En un día cuando mucha gente se quedó en casa debido al clima, un autobús lleno de personas de bajos recursos, vino desde la ciudad porteña en el lago Superior de Duluth. Ellos viajaron más de 120 millas para participar.

“¡Estamos aquí el día de hoy, frente al capitolio para decirles a todos aquellos políticos sin corazones que hay que deshacer cada recorte al pueblo pobre y trabajador! ¡Estamos aquí para decirles que queremos que paguen los ricos!” proclamó Darnella Wade del Comité para los Derechos a la Asistencia Pública.

Hablando de los recortes de la asistencia pública que hizo el gobernador Pawlenty el año pasado, Wade seguía su crítica; “¡En vez de cobrarles los impuestos a los ricos, Pawlenty y los políticos cortaron más de $2 mil milliones dólares de los programas de servicio social y de salud. En vez de cobrarles los impuestos a los ricos, dejaron a miles de niños sin hogar, incrementando además el hambre y la pobreza. En vez de cobrarles más impuestos a los ricos, cortaron trabajos, congelaron los sueldos, y eliminaron el seguro médico. En vez de cobrarles impuestos a los ricos, los políticos dejaron a toda Minnesota en camino a un desastre devastador, en el que los menos capaces de poder pagar son los que más tienen que pagar!”

El año pasado los políticos eligieron ajustar el presupuesto a costa de los pobres y la gente trabajadora. En los próximos meses el Comité para los Derechos a la Asistencia Pública estará luchando no solamente para deshacer los recortes de $125 a las familias con un miembro que reciben los beneficios del seguro social, y para deshacer el recorte de $50 a las familias que viven en viviendas subsidiadas, sino también para revocar el uso máximo de una sola familia, y revertir los recortes a los programas de asistencia médica y a las guaderías.

El Comité para los Derechos a la Asistencia Pública también luchará en contra de un programa de asistencia pública al estilo Wisconsin (llamado en inglés the Diversionary Work Program –DWP), el cual es un programa que obliga a sus recipientes a trabajar por sueldos bajísimos. El estado de Wisconsin ha llevado a cabo uno de los ataques más extremos a la asistencia pública. Debido a esto, Bush nombró al gobernador de Wisconsin, Tommy Thompson, miembro de su gabinete, para que dirija los programs federales de asistencia pública. “Para nosotros la DWP, sólo significa, morir en la pobreza,” dice una proclamación del Comité para los Derechos a la Asistencia Pública.

Este año, el Comité para los Derechos a la Asistencia Pública propone una ley, SF1991, esta ley revertiría los recortes hechos a la asistencia pública y cerraría los distintos recursos legales que los negocios utilizan para evitar pagar su impuestos. El comité está muy emocionado con la idea de sacar a la luz pública el contraste entre los ricos y las grandes corporaciones, quienes en realidad roban los recursos del estado, y la gente pobre, la cual ha sufrido recortes severos en los últimos años.

Entre aplausos y gritos, Kim Hosmer les dijo a los manifestantes: “Está claro que el gobernador Pawlenty y su régimen de derechistas y racistas están intentando que nuestro estado llegue a ser un parque de diversiones para los ricos. Quieren que este sea un estado en el que manden los hombres blancos y ricos mientras los demás nos vemos obligados a trabajar y recibir sueldos bajísimos, a vivir en viviendas que no cumplen con los requisitos de una vivienda digna, a vivir sin tener aceso a los servicios de salud o nos exponemos a que nos echen a la calle. En sus mentes, la gente pobre y trabajadora solo existe para hacerles más ricos. Estamos aquí para decir: ¡Sólo en tus sueños Pawlenty!”

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Minneapolis, MN – Minnesota's poor are going on the offensive against budget cuts and welfare cut-offs. Faced with a $4 billion budget shortfall, politicians want to balance the budget on the backs of poor and working people. Organizers of the Minneapolis-St. Paul based Welfare Rights Committee have announced plans for hard hitting demonstrations under the slogans, ‘No cuts to poor and working people. Stop the welfare cut-offs,” and ‘Make the rich pay for the crisis.'

“Why should the rich gain and poor people feel the pain?” said Deb Howze of the Welfare Rights Committee.

