Don't Let Them Steal Our Security

by Tiny

"(A) host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment," President Franklin Delano Roosevelt told the nation in his first inaugural address on March 4, 1933.

Although that statement was made more than 70 years ago by a rich white man steeped in extreme wealth and privilege, as far as Amerikkkan politicians go, he wasn’t too bad. FDR, the architect of welfare, social security, jobs programs and other measures known as the New Deal, enacted during the Great Depression, when millions of people became jobless, homeless and hungry, made it possible for poor people and workers to survive in the U.S.

The not so well known reason FDR was so radical in coming to the aid of poor folks was that at the time he was running for president in 1932, the hungry and jobless American citizenry were becoming increasingly radicalized; 60 percent of voters were registering as Communists.

"People think that Roosevelt is the reason that Social Security was started in this country – actually it was because of the mass mobilization of millions of workers in this country. In the ‘30s, there were national demonstrations led by working people all over the country," labor activist and working class scholar Steve Zeltzer told a crowd of over a hundred elders gathered at the temple of Amerikkkan wealth and capitalism, the Pacific Stock Exchange, in San Francisco’s Financial District last Tuesday to protest Bush’s dangerous plan to dismantle this nation’s Social Security system. The Gray Panthers, who organized the demonstration, chose this location because the intended beneficiaries of Bush’s plan would be stock brokers, venture capitalists and huge investment firms that do millions of dollars of business every day in this building.

"In 1934, there was a general strike by workers in San Francisco and Minneapolis. People said, ‘Enough is enough; we’re not going to take it anymore!’ That’s what needs to happen now." For this statement, Steve got a rousing cheer from the crowd, as the elders were simultaneously being pushed off the steps by the guards of property and privilege and abusers of poor people of color, the San Francisco police, at the behest of some very bothered looking stock exchange men in expensive suits with tiny state-of-the-art cell phones peeping out of their ears.

"Almost 80 percent of Blacks 65 years or older depend on their monthly Social Security checks. Without those benefits, they would fall below the poverty level," Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, D-Ohio, a member of House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Social Security, told reporters during a Dec. 15 conference call.

"We want him (Bush) as well as all Americans to understand that his plan for privatizing Social Security would adversely affect the minority population of this country." In fact, she said, the Bush privatization plan would increase those numbers of Black seniors living in poverty from 23.9 percent to 58.2 percent.

So what is Social Security and why do we need it? First, if a worker becomes temporarily disabled – that includes pregnancy leave for women – they can draw on their disability insurance, which all workers pay into every month out of their payroll check, to help them survive. As well, if a family member dies, their Social Security benefits will go to their surviving family members.

Elders 65 and over are entitled to monthly retirement benefits. Many have little or no other income. Elders of color, despite having worked hard for years, typically remain low-income in this racist, classist society that makes the attainment of wealth and security almost impossible for the majority of lower and middle income families, notwithstanding the "work hard and you’ll achieve the Amerikkan dream" myth.

Privatizing Social Security retirement benefits is key to the Bush plan. This is what Bush-Cheney Inc. – read Halliburton, Bechtel, Merrill Lynch and their related posses – intend to make bank on by forcing elders to invest their Social Security in the stock market. The scheme looks ok on paper for middle class retirees, but a loss in stock value or a stock market crash could wipe out an elder’s investment, and there’d be no further benefits coming.

Contrary to the scare tactics being promoted in the corporate media by Karl Rove and his puppet, G.W. Bush, predicting the program’s imminent collapse, Social Security IS there for future generations. It has over a $1.5 trillion surplus that is growing. By conservative estimates, it can fund current benefit levels until at least 2042 and 73 percent of current benefit levels after 2042. And current benefit levels could be funded indefinitely by applying the existing payroll tax to incomes over $88,000. These projections actually underestimate Social Security’s strength because they assume that the nation’s gross domestic product will grown at roughly half its historical rate.

Finally, for low-income disabled folks like my very poor, mixed race (African-Puerto Rican) grandfather, who has suffered with disabilities all his life and exists solely on yet another form of Social Security known as SSI, the consequences of Bush’s proposed Social Security theft are dire. The claim by Bush that this program would remain untouched is another flagrant lie.

The ultra rich, poor people hatin’ Amerikkan power brokers who perpetrate all the real welfare fraud – corporate welfare, that is – have been trying to figure out how to get rid of the whole social security program since FDR instituted the New Deal. Then, after they rob the coffers of the retirement fund, they will conveniently run into "a budget deficit" and find a means to do away the "burden" of SSI, the lifeline for millions of poor Americans, including hundreds of thousands of disabled homeless people, leaving folks starving and hungry yet again.

And all you anarchist leaning readers, please don’t shake your head and say, well, that’s good ‘cause then people will be desperate enough to "do something." The state of being that desperate is terrifying for those of us who have actually been there, and it is only a privileged person who would say that letting folks become "that desperate" to cause action is ok.

"Kenneth Lay is a friend of Bush, and he stole all the pensions from the workers at Enron. That’s what Bush wants to do with all of our Social Security pensions," Steve Zeltzer continued. "We need to organize millions of workers in this country to stop the privatization of social security, to fight against this war in Iraq. And we need to stop the war on the working people.

"In California, Arnold wants to stop the guaranteed pensions of city, county and state employees, telling us that in place of pensions we need to put our money in the stock market," Steve concluded, adding, "On April 28, workers memorial day, thousands of disabled and injured workers will march on Sacramento for our right to benefits."

"If there is no crisis, this administration creates one so that they can instill fear in the American people," said Howard Wallace of Senior Action Network, one of the last speakers to address the crowd before they marched to Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office. "So it’s not only the New Deal they are trying to repeal – it is enlightenment itself."

As I stood next to these determined elders holding signs that said, "Don’t Enronize our Social Security system," I felt hopeful that maybe, as in the ‘30s, we could wage a war against the lies perpetrated by a few that affect so many. But all marginalized communities will need to come together, and unfortunately I saw only a small smattering of youth and people of color at this rally. So as you read this story, valiant PNN and Bay View change makers, make a commitment to get involved – or they will steal yet another one of our meager remaining rights from us again.

To get involved in the Gray Panthers’ fight against these cuts, call them at (415) 552-8800 or go on-line to http://graypantherssf.igc.org/index.html.