Public services are being slashed and education is savaged from kindergarten through university making it almost impossible for working class youth to go to college. In addition, workers are laid off and/or suffer temporary furloughs as Democrats and Republicans unite to destroy jobs and shift the economic crisis on to the shoulders of workers and the poor. This is what is happening throughout the US and the world as trillions of dollars are being handed over to the bankers, speculators and other swindlers whose actions have brought us this far. The bankruptcy of CIT, another money lending outfit, will cost the US taxpayer $2.3 billion that can't be paid back. Just last week, GMAC, the money lending arm of GM that was sold to the private equity company Cerberus returned to the US taxpayer for its third infusion of cash. The present crisis is far from over.
Here in California students are organizing to fight back after walking out in support of a one day strike by workers at the U.C. system. This is a very positive step and the students organized a successful conference on October 24th. The conference was attended by about 800 people, mostly students from around the state, from the university system, the community colleges and K through 12. Teachers and other workers were also present.
The Board of Regents that governs the U.C. system as a corporation are a who's who of corporate bigwigs, some of them billionaires, all of them connected to big business in one way or another, either as politicians in state government. (with the capitalist class having two parties and working people not one, they are guaranteed unfettered access to a lucrative deal). The regents are appointed by the multi-millionaire governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger who is tough on youth crime but made his millions making violent movies.
The present chairman of the board is Russell Gould, a senior VP with Wachovia Bank, now Wells Fargo. In one way or another they are all well connected. Many of them are connected to private equity firms, like Richard Blum, Senator Dianne Feinstein's husband, or they are involved in real estate like George Marcus, and Hadi Makarechian, chairman of two boards, Makar properties and Banning Ranch Management Company. Blum has extensive interests in Asia and has had his fingers in Iraq war deals.
Another billionaire on the board is Norman Pattiz. Pattiz is Chairman of the Board of Westwood One owned by Private equity firm,The Gores group. His compensation in 2007 was $799,867.00 and he has a Concert hall and audtorium named after him in LA.
Pattiz is a member of the board of the US-based Israel Policy Forum, has been appointed chairman of the 'Middle East committee' of the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). He’s centrally involved in spreading propaganda in the middle east to improve Israel and the US’s image.
Pattiz is a big Laker fan, "His seats are courtside, making them some of the most coveted in U.S. sports." reports Bloomberg. During the playoffs, earlier this year, his ticket, with a face value of $3600, was priced at $20,000 on StubHub.com.
Pattiz doesn't need $20,000 though, ``Color me crazy, but I'm not selling" he tells Bloomberg News, ``Some of these offers are crazy. People really want to go to this series.''
It is obvious that having these characters in charge of public education is like having the fox guard the hen house. U.C Board of regents are not elected. They do not cherish these positions because of wage compensation. The advantage of being in charge of such a huge public education project is that it offers them and their friends many lucrative deals through construction projects, money lending and other ventures. It also brings them in to contact with other speculators and social wasters and therefore widen their network of money making opportunities.
Many of the more liberal millionaires like to have a liberal public image so they involve themselves in all sorts of charities and other public ventures that show they care. Quiet a few of them are on the board of the J Paul Getty Trust that is the world's wealthiest art institution created by the oil wealth. It makes rich liberals feel good to put some of the money they steal in to public ventures.
Leslie Tang Schilling is another Regent with real estate and financial services interests. She founded a group, Toys For the Tenderloin she cares about poor people so much.
I attended a committee meeting of the Regents last week and there were a number of speakers there for public comment. I heard the term "accountable" used with regard to the Regents; that they need to show that they are accountable. But they are being accountable, they are accountable to their class. For them, education is a business and, like all businesses it has to make a profit. They are in the business of selling education and their role is to allow the market to do this without interference from students, workers or the general public.
In my comments to the board committee I stressed that the movement that sprung up at the Berkeley and other campuses around the state is a positive thing that I hope will grow and broaden in order to drive the corporations, and them as their representatives, out of public education. The Regents meet to vote on the cuts on November 17th in LA and student groups and some U.C. Unions have called for strikes and/or actions from November 17th through 20th.
Organized Labor in California has some 2 million members in numerous Unions. The Union leadership from the California State Labor Federation to the heads of the Central Labor Bodies and regional councils of International Unions should abandon the Team Concept and use their resources to join with the students and UC Unions to widen any stoppages that occur on the 17th and to bring the potential power of organized Labor to bare on the employers and their allies. California's economy is in the world's top ten, it can be brought to a halt. Jobs, housing, transportation and public services in general are all on the chopping block. The mood in society against swindlers like the UC regents and their chums is one of anger; we must tap in to this mood of anger and not only drive back this offensive of capital but fight for more jobs, increased funding for education, an end to war spending; there is plenty of money, but they have it.
For the Regent, many of them also have outside businesses such as restaurants or real estate ventures and these should be paid visits to to let these people know that hurting us has consequences; we won't let them simply carry on with their lives as usual.
An important step that must be taken is to weaken the hold that big business has on the Regents Board. They should be elected for one thing. Also, certain percentages of the board, say one fifth or one quarter, should be reserved for certain groups, students, faculty, workers that maintain the system, and then the general public. This would tend to undermine the control of the free marketeers in the daily operations of eduction at this level. I would like to say that a percentage should be reserved for candidates from the Union movement as a whole but the Union leadership at the highest levels is an extremely conservative group with a stifling, bureaucratic grip on their organizations and they would most likely appoint representatives that put the market before people; they are also wedded to the Democratic Party politically.
The Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the Assembly are also members of the board ensuring the capitalist class unfettered rule. As a more generalized movement in opposition to the present offensive of capital develops, a movement that includes workers, the poor, immigrants, the disabled, the aged and all victims of their precious market, political candidates can be put forward, rooted in this movement and armed with a program that speaks to people's needs as opposed to a platform of concessions aimed at rescuing capitalism and its adherents from the crisis of their own system. In this way a mass working people's alternative to the Democrats and Republicans , the two parties of capital, can be built.
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