A week of action in DC and we’re just warming up.

by Nate Jackson

500 white carnations rest on the steps of the capitol building as thousands of the 99% walked silently by on our way to Speaker Boehner’s office. As Speaker of the House, Boehner can do a lot to jam up our democratic process— if we let him.

It's time for Congress to get us back to work by investing in our communities and offering help to those who need it.

That’s why we walked down the streets of Washington DC, across the National Mall and up to Capitol Hill.

Leading the way was a large group of Occupy DC activists who played drums and danced in the streets. We kept the beat and moved our feet while spreading our message. We stopped for a rally at Upper Senate Hill Park.

Faith leaders from Christian, Muslim and Jewish traditions took the stage and talked how faith of any kind cannot be separated from the struggle for social justice and fairness.

Rev. Wallace Charles Smith put it plainly.

“Unemployment is not an economic issue,” he said. “It’s a moral issue. Unemployment is not just a number; it’s people who are suffering.”

When we arrived at the Capitol Building, we marched past in silence, a nod to the unemployed who have felt like they have been ignored and forgotten by their elected officials.

Christina Sherry from Seattle marched with the 99% because she wanted to see real change.

“I’ve been unemployed for over a year now,” she said. “There needs to be a fundamental change in how this economy works and how the government works. It needs to work for me, for everyone.”

When we arrived at Speaker Boehner's office, we sat down, squeezing ourselves into the small space on the steps of the Rayburn House Office Building. We shouted up at Boehner, and we're certain he knew we were there. He tried to shut us out by locking his doors, but we are the 99%, and he's supposed to work for us. We will not be ignored.

For the whole week, we were fighting to Take Back the Capitol for the 99%

On Tuesday, we marched on 99 house representatives and demanded they stop bickering and start putting the people first. Some of the representatives talked to us, some ran away, but they all heard the message. We need good jobs now for the 99%.

We stormed K Street, the base of dozens of 1% lobbying firms that pour money into the pockets of our legislators, and made them stop and listen to us on a busy Wednesday afternoon. They locked their doors as they did not want to answer to the thousands of us who have been hurt by their purchase of influence.

We crashed high powered fundraisers for representatives and presidential candidates who have proven over and over that they would step on the backs of the 99% in order to get elected. In fact, we had a red carpet rolled out with unemployed workers lying under it.

We are not going to stop fighting.

We pledge to continue the fight for a fair economy. We want the unemployed to find good jobs, workers to be treated with respect, and policies like extending unemployment insurance that help us get back on our feet when we’ve slipped.

We want to not just survive, but thrive and the only way we can do that if we continue to work together and keep fighting.

The week of action in DC was exciting, gratifying and educational. We’ve been recharged and fired up and we are taking this fight to the 1%. We won’t just sit around and wait for crumbs to fall from the plates of the 1%. We want a seat at the table.

We deserve it and we’ll keep pushing.

Thousands descend on "K" Street Lobbyists

by Nate Jackson Working Washington and other west coast community groups marched down from the National Mall to the infamous “K” street singing gospel songs, chanting and spilling out into the street. We were headed to a big 1% lobbying firm on our way to “K” street to make sure they got the memo. We were going to shine a light on their influence of our legislators. They are elected by us, and should be working for us.

“K” Street is the main hub of 1% lobbyists in Washington DC. It is home to dozens of firms who are hired by special interest 1% groups to influence, cajole and sway our elected officials. They look out for the 1% and leave the rest of us behind. Not this time. We had a message for them. Enough is enough.

Susie Escada, a woman from Tacoma lost her job. She has been working for 50 years.

“I just lost my job a year and a half ago,” she said. “I came to Washington DC because no one is hearing what we are saying. Congress is not willing to help the middle class or the working class anymore.”

Escada has been living off of unemployment insurance and it is nearly running out. This economy hasn’t just affected her; her daughter has had to move back in.

“How demoralizing,” she said. “My daughter is 47 years old and can’t find work. She had to move back in with me. Something needs to be done because they aren't listening to us.”

Hunter Marshall, a nursing student from Seattle came to DC because he is finishing school and has no prospects for a good job.

