TRENTON, N.J. June 23 — The New Jersey Assembly, with the Democratic leadership fully supporting the deadly proposals of their pal Governor Chris Christie, voted for the pension and health “reform” bill here tonight. About ten thousand workers turned out earlier to protest these severe attacks on the working class; at one point, thousands surrounded the statehouse and chanted, “Kill the bill!” Hundreds of PLP flyers and scores of CHALLENGEs were received positively by the workers.
At the rally, the sorry union leadership held a mock funeral for “the soul of the Democratic Party.” Ironically, a person in blackface joined the New Orleans jazz band walking ahead of the coffin. (The union leadership was apparently ignorant of the racism behind this tradition.)
One after the other, the politicians and union hacks who spoke at the rally claimed to be “true” Democrats. Here is the solution posed by the “most radical” speaker: “Take back the party” in the November election. But these are the “friends” they put in office in the last election.
The 2011 New Jersey budget represents an avalanche of cutbacks and take-aways from employed and unemployed workers and give-aways to millionaires. Last year’s budget had $3 billion in interest allocated to New Jersey bondholders. Of course they didn’t mention who these “bondholders” were: the same banks that have profited from the current economic crisis.
The Democrats in the state legislature put up some token opposition, but in the end provided the necessary votes to pass the biggest blows against organized workers in New Jersey history.
The solution to these massive cuts lies far outside the capitalist system. While it is easy to hate Christie, with his arrogance and disdain for the working class, “austerity” programs are being pushed all over the U.S. and the world. All politicians are falling in line. Enforcing their class dictatorship through the police, the courts, and the media, the capitalists in all countries are shifting the burden of their crises onto the wage slaves.
In the process, they are taking away the gains that tens of thousands of militant fighters worldwide died to achieve over a century and more. This points up the fleeting nature of reform under capitalism. The bosses giveth when they need to stop revolutions or buy the workers off; they taketh away when, as now, the workers are politically weak and lacking communist leadership.
In every struggle, PLP strives to bring the bigger picture into focus by linking the attacks on the most oppressed sectors of the working class to the bosses’ need to drive down wages and benefits. As in Nazi Germany, this is rulers’ standard fascist labor policy. It helps them prepare for the inevitable next war against their rivals. We fight for unity in opposition to the bosses’ plans to turn private against public workers, employed against unemployed.
Organizing to bring to light the true impact of these devastating cuts, including the racist demolition of the General Assistance (GA) program, is the first step toward mounting a united struggle. PLP members are already involved in that process. Within that fight, we will try to learn from our fellow workers while leading them forward. With our active participation, this crucible of struggle can make real the communist ideas workers so desperately need to take down all the capitalists and their puppet politicians.
