People Before Profit blog

Selma, then and now: reflections on an American story

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 13:06:00 +0000

In March 1965, I was a month shy of my fourth birthday. For me, the only momentous occasion of that time was a stay in the hospital for a tonsillectomy. I can still remember the ice cream they let me eat sliding down my rough throat. For that little working-class white girl, Alabama was a long way from the northwest side of Chicago-geographically, culturally, politically. So why, 50 years later, did I take the pilgrimage to Selma? Why wend my way on a sun-baked Sunday, in the company of thousands of other Americans, to cross a bridge over the Alabama River? I guess it's about story. Of all the stories Americans tell ourselves of who we are and what our national experiment is about, the story of the Civil Rights Movement, its sung and unsung heroes, is the most resonant for me.

As a sensitive child growing up in personally and politically chaotic settings, non-violence intuitively made sense before I knew there was a philosophy. The story of Selma fifty years ago, the moral and physical courage it took to cross that bridge into a sea of baton-wielding police officers, and walk for four days in an assertion of basic democratic rights is the American story I am most drawn to, the American story I want to be associated with, that tells of the American heroes I most want to honor. The story of Selma 1965 represents the worst and the best of America: our home-grown terrorism, police brutality, and abuses of power, AND the immense courage, planning, discipline, righteous anger, and persistence that can confront evil and bring about change.

We need all of the latter today-to counter the continued threats to voting that come from without, and from within our sometimes apathetic selves; to counter Big Money and hopelessness over its influence; to fight against growing income inequality and the inequities of education, work, and quality of life that accompany it.

It took no courage to make my trip across the bridge; this time around, the Alabama State troopers-black and white-were there to guide traffic and mostly be helpful-or sometimes just watch the scene. Some chatted with marchers when foot traffic was stalled. While standing in the street outside Brown Memorial Chapel as dignitaries like Eric Holder came out to their cars, several people and I were asked by a trooper to move away from his vehicle so he could get out: "I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt by a tire rolling over your foot!" While in 1965, marchers, abusive police, and by-standers were photographed by journalists, in 2015, we all could be participants and documenters of the action. Everywhere I looked, cellphones were up in the air at the end of black, white, and brown arms. Close to the bridge, jumbo screens allowed barely-moving marchers to see and hear Dr. King deliver his speech in Montgomery on March 25, 1965 and speeches by participants in anniversary marches past. I had the odd experience of walking about five people away from Jesse Jackson, while listening to a ten years younger version of him on the screen say, "American democracy wasn't born in 1776; American democracy was born in Selma in 1965."

But, this march wasn't just about what happened 50 years ago. It was about what is happening now. I walked with Unitarian Universalists from a conference where we remembered the Rev. James Reeb and Viola Liuzzo-the two Unitarians who came to Alabama in March 1965 to support civil rights workers and were, along with Alabama resident Jimmie Lee Jackson, killed for their participation. But, we also attended sessions on the Black Lives Matters movement, environmental racism, and other social justice work needed today. Other marchers wore t-shirts with photos of family members who had been killed by police, calling for reforms of the justice system. As John Legend and Common point out in their award-winning song "Glory," "Selma is now."

It is not only Selma. In Birmingham, Kelly Ingram Park is the site of 1963 civil rights protests and "Bull" Connor's fire hose and attack dog-wielding police. Today, it is transformed into a Civil Rights Movement memorial. Carved into the stone wall at the entrance are the words: "Place of Revolution and Reconciliation." I walked between two metal walls, out of which jumped large sculptures of dogs, straining at their leashes, sharp teeth bared. Glancing through jail-like bars, I saw two children, standing in a doorway over the inscription, "I Ain't Afraid of Your Jail," commemorating the 1963 Children's Campaign. At the corner of the park, kitty-corner from the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, are statues of the four girls killed in the 1963 bombing of the church.

On my 2015 visit, it was peaceful in the park. Two older black men, park employees, pulled plastic bags out of the garbage cans, tied them up, and tossed them into a container on wheels. One employed a metal stick to pick up some trash on the ground, but for the most part, this space is clean and well-cared for. Thought went into the design of the sculptures to evoke emotion: respect for those who put their bodies on the line for a just cause, revulsion against a system that would sic dogs trained in violence onto non-violent protestors. This place of state violence and hate and resistance and moral courage, this place of power abused and power claimed, is a memorial. We remember what happened in the past-as we ought. But, what good is remembering how a young Girl Scout, who loved reading and the piano and aspired to become a teacher should not have had her life blown away, that her parents and family and church and community should not have had a hole blown through their hearts, if we let other young girls today grow up under-educated, abused, discriminated against?

What good is it to remember Bull Connor's evils as a leader of police if we do not also work to change the culture of policing that works against people of color-and others-today? What good is remembering morally courageous leaders of the past: Fred Shuttlesworth, Martin Luther King, Diane Nash, if today we sit complacently, or hopelessly, or tiredly by while morally bankrupt leaders sell themselves to wealthy oligarchs and hurt the poor, people of color, and workers? The American story told in the remembering of civil rights events fifty years past is one that can help us as we work to make our present a more just and fair one for all Americans.

Cathy Colton teaches English at the College of Lake County and blogs on "Mad Men."

Photo: In the sea of humanity, we slowly make our way to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, while others were walking off. It was an amazing, moving afternoon, reaching back to an incredibly significant moment, March 8, 2015. (Courtesy of Cathy Colton)

Chuy Garcia and the right to a city

Fri, 27 Mar 2015 14:04:00 +0000

Chicago is abuzz these days as incumbent Mayor Rahm Emanuel is in an unexpected and fiercely competitive election runoff with challenger and longtime progressive Latino leader Jesus "Chuy" Garcia. What was supposed to have been a waltz into a second term for Emanuel has turned into a fight for his political life.

Garcia got a late start, is behind in the polls, has nothing close to the deep pockets or name recognition of Emanuel, and is up against the city's political establishment and "Gold Coast," but - and this is what makes the Windy City's elites lose sleep at night - he is gathering momentum and support from many unions and community leaders and organizations. And it is entirely possible that he comes out on top when the ballots are counted on April 7.

Here's why.

Cities are increasingly turning into battlegrounds, where different models - people versus neoliberal (corporate-elite friendly) - and their associated political coalitions clash. In recent years, The neoliberal model, of which Emanuel is a zealous advocate, is more and more encountering stiff and broad-based resistance. The few dissenters of yesterday are turning into the many today.

A telling example of this trend was the election of Bill de Blasio in New York's mayoral race in the fall of 2013. De Blasio, who unhesitatingly described himself as a progressive, decried the city's widening income inequality, gentrification, and the rise of two New Yorks - one living in grand style, the other struggling to make ends meet. He also opposed racist "stop and frisk," policing, the shrinkage of affordable housing, the lack of pre-kindergarten programs, and the unfair system of taxation that favors Wall Street and the 1 percent.

Supporting his candidacy was a diverse coalition that grew rapidly in the course of the campaign (something that Garcia's supporters should take inspiration and draw lessons from). So much so that it was evident in the final days of the campaign that de Blasio would win by a landslide as part of a broader progressive electoral sweep.

The outcome was an emphatic rebuff of the previous two mayors - the billionaire Michael Bloomberg and the utterly reactionary Rudy Giuliani. But our analysis can't be left here. It was, if we dig a little deeper - and we don't have to dig too far - a repudiation of pro-corporate neoliberalism and the rise of the neoliberal city, which were hallmarks of both Bloomberg's and Guiliani's governing strategy and style.

In voting overwhelmingly for de Blasio, New Yorkers said "enough" to a form of political and economic governance that favors commercial, real estate and banking interests, facilitates gentrification and the reconfiguring of urban space to suit the interests and sensibilities of the 1 percent, scales back public sector services, jobs, and union contracts, ramps up "aggressive" policing, promotes privatization of functions that previously were in the public sphere, especially public education, and deepens inequality.

As much as de Blasio's landslide victory was a repudiation of neoliberal urban governance, it was in equal measure an affirmation by voters, even if not fully articulated, that they have a right to a livable, vibrant, just, and sustainable city (much like people have a right to a job, livable wage, health care, housing, equality, etc.).

Moreover, "right" in this instance, much like the right of workers to the products of their social labor, doesn't rest on some abstract notion of justice, nor some general societal obligation (although society has such obligations). Instead it is grounded in material practices and activities of millions of New Yorkers who inhabit and create and recreate the city each and every day with labor and neighborly reciprocity in a multitude of paid and unpaid forms. That includes everything from raising children to transporting people, constructing skyscrapers, tunnels, bridges and roads, providing countless services, taking care of the sick and the elderly, creating art and culture, organizing sports, maintaining parks and green spaces, cleaning up environmentally hazardous sites, helping neighbors and coworkers, addressing disabilities needs, going to church, educating the young, engaging in politics, and on and on.

I wondered at the time of the New York elections if Emanuel, seeing the sea change that carried de Blasio into the mayor's office, might consider a political reset in order to better position himself for a successful run for a second term in Chicago's elections, which were coming into view. After all, he had to know that his closing of so many public schools was causing widespread discontent in the city as was his relentless push to turn over schools to private charter operators and contract out school janitorial services to major corporations.

Moreover, Emanuel's refusal, despite promises, to reform the city's notorious Tax Incremental Finance program and to stop the flow of public monies to subsidize corporations (Hyatt Hotels in Hyde Park) and big real estate interests also was leaving more and more people wondering if Emanuel was the right person to lead the city.