“It used to be that nursing was a steady job,” he said. “Health Care was supposed to be the golden ticket to a good job with good benefits. It’s just not the case anymore. It’s really hard to find a job right now.”

The problem is that our elected officials were too busy listening to the 1% lobbyists or looking out for their own special interests instead of doing the work for which they were elected, doing what is best for us, their constituents. That is why we were marching today on “K” Street.

Spirits were high as onlookers stopped in their tracks as we took over street after street. We were fired up and we were not going to be deterred. We swarmed by big banks, 1% lobbying firms and sub-prime mortgage lenders. We yelled “shame!” as we stopped by the big corporations like Wells Fargo and Citi Bank who got bailed out while they kicked us out of our homes.

The firms up and down “K” Street circulated warnings and memos to their workers and partners warning that the people were coming. There was extra security, locked doors and a massive police presence. They did not want to be held accountable by the 99%, but it was too late.

When we got to “K” street we were joined by other groups from the entire protest and our numbers rushed into the thousands. We shut down the intersection on “K” street and brought our message of jobs, not cuts directly to the people whose very job it was to cut jobs for the 99%.

We sang “We shall overcome” with a chorus of thousands. We chanted and danced in the streets. It was wonderful. Everyone helped each other and kept each other safe.

A few of us decided to make a stand. They locked arms in the middle of the intersection and refused to move. They were teachers, construction workers and clergy, unemployed and unafraid.

They were arrested, but not defeated. It was a choice to stand up for the 99% and show that the 1% have been holding the rest of us captive. The 1% lobbyists on “K” Street had the ear of our elected officials, but they never expected the people to show up to challenge that. It’s a challenge that we can and will win.

Congressman Reichert hears from the 99%: we want jobs, not more of the same

We came to Washington DC with one goal in mind: show and tell the legislators how hard this economy is for the 99%. Dozens of us took our message straight to Representative Reichert's DC office.

Reichert to his credit decided to talk to us-- this time. It was unexpected, but appreciated and we wanted to share our stories about how this economy is just not working for the vast majority of us.

Jamel Moxey talked about how this economy was hurting his parents so bad that they were looking into moving back to Honduras, a “third world country” in his words.

Vanessa Godfrey, a public school bus driver, could not believe that we were cutting budgets to education.

“We work our tails off,” she said. “We the non-teaching staff keep our schools running and they just keep cutting. We can’t afford it; our kids can’t afford it. We have to tell these politicians to get their priorities straight.”

He thanked us for coming all the way out to DC and for being a part of this process. But he didn't have much else to offer. In response to our stories from the front lines of the economic crisis, Congressman Reichert started rifling off talking points about how the economy really needs more corporate tax handouts, more spending cuts. At one point he even admitted that “someone” was going to be hurt. The Congressman was a gracious messenger, but his message was more of the same old plan that we know doesn’t work. We’ve tried it and it just makes things worse.

Gina Peterson, an unemployed former Nurse’s Aide for over 18 years, flew all the way from Seattle to DC to speak face to face with her legislators. She was bundled up against a surprisingly warm DC winter afternoon, and asked to talk to Reichert after he finished his remarks.

“I had to stay stuck In a job that wasn’t moving me forward,” she said. “Then when I got laid off I had nothing to fall back on."

Gina had wanted to further her education throughout her career, but bills, sub living wage pay and long hours sapped any chance to pursue her dream.

“We need good jobs that let us have a future,” she said. “If I do find work there’s no way I can stop working until I die.”

Reichert listened to Gina's story…then  again put forth his plan for more of the same — specifically, to give more tax breaks to corporations.

Corporations are taking in more profits than ever, and they don't need even more from us. After all, we the workers are the ones who create wealth. We are the ones who pave the roads, build the power grids and supply the resources that corporations then buy and sell, trade and deal. Without us there is no wealth.

It shouldn't be that hard. We need our elected leaders to focus on the real crisis this county faces, a jobs crisis. We have given and given and we are reaching our breaking point. We need to work right now and we need good jobs to take care of our families.

