U.S. a gleaming ship with too few lifeboats:
Conference supports social worker activism
By Deborah K. Shepherd, CSW, Assistant Director
(February/March 1996)
Comparing the United States to the Titanic, "a glittering, gleaming ship," which didn't have enough lifeboats for its passengers, Dr. Ruth Sidel, the keynoter for the Chapter's January 20 conference, "Back to Our Roots: Mobilizing Social Workers for Political and Social Action," noted that the rallying cry the night the great ship sank, "Women and children first," did not apply to poor women and children.
In her talk, "Keeping Women and Children Last: America's War on the Poor," Dr. Sidel, a social worker and professor of sociology at Hunter College, reminded her audience that although most the women and children in first and second class were rescued from the Titanic, 45% of the women and 70% of the children in steerage perished.
"This is a country of immense wealth and immense poverty...we are dividing people into we and they, into workers and idlers...into the worthy and the unworthy...The purpose of this dichotomous 'either/or' thinking is to break down people's feelings of empathy toward the poor in order to facilitate the enormous and inhumane cutbacks proposed and, in some states, already put through...," noted Dr. Sidel, adding that politicians have "...created an enemy within.
"Since the end of the Cold War, we don't have an external enemy to demonize, to blame everything on, to create solidarity among us...the creation of poor women and children as the enemy within fills that vacuum...it gives us someone to blame and creates solidarity against a hated and despised group...This campaign is diverting attention and blame from the serious problems we have in our society and from the affluent and powerful to blaming the poor and powerless...and it's coming at a time when middle and working class Americans have seen their incomes decline, when companies are doing better by laying off thousands of workers...when people who've played by the rules are feeling enormously insecure about their futures," she said.
The day-long conference, which brought together nearly 300 social workers and social work students, was organized to help social workers gain a deeper understanding about major philosophical shifts in public policy; to increase knowledge about the impact of rapid social change on social welfare policies, programs and communities; and to share approaches that make a difference by sharpening planning, organizing and activism skills to influence policy change and electoral politics.
Following Dr. Sidel's address, conference attendees chose from 15 different workshops, which dealt with lobbying techniques; media issues; voter registration; the legislative process; the budget system; local political structures; mobilization through unions; organizing at the neighborhood level; coalition building; the history of social movements; and the effects of policy shifts on the elderly, children, people with HIV/AIDS, the safety net, and health care.
The afternoon session featured a panel of political leaders: Manhattan Borough President and social worker Ruth Messinger; Luis Miranda, President of the Hispanic Federation of New York and former Chair of New York City's Health and Hospitals Corporation; and City Councilmember and social worker C. Virginia Fields. Ms. Messinger reminded the audience to "always give examples of programs that work" when lobbying elected officials and to "testify in dramatic terms about your work and the people you work with" to refute the "straw man" arguments that less government is better and that all services are better provided by the private sector rather than through public tax dollars.
"We need to talk about what works and about credible alternatives...We're also willing to talk about how some agencies need to be redesigned and how to apply tough standards...Don't accept their definition of us as 'muddlehead'," she exhorted.
Mr. Miranda spoke about why the social work agenda is losing ground.
He started with lack of discipline: "We spend half our lives arguing the most insignificant point...picking fights with each other even if we agree on six out of every ten issues...we spend too much energy on arguing instead of regaining the territory we've lost over the past seven years."
He urged the audience to make the commitment to "fund the candidates we believe in; some very powerful people are funding the opposition", and chided them for a lack of continuity: "We believe if we did some work for a candidate for a week, we're great...well, that's not good enough."
Ms. Fields also offered important suggestions, including the caveat that "...once we get Democrats elected, then we must hold them accountable to the agendas that make sense to us, our communities and the profession. We can't assume they'll do the right thing."
She also told audience members to move quickly to develop relationships with elected officials and their staff; to meet with allies to strategize how to get the message out; to get accurate and hard biting facts together; to get the message out that "...it's crazy for anyone to think we should be leasing or selling our municipal hospitals without asking what will happen to the people who use these hospitals"; to mobilize and testify ("...the changes in child welfare are happening because you continued to keep the issue in front of us"); to lobby the City Council, State Legislature and Congress; and to keep supporters and elected officials abreast of what's happening in programs.
She concluded, with a note of pride in her voice, that "...social workers are leading the charge around so many
critical issues facing us today."
Congressmember Charles Rangel was scheduled to provide a send-off to the group, but was called on to lead the New York Delegation to the funeral of former Texas Congressmember Barbara Jordan. State Assemblyman Keith Wright proved to be an able stand-in to "...move us ahead in 1996 and beyond," as Chapter President Barbara Brenner noted in her introduction.
Assemblyman Wright got a round of applause when he expressed his approval of NASW's Lobby Day on March 19: "I can't wait to see ALL of you in Albany!"
He spoke of the frightening "destructive agenda" of the new Republican leaders, but added that "...just as frightening is the deafening silence of the good people who feel powerless to effect social change...We must change the expression that 'People of power have no good will and that people of good will have not power.'
"The mission for '96 is clear: Send the message that enough is enough...We must all be one voice and stand as one body. Remember what Benjamin Franklin said: 'If we don't hang together, they will hang us separately'."
The New York City Labor Chorus provided a rousing end to the day and a fitting kick-off to the next stage of NASW's social and political action agenda.