People Before Profit blog

Displaced Katrina survivors lose health care benefits

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 04:38:00 +0000

As Medicaid waivers begin to expire, Katrina evacuees who need health care are growing ever more desperate.

In September 2005, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), the federal agency which administers Medicaid, initiated a Medicaid waiver initiative. Touted by the federal agency as a way to expedite Medicaid enrollment for displaced Katrina survivors without health care insurance, CMS issued a template directed at states that wanted to provide Medicaid services to evacuees. The agency would only approve waivers that limited enrollment and coverage terms of up to five months. Additionally, enrollees had to fall within a prescribed population and income category. Adults without dependent children were not included, regardless of income. The waivers also did not provide for a transition between the emergency Medicaid coverage and the host state’s traditional Medicaid programs.

This short-term coverage began expiring on Jan. 31. All Medicaid waivers will have expired by June 1, leaving thousands of displaced citizens without health care coverage. In Houston, where an estimated 50,000 uninsured storm survivors remain, health care providers are seeing a dramatic increase in requests for services through county resources, such as Harris County Hospital. All host cities are expected to experience a rise in uninsured populations as previous recipients have their benefits terminated.

The state-by-state waiver program is seen by many to have been woefully insufficient to handle the needs of low-income evacuees. Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, the home states of the displaced, are among the poorest in the nation. Many survivors were already uninsured citizens living with illness and health problems associated with poverty. However, some evacuees who initially had health care coverage through employers quickly lost it as their jobs disappeared.

Frustratingly, the Bush administration quashed a more comprehensive health plan. A bipartisan bill introduced in September by Senators Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) provided coverage for all low-income displaced persons and allowed for an extension of benefits when needed. It required states to assist beneficiaries in transitioning to traditional Medicaid when emergency coverage ended. A vote on the bill was blocked by Senate leaders after the White House announced its opposition.

Senate Republicans also defeated an amendment to the 2006 appropriations bill introduced by Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.). That amendment would have provided full funding by the federal government for evacuees on Medicaid, thereby relieving the host states’ economic burden. As a result of the bill’s defeat, scores of health care providers are reporting slow pay or no pay on services provided and a confused billing process.

While some displaced Katrina survivors are beginning to apply for traditional Medicaid coverage in their host states, one eligibility requirement may immediately disqualify them. Permanent residency in a state is always a condition of qualification. In order to receive Medicaid benefits, evacuees must declare their intention to remain in the host state. This prerequisite to coverage is seen by most to be unfair, as the federal government has failed to address housing needs in storm-ravaged areas. Many evacuees who would like to return home simply cannot do so until affordable shelter becomes available in devastated home states.

The health care needs of Katrina’s displaced survivors are great. While the usual dental, medical and mental health issues are ever pressing worries, storm survivors also are experiencing new health concerns. According to a new study at Colombia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and the Children’s Health Fund, 34 percent of displaced children are suffering from disorders related to anxiety, such as asthma and behavioral problems. This is an alarming percentage when compared to New Orleans’ pre-storm statistic of 25 percent of children presenting with these issues.

More than 43 million Americans are without health insurance; nearly 12 million of those are children. The numbers are often quoted and the statistics seem to ring hollow in policymakers’ ears. However, for the survivors of Katrina, losing even basic medical coverage during a time of so much hardship is simply adding insult to injury.

Thousands pack San Francisco for immigrant rights march

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 03:51:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO — The labor movement, the faith community, a broad spectrum of immigrant rights organizations and just plain folks joined in a river of 15,000 marchers that flooded city streets from the Mission District’s Dolores Park to the downtown federal building April 23. Observers called it the largest such demonstration in the city to date.

Joining immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries behind the Teamsters’ big truck were marchers from the Philippines, South Asia, China, Korea, Ireland and other countries. Their signs and banners protested anti-immigrant legislation now before Congress and proclaimed “Immigrants for a better future,” “Legalization for all” and “Today we march, tomorrow we vote!”

The marchers — brought together by the Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition, the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and other organizations — united around the themes of no criminalization of immigrants, family reunification, workers’ and human rights, and a clear path to legal status.

Fernando Padilla, president of the Latino Student Union at Contra Costa College, said he and other club members were marching to uphold the right of immigrant youth to go to college whatever their status. Padilla said the group wants to go to area high schools to help undocumented youth get the legal, academic and financial aid they need in order to attend college.

Henry Johnson, a former member of ILWU Warehouse Local 6, said he came to the demonstration from Oakland because he believes workers have the same fight and the same enemies, no matter where they are born. Many immigrants are “victims of U.S. imperialism,” Johnson said. “They destroy immigrants’ home economies, forcing them to come here, and then they penalize them for doing so.”

The contingent from Out 4 Immigration, which fights for the right of gays and lesbians to be united with their partners from other countries, included Hans and Phil, currently waging a struggle to stay together. “It’s not just an immigration issue,” said Phil. “It’s a human rights issue. We hope the Uniting American Families Act will add the phrase, ‘permanent partner’ wherever the word ‘spouse’ is mentioned.”

As marchers packed the street in front of the federal building, Nadia Khastagir from the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action told the final rally, “The ‘war on terror’ is inextricably linked with the war on immigrants,” with its targeting and harassment of South Asian, Arab and Muslim communities. “Secret raids, mass detentions and deportations are the weapons of this war.”

“We want fair and just reforms that provide a path to citizenship, and dignity to all immigrants,” she said.

Before the march, an interfaith group of Bay Area clergy gathered at Mission Dolores Basilica. San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer read a joint statement calling for “a just path to lawful permanent residence and citizenship” and allowing “families torn apart by immigration to reunite.”

Thousands roar support for jailed labor leader

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 03:47:00 +0000

NEW YORK — Throngs of supporters gathered around Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint as he led a huge April 24 march over the Brooklyn Bridge to the Manhattan jail where he began serving a 10-day sentence.

Toussaint was slapped with the jail sentence — on top of $2.5 million in fines and loss of dues check-off for his 34,000-member union — for leading TWU members, who operate the city transit system, in a three-day pre-Christmas strike. The state’s Taylor Law bans strikes by public workers. The UN International Labor Organization has criticized the law as violating fundamental labor rights.

At a rally in downtown Brooklyn before the march, Toussaint was introduced as the “leader of the labor movement in this great city” by Patrick J. Lynch, head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, which represents city police officers. Even using a powerful sound system, Toussaint had to yell to be heard over thousands of cheering demonstrators.

“I’m here with family,” Toussaint said. “My union family, my community family.” When the transit workers felt compelled to strike in December, he said, “we knew that we were taking a stand on behalf of all the working men and women in NYC on behalf of decency.”

“Hard work should be rewarded with pensions and benefits and living standards that we can be proud of, rather than declining living standards,” Toussaint added. “I will do 30 years [in jail] before transit workers will surrender.”

The demonstration at times took on the feel of a rock concert with the crowd roaring its support for Local 100. It was chaired by United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, whose union went for years without a contract.

The rally, impressive despite being held at 4 p.m. on a workday, was organized by the state and city AFL-CIO, and had support from virtually every metropolitan area union.

Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and an officer in the Change to Win federation, told the crowd that he was there “to stand with Roger Toussaint and with our brothers and sisters of TWU Local 100.”

Referring to the Metropolitan Transit Authority, Appelbaum asked, “Where are the penalties for the MTA for weeks and months, for not negotiating in good faith? Why is just Roger paying?”

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney flew to New York to speak at the rally, but flight delays prevented him from getting to the event.

