Food For Thought
Food For Thought “WASHINGTON - Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks was remembered Monday as a courageous woman whose defiance in the face of segregation helped inspire the architects of the civil rights movement and set an example for generations to follow. An overflow crowd of mourners joined official Washington to pay tribute to the woman whose refusal to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Ala., city bus helped galvanize the modern civil rights movement.”- KEN THOMAS, Associated Press Writer
The body of Mrs. Rosa Parks laid in state in the US Capital Rotunda a rare honor for most AmeriKKKans let alone a woman of African ancestry. I find it interesting that in death Mrs. Parks was accorded such and honor. The passing of a dignified and humble woman whose strong will, quiet strength and indomitable spirit was the catalyst that sparked the movement to dismantle government sanctioned racial caste in Alabama and subsequently the whole nation merits such a gesture. Her quiet courage and dogged determination set the standard by which we should judge ourselves and our lives. At a time when people of African descent had no rights white folks were obligated to respect, Rosa Parks by refusing to acquiesce to racial caste, legalized dehumanization and terrorism helped galvanize us as a people to respect ourselves, to reaffirm our humanity and demand our right to be treated with dignity. I found it interesting that people who in my view hold many of the same views and opinions about black folks and people of color in general that Mrs. Parks transcended filed by the casket containing her earthly remains at a ceremony honoring her today in Washington D.C. The Associated Press called the roll of many Washington dignitaries who “paid their respects” to the former seamstress and NAACP Secretary, people like
George W Bush, the noted warmonger his partner in crime Donald Rumsfeld and Michael Chertoff head of FEMA who certainly did not help the reputation of the federal government by the abysmal way his agency responded to Hurricane Katrina. Senator Bill Frist the Republican Senate leader and Supreme Court Justice nominee Samuel Alito were mentioned in the AP article. Far be it from me to speculate about their motives for attending Mrs. Parks memorial or the make up of their hearts. Perhaps they came to pay homage to the life and spirit of Mrs Parks. But I will say, the measure of paying homage to someone’s character and purpose goes beyond mere photo ops and charades of respect.
The same goes for all the black people who are essentially spectators in life. Unlike Rosa Parks they have not committed to anything noble or life changing. Far too many of us are content letting the Rosa Parks of the world take all the risks, go to jail and suffer. Our applause and admiration of Mrs. Parks rings hollow if we are not willing to commit ourselves to something worthwhile, purposeful and honorable to make this world a better place! What could be more honorable than standing up (or in Mrs. Parks case remaining seated) for yourself, your people and social change? Granted we all can’t be Rosa Parks, but there were hundreds and thousands of other folk who rallied around her and supported the bus boycott, their nickels, dimes and dollars helped pay lawyers to defend her and appeal her conviction all the way to the US Supreme Court. And they rightly shared in her victory when she/they won! Many of the working class black folks of Montgomery Alabama lost their jobs, faced intimidation and threats because of their support of the boycott, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mrs. Parks. Nevertheless they stood together and buoyed each other up. Another little known statistic is that during the 381 day bus boycott crime went down in the black community. Black folks were so focused and so united, black on black crime went down in Montgomery Alabama during the tension filled time of the bus boycott. Black folks realized the need to stick together, trust each other and lean on one another. not prey on or exploit one another. We as a people need to revisit and reprise that pattern.
What does the life of Rosa Parks mean to you? If anything? What lessons can we glean and take from what she stood for and accomplished to make our lives more meaningful and purposeful? It is fitting, right and well we pause and remember Rosa Parks. It is imperative we not forget her courage, her strong will and determination and that she remain a Shero to and for us. But that is not enough. We must follow her example, get involved and believe we can make a difference. Whether it is opposing an evil like racial discrimination and caste, Bu$h’s war or the lack of vision and purpose in our communities or in our lives, we must emulate Mrs. Park and take action! Do something to make a difference. Make this world a better place. That is the lesson, legacy and charge of Rosa Parks.
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Remembering Rosa parks
Remembering Rosa Parks “Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it. I kept thinking about my mother and my grandparents, and how strong they were. I knew there was a possibility of being mistreated, but an opportunity was being given to me to do what I had asked of others.” - Rosa Parks from her book
Quiet Strength 1994
On Monday October 24, 2005 Mrs. Rosa Parks experienced the great transitional rite of passage we call death at the age of 92. Mrs Parks was an icon for human rights, the indomitable human spirit and the idea one person can make a huge difference in the world! Rosa Parks came into the public consciousness when on December 1,1955 she refused to surrender her seat on a Montgomery Alabama bus to a white man. Her act of defiance which ,in those days could have resulted in bodily harm or death was the catalyst for what is called the
Civil Rights Movement. Mrs. Parks' action resulted in her arrest. She was the secretary of the local NAACP, a well liked and upstanding member of the community. and Her arrest ignited the slumbering spark of courage and resistance in her people. Once news of her arrest spread, the NAACP and local ministers mobilized and galvanized the community to get her out of jail, support her at her trial but most importantly do something to eliminate racial caste oppression in Montgomery Alabama. The ministers and NAACP formed the Montgomery Improvement Association and initiated a boycott of the city’s transit bus system that lasted 381 days. They formed car pools, they challenged the business and political leadership of Montgomery to make changes. But most importantly they stood unified and firm in the face of terroristic threats upon their safety. Rosa Park was a gentile woman soft spoken, mannerly yet strong willed and determined to make a difference. Would that more of us had that kind of spirit and courage.
The incident on December 1, 19955 was no fluke. Rosa Parks was not just tired that day as myth makers have suggested. Rosa Parks had committed herself to changing conditions for African-Americans in the South. Along with her NAACP activism she attended the
Highlander Folks School in Grundy County Tennessee an educational training compound for worker’s rights and racial justice. There, her resolve to end the dehumanizing conditions black people were forced to live under was bolstered and she returned to Montgomery more dedicated to the struggle for human decency and justness. The era in which Rosa Louise McCauly grew up was very oppressive for people of African descent. Black people had no rights whites were bound to respect and were often the targets of vicious and virulent attacks, lynching were common and blacks faced degradation on a daily basis. She made her living as a seamstress. She and her husband Raymond Parks were integral parts of the Montgomery community. Her courageous stand led not only to the unification and empowerment of the Montgomery black community but her arrest and conviction on charges of disorderly conduct and violating the Montgomery segregation laws and her subsequent appeals led to the US Supreme Court ruling the segregated bus service was unconstitutional. Rosa Parks was a fighter. She could have folded due to the immense pressure the reactionary white community put on her, Martin Luther King Jr and the rest of the Montgomery Improvement Association leadership. But to their credit they resisted the temptation to cave in to fear and they were able to galvanize the black community. Their boycott devastated the Montgomery economy. Not only did buses stand idle for over a year the downtown retail area which was also segregated lost tons of money as the blacks refused to shop there or couldn’t easily get downtown without public transportation. The whites capitulated not out of any sense of moral rectitude but because their businesses were losing money! Parks' appeals went all the way to the US Supreme Court. Her case is considered the landmark because it applied to all segregationist laws, not just those affecting interstate commerce. It was a major victory against oppression and racial caste.
In later years Mrs. Parks moved to Detroit where she remained active. She worked in the office of US Congressman John Conyers for several years. She established the
Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development and was a much sought after speaker until her health declined. Her’s was a life well lived with purpose dignity and meaning. Let us wish her Soul well in its journey home, but most importantly let us emulate her strong will, her courage her willingness to sacrifice for her people and her commitment to social justice.
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The Supreme Irony
The Supreme Irony BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Oct. 22 - Forty-two years after the church bombing that killed four little girls and inflamed the civil rights movement, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice helped honor them Saturday by recalling one of the victims as a friend with whom she played with dolls and sang in musicals. On the second day of a trip to highlight the civil rights era as an example for countries struggling to achieve democracy, Ms. Rice and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw of Britain visited the 16th Street Baptist Church, where the bombings occurred, and watched as plaques honoring the girls were unveiled.- New York Times Oct. 23, 2005
In what must seem a case of supreme irony Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice honored four young girls who were murdered in 1963 at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham Alabama. I say this is ironic because Rice grew up in Birmingham and was even friends with one of the girls, Denise McNair. Yet Rice who was raised in a “middle class” home, the daughter of a Presbyterian Minister who opposed civil rights agitation is now the highest ranking person of African descent in the Bu$h administration. Like her fellow travelers who make to the “big time” Rice eschews talk of race unless it serves her own purposes. Her father was not active in the civil rights struggle during the ‘60's. Their family believed that if you worked hard, studied and didn’t cause any trouble you would be okay; never mind the less fortunate folks around you who were catching hell being dehumanized, terrorized and subjected to the gross indignities of racial caste in AmeriKKKa. The only time Rice mentions her upbringing in Alabama is when she can tie it to either her personal ability to transcend the madness of AmeriKKKan apartheid or as she did recently, to justify AmeriKKKan imperialism under the guise of bringing democracy to the so called Middle East. Today’s edition of the New York Times chronicles Rice’s visit to Alabama with Jack Straw the British Foreign Secretary, AmeriKKKa’s partner in crime in the plunder and ravaging of Afghanistan and Iraq.
