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Vol. 14 No. 33…Dedicated to the Dialogue on
Race…August 15, 2011
Bit of History
John Conyers, Jr.
Born in
His
father, a Georgia-born laborer, dropped out of high school and sought work in
The
1943
Conyers
served in the Michigan National Guard 1948-50; US Army 1950-54; and the US Army
Reserves 1954-57. He served for a year in
At the end of his military service, he returned to
From 1958 to 1961, Conyers worked as an aide to Congressman John Dingell. He
was elected to the Congress in 1964, on a platform of "Jobs, Justice, and
Peace." Rep. Conyers was re-elected for a 24th term in November of 2010.
Over
the course of his nearly 50 years in Congress, social justice and economic
opportunity have remained focal points of Conyers' congressional career. Some
of his major accomplishments include: the Violence Against Women Act of 1994,
the Motor Voter Bill of 1993, the Martin Luther King Holiday Act of 1983, the
Alcohol Warning Label Act of 1988, and the Jazz Preservation Act of 1987. He
was also the driving force behind the Help America Vote Act of 2002. He is one
of the founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus, which was formed in
1969.
From
1989 to 1994, he served as chair of the House Committee on Government
Operations (renamed Committee on Oversight and Government Reform). In 2006, he
became the first black to chair the House Committee on the Judiciary in the
110th and 111th Congress.
Like
many members of Congress, Conyers has had his share of ethical complaints. In
late 2006, he "accepted responsibility" for possibly violating House
rules after two former aides alleged that Conyers used his staff to work on
several local and state campaigns, and forced them to baby-sit and chauffeur
his children. The matter was dropped. Conyers was also implicated in the 1992
House banking scandal. Perhaps the worst scandal to touch his career is the bribery
conviction of his wife Monica.
A former President pro tempore of the Detroit City Council, Mrs. Conyers
pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit bribery in June 2009. On March 10, 2010
she was sentenced to 37 months in prison and two years of supervised probation.
She began serving her term on September 10, 2010 at a minimum-security facility
in
The
Conyers have two sons, John III and Carl Edward.
Rep. Conyers is the recipient of many awards for leadership, including the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference Award, which was presented to him by
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He has also been awarded a number of honorary
degrees from colleges and universities throughout the nation. (Sources:
www.answers.com/topic/john-conyers, www.aaregistry.org,
http://en.wikipedia.org, and http://conyers.house.gov)
Protest White House: March on Obama
At a
press conference held by members of the House 
Out
of Poverty Caucus, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich), criticized the White House
regarding the lack of effort to create jobs and the proposed cuts to Social
Security that President Obama put on the table during the debt ceiling
negotiations. In recognizing that the members of Congress who opposed raising
the debt ceiling and called for budget cuts, mainly in critical social
programs, were elected by voters from their districts, Rep. Conyers said,
"We've got to educate the American people at the 
same
time we educate the President of the
A member
of Congress since 1965, Conyers said, "My response to him is to mass thousands
of people in front of the White House to protest this. We want full employment
as a matter of government policy, which was passed in 1978 when I stood with
Hubert Humphrey. We passed the first bill that allowed the government - in
areas of high unemployment - to directly intervene and create jobs. Well, we've
got the bill in here again and I've got nothing from the White House."
Conyers also recalled a meeting between labor and civil rights leader A. Philip
Randolph and President Franklin D. Roosevelt at which
Conyers'
call for protests on the White House can be seen online at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op66HTJdf-U.
By John Burl Smith
Pressure
increased this week on the Atlanta Regional Roundtable Executive Committee as
the DeKalb Votes "No" proponents gained momentum in the face of
attempts by supporters of the Indian Creek spur to merge it with the demand for
an I-20 rail line. This attempted hijacking came on the heels of increased
activity in DeKalb County to get the I-20 rail line back on the list of
projects to be funded by the one-cent sales tax mandated by the Transportation
Investment Act of 2010 (HB 277).
