ZZ's blog: Georgi Dimitrov: An Antidote to False Prophets and Naysayers

ZZ's blog: Georgi Dimitrov: An Antidote to False Prophets and Naysayers

thoughts from podunk: A "fucking moron" sits in the Oval Office according to his own selected Secretary of State

thoughts from podunk: A "fucking moron" sits in the Oval Office according to his own selected Secretary of State

Criticism of Certain Contemporary Opportunist Views on the State

Lenin highlighted the fundamental importance of this issue for those that understand the existence and determining role of the class struggle in social progress, noting that "particular attention should be paid to Marx's extremely profound remark that the destruction of the bureaucratic-military state machine is "the precondition for every real people's revolution" and stressing that "Only he is a Marxist who extends the recognition of the class struggle to the recognition of the dictatorship of the proletariat. From ML Today https://mltoday.com/article/2733-criticism-of-certain-contemporary-opportunist-views-on-the-state/94

thoughts from podunk: Let's talk about the politics and economics of livelihood

thoughts from podunk: Let's talk about the politics and economics of livelihood

Some call it Death caused by depraved indifference; I call it murder by willful neglect

Last year on March 23rd, 2015 - After listening to hours of personal and expert testimony, the Forward Together Moral Movement People's Grand Jury returned with indictments of the North Carolina Governor and his gang sitting in Raleigh. This is in regard to the governor and his decision to turn down Medicaid expansion to cover people who cannot afford medical care. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Urban Institute released reports showing that the 24 states that have refused to expand their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act and will miss out on $423 billion in federal health care dollars through 2022.Under the law, the federal government picks up all of the costs of the expansion through the first three years and then its share gradually drops to 90 percent. Without those federal dollars coming in, a number of hospitals that serve low-income populations in refusing states have already been shuttered; one being Belhaven hospital, in Belhaven N.C. where since it’s closing, preventable deaths have occurred. In essence, he and his regime cause the deaths of many. One case that of know I of personally occurred just in the last few weeks. A friend’s life partner succumbed to cancer at 62 years of age. This was a hard working couple who had their own home remodeling, two person repair business, since the crash of 2008 things haven’t been going so well in the business due since sickness. The problem was no money for a doctor to see what was going on. Only when it got to the point desperation did someone agree to see him; too late, cancer. Something that might have been treatable now couldn’t be. Two weeks ago he died but they were “nice” enough to treat him at hospice for his last two weeks of life. If I were so inclined I could wish horrible things for him in his next life, but since I don’t ascribe to that kind of thinking or belief, people like this must be brought to justice in the here and now. Until we get rid of this corrupt anti poor and working class, racist system, I fear will see and hear more of this. Legal definition of depraved indifference; To constitute depraved indifference, the defendant's conduct must be 'so wanton, so deficient in a moral sense of concern, so lacking in regard for the life or lives of others, and so blameworthy as to warrant the same criminal liability as that which the law imposes upon a person who intentionally causes a crime. Depraved indifference focuses on the risk created by the defendant’s conduct, not the injuries actually resulting. , the Forward Together Moral Movement People's Grand Jury returned with indictments of the North Carolina Governor and his gang https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld0jxe1jck8

Reverend William Barber: Leader of the Biggest Social Movement the Media Won't Talk About - by Carl Gibson

This is the first installment in a three-part series on Reverend Barber and the Forward Together movement in North Carolina. On Feb. 14, roughly 30,000 people got up early on a cold Saturday morning to march on the North Carolina state house in Raleigh to demand anti-poverty legislation, voting rights, healthcare access, LGBT rights, environmental justice, criminal justice reform, and reproductive rights. #MoralMarch, the official hashtag of the protest, was a top national trend on Twitter, and an image of the march posted on the US Uncut Facebook page was shared over 12,000 times and reached almost 1.5 million people. (Full disclosure: I’m one of the admins for US Uncut.) Meanwhile, the lead story in the next day's Raleigh News & Observer, complete with a spread of 97 photos, was about a five-mile run in which participants ate a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts halfway through. Anchors of corporate-owned local TV news stations each spent 40 seconds talking over video of the march, briefly mentioning that it happened, and the News & Observer later gave the march a brief two-sentence summary on its website. So what is it about the Forward Together movement the media is so scared to talk about? As Reverend Dr. William Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP and voice of the Forward Together movement, calls it a “deeply constitutional, deeply moral” battle against the worst forms of injustice, led by young people, minorities, and people of multiple faiths – the exact groups the current political regime is working to disenfranchise. “The attacks are happening out of fear. They’re not attacking us because we’re weak,” Barber said during an extensive interview at his hotel. “They’re attacking us because when that demographic forms, we can fulfill the hope of Dr. King and form that demographic bloc that can shift the politics in the South. And if you can shift the South, you can shift the whole nation. After the election of Barack Obama, that demographic formed in places like North Carolina, Virginia, Florida and South Carolina. And the extremists saw that, and they said, 'we’ve gotta stop this.'” The Forward Together movement is officially known as the Historic Thousands on Jones Street (HKonJ) coalition, made up of 170 member organizations spanning multiple issues. HKonJ unites these groups under a 14-point agenda emphasizing an intersectional approach including: high-quality public education, living wages, healthcare for all, racial justice, voting rights, affordable higher education, fairness for state contracting, affordable housing, criminal justice reform, environmental justice, collective bargaining and worker safety, immigrants’ rights, a new civil rights act, and bringing the troops home. Rev. Barber encourages other movements to adopt a similar approach and focus on pressuring state legislatures and governors, not Washington politicians. “Most of the threats in this country are coming from the statehouses. It isn’t coming from Congress. Congress isn’t passing anything,” Rev. Barber said. With the financing of billionaire retail emperor Art Pope, extreme right-wing Republican politicians took a majority in the legislature in 2010 – the first post-Citizens United election in which multiple campaign finance laws were eradicated. In 2012, Pope funded Pat McCrory’s successful campaign for governor, cementing the first Republican supermajority in North Carolina in over a century. “I call them extremists, I don’t call them Republicans,” Rev. Barber said. “I know good Republicans, and these people aren’t it… This extremist, Koch brother, tea party ideology is dangerous for the future.” McCrory reciprocated by making Pope his administration’s budget director, and not long after, budgets for schools, healthcare, housing, environmental regulation, unemployment compensation, and social safety nets for the impoverished were slashed in favor of generous new corporate tax breaks for big businesses like Pope’s. Governor McCrory refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, which effectively signed the death warrants of anywhere between 400 to 1,100 North Carolinians, according to a Harvard study. North Carolina also passed one of the nation’s most draconian voter suppression laws, which limited early voting, ended same-day voter registration, and included strict requirements on what kind of photo ID is acceptable for voter registration (student photo ID is not accepted). The North Carolina NAACP has since filed a lawsuit against the State of North Carolina in federal court challenging the restrictions on voting. The group won an injunction in the 4th circuit and is taking the case to trial on July 6. “Extremists, in their hubris, they won’t back off. They keep making mistakes. They’re trying to stop a future from coming that they cannot stop,” Barber said. “You’re attacking the dreams of these children’s grandparents, and they understand that. When you roll back voting rights, you’re telling these children, ‘We’re gonna dishonor your grandmama and your mama,’ and you just don’t do that.” In comment threads on News & Observer articles, the Forward Together movement’s detractors claim that despite constant protests, Republicans won the U.S. Senate election in North Carolina last November. However, Rev. Barber pointed out that despite all of the restrictions on voting, two traditionally red counties – Hyde County and Jackson County – turned blue last election for the first time since 2008, and that Republican Thom Tillis only beat Democrat Kay Hagan by 1.7 percent. “We’re changing the politics of the state,” Barber continued. “We’re challenging our legislators and governor to be true to the constitution and true moral values – not to put their hand on the bible, swear to uphold the constitution, then violate the basic principles of both.” The facts back up Rev. Barber’s case. Multiple surveys conducted by Public Policy Polling found that a majority of North Carolinians (54 percent) think giving teachers a raise should be a bigger priority than cutting taxes. Fifty-five percent of North Carolinians thought that those teacher raises should come from increasing taxes on people making more than $250,000 a year as opposed to the state senate’s proposal of cutting teachers’ assistants. Gov. McCrory’s approval rating was once at 50 percent, but dipped as low as 39 percent. The Republican legislature had polled as high as 40 percent, but after the consistent protests at the capitol, they polled as low as 18 percent. “It wasn’t that way when we started. But the movement has shifted the culture. And we hope that more of those who are against us will continue to turn,” Rev. Barber said. “Lyndon Baines Johnson didn’t want to pass the Voting Rights Act, but Dr. King and the NAACP shifted the consciousness of the nation and made him do it.” Stay tuned for part II of this series, which compares the organizing efforts of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s to the organizing efforts of Reverend Barber and the Forward Together movement today. - See more at: http://www.occupy.com/article/reverend-william-barber-leader-biggest-social-movement-media-wont-talk-about#sthash.HuUdt99g.dpuf

