By Pepe Lozano
People's Weekly World
As Democrats rally for unity behind Barack Obama’s run for president at their party’s national convention in Denver, the opening day featured appearances by labor, state and city leaders from Obama’s home state, Illinois.
President of the Illinois Service Employees International Union Tom Balanoff, representing 175,000 members, addressed the convention Aug. 25, saying union households know where Obama is coming from. Balanoff said his own father was a steelworker who believed in the American dream of working hard in order to build a good life for his family. Balanoff said growing up in Chicago his family made many gains when the steel industry provided opportunities for working people. But by the early 1980s under an increasingly globalized economy the steel industry declined and many plants across the country were closing, especially in Chicago, he said.
“That’s what Barack Obama found when he moved to Chicago in 1984,” said Balanoff. “As a community organizer, he devoted his considerable gifts to helping displaced workers and their families try to rebuild their lives,” Balanoff added. “He committed himself to improving the future of hard-working people devastated by the decline of the manufacturing sector.”
Obama’s experience at the grass roots shaped his political perspective and core beliefs and helped him to understand the challenges working families face, said Balanoff. “He knows that they are the strength of this nation and he knows that in the current economic climate, many of these families struggle despite how hard they work everyday,” he said.
“Barack Obama believes that if you go to work in the United States, you should not have to live in poverty. He believes that hard work should be rewarded with a living wage, health care, and a secure retirement, and that these rewards will build stronger families and communities and a stronger America. John McCain looks to Wall Street and says the economy is OK. Barack Obama looks to Main Street and knows that it is not OK. The working families of this country cannot afford four more years of Bush-McCain economic policies,” said Balanoff.
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) said, “I’m sure Dr. King is looking down on us here in Denver, noting that this is the first political convention in history to take place within sight of his mountaintop.”
Jackson said when President Lyndon Johnson submitted the Voting Rights Act to Congress, Dr. King stated, “At times, history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man’s unending search for freedom.”
Jackson added, “So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was at Appomattox. So it was in Selma, Alabama. Tonight, I would like to add: and so it shall be in Denver, Colorado, with the nomination of Barack Obama to be President of the United States.”
Jackson said he himself grew up learning the lessons of his father’s generation with stories of struggle and sacrifice, of fear and division, and knows that America is still a place where dreams are too often deferred and opportunities too often denied.
“But here’s what I also know,” he said. “I know that while America may not be perfect, our union can always be perfected. I know what we can achieve when good people with strong convictions come together around a common purpose.”
Recalling the civil rights movement and Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous 1963 “I have a Dream” speech, Jackson said, “Forty-five years to the day after a young preacher called out, ‘Let freedom ring,’ let history show in this fourth week of August in this Mile-High City, freedom in America has never rung from a higher mountaintop than it does here today.”
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said she remembers working with Obama on the Illinois Senate floor in Springfield. “I learned why Barack is such a fierce advocate for women and their children,” said Madigan. “In his own life, he saw women struggle and sacrifice to support his family.”
Madigan stressed how a single mother who dreamed of a better future for her son raised Obama like millions of American children. And it was Obama’s grandmother who molded his mother to work hard for her family despite all the odds. “Smart, tough women sacrificed to make Barack the man he is today. And he’s never forgotten it,” said Madigan.
“But today, too many families face challenges that even the most loving and devoted parents can’t overcome on their own. We need a president who knows how to remove the obstacles that stand between parents and their dreams for their children,” said Madigan.
Chicago City Clerk Miguel Del Valle recalled how he first met Obama in 1992 doing voter registration in the city’s Latino neighborhoods. “Barack Obama made sure that the thousands of Latinos in Chicago were registered to vote. He helped empower the Latino community and ensure that we were full participants in our democracy,” said Del Valle.
Del Valle said Obama is helping to bring Latinos and all Americans nationwide into the political process and into the national conversation about the future in order to turn the page on the failed policies of Bush and McCain. “All voters need to be empowered. All voices need to be heard. And all of us must stand up for the change we need. And make no mistake: Barack Obama will deliver that change,” he said.
Del Valle added that Obama’s run for the White House is the best opportunity to unite the country and lead the nation, addressing day-to-day struggles from high gas prices to violence in the streets, to finding a good job and improving our schools.
“It’s the best chance we have to put America on a different course, a course that will restore our faith in what we can do as a people and restore our standing in the world,” said Del Valle.
Other Illinois speakers on the convention opening day included State Comptroller Dan Hynes and State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias.
plozano @ pww.org
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Torture victim fights for freedom
By Pepe Lozano
People's Weekly World, Aug. 18, 2008
CHICAGO – Every day Mark Clements prays to God in his prison cell that one day he will be a free man. He has been incarcerated since 1981–27 years–for a crime he says he did not commit. A crime that Clements was brutally forced to admit to after Chicago police detectives beat and tortured a confession out of him. He was 16 at the time.
On June 17, 1981, at 2:00 a.m. a fire broke out in a south side building. Four people died as a result. Fire investigators determined it was arson. On June 25 police arrested Clements who was taken to a Violent Crimes Unit in what was then an Area Three Police Station where Clements says he was periodically chained to a wall and interrogated over 10 hours by four Chicago detectives who never contacted his parents.
Legally any minor under age 18 being interviewed by police must have a youth officer present. During his interrogation Clements says none were present until after he signed a confession. The law also requires that the parent or legal guardian of a juvenile be notified buy police when a youth is held. According to Clements the police never called his parents.
Clements affirms he was verbally abused with racial insults and suffered numerous beatings including to the genitals after which he made a false “confession” stating he set the fire.
