Category Archives: Wage Slavery

Right now, immigrants in the United States are fretting over the increasingly aggressive actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. So far the agency has been documented conducting raids across the country, performing swift deportations in some cases, and the Department of Homeland Security is allegedly considering breaking up families deliberately.

These actions follow in the wake of executive orders signed by President Trump, some which reversed Obamas easing of immigration enforcement.

Thats not to say that ICE was not busy at work during Obamas presidency though.

A lawsuit originally filed in 2014 accuses GEO Group of exploiting thousands of immigrants being held at its Denver Contract Detention Facility, located in Aurora, Colo., for labor. It goes so far as to allege GEO of coercing detainees into working by using threats of force and solitary confinement; many were paid merely $1 daily, if anything at all. The lawsuit claims that these people frequently worked 40-hour weeks.

Headquartered in Florida, GEO Group is one of the largest, most profitable private prison corporations in the world. They are especially close to ICE and have various contracts with the agency to hold its detainees.

In many situations, these individuals are held before having a court ruling. This was the case for the lawsuits original nine plaintiffs at least one of whom was later determined to be a permanent legal resident.

The lawsuit filing initially sought $5 million in damages, based on the argument that GEO Group had violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. This law specifically prohibits forced labor within the U.S. It also states that GEO, when it did pay for detainee labor, only paid $1 per day far below Colorados legal minimum wage.

Readers may be aware of the Thirteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which is best known for abolishing forced labor while maintaining an exception for convicted criminals. The difference in this case is that those held at this GEO prison had yet to be convicted of any crime.

Through a recent ruling from U.S. District Judge John Kane, the lawsuit has now been expanded to form a class action lawsuit. This means that roughly 60,000 individuals currently or previously held at the Colorado facility will be included as plaintiffs without having to actively opt in.

This development means this case, even if it does not succeed, will go down as a significant milestone for the rights of private prison detainees never before has a class action of this nature been approved.

It is also important because, if nothing else, the class action lawsuit may serve as a slowing mechanism for both the Trump administrations increasingly hard line policies against immigrants and its rapid reversal of advances made in private prison reform under President Obama.

These two issues privatized incarceration and immigration crack downs are deeply linked. Though the previous attorney general, Loretta Lynch, ordered the Bureau of Prisons to wind down its use of private prisons (a move that has already been reversed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions), this order did not encompass ICE the largest agency in the U.S. to utilize contract prisons. This is because ICE works under Department of Homeland Security and not under the Department of Justice.

Private prison corporations like GEO Group laud their services as being cost effective when compared to traditional incarceration facilities. While this claim is highly debatable (or even debunked, per a Department of Justice report), one of the primary ways cost-saving is achieved is by cutting corners: Hiring inexperienced staff, building poor quality facilities, providing inmates with substandard and fewer living goods (like soap or toothpaste) and, as this lawsuit highlights, exploiting inmate labor.

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Photo Credit: ICE / Wikimedia Commons

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Link:

ICE Private Prison Facing Lawsuit For Ignoring Anti-Slavery Law - Care2.com

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The two men were residents of the Big Ghetto, a shanty town near San Severo in southern Italy inhabited mostly by migrant agricultural workers.

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The town, which has been in place for nearly two decades, was made up mostly of makeshift huts constructed from wood, cardboard, and plastic. It was engulfed in flames within minutes after a fire broke out on Thursday night, according to local reports. The two men killed are thought to have been from Mali.

Commenting on the incident on Facebook, Lega Nords Matteo Salvani didnt hold back in his condemnation of the left, who he blamed for encouraging migrants to flock to Italy only to work for a pittance in precarious circumstances.

Two immigrants from Africa, exploited as slaves in the countryside [] are dead tonight because of a fire (the seventh!) in the slums where they lived, in the province of Foggia, Salvini wrote.

More blood on the hands of the bleeding heart left, who encourage thousands of wretches to come to Italy, promising them everything and leaving them to die.

His solution: Stop the departures, block the boats, deport the illegals, fight the traffickers, implement a minimum wage to prevent slavery and exploitation, and to defend Italian agriculture.

It can be done, and, in fact, it should be.

Salvinis broadside comes just weeks after the European Unions own border service, Frontex, admitted that search and rescue (SAR) operations in the Mediterranean Sea are perversely increasing the number of migrant drownings, as reliance on rescue ships is prompting smugglers to use ever less sturdy vessels to transport their human cargo.

TheFrontex Risk Analysisfor 2017 admits: SAR missions close to, or within, the 12-mile territorial waters of Libya have unintended consequences.

Dangerous crossings on unseaworthy and overloaded vessels were organised with the main purpose of being detected by EUNAVFOR Med/Frontex and NGO vessels.

Migrants and refugees encouraged by the stories of those who had successfully made it in the past attempt the dangerous crossing since they are aware of and rely on humanitarian assistance to reach the EU.

According to UNHCR figures, 487 people died or went missing in the Mediterranean Sea attempting to cross to Europe between 1 January and 5 March this year.

Read this article:

Italian Nationalists Vent Fury Following Migrant Camp Fire - Breitbart News

Dr. Ben Carson stated during a speech this week that many immigrants came to the US in the bottom of slave ships and worked longer hours for less pay, but they did it because they had a dream of a better life for themselves and their children. No, Ben, those were slaves. They were brought here against their will to work for literally nothing.Ring of Fires Farron Cousins discusses this.

Transcript of the above video:

Cousins: Dr. Ben Carson may have a PhD. He may have gone to medical school, but what this man really needs right now is a history lesson. Take a look at what he said during a speech earlier this week.

