This article was reprinted from the February 8, 1997 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.
Evelina Alarcon is the national coordinator of the Communist Party's "Fight for Jobs Campaign." This article is excerpted from her report to the CPUSA National Committee Jan. 25.
The crisis imposed by the welfare "reform" act is raging in every state. While some areas are hit harder than others, the magnitude of the deepened crisis is national in scope.
The response of governors to their new control of block grants is a disgrace. What they promote is "throw them out in the cold" or exploitation "workfare" policies. Right on cue, California's Gov. Pete Wilson proposed a welfare plan that is worse than the national law.
He proposed to throw welfare recipients off the rolls after one year instead of two which the federal rule calls for. He also proposes to leave it up to the counties whether they want to continue general relief. Without blinking an eye, he added salt to the wound by calling for a 10 percent cut in taxes for banks and corporations.
New York Gov. George Pataki did no better and Connecticut is feeling the misery of this kind of cold blooded "son of a banker" approach. While each state has its own variation, every state now has these anti-welfare horror stories. This is "killer capitalism" in the raw!
It is ironic that the economists talk of job stability and even growth when there is massive unemployment all over the nation. Some economists admit that the western, eastern and southern regions of the country have a jobs crisis, but they like to point to the "strong" economy in the Midwest as their prime example of economic stability which will come to every region.
But the Midwest, like everywhere in the nation, has communities that are facing dire unemployment. Last December, the U.S. Department of Agriculture gave Illinois temporary waivers on food stamps cuts which were given on the basis that they had communities with unemployment rates of over 10 percent or had suffered one-fifth greater unemployment than the national average. So called stable Illinois has 22 counties and 12 municipalities qualifying for those waivers.
Continued privatization, downsizing, layoffs, runaway shops are causing the jobs crisis and now the welfare law will multiply unemployment and increase poverty in every state. The human toll of the anti-welfare and jobs crises combined has only begun and already the signs of mass human tragedy are in the making.
The first step we need is to become outraged at this attack on our class. We have to become mad as hell. We have to respond to this crisis with the passion that our veteran comrades showed during the Great Depression when they organized the unemployed into demonstrations of millions and defied the police at eviction sites by taking the furniture back in the house.
We have to be passionate about the fact that more and more children are sitting in classrooms everyday just staring blankly because they are too hungry to learn; that there are mothers and fathers crying themselves to sleep because they can't provide the basics for their children. That unemployed homeless are literally dying in the cold streets.
Just like in the '30s we have to be the initiators of grassroots fightback of the unemployed in communities and neighborhoods which will eventually mushroom into citywide and statewide massive movements.
Just like in the '30s when the demand for national legislation was the focal point of mass demonstrations, we have to build a labor-community coalition - Black, Brown and white united - in a national movement against the destruction of welfare and for Rep. Matthew Martinez's $250 billion Public Works Jobs Bill.
This bill, which will provide massive union-wage jobs immediately after it's passed, is the emergency solution to the mass suffering that has only just begun. The fight for passage of the Martinez Jobs Bill is as important today as the fight for unemployment insurance was to the '30s.
If passed, this bill would save millions of welfare recipients and unemployed from hunger, homelessness and despair. It would put millions to work rebuilding and restoring our nation's schools, hospitals, community centers, transportation systems, highways, bridges, and other infrastructure.
Jobs would be prioritized to welfare recipients, long-term unemployed, victims of downsizing, youth, as well as unemployed building trades workers. It would provide union wage jobs with union participation at project worksites to guarantee the strong labor and environmental provisions of the bill. Strong equal opportunity provisions are included with public works projects prioritized to communities with the highest level of unemployment.
The most decisive requirement in this movement is the organization of welfare recipients and the unemployed. They are the targeted victims of the Republican-led Congress. Using the most vicious racist, anti-immigrant, anti-women, anti-poor arguments, the ultra-right centered their Contract on America on destroying welfare.
Organizing these victims at the grassroots level is the key to repealing the anti-welfare act and passing the Martinez Jobs Bill. Hearing the reality of the crisis from the victims themselves is the most compelling argument for emergency legislation. Their voices are rising now in protest but their mass voice must resound across the nation.
A basic challenge in this struggle is to convince the labor movement from top to bottom that it should be in the lead of this fight. Labor's alliance with welfare recipients and the unemployed to pass the Martinez Jobs Bill is an emergency matter.
