Stand up for the post office by standing with us at your local post office on June 16 at noon.
Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution (FCCPR) is joining a national movement to save the US Postal Service.
Why is this rally necessary?
The US Postal Service says it will run out of money by the end of the summer if it does not get support from Congress, and the president threatens to veto any bill that contains money for the post office. Why would the president not want to support the most popular agency in the government, an agency that employs more than six hundred thousand people and that facilitates more than one trillion dollars of business each year?
There are two main reasons for the president wanting to shut down the post office.
1. The president and many of his supporters in Congress want to replace it with a private, for-profit entity owned by corporations that would profit from our mail service. This would mean that postal rates would increase because corporations would take profits from the business. Mail service would get worse especially in locations where there is not a great deal of mail activity (small towns like the hill towns in our area, resulting in less service to them). There would no longer be any public oversight into the postal service since it would now be a private business.
2. Second, with public post offices shut down, the push to have vote-by-mail this coming election season would be in doubt, and this is crucial. Trump has suggested that if voter turnout is large, then he and other Republicans will lose their elections. Making it difficult or impossible for people to vote during this pandemic will help their chances in November. If the post office is shut down, people will have to decide whether to risk illness or death in order to vote, or whether they will just stay home, and the more who stay home, the better for Trump.
Why is the post office in financial trouble?
First, Congress passed a law in 2006 that required the post office to put aside billions of dollars to fund retirement benefits for the next seventy-five years, a burden that no other agency or program carries. There is no reason for this except politics; the Republicans wanted to drive the post office out of business and hoped this financial pressure would help make that happen.
The second reason is the impact of Covid 19; the postal services are carrying less mail so making less money, like lots of businesses during this crisis.
Why does this matter?
- The postal service exists to serve the public. It uses no tax dollars and does not make a profit. The money it raises through stamps and other fees goes into paying for itself and is the cheapest option for sending letters and packages around the country and the world since they are not taking profits.
- It is vital to rural areas that do not have reliable (or any) broadband such as many of the towns in Western Massachusetts. It helps people in those towns to stay connected.
- It provides small business owners with an essential connection to clients, vendors, and potential customers
- It provides 630,000 government jobs—80 percent of them good-paying career positions.
- It is the largest employer of African Americans in the country. 37% of its employees are African American, and 37% are women.
- It distributes census forms, online purchases, letters, parcels, books, magazines, stimulus checks, and medical supplies.
- It is a place that serves the entire community, providing universal service to all
- It will enable all voters to vote by mail in upcoming elections so that they don’t have to risk being exposed to the Covid 19 virus in order to take part in our democracy
- It has in the past served as a place to do banking, providing a non-profit alternative to payday loan type businesses that charge large interest rates, and it could serve that function again.
We need a public post office, with expanded services, that serves us, not a particular politician, party, or profit-seeking corporation.
Stand up for the post office by standing with us at your local post office on June 16 at noon.
FCCPR is also offering “save the post office” stickers to place on mail: contact info@fccpr.us if you want them.
Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution P.O. Box 216 Greenfield Ma. 01302
FCCPR.US