People Before Profit blog

CARTOON

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 08:27:00 +0000

This ain't no slumber party

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 07:13:00 +0000

This poem was written during a five-day sit-in of high school students at St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay’s office after the Missouri Board of Education voted 5-1 to strip accreditation from the 32,000-student St. Louis City Public Schools on March 22.

See “Students sit in to save schools” in the March 31 PWW at .

Tolerance is a virtue, but not towards fascists

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 06:59:00 +0000

Chris Hedges book, “American Fascists,” is a hard-hitting and thought-provoking critique of the U.S. Christian right. He explains the grave threat to democratic freedoms posed by them. Hedges is a former New York Times reporter.

He accuses the right wing that supposedly Christianity supports of trying to the establish a religious police state in America. In the wake of the recent Supreme Court abortion decision, many are concerned about just that.

Hedges argues this cadre of far-right zealots “are slowly dismantling democratic institutions to establish a religious tyranny, the springboard to an American fascism.” Hedges defines Dominionists as those who “seek to politicize faith,” taken from Genesis 1:26-31 in which “God gives humans dominion over all creation.” He warns not to confuse radical Christians (or Christo-Fascists) with the millions who are traditional evangelical Christians, some of whom have begun to embrace progressive causes.

Dominionists are a mutation of traditional fundamentalist, backed by several billionaires and six national television networks.

Under Christian Dominion, government would become an extension of the church. The Ten Commandments would form our legal system. Creationism and “Christian values” would dominate.

And “Labor unions, civil rights laws, and public schools would be abolished.” Women would be forced to stay home. And dissidents deemed insufficiently Christian would be denied citizenship.

Christo-Fascists conceal their aims by using “terms and phrases that are comforting to most Americans,” but their words have a new meaning says Hedges. “Liberty” no longer relates to freedom, and is newly defined as “the extent to which America obeys Christian law.” “Love” would mean “an unquestioned obedience to those who claim to speak for God in return for the promise of everlasting life.”

Hedges warns the Christian right has control of the executive branch. (Monica Goodling, former aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, holds her law degree from Pat Robertson’s Bible-oriented Regents University, as do 150 other members of the Bush administration.)

Hedges examines what attracts people to the Christian right. This “culture of despair” prevails in American society and Dominionists have “latched on to the despair, isolation, disconnectedness, and fear that drive many people into these churches.”

The converted feel a sense of belonging with readily identifiable targets to scapegoat, e.g. gays, abortion rights activists, liberals, secular humanists (all 3,000 of them in the American Humanist Association), etc.

Hedges believes the success of religious fanatics will be due to “the moral failure of those, including Christians, who understand the intent of the radicals yet fail to confront them, those who treat this mass movement as if it were another legitimate player in an open society.”

The writer says many leading institutions that defend tolerance such as mainstream churches, great research universities, the Democratic Party, and the media fail to challenge these far-right radicals. The “awful paradox” of the present situation, Hedges argues, is that “there arise moments when those who would destroy the tolerance that makes an open society possible should no longer be tolerated.”

The author cites professor Dr. James Luther Adams, from Harvard Divinity School. Adams, himself a German church refugee from Nazi tyranny, warned his students twenty-five years ago that in twenty-five years “we would all be fighting Christian Fascists.” Adams’ also warned of the liberal “solutions” that failed in Germany.

The religious right has carried out an assault upon the truth, especially in science, says Hedges. Science is a primary target because it offers the facts and explanations, which undercut the doctrinal nonsense of the Christian right.

Christian rightists preach male dominance. Women are treated as second-class citizens. Hedges explains, “The hyper masculinity of radical Christian conservatism, which crushes the independence and self-expression of women, is a way for men to compensate for the curtailing of their own independence.” Men, in turn, have already surrendered their will to a male-dominated authoritarian church.

