Equity thing not happening

Do I recall some racists whining about how, now that there's a black president, white people won't get a fair shake? Sure, that's why none of the $150 million-plus "stimulus" dough for those infamous "shovel-ready" roads-and-bridges projects has gone to black contractors, according to a new study by the Transportation Equity Network (TEN). Very little of the overall package has gone to any businesses that are not white owned.

I suppose we don't know how much of it went non-union, or to employees of color, or to poor communities in any way, shape or form.

Jobs bill not enough

Is the jobs bill the Dems are so proud of (well, not the Blue Dogs) truly a good, albeit insufficient, start? Es posible. Certainly it makes more sense than the POP (Party of Palin) ever-twisting nonsense: so it's too hard for struggling small business owners/managers to figure out some "fancy" tax credit, eh?

Happy New Year

Good bye, 2009, don't let the door knob hit you in the ass on your way out.

Over 20 million of us Amerischmucks got unemployment in '09, which of course doesn't count millions more who didn't qualify for various reasons, were forced to work only part-time, or dropped off the U-3 rolls when their clocks ran out.

We didn't get out of Iraq, dug in deeper in 'AfPak', didn't let those poor slobs go home from Gitmo - held for years without charge ("land of the free," ya know!), didn't get national health care, single-payer insurance, OR a good solid public option. AND we didn't get a right to unionize. But, hey, at least there was a "jobs summit," right?

I don't know. Looks like in 2010 we might have to raise a little hell.

Farmworkers

Congratulations to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers on their latest partnership with Verite. Monitoring is essential to improving the lives of farmworkers.

Thanksgiving

I spent much of the 4th Thursday in November as I usually do, recalling the horrific histories of the Powhatan Confedederacy encounters with the English around Jamestown - where my own ancestor's people, the Wicocomico, were destroyed; then the disastrous series of betrayals that characterized the English encounters with the Wampanoag, events now recalled by saccharine tales of "Thanksgiving."

But what strikes me increasingly in the last couple of years as I re-read these histories, and the histories of early European incursions into India, Africa and elsewhere, is how repetitious the pattern is. It begins with trade and trade routes, alliances made with one local group of people or another to facilitate this trade. It progresses quickly from there to war as European demands expand and begin putting pressure on local economies, foreign trading companies begin playing off one group against another, strategizing to maintain "friendly" leaders in positions of power, king-making. The English and French in the Southeastern US, Africa and elsewhere notoriously established "medal chiefs" - rulers by virtue of their alliances with foreign powers. Sound familiar?

The genocide or ethnocide and the enslaving or other subjugation of entire nations is just one strand of the net, the final one for many people, pulled tight around the neck at last. Those who see it coming, who try to resist, are branded "rebels" or "terrorists" - not always incorrectly, but always without telling the full story.

In fact, I think this may be the most important lesson of the story of "The Day of Mourning" or what my friend Alan Jamieson calls the "Last Supper for Native People": the conquest continues. In Iraq. In Afghanistan. In Africa. In South America. In North America.

Which helps explain why people get so upset when you talk about it.

More unemployed, more unemployed organizing

What did I say? The pattern is pretty clear. Every month the papers announce unemployment is not as high as expected -- then two weeks later, oh, p.s., it's actually higher.

The pundits can tell us how much better things are getting 'til they're blue in the chips -er- face. But the unemployed, and those of us close to it, are starting to figure out a few things: step one - organize!

Police policing police

The community where I live is reeling from a fatal police shooting of an unarmed 15 year old black child on Oct. 9. The young man and his friend (who now faces charges of felony "resisting arrest") had often stayed at the house they were allegedly "burglarizing." The homeowner says they were both welcome any time. According to the police, the boys saw two cops appear with weapons drawn and tried to run. But what is that, a capital offense now?

Break 'em up while we still can!

So I'm in Northeast Mississippi just for a day or two and I happen to check out the Daily Journal, and I see that unemployment in the land of my birth has dropped (the same song we're hearing all around the country) - probably because more people have just given up. Even the official rate (we know how accurate that is) in Alcorn County is now 11.3 percent, and it's worse in nearby Tippah and Benton Counties. This is recovery?

Organizing the Unemployed and Homeless

So there's these crazy people in Fort Wayne, actually believe people don't want to be unemployed! Who'da thunk it? I talked to this barn-burner, Tom Lewandowski. They're leafletting Michael Moore's new movie - unemployment offices and such - and talking to people about the economy! What good is that gonna do? Isn't our current system inevitable, exactly as it is?

They're negotiating with development boards in Fort Wayne - like a union - trying to get some money for job creation. They act like they think we ought to have some say in how that money gets spent, just because it came from our taxes.

Next they'll be saying that if Walmart wants us to build a parking lot for them, or otherwise subsidize them, they have to do something for the community. Pay a living wage? Provide employee health benefits (note: a "benefit" is something you get because you work there, not something you can buy if you work there)? ACCEPT A UNION? Where will it end?

The rabble could fall out of line and even think beyond jobs per se. They might even start to think the work ought to do more than just go to poor people. They could decide it also should serve poor communities.

What if big businesses that move into our communities and need a little help with zoning - not like those damn homeless neighbors of ours who expect local governments to bankrupt themselves so they can put up six or even seven tents like they think they own the place - OK, so they have permission from the property owner, but still! - you know, lovely big businesses, had to contribute to the public schools or something instead of taking tax money away from them? Where would be then?

What are they going to do when they realize they don't have enough left over for a nice big new clock tower like ours in Champaign-Urbana?

Tomato pickers victory!

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers show once again the power and the value of self-organization. Reports of their demise or imminent demise have been greatly exaggerated - repeatedly.

But these mostly immigrant, low-paid, tough organizers extraordinaire keep coming back with more victories against all the odds. I admit that when I first began my own association with these folks, as a supporter - I signed up to receive a giant puppet that was traveling the nation during the Taco Bell campaign, and to organize a local demo within a day or so of the puppet's arrival - I secretly thought to myself, "What chance do they really have?" After all, in the real world, when David goes up against Goliath, he often gets his proverbial ass handed back to him tied up with a nice frilly ribbon.

Not this time.

And maybe even more amazing, the five years to the Taco Bell win was followed by two years to another unexpected win at McDonald's - of all places! we were all already on the way to corporate headquarters, thousands of us, when we got the word: the protest would now be a celebration! - another year to victory at Burger King ... and along the way picked up Subway and others.

In 2008, Whole Foods became the first supermarket chain to settle with CIW, and a year later growers who sell to Whole Foods had begun signing up to participate.

A strident growers' lobby called the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange had held up progress for some time, threatening to fine any of its member growers who agreed to pay the penny-a-pound extra demanded by the CIW, tangling them all in court, etc. But eventually, like water dripping persistently against a rock, CIW wore them down.

Stung by criticism that they won't deal with the CIW despite their claims to serve "Food with Integrity", Chipotle Mexican Grill then began claiming they were "working with" the CIW - even as CIW was still asking to negotiate. Now a really big grower, East Coast Growers and Packers, has broken ranks with FTGE - or joined ranks with CIW. Chipotle then apparently announced they would buy from East Coast, but still has no deal with CIW to my knowledge. Trying to have it both ways, Chipotle?