Carson: A man of dreams and opportunity. There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less, but they too had a dream that one day their sons, daughter, grandsons, granddaughters, great grandson, great granddaughters might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land.

Cousins: Thats right, folks. Those people that the United States went overseas and rounded up, stole from their homes, stole from their homelands, those were just immigrants. They wanted to come over here stuffed in the bottom of those ships and work for lower wages than the white man because they all had a dream. They all thought they were going to come over here and make a better life for themselves and their kids. I am not a history buff. I dont know everything about US history, but I do know enough that thats not even close to what happened, Dr. Carson. At this point, its almost insulting to other doctors to even refer to you as Dr., so Im not going to call you that anymore. Youre just Ben because you are so ignorant that you do not deserve the title of Dr. at this point.

Those people that the United States ripped from their homelands were not immigrants. They were slaves. They were brought over here to work under hellish conditions for absolutely no pay what so ever and thats what they were. They werent immigrants. They didnt want to come here. They were kidnapped. They were stolen. Families were torn apart. They had no idea what happened. Thats what happened in United States history, Ben Carson. Your disgusting revisionist version of this isnt a front to every single American citizen, not just African Americans. Youre re-writing one of the ugliest parts of American history and ugly or not, it is part of our history. If we pretend that it didnt happen, thats even more insulting, but that is exactly what you are doing, Ben.

You know, at this point I have to wonder if any of the stories about you, that movie with Cuba Gooding Jr., did any of that shit actually happen? You are by far one of the dumbest people in American politics today. Im sorry, I find that hard to believe that you could have ever been successful at cutting open peoples heads and tinkering with their brains when you dont even know that slaves were slaves and not immigrants. Thats very concerning to me, Ben, because this is basic US history. My children are in elementary school and they know more about US slavery than you do. That shouldnt be the case.

Im at a loss at this point for the rampant stupidity in revisionist history coming out of not just the Republican Party, but mainly the Trump Administration itself. These people are so disconnected from reality that theyre actually causing harm to the American public and to American discourse at this point. You cant have an intelligent conversation with these people. You cant have a rational conversation with these people. All you can do is sit back and watch as the flurry of stupid flies from their mouths and hope that nobody in that crowd, nobody listening to this garbage actually believes it. Unfortunately, theyre Republicans so they probably do.

Read the rest here:

Ben Carson Says Slaves In America Were Just Low Wage Immigrants - The Ring of Fire Network

A class-action lawsuit alleges at least 60,000 immigrants detained byU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were forced to work for $1 per day or less at animmigrantdetention center, a violation of federal anti-slavery laws, the Washington Post reports.

The prison, the Denver Contract Detention Facility, detains immigrants waiting for court appearances. The lawsuit was filed in 2014 and gained class action status last week following a ruling by U.S. District Judge John Kane. The facility, operated out of Aurora, Colorado by GEO Group, is under contract with ICE.

It's the first time in history where a class-actionlawsuit accusing aU.S. prison company of forced labor has been allowed to progress.

"That's obviously a big deal; it's recognizing the possibility that a government contractor could be engaging in forced labor," Nina DiSalvo, executive director of Towards Justice, a Colorado-based nonprofit group that represents low-wage workers, told the Post. "Certification of the class is perhaps the only mechanism by which these vulnerable individuals who were dispersed across the country and across the world would ever be able to vindicate their rights."

GEO allegedly paysdetainees $8 less than the state's minimum wage in Colorado, which is set at $9, and has not denied doing so -- saying that paying $1 a day does not violate any laws.

"We intend to continue to vigorously defend our company against these claims," GEO Group spokesman Pablo Paez said in a statement, reports the Post. "The volunteer work program at immigration facilities as well as the wage rates and standards associated with the program are set by the federal government. Our facilities, including the Aurora, Colo. Facility, are highly rated and provide high-quality services in safe, secure, and humane residential environments pursuant to the federal governments national standards."

The nine plaintiffs who were part of the original lawsuit claim that detaineeswho refuse to workare threatened with solitary confinement.

The lawsuit allegessix prisoners are selectedevery day randomly and forced to clean the facilitys housing units. The practice, the suit claims, violates the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which prohibits modern-day slavery.

"Forcedlabor is a particular violation of the statute that we've alleged,"Andrew Free, one of the plaintiffs'attorneys, told the Post. "Whether you're calling it forced labor or slavery, the practical reality for the plaintiffs is much the same. You're being compelled to work against your will under the threat of force or use of force."

2017 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Read the original:

Wash Post: At Least 60000 Immigrants Were Forced to Work for $1 or Less Per Day - Newsmax

rootfolks poets press

omowale-ketu oladuwa

the american negro has the great advantage of having never believed the collection of myths to which white americans cling: that their ancestors were all freedom-loving heroes, that they were born in the greatest country the world has ever seen, or that americans are invincible in battle and wise in peace, that americans have always dealt honorably with mexicans and indians and all other neighbors or inferiors, that american men are the worlds most direct and virile, that american women are pure. negroes know far more about white americans than that; it can almost be said, in fact, that they know about white americans what parentsor, anyway, mothersknow about their children, and that they very often regard white americans that way. and perhaps this attitude, held in spite of what they know and have endured, helps to explain why negroes, on the whole, and until lately, have allowed themselves to feel so little hatred. the tendency has really been, insofar as this was possible, to dismiss white people as the slightly mad victims of their own brainwashing.james baldwin, the fire next time

truth be toldtrain never left the station! its stuck, spinning its wheels digging deeper and deeper into the muck and mire of empire. . . .