The tour which included photo ops and visits to the University of Alabama as well as Birmingham ,is as propaganda campaign to promote AmeriKKKan imperialism. The press she will garner will offset some of the bad news coming out of Washington for her boss George W. Bu$h these days. Most thinking people will see through this charade and chalk it up to more Washington PR and spin to justify Bu$h’s and Blair’s war for oil and US dollar hegemony. The trip is also designed to give Rice’s image a boost at a time when Bu$h’s approval rating amongst African-Americans is at an all time low, a mere two per cent! The Bu$h cabal is hoping some of this media manufactured stardust will rub off on Bu$h, that the media befuddled yahoos will equate Rice’s status and visit to Alabama as a sign of progress and that democracy is a good thing. The problem for Bu$h is, neither he nor Rice are popular amongst African-Americans. Rice is not a rah rah black is the thing to be kind of girl. Her family eschewed racial politics and they were not supporters of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr nor the Civil Rights struggle. Rice’s contemporaries who grew up with her in Birmingham know this. So it must ring extremely hallow and disingenuous for Rice to return to talk about home grown terrorism while quoting Martin Luther King Jr as she did. I wonder what the people who knew Rice’s family back in the day, thought of her speech which was quoted in today’s issue of the New York Times, one of the administrations staunchest cheerleaders?
“‘It was meant to shatter our spirit,’ she said of the bombing. ‘It was meant to say that we shouldn't rise up. Just a few weeks after Dr. Martin Luther King said, ‘I have a dream,’ it was meant to tell us that, no, we didn't have a dream, and that dream was going to be denied.’ For listeners, particularly Mr. Straw and visiting Britons, the ceremony was a reminder of how much had changed since the city of Ms. Rice's birth was known as ‘Bombingham,’ when it was inconceivable that someone from her tight-knit, middle-class, churchgoing community could rise to such prominence.” The Times goes on to point out that until recently (since the latest low poll numbers amongst African-Americans?) Rice has shunned talking about her past growing up in Alabama,
“Since becoming first national security adviser and then secretary of state, Ms. Rice has not made a public display of her personal story as the daughter of a Presbyterian minister and church organist who grew up in the civil rights era. But in recent months that reticence has lifted as Ms. Rice has pressed the Bush administration's campaign for democracy in the Middle East as a pillar of its foreign policy, and it has become useful to make an analogy between what Ms. Rice calls the American ‘birth defect,’ its record of racism, and the problems faced by other countries. Her seeming reluctance to dwell on her history was cast aside for this trip, as much of Alabama welcomed her home as a kind of daughter of history.” (My emphasis) I wonder why all of a sudden for this trip she wants to talk about her expediencies growing up in Birmingham. Keep in mind her family did not support the direct action agitation of the civil rights movement. Yet she now wants to make her experiences part of the public record and equate it with the Bu$h b.s. about bringing “democracy” to Iraq as part of Bu$h’s foreign policy. A skeptic like me would say of course she would do that since her lies about WMD and the impending mushroom cloud have been exposed as total fabrications and lies. Of course she would manufacture this opportunity to promote AmeriKKKan and British imperialism under the guise of bringing Freedom and democracy to Afghanistan and Iraq because unlike most African-Americans who oppose Bu$h and his wars she is for both; Bu$h and war! This is so typical of the hypocrisy of the Bu$h administration. The biggest warmongers in the administration from Cheney to Bu$h himself all ducked serving in the military when they had their chance during Vietnam. And his Secretary of State, a black woman whose family refused to participate in the righteous Civil rights struggle of the ‘60's in Birmingham Alabama now uses that same struggle to justify an immoral war and AmeriKKKan imperialism. Talk about irony.
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The Supreme Irony
The Supreme Irony
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Oct. 22 - Forty-two years after the church bombing that killed four little girls and inflamed the civil rights movement, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice helped honor them Saturday by recalling one of the victims as a friend with whom she played with dolls and sang in musicals. On the second day of a trip to highlight the civil rights era as an example for countries struggling to achieve democracy, Ms. Rice and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw of Britain visited the 16th Street Baptist Church, where the bombings occurred, and watched as plaques honoring the girls were unveiled.- New York Times Oct. 23, 2005
In what must seem a case of supreme irony Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice honored four young girls who were murdered in 1963 at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham Alabama. I say this is ironic because Rice grew up in Birmingham and was even friends with one of the girls, Denise McNair. Yet Rice who was raised in a “middle class” home, the daughter of a Presbyterian Minister who opposed civil rights agitation is now the highest ranking person of African descent in the Bu$h administration. Like her fellow travelers who make to the “big time” Rice eschews talk of race unless it serves her own purposes. Her father was not active in the civil rights struggle during the ‘60's. Their family believed that if you worked hard, studied and didn’t cause any trouble you would be okay; never mind the less fortunate folks around you who were catching hell being dehumanized, terrorized and subjected to the gross indignities of racial caste in AmeriKKKa. The only time Rice mentions her upbringing in Alabama is when she can tie it to either her personal ability to transcend the madness of AmeriKKKan apartheid or as she did recently, to justify AmeriKKKan imperialism under the guise of bringing democracy to the so called Middle East. Today’s edition of the New York Times chronicles Rice’s visit to Alabama with Jack Straw the British Foreign Secretary, AmeriKKKa’s partner in crime in the plunder and ravaging of Afghanistan and Iraq.
The tour which included photo ops and visits to the University of Alabama as well as Birmingham ,is as propaganda campaign to promote AmeriKKKan imperialism. The press she will garner will offset some of the bad news coming out of Washington for her boss George W. Bu$h these days. Most thinking people will see through this charade and chalk it up to more Washington PR and spin to justify Bu$h’s and Blair’s war for oil and US dollar hegemony. The trip is also designed to give Rice’s image a boost at a time when Bu$h’s approval rating amongst African-Americans is at an all time low, a mere two per cent! The Bu$h cabal is hoping some of this media manufactured stardust will rub off on Bu$h, that the media befuddled yahoos will equate Rice’s status and visit to Alabama as a sign of progress and that democracy is a good thing. The problem for Bu$h is, neither he nor Rice are popular amongst African-Americans. Rice is not a rah rah black is the thing to be kind of girl. Her family eschewed racial politics and they were not supporters of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr nor the Civil Rights struggle. Rice’s contemporaries who grew up with her in Birmingham know this. So it must ring extremely hallow and disingenuous for Rice to return to talk about home grown terrorism while quoting Martin Luther King Jr as she did. I wonder what the people who knew Rice’s family back in the day, thought of her speech which was quoted in today’s issue of the New York Times, one of the administrations staunchest cheerleaders?
“‘It was meant to shatter our spirit,’ she said of the bombing. ‘It was meant to say that we shouldn't rise up. Just a few weeks after Dr. Martin Luther King said, ‘I have a dream,’ it was meant to tell us that, no, we didn't have a dream, and that dream was going to be denied.’ For listeners, particularly Mr. Straw and visiting Britons, the ceremony was a reminder of how much had changed since the city of Ms. Rice's birth was known as ‘Bombingham,’ when it was inconceivable that someone from her tight-knit, middle-class, churchgoing community could rise to such prominence.” The Times goes on to point out that until recently (since the latest low poll numbers amongst African-Americans?) Rice has shunned talking about her past growing up in Alabama,
“Since becoming first national security adviser and then secretary of state, Ms. Rice has not made a public display of her personal story as the daughter of a Presbyterian minister and church organist who grew up in the civil rights era. But in recent months that reticence has lifted as Ms. Rice has pressed the Bush administration's campaign for democracy in the Middle East as a pillar of its foreign policy, and it has become useful to make an analogy between what Ms. Rice calls the American ‘birth defect,’ its record of racism, and the problems faced by other countries. Her seeming reluctance to dwell on her history was cast aside for this trip, as much of Alabama welcomed her home as a kind of daughter of history.” (My emphasis) I wonder why all of a sudden for this trip she wants to talk about her expediencies growing up in Birmingham. Keep in mind her family did not support the direct action agitation of the civil rights movement. Yet she now wants to make her experiences part of the public record and equate it with the Bu$h b.s. about bringing “democracy” to Iraq as part of Bu$h’s foreign policy. A skeptic like me would say of course she would do that since her lies about WMD and the impending mushroom cloud have been exposed as total fabrications and lies. Of course she would manufacture this opportunity to promote AmeriKKKan and British imperialism under the guise of bringing Freedom and democracy to Afghanistan and Iraq because unlike most African-Americans who oppose Bu$h and his wars she is for both; Bu$h and war! This is so typical of the hypocrisy of the Bu$h administration. The biggest warmongers in the administration from Cheney to Bu$h himself all ducked serving in the military when they had their chance during Vietnam. And his Secretary of State, a black woman whose family refused to participate in the righteous Civil rights struggle of the ‘60's in Birmingham Alabama now uses that same struggle to justify an immoral war and AmeriKKKan imperialism. Talk about irony.
