NAME: Ira Grupper
EMAIL: irag@iglou.com
DATE: 04/01/2008
TITLE: Ella Baker Tour
LABOR PAEANS—April 2008
by Ira Grupper
(published by FORsooth, newspaper of Louisville, Kentucky chapter of F.O.R. [Fellowship of Reconciliation] )
Ella Baker Tour
At the end of February your humble scribe was in North Carolina, part of a tour of veteran civil rights workers who had been on the staff of SNCC, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, in the 1960's. Theresa El-Amin got us a grant, and my part of the tour took several of us to Central Piedmont Community College in Raleigh, and to North Carolina State University in Charlotte. (In a future column we will write about that marvelous woman, the late Ella Baker).
We spoke to large audiences, 250 at the first venue and almost that number at the second. At the first event our remarks were beamed live by the college tv station to 2 other campuses, and it was also taped.
The tour was envisioned not so much as us just telling war stories, important as they might be, about where we were beaten and where we were jailed--but rather as an inter-generational dialog (interestingly, Isaac Coleman, one of my co-panelists, and I were in jail together once, so many years ago, in Mississippi, and didn't realize it until we were speaking on this recent panel!).
The students made comments and asked questions that showed great interest and perceptiveness. It seems the Obama phenomenon has lit a fire under young people, and we would have to travel back to President John F. Kennedy, and the Civil Rights and Anti-Vietnam War movements, to find a parallel.
Please don’t let me hear palaver about student apathy and lack of involvement. But do comment on how we older activists can better convey what we know to these glorious young folk, mentoring them—and then work together with them. Or, get out of their way and allow their creativity to lead them onward.
And they, to be sure, will have to be creative, given the massive layoffs and foreclosures our free market free-fall has gifted us.
Ford
Let’s talk a little about the systemic gifts of free market capital. Ford Motor Company has a truck plant and an auto plant here in Louisville. As this column is being put to bed, Ford Motor Company workers at the auto assembly factory will have finished letting the company know whether she or he will accept a “buyout,” or take their chances—hoping they won’t be one of the 800 workers Ford will force onto the unemployment line. The entire night shift is being eliminated.
And Ford’s promise to build a new vehicle in Louisville within two years, the lure to get UAW members to accept the recent contract offer? And Ford’s new two-tier wage system, whereby new hires get half the pay of more senior employees—did Ford figure out all this before it forced its most recent contract on the auto workers’ union? What will happen at the Ford Truck Plant, where F-Series Super Duty trucks are built? Stay tuned.
What is happening in Louisville is also the case all over the United States. Reports the Louisville Courier-Journal 3.8.08 “In February, (layoffs in the U.S. equaled) 63,000 jobs, compared with 22,000 positions cut in January, the Labor Department reported …The grim snapshot of the employment climate underscored the heavy toll that the housing slump and credit crunch are taking on companies, job seekers and the economy as a whole.”
But, wait. Could this be happening all over the world? General Motors announced it will cut production in nearly all its European plants—in Germany, Great Britain, Belgium, Spain, Sweden and France. In February GM announced the opening of a “voluntary separation window” which could affect 74,000 workers worldwide.
Yet, “ ‘GM Europe’s profits have increased and the GM factory in Strasburg has been profitable for years. But the plant is in direct competition with another GM plant in Mexico, where labor costs less,’ Jean-Marc Ruhland of the CFDT trade union explained…
“GM argues losses of 38.7 billion euros in 2007, as against 2 billion in 2006. But these figures are above all the result of an accounting trick: to adjust for the value of its tax credits, GM included an enormous reserve for the third quarter in its statement. Moreover, the results are more than satisfactory for the shareholders, with an 8-cent profit on each share in the fourth quarter, as against an average 55-cent loss on the stock market.
“Finally, the CEO, Rick Wagoner, after having ‘tightened his belt’ a little over the preceding years, has granted himself a 33% pay raise and an annual bonus of 3.52 million dollars, thus renewing with the pay level he enjoyed in 2006. That’s proof that, for some, hard times are already a thing of the past.” (l’Humanité in English 3.18.08).
Divide and Conquer
Well, we can’t have workers uniting to battle these attacks, can we? Let’s divide people. Is it an accident the number of employment-discrimination charges filed with the EEOC jumped 9% in the last year? Coupled with the increase in African Americans and Latinos behind bars—things are not looking up.
But life must go on, and that’s why the Good Lord gave us football. Writes Ruthie Ackerman (Nation online 1.31.08): Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, the world's largest seller of tires, is spending more than $10 million as "official tire sponsor" of the Super Bowl halftime show in Phoenix…and will likely spend that much and more to sponsor the event in 2009. But the entertainment and advertising images beamed into American living rooms during the most-watched sporting event of the year stand in sharp contrast to the harsh working conditions, child labor and exposure to toxic chemicals at the company's rubber plantations in Liberia.”
“Firestone, which is owned by Bridgestone, a Japanese company, but has headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, also has been accused by the Liberian Environmental Protection Agency of dumping toxic waste into the river that feeds into the community's water supply…”
To your health—l’chaim
Your columnist has no word space left to little more than mention the largest recall of ground beef in history—by Westland/Hallmark Meat Company. “The recall…comes after a widening animal-abuse scandal that started after the Humane Society of the United States distributed an undercover video on Jan. 30 that showed workers kicking sick cows and using forklifts to force them to walk.” (NYTimes 2.18.08).
And Alternet reports (2.12.08): “The Center for Public Integrity, a public interest investigative journalism organization, has obtained copies of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study of environmental and health data in eight Great Lakes states that was scheduled for publication in July 2007. The report, which pointed to elevated rates of lung, colon, and breast cancer; low birth weight; and infant mortality in several of the geographical areas of concern has not yet been made public.
“A few days before the report was slated to be released, it was pulled. Meanwhile, at precisely the same time, its lead author, Christopher De Rosa, has been removed from the position he held since 1992. The Center for Public Integrity is asking why.”
Coda
Your columnist too often closes with depressing news. This time we will close with depressing news in one society, and hopeful news in another. This comes from Nihut Nes: “Our politicians and pundits in media keep reminding us of the terrible tragedy of being Cuban…They are so excited that with Castro’s failing health, Cuba’s misery is about to end or (is it) finally long waited opportunity to exploit?
“In face of 46 years of economic embargo and constant threat from powerful neighbor like USA, tiny island of 11.4 million people,
Cuba today enjoys:
- Cuba........................................................................U.S.
- 100% population fed………………………………Hunger: 35.5 million/year.
- 100% population housed…………………………Homelessness. 3.5 millions/year
- 100% population educated……………………….Illiteracy: 30 million
- 100% population with medical care…………….47 million without any
- Murder with Gun: None to insignificant……….20,767 average/year
- Security in the face of constant U.S……………Insecurity: revoked civil liberties intimidation and an angry world
- A society sharing whatever little they have…...Hatred and condemnation of the world for causing misery, death and ruined environment.
“I have no doubt life is difficult for Cubans. But in the face of adversity they showed resourcefulness and proved with ingenuity, one can survive, by living within their means…This silly old game of propaganda and constant meddling to exploit neighbors in their vulnerable situation is immoral and parasitical…”
Contact Ira Grupper: irag@iglou.com
March, 2007 Newspaper
http://www.ccds.org/newsletters/labor_paeans_Mar07.html
February, 2007 Newspaper
http://www.ccds.org/newsletters/labor_paeans_feb07.html