People Before Profit blog

WHAT'S ON

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 05:55:00 +0000

NEW YORK CITY Lecture by Sidney Gluck on modern China. May 13, Sat., 2 p.m. Foreign policies of China & USA, with guest speaker Prof. A. Tom Grunfield, SUNY Empire State College. All at Cooper Union Hewitt Auditorium, 41 Cooper Sq, 2nd Fl (E. side of 3rd Ave. between E. 6th and 7th Sts.). Info: 212-267-5358 or email izuckerman@aol.com.

Rally seeks justice for victims of police torture

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 05:42:00 +0000

CHICAGO — “Justice delayed is justice denied,” shouted the crowd at a rally and picket line here April 24 in front of Special Prosecutor Edward Egan’s downtown office.

Egan was appointed by an appellate judge in 2002 to investigate allegations that former Police Commander Jon Burge and others under his command tortured suspects to obtain confessions. But four years and $5 million later, according to some estimates, a report has yet to be issued.

Burge is believed to be responsible for leading a corrupt police brutality ring on the city’s South Side that used electroshock devices, Russian roulette, near-suffocation and beatings to get false confessions out of more than 135 African American men during his tenure. Some of the torture victims, known as the Death Row 10, were sentenced to death, while many others continue to serve long prison terms.

Neither Burge nor any of the officers who worked under his command have faced prosecution, and Burge, fired in 1993, still collects a full pension.

Rally-goers held signs that read, “Torture by Chicago’s finest,” and “Jail Jon Burge.” Another read, “Stop police torture.”

Julien Ball, an organizer with the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, told the World, “We’re here today to say enough is enough and that it’s time to bring indictments against Jon Burge and his officers.” Ball said Egan is expected to release his report in three weeks. “We hope that’s correct and we hope that he brings charges,” he said.

Gloria J. Johnson-Ester, an African American, attended the rally-related press conference to show her support for the issue. Her son Montell Johnson was on death row until former Gov. George Ryan commuted his sentence to 40 years.

She said her son, who suffers from chronic progressive multiple sclerosis and advanced dementia since age 40, was wrongfully convicted. Even the mother of the victim has sided with her, she said.

“There is injustice in the system,” she told the World. “There is something wrong when they don’t believe the mothers. You don’t put them to death because they’re poor and minority. This is not slavery.”

Johnson-Ester said there are currently 196 cases in Illinois where the state is seeking the death penalty. Of these prisoners, 155 are Black, 25 Latino and 16 white.

Larry Kennon, an attorney and original petitioner to appoint Egan to investigate Burge, told the World, “We are here today to see that justice be done and that Egan prosecute Jon Burge, who is a brutal torturer.”

Kennon later told the rally, “I hope that Egan will not allow himself to be a part of the general institutional racism of the Chicago police system.”

Darby Tillis, a former death row inmate who was exonerated, said, “I’m a political prisoner, used and abused. People don’t know what it’s like to lay in a cell and rot. It’s time to get justice for these men.”

The Rev. Calvin Morris from the Community Renewal Society said, “We are urging him [Egan] to speak and present his report. We believe that justice, morality and ethics require it. We are all here because our traditions seek justice, and we will continue to raise our voices.”

At the end of the rally a small delegation went up to Egan’s office to deliver an open letter and make contact with the special prosecutor. No one answered the door.

MOVIE REVIEW: What were the Germans thinking?

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 05:40:00 +0000

Those of us alive today look at the artifacts and remembrances of Germany’s great war against humankind and wonder, “What were they thinking?”

The new film “Sophie Scholl,” a small story of resistance to the greatest tragedy of the 20th century, gives us a big opportunity to fulfill our need for answers. Its most important strength is its simple veracity.

Sophie Scholl, her brother Hans and others were arrested for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets at their university in February 1943. The story of the White Rose resistance group has been told in film before, but never so personally and never so directly. The new film has very few actors, very simple sets and no special effects. Almost every spoken word seems to have come directly from historical transcripts.

The film is not rated, but could easily have gotten a PG. Several unions helped make it. It comes as a great surprise to find that the film, with a run-time of almost two hours, is longer than most. It whizzes by.

Sophie is a great heroine. Actress Julia Jentsch gives a wonderful full-dimensioned and personal portrayal of such a great contributor. But the movie goes far beyond Sophie as it develops the attitudes, understandings and, especially, the fears of her inquisitor and all the other speaking parts. Through inference and dialogue, the participating viewer gains a great deal of insight into what the rest of the Third Reich may have been thinking.

And this brings us to the most important value of this work of art: our newfound understanding and appreciation of World War II German thought patterns may have a certain utility in understanding our world today.

Neo-noir movies thrive

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 05:36:00 +0000

Life is tough in the big city. It’s also tough in high school, as the case may be. Bogart, Mitchum and, more recently, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Josh Hartnett get slammed around a lot. They have to resist a lot of incredibly willing sex sirens, they have to figure out a lot of puzzles, and they have to kill a lot of people. Most of all, they have to maintain their sense of humor.

They are forced to frequent low dives in order to locate horrible scumbags. Or, in high school, they have to find out where students eat their lunch. They have to uncover, and subsequently ignore, nefarious acts like smoking marijuana or doping racehorses. They inevitably have to stall off the police while they manipulate “Mr. Big” crime bosses into their own doom.

Life is tough in the shadowy big city, and on the movie screens that portray it. As they tuck hot .45-caliber automatics into their shoulder holsters and step over bodies slowly seeping life into deep carpets while making wisecracks, action heroes have to remember the underlying reason for their commitment to these seemingly endless chains of mock-violence: “It’s the genre!”

Brick Written and directed by Rian Johnson. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lukas Haas, Nora Zehetner, Noah Segan, Noah Fleiss and Emilie de Ravin.

Lucky Number Slevin Directed by Paul McGuigan. Starring Josh Hartnett, Bruce Willis, Lucy Liu, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley and others.

Neil Young releasing antiwar album

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 05:30:00 +0000

Neil Young has come full circle. In just three days, earlier this month, he and a 100-voice choir, backed by metal musicians and brass, recorded a protest album whose second track is “Let’s Impeach the President.”

In 2001, Young publicly backed the USA Patriot Act, aligning himself with the Bush administration.

