PARTYBUILDER - August 2004 IN THIS ISSUE: DC LABOR FILM FEST - AD DEADLINE AUGUST 10TH! CNA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ROSE ANN DEMORO SPEAKS OUT ON HEALTH CARE THE MEDICARE DRUG WAR DO FAT CATS PAY LOWER TAX RATES THAN WORKERS? FREE HIGHER ED CAMPAIGN NEWS
DC LABOR FILM FEST - AD DEADLINE AUGUST 10TH! The 2004 DC Labor FilmFest is scheduled for September 10-12 at the American Film Institute's Silver Theater. The festival opens with a 15th anniversary screening of Michael Moore's first film, "Roger and Me" and closes with a new print of the classic 1969 Marlon Brando film "Burn!" In between are five brand new films chronicling coal miners in China (Blind Shaft), a "post-industrial, pre-apocalyptic, existential comedy" (Human Error) as well as the premiere of concert film "Tell Us the Truth." The November 2003 musical tour featuring Billy Bragg and Steve Earle called attention to issues of media consolidation and trade policy. We need your support! It's not too late to support the FilmFest with an ad from your union or organization in the Festival Guide. Ad space is available at the following rates: Friend of the Festival: $100 Quarter page: $250 Half page: $500 Full page: $1,000 Silver Screen Page: $2,500 Please call DJDI at 202 234-0040 x13 to reserve your ad. Many thanks to our Labor Party affiliates and supporters for ads already placed. For more information, click here: www.djdinstitute.org/f_index.html CNA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ROSE ANN DEMORO SPEAKS OUT ON HEALTH CARE In a recent guest commentary in the "Contra Costa Times," Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association (a Labor Party affiliate) charges that it is "time to get serious on health care." DeMoro argues that "Verbal commitments to universal health care are for some a charade, a cover for tinkering with the current system to avoid substantive change. Typical of such ideas is the notion that people without employer-provided benefits be required to purchase insurance, subsidized for the low income through tax credits, without any financial contribution by the HMOs and insurance giants that would reap gain." Read the full article at www.justhealthcare.org. Click here. THE MEDICARE DRUG WAR The pharmaceutical and managed care industries spent a record $141 million in 2003 to lobby Congress for last year's Medicare prescription drug legislation. According to "The Medicare Drug War," a new report by Public Citizen, the new law may increase those industries' revenues by as much as $531.5 billion. The army of 952 lobbyists (nearly 10 for each U.S. Senator) helped ensure that the new drug benefit will be administered by private companies. The new law expressly prohibits the government from using its bargaining clout to negotiate lower prices and effectively bans the "reimportation" of cheaper drugs from Canada. For more information and to download the report, visit www.citizen.org. Click here DO FAT CATS PAY LOWER TAX RATES THAN WORKERS? Thanks in part to George W. Bush's recent cut in the top tax rate on dividends and capital gains, the average tax rate workers pay on wages is more than DOUBLE the rate on investment income. According to Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), federal personal taxes on investment income now average only 9.6 percent, while federal personal taxes on wages and other earnings average 23.4 percent. Before Ronald Reagan took office, the top income tax rate on most investment income was 70 percent. The top capital gains tax rate, now 15 percent, was more than 35 percent. ITEP's analysis estimates that "taxing investment income like earnings would raise $338 billion in 2004 enough to cut this year's budget deficit by two-thirds or more." Or enough to fund free higher education several times over or enough to fund a substantial part of a Just Health Care budget. For more information, www.ctj.org. Click here FREE HIGHER ED CAMPAIGN NEWS The July/August 2004 issue of "ACADEME" the bulletin of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) features the article "Free Higher Education" by campaign co-chair Adolph Reed Jr. and Sharon Syzmanski, an economist with the Labor Institute. The bulletin is distributed to every member of the AAUP nationwide. The AAUP's Collective Bargaining Congress has endorsed the Free Higher Ed campaign. AAUP also invited Reed to present a workshop on the campaign at its Summer Institute at the University of Scranton on July 31st. The workshop was well received by AAUP members from around the country and was an opportunity to introduce AAUP members outside the collective bargaining section to our campaign. Visit our website at www.freehighered.org ABOUT THE LABOR PARTY The Labor Party is a national organization made up of international unions and thousands of local unions - representing over two million workers - worker supportive organizations and individual members. Founded in 1996 at a convention of 1,400 delegates, the Labor Party exists to develop an independent working-class politics. We believe that on important issues such as health care, trade, and the rights to organize, bargain and strike, both the Democratic and Republican Parties have failed working people. -------------------------------------------------------------- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
