People Before Profit blog

Full confidence

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 06:53:00 +0000

Bush has “full confidence” in Paul Wolfowitz, head of the World Bank and designer of much of the ideological justification for the Iraq war. Wolfowitz is under a cloud because he put his girlfriend in a top job and set her (excessive) salary, not to mention his nose-thumbing at the world community.

This is the latest in a long line of Bush’s “confidence” tricks.

Bush also has full confidence in Alberto Gonzales, the torture-justifier and U.S.-attorney firer. Is there an echo?

Bush also had full confidence in Michael Brown, the FEMA official partly responsible for the disastrous federal response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster (“Great job, Brownie”) — right up to the day “Brownie” resigned due to the nationwide horror at his pitiful performance.

Bush also had full confidence in Donald Rumsfeld (remember him?) right up to the very day Bush asked for Rumsfeld’s resignation. Even many Republicans were shocked when Bush dumped Rumsfeld mere weeks after the 2006 elections — they felt that if he was going to fire Rumsfeld, he should have done it before Election Day so Republican candidates could have stopped trying to defend Rumsfeld. Do you sense a pattern?

Bush (and Cheney) had full confidence in “Scooter” Libby, especially since he “fell on his sword” for them by refusing to implicate Cheney in his illegal cover-up.

Bush also had full confidence in Tom DeLay, another incompetent, arrogant political operative who masqueraded as a leader.

There are really two patterns here. One pattern is the PR spin of Bush proclaiming “full confidence” until reality and public opinion force him to act otherwise. The other pattern is of incompetent appointees, kept on till their incompetence is clear for all to see.

On the other hand, if someone in Bush’s administration threatens to exhibit competence, they get forced out and attacked. Richard Clarke is just one example of this kind of punishment for actually trying to do your job using some kind of common sense.

In the court of public opinion, Bush is guilty of bad judgment. Bad human judgment for picking incompetent appointees. Bad political judgment for wasting his dwindling credibility trying to prop up these incompetents. Bad presidential judgment for surrounding himself with incompetence, corruption, and right-wing ideological fanatics.

This says loads, too, about his other choices. Cheney as VP. Rove. Bolton. Rice. The Iraq war. Medicare drug coverage with holes big enough to drive a tank through. Unilateral, preemptive, military action — shoot first, ask questions later. Unilateral withdrawal from international treaties. Ignoring and denying global warming. Pompous pronouncements of all kinds.

We can have full confidence that Bush will be wrong about people, wrong about policy, wrong about diplomacy, wrong about military strategy, wrong about protecting the American people from disaster and terrorism, wrong about what supporting the troops really means, wrong about just about everything.

Of course, there is always the eternal question of which came first, the chicken or the egg? Bush’s bad people or bad policies? Bush’s blunders or bad advisors? Full confidence or arrogance? Which is cause and which effect?

No matter. The solution is the same — unity against the ultra-right, ending the right-wing stranglehold on government, and building progressive people’s movements for peace, against corruption and sleaze, for workers’ rights and social justice, and even for simple competence.

We need a big scrap pile. Gonzalez is a bum; throw him out. Wolfowitz is a bum; throw him out too. Pile them on top of Rumsfeld, Brown, Bolton, DeLay, “Randy” Cunningham, Libby, Ken Lay, all the defeated Republican senators and representatives, including Katherine Harris and Rick Santorum, and the rest of the incompetent buffoons.

As Michael Douglas says in the movie “The American President”: “We have serious problems, and we need serious people to solve them.”

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

Is immigration the problem?

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 05:37:00 +0000

Roy Beck, head of the anti-immigration group Numbers USA, has been circulating a slick video. Over 1.8 million viewers have seen its frightening picture of the U.S. overwhelmed by immigrants. But beneath the surface is a mix of inaccuracies and misdirection.

Beck starts with this thesis: 1926-1965 was a golden era in America, when immigration was limited to an average of 178,000 per year. As a result, the labor market was tight, and workers enjoyed high wages and prosperity. Since 1965, immigration has increased, now reaching over 1 million per year. The result: surplus labor which has lowered wages and living standards for American workers.

In short, Beck says (low immigration) = (tight labor market) = (high wages).

The facts don’t support Beck. In the 1920s, immigration was almost entirely choked off, and the 1930s had the lowest immigration in the last 100 years. So there should have been low unemployment and high wages, right? Wrong! We had the Great Depression, with 25 percent unemployment, and miserable wages for those who could find jobs. Then, as now, some people blamed immigrants, as well as Blacks, Jews and probably sunspots, for the disaster.

Beck’s next point: Without any net immigration, the U.S. population will continue to grow until about 2030, when it will level off. But if we continue with the present net immigration of 1 million per year, population will grow indefinitely. Immigrants are severely straining our resources — in California alone, a new school is being built every day. This is a burden on hard-working American taxpayers.

In fact, in the late 1950s and 1960s, a rapidly growing population, fueled by the baby boom, put strains on schools across the country. But a growing U.S. economy was able to pay for more schools and teachers, as well as greatly expanded access to higher education. Real wages were increasing, there was a significant reduction in poverty, and major social programs (like Medicare and Medicaid) were implemented.

The high local taxes paid by working families are caused, first of all, by a regressive financing system that puts most of the cost of education and other services on local communities. In other developed countries, these costs are borne by the national government, providing more equality in these services.

Beck talks about other real problems, including economic insecurity, urban sprawl and barriers to economic progress by African Americans. These problems have increased in the last 30 years. So has immigration. Does that mean, as Beck claims, that immigration is the cause?

This seems plausible only because there is a common cause: the capitalist system driven by private corporate profits. Neoliberal policies that have removed all controls from multinational corporate activity are responsible for increased immigration, as well as U.S. workers’ economic insecurity. A global conglomerate drives Mexican peasants off their land, forcing them to risk death to look for work here. The same conglomerate closes urban factories in the U.S., moving production abroad and setting up distribution warehouses in suburban and rural areas in the U.S. where property taxes are low. The impact has been aggravated by the Bush administration’s priorities which increase the burden on working families and their communities while cutting taxes for the wealthy, waging an unnecessary, expensive and destructive war, and placing corporate profits ahead of the public good.

People are looking for a way out. Blaming immigration is not it.

In the Depression, some used racism, anti-Semitism and anti-immigrant sentiment to advocate a fascist solution. But the victims of the economic crisis organized with the slogan, “Black and white, unite and fight,” and won unemployment insurance and Social Security. They marched and voted to win the New Deal, which put millions to work constructing schools, bridges and highways. As a result of unionization of major industries, wages and working conditions improved despite high unemployment.

Today, immigrants and U.S.-born workers — Black, white and Latino — are joining together in a host of struggles. If we reject anti-immigration diversions, we can take a lesson from the 1930s, and “unite and fight” for the people’s needs.

Economics @ cpusa.org

Port plan a win-win for clean air, jobs

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 05:18:00 +0000

In a move that could ultimately affect all U.S. ports, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach — together the country’s biggest port complex — earlier this month announced proposals to slash air pollution from the trucks that ply their harbors by over 80 percent within five years. At the same time, port truckers, now called “independent contractors,” would become employees of the trucking firms doing business at the ports, substantially improving their labor rights and helping plug loopholes in port security.

After public hearings are held, a decision is expected in July.

The announcement followed a campaign by the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports, a broad coalition of labor, environmental, faith based, public health and community organizations.

Now most port truckers, as independent contractors, are paid as little as $9.50 or less an hour, work an average of 11 hours a day, and lack benefits and union rights, the coalition says. Over 600 firms contract with the 16,000 LA-Long Beach truckers, most of whom must be responsible for their own operating costs and truck maintenance.

At the same time, the coalition says, the LA-Long Beach complex is southern California’s biggest source of air pollution, with pollution from port trucks making them a significant health hazard.

Calling the plan “unique” and “historic,” Chuck Mack, director of the Teamsters Union’s Port Division, added, “Every port in the country is experiencing similar problems.”