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Making Mafia Loan Sharks Look Like Choir Boys
Making Mafia Loan Sharks Look Like Choir Boys “When the Bank and the Fund lend money to debtor countries, the money comes with strings attached. These strings come in the form of policy prescriptions called ‘structural adjustment policies ’These policies—or SAPs, as they are sometimes called—require debtor governments to open their economies to penetration by foreign corporations, allowing access to the country's workers and environment at bargain basement prices. Recent protests against the IMF and the World Bank have shined a harsh spotlight on the way the institutions put the interests of wealthy corporations in the developed world above the interests of the planet's poor majority. Structural adjustment policies mean across-the-board privatization of public utilities and publicly owned industries. They mean the slashing of government budgets, leading to cutbacks in spending on health care and education. They mean focusing resources on growing export crops for industrial countries rather than supporting family farms and growing food for local communities. And, as their imposition in country after country in Latin America, Africa, and Asia has shown, they lead to deeper inequality and environmental destruction. ” http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/wbimf/
The World Bank and IMF are the world’s largest lending institutions, they dole out billions to debtor nations all around the world. However, don’t mistake their openhandedness with altruism or good neighborliness. These globalists in pin stripped suits make the Mafia and Cosa Nostra look like bungling Keystone Kops when it comes to predatory terms of the loans, interest collection and setting the table for future business. The World Bank and IMF were founded after WWII. Now they work hand in hand with the former colonizer nations of Europe, AmeriKKKa and Japan to fleece and plunder Third World nations under the guise of aid and assistance. Most recently they concocted a PR scam whereby they touted debt relief for Africa knowing all the while they planned no such thing. Relief from their stranglehold is not their MO. In fact their MO is more criminal, more sinister and more ruthless than any two bit loan shark. Both the International Monetary Fund and World Bank make major loans to “developing countries” throughout the world. Of course they do so to make a profit for their investors, the member nations who just coincidentally happen to be colonial powers, including the Untied States and Japan. The World bank and IMF are economic hit men for the former colonial powers who are still very much in the business of neoliberal colonialism. The World Bank, the IMF and US-AID make the loans knowing full well they have the militaries of France, Britain and the US to make sure the debtors repay the debt service (the loans are so exorbitant and the conditions placed on them are so egregious, they know most countries won’t be able to pay them off so the IMF and World Bank make their money on the interest and debts service of the loans). The military also makes sure the leaders who negotiated the loans don’t deviate from the stultifying conditions the IMF and World Bank have saddled them with. It’s a con game. They make the Mafia look like boy scouts. At least if you fail to make the payment to the neighborhood loan shark they only break a leg. If you fail to make a payment to the IMF or World Bank or renege on the conditions of the loan, they gut your whole economy or they send in the US Special Forces or Marines to exact their pound of flesh from your whole population. But they really don’t want the loan paid off. What they want is the debtor nation to open up their country’s natural l resources and infrastructure for pillage and plunder by the banks and multi-national corporations which are in cahoots with the IMF, World Bank and US-AID.
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/wbimf/TopTenIMF.html in an article entitled
Top Ten Reasons To Oppose the IMF states in effect the IMF is a nefarious organization that means no good to the people of the world.
“Since the debt crisis of the 1980's, the IMF has assumed the role of bailing out countries during financial crises (caused in large part by currency speculation in the global casino economy) with emergency loan packages tied to certain conditions, often referred to as structural adjustment policies (SAPs). The IMF now acts like a global loan shark, exerting enormous leverage over the economies of more than 60 countries. These countries have to follow the IMF's policies to get loans, international assistance, and even debt relief. Thus, the IMF decides how much debtor countries can spend on education, health care, and environmental protection. The IMF is one of the most powerful institutions on Earth -- yet few know how it works.” In reason number three they say,
“Unlike the path historically followed by the industrialized countries, the IMF forces countries from the Global South to prioritize export production over the development of diversified domestic economies. Nearly 80 percent of all malnourished children in the developing world live in countries where farmers have been forced to shift from food production for local consumption to the production of export crops destined for wealthy countries. The IMF also requires countries to eliminate assistance to domestic industries while providing benefits for multinational corporations -- such as forcibly lowering labor costs. Small businesses and farmers can't compete. Sweatshop workers in free trade zones set up by the IMF and World Bank earn starvation wages, live in deplorable conditions, and are unable to provide for their families. The cycle of poverty is perpetuated, not eliminated, as governments' debt to the IMF grows.” And on and on. When we look at Africa and Latin America and we see the rampant poverty, malnutrition, cash crop exploitation of the land and workers, the siphoning off of natural resources and the privatization of utilities this is due to IMF and World bank policies! These Wall Street gangsters make the Mafia look like rosy cheeked choirboys.
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Bu$h Approval Rating At 2% Amongst African-Americans
Bu$h Approval Rating At 2% Amongst African-Americans
“Two percent. That's the percentage of U.S. blacks who approve of President Bush's job performance, a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found. Blacks' current two percent approval rating of Bush is down from 19 percent a half-year ago. Why is this? Hurricane Katrina and modern communication. Millions of African Americans watched TV coverage of the post-Katrina human suffering, and they are furious about it. The pain of Katrina was borne most heavily by blacks. The mighty Karl Rove can't spin the president out of this. No amount of Rove's strategic and tactical skill can counter the televised imagery of modern-day savagery after Katrina. He and the neo-cons can only hope for a miracle to counter what the world has seen in the hurricane region. Recall the images of elderly blacks in their walkers moving painfully down the road away from their storm-ravaged homes to where? Remember black infants lacking clothing, food, shelter and water in the Big Easy? How about thousands of blacks abandoned to their own devices on the streets of New Orleans? Meanwhile, non-union Wal-Mart Stores Inc. rushed to the rescue of some of these storm victims as Uncle Sam sat on his hands.”- Seth Sandronsky, Alternative Press Review 10-15-05
A recent article on the Alternative Press Review Website http://www.altpr.org mentioned the approval rating for George W Bu$h was an abysmal 2% amongst African-Americans and suggested the recent debacle of Hurricane Katrina was the cause. Maybe, maybe not. Bu$h has never been popular amongst black folks. Even his courting of opportunist “religious leaders” like T.D.Jakes, Jesse Lee Patterson and “Bishop” Sedgewick Daniels (who are fast becoming to the religious Right what Jesse L. Jackson and Al Sharpton are to the Left) and sliding them money through his “faith based” initiatives has not abated the negative perceptions and precipitous drop in Bu$h’s approval ratings amongst African-Americans. Blacks have been leery of Bu$h ever since he was install as president by the US Supreme Court. We overwhelmingly opposed the invasion ad occupation of Iraq so the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was just another nail in Bu$h”s PR coffin as far as free thinking African-Americans were concerned. Not even the millions of dollars Bu$h and the Republican Party has siphoned off to influential Negro preachers has stemmed the tide of distrust, animus and anxiety resident amongst people of African heritage in AmeriKKKa. “Bishop” T.D. Jakes pleading with folks to move on and not hold any animosity towards government officials following Hurricane Katrina, while it is sound advice from a metaphysical and psychological standpoint, was also very self-serving since Jakes is Bu$h’s shill and this advice deflects criticism away from Ol’ Masa Bu$h.
While on one hand I recognize the importance of not limiting our options, and Africans in AmeriKKKa should, if we choose, be a part of all political parties, major and minor; I find it hard to fathom why any sane race focused African would link up with the fascists in the Bu$h regime. No matter how much money they were doling out, and believe me they are doling out a lot of money would tempt me want to sign up and be a part of anything they are doing. A Working For Change Article www.workingforchange.com dated 02-23-05 reveals just how much money grubbing preachers are getting for their support of the Bu$h “moral agenda” (how can a man who lied to justify an illegal war dare call himself moral?) “After months of investigation, the Los Angeles Times reported in January that out of the more than $1.5 billion in federal funds handed out to faith-based organizations in 2003 African American churches had received many millions of dollars. And many African American church leaders had subsequently switched party affiliation in time for the 2004 presidential election. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for example, Bishop Sedgwick Daniels, one of the ‘city's most prominent black pastors’, who had supported both Bill Clinton and Al Gore in ‘past presidential elections,’ had switched to Bush this time around. His ‘face appeared on Republican Party fliers in the battleground state of Wisconsin,’ and he endorsed President Bush ‘as the candidate who shares our views.’ Two weeks before the election Bishop Daniels turned over the pulpit to Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, one of Bush's most prominent African American advocates. ‘We know what faith-based can do every single day," Steele told the congregation, drawing head nodding and remarks of ‘yes’ and ‘Amen’ from more than 1,000 in the vast sanctuary. The Times also reported that Bishop Daniels met ‘with top administration officials’ and also met with ‘the president himself.’ Later, his church received $1.5 million in federal funds through Bush's faith-based initiative. A Philadelphia church led by the Rev. Herb Lusk II received $1 million in federal funds for a program to help low-income Philadelphians,’ The Los Angeles Times reported. ‘Lusk gave the invocation at the 2000 Republican convention and has been an outspoken Bush supporter.’ In South Florida, an organization headed by Bishop Harold Ray, 'a longtime Bush acquaintance' who gave an invocation for Vice President Dick Cheney at a West Palm Beach, Fla., rally. Ray's group received $1.7 million in taxpayer funds. ” Does the fact these ministers hopped on the Bu$h bandwagon mean they have done anything unethical? No. But given most Africans in AmeriKKKa ( wisely or not) are wedded to the Democratic Party what are these preachers getting for their switch in loyalty? The article concludes by saying, “The GOP strategy is ‘not to convert legions of Blacks to the GOP, which would seriously dilute the party's white appeal and is, at any rate, impossibility. The Right's real goal is to create the impression of fundamental splits in Black ranks, and thus subvert the credibility of mainstream leaders who hold to the historical Black Political Consensus. Everywhere, there exist Black preachers and hustlers who are willing to advance the GOP project. Money does the trick. Marginal increases in Black votes for Republicans are welcome, especially in close races, but this is not a battle for the hearts and minds of Black America. Rather, it is an assault on the historical unity of African Americans.”
