Thank you, Art, for that introduction. And thank you for all that you do, traveling the state to speak out for workers, fighting for jobs in Sacramento, building a model political operation, making all those trips to Washington to push for the Employee Free Choice Act and to hold politicians' feet to the fire. I want you all to know – Art Pulaski is a leader to be proud of.
And he's in good company here, where there are so many leaders who've devoted your entire careers to fighting for a better future for working families – all working families. I won't start naming names, but I want you to know that I'm proud of you all.
And I'm delighted to be here with all of you at Ground Zero in the political showdown between Wall Street and Main Street. Nowhere else in the nation are voters' choices in November so stark. You have the third highest jobless rate in the country. A budget deficit of $21 billion. So, clearly you need leaders who can create and save jobs, and deal with tough budget situations -- right?
But in the elections for governor and senator, who do the Republicans throw at the problem? Two rich CEOs.
Meg Whitman helped engineer the kind of executive bonuses and mortgage-backed securities deals at Goldman Sachs that sank the firm and tanked our economy. Then she got thrown off the Goldman Sachs board because -- even in that unsavory environment -- her insider deals were unacceptable. Now there's someone you can count on in a budget crisis -- right?
Carly Fiorina laid off 30,000 Hewlett Packard employees, shipped jobs overseas, presided over the collapse of HP's stock value, got fired—with a $20-plus million golden parachute—and was labeled one of the worst CEOs of all time. Yeah, that's who should replace a U.S. senator who has actually helped create jobs for California and America -- right?
Because after all, the idea of keeping jobs in America is "so yesterday." Right?
Sisters and brothers, this is crazy! Wall Street destroys our economy and kills millions of jobs. CEOs destroy companies and kill millions of jobs. And the Republican response is: Great! Let's elect them now.
Well, let me tell you what is "so yesterday" -- running our country for the CEOs and the fat cats. That is "so yesterday." We had enough of that, didn't we – George Bush, can you hear me now? And we're not going back!
I guess they think if they can get us down, if they can toss enough people out of work, keep everyone else in fear for their jobs and health care and pensions, then we won't have the right stuff to fight back, then we'll be too beaten down to beat them.
Are they right? Or are they wrong? How about you? Are you too beaten down to fight back? Are you too beaten down to beat them?
No – I didn't think so. Because the whole country is counting on you.
Electing Queen Meg is not what we need in the biggest state in the country. And letting Carly Fiorina take Barbara Boxer's seat is not what we need for California, or for the country – it'd be a disaster.
Sen. Boxer's got a 96 percent lifetime record of voting right on workers' issues. Carly Fiorina has a record that's 100 percent wrong.
Carly Fiorina calls offshoring jobs "right-shoring." She says the new Arizona immigration law promoting racial profiling is just fine. And—here's a classic—she says, and I quote: "There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore." So count on her—she doesn't even have the shame to hide her plan—count on her to keep pushing for tax breaks for companies that ship away our jobs, and for rich people just like her.
That, brothers and sisters, is the last thing America needs in the Senate. Another elected lobbyist for the job-killing, greed-obsessed, corporate thieves who are running away with our country.
You and I both know what it's going to take to win your elections here in California and all across the country. It's going to take hard work, educating and mobilizing and phone-banking and house-calling and leafleting and rallying and doing it big enough and loud enough that everyone hears us. All the things we do best—that's what it's going to take.
And never for one minute forgetting why we're doing it all, how important it is, how high the stakes are for working people, for our children and for America's future.
We're going to be hard core about politics. But what we're doing isn't really for any candidate, or any political party. What we're working for, and fighting for, is jobs.
Because although we're slowly beginning to turn things around, America's private-sector job engine is dead in the water. It's dead. Fifteen million Americans are out of work. Almost half have been jobless for longer than six months. That's a crisis, my friends. And that's why we will keep fighting for jobs.
That's why we're fighting to restore America's middle class, to keep good jobs in America, to keep teachers in classrooms and police and firefighters one phone call away. And we will make it happen together.
Unions built the middle class. And we're not about to see it disappear on our watch.
It's no secret that 2010 is the year of the angry American. We can see it in the Tea Party madness. We can see it on the Gulf Coast. We can see it in the decline of confidence in large institutions of all kinds—from government to corporate America, from Wall Street to the political parties—even to the labor movement. We can see it in the hateful anti-immigrant law in Arizona, in the vitriolic supporters of Prop 8. And we can see and hear it in the increasingly violent rhetoric on the Internet and at public meetings.
I can understand why people are angry. They're hurting. They've lost jobs. They've lost homes. They've lost savings. They've lost retirement security. They've lost everything they thought America was about.
Heck, I'm angry, too. But it's up to us—our labor movement and our allies—to channel that anger into hope -- not hate. Into progress -- not polarization. Into our values -- not victimization.
We are in a crisis—and it's hard, and it hurts, but these are exactly the times that bring out the best in us—in our labor movement and in America's progressives.
I believe today's jobs and economic crisis will give birth to a new American economy, a restoration of America as a world leader in green technology development and high-quality exports, a restoration of balance in which working people and not just corporations benefit from our productivity, a restoration of a shared sense of what is right and what is worth fighting for.
I believe that working together, standing together, we can restore hope for the American people, restore the promise of America and restore American prosperity.
We can restore California.
But people who want better have to understand: If California and America are going to create new jobs with rising wages, stable benefits and promising futures, we've got to work for it.
If you believe that keeping jobs in this country matters, and in returning America to a country that makes things again, work for it.
If you believe that America must invest in transportation and technology, education and the environment, work for it.
If you believe that, when someone calls 9-1-1, they should get a cop or a firefighter—not Halliburton, or Xe Services, or a recorded message, work for it.
If you believe that Wall Street got us into this mess and now must pay its fair share of the costs of getting us out, work for it.
If you believe that quality public education is our moral responsibility to our children and grandchildren, and that Social Security and Medicare are our solemn obligations to our parents and grandparents, work for it.
Work for it. Stand for it. Stand together. March together. Fight together. Win together. And don't let anyone—anyone—stand in our way.
Thank you. And God bless you.