any self-respecting afrikan born in america with a bit of real knowledge of their peoples history, and the way that history was twisted to erase genocide and body snatching from the publics collective memory, in this nations quest for a founding myth, will give you the 4-1-1 on that.

thats right, train never left: in 1865 after the civil war, afrikans owned 0.05% of the nations wealth; a quite remarkable feat given that only 247,000 of the more than 4.4-million afrikans had been nominally free, and in a position to accumulate any wealth. but in 1990, 135 years after emancipation, afrikans share of americas total wealth had grown to a less than staggering 1%.1

the white supremacist fringe would have you believe that lack of growth is because afrikan people are genetically and cognitively inferior to whites. but even a cursory reading of that 135 years reveals the undeniable truth of this grim history of economic exploitation, legal bait and switch, and political chicanery designed to dull commonsense and divide we the people.2 its a history of bloody lies, murderous intentions, and the inevitable consequences that followed. in 2017, were living in and with the aftermath.

truth is, rich white men ordered and ordained the genocide of indigenous americans, and the theft and economic exploitation of millions of afrikans and their children bred to be capitalisms mules in service to the stolen land. landowning white mens inhuemane means of wealth accumulation became a sacred addiction to the greed that turned an economy into a culture of expropriation, racial oppression, patriarchy, self-serving violence, and a sheep-to-slaughter mentality. these elite founding fathers and the merchants who serviced their enslaved holdings passed on their ill-gotten-gain from this enterprise, from one generation to the next, accumulating interest, wealth, plausible denial, poverty and spiritual impoverishment.

the vast majority of white americans are residual beneficiaries of this largesse. and while neither they nor their immediate ancestors may have participated in the rape and theft, or directly benefited from the distribution of the spoils, its inescapable that their economic and social advance is a direct result of their white skin privilege and afrikan oppression. nothing more!

today, the republicans whove seized power in washington and the great majority of state capitals are playing their trump card, making sure to create enuf tension, and generate enuf fear and misdirection among whitefolk to keep them off balance, thinking only about how to support or bring down the presidents nationalist, antihueman agenda. trump has navigated institutional america firmly onto the shores of the supremacist fringe of white nationalism. and despite his rhetoric of inclusivity and cooperation across the aisle, his make america great again euphemism is meant to keep the niggers in their place.

the politics of skin and fear are being dealt by the power elite3 to create a wall of psychological 3 ill-will and distrust between average working class whites, therefore, rendering them incapable of reasoning in their own class interests, as represented in latent cooperation and political alignment with afrikan people and other people of color.

they reckon that white peoples mental well being rests squarely on the fact that their whiteness is a tangible, exploitable resource they can cash in to escape the condition of enslavement they see the dark-skinned others succumbing to and suffering. where there is cooperation across race, it is based on narrow self interest, within the pail of capitalist supremacy that has white privilege as its root and low-hanging branches. it is simple reform, not revolutionary change and the american experiment needs more reform like a bad tooth needs sugar.

there will be wars and the rumors of wars4

atho there is evidence of improved relations across the colorline,5 21st century america has not escaped plantation economy or politics. in this regard, hear brother malcolms prophetic voice:

i believe that there will ultimately be a clash between those who want freedom, justice, and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the systems of exploitation. . . it is incorrect to classify the revolt of the negro as simply a racial conflict of black against white, or as a purely american problem. rather, we are today seeing a global rebellion of the oppressed against the oppressor, the exploited against the exploiter.6

it is neither error nor act of chance that brother malcolm was assasinated when he was, calling up the afrikan intelligence of a people to see themselves as whole and not disparate sects of white nationalist states. it is no coincidence that martin king was assassinated just as he had begun to internationalize his message of poor peoples rights.

the clash to come will be on the grounds of economic inequality and the heavyhandedness of the police state. while the corporate media and elected middlemen of the elite passing as a government of the people keep the conversation about fear and race matters in the headlines, the bottomline is where the ultimate friction point lies.

afrikan people are oppressed because they dont have the collective force of their income or purchasing power not because they are varying shades of black. emphasis on race skin color is an emotional distraction that keeps afrikan people and the masses blinded to their condition of wage slavery and penury. afrikan people are 12-14 percent of the population, owning only 1% of the total wealth, and but 5% of businesses. that leaves us open to the charge of comparative inferiority.

let there be no confusion concerning the state of afrikan peoples oppression or the way that condition is construed by the ruling class and their government managers to cover their crimes. our position and condition are a direct result of our enslavement and forced labor over centuries, and its constructed aftermath. we are not inferior but sufferers, having suffered the ravages of white nationalism all these years hanging on to the hope that one day we, too, would be free and equal partners in this western economic enterprise.

nevertheless, we must accept that our fealty to those masters whove held our bodies and minds in bondage speaks to our complicity in their crimes. no one in america will liberate us for us, we must do that for ourselves.

we are learning to see clearly, to look impassionately, and to resurrect truth from the body of our experience. we cannot escape our part in this madness, but we should never internalize the american drama as our own. it is not. it is an historical anomaly to which we have been normalized by torture and time. it is not a condition that will last forever. we will not always be others footstool!

with republican hegemony raging thru the land, donald trump in the white house as head of the capitalist world empire, and right wing religious fanatic mike pence and his cohort twisting his nipples in the wings, ready to step into trumps shoes when impeachment is imminent and resignation the only course to short circuit the process, brother malcolms prediction of conflict is particularly resonant and prescient.

but, you say, arent immigrants americas new niggers, particularly those from mexico and the seven muslim nations trump has banned? isnt the president reaching out to blackpeople? hasnt he proposed support for historically black colleges and universities, and doesnt he want to put a cop on every corner in our chocolate cities, as a way to make the streets safe again? inotherwords, isnt donald trumps presidency supporting the advance of afrikan people as viable participants in the white supremacist experiment?

