Donald Trump is set to hurt working and poor individuals’s residing requirements. With 13 billionaires in his cupboard, together with Elon Musk, he has slashed over 14,000 federal union jobs and gutted social applications. His celebration’s threats to Medicaid come as they push extra tax cuts for the wealthy.
by Jozi Uebelhoer
Donald Trump is set to hurt working and poor individuals’s residing requirements. With 13 billionaires in his cupboard, together with Elon Musk, he has slashed over 14,000 federal union jobs and gutted social applications. His celebration’s threats to Medicaid come as they push extra tax cuts for the wealthy.
Democrats in Congress have did not struggle again, regardless of calling Trump an “existential risk.” That is no shock, as additionally they serve elite pursuits. The celebration not too long ago accepted $2.5 million from a high lobbyist for SpaceX and Palantir, corporations set to revenue from Trump’s cuts to unions and social applications.
Failing to struggle Trump in D.C. is unhealthy sufficient, however in Washington state, Governor Bob Ferguson is getting ready to slash $7 billion from the finances, concentrating on over 50,000 unionized employees within the Washington Federation of State Workers (WFSE). These employees present important providers, from youngster security to infrastructure, clear waterways, and public training.
Ferguson plans necessary month-to-month furloughs for 2 years, together with deep cuts to healthcare for low-income residents and firefighting providers. It will result in hospital ward closures, diminished juvenile rehabilitation, and fewer housing choices for adults with developmental disabilities.
Republicans in DC have majorities in the home and senate, giving federal Democrats some leeway to assert powerlessness towards Trump’s anti-worker assaults. However in Washington, state Democrats management each legislative homes—and but they nonetheless plan to undermine working and poor individuals’s livelihoods. This comes because the state’s wealth grows, with 13 billionaires and a rising millionaire class. Including to the hypocrisy, state politicians pushing furloughs on public employees not too long ago gave themselves a 14% wage hike, with Ferguson’s pay rising from $204,205 to $234,275. In the meantime, public-sector employees face a meager 5% elevate over two years, successfully canceled out by furlough days and inflation.
Washington stays a haven for the rich whereas changing into unaffordable for the remainder of us. The state’s tax system is the second most regressive within the nation. Democrats have managed the governor’s workplace for 30 years, the Senate for 20, and the Home for 23—but they proceed serving the elite.
WFSE management rightly opposes the cuts and furloughs, demanding taxes on the wealthy as a substitute. However an actual fightback requires mass protests and a coordinated statewide strike, demanding zero cuts to employees and social applications and full funding by way of taxation on the wealthy. This is able to ship a robust message of working-class resistance towards assaults from each Trump and the Democrats.
And not using a mass motion, Ferguson and his celebration is not going to change course.
Why ought to we play by their guidelines? Ready till after the finances is finalized to cut price once more could be disastrous, locking in cuts and demoralizing employees. We’re informed we should select between rejecting furloughs or offering important providers—an outright lie. We should struggle for each or threat shedding every thing.
Statewide union management has did not act, so we, the rank-and-file, are taking it upon ourselves to take action.
On Monday, the members of WFSE Native 889 unanimously handed a decision calling for a mass statewide Day of Motion on Wednesday, April 9, involving 1000’s of WFSE members, and solidarity from different unions and dealing individuals, earlier than the finances deadline on April 27. The native additionally handed a decision calling on WFSE statewide to rescind the endorsement of Governor Ferguson.
WFSE President Mike Yestramski and labor leaders ought to be organizing mass protests, solidarity actions, and a one-day strike towards Democratic austerity and Trump’s assaults. Employees—not billionaires or their political allies—hold the state working, and shutting it down is the required first step to defeating these cuts. Subsequent, WFSE ought to lead a poll initiative to finish Washington’s regressive tax system, securing funding for housing, healthcare, training, and defending unions.
We urge WFSE members and dealing individuals to affix Employees Strike Again at a March fifteenth city corridor to reveal Democratic betrayals and manage towards each events of the bosses.
Seattle’s working individuals confirmed learn how to win beneath Kshama Sawant’s management, securing the nation’s highest minimal wage, on the time, by way of an engaged worker-led motion of on a regular basis individuals. We should observe this instance and struggle again with every thing we’ve received.
We constructed mass conferences, rallies, marches, neighborhood motion teams, and a poll initiative to stress massive enterprise and Democrats: move $15 or face the voters. Regardless of their makes an attempt to dam or weaken it, we received—turning $15 from a slogan right into a nationwide motion. In 2020, Sawant and the Tax Amazon motion secured a historic tax on Seattle’s richest firms, elevating over $400 million final yr alone for inexpensive housing. Sawant’s workplace received these victories alongside employees and union leaders, together with WFSE’s Paula Lukaszek.
Now, Employees Strike Again is carrying this technique ahead nationwide. Our Struggle the Wealthy marketing campaign is constructing a motion to take down Trump, the billionaires, and each their events. Defeating Trump means confronting the Democrats, whose betrayals let him pose as a good friend of employees. Each events serve the ruling class—we should struggle each to win actual change.
Capitalism is rule by and for the wealthy, constructed on stealing the wealth employees create. However we’ve the facility to close it down and pressure actual change. Hundreds of thousands would stand with us if we did.
Jozi Uebelhoer is a social employee and a rank-and-file member of WFSE Native 889. Gray Martin is a hospital workers member and a rank-and-file member of WFSE Native 3488. Each are members of Employees Strike Again in Seattle and write in a private capability.
