Lou Dobbs forced off CNN because of anti-hate campaign
Last month we encouraged people to participate in a national campaign against the racist and anti-immigrant positions of CNN commentator Lou Dobbs.
The Basta Dobbs campaign exposed the vicious and hateful commentary that long time CNN commentator Lou Dobbs has been known for through an online petition campaign and a short video they produced that was widely distributed.
The Basta Dobbs campaign yesterday released a statement upon hearing the decision by CNN to release the long-time anchor from their network.
“Our contention all along was that Lou Dobbs – who has a long record of spreading lies and conspiracy theories about immigrants and Latinos – does not belong on the ‘Most Trusted Name in News,’” said Roberto Lovato, co-founder of Presente.org, a national online advocacy organization coordinating the BastaDobbs.com campaign in conjunction with more than 40 local and regional Latino organizations from across the country. “We are thrilled that Dobbs no longer has this legitimate platform from which to incite fear and hate.”
This victory not only demonstrates that this kind of hate speech will not be tolerated by many in this country, it also sends a message to the anti-immigration and White Nationalist movements that those who support immigration are organized.
Bissell Protest is small, but sends a strong message
Yesterday a small group of people gathered outside the Bissell offices on Walker NW in Grand Rapids to protest the company’s complicity in the firing of 70 workers from one of their warehouses outside of Chicago last week.
When protestors arrived Bissell had 2 security guards at the entrance to the facility asking people if they had “business with Bissell.” The guards had a vehicle and communication devices to relay information to others inside the building.
Within 2 minutes of arriving protestors were also met by Walker City police who instructed them on where they could stand and that any violation beyond the “allowable” activities he described would result in arrest. The police officer came and went several times during the 90-minute protest.
Protestors held a variety of signs and were seen by roughly 100 Bissell employees upon their departure. There were also several hundred motorists who passed by during the protest and some of them displayed support by giving a thumbs up or honking their horns.
Even though there were just a few people at the protest, it clearly sent a strong message to the Bissell Corporation based on their security presence and their notification of local law enforcement.
It is not known at this point what actions will take place in the future, but we will continue to follow this story and keep you up to date.
Here are some comments by some of those who came to the demonstration:
Indian Activist and AIM co-founder, Dennis Banks, Speaks to Overflow Crowd at GVSU
The six Native American drummers pounding out the traditional rhythm on one drum spanned several generations, one was a young girl, perhaps seven or eight years old. Part of President Obama’s speech commemorating National Native American Heritage Month was read aloud, “Native American voices have echoed through the mountains, valleys, and plains of our country for thousands of years, and it is now our time to listen.”
Like the message of the drums, the message Dennis Banks delivered will resound for generations to come. The Indian is strong—and that strength will continue the fight for justice in this land that was so unjustly taken from them.
Banks is one of the founders of the American Indian Movement, AIM. Grand Valley State University’s Loosemore auditorium was “standing room only” by the time the presentation began with a segment from the PBS television series, We Shall Remain. The segment revealed how, between 1878 and 1940, more than 100,000 Indian children were kidnapped from their families and forced to live at boarding schools. Dennis Banks, given name Nowa Comig, was forcibly torn from his mother and family at age five and taken to the Pipestone Boarding School.
“It was a social experiment to change the Indian child’s thinking, to destroy the Indian culture within the native child,” Banks said. “It was a bad experiment with a heavy toll. It failed, but we’re still here.”
Banks described the brutality that reigned within the schools. Upon arrival, children’s traditional braids were cut off; they were sprayed, naked, with DDT; then issued “white man’s” clothes and names. Beatings were common, especially for runaways, with other children enlisted to join in with sticks, clubs and brooms.
“There was deep pain when I witnessed the brutality,” Banks said. I screamed along with them,” Banks said.
The deeper pain was the disconnect Banks experienced with his mother and family—a disconnect which he was never able to overcome.
Much of the conversation Tuesday night told the rest of Banks’ life story: his successful stint in the Air Force; his many incarcerations; his times as a day laborer in the slums of Minneapolis, where Paddy wagons were sent to the bars on Friday nights and filled with Indians who would be forced, like slaves, to clean the streets and football stadium.
