Media Bites – Bush/Clinton Haiti Ad
In this week’s Media Bites we look at a recent public service announcement with former President’s Bush and Clinton asking for people to donate to their Haiti Relief fund. We take a critical look at the history of US policy towards Haiti, particularly during the Clinton and Bush years, something the mainstream news media has not done during the disaster coverage of Haiti since the earthquake.
Film event reveals causes of foreclosure crisis, provides homeowners help and presents advocacy options
Foreclosure Response presents: American Casino
Celebration Cinema North, Knapps Corners
Thursday Feb. 4
• 6:30 – 7:00 p.m. Browse information from nonprofits, agencies and government officials. Staff will be on hand to answer questions.
• 7 – 8:40 p.m. American Casino.
Reserve free tickets at www.ForeclosureResponse.org.
• 8:30 – 9:30 Q&A/panel discussion about local efforts to stop the foreclosure crisis.
The film, American Casino, lays out how the mortgage industry turned the US into a casino that gambled away millions of American’s homes. Since 2004, 6,773 homes have been lost to foreclosure in the city of Grand Rapids alone. The rate of foreclosure is slowing some. In the past year (September 2008 – September 2009), 1,353 foreclosures went through. The decrease in foreclosures is due to federal and state of Michigan measures that have extended some protections to homeowners.
“Our foreclosure rates were lower than the previous two years,” says Kym Spring, spokesperson for Foreclosure Response. “Part of the reason is attributed to the outstanding job that our housing counselors have been doing. We passed a law in Michigan last July that mandates a 90 day mediation period between the homeowner or the housing counselor representing them. That has really helped as well.”
Spring notes that local housing counselors, such as those at Home Repair Services, have an outstanding success rate; 47% of the homeowners HRS has counseled have managed to hold on to their homes. What many homeowners do not realize, housing counseling is available to anyone in foreclosure, no matter what their income.
“If people are experiencing this financial strain, housing counseling can offer those that can’t stay in their homes a good choice of options,” Spring explains. “It can be very confusing. At least they can make an informed decision about next steps.”
The new Michigan regulations have provided more protections for those renting their homes, as well. A renter in good standing can stay in a foreclosed home. The new owner has to let them sign a new lease, unless the owner occupies the home. In that case, the renter can remain in the home for 90 days.
Screwed or laid off.
As the documentary will show, the majority of people are losing their homes through no fault of their own. They were hoodwinked into signing a mortgage that misled them about costs and payments. Or, they lost their homes as a result of losing their jobs. “ They got screwed or laid off,” Spring says. “The reality is loss of income or escalated mortgage payment. It was not in their control.”
The film also documents how people of color were targeted by subprime mortgages, no matter what their income level. Spring says that local statistics bear this out, showing that mortgage companies did indeed target African American and Hispanic families in the Grand Rapids area.
Spring notes that after targeting people of color, these lenders turned next to senior citizens. She predicts that a second wave of home foreclosures among this population in the coming months.
More citizen action needed.
Spring calls the companies behind the subprime mortgage scandal “Slime.” “They are going to continue to figure out ways to seed their greed unless we put in some serious stop gap measures and regulations. Reagan started the deregulation and Clinton put the nails in the coffin, in terms of talking away consumer protections.”
The State of Michigan passed legislation to help homeowners facing foreclosure only because constituents and groups like Foreclosure Response put pressure on their legislators. The measure passed in spite of intense lobbying by banks and lending institutions. Continuing grass roots citizen action is needed to enact more and better laws to protect not only those facing foreclosure, but also the neighborhoods where they live.
Foreclosures reduce property values, create blight and increase crime. “For all those reasons, it’s important that everyone in the community be exposed to this information and look at what they can do,” Spring says. Foreclosure Response will provide options for taking action on their Website in upcoming weeks. “You can also just help spread the word. If you have missed even one payment, get in to see a housing counselor. Beware of scams. Go to a nonprofit housing counseling service. They don’t charge and they don’t care what your income level is.”
Money in the 2010 Michigan Elections
The Grand Rapids Press has two front-page stories in today’s paper about candidate fundraising in Michigan. One article provides some data on how much money has been raised in the Michigan Governor’s race and a second article looks at the Congressional candidates running to fill Rep. Pete Hoekstra’s seat.
According to the Press article on Gubernatorial candidates, Rick Synder has raised the most money so far ($3.3 million), followed by Mike Cox ($1.8 million), John Cherry ($1.36 million – dropped out), Mike Bouchard ($888,149), Pete Hoekstra ($475,807), Tom George ($199,791), John Freeman ($84,688 – dropped out), and Alma Wheeler ($36,245). This means that all the candidates have raised a combined $8 million thus far.
