Labor News in 2015

Africa is very rich indeed. There is massive economic growth in many nations from Ghana to Zambia. There are massive natural resources there. Some folks are doing what is right. Others are doing the wrong thing and they just try to exploit the resources of Africa to benefit a handful of people (not the masses of Africans). Also, many Africans would disagree with the views of Zipporah. It is totally deplorable that many corporations from the West and China have mistreated many Africans. I feel that the unintended consequences of this article is that it has further strengthened the bonds that we have (among our Brothers and our Sisters internationally) in a pan-African fashion. We won't fall for the okey doke. We realize that Africa is Beautiful and African people are part of our family. For a numerous of years, we (as African Americans) are trying to pick up the pieces and figure our our direct lineages to African nations and African ethnic groups. Hopefully, as time goes on, DNA research can be less expensive, so more black people can know more about our origins. Yes, many white racists would divide families, lie on birth certificates of black people including others centuries ago, and did unspeakable actions that I can't mention here. We will never fall for the divide and conquer game either. There is a difference between us celebrating our African heritage including knowing about our origins and cultural appropriation (which seeks to mask or whitewash the cultural legacies of black people). Cultural exchanges among black people of the Diaspora has occurred for a long time. I have no issue with that. Also, The Black Panther Party and its ideals have been used in the UK and in South Africa (via the Black Consciousness Movement). So, we as African Americans should feel no guilt in advancing African culture as long as it's done in a respectful, accurate way. Many African Americans are finding out their heritage via DNA research. If an African American finds out that their ancestry is found in the Yoruba or in the Mende, then that person has the right to use Yoruba or Mende clothing. So, we should never feel ashamed about our black African identity. Most of our people in America originated from West Africa. There are many people in the black African Diaspora from South America to France. Many of these human beings from the Afro-Brazilians to the Afro-Caribbeans wear African clothing, celebrate African-influenced holidays, and use music (which has African origins). These are facts. There has been a cultural explosion of hip hop in Africa, but we never accuse Africans of using cultural appropriation of hip hop (which has Afro-Caribbean origins). So, we should be respectful of African culture, use research, acknowledge the beautiful culture of Africa in a very respectful manner, and to be progressive on cultural respect. Yet, we should never be ashamed of showing African clothing as a sense of us showing respect and acknowledging our African ancestry. The people of Afropunk are rejecting white supremacist dogma and are celebrating their identity. They are coming out to liberate themselves mentally and culturally from mental colonialism. African Americans are descendants from Africans. That is totally different from white people, who use cultural appropriation, as a means of them to deny the cultural essence of black humanity. We shouldn't fall for the divide and conquer strategy. Regardless of our culture and our nationalities, we are one black people. We are of black African descent. We are one.

