1975 New York ‘budget crisis,’ like today’s, was excuse to attack pensions, services

[Hannah Bell]

This is from 2002, but still on point (IMO)



What really happened in New York City in 1975? Like the so-called financial crisis today, the one then was a scam that enriched the billionaires at the expense of working people.

In late 1974 the billionaire families that rule New York proclaimed a "budget crisis." The city government owed $4.3 billion on short-term debts to wealthy bondholders. Democratic mayor Abraham Beame claimed the debts could not be paid with the income received from taxes and other revenue.

The banks--led by Citibank, Chase, and Morgan--pretended they would not lend any more money to such a "high risk" situation. So the New York state government stepped in with the Municipal Assistance Corporation. Known as "Big Mac," it was run by a nine-person board that included six top officials of banks, brokerage houses, and other businesses...

As a condition for these loans, Big Mac demanded "sacrifice." The government launched a campaign to slash city services and fire thousands of municipal employees and to deal blows to their unions. The top union officials went along with the bosses’ calls for concessions. More than 63,000 municipal employees were fired. Some 15,000 teachers and 4,000 hospital workers were shown the door between 1975 and 1976. Transit fares jumped from 35 cents to 50 cents.

At the City University of New York, free tuition, dating back 129 years, was eliminated. Open admissions, won as a by-product of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, allowing anyone with a high school diploma or equivalency to go to college, was gutted. The cutbacks reduced enrollment by tens of thousands, with the ax coming down hardest on Blacks, Latinos, and other oppressed nationalities....

As the Militant pointed out in its June 27, 1975, issue, "The financial crisis of New York is an elaborate fraud perpetrated to enable the city to fire workers. What Big Mac’s creation actually proves is that the money was there all along--it was just a question of what conditions the banks demanded to make the loans."

http://www.themilitant.com/2002/6646/664665.html

[RandomThoughts]

1. They think they are like Gods

Makes sense they would want people to sacrifice to them.

I will not sacrifice to them.

If they continue to decide to take from me without better actions for society, the debt will just pile up on them.

And they will pay. They know I am due what I claim.

[Puzzler]

2. In BC in the early 90's we had a similar situation...

... the (left of center) NDP got into power and all of a sudden the political right (with huge assistance from the media) promoted a largely manufactured "budget crisis".

[Greyhound]

3. Gotta K&R this one for the kids.

I was a kid back than and I remember how funny the family thought it was that they'd actually pulled it off. It seems many of the rich still believed that there were penalties for breaking the rules back then.
:kick: & R

[JDPriestly]

4. Obama suggested in his town hall with CNBC that the "entitlements"

are a problem. He did not defend Social Security. It's on the hatchet block. And those of us who rely on it for our daily bread are looking into a very dark future. We supported our parents and grandparents -- and now Obama is refusing to support us. Enough said.

[Starry Messenger]

5. k

[rucky]

6. r

[stray cat]

7. We must save the guaranteed pensions of senators and congress