The title track on “Living with War” is an anti-Iraq-war song that Young compares to the work of 1960s folk artists Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan. At Young’s web site, www.neilyoung.com, lyrics include, “I raise my hand in peace, I never bow to the laws of the thought police, I take a holy vow, To never kill again.”

Elliot Roberts, Young’s longtime manager, told Reuters, “It’s devoted to the state of America or the direction America is moving in.”

“Living with War’ comes just seven months after the release of Young’s highly praised album “Prairie Wind,” which has sold 450,000 copies in the U.S. to date.

Young thanked Warner/Reprise, the record company he works for, for support in producing “Living with War.”

Earlier in his career, Young worked with Crosby, Stills and Nash, whose performance at Woodstock in 1969 rocked the 300,000 concertgoers at the three-day music festival. In 1970, Young wrote “Ohio,” protesting the killing of four Kent State students by the Ohio National Guard during an anti-Vietnam War demonstration.

The album is expected to be released online before the end of April and to be available on CD sometime after that.

ATL keeps it real

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 05:24:00 +0000

Whenever they hear of a movie by or involving any hip-hop artist most people would decide to keep their money. Not only have most rap industry films failed to go beyond the sex, money and drugs model, they have also not been good at it, i.e. any film with a rapper in it.

Recently there’s been an explosion of focus on southern-based rap, especially from Atlanta and Houston. The “dirty South” took a swing at the movie game with “ATL” — a story of life in Atlanta (ATL), the nucleus of the “dirty South crunk swagger.” When this film first came to my attention I expected what hip-hop artists have been providing in films since the early 90s — a shoot-em-up, getting-paid, I-got-the-juice, it’s-hard-out-here-for-a-pimp, limited representation of the Black experience. However, gladly and to my surprise, it was the exact opposite. “ATL” actually had something to say. It didn’t glorify the drug game as (something it has never been) the focal point of the Black experience.

“ATL” stars Tip “T.I” Harris as Rashad Swann, Antwan Andre Patton (Outkast’s “Big Boi”) as Marcus and a slew of young Black actors. The story focuses on the life around four young men who make up a roller-skating team known as “The Ones.” Every Sunday, The Ones go to Atlanta’s legendary roller rink Cascades and show off their new moves to rival skating crews. If you have ever gone roller-skating in a real roller rink, this movie does the scene justice.

Rashad’s life in the film consists of living in a house with his uncle and his little brother Antwone “Ant,” working for his family’s cleaning company, and working on graduating from high school.

While Rashad has been saving money for the past three years, Ant has dreams of making quick money and gets introduced to the reality of the drug game. With dreams of lust, glimmer and glory, Ant gets introduced to the two-steps-forward, five-steps-back truth of being a drug dealer. Ant ends up owing local dealer Marcus some big money. While Rashad has a fallout with his girlfriend and his buddies and it seems like his whole life is falling apart, he stays focused and looks to protect his brother’s life.

The thing that “ATL” does that most hip-hop generated movies does not is actually portray Black life through cinema in an accurate way. It is the first movie showing Black life that actually made me feel good at the end. It is a story of life, of struggle and the strength you find in friends and family. There is no make-it-big scheme. Nobody dies. Writer Antwone Fisher (who also wrote the 2002 autobiographical film “Antwone Fisher”) did something that most hip-hop films pride themselves on achieving, but always fall short of — keeping it real.

Needed: a sustainable, socialist USA

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 05:19:00 +0000

Last summer the Arctic suffered a record loss of ice sheets. Alarmed scientists issued some disturbing conclusions: global warming has reached the point of no return and is permanently altering the earth’s ecology.

This may be debatable, but scientists agree on one thing. If trends continue — and they are proceeding more rapidly than first thought — the Earth will eventually become uninhabitable.

Besides global warming, there are now crises of multiple ecological systems that make up our biosphere, the narrow band around the Earth’s surface made up of soil, water and air that sustains all life. These crises have accumulated for years and are reaching the tipping point. They include:

• depletion of the protective ozone layer;

• degradation of the oceans by massive industrial fishing and pollution (including the appearance of gigantic “dead zones” caused by massive runoff of inorganic fertilizers from mega corporate farms);

• fouling of fresh water lakes, rivers and streams with industrial chemicals, and destruction of the aquifer systems that provide our drinking water;

• accumulation of dangerous industrial toxins and heavy metals in the environment;

• deforestation and creeping desertification;

• soil erosion and mineral exhaustion from industrial corporate farming;

• endangered biodiversity from massive die-offs of plant and animal species; and

• unknown, potentially dangerous, consequences from reckless use of bioengineering.

Humanity faces a stark choice — life or eventual extinction. If the choice is life, then a new sustainable economy that harmonizes with nature and preserves Earth for future generations must be organized. There is growing global awareness that the source of the crisis is capitalist plundering and that urgent action is necessary to save the Earth.

Can capitalism harmonize with nature?

Can capitalism be reformed to harmonize with nature? This question is engaging millions, including enlightened capitalists aware that the very future of capitalism depends on solving the environmental crisis. In their view, capitalism must see the opportunity (profit) in sustainability.

People are products of and a part of nature and evolve together with it. They interact with nature to produce their subsistence using its resources, their labor and the technology they develop. This interaction alters nature.

All previous societies in human history have had an exploitative relationship to nature. Examples abound where societies ruined the immediate environment they depended on, leading to their own doom. However, never before has all life been threatened with extinction.

The social production and distribution of goods make up economic systems. Capitalism is a rapacious and irrational economic system that exploits human labor and nature for short-term maximum profits and accumulation of wealth by a few. That is its essence.

For capitalism, nature is a thing to exploit, a source of raw materials to produce commodities and a place to dump waste. This inevitably puts capitalism at war with nature.

Capitalism has created immense production capabilities that could meet the needs of most of the world’s people. However, as environmentalist Barry Commoner pointed out, post-World War II capitalist development has also been marked by the introduction of productive methods that are more destructive than ever.

These production methods were introduced because they were more profitable. They included mass production of high-powered automobile engines (with the accompanying destruction of mass transit systems in most American cities); industrial farming techniques using massive amounts of inorganic nitrogen-based fertilizers, petroleum-based pesticides and animal feedlots; scores of new industrial chemicals including phosphates; and synthetic clothing materials and disposable plastics. These became models of economic development adopted globally.

