Blog

Bill Lucy

By Bill Lucy
President, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists 

Don’t pity Rand Paul, who pleads he’s not the civil rights bogeyman that his own words have exposed him to be. Paul, the new prince of the Tea Party movement and the Republican Senate candidate in Kentucky, got in hot water last week when he said private businesses shouldn’t be forced to adhere to civil right rights laws. 

Even though Paul quickly backpedaled from his bigoted remark, I just don’t buy it. Based on Dr. Paul’s previous writings on civil rights, his comment was not a benign slip of the tongue. 

For me, Rand Paul epitomizes what I would call the “rise (or return) of the Rollback Movement:” the Tea Party zealots who want to ‘take back their government;’ Arizona’s far-right Legislature that passed a hateful immigration law that blatantly discriminates against people with brown skin; the Texas State Board of Education that now requires students to study Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ inaugural address [to secede from the United the States of America!] and to study the “contributions of Confederate generals.” 

What binds these groups together is a passion and determination to rollback history and shift the burden of their economic and cultural insecurity onto people of color striving for a more tolerant, inclusive and equitable America. 

This Rollback Movement recites the coded buzzwords spewed by conservative pied-pipers like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin. All the while, mainstream media rush to turn xenophobic noisemakers like the Tea Party into political celebrities. As a result, new dimensions of the economic crisis go unreported or get marginalized. 

For example, last Friday (May 21), The Washington Post gave Rand Paul’s controversial remarks front-page coverage. Yet, the same day, the Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper totally ignored the release of a stunning new report that reveals the wealth gap between blacks and whites has more than quadrupled over the course of a generation from $20,000 to $95,000. But the study by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University did catch the attention of James Parks on the AFL-CIO’s blog. According to the study: 

African American families have fewer economic resources to fall back on during this economic crisis than do white families, mainly due to discrimination and tax policies that favor the rich.

In fact, a typical white family is now five times richer than its African-American counterpart of the same class.

That means blacks had little or no money to start businesses, send children to college or ensure a secure retirement, the authors say.

Black households have also been dealt another wealth-building blow in the shrinking part of the workforce that is unionized: 

In 2009, black union membership plummeted by more than 200,000, constituting 27 percent of the total union jobs lost and more than double the share of black workers in unions (13 percent.)

This disproportionate erosion of black union jobs means African-American workers – already saddled with a steep wealth deficit – will lose health care coverage for their families, pension income for their retirement and a nest egg to help their children achieve some level of financial security. 

That’s why with the economy barely creeping back to life, it’s imperative that workers of color have equal access to jobs that compensate them fully and fairly. Otherwise, the racial income and wealth gaps will only deepen and multiple over generations. 

Congress can help shape the inclusive economy we must build to ensure shared prosperity across lines of class, color and gender. A crucial step in that direction would be passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would empower workers to join unions and demand fair pay without intimidation or retaliation. 

I’m hopeful President Obama will champion this vital bill as he fine-tunes his strategy to tackle the jobs crisis. Then let the Rollback Movement confront an energized and multi-hued progressive movement. 

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In 1972, William Lucy founded the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), an organization of union leaders and rank-and-file members dedicated to the needs of black and minority group workers. Lucy, who served as International Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) for nearly 40 years, also co-founded the Free South Africa Movement. This grassroots campaign sparked widespread opposition to apartheid in the U.S. When South Africa conducted its first post-apartheid elections, Lucy served as a monitor with the AFL-CIO delegation. In November of 1994, he became the first African American to be elected president of Public Services International (PSI), the world’s largest union federation. A year later, the AFL-CIO appointed him to its executive council. In addition Lucy served on the boards of directors of civic groups such as the African America Institute, Americans for Democratic Action, and the Center for Policy Alternatives.

