Bloomberg, the NY Public Library and Lenin

By now, most New Yorkers have heard details of Mayor Bloomberg's budget and the draconian cuts it would impose. Instead of taxing the rich, "our" mayor wants to cut services. The most infamous gash is the proposed laying-off of nearly 7,000 teachers, but Bloomberg's knives reach far and wide. For example, here's what the NYPL has to say about the cuts:


Don't Close the Book on Libraries - Act Now The New York Public Library is facing a potential $37 million cut in City funding. This is the harshest cut in our history and comes at a time when more New Yorkers than ever are using the Library, many with no alternative for the services we offer. We are preparing for the possibility of closing 10 library branches, a reduction of staff by 36% percent, 25,300 fewer programs and classes for kids and adults, and a cut of 6-day service to 4 days across the NYPL system.

Our public library, now under assault, is known throughout the world. So much so, in fact, that it was used by the Russian revolutionary VI Lenin as an example of what can be achieved in a democratic society. Here, in full, is what Lenin had to say about libraries, specifically, the NYPL:

There are quite a number of rotten prejudices current in the Western countries of which Holy Mother Russia is free. They assume there, for instance, that huge public libraries containing hundreds of thousands and millions of volumes, should certainly not be reserved only for the handful of scholars or would-be scholars that uses them. Over there they have set themselves the strange, incomprehensible and barbaric aim of making these gigantic, boundless libraries available, not to a guild of scholars, professors and other such specialists, but to the masses, to the crowd, to the mob!

What a desecration of the libraries! What an absence of the “law and order” we are so justly proud of. Instead of regulations, discussed and elaborated by a dozen committees of civil servants inventing hundreds of formalities and obstacles to the use of books, they see to it that even children can make use of the rich collections; that readers can read publicly-owned books at home; they regard as the pride and glory of a public library, not the number of rarities it contains, the number of sixteenth-century editions or tenth-century manuscripts, but the extentamong the people, the number of new readers enrolled, the speed with which the demand for any book is met, the number of books issued to be read at home, the number of children attracted to reading and to the use of the library.... These queer prejudices are widespread in the Western states, and we must be glad that those who keep watch and ward over us protect us with care and circumspection from the influence of these prejudices, protect our rich public libraries from the mob, from the hoi polloi! to which books are distributed

I have before me the report of the New York Public Library for 1911.

That year the Public Library in New York was moved from two old buildings to new premises erected by the city. The total number of books is now about two million. It so happened that the first book asked for when the reading-room opened its doors was in Russian. It was a work by N. Grot, The Moral Ideals of Our Times. The request for the book was handed in at eight minutes past nine in the morning. The book was delivered to the reader at nine fifteen.

In the course of the year the library was visited by 1,658,376 people. There were 246,950 readers using the reading-room and they took out 911,891 books.

This, however, is only a small part of the book circulation effected by the library. Only a few people can visit the library. The rational organisation of educational work is measured by the number of books issued to be read at home, by the conveniences available to the majority of the population.

In three boroughs of New York—Manhatten, Bronx and Richmond—the New York Public Library has forty-two branches and will soon have a forty-third (the total population of the three boroughs is almost three million). The aim that is constantly pursued is to have a branch of the Public Library within three-quarters of a verst, i.e., within ten minutes’ walk of the house of every inhabitant, the branch library being the centre of all kinds of institutions and establishments for public education.

Almost eight million (7,914,882 volumes) were issued to readers at home, 400,000 more than in 1910. To each hundred members of the population of all ages and both sexes, 267 books were issued for reading at home in the course of the year.

Each of the forty-two branch libraries not only provides for the use of reference books in the building and the issue of books to be read at home, it is also a place for evening lectures, for public meetings and for rational entertainment.

The New York Public Library contains about 15,000 books in oriental languages, about 20,000 in Yiddish and about 16,000 in the Slav languages. In the main reading-room there are about 20,000 books standing on open shelves for general use.

The New York Public Library has opened a special, central, reading-room for children, and similar institutions are gradually being opened at all branches. The librarians do everything for the children’s convenience and answer their questions. The number of books children took out to read at home was 2,859,888, slightly under three million (more than a third of the total). The number of children visiting the reading-room was 1,120,915.

As far as losses are concerned—the New York Public Library assesses the number of books lost at 70–80–90 per 100,000 issued to be read at home.

Such is the way things are done in New York. And in Russia?