Under the plan, trucking companies operating at the port would have to bid on contracts with rigorous environmental, equipment and workplace standards. Drivers must be employees, not contractors, while companies must meet insurance and security requirements. Within five years, all trucks must meet environmental standards.

The Teamsters are among several unions participating in the Clean and Safe Ports coalition. Mack, based in Oakland, Calif., said the Oakland Port Commission is expected to unveil its proposals in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, the coalition is also talking with ports in Seattle-Tacoma, Miami and New York-New Jersey.

“People recognize that unless you make these jobs meaningful and valuable, turnover will continue to be a major problem,” Mack said. “With such high turnover, how can you expect truckers to keep their trucks environmentally sound, or to meet security requirements?”

Miguel Lopez, Teamsters port representative in southern California, said the union is working to ensure that current drivers would have priority for jobs as the trucking companies transition to the new system. Lopez said the coalition sees the ports, workers, local residents and the business community all having a stake in a sustainable port complex. “It’s a matter of working with everybody so that everyone gains,” he said.

Calling the LA-Long Beach proposals “huge,” Doug Bloch of the Oakland-based East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, also a coalition member, said “We hope to see something similar for Oakland.”

Noting that the West Oakland neighborhoods near the port have endured many port-related problems but gained few benefits, Bloch added, “We’d like neighborhood people to have a chance for good jobs” under the plan.

mbechtel @ pww.org

Bush court deals blow to womens rights

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 05:05:00 +0000

“Not since Bush v. Gore has the Supreme Court made such a political decision, or one that so completely distorts and disregards the U.S. Constitution,” National Organization for Women (NOW) President Kim Gandy declared, responding to the high court’s April 18 ruling upholding bans on a vaguely defined type of late-term abortion.

In its 5-4 decision, the court took what many see as the first step to restrict a woman’s ability to make a medical and personal decision.

A day later, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) introduced the Freedom of Choice Act, which would reverse the erosion of women’s rights by federal and state governments and protect “a woman’s freedom to choose to bear a child or terminate a pregnancy.” That constitutional right was upheld by the Supreme Court in its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.

The new decision, women’s organizations, clergy and civil rights groups say, marks the opening gun in the right-wing war to overturn Roe and return women to “barefoot and pregnant.”

The actual medical procedure in question is intact dilation and extraction, used in only 0.17 percent of all abortions in the U.S. in 2000, according to an Alan Guttmacher Institute survey. The term “partial-birth abortion” was coined by anti-reproductive-rights groups. It is not a medical term and does not identify any particular abortion procedure, the American Civil Liberties Union notes.

Intact dilation and evacuation is deemed appropriate by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to protect women’s health. It “is usually reserved for cases of maternal medical complications or fetal abnormalities,” University of Illinois professor of obstetrics and gynecology Suzanne Trupin wrote on emedicine.com last year. She noted then, “Since the time of Roe v. Wade, physicians, patients, and the U.S. Supreme Court have repeatedly reaffirmed that the determination about medical need, the choice of a procedure, and [fetal] viability is best left as a medical decision, not one for the legislature.”

In its April 18 ruling, the right-wing-dominated Supreme Court combined two cases where Planned Parenthood and others challenged state laws banning “partial birth abortion.” Seven years ago the court, which included two women, ruled such bans unconstitutional. Since then Justice Sandra Day O’Connor retired, replaced by Bush appointee Samuel Alito.

In her statement, Gandy charged that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales pressed the Supreme Court to reconsider the 2000 ruling. Key to the court’s shift against reproductive rights were “Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito — both installed by Bush and a Republican-majority Senate,” she said.

Gandy called it “a major step in the campaign to outlaw all abortions, first by chipping away at and then fully overturning Roe v. Wade.”

Taking the unusual action of reading her dissent from the bench, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called the ruling “alarming,” saying, “For the first time since Roe, the court blesses a prohibition with no exception safeguarding a woman’s health. The law saves not one fetus from destruction for it targets only a method of performing abortion.” With this decision, Ginsburg said, “the court deprives women of the right to make an autonomous choice, even at the expense of their safety.” Justices Stephen Breyer, John Paul Stevens and David Souter joined the dissent.

The ruling signals “that politicians, not doctors” will make health care decisions for women,” responded Eve Gartner, Planned Parenthood deputy director of litigation and law.

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, composed of religious leaders and physicians from many faiths, said in a statement that “concerns are being raised in religious communities about the ethics” of denying specific abortion services.

Hailing the introduction of the Freedom of Choice Act, the American Civil Liberties Union said the ruling “allows politics and ideology to override legal precedent and medical expertise.”

dwinebr696 @ aol.com

In wake of VT shootings: Experts say mental health care in shambles

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 05:02:00 +0000

Mental health care advocates and medical experts say the April 16 shooting deaths of 32 students and faculty members at Virginia Tech, followed by the suicide of the student who did the killing, raise larger questions about the nation’s broken mental health system. It’s a system that leaves the most severely ill untracked, untreated and without a public safety net.

In Virginia, due to cutbacks in 24-hour and residential psychiatric facilities in the past 20 years, and decreased financing for local mental health care services, many believe the system is in shambles. The result, say experts, is a crisis in both long-term and short-term care.

Nationally, between 1970 and 2002 inpatient and residential treatment beds for the mentally ill dropped by more than half, from 524,878 to 211,199, according to a Newhouse News Service report.

Russ Federman, director of counseling and psychological services at the University of Virginia, testified before Congress April 23 about the inadequacy of campuses’ mental health resources. Fifty percent of students reported feeling so depressed that it was difficult to function, Federman said, with 9 percent seriously considering suicide. Yet, Federman said, there is only one full-time clinical staff member for every 1,697 students.

Mental health experts also warn against painting a sweeping picture that all who suffer from mental illness are violent.

Amy Forsyth-Stephens, executive director of the Mental Health Association of the New River Valley, which, like Virginia Tech, is located in Blacksburg, Va., wrote in the Roanoke Times, “The vast majority of people with mental health problems are no more likely to commit violent acts than the general public.” People with mental illnesses are actually more often victims of violence than perpetrators of it, she noted.

In equating mental illness to violence, Forsyth-Stephens wrote, “we marginalize the millions of Americans who work to manage their illness and lead productive lives. What’s more, by fueling this link between violence and mental illness, we discourage people who need medical care from seeking it.”

The horrific Virginia Tech shooting can be “an opportunity to embrace mental health for all Americans — not just those privileged enough to afford treatment, or those lucky enough to avoid illness,” she concluded.

The shootings also shine a spotlight on the special needs of immigrants facing racist and cultural barriers.

Seung-Hui Cho, 23, the Virginia Tech senior who carried out the killings and then committed suicide, emigrated from South Korea to the U.S. with his family at age 8. His father works as a pants presser at a dry cleaner.

Virginia Korean American leaders met with Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, last week, and asked him to boost mental-health funding for immigrants and their families.

Paul T.P. Wong, a psychologist at Tyndale University in Toronto, Canada, who specializes in cross-cultural issues, said in a press release that many immigrants experience high stress due to the difficulties of acculturation, language barriers, poverty and discrimination. The “cumulative stress of these risk factors,” added on to existing mental illness, can be crushing, he said.

Wong called for more ethnically diverse counselors in schools and communities to serve the mental health needs of immigrants and ethnic minorities.

“On the social level, we need to make medical and psychological services available to all who cannot afford them,” he added.

plozano @ pww.org. Susan Webb contributed to this article.

Race, sex, class and the Duke case

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 09:04:00 +0000

As editor of this page, I searched the Internet for insightful commentary on the Duke lacrosse players case. Sad to say, such comments have been all too few.

Most seized the opportunity to throw sand in our eyes, to downplay the racism, sexism and class privilege that poison our society.

Here are two outstanding exceptions.

ABC’s Nightline anchor Terry Moran, a veteran journalist based in Washington, D.C., had the guts to point to the race and class issues at play.

In a blog commentary headlined, “Don’t feel too sorry for the Dukies,” Moran began by saying that the prosecutor “may well be properly disbarred,” the accuser “has been shown to be either a vicious liar or a troubled fantasist,” and the three lacrosse players “are truly innocent of the charges brought against them according to the North Carolina attorney general and the investigation led by his office.”

