The DISH
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Vol. 12 Issue 51…Dedicated to the Dialogue on
Race…December 20, 2009
Intuit's Vibe
Sick and Tired
By Dot
I am sick and tired
Of black mothers crying
Their children are crucified.
Our leaders lie to
justify the lynching.
I am sick and tired
Of endless persecution.
The young die like rats poisoned.
Our taxes finance
their extermination.
I am sick and tired
Of our second-class role,
The caged as constitutionally required!
Our status exacts a
heavy toll.
I am sick and tired
Of living in a legal state of inequality!
The innocent and unarmed are murdered
Our children are
killed with impunity.
I am sick and tired
Of hearing about cops' gunfire!
Too many die for what may be intended.
Our children fodder
the funeral pyre.
I am sick and tired
Of weeping for a people that suffers
Their fate is to be minimized.
Our young pledge
allegiance to their slayers!
French Apartheid in
By John Burl Smith
Slave descendants the world over
endure the same apartheid/3/5 Compromise existence regardless of the country of
their fore parents' enslavement. Consistently, they have been led to believe
that at some point they were given freedom, first class citizenship and made a
part of the general society. Having been given equal rights under the state,
all forms of discrimination against them are illegal. However in reality,
courts, like the US Supreme Court, continue to rule that "to do anything
to end the privileges enjoyed by the descendants of former white slave
masters," which give them their current socioeconomic and political advantages,
is "reverse discrimination." Consequently, slave descendants are
treated like the culprits whenever they organize to fight to end their second
class status.
Identical to what blacks in the
This conflict exposed centuries’
old race and class antagonisms across the French colonial empire related to
white elites' hold on power and how they wield it over black majorities.
Following the French revolution, slavery was abolished on colonial islands in
1794, only to be brutally reinstated by Napoleon Bonaparte through bloody
repression in 1802. Moreover, the capitalistic prosperity enjoyed by these
elites is rooted in
On
“Herein lies the rub!
The movement in Guadeloupe has
inspired slave descendants in the Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and in French
Guyana,
The revolt spread to La Reunion,
a French possession in the Indian Ocean, where conditions are the same as
Guadeloupe and
Worried that the Guadeloupe
"contagion" could spread to mainland
On March 4th, an agreement was signed between the LKP and the bosses on the
island. The agreement's 165 paragraphs covered a wide variety of issues from
the price of baguettes to teachers' employment conditions. Domota
announced the General Strike had ended, but that the mobilization would continue.
The deal represents an impressive victory for the working people of
Their stand should be of
particular note to slave descendants in the US, who are facing worsening
conditions daily - unemployment over 15%, higher food, fuel, housing and
medical cost, while foreclosures, transportation and credit problems dog the
shrinking middle class. More Americans than ever live in poverty and are homeless.
Blacks are cowed, afraid to speak or protest because there is a black face in
the White House that has given billions to banks but nothing to slave
descendants. If a white man was president, we would be in the streets like
slave descendants of
Appeal for Help: The Sarkozy
Double-cross
This
is a plea for help to fight the Sarkozy double-cross.
Before the ink was dry on the agreement ending the 44-day general strike, Sarkozy knifed people of
The AG's action against Domota is a stealth attack
aimed at breaking the Strike Collective and the people of
Socialist opposition leader, Malikh Boutih, saw the situation
totally different. He said "It was 'shocking' to watch a police force
'almost 100 percent white, confront a black population' and not draw a parallel
with the 2005 suburban riots in
Christine Taubira,
French Member of Parliament with the overseas department, said in an interview
(2-15-09) with Le Journal du Dimanche,
"The conditions in
The "mob" is a media reference to the overwhelming black majority on
the island and is not only racist but shows the colonial authorities contempt
for the democratic aspirations of
Fannie Lou Townsend Hamer
(1917-1977)
Born
October 6, 1917, Fannie Lou Townsend was the granddaughter of slaves. The last
of twenty children born to sharecroppers, she contracted polio, which left her
with a limp. Her mother always told her to "stand up no matter what the
odds." And, she did.
