Zapatistas march in Asheville’s “sister city”

A Zapatista woman participates in Friday's demonstration where an estimated 7,000 masked rebels occupied San Cristobal.

San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico, Jan. 12— Thousands of masked Zapatista rebels marched down the cobblestone streets of San Cristobal on Friday to let President Vicente Fox know his recent actions to bring peace to Chiapas state are not good enough. This tourist hub is Asheville, NC’s “cultural exchange” partner in an international “Sister Cities” program.

At the city’s “Plaza de la Paz,’’ or “Square of Peace,’’ a masked Zapatista rebel woman read a letter signed by their leader, Subcomandante Marcos, reiterating that rebels will not bend on the three conditions they have set to restart talks with the government and end the seven-year conflict.

“There have been advances,’’ Marcos wrote in the letter, dated Friday. “But it appears that with these small advances, they want to fool us, as if everything was ready, as if talks and peace were very close at hand.’’

Since taking office Dec. 1, Fox has closed three military bases near rebel strongholds, shut down 53 military checkpoints, eased limits on pro-rebel foreigners, freed nearly 20 Zapatista prisoners and presented a rebel-backed, indigenous rights measure to Congress.

Fox hopes to resume peace talks that broke down in late 1995 when the former government of Ernesto Zedillo broke a promise to enact the indigenous rights pact.

While the rebels have welcomed Fox’s moves, Marcos has demanded the closure of four other military bases, the release of more than 100 alleged political prisoners, and passage of the “Indian Rights bill,” known as the San Andres Accords.

The march comes only days after Fox’s Foreign Secretary Jorge Castaneda told the Associated Press that it may not be able to meet the letter of the rebel demands — while arguing that it is complying with their spirit.

Marcos said last week that he is prepared to lay down his weapons and remove his trademark ski mask if the peace process advances.

According to Marcos, the latest moves by Mexican President Vicente Fox regarding Chiapas - ordering 1,500 troops back to barracks and closing a command post manned by 100 soldiers - has only reduced “the visibility” of the army.

“Not a single soldier has left Chiapas; the same number remain, albeit they are less visible to the journalists, the civil organizations and the people,” he added.

The soldiers “have many interests here, fighting the EZLN (Zapatista army) is not business. Business is territory,” said the Zapatista leader, who accused the Mexican army of profiting from bootleg liquor and prostitution in Chiapas.

Marcos questioned whether Fox was really in command of the army and challenged the president to declare publicly that he will use political, and not military means, to resolve the conflict, which erupted with an EZLN uprising on Jan. 1,1994.

If Fox provides this assurance, and if the rebels obtain three “Yeses” to their demands, “we go to a rapid peace process. It is not our plan to delay and wait to see what happens during the six years of Fox’s administration,” Marcos said.

He insisted that under those circumstances, the Zapatistas would be prepared to bear the “cost” of peace and lay down their weapons and take off their ski masks.

Source: Associated Press, Agencia EFE

Working hard is not enough in North Carolina

By Beth Trigg

Raleigh, North Carolina, Jan. 15-- “I thought that if I worked hard, I would be able to earn enough to pay for everything that we needed.” Corrine Hall, a single mother of two girls, living in Raleigh, stood before audience of about 100 people and described her struggle to get by on low-wage childcare work. “I just want to say that you can work very hard, full time, for many years and it can still be hard to make it.” Ms. Hall’s statement was affirmed with the release of the new report, Working Hard Is Not Enough, last week in Raleigh.

Hall was among a group of workers and advocates who spoke at the release of the report, drawing attention to the dire economic situation in our state and putting forth a mandate for economic justice.

The report, sponsored by the North Carolina Justice and Community Development Center and NC Equity, exposes the fact that over a third of families in North Carolina cannot afford the most basic living expenses, and outlines a set of concrete changes that North Carolina can implement on a state level to address this injustice. So far, over sixty organizations across the state, including several in Asheville and Buncombe County, have endorsed Working Hard Is Not Enough and its policy recommendations.

According to Sorien Schmidt, one of the authors of the report, the Justice Center and NC Equity undertook the research because “as staff from both offices conducted our work, we became increasingly aware that while people were working, often more than one job, a lot of the people we came across continued to be unable to pay for the basic necessities for their families.” Schmidt continued: “We wondered if those struggling were an isolated few or part of a larger trend.”