Budget Crisis

Politicians from both political parties are pushing the idea that everyone needs to sacrifice because of the economic crisis. Newly elected Governor Pawlenty and republican legislators are trying to create a political climate where social services are placed on the chopping block.

Last year, House republicans tried balance the budget by eliminating General Assistance and General Assistance Medical Care – the only programs available to poor individuals who are unable to work – and to eliminate Emergency Assistance to poor families and people in crisis. Those attacks were defeated.

Over the past decade, Minnesota politicians have systematically lowered taxes for the rich and their corporations. This set the stage to allow the current economic downturn to turn a large budget surplus into one of the largest state budget deficits ever.

A Welfare Rights Committee statement makes the case: “Minnesota gave out the largest tax cuts in the entire United States for three of the last five years. 53% of Minnesota's budget surplus went to tax rebates and permanent tax cuts. This adds up to about $9.5 billion dollars of the Minnesota surplus that was squandered for tax cuts and rebates in the last four years. We all know that these cuts and rebates go disproportionately to the rich. Money going into the pockets of the rich contributed to the budget deficit we are facing today. Now it is their turn to pay.”

During the time of state surplus, health and human services got almost nothing. Because lawmakers stole federal welfare dollars from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant to replace state spending, the Department of Health and Human Services was the only department that actually contributed to the surplus.

Rich Must Pay

“Those with the most ability to pay should pay for the budget crisis,” said Trishalla Bell of the Welfare Rights Committee. “They should cut from the corporate welfare, not from the human services that serve our families.”

WRC's Kim Hosmer slammed the idea that rich and poor alike should sacrifice. “It's a whole different thing for someone who has enough money to play the stock market and who can afford to lose on the stock market than it is for those of us who barely have enough money to pay rent and keep food on the table!”

The failure of the Minnesota legislature to deal with time limits on welfare has created a crisis of huge proportions. Nearly 2000 children have been cut off of welfare and are facing homelessness because of the time limit.

The Welfare Rights Committee is pushing legislation that would stop the welfare cut-offs. A major demonstration will coincide with the opening of the legislature. Poor people from around the state will lay siege to the hearings where the budget cuts are debated.

Gillie Townsend states that Minnesota's low-income community will “let the politicians know that this is a crisis for poor people. The politicians are making the rich richer every day and making the poor poorer!”

“The more we stand up for our rights, the more we are heard. People make power,” says WRC member, Jamila Vance.

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St. Paul, MN – A team of Welfare Rights Committee members marched up with the ladder and put it against the iron gate of the Minnesota governor’s mansion, Sept. 24. Deb Konechne of the WRC climbed to the top. Surrounding her were dozens of angry women chanting “Hey Pawlenty, come out today! We have bills that you must pay!”

Eventually, glaring state troopers gave up, standing by helplessly while members of the crowd came up to the fence one after the other and presented household bills, denials of medical coverage, utility shut-offs and eviction notices. After giving short, impassioned speeches about each bill, the people reached through the fence and put the items in the ‘mailbox’ that Konechne had dropped over the fence onto the governor’s walkway. Amid chants of “Make Pawlenty pay,” the protest ended with the troopers carrying the mailbox into the mansion, for delivery to the Governor.

Biggest cuts in history

The protest by the Minneapolis-St. Paul-based Welfare Rights Committee was against the biggest cuts to the Minnesota’s safety net in history. A statement from the WRC summarizes the worst cuts: “On July 1, the cuts took $125 per month per disabled person from the rest of the family’s welfare grant. This is outright stealing from disabled families and children! On Sept. 1, most of us who are in subsidized housing saw our already-too-small grants slashed by $50 per month. In the future, we looking down the barrel of 100% sanctions for supposed ‘non-compliance’ with welfare rules and a ‘family cap’ that steals from innocent babies.” Besides the cuts to cash welfare, many day care providers had their income cut in half. Over 30,000 Minnesotans lost health care.

