SEIU Local 503, AFSCME, OEA, Basic Rights Oregon and other allies will hold a "Rally For A Better Way For Oregon" on the front steps of the State Capitol on Salem on Friday. The rally will begin at 11:30 a.m. and a picnic will follow the rally.
The focus of the rally will be on finding a better way to solve the budget crisis which is forcing cuts on public services and schools and the programs which provide for youth, the elderly and the developmentally disabled.
Union contract negotiations which are now underway between the state and the main public worker unions are taking place with the budget crisis as a backdrop and as attacks on public workers and public services multiply throughout the USA. Oregon has been spared the worst of these attacks because of the high levels of public employee unionism in the state and because of the relative strength of progressive forces here, including many politicians who have been forced to defend public services and progressive policies by their most active constituents.
Still, even in Oregon we are facing a budget crisis brought on bankers and the banking industry, the flight of capital and the refusal of the big banks and financial institutions to lend money. Capitalism is reorganizing internationally and is going through one of its periodic and inevitable crises. The working class and the poor should not be paying for this and Friday's rally needs to communicate that message.
Thousands are expected at the State Capitol on Friday. We hope to see you there!
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