Strike For A Living Wage

            Two articles appeared within the same week, same online publication, that share an uncanny relation with each other. From the headlines, one would think the two had little to nothing in common. “On strike for a better world: Labor conflict is coming — and the ruling class will fight back hard Biden thinks he has averted a rail strike — for now. But the elites can’t crush massive discontent forever” was published in Salon 9-21-22. It is by journalist and former global war correspondent Chris Hedges. It features an archival black and wide photo prominently showing a row of Construction Workers Union members picketing, holding signs reading “Strike for a living wage”. In the article Hedges examines the history of labor strikes, the uber wealthy that opposed them, and the correlation with today (Analysis finds it way too much, too many to be brief). On 9-24-22 Salon published “”You are going to hear our voices”: Rev. William J. Barber on the midterms and the road ahead Don’t fear the word “poor,” Barber says: If poor people voted in large numbers, that would change everything” by Bob Hennelly, a reporter for the Chief-Leader. It features a recent photo of Reverend Barber delivering a sermon in Selma, Alabama. Hennelly’s article is an interview with Barber following a keynote address by the latter to the American chapter of the World Student Christian Federation delivered recently at Princeton University. Again, too much, too many to be brief. One “fact” is clear throughout the interview: most are reluctant to self-identify as poor. As a potent voting block they are “used” (politically) by those not poor. Organized politically, they would be capable of enormous, comprehensive, and real change (But how?). On its face it appears the two articles, one history based and the other a contemporary interview, would share little in common. Analysis reveals a curious and prescient overlap. The archival image at the onset of Hedges’ article says it all. He follows this up with: “Today, the top 10 percent of the richest people in the United States own almost 70 percent of the country’s total wealth. The top 1 percent control 31 percent of the wealth. The bottom 50 percent of the U.S. population hold 2 percent of all U.S. wealth. Infrastructure is outdated and in disrepair. Public institutions, including schools, public broadcasting, the courts and the postal service are underfunded and degraded.” “Workers, bereft of union protection and lacking industrial jobs, have been forced into the gig economy, where they have few rights, no job protection and often earn below the minimum wage. The rise in global food and energy prices, coupled with the weakening of democratic institutions and impoverishment of workers, have become a potent recipe for revolt. Weekly earnings, adjusted for inflation, decreased by 3.4 percent from August 2021 to August 2022, and real hourly earnings fell by 2.8 percent in the same period. Hourly earnings, adjusted for inflation, have fallen for the past 17 months.” Hennelly quotes Barber: “If you look at the number of poor people — 52 million without a living wage, 140 million [overall] — you have to talk to them as human beings. Second of all, say to them, “I am not here to ask you to vote. I am here for you to join a movement that says there’s something wrong with our policies that this many people can be left disinherited.” Thirdly, I am asking you to believe that democracy is not just an idea, but democracy and justice are on the ballot. So who you are going to elect is going to determine health care. It is going to determine if you can push them to do the right thing because if people who get elected tell you upfront, “Don’t come to me about a living wage, don’t even talk to me,” then you don’t have a real chance with them. And lastly, let people know how much power they have. There is not a battleground state where the presidential election has been decided within three percentage points where poor and low-wealth people don’t make up 45 percent of the electorate.” “Yes, we have done some things on climate change — historic things. Great. Yes, we have done some things with Medicare and pricing on the drugs. Great. But you can’t dismiss what was left off: voting rights and a living wage. You have to tell people, “Give us the kind of majority where we can’t be overturned easily and we will deal with that — we will deal with the filibuster. We will give you a living wage.”” Analysis finds that a living wage is the one things that never turns up on all the corporate media coverage/polling with regard to the upcoming midterm elections. Inflation, the economy, the war, Roe, etc. all are put forth as “what people want.” And those running to be elected collaborate with this same made up narrative. A living wage is an unspoken, assumed outcome of the correct choice on the ballot. “Strike for a living wage!”

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The Monarch Is Dead. Long Live The Monarchy!