But, he continued, “perhaps the outpouring of sympathy for Reade Seligman, Collin Finnerty and David Evans is just a bit misplaced. They got special treatment in the justice system — both negative and positive. The conduct of the lacrosse team of which they were members was not admirable on the night of the incident, to say the least. And there are so many other victims of prosecutorial misconduct in this country who never get the high-priced legal representation and the high-profile, high-minded vindication that it strikes me as just a bit unseemly to heap praise and sympathy on these particular men.

“So as we rightly cover the vindication of these young men and focus on the genuine ordeal they have endured, let us also remember a few other things:

“They were part of a team that collected $800 to purchase the time of two strippers.

“Their team specifically requested at least one white stripper.

“During the incident, racial epithets were hurled at the strippers.

“Collin Finnerty was charged with assault in Washington, D.C., in 2005.

“The young men were able to retain a battery of top-flight attorneys, investigators and media strategists.

“As students of Duke University or other elite institutions, these young men will get on with their privileged lives. There is a very large cushion under them — the one that softens the blows of life for most of those who go to Duke or similar places, and have connections through family, friends and school to all kinds of prospects for success. They are very differently situated in life from, say, the young women of the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.

“And, MOST IMPORTANT, there are many, many cases of prosecutorial misconduct across our country every year. The media covers few, if any, of these cases. Most of the victims in these cases are poor or minority Americans — or both. I would hate to say the color of their skin is one reason journalists do not focus on these victims of injustices perpetrated by police and prosecutors, but I am afraid if we ask ourselves the question honestly, we would likely find that it is.”

Terry Moran is white.

Tonyaa Weathersbee, an award-winning African American columnist for the Florida Times-Union, wrote a thoughtful commentary for BlackAmericaWeb before the charges were dropped. Its title: “Either way, Duke accuser a victim — of having to do the worst to attain the best.”

Regardless of the outcome, Weathersbee wrote, “I see her as a victim of limited means — of not having enough resources to pursue her education at North Carolina Central University without resorting to getting naked in front of a bunch of racist jocks. Or maybe she’s a victim of her own shortsightedness, of seeing stripping as an easier route to making extra money than waiting tables.

“Or maybe she’s a victim of a culture that has, over the years, glamorized stripping as a desirable option for needy women to make money to achieve their goals instead of downplaying it as a last desperate resort.”

Wethersbee wrote further:

“I really don’t like how when men pay exotic dancers to perform at parties such as the one held by the Duke lacrosse team, they expect to lob all their perverse fantasies at them — to reduce them to a piece of meat conditioned to endure racial slurs and other degrading comments for the hours that they own them. When a couple of young women are confronted with that kind of abuse in a room full of drunk, horny men, stripping then becomes a dangerous means to make ends meet.

“That’s why the woman who says she was raped by the Duke lacrosse jocks will still be a victim no matter what the outcome.”

Moran and Wethersbee have raised profound issues that our nation must confront.

Susan Webb (suewebb @ pww.org) is a member of the People’s Weekly World editorial board.

Imus gone! Say no to racism and sexism

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 09:00:00 +0000

“What has society come to that anything is acceptable today?”

— C. Vivian Stringer, coach of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights women’s basketball team

The crude racist/sexist remarks of radio talk show host Don Imus have ignited a firestorm of anti-racist protest from people of all races and nationalities all over the country. This protest quickly resulted in the show losing several sponsors and MSNBC dropping Imus’ show. CBS radio, after much hesitation, finally decided to drop the Imus program — which generated $50 million in advertising revenues annually.

This firestorm is related to a new mood in the country that led to the rejection of the extreme right Republican majority in Congress last November. This mood is more than against the war: it is against the right. With the exception of the vote in Michigan that defeated affirmative action (where tens of thousands mistakenly thought they were voting for civil rights), the results showed the coming together of a multiracial coalition with labor and people’s organizations at its core.

The GOP defeat could not have happened without a mass rejection of the racist appeal used by the Republicans to push their pro-war, pro-corporate domestic and foreign policy agenda.

The massive revulsion against and rejection of Imus is part of this new democratic mood.

It’s shameful that CBS took so long to fire Imus. He has continually used racist, sexist, anti-gay, anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic “humor.” In effect, he has been feeding the Republican right-wing ideological machine, a machine that rationalizes their extreme anti-working-class policies. More and more people today realize that these racist and sexist insults are harmful to our nation and must be stopped.

At the annual Washington Press Corps dinner a few weeks ago, Karl Rove, the president’s chief adviser, performed a racist portrayal of what was supposed to be a rap singer. It was like a minstrel show, with everything but the blackface makeup. As the president’s chief strategist bounced around the stage like a clown, someone commented, “He’s white from his head to his toe.”

This is what’s coming from an administration that is dismantling civil rights enforcement and refusing to provide for the victims of Katrina. This is the atmosphere where public entertainers like Imus and Michael Richards feel they can get away with anything. Racism is alive and well in the White House.

And not just the White House: the Republican Party continues its appeal to its racist constituents. Disgraced Sen. Trent Lott has been re-elected their number 2 leader in the Senate. Republicans clearly have no problem electing an unreconstructed segregationist as their leader. This is part of the bigger picture.

Because Imus’ presence looms so large in the mass media, his removal will send a strong signal to others in the public eye who are doing the very same thing. It will say, “Enough!”

Imus’ defense was that he is “a good person who said a bad thing.” But good people do not spread racism and sexism.

He went on to say that there is a double standard because Black rappers use those terms all the time. Rutgers coach Stringer, at a press conference, rejected this, saying that there is no excuse. “Imus,” she said, “is three times their age and should know better.”

The coach is correct. However it must be added that for many years there has been strong opposition in the Black community to the use of racist and sexist language precisely because it gives license for racists to use the same language. And to be clear, most rap music today is paid for and approved by white male corporate executives.

The whole nation should be proud of the Rutgers players, who have shown enormous dignity, poise and clarity. Essence Carson, the sophomore captain of the Rutgers team, pointed out, “This is not about attacking a major broadcast figure. We are attacking an issue we know is not right.” Ms. Carson clearly sees the bigger picture.

To affect the bigger picture, the fight against racism must be stepped up on all issues: jobs, education, housing, democratic rights and health care. As in most things, this negative contains a positive kernel: this incident is creating a new and growing offensive against racism and sexism.

Today we celebrate Imus’ ouster, but with an additional demand: for peace, jobs and democracy. For this to be achieved, racism must go!

Jarvis Tyner (jtyner@cpusa.org) is executive vice chair of the Communist Party USA. This was written on behalf of the CPUSA National Board.

EDITORIAL: Something to consider

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 08:24:00 +0000

Like the rest of America, our hearts go out to the Virginia Tech students, faculty, staff, their families and the whole community.

During such times of mourning many people look for life lessons so that another tragedy like this might be prevented.

The story behind these horrible shootings is not just the shooters and their motives. Our front-page article points to the easy availability of high-powered handguns. The shooters need weapons to carry out their plans. The more access to weapons, the more society puts itself at risk.

Thus, the importance of “common sense” gun laws should not be underestimated. Yet, there are other issues as well that are worth considering.

The student gunman, Cho Seung-Hui, had severe mental health issues, which apparently led to strange and dangerous behavior that was reported by professors and students. He was hospitalized. He was counseled. He had prescription medication. So what happened? Did he fall through the cracks?

Chances are, yes. While no one can predict a violent eruption by someone who suffers from a severe mental disorder, if there is no follow-up with patients, professionals can’t monitor their progress or decline. (It should be noted that at least 90 percent of seriously ill people never commit any violent acts, although many may attempt suicide.)

Virginia Tech, like all public universities, has suffered severe budget cuts. Even private universities’ health services are often inadequate. The Wall Street Journal, no friend of public health, reports, “Schools are being forced to lay off doctors and pare back everything from weekend hours to around-the-clock advice lines staffed by nurses. Many schools have shuttered their infirmaries.”