“When Local 100 won the biggest transit strike in history, they held the line for all of us,” Sweeney later said. “Now it is time for all of us to hold the line for Local 100 and Roger Toussaint” by raising $2.5 million, Local 100’s fine, and “raising hell” to undermine the Taylor Law.

Deborah Pierce, a member of the New York State Nurses Association who works at Woodhall Hospital, told the World the TWU’s actions benefited all workers.

“This is not a democratic society if you’re telling people that you don’t have to negotiate in good faith, and they’re supposed to accept” a bad contract, she said. NYSNA has been without a contract for three years.

Immigrants rights are workers rights: Labor backs May 1 immigrant rights rally

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 10:48:00 +0000

CHICAGO — In the city of May Day’s birth, labor unions pledged to support the May 1 immigrant rights rally here. WithHaymarket Square as a backdrop, the president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, Dennis Gannon, told reporters, “Immigrants’ rights are workers’ rights.”

“When you talk about the Haymarket martyrs, you talk about the struggle of the immigrant workers,” Gannon said, referring to the eight labor leaders, five of whom were German immigrants, framed for the 1886 bombing at Haymarket Square.

Tom Balanoff, president of Service Employee Union Local 1, and Carl Rosen, president of District 11 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers — unions not affiliated with the AFL-CIO — also spoke, pledging support for the May 1 rally. Among the rally’s demands, speakers said, are a path to citizenship, family reunification and workers’ rights.

“We don’t want to go from being poor, undocumented workers to being poor, documented workers,” said Jorge Mujica, an organizer of the massive immigrant rights rally held here March 10. “It’s not going to give us health care; it’s not going to give us the overtime employers are not paying us.”

The Chicago Federation of Labor, along with the Illinois Labor History Society, was instrumental in getting a statue placed last year at Des Plaines and Randolph streets, the site of Haymarket Square. Labor pledged to “reclaim” the holiday. (See “Chicago labor reclaims May Day” at www.pww.org.)

It was at Haymarket Square where workers gathered 120 years ago to continue the push for an 8-hour workday and to protest the police killing of picketing workers at McCormick Reaper Plant. On May 1, 1886, 340,000 workers in 12,000 factories across the U.S. struck for an 8-hour day. Chicago had the nation’s largest demonstration, with some 80,000 people marching up Michigan Avenue. Subsequent mass protests took place on May 2 and May 3 — where police attacked and killed the McCormick workers.

The May 4 rally at Haymarket was winding up when some 170 armed police surrounded the 200 people still at the rally. An unknown assailant threw a bomb. In the ensuing chaos, several workers and policemen were killed. And a vicious anti-labor repression followed.

In 1889, the International Labor Congress adopted May Day as International Labor Day in memory of the Haymarket martyrs, it is celebrated worldwide to this day.

Remarks for the TWU Local 100 Rally, New York City

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 11:09:00 +0000

Thank you, Denis [Hughes] and thanks to all of you for leaving your jobs, your loved ones, and your leisure to join us here today.

This is an historic moment and the MTA should take note of our solidarity.

We are all here — Denis Hughes, Randi Weingarten, Pat Lynch, Jim Little, my brothers Mike Fishman, Denis Rivera and Bruce Raynor, my sisters Barbara Bowen and Lillian Roberts, representatives of all the unions of New York — to speak with one voice on behalf of the dedicated, hard-working members of Local 100 and Roger Touissant.

What kind of man is Roger Toussaint?

Roger Toussaint is a family man — his sons and daughters, and his wife Donna, depend on him for his love and support.

Roger Toussaint is a working man — just like my father he came here from an island to work for the New York transit system and he’s put in more than 20 years with the MTA and just as many serving his local.

Roger Toussaint is a community leader – a political leader – and our entire community depends on him to guide us.

Roger Toussaint is the kind of man we depend on to help us make some sense out of this troubled city.

So if he’s such a good citizen, such a dependable leader, why are we sending him to jail?

Why the hell is our city sending him to jail?

I’ll tell you why he’s going to jail, brothers and sisters — it’s because Roger Toussaint is more than a community leader and more than a political leader.

He’s more than a family man – more than a working man.

Roger Toussaint is a union man.

And what kind of union is Local 100?

I know something about that because I learned my first lessons in trade unionism sitting with my father and listening to Mike Quill at Local 100 membership meetings.

Those lessons still ring true today.

“Get what the workers need … but don’t be greedy.”

“Speak the truth to power … but compromise when you must.”

“Give as much as you can …. and then and only then draw the line.”

Local 100 did all these things and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more reasonable offer placed before a more unreasonable employer.

But when the time came the courageous officers and members of Local 100 remembered the lessons taught by A. Philip Randolph when he said, “You get what you can take and you keep what you can hold.”

When Local 100 won the biggest transit strike in history they held the line for all of us — including the service unions, the building trades, our industrial unions, the teachers and city employees.

But the MTA went right to work undermining the settlement and now they are trying to win in the courts what they could not win at the bargaining table.

So now it is time for all of us to hold the line for Local 100 and Roger Toussaint.

That means raising money and contributing all we can towards paying off a $2½ million dollar fine.

And it means raising hell until we amend the Taylor Law and restore the right of public workers to strike.

Roger – all these leaders and brothers and sisters will join together and march with you to begin serving a 10-day sentence for being a union man – a union leader.

Roger – you are guilty only of standing up to a boss that is unwilling to even discuss sharing its riches with the workers who generate the wealth.

A narrow-thinking judge sentenced you to jail for the biggest, most unselfish transgression a man or woman can commit — refusing to obey an unjust law.

Many of the rest of us have gone to jail for engaging in ceremonial expressions of civil disobedience – and believe me, only a few hours in a cell can be chilling.

So we want you to know that the spirit you’ve aroused in each of us will be with you in your confinement and that we’ll be praying for you in a silent vigil every night.

We also want you to know that every day you are in there – every day – we’ll be pounding away at the MTA.

Thank you. God bless all of you and your families. God bless New York City and God bless America.

April 24, 2006

[Sweeney’s plane was delayed and he was unable to deliver this speech in person.]

Chicago passes law protecting immigrants

Fri, 21 Apr 2006 09:21:00 +0000

African Americans have a stake in immigrant rights

Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:09:00 +0000

To see thousands of immigrants and their supporters marching, rallying and standing up for their rights is inspiring. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) was correct when she called immigration the civil rights issue of our time. The organized protests were responding to HR 4437 (and S 2454), legislation that would make every undocumented immigrant a felon and also criminalize organizations and individuals that helped them. The NAACP and other Black civil rights organizations have pledged their solidarity with immigrant rights.

The upsurge of millions of immigrant workers has led some to suggest they pose a problem for Black workers. Black Americans do face a crisis, but immigrants are not the cause.

The unemployment rate for African Americans is two to thee times the average rate for the entire population. More than 40 percent of African American workers work in the lowest paid occupations — janitorial, food preparation, non-professional health care, unskilled day labor, hotel, manufacturing and transportation. Immigrants have been recruited for the same jobs by Corporate America and its subsidiaries, who seek to increase their profits by establishing a permanent group of low-wage workers with no legal rights.

It is not difficult to understand why some African Americans perceive immigrants as “taking our jobs” and “lowering the standard of living for all workers.” African Americans were pushed out of some low-wage industries when they began organizing for better wages. Black tobacco workers in South Carolina were fired when they tried to organize. They were replaced with Latino migrant workers. Undocumented immigrants are super-exploited, forced to work for lower wages and in dangerous working conditions in order to survive. It is Big Business, not immigrants, that controls not only the job market but also government policies.

