Democrats and Republicans Give the Bankers and Investors What They Need as They Pass a New California Budget

Democrats and Republicans in the California state legislature finally passed a budget three months late. The budget package cuts $7.5 billion in all and includes the suspension of the voter-approved proposition 98 which would have given more money to schools and includes $1.6 billion worth of cuts to state employees pay and benefits. Governor Schwarzenegger also used his line item veto power to cut $1 billion from health, education, student loans and natural resources.

This is a yearly wrangle that goes on between the politicians of the two Wall Street political parties as they struggle to shift the burden of the economic crisis on to the backs of workers and the middle class. This is “a budget that reflects the compromise that is necessary to find a two-thirds majority.” Democratic Assembly Speaker John Perez of Los Angeles announces to the media. Another influential Democrat, Darrell Steinberg is defiant, “I always live by the motto, ‘Never give up’ “ he says, adding that he is “relieved” for California.

As far as working people are concerned, these people never had to give up because they’ve never fought for us. What Steinberg means is he is relieved as the pressure from the bankers and investors, whose interests he represents, has been removed. The only significant difference between the Democrats and Republicans is how much the working class will pay; that we will pay is not in dispute. Even if the two thirds majority is eliminated the Democrats would simply raise taxes.  California is an important state as its economy is the largest in the US with somewhere around 12% of the nation’s GDP. As the Wall Street Journal points out, California, “has a huge presence on the municipal bond market.” It is also written in to the California constitution that the interest to the moneylenders shall be paid and the bankers have their economic representatives present at legislative affairs to ensure their political ones get the job done.

So we go through this fiasco every year and end up with fewer cuts than were initially proposed, we slip further backwards and the Labor hierarchy and the Democrats, the Wall Street Party that claims to be the friend of workers, announces it as a victory in difficult times.

Over the last year or so there were ample opportunities to throw back this assault. Fresh from destroying the wages and benefits, especially pensions, of the private sector, notably auto; the employers are out to take back the gains public sector workers have made over the last 40 years. Every day there are attacks in the mass media on the pensions and health care benefits that public sector workers receive. The somewhat more secure and humane conditions that exist in the public sector could be used as an organizing tool to raise the living standards of all workers and bring them in to the Unions. Unfortunately, the heads of organized Labor accept the employers’ arguments that concessions have to be made and refuse to mobilize the tremendous potential that exists within their ranks.

The teachers Union alone has over 300,000 members in the state and teachers have suffered severe wage concessions, forced days off and other setbacks including increased class sizes. Yet there has never been any serious threat of stoppages or disruptions to business as usual from the heads of the potentially powerful Union movement here in California. Opposition earlier this year was limited to protests after work where workers were told to wear pink as a protest against receiving “pink slips” (layoff notices) from the state. Needless to say, the employers weren’t phased by this. State workers are also organized and are facing the same savage attacks.

Also included in the deal between the parties is a measure that will be put before the voters in 2012 that will “scale back” pension benefits for new employees. The ongoing support of this sort of thing on the part of the Union leaders also makes Union organizing and building solidarity between old and new hires more difficult as many newer workers see that the Unions simply sacrificed them without a fight. It creates a lot of tension and division on the job.

The corporations and their politicians will have another two years to continue the media propaganda against public sector workers and public spending. The “bloated” public sector in all its forms, including what they refer to as “overly generous” health benefits will be blamed for the taxes they will impose on us to pay for it all. This argument, especially when they point to our pensions, is one that strikes a chord with many workers who have considerably worse pay and benefits and limited, if any pension at all.

This ideological offensive gains more support than it should among working class voters because there is no serious counteroffensive waged by the trade Union leadership. Instead, they are limiting their response to the electoral arena throwing their full support and resources behind the very same politicians who are dismantling our living standards rather than building a mass workers party that could challenge the monopoly the capitalist parties have in the political plane.

Even when groups of organized workers have begun the process of resistance to concessions through the rejection of concessionary contracts, rather than use this to organize a generalized offensive of our own, their top Union officials have joined with employers in forcing these concessions on their own members in order to help the employers in “hard times”.

Another factor in the demonization of the public sector worker is the rate of Unionization in the public sector. 36.8 percent of public sector workers were union members in 2008, up from 35.9 percent in 2007. In the private sector, 7.6 percent of workers were members of unions. The bosses would like to bring the public percentage down; it is part of their plan to completely break Unions in this country.

The trillions of dollars wasted in global wars fought to defend the profits of US corporations, the billions of US taxpayer dollars spent to build the hundreds of military bases around the world to carry out this foreign policy, this is the reason we are being driven back to conditions that existed before the great strikes and factory occupations of the 1930’s, why public spending has to be cut and why taxes will have to be increased. Globalization and increased competition from its rivals means US capitalism has to drive down the living standards of its workers in order to compete and this as Wall Street crooks earn billions of dollars and companies rake in trillions in profits.

Ending these predatory wars, taxing the rich, building a mass workers party that would prevent them from moving industry that destroys our communities and super exploits communities in the former colonial world, these are some of the steps that will begin our road to recovery. This is what the Union leaders should be doing rather than accepting the employers view of the world.

Chinese workers, living in a dictatorship, have waged major strikes for higher pay recently and have won. These workers are our allies in the fight to win a better life for all. We can learn from them and the potentially powerful public sector US work force can and should play a leading role in bringing a dose of economic terrorism to the boss instead of the other way around.

Some more reading on the public sector:
More Cuts on the Way For Public Sector Workers
California's Public Sector Workers Can Win But We've Got To Change Course