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Subject: Linking Militarization & Urban Plight in Los Angeles
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POSITIVE ALTERNATIVES
A Publication of the CENTER FOR ECONOMIC CONVERSION

Published quarterly. Materials in POSITIVE ALTERNATIVES may be
reprinted if this publication and the CENTER for ECONOMIC CONVERSION are
credited and a copy is sent to CEC.

** Written  4:46 pm  Aug 10, 1992 by dwalt in cdp:econconversion **
THE BELLY OF THE BEAST:
Linking Militarization & Urban Plight in Los Angeles
by Cynthia Hamilton

Between 1976 and 1986 there were austerity protests in over eighty cites
around the world. On April 30 , Los Angeles joined this list of cities. While
the conditions of austerity around the globe have been imposed largely by
the International Monetary Fund in exchange for loans, in Los Angeles
similar austerity measures have resulted in a reduction of all public
spending, the elimination of public subsidies (for things like housing and
health care), and wage restraints. These measures have been imposed by
an administration anxious to solve its economic problems at the expense
of the poor.

President Bush's initial budget for a "kinder, gentler, America" in 1988/89
slashed $21 billion in domestic spending (while giving military programs
an inflation increase), including health programs for the Special
Supplement Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children, and
appropriation for funds to operate the nation's public housing projects.
According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, "the budget is
likely to widen the gap between the wealthy and the poor and the gap
between the wealthy and the middle class."

Public Dollars For Private Growth
     There is no more obvious example of the widening divide which
domestic economic policy has produced  than we find in Los Angels. While
billions in national domestic spending were being cut, Los Angeles County
firms (1,284 of them) received (FY 90) 4,184 Department of Defense
Contracts worth $8.9 billion; ten firms received 80% of the money.

This disproportionate distribution is augmented when we look at the way
anti poverty funds, largely block grant funds (administrated through the
Community Development Department) are awarded. For years, funds have
been disproportionately awarded to areas with low poverty levels, like
West Los Angeles, while areas like South/Central L.A. receive the lowest
allocation per person in poverty of all six administrative districts. Only
23% of all requests for funding from South Central are approved.
(Curran,1988)

When analysts ask what happened in Los Angeles, these are the essential
realities which must be addressed. Yet the media has said nothing of the
19.5% Black unemployment rate nor has anyone acknowledged that L.A. has
a black poverty rate higher than the nation (15.6%); no one mentions that
in Los Angeles 75% of the families living below poverty pay one half of
their income for rent or that 14% of those with full time jobs live in
poverty because of low wages (17.5% of the jobs in the city are low wage
jobs, paying $11,000 per or less per year).

Ironically, California, the home of the nation's anti public spending
ideology has been and remains the recipient of the government's greatest
spending. According to Edward Soja of the UCLA Graduate School of
Architecture and Urban Planning:

        South California has been by far the largest recipient of prime
        defense contracts since the 1940s. The continued expansion of
        high technology industries in the 1980s has been promoted still
        further by the military centered Keynesianism of the Reagan
        Administration, with L.A. County in particular being one of
        the leading beneficiaries of research funding for Star
        Wars. . ." (Soja, 1989)

The military dependency of the region has made it very vulnerable to any
decrease in defense spending. In addition, the impact of layoffs has
disproportionately impacted minorities; already minorities make up 53%
of laid off aerospace workers (Economic Roundtable, 1992), even though
minorities are far less than half of the aerospace workforce.

An Increasingly Polarized Workforce
     Aerospace has long been the focus of the high tech industrial complex,
which includes civilian aircraft production, advanced electronics, space
exploration, weapons research and defense contracting.  As old blue collar
industries declined in Los Angeles, high tech boomed and with this
dramatic shift and restructuring the polarization in the labor force and
society was solidified.

The areas in the West San Fernando Valley and Orange County, home to
electronic components plants, have grown while the largest number of
plant closing (old manufacturing like auto, steel, and rubber) were in the
inner city and surrounding working class suburbs. Incidentally, these areas
were the home of the largest sector of the Black population as well.

These developments are not new. Industry began moving to the City's
periphery after World War II. As jobs moved so too did the white
population, to better housing and better services, leaving inner city
residents vulnerable to unemployment and its accompanying economic
disaster.