Hedges writes a wakeup call to Americans calling for a confrontation and fight back against the Christian right. Americans have to stand up and speak out against this grave threat to freedom in the U.S. The radical Christian right is truly “a sworn and potent enemy of the open society” and the people must subdue and render harmless the fascist beast in religious cloaks.

Hedges concludes, “Tolerance is a virtue, but tolerance coupled with passivity is a vice.”

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America By Chris Hedges Free Press, 2006 Hardbound, 254 pp., $25.00

Documenting U.S. working class history

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 06:34:00 +0000

My will is easy to decide, For there is nothing to divide, My kin don’t need to fuss and moan Moss does not cling to a rolling stone. My body? Ah, If I could choose, I would to ashes it reduce, And let the merry breezes blow My dust to where some flowers grow. Perhaps some fading flower then Would come to life and bloom again. This is my last and final will, Good luck to all of you, Joe Hill

Joe Hill sent this note to his friend Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. Yellowed with age, this small slip of paper captures a moment in history. Swedish-born Hill, perhaps the most famous troubadour of the early American labor movement, was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) who was arrested on trumped-up charges and executed in 1915 in Salt Lake City. The telegram was his last will and testament and is just one small part of the massive gift by the Communist Party USA to the Tamiment Library at New York University earlier this year. The donated materials include the entire collection of the Reference Center for Marxist Studies, the archives of the CPUSA and the photo morgue of the party’s press.

Flynn was a popular heroine of the labor movement, a founder of the American Civil Liberties Union and a campaigner for the freedom of anarchist political prisoners Sacco and Vanzetti.

Famed for her eloquent and fiery speeches, Flynn was the subject of Hill’s song “Rebel Girl.” She went on to join the Communist Party and became its national chair after serving time in prison under a Smith Act conviction. The note from Hill to Flynn was part of her personal papers kept in the CPUSA archives, managed by the party’s History Commission chair Mary Licht and others, after Flynn’s death in 1964.

History of the U.S. working class

The Communist Party was the most influential organization on the American left during the 20th century. It made indelible contributions to the movements for peace, justice, equality and working people’s rights. The countless leaflets, photos, films, tapes, record albums, letters and books in the collection catalog the tireless work of tens of thousands of Communists and millions more influenced by and supporting them.

“Our party’s history is also the history of the U.S. working class in the last century,” said Sam Webb, current national chair of the CPUSA. “We have nothing to hide. We hope this collection will be used by researchers, students and activists for generations to come.”

A unique library

The Tamiment Library is one of the preeminent research institutions on U.S. labor and radical movements. Since 1977, it has housed the Robert F. Wagner Archives, which holds the histories of the New York City Central Labor Council and its 200 member unions. It also contains the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives.

Originally founded as the Meyer London Library in 1906, the library was part of the Rand School for Social Science and was an early repository of socialist and labor materials. NYU acquired the library in 1963, but the library maintains an independent vision that embraces the legacies of the various socialist, communist, anarchist and other working class organizations and struggles in U.S. history. In short, its mission is to “preserve the history of the Left and the social aspects of the multifaceted movements for social change.”

Even before the recent CPUSA gift, Tamiment housed many collections that document Communist Party history. The personal papers of such Communist Party leaders as Betty Gannett, Simon Gerson, James E. Jackson, New York City Councilman Peter V. Cacchione and artist Hugo Gellert were already stored in the library. It recently acquired the papers of B. D. Amis, an influential but little-known African American labor and civil rights leader and communist.

For Debbie Bell, Amis’ daughter, it was an easy decision to place his papers at Tamiment. “We wanted to make sure that these crumbling documents had a home,” said Bell. “We were afraid that our father’s history would be lost.”

A researcher looking to publish Amis’ speeches and writings contacted Bell. When he saw the delicate condition of the collection, he recommended the family talk to Tamiment.

“[Tamiment Director] Michael Nash said, ‘I am coming down right away to look at these things,’” said Bell. Amis’ collection includes documents on the campaign to free the Scottsboro Nine and rare documentation off the U.S. campaign against Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia in 1935.

