Date:         Mon, 12 Aug 96 10:27:36 EDT
From: "Alan G. Davidson" <DAVIDSON@UCONNVM.UCONN.EDU>
Subject:      Urgent: Shalala, Welfare "reform," and ASA Meeting (fwd)
To: socgrad@CSF.COLORADO.EDU, "Alan G. Davidson" <davidson@UCONNVM.UCONN.EDU>
Message-Id:   <960812.102903.EDT.DAVIDSON@UConnVM.UConn.Edu>
By the way, the "town meeting" Sunday at 12:30 is free if you don't wish
to eat.
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Date: Fri, 09 Aug 1996 12:48:15 -0400 (EDT)
From: Steve Rosenthal <mdr@borg.evms.edu>
To: PSN-CAFE <psn-cafe@csf.colorado.edu>
Subject: Urgent: Shalala, Welfare "reform," and ASA Meeting

Dear PSN'ers and ABS'ers,
   How many PSN'ers and ABS'ers are planning to discuss "social
research and social policy" with HHS secretary Donna Shalala at the
ASA "Town Meeting" Plenary on Sunday, Aug. 18, at 12:30pm?  Shall we
discuss with her how many of the nine million children currently on
AFDC will die as a result of welfare "reform?"  Shall we discuss how
many of the estimated 1.3 million legal immigrants who are about to
lose Medicaid benefits will die?  While we eat our $15 lunch with Ms.
Shalala, shall we discuss how the millions of low income workers who
are about to lose food stamps will avoid starving to death?  Shall we
discuss how low the real minimum wage will go when welfare recipients
in Mississippi are required to work for their miserably small monthly
welfare checks?  Shall we discuss how many elderly who lose
Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid will die?
   Shall we discuss why Shalala, the Children's Defense Fund, and
other allies of the Democratic Party have decided that it is taboo to
condemn welfare "reform" as racist and sexist?  Their focus on
children implicitly surrenders to the despicable idea that adult
welfare recipients are inherently "undeserving."  Their unwillingness
to point out that welfare "reform" is legitimized by an unrelenting
ideological campaign of racist and sexist scapegoating and that its
impact will disproportionately affect minorities and women (although
there are more whites than blacks on welfare) is evidence of their
total capitulation to racist Republican forces.  Welfare "reform" is
indeed a "defining moment" for the Democrats and their allies,
revealing with special clarity and forcefulness that Democrats and
Republicans are equally enemies of the poor and working class, that
Democrats and Republicans both carry out the capitalist dirty work of
destroying the lives of workers to enlarge corporate profits, and
that millions of workers cannot go on living under capitalism and
must fight for the abolition of fascist wage slavery.
   Undoubtedly Ms. Shalala disagreed with some of these cutbacks.
After all, even her boss Bill Clinton has said that there were a few
provisions of the bill to which he objected.  But Clinton is going to
sign the bill, and Shalala has not condemned this slave labor plan or
resigned in protest, which would be the only decent thing to do.  No,
Shalala seems to be planning to stay on and to administer and direct
policies that will kill thousands of people, and she would like for
some of us sociologists to help her do that.
   In the annual budget of the Federal Government $240 billion is
paid in "debt service" to wealthy capitalists who have loaned the
Government money.  That is ten times current annual AFDC
expenditures.  Capitalists are the dependent parasites who get rich
on government handouts.  What kind of system throws people out of
homes and hospitals and onto the streets to die while billionaires
get richer?  What kind of sociologist wants to be a paid hack for
such a system?
   We've had a lot of discussion on PSN and ABS recently about
welfare "reform."  But now is crunch time.  What shall we do?  My
friends in the Progressive Labor Party are calling for a protest
against Shalala and her ASA allies.  What do you think we should do?
   Steve Rosenthal