2018-07-13

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p. 4 Orlando Advocate | Jul 13 19, 2018 The Black Press of America is Facing Another Deadly Assault from Trump’s Tariffs on Canadian Newsprint Amid the rush to comprehend the ramifications of a fullscale international trade war initiated by the errant and backward tariff policies of the Trump Administration, there are results of the tariffs that need to be challenged by Black America. The financial sustainability of the Black Press of America is now facing a catastrophic and a possible deadly impact, because of these new tariffs. The current dispute over the rising costs of the paper product termed “newsprint,” because of tariffs on Canadian newsprint threatens the future of member publishers of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) and could further isolate and disenfranchise African American businesses and communities in cities and towns across the United States. Import duties the U.S. Commerce Department is now applying to Canadianmade newsprint is already increasing costs enough to prompt layoffs and scaledback news coverage by some of the nation’s major dailies and weekly publications. If these tariffs remain in place, scores of newspapers with smaller circulations, notably those that serve African American communities, could be forced to cease publishing a print edition or close altogether. During the past 191 years, the Black Press has survived, endured and overcome past firebombing and improvised explosive attacks, as well as other deadly manifestations of racial violence. The newsprint tariffs appear to have been put in place by the Trump Administration after being encouraged by the interests of a single paper mill in Washington State called NORPAC. NORPAC argues that Canadian government policies give Canadian paper producers an unfair advantage in the U.S. market. NORPAC says the added duties, or tariffs, at the border are protecting it. NORPAC can fight for its selfinterest but the U.S. government has an obligation to consider the impact the tariffs are having on the nation as a whole, and in particular the impact on African American owned newspapers and businesses. We forthrightly oppose the Trump tariffs on newsprint and demand an end to the disastrous trade policies that are hurting our businesses and communities. Given that newsprint and labor account for most of the cost of running a newspaper, it is easy to see how jacking up the price of newsprint by more than 30 percent could spell the difference between these publications eking out a modest profit or going out of business. Around 2,000 newspapers have closed or morphed into something else in the last 15 years. The NNPA is proud that its 215 memberpublications are moving forward even in the face of these new contrived dangers and obstacles in the marketplace. Our newspapers enliven and inform the debate within African American and other communities that we serve and help to empower with news, information, and the reaffirmation of the vitality of Black cultural genius and excellence in all fields of endeavor. Our printed editions are especially important in communities where people are less likely to be able to afford or take full advantage of broadband Internet access. However useful today’s technological innovations are in sharing information, for many people, there is no substitute or affordable alternative to the local weekly newspaper of, by, and for the AfricanAmerican community. Our newspapers are the lifeblood for our communities. The tariffs threaten more than local newspapers. Newsprint is used for promotional materials by retailers and civic groups. It is used by book publishers and printers. Often these are small businesses serving local communities. If newsprint goes up in price, printers will get fewer contracts and have fewer customers. Ironically, the tariffs NORPAC wants in place will actually threaten paper producers and a range of related business. A coalition of these businesses, the STOPP Alliance, estimates some 650,000 jobs could be at risk—all to help one company that has no allies or supporters within the U.S. paper industry. Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., the president and CEO of the NNPA, says that the NNPA opposes the Trump tariffs on newsprint and demands an end to the disastrous trade policies that are hurting our businesses and communities. (NNPA) The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) is reviewing the facts in this case and is expected to announce its recommendations on what to do with the tariffs later the summer. In the meantime, members of Congress from both parties have introduced legislation to suspend the tariffs immediately. The STOPP Alliance has also created an online petition to urge the ITC to end the tariffs. Consider adding your voice to this effort by clicking on this link. After all, the threat the duties on newsprint pose to daily and weekly print publications serving communities in urban and rural areas is especially acute. If there was ever a time when the country needed a range of authentic and “trusted” outlets to share news and perspectives, it is today. In today’s world, the newspapers that serve African American communities will continue to play a crucial role. Errant trade policies and duties championed by a single company must not be allowed to diminish the meaningful role of the Black Press of America. Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. is the President and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) based in Washington, D.C. Dr. Chavis can be contacted at dr.bchavis@nnpa.org. Follow Dr. Chavis on Twitter @DrBenChavis. This article was originally published at BlackPressUSA.com. Supreme Court Appointment Must Not Be Made Under a Cloud of Distrust “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” – James Madison, Federalist 47, 1788 Article Two, Section 2, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution directs the President, “by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate,” to appoint judges of the Supreme Court.” It doesn’t outline when, or under what conditions the Senate may consent. It doesn’t say how many days from an Election Day or during months ending in Y or only when Venus is in retrograde. The Framers of the Constitution expected the dulyelected and sworn members of the United States Senate to exercise their best judgement regarding lifetime appointments to the nation’s highest court not to play partisan games or use it to score political points. That the Senate failed those expectations miserably when it came to the nomination of Merrick Garland in 2016 is hardly in dispute. The nomination will stand and as one of the worst examples of dereliction of duty in the Senate’s history. Until, possibly, the one about to come before it. The President of the United States is under investigation by a special counsel. His advisors have openly floated the possibility of his pardoning himself. The question of whether a sitting president can be indicted is vigorously debated in public. The legality and validity of summonses and subpoenas issued to the President are being challenged. The Supreme Court will Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. President and CEO, NNPA Marc H. Morial President and CEO National Urban League decide these issues, and the President must not be permitted to choose the justice who may cast the deciding votes in his own case. There’s no rule about that, because the Senate is expected to exercise judgement in its duties. Supreme Court nominations long have been seen and treated a Ross the political spectrum as an opportunity for the President to advance his or one day, her ideological agenda. Until Garland’s nomination, this was accepted as a President’s prerogative. Liberals are bound to oppose a conservative appointee’s positions on the issues and vice versa. This nomination is far different. Whether the President to appoint a justice who will almost certainly rule on issues affecting the president’s own case is hardly a partisan issue. But there are other solid reasons why the Senate should withhold consent to a Supreme Court appointment at this moment in history. The President has expressed a shocking and unprecedented demand that his appointees and those who serve in his administration pledge their loyalty to him, and not to the nation. Leaders of his party in the Senate have adopted that fealty, partly out of political cowardice. There is almost no chance that a Supreme Court Justice appointee by this President confirmed by this Senate can be expected to function as an independent check on Presidential and Congressional authority. Again, this is not a partisan concern. Montesquieu, the political philosopher whose work influenced the Founding Fathers, wrote: “There is as yet no liberty if the power of judging be not separated from legislative power and the executive power.” Faith in our political institutions is at a low point. The appointment of a Supreme Court Justice under such a cloud can only serve to further erode it. History will judge this Senate harshly if it’s leaders do not set aside crass partisan grasping and act in the best interest of the nation at this crucial junction.
Jul 13 19, 2018 | Orlando Advocate p. 5 Poor People’s Campaign Activists Rally in Washington We Must Have A New Poor People’s Campaign and Moral Revival By Bishop William J. Barber, II (President, Repairers of the Breach) Channeling the incisive analysis of our best historians, TaNehisi Coates cut through the talking points of political pundits last week to name Donald Trump America’s “First White president.” Writing for The Atlantic, the National Book Award recipient made clear how there could be no Donald Trump without President Obama. The chaos from which the whole world now suffers is a direct result of the backlash against racial progress in America. To see this is to know that Trump is not our problem. He is only a symptom. During this time of intensifying political, economic, and moral crisis, with the lives of the most vulnerable and the spirits of all under vicious attack, people in growing numbers around the country are fighting back for their lives, communities and deepest values. As we respond to invitations from communities across America, we hear a resounding call for a Poor People’s Campaign and Moral Revival in America today. Fifty years ago, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and others called for a “revolution of values” in America, inviting people who had been divided to stand together against the “triplets of evil”— militarism, racism, and economic injustice—to insist