Week 3

9/2/2014

OPTION 1: POOR PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT

'Power is rooted in the control of coercive force and in the control of the means of production. However, in capitalist societies this reality is not legitimized by rendering the powerful divine, but obscuring their existence.' - Poor People's Movement Article

Read this article on the relationship between power and class. Within the political system participation is highly regulated by access to a variety of social and economic resources. This article highlights the various barriers to political participation and the use and misuse of power within the government.

Guiding Questions

Name and describe three themes from the article and how they relate to course themes and lecture topics (one example for each theme).
What did you learn about power? How does it relate to politics and political participation?

Requirements for BLOG POSTS

You must write 250 words each post (due Thursday @ Midnight), Responses to two other students 50 words each (due Sunday @ midnight)
Students must post during the week the blog is assigned or it will not be graded.

OPTION 2: ALEC

Guiding Questions

Describe three themes from the video below that relate to the lecture topics from class.
How do the themes from the video relate to the course themes?
What are the benefits and disadvantages to the passage of Citizens United?
How can corporate influence in political strengthen or weaken our democracy?

Requirements for BLOG POSTS

You must write 250 words each post (due Thursday @ Midnight), Responses to two other students 50 words each (due Friday @ midnight)
Students must post during the week the blog is assigned or it will not be graded.

22 Comments

sharon clark link

9/24/2014 05:54:35 am

These are the three themes: The industrial strikes that resulted in the formation of the CIO; this was the beginnings of the American labor movement. In the early years of the republic, efforts by tradesmen to create better conditions by refusing to work and trying to prevent others from working were considered criminal offenses. Journeymen boot-makers and shoe-makers were put on trial in Philadelphia in 1806 and convicted of criminal conspiracy. This set the standard attitude towards organized work disruptions until 1842, when the principle of criminal conspiracy was rejected by the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. This relates to the political and governmental statue of the course by re innervating what was done in the past has now become present for majority of U.S citizens in America. The Southern Civil Rights Movement; was about mass protest movement against racial segregation and discrimination in the southern United that came to national prominence during the mid-1950s. This movement had its roots in the centuries-long efforts of African slaves and their descendants to resist racial oppression and abolish the institution of slavery. How it ties into the course is once again governmental and political issues on the rise. We have had one to many protest on a number of things and many have went unsolved. We desire equality and is opinionated to a freedom of speech. The movement of welfare recipients led by the National Welfare Rights Organization; was an American activist organization that fought to put more people on welfare, especially women and children. The organization had four goals: adequate income, dignity, justice, and democratic participation. The group was active from 1966 to 1975. At its peak in 1969, NWRO membership was estimated at 25,000 members mostly African American women. Thousands more joined in NWRO protests. This relates to the wealth and welfare especially African American women. I learned that power is powerful and dominant to have. Power is the ability to influence or control the behavior of people.Power relates to politics and political participation standing alone under one nation that’s my opinion.

DEANTE CLIMON

9/25/2014 09:04:41 am

The American Legislavtive exchance is very similar to the Facist views of Mussulini putting legislators and corporations in power to create laws that will beneifit large corporations as well as disfranchise the american people. Lots of these members are wealthy industry owners such as Coke industries, the tobacco company as well as wal-mart of de-activated their membership. Paul Weyrich the founder of Alec had made a statement in a rupublican church that claims" elections are not one by a majority of people and never have been from the beginning from our country and they are not now." Paul Weyrich states that the leverage in the election goes up as the voting population goes down. Voter I.D laws will disanfranchise college students and will be stopped from voting. this is the dream of Paul weyrich. if you were to buy a membership with Alec, it would only cost you fifty bucks a year to be a member although some legislators are so cheap, they have tax payers pay that bill for them. for premium members, it will cost from 7000 to 10,000s of dollars a year. to be a member of the task force it would be an investment of 10,000s of dollars per year. Alec is not looking out for america best interest. Alec sounds like a foundations that is looking to privatise education, privatise prisons, it also is a foundations that recieve major tax right offs. this is why the rich keep getting richer. they take profit from tax payers without paying any taxes. they also have secretly private conferences that tax payers pay for as well as taking flights across the nation which leads to a fancy hotel that tax payers pay for as well. this is what the founder Paul weyrich was planning.

