By LILLIAN ROBERTS
Executive Director
District Council 37, AFSCME

GEORGE W. BUSH and his right-wing administration have working people in an economic vise, and it is tightening every day. But our union has a mighty weapon that will let us fight back and win by putting a Democrat in the White House and electing pro-worker candidates to Congress. Our PEOPLE political action fund gives union members a significant impact on the political process at a time when we are being hit with spiraling food and gasoline prices and mounting foreclosures in a market that provides almost no affordable housing.

As the deepening Bush recession leaves most state and local governments facing deficits and cutting vital services and forces many to lay off public employees, PEOPLE gives us power.

The president’s latest plan to cut Medicaid would drain $500 million a year from the New York City Health and Hospitals Corp., choke off health care in poor neighborhoods and threaten the budgets of Lincoln, Woodhull, Elmhurst, Metropolitan and Bellevue hospitals.

The White House is still lying to us about Iraq, calling the 20,000 troop “surge” a success while last year was the bloodiest yet. As it sucks the life from Americans and Iraqis, the war keeps sucking money from the public services we need at home.
Our members are the frontline victims. We are paying the high prices. Our services and jobs are on the firing line. We have to ask ourselves why we are surrounded by a growing economic calamity, and what we can do about it.

Economic disasters in modern capitalist societies are really political disasters, created by government and powerful financial interests. All our major economic decisions are made by a conservative political elite that takes from working people, minorities and women to feed the greed of the rich.

With a war in the Mid-East and no effort to limit oil industry profits, it’s no accident that our members are paying too much at the pump. With Bush handing out gigantic tax breaks to the wealthy (and John McCain aiming to make them permanent), it’s no surprise to hear that they plan to slash Medicaid and hurt the hospitals where so many DC 37 members work. With the war on its way to a $4 trillion price tag, most of it borrowed, is it any wonder our economy is in chaos?

For the sake of our jobs, our families and our communities, we have to fight back, and we are ready to do that with two mighty sources of strength, PEOPLE and people. Public Employees Organized to Promote Legislative Equality, our national union’s political fundraising arm, needs our help as never before.

Take back Washington
By law, we cannot use union dues money in a federal election. But we can put our modest, bi-weekly payroll or pension deductions together into a mighty fund that can help win back the White House for working Americans. If each one of us makes the commitment to stop being the victims of the economy and work aggressively to build a better world for ourselves and our children, we can do it. If you are not already a PEOPLE contributor, join now. If you are, boost your bi-weekly payroll deduction to the MVP level (click here for more details).

With the cost of living rising every day, some members may think they cannot afford to contribute. But if we want to relieve the terrible economic pressure we are under, we can’t afford not to. I am not just talking the talk. I walk the walk by giving a full 1 percent of my pay to PEOPLE. I don’t care about the size of your contribution, but I believe it is vital for each of us to do our part.

We have proof that PEOPLE works. When some pro-Bush governors cancelled collective bargaining for public employees in their states, the union put PEOPLE funds to work and elected two new governors who signed laws guaranteeing bargaining rights.

We also need our mass “people power” to clean house in the White House and increase the Democratic majority in Congress. We need more members to volunteer for political action — to help strengthen our democracy by registering more people like us to vote and to help take back America and turn around the economy. If you have questions about joining PEOPLE and using your “people power,” please call the DC 37 Political Action Department at 212-815-1550.

You can begin the process of change by contributing to PEOPLE and volunteering with your DC 37 sisters and brothers for the campaign and on Election Day, Tuesday, November 4. The time is now for us to make a difference for our families and our communities, to make a difference for America.