Category Archives: Wage Slavery

Wage slavery is a pejorative term used to draw an analogy between slavery and wage labor by focusing on similarities between owning and renting a person.

Slavery exists in full vigor, but we do not perceive it, just as in Europe at the end of the Eighteenth Century the slavery of serfdom was not perceived.

People of that day thought that the position of men obliged to till the land for their lords, and to obey them, was a natural, inevitable, economic condition of life, and they did not call it slavery.

It is the same among us: people of our day consider the position of the laborer to be a natural, inevitable economic condition, and they do not call it slavery. And as, at the end of the Eighteenth Century, the people of Europe began little by little to understand that what formerly seemed a natural and inevitable form of economic life-namely, the position of peasants who were completely in the power of their lords-was wrong, unjust and immoral, and demanded alteration, so now people today are beginning to understand that the position of hired workmen, and of the working classes in general, which formerly seemed quite right and quite normal, is not what it should be, and demands alteration.

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Wage slavery - Wikiquote

I want to think about this question as simply and clearly as I can. Ill think about classes, groups, and institutions. I dont pretend that Ill have the one true answer, but I do think that we, meaning sane and sensible people, need to ask:has America reached the point of no return?

Lets begin by thinking about Americas political elites.

On the right, the American political elite has degenerated to something like a Soviet or North Korean style joke its literally happy to absolve a President of crimes even while admitting hes committed them. LOL what? The rich world hasnt seen the like since the rise of Nazis a theme well return to. On the left, though, we have the bizarre spectacle of the Democrats an opposition who, having funded concentration camps, cant then try a President for them. Having sided with capital just like the right it can hardly be on the side of the average working person. Wait what? Hence, on both sides, Americas political class is paralyzed, captured, and only really good for one thing, which is what its been doing for the last few years: letting the bad guys win, either by enabling them, or, cowed, by refusing to really challenge them.

Then theres Americas thinking class its intellectual elites.

I put that in quotes because the tragicomic truth is that it too is, to put it kindly, a weird joke. Nobody in the world takes it seriously because well, how can you take a thinking class seriously that let its society slide into this kind of disrepair? Who takes these ideas seriously people shouldnt have healthcare, capitalism should run everything, kids should pay lunch debt? Only in the whole world, only Americas intellectuals. To everyone else literally theyre grotesque and bad jokes. To consider them ideas is an insult to intellect.

And yet, weirdly, Americas thinking class like medieval theologians in an act of astonishing hubris, thinks it knows the answer to everything, but in fact knows self-evidently precisely nothing. That answer is always exactly the same: capitalisms cruelty, selfishness, and greed. Hence, it has literally no explanation for any of the following things: why capitalism failed, why America collapsed, why fascism arose, how authoritarianism carried the day, how slavery and segregation laid the groundwork for all this. (Sure there are thinkers here and there who connect these dots, but by and large, they are rejected viciously from the establishment.) The establishment, meanwhile, is busy interviewingliteralNazis, like Jake Tapper, or the NYT, or publishing defense of climate change denial, or repeating the fantasy that the same old dead ideas capitalism for everything! Make those kids pay their lunch debts!! can work.

Then there are American ideas another thing we should think of as an institution, but dont.

If you understand that American history can be divided up into three chapters slavery, segregation, and capitalism whats the common thread? I often say that Americas really only ever had one idea, and thats violence and Americans get mad, and start toviolently insult me (LOL). And yet what else links those three clear chapters of American history but violence exploitation, abuse, cruelty?

America built its riches by constructing an international slave trade think of how horrific that is for a moment. Today, thanks to extreme capitalism, Americans are made to beg one another for pennies to pay for basic medicine online or. . .die.

Do you see the link? I do. Exploitation, abuse, cruelty, selfishness.

Violence is the rule by which America has always been run. Sure, violence to slaves is hardly the violence of denying each other medicine. Or is it? The strong survive, the weak perish, and that is the moral law. But how can that idea which is the only one America ever really had result, ultimately, in anything but the kind of brutal authoritarianism finally arising now? Violence first slavery, then capitalism, now authoritarian-fascism is the American Achilles heel. But those three words are just different expressions for the same idea: extreme, total, systemic violence, in the form of exploitation, whether of those with the wrong skin color or the lack of money or status, as a way to order society.

What about that, the social order, as in, how classes cooperate or conflict? That brings me to the next piece of my little analysis.

American society. Instead of the kind of society a healthy democracy is made of a broad middle, moderate inequality, and an ever-shrinking number of poor Americas social structure is now the complete opposite. The middle class imploded and is now a minority. The ranks of the poor therefore swelled to a point the United Nations calls a crisis. These people which are something like 9099% of Americans are now one class: the new working class, the new precariat. They are proles exploited by the whip of capitalism so extreme it would have made the Victorians blush.

Meanwhile, a tiny, tiny number of people have grown so rich that they could literally pay off Americas student debt. . .fund its education system. . .cancel its healthcare debt. . .overnight, put together.There is no reason none for them to have grown so rich. No, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates didnt make people better off why are life expectancy and income and happiness all still cratering? This argument, beloved of American economists and pundits, is facile, idiotic, on its face. The riches of Americas capitalist overlords are precisely what they appear to be: profoundly obscene. Obscene as in: made of misery, decline, poverty, and collapse.

A nation thats become a sea of exploited proles, on the one hand, and capitalist wage-slave-masters, on the other, can hardly cooperate. It must conflict. So, America never developed the things Europe enjoys, which depend on cooperation public goods, expansive social systems, a modern social contract.

Without those essential features of modernity, Americas ultra-rich have become a class much like new medieval overlords and the people they rule over are as much or more serfs as proles.

They will die in debt, unable to pay off their bondage. What the. . .? What do we call a person thats born in and dies in debt that they can never pay off? Well, we cant call them free, because that means they never really own anything at all. Americans are the worlds newest class of serfs. But whose fault is that?

That brings me to an oft overlooked institution the populace. The American people themselves.

Can a nation of bereft, helpless proles or serfs really ever develop a modern society? Or are they just powerless to descend into hatred, violence, and ignorance?

America can be divided, broadly, into three groups.

Thirty percent Americans are, to put it kindly, crazy: theyd be quite happy living in an Irani style theocracy, or a North Korean dictatorship. That should be one lesson of the last few years (but is it?). Another 40% or so are bewildered, confused, and paralyzed. Theyre the ones who say, in polls, that they want better healthcare, education, higher incomes, retirement, and so on but when the chance to actually vote for such things, or to back such candidates, arises, they throw it away. Their teeth seem to chatter in nervous fear, and they turn right back to the status quo. So about 60 to 70% of Americans as a society just dont seem to be interested in actually overcoming the parlous state of their society.

Then theres about 30% of Americans, in my estimation, on the other side. Theyre sane, intelligent, thoughtful people. But they are concentrated in areas where they have little political power cities on coasts, that wield little to no clout, thanks to Americas bizarre political system, itself an institutional leftover of slavery. Those 30%, as much anger and despair as they feel, are impotent. Their votes dont matter and their attitudes dont, either. What about those, attitudes, though? Are they really good enough, sophisticated enough, advanced enough, to power America to becoming something vaguely resembling a civilized society?