Why have millions of Mexican workers and others subjected themselves to life-threatening conditions to enter the U.S. to work? Andrew Christie, writing for the Sierra Club, notes that increased migration is caused by free-trade corporate globalization, which has resulted in financial and environmental degradation in less developed countries. The North American Free Trade Agreement, the Central American Free Trade Agreement and the “structural adjustments” required by World Bank and International Monetary Fund loans have caused greater poverty in Latin America, Africa and Asia than the development they have fostered. Immigrants are fleeing these conditions. They are trying to survive. Fair trade, instead of “free” trade policies and corporate greed, would decrease emigration and foster equitable, sustainable development worldwide.

Many African Americans are also trying to survive. As the U.S. de-industrialized and living-wage manufacturing jobs left for “right-to-work” (nonunion) states and then to foreign lands, African Americans have faced a future of low-wage service jobs with few benefits. With public education under attack, few Black students are being educated for skilled trades, high tech or professional jobs that have higher salaries. Black high school students in large cities have a dropout rate of more than 40 percent and college enrollment for Black males has plummeted.

But incarceration rates for Black males have been at crisis levels for over a decade. African Americans comprise 13 percent of the population but 50 percent of the prison population. Prisoners now make circuit boards, valves and fittings, eyeglasses, waterbeds and blue jeans. In California inmates booked vacations for TWA. One million African Americans are in jails nationwide. This is the new slavery. Latinos and whites comprise an additional million-plus prison inmates. Most ended up in prison because of illegal drugs.

The crack cocaine explosion was introduced to gangs in South Central Los Angeles in the 1980s by the CIA to raise funds for its Contra War against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. The drugs/guns network expanded the production and sale of drugs to every Black community throughout the country. The devastation of Black neighborhoods has been immense. The violent drugs/guns culture has infiltrated all culture — music, video games, clothing, film and language. The American dream has become an American nightmare for too many African American youth. They feel abandoned by government and society.

An immediate infusion of job training and living wage jobs is needed to turn this situation around. A national public works program to rebuild the inner cities of America must be proposed. Congress must be changed in 2006. A larger, stronger labor movement is needed to step up to the plate and build a coalition with all oppressed groups.

The immigrant rights movement has shown us the way: be vigilant and passionate in organizing your forces. African Americans must not let Corporate America win its game of divide and rule. African Americans understand criminalization, discrimination, isolation and separation. They must stand in solidarity with immigrant workers while standing up for their own civil and economic rights. Outreach is needed to build solidarity between the Latino and African American communities.

When oppressed groups cooperate, the entire working class benefits. Unity in California defeated Gov. Schwarzenegger’s anti-labor and anti-public service propositions. Unity saved King-Drew Hospital in Los Angeles. The 1983 election of Harold Washington as mayor of Chicago was the result of united forces of African Americans, Latinos and progressive whites. Only an all-peoples front can turn back the dangers we face at this historical time.

Rosita Johnson (phillyrose623@verizon.net) is a member of the People’s Weekly World editorial board.

Californias levees need a long-term plan

Fri, 21 Apr 2006 05:56:00 +0000

Though winter rains are finally ending, managers of California’s many dams and aging, sometimes dilapidated levees expect the system will face serious challenges into the summer. While many observers have warned a “Katrina-style” disaster is possible in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River system running through the Central Valley, environmentalists say restoring the levees will be a long-term, multibillion-dollar project involving many levels of government. And environmental justice organizations point out that people of color, especially Latinos, are disproportionately located in flood-prone zones.

Last week Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in 16 of the state’s 58 counties, increasing state funds to deal with the crisis caused by weeks of heavy rainfall and an exceptionally heavy snowpack in the High Sierras.

The governor called for

$6 billion in state funds for levee repairs. He had earlier requested $3 billion in federal funds, but the Bush administration and Congress have not yet responded. Funds for levees are also included in a state infrastructure proposal that stalled when bond issues providing partial funding failed to make the June ballot.

Earlier this month several levees broke, forcing evacuation of nearby residents and flooding at least two mobile home parks.

“A lot of low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately located in flood zones that are not protected for well-maintained levees,” said Miriam Torres of the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water (EJCW). “Many people say residents need to get out of those areas,” she added, “but that’s not a viable option for low-income communities.”

Torres said adequate mapping of flood-prone areas, and making national flood insurance affordable for low-income flood plain residents, would help, but the requirement that communities have flood protection programs is a barrier for poor communities and unincorporated areas.

EJCW is calling for state funding to help low-income communities and communities of color finance flood management plans and obtain comprehensive federal flood insurance.

The Central Valley’s levee system was created starting in the early 1900s, with some early levees built by farmers, said Monty Schmitt, restoration scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council. Levels of protection also vary along the same river channel, he said.

“Another major problem with the current flood control system is that many levees were built to protect agriculture, rather than people and homes,” Schmitt said. In addition, he said, “funding for maintenance, repairs and even inspections has not been there over time,” even in areas with known problems.

Schmitt pointed to the current pressure to develop housing on lands in and around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, where much of the area used to be wetlands. Diking off land for farming has created conditions where soils have subsided significantly in some areas, leaving them vulnerable to rapid, severe flooding. “It raises the question,” he said, “where is it appropriate for housing to be?”

Schmitt urged development of a comprehensive system-wide plan combining flood control and ecosystem restoration, incorporating studies done in the last 20 years, including the 2000-2003 Comprehensive Study by the state Department of Water Resources and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Politics heating up in Arizona

Fri, 21 Apr 2006 05:47:00 +0000

The Arizona political establishment was amazed when over 30,000 immigrant rights supporters marched through the streets of Phoenix March 24. The media noted this was the largest political demonstration in the state’s history.

When contacted for comment, right-wing Sen. John Kyl, the main target of the protest, was only able to mumble something about comprehensive immigration reform. Arizona’s six right-wing Republican congresspersons also stopped their anti-immigrant rantings for at least a day or two.

So just imagine the surprise and terror experienced by these right-wingers when on April 10 up to 200,000 protesters marched on the State Capitol, demanding justice for immigrants and shouting, “Today we march, tomorrow we vote.” The ultra-right leaders in the Legislature closed down their session and ran for their suburban homes, claiming the demonstrators were a threat to their safety.

State workers in nearby buildings didn’t feel threatened. Many came out and mingled with the protesting throng. Many others had taken the day off to take part in the march.

The right wing is scared because this is an election year and they feel vulnerable. Sen. Kyl (rhymes with vile) is up for election in November. As one of the most right-wing, pro-corporate members of Congress, he has a solid record of voting against working people — their unions, their human and civil rights, and their environment.

Kyl has been a strong supporter of the war in Iraq and is co-sponsor of one of the worst anti-immigrant bills in the Senate. Unlike Arizona’s other right-wing senator, Kyl is not colorful and does not give the impression that he ever breaks with the Bush administration.

As Bush’s popularity and support for the war falls, Kyl is becoming increasingly beatable. The AFL-CIO has chosen Kyl as one of their main targets in the 2006 elections, as have some environmental and human rights groups.

Leading Democratic candidate Jim Pederson could defeat Kyl if he would only hammer away at Kyl’s support for the Bush anti-people agenda. So far Pederson, a millionaire developer, has held back on the issues.

Another seat that Democrats hope to capture is the 8th Congressional District, which is being vacated by Republican Rep. Jim Kolbe after 22 years. The district has a slight Republican registration advantage, but also a large number of independents.