There are limits to the ability of the Earth’s ecology to absorb the destructive impact of these forces. The capitalist system is exploiting nature far faster than it can renew itself and discharging pollution far faster than nature can absorb it. And capitalist globalization is accelerating the environmental crisis by intensifying exploitation — the global race to the bottom in wages, working conditions and environmental protections.

Capitalism has created tremendous imbalances in global wealth. Developing countries cannot attain the same economic level as the advanced capitalist countries through the wasteful and destructive capitalist path. It is estimated it would take seven Earths to accomplish this.

Driven by the very essence of the system, capitalists are forced to compete, seeking ever-expanding markets or perishing. They are forced to lower costs on wages and raw materials and foist environmental costs on communities. To maximize profits, capitalists never willingly accept the full costs of replenishing the environment and eliminating waste. It is invariably working-class communities and especially communities of color that suffer the worst of corporate pollution.

Capitalism is a system that engenders wars of conquest for natural resources. As military technology has become more powerful, it has also become more destructive of the environment. The production, testing and actual use of nuclear weapons has caused long-term environmental and human damage. Iraq and Vietnam will be dealing with the deadly consequences of U.S. weaponry like depleted uranium and Agent Orange for generations to come.

Thus, capitalist development comes into conflict with the limits of nature and is inherently destructive of the environment. The crisis of the environment is a crisis of capitalism.

The problem is not one of more enlightened capitalists and corporations. We must elevate the fight to protect the environment against corporate destruction today. However, every gain under capitalism is temporary and threatened with being taken back by the corporate ruling class.

Socialism is a necessity

Our urgent environmental crisis coupled with the need to overcome global underdevelopment raises the urgent necessity for a radical transformation of social production to a system that harmonizes with nature. Only socialism — public ownership and grassroots management of the means of production and natural resources — has the capability to do this.

The aim of socialist production is to meet the needs of society, not private profit. In contrast to the anarchy and competition of capitalism, socialism is a cooperative system of planned production, allocation of resources and technology, capable of developing society in harmony with nature.

For example, energy production based on burning fossil fuels is the largest contributor to greenhouse gases. The technology exists for pollution-free energy production including solar and wind technology. However, powerful energy corporations and their White House friends are preventing this technology from being used system-wide because it is not as profitable.

A socialist system would seek to reorganize production entirely using non-polluting renewable sources. In doing so, it would create millions of new, socially useful jobs. Implementing these technologies and cleaning up environmental destruction would require tremendous social subsidies, something capitalists will not pay for.

Only a planned system can cooperatively mobilize society’s scientific, technical, and human resources to radically change production methods and address the scale of destruction left behind by capitalism. Only a community of socialist states can mobilize the necessary cooperation on a global scale.

Sustainability requires conscious planning

Even societies building socialism must be conscious of the need for sustainable development. Just as eliminating racism and sexism is not automatic, development of a sustainable economy is not automatic either.

During its early years, the Soviet Union adopted a revolutionary environmental policy. But in the race to overcome underdevelopment, they abandoned it. The Soviet Union and Eastern European socialist states adopted harmful capitalist industrial processes. The Marxist understanding of the relationship between society and nature was distorted. Only later, as the environmental destruction became apparent, did growing environmental consciousness begin to influence development.

These processes are occurring today in other socialist-oriented states, including China and Vietnam, who are seeking to overcome underdevelopment. Destructive capitalist production techniques fouling air and water are creating a growing environmental consciousness that the governments must respond to.

Cuba has a unique history because it adopted sustainability practices out of necessity during the “special period” after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Today, Cuba is a world leader in organic farming.

Democracy is at the heart of socialism. Deepening and expanding grassroots democracy is an essential element in the development of sustainable socialism. If a community or workforce has the power to determine production methods for publicly owned production, they will demand pollution-free workplaces and communities. They will allocate resources to make their lives better and more enjoyable, including more parks, clean air, rivers and beaches.

Saving life on Earth urgently demands a revolutionary transformation of the relationship of human society to nature. Capitalism has proven it is outmoded and an obstacle to change. That is reason enough for a wide-ranging public discussion about a sustainable socialist USA beginning now.

John Bachtell (jbachtell@cpusa.org) is district organizer of the Communist Party of Illinois.

Bill Mackovich is a retired steel and hospital worker.

CARTOON

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 05:08:00 +0000

The king of circular reasoning

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 05:07:00 +0000

The problem for leaders who get away with lying and oversimplifying is that they think they will be able to always get away with it. Thus, when finally caught or caught-on-to, their first response is to escalate the behavior that no longer works.

Witness Junior Bush’s defense of Rumsfeld: “I’m the decider, so I do the deciding.” Who is he trying to convince — U.S. public opinion or himself? Why not “I’m the failure because I do the failing” or “I’m the corrupter because I do the corrupting”?

He has frequently been of the “declaring it so makes it so” school of governance. Because he got away with it on selling the Iraq war, at least for the first few months, he thinks he can keep getting away with it. Because he so successfully used the “I’m the president who fights terrorism” argument for way too long, he thinks all he has to do is repeat this mantra, like when the scandal of illegal domestic wiretapping was exposed.

His problem is, that no longer works. Far too many people have seen through his lies, and he no longer gets the benefit of the doubt except from Fox “news” commentators.

A related problem for Bush is that he never meant most of what he said — it was all geared to selling his immoral and amoral policies, at providing a veneer of “common sense” over policies that people wouldn’t support on their own merits. So when people now no longer buy the veneer, there’s no substance to fall back on.

Except of course for Bush’s “base.” The millionaires and billionaires, the corporations and CEOs never needed any justification beyond how much money they were going to make off Bush’s policies. Tax cuts for the rich, boondoggles for big businesses, anti-people, anti-union, anti-women, and anti-poor-people policies were and are the reasons for making big contributions to the Republicans, especially Bush. Those contributions were an investment in a political figure who was somewhat successful at selling people on pro-big-business policies. They have undoubtedly started looking around for some other figurehead.

Bush’s policies on their own have never been as popular as Bush himself, with his straight-talking, plain-speaking image. It was always an illusion, but for several years enough people bought it that he could get away with cramming his program through. Now that millions more understand the illusion, cranking up the old advertising campaigns just makes things worse for him.

