The Senate hearing I covered this week dealt with a bill that was introduced by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) [JFKs brother], the Chairman of the Seante Health, Education, and Labor Committee. Known as the Healthy Families Act, it would require employers with 15 or more employees to provide seven paid sick days to care for their own and their families' medical needs. It was asserted that this bill would benefit some 66 million working Americans as 46 million would gain access to paid sick days; 19 million would gain paid sick days for leave for doctors' visits and family care; and 1 million Americans would gain additional paid sick days.
One of the strongest points they brought up was that the issue here is one of public health, because if people go to work sick or send their sick children to school, they infect their colleagues and classmates. An intreresting statistic was that 86% of hotel and food industry workers, 55% of workers in the retail industry, 29% of health care and social assistance workers do not have paid sick days. For Kennedy's full statement go here: http://kennedy.senate.gov/newsroom/press_release.cfm?id=f0479fd4-0618-452e-aba7-ce7f1e348d3d
Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) a ranking member on the Committee opposed the legislation, arguing that a more practical solution would be legislation for a small business health plan that would allow small businesses to buy into health plan coverage at better rates. His main beef with the bill was that it was too binding, yet too open-ended. Binding because it forced companies to offer 56 hours paid leave no matter what, he called it "an administrative and logistical nightmare for many employers". He said it was too open-ended because it wasn't definitive and allowed for too many loopholes. His point was that they should focus on getting the uninsured insured because, what good is a day off if you cant get the proper treatment. For Enzi's full statement, go here: http://enzi.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=NewsRoom.NewsReleases&ContentRecord_id=bc030891-802a-23ad-40c6-c72e5b1d4c1e&Region_id=&Issue_id=
It seemed to me that Enzi was trying to save the business owners money and put money in the insurance companies' pockets, I think people should get 7 days paid off, whether or not they actually go to the doctor (one of Enzi's points was that as is, the bill would allow for abuse [ie employees not really sick]) is their business.
As I sat through this, I began to reflect on how this country was built on slave labor and continues to run on cheap labor. In the mid 20th century worker's rights gorups began to arise, along with Unions. The establishment saw these groups as a threat. This is a capitalist society where profits and property are supreme. The workers and the citizenry are an afterthought, simply beasts of burden. their well-being is secondary. This is the crux of the matter; the existing realities and the prospective changes all hinge on this paradigm. What needs to happen is that the welfare of the people should become the primary concern.
I brought this concern to the attention of Senator Bernie Sanders Independent and self-proclaimed Socialist from Vermont as well as Roger King (who while speaking said that at the heart of this issue is the need for media reform) one of the panelists at the hearing. You can access the audio here:http://dc.indymedia.org/media/all/display/32711
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Elaine Brown speaks at VCU... my take
This past Firday I had the honor of attending a lecture at Virginia Commnwealth University with Elaine Brown. Although the information (for the most part) was not new to me, I was very much impressed with the speaker. I dont know what it was, but I believe it was her sincerity, genuiness, passion, and candidness. Maybe its just hero-worship. Whatever it was she definitely made a fan out of me.
I got there a bit late, but when I arrived she was talking about criminalization and the creation of a Black criminal class. Specifically she was making reference to a "scientific" study that had been conducted, through the human genome project, to test the hypothesis that there was a gene responsible for criminal behavior.
She would go on to cite the US invasion of Panama, where over 5,000 people were killed, to arrest General Manuel Noreaga to give an example of their type of criminal actions. These actions however, uniformally go unpunished. In this particular instance, Colin Powell was exonerated of any culpability. When asked if he thought it was worth 5,000 deaths to capture one person he stated that 'he wasn't interested in numbers, only results'.
She would go on to make mention to a speech that Bill Clinton gave were he declared Thomas Jefferson as his hero and would ask the listeners (particularly black people) if MLK was alive what would he say? He would say "I died for your freedom and look what you've done with it". Billy would then go on to enact the 3 strikes law in order to help us live out King's legacy. In fact, during his administration, America would go on to achieve the dubious distinction of having jailed more of its citizens than any other nation, past or present.
Speaking of Thomas Jeffereson, since he is Bill's hero and all, she went into a short history on him as well. She brought to our attention one writing in particular, his 'notes on the state of Virginia', where he proposed that Blacks were so inferior to whites that they could only be considered normal if they were cross-bred until they were 1/32 black blood.
