Minneapolis, MN – Members of the Welfare Rights Committee (WRC) and supporters protested the 20th anniversary of the passage of the disastrous U.S. welfare reform law. On Aug. 22, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the right-wing welfare reform measure into law. Hillary Clinton supported it.

Angel Buechner, member of WRC, told the crowd, “Welfare ‘reform’ has been a catastrophe for Minnesota families. First and foremost it eliminated entitlements. Families are no longer guaranteed help if they are living in desperate poverty. Now it’s up to the ‘discrimination’ of individual states, and in some cases, counties.”

Buechner asked the crowd, “What do we want?” The people responded, “Repeal welfare reform!”

“Poor families in this country have been suffering,” Buechner continued. “Families are cut off of assistance after five years, even if they have no income. Family caps were instituted in many states, punishing children for being born. There were major cuts to food stamps that limited food assistance to three months in a three-year period. And in many states sanctions, drug tests and cuts to benefits for immigrants were put into practice.”

“Clinton, Clinton you must know, welfare deform has got to go!” chanted the crowd.

Loretta Van Pelt of WRC said, “The Clinton administration knew what they were doing when they signed this bill. They were not looking at protecting or helping the poor, they were looking at protecting the rich and politicians – encouraging an atmosphere that blames poor people for poverty rather than the causes of poverty in our communities.”

The crowd booed. The call and response came from the people, “One, two, three, four, we refuse to blame the poor. Five, six, seven, eight, stop the politics of hate!”

Darnella Wade, member WRC stated “TANF was reformed to be MN Family Investment Program but the state hasn’t invested in families since 1996. Our homes are struggling and our children are not making it. Politicians are doing nothing to end poverty.”

Deb Konechne, former WRC member and current AFSCME 34 member, talked proudly of history of WRC and the strong fight back that was able to stop some of the worse of MN’s welfare reform. After recalling the WRC’s 1996 seven-day hunger strike encampment before Clinton signed the bill, she added, “We are here in support of the great work WRC has done and continues to do. We are all on the same side, as people from the working class and as welfare recipients, together when we fight together and fight back, we can win and we will win.”

A statement from the Welfare Rights Committee noted, “WRC has been fighting, and sometimes winning, in forcing the state of Minnesota to stop some of the worst parts of Clinton’s welfare reform, like the family cap. But welfare reform overall is bad for children and families and must be undone. Until that happens, we will be fighting again at the state level for our bill to Give Aid to All in Need. The GAAIN bill would cover families who hit the time limit and also people who currently don’t qualify for any help at all.”

The statement continued, “While Hillary Clinton is out trying to appeal to women voters, she continues to ignore poor women and children. While she courts high-rolling donors and protects Wall Street tycoons, our families are suffering. The Welfare Rights Committee will continue to shine a light on this devastating law. And we demand that Hillary Clinton pledge to overturn welfare reform!”

#MinneapolisMN #PoorPeoplesMovements #MinnesotaWelfareRightsCommittee #HillaryClinton #WelfareReform

St. Paul, MN – Members of the Welfare Rights Committee and their supporters rallied March 8 at the opening day of the 2016 Minnesota legislative session. The protest coincided with International Women’s Day.

Angella Khan, a member of the Welfare Rights Committee (WRC), kicked off the rally, stating, “We are here today, to demand the politicians to pass our bills. People are still losing their jobs. People are homeless, living from couch to couch, living in the streets Families have reached their life time limit on welfare. They have absolutely nothing in terms of income. This is wrong!”

Khan led the chant, “What are here for?” As the crowd yelled back, “Pass the GAAIN!”

This session, the Welfare Rights Committee will push their bill to Give Aid to All in Need – the GAIIN bill (SF1426/HF 1533). The bill’s chief authors are Senator Chris Eaton and Representative Susan Allen.

WRC’s Darnella Wade, explained their bill, “The GAAIN bill expands the current state-funded General Assistance program by adding two more categories of who is eligible for GA funds: Families who have hit the five-year limit, and unemployed adults who have no income and who are looking for work.”