The reason to switch control of the House and Senate to the Democrats is because Bush is the decider and his decisions have been wrong, and his minions have been wrong too. The reason to impeach is because Bush is the decider and has decided on illegal and unconstitutional programs. The reason to get rid of the whole ultra-right establishment is because Bush’s “ideas” and policies are bankrupt and against the interests of the vast majority of the people.

Bush can chase his own tail in an orgy of circular reasoning, but that is no reason to let him do so on our time. We, the people, are the ultimate deciders. That’s what is required for our democracy: for we, the people, to take the power that belongs to us into our own hands and use that power to throw the bums out, starting with Bum #1, Baby Boy Bush. He is only the decider as long as we let him get away with it. Of course, he only plays the decider on television, we need to get rid of the powers behind his throne. We can, should and must put a period to his policies.

Marc Brodine (marcbrodine@inlandnet.com) is chair of the Washington State Communist Party.

EDITORIAL: Missed opportunities

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 04:55:00 +0000

Visiting the U.S. last week, China’s President Hu Jintao brought an agenda that, as he told a Washington, D.C., banquet in his honor, included working for stable and constructive long-term U.S.-China relations, expanding trade and economic cooperation, honoring the previously-agreed “one China” policy regarding Taiwan, strengthening communication on key international issues and treating each other as equals.

The reception he received from the Bush administration, however, matched neither those objectives nor what might be expected for a meeting with the leader of the world’s largest developing country.

From the absence of a state dinner to the gaffe of calling his country by Taiwan’s official name, the Bush administration gave the Chinese leader shabby treatment.

By contrast, the business community was receptive to Hu’s focus on mutually beneficial economic relations. China seeks expanded economic relations for rapid balanced development of its productive capacity, while U.S. corporations gain an unparalleled opportunity to sell products manufactured here in China’s huge market.

For many years Beijing’s foreign policy has emphasized building stable and peaceful relations with countries including the U.S. as vital to economic and social development at home.

This approach has scarcely been reciprocated by Washington, which has cited the “war on terror” to build military bases near China’s borders, acknowledged targeting China with nuclear weapons, and now officially calls China a military rival.

A further twist is that China, as the second largest buyer of U.S. Treasury bonds, plays a key role in Washington’s solvency.

The Bush administration’s focus on pressuring China to become, in Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick’s words, “a responsible stakeholder” in the international system really means China should not create obstacles to Bush’s imperialist policies.

Instead of badgering China to support U.S. sanctions against Iran, Bush should have proposed that the U.S. join China in a worldwide effort for nuclear disarmament. Instead of demanding that China not sign trade agreements with Cuba and Venezuela, Bush should have ended the blockade of Cuba and abandoned efforts for regime change in Venezuela. It is time that the U.S. itself becomes a truly responsible stakeholder in the world system.

THIS WEEK IN LABOR

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 04:24:00 +0000

Just 5 to go for House majority on EFCA

Rep. Jim Walsh (R-N.Y.) became the 13th Republican in the House to sign on as a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act. The Act would allow a path for workers to form a union at their workplace free of some of the worst practices of employer coercion. It would require employers to recognize a union after a majority of workers sign cards authorizing union representation. The EFCA now has 213 House co-sponsors, just five shy of an outright majority, Voice@Work reported. There are 42 co-sponsors in the Senate.

Stop killing of journalists

In an April 7 letter to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John R. Bolton, The Newspaper Guild-CWA and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists called for support of efforts under way at the UN to urge “all governments of the world to honor their obligation to investigate” the growing crisis of the killing of journalists and media workers around the world.

President Linda Foley of TNG-CWA and Thomas R. Carpenter, general counsel and national director of legislative affairs for AFTRA, contacted Bolton as part of the International Federation of Journalists’ global campaign to focus attention on the deadly dangers facing media staff in Iraq and elsewhere in the world.

“Last year, some 150 journalists and media staff were killed,” Foley and Carpenter wrote.

Workin’ It

American Rights at Work, an advocacy group that promotes the rights of workers to form unions, launched a weekly one-hour radio show, “Workin’ It,” on Air America, the national progressive entertainment talk radio network.

The premiere features interviews with award-winning actor and activist Danny Glover and former Sen. John Edwards, a look at a powerful new effort by hotel workers trying to organize, and more.

Hosted by comedienne and author Jackie Guerra, “Workin’ It” will be a lively magazine show that places a broad variety of issues surrounding work and workers’ rights in an entertaining and thought-provoking platform, according to an announcement from American Rights at Work.

Locals support single-payer

Three locals from transportation, printing and postal unions have all endorsed HR 676, legislation to create a single-payer health care system in the U.S. The Ohio State Legislative Board of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen (BLET), at its quarterly meeting, acted favorably on a resolution submitted by its Toledo Division 4. BLET is associated with the Teamsters union.

In Royal Oak, Mich., postal workers in Branch 3126 of the National Association of Letter Carriers have also voted to endorse the proposed Conyers legislation. The branch represents more than 800 active and retired letter carriers in suburban Detroit.

In San Francisco, Local 4N, Web Pressmen & Prepress Workers Union, IBT/Graphic Communications Conference, unanimously voted to endorse HR 676. This is the second IBT Graphic Communications Conference local union to endorse the Conyers legislation.

HR 676 now has 68 congressional co-sponsors in addition to John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.). It would institute a single-payer health care system in the U.S. by expanding a greatly improved Medicare system to every resident.

HR 676 would cover every person in the U.S. for all necessary medical care including prescription drugs, hospital, surgical, outpatient services, primary and preventive care, emergency services, dental, mental health, home health, physical therapy, rehabilitation (including for substance abuse), vision care, chiropractic and long term care. HR 676 ends deductibles and co-payments. It would save billions annually by eliminating high overhead and profits of the private health insurance industry and HMOs.

This Week in Labor is compiled by Roberta Wood (rwood@pww.org).

WORLDNOTES

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 04:19:00 +0000

Kenya: Free program to treat malaria

A drug treatment based on a Chinese herb will be distributed free by the Kenyan government in a campaign to curb malaria-related deaths and counter the growing ineffectiveness of commonly used sulfur-based drugs.

Artemisinin, duplicated in the laboratory at a cost of $2.40 for a course of treatment, is 90 percent effective in combination with other anti-malarials. According to Kenya’s public health ministry, more than 20 million people, or 70 percent of the population, are threatened by the parasitic disease carried by mosquitoes.

