What Alabama workers want
'Thou shalt not raise our raxes'
By Minnie Bruce Pratt
Birmingham, Ala.
Alabama has been much in the news lately on
issues as seemingly unconnected as the Ten Commandments and tax
increases. What's been going on in this Southern state to put
it in the spotlight of national media attention?
Alabama is in the grip of the same economic crisis as other
states. Its budget has been gutted by the economic downturn. No
help is in sight from the federal government, which instead is
lavishing billions on war and on tax giveaways to the
wealthy.
Alabama is in "the most severe financial crisis since the
Great Depression," says its Republican governor, Bob Riley.
(Mobile Register, May 21) It faces a budget shortfall of $675
million for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1--more than 10
percent of its operating budget.
Riley proposed an unprecedented tax increase to meet this
crisis. His plan was voted down two to one.
But the national media have been focusing on something else.
CNN gave live coverage to Christian fundamentalists being
dragged off as they protested the removal of a two-and-a-half
ton monument of the Ten Commandments from the rotunda of the
Alabama Supreme Court in Mon tgomery.
The monument was installed by Alabama Supreme Court Chief
Justice Roy Moore, who has built his career on defying the
separation of church and state. Backed by far-right forces
inside and outside the state--including the "Center for
Reclaiming America," an anti-abortion, anti-gay organization in
Florida--he was elected chief justice in 2000. Moore's
popularity has been strongest among poor and working
whites.
Alabama workers, Black and white, have more than symbolic
reasons to be worried. In the last year, thousands of jobs have
been lost in the state, mostly in manufacturing. The deadliest
U.S. coal mining accident since 1984 killed 13 Alabama miners
in September of 2001. At one large pipe manufacturer, 5,000
workers have suffered 4,600 injuries since 1995.
The U.S. Army has been incinerating the nerve gas sarin in
heavily populated areas. Some 60 percent of air pollution in
the Birmingham area comes from energy giant Alabama Power,
whose environmental damage is ravaging rivers statewide.
Judge Moore was not the first choice of Alabama big
business, although eventually big money put its weight behind
him. But Moore is helpful to their strategy of dividing white
from African American workers.
Moore's "trust in the Lord" brand of politics has been
successful in deflecting the dissatisfaction and anger of white
workers away from organizing, which could lead them to make
common cause with Black workers.
But when a federal district court ordered a defiant Moore to
remove his display of religion, the Alabama political
establishment abandoned Moore. Though previously expressing
sympathy for Moore's position, his fellow Repub licans--other
justices, the governor and even ultra-conservative Alabama
Attor ney General Bill Pryor--in the end stood against him. The
Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission has charged him with
"violating ethical canons by disobeying a federal court order,"
and has suspended him.
What's made these officials suddenly act like they care
about the Constitution?
The answer may lie in the seemingly unrelated tax reform
plan proposed by Governor Riley--and the dire economic
situation faced by the state. Riley needs money and doesn't
need a brouhaha over religion at this time.
Unlike the federal government, the states are required to
balance their budgets. Riley put forward a state-wide
referendum for approval of a "tax and accountability plan" that
would both cover Alabama's projected $675-million shortfall and
institute some "educational reforms" in a state that ranks at
the bottom of the nation in per capita spending on schools.
This plan would have raised the earnings level of those
exempt from state income taxes, giving the poor a break. It
would also have raised the income tax on middle-class and
wealthier individuals and families. It would also have
increased state property tax revenues by assessing at 100
percent of value--a move opposed by large landowners such as
timber companies and farms.
Some of the money raised by these new taxes would have gone
to college scholarships for qualified Alabama high school
students, and to set up a reading initiative for children in
kindergarten through sixth grade.
Riley's tax plan was backed by a broad coalition of groups
not usually ranged on the same side of an issue in Alabama,
including the New South Coalition with roots in the Black
community; organizations representing social services such as
the Federation of Child Care Centers of Alabama; and the
Business Council of Alabama, which acts as a statewide chamber
of commerce.
It was opposed by small business owners, timber and farm
interests, some banking interests, local right-wing Christian
groups--and Governor Riley's own Alabama Republican Party.
That kind of opposition made the proposal seem even more
like a mildly populist approach. In fact, Riley cloaked the
plan in "Christian morality," saying: "We're supposed to love
God, love each other and help take care of the poor. It is
immoral to charge somebody making $5,000 [a year] an income
tax." (New York Times, Sept. 6)
On the surface, Riley's plan stood in sharp contrast to the
tax cuts for the wealthy of his fellow Republican, Pre sident
George W. Bush.
But in essence both are attempts by U.S. capital to manage
an economic crisis that has regional, national and
international dimensions.
