AFSC statement on Buffalo mass murder and racist violence

The American Friends Service Committee issued this statement today in the wake of the hate-driven mass killing in Buffalo:

This weekend, 10 people were killed and three were injured by a white supremacist at a grocery store in a majority Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York. Our hearts go out to the victims, their families, and the communities in Buffalo during this time. We are holding you in the Light.

These horrifying acts of racist violence compound the ongoing trauma caused by relentless anti-Blackness espoused not only by individuals like the man who carried out this attack, but also in all sectors of the country. We are holding in the Light our staff, volunteers, and community members who are particularly impacted by these attacks and the ideology behind them, and we deepen our commitments to work for a world without racism and violence.

The suspected shooter is an 18-year-old white man whose actions were motivated by his belief in “great replacement theory,” also referred to as “white replacement theory,” a deeply racist belief that is growing in popularity and is amplified by right-wing media and political leaders. This ideology not only incites violence in the present but is used to justify and even celebrate centuries of violence. It is also intensely anti-immigrant, antisemitic, anti-Muslim, and misogynistic. We stand in community and solidarity with those also named in the manifesto reported to have been written by the killer, which targeted Muslims, Jewish communities, trans people, and immigrants. 

AFSC is committed to eliminating white supremacy and violence wherever they are found. This means being honest and accountable to our history and our present. This means we must embrace a trauma informed approach to community care; believe and support victims and survivors; and above all, make every effort to prevent such violence by eradicating its very root.

Another one to watch

I've kind of been obsessed with health care policy for pretty much my whole career with the American Friends Service Committee, which began in 1989.

The first big fight I ever had, the Pittston coal strike (1989-90), was largely about health benefits for coal miners and their families, especially for retirees. Health care was a major issue in other good labor struggles from the Ravenswood Aluminum lockout (1990-92) to the recent WV work stoppages by teachers and school service workers.

In terms of public policy, lots of fights in the era of welfare reform (1996-early 2000s) had to do with health care. These included enacting the Children's Health Insurance Program at the federal level, followed by several pushes here to get the state to implement and expand the program. That culminated in 2011, when then Governor Tomblin expanded eligibility to 300 percent of the federal poverty level.

There were also efforts in that period to make sure people got "transitional Medicaid" when they left public assistance, along with supportive services related to minimal dental and vision care.

Then came the epic struggle to enact the Affordable Care Act. Misnamed Obamacare, it's really more like the Senate version of a reform bill. The House version was better, but with the death of Senator Edward Kennedy in August 2009, the senate version was the only game in town. It passed in March 2010.

I remember all hell breaking loose at town meetings in WV and around the country in 2009. At one in Huntington, a conspiracy theorist argued that reform meant something like a military takeover by the World Health Organization. You know, black helicopters and microchips in the butt. Apparently, they haven't made it out my holler yet.

At another event in southern WV, a  Catholic priest got heckled by someone during the opening prayer, with a shout of "How much are you getting paid?"

Efforts to repeal it began as soon as efforts to defeat it in Congress failed. In 2012, the US Supreme Court weighed, affirming the constitutionality of the law but making a key piece of it, Medicaid expansion, a state option.

People here worked hard to persuade Tomblin in 2013 to make the expansion, which he did with characteristic caution, seeking an actuarial opinion that fortunately underestimated the benefits of the expansion to WV. The effects were and are huge.

While quite a few states jumped on right away, others, particularly in the south and west, held out. A series of state by state fights ensued. I think each time a state decides to expand it, the harder it will be to undo the whole thing.

(I'm going  to skip over the epic fights since the 2016 election to block Trump, WV attorney general Patrick Morrisey and others of that ilk to take it all away from millions of Americans, not to mention the next US Supreme Court ruling, which is expected to come early next year. I get tired just thinking about it.)

The last time a state expanded Medicaid was in Oklahoma in June, where voters narrowly approved the expansion despite a flood of dark money..