Reared in poverty, she picked cotton at age six. After the sixth grade, she
dropped out of school to help her family. In 1944, she married Perry
"Pap" Hamer. The couple moved to
In 1962, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) came to
To register to vote, the
Ruleville blacks had to interpret the state's constitution. They failed, and on
the trip home, their bus was stopped for being "the wrong color," and
they were jailed. When Hamer finally got home, her
landowner told her to either stop trying to vote or leave his property. Hamer left; her husband remained behind. She lived with
friends and neighbors, but everywhere she went nightriders brought terror.
In 1963, on her third attempt, Hamer passed the test and became a registered voter. As a
SNCC field secretary, she traveled across the South helping other blacks. On
June 9, 1963, the workers were arrested by the
In 1964, Hamer co-founded the Mississippi Freedom
Democratic Party (MFDP). It challenged the all-white
In part of the speech she asked, "Is this
Hamer became a popular speaker and worked to better
economic conditions in
During the final years of her
life, Hamer worked on a range of issues from school
desegregation to low-income housing. She actively opposed the Vietnam War.
Fannie Lou Hamer died on March 14, 1977. Her
Ruleville tombstone reads, "I am sick and tired of being sick and
tired." (Sources: www.britannica.com, www.greatwomen.org and www.ibiblio.org)
Depression on Wheels
By Bill Bonner
When the price of oil hit $150 a
barrel, the first major alarm sounded. Something was wrong. Now we have a
clearer idea of what it was.
To make a long story short,
leading economists have a one-stop solution for just about everything:
stimulate consumer spending. But $150 oil warned us: continue down that road
and you will run out of gas. There isn't enough oil in the world to allow
US-style consumption for everyone.
Two weeks ago,
If markets could force the Greeks to trim their deficit - about 13% of GDP…not
far from the
But let us backtrack to a smaller
insight. Then we will stretch for a bigger one. Americans are supposed to be
insatiable shoppers. For at least three decades, the world counted on it. It
was the growth model for almost all the Asian manufacturing economies…and for
resource producers everywhere. But as we approach the biggest shopping season
of the year, a survey of consumers signals an earthquake. Americans plan to
spend an average of 15% less during this holiday season than the year before.
Only 35% say they will take advantage of post-Christmas sales, traditionally
when the stores unload unwanted inventory. They seem to be satiable after all.
Push come to shove, Americans react like everyone else. Now, they are being
shoved into a new world, very different from the one they have come to know. In
1973, the American working stiff went into a decline. His weekly earnings, in
real terms, went down for the next 36 years. The typical worker earned the
equivalent of $325 a week in 1973…adjusted to constant 1982 dollars. By
Yet, his spending increased anyway. How? He squeezed the rest of the world. The
Now he's up against billions of Patels and Hus. They work for
less. They save more. They want more stuff too. And they're suspicious of the
dollar.
Their economies are growing
faster…and better. Because they don't have 50 years of accumulated success on
their backs. That's the trouble with success; it adds weight. In their heyday,
the mature economies could afford to squander and regulate. But that trend,
too, is reaching its limits. Even without the cost of `stimulus,' practically
all the world's leading economies are headed for insolvency. And yet, this
week, Paul Krugman gave his solution to the weak
results from stimulus spending so far - add $2 trillion more!
All of a sudden, the most
reliable givens of the past half a century aren't given any more. Americans
were the big winners of the post-WWII period. They got used to it. At first,
they wanted to make things; later they just wanted to have them. And with the
benefit of cheap oil and resources, and then cheap labor and cheap credit, they
were able to get more stuff than any race ever had. Now they are shackled to it,
unable to move forward or to back up.
Meanwhile, Europe - led by post-war neoclassical Jacques Rueff
in
And now the world is reckoning
with much more than a consumer debt bubble. It is reckoning with a depression
on wheels…the end of the consumer spending era. We don't know what kind of
world will take its place. But it won't be the one the feds are trying so
desperately to save.
About Me: Bonner founded Agora
Inc. in 1979. A man of many talents, his entrepreneurial savvy, unique
writings, philanthropic undertakings, and preservationist activities have all
been recognized and awarded by some of
Wars to Come
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
For many, the Obama candidacy represented a change so
profound that they thought (or perhaps more accurately, hoped), that an Obama
presidency would not only mean a deep domestic social transformation, but an
end to the American cycle of war.
To them the news of an upsurge in
For among those many are those who never regarded the
Many of the most vociferous critics of the expansive powers of the Bush
administration -- of his wiretaps, his secret prisons, of his penchant for
total surveillance over Americans at home or abroad -- are strikingly silent
now, when under Obama, these same powers reside in the executive.
