The devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, especially on African-Americans in New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, briefly opened the nation's eyes to issues of race, class and poverty, a panel in Washington said.
But that clear view didn't last long, speakers added. And elements of the GOP Bush administration used the hurricane as an excuse to push a Right Wing agenda that was previously marooned in Congress and the country, one panelist added.
The panel, speaking Dec. 7 to the board meeting of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights -- an umbrella civil rights organization that includes the AFL-CIO -- said the hurricane's impact even caused Bush to be aware of the issues, briefly.
"The president conceded race and class are elements" of both poverty and the response to Katrina, said LCCR Executive Director Wade Henderson, introducing the group. "You can't help but be moved by scenes of people desperate for food and water, waiting in waist-high water or on rooftops -- and with no expectation that the federal, state or local government would respond."
But while Bush recognized that, his backers do not, Henderson said. "Elements of his administration are using Katrina as a 'stealth campaign' to achieve their objectives" of enacting a Right Wing, anti-worker, anti-minority agenda, he explained.
"When you see suspension of the Davis-Bacon Act," which guarantees prevailing wages on federal construction -- in this case reconstruction -- projects, "you smell a rat," he said.
Bush suspended Davis-Bacon for the first two months after Katrina hit, allowing no-bid contracts to politically favored firms such as Halliburton, whose subcontractors then imported cheap out-of-state workers onto reconstruction jobs in the hurricane-wracked areas. Under pressure, Bush restored Davis-Bacon Nov. 8.
"And when you see voucherization of the school system" in New Orleans, "there's a problem," Henderson added. Bush and some Congressional Republicans want to give automatic one-year taxpayer-paid vouchers to all parents of students in the Katrina-hit area, to be used even at private religious schools. They have not proposed rebuilding public schools in New Orleans and elsewhere.
Panelist Peter Edelman, a former Clinton administration official who resigned in protest of welfare "reform" enacted then, painted a half-gloomy, half-hopeful picture of the reaction to Katrina.
On the one hand, he said, "The country had its eyes opened by Katrina, but that lasted about 30 seconds." On the other, "There is still a lot of conversation going on among 'movers and shakers' who can make a difference" in the long-range response to the hurricane's destructiveness, Edelman noted. But they "have to get their advocacy going" at the grass roots in order to force action from Washington, he warned.
Edelman noted hopeful signs of advocacy. He cited a new progressive think tank, the Center for American Progress, and its task force on issues Katrina raised. He added former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., the Democrats' 2004 vice presidential nominee, is basing his expected 2008 presidential run on the moral issues involving race and poverty.
"He's fleshing out what he meant by 'the two Americas' he spoke of in 2004," Edelman said of Edwards.
But getting race, poverty and Katrina on the national agenda is a battle, panelists said. "There has to be more responsive political leadership and there have to be organizations to push them," Edelman stated. "It's putting the issue on the table at the local level."
"Many of the folks displaced by Katrina are workers who are living in tents, who haven't been paid for their (reconstruction) work by the subcontractors, who haven't been paid by the contractors, who haven't been paid by the prime contractor, which is Halliburton" or a similarly politically powerful firm, noted Cecilia Munoz of La Raza.
"We have to challenge those who keep these people in isolation."
Although Munoz did not say it, the latest Labor Department jobless report puts the unemployment rate for the 450,000 workers who have returned to their hometowns after Katrina is 12.5 percent. The jobless rate for the 450,000 still dispersed to shelters elsewhere from where they lived is 27.8 percent.
Munoz urged linking up with grass-roots groups already organizing workers and residents in the Katrina-devastated areas, such as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). "The problem is that when you get down to the community and the local level, you have make sure what you do up here in Washington -- working together -- is translated down there," said panelist Mary Frances Berry, a former U.S. Civil Rights Commission member.. "It's up to us nationals to make sure the locals talk to each other."
