The Revolt of the Guinea Pigs
by Mike Prokosch, New Priorities Network
A giant experiment is about to begin in St. Louis.
Over the next decade, the federal government will repeatedly cut Head Start, education, environmental programs, Community Development Block Grants, fuel assistance, and much more. Working class families and communities of color will take the biggest hits, but everyone will hurt.
How will the experimental subjects react? Will St. Louis residents quietly accept ten more years of cuts in practically every city service? Will parents compete with senior citizens and library lovers to protect some programs at others’ expense? Might they come together and push back against all the cuts?
It’s up to the experimental subjects – the guinea pigs. That’s us.
Peace activists in other cities, where the same experiment is underway, are forming coalitions with unions and community groups. We are mobilizing on “other people’s issues” – home foreclosures, layoffs, social service cuts. For many peace organizations, that’s a big change, but most are thriving on the new energy, new connections, and new power we are building.
By showing up for other people’s work, we are earning their support. In city after city we are agreeing on a four-point platform: create jobs, save services, tax the rich and corporations, and cut the Pentagon. Together we’re starting to build power that we don’t have alone.
We’ll need that power next year and we can use it to:
- Unite the many. Give all the separate fights against budget cuts a common focus: tax the 1% and cut military spending.
- Push our demands up to Washington. “Bird-dog” candidates for Congress in 2012 and ask if they will support those solutions.
- Enlist local elected officials. Urge the many city and county governing bodies in metro St. Louis to send “fund us – cut military spending” resolutions to Congress.
