CCDS Mobilizer

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SOUTHERN REGION

Meeting of Southern Region Committee of CCDS in Raleigh, NC

by Randy Shannon

The Democracy Charter

Jack O’Dell

The Democracy Charter, authored by Jack O'Dell was featured at the CCDS 6th National Convention. The Charter offers both a process and a framework to elaborate, unify, and elevate the renewed struggle for justice in the South.

'The Charter proposal is designed to acknowledge and enhance the effective work that is already being done in many areas of Movement activity. When harnessed to the grassroots- organizing tradition, the Democracy Charter can bring new energy that is transformational in its possibilities for social change in our nation. It must become a full part of the "good news" that involves and inspires our artists, poets, and creators in all cultural media to give of their talents spreading this message of hope and new possibilities.' – from the Democracy Charter July 2005 Draft

Retiring Co-Chair James Campbell presenting award to CCDS Leader Charlene Mitchell

The elaboration of a Democracy Charter responsive to the struggles in the South as well as the leading role of the CCDS Southern Region Committee in this process is a result of the inspirational leadership of James Campbell, former National Co-Chair of CCDS and a veteran activist and leader of the movement for justice and peace. Campbell described the meeting as an effort to develop a Southern movement cadre capable of leading the renewed struggle.

The weekend discussion started with a seminar on the historic context of the people’s charter movements that lasted just over two hours. The remainder of the meeting heard reflections on the presentations within a discussion of state and local justice movements by participants from VA, NC, SC, GA, and KY.

The Movement in NC

A key concept that flowed from this discussion was that a social and political movement for change flows from conscious coalition building among the disparate social and political groups struggling around the various issues of everyday living. This insight was dramatically illustrated by the extensive discussion of the HK on J Coalition [Historic Thousands (marching) on J Street (site of State Capitol)] in NC by several activists including Zach Robinson of CCDS and Saladin Muhammad of Black Workers for Justice. See http://naacp.ubernc.com/ for more on HKonJ.

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II

In NC, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II won the presidency of the NAACP campaigning on a platform of more activism. Under his leadership a broad array of seventy groups involved in local and statewide struggles came together to draw up a list of demands that reflected the broad movement of local struggles. A march of 5,000 pinned the demands of the coalition on the door of the Capitol.

The HK on J Coalition represented struggles including ending the Iraq War, healthcare access, equitable school funding, immigrant rights, a death penalty moratorium, stopping utility cutoffs, environmental justice, decent housing, secure jobs, and the right to organize and bargain collectively.

The material basis for the coalition was the rising anger and search for justice lead by African American workers in NC. The NC Black Workers for Justice were engaged in organizing mostly African American workers off-site into “non-majority unions” that promoted the concept that “the right to fight comes before the right to organize.” Developing workers’ “self recognition” and “unions without contracts” could become the core of union organizing drives on-site as well as the basis for a militant rank and file.

A battle to organize the workers at the Smithfield Foods sites saw a coalition of union, Black Workers for Justice, and the Environmental Justice Movement win a victory for Latino and African American workers. A statewide campaign led by UE to win bargaining rights for public employees became a statewide movement of public sector workers with activities in sixteen counties. In the same period 8,000 NC farm workers won contracts under the leadership of the Farmer Labor Organizing Committee.

NC Students at Third HK on J March

The HK on J Coalition gathered these forces to march on the Capitol to raise the various issues to the level of a political program for change. This was followed by a program of organizing local assemblies to discuss the HK on J demands and follow up with local action, including political action, to build the movement. The most salient issue among the political demands was dismantling NC laws restricting collective bargaining rights of public workers, the legacy of the ‘Right to Work’ anti-union regime that makes the South a socially and economically depressed region.

This discussion pointed to the importance of expanding the Democracy Charter to include a demand for workplace democracy and the right to organize and bargain collectively, as critical to building the movement in the South.