In the wake of the Virginia Tech shooting, mental health experts in California urged the building of a “system” that can really ensure suffering students get the help they need before they hurt themselves or others. But the problem, they concluded, is the “shortage of funding.”

There are many other factors to consider, but if we want to prevent another such massacre then a fully funded health care system, including mental health care, is an essential step.

D.C. residents demand representation

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 07:05:00 +0000

Thousands of residents of our nation’s capital marched April 16 for something most Americans take for granted — representation in Congress.

District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty and nonvoting D.C. House delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton led a spirited protest to demand passage of the DC Voting Rights Act. According to organizers at DC Vote, the protest was the largest gathering ever on this issue.

The DC Voting Rights Act would increase the House of Representatives by two seats — one for Washington, D.C., a Democratic stronghold, and one for the heavily Republican state of Utah, which was slated for an additional seat after the last Census in 2000.

The bill was pulled from the House floor last month after Republican legislators tried to attach a provision that would strip the district of its strict gun laws. (The irony of this in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre, in the state next door, was not missed by many.)

More than half a million Americans pay taxes yet are denied representation in Congress simply because they live in D.C., march organizer Ilir Zherka said.

“Approximately 80 percent of Americans are unaware that the nearly 600,000 citizens of Washington, D.C., are denied voting representation in Congress. District residents pay federal income taxes, serve on juries and die in wars to defend American democracy. However, our elected federal officials are only delegates in the U.S. House of Representatives or shadow Senators without rights to vote on legislation once it reaches the floor of the House or the Senate.”

The march was held on DC Emancipation Day, a holiday celebrated in the district to commemorate the 1862 act signed by Abraham Lincoln to end slavery there. The lead banner read: “First freed, then taxed. Still no vote.”

“We march to tell the Congress of the United States and the president of the United States that it is 206 years late but we’ll take it anyway,” said Holmes Norton, who stands to become the city’s first voting member of the House.

The House was expected to take up the bill this week. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said she expected the measure to pass.

“For more than 200 years, the people of the District of Columbia have been denied full voting representation,” Pelosi said in a statement. The bipartisan DC Vote legislation “corrects a serious flaw in our democracy,” she said.

“America is at its best — and honors the cause of freedom and justice — when all voices are fully represented. That must include the people of the District of Columbia,” Pelosi declared.

She pledged to overcome the “efforts to politicize this issue” and to pass this legislation.

talbano @pww.org

Banks profit drive spurs student loan scandal

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 06:57:00 +0000

Each month, Jennifer Pae, forks over hundreds of dollars in payments on $40,000 in student loans she owes for her education at the University of California, San Diego. Pae, president of the United States Student Association (USSA) spoke to the World as she led a National Day of Action April 17 demanding that Congress reauthorize the Higher Education Act and also provide relief for millions of students struggling with crushing debts.

“We’re extremely concerned that students are relying more and more on student loans rather than receiving grants,” she said. “What we are seeing is the student loan industry spiraling out of control.”

Nearly two-thirds of the 15 million students in higher education, she said, graduate with student loan debts that average nearly $20,000.

Massive student loan debt, “is affecting people’s life choices. They are putting off having families, buying homes or cars due to their high debt burden,” she concluded.

But what’s crushing debt to millions is a cash cow for bank and university officials.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s investigation of the $85 billion student loan industry has uncovered arrangements between student loan companies and universities that benefited the lenders at the expense of the students. Many colleges established “preferred lender lists” and received a certain percentage of the net value of loans from student loan companies. Universities ended up profiting from their students’ indebtedness. Some student loan companies gave gifts and trips to university employees.

SLM Corp., known as Sallie Mae, the largest provider of student loans, even provided staff for college financial offices. Cuomo said, “Our position is very simple. Loan decisions should be made in the best interest of the student.”

The New York Times revealed in its April 15 edition that Sallie Mae and the biggest banks in the student lending industry, Bank of America and Citibank, lavished millions in bribes on colleges and universities to convince them to drop out of the direct federal student loan program in favor of privatized student lenders. Indiana University, for example, was offered $3 million if it left the direct federal program established by Congress in 1994 to provide lower- interest loans. The Bush administration has energetically promoted this privatization scam.

Matteo Fontana, a general manager in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid, is being investigated for his sale of 10,500 shares of CIT Group stock from which he made a huge profit in 2003. CIT Group is the parent company of Student Loan Xpress. Fontana worked for Sallie Mae before coming to the Department of Education.

Sallie Mae, which started out as a government-sponsored enterprise in 1972 but began privatizing its operations in 1997, announced April 17 that it will become fully private in a buyout financed by Bank of America and J.P. Morgan. Sallie Mae’s chairman, Albert Lord, reported income of $228 million before he stepped down in 2005. Thomas Fitzpatrick, the current chairman, is paid $150 million in salary, stocks and options.

Last week, Cuomo’s investigation resulted in several settlements. Sallie Mae agreed to adopt Cuomo’s new code of conduct, which prohibits revenue sharing between lenders and schools, curbs “preferred lists” and bans gifts and trips for university employees from lenders. Sallie Mae does business with 5,600 schools and serves almost 10 million borrowers. Citibank has agreed to a similar agreement. It does business with 3,000 schools.

A settlement was also reached with six schools — the University of Pennsylvania, New York University, Syracuse University, Fordham University, Long Island University and St. John’s University — to reimburse students a total of $3.27 million for inflated loan prices caused by “revenue sharing” (aka “profiteering”) agreements.

Luke Swarthout of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group called the agreements a “Band-Aid” approach and said the student loan industry will require congressional action.

USSA’s Pae said bills in Congress, introduced by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass), that cut in half the interest rates on subsidized Stafford loans are a “step in the right direction.” But more is needed.

“Every year, about 400,000 qualified high school students are forced to abandon their plans for a college education because of the costs. We urge Congress to renew the Higher Education Act and make a college education more affordable and accessible to students,” she said.

Congress must reject the president’s budget due to its inadequate funding levels for critical programs in higher education, she said. Priority needs include increased funding for Pell Grants and other student financial aid.

College education affordability and loans also promise to be a presidential issue. Democratic presidential contender John Edwards said, “Students should borrow directly from the government. We need to fix the student loan program to take banks — which are just an expensive middleman — out of the process.”

Tim Wheeler contributed to this article.

Calls for gun control grow as nation mourns Va. Killings

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 05:39:00 +0000

As the nation mourned the April 16 shooting deaths of 32 students and faculty members at Virginia Tech, calls mounted for action to curb handguns like the weapons used by the gunman.

Kaye Tice, a leader of Virginians Against Handgun Violence (VAHV), told the World in a phone interview from her home in Virginia’s Tidewater region that her son graduated from Virginia Tech two years ago. “The school is near and dear to our hearts,” she said. “Blacksburg has such a small town feel, a loving feel. People leave their doors open. We are just heartsick. We hope and pray that this horrible tragedy will lend itself to some kind of positive outcome.”

She added, “We are an ‘open carry’ state. People who own a handgun can strap it to their hip and walk around.”

The accused gunman, Cho Seung-Hui, who killed himself after the campus shooting spree, was a deeply troubled Virginia Tech senior. He bought a Glock 9-mm handgun for $571 two weeks ago at a gun store in Roanoke, Va. He was also armed with a Walther .22-caliber pistol.

“My son checked with all his friends who are still at Virginia Tech,” Tice said. “They are all OK. But the ripples from this tragedy have touched many lives and hearts. Our little committee of 800 people is almost laughable when compared to the pro-gun forces we are up against. But if you believe in building a better world, you have to keep trying.”

About 30,000 people die each year from firearms. There are more than 260 million personal firearms in the U.S., including 65 million handguns.

Jim Sollo, VAHV vice president, commented, “Mr. Bush will try to avoid the word ‘gun’ for the next few weeks.” He said, “People should be demanding action. Curbing gun violence should be part of the debate leading up to the 2008 election.”