Secret prisons? Yes - still there; illegal renditions? Still there: Wire taps of Americans without
court order? Yup.
Indeed, little has changed but the public tone of debate. There's little
bombast, a good deal less bluster, and a whole lot less fear-talk, but the same
programs are running -- full speed ahead.
And there's still wars -- begun in deception and greed;
continued because of simple political necessity. Yet, there's more.
In the next 5 years or so, many of the men who fought in these wars will be back
in the States, working as prison guards, cops, security specialists and the
like.
Many will be bitter as vinegar, as angry as a hornet's nest, because they'll
know, as previous generations of veterans learned, that they fought, not for
the people -- not even for the constitution -- but for the wealthy rulers who
could not care less about their lives or their loss.
What will this mean for
Almost 90 years ago, at the end of World War I, soldiers, bitter at the loss of
the war, and humiliated by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, became a
right wing political force that would years later re-emerge as the Nazis--which
tore through Europe with a vengeance.
That is to say, wars don't necessarily end when politicians
or diplomats shake hands and sign treaties. They fester and feed off of
unresolved issues and re-emerge -- sometimes worse than before. And they
sometimes return to the land that birthed them. [Source: Hausen,
Karin, "The Day of National Mourning in
Disgruntled feels:
Disconnect! Economic conditions are rough this holiday season. Millions are
unemployment, homeless and hungry. According to a MSN news item, children are
writing letters to Santa Claus asking for everyday basics, such as socks, shoes
and a roof over their heads, or a job for mommy and daddy -- the kinds of
things parents spend sleepless nights worrying about. This week in
Disgruntled
wants to know: Time Magazine chose Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke "person of the year,'' for his role in
righting the credit crisis and possibly saving the country from a depression,
although the jury is still out on whether or not this "recession"
will turn out to be as bad as a depression, given we are already experiencing
double-digit unemployment. Recently, President Obama reappointed Bernanke for another term as head of the Federal Reserve.
And while his actions have met with some criticism on Capitol Hill, he seems
headed for a second term when his nomination comes up for a vote early next
year. The president also assembled some of the nation's biggest bankers for a
rap session on the need for them to increase lending, particularly since they
were given billions at zero rates of interest. They nodded in agreement for the
White House photo-op, but seemed to sing a different tune when explaining the
need to rein in lending, given a lack of credit worthy customers. The Obama
administration has assembled the necessary instruments for a grand orchestra.
Who will serve as conductor?
Disgruntled says:
Season's greetings! May the best of the old year be the worst of the New Year
for you and your family.
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and Telephone Calls
Email www.ajc.com
...
Email shahien@huffingtonpost.com ...The
watchdog Congressional Oversight Panel had expressed early doubts about the
program's ultimate success, noting that as of Sept. 1, only 1,711 homeowners
had received a permanent modification, less than two percent of those eligible
at the time. The administration set a three-year goal of offering 3 to 4
million homeowners lower mortgage payments through a modification. But, looking
at JPMorgan Chase, with 85 percent of those who
actually apply for the modifications being denied, that's just not going to
happen. Meanwhile, foreclosures continue to mount. The number of delinquent
borrowers continues to set record highs. Wall Street, however, expects to
receive bonuses not seen since the height of the credit bubble.
Email http://abcnews.com
...Obama Ordered U.S. Military Strike on Yemen Terrorists. Cruise Missiles
Launched Thursday Hit Two Suspected al Qaeda Sites; Major Escalation of US
Efforts Against Terrorists...By Brian Ross, et al....On orders from President
Barack Obama, the U.S. military launched cruise missiles early Thursday against
two suspected al-Qaeda sites in Yemen, administration officials told ABC News.
One of the targeted sites was a suspected al Qaeda training camp north of the
capitol, Sanaa, and the second target was a location
where officials said "an imminent attack against a
Email www.rawstory.com...Kucinich: `Class war is
over, working people lost'...By Sahil Kapur...Reflecting on the growing divide between Wall
Street and Main Street, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) on Wednesday offered a
powerful critique on the state of the economy in an open committee hearing.
"The class warfare is over -- we lost," Kucinich said before the
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. "I want to make that
announcement today. Working people lost. The middle class lost. Come to my
neighborhoods in