thoughts from podunk: Cuba beware

Cuba beware · Written by Ken Fuller · Tuesday, 13 January 2015 · Daily Tribune The news last month that the remaining three of the imprisoned Cuban Five had been released from their unjust incarceration in the USA was understandably welcomed by people around the world. Also welcome was Obama’s decision to re-establish diplomatic relations with the small Caribbean socialist republic. While Obama is able to unwind some of the blockade measures which have been in place for half a century, however, it will fall to the US Congress to dismantle the whole disgraceful apparatus, as it is embedded in legislation. It would almost certainly be a mistake, though, to interpret this development as marking a fundamental shift in Washington’s strategic designs. This is readily demonstrated by looking first at the global context in which the USA’s new Cuba policy was announced, then taking a closer look at Obama’s public announcement of said policy. A few days earlier, Obama approved a bill imposing sanctions against Venezuela on the hypocritical basis (for a country which tortures its perceived foes and where police kill unarmed civilians with impunity) that the government of Nicolas Maduro had condoned human rights violations when it responded to anti-government protests earlier last year. Washington’s new measures triggered mass demonstrations in Caracas, while other Latin American nations rallied to Venezuela’s defense. Bolivian president Evo Morales charged that Washington, having failed politically in its campaign against Maduro and his late predecessor Hugo Chaves, was now waging “economic aggression” against Venezuela. Shortly after announcing the new policy on Cuba, Obama issued an executive order banning exports to Crimea and imposing further sanctions against Russian and Ukrainian companies and individuals (the European Union had agreed similar measures a few days earlier). It is probably safe to assume that the Ukraine’s largest private gas producer, which last year appointed US Vice-President Joe Biden’s son to its board of directors, will not be affected. Let’s just remind ourselves, stating the matter bluntly, just how the situation in Ukraine came about. In late 2013, Ukraine’s president’s Viktor Yanukovych had second thoughts about signing an agreement with the European Union (EU), calculating that this would involve forsaking the undoubted economic benefits of Ukraine’s association with Russia. The EU was upset, and doubtless encouraged the demonstrators who soon began to assemble in Kiev. This would lead to the toppling of Yanukovych in February 2014. Quite apart from EU involvement, it is now clear that the demonstrators in Kiev (who, it should not be forgotten, were extremely violent) were funded by the USA. Such was acknowledged by Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Newland, who stated in a speech in Washington in December 2013 that Washington had provided $5 billion. More recently, George Friedman, founder and CEO of “intelligence” company Stratfor, has said that the USA was behind the coup against Yanukovych, as it was concerned about Russia’s growing influence in the Middle East, and in particular by its pro-Assad position on Syria. The anti-Yanokovych forces contained neo-fascists, and these now made their way into government. It was in these circumstances that the population in Crimea voted overwhelmingly to rejoin Russia (it had been transferred to Ukraine in 1954 by Khrushchev). At the same time, people in the eastern Ukraine were equally concerned by the re-emergence of neo-Nazi elements in Kiev and began to agitate for separation (although not, as repeatedly reported in the West, necessarily union with Russia). It should never be forgotten that the former Soviet Union lost almost 30 million people in World War II; this indelible memory has informed the actions of people in Crimea and eastern Ukraine and has also conditioned Russia’s own position, as it has watched Nato forces, despite agreements to the contrary, move ever-closer to its borders. We now have a situation, therefore, where Washington and the EU, having interfered in a sovereign nation and caused the overthrow of an elected president (good or bad, honest or corrupt — none of this was their business), now impose sanctions on Russia and Crimea for taking measured and moderate steps to safeguard their interests. Rightly or wrongly, many suspect that the hand of Washington is behind the recent steep fall in oil-prices which, along with sanctions, is having a major depressant effect on the Russian economy. The fact that Venezuela, another oil-producer, is similarly affected has done nothing to dispel such suspicions. So, coming as it did in a period when Washington was following up its previous regime-change adventures in Venezuela, Ukraine and now Russia (to say nothing of Libya and Syria), and braying about the right of Hollywood “comedians” to conduct international diplomacy, what must we look out for in the USA’s new tack toward Cuba? There was, in Obama’s speech, no hint of neighborliness toward Cuba’s regime, no note of apology for past crimes committed in the name of “demarkracy.” Alan Gross, the American released from a Cuban jail on humanitarian grounds, was portrayed as an innocent hero, and warmly welcomed home. Gross had been employed by a contractor of US Aid for International Development (USaid) which had been awarded a $6 million government contract for “democracy-promotion” in Cuba, for which Gross himself received over $500,000. The Cuban Five, on the other hand, were merely referred to as “agents.” Not a word about the fact that they had penetrated terrorist groups run by Cuban exiles in Florida, or that their evidence had been handed to the FBI at a meeting in Havana. The all-important question: why? Why now? Was it because Washington had undergone a Damascene conversion and would no longer interfere in the internal affairs of other nations? No, we have seen above that this is certainly not true. Obama himself stated quite flatly that the previous policy of isolation and embargo had simply not worked and thus needed to be discarded. But what had been the aim of the previous policy? Regime change, and that has not altered, as evidenced by the recent revelation that USaid, the same outfit for which Gross was working, had infiltrated Cuba’s hip-hop fraternity with the notion of recruiting dissidents, leading to a youth revolt. Thus, the new policy will be directed at achieving that aim by alternative means. Although, if the embargo is lifted, there will be economic opportunities for Cuba, it is perhaps no exaggeration to say that it is entering its most dangerous period yet. Cuba beware! thoughts from podunk: Cuba beware

