Welfare mothers fight back.

• Position: Wisconsin

Governor Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin has built a national reputation as a welfare reformer, so it was no surprise when he launched his "Work Not Welfare" program, which got a green light from the Clinton Administration in November. Like such previous Thompson programs as Learnfare and Bridefare, the new program aims to do away with "welfare dependency" by cutting off government benefits if women and children on AFDC fail to meet certain conditions. Under the new program, Thompson aims to end payments to AFDC recipients altogether after two years.

But the people who will be affected by this program are not taking it lying down. A group of mothers on welfare who call themselves the Welfare Rights Organizing Committee held a rally on the steps of the Capitol in Madison to protest the plan and speak out on what was wrong with it.

"Thompson is blaming poor mothers and their children for problems with the economy and further burdening the poor," says Terri Murray, one of the group's founders. "This doesn't address the causes of poverty." Murray and Fannie Mims, another member of the group, point out that welfare...