Volume 7 Issue 3…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…January 23, 2004

By John Burl Smith

An organizer with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Poor People's Campaign in 1968, I was drawn to his hopes and dream of a better future. Having condemned the war in Vietnam, Dr. King began building a coalition of blacks, Native Americans, Hispanics, poor whites and other immigrants. Starting in May, the plan called for a mule train to Washington, DC, where poor people would camp all summer or until US leaders dealt with poverty.

Dr. King said the mule train would dramatize the desperate plight of rural farmers and urban unemployed workers as it meandered toward the nation's capitol. Unfortunately, Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, a month before the mule train was slated to start. Rev. Hosea Williams took the Poor People's Campaign to Washington, where its socioeconomic concerns were pushed onto the US' back burner by Richard Nixon's "law and order" campaign and southern strategy.

Celebrating Dr. Kings 75^th birthday, it seems as if those who opposed his dream while he lived, now use his day to focus attention on themselves. George W. Bush has raised a historically obscene amount of money for his reelection campaign. On a fund-raising swing through the south, he laid a wreath at Dr. King's crypt without public comment. Hypocritically, this empty gesture is used to justify writing off, as a presidential function, his fund-raising event in Atlanta, Georgia.

Raising another million dollars, Bush said nothing about the role Dr. King's dream plays in formulating policy or implementing the will of the people. Bush once claimed that Jesus Christ exerted the greatest influence over his life. If one is truly inspired by such dynamic and compassionate individuals, one's behavior emulates their principles and ideals in their everyday living.

Photo opportunities may play well on Wall Street, but Bush's stock tanked on Peachtree Street. Those who truly honor Dr. King are committed to realizing his dream. Most people honor Dr. King's 1963 speech not his "Poor People's Campaign" strategy, which, if successful, would make that speech a reality. If people are not guided by his dream the other 364 days, showing up one day a year to place a wreath blasphemes the healing personification of Christ's crucifixion.

Students at FAMU

During the 1960's Civil Rights Movement, young people, particularly students, were in the forefront of the struggle. They took the lead and the licks during sit-ins and other demonstrations that broke the back of Jim Crow segregation. Shades of a by-gone era of activism, on January 19, 2004, students walked out in protest as Gov. Jeb Bush gave a Dr. King birthday address at historically black Florida A&M University (FAMU).

"Students of FAMU" issued a printed statement, which described Bush's holiday visit as "disrespectful" to King's legacy and black students. It starkly contrasted Bush and King's positions on war, affirmative action and racism. The statement chastised the governor for failing to restore the voting rights of black voters erroneously purged from the rolls prior to the 2000 presidential election in which his brother, George W. Bush, received Florida's Electoral College votes following the controversial Supreme Court decision in Bush v Gore.

In declaring his admiration for the protesters, Gov. Bush made the cogent observation "that the success of this university could not have occurred without the struggles that Dr. King and many others a generation ago undertook." FAMU students stand on the shoulders of others that sacrificed their livelihoods and personal safety to make the world a better place for today's generation. Kudos to the students of FAMU for recognizing that they are our best hope for a better tomorrow and fearlessly rising to the challenge!!

The Bracero Program (1942-1964)

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana

On August 4, 1942, the United States and Mexico implemented a temporary worker program to provide labor for the US agriculture sector during the WWII labor shortage. The Bracero Program brought many experienced Mexican farm workers north to thin beets, pick cucumbers and tomatoes, and weed and pick cotton. Many temporary workers or braceros (Spanish for strong arms) worked in railroad yards. According to www.farmworkers.org/bracerop.html, the majority of the experienced farm laborers stopped working their land and growing food for their families for the illusion of earning vast sums of money across the border.

Applicants across Mexico traveled to processing facilities to be interviewed, examined and disinfected with a white powder to "kill Mexican fleas," so they were told by white officials. Approved workers received permits for specific work. Braceros often worked evenings and on Sundays on unspecified tasks for which they were not paid; they did not receive "overtime" pay for work performed beyond an eight-hour workday.

The US-Mexico agreement contained guidelines for the treatment of workers and called for contracts between employers and workers written in Spanish. Independent farmers associations and the "Farm Bureau" controlled the contracts, which were written in English. Braceros signed them without fully understanding their rights and conditions of employment. Workers' rights specified in these contracts and required under the program's guidelines were frequently violated. When contracts expired, braceros were required to relinquish their permits and return to Mexico. Otherwise, braceros could return home only in the case of an emergency and only with the written permission of their boss.

In addition to the "backbreaking" work, braceros lived in deplorable conditions and suffered all types of abuses from extremist groups, racist authorities, which often included employers, and average citizens in towns wherever their labor was exploited. Conditions were so bad in Texas towns like Big Springs, Lamesa, Lubbock and Midland that, for many years, Mexico refused to allow the recruitment of braceros for the state of Texas.

