Chico Peace and Justice Center

April 6, 2009

• What are the real causes of the crisis?
• What effect is the crisis having on working people and students?
• Why neither Republicans nor Democrats ­offer a recovery plan that really benefits ­working people
• How people can fight for real solutions to ­the economic crisis

Congress and the White House are in the process of giving trillions of tax dollars to bail-out the biggest banks, insurance companies and other corporations with no strings attached! These same banks and corporations have turned around and kicked millions of families out of their homes, millions of workers out of their jobs, while doubling and tripling credit card interest.  Our “representatives” in Washington have made it clear that their priority is rescuing the super-rich—the same ones responsible for causing the crisis—not working people.

But Richard Becker says this is not the way it has to be. The trillions being turned over to corporate America could be providing jobs, housing, healthcare and education for all. Join this discussion of the economic crisis and how we can fight for our rights!

Becker explored the real causes of the present recession/depression, both those that are apparent—the housing bubble, the deliberate inflation of housing prices and loans, and wild speculation—and more long-term underlying problems, including the permanent military economy.

Richard Becker is the Western Region Coordinator of the A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition and member of its National Steering Committee. A.N.S.W.E.R. has organized numerous mass protests from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of people against the war in Iraq, between 2002 and 2008. Becker has been a central organizer at many West Coast mass mobilizations in San Francisco and Los Angeles. He has traveled to Palestine, Iraq, Syria and other countries in the Middle East and has been a frequent writer and speaker on the Middle East for more than two decades, and is currently working on a book on “Palestine, Israel and U.S. Middle East Strategy.”  Becker has also been writing and speaking about the current economic crisis, its real causes and the role of the military economy.