After receiving an invitation from Phil Harvey to participate in the January 30 conference call with the Jobs for All Campaign, I sent the following email to Logan Martinez, who distributed the notice. The first item on the agenda is how to build support for HR 1000, the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment and Training Act, which was introduced by Representative John Conyers, Jr and has 56 co-sponsors.

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Hello, Logan!

Phil Harvey informed me about the Thursday conference call. I very much look forward to it and hope to help with the Jobs for All Campaign in whatever way I can, especially with regard to HR 1000.

Please find attached the latest draft of “An Open Letter to the Feb. 5 Panel” that I may post and circulate Friday or soon thereafter. It is addressed to the five panelists who will participate in the Feb. 5 forum on “Employment: A Human Right” to whom I will email the letter in advance. It states:

As economists with considerable standing in progressive communities,… you are in position to offer the kind of support for HR 1000 … that grassroots activists need in order to build support for that legislation. I therefore hope that you will not only support HR 1000, but also affirm the two principles – one moral, the other practical – that, it seems to me, underlie that legislation.

The letter then poses three questions:

• Do you support HR 1000, the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment and Training Act?
• Do you support the human right to a living-wage job opportunity?
• Do you believe that if we have the political will, we can handle any inflationary pressures that result from securing the human right to a living-wage job opportunity?

I’m not sure that this approach, especially the proposed SurveyMonkey questionnaire, “Full Employment: A Survey for Economists,” is a good idea, so I welcome feedback, especially recommendations that I hold off on it or suggestions for how to improve it.

If folks have a chance to offer me feedback during or after the call, I will appreciate it. But your agenda looks full, so if that is not feasible, I will certainly understand and still remain available to contribute in other ways.

BTW, as a personal intro, I am the recent author of the Guarantee Living-Wage Job Opportunities petition. In 1989, I initiated the Solutions to Poverty Workshop, which led to the San Francisco Antipoverty Congress and the Campaign to Abolish Poverty (CAP), and in 1996 I self-published Economic Security for All: How to End Poverty in the United States.

I very much appreciate your excellent work and look forward to collaborating.