July/August 2004

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

Fund the Dream: A National Call

Chuck Turner is a member of the Boston City Council. This is an edited version of the call posted on www.bostonsocialforum.org.

On August 28th, 1963, during the March on Washington, Dr. Martin Luther King made his historic "I have a dream" speech, projecting into American consciousness his vision of an American society which would transcend racism. However, his experiences over the next five years led him to the understanding that the dream could not be realized until the axis of evil in this country had been overcome. He viewed this hydra-headed evil as composed of militarism, materialism (economic exploitation), and racism.

Dr. King's analysis led him to speak out against the Vietnam War and America's habit of taking "necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the (upper) classes." Both war spending and giveaways to the rich were choices made about how tax dollars should be spent. The choice not taken was the economic empowerment of African-Americans and other disenfranchised groups.

It also led to his eventual call for a second March on Washington which he termed the Poor People's Campaign. However, this was to be a very different kind of "March." The Poor People's Campaign was not to be a one-day, out-of-town-by-sunset exercise. His plan was to establish a base camp, Freedom Village, from which people of all races could join together to lobby and nonviolently confront the federal government regarding policies that deprived the people of this country the resources necessary to fulfill his dream. A scaled-back version of the Poor People's Campaign was mounted, though King's assassination in Memphis prevented the full implementation of the campaign, and short-circuited the dream.

Today, we suffer under the conditions Dr. King envisioned would ensue if the axis of evil was not overcome. The economic exploitation that Dr. King feared is greater than ever, as the gap between rich and poor expands. The Bush tax cuts (most of which were given to the wealthiest 1%) have created a federal budget deficit this year of almost $500 billion, and the Congressional Budget Office estimates the cumulative shortfall over the course of the next ten years will total $2.4 trillion. It is clear that deficits on this scale will make it even more difficult for the government to meet the needs of the people of this country.

It is conjectured that the cuts are not only fueled by greed, but also, as David Stockman admitted with regard to the Reagan tax-cuts, by the desire to make it impossible for government to provide even a threadbare social safety net.

Today's corporate greed and corruption surpass even the level of the 1920s, another period of scandalous corporate behavior where the government seemed content to "Let the buyer and worker beware." As the salaries for CEOs soar to astronomical levels, workers are pressured to work faster and earn less.

The third hydra head, racism, is alive and well, being fueled by government policies, especially the War on Drugs. In 1973, there were 500,000 people in prison. Today two million people are in prisons, one million Black people and hundreds of thousands of Latinos. It is estimated that half of the prisoners are in jail for nonviolent crimes, including the 20% jailed for drug offenses. Approximately 80% of those arrested used drugs within a week of their arrest. Billions of dollars needed for quality education, affordable health care, and housing are being put into the hands of enforcement agencies who seem unable to arrest suppliers and money launderers while arresting the never ending stream of retailers. Coupled with the CORI (Criminal Offender Record Information) laws, the War on Drugs is marginalizing an ever-increasing number of people of color, while the prison-industrial complex grows richer and guards' unions more powerful.

If we are to remove the practice of disparate treatment of African-Americans and other groups of color (racism), we have to demand federal government policies that are consciously focused on eliminating the educational achievement gap, health care disparities, the wealth gap, and the other disparities that are the product of governmental policies and practices. A War on Drugs in a society that is structured to keep people of color on the bottom rung of society is a policy designed to create a new type of slavery. We need a War on Racism, designed to eliminate these disparities.

The challenge for those of us who share Dr. King's dream is clear. We have to pick up the cross that he dared to carry for us. It is time for us to complete his journey. It is time for us to reestablish an encampment in Washington from which to launch our own style of lobbying and nonviolent confrontational activity with those who are establishing the policies that feed militarism, materialism, and racism. It is time for the people of the cities and towns of our country, frustrated with the downward spiral of life, to rise up and take part in the siege of Washington. While our issues and needs are many, we must lay siege to our federal government until it demilitarizes, creates a fair taxation policy, and develops governmental policies which are designed to eliminate the effects of racism, the disparities between people of color and whites. Until we can accomplish this goal, our needs will remain unmet and Dr. King's dream will remain deferred.

Demands of the Fund the Dream Campaign

Undercut Militarism: Cut Spending for War

The first demand is to immediately begin the process of demilitarization by adopting the position of the Democratic Party Congressional Black Caucus and the Progressive Caucus that the military budget be cut by $100 billion dollars.

Last year, one half of our discretionary budget as a country was devoted to financing the military industrial complex in its pursuit of corporate welfare and world domination. Since more than $350 billion was spent on the military, all other discretionary categories were financed out of the remaining $350 billion.

Even the next largest funding category, education, is woefully under-funded, receiving only $50 billion. While Democrats and Republicans heralded their joint work on the so-called No Child Left Behind Act, the reality is that the funding is inadequate to accomplish the task. In Boston, the School Department had to limit the number of students who could receive the supplemental education to which they were entitled because the Department had not received enough funds. In Utah, a Republican stronghold, the legislature is considering a bill which would require the state to comply only with the provisions that the federal government actually funds.

A second example of the inadequacy of the $50 billion for education is that a joint Congressional Committee in 1998 announced after a study that $112 billion was necessary to finance the rehabilitation necessary to bring all school buildings in the country into good condition. Last year's Department of Education budget provided no money for school renovation or building. However, according to the National Priorities Project, Congress has given the President a total of over $150 billion in the last two years over and above the Defense Department's annual $350 billion in order to finance the government's incursion into Iraq.