Most people in this situation would adjust their persona and policies to this brewing storm, but not Emanuel. As if to prove that it's difficult to teach an arrogant, tone deaf, and well-heeled dog new tricks, he pressed fast-forward on his neoliberal plans and made no effort to tamp down his grating, me-first personality. Chicago's elites hailed his intransigence and determination to stay the course. But many ordinary Chicagoans, when given the chance to express their displeasure in the first round of the mayoral primary in February, denied Emanuel a simple majority, thus forcing the April runoff with second-place finisher Garcia.

While it is uncertain if Emanuel will have to pay the ultimate price for being the loyal soldier for Chicago's elites when voters go to the polls again, the contested nature of this election no matter what the outcome signifies the growing opposition to economic inequality, neoliberalism, and the neoliberal city, an emphatic assertion of the people's right to a city, and a scaling up of the class and democratic struggle.

It has already given a shot in the arm to the broader movement and the progressive and left currents within that movement in Chicago as well as elsewhere. And it is serving notice, as did the election in New York, on the centrists in the Democratic Party as well as the right-wing-dominated Republican Party that the political dynamics that have shaped the country's trajectory over the past 35 years are changing.

Admittedly, these changes don't yet possess transformative power - that is, the power to deeply, boldly, and creatively consolidate a new governing model that accents people's self-organization and needs, whether at the local, or, even more so, at the national level.

Nor are the changes in political dynamics in Chicago and New York - or Newark, N.J., Richmond , Calif., Seattle, or Los Angeles - observable in Lubbock, Texas, or Lincoln, Neb., or Cincinnati, Ohio, or, for that matter, Detroit. In other words, the process is uneven.

And yet, I can't help but believe that the anger at the growing inequality and outlandish class privilege on display in a growing number of cities is also felt by tens of millions elsewhere. Maybe not to the same degree, maybe not to the same extent, but expressing nonetheless a rejection of the economic orthodoxy - neoliberalism - of the past four decades, ideologically embraced and politically facilitated by the top circles of the Democratic Party as well as every section of the Republican Party.

Of course, nothing that has happened in Chicago, New York, or anywhere else puts on the back burner in any way the overriding imperative of decisively defeating right-wing extremism. For the fact is the crisis bedeviling Chicago and other cities - not to mention the country as a whole - cannot be fully, or even significantly, resolved without politically crushing this extreme reactionary political movement that now commands the Republican Party. And it is both very mistaken and dangerous to think that islands of urban progressivism can be established in a surrounding and churning sea in which the most zealous and adventurist prosecutors of a form of neoliberalism that disdains even a passing rhetorical nod to democratic rights, social protection, or equality are increasingly riding the biggest waves.

But that discussion, as important as it is, is for another day. Right now, the challenge in Chicago, if New York's experience is any guide, is to expand and deepen the cross-class, multi-racial, and multi-ethnic coalition that supports the insurgent campaign of Chuy Garcia.

While a strategy of reaching and mobilizing black, brown, and progressive white voters underpinned the historic 1983 election of Harold Washington, the city's first Black and undeniably great mayor, a different strategy - and a far more likely winning strategy this time - is necessary to carry Garcia across the finish line in the first place.

A lot has happened since that historic night of Washington's victory three decades ago. We've seen the election and reelection of an African American president that many thought impossible, by a multi-racial coalition of voters; the growing rejection of racism by significant sections of white people; the changing attitudes and new initiatives in the labor movement to address racism inside and outside of its ranks; the greater resonance of class in the thinking of working people, and more. And to this we should add the broad coalition of labor - the Chicago Teachers Union in the first place - communities of color and many of their leaders, reform democrats, independents, progressives, and sections of the left that are the mainstays of Garcia's campaign.

This argues for an even more inclusive strategy than was employed to elect Harold Washington. In particular there is no good reason to write off a large section of white people without a struggle and in doing so run the risk of conceding many of them to Emanuel. That's not a formula for success.

Yes, many white people, bombarded by the subtle and not so subtle racist message that Garcia doesn't have the political or intellectual heft to be mayor - "not up to the challenge," will have to be convinced that Chuy's worst day as mayor will be better than Rahm's best day. The way to do that isn't by righteously exclaiming on the "backwardness" of white people, but rather by persuading them on the basis of their experience, common sense, better angels, and deeply felt and existential needs for jobs, livable wages, quality public education, and so on, that Chuy Garcia is best equipped on the basis of his vision, experience, and ordinary roots to lead the city.

And when combined with sustained efforts to acquaint voters throughout the city - North Side, West Side, South Side - with Garcia and his vision as well as mobilize those same voters to go to the polls on Election Day, Chicago will make history again in electing Jesus Garcia as it did decades ago when Harold Washington was elected. And in doing so the people of that great city will take another vital step to reclaim their city and future.

Photo: Chicago mayoral candidate Jesus "Chuy" Garcia's at a televised debate with current Mayor Rahm Emanuel, March 26. Jesus "Chuy" Garcia for Chicago, Facebook.

TPP-ing the economy: Is new trade pact “NAFTA on steroids?”

Wed, 25 Mar 2015 11:47:00 +0000

Unless you've spent the winter lost on the Pacific Crest Trail, you know that middle-class incomes have slipped again. In fact, everyone's wage is down except for the top ten percent. Median incomes for the bottom 20 percent fell four percent; for the middle by six percent, and hourly wages have barely kept pace with inflation.

Why? Conventional wisdom says hordes of unemployed workers could return to the market place at any moment. That makes current employees afraid to change jobs to find higher incomes, or they are fearful about also joining the ranks of the long-term jobless. But there is a better reason for stagnant wages that mainstream commentators seldom mention - free trade agreements.

The Reagan Administration's infamous attack on unions, and its deregulation of industries from trucking to airlines, put middle-class jobs at risk everywhere, because those industries' pay scales were backed by the power of organized labor. Then so-called New Democrats under the Clinton Administration joined with Republicans to adopt NAFTA - the North American Free Trade Agreement - and more good manufacturing jobs (again, many of them union) fled across the border. American companies seized the opportunity to set up maquiladoras - manufacturing zones just south of the Mexican border - and shut unionized factories here. Suddenly everything from car parts to jeans came from low-wage locations, which created work in Mexico, but also massive dislocation, even as it closed jobs here.

The high-tech boom created a mythology that dominated the business pages for a decade. The American middle class would now become the "creative" class. Americans no longer needed to make things - we'd invent and design them, and somebody else would make them. So from iPhones to underwear, Americans designed and the people of Mexico, or China, or some other low-wage place, made them. It fit the postmodern economic analysis that American jobs in the future would no longer be found on menial assembly lines.

Apparently nobody noticed that this system neither grew the economy nor ended lousy jobs - it just paid less for tedious tasks. I can remember when a good working-class job in Los Angeles earned $30 or $40 or even $50 an hour. Now it pays $15-20. In the last five years 65 percent of jobs created in this country pay $20 an hour or less. People are either making a lot of money or no money.

Now comes another "free trade" deal. Known as TPP - the Trans-Pacific Partnership - it links some Western Hemisphere nations to Asia. Some of us think it is NAFTA on steroids.

Proponents - including the president - claim TPP will create 600,000 jobs and stir the economy from its torpor. But even such free trade agreement fans as the Washington Post fact-checked the claim and concluded that it would likely create no jobs. Zero. Nada. Michael Hiltzik, business columnist for the Los Angeles Times, thinks it likely grows neither the economy of the U.S. nor of the other nations involved.

Beyond that, TPP carries some insidious side-effects that could do a lot more damage. One element allows multinational corporations to sue national, state and even local governments in international courts of arbitration for environmental or financial regulations that curtail their current practices. Raising the minimum wage, mandating a skull and crossbones on a pack of cigarettes, or limiting air pollutants could end up not in local courtrooms but in some obscure office far, far away.

All of this is being negotiated in secret. The media only know some of these details because of leaks. Actually the élite of wealth and power probably know a lot more because they discuss these kinds of things over drinks at Davos and other power hangouts. Furthermore, the president wants this agreement "fast-tracked," which means voted on by both houses of Congress within 90 days, no amendments and no filibuster.

Asleep yet? That's exactly what the people who negotiate these kinds of deals want so you won't notice that another nail has been put into the coffin of organized labor and the American middle class. It's another reason why the hotel workers, retail clerks and truck drivers are fighting for better wages for jobs that can't be shipped overseas. It's why all of us fight to protect the earth on which and through which "we live and have our being," as St. Paul put it.

Reprinted by kind permission of the author and Capital and Main.

Rev. Jim Conn is the founding minister of the Church in Ocean Park and served on the Santa Monica City Council and as that city's mayor. He helped found Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, Los Angeles, and was its second chair, and was a founder of Santa Monica's renter's rights campaign.

Photo: Shizuo Kambayashi/AP

State of Silicon Valley 2015: A tale of two Americas

Mon, 23 Mar 2015 14:45:00 +0000

"If Silicon Valley were a country, it'd be sixth in the world in GDP per capita," Russell Hancock at the 2015 State of Silicon Valley, Feb. 4, 2015

Columnist John D. Sutter of CNN Opinion visited Northern California's Bay Area last year, resulting in "The Poor Kids of Silicon Valley," an online interactive report on poverty, homelessness and income inequality in one of America's wealthiest regions.

