My weekly column at Da Tech Guy is up here: A Primer On The Left In NC (PT III)

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In Part II of A Primer on the Left in NC, we looked at the leader of the “grassroots” Moral Monday movement, Reverend William Barber.

This week, it’s important to learn about the start of Moral Monday and their tactics because, as I predicted, it’s spreading.

Just this past week, Barber met with various unnamed activists from 12 other states with the intent to help organize Moral Monday’s elsewhere. One of the attendees was Democratic state Sen. Hank Sanders of Alabama.

I view this as the reaction of the organized Left realizing how much power is held by the individual states. Too many for the comfort of the Left are under Republican leadership.

Moral Monday

Moral Monday really consists of a small core group of people and organizations that have been made to look large and loud. This is done using the BPNC attack memo as a model with the help of unions, outside agitators and help from local media.

The talking points are less than factual and typically start with the word ‘regressive‘. That term has become a running joke locally.

Oh no, more regressive policies ==> NC Is One Of The nine states (and one District) that won 2013 http://t.co/iwC3CjTGM8 #ncpol #ncga #ncgov

— LL1885 – A.P. Dillon (@LadyLiberty1885) January 1, 2014

Reverend Barber, as we saw last installment, is the defacto leader of Moral Monday. This “grassroots” movement complete with slogan and leader is driven by two things.

It’s important to note here that no one seems to know how Moral Monday is being funded. What we do know is the lost control of power in the NC General Assembly was one of the driving factors, the other was money.

“We want to send a shock wave through this state,” state NAACP president the Rev. William Barber told the crowd estimated at about 200 people.

“If you thought we fought in 2013, you ought to see how we fight in an election year.”  – Citizen Times

The above quote came from Barber the Monday prior to Christmas. They called it the ‘Moral Monday Redemption Service‘.  It’s hard to say how many showed up two days before Christmas in the rain to protest, Barber claims 200 above. Anyone following Moral Monday could have predicted that Barber would say that because it’s always ‘hundreds’ or ‘the biggest protests yet’. Here’s a picture from the “Forward Americans” Facebook page.

“Forward Americans” is run by Jen Guerin Ferrell,  a Moral Monday participant who waved to her to little kids as she was arrested. Ferrell unsuccessfully ran for a local town council spot. The winner of that race was an NC Justice Center employee who also has ties to Moral Monday. Remember, NC Justice Center started BluePrint NC.

Here’s Another shot right of the ‘Redemption Service’ from the NC NAACP Twitter feed:

A sea of umbrellas at the #MoralMonday Service of Redemption pic.twitter.com/YeRzohP5xU

— NC NAACP (@ncnaacp) December 23, 2013

The Moral Money

The money being the $100 million in state funds that the Historic Thousands on Jones street (HKonJ) was receiving. Via Civitas:

As the head of the NCNAACP and the organizer of the Historic Thousands on Jones Street (HKonJ), he is the originator and ringmaster of the “Moral Money Monday” protests. Barber has said in many places that the HKonJ organizations are the organizers and force behind the “Moral Money Monday” protests.

It is a collection of groups that, like Barber’s group, has benefited handsomely from taxpayer dollars. While he cloaks his actions in morality and even the trappings of Christianity, going as far as wearing religious garb at the protests, his interest is really about that least religious of concerns – Mammon, or money.

Civitas also points out that Barber himself has stated this is not a spontaneous movement:

William Barber, NC NAACP President, has acknowledged that “Moral Mondays” are not a “spontaneous action.” He said that the seeds of the recent protests were first sowed  when he and others formed a coalition of liberal groups called Historic Thousands on Jones Street (HKonJ). In 2013, HKonJ became the coordinating umbrella organization for the groups protesting at Moral Mondays. But as I have noted, it might be more appropriate to call “Moral Mondays” – “Money Mondays.” Here’s why.

A Civitas study shows that HKonJ affiliated groups have received more than $100 million in direct state grants in recent years. These include $33 million for the Community Development Initiative, $20 million for the Minority Support Center, and $17.5 million for the North Carolina Institute of Minority Economic Development.

There is a full listing of the money involved above. Read the whole article. It is important to note here that one of HKonJ’s supporters under that umbrella is The NC Justice Center; founder of BluePrint NC.

Given the rhetoric, occupy style tactics and general theme of sowing discontent, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that this movement was a planned and coordinated BluePrint NC style campaign. Remember the attack memo said to cripple, eviscerate, pressure and slam and that is what Moral Monday went out and did.

Beginning Of Protests

Moral Mondays started in late April and ran all the way through the Summer session. I covered most of them. The protests started small. The first one on April 29th only had a few dozen people show up. The April event had 17 people arrested, which was a lot given that not that many showed up.