The Press article on the amount of money raised by candidates for governor provide a brief summary from the candidates on their financial status, with little information on who has donated money to the various candidates at this point. The article also mentions that Rick Snyder plans to air a TV ad during the Super Bowl this Sunday. According to one Lansing-based Republican consultant, “It’ll give him a boost and will get people to look at his campaign when nobody else is on the tube.”
The story on the amount of money raised by those seeking the seat that Rep. Pete Hoekstra will vacate also focuses on the lead fundraiser. To date, Jay Riemersma has raised the most ($352,050), followed by Bill Cooper ($206,722), Bill Huizenga ($151,387), Wayne Kuipers ($57,915), and Fred Johnson ($7,291). Besides monies raised the story focuses on what candidates and other political insiders think about why the “non-traditional candidates” are raising more money.
What are excluded from these stories are two main issues for voters. First, there was no information on the platforms of candidates or the voting record of candidates who have or currently serve in office. Secondly, there is no investigation into why certain individuals, organizations and political action committees have donated to specific candidates and what they expect in return if their candidate is elected. To ignore this is to ignore a great deal of how politics works in this country.
GRIID plans on following the political races for 2010 and will attempt to provide some analysis of the media coverage as well as investigation into candidate platforms and campaign finances. For those wanting to investigate the data on their own you can go to the Michigan Secretary of State’s office for campaign finance updates or check out the monitoring work of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network.
The Press and Michigan’s Economic Future
Starting this past Sunday, the Grand Rapids Press is running a 10-part series on how Michigan can jump-start its economy. The series is called Michigan 10.0 and the first few stories in the series are already indicating what the Press means by improving Michigan’s economy.
The lead story on Sunday, entitled “What Will It Take to Get Our State Back to Work?,” almost exclusively uses business and economic consultants as sources for the story. There is a separate article in the Sunday Press, which focuses on workers, but that article only talk with and about workers from the point of view that workers need to be re-training in the new economy.
The main article in this Press series focuses on what business leaders are advocating, people like Steelcase CEO Jim Hacket, Amway President Doug DeVos and CEO of the Right Place, Birgit Klohs. The strategy that these business leaders propose is a five-point plan:
- Reform State government with an emphasis on downsizing it.
- Reform Labor policy that will be attractive to businesses.
- Focus on education & training – keeping students in school and providing training for new jobs.
- Capitalize on infrastructure, resources and expertise.
- Build policies geared toward helping small businesses.
Interestingly enough, this 5-point plan is very similar to the same 5-point plan that the West Michigan Regional Policy Conference came up with last year. The only major differences in these two 5-point plans is that the West Michigan Regional Policy group was advocating that Michigan become a right to work state….a non-union state.
This idea that organized labor makes the state unattractive to businesses is affirmed in a statement by Steelcase CEO Jim Hacket in Sunday’s Press story, where he says, “Our labor policy is not attractive to business. That gets politically toxic when it starts to drift into the issue of whether you’re union or not. I see it as a long-haul problem. At the same time, the perception of Michigan is negative, the attractiveness of labor rates in other parts of the world are more attractive.”
In today’s Grand Rapids Press there is another front-page piece that is part of this series, but it’s not a story, rather an opinion piece by Press writer Rich Haglund. The preface to the story says that Haglund’s piece is “written as a counterpoint” to the main story in the series that began Sunday.
While it is true that Haglund disagrees with some of the points of view articulated in the original article, he does not offer any real plan other than to say that Michigan can no longer rely on manufacturing, particularly the auto industry. Haglund believes Michigan needs to replace manufacturing jobs with “knowledge” jobs. Haglund still is arguing that Michigan’s economy must improve within a free market framework.
The emphasis on a free-market approach to saving Michigan’s economy is affirmed by an interview in Monday’s Press, which is part of the Michigan 10.0 series. The interview is with Doug Rothwell, CEO of Business Leaders for Michigan. The Business Leaders for Michigan group also has its own 5-point plan for turning Michigan’s economy around, called Michigan Turnaround Plan.
After reading the content of the first several articles in this Press series it seems clear that what the sources cited so far are saying is that in order for Michigan’s economy to thrive it needs to follow a free market plan – downsize government, minimize or eliminate organized labor and invest in education for the purpose of creating knowledge workers.
