Black Agenda Radio for Week of July 13, 2020
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Monthly Archives: July 2020
Democrats Will Never Choose Transformative Change – So Give Them No Choice
Democrats Will Never Choose Transformative Change – So Give Them No Choice
An existential political crisis for the racial capitalist order will only happen when the left puts forward a viable political alternative.
“There is no political crisis for the ruling order, unless ending their rule is on the agenda of significant social forces.”
The Covid-19 epidemic proved beyond all rational doubt that decades of bipartisan privatization and austerity had destroyed the U.S. “public” health care system, rendering the nation structurally incapable of coping with the viral onslaught. The late and geographically uneven lockdown succeeded only in creating Great Depression levels of unemployment without halting the spread of the disease, which has now devoured over 133,000 lives , with Blacks and Native Americans succumbing at five times the rate of whites, and Hispanic Americans dying at four times the frequency of whites. While home to only four percent of the Earth’s population, the United States accounts for 25 percent of the global coronavirus death toll – a proportion that precisely matches the U.S. share of the global prison population, with the result that U.S. prisons, packed with Black, red and brown inmates, are by far the biggest Covid-19 hotspots on the planet.
The nation that claims exceptional national – imperial! — rights and privileges is exceptionally sick, gasping for air but still issuing threats and sanctions against much of the rest of humanity. The raging U.S. health and economic crises are vastly exacerbated by the ruling class’s four years-long, self-inflicted crisis of legitimacy, with one faction of the corporate oligarchy raving endlessly that the sitting U.S. president is a dupe of a foreign power. On top of that imagined illegitimacy, is the real failure of U.S. rulers to protect the population from a contagious disease that killed less than 5,000 people in China, its country of origin with a population of 1.4 billion, and which is abating in all the developed nations of the world. A state that cannot safeguard the lives of its citizens has failed a basic test of legitimacy.
In that sense, the U.S. state has never been legitimate for Black America. This chronic, historical condition became acute with the very public murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis cops on May 25. The monthlong outpouring of mass rage spread to every state and U.S. territorial possession and sparked demonstrations around the world in solidarity with U.S. Blacks.
“A state that cannot safeguard the lives of its citizens has failed a basic test of legitimacy.”
The scale of protest rivaled the tumultuous Sixties, but most remarkable was the scope of the public political transformation. “Black Lives Matter,” the premier slogan and movement of Black militancy, was at the center of what the New York Times called “the largest movement in the country’s history.” Even more amazingly, a Pew Research poll showed that two-thirds of Americans supported “the Black Lives Matter movement” and other polls confirmed that slim majorities of whites now believe that police are “generally more likely to treat black people unfairly than to mistreat white people.” For the first time in U.S. polling history, whites recognized that cops, the coercive forces of the state, systemically mistreat Black people.
In the US of A, where the Warrior Cop was invented to suppress, contain and mass incarcerate Black, brown and red people, that qualifies as a public perception sea change. However, these combined and overlapping crises – economic, public health, political legitimacy, and criminal justice – do not amount to an existential political crisis for the racial capitalist order, because there does not yet exist a viable political alternative. The corporate duopoly still rules, no matter how many people go to the polls in November, and no matter what happens in the interim in the streets.
“The Warrior Cop was invented to suppress, contain and mass incarcerate Black, brown and red people.”
Racial capitalism has undergone many crises, in the U.S. and globally, and outlived them. As a political economy, it is in its late stage, moribund and incapable of reversing its accelerating decline. But its ruling classes – even when catastrophically split and behaving self-destructively, as has been the case for the past four years – are not the least bit threatened with loss of power, much less their heads. Indeed, no significant social forces are even proposing to nationalize the banks, or to socialize any significant sectors of the economy. And even much of “Black Lives Matter” (the actual organization, with 14 chapters in the U.S.) has failed to actively support community control of the police, the only proposal that puts popular security in the hands of the people, not the agents of white supremacy and the corporate duopoly. That’s how we make the streets of our communities safe for organizing.
