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Celebration Day at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce? A Debate on Who Benefits from the TPP
The Senate is expected to vote today to give President Obama "fast-track" trade negotiating authority to speed up new trade deals, including the TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The secretive TPP deal involves 12 countries and nearly 40 percent of the global economy. On Tuesday, the Senate voted 60 to 37 to end debate on the measure, setting up today’s final vote. President Obama has made the TPP one of his top priorities in his final term, aligning himself with the Republican leadership despite strong opposition to the deal from some of his traditional allies, including labor unions, environmentalists and consumer groups. In the end, 13 Democrats sided with Republicans to give Obama the fast-track authority. We host a debate between Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, and Bill Watson, trade policy analyst at the Cato Institute.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: The Senate is expected to vote today to give President Obama fast-track trade-negotiating authority to speed up new trade deals, including the TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The secretive TPP deal involves 12 countries and nearly 40 percent of the global economy. On Tuesday, the Senate voted 60 to 37 to end debate on the measure, setting up today’s final vote. President Obama has made the TPP one of his top priorities in his final term, aligning himself with the Republican leadership despite strong opposition to the deal from some of his traditional allies, including labor unions, environmentalists and consumer groups.
AMY GOODMAN: In the end, 13 Democrats sided with Republicans to give Obama the fast-track authority. The 13 Democrats are Michael Bennet of Colorado, Maria Cantwell of Washington, Tom Carper and Chris Coons of Delaware, Dianne Feinstein of California, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Bill Nelson of Florida, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Patty Murray of Washington, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Mark Warner of Virginia and Ron Wyden of Oregon.
Five Republicans voted against the fast-track measure, including two presidential candidates: Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky.
The fast-track legislation also covers negotiations over a second trade deal known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, TTIP. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell praised the vote to move ahead on fast track.
SEN. MITCH McCONNELL: I also want to just say to our colleagues, this is a very important day for our country. We’ve demonstrated we can work together on a bipartisan basis to achieve something that is extremely important for America.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Speaking before the vote, Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio warned the American worker would lose out if the TPP deal is signed.
SEN. SHERROD BROWN: People are going to lose their jobs, but we’re going to vote today to cut off debate, and we’re just going to forget, at least temporarily, about helping those workers that lose jobs because of decisions we make? How immoral is that? How shameful is that? What a betrayal of those workers. We are—what a betrayal we are inflicting on those workers if we make this decision today.
A lot of my colleagues are going to go home, and they’re going to face people who say, "Wait, you made a decision. I got thrown out of a job because of a decision you made, because of a decision you made as a House member, because of a decision you made as a senator, because of a decision you made, Mr. President. I was thrown out of work, and you passed on June 23rd"— or whatever today is—"you passed fast track without taking care of me, even though it was your decision that I lose my job."
AMY GOODMAN: [To debate] the TPP and fast track, we’re joined by two guests in Washington, D.C. Bill Watson is trade policy analyst of the Cato Institute, and Robert Weissman is president of Public Citizen.
Robert Weissman, let’s begin with you. Your response to the vote?
ROBERT WEISSMAN: Well, it’s celebration day at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Big business just won its top priority for this U.S. Congress. If this deal—if the vote today ultimately leads to adoption of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, we know, with some high degree of certainty, what’s going to happen. We’re going to lose many more jobs in the United States. We’re going to have real downward pressure on wages and an increase, an ongoing increase, in the huge problem of inequality. We’re going to see huge empowerment for Big Pharma and its ability to charge monopoly prices in all the TPP countries, the developing countries but also in the United States. And we’re going to see the creation and expansion of a special system that gives corporations the right to sue governments directly if those governments take action that the companies say infringe on their expected profits. It is a really horrible day for this country, notwithstanding what Mitch McConnell said.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Bill Watson of the Cato Institute, your reaction to the impending, now appears to be, passage of the fast-track legislation?
BILL WATSON: Well, I’m really looking forward to seeing the TPP be completed, find out what’s in the agreement and how well it liberalizes trade between the United States and the other 11 members in the agreement. The reduction of protectionist trade barriers is not going to be bad for the economy. That core element of the TPP is going to be good for consumers. It’s going to be good for U.S. businesses. It’s going to promote economic growth.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Bill Watson, is this more—is this agreement more about trade or deregulation?
BILL WATSON: Well, we’ll have to see when it’s finished. There will certainly be a lot of trade in the agreement. And the question is, you know, how well it reduces trade barriers and how quickly. There will also be regulation. A lot of that regulation is stronger labor and environment provisions. It’s also a stronger IP protection and a protection for investors. I think the correct calculus for the TPP is to look at the liberalization as a benefit and then see this regulation, the increase in regulation, as a cost to weigh against it.
AMY GOODMAN: Rob Weissman, how do we know what is in the TPP, the trade agreement?