The World Health Organization reports that 2-3 billion people, or 40 percent of the world’s population, are at risk, primarily in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Most of the 500 million annual cases are in sub-Saharan Africa, where a child dies every 30 seconds from malaria-related disease.

Venezuela: Music transforms children’s lives

A national law in Venezuela guarantees every child a right to a music education. Teachers seek out children in the poorest neighborhoods, juvenile offender programs and schools for the disabled as part of a music education program that has transformed the lives of thousands in this culturally diverse Latin American country.

Dr. Jose Antonio Abreu, former minister of culture, told the British daily Morning Star, “Playing a musical instrument in an orchestra is one of the best forms of socialization there is … you learn to cooperate with others, you are an individual performer but you are involved in teamwork with others, you learn to give and take, to show solidarity and sympathy. You pass on your skills and knowledge to others selflessly and learn in the same way from them.”

The music movement is primarily sponsored by the state-owned oil company PDVSA.

A recent film, “Tocar y Luchar” (Play and Struggle), is a tribute to the program.

Britain: Muslim student victimized by U.S. bias

The Muslim Council of Britain warned April 24 that the U.S. appears to be treating all Muslims as potential terrorists, after student Mohammed Umar Haleem Khan was forced to pay for extra visa checks.

The university student, who studies politics in Manchester, told the Morning Star that he was outraged when told by U.S. Embassy officials that he would need to undergo additional checks because there are a lot of “bad people” with his name.

Khan said that he had been ordered to fork out an extra $80 to have his fingerprints taken and checked against a U.S. “terrorist suspect” database.

“I feel really gutted,” he said. “They are discriminating against me purely and simply because of my name and that is unfair. I’m sure that if some white candidate came along, there would have been no problem.”

Khan added that he had never been to Afghanistan or any trouble spots and could think of no other reason why his name would be flagged.

Muslim Council of Britain spokesman Inayat Bunglawala said that it was a worrying incident and seemed to fit a recent pattern whereby the US appears to be treating all Muslims as potential terrorists just because of their religion. “U.S. Embassy officials ought really to have had the training to cope with basic elements of Muslim culture, which would help prevent these kinds of unfortunate situations,” Bunglawala said.

Cuba: Belarus pledges support

Belarus will support the Cuban economy, said Belarusian premier Sergei Sidorsky in Havana April 22 as he was summing up results of an official visit.

“As a highly developed export-oriented economy, our country will supply Cuba with dry milk, butter, sugar and other products” that Cuba currently buys on the world market, Sidorsky told the Belta news agency.

Plans for Belarus to supply automobiles, quarry trucks and tractors to Cuba were also discussed, as were plans to supply potassium fertilizers. New projects also included heightened cooperation in providing municipal services in the sister cities of Minsk and Havana and joint development of medicines and vaccines.

Noting that Cuba has experienced some difficulties recently in refining its sugar harvest, Sidorsky said Belarus will buy 100,000 tons of raw sugar, process it and send it back to Cuba.

Speaking to reporters at the conclusion of his visit, Sidorsky said Cuban leader Fidel Castro is a man of “unique political charisma” who is appreciated worldwide.

World Notes are compiled by Pamella Saffer (psaffer@pww.org).

Who is Orlando Bosch?

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 03:59:00 +0000

Orlando Bosch, a former pediatrician, lives a quiet life in a beige stucco Miami home, his family close at hand. He’s been well treated by the authorities. In 1983, the city declared an “Orlando Bosch Day.”

However, Bosch is a confessed terrorist and murderer. And in a recent interview on Miami’s Channel 41, he attempted to justify his killings.

Reporter Juan Manuel Cao asked about a Cuban airliner downed off Barbados 30 years ago. Bosch and fellow terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, whom the U.S. government refuses to extradite to Venezuela, planned the 1976 attack that killed 73 passengers.

Declassified documents show the CIA knew beforehand about the attack.

Afterwards, Bosch served time in a Venezuela jail, awaiting trial for the crime. Otto Reich of the U.S. State Department arranged for his release in 1987.

Here is an excerpt from the Channel 41 interview:

Cao: Did you down that plane in 1976?

Bosch: If I tell you that I was involved, I will be inculpating myself … and if I tell you that I did not participate in that action, you would say that I am lying. I am therefore not going to answer one thing or the other.

Cao: In that action 76 persons were killed [actually 73].

Bosch: No chico, in a war such as us Cubans who love liberty wage against the tyrant, you have to down planes, you have to sink ships, you have to be prepared to attack anything that is within your reach.

Cao: But don’t you feel a little bit for those who were killed there, for their families?

Bosch: Who was on board that plane? Four members of the Communist Party, five North Koreans, five Guyanese [actually 11] … concho chico, four member of the Communist Party, chico! Who was there? Our enemies.

Cao: And the fencers [Cuban fencing team]? The young people on board?

Bosch: I saw the young girls on television. There were six of them. After the end of the competition, the leader of the six dedicated their triumph to the tyrant, etc. She gave a speech filled with praise for the tyrant. We had already agreed in Santo Domingo that everyone who comes from Cuba to glorify the tyrant had to run the same risks as those men and women that fight alongside the tyranny.

Cao: If you ran into the family members who were killed in that plane, wouldn’t you think it difficult?

Bosch: No, because in the end those who were there had to know that they were cooperating with the tyranny in Cuba.

According to a variety of U.S. and Cuban sources, Bosch, after leaving Cuba in 1959 and settling in Florida, ran a CIA training camp for anti-Cuba paramilitaries. He organized hit squads directed at Cuban diplomats and sympathizers. Among the targets were embassies, consulates, tourist facilities and ships heading for Cuba.

Bosch set up the group Poder Cubano to carry out 44 attacks in 1967-68; Accion Cuba with 18 hits (including the airliner) in 1974-75; CORU, 19 attacks in 1976-77; and Omega 7 with 14 assaults. He performed three high-profile assassinations for the Pinochet regime of Chile, including that of ex-diplomat Orlando Letelier in Washington in 1976.

In 1987, Bosch headed for Florida where he was jailed for a 1974 parole violation (in connection with a previous conviction for using a bazooka against a Polish freighter). After heavy Cuban American lobbying, George H.W. Bush pardoned him on July 18, 1990.