The question now is how long will the money grubbers remain loyal to Bu$H now that his approval rating amongst all AmeriKKKans is in the toilet and about to be flushed even farther down the drain? Have the preachers purchased tickets on a sinking ship? Time will tell. Other questions we need to ask are: how are these religious leaders using this federal (taxpayer) money and what oversight provisions have been installed to make sure the money is being used appropriately? Two things we must always keep in mind: the Bu$h cabal has a sordid history of cronyism, scandal and fraud and the money being given to these preachers is taxpayer’s money. As taxpayers we have a right to know how our money is being used and spent. All the gold in Fort Knox could not tempt most black folks to trust or side with Bu$h. Those Negro preachers who have done so are taking a huge risk putting their credibility on the line. Will their earthly reward be similar to Judas'? If things keep going the way they are for Bu$h and Co., the chickens may soon come home to roost for the Negro preachers they bribed also.
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The MMM Merry Go Round
The MMM Merry Go Round “The use of the lecture model which is a major problem within the African Centered Movement- until now has not been challenged and exposed as an obsolete method of adult education and community development. The exception is the challenge issued by the late visionary Chancellor Williams who understood decades ago that the lecture Model was the vice of African people. Whatever value this method had it is now incapable of meeting the needs of the African community. Until this fact is recognized, the race will fail to make any real progress, and as a result there will continue to be an increasing lecturers who have no serious plan or program but who join this dead-end Lecture Model effort with objectives of making money and establishing a speaking career in the ongoing struggle of the community.” Manu Ampim
Towards Black Community Development Moving beyond The Limitations of the Lecture Model p 209
Ten years ago when I attended the Million Man March and Day of Atonement I was leery of the outcome. I knew we could get at least a million men on the Mall that day given the turn out of our conventions like the Elks, Masons, Greek Lettered organizations and sporting events like the Circle City Classic or the CIAA basketball tournament. My concerns then were the level of right wing racist propaganda being spewed over the airwaves in Washington D.C. by the likes of G. Gordon Liddy and others. Knowing this government’s legacy of human rights abuses and terrorism I though some psychopathic individuals or even the government would do something to harm the participants. I thought such an event would pose an excellent opportunity for them to spray the air with toxic biochemical materials or collect data pictures for future use in the New World Order. Nevertheless, I went with a busload of my fraternity brothers. I was greatly impressed by the anticipation of something great coming out of the Million Man March, by the spirit of the men in attendance, the level of consciousness, camaraderie and commitment of the brothers who were there that day. I saw brothers return home like myself and get involved in a myriad of activities from being even more attentive to their families to volunteering in the community to grass roots activism and institution building. In many ways the MMM was a ground breaking phenomenon, it proved a massive demonstration and rally could be a catalyst for major social change. The Million Man March spawned numerous offshoots. There were the Million Youth, Million Women and Million Family Marches, all of whom (in my opinion) lacked the power and programmatic thrust of the original. So when I heard Minister Farrakhan was calling for a Millions More Movement I knew another larger march and rally were feasible but I was skeptical about the relevance, productivity and meaning of such an event. I was not sure I would attend even although I was somewhat curious about what it would entail. As a journalist part of me wanted to cover the event to report on it for the Internet radio stations, E-groups, newspapers and blog I am affiliated with. In fact I was so ambivalent about going, I didn’t make any early arrangements to attend. Hurricane Katrina and the government and corporate media’s responses to the disaster changed my mind. I saw an urgency, a real need for African people to come together not for speeches, posturing, pontificating or pimping but for a real call to action and programs beyond business as usual. An opportunity to attend the rally opened and I went.
For me the atmosphere at yesterday’s rally was far different from the one I experienced ten years ago, and since the original MMM was so historic that may be natural. The people were still friendly, cordial and polite but something was missing. I did not feel the power of brotherhood I felt in 1995. Moreover I did not feel the sense of urgency I had hoped would be evident given what our people saw last month during Hurricane Katrina! I spoke to m any conscious brothers and sistahs but for many it was like a picnic a day in the park. We needed more. In the interim since I attended the MMM, the Million Women March and the Million Family March I read Manu Ampim’s bool entitled
Towards Black Community Development Moving beyond the Limitations of The lecture Model. I strongly urge all of you to read this book. We have to move beyond the speech, sermon and lecture paradigm and embrace a more action oriented approach to problem solving, community organization and development. Our community places too much emphasis or oration, speechifying and too little energy or attention is invested in actual organizing and developing programmatic skills and acumen! Yesterday we heard a lot of speeches, where is the programmatic blueprint? Where is the road map that shows us where we go from here? I know there will be follow up sessions and some folks will get busy working to improve our situation, but time is of the essence. We don’t have time for foolishness and posturing.
The white race dominates the world because they have a consciousness for war and domination. They use violence, terrorism, psychological warfare and menticide to discourage resistence to their oppressive agenda. I find it interesting the ruling elites don’t broadcast their strategy sessions. The Bilderberger and Trilateral Commission meetings are closed to the press. The DIA, Naval Intelligence, CIA, FBI and NSA do not televise their joint intelligence briefings. So why are all our so called leadership summits open to the public, including our enemies? Yes we must have transparency and accountability but we mus also be wise. If listening to speeches, sermons and lectures were the solution, black folks’s problems would be few. The Chinese say, “talk cooks no rice.” The time for mere talk is over. It’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work. It’s time as the ol’ folks used to say for us to, “lead, follow or get out of the way.”. Whether you attended yesterday’s Millions More Movement or not, whether you agree with the speakers or not, whether you think the government deliberately allowed our people in New Orleans to suffer and die or not is not the issue. The issue is, is our situation any better than it was ten years ago? If your answer is no, then what are we, and the operative words here is we, going to do about it besides talk?
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Duped Again
Duped by Psychological Warfare Again Secaucus - Last Thursday on Countdown, I referred to the latest terror threat - the reported bomb plot against the New York City subway system - in terms of its timing. President Bush’s speech about the war on terror had come earlier the same day, as had the breaking news of the possible indictment of Karl Rove in the CIA leak investigation. I suggested that in the last three years there had been about 13 similar coincidences - a political downturn for the administration, followed by a “terror event” - a change in alert status, an arrest, a warning. We figured we’d better put that list of coincidences on the public record. We did so this evening on the television program, with ten of these examples. The other three are listed at the end of the main list, out of chronological order. The contraction was made purely for the sake of television timing considerations, and permitted us to get the live reaction of the former Undersecretary of Homeland Security, Asa Hutchinson.- Keith Obermann Countdown MSNBC
I peruse the extremely informative Website www.Whatreallyahppened.com several times a day for links to numerous topics but mostly government corruption and the illegal and imperialist motives and underpinnings of Bu$h and Co’s War on Terrorism. I am able to glean ideas and material for commentaries from this and other Websites and online versions of newspapers and periodicals. On Friday October 15 WRH contained two especially interesting links: one to www.MSNBC.com and the other to a research study conducted by Robb Willer of Cornell University entitled The Effects of Government-Issued Terror Warnings on Presidential Approval Ratings . The common thread uniting both of them was the documentation of a very real correlation between US government terror alert created distractions and presidential approval ratings. The MSNBC site contained video clips of Keith Obermann’s program Countdown in which he lists thirteen occasions over the past three years when the Bu$h administration was facing bad news or was in a tough and within days a terrorist alert would be issued. Keep in mind Obermann documents thirteen such occasions and added interviews and video clips to buttress his report. Willis on the other hand uses sociological and psychological methods and analysis to support his theory government issued terror warnings could increase support for the president. In his twelve page report which was published in December of 2004 Willis concludes,
“The present research sought to evaluate whether the threat of terrorism increases support for standing leaders. To test this idea I investigated Gallup poll data on presidential approval to see if it increased following government issued terror warnings. I found consistent evidence supporting the hypothesis that government issued terror warnings led to increases in President Bush’s approval levels. Further I found evidence that the threat of terror may lead to more positive evaluations of th e president on a dimension largely irrelevant to terrorism, his handling of the economy. I was unable to establish how long these effects typically last. I leave that question and further exploration of the empirical regularities observed to future research.” p 10 In his conclusion Obermann states,
“To summarize, coincidences are coincidences. We could probably construct a similar time line of terror events and warnings, and their relationship to - the opening of new Walmarts around the country. Are these coincidences signs that the government’s approach has worked because none of the announced threats ever materialized? Are they signs that the government has not yet mastered how and when to inform the public? Is there, in addition to the ‘fog of war’ a simple, benign, ‘fog of intelligence’ But, if merely a reasonable case can be made that any of these juxtapositions of events are more than just coincidences, it underscores the need for questions to be asked in this country - questions about what is prudence, and what is fear-mongering; questions about which is the threat of death by terror, and which is the terror of threat?” Is it a mere coincidence or is it a deliberate and designed policy used to keep the AmeriKKKan sheeple afraid, anxious and in a state of pliability and manipulation to justify massive expenditures for “defense”, “homeland security” and a diminution of civil and procedural liberties? If you couple this terror warning pattern with the deceit and disinformation the NeoConmen used to sell the bogus and now totally discredited claims of WMD in Iraq does this add up to an even more sinister agenda? Is all this part of the psychological warfare being waged against the AmeriKKkan public by the ruling elites using the corporate media to usher in corporatist fascism and their New World Order? What’s your opinion, what do you think?
