Black Caucus focuses on jobs at forum
Members plan to introduce package of 42 bills to put America back to work
Nearly 1,000 people turned out Tuesday night and an estimated 10,000 showed up Wednesday at Crenshaw Christian Center in pursuit of jobs.
On Tuesday, an appreciative audience of elected officials, workers, and community people attended the final stop of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) “For the People” Jobs Initiative tour.
Hosted by the three Los Angeles-based congressional representatives—Maxine Waters, Laura Richardson and Karen Bass—10 members of the CBC, including Chair Emanuel Cleaver II and the dean of Black politics, John Conyers, were joined by the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. and drew standing ovations, shouts of laughter and words of agreement and encouragement from the audience.
One audience member even very verbally encouraged Karen Bass to run for governor, drawing more laughter and applause.
Calling the CBC the conscience of the Congress, the members each introduced themselves, and talked about some aspect of what it is going to take to create jobs in America, and how important it is to get President Barack Obama to join with them to support a package of 42 pieces of legislation they intend to introduce.
If he does so, he will get re-elected said the representatives.
“We are moving away from the complaint counter to the constructive action counter,” said Chair Cleaver. “The CBC wants to help vulnerable communities, and we’re not hung up on what they look like.”
Barbara Lee of Northern California talked about her role on the House Appropriations Committee. “I fight against the harmful budget cut, and I find every dime I can to invest in funding jobs for the community.”
Metro Detroit Representative Hanson Clark pointed out that in addition to providing jobs, the CBC has discovered through its jobs tour the need to re-instill hope.
“Some people have been turned down (for a job) so many times, like the brother who was formerly incarcerated, that folks have given up,” said Clark, who sent the audience into laughter, when he brought up his ancestry. “OK, let me just get it out of the way. My father was from India, but I’m still just a Black guy from Detroit.”
He also shared his own personal story of unemployment, and being saved by a government job program called CETA (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act).
“The skills I bring to Congress, I had the same skills when I was unemployed. But what matters is attitude. Many of our people have given up . . .. We’ve got to get rid of the victim mentality and realize our power.”
Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee addressed the public sector contracts issue and touted a plan that would require every business awarded a government contract for things like cleaning up the East Coast in the wake of Hurricane Irene to produce a plan that will demonstrate how they will hire local people to do the job. Putting this in place could be done by executive order, she added.
The Rev. Jackson pointed to the Humphrey-Hawkins full employment Act as something that needs to be a centerpiece of current re-employment efforts.
Among the other issues that were talked about was the introduction of a Recidivism Reduction Act that would help recently released inmates obtain government benefits faster than six months; entrepreneurship as one antidote to unemployment; introduction of legislation, H.R. 489, calling for the extension of unemployment benefits for those who have exhausted theirs until Congress can figure out how to get the country working again; and finally a realization that the government must also create jobs and not rely on the private sector to do so, because as one representative put it, the abiding interest for corporate America is to make money for itself.
The Tuesday forum was followed by a daylong job fair that also included workshops on expungement and small business development.
Congresswoman Waters said more than 170 employers would be on hand to interview and offer real jobs.
Now that the jobs initiative tour has concluded, Conyers said the next step for the CBC is to hold a giant jobs rally Sept. 20 outside the White House during the Congressional Black Caucus week in Washington, D.C.
There are clearly more important immediate things for the California Black community to worry about—the level of involvement of the L.A. Sheriff’s Department in the kidnap, murder and possible rape of Mitrice Richardson; electing Danny Tabor and finally ending the seemingly endless mayoral election process in Inglewood; and getting the votes finally counted between Harris and Cooley, for example.
Nevertheless, as evolving political analysts, it is important for us to keep up with the whole process, from federal to water district level.
In the wake of President Obama’s address to the Congressional Black Caucus, there are those who are making much ado about nothing, including the accusation that, by dropping his “g’s” the President was talking down to African Americans. Can this President kindly get a break.
Nearly 2,000 people showed up to talk with Congress members Maxine Waters, Karen Bass, and Laura Richardson last Saturday during a Good Jobs LA Kitchen Table summit held at Inglewood High School.
On Aug. 30 and 31, people will have the opportunity to talk to more Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) members, when the CBC arrives in Los Angeles on the final stop of its “For the People” Jobs Initiative tour. The event will be held 6-8 p.m. on Tuesday at Crenshaw Christian Center, 7901 S. Vermont Ave., followed Wednesday by a jobs fair from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The California Redistricting Commission, the first civilian redistricting effort in the state’s history, has released the first map after of the 2010 census reapportionment.
The commission’s effort to address federal and state representation, while keeping out major party partisan politics of the usual manipulation and gerrymandering, immediately came under fire from without and within.
Although some of us may still be smarting that our Age of Aquarius proposal did not get approved (Prop. 19) this time, there were two really important political issues decided on last Tuesday’s ballot that will have major impacts on the future of Black political participation in California.
So the small number of California Black farmers (300 out of 94, 000) will not see any significant increase because of a newly legalized and profitable crop in 2010.
