Labor & Employment Law

America?s Future Now Conference Sets Progressive Vision

By Mike Hall

The America’s Future Now conference kicks off this morning. During the next three days, the largest gathering of progressive activists, leaders and lawmakers will map out an economic and political agenda for change?and the organizing strategies for taking that agenda to the country.

Those strategies will focus on fighting the corporate lobbies that stand in the way of economic justice and reform; energizing and building a movement for jobs now; and creating a progressive majority that challenges both obstructionist Republicans and timid Democrats.

We’ll bring you reports from several of the sessions, panels and break out groups.

The conference is sponsored by the Campaign for America’s Future (CAF), if you haven’t signed up and are in the Washington, D.C., area, up you can register onsite at the Omni Shoreham Hotel (2500 Calvert Street, NW) starting at 9 a.m. Click here for more information.

With jobs and the economy at the center of the conference, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on Tuesday will join with Jared Bernstein, executive director of the Obama administration’s Middle Class Task Force; New York Times columnist Bob Herbert and PolicyLink CEO Angela Glover Blackwell in a plenary discussion on “The New Economy: Demanding Jobs and Justice.”

Also Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will discuss her vision for “A New Prosperity.” Bill Scher, CAF’s online editor and blogger, previews her address here.

Speakers from the union movement include AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker; United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard; Karen Nussbaum, executive director of the AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America; and Larry Gold, AFL-CIO associate general counsel.

Some of the sessions on key topics for working people include: “Health Care Reform-The Next Step,” “Immigration Reform,” “Working Class Anger-Does It Go Left or Right?” “Next Generation Progressives,” “Holding Congress Accountable” and “Can Congress Work in Polarized Age?” Click here for the full conference agenda.

Also taking part in the conference are Huffington Post’s Arianna Huffington; Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.); Democratic Reps. Alan Grayson (Fla.), Donna Edwards (Md.) and Barbara Lee (Calif.); former White House adviser Van Jones; former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean; NAACP President Benjamin Jealous; and Janet Murguía, president of the National Council of La Raza.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on June 07, 2010 (boomark / email).