How can we let this institution, which inspired and inspires people around the world, fall victim to Bloomberg's budget scissors? A fight is necessary. Here's what the NYPL suggests:

Here is how you can help right now:

• Write the Mayor and your City Council member
• Invite your friends to help NYPL
• Make a donation

We appreciate your support and will keep you informed about the status of Library funding in the next few weeks.

We agree fully that everyone should do the above things. But further, we need to demand that no cuts be made to any service on which working people depend. There are 60 billionaires in this city. Bloomberg himself could, out of his own pocket, fill the entire deficit and still have more than $10 billion left over. While working people, especially young people, whose education is under assault in school and at the libraries, face all of these cuts on top of the foreclosure and unemployment crisis, the billionaires, with Bloomberg as their leader, refuse to do their fair share.

This is an outrage.

Let's work with labor and other allies, including in the City Council and the state legislature, to stop the cuts, and further demand that there be fair and adequate taxes on the rich!

NYS Communist Party on budget crisis

Yesterday, Gov. David Paterson made a speech before an extraordinary joint session of the State Senate and Assembly, pushing the legislative bodies to accept his plan to alleviate the state's more than $3.2 billion deficit for this fiscal year (of which, four and a half months are remaining). Included in the Democratic governor's plans are about $1.3 billion in cuts to schools, health care and municipal governments.

Many people, both inside and outside the legislative chambers, are opposed to the governor's plan - and for good reason: there are ways for the state to remain fiscally solvent without balancing the budget on the backs of working people and the poor.

Today, both bodies, which the governor called out of recess, are expected to discuss these plans. Senate Democrats have come up with an alternate deficit reduction plan that would, they argue, eliminate the need to make any cuts to services important to working people. In the plan are the restructuring of the state's tobacco bonds and an increase in the hours casinos are legally allowed open.

Others, including some in labor, have signed on to this plan. Across the state, thousands of people and organizations have been demanding that there be no cuts to health care of the public schools and universities, which are already reeling from budget cuts and tuition hikes.

The Democrats are right: there is no reason for Paterson to cut these services. But, according to the New York State Communist Party, overlooked are a number of other ways to raise revenues.

From the New York State Communist Party:

Billions of dollars could be raised by implementing the full Fair Share tax reform that was demanded months ago (i.e. a surcharge on those making more than $250,000 per year, instead of $500,000, as was enacted). In New York City alone, there are about 60 people with an income of over $1 billion. A small one percent surtax on them would generate $1 billion dollars.

A one percent stock transfer tax on those with more than $500,000 (which would leave out virtually anyone whose retirement fund is tied up in a 401k) would raise another billion dollars.

But there is waste in the budget, says the NYSPC. There are things that can be cut - things that benefit only the wealthy and the big corporations. Ending the subsidy for industrial development zones would save $4 billion, more than the entire budget gap for this year.

Currently, there are 10,000 governmental units in the state, government bodies that overlap uselessly and serve mainly for patronage for a wealthy few. Trimming them a good deal would save another $4 billion.

Clearly, there are billions of dollars to be had. The question for the governor and the legislature is this: Will you go after the obscene amount of wealth that is being either given to or horded by the rich and super rich? Or will you put the burden on the already immiserated working people of our state?

New Yorkers protest education cuts

Teachers, students and others are horrified at the prospect of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of mid-year budget cuts to public education as the state faces a $3 billion budget shortfall-and they're fighting back.

The Alliance for Quality Education, a coalition of more than 230 organizations of parents, children's advocates, schools, teachers and others, is organizing people to contact their representatives as well as to attend hearings sponsored by the legislature. Under Governor David Paterson's (D) plans, public schools across the state would be hit with a whopping $686 million mid-year cut.

At an October 23 meeting in Syracuse, AQE members broke pencils during the meeting to symbolize "the state's broken promise" to public schools. Because so many people showed up to speak against the cut, the meeting went on for nearly six hours.

Revenues have been lower than expected, leaving the state with a $3 billion budget shortfall. Paterson has called a special meeting of the State Senate and Assembly to discuss his plans, which include $1.3 billion in cuts to local governments, health and education. The rest is to be made up, mainly, of extraordinary borrowing from the state's rainy day fund.

In higher education, Paterson proposes slashing $53 million in funding to the City University of New York alone. These cuts, as well as proposed cuts to health care, public schools and municipalities, all require legislative approval. However, millions of dollars have already been cut at state agencies, where the Governor doesn't need to seek legislative approval. He has already ordered an eleven percent cut, amounting to $90 million, to the State University of New York.