During his trial Clements pleaded with the judge and said he was beaten and coerced into confessing and proclaimed his innocence. He told the judge that he signed the confession in order to stop the torture. At age 16, Clements was functionally illiterate.
At his trial Clements was assigned two public defendants who argued that Clements IQ was very low and that he did not understand his rights by signing a confession statement. Clements himself testified that he was tortured and although his lawyers tried to use his statements Clements and his supporters feel his lawyers at the time lacked the resources to press for a fair trial. His attorneys felt they could not corroborate his testimony on torture and the police would deny it.
There were no witnesses and no material evidence presented linking Clements to the fire throughout his trial. He was tried as an adult and sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years.
The Burge connection
According to supporters of Clements and others like him the Chicago police under Commander Jon Burge from 1973-1991 brutalized most of at least 135 torture victims.
All the victims are African American males and their stories tell a consistent pattern of racial discrimination by the city’s police force. Electric shock to the ears and/or genitals, burning, suffocation, and mock executions were some of the most brutal forms of torture on these men who were beaten to sign confessions for crimes they say they did not commit.
Current Mayor of Chicago Richard M. Daley served as Cook County States Attorney from 1980-1989 during the years Burge is being accused of leading such abuses as well as when Clements was tortured.
The Office of Professional Standards and the Police Federation issued reports recommending a thorough investigation on Burge and those under him in the early 1990’s. Burge was eventually fired in 1993 and till this day neither he nor any of the officers working under him accused of torture have faced criminal charges. Burge continues to receive a pension from the Chicago Police Department.
Edward Egan, a special prosecutor was appointed in 2002 to investigate the Burge accusations but after four years and seven million public dollars later he finally released a 292-page report confirming torture was evident. Two of the detectives who interrogated Clements have been named as people involved in torture under Burge in Egan’s report. Yet Egan refused to bring charges against Burge and others. Some feel Egan was biased because it was later revealed his nephew was a police officer under Burge.
Last year, the Cook County Board of Commissioners called for hearings of all the Burge victims including a federal prosecution of Burge and the determination that torture is a federal crime without a statue of limitations. The Illinois House of Representatives recently passed legislation to set up an innocence commission to review torture claims. The measure is currently in the Senate.
Meanwhile federal prosecutors led by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald are calling ten retired police officers before a grand jury to testify as to whether Burge and those under him obstructed justice by stating under oath that the Chicago Police did not use torture. If it is confirmed that such practices occurred, they and Burge could still be prosecuted on the federal level.
Before leaving office in 2003, former Governor George Ryan pardoned four of the Death Row 10, who said they were tortured under Burge, on the basis of innocence. Ryan commuted the sentences of the others to Life without Parole. All originally received death sentences and said confessions were beaten out of them, crimes they say they did not do.
In 2002 Attorney General Lisa Madigan was appointed as the lead prosecutor in the Burge torture cases. According to the Campaign To End The Death Penalty in Chicago at least 30 victims of torture remain behind bars based on false confessions. Madigan, they say, has the power to grant evidentiary hearings so that victims can present evidence of torture but she has not budged.
Clements side of the story
With the help of the prison library staff that noticed Clements was eager to be taught he learned how to read and write in prison. Very few prisoners have such opportunities today according to Clements supporters who say staff and collections at prison libraries have been slashed.
Today Clements continues to work tirelessly in seeking religious, community and legal support for a new trial in order to prove his innocence. Although Clements case has no direct relation to the Burge beatings, his case is currently on appeal in the Cook County Criminal Court and a legal team led by Timothy A. Nelsen is in his corner.
“I did not commit this crime,” said Clements in a written letter to this reporter. “I was not allowed to see a youth officer nor call my parents. I was beaten and tortured in my genitals twice inside a closet sized interrogation room. During the beatings I was called racist names,” said Clements.
“During the second beating and torture,” one detective said ‘since you like telling, tell this,’ as he beat me in my chest and stomach with his fist. He beat me in the thighs and shoulders and smacked me. He grabbed my private area and I cried and he squeezed really hard until I agreed to say what he wanted me to say to the states attorney.”
Clements said he told the states attorney what the detective told him to say because he was “scared he would return and beat and torture me.” Clements told the states attorney that he was abused but the states attorney “came in the room, took the confession and acted like I never told him what occurred to me.”
In his letter Clements adds, “It is very important to share this story and my fight for freedom. Why? I am one of the first Chicago police torture victims, but I had poor legal representation on the trial level and my lawyers did not interview one witness connected with this crime nor did they investigate the confession.”
“I was also found guilty because I was poor and did not understand the seriousness of the charges against me whatsoever. I believe had this been a teenager whose family had money he would not be in prison. I did no crime and I shake my head each day at how easy I was railroaded by a judge who is supposed to be honorable and fair. Where is the justice for the poor?” he asked.
“I do believe the criminal justice system discriminates when it comes to applying equal justice to the poor, African American and Latino men and women all over this country. I feel racism plays a role in over 60 percent of all cases in wrongful convictions and torture involving criminal suspects.”
Ted Pearson from National Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression holds Mark Clements photo at July 18 rally in downtown Chicago. Pepe Lozano/PWW.
Ted Pearson with the Chicago National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression is a friend and supporter of Clements and has been following his case closely.
Pearson said Clements legal appeal is moving forward and that his lawyers are making gains including doing a new and improved finger print analysis on the crime evidence. Recent court orders were also granted to Clements legal team in getting access to all documents of the case including information on the whereabouts of alleged witnesses who spoke with detectives at the time.
