People Before Profit blog

We can end this war!

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 05:04:00 +0000

To end the war and occupation in Iraq, the peace movement must continue to press Congress to bring the troops home and support every effort to move them to act. Congressional Democrats under pressure from the peace movement have introduced various bills and resolutions that begin to move us in this direction.

The introduction of Sen. John Kerry’s Senate Joint Resolution 33 is the latest illustration of the power of the peace movement. It marks a significant advance in the movement to end the occupation despite its many flaws and assumptions.

The resolution calls on Bush to immediately convene a summit of Iraqi leaders, representatives of the United Nations, the Arab League and neighboring countries to reach a political solution for Iraq that will include forming a unity government. It further calls for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops. The resolution sets May 15 as the deadline for notifying the Iraqis of the beginning of troop withdrawal if Iraq is unable to form a unity government. The deadline will be December 2006 otherwise.

Some might question the importance of a resolution that, like other Democratic bills in Congress, presumes that the U.S. has the right to make demands of the Iraqis and dictate the forms of their government.

Some might question the fact that the bill leaves open the door for leaving minimal troops in Iraq long-term.

These and other criticisms are valid. Kerry’s is certainly not a resolution the peace movement would draft if we had the chance.

So why should the peace movement support this resolution and similar bills in the House? If our demand is to bring the troops home now, why should we support legislation that sets deadlines for withdrawal?

Although the movement calls for the immediate end of the occupation, it has also focused on pressuring, persuading and bird-dogging congressional representatives to take action. And rightly so.

The peace movement has made a difference in expanding the base of elected officials who will act. Small but real victories have been won. Roadblocks are now in place to the neoconservatives’ plans to control the Middle East, including its oil. Even problematic bills like John Murtha’s helped rally opposition to the occupation and divided Bush’s support.

The peace movement’s demands resulted in the passage of Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s amendment to the House war appropriations bill that cuts funding for permanent bases in Iraq. Now the Senate Appropriations Committee has cut funds for permanent bases from the Senate version, which will be voted on later this month. Isn’t this a major victory? Doesn’t it lay the basis for permanent withdrawal?

Rep. John Murtha’s bill, introduced last fall, sent shockwaves through the country. It became one factor pushing the opposition sentiment to new highs. The bill called for rapid withdrawal of troops with redeployment in the region. Of course, most in the peace movement oppose U.S. troops staging for war anywhere in the region, but many legislators who were riding the fence could support Murtha’s bill. Plus, the bill put the debate about withdrawal into the mass media for the first time. The terrain shifted, and the debate moved from how to wage the war to how and when to withdraw the troops. Isn’t that a victory? Didn’t that bring us one step closer to full withdrawal?

The U.S. and Iraqi public, a growing number of legislators and broad sections of the military (even generals!) support the withdrawal of troops. But there remains major disagreement on the process, timeframe and conditions of withdrawal. The peace movement must explain why the continued presence of U.S. troops is the root cause of the crisis in Iraq, while supporting all legislative and other efforts that move us closer to the goal of total withdrawal. Kerry’s resolution is a good example.

Of course no single piece of legislation will end the occupation. It is up to the movement.

Kerry’s resolution was introduced the same week that 24 referenda calling for immediate withdrawal passed in Wisconsin. That’s no accident. There is a direct connection between the evolving antiwar sentiment in Congress and the work of the peace movement. Rep. Jim McGovern recently told peace activists, “I feel there is movement [in Congress]. How much movement depends on the grass roots.” Local referenda, “peace voter” initiatives, lobbying and other actions that pressure Bush and Congress to represent the majority peace sentiment are key to laying the basis for total troop withdrawal.

If our goal is truly to end this occupation as soon as possible, we must use every available tool to build broad unity and divide the support for the war. To refuse support for the Kerry resolution or other measures that fall short of our ultimate goal is to put the goal on indefinite hold.

Judith Le Blanc (jleblanc@cpusa.org) is national co-chair of United for Peace and Justice, the country’s largest peace coalition, and a vice chair of the Communist Party USA.

