President William Clinton announced July 31 he would "seize the historic opportunity" to "end welfare as we know it." He pledged to sign into law a new welfare bill that ends federal guarantees of cash assistance for children of working people thrown into poverty, puts a five-year lifetime limit on receiving welfare, and requires adults to get a job after two years or lose benefits. The act passed by Congress takes a major step in attacking immigrant rights as well, denying most benefits - including Supplemental Security Income and food stamps - to anyone who is not a U.S. citizen.

Clinton and the other big-business politicians cynically claim the measure is a way to "help the poor" and "break the cycle of dependency." Working people however, need to break the real "cycle of dependency" of the capitalist class, who depend on our acquiescence in exploiting our labor to amass their immense social wealth.

The Aid to Families with Dependent Children program, which the new law will eliminate, was originally part of the Social Security Act of 1935. It is a minimal measure that workers fought for to ease the burden of social catastrophe caused by the ravages of this dog-eat-dog society. No working person wants to be on the welfare rolls the way it's set up - a deeply humiliating experience that keeps you far below the poverty line. But workers should oppose the capitalist bloodsuckers taking even one penny from any of our sisters and brothers receiving benefits. Instead we need to demand more entitlements - such as unemployment compensation at union-scale pay for all who face joblessness, without humiliating means testing -to buffer the working class from the impact of the international economic depression we are living in.

Capitalist governments worldwide are driving to slash the social wage of working people to shore up a falling rate of industrial profit in their crisis-ridden system. They scapegoat welfare recipients to pave the way for deeper attacks on entitlements such Medicare, Social Security, and unemployment compensation, which they must ultimately try to eliminate. These benefits were historic gains won by the working class through past struggles.

This bipartisan assault, with Clinton leading the charge, goes hand in hand with cutbacks on workers' wages and working conditions, attacks on democratic rights, and a march toward fascism and war to reorder their system and open the door to another round of capitalist expansion.

More resistance to this onslaught is on the horizon. This can be seen in the young Marchistas for affirmative action in California, McDonnell Douglas strikers, and protesters against racist church burnings. Working people will gain more confidence as we participate in future battles.

Supporters of the Socialist Workers campaign will be hitting the streets, plant gates, and factory floors to discuss the bipartisan attacks on entitlements, and how we can fight them. The socialist campaign points to the historic necessity of overthrowing the rule of the exploiting class and fighting for a workers and farmers government that will run society in the interests of the majority of humanity, like that of revolutionary Cuba.  
 
 
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