| |
|
|
| |
 The
World Trade Organization talks imploded in Cancun, Mexico,
this week, as the developing world finally just said “no”
to the ever-escalating demands of wealthy nations intent on
fine-tuning a global market to their infinite advantage.
African
cotton-exporting nations had planned to seek $300 million
in reparations to make up for trade lost to heavily subsidized
U.S. and European cotton agribusiness. The symbolic action
was pre-empted by what Global
Trade Watch’s Lori Wallach called the “fury
factor” – the combustion of Third World anger
and rich men’s indignation. Accustomed to obedience,
U.S. trade representative Robert B. Zoellick exploded in frustration
when uppity developing nations refused to accept the Euro-American
agenda. "The harsh rhetoric of the `won't do' overwhelmed
the concerted efforts of the `can do,'" Zoellick huffed,
with characteristic arrogance.
Tanzanian
delegate Beatrice Matumbo had planned to engage in serious
negotiations in Cancun, but the rich countries’ imperiousness
left the developing world no choice but to quit the talks.
"I was afraid I would have to go back to my people and
say we didn't gain anything," Matumbo told the Los
Angeles Times. "But instead we stood up to the manipulation.
I am very happy."
Jamaica’s
Richard Bernal spoke for the Caribbean Economic Community.
"There is nothing for us small countries in this proposal,"
he said. "We don't want any of this."
The
dramatic display of Third World unity in Cancun is of profound
importance to American working people, who have also been
shanghaied into finance capital’s global race to the
bottom. The bottom is finally standing up.
In
urban America, the best hope to resist capital’s destructive,
Black displacement schemes lies with Black trade unionists,
who “are comfortable with taking on an adversary role
with capital, as a matter of routine.” As we wrote in
Part II of our series, “Wanted:
a Plan for Black Cities to Save Themselves,” September
4:
In
the near term, African American labor’s most effective
contribution to transforming Black politics in America –
and thus, recasting progressive politics overall –
would be to advance the necessity of labor’s immersion
in city and regional planning.
For
more than 30 years, urban leaders have begged capital to return
to the cities, trading off or giving away precious public
assets in desperation to fit into corporate development plans,
yet having no comprehensive plans of their own. “Consequently,
there is little substance to urban politics, since the actual
development of the cities is planned in corporate boardrooms
and presented as a fait accompli, through the offices of the
mayor,” said  .
Moreover,
“capital has converted every social initiative to its
own service,” most notably the federal HOPE VI program,
which in many cities has devolved to a public housing demolition
scheme. Los Angeles community activist Sabrina L. Williams
reported the betrayal of the tenants of Boston’s Clippership
housing project:
“The
Clippership development in East Boston, for example, was called
a ‘jewel’ of public housing by the local housing
authority administrator only two years before the housing
authority sought HOPE VI funding to demolish it, characterizing
it as severely distressed…. According to the residents,
Clippership did not suddenly become 'severely distressed.'
Rather, East Boston's real estate boom prompted the BHA [Boston
Housing Authority] to realize that the real 'jewel' of Clippership
was not its tight-knit and safe community, but rather the
land under the townhouses, with its spectacular harbor views."
(“From
HopeVI to Hope Sick?” Summer Issue, Dollars and
Sense.)
Fred
McGhee knows the HOPE VI program all too well:
Your
excellent writing on the crisis facing urban Black America
has brought me out of the closet. I especially appreciate
your mention of HUD's long-standing urban nightmare, the HOPE
VI program. I participated in two HOPE VI "redevelopment"
efforts in Texas in the mid 1990's, the first in Austin while
I was an employee of the Austin Housing Authority, and the
second in Houston, where the Houston Housing Authority eventually
destroyed most of Allen Parkway Village, a historically significant
public housing complex in Houston's Freedmenstown section
of Fourth Ward, and have since had the opportunity to study
the program in some greater depth. I've been forced to conclude
that a significant portion of Black America's "leaders"
ought to be ashamed of themselves for what they have actively
and passively done and are doing to the Black poor and working
classes.