The program ended in 1964. More than three million Mexicans crossed the border to labor under conditions described by Lee G. Williams, the US Department of Labor officer in charge of the program, as "legalized slavery." While braceros returned home, many were unable to survive in their communities and continued to cross the border to work. Today, the once legal braceros are undocumented immigrant workers.

Braceros Class Action

On April 5, 2001, attorneys filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of temporary workers or braceros hired to assist the US from 1942-1949. Under the bilateral US-Mexico agreement, forced savings accounts were established for these workers. Ten percent of the laborer' wages was deposited in a Rural Savings Fund created to ensure workers' returned home after their contracts expired. US government agencies were responsible for this money until its transference to the Wells Fargo Bank and Union Trust Company of San Francisco for the account of the Bank of Mexico, S.A.

The lawsuit claims many braceros still alive have not received any of the wages withheld. According to Lieff Cabraser law partner Bill Lee, "This is a classic human-rights issue." Defendants named in the lawsuit are the United States and Mexican governments and three Mexican banks. These defendants were responsible for the administration, transfer and distribution of the savings funds to the workers.

On August 23, 2002, US District Judge Charles Breyer dismissed claims against the Mexican government and bank defendants. The Court denied the motion to reconsider the dismissal of the Mexican defendants on June 24, 2003. However, the Court did permit plaintiffs to proceed on their claim that the US government, as trustee, violated its fiduciary duty to safeguard the braceros' savings. This case will go forward. For more about the Bracero Justice Project, log on to www.lchb.org/braceros.htm. Call toll-free 1 (800) 956-1009 for a recorded message in Spanish about the case.

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is smarting from a forced video game/television hiatus, much like an addict suffers withdrawal. Pressed for words of wisdom and any hopeful signs for the future he can give us, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro groused, "Talk to the hand!"

Unity '04

A coalition of organizations recently launched its Unity '04 Civic Engagement and Voter Empowerment Campaign. A non-partisan initiative, Unity '04 aims to increase black voter turnout and make sure each vote is counted. The campaign will employ town hall meetings, phone banking, direct mail, early vote/absentee balloting, black college tours and public service announcements.

The Know Your Rights/Election Protection Program is an integral part of Unity '04; it is designed to ensure every eligible voter has the opportunity to cast a ballot that counts on Election Day. Spearheaded by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the program provides voter assistance on the ground and via a voter intimidation hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

Based on opinion polls of black Americans, a sense of despair prevails about their socioeconomic status. Job opportunities, public education, health care, availability of affordable housing and civil liberties have worsened over the past three years. Unity '04 plans to address these issues at the national, state and local levels.

Organizers believe Unity `04 will generate the energy of the 1960s. By boosting black voter turnout in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and South Carolina, which have large black voting age populations, blacks can influence the outcome of a close election. Get involved! For more, log on to www.bigvote.org.

By John Burl Smith

At the "Unity 04" press briefing, a young black man remarked that it seemed his grandparents and parents generations were hopeful. They believed their work made a better world for their children. He confided that this is no longer the case; young people are unable to hold on to what their parents achieved. They have witnessed "compassionate conservatism" turn socioeconomic and political access for blacks back to conditions similar to those at the end of Reconstruction.

Devastated by Civil War and the Panic of 1873, Southern whites competed with blacks for the first time. Outraged by such equality, poor whites joined white planters to re-subjugate blacks. The white alliance did not create a better world for poor whites; it only gave them a false sense of being better off. Segregated public education reinforced the idea of black inferiority in the minds of black and white children. Underlying attitudes that justify discrimination, whites cling to the image of a white world in order to maintain feelings of superiority.

Efforts to continue pitting poor whites against blacks to maintain the white world image are critical to George Bush's two Americas. Better is no longer an achievable possibility for a majority of Americans. This reality is especially frightening for a middle class co-axed by high technological productivity and the movement of jobs overseas. Mimicking the impact of the color line and the "last hired, first fired" cycle on blacks, white anxiety increases as jobs disappear behind profitable bottom lines. Anxious for more tax cuts, they refuse to contemplate "doomsday" scenarios or "conspiracy theories." Yet, having elected Bush, even they cannot find hope or comfort in his so-called "jobless recovery."

Segregated education trained whites to accept political rhetoric and racial stereotypes that focus on blacks as socioeconomic or political threats. Such political speech feeds into whites' residual self-imaging feedback loop, which blames blacks for destroying "the southern way of life." The Confederate flag represents their "lost cause" and transforms discrimination against blacks into a matter of white pride. Manipulating this mind-set, Bush is using No Child Left Behind, faith-based, strict construction and immigration reform as wedge issues, like Richard Nixon used "school busing."