Clements story “indicates that these torture methods and beatings shows it was an on-going practice in the police department at the time and some argue it still happens today,” said Pearson.
“If police can beat a confession out of you then you don’t have any rights at all and nobody is safe when they can do this,” added Pearson. “It’s really a violation of our rights and they continue to get away with it.”
Meanwhile victims of police torture are behind bars, most of them innocent and African American, while police officers receive pensions collecting retirement, said Pearson.
In low-income communities where financial resources are poor and recreational programs for youth are limited including the lack of jobs, many residents throughout the city see the police as another form of oppression at times. Stories of torture and police brutality cases make many communities fear their presence and unfortunately taints the entire police department as community-wide suspicion grows. In the end as more and more police abuse cases emerge it makes it even harder for the police to work with and gain the trust of communities in order to confront crime.
“Our position is if a person was convicted based on a confession obtained through violence, torture or the threat of violence, they should have a new trial,” said Pearson. “Such confessions should never be allowed into evidence. In many of these cases there is no other evidence, and the victims of such abuse will be exonerated. The state would not try them again,” added Pearson.
Pearson hopes Congress will continue to issue federal restrictions on local police torture and hold such actions in legal contempt. Police accountability is extremely important and we need to restore confidence in the police who work in our communities, said Pearson.
The toll on all
Dozens of activists, community leaders and family members of prisoners who say they were tortured into making false confessions rallied in front of Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s downtown office, July 18, urging her to issue new trials for the wrongfully convicted including Mark Clements.
Exonerated Illinois death row inmate and leader with the Campaign to End the Death Penalty Darby Tillis addressed the crowd. “I know what it is to linger in a cell,” he said. “I spent 19 years on death roll and it’s a living hell.” Tillis added, “I’ve been beaten by police, kicked, knocked down and hit with a 357 magnum. These victims are human beings and like anyone else it’s time we get some justice.”
It is hard to say how many families in all throughout Chicago suffer the realities of police abuse especially with new cases everyday. But it is certain that dozens of families are fighting for their loved ones freedom including Clements’ mother. She is known as his biggest supporter and a long time activist who continues to fight for his innocence. Even despite her personal and bitter struggle against cancer she hopes to see the day where her son will be released. And in the end over time the physical and mental fight for freedom takes a heavy toll on the entire family of torture victims.
Mary L. Johnson was also at the rally representing her son Michael Johnson who has been in prison for 10 years “I’m doing time right along with my son, and I don’t want to see another mother go through what I have been going through,” said Johnson to the crowd. “As long as there is injustice we will be struggling and we will continue to fight,” she said.
In the meantime behind bars is Mark Clements who enjoys reading and says he stays busy working on civil rights and community issues and attends wrongful conviction meetings. He also leads a 30-minute segment on a Christian AM radio program hosted by his church.
“Change is coming,” says Clements. “I have suffered and I have paid my dues.”
Clements says he wants troubled kids in low-income urban neighborhoods to know about his story and his struggle.
“I want them to know the system will lock them up innocent or guilty, they don’t care,” said Clements.
Clements, who has spent his whole adult life in prison, hopes one day he will be a free man and get his life back.
Pearson and his group are encouraging supporters of Clements to write or call the office of Richard A. Devine who is the Cook County States Attorney at 2650 S. California, Chicago IL, 60608 (11th floor) or (773) 869-6209 and demand that he stop opposing the possibility for a new trial for Clements and other torture victims.
plozano @pww.org
Monday, August 4, 2008
How the US got out of the Great Depression - Lessons from the 1930s
By Bea Lumpkin
(Author's note: Someone may want to develop this important subject. At the time I wrote this about 14 years ago, I looked into criteria for selecting the local infrastructure projects. It was a huge mobilization of many layers of government. There are still streets in far SE side of Chicago, put in by WPA.)
"...the principal factor in our economic recovery was the expenditure of public funds for public works, work relief, direct relief, and the agricultural adjustment and resettlement programs" To this summary, Frances Perkins, Roosevelt's Labor Secretary and first woman cabinet member, added some prophetic words:
"We have learned enough about the effect of public expenditures when private expenditures fall during a depression to make the country and the Congress aware of the value of a public works program. If we are to attach our will to a program of maximum employment, as the Congress provided in 1945 by passing the Full Employment bill, we shall have good use for that knowledge. The experience of the Roosevelt era will be of vast importance..." 277
Since Perkins wrote those words, the Full Employment Act was strengthened in 1981, a victory won by labor's massive Solidarity Day March. But plant closings and downsizing the work force have continued, creating unemployment and underemployment affecting 20 million workers. Still the federal government refuses to carry out the Full Employment Act although the job situation remains bleak. Jobs for the unemployed has become a major issue for the 1992 elections.
On this issue there is a lot to learn from the job struggles of the 30's. With no social security or relief programs established before the 30's, workers had to fight for every single gain that was made. Their struggles won a response from the new government of Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), just elected on a program of relief for the unemployed. A combination of humanistic feelings and a desire to save the capitalist system led Harry Hopkins, a key Roosevelt aide, to write:
"If we had no other reason for it than to keep the system going, ways would have to be figured out by which the worker could buy back his full share of the goods he helped to put through the mill of national business.." Hopkins said ," We are sometimes accused of stirring up class hatreds when we say such things." Still he stuck to the belief that "there is no need for any American to be destitute, to be illiterate." Hopkins, Spending to Save, 179
How did the public works program "jump start" the economy in the 30's? By putting the country back to work on useful, government funded, work projects. Just 16 days after November 9, 1933, when the money was made available for Civilian Works Administration, 814,511 unemployed were put to work. "Two weeks later, that number reached nearly 2,000.000 and by mid-January, 4,263,644" (Ruth Norrick, Labor Today, Jan. 1983). Today, with computers, it could be done even faster.