Subsequent coverage of the report highlighted stories such as that of young mother Nicole Jones, living in a garage in San Mateo County, paying $1000 a month and feeling lucky to have the space. After losing her job and her apartment, Jones and her baby girl took residence in the garage of an affluent neighborhood home in one of the wealthiest counties in the United States - unable, even with steady work, to afford the going price for a studio apartment, which can range from $1800-$2800 per month.

Also released this year was the 2015 Index from Joint Venture Silicon Valley, distributed at the yearly State of Silicon Valley conference in February.

This annual event gathers politicians, corporate leaders, and opinion-makers to reflect on the results of the report, presenting ideas for solutions that have gained popularity among industry circles, though tending to exclude some of the stakeholders with which it concerns itself, namely the working people of the Bay Area. It had at least one unmistakable conclusion in common with the CNN report though: Poor people aren't doing very well in Silicon Valley, despite the vitality of the economy.

Hardest hit by income inequality are Blacks and Latinos, who are surviving on much less than the now recommended minimum of $84,000 per year for a family of four. Among the findings reported in the 2015 Index are:

* "There is a large gap between the highest and lowest earning racial/ethnic groups, which is larger in Silicon Valley ($44,037) and San Francisco ($50,069) than in California ($28,332) or the United States ($17,716).

* Men in Silicon Valley earn up to 61 percent more than their female peers. This gender-income gap is more pronounced in Silicon Valley than in San Francisco, California or the United States, and is getting larger over time.

* While poverty levels are relatively low, 29 percent of the region's residents in 2012 were not self-sufficient (they did not make enough money to meet their basic needs without public assistance)."

One in 20 children lives on less than $2 a day in the United States. For the first time, 51 percent of school-age children in this country live in poverty. While the number of school-aged children on the free and reduced lunch program in Silicon Valley is below the state-wide level, it is still quite high. "37 percent of Silicon Valley public school students in 2012 and 2013 (and 38 percent in 2014) were receiving free or reduced price meals. In comparison, California's percentage of students receiving free or reduced price meals increased by one percent to 59 percent in 2014, reaching a decade high." (2015 Index)

Family income determines child poverty, and poverty in Silicon Valley hits Black and Latino children the hardest. "Per capita income increased in Silicon Valley (Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties) between 2011 and 2013 for all racial and ethnic groups, excluding Black or African American residents. White residents continued to have the highest per capita income ($64,998 in 2013, adjusted for inflation), and Hispanic or Latino residents continued to have the lowest ($20,961) and saw more modest income gains. The economic recovery that came swiftly for Silicon Valley after the Great Recession has not reached all residents here: "Per capita incomes for Black or African American and Hispanic or Latino residents in 2013 were still well below pre-recession values, down 20 and 12 percent, respectively since 2007." (2015 Index)

Jorge Valencia lives in the other San Jose. One San Jose is home to famous internet and tech companies, with engineers who make six-figure salaries and live in homes with iron fences around them. The other San Jose is home to children who seldom have more than $2 a day for food. "Not five miles away from here, there are people basically just like swimming in gold," said Valencia. "There's like this invisible boundary around east side San Jose. They just don't even see you as humans. They think you are trash, or peasants, or less."

"The rent is too damn high." - Jimmy McMillan

"In 2014, Silicon Valley rents were $645/month higher than California's, and $1,198/month higher than average rents in the United States. Average rental rates in Silicon Valley continued the upward trend that began in 2010 (reaching $2,333/month in 2014), increasing by 8.7 percent ($171/month, amounting to $2,052 total) between 2012 and 2013. During the same time period, median income rose by 3.6 percent ($3,203 per year, or $267/month) in Silicon Valley." (2015 Index)

Families which had managed rents of $1700 per month are now being displaced to other regions, as landlords raise rents to $2000 per month and above, citing the demand for housing by tech workers arriving to the region, who are willing to pay the higher rents.

Bay Area realtors and landlords, on the other hand, have increasingly pointed a finger of blame for rising rent prices on rent control, with some even calling for action to prevent rent stabilization ordinances. However, between San Francisco and San Jose, only one small Peninsula city has a rent stabilization ordinance, East Palo Alto. Therefore rent control cannot explain how rents in San Mateo County have soared along with their big-city counterparts.

"As the demand exists for lower-cost housing and is not met by the market then obviously the market is distorted and not 'free,'" wrote local resident Mike Caggiano in a letter to the San Mateo Daily Journal, in response to claims that rising rent prices are caused by market forces.

Bizjournal reports, "State employment projections show that more than 50 percent of jobs added in Silicon Valley from 2008 to 2018 will pay less than $50,000 a year." Clearly there is need for housing that costs less than $36,000 a year and above. "The median rental price in San Mateo County is $2975 per month - or a staggering $35,700 per year." (CNN report)

"It takes five minimum wage jobs to afford a place to live here," Jennifer Loving

Renting converted garages to live in is nothing new for underserved communities in Silicon Valley. Those unlucky enough not to find a garage to rent often live in cars while holding down jobs. Increasingly, white-collar professionals have joined the transient community, finding it cheaper to live in their cars close to work rather than pay exorbitant local rents or pay increased gas costs by commuting from over an hour away from work. Union employee Yaveth Gomez said, "I make $58,000 a year and it's not enough to live and be able to eat here in San Jose. That's why I live in my car."

Car-living cuts across income levels, reported Kurt Varner, who lived in his car to save money while beginning a new life in Silicon Valley. "During my experience I saw many other people living from vehicles. It's strange that most people are oblivious to it. There are even several other entrepreneurs I know that are taking to the streets to cut costs here in the Valley."

One out of three young adults (18-34) in Silicon Valley lives with a parent.

San Jose, Oakland, and San Francisco have each passed ordinances raising their minimum wages, which is certainly a helpful piece in the process of putting more money into the hands of lower-income families. However, minimum wage in San Mateo County remains at the state level of $9/hour as apartment prices continue to rise to the highest in the nation. In 2014, an average renter would have needed to make $24/hr to afford a one-bedroom apartment in San Mateo County. Minimum wages of $10, $12 and even $15/hour won't begin to scratch the surface of the rising living expenses in the Bay Area.

The median rent in the Silicon Valley city of Mountain View is $2700. It would cost "$269 million annually to produce a government-recommended 1,482 new affordable units for the very low-income in Santa Clara County alone, according to research by Housing Trust Silicon Valley."

San Francisco's median income is higher than other regions in the Bay Area at $75,604, with a 13.5 percent poverty rate. However, the median rental rate is $3200 per month, and several former fixed and low-income tenants have been forced out by landlords seeking to raise rents via "Ellis Act" evictions. Rent has doubled in three years.

"The decline in federal funding for housing is partly why cities like San Francisco are having such a tough time finding funding for affordable housing development and have to 'tax' new housing construction through inclusionary requirements and fees," reports TechCrunch, citing cuts dating back to Reagan-era reduction in funds for public housing.

CNN's Sutter suggests solutions for child poverty in his piece, including expanding federal housing subsidies, which would reduce child poverty in the U.S. by 20.8 percent, costing $23.5 billion dollars annually. That is much less than the current price of child poverty in the country, which is $500 billion annually. (CNN report)

The lack of political will for affordable housing solutions in the meantime has led to stress on cities surrounding Silicon Valley and San Francisco, especially in Oakland, across the Bay. The usually affordable and diverse city has seen an influx of renters from outside the city, fleeing rising rents in the Peninsula and South Bay, renters who are tolerant of higher rents than are the norm in Oakland. Oakland's median income is $34,195. Oakland's median rent has risen to $2,124 per month ($25,488/year).

"Over the last decade, thousands of Oakland residents have lost their homes to investors planning to primp, paint and flip them into more luxurious rentals. Some of those homes purchased for $135,000 now rent for $3,000 a month. For renters pushed out of San Francisco, this is a bargain, while many families who used to live in these homes have sought cheaper housing in far-flung suburbs," said Susie Cagle in her report. "Oakland wants you to stop calling it the 'Next Brooklyn.'" This trend has, in turn, reduced the historically Black city by 25 percent, of Black former residents.

In the face of rising inequity, solutions are being pursued in different areas of the region. SEIU 521 is leading the fight for a living wage for homecare workers in San Mateo County, opening the conversation in local media about the cost of living in the Peninsula that has led to discussion by the San Mateo Board of Supervisors about a living wage ordinance. County Manager John Maltbie has also brought the issue of rent stabilization to the Board.

In San Jose, the newly formed Silicon Valley Coalition, made up of unions and community partners, has affordable housing and living wages as their top goals.

Statewide, conversations are ongoing about Silicon Valley corporations offshoring billions in savings through tax loopholes, deriving the benefits of being located in a region rich in technological resources, but giving little back from the profits.

Photo: J. Pat Carter/AP

Why black and brown lives matter for all lives

Mon, 23 Mar 2015 12:59:00 +0000

On Friday, Feb. 20, a police officer shot and killed Mexican national Rubén García Villalpando on the side of a highway outside of Dallas, Texas. García was unarmed and reportedly had his hands in the air shortly after stepping out of his vehicle.

On Friday, March 6, another officer shot and killed unarmed African American Tony Terrell Robinson, Jr. in Madison, Wis. By the following Monday, around 2,000 people were out in the city's streets protesting the shooting death, holding a large banner that read "Black Lives Matter."

Interestingly, the same day of the protest, Robinson's uncle, Turin Carter, gave a family media statement that explained his nephew was not just "black." He described Tony as "black, white, he's a mixture of everything."