That brings me to my next area: norms. Americas developed a bizarre, grotesque, obscene set of norms over the last few years or perhaps it always had them.

The Prez passes ethnic bans, and puts kids in camps, and declares himself above the law. Americans take to Twitter to rage about it. But they simply wont call all that what it needs to be called: authoritarianism, fascism, democratic collapse into the worst kinds of abuses. Sure, some do but theyre a tiny minority. Americans choose to use the vocabulary of plutocracy, not fascism if they speak at all. But that is like calling a vampire a pickpocket. A plutocracy is one thing but most plutes dont put kids in camps or ban entire religions and continents from personhood or want to annihilate Mexican babies.

America has, in other words, developed all the norms you might expect from an imploding society, one collapsing into genuine authoritarianism.

Silence is perfectly acceptable and is legitimized every day by pundits asking rhetorical questions (My God! What is the GOP doing?) Complicity reigns and is normalized as people merely doing their best. Aggression and cruelty are present in increasing amounts from the extremists who are capturing society wholesale.In other words, culturally, growing cowardice from the good people is the norm now, while increasing hostility, abuse, and violence is the norm from the bad ones.How can a society like that make anything of itself, redeem much in itself, much less ever progress again?

Let me finish with one last institution the economy. Driving all the above is a very simple and grim reality. America has been through something that is precisely like an Invisible Depression for decades now, longer and more vicious than the Great Depression.

Yes, really. Incomes havent risen forfifty years. Savings have fallen to negative levels, meaning the average American dies in debt. Half of Americans now work in low-wage jobs and 75% struggle to pay basic bills. The social effects of poverty have been what they always are: social bonds blow apart, relationships fragment, social groups begin to turn one another, punching down in the hierarchy. The declining middle punches down on the old working class and poor, who became the Trumpists, that punch down on hated minorities, blaming them for all their economic woes.

Stagnation and depression are the original sins of political economy. They breed all the ills that we know of.

Hate, violence, despair, decline, rage, fury. Those malign sentiments organize into fascism and authoritarianism, led by demagogues. Which capture polities. Which pervert norms. Which subvert institutions. Which corrode democracy. Which replace any semblance of democracy and its ideals, aspirations, and values justice, peace, equality, truth with just this: might makes right.

When people grow poor enough, all those fundamentals of democracy truth, equality, justice, peace stop mattering. Nobody can afford them anymore.

That is why we say today in America that reality doesnt matter anymore. Or that, seeing a President walk away, above the law, that justice doesnt matter. Or that, seeing a class of billionaires rich enough to pay off societys entire student debt, that equality doesnt matter. Poverty and deprivation of the kind America let itself degenerate into systemic, social, chronic, absolute, inescapable means, in the hardest, concrete terms, that none of the fundamentals of democracy matter, either. When you are struggling to put bread on the table, like that poor, foolish Trumpist maybe youll believe the lies. Probably theyre more comforting than the bitter truth. And who else is on your side, anyways, anymore but the lie?

So. Let me ask again? Is America fixable?

I wont answer the question. Having thought about it together, Ill leave it to you. Ill simply conclude with this. America was, not so long ago, the richest and most powerful nation in the world. And now its a nation of poor, desperate people, collapsing into authoritarianism, in denial about fascism, unable to imagine a better future collectively, fractured into tribes, at each others throats.

I think that America is a warning to the world.

About what happens when you believe a little too hard in your own catastrophically failed ideologies. When elites cant let them go. When leaders refuse to step forward. When a populace grows morally weak and intellectually feeble. What happens when you dont outgrow cruelty, hostility, aggression, violence, and anger as a way of life? What happens when your society is based on exploitation and abuse? What do people do when they grow so poor theres nothing left to do but believe the lies, and cheer on the hate?

American collapse does.

(Umair Haque has been a Mediummember since Jun 2018. He writes for Eudaimonia and Co where this perspective was first posted.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

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Is America Fixable? Is America Past the Point of no Return? - City Watch

Like many communities around North Carolina, Winston-Salem has had too many families ripped apart by the gun violence epidemic. Workers across the district are still making a $7.25 wage, which is stifling economic opportunity for thousands of people. We need a representative in Congress who will actually fight for our issues and drive resources back to North Carolinas 6th Congressional District. Thats why I support Rhonda Foxx for Congress.

As a former chief of staff on Capitol Hill, Rhonda knows how to navigate Washington, D.C., to deliver real results for our communities. She was in the halls of Congress when the Opportunity Zone legislation passed, so she has the experience to ensure our communities are economically developed in an equitable way. Rhonda has had members of her family die from gun violence, so she has a personal fire within her to take action on gun violence by banning assault weapons and supporting universal background checks.

We dont have time for someone to make relationships in Washington, D.C., and figure out how Capitol Hill works. We need a diverse voice with the experience to move us forward and get results for Winston-Salem and all of our district. I hope you will join me in supporting Rhonda Foxx for Congress on March 3.

Recently, Forsyth County District Attorney Jim ONeill aired a political advertisement in his race for North Carolina Attorney General directed at one of his opponents, Christine Mumma. That advertisement, apparently labeled Dishonesty, was less than complete in its claims, particularly those surrounding the proceedings of the State Bar of North Carolina.

I represented Mumma in those proceedings. Those proceedings stemmed from a complaint filed by another district attorney and arose from Mummas successful efforts to free an innocent man from prison. While ONeill displays the complaint, he fails to reveal that Mumma was acquitted of all charges involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation, and did nothing that was prejudicial to the administration of justice.

To the contrary, Mumma zealously represented an innocent man and pushed the system to exonerate him. While those in the system attacked her for these efforts, the citizens of North Carolina owe a great debt to Mummas efforts to make the criminal justice system more just and to free the innocent.

Regrettably, in an advertisement apparently designed to attack Mummas integrity, ONeill failed to state all of the facts or the full truth. The voters of North Carolina are now left to decide whether this is the type of conduct we expect from elected officials, let alone those who seek to be the chief law enforcement officer of the state.

John Larson is in the March 3 primary for reelection to the South Ward of the Winston-Salem City Council. As the incumbent, he has the experience and will continue to do the excellent work he is now doing. For example, we have a new fire station in the South Ward and major improvements to Granville, Hobby and Washington parks. He does not aspire to this job to learn how a governmental body functions.

John retired as a vice president at Old Salem Museum and Gardens after 37 years. His leadership skills were honed as a captain in the U.S. Army. Please vote for John Larson in this primary and in the general election on Nov. 3.

Im often very open and supportive of the positive strides of what Ill refer to as the more massive white establishments attempts to apologize for its participation in slavery. But something happened as I read the Feb. 21 article WFU apologizes for role in slavery. It hit me like a ton of bricks; Im tired of words with seeds that never turn to deeds; Im so tired of these convenient apologies. Im so tired of Mike Bloombergs apology, Sen. Amy Klobochars apology, and Im tired of the apologies we will never receive from our current president, and for the one Im sure we wont hear from Forsyth County District Attorney Jim ONeill.

