BANK OF AMERICA PAYS NO CT TAXES - ACT NOW!

The following is a letter from Working Families Party.

Dear friends,

A few weeks back, Working Families members participated in a major rally outside the Bank of America in downtown Hartford, along with hundreds of friends and allies. The point of the rally was that in addition to a shockingly bad record of small business lending, it turns out Bank of America paid nothing in corporate taxes to the State of Connecticut last year.

It’s astonishing. And whatever you might think about the Governor’s proposed budget, one thing is clear: if the average citizen is paying more in taxes than the Bank of America, something is wrong with this picture.

The Governor has called for shared sacrifice to help close our budget deficit. We agree. And we think it’s time for big banks and other multi-national companies to make sacrifices too and start paying their fair share of taxes.

Tomorrow, Saturday March 12th, we're bringing rallies to Bank of America branches all around the state. I hope you'll come to one near you. [NOTE: ALL DEMOS WILL START AT 10 AM AND GO FOR ABOUT ONE HOUR -- MAKE A SIGN IF YOU WISH.]

New Haven: Long Wharf branch, 250 Sargent Drive (map)
Middletown: Main Street branch, 267 Main Street (map)
Norwich: Route 82 branch, 590 West Main Street (map)
Bridgeport: North End branch, 2500 Main Street (map)
Waterbury: Chase & Cooke branch, 992 Cooke Street (map)

Please join us. The incredible demonstrations we’ve witnessed in Wisconsin should be an inspiration to all of us. It’s time to stand up and make our voices heard here in Connecticut as well.

Thanks.

-Jon Green
Executive Director
CT Working Families
www.connecticutworkingfamilies.org

Posted by Tom Connolly

Testimony - Repeal the Death Penalty

Testimony to the Joint Committee on Judiciary
March 7, 2011
In Support of SB 1035, An Act Repealing the Death Penalty

Joelle Fishman

The issue of abolishing the death penalty is being debated and acted on in several states. It is being commented on by national personalities in the judicial and religious fields.

For us in Connecticut, the debate has been clouded by the heinous crime in Cheshire. However, the issue looms larger than one unthinkable tragedy.

There have been other tragedies when innocent men and women have been executed only later to have been found innocent by DNA or other scientific evidence. There is no way for the state to return a life wrongfully taken. And those who are on death row are disproportionately people of color and poor.

Last December, retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Steven, a former supporter of the death penalty, wrote in the New York Times that he now opposes capital punishment because it is "shot through with racism, skewed toward conviction, infected with politics and tinged with hysteria."

Writing in agreement, columnist Bob Herbert who covered many death penalty cases said, "The death penalty in the United States has never been anything but an abomination — a grotesque, uncivilized, overwhelmingly racist affront to the very idea of justice."

This Thursday, Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, California, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote to Governor Quinn of Illinois urging him to sign the legislation on his desk to abolish the death penalty.

Referring to statements by Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II that ending the death penalty is "a sign of greater respect for all human life," Bishop Blaire said that abolishing the death penalty will "help to begin building a culture of life in our country."

Bishop Blaire quoted from the U.S. bishops' document "A Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death" stating "Even when people deny the dignity of others, we must still recognize that their dignity is a gift from God and is not something that is earned or lost through their behavior. Respect for life applies to all, even the perpetrators of terrible acts. Punishment should be consistent with the demands of justice and with respect for human life and dignity."

Here in Connecticut life in prison without parole is a possible sentence. Governor Malloy stated during his campaign that if he were elected and if legislation to abolish the death penalty reached his desk he would sign it.

Let us not lose this opportunity to strengthen the justice in our justice system. Please support SB 1035, An Act Repealing the Death Penalty.

ACT NOW - STOP THE REPUBLICAN BUDGET

Can you call Sens. Blumenthal and Lieberman and tell them to stand strong against Republicans' massive, devastating cuts? See the top ten massive Republicans' budget cuts below.

Senator Richard Blumenthal
Phone: 202-224-2823

Senator Joe Lieberman
Phone: 202-224-4041

Top 10 Worst Things about the Republicans' Immoral Budget

The Republican budget would:

1. Destroy 700,000 jobs, according to an independent economic analysis.

2. Zero out federal funding for National Public Radio and public television.
3. Cut $1.3 billion from community health centers—which will deprive more than 3 million low-income people of health care over the next few months.

4. Cut nearly a billion dollars in food and health care assistance to pregnant women, new moms, and children.

5. Kick more than 200,000 children out of pre-school by cutting funds for Head Start.

6. Force states to fire 65,000 teachers and aides, dramatically increasing class sizes, thanks to education cuts.

7. Cut some or all financial aid for 9.4 million low- and middle-income college students.

8. Slash $1.6 billion from the National Institutes of Health, a cut that experts say would "send shockwaves" through cancer research, likely result in cuts to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's research, and cause job losses.

9. End the only federal family planning program, including cutting all federal funding that goes to Planned Parenthood to support cancer screenings and other women's health care.

10. Send 10,000 low-income veterans into homelessness by cutting in half the number of veterans who get housing vouchers this year.

We've got to get the word out about this awful budget—right away. Please, share this with your friends on Facebook and Twitter, or by forwarding this email, today.

Source: A MoveOn Email Dated March 8, 2011
Posted by Tom Connolly

Happy International Womens' Day, March 8, 2011

Today, as public workers are under attack, we salute and stand in solidarity with the leadership of women struggling for union rights, equal pay, social justice and peace.

International Women's Day was adopted by the Second International Women’s Conference, held in Copenhagen in 1910. The date was chosen to commemorate a huge demonstration of New York women garment workers held on March 8, 1908 to demand the vote and to urge the building of a powerful garment trades' union.

The success of the 1908 demonstration became known internationally among socialist women. Clara Zetkin proposed that March 8 become an International Women’s Day each year dedicated to fighting for equal rights for all women in all countries.

In March, 1911 the Triangle Shirtwaist fire took the lives of 140 working women and children in New York City. That same year women textile workers of Lawrence, Massachusetts went on strike for "Bread and Roses" The cause of working women of all races and nationalities and their struggle for equality remains at the center of International Women's Day.

In 1975 International Women's Day was adopted by the United Nations. The UN is now celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the first celebration.

The important role women are playing not only in Wisconsin but around the country and the world, and in Connecticut, inspires us and gives us confidence that we can succeed in the struggle for women's rights, workers' rights and a more just and equal world.


Joelle Fishman, Chair, Connecticut CPUSA