Our Perspective
Racial and Economic
Justice Forever
Intertwined
By Stuart Appelbaum, President
Retail, Wholesale and Department
Store Union, RWDSU, UFCW
Twitter: @sappelbaum
Caribbean L 14 ife, June 26-July 2, 2020
CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
TT$33 million to assist in its fight against
gender-based violence (GBV).
The funding is being possible through
the Spotlight initiative, a joint initiative
of the European
Union (EU) and United
Nations.
A total of 50 million
euros is being made
available to Caribbean
nations to battle GBV.
The announcement was made by United
Nations resident coordinator Marina
Walter during a virtual launch of the
Spotlight Initiative in Trinidad.
She said the funding is much needed,
especially during the COVID-19 pandemic
where there has been a spike in domestic
violence cases.
Walter noted because of the stay-athome
measures implemented to curb
the spread of COVID-19 worldwide, many
victims are now confined to their homes
with their abusers, resulting in increased
GVB cases.
United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA) representative Aurora Noguera-
Ramkisoon pointed to police statistics
which showed a significant rise in reported
domestic violence cases this year.
— Compiled by Azad Ali
Continued from Page 4
Brooklyn church pays
tribute to ‘Mother James’
By Nelson A. King
An East Flatbush, Brooklyn church,
whose founder and senior pastor is
Jamaican the Rev. Albert Delmadge, has
paid glowing tribute to long-standing,
Vincentian-born member Ynolde Mavis
James, who went to the Great Beyond
on May 30. She was 87.
James, renowned as “Mother James”
and “Sis. James” to congregants, was
ailing for some time and died in her
East Flatbush home, according to her
youngest sister, Desma Dofflyn King,
a retired registered nurse, who helped
took care of her during her last stages.
James and her Vincentian-born husband
William E. James, who predeceased
her 12 years ago, began worshipping,
in the 1980s, at Christian Heritage
Ministries, an evangelical church, at
4121 Ave. J, according to the church in
its tribute, read by Barbadian member
Karl Knight, at James’s funeral service
on June 8, at Frank J. Barone Funeral
Home on Avenue D in Brooklyn.
Knight said that Sis. James and her
late husband dressed elegantly and
“stood tall in their Sunday best each
Sunday.
“With their love for each other and
their love for the Lord, they served
the Lord hand-in-hand,” he said. “Bro.
James busied himself repairing and
painting the church; Sis. James delved
into other aspects of ministry.
“Sis. James’s talents of sewing and
baking were treasured by her friends
and church family,” added Knight in
reading the church tribute. “On occasional
Fridays, she would teach these
talents at the youth meeting.”
He said Sis. James was active with
the Women’s Ministry, and Prayer and
Bible Studies, and “enjoyed teaching
Sunday School and interacting with the
young children.
“After her retirement, she didn’t
know another ministry was being birthed
to take care of the new babies that
Vincentian-born member Ynolde
Mavis James.
were being born,” Knight said. “She
was grandma to many of these young
people.
“We were blessed to have Sis. James
in our midst,” he added. “Her laughter
and perpetual joy will be in our hearts
always.”
Knight also said that Sis. James’s
role in the church and what she meant
to the church family were “immeasurable.”
Rev. Delmadge’s son, Albert III, who
officiated during the entire service,
described the funeral as “a home-going
celebration.”
“Sis. James, Mother James, she loved
music,” he said. “When I go (went) to
her home, she was singing and playing,
and praising God. She played a big role
in my life.”
Rev. Delmadge III said while the
Jameses were disciplinarian and “were
not perfect, they learned to grow.”
He also said that Sis. James ensured
that parishioners knew Psalms 23,
beginning with “The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want.”
In addition, he said Sis. James’s love
for God and human kind was exhibited
not only “on the outside” but also “on
the inside.”
In America – and indeed the entire world – an
unprecedented and long overdue
conversation on racial justice is happening.
We are seeing sweeping changes in the way people from all sorts of
different backgrounds view ingrained racial injustices and the
consequences that result for people of color. It’s a societal reckoning
the likes of which we have never before seen.
And while the changes being made around the country show that
the protest movement is making a significant difference, it’s
important that we also focus on the economic issues that contribute
to systemic racial injustice in the U.S. It’s clearer than ever that to
achieve true racial justice, we need to address the underlying
economic conditions under which so many people of color live.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the poultry processing
industry, a low-paying, dangerous job performed almost exclusively
by people of color. The poultry workers who feed everybody from
California to here in New York face blinding fast line speeds, extreme
temperatures, dangerous, repetitive cutting motions that often lead
to debilitating injuries, and for the majority of them, who do not
have union representation, no voice to help make their jobs and their
lives better.
Poultry workers have gone so far as to call themselves “modern
day slaves,” and say management only cares about corporate
profits at the expense of the health and welfare of their workers.
The COVID-19 crisis shed a harsh new light on the treatment of
workers at these “modern day plantations,” with dozens of workers
dying and thousands infected. And while unions like the RWDSU
have been able to improve working conditions in union plants –
forcing implementation of better social distancing, more PPE, and
policies that encourage sick workers to stay home – the industry as
a whole has failed terribly when it comes to prioritizing safety
during this pandemic.
And that must change. America needs to start treating all its
workers – including people of color – with dignity, not just in poultry,
but in all industries across the country.
That’s just one of the many reasons that we support the Black
Lives Matter movement. We embrace this movement because it is
the morally right thing to do, and long overdue. Unions fight for
economic equality and for racial equality. We know that these two
things are intertwined, and we can’t have one without the other.
The RWDSU has a proud history of fighting for racial justice.
Today, we are proud to be part of the BLM fight. All
workers – from poultry workers in the South to
car wash workers here in New York – deserve
economic and racial justice. We will not stop
fighting until they are achieved.
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