BALTIMORE
Big bankers impose big cutbacks
By Sharon Black
Ceci
Baltimore
City workers and community activists are deeply alarmed by
a recent plan formulated by the Greater Baltimore Committee.
This committee is Baltimore's shadow government. Composed of
big business and bankers, it makes the proposals that city
government implements.
While the vast majority of the city is poor and working
people--mostly African American and with a growing number of
Latin and Asian people--this body hardly represents its
interests. The committee is made up of representatives from
BankAmerica, Crestar Bank, Advance Bank, Provident
Bancshares, Warren & Company and the Abell
Foundation.
It is this committee that the mayor looks to for policy.
The recent proposals--modeled on the attacks unleashed on New
York's workers and poor people--were announced by Mayor
Martin O'Malley and the Sun newspapers.
The plans are Draconian and have long range consequences
to both the community and the workers who will be
impacted.
Cuts and privatization
Fire departments are to be shut down under the plan. Fees
for emergency services such as ambulance rides are to be
doubled. All ambulance service will be privatized.
The committee recommended cuts in vacation and benefits to
Emergency Medical Service workers who are already badly
overworked. The committee stated, "The union contract
provides for too much vacation and too many holidays." Their
proposal is to eliminate night-shift differentials and reduce
sick leave.
The committee has proposed sweeping changes in the Health
Department, calling for full-scale privatization and
contracting out of all services. They want to combine the
Mental Health and Substance Abuse systems. They want to
increase the work done by food and air quality inspectors who
cannot keep up now with the rate of inspections.
The city administration has already implemented plans to
turn off water to those who cannot afford their bills. This
is after raising the cost of water. The shadow government has
proposed cutting trash collection to one day a week.
Nothing remains untouched in this report. From housing to
recreation centers, everything is on the chopping block.
City workers have already mobilized, understanding that
the program will have dire consequences for them. At the City
Council's second hearing on the plan in September, over 500
workers rallied in opposition. The protest was organized by
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council
67. The All-Peoples Congress, a city-wide community group
that has been rallying against police killings, has also
protested.
Lessons to be learned
The recent announcements of cuts shows how deeply the
struggle against racism and workers' rights are linked.
A cursory look at Baltimore's recent history illustrates
this correlation.
The mayoral election is one example. O'Malley, who is
white, was the candidate of big business and the product of
racism. His election was an overturn of the right of the
African American community to representation. While none of
the candidates had a real peoples' program, the election must
be viewed in the context of a growing, backward movement to
disenfranchise the Black community.
During the recent mayoral election, the Sun
newspapers--which are the voice of big business--conducted a
sophisticated campaign that was racist at its core. The
newspapers printed exposé after exposé of the
African American candidates for mayor, but left O'Malley
untouched. He was essentially portrayed as the "knight in
white armor."
What should be remembered by all workers is that O'Malley
also rode into office on an "anti-crime" platform. While he
had to moderate his rhetoric, he appealed to people's fears
and to the legitimate pain of many who have seen the city
decay and the condition of their lives deteriorate. Never
mind that the very corporate interests that he represents are
the ones that are responsible for that decay.
O'Malley's first act was to oust African American Police
Commissioner Ron Daniels and replace him with Ed Norris, a
white police official from New York. This was done right
after the Abner Louima and Amadou Diallo police brutality
cases in that city.
And it was done after the business community hired a
high-priced consulting group, Maple and Linder, who were the
architects of New York's "zero tolerance" plan. While
children go without school books, each consultant was paid
$4,000 a day for 56 days.
Community groups like the All-Peoples Congress and Unity
for Action waged consistent and vocal opposition against the
plan.
But a massive propaganda campaign was launched that
included city hearings stacked with police, meetings with
neighborhood groups and mailings of massive amounts of
brochures touting Ed Norris and his new aggressive police
style. The promise: End killings in the community and clean
up all the open-air llegal drug markets.
Increased police abuse
Almost a year has gone by and the scourge of drugs
remains. Community residents in the poorest neighborhoods
have told Workers World that the only thing police have
succeeded in doing is moving the drugs from one corner to
another. The murder rate in Baltimore City has remained the
same. What has increased is police abuses, violations of
civil rights and killings, like that of Joseph Wilbon.
The so-called fight against crime is nothing but a smoke
screen. The recent cuts prove that the bosses, bankers and
billionaires care nothing about workers and their
communities. What is motivating them is greed and the desire
to raid public services for private companies.
The antidote for this vile poison is a united fight-back
by the community and the unions. The Greater Baltimore
Committee has not yet heard from the vast majority of
Baltimore. In the final analysis the committee represents a
small, privileged clique that will ultimately be swept away
when the mass of the people are energized and on the
move.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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