How large was the commitment? Of the many programs including direct relief, W.P.A. was the largest and its funding did not exceed 2 billion dollars per year. In present day terms a similar amount, adjusted for the increase in the country's GNP (Gross National Product), would require 212 billion dollars. (In 1934 GNP was 49 billions dollars and in 1989 it was 5,200 billions.)
Large housing projects were among the first projects begun by CWA and later, the WPA. Perkins tells why: "No type of public works better illustrates the opportunity to put large numbers of people to work, both on the site and in the supply and transportation of materials, and to make, at the same time, proud and worthy contributions to the community. River control projects, having for their purpose prevention of floods, development of irrigation and prevention of soil erosion, were also among the early undertakings approved. Schools, health and hospital centers, where those facilities were lacking, as well as sound, well-planned highway projects, also received early approval."
The unemployed today have not been allowed to establish large Hoovervilles, the shanty towns set up by the unemployed in the 30's. For example, the City of Chicago has just ordered the removal of the 1-room "mad" houses, built by friends of the homeless. In fact, there are probably more homeless now than in the bad years of the 30's because much low cost housing has been demolished or gentrified. If anything, large housing construction projects are probably needed more now than in the 30's.
What was the economic impact of the public works programs? First Perkins describes how bad it was: "National income had declined from $81 billion to $39 billion. Banks were collapsing throughout the nation. Relief stations were closing down for lack of funds. Hunger marchers were on parade. Food riots were becoming more common. Crime, born of the need for food, clothing, and other necessities of life, was on the upsurge." 183
After the jobs projects began, the improvement was dramatic. In 1934 the national income was $49 billion. By 1937 it was $71 billion. Perkins 273 But there was another downturn, as Perkins points out (277) "When things began to get a little better after 1936, there was a disposition on the part of Congress and many others to believe that the time had come to retrench on public works expenditure. A retrenchment policy was put into effect. The recession of 1937 was undoubtedly the result."
The purchasing power of workers in private industry was also going up because the Wagner Labor Relations Act, minimum wage, overtime after 40 hours, and abolition of child labor was encouraging union organization and ending the competition of children with their parents in the work place.
WPA had one fault that its director, Harry Hopkins, acknowledged in his book suitably titled, Spending to Save. About a half million people, certified as eligible, never got WPA jobs because funds were not adequate. Workers who were not citizens were not eligible for WPA. Other federal jobs programs also had their faults, such as the military control of the CCC or Civilian Conservation Camps for youth.
Still the overall picture is overwhelmingly positive. The National Youth Administration supplied support which helped 400,000 students continue in school. Rural Electrification and road building brought the country's farms into the 20th century. The precedent was set for a still publicly owned authority that ccontinues to save consumers millions of dollars, the Tenessee Valley Authority. Projects such as producing hot lunches for school children, clothing and mattresses for the unemployed, and health services not only provided jobs for women but established sorely needed social services. Throughout the nation, 60% of all patients were receiving free medical care through the federal health projects.
Millions of fish were placed in rivers and lakes, thousands of acres of malarial lands were made habitable, and 200,000 drought-stricken families were aided with water conservation projects. WPA theater and art projects created a renaissance of art in the United States, not for the privileged few, as Hopkins said, but for all the people to enjoy. But most spectacular of all were the construction projects:
8,000 communities built or repaired water, sewers 168
6,000 communities built or repaired schools
7,000 built or repaired other public buildings
170 installed or repaired electric utilities
Thousands of acres of malarial lands made habitable
200,000 drought stricken families aided, water conserv.
400,000 women employed
250,000 garment workers made 30 million garments
hot school lunch program, home nursing
federal health projects, free care to 60% of nation's patients. immunized children
250,000 received literacy training, WPA teachers
Arts aided, unemployed professionals employed
visual and performing arts "democratization of culture" introduced hot lunches, day care children of working mothers, literacy, naturalization classes
166: 44,000 mi of roads, repaired 200 000 more. built 7,000 bridges over 10,000 culverts. 2700 mi storm & sanitary sewers, 9000 mi irrigation, drainage ditches. 2000 mi levees, ,1000 mi new water mains. built 400 pumping stations, 2000 playgrounds, 800 parks, 350 swimming pools, 4000 athletic fields
In short, as Hopkins summed it up, the WPA construction projects were needed, even if there had been no unemployment problem.
Another first for WPA was the employment of people formerly considered handicapped but given the chance, did their jobs very well. WPA paid the local prevailing wage. In any case, there was a minimum wage which in some areas was higher than the prevailing wage.
FDR's guidelines for works projects could serve the U.S. today:
1. The projects should be useful
2. Projects shall be of a nature that a considerable proportion of the money spent will go into wages for labor.
3. Projects which promise ultimate return to the Federal Treasury of a considerable proportion of the costs will be sought.