Since then, he visits with friends, paints and appears regularly on Miami talk shows. That’s the sort of future that lawyers and friends of Luis Posada Carriles see for Bosch’s colleague in mayhem.

For the U.S. empire, some terrorists are honored guests.

In Nepal, protests lead to victory

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 03:55:00 +0000

Huge protests planned for April 25, on what would have been day 20 of a nationwide general strike to restore parliamentary democracy, turned into victory rallies after King Gyanendra announced the previous night that the House of Representatives, dissolved in May 2002, would be reinstated.

The nearly three weeks of massive protests that brought hundreds of thousands into the streets of cities and small villages were organized by the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) of the country’s main political parties.

Across the country, tens of thousands gathered where demonstrations had previously been planned, or held spontaneous celebrations.

Madhav Kumar Nepal, head of the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist), told one gathering in the capital, Kathmandu, that the reinstated Parliament’s first priority would be to announce elections to a constituent assembly and formation of an interim government.

Kumer Nepal, whose party holds the second largest number of seats, 68, in the 205-seat House of Representatives, pledged that the new government would correct wrongs committed by past governments, act against those who oppressed the people’s movement, and compensate the injured and the families of those killed during the pro-democracy protests.

Through signs and slogans — “Up with democracy,” “Down with autocracy,” and “Hold elections to a constituent assembly” — participants in the celebrations also made it clear they expect the SPA to continue the struggle for democracy. Demonstrators also demanded that the new government punish everyone involved in the repression of the mostly peaceful protests, in which at least 17 were killed and over 6,000 injured, some seriously.

The demonstrations during the general strike were the largest since protests in 1990 forced the previous king to accept Nepal’s first democratic elections.

The Parliament was slated to meet April 28.

The SPA said it remained committed to the agreement it made with the Maoist insurgency last November, which included setting up an interim government and constituent assembly, and urged the Maoists to accept Gyanendra’s proclamation.

But the rebel leaders called the SPA’s acceptance of the proclamation “a historic mistake,” and declared that the alliance had “betrayed the feeling” of the Nepalese people. They said their protests would continue until “unconditional elections” to the constituent assembly were announced.

The Maoists, who have waged a decade-long armed struggle, reportedly model themselves on Peru’s extremely violent Shining Path.

The restoration of Parliament came after the SPA had announced plans to mobilize 2 million people for a showdown on Kathmandu’s Ring Road April 25.

Outrage over boot camp death

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 03:53:00 +0000

The FBI and U.S. Attorney’s office have launched an investigation into the death of a 14-year-old at a Florida “boot camp.”

Martin Lee Anderson, an African American youth, died Jan. 5 shortly after collapsing at the Bay County Sheriff’s Office Boot Camp. Anderson was the third young Black male to die in state custody in Florida in the last three years.

An autopsy by Bay County Medical Examiner Charles Siebert concluded that Anderson died of natural causes associated with sickle cell anemia. It was reported that Anderson had complained of problems breathing while running around the track on his first day at the camp.

But Siebert’s conclusions were thrown into doubt by the release of a videotape which showed guards restraining and hitting Anderson from behind. The guards’ actions included knees pressed against Anderson’s thighs, use of pressure points on his body and blows to his arms.

The videotape sparked wide outrage and accusations of a cover-up of events at the boot camp. Thirty college students staged a two-day sit-in in the governor’s office, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Anderson’s mother Gina Jones led an April 21 demonstration of 1,500 at the State Capitol in Tallahassee.

Gov. Jeb Bush originally supported the medical examiner’s finding that Anderson’s death was simply “a tragic incident … caused by this child’s unique illness.” But he has backpedaled, agreeing to appoint an independent prosecutor.

Bowing to public pressure, State’s Attorney Mark Ober ordered a second autopsy. It was conducted by well-known forensic pathologist Michael Baden and attended by Siebert and a medical examiner assigned by Ober.

Following the autopsy, Baden told CNN that Anderson’s death was not related to sickle cell anemia. He said the initial autopsy finding could have been a legitimate mistake, but he also suggested outside pressures should be looked into.

The head of Florida’s Department of Law Enforcement has resigned over criticism of his handling of the case and racist comments he made. The Bay County Sheriff’s Office Boot Camp has been closed since the incident.

The state Legislature is considering a bill named in memory of Anderson that would get rid of the juvenile boot camps. Bush, who had earlier opposed any closure of the Bay County facility, said he would sign the bill and hoped the Legislature would pass it.

NATIONALCLIPS

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 03:44:00 +0000

MELVILLE, W.Va.: Mine inspector ordered to ‘back off’

Just 17 days after the Sago Mine disaster, a fire broke out at Massey Energy’s Aracoma Mine, killing two miners. According to a Pittsburgh Post Gazette report, days earlier a federal Mine Safety and Health inspector wanted to close the mine because it was unsafe but was told by his supervisor to back off.

MSHA inspector Minness Justice told fellow inspector Danny Woods that dangerous amounts of coal and dust had built up along the conveyor belt line, increasing the risk of fire, and the fire suppression system was inadequate.

“He [Justice] was just told to back off and let them run coal, that there was too much demand for coal,” Woods said. “He came up and told me he was told to do certain things and that the inspectors before him hadn’t done a proper job.”

A Bush administration change in safety rules raised the risk of sending smoke to where miners were working.

U.S. Attorney Charles Miller has begun a criminal investigation of the fire.

RICHMOND, Va.: Beaches saved from oil companies

Fending off intense pressure from oil and gas corporations, Gov. Tim Kaine rejected a plan that would have opened the state’s coast to drilling.

Applauding the governor’s action, Mike Town, director of the Sierra Club’s Virginia chapter, said, “It’s time for Virginia to end the debate over auctioning off our valuable coastline to the oil and gas industry and high time we embrace energy solutions that will sustain our energy needs and our economy into the future.”

The Newport News Virginian-Pilot newspaper editorialized, “Drilling would almost certainly do nothing to help move America off its dependence on fossil fuels, an addiction that has cost us thousands of military lives and forced us to make friends with some horrible people around the globe. Virginia has been asked to trade something precious and irreplaceable for uncertain financial riches and to perpetuate a bankrupt national energy strategy.”

PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y.: West Point grads speak out against war

Three West Point Military Academy graduates have launched West Point Graduates Against the War, urging other graduates to condemn the Iraq war. “This fraudulent war has done such enormous damage to the reputation and prestige of the United States and its military forces,” said co-founder James Ryan, who served in Army artillery. “Unless remedied, this will prove catastrophic to our country’s interests over the long term.”

William Cross, a combat Vietnam War veteran, Veterans for Peace founding member and former West Point military psychology professor, defined the group as “pro-military and pro-USA.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky.: Hundreds honor Anne Braden

The packed Memorial Auditorium couldn’t stop singing and celebrating the legacy of civil rights activist Anne Braden, who died March 6 at 81.

Family, friends and peace and civil rights leaders challenged the audience to see the memorial as a call for action.

“She was indeed an American hero,” said scholar and progressive activist Angela Davis.

Braden would have too busy to attend her own memorial, said civil rights leader C.T. Vivian. Like her, he said, “we shall stand in front of evil and we shall never give up.”

National Clips are compiled by Denise Winebrenner Edwards (dwinebr696@aol.com).

Community demands action on police brutality

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 03:39:00 +0000

MILWAUKEE — Over 6,000 people gathered here April 18 to protest police brutality rampant in the city. The diverse crowd marched to the federal courthouse to protest the recent acquittal of three Milwaukee County police officers charged with beating Frank Jude Jr., who is bi-racial. The officers, who faced a total of five charges, were acquitted by an all-white jury.

Jude was hospitalized after the 2005 beating and had to have facial surgery for fractured bones. The U.S. Attorney may press federal charges against the officers for crimes as serious as attempted murder.

One of the officers, Jon Bartlett, will be retried on one charge in June. On April 24, Bartlett went on trial for the 2002 murder of Larry Jenkins.

The protest was organized by a coalition including Campaign Against Violence, the Police Accountability Coalition, local ministers and Alderman Mike McGee Jr. Matt Nelson, leader of the Police Accountability Coalition, told the crowd that most of the police violence has been “against minorities from the ages of 18 to 24.” A police community relations spokesperson addressed the crowd, insisting on the professionalism of the police department, but she was drowned out by the crowd shouting, “No justice, no peace.” Rally speakers included leaders of many community organizations, state representatives and senators and family members who have been affected by police brutality since 1981. A coalition has been fighting for a civilian review board since the Jude beating, but the rally theme was immediate justice for Jude.

“There were 15 officers present at the beating,” McGee said. “We demand charges be brought against all of them.”

N.Y.s Hudson Valley seen as Congress battlefield

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 03:35:00 +0000

The prospect of toppling two GOP House members in New York’s Hudson Valley has Democrats, peace activists and progressives coming together, aware that 2006 can end the Bush administration’s control of Congress.

A combination of Bush’s falling popularity and formidable Democratic challengers has six-term Rep. Sue Kelly (19th Congressional District) and four-term Rep. John E. Sweeney (20th CD) worried. The Cook Political Report has put both districts in the “toss-up” category, very competitive races that could go either way.

Adding to the incumbents’ woes are independent electoral groups that formed during and after the 2004 election, like the Mid-Hudson Progressive Alliance in the 19th District. In the 20th, Democracy for America groups are leading progressive politics in nearly all 10 counties and reporting big membership gains.

Another grassroots organization, Take 19, is working to inform voters that Kelly, while casting herself as a moderate Republican, has consistently supported the Bush-DeLay agenda.

The outpouring of volunteers to beat Bush in 2004 brought hundreds of new people in these districts into the fight and reinvigorated others. The 2005 local elections reflected this activity when Democrats and progressive candidates were swept into office up and down the Hudson Valley.

In the 19th CD, where six candidates are vying for the Democratic nomination, unity is critical, given that the primary, held in September, favors incumbents. Many activists attending candidate forums in the 19th are concerned that unless a candidate is chosen early, Kelly will gain the advantage.

At a Dutchess County forum April 8, one of the six candidates sounded a theme that may prove to be a unifying mantra. “This election is not about any one of us,” he said, pointing to his colleagues, “it is about us as Democrats turning this country around.”

In the 20th, Sweeney has been pedaling away from the Beltway neo-cons since Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, 39, entered the race. Gillibrand, of Hudson, N.Y., served in the Clinton administration as special counsel to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Her candidacy has ignited a flurry of activity and fundraising that few would have expected possible two years ago when Bush took the district with 53 percent of the vote, as he also did in the 20th.

In past elections many local and national unions contributed to the campaigns of both incumbents. Yet with the tide turning against the GOP, unions see an opportunity to shift their support to a Democrat who has a shot at winning. Contributing to this rethinking is the fact that both incumbents have disappointing labor voting records on key issues.

Gillibrand has received endorsements from 1199 SEIU, which has 17,000 health care members in upstate New York, and from two local building trade unions. In the 19th district, with so many candidates in the mix, it is too early to gauge labor’s position, but indications are that there will be a break from the past.

At the April 8 forum Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.-22) placed high stakes on unity when he cast the outcome of the 2006 election in a stark historical context. Referring to the Bush administration’s “doctoring of evidence” to bring the nation to war, and its litany of corruption and lies, Hinchey said: “Unless we can take a majority in Congress, especially the House, and begin investigations, those activities will continue for the next two years and the possibility of losing our constitutional rights is in jeopardy.”

Hinchey also poignantly characterized the grassroots effort required to defeat the right wing. “They [the GOP] have an enormously effective propaganda machine and our job is to overcome it.”

High gas prices linked to oily White House

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 03:15:00 +0000

WASHINGTON — Hustling to contain voter outrage over gas prices ratcheting up over $3 a gallon in an election year, President George W. Bush ordered the Justice Department to investigate price fixing. He also suspended environmental rules to allow Big Oil to sell polluting gasoline.

Oil industry experts scoffed at the notion that Bush, himself an oil millionaire, will curb profits raked in by his Texas oil buddies. It now looms over the Nov. 7 elections, with panicked Republicans distancing themselves from the oil-soaked Bush-Cheney regime.

“There has never been an administration more closely tied to the oil companies than this one,” said Tim Hamilton, a petroleum industry consultant and author of a just-released report, “Why Gasoline Prices are Headed for $3.50 at the Pump.”