CWA hits high-tech visas

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 04:34:00 +0000

Spotlighting an aspect of the nation’s immigration debate that has received little attention, the Communications Workers executive board voted April 18 to lobby against a guest worker program which allows employers to create a temporary workforce of tens of thousands of lower-paid high-tech “guest workers.”

Under the H1-B program, employers are allotted visas that they control to hire programmers, software engineers, technical writers and other highly skilled workers from other countries. The employers use those guest workers, the CWA says, “to turn tens of thousands of permanent, good paying jobs into temporary jobs.” H1-B visa workers have no path to citizenship.

CWA reports that the H1-B workers are paid substantially less than U.S. tech workers. The union is supporting a bill sponsored by Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) that caps the number of H1-B visas issued and includes a provision requiring employers to pay workers on these visas prevailing wages, similar to the Davis-Bacon Act.

The executive board resolution blasted President George W. Bush’s plan to expand all guest worker programs and said all immigrant workers to the U.S. should be provided a path to legalization.

The CWA has mounted organizing drives among high-tech workers, especially in the telecommunications and computer industries. But it frequently encounters employers who abuse the high-tech “H1-B” program. Expanding the H1-B program is the top legislative priority of Microsoft Corp., according to the website of WashTech, CWA’s Washington state-based union for high-tech workers.

“Workers’ rights must be at the heart of immigration reform. That’s why it is critical that Congress reject the Bush administration efforts to expand ‘guest worker’ programs, particularly the H-1B program and related visas provided to employers for technology workers,” CWA said.

The high-tech guest worker visa program undermines the incentive of employers to conduct training programs, CWA spokesperson Jeff Miller noted.

PAI contributed to this report.

Movement presses on in wake of raids, arrests

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 10:39:00 +0000

CHICAGO — Imagine you are at work. You’re on a break getting food from the truck outside, when you are surrounded and arrested by federal agents.

That’s what happened April 19 to 1,187 workers in some 40 towns and cities in 26 states. The workers, many of them Mexican, were employees of IFCO Systems, a company that makes wooden pallets.

The raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents of the Department of Homeland Security were widely seen as a Bush administration move to intimidate the immigrant rights movement.

Flor, a 27-year-old mother of three, was one of those arrested in Chicago. In a telephone interview she told the World of her ordeal.

“It was a typical day. I was working hard like always,” she said. The IFCO workers had been on the job a few hours already when they went on break around 9:15 a.m.

They were eating breakfast from the food truck that pulls up to the factory every morning when suddenly they were surrounded by immigration agents. “There were about 30 of them,” she said. “They were all over, all of a sudden, from everywhere. I did not run because I was afraid they might use their guns. I was still holding my food when they began to ask everyone for identification.”

“‘Who has legal documents to live in the United States?’ they asked us.” Only two of the 28 workers did, Flor said. The remaining 26 were arrested, handcuffed and put in windowless trucks.

“What did we do? Why are you arresting us for being workers?” Flor demanded.

Flor continuously asked the driver where they were going and if she could make a phone call. No answers.

They were taken to some type of “garage,” she said. The men were separated from the women for interrogation. “What’s your name, what’s your parents’ name, what are the names of your children, and where do you live?” they asked her.

After being fingerprinted and photographed, Flor was put into a cell-like room with no windows and a dirty bathroom.

“Then they handcuffed us again, this time putting chains around our feet, and we had to walk to the trucks,” where they were taken to another location about 30 minutes away.

“Everything was dark and I began to feel claustrophobic,” she said.

When they arrived at the second location they were asked the same questions and again put in very cold filthy cells. They were inspected by nurses and vaccinated. Flor thought it was for tuberculosis, but she wasn’t sure.

The following morning Flor was released. Officials told her she would receive “a notice” in the mail.

Flor has a hard time sleeping and eating these days. She suffers from nightmares and is afraid to work.

