Turn off Twitter, Bring on the Helicopter: Guest Rant #1

By Bruce Clark

British Prime Minister David Cameron’s comments on the causes of the riots in the UK are, as expected, purely political. His calls for government to control Twitter and other social media reeks of fascism and blaming these new forms of communication as the cause of rioting is so easy to dispute it borders on insanity.

Cameron’s claims that part of society is “sick” and that the individuals looting have a “morality problem” may indeed be true but making these obvious statements is a convenient way to avoid addressing the vast disparity in wealth and other social injustices in a so-called free society that can ultimately lead to violent unrest.

While it may not be the media’s job to provide detailed historical context when it comes to covering a story, a little background information can enlighten when trying to understand why second and third generation immigrants in the UK, African Americans in the US, and our own indigenous people in Canada are so economically disadvantaged in three of the richest areas of the world.

Winnipeg has the unenviable reputation of being the nation’s murder capital and most crime-ridden city in the country.  It’s not a coincidence that Winnipeg also has the highest population of First Nations in the country.  It could be argued that if not for the reserve system that placed thousands of First Nations on mostly unproductive land, Winnipeg’s core area would be exponentially bigger and would have already experienced the kind of rioting we’ve seen in London or in Los Angeles.

Civic politicos have responded to an increasingly violent city with more police and a state-of-the-art helicopter to help battle crime but there has been little dialogue when it comes to prevention.  We rarely if ever hear our leaders seriously address the root problems of why a booming city in a country with unlimited opportunity has a large segment of society that can’t seem to keep up.

To dismiss it as a few individuals who are immoral or lazy is dismissing hundreds of years of oppression and injustice that has created a socio-economic imbalance.  Understanding the history is crucial to addressing the future but, unfortunately, it’s history that is not taught in schools.

The fact that the African American plight is analogous to our own First Nations dilemma is not a coincidence given the nearly identical histories.

After we moved from Winnipeg in 1993 and purchased our first home in Palm Springs, California, I discovered that the original deed for the home built in 1949 included a covenant that limited ownership of the homes in that neighbourhood to whites.  The covenant stated that, “Negroes, Hispanics, Asians and other minorities were prohibited from living in the area….” It went on to state that these minorities were not even allowed on the property unless they were employees. It wasn’t until 1968 under the Fair Housing Act that those covenants were made illegal. Blacks were legislated to live in certain areas of the city creating ghettos of disenfranchised human beings.

Not that minorities in the US could obtain a mortgage in that era even if they wanted to.   The G.I. Bill that was passed after World War II gave returning veterans access to money for college or vocational training. It also provided loans for those servicemen to purchase homes or to start a business. It was a terrific piece of legislation that gave men who fought for their country the support they needed to begin anew.

In a country where racist attitudes and ignorance were (and still are) commonplace, black veterans were discriminated against and few could take advantage of the bill.  (Racism is such a powerful force that during the war, black officers who were prohibited from using the officers club would watch as German POW officers socialized with their white US counterparts.)

The lack of financial support for African American veterans ensured that the chasm between the haves and the have-nots widened even further. White men and women were able to prosper as the economy boomed. They increased their wealth, invested their money and purchased property that would eventually be inherited by the next generation.

White families could afford to send their children to college or help them with a purchase of their first home giving the next generation a financial leg up. Minorities could only watch as they realized the American dream didn’t include them.

When African Americans rose up to protest these human rights abuses, governments ordered police to violently shut them down and labeled the protesters criminals and terrorists: “sick members of society.”

With these historic economic inequities combined with institutionalized, abject discrimination it’s not surprising that there are more African American men in US prisons than there are enrolled in college.   The organization of black gangs in the US (most notably the Crips and Bloods in Los Angeles) is a direct result of an entire race of people being dehumanized by a racist power structure.

It would be nice to think Canada employed a more civil, egalitarian approach when dealing with minorities but our history is also peppered with the ugly side of humanity. Since the treatment of our indigenous people is tantamount to the treatment of African Americans (not to mention American Indians) it’s no coincidence that the incarceration rate and other statistics (unemployment etc.) for the First Nations of Canada parallel those of African Americans.

The historical treatment of First Nations is also stunningly callous. Along with horrible discrimination that is still very much alive, First Nations have also been dealt a hand of jokers when it comes to opportunity. After what can be described as an attempted genocide, if we define the term by the annihilation of a culture and the language of a people, Canadian governments continue to stunt the success of an entire race.

Vitriolic hatred, residential schools, and laws prohibiting economic growth have prohibited generations of First Nations from attaining economic independence.  Reserve land that was “given” to them is still owned by the federal government. Housing on those reserves is also owned by the Feds, eliminating any building of wealth by the appreciation of real estate not to mention obtaining a loan from any financial institution.

It wasn’t until 1950 that the Indian Act was amended so aboriginal people could pursue land claims or even participate in their own religious ceremonies.  It wasn’t until 1960 that a First Nations person was allowed to vote and be considered a Canadian citizen without giving up their treaty status.

With an increase in immigration (many from poor African nations) and a rapidly growing First Nations population, Winnipeg is becoming home to more and more who have less and less. It is more important than ever for political leaders to understand history and push for economic equality by redistributing wealth in the form of well-paying jobs and educational opportunities.

Unfortunately, corporations in Canada and the US only have their greedy eyes on the bottom line and don’t seem to feel any responsibility to their communities. These huge corporations aren’t satisfied with making obscene profits while they engage in the immoral practice of modern day slavery.

45,000 Verizon workers went on strike last week in the US to protest the company’s attempt to undermine employee health benefits.  Meanwhile they have been farming out their call centers to impoverished nations all over the world. I spoke to a man in Tijuana, Mexico who was working as a help-center technician for Verizon. He told me he was earning a whopping $400 a month for a forty-hour work week.  That’s $2.50 an hour from a company that profited $4.65 billion dollars this past quarter and paid its CEO, Ivan Seidenberg, a salary of $2.1 million and a “performance-based” cash bonus of $3.9 million in 2010.

If you think Canadian’s aren’t as greedy and that it’s far more equitable in this country, think again. In Manitoba, the Maple Leaf hog processing plant in Brandon has been open for over a decade and employs over 2000 workers.  Because they don’t pay a decent wage, Maple Leaf recruits workers from El Salvador, Columbia and other impoverished countries to take advantage of their dire situations.

Working at a packing house is probably one of the worst occupations that exists in the free world.  (Read Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation or even better, Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle to truly understand.)  It is dangerous, grueling work that paid a decent wage before the packing houses in Winnipeg closed and the unions were decimated.

Now, however, these immigrant workers are paid a non-living wage of $13 and hour, less than half of what they would have earned twenty-five years ago.  The CEO of Maple Leaf, Michael McCain, fared a little better.  He took home $7.3 million dollars in 2010 and he did it without slicing off a finger on the production line.

It’s a continuous fight to try and strike a fair economic balance in a capitalist society. Providing opportunities to make a decent living is the responsibility of government and, I believe, a moral obligation on the part of private enterprise. Opportunity and equality are keys to producing a society that is as free from social deviance as humanly possible.  Without those things, it’s inevitable that things will only get worse and those in power will continue to blame those with little hope. Maybe we need to start pointing our accusing fingers at the guy who owns the $110,000 Mercedes, not the kid trying to steal it.