Which brings us to tomorrow, when voters will take up the measure in Missouri. The following alert went out from Joshua Saleem, director of AFSC's St. Louis program to Friends and contacts in that state:

On August 4, Missouri voters will have the chance to make history and save lives by voting “Yes!” on Amendment 2, which would expand Medicaid to cover around 200,000 currently uninsured state residents. The expansion would particularly benefit adults in working families earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level.

This step makes sense in “ordinary” times by extending health care, opening the path to recovery from addiction, easing the path to reentry for formerly incarcerated people, supporting hospitals and health care providers, creating jobs and generating economic activity—but these aren’t ordinary times. In these times of a global pandemic that has yet to slow down, a yes vote is absolutely imperative.

Medicaid expansion is a provision of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. It was intended by Congress to apply across the nation, but a U.S. Supreme Court decision made it a state option.  As of now, 38 states, including the District of Columbia, have expanded Medicaid. Missouri should join their ranks.

The vote could be close. In Oklahoma, voters approved the expansion in June—but by a bare margin of one percent. Millions of dollars in dark money will be spent to defeat the measure.

This is why we’re asking you do three things: vote yes, share this email with friends, and do all you can to get out the vote.

Since its founding over 100 years ago, the American Friends Service Committee, following the Quaker belief in the value of all persons, has worked to promote economic rights as human rights. It has supported access to health care internationally as well as at the national and state level in the United States.

It doesn’t often happen that ordinary people have the opportunity to make such a huge difference with such simple steps, but this is one of those times. Please help us make the most of it.

It will be the latest round in a series of struggles that probably began in the USA in 1912 when former president and presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt first proposed something like universal health care as the candidate of the Progressive Republican Party.

I plan on staying up as long as it takes for the vote to be counted.











 

What can you do?

OK, so you're sheltering in place and wondering what you can do with the world in a mess. Here's an idea: Feed people—especially kids!

Child nutrition has been an AFSC priority here in West Virginia as far back as 1922. Our programs have worked to expand free school breakfasts and lunches statewide…but what happens when school is cancelled indefinitely?

Ironically, a bill we supported to address this issue didn’t pass during the session....maybe our theory (that feeding kids was a good idea) was correct.

With schools closed and stay-at-home orders in place, many children and seniors are at risk of going hungry. When the crisis hit, Liz Brunello of AFSC’s ACE (Appalachian Center for Equality) program teamed up with ally Jenny Anderson of Our Future WV to create a Facebook group called WV Food ER to provide information and identify needs, volunteers and resources. The group now has nearly 3,000 members. Check it out.

This quickly led to the creation of Rapid Response WV, which is composed of several organizations and individuals around the state. The website allows people to donate, request assistance or learn about volunteer opportunities and is organizing both the purchase and delivery of food products and hygienic necessities. Thanks to the generosity of donors, Rapid Response WV has helped over 180 families and has over 260 volunteers. Demand for this kind of assistance is only going to increase. The One Foundation, a key AFSC funder, has recently dedicated $10,000 to this effort.

Check it out if you want to donate, get help or volunteer.

There will also be plenty of opportunities for (remote) hell raising to get counties, the state and Congress to do right in the days ahead.

The art of watching bad news...or not

The cascade of bad news, human-generated and otherwise, has been pretty overwhelming lately. The two main Dylan songs going through my head lately are "Everything is Broken" and "World Gone Wrong."

Today I ran across some useful information that might help in dealing with bad news in the media. For one thing, being glued to the set while ill **** is going down can cause serious and acute stress. One study conducted in the wake of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing found that the stress reactions of news junkies glued to the TV were as bad or worse than those of people actually much closer to the real event.

A good guide to dealing with breaking bad news can be found in the On The Media blog's resource, The Breaking News Consumer's Handbook, which starts with the reminder that early news reports are likely to get things wrong. Among other points is a warning to be skeptical of anonymous sources and hoaxes. There's also good advice about not uncritically retweeting or otherwise posting information that may be unreliable.

Finally, here are some suggestions from the American Friends Service Committee's Media Uncovered project.. Here's one suggestion: "Turn off the TV, put down your phone, and do something else."  The bad news will still be there. But rather than being glued to the set (or phone) it might be good to take some time to reflect, to spend time with those you care about, consider taking positive action, and send your best to those suffering from the crisis at hand.

