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.