Alex Diaz

9/26/2014 08:04:48 am

Like the website this Ms. Craine showed us about placing in donations for you're ideas to be favored or whatever. Politics is nothing but bribery, but since the wording that they use causes it to be legal and not considered bribery. Big corporations like these are just looking for new ways to bring down the systems that are stopping them from getting richer and so far they are achieving there goals. Rich control Lobbying and what gets put up out there.

Thao Le

9/26/2014 01:43:51 pm

It's kind of fascinating how the rich makes money, while growing up I had this idea that was hammered into my head, which is that you won't get to eat if you don't work, but the rich just doesn't seem to do any work, and they're still making more money than the working class.

Sorasak prasertsri

9/25/2014 09:07:45 am

According to the video, I believe these following three themes are related to the lecture topic. The first theme is the Civilize movement. Based on the experience in the past, we are still facing the same issue in that everyone is looking for their own self benefits. The second theme is people democracy against capitalism. We could clearly see that capitalism is gaining more advantage and becoming more powerful in our today society. Last theme is about slavery. I believe that we are slowly becoming the slave for private investor (capitalism).

The above three themes relates to the cause theme on political issue such as labor unions, welfare and individual equal right. In a way this unsolved political issue from the past is still occurring and rising today.

The benefits of citizen United are providing, demonstrating and protecting individual and public benefits. However, the disadvantages are unlimited significant spending and limited sources.

Corporate influence is becoming stronger and more powerful in our political issue, as such providing more job opportunities and creating our society life style. On the other hand "We" as a people democracy has slowly become more power and limited our rights to choose what is right for ourselves.

9/26/2014 08:00:36 am

Yes and since such a huge amount of the population is misinformed this causes it hard for people to see what is actually going on in our society nowadays. Not only are large corporations such as Target targeting labor unions, but they are also lowering our living standards.

sharon clark

9/30/2014 06:59:14 am

With such employers like Walmart, Kmart and Fast Food joints they do not have a union. it would help to strengthen the business but everybody so greedy about being rich. i have never really understood why you can have so much money and still feel broke.in so many words employers like those i mention hires the people that they feel they can be as vulnerable as possible that's just my open opinion.but what can i say i job isn't just a job.

9/25/2014 11:42:32 am

After reading Poor People's Movement, there are three themes in the article that related to our course. They are:
1. The wealthy controls the country: in the article, it mentioned United State is a capitalist country, and in a capitalist country money means power, the article also talked about how power and wealth usually comes together, "since coercive force can be used to gain control of the means to producing wealth, and since control of wealth can be used to gain coercive force, these two sources of power tend overtime to be drawn together within one ruling class".
2. The poor has no power and right, according to the article, the poor are led to believe that they deserve their unfortunate fate, and the wealthy deserve their wealthiness, "in more traditional societies, sharp inequalities are thought to be divinely ordained, or to be party of the natural order of things".
3. The last theme in the article is that the poor sometimes has violent outburst due to the injustice they feel, "mass violence is, to be sure, one of many forms of defiance.."

From the article, I've learned that power comes from wealth, as long as you have money, you can have power, since with money you can have a political influence, you can manipulate the voting booth, you can fund politicians, and in turn with power you can make even more money and becomes more affluent.

Kim Shaw

9/25/2014 02:34:45 pm

I totally agree that more money means more power. Money can just about buy one anything love, freedom, power, looks, material things, friends or people that you think are your friends. Money allows you into places that if you didn’t have the right amount of money you wouldn’t be allowed there. Money gives one self- esteem and confidence. Money and the love of it can and has changed people. Money has allowed people to get away with things and out of situations that would have been impossible with me. Money can cause one to lose their soul and all of their morals.

Dulce Fajardo

9/26/2014 02:50:00 pm

It's definitely right to say that the rich are powerful and poor are powerless. It's unfortunate that the poor would be influenced so much to believe they don't deserve better even though they are citizens and form a huge population to where if all the poor united then they could make change. But then again the economy is what runs the U.S. and it's not okay but the rich will always have more influence.

coutney broussard

9/26/2014 03:20:43 pm

Its very interesting how money how money motivates people in different ways. us common folk are working hard for an honest paycheck while the government and corporations scam its people. Really hoping they are better days coming soon and as a nation we come together for change.

Courtney Broussard

9/25/2014 02:57:57 pm

Poor People's Movement Article, that title speaks volumes. Probably because I am in the majority of "poor people" population. This article contained three themes we discussed in class. Such as: 1) Power to control society, 2) Power driven by wealth, 3) Government in control to making our society a closed society instead of open.