President Nathan Hatchs apology, though noble, is not enough. Stated in the article was a direct quote from President Hatch, saying, Acknowledging past wrongs and taking responsibility are only the start of repairing damage and seeking healing. My question and my genuine concern is, whats next? The Founders Day Convocation on the campus of any institution of higher learning is filled with talk of the universitys future, but also its benefactors and its alumni; its time we hear and see more than apologies.

So for all of the apologies we have heard, and for those we will not, Im tired of them. Lets see some public actions of dependable repair instead of all of the public apologies we are just tired of hearing.

Bishop Freddie Bernard Marshall

Presiding Prelate, Greater Church Of Deliverance, Inc.

The deadline for letters about the March 3 primary election was yesterday.

Please submit letters online, with full name, address and telephone number, to Letters@wsjournal.com or mail letters to: The Readers Forum, 418 N. Marshall St., Winston-Salem, NC 27101. Letters are subject to editing and are limited to 250 words. For more guidelines and advice on writing letters, go to journalnow.com/site/forms/online_services/letter/

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The Readers' Forum: Tuesday letters | Letters To The Editor - Winston-Salem Journal

In Atlanta, a new study found that homes in predominantly black neighborhoods lost value even as homes in predominantly white neighborhoods gained. Chris Rank/Bloomberg Economic plans like Mike Bloombergs assume that boosting black homeownership and entrepreneurs will close racial wealth gaps. New research suggests it wont.

Owning a home and a business has always been central to the American Dream. But recent scholarship has called into question the idea that fulfilling this dream has actually improved African Americans quality of life.

For decades, encouraging African-American homeownership and entrepreneurship has been a common proposal for those who want to narrow the racial wealth gap. In a recent prominent example, Michael Bloomberg unveiled a plan in his presidential campaign to bolster economic outcomes for African Americans that banks on these tools.

(Disclosure: CityLab was recently acquired by Bloomberg LP. Michael Bloomberg is the company's founder and majority owner.)

The top-line goals of the plan, known as the Greenwood Initiative, are creating one million new black homeowners, 100,000 new black businesses, and investing $70 billion in the 100 most disadvantaged neighborhoods of the U.S. The New York Daily News called it an initiative similar to calls for reparations for slavery, and the Bloomberg campaign says it will close the racial wealth gap while saying homeownership in particular is a vital way to build generational wealth and community and is a pillar of the American Dream for many.

Its a worthy effort considering that the homeownership gap between black and white Americans is larger today than it was 50 years ago, before the Fair Housing Act was passed. In fact, the wage gap between black and white workers is also significantly wider now than it was in 2000, despite black wages last year exceeding 2000 levels for the first time since the recession dissipated.

Amongst 2020 Democratic candidates, Warrens and Sanders racial equity plans advocate for more sweeping wealth-redistribution changes, such as the Green New Deal, free universal health care,reparations, and offering federal housing assistance to victims of redlining. The Greenwood Initiative offers federal matching funds for housing down payments in the countrys most disadvantaged communities and offers to streamline housing down-payment programs in general. Its a results-oriented tack thats garnered Bloomberg quite a bit of black support, despite his more reckless record on other issues important to the black community, such as stop-and-frisk policing practices. But its not clear that it will achieve its intended goals.

Several new studies cast doubt on the idea that simply owning homes or businesses can help dissolve racial economic inequities. The first, from a group of University of Georgia geography scholars, concludes that a racial appreciation gap exists in the housing market that hinders African Americans ability to generate wealth through owning a home. The research team analyzed home sale values throughout the city of Atlanta and its immediate suburbs areas that have some of the highest rates of black homeownership and some of the most economically diverse populations of black homeowners in the U.S. and found that houses in predominantly black neighborhoods have failed to appreciate in value since the mortgage crash recovery began. Meanwhile, houses in predominantly white neighborhoods have appreciated considerably.

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By comparing the price of Atlanta homes before the most recent housing boom (from 2000 to 2003) with housing prices during the housing crash recovery (2014 to 2016), they found the largest price upticks occurred in neighborhoods that were at least 75% white and had the highest household incomes. These neighborhoods saw their houses appreciate by $91,414 in the study time period. For white neighborhoods with moderately high incomes, houses appreciated by $71,094, and by $57,742 in low-income white neighborhoods.

In the same time span, black neighborhood housing prices depreciated at every income level: By $22,168 for high-income, by $23,163 in moderate-income, and by $37,686 in low-income black neighborhoods.

That is not to argue that programs designed to lower down payments and reduce interest rates on home loans should not be pursued, reads the study, published this month in the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. It is rather to stress that the persistence of a racial appreciation gap severely constrains the ability of such mechanisms to abate racial wealth inequality.

Racial segregation also plays a role in how companies are perceived by customers, and their profitability. A new study from the Brookings Institution found a correlation between positive Yelp reviews and revenue growth but not for minority-owned businesses. In fact, the businesses located in majority-black neighborhoods with the highest Yelp ratings actually saw less revenue growth between 2016 and 2019 than poorly reviewed businesses located in predominantly white neighborhoods. Thats true regardless of the race of the owner, which means the revenue gap is likely a function of racial segregation people spending less money with a business because of the black racial composition of the community.

Overall, the researchers found a 0.2% annual revenue gap between businesses in non-Black-majority neighborhoods and Black-majority neighborhoods, amounting to $1.3 billion in unrealized revenue each year, reads the report. This gap jumps to $3.9 billion when comparing highly-rated businesses in Black-majority neighborhoods with highly-rated businesses in other neighborhoods.

Racial segregation in both the housing and credit-finance markets have perpetuated the racial appreciation and revenue gaps described by the studies above. And Anne Price, president of the Insight Center for Community Economic Development, argues in a new paper that without reconstructing the systems that created those gaps in the first place, there will be little improvement in black lives mattering.

Focusing exclusively on closing the gap distracts us from reckoning with the systemic economic decisions that are actually driving racial wealth inequality and thus hinders us from addressing its root causes, she writes in her report, Dont Fixate on the Racial Wealth Gap.

Case in point: The same systems that helped black families buy homes and open businesses are the ones that foreclosed on those homes and businesses, particularly during the housing and finance crashes of 2008. Prices report points out that after the housing market collapse, cities with large black populations began increasing their reliance on criminal fines and court fees to plug budget holes, which in many places had a disproportionate effect on African Americans. Passing laws that eliminate voter suppression, strengthen labor laws, dissolve mass incarceration and curb corporate power all the myriad ways in which forces have extracted wealth from African Americans is a more important emphasis, Price argues.

If we focus on the structural, then we can think about this beyond just the pure financial measure of looking at a dollar amount, but rather focusing on all the kinds of less-tangible areas that wealth bestows, Price told CityLab, such as allowing us greater kinds of decision-making and less-constrained choices, which enables us to live much more dignified lives.