Gets to the Root

From the Jewish daily forward: At first glance, it seems that Ani DiFranco has become the latest example of how a mix of star-fueled insulation from the real world and white privilege can lead to bad public relations. After an Internet-inspired backlash, the feminist singer-songwriter has canceled a musical retreat at a former slave plantation in Louisiana, now a resort that promotes the quaint imagery of antebellum life. But the dreadlocked diva isn’t to blame. Many have wondered how the normally socially progressive artist could be so insensitive. The answer is that for more than a century, since the South lost the Civil War, it has buried the horror of slavery to such an extent that celebrating at a site of such human suffering doesn’t seem so absurd. That a place like the Nottoway Plantation, where DiFranco wanted to have her event, exists as a luxury destination for weddings and other celebrations is telling enough. This is just one example of both collective amnesia and resilient pride in a racist ideology. The fact is that it’s not that hard for a society to publicly condemn its own past and actively work toward a better future. As Jews, we know that Germany’s monuments to the Holocaust explicitly define the dead as victims of the nation. Those who resisted have museums in their honor. The death camps, both in Germany and outside, remind us of the dark possibilities of the human spirit, a sign that regular people can participate in unspeakable evil. Nothing about that era is celebrated. By contrast, the South only concedes that it suffered a military defeat — burying the fact that the Confederacy was explicitly defending the ownership of people and white supremacy — and never admits that since the Confederacy waged war against the United States government, generals like Robert E. Lee share a lot in common with Osama bin Laden. That’s unfair, actually. Bin Laden wasn’t responsible for anywhere near the number of American deaths caused by Lee and company. Instead, Lee’s birthday is a holiday in several Southern states, which just happens to fall near Martin Luther King Day. There is also a separate Confederate Memorial Day, in part because the federal Memorial Day, which honors American troops who died in war, was started by Union veterans. The Confederate battle flag is still a common site. The likeness of Lee, along with Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson, is engraved on Stone Mountain, serving as a Confederate version of Mount Rushmore. I recently joked to a friend in my hometown of Atlanta that I should move back and open a Union Army-themed bar called Sherman and Grant’s, named for the top Union commanders. He suggested that I buy fire insurance. Meanwhile, monuments to the civil rights struggle in the South are pushed to the dustbin. The MLK memorial center in Atlanta has descended into mediocrity. A few years ago, I was biking in New Orleans and stopped to read a historical marker in a landscape defined by rusted train tracks and overgrown lots. It was the site of Homer Plessy’s arrest for sitting in a whites-only train car in 1892, which resulted in the Supreme Court case that validated racial segregation. The South’s defensiveness in it rosy remembrance of its own past is grounded in the excuse that the Union Army ravaged the South, including burning down Atlanta, in the final days of the war and during its occupation afterward. This doesn’t pass moral muster. It is true that civilians suffered as a result of the war, but it was a war the South started. And no war comes without crime, even on the side maintaining the moral high ground. The Allies committed atrocities during World War II, but this did not vindicate the Nazis’ quest for world domination. Until there is collective contrition in the South about slavery and the Confederacy’s war against America in order to preserve one race of people as property of another, we’re never going to see an end to things like the DiFranco incident. And the will to make amends, to make the Nottoway Plantation look more like Auschwitz does today, has to come from within the South. If it comes only from Northern residents like myself, any effort to change consciousness will be seen in terms of an outside culture imposing its norms onto the South. And we know how much will the South has to resist something like that. Read more: http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/190302/ani-difranco-s-slave-plantation-gaffe/#ixzz2pSRy7Koi

