By Michael Kaufman

Sometimes the headline tells you all you need to know:  HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR, for example, or FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD. Tuesday there was one in the Times Herald-Record but you may have missed it because it was positioned at the bottom of a page in the business section:  “BofA will ax 30,000 jobs to calm investors.” This is the same Bank of America that benefited from the massive Wall Street bailout funded by the tax-paying citizens of this country in 2008.

According to the article, “the nation’s largest bank…is facing huge liabilities over soured mortgage investments and concerns over whether it has enough capital to withstand more financial shocks.”  Couldn’t they have thought of a better way to allay the anxiety of shareholders before firing 10 percent of the workforce?  Not according to the bank:  “The bank said it hopes the cuts and other measures will result in $5 billion in annual savings by 2014. The bank has already cut 6,000 jobs this year. The bank also said it would look for cost savings at its other businesses in a six-month review that will begin next month.”  In other words, people who work at those “other businesses” are also in danger of losing their jobs soon in order to “calm investors.”  

What’s wrong with this picture?

In an email sent last Friday to members of the Orange County Democratic Alliance (DA), Michael Sussman wrote, “This is our time to start reaching out and discussing the inequities of our economic system and who is being injured.” Sussman will be one of the featured speakers Sunday, September 18, at a Rally for Economic Justice in New Canaan, Connecticut. Major organizer of the rally is Bennett Weiss of Newburgh, who mentioned the idea on a frigid Sunday afternoon in January—the day Nan Hayworth celebrated her election to Congress at an inauguration in Middletown.  As Hayworth spoke inside about “reining in government” and repealing health care reform, Sussman, Weiss, and other DA members protested outside.  

Later, within the warm confines of the Colonial Diner, Weiss explained why he chose New Canaan as the site for a projected rally for economic justice. He noted that New Canaan is home to many of the beneficiaries of the recently extended “Bush tax cuts” on the wealthy….you know, the ones who are supposedly creating new jobs thanks to the cuts. The median price of a home listed for sale in New Canaan is over $2 million.

At the time of the last census the racial makeup of the town was 95 percent white, one percent African American, two percent Asian, and less than two percent Hispanic or Latino of any race. Among the notables who live in New Canaan are Glenn Beck, right-wing broadcaster, Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, and David Neeleman, founder of Jet Blue Airways. As of November 4, 2008, there were 12,813 active voters in New Canaan:  6,341 Republicans, 2,732 Democrats, 3,716 unaffiliated voters, and 24 voters registered with other parties.  

Weiss. tongue ensconced firmly in cheek, calls on Orange County residents to “make the hajj (schlep) to the lush leafy hills of that enclave for the complacent rich” on Sunday.  New Canaan, he says, “will be transformed into a Mecca for us, the outraged, unwashed and mansion-less horde… the lower 98 percent if you will.”

Speakers at the rally will “connect the dots between extreme disparity of wealth and our most pressing challenges.” In addition to Sussman, speakers include Richard Duffee and Ralph Maurer of  the Connecticut Green Party,  Chuck Bell of No War Westchester, Trudy Goldberg of the National Jobs for All Coalition, Hector Lopez of the Puerto Rico Independence Committee, Juanita Lewis of Community Voices Heard, and Chris Hutchinson of the American Socialist Party. Interspersed throughout the program will be “some brilliant topical poetry and songs,” says Weiss, who adds that the rally will be followed by a march and a picnic “at beautiful Mead Park.”

“It’s a big trip and great hassle to get there,” admits Weiss, but he is hoping a few “Pilgrims” from Orange County will find the effort worthwhile.  I wish him luck. We need headlines about jobs saved and jobs created, not about jobs lost to “calm investors.”  

Michael can be reached at michael@zestoforange.com.