‘Hands off Social Security’

The AFL-CIO mobilized thousands of its members in over 70 cities March 31 to protest President George W. Bush’s insidious plan to privatize Social Security. These protests targeted the White House, Congress and Wall Street—institutions that are conspiring to force workers to set up personal Social Security accounts.

These actions were part of a large-scale initiative organized by the union movement to stop Bush’s latest anti-worker assault plan dead in its tracks. Thirty-six union staff employees in 21 states have been assigned to work on this initiative.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who spoke at the Washington, D.C., rally, characterized Bush’s attack on Social Security as a “flim-flam scheme.” He warned that privatization will cause “benefit cuts, an exploding deficit, huge bills for our children and grandchildren.”

In New York City, the center of international finance capital, UNITE-HERE and other unions protested outside the exclusive Ritz-Carlton Hotel where the multimillionaire investment banker Charles Schwab was attending a luncheon.

Schwab is a high-profile member of the Alliance for Worker Retirement Security, a major backer of Bush’s attempt to transform the 60-year-plus federally funded program into a private fund for profit-hungry investors.

UNITE-HERE President Bruce Raynor said at the New York protest, “We’re telling the titans of Wall Street to keep their hands off of Social Security.”

The Bush administration and its supporters have been put very much on the defensive. Recent polls indicate that a great majority of the U.S. population wants Bush to keep his hands off of Social Security.

Some Republicans are accusing the AFL-CIO of violating labor laws in the area of secondary boycotts, which are boycotts not involving labor disputes.

In response to this accusation, AFL-CIO Associate General Counsel Damon Silvers said demonstrations and labor strikes are not the same since the Social Security protests focus on a public policy.

Silvers said that threatening to have the Labor Department intervene in mass actions intended to save Social Security is a violation of the workers’ First Amendment rights.