"I encourage everybody to show support regardless of race," continued Carter, "because this is truly a universal issue." Police brutality is an issue that everyone should be concerned about, but especially since U.S. law enforcement generally finds it easier to take "non-white" lives.

The deaths of Tony Robinson, Rubén García, and numerous others reflect a difficult past and shed light on our present struggles with race in the United States. The routine police violence against Latino, Indigenous, and African American men highlight how state officials treat "black" and "brown" bodies under the law.

The current atmosphere of police brutality shows that many men of color continue to live in a police state in the 21st century United States. When racial profiling, police brutality, and general discrimination are proven to be systematic in our society then we should all be pushing for actions that create change together.

"Are you going to kill me?"

Without downplaying that law enforcement heavily single out African American men, it needs to be recognized that police target other men of color as well. Last month, police in the U.S. shot and killed at least three unarmed Mexican nationals.

One of these killings took place in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, where a dashboard camera recorded rookie officer Robert Clark pulling over Rubén García after a brief car chase. The 31-year-old García steps out of his vehicle, puts his hands in the air, and asks: "Are you going to kill me?" García begins walking towards the officer who yells profanities while telling him to stop moving.

Family members who have seen the video say that García's body language was peaceful and that he was nervous. After he steps out of the camera's view two shots go off, which hit García in the chest. The father of four children died from his wounds.

The officer was unharmed. García was unarmed.

"If my husband had killed a police officer, he would be in jail," said Marta Romero. García's widow continued, "but since it was the opposite, will they just leave it this way?" Questioning the mistreatment of undocumented people in the U.S., she asks: "What are human rights then?"

Suspect: "male black, light skinned"

Exactly two weeks later in Madison, Wisconsin, officer Matt Kenny responded to reports of a "male black, light skinned" who was "yelling and jumping" in traffic. The police dispatcher radioed, "apparently, Tony hit one of his friends" and that there were "no weapons seen."

Officer Kenny went to the apartment that 19-year-old Tony had entered and while outside said he heard a disturbance coming from inside the apartment. Around this time the dispatcher received another call from someone reporting an assault within the apartment. An officer on the radio can be heard saying "we have to enter" and then Kenny forced his way into the home.

Apparently a struggle ensued where both men sustained injuries. Officer Kenny's injuries have not yet been released. Robinson ended up shot and died from his wounds.

Officer Kenny was armed. Robinson was unarmed.

"White mother of a black child"

The deaths of Tony Robinson and Rubén García show that law officials use lethal force against men of color who might not identity themselves as "black." Like many "black" men, these two men were both on the margins of society.

Tony's uncle, Turin Carter, explained that Tony "felt a misfit for most of his life" and his nephew's "identity was formed because of his racial ambiguity." As he spoke to the media, Carter highlighted the mixed background of his family who stood around him.

Tony's mother Andrea Irwin was present and Carter described her as "a white mother of a black child, black children, who have white and black relatives." Speaking about her son in a separate interview, Irwin said that she "doesn't know how to live without him."

A similar situation arose last September when Susan Hunt, also of European heritage, claimed police in Utah used excessive force when they killed her African American son. Police shot Darrien Hunt six times as he brandished a samurai-type sword -- the fatal shot was in his back as he was running away.

Darien's mother claims that "no white boy" would be shot like this for carrying a sword. To Susan Hunt it was clear: "They killed my son because he's black."

The Darien Hunt and Tony Robinson killings show that families of multiethnic men might view their children in different ways, yet society and police often see them as menacing "black" males.

Whose lives matter?

While Tony Robinson's uncle understood that the police categorized his nephew based "off his appearance," Carter still took the time to explain to the media that "there's no way you can look at Tony, or any of my nephews, and be able to determine 100 percent what we are in terms of our heritage and our ethnicity."

This may be true, yet this is what we often miss: ethnic heritage and race are two different things.

While Tony may have personally identified as a person of mixed ethnic heritage, being "light skinned" did not save him from being racially profiled as "black." Race is how police matched the young man to a "black" male suspect description and it may have also played a role in why the officer perceived Tony as such a great threat.

It's important to realize that Tony Robinson's family was not trying to distance themselves from "blackness" by acknowledging their "complex heritage." They actually made a point of connecting Tony's death with the killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner this past summer.

"We don't wanna stop at just Black Lives Matter," said Carter, "because All Lives Matter." In this way, the family is trying to bring others into the "Black Lives Matter" movement. Broadening the scope of involvement, while retaining the message that racial discrimination needs to stop, is a positive way to gain allies.

Law enforcement also often mistreats the poor, homeless, and the mentally ill of all backgrounds. However, many times these victims are also people of color. That's why it's important to recognize that the fight against police brutality begins with "black" and "brown" bodies and extends to others.

Why we all must fight

Each case of law enforcement using lethal force is different and we need to carefully examine evidence before jumping to conclusions. Still, there's a problem when a pattern of deaths result from police who are supposedly following regular codes of conduct.

The use of procedural force by law officials has shown itself to be systematically flawed. Therefore it's time to change how officers engage suspects, especially men of color.

Certainly, police can use tazers, pepper spray, or shoot non-vital areas on an unarmed suspect when they feel threatened. Making these judgment calls quickly is not easy, yet when it gets to the point where an officer shoots dead a naked African American man with no weapons, then we need to reevaluate the system and call this what it is: murder.

Police departments that routinely target men of color (see Ferguson and undoubtedly many others), and college fraternity students that proudly shout the N-word while glorifying lynching African Americans from trees, are disturbing reminders that we need to battle entrenched, systematic racism.

Police brutality is just one area that proves that words do not just sit harmlessly in our heads. Racist emails and songs that are repeatedly passed along help to inform and form our beliefs. These ideas have real-world effects on people's lives.

We might not be able to measure exactly how much a racist view makes it easier to draw a gun or pull a trigger, but we can say one thing: bigotry helps.

The U.S. has long been a police state for Latinos, Native Americans, African Americans, and other men of color. Police brutality is a reality today. The only debate needs to be on how best to change it. If we are going to push back against future growth of militaristic policing in the U.S. then we will all need to get behind this important struggle together.

This article was originally posted on Huffington Post.

Photo: Memorial for Rubén García Villalpando (Family Photo)

Senate stalling on Lynch nomination is "unconscionable"

Tue, 17 Mar 2015 15:59:00 +0000

For 130 days now the Republican-dominated Senate has held up the confirmation of Loretta Lynch as U.S. Attorney General. Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell had promised to bring the nomination to a vote over a month ago. Notwithstanding impeccable credentials and reputation, President Obama's nominee to replace the outgoing Eric Holder has barely the 50 votes needed to allow a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Joe Biden.

A new twist to this sad story of Republican blockage was added by the GOP demand that a separate bill to prevent human trafficking be brought to the Senate floor first. Democrats balked at supporting the legislation after discovering hidden anti-abortion language in the bill.

Race and politics are undeniably additional factors. Republicans don't like Lynch's judicial outlook in general and her support of Obama's executive order on immigration in particular. That the former Brooklyn DA would become the first black woman to hold the position as the national top law enforcement officer is another big reason.

The chairman of the Black Congressional Caucus Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., said it plainly:"I think race certainly can be considered a major factor in the delay."

The White House has called the stalling "unconscionable."

Prospective Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton weighed in with a tweet calling the spectacle a Congressional trifecta:" "1) Blocking great nominee, 1st African American woman AG, for longer than any AG in 30 years" Clinton's first tweet read, followed by "2) Playing politics with trafficking victims....3) Threatening women's health & rights."

They are all correct. The GOP is playing a cruel and twisted game. Whether they will be held accountable will depend how an informed electorate responds.

We urge our readers to make your outrage at the GOP delay known. Action will speak much louder than words.

Image: Creative Commons 3.0

Selma 2015: a massive gathering but a long march ahead

Mon, 16 Mar 2015 15:48:00 +0000

SELMA, Ala. - As my partner and I drove to Selma two weekends ago, thoughts reverberated within my head that I'm sure weighed on the minds of many progressives across the country: What perilous choices stood before the country in 1965 and what perilous choices stand before us today. Sure, there were practical concerns such as, where in the world are we going to park? But heavier matters dominated the thoughts and conversation of the drive.

I'll go ahead and warn you from the start that this isn't one of those articles about the 50th Anniversary of the Bridge Crossing at Selma that will leave you feeling fuzzy inside, but I hope it will motivate you to take action in order to build the type of future that the protestors at the Edmund Pettus Bridge risked, and in several instances lost, their lives for in 1965.

Those us who live in Alabama are used to seeing short local news reports concerning the commemoration every March but not much else. Of course, for the 50th anniversary there was a larger crowd, more national media coverage, and more high-profile speakers, with even President Obama coming to rouse the crowd. This year the event brought with it a uniquely larger impression on the national consciousness than any memory I have of previous commemorations.

It should have been an unencumbered celebration, an event where we as a nation were able to decry the injustices of the past and celebrate our shining present and bright future. Instead, it was a gathering of approximately 80,000 people who for the most part seemed to realize that we have a long march ahead of us. There were grievances which had to be expressed, some of which looked all too similar to those of 1965. If Fannie Lou Hamer said more than 50 years ago "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired," Lord knows she would be past the point of exhaustion by now.

Where have all the voting rights protections gone?

