CPD IN THE NEWS

Clad in a “Stand With Black Women” shirt, Mercedes Fulbright, the Texas State Coordinator at Local Progress, commanded attention during her engagement entitled, Deserving and Entitled; Engaging in Public Policy to Empower People, as part of the annual Speaking Truth To Power community activism seminar at Friendship West Baptist Church, June 29.

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With the thousands of soldiers, countless police, and CNN trucks, West Baltimore in April looked very different than it had just a few months before. When Governor Larry Hogan strolled in—mic and camera in tow—he claimed he was looking out for the best interests of residents. He boasted of being the only politician who would come to rough neighborhoods and talk to locals. Hogan even moved his base of operations to Baltimore, stating in a press conference that he was“taking over the situation.”

But when it came time to take real action, Hogan cowered. Recently, a bill crossed Hogan’s desk that, in one fell swoop, would restore the right to vote to 40,000 Maryland residents—disproportionately black residents, many of whom are from poor Baltimore neighborhoods, the vast majority of whom are victims of our discriminatory mass incarceration system. The state legislature overwhelmingly supported the bill, which would give Baltimore the chance to regain their constitutional voice.

Hogan vetoed it.

In other words, when given the opportunity to show that he is serious about ensuring a voice for black and poor Maryland residents, Hogan decided he’d rather keep them quiet. The bill would have granted felons the opportunity to vote “as soon as they leave prison rather than waiting to finish parole or probation.”

When Hogan said he was “taking over the situation,” the situation he referenced was not Freddie Gray’s murder at the hands of callous police. In fact, Hogan barely commented on Gray’s death at all, completely failing to rebuke the officers who killed him. What concerned him—what brought him to Baltimore—were the protests that followed Gray’s death.

He did not see courage on the faces of the people calling for justice. He did not understand that they were calling for a voice, calling for change to the broken system they live in. These protests were a response to much more than violent policing. They were calling for leaders and lawmakers to act on the needs of low-income communities of color.

Freddie Gray’s crime was simply existing. He was killed in West Baltimore, where being poor and black means being shut out of opportunity. Like so many other low-income communities of color, people in Gray’s neighborhood commonly suffer from not only police violence but economic and institutional violence, as well.

In West Baltimore, the unemployment rate is 24 percent and the median income is about $24,000. Children born there are bound to be victims of systematic inequality at virtually every juncture, and receive significantly fewer resources than kids in other neighborhoods. Public schools in the area are dilapidated and under-resourced, and the city has closed 14 recreation centers since 2010.

The economic distress, educational deprivation, and out-of-control policing tactics that plague places like West Baltimore increase the likelihood that those in the community will be funneled through the criminal justice system. Black teenagers are almost as likely to be arrested as they are to graduate from high school, and more people in Maryland prisons come from Gray’s West Baltimore neighborhood than any other neighborhood in the state.

This is why Maryland’s felon disenfranchisement laws—which currently bar anyone in prison, on parole, or on probation from voting—are so problematic. Hogan’s description of this law as simply a just punishment further underscores his willingness to turn a blind eye to reality.

The truth is that felon disenfranchisement is a mechanism to reduce the political voice of entire neighborhoods of color. The loss of a vote not only hurts the potential voter, it hurts their whole community. Entire populations of low-income minorities are slowly shut out of our democracy. They are forced to watch their power steadily deteriorate.

It is not surprising, then, that lawmakers like Hogan have done little to address the West Baltimore community’s perpetual poverty and marginalization for so long. The rampant disenfranchisement in these communities makes voters unable to hold their elected leaders accountable. Since places like West Baltimore have less and less electoral power, lawmakers are free to ignore the issues that confront these constituents.

Gray’s tragic death put a spotlight on West Baltimore. But now the news cameras have left, the protests have waned, and the Governor has packed up and gone home. Residents find themselves, once again, abandoned and voiceless.

Last month’s protests prove that Baltimore residents need to be heard. Families are crying out, demanding that this broken system be repaired. The state legislature supported giving residents a voice. But Hogan decided he preferred their silence. Baltimore deserves better.

Josie Duffy is a policy advocate for The Center for Popular Democracy.

Source: Gawker

Labor Press - February 13, 2013, by Marc Bussanich - While the city’s economy has been recuperating from the Great Recession, low-wage workers in the city face enormous difficulties in making ends meet in one of the nation’s most expensive cities. A new report, Workers Rising, reveals policy decisions the next mayoral administration can make to improve conditions and pay for low-wage workers.

Presented at a symposium on low-wage worker organizing at the Murphy Institute, the authors of the report, UnitedNY and The Center for Popular Democracy, write that the city should raise standards by guaranteeing at least five days of paid sick leave. The city should also regulate high-violation industries, establish a Mayor’s Office of Labor Standards to investigate complaints by workers and pass a resolution that’ll allow the city to pass a higher minimum wage than the state.

According to the report, the city’s economy is shedding living wage jobs, but is adding low-wage, service sector jobs such as restaurants (42,000) and retail trade (27,000).

Prince Jackson works as a security officer for the Air Serv Corporation at Kennedy airport and is part of a committee of security officers organizing for better pay and the appropriate equipment to do their jobs that ensures the safety of passengers.