There are a large number of Hispanic people who live in Chicago. They include Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, etc. During the late 19th century, Mexicans came into Chicago. They at first worked in semiskilled and unskilled jobs. Some came from Texas including from Guanajuato, Jalisco, and Michoacán. By the 1920’s, migration increased. There has bene a great increase of Mexican Americans in all of Cook Country since the 1990’s. The amount of Mexican Americans in Chicago has surpassed the number in the cities of Houston and San Antonio, Texas. There are many Mexican neighborhoods in Chicago like the Pilsen in the Lower West Side and Little Village in South Lawndale. There is the National Museum of Mexican Art is located in Pilsen. Puerto Rican people in Chicago also have a long legacy and history. They have contributed to the economic, social, and cultural wellbeing of Chicago for more than 70 years. In Chicago, there is Division Street or Paseo Boricua, which faced east from Mozart Street, one hat block west of California Avenue. The first Puerto Rican migration into Chicago came about during the 1930’s. They came from New York City and many settled on State Street or just south of the downtown hotels. A large migration of Puerto Ricans into Chicago came in the late 1940’s. Many people settled in the “La Clark" neighborhood around Dearborn, La Salle and Clark Street just north of downtown. Starting in 1946, many people were recruited by Castle Barton Associates and other companies as low-wage, non-union foundry workers and domestic workers in hotels and private homes. As soon as they were established in Chicago, many were joined by their spouses and families. By the 1960’s, many Puerto Rican moved into the north and west because of urban redevelopment. Some went into the city’s West Side. City hall sponsored gentrification in Lincoln  Park started in the early 1960’s and Puerto Rican’s protested by a Lincoln Park Poor People’s Coalition led by the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez. The first major Puerto Rican urban rebellion for human rights came from June 12 to 14, 1966. This occurred when African Americans were rebellion too. Today, the Puerto Rican is very politically active in Chicago. With the support of the community, Puerto Rican leaders in Chicago leased the historic Humboldt Park stables near Paseo Boricua to house the Institute. About $3.4 million was spent to renovate the exterior of the building and another $3.2 million for the interior. The Puerto Rican Arts Alliance is similarly enjoying growth, with expansion to its second location in Avondale in a former firehouse at the intersection of Central Park and Elbridge avenues.  Puerto Ricans celebrate in Chicago in Paseao Boriuca in the West Side of Chicago too. The Puerto Rican Parade Committee of Chicago has been serving their community for over 40 years. Now in its 48th year, the six-day festival in Humboldt Park has become the largest attended Latino festival in the city of Chicago and in the Mid-West.

Maglev technology has existed for years and decades. Maglevs are transportation devices that use magnetic a magnetic levitation to move vehicles without touching the ground. The maglev allows a vehicle to travel along a guideway using magnets to create both life and propulsion. So, this process reduces friction and by a great extent and allowing very high speeds. Maglev trains move more smoothly and more quietly than wheeled mass transit systems.  For high speed trains with wheels, wear and tear from fiction along with the “hammer effect” from wheels on rails accelerates equipment wear and prevents high speeds. Conversely, maglev system has been much more expensive to construct offsetting lower maintenance cos. There have been many decades of research and development of maglev transport system. Many inventors have been involved in high speed transportation. The early United States patents for a linear motor propelled train were awarded to German inventor Alfred Zehden. In 1907, another early electromagnetic transportation system was developed by F. S. Smith. A series of German patents for magnetic levitation trains propelled by linear motors were awarded to Hermann Kemper between 1937 and 1941. In the late 1940’s, the British electrical engineer Eric Laithwaite, a professor at Imperial College London, developed the first full size working model of the linear induction motor.  He became professor of heavy electrical engineering at Imperial College in 1964, where he continued his successful development of the linear motor In the early 1970’s, Laithwaite discovered the magnetic river that allowed a single linear motor to product both life and forward thrust. This allows a maglev system to be built with a single set of magnets. Working at the British Rail Research Division in Derby, along with teams at several civil engineering firms, the "transverse-flux" system was developed into a working system. The first commercial maglev people movie was called “MAGLEV” and it officially opened in 1984 near Birmingham, England. It operated on an elevated 600-metre (2,000 ft.) section of monorail track between Birmingham International Airport and Birmingham International railway station, running at speeds up to 42 km/h (26 mph). The system was closed in 1995 due to reliability problems. In 1913, Emile Bachelet of Mount Vernon, NY demonstrated a prototype of a magnetic levitating railway car. Maglev technology uses electromagnetic suspension of EMS (which is about electronically controlled electromagnets in the train that attract it to a magnetically conductive (usually steel track). EDS or electrodynamic suspension is about using superconducting electromagnets or strong permanent magnets that create a magnetic field.  MDS or magneto dynamic suspension uses the attractive magnetic force of a permanent magnet array near a steel track to lift the train and hold it in place. Other technologies such as repulsive permanent magnets and superconducting magnets have seen some research.