Nationwide, reaction to the raids was quick, with protests in Chicago, New York, Houston and other cities. The universal opinion was that the arrests were a response to the massive immigrant rights demonstrations, an attempt to intimidate immigrants and their supporters, to appease the ultra-right in the Republican Party and perhaps to stampede employers into lobbying for a guest worker program.

“We have changed the public opinion nationally,” away from the right-wing Republicans, said Emma Lozano, executive director of Pueblo Sin Fronteras and a leader of the immigrant rights movement. The raids, she said, are “trying to spread the fear. It’s like the empire strikes back.”

Pueblo Sin Fronteras is helping the 26 workers arrested here, while preparing for a major immigrant and workers rights rally and march set for May 1.

On April 25, the Chicago City Council took up a resolution denouncing the raids and demanding they be stopped. A moratorium on the raids has broad support nationwide.

At the IFCO plant here, new workers have already been hired to replace the 26 workers arrested. When a reporter approached the loading dock where several workers were on a late afternoon break this week, most were visibly nervous and went inside. But one, who wanted his name withheld, spoke for a few minutes.

The 54-year-old, originally from Mexico, is a father of six, married for 30 years. Hired three days after the raid, he said he heard about the job on the radio.

It’s a nine-hour day making some 300 pallets with a hand drill, he said, adding, “I think they pay us too little, $6.50 an hour.” There is a lot of exploitation of immigrant workers, he said.

Although Flor said she had not attended any previous demonstrations, she declared, “There needs to be a strong voice for how we live, to understand our pain, our struggle. It is not about race.”

She continued, “It hurts that our dreams could be taken away. We cannot be intimidated. You cannot throw us away. We are human beings who deserve respect and dignity. We are here to work. I only work for a better future for my children.

“I have courage,” she said. “I’ll be way in the front marching for my rights on May 1.”

Emile Schepers contributed to this story.

Inuit leader sounds alarm on global warming

Fri, 21 Apr 2006 07:40:00 +0000

‘We’re the early warning system for the rest of the world,’ says Arctic resident

When she was growing up in an Inuit community in northern Quebec, Sheila Watt-Cloutier never rode anything faster than a dog sled.

Now the 51-year-old grandmother jets across the globe speaking out on environmental issues and warning of the impending catastrophe that is global warming.

A long-time political spokesperson for the Inuit, Watt-Cloutier is actively engaged in climate change initiatives with the aim of persuading states to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases and the use of toxins.

The very survival the Inuit is at stake, she said in a recent interview.

“We go out and hunt on the sea to put food on the table,” she said. “You go to the supermarket.”

And if there is one place on the planet where the effects of the “great warming” are immediately felt, it is in the Arctic, said Watt-Cloutier, who, as chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, represents some 155,000 Inuit in Canada, the U.S., Russia and Greenland.

“We on a daily basis observe the minute changes that are occurring in the environment,” Watt-Cloutier said. “We are the guardians of the environment, in fact, because we’re on the land every day ... we’re the early warning system for the rest of the world.”

Originally from Nunavik in Northern Quebec and educated in Manitoba, she now lives in Iqaluit capital of the new territory of Nunavut.

Her people are witnessing first hand the devastating affects of climate change and its relentless assault on their traditional way of life. “We’re already living this reality,” Watt-Cloutier said. “It’s not a theory in the future, it’s right now in the present.”

The ice at the polar ice cap is forming much later in the year and breaking up earlier in the spring, causing havoc for both man and animals. “The sea-ice season is a lot shorter than it used to be. And as a result we have less time to hunt on the ice. Our wildlife, the polar bear, has a lot less time so they’re become a lot thinner.”

Streams on traditional hunting routes that were once fordable have become torrents that claims lives every year. The icepacks have become so unpredictable that even seasoned hunters with knowledge of the land and the cycles, have fallen through and drowned, she said.

“What you see on the surface is no longer what it is underneath. The Arctic sink is warming from under, and the ice is changing from under as well.

“So the rules have all changed and so has the wisdom we pass on to our young people. Many of our elders are being stumped by it, because it is so unpredictable.”