The Black population's initial immigration to the West Coast was
precipitated by war production on the assembly lines at the shipyards and
aircraft plants, but since then there has been little to sustain the
community. Blacks had to fight the racism and sexism in the aerospace
industry even in a time of labor shortage. Black women were the first to
challenge the racism of the Southland when they marched for jobs in the
aerospace industry during World War II. They insisted that while "our boys
are good enough to fight for the protection of our country against
invaders, we the mothers and wives of these soldiers are sick and tired of
having our right to earn a decent living invaded." (Hamilton, 1988/89)

Nationally, Blacks have made greater employment gains in the public
sector than in  the private sector. The California economy spurred
development of highways, freeways and infrastructure as well as
subsidized agriculture. This has allowed the private sector to grow at the
public's expense. Public dollars are used to "prepare" investment
opportunities. The location of corporations outside the inner city was also
facilitated by government subsidies (in housing, highways and
infrastructure development). All of these factors contributed to the
underdevelopment of the Black community in Southern California.

Subsidizing the Defense Beast While Gutting Social Policy
     Any discussion of public policy must begin with an obvious irony,
"modern capitalism has become progressively more deeply and intricately
dependent on state policies." (Piven,1987:94) However, while corporate
development experiences this "dependency" critics of domestic social
programs rail against the dependency of the poor, of women, minorities,
and workers. It is perhaps not ironic that defense contractors are among
the biggest contributors funding Governor Wilson's current  ballot
initiative  to cut welfare, while most of these  contractors have been on
the government dole for years.

Government and corporate managers trumpet the virtues of the market as
the final arbiter of progress and development; the market  they say, should
be left unencumbered by social welfare, workers'  insurance, and all other
such "interventions." While citizens are warned against dependency,
corporations are free to pursue government support and financial
guarantees. Policies have been designed to aid corporate profits by
maintaining consumption and a low wage workforce. These policies have
been designed to assist growth, not eliminate poverty. It is inevitable that
these policies would underlie growing inequality and contradictions in
society.

The public sector has the potential for promoting equality. But instead we
find the California economy moving in the opposite direction. The
draconian cuts in all social expenditures, particularly in education ($2.3
billion in cuts anticipated) will have long term consequences for the state
but particularly for youth and minorities, including the large numbers
employed by this sector. Current social policy is pushing many beyond the
limit of tolerance, hence the events in Los Angeles. Our social policies are
exacerbating  the inequality caused by our economic policies. As the
underclass grows and as more people are pushed from the middle class,
demands will increase. Also, while tax payers are forced  to fuel a costly
and beastly defense budget, opportunity for substantial economic recovery
is stifled. It is time that we redirect the massive contracts awarded to
develop weapons of destruction to develop a peace economy which offers
opportunity and a better quality of life for all residents of the state.

     CYNTHIA HAMILTON, PhD, is Associate Professor of Pan-African
Studies at California State University in Los Angeles.

REFERENCES:
Curran, Ron,  "The Mayor and the White Power Structure." LOS ANGELES
WEEKLY, December 10, 11 (4), 8-11, 1988.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.  "The Bush Budget:  Progress
Toward a Kinder, Gentler America?" Washington D.C., February 17,  1989.
Economic Roundtable. "Los Angeles County Economic Adjustment Strategy
for Defense reduction in  Los Angeles." L.A., 1992.
Hamilton, Cynthia,. "The Making of an American Bantustan." LOS ANGELES
WEEKLY. December 10, 11 (4), 32-40, 1988.
Piven, Frances, Barbara Ehrenreich, Richard Cloward, Fred Block, THE MEAN
SEASON, THE ATTACK ON THE WELFARE STATE. New York: Pantheon Books,
1987.
Soja, Edward,  POSTMODERN GEOGRAPHIES. New York: Verso, 1989.

** End of text from cdp:econconversion **

******************************************************************
                     THE CENTER FOR ECONOMIC CONVERSION
                222 View St., Suite C, Mountain View CA 94041
                  Tel: [phone]    FAX: [phone]
                          Email: [e-mail]
The CENTER for ECONOMIC CONVERSION is a non-profit public benefit
corporation dedicated to building a sustainable peace-oriented economy.
Founded in 1975, the organization serves as a national resource center and
a catalyst for conversion planning. CEC provides educational materials;
speakers; organizing assistance to conversion activists; technical
assistance to workers, managers and public officials confronting military
cutbacks; and research on conversion issues.

Beth Delson, Editor; Michael Closson, Executive Director; Joan Holtzman,
Development Coordinator; Marie Jones, Conversion Planner; Susan Strong,
Senior Research Associate; Rosemary Wick, Office Manager.
******************************************************************