Philadelphia politicians take from the workers, give to the rich

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Last month, Philadelphia gained a "reprieve" from bankruptcy when it issued bonds at the extraordinary rate of 9.25 percent tax-free interest. This was a bonanza for wealthy investors-but working people will have to pay. Here Dennis Marcucci comments on the city's self-made "budget crisis."

PHILADELPHIA-Democratic Party Mayor W. Wilson Goode recently recommended to the city council that they back city cuts of $47 million. What were those cuts? To slash services at city health centers, to close four fire companies, to slash funding for the homeless, and so on.

The mayor was not successful this time. But it will not be the first or the last time that politicians recommendand are successful—in attacking the working class.

Now the politicians are calling for the privatization of Philadelphia's sanitation department. They claim that this isn't an attempt to bust the union. What lies! City officials stated that both union and non-union companies can put their bid in. But any company that wants to stay competitive will have to slash wages and benefits to the bone in order to keep profits up.

So, who do you think will get the contract—no matter how low the unionized company's bid is?

The politicans will not go to the banks and insurance companies (who pay little to no city taxes) as a source to solve their budget crisis. That would be political suicide.

The city will spend money, they claim, only when it can see a return on its investment. Examples? The city agreed to pay CIGNA Corp.'s rent for five years ($13 million a year) on its new center city skyscraper space, if CIGNA could not find a tenant for its old space. In addition, it agreed to let the corporation keep the $7 million in taxes the city collects from CIGNA employees' paychecks. Is this a sensible "investment?"

The city also plans to invest $6 million (and the state $13 million) for a new sports stadium. Likewise, the city paid $2,631,000 for a walkway to connect the tourist section with the waterfront.

Meanwhile, 25,000 are homeless in Philadelphia. Fifty-two homeless people were found dead on the city's streets last year. Recreation centers and playgrounds are shut down because of lack of funds.

The city applied for an $8 million urban grant that was to be used to fund the recreation centers and playgrounds. Then the city turned the grant over to CIGNA Corp. at one percent interest to decorate their offices!

Working-class people in Philadelphia have the power to turn things around. We need grassroots, militant struggles in the streets. And we need our own party-a labor party-to fight to end exploitation, poverty, and homelessness.

Ioudly confront the lawmakers. The sentiment of the public was clearly on the side of the locked-out workers, judging from the number of honking horns and thumbs-up the workers on the picket lines received.

On July 16, after MSEA threatened to to "lock in" legislators in the House and Senate until they passed a budget, it was finally voted on. The workers were called back onto the job the next day, and are working at the present time.

But what will happen during the next fiscal year? Will workers be asked to work without pay again? Will they be laid off, furloughed, and have their benetits slashed to nothing? 1o date, the strategy of most public-sector unions facing this type of crisis has been to pursue legal avenues-to file grievances, court injunctions, and so on. But in order to win, a real fight-back strategy is needed.

Hopefully, public-sector workers in Maine have learned not to rely on the Democrats, but they need real leadership from their unions to be able to fight back.