Reconciliation serves the status quo
The following is a Counterpoint column:
By Richard Koritz
The Oct. 2 front-page article, "Panel: Healing already started," grossly distorted my testimony before the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission. I have two principal reasons for opposing the process.
First and foremost, while representatives of the ruling-class wealthy of Greensboro argued against this process on the basis that this city was no longer the kind of place that would produce such a massacre, I believe that there has been no fundamental change in the rulers, in the reactionary groups, in the status of the oppressed, in the system in general. (Compare the South African model of the commission where the apartheid regime had been replaced.) The GTRC process offers the poor and working poor "reconciliation" as a substitute for striving for some level of power. "Reconciliation" is a grand illusion that only serves the powers-that-be. In this connection, I raised Hurricane Katrina as a wake-up call.
Secondly, my concern has never been solely for the "organized workers" as your article inferred. By distorting my testimony, the News & Record tried to use me as a spokesman of "conservative organized labor," pitting this sector against the more militant poor and working poor. In reality, organized workers have a definite stake in joining with the unorganized to strive for unity and power. And my testimony, in fact, emphasized the plight of the poor and working poor -- black, Latino, Asian and white.
My opposition to the raising up of this defeat for the people that occurred on Nov. 3, 1979, is that it is a source of demoralization for the black community and the working people of this area in general, the very people who have more need than ever to stand up and fight for their rights.
My testimony contrasted the GTRC process with the coming International Civil Rights Center and Museum, where I serve as a board member. This museum will commemorate the historic Sit-In Movement at Woolworth's that ushered in an era of civil rights and black liberation struggle victories. It resulted in the smashing of legal segregation in the southern United States. The museum's message is that we can and should fight for justice and that we the people can win.
I closed my remarks with these words of Frederick Douglass: "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
The writer lives in Greensboro.
Comments (2)
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A very valid reason to hold the hearings occured just the other day. Nelson Johnson was awarded a $115,000 grant by the Ford Foundation for use by the TRC.
That will buy a lot of hors d' overs, dinners at fancy restaurants and other "perks" as the commission winds down through it's last scheduled meeting...oh wait, don't they still have $115,000 to spend?
Posted on October 7, 2005 6:58 AM
Edit: Correction to above. The Ford Foundation grant was not for use by the TRC, but was as described in the article at the NR:
"Beloved Community Center, which the Johnsons direct, will receive $100,000 to spend on its services to the homeless and its training programs for young activists. The center will receive an additional $15,000 for "new learning opportunities."
Funding which would not have happened if the TRC had not occurred, IMO.
Posted on October 7, 2005 7:36 AM