Fearful
that history was repeating itself regarding DeKalb residents paying the
one-cent Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) sales tax and not
getting a train, DISH readers, who felt poorly informed about the legislation,
requested a comprehensive review of the bill and updates on the project
selection process for HB 277 back in April 2011. Many of these requests came
from readers that had been involved in efforts to get an I-20 train over the
years.
Looking
back even further to October of 2010, Southwest DeKalb residents attended a
meeting convened by MARTA, DeKalb County government and the Federal Transit
Administration (FTA) to plan a lobbying campaign before the Atlanta Regional
Roundtable on behalf of an I-20 train. They were told by Dr. John Crocker,
MARTA's director of development and regional coordination, "It's up to the
community to continue to talk and convince DeKalb and regional officials that
the project is something that the community needs. In order to get the I-20
East project on the list we must have certain documentation, such as the
locally preferred alternative or a completed environmental impact
statement."
The
I-20 route under discussion at that time ran from downtown Atlanta with
stations at major interchanges like Gresham Road, Candler Road, Wesley Chapel
Road, Panola Road, Evans Mill Road and ending at the Mall at Stonecrest in
Lithonia. There was a general consensus that such a line would serve thousands
of South DeKalb, Rockdale and
Having been dropped from consideration by the Regional Roundtable's Executive
Committee (8-4-11), the DeKalb Votes "NO" effort began to take shape
last week as disgruntled citizens attended a town hall meeting hosted by
Commissioner-at-Large Stan Watson at the Redan Public Library (8-8-11). The two
main issues discussed were redistricting and the dropping of the I-20 rail line
from the Atlanta Regional Roundtable's constrained list of projects. Expressing
outrage at the thought that the I-20 project could go from being number one on
the list of transit projects to not even making the list, they were unanimous
about voting "NO," if the rail line running out I-20 was not on the
list.
Boosting
the I-20 protest at this meeting was the current President of the DeKalb County
Commission, District 3 Commissioner Larry Johnson, who announced that he was
holding a press conference the following morning at the Maloof Auditorium in
downtown
However, somewhere between Commissioner Watson's town hall meeting and the
media coverage, the I-20 rail line took a detour. Now, the I-20 rail line
became a part of the ARC's proposal for a rail line that would run from Indian
Creek MARTA station to
There
are three transit projects favored by the Executive Committee: a MARTA line to
Protest Anti-American
Hiring and Business Practices
"If
there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom
and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground.
They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the
awful roar of its waters. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did
and it never will."-- Fredrick Douglass
Apple
Inc. and other
In
2010, this information was again requested by the Black Economic Council (BEC)
and several advocacy groups. To date, no information has been provided.
John Sims, a law professor at the University of the Pacific and an expert in
FOIA law, called the objections to release EEO-1 data by Apple, Google and
others "absurd."
Northern California has been hard hit by outsourcing, according to a study done
by the Brookings Institution, which estimates that between 2004 and 2015, the
Occupations considered particularly vulnerable to outsourcing include middle
class jobs such as manufacturing positions, office support, financial and
technical professions such as data entry and payroll clerks, auditors and tax
preparers, computer programmers, software engineers and technical writers.
Medical transcribers and paralegals are also viewed as highly vulnerable.
Apple, like Google, has used the excuse that the Bush administration gave them
a "wavier" which allowed these companies not to submit EEO data to
anyone, including the US Departments of Justice and Labor. These companies, like
the banks that were deemed too big to fail, have taken a stand that they are
too big and too powerful to comply with federal laws and regulations.
Taxpayer
dollars are used to fund federal contracts for these
The destabilization of the American economy, caused by the
"Anti-American" hiring and business practices of Apple Inc. under the
leadership of CEO Steve Jobs, is inevitable unless we stop the outsourcing of
our jobs and manufacturing to other countries.
With
the goal of increasing employment and contract opportunities for Americans, on
August 27th, the Black Economic Council (BEC) will lead a second protest at the
Apple Computer Retail Store in
For more information, visit www.BlackEconomicCouncil.com or contact Yolanda
Lewis at (866) 856-4570 or email lencanty@blackeconomiccouncil.org.
