Despite numerous protests and the hard work of many individuals and organizations, Gov. Tommy Thompson’s reactionary "W-2" welfare proposal has passed the state assembly and senate and has been signed by Thompson. However, before the bill can be implemented, the federal government must still grant waivers to existing law or else Congress has to authorize "block grants" to the state.
The bill calls for the approximately 70,000 recipients of Aid to Families with Dependant Children (AFDC) to put their kids in day care (with or without adequate supervision) and go to work, with 75% of the jobs provided paying less than the minimum wage. Not only is this a gross exploitation of tens of thousands of poor women, it’s also a threat to workers who already have jobs, many of whom will be laid off or fired so their bosses can hire super-low-paid W-2 workers. And those who keep their jobs will see their wages threatened as W-2 pulls down the whole wage scale. That’s why it’s so insane for any worker to support W-2. This is really an example of cheering on your own executioner.
The only ones who benefit from W-2 are the corporations. And that’s the whole point of the program: "W-2 = Slave Wages for Wisconsin Corporations!"
How did Wisconsin get to be the leader in bashing welfare? Part of the answer is that W-2 meets the needs of the rich businessmen and bankers who really run this state. With state-wide unemployment at 3%, there’s a lot of competition between bosses for new workers and so they to pay higher wages. But all the new technology has deepened the already fierce competition they feel with each other and other corporate opponents. So they desperately need cheaper labor. Pabst found it in LaCrosse. Fred Stratton looks for it in non-union areas of the South. Other companies run off to Mexico, Haiti or Indonesia. But Gov. Thompson is a Wisconsin fella, and he wants his corporate buddies to stay right here at home. So he offers them W-2 workers and prison contract laborers.
But another part of the answer is the limitations of the anti-W-2 movement. The main problem has been the lack of mass organizing. There has been far too much emphasis put on lobbying politicians and mobilizing social workers and professionals and not enough effort put into mobilizing the grassroots communities. The result has been demonstrations that never reach the numbers or militancy required to convince the legislature there would be a real price to pay for passing W-2. In fact, without the well-organized Hmong community, most protests would have been pitifully weak. There has also been far too much competition between the various groups fighting W-2.
Our approach has been as much as possible to reach out to, educate and mobilize the people who would be most affected by W-2: AFDC recipients. We produced a simple brochure and went door-to-door on the North Side to some 800 homes. We also translated the brochure into Spanish. At the same time, we attended every protest we could that was called by any other group and encouraged other organizations to do the same. And we encouraged a more militant approach during the demonstrations, taking to the streets, chanting, confronting the legislators in Madison, etc.
In some ways, we’ve all been up against the same problems. The corporate interests control the media and work day and night to convince working people that welfare recipients are their enemy. At the same time, almost no information gets out to AFDC families, so people don’t really know what is coming at them. But that’s why the emphasis needs to be on reaching out to the communities, especially the ones most directly threatened by W-2.
If W-2 is implemented, we just enter a new stage of the struggle. For one thing, the labor unions must prepare to organize W-2 workers. We have raised this idea informally with labor leaders in Wisconsin, on the local and state level and with individual unions. Once the bill takes effect, only a massive campaign to unionize W-2 workers and raise their pay to the level of prevailing wages can turn back W-2 and save existing jobs. This is similar to our work in support of the prison strike in Oak Park Heights, Minnesota.
AJRC is a small organization with limited resources, but we believe we do have some insights into how to win these various struggles. We know that only mass, grassroots organizing can stop the right-wing offensive.