The fact that the AFL-CIO now supports the Martinez Jobs Bill is an important development. The problem is that the bill is not yet part of the AFL-CIO's priority legislative agenda.
As with some other national leaders, there is concern in the AFL-CIO that a $250 billion jobs bill cannot pass in a Republican-dominated Congress. While passing the Martinez Jobs Bill in this Congress is a major challenge, it is not impossible.
The possibility of its passage is directly related to the level of organized, visible pressure that is put on the Congress. Look what the national movement for a livable wage did. It forced the Congress - even a Republican-led Congress - to increase the federal minimum wage.
The objective need for massive union wage jobs to answer the welfare crisis is the compelling reason why the Martinez Bill must be passed. It answers the emergency nature of the crisis.
State labor federations, central labor councils and locals are closer to the emergency effects of the crisis, so they are responding enthusiastically to the Martinez Bill. Support for the bill at these levels continues to grow and grow. When the welfare cuts hit full scale, states and cities across the nation will be faced with mass visible poverty like we have not seen since the Great Depression.
The relief valve of the ruling class will be to put the crisis on the backs of workers and the poor. They will promote anti-labor jobs programs replacing union jobs, violating labor standards and exploiting welfare recipients. Increasing corporate profits is the ruling class guide for solutions. Therefore, it is in organized labor's self- interest to fight for a working class solution.
There is a natural connection between the priority of the AFL-CIO to organize the unorganized with the fight to pass the Martinez Jobs Bill. If passed, the labor provisions of the bill would open the doors to the unionization of masses of welfare recipients, unemployed, women and youth. These new members would strengthen the labor movement.
Championing the Martinez Jobs Bill would build even closer relationship between labor and the African American, Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Native American and other racially oppressed people who suffer the highest levels of unemployment. Women who will bear the worst burden of the welfare cuts will benefit from the good paying jobs the Martinez Bill would provide. Immigrant workers would not be excluded.
Labor up front in this fight would build greater multiracial, multinational, male-female working class unity and greater working class consciousness. The value of organized labor to the whole people would be evident with their taking the lead in this struggle
The Labor Coalition For Public Works Jobs based in Los Angeles has been in the forefront of the fight to pass the Martinez Jobs Bill. Because of the welfare crisis more labor leaders realize that the Martinez Jobs Bill must be passed by Congress.
The Coalition has received such strong support from state and local labor bodies that it is now quickly building into a national organization. Already, over 50 labor bodies, from state federations, regional bodies, and labor councils to locals have endorsed the Martinez Bill.
Many labor councils and over 100 labor leaders have officially affiliated with the Coalition. This effort should be built at every level of the labor movement. The fact that the AFL-CIO supports the bill now is a momentous positive.
The demand for jobs is rising from mass organizations of every kind. The National Urban League has called for a "WPA- style" massive federal public works jobs program.
The labor movement has led the charge for living wage jobs. Part of the problem is that there is not yet enough connection between the demand for jobs, even public works jobs, with the demand for the Martinez Jobs Bill specifically. This means that a major goal must be to pump up the volume of demonstrative action to "Pass the Martinez Jobs Bill."
Mass actions of every kind should be organized across the country to greet the bill when it is reintroduced into the Congress later this month. Neighborhood, community and citywide actions, (picketlines, candlelight vigils, sit-ins, rallies) calling for repeal of the federal and state welfare laws and welcoming the reintroduction of the Martinez Jobs Bill would spark greater support for the bill from every circle.
Mobilizing the press to cover these actions is key. Letters to the editors, participation in radio and cable talk shows greeting the reintroduction of the bill will help to popularize it.
Work should begin now targeting Congressional representatives to add their names as cosponsors to the bill. Even if they were among the 31 who were cosponsors last year, they should be contacted to mobilize them to fight for the bill. The newly elected members of Congress should be lobbied, also.
State legislatures, city councils and other elected bodies should be mobilized to pass resolutions in support of the bill joining the city councils of Los Angeles, Detroit, Jersey City and St. Louis who have done so. Every leader, organization, church, PTA, etc. should be asked to endorse the Martinez Jobs Bill and join in a local coalition to fight for its passage.The fight for the Martinez Jobs Bill has the potential to galvanize all the major mass movements into one united, majority, national movement which forces Congress to respond, which moves President Clinton and all elected officials to act on behalf of welfare recipients and the unemployed. The potential is there but it will take mass action from the bottom on up.
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