4. Funds allotted for each project should be actually and promptly spent and not held over until later years.
5. In all cases projects must be of a character to give employment to those on the relief rolls.
6. Projects will be allocated to localities or relief areas in relation to the number of workers on relief rolls in those areas.
source Harry Hopkins biography by Henry Adams 1977
These are just the prescription for a massive public housing program which could provide homes for the homeless and the hidden homeless, jobs for the unemployed, and job training for young workers. We have a job to do in November 1992
gnp 1928 81 billion
1930 39 billion perkins 183
May 22, 1933 FERA fed emer relief adm $500 million + state part plus another $850 million spent in 10 months, including Civil Works. FERA in brief life spent 4 billion on all project
broke the back of the depression 185
"never thought it was the complete answer, it kept people alive and instilled courage. In looking back, one sees that it provided a substantial stimulus to the revival of industry by creating purchasing power in a class previously destitute, and that it had a tremendous effect on raising the standards of living of the poorest and lowest paid people."
WPA July 38-39 spent over $2 billion
p 190 "many...did better on WPA than ever before in their lives. ..Among these were the handicapped, and it was not until the war years that they were again used to advantage. Many handicapped people got good jobs during the war and did them well. Business men learned to use the blind, the deaf, and the lame."
Perkins 273 quoting Jesse Jones, head Reconstruction Finance Corp:
1933 the national income was $42 billion. In 1934 $49 billion. 1937, $71 billion
276. "I think, on the whole, the original selections in the first year of public works laid the basis for the sound understanding we now have of the type of public works which will give the most employment per thousand dollars expended and will be of the greatest permanent advantage to the economic and cultural life of the people.
"Large housing projects were among the first approved, slum clearance in particular. No type of public works better illustrates the opportunity to put large numbers of people to work, both on the site and in the supply and transportation of materials, and to make, at the same time, proud and worthy contributions to the community. River control projects, having for their purpose prevention of floods, development of irrigation and prevention of soil erosion, were also among the early undertakings approved. Schools, health and hospital centers, where those facilities were lacking, as well as sound, well-planned highway projects, also received early approval.
277. "When things began to get a little better after 1936, there was a disposition on the part of Congress and many others to believe that the time had come to retrench on public works expenditure. A retrenchment policy was put into effect. The recession of 1937 was undoubtedly the result.
"It is my opinion that the principal factor in our economic recovery was the expenditure of public funds for public works, work relief, direct relief, and the agricultural adjustment and resettlement programs."
..."We have learned enough about the effect of public expenditures when private expenditures fall off during a depression to make the country and the Congress aware of the value of a public works program. If we are to attach our will to a program of maximum employment, as the Congress provided in 1945 by passing the Full Employment bill and making this the policy of the United States, we shall have good use for that knowledge. The experience of the Roosevelt era will be of vast importance to those who, in the next twenty-five years, begin the administration of this new policy."277 Perkins
Accomplishments WPA
put 3,500,000 people to work (Charles. Minister of Relief, 131)
parks: Fairmont West Va, Orland, IN (Charles 230-1)
Millions of fish placed in streams and lakes
Safety from floods
river front homes, Ohio River, Cincinnati, O, Evansville IN etc
flood control levees
schools built, WPA teachers
post office buildings
almost every county in the US Charles 231
Inadequacies
350,000 - 900,000 certified for WPA but not hired, n.s.f.
aliens not eligible
1937 poll, over 75% in every part of US wanted WPA continued (Charles 235)
Harry Hopkins Spending to Save
Only just complaint: relief not adequate 99
4 million destitute families, their responsibility
CWA, WPA not work relief, feels public ward
work program, job for wages
work relief : made work. but WPA, project needed doing even if no unemployed 114-5
brilliant, talented and able men without a job. 90% NYC architects unemployed/
CWA mostly construction but projects for clerical, women, technicians, artists, doctors and nurses, other professionals.
CWA followed by FERA, both short duration
1935 Emergency Relief Appropriation Act for Federal works 166
PWA non-federal projects
CCC
Federal-state highway program
Rural Electrification
Resettlement
Works Progress Administration: aim:"put 3,500,000 persons to work. Paid prevailing local wage rates, security monthly minimum, differs from region to region. annual $350 (southeast) to $780. 80% goes for labor, rest plus sponsor's for materials Hopkins 167
mostly construction, farm to market roads (70% were dirt roads before, pulled farmers out of the mud
8,000 communities built or repaired water, sewers 168
6,000 communities built or repaired schools
7,000 built or repaired other public buildings
170 installed or repaired electric utilities
Thousands of acres of malarial lands made habitable
200,000 drought stricken families aided, water conserv.
400,000 women employed
250,000 garment workers made 30 million garments
hot school lunch program, home nursing
federal health projects, free care to 60% of nation's patients. immunized children
250,000 received literacy training, WPA teachers
Arts aided, unemployed professionals employed
visual and performing arts "democratization of culture" introduced hot lunches, day care children of working mothers, literacy, naturalization classes
166: 44,000 mi of roads, repaired 200 000 more. built 7,000 bridges over 10,000 culverts. 2700 mi storm & sanitary sewers, 9000 mi irrigation, drainage ditches. 2000 mi levees, ,1000 mi new water mains. built 400 pumping stations, 2000 playgrounds, 800 parks, 350 swimming pools, 4000 athletic fields
"...there is no need for any American to be destitute, to be illiterate..." "We are sometimes accused of stirring up class hatreds when we say such things. On the contrary.." "The ways by which more and more people can have their rightful share of the national income I shall leave to the experts, the legislators, and to forces of labor who are intent on bringing this about. If we had no other reason for it than to keep the system going, ways would have to be figure out by which the worker could buy back his full share of the good he helped to put through the mill of national business. Hopkins 179
180 Hopkins "One may believe that the human being should come first...
There is reason to think that the present system is capable of giving to all its workers those things which are now the expectations of a comparative few...Wages must be raised and hours lowered. Unfair profits will have to be translated into lower unit price...young boys removed from competition with their fathers."