Robert Borosage

By Robert L. Borosage
Co-Director Campaign for America’s Future

Glenn Beck has captured national attention with his caustic poison. The aging right-wing troubadours — Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly — still rouse the wingnuts and enforce discipline among Republican legislators. They’ve peddled the fantasies about ACORN and the all-powerful poverty lobby, and launched a search-and-destroy hunt for targets of opportunity in the Obama administration. Progressives have sensibly organized to question Beck’s advertisers, and even the president has called him out.

But it is worth remembering — Glenn Beck is not blocking the passage of a good health care bill. The old and new carny acts of the right aren’t undermining the energy legislation or frustrating financial reform. To focus on who and what is standing in the way — follow the money.

On health care, the lockstep opposition of Republicans in Congress is deplorable, but Republicans don’t have the votes to block progress. The president is forced to negotiate with Democrats who have 60 votes in the Senate and a large majority in the House and could pass a good bill tomorrow if they unified.

The angry tea bag activists shouting slogans in town meetings in August provided drama, but the true opposition is writing checks, not waiving signs. They are wearing pin stripes, not jeans and t-shirts. They represent wealthy insurance company CEOs, not angry workers or small business owners.

The Washington media likes to paint the divisions as ideological. Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats are said to be opposed to “big government,” cautious about spending, more concerned about deficits, reflecting more conservative districts and voters. Sure, there are ideological differences between the parties. And legislators do cater to the major interests in their districts. And no doubt, the Democratic Party is a big tent, with a broad range of political opinion.

But the president didn’t cut a deal with Big Pharma to sustain the ban that prohibits Medicare from negotiating lower prices on drugs because of ideology or a policy debate. He did it to neutralize one of the powerful lobbies standing in the way of reform. The deals with utilities and coal companies in the energy bill aren’t about ideology; they are about special interests and political clout. Republicans don’t mind government spending when pouring hundreds of millions into subsidizing insurance companies to compete with Medicare. Blue Dogs aren’t worried about costs when they oppose a public option that would help keep insurance companies honest.

The re-born McCarthy like conspiratorial fantasies of Glenn Beck should not go unanswered. His effort to discredit the administration by searching for appointees to target should be resisted and scorned.

But everyone should be clear. The president has called on the Congress to act on fundamental reforms that cannot be avoided. Our broken health care system is unaffordable and must be fixed. Moving to new energy is a national security, economic and environmental imperative, not a choice. Fundamental financial reform is necessary if we are to avoid a worse crisis in the near future.

Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and the Republicans in Congress oppose these reforms. They want, as Limbaugh proclaimed, the president to fail. But they aren’t the major roadblocks to the change we need. What stands in the way is the organized power of the entrenched lobbies that have a direct stake in limiting change, and are willing to spend hundreds of millions to obstruct it. Their legions are less angry citizens, than sophisticated lobbyists, increasingly Democrats, many of them retired legislators. They deliver campaign contributions, not votes. They threaten negative campaign ads, not authentic citizen uprisings.

With literally billions at stake, progressives will never be able to match the money of the industries fighting off change. Our only chance is to make their money toxic — to expose the contributions, the lobbyists, the inside deals — and to make legislators understand the president was right when he said we can’t let the permanent lobbies define what is possible in the nation’s capital.

The struggle over health care reform is now reaching its climax. The backroom struggle over energy and financial reform is already fierce. It is time for Democrats to unite to get these done. It is time for the two or three Senate Republicans with any iota of independence to put country over party and be part of the solution. But most of all, it is time for us to follow the money, to track the contributions, expose the lobbyists, and challenge the legislators in both parties who hope to benefit by serving special interests rather than representing their constituents.

Check out opensecrets.org, where the Center for Responsive Politics tracks contributions. Take a look at their study with the Sunlight Foundation on the lobbyists undermining health care reform. Get angry, not cynical. Let your legislators hear from you — and join with your neighbors to demand that they represent you and not the interests that are writing campaign checks. The president has called on the Congress to deal with fundamental national challenges that can not be ignored (although his predecessors were happy to do so). We’ll not have a better chance to get vital reforms done. But to succeed, legislators in both parties will have to learn that voters aren’t going to put up with the cozy beltway business as usual.