Holes in the safety net get bigger as recession deepens

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14 SOCIALIST ACTION MARCH 1991 By HAYDEN The initial bill for the Gulf War-$56 billion—was presented to Congress the first week of February. Congress scarcely blinked. They simply put the invoice on the pile of other bills they will get round to paying some day. These include $50 billion for S&L bailouts and billions in interest payments to bankers who hold the nations's $42 trillion national debt.

Whether this gargantuan debt will ever be paid in real money scarcely concerns the members of Congress, who expect to be enjoying their generous pensions long before the day of reckoning comes.

But American workers cannot be so relaxed about it. The bill is presented to us daily, and payment is extracted in ways that make our lives more arduous and the future more frightening.

President George Bush, who really has no idea how we will ever get out of debt, is nibbling at the problem by pushing the costs of social programs onto the states. He recently announced an ambitious project to restore the nation's sadly eroded interstate highways. But no money was provided.

This was left to the states. They would have the "democratic" right to raise the billions needed any way they wanted. Charging tolls for driving on the roads might a be good approach, Bush suggested.

Having taken care of the nation's roads at no cost to the federal goverment, Bush proceeded to tackle the rising cost of medical care. His formula: cut the fees Medicare will pay to doctors for various medical procedures. Doctors will hassle hospitals and patients for supplementary payments, or drop out of the Medicare program altogether.

The gap between the Medicare payment and the doctor's bill will grow ever-wider. It must be bridged by supplementary insurance that the elderly must buy. This will steadily reduce the share the government pays and ultimately jerk the entire federal safety net RICHMOND, Calif.—On Feb. 19, over 1500 teachers, students, and parents rallied on the state capitol steps in Sacramento, Calif. They were protesting the imminent financial collapse of the Richmond Unified School District and the union-busting tactics of newly elected Republican Gov. Pete Wilson.

Wilson has directed his fire against the United Teachers of Richmond (UTR), and Public Employees Local 1. The governor threatens to veto a $29 million emergency loan for the Richmond school district unless the unions accept suspension of union contracts right now-even if it means bankruptcy.

The teachers are worried their paychecks are in jeopardy. Some say their benefits have already been cut off. Many carried signs saying, "I will not work for free."

"We're here for survival," Local 1 President Sandy Falk said at the rally. "We are here to protect our right to a free, public education for students." That's a clear statement of the real stakes of the fight.

UTR and Public Employees Local 1 speakers seemed to be girding themselves for a pitched battle. Some endorsed the idea of a state-wide strike, pointing to the example of militancy among the East European workers. "If it's good enough for the workers in Gdansk," said one, "it's good enough for Richmond."

Undertones of racism

The Richmond district sprawls across the northeast portion of the San Francisco Bay Area. The school district of more than 31,000 students includes the city of from under the poor and aged.

In other programs that are jointly funded by the federal and state governments, Washington is reneging on its share. This is felt in the Unemployment Compensation offices, where laid off workers seek their first safety net.

Unemployed workers will suffer Because Washington has cut its contribution, the states are making it harder for the unemployed to qualify for benefits. Today, less than half of the laid off workers collect any benefits at all.

Even those workers who are entitled to compensation suffer from the federal government's parsimony. Because of budget cuts, there are not enough staff to expeditiously process the claims. The unemployed Joseph Ryan/Socialist Action Richmond, which is predominantly Black, and several nearly all-white communities, such as El Cerrito.

There is a sentiment in some of the more properous communities to secede from the Richmond school district and form their own district. There are undertones of racism in this demand.

A local paper, West County Times, carried an article the day after the rally, declaring that "El Cerrito parents want to secede." The El Cerrito City Council was asked to support the formation of a district comprised of schools in El Cerrito and Kensington— another mainly white community. Some signs at the Sacramento rally also revealed a TAX DOLLARS isin PERSIAN GULF TAX NO JOB TRAINING S$L NO HEALTH CARE FRAUD LOBS EDUCATION, NO NO QUALITY htin вневиеся FEB-14 must wait as long as seven weeks for their first check. Persuading landlords to wait patiently for their rent is best left to state officials who are closer to the problem, Washington tells us.

