Message from the President:
Back to Our Roots: Becoming a social worker is a political act
United States Senator and social worker Barbara Mikulski (D.Md.) has been quoted as saying that politics is "social work with power". This important concept was reiterated over and over by keynote speakers, panelists and workshop leaders at the Chapter's January 20 conference, "Back to Our Roots: Mobilizing Social Workers for Political and Social Action." Also reiterated was the urgency with which professional social workers must sharpen our political consciousness, put our knowledge of client need and our communication skills to use in advocating against the consequences of drastic City, State and Federal budget cuts and organize our collective political energies to influence the 1996 State and Federal elections and 1997 Mayoral election.
What motivates this sense of urgency is anger. I am now talking with more and more social workers who are angry at the mindless and repetitive attacks on the social work profession and our clients mounted by right wing antagonists in government and the private sector. They are angry when adults and children who may need support of government benefits, social services or mental health counseling are demonized and scapegoated. They are angry with the loss of resources that have maintained the safety net and enabled social workers to help their clients. They are angry that a small number of votes in the City, State and Nation could change the balance of political power and hand the power to anti-poor, anti-government, and anti-professional ideological extremists.
Perhaps social workers should have been able to predict the political ascendancy of the radical right even though it has been the product of a small, highly organized group. Nationally, only 39% of the electorate voted. Only 52% of that 39% voted Republican. A difference of 2% in ballots cast would have allowed the Democrats to maintain control of Congress and would have prevented the radical right from obtaining control of the Senate and the House.
We are now witnessing what some have called the "politics of greed, divisiveness and anger" play itself out in Washington and across the country. The right wing's agenda touches some deeply felt social and economic problems, contradictions and dilemmas in a cross section of the American public, including in New York City. With roots in social reform, social workers in the past have effectively taken on some of the same issues that today's radical right claims to have a monopoly on and solutions for. We have been critics of government and special interests. We believe in self-sufficiency and self-help. We have been in the forefront of challenging institutions and leaders we believe exercise punitive social control. We must keep returning to those roots and give testimony to the effects that drastic cuts in social spending have on health and well being of families and communities. We must return to those roots and be participants and leaders in political movements that create and offer real alternatives to the right.
I believe that becoming a social worker is a political act and that social work practice is always done in a political context. If we can stay in that framework we will be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. NASW is interested in helping social workers overcome or put aside the dichotomy that has been established between direct social work or clinical practice and our social change or social action functions. These practice arenas are often treated as separate activities to be carried out in discretely different organizations and based on different theories and skills. But every social worker can find ways to engage in social and political action through political parties, neighborhood organizations, and the vehicle of NASW. Ruth Messinger, MSW, Manhattan Borough President, and C. Virginia Fields, MSW, New York City Council, used the opportunity at the "Back to Our Roots" conference to remind us that social workers are the most uniquely qualified professionals to identify the impact of public policy and adverse social conditions on the lives of client groups we serve. Both serve as examples that politics is "social work with power".
Today's environment compels us to act in more aggressive ways-as grass roots lobbyists before legislative and executive branches of State government; it compels us to adopt the letter writing and fax techniques of the radical right; it compels us to give testimony on the consequences of withdrawing the government's safety net; it compels us to use "talk" radio and make our opinions known; it compels us to register clients to vote and help them assert their political voices; it compels us to work for the election of candidates who share our values and policy positions. We must discard the notion that partisanship and conflict are incompatible with professionalism. With this in mind, I'd like to invite all of you to join us in Albany on March 19 for the statewide Social Work Lobbying Day to challenge Governor Pataki's budget cuts, the deepest cuts in social and health services that have ever been made. Call the Chapter office, 212-668-0050, for more information.