In
Houston, one can place a significant part of the blame on
the city's preacher class, and also on the footstep of Congresswoman
Sheila Jackson-Lee, who in some ways has spent the last
few years trying to make up for the fact that she grabbed
her ankles when Tom DeLay came calling. I vividly recall
one of a series of meetings at a historic Black church in
downtown Houston, where the congresswoman spent a few hours
"listening" to pleas from community members, as
well as Native Americans from Oklahoma, about why the city
and the housing authority's "renaissance" of Fourth
Ward should not unfold by enriching Houston's development
sharks and their Black hangers-on. It was an emotional spectacle,
like so many of these meetings. I have now taken heart from
the prospect that Black Texas "leaders" such as
Garnet Coleman and Rodney Ellis have now found their souls
and have been willing to break quorums in the Texas legislature.
The sad part is that it may now be too late.
Dr.
McGhee is an archeologist specializing in the African American
historical presence.
The
voucher-driven coup
Vouchers
are the Right’s wedge issue, carefully chosen to create
divisions between the Democratic Party’s two strongest
pillars: Blacks and public employees unions, most notably,
teachers. Keenly aware of African American reverence for
education, the very people who wage relentless war against
the public schools wave vouchers under the noses of the
poor, knowing full well that private schools cannot possibly
meet the needs of the vast bulk of Black children. Private
capital has no interest in taking on the responsibility
of educating the masses of Black kids. Rather, their strategy
is to sow dissension in Black and progressive ranks while
setting up contra outposts in scattered, publicly funded
private schools, places of employment and propagandizing
for new waves of African American mercenaries. These hirelings
will then form the core of “alternative,” “conservative”
Black leadership in all those places [Black Chicago Congressman
Danny] Davis cited: “… Chicago tomorrow, St.
Louis, New Orleans, Los Angeles next week, then it's all
of America.
At
the time of this writing, it is unclear when the U.S. Senate
will vote on school vouchers. Activists don’t trust the
official calendar, having been ambushed by Republicans in a
surprise vote, sprung on House members last week while much
of the Congressional Black Caucus was in Baltimore for a Democratic
presidential candidates debate. Vouchers passed by one vote.
The
Baltimore debate was co-sponsored by the Black Caucus and
Fox News, one of the many global media properties owned by
right-winger Rupert Murdock. Murdock’s involvement set
reader Peggy Hirsch to wondering. She smells foul collusion.
Thanks
for clearing up the confusion I experienced when I saw Fox
TV co-sponsoring the Democratic presidential candidates debate.
See, I thought Fox was just making nice, pretending to be
fairly balanced while awaiting their next important assignment.
But lo, what utter skunks they are, manipulating a vote on
vouchers while pretending to do a civic duty. But that's something
I've learned about these R-wingers: they always get a twofer.
When they do something wretched, don't await accountability,
wait for the other shoe to drop.
I
am a newly minted fan of your site.
Newly
minted is good. We hope not to tarnish ourselves in Ms. Hirsch’s
estimation.
A
free debate on Zimbabwe
Our
July 31 Cover Story, “The
Debate on Zimbabwe Will Not be Throttled” was one
of ’s
more difficult pieces, both because of the complexity of the
subject and our felt obligation to present a range of angles
on the issue. We are, therefore, pleased that readers continue
to discover the five-part piece, and to find it useful. The
commentary began:
George
Bush doesn’t want you to talk about empowering the
people of Africa – and neither do some African Americans.
Issuing thinly veiled threats, these individuals and organizations
appropriate to themselves the colors Red, Black and Green,
and label as treasonous all Black criticism of their current
Strong Man of choice, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.
’s
position is that Mugabe’s repression of civil society
has helped to create a chemistry that “leads to civil
war and imperialist intervention,” and that elements of
the opposition are, indeed, inviting such intervention.
Frances
M. Beal is a prolific writer-of-substance (“Peace
and Justice Forces Rally to McKinney,” July 25,
2002) and a member of the Bay Area Steering Committee of the
Black Radical Congress:
I
write to thank you for your courage in taking on the Zimbabwe
debate. Black fascists in Africa and within Black America
must learn that open and honest debate will not be silenced,
even when we have to take on some Blacks passing themselves
off as revolutionaries or Africanists.
A
Deep South Tale
When
Condoleezza Rice compared the civil rights struggles of the
Sixties to the American occupation of Iraq (!), she was attempting
to tap into the wellsprings of Black memory. For some of us,
Rice’s blasphemy felt more like a spinal tap.
Bob
Saboski, of Hoboken, New Jersey, recollects some of his own
experiences from that era.