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The Same Ol' Same Ol'
The Saem Ol' Same Ol' Whereas blacks used to be portrayed as exotic, foolish and childlike, today they are portrayed as menacing, gun-toting drug addicts or as hypersexual pimps and whores. Examples include the following: Ghettopoly is a board game modeled after Monopoly, except that it belittles racial minorities. Ghettopoly has seven game pieces: Pimp, Hoe, 40 oz, Machine Gun, Marijuana Leaf, Basketball, and Crack. One of the game's cards reads, You got yo whole neighborhood addicted to crack. Collect $50 from each playa. Whereas Monopoly has houses and hotels, Ghettopoly has crack houses and projects. Trash Talker Dolls, distributed by AdultDolls.net, sells dolls that stereotype various ethnic groups. Their best seller is Pimp Daddy, a chain-wearing black man who says, among other things, You better make some money, bitch. The minstrel show is back too, in the person of Charles Knipp, a white man who gives performances—popular in the deep South—in which he dresses up in ragged women's clothes and blackface makeup and portrays Shirley Q. Liquor, a trash-talking black woman with 19 children. More recently, of course, other images have been coming out of New Orleans, also imbued with racial meanings. Controversy has arisen, for example, about the contrast between news photographs of Hurricane Katrina—one with a caption that described white people finding bread and soda from a local grocery store, ‘while the caption to a photo of a black man carrying similar supplies stated that he had been ‘looting a grocery store.’ Other controversy followed the remarks of rapper Kanye West, when he departed from scripted comments during a Katrina fund raiser and complained that ‘America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. ... George Bush doesn't care about black people.’”-Jim Crow Propaganda Sheldon Rampton http://www.prwatch.org/node/4005
During the pre Civil War era AmeriKKKa indulged in mocking, belittling and humiliating Africans in popular white culture. This pattern continues to this very day, only we have become so used to it it doesn’t even bother us any more. Whites used various media and social institutions such as theater, advertising, films, religion and education to defame, debase, stereotype and to treat with utter contempt images of African people our history and our culture. This pattern in some ways is less blatant today but nevertheless it still exists. If you look at BET or MTV’s music videos featuring blacks you see a modern version of the minstrel show, the hyper sexed black female and the sociopathic criminal. The legacy of D.W. Griffith'
Birth of A Nation lives on. The saddest part of all of this is, Negroes (unconscious Africans) are now playing a major role in producing this garbage. The reason I’m wriing about this topic is I saw a piece on Jim Crow propaganda on the Center for Media and Democracy’s Website http://www.prwatch.org/node/4005 entitled Jim Crow Propaganda. The article was about an exhibit at Ferris State University in Michigan called the
Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia that was established by one of the university’s Sociology professors David Pligrim. Pilgrim had this to say about racist iconography and images,
“All racial groups have been caricatured in this country, but none have been caricatured as often or in as many ways as have black Americans, Blacks have been portrayed in popular culture as pitiable exotics, cannibalistic savages, hypersexual deviants, childlike buffoons, obedient servants, self-loathing victims, and menaces to society. These anti-black depictions were routinely manifested in or on material objects: ashtrays, drinking glasses, banks, games, fishing lures, detergent boxes, and other everyday items. These objects, with racist representations, both reflected and shaped attitudes towards African Americans. Robbin Henderson, director of the Berkeley Art Center, said, 'derogatory imagery enables people to absorb stereotypes; which in turn allows them to ignore and condone injustice, discrimination, segregation, and racism.' She was right. Racist imagery is propaganda and that propaganda was used to support Jim Crow laws and customs.”. Racist imagery is propaganda, as African people we must constantly remind ourselves the images we see in the mass media are deliberate and intentional and they have both psychological and political purposes.
This is just as true today as it was during the antebellum slavery days. A classic example is the images we recently saw of desperate black folks stranded in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina amidst bogus reports of rape, looting and murder that have since been repudiated by most official sources. Nevertheless, the damage has been done. People formed opinions about the black folks trapped in New Orleans based upon those images and stories and those opinions were not sympathetic, Those images and news stories reenforced existing racist stereotypes and transmitted them all over the world. They sent the very real message the US government doesn’t care about black folks. We must always be aware the producers and exhibitors of these racist images have an agenda; whether they mean ill or not, their agenda is detrimental to our psychic well-being, our individual self-image and our collective self-esteem. It is all part and parcel to their ongoing program of menticide, the destruction of our minds It is safe to say that if these racist images don’t bother you or you think there is nothing wrong with them, our enemies have succeeded. If they bother you, do something about it. Turn off the television, boycott the sponsors and advertisers and seek out self-affirming pro black forms of information and entertainment. Just like boxing referees tell the fighters “protect yourself at all times” , we must protect our minds and our environments from racist propaganda at all times.
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Globalization And the Making of A Third World USA
Globalization and the Making of Third World USA “With the emergence of China, India and Eastern Europe, the dam of Socialism that held back two billion workers has been removed. If two swimming pools are joined, the water level will eventually equalize. That is what is happening with globalization. Manufacturing has already been placed in competition across countries, with dire consequences for manufacturing workers. The internet promises to do the same for previously un-tradable services, and higher-paid knowledge workers will start feeling similar effects. Not since the industrial revolution has there been a transformation of this magnitude, and that revolution took one hundred and fifty years to complete. By comparison the new revolution is a mere 25 years old. These developments have a significance that goes far beyond the currency manipulation and WTO rules violations that have been the focus of trade deficit policy discussions. There is no reason to think the end is in sight, and American workers can look forward to the international economy exerting downward pressure on wages and work conditions for the next several decades. As is so often the case, workers have understood the new reality long before economists and policymakers.”- Labor Threat Thomas Palley http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=13&ItemID=8867
The media disseminated images of poor stranded black folks on tops of roofs attempting to survive amidst squalid condition during Hurricane Katrina alarmed many AmeriKKKans and people around the world. Many in their indignation and shock compared what they saw to “third world countries”. Well I have more alarming news for you. The horrific conditions of poverty and marginalization Hurricane Katrina revealed are going to get worse! As the US economy unravels from the deliberate globalization policies that have been foisted upon the AmeriKKKan people by elected officials who have sold their souls to the multi-national capitalist class. Legislation like NAFTA broke down existing trade barriers and made it so AmeriKKKan factory jobs could be shipped off to Mexico as well as places like Eastern Europe and Asia (China, India and the Pacific). AmeriKKKan workers at Delphi Corp, Ford and GM are now experiencing the negative side of the globalization coin, that industrialized “advanced” countries’ workers will suffer because it is more profitable to build factories in third world countries where the owners can now pay next to nothing in wages and benefits. It is a variation of the stratagem the owners used here in the late ‘60's and early ‘70's when they moved plants, factories and jobs from the industrialized areas in the North to the South to take advantage of non union “right o work” laws; or their move to the suburbs to take advantage of tax abatements and other cost saving incentives. During the late ‘60's urban areas like Philadelphia Chicago and New York loss literally hundreds of thousands of jobs. William Julius Wilson in his enlightening book
When Work Disappears The World of The New Urban Poor states,
“The problems of joblessness and social dislocation in the inner city are, in part related to the processes in the global economy that have contributed to greater inequality and insecurity among American workers in general and to the failure of U.S. social policies to adjust to these processes. It is therefore myopic to view the problems of joblessness ghettos as if they are separate from those that plague the larger society.” p 220. The same issue facing jobless inner city dwellers will soon be on the door step of their blue collar working class urban and suburban peers!
