"Flip the Funding" to Save Jobs, Services, and Education!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 21, 2011

CONTACT: Margaret Viggiani, 206-722-6057 (office) or 206-883-3053 (cell)

SISTERS ORGANIZE FOR SURVIVAL (SOS) ANNOUNCES CAMPAIGN TO
“FLIP THE FUNDING” TO BALANCE THE BUDGET

As politicians in Olympia strive to balance an “all-cuts” budget, Sisters Organize for Survival (SOS), a campaign of Radical Women, kicks off a joint labor and community based campaign to Flip the Funding to balance the budget. Flip the Funding refers to a shift in the way funds are garnered and spent.

The campaign is a direct response to the governor’s proposals to balance the budget by raising tuition and reducing funds for Basic Health, food stamps, childcare assistance and other programs. “We are concerned about the across-the-board cuts to safety net programs that are included in the governor’s budget proposal,” says social service advocate, Annaliza Torres. “People who rely upon health care, workforce training programs, or general assistance are going to be severely impacted at a time when there is so much need and so many unemployed.”

Organizers of the drive say it’s possible to preserve social services, health care and education by addressing where the state gets revenue and how it spends it. A brochure they have produced, Flip the Funding, states, “Helping the poor creates jobs. …Workers’ wages and aid to the needy are recycled directly back in to the economy to pay for groceries, transportation, rents and mortgages.”

SOS Coordinator Gina Petry comments, “There are many ways to increase revenue, such as taxing the windfall profits of oil companies, ending business exemptions, and suspending interest payments on state loans.” Working mom Waheeda Francis declares, “The government’s job is to help people live, not increase profits for a handful of big corporations.”

Flip the Funding campaigners assert that cutting wages and benefits for public employees is also unnecessary. Bernadette Logue, a University of Washington staffer says, “I’m tired of having the media and politicians blame me and my co-workers for the budget mess. State legislators gave Microsoft a $100 million a year tax break and our jobs get cut – it’s crazy!”

As part of the campaign, SOS has initiated a petition drive to “Unite to save jobs and services.” The appeal requests that union leaders mobilize a massive labor and community rally against budget cuts in Olympia on President’s Day, Monday, Feb. 21, 2011. The rally would call on legislators to tax the profits of huge companies and end the billions of dollars of corporate tax giveaways; petition Congress to end the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and return billions of tax dollars to Washington state; and use the money to restore funding for health care, education, social services, job programs and other crucial government services. To date, over 1,000 signatures have been gathered.

Steve Hoffman, a signature gatherer and shop steward for Washington Federation of State Employees, believes joint action is required: “Every union and progressive community group goes down and lobbies for its own needs. We end up fighting each other for crumbs. This strategy is a dead end. We need to stand together – arm in arm – an injury to one must be seen as an injury to all!”

SOS intends to keep the pressure on to save jobs and services throughout the legislative session.

SOS is a community grassroots campaign and meetings are open to all. Organizing meetings are on second and fourth Thursdays, 7pm at New Freeway Hall, 5018 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle. The next meeting is Thursday, Jan. 27.

For more information, to sign the petition or get a copy of the Flip the Funding
pamphlet, contact SOS at 206-722-6057, rwseattle@mindspring.com or www.sistersorganizeforsurvival.org