The damage caused by rising temperatures is evident all around the north, although not all regions are affected in the same way. In the Beaufort Sea area, for example, erosion due to the rapid melting of the permafrost is hitting the beaches hard.

“They are having to move houses because they are crumbling,” Watt-Cloutier said. “In Nunavik the permafrost is melting so quickly that they are having to redo the pavement of the runways because are starting to crumble.”

The minutest change in the Arctic changes everything, every ecosystem. The changes in climate have brought a lot more insects and bugs, and new species of birds never before seen in the Arctic are appearing every year.

“I think everything is connected and meant to be where they are. It’s going to be an adaptation period for every species of animal, whether you are a bug, or a human being or a polar bear.”

Watt-Cloutier is fully involved in United Nations work and has for years been working on the treaty to eliminate the use persistent organic pollutants, or POPs.

The so-called “dirty dozen” are among the most fearsome toxic chemicals because of the threat they pose to both humans and animals because they last so long in the environment before breaking down.

“I was personally involved in a lot of that work,” she said. “That took me to different parts of the world, but it’s really paid off.”

Some 50 nations have signed on to the new treaty, making it one of the fastest ratified UN treaties on record. But the global work to get there took some 15 years, she said.

So as they turn their attention to stemming the tide of global warming, the Inuit continue to navigate the significant social and economic changes that have accompanied development of the north.

“We have gone from a nomadic society to a democratic self-governing people, proud to be Canadian.

“We have gone from the ‘snow age’ to the ‘space age’ in one generation.”

So are the Inuit, in a sense, contributing to their own demise?

“I get asked that question quite often,” Watt-Cloutier said. “Yes, we own airlines, we have skidoos, we have trucks, but the reality is our contribution to this problem is very minute.

“It’s off the radar in terms of what we are creating ourselves, whether it’s the toxins or the greenhouse gases. These things are coming from afar.”

The U.S. is by far the biggest culprit, producing 26 percent of the greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere, she said.

This article originally appeared at www.thegreatwarming.com and is reprinted with permission.

We thought it was oil, But it was blood

Fri, 14 Apr 2006 09:06:00 +0000

The other day We danced in the street Joy in our hearts We thought we were free Three young folks fell to our right Countless more fell to our left Looking up, Far from the crowd We beheld Red-hot guns

We thought it was oil But it was blood We thought it was oil But this was blood

Heart jumping Into our mouths Floating on Emotion’s dry wells We leapt in fury Knowing it wasn’t funny Then we beheld Bright red pools

We thought it was oil But it was blood We thought it was oil But this was blood

Tears don’t flow When you are scarred First it was the Ogoni* Today it is Ijaws* Who will be slain the next day? We see open mouths But hear no screams Standing in a pool Up to our knees

We thought it was oil But it was blood We thought it was oil But this was blood

Dried tear bags Polluted streams Things are real When found in dreams We see their Shells Behind military shields: Evil, horrible, gallows called oil rigs Drilling our souls

We thought it was oil But it was blood We thought it was oil But this was blood

The heavens are open Above our heads Toasted dreams in a flared And scrambled sky A million black holes In a burnt up sky Their pipes may burst But our dreams won’t burst

We thought it was oil But it was blood We thought it was oil But this was blood

This we tell you They may kill all But the blood will speak They may gain all But the soil will RISE We may die but stay alive Placed on the slab Slaughtered by the day We are the living Long sacrificed

We thought it was oil But it was blood We thought it was oil But this was blood.

Nnimmo Bassey is a prominent Nigerian environmentalist activist and poet.

* Ogoni and Ijaws are indigenous groups living in the oil-rich Niger Delta who have opposed the Shell Oil Company’s presence. In 1993, 300,000 Ogonis demonstrated against the environmental destruction and economic marginalization brought about by Shell drilling on Ogoni lands. Many were killed and the activist leaders, including Ken Saro Wiwa, were imprisoned and eventually executed by the government. Today the Ijaws are protesting. For many indigenous peoples, the earth is a living being and oil is considered to be her blood, therefore the words blood and oil have a double meaning. Oil production in Nigeria has caused severe environmental and human consequences since it was “discovered” by oil companies in the 1950s.