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), whose husband was killed by a deranged shooter on the Long Island Rail Road a decade ago, said her “heart goes out to the families of those lost in this heinous act.” The Virginia Tech tragedy, she said, “could have been avoided if congressional leaders stood up to the gun lobby.”

Jon Rosenthal, a founder of Massachusetts-based Stop Handgun Violence, told the World he is a gun owner who believes in the right to bear arms. “But guns are dangerous and should be regulated to some extent,” he said. “Instead, federal gun policy is to provide virtually unrestricted access to guns with no background checks.”

Massachusetts is among three states with background checks and regulations on gun sales, resulting in the lowest gun fatality rates in the nation, he said.

“I’m not surprised by this rampage in Virginia. It’s the result of a failed national gun policy — 80 gun deaths every day in America, 30,000 a year. This is the price of allowing the NRA [National Rifle Association] to dictate national gun policy.”

Paul Helmke, head of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, cited the Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colo., eight years ago and last year’s shooting deaths of five girls in an Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania. “How many deaths and injuries must we endure before our elected officials act to end gun violence?” Helmke demanded. “We must ask our leaders: ‘What are you going to do to make our schools, workplaces and communities safe from gun violence?’”

The Brady Campaign puts the cost of treatment for gunshot wounds at over $100 billion annually. Firearms are the number one cause of death for African Americans ages 15-34, a death rate from gunshot wounds twice that of whites. Thirty-three cities and towns have brought lawsuits against firearms makers for criminal negligence in the enormous loss of life and limb.

“Since the mid-1980s, the gun industry has embraced increased firepower and capacity,” says a Violence Policy Center report on the Glock weapon used by the gunman. “The dominance of the semiautomatic pistol greatly increased the firepower in civilian hands.” These are “pistols capable of rapid fire” that have “high-capacity magazines and can be quickly reloaded.” They are “efficient killing machines.”

VPC analyst Tom Diaz, in his 2000 book “Making a Killing: The Business of Guns in America,” said this stress on firepower reveals the gun industry’s “insatiable greed for a higher profit margin regardless of the number of lives lost.”

Doris Crouse-Mays, Virginia AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer, told the World the labor movement was working with the Red Cross to provide “whatever help is needed.”

“Along with everyone else, we are saddened by this tragedy,” she said. “We have union brothers and sisters on that campus. There will be considerable thought on how we can insure the safety and security of all our schools and campuses.”

greenerpastures21212 @ yahoo.com

Celebrating the archives of the Communist press

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 06:57:00 +0000

The following is based on a speech given at an event celebrating the donation of the Communist Party USA archives to New York University’s Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, March 23, in New York. Teresa Albano is editor of the People’s Weekly World.

Making the American promise real for all

If I were to list only a fraction of the names of the thousands of people who wrote for, or cartooned for or in other ways supported the Daily Worker, Western Worker, Daily World, People’s World, Voz del Pueblo and now People’s Weekly World and Nuestro Mundo — in short, the Communist press in all its forms during our 83 years of existence — we’d be here for a long time.

I wish we could have a list of credits rolling by behind me. It would be like watching the credits from an epic film about the working-class struggle for a better world — for socialism.

Maybe we’ll ask the good staff here at Tamiment to put such a complete list together — right after they get through indexing the 1 million photos from our Communist press archives. That’s an unbelievable number! One million photos — imagine trying to organize them in your photo album.

Proud history, bright future

Both the Communist Party and its press have deep roots in American soil, like the prairie grasses in the great Midwest. Our history is a proud one, and our future is bright. We are here. We are fighting.

We are making the promise of America real for everyone.

As long as corporations plunder and profit, while millions here and around the world go hungry and die of curable diseases, there will be a Communist Party. And as long as capitalism is around, there’s going to be a Communist Party.

If there is one thing the American people admire, it’s determination and stick-to-it-ness, and the Communists sure have weathered and survived with gritty determination.

Taking the long view

Communists take the long view of life, of struggle and what it takes to make social change. That’s one reason the name of our newspaper’s publishing company is Long View Publishing.

And with taking the long view comes responsibility for our future — a future that fulfills the promise of democracy, of equality for every race and nationality and for men and women, of peace, of environmental and economic justice.

But our future is inextricably bound with the present-day struggles and circumstances.

Speaking of which, this last month has been particularly uncomfortable for the White House. They haven’t had such a good time of it with having to take responsibility for the ongoing disaster in Iraq, then Walter Reed and the veterans health care scandal, the Scooter Libby guilty verdict, and now the exposé of firing eight prosecutors who wouldn’t go along with vote suppression and other dirty tricks. You see some grim faces on the photo wire.

But you know who is looking good these days? John Conyers, chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

You know who else is looking good? Al Gore.

Remember back in 2000 when some on the left proclaimed that there was no difference between Gore and Bush? I can’t imagine Bush ever fighting to stop global warming, let alone being able to explain it.

Back in 2000, the People’s Weekly World didn’t have the attitude that there was no difference between the candidates — and we didn’t have that attitude toward the trampling of democracy in Florida. We didn’t just sit and read about it. We sent our national correspondent Tim Wheeler there to report and help with the righteous fight to count every vote. He was distributing leaflets with one hand and taking down quotes with the other.

Importance of the Communist media

The Communist media is indispensable. Not only do we record the movements for social justice and workers rights though our reporting and our interviews with the makers of history— we are part of the struggles that make history too. We proudly take sides.

We covered and were part of the founding of the CIO, the industrial unions in auto, steel, textile and mines; the struggles against fascism and Jim Crow racism. We helped wage the fight for the freedom of the Scottsboro Nine, and we promoted the integration of Major League Baseball. We reported on and participated in the struggles to end the war in Vietnam including such momentous developments as the Chicano Moratorium and Dewey Canyon III, organized by antiwar veterans.

We helped expose Reagan’s dirty wars in Central America, lent a hand to tearing down apartheid in South Africa, marched against corporate globalization, celebrated the first same-sex marriages in Massachusetts, reported people’s stories of horror and solidarity at Ground Zero in New York after 9/11 and at the site of another great human tragedy — New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. And last year, week by week, we chronicled the issues and struggles that led to the great labor and people’s victory in November.

And we are continuing the campaigns: ending the Iraq war; passing the Employee Free Choice Act; rebuilding the Gulf Coast; guaranteeing comprehensive immigration reform and a path to legalization with family unification; workers’ and civil rights; health care for all; and a new civil rights agenda. Again, we not only report on but also are a part of these struggles and have a stake in helping them succeed.

The problems these struggles seek to overcome are part and parcel of a system that strives to maximize private profit for a few at all costs. The Communist media uncovers the systemic nature of poverty, racism, war and exploitation — all of which go to the roots of capitalism. This is why we fight to lay the basis for a fundamental change.

If you’re not a subscriber, this is what you are missing. But lucky for you — you can subscribe tonight or online at www.pww.org.

On Iraq — we got it right

Back in 2002 the People’s Weekly World began to sound the alarm on Iraq. At the great march in New York on Feb. 15, 2003, our headline was, “Powell at UN, caught in web of lies.” If a little newspaper like ours could get that story right, why couldn’t The New York Times?

International solidarity

We have analyzed and reported firsthand about the great revolutionary happenings in Venezuela and throughout South America. Through our reporting and analysis, we have helped build the Cuba solidarity movement and demands for an end to the blockade, for normalized relations, and for freedom for the Cuban Five. We take part in the great struggle for working-class internationalism and to stop the U.S. government and corporations from waging war and plundering natural resources around the world.

Roots of Communist journalism

Communist journalism traces its roots to the great tradition of public advocacy journalism and the independent media in this country — independent of corporate interests and reactionary agendas.

This tradition goes back to our nation’s founding and first revolution with the publication of Tom Paine’s “Common Sense,” and to our second revolution, the end of slavery and the great abolitionist press of Douglass and Garrison, along with the women’s suffrage movement which also had its own voice.

We are part of the great freedom-of-the-press tradition.

We are part of the great tradition of labor journalism, the Black press, the Spanish and other foreign language newspapers, student and community papers. We are part of the left, progressive, Marxist, populist, freethinking and radical media traditions of this country.

