<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> My definition of a communist: "That's a guy who already has a gun, a badge, owns a firehouse and is on the city payroll." TL Doug Henwood wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE>[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@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.</blockquote> </html>