When Is a "Riot" a Revolt? (Excerpts)
By Carl Finamore
Several
days of unprecedented revolt by the most impoverished minority populated
neighborhoods of
In
an effort to mobilize 16,000 police officers concentrated in
So it appears, this week at least, after years of ignoring glaring inequality
and injustice, it is safe to say that all of England took notice of the crowded
south London neighborhood of Tottenham and to similar minority communities in
Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Bristol where an explosive, fiery social
consciousness has been rekindled.
Tottenham
itself, where events first ignited over the police killing of an unarmed black
youth, is a genuinely multi-cultural mix of mostly British-born
African-Caribbean along with Turkish, Portuguese, Albanian, Kurdish and Somali
peoples reportedly speaking 300 different languages.
It
claims to be the most diverse community in
During
this past week, these different languages came together to speak with one
voice: look at us; we deserve to be treated fairly.
The poor of Tottenham, however, do share much with their brethren in black and
minority communities of
Traditional
community and labor organizations in both
"Most
of all, it once again exposes the trickery and deceit of those who aspire to be
our leaders. Not a single black 'leader' has spoken out in defense of the
youths. Not one," Hal Austin writes in the August 9 CounterPunch.
Cannot
the same be said in
Of
course, the British government peddles a different story about events in
Tottenham. Most are echoed by the establishment press.
A typical response came from GlobalPost's London correspondent, Michael
Goldfarb, who was quoted on the PBS "NewsHour" web site as derisively
dismissing the social problems of Tottenham by commenting that "the tension
around [the police killing of the black youth] got out of hand very quickly,
but it was clear almost from the beginning that this was plain old
looting" by mainly unemployed youth with nothing to do on hot summer
nights, he said.
To the extent that this crude and vulgar opinion is shared by many in
Fundamentally, their isolated existence explains the different form the rebellion took; more akin to a chaotic riot in many people's eyes as opposed to the far-better organized massive upheavals in Madrid, Athens and Cairo that united majority sections of their population and that, thereby, more easily won sympathy and admiration throughout the world.
It
is important to recall that these same massive actions ultimately achieved
major support from significant and massive social organizations that helped
define the powerful and effective character of their protests.
Culpability for the desperate acts in Tottenham is shared by organizations of
the working class that have so profoundly failed to embrace these communities
and offer them the same shared benefits of organization and same shared status
as brothers and sisters.
Their organizational and political inclusion early on, I believe, would have
significantly altered and strengthened, how Tottenham residents reacted these
last few days.
Attempts during the civil rights movement to politically and socially unite the
black community in the
As a
result, beginning in the 1970s, criminal gangs began replacing FBI-targeted
militant organizations like Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee,
Congress of Racial Equality, Southern Leadership Conference, Black Panthers,
Young Lords, Brown Berets, and numerous other effective social and political
organizations in the communities of the oppressed.
This had a debilitating effect after several decades, and results today in
reactions to police brutality and poverty being often marked by scattered
individual acts of frustration and anger. Protests are sometimes laced with
anti-social behavior previously adopted as survival techniques.
For example, while ostensible political targets such as police cars and offices
were burned in both Tottenham and
There were other examples of criminal activity and even conflicts between gangs
in the oppressed community of Tottenham that were also reported. Again, these
are a result of decades of disorganization in the oppressed communities.
These are not excuses, neither are they defenses. It is an explanation that
contains the answer for its resolution: new organizations must be forged that
unite the community around common social goals and aspirations.
The
proliferation of criminal gangs and the utter lack of a coherent, credible and
socially class-conscious leadership are but another reflection of political and
social separation from the majority of working people.
But
this reality and the impact it has on distorting the communities' response
should not in any way diminish the powerful and profound social nature of the
Tottenham revolt, one deserving of our full support.
The
1965 Watt's rebellion in
The rich and powerful benefit from divisions and rivalries in the oppressed
communities in both
A politically cohesive and united Tottenham is the frightening specter that
certainly haunts the wealthy elite in
As for their richer cousins in the US, the wealthy elite here are only too well
aware of the smoldering embers of discontent that have been stoked by the same
draconian reductions in jobs and social services that have been adopted in
Britain.