And while continuing this great tradition, we are also part of the future. The People’s Weekly World is part of the new and growing media justice movement that is challenging monopoly corporate control of information and their point of view. Most importantly, we are one of the 4,500 Google news sources. And we are proud members of The Newspaper Guild/Communication Workers of America.

Intersection of past and future

This moment is an intersection of past and future. These archives were donated to this grand library because of the responsibility we felt for the future, not only the Communist Party’s and the People’s Weekly World’s future, but the future of the working-class, left and socialist movements.

By making these archives accessible to the public — through the work of talented librarians — students, unionists and historians can study and learn from previous generations. They can then do something great with this knowledge: write books, produce films and in other ways bring to the public the rich, diverse and beautiful people’s history of the United States.

Those who study the archives will surely spot some mistakes, some flaws. After all, Communists are human, and we do err. We have a little saying in the newspaper biz: doctors bury their mistakes, we publish ours.

But even with all of that our history, our present and our future will stand as a beacon of inspiration.

As the great labor and Communist Party leader Elizabeth Gurley Flynn once said: “History has a long-range perspective. It ultimately passes stern judgment on tyrants and vindicates those who fought, suffered, were imprisoned and died for human freedom against political oppression and economic slavery.”

And that’s what you will find in our archives.

EDITORIAL: Taxes: for what? from whom?

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 06:44:00 +0000

It’s tax season. But what, exactly, does our tax bill pay for? For one, the $161 billion the Bush administration is spending in the coming year on the immiseration of Iraq and Afghanistan. Given that astronomical figure, it’s astonishing that this is only about 14 percent of all military spending. Overall, the military accounts for a whopping 51 percent of all your federal tax dollars.

That’s right: 51 cents out of every dollar you pay in federal taxes goes to the Pentagon’s death machine.

Of course, taxes are necessary. The federal government must have them to provide services people desperately need. But this administration’s priorities are hopelessly out of order.

While requesting billions for his Iraq adventure, Bush proposes in 2008 to slash the federal Head Start program. This program, which provides school-readiness for children in need, is already beleaguered. Montana Head Start employees, for example, are paid less than workers at McDonald’s. With the cuts, 30,000 children would be denied access to needed services.

The same is true of all important human needs programs, from education to social welfare. Even necessary military spending is out of whack: Bush plans to cut funds for veterans even as his war kills, maims or psychologically destroys dozens of U.S. soldiers daily.

And who pays these taxes? Working people pay a disproportionate share, while the Bush administration has been slashing taxes to its rich cronies for years.

The New York Times wrote April 5 that Bush’s investment income tax cuts alone have reduced taxes on people with incomes of $10 million — as if they need any tax cuts! — by an average of $500,000.

Something is shamefully wrong with an administration that sees no problem in bankrupting America by spending billions for war and cutting taxes for the shamefully rich, while gouging the very working people who bear the brunt of the war and taxes through cuts to every government program that could increase their standard of living.

On April 16, think about your taxes, and think about another important date: November 4, 2008.

A call for justice

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 05:51:00 +0000

NEW YORK — The last couple of weeks have been very hard for the Bell family. The grand jury indictments released in March were met with heavy criticism for not going far enough. The police officers that shot groom-to-be Sean Bell 50 times were charged as follows:

• Michael Oliver fired 31 shots. Charge: first degree murder. If convicted, faces 25 years.

• Gescard Isenora fired 11 shots. Charge: second degree murder. If convicted, faces 25 years.

• Marc Cooper fired 4 shots. Charge: reckless endangerment. If convicted, faces 1 year.

The two other officers, Michael Carey, who fired three shots, and Paul Headly, who fired one shot, were not charged. However, the Rev. Al Sharpton said there was enough evidence to charge the officers.

The trial dates have not yet been set, but the case in the media has begun full swing with an assault on Sean Bell’s character. The Daily News reported that an unnamed drug dealer alleged that Bell had shot him during a “turf war.” However, the drug dealer now denies this story.

The defense and the Detective Endowment Association are pursuing a change of venue, looking to move the case out of Queens, citing that there would be difficulty getting a fair trial. These are the same tactics, that were employed in the Diallo shooting.

The administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been quick to say that they hope “justice will be served.” However, they have refused to entertain even the consideration of some of the demands made by activists calling for the resignation of Commissioner Ray Kelley, and changing the Citizen Complaint Review Board from an advisory board to one with real powers.

“This is not an isolated incident. It is a reflection of policies and procedures that have lead to this,” said Libero Della Piana, New York district organizer of the Communist Party.

The Sean Bell case and its upcoming trial will open new wounds for those touched by police violence. The staggering amounts of stop and frisks, which are 500,000 and out of those 80 percent are African American, has put a spotlight on the culture of the police department and the lack of its accountability. Activists are going to keep the pressure on for change in the coming months.

sdelgado @ cpusa.org

Stealing an election New Mexico style

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 05:48:00 +0000

Over the last 100 years, voters in New Mexico have experienced a number of efforts to steal an election: everything from the range wars of the 1870s, the denial of the Indian vote and the terrorizing of Chicanos to modern-day thievery such as malfunctioning voting machines in working-class precincts, machines registering Republican when the voter wanted Democrat, and extra machines found in warehouses.

Corruption as vote suppression

However, what has come to light in the case of fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias for New Mexico was that apparently Iglesias was supposed to use a number of corruption scandals and charges of voter fraud as a way of smearing the Democratic candidate for Congress. That candidate, Patricia Madrid, was also the attorney general of New Mexico. She was giving the incumbent Congresswoman, Republican Heather Wilson, the run of her life.

Since the Bush appointment of Iglesias, neither Wilson nor her mentor, Sen. Peter Domenici (R-N.M.), were happy with the way Iglesias conducted business. This was revealed when, in the recent congressional hearings, Iglesias stated that both Domenici and Wilson had repeatedly inquired at the Justice Department why Iglesias was moving so slow, and then finally called Iglesias directly to ask him how his work was coming along. Such inquiries, apparently, are a breach of legal ethics.

Unethical pressure

Peter Simonson, executive secretary of the New Mexico Civil Liberties Union, sees “far right” Republican tinkering with the impartiality of the legal system, through unethically “pressuring” attorneys to “time” their public prosecutions to fit a certain political agenda, threatening the checks and balances of the Constitution. Simonson said his impression of Iglesias, a stout defender of the Patriot Act, is that he’s an honest and sincere person.

Why New Mexico?

Why was this attempted smear campaign so important for New Mexico? In a state of 1.6 million people, with 36 percent Latinos, 15 percent Native Americans, 2 percent African Americans, 1 percent Asian and 46 percent white, the voting population is divided into three parts: one-third Democrat, one-third Republican, and one-third independent. In any election, it just takes a small shift of the independent voters to swing the election in either direction. Under such conditions, one can easily see that in a period of mass revolt against the Bush administration, something else had to be found to divert voters’ attention and keep the congressional seat in the Republican column.

Even though Wilson won the 2006 election by 868 votes, this Republican attempt to change the election climate failed, in no small measure due to the voting population’s drive for clean elections, and also due to the personal decency of Iglesias, who refused to let politics interfere with his job.

Other dirty deeds

Some examples of how the Republicans worked these last few years:

• In the 2004 election, community groups engaged in massive voter registration drives. The Republicans immediately began to charge “voter fraud,” because one of the groups paid people to collect registrations. A lone informant came forward to announce that this group had falsely registered people. The Republicans wanted this to become a major smear case, but Iglesias let it run its course, which turned out to be more allegation than substance.

• Then another scandal hit New Mexico. Robert Vigil, prominent Democrat and at that time state treasurer, was found to be engaging in bribery schemes to produce contracts for the state. The FBI was involved in the case, and got some lesser partners in the scheme to turn state’s evidence. All that happened was that after a mistrial and a second trial, Vigil was found guilty of one minor charge and acquitted of all the rest. Once more, the Republican machine had hopes of turning this into a slander case against Attorney General Patricia Madrid for not moving fast enough on the charges against Vigil.