Behind the Attack

The cuts were the result of Minnesota politicians making the decision to balance the state’s budget by cutting services and programs for poor and working people, instead of increasing taxes on the wealthy. According to Konechne, “Minnesota legislators stole money from poor families, in the name of ‘balancing the budget.’ While these cuts are having a devastating effect on our families, the sickening reality is the grant cuts to our families didn’t have that much of an impact on the whole state budget. The politicians did it just to be cruel; just to make families on welfare suffer. They have wanted to get rid of welfare for years.”

Yolanda Moore, one of many affected by the cuts, states “The poor get poorer and the rich get richer. If my rent goes up, I might wind up living with Pawlenty. We can’t give our kids a good education and all if we gotta worry about how they’re gonna eat or where I’m gonna get their clothes for the winter. I would like for him to try my living for two years. He needs to just stop it.”

Welfare programs were started during the economic crisis of the 1930s, in response to a near revolt of poor unemployed working people. Today’s economic crisis is showing the need a survival safety net again. For all its problems, the welfare program’s cash grants provide a ‘floor’ below which workers’ wages cannot fall. “Without this, the employers would be paying us around $2 per day, like in other countries,” said WRC’s Trishalla Bell. “Its part of the whole globalization thing.” It is no coincidence that one of first ‘re-structuring’ demands of the IMF to debtor countries is to get rid of social safety nets – from unemployment insurance, to healthcare, to education, to public water systems and on and on.

Minnesota is a racist state. For years, politicians have used welfare as a codeword for ‘Black’, and presented welfare cuts as a way to attack people of color, even though, up until recently, most welfare recipients in MN were white.

WRC’s Deb Howze explains the situation this way; “We all know welfare was not originally for people of color,” referring to how Black parents were shut out of the program at the beginning. But now, “Politicians say, ‘those lazy black people are on welfare; they’re taking our money. We’re not going to take care of them with our tax dollars.’”

Howze continued, “What about white America who uses the government tax dollars? No one is screaming about that. Why? Because it’s the rich who are collecting tax dollars and running with it – that’s the real welfare in this country.”

Recent revelations about Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty’s shady financial dealings are a snapshot of the bizarre world the rich inhabit. For over a year, he collected $4500 per month from a fellow republican, but he cannot show what he did to earn his $60,000. Welfare Rights’ Angel Buechner declared, “A man who casually pockets $4500 in one month then has the nerve to slash away at the survival income of poor families who are forced to stretch that amount for 10 months. That is unbelievable.”

WRC’s Birgid Machenik noted, “The rich people want the money for themselves. They are very wrong, they are very selfish – they have it all already and yet they want even more, they are very greedy.”

Organizing

This year, the Welfare Rights Committee has gathered thousands signatures from welfare recipients and other low-income people. Almost every day, WRC members stand outside the doors of the county welfare offices, talking to people, passing out information, letting people know about upcoming protests and signing people up to participate in the battle. Besides having small teams doing outreach, WRC held group leafleting days, complete with signs, bullhorn and speeches.

One of the things that comes with the territory of organizing in the low-income community, and that is more intense this year, is people losing their phones and their housing. “A lot of phones are disconnected pretty fast. Addresses change all the time. But we’ve been at this for over twelve years, and we connect back with folks eventually. For the people we can reach, we keep calling and inviting them, because we know that our lives are pretty hectic right now just trying to survive. We never give up,” said Kim DeFranco.

According to Deb Howze, “The southern Blacks back in the day had to organize – starting with the students, trade unions, churches and agricultural workers forming a united front to help organize people to come together for one cause, to help improve their educations, for the right to vote and to stop the killing of the black people by whites who at the time was lynching people. Just like then, it’s the same now but in a different way. We, the Blacks of America, can’t afford to relax, letting things go by as if nothing is going on. The welfare all around America is showing that the effects of its cuts are cutting people into pieces – and now the people of color are crying out for help. I can go on and on about the struggles of our community and how women are under the attack in this unjust world of ours – the question is the same. We must build and educate the people for the movement. Until then, we will continue to be under attack and poor – and time has proven that.”

Allison Smith, a new member said, “Hopefully we can all still keep doing it, no matter what. No matter how they try to break us down, we can still stay together, because somebody’s got to say something, somebody’s got to be the voice. So many people, they don’t, they can’t or they won’t. So somebody’s got to do it. I hope I can keep being one of those somebodies.”

