The Socialist Answer to the Economic Crisis

Socialist Action proposes an EMERGENCY CONGRESS OF LABOR and other social movements to discuss and take steps to implement the following demands:

1. Bail out the people, not the bankers!  Open the account books of the banks to full public inspection.  Nationalize the banks and have them be run by elected workers' committees.

2. No foreclosures!  No forced evictions!  Cancel usurious debt payments, and reduce mortgage payments in proportion to their capitalist-caused decline in value.

3. Full employment at union wages!  An emergency public works program to employ all jobless workers and youth!  Employ people to build what we need - low-cost housing, efficient mass transit, cheap and renewable sources of energy, schools and clinics - and to conserve our water, forests, farmland and open spaces.

4. Immediate and full withdrawal of U.S. troops & mercenaries from all other countries!  Close all U.S. bases abroad!  No money for the military - use the funds instead for public works!  Convert the war industries to making products for people's needs and to combat global warming.

5. Reduce the workweek to 30 hours with no cut in pay, and cut the retirement age to 55.  Provide unemployment and retirement payments at the level of union wages and benefits.

6. To combat inflation: A sliding scale of wages and pensions that matches the rises in consumer prices.  To combat skyrocketing medical costs: A free, universal, public health-care system.

7. Immediate citizenship for all undocumented workers.  No job discrimination; equal pay for equal work - regardless of gender, sexual orientation, skin color or national origin.

8. Nationalize manufacturing, agribusiness, utilities and transportation corporations and place them under the control of elected committees of workers.

9. To mobilize support for the demands that it adopts, the Emergency Congress should organize Action Committees in every workplace and neighborhood threatened by the economic crisis.  These committees can draw up more localized and concrete demands than the ones outlined above.

10.  To put all these measures into effect, we need a Labor Party - based on a revitalized, militant labor movement, allied with other social movements of the oppressed and exploited.  And our ultimate goal should be a workers' government!