Keep On Keepin' On
Although war and the sluggish economy have complicated the task, AFSCME is increasing the pressure on state and local officials not to balance their budgets with deep cuts to critical services.
As winter turned to spring, the threat of war and then war itself complicated AFSCME's fight against ill-advised and unfair budget cuts — and for fair budgets that don't target public employees and our neediest citizens. It became harder to get the attention of everyone concerned with cuts: the governors and mayors who have called for them, the legislatures and city councils who've imposed them, the public that has already paid a stiff price for them and will pay a stiffer one in the near future.
None of that, however, has slowed AFSCME's attempt to inject reason and humanity into this serious national problem. We understand that the Bush administration's economic policies, including its failure to provide large-scale federal assistance to states and municipalities, have put state and local officials' feet to a hot fire. They must make tough budget choices, and across the nation, AFSCME has offered constructive, sensible solutions.
PUSHING ALTERNATIVES. But one thing we are refusing to do is to sacrifice our jobs or vital services, or take pay and benefits cuts, without lawmakers first exploring the many other possibilities for saving money. After all, public employees didn't create this economic crisis, so we shouldn't be punished for it. Nor is there a logical reason to penalize the most vulnerable users of the important services our members provide.
The following special section shows what members all across the country are doing in the fast-moving campaign that we call Take Back America. We are pursuing inventive as well as time-tested ways of pressing our demands. We're taking to the streets to demand fair budgets. Some recent examples:
Wisconsin Council 24 picketed the homes of key state legislators who have been wholly unsympathetic to AFSCME's interests and point of view; Minnesota Councils 6, 14, 65 and 96 brought 1,500 activists to Lobby Day at the capitol — filling the Rotunda; Washington Federation of State Employees/AFSCME Council 28 organized protests denouncing pay cuts and medical-insurance premium hikes as a "state employee tax"; New York City's DC 37 has campaigned to stop the governor's Medicaid cuts and the mayor's lavish use of expensive outside consultants and privately owned office space; and Connecticut Council 4 has held massive, colorful rallies, at one of which members were arrested for civil disobedience.
'THE FIGHT OF OUR LIVES.' At AFSCME's 2003 Legislative Conference, more than 500 of our leaders congregated to lobby members of Congress, plot strategy and fortify their spirits for the tough road ahead. President McEntee told them that the budget crisis constitutes "the fight of our lives," and declared, "We've got to lead this debate, not just in D.C., but also across the nation, state by state."
The AFSCME agenda that was reinforced at the conference: support immediate fiscal relief to states, oppose privatization, reject tax cuts for the wealthy and provide full funding for homeland security. Because the problems are national as well as very serious, that agenda must be pursued on two fronts: federal, with the focus on opposing the Bush tax cuts (which make the problems worse) and supporting large-scale financial aid to the states; and state and local, in terms of solving a revenue problem with a revenue solution, especially by increasing taxes on the very wealthy and closing corporate tax loopholes.
At the same time, we must recognize that the present fiscal problems stem from bad — if not vindictive — policies. With that in mind, it's imperative that activists look ahead to 2004 and the golden opportunity it offers to send the Bush administration packing and retake Washington for lawmakers sympathetic to working families.
— Roger M. Williams
