The administration's proposals to undercut government entitlements, including Social Security, by channeling federal money to churches and nonprofit organizations to carry out a host of social services is a threat to workers and farmers. The proposal crosses the constitutional bar on separation of church and state. By giving funds to religious and other organizations that are not bound by federal regulations, it is a direct attempt to undermine affirmative action, antidiscrimination laws, and other federal guidelines that reflect advances won by working people.

In addition to these grave threats, which simply pry the door open to greater violations, Bush's moves to make the federal government a big conduit of funds--both through grants and tax breaks--to advance the work of charities targets the kind of social solidarity essential to the working class.

The premise underpinning the turn to religious groups and charities is that finding a job, seeking medical care and counseling, dealing with homelessness and lack of food, the care of children who have lost a parent, and others crises workers face under capitalism are individual, not social problems.

Under this plan working people will more and more have to face the indignities, intrusions into their private lives, and violations of their rights by having to face religious proselytizing, lectures on "morals," and discrimination that go hand in hand with the White House office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

It is not surprising that this move comes in the wake of the abolition of Aid to Families with Dependent Children, which was part of the original Social Security Act passed by Congress in 1935. Now a bipartisan commission is being set up to see what further inroads can be made by the wealthy rulers against Social Security, a conquest of labor battles of the 1930s, expanded through the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Bush hopes to push back the conquests won in earlier struggles that old age pensions, health care, unemployment compensation, income for the sick and disabled, and other measures should be federally financed as a guaranteed social wage for every person from cradle to grave. In waging battles to defend broad layers of working people from the vagaries of life under capitalism, the labor and civil rights movements sought to insure that no person was left to fend for themselves or forced to turn to the poor houses, religious charities, and soup lines.

In order to press forward their assault on working people, the ruling rich must continually drive to divide the working class, break down social solidarity, and open up even wider layers to economic devastation. It is against this attack that the labor movement can inscribe the fight for the unity and defense of workers and farmers at the center of its banner.
 
 
Related article:
Bush's proposals on charities, taxes, and education target working people  
 
 
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