Mid-year cuts are considered to be the most devastating, because institutions have already made their budget based on projected funding.

Across New York City, protests have erupted at various CUNY campuses, and have included students, professors, city school teachers, labor unionists and others. Organizers of the various campaigns include the United Federation of Teachers and its parent organization, the New York State United Teachers; United University Professionals and the Professional Staff Congress, which represent professors at SUNY and CUNY respectively; the New York Public Interest Research Group; student organizations other labor unions and community residents.

At Hunter College, an October 28 demonstration brought out hundreds of people. "Now is the time we should be supporting schools, now is the time to be building schools," NYSUT Executive Vice President Alan Lubin told the crowd.

Education advocates point out that the proposed cuts are on the heels of tens of millions of dollars in cuts to education in the past year, as well as a tuition hike. They are demanding that there be no cuts to education going forward, and that the legislature roll back Paterson's cuts to SUNY.

"Students are already being squeezed into overcrowded classes, missing out on courses we need, and paying more for school," said Chris McCall, NYPIRG's higher education project leader.

Similar actions are being proposed to fight the proposed health care and municipal cuts.

Others have suggested that there should be no cuts at all. Suggested ways of increased savings include cuts in spending that benefit only the wealthy and big corporations, such as: the ending of subsidies for "industrial development zones," (saving the state $4 billion), reducing the number of governmental units down from the current 10,000 , the ending of subsidies and tax breaks to developers of housing for those above the median income ($3 billion) and other such measures.

Proposals for increased revenues include a one percent surtax on people making over $1 billion yearly (there are 60 such people in New York City alone, meaning a possible billion dollars in revenue), a one percent stock transfer surtax on those with net assets above $500,000 (another billion dollars) and other proposals.

PHOTO: A student at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, where NYPIRG kicked off its campaign against budget cuts, holds a "CUNY withdrawal slip" for $53 billion.

NYS Communist Party Statement on Education

At 12:01 this morning, the law that enshrined mayoral control of New York City’s public schools formally sunset, as the New York State Senate remained paralyzed by crisis. The old Board of Education was automatically resurrected, as were 32 community school boards, whose members are to be elected.

Whether or not this will stand, or if the State Senate will come back to order and re-issue some form of mayor control remains to be seen. However, what we’ve seen so far is not good: Bloomberg is making sure to keep himself and his corporate-world school’s chancellor, Joel Klein, firmly in control, with as little in the way of checks and balances as possible.

The seven-member board is composed of two people directly appointed by the mayor, and one person appointed by each of the five Borough Presidents. The mayor and the BP’s have made their appointments, and six of them are sympathetic to Bloomberg: There are three deputy mayors and three allies. The other, Dolores M. Fernández, was appointed by Bronx Borough President Rubén Díaz Jr., and thankfully, she is expected to oppose Joel Klein’s continued reign as well as many of Bloomberg’s policies.

It’s too bad that four of the five Borough Presidents decided not to challenge Bloomberg’s power. If they had, we could have seen a board that would fire Joel Klein, and bring in someone who has an actual background in education. Klein has imposed a top-down corporate model on the schools, and has left room for virtually no input by parents or the community.

Fight Bloomberg's Cuts!

It's short notice, but anyone who possibly can should come to the rally listed below in support of New York's Department of Education employees. Bloomberg wants to lay off many of them. Doing so will hurt these workers and their families, teachers who will have to pick up the slack, and all schoolchildren who will get a worse education.

A coup in Albany

A coup in Albany
By Dan Margolis
Originally published in the People's Weekly World

The mess in the New York State Senate would make for a relatively enjoyable reality show—if the living standards of so many New Yorkers weren’t put at stake.

The actions of Sens. Pedro Espada, D-Bronx, and Hiram Monseratte, D-Queens, are as disgusting as their explanations are ridiculous. After New Yorkers voted overwhelmingly for a Democratic Senate, these two ethically challenged individuals have taken the state hostage at a time when there is essential work to be done.

Espada and Monseratte say that they acted because the Democratic caucus was too opaque. Both say they wanted to bring openness and more democracy to Albany. A noble concept, but the idea that this is what they’re doing would be laughable if it weren’t so infuriating. Or maybe infuriating if it weren’t so laughable; it’s hard to say.

