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From: "Workers World" ww@wwpublish.com Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive Subject: NYC Workfare protest set for Aug. 22 Date: 28 Jun 1998 21:50:11 GMT
------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the July 2, 1998 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
2 YEARS AFTER CLINTON'S ATTACK: AUG 22 WORKFARE PROTEST SET
By Sharon Ayling New York
Workfairness, a group of workfare workers and supporters in New York, has called for a national day of protest on Aug. 22 to demand that the government "stop the war against people on welfare."
Aug. 22 is the second anniversary of President Bill Clinton signing the anti-poor welfare "reform" law. The law repealed the 60-year-old welfare program that guaranteed subsistence benefits to impoverished unemployed workers, mostly women with children.
Since then, some 3.3 million people have been forced off benefits.
The call for national protests came at a June 13 planning meeting at the Harlem office of AFSCME Local 420.
"We are calling on all concerned organizations, unions, churches, and activists to hold rallies and other protest events to demand real jobs at real wages and a moratorium on pushing people off of welfare," Workfairness Co-chair William Mason told Workers World.
In New York, there will be a major march and rally starting at City Hall at 1 p.m.
The New York action will demand that the $4 billion surplus in the New York city and state budgets be used to create real jobs. The surplus is a direct result of dumping welfare recipients off the rolls and using unpaid labor via the "Work Experience Program"--the city's workfare system.
A recent report showed that only a fraction of 400,000 people kicked off welfare in New York have actually found jobs.
The growing list of people endorsing the Aug. 22 actions includes AFSCME District Councils 37 and 1707; the Rev. Al Sharpton; Rabbi Michael Feinberg, director of the Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition; the Rev. Wyatt T. Walker; Organization of Staff Analysts; Welfare Law Center; Latino Workers Center; New York Coalition of Black Trade Unionists; Mail Handlers Local 300 President Larry Adams; UNITE Local 169; Hotel and Restaurant Local 100; Gabriela Network; and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.
Workfairness has spent the last two years fighting the reactionary administration of New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on behalf of the 38,000 workfare workers here.
"Workfare is just one of the attacks targeting poor people," said Larry Holmes, a co-founder of Workfairness. "City hall is doing away with open admissions and remedial programs at the City University, laying off public hospital workers, threatening the livelihoods of taxi drivers and food vendors, and in general trying to drive poor people and immigrants out of the city."
Holmes said people who want to support the Aug. 22 protests can get information on how to endorse or volunteer by calling Workfairness at (212) 633-6646.
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