Taking Action

The Welfare Rights Committee believes in taking action. According Allison Smith, “This is the first time I’ve ran across anybody that actually did something besides just sit around and talk. It’s the perfect place to be if you’re tired of just complaining or hearing other people complaining. Actions are great, I like engaging with other people and getting our issues out there so people can hear it.”

Next Steps

The summer and fall organizing is getting the Welfare Rights Committee in gear for what promises to be a busy legislative session in 2004. WRC is now laying plans to undo the cuts. “We’ve said it for years,” said WRC’s Kim Hosmer, “just because it’s law doesn’t make it right.” WRC believes that when laws make people homeless, hungry and desperate, they have to be struck down.

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St. Paul, MN – Members of the Welfare Rights Committee at the governor’s mansion mock Minnesota’s Governor Pawlenty – who is portrayed as a king serving a holiday meal of budget cuts to the poor.

The WRC has announced plans to challenge the cuts to programs for the poor, which were pushed through during the last legislative session. The Committee will also promote legislation to close corporate tax loopholes and tax the rich.

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On a day when a lot of folks were staying home, a busload of poor people from the Lake Superior port city of Duluth traveled more than 120 miles to participate.

“We are here today, on these cold Capitol steps to tell all these cold-hearted politicians that they must undo every cut to poor and working people! We are here to say, make the rich pay!” proclaimed Darnella Wade of the Welfare Rights Committee

Indicting Minnesota's Governor Pawlenty for last years cuts to welfare, Wade continued; “Instead of taxing the rich, Pawlenty and politicians cut over $2 billion dollars from the Health and Human Services programs. Instead of taxing the rich, they pushed tens of thousands of Minnesota children into homelessness, hunger or deeper poverty. Instead of taxing the rich, they cut jobs, carried out wage freezes and cut health care Instead of taxing the rich, politicians set Minnesota on a path of devastating destruction, where those of us with the least are forced to pay the most!”

Last year politicians opted to balance the budget on the backs of poor and working people. Over the coming months the Welfare Rights Committee will be fighting to undo the $125 cut to families with a member on SSI, to undo the $50 cut to families in subsidized housing, repeal the family cap, and to reverse the cuts to health care and childcare.

The Welfare Rights Committee will also be fighting a Wisconsin-style welfare program, the Diversionary Work Program – DWP. Wisconsin carried out some the country's most extreme attacks on welfare. As a result, Bush appointed Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson to his cabinet, making him responsible for federal welfare programs. “To us, DWP, means Die Within Poverty,” says a Welfare Rights Committee statement.

Legislation that links undoing the welfare cuts directly with closing corporate tax loopholes will be introduced. The Welfare Rights Committee was instrumental in getting the bill to the drafting table.

Amidst applause and chants, Kim Hosmer told the opening day rally, “It is clear that Governor Pawlenty and his right-wing racist regime are trying to turn our state into a playground for the rich elite. They want this to be a state where the rich white man rules and the rest of us are forced to work for dirt wages, to live in substandard housing, to have no access to health care or to be kicked into the street. In their minds, poor and working people exist only to make them richer! We are here to say: Only in your dreams Pawlenty.”

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St. Paul, MN – “Fund human needs, not corporate greed! What side do you stand on?” said Angel Buechner of the Welfare Rights Committee at a press conference in front of Governor Pawlenty’s office at their March 15 People’s Lobby Day. This has been the battle cry of the WRC and their supporters since the 2004 Minnesota legislative session began in February. A clear line of demarcation has been drawn between the greed of the tax-evading corporations and the state’s poor and working families.

Buechner continued, “These right-wing Republicans are trying to bleed us even more. It is clear to us that Governor Pawlenty and his band of thieves at the capitol are carrying out outright robbery of Minnesota.”

Last year, over $2 billion of the $4 billion state budget deficit was made up for from the Health and Human Services budget. House of Representatives Republicans and Governor Pawlenty carried out the largest cuts to welfare in the state’s history and cut health care benefits to tens of thousands of Minnesotans.

Now they want to cut even more from health and human services.