Jailed for justice at July 8th’s Moral Monday

by: HARVEY SMITH july 11 2013 LILLINGTON, N.C. - On Monday July 8th, over 4,000 North Carolinians came together during the first day of the workweek to protest and participate in acts of civil disobedience as we have for the last 9 weeks. This was my 5th Moral Monday protest action. The Thursday before the prior Moral Monday I had made a conscious decision (which was not taken lightly) to take part in an act of civil disobedience that might mean arrest and detention. My daughter Tanya upon hearing this, jumped at the chance to join me (Political activism runs in our family genome). We arrived at Christian Faith Baptist Church before the protest (all of those who were interested in participating in civil disobedience are asked to meet beforehand) and met with others who were participating, as well as with the leader of Moral Monday, the Rev. Dr. Barber. There were 64 of us; young, old, black, brown, white, LGBT, and straight. A real snapshot of the citizens of North Carolina! Voices were raised and there was clapping and shouting in response to rousing talk by Dr. Barber, members and guests. Doctor Barber then gave a news conference to the media. Some were local, some from NY and some were from as far away as Sweden. Mark Thompson, who has a radio show on XM radio-left, was there and Broadcast his program from The Moral Monday protest. Everyone was treated as family and given water and other substance for our journey that evening. Upon arrival at the protest site at Halifax Mall, we saw thousands upon thousands of people already there! What an amazing sight! Every Monday there is a focus and a topic. This Monday's was "The Numbers Matter," a protest against the actions of the extreme right wing running our state and education: Who have they hurt? What have they cost us? What are the numbers? Speakers included Dr. Barber, the NAACP, Planned Parenthood and students as well as Mark Thompson who all focused on the NUMBERS. As Dr. Barber stated, we can all yell and protest, but we better KNOW the facts we are protesting against. The only thing that is worse than being wrong is being LOUD and WRONG! . Going forward to more Moral Mondays July 15, the date of next weeks rally will focus and be run entirely by the sisters on women's health issues. All others will attend to support our sisters in struggle against the onslaught. The following weeks after will be an interfaith rally lead by members of all clergy, including rabbis, Imams, pastors, priests, and more. The following weeks will be bringing it home. Rallies will be held in each of the 13 congressional districts of North Carolina to register the unregistered voters and organize for the battles that will surely be in front of us. Everyone at the rally was asked to take a vow for that each person will help register 50 people to prepare for the next election. At the close of the general rally on Halifax Mall, all who volunteered to participate in civil disobedience lined up behind flag bearers, one carrying the American flag, one carrying the North Carolina flag and one carrying the Veterans for Peace flag. The huge crowd parted and we marched down the middle. It was just like the biblical story of the Red Sea. Everyone was cheering and clapping and it was an extremely proud and humbling moment for me. We entered the Legislative building and took our place with Dr. Barber, and the gallery above soon filled with supporters singing songs: "We shall not be moved," and "We shall overcome." After Doctor Barber's address to the crowd and media, the chief of the capital police announced on his bullhorn a five-minute warning to clear the building. At that point there was booing and hissing against the chief. Rev Barber became visually upset; he quieted the crowd and said, "We will have none of this disrespect!" He continued, "The chief is a friend and is only doing his job and we will not disrespect the police." He then asked for applause for the officers who were only carrying out their jobs because this was not personal thing and said we must take the moral high ground. With that the crowd erupted into thunderous applause. A few minutes later, the Chief of the Capital Police gave a two-minute waning on the bullhorn letting everyone know they must leave the building or be subject to arrest. With that warning, everyone who was not going to participate cleared the galleries and building, leaving just us 64 people and the approximately 15 police officers, both from the capital and Raleigh police departments, in the chamber. One of the first to be arrested was a gentleman dressed like and who actually looked like Uncle Sam. The second person who was cuffed and led away was Mark Thompson who was leading us in protest songs. They could have none of that so they declined to go in order while making their arrests and got him out of there as quickly as possible! This didn't work though, as we were not derailed from our chanting and singing. Mark may have started it but he gave us the power to continue it. Then, two by two we were cuffed behind out backs and led to the legislative cafeteria to begin being processed for transport to the county jail now called a detention center. In the cafeteria we were frisked, our personal belongs placed in an envelope and then we had our mug shots taken. After my mug shot was taken and I returned to my chair I noticed they didn't take my cell phone which I had on my belt. Knowing I would be frisked again at the jail I informed the chief who happen to be passing by they forgot my cell phone during the frisk, he looked at me, smiled, asked my name. He then took it and said it will be placed in my envelope that I would get back later. Thankfully my daughter was in eyesight all the time, she is a grown woman but still my baby. We had some good conversations with some of the police who were "guarding" us -- some of them intimated if it weren't for their jobs they would be standing with us in protest. After a wait of about a half an hour we were taken to the prison transport buses for our trip to the jail. As we stepped out into the daylight where the buses were waiting to take us to our new fate I saw something beautiful. To my surprise there were hundreds of people across the street with the press applauding and singing as we were placed on the buses! Solidarity is great!! The bus ride was uneventful as what are people who agreed to civil disobedience going do? Take over the bus? One funny thing did happen though. When we arrived at the jail before being taken off the bus, the officer who was our escort and whose demeanor was more of a kindly grandmother asked if Mr. so and so was on the bus. When he said yes he was, the officer said, "Your wife called and you forgot to leave her the car keys." With that the bus erupted in laughter and comments from the others as to how he might want to stay in jail for a few days to let the smoke clear at home. Inside the jail we were once again frisked and the cuffs were removed before we were placed in holding cells. We waited about a half an hour, and then were told to line up outside the cells. Wrist shackles were applied so there would be ten of us shackled together. Our group was led by the person dressed as Uncle Sam. What a sight we were as we marched to the part of the complex containing the magistrate's offices! Uncle Sam leading older black and white guys chained together; even the prison guards got a kick out of the irony of the situation. We arrived at the magistrates holding area and were again placed in a holding cell. Another half an hour went by and we were all called by name to see the magistrate; all 7 of us in our holding cell were told to make a semicircle in front of the magistrates window (which was like a window you see at a bank) as he would read the charges and then ask each one in our group to hand out the paper work to the rest of the group so we can be released. Mark Thompson volunteered to be our clerk to make sure all received their paper work. After signing the document we were escorted to the lobby to pick up our belongings and leave the building. As we left the building one by one, a huge roar came from supporters waiting for us outside, including Dr. Barber who was there to welcome us back along with the NAACP legal team who did an excellent job with everything. My daughter was released 15 minutes before me and was waiting on the outside with my son-in-law and my youngest grandson Jonathon -- who by the way turned 6 years old that day. Dr. Barber on hearing Jonathon was 6 called everyone together outside of the jail and everyone sang happy birthday to Jonathon who was hoisted up on his daddy Anthony's shoulders. A birthday Jonathon will never forget! Conditions of my release As for the future, I cannot step foot on the Legislative property until after my court day. Here are my charges as printed on my condition of release statement: 2nd degree trespass Failure to disperse upon command Violating legislative building rules The conditions of signing myself out on promise to appear state that I must not return to the legislative property at 300 N. Salisbury Street and 16 W. Jones Street until the final disposition of this case. But I can and will return to the sight of the protest every Monday. I will have my day in court as will all others and the state will be forced to bend to the will of the people since we aren't going away. And a branch that won't bend will break because "The People united will never be defeated!" Even though this was easy and in no way can be compared to the martyrs actions who have gone before such as Dr. King, Medgar Evers, John Lewis, Rosa Parks, Susan B. Anthony, W. E. B. Du Bois, Cesar Chavez and too many other to list, it is an honor to stand and fight and continue the struggle for those that came before.

North Carolina "Historic Thousands" march for economic justice

by: HARVEY SMITH february 12 2013 RALEIGH, N.C. - Thousands poured out for the seventh annual HKonJ - Historic Thousands of Jones Street - rally here Feb 9, under the theme "Forward Together, Not One Step Back ... Mobilizing for Economic Justice and an End to Poverty." Spearheaded by the state chapter of the NAACP, HKonJ includes more than 140 multiracial social justice groups. Stepping off at Shaw University, a historically black college, thousands marched to the Legislative Building on Jones Street. There they heard several speakers, including Chairman of the NAACP National Board of Directors Roslyn M. Brock and state NAACP President Rev. William Barber, discuss a five-point agenda that emphasizes education, the economy and the criminal justice system. Coalition members are concerned about attempts by the Republican legislature to pass a voter identification bill. And a measure that cuts jobless benefits could reach Gov. Pat McCrory's desk next week. "In the face of our progressive agenda, we've seen a new ultra-conservative, Republican-led leadership unleash a cruel and unusual attack on labor rights, unemployment rights, Medicaid and voting rights," Barber said. "It will have a devastating impact on the poor and working people." The NAACP state chapter in January urged North Carolina lawmakers to focus on issues surrounding poverty and economic justice. The state's poverty rate is 12th highest in the U.S., with one of every four children living in poverty. The rate is much higher for black and Latino children. The NAACP says "1.7 million North Carolinians live in poverty" - about the same number as in 1968. "The gap between the rich and poor is wider than it was during the Great Depression," Barber said. "There are 700,000 in deep poverty, 600,000 children. There are 10 counties where the poverty rate has been over 20 percent for more than 30 years." North Carolina's poverty rate was 17.9 percent in 2011, unchanged from the rate in 2010. The poverty rate jumped more than 25 percent since 2007, the beginning of the Great Recession. - Nearly 1.7 million North Carolinians were officially in poverty in 2011, and more than 737,000 lived in deep poverty. - The poverty rate for children in North Carolina was 25.6 percent in 2011, compared to 9.7 percent for seniors. - People of color experienced higher rates of poverty. In 2011, 28 percent of African Americans, 34.9 percent of Latinos, and 27 percent of American Indians in the state lived in poverty. - Median household income fell to $43,916 in 2011, down 1.8 percent from $44,726 in 2010. Many North Carolinians believe that, when we see a poverty rate for children in the state as high as 25.6 percent, we must keep in mind that these children are not white, black, brown or red children; they are God's children and our children, and we have to do right by them. Even though progressives had a setback here in North Carolina in last fall's election, it has invigorated the forces of progress and the building of strong people's coalitions, as evidenced by Sunday's rally.