Are we really supposed to believe this? That a Republican controlled Senate will be somehow more open? The Republicans held power for 30 years, and all they did was attack working people. The problems with Malcolm Smith’s Democratic caucus in the Senate are nothing compared with those of the Republicans. The recent tax increases on the rich would have been impossible had the Democrats not won control last fall.

What would the Democrats’ loss of the Senate mean?

Firstly, it would be a victory for the billionaires, specifically Tom Golisano, who masterminded the coup. Golisano is, of course, the businessman who campaigned against the Fair Share tax increases and then moved his legal residence to Florida after it was passed. Also, it would mean a victory for the Republicans, the party of racism, inequality and union-busting.

All of the pro-people bills currently in the State Senate could be killed.

Of particular importance are two bills on tenants’ rights: One would repeal the “Urstadt Law,” which took control of rent-control regulations away from New York City’s council and made them the domain of Albany. The other bill would mandate that any buildings leaving the Mitchell-Lama or Section 8 programs would have to be placed under rent regulations.

The loss would mean, then, a huge victory for the landlords of New York, and a loss for tenants.

In fact, some are speculating that the coup was, at least in part, pushed and coordinated by big landlords who do not want to see these bills passed. It’s likely that Espada receives a lot of money from landlords—but no one knows that for sure, because he’s never filed the legally required paperwork on campaign contributions.

It looks like Espada was bought by the landlords and sold to the Republican Party.

Diane Savino, D-Staten Island, has introduced a bill that would weaken the state’s anti-union Taylor Law, which bans public employees from striking. This bill would have been hard to pass with a 32-30 Democratic majority—but with the Republicans in charge? Forget it.

The loss would mean ending the possibility of actually bringing New York State into compliance with international labor law, under which workers are supposed to have the right to strike.

There are other bills as well, but the point is clear: Republican control is bad for working people.

Some are saying that this debacle is the result of animosities between the African American and Latino communities, and that the coup d’état will somehow help empower Latinos. This nonsense should be rejected outright. It is true that Latinos in New York’s leadership have been under-represented, and any democratic-minded person must be in favor of the empowerment of the growing and diversifying Hispanic community.

The idea that Latino advancement could or should come at the expense of the African American community is preposterous: Unity between African Americans, Latinos, and the working class is essential to the advancement of all three groups, none of which are mutually exclusive, of course.

But the idea that ceding control to the Republicans will help Latinos? Please. Let’s come back to the real world. The above mentioned bills would help to empower both the African American and Latino communities, as well as working-class white people. How is killing them a benefit to anyone who has to work for a living?

In any case, most people aren’t buying it: Editorials in much of the New York City Spanish-language press have condemned the right wing power grab, and rallies against Espada and Monseratte have been united. It seems pretty clear that there are others, behind the scenes, who would like to sow division between the two communities.

For example, one thing Mayor Bloomberg, the “independent” mayor of New York City, needs to win the 2009 municipal elections is a major split in the Latino and African American communities. Bloomberg has been specifically targeting people with Latino names to receive mailings addressed to them. There have been no major breaks among Latinos for Bloomberg.

The idea that either Espada or Monseratte is that altruistic is hard to believe. Espada has been fined thousands of dollars refusing to show from where his donations come. On top of that, though he “represents” the Bronx, he really lives in suburban Westchester County.

And Monseratte? He’s been indicted for allegedly stabbing his girlfriend with a glass bottle.

These are the great reformers?

We still don’t know how things are going to pan out. As of this writing, Monseratte is in discussions with the Democratic caucus, and seems to be on the verge—possibly—of returning to the fold. But even then, the house would be divided 31-31, and since we have no Lieutenant Governor to break a tie, that’s a bad situation. The Republicans want to see Espada as president of the chamber. And they are arguing, quite ridulously, that if Monseratte goes back and the chambers are evenly split, Espada should have two votes to break a tie: one as a state senator, and one as the chamber’s president. This, in the words of one lawmaker, is sending the state “lurching towards a constitutional crisis.”

Both Espada and Monseratte should end their betrayal of working New Yorkers and come back into the Democratic fold so that the business of working people can get done.

Tax the rich -- A fair budget for New York!

Below are some suggestions from the NYS Communist Party on how to fix the NYC and state budgets, in a way that is not harmful, but actually beneficial to working people, the vast majority of New Yorkers. This was distributed in pamphlet form at the March 5 Rally for New York, a hugely successful project of the labor movement and the community.

The Economic Crisis:
Who's to Blame and How Can we Solve It?
Issued by the NY State Communist Party, CPUSA

We now know that our city and state are getting $24.4 billion from the stimulus package.

