In many states, this means the adoption of punitive and Draconian measures aimed at forcing poor people into low-wage jobs, cutting food stamps, limiting the number of years that a person may receive AFDC benefits, punishing poor and single women who decide to give birth to more than one child, fingerprinting AFDC recipients, and developing costly bureaucracies to follow, and monitor, the activities of poor people, especially in black and Latino communities. The Civil Rights Movement itself is a premier example of a political response to poverty by the poor. The political mobilizations of the 1960s contributed to a significant reduction in poverty over the decade. This figure has since increased again, in part because of the decline of a national movement for social and economic change, led by, and on behalf of, poor people. Excluded from public discussion, poor people are seeking once more to organize politically in response to the problem of poverty.
Community building is one such response.
The other contributors in this issue describe a range of community-building strategies aimed at strengthening the social and institutional fabric of poor communities, and involving residents in such efforts. In Minneapolis, the Welfare Rights Committee has organized a campaign to resist such welfare reform initiatives as the Clinton administration's two year limit and workfare proposals. CFWA's campaign to eliminate poverty has achieved some important successes. Only a handful of states have earned-income tax credits and, due to CFWA's efforts, Wisconsin is the only one that ties the tax credit to family size. But they remain important models that could be strengthened through greater political and community mobilization.