Wounded Knee 1973
Another segment of the PBS series was shown, this one documenting how in 1973 Dennis Banks and members of the American Indian Movement mounted an armed occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, the site of the U.S. Calvary’s horrific massacre of 250 men, women and children in 1890. During AIM’s 1973 occupation, the Indians called for a review of treaties, restoration of the lands legally theirs and the removal of Dick Wilson, the corrupt tribal chairman of Pine Ridge reservation, known for violence and extortion. During Tuesday night’s event, not enough attention was spent on the US policy of Indian Removal or the specifics of the 1973 Occupation of Wounded Knee.
Event moderator, Levi Rickert, asked Banks if he thought AIM’s actions at Wounded Knee were too violent. Banks paused, took a breath and answered, “There comes a time when you’re up against a wall, taking beatings, and you’re just not going to take it any more.”
When an audience member asked what the Indian’s next fight would be, Banks answered “Water rights. We’re going to have to assert our water rights . . . in the west, Minnesota, the Midwest… we own a lot of water but states argue that the water belongs to them.”
Banks went on to discuss how Indians’ fishing rights and control of oil on reservation lands has been likewise subverted by state and federal government. Banks concluded the evening by saying that, even though ignored by the doctrines of Manifest Destiny and Christianity, and subjected to U.S. brutality for the past 233 years, “Native people have had an impact on this continent for thousands of years.”
As the drummers came back on stage to close the event with ceremony, accompanied by Native singers, Banks joined the circle.
As Obama said, “ . . . it is now our time to listen.”
The question is, will we?
Media Bites – Nike & Urban Youth
This week’s Media Bites takes a look at a new Nike commercial that is promoting their line of skateboard shoes. The spot is attempting to position Nike as a company in touch with edgy, urban youth, even youth that defy authority. The commercial also features the music of Ice Cube and P. Rod with the song “Today was a good day.” Nike can appropriate all the urban dissident culture it wants to, but in the end Nike is only interested in selling their high priced shoes.
Speaker talks with students about Plan Mexico
This morning students at Grand Valley State University had the opportunity to listen to a presentation by Carlos Euceda. Carlos works with the Mexico Solidarity Network (MSN) based in Chicago and is on tour in the Midwest to share information on the work of his organization and provide an analysis of what is called Plan Mexico.
Carlos began with an overview of the work that MSN does and how it began. MSN was founded as a response to a massacre in Acteal, Chiapas in 1997. Tom Hansen, the founder of MSN, was investigating these actions and because of that he was deported from Mexico. In response to this people organized in the US to support human rights in Mexico and MSN was born.
Out of this effort an education program began with students from the US going to Mexico to learn first hand about the situation. MSN has projects in partnership with the Zapatista communities in Chiapas, with displaced people in Mexico City, in Oaxaca, and in Juarez where there has been a femicidal campaign against women.
Plan Merida/Plan Mexico
The main focus of Carlos’ presentation was on Plan Merida, or what is called in the US Plan Mexico. He said that this plan is really an extension of NAFTA, Plan Puebla Panama and Plan Colombia, in that Plan Mexico is the most recent policy designed to gain greater access to the natural resources of the country.
Carlos said that Plan Mexico is framed as a response to the growing drug problem in Mexico, but that is just a pretext for the militarization of the country. The US has increased the amount of weapons it has sent to Mexico under this plan in recent years, but Carlos also made the point that the narco-traffickers are also getting most of their weapons from the US.
However, according to the MSN speaker the real reason for the increased militarization of Mexico has been to criminalize any public opposition to the exploitation of resources. This policy has primarily targeted indigenous communities, which also happen to be people who live in very resource and bi0-diverse parts of what is called MesoAmerica – Southern, Guatemala and Belize.
So, the problem for governments and corporations is that this territory is populated by millions of indigenous people, which makes it difficult for these economic forces to easily extract resources. Since the indigenous people will not leave, the only way to gain access to the natural resources is to engage in low-intensity warfare, according to Carlos.
Carlos said that the Obama administration has continued the Bush policies of focusing on the narco-traffickers publicly, when in reality it is about the militarization of Mexican society. The MSN speaker said that the jails in Mexico are filled with human rights activists who have been resisting these policies. He also said that the para-military forces are growing in southern Mexico and that there are 9,000 Mexican soldiers along the US border in Juarez. However, Carlos emphasized that this militarization provides a cover for the exploitation of Mexico’s resources.