North Carolina “Moral Monday” protests battle right-wing agenda

RALEIGH, N.C. - A multi-racial crowd of over 2,500 people rallied outside the North Carolina State Legislature Building on Monday, June 24. 120 activists were arrested in an act of civil disobedience. The focus of this eighth "Moral Monday" was women and the labor movement. The protests have been organized by the state NAACP along with other civil rights, labor and immigration rights groups, in response to the sharp rightward shift in the state's politics that occurred in 2010. That is when, for the first time in more than 100 years, Republicans took control of both the House and the Senate. With redistricting, the Republicans increased their majority in 2012, and Republican Pat McCrory, the former mayor of Charlotte, was elected governor. Addressing the crowd, the Rev. William J. Barber, president of the state's NAACP and leader of the Moral Monday campaign, said, "This isn't a Democratic or Republican Party thing, this is a people movement, led by workers, black, white, brown, old and young, straight, LGBT, religious, atheists, and everything in between." One of the highlights of the rally was when Rev. Barber hushed the crowd and then turned to the media and politicians being interviewed at the back of the stage. He asked them to stop, saying, "This isn't a party. This is serious and this is about the workers and people in trouble." His statement was greeted with applause and cheers. The picture for working families in North Carolina is grim. The state has the fifth highest unemployment rate in the country. This week the General Assembly (House and Senate) voted not to extend unemployment compensation, which will cut benefits for 17,000 people. Currently 25 percent of children live in poverty and 23 percent of women have no health insurance. Gov. McCrory has rejected the call, under the Affordable Care Act, to expand Medicaid, which means that 500,000 people will be denied access to medical care. There are bills pending to tax Social Security benefits, and the legislature has done away with union dues check off (direct deductions from workers' paychecks), weakening the state employees' and teachers' unions. None of this is surprising given that the governor's budget director is Art Pope, a member of the John Birch Society and a founding board member of the far-right billionaire Koch brothers' Americans for Prosperity. In 2010, Pope's organizations spent $2.2 million on 22 state legislature races, and won 18. North Carolina has also announced that it will go full speed ahead to implement new restrictive voting rules in light of the recent Supreme Court ruling on the Voting Rights Act. http://peoplesworld.org/north-carolina-moral-monday-protests-battle-right-wing-agenda/

This hits the nail on the head of life in the small town South

Opinion > Letter from the heartland: Silent factories, human pain Letter from the heartland: Silent factories, human pain by: CHARLES MILLSON may 23 2013 tags: letters, opinion, unemployment, jobs, workers, drugs, economy Dear friend, After a week's vacation, I'm back now to rural Tennessee. Forgive my sarcasm, but nothing's changed here in a week. The high unemployment, the paycheck-to-paycheck population of the area, and the increasing incidence of spousal abuse, teen pregnancy and drug use (prescription and otherwise) still dominate daily life. We see this far too often in the clientele at the local food bank we operate in our small town. Up until a decade ago, a mobile home manufacturer ran two large plants here. They operated 24/7, and they provided a decent living for the workers of the area. But cutbacks and corporate greed won out over taking care of the laborers. Both plants are silent now, yet, even today, they display fading painted aluminum signs that still boast of the worker productivity over the years. No, the workers did their parts. It was the greed of the corporation that moved the factory elsewhere, somewhere it didn't have a union and didn't have to pay workers a decent wage. Now, around here, as unemployment sits around 25 percent, there's nothing much to do except have babies you can't afford to feed or care for, and then do drugs to forget you can't care for your family. Guys who've been taught by this culture that showing emotion or not taking care of your family are sure signs of weakness often take out their inability to express frustration by battering the closest thing to them - usually a "significant other" or a child. In a decidedly Red State, you'd think the churches would step in and help. Nope. The middle class dresses up on Sundays and fills the pews; the poor, by and large, don't go to church. One local pastor remarked, "We'd like to help them folks, but they gotta help themselves." He said this to me from the window of his new pickup truck as he "defended" his church's decision to not be a part of our food bank collaboration. It seems the churches around here only help those who can put something in the collection plate every week ... and completely miss the irony. My apologies: it's not all doom and gloom, my friend. To be fair, some local religious groups practice the Social Gospel, believing that we should imitate the book of Acts when it describes the early church members "selling what they had and sharing with the poor." These groups believe that the early church "had all things common," as Acts says, and that we, too, should imitate that early form of socialism and follow the example of Jesus who fed the hungry, helped the sick, comforted the sorrowful. But I'm preaching. You probably know this already. I promise my next letter will be more upbeat. Until then, I hope your struggle goes well. In solidarity, Charlie M. http://www.peoplesworld.org/letter-from-the-heartland-silent-factories-human-pain#PageComment_153906

thoughts from podunk: Democratic super majorities taking a stand; Where?

thoughts from podunk: Democratic super majorities taking a stand; Where?

Animals are treated better then this

The North Carolina Wage and Hour Act (WHA) does not require mandatory rest breaks or meal breaks for employees 16 years of age or older. The WHA requires breaks only for youths under 16 years of age. Youths under 16 years of age have to be given at least a 30-minute break after 5 hours of consecutive hours and no break of less than 30 minutes shall be deemed to interrupt a continuous period of work. Again, there are no required rest breaks or meal breaks at all for employees 16 years of age or older. The North Carolina law on breaks for youths under 16 years of age generally applies only to enterprises that have gross sales or receipts of less than $500,000.00 a year and to private non-profit organizations. It is our understanding that the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not require that an employer give its employees mandatory rest breaks or meal breaks regardless of an employee's age.