It’s time that our elected officials started giving something back — besides more of the same.

The 99% reclaim the Capitol.

by Nate JacksonDavid Ludden, a Working Washington activist, was firing up the crowd that gathered on the steps of the capitol in Olympia.

“They keep giving out tax loopholes,” he said to cheers from the 99%. “We’ve had enough. We can’t afford anymore big tax breaks for the super-rich and big corporations.”

Ludden was interrupted as a group of people in: top hats and necklaces, tiaras and bolas and wads of cash spilling out of their pockets, rushed the stage and demanded to be heard.

A man wearing a top hat, monocle and chewing on an over sized cigar, brandished his diamond tipped cane and shouted into the microphone.

“A break? Give me a break and I mean a tax break,” he said. “We’ve been here talking to the legislators, that we own, and we gave them our agenda. We want to keep our tax breaks.”

The 99% shouted for the 1%* to get off the stage.

“I’m going to lead you in a little chant,” he said. “Banks got bailed out..Huzzah!”

He was kicked off.

The 1% had come down to Olympia to make sure their agenda was presented to the legislators. They had walked around the capitol handing out their three pronged plan: slash health care, gut education spending and continue to give big banks all the money they wanted.

One member of the 1% even got to talk to a representative of the Lieutenant Governor.

Sporting a red scarf, top hat and dinner jacket he gave the agenda to a legislative aide.

“We need to keep the poor people down,” he said waving his hands in a dismissive gesture. “We have to keep those 99% folks down. We don’t want to fund health care, or education or services. We just want to stay rich.”

The 99% weren’t going to take it laying down, so we decided to march over to the offices of the Association of Washington Business, a pro 1% lobbying group with an office minutes away from the Capitol Building, to let them know that the 99% were sick of high paid lobbyist determining the course of our state. Of course, when we arrived the AWB locked their doors and barred the entrance. They couldn’t care less about what the 99% wanted.

Susan Wilkinson, a superstar Working Washington activist, spoke to the crowd gathered outside the offices of the AWB.

“We are here because the 1% won’t listen,” she said. “We are noisy and we are not going away.”

Office workers from the AWB looked out from behind darkened glass and pulled out their cellphones to ask what they should do with this crowd of the 99%.

We cheered her on.

“We are the ones who make everything happen for the 1%,” she said. “We deserve to be heard.”

*Special thanks to Joshua Welter and the good folks at Washington CAN for playing the parts of the 1%.

Whose Capitol is it anyway?

by Nate Jackson

The 1% don’t cast many votes, but they seem to own the Capitol anyway. They certainly pay for it, with their huge campaign donations and their army of corporate lobbyists.

Join us on Wednesday November 30th to highlight the 1% agenda in Olympia and speak out for what the 99% want: jobs, not cuts. But be warned: we expect representatives of the 1% to hold a counter-demonstration, so be on the lookout for ballgowns, top hats, and signs calling for still more cuts.

The State Legislature begins a special session this week to consider $2 billion in new cuts to critical state programs — cuts that come on top of the $10 billion they’ve already cut over the past few years.

We’ve sacrificed enough and we have a different vision for Washington.

We want something better for our state. That’s why community groups, working people, students, faith leaders, and others will be coming to Olympia this week for a week of action to Occupy the Capitol. Together, we’ll raise our voices and say “enough is enough — we need jobs, not cuts.”

Thousands gathered at the Capitol on Monday, starting off the week of action with a bang. There will be more action today. Then on Wednesday, Working Washington will be in Olympia to call attention to the agenda of the 1%.

Join us this Wednesday, November 30 in Olympia. At 10 am, we’ll meet in the Columbia Room in the legislative building in Olympia at 10 am and spread the word about what the top 1% really want from our state. Then at 12 noon we’ll rally on the steps of the Capitol and shine a public light on what the 1% has been doing all these years and call to account those who do their bidding.

The 1% may show up with their caviar and monocles and their proposals to slash education, health care and other public services. But we won’t back down.

Join us.

Night of a Thousand Voices for Jobs Not Cuts

by Nate Jackson

You can’t stop a movement whose time has come.