There is no political crisis for the ruling order, unless ending that rule is on the agenda of significant social forces. Yet Black people, the (now recognized) leading edge of the current upheaval and the most left-leaning, peace-loving, socialist-minded constituency in the nation, remain locked in the lethal embrace of the corporate duopoly through the Democratic Party, which is hegemonic in Black America.
Three-quarters of the 50 Black full-voting members of the U.S. House ought to be on Black Lives Matters’ shit list (the organization’s and the wider movement’s) as Class A Enemies of the People, based on their votes for the 2018 legislation that made cops a protected class and assault on police a federal hate crime. Black Democrats have for nearly half a century been the hands-on managers of mass Black incarceration, gentrification and austerity in Black America. They don’t give a damn about Africa, including the slaughter of six million Congolese at the hands of U.S. client regimes – the worst genocide since World War Two. They stand (or kneel) with Nancy Pelosi, who keeps the nation and world safe for the oligarchy.
“Black Democrats have been the hands-on managers of mass Black incarceration, gentrification and austerity in Black America.”
Joe Biden is a proud architect of mass Black incarceration, a friend and ally of segregationist politicians, and a warmonger of the lowest type who has promised to veto Medicare for All. No one in Congress is more loyal to the corporate class. But Angela Davis, an icon of the movement for prison abolition who also supports community control of the police, endorsed Biden. “I don’t see this election as being about choosing a candidate who will be able to lead us in the right direction,” said professor emeritus Davis. “It will be about choosing a candidate who can be most effectively pressured into allowing more space for the evolving anti-racist movement.”
Davis’ endorsement of the Democrat is consistent with Communist Party USA politics over the decades, even when they ran their own candidates for president and vice president. (Davis occupied the party’s VP slot in 1980 and ’84.) Back in 2012, Davis endorsed Barack Obama for a second term, shortly after the First Black President destroyed Libya, invaded much of the rest of Africa, made common cause with al Qaida in Syria and was busy attempting to reach a “grand bargain” with the Republicans on austerity. Davis told a conference on “empowering women of color” that Obama “identifies with the Black radical tradition” – a nonsensical statement that artificially grafted Obama into “a place he not only does not belong, but most profoundly does not want to be,” as I wrote at the time.
“No one in Congress is more loyal to the corporate class than Biden.”
This time around Davis puts political lipstick on the rightwing pig, Biden, who she says “is far more likely to take mass demands seriously” than President Trump. What does that mean? Biden had already rejected defunding of police – Black Lives Matter’s top demand. But Biden and the rest of the corporate Democrats do take Black demands seriously. It is their job, not white Republicans like Trump, to listen to the demands of the party’s most loyal constituency — and then gut them. Davis and other radicals that endorse corporate Democrats legitimize the charade, and thus are far more useful to the Democrats than the Democrats are useful to the movement.
In Black America, radical politics has always been quite popular, and not just with the youth. The job of Black Democrats’ is to make radical politics appear idealistic but impractical. It’s alright to shout righteous demands in the street, but serious politics must be vetted by the Democrats to be acceptable. The truth is that transforming the police from defenders of capital and white privilege to facilitators of the Black community’s security needs will only happen when the rulers conclude that it is more costly to reject our demands than to accept them.
We must not wait on capitalist crises to further devastate our communities. Rather, the movement must create a political crisis for the ruling oligarchy by agitating to actually end their rule.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com
Grafton, July 25, 2020: Discussion on Systemic Racism & How to Fight It
Come and watch a panel discussion on the impact systemic racism has had on our local community. This event is neither a protest or rally, but instead an educational conversation about racism and what can be done about it.
The event will be taking place on July 25th at 1:00 and will be located at 1150 Cheyenne Ave in Grafton. The event will be held outside with social distancing measures in place to ensure safety for everyone who wishes to participate.