ROBERT WEISSMAN: Well, we don’t really know much. I mean, we have models to look at. By all accounts, this is really a NAFTA-style agreement and follows the basic pattern that the U.S. has adopted in similar agreements over the last 20 years. But the actual text has been maintained public at the insistence of the U.S. government. Now, a couple of chapters, a couple of portions, of the agreement have leaked through WikiLeaks, so we’re able to see what the negotiating versions have looked like, including in the area of intellectual property, which has to do with patent monopolies for drug companies and copyright extensions and protections for Hollywood and other copyright industries, as well as in the so-called investment agreement, which really has to do with providing corporations special powers to sue governments in ways that are almost unfathomable to regular people.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to break and then come back to this discussion. Rob Weissman is president of Public Citizen, and Bill Watson is trade policy analyst with the Cato Institute. This is Democracy Now! We’ll be back in a minute.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: Nina Simone singing "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free." After our debate on the TPP, we’ll be joined by Liz Garbus, talking about this remarkable new film, What Happened, Miss Simone? So stay with us for that. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I’d like to ask Rob Weissman—you were mentioning before the break the connection to NAFTA in this TPP deal. I’d like you to comment on this issue of the—we’ve had now the last two Democratic presidents—Bill Clinton, who was the guy who pushed through NAFTA, and now Barack Obama here pushing through TPP—basically achieving for corporate America perhaps its most desired legislation through a Congress and basically steamrolling through the Democratic constituency of labor, the environmentalists, who are opposed to these kinds of deals.
ROBERT WEISSMAN: Yeah, it’s heartbreaking. And in a way, it’s more devastating this time than it was with Bill Clinton. At least the Clinton administration people could say, look, they didn’t have a NAFTA before to look at. But now we have 20 years of experience with NAFTA, and we know a lot about what these trade agreements do. And, you know, I think—by the way, the American people are overwhelmingly opposed to these agreements; it’s not just these constituency organizations. And they’re opposed especially because they understand the impact of NAFTA, because they’ve seen it in their communities, they’ve seen factories close, and they understand how the threat of a factory closing or a job moving overseas diminishes their bargaining power and reduces their wages.
So why this administration would choose to replicate and expand that model is very, very hard to understand. I think it has to do a lot with the people who have surrounded the president, people who come from Wall Street. I think it has a lot to do with the long investment of big business, especially in Washington, D.C., and think tanks and advocacy groups who have created a sense, which is confined to the Beltway, that serious people believe in so-called, but misnamed, free trade, even—and that the people outside of D.C., who overwhelmingly oppose these kinds of agreements, don’t understand because they’re not serious. And I just think that that point of view, unfortunately, was internalized by the president, who spent more political capital, more personal capital on this issue than anything he has done in the administration, with the possible exception of the Affordable Care Act. It is really disappointing and disgraceful.
AMY GOODMAN: This is independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, now presidential contender for the Democratic nomination, speaking Tuesday on the Senate floor.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: In my view, this trade agreement will continue the policies of NAFTA, CAFTA, permanent normal trade relations with China, agreements that have cost us millions of decent-paying jobs. We need a new trade policy in America, a policy that represents working families and not just the big money interests. I strongly disagree with the majority leader, who called this a great day for America. It is not a great day. It’s a great day for the big money interests, not a great day for working families.
AMY GOODMAN: And this is [his] opponent for the Democratic nomination, presidential nomination, former Secretary of State and Senator Hillary Clinton, describing what she believes needs to be done in order to reach a deal on the TPP.
HILLARY CLINTON: First, let me start by saying no president would be a tougher negotiator on behalf of American workers, either with our trading partners or Republicans on Capitol Hill, than I would be. In my time, eight years in the Senate, I voted for some trade agreements, and I voted against others. I think I have a pretty good idea of what we can do to meet the tests that I believe any trade agreement, especially TPP, must meet. It needs to, number one, protect American workers. Number two, it needs to raise wages and create good jobs at home. Number three, it needs to be in our national security interest. I’ve been saying that for months.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Hillary Clinton in Iowa. Well, we’re joined by Rob Weissman, president of Public Citizen, and Bill Watson with the Cato Institute. Bill, we hear Bernie Sanders; he’s adamantly opposed to the TPP. But you’re for the TPP. Do you feel Hillary Clinton ultimately would support your position?
BILL WATSON: Well, I can’t speak for Hillary Clinton, at the end of the day. You know, I certainly do think that the TPP, to the extent that it liberalizes trade, is going to increase wages. It’s going to improve the economy of the United States. By opening markets to exports, the TPP will help create jobs. By opening up access to imports, the TPP will help create jobs. Most of the imports that come to this country are used by American manufacturers. It will increase productivity, increase wages and promote growth. So I think that for the criteria that Hillary Clinton sets out, the TPP will most likely be a good deal.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: But, Bill Watson, what about this issue of—that Rob Weissman was mentioning, the ability of corporations to be able to object to particular government regulations in more international dispute methods promoted by TPP?
BILL WATSON: There’s no doubt that the TPP is going to include what’s called investor-state dispute settlement. And there’s a lot of legitimate controversy over exactly how those rules should be shaped. There’s also a lot of hyperbole about, you know, how that’s actually going to affect U.S. regulations. There are a lot of bilateral investment treaties already out there. We haven’t seen the destruction of democracy that people seem to think that’s going to come from this. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a lot of room for reform. And I think, at the end of the day, when you see the TPP and how it addresses the issue of investments, that’s something to weigh against other parts of the agreement.
AMY GOODMAN: Rob Weissman, how did what happened on the Senate floor yesterday happen? Explain what’s happened in the House and the Senate, the revolt of the Democrats in the House, led, interestingly, by Nancy Pelosi, a close ally of President Obama, but then the turnaround for a number of Democrats. Who changed? How did it happen?