Gulf War veteran Jeff Latas launched his antiwar candidacy for the 8th CD seat early. When Kolbe announced his retirement, Latas was joined in the race for the Democratic nomination by state Sen. Gabrielle Giffords, longtime local news anchor Patty Weiss and school board member Alex Rodriguez.

Rep. Raul Grijalva, who represents the adjoining 7th CD, has joined much of the Democratic political establishment in supporting Giffords. However, Giffords’ avoidance of the issues and her garbled position on the unpopular war in Iraq may hurt her. By contrast, both Weiss and Latas have called for the U.S. to withdraw from Iraq. Latas, especially, has taken a strong antiwar position and will undoubtedly get the support of many progressives.

The September primary will also include several Republican candidates, including frontrunner Randy Graf, who is running on a xenophobic, anti-immigrant platform.

Grijalva, one of the most progressive members of Congress, will probably face only token opposition in his bid for re-election. He is expected to campaign hard, nonetheless, to mobilize his army of volunteers to turn out the vote for other candidates like Gov. Janet Napolitano and for Pederson. Grijalva’s 2002 race, where he mobilized over 650 volunteers, is credited with providing the winning margin for Napolitano.

Arizona’s labor movement will also be mobilizing to defeat Kyl and re-elect Napolitano. Labor is also backing a ballot initiative to create a $6.75 minimum wage for the state. Arizona has no minimum wage. (See related story, page 8.)

The Republican strategy has relied on splitting working-class voters by playing on their fears and prejudices. The Arizona Legislature has, accordingly, spewed out one anti-immigrant bill after another, some of which they will place on the ballot. Meanwhile the Christian right has been preparing an initiative against gay marriage for the 2006 ballot.

Now this ruling-class strategy seems to be cracking. The anti-gay marriage drive is short of signatures. And the anti-immigrant onslaught is being drowned out by the sound of marching feet.

Chicago City Council passes law protecting immigrants

Fri, 21 Apr 2006 03:55:00 +0000

The Chicago City Council passed an ordinance March 29 that forbids police and other city employees from participating in the witch-hunt against undocumented immigrants that has been whipped up by the Republican far right.

Under the Sensenbrenner bill, HR 4437, passed in the federal House of Representatives on Dec. 16, and some other bills under consideration, to be in this country without authorization would be come a felony, and this would automatically allow state and local police to investigate or arrest a person. These bills contain further language encouraging this and providing training for police in immigration enforcement.

In many towns and counties it is a regular practice for police to question people they have stopped, even for minor infractions, about their immigration status, and to deliver them to federal immigration authorities if they turn out to be undocumented.

Another bill, the CLEAR Act, would block certain federal funds from states and municipalities that don’t cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. And the REAL-ID act, passed and signed by President Bush last year, forces state departments of motor vehicles to authenticate documents presented by persons soliciting driver’s licenses for authenticity.

There is a lot of fear that such laws could lead, not only to suffering on the part of undocumented immigrants, but also to racial profiling and harassment of U.S. citizens and foreign visa holders who a policeman merely sees as appearing “foreign.” Undocumented immigrants who have reason to fear that their talking to police will lead to their arrest and deportation are also much less likely to cooperate with law enforcement in reporting crimes or giving evidence.

So the Chicago city ordinance, passed with little opposition two weeks after at least 300,000 people had marched for immigrants’ rights in the streets of the city, can be seen as an act of defiance against the anti-immigrant movement’s efforts to recruit police into their efforts.

According to Alderman Ed Burke, who is considered the “historian” of the Chicago City Council, this ordinance is nothing new. In 1850, Mayor James Curtis issued an executive order forbidding Chicago police from cooperating the federal Fugitive Slave Act which required authorities in Northern states which had abolished slavery to capture and return to their “owners” any escaped slaves found in their territories.

In 1985, Mayor Harold Washington issued another executive order, this one forbidding Chicago police and other officials from cooperating with the then INS in immigration enforcement actions. Washington did this partly because the Latino community asked him to. He had criticized federal authorities for questioning immigrants in Chicago who asked for city services.

Perhaps as revenge for the criticism, INS agents then stopped a high city official, Maria Cerda, in the hall outside her office and threatened to arrest her if she did not show them proof of U.S. citizenship. Cerda, then the head of the city’s office of job training, happened to be Puerto Rican and therefore a U.S. citizen from birth, and the indignation resulting from the agents’ action helped to unite the Mexican and Puerto Rican communities in the city. Alderman Billy Ocasio, who introduced the 2006 ordinance, is also Puerto Rican.

When Mayor Washington died in November 1987, Latinos and allies convinced his successors, Eugene Sawyer and Richard M. Daley, to keep the order in force. Over the years there has been slippage in enforcement, with many stories of Chicago police harassing immigrants by demanding to see their green cards. But the action by the City Council is a big step forward because a city ordinance has more teeth than an executive order.

Chicago is not the only city in the United States that has taken an official position in opposition to police enforcement of immigration laws. Such “sanctuary cities” include Portland, Ore., Denver, Colo., and Austin and Houston, Texas, to name a few. A 1996 federal law gives city employees who want to denounce possibly undocumented people to the federal government the right to do so in spite of city policies. There have been a number of lawsuits by anti-immigrant groups to try to end the sanctuary city movement; these have had mixed success.

Womens inequality makes capitalists rich

Fri, 14 Apr 2006 08:51:00 +0000

This article is from a talk given at a Women’s History Month event on the fight against male supremacy, held March 9 at Unity Center in Chicago. Another presentation at the event, “Male supremacy is not just women’s problem,” by John Bachtell, appeared in the 3/25-31 issue.

The fight for women’s equality is a momentous historical struggle whose victory is necessary to bring about the kind of world we desire. Even though many ills beset the world today, such as hunger, disease, religious conflict and national distrust, real headway in their resolution rests in women obtaining equality. In the United States today progress that has been made for women’s equality is being threatened by the Bush White House and the ultra-right corporate agenda it represents. Of special concern is women’s right to have legal abortions (a question of privacy and controlling their own bodies). And of course, the undervaluing of women’s labor in the workplace and home is constantly pursued in capitalist society.

For capitalism to maintain its dominance as a social and economic system, it must promote social and wage inequality among people. One of the greatest differences it seeks to convince people of is that men are superior to women and that the social and economic hierarchy should reflect that. Capitalism takes that as a fact that stands on its own — in other words, that men make $1 for every 75 cents made by women has nothing to do with capitalism and super-exploitation, but rather to men being better workers, that is, superior.

The Bush administration and ultra-right would argue they want equality for women. But they rarely if ever place emphasis on the wage gap between men and women. They ask us to look to some mythical equality of a bygone era or a time coming when women will tend properly to the home and children. This implies that many of our social ills are because too many women have lost their way, not adhering to their husbands or the guidelines of patriarchy, and as a result home, community and by extension the nation have become unstable.

In the face of this nonsense, reality makes its presence known. Capitalism has a worldwide impact on women and all humanity which results in almost unspeakable horror.

In our country, more and more capitalism is being exposed for the devastation it is leaving for the masses of people and the tremendous wealth it generates for the rich. Whether through job losses that lay waste to communities, or poor schools, or its exposure as non-caring with its response to natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, people are learning lessons.

However, the Bush administration and the ultra-right continue to push their ideology, trying to find or create differences that will make unity difficult to obtain. But reality does exist, and working-class men have to be struggled with to better understand the nature of capitalism. In that context, men can be moved to greater support of the labor movement and its fight to win better wages and working conditions for women and all workers.