“It seems that every time there is a budget shortfall, the first place Pawlenty goes to get money is from the children, from the poor, from those with serious illness, from people with disabilities and from the elderly! Does this man have no shame?” asked Trishalla Bell, Minneapolis member of WRC. “Since Pawlenty took office, homelessness, hunger, poverty and suffering have skyrocketed in this state.”

This year, the Welfare Rights Committee seized the opportunity to undo some of the worst damage done last session. They got two high-ranking Democrat Senators, Linda Berglin and Larry Pogemiller, to sponsor Senate Files 1991 and 1992. The bills get money to undo the cuts from two places – using an unexpected $13 million welfare bonus from the federal government and by closing corporate tax loopholes.

The largest corporate tax loophole addressed is one where Minnesota corporations get out of paying Minnesota taxes because they claim to be operating from out of state or out of the country – costing the state $54 million per year.

“Enough is enough! We are sick and tired of politicians who steal from the poor in order to protect tax breaks for the rich. We are sick and tired of a heartless, cruel governor attacking those of us with the least! Instead of cutting from our needed health care and services, Pawlenty and company should tax the rich. We say undo the cuts to poor and working Minnesotans! Make those with the most ability to pay, pay the most,” demands WRC member Tracey Furney of Crystal, MN.

“Minnesota corporations are getting out of paying millions of dollars while families in Minnesota are being asked to suffer even more. These corporations with sham ‘foreign operating’ status are costing the state tens of millions in tax dollars every year – this money should be used for the real needs of the people of Minnesota,” states Linden Gawboy of the WRC. “The bill also gets rid of a way for the wealthy to sneak out of paying taxes by claiming to live out of state.”

Undoing the Cuts

Senate File 1991 and its House companion bill 2108 will undo cuts in three areas. In MFIP (Minnesota’s welfare program for families with children), it repeals a $125 per month cut imposed on families who have a disabled family member on SSI living with them. The MFIP monthly grant is cut $125 per month for each disabled person in the household. The bill also repeals a $50 per month MFIP grant cut to families in subsidized housing.

Second, the bill will repeal a law passed last year that puts liens on the farms, businesses and homes of elderly people who become seriously ill and need to use Medical Assistance or want to use home services to stay out of nursing homes. The liens mean that the state could seize their property to ‘pay back’ the state, even though these elders have been paying taxes all their life.

Third, the bill undoes a massive fee increase imposed last year on families who need services for kids with severe disabilities.

“When politicians say that there just isn’t enough money to meet the needs of Minnesota children, elderly and poor, or that there just isn’t enough money to continue health care and give cost of living raises for the workers of Minnesota, don’t believe the hype. There is plenty of money to go around, if they just decide that poor and working Minnesotans are worth as much as the rich and wealthy corporations in this state,” says WRC’s Deb Konechne of St. Paul.

The Welfare Rights Committee’s bills passed the full Senate on April 7. It is now part of a package that will be put up against the House and governor’s proposals. As Fight Back! goes to press, the WRC is preparing for a big April 15 protest to demand that lawmakers undo the cuts and tax the rich.

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Minneapolis, MN – Minnesota state politicians were forced into a corner this spring. This year, the Welfare Rights Committee presented them with a choice: to fund human needs, or not. To stop greedy corporations stealing from the state, or not. The bill that presented those choices was one of main reasons that the entire state legislature shut down on May 19, without getting anything done.

The Welfare Rights Committee (WRC) went into the 2004 state legislative session determined to undo the worst welfare grant cuts in Minnesota history. These cuts to families’ basic survival income were part of politicians’ plan to steal money from the poor, in the name of ‘solving’ last year’s budget deficit. One of the harshest cuts was where legislators stole $125 per month from the welfare grants in cases where there was a disability in the family. If there were two disabled people in the family, the cut was $250 per month; three disabled people, the cut was $375 per month and so on. Some families were left with no cash grant. This is just one of dozens of cuts that poor and working families have been dealing with.

WRC members met with state Senator Linda Berglin, chair of the Senate Health, Human Services and Corrections Budget Division to get a commitment to undoing the cuts. However, to undo the $125 cut alone, Welfare Rights had to find $16 million per year in the state budget. To undo all of the cuts would require even more money. It was time to tax the rich. The women of the WRC met with Senate Tax Chair Larry Pogemiller and, after some pressure, got a list of ways that the Minnesota corporations were robbing the state. The final result was a bill (SF1991) that undid the some of the worst cuts to health care and welfare. The bill paid for itself by closing corporate tax loopholes – loopholes that were robbing the state of $52 million per year.