it may seem so on its face, but afrikan people should be super cautious, and spiritually conscious to take no solace from this latest round of racebaiting, xenophobic, white nationalist jingoism, and diversity double-speak. each immigrant group singled out by trump enters communities in america whose share of the total wealth, and business ownership is greater than that of afrikan people. in the final analysis they contribute more to donald trumps america than do afrikan people. and, yet, they are being rejected! does that not raise red flags everywhere?

afrikan peoples value to the national economy is consumption. this year alone afrikan people are expected to have $1.1-trillion in purchasing power. and these dollars are not harnessed to the benefit of afrikan people. instead, our money is spent creating jobs and wealth for others and their communities.7 that condition isnt carved in stone. we can re-member it!

identity, a matter of commonsense

people of afrikan descent will recover from the post traumatic slave syndrome deficit we face as8 subjects of the western world, when we give up the illusion of fitting seamlessly into the delusion of white supremacist democracy, and rediscover our identity as an afrikan people centered in family and its extension. as such, collectively, our intent finds and grows the family center, re-membering afrika and its diaspora. this new republican administration provides afrikan people an optimum political target around which to coalesce toward unification. the enemy hasnt been this clear since pre-brown vs. board-1954 america.

donald trump is the newest sheriff in town; the great white hope installed to put the natives in their place. already, hes raised the rightwing plaint to law and order,9 loudly proclaiming the targeting of cities with large afrikan populations for federal get tough on crime interventions. and altho trumps call to turn the cops loose on people of color may seem new to some, as the online mag salon has reported, the presidents take on cop capers goes way back.

when i was young, i sat in a diner with my father and witnessed two young bullies cursing and threatening a very frightened waitress. two cops rushed in, lifted up the thugs and threw them out the door, warning them never to cause trouble again. i miss the feeling of security new yorks finest once gave to the citizens of this city. let our politicians give back our police departments power to keep us safe. unshackle them from the constant chant of police brutality which every petty criminal hurls immediately at an officer who has just risked his or her life to save anothers. we must cease our continuous pandering to the criminal population of this city. give new york back to the citizens who have earned the right to be new yorkers.10

earn the right to be new yorkers!?! there should be no doubt about who donald trumps new yorkers are; or to whom he refers as the criminal population. afrikan people are squarely in the 21st century bullseye of the police state. so whatever better we think may have achieved under democrat rule during the last eight years, evidence points to a substantial roll back under way with this new republican regime, guided by the lite of all administrations back to nixon, reagan and bakke. america always has been a scary place for afrikan people, but now some would argue that were on the verge of becoming casualties of a trump house of horrors.

but to believe and get stuck in that train of thot is to give the power of your mind to the institutional cancer of capitalism that ephemeral force that creates and facilitates the circulation of the myth of afrikan peoples dysfunction and inferiority.

paraphrasing dr. john henrik clarke, the people who would be called afrikans had built 11 civilizations long before those who would become the european climbed from caves of ignorance on the backs of the black people of the nile valley civilizations.

to that end, we channel the incomparable nina simone, who said, life is in the feeling:

life is short. people are not easy to know. theyre not easy to know, so if you dont tell them how you feel, youre not going to get anywhere, i feel.

crossing the colorline to intersectionality

we, too, feel nina, and we know that what we feel is more accurate than our thinking! and what we realize in the praxis, since the turbulent 60s, is that we the people have more in common with one another than we have that separates and divides us. today, that realization is on the move. today, its called intersectionality, as people with different causes and policy interests find themselves on the same protest lines in support of one anothers issues. during the 60s, black community politics surged on the river of black nationalism. we understood the psychological and practical impact of doing it our selves, for our selves.

whitefolk took their lead from us, understanding that their work was to bring their people to consciousness by working in their own communities. and on that basis cooperation and alliance were/and still are possible.

todays intersectionality seems an advance along those lines that shows a degree of maturity in the resistance movement that could portend an openness to understanding and supporting afrikan peoples most logical and direct call for liberation reparations as a first step to aligning our family interests. intersectional coalescence around this issue will change all lives, because it will reorient the national conversation about americas economic and political well being. it will set a real basis for morality and ethics in a state where all peoples voices are heard, and count. however, if cross-cultural work cant begin based on this understanding, then there really is no basis for for afrikan people to consider revolutionary alignment. to eschew this point of intersection easily identifies a bent toward reformation rather than revolution, in that the outcome of resistance would simply feedback into the capitalist hegemonic loop.

imagine a revolutionary paradigm of a constitutional convention to which afrikan people were fully participating in determining how their lives and the lives of their fellow citizens would be governed. recognizing that the wealth of the west is built on the broken bones and dead bodies of millions of indigenous americans and enslaved afrikans, certainly would give a new governing document meaning and legitimacy it has never possessed.

with donald trump in the white house, conscious afrikan people cant afford to allow this moment to pass without inserting into the national conversation for change, our call for reparations and community renewal thru a peoples constitutional convention. unseating the current administration and challenging the wealth of the 400 billionaires whove replaced the landowning white men who founded america and wrote the laws we the struggling poor are governed by from the afrikans perspective, that is not the intersectionalist challenge. unseating the capitalist world order is what must be done. and certainly that begins at home, but must begin with the internationalist understanding that the capitalist order must be brought to heel.