Now that we’re getting more stimulus package money than the combined deficits, one would think Bloomberg and Paterson would use it to fill the holes. Instead, both are arguing that the infusion of Federal money will not cover two full years and that there will be greater deficits down the road. Both say the basic problem is the city and state are overspending and need to cut back substantially for years to come.

Working people should expect and insist that all levels of government – federal, state and city help bring the economic crisis to an end and help close the on-going gap in income between the wealthy and big corporations and all working people and especially the poor, who are disproportionately African American, Afro-Caribbean, Latinos and Asians.

In hard times can this be accomplished? Is it true that working people and the poor must sacrifice more to get us out of the economic mess that Wall Street set off?

People like Bloomberg are against taxing the rich and are for new cuts in worker pay and benefits, for layoffs and cuts in vital services like education and health care. But that is a policy that will make it harder to get out of the economic crisis while inflicting even more pain on working people.

When working people lose their jobs or otherwise have less income, their spending declines and small businesses from which they buy suffer and the big manufacturers and distributors of what they buy cut back and lay off still more people in a spiral downward.

We don’t have to describe the crisis and its affects—people already know. In the words of President Obama:

You don't need to hear another list of statistics to know that our economy is in crisis, because you live it every day. It's the worry you wake up with and the source of sleepless nights. It's the job you thought you'd retire from but now have lost; the business you built your dreams upon that's now hanging by a thread; the college acceptance letter your child had to put back in the envelope. The impact of this recession is real, and it is everywhere.

Who and What Is Responsible?
Working people aren’t the problem. We want jobs, and we want to have money to spend on the things we need for a decent life. And there is plenty of work that needs to be done: to restore our roads, bridges, water, sewer, electrical, gas and other systems, for school construction, for updating and greening buildings, for transit system updating, repair, extension, etc. We need decent health care for all.

Responsibility for the crisis lies with greed of the Wall Street financiers who still insist on huge annual income, and their political enablers in Washington, DC and elsewhere. But they are only doing what the capitalist system propels them to do: To be greedy, to seek maximum profit at the expense of the rest of us.

The Obama Administration represents the victory of a vast coalition of labor, the racially and nationally oppressed, women youth and many others over the most reactionary section of finance capital. But as we see in Congress, the Republicans still try to block all progress. At the same time the Obama Administration tries to press forward to begin to challenge wider sections of big business, not always in a fully consistent way, but still on a forward-moving path.

Working People Need Help from the City and State, Not More Pain
What do working people need now to make it through the economic crisis for themselves and their families? Help from the Federal Government! Help from the State Government! Help from the City Government! With President Obama’s urging and pushing the Congress, the stimulus package was passed. It provides some $24.4 billion to New York City and State and the MTA.

So what do Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Paterson propose to do with their 2010 city budget (which begins July 1) and the 2009 state budget that begins April 1? You might expect the city and state to make up the difference, certainly not to add to the problems. But that is exactly what Bloomberg and Patterson are trying to do. Since they learned how large the help will be for our city and state, Bloomberg and Patterson claim huge cuts in health care, education and other necessities are still required.

Bloomberg and Patterson argue we spend too much and only cuts in spending can fix the problem. Before the start of the economic crisis, the percentage of people in our city living at or below the poverty line was 25 percent. 2 million people in the city were entitled to food stamps but only 1.3 million received them. Were we spending too much on poor people, or not enough to bring them up to a decent living standard?

Bloomberg has already cut spending and increased regressive taxes in the current budget year by several billion dollars. Starting in July, Bloomberg foresees a further budget gap of $4-5 billion which he proposes to fill with givebacks by workers on pensions and health care—especially new hires—and a big increase in sales taxes. He wants city employees to take a pay cut by having new hires pay for a significant part of their health benefits and pensions.

Governor Patterson has already won a couple billions in cuts in the budget for the current year, including increases in tuition at all SUNY schools. For the April 1 fiscal year, the deficit to be made up is $14 billion. He proposes that be done by imposing $4 billion in regressive sales taxes and fees that working people, not the rich or big corporations, would have to pay. $6 billion would be cut from spending on health care and education and some amounts from elsewhere: speed-up for a shrinking state work force and poorer services for working people.

