Defeat the ultra right in California!

A joint statement

by the southern and northern California districts
of the Communist Party USA

This article was reprinted from the May 16, 1998 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

Governor Pete Wilson, House Speaker Newt Gingrich and their corporate backers have now brought us Propositions 226 and 227, the latest ultra-right scheme to silence the democratic rights of California families.

Proposition 226: Anti-people, pro-Big Business

Under the guise of giving workers a choice, Prop. 226 does the very opposite and more. It will cripple the ability of unions to participate in electoral campaigns and legislative action:

• It violates workers' constitutional rights to privacy by forcing them to report directly to their boss the political contributions they make to their union. This employer intrusion is intended to intimidate workers from contributing to their union political activities.
• While Prop. 226 ads give the impression that corporations will also be restricted, the truth is that the measure only applies to unions. Corporations, whose political contributions outspend unions' by 11 to one, are left untouched.

The proposition, if passed, will go into effect July 1, requiring a bureaucratic structure that will take months to implement. This will greatly hinder the unions' ability to prepare for the November elections, thus opening the door to a Republican ultra-right sweep on Election Day.

Defeat of Prop. 226 is key to putting the brakes on the ultra-right and to advancing the people's agenda because to silence the unions is to silence the people. The labor movement is the best friend the people have in the struggle for living-wage jobs, improved working and living conditions, public education, health care, affordable housing, Social Security, environmental protection and equality for all regardless of race, nationality or gender. All of these are under fierce attack by the ultra-right.

Workers' only defense against the vast corporate spending on elections and legislation is their numbers and unity, and their alliances with people being victimized by Big Business.

If the Republican ultra-right manages to silence the unions in June, who will be next? And what will become of our ability to break the right-wing stranglehold over Congress and the governorship?

Under existing law, workers can opt out of giving a portion of their dues to union political activities. But Prop. 226 goes further: it destroys the people's ability to organize in the political arena - and as a result, on other fronts.

How unions spend money is a matter of democratic, collective discussion and decision-making in the unions - unlike in the corporate suites where decisions are made by a few super-rich who control most of the shares.

The irony is that the money the corporate ultra-right uses to influence and buy elections and anti-people legislation comes from the profit employers squeeze out of the hard work of labor.

Proposition 227: A blow to public education

The author of Proposition 227, the ultra-right millionaire computer company executive Ron Unz, said his measure "will provide the option of an English language education to all children in California." This couldn't be further from the truth:

• In violation of federal law, Prop. 227 would end all bilingual education programs in California, which are intended to help non-English speakers learn English without compromising their other academic subjects.

In fact, Prop. 227 would force children of different ages into one classroom, to learn English in one year, while instruction in other academic subjects would be put on hold. After the first year, these children would be thrown into regular classes to sink or swim.

This is a sure formula for bringing down the academic standards of all children. It will destroy what has been an educational lifeline for Mexican American, Latino, Asian American and immigrant children. The results of passage will inflate the Mexican American dropout rate, which is already the highest in the nation. Bilingual education is a central issue for equality and civil rights for Mexican American, Latino and Asian American people as a whole.

• Prop. 227 threatens teachers, administrators and school boards with lawsuits if they teach children in any language other than English. This anti-democratic measure would take away the right of parents and local school districts to decide which programs to use and how best to make them work.

Of course, when poorly funded and implemented, any school program - whether bilingual, math, science or English literature - will fail. But studies show that with well-trained teachers, enough staff and other resources, bilingual education results in immigrant children excelling in all subjects, including English.

Instead of proposing changes in the tax mechanism so that state and federal governments bear the main responsibility for funding public education, the ultra-right proposes budget cuts in the public sector. At the same time, it moves to raise military expenditures and cut taxes on the rich and big corporations.

Capitalism's most extreme right-wing proponents are systematically destroying the system of public education that was created to produce a better-educated and skilled work force necessary for the industrial age. The capitalist system no longer needs more mass production workers, but a much smaller technical elite.

The right wing's goal is to create a for-profit school system in which the quality of education will be as good as money can buy - one system for the children of the rich and corporate elite, and another for the rest of us, the overwhelming majority.

Two initiatives, one right-wing source

It is no accident that the three ultra-right Orange County businessmen who drafted anti-worker Prop. 226 first met during the unsuccessful 1993 statewide initiative campaign for school vouchers - an earlier drive to privatize education. The three reportedly came up with Prop. 226 to put the brakes on the teachers unions, which spearheaded the drive to defeat the voucher initiative.

Of course, the three are part of a much bigger network of ultra-right fanatics, spearheaded by Gov. Wilson and Newt Gingrich - a network that is spreading these measures across the country. Right-wing, pro-corporate operatives are promoting campaigns like Prop. 226 and 227 in other states, but California is their most important testing ground.

They claim it is because they have the best interests of Californians in mind that they are pushing these two propositions. But we should not forget they are the same corporate-backed politicians who are out to destroy everything working people and their families have fought for years to win, including a higher minimum wage, the eight-hour day, prevailing wages, job safety, Social Security and environmental protection.

They are the same gang that brought us the anti-immigrant Prop. 187 and anti-affirmative action Prop. 209. They are the same forces behind the corporate and bank mega-merger mania that results in mass layoffs, downsizing, privatization and non-union, part-time and temporary jobs at starvation wages while dismantling the welfare, Social Security and Medicare safety nets.

What can you do?

Time is short. But much can be done in the next few weeks:

• Vote early by absentee ballot.
• Volunteer to phone bank, walk precincts, post signs and poll-watch.
• Help build the broad coalitions already fighting to uphold our democratic rights by defeating Props. 226 and 227, making sure the grassroots in labor and community organizations are fully involved.
• Help build demonstrative actions.
• Help register, educate and bring to the polls your co-workers, neighbors, and family members.

These and other right-wing propositions raise the urgency of democratizing the election laws:

• For starters, corporate financing in the electoral and legislative arenas should be banned. The super-rich should be barred from bankrolling their own campaigns.
• Education in more than one language must be expanded, not curtailed.

Children whose primary language is English also benefit greatly from participating in bilingual programs, which give them an early chance to learn a second language. What the authors of Prop. 227 are saying is that to be a nation we must have only one language. But many nations have had more than one official language, greatly enriching their cultural heritage. Switzerland, for instance, has three official languages - German, Italian and French. Instead of imposing limits, we should be broadening our children's cultural horizons.

In the long run, the rights of both workers and students can be fully realized when we build a society where the people run the government, where the key sectors of the economy are under public ownership and control, where the right to a job and a home, public education and public health are enshrined in the Constitution, where no child will go hungry for want of food or books - in short, Bill-of-Rights Socialism USA.

Time is short. But together we can do it. Juntos, si, se puede!