CALIFORNIANS IN THE Schwarzenegger era face one of the most dangerous times in our history for our most fundamental values, including quality education, safety standards for patients, retirement security for families, respect for the rights of working people, dignity for the most vulnerable members of society, and the preservation of democracy.

That's why tens of thousands of Californians have already taken to the streets to protest Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, why his popularity is plummeting, and why scores are mobilizing to greet him at an exclusive fundraiser April 5, 6 p.m., at the Ritz-Carlton, at Stockton and California Streets.

Schwarzenegger rode into office under the guise of a populist, buttressed by his silver-screen image and a personal fortune through which he perpetrated the myth that he "could not be bought."

But once in office, he has cloaked the most strident corporatist agenda of any California governor in the rhetoric of "reform" and shattered all records for fundraising from wealthy donors, who are opening their wallets with glee at the prospect of deregulation, privatization, increased corporate influence over our daily lives, and the wholesale auctioning of public resources to the highest bidder.

Even after months of protests, Schwarzenegger continues to portray draconian initiatives as common-sense measures opposed only by narrow "special interests" – nurses, teachers, firefighters, students, public employees, and, most pointedly, unions – while he devalues patients, work, and the whole of California's diverse population.

Take a quick look at some of his current proposals:

• The privatization of pensions for public employees – a transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars to Wall Street and the advance guard of the Bush administration's plan to privatize Social Security.

• The rollback of minimum-safety rules for hospital patients, part of a not-so-hidden agenda for the deregulation of all health care protections and the enrichment of his health care industry donors.

• Reduced funding for education and employment security for teachers, which accelerates an assault on public education that could cement a permanent chasm between those who can afford private education and those who can't.

• Mean-spirited attacks on the poor and disadvantaged, symbolized by the new regulation to seize the homes and other assets of the families of Medi-Cal recipients.

• An offensive against working people, including restrictions on the right to meals and breaks, vetoes of bills to raise the minimum wage and curb outsourcing, and the much ballyhooed workers' compensation plan that cut disability payments for workers injured on the job by as much as 70 percent.

Undergirding this program is a relentless attack on many of the principal institutions that encourage and support political and economic democracy (and thus are seen as an economic burden inimical to his ultracorporatist agenda). Examples include:

• Usurping the legislature through bogus "emergency" regulations and the cynical manipulation of the initiative process through threats to the legislature to cave in to his proposals or face elections in which he can overwhelm opponents with massive fundraising.

• Undermining the legal system by floating court decisions and restricting legal redress against corporate abuse.

• Manipulating the media through staged events and the production of fake video news releases.

• Demonizing unions in an effort to silence the collective voice of working people.

This is not just a bad infomercial. In Schwarzenegger's world, no one is safe when democracy and our basic protections and rights are under assault, except for the big corporations that are abetted by their cheerleader in Sacramento.

Schwarzenegger once said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that he won't stop fundraising – because no one's asked him to. Join us at the Ritz to do just that. Let's shut down his cash machine.

Rose Ann DeMoro is executive director of the California Nurses Association. For more information on the protest, go to www.calnurses.org or call (510) 273-2240.