Thread: Tens of thousands rally against New Jersey budget cuts

Tens of thousands rally against New Jersey budget cuts


By a WSWS reporting team
WSWS.org
24 May 2010


Over 30,000 teachers, public workers, retirees and community activists protested on Saturday in Trenton, New Jersey’s state capital, against Governor Chris Christie’s massive budget cuts.

The rally had been called by a coalition of community organizations and trade unions, including the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) and the Communications Workers of America (CWA).

Under Christie’s new budget plan—which calls for the elimination of nearly $1 billion in state aid to schools—thousands of teachers statewide will lose their jobs and sports and arts programs will be cut.

The new budget will cut after-school programs, adult education programs and higher education budgets as well as assistance to free lunch programs for poor children, and a special rent rebate for elderly and disabled tenants.

Christie has also proposed legislation that will attack other public employees. His plan includes the elimination of seniority protection for public employees, an increase in employee contributions to health care and pensions, and raising the retirement age from 62 to 65 years. The state legislature will vote on the cuts by June 30.

The austerity program in New Jersey is a part of a bipartisan effort to make the working class pay for the economic crisis. Nationwide, state budgets have suffered from the largest drop in revenue on record, largely due to the mass unemployment created by the recession. The Obama administration has refused to significantly reduce the total $375 billion collective budget deficit of the states.

The thousands that attended the rally—one of the largest in the capital’s history—were furious at Christie not only for his repeated attacks on public education and social programs, but especially because on Thursday he had vetoed a measure that would have modestly increased taxes on the state’s 16,000 people with incomes of $1 million or more. (New Jersey has a population of almost 9 million.) Homemade signs could be seen everywhere calling for increased taxation of the rich.

The measure itself, however, was calculated to appease the widespread anger at the state’s wealthy. It was sponsored by the Democrats in the State Assembly, and if there had been any chance of its passing, they would not have proposed it. Democrats do not have the two-thirds majority required to override a veto. Even if the tax had been passed, it would have raised only about $640 million in revenue.

Far from offering a plan of action to resist Christie, the union leaders and others who spoke at the Trenton rally sought to divert the anger of the demonstrators into support for the Democratic Party.

Barbara Keshishian, president of the NJEA, told the rally, “If legislators remain silent, then they will share the blame.… This rally is only the beginning. We will keep fighting for what we worked so hard to build. We will stand up for what we’ve earned. We will fight for our rights. We will fight for the future of this state. We will fight until this governor and the legislature do the right thing.â€

I am thinking of a word...ummmmmm

" GREECE"