Generally, if an employer does give breaks, then the break must be at least 30 minutes for the employer to be able to deduct the time from an employee's pay. An employer does not have to let its employees leave the employer's premises as long as the employee is completely relieved of duty during the 30-minute break, and the employer does not have to provide a breakroom. An example of an employee "completely relieved of duty" is one who is completely relieved from having to wait for customers to come in or to call. Waiting for customers to come in or to call is clearly work time even if the employee is free to eat or read a magazine while they are waiting for customers or calls. Generally, breaks of less than 30 minutes, such as a 15-minute rest break, have to be paid by the employer. You may want to review the federal rules on hours worked including rules on breaks found in Code of Federal Regulation [CFR] 785 [we have adopted this federal rule]. The rules on "Rest and Meal Periods" are found in 785.18 and 785.19. Here is the Web site to go directly to CFR 785: http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Title_29/Part_785/toc.htm

Also, there is no North Carolina law requiring an employer to give its employees a smoke-break or to provide a place for its employees to smoke. There is a North Carolina law making it illegal for an employer to discriminate against an employee for the employee's lawful use of lawful products, such as tobacco, during non-working hours (N.C.G.S. §95-28.2). However, it is entirely up to an employer to set its own rules for its employees during working hours concerning breaks and if its employees are allowed to smoke in its premises or not during the workday.

The bottom line: It is entirely up to an employer to give breaks or not to give breaks to its employees who are 16 years of age or older in North Carolina.

How progressives can win back the South

By Chris Kromm,Institute for Southern Studies

For most people in America, the #1 issue right now is the recession -- and as Bob Herbert argued in a New York Times op-ed this week, Obama's failure to grasp the depth of this sentiment represents his and his party's biggest Achilles heel:

The Obama administration and Democrats in general are in trouble because they are not urgently and effectively addressing the issue that most Americans want them to: the frightening economic insecurity that has put a chokehold on millions of American families [...]
Instead of focusing with unwavering intensity on this increasingly tragic situation, making it their top domestic priority, President Obama and the Democrats on Capitol Hill have spent astonishing amounts of time and energy, and most of their political capital, on an obsessive quest to pass a health care bill.

Health care reform is important. But what the public has wanted and still badly needs above all else from Mr. Obama and the Democrats are bold efforts to put people back to work.

Obama's lack of focus on jobs and the economy has certainly made his road more difficult in the South. We'll know more about how Southern states are faring when the new state-by-state jobs numbers are released. [Those numbers are now out; for an analysis click here.]
But despite some encouraging signs of new business hiring, the new stats will likely show the South is in the same situation as when Obama gave his State of the Union address in January, when eight out of 13 Southern states had unemployment rates higher than 10%, the national average.

Of course, even a laser-like focus on jobs and the economy won't completely turn around Obama's and the Democrats' popularity in the South, where a complex blend of cultural conservatism, right-wing agitation and racial animosity have driven Obama's poll ratings (at least among whites) into the ground.

But to look at it another way: If there is any one issue that could possibly revive progressive prospects in the South, focusing on the economy stands the best chance, for several reasons:

1) It taps a deep vein of economic populism in the South: In 2006, a Pew Center survey found that 47% of all people who identified as "populists" lived in the South. At the time, the questions used to measure "populism" included support for repealing Bush's tax cuts for the rich, belief that businesses make too much profit and support for a minimum wage increase.

In 2010, Southern populism might include support for a Consumer Protection Agency and investing heavily in fast job-creation strategies.

2) It plays to progressive strengths: Last week, when 19 GOP senators -- including eight from Southern states with high unemployment rates -- voted against extending jobless, progressives were given a gift.

It was a clear example of how those representing everyday Southerners don't speak for their interests -- not in some abstract way, but on a concrete issue of concern to their families: receiving relief they need in this tough economy to put food on the table and provide for their families.

But progressives can only win on these kind of issues if they are consistent. It won't work to be silent about protecting consumers from credit industry greed one moment and then claim to champion debt-struggling families the next.

3) It speaks to the lessons of history: History rarely repeats itself, and trying to draw neat lessons from the past is a tricky and dangerous exercise. But one of the most interesting chapters in Southern history is the way Roosevelt -- widely decried in the media as a fierce liberal, however cautious he was in practice -- was able to win over Southerners to New Deal politics.

How did he do it? By an almost myopic focus on the economy (often, critics point out, to the exclusion of issues like civil rights).

Reformers inside the New Deal pushed to ensure industrial and agricultural relief programs benefit a broad swath of Southerners. Projects like the Tennessee Valley Authority, hatched in 1933, were guided by a broad social mission of social uplift for struggling Appalachian communities.

FDR had to be pushed from the outside, sometimes hard, as the insurgencies of textile workers in the famous Uprising of '34 and the multi-racial Southern Tenant Farmers Union proved. But Roosevelt came to see how a progressive economic agenda could change the South. By 1938, FDR's advisers were releasing a major report on economic conditions in the South to help rally political support for the New Deal agenda in the region.

Obama and the Democrats have no silver bullet for winning over white Southerners. But there's a sure-fire way they can make the situation worse: ignoring the South's history of economic populism and the very real economic pain millions of Southerners face today.

Thirty years ago Haiti imported no rice

Today Haiti imports nearly all its rice. Though Haiti was the sugar growing capital of the Caribbean, it now imports sugar as well. Why? The US and the US dominated world financial institutions - the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank - forced Haiti to open its markets to the world. Then the US dumped millions of tons of US subsidized rice and sugar into Haiti - undercutting their farmers and ruining Haitian agriculture. By ruining Haitian agriculture, the US has forced Haiti into becoming the third largest world market for US rice. Good for US farmers, bad for Haiti.

In 2002, the US stopped hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to Haiti which were to be used for, among other public projects like education, roads. These are the same roads which relief teams are having so much trouble navigating now!

In 2004, the US again destroyed democracy in Haiti when they supported the coup against Haiti's elected President Aristide.

Haiti is even used for sexual recreation just like the old time plantations. Check the news carefully and you will find numerous stories of abuse of minors by missionaries, soldiers and charity workers. Plus there are the frequent sexual vacations taken to Haiti by people from the US and elsewhere. What is owed for that? What value would you put on it if it was your sisters and brothers?

US based corporations have for years been teaming up with Haitian elite to run sweatshops teeming with tens of thousands of Haitians who earn less than $2 a day.

The Haitian people have resisted the economic and military power of the US and others ever since their independence. Like all of us, Haitians made their own mistakes as well. But US power has forced Haitians to pay great prices - deaths, debt and abuse.

It is time for the people of the US to join with Haitians and reverse the course of US-Haitian relations.

Matters of life, death and health care in the rural South

In late July, in the heart of Appalachia, thousands crowded onto a southwest Virginia fairground for the annual Wise County free medical clinic led by Remote Area Medical, a volunteer medical relief corps based out of Tennessee. During the clinic's three days of operations, more than 14,000 rural Southern families, most with little or no insurance, spent hours in line to receive free health care from hundreds of professional doctors, nurses, dentists, and other health care workers.





