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Economic Rights are Human Rights
I never intend to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. -Martin Luther King, Jr. 1963
Trump ascended to power on a simple truth: life has gotten harder for a lot of Americans over the last 50 years, as wages have remained stagnant for the working class, the cost of living has accelerated, and all the economic gains have gone to creating a billionaire class with unimaginable wealth. Trump ascended to power by acknowledging the dissatisfaction and anger that comes from this simple truth and channeling it to a source of blame: immigrants, DEI, and the supposed failure of the meritocracy.
Why in the richest nation to ever exist in the history of the world, do we have so much poverty? So much homelessness and hardship? Why do we have hunger and people who die because they can't afford medicine?
What does being member of this society entitle us to? The right to a decent quality of life? What obligation does our society have to ensure people are cared for? In most of the rest of the world, people have "economic rights" that endow them with the right to healthcare, family leave, sick leave and paid-time.
But in the US, we are not endowed with economic rights. President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced plans for a bill of economic and social rights in the State of the Union address of 1944. But it never materialized. And even when Martin Luther King Jr. attempted to revive the idea in the 60s, an Economic Bill of Rights would never come to pass in the US.
This is largely because our society has failed to recognize the humanity of all its people. It has failed for centuries to recognize the humanity of Black people. And so when most of the rest of the world ratified a UN international treaty that promised to extend economic, social, and cultural rights to citizens- the United States refused. To this day, the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights remains unratified in this country.
We are in the midst of a movement for our collective economic rights. The billionaire class wants us to continue scapegoating one another, remaining divided so that we never rise up in solidarity to achieve real wins for all members of our working class. But we know that when we come together to demand all that we deserve...we are unstoppable.
Resources
These slides are meant to be shared either as single slides or part of a presentation on Instagram, Reddit, or other platforms. Many people don't know about economic rights. So it is important to spread the word and educate about the set of rights that is being withheld from our working class in this country. So please take one or all and help us get the word out about our economic rights.
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