Many other African American leaders are immortalized in Tamiment’s stacks. Oral histories include interviews with W.E.B. Du Bois, the preeminent Black leader of the first half of the 20th century, who joined the Communist Party in 1961. One tape has Du Bois commenting favorably on the dramatic student protests at lunch counters and on buses in the late 1950s. There is also correspondence between party leaders and the great actor, singer and activist Paul Robeson. African Americans in the Communist Party were also intimately involved with the organization of Blacks into the labor movement and the building of racially integrated trade unions in the Congress of Industrial Organizations. There is extensive coverage of the campaign to free Angela Davis.

Tamiment also holds the archives of many organizations that communists helped found or lead including the radical children’s retreat Camp Wo-Chi-Ca; the pioneering immigrant rights organization the American Committee for Protection of the Foreign Born; New York City’s Marxist academy, the Jefferson School; the health care and insurance association the International Workers Order; and the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, to name a few. With the CPUSA’s recent gift, Tamiment became the preeminent archive of U.S. Communist history. No other research institution has such a collection with official documents, papers from individual notables, mass organizations and even a microfilm copy of the CPUSA’s archives from Moscow that were acquired by the Library of Congress.

Reference Center for Marxist Studies

For many years, Lottie Gordon was the director of the Reference Center for Marxist Studies and the custodian of its many treasures. She and the dedicated staff, volunteers and board members such as Philip Bonosky and Charles Keller made the collection available to researchers, filmmakers and activists. Warren Beatty looked to the Reference Center for background research on John Reed and the early years of the Communist Party for his famous film, “Reds.” Gordon passed away soon after the Reference Center’s 20th anniversary in 2000, leaving behind a unique collection — including more than 25,000 books — that constitutes the bulk of the gift to Tamiment.

Collecting materials

In the summer of 2006, Tamiment librarians and interns carefully reboxed the papers, audiotapes, photos and books for shipment. They moved the collection quickly in order to clear the two floors it occupied, which were slated for renovation as part of a project to modernize and improve the Manhattan building and offices of the CPUSA.

The scope of the collection is daunting. There are 10,000-plus pamphlets, hundreds of audiotapes and rare films, and 2,000 boxes of papers. While no one will know the actual figure until the collection is cataloged, library staff estimate that there are more than 500,000 photographs in the collection from the Communist press documenting strikes, electoral work and other struggles of the past 80 years.

The collection contains the only complete surviving print of “The Passaic Textile Strike” (1926) produced by International Workers Aid, a landmark of grassroots filmmaking. The Library of Congress is restoring the film for its collection — in exchange making a copy of the restored film available for Tamiment.

The Communist press

The Communist press is a major part of the collection. In addition to the Daily Worker, the Daily World, the People’s Daily World and the People’s Weekly World, there are comprehensive collections of the Young Communist, the Challenge, Dynamic magazine and other publications of the Young Communist League and its predecessors. There are copies of the Morning Freiheit (the daily Yiddish-language newspaper), Rodo Shimbun (the Japanese-language publication) and more. There are leaflets, pamphlets and shop-floor newsletters in Russian, Finnish, Italian and almost every other language spoken by U.S. workers over the years.

The Spanish-language books and papers extensively document the liberation struggles in Latin America, as well as of Latinos in the U.S. The collection contains information on Jesus Colón, pioneering Puerto Rican writer, as well Mexican American Communists, not to mention Cuban patriot José Martí. It also includes the Spanish-language newspapers Nuestro Mundo and Voz del Pueblo.

“It will take years to catalog,” Nash said. “We won’t know all of the hidden stories for a long time to come. Our first priority is to protect and preserve the most delicate and endangered papers.”