There has been tremendous resistance to these policies, according to Carlos. One example he gave took place in Atenco, Mexico where the government wanted to build an international airport. However the resistance is more effect if there is international solidarity. Carlos encouraged people to get involved with the work of the Mexico Solidarity Network, by hosting speakers, providing financial support or going on a delegation and being an observer in the areas of conflict. “Solidarity is key,” he said, “and it is our obligation as US citizens to counter-act the policies of the US government which has escalated the repression.”
For additional information on Plan Mexico, check out this segment on Democracy Now from last year.
Bissell’s Dirty Secret: Workers Protest Bissell Warehouse in Response to Mass Firing
Two weeks ago workers from Chicago spoke in Grand Rapids about a factory occupation that happened last December. During that presentation they mentioned a new organizing campaign amongst warehouse workers in and around the Chicago area, since over 50% of merchandize that the US imports is distributed through Chicago.
We recently received word from the labor organizers in Chicago about the unjust action taken against workers at a Bissell warehouse just outside of Chicago.
Employees at the Bissell warehouse near Joliet, arrived to work at 6am today only to be informed they were all fired, but not before they trained their replacements.
Workers were fired en masse after filing legal complaints and charges last week over the many violations of state and federal law in the warehouse. On Thursday October 29th workers notified management that they had formed a union.
“This company has no respect for our rights. We will fight to force Bissell and Maersk to follow the law and treat workers with dignity,” said Anthony Bailey a forklift driver at the Bissell facility. “I will not accept losing my job because I stood up for my rights.”
The warehouse has been using an unregistered temporary employment agency that had systematically violated many state and federal laws, including paying some workers less than minimum wage.
Workers also cited racial discrimination, unpaid wages and threats of retaliation for bringing these issues to management’s attention.
The Bissell warehouse, managed by Maersk Logistics, opened in January 2009 and is part of the expanding distribution industry in Chicago’s suburbs. It supplies Bissell vacuum cleaners to big box retailers including Walmart and Target.
Today in Grand Rapids, 5 people in solidarity with the fired warehouse workers delivered a letter to the CEO of Bissell to express their opposition with the treatment of workers. The letter read in part:
As you should know, it is illegal to retaliate against employees for filing complaints under federal and state laws. These workers have lost their jobs after exposing unlawful practices at your warehouse and in fact may have been retaliated against for exercising their legal rights. As members of the Grand Rapids community, we hold Bissell accountable for worker abuse and sweatshop conditions in your supply chain. We urge you to retain all of the workers, many of whom have worked at your facility since it opened in January.
The Bissell CEO refused to meet with people from the community, but they were told an assistant would meet with them. After a 5-minute wait someone did come down to talk with the group and listen to their objections to the treatment of workers in the Bissell warehouse. The person said that they would give the letter to the CEO, but could not answer any of the questions asked, because he was just “a security guard” for the company. So, not only would the CEO refuse to speak to people, the secretarial staff deceived the community members by sending a security guard to speak with them.
Organized Protest
However, the efforts to pressure Bissell have just begun and the community members present, in conjunction with the Chicago labor organizers, are calling for a protest at the Bissell facilities located at 2345 Walker NW in Grand Rapids.
This Wednesday, November 11 beginning at 4pm, people will gather with signs in solidarity with the workers who were fired from the Bissell warehouse outside of Chicago. Please help us spread the word and consider joining the protest.
US House barely passes watered-down Health Care Reform Bill
On Saturday, the US House of Representatives passed what is being hailed in the commercial news media as an “historic health care reform bill.” The measure barely passed with a 220-215, a vote, which included all Democrats and one Republican voting for the bill. West Michigan members of Congress, Vern Ehlers and Pete Hoekstra, both voted against the bill.
The closeness of the vote demonstrated the volatility of the issue, despite the fact that what ended up being passed was ultimately not a very progressive bill. The so-called “Public Option” was watered down in such a way as to not challenge the power of the medical establishment, including health care insurance companies. Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, one of the Democrats who voted against the hill, echoes this critique in a statement he gave that said:
“We have been led to believe that we must make our health care choices only within the current structure of a predatory, for-profit insurance system which makes money not providing health care. We cannot fault the insurance companies for being what they are. But we can fault legislation in which the government incentivizes the perpetuation, indeed the strengthening, of the for-profit health insurance industry, the very source of the problem. When health insurance companies deny care or raise premiums, co-pays and deductibles they are simply trying to make a profit. That is our system.”