NYA 400,000 students aided to continue schooling Hopkins
(Author's note: Someone may want to develop this important subject. At the time I wrote this about 14 years ago, I looked into criteria for selecting the local infrastructure projects. It was a huge mobilization of many layers of government. There are still streets in far SE side of Chicago, put in by WPA.)
"...the principal factor in our economic recovery was the expenditure of public funds for public works, work relief, direct relief, and the agricultural adjustment and resettlement programs" To this summary, Frances Perkins, Roosevelt's Labor Secretary and first woman cabinet member, added some prophetic words:
"We have learned enough about the effect of public expenditures when private expenditures fall during a depression to make the country and the Congress aware of the value of a public works program. If we are to attach our will to a program of maximum employment, as the Congress provided in 1945 by passing the Full Employment bill, we shall have good use for that knowledge. The experience of the Roosevelt era will be of vast importance..." 277
Since Perkins wrote those words, the Full Employment Act was strengthened in 1981, a victory won by labor's massive Solidarity Day March. But plant closings and downsizing the work force have continued, creating unemployment and underemployment affecting 20 million workers. Still the federal government refuses to carry out the Full Employment Act although the job situation remains bleak. Jobs for the unemployed has become a major issue for the 1992 elections.
On this issue there is a lot to learn from the job struggles of the 30's. With no social security or relief programs established before the 30's, workers had to fight for every single gain that was made. Their struggles won a response from the new government of Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), just elected on a program of relief for the unemployed. A combination of humanistic feelings and a desire to save the capitalist system led Harry Hopkins, a key Roosevelt aide, to write:
"If we had no other reason for it than to keep the system going, ways would have to be figured out by which the worker could buy back his full share of the goods he helped to put through the mill of national business.." Hopkins said ," We are sometimes accused of stirring up class hatreds when we say such things." Still he stuck to the belief that "there is no need for any American to be destitute, to be illiterate." Hopkins, Spending to Save, 179
How did the public works program "jump start" the economy in the 30's? By putting the country back to work on useful, government funded, work projects. Just 16 days after November 9, 1933, when the money was made available for Civilian Works Administration, 814,511 unemployed were put to work. "Two weeks later, that number reached nearly 2,000.000 and by mid-January, 4,263,644" (Ruth Norrick, Labor Today, Jan. 1983). Today, with computers, it could be done even faster.
How large was the commitment? Of the many programs including direct relief, W.P.A. was the largest and its funding did not exceed 2 billion dollars per year. In present day terms a similar amount, adjusted for the increase in the country's GNP (Gross National Product), would require 212 billion dollars. (In 1934 GNP was 49 billions dollars and in 1989 it was 5,200 billions.)
Large housing projects were among the first projects begun by CWA and later, the WPA. Perkins tells why: "No type of public works better illustrates the opportunity to put large numbers of people to work, both on the site and in the supply and transportation of materials, and to make, at the same time, proud and worthy contributions to the community. River control projects, having for their purpose prevention of floods, development of irrigation and prevention of soil erosion, were also among the early undertakings approved. Schools, health and hospital centers, where those facilities were lacking, as well as sound, well-planned highway projects, also received early approval."
The unemployed today have not been allowed to establish large Hoovervilles, the shanty towns set up by the unemployed in the 30's. For example, the City of Chicago has just ordered the removal of the 1-room "mad" houses, built by friends of the homeless. In fact, there are probably more homeless now than in the bad years of the 30's because much low cost housing has been demolished or gentrified. If anything, large housing construction projects are probably needed more now than in the 30's.
What was the economic impact of the public works programs? First Perkins describes how bad it was: "National income had declined from $81 billion to $39 billion. Banks were collapsing throughout the nation. Relief stations were closing down for lack of funds. Hunger marchers were on parade. Food riots were becoming more common. Crime, born of the need for food, clothing, and other necessities of life, was on the upsurge." 183
After the jobs projects began, the improvement was dramatic. In 1934 the national income was $49 billion. By 1937 it was $71 billion. Perkins 273 But there was another downturn, as Perkins points out (277) "When things began to get a little better after 1936, there was a disposition on the part of Congress and many others to believe that the time had come to retrench on public works expenditure. A retrenchment policy was put into effect. The recession of 1937 was undoubtedly the result."
The purchasing power of workers in private industry was also going up because the Wagner Labor Relations Act, minimum wage, overtime after 40 hours, and abolition of child labor was encouraging union organization and ending the competition of children with their parents in the work place.
WPA had one fault that its director, Harry Hopkins, acknowledged in his book suitably titled, Spending to Save. About a half million people, certified as eligible, never got WPA jobs because funds were not adequate. Workers who were not citizens were not eligible for WPA. Other federal jobs programs also had their faults, such as the military control of the CCC or Civilian Conservation Camps for youth.
Still the overall picture is overwhelmingly positive. The National Youth Administration supplied support which helped 400,000 students continue in school. Rural Electrification and road building brought the country's farms into the 20th century. The precedent was set for a still publicly owned authority that ccontinues to save consumers millions of dollars, the Tenessee Valley Authority. Projects such as producing hot lunches for school children, clothing and mattresses for the unemployed, and health services not only provided jobs for women but established sorely needed social services. Throughout the nation, 60% of all patients were receiving free medical care through the federal health projects.