What many times is referred to as the crown of the 1960s civil rights movement, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, now lies lame and declawed 50 years later. A downright reactionary majority within the Supreme Court gutted the historic legislation over a year ago, striking down its provisions which mandated federal oversight to any changes in voting rules by states with a history of discrimination. Since that decision, many of these states have moved to ratify a multitude of new, superfluous restrictions to poll access which especially target low-income voters, people of color, and women. The most infamous and widespread alterations to voting procedures have been the requirement for photo ID at the polls and further restrictions on early voting.

Further alienating common people from the democratic process, we have also experienced some of the devastatingly negative effects of the same court's Citizens United decision. The decision's outcome opened the flood gates to an unprecedented amount of corporate-interest money being funneled into our election cycles. In 2012, for instance, the Koch brothers and the organizations and Super PACs connected to their efforts routed enough cash into right-wing candidates' coffers that the top ten labor unions in the country were outspent 2-1. Plus, the same 5-4 majority in the SCOTUS ruled in the McCutcheon decision of 2014 that caps on private individuals' contributions to political campaigns are "unconstitutional."

As David Cobb, representative of the anti-corporate personhood coalition Move to Amend, is fond of saying, "the most dangerous threat to democracy in the United States of America is the mistaken belief that we actually practice one." As John Lewis spoke before the President's speech in Selma, I wondered how disillusioned he must feel. He has made some comments on social media recently about how things are different, but I don't think he has any illusions that we're close to being there yet either. In other words, Selma 2015 was still not the place for a celebration of the crowning achievements of American democracy. It served as less of a commemoration than a rallying point for continuing the civil rights movement.

Ferguson tactics draw ire from boomer liberals

We must not forget that this event marks the historical brutalization of hundreds of protestors, predominantly black, at the hands of a violent white police force. We can't let the balloons, festivities, souvenirs, or even a sitting African-American president hide that. This past year has seen an outburst of revelations regarding the oppression of people of color by institutions whose raison d'être is supposedly to "serve and protect." The Department of Justice (DOJ) just a few days ago released a report detailing the cruel and racist activities of the police department of Ferguson, Missouri. Ferguson has become the center of national attention for police brutality and unfair treatment directed against people of color. According to the DOJ's report, the Ferguson Police Department's "approach to law enforcement...results in patterns of unnecessarily aggressive and at times unlawful policing; reinforces the harm of discriminatory stereotypes; discourages a culture of accountability; and neglects community engagement."

Several young organizers from Ferguson made their way to Selma to join in this year's events and were present throughout the weekend. They staged their own protest on Sunday, independent of the planned ceremonies, where several from their group lay down on the bridge to draw attention to the deaths of young black people at the hands of U.S. police departments, a "die-in," as they are called. This served to connect the dots between the bloodshed of 1965 and the continuing brutalization of people of color by police across the nation. The action took place in the path of the bridge-crossing ceremony itself and seemed to draw plenty of criticism from many of the marchers.

To be frank, the reaction was a bit disturbing. Although some marchers joined in with them, there was an observable "don't rain on our parade" attitude displayed by many of the participants, who seemed to be more comfortable with establishment politics and getting a t-shirt than grassroots direct action. Apparently, some have forgotten the frequently disruptive tactics of civil disobedience which permeated the civil rights movement of the 1960s. I, for one, thought this was one of the most "respectable" actions of the weekend.

The generation gap problem is not a new one but might be likened to the struggles between the old and new left during the 1960s. The problem of racially motivated police violence is not a new problem either. However, it has received more of the public spotlight in the past year, and that media shift is largely due to tactics like those employed by the Ferguson protestors at Selma. Without these types of disruptive tactics, Mike Brown may have been just another name added to the list of young black men gunned down by police officers in the U.S. In response to both the spontaneous and organized large-scale demonstrations in Ferguson, protests popped up in cities across the nation with similar grievances about the relationship between their own local police forces and minority communities. "Black Lives Matter" has become a national refrain, and it was proclaimed loudly by signs, shirts, and voices in Selma this year.

Labor shows up even when trouble is brewing elsewhere

The AFL-CIO publicly came to terms at its 2013 convention with the fact that the future of U.S. labor is largely contingent on a Southern Organizing Strategy. Considering this, it seems only sensible that labor would send its forces out in droves to an event like Selma 2015, in order to make itself starkly visible to the Southern working class. However, as Wisconsin's General Assembly passed so-called Right-to-Work legislation on the anniversary date of Bloody Sunday, one might think that these large gatherings of union members would be needed in Madison this weekend.

I got a chance to speak briefly with Greg Fann, president of the Metro Atlanta Chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, about the high-volume participation of trade unionists at the Bridge Crossing. Fann made the following keen remarks about labor's lingering connection to the events at Selma: "There's always a connection between the pocketbook and the ballot box. Dr. King understood that. Americans need both rights at work and participation in the voting booth for any effective change to be realized through either." The integral relationship between electoral politics and organized labor has been especially exposed on the state level within the last few years, as traditionally strong labor states like Michigan and Wisconsin have seen major setbacks and attacks on collective bargaining from state legislators and governors' offices controlled by the extreme right.

Let's not pretend for one second that we don't know the key factor for why the right maintains control of these offices, and it's not merely gerrymandering. The cognitive dissonance between the outcomes of U.S. electoral cycles and class interests is firmly rooted in racism. This weekend, as I considered how so many white, working-class voters around the country still play the pawn in the politics of racial divide and conquer, the following statement by Dr. King at the conclusion of the march from Selma kept ringing in my head: "If it may be said of the slavery era that the white man took the world and gave the Negro Jesus, then it may be said of the Reconstruction era that the Southern aristocracy took the world and gave the poor white man Jim Crow."

Fifty years after the events at Selma, the reality is that the majority of white, working-class voters still seem to have their low wages supplemented by what W.E.B. DuBois called the "psychological wage" of white supremacy. This is made evident by the consistent refusal of the majority of white workers to enter into labor or electoral coalitions with black, working-class progressives, even at the cost of their own material interests. I think most within the labor movement know this fact all too well, yet since the election of the first African-American U.S. president in 2008, progressives would be fooling themselves to claim they haven't witnessed a transformation in the politics of racial prejudice, from the dog whistle variety popularized by the likes of Lee Atwater in the 1980s to a conspicuous fever pitch reminiscent of earlier eras. That's one of the major reasons we can't see Selma as just a commemoration but a continuation.

Is that hope on the horizon or just a bumper sticker from 2008?

I am convinced that we must start looking more soberly at the political shifts taking place in our country if we want movements for justice and equality to be effective. There must be a sense of urgency among the progressive masses to take us where we need to go. Upworthy posts are just not going to do that, folks. A confused statement from a millionaire actress on an awards show is not going to save us, and it is not a sign of the revolutionary political shift we desperately need. The demands of our culture to "stay positive" many times undermine our critical abilities. Progressive workers have real enemies, difficult challenges, and deep-seated pains which we deal with daily due to the soul-crushing and physically unhealthy machinations of patriarchy, white supremacy, heteronormativity, and capitalism. There's no way we deal with that by just keeping a positive attitude.

All of that said, I couldn't possibly have left this event without some optimism. For a lot of people, including myself, the 50th Anniversary of the Bridge Crossing at Selma represents hope in the midst of trials, courage in the midst of uncertainty and imminent existential threats. Where cruelty, barbarism, marginalization, oppression, and exploitation abound, people can still dream and push the moral arc of the universe toward justice. That's still what Selma tells us.

There is a movement in the streets to restore the Voting Rights Act's key provisions, and even our cautious president is lending his voice to it. Young black and brown agitators and their allies are breaking the silence about racist police violence in their communities, and they are confronting it by both bold acts of spontaneous resistance and organizational strategy. From the local union hall down the street to the offices of the leadership of the AFL-CIO, the trade union movement in the U.S. is moving toward organizing the South and a more intentional strategy of opposing racism within its own ranks and beyond. These are all things that can keep our hope alive.

Through all of the political challenges that face us and even through my own occasional bouts of personal dreariness, I am enlivened with that same confidence expressed in the chant the Ferguson protestors recited at the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Sunday. Although sounded by a tired and weary voice that floats somewhere between a lament, a prayer, and a hope, I believe that we will win!

Photo: Bill Frakes/AP

Terry Pratchett, 66: fantasy author's own narrative closes

Mon, 16 Mar 2015 12:26:00 +0000

Fantasy novelist Terry Pratchett died Mar. 12, leaving several library shelves' worth of published literature behind, as well as the legacy those books created. Author of the popular Discworld fantasy series and other bestselling novels, his passing was confirmed via his Facebook page.

A short piece by PJSM Prints noted, "Terry passed away in his home, with his cat sleeping on his bed, surrounded by his family on March 12, 2015. Diagnosed with PCA (posterior cortical atrophy - a rare form of Alzheimer's disease) in 2007, he battled the disease with his trademark determination and creativity, and continued to write. He completed his last book, a new Discworld novel, in the summer of 2014, before succumbing to the final stages of the disease."

Fellow fantasy author Neil Gaiman remarked that he met Pratchett "30 years and one month ago" and contacted the novelist for feedback on one of his early fictional works during the 80s. The two later collaborated on the novel Good Omens, an apocalyptic novel with parodical and comedic elements, which went on to win four awards. For Gaiman, the idea to work with a writer he admired was a no-brainer: "It was like Michelangelo phoning and asking if you wanted to paint a ceiling together," he said.