These
issues affect the majority of Americans and, hopefully, we learn from Tottenham
that a united response is the best response with no community or section of
working people left alone to fend for themselves. (Source:
http://www.truth-out.org/when-riot-revolt/1313008260)
About Me: Carl Finamore is Machinist Local 1781
delegate to the San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO. He can be reached
local1781@yahoo.com
Cell Phones Blocked in SF to Hinder Transit Protest
By Paul Elias
Officials
with the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, better known as BART, said they turned
off electricity to cellular towers in four stations from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Thursday. The move was made after BART learned that protesters planned to use
mobile devices to coordinate a demonstration on train platforms.
"A civil disturbance during commute times at busy downtown
The
statement noted that it's illegal to demonstrate on the platform or aboard the
trains. BART said it has set aside special areas for demonstrations.
The
American Civil Liberties Union questioned the tactic. "Shutting down
access to mobile phones is the wrong response to political protests," the
ACLU's Rebecca Farmer said in a blog post.
The
Electronic Frontier Foundation said on its website that "BART officials
are showing themselves to be of a mind with the former president of
BART
officials were confident the cell phone disruptions were legal. The
demonstration planned Thursday failed to develop.
"We had a commute that was safe and without disruption," said BART
spokesman Jim Allison.
The
demonstrators were protesting the July 3 shooting of Charles Blair Hill by BART
police who claimed Hill came at them with a knife.
A
July 11 demonstration disrupted service during the rush-hour commute, prompting
the closing of BART's
Blacks and Obama (Excerpts)
By Sharon Kyle
Columnist
Kevin Alexander Gray of The Progressive asks, "The dilemma of black
politics is whether it is about changing the system or running it. Is it about
ending the empire and elitism or running the empire and somehow becoming part
of the elite? And what will people sacrifice for the latter?"
Answers
to these questions take us to the heart of the quandary blacks face when
questioning Obama Administration's policies. African-Americans voted
overwhelmingly to elect Barack Obama in 2008. His victory was felt by and
extended to all African-Americans. Barack Obama's victory gave a different kind
of hope to African-Americans, a group that has contributed mightily to
Perhaps
because of this, unlike most progressives, the vast majority of African-Americans
are deeply loyal to this President. It's as if he symbolizes the realization of
a dream and the return-on-investment of their ancestors. Whether the black community
knowingly or deliberately seeks to end an empire or run an empire is not known.
But what is apparent is that blacks in
Last
week, the NAACP held its 102nd Annual Convention at LA's Convention Center.
Issues plaguing black America -- mass incarceration, Great Depression-level
unemployment, unparalleled foreclosure rates, lack of affordable health
insurance and others -- were discussed by the speakers, but the unwritten taboo
against uttering any dissatisfaction with the President or his Administration
was in full force.
For legitimate reasons, the black community has continued to rally around
President Obama. However, reasons that understandably unite the
African-American community in 
its
support of the President -- such as this president's need for more security
than any other president in American history; the blatant disrespect shown to
him even while addressing the nation at a Joint Session of Congress; the
credence given to those who would question his place of birth or demand his
school records; and other unprecedented and blatant displays of disrespect --
have solidified the African-American community's support of both Barack Obama
and his policies.
Today,
African-Americans -- arguably the group that is hurting more than any other
group except possibly Native Americans -- are reluctant to say anything that
might suggest that Obama needs to do a better job. If any other president had
enacted the same policies, African-Americans would have been marching in the
streets. But black leaders such as Tavis Smiley who have come out and said as
much are quickly labeled "Obama Haters".
In a
piece written for CounterPunch, Vijay Prashad said, "Obama must certainly
be defended against attacks to his person. But that defense does not extend to
factual and serious criticisms of Obama's policies. The protection of Obama
should not mimic the bizarre line of argument that accuses all criticism of
The recent debt-ceiling drama is no exception. Even though the "deal"
approved by 269 of 435 members of Congress has the potential to cause even more
pain in the black community, we aren't hearing their outrage.