ROBERT WEISSMAN: Well, fast track has moved through the Congress through an unusually complicated process. It first went through the Senate, where it had to be combined with some other measures to win enough Democratic support. Then it moved to the House, where those measures that had been included in the Senate proved impossible to get passed, and led to the defeat of fast track in a first vote in the House. So then the Republican leadership said, "Well, we’ll strip it out. We’ll just do a straight-up vote on fast track," and they were able to craft a very, very narrow majority. It came back to the Senate, and the senators who had already voted for fast track with other measures included, the Democratic senators who had voted for fast track with other measures included, most of them—all of them, really, except for with one exception, Ben Cardin in Maryland—decided that they would vote for fast track as a stand-alone measure, even though many of them had said in the first place that their vote for fast track was contingent on inclusion of these other measures, which include a modest program to provide assistance to workers who are laid off as a result of TPP and other trade agreements.
So it’s a really complicated process, but the short version is there was massive opposition to this. That’s what really explains it. So even though the Chamber of Commerce and big business wanted this, and it was at the top of their wish list, even though the president spent more political capital on this than anything, even though the Republican leadership was trying to drive it through, they failed. They failed, first, the first time they tried in the Senate. They failed the first time they tried in the House. But the benefit of being in power and being powerful, like corporate America is, is you get more than one chance. And they kept trying and trying, and eventually they were able to ram the deal through.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Rob Weissman, this deal is not just for this particular trade agreement, right? It basically would give the president—not only Obama, but the next president—six years of fast-track authority so that they could also negotiate a Transatlantic deal. So we’re talking about authority to negotiate a deal that hasn’t even begun to be formulated yet.
ROBERT WEISSMAN: That’s right. It would give both President Obama and the next president, whoever he or she is, authority to negotiate—to conclude and negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership; to negotiate and potentially conclude the agreement that is now under negotiation with Europe, the TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which includes many of the same measures but other additional problematic measures as the TPP and would give, if concluded as the U.S. wants—as the Obama administration wants, would give 25,000 European subsidiaries the right to challenge our domestic laws; and it would also give the president and the next president authority to negotiate deals that aren’t yet even under consideration. Now, with fast track, all these deals must be still passed by the House and the Senate, but it’s much easier to get them passed than it would be without fast track, and Congress has now given up—or will have, by today, given up its authority to have any meaningful influence over the terms of those negotiations.
AMY GOODMAN: Rob Weissman and Bill Watson, we want to thank you for being with us. Rob Weissman is president of Public Citizen. Bill Watson is trade policy analyst at the Cato Institute. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
"I Am Not Nonviolent": New Nina Simone Film Captures Singer and Activist's Uncompromising Voice
As the Black Lives Matter movement grows across the country and the the nation mourns the death of the nine worshipers killed at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church, we look back at the life of one of the most important voices of the civil rights movement: the singer Nina Simone, known as the High Priestess of Soul. While Simone died in 2003, a new documentary, "What Happened, Miss Simone?," sheds light on her music and politics. Her song "Mississippi Goddam" became an anthem of the civil rights movement. She wrote it in the wake of the assassination of Medgar Evers in Mississippi and the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed four black children. We speak to the film’s director, Liz Garbus, and Al Schackman, Nina Simone’s guitarist and music director for over 40 years.
Image Credit: Peter Rodis/Netflix
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: "Alabama’s gotten me so upset, Tennessee has made me lose my rest, and everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam." Those were the words the legendary singer Nina Simone wrote five decades ago in the wake of the assassination of Medgar Evers in Mississippi and the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four black children. "Mississippi Goddam" would become an anthem of the civil rights movement.
NINA SIMONE: [singing] Hound dogs on my trail
Schoolchildren sitting in jail
Black cat cross my path
I think every day’s gonna be my last
Lord have mercy on this land of mine
We all gonna get it in due time
I don’t belong here
I don’t belong there
I’ve even stopped believing in prayer
Don’t tell me
I’ll tell you
Me and my people just about due
I’ve been there so I know
They keep on saying "Go slow!"
AMY GOODMAN: Nina Simone’s "Mississippi Goddam." Well, 50 years later, Nina Simone’s message remains as relevant as ever, as the Black Lives Matter movement grows across the country and the nation mourns the deaths of the nine worshipers killed last week at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.
While Nina Simone died in 2003, a new documentary sheds light on the music and politics of the singer known as the "High Priestess of Soul." The documentary, What Happened, Miss Simone?, opens today in theaters in New York and Los Angeles, and releases on Netflix on Friday. This is the film’s trailer.
NINA SIMONE: I think the only way to tell who I am these days is to sing a song. We’ll start from the beginning.
LISA SIMONE KELLY: My mother was one of the greatest entertainers of all time. When she was performing, she was an anomaly, she was brilliant, she was loved.
COMPÈRE: The one and only Nina Simone!
GEORGE WEIN: Her voice was totally different from anybody else. Let me listen to it again. How is she doing this?
STANLEY CROUCH: She was one of those musicians, you hear them once; the next time you hear them, you say, "Oh, that’s that same one I heard last week."
LISA SIMONE KELLY: People think that when she went out on stage, she became Nina Simone. My mother was Nina Simone 24/7. And that’s where it became a problem. Everything fell apart. She was a revolutionary. She found a purpose for the stage.
NINA SIMONE: I choose to reflect the times and the situations in which I find myself. How can you be an artist and not reflect the times?
AL SCHACKMAN: There was something eating at her.