One reason the House version passed is because of the provisions that further prevent women’s reproductive rights. The growing number of Pro-Life Democrats embraced the language in the bill, which would further erode reproductive choice. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, co-chair of the Congressional Women’s Caucus, who also voted against the bill, had this to say:
“This health reform bill is about improving access to care, not further restricting a woman’s right to choose. Our bill is about lowering health care costs for millions of women and their families, not further marginalizing women by forcing them to pay more for their care. This amendment is a back door way of overturning Roe v. Wade; it is a disservice and insult to millions of women throughout our country. I urge my colleagues to vote against this amendment.”
As has been noted the bill (H.R. 3962 Affordable Health Care for America Act) is rather lengthy and since the commercial media has done such a poor job of providing any clear analysis of the content of the bill, most Americans are left to support partisan groups which have been endorsing or criticizing the health care legislation.
Despite the bill passing in the House it must now go before the Senate and some critics have pointed out that the conservative Democrats, also known as Blue Dog Democrats, are even less sympathetic to real reform. This conservative stance on health care is reflected in how much money these Senate Democrats have received from the health care industry.
In the days before the Senate voted we plan to continue to provide some analysis and independent reporting on the fate of the health care legislation.
Counting the Vote Coverage: ArtPrize vs Local Elections
Since 1998 GRIID has been monitoring election coverage in West Michigan. Most of our studies in the past have been entitled An Informed Vote, as we were attempting to determine whether or not voters who relied on Grand Rapids-based news media could make an informed decision when voting.
We just finished another monitoring project of the local news media as it related to the November 3 elections. According to the Kent County Clerk’s office, there were 43 candidates running for office in Kent County alone and three ballot proposals.
In this monitoring project we only looked at the Grand Rapids Press from October 2, 2009 through November 3, 2009. We documented all stories related to elections in Kent County, but also tracked stories that were about ArtPrize. Considering the amount of news coverage that ArtPrize generated in the local media, we decided to make a comparison of the voting for ArtPrize and voting in local political elections.
We chose to begin the monitoring project on October 2, a full month before the local elections, but also because it was the day that the Top 10 Finalists in the ArtPrize competition were announced. Statistically what we found is that there were a total of 10 Election stories over the 30-day period and 35 ArtPrize stories.
We also looked at placement of stories and found that local elections only made the front page once (November 1st), whereas ArtPrize was on the front page a total of 6 times during this 30-day period.
As we suggested in a previous posting, it appears that an art contest organized by the richest family in the area garnered more media attention than local elections. And remember, these statistics on the number of election stories vs ArtPrize are almost exclusively after the ArtPrize vote. Imagine how many more ArtPrize stories there would be to local election coverage if we looked at 30 days prior to the art contest vote.
Some Election Analysis
In the 10 election stories, the first story did not appear until October 24 (Campaign Finances). On October 26, there were two short stories on ballot proposals in Rockford and Overisel Township. Grand Rapids City Commission races got coverage on October 27, 28 and November 1st. There was also a full story on a Kentwood City Commission race on October 30. Some local races were mentioned at the end of other stories, but the only elections that received any substance were the First & Third Wards in Grand Rapids and the City Commission race in Kentwood.
In the Grand Rapids City Commission candidate coverage the Press used a set of questions that they submitted to all four candidates running in the First & Third Ward. The questions were primarily focused around city budget issues – cutting departments, taxes, pensions, road repairs and the creation of bike lanes. While these were relevant questions to ask of the candidates, there certainly could have been more that the Press could have asked these candidates.
In addition, in both of the City Commission races there were incumbents running. However, the Press never bothered to report on the voting record of either candidate. Providing voters with a record of how candidates have voted in the past would be useful information on where they might stand on issues in the future.
Lastly, considering the lack of coverage by the only daily newspaper in the Grand Rapids area is it a surprise that only 10% of the registered voters in Grand Rapids even bothered to participate in the election process?
US House Votes to Condemn Goldstone Report
On Tuesday the US House voted overwhelmingly to condemn the United Nation Report on War Crimes committed during the Israel assault on Gaza, which began late last year. Known as the Goldstone Report, the UN document demonstrates that Israel is guilty of numerous war crimes with its indiscriminant bombing of Palestinian civilians.