In a
brave and rare move, Congressional Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) and
Congressional Black Caucus Chair, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Missouri), have
voiced extreme disgust with the bill, with Cleaver referring to the
"debt-ceiling" deal as a "sugar-coated Satan Sandwich" and
Conyers saying that we need to educate the president.
Conyers
also said we need to educate the people. He couldn't be more right. We have a
political system that is increasingly controlled by the wealthy, with policies
enacted that disproportionately benefit them and disadvantage others. The link
between race and class was magnified in a report released by the
Reporting for the Associated Press, Hope Yen recently wrote, "The wealth
gaps between whites and minorities have grown to their widest levels in a
quarter-century. The recession and uneven recovery have erased decades of
minority gains, leaving whites on average with 20 times the net worth of blacks
and 18 times that of Hispanics."
The
Black Congressional Caucus has come out against the debt-ceiling deal with 24
of its 41 voting members voting against it. This is a positive step considering
the impact this deal will likely have on the black community.
The
devastation that would have ensued had this deal not passed is unquestionable.
But what is not clear is the path to take going forward. The Tea Party's
willingness to hold the country hostage paid off. Now that they've been rewarded,
there's no reason to believe they won't use the same tactics again; all the
more reason for African-Americans to unite with other progressives.
These cross currents between a desire to support the nation's first
African-American president and the need to stand tall for progressive values
affected me personally this past weekend, when the Progressive Caucus of the
California Democratic Party put forward a resolution that opened the
possibility of a primary challenge to President Obama. With a foot in both
camps -- as an officer of the Progressive Caucus and a member of the African
American Caucus -- I can only hope that steps like this one will push the
President and his advisors to reassess their policies and move in more
progressive directions. African Americans, in particular, need that course
correction.
Two
developments are worth noting: During
the first week of August, Tavis Smiley and Cornel West are launching what they
have 
dubbed
the "Poverty Tour", a 15-city bus tour that will highlight the plight
of the poor. The two will be on the road August 6-12, 2011, starting with a
gathering of the nation's often forgotten Native Americans on the Lac Coutre
Oreilles Indian Reservation near
Van
Jones, founder of the "Rebuild the Dream" organization and former
member of the Obama administration, has joined forces with The Campaign for
In
the coming months, African-Americans will increasingly be forced to make a
distinction between defending Obama's policies that have yielded to the Tea
Party and supporting Obama the man. The two do not have to go hand-in-hand.
Unless action is taken to counter the power wielded by the Tea Party, the
country -- and especially the black community -- will be in dire economic
straits. (Source: http://www.laprogressive.com/elections/blacks-and-politics/)
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and Telephone Calls
Email
www.alternet.org...Graph: US Food Stamp Participation is At An All-Time 
High...Recently
released data from the United States Department of Agriculture's Food and
Nutrition Service finds that the U.S. once again reached an all-time high in
food stamp recipients in May, with 45.8 million people receiving these
benefits. The blog Zero Hedge illustrates this statistic, showing how many more
Americans are relying on food stamps than during even the height of the
recession
Email
http://talkingpointsmemo.com...Nebraska AG Jon Bruning Compares Welfare
Recipients To Scavenging Raccoons...By Benjy 
Sarlin...Nebraska
Attorney General Jon Bruning, a frontrunner to win the GOP nomination against
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), compared poor people to scavenging raccoons in
describing a requirement that workers at a construction site gather up
endangered beetles by luring them into a bucket with a dead rat for release
elsewhere. The plan is thwarted when hungry raccoons eat them out of the
rat-infested bucket. According to Bruning, "The raccoons figured out the
beetles are in the bucket. And its like grapes in a jar. The raccoons - they're
not stupid, they're gonna do the easy way if we make it easy for them. Just
like welfare recipients all across
Email
http://axisoflogic.com...Israel Cuts Gaza Communication Lines...
Email
mulindwa@look.ca..."
Email
www.eurweb.com...This week broadcaster/activist Tavis Smiley and 