CWA 1180 - Political Action

Budget Battles Loom Large
Health care, education, transportation fall under the axe
March 2005

In the face of a growing freedom movement in the 1980s, South Africa’s racist apartheid regime adopted the “defense” policy of “total onslaught” in its fight to maintain white power and deny the country’s vast majority their rights. This strategy included torturing and killing opponents, military incursions into foreign lands, and a host of repressive measures to terrorize the population. It failed.

While drawing comparisons between apartheid’s “total onslaught” on its majority population and the proposed budgets of Bloomberg, Pataki and Bush may seem extreme, the cuts, if approved, will have a similar effect -- “total onslaught” on the majority of the citizenry.

Health care, education, transportation, child and nursing home care, you name it, all face the axe. If allowed to stand, 1180 members will feel the effects of the proposed cuts at work, at home, and in their communities.

Mayor Bloomberg wants to cut $900 million from city agencies including, $15 million from after-school programs, $8 million from delivering hot meals to the elderly, $13 million from public libraries, and $17 million in reductions to the fire department. In addition, Bloomberg would like to delay $1.3 billion in school repairs and construction to relieve overcrowding.

Governor Pataki, for his part, seeks to cut $3 billion, including $1.1 billion in Medicaid spending, resulting in a $275 million cut to HHC. He wants to shortchange the MTA thereby forcing cuts in services and additional fare increases. And he continues to turn his back on New York City school children by not meeting a court-recommended $5.6 billion education budget for city schools.

Meanwhile, President Bush’s proposed 2006 budget will increase the nation’s debt and hurt every working person. Bush focuses his budget axe on Community development grants (which pay for housing for the elderly, day care, and education), Medicaid, Veterans’ health benefits, college loans, education for the poor, and farm subsidies. Absent from his budget is the $5 billion monthly cost of his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the trillion dollar cost of his Social Security privatization scheme.

Added together, these local, state and federal budgets are a “total onslaught” on working people. Local 1180 will be in the fight against these proposed budgets. Member mobilization is the key to turning these budgets around to make them work for working people.

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