Silenced again: My Name is Rachel Corrie postponed indefinitely

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 06:48:00 +0000

New York City is known throughout the world as a bastion of free artistic expression. That is, apparently, unless the art is about the struggle of the Palestinian people.

Or at least that was the message sent by the New York Theatre Workshop. The off-Broadway theater had been scheduled to host the U.S. debut of the play titled “My Name is Rachel Corrie.” The play, which already debuted in London to rave reviews, is a one-woman soliloquy based on the e-mails and writings of slain activist and peace martyr Rachel Corrie to her parents. However, the NYTW suddenly decided to “indefinitely postpone” the play.

Rachel Corrie was a 23-year-old woman from Olympia, Wash. She attended Evergreen State College, where she studied the arts and international relations. Like many other American youth, over the course of her short life she embarked on a journey of self-discovery and learning that led to her politicization. During her senior year of college, she took time off to travel to Rafah, in the Israeli-occupied Gaza strip, after initiating a sister-city project in Olympia. She volunteered with the International Solidarity Movement, which carried out activities in the Gaza Strip as human rights observers and engaged in nonviolent direct action.

On March 16, 2003, Corrie and six other ISM members were trying to stop the Israeli Defense Force from demolishing homes and farmland along the Egyptian border of Gaza, in violation of international law. Armed with orange reflective-striped vests and bullhorns, these “human shields” were no match for the might of the D-9 Caterpillar bulldozers which an American company had sold to the IDF, or for the IDF’s reckless incompetence. The Israeli forces removed the ordinary safeguard of human guides on the ground due to “fear of sniper fire,” but did not deem this a threat to disrupt the demolitions.

When Corrie attempted to obstruct a bulldozer from the path of a home belonging to the family with which she was staying, the driver of the bulldozer lifted up the ground she was standing on, lifting her up to eye level before crushing her under the rubble. It ran over her and then backed over her again. Her last words were “my back is broken,” before being taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

“My Name is Rachel Corrie” takes its name from one of Corrie’s journal entries. Although it was initially the idea of actor and director Alan Rickman and Guardian features editor Katharine Viner, they decided after seeing her writings that her words spoke for themselves. They edited the play, but Corrie is credited as the playwright and her parents own the rights to her words. The play gives great insight into Corrie’s journey. Her journal entries, e-mails and letters to her parents reveal a mix of political awakening and the ordinary human struggles of a young woman searching for her role in shaping a better world.

The play sold out two runs in London, and was to open next in New York on March 22. However, in February the postponement was announced. NYTW Artistic Director James Nicola denies that the delay is permanent, but admits that “Talking around and listening in our communities in New York, what we heard was that after Ariel Sharon’s illness and the election of Hamas, we had a very edgy situation.”

It seems the ultra-right in the U.S. and Israel have created a culture of silence in which all discussion of Israel’s suppression of Palestinian rights is either ignored or shouted down as “anti-Semitism,” even if the speaker is Jewish.

Theatergoers and advocates of artistic freedom have rightly protested this thinly veiled censorship. Not only supporters of the Palestinian people’s right to peace and self-determination, but anyone who believes in free speech should raise a loud, clear voice, and demand that the NYTW proceed with bringing Rachel Corrie’s message to the stage. She was a bright and gifted young writer, and although she is no longer here, we should allow her words to speak for themselves.

Brandon Slattery (bkslattery@yahoo.com) is a young artist in Philadelphia.

At Agent Orange meet, a plea to U.S.

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 05:12:00 +0000

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Activists and Vietnam War veterans wrapped up a global conference on Agent Orange March 29 with a plea to the U.S. government and chemical companies to take responsibility for health problems linked to the wartime defoliant.

“We ... demand that U.S. chemical companies pay compensation equal to their liability. We demand the U.S. government be held responsible for making contributions to overcome the consequences of toxic chemicals,” a statement adopted at the end of the meeting read.