Warrens and Sanders plans to address racial justice issues tap a bit more into the structural revolutions that Price calls for. They both have explicit promises to end redlining, in all of its forms (though their solutions, too, may not quite be tailored to solve the problem), while Bloomberg seemed to be struggling in 2008 with what the real deleterious impacts of redlining have been for black communities.

Warren and Sanders are also both co-sponsors of a bill to create a commission to study reparations (as is fellow presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar), which Price believes is one of the most impactful policies on the table, along with a reconfiguration of the finance and credit structures that have produced the racial imbalances. The University of Georgia scholars, too, conclude that only comprehensive policies like reparations can provide meaningful fixes to wealth gaps.

Policymakers should challenge its fundamental assumptions and ask why it is homeownership an institution irrevocably imbued with racism that is the suggested path to financial security in the first place, they write. Why not a more robust social welfare system that would render the accumulation of personal wealth redundant? ...Why not a comprehensive reparations program?

Bloomberg supports the legislation to study reparations for African Americans, according to a campaign aide, but has otherwise been mum on the topic. They have not yet responded to questions about how the plan will close the racial wealth gap. His Greenwood Initiative and Wall Street reform plans do call for programs that suss out race and gender bias in the credit and finance industries, as well as a shoring up of laws such as the Consumer Reinvestment Act. (Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg also support studying reparations.)

But despite their more progressive views on these issues, Warren and Sanders both trail Bloomberg nationally among prospective black voters according to the latest (February 10) Quinnipiac poll. Not only that, but Bloomberg has picked up the endorsement of several high-profile black leaders, most recently, former Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and dozens of current black mayors. Among those is Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who announced his support at the height of the fallout over Bloombergs leaked stop-and-frisk comments, and currently chairs the Bloomberg campaigns infrastructure team.

Asked why she supports Bloomberg in a recent New Yorker interview, Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who is a Bloomberg national co-chair, said that black voters want to know, What is your plan for black America? How are you going to create more black homeownership and close the income gap between blacks and whites? What are you going to do to create jobs and help small businesses grow?

Another explanation is that Bloomberg is offering distinct benchmarks that voters can hold him accountable on, according to Black Economic Alliance co-chair Charles Phillips, who is also the board chair for Infor, one of the worlds largest business software applications companies. The Black Economic Alliance is a non-partisan organization comprised of African Americans focused on improving the economic outcomes of black communities. It includes among its advisory board black figures across the political spectrum, from former Demos president Heather McGhee to former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele.

The BEA endorsed Bloombergs Greenwood Initiative on January 20, saying it has the breadth and vision ... designed to address the disparities particularly economic that have long stifled the dreams and aspirations of Black Americans.

It was one of the first African-American organizations to publicly show support, though its endorsement was purely for the plan, not the candidate. However, Phillips says none of the Alliances members have recanted support for Bloombergs economic plan since stories of his controversial past surfaced, nor have any of their donors pulled funding.

We liked [Bloombergs] numbers, said Phillips. What we were looking for is specifics in the plans and quantified goals. Its hard to hold people accountable to something if you dont have a specific target and scoreboard to measure them by. So, to take the Bloomberg plan, hes committed to one million new black homeowners in the next decade and 100,000 new black-owned businesses. The big one is the $70 billion in the top 100 most-disadvantaged neighborhoods in the country to invest in job centers and help entrepreneurs. Those are tangible things that you can point to and track year-by-year.

Price said that African-American support of Bloombergs plan could be explained by investment in the American Dream narrative that personal labor, education, and checkbook-balancing skills best dictate a persons economic destiny. She points to the Project Mosaic survey conducted by The Groundwork Collective last year, which sought to explain how black and Latinx Americans understand their economic experiences. In that survey, when asked what single factor most contributed to their economic status, black adults were more likely to say it was their personal drive and persistence rather than experiences with racism and race-based discrimination college-educated African Americans were the most likely to cite personal drive.

I think this speaks to why African Americans are resonating with Bloombergs policy platform, said Price. This perspective deserves greater interrogation and understanding.

Brentin Mock is a staff writer at CityLab. He was previously the justice editor at Grist.

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How to Actually Close the Racial Wealth Gap - CityLab

We would be remiss, especially now, when the Democratic Party is poised to go farther left than it has been before, if we did not observe the 172nd birthday of the Communist Manifesto, published in London on Feb. 21, 1848.

The pamphlet, written by Karl Marx and the libertine industrialist Friedrich Engels, proclaimed the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. It posited that this struggle would inevitably end all struggles with the triumph of the working class over capitalism. It was slow to catch on at first but by 1950, almost half the worlds population was living and languishing under Marxist governments.

The manifesto is easy to malign now given what eventually followed in its train, including the hoax of scientific Marxism, but its publication is still a pivotal event in the history of ideas. The standard take is that Marxism is a useful critique of capitalism, even if it is not a substitute for it, any more than you can replace a blender with monkey bars. When Bernie Sanders at the Las Vegas debate said, You know what, Mr. Bloomberg, it wasnt you who made all that money. Maybe your workers played some role in that, he was building on Marxs theory of surplus labor value.

Marx was the first ideologue.Ideology was the creation of Antoine Destutt, a French count and a proponent of the French Revolution until he was caught up in the Terror and imprisoned. With time on his hands, Destutt coined the term ideology for a philosophy that valued individual liberty, property and free markets. Napoleon Bonaparte turned it into a term of abuse for his liberal enemies. Decades later, Marx followed suit, calling Tracy an ideologue and his ideology a fish-blooded bourgeois doctrine and in that moment, Marx owned it in ideologys modern sense of a reductive world view. Marxs first enemy was not capitalism; it was the liberals who countenanced it.

His ideas had tremendous appeal from the start because they were so strikingly original. In the 1850s, he wrote many of the editorials in The New York Tribune, a paper Abraham Lincoln read and which shaped Lincolns view of the preeminence of labor. Marx supported the abolition of slavery in America, as did Lincoln, but Lincoln could not go as far as Marx in believing wage labor was the same thing.For Marx, racism did not exist in the class struggle, any more than morality was real.

In his preface to the English edition of the manifesto in 1888, Engels, who closely guarded Marxs reputation and also led Marxists into some of their more inane and destructive propositions, said he believed the work would do for history what Darwins theory has done for biology.

That is still debatable. Marxism has influenced the writing of history for the better and the worse. But down to the present, it is the confusion of the principles of Marxism with science and the war on liberalism that has defined the left. It is the savagery of the closed mind, which covers itself in a mantle of compassion.

After Sanders won the Nevada caucuses last weekend, he tweeted Ive got news for the Republican establishment. Ive got news for the Democratic establishment. They cant stop us.

In response, the liberal-progressive black filmmaker Ava DuVernay tweeted, Im undecided. But I know this isnt what I want.

As night follows day, Sanders supporters said things to DuVernay such as, How to get yourself on the guillotine list 101. Asked to explain how they could savage a black woman for speaking her mind, one Sanders soldier said, There is no racism in the class struggle.