LISA SIMONE KELLY: When the show ended, she was alone, full of anger and rage.
NINA SIMONE: I have to live with Nina, and that is so difficult.
AL SCHACKMAN: Nina was fighting demons. She could get violent.
NINA SIMONE: Hey, girl. Sit down.
AL SCHACKMAN: The change in her would be dramatic—mm, like a switch.
NINA SIMONE: Sit down!
LISA SIMONE KELLY: As fragile as she was strong, as vulnerable as she was dynamic. Most people are afraid to be as honest as she lived.
NINA SIMONE: I had a couple of times on stage when I really felt free.
COMPÈRE: The High Priestess of Soul.
UNIDENTIFIED: Miss Nina Simone.
COMPÈRE: Nina Simone!
ANNOUNCER: Nina Simone.
LISA SIMONE KELLY: She was a genius. She was brilliant. But she paid a huge price.
AMY GOODMAN: The trailer for the new documentary, What Happened, Miss Simone?
To talk more about Nina Simone’s life and work, we’re joined now by two guests. From Martha’s Vineyard Community Television in Massachusetts, Al Schackman joins us. He was Nina Simone’s guitarist and music director for over 40 years. And here in our New York studio, we’re joined by filmmaker Liz Garbus. Her 1998 film, The Farm: Angola, USA, was nominated for an Academy Award. Her new film, What Happened, Miss Simone?, opens today in theaters in New York and Los Angeles, releases on Netflix on Friday.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! This is an epic film that comes at such a critical time. First, start with the title, Liz, What Happened, Miss Simone?
LIZ GARBUS: What Happened, Miss Simone? derives from an article that Maya Angelou wrote in 1970 for Redbook. Nina had been—you know, was the patron saint of the rebellion, and she was a leader in the movement. And then, after the murders of so many of her colleagues and compatriots and fellow travelers, she had had enough. She had had enough with America, and she left. And the article, and the question in the article, "What happened, Miss Simone?" was asking, you know, where is she? Where are these voices? What happened to Nina? And so the film kind of uses that as a frame to unravel, you know, how we understand Nina Simone’s career, her art, her commitments.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And why did you decide to make this film? And can you talk especially about some of the archival footage that you were able to put together in it?
LIZ GARBUS: You know, in my view, Nina Simone is one—you know, was one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, right up there with Miles Davis, James Brown, Bob Dylan, and, possibly because of race and gender, was not—and the combination of the two, in her case, you know, had not been regarded that way, and especially here in the U.S., where I think she had been overlooked and forgotten and certainly misunderstood, as her song intimates. And so, we were able to, with the permission of the estate, get—do a really, really deep dive into Nina Simone, not just the concerts and the performances, which of course make up the heart of the film, but also private tapes of Nina talking about her life, you know, 30, 40 hours of that, diaries, letters, notes, and interviews with some of her most intimate friends and family members.
AMY GOODMAN: Give us a thumbnail biography of Nina Simone, if you can. I mean, her life spans years, both in the public eye and outside of the public eye.
LIZ GARBUS: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: But she wasn’t born Nina Simone.
LIZ GARBUS: No, she was born Eunice Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina, the daughter of two very religious parents. Her mother was a minister in a church. And from a very young age, people noticed in church that Nina was incredibly talented at the piano. When she was about six years old, some white folks in that community thought, "Oh, maybe we have a prodigy on our hands here," and they took up a collection to get Nina—Eunice Waymon, get her a classical music education. So, from that age, she started crossing the railroad tracks to the home of Ms. Massinovitch, who, again—who gave her—you know, schooled her in Bach and the classics. Nina was extraordinarily talented. They raised money, enough to get her to Juilliard here in New York. And her dream was to become the first black classical pianist in Carnegie Hall. After one year at Juilliard, she applied to the Curtis Institute, and then the money—and she did not get in. And the money ran out.
This was when Eunice Waymon became Nina Simone. She started—her parents, her family, had moved up north to be around her. She started playing in bars and clubs, and singing what her family considered to be the devil’s music. So she changed her name to Nina Simone so it would go underneath her mother’s radar. One night in a bar, they said to her, "You know, if you want to make some money, you better sing." And that’s when Nina Simone began singing. So this was never the intended path for her career. Throughout her life—you know, she lived to age 70—she lamented that she didn’t get to explore that classical path to its fullest. But, of course, she also found great joy and triumph in her involvement with the civil rights movement, which of course then also led to her deepest disappointments.
AMY GOODMAN: And before that, why she didn’t pursue the classical music, she went to Juilliard, but then tried to get into Curtis music—school of music in Philadelphia.
LIZ GARBUS: That’s right. And she did not gain acceptance. And that was one of the finest schools, and it would be paid for. And once that was taken away from her, she couldn’t continue that education.
AMY GOODMAN: And why was it taken away?
LIZ GARBUS: Her view was that she—it was because of race. And Curtis Institute denied that. But, of course, there were very, very few black students who had ever been accepted to Curtis. You know, it was—it was the ’50s, you know, so, certainly, we imagine that it played a role.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we want to get to the civil rights years, and also, in addition to speaking to Liz Garbus, the Academy Award-nominated filmmaker, we want to speak with Al Schackman, who was Nina Simone’s guitarist and music director for over 40 years. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: Nina Simone singing "Sinner Man." This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. Our guests are the Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Liz Garbus, director of a number of films, but most recently, What Happened, Miss Simone?, opening today in theaters in New York and Los Angeles and on Netflix on Friday; and we’re joined by Al Schackman, Nina Simone’s guitarist and music director for over 40 years. He’s joining us from Martha’s Vineyard. Juan?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Al Schackman, I’d like to bring you into the conversation. Talk to us about how you first met Nina Simone and how you developed your collaboration that lasted over so many decades.