Click on the following link to register for the event and receive your free ticket:
https://forms.gle/9AJ6BJVD8BMyasLk7
Check out our previous posts for more information on the event and our advocacy group, Ozaukee Youth United. Follow us on Instagram and on our Facebook page to stay up to date on the event and to learn more about our panelists and moderator.
Milwaukee, July 18, 2020: Day of Action Protest Events – Black & Brown Lives Matter! Jail Killer Cops!
3 P.M. Cathedral Square, 850 N Jefferson Street, Milwaukee
Protest led by 50 Miles More and The People’s Movement of Milwaukee (this will be an approximately 4 mile march/protest, stopping at the 5 PM event listed below, then returning to Cathedral Square)
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*These events are still being developed, more information will be updated as it becomes available!*
Join us for an all day family friendly event recognizing 50+ days of protests and resistance in the Greater Milwaukee community. We will have various fundraisers and activities culminating in a protest/march in the early afternoon.
(WEAR A MASK AND PRACTICE SOCIAL DISTANCING!)
+ 9:00 AM: Plants for Milwaukee’s Day of Action Supporting Black Lives | Proceeds benefiting Love on Black Women & event/protest aid/support. Various plants, pots and terrariums are available for purchase. Cash/Venmo: @cultivatemke /CashApp $cultivatemke/ accepted
+ 9:00 AM: Bake Sale for Milwaukee Day of Action Supporting BLM
More info: Various individually baked goods are available for purchase. Proceeds benefiting protest aid/support & Love on Black Women. Cash/Venmo: @cultivatemke /CashApp $cultivatemke/ accepted
+ 9:00 AM: Slow Stress Relieving Flow with Baobi Yoga | Proceeds benefiting Leaders Igniting Transformation
Registration: Yoga for MKE Day of Action Supporting BLM
+ 9:00 AM: Free exhibit & zines: The Milwaukee Fair Housing Marches 1967-68 | Learn about the NAACP Youth Council and Commandos, who marched for 200 consecutive days for fair housing. This exhibit will go on until 3:00 PM.
+ 10:00 AM: Bay View Community Justice Garden Launch at the Bay View Community Center
NOTE: THIS IS AN OFF SITE EVENT – at Bay View Community Center and goes until 1:00 PM.
+ 10:00 AM: Flow Dance + Vinyasa Yoga with Mariyam Nayeri of Botanica Galactica | Proceeds benefiting Black Leaders Organizing for Communities
Registration: Yoga for MKE Day of Action Supporting BLM
+ 11:00 AM: Restorative Reset Stretch with Jessica Hope of Jessica Hope Wellness | Proceeds benefiting Black Leaders Organizing for Communities & Leaders Igniting Transformation
Registration: Yoga for MKE Day of Action Supporting BLM
+ 11:00 AM: Letter writing campaign led by Lauren RL
+ 12:00pm-2:00pm: Wee Chalk Your Walk Cathedral Square: Milwaukee Day Of Action with the Black Educators Caucus MKE
+ 1:30 PM: White Allyship 101 Workshop led by The People’s Movement of Milwaukee
+ 3:00 PM: Supply drop off for protest (first aid, electrolytes, water).