A hidden jewel

Among the hidden jewels in the collection is a stunning black-and-white photo portrait of a heavyset well-dressed man with a soft smile. It is a photo print of the famous Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, photographed by Tina Modotti. Modotti is renowned for her groundbreaking photography and artistic and personal relationship with American photographer Edward Weston. This rare photo is just one of many that might be lurking in the 2,000 boxes collected by Tamiment’s staff.

Roots of socialist movement

The Communist Party collection is a record of a century of American radicalism. The Communist Party’s founding members came from the Socialist Party, the Socialist Labor Party, the Industrial Workers of the World and any number of local and regional unions and people’s organizations. The collection reflects and documents these movements, as well, with minutes from labor federation meetings, letters between notable radicals and leaflets from socialist organizations large and small.

The collection has the rare and age-worn originals of the first documents issued by the Communist Party. The yellowed charter application shows the effort to build the party’s membership in the weeks following the founding of the Communist Party of America (CPA), on Sept. 2, 1919. Its very first bulletin, dated Sept. 18, 1919, declares the Communist Party “a fact” and calls for all socialist-minded workers to join forces.

Active throughout the decades

The CPUSA history is not limited to the 1920s. Nash said the majority of the collection relates to the post-World War II CPUSA. The records of party activities during the civil rights movement, the movement against the U.S. war in Vietnam, the anti-apartheid struggle and the fight against Reaganism belie the notion that the Communist Party disappeared in the 1950s.

But the archive is not just a reflection of history, but of the future of the Communist Party. “Our gift is aimed at protecting the legacy of the party for future generations,” said Webb. “Tamiment can do that better than any other institution.”

Libero Della Piana (ldellapiana @ cpusa.org) is chair of the NY district of the CPUSA and assisted in collecting the materials to move to Tamiment. Special thanks to the staff of Tamiment Library for assistance with the article and images.

Hunger strikers arrested for protesting energy hikes

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 05:55:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Affordable Power for the People staged a three day hunger strike in protest of skyrocketing energy costs.

The hunger strike began on April 14. After rallying, three members of Affordable Power for the People entered the Illinois State Thompson Center just before its closing time and joined hands in solidarity. They announced their hunger strike and refused to leave the building.

Security guards grabbed their chairs, broke their locked hands and forced group leader Curly Cohen to the ground, threatening him with pepper spray. They were handcuffed and detained two and a half hours before being released.

The next day Affordable Power ended the hunger strike and presented a letter demanding a vote on a rate freeze to State Assembly leader Emil Jones.

Asked about his arrest during the hunger strike, one activist, Dave, said, “We have a moral responsibility to bring attention to this issue,” referring to the steep rise in energy costs. Dave points to a 26 percent price hike by ComEd, and 70 percent to 300 percent price hike in some parts of Illinois.

Molly Rose joined the hunger strike because she realizes the high rates are a “fixable problem.” She said her thought was, “I can help, so I will.”

WORLD NOTES

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

Ecuador: Overwhelming support for new constitution

By an 82 percent majority, voters on April 15 backed President Rafael Correa’s call for a constituent assembly to fashion a new constitution. “Today the country has buried the past,” he announced, calling for a “patriotic and progressive bloc to control the new assembly.” Voting for 130 candidates will be in June. Analysts interpret the results as rejection of corruption, traditional party rule and the influence of foreign corporations. Under a new constitution, they say, Ecuador’s Congress, controlled by the ruling elite, will lose power. Correa predicted a “truly representative and more participatory democracy” that would “overcome the vile neoliberal model.” He announced debt repayment of $9 million to the International Monetary Fund and expulsion of the World Bank representative. His defeated rival for the presidency, banana tycoon Álvaro Noboa, arrived April 16 from Miami to declare that “the people made a mistake.”

