A 99er Uprising? Those Without Unemployment Benefits to Rally on Wall Street

[marmar]

via MichaelMoore.com:




August 9th, 2010 11:54 AM

A 99er Uprising? Those Without Unemployment Benefits to Rally on Wall Street
99ers Are Growing More Politically Aware, Becoming a Movement

By Saul Relative / Associated Content


Every movement has to begin somewhere, and sometimes several somewheres. The political reaction to the unemployment extension situation is no different. It is difficult to pinpoint where and when 99ers, the name acquired by the unemployment recipients who remain jobless after their benefits and emergency extensions run out, began to organize (a job for a dedicated historian, it would seem) but they did so online. At small websites and blogs, 99ers began to convene and establish a dialogue about their extended joblessness. At the NELP (National Employment Law Website) website, which features testimonies of 99ers, the unemployed could find resources and news about the unemployment situation. At OpenCongress.org, the viewer could follow Congress' disjointed and confusing efforts at fixing the economy and the unemployment situation via politics. But wherever 99ers have gone, they have become increasingly organized. And part of that organization, according to the New York Daily News, will take the 99er message to Wall Street Thursday to rally for the cause of the jobseeking jobless -- the beleaguered long-term unemployed.

Michael White, a 99er and founder of the Unemployed Workers Action Group, has sponsored the rally, which will take place at Federal Hall, just a small distance from the New York Stock Exchange. "People went online to commiserate and gripe," he told the Daily News, "then became more desperate and looked for ways to make political gestures."

And it just might be political gestures like rallies and assemblies that get 99ers noticed, their story heard, because up until Wednesday, the plight of the 99ers had been all but ignored.

Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) introduced the Americans Want To Work Act bill into the Senate on Wednesday. The legislation is the first of its kind, the title a slap at the misguided belief, espoused most vocally by people like Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Nevada Republican senatorial hopeful Sharron Angle, that the 99ers are shiftless and unwilling to look for work. According to OpenCongress.org, there has been not one mention of the 99ers or a Tier 5 category for emergency unemployment benefits legislation since the Great Recession. Economists, politicians, and the workforce soon found that massive layoffs and company closings, commingled with the economic downturn following the subprime mortgage and housing market collapse, pointed to a different kind of recession. And as the duration of the recession grew from its inception point of December 2007 (National Bureau of Economic Research), so did the number of unemployed and, by extension, the number of long-term unemployed. It didn't take long before the Great Recession began to produce its first 99ers.

With the economy seeming to take longer than ordinary to rebound, the plight of the 99ers and their inability to find work, a need to organize has taken hold. With Congress' perceived indifference to the 99ers and their refusal to even consider a Tier 5 (until Sen. Stabenow's bill), the 99er situation has become a heated political topic. And with talk in Washington turning to completely eliminating the Tier system at the end of November (when the current legislation expires), 99ers are beginning to find their voice.

"When you're losing your home because you're broke, you don't feel comfortable anymore just sending emails and faxes," White, 58, a video editor in Los Angeles, told the Daily News. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/must-read/99er-uprising-those-without-unemployment-benefits-rally-wall-street

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. I'll see it when I believe it.

[Bitwit1234]

2. This so called "uprising" should cover republicans and Democrats

But I'll tell you one thing, for some reason or another the republicans are much better at protests than Democrats. The only movement I can remember in this country, Democratic in nature, that ever got off the ground was the Civil Rights Movement. Republicans protest, organize and show up, Democrats don't.

[Yavin4]

5. The Civil Rights Movement Was Neither Republican nor Democrat

People marched and protested for social justice from FDR through LBJ. They didn't care who won the WH nor who ran the congress. They marched, boycotted, protested everyone the same.

That was true social justice activism.

[cynatnite]

3. Forgive me if this is a stupid question...

What is a 99er?

[JonLP24]

4. Just a guess

It has something to do with those on (or recently ran out) on 99 weeks of unemployment benefits. IIRC 99 weeks are given out in states with an unemployment average higher than the national average.