What the articles in this series so far have ignored is the tremendous role that workers have played in creating wealth in this state over the past century. The series so far has also not acknowledged the role that trade policy has played in impacting Michigan’s economic decline. By 2001 it was well documented by the Economic Policy Institute that Michigan had lost over 46,000 jobs due to NAFTA. It is no coincidence that job loss in Michigan due to NAFTA happens during the same time that Michigan’s economy has taken a downturn.
As the rest of the series unfolds in the Press, we will continue to provide some analysis of Press sources and how the paper is framing the issue of Michigan’s economy.
GR Press business editor gloats over Bissell CEO
The business editor for the Grand Rapids Press, Nancy Crawley, wrote what was essentially and promotional piece for business owner Mark Bissell in her weekly Sunday column.
The editorial salutes Bissell Inc.’s decision to not leave Michigan during tough economic times and the company’s creativity in creating new jobs with what Crawley calls “knowledge workers.”
In her editorial Crawley states, “Bissell Inc. shed hundreds of factory workers when its production moved offshore, but now employs 350 knowledge workers to push the innovation envelope.” It is interesting that Crawley chose to use the word shed as opposed to being more up front and say that the company fired hundreds of workers.
A few paragraphs later Crawley does acknowledge that workers were fired, but she frames it in neo-liberal terms of the company’s need to remain competitive. “The fourth-generation of his family to lead the business, Bissell faced a critical decision five years ago. To keep the price of his carpet cleaners and sweepers low enough to compete, he had to move the remainder of his U.S. manufacturing to Mexico and fire 200 loyal workers.”
Crawley then quotes Bissell CEO, Mark Bissell, who says, “For us, the question was how do we in Michigan leverage the global economy and not hide from it.” Bissell also uses neo-liberal language, which is code for how can we find cheap labor in the global economy.
However, Bissell turned right around and hired hundreds of engineers, industrial designers, market researchers and data analysts. These are the “knowledge workers” that Crawley was referring to in her column. Since Bissell has hired the “knowledge workers” the company has moved from number 2 in sales amongst vacuum cleaner companies to number 1.
Crawley goes on to say that the company has invested $9 million dollars in its new Innovation Center on Walker Avenue. The new center has almost as many workers as they did when vacuum cleaners were actually being manufactured here.
This all begs the question, if Bissell can invest $9 million in a new building and hire hundreds of “knowledge workers,” why couldn’t they just keep the hundreds of manufacturing workers who actually made the product and not just talked about it? Crawley’s column does not provide readers with any comparisons to what the former wage workers made assembling vacuum cleaners as opposed to what the knowledge workers make, but it is safe to assume that the knowledge workers make equally as much as the former workers if not more.
We also don’t know where the knowledge workers are coming from. Were they all living in Michigan before being hired by Bissell or were they recruited from out of state? The former Bissell assembly workers were certainly Michigan residents, so how does this kind of treatment of local workers fit into Crawley’s notion that the company is a “model for succeeding in Michigan.”
Lastly, Crawley’s column also doesn’t address the fact that Bissell recently fired 70 workers in Chicago at a warehouse because the workers were trying to organize a union and had filed some complaints against the company with the state. It seems that Bissell is more interested in people to think about their products than those who actually make or transport what workers in Mexico make for the company.
Lobbyists and the Obama Administration
During his campaign for President in 2008, Barack Obama promised to make it more difficult for Lobbyists to operate in Washington politics. The President also made putting restrictions on Lobbyists part of his State of the Union address last week, but what was the track record of Lobbyist in the first year of the new administration.
A few days ago the Center for Responsive Politics reported that, “More than 15,600 companies and organizations spent at least $3.2 billion on federal lobbying in 2009.”
“Additionally, CRP preliminarily found that the health- and health insurance-related companies and organizations spent more than $537.5 million on federal lobbying in 2009, an increase of about four percent above their 2008 spending — a sum that will certainly increase after the final reports are tallied.”
The data certainly shows there has been an increase of Lobbyist spending in the first year of the Obama administration and it should be noted that not all the data for 2009 on lobby spending has been reported yet.
“Pharmaceutical and health product companies look to be the largest industry spender on lobbying in 2009, spending at least $245 million. Other big spenders include the oil and gas industry, the insurance industry and electric utilities, all of which spent more than $135 million on lobbying in 2009.
The top lobbying clients were all groups that have actively opposed or tried to water down major legislative proposals pushed by President Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, with $144.46 million spent on lobbying; Exxon Mobil, with $27.43 million spent on federal lobbying and the drug industry trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which spent $26.15 million.”