In an article written by Thomas Palley which appeared on Znet states,
“If the United States were to add two billion low-wage workers, you'd expect that wages would fall across the board, right? Well, there is a famous theorem in international economics--the Stolper-Samuelson theorem--that says when a rich capital-abundant country (such as the United States) trades with a poor labor-abundant country (such as China), wages in the rich country fall and profits go up. The theorem's economic logic is simple. Free trade is tantamount to a massive increase in the rich country's labor supply, since the products made by poor country workers can now be imported. Additionally, demand for workers in the rich country falls as rich country firms abandon labor-intensive production to the poor country. The net result is an effective increase in labor supply and a decrease in labor demand in the rich country, and wages fall. The relevance of the Stolper-Samuelson theorem is clear. For the last two decades, U.S. policy makers, from both major political parties, have worked assiduously to create a global market place in which goods and capital are free to move. Over the same period, two and a half billion people in China, India, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have discarded economic isolationism and joined the global economy. Now, these two tectonic shifts are coming together in the form of a 'super-sized' Stolper-Samuelson effect, and they stand to have depressing consequences for American workers. Much attention has been devoted to the adverse impacts of the U.S. trade deficit, particularly with China. And the U.S. government has been rightly criticized for failing to apply adequate pressure to get China to remedy its unfair and illegal trading practices. However, no one in Washington is talking about the deeper question of what happens to wages when two billion people from low-wage countries join the global labor market.” We are seeing the Stolper-Smauelson Theorem being played out in AmeriKKKa now. AmeriKKKan law makers enacted trade legislation against the best interests of their working class hourly wage earning constituents ( NAFTA and the recent CAFTA favor the multi-national corporate elite) and now low wage earning foreign nationals are taking jobs away from U.S. workers as it becomes more profitable for AmeriKKKan companies to build offshore factories in “developing countries” and hire native workers for next to nothing. This is causing downsizing, unemployment, wage stagnation and bankruptcies in major industries like steel and auto that are affecting the wages and lifestyles of their U.S. workers. This coupled with the reverse Robin Hood wealth redistribution from the poor to the rich of the Bu$h administration, the future for unionized AmeriKKKan workers looks bleak. If you doubt what I’m saying, talk to blue collar workers in the steel, airline and auto industries; especially since the recent Delta, Northwest and Delphi Corp bankruptcy filings. This is the down side of globalization for AmeriKKKan workers and families.
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A Bad Omen
A Bad Omen “If Delphi, which filed for Chapter 11 protection on Saturday, gets what it seeks in wage and benefit reductions from union members, the pay for members of the United Auto Workers could shrink to as little as $10 an hour from the current $27. Their benefits almost certainly would drop as well. Those drastic cuts would come not only as a blow to thousands of Delphi workers, but they also could set the pattern for negotiations between the union and the Big Three domestic automakers, which for years have struggled to find ways to lower their costs on the assembly line. ‘In one fell swoop, U.S. auto workers are going from being solidly in the middle class to being part of the working poor by earning $10 an hour,’ said Harley Shaiken, a University of California-Berkeley labor expert.” RICK POPELY, JIM MATEJA and STEVE FRANKLIN Chicago Tribune 10-10-05
The Delphi Corp’s filing of bankruptcy last Saturday sent shock waves through the AmeriKKKan economy. It is a harbinger of ill, a bad sign and a harmful omen for the unionized working class. By going into bankruptcy Delphi is looking to restructure its debt, and get out from under its wage, benefit and pension obligations which will not bode well for factory workers who earn as much as $27 an hour now. This is a form of class warfare. While Delphi seeks wage reductions from its factory workers, it is putting together generous packages for its upper management. As grossly unfair as this is, Delphi’s strategy may set the tone for negotiations with the rest of the auto workers who will be involved in negotiation with Ford, GM and Chrysler in the very near future. Delphi’s situation may very well impact its parent company General Motors which had the misfortune of losing $1.64 billion in the first half of 2005 and saw its bond ratings reduced to junk status by two major rating companies’ Moody’s and Stand and Poor. Many are looking at the Delphi situation as a precursor. Delphi’s bankruptcy they say, will send a ripple effect throughout the auto industry hitting its’ parent company GM first but also impacting Ford whose bond rating was also reduced to junk this Summer by Moody’s and S&P. An article in the Chicago Tribune dated 10-10-05 offered a bleak picture for the auto workers,
“Delphi, which lost $741 million in the first half, says it will close or sell several of its 45 North American plants and cut thousands of jobs. By not helping Delphi, GM is warning the union to brace for tough talks two years from now, when the four-year contract ends, Burnham Securities analyst David Healy said. ‘The Delphi action means negotiations on the 2007 contract with the UAW are under way,’ Healy said. ‘The union has to make concessions because GM can't keep losing money at the rate they are. The small print in the GM financial statements says that in 2004 its labor cost was $78 an hour with benefits.’ GM lost $1.64 billion in the first half, with losses at its North American auto unit wiping out profit at GMAC. Even if GM doesn't seek bankruptcy, the UAW faces growing pressure to give back big chunks of the wages and benefits it has won in the last 70 years to save U.S. jobs.” We are watching the vaunted US industrial economy come unglued and collapse under the weight of globalization and fascism. What this means for the average unionized auto worker, is a drastic change in lifestyle due to a drop in hourly wages, job losses and benefit cuts. Trade unions which have been under assault since the Reagan era are taking a pounding from a myriad of forces: globalization, the outsourcing of factories to places like Mexico and China, the corporatist agenda of the fascist Republican Party and it’s Democratic Party clones who have abandoned their traditional organized labor constituency. Hank Hardhat won’t be making the big bucks working the assembly line any more, his benefits package will be pared down and his pension may be either defaulted or passed off to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation which is itself facing a $30 billion deficits thanks to the steel, airline and auto industries who have dumped their pension obligations on the PBGC Auto workers may soon find themselves in a similar situation to the Enron employees several years ago, left out in the cold with severely reduced pensions or none at all to fall back on. The union leadership is in a bind. They can’t play hardball because there isn’t any wiggle room to negotiate, they are going to have to give back and give back a lot The Tribune article also said,
“‘The power of the union has been altered, and their negotiating power is gone,’ said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research. ‘Their wages and benefits are now going to be defined by the bankruptcy judge, which basically means wages and benefits will be defined by the global market where if you aren't competitive, you have a problem.’ UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, who Saturday described Delphi's filing as ‘an extremely bitter pill,’ had no additional comment Monday... Labor expert Shaiken said high productivity and low wages in countries such as Mexico and China are shaping wages in the United States, where auto workers in the future may not be able to afford the cars they build.” With the judges Bu$h and his Democratic Party sycophants are appointing to the federal bench who sympathize with the capitalist class (owners and stockholders), look for more bankruptcy rulings where the benefits and pension obligations of the corporations are allowed to be restructured, terminated or defaulted. The sad part about all of this is it will create a ripple effect throughout the industry and will be the death rattle for unionized labor as we know it.
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More Bad News
More Alarming News “The Senate is nearing a floor vote on a pension reform bill, but lawmakers are more focused on the financial health of the PBGC than the ailing companies. That means a new law will most likely require bigger -- not smaller -- pension payments from troubled companies. Opponents of this approach say it would force a death spiral that almost ensures bankruptcy and the termination of the pension plan. The PBGC's pension burden is reaching a crisis stage after numerous failures in the steel and airline industries in recent years. The agency acts like an insurer, and it is funded by premiums paid by companies that offer traditional pension plans. The news is not as bad for 19,500 Delphi hourly workers who used to be General Motors Corp. workers. Those employees will be protected by a clause negotiated between GM and the UAW at the time Delphi was spun off in 1999. GM is supposed to make up the difference between what the PBGC pays out and what they would have been entitled to. But the GM-UAW deal is convoluted, and Delphi is required to reimburse GM for those costs. ‘It certainly creates some exposure for GM, but we have not been able to estimate the exposure,’ said GM spokeswoman Toni Simonetti.” http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0510/09/A09-341814.htm 10-0905
The latest bombshell to rock an already wobbly AmeriKKKan economy is the giant auto parts manufacturer Delphi Corp has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Delphi was spun off from General Motors in 1995 and is a key vendor and supplier for parts. This bankruptcy comes at a time when all the major US auto makers are facing their own financial problems. Ford and GM’s bond rating have been reduced to junk in recent months by two major bond rating agencies, Moody’s and Stand and Poor. We don’t hear much about things like this because the corporate media tends to suppress this information for fear the public might start asking questions. The Delphi Corp is headed by a man named Robert S. (Steve) Miller. Delphi workers should be alarmed knowing that as CEO of Bethlehem Steel, Miller also stewarded that company into federal bankruptcy. There he was able to default on Bethlehem’s pension costs by passing those obligations off onto the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., a federal agency that protects workers whose pension plans are terminated. For Bethlehem it was a stroke of genius because it got the company out from under $3.6 billion dollars in pension obligations to the company’s 95,000 workers and retirees. Miller left Bethlehem Steel and ended up at Delphi Corp one the top corporations in AmeriKKKa which was formerly known as the Automotive Components Group (ACG) which was renamed Delphi Automotive Systems as a separate entity from its parent corporation GM. The name was changed again to Delphi Corp in 2002. Miller, in addition to his history at Bethlehem Steel was also involved in the restructuring and bail out of Chrysler in 1979. He was a key member of the Lee Iacocca team. Over the years, Miller has become the guru of financial crisis and corporate bankruptcy. Now at Delphi he is navigating that company through the troubled waters of bankruptcy and recovery. While this may be good news to Delphi’s anxious shareholders, it does not bode well for the company’s hourly workers and retirees.