A case in point that clearly shows how male supremacy is used is Wal-Mart, which is driving wages and benefits to the bottom for all workers. It employs 72 percent women, yet men hold 90 percent of store management positions. Less than one-third of management overall at Wal-Mart is female.

In the March 2004 issue of Political Affairs, Joel Wendland cites a Business Week article that declared, “Boys are becoming the second sex.” It stated that 57 percent of all new bachelor’s degrees and 58 percent of master degrees are awarded to women. This “education gap” is the source of the “new gender gap,” said Business Week.

This ultra-right position has to be countered among working-class men with other statistics pointed out by Wendland — for example: 8 of 10 retired women are not eligible for pension benefits; 50 percent of women who receive pension benefits get on the average only 60 cents for every dollar received by male pensioners; retired women depend on Social Security for 71 percent of their income; and about 25 percent of retired women rely solely on Social Security. The AFL-CIO says the average woman will lose $523,000 in her lifetime to unequal pay.

Wendland poses a pertinent question: if the average woman loses $523,000 in income in her life, costing women as a whole $200 billion yearly, is this amount gained by men? His answer is no. This amount goes to the employers as labor cost savings.

This is the point that has to be made to working-class men over and over again. Our jobs, communities, schools, senior citizen homes, indeed our entire standard of living, are falling due in large part to the superexploitation of women. The pockets of the rich are overflowing. Unity between the labor movement, women’s movement and people’s movement is necessary to begin to change this injustice.

Shelby Richardson is a public worker and trade unionist in Chicago.

Not this time rape, race and class at Duke

Fri, 14 Apr 2006 08:49:00 +0000

The great unspoken now has public voice. Women rarely report sexual assault, rape. When the victim is African American, the silence is deafening. That is about to change.

ESPN and CBS put the Duke University lacrosse team on the national radar. During a break in the annual March Madness, the NCAA basketball tournament, sports commentators reported that an “exotic” dancer had filed rape charges against members of the Duke lacrosse team. In their account the victim had it coming — she was an “exotic” dancer after all; “boys will be boys”; isn’t it too bad that the university president suspended the nationally ranked team from play, and a shame that a prestigious school is bruised.

With this discussion on national TV, there is little wonder that reports of rape are rare. According to a study by Michigan State University Law School, there are savage inequalities in the sentencing of men convicted of rape. If the victim is white, the perpetrator gets an average of 10 years in prison. But if the victim is African American, the perpetrator gets only an average of two years in prison. There is silence, because all rape victims know that they will be put on public trial, often in the media. The system is tarnished by male supremacy. There is deafening silence because African American women know that racism in the judicial system, a continuing legacy of slavery, can destroy them.

But the surrounding Durham community, North Carolina Central University, where the victim is a student, and Duke students and faculty had had enough.

The victim, a 27-year-old African American mother of two who is a full time student at NCCU, had only worked for an escort service for two months prior to the March 13 attack. She and a friend agreed for the first time to dance for a small bachelor party for the extra money — so much for the “exotic” dancer routine.

Of the 47 members of the lacrosse team, 46 are white, mostly from the northeast. Yearly tuition and board at Duke is $43,000, a little more than the average income for entire families in Durham.

Since March 13, there have been daily demonstrations, vigils, prayer services, sit-ins and town meetings in the neighborhood where the assault occurred and on both Duke and NCCU campuses, bridging the abyss of race and class.

NCCU students embraced the victim, raising money to help support her family while she recovered in the hospital from the assault.

Not this time will the victim recoil in silent shame from family and community. They have stepped forward, bringing comfort and dignity. This time, Black and white, affluent and struggling, professional and blue-collar people of good will united, acted and provided voice. Not as a mob, as some lawyers have suggested, but as civilized society.

The Durham and university community broke the code of silence. This time, the people forced the rich and powerful to the courtroom. This time the people protected, not blamed or ignored, the victim. This time, the rule of law has a chance.

Denise Winebrenner Edwards (dwinebr696@aol.com) is a member of the People’s Weekly World editorial board.

EDITORIAL: Waving the flag

Fri, 14 Apr 2006 08:38:00 +0000

With the sea of American flags waving at the Washington Monument and in the streets of towns and cities across our country, immigrant rights marchers are reclaiming the flag as a symbol of liberty, democracy and humanity.

For too long, the American flag has been hijacked and stained by phony patriots — the ultra-right “summer soldiers” who send other people’s children off to die in imperial wars. It has been hijacked by racists and chauvinists who trample on our multicultural, multiracial history. It has been hijacked by corporate globalizers who squeeze and discard workers and farmers in the U.S. and around the world. These folks have turned the American flag into an ugly symbol.

But the Stars and Stripes were born in a revolution declaring, for the first time in world history, that all people are created equal, with inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In the American Revolution and later the Civil War, the Stars and Stripes were the banner of democracy and emancipation. The flag symbolized the struggle against empires, aristocracy and slavocracy.

In the 230 years since the Declaration of Independence, our nation has been built by the labor of Native Americans and workers who migrated from the four corners of the globe or were brought in chains from Africa.

Our culture, science and industry have all been enriched by their contributions. American as apple pie? Even the apple is not native to these shores. (It was brought here from Europe, and scientists trace its likely origins to Asia.)

When immigrant rights marchers wave the flags of their homelands alongside the U.S. flag, it is entirely appropriate and very American. The people of our country have always celebrated and drawn strength from their own heritages — through cultural, social and workers clubs, newspapers, aid societies and religious institutions — at the same time as they have contributed to American society.

Our concepts of democracy have been expanded by the varied struggles of all peoples for their own civil rights and for their collective rights as workers and human beings. That is the meaning of the American flag that today’s marchers have reclaimed for us all.

Today we march, tomorrow we vote 2 million immigrants & supporters stand up for equality & justice

Fri, 14 Apr 2006 07:00:00 +0000

NEW YORK — In the city that is home to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, 125,000 people, native- and foreign-born alike, turned out April 10 for a historic National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice. It was the city’s largest demonstration so far for immigrant rights.

The day of action mobilized some 2 million people in big and small cities and towns nationwide. (See NATIONALCLIPS and our online eXtra for more coverage.) Huge numbers and a festive, family-friendly, working-class spirit have been the hallmarks of this new civil rights movement.

New York’s massive show of unity saw labor, religious, ethnic, community, civil rights and peace organizations joining immigrant workers in a strikingly multiracial and multi-ethnic outpouring. The immigrant rights struggle has sometimes been portrayed as solely a Latino or Mexican issue. But at the New York rally, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim clergy, city and state officials, Democratic Reps. Jose Serrano, who is Puerto Rican, and Charles Rangel, an African American, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer, and a wide array of grassroots representatives declared that immigrant rights are important to all American people.

Broadway was a sea of color as marchers carried thousands of American flags interspersed with flags of the native lands of the city’s immigrant population — all continents and, it seemed, nearly all countries were represented, from as far away as Senegal, Yugoslavia, Colombia, Ireland and even Australia.

“Yes, I carry two flags today,” Juanita, an undocumented maid who works in Manhattan, told the World, referring to the Honduran and U.S. banners she held. The Honduras flag “means my family, and hometown. The American flag represents me now,” she said. “I’m proud. I’m proud of where I come from but also where I am now, too.”

Solidarity across immigrant communities was evident. “The Irish are with you 100 percent!” said Brian McKenna of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform. “We’re going to get legalized. Stand together, no matter if you’re Black, brown or white. We are one — Sí se puede!”

“Sí se puede!” echoed a representative of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. He compared the plight of immigrants today to what happened a century ago when the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act caused “thousands of families to be broken up.”