He worked all night, but said it was important for him to be at the event.

“I’m very tired, but I will do anything that I can do to raise the standards for my fellow workers at the airport.”

Alterique Hall is a retail worker who said he’s behind his rent because he’s paid very low wages.

“It’s difficult. Some days I just want to lie down and cry because I’m being paid and treated poorly. We need to fight for higher wages to better our futures,” said Hall.

A car wash worker who worked for seven years at a carwash owned by John Lage in SoHo, owner of multiple carwashes throughout the city, will soon be laid off because Lage is selling the property to a developer. The workers at the SoHo facility voted to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union in November, but Lage said the property was up for sale before the election.

Council Member Gale Brewer welcomed the proposal to create a local office for labor standards.

“All the other cities and states that have paid sick leave have such an office. Right now, the only way to get a complaint on many of these issues is on a complaint-by-complaint basis. There isn’t currently any organization; the state doesn’t have enough staff. You need a local office that will be a partner with the employee and employer to come up with safe standards,” Brewer said.

Also joining Ms. Brewer were two mayoral hopefuls—Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and former comptroller and 2009 mayoral candidate, William Thompson. They both said they support the movement to help low-wage workers, but they did not say they would enact the authors’ proposals if elected mayor.

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St. Louis Public Radio - March 5, 2015, by Maria Altman - What recovery? That was the question being asked Thursday by a small group of activists outside the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

About a dozen protesters called on the Fed to focus on unemployment, especially among minorities, rather than on keeping inflation rates low. They said if the Federal Open Market Committee raises the interest rate this year, as anticipated, it would likely mean fewer jobs.

"We’re calling on the Fed to do the right thing by most people, because the people they’re helping by changing the policy is a very small minority people and a very influential and affluent group of people," said Derek Laney of Missourians for Reform and Empowerment.

The protest was one of several held at Federal Reserve Banks around the country to highlight a new report by the Center for Popular Democracy and the Economic Policy Institute. The report calls on the Fed to focus on “full unemployment,” and highlights disparities between white and minority unemployment levels.

In Missouri last year the unemployment rate for African-Americans was 14.4 percent, while the rate for whites was just 5.1 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Several of the protesters, who represented a variety of local groups, including MORE, the Organization for Black Struggle, Veterans for Peace, Pro-Vote and Young activists United STL, had personal stories of being out of work and struggling.

Reginald Rounds with MORE said he had recently gotten a bachelor’s degree but still couldn’t find work.

"There is no recovery in the community in which I live," said Rounds. "I talked to many people in different organizations and churches throughout the city as we worked on the Don’t Shoot Coalition. It’s my personal belief that a lot of things that happened in Ferguson just boiled over from all the tensions of unemployment, job creation, housing and our educational system."

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis said in an emailed statement that officials reached out to protesters on Wednesday and asked them to meet to discuss the report. 

"The Fed has a dual mandate to keep inflation low and stable and to foster maximum sustainable employment. It takes these responsibilities very seriously," said Karen Branding, senior vice president of public affairs, in the statement.

Washington University economist Jennifer Dlugosz said the Fed has good reason not to focus too tightly on lowering unemployment levels.

"We know from macroeconomics that if the Fed tries to push the rate of unemployment below the natural rate, which people think is 5.5 percent, that it wouldn’t work and that it would just accelerate inflation," she said.

Dlugosz, who previously worked for the Fed’s Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., said monetary policy is not the right tool to address unemployment disparity. Instead, she said, targeting labor market and education policies to create more equality would likely have better results.

The report also took aim at the Fed’s transparency, especially in choosing the board of directors for each of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks. The protesters argued too many corporate and bank executives take those positions, including in the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’ board of directors.

"It’s basically bankers, and that’s in the charter, and there’s whole bunch of other folks who could be from labor and working people, but are instead from big corporations," said Jeff Ordower of MORE.

The board of directors in each of the Federal Reserve districts is responsible for choosing the president of the Reserve Banks. Those presidents rotate onto the Federal Open Market Committee, which meets eight times a year and decides the nation’s monetary policy. (Learn more about how it all works here on the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis' website.)

In her statement, Branding said the Fed was designed by Congress to “represent the voice of Main St."

"At the St. Louis Fed we have significant dialogue with business leaders, community development organizations, educators and the public,” she wrote. “We have a diverse board of directors who are familiar with economic and credit conditions in the district.”

Professor Dlugosz said the make-up of the boards is somewhat limited by statute. Each district’s community bank members choose three bankers to sit on the board and three non-bankers. The other three directors are chosen by the Fed’s Board of Governors in Washington, D.C, and are supposed to represent a mix of labor, agriculture, industry, and consumers.

Dlugosz said the last group, known as “Class C,” is the most likely group to represent the interests of the public, since they’re appointed by the Board of Governors.

"That’s really, I’m guessing, the main place where you’re going to see heads of labor unions or consumer advocates. If they’re getting on there, I imagine it’s the Board that’s electing them," she said. "I don’t know if that’s changed over time, but one would hope that they’re keeping an eye on it."

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