Unionized working class folks around the nation should be concerned about what is happening at Delphi, Delta and Northwest Airlines. For those of you who don’t remember Delta and Northwest Airlines recently defaulted on their pension obligation when they filed for bankruptcy in federal court. The problem with that in addition to the need to attempt to keep major players in an airline industry that is already in financial trouble afloat, their workers and retirees may face the prospects of losing their pension or receiving a lot less than they contracted for .Both Delta and Delphi have passed their pension responsibilities onto the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp a quasi-government insurer that collects payments from employers to cover the possibility of pension terminations and defaults. However the problems at Delta, Northwest and Delphi are exacerbated by the fact the PBGC is itself facing a substantial shortfall in revenue. Reports are the current deficit of the PBGC stands at a whopping $30 billion dollars. Various agencies are bickering over the exact figure but the fact remains the PBGC is facing a shortfall of billions of dollars at a time when more and more industries’ (steel, the airlines and auto) under-fund their own employee pension programs and then when they get into financial difficulty dumps their pension obligations onto the PBGC (and ultimately the taxpayer). This is a form of class warfare, especially when you consider the CEOs of these failed companies are receiving record yearly compensation packages in the millions of dollars. For the CEO in a capitalist system, their first obligation is to the stockholders. Next comes the creditors, and last on the totem pole come the workers and retirees! The PBGC was bailed out in the early ‘90's. Now thanks to the stratagem of defaulting on their pension obligations to their workers, the lowest priority of the owning class, AmeriKKKa is facing the situation again in 2005. Currently there is legislation being worked on to ‘fix” the problem of pension under-funding and the drain on PBGC. An article on the Women Matter Website http://www.womenmatter.com/jobstaxes_whatsnew.htm explaining what the PBGC is and what it does also shares news about legislation the writer hopes will solve the problem.
“Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley of Iowa (R) and Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming (R) worked with Max Baucus of Montana (D) and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts (D) to create a bill that’s likely to pass in the Senate. The legislation would require companies to fund their plans 100 percent instead of taking money out of pension funds and "smoothing" it over. "Smoothing" is a term critics use to refer to an accounting technique that hides the true amount in the pension funds. The Senate bill would require companies to be measured according to the quality and safety of their bonds, or bond ratings. Companies with low bond ratings would be required to put more money into their pension funds and companies in bankruptcy would not be allowed to increase their retirement benefits. Further, the bill requires companies to pay a higher insurance premium to the PBGC. The rate would be $30 per year per participant, up from $19. Lawmakers hope that this extra revenue will loosen the budget and prevent drastic cuts.” According to the article the House version is coming along more slowly and Bu$h administration has not weighed in on this issue.
Given the corporatist bent of this administration and the judges it is appointing to the federal courts don’t look for anything that will benefit working folks. Keep your eyes and ears open for further developments on this front because whether we work in the auto or airline industries or not, their economic health and stability impacts us all.
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Total AmeriKKKan Police State Gets Closer Every Day
Total AmeriKKKan Police State Gets Closer Every Day “Police states are easier to acquire than Americans appreciate. The hysterical aftermath of September 11 has put into place the main components of a police state. Habeas corpus is the greatest protection Americans have against a police state. Habeas corpus ensures that Americans can only be detained by law. They must be charged with offenses, given access to attorneys, and brought to trial. Habeas corpus prevents the despotic practice of picking up a person and holding him indefinitely. President Bush claims the power to set aside habeas corpus and to dispense with warrants for arrest and with procedures that guarantee court appearance and trial without undue delay. Today in the US, the executive branch claims the power to arrest a citizen on its own initiative and hold the citizen indefinitely. Thus, Americans are no longer protected from arbitrary arrest and indefinite detention. These new 'seize and hold' powers strip the accused of the protective aspects of law and give rein to selectivity and arbitrariness. No warrant is required for arrest, no charges have to be presented before a judge, and no case has to be put before a jury. As the police are unaccountable, whoever is selected for arrest is at the mercy of arbitrariness. The judiciary has to some extent defended habeas corpus against Bush’s attack, but the protection that the principle offers against arbitrary seizure and detention has been breeched. Whether courts can fully restore habeas corpus or whether it continues in weakened form or passes by the wayside remains to be determined.” Paul Craig Roberts http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10564.htm 10-08-05
Conscious white folks are becoming more alarmed every day as the Bu$h administration moves to establish a total police state complete with military enforced martial law, electronic and biometric surveillance and spying on all citizens and an ever increasing diminution of procedural and civil liberties. Since 9-11 the NeoConmen and their Bu$hite supporters have used that incident to bum rush draconian laws through a spineless and compliant Congress all in the name of “national security”. The Bu$h administration, like its predecessors who used the threat of global communism to keep the military industrial complex afloat and the nation in a permanent war readiness mode (called “The Cold War”) has seized upon “global terrorism” as the bogey man to fatten defense contractor’s pockets and propel the nation into a fascist militarist melt down. While touting freedom ad liberty Bu$h and his handlers have initiated pre-emptive imperialist wars and imposed AmeriKKKan backed puppet governments in sovereign nations like Afghanistan, Haiti and Iraq. At home while shouting “you are either with us or you are with the terrorists” Bu$h and Co. have initiated a campaign to undermine the US Constitution, subvert established civil rights and legal guarantees and put the citizens at risk of a totalitarian police state here in AmeriKKKa. The PATRIOT ACTs I and II are clear examples of this. The arrest and detention of Jose Padilla for over three years with no formal charges, little legal standing and a breech of all lawyer client privileges has set an horrifying precedent. For Africans in AmeriKKKa this is not a new phenomenon, we have always experienced the hypocrisy, wickedness and predation of AmeriKKKa. The militia and later police and courts have been used to degrade and oppress Africans. What is different now is the rank and file white AmeriKKKans will be treated like the elites and their henchmen treat people of color. They will be spied upon, they will be arrested and abused without recourse to an attorney and will be held indefinitely without charge. Jose Padilla is the test case. Blogger Bob Chapman on his Web Log http://www.theinternationalforecaster.com/trainwreck. had this to say about the Jose Padilla situation,
“Padilla was taken into custody by federal agents on May 8, 2002, as part of the war on terrorism and held as a material witness. It is important to point out here that being held as a material witness is a ruse to incarcerate. We do not know if Mr. Padilla is innocent or guilty of anything and neither does the US government. If they had a case they’d indict and charge him. For most of his time in confinement he’s been held in a naval brig in South Carolina. He is being held indefinitely because our appeal court says our President can do this in a time of war. Mr. Padilla is an American citizen. Even though convicted of nothing he is considered an illegal combatant and so he does not have the rights and guarantees that the constitution requires the government to accord criminal defendants. That means the Pentagon can hold him forever.” This is what they want; to be able to spy on people, arrest them and incarcerate them indefinitely without just cause. Chapman also says,
“The case of Padilla is an attempt by our government to destroy America’s federal criminal-justice system and replace it as was done in Germany under Nazism in the 1930s. Ninety-eight percent of Americans know nothing of the Padilla case and its threat to our rights and guarantees by any despot. Our government wants the authority to kidnap and punish without any federal court interference whatsoever. The concept is anyone government accuses of terrorism becomes a prisoner of war, not a criminal defendant, and this prisoner of war is not entitled to the protections of the Geneva Convention, which governs prisoners of war. These are illegal combatants because terrorism is not a lawful way to wage war and because these uncharged and un-convicted combatants are not wearing military uniforms. All this illegal activity by our government is sanctioned by and signed off by our President.” Recent stories in the corporate owned media are reporting Bu$h is so out there he is threatening to Veto a recent bill passed by the US Senate 90 to 9 that opposes and bans torture! Bu$h by this opposition proves he is in favor of abuse like what the US did at Abu Gharib and the US prison in Guantanamo. What does all this mean? It means Bu$h and Co. are threatening to transform AmeriKKKa into a totally fascist police state. AmeriKKKa has always been a police state vis a vis Africans and most people of color from colonial slavery days to the COINTELPRO of the ‘60's and ‘70's. Africans in AmeriKKKa have always been viewed with suspicion and have been constant targets and victims of terror and violence in an effort to keep us in “our place” and discourage resistence. Now Bu$H and his fascist buddies are planning to make AmeriKKKa a police state for the masses.
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New Orleans An AmeriKKKan Militarized Zone
New Orleans, An AmeriKKKan Militarized Zone “New Orleans is the first American city to come under the direct control of the global-corporate oligarchy. By taking advantage of loopholes in the current law created by terrorist legislation, Rumsfeld has been able to insert both the military and private security organizations into a major metropolitan area without as much as a peep from his critics. There’s simply been no opposition from any quarter to a draconian move that will have sweeping affects on the future of liberty in the US. We can only imagine the gleeful reaction to these new developments at America’s many elite-bastions, like the American Enterprise Institute, the Federalist Society, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the others, who have worked so tirelessly to overturn the basic principles of personal freedom and representative government. The emergence of a militarized police-state is the victory they have sought for decades. Now, it has materialized in the wreckage of the South’s main port-o-call.” Occupied New Orleans and Homegrown Resistance - Mike Whitney Bellaciao 10-02-05
Now that the corporate mind control apparatus has moved on to obfuscate and befuddle the masses about another plank in the corporatist New World Order agenda, the city of New Orleans is left to fend for itself amidst a precedent setting federal take over military lock down. and regentrification boondoggle. Now reports of what really happened during and following Hurricane Katrina are circulating on the Internet but are being suppressed by the corporate media so folks won't know how they were duped and bamboozled. Now we are finding out there were no wide scale murders, rapes, looting or mayhem as reported by the media whose job i was to demonize and condition the masses not to empathize with the people who were stranded and left to die in New Orleans. Once Bu$h, FEMA and the media worked their con game the world moved on to the next hurricane, the next scandal or the next spin and controversy. What we are not being told nor for the most part have not been provided the information to enable us to connect the dots and recognize Bu$h’s insensitive response to Katrina was a very deliberate and premeditated move. New Orleans was used as a dry run and practice op for the militarization and lock down of a whole city and region. Of course like 9-11 Bu$h’s cronies will lead the “investigation” (whitewash) to suppress the truth about whatactually happened in New Orleans and why.