Though Pratchett wrote more than 70 books, he is most commonly associated with his Discworld series, which played with and poked fun at common fantasy tropes and conventions while offering a unique and intriguing narrative of its own. The books also commented on serious issues with analogies to the Gulf War, trade unions (interestingly, there's something in this world that is essentially a magicians union), financial matters, university politics, religion, and philosophy. The books were also interesting in that they had humorous or offbeat footnotes that marked a brief departure from the narrative, and which sometimes also had footnotes of their own. The novels also did not use chapters, as Pratchett's view of them was thus: "Life does not happen in regular chapters, nor do movies, and Homer did not write in chapters. I'm blessed if I know what function they serve in books for adults."

Pratchett was a lifelong defender of the fantasy genre, in which he worked rather exclusively, and which he, as so many of his peers, felt did not get the credit or respect it deserved. "Fantasy is about seeing the world from new directions." That it is often "unregarded as a literary form" is aggravating, he said, because "it is the oldest form of fiction. What were the storytellers of old doing when they talked about the beginnings of the world? They were weaving fantasies."

His obituary is perhaps best summed up with the words that he himself said in 2011, when he remarked, "I believe everyone should have a good death; the ideal death, I think, is what was the ideal Victorian death. You know, your [family] around you, a bit of sobbing. And you say goodbye to your loved ones."

Photo: AP

GOP letter to Iran: a national disgrace

Wed, 11 Mar 2015 14:42:00 +0000

Outrageous, dangerous, treasonous, contemptuous, racist, a threat to world peace; all describe public reactions to the letter signed by 47 Republican senators to the government of Iran seeking to torpedo President Obama's effort to reach a nuclear weapons agreement. Even conservative news sites like the the Daily News and Wall Street Journal have roundly condemned - albeit for their own reasons - the Republicans' extremist move.

Another word can be added to the list: criminal. The letter violates the Logan Act, a statute from the early days of the republic which holds that "Any citizen ... who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government ... to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both."

It's unlikely that the Justice Department would seek to prosecute the 47 Republicans and further deepen fractures in the ship of state driven by the no-holds-barred extremism of the tea party right. Still a petition is circulating on the White House public petition website calling for such prosecution. As with all such petitions that gather 100,000 signatures, the Obama administration has pledged to reply. MoveOn is also circulating a similar petition.

It's a dangerous moment. It wasn't enough that GOP House Speaker John Boehner and his fellow Republicans snubbed the president by inviting, without prior consultation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress. Now they have taken the unprecedented step of directly intervening in delicate international negotiations by addressing Iran's government, claiming that with the stroke of a pen a new president (presumably a Republican one, they hope) could undo any potential agreement.

In so doing, they have at once undermined the presidency and elevated the possibility of a military confrontation with Tehran.

It's well known that constitutionally it's the province of the President to conduct foreign policy and of the Senate to advise and consent. In this regard the Republican senators' letter demeans U.S. standing in the international arena, casting doubt on our government's ability to negotiate future binding agreements. Even more troubling, the real motive behind Republican efforts is evidently the desire for yet another war in the Greater Middle East. Their end goal: make the region safer for Big Oil and other U.S. corporate interests.

With the spread of reactionary ISIS and similar terror groups, benefiting from funds and weaponry provided by U.S. allies and indirectly the U.S. itself, the reintroduction of U.S. military advisors in Iraq, the bloody civil war in Syria, the ongoing and provocative suppression of Palestinian national aspirations, the danger of a general conflagration in the region is very real.

The dangers inherent in the GOP's congressional victory last fall are growing more apparent with the passing of each day. But all is not lost - a huge public outcry can not only give them pause but also push them back. The broad U.S. public needs to be heard and heard now!

Photo: Debra Sweet/Flickr (CC)

Lesbians who chose visibility: Unsung heroes of women's movement

Mon, 09 Mar 2015 16:07:00 +0000

(Names have been changed throughout)

Lesbians had only recently been invented when I met my first pair back in the 1970s.

At least that's how it seemed to me at the time. I was living in a teacherage with my family on the grounds of a small country school.

There was nothing to stop the wind on such a table flat landscape. Wind turned soil into dust, then that dust into pockmarking projectiles, wind did whatever it damn well wanted to do, because we mere humans couldn't stop it.

My father was the school superintendent. It was his first posting. The pay, while miserable, was a little better than what he'd managed before, but the school was poor and running out of students, who were mostly farm kids along with seasonal migrants.

Across from us stood a one-bedroom teacherage shared by Gloria and Brenda, a pair of single young women Dad had recruited the previous year as part of his youth drive. They both taught down in the younger grades. Rock music and laughter welcomed teen visitors to their home. I was one of those who came over.

The following summer, Gloria and Brenda weren't living together anymore. Dad had talked the school board into installing a trailer so that he had more dwellings to offer.

Layne, who taught several junior and senior high classes, moved into the new trailer.

Later, I'd hear students gossip about how Layne wore men's pants, but in retrospect, surely Dad had a clue as to her orientation. It wasn't so much the short hair or the men's pants. Layne just looked like a classic butch lesbian of that era. She didn't slick her hair back into a ducktail but there might have been some Brylcream usage in her past.

Maybe Dad thought Layne was the best candidate for the job, maybe he thought she could slide under the radar in such an isolated area. Before school started, Brenda moved from the little house she had shared with Gloria into the trailer with Layne.

I was to eventually hear that Brenda had known Layne previously, and that was the reason Layne had interviewed for the teaching job.

Layne and Brenda were my first adult lesbians, and through no fault of their own, failed to inspire. It was a tough year for them both. Brenda had been so bubbly, so lively. Not anymore. She crept through the halls with her head down, her face in flames. For you see, this was an entire school, pre-school to twelfth grade, under one roof.

There was no place to hide for anyone, let alone Layne and Brenda. I didn't witness any acts of abuse or humiliation, although there might well have been incidents of which I wasn't aware. Something made them shrink from our gazes. Made them act like victims rather than stride boldly through whatever slings and arrows came their way.

Because we had multi-grade classes so often in high school, especially in P.E., I heard some other girls talk about how masculine Layne dressed, and someone in the senior class must have thought her attire, her very being, hilarious because that year's yearbook included a picture of her with a ridiculing caption.

I didn't know what to make of it because for one thing I could barely make sense of my own burgeoning sexuality, much less the shaming of a pair of adult lesbians, but the other reason had to do with the fact that homosexuality was not a subject for polite conversation. There weren't any on television except as pathetic victims or villains, so who would I have asked about being gay?

I walked over to their trailer a couple of times that year, with that question in my head, but a question barely even thought of, much less spoken. Layne and Brenda let me in the door, nervous as kittens and yet they did let me in the door. They let me in the door and probably breathed a sigh of relief when I left.

We never had that conversation: are you gay, am I gay, what does it really mean, and does being gay mean that Layne acts like the man and Brenda like the wife?

Not one life-affirming moment happened for them or me, yet in the midst of that soul-churning school year, one of the older girls made a point of being friendly to them. She was then and now a confident straight, you might say, unfazed by gossip.

I don't know what happened to my first lesbians. I'd like to think that they stayed together but who knows.

I didn't receive an LGBT course in self-affirmation. I learned the negative lesson that being a lesbian was damned hard and since I didn't look like Layne and didn't want to be scared like Brenda, I wasn't about to accept such a difficult path. My coming out happened years later.

Sometimes the greatest blessing you can give a young person-or any person, really-is simply to exist. So that they know there's someone in this world who's like them. They need that shock of recognition, a jolt of lightning delivered as if by Gene Wilder's frizzy-haired Victor Frankenstein.

I'm not the only one, comes the thought. There's someone else like me. My god, they're alive, too.

You don't always recognize heroes by how many bows they take or by the awards bestowed upon them by a grateful nation. There won't be a monument for the unknown lesbians-and gay, bisexual and trans pioneers-who may never have walked in parades amongst our peers and straight allies.

Yet, in difficult times, they chose to become visible, and in so doing inspired support from some courageous straights-and made it a little easier for LGBTs like me who came along later.

Consider these words my way of laying a wreath and recognizing these unsung pioneers of women's history.

Photo: In this reincarnation of the classic Navy image from Times Square (depicting a soldier kissing a nurse), Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta (left) kisses girlfriend Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell. | Brian J. Clark/AP

U.S. could lose its postal service as we know it

Fri, 06 Mar 2015 13:24:00 +0000

Today was nothing but slog. A complete burden not just on the body, but a spewing of my entire soul. A steady crunch-crunch-crunch with every footstep. It's that crunching that's driving me mad: I can't move my feet without that racket bouncing through my simple brain. The day started with a driving snow; two inches before the clock hands struck noon. The snow turned into needles of hail, then sleet. The icy crust of precipitation on top of the layer of thick snow created my hell for the day. With each insertion of my foot into this sludge it took an equal amount of labor to release my foot into the frosty air. The ground seemed to have demons reaching up with death-grip talons hell-bent on stopping me from completing my appointed rounds. The steady crunch ringing through my skull with each footstep was my squashing of another succubus hindering me from getting to the next mailbox. Damn you evil creatures, and damn this evil weather!

We get through these days; we letter carriers. The body keeps moving, but only because the mind stays focused. "Keep on playing those mind games." I imagine myself always on the next street, one step ahead of the game. I imagine riding the Great White Steed through the Florida Keys, maybe on the Seven Mile Bridge. I imagine having that first beer when I take off my layers of winter wear after coming home. I evoke the distant memory of only last night, when my best friend and retired letter carrier wife said, "Welcome home, baby!" I can have that again. But I got to keep moving through this slog.

