At the Take Back the American Dream conference this afternoon, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka described the unequal economic situation in the country today, saying:

Think about it:  Bank of America, which makes about $1 billion a month, announces it’s going to charge customers $5 a month to use their own money to shop with their debit cards. Mind you this is the financial giant that paid its global banking and markets president nearly $30 million dollars last year—and this year turned around and announced it’s going to fire 30,000 workers!

Trumka told the audience that the right wing is “banking on an upside-down America for its path to political power.” He described the right’s four-part plan:

• First, they’ll do everything they can to keep our economy on the rocks—no money for jobs, no way – keep people hurting and angry.  
• Second, they’ll fan the flames of anti-government angst by making sure our government looks dysfunctional – gridlocked and lurching from funding deadline to deadline.  
• Third, they’re ginning up this season’s version of “divide and conquer” – set taxpayers against public employees, jobless Americans against immigrants.  
• And finally, they’re doing their damnedest to make sure the electorate in 2012 looks nothing like the electorate of 2008 — disenfranchising new voters with voter ID laws, suppressing student voters, and a whole lot more. 

 Trumka said now is the time for “a mighty movement for jobs and a just economy. “