The vote was 344 – 46 in support of a non-binding resolution, which says that the Goldstone Report is biased against Israel. The breakdown of the vote shows that the resolution had bipartisan support, with more Democrats voting against it. Both West Michigan Congressmen Pete Hoekstra and Vern Ehlers voted for the resolution.
The Center for Responsive Politics noted on Friday that there was substantial financial support from Pro-Israel lobby groups to members of the House that voted for the resolution. “The members of the House who voted in favor of the resolution have received $51,260 more on average from pro-Israel organizations ($81,020 versus $29,770) since 1989 than those who opposed it, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics has found.”
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) made this vote an issue and encouraged their members to lobby for the resolution. Other pro-Israel lobby groups were also active in determining the outcome of this resolution. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz noted, “The National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) urged Democratic members of Congress to support the resolution and denounce the commission’s report.”
The NJDC stated their Pro-Israel views in a press release from November 3. The press release stated in part: “NJDC is mindful that the Gaza incursion, like all military conflicts in urban areas, was accompanied by tragic loss of civilian life. There is a great deal of evidence that indicates that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) made extraordinary efforts to protect civilian life in the conflict. Moreover, those who call for investigations of “war crimes” should be mindful of Israel’s extraordinary record of investigation into allegations of military misconduct and to the extreme likelihood that the Hamas regime in Gaza would never undertake any credible investigation of its own misconduct.”
This voted to condemn the Goldstone report and side with Israel on a major international law issue demonstrates the near unanimous support for Israel from the US that has existed since the mid-1970s no matter which party inhabits the White House.
Diverse Audience Attends First Healing Children of Conflict Event
Last night, 7:25 p.m. Afghanistan time, a NATO air strike killed six adults and three children working in their cornfields. Last night, 7:25 Eastern Standard Time, a diverse group of Grand Rapids area residents were gathered for a fund raising dinner and silent auction sponsored by Healing Children of Conflict (HCC). This new local organization hopes to bring 30 children to Grand Rapids over the next ten years for medical treatment—children from the Middle East injured by the United States’ actions and munitions.
More than 150 guests filled the 29th Street Hall: Muslims and Christians, college students and grandparents, Midwestern accents, middle Eastern accents—and a splash of Arabic in between. “We’re here to have a good time and raise some money, but also to share information about Healing Children of Conflict,” says HCC member, Bert DeVries. “It’s wonderful to see such a diverse group of people gather for a common cause, cutting across traditional boundaries around a common vision.”
HCC member Dr. Aly Mageed sees the HCC’s work from a medical perspective. He is familiar with the limitations of medical care available to the war-wounded in occupied territories like Iraq, Gaza and Afghanistan. “They cannot afford the needed medical care there,” he says. “And if they could, it is not available.”
After dinner, the group watched a short video presentation about an Iraqi child brought to the U.S. for medical treatment by the organization No More Victims. Salee, her brother and their best friend were playing hopscotch in their yard when a U.S. bomb exploded in the middle of them. Yards away, Salee’s parents were splattered with the flesh of their son. They ran to find Salle alive—but the blast had sheared off both of her legs. In addition, Salee’s sister, Rusul, had to have her mangled foot and ankle amputated. Funds raised from last night’s event are being used to help purchase new prosthetic legs for Salee.
A guest at the event, Bahia Shanaa, grew up in Lebanon as a Palestinian refugee. She came to the United States more than twenty years ago, at age 18. Her past as a child living in the midst of war still impacts her today. “There is never a day goes by that I am not reminded of the war. I cannot go to the movies. The theatres remind me of the bomb shelters,” she says. “During an attack, when you are a child and you know there is a bomb coming, you’re just waiting to die.”
Shanaa has lost family members, friends and neighbors to Israeli terrorism in Palestine. “There is no excuse for violence. We don’t have the right to take anybody’s life,” she says. “I would hope for all children to have the same basics. To be able to go to sleep feeling safe, go to school and play at the playground. To be able to live.”
While the thousands of dead children killed by US involvement in Iraq, Gaza, and Afghanistan cannot be brought back to life, 30 of the thousands more who have lost arms, legs, eyes or survived other debilitating injuries will have a chance to improve their outcomes if this West Michigan group has its way. “We have a moral responsibility to do what we can to help kids whose lives have been changed because of our actions,” says HCC member Christine Yared. “We hope it helps the cause of peace when people hear these human stories.”
