By Emergency Labor Network, no date
Jobs * Social
Security * Labor Rights
Medicare and
Medicaid * Peace and Justice
ELN Calls for
Actions on December 3-10
To Preserve
& Expand the Social Safety Net:
No Cuts to
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Other Social Programs; This is
"Ground Zero" in the Fight Against the Wall Street Dictatorship!
The clock continues
to tick.
In late September,
the Emergency Labor Network expressed a deep-seated concern that if the labor
movement and its community allies do not take to the streets in massive numbers
to protect and expand vital safety net programs, recipients of benefits under
these programs will be targeted for massive cuts.
The dire emergency
about which we warned is now just around the corner. In less than one month,
the Super Committee of 12 members of Congress (six Democrats, six Republicans)
will issue its proposals for $1.2 trillion in cuts (or possibly much more!)
over the next 10 years to the social safety net -- including Social Security,
Medicare and Medicaid. Speaking on behalf of the six Democrats on the Super
Committee, Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus has now announced a proposal to
cut up to $500 billion in Medicare costs in the next ten years!
On December 23,
Congress is scheduled to vote "yes" or "no" on the Super
Committee's proposals for additional cuts with no amendments allowed.
If the Super
Committee fails to get a majority vote to present its proposals to Congress, a
built-in trigger mechanism will come into play, and drastic cuts will be made
across the board to military spending, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid,
food stamps, Pell grants for students, home heating assistance, nutrition
programs, and help for the disabled and the homeless.
If, on the other
hand, the Super Committee's recommendations are approved by Congress, it will
also result in severe cuts to the safety net programs. Either way, over 100
million people will be hurt economically, in their health care and in their
retirement security. We must reject all the scenarios now being discussed
because each of them leads to the same unacceptable and inevitable result:
takeaways of benefits that people have worked a lifetime to earn.
That is why we
must call for repeal of the August 2 legislation, which gave birth to the
undemocratic and unconstitutional "Super Committee" creation. We must
demand instead that legislation be passed increasing the debt ceiling without
all the takeaways attached to it, as has been done by Congress repeatedly in
the past. And if Congress refuses to go this route and ends up enacting
legislation with cuts in federal benefits, then we must demand that President
Obama veto the bill.
This is a matter of
life and death. As Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders pointed out, if Congress is
able to go ahead and decimate the existing safety net, "there is no
question in my mind that many more thousands of men, women, and children will
die."
That is no
exaggeration. Medicaid alone impacts the lives of 58 million low-income
recipients and their family members, with 49% of Medicaid recipients being
children. If people on Medicaid lose their benefits, the results will be
greater illness and disability, increased poverty, and even death.
All of this will
fall most heavily on African Americans and workers of color, who are
disproportionately impacted by the racist, sexist and anti-immigrant policies
used by corporate greed to super-exploit and divide the working class.
We Can Stop the
Cuts!
Hundreds of
thousands of people - including growing contingents of trade unionists -- have
taken to the streets nationwide over the past weeks in solidarity with the
Occupy Wall Street movement to protest against the economic inequality, uneven
tax structure, bank bailouts and corporate greed that have brought this country
to its current economic crisis. More and more activists are challenging the double-digit
unemployment of Black and Latino workers and the increased racist attacks on
Black people and immigrant workers.
There is a new
fightback mood sweeping the country. Working people, youth, the unemployed are
all saying "Enough Is Enough!" and "Wall Street's Been Bailed
Out, We've Been Sold Out!"
Sentiment to stop
the cuts is widespread within the labor movement.
On September 26,
the San Francisco Labor Council adopted a resolution calling upon the
AFL-CIO, Change to Win, National Education Association and other independent
unions to "join together to call an emergency mass mobilization ... to
demand no cuts in benefits for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
recipients, including for future generations. To the contrary, these programs
need to be strengthened and expanded, not undermined." A similar
resolution was approved by U.S. Labor Against the War.
On October 19, the
New York Central Labor Council voted to mobilize on November 5 to affirm that
"Working People Shouldn't Pay for a Crisis That They Didn't Make!"
and to demand "No to Layoffs, Budget and Service Cuts!"
The National Nurses
Union, which last July called on Congress to "reject the flawed
debt-ceiling deal," continues to mobilize to demand an immediate halt to
"all federal cuts in job programs, health care, education, retirement
security, housing, and nutrition assistance."
Working people and
all the oppressed have shown that they are ready and eager to fight back. But
what is urgently needed is for the trade unions, our community allies, and the
Occupy Wall Street movement to decide that an all-out fight must be waged to
stop the cuts to the social safety net programs, cuts contrived by politicians
doing the bidding of corporate America.
There could be no
bigger blow to the plans of the banksters and Wall Street operatives than to
stop and reverse the cuts to our cherished social programs.
Mobilize
December 3-10 to Stop the Cuts!
The Emergency Labor
Network urges our supporters across the country to do everything in their power
to move their labor and community organizations into action during the week of
December 3-10 to save and expand the safety net programs.
We urge union
members to submit resolutions to their labor organizations, which will call for
setting times and places for demonstrations during this Week of Actions
demanding "No Cuts!" and with top union officials and national
leaders of the labor movement copied and urged to provide leadership. Forming
"No Cuts Committees" in local unions and building community coalitions
against the cuts can help ensure that resolutions and actions are carried out.
If you believe that
massive mobilizations must be organized demanding "No Cuts!", we ask
that you let us know. An endorsement form is provided on our website at www.laborfightback.org. Please direct questions to 216-736-4715, or email emergencylabor@aol.com or write ELN, P.O. Box 21004, Cleveland, OH 44121.
In solidarity,
Donna Dewitt
President, South
Carolina AFL-CIO
On behalf of the
ELN Coordinating Committee
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