<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title></title> </head> <body text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title></title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title></title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title></title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title></title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title></title> <pre wrap="">Message: 7 From: "Bryan Atinsky" <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:bryan@indymedia.org.il"><bryan@indymedia.org.il></a> Sadly, the only thing the Israelis know about Wisconsin (where I grew up) is that it is the name of Israel's welfare reform plan. What about the Apostle Islands, Victor Berger, Frank Zeidler, the Violent Femmes, Aldo Leopold's Sand County Almanac, Frank Lloyd Wright, Les Paul, Robert La Follette, William Defoe, Harley Davidson, Green Bay Packers (only publically owned NFL team), etc?....god, I would even be happy if the Israelis could mention Ed Gein, Jeffrey Dahmer, Miller Beer or Golda Meir. Anyway... "The experimental project [...] is to be run by foreign companies with experience in running similar programs overseas. These companies will have to join Israeli companies familiar with the local labor market. However, a number of Israeli personnel companies, including Manpower, are campaigning intensively to be able to bid for the tender instead of the foreign companies." It is interesting that the article refers to Manpower as an Israeli company considering its corporate headquarters is in Milwaukee...Wisconsin. The debate here isn't over whether it is right to privatize/end welfare, but whether the profits from decimating welfared should be funneled to local or international capital. Bryan <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=36558">http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=36558</a> 1 Israeli employment agencies want stake in Wisconsin plan -------------------------------------------------------------- JC: And speaking of notable Wisconsin figures, let's not forget Belle Case LaFollette. Or Ed Garvey, whose local political commentary can be found at <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.fightingbob.com/">http://www.fightingbob.com/</a>  Wisconsin's welfare reform program (known as W2, for "Wisconsin Works"), touted by the slimy likes of the Heritage Foundation as the "Wisconsin miracle," has been a disaster for many poor people. It must be said, however, that in practice it is less inhumane than it might have been. This is owing in part to the local political culture, which balks at extremely harsh measures that might go down easier elsewhere, and also to the fact that many faith-based organizations, particularly in central-city Milwaukee, have filled some of the gap when it comes to providing services. This is a bad thing in the sense that it's just what the architects of W2 had in mind, but a good thing for the people who are helped. Nor should it go unmentioned that W2's ill effects have been mitigated to some degree through the tireless and unsung efforts of welfare case workers, and many state employees working in the bowels of the state bureaucracy. Let's hear it for those disdained "paper-pu shers" and "agency hacks!" (Disclaimer: I work for the state, though in a "cultural" agency. Better also say that the opinions expressed here are my own). In the legislative realm, Tommy Thompson had to tack a lot of relatively progressive elements (e.g., training and childcare initiatives) onto W2 to get it passed. State Senator Gwen Moore has been a very clever player throughout the whole welfare reform saga. She's taken a lot of heat from the left, particularly for her advocacy of school vouchers, but has on the whole been of greater service to her contituents than any of her critics. W2 is administered by the Department of Workforce Development. The agency's W2 homepage, the best place to begin studying the program, for those so inclined, is here: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.dwd.state.wi.us/dws/w2/default.htm">http://www.dwd.state.wi.us/dws/w2/default.htm</a> Mainstream policy wonkery can be found here: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/irp/welreform/home.htm#wisconsin">http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/irp/welreform/home.htm#wisconsin</a> Warning: large doses of caffeine required to read this stuff. A UW-based outfit with a progressive bent is the Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS). You can search their website,<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.cows.org/">http://www.cows.org/</a>, to find additional W2 commentary. Another policy shop, called Wisconsin's Future, <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.wisconsinsfuture.org/">http://www.wisconsinsfuture.org/</a> has some W2 stuff up as well, notably a pretty comprehensive report on its consequences for the working poor: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.wisconsinsfuture.org/Low%20Wage%20Workers/Passing%20the%20Buck.pdf">http://www.wisconsinsfuture.org/Low%20Wage%20Workers/Passing%20the%20Buck.pdf</a>. The Joyce Foundation, a Chicago-based outfit that does a lot of good work across the Great Lakes region, has a state-by-state comparison of the consquences of "welfare reform" throughout the midwest, available here: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.joycefdn.org/welrept/">http://www.joycefdn.org/welrept/</a>. Finally, a useful piece from the Wisconsin Council for Children and Families looks mainly at its effects on the population for which they advocate, here: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.wccf.org/projects/wisworks.html">http://www.wccf.org/projects/wisworks.html</a>. Bryan is right about the role of companies like Manpower Inc. W2 has been, if nothing else, a bonanza for a host of policy entrepreneurs, and I don't just mean program officers at the Bradley Foundation. See, for example <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://my.execpc.com/%7Ewmvoice/bloated_welfare_empire.html">http://my.execpc.com/~wmvoice/bloated_welfare_empire.html</a>. In wonk-ese, some of these entrepreneurs are referred to as "Labor Market Intermediaries" (LMIs), which you will find discussed in some of the articles linked to above. The political reality is that "welfare reform" on something resembling the Wisconsin model is the order of the day, and is now even being exported, as we see. If the Wisconsin experience shows anything, it is that the progressive left can, in the short run, mitigate some of the ill effects of right-wing policy on constituencies we're supposed to care about, and in the long run (the rightist ascendancy won't last forever) turn their policy initiatives to our own purposes (c.f. Nathan's intelligent comments on the Medicare bill). Jacob Conrad </pre> </body> </html>