The next one, May 7th, drew about the same size crowd.  Most of them were arrested, which was about 30 people. It was the May 7th event that unveiled the Marxist flavored slogan they would use all Summer long: Forward Together. One guess who inspired that one.

It was the third event when the name Moral Monday was introduced. At the May 13th event, a bigger crowd had come, 49 were arrested and that crowd consisted of a lot of clergy friends of the Reverend’s and far Left leaning academics. All kinds showed up to Moral Monday and to support it. Including friends like Saladin Muhammed, who is a socialist at heart:

Muhammad, a founding member of Black Workers For Justice, led the organizing as an organizer of the national United Electrical Workers Union (UE) that formed the North Carolina Public Service Workers Union-UE Local 150, which has been a leader in the campaign to repeal the N.C. state ban on collective bargaining rights for public sector workers. – Southern Workers Assembly

No One Was Arrested Who Did Not Wish To Be

The protests eventually got bigger – with no small thanks to outside help like the SEIU out of NY. There were other outside agitators, who didn’t exist according to local Media WRAL. Just ask ‘reporter’ Carl Gibson, who the News and Observer actually photographed being arrested, yet didn’t follow-up on.  Luckily, I did and it led me to groups in other states using the Moral Monday name — but that is another story for later. By the way, Mr. Gibson has tweeted to me recently.

#2013TaughtMe that my tweets can be used as only mildly inaccurate oppo research by right-wing bloggers like @LadyLiberty1885

— Carl Gibson (@uncutcg) December 20, 2013

@uncutcg Mildly inaccurate? You mean you’re not a professional protestor who was arrested at Moral Monday in NC? #ncpol #2013TaughtMe

— LL1885 – A.P. Dillon (@LadyLiberty1885) December 21, 2013

The bigger the protests, the more arrests there needed to be. That’s how you get media attention, you get arrested. The imagery of civil disobedience due to ‘regressive’ policies of the NC General Assembly is supposed to tug on your heart-strings. It’s supposed to instill a sense of outrage, but it usually helps the cause if you actually have something substantial beyond being mad your party is out of power.

The Voter ID law (VIVA) was called racist, as expected. What was not totally unexpected was the theatrics that ensued when the public read the bill, agreed with voter ID over all and then started turning a deaf ear to the whining. Those theatrics were caskets:

Read the full story behind this pile of mortician style fail.

There was a lot of noise and fury around the abortion safety bill which the Left called a ‘sneak attack’ and mocked it being attached to a motorcycle safety bill by using the hashtag #MotorCycleVagina on Twitter.

According to Moral Monday, pretty much anything the NC General Assembly passed, was ‘regressive, racist and taking NC backwards’.  Like I said earlier, ‘regressive’ is now a running joke in North Carolina, now you can see why.

What also helps if your arrest isn’t a carefully orchestrated event. What I mean by that is, everyone who was arrested chose to be— usually ahead of time. They even wore ribbons on their arms so they could be readily identified.  They volunteered.

These arrests and the subsequent overtime and court costs fell on the North Carolina taxpayers. When offered a deal to help the over 900 cases move through the system at a faster and more cost-effective manner, Barber and a core group refused. They wanted their show trial.

These people didn’t think they should have to face the consequences of their ‘civil disobedience’.  Well, they got their wish and the verdict was guilty. To the very end, Barber complained. I recently wrote about the verdict and summed it up thusly and linked to a local article:

If you were serious about your civil disobedience enough to be arrested, man up and take the verdict handed down.  Talk about wanting to have your cake and eat it too. If Moral Monday wants to further shred their credibility, they’re succeeding by “Moving Forward Together and Not One Step Back”.

“I’m also concerned that you know in most civil disobedience, the people that participate in the disobedience recognize that there’s to be some consequence,” says Willoughby. “I mean, that goes back to the sixties and Dr. King, I mean, those folks came to court and pled guilty and accepted responsibility for what they’ve done. These folks don’t really seem to want to accept responsibility for anything, and it’s um- makes it difficult to manage the cases.” – WUNC

Indeed. They don’t want to accept responsibility for anything. That’s how the NC General Assembly came to flip Republican in both houses, take the Lt. Governor and Governor’s spots. It’s likely they will stay that way, which has Democrats in the state turning up the heat with protests, ironic yet factually incorrect signs, arrests. Sounds familiar no?

At the start of this article, it was mentioned that Moral Monday is spreading. This is not a bug, it’s a planned feature. In the next installment, we’ll look at the role unions are playing, what a term I’ve developed called Occupy 2.0 and the “Organize the South or die” campaign.