Having power over a nation generates greed and control by people in charge or in office. The people in charge of our government make laws and policies to better support and protect themselves. Which some laws override the bill of rights. As like most historical corrupt leaders in the world, power can be used for evil coercive. In the article it stated, "that the rooted in wealth and force overwhelmed the power of the franchise." Corporations hold wealth in society, the bigger the company and its demand to society the more the company flourishes. Sounds understandable however its what the corporations are doing with their profits in the long run. Government tactics are in the making of society to become less cooperative with unjust policies and laws will soon backfire on them. When the poor people of the society get outraged then it is more liking for the government and its power be returned to the hands of its people. Naomi Wolff's movie End of The World gave tactics on our society slowly going to from a n open society to a closed society. The evidence of the government's action on this is very apparent. I learned that power can change a culture, and if you can do that you have abused your power to keep yourself ahead ie politics.

9/25/2014 03:04:51 pm

Corporations are the ones funding ALEC, they are sponsors because they know that the bills being proposed will benefit them in some way. ALEC has proposed such bills like the privatizations of prisons, which in no way benefits the minority since incarceration rates would keep going up. ALEC operates in secret not letting public know who are its members and how they run their organization, they are giving themselves the power to write legislation and the government approves. ALEC relates to Blackwater in some way because the members of this organization are doing what are supposedly the duties of our legislators. They are being paid to write up legislation that is a job of Congress and I would say it is illegal since they are "hiding" as much information as possible. The people won't get a voice on what bills are being proposed since the legislators are being sold on specific ideas and makes the U.S. not be a true democracy since organizations like this will keep operating even if the people will not benefit from them. The government has more power than it should and it's letting everything slip through the cracks. Such corporate influence weakens our democracy since like the video said, our taxes are subsidizing this type of lobbying and it is unfair especially if we do not even know about it.

courtney broussard

9/26/2014 03:25:48 pm

i agree with your comment on the government has more power ten it should. As the years go by the government continues to get more and more powerful. It would be different if they used their powers towards a better nation. Instead of being incompetent with its people. I really cant stand ALEC!

9/25/2014 03:38:10 pm

ALEC
One of the first things that come to mind is that if we don’t know what’s going on in the political world we are simply getting screwed. We pay our taxes and listen to what’s being told to everyone and unfortunately we believe that what is being done is for our benefits. When behind the scenes the rich are getting over as usual. They are busy trying to change the voter laws, making it more difficult for people to vote.
ALEC is a right wing organization being funded and supported by some major corporations such as Coke and BP. ALEC represents the wealthy coming together in a way that benefits them only. Such as private schools and prisons. ALEC pays all expenses for the legislators to come to their meeting and workshops so they can sell them their ideas and urge them to pass these bill that benefit these major corporations.
Lastly ALEC is A501C3 charity which means that these major corporations are able to use their donations as tax write offs which basically mean that we as tax payers are paying for this. This ties into the discussion we were having about progressive tax vs. straight tax. These major money maker give large donations to the companies of their choosing and they are writing them off a charitable donations. I’m sure Coke and BP has written off their donations and we, the tax payers are paying for the very thing that is working again us. All this is a form of modern slavery. Americans are still being rape and screwed without our permission.

9/26/2014 02:41:06 pm

This types of organizations shouldn't even exist and it is horrible to find out that they use our tax money to run such a place. I agree that this is a form of slavery since the government will let it keep happening. Then again not a lot of people know about this because if ALEC went public then the people would try to fight against it and maybe wouldn't even exist.

Alex DIaz

9/26/2014 07:54:08 am

The three themes that I have chosen from the article are unequal distribution of wealth, social structure, and the misinformed.

Unequal distribution of wealth leads to class separations because the wealthy then have the power to distribute part of their wealth to different social classes and ethnicity's. This leads the wealthy to have power over the poor. An example of this is Walmart who are among some of the richest people, but who have such a huge say in politics as well. The poor people of America who can't afford to buy "brand" products at such a high price come to walmart and look for better deals often harming production of local neighborhoods and communities driving tons of smaller corporations out of business. Since Walmart has this control over the poor they can easily turn the poor into a weapon against politicians who try and speak out against them. Most of the time politicians will not do so because of the whole lobbying game which is technically bribery, but since they have so much power that they can just "rephrase" the way we interpret certain regulations or laws. With this comes a huge amount of the population being misinformed because big corporations who are making textbooks and other informational things then have the power to teach history, but in the way that they want you to learn it. A perfect example in the article would be under SOCIAL LOCATIONS AND FORMS OF DEFIANCE where the article states that "we" the lower or poorer class is meant to be looked upon as barbarian or as a crazy society because of the way history has misinformed the learners. If the wealthy can do all this then they can also make cultural bias and create social classes to be divided to make it harder for interactions and harder for groups to rise together and make a difference. This could be why certain areas of history are not told and or mentioned.