Russia: Profit push leads to mine disaster

“The deliberate disabling of the safety system is a crime which was intended to increase coal production,” Kemerovo Governor Aman Tuleyev said April 17. He was commenting on the deaths of 110 people following a March 19 methane gas explosion at the Ulyanovskaya coal mine in Siberia. Government safety inspector Konstanin Pulikovsky said readings on the mine’s meters had been “deliberately lowered.” He charged managers with deactivating gas monitors to silence alarms so that work could proceed. The practice is common in Russian mines, says a BBC report. Ironically the dead included managers doing audits in preparation for stock offerings aimed at raising $700 million for investments. The explosion was Russia’s worst mining disaster in a decade. Operations at the Ulyanovskaya mine — named after Vladimir Lenin — began in 2002. Modern German and British safety equipment was in place.

South Africa: Labor takes on security service giant

A delegation of unionists, academics and attorneys from the Union Network International (UNI), representing property service workers, conferred April 17 in Johannesburg with officials of the International Federation of Football (FIFA), organizer of the 2010 World Cup competition set for South Africa. UNI has targeted London-based Group 4 Securicor (G4S), employer of 470,000 security guards worldwide, 82,000 across Africa and 15,000 in South Africa, of whom only 10 percent are unionized. The giant corporation is campaigning for security contracts with FIFA, while UNI wants union contracts. South African union leader Randall Howard told the Mail and Guardian newspaper that unions will block any potential G4S contract with FIFA: “They will not see it; they will not smell it.” Unions charge G4S with racial discrimination and low pay. UNI will be investigating alleged disregard of court decisions, labor laws and union rights in Malawi, South Africa and Mozambique, where G4S owes $1.36 million in back wages.

China: Proposed labor law feels business pressure

A Global Labor Strategies report says U.S. pro-business lobbying has led to soft-pedaling on workers’ rights in a law before the Chinese People’s Congress (PC). The report details positions taken by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, international union federations and even U.S. congresspersons that support workers’ rights and oppose corporate intervention. A PC committee announced April 17 upcoming deliberations on a third draft of the law on initiating, monitoring and ending of labor contracts, a first for China. China Daily speculates that protecting worker rights may lead to rising labor costs. U.S. and European chambers of commerce warn of decreased foreign investment. The law has elicited almost as many public comments in a month as came in on the constitution in 1954, says China Daily.

Iraq: Violence mounts against gay people

Over 30 people have been murdered in Baghdad in three months because they were gay, according to the UN’s IRIN news agency. Since 2005, when the gay rights group Rainbow for Life Organization (RLO) started keeping records, 64 gay and lesbian people have been murdered and 230 others abused. Spokesperson Mustafa Salim accuses Shia militia groups of subjecting gays to “systematic terror,” an assertion confirmed by the United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq. Salim said the Iraqi government has provided no protection. He described notes left near victims’ bodies declaring, “This is going to be the fate for any Muslim who denies the Islamic religion.” Mahdi Army combatant Ali Hassany admitted to the targeting of gays and lesbians. For security reasons, RLO is forced to maintain an almost clandestine existence. Office locations are generally unknown, and contacts with victims and volunteers are carried out in secret. Four volunteers have been killed since 2005.

World Notes are compiled by W.T. Whitney Jr. (atwhit @ megalink.net).

Americans want to give undocumented a break

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 05:14:00 +0000

A new USA Today/Gallup Poll showed a whopping 78 percent of the U.S. public favor giving all or most of the 12 million undocumented immigrants a chance to legalize and eventually become U.S. citizens.

The poll results fly in the face of ultra-right and anti-immigrant organizations’ claims that the American people reject such a solution.

The poll, carried out on April 13 and 14, also suggests that immigration is not at the forefront of the worries of the U.S. public. “Immigration” and “illegal immigration” ranked low in the topics of concern listed by respondents, far behind the Iraq war, Social Security, the economy and health care.

Among the poll results:

• Seventy-eight percent of respondents said undocumented immigrants now in the United States should be allowed to regularize their status here, while only 14 percent said they should be kicked out and never allowed to return, and 6 percent said they should be allowed to return only as temporary workers.