The US Chamber of Commerce is always near the top of lobbying efforts since they represent broad business interests, and it should not be surprising that big oil and drug companies are also at the top of the list considering that the White House and Congress proposed both Health Care and Climate legislation.
Mayor Heartwell and the State of the City Address 2010
Since 2004, Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell has made it a point to give a speech to the community on the State of the City. Several hundred people gathered this morning to have breakfast and to hear both what the City has accomplished in the past year and what direction the Mayor would like to see it take.
In previous State of the City addresses, the Mayor claimed some of his visions, or proposals, have been controversial. The “controversial” proposals he mentions are – greater city/public school partnership, streetcars, a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy, tax capturing, and a community sustainability project.
“Look at the amazing things we have done together in this town,” said Heartwell. The Mayor claimed that Grand Rapids is recognized as the strongest economy in Michigan, although he did not provide a source to support such a claim. He also said that Fortune magazine acknowledges Grand Rapids as one of the best cities in the country at recovering from the current recession. Heartwell doesn’t say what criterion Fortune Magazine used to make that determination, but it is interesting that he used a corporate journal as a source to support the performance of the Grand Rapids economy.
A brief acknowledgement that not all is well
Before he addressed the greater accomplishments of 2009, the Mayor did mention that not all is well in Grand Rapids. He said there was double digit unemployment, failing state tax revenues, a high drop out rate for high school students, diminished budgets, and failing minority and female businesses in the area. However, this is where the unpleasant realities ended and the positive comments took over.
By glossing over the severe hardships that thousands of people face in Grand Rapids minimized the seriousness of their situation. The annual Kids Count Report released earlier this month acknowledges that 2 out of every 5 kids in Kent County lives in poverty. A few weeks later it was reported that a new Brookings Institute study showed that Grand Rapids had the highest increase in poverty rates. According to the study, 24%, or one quarter of the population is living in poverty. The Mayor also did not acknowledge the amount of jobs that the city has eliminated due to budget cuts, which was somewhat of a slight to those individuals and families.
Now on to the good stuff
Heartwell said that 2009 will be known as the year of Green Grand Rapids. He claimed that some 1800 people participated in the process and planning meetings and then took it one step further to form independent groups and coalitions to work on various projects like Friends of Grand Rapids Parks, the Grand Rapids Bicycle Coalition, and the Grand Rapids White Water group. We have written about the Green Grand Rapids initiative in the past with some critical assessment, which is always important considering how much positive attention the city gets for its efforts in sustainability.
Another highlight of the year according to Heartwell was the federal stimulus money for ($110 million) that came to Grand Rapids. The Mayor said the city was able to “hire more cops, use it for transit, home weatherization, K-12 education and neighborhood energy initiatives.” Interesting that he mentions that the city hired several police officers with the federal stimulus money, but failed to mention that more officers lost their jobs because of budget cuts. The Mayor also mentioned that he was in DC last week for US Mayors Conference and is convinced that the stimulus money showed that the economy is indeed on the rise. In fact, Heartwell told the audience that, “we shouldn’t let anyone convince us otherwise.”
In addition, Heartwell mentioned that the city and county have collaborated on some property in Grand Rapids that will mutually benefit the new Kent County Social Services building on Jefferson/Franklin and improve the neighborhood where the old facility was located on Franklin/Madison.
Now for the future
The Mayor had basically two main proposals for the next year. First, he talked about how the children are the future of Grand Rapids and to demonstrate that he announced a new initiative called The Mayor’s 50. The initiative is designed to have 50 local companies partner with the City of Grand Rapids to provide meaningful employment for 50 youth.
This is another example of private/public partnership, but it begs the question why the city feels it has to play a role in helping businesses find employees? Doesn’t this fly in the face of free market principals, which doesn’t want the government to interfere with business? However, the Mayor does not shy away from these kinds of partnerships and even prominently acknowledged the corporate donations that made the breakfast at today’s event possible – AT&T, Amway, Amway Plaza Hotel, Consumers energy, DeVos Place, Huntington Bank, 5/3 Bank, Mercantile Bank, RDV Corporation, Rockford Construction.
However, the issue that Mayor Heartwell addressed most was him emphasis on intergovernmental cooperation. Heartwell said that greater consolidation of local government bodies will be the dominant theme of the near future. Heartwell said that the present budget crisis is forcing governments to find new ways to do things, but he also acknowledged that this has already been happening in Kent County.