AL SCHACKMAN: Good morning. I met Nina in 1957 in the art community, village of New Hope, Pennsylvania. I was playing there with my trio in a restaurant, and Nina was playing at the Bucks County Playhouse Inn. And some friends of hers had visited with her from Philadelphia and were having dinner and heard me play and thought it might be a good idea for the two of us to get together. And they asked her, and she agreed. And on a night off, I went down with my guitar and amp, and set up. And she was on a break. And I just was ready to play with her, and she came on stage and never looked at me or told me what she was going to play. And we both had perfect pitch. And she started the introduction to her song "Little Girl Blue," which was a Bach piece, and it was a fugue. And I came in with a third part. And she started singing "Little Girl Blue," and then she looked up at me, and we were off and running from there.
AMY GOODMAN: Forty years.
AL SCHACKMAN: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: I want you to tell us the story of her meeting Dr. King, but, Liz Garbus, give us the civil rights years, because it started before that meeting—
LIZ GARBUS: Absolutely.
AMY GOODMAN: —Nina Simone’s relationship with what was going on in this country.
LIZ GARBUS: Yeah, Nina was pursuing a career that was—you know, after "I Loves You, Porgy" was a smash hit, she was pursuing a career and, you know, sort of filling a role that people handed to her, which was of the jazz singer. Now, this was not what Nina Simone wanted to be. This was not how she saw herself. In 1963, after the church bombing, Nina—
AMY GOODMAN: In Birmingham.
LIZ GARBUS: In Birmingham—Nina changed course. She wrote "Mississippi Goddam." And, you know, her career would never be the same from then on. She talked about, you know, when she was growing up, nobody talked about race. But, of course, her entire being was infused, growing up in the Jim Crow South and existing in America, a segregated, racist America. And she changed course in her career, and she said, you know, right now her mission and her passion was to make music that would help her people. And so she continued to make some of the great anthems of the civil rights movement—"Young, Gifted and Black," "Backlash Blues," "Old Jim Crow." You know, she continued, of course, "Mississippi Goddam." And she collaborated with the great intellectuals of the day. Lorraine Hansberry wrote "Young, Gifted and Black" for her. Langston Hughes wrote "Backlash Blues." She hung out with James Baldwin, Miriam Makeba, Stokely Carmichael, ultimately lived next door to the Shabazz, Malcolm X family. So she was part of the circle of activist black intellectuals, and she had quite a political awakening. She and Al went to the Selma march together. And he, of course, can talk about that, yeah.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Al, you aren’t exactly a stranger to, one, the civil rights movement or, two, the great artists of the time. You also played with Harry Belafonte, as well. Can you talk about how you juggled that and how—and your involvement in the civil rights movement?
AL SCHACKMAN: Yes. Nina was not performing regularly, and I had the opportunity to go on with Harry Belafonte on fundraising tours with Martin Luther King. And we would fly to different cities, and we actually were in Europe with him, as well. And it was a great opportunity to be able to get next to Martin and really feel the spirit of where he was coming from. And that is what America came to see, as well.
AMY GOODMAN: And tell us about Nina and Martin Luther King meeting for the first time. Where were you all, and what happened?
AL SCHACKMAN: Well, we were at a fundraiser, and we approached Martin, and he put his hand out. And before anything else could happen, she just, in a very strong voice, looked at him and said, "I’m not nonviolent." And he said, "Oh, that’s OK, Sister. You don’t have to be." And he put his hand out, and they shook hands. And it was a very warm meeting after that.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And the events of Selma?
AL SCHACKMAN: We were playing at The Village Gate in New York, and we flew down with Nina’s husband, Andy Stroud, and were going to land in Montgomery. And we couldn’t land, and we flew over the runway, and it was filled with trash trucks, garbage trucks, all kinds of equipment. And the governor of Alabama had had that put out so that we couldn’t land. We eventually landed in Jackson, Mississippi, and chartered a single-engine, little single-engine plane. And we were kind of heavy, and the nose gear went up in the air like that, and the pilot said, "Well, we can’t take off like that." And we switched seats. Andy was moved up forward with my amplifier, and the plane settled down.
And we took off and landed on a small runway in Montgomery and had to go through Alabama National Guard to get to the stage at the soccer field of the seminary. And there was a—it was a big platform. The stage had a little scrim around it, a little curtain. And I lifted up the curtain to see if I could plug my amp in somewhere, and saw that the stage was built on coffins, that were supplied by the black mortuaries in Montgomery. And it was pretty chilling to see that.
AMY GOODMAN: Nina Simone was deeply affected by Dr. King’s death.
LIZ GARBUS: Nina, yeah, she was. She was. And again, you know, she espoused probably a slightly different political doctrine than he, yet—and then, when you listen to her song, "The King of Love is Dead," you can see how much—how much it broke her. You know, her colleague Stokely Carmichael said, when black—when white America killed Dr. King, they killed the best chance for peace and for healing. And, you know, certainly, after the massacre in Charleston and what’s been—you know, we see that perhaps that was true.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And then, in the ’70s, she goes into self-imposed exile, goes to Africa and Europe. Could you talk about that period of time in her life?