• Showing some unevenness and confusion within the 78 percent group, 42 percent said the undocumented should be required to leave but allowed to return to eventually acquire citizenship, while 39 percent said they should be allowed to be legalized without having to leave and return.

• The respondents preferred keeping families together with 49 percent saying priority in future immigration should be given to people who have family members living in the United States, while 38 percent said that preference should be given to people who are highly educated and have prime skills.

What do these results mean? First of all, with the intense pro- and anti-immigrant agitation of the past year, with the huge pro-immigrant marches and rallies on the one side and the relatively small, yet vicious, racist anti-immigrant hate campaigns on the other, the pro-immigrant forces are ahead.

Secondly, those politicians who are supportive of immigrant rights should not be afraid of voting for pro-immigrant legislation and against anti-immigrant legislation.

Finally, these results, and also results from a California poll which show that more than 80 percent of the citizens of that state favor legalization of the undocumented, could serve as ammunition for pro-immigrant and pro-worker activists in upcoming hearings on immigration reform legislation to fight for more generous terms for legalization and more protections for both immigrant and U.S.-born workers.

Thousands go back to work at Miss. shipyard

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 05:10:00 +0000

Thousands of workers were back on the job April 5 at Northrup Grumman’s huge shipyard in Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Pascagoula, Miss., after a 28-day strike that began March 8.

The 7,400 workers, most of whom had lost cars or homes to Katrina, had remained solid in support of the strike. They voted 3-2 to accept a new three-year contract giving them a $1.68 per hour raise the first year and 55 cents per hour during each of the second and third years. They also gained new bonuses including extra vacation time.

The strike had been called by International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 733, representing 1,200 at the shipyard, and the Pascagoula Metal Trades Council, which speaks for 6,200 workers in 14 unions.

The company had offered annual raises of $1.40, 55 cents and 55 cents just prior to the massive walkout that shut the nation’s largest shipyard.

As they walked through the gate on their first day back, workers voiced mixed feelings to reporters from WLOX TV based in nearby Biloxi, Miss.

“I feel pretty good going back. It’s about time,” Jimmy Briggs said. “We got a cost of living increase in the contract. That means if things go up, we get a few pennies or a few dollars.”

But Danny Smith said, “I feel that they still whipped us.” He commented, “They’re already making the money so why not pay the workers that are making the money for them?”

Smith’s remarks reflected the opinions of the 40 percent who voted against the new contract.

Northrup Grumman’s highly profitable Ingalls Shipyard has, since World War II, been a production center for cruisers, destroyers, submarines and ammunition ships. The USS Cole, damaged in a suicide bombing off the Yemeni coastline in 2000, was repaired at the yard.

While Gulf Coast workers have suffered ever since Hurricane Katrina, the disaster resulted in lucrative contracts for Northrup Grumman. The Navy gave Grumman $2.7 billion to repair Katrina damage, while the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) gave the company another $356 million.

Positive features of the new contract include 80-cent hourly premiums for some shifts, attendance bonuses of up to $1,040 annually and cost of living increases in the second and third year. There will also be additional vacation time for workers with the company less than four years.

The company had originally sought health insurance premium hikes from the current $144 to $217 with no caps. The new contract allows the premiums to rise to $194 but caps them at that level.

When the workers shut down the huge shipyard, they apparently fired a shot “heard around the world.”

It drew an unprecedented picket line visit by Philip Teel, president of Nothrup Grumman’s Ship Systems. Teel’s visit was spurred by the company’s fear that it could be sued by billionaire contractors worried about delays and that it could lose the stable workforce it needs to maintain its profits.

U.S. government anxiety was reflected in an April 3 meeting by a federal mediator with company and union representatives.

Workers blame the lengthy strike on Northrup Grumman, which used a stalling strategy to drag out talks, wear down worker resolve and win concessions from the unions. Despite this, workers held out for nearly a month with the help of strong community support.

Local businesses and churches brought food to the picket lines every day and even staged a solidarity march outside the shipyard on March 12.