According to a report from the Citizens Research Council, Grand Rapids and the surrounding communities are already engaged in at least 150 cooperative ventures. However, Heartwell said that these collaborations between governments must increase. In fact, the Mayor went one step further and proposed that all instead of having six cities, why not just have one?
Heartwell said countywide consolidation would make the area the 23rd largest city in the country. It would give the new government political clout, attract corporations, and gain greater access to federal monies. Heartwell said, “The greatest gift we could leave for our grandchildren would be a consolidated government.” For a moment I thought I was listening to a speech from former US President Ronald Reagan. Heartwell did not talk about the details of what a consolidated government would look like, but if one were to look at this through an international lens you could easily say that what the Mayor is proposing is very similar to the Structural Adjustment Programs that the IMF/World Bank imposes on poor countries.
The Mayor concluded with upbeat rhetoric and was given a standing ovation at the end. As I sat there I couldn’t help but think about what all of this will mean. But it seemed to me that the call for consolidation in government not only gives greater control to the private sector, but it takes away the autonomy of communities.
Heartwell implored citizens to take a more active role in the democracy, but how does one do that when governments consolidate and the private sector enters into the equation on a larger scale? These are important questions that must be asked and all of us who live in this area must take it upon ourselves to make sure that with these kinds of questions there is greater transparency and accountability with the local government.
What We Are Reading
Below is a list of books that we have read in the past month. The comments are not a review of the books, instead sort of an endorsement of ideas and investigations that can provide solid analysis and even inspiration in the struggle for change. All these books are available at The Bloom Collective, so check them out and stimulate your mind.
The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution That Will Begin the World Again – This is the most recent book that journalist John Nichols and media scholar Robert McChesney have written together. The Death and Life of American Journalism looks both at the history of news media in the US and the current “crisis” facing news media.
The authors argue that there has always been state intervention in media, like subsidies for mailing newspapers, and that some state intervention is still necessary if we are to have a viable news media in the US. In addition, Nichols and McChesney provide some interesting analysis of the current crisis in news media as well as some well thought out ideas about how to make journalism sustainable and not market driven.
The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy – This is Raj Patel’s second book, and like the first one, he has given us a thought provoking work. In The Value of Nothing, Patel revisits all the standard economic argument for capitalism and concludes that such a system is inherently flawed. The book doesn’t read like a classical Marxist critique, but is part of a growing body of anti-capitalism literature, which challenges the current economic models. Patel also provides concrete examples of movements globally that are forging new economic models, models based on cooperation. The Value of Nothing is both challenging and inspiring.
Ending the US War in Afghanistan: A Primer – This is the fourth in a series of political primers that Phyllis Bennis has put together in recent years. In Ending the US War in Afghanistan, Bennis provides readers with a framework in which to understand the complex history of US relations with Afghanistan and great analysis of the more than eight year US occupation of Afghanistan. Highly recommended if you want to both understand what is happening in Afghanistan and have a solid intellectual foundation in which to organize against the US war in that country.
The Food Wars – Walden Bello is the founding director of Focus on the Global South, which works on challenging corporate globalization from the perspective of people in countries being exploited. The Food Wars is an excellent investigation into how the capitalist driven economic model imposed on the poorer countries of the world has devastated food production and created an unsustainable food system. Bello provides case studies like Mexico, the Philippines, China and several African nations. An important contribution to our understanding of what the consequences are of putting profit over people.
The Tyranny of Oil: The World’s Most Powerful Industry – and What We Must Do to Stop It – Antonia Juhasz, author of The Bush Agenda, has given us one of the best books ever written about the oil industry. In the tradition of Ida Tarbell, The Tyranny of Oil exposes the insidious inner workings of the global oil cartel. Juhasz begins with an overview of Big Oil’s origins and how they have evolved into what they are today. The author looks at how Big Oil buys politicians, causes major health problems and devastates eco-systems around the world. The Tyranny of Oil is an important contribution for anyone interested in a world that respects people and the planet.
As could be expected the was coverage in today’s Grand Rapids Press responding to the President’s State of the Union address last night. On page 2 the Press ran a story by reporter Ted Roelofs, which featured local reactions to the Obama’s speech.
The article included six reactions from people throughout West Michigan. There were reactions from both Congressmen Pete Hoekstra and Vern Ehlers, both of which had critical assessments of the President, but nothing concrete. There were also two additional GOP reactions, one from a business consultant and the other a Grand Rapids businessman.
The other two reactions included one from a woman described as a “veteran Democratic activist,” with the remaining response coming from the “assistant director of Grand Valley State University’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgender Resource Center.”
