State budget cuts cause anger, fightback

Poor and working people are fighting back as the economic crisis slams into the Massachusetts state budget. On Oct. 15, Gov. Deval Patrick announced planned state budget cuts of over $1 billion, including cutting 1,000 jobs. The cuts will be widespread, impacting state universities and community colleges, health insurance programs and dozens of social service programs—from assistance for at-risk teens to services for the mentally ill and the elderly.

Oct. 18 protest demanding full funding for housing. WW photo: Liz Green

Advocates for the blind are planning a late-October protest of Patrick’s elimination of funding for Ferguson Industries for the Blind, a state-run business in Malden, which will lead to layoffs of 25 visually-impaired workers. The advocates are also objecting to reductions in funding for basics like magnifying glasses and talking clocks for poor, elderly, blind residents. The state’s mental health budget will be cut by $9.3 million. According to mental health workers, hundreds of people with mental disabilities will lose services, leading to hospitalizations, incarcerations and even deaths.

The biggest cuts, nearly $300 million, will be to Medicaid payments to hospitals and health clinics for the poor. Family shelters will lose $1 million, and there will be deep cuts in HIV/AIDS prevention funds and substance abuse programs. The Department of Social Services, responsible for protecting children from child abuse and neglect, will be cut by $15 million.

Margaret Woovis, who runs a home care program for seniors, said she will lay off staff and cut services in half. “Epidemic is probably the word,” she said. “This is happening to everyone, everywhere.”

The Boston School Committee held a public hearing on Oct. 15 on the superintendent’s recent proposal to close and consolidate numerous schools. The hearing was packed with young people appealing to the committee not to close their schools. Schools serving the most at-risk students have been targeted for closing, further impacting oppressed communities already suffering from unequal access to quality education. The plan is an attack on desegregation, and also threatens the loss of union jobs.

City Councilor Chuck Turner, who heads the City Council’s Education Committee, has scheduled a public hearing on the closing plan for Oct. 21. The International Action Center and the Boston School Bus Drivers Union, USW Local 8751, are working with community organizations like Work for Quality and Boston Parents Organizing Network to fight these cuts. The union just successfully showed how to fight back against cutbacks, defeating a second round of company-attempted layoffs since ratification of their contract in September. The contract includes “no reduction in force” language, won by rank-and-file militant action.

On Oct. 15, Councilor Turner along with City Councilor Charles Yancey held the first of a series of “Community Foreclosure Prevention Meetings” at Prince Hall in Roxbury. Future meetings will also be held in Dorchester, Mattapan, Hyde Park and Roslindale. More than 80 homeowners, tenants, community organization members and lawyers from the National Lawyers Guild and the Greater Boston Legal Services participated in the event. Some signed on to the Women’s Fightback Network’s petition, which calls for the governor to declare an Economic State of Emergency, for a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions, and for a restoration of utilities that have been shut off and the prevention of further utility shut- offs. It is reported that city officials say over 600 properties have been foreclosed this year in Boston and hundreds more properties may be foreclosed next year.

On Oct. 18 the Mass Alliance of HUD Tenants held a rally and march in downtown Boston demanding full funding for Section 8 and Public Housing. Three million families in HUD-subsidized apartments face displacement if Congress does not fully fund Section 8 and Public Housing. The National Alliance of HUD Tenants has presented a “Save Our Homes” platform to both the Obama and McCain campaigns, but the McCain campaign has refused to meet with the group. The demonstration marched to McCain headquarters in Boston to press their demands, but received no response from the McCain staffers.

The anger of poor and working people against the effects of the economic crisis is on the rise. A tidal wave of fightback is sure to come.