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Our view: Another celebration for the Berners - The Durango Herald

Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed at the state house asking the Senate Governmental Affairs committee to vote against a bill that would take away Alabama cities' ability to pass an occupational tax.(Photo: Sara MacNeil)

Do you remember when the Republican party used to brag about being the party that championed small government? The GOP described themselves as the guardians against big government interfering with local institutions.

Well, recently, the city of Montgomery floated the idea of an occupational tax that could be used to bring in more money for law enforcement, etc. Immediately, the Republican controlled Alabama House of Representatives passed a bill banning local cities from passing an occupational tax without the State legislatures permission.

Remember when Birmingham tried to raise the minimum wage in that city? As a result of that action, the Republican controlled Legislature passed a law forbidding cities from setting their own minimum wage, stating, again, that only the state government could institute a higher minimum wage.

Likewise, the Republican controlled state Legislature passed a law that says if cities want to remove monuments, they had to get the permission of the state government.

I guess Republicans believe in big government after all. Boy, times have really changed, havent they?

Sheldon E. James

Montgomery

Does everyone have the right to food, clothing, shelter, health care, and income?The answer would be yes only if a person has the right to the property and labor of others.

The function of government is to stop people from harming other people, not to force them to share.No one should be forced to serve others, which is slavery, and no one should be forced to transfer his or her property to others, which is theft.

Governments should stop slavery and theft, not foster them.

People should provide for the needy, of course, but they should do that voluntarily. It takes more compassion to give your own money to the poor than to take away someone elses.

Daniel Haulman

Montgomery

So the director of National Intelligence briefs the House that the Russians are interfering in the 2020 elections - in support of incumbent Trump - and gets fired. Then the president hires a sycophant to take his place.

Shame on our intelligence community for telling the truth and doing its duty to protect our republic from outside interference. Apparently, for this administration, outside interference is just fine if it keeps you in power.

All Alabama Republican candidates for public office heartily touttheir fealty to Trump, so they must support outside interference as well. Dear God, what a country.

Nelson Smith

Montgomery

If anyone is wondering if this president should have a second term, the answer is a resounding yes, as we thank previous and current politicians for the mess we are in with imports today.

Previous and current politicians are responsible for laying so many restrictions, regulations and taxes on businesses, that they run them off to other countries - China being a primary one.

Look at everything you buy today. Most is provided by China, where the Coronavirus is running rampant and stopping manufacturing and shipping of so many products we use day to day. That means shortages, because we have no one manufacturing the items here.

It is the politicians who tell a person who can flip a burger - but can't add, subtract, multiply or divide without a machine to help them -they are worth $15 an hour. In China, a well-paid factory worker may get $228 a month! More jobs out the door and into China, Mexico and other low wage countries.

Where are masks and rubber gloves that are used for protection against germs made?China. Where are USA uniforms for the Olympics made?China, Vietnam and other low wage countries. Where is too much of our food processed before returning to our country for consumption?China.

What it comes down to is this country is sinking into a problem that will grow as the virus spreads, because we get too much from the one country where the virus began and is rapidly spreading - China.

Maybe instead of the pompous career politicians condemning President Trump, who is the only one trying to pull manufacturing back to our own shores, they should condemn themselves for letting this disaster happen at all. Maybe instead of the constant Russian crap they spout, they should climb onboard and help get businesses back. But, they won't. You don't kill the cash cow you have tucking money in your greedy pockets, do you? And today, it seems most, if not all career politicians, have moved from everyday people to instant millionaires - by selling America out.

Maggie DiGiovanni

Eclectic

Judging by the political ads on TV, Alabama isn't lacking in stupidity with all the candidates tying their dinghies to Trump's Titanic.

Bradley Byrne brags about voting with Trump 96.8% of the time. That would be wonderful if Trump wasn't systematically destroying America by nullifying Congress, attacking and undermining the Judicial Branch, converting the NSA into his version of the KGB, voiding the Constitution and the Rule of Law.

By supporting Trump, these people are supporting the demise of our Constitutional Republic and democracy in favor of a fascist dictatorship and autocracy.

Jessica Taylor will go to Washington with her flamethrower and set Nancy Pelosi and the "socialist democrats" on fire. Give me a break! The word "socialist" is the latest buzzword, replacing "communist" or "Islamic extremism."Truth is, the Democratic party hasn't become more "socialist."It'sthat the GOP has become radicalized to the point of right wing extremism and theocracyin their adoption of Trumpism.

Jeff Coleman, with all his dirty money made by bilking the government (taxpayers), is going to take his baseball bat that he used to preserve his daughter's chastity and go bash some Democrats.

Jeff Sessions, an example of "battered housewife "syndrome wants to return to Washington for another round of butt chewing. His wounds having healed as he convalesced in the safety of Alabama.

What can you say about Roy Moore? Alabama didn't want him as a representative so badly that this reddest of red states voted for a Democrat. Way to go, Roy!

These jokers all need to jump in the same lifeboat, untether themselves from the new dictatorship in Washington and drift off into the sunset.

Keith Smith

Wetumpka

Our Declaration of Independence established governments purpose and moral foundation - protection and toleration of unalienable rights - vestiges of individual sovereignty.

Groups representing power and wealth drafted our Constitution, proposing government of compromise between the two. A few brave founders faithful to individuals objected and said No Rights, No Ratification reminding us, government is servant not master!

The Bill of Rights were added, so ostensibly government oversees three different groups.Those wanting power, others desiring wealth, and each among We the Individuals who created government to protect their unalienable rights.

Toleration of unalienable rights is the keystone that has allowed America to survive 244 years of compromises between power and wealth. Beware, the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments have loopholes! They allow government to take life, liberty, and property under due-process and government determines what due-process is!

People cheered and jeered as House partisans with power demonstrated their version of due-process to impeach our president.Unchecked, political puppets for power and wealth could compromise and govern without protecting individual rights.

Americans will have surrendered our government of toleration -to a totalitarian compromise between power and wealth.

Patriots, arm yourself with ballots and fight to protect your unalienable rights.

Joe Boyett

Montgomery

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Letters to the Editor: Effort to ban occupational tax shows GOP isn't for small government - Montgomery Advertiser

W.Z. Foster.

To mark the Feb. 25, 1881 birthday of the outstanding trade union leader and communist William Z Foster, Fight Back News Service is circulating one of his early important writings.

The Principles and Program of the Trade Union Educational League

In every country but one an advanced state of capitalism has produced a highly developed trade union movement. The single exception is the United States. Here we have a very elaborate industrial system and the world's most militant and powerful capitalist class, but, paradoxically enough, a trade union movement which, for general weakness and backwardness, has few if any equals in the predominantly industrial countries.

