CommentsEASTSIDER-I’ve been through this scene twice, and our current protests/looting seem like a bad dope dream where nothing ever changes. This time it must.
I was at UC Berkeley in the 60s during the Vietnam war, and as you may have read, there were widespread protests, out of control police, and yes, even some looting during that time period.
What ultimately saved us then, sad to say, was the fact that most of the UC students were white and middle class, so that when their children got tear gassed and beaten on television, the parents freaked out. First against their children (‘how can you act like a communist’), and later, as the body bags of their children started to come back home en masse from Vietnam, they told the government to get the hell out.
And even then, it was always socio-economic, and race based. You can bet the poor folks in Richmond and Oakland got no joy, and the Black Panthers were hunted down like dogs by Oakland’s Finest, the Oakland Police Department.
It sure changed my life. I bailed out of Grad School and became a Social Worker in Watts. That was from around 1967-70. The Riots actually occurred in August of 1965, but the residual carnage and fallout from the event continued for decades. And yes, there had been widespread protests, out of control police, and even some looting during that time period as well.
I got to South Central when we were housed in temporary structures at 103rd & Central, because the main “Department of Charities, DPSS” office got toasted in the riots. As a General Relief intake worker, it was heartbreaking. Took about a week for me to figure out that I was on welfare just like the clients. Only my County check was a hell of a lot bigger than theirs.
Got involved in the Social Workers Union, and that led to a whole different career path than my parents or for that matter, UC Berkeley, thought was cool.
The real point is that there aren’t winners in these conflicts. The same people who ran things then run things now. Politicians are essentially for rent by those in power, and the price is paid by increasing income inequality, less jobs, and oh yes, racial discrimination for those of color other than white.
I guess it is a big deal that the LAPD’s 77th Precinct now hires locally instead of going to Shreveport LA to get their fresh police. I kid you not, at the time I was there it was true, and there were officers who literally had notches on their revolvers.
So when I see the cycle starting all over again I want to weep for our country. Have we learned nothing in the over 50 years since the Vietnam War and the Watts Riots?
How We Got Here
This bit may seem a little wonky, but it really shows the fundamental shift to a handful of super rich owning all our politics.
In terms of the DNC going corporate, they really drank the Kool-Aide with the election of Bill Clinton, or as I quipped once, the “best Republican the Democratic Party ever elected.” I still remember his pitch that “our” workers will have to get used to working for multiple employers, instead of having defined benefit plans based on decades of service to the same company. Get ready for job retraining if you want to make it to retirement.
This was during his tenure from 1993-2001.
With this kind of a Democratic Party moving away from labor unions and employee rights, it was no coincidence that we got Citizens United in 2010. As I wrote a couple of years ago, about Citizens United and its progeny:
“It seems to me there are a few lessons to be learned from all these events. One is that the Supreme Court has no particular interest in democracy for the “little people.” You know, the 300 million plus regular humans like you and me. But they can get real worked up over one dollar one vote, getting rid of bothersome public sector Unions, and government mandates over Affordable Care Act contraception.”
Make no mistake. Our current political wrestling match devaluing you and me in favor of Corporations and the half-1% is in fact due to Citizens United and other anti-democratic, anti-union, anti-individual rights Supreme Court decisions over the years since 2010.
As Martin Luther King wrote a long time ago, workers’ rights and the Civil Rights movement worked hand in glove. Recently, I covered this in a piece for CityWatch called “MLK and the Unions - People Forget:”
“He also understood the importance of public sector unions, since at that time there were a lot of minority (mostly black) employees working for governments. Remember, these were the jobs with benefits that could allow a family to keep a roof over their heads, educate their children, and have a pension.”
Sadly, the half-1% have gotten their ideologues on the Supreme Court so that three relatively recent decisions have disenfranchised the labor movement. . .then you and me.
Many workers, particularly those of color, have gone into the public sector civil service over the years. It’s harder to overtly discriminate there; mechanisms exist to fight back like Civil Service Commissions, and until recently, there have been very politically active labor unions. But the public unions got wiped out in 2018.
I won’t get into the weeds about the decision, as I noted in CityWatch:
“I’m not going to waste a bunch of time in legal analysis of any Supreme Court case involving Unions, because the very idea of unions and groups of real people bargaining collectively is essentially an anathema to our judicial system. These cases have nothing to do with the law and everything to do raw naked politics.”
