top
San Francisco
San Francisco
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

PSL Forum: Capitalist Crisis and the California Budget

Date:
Friday, July 31, 2009
Time:
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Event Type:
Meeting
Organizer/Author:
Party for Socialism and Liberation
Email:
Phone:
415-821-6171
Address:
2489 Mission St., #28 SF CA 94110
Location Details:
2489 Mission St. Rm. 28, San Francisco
$3 - $5 donation requested, no one turned away for lack of funds.
(Refreshments served. Cross street 21st. Near 24th St. BART. MUNI #14, 49, 26. Parking garage located one block west on 21st. St. btwn. Mission & Valencia, parking cost $2/hr.)

PSL Forum and Discussion
Capitalist Crisis and the California Budget
Friday, July 31, 7pm

California is facing a budget deficit of nearly $20 billion. Why are we facing this situation? Is it really because there are no resources to pay for these basic needs? No! It is because trillions of dollars are being used not to help our communities and the people most in need but to save and reward the richest banks, insurance companies and corporations that have created the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Prior to the economic crisis, the state of California covered its expenses from property taxes that soared during the housing boom, the retail sales tax, payroll taxes and personal income taxes. The state budget was drafted with the assumption that these revenues would continue to rise. Once the housing crisis hit, the bottom fell out of the state’s fiscal planning. To make matters worse, during the economic boom, members of the legislature voted huge tax breaks for their friends in big business. If the big businesses were paying taxes at the same rate they did 20 years ago, there would be no state budget crisis at all!

Today, the debate in Sacramento is centered around how the shortfall will be broken on the backs of working people. Ruling class politicians tell working people that there is just no money, so we all have to brace for difficult times. But the fact that the government can give trillions of dollars of bail-out money to banks and corporations completely dispels the claim that there is no money available for the people.

Health care is a fundamental human right. Yet 47 million people in the United States have no health care coverage whatsoever. Millions more have limited access to health care services. The ruling class treats health care not as a right but as a commodity that exists for the profit of pharmaceutical and insurance company owners.

The economic crisis has exacerbated the health care crisis. It has affected access to coverage as millions have lost their jobs—directly losing health care or losing the income that paid for health care.
While workers are losing jobs, insurance, homes and savings, the Obama administration has expressed no obligation, let alone any urgency in fulfilling the right to health care. Such urgency has applied to bailing out bankers, CEOs, and the capitalist class—who caused the crisis. They have been the recipients of the most massive transfer of wealth from the working class to the ruling class in history.

What the administration has done is initiate a debate on health care reform. However, that debate falls far short, because it fails to recognize health care as a right and seeks to protect the profits of the health care industry. Single-payer health care—a comprehensive, public plan for covering every person in the United States—is the only currently proposed reform that could move towards a solution of the U.S. health care crisis.

Hear reports on a socialist perspective on the California budget crisis, the health care crisis, why the capitalist state continues to fail working people in delivering the most basic necessities, and how to fight against continued attacks on people’s basic rights.


For more info, or to reserve free childcare (please call at least one day in advance if you would like childcare) contact PSL at 415-821-6171.

Check out our website:
http://www.pslweb.org/
Daily News & Analysis from a Marxist Perspective

The Party for Socialism and Liberation has a website filled with great political material from a Marxist perspective. On it, you can get news and analysis, breaking stories, learn about PSL events across the country, download audio and video and other political resources, find out how to get involved with the PSL and much more. Go to the website and look around, bookmark it and share it with your friends and family. Check http://www.pslweb.org/ each day for updated information and news. Make socialism a part of your everyday life!

Subscribe to
Socialism and Liberation Journal
and check out our bi-weekly newspaper
http://www.pslweb.org/
Daily News & Analysis from a Marxist Perspective

Socialism and Liberation Journal is a quarterly publication for activists by activists. Get a Marxist analysis of the critical political developments of the day, reports on liberation struggles around the world, and educational articles with content that every activist should learn. Go to http://www.pslweb.org/ to read current selections and back issues and to find out how to subscribe. Liberation is our biweekly newspaper. Go to http://www.pslweb.org/ to read it and find out more about the working class struggle.
Added to the calendar on Mon, Jul 27, 2009 9:09PM
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$110.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network