as afrikans it is not enuf to just be concerned with canceling the trump presidency. we must cripple and restructure the world economic order. thats the focus, the point in history at which the crisis in race, immigration, environment and hueman health, housing, gender, hueman rights, and all other issues converge. this is the groundbreaking truth of intersectionality. and if it is not this, it has no viability for afrikan people. malcolm and king both understood toward the end of their lives of resistance, that our struggle is an international and collective, and that anything outside that paradigm is bogus reform.

europes colonization of afrikan people was accompanied by its colonization of other people of color. and in the process, the conquerors colonized information about themselves, these subjugated people, and the world. we still live in the world they created and passed on to their sons and daughters.

about this world the academics and professional activists theorize, fitting practical models to their ideological formulations. they are putting in their work to understand the dragon that must be defanged. the politicians are adjusting their platforms and tweaking their rhetoric to make their political parties seem relevant. still others the progressive commonfolk are running on emotion thru the streets mad as hell that a donald trump could be elected to lead their country. all these visible streams lead to reform. but reform will not solve the afrikans problem white supremacist economic praxis, capitalism.

identity counts

i am the afrikan stolen from the land i was born to. i have no country. i am not tied to or invested in the well-being, parties or privileges of america. i am invested in my collective afrikan self my collective identity and individual huemanity. from the preeminent value of my afrikan body and the ancestral genes that give it form, im invested in the history of moments and this very momentthat give it meaning.

huemanity is a universal yet singular praxis. it is international, intentionally without borders or national boundaries. on these premises i stand demanding reparations. and this demand backed by the buying power of afrikan people has the potential to bring all huemankind to the negotiating table, with an intent to bring huemankind into alignment with natural law all people are created equal, with none more equal than others. all people live in relationship to all that has been created from the matrix of earth, sea and heaven, and to this trinity we owe our fidelity, exercising the intention that all should share in this planets wealth.

while the lords of davos meet to determine how the worlds economy should be grown, 12 governed, and distributed, it is insane for afikan people to sit on the sidelines waiting for the generosity of the 1% to save us from them. the chemistry of the times requires afrikan people to wake the fuck up! in america alone we possess purchasing power equal to the 15th largest nation in the world. we govern the continent of afrika, still the source of the worlds richest mineral deposits, altho we dont control our countries economies. and the afrikan diaspora, especially in south america is large enough to wreak havoc on any government that would openly oppress its ranks. we must stop talking yang, and start talking family security, economics, cooperation, and development.

but this power can only be exercised with the open-armed embrace of one another as afrikan people. the collective will of afrika, when realized, is a force that cannot be denied, but the masters of the west and their arab allies are certain the destruction theyve wrought on the afrikan body-mind during the last 1300 years is sufficient to keep us divided and at one anothers throats, in perpetuity, about a democracy that never has existed.

personally im in favour of democracy, which means that the central institutions in the society have to be under popular control. now, under capitalism we cant have democracy by definition. capitalism is a system in which the central institutions of society are in principle under autocratic control. thus a corporation or an industry is, if we were to think of it in political terms, fascist; that is, it has tight control at the top and strict obedience has to be established at every level theres a little bargaining, a little give and take, but the line of authority is perfectly straightforward. just as im opposed to political fascism, im opposed to economic fascism. i think that until major institutions of society are under the popular control of participants and communities, its pointless to talk about democracy.

noam chomskys take on democracy is clear, as should be our own.

we must come to our senses and effectively treat the post-traumatic slave syndrome we suffer from we should make no further sacrifice without atonement. cooperating and pledging allegiance to the wests well being is at our own expense. that is the ultimate sacrifice. the relationship between the rich and the poor must come into balance, and we must be the force that drives the intent for this momentum, a fundamental redistribution of wealth. by this means we mite prevent chaos, anarchy, and the death of millions more. this moral and ethical stance should be the position of a unified people who realize their common identity and history. this would be a democracy i can understand and work toward.

Read more commentary at http://www.rootfolks.com.

Sources:

1dr. claud anderson, the more things change, the more they stay the same: racial inequality and the moment of lock-in: http://law.usc.edu/assets/docs/roithmayr.pdf

2ronald takaki, a different mirror: a history of multicultural america; introduction, p2

3the power elite is a 1956 book by sociologist c. wright mills, in which mills calls attention to the interwoven interests of the 3 leaders of the military, corporate, and political elements of society and suggests that the ordinary citizen is a relatively powerless subject of manipulation by those entities

4matthew 24:6: and ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

5the term color line was originally used as a reference to the racial segregation that existed in the united states after the abolition of slavery. an article by frederick douglass titled the color line was published in the north american review in 1881. the phrase gained fame after w.e.b dubois repeated use of it in his book the souls of black folk.

6anthony hamilton, socialist review, issue (399), february 2015, malcolm x: the road to revolution, http://socialistreview.org.uk/ 6 399/malcolm-x-road-revolution

72016 nielsen report: black buying power has reached tipping point, but how will black america leverage it to create wealth? http://atlantablackstar.com/2016/02/04/2016-nielsen-report-black-buying-power-reached-tipping-point-will-blackamerica-leverage-create-wealth/

8dr. joy degruy-leary, post traumatic slave syndrome: https://youtu.be/QNEX0LtR-Oo

9flamm (2005) documents how conservatives constructed a persuasive message that argued that the civil rights movement had contributed to racial unrest and johnsons great society had rewarded rather than punished the perpetrators of violence. conservatives demanded that the national government should promote respect for law and order and contempt for those who violated it, regardless of cause. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/law_and_order_(politics)

salon: 10http://www.salon.com/2017/01/17/donald-trumps-law-and-order-obsession-is-rooted-in-the-distant-past-and-points- toward-a-dystopian-future/

11dr. john henrik clarke: why africana history: http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/afprl/clarke/why-africana-history-by-dr.-john-henrik-clarke

12usa today: what is davos? 5 things to know about the world economic forum, http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/ 2017/01/16/what-is-davos/96390850/

Tags: afrikan consciousness, black liberation, capitalism, democracy, donald trump, featured, frost illustrated, intersectionality, james baldwin, malcolm x, martin luther king, nina simone, Noam Chomsky, omowale ketu oladuwa, politics, racism, republican party, rootfolks, the fire this time, white supremacy

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the fire this time. . . . - Frost Illustrated

McClatchy Washington Bureau

The Confederacy was a con job on whites. And still is. McClatchy Washington Bureau Thanks to the profitability of this no-wage/low-wage combination, a majority of American one-per-centers were southerners. Slavery made southern states the richest in the country. The South was richer than any other country except England. But that ...

