Who Rules Cincinnati?

Readers of Z may be familiar with the work of long time historian and activist Dan La Botz. La Botz has written extensively on labor issues in both the US and Mexico; and remains active in Cincinnati as a labor, immigrants rights, and community organizer. Recently, he and a group of well known Cincinnati media and social justice activists formed Cincinnati Studies, an online resource “dedicated to studying political, economic, social and cultural developments in the city of Cincinnati.”
( http://www.cincinnatistudies.org )

The group’s initial offering is La Botz’s “ Who Rules Cincinnati?”, available as a 102 page .PDF. For those of us working on issues relating to poverty and low wage work, the publication is a welcome piece of research and analysis. His narrative comes as no surprise to readers who view US institutions through an analysis of class alignments. It does; however, put names and faces to the overlapping realms of influence enjoyed by the area’s elites.  I’m going to post an excerpt from the Summary below, but urge people to take the time to read the entire document.

The Cincinnati Interfaith Workers’ Center, the Day Labor Organizing Project and the  Intercommunity Justice & Peace Center are co-sponsoring a presentation by La Botz to be held in Over-the-Rhine sometime in early April. We have had growing success in attracting low wage workers to political education events, and hope to build this event along similar lines. I’ll post the time and place when they are finalized.

Who Rules Cincinnati?
A Study of Cincinnati’s Economic Power Structure
And its Impact on Communities and People By Dan La Botz
www.cincinnatistudies.org/who_rules_cincinnati.pdf

“This investigation into Cincinnati’s power structure finds that a handful of national and
multinational corporations dominate the economic, social and cultural life of the city. Wealthy individuals who own, manage and sit on the boards of these companies play an inordinate role in the social institutions and the political life of Cincinnati. Decades of corporate control have led to a distorted development and to grotesque contrasts between rich and poor like those we associate with Third World countries. This distorted development has had a particularly damaging impact on the African American population.”

Curt Braman
Cincinnati Interfaith Workers’ Center
1415 Walnut St.
Cincinnati, Oh