"That's a guy who already has a gun, a badge, owns a firehouse and is on the city payroll."
TL
Doug Henwood wrote:
> [Let's see. She's pro-death penalty, pro-end of welfare, she's
> backtracking on abortion, and her husband's policies have contributed
> no small amount to the Wall Street boom. But voting for her is a vote
> against Tom DeLay or something.]
>
> From: John Bachtell <jbachtell at cpusa.org>
> Subject: Clean up New York: Dump Giuliani and the ultraright
> Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2000 14:40:56 -0500 (EST)
>
> Clean up New York: Dump Giuliani and the ultraright
> By John Bachtell
> (Reprinted from People's Weekly World)
>
> The great challenge of the 2000 elections is to break the stranglehold of
> the Republican ultra right and fascist forces on government at all levels.
> An ultra right victory would breathe new life into the "Contract on
> America" and other right wing policies.
>
> The struggle to defeat the ultraright is not momentary, because their
> support base are the global monopoly corporations. As economic power
> becomes concentrated in fewer hands, political power becomes concentrated
> and more reactionary.
>
> Next to President, the most important race is the U.S. Senate campaign
> between Mayor Giuliani and Hillary Clinton. It is shaping up to be a
> titanic struggle pitting labor, its allies and all democratic minded people
> against the ultra right.
>
> There is plenty of confusion surrounding this race. First, among some
> forces there is an underestimation of the fascist danger. And the
> anti-Giuliani forces have differences with Clinton on some issues and are
> disenchanted with her caving into right wing pressures.
> However no one can ignore the huge difference between Clinton and Giuliani
> on most issues and as importantly the forces behind the candidates.
>
> Elections are an arena of the class struggle, and candidates reflect
> coalitions representing class and social strata and different ideological
> currents. Where labor, independent, left and progressive forces are unable
> to advance their own candidates, they will be confronted with the "lessor
> of two evils" reality. Political pressure on the candidates becomes
> imperative.
>
> Clinton will be backed by the new broad labor-community coalition of labor,
> African American, Latino, Jewish, women, seniors, environmentalists, youth
> and students, etc. that is increasingly shaping local politics. This
> coalition was decisive in defeating D'Amato. It resurfaced in the Fair
> Share coalition, movements against police brutality, school vouchers, the
> Charter Reform and in the historic Republican defeat in Nassau Country.
>
> This is a local reflection of the historic labor led anti-monopoly
> coalition that took center stage in Seattle. However. uniting this
> coalition is not automatic and must be fought for.
>
> Giuliani is backed by the most powerful reactionary sections of Wall
> Street, the global monopoly corporations, big landlords and developers.
> Ultra right corporate think tanks like the Manhattan Institute provide the
> blue prints for Giuliani policies. A victory would make Giuliani a national
> right wing ideologue.
>
> Giuliani boasts that he has "cleaned up" New York. "Cleaning up" New York
> is nothing more than a thinly veiled appeal to fear and racism. Giuliani
> claims to have restored New York's "quality of life" by making the city
> safe from street criminals and by driving "parasites" off the welfare
> rolls.
>
> In reality, "cleaning up" New York has given the green light to a ruthless
> attack on society's most vulnerable by criminalizing the unemployed,
> homeless, hungry, racially oppressed youth, and by threatening to break up
> families in crisis.
>
> This is reactionary law and order demagogy aimed to desensitize the public
> and divide the electorate. The drop in street crime is a national trend and
> began before Giuliani took office. Many believe it parallels the economic
> upturn and an ebb in the crack epidemic, also national in scope.
>
> Meanwhile, racist and fascist ideology permeates the ranks of the NYPD. It
> has given rise to the uncontrolled gross violations of democratic rights
> and widespread racism and brutality. Who could forget the "Night Riders,"
> the unit that shot Amadou Diallo 41 times?
>
> So what then has Giuliani "cleaned up" - certainly not poverty,
> unemployment and corporate corruption. The quality of everyday life (e.g.
> affordable housing, education, and health care) for most working class and
> racially oppressed New Yorkers has deteriorated.
>
> Giuliani policies are tailored for corporations to reap maximum profits by
> making New York a vast union free, low wage zone. He has opposed a higher
> federal minimum wage and a city living wage ordinance.
>
> The so called "revival" of New York rests on luxury high-rise construction
> and the tourism industry (read greater profits for developers, big
> theaters, hotels and restaurants). Rising profits are based on poverty
> wages paid to the large army of non-union highly exploited, mainly
> immigrant workers. Ditto for the taxi, garment, health care and non-union
> construction industries.
