OntheWilderSide

Green Party urges a program for millions of new public works jobs and financial security for Americans instead of Wall Street handouts

Green Party leaders said today that Democratic and Republican politicians are pursuing fiscal agenda, including responses to the subprime mortgage crisis, that amount to an “economic war” on Black and Latino/a people across the US.

Greens especially criticized President Obama, whose bailouts for Wall Street firms have done little to provide economic security for those who were among his most enthusiastic supporters in the 2008 election.

Betty Davis, co-chair of the Green Party Black Caucus (http://www.gpblackcaucus.com/):

Blacks and Latinos were primary targets for lending corporations offering high-interest subprime loans, and were thus disproportionately hit by the subprime mortgage crisis. Blacks were especially vulnerable to such loans because they were denied the equity that whites have long enjoyed, a result of Federal Housing Administration redlining and racial discrimination in the granting of housing loans and mortgages during the mid 20th century.  These policies have had profound effects on the finances of Blacks long after discriminatory practices were outlawed.  The Center for Responsible Lending has found that, because of the mortgage meltdown, Latinos will have lost between $75 billion and $98 billion and Blacks between $71 billion and $92 billion in home-value wealth.  The victims of subprime loans should be first in line for aid that restores financial stability and the ability to keep one’s home

Alfred Molison, Green candidate for Houston City Council and member of the Green Party Black Caucus (http://votealfred.com):

President Obama and other leaders like to preach moral lessons to Black people while slashing the safety net and providing minimal assistance for homeowners and job-seekers. We’re seeing lots of blame on the alleged ‘cultural deficiencies’ of Black people, such as single-mother family statistics and ‘cycles of poverty’ rhetoric that ignores imposed economic factors and a justice system too eager to incarcerate Blacks.  Meanwhile, the profits of financial corporations — including those responsible for the current crisis — are now underwritten by US taxpayers to the tune of nearly $24 trillion (http://www.huffingtonpost.com).  All Americans are becoming victims of the Democratic-Republican assault on working people and dedication to Wall Street’s economic elites, with Black people and Latinos suffering the worst.

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Derek Grigsby, chair of the Detroit Green Party and member of the Green Party Black Caucus (http://www.gpblackcaucus.com/):

The Green Party demands an end to the ‘two party’ economic war on Black people and Latinos and on working and poor Americans of all races.  Instead of Wall Street bailouts, we need assistance for those who’ve lost their homes and jobs. Millions of new jobs can be created through public works in conservation, retrofitting and greening houses and infrastructure, and expanded public transportation.  We need to cancel the wasteful war on drugs, end racially biased sentencing and other criminal justice system disparities, and abolish private ownership of prisons.  Black, Latino, and poor Americans have been made fodder for the private prison industry, which profits by filling up cells.  We need reparations for the descendents of slaves, recognizing the hundreds of years of stolen labor and post-slavery exploitation and discrimination.  We must immediately call an end to the murderous escapades in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring our sons and daughters home now.  These steps would lead to an economic recovery that benefits all Americans, and show the rest of the world that we practice what we preach!

Green Party National Committee delegate from Rhode Island, Latino community activist: “Outside of the Green Party, few politicians want to recognize racial economic disparities and how they’ve been aggravated by the current financial crisis.  In September, the unemployment rate for Blacks was 15.7%; the underemployment rate for Blacks was 23.8 percent and for Latinos 25.1%.  The poverty rate for Black children is nearly 35%.  But Democrats and Republicans in the White House and Congress are resisting the necessary massive public works program necessary to create jobs and reverse such figures, out of deference to corporate lobbies that prefer a desperate labor force.  They promise a private sector miracle that isn’t going to happen.  This amounts to a vicious bipartisan policy of inaction to help Americans most in need.”

Filed under: 3rd party, Action Alert!, activism, economy, election, Election 2010, elections, grassroots democracy, Green Party, News, politics, third party, US Politics Tagged: | black, latinas, Latinos, Subprime Scandal