The Bush-Cheney administration, he added, is a “public relations firm for the oil industry. The debate over our energy policy needs to be held in public, not in one of Cheney’s secret groups.”

He was referring to the notorious White House Energy Policy Task Force, which authored an energy bill that lavishes $170 billion in taxpayer subsidies on big oil and gas corporations over the next decade while giving them a green light to jack up gas prices. The Republican-majority House and Senate approved it and Bush signed it last Aug. 8.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said, “We have two oilmen in the White House. The logical follow-up from that is $3-a-gallon gasoline.” She blasted the GOP for blocking an increase in the minimum wage while working people struggled last winter to pay for home heating oil.

“Where have you been, Mr. President?” Pelosi asked. “You take a trip outside of Washington, see the fact that the public is outraged, come home and make a speech. Let’s see that matched in your budget ... in your policy. Let’s see you separating yourself from your patron, big oil.”

Exxon Mobil reported $10 billion in profits for the first quarter of this year. Company CEO Lee R. Raymond recently retired with a pension totaling $400 million. Raymond earned $686 million over the years 1993-2005, or $144,573 each day.

Last year Exxon reported $36 billion in profits, likely this year to exceed $40 billion if the Bush administration and Congress permit the swindling to continue. “These oil companies are like Jesse James, not wanting to admit they’ve robbed a bank,” Hamilton said.

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) vowed to reintroduce his “excess profits tax” on oil profits, branding Raymond’s retirement package a “shameful display of greed.”

“There can be no more compelling evidence that the price gouging and market manipulation which has produced record oil prices is out of control,” Dorgan said.

Dorgan’s press secretary, Barry Piatt, told the World Dorgan’s bill received 35 votes last November when the senator attached it to another bill. “But the senator is convinced it will be different this time. No one, even in their wildest imagination, could foresee $3-a-gallon gasoline.”

Hamilton is the head of an association of 400 service station owners in Washington state. Speaking with the World by phone, he debunked oil corporation propaganda blaming $75-a-barrel crude for sky-high gasoline prices. Increases in crude oil prices “accounted for only 12 cents per gallon” of the gasoline price surge, his report charges. “Approximately 42 cents ... of the 60 cent increase in gasoline prices is attributable to increased refinery and marketing profit margins for the oil companies.”

His report exposes industry-wide manipulation, creating fake shortages, to drive gasoline prices higher. Commissioned by the California-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, the report says, “California gasoline will cost consumers approximately $546 million more in April 2006 than in April of last year.”

Big Oil is running full-page ads shifting blame to OPEC, Hurricane Katrina, or hard-pressed service station owners who net about 6 cents from each gallon of gas they sell.

“They say we are being blackmailed by OPEC but I say we are being blackmailed by Houston,” Hamilton said. “A lot of elected officials from states like Texas and Alaska have never seen gasoline prices too high. ‘What’s good for Big Oil is good for America,’ they say. But Big Oil has taken billions out of consumer pockets and Bush knows we, the dealers, are going broke.”

Back in 2000, Big Oil emptied their storage tanks in the Midwest, exporting 280 million gallons overseas to drive gasoline prices as high as $2.50 per gallon. Hamilton wrote a report exposing it.

“The price spike was extremely harmful to the consumers and the economy of the Midwest ($374.4 million in direct and $1.1 billion in overall impact in Illinois alone) during a 90 day period,” the report charged. “If actions are not taken by elected officials, consumers in the Midwest can expect to pay $3.6 billion more annually for gasoline.”

Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based peace and environmental group, called for a boycott of Exxon Mobil. “Purchase gas at Citgo, whose profits are being used to improve the lives of the people of Venezuela,” the group urged. The Sierra Club, the Wilderness Society and other environmental groups called for a boycott of Exxon Mobil last July to protest the corporation’s sabotage of the Kyoto Accord on reduction of greenhouse emissions.

WHATSREALLYGOOD

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 10:53:00 +0000

NYU grad students continue struggle for union

After months of intense pressure by New York University including threats of deportation for immigrant students, most members of GSOC/UAW Local 2110, which represents graduate student employees of NYU, have signed a petition demanding the right to keep their union, the National Labor Review Board confirmed.

NYU originally recognized the union, but then refused to bargain for a new contract after a 2005 NLRB review board ruling saying private universities are not required to recognize student unions.

“As we look to the next academic year,” the students said in their petition, “we call upon the NYU administration to resolve the campus conflict by respecting the will of the majority and by negotiating an enforceable second contract with our bargaining representative, GSOC/UAW Local 2110.”

Student expelled for being gay

The University of the Cumberlands, a private religious school that has received $11 million in public funding from Kentucky’s Legislature, expelled a student for publicly stating that he is gay in his profile on MySpace, a social networking Internet site.

According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, the student, 20-year-old Jason Johnson, was expelled because the Southern Baptist college has a policy against homosexuality and extramarital sex, saying that both are “not consistent with Christian principles.”

Eighteen-year-old Zachary Nathaniel Dreyer, Johnson’s partner, said in his MySpace blog, “As his boyfriend, I cannot sit idly and watch them do this to him. This is an outrage, discriminating against people just because of their sexual orientation.”

Dreyer urged everyone to “call [UC President Jim] Taylor at (606) 539-4201 and do your part to end homophobia.”

Muzzles awarded

The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Freedom of Expression has made public its list of 13 “Muzzle Award” winners for 2006. The Muzzles, according to the Center, are “awarded as a means to draw national attention to abridgments of free speech and press.”

The awards included the school administrations of Tennessee’s Oak Ridge High School, Florida’s Wellington High School and California’s Troy High School for censoring student newspapers that discussed sex, virginity, homosexuality, body piercing and tattoos. Also included in the list were President Bush, the Chair of the FCC, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the Department of Homeland Security and others.

Young Communists host blog

The Young Communist League USA, as part of the run up to its May 27-29 national convention in Brooklyn, N.Y., is hosting an Internet-based pre-convention discussion.

“The point of the blog,” said Docia Buffington, YCL membership coordinator, “is to give members and friends a chance to discuss and add their input on important things like how the YCL should shape its strategy and best fight for the things in our Action Plan — peace, jobs and education and, of course, building the YCL.”

The site’s address is www.ycldiscussion.blogspot.com.

— Dan Margolis (dmargolis@pww.org)