As statement from the WRC pointed out, “The current budget forecast shows over $900 million in surplus. We call on the legislature to use this money to help the poorest of the poor in this state. Under current law, many people who have literally no income do not qualify for any cash assistance at all. There is no program for childless people whose unemployment has run out. Families who hit the five-year time limit get nothing. Food Stamps (SNAP) benefits for adults looking for work are limited to three months in a three-year period. People are homeless, cashless and scrounging daily for food. This is unacceptable.”

Sara Martin, a member of Women Against Military Madness, spoke out in support of the GAAIN bill, “It is shameful and unacceptable so many of our lawmakers turn a blind eye to our sisters and brothers; that over half of the federal budget, $610 billion, goes to weapons and war. Because of this gross and immoral misappropriation of our hard earned tax dollars, the war abroad has become the war at home.”

Jess Sundin, of the Anti-War Committee said, “The Welfare Rights Committee has been the strongest voice the state has ever had to say no to the war on the poor. The government needs to take responsibility in helping everyone.” Sundin stated the Anti-War Committee supports the GAAIN legislation.

After the rally, the committee marched throughout the capitol complex chanting, “Hey politicians, we’re at your door! Stop the war on the poor.” They hand-delivered a message printed on over-sized dollar bills demanding passage of the GAAIN bill to every legislator’s office.

Khan ended the rally, stating, “We understand that we have big battle ahead of us. But we are sick seeing our communities suffer, so we will keep up the fight!”

To follow the campaign and to get involved, contact the group at 612-822-8020, on Facebook, at welfarerightsmn@yahoo.com or visit welfarerightsmn.com.

#StPaulMN #PeoplesStruggles #InternationalWomensDay #Minnesota #MinnesotaWelfareRightsCommittee

St. Paul, MN – Members of the Welfare Rights Committee were at the hearing held by the Legislative Working Group on Economic Disparities in Minnesota, Jan. 15, to press their demand that the politicians include the GAAIN (Give Aid to All in Need) bill – Senate File 1426 and House File 1533 – in the working group’s final recommendations.

The proposed GAAIN legislation would expand the number of people eligible for public assistance and raise the benefits.

“There is no question that poverty rates are highest in communities of color across the state of Minnesota, therefore there is a larger section of our people who have nothing. When you have nothing, you are shut out of almost everything,” said a statement from the Welfare Rights Committee.

The GAAIN legislation will be debated by politicians at the upcoming legislative session.

#MinneapolisMN #PoorPeoplesMovements #MinnesotaWelfareRightsCommittee

States setting time limits like this, and imposing other discriminatory hurdles for families to jump, was not allowed 20 years ago – but then President Bill Clinton gutted the welfare system. On Aug. 22, 1996, President Clinton signed federal welfare reform into law. This was not much of a surprise. When Clinton was running for the Democratic nomination, one of his platform planks on welfare was “two years and off.”

The main blow President Clinton dealt to the welfare system for poor families, or AFDC as it was known then, was to get rid of the entitlement status. The entitlement was based on income – if a family with children’s income fell below a certain level, that family was entitled to financial assistance, by federal law. Clinton’s welfare reform got rid of the entitlement, leaving help for poor families at the ‘discrimination’ of each state. He also put in a maximum time limit of 60 months (five years) over a life time that a family could get welfare, leaving it again, to the states discrimination if they wanted to have a shorter time limit, as Missouri recently chose to do.

We do not use the word ‘discrimination’ randomly. Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and countless other politicians blatantly and sneeringly use welfare as a codeword for Blacks, Latinos and other oppressed nationalities – boasting about cutting welfare is a wink to the ugly racist nature of U.S. politics. There are endless proposals to make welfare more humiliating – many of them could be called silly, if it weren’t for the racism implied in each one.

