March 30, 1995
Joining in a national day of protest against the Republican's "Contract with America," SF State faculty and students from the School of Social Work put on their own protest yesterday.
The event in Malcolm X Plaza was one in more than a hundred rallies, marches and demonstrations held yesterday at colleges and universities across the country from New York City to Duluth, Minn., according to a report in yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle.
"It should be called the 'Contract on America.' How can the Republicans call this the 'peoples will' when only 23 percent of eligible voters actually voted?" said Emma Bonacich, a graduate student in social work and one of the protest organizers.
Speakers at the rally called the Republican contract an attack on children, mothers and the working poor.
"The idea that welfare is a waste of money is a myth," said Martha Roditti, a School of Social Work faculty member. "Welfare only makes up one percent of the entire budget. The monthly average for welfare payments is $367 a month. You try to live on that amount in San Francisco.
"The contract is attempting to punish the have-not's for being poor," Roditti said.
Some of the issues in the contract that are being questioned are the cuts to education, the elimination of welfare for unwed mothers under the age of 18, the cutting of student lunches and increased spending on prisons.
"The people who wrote this contract don't understand the plight of the working poor," said Katherine LaVean, a graduate social work student at the rally. "This contract does not affect the rich."
The School also set up a table in Malcolm X Plaza where students could send letters to Congress protesting the contract.
"People wrote about 30 letters to send to Congress in protest of the contract. I think that some people were moved to come over and write a letter," Bonacich said.
Alan Wolf, a graduate social work student, said there is a lot of significance in writing a letter to Congress.
"The cuts in welfare and other programs for the poor affects us social workers directly," Bonacich said. "It affects us because we are the people the funds are going through. The people in Congress have no contact with the poor."
The demonstrations were proposed by the Democratic Socialists of America and Bonacich felt that SF State should join in the nationwide call against the contract.
"I don't think people are aware of what the contract says. It's just another form of trickle-down economics," LaVean said. "The people at the top get the money and the poor at the bottom get the droplets."