New Orleans is under occupation both by US troops and mercenaries employed by the US Department of Defense. Keep in mind the hurricane was a natural disaster not a terrorist act or an act of war. Despite this, the US military is bunkered in a city that is in effect under martial law. Simultaneously the sycophants and puppets in the US Congress are attempting to reverse or undermine the Posse Comitatus Act of 1876 which has protected US residents (except for Native Americans and Africans in America) from military occupation and use of the military as a law enforcement instrument. Bu$h using Hurricane Katrina as a rationale, is now pressing for more authority to use the military during “ natural disasters”. New Orleans for all intents and purposes is an occupied city, the test cse if you will of the New World Order. In an article on http://bellaciao.org Mike Whitney also posits New Orleans was a dry run for the NWO plan to turn AmeriKKKa into an armed police state.
“the appearance of fully-armed mercenaries on the streets of New Orleans tells us that the city is currently under occupation. Whenever foreign troops are deployed within an urban area it can only mean one thing; the loss of sovereignty. It’s no different here. Blackwater mercenaries are part of a privately owned army that has seized control of the streets from their rightful owners, the people of New Orleans. They are an integral part of a much broader plan to militarize the nation and turn America into a garrison-state. Blackwater employees may work for the United States government, but, in fact, they represent the exclusive interests of an elite cadre of corporate globalists who are transforming America into a base for future operations. New Orleans is simply the testing-grounds for their radical theories of establishing order. It provides a pilot-program for working out the kinks that inevitably arise from revamping society from the ground up.” I concur with his assessment of the situation in the Big Easy. Unfortunately not too many others see how this is being played out. New Orleans is part of a larger plan to usher in an era of the active police state, massive surveillance and spying and new laws to curtail civil liberties, privacy and movements all under the guise of national security. Whitney also asserts,
“The soldiers and mercenaries will be part of a permanent military contingent in New Orleans performing routine policing activities, assisting NGOs, and executing various disciplinary functions. The Red Cross is already being assisted by Blackwater employees; ensuring that vital assistance is meted-out according to strict guidelines rather than mere need. These same restrictions have been applied in Afghanistan and Iraq to make sure that victims meet certain political criteria before they can get aid. This is how the Pentagon enters NGOs into the overarching military goals of the operation and turns relief into a subtle form of coercion. Realistically, New Orleans can no longer be considered a part of the United States. It now belongs to that confused jumble of quasi-states like Kosovo, Afghanistan, Haiti and Iraq that toil beneath the corporate banner of the new world order.” The average AmeriKKKan is clueless about the NWO agenda. Africans in America are used to being spied upon, criminalized and demonized. Now this pattern will be extended to the rest of AmeriKKKa unless Joe and Jane Sixpack wake up soon. My friend Catherine Austin Fitts says the ruling elites treat the masses like mushrooms, keeping us in the dark and swamping us with bull excrement. In his summation Whitney says,
“The pattern emerging in New Orleans is no different from the one we see wherever the corporate globalists extend their grip. The social safety-net is savaged, the public infrastructure is destroyed, and the path is paved for the multinational parasites to descend on their prey and reap their windfall profits from ‘no-bid’ contracts. The shifting political realities in New Orleans are bound to create a growing sense of unease and horror among the public. In Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti, that disquiet has evolved into indigenous resistance movements. We expect the same will take place in New Orleans. The deployment of troops is a deliberate provocation and a direct threat to the fundamental principles of a free society. It cannot stand. Democracy is incompatible with occupation; whether it’s in Iraq or New Orleans. Any talk about freedom in America is pointless until every soldier and mercenary is removed from the streets of our cities.” The people are rousing and are not as comatose as before. Bu$h’s popularity and approval ratings are at an all time low which means his NWO handlers will work to accelerate and ratchet up their agenda before folks really wake up. This is all the more reason for us to be diligent, vigilant and not fall for the New World Order okey-doke.
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Educate To Elevate and Empower
Educate To Elevate and Empower “The present system of education is calculated to subjugate the majority and elevate the minority. The system was devised and has been promulgated by agents of the minority. This system was carefully thought out by those who desire to control others for their benefit and the disadvantage of others to the extent that the others would not immediately rise into happiness and enjoyment of life simultaneously and equality with them. It was never originally intended to all the people equal at the same time and more so was it not intended to elevate the darker races to the immediate standard of the white races from whom the minority sprung to establish the system of education. All textbooks and general literature therefore are coloured to suit the particular interest of those who established the system of education and they group they represent as against the interest of others whom they did not want to immediately elevate to their standard.” Marcus Mosiah Garvey
As we look at our communities, world wide we see a disproportionate disparity in educational attainment. In Neocolonial African many countries have been forced by IMF, the World Bank and US AID loan shark policies to alter their domestic agenda to de-emphasis literacy, public health and infra-structural development in favor of disadvantageous trade polices and privatization of public utilities and natural resources favoring the West. The masses of our people are being kept illiterate, poor, sick and exploited on behalf of the multi-national corporation’s ruling elites and their governmental minions. Here in AmeriKKKa the education system is in shambles. Despite the landmark Brown v Board of Education of Topeka Kansas education in modern AmeriKKKa is just as racially and economically incommensurate as it was in 1954. Spending even within the same school district is grossly unequal. A cursory review will reveal the per capita spending is higher for predominantly white schools than it is for black or Hispanic schools despite the added infusion of Title One monies for many inner city and poor rural schools. Even many of those who graduate from high school are functionally illiterate in the inner cities the drop out rate is high which is also reflected in the high unemployment rate although many of the factory jobs our people were able to get in past generations no longer exist or have been outsourced overseas. During our sojourn in this country Africans have always recognized the importance of education, both formal and informal. Prior to the Civil War “free” Blacks in the South endeavored to found their own schools due to prevailing class biases against education in general for the masses of poor whites and especially for blacks, the efforts of Africans to educate themselves were usually within the context of European religious organizations or Sabbath or Sunday Schools. In the North the few schools started for blacks were established by whites Following the US Civil War and during the period called Reconstruction one of the goals of African community leaders was to establish public schools to educate all the children, a radical notion at the time; a notion that ran counter to the prevailing class values of most of the planter aristocracy. Sociologist E Franklin Frazier in his seminal work The Negro In The United States writes,
“When one turns to the question of public tax supported schools for Negroes in the South, one finds opposition on the part of all the state legislatures. This question was due partly to the aristocratic tradition in the South that had always been opposed to the education of children at public expense. During the years prior to the Civil War the poor white classes had become more articulate and insistent in their demands for public support of education. Some success had been achieve by poor whites in the Piedmont regions of Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina where Negro slavery was being undermined by soil exhaustion and the decline of the plantation system. But on the whole, the aristocratic slaveholding class had succeeded in nullifying the attempts of the poor whites to gain more than statutory provisions for a very limited support of public education.” Page 423. Those same class dynamics are still in play in 2005. It is the poor who suffer because of inequity in school funding, supplies and programs.
What is the solution? For us we must use very means at our disposal to educate and elevate our people formally or informally. Charter schools are an option although in most states charter schools receive less money per student then regular schools ( a variation of the separate but (un)equal theme we have witnessed throughout the history of public education in AmeriKKKa). We can found and fund independent schools. This is more than a notion but they will be truly independent and under our control. We can start after school and Saturday programs to tutor and supplement the Eurocentric white supremacist garbage our children are receiving with self and group affirming curriculum material, media literacy and current events so we have a common foundation to build upon for our survival and liberation. We can home school our children but this requires effective time management and a love of learning ourselves, traits we seem not to value at this time in our existence here. We must realize and recognize we are in a war for the hearts, minds, souls and bodies of our people. The primary lesson of Hurricane Katrina is, our government doesn’t care whether we live or die! Marcus Garvey understood the importance of fully educating our people to survive and thrive despite the political realities of their time. Garvey like Booker T Washington was a proponent of self-help and self-actualization. “
As you shouldn’t expect anther man to give you the clothing that you need to cover your own body so you should not expect another race to give you the education to challenge their rights to monopoly and mastery to take for yourself that which they want for themselves...Trust only yourself and those you know and those that look like you and are related to you ought to be known first before you know others.” Marcus Garvey Life and Lessons Robert Hill editor University of California Press page 265. This is sage advice. Now is the time to rethink our positions about everything. Just as the US abandoned our people in New Orleans they have long abandoned us with regard to quality life and liberation affirming education. We must now before it is too late move to educate elevate and empower ourselves to reflect and demonstrate our innate genius and divinity. Anything less is an affront to the CREATOR, our ancestors ourselves and our progeny.
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