I take this job seriously. I have a mission every day for my community. My coworkers feel the same way. Until my route is completed, I feel my job is not done. Tonight, I did not finish delivering the last mailbox till 6:50 pm. That does not make me happy, but the assignment was finished and everyone got their mail for the day. Our start time was moved from 7:30 to 8:00 am, which just makes my job harder. I want to deliver your mail as early in the day as possible. Some offices in our district have start times as late as 9:00 am. I guess that explains why the new postal caps have built-in headlights.

Another thing happened on Jan. 5 of this year with nary a peep from United States Postal Service (USPS) headquarters. Service standards for first class mail were "relaxed." That sounds soothing, doesn't it? Kinda like a massage. In the "old days" if you mailed a letter, let's say within a fifty-mile radius, it would get there overnight. A good example would be from a Detroit address to a suburban Detroit address. Now it takes two days. A letter that normally took two days, for example, from Cincinnati to Detroit, now takes three days.

The thought behind this from the Postal Service management is to "relax," i.e., delay the US mail so that the closure of 82 mail processing facilities can happen within the next year. The effect of these closures would be the loss of 15,000 jobs. But the loss of good paying "middle class" jobs is only the tip of this massive iceberg.

Ruth Goldway, Postal Regulatory Commissioner since 1998, criticized the latest service cut, which "threatens the very integrity and concept of Universal Service - the Postal Service's primary obligation.... Under the law, the Postal Service is required to give the highest consideration to the requirement for the most expeditious collection, transportation, and delivery of important letter mail." This is the reason letter carriers all across this land labor in all types of weather conditions to complete their appointed rounds six days a week. We want the American public to get their mail and parcels in a timely, efficient manner. No delays, no excuses.

Postal management is making a business decision to cut service on first class mail. They believe it will "save money." That is the elephant in the room. The United States Postal Service is moving more and more to a business model than a service to the American public. My supervisors and postmaster have been using the words "company" and "business" lately in my conversations with them in regards to the USPS. The word "service" is never emphasized by them, but We the People have a mechanism to shift the dialogue.

The American public needs to demand that the Postal Service remains a service that continues to serve the American people. Instead of a slash and burn approach to cutting services, the USPS could and should be expanding services to our communities. The greatest example would be establishing "public banks" in all post offices to help those who are excluded from participating in "for profit" banks. Many of these folks rely on predatory lenders who rob you not with a gun, but with a fountain pen. Our network expands into every street, in every city. We could do great things, if given the chance. And still deliver your mail!

The four postal unions formed an alliance last year to "Help Save America's Postal Service." We quickly realized that more was needed. In recent years we valiantly tried to frame our message to the American public, with limited success. We have staved off attempts to kill Saturday mail delivery and more recently door-to-door delivery. We tried to stop the "relaxing" of first class mail standards and the closure of mail processing facilities, but these policies seem to be moving forward. We have a Congress that is reluctant to address our issues and a president who at best seems indifferent to the plight of the public Postal Service. We are reaching out to each and every one of you now.

A grand alliance to save our public postal service

On the national level, close to 70 organizations have signed on to help in our mission: To preserve the United States Postal Service as a public trust, a national treasure that serves all citizens of our country equally. This public good must not be sacrificed for the sake of private investment and profit. The organizations now affiliated are not just labor unions, but community groups as well as faith-based, social justice, and environmental groups. We want to see small business associations, senior citizens' advocates, and Chambers of Commerce. We all have a stake in this battle!

When the unions fight this battle alone, it is seen as a war to save our jobs. This has never resonated with the majority of the American people, most of whom do not hold union jobs. That is why America has to see this struggle in a different light. That is why America has to know what can be lost here if we do nothing. If we don't fight back, if we don't lock arms and stand in solidarity, young and old, union and non-union, rich and poor, we will lose an American institution. Older than the Constitution itself, the Postal Service will become just another company.

And I will lose any motivation for climbing to your mailbox on a miserable winter day.

Sign the pledge today here.

Photo: AP

Netanyahu, Boehner, and hypocrisy on Iran

Fri, 06 Mar 2015 11:19:00 +0000

It was a spectacle that had few if any parallels in the modern history of nations: a foreign head of state invited by an opposition party to directly intervene into a debate over a country's foreign policy.

But that is exactly what happened when House Majority Leader John Boehner, deliberately not consulting with the White House or State Department, invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress.

The insult was obvious and precipitated a boycott of the address by 60 members of Congress along with the president, the vice-president and others in the administration. Not so obvious was yet another challenge by the far-right to the role of government regarding its responsibility for statecraft: One political party in a divided government abrogated the traditional, constitutional right of the executive to conduct foreign policy.

But Benjamin Netanyahu was brought to Washington to help do just that. The aim was to brazenly derail the Obama administration's attempt, along with four other countries, to reach a nuclear deal with Iran.

Despite the Israeli prime minister's lame and false claim that his address was "not political" - and this from a candidate facing a general election in two weeks - Netanyahu lambasted Obama's negotiations with Iran, insisting that the Iranian government could not be trusted. He claimed further that the 10-year time period for the agreement was far too short and that Iran's nuclear production facilities would be left in place. He implied over and over again that the administration was naive and hadn't a clue as to whom they were dealing with.

And yet in a world in which ever more countries have acquired the technological capacity to produce nuclear weapons, what options are there other than diplomacy and negotiation? While production facilities can be taken off line or destroyed, the scientific and technological know-how cannot. And even production facilities can be quickly replaced.

And surely an important irritant in the Greater Middle East is the widely known, if not officially admitted, fact that Israel possesses nuclear weapons - the sole nuclear-armed country in the region.

Engagement and negotiation are the only realistic alternatives to military diktat, terrorism and devastating war. As for trusting a problematic government, remember that when our own government first entered the nuclear arms race some 70 years ago, the barbarism of segregation still ruled our land, thinking anti-capitalist thoughts was criminalized here, and so was intercourse between people of different races and same-sex couples. It took a broad based domestic peace and civil rights movement to compel a sea change in public attitudes and prevent further use of nuclear weapons.

So too with other countries including Iran. One thing is sure, military bluster, intervention and a steadfast refusal to find a solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict will only make the region and the world less safe.

At the end of the day, negotiations leading to complete nuclear disarmament are the only sure way to step away from the brink and bring about a sustainable and lasting peace. A majority of Americans, including Republicans, favor a negotiated solution with Iran. Congress would be ill-advised not to heed the public's strong desire.

Photo: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, play "kissy-face." | DonkeyHotey CC 2.0

S. Dakota authorities pull a fast one on hockey game attack

Mon, 02 Mar 2015 16:40:00 +0000

RAPID CITY, S.D. - The Rapid City Police Department and the City Attorney's office announced Feb. 18 that only one suspect had been charged, and just with disorderly conduct, in a Jan. 24 hockey game assault on Native American elementary school children.

This is an appalling travesty of justice.

On Jan. 24, while on what was supposed to be a fun-filled field trip, 57 Lakota American Indian school children, ages 9-13, were verbally and physically assaulted by 15 or more men who shouted racial slurs and doused them with beer during a hockey game in Rapid City.

The Native American children, accompanied by chaperones, teachers, other staff and some parents, were attending their first hockey game at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center in Rapid City, South Dakota. One parent had also brought her four-year-old to the game.

After a 3½-week investigation, officials have come up with one minor charge, against 41-year-old Trace O'Connell of the town of Phillip. The disorderly conduct charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 days jail time and a $500 fine. This is a paltry result in light of the reported circumstances.

The American Indian public is outraged, seeing racism in the lack of more serious charges.

I am an attorney with abundant experience as a tribal public defender and also in mainstream venues. On Feb. 17, I called the Rapid City Police Department to inquire about the case. I was told by Communications Officer Brendyn Medina that over 100 interviews had been conducted, and that detectives had "put in a lot of hours on the case." The latest press release said over 170 people had been interviewed, involving 550 hours of personnel time. This may sound good, but I suggest it is really a sleight of hand. The prosecutor and the police department seem to be attempting to confuse the case: Were 170 interviews really necessary?

The Rapid City Police already had the complaints of the alleged victims. It appears that the police department was not looking for statements to support the allegations of the victims, but just the opposite. How many more interviews were needed to bring charges of child abuse, hate crimes and assault?

Was the Rapid City Police Department in fact doing the job of the defense of the assailant(s), by trying to shift the weight of the testimonial evidence in their favor? A similar tactic was used in the case of the shooting of the young black man Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., with the result being the exoneration of the accused police officer.

Authorities in this case have moved at a slow pace: The police knew from the outset the identities of the alleged assailants and after weeks of investigation came forth with only one culprit. Where are his partners in this crime?

While being doused with beer by these men, according to reports, the children were also called, among other racist epithets, "prairie n****rs," accompanied by shouts of "Go back to the rez." It is abundantly clear that this was a hate crime. In that regard, Oglala Sioux Tribe President John Yellow Bird Steele has already sent a letter to President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder asking for a Justice Department investigation into the incident.

This incident has gone not just national, but international. Officials at the American Horse School in Allen, S.D. (on the Pine Ridge Reservation), attended by the victimized children, report that that there is a wall of cards and letters at the school from all over the world in support of the children.