The WRC organized protests, press conferences and other actions throughout the legislative session. They produced a TV commercial slamming the governor and House Republicans, which aired throughout the state near the end of the session in May. The slogan from the beginning was, “Fund human need, not corporate greed.” The goal was to keep front and center the fact that poor families were suffering from terrible cuts, brought on because the state said it ‘needed’ to take our money. At the same time, the rich owners of greedy corporations were openly stealing money from the state by cheating on their taxes. And there was a bill to fix both problems. The WRC insisted that the Senate Democrats keep hammering on this point as well.

The message was strong, clear and just, and it drove the Republicans and the Governor nuts. They refused to debate the issues in public, knowing that they would expose themselves for the monsters that they were. They tried to make the session all about queer-bashing, instead of talking about their buddies stealing money. Because of that refusal, the state legislature adjourned without passing a budget-balancing bill, bonding bills or other important legislation.

Last year, the Senate Democrats sold out poor and working Minnesotans, and faced our wrath and disgust. So far this year, the Democrats have been holding to undoing the cuts and taxing the rich. The governor could still call a special session this summer, and these issues could be decided. If a special session is called, the Welfare Rights Committee will be there.

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Saint Paul, MN – Low-income Minnesotans waged a powerful battle at the Minnesota state legislature this year that resulted in poor and working families making gains in healthcare and welfare. Organized by the Twin Cities-based Welfare Rights Committee, a movement of poor people kept up the heat from Jan. 4 – the opening day of the legislative session – through a government shut down and right up until the closing day, July 13.

Once again rich Minnesotans used their political influence to escape more taxes and shifted the burden of meeting the budget onto the backs of working people.

Under the Pawlenty governorship, poor Minnesota families have suffered three years of attacks from the right wing. Since 2003, Governor Pawlenty and Republicans in the House of Representatives spearheaded the largest welfare cuts in state history and massive cuts to healthcare and services for poor and working Minnesotans. The Welfare Rights Committee and its allies led the fightback to undo these devastating cuts. For the past three years, the Welfare Rights Committee has insisted politicians, “Stop all cuts to poor and working Minnesotans,” and that government should, “Tax the rich!”

“The Welfare Rights Committee pushed senators and representatives to sponsor legislation that closed corporate tax loopholes and used the money to undo some of the most disastrous cuts forced through by Pawlenty and Republicans,” explained Trishalla Bell of the Welfare Rights Committee.

Bell continued, “For two consecutive years, the ‘fund human need, not corporate greed’ bill passed through the entire Senate and forced the debate about who should pay for the state deficit. In addition, in this legislative session, Senate Democrats passed a tax bill to raise the income taxes on the wealthiest Minnesotans. This is the position called for by the Welfare Rights Committee for the past three years. We had protests every tax day demanding they tax the rich and hung our massive huge banner in the rotunda while this was under debate.”

The 2005 legislative session resulted in significant restoration of some of the Pawlenty-Republican cuts of 2003. In addition, poor families fought back against more devastating cuts to welfare offered up by the House Republicans, with success.

“Poor and working Minnesotans won huge victories in healthcare and welfare,” stated WRC member Angel Buechner. “MNCare, the healthcare for low income working Minnesotans was preserved. The Republican plan to increase the MFIP [welfare for families] housing penalty fourfold was defeated. In MNCare, we saw the repeal of the life threatening $5000 cap. A terrible cut in monthly MFIP grants to families coping with disabilities was lessened. Co-pays for low-income families’ childcare will go down. The $500 cap on dental services for MNCare and Medical Assistance will be gone.”

“Beating back the right-wing attack is extremely significant in the current poor-bashing, reactionary climate we are in. However, our demand to make the rich pay for the budget deficit did not happen,” stated Kim DeFranco of WRC. “Minnesotans who will end up paying for these give-backs in healthcare, childcare, welfare and education will continue to be poor and working Minnesotans. The 75-cent cigarette tax and increased property taxes hit low-income Minnesotans the most.”