The U.S. has a brutal history in regard to oppressed nationalities and national minorities – African Americans, Chicanos and Latinos, Native Americans and Asian Americans. Systematic state violence, theft and repression have resulted in generations that had no chance to build up wealth that families can use to buffer the hard times. The criminal injustice system rips families apart, which furthers the economic abuse heaped on our communities.

Welfare was put into place in the U.S. because the working class fought for it. Before welfare, people literally starved to death. Welfare also provides a floor below which wages cannot fall. The system we live under now is set up so there will always be people who cannot get jobs. The left and progressive forces who led the fight for welfare in the 1930s were well aware of how the system was set up to always keep a pool of workers with nothing – a reserve army of the unemployed. That is why they fought for welfare and other entitlement programs, like Social Security.

Who needs to take up the fight now? Low income people have to. If we are not on welfare, we are the ones who are expected to take care of our families and the children when there is no welfare for them. Many of us are a paycheck away from needing help. Many of us, even though we have nothing, can’t get any help at all. This has to change. And we have to lead the battle.

We absolutely cannot rely on agencies that claim to “serve the poor” to fight for our families. It is not in their interest to see dollars go directly to the families in need. It is in these agencies’ interest to get dollars for themselves and whatever whacky program they think will “fix us.” But the quickest address poverty is to get money into the hands of poor families.

A persistent fight back can have results. This July, many families in the state of Minnesota will get a $110 per month increase in the cash welfare grant, thanks to the battle waged by Welfare Rights Committee. This is only a fraction of what low-income families in the Welfare Rights Committee (WRC) fought for, but it represents a turn of the tide. Two years ago, the WRC demanded that the grants be doubled, across the board for every family. The politicians only gave the $110 increase, delayed until this July. However, in the 2015 legislative session, many legislators and the governor openly supported giving more. Not a doubling of the grants, as the WRC is still demanding, but a substantial across the board increase.

People are homeless and suffering. This is not a time to ask for help. This is a time to demand our class gets what it deserves.

Linden Gawboy is a member of the Twin Cites-based Welfare Rights Committee

#MinneapolisMN #PoorPeoplesMovements #welfare #MinnesotaWelfareRightsCommittee #BillClinton

St. Paul, MN – As the politicians gather for the Minnesota special session, members of the Welfare Rights Committee confronted them with “Shame” signs. Despite indications earlier in the legislative session that welfare grants, known here as the Minnesota Family Investment Plan (MFIP), might be upped for the first time since 1986, anti-poor politicians from both political parties blocked the proposed increase. Members of the Welfare Rights Committee are vowing to continue the fight.

#StPaulMN #PoorPeoplesMovements #MinnesotaWelfareRightsCommittee

St Paul, MN – On April 30, members of the Welfare Rights Committee (WRC) gathered outside the House Chambers of the Minnesota state capitol to protest Governor Mark Dayton’s State of the State address. “It’s been 28 years without a grant increase and Governor Dayton refuses to help children and their families,” said the WRC’s Darnella Wade.

For the State of the State address, the whole legislature, Supreme Court, Secretary of State, Attorney General and former U.S. Vice-president Mondale attend. They all had to pass by the Welfare Rights Committee members holding signs of Governor Dayton’s face that read, “Shame on Dayton for ignoring 70,000 kids in extreme poverty.” They chanted, “70,000 kids! 70,000 kids!” and “The rich got bailed out, we got sold out!”

WRC members also displayed 28 tombstones to represent 28 years without a grant increase for MFIP (the state of Minnesota’s welfare program for poor children and their parents). The tombstones had slogans such as, “R.I.P. 28 years without an increase,” and “Rest in poverty.”

According to the Welfare Rights Committee’s statement: “Over the past decade, hundreds of millions of federal dollars targeted for Minnesota’s welfare have been raided by Minnesota politicians to supplant state spending and pay down the state’s deficits. Because of this theft, only 27% of the federal TANF dollars actually go to the Minnesota families receiving welfare. Meanwhile, MN welfare grants have not seen an increase for 28 years, while the cost of living has more than doubled.