1/2 black blood = mulatto, 1/4 = quadroon, 1/8 = octaroon, 1/16 = quintoon, and finally 1/32 = normal
Some of you may believe that Lincoln freed the slaves in 1863 with the issuance of the Emancipationb Proclamation right?....Wrong! For severeal reasons. First of all, this attempt was a strategic manuever to undermine the economy of the South, it was a military action, not a moral decision. Secondly, he didn't have the authority. the Southern states had seceded from the Union and formed the confederacy, at the time their president was Jefferson Davis.
However, as the Civil War the slaves were eventually given their "freedom" and this is the point where, according to Ms Brown the former slave class become a new criminal class through the institution of the Black Codes. The Black Codes were laws to keep the newly freed slaves in check --- criminalizing them. One of the most enforced laws were the laws against vagrancy. In actuality it made it technically illegal to be unemployed.
In 1896, there was the case of Plessy v. Ferguson where this Black guy sued because the train he was forced to ride on didn't offer all of the same amenities as the White train. This would lead to the condition we know of as 'Seperate but Equal' which pretty much amounted to apartheid.
Fast forward to 1965, and we (negros) were able to attain the Civil Rights act and the Voting rights act. 1865 to 1965 and those were our "accomplishments".
She would go on to talk about the Prison Industrial Complex (did you know that that term was coined on Wall Street), MLK and his assassination. His asssassination would come soon after he began to speak out against the war and came to grips with armed resistance as necessary and inevitable. He had also began to speak of a need for 'redistribution of wealth' in this country.
She spoke of the need for Black folks to realize that theyare oppressed and that we need to adopt the principle of "I am We" instead of the self-centered outlook that many of us have.
To hear the audio that inspired this post go to: http://dc.indymedia.org/media/all/display/32709
I got there a bit late, but when I arrived she was talking about criminalization and the creation of a Black criminal class. Specifically she was making reference to a "scientific" study that had been conducted, through the human genome project, to test the hypothesis that there was a gene responsible for criminal behavior.
She would go on to cite the US invasion of Panama, where over 5,000 people were killed, to arrest General Manuel Noreaga to give an example of their type of criminal actions. These actions however, uniformally go unpunished. In this particular instance, Colin Powell was exonerated of any culpability. When asked if he thought it was worth 5,000 deaths to capture one person he stated that 'he wasn't interested in numbers, only results'.
She would go on to make mention to a speech that Bill Clinton gave were he declared Thomas Jefferson as his hero and would ask the listeners (particularly black people) if MLK was alive what would he say? He would say "I died for your freedom and look what you've done with it". Billy would then go on to enact the 3 strikes law in order to help us live out King's legacy. In fact, during his administration, America would go on to achieve the dubious distinction of having jailed more of its citizens than any other nation, past or present.
Speaking of Thomas Jeffereson, since he is Bill's hero and all, she went into a short history on him as well. She brought to our attention one writing in particular, his 'notes on the state of Virginia', where he proposed that Blacks were so inferior to whites that they could only be considered normal if they were cross-bred until they were 1/32 black blood.
1/2 black blood = mulatto, 1/4 = quadroon, 1/8 = octaroon, 1/16 = quintoon, and finally 1/32 = normal
Some of you may believe that Lincoln freed the slaves in 1863 with the issuance of the Emancipationb Proclamation right?....Wrong! For severeal reasons. First of all, this attempt was a strategic manuever to undermine the economy of the South, it was a military action, not a moral decision. Secondly, he didn't have the authority. the Southern states had seceded from the Union and formed the confederacy, at the time their president was Jefferson Davis.
However, as the Civil War the slaves were eventually given their "freedom" and this is the point where, according to Ms Brown the former slave class become a new criminal class through the institution of the Black Codes. The Black Codes were laws to keep the newly freed slaves in check --- criminalizing them. One of the most enforced laws were the laws against vagrancy. In actuality it made it technically illegal to be unemployed.
In 1896, there was the case of Plessy v. Ferguson where this Black guy sued because the train he was forced to ride on didn't offer all of the same amenities as the White train. This would lead to the condition we know of as 'Seperate but Equal' which pretty much amounted to apartheid.
Fast forward to 1965, and we (negros) were able to attain the Civil Rights act and the Voting rights act. 1865 to 1965 and those were our "accomplishments".
She would go on to talk about the Prison Industrial Complex (did you know that that term was coined on Wall Street), MLK and his assassination. His asssassination would come soon after he began to speak out against the war and came to grips with armed resistance as necessary and inevitable. He had also began to speak of a need for 'redistribution of wealth' in this country.
She spoke of the need for Black folks to realize that theyare oppressed and that we need to adopt the principle of "I am We" instead of the self-centered outlook that many of us have.
To hear the audio that inspired this post go to: http://dc.indymedia.org/media/all/display/32709
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