Meanwhile, corporations that are using a tax loophole to get out of paying Minnesota taxes by claiming to be ‘foreign operating’ will continue to cost the state of Minnesota over a hundred million dollars a year. Hutchinson Technologies is already lined up with a $200 million lawsuit to get money back from Minnesota for taxes paid that could fit within the loophole.

“The richest Minnesotans, who got massive tax breaks over the past few years – and who will continue to get these cuts under the 2005 budget – did not see one dime taken from their overflowing coffers,” said WRC’s Kim Hosmer.

“Undoing any cuts in this current right-wing climate is a huge victory, but it is still not enough,” Hosmer continued. “The battle to gain back services, healthcare and survival assistance for poor and working Minnesotans has just begun. The lines have been drawn for Pawlenty and his right-wing regime.”

WRC’s Linden Gawboy said, “We made sure to be at the capitol every time our issues came up. We don’t have money to buy off these politicians – we have to be there to make sure they don’t conveniently ‘forget’ about our issues. We force them to walk their marbled halls past women and children holding signs telling them what needed to be done. We protested, testified, dogged their meetings and met with some real slimy jerks. I hope we gave some of them nightmares for what they have been doing to people in this state.”

Tracy Furney added, “The Welfare Rights Committee is energized by our victory and ready for the next battle to undo every dime of cuts to poor and working Minnesotans. We have turned the corner in our fightback against the right wing, but this is still just the beginning. We are ready and willing to take on the richest in this state and the politicians who do their bidding.”

“Our demands remain the same,” stated Gillie Townsend of WRC, “We demand that the state close corporate tax loopholes, undo the permanent tax cuts and increase taxes on the rich. We demand that every cut to poor and working Minnesotans be undone. Hey politicians, here’s the fix! Tax the rich, tax the rich!”

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“The only people who have fared well under Pawlenty are the rich. What have the rich seen under Pawlenty’s rule? The rich have seen more and more and more money in their pockets, billions of dollars in permanent tax breaks, corporate tax loopholes that save them hundreds of millions a year. Under Pawlenty, the rich have seen their riches grow and grow, while the rest of us have seen our lives destroyed,” said MNWRC’s Virginia Weldon.

Despite the rain, protesters chanted, “Minnesota’s poor can’t take four more!” as they forced dozens of soggy signs on the beleaguered guards behind the fence. Some of the signs included enlarged copies of actual eviction summons the women had received, complete with sheriff’s seals.

Sandee Heywood, a woman on oxygen, stepped away from her walker and delivered a five-foot eviction notice (created from a papered-over 2002 Pawlenty campaign sign) over the top of the gate to the mansion’s guards.

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Minneapolis, MN – The held a protest outside the Hennepin county welfare office, June 8. At the protest, signatures were gathered and attached to a ball and chain, symbolic of the slave labor/workfare programs being pushed by Governor Pawlenty.

A statement from the Welfare Rights Committee noted, “Workfare forces poor mothers and fathers to work for free in order to get the welfare grant. This legislative session there was a clear call from the people, from labor unions and from the legislature to outlaw workfare in the state of Minnesota. After his weeks of lambasting legislators for weakening work requirements, it was the hypocrite Pawlenty who eliminated the only real options to help poor parents get and keep real work. Furthermore, he deliberately set Minnesota on a fast track to force impoverished mothers and fathers into unpaid labor.”

At the protest, Angella Khan of the Welfare Rights Committee spoke: “Governor Pawlenty’s initial proposal for welfare in Minnesota, had it passed, would have mandated that everyone on welfare be forced immediately into ‘workfare’ or working for free in order to receive the welfare grant. When he did not get his way, he specifically targeted for veto the proposals that would have assisted poor parents in getting and keeping paid work and that would have held off slave labor.”

Tracy Furney, also of the Welfare Rights Committee said, “If there is a job to be done, make it into a real job with a real wage. Workfare takes jobs away from other workers – who then have to join us at the welfare line. These companies that are pimping off poor people have enough money to pay a living wage, and should not be getting a pass for our free work. Workfare is slave labor and must be stopped dead in its tracks.”