No matter what vital phase of our trade union movement we consider we must admit, if we are honest, that the workers in other lands are ahead of us. In the important matter of numerical strength, for instance, we make a wretched showing. At present, considering the ravages made in our ranks by the employers, it is doubtful if we have as many as 4 million trade unionists in this country, or about 1 unionist to each 27 of the general population. England, by contrast, has approximately 7.5 million trade unionists, or about 1 in each 6 of her 44 million people. Germany shows with over 12 million trade unionists, or about 1 in each 4-1/2 of her 55 million population. In other words, the English trade union movement is proportionately about 4 times as strong numerically as ours, and that of Germany 6 times as strong. For the American unions to be as large as those of Germany, considering the difference in the size of the two nations, they would have to have no less than 24 million members. Compare this giant figure with the paltry 4 million members that our unions now possess and one gets an idea of how far behind we are in this respect. In England and Germany (not to mention many other countries) the mass of the working class has been organized. In the United States hardly a start has yet been made.

Obsolete Craft Unionism

Structurally our trade unions are equally backward in development. The American labor movement is the only important one in the world which still remains based upon the principle of craft unionism. In all other countries the main labor movements, accepting the logic of capitalistic consolidation, have endorsed the principle of having one union in each industry and have made great progress towards its realization. Throughout the rest of the world we find many single unions covering whole industries - such as building, metal, railroad, general transport, clothing, printing, etc. -- that have been built up recently by amalgamating the original craft organizations. Others are constantly being created. In England the giant new Transport and General Workers' Union amalgamation is taking place; the Amalgamated Engineering Union is likewise making substantial headway towards its goal of one union in the metal industry; and in many other trades the process of consolidation is going on apace. In Germany the metal workers, during the past few years, have completed their record-breaking industrial union, which now counts 1.8 million members; the railroad, postal, telegraph, and telephone workers, already closely organized, are combining their forces into a great organization of 1.5 million member to control all forms of transportation and communication; and the workers in the other German industries are likewise closing up their ranks rapidly. In Belgium the original welter of craft unions has been hammered together into about a dozen industrial unions, and plans are now being worked out to combine the whole movement into one real union. The Australian workers have also just gone on record for a similar effort.

The same rapid drift towards industrial unionism is in evidence everywhere except in the United States. Here we are still sticking in the mud of craft unionism and progressing at only a snail's pace. Standpatism has become an ingrained gospel with our trade union officials. There is hardly a breath of progress among them. They disregard the obvious fact that as the capitalists close up their ranks the workers must do likewise. With rare exceptions they are content to plod along with anywhere up to 20 or 30 autonomous unions in the various industries and to consider such a primitive condition, with all its resultant craft scabbery and weakness, as the highest practical stage of trade union organization. The man who proposes common sense amalgamation along industrial lines they consider a dreamer, if not a disruptive fanatic. From the standpoint of structure the American labor movement is at about the point of development that the European unions were 15 years ago.

Our Political Infancy.

Politically our trade unions are also in an infantile condition. They have not yet advanced to the point of even rudimentary political class consciousness. Blissfully unaware that the class struggle rages in the political as well as in the industrial field, they are still trailing along in the train of the capitalist parties and shamefully begging favors from them. Their Cause is a football for every political crook inn the country - to the sad demoralization of the whole labor movement. The workers in other countries were once in a similar boat, but they have all long since got away from it. Some, the anti-political tendency, have adopted the Syndicalist program of direct action on the political field through the trade unions, and others, retaining their belief in political action, have built up extensive Labor, Socialist, and Communist parties. But all of them - Syndicalists, Laborites, Socialists, and Communists - agree upon class action in the political field. They would laugh out of court any leader among them who dared advocate the antediluvian no-class political policy of the American trade union movement. For them the adoption of such a program would mean turning the clock backward a generation.

Another striking feature of our labor movement's primitiveness is its unequaled lack of idealism and social vision. It has no soul. It has not yet raised the inspiring banner of working class emancipation. So far as its vague conscious expressions go, it is still timidly and blindly trying to patch up wage slavery and make it endurable. It has still to learn that the only solution of the labor struggle is by the abolition of capitalism. In this sad position it stands alone, for the workers of all other important countries have long since definitely broken with capitalism. They look upon it as an obsolete social system which must be eliminated. They are looking forward to the establishment of a new proletarian society in which parasitical capitalists will be no more. They differ widely as to how this great goal can be achieved, whether capitalism shall be abolished piece by piece, as the Socialists propose, or all at one blow, as the Communists and Syndicalists urge. But they are unanimous that capitalism must go. The American trade unions are the only general body of organized workers in the world that have not yet mastered this fundamental labor conclusion. And the result is a tremendous weakening in their programs and fighting strength.

Our Pitiful Conservatism

A striking illustration of this unparalleled intellectual timidity and conservatism comes to light in our trade unions' relations with the labor organizations of other countries. There are two world trade union federations, one with headquarters in Amsterdam, and the other in Moscow. The Amsterdam International is reformist, and the Moscow International revolutionary. All the important labor movements of the world are affiliated with one or the other of these two Internationals -- that is, all except ours. We stand aloof altogether on the ground that both are too revolutionary. Even the Amsterdam International, whose leaders undoubtedly saved capitalism in its greatest crisis by defeating the recent revolutionary uprisings in Germany, Italy, France, etc., is much too radical for us. Because its "revolutionary" doctrines might contaminate our pure bourgeois ideas, and for fear that our association with such a "terrible" organization would discredit us in the eyes of the America exploiters, the American Federation of Labor, not long since, severed relations with the Amsterdam International. This made us the laughing stock of the international labor world, revolutionary and reformist alike. When it comes to militancy of program we stand in a place by ourselves - at the very foot of the procession. And so it is with many other phases of our movement, which need not be cited here.

The general effect of the extreme political and industrial undevelopment of our trade union movement has been to greatly weaken the fighting power of the working class. More than ever this is evidenced by the present world crisis in industry. Whereas the trade unions of other countries are pretty much holding their own, or in some cases even forging ahead, ours are in disordered retreat before the victorious employers. The latter, strongly organized and controlling the press, the courts, and practically every section of the local, state, and national governments, are smashing the unions right and left and making ducks and drakes of the workers' political and industrial rights. The crisis is serious and so generally recognized that there is no need for us to waste words over it here. Suffice to say that if Organized Labor does not soon reorganize its primitive craft unions into modern industrial unions and infuse them with real fighting spirit it will inevitably suffer crushing defeat, if not actual annihilation.

The Source of Our Troubles

Whence comes the ultra-conservatism and extraordinary backwardness of the American trade union movement? What causes the seeming paradox in this country of a very high degree of capitalism producing a very low degree of labor organization?

Many are the answers made to this great riddle of the American labor movement. The chief of these are, first, that the conglomeration of races here, by greatly complicating the organization problem, has effectually checked the spread of trade unionism; and, second, that the workers in this country, because of its bonanza development, have enjoyed more prosperity than European workers and have consequently been rendered almost immune to militant organization.

But these answers are altogether unsatisfactory. The first is discounted by the fact that some of the very best unions we have, notably in the needle trades, are made up of many nationalities. And the second goes counter to all our labor history. Time and again the workers in this country have given convincing evidence of their aggressive spirit and adaptability to advanced types of unionism. A generation or so ago, during the stormy 1880s, our trade union movement unquestionably led the world for militancy. And since that time our industrial history has been marked with a whole series of strikes, as bitterly fought as any ever known anywhere. In view of these facts it is idle to maintain that our workers are naturally unmilitant.