The April 10 actions re-energized the immigrant rights movement after a Senate “compromise” fell apart last week. The message to President Bush and Congress from the nationwide actions was, “We are not criminals.” Immigration legislation cannot criminalize the undocumented, the marchers declared, and must include a path to legalization and citizenship for the 12 million people who work hard yet are forced to live in the shadows. Legislation must provide for united families and civil and workplace rights, speakers emphasized.

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson told the New York rally, “You deserve the chance to move out of the shadows — hold your head high and set out on a clear path that will take you to permanent residency in this country. You deserve a safe workplace, a fair wage with benefits, fair treatment, respect and dignity.”

Public opinion backs the demand for a path to citizenship. In a new Washington Post-ABC News poll 63 percent favored letting immigrants who have lived in the country a certain number of years apply for legal status and eventually become citizens. Only one in five embraced the criminalization measures in House bill HR 4437. And 61 percent disapprove of President Bush’s handling of immigration reform.

Unity was a key message. “They try to divide us,” Sarah Jones, actress/writer of Broadway’s “Bridge & Tunnel,” told the crowd. “We should not fight each other for crumbs, while they feast on our labor and steal from all of us. As a Black woman, I stand with all of you!”

Labor unions played a major part in the rally. Orlando Lara, on strike for five months with GSOC/UAW Local 2110, which represents graduate student workers at New York University, said the administration there had unsuccessfully tried to weaken the strike by threatening foreign workers with deportation. “Today,” Lara said, “GSOC stands in solidarity with all workers and students without papers.”

“We are all immigrants,” said United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. “We cannot turn our backs on our country and our people. We need to roll back the House of Representatives.” She added that teachers do not want to be “snitches” or spy on their students, as HR 4437 calls for.

Roger Toussaint, head of Transport Workers Union Local 100, did not speak as scheduled, because he was in court, where he was sentenced to 10 days in jail for leading a pre-Christmas transit strike. When rally emcee Hector Figueroa of SEIU Local 32BJ hailed Toussaint, originally from Trinidad, as an immigrant worker the crowd erupted with a stormy solidarity ovation.

“This is a rally for human rights, for the soul of our country,” N.Y. Civil Liberties Union head Donna Lieberman told the World. The notion of immigrants “stealing” American jobs is wrong, she said. “They’re a critical part of our economy and a critical part of our society.”

EDITORIAL: Tax justice

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 06:32:00 +0000

As Americans scramble to file their tax returns by the April 15 deadline, a new tax study got us angry.

A New York Times analysis of Internal Revenue Service data shows that President Bush’s tax cuts for investors “have significantly lowered the tax burden on the richest Americans, reducing taxes on incomes of more than $10 million by an average of about $500,000.” Combined with Bush’s other tax cuts, this tiny group of fat cats saved over $1 million on their taxes. Notes the Times, “The top one-tenth of 1 percent of taxpayers got 43 percent of the benefit.”

Those who benefit the most from this country’s bounty and the labor of its workers get the tax breaks in Bushworld.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the tax cuts enacted since 2001 are “exacerbating the concentration of after-tax income at the top of the income scale.

Is it OK that the guy who mops the floor at Exxon Mobil headquarters and the gal who operates an oil rig basically foot the bill for Exxon Mobil executives?

Is it just that U.S. soldiers fighting in Afghanistan or Iraq carry the burden of paying for the Halliburton trucks they give their blood to protect, while the corporation mobilizes its army of lawyers and accountants to, in fact, write the tax laws? Can it be any wonder that Halliburton’s one-year profits exceed the budget of entire cities?

And the military budget now claims 53 cents of every tax dollar deducted from workers’ paychecks. Certainly peace would be more cost effective.

Our tax laws and federal spending priorities cry out for basic change, around a few simple themes: Tax the rich. End loopholes for the wealthy and big business. Slash military spending. Eliminate corporate/military/government crony corruption.

In every congressional district this year, candidates will be holding forums, peace and economic justice groups and union will be meeting, and churches and block clubs will bring taxpayers together. Ending Bush’s tax handouts to the super-rich and democratic tax reform both deserve a spot on their agendas.

National tour tells McD's: I'm not lovin' it

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 04:59:00 +0000

Forty-five Florida tomato workers, members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), were lovin’ the solidarity from student, labor, community and religious groups in St. Louis and Chicago rallies last week. The events were part of the workers’ McDonald’s Truth Tour — “The Real Rights Tour” — that is traveling to 17 cities across the nation, fighting for living wages and worker rights.

Nearly 100 people rallied outside a St. Louis McDonald’s on March 28. Earlier, tomato picker Rolando Sales told St. Louis University students, “We are exploited every day. We live in extreme poverty. Animals are treated better than us.”

Sales said he picks 125 buckets of tomatoes a day for $50. Every bucket, he said, weighs 32 pounds. “We work seven days a week, 10 to 12 hours a day.”

Tomato pickers work in “modern day slavery,” Sales said. “We are talking about workers forced to work. Their paychecks are stolen from them. They are abused in the fields. Some are beaten.”

In Chicago hundreds rallied outside the Rock ’n’ Roll McDonald’s April 1. College students joined as part of a National Student-Labor Week of Action.

A tomato worker told the World about his living and working conditions. “Ten people live in a four-person trailer because we don’t have enough to pay rent,” he said. “The people who benefit from our sweat are big corporations like McDonald’s. When you get sick, you get fired. You get sick from the pesticides.”

“This is a workers’ struggle, a human rights struggle,” AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff told the crowd. “The right to organize, to have dignity and respect, a livable wage for the future of our kids, is a human right for all workers. This kind of fight represents the heart of the labor movement and that’s why the AFL-CIO is here in solidarity.”

Most restaurant and fast food chains have code of conduct agreements for farm animals (to make sure that they are treated humanely) but not for farm workers. The tomato workers are excluded from the National Labor Relations Act and have no overtime pay, health insurance, sick leave, paid vacation or other benefits.

Many are undocumented immigrants. “The contractor doesn’t ask for your papers. They don’t care,” Sales told the St. Louis students. “We live in a trailer without hot water or air conditioning. These are the conditions we face without a voice.”

But the growers are just part of the problem, he said. “The corporations are responsible. They are the ones that have the power. They are the ones that buy the product at the cheapest price possible. They treat us like machines. When we can’t work anymore, they throw us away. They make millions in profits, while we live in poverty.”

CIW organized a successful four-year national boycott of Taco Bell and its parent company Yum Brands. Taco Bell agreed to establish a code of conduct agreement and guarantee farm worker participation in protection of their rights. Taco Bell is directly contributing to an increase in tomato pickers’ wages. CIW hopes to establish the same agreement with McDonald’s.

Roberta Wood contributed to this story

Medical students rally for universal health care

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 04:42:00 +0000

CHICAGO — Wearing white coats and stethoscopes, and carrying signs and banners, medical students rallied in support for universal health care here March 31. The students were joined by health care consumers and elected officials at the Health Care Justice Rally.

AMSA President Leana Wen told the crowd of 500, “We see our patients choose between paying for food and paying for their medications. We know this is bad medicine, bad economics and bad policy.”

“The time is now,” she said, “to put patients ahead of corporate greed, to mobilize our forces as future doctors who advocate for our patients.”

Kao Ping-Chua, the AMSA Jack Rutledge Fellow for Universal Health Care, also spoke. “As future doctors of America, we have always worked to create a health care system that works for all Americans, not just those who can afford health care,” he said. “That is why medical students from around the country support the health care reform efforts in Illinois.”

