Mothers and other Carers Under Attack! Act Now!
Welfare Reform Reauthorization and Valuing Caring Work.

As welfare ‘reform’ reauthorization (review and renewal) heats up in Congress, the voices of mothers must be heard.  Welfare ‘reform’ impacts all of us, whether or not now on welfare, in waged work or not. It is part of the growing gap in wages between women and men, is driving wages down, is low-waged work recruitment, and denies mothers the right to care for her own children.  Women and children will be left destitute when the clock stops on the 60-month lifetime limit to receiving benefits.

AFDC (welfare) was replaced with Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) in 1996. Welfare ‘reform’, dismantled welfare as an entitlement and a right; denies that caring for children is already a full time job that should be supported with economic resources; it tied receiving benefits to getting low waged or unwaged work outside the home; threw millions of women into extreme poverty, destitution, homelessness, and has criminalized thousands of mothers who are desperate to provide for their children and themselves, and have denied mothers who have been in prison the right to welfare, making it difficult for them to be reunited with their children.

Welfare ‘reform’ is a racist attack and promotes a racist tradition.  The majority of those now receiving welfare are Black and Latina women and children, As the percentage of people of color has increased on the rolls, the attacks on those receiving welfare has also increased.  It denies the work older women and women with disabilities do caring for themselves and others, forces lesbian women to name the father of their kids, puts women at risk of violent relationships, discourages breastfeeding and cuts benefits to immigrants. States can set benefit levels instead of one federally established higher level, with the Southern States paying the lowest levels, a continuation of a racist tradition.

We must demand accountability on the part of our so-called leaders as well as service providers to stand for the right of mothers to have a choice to care for their own children, and for our right to welfare.  Welfare is every woman’s insurance policy against complete dependence and starvation.  Our demands must be heard by elected officials, advocacy organizations including the poverty lobby.

Congress has until September 30, 2002 to reauthorize TANF.  They have already begun the reauthorization process. Now is the time for those of us who know that welfare should be a right and that caring for children is already a full-time job that deserves money and resources to have our voices heard; demanding welfare is to demand money for women not militarization and corporate welfare.

You are invited to be part of this national effort by Every Mother is A Working Mother (EMWM) to:  press for the valuation of the work of mothers and other carers to be reflected in welfare benefits and policy; to oppose the 5 year limit to receiving benefits; and to press for the right of mothers on welfare to work outside the home if we so choose with pay equity, quality childcare and protection from discrimination, for benefits not to be tied to immigration status, as well as to education and training of our choice; to ensure that the voices of mothers and other carers are heard and not sidelined;.  Right now mothers on welfare are being treated as if they have committed a ‘crime’ with home visits and other harassment, and told by governments and advocates alike that being a mother is not work. Mothering is Real Work, we want Real Wages! We will finalize our demands in the process of planning and having community dialogues, teach-ins and other forums.

As Every Mother is A Working Mother, we come together as a national network to: support the above; be accountable to moms on welfare and other carers; to commit some time and/or resources to our efforts; to work collectively; to oppose in welfare and other policy sexism, racism, discrimination of any kind including that based on sexual preference, age, national origin, disability, having a ‘criminal’ record.

History
Welfare is the first money women in the US have won for the work of caring for children and ourselves.  Welfare began as aid to women who were widowed or divorced.  Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC, which was originally ADC (Aid to Dependent Children), was in place for 65 years before it was destroyed by the Clinton Administration in 1996.  Although welfare was not called that, it was a form of wages for housework, money won from the government for the work of caring for children.

In attacking mothers on welfare, money is being taken out of the mouths of women and children and instead is being used in outrageous military spending including billions of dollars of our money on Star Wars programs, weapons in space and threats of military intervention anywhere in the world, beginning in countries of color (the so-called Third World) in order to protect the interests of US big business.  Meanwhile, in communities of color and other low- income communities, our children are being offered no option but low-waged work, prison or the army.  Forty percent of the US army today is people of color.  Democrats and Republicans intend to use our children to threaten or murder other people who are also being ripped off, in other parts of the world. We stand with women around the world to say no.

Mothers on welfare are now mandated into a killing workday, leaving very little time and energy to build and lead a movement as they have done in the past.  In place of a mother-led movement, we are now faced with a movement led by advocates who agree with the government plan to limit the choices for mothers receiving welfare to only a job outside the home, so that, they say, mothers can become productive members of society.  This ignores the fact that mothers are already working, and that what mothers and other carers want is a choice with economic and other support, not a mandate.

Join with Mothers and Carers around the World

Mothers and other carers wherever we live are fighting back, from mothers in villages in Uganda demanding a wage for caring work in the form the right to own land and animals, to indigenous women in Latin America demanding a wage for caring work as a human right, to women in England issuing a Mother’s Manifesto, to the Welfare Warriors in Wisconsin who are launching a map of the “bloated welfare empire” exposing corrupt advocacy groups, to women around the world who participate in the Global Women’s Strike (next one March 8, 2002) where the first of the Global demands is for a wage for caring work.

Your input is important and welcome; we look forward to working with you in making mothers voices heard and building towards a new and humane welfare.  Please contact us for further information and/or if you would like to be involved.

EMWM began in Los Angeles in 1996.  We campaign to establish that raising children and caring work is work, and that the time mothers spend raising children, and the economic value of that or our? work be included in our right to welfare and other resources.  We campaign for resources to enable a mother to raise her own children full-time or to also wok outside the home.  We are a national multiracial grassroots network of women from different situations.  EMWM is coordinated by the Wages for Housework Campaign.

Every Mother is A Working Mother Network
PO Box 14512, San Francisco, CA 94114
Tel/Fax: 415/626-4114   
Email: sf@crossroadswomen.net

Plan now to participate in Global Women’s Strike March 8, 2002
Strike web site address: http://womenstrike8m.server101.com

All Women Count