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New York In Crisis

By VVAW

New York City is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Other US cities aren't far behind. It's a crisis of the whole damn system we live under. Already, all over the country, officials have been raising the threat of bankruptcy to cut city workers' wages, push layoffs, and host of other attacks, including cutbacks in needed and inadequate city services. All this is their answer to the crisis.

In their efforts to cut their loses, various bankers and officials have made a big deal out of the threat of default. Default means NYC not paying their bills on time. The ruling class and its media have played this up, making it sound like the future of New York hinges of default or no default. Why? Because the only payments they are concerned about are what's owned to them--especially their banks--and they're scared that default would mean no payment.

For the people of NYC, default means about the same as no default. To avoid default, the city's bosses have launched an attack on them. Union contracts have been broken, tens of thousands of city workers have been laid off, city services cut back to bare bones, and the city put under control of a board of big bankers and businessmen. All this so bankers can protect their investments.

The recent passage of the NYC "bailout" bill shows even more clearly that it's the people of New York who are being made to suffer the burden of the financial crisis, default or no default. For instance the teachers' pension money has been turned over to the city. The bureaucrats are already demanding more layoffs and more cutbacks.

It's these facts which lie behind the campaign to blame the crisis on New Yorkers, saying "these people have been living high on the hog." But the people of the city in no way caused the crisis. For millions of New Yorkers, as for millions of people around the country, living conditions have been going bad to worse. Unemployment mounts, garbage rots along the sidewalks, and taxes are the highest in the country. And this is what the politicians call "living high off the hog."

The people of New York City haven't made profits from the city. But someone has--the bankers and their corporate cronies. Their banks made billions buying bonds from the city and then collecting interest compounded on interest. Take for example, the Third Avenue elevated train in Manhattan, built years ago and later torn down. The banks are still collecting interest o the bonds.

So, the need of the people who run the system to get more and more profits is behind the New York City crisis. And it's the cause behind the vicious attack on the people of the city. The bankers and their class have found willing partners in the top union officials. These traitors to the workers they are supposed to serve have down everything possible to misdirect the struggle of their own union members. When the layoffs hit, they practically fell over each other to come up with their own plans on who should be the first of their union members to be laid off. They went right along with a wage freeze, even though increases were written into their contracts. Lowest of all, union officials went along with Ford's "solution" and turned over another $2 billion in pension money for bonds that no bank would touch. Not only do they invest the workers' old age security in a fiasco, they're willing partners in an attempt to blackmail the workers into giving up their demands for fear of bankrupting the city and losing their own pension money.

But the people in New York are proving in their struggle that they will fight any so-called solutions which calls for massive layoffs and cutbacks.

Thousands of workers have answered the layoffs and speedup with strikes, slowdowns, and many demonstrations. A militant example of this was the four day wildcat strike of sanitation workers. This strike only ended when the sanitation union chief handed over $1.6 million in union dues to the city so that the workers could be rehired for a few weeks, and then laid off again. That struggle continues as the sanitation men slow down and refuse to do the extra work of their laid off brothers.

Many people besides the city workers have been fighting the effects of the cuts. In some neighborhoods, residents have protested in front of firehouses threatened with closing. Large demonstrations have been held in front of hospitals threatened with closing, protesting the lack of adequate health care.

Students have also taken up the fight. On September 18, 5000 students demonstrated in front of Governor Carey's office. When the city said there would be no new admissions or transfers in the city college system next semester, one of the vets clubs said they would shut the system down if the ruling were not changed. the Board of Higher Education has now decided to cut off admissions or transfers for students--excluding veterans. But the people are not going to stand for that divide and conquer tactic either, so this struggle continues.

Working people--the vast majority of the people of New York City--have no interest in bearing the burden of the system's crisis or in supporting "solutions" like the one worked out between Ford and city officials. There is a clear answer to these attacks: To Hell with the Banks and Their profits; Make the Bosses Pay; We demand Jobs and Services!