From cd619@slc4.INS.CWRU.Edu Tue Nov 17 20:37:29 1992 Received: from slc4.INS.CWRU.Edu by css.itd.umich.edu (5.65/2.2) id AA06823; Tue, 17 Nov 92 20:37:27 -0500 Received: by slc4.INS.CWRU.Edu (5.65b+ida+/CWRU-1.5-ins) id AA17628; Tue, 17 Nov 92 20:37:15 -0500 (from cd619 for pauls@css.itd.umich.edu) Message-Id: <9211180137.AA17628@slc4.INS.CWRU.Edu> Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 20:37:15 -0500 From: cd619@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Hank Roth) To: pauls@css.itd.umich.edu Subject: TAX THE RICH Reply-To: cd619@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Hank Roth) Status: R <<< via P_news/p.news >>> {From VOICE OF REVOLUTION, publication of the US Marxist-Leninist Organization/March 13, 1992} TAX CUTS THE POLITICIANS DON'T TALK ABOUT Guess who got a tax break of $1 million in 1991, wage concessions, state financed job training and infrastructure improvements---in exchange for a promise to keep a plant open? We'll give you a hint--they broke the promise. If you guessed GM, you're right, and this concerns only one plant (Tarrytown, NY). GM has gotten similar give-a-ways and concessions for years in exhcange for this promise of jobs. 74,000 workers in the US and Canada have paid with lower living standards---and now lost jobs. GM continues to get what it wants. Arlington, Texas, where a GM plant will remain open--for now--gave away $7-10 million in tax breaks. The workers also accepted a 3-shift, 7 day operation, something previously rejected. GM is responsible for throwing tens of thousands on the street--- permanently. By 1995 they will have cut their workforce in half (from the 1985 level of about 500,000). Why isn't this considered a violation of human rights? Aren't these workers being persecuted, denied their most basic needs? The government, instead of defending the workers, pays the corporations for this crime. The reason given for this action is always the same---protecting jobs. Why should the government pay these corporations to provide jobs? In these days of high unemployment, demands by GM and others are a powerful pressure on workers and communities. The corporations use and abuse this, regardless of the consequences. One direct consequence of these tax-breaks to the monopolies are funding cuts to the public schools. Most schools are financed by property taxes--which are precisely the ones the companies don't have to pay. In Tarrytown, for example, the give-awy to GM meant dozens fo teachers were laid off, new ibrary books and supplies were eliminated and school repairs postponed. New York state gives away as much as $500 million a year in tax breaks to corporations. A study, by Purdue University, of enterprise zones in Indiana, found that the cost of jobs was very high. In 1988, Gary, Indiana paid $73,654 in property-tax give-aways for every single job created. South Bend, Ind. paid $173,539 for every job. That means the taxpayers of South Bend will be paying the wages of these workers for 7 years or more (at an annual wage of $25,000). EACH GIVEAWAY TO THESE BILLIONAIRE CORPORATIONS IS A TAKE-AWAY FROM INDIANA'S SCHOOL CHILDREN. Indiana is not alone in punishing children for the benefit of big monopolies. Last year, the National School Boards Association surveyed the nation's 13,000 school districts to find out how these tax breaks affect the schools. Across the country, hundreds and thousands of dollars are being lost. St. Louis schools lost $17 million--13% of their budget. Philadelphia lost $24 million. A Colorado district lost $497,000, another in Louisiana over $1 million. Cleaveland lost $100 million. One hotel and office complex there, for example, was given a 100% tax exemption--- worth $4.8 million to the schools. The Florida State Department of Revenue says corporations in the state got tax breaks of $500 million last year. They contributed only $32 million to public education. Two key questions are at stake here. First, economic rights--the guarantee of a job--should be considered a human right. Government should protect the human rights of citizens, not pay to have them abused. Violation of human rights should not be tolerated. Secondly, tax policy is a key question for the people. It should be discussed fully, especially in relation to jobs and education. Instead, the politicians are trying to buy our votes by promising a few dollars in tax cuts of one kind or another. This degrades the democratic process, prventing serious debate by the people on how tax dollars should be spent. In actual fact, there is once again taxation without representation---in that the views and demands of the people are not represented in the current debate. None of the candidates, nor the various tax packages now being debated by Congress and the President, even address this policy of robbing the schools to pay the corporations. Non of them speak to GM's responsibility. GM did have a record loss this past year, of over $4 billion. They also had net profits, averaging $4 billion yearly, from 1983-89. Why should they continue to gain from their abuse of human rights? Why should innocent children suffer? [Subscribe to Voice of Revolution from the USMLO, 3942 N Central Ave., Chicago, Il 60634] --------------------------------------------------------------- P_news on Fidonet (nationwide) and p.news on Peacenet (worldwide) are parallel conferences, which serve as a conduit for this type of information, excerpts of news and views from various *LEFT* wing organizations and publications, presenting left wing views that challenge prevailing bankrupt capitalist views. 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