Seminar on Historic Context of Democracy Charter

“The time is ripe for us, the People of the United States, in all our multicultural diversity and breadth of experience, to adopt a Democracy Charter that brings together as part of a shared vision all of the dimensions of the civilizational crisis that are now being actively addressed, on a limited scale, by one or another organization.

The essential purpose of such a charter is the expansion of democracy and fundamental human rights in our country. Therefore, the historical point of reference of the Democracy Charter is our nation's Bill of Rights…. In the U.S. American experience, unyielding resistance to any and all efforts to weaken the Bill of Rights is an essential condition for the transition from formal democracy to a society of substantive democracy.” – from the Democracy Charter July 2005 Draft

The morning session presented an analysis of the historic context of democratic struggle from a Marxist perspective. This provided the participants a framework for a reflective discussion of current developments and for creative thinking about how to develop the whole and the parts of the progressive majority in the South.

Zach Robinson (l) and
Randy Shannon (r)

The seminar consisted of four presentations: the Communist Manifesto by Zach Robinson, the Bill of Rights by Erica Carter, the Draft Democracy Charter by Jim Campbell, and the CCDS Goals & Principles by Randy Shannon.

Robinson presented a power point and audio-video that explained the English Chartist movement as the material basis for the Manifesto. The English working class demanded a Charter of reform that would provide universal suffrage for men, annual elections, electoral districts of equal population, and paid representatives. The Chartist movement was recruited to the cause of abolition of slavery by Frederick Douglass. At the same time the working class of France demanded reform of the monarchy.

The working class demand for the expansion of democratic rights reflected its rising power. This struggle for democracy in turn developed the class consciousness of the workers. In order to develop a common program and view of the struggle that would strengthen the solidarity and power of the movement, the Chartists enlisted Karl Marx to draft a Manifesto. The Communist Manifesto explained the law of motion of history as the economic struggle between the classes, mainly that between capitalists and workers.

Presenter Erica Carter (l) &
Session Chair Renee Carter (r)

Erica Carter presented a power point that linked the modern FDR New Bill of Rights of 1944, the original Bill of Rights in the US Constitution of 1791, the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, John Locke’s English Bill of Rights of 1685, and the Magna Carta of 1215. These demands for particular rights at every stage of history were based in the movements of a rising class seeking to overthrow the oppression of a ruling elite. In order to advance their struggles for the expansion of democratic rights these forces resorted to drawing up documents that listed and justified the demands as a way to unify their forces and advance the struggle for change.

In every instance, these demands, while expanding democratic rights, failed to encompass the rights of the working class. Not until the rise of the CIO and the unemployed movements that organized the working class power did President Roosevelt propose a broad expansion of rights to the economic realm. This proposed expansion of economic rights to the working class died with Roosevelt. The presentation of this stage of struggle for rights was accompanied by dramatic video footage of the great strikes of the 1940’s by US labor.

Jim Campbell presented an extended discussion of the various demands in the Democracy Charter by weaving insights into the implications of these demands with stories about the historic struggles of workers and oppressed nations around the globe. The Freedom Charter of South Africa sustained the anti-apartheid movement and inspired those who took up arms against the regime. It also served as an inspiration for Jack O’Dell’s work on the Democracy Charter.

Campbell discussed in detail the “long train of abuses” cited in the US Declaration of Independence that continues today with foreign wars, homelessness, unemployment, discrimination, poor education, and healthcare for the wealthy. The Europeans of America, who broke with the mother country and wrote the Constitution, were slave owners, land speculators, bankers, and manufacturers. The Constitution formalized the rights of landowners and slave owners. The dispossession of the Indians, slavery, and the seizure of lands of other countries cemented the power of a ruling class that now exists as exploiters of wage labor.

He also touched on the exploitation of Chinese labor in the West, the history of lynching in the South and Midwest, the denial of formal democratic rights to women, and the development of genetic patents that challenge the 14th Amendment barring human slavery.