This kind of incident is not new for South Dakota It has brought up memories of other incidents reported in the Native press: of epithets shouted and eggs hurled at Indian families shopping in reservation border towns, and of "KKK" carved on a Native patient during surgery in Rapid City. American Indians comprise 12-17 percent of Rapid City's population but make up more than a whopping 54 percent of its prison inmate population. Indian children are still flagrantly being seized by state authorities, at the rate of 740 per year, in violation of the federal Indian Child Welfare Act. Police in Rapid City are believed to have killed unknown numbers of Indian males, and there are still many unsolved murders of Native men in the city.

The outrages here seemingly have no end in sight. But an end could begin with the full prosecution of not just one, but all of the men who physically and verbally assaulted the Lakota schoolchildren on Jan. 24. It would help heal the wounds of these children who have been seared by the malignant cancer of racism.

The fight against racism in South Dakota is today the flashpoint of the struggle against the genocide of American Indian people, a struggle to ensure the survival of our children, our future.

Photo: Hanna Forer, 20, and other protesters listen to Native American leaders speak during an anti-racism demonstration at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center in Rapid City, S.D., Feb. 10, in the wake of the Jan. 24 attacks on Native school children at a hockey game there. Josh Morgan/AP/Rapid City Journal

Lies and myths about Greece and Europe’s debt

Mon, 02 Mar 2015 11:38:00 +0000

"Debt, n. An ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slave driver"

Ambrose Bierce, journalist & writer

"The history of an oppressed people is hidden in the lies and agreed myth of its conquerers"

Meridel LeSueur, author & activist

Myths are dangerous precisely because they rely more on cultural memory and prejudice than facts, and behind the current crisis between Greece and the European Union (EU) lays a fable that bears little relationship to why Athens and a number of other countries in the 28-member organization find themselves in deep distress.

The tale is a variation of Aesop's allegory of the industrious ant and the lazy, fun-loving grasshopper, with the "northern countries" - Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, Finland - playing the role of the ant, and Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland the part of the grasshopper.

The ants are sober and virtuous - led by the frugal Swabian housefrau, German Chancellor Angela Merkel - the grasshoppers are spendthrift, corrupt lay-abouts who have spent themselves into trouble and now must pay the piper.

The problem is that this myth bears almost no relationship to the actual roots of the crisis or what the solutions might be. And it perpetuates a fable that the debt is the fault of individual countries rather than a serious crisis at the very heart of the EU.

First, a little myth busting.

The European debt crisis goes back to the end of the roaring '90s when the banks were flush with money and looking for ways to raise their bottom lines. One major strategy was to pour money into real estate, which had the effect of creating bubbles, particularly in Spain and Ireland. In the latter, from 1999 to 2007, bank loans for Irish real estate jumped 1,730 percent, from 5 million Euros to 96.2 million Euros, or more than half the GDP of the Irish Republic. Housing prices increased 500 percent. "It was not the public sector but the private sector that went haywire in Ireland," concludes Financial Times analyst Martin Wolf.

Spain, which had a budget surplus and a low debt ratio, went through much the same process, and saw an identical jump in housing prices: 500 percent.

In both countries there was corruption, but it wasn't the penny ante variety of tax evasion or profit skimming. Politicians - eager for a piece of the action and generous "donations" - waived zoning rules and environmental regulations, and cut sweetheart tax deals. Hundreds of thousands of housing projects went up, many of them never to be occupied.

Then the American banking crisis hit in 2008, and the bottom fell out. Suddenly, the ants were in trouble. But not really, because the ants have a trick: they gamble and the grasshoppers pay.

The "trick," as Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate in economics, points out, is that Europe (and the U.S.) have moved those debts "from the private sector to the public sector - a well-established pattern over the past half-century."

Fintan O'Toole, author of "Ship of Fools: How Stupidity and Corruption Sank the Celtic Tiger," estimates that to save the Irish-Anglo Bank, Irish taxpayers shelled out 30 billion Euros, a sum that was the equivalent of the island's entire tax revenues for 2009. The European Central Bank - which, along with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Commission, make up the "Troika" - strong-armed Ireland into adopting austerity measures that tanked the country's economy, doubled the unemployment rate, increased consumer taxes, and forced many of the country's young people to emigrate. Almost half of Ireland's income tax now goes just to service the interest on its debts.

Poor Portugal. It had a solid economy and a low debt ratio, but currency speculators drove up interest rates on borrowing beyond what the government could afford, and the European Central Bank refused to intervene. The result was that Lisbon was forced to swallow a "bailout" that was laden with austerity measures that, in turn, torpedoed its economy.

In Greece's case corruption was at the heart of the crisis, but not the popular version about armies of public workers and tax dodging oligarchs. There are rich tax dodgers aplenty in Greece, but Germany, Sweden, and many other European countries spend more of their GDP on services than does Athens. Greece spends 44.6 percent of its GDP on its citizens, less than the EU average and below Germany's 46 percent and Sweden's 55 percent.

And as for lazy: Greeks work 600 hours more a year than Germans.

According to economist Mark Blyth, author of "Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea," Greek public spending through the 2000s is "really on track and quite average in comparison to everyone else's," and the so-called flood of "public sector jobs" consisted of "14,000 over two years." All the talk of the profligate Greek government is "a lot of nonsense" and just "political cover for the fact that what we've done is bail out some of the richest people in European society and put the cost on some of the poorest."

There was a "score" in Greece. However, it had nothing to do with free spending, but was a scheme dreamed up by Greek politicians, bankers, and the American finance corporation, Goldman Sachs.

Greece's application for EU membership in 1999 was rejected because its budget deficit in relation to its GDP was over 3 percent, the cutoff line for joining. That's where Goldman Sachs came in. For a fee rumored to be $200 million (some say three times that), the multinational giant essentially cooked the books to make Greece look like it cleared the bar. Then Greece's political and economic establishment hid the scheme until the 2008 crash shattered the illusion.

It was the busy little ants, not the fiddling grasshoppers, that brought on the European debt crisis.

American, German, French, and Dutch banks had to know that they were creating an unstable real estate bubble - a 500 percent jump in housing prices is the very definition of the beast - but kept right on lending because they were making out like bandits.

When the bubble popped and Europe went into recession, Greece was forced to apply for a "bailout" from the Troika. In exchange for 172 billion Euros, the Greek government instituted an austerity program that saw economic activity decline 25 percent, and unemployment rise to 27 percent (and over 50 percent for young Greeks). The cutbacks slashed pensions, wages, and social services, and drove 44 percent of the population into poverty.

Virtually all of the "bailout" - 89 percent - went to the banks that gambled in the 1999 to 2007 real estate casino. What the Greek - as well as Spaniards, Portuguese, and Irish - got was misery.

There are other EU countries, including Italy and France that, while not in quite the same boat as the "distressed four," are under pressure to bring down their debt ratios.

But what are those debts?

This past summer, the Committee for a Citizen's Audit on the Public Debt issued a report on France, a country that is currently instituting austerity measures to bring its debt in line with the magic "three percent" ratio. What the committee concluded was that 60 percent of the French public debt was "illegitimate."

More than 18 other countries, including Brazil, Portugal, Ecuador, Greece and Spain, have done the same "audit," and, in each case, found that increased public spending was not the cause of deficits. From 1978 to 2012, French public spending actually declined by two GDP points.

The main culprit in the debt crisis was a fall in tax revenues resulting from massive tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. According to Razmig Keucheyan, sociologist and author of "The Left Hemisphere," this "neoliberal mantra" that was supposed to increase investment and employment did the opposite.

According to the study, the second major reason was the increase in interest rates that benefits creditors and speculators. Had interest rates remained stable during the 1990s, debt would be significantly lower.

Keucheyan argues that tax reductions and interest rates are "political decisions" and that "public deficits do not grow naturally out of the normal course of social life. They are deliberately inflicted on society by the dominant classes to legitimize austerity policies that will allow the transfer of value from the working classes to the wealthy ones."

The International Labor Organization recently found that wages have, indeed, stalled or declined throughout the EU over the past decade.

The audit movement calls for repudiating debt that results from "the service of private interests" as opposed to the "wellbeing of the people." In 2008, Ecuador canceled 70 percent of its debt as "illegitimate."

How this plays out in the current Greek-EU crisis is not clear. The Syriza government is not asking to cancel the debt - though it would certainly like a write-down - but only that it be given time to let the economy grow. The recent four-month deal may give Athens some breathing room, but the ants are still demanding austerity and tensions are high.

What seems clear is that Germany and its allies are trying to force Syriza into accepting conditions that will undermine its support in Greece and demoralize anti-austerity movements in other countries.

The U.S. can play a role in this - President Obama has already called for easing the austerity policies - through its domination of the IMF. By itself Washington can outvote Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland, and could exert pressure on the two other Troika members to compromise. Will it? Hard to say, but the Americans are certainly a lot more nervous about Greece exiting the Eurozone than Germany.

But the key to a solution is exploding the myth.

That has already begun. Over the past few weeks, demonstrators in Greece, Spain, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Great Britain, Belgium and Austria have poured into the streets to support Syriza's stand against the Troika. "The Left has to work together having as its common goal the elimination of predatory capitalism," says Maite Mola, vice-president of the European Left organization and member of the Portuguese parliament. "And the solution should be European."

In the end, the grasshoppers might just turn Aesop's fable upside down.

This article originally appeared at Conn Hallinan's blog, Dispatches From the Edge.

Greek Prime Minister and Syriza Leader Alexis Tsipras delivers a speech at his party central committee, in Athens, on Feb. 28. | Petros Giannakouris/AP