Sad truth. Lately, having weakened what unions are still left in our country, the Court got excited and decided to simply disenfranchise any group of employees access to the judicial system. In another 2018 case, the Supreme Court decided that if your employer makes you sign a document as a condition of employment giving away your right to sue, too bad.
As the Harvard Law Review noted:
“The Supreme Court’s decision last Term in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis1×1. 138 S. Ct. 1612 (2018). is a vivid illustration of the declining power of workers in the U.S. political system. The opinion, authored by Justice Gorsuch, upheld the validity of employment contracts in which employees give up their right to collective litigation against their employer. It is reminiscent of a once-infamous labor law decision from the late 1920s, the Red Jacket case, 2×2. Int’l Org., United Mine Workers of Am. v. Red Jacket Consol. Coal & Coke Co., 18 F.2d 839 (4th Cir. 1927). Show More in which Judge Parker of the Fourth Circuit protected the power of coal mine owners to forbid their workers from interacting with unions.”
Add it all together, and you see how a handful of super rich can buy a presidency. How we can see President Trump and his lily-white entourage have the police clear the way with flash-bangs and tear gas, so he can stand in front of a church and mishandle a Bible to pretend he’s religious and manly. And then threatening to have the U.S. Military suppress United States citizens.
As PublicCitizen noted this January:
“A very small number of donors is responsible for a dominant share of the outside election spending unleashed by Citizens United. A new Public Citizen analysis finds that just 25 ultra-wealthy donors have made up nearly half (47 percent) of all individual contributions to super PACs since 2010, giving $1.4 billion of $2.96 billion in individual super PAC contributions. The top 100 donors are responsible for 60 percent of all super PAC contributions. A very small number of donors is responsible for a dominant share of the outside election spending unleashed by Citizens United. A new Public Citizen analysis finds that just 25 ultra-wealthy donors have made up nearly half (47 percent) of all individual contributions to super PACs since 2010, giving $1.4 billion of $2.96 billion in individual super PAC contributions. The top 100 donors are responsible for 60 percent of all super PAC contributions.”
And it is true of both political parties.
The Takeaway - A Challenge
Almost all recent events are totally depressing. The COVID-19 virus has disproportionately impacted the poor and people of color. The government response to close “non-essential” businesses and have people stay at home also disproportionately impacted the poor and people of color.
With record unemployment it also likely that the people who will permanently lose their jobs will be the poor and people of color. And oh yes, it is clear that over the last 20 years or so our police departments have militarized to the point that they look more like military troops than local cops.
Sheesh!
As Black Lives Matter has proven, if you are black and in a car, your chances of being stopped by police is much higher than whites, your chances of a ticket are higher, and your treatment will be worse with scary outcomes possible. Where’s the progress?
So I have a modest proposal that will change our focus for a minute, and actually do something positive. I am taking $200 and will donate it to one or more of our local non-profit agencies that help people in need. Toward that end, I’ve asked some folks I respect for suggestions as to what some of those agencies may be.
If nothing else, it will make me feel better than watching television news and staying at home. If we can afford it, I will see about a monthly contribution to one or more of these groups.
At a minimum, I will feel better doing something, giving back since I’ve been luckier than a whole lot of folks in our community. Who knows, maybe a modest contribution can help someone in need. Beats the hell out of watching our society implode. And truth to tell, it is only through god (and AA) that I’m even alive.
The groups I’m going to split my $200 among are recommended by no less than Dick and Sharon at the LA Progressive. (If you don’t already subscribe to this you should. Click here.)
We have Urban Partners Los Angeles. They have been serving our diverse communities for over 20 years, good folks, and the link to their homepage is here.
Community Activist Rev Mac Shorty’s Community Repower Movement, a champion for real grassroots change. He was Chair of the Watts Neighborhood Council, and worked tirelessly with the DWP Committee to get community input into LA County’s Stormwater Measure W. You can find the link to the Facebook page here.
There are a zillion other worthy causes, but this is a start. Look around, go for it, and help fund your favorite. You’ll feel better.
(Tony Butka is an Eastside community activist, who has served on a neighborhood council, has a background in government and is a contributor to CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