While the Pentagon is stuffed with cash, the Federal Section 8 program, which is key to fighting homelessness throughout the country, is fighting for its life as the administration keeps cutting the money available in the name of fiscal responsibility. In the current budget, an additional 160,000 families face Section 8 housing certificate cut-offs. City services are being cut and infrastructure improvements are put on hold as cities receive less money from their state governments and find that the Washington cupboard has nothing in it to help them with their plight. Yet, money surges into Homeland "Security" and the financing of bioterror labs to deal with the terrorism engendered by our militaristic foreign policies.

Obviously, the $100 billion saved by following the Congressional Black Caucus' recommendation will neither end militarism nor finance all the investments needed. However, it would begin to move military spending in the right direction and force Congress and the country to begin to rethink our security strategy in a changing world. Only through demilitarization and curbing corporate power can this country begin healing.

Reduce Materialism: Reinstate Taxes on the Wealthy and Corporations

The second demand is to immediately repeal the tax cuts initiated by the Bush administration which benefit the wealthy, and develop an equitable tax policy. Require individuals who earn more to pay a greater percentage of their income and require corporations to pay their fair share by eliminating tax loopholes.

While materialism surges around us seemingly unchecked by common sense or morality, its most extreme form is the political manipulation by the rich to deprive the government of a fair share of the nation's resources. This is the most extreme form of materialism since it deprives the government of the resources necessary to maintain a balance between the economic classes in the country. Since, as people of color, we find ourselves at the bottom of the economic spectrum, our very survival depends upon just policies of redistribution.

Without government intervention through taxation and other regulatory policies, there is nothing to protect the less well-off from domination and oppression by those who are doing well. The most glaring American historical example occurred during the 1920s, when corporate greed soared unchecked, destroying the economy and plunging the country into depression. FDR was viewed by many of the rich as an enemy of his class. In fact, he was the best friend they had, since his redistributive policies enabled him to stave off the revolutionary forces that were attracting the attention of frustrated white workers.

In advocating for a progressive tax policy, which takes more from those who have more, we must keep in mind that it is government that creates the environment in which individuals and corporations can establish firm economic foundations as well as financial assets significant enough to be described as wealth. At the most straightforward level, without fire and police services, businesses of all sizes would be unable to operate. Roads and transportation systems are as essential for business operation as they are for individuals. Government contracts also play a major role in the wealth of individuals and corporations of this country. Without a doubt, the $167 billion pumped into the Iraq war has played a significant role in the stock market surge. It is only fair that the government get an equitable share back for redistributive purposes, since corporations consider only the bottom line.

What expectation is there that those of us of African descent will ever have the resources necessary to escape from the effects of slavery and neo-slavery if the government does not develop a fair redistribution system? Similarly, how can other people of color and the white working class escape the effects of wage slavery without governmental redistributive mechanisms? Health care (both mental and physical), public education, job training for those out of school, Works Progress Administration-type programs, drug prevention and rehabilitation programs, to list a few critical areas of need, all require government financing. Of what benefit are even progressive elected officials if they are participating in a system that is wired to meet the needs of the wealthy?

Confront Racism: Eliminate Racial Disparities

The third demand is to immediately launch a War on Racism beginning with a study of governmental policies to determine the extent to which those policies are eliminating racial disparities. Policies that have little effect on the disparities or increase them must be replaced with policies designed to eliminate them. The studies should begin with the War on Drugs policy.

The elimination of racism is obviously a complex issue. However, any serious attempt to eliminate racism must begin with the elimination of the effects of racism on those targeted by it. A racial disparity analysis is in fact an examination of the effect of racism in a particular area of human life. Since the American government nurtured racism through enactment of government policies that maintained a system of slavery and neo-slavery, it has a responsibility to focus its resources on the elimination of the effects of racism.

It must begin its work by assembling data on the economic, health, and educational disparities between Euro-Americans and the various cultural and national groups viewed as people of color. It must then analyze the extent to which government policies are reducing the racial disparities between these groups and whites. Those policies which are having little beneficial effect, as well as those which are increasing the disparities, must be replaced with policies designed to eliminate them. By demilitarizing and creating equitable tax policies, we will create the resources necessary to eliminate the disparities through adequately funded government policies.

To eliminate the disparities, the government will have to enact policies that result in universal health care; sufficient affordable housing; quality public education that eliminates achievement gaps; transportation that serves the needs of inner city residents; and labor policies that enable workers to get their fair return for their labor as a start. Ironically, the type of policies necessary to eliminate racial disparities are also the policies needed by a growing number of whites.

The War on Drugs is suggested as the initial focus given the extent to which it is increasing racial disparities while having minimal effect on its goal, reducing drug use. In addition, it consumes an inordinate amount of resources. These resources need to be used for drug education programs, drug rehabilitation programs, job and entrepreneurial training programs, a national public works program, and the other governmental initiatives necessary to help those mired in poverty become productive citizens.

Instead, a growing percentage of our resources are being invested in jail cells. In 1973, there were 500,000 individuals in jail. Today, there are 2,000,000. While incarcerated, most prisoners do not receive the educational or other self-development tools that will enable them to establish a better life when they are released. In fact, many are kept in inhumane isolation units.

Ironically, prisoners are often able to continue their drug use if they are able to meet the market price established by their jailers. When these individuals come out of jail, they find themselves discriminated against by employers who can turn them away by simply saying, "We don't hire those with records." They are not eligible for public housing or housing subsidies. They are often not eligible for federal grants for education if their crimes involved drugs. In many states, their right to vote has been taken away from them. Obviously, this process of marginalization has a devastating effect on individuals who have been incarcerated as well as on their families.

This policy is perhaps one of the most glaring examples of how government policy itself can be a major force in increasing racial disparities. The War on Racism must identify all the policies which increase such disparities and develop new policies which can lead to their elimination.

Dr. King's dream can come true. This country has the resources necessary to make it come true. Do we have the will necessary to wage the type of nonviolent struggle necessary to Fund the Dream?

Previous Article    Next Article