Most of the responses focused on partisanship or style and not on substance. Only the GVSU representative and the GR businessman addressed specific issues, namely jobs, taxes and the US military policy for gay/lesbian soldiers, often referred to as “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
What is unfortunate is that there were no working class perspectives provided and only one that seemed to be not representing either a Republican or Democratic Party perspective. Too often it seems the Press cannot see past the Red/Blue dichotomy, as if there are no other independent points of view.
What might a story like this look like if it included those who were suffering from unemployment, lack of health care or an immigrant concerned about immigration policy?
Style not Analysis
The Press also featured a front-page story from the Associated Press entitled “Pointing in a new direction.” The story that appeared in the Press was shorten version of the original AP article and was primarily about whether or not the President connected with the American people. In this shortened version there is no analysis or verification of the claims that the President made during his 75 minutes speech.
Providing citizens with this some kind of analysis or fact check is essential if we are to have an informed democracy. ABC reporter Huma Khan does exactly this kind of analysis in an online piece that fact checks the President’s comments on health care, jobs, taxes, lobbyists and campaign financing.
World Social Forum’s true colors dimmed by Press report
Jeff Smith contributed to this post.
The Grand Rapids Press ran an Associated Press story about rallies in the streets of Porto Alegre Brazil, where the 10 Years World Social Forum Seminar takes place, January 25 to 29. From the get-go, the story uses charged language to paint the obligatory picture of crazed communists and socialists ranting against capitalism and corporate greed. The story begins, “Thousands of leftists massed Monday to kick off five days of railing against unfettered capitalism.”
By framing the story with this language, the AP reporter makes it easier for readers to quickly dismiss the actions and desires of thousands of people from around the world who are striving to make the world more livable. A more honest introduction might have stated that thousands of regular people representing hundreds of NGOs and grass roots social justice groups were in the streets proclaiming that another world is possible–an alternative to the broken world that those in power are shoving down the throats of the hungry, homeless, unemployed, disenfranchised and environmentally poisoned. “Unfettered capitalism?” That’s newspeak for the neoliberal capitalist economic agenda that views human beings as nothing more than a resource or a market.
The Press account continues, “Accompanied by thundering drumbeats and samba blaring from sound trucks, a crowd of exuberant activists estimated by police to number 25,000 marched through Porto Alegre waving communist flags and shouting socialist slogans. They assailed corporate greed as the main reason the world plunged into an economic slump.”
Looking past the intentionally repetitive reference to communism and socialism, doesn’t this sound like a blast? Imagine 25,000 exuberant Grand Rapids area residents taking to the streets—not to dress like zombies or wait in line for souvlaki—but to celebrate a plan for ending poverty, discrimination, war and environmental destruction.
The article also fails to mention that the city government of Porte Alegre is on board with the World Social Forum, and that the World Social Forum was first held in Brazil with many Brazilians now engaging in participatory economic policies, called participatory budgeting. Participatory budgeting is where citizens take an active role in determining the government budget for the towns and cities they live in. These citizen groups are responding to the consequences of economic policies that are most often driven by “corporate greed.”
However, the term “corporate greed” is yet another whitewashed word. Again, it is the neoliberal policies that unleashed this greed that have led the economy to where it is today. Policies like NAFTA and CAFTA, have, for example, put Americans out of work by relocating manufacturing in Mexico, while dumping cheap corn there and destroying the livelihood of more than one million Mexican farmers.
In another interestingly twisted sentence, the story reports, “Participants said the forum is especially important this year now that governments from the United States to Europe are moving to play bigger roles in managing the global economy.”
In actuality, it is not sovereign governments who are in control. The engines that propel neoliberal policies, the IMF, WTO and World Bank are autonomous institutions that set policy that overrides any government control. These power brokers have nothing to do with democracy. In fact, they weaken democracy and mute the voice of the people. Their international standards trump our own nation’s laws.
The Press chose to shorten the AP story’s closing quote. Gustavo de Biase, a 22-year-old Brazilian, said, “We want to distribute the riches to people. We’re fighting for a more equal society and we’re saying ‘Down with hunger’ and ‘Down with war.‘” By shortening this WSF participant’s statement, readers lose a clearer sense of what people really are organizing for.
The Press fails to mention that a gathering similar to the World Social Forum takes place in Detroit this June, the US Social Forum. GRIID plans on being there to report on what happens at that gathering and how people will be organizing to address issues like war, poverty, racism and global warming.