+ 4:00 PM: Protest led by 50 Miles More and The People’s Movement of Milwaukee (this will be an approximately 4 mile march/protest, stopping at the 5 PM event listed below, then returning to Cathedral Square)
+ 5:00 PM: No Justice For Elijah! End Racism In Milwaukee’s Music Community led by Dayvin Hallmon and Princess High
NOTE: This is a two day event with the second part being held on Sunday Morning at 10:00 AM BLM Legion Of The Soul Orchestra Protest Concert
— DONATE TO LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS LEADING CHANGE —
+ Black Educators Caucus MKE
https://www.paypal.me/MTEABlackCaucus
+ Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC)
www.blocbybloc.org
+ Leaders Igniting Transformation (LIT)
www.litmke.org
July 11, 2020 Appleton, WI
Wisconsin Association of African-American Lawyers
Coalition of Milwaukee community organizations outlines criteria for reopening MPS
Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association
Milwaukee community organizations including the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association (MTEA), Leaders Igniting Transformation (LIT), Black Leaders Organizing Communities (BLOC), Voces de la Frontera, Youth Empowered in the Struggle (YES), Parents for Public Schools (PPS) Milwaukee, Schools and Communities United (SCU), the Working Families Party and Citizen Action of Wisconsin issued the following joint statement outlining criteria for a future reopening of Milwaukee Public Schools for in-person instruction:
Our coalition agrees that Superintendent Posley is right to protect the health and safety of students, staff, their families, and our community by beginning the 2020-2021 school year virtually. This pandemic is a public health disaster and a community response is needed to bring it under control. The MPS School Board should approve this plan and direct the Administration to immediately begin working to improve crisis distance teaching and learning for students and families. Our organizations are prepared to work with the Administration to make the best crisis learning solution for this dangerous and unfortunate situation, and to ensure equitable access for all students. We call on our local and state elected officials to take immediate, bold action to gain control of this disaster and defend our communities which our public schools are part of.
First, our State, County, and City governments must act immediately to control and prevent community spread of the COVID-19 virus that disproportionately affects our Black, Brown, and low-income communities. The public good must be valued over profits.
- Milwaukee must move back Phase 2 of the Moving Milwaukee Forward Plan and reimplement public health measures that were controlling the community spread of COVID-19 and close restaurants and bars, limit gatherings, etc. If the crisis continues to worsen, Milwaukee should implement a shelter at home order.
- Increase free testing (both number of tests and testing locations) and contact tracing measures to meet the challenge of the crisis.
- Public health officials must provide clear, specific, and consistent guidance to Public Schools and other employers so that they can prepare for any eventual physical return. This guidance should be available to employees and in multiple languages.
To begin Phase 1 of MPS’ COVID-19 reopening plan there is a significant amount of work that we must all accomplish. There are immediate health and safety concerns:
- Employees who are in our buildings must be appropriately safeguarded. MPS must provide adequate PPE, soap and sanitizers, and provide clear and specific guidance based on Department of Health guidelines on how to properly work while distancing and using proper hygiene.
- Employees who can, must be allowed to work from home and have flexible work schedules so they can meet the needs of students and families.
- MPS must develop proactive procedures to handle symptomatic individuals and how to handle positive tests. There is too much room for misinterpretation in the current guidance provided to supervisors and employees on what to do in these situations.
- COVID-19 sick leave should be established prior to the potential expiration of the CARES Act so that employees have no fear of self reporting symptoms and staying home and getting tested.
- School plans must be developed jointly by school leadership, union building leaders, an MPS registered nurse, and Administration to allow for staff to access school buildings with minimum contact with others with a clear expectation of what to do if staff become symptomatic or COVID positive.
Just as important as the immediate health and safety concerns are the needs of our students and their right to equitable access to education during this crisis. Our public schools provide every student an education, no matter their strengths, challenges and learning needs. We must do everything possible to give equitable access to each MPS student.
- High quality training and professional development focused on virtual instruction, culturally relevant pedagogy, and restorative practices, along other topics that are not one-size-fits-all must be provided to staff. We have experts in MPS that can provide these resources without using outside contractors.
- Food distribution must be continued and expanded.
- A systematic and thorough technology distribution plan must be in place for every school and internet access must be addressed by the City and County government. Staff must be included in these plans.
- Students rely on their school social networks for support. Milwaukee students suffer great trauma without a global pandemic which only compounds that trauma. Mental health and social emotional support must be prioritized and provided to our students and families during and after the pandemic.
- Special Education students and teachers deserve a K-12 comprehensive district plan that takes into account the specific learning needs, accommodations, modifications and additional supports of nearly 15,000 students.