The final presentation by Randy Shannon emphasized four key points of the new CCDS Goals & Principles document. Under globalized capitalism the movement of capital and jobs threatens the very existence of communities and nations. Beginning with President Reagan US capitalism has resorted to the repression of labor, financialization, and militarization to increase corporate profits at the expense of workers.

The Goals & Principles of CCDS is a handbook for workers in struggle and provides today’s organizers and activists four key tools. First, it explains the main forces and contradictions in capitalism today. Second, it describes the real situation of the working class in the United States today. Third, it outlines a short term and longer term strategy for change. Fourth, it explains the need for an organization like CCDS that can analyze and lead the struggle.

Discussion

The presentations were followed by a wide ranging discussion of the many issues raised and the experiences of the many participants in ongoing struggles.

Anne Mitchell remarked that the presentations had shown the links between the struggles of labor, and the issues of social justice and the war. She also highlighted the importance of knowing what is going on in the communities and the people’s organizations in order to build a coalition.

Janet Tucker

Janet Tucker, session chair, commented that the Civil Rights movement had broken the police state in the South. The people’s response to the Katrina disaster showed their inclination to self-organization. The myths of racism need to be attacked to allow natural human solidarity to shape social relations. The Kentuckians For The Commonwealth (KFTC) is a 28 year old membership organization of over seven thousand Kentuckians who are active in the various struggles for a better life. In Kentucky the coal companies have become more powerful than ever before. Unions have been pushed out of the coalfields and mountaintop removal (MTR) mining is scarring the treasured landscape and destroying water resources forever. An important youth contingent of KFTC is active in the movement against MTR mining. The coalition links the social and economic issues to the political struggle. It supports a growing movement of ex-felons to restore their voting rights and participates in electoral campaigns around the state.

Janie Campbell

Janie Campbell discussed the current state of efforts of Charleston, SC sanitation workers to win higher wages, improved healthcare, and better working conditions. The union has won some wider support among the Charleston community and held a successful fund raising dinner. Union organizing remains the ongoing task with confidence building a key tactic at the present time. The city has granted some wage increases in an attempt to break down the workers solidarity.

Jim Skillman discussed the growth of mass actions in Georgia around the School of the Americas torture training center outside Columbus. The annual spring action in Columbus has grown year after year and attracts a large contingent of youth protesting militarism. He suggested CCDS consider establishing an organized presence at the annual protest.

Saladin Muhammad, a leader of Black Workers for Justice, discussed the dialectic between racism and class struggle in the development of a scientific analysis of struggle. Movements grow out of coalitions, but a coalition is not a movement, just as a union lacks clout if its members are not in motion. The Democracy Charter must address the understanding of power and relate to the many coalitions in the South that are ripe to build the movement.

We must define what an advance is and how partial gains are quantitative change that helps achieve the objective of a qualitative change. A key task of the left is to connect ideas to the most oppressed sectors of the working class. In that a large number of the most oppressed workers are African Americans, Latinos, and immigrants, the proletarian origins of the language of struggle must be examined in the context of the history of slavery.

The history of racism can affect the understanding and the application of the scientific method. The impact of the language of struggle on the understanding of history is critical to projecting those traditions into the present day. The concept of class struggle is not sufficient to articulate all the threads of human history such as the struggle against slavery.

Young people today do not have class consciousness and many are alienated from the experience of their working parents. The idea of the middle class posits the necessity for workers to leave their class in order to make a living in an economy that exports productive jobs.

The development of the working class is uneven. Many minorities are marginalized in the movement for social change, so the fight against racism must focus on the base more than on the superstructure. White workers are testifying against racism as seen in the vote for Obama, but they must intervene against racism, to unite the class.

The participants concluded that the format of this seminar would be a useful organizing tool for building CCDS and the Democracy Charter movement. The presentations will be converted to digital format and future seminars will be organized in various areas of the South over the next few years.

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