9/26/2014 01:36:25 pm

I agree with your first point about Walmart. Walmart might be what's keeping our minimum wage so low, since they need that to be able to offer lower prices than their competitor's. And thus people will keep shopping at Walmart for their low price, Walmart uses this profit to fund politician and keep the minimum wage low, and keeping their price low, and the cycle repeats.

9/26/2014 01:42:30 pm

I agree that Walmart does have a strong hold over the poor. The poor and no so poor often are looking for a deal and that’s all that Walmart advertise. Walmart says they are the low price leader and they are, however the employees are under paid and they are against the union.

9/30/2014 06:54:25 am

I agree that Walmart has its ups and downs. it used to be my old employer. when i first started working there i saw opportunity and discounts but after being with the company for so long i started to see things desenagrating rapidly.i do agree that they do have reasonable prices , but i wouldn't necessarily say they have the lowest prices in town.

Judy Sierra

9/29/2014 12:35:41 pm

Three themes from the article Poor People's movements and the structuring of protest, that caught my attention were; power of the government, restraining power to rise in lower class and the rule of protesting tactics. I understand that in the American political situation, the rich group has more power over the poor. The rich feeds off of the poor and still manages to overpower them with money. Leaving the poor on the edge with no hope or nothing at all which is wrong in so many ways. In the article it also mention how the power of the force can gain control of money and money can gain power of force, power controls belief from weather it's right to wrong. The rule of protesting tactics for the poor was the only recourse. This just demonstrates how much more power the higher classes have among us, which is probably why we believe in going on strikes. In my opinion the political participation in my community seems quite silent. Although things are being build and establish. There should not be any right for the elite class to think that we don't have the right to continue to rise above as high as them.

Aaron Onia

10/4/2014 09:13:00 am

The Poor People’s Movement gives a pretty precise view of how the conditions of lower-class institutions give way for people to assemble together against the dominating hand of political authority. The articles reoccurring themes parallel those in our class discussions.
The article speaks of a ‘superstructure’ which is reinforced by beliefs and rituals that people perceive as normative; however, sustain the institution and the cycle of oppression. This idea goes back to our discussion about the values of the majority of people in our society. Along with our virtuous values like family and education, we are a society that attaches importance to material possessions and the things that money can buy. The daily routine consists of working to earn money, then spending that money on things that satisfy a manufactured ideal. By conforming to the norms of society we are fueling the system, in turn, emphasizing the idea that ‘we are catalysts for the economy’.
Another over-arching premise is the exploitation of power and how people in control like to keep citizens docile to serve their own agenda. The article states that during mass protests, the powers that be like bring out violence in order to discredit a particular movement. This is similar to the ten oppression tactics which seek to target those critical to government rule. Another response to protest would be to appease the protesting group, but only symbolically or only to later retract. This reminds me the concept of government infringement upon our basic constitutional rights, a theme also corresponding to the tactics presented by Naomi Wolff.
What I can take away from this article is the idea of how people can take recourse against injustice in non-conformity. Also I learned how those acts of ceasing to conform (when consistent or in done in crowds) can cause an institutional disruption; for better or for worse. Hopefully it’s for the better and the risks that individuals take to stand out against inequity yield a higher reward. Finally, I’ve gathered that a good time for mass protest is during political unrest because it is a prime opportunity to instill fear into the oppressors; the fear that they will lose control or lose power.

Week 3

OPTION 1: POOR PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT

OPTION 2: ALEC

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Week 3

OPTION 1: POOR PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT

OPTION 2: ALEC

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POSCI 1/COA

Archives

Categories

THE BEAUTYOF BLACKCREATION

ABOUT USJOURNALS​​SUBMISSIONS

THE BEAUTY

OF BLACK

CREATION

ABOUT US

JOURNALS

SUBMISSIONS