• The use of racism to smear and undermine Latino and Black elected officials continues. In the construction of a new state courthouse in Albuquerque, a number of prominent Democratic officials were federally indicted for having allegedly skimmed almost $4.3 million from the project. Among the accused was Manny Aragon, former president pro tem of the state Senate. His share of the skim was minor in comparison to what the rest of the robbers took, according to the indictment. Yet, the Albuquerque Journal printed thousands of words about Aragon, reciting allegedly crooked deals going back for the last 20 years. Aragon, like others charged, is entitled to the presumption of innocence, but that is not so easy in the court of public opinion when such a coordinated campaign occurs.

Unhealthy for democracy

Trumpeting charges of corruption before a case is allowed to make its way through the system is another form of voter suppression. As one local voter told The Associated Press: “It’s getting to the point where I’ve lost faith in the political and judicial system.”

And that’s not healthy for democracy.

Emil Shaw is a labor and peace activist and the New Mexico state chair of the Communist Party USA.

Mother on hunger strike for immigrant families

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 05:17:00 +0000

CHICAGO — “I’m real emotional these days, especially because of what’s happening with all the raids and deportations,” said Elvira Arellano. Along with her pastor, the Rev. Walter Coleman, Arellano began a 25-day hunger strike on Good Friday, April 6. The hunger strike will end May 1, when thousands nationwide are expected to march and rally for immigrant and workers’ rights.

Arellano, 32, an immigrant from Mexico, is fighting a deportation order so she can remain with her son Saul, age 8, who is a U.S. citizen. Since last August, she has been in sanctuary at Adalberto United Methodist Church here.

Arellano, president of La Familia Latina Unida, an immigrant rights group, said in a statement, “I’m starting this hunger strike, on the eve of Good Friday, as a prayer that our people will mobilize, that the hearts of the people of this nation will open and that elected officials will act to preserve our families and the holy bond between children and their parents. I pray that not one more family will be separated, not one more child left behind.”

She says she feels more emotional than ever hearing the stories of immigrant families rounded up and parents separated from their children in the recent escalation of federal raids and deportations.

Arrests of undocumented workers jumped from 485 in 2002 to 3,667 in 2006, an increase of 750 percent, according to a recent story in the Boston Globe.

Last December immigration agents arrested 1,297 workers at Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in six states. As of March 1, 2007, 649 of those workers had been deported.

The raids left children stranded as many parents were detained in out-of-state federal detention centers allowing little or no communication with their families.

Parents deported from the U.S. face the choice of taking their citizen children with them, or being separated from them permanently if the children remain here in hope of better opportunities.

According to a study by the Urban Institute and the Pew Hispanic Center, there are 3.1 million American-born children of immigrant parents in the U.S. In the Swift plants raided last December in Worthington, Minn., the immigrant workers had at least 360 U.S.-born children.

When Arellano was arrested in 2002, she says, immigration agents told her that Saul would be handed over to the state Department of Children and Family Services.

“Immigration officials are not respecting the workers and especially their children who suffer the most,” she told the World. “I don’t just struggle for me and my son but for the entire undocumented and immigrant community,” she added. “If we want legalization we have to be united and our voices have to be lifted in collective spirit.”

Coleman said the hunger strike seeks “to demand an end to the raids and deportations and to fight the idea that we are afraid.”

“Everybody agrees immigration laws are broken and both parties in Congress are trying to fix it,” he said. With the new congressional leadership, “there is an opening now” for progressive change. Referring to the harsh anti-immigrant bill introduced in late 2005 by Republican Rep. James Sensenbrenner, Coleman said, “We may have stopped HR 4437, but we haven’t stopped the enforcement.”

The Bush administration is carrying out some of HR 4437’s aims, such as building a wall along the Mexico-U.S. border and stepping up raids and deportations.

He compared the situation of 12 million undocumented immigrant workers to “a lottery, a very evil system where you never know when your number is up, and it could be your father or mother next.”

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) has introduced a bipartisan immigrant-friendly bill, HR 1645, which includes border security, worker identification, undocumented legalization and a temporary worker program with paths to citizenship, making family reunification a priority.

Arellano, Coleman and their supporters say Gutierrez’s measure would provide some immediate protections. “We’re not at that point in history to put out the perfect bill,” said Coleman, “but we are at the point to pass something in Congress to protect immigrant families and their children now.”

Bush’s plan, said Coleman, would “send all undocumented workers with their families back and then bring in single workers with no rights.” It is part of a global system that forces people out of their countries to come to the U.S., Coleman said. They are driven not by the American dream, but the “American nightmare” that is destroying the economies of their home countries. Arellano and others like her came to the U.S. for survival, he noted.

Coleman is urging religious leaders across the country to join in the immigrant rights movement with hunger strikes of their own, and by providing sanctuary to immigrant workers threatened with deportation.

plozano @ pww.org

Anti-immigrant law runs aground in courtroom

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 08:25:00 +0000

After a nine-day trial in which civil rights and civil liberties groups challenged a Hazleton, Pa., city ordinance that critics say scapegoats and demonizes immigrants, city officials appeared to fail in their courtroom defense of the law last week.

Hazleton officials claimed they need the ordinance to combat a rise in violent crime they said is attributable to undocumented immigrants in their city. But at the trial they were unable to provide any credible statistical evidence that this is the case.

Both sides have until May to file written arguments, and a decision in the case is expected in the weeks thereafter.

The case was brought before the federal court by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF), the American Civil Liberties Union and others on behalf 11 Hazleton residents and several community organizations.

The ordinance, adopted by Hazleton’s City Council last summer, fines businesses and landlords $1,000 a day for hiring, renting or selling to the undocumented, and withdraws their licenses to do business. The ordinance also outlaws the use of any language other than English for conducting city business.

Opponents of the ordinance say it is racist, puts an undue burden on small businesses and is pre-empted by federal law.

The ordinance, which has been blocked from being enforced by a federal injunction until a verdict comes down, has been amended multiple times, prompting Federal Judge James M. Munley in Scranton to query “which ordinance” he is to rule on.

Because, under the ordinance, businesses must have proof that those they do business with are legal residents, it makes it illegal for them to have dealings with those who are in the process of getting their immigrant status normalized. In effect, the ordinance would make it illegal to rent, hire or sell to people who have lost their permanent residency or citizenship documentation. Some of the plaintiffs are citizens and permanent residents.

Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta claims that an increase in criminal activities, which he says are caused by undocumented immigrants, has put a strain on the city’s police department. At the same time, he admits that he got rid of half of the police officers when he was first elected mayor.

The city’s own records show that undocumented immigrants have committed only 20 crimes in the last five years. The population of the city has grown from 23,000, with 4.5 percent being Latino, to over 30,000 today. Estimates put the current Hispanic population at about 30 per cent.

This influx of Latinos has spurred economic and job growth as the newcomers set up businesses in what used to be an economically depressed area. Local Latino leader Dr. Agapito López said the area was “a ghost town” before 2000. Even the mayor admits that the city went from having a budget deficit to a surplus during this time. During his first term in 2000, Barletta said, “the city was on the verge of bankruptcy.”

PRLDEF President César Perales said in a press release, “Day after day, the evidence at trial has made one thing perfectly clear: that the mayor has engaged in the grossest form of bigotry, unfairly blaming all Latino immigrants for all the city’s problems.”

Many think Barletta’s goals are political. Though he said that the only political job he is interested in is being mayor, he admitted meeting with the National Republican Congressional Committee in February.

Barletta, a Republican, ran for Congress against incumbent Democratic Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski in 2002.

jacruz @ pww.org

The debate youre not hearing: immigration and trade

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 08:00:00 +0000

As immigration again becomes the hottest political topic in America, the debate has again focused on higher fences and driver’s licenses, amnesties and guest worker programs. As always, a central fact has gone largely unstated: Corporate globalization and U.S. trade policies have more to do with how many people cross our borders illegally than U.S. immigration policy or any potential reform thereof.

