Youth Speak-Out: Peace & Unity

Help build Unity and Keep Peace in our community!

Saturday, October 22, 11am - 1pm
Black Ensemble Theater/Uptown Center Hull House
4520 N. Beacon

Voice your ideas on what will bring unity and peace to the north side. Join with others in developing an action agenda.


Sponsors:
Northside Action for Justice, RIMS, Kuumba Lynx, JUICE Alliance, CeaseFire/ONE, Chicago Grassroots Curriculum Task Force

Victory! Basketball rims returned to Uptown Park

Only days after North Side residents took their demands to the Board of the Chicago Park District, basketball rims have been replaced at the Broncho Billy Playlot near Magnolia & Montrose.

The rims had been removed by order of new Alderman James Cappleman, claiming it was a response to crime, despite little evidence of a connection between crime and the basketball rims.

Residents organized a petition drive, got the support of many community leaders and took their effort to get the rims back to the Park District Board on Oct. 12.

Occupy Wall Street - and Make Them Pay

Tax Wall Street - Jobs Not Cuts!

As the Occupy Wall Street movement builds, overcoming threats of eviction from NYC's Liberty Plaza and inspiring occupations across the country, there are several concrete things we can do as steps towards breaking the power of Wall Street and change our national priorities.

One that is gaining momentum is the movement to establish a Financial Speculation Tax (FST, also known as a Transactions Tax or Tobin Tax) -- a small fee on speculative trading that can generate hundreds of billions of dollars while discouraging flash trading.

Dozens of groups around the country are collecting petitions calling on the Congressional "Super Committee" to Tax Wall Street as part of the deficit reduction plan.

Add your name to the petition here.

More than 1,000 prominent economists signed an open letter in support of a speculation tax, and Germany and France are proposing such a tax internationally.

Tax the Rich

For decades, Millionaires have been lobbying and buying their way to lower tax rates.

As Warren Buffet has pointed out, there are thousands of very wealthy people that actually pay a lower tax rate than their secretaries. This is partly because much of the 'capital gains' investment income goes to the very rich and is taxed at only 15%. The so-called "Buffett Rule" is intended to address this discrepancy.

But Millionaires have also had their federal income tax rates cut drastically since the times of Ronald Reagan or Dwight Eisenhower.

In fact, if income tax rates today were the same as they were during the Eisenhower administration would bring about a balanced budget.

There is finally recognition that we need to restore some basic fairness and sanity to our economy and tax code. Two examples of proposals include:

* a millionaire surtax, along the lines proposed by US Rep. Jan Schakowsky

* a Financial Speculation Tax, which is like a tiny sales tax on buying and selling speculative investments like derivatives, futures, stocks, etc.

Of course, closing loopholes or simply enforcing existing tax law would be a plus, as well.

PS: People, including most news reporters,often seem to be confused about how tax rates work --including what 'marginal rates' mean. If George's income is $30,000, LaDonna's is $300,000 and Beth's is $3 million, all three pay the same tax rate on the first $30,000 of income. LaDonna and Beth pay the same rate on their income from $30,001-$300,000. If there is a surtax on oncomes over $1 million, only Beth would pay the surtax, and only on the portion of income over $1 million (i.e. it does not apply to her first $30,000 or $300,000, or even $999,999 in income).

Tax Dodging CEOs Rake It In

The CEOs of profitable tax-dodging corporations are raking in the cash, according to a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies.

In fact, 25 major profitable corporations -- like Verizon and General Electric -- actually paid more to their CEO than they did in total federal income taxes.

Many of these same highly paid CEOs are responsible for eliminating jobs through layoffs and outsourcing.

Corporations are not people -- no matter what the Supreme Court says. It is the people that run them that decide to squeeze employees, outsource jobs and dodge taxes.