More than a 1000 of us gathered across from Husky Stadium to stand up for jobs, not cuts. We stood in the rain and sleet and cheered as speakers from the community took the microphone to tell why they were there to march with us to the University Bridge to fight against the fundamental problems in our economy: the continuing lack of good jobs, cuts to education, health care, and other service programs. We can’t afford to sit around any longer.

Larry Gossett-King County Council-member, Dusty Hoerler a member of the Plumbers and Pipefitters union, Grace Yang a Registered Nurse from UW Medical Center, Jamel Moxey-a Bellevue College student, Sunni Wissmer-a UW student and Reverend Doctor Leslie Braxton of Mt. Zion Baptist Church all spoke about the importance of fighting together to make lasting change.

The speakers also pointed out that we need good jobs, a vibrant education system, quality health care and services that can get our economy moving again for the rest of us.

The 1% are doing just fine, but the rest of us are still struggling.

Three years after the big banks and Wall Street crashed our economy; we are still hurting for good jobs, education and services that will enable us to take care of our families.

We’ve had enough and that’s why such a diverse group of folks came together. Our diversity is our strength. We can do great things when we are united and take collective action.

We took our message to the streets peacefully, but with a presence that could not be stopped. We stomped down Pacific Street and onto the University of Washington campus where students spontaneously joined us as we headed for University Bridge. Chants and music lead the way as the rain continued to fall, but our spirits were high.

News choppers flew overhead as we arrived at the University Bridge. Reporters and bloggers interviewed us as we continued to chant, dance and celebrate. We were live on TV and radio and we all were saying the same thing. We need good jobs, not more cuts.

We can put people to work right now doing the work that needs doing and those good jobs would feed other industries in our local communities. It’s a win/win situation.

We marched to the University Bridge because it is one of the over 300 functionally obsolete or structurally insufficient bridges in King County alone. We need the good jobs that repairing, replacing and updating those bridges can bring to the community.

It’s not just about the bridges. It’s about the underlying problem with our infrastructure as a whole. Schools are raising tuitions, millions cannot afford good health care and we are worried about our families’ future as bills pile up and our paychecks break down.

We’ve shown what the 99% can do when they work together and today we are going to be giving out posters, flyers and signs to show that you are part of the 99% with us. On Friday, November 18^th we will be on King County college campuses, UW, Bellevue, Seattle Central and Green River. This weekend you can find us across King County in libraries, parks and transit centers.

You’ve shown your strength and your dedication. Be proud and declare it.

Special thanks to the many supporters who helped make this event such a success! Martin Luther King County Labor Council, OneAmerica, SEIU, Somali Community Services, Teamsters 117,Washington Community Action Network, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), CURB (Communities Uniting Rainier Beach), Martin Luther King Celebration Committee, NAACP Seattle/King County Chapter, PINW (Peoples Institute Northwest), POCAAN (People of Color Against AIDS Network), Rainier Community Empowerment Coalition, Tyree Scott Freedom School, YUIR (Youth Undoing Institutional Racism), and many more.

We are the Port: Lets Celebrate Workers

by Nate Jackson Last Thursday, local business executive celebrated Port of Seattle executives at a $1750-per-table dinner at the Bell Harbor Conference Center on the Seattle waterfront. As they celebrated at their "black tie optional event", workers and community allies were there outside, honoring the people who actually make the port prosper: the workers who move the containers, serve the passengers, and keep the seaport and airport running.

Their banquet honored executives and celebrated the top 1%. Our people's banquet celebrated the 99%. We honored truck drivers, baggage handlers, skycaps, Hertz shuttlers, and other workers for jobs well done.

Leonard Smith of Teamsters 117 talked about how the richest 1% executives of the big businesses and the Port of Seattle were turning a blind eye to the business practices of many of the companies operating out of the port.

“The port has a responsibility to make sure that all workers working in port facilities are respected,” he said. “That they can earn a living wage, that their rights to form unions are not violated.”

“It’s the Ports responsibility because the port grants the lease to those businesses, and it’s the ports responsibility because as a publicly owned entity we, the 99% demand nothing less.”