- English as a Second Language/English Language Learners and Newcomer/Refugee students cannot be an afterthought. Additional resources and staff are needed to ensure they have an equal education.
- Standardized testing must be halted.
- Student schedules and workloads must be carefully balanced with the demands of altered home lives, stress, and work. Many of our students have become caregivers, childcare providers, and/or family wage earners during the pandemic. We must accommodate these demands.
In addition to the needs listed above, we must see the below criteria met before we consider a return of students and a full complement of staff to our buildings.
- MPS must complete the WI Department of Health risk assessment tool for each school successfully and secure agreement from union building leaders and an MPS registered nurse. These documents should be posted publicly with time for families, students, and staff to view and comment.
- Community spread of the virus must be stopped. MPS’ eventual safe reopening is dependent on a societal response.
- Expand free testing by the State, County and City which is accessible to all Milwaukee communities especially low-income and Black and Brown communities that have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.
- The City of Milwaukee Health Department must expand contact tracing so that it is sufficient to trace and isolate individuals who are exposed to COVID.
- We must see 21 consecutive days of a downward trajectory of documented cases, hospitalizations, and positivity rates (near zero incidence) in Milwaukee County.
- There must be consistent monitoring of the reproductive rate of COVID-19 to ensure that the rate does not rise above 1 (anything more than 1 demonstrates community spread). Currently, the estimated rate is 1.37 in Milwaukee County.
- Exact gating criteria with objective metrics and timelines should be established to ensure that students, staff, and families have clear expectations.
- Each school and building must have a return plan that is agreed on with school leadership, union building leaders, an MPS registered nurse, and Administration.
- MPS must establish a specific plan for symptom checks and testing MPS staff, students, and families.
- There must be a dramatic funding increase from the State and Federal governments.
This is not an exhaustive list of the work that must be done to safeguard our school communities or to provide effective crisis teaching and learning but we believe it provides a baseline of demands for our students and staff. This coalition of groups cares deeply about our public schools and worked tirelessly to pass the referendum. We are disappointed that children will not get to return to schools with the additional resources that Milwaukee voters approved right away. But we cannot ignore science and we value human life too much to rush a return that could result in the even wider spread of COVID-19 and more illness, hospitalizations, and deaths.
Milwaukee, August 1, 2020: Eviction Moratorium Now! March to Tom Barrett’s House
Eviction Moratorium Now! March to Tom Barrett’s House
Milwaukee currently has a major housing crisis on its hands. Over 150 people are being evicted every week creating uncertainty and increasing homelessness during this global pandemic and economic crisis. Meanwhile, our city “leaders” have done nothing to help people stay in their homes. Tom Barrett has made no meaningful statement on the eviction crisis and has refused calls to put a city-wide eviction moratorium in place. Milwaukee Autonomous Tenants Union represents tenants all over the city and is making the following demands of Tom Barrett on behalf of all renters:
-Put in place a city-wide eviction moratorium that will extend indefinitely until the end of the COVID-19 crisis. Mandate that no late payment fees or back-rent can accumulate during this moratorium that the tenant will be forced to pay later.
-Enforce state law against landlords who harass and retaliate against tenants who are unable to pay due to this crisis. Expose and Cite landlords that harass and retaliate against tenants.
-Make double security deposits for people that were evicted illegal. Landlords demanding double security are gatekeepers to housing that are using the COVID-19 crisis to squeeze more money out of people.
-Remove COVID 19 evictions from tenant’s records and all prior evictions that have been satisfied by tenants but which landlords refuse to remove by filing the correct paperwork.
-Create a tenants court outside and separate from civil court, that will guarantee tenants rights and provide free legal representation for all tenants.
Meet up at Washington Park Senior Center, 4420 W. Vliet St., MKE. Short march and rally to bring attention to evictions that are plaguing Milwaukee during a global pandemic. Opportunities to share stories and gather together for future fights against landlords who are kicking people out during COVID.