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The Confederacy was a con job on whites. And still is. - McClatchy Washington Bureau

Wage labour (also wage labor in American English) is the socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer, where the worker sells his labour power under a formal or informal employment contract.[1] These transactions usually occur in a labour market where wages are market determined.[2] In exchange for the wages paid, the work product generally becomes the undifferentiated property of the employer, except for special cases such as the vesting of intellectual property patents in the United States where patent rights are usually vested in the employee personally responsible for the invention. A wage labourer is a person whose primary means of income is from the selling of his or her labour power in this way.

In modern mixed economies such as those of the OECD countries, it is currently the most common form of work arrangement. Although most labour is organised as per this structure, the wage work arrangements of CEOs, professional employees, and professional contract workers are sometimes conflated with class assignments, so that "wage labour" is considered to apply only to unskilled, semi-skilled or manual labour.

The most common form of wage labour currently is ordinary direct, or "full-time". This is employment in which a free worker sells his or her labour for an indeterminate time (from a few years to the entire career of the worker), in return for a money-wage or salary and a continuing relationship with the employer which it does not in general offer contractors or other irregular staff. However, wage labour takes many other forms, and explicit as opposed to implicit (i.e. conditioned by local labour and tax law) contracts are not uncommon. Economic history shows a great variety of ways, in which labour is traded and exchanged. The differences show up in the form of:

Socialists see wage labour as a major, if not defining, aspect of hierarchical industrial systems. Most opponents of the institution support worker self-management and economic democracy as alternatives to both wage labour and to capitalism. While most opponents of wage labour blame the capitalist owners of the means of production for its existence, most anarchists and other libertarian socialists also hold the state as equally responsible as it exists as a tool utilised by capitalists to subsidise themselves and protect the institution of private ownership of the means of productionwhich guarantees the concentration of capital among a wealthy elite leaving the majority of the population without access. As some opponents of wage labour take influence from Marxist propositions, many are opposed to private property, but maintain respect for personal property.

A point of criticism is that after people have been compelled by economic necessity to no feasible alternative than that of wage labour, exploitation occurs; thus the claim that wage labour is "voluntary" on the part of the labourer is considered a red herring as the relationship is only entered into due to systemic coercion brought about by the inequality of bargaining power between labour and capital as classes.

Wage labour has long been compared to slavery by socialists.[3][4][5][6] As a result, the term 'wage slavery' is often utilised as a pejorative for wage labour.[7] Similarly, advocates of slavery looked upon the "comparative evils of Slave Society and of Free Society, of slavery to human Masters and slavery to Capital,"[8] and proceeded to argue persuasively that wage slavery was actually worse than chattel slavery.[9] Slavery apologists like George Fitzhugh contended that workers only accepted wage labour with the passage of time, as they became "familiarized and inattentive to the infected social atmosphere they continually inhale[d]."[8]

The slave, together with his labour-power, was sold to his owner once for all.... The [wage] labourer, on the other hand, sells his very self, and that by fractions.... He [belongs] to the capitalist class; and it is for him ... to find a buyer in this capitalist class.[10]

According to Noam Chomsky, analysis of the psychological implications of wage slavery goes back to the Enlightenment era. In his 1791 book On the Limits of State Action, classical liberal thinker Wilhelm von Humboldt explained how "whatever does not spring from a man's free choice, or is only the result of instruction and guidance, does not enter into his very nature; he does not perform it with truly human energies, but merely with mechanical exactness" and so when the labourer works under external control, "we may admire what he does, but we despise what he is."[11] Both the Milgram and Stanford experiments have been found useful in the psychological study of wage-based workplace relations.[12] Additionally, as per anthropologist David Graeber, the earliest wage labour contracts we know about were in fact contracts for the rental of chattel slaves (usually the owner would receive a share of the money, and the slave, another, with which to maintain his or her living expenses.) Such arrangements, according to Graeber, were quite common in New World slavery as well, whether in the United States or Brazil.[13]C. L. R. James argued in The Black Jacobins that most of the techniques of human organisation employed on factory workers during the industrial revolution were first developed on slave plantations.[14]

For Marxists, labour-as-commodity, which is how they regard wage labour,[15] provides a fundamental point of attack against capitalism.[16] "It can be persuasively argued," noted one concerned philosopher, "that the conception of the worker's labour as a commodity confirms Marx's stigmatisation of the wage system of private capitalism as 'wage-slavery;' that is, as an instrument of the capitalist's for reducing the worker's condition to that of a slave, if not below it."[17] That this objection is fundamental follows immediately from Marx's conclusion that wage labour is the very foundation of capitalism: "Without a class dependent on wages, the moment individuals confront each other as free persons, there can be no production of surplus value; without the production of surplus-value there can be no capitalist production, and hence no capital and no capitalist!"[18]

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Wage labour - Wikipedia

THESSALON-

I have a stash of writing books; not books about writing, although I have those, too, but books to write in. Blank books call to me, stick to my fingers, sneak into my shopping bags when I'm not looking. David and I have agreed that I'm not allowed any more writing books until I use up what I have. So I was surprised to get one this year for Christmas from David.