The exploitation of less developed countries in the economic globalization framework known as free trade has resulted in their financial and environmental impoverishment — both major causes of global overpopulation and increased migration.

When the focus of the debate is U.S. immigration policy rather than the nature of immigration, this reality is invisible. But a consensus has begun to emerge. “At the turn of the millennium,” said Marcelo Suarez-Orozco in his presentation at the 2001 conference Global Shifts: U.S. Immigration and the Cultural Impact of Demographic Change, “we are witnessing intense new worldwide migration and refugee flows ... largely structured by the intensification of globalization.” The same year, the Journal of Media and Culture noted, “The privileging of rich migrants over poor ones romanticizes globalization as corporate progress and ignores the immense human suffering it entails for the majority of the world’s population. These waves of internal migration also result in the movement of peoples across national borders in order to survive.”

The Globalization Caucus at the United Nations World Conference Against Racism noted the “actions of transnational corporations, international development and financial institutions ... [that] heighten inequality among and within states, increase pressure to migrate, and impede efforts to fight racism and racial discrimination.”

But word has not gotten around. While it’s a given that overconsumption and waste is built into the model of economic globalization, one seldom hears it acknowledged that forced migration is also a consequence of the increasing impoverishment of less developed nations, and therefore also directly attributable to the role of free-trade style globalization. At most, you might hear a vague comment that other countries should improve the lot of their citizens so they won’t flee to the U.S. and the riches of the West, with no analysis of how that improvement should come about or exactly what is preventing it.

Regardless of what you believe about resource consumption, overpopulation or immigration in setting the bar for a sustainable society and healthy environment, the problem is the economic engine of inequity that is driving both wasteful consumption and forced migration. Tackling the problem at its source means focusing our energies on a common strategy with a common goal: eliminating the growing chasm between the winning and losing ends of the “free trade” equation. That means turning free trade into fair trade.

“Restricting immigration to the United States won’t solve the environmental problems that force people to move in the first place, and the increasing numbers of illegal immigrants indicate that restrictions are more thumb-in-the-dike than viable policy,” says Stephen Mills, director of the Sierra Club’s International Program. “The Sierra Club’s international efforts go to the headwaters, promoting environmentally sustainable livelihoods that keep forests and families healthy, while making polluting multinational corporations accountable and trade agreements fair.”

Or as environmental legend and past Sierra Club President David Brower succinctly put it as he cast his sharp eye on the fallout from the North American Free Trade Agreement: “Rather than complaining about immigration from Mexico, the U.S. could stop causing it.”

Andrew Christie is a member of the Sierra Club’s Responsible Trade Committee . This article orginally appeared at commondreams.org

The myth of voter fraud

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 07:43:00 +0000

As Congress probes the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, attention is centering on who knew what, and when. It’s just as important to focus on “why,” such as the reason given for the firing of at least one of the U.S. attorneys, John McKay of Washington state: failure to prosecute the phantom of individual voter fraud.

Allegations of voter fraud — someone sneaking into the polls to cast an illicit vote — have been pushed in recent years by partisans seeking to justify proof-of-citizenship and other restrictive ID requirements as a condition of voting. Scare stories abound on the Internet and on editorial pages, and they quickly become accepted wisdom.

But the notion of widespread voter fraud, as these prosecutors found out, is itself a fraud. Firing a prosecutor for failing to find wide voter fraud is like firing a park ranger for failing to find Sasquatch. Where fraud exists, of course, it should be prosecuted and punished. (And politicians have been stuffing ballot boxes and buying votes since senators wore togas; Lyndon Johnson won a 1948 Senate race after his partisans famously “found” a box of votes well after the election.) Yet evidence of actual fraud by individual voters is painfully skimpy.

Before and after every close election, politicians and pundits proclaim: The dead are voting, foreigners are voting, people are voting twice. On closer examination, though, most such allegations don’t pan out. Consider a list of supposedly dead voters in upstate New York that was much touted last October. Where reporters looked into names on the list, it turned out that the voters were, to quote Monty Python, “not dead yet.”

Or consider Washington state, where McKay closely watched the photo-finish gubernatorial election of 2004. A challenge to ostensibly noncitizen voters was lodged in April 2005 on the questionable basis of “foreign-sounding names.” After an election there last year in which more than 2 million votes were cast, following much controversy, only one ballot ended up under suspicion for double-voting. That makes sense. A person casting two votes risks jail time and a fine for minimal gain. Proven voter fraud, statistically, happens about as often as death by lightning strike.

Yet the stories have taken on the character of urban myth. Alarmingly, the Supreme Court suggested in a ruling last year (Purcell v. Gonzalez) that fear of fraud might in some circumstances justify laws that have the consequence of disenfranchising voters. But it’s already happening — those chasing imaginary fraud are actually taking preventive steps that would disenfranchise millions of real live Americans.

Identification requirements often sound simple. But some types of paperwork simply aren’t available to many Americans. We saw this with the new Medicaid proof-of-citizenship requirement, which led to benefits being cut off for many longtime citizens. Some states insist that voters provide photo IDs such as driver’s licenses. But at least 11 percent of voting-age Americans, disproportionately elderly and minority voters, lack the necessary papers. Required documentation such as naturalization paperwork can cost as much as $200. By contrast, when the poll tax was declared unconstitutional in 1966, it was $1.50 ($8.97 in 2007 dollars).

Congress should use this controversy as an opportunity to address true issues of voter protection. Experts have concluded that the most significant threat of fraud comes from electronic voting systems, now used by 80 percent of voters. Legislation introduced by Reps. Rush D. Holt (D-N.J.) and Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) would require a voter-verified record along with random audits to double-check against tampering. It would also bar wireless components from machines that could allow a hacker using a PDA to stage an attack. Lawmakers should also immediately stop pushing ID measures that would turn away legitimate voters.

Those investigating the U.S. attorney firings should ask what orders went out to other prosecutors in the run-up to the 2006 election. Prosecutors are not hired-gun lawyers on a party payroll. They have a special duty to exercise their power responsibly, particularly in the context of a heated election. Pressure on prosecutors to join a witch-hunt for individual voter fraud is a scandal, not just for the Justice Department but for voters seeking to exercise their most basic right.

Michael Waldman is executive director and Justin Levitt is an attorney at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. This article originally appeared in the Washington Post and is reprinted with permission of the authors.

Transport workers: Enough is enough

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 07:07:00 +0000

“Enough is enough!” is the message the Transportation Trades Department of the Machinists union wants to get across to the White House and Congress next month. A Capitol Hill rally, set for noon on May 17, will be followed by congressional lobbying.

A statement by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said in today’s anti-labor political atmosphere, “workers aren’t a priority.”

Transportation workers have been under particular assault, facing a spate of airline bankruptcies and pension terminations, outsourcing of jobs, attacks on Amtrak, assaults on working conditions at freight railroads and a National Mediation Board that has become nothing more than the puppet of the anti-worker, extreme right wing.

IAM President R. Thomas Buffenbarger said that on May 17, “We start taking our government back from corporate America. Every day now for five years, our elected officials have pandered to Corporate America. Tax cuts for millionaires, sweetheart deals for company cronies, earmarked appropriations for fat-cat contributors — this culture of corruption has seeped into every nook and cranny of Washington.

“It is time to say, ‘Enough is enough!’” continued Buffenbarger. “And to say it so forcefully that our elected officials will understand just how frustrated and angry we are.”

The rally will likely be a major display of labor solidarity. The growing list of endorsers includes the Transport Workers Union, the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, the International Transport Workers Federation, the Communication Workers of America, the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, the National Coalition of Black Legislators and several local and state labor federations.

The increasing attacks on workers pensions and health benefits, plus the problems created by global capital, have motivated a broader response. The challenges that confront transportation workers confront all working people and the IAM is reaching out to labor and community allies to join them in saying, “Enough is enough.”

Presidential hopefuls have been asked to address the rally and the IAM hopes to bring upwards of 100,000 activists to D.C. to send the message that presidential candidates hoping for labor’s support must address their concerns.

gbono @ cpusa.org