While many a progressive folk and organization are celebrating the victory of Barack Obama and intently watching the formation of his administration, the winds of a Depression are howling at our doorsteps.  Most all economic indicators are rapidly drawing their dangerous spiral downward; while the current and future administrations are refueling the coffers of the rich.  And so those of us who care must now turn our attention to the immediate needs of our communities as well as the serious economic issues facing our cities.

Lord knows what will happen in ‘09 but I for one feel the winds of the great Depression growing stronger every day.  And sadly with Obama surrounding himself with hawks, free traders, free marketers, de-regulators and assorted Clintonites ~ Change may simply become the political jingle that feeds the Obama Army to mindlessly follow its political leader into the abyss of a re-invented Free Market Capitalism. I cannot argue that there is not the potential of hope blowing in these winds; however have we not seen this hope-a-blowing in 1992 and recently witnessing a congress that ignored the winds of hope and change in ‘06 in preference for the (Free) trade winds of capitalism and imperialism?

How does all this National rhetoric and gloom & doom play here In Connecticut?  Well if you are Nicholas Perna you would believe that we are just headed into an “economic downturn” and not a Depression. Well forgive me folks but Hartford is currently experiencing double digit unemployment (11.4% in October) and so not far from the 25% unemployment rate of the Great Depression.  But geez I keep forgetting that we white-wash these horrific statistics and simply prove our insensitivity and neglect to the plight of those living in our urban centers ~ kinda like Cheshire vs. Hartford or Racial Attacks in Plainfield.  So why wouldn’t we be similarly insensitive when it comes to economic violence.  But heck I’m not an economic adviser to Webster Financial Corp. or on Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s economic advisory board, so WTF do I know, eh?

Yet just over the last few months we have read about extensive budget and staff cuts for Legal Aid Services in New Haven and Hartford, the closing of the Greater Hartford Literacy Council, a projected 46% Cut to AIDS Services, a 95% increase in foreclosure notices since October ‘08, state cuts in Medicaid services for Interpreters, Cuts to City Wide services such as LEAP and Homelessness, an October 2008 unemployment rate at 6.5% for CT and 11.4% in Hartford, Connecticut tax collections continuing their downward trend with just a 1.6% increase for third quarter ’07 to ’08 and likely to go negative in subsequent years, and on and on and on.  And so clearly 2009 will only be worse and the impacts will be severely felt by the poor and children of this state.

All this becomes even starker when one considers a CBPP Report indicating that “Because the recession is likely to be deep, the government safety net for very poor families who lack jobs has weakened significantly in recent years, increases in deep poverty in this recession are likely to be severe.” Particularly telling is that Goldman Sachs is now predicting the nationwide unemployment rate in the last quarter of 2009 will reach 9% ~ and these numbers are being revised almost weekly due to the rapidly deteriorating economy! This same report indicates that between September 2006 and October 2008, the unemployment rate for workers age 25 and over who lack a high school diploma — a heavily low-income group — increased from 6.3 percent to 10.3 percent!  Just imagine what this rate will be in 2009?  And so maybe for an educated minority, 2009 will represent simply a recession though for the poor it will be, if it not already is, a Depression!!  Another sign of a spiraling depression is the food stamp caseloads which have increased dramatically in recent months, rising by 2.6 million people or 9.6 percent between August 2007 and August 2008, the latest month for which data are available.  And so many thanks to the Reagan and Clinton (read Obama?) policies our State general assistance programs — formerly the safety net of last resort — has been essentially eradicated across the country.

And so we and our children have come to inherit the impacts of the Reagan, Clinton and Bush economic shock doctrines that have entrenched their ugly tentacles into our lives and as Naomi Klein so eloquently notes disaster capitalism has come home to roost.  Yet from my perspective, it is time we put a nail in the coffin of Friedman economics and Free Market Capitalism and resurrect an economy based upon social capital and demand a return of the vital Social Safety nets that were put in place, if not only briefly, many decades ago.

And so with all this gloom and doom most of us are asking the question: What can we do? I will at least give my food for thought, though would encourage folks to comment on what they think we can do.  Geez if we can rant about Marriage, I will be curious to see if we can rant about some of the fundamental social issues facing all communities, progressive or not.  Some excellent examples have appeared around the Connecticut Blogs.

• Calling Statewide Legal Services to volunteer
• Take a a 40-hour medical interpretation course sponsored by the Eastern Area Health Education Center and become a volunteer Medial Interpreter, to offset Statewide cuts
• Take your outrage to the “streets” in protest to the budget cuts
• Join Juan Figueroa and the United Health Care Foundation in its legislative efforts to address the growing health care crisis in the state
• Volunteer with Hartford Food Not Bombs in their amazing work in sharing food with anyone who is hungry
• Engage in a phone Zap on World AIDS day demanding a stop to the $3 million proposed cuts to AIDS services by the Ct Dept of Public Health!
• Support Ct Voices for Children in their work on expanding investment in our middle and lower income families through expansion of affordable housing and foreclosure assistance, child care subsidies, need-based college scholarship aid, state aid for K-12 education, and a state EITC. These investments should be financed through a more progressive state income tax. In 1991, the state income tax threshold for a family of four was 73% above the federal poverty level. However, today, the threshold is just 14% over the poverty line, the largest decline in the nation. Connecticut’s trend is the opposite of most states. On average, states have increased their tax thresholds by 25% relative to the poverty level. See their report here and here.