>
> Giuliani policies have forced down the wages of public sector workers. A
> new crisis is erupting in staffing, as teachers, administrators, librarians
> and other public workers leave the city for higher wages in nearby
> municipalities.
>
> The remainder of Giuliani's economic policy relies on give-aways to the
> rich (to the tune of $2 billion a year in corporate tax abatements). The
> city is being robbed of funds for wage increases for public workers,
> schools, transit, housing, parks, and other social needs.
>
> On the other hand, the boom on Wall Street has only benefited the monopoly
> corporate interests. Eighty-five percent of the wealth created from stock
> market bull run has gone to 7 percent of New Yorkers.
>
> The Giuliani policies have accelerated the widening income gap between rich
> and poor. New York State has the widest income gap in the nation. And New
> York City's gap is the widest in the state. The average income for the
> bottom 80 percent has fallen, while the rich have gotten richer. The
> average income in the top 20 percent is 25 times greater than average
> income in the bottom 20 percent and growing.
>
> In light of the Wall Street boom, where's the trickle down? Unemployment is
> twice the national average, 8-10 percent. Over 25 percent of city residents
> now live in poverty. Over half of all children now grow up in poverty, 60
> percent for African American and 75 percent for Latino children.
>
> Beneath the corporate jubilation a new economic crisis is brewing. Working
> class consumption is only possible because the typical household has gone
> into debt. Debt service now eats up 17 percent of consumer income.
>
> Giuliani has been a national leader in imposing the Republican "Contract on
> America," the dismantling of the social safety net, defunding public
> education, hospitals and other public institutions. "Cleaning up New York"
> is a cover up for this agenda.
>
> By year's end Giuliani boasted that every able bodied welfare recipient was
> now working in slave wage workfare jobs (an assertion widely challenged).
> This, he says is proof that his administration has ended the "culture of
> dependence."
>
> But in fact this policy is destroying the social safety net through cut
> backs, and the illegal denial of food stamps and emergency assistance.
> Consequently, the demands for emergency food went up 36 percent between
> January 1998 and January 1999 at emergency food pantries.
>
> Meanwhile Giuliani has drastically expanded the "culture of dependence" of
> the banks, corporations and real estate interests by expanding corporate
> welfare. He has drastically expanded privatization. The management of the
> airports will be privatized and the World Trade Center sold off.
>
> Giuliani has driven public education into a deeper crisis and is preparing
> the soil for privatization. In his State of the City address he called for
> privatizating the worst performing schools. These are strictly racist,
> union busting policies.
>
> With the attack on public entitlements goes the attack on democratic and
> labor rights. As Roy Rydell pointed out in the Jan. 8 People's Weekly
> World, Giuliani routinely uses injunctions against the labor movement,
> which are invariably overturned by the courts. But by then the damage is
> done.
>
> He has resorted to fascist-like methods of rule. His administration has now
> been challenged in court 22 times on violations of First Amendment rights,
> and has lost every time. The latest is the illegal mass suppression of
> freedom of speech during the transit negotiations. The administration no
> longer defends the injunction because they know it would not stand up to
> appeal.
>
> In addition to the tens of thousands of African American and Latinos who
> have been illegally stopped and arrested, there are other dangerous
> precedents in violating basic democratic rights. Last fall a demonstration
> was held protesting Giuliani policies on housing for victims of AIDS.
>
> Protesters threw fake dung at a Virgin Mary likeness of Giuliani. Prior to
> the protest the NYPD raided the apartment of the artist and protest
> organizer ostensibly on the grounds he committed graffiti vandalism.
>
> They arrested the artist for illegally possessing a set of brass knuckles
> and confiscated his art supplies. But what they really wanted was the
> artwork used in the protest, which they did not find. Such harassment of
> artists critical of the mayor is routine.
>
> At a recent Town Hall meeting called by Giuliani at Stuyvesant High School,
> a neighborhood opponent of the mayor was distributing leaflets. As each
> person entered, the leaflets were confiscated by security guards. The
> guards rifled through one woman's purse until they found the leaflet.
>
> In the end it is a life and death question who is elected and if that
> person will join with the Trent Lott-Bob Barr-Tom Delay led Republican
> majority or an anti-ultraright majority. Giuliani's policies should
> motivate us all to work tirelessly for his defeat in November.
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