It's a beautiful book. It might have been made just for me bound in brown leather, with a gryphon tooled on the front and two metal clasps to hold the book closed. Oh, yes, and the pages are handmade paper. It's gorgeous, and I'm looking forward to using it.

Of course, you don't write in a book like that with a ballpoint pen or a Sharpie, or even one of those really fine rollerball pens. You need a fountain pen to write in a book like that.

I'm no stranger to fountain pens. When I was in public school, back when the school buses were pulled by woolly mammoths, every desk had a hole in the top right corner to accommodate a bottle of ink. Of course we learned to write with pencils. Even when we switched to pens, the standard was not a fountain pen, but a ballpoint. Those ballpoints were something different, too not disposable Bics, but elegant things with three-part barrels. Often the top and bottom were different colours, but there was always a little white-metal band in the centre. When the ink ran out, you unscrewed the two parts of the barrel to replace the slender plastic tube of ink. Inevitably, the metal band fell on the floor and rolled under something, and the little spring around the tube of ink sprang out and boinged off across the room. I believe that changing the refill in my ballpoint pen as a ten-year-old gave me my current conviction that any little motor I take apart will throw pieces irretrievably around the room.

But I digress. I remember owning a fountain pen with a reservoir and a little lever. When you ran out of ink, you stuck the nib in the bottle of ink and flipped the lever out and back. The lever squeezed the rubber reservoir in the barrel of the pen flat, and then released it to suck up ink. A bit Rube Goldberg, maybe, but it worked.

The pen was an old one my mother gave me. Nowadays it would be retro and valuable, but then it was just that old pen that she didn't need because she had another, and good enough for a child to use at school. It was made of pearly white plastic, and the nib, lever and pocket clip were gold-coloured. Heck, it was the early 1960s and this was an old pen they might have been gold-plated. Probably worth a lot on eBay these days. I also remember buying bottles of blue-black ink at Woolworth's.

I don't currently own a fountain pen; the inevitable conclusion is that I need to acquire one. We started by looking at the selection available locally. The prices ranged from about $40 to $100, and made me miss my long-gone pearly-white hand-me-down. The cheapest fountain pen available was about 40,000 times costlier than the ubiquitous ten-for-a-buck stick pens I usually use.

So David, as is his wont, began looking on line at fountain pens. What he found was paeans of praise for the delights of writing with a fountain pen. No more pressing down on the page to make the ball lay down a pasty line, but a light and delightful exercise of floating the nib over the paper on a layer of liquid ink. Writing, apparently, becomes so enjoyable with a fountain pen that you do more of it. It also, the sell went on, makes you a better writer. Then he got to the prices.

I could shell out $100 for a Cross fountain pen in my local stationery emporium, or I could go the luxury route and buy a pen for $500, $1,200 or if I'm really committed to good writing - $15,000. Yes, a one, a five and three zeros. That is almost what I take home from a year of wage-slavery. When I heard that, what I said was well, not fit for publication in a family newspaper. If I spent that kind of money on a fountain pen, it damn well better make me a better writer. In fact, it had better make me Shakespeare.

Suddenly the $100-pen doesn't look quite as expensive. Besides, if I mortgaged the dog and bought the pen for fifteen grand and became a better writer, I'd probably have to buy a better journal. And I'm not allowed any more writing books, at least until I use up what I have.

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Fountain pen prices 'write' out there - Sault Star

How the Confederacy conned Southern whites. And why some still fall for it today. The Sun Herald Thanks to the profitability of this no-wage/low-wage combination, a majority of American one-per-centers were southerners. Slavery made southern states the richest in the country. The South was richer than any other country except England. But that ... and more »

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How the Confederacy conned Southern whites. And why some still fall for it today. - The Sun Herald

Harvard Law School. Photo by Darren McCollester/Getty Images

Harvard Law School students demands last year that the school abandon its slave-owner connected coat of armshas produced results. Harvard University publicly acknowledged its deep ties to colonial-era slavery Friday, the latest in a string of universities that have sought to confront their connections to slavery recently, often only after students demanded it. (Bloomberg)

Uber Technologies Inc. in-house attorneys could face ethics questions over the companys so-called Greyball program that uses software to side-step law-enforcement and public officials in cities with unfriendlyregulators, lawyerssaid. (The Recorder)

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLPs epic screw-up at the Oscars could carry a high cost ifjurors arrive at an unrelated malpractice trial next week suspecting the global accounting firm is error-prone. (Bloomberg via BLB)

Tim House, whos slated to become Allen & Overys U.S. seniorpartner in May, said he expects a big part of his job to be lateral hiring, as heexpands the firmspresence and brand in New York and Washington, D.C. (BLB)

The worlds biggest firm by revenue, Latham Watkins, has snagged former co-managing partner of Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati John Jack Sheridan as a corporate partner forthe firms emerging companies practice. Sheridan has advisedon some of Silicon Valleys biggestdeals, including YouTubes $1.65 billion acquisition by Google Inc. in 2006, and represented companies and underwriters in over100 IPOs. (The Recorder)

Law Firm Business

Elite national law firms are beating out local firms inthe contest to represent Texas companies participatingin the largest mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, with the biggest winner Chicago-based Kirkland & Ellis, according to new data from research firm Mergermarket. (Houston Chronicle)

