ALEC es una organización derechista y conservadora cuya agenda incluye: limitar los derechos al voto, la privatización de escuelas y cárceles, debilitar protecciones ambientales y promover leyes cómo las “Stand Your Ground”, anti immigrantes en de Arizona y Alabama y la SB 9 en Pensilvania. Además de esto,ALEC apoya leyes que crean más excenciones de impuestos y atacan los derechos de los trabajaros.

Los autores de leyes que afectan nuestras comunidades no deberían ser las corporaciones. Y es por la mala prensa que ALEC ha recibido ultimamente que corporaciones cómo Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods Inc. y Mars han dejado el grupo. Aún así Comcast continúa pagando por pertenecer al grupo. En vez de apoyar a un grupo que promueve la desigualdad, Comcast debería invertir en Filadelfia.

Firme la petición para decirle a Comcast que deje a ALEC.

Contact: Umang Patel, umang@fightforphilly.org; 267-254-7968 or Jess Burgan, jess@fightforphilly.org; 202-487-9409

Community Members to Roll Out the (Human) Red Carpet for Governor Corbett

Philadelphia’s 99% to protest Governor’s address to the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, demand 1% pay their fair share

Philadelphia – Hundreds of Philadelphians will greet Governor Tom Corbett as he makes a rare visit to the city for the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce’s Conversation with the Governor on Tuesday, May 15.

Activists will demonstrate how Tom Corbett, the Chamber of Commerce and the 1% are walking all over Philadelphia’s working and middle class.  Local community members will roll out the red carpet to welcome the Governor and others who are supporting a state budget that slashes funding for education, public transportation and vital healthcare services.

While the Governor “shares his vision for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Greater Philadelphia region” with the Chamber, attendees will commence the “People’s Conversation.”  Students, parents, community leaders and activists from a diverse range of groups will talk about

Many of the Chamber of Commerce’s members take advantage of corporate tax cuts and loopholes that cost the state more than $1 billion in revenue yearly.  For example, Comcast, a sponsor of the event, utilizes the Delaware Loophole which alone costs Pennsylvania taxpayers more than $500 million.  Corporations in Philadelphia like Comcast are making millions off the 99% and profiting at our communities loss, and Governor Corbett continuously chooses to protect tax loopholes and benefits that favor the 1%.

As the June 30 state budget deadline looms, and Philadelphians have been told to accept a reality which includes the closing of forty public schools, thousands of good jobs slashed and the depletion of cash assistance, more and more people are demanding that the Governor stop putting big corporations and the very rich ahead of our families and communities.  The movement against Gov. Corbett’s cuts is growing statewide, with hundreds of Pennsylvanians citing his proposed cuts to public and arts education in their outrage at his “lifetime achievement award” from the Pittsburgh Opera, and voters throughout the state traveling to Harrisburg to voice their opposition to his budget which cuts vital services to Pennsylvania families while protecting corporate tax dodgers.

What: Human Red Carpet to Welcome Governor Corbett to Philadelphia

Who: Hundreds of Philadelphians and a broad, growing number of community, faith and labor groups, including: ACTION United; Coalition Advocating for Public Schools; Decarcerate PA; Fight for Philly; Juntos; MoveOn; Neighborhood Networks; Occupy Philly; One Voice; PA Cares for All; Philadelphians Allied for a Responsible Economy; Philadelphia Unemployment Project; SEIU 32BJ; SEIU 668; SEIU Healthcare PA; SEIU Pennsylvania Joint Board; Teacher Action Group; Youth Art and Self-empowerment Project; Youth United for Change

When: 4:00pm on Tuesday, May 15

Where: Prince Theater, 1412 Chestnut Street

Fight for Philly will partner with the Student Labor Action Project and demand Sallie Mae to forgive student debt, to stop lobbying against our interests, and to pay their fair share of taxes.

One in two college graduates are jobless or underemployed and the average student graduates with $25,000 in student loan debt.

We need an economy that works for the 99% – not for the 1% and the corporations they control.

Join us in telling Sallie Mae CEO Albert Lord… we won’t let an entire generation of students be sacrificed to build his bank account.

On May 18, Corbett’s coming to Philly. Not to talk to us, but to party with the 1%. Join us as we give him a warm welcome.!

Over the past year, we’ve been calling out Comcast for not paying its fair share of taxes and because of its ridiculously excessive executive compensation.

Rounding out Comcast’s triple play of bad corporate citizenship is its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).  Although this may be one of the corporation’s lesser known fouls, it’s no less dangerous.

ALEC is a secretive, extremist organization that pushes an agenda to limit voting rights, privatize schools and prisons, weaker environmental protections, and promote so-called Stand Your Ground laws (like the law protecting Trayvon Martin’s killer).  ALEC also pushes laws that would create giant new tax loopholes and attack workers’ rights.  Corporations should not be writing laws that will affect real people and communities.

Due to increasing visibility of ALEC’s ties to awful measures like these, many legislators and major companies, including Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods and Mars Inc., have recently backed out from the group.

So, why is Philly-based Comcast still a member of this organization campaigning to put private profit ahead of the interests of our city?  Stumping for corporations over people is not a value that Philadelphians believe in.  Instead of investing in an organization fighting for the 1% and big corporations, Comcast should be investing in its workers and our city and paying its fair share of taxes.

Comcast needs to hear from us that membership in ALEC is bad corporate citizenship and is bad for business.

Sign our petition calling on Comcast to dump ALEC today.