First, Schmidt and her co-author, economist Dan Gerlach, conducted research to determine how much it actually costs North Carolinians to live in each county of the state. From there, they examined how household earnings compared to the bare bones budget needed for survival. Schmidt and Gerlach’s two primary findings were:

First, the federal poverty level is obsolete and inadequate for North Carolina families. Since one of the objectives of the report was to determine the real cost of living in our state, the authors researched costs of housing, childcare, food, health care, transportation, and other necessities. They created bare bones budgets based on these figures. They found that without any allowance for debt or savings, it costs the average North Carolina family twice the federal poverty level to cover a bare bones budget in urban areas, and one and one half times the federal poverty level for rural areas. Using the expenditure figures, the authors of the report created urban and rural “Living Income Standards” that reflect the absolute minimum income required to get by in NC.

Second, 1.1 million families filing tax returns in North Carolina did not earn an income sufficient to meet this Living Income Standard. According to Schmidt, “this means that over one-third of North Carolina households are not bringing home enough money to cover a subsistence-level budget.” In order to meet the Living Income Standard, workers would need to earn at least $11 per hour in urban parts of the state and $8.50 an hour in rural communities. Over 35% of families are not meeting this minimum. Race and gender play a significant role in wages earned in our state—the report found that much larger percentages of women and people of color earned less than a Living Income. Almost 60% of African Americans and 75% of Latino workers earn below $8.50 an hour, while over half of the women workers in our state earn less than this base-level wage.

Here in Buncombe County, the wages needed to support a Living Income Standard were estimated at $9.93 per hour for a one-adult, one-child family. Roughly 39% of families in Buncombe County are earning less than that living wage.

The report confirms what many organizations working to eliminate poverty and individuals struggling to get by during the so-called economic boom have experienced first hand. According to Alease Bess of A Healing Place in Durham, “for those of us serving the low income community, it documents what we have suspected: that many North Carolinians are working harder than ever but are still unable to earn enough to get by.”

The report goes on to investigate the causes behind this gap, and finds several reasons that NC families are struggling economically. First, the real average hourly wage has decreased by 69 cents per hour in the past twenty years. Minimum wage has dramatically declined in value during this period. At the same time, child care and housing costs have risen faster than inflation, eating up the largest part of most North Carolina families’ budgets. In addition, low wage jobs in the service and retail sectors are the fastest growing. These jobs offer little security, high turnover, and few if any benefits.

Working Hard is Not Enough does not stop with defining the problem and its causes, but goes on to offer concrete suggestions for what can be done to correct the dire economic situation faced by over a million North Carolina families. The recommendations include the passage of state and local living wage laws mandating that government employees and employees of government contractors are paid a wage meeting the Living Income Standard; raising the state minimum wage to $8.50 per hour; and implementing a state earned income tax credit to reduce the disproportionate cost of taxes on low-income families. In addition, the report recommends childcare subsidies, more affordable housing, and an increase in the wage requirements for companies to receive tax incentives for doing business in North Carolina.

For millions of men, women, and children in our state, according to Sorien Schmidt, “the economic boom has been a bust. The generally understood prosperity has been an illusion. The numbers affected are shocking.” In questioning the so-called economic boom, the report uncovers extremes of economic inequity in our state. By investigating income changes over twenty years, the report found that while the richest fifth of North Carolina families have seen steady, strong increases in family incomes for the last two decades, the lowest fifth have seen no change. From the late 1970s to the late 1990s, the wealthiest fifth of the NC population experienced a 39% increase in family income while the poorest fifth had a zero percent increase.

Reverend G.I. Allison, Executive Director of the NAACP NC State Conference, in a statement in support of the report’s recommendations, summarized: “In this time of great economic progress, people of conscience must turn their attention to those who are not reaping the benefits of the economic boom. We should be particularly concerned about workers who are contributing to the prosperity by the sweat of their brow, but are unable to provide for their families’ basic needs. It is the plight of these 1.1 million North Carolina families that this report brings to light. Surely the time has come for a change.”

With the endorsement of a broad spectrum of organizations and individuals ranging from unions to faith communities to women’s organizations, anti-racist groups, and housing advocates, the report has been submitted to the governor and all of our state representatives and senators. Organizations in Asheville such as Saint Eugene’s Catholic Church, ABCCM, and Just Economics have endorsed the report and its policy recommendations, and Just Economics is in the organizing stages of a living wage campaign for our community.

Corrine Hall, the childcare worker who spoke of her experience at the release of Working Hard is Not Enough hopes that the report will send a message demanding change to the elected officials of North Carolina. “I hope this report will help people -- the Governor and legislators -- realize that there are a lot of us out here working very hard and struggling to pay for rent, utilities, and food each month. We didn’t plan it that way. It’s just what the job pays.”

The full report is available on the web at: http://www.ncjustice.org. Contact Just Economics (Asheville Living Wage Campaign):45 Sardis Road/Asheville NC 28806. 828-665-2198.