“This year the state had a surplus. The governor and legislators had a chance to raise the welfare grants to help get 70,000 kids out of extreme poverty, but they refused. Instead they gave tax breaks, mostly to corporations and the well-to-do.”

The last to make a ceremonial entrance was Governor Dayton. WRC had a member stationed at the elevator, so he had to walk through the capitol and into the house chamber to the chants of “Dayton, Dayton! Shame on you!”

As the governor started his address, he got loud “boos” from WRC members. Their statement notes, “The governor tried to give a rosy picture of the state, but WRC was there to show that the ‘real state of the state’ is horrible for the poor and working families.”

#StPaulMN #PoorPeoplesMovements #welfare #lowincomeFamilies #GovernorDayton #MinnesotaWelfareRightsCommittee

St. Paul, MN – A bill to double the welfare grants moved closer to passage, March 4, when members of the Senate Health, Human Services, and Housing policy committee passed Senate File 165. The bill doubles the cash grants for people receiving public assistance through the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP).

Welfare cash grants have not gone up since 1986 – 27 years ago. Since 1986 the cost of living has more than doubled.

Angel Buechner of the Welfare Rights Committee told Senate Committee members, “In 1986, a family of two – a parent and a child – received $437 dollars per month in cash to live on. Today in 2013, an MFIP family of two still receives $437. This adds up to $5244 dollars a year. If calculated per day, this means two people receive $14.57 a day. Remember, this is the total amount of money to pay for rent, utility bills, phone, children’s school costs, transportation costs, clothes, hygiene, household supplies, laundry costs, additional food costs when food stamps run out, and for gas, insurance and car repairs if lucky enough to have a car – everything for the entire family.”

The money to increase the grants is available. Since 1997, after the federal welfare reform act, Minnesota has received at least $264 million per year in the federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) block grant. However, since 1997, millions have been diverted from TANF for other things. For example, in 2012, only 27% of the yearly federal TANF funds went to cash grants for Minnesota families in poverty. If the TANF money was used for TANF families, there would be enough money to nearly double the grants.

Urging support for the legislation, Linden Gawboy of the Welfare Rights Committee testified, “Especially in these tough economic times, welfare is a working person’s issue. When Unemployment Insurance runs out, parents are shocked to find out that they still don’t qualify for MFIP, because they are ‘not poor enough.’ In most cases, it is the unemployment insurance for poor families and those of us who have no choice but to work seasonal jobs and temporary jobs. When we don’t have enough work quarters to qualify for unemployment, welfare is the last stop to receive any type of help.”

Bernie Hess, of the United Food and Commercial Workers 789; Alexandra Fitzsimmons of the Children’s Defense Fund; Kris Jacobs of Jobs NOW; Sue Watlov Phillips of Integrated Community Solutions, and WRC members Ebony Harris and Lena Buggs also testified in support of doubling the welfare grants.

Since July, the Welfare Rights Committee has been organizing for a bill to increase welfare grants in Minnesota. Hundreds of people have sent multiple postcards to the governor and legislators calling for increasing the grants. Dozens of organizations have signed on to support the cause. Several MN legislators declare that they will participate in the ‘$437 Challenge’ – attempting to live on what an MFIP family has to live on – for at least a week.

For more information, and to sign on to the campaign to increase the welfare grants, go to WelfareRightsMN.com.

#StPaulMN #welfare #MinnesotaWelfareRightsCommittee #MinnesotaFamilyInvestmentProgram

St Paul, MN – Minnesota’s Governor Mark Dayton got an earful from members of the Welfare Rights Committee, Feb. 6, when he entered the House chambers in the Capitol building to deliver his State of the State address.

Members of the Welfare Rights Committee (WRC) told Dayton that this is the year to raise the grants for people on public assistance. Dayton did not include a grant increase in his budget proposal. The grants have not gone up since 1986.

The WRC legislation to double the welfare grants will be introduced this week.

#StPaulMinnesota #StPaulMN #PoorPeoplesMovements #MarkDayton #MinnesotaWelfareRightsCommittee