            The Donald got bumped from first place in the past week’s news box office receipts by the recently deceased queen of England. One can’t turn on the news, any news, without some story about the queen, her funeral, or her dogs. It’s not that the passing of any individual isn’t a matter of concern, only with this individual, the line between state figurehead and just-human are blurred. In the US, the president represents the US (to a certain extent) but is just-human when out of office. Not so for the British royals. And so there is a certain undercurrent of resentment. Not so much as to the news being dominated by man on the street interviews (standing in 5 mile long lines, to have a look), but that the monarchy was the face of colonization, exploitation, and oppression. News sources did their darnedest to insure that these cracks did not show (these demonstrations of minority protest, usually a mainstay of the “both side-ism” media, rarely appeared). Something similar occurred in Newark. “United Way of Licking County unable to secure donations from largest companies” (Kent Mallett, The Newark Advocate, 9-17-22) was dropped on a Saturday, and failed to resurface with the Sunday edition (print or online). There is no Saturday print edition; token coverage insuring the least number of readers would access the news. “Deb Dingus, executive director of the United Way of Licking County, told the Licking County Commissioners last week that Amazon, Facebook, Google and Intel have not contributed a campaign since locating in the county. Intel is new to the county this year, but the others have been here through a few United Way campaigns. “We’ve not seen anything come back from any of the large tech industries in this county,” Dingus said. “We’ve not gotten one penny from Google. Not one penny from Facebook. Not one penny from Amazon. Not one penny from Intel. “And yet, we have a lot of tax abatements. And the size of needs are continuing to grow in the county.”” Analysis finds striking similarities to British colonialism with the absence of active concern for the colonized by the colonizers. “Amazon announced it was coming to Licking County in November 2015. The company states it’s a misconception to claim it does not contribute to local communities because it has not donated to one organization. Amazon states it has contributed to 48 Ohio organizations, many in Licking County, but many outside of the county.” “Facebook announced it would build in New Albany in 2017 and had a groundbreaking ceremony in February 2020. Facebook has made grants available to the Johnstown-Monroe and Licking Heights school districts.” The crown’s representative had this obfuscating reply (dodging the issue, as usual, by attacking the messenger, not the message): “Licking County government, which has always supported United Way, also received some criticism, but from within. Licking County Commissioner Tim Bubb said it’s not acceptable that United Way has been unable to even find out who is the county’s United Way campaign leader this year. “I’m really concerned when we say we’re not sure who’s even the Licking County government contact or who’s running our campaign,” Bubb said. “Somebody should be working on that. Seriously. We’ve got 1,000 employees. There needs to be outreach. There needs to be stuff on our bulletin boards and website and that sort of thing.”” The cracks on the surface of our “shared” capitalist democracy grow wider and deeper, and it’s beginning to show. The colonization of space and culture by the royal 1% is revealing it’s violence, slowly yet increasingly each day. Token gestures are made to placate the natives that there is active concern for the welfare and well being of the colonized, yet “the size of needs are continuing to grow in the county.”” Americans, obsessed with watching the trappings of the queen’s funeral from the security of their “shared” capitalist democracy, have been spared the sight of the violent residue of the Royal British Empire. The monarch is dead. Long live the monarchy!  

Space And Culture

            The 9-11-22 online Business Insider headlined “China plans three missions to the Moon after discovering a new lunar mineral that may be a future energy source” by Jyoti Mann. “It comes a day after China became the third country to discover a new lunar mineral, which it called Changesite-(Y), according to Chinese state-controlled newspaper the Global Times. China’s Chang’e-5 mission retrieved samples from the moon in 2020 and it has been described by Global Times as a “phosphate mineral in columnar crystal” found in lunar rock particles. The mineral contains helium-3, which could be a future source of energy.” Well, there goes the neighborhood! Which literally occurred in the US (more than once). American Experience aired the documentary “The Feud: for the Hatfields and McCoys, there were no winners” on PBS 9-7-22. “The Feud reveals more than an isolated story of mountain lust and violence between “hillbillies” — the Hatfield – McCoy feud was a microcosm of the tensions inherent in the nation’s rapid industrialization after the Civil War.” One of the things the documentary points out was the appropriation of small town Appalachian news, sensationalized by big city newspapers to sell copy, forming the mythological “hillbilly” culture which permeates to this very day. The other thing (amongst many) it shows that, akin to the motivations of today’s Chinese (and others), the greedy accumulation of coal, timber and land resulted in the dire poverty which the otherwise industrious and self sufficient native inhabitants eventually found themselves staked to. And, of course, bereft of land and resources, not to mention culture, they were forced to labor in mines and industry. Etc. We’ve seen that movie before with the elimination of “the commons” in the days of the pre-industrialization run up. Sound vaguely, and discomfortingly, familiar? How about the Intel shell game in Licking County? “The citizens of Ohio will be better off…” Yadda, Yadda. Analogous to the industrialists of the 19^th century, the large scale financial institutions along with Intel are meaning to exploit something, and it ain’t undeveloped farmland. Analysis finds it to be space, AND culture. In the 1970’s, I 270 was built, ostensibly, to “relieve” the 70/71 congestion downtown. It was termed a “bypass’ at the time. Not. Downtown Cols withered and major development boomed along the “bypass.” Ditto years later with 670 and its ? spur heading from Easton to the tiny crossroads of New Albany. Like the 19^th century Appalachian way of life, New Albany ceased to be. It is the space that is ripe for exploitation, that “nothing” is there AND that what is already there is not cohesive enough to withstand the violence of big money and its promises of Jobs! and “shared” (?) wealth. Just as the 19^th century yellow journalists perpetuated the big lie of primitive Appalachians, so do today’s news sources perpetuate the myth of the rural/urban divide. At the end of the 20^th century the US Census showed that the majority of small farmers (under 400 acres) had to have a source of off farm income (a job) in order to farm. Things are even more pressing today. In short, to live rural requires a job in town (just listen to the morning traffic report to verify that). The Jobs! promises promoting Intel (and other) development are superfluous to those already existing and employing the folks in “rural” America. Analysis finds that what will happen is the genuinely rural culture presently found within rural America will go the way of pre industrialized Appalachian culture. Akin to the time of “The Feud’, there is no cohesive culture to offset the large financial interest intent on exploiting the disconnected, and independent, fragility of rural living. In its place will be a further expansion of the culture now ubiquitously present in the spaces surrounding I 270 and its ? New Albany spur.