Illinois First Lady Patricia Blagojevich, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and American Indian Health Service director Ken Scott were among the rally speakers.

Illinois is on the brink of providing far-reaching health care reforms, according to the rally organizers.

Signs that read “Everybody In, Nobody Out,” calling for the implementation of the state’s Health Care Justice Act, dotted the rally landscape. The Health Care Justice Act, signed into law by Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2004, is to be implemented by 2007. The act would provide health care coverage for all the state’s residents — an unprecedented undertaking, according to health care policy experts. There are 1.8 million uninsured people in Illinois. A series of public meetings in each Illinois legislative district is taking place and a task force is set to present reform proposals to the Legislature, perhaps by August.

The rally coincided with the American Medical Student Association’s 56th Annual Convention. The students were insightful, optimistic and enthusiastic towards providing health care for all people.

Rosalie Defino, 18, a student at the University of Chicago, came to the rally with some of her classmates. “Health care is a right, not a privilege,” she told the World. “The only way to ensure its success is to make sure that everyone has access to quality health care.”

Smriti Mohan, 25, a third-year medical student at St. Louis University, said health care access should not be based on employment. “Universal health care is a real possibility that can be implemented, it’s not as difficult as the government wants us to believe,” she said.

Darla Severin, 28, who is a second year student at Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine, emphasized that universal health care needs to include undocumented workers.

Dock Winston, 28, is a national coordinator for AMSA’s Minority Affairs Committee and a third-year New Jersey Medical School student interested in urology and psychiatry. He said outreach to minority communities is critical. “A lot of minorities are not aware about the issues” regarding universal health care, he said.

Amanda Michael, 24, a second-year student at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, is interested in family practice and infectious diseases. She said whole families, not just the children, need to have access to quality health care. “Too many people are struggling,” she said. The Illinois law “is a push in the right direction, it’s a big step for the future and for better health care for all.”

The Campaign for Better Health Care (CBHC), Illinois’ largest grassroots health care coalition, organized the rally with AMSA. Founded in 1989, the coalition is driven by the simple premise that health care is a right, not a privilege.

“Crushing health care costs threaten the health and financial security of every resident and every business in our state,” said Jim Duffett, executive director of CBHC. “There is consensus for real change. People all across the state must seize this opportunity to make their voices heard as they take part in one of the greatest endeavors in our state’s history.”

Our children are not for sale: Baltimore labor slams midnight attack on public schools

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 04:38:00 +0000

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — “They want to turn our schools over to corporate America to operate at a profit. But our children are not for sale!” So said an angry Marietta English, president of the Baltimore Teachers Union.

She spoke to the World during an AFL-CIO rally April 3 here protesting the state’s takeover of 11 Baltimore schools, as well as a 72 percent rate hike for Baltimore Gas & Electric (BG&E) approved by the Maryland Public Service Commission and other pro-corporate initiatives by Republican Gov. Bob Ehrlich.

Maryland Schools Superintendent Nancy Grasmick invoked President Bush’s No Child Left Behind law as legal cover to take over the 11 “failing” schools and turn them over to corporate profiteers like Edison Schools. Bush’s Education Secretary Margaret Spellings gushed that she is a member of the “Nancy Grasmick fan club” since Grasmick rammed the takeover through the Maryland School Board without alerting Baltimore’s school board, mayor or city council.

Gov. Ehrlich is seen as the moving force for the school takeover, hoping to undermine Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley, his likely Democratic opponent in the Nov. 7 elections. But Ehrlich’s maneuver was backfiring badly.

Glenn Middleton, executive director of District Council 67, American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, told the World, “They came like a thief in the night to take these schools over. Grasmick has close relations with the governor. This was timed to embarrass Mayor O’Malley. It is an insult to the Legislature and the Baltimore School Board.” To invoke No Child Left Behind in the takeover, he added, “makes this a threat to every other school district in the State of Maryland.”

Hundreds of union members rode buses to the 15th annual AFL-CIO “Night in Annapolis” rally. Ernie Greco, Baltimore AFL-CIO president, introduced the contingents: International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Plumbers and Steamfitters, Ironworkers, Laborers, Steelworkers, Autoworkers and several public workers unions.

They cheered Maryland legislators for passing a bill to block the school takeover for one year. Greeted as a hero was state Sen. Nathaniel McFadden (D-Baltimore), who fast-tracked the moratorium so the Legislature would have time to override Ehrlich’s promised veto. “That was a midnight attack on those 11 schools,” McFadden told the crowd. “You talk about local control but don’t even give them advance warning they are going to be taken over. We know the schools have problems. But turning those schools over to an outside private contractor is not the answer.”

McFadden pointed toward the governor’s mansion, shouting that his moratorium “is a protective order, to protect the children” from Ehrlich.

The crowd also cheered a bill rushed through in the eleventh hour, to fire the commissioners who approved the BG&E rate hike that will cost the average ratepayer $750 and some as much as $1,500 in higher gas and electric bills this year. Caps imposed on rate increases when the General Assembly passed a deregulation bill in 1999 expire this year, and BG&E is making up for lost time. Ehrlich appointed all but one Public Service Commission member, all with crony ties to BG&E.

The Legislature also approved a bill giving it veto power over a merger between Constellation Energy Group, BG&E’s owner, and Florida Power & Light, as well as a bill to recoup $528 in charges to customers. The charges were based on projections that BG&E electric generating plants would depreciate. Instead their value has skyrocketed.

Ehrlich has vowed to veto the General Assembly’s attempts to block his corporate giveaways but it began its January session by overriding eight Ehrlich vetoes, including vetoes of an increase in the state minimum wage and the Fair Share Health Care Act.

“Override Ehrlich,” the crowd chanted. “We want O’Malley.”

O’Malley called Ehrlich “the most anti-worker, anti-labor governor Maryland has had in 50 years,” telling the crowd, “We don’t need a governor who, like George W. Bush, stands for maximum profits for the big energy corporations.”

Ehrlich is behind the schools takeover even though Baltimore schools are steadily improving, he said. “Are we going to allow that?” The crowd roared, “No!”

Speaking for Baltimore teachers, English accused Ehrlich of “turning our schools and our children into a political football.”

“This takeover is just another way of taking resources out of Baltimore schools that are already underfunded. We need smaller class sizes, more resources,” she said. Noting that city schools have shown progress on test scores, she said, “They never consulted with us about this takeover.”

General Assembly Majority Whip Anthony Brown, an African American Iraq war veteran, is O’Malley’s running mate. He told the rally, “We need to dismantle the Public Service Commission. It is dysfunctional. It is not serving the working families of Maryland. Ehrlich will veto that and we will override. Ehrlich is using children in Baltimore as political pawns. I’m proud that Democrats in the Legislature stood up to stop that.”

Walkout: Nationwide, thousands of high school students rally for immigrant rights

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 04:35:00 +0000

NEWBURGH, N.Y. — Students in this small city walked out of class at exactly noon, March 31, to demand immigrant rights, joining a wave of thousands of students doing the same thing in Los Angeles, San Diego, El Paso, Yakima, Wash., and scores of other cities across the nation.

Over 100 students walked out of this city’s one high school, Newburgh Free Academy, at the end of their sixth period, organizers said. “We stayed in school until most of our classes were done, and then we just got out,” Jose Tobon, the main organizer, told the World. “We stayed in school because we didn’t want people to think we were getting out just for the hell of it, or to get a day off.”