LIZ GARBUS: Yeah, they’re her nomadic years. I mean, she definitely—after leaving the States, she led more of a nomadic life. She goes to the Caribbean for a while, then to Liberia, where she said, you know, "This was a country formed by freed slaves, and this is where I should be." But no money came in. She couldn’t—she didn’t want to sing. She wanted to be out of the business for a while. But she also then realized she had to eat, and she went back to Switzerland.
And in Switzerland, she goes to the Montreux Jazz Festival and gives quite an infamous performance, where she’s clearly in a great deal of turmoil, doesn’t want to be in a jazz festival, but must be there. The piano draws her. She loves the piano, but also it became quite a burden for her, as well. She ultimately settles in France and in Holland, you know, amongst friends, and seeks—ultimately, with the help of her friend Al and other friends, gets mental health treatment, because she was, as we see in her diaries and as her friends reported, suffering from, you know, pretty severe depression.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to play a few clips from this astounding film. Let’s go to What Happened, Miss Simone?
NINA SIMONE: I really need to provoke this feeling of like, who am I, where did I come from? You know, do I really like me? And why do I like me? And like, you know, if I am black and beautiful—I really am, and I know it, and I don’t care who cares or says what.
[singing "Ain’t Got No (I Got Life)"]
AMY GOODMAN: Nina Simone singing. And let’s go to another clip of What Happened, Miss Simone?
NINA SIMONE: This song was popular all over France. It’s from my first album, the very first album we made in this world, which is at least 25 years old. I only wish I was as wise—could have been as wise then as I have become now. I have suffered. But there’s a Bösendorfer here, so we’ll see what happens. "My Baby Just Cares for Me."
AMY GOODMAN: And in this clip from the film, What Happened, Miss Simone?, we hear from Nina Simone’s daughter, who lives in Paris, France, now and is a performer. Her name is Lisa Simone.
LISA SIMONE KELLY: My mother was one of the greatest entertainers of all time, hands down. But she paid a huge price. People seem to think that when she went out on stage, that was when she became Nina Simone. My mother was Nina Simone 24/7. And that’s where it became a problem.
NINA SIMONE: [singing] One day I thought I could fly
one day I woke up and I could fly
I’d look down at the sea
and I wouldn’t know myself
I’d have new hands
I’d have new feet
I’d have new vision.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Nina Simone singing, as well as her daughter, Lisa Simone Kelly, who’s performing in Paris, France, now. But, Liz Garbus, where does she live?
LIZ GARBUS: She is now living in her mother’s home, the home that her mother passed away in, in the south of France, Bouc-Bel-Air. So—and after a career in the military. Lisa Simone Kelly was in the Air Force for 11 years, kind of doing—getting as far away, I think, from her parents as possible, given Nina’s feelings about the U.S. government. But now she’s kind of gone full circle and is pursuing a career of music herself.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And you also look in the film not only at—obviously, at her work, in her civil rights work and her music, but also her personal life and the trials she went through, the very abusive relationship she had with her longtime husband. Could you talk about that, as well?
LIZ GARBUS: Yeah, sure. And, of course, Al was witness to a lot of the violence in the home. She married a former police officer—she married a man who was a police officer, who then retired from the police force to manage Nina Simone. The husband-manager thing has never really worked out too well for artists over time; I think it’s something that we can settle. But yeah, indeed, for them, it was quite fraught with both violence, pressure, you know, different goals. When Nina became involved in the civil rights movement, the commercial side of her career suffered. That became an issue between them, another antagonist between them in their marriage. But their marriage was—you know, it was complicated. As Lisa, Nina’s daughter, said, it was a little bit like inviting the bull with a red cape into your kitchen—you know, let’s see what you can do. Nina wrote in her diaries, "I love physical violence." There was part of her that clearly engaged in this with her husband. So it was quite a complex relationship that we didn’t want to oversimplify, because we do see Nina’s perspective on it.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Al Schackman, you lived it up close. You were with Nina Simone for over 40 years. If you could describe—well, you have the deterioration of Nina’s mental health, but also her wanting to sing these songs in the civil rights movement and what it meant commercially. I mean, you were with her. You were her guitarist. You were her music director.
AL SCHACKMAN: Well, her songs were threatening at the time, and the popular powers that be in the music industry were afraid to bring her on to any projects or record deals after a while. But the political undertones were always there. In "Mississippi Goddam," I mean, even today, the black community in this country doesn’t necessarily want you to be their next-door neighbor. But as the song says in "Mississippi Goddam," you don’t have to live next to me, just give us our equality. And Nina was very strong about that. She—that and women’s rights, as well. She was really a pioneer, and her political views really forced her out of the United States at the time.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Al Schackman, your fondest memories of your time with Nina Simone, when you were out of the public limelight, when you were just the two of you together, what do you recall?