We honored workers outside the banquet. And we also took our message inside, bringing the 99% right up close to the 1%.

Airport workers, community members, and faith leaders attended the Port of Seattle’s banquet to bring our voices inside the room — the voices of the 99%.

We spoke with many of the big business and port executives and introduced them to the workers who actually create the prosperity that the Port of Seattle was there celebrating. Most of the executives didn't seem too comfortable being face-to-face with the workers they paid $8.67 an hour while they themselves made hundreds of times more. It is a lot harder to pretend that people don't deserve better when they are two feet away talking with you.

One of the most interesting conversations was when airport workers spoke with Tay Yoshitani, CEO of the Port of Seattle. Yoshitani has a good job — he made almost $400,000 last year. They told Yoshitani the Port has a responsibility to make sure the big corporations who do business there pay better than poverty wages.

Yoshitani told us he understood what it was like to struggle to get by in tough times, because he had been there himself once.

Skycap Hosea Wilcox responded: “You had someone help you. That’s all we are asking for here.”

The Port of Seattle is owned by the public, and run by elected Port Commissioners. It's our port, and it should work for all of us. Right now the port is allowing businesses to pay poverty wages and skip out of providing benefits. The port is allowing businesses to intimidate workers who want to stand up for their rights together. It’s forgotten that it is our port, not the one percent’s.

It's the Port's responsibility to do right by workers and make sure every job at the Port is a good job. They're not fulfilling that responsibility — and that's why we're standing up.

We want fair treatment and an opportunity to take care of our families. We don’t want a handout or a bailout or bonuses like the CEOs give themselves. We just want a fair shot. We need fair wages, good benefits and most importantly, respect.

There's no doubt the Port heard our message — from outside their banquet and from the inside. The question is what they're going to do about it.

Nov: 10 The Port of Poverty celebrates the 1%

By Nate Jackson If you are the Port of Seattle and most of your workers make poverty level wages what do you do? You throw a party to celebrate your overpaid executives, the one percent.

The Port of Seattle calls itself “The Port of Prosperity." We call it the "Port of Poverty." The Port on November 10th is having a self-congratulating $1,750-a-table banquet for the overpaid executives. There is just one problem.  They forgot to invite the people who actually create the wealth of the port: the workers. That’s why we are holding our own banquet to honor the Port Workers at the Bell Harbor Conference Center at 5:30 pm.

It’s not the “Port of Prosperity” for workers. It’s the “Port of Poverty.” Workers are not treated with the respect they rightly deserve. No one understands that better than the airport workers who were just fired for praying.

26 Hertz airport workers were“ suspended” a few weeks ago for practicing their religion. Now they have been sacked.

Sadly, Hertz is far from the only port company that is taking advantage of its workers. The average worker at the ports are working poverty level jobs with no benefits, no job security and rules that change on managerial whims. Meanwhile, the Port of Seattle CEO Tay Yoshitani, still makes$400,000 a year. It’s not right and that’s why we are standing up for good jobs at the port.

On Thursday, November 10 we are holding our own banquet to honor workers who work hard every day, providing essential port services, and don’t get the respect we deserve. We stand together. Every job at the Port of Seattle should be a good job. Won't you join us at the Bell Harbor Conference Center at 5:30 pm?

This is our port and we should benefit from all our hard work.

November 5th: We’re breaking up with Big Banks.

By Nate Jackson Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase isn't just the top 1% — he's the top 1% of the top 1%.

On November 2nd, he came to Seattle to speak on "business leadership". Instead, we told him that we weren't satisfied with the kind of leadership he and the other big banks represent.

Our country is in a jobs crisis and the big banks are only making it worse. They have continued to lay off workers while giving CEOs bonuses, refused to modify loans to keep us in our homes and even charge folks when they use their EBT cards.

Enough is enough. It's over. It's time to break up with the big banks.

Too many of us are hurting from the unfair business practices of the Big Wall Street Banks. They put profit over people, think layoffs as good for their bottom line and Dimon even thinks that foreclosures are “giving debt relief.” That’s not what we believe.