After leaving the school, the students assembled at a nearby church, then marched through the city carrying signs opposing the punitive anti-immigrant Sensenbrenner bill and demanding immigrant rights.

Rosa Matias, a 16-year-old sophomore who participated in the walkout, said Newburgh students were inspired “after watching all the other student walkouts across the country, especially Los Angeles,” where some 40,000 students have walked out of schools over the past week.

Matias added, “It wasn’t all immigrants. While she herself was born in the U.S., she said, “My mom’s from Mexico and my dad’s from Puerto Rico. We’re all citizens. Everyone came over here as an immigrant. The only people who deserve to say ‘go back to your country’ are the Native Americans.” She added, “We just don’t want things to get worse for immigrants.”

“I think it was a fine way of expressing themselves,” said Angela, an African American parent of a student who did not participate in the walkout. “I do support what they stand for, and I am a citizen, born here.”

Some Southern California schools tried to interfere with the walkouts, chaining their doors and issuing truancy notices. The Newburgh students faced a better situation, as many teachers, faculty and parents, both immigrant and native-born, were sympathetic.

“I didn’t want to tell anybody from the school, because some of them might not have agreed with it. But when I came back to school everybody really supported me,” Tobon said. “Most of my teachers are white, and they were cool with it.”

Peter Copeletti, NFA’s principal, said, “We did not take any disciplinary action against them.” He added that classes missed would be counted as skipped, but the students would not be given detentions. “It will just go towards their cumulative attendance rate.”

The NFA students’ exuberance contrasted starkly with a pall of fear that seemed to surround some older immigrant residents. Several Middle Eastern storeowners became nervous when conversation turned toward immigration and refused to answer questions. One said he had been advised by his brother not to talk to anyone without a lawyer present.

There was support in the community, though. “It’s kind of crazy if you think about it,” said Damon Johnson, an African American resident. “There’s no way to take all of those people and just displace them. What are we going to do, put everybody out?”

The sentiment was echoed by another resident, Jim Mennillo. “They should have a path to citizenship, since they’ve been working here for years as law-abiding citizens,” he said. But he added, “They want to come. Just do it legally.”

Tobon said he appreciated that virtually no one in the school or among those he had spoken to harbored ill-will towards the immigrant population, but he was disturbed when people said the solution was for immigrants to simply come legally. “They think it’s that simple,” he said. “You just walk down the street and get citizenship like if it was that easy, like going to the store. It’s a very long, tough, maybe impossible process.”

Newburgh was a small piece of a nationwide wave of high school walkouts, sparked when 30,000 walked out March 23 in Los Angeles. The movement spread across southern California, then to places like Las Vegas, where some 4,000 students walked out last week, and Tucson, Houston and Dallas, where 16-year-old Gustavo Jimenez helped lead thousands of students in united protests. The walkout wave reached the East Coast, including J.E.B. Stuart High School in Fairfax County, Va., where dozens of students walked out, joining with hundreds from neighboring schools.

The walkouts show no signs of abating. A quick search on MySpace.com, a web site popular among young people, reveals dozens more planned actions.

Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, Senate Republicans maneuvered to try to weaken a measure passed by the Judiciary Committee that provides a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrant workers. As senators prepared to head home for a two-week recess, immigrant rights organizations, joined by labor and religious and other groups, were readying an April 10 National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice with big demonstrations in major cities across the nation.

In the House, Rep. Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.) has introduced a measure, HR 5035, that would allow judges to intervene in cases where U.S. citizen children would be harmed by deportations of undocumented parents.

Jim Lane and Emile Schepers contributed to this story.

U.S. stonewalling on extraditing anti-Cuba terrorist

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 14:50:00 +0000

There is much that is remarkable about Luis Posada Carriles — accused airplane bomber, wrecker of hotels, murderer, and would-be assassin of Fidel Castro. Even after 11 months in U.S custody, however, the only charge against him is entry into the United States without the proper documents.

On March 22, the U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement Agency (ICE) announced that Posada would remain in detention “for the foreseeable future.” It left open the possibility of his deportation to another country at a later date.

Venezuela requested Posada’s extradition on June 15, 2005, and again on March 13. Jose Pertierra, Venezuela’s lawyer in Washington, has declared that under the Convention on Civil Aviation, Posada’s extradition to Venezuela should be automatic for the U.S. He cites three extradition treaties between the two countries.

Presumably, once in Venezuela, Posada would be retried on charges of blowing up the Cuban airliner in 1976, proceedings that had been interrupted in 1985 by his escape from jail with CIA help.

Pertierra expresses outrage at the Bush administration’s maneuvers, which essentially leave extradition up to an administrative court rather than to the State Department or a federal court.

Six months ago, a Texas immigration judge, citing the UN Compact on Torture, ruled against extradition, alleging there was a high risk that Posada would be tortured if he were returned to Venezuela. The judge relied upon testimony from a Posada colleague from the early 1970s when they operated the Venezuelan Intelligence Services — and, say accusers, practiced torture.

But there’s no such risk today, says the Bolivarian government of Hugo Chávez, which has radically overhauled the social and political order there. Government officials have offered assurances that Posada will be treated fairly if he is returned for trial.

On March 23, it came out that Posada would be moved from El Paso to South Florida in order to be on hand for another trial, this time the trial of millionaire developer Santiago Alvarez. Posada will serve as a defense witness assigned to the job of discrediting an informant, Gilberto Abascal, who steered the FBI to Alvarez’s illegal stash of weapons in Fort Lauderdale on Nov. 18.

A watching world will be treated to the spectacle of testimony from a terrorist and criminal offered up as counterweight to machine guns, grenade launchers, ammunition, C-4 plastic explosives and silencers found in buildings owned by Alvarez.

The object may be to spotlight Alvarez and Posada as the vanguard of anti-Cuban excess and symbol of shared struggle among exiles. Alvarez has served as financial backer for Posada, provided money to assassinate Fidel Castro in Panama, delivered Posada from Mexico to Miami in his yacht, and not least, taken part in an attempt to blow up Havana’s Tropicana nightclub.

The stage is apparently being set for mobilizing anti-Cuban prejudice in a campaign to influence judge and jury. In the Florida media, Posada is typically referred to as a “militant” or, for the benefit of the Cuban American community, as a “freedom fighter.” Observers point out that in Florida, right-wing Cubans set the terms of struggle such that lies and criminal behavior are flaunted, while the debunking of hypocrisy and falsehood falls on deaf ears.

Blunderbuss tactics in Florida may serve, however, to cover up manifestations of doubt elsewhere. For example, in an ICE letter to Posada made public on March 31, Washington officials show signs of uncertainty over the dilemma posed by the hot potato in their hands.

Written in support of his continued detention, the letter refers to “ your long history of criminal activity and violence in which innocent civilians were killed. ... Further, you have shown a cavalier attitude toward ... the safety and well-being of persons and property.” Surprisingly enough, these are words out of Washington that echo the judgment of world opinion.

Indeed, the struggle to bring Posada to justice does extend worldwide. A Committee of Family members of victims of the airliner crash of 1976 has announced the creation of a web site, http://www.familiesforjustice.net. In a statement, the committee declares, “As the victims of Sept. 11 continue to await the capture and trial of Osama bin Laden, who is supposedly hiding in a dark cave, we the victims of the terrorist actions of the Osama bin Laden of Latin America, Luis Posada Carriles, know exactly where he is.”

The prospect of Posada in Florida has fueled concerns that eventually he may be released on parole, especially if illness and disability become factors. He is 78 years old, and Jose Pertierra sees the possibility of Posada being freed, “little by little.”