AL SCHACKMAN: Very gentle, very quiet. We kind of had a telepathic communication, as we did in the music. And she was fun-loving and very gentle. Our best times were alone. And actually, our best times musically were when it was just she and I, and we had nothing in the way of this pure musical interaction. But one time when we were alone in Holland, she said, "Let’s go for a drive." And I said, "Where?" She said, "I’ll show you." We drove miles out into the countryside, and now we’re on a dirt road. And she says, "Turn right." And we see some Quonset huts, and we come up to the Quonset huts, and it was an airfield. And I said, "What are we doing, Nina?" And it was a glider field. And she said, "We’re going up." And she knew everybody there, and she loved to go up in gliders and do sail planing. And up we went. And we’re circling around, and she’s below me in another glider, and she waves up with a big smile, and I wave back at her, and she was at peace. It was really amazing.
AMY GOODMAN: And in the last 15 seconds, what you hope to do with this film, Liz?
LIZ GARBUS: Well, I think Nina is a model of how an entertainer inspires and engages politically. And I think today she’s a voice we need sorely. And I think that, you know, for other artists and celebrities today kind of looking to get involved in the movement, Nina Simone did it, and she inspired people, and she never compromised.
AMY GOODMAN: Liz Garbus and Al Schackman, we thank you both for being with us. Liz Garbus, the Academy Award-nominated filmmaker. This new film, What Happened, Miss Simone?, opening today in theaters in New York and Los Angeles, releases on Netflix on Friday. And Al Schackman, up in Martha’s Vineyard, guitarist and music director for over 40 years. Thanks so much to Martha’s Vineyard Community Television.
Headlines:
Senate Set to Pass TPP "Fast-Track" Bill Despite Protests
The Senate is expected to vote today to give President Obama "fast-track" authority to push the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal through Congress. The secretive deal involves 12 countries and nearly 40 percent of the global economy. On Tuesday, the Senate voted 60 to 37 to end debate on the measure, setting up today’s final vote. Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders blasted the move.
Sen. Bernie Sanders: "In my view, this trade agreement will continue the policies of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement), permanent normal trade relations with China, agreements that have cost us millions of decent-paying jobs. We need a new trade policy in America, a policy that represents working families and not just the big money interests. I strongly disagree with the majority leader, who called this a great day for America. It is not a great day. It’s a great day for the big money interests, not a great day for working families."
South Carolina Lawmakers Vote to Consider Removing Confederate Flag
South Carolina lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to consider removing the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the state Capitol in the wake of the massacre of nine African-American churchgoers in Charleston. The vote came as hundreds of protesters rallied against the flag, which was embraced by the white shooting suspect, Dylann Roof. Charleston City Council President J. Elliott Summey was among those calling for the flag to go.
J. Elliott Summey: "And the lord don’t want that flag flying on our state House grounds. It’s time for the Senate and the House to act, and if they don’t do it today, the word will be that we’ll be back, and we’re going to keep coming back until that flag is down and put in a museum. It’s time for South Carolina to show the world who we are as a people."
Slain pastor Clementa Pinckney is lying in state at the South Carolina Capitol today. It’s unclear if the Confederate flag will remain flying outside. In a Twitter post, South Carolina Representative James Clyburn wrote: "Current SC law may require 2/3 vote to remove the Confed Battle flag but legislators could change that law w/ a simply majority."
Multiple States, Companies Take Steps Against Confederate Flag
Protests against the Confederate flag have spread. Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn has called for removing the Confederate emblem from the state flag, while Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe took steps to remove it from vanity license plates. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has boosted calls to remove Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ bust from the Kentucky state Capitol. Companies including Wal-Mart, Amazon, eBay, Sears and Etsy say they will ban Confederate flag products, and Google said it would remove the flag from its shopping service and ads.
Report: Non-Muslim Extremists in U.S. Kill Far More Than Muslims
A new tally has confirmed white supremacists and other non-Muslim fanatics have killed far more people in the United States since 9/11 than Muslim extremists. The report by the research center New America finds, since 9/11, white supremacists, antigovernment extremists and other non-Muslim figures have killed nearly twice as many people as Muslim extremists. Despite the intense focus by the Obama administration on Muslim communities, non-Muslims have carried out 19 terrorist attacks since September 11, 2001, while Muslims have been responsible for only seven.
Snowden Documents Reveal Details of U.S. Drone Strike on Doctor
British documents from Edward Snowden reveal how U.S. officials ordered a drone strike in Yemen to kill a doctor they believed was working with al-Qaeda in 2012. The documents, reported by The New York Times and Guardian, show how a joint U.S., British and Australian program called Overhead supported the strike. Officials believed the doctor was surgically implanting explosives in operatives. The news has raised questions about the extent of British involvement in the U.S. drone program.
Nigeria: 42 Killed in Boko Haram Attacks on Villages
In northeastern Nigeria, at least 42 people have been killed following attacks by Boko Haram militants on two villages. The attacks Monday and Tuesday coincided with two deadly suicide bombings in nearby areas, one by a girl believed to be 12 years old.
Syria: ISIL Destroys Ancient Palmyra Shrines
The self-proclaimed Islamic State has destroyed two ancient shrines around the Syrian city of Palmyra. Pictures appear to show the shrines being blown up and reduced to rubble. ISIL seized the 2,000-year-old UNESCO World Heritage site in May.
France Summons U.S. Envoy After WikiLeaks Reveals NSA Spied on Presidents
France has summoned its U.S. ambassador following revelations by WikiLeaks the United States has spied on the past three French presidents. Documents published by WikiLeaks show the National Security Agency spied on President François Hollande and his two predecessors from 2006 to 2012, including listening to and recording cellphone conversations. The revelation follows prior disclosures by Edward Snowden the United States bugged German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone.