After
reading “Condoleezza
Rice and the Birmingham Bombing Victims,” by Margaret
Kimberly, I was distressed at the National Security Advisor’s
ill-timed invocation of the 1963 bombings. I realize that
Dr. Rice suffered the loss of a schoolmate. She has my sympathy.
But the context of her remarks reflect the same pandering
style employed by the rest of the Bush team.
I'd
like to share a story along those lines. I was in Alabama
at the time of those bombings. I attended a small –
and all white - college near Birmingham. As a reporter for
the college newspaper, I had interviewed Julian Bond not
long after that tragic event. I was impressed at his humble
yet no-nonsense style. I am proud to have met a man who
has risen so far.
There
was another white student who had also been impressed by
Mr. Bond. She’d posed for a photo with him, smiling
at his side. She’d had no way of knowing the stir
this would cause.
Her
mother, a teacher at our school, had phoned me a few nights
later. Her call had awakened me. It was hard to understand
much of what she’d said, but there was great fear
in her voice. She’d pleaded with me to bring the newspaper
staff out to her house. She’d said to bring a camera.
What
awaited us there still brings me shivers.
While
most of the flames had gone out, dark smoke still rose from
three tall crosses staked into her lawn. Scattered over
the yard were re-prints of the photo of her daughter with
Julian Bond. The woman stood in her doorway shaking, a small
revolver in hand as we photographed the burnt crosses. I
had been frightened and outraged. A few moments later a
pick-up truck passed slowly, a team of men riding in its
bed. They held shotguns in their hands. They grinned and
shouted at us. They left after a few passes, and no shots
were fired.
The
horror of that night remains etched in my mind. I would
be angered if that image were abused by an administration
only to further its own agenda.
Writer
Margaret Kimberley produces a steady flow of wit and insight
on her blog, Freedom
Rider. We encourage you to visit.
Political
beat
Back
in the day when
Co-Publisher Glen Ford operated the nation’s first Hip
Hop radio syndication, “Rap It Up,” (1987 –
1993), corporate boardrooms had yet to discover the mega-profits
of Gangsta Rap, and politics rocked the house. Last week,
we republished an interview with the Political School artist,
Paris. The
Q&A was conducted by the staff of Playahata.com,
and first appeared on Davey
D’s excellent site. As Davey D’s introduction
stated, “Paris hails from the San Francisco Bay Area
and was catapulted onto the national scene in 1990 with his
hit single “The Devil Made Me Do It” and album
of the same name. Since then his uncompromising stance on
political issues and biting social commentary have both aided
and hindered his quest to bring solid music and messages to
the masses.”
Reader
Craig Arie called our attention to another interview with
Paris, whose LP “Sonic Jihad” comes out on September
23. We think the artist’s conversation with thaformula.com
should be of interest to those who bemoan the current state
of Hip Hop and Black culture, generally. Here’s a slice
from the interview:
Paris:
Really what it is now is that everything has become so corporatized
that black culture is being dictated to black people by white
corporations ‘cause they’re the ones who select
who gets exposure, and consequently they are the ones who
reward a particular type of behavior - and that's what we
see. Every time you turn on the television, every time you
look at BET (which is a white owned corporation), anytime
you look at MTV or any of these video channels that have videos
that are manufactured by white-owned corporations, you see
this imagery that 9 times out of 10 is negative for us, and
9 times out of ten reflects us in a way that we don’t
necessarily behave.
It’s
a catch-22 type of situation because, in so-called minority
communities, life imitates art, so we act the way that we
see on TV. Most kids in school - high school and middle
school - know the lyrics to songs more then they know their
schoolwork. Everybody that’s reading this interview
knows how influential music is when it comes to us, and
so when there is almost a type of a blanket negativity that
exists in the music then you see it havin’ negative
ramifications on us in real life, and that's the most disturbing
thing. I mean everybody that came from my era who was puttin’
it down when it was me and PE and X-Clan and Krs and a whole
lot of folks, we saw the positive impact the music that
we did had. I get emails to this day from people who say
that "The Devil Made Me Do It" and "Sleeping
with the Enemy" were life-altering experiences for
them because it made them look at things differently and
made them approach situations differently. It made them
become more aware of themselves and how they fit in America's
racist structure. I can only imagine what kind of influence
that a lot of what is going on now is havin’ on folks
that's comin’ up. It's a frightening thing. It's genocidal
actually.
|
| |
|
|
|