It was a reminder for many that health care reform is not only vital to impoverished urban areas, but it is a crucial matter in much of rural America. Rural America in many ways has become a silent observer to the health care battle taking place in Washington, often left out of the debate and painted with a brush that reads "anti-reform." But there's another story to rural America that often goes untold -- one of poor rural populations struggling to survive with little or no health insurance and being ignored by their elected leaders. It's a story important here in the South, a region that is largely rural and poor.


As Facing South noted before, lost in much of the health care reform debate is what reform would mean to rural communities. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture [pdf], rural areas have been hit hardest by the nation's broken health insurance system:
Individuals living in rural areas are more likely to be uninsured than those in urban areas (24 percent versus 18 percent), although they are 50 percent more likely to have Medicaid coverage. Two-thirds of the uninsured are low- income families, and 30 percent are children. Even those lower income individuals who are working often lack health insurance due to the structure of employment in rural areas--specifically, smaller employers, lower wages, and greater prevalence of self-employment.
The Nebraska-based Center for Rural Affairs and the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Community Change recently released a report entitled, "Sweet the Bitter Drought: Why Rural America Needs Health Care Reform," which details the importance of health care reform to rural people and rural communities.


Rural Americans are more likely to be uninsured or underinsured than their urban counterparts, according to the report. The authors of the report highlight that the more than 60 million people who live in rural America have the most to gain from fundamental health care reform. According to the report, rural communities, many of them in the South, have been let down by the private insurance industry. These are the same rural communities that face higher rates of chronic disease, poor nutrition and deaths from injuries than any other region in the country, making access to affordable health insurance a life-saving necessity.


From the report:
...the health care reform debate has suffered greatly from a false dichotomy that ailing urban poor folks are the main beneficiaries of reform, while the hardy rural middle class is healthy and well-served by the current system. The truth is that rural people and rural communities are faced with many of the same health care challenges confronting the rest of the nation--exploding heath care costs, large numbers of uninsured and underinsured, and an overextended health care infrastructure.
...
Rural Americans are more likely to be underinsured, less likely to have choices in private insurance coverage, and in dire need of the medical services and technology that public health care investment has brought to big cities. The majority of rural Americans are suffering silently in our broken health care system and want change now.
James from Union City, Tennessee, put it best: "We're not screaming, we're pleading."
The report identifies several health care issues that make health care reform a critical one for rural communities. Rural communities have: an aging, sicker, more at-risk population with less access to preventive health care; a lack of health and wellness resources and centers; a highly-stressed health care delivery system; higher rates of chronic illness (arthritis, asthma, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and mental disorders); a shortage of practicing physicians, dentists, pharmacists, registered nurses, and emergency medical personnel; and riskier professions (farming and industry).


As the report notes, issues of uninsurance and underinsurance are also more prominent in rural areas:
Since the late 1990s, rural areas have witnessed a significant decline in manufacturing jobs and a rise in service sector employment, losing jobs with higher rates of employer-sponsored health insurance while gaining jobs with much lower rates of such coverage. The lack of employer-sponsored health insurance is particularly acute for low-skilled jobs, which are more common in rural areas.
If they do have coverage, rural populations often pay higher costs for less coverage since rural economies are also heavily based on self-employment and small business, two groups greatly impacted by the rising cost of health care premiums. Almost half of all jobs in rural communities are tied to small businesses, a rate 13 percent higher than in cities and suburbs. Workers at small businesses are twice as likely to be uninsured as other workers. As the report notes: rural people are generally less insured, more underinsured, and more dependent on the high-cost individual insurance market.

Poverty and Health Care


A majority of the country's poorest states are located in the South, and most of the poverty in the South is located in rural areas. In this sense, it is no surprise that states with substantial rural populations have ranked highest when it comes to the percentage of people living in poverty: Mississippi, Louisiana, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas,Texas, South Carolina, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia. Most of these states have also ranked highest when it comes to the least insured. As Facing South reported, when divided by region, the greatest populations of uninsured in the United States are mostly likely to be found in the South (18.2 percent).


Researchers continue to link higher mortality rates to lack of insurance. As Facing South reported, having no health insurance means an early death to almost 45,000 people in the United States annually, according to the American Journal of Public Health. Studies also link a lack of insurance to greater health risks, such as hypertension, poor management of chronic illness, and reduced likelihood of receiving preventative and primary care -- all issues disproportionately impacting rural populations in the South.


Studies show that rural populations in the South are dying at higher rates than urban populations. Death rates in rural areas are not declining as fast as in non-rural parts of the country, and death rates in the South are also not declining as fast as other regions of the country. The Daily Yonder recently analyzed data from the Economic Research Service and found that the gap between the death rates in rural and urban America has been increasing since 1990.


According to the ERS data, the highest mortality rates are in the rural South, including the Mississippi River Delta, the Black Belt of the southern coastal plain from Virginia through Alabama, and Appalachia (see chart below).


Community groups continue to push for better state and federal policy to tackle these high mortality rates. According to advocates, part of that policy must include support for comprehensive health care reform.


The Politics of Health Care


Yet, when it comes to policy change, rural areas are caught in a particular hard net. Many of these areas are represented in Congress by members who have been most resistant to the Obama administration's push for health care reform and a government-run public option. These politicians -- including Republicans and "Blue Dog" Democrats -- represent districts with the largest percentage of people who don't have health insurance.


A new report by the Urban Institute analyzing uninsurance across congressional districts in the United States illustrates this point. The report finds that rates of private coverage are lowest in districts that have higher poverty rates, which tend to be concentrated in the South and West. The report notes that uninsurance remains most serious in districts with low rates of private coverage.


The report shows that the states and districts that would benefit the most from the passage of health reform are in rural areas and the South (see chart below). Simply put, some of the biggest opponents of health reform in Congress come from districts -- such as ones in Texas and Florida -- with the highest rates of uninsured residents.





As NPR similarly reported in an analysis of the uninsured rates by Congressional district:
Of the 100 congressional districts with the highest percentage rates of uninsured people, 53 are represented either by Republican lawmakers who are fighting the overhaul, or by conservative Blue Dog Democrats who have slowed down and diluted the overhaul proposals.
One leader of the Blue Dog effort is Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas, the coalition's chief health care negotiator. His 4th Congressional District covers southern Arkansas, a rural area with a high poverty rate. In his district, more than one out of five residents under age 65 lacks health insurance. That's 30 percent higher than the national average.
As Facing South reported, Ross claims his opposition to health reform efforts is because "an overwhelming number" of his constituents don't want it. This is a sentiment echoed by other conservative politicians from rural states and districts who claim that rural voters oppose health care reform. But studies continue to show that rural areas have the highest proportion of both uninsured and underinsured, and would benefit the most from comprehensive health care reform that includes a public option.