Millions of fish were placed in rivers and lakes, thousands of acres of malarial lands were made habitable, and 200,000 drought-stricken families were aided with water conservation projects. WPA theater and art projects created a renaissance of art in the United States, not for the privileged few, as Hopkins said, but for all the people to enjoy. But most spectacular of all were the construction projects:
8,000 communities built or repaired water, sewers 168
6,000 communities built or repaired schools
7,000 built or repaired other public buildings
170 installed or repaired electric utilities
Thousands of acres of malarial lands made habitable
200,000 drought stricken families aided, water conserv.
400,000 women employed
250,000 garment workers made 30 million garments
hot school lunch program, home nursing
federal health projects, free care to 60% of nation's patients. immunized children
250,000 received literacy training, WPA teachers
Arts aided, unemployed professionals employed
visual and performing arts "democratization of culture" introduced hot lunches, day care children of working mothers, literacy, naturalization classes
166: 44,000 mi of roads, repaired 200 000 more. built 7,000 bridges over 10,000 culverts. 2700 mi storm & sanitary sewers, 9000 mi irrigation, drainage ditches. 2000 mi levees, ,1000 mi new water mains. built 400 pumping stations, 2000 playgrounds, 800 parks, 350 swimming pools, 4000 athletic fields
In short, as Hopkins summed it up, the WPA construction projects were needed, even if there had been no unemployment problem.
Another first for WPA was the employment of people formerly considered handicapped but given the chance, did their jobs very well. WPA paid the local prevailing wage. In any case, there was a minimum wage which in some areas was higher than the prevailing wage.
FDR's guidelines for works projects could serve the U.S. today:
1. The projects should be useful
2. Projects shall be of a nature that a considerable proportion of the money spent will go into wages for labor.
3. Projects which promise ultimate return to the Federal Treasury of a considerable proportion of the costs will be sought.
4. Funds allotted for each project should be actually and promptly spent and not held over until later years.
5. In all cases projects must be of a character to give employment to those on the relief rolls.
6. Projects will be allocated to localities or relief areas in relation to the number of workers on relief rolls in those areas.
source Harry Hopkins biography by Henry Adams 1977
These are just the prescription for a massive public housing program which could provide homes for the homeless and the hidden homeless, jobs for the unemployed, and job training for young workers. We have a job to do in November 1992
gnp 1928 81 billion
1930 39 billion perkins 183
May 22, 1933 FERA fed emer relief adm $500 million + state part plus another $850 million spent in 10 months, including Civil Works. FERA in brief life spent 4 billion on all project
broke the back of the depression 185
"never thought it was the complete answer, it kept people alive and instilled courage. In looking back, one sees that it provided a substantial stimulus to the revival of industry by creating purchasing power in a class previously destitute, and that it had a tremendous effect on raising the standards of living of the poorest and lowest paid people."
WPA July 38-39 spent over $2 billion
p 190 "many...did better on WPA than ever before in their lives. ..Among these were the handicapped, and it was not until the war years that they were again used to advantage. Many handicapped people got good jobs during the war and did them well. Business men learned to use the blind, the deaf, and the lame."
Perkins 273 quoting Jesse Jones, head Reconstruction Finance Corp:
1933 the national income was $42 billion. In 1934 $49 billion. 1937, $71 billion
276. "I think, on the whole, the original selections in the first year of public works laid the basis for the sound understanding we now have of the type of public works which will give the most employment per thousand dollars expended and will be of the greatest permanent advantage to the economic and cultural life of the people.
"Large housing projects were among the first approved, slum clearance in particular. No type of public works better illustrates the opportunity to put large numbers of people to work, both on the site and in the supply and transportation of materials, and to make, at the same time, proud and worthy contributions to the community. River control projects, having for their purpose prevention of floods, development of irrigation and prevention of soil erosion, were also among the early undertakings approved. Schools, health and hospital centers, where those facilities were lacking, as well as sound, well-planned highway projects, also received early approval.
277. "When things began to get a little better after 1936, there was a disposition on the part of Congress and many others to believe that the time had come to retrench on public works expenditure. A retrenchment policy was put into effect. The recession of 1937 was undoubtedly the result.
"It is my opinion that the principal factor in our economic recovery was the expenditure of public funds for public works, work relief, direct relief, and the agricultural adjustment and resettlement programs."
..."We have learned enough about the effect of public expenditures when private expenditures fall off during a depression to make the country and the Congress aware of the value of a public works program. If we are to attach our will to a program of maximum employment, as the Congress provided in 1945 by passing the Full Employment bill and making this the policy of the United States, we shall have good use for that knowledge. The experience of the Roosevelt era will be of vast importance to those who, in the next twenty-five years, begin the administration of this new policy."277 Perkins
Accomplishments WPA
put 3,500,000 people to work (Charles. Minister of Relief, 131)
parks: Fairmont West Va, Orland, IN (Charles 230-1)
Millions of fish placed in streams and lakes
Safety from floods
river front homes, Ohio River, Cincinnati, O, Evansville IN etc
flood control levees
schools built, WPA teachers
post office buildings
almost every county in the US Charles 231
Inadequacies
350,000 - 900,000 certified for WPA but not hired, n.s.f.
aliens not eligible
1937 poll, over 75% in every part of US wanted WPA continued (Charles 235)
Harry Hopkins Spending to Save
Only just complaint: relief not adequate 99
4 million destitute families, their responsibility
CWA, WPA not work relief, feels public ward
work program, job for wages
work relief : made work. but WPA, project needed doing even if no unemployed 114-5
brilliant, talented and able men without a job. 90% NYC architects unemployed/
CWA mostly construction but projects for clerical, women, technicians, artists, doctors and nurses, other professionals.
