San José, CA – On Friday, September 1, the Department of Labor’s report on the job market in August showed continued signs of cooling. Only 187,000 net new jobs were created, and the Labor Department adjusted down the new jobs for June and July by 130,000. This meant that the three month average was only 150,000 new jobs. In contrast, in the first three months of the year, employment grew on average by 312,000 jobs, so that the rate of job creation has been cut in half.
San José, CA – On April 21, the Trustees of Social Security and Medicare released their annual report. The report includes a projection that the Social Security benefits will be greater than income next year for the first time since 1982. The Social Security trust fund, which has grown to almost $3 trillion, will start to be tapped for the first time.
Washington, D.C. – Ongoing strikes by workers against proposed austerity measures, which would strip workers’ pay and protections, are disrupting France’s economy. Workers have been engaged in strike activity for weeks now as labor unions in the French rail, subway and airport transit, maritime transport, nuclear power, and fuel depot and refinery industries issue calls for work stoppages.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following July 6 statement from the Communist Party of Greece (KKE).The KKE is opposed to the anti-people consensus of the bourgeois parties
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Communist Party of Greece (KKE).On the result of the referendum: Hundreds of thousands of people supported the proposal of the KKE
Millions of Greek voters go to the polls July 5, in a referendum that will have important implications for the country's future. The prime minister Alexis Tsipras, of the governing SYRIZA (Coalition of the Radical Left), announced the referendum last week after a breakdown in negotiations with the so-called Troika (the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank, and the European Commission). The referendum basically asks: do you accept the Troika's proposed austerity measures (“yes” or “nai” in Greek) or do you reject them (“no” or “oxi”)?
On June 29, the governor of Puerto Rico, Alejandro García Padilla, said that Puerto Rico’s debt was “not payable.” The government of Puerto Rico has a debt that is 70% of the islands Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is more than three and half times as great as the next most indebted states, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, whose debt-to-GDP ratios are less than 20%. In addition, Puerto Rico’s electric utility also has major debt problems.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Communist Party of Greece (KKE).The referendum on the 5th of July and the stance of the KKE
For the last three to four years, the U.S. government has gone an historic bout of austerity, by raising taxes and cutting spending. This has contributed to a weak economic recovery, with workers still facing an official unemployment rate of 6.7%, which would be even higher if millions of unemployed had not given up looking for work. At the same time corporate profits have boomed to record highs.
San José, CA – On Jan. 30, the Commerce Department reported that Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, fell by a very small amount (0.1% at an annual rate) in the last three months of 2012. The drop in GDP was largely because of a big drop in federal government purchases of goods and services, in addition to a drop in inventories (meaning that stores sold goods that were sitting on their shelves instead of having more produced) and a drop in exports.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statements from communist and workers parties in solidarity with the powerful struggle against austerity in Greece. Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) is among the signers.Solidarity with the working people of Greece, with PAME, and with KKE