This will be a socially distant march and rally, please wear a mask. Hand sanitizer and water will be provided. Call or email for further information.
We are also asking for volunteers to marshal the event. If you are interested in doing this please reach out!
Saturday July 18 & Sunday July 19, 2020: Worldwide Concert for Cuba!
THIS WEEKEND ONLY
Saturday July 18 & Sunday July 19
at 5pm Pacific – 7pm Chicago – 8pm Eastern
HotHouseGlobal is our online streaming platform for Live arts +activism programming. We formed this collective project organized by HotHouse, as a free service intended to provide revenues for musicians and to encourage social justice networking and activism from places around the globe.
A message from Marguerite Horberg. Founder and Executive Director of the non-profit Center for International Performance and Exhibition and Co-Executive Producer of the The Concert for Cuba
The Concert for Cuba started as a simple invitation from HotHouse to Raul Cuza to curate an evening of music on our streaming platform, HotHouseGlobal
In less than one month, #Concert for Cuba has mushroomed into an unprecedented world-wide and historic event that will be live streamed exclusively via Twitch.tv/HotHouseGlobal across the planet
With more than 100 individual voices lifting up to praise Cuban medical workers and calling for the end of the inhumane US blockade of Cuba, this is an unprecedented moment when artists and activists – poets and politicians- musicians and muckrakers -have all given so generously of their time and voice, to one EPIC world-wide event.
This two-night only event is presented free of charge, with no pay wall or ticket needed -we do ask however, that folks pre-register here
All of the labor to produce this event and all the talent showcased in the concert has been donated, so that we might reach everyone without barriers
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We hope that you will support the artists during the show via the links that will be in the chat and comments – We also hope that you will get active with the many organizations working to end the blockade
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With the concert streamed via many Pacifica radio stations, sent out to networks of solidarity groups across the planet, streamed via our partners Sunfest, Womad Chile and the OllinKan festival in Mexico, streaming in Zimbabwe and broadcast across the nation in Cuba on the Clave station- the anticipated viewership is expected to be in the millions!
We could not have dreamed to pull this off without a dedicated core team of tireless co-creators and we are deeply indebted to the dozen or so folks who have been at the planning and execution of this project for 15 hours a day for weeks.
Please help me thank them by reading the credits linked here
We hope you will share this event even more broadly and use the next couple of days to tweet, post, call, text, and shout it out
On behalf of all of us, we really appreciate your support!
We hope that after the event, you will continue to tune in to HotHouseGlobal and stay in touch with our work. Our goal is to build a new cultural center in Bronzeville – perhaps in the post-Covid era we can meet in person in the new HotHouse!
Until then remember….beep beep…no parking on the dance floor and all we ask is that you wear that mask !
PRODUCERS
Raul Cuza, Marguerite Horberg, Bill Martinez, & The Institute of Cuban Music
Lead Broadcast Producers for HotHouseGlobal are Vedran Residbegovic and Luis “Che” Jahn with support by Bea Cabrera
Communication strategies MK Communications
MAJOR SUPPORT
The Center For International Performance and Exhibition dba HotHouse, Suzanne Thompson, Alicia Zertuche, Melissa O’Brien, MK Communications, (Marilyn Katz and Brian Berg), Alexis Triana, Catherine Murphy, Kimberly Waller, La Rueda Films, VedranRe Films
PRODUCTION HOTHOUSEGLOBAL
HotHouseGlobal Marguerite Horberg, David Offenberg Jonathan Woods, Edward Wilkerson Jr., Dushun Mosley, Bea Cabrera
All the links to the Spanish and English language press releases, talent bios, posters, logos, Spanish and English language tweets, Eventbrite registration and “Where to Watch” links are in the Tool Kit – Please use the easy to use tools to help make this LOVE SONG for CUBA go Global! THANK YOU for being a LOVE AMBASSADOR !