General Assistance (GA) is a government life line that many of our vulnerable Pennsylvania families depend on. If this life saving funding ceases to exist, it will leave families struggling to live day to day. At the Capitol, a woman who is a military veteran explained how GA helped her get back on her feet.  A modest $200 a month helped her and her three disabled sons after her husband left them.  The Corbett administration estimates that eliminating the General Assistance program will save $150 million per year. But, if this program is eliminated it would increase the public cost to maintain homeless shelters, prisons, and state psychiatric hospitals.

Fight for Philly partnered with PA Cares for All and other organizations to save this program. Close to a hundred Fight for Philly members stood in solidarity with a broad range of partner organizations in the State Capitol Building’s rotunda, echoing chants of “Keep your Promise” directed at Governor Corbett and his administration.

After the GA rally, the focus turned to Pennsylvania’s proposed anti-immigration laws.  Philadelphia-based Juntos led the charge against  the 15 anti-immigrant bills, similar to those introduced in Alabama and Arizona.  If some of these bills are passed, then businesses employing undocumented individuals would shut down or deny birthright citizenship to children born in PA. Further, it could deny a person without a government issued ID a right to receive public benefits.  Community members spoke with state representatives and senators to express their dissatisfaction with these measures that won’t only hurt immigrants, but also poor and working class people.

Not surprisingly, profit motive has been tied to many of these anti-immigration laws through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).  As these connections continue to gain publicity, many corporations are pulling their support for the extreme right-wing group.  However, Philadelphia-based Comcast has yet to do so.  Stand up for people being harmed by ALEC’s laws and urge Comcast to dump ALEC now.

Contact: Anne Gemmell, 267-850-0891 or anne@fightforphilly.org

Philadelphia – Today, a growing coalition of local faith, labor and progressive organizations weighed in on the city’s budget debates with a City Hall press conference to launch a campaign to preserve the Cohen Wage Tax Credit and call upon Mayor Nutter to demand the corporate community pair its fair share.

“We need to reverse the trend of tax reform that takes more and more of the tax burden away from corporations and places more and more of the tax burden on citizens.  Mayor Nutter’s current plans for the Gross Receipts Tax and the Cohen Ordinance are examples of this unacceptable trend,” said Aaron Troisi of Philadelphians Allied for a Responsible Economy.  “In a city where people are struggling to get by, provide for their families, and ensure strong communities; in a city that closes schools and libraries, cancels programs for youth, and cuts services in our neighborhoods; it is outrageous and unacceptable that corporations are allowed to NOT pay their fair share of taxes.”

The Fair Share Coalition asked the Mayor to protect the working poor by maintaining the Cohen ordinance. Instead of eliminating this progressive wage tax, the city’s revenue challenge should be partly addressed by making corporations pay their fair share through an increase in the Gross Receipts Tax (GRT). The coalition’s proposal includes an exemption for small business.

“Our question today: Do the commercial and business communities of this city pay their fair share of taxes?  We suspect they do not, and this is why 32BJ stands with the Fair Share Coalition,” said Victor Rosado, Political Director of SEIU 32BJ.  “We want to be a part of the conversation to create a fair tax structure in this city that can maintain fairness for fairness’ sake – but to raise enough revenue to provide the basic and essential services that civilization requires.”

The “Cohen Ordinance,” passed by the late Councilman Cohen in 2004, provided tax relief to low-income workers: A three person family in Philadelphia earning $25,500 would have been eligible for gradually increasing rebates of .5%, until the family was paying a wage tax of only 1.5%. However, Mayor Nutter has been successfully watering down this ordinance since 2008, and is now seeking to eliminate it entirely.

Now, more than ever, asking more of working families while planning tax breaks for big corporations should not be an option for the city.  As next year’s city budget is developed, the Fair Share Coalition will continue to deliver the message that the budget cannot be balanced on the backs of the working poor and most vulnerable – but that everyone must pay their fair share, especially big corporations.

Bus leaves from 846 North Broad St at 7:00 am and returns at 5:00 pm

FREE FOOD!

Come out and help us put an end to corporate greed!

Families and children enjoyed a little picnic in the park at 34th and Chestnut, while enjoying face painting, soccer, and other sports. After picnicking in the park, families took a field trip to the nearby Wells Fargo branch.

Of course, Wells Fargo had locked its doors before we even arrived. Having the bank shut the doors right in our faces was in keeping with the disrespectful attitude Wells Fargo has displayed to the community.Despite Wells Fargo’s provocation, our group remained focused on our message. Professor Josh led a teach-in regarding Wells Fargo’s harms to our communities while children took the opportunity to do some coloring.

Drummers led folks in an outside picket on Chestnut Street and community members spoke out about the bank’s failure to pay its fair share and its involvement in the swap deals marketed to the School District and City that have cost Philadelphia $331 million dollars.

Wells Fargo not paying its fair share of taxes and continuing to profit from shady deals with our city and schools affects us all, and the number of people walking by who stopped to join our protest made that clear. One woman outraged by what she was learning about the bank even grabbed the mic and told the crowd: “I’m going in there to take my money out right now. I can’t believe how Wells Fargo is making so much money at the expense of everyday people like us.”

Wells Fargo has been profiting off of the backs of the middle and working class families, with a shameful record of foreclosures, predatory lending to poor communities, and avoiding taxes that should have gone to keeping schools open and caring for our vulnerable.

As families and children protested Wells Fargo here, three members of Fight for Philly traveled 2,000 miles across the country to protest the bank’s annual shareholder meeting. Even though members had shares to attend the meeting, they were turned away, along with thousands of others. Wells Fargo once again closed its door on the people they hurt and are unwilling to take any responsibility for their despicable actions.