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Antwort in : /alt/activism/d Absender : ww@wwpublish.com (Workers World) Betreff : Workfare protest on anniversary of welfare "reform" Datum : So 30.08.98, 03:51 (erhalten: 31.08.98) Groesse : 6942 Bytes ----------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Sept. 3, 1998 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
WORKFARE WORKERS TELL CLINTON:
MONEY FOR JOBS, NOT FOR MISSILES
By Greg Butterfield New York
On the second anniversary of national welfare reform, more than 600 workfare workers, trade unionists and supporters rallied at city hall here. The Aug. 22 protest demanded real jobs and an end to workfare slavery.
"We are out here today for our children, not just for ourselves," said William Mason, co-chair of the 9,000-member Workfairness organization. "We have to show our kids that you can fight the government."
Mason drew cheers when he declared, "A living income is a right. Everyone has the right to a job, a real job with benefits."
Welfare reform, signed into law by President Clinton, ended a 60-year guarantee of government assistance to the poor. The law urges states to push welfare participants, including single parents, into forced-labor programs.
New York is at the center of this workfare experiment. Workfairness and unions here say Mayor Rudolph Giuliani uses workfare workers as cheap labor to replace tens of thousands of downsized city workers.
Giuliani wants to end welfare by the year 2000--a plan backed by Wall Street. His plan calls for expanding the Work Experience Program--as workfare is known here--from city agencies to include private companies. He will push the disabled and those battling drug addiction to work or lose their benefits.
MAYOR FORCED TO RESPOND
Mayor Giuliani stayed far away from city hall on Aug. 22. To avoid protesters' wrath, he held his daily press conference in a men's clothing store uptown. But he was forced to respond to the demonstration.
WEP workers "should be glad to have any job at all," Giuliani said.
"What they are saying sounds like socialism more than what made this country great," he huffed.
Pat Tucker of Workfairness answered the mayor. She said, "We don't want to be WEP workers with phony jobs. We need real jobs with salaries, union rights and benefits.
"None of us should doubt for a minute that we have the power to overturn this racist workfare system. We have to stand up for our rights."
BROAD SUPPORT FOR MARCH
City hall park was awash in a sea of protest signs: "Real jobs, not workfare," "Giuliani: Don't close methadone clinics," "No U.S. bombing of Africa and the Middle East."
Tara Young and Kate Ludwig spoke on behalf of Wisconsin workfare workers and community activists who had traveled more than 20 hours to join the protest. These workers have first-hand experience with Jason Turner. Turner ran Wisconsin's harsh W-2 workfare program, and is now in charge of welfare in New York.
Banners from local unions peppered the rally, as members turned out to support the WEP workers. AFSCME locals 420 (public hospital workers), 375 (civil service technical guild) and 983 (motor vehicle operators) were there, along with the Taxi Workers Alliance and Latino Workers Center. Emmaus House, a Harlem-based advocacy group, was there, and so was the local chapter of the National Organization for Women.
"We are with you," declared Brenda White, assistant to Stanley Hill, the executive director of AFSCME District Council 37, which represents 120,000 city employees.
"The city's workfare program has become a colossal failure," said White. "Where are the jobs? Where's the education and day care? Where's the transportation?"
JOBS, NOT WAR
Coming just two days after U.S. missile attacks on Sudan and Afghanistan, the protest took on an anti-war edge. The International Action Center, New York Peace Action, and other groups came out to show solidarity and to protest the U.S. attacks.
"Each one of those bombs they dropped cost a million dollars," said Vondora Jordan, a Workfairness co-chair. "They should be using that money for jobs, child care and education here."
Larry Holmes denounced the mayor's threats to unleash police against the Million Youth March, scheduled for Sept. 5 in Harlem. "It's a crime that Giuliani won't let people march in their own community. Are we going to let that pitbull for the rich stop us from joining the march?" he asked the crowd. "No!" was their resounding answer.
MILITANT MARCH
The protesters then staged a militant march around city hall, led by the Wisconsin workers. They chanted, "Money for jobs, not for war!" and "Giuliani, you should know: workfare slavery has got to go!"
WEP worker Vanessa Guilford challeng ed, "How long can we allow the mayor to destroy our neighborhoods? We are not going to go along with this." Marsha Thompson, a student who receives public assistance, took the mayor to task for making her peers do workfare while going to school.
Lester Green of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists told the crowd, "We are with you all the way in the struggle against racism and sexism. Stop the war on mothers and children!"
The crowd also heard from Eben Lugo, a city bus driver. Lugo, who is Puerto Rican, was harassed by cops and his bosses after honking his bus horn in solidarity with a July 25 march for Puerto Rican independence.
Other speakers included Mariza Rosado of Comit‚ Puerto Rico '98, Robert Spencer of the Organization of Staff Analysts, Gaylen Sherwin, president of NOW-New York, Khadouri Al-Kaysi of the International Action Center, Trudy Rudnick, organizer for AFT Local 3882, Jerry Dominguez of the Mexican American Workers Association, and Teresa Gutierrez of Workers World Party.
After the protest, more than 100 people came to the Workfairness office for an informal meeting with the Wisconsin activists. It turned into a speakout by women from both states. Many spoke about the terrible conditions they and their families face, and also of their determination to overturn what one called "the modern-day auction block."
Vanessa Lewis, a Workfairness organizer, said, "This is a historic moment. Hundreds of people on public assistance demanded an end to the racist war on the poor.
"Today's demonstration affirmed that people on public assistance, WEP workers and other poor and working people will fight this slave labor, demand their right to union jobs and to basic dignity and respect. They will struggle until they win," Lewis said.
- END -
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Index of Welfare-Workfare-State Archives
Last Modified: October 1998