UPDATE: The Moral Monday protests against the Republican-dominated North Carolina Legislature’s stated goals — which include everything from cutting education spending to limiting access to abortions to voter ID laws — have spread to other parts of the state. Originally held in North Carolina’s capital Raleigh, the protests have made their way to other parts of the state in recent weeks and will continue to Greensboro on Wednesday.
“The General Assembly is no longer in Raleigh right now,” said the Rev. Clarence Shuford, president of Greensboro’s Pulpit Forum and second vice president of the local chapter of the NAACP. “So we have to bring it home.”
Previous coverage:
Aug. 5: After 10,000 people took part in the 13th iteration of Moral Monday protests outside the North Carolina state Senate chamber last week, protest leaders vow to continue their anti-austerity actions after the close of the legislative session. Nearly 1,000 have been arrested over the past 13 weeks in peaceful protests against the Republican-led austerity agenda, which included voter-ID laws and sharp cuts to forms of public assistance, including unemployment insurance.
WRAL reports that the announcement was made by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other groups that vow protest in all 13 congressional districts across the state, expanding the protest from its base in Raleigh.
Reverend William Barber, NAACP chapter president says that he will join those taking part in the ongoing demonstrations.
Original article, “North Carolina’s ‘Moral Monday’ Protests: 11 Weeks Running, 800+ Arrests And Counting,” published July 17, 2013:
More than 100 people were arrested this week during the 11th weekly Moral Monday protest against the Republican-led austerity agenda in North Carolina. The protests outside the state Senate chamber in Raleigh were declared an unlawful assembly by police, leading to the mass arrests.
The demonstrations are becoming a weekly ritual as thousands of protesters continue acts of civil disobedience, increasing the total arrested to more than 800 since they began in May.
The Republican-led budget cuts cover a wide range of programs, threatening to eliminate pre-K education for 30,000 children and unemployment insurance for 70,000 North Carolinians. Despite signs of an economic recovery after the 2008 recession, some experts claim that the austerity agendas in states across the U.S. will exacerbate economic woes for the majority of Americans who are still struggling to get by.
Just another Moral Monday
“What we are seeing for working-class America is very little gain for the past 30 years compared to the wealthiest. Although some people are saying parts of the economy have recovered, the reality is that many people are underemployed and unemployed. I think it’s creating frustration, anger. I think what they are trying to do is find parties and groups to react to,” said Hamline Professor David Schultz, a nationally recognized expert in government, nonprofit, and business ethics, to Mint Press News.
WRAL reports that Rev. William Barber II, president of the state’s chapter of the NAACP and one of the Moral Monday protest leaders, addressed the crowd at the most recent demonstration, which fell just a couple of days after the acquittal of George Zimmerman by a Florida jury.
“The thing that became clear to me, through all the anger and hurt I was feeling, for the lesser value the racialized Southern culture places on black life, is that I needed to come home to talk to my other kids, and I needed to be here with you,” he said, according to WRAL. “When you are hurting, you need to be around some people who still believe in the possibility of us being one people.”
From the beginning, the NAACP has led the protests, although an array of citizens representing labor unions, faith-based groups and and women’s rights groups have turned out to show support. What started with just a few dozen protesters quickly grew to several hundred, reaching 2,000-3,000 people during the largest Moral Monday on June 24.
The Atlantic Wire reports that women’s reproductive rights were also a salient issue following the introduction of a controversial anti-abortion bill that opponents claim will limit women’s access to health care. Two-thirds of the people arrested Monday were women.
The latest proposals would prevent state health insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act from offering policies that cover abortion. The proposals would also restrict doctors’ ability to administer abortion-inducing medication and impose new regulations on abortion clinics. This, opponents claim, would shut down all but one abortion clinic in the state.
The explosive abortion issue was made much more complicated when elected officials decided to tack the proposal onto a bill about motorcycle safety and a ban on Sharia law. Even some who favor restrictions on abortion are dissatisfied with how these unrelated issues have been lumped together. According to Public Policy Polling, 80 percent of North Carolina voters think it’s inappropriate to combine these disparate issues into a single bill.
North Carolina’s Republican legislators have also expressed support for rejecting both federally funded Emergency Unemployment Compensation for laid-off workers and federal funds to expand Medicaid coverage to 500,000 uninsured North Carolinians.
This is in addition to cuts to pre-K education that would push 30,000 children out of the program while shifting $90 million from public education to voucher programs.
Democrats have protested but have little leverage to change things given the Republican supermajorities in the state House and Senate.
“This is getting to be a mean, mean place for people at the bottom and working families in this state,” said Senate Minority Leader Martin Nesbitt of Asheville.
The top Democrats in the state legislature have vowed to continue the fight against these provisions.
Violating federal laws
As protests continue, the federal Office of Unemployment Insurance appears to have put the kibosh on some of the state’s cuts to unemployment insurance, saying they violate federal laws. The Associated Press reported Monday that Gay Gilbert, a spokesperson with the office, told state lawmakers they cannot deny benefits to certain groups of people who have lost their jobs.
Previously, North Carolina legislators proposed rejecting federally funded Emergency Unemployment Compensation for 170,000 laid-off workers. Although Gilbert put the brakes on that plan, the protests are unlikely to end anytime soon given the growing discontent with the other austerity proposals.
“With the Republicans making cuts to unemployment those actions are very visible. They create the most anger. I think that’s the one we are starting to see the protests around,” Schultz said.
Gilbert says that North Carolina can still reduce maximum benefits from $535 per week to $350. He also says the state can decrease the maximum number of weeks an individual can obtain benefits from 26 to 20.
The new law, which took effect July 1, will likely eliminate support for roughly 70,000 people on long-time federal unemployment.
“I think it hits deserving people. Almost anyone would say that if you are working, get fired and collect unemployment, that isn’t welfare, it’s not a handout,” Schultz said.
It’s all starting to catch up to Gov. Pat McCrory, who faces a rapidly diminishing approval rating. Public Policy Polling reports that 49 percent of voters disapprove of his performance, with 40 percent approving. This represents a 15 percent drop in McCrory’s approval since June.
Like any protest movement, turning this disapproval and anger into positive action remains the challenge for North Carolinians going forward.
“I think what we are seeing is an ideological agenda in Republican states, which is an austerity approach. What we are seeing now is a common set of policies moving from Republican state to Republican state. Whether or not you can go from anger and protest to viable political movement is the challenge,” Schultz said.