Related to the politician problem is the fact that rural areas face the heaviest consolidation by the health insurance industry -- meaning there's no competitive market for health insurance in these areas. As Facing South covered, due to unprecedented consolidation of the health insurance market over the past decade, the industry has created near-monopolies in all Southern states, driving up the cost of insurance. These concentrated health insurance markets dominate in predominantly poor rural states like Alabama and Arkansas, whose two largest health insurance companies have a combined market greater than 80 percent in each state.


Politicians like Ross represent states most in need of a public insurance choice to compete with private plans. Lack of competition means rural Southern populations face unaffordable, higher premiums. It also means people are locked out of health care because there are no alternative providers for people who may get turned down for pre-existing conditions (and as we noted above, populations in the rural South have large rates of pre-existing and chronic illnesses).


As NPR reported, a public options would give the uninsured a low-priced alternative to the private companies, and shake up the near-monopolies that insurance companies enjoy in places like rural Arkansas.


Rural health care advocates agree, underscoring that not only is a public option needed to increase competition, it's needed to save lives. "Rural people have much to gain from inclusion of a public health insurance plan option in health care reform legislation, possibly more than any other group in the nation," said Jon Bailey, Director of the Center for Rural Affairs.


As the debate heats up in D.C., more than ever before health care advocates are arguing that health care reform is critical to swaths of the rural impoverished South: from the mountains of Appalachia to the Bible Belt, from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas to the Gulf Coast.

Source :Institute for Southern Studies http://www.southernstudies.org/iss/

Smithfield Foods, Tar Heel NC

CHICAGO, July 1 (Reuters) - Meat cutters at Smithfield Foods Inc's (SFD.N) huge Tar Heel, North Carolina, pork plant accepted a four-year labor contract after two days of voting, the United Food and Commercial Workers union said in a statement on Wednesday.
This is the first union contract for the approximately 4,600 eligible hourly and maintenance workers at the Tar Heel plant. The Tar Heel facility is the largest pork plant in the world.

The company and the union reached an agreement on the contract last week.

The contract took effect on Wednesday and will grant wage increases of $1.50 per hour over the life of the contract. It also includes family health care coverage, paid vacation and guaranteed weekly hours.

Right to (work for less) States

From Virginia and Tennessee through Texas is a solid block of states operating under so-called right to work laws. These laws allow workers to opt out of union membership even though the majority has voted the union in and all employees benefit from its gains and protections.

This open-shop system is a massive barrier to real workplace solidarity. And, given the machinery of anti-union propaganda and intimidation the employers have at their disposal, it is a huge obstacle in organizing new job sites.

In a right-to-work state, on average, employees earn 19 percent less in wages, have a higher chance of workplace death or injury, get 50 percent less in workers’ compensation benefits, and are more likely to be poor and send their children to poorer schools. This is the reality that workers like those at Smithfield have mobilized to change.

Management scare tactics, including physical assaults on union supporters, have defeated two organizing campaigns at the Tar Heel plant so far. However, even with no union in place, employees have collaborated with UFCW to hold work stoppages protesting safety problems, lack of access to decent drinking water, and the firing of 50 Lain 2006.

To retaliate and sow more fear, Smithfield invited immigration agents to raid the factory, which they did in February 2007, deporting 21 workers. As planned, the raid dampened the unionization drive — but UFCW will persevere, says lead organizer Eduardo Pe–a.

In June, the union launched a community support campaign. (To learn more, visit www. smithfieldjustice.com.) In August, more than a thousand people protested at a Smithfield stockholders’ meeting.

Waging another important fight in North Carolina are low-paid municipal employees, most of them Black, working with United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America to demand the right to collectively bargain, which state law denies them. Job actions and rallies have forced city councils to agree to meet with workers in Raleigh and Chapel Hill.

In Florida, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has won significant pay raises from agribusiness and fast-food chains like McDonald’s. CIW members, who are mainly Latino, Haitian, and Mayan Indian farm workers, pursue their goals via community-wide work stoppages and national coalition-building. They will march on Burger King headquarters in Miami on Nov. 30. (For more, go to www.ciw-online.org.)

In Houston, cleaners with the Justice for Janitors project of Service Employees International Union, most of them immigrants, used civil disobedience to double their wages and gain medical coverage.

Confronting “divide and conquer.” Racism, sexism and national chauvinism are the time-honored weapons by which the bosses — north, south, east and west — keep the labor force divided. They are designed to cause workers to identify with the bosses, based on skin color, nationality or gender, instead of each other, based on class interest.

And, because of the history of slavery, their effects have been especially corrosive in the Southern U.S.

New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina is a tragic current example of how U.S. rulers use divisive tactics to conquer workers.

One of the govern’s first responses to the hurricane was to overturn laws regarding prevailing wages and affirmative action. Corporations locked African American area residents out of most reconstruction jobs, which they brought in Mexicans, Central Americans and Asians to do.

Companies underpaid the newcomers and even defrauded them of their wages by inviting la migra in on payday.

This terrible double injustice to Blacks and immigrants also had double benefits for big business. It gained a cheap, vulnerable workforce while seeding resentment among African Americans against immigrants.

At Smithfield, such tactics are familiar. Management there asked the employees to vote on whether they would prefer to have a holiday at Easter or on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (a state holiday), knowing that the vote would split along Latino/Black lines.

When Easter won, African American workers continued to organize for an MLK holiday, launching an education campaign explaining King’s importance as a pro-labor figure and getting 4,000 employees to sign a petition for the holiday. Because of the multiracial support they had built, when 400-500 workers defied management threats of reprisals and walked out this past MLK Day, Smithfield backed down and there were no firings.

Uniting to revive labor. Labor’s high tide arrived with the forming in the 1930s of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which split for a time from the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and began organizing all the workers in a plant without regard to race or sex. Its last campaign was Operation Dixie, an attempt to expand into the South. But because the CIO refused to decisively challenge racism for fear of alienating Southern white workers, the campaign sputtered.

This failure was one major reason why both the CIO and the AFL cut way back on unionizing drives and chained themselves to an overall strategy of advocating “labor peace” with management and begging favors from the Democrats. This approach has brought organized labor to the brink of extinction. Today, unionization nationally stands at about 12 percent, with much lower rates in the South — as low as 3 percent in South Carolina.

In order to grow again, labor has to go back to basics: organizing and fighting for workers on the bottom to lift everyone. Memphis sanitation workers did this in their strike of 1968, supported by Dr. King, and they won by linking labor with the civil rights struggle. Today, the South’s new wave of organizing, led by African Americans and immigrants and including workers of all colors and backgrounds, has the potential to build another such coalition.

What workers in the South urgently require is total backing from both of today’s national labor federations, the AFL-CIO and Change to Win. However, this will only happen through rank-and-file initiative: federation members educating themselves about Southern struggles and demanding that their labor bodies get involved.

Southern workers not only need the support of all working people, they deserve it. And this is true not only because of their courage, but because in fighting for themselves they are fighting for their sisters and brothers everywhere — from Boston Harbor to the San Diego Bay and beyond.