More than 100 activists from at least six countries, including the United States, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, attended the two-day conference in Hanoi.

Vietnam has said U.S. aircraft sprayed about 21 million gallons of defoliant, mostly Agent Orange, over Vietnam from 1961-71 to destroy forest cover for communist troops.

Agent Orange contains dioxin, a chemical blamed for health problems ranging from cancer to spina bifida and diabetes. The U.S. government claims there is no scientific evidence directly linking dioxin to the ailments.

A U.S. federal district court in Brooklyn last year dismissed a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of Vietnamese citizens who claimed that U.S. chemical companies committed war crimes by making Agent Orange for use during the war.

The judge ruled the plaintiffs could not prove that the defoliant had caused their illnesses and that the use of such chemicals did not constitute war crimes.

Tran Xuan Thu, head of the Vietnam Association of Agent Orange Victims, said the conference and public support around the world would help them in their appeal.

“For the future of mankind, we must prevent the use of Agent Orange from being repeated in any other country in the world,” he said.

A large delegation of war veterans from several countries spent a day touring the so-called Friendship Village outside Hanoi where children believed harmed by Agent Orange live.

About 30 veterans spent the morning playing with children at the facility, many of whom are physically or mentally disabled.

Joan Newberry of Santa Fe, N.M., who served as a nurse in the U.S. Air Force during the war, said the conference was a good start to help Agent Orange victims around the world.

“We hope we can develop international alliances that will strengthen our efforts to seek justice for victims of Agent Orange all over the world,” she said.

A million UK workers strike for their pensions

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 05:06:00 +0000

On March 28 over a million local government workers staged Britain’s biggest nationwide walkout since the 1926 general strike.

And they warned that they will strike again and again if necessary to stop the government from slashing their pensions.

“This is a tremendous day,” declared Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, a public-sector union, adding: “It is just the start.”

Addressing an enthusiastic rally in Westminster’s Central Hall, Prentis declared, “From John O’Groats to Lands End, across Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and every part of England, our members have taken action today.”

Eleven public-sector unions joined forces for the action to demand an end to government attacks on workers’ pensions. Most services were paralyzed, and hundreds of schools and libraries closed for the day.

Thousands of local government workers poured into city centers for protest marches and rallies across the country.

Over 700,000 of the strikers were women who are determined to ram home the shocking fact that the average pension for women in local government amounts to the measly sum of £31 ($54) per week.

A noisy group of Unison activists arrived outside the House of Commons in a red open-topped bus. They held up jumbo-sized replica coins to the value of £31 before tossing them aside to show their disgust with this paltry weekly sum for a woman’s retirement.

Local Government Minister Phil Woolas stubbornly insisted that the government will soon present to Parliament regulations forcing pension cuts for council workers born after March 31, 1953.

Council workers are incensed that the government is seeking unilateral imposition of a retirement age of 65 instead of 60. Ministers want to scrap the so-called Rule 85, which at present allows staff whose age plus years worked equals 85 or more to retire at 60 on a full pension.

Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trade Union Congress, told the Westminster rally of his “admiration for the unity and determination that has been shown by members of the 11 unions involved in the strike.”

He added: “I want to see the gap between private and public-sector pensions closed by lifting standards in the private sector, not dragging down the public sector.”

Thunderous applause filled the hall when GMB union regional secretary Ed Blissett declared, “I have to say this to the government: If you can find billions of pounds to wage war in Iraq, then you most certainly should be able to find a few millions to pay local authority pensioners what they deserve.”

Diana Holland, national secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, rejected the argument that people are living too long. “In fact, it is fantastic that people are living longer,” she said. “It is not a problem when people are living longer. It is only a problem if people are living longer in poverty.”

Amicus regional secretary Jennie Bremner warned ministers and employers that “this is the first of a rolling program of strike days,” adding: “If the government thinks it is over, they need to think again.”

— Reprinted from Morning Star (www.morningstaronline.co.uk)