The true explanation for the undevelopment of American trade unionism must be sought elsewhere. And it is to be found in the wrong methods used by our progressive and revolutionary unionists. Until quite recently they have failed utterly to realize and perform their proper functions. For a generation past they have been working contrary to the natural evolution of the labor movement. The result is stagnation and ruin all around.

One of the latest and greatest achievements of working class thinking, due chiefly to the experiences in Russia, is a clear understanding of the fundamental proposition that the fate of all labor organization in every country depends primarily upon the activities of a minute minority of clear-sighted, enthusiastic militants scattered throughout the great organized masses of sluggish workers. These live spirits are the natural head of the working class, the driving force of the labor movement. They are the only ones who really understand what the labor struggle means and who have practical plans for its prosecution. Touched by the divine fire of proletarian revolt, they are the ones who furnish inspiration and guidance to the groping masses. They do the bulk of the thinking, working, and fight-ing of the labor struggle. They run the dangers of death and the capitalist jails. Not only are they the burden bearers of the labor movement, but also its brains and heart and soul. In every country where these vital militants function effectively among the organized masses the labor movement flourishes and prospers. But wherever, for any reason, the militants fail to so function, just as inevitably the whole labor organization withers and stagnates. The activities of the militants are the "key" to the labor movement, the source of all its real life and progress.

Vigor Elsewhere; Stagnation Here

In other countries the militants, even while not consciously aware of the above principles, have quite generally acted in harmony with them. They have stayed in the old trade unions and, through their organization, activity, and determination, have been able to take the lead in directing the workers' struggle. They have communicated something of their own fire and understanding to the masses, with the result that their labor movements have been constantly pushed onward -- intellectually, structurally, and numerically -- to higher and higher stages.

But in the United States the militants, progressives and radicals alike, have taken a reverse course. For fully 30 years they have systematically deserted and neglected the trade unions. Afflicted with a chronic secessionism, they have attracted the overwhelming mass of the livest spirits among the workers to the futile projects of building up all sorts of dual unions based upon ideal principles. Thus the trade union movement has been sucked dry of thousands and thousands of the best militants, the very elements who should have been its life sprints, and thus its development has been blocked, its progress poisoned at the source. By the desertion of the militants the unknowing masses have been intellectually and spiritually decapitated. Leaderless, helpless, they have been left to the uncontested control of a conservative trade union bureaucracy, which has hardly a trace of real proletarian understanding and progress anywhere in its makeup. In view of this situation it would be a miracle if the American labor movement, with its most vital factors practically cancelled, were in any other condition than one of extreme backwardness.

Dual unionism, the set policy of secessionism, which has separated the life-giving militants from the cumbersome organized masses -- that is the prime cause of the stagnation of the American labor movement. That is the underlying reason for our apparent paradox of the most aggressive capitalist class side by side with the most weakly organized working class. Dual unionism has hamstrung American labor.

What Must Be Done

Two things are absolutely indispensable to the further life and progress of our labor movement: first, the militants must definitely and finally rid themselves of the dual union secessionist tendency that has negated their efforts for so long; and, second, they must thoroughly organize themselves within the trade unions for the effective application of their boundless energies and dynamic programs. When this is accomplished, then, and then only, can we look forward confidently to the American labor movement taking its proper place in the forefront of the world's trade union organization -- a position which it occupied 30 or 40 years ago, before its militants became poisoned and ruined by dual utopianism.

Substantial progress is now being made towards the accomplishment of these two vital essentials. In the first place, the militant rebels are freeing themselves from dual unionism with wonderful rapidity; and in the second place, they are everywhere forming the necessary propaganda groups within the organized masses of trade unionists. The organization through which this new and most important movement of militants is taking shape is the Trade Union Educational League.

The Trade Union Educational League is an informal grouping of the progressive and revolutionary elements throughout the entire trade union movement; a potent means to assist these militants in the performance of their natural functions as the brain and backbone of the organized masses. It is not a dual union, nor is it affiliated directly or indirectly with any such. It does not issue charters, nor does it collect dues or per capita tax. For the revenue to carry on its work it depends upon voluntary donations from supporters and sympathizers, profits from the sale of literature, etc. It is simply a virile educational league, operating within and in support of the trade unions, and by no means in opposition to or in competition with them. It is an auxiliary of the labor movement, not a substitute for it. It is identical with the movements through which the militants in other countries have transformed their trade unions into real fighting organizations.

The League's Program

The Trade Union Educational League proposes to develop trade unions from their present antiquated and stagnant condition into modern, powerful labor organizations capable of waging successful warfare against Capital. To this end it is working to revamp and remodel from top to bottom their theories, tactics, structure, and leadership. Instead of advocating the prevailing shameful and demoralizing nonsense about harmonizing the interests of Capital and Labor, it is firing the workers' imagination and releasing their wonderful idealism and energy by propagating the inspiring goal of the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of a workers' republic. The League aggressively favors organization by industry instead of by craft. Although the craft form of union served a useful purpose in the early days of capitalism, it is now entirely out of date. In the face of the great consolidation of the employers, the workers must also close up their ranks or be crushed. The multitude of craft unions must be amalgamated into a series of industrial unions -- one each for the metal trades, railroad trades, clothing trades, building trades, etc. -- even as they have been in other countries. The League also aims to put the workers of America in cooperation with the fighting trade unionists of the rest of the world. It is flatly opposed to our present pitiful policy of isolation, and it advocates affiliation to the militant international trade union movement, known as the Red Trade Union International [RILU]. The League is campaigning against the reactionaries, incompetents, and crooks who occupy strategic positions in many of our organizations. It is striving to replace them with militants, with men and women unionists who look upon the labor movement not as a means for making an easy living, but as an instrument for the achievement of working class emancipation. In other words, the League is working in every direction necessary to put life and spirit and power into the trade union movement.

How the League Organized.

The Trade Union Educational League groups the militants in two ways: by localities and by industries. In all cities and towns general groups of militants of all trades are formed to carry on the work of education and reorganization in their respective localities. These local general groups, to facilitate their work, divide themselves into industrial sections - such as printing, building, textile, railroad, metal, clothing, transport, etc. All the local general groups are kept in touch and cooperation with each other through a national corresponding secretary. Likewise, all the local industrial educational groups are linked together nationally, industry by industry, through their respective corresponding secretaries. Every phase and stage of the trade union movement will have its branch of the life-giving educational organization.

Let the railroad industry illustrate the general plan: In every important railroad center there will be educational groups of railroad men, not of single crafts, but of the whole 16 in the industry. These local groups will cooperate nationally through a secretary (a volunteer unless the local groups find ways, through donations, to pay him). A national program will be established and a great drive instituted to combine the 16 squabbling unions into one solid body. Amalgamation will be made a burning issue all over the country wherever railroad men meet and talk. From the live wire section man in San Diego, California, to the rebel engineer in Portland, Maine, the whole body of railroad militants will move unitedly and irresistibly to the accomplishment of their task, the erection of a great and powerful industrial union of railroad workers by the amalgamation and invigoration of the 16 craft unions. The union leaders refuse to carry out this absolutely indispensable project, so it is up to the rank and file militants to do it for themselves.

