Above: locals protesting Gov. Pat McCrory’s appearance at Moogfest on April 24 . Photo by Scott Owen.
Our latest opinion column is from leftist activist and former mayoral candidate Martin Ramsey, who attacks what he sees as an attitude of “stay-in-your-placeism” from political decision-makers in Asheville and elsewhere.
By Martin Ramsey
Asheville certainly receives more than its fair share of celebrity attention. From financial editorial pages fawning over mountain mansions to American Idolatory to political vacations. President Obama likes our BBQ and opulent accommodations, as does our own reactionary Governor Pat McCrory. His last visit was business-pleasure when he announced his attendance to Moogfest’s “Wiring Silicon Mountain” tech jobs forum. Irate Ashevillians, myself included, pressured the festival’s organizers and the mayor to rescind the invitation, only to be targeted by McCrory’s PR men for ‘politicizing the economy’ when he cancelled. Ultimately, the Governor was re-invited after a game of political hot-potato to a posh poolside shindig. I am sure he enjoyed the DJs.
Obviously, this made a lot of us angry; a politician doesn’t get to actively ruin our state and still have the red carpet rolled out for them in our city. Josh Ellis, the governor’s communications director shot back a statement on the guv’s behalf, “It’s unfortunate that activist protestors are politicizing and negatively impacting an initiative aimed at growing the economy.” Not only was this a contemptuous brushoff of the legitimate concerns of North Carolinians, but we were tut-tutted for ‘politicizing economic growth.” Would that growth entail bankrupting the state with corporate tax give-aways and funneling money to the wealthy while leaving working people holding a $445 million bag? What about privatizing and polluting the state’s water supply with fracking bills and coal-ash nepotism? Is that just uncontroversial economic growth too? What about gutting public education? Forcing underpaid teachers to choose between tenure and a pittance of a raise?
The citizenry has every right to be angry and to demand answers from politicians and leaders, from city hall to Raleigh.Yet, throughout the whole backdoor back-patting event — touting some sort of nebulous technology growth — the public, the people who actually make Asheville work, was treated like a petulant child, upset over nothing and getting in the way of the adults’ business. Our local city council, reelected to oppose Raleigh, attended and subsidized these same forums, proving themselves disappointingly complacent.
Buried underneath the contempt from McCrory and Co. is a strand of elite privilege that extends back centuries. We know better, our work is more valid, our heritage more legit. You cannot decide, we shall decide. This is not a debate, remain invisible, do as you are told. Stay in your place.
Contemporary advertising seems to have cast a sheen over the very idea of political participation. It is something amazing, that allows you to tap into our collective dreams and aspirations about our society. But something that you’ve got to train for, like a Gatorade commercial. A law degree would be helpful, maybe some business contacts too. Hey, participation isn’t cheap you know. You’ve gotta look the part, swim in the right circles, respect your elders, and don’t ever, ever say the game is rigged.
Unfortunately, the reality is our economy was always political: it’s getting worse for millions and no one is better placed to understand that than the very people who this “stay-in-your-place” mantra is directed at. Poor people. Working people. We are the ones who get treated like checker pieces, lured into traps, and ‘advocated’ for.
When thousands rallied in our city against North Carolina’s reactionary lurch, our council members used it as a stump to re-elect themselves, and generally lined up on the side of the people of Asheville. Good for them. Except when presented an opportunity to push back against a governor an overwhelming majority of their constituents despise, for good reason, what did they do?
The councillors were conspicuously muted in their reaction. The mayor negotiated a closed door VIP party. On top of a luxury hotel, poolside, to gladhand with corporate technocrats from the Research Triangle Foundation along with ‘progressive’ forces like Bayer, DuPont, GlaxoSmithKline, Syngenta, and CreditSuisse.
This is the future our rich ‘liberal’ saviors are building for Asheville, built on a foundation of stay-in-your-place-ism assumes that working people just can’t understand.
I understand perfectly what these saviors represent: themselves or nothing they aren’t willing to sell for access. I understand what kind of future they are talking about. It’s corporate handouts for low-employment companies shoehorned into our city, ones that hire in China, India, and southern California, not Madison County. I understand the vision that these elite handlers have for us breaks down to this: Stay out of our way while we run the system, make money, and go to parties.
The conversations and meetings we need to have aren’t going to happen at Aloft, thrown by the people who write the mayor’s checks. They need to happen in public housing, in workplaces and in the streets of our city.
The meetings need to be led by the people that work and live here, and they need to put the agenda of those who make the city possible front and center.
We need conversations about a just and sustainable economy that provides opportunities that aren’t at the expense of future generations.
We need parties that are filled with joy and organized to fight back.
But there’s not a chance of successfully pulling off the revolutions — yes, multiple — that are required in our society if we leave it up to our managers. They are simply too invested in the way things are. They run papers that don’t report, businesses that exploit and consulting firms that solve nothing.
I argue for a combative left, not one that is sitting on its heels waiting for the perfect opportunity to sell out or defend rights and privileges that were won 70 years ago and lost 30. Part of grasping the reality of the present is realizing that there is no going back. There’s no return to the old glory days of the twentieth century, and they weren’t all that glorious to begin with.
Break out of your “place;” the task of fighting this cash-soaked aristocracy will not be accomplished by those who cannot bear to speak of its existence. Personally, I appreciate them clarifying just which side of the battle they are on.
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