Abstract
This book tells the important and until now mostly untold story of grassroots resistance to the implementation of welfare reform following the historic legislative overhaul of 1996. They Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back! is the culmination of a decade of careful scholarship by Ellen Reese and is outstanding in several respects. For welfare state scholars steeped in literature on retrenchment and the punitive turn taken by many state Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, the book provides a new look at the contested implementation of these policies on the ground, including instances when small, stigmatized groups won important changes. For social movement scholars, the book provides rich detail on the formation of grassroots coalitions and the conditions under which they succeed or fail. Finally, given the tumultuous politics that continue to rage in Reese’s two focal cases of California and Wisconsin, the book could not be timelier and serves as a useful primer on many of the key actors and programs at play.
The book compares two important cases to assess challenges to the implementation of welfare reforms that span multiple policy domains and constituencies, from the restoration of benefits to legal immigrants to battles over subsidized childcare and the organization of childcare workers. Wisconsin was ground zero for welfare reform and pioneered one of the most “work-focused” TANF programs in the country, “W-2.” By contrast, California and Los Angeles had the largest state and urban welfare recipient populations in the country, much more lenient policies, and offered far more liberal allies for activists to draw upon. The local political contexts figure heavily into Reese’s story; activists were typically more successful in California where they had political allies. Yet there are some notable wrinkles. Welfare and immigrant rights groups in Wisconsin forged a broad-based, multiracial coalition—prominently featuring Hmong refugees who were seen by politicians as more worthy recipients—that successfully overcame Republican opposition and forced welfare reform champion and Governor Tommy Thompson to support the restoration of Food Stamps for legal immigrants.
One lesson from the book is that coalitions advocating for the poor tend to be more successful when they are broad and multiracial and when they tackle issues that span multiple policy domains. A second lesson is that these coalitions are difficult to forge and sustain. Nowhere is this clearer than in the on-again, off-again coalitions between unions and welfare rights activists, which are conveyed in Chapters 4 through 6. Unlike the welfare rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s, unions were often interested and important players this time around. Welfare-to-work programs produced a new pool of low-wage workers and an organizing opportunity for unions, making a welfare rights–labor coalition plausible. Yet labor participation was uneven. The SEIU had initial success organizing welfare-to-work participants in Los Angeles where many were concentrated in public sector jobs. But the infusion of union resources and energy slowed once the union negotiated antidisplacement agreements so that their members were not threatened by the entry of welfare-to-work participants. Organizing had a much tougher time getting off the ground and gaining union support in Milwaukee. By contrast, joint advocacy for subsidized childcare and for the organization of childcare workers witnessed considerable success, particularly in Wisconsin. Unlike in California, Wisconsin activists in the 2000s were aided by a Democratic Governor’s executive order allowing for collective bargaining and the absence of any jurisdictional disputes among competing unions.
Many of the gains made by activists in the book were defensive ones, fighting off further cuts to embattled programs or pushing for greater public oversight of outsourced services. Reese’s meticulous fieldwork provides a balanced view of both the real changes and influence that local activists exerted over the process and the profound limits of this piecemeal brand of activism. These struggles occurred in more plentiful economic times. Advocates for welfare face a much more difficult path forward, particularly in states that have adopted more stringent TANF policies and where there are few sympathetic allies to draw on in or outside of the statehouse. A key player from several of the campaigns described in this book, the community association ACORN, is now disgraced and demobilized. What is more, Reese’s focal case of Wisconsin is in the midst of an upheaval over the elimination of most public sector collective bargaining. The likely outcome is the decimation of a resourceful progressive ally.
What lies ahead? In the concluding chapter Reese argues that building broader interest in welfare and workers’ rights issues requires more “than simply building coalitions . . . it requires an expanded vision for economic justice” (p. 187). Since this book’s publication a movement with such an expanded vision has emerged. Whether and how welfare rights advocates channel some of the energy and vision of Occupy Wall Street remains to be seen, but this important book provides a critical resource for those local activists willing to try.