that people need not die from poverty in the richest nation to ever exist. He joined with people across the country like Myles Horton of the Highlander Center, Loretta Two Crow of National Welfare Rights, Cesar Chavez of United Farm Workers, Al McSurely of the Appalachian Volunteers, Phillip Bernstein of the Council of Jewish Federation and Welfare, Tillie Walker of the United Indian Scholarship Fund, and John Lewis of the Southern Regional Council. Theirs was a coalition as diverse as America. We draw on the history, vision and unfinished work of the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign as we embrace the task of reigniting that campaign to unite the poor, disenfranchised, and marginalized across difference to take action together. In the aftermath of 2016’s rejection election, we are building a Movement from the states up, to unleash what Dr. King called “a new and unsettling force in our complacent national life.” This Campaign has emerged from more than a decade of work by grassroots community and religious leaders, organizations and movements fighting to end systemic racism, poverty, militarism, environmental destruction & related injustices and to build a just, sustainable and participatory society. We would need to do this work even if Trump had not been elected. But the blatant extremism of this administration only serves to amplify the need. The twin forces of White supremacy and unchecked corporate greed continue to gain more power and influence, both in statehouses across this nation and at the highest levels of our federal government. Today, one in every two Americans are poor or lowincome, while millions of children and adults continue to live without access to healthcare, housing, clean water, or good jobs. At the same time, the issues of poverty and racism have been forced to the margins of our moral narrative and claims that a limited focus on personal morality should overshadow and supplant a commitment to public morality rooted in a critique of greed, racism, and injustice. Our campaign aims to build a broad and deep national moral movement —rooted in the leadership of poor people and reflecting the great moral teachings —to unite our country from the bottom up. By Lauren Victoria Burke (NNPA Newswire Contributor) Rev. Dr. William Barber II, the leader of Repairers of the Breach, has moved forward with the “Poor People’s Campaign 2.0,” during the 50year anniversary of the original Poor People’s Campaign of 1968 led by Dr. Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). With an agenda focused on poverty, racial justice, voting rights and economic mobility, the Barberled Poor People’s Campaign recently rallied in Washington. There are 40 million people living under the poverty line in the United States, according to government data. That’s one in seven Americans. But the Poor People’s Campaign isn’t just focused on the government’s definition of poverty; this movement is focused on all lowincome earning Americans. According to the organization’s website, the poverty and lowincome status in the U.S. breaks down, as follows: • 51.9 percent of children under the age of 18 (38.2 million children) • 40.7 percent of adults between the ages of 1864 (81.5 million adults) • 42.5 percent of our elders over the age of 65 (20.8 million elders) • 45 percent of women and girls (73.5 million people) • 33.9 percent of White people (67.1 million people) • 60.3 percent of Black people (25.9 million people) • 65.1 percent of Latinx people (37.4 million people) • 41.1 percent of Asian people (7.6 million people) Featuring two huge banners reading “Fight Poverty, Not the Poor” on the stage, thousands rallied in Washington D.C. and at other locations across the U.S. for the culmination of the effort and a national call for a “moral revival” against poverty and racism. On the issue of voting rights, the campaign points out that, “there are fewer voting rights in 2018 than there were 50 years ago when the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act were passed.” Starting in 2010, shortly after the election of President Barack Obama, 23 states passed voter suppression laws, including gerrymandering and redistricting; laws that made it harder for Blacks and poor people to register to vote; reduced early voting days and hours; purged voter rolls; and more restrictive voter ID laws. The Shelby County v. Holder Supreme Court case, which gutted important provisions of the Voting Rights Act, 14 states put in place new voting restrictions before the 2016 Presidential election and there were 868 fewer polling places across the U.S. Rev. Barber will continue working through his organization, Repairers of the Breach, to place poverty and economic instability in the forefront of political conversations. Even though the issues impact millions of Americans, the paradigm of lobbyists controlling monied interests often means that issues affecting Blacks rarely come up in political discourse or garner mainstream media attention. Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist, political analyst and contributor to the NNPA Newswire and BlackPressUSA.com. You can reach Lauren by email at LBurke007@gmail.com and on Twitter at @LVBurke. This article was originally published at BlackPressUSA.com.
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