As updates are added daily, the links are refreshed and up- to- date
HotHouse programs and operations are supported in part by funding provided by the Reva and David Logan Foundation, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and the Dorothy and Gaylord Donnelley Foundation
Our streaming services are presented free of charge to support the arts and culture industry hard hit by the pandemic
Help keep HotHouseGlobal flourishing without a pay wall
Assata Shakur: ‘Only a fool lets somebody else tell him who his enemy is…’
” I wasn’t against communism, but i can’t say I was for it either. At first, I viewed it suspiciously, as some kind of white man’s concoction, until i read works by African revolutionaries and studied the African liberation movements. Revolutionaries in Africa understood that the question of African liberation was not just a question of race, that even if they managed to get rid of the white colonialists, if they didn’t rid themselves of the capitalistic economic structure, the white colonialists would simply be replaced by Black neocolonialists. There was not a single liberation movement in Africa that was not fighting for socialism.
The whole thing boiled down to a simple equation: anything that has any kind of value is made, mined, grown, produced, and processed by working people. So why shouldn’t working people collectively own that wealth? Why shouldn’t working people own and control their own resources? Capitalism meant that rich businessmen owned the wealth, while socialism meant that the people who made the wealth owned it.
I got into heated arguments with sisters or brothers who claimed that the oppression of Black people was only a question of race. I argued that there were Black oppressors as well as white ones. That’s why you’ve got Blacks who support Nixon or Reagan or other conservatives. Black folks with money have always tended to support candidates who they believed would protect their financial interests. As far as i was concerned, it didn’t take too much brains to figure out that Black people are oppressed because of class as well as race, because we are poor and because we are Black. [Earlier in my life] When someone asked me what communism was, I opened my mouth to answer, then realized i didn’t have the faintest idea. My image of a communist came from a cartoon. It was a spy with a Black trench coat and a Black hat pulled down over his face, slinking around corners.
I never forgot that day. We’re taught at such an early age to be against the communists, yet most of us don’t have the faintest idea what communism is. Only a fool lets somebody else tell him who his enemy is… “
Today, editors of #HoodCommunistBlog recognizes Black Liberation Army member and warrior woman, #AssataShakur.
July 16, 2020 Webinar: UNC University Workers COVID Town Hall
The UNC Board of Governors and administrations of all UNC System universities have not heard systematic input from essential front-line workers – including housekeepers, groundskeepers, food service, maintenance, libraries, IT, grad workers and professors – who have deep concerns regarding the current state of the COVID-19 response, especially with the planned return of students this fall.
The pandemic has a disproportionate impact on essential Black and Brown workers, and policy failures will inevitably fall hardest on their shoulders at a time when their health is already at risk.
We do not believe it safe to return to campus for in-person teaching under the current administration’s weak plan due to an incredibly high level of safety concerns from a wide array of campus body members. These concerns include, but are not limited to, the lack of a comprehensive response plan for when a member of the campus body inevitably tests positive for COVID-19, the lack of a mass testing apparatus to address COVID-19 outbreaks, and the lack of consideration of personal healthcare costs and inevitable deaths among employees that will result from such a decision.
As NC continues to peak statewide laboratory-confirmed cases and hospitalizations, the efforts to stop the spread in UNC System have either stalled or gone backward. The university has rolled back hazard pay and compensatory time for mandatory employees. Administrative leave has been rolled back leaving hundreds of temporary employees with severely reduced or no pay, and permanent employees required to use up to 13+ hours of leave per week. Additionally, protective equipment remains rationed with employees being required to reuse disposable masks for periods of time up to a week.
As part of our #SafeJobsSaveLives campaign, the NC Public Service Workers Union, along with the American Association of University Professors will be hosting a Town Hall to hear the voices of campus workers, and to lay out our collect demands.
New Campaign website: https://www.workersofunc.org
UE150 and AAUP have also launched a new Workers Of UNC website to coordinate marches, phone banks and other actions to push back against opening of UNC System universities.
