Clinton's recent welfare cuts have been estimated to take $55
billion away from 36 million Americans who rely on federal
assistance. The vast majority are women and children. One in four
of all American children depend on some form of federal welfare.
But what will it do to those capitalists who are dependent on
people receiving the welfare? Cuts in welfare reflect a sharpening
of the contradictions amongst the capitalists as well as between
the capitalists and the working class.
One of the persistent excuses in reducing welfare is to force
into employment those who Clinton says "refuse to work." The same
argument arises in Canada with workfare which exists in one form or
another in many provinces.
These governments are not serious about providing work for all
since full employment is not a goal under capitalism. Nor is full
employment possible under capitalism whose motive for production is
making maximum profits - it is not the wellbeing of the people.
Jobs are incidental to making maximum capitalist profit.
Capitalism cannot provide for all. Full employment and the
guarantee of a livelihood for all requires moving society beyond
its present level. It means developing new arrangements among human
beings, especially at the workplace.
The propaganda about putting welfare recipients to work is 1)
to cover up the failure of the capitalist system which provides
poverty at one pole and riches at the other, and keeps discarding
ever larger sections of the population; and 2) to wage
inter-capitalist battles for profit using attacks on the most
vulnerable as a cover. Such measures, far from overcoming the
problems under capitalism, will aggravate them.
Shawgi Tell
University at Buffalo
Graduate School of Education
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