Unlike the 1960s, the socioeconomic and political marginalization of poor whites has nothing to do with blacks. Today, poor and middle class whites are not competing against blacks; they are losing jobs and standard of living to people they will never see. Welfare assistance denied blacks now goes to illegal immigrants. Low paying jobs that poorly educated whites fought blacks to control are now filled by Mexicans and Asians. Fighting to keep blacks back, poor and middle class whites help disguise and speed up their marginalization.

Hope for a better tomorrow depends on whether you were born in the US or work for US-based corporations. Those in countries where US factories are relocating or those coming to the US to work have bright futures and can hold on to hopes of a better life for their children. Thanks to Bush, middle class Americans must find McJobs, which pay just enough to subsist in the second class world they created for blacks. Baby boomers will be the first generation of Americans that will not leave their children a better world.

On Flag Flap

By Dot

In response to the growing demand to change the state flag, former Governor Roy Barnes and the Georgia state legislature moved quickly to quell the controversy without voter input. The legislature passed and Barnes signed a bill that reduced the size of the Confederate battle emblem. This change exposed the racial divide that has existed in this nation since before the Civil War. More than 100 years after the civil strife we are still fighting over symbols and debating about racial equality. For some, the "lost cause" will never die. Thus, it bleeds its hatred and bigotry into every facet of daily life.

To those opposed to the Confederate cause and its KKK symbol, the flag legislation added insult to injury; it retained the offensive emblem and paid homage to "the southern way of life." This group celebrates the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the third Monday in January; it is a national holiday. Oddly, King's January 15th birthday never falls on this Monday.

Diehard Confederate flag supporters claim the banner symbolizes southern heritage. They celebrate January 19, the birthday of Confederate General Robert E. Lee; sometimes it falls on the third Monday. This group also opposed the flag change. They supported Gov. Sonny Perdue in 2002. He pledged to rectify Barnes' flag debacle. Perdue did not appease this group with the adoption of the current flag in 2003; it does not contain the Confederate battle emblem.

On March 2, 2004, Georgia voters will go to the polls to select a Democratic presidential nominee. The primary ballot will also contain a flag referendum, which offers Georgia voters a choice between Barnes' blue-and-gold flag with its tiny Confederate emblem and the current state banner. The divisive 1956 flag, adopted in opposition to school desegregation, is not part of the referendum. Consequently, regardless of the March 2nd decision, chances are this issue will not die. Like the "lost cause," it will continue to impact our daily lives.

Disgruntled feels: Devalued! Democrats cannot win a presidential election without a significant black voter turnout. Based on the media overkill of the Iowa caucus, one could be led to believe Iowa, a state with few, if any, blacks, Latinos and Asians, elects presidents. Minorities, so crucial in any close election, are devalued in the current media frenzy over small electoral states.

Disgruntled wants to know: Radical Republicans, self-righteous rule of law advocates, hounded Congress until impeachment charges were brought against Bill Clinton, who lied about a personal indiscretion. George W. Bush has repeatedly lied about matters of government, including lies that took the nation to war. If ever there was a case for impeachment, more profound even than the one against Richard Nixon, this is it. Yet, like blacks in Iowa, there are no Democrats on a par with Republicans Henry Hyde and Bob Barr pressing for impeachment. Have Democrats become a minor wing of the Republican Party or are they just spineless wimps?

Disgruntled says: Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Muhammad advised Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members to sell oil in gold rather than dollars. The US dollar has declined 40% against the euro, forcing OPEC members to raise oil prices to offset declines in the reserve currency. If Muhammad’s idea took hold, there would be a rise in the price of gold, which would weaken the dollar and US status around the globe.

Email dpsenecal@juno.com A car company can move its factories to Mexico and claim it's a free market. A toy company can outsource to a Chinese subcontractor and claim it's a free market. A major bank can incorporate in Bermuda to avoid taxes and claim it's a free market. We can buy HP Printers made in Mexico and shirts made in Bangladesh. We can purchase almost anything we want from many different countries BUT, heaven help the elderly who dare buy their prescription drugs from a Canadian (Or Mexico) pharmacy. That's called un-American! And you think the pharmaceutical companies don't have a powerful lobby? Think again!

Email www.unionvoice.org Bush's Labor Department has published a "summary" of the overtime pay cut rules giving employers clear suggestions on how they can avoid paying overtime to low-wage workers. The Bush Labor Department's options for ducking overtime pay include cutting workers' hourly wages to make regular and overtime pay equal to the original salary. Such a "payroll adjustment," the summary says, "would result in virtually no, or only a minimal increase in, labor costs." The summary also suggests employers could raise the salaries of workers just enough to make them ineligible for overtime under the new rules.

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