“Our members, who are still suffering from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, have stood up and refused to be victims any longer,” said IBEW President Ed Hill. “The wage increases are the highest ever achieved by unions at the yard,” he added.

thewritergdr @ europe.com

Backed by client Bush, Gonzales hangs on

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 04:58:00 +0000

President Bush brushed aside calls for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign, describing him as “an honest, honorable man in whom I have confidence.” But it has not silenced demands that Gonzales step down.

People for the American Way is circulating a petition citing Gonzales’ role in backing “George W. Bush’s abuses of the law and disregard for the Constitution” such as warrantless spying, stripping detainees of habeas corpus rights, undermining civil rights, and torture and abuse in the “judicial black hole that is Guantanamo Bay.”

Gonzales’ Senate Judiciary Committee testimony April 13 stirred wide disgust when he pleaded more than 50 times that he could not recall meetings with White House and Justice Department officials on removing eight U.S. attorneys. The eight were targeted by Republicans for insufficient loyalty to Bush policies and lacking zeal in prosecuting alleged Democratic voter fraud.

Brian J. Foley, a professor at Florida Coastal School of Law, said Gonzales’ testimony exposed him as a lawyer with a clientele of one. “I don’t think Gonzales is fit for the job. I don’t think he ever was,” Foley told the World by phone. “He views the president essentially as his client in what he perceives as a sharp battle with an opposing party: the American people. He has worked to increase the unchecked powers of the president at the expense of the rights of the people.”

In the firings of David Iglesias, U.S. attorney for New Mexico, and John McKay, U.S. attorney for Seattle, one reason cited was that they did not push voter fraud prosecutions just before last fall’s elections. Commented Foley, “There is the Republican version of ‘voter fraud,’ and then there is the bigger problem of voter fraud such as the fixing of voting machines, not informing large numbers of voters about voting places and times. There is no Republican investigation of that fraud.”

Referring to Florida’s then-Secretary of State Katherine Harris who denied more than 100,000 voters, mostly African American, their ballot rights in 2000, Foley said it “all fits in” with the Bush administration’s policy of “trying to make it harder for the American people to vote.”

Lew Moye, president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists St. Louis chapter, served as AFL-CIO “election protection” coordinator last November. “We faced some heavy voter suppression tactics,” he told the World in a phone interview. Even though the courts had thrown out a law requiring that voters present a photo ID, “the Republicans tried to convince voters that it was still a requirement,” Moye said. “There should be an investigation of Gonzales’ involvement in that, violating people’s voting rights. I think this relates to the Republicans’ efforts to suppress African American or minority voters because of their strong opposition to Republican policies.”

A five-year Justice Department nationwide “voter fraud” dragnet ordered by Gonzales and Bush strategist Karl Rove netted only 86 convictions. Most involved people who mistakenly registered or voted not understanding they were not eligible. They include Usman Ali, a legal 10-year resident of Tallahassee, Fla., who was deported to Pakistan because he mistakenly filled out a voter registration form while renewing his driver’s license. He was summarily deported even though he did not actually vote. His wife and daughter, both U.S. citizens, were forced into exile with him.

Kimberly Prude, an African American grandmother in Milwaukee, joined a 2004 march led by Al Sharpton to City Hall, where she registered to vote. She later sent in an absentee ballot. She is an ex-offender on probation. When she realized her mistake, she called the Election Board to rescind her vote. She was told it was not necessary.

Despite her apology, she was convicted and sent to jail. She has been incarcerated now more than a year.

Wisconsin Green Party Co-Chair Ruth Weill called it “a case of Republican Party bait and switch.” In 2000 and 2004, the Bush administration “was accused of severe voter intimidation of Blacks and Latinos, so now they defend themselves by accusing Blacks and Latinos of ‘vote fraud’,” she told the World.

Prude, she said, “obviously had no malice. She made a mistake. It is beyond ridiculous that she is in jail.”