We understand that in order to make lasting change we all need to work together. That’s why as a first major step, this Saturday, November 5^th we’re moving our money out of Big Wall Street Banks.They’ve had their chance and now we’re breaking up.

Chase Bank hasn’t been a good relationship. When they first took over Washington Mutual they fired 3400 employees as a way of introducing themselves to our state. They then raised fees on social services like EBT for which they were already being paid by the state at the ridiculous cost of $8 million a year, your tax dollars not at work.

Chase Bank didn’t stop there. They then gave even larger bonuses and pay to their CEO Jamie Dimon ballooning his pay to nearly $10,000 per hour. In fact, he is the highest paid banker in the United States. His earnings have exploded while he continues to foreclose on Washingtonians; nearly 10,000 and counting while making a profit on food stamps from folks who can least afford it.

We're breaking up with Big Banks because we've had enough with an economic system that keeps giving bailouts and bonuses to the big banks while the 99% are still struggling to find good jobs. We've had enough with a system that protects loopholes for private jets while cutting education and health care. And we've had enough with CEOs who make millions a year while they lay-off thousands of workers.

We’ve had enough and we’re not the only ones.In Long Island, New York the Village of Hempsted closed its Chase Bank account as a city to protest the unfair foreclosure and banking practices of JP Morgan Chase.

The city of San Jose moved nearly $1 Billion out of Bank of America as the city could not abide that huge international banks financial practices anymore in the face of the economic challenges of San Jose residents.

Even states are moving their money; Massachusetts has moved millions of dollars out of big banks Chase and Wells Fargo.

We’ve had enough of big banks profiting off of business practices that hurt the 99% and enrich shareholders and greedy CEOs who have benefited off of our hard work. We are standing up, and taking our hard earned money away from big banks that do not have our best interest at heart.

Join us on November 5 to say enough to business as usual, enough to giving our money to big banks that then hand it over to greedy CEOs and enough to rewarding big banks for laying us off.

We’ve had enough. We’ve talked enough and it’s time we started acting.

We can drive out of this jobs crisis, if we fix our roads and bridges.

By Nate Jackson You’re not the only one who feels like they should be driving an ATV down parts of I-5 and other major roads.

In fact, one out of four roads in the greater Seattle area is in desperate need of repair. We are not even talking about new roads and ramps; we’re talking about maintaining the structures we already have.

Schools are overcrowded and it seems like our electrical grid sputters whenever a tree thinks about falling over. We have work that needs doing and the jobs that come with that work are essential if we want to pull this economy out of the ditch. We have a jobs crisis and we need to get people working again first. That’s why we are gathering on November 17^th to stand up for good jobs. Our roads need work and so do we.

Investing in our communities’ infrastructure would be a boon to local workers who are having a terrible time finding gainful employment in this economy. We need those good jobs and we need the work done for everyone who relies on the infrastructure for their everyday needs.

We need to invest in our infrastructure and create good jobs. We need to get back to work.

The city of Seattle, according to Seattle Times columnist Susan Kelleher, is effectively ignoring many of the roads that need repair by having no plans to improve these roads in the foreseeable future. Daily commuters know where the particularly problematic potholes live and they swerve around. We need to fully invest in our vital infrastructure.

Cars, bicycles, and buses all need repaired roads in order to function. Fix our infrastructure, fix our economy.

The bottom line is that we should be taking the sad state of our infrastructure seriously. It is a fundamental problem in our economy that we are not working even when there is work that needs to be done. By investing in our infrastructure, we not only create jobs, but we make our neighborhoods and cities more attractive to businesses. Allowing our roads to be in disrepair is a sign to business that they should look elsewhere to set up shop.

We need efficient roads and bridges that are safe and stable.  We can’t afford to fill in a few potholes and smear tar on a street and call it maintenance. We need to fully invest in our roads, bridges and other infrastructure, and OUR PEOPLE! Deciding to do the work that needs doing fixes both problems, so why aren't we doing it yet?

Come out and join us on November 17^th to show our elected officials that we are serious about investing in our infrastructure and in good jobs.