Among the backers of Riley's tax reform was the chief
executive of Alabama Power Co., Charles McCrary. He didn't cite
concern over family service centers being closed, or
overcrowding at state mental institutions. Instead, he based
his support on the need to "make earnings and return
expectations to shareholders." (Birming ham News, June 18)
McCrary pointed out that Riley's tax plan would provide a
more educated workforce. He saw this as a necessary incentive
to recruit new business to the state. He pointed to the loss of
20 percent of Alabama Power's industrial sales in the last year
and of 32,000 factory jobs over the last five years. Alabama
Power found that 74 percent of its recent entry-level
applicants couldn't pass a basic competency test.
Corporate income tax represented only $45 million of the
potential revenues of Riley's plan. Income tax on individuals
would have brought in $375 million, with the bulk of that
coming from workers and the middle class.
However, the Republican Party in Alabama mobilized to defeat
its own governor's tax proposal.
A crack in the 'solid South'?
This is the first crack in what has been a "solid South"
since the Republicans consolidated their hold on white Southern
voters with a racism camouflaged as states' rights. The stakes
are high for the Republicans, with President Bush's popularity
polls plummeting and workers being hit harder and harder by
economic losses, exacerbated by the war.
To win the next election, and hang onto control of the
state's coffers, the Republicans also have to hold onto white
workers increasingly pummeled by the economy. The Riley tax
plan seems to have been an attempt by some Republican economic
interests to forge a more centrist position in the face of
increasing disillusionment and anger from all workers.
But on Sept. 9, the Riley tax reform plan was defeated by
voters across the spectrum of income, race and religion. Only
the poorest--mostly African American voters from the Black Belt
counties--voted solidly for tax reform.
Many Black and white workers were skeptical about the plan.
Ben Huntley, in Tuskegee, said, "I wouldn't vote for nothing
(Riley) put out." Why? Because, he said, Riley is a rich, white
businessman. Small business owners and workers in the same
county said, "The only ones who can afford the plan are
'big-money pockets.'" (Huntsville Times, Jul.13)
Their suspicion and skepticism is an accurate measure of
what workers through out the state are feeling. Where, they
ask, is the plan that will better their lives--not big timber,
big power or big banks?
The defeat of Riley's tax plan means an immediate, drastic
cut in state government services. There will be no money this
year for textbooks, classroom supplies for teachers or new
technology. There will be no new enrollments permitted in the
Child Health Insurance Program, now covering lower-income
children. Half of the people in the state who have AIDS or are
HIV positive, and who are now receiving funded medication, will
no longer get their life-saving drugs. (Birmingham News, Sept.
12)
But the reactionary aspect of those pro posing the tax
reform was also revealed as the cuts were being announced.
Attorney General Bill Pryor advised people to buy handguns to
"protect their homes and families" as he announced that
thousands of inmates jailed in the state prison system for
non-violent crimes, such as theft or drug possession, would be
released because of the budget crisis.
African Americans make up 26 percent of Alabama's population
but 62 percent of those incarcerated. Pryor's comments were
meant to inflame racism.
Alabama prisons are under a federal court order to reform
because of horrific overcrowding. The jails hold from two to
three times as many inmates as they were built for. One federal
judge wrote in his ruling, "The sardine-can appearance of its
cell units more nearly resembles the holding units of slave
ships during the Middle Passage of the 18th century than
anything in the 21st century." (New York Times, May 1,
2001)
Another solution
The eyes of the ruling class, nationally and in other
states, have been on Alabama, to see how its Republican power
structure navigated between two different approaches on how to
handle the budget crisis. The governor's approach was rejected
by most workers because, although it would have saved some
social services, it would have forced them to pay more in
regressive sales taxes at a time when their jobs are insecure
and personal debt is high.
Alabama's workers don't have to choose between a rock and a
hard place. If they shake off racism and forge a united,
independent movement outside the capitalist political parties,
they can fight for a program that truly represents their
interests and not those of one wing or another of the rich
ruling class.
There are precedents within Alabama's history.
From the 1870s through the 1890s, militant interracial
unionism among coal miners and lumber workers was led by the
Knights of Labor.
The Sharecroppers Union, organized by the Communist Party in
Alabama from 1929 through 1939, brought together thousands of
farm workers across racial lines to battle exploitative
landowners.
The Black civil rights movement, begun by a group of African
American women in Montgomery with the bus boycott, is known
throughout the entire world.
And, just last year, the death of white gay millworker Billy
Jack Gaither at the hands of anti-gay white supremacists was
protested by a coalition that included lesbian and gay groups,
churches, synagogues and Muslims who refused to let religious
demagoguery be used to scapegoat and divide.
With struggle, anything is possible.
Reprinted from the Sept. 25, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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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