Greek Prime Minister Meets with Creditors in Brussels
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is meeting with European creditors today in Brussels in a bid to avoid default at the end of the month. In a Twitter post today, Tsipras said some creditors have not accepted Greece’s latest proposals for aid, which include restricting early retirement and increasing the sales tax and pension contributions. Protesters have continued to call for Tsipras’ Syriza party to comply with their election pledge to end austerity.
U.S. Sending Military Equipment to 7 European Countries
The United States will deploy tanks and other weaponry across seven countries in Eastern Europe. Speaking during a visit to Estonia, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said each set of equipment would be enough for a military company or battalion.
Ash Carter: "We will temporarily stage one armored brigade combat team’s vehicles and associated equipment in countries in Central and Eastern Europe. This pre-positioned European activity set includes tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and artillery. Estonia, as well as Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania and Poland, have agreed to host company- to battalion-sized elements of this equipment, which will be moved around the region for training and exercises."
The announcement comes a day after Carter said the United States would send troops and equipment for a new NATO rapid-response force to guard against potential Russian aggression.
U.N. Peacekeepers Accused of Child Abuse in Central African Republic
United Nations peacekeepers in the Central African Republic have been accused of sexually abusing street children in the capital Bangui. U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the allegations are under investigation.
Stéphane Dujarric: "Medical care and assistance is now being provided to the alleged victims. If the allegations are substantiated, this would constitute a grave violation of U.N. principles and the code of conduct for U.N. peacekeepers. The member states would be requested to take swift and appropriate punitive action."
The news comes after an internal U.N. report surfaced in April detailing the alleged sexual abuse of children by French and African troops in the Central African Republic. The report was leaked to French prosecutors by a U.N. whistleblower who was suspended, making him the only person so far to be punished over the allegations.
U.S. to Allow Private Ransoms for Hostages
The Obama administration is poised to change its policy on private ransoms for hostages. While the United States will continue its policy of refusing to pay ransoms to groups like the self-proclaimed Islamic State, it will stop threatening to prosecute families who raise private ransoms for their loved ones. The mother of U.S. journalist James Foley, who was beheaded by ISIL last year, said the government threatened prosecution if her family tried to raise his ransom.
Texas: Hundreds of Detained Immigrant Women, Children Stage Protest
Video has emerged showing hundreds of immigrant women and children being held at a private, family detention center in Dilley, Texas, protesting during a tour of the facility by Democratic lawmakers. Footage shot Monday by a congressmember and posted by BuzzFeed shows the women and children chanting "Libertad" and holding protest signs made from pillowcases and bedsheets.
Judge Orders Deported Guatemalan Woman, Child Returned to U.S.
A federal judge has ordered authorities to return a woman and her 12-year-old daughter to the United States after they were deported to Guatemala on Friday. The judge said he would have blocked the deportation if he had known it was going to happen. The pair were victims of domestic violence who had been held in a Pennsylvania detention center for a year.
Honduras: Miguel Facussé, "Palm Plantation Owner of Death," Dies at 90
In Honduras, Miguel Facussé, dubbed "the palm plantation owner of death," and one of Honduras’ wealthiest and most powerful figures, has died at the age of 90. Facussé and private security guards with his company, Dinant, were accused of taking part in violent land grabs and dozens of murders of campesino land activists in Honduras’ Aguán Valley as he sought to expand his palm oil fortune. Diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks showed the United States knew of Facussé’s role in cocaine trafficking but continued funding Honduras’ military and police, who reportedly worked closely with Facussé’s guards. Facussé backed the 2009 coup that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya; his personal airplane was used to fly Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas out of Honduras against her will, a story Rodas later told through a translator on Democracy Now!
Patricia Rodas: "I was expelled from my country by the military. They came to my house. I was taken prisoner by the air force of Honduras. And then, later, they deported me at midnight, and they transferred me in the airplane. Apparently, this airplane belonged to Miguel Facussé, the plane in which I was transferred."
In response to Facussé’s death, Chuck Kaufman of the Alliance for Global Justice told Colorado radio station KGNU, "A prince of darkness has returned to hell."
Argentina: Military Chief Accused of 1976 Human Rights Abuses Resigns
In Argentina, the head of the military has resigned, citing personal reasons. Major General César Milani was appointed head of the army in 2013 by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner despite charges he was involved in human rights abuses, including torture and the disappearance of a soldier, dating back to 1976, when Argentina’s military dictatorship came to power.
NYC: Stonewall Inn, Site of Historic LGBT Uprising, Becomes a Landmark
And here in New York City, the Stonewall Inn, the site of an uprising that helped launch the modern LGBT movement, has been granted landmark status by a city commission. The Stonewall uprising began the morning of June 28, 1969, when members of the gay community decided to fight back against a New York City police raid on the Greenwich Village gay bar. Stacy Lentz, co-owner of the Stonewall Inn, praised its new landmark status.
Stacy Lentz: "On that particular night, they had enough. They were fed up. And it was the first time that people from LBGT backgrounds actually stood up and kind of said, ’We’re queer, we’re here, get used to it,’ shut the police outside and started throwing pennies and that thing. They call it a riot, but it was pretty peaceful, for the most part, you know, a few cars overturned and those kind of things and throwing things. But for the most part, though, people gathered for three days after that. And the next year, there was actually the first LBGT pride parade."
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