Copyrights: Balancing power and Constitutional rights
As we ponder the meaning of Copyright Awareness Week this April 22-28, the nation should be very concerned about the financial squeeze the publishing industry is inflicting upon freelance writers in this country today. Originally, U.S. copyright law was enacted to provide protection for writers’ rights so that we could control our ideas and benefit from our work as individual creators.
United, weve got what it takes to win
“As long as we keep taking what they are dishing out,” United Steelworkers of America President Leo Gerard told a meeting on national health care, “they’ll keep dishing it out !” The men and women in Washington’s streets April 20 are saying we won’t take the military solutions, Enron/LTV robberies, global exploitation, destruction of the Bill of Rights, civil rights and women’s rights.
Marchers protest Rep. Talents exorbitant pay
ST. LOUIS – Close to 100 people, including members of ACORN, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 2000, Pro-Vote and the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute, marched into Rep. Jim Talent’s (R–Mo.) Senatorial campaign headquarters here on April 12.
Last of the big time spenders
A nation’s budget generally sums up its priorities – and President Bush’s budget, with a $48 billion increase in military spending, makes clear his priorities. His budget for fiscal year 2003 includes $767 billion for discretionary spending (the money the President and Congress must decide and act to spend each year), $396 billion of which will go to the Pentagon. The “National Defense” category of the federal budget for FY’03 accounts 51.6 percent of all discretionary spending.
Texas labor claims victories in primaries
DALLAS – If President Bush begins to sound a little worried about his home state in November, it may be because of the Texas primary elections that concluded with a runoff on April 9. The Democratic ticket will be headed by two “firsts” for Texas: the first African-American candidate for U.S. Senate and the first Mexican-American candidate for Governor. Both candidates are strong on affirmative action and are not afraid to say so.
Tax day pickets hit $ 400 billion war budget
BALTIMORE – With chants of “money for jobs not for war,” tax day pickets greeted people arriving at the main downtown post office to mail off their tax returns April 15.
Care for immigrants severely limited
During the weeks before and after March 31, hundreds of thousands of workers and supporters across the country celebrated the birthday of United Farm Worker Union co-founder and hero, Cesar Chavez. Amid the celebrations, time was taken to reflect on the status of immigrant workers in 2002.
Money for people, not war & the wealthy
A recent report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has warned that, the “proposed federal budget places extra burdens on state and local budgets already cash-strapped by a recession economy.” The report predicted these burdens would grow even greater if the tax cuts scheduled for 2004 are allowed to take place.
ACT UP rally urges $ 2.5 billion to fight AIDS
WASHINGTON – “America must not be a passive onlooker as AIDS turns entire African nations into graveyards.” So said actor Danny Glover, speaking to a “Day of Hope” rally of 1,000 protesters on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol April 10.
USWA calls for national health care
PITTSBURGH – With the industrial heartland in a state of collapse, 33 steel companies are in bankruptcy, steelworkers are joining thousands of doctors, nurses, health care workers and grassroots organizations to push universal health care from resolution to the front of the political agenda. Across industrial states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois and Minnesota, ad hoc coalitions are springing up to win national health care for all U.S. residents.
