Thousands protest homelessness in N.Y

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IT'S OUR RIV Brenda Bishop/Socialist Actior On Dec. 18, New Yorkers took to the streets to demand an end to homelessness and the housing crisis. According to Newsday, about 15,000 took part in the event—the largest tenants' march in New York City history. The Rev. Jesse Jackson joined the marchers. Sign after sign declared, "Housing is a right."

The march and rally capped a full week of events protesting government housing policy. Housing Action Week was endorsed by a coalition of 175 groups, including every major housing and homeless organization as well as many unions (Hospital workers Local 1199, AFSCME District Council 37, and UAW District 65 among others), religious groups, and peace and Conservative estimates indicate that more than 50,000 New Yorkers are homeless; some 11,000 children are living in welfare hotels or shelters. At the same time, the city owns more than 50,000 apartments that are held vacant for future development, and the same number of units are being "warehoused" by private landlords.

The federal government spends only three cents on housing for every dollar spent demonstrations supported by broad coalitions of workers, tenants, and homeless people Democrats and Republicans to turn this situation around.—BRENDA BISHOP SOCIALIST ACTION JANUARY 1989 5 social-justice organizations. lawyers, investment bankers, LBO specialists, and commercial banks crowded around to get their cut of the pie. The cuts were substantial.

Lawyers, who do not give their advice freely, got from $100 to $200 million. Commercial banks, which will put up some of the money, will get $170 million or more. Takeover specialists Shearson Lehman Hutton and Drexel Burnham Lambert, (under indictment for fraud and other crimes,) will rake in $300 million for getting investors together. About 70 individuals will grab an estimated billion dollars for less than three months work.

If there were winners, there must be losers. C. Ross Johnson might consider himself a loser. He did not get the company and $100 million. But this ever-resourceful captain of industry has constructed a substantial golden parachute to cushion his fall from the executive suite. It is estimated he will walk away with over $4 million.

Real losers are the taxpayers. Nabisco will pay no federal income taxes from now on. Interest payments on debt is not taxable; a big incentive to raise money through borrowing rather than selling shares. Revenue lost to the government can run from $2 billion on up.

Other losers are the original bondholders. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. bought $5 billion's worth of bonds just before the buyout proposal became known. With the prospect of huge new debts, the bonds fell 20 stodgy managers and raising productivity. How bleeding Nabisco of nearly $1 billion for lawyers, bankers, and other leeches strengthens the company is not explained.

Less production, not more Actually, takeover operators couldn't care less about managers. They don't plan to do much managing. In fact, they don't plan to do much producing. They intend to cannibalize Nabisco by selling off its food divisions, and keeping the profitable tobacco company. This will reduce the debt by $6 billion. But American smokers will have to puff millions more cigarettes to pay the remaining $28 billion debt.

What if there is a recession and Nabisco defaults? This could put unbearable strains on the economy. But the takeover artists could still come out all right. They figure the government could not allow such a large conglomerate to go belly up.

They would rush in with billions of the taxpayers' money to shore up Nabisco. They previously spent $7 billion to save the Illinois Central Bank, and plan to spend $50 billion or more to rescue failing savings-andloan enterprises.

This may be a comforting thought to the raiders. But more responsible members of the capitalist class are growing uneasy. They see a very dangerous trend. They had once thought that sheer size would protect a large conglomerate from a raider. But now, they on weapons systems. Continued will keep up the pressure on the integral part of the American economy. Dislodging them without upsetting the rest of Wall Street is scarcely possible. Members of Congress have been told that the threat of a little more regulation set off the stock market crash of October 1987.

Workers who face speed-ups, wage cuts, and layoffs while the companies for which they work are looted will be less reticent about shaking up Wall Street. When the captain permits the ship to be seized by pirates, it is time for the crew to take control. This is a scenario that makes Wall Street very nervous.

Martin Weinstein, a Wall Street arbitrager, expressed this feeling in Time magazine. "Do I sense fear?" he asked. "Yes. At some time there is going to be a rebellion against greed." To be effective such a rebellion must lead to workers' control of American industry-to run it for the benefit of all.

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