.
PWA Organizes to Change the 1% System in San Francisco
San Francisco is home to 16 billionaires while 1 in 8 San Franciscans lives below poverty line (25% of Black residents and 14% of Latino residents). Every day, member organizations of PWA educate and organize workers to change this system. We recently organized to pass the SF Wage Theft Prevention Ordinance to protect the rights of low-wage workers, as well as the SF Local Hire ordinance to create pathways to employment for communities of color.
These efforts are part of our Low-Wage Worker Bill of Rights Campaign to:
1. CREATE SAFE & HEALTHY JOBS
2. END WAGE THEFT
3. PROTECT THE SOCIAL SAFETY NET
4. ENSURE EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL WORKERS
5. SUPPORT RESPONSIBLE BUSINESSES
As momentum grows to challenge the 1% system, PWA will continue to build with our allies in the labor movement, student and youth movement, and other movements for social justice. We join in global solidarity with people organizing in the Arab Spring, the Indignad@s in Spain, rural and labor movements in China, democratic movements in the Philippines, and many many more.
JOIN US! We are ALL the 99%!
We call on other low-wage workers, unemployed workers, immigrants and people of color, queer workers, and everyone who is part of the 99%, to join us in actions such as the October 12th Indigenous People’s Day rally to “Foreclose on Wall Street West” and to support our local organizing for low-wage workers rights here in the San Francisco Bay Area.