The MTA says its income is not enough to continue as is and has proposed a big increase in fares, reduction, and cut in services, such as bus and subway lines and their frequency of running. All this means layoffs or otherwise shrinking the work force. It also does not have the capital to complete planned improvements and expansions such as the Fulton Street station, the 2nd Ave. subway line and the extension of the #7 train across Manhattan to 11th Ave. The Ravitch Commission Plan is supposed to be the alternative to these draconian measures. It provides for hefty new tolls on bridges and tunnels within the city. This would mean again a regressive tax almost entirely on working people, along with a smaller 8 percent fare increase. We agree that corporations should be taxed, but the Ravitch Plan’s proposal for payroll taxes would also include small businesses, self-employed people and others. These are regressive taxes that we shouldn’t support.


Pitting Us Against Each Other
The Mayor, the Governor and the MTA are asking impossible questions: Which way do you want us to reduce vital services? Or would you rather your coworkers be laid off? Or fare increases? Or higher sales taxes? How do you want to slit your own throat, or your neighbor’s?

But we’re not responsible for the crisis. It was the leaders of Wall Street and the top Bush government figures and some in Congress who let the bankers run wild making money. And the capitalist system as a whole is responsible. These people control it.

In fact, there is no need to have to pick among these bad alternatives. There is money available. Take your pick of how to solve the budget problems without hurting working people:

Sources of Funds to Meet Deficits for the City, MTA & State
Tax increases on those who can afford it
• Restoring a graduated tax to people earning over $250,000 $6 billion
(on $300,000 adds $71 weekly; on $2 million adds $55,516 a year)
• 1% surtax on people with incomes over $1 billion (60 within city) $1 billion
• 1% stock transfer tax on those with net assets of $500,000 $1 billion
• Graduated increase of City income tax on wealthy (Quinn proposal) $1 billion

Cuts in spending that benefit only the wealthy & big corporations
• End of subsidy for industrial development zones $4 billion
• Reduction of governmental units in NYS from present 10,000 $4 billion
• End subsidies and tax breaks to developers of athletic stadiums and housing
for those above the community medium income - both state and city $3 billion
• Elimination of city tax abatements except for religious and educational $1 billion
institutions and recovery of abatements given over the past 10 years to
big corporations and real estate developments
• Abatement repayment $8 billion
• Repayment by big banks of tax abatements for jobs to be retained
but never substantiated $550 million
• Repayment of Republican legislators abnormal perks $120 million

Finally, a crucial need of working people to protect their interests especially in this crisis is passage of the Employees Free Choice Act. 56 percent of workers say if they could they would want a union to protect their wages and interests. But only about 13% are now unionized because the cards are stacked against them. EFCA would make joining a union much easier: all that would be necessary to form a union would be for a majority of workers at any shop to sign recognition cards – EFCA needs to be passed so workers have protection during an economic crisis and as a result can maintain their buying power which the whole economy needs. President Obama supports it and believes unions “are part of the solution.”

Socialism
What can be done to prevent the present situation developing again and again? Restoring strong, tight regulation and transparency over the financial institutions and outlawing derivatives, credit default swaps, hedge funds and all the complicated, exotic financial products and institutions that are highly risky and hidden. This will help slow a rapid repeat of the present situation. But it is not enough in the longer run. Democratic public ownership of financial institutions, in whole or part, with the ability of the people to prevent a repeat of the present practices will help even more. But in the long run, even that will not be enough. So long as there are huge corporations owning and controlling the use of huge amounts of capital for the purpose of maximizing their private profit, there will be economic crises and great disparities of wealth and many other social ills. Only the social ownership of these institutions and broad democratic planning for the welfare of the people can change that. And that will require a government run by the working class, the racially and nationally oppressed and all working people. That is U.S. socialism.

Winning the Fight
There have been tens of thousands at demonstrations at Wall Street, in Albany and elsewhere. Unions and various issue coalitions have been very active 1199 SEIU has done all of the above and is running TV ads. It has put out a mailer to hundreds of thousands of homes. The UFT and its allies have been campaigning against education cuts; TWU 100 has been campaigning around transit issues. The MTA hearings in each borough were packed with angry opponents for hours. The Working Families Party and many others are campaigning for the increase of taxes on those earning $250,000 and up. The movement needs to get even bigger and more united. We all need to stand together and reject all the cuts/regressive taxes.

There are many unions and community organizations here. If you’re a union member, work in your union’s campaign! Everyone can work with these community organizations for Fair Share Taxing!

Encourage your friends, relatives, neighbors, unions, community organizations, and religious organizations you are related to, to express themselves to the Mayor, the Governor, legislators and city council members!