The city of Atlanta has a long history. In the beginning Native Americans lives in Atlanta. The Creek and Cherokee Native Americans lived in the territory of Atlanta including its suburbs. Native American trading post in Peachtree is mentioned in 1762. By 1813, the Creeks (who were recruited by the British to assist them in the War of 1812) attacked and burned Fort Mims in Southwestern Alabama. This conflict expanded and became known as the Creek War. In response, America built many forts along the Ocmulgee and Chattahoochee Rivers like Fort Daniel (on top of Hog Mountain near modern day Dacula, Georgia) and Fort Gilmer. Fort Gilmer was situated next to an important Native American site called Standing Peachtree. Standing Peachtree is named after a large tree which is believed to have been a pine tree (the named referred to the pitch or sap that flowed from it). The word "pitch" was misunderstood for "peach," thus the site's name. The site traditionally marked a Native American meeting place at the boundary between Creek and Cherokee lands, at the point where Peachtree Creek flows into Chattahoochee. The Fort was soon renamed Fort Peachtree. There was a road linking Fort Peachtree and Fort Daniel following the route of existing trails. Native Americans were systematic removal from their lands in northern Georgia from 1802 to 1825. The Creek ceded the area that is now Metro Atlanta in 1821. White settlers arrived in 1822. Nearby Decatur was founded in 1823. In 1835, some leaders of the Cherokee Nation ceded their territory to the United States without the consent of the majority of the Cherokee people in exchange for land out west under the Treaty of New Echota. This act led to the Trail of Tears where many Native Americans were unjustly forced of their lands in the South and forced to live in Oklahoma and other places of America. By this time, the railroad system grew in America. In 1836, the Georgia General Assembly voted to build the Western and Atlantic Railroad. They wanted to provide a link between the port of Savannah and the Midwest.


The initial route of the state sponsored project was to run from Chattanooga, Tennessee to a spot east of the Chattahoochee River (in present day Fulton County). The plan was to eventually link up the Georgia railroad from Augusta and with the Macon and Western Railroad (which ran between Macon and Savannah). There was an U.S. Army engineer named Colonel Stephen Harriman Long. He was asked to recommend the location where the Western and the Atlantic line would terminate. He surveyed various possible routes. By the fall of 1837, he drove a stake in the ground near what is now the intersection of Forsyth and Magnolia Streets, about 3-4 blocks southeast of today’s Five Points. The zero milepost was later placed to mark that spot. John Thrasher in 1839 built homes and general stores in this vicinity. The settlement was nicknamed Thrasherville. A marker identified the location of Thrasherville at 104 Marietta Street, N.W. in front of the State Bar of Georgia Building (between Spring and Cone Streets). At this spot, Thrasher built up the Monroe Embankment or an, an earthen embankment that was to carry the Monroe Railway to meet the W&A at the terminus. This is the oldest existing man-made structure in Downtown Atlanta.  The planned terminus location in 1842 was moved. There has been 4 blocks southeast (2-3 blocks southeast of Five Points) to what would become State Square on Wall Street Central Avenue and Pryor Street. This location was the zero milepost, which can be found adjacent to the southern entrance of Underground Atlanta. The settlement grew and it was called “Terminus” or “end of the line.” The settlement at Terminus had six buildings and 30 residents by the end of 1842. At the same time, a settlement began, which would be called Buckhead section of Atlanta existed several miles north of today’s downtown.  In 1838, Henry Irby started a tavern and grocery at what would become the intersection of Paces Ferry and Roswell Roads. In 1842, there was a two story brick depot which was built. The locals wanted the settlement of Terminus to be called Lumpkin, after Governor Wilson Lumpkin. Governor Lumpkin asked them to name it after his young daughter instead. So, Terminus became Marthasville. In 1845, the chief engineer of the Georgia Railroad named J. Edgar Thomson suggested that Marthasville be renamed "Atlantica-Pacifica", which was quickly shortened to "Atlanta." The residents approved, apparently undaunted by the fact that not a single train had yet visited. The town of Atlanta was incorporated in 1847. Atlanta was born.

By Timothy