The Welfare Rights Committee will contine the battle against workfare throughout the summer.

#MinneapolisMN #PoorPeoplesMovements #News #WelfareRightsCommittee #Pawlenty

St. Paul, MN – Members of the Twin Cities based Welfare Rights Committee picketed at the governors mansion, Nov. 20 to, “put Governor Pawlenty on notice that, in the 2008 legislative session, we will fight his every attempt to take poor families’ money.” The protest had a Thanksgiving theme. A huge banner reading, “Hey Pawlenty! Stop gobbling up poor people’s money!” was fastened to the mansion’s wrought iron fence.

Minnesota faces a $373 million deficit and the governor is already talking about stealing welfare monies to balance the budget.

A statement from the Welfare Rights Committee noted, “For many of the politicians, other so-called ‘priorities’ like wars, stadiums or political maneuverings take precedence over the needs low income Minnesotans.”

The growing U.S.-wide economic downturn has pushed state government into a budget crisis. During past budget shortfalls, politicians have attempted to push the burden of the crisis onto the backs of poor and working people. The Welfare Rights Committee has answered these attacks with demands and with legislative proposals to make the rich pay for the crisis and with resistance to all budget cuts to programs that serve low income people.

#StPaulMN #CapitalismAndEconomy #PoorPeoplesMovements #News #WelfareRightsCommittee #Pawlenty

Minneapolis, MN – More than 150 clerical workers at the University of Minnesota protested Governor Tim Pawlenty when he came to campus on Feb. 28. Pawlenty had the nerve to show his face on campus just a week after he proposed to cut the University’s budget by $185 million. He was also pushing a wage freeze for University workers and yet another large tuition increase for students, who have already suffered two years in a row of 13% tuition increases.

The protest against Pawlenty was organized by American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3800, which represents 1,800 clerical workers on campus. Local 3800 member Kelly Ryan said, “I can’t believe that the new university president Bruininks actually invited Governor Pawlenty to campus a week after he said he wants to decimate the U’s budget. We’re here today to defend public education and public services in the state of Minnesota.”

Local 3800 president Phyllis Walker said, “Somebody has to stand up to the governor. The democrats in the legislature are cowering and nobody is saying the obvious – the only way to address the so-called budget crisis is to tax the rich and the large corporations.” Research by the Minnesota Citizens for Tax Justice has shown that the huge tax giveaways for the rich and corporations are the cause of the budget deficit.

According to Wayne Cox, executive director of MN Citizens for Tax Justice, simply changing the tax code back to how it was in 1998 – reversing the tax giveaways to corporations passed in the late 1990’s – would eliminate the $4.5 billion deficit entirely. Cox writes: “In the last five years, the Legislature has enacted billions of dollars in permanent tax cuts while assuming some $2 billion of costs associated with reducing local property taxes. These decisions were premised on huge budget surpluses that never materialized. The state cannot afford to give back money that it is no longer receiving.”

In fact, the ‘crisis’ was the predictable result of huge tax giveaways to big corporations and the rich, followed by the current recession. Now that there is less money coming in to the state, those same corporations and the rich say they have to cut money from programs that benefit working and poor people.

The protest against Pawlenty was also attended by some student anti-war activists, who carried signs that said “Money for education not for war!” One student protester, Erika Zurawski, said, “While the governor and his buddies in the White House say we have to cut education to balance the budget, they have endless billions of dollars to bomb innocent people in Iraq.”

Governor Pawlenty was elected in 2002 with only 25% of the vote in a 3-way election. He does not have a mandate or majority support for the brutal chopping he is trying to do. Pawlenty refuses to raise state taxes to balance the budget, but his cuts to state services will put the burden on cities and counties, which will be forced to raise taxes on the city and county level.

The clerical workers’ protest against Pawlenty was an opening shot in a growing fightback against the agenda of privatization of public services and slashing of the social safety net. As the size of the attack starts to sink in, more and more organizations are speaking out and joining the struggle to stop the cuts and stop Pawlenty’s and other politicians’ whole backward agenda in its tracks.

#MinneapolisMN #News #BudgetCuts #AFSCMELocal3800 #Pawlenty