Not only does Wall Street and Washington collude to keep unemployment rates at a high level, but more and more jobs are part-time and temporary. These disposable workers are difficult to organize, which enhances the profits and power of the corporate elite while providing a cheap source of labor and adding to the number of poor people in the United States. Another method of impoverishing people and enhancing corporate power and profits is the globalization of the economy. The global competition to please the international corporate elite drives down wages, destroys traditional agricultural communities and pollutes our global environment. Capitalism thrives on individualism with children becoming the sole responsibility and possession of their parents.
Socialism emphasizes community with children and child rearing as a community responsibility.
Things like affordable housing, universal health care, widespread public transportation, quality daycare etc. are among our top priorities. Cooperation replaces com-petitiveness. Community supersedes individualism. A more equitable pattern of wealth and income will prevail. Until poverty is finally abolished by the elimination of the unjust capitalistic economic system and replaced by democratic socialism, we believe it is essential to conserve entitlement to AFDC and reinstitute General Assistance.