CWA followed by FERA, both short duration
1935 Emergency Relief Appropriation Act for Federal works 166
PWA non-federal projects
CCC
Federal-state highway program
Rural Electrification
Resettlement
Works Progress Administration: aim:"put 3,500,000 persons to work. Paid prevailing local wage rates, security monthly minimum, differs from region to region. annual $350 (southeast) to $780. 80% goes for labor, rest plus sponsor's for materials Hopkins 167
mostly construction, farm to market roads (70% were dirt roads before, pulled farmers out of the mud
8,000 communities built or repaired water, sewers 168
6,000 communities built or repaired schools
7,000 built or repaired other public buildings
170 installed or repaired electric utilities
Thousands of acres of malarial lands made habitable
200,000 drought stricken families aided, water conserv.
400,000 women employed
250,000 garment workers made 30 million garments
hot school lunch program, home nursing
federal health projects, free care to 60% of nation's patients. immunized children
250,000 received literacy training, WPA teachers
Arts aided, unemployed professionals employed
visual and performing arts "democratization of culture" introduced hot lunches, day care children of working mothers, literacy, naturalization classes
166: 44,000 mi of roads, repaired 200 000 more. built 7,000 bridges over 10,000 culverts. 2700 mi storm & sanitary sewers, 9000 mi irrigation, drainage ditches. 2000 mi levees, ,1000 mi new water mains. built 400 pumping stations, 2000 playgrounds, 800 parks, 350 swimming pools, 4000 athletic fields
"...there is no need for any American to be destitute, to be illiterate..." "We are sometimes accused of stirring up class hatreds when we say such things. On the contrary.." "The ways by which more and more people can have their rightful share of the national income I shall leave to the experts, the legislators, and to forces of labor who are intent on bringing this about. If we had no other reason for it than to keep the system going, ways would have to be figure out by which the worker could buy back his full share of the good he helped to put through the mill of national business. Hopkins 179
180 Hopkins "One may believe that the human being should come first...
There is reason to think that the present system is capable of giving to all its workers those things which are now the expectations of a comparative few...Wages must be raised and hours lowered. Unfair profits will have to be translated into lower unit price...young boys removed from competition with their fathers."
NYA 400,000 students aided to continue schooling Hopkins
Friday, August 1, 2008
Time to tax the rich and cut the military budget!
By John Bachtell
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley announced July 30 the city is facing a serious $400 million shortfall for the 2009 budget. This is 6% of the total budget.
"Food prices go up. Gas prices go up. And expenses go up. The dollar is losing value continually. We are in a serious financial crisis in America. I keep saying that. People look at it and, maybe, dismiss it. But, I think we're in a much more serious financial crisis than people . . . believe. It's gonna have a long effect on this economy," Daley said at a recent newsconference. This much he got right.
City expenses are skyrocketing, income from the real estate transfer tax and sales taxes are down.
So what's his answer? This is where he gets it wrong. As always, he finds a way to take it from those who can least afford it - the city's working families. According to sources, everything (givebacks) is on the table.
Daley's top financial/budget aides met with leaders of the Chicago Federation of Labor to prepare them for cuts in services (aka: jobs), furloughs, etc. Pensions are not far behind.
In addition, Daley wants to change the "booting" policy to boot cars after the second unpaid ticket.
Every solution, is directed at taking away from the city's working families. There's objective limits to this direction.
What about some talk about the sacred cows which Daley has been mum on - an emergency tax of the top 10% richest families and corporations in the city? How about a special assessment on the Board of Trade and Mercantile Exchange? And how about leading the movement to end the Iraq war and demanding a federal bailout of the cities; slashing the bloated and corrupt military budget and transfering emergency funds to the cities and communities.
What about leading the charge for a massive federal and state public works jobs program?
Working families can't take anymore of the burden of this crisis placed on their shoulders.
It's reported in Springfield that there is widespread support in the House for an constitutional amendment allowing a higher tax on the rich. That's more like it.
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley announced July 30 the city is facing a serious $400 million shortfall for the 2009 budget. This is 6% of the total budget.
"Food prices go up. Gas prices go up. And expenses go up. The dollar is losing value continually. We are in a serious financial crisis in America. I keep saying that. People look at it and, maybe, dismiss it. But, I think we're in a much more serious financial crisis than people . . . believe. It's gonna have a long effect on this economy," Daley said at a recent newsconference. This much he got right.
City expenses are skyrocketing, income from the real estate transfer tax and sales taxes are down.
So what's his answer? This is where he gets it wrong. As always, he finds a way to take it from those who can least afford it - the city's working families. According to sources, everything (givebacks) is on the table.
Daley's top financial/budget aides met with leaders of the Chicago Federation of Labor to prepare them for cuts in services (aka: jobs), furloughs, etc. Pensions are not far behind.
In addition, Daley wants to change the "booting" policy to boot cars after the second unpaid ticket.
Every solution, is directed at taking away from the city's working families. There's objective limits to this direction.
What about some talk about the sacred cows which Daley has been mum on - an emergency tax of the top 10% richest families and corporations in the city? How about a special assessment on the Board of Trade and Mercantile Exchange? And how about leading the movement to end the Iraq war and demanding a federal bailout of the cities; slashing the bloated and corrupt military budget and transfering emergency funds to the cities and communities.
What about leading the charge for a massive federal and state public works jobs program?
Working families can't take anymore of the burden of this crisis placed on their shoulders.
It's reported in Springfield that there is widespread support in the House for an constitutional amendment allowing a higher tax on the rich. That's more like it.
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