Counties face bankruptcy

State officials, however, have learned from Washington. If the federal government can push their obligations onto the states, state governments can push their costs onto the counties. While governor of California, Ronald Reagan saved millions by closing the state mental hospitals and sending the mentally sick "to be cared for in their own communities."

As this new financial burden was put upon the counties, no state money was allotted to them. Consequently, many of the displaced secessionist sentiment.

Gov. Wilson has tried to stir up discontent against the teachers who got "fat" under former Richmond Schools Superintendent Walter Marks, who paid them a little more than other teachers in the country. It should be made clear that even with the "fattened" salaries, starting teachers only make $21,000 a year—hardly tremendous wages.

Teachers are keenly aware of this. One sign at the rally said, "I can't pay their debts, I've got my own! Support your teacher."

If Wilson is playing hardball, the Democrats are playing a mean game of softball. Assemblymen Dan Boatwright and Bob Chase (Democrats) have formulated their game plan, AB128, which the unions support. But it is hard to see how this legislative bill is anything but a softer version of Gov. Wilson's plan.

AB128 calls for a $29 million bailout package and for an adminstrator who would have the sole right to cut teachers loose and cut the budget and deal with contracts. While Wilson wants to tear up the contracts without further delay, AB128 would delay the process a little longer and give the unions a breathing space-but only until April 6.

"This smells like PATCO," Henry Clark, General Manager of Local 1, told the rally. He was referring to the air traffic controllers union, which was smashed by President Reagan. Clark continued, "It's as if the governor wants to do away with collective bargaining for all public employees."

Neither Wilson's game plan nor that of the Democrats really addresses the underlying problems of Richmond Unified. This crisis; like the sorry state of public education as a whole, stems from the huge financial deficit in the country, the collapse of the S&L system, and war spending.

If the teachers and employees of the school system in Richmond are to avoid another PATCO, they should look closely at the reaHardball/softball mental patients have joined the homeless on the streets. Now the problem is shunted down to the towns and cities, who have to find some way of sheltering the homeless in their midst. As state governments shift the burdens of government onto the counties, these units of government are going bankrupt.

How far can this process of cutting the living standards of our youngest and poorest citizens go? This is now a question before the courts. The California Court of Appeals has ruled that Alameda County supervisors set welfare levels without considering the actual cost of subsistence.

When California's Gov. Pete Wilson took office in January, his first act was to propose cutting $60 from the life-support benefit paid to mothers with dependent children. He announced the proposed cut with the cynical remark, "They wont be able to buy that extra six-pack of beer."

A welfare recipient testified that she had to sleep in the street because she could not find an apartment for $340 a month. That was the total monthly grant she received on General Assistance. The court ruled that the benefit must cover the actual cost of food and housing.

Today, it takes court intervention to pull our poorest citizens up to the barest subsistence level.

In the Great Depression of the 1930s, American workers were left without any kind of safety net by a bankrupt economy run by uncaring politicians. But the unemployed mobilized and forced city and county authorities to deliver immediate relief. Then they occupied state legislatures to force them to vote money for welfare. The capitalist class felt the heat, as hunger marchers converged on the nation's capitol.

Washington responded with the WPA, CCC, and other programs that sent federal money flowing through every community in the nation. It was not Roosevelt's generosity, but his fear of unrest, that made the federal government take responsibility for the nation's poor. Now Washington has reneged on that responsibility.

It is time to mobilize the poor again and put the fear of social upheaval in the ruling class and their politicians. Only in that way will we reverse the trend that is destroying the social safety net and reducing the poor to the status of Third World indigents.

sons for the PATCO defeat.

The official labor bureaucracy of the AFL-CIO refused to mobilize the organized strength of labor and its natural allies to defend PATCO. The school employees should learn from this, mobilize their membership, and attempt to make common cause with the Black population of Richmond.

A defeat for the Richmond school workers will be a foretaste of what workers in other school districts throughout the state can expect soon.

There are no easy answers here. As one of the signs at the rally put it, "Let's all pull together!" That would be a good start.

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LILLU MONEY FOR MI SCHOOL