The Trade Union Educational League will make great use of pamphlets, bulletins, journals, etc., in its educational work. Its official national organ is The Labor Herald, a monthly published at $2.50 per year. The Labor Herald is carrying a burning message of constructive unionism and solidarity to the discontented rank and file. It is filled from cover to cover with the living, dynamic organization principles which can find no place in our static, muzzled, dry-as-dust official trade union journals.

The launching of the Trade Union Educational League marks a turning point in American labor history. It is the beginning of an era in which the trade unions, flourishing under intensive cultivation by their organized militants, will gradually pass from their present hopeless defensive fight into an aggressive attack upon Capital, an attack with can end only with the abolition of the wage system. The program of the Trade Union Educational League is the only possible effective answer to the "Open Shop" drive of the employers; it is the sole means by which the American working class can take its proper place in the world battle of Labor.

Active trade unionists ready to cooperate in the work of the League are requested to write to the undersigned for further information.

William Z. Foster, Sec'y-Treas.,

118 N LaSalle St.,

Chicago, Ill.

Continued here:

On a great trade unionist and revolutionary's birthday, a reading from W.Z. Foster - Fight Back! Newspaper

PUBLISHED: 12:08 25 February 2020 | UPDATED: 12:08 25 February 2020

Lucas Cumiskey

Cllr Andy Hull. Picture: Islington Council

Archant

Islington Council's crime and finance chief is stepping down after landing a job as chief exec of a human rights charity.

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Cllr Andy Hull will vacate his executive roles on Friday and start at Islington-based charity EachOther on Monday - but he'll continue to represent Highbury West as a Labour councillor.

Cllr Satnam Gill (Lab, St George's) will be made interim finance chief, while Cllr Kaya Comer-Schwartz will temporarily take on the community safety brief alongside her education portfolio.

Permanent replacements will be appointed at full council in May.

Cllr Hull has served in the executive for six years and played a key role in persuading Islington Council to adopt the Living Wage and Charter Against Modern Slavery. He was also vice-chair of the fairness commission which aimed to tackle the gap between rich and poor people in the borough.

Cllr Gill said: "I am delighted to take up this new role at an exciting time for the council. This year's budget aims to invest in the things that matter most to Islington residents and seeks to make the borough a fairer place for all.

"I want to thank Andy immensely for all of his work over the last six years on the executive. He has led by example and we are sad to see him go. I am excited to carry on his vital work."

The budget is expected to be approved at full council on Thursday.

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Islington's crime and finance chief Cllr Andy Hull steps down from executive | Islington, Archway, Finsbury Park and Holloway News - Islington Gazette

Danielle Wightman-Stone|Friday, 21 February 2020

Outland Denim, billed as the worlds most humanitarian denim, hasreceived the global Thomson Reuters 2020 Stop Slavery Enterprise Award forsmall and medium-sized companies, for their efforts to eradicate forcedlabour.

The award recognises companies around the world that have takenconcrete steps to eradicate forced labour from their supply chains andbusiness operations and Outland Denim, which employs survivors andvulnerable women in Cambodia, was praised for its wide-ranging approach tohelping staff.

James Bartle, founding chief executive of Outland Denim, said in astatement: It's time for small, medium and large business to stand andstop accepting slavery as part of our products or services. It is time forus to stop turning a blind eye or hoping it doesnt exist; we need toactively look for it.

Outland Denim jeans are crafted in the labels stand-alone productionand finishing facilities in Cambodia, which was founded to offer holisticsupport, training and employment to young women who have experiencedexploitation, human trafficking and other human rights violations.

The company was praised for providing its staff with a living wage andeducation, as well as offering each of its seamstresses training across allaspects of garment making.

The award came as the Australian-based brand prepares to launch inNordstrom and Bloomingdales.

Image: courtesy of Outland Denim

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Outland Denim wins Stop Slavery Award - FashionUnited UK

New York Times Magazine reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones spent Monday taking a tour of Charlottesvilles Confederate monuments and visiting Monticello before speaking to two crowds about a major project she leads.

Speaking first at the University of Virginia Rotunda, and later downtown at The Haven, Hannah-Jones discussed the 1619 Project and answered questions from UVa President Jim Ryan, New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie and community members.

The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative of The New York Times Magazine that began as a special issue that was published last August, around the time of the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Africans in Virginia.

I wanted to force an acknowledgement of this day, as much as I could, to not allow it to be erased or diminished, but also not just acknowledgement of the day, because a lot of organizations did commemorations, Hannah-Jones said. I wanted to force that acknowledgement of what slavery brought, and the centrality of slavery and that this was not going to be a history. We were going to look at the ongoing, everyday legacy that we all live with.

This project is not about making white people feel guilty for something that you did not personally do, but you have to acknowledge that you are beneficiaries of the system, she said. If there is guilt to be felt, it should be about the ways that you continue to uphold these systems and actively partake in these systems.

Hannah-Jones said it was fitting to have the conversation in Charlottesville and at UVa, specifically in the Rotunda.

In some ways, its the perfect place to have this conversation because I feel like all of the hypocrisies and ideas that the project tries to lay bare, much of that begins right here, she said.

When Ryan asked what her recommendations are for universities grappling with their own history, Hannah-Jones said that the least UVa should do is give free tuition to descendants of the enslaved people who built the university.

If youre really uncomfortable with that notion, you really have to ask yourself why, she said. You really have to ask why you think it is a problem that the people who were forced to build this, their ancestors, because just as wealth is passed down, so is this legacy.

Ryan did not respond on the matter.

When asked about those who have criticized the project, Hannah-Jones said their criticism was not legitimate, and she did not sit down one day and decide to make things up, and has sources to back up the questions from historians.

It has also been said that the project is too pessimistic.

Thats a different perspective that you can have when all of this wasnt built on the back of the oppression of your people, she said. I cant have that view.

During a question and answer period, Myra Anderson asked how she can get her voice heard as a descendant of an enslaved laborer at UVa.

I often feel like I dont even have a seat at the table, or my voice doesnt count, she said.

Hannah-Jones said she was not an activist or community organizer, but that Anderson speaking out, like she was doing at the discussion, was a way to get things accomplished.

I also believe that being publicly shamed is the only way that powerful people are motivated to do the right thing, she said.

UVa student and local activist Zyahna Bryant asked how people can stop universities from exploiting black students, such as asking them to appear in photographs, while not supporting them.

Im going to have her hand the mic back to you, and you tell the university what to do, Hannah-Jones said.

Bryant said the university needs to fund the Office of African-American Affairs, have a real conversation about race, support black faculty and support UVas low-wage workers.

If were not going to really do things fully and to the standard of excellence that we like to claim about being the good and great university, then we can just stop it altogether, because in my opinion it does not help to do things halfway, she said.

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1619 Project leader calls for UVa to take real action to amend for slavery's legacy - The Daily Progress