Solidarity forever. And now

Lots of people in and out of West Virginia may not realize that the song "Solidarity Forever," the international anthem of the labor movement, was inspired by labor struggles right here. Specifically, Ralph Chaplin, journalist and songwriter for the Industrial Workers of the World was inspired to write it after witnessing union miners in Kanawha County during the 1912-1923 Paint Creek strike.

In that spirit, I'd like to share a blog post by my friend and co-worker Arnie Alpert, aka New Hampshire Slim, who works on social justice issues for the American Friends Service Committee in that state. The post is from his blog InZaneTimes and is adapted from a talk he gave in observation of Worker's Memorial Day:

An Injury to One is Still an Injury to All

Four years ago, this past Monday a building in Bangladesh called “Rana Plaza” collapsed and came crashing down.

The building housed five garment factories which employed 5000 people.

Brands that were sourcing from the factories in Rana Plaza building include Benetton, Bon Marche, Cato Fashions, The Children’s Place, Walmart, and JC Penney.

The owners ignored warnings about the building’s structural flaws.

The workers did not have a union.

The laws were weak and unenforced.

When the building collapsed, one thousand one hundred and thirty-four workers lost their lives. Thousands more were injured.

The scale of the disaster was so large, and the capacity of NGOs like the International Labor Rights Forum and the Clean Clothes Campaign was strong enough, that even though the workers were unorganized it became possible to pressure the companies and the government to reach agreements for inspections, compensation for affected workers and families, and renovating factories to make them safer.

But workers in Bangladesh still face repression when they try to organize.

That makes reforms hard to defend, especially when workers are inter-changeable pieces in a global supply chain, thousands of miles away from the consumers of the products they make, and several corporate intermediaries away from the firms whose logos they sew onto the apparel they make.

That’s one reason why we need to stand together, as workers, as consumers, as citizens.

One hundred and thirty-one years ago next Monday, hundreds of thousands of American workers went on strike calling for an eight-hour day. (The eight-hour movement followed the earlier ten-hour movement, which was led largely by young women like New Hampshire’s Sara Bagley and conducted in places like Dover, Manchester, Exeter, and Lowell.)

In Chicago, at the same time, a strike was going on at the McCormick Reaper plant, whose owner was trying to replace workers with machines. Several days of protest followed the May Day strike. Police killed 2 strikers on May 3. During a rally the next day protesting killings by police, a bomb went off. No one ever knew who was responsible. Several police officers and strikers lost their lives in the violence.

To be brief, Albert Parsons and August Spies, leaders of the eight-hour movement, were blamed, tried, convicted, and executed, despite the lack of any evidence tying them to the violence. (Hanging, not injection of toxic chemicals, was the method used back then.)

The following year, May Day was observed in their honor throughout the world and became known as International Workers Day.

In this country, over the past decade or so, International Workers Day has become associated with protests, rallies, strikes, and marches led by immigrant workers. That includes this coming Monday in Manchester, 5 to 7 pm, in Veterans Park.

Why does this matter?

When immigrants are afraid to complain about the toxic chemicals they use to clean our schools or the excessive heat in bakeries, factories, and laundries, the rights of all workers to a safe workplace is threatened.

When immigrants can be scapegoated and threatened with loss of jobs, the rights of all workers are weakened.

When capital can cross borders with barely any restriction, but workers face walls and troops, we have to stand together.

When workers are so desperately poor that they will take jobs that put their lives at risk, we have to stand together.

When the number of people forced to flee their homes dues to violence, climate disruption, and economic desperation is at an all-time high, we have to stand together.

When xenophobic and nativist movements are on the rise the world over, we have to stand together.

When workers anywhere are afraid to organize, we have to stand together.

And when workers do organize, despite the fear, despite the risks, despite the threats, despite the scapegoating, we have to stand with them.

During Workers Memorial Week, we say, injustice anywhere is still a threat to justice everywhere.

We still say, an injury to one is an injury to all.

We still say, Solidarity forever.

(I wish I'd said that. Thanks, Arnie!)