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
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The devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, especially on African-Americans in New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, briefly opened the nation’s eyes to issues of race, class and poverty, a panel in Washington said.
But that clear view didn’t last long, speakers added. And elements of the GOP Bush administration used the hurricane as an excuse to push a Right Wing agenda that was previously marooned in Congress and the country, one panelist added.
The panel, speaking Dec. 7 to the board meeting of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights — an umbrella civil rights organization that includes the AFL-CIO — said the hurricane’s impact even caused Bush to be aware of the issues, briefly.
“The president conceded race and class are elements” of both poverty and the response to Katrina, said LCCR Executive Director Wade Henderson, introducing the group. “You can’t help but be moved by scenes of people desperate for food and water, waiting in waist-high water or on rooftops — and with no expectation that the federal, state or local government would respond.”
But while Bush recognized that, his backers do not, Henderson said. “Elements of his administration are using Katrina as a ‘stealth campaign’ to achieve their objectives” of enacting a Right Wing, anti-worker, anti-minority agenda, he explained.
“When you see suspension of the Davis-Bacon Act,” which guarantees prevailing wages on federal construction — in this case reconstruction — projects, “you smell a rat,” he said.
Bush suspended Davis-Bacon for the first two months after Katrina hit, allowing no-bid contracts to politically favored firms such as Halliburton, whose subcontractors then imported cheap out-of-state workers onto reconstruction jobs in the hurricane-wracked areas. Under pressure, Bush restored Davis-Bacon Nov. 8.
“And when you see voucherization of the school system” in New Orleans, “there’s a problem,” Henderson added. Bush and some Congressional Republicans want to give automatic one-year taxpayer-paid vouchers to all parents of students in the Katrina-hit area, to be used even at private religious schools. They have not proposed rebuilding public schools in New Orleans and elsewhere.
Panelist Peter Edelman, a former Clinton administration official who resigned in protest of welfare “reform” enacted then, painted a half-gloomy, half-hopeful picture of the reaction to Katrina.
On the one hand, he said, “The country had its eyes opened by Katrina, but that lasted about 30 seconds.” On the other, “There is still a lot of conversation going on among ‘movers and shakers’ who can make a difference” in the long-range response to the hurricane’s destructiveness, Edelman noted. But they “have to get their advocacy going” at the grass roots in order to force action from Washington, he warned.
Edelman noted hopeful signs of advocacy. He cited a new progressive think tank, the Center for American Progress, and its task force on issues Katrina raised. He added former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., the Democrats’ 2004 vice presidential nominee, is basing his expected 2008 presidential run on the moral issues involving race and poverty.
“He’s fleshing out what he meant by ‘the two Americas’ he spoke of in 2004,” Edelman said of Edwards.
But getting race, poverty and Katrina on the national agenda is a battle, panelists said. “There has to be more responsive political leadership and there have to be organizations to push them,” Edelman stated. “It’s putting the issue on the table at the local level.”
“Many of the folks displaced by Katrina are workers who are living in tents, who haven’t been paid for their (reconstruction) work by the subcontractors, who haven’t been paid by the contractors, who haven’t been paid by the prime contractor, which is Halliburton” or a similarly politically powerful firm, noted Cecilia Munoz of La Raza.
“We have to challenge those who keep these people in isolation.”
Although Munoz did not say it, the latest Labor Department jobless report puts the unemployment rate for the 450,000 workers who have returned to their hometowns after Katrina is 12.5 percent. The jobless rate for the 450,000 still dispersed to shelters elsewhere from where they lived is 27.8 percent.
Munoz urged linking up with grass-roots groups already organizing workers and residents in the Katrina-devastated areas, such as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). “The problem is that when you get down to the community and the local level, you have make sure what you do up here in Washington — working together — is translated down there,” said panelist Mary Frances Berry, a former U.S. Civil Rights Commission member.. “It’s up to us nationals to make sure the locals talk to each other.”
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.