Covington & Burling agreed to settle claims that it breachedits contractual obligations to formerclient 3M Co, resolving an unusually publicconflict-of-interest dispute. (Am Law Daily)

DLA Piper hasinformed fee-earningattorneys thattheir salary reviews, initially plannedfor May, will be delayedtwo months to allow thefirm to benchmark its next wage increase against pay hikes atthecompetition. (The Lawyer)

U.K. firm Eversheds, which entered the U.S. market last year through a merger with Sutherland Asbill, now plans to expand in Singapore by making an equity investmentin a local firm. (BLB)

Miami-based Akerman, one of Floridas biggestlaw firms, had its sixth-straight year of gross revenue growth in 2016, posting a 3.6 percent increase, to $349 million. Profits per equity partner dropped by 2.2 percent, as the firm added 33 lawyers to boost its national headcount to 595. (Daily Business Review)

Eight law firms, which account for about $5.7 billion in total market share and employ nearly 7,000 attorneys worldwide, recently got new leadership. American Lawyer recently asked those new leadersabout theiroutlooks for their firms, and for the legal industry. (American Lawyer)

From making partner at 34 and advising Drexel Burnham Lambert while at Cahill, to the immense job of running a Big Law firm, DLA Piper Global Co-Chairman Roger Meltzer takes alook at highlights of hisnearly 40-year career, in his own words.(BLB)

Legal Market

The FTCdropped itsinvestigation into Target Corp. over pillows that retailer labeled as Made in USA but were, actually, madein China.(National Law Journal)

The Royal Bank of Scotland more than tripled its provisionfor future legal spendingstemming fromregulatory and legal actions, to 952 million pounds (about $1.16 billion). (The Lawyer)

A Missouri jury gave Johnson & Johnson a big courtwin Friday, finding thatits baby powder did not cause a Tennessee womans ovarian cancer. The ruling comes after the companylost verdicts of $55 million, $70 million and $72 million last year in Missouri.(National Law Journal)

Corporate legal procurement professionals managed to cuttheir companies legal spending by as much as 23 percent in 2016, and an average of 11 percent, according to a recent survey report from Bloomberg Law and the Buying Legal Council. The 41-page report finds procurement professionals have increasing influence on legal spending, and that they prioritizereducing the number oflaw firms theircompanies deal with. (Buying Legal Council)

President Trumps First 100 Days

President Donald Trumps sonsare pushing to expand the Trump brand, with a plan to opena new, more affordable chain of hotels in cities along the campaign trail. Critics say the ventures pose a potential conflict of interest forPresident Trump, because he stands to profit from them, but the Trumps see nothing illegal.(Vanity Fair)

FBI Director James B. Comey reportedly requestedthe Justice Department this weekend to releasea statement that rejects Trumps unsubstantiated allegations on Twitterthat President Barack Obama ordered Trumps phones to be wiretapped before the election. (Washington Post)

Trumps nomineefor the top deputy to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, veteran prosecutor Rod Rosenstein, still faces confirmation. Now that Sessions hasrecused himselffrom investigations of Russian meddling in the presidential election, the stakes in Senatequestioning of Rosenstein aresuddenly much higher. (Bloomberg)

Happening in SCOTUS and Other Courts

Past decisions of Trumps Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch suggest he is open tolimiting participation of environmental groups in lawsuits involving public lands.(Associated Press)

A Californiajudge Friday gave a greenlight to a JAMSclients lawsuit alleging that the dispute arbitration company puffed upthecredentials of one of itsadjudicators to bring in morebusiness. (The Recorder)

The First Amendment hasnt yet been dragged into the recent debate about whether bureaucrats leaking information about the Trump administration are heroes or public enemies. But it should be, because competing constitutional views about bureaucrats engagement with public affairs have been around for a long time. (Bloomberg View)

An aerobics class founded over 30 years agoby now-retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day OConnor has lost its access to the courthouses private basketball and gym area, as OConnor is no longer involvedin the class, the court said. (National Law Journal)

The D.C. Circuit appeals courtFriday upheld alaw barring protests at the U.S. Supreme Court in the latest in a series of decisionsshelteringthe high court from protesters on its grounds or in the courthouse. (National Law Journal)

The Pawnee Nation, anative American tribe, filed a lawsuit in its own tribal court system alleging thatseveral oilcompanies triggeredan earthquake that damaged tribal buildings. (New York Times)

Laterals and Moves

Mintz Levin, has hired a new partner for its national litigation practice in New York, gettingChristopher Sullivan, a former co-chair of the litigation group and executive committee member at Herrick, Feinstein. Sullivan spent 33 years at Herrick and leaves as the firm is said to be inin merger talks with Crowell & Moring. (Am Law Daily)

Technology

A new service called LawyerLine, by Lawyer.com, aims to automate phone answering structure for law firms, but by using scripts rather than actual automation. (Legaltech News)

Robots are wealth creators and taxing them is a bad idea, argues former U.S. Treasury Secretary, Lawrence Summers, disagreeing with recent comments by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. (Financial Times)

Tel Aviv-founded LawGeex said it has closed a $7 million Series A funding round to enhanceits AI-poweredplatform for business contract review.(LawGeex)

Russian hackers are targeting U.S. progressive groups in a new wave of attacks, scouring the organizations emails for embarrassing details and attempting to extract hush money, according to two people familiar with probes being conducted by the FBI and private security firms. (Bloomberg)

Miscellaneous

U.S. airport pat-downs are about to get more invasive, the Transportation Security Administration said. (Bloomberg)

Compiled by Rick Mitchell and edited by Casey Sullivan.

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Wake Up Call: Harvard Confronts Slavery Ties After Law Students Protest - Bloomberg Big Law Business