The Justice Department “should be ashamed of themselves,” Weill said.

greenerpastures21212 @ yahoo.com

PWWs Wheeler speaks at Labor Voices

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 04:46:00 +0000

NEW YORK — In keeping with its tradition of being a voice of the labor and the working class, the People’s Weekly World is participating in the April 26-28 Labor Voices 3 conference here on multiple levels.

The PWW is represented in the program by national political correspondent Tim Wheeler, speaking April 27 on the life of legendary labor reporter Art Shields, who wrote for this paper’s predecessors going back to the Daily Worker. PWW reporters also are on the scene at the City University of New York Graduate Center to cover the conference, and volunteers are distributing this issue to attendees.

Conference organizers bill the event as uniting “unions, worker centers, international labor groups, journalists, scholars and media activists for the first time to network and develop media strategies to support the emerging global workers’ movement.”

Wheeler says the life of Art Shields is symbolic of what the conference is trying to do.

Shields’ life was like a catalogue of 20th century labor struggles, Wheeler said. But unlike journalists from the corporate press, “he was deeply involved.”

Shields wrote a pamphlet, distributed to 20,000 workers, urging their support for the famous 1919 Seattle general strike. He was one of the first veterans to speak for the strike. This was significant because there were fears that World War I veterans, of which there were many in the Seattle area at the time, would act as strikebreakers.

“Shields was a witness to some of the biggest events of the 20th century,” Wheeler said. He was there at the Battle of Blair Mountain during the 1921 West Virginia coal wars; he campaigned to save Sacco and Vanzetti; he was in Spain during the fight against Franco fascism, barely escaping with his life after the fall of Madrid.

For people interested in the media, says Wheeler, it is important to draw lessons “about what Art’s life meant in terms of his unwavering loyalty to the cause of workers, their emancipation. He was always there. He was ready to go wherever the action was, to cover their struggle.”

The PWW fits well in the conference, Wheeler noted, since it fights every week “for the rights of manufacturing workers, steelworkers, autoworkers, immigrant workers, helping to unite and giving coverage to the role they played in the 2006 elections. Labor played such a huge role in the defeat of the Republicans.”

But the paper is also unique in many ways, he said, including its long history. He cited a recent front-page New York Times story about the donation of PWW and Communist Party archives to New York University’s Tamiment Library. The uniqueness “comes out in this story … saying we have in our archives Joe Hill’s last will and testament. I don’t think any newspaper has such deep and long roots in the labor movement as we do, going back through the Daily Worker.”

It’s unique in another way, he added: “We advocate for basic change, for socialism.”

dmargolis @ pww.org

Boris Yeltsin and Jenny Lopez

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 04:26:00 +0000

A few days ago, according to Pravda, (the former paper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union now specializing in National Inquirer-like gossip) a newly rich 35-year old Russian billionaire banker, Adrei Melnichenko paid Jennifer Lopez $3 million to perform at a birthday party for his wife Aleksandra at their Berkshire England estate. Great for Jenny Lopez! But what a sad commentary on the extravagance of gangster capitalism amongst Russia's ruling class, a class brought to power by the late but not so great Boris Yeltsin. What a tragic coincidence of death and outlandish opulence, symbolic of Yeltsin's enduring legacy.

The week began with an announcement of Yeltsin's death occasioning much commentary on his role and legacy as he lies in state awaiting burial. Not surprisingly much of it has praised him as a great liberator and troubadour of justice, democracy and the American way. The praise is so excessive it almost echoes a strain of super-Yeltsin, reminding me of a conversation I once held with a Young Communist League of the Soviet Union (Komsomol) staffer who described Michael Gorbachev in a similar cult of personality way: 'He's no ordinary man.' Well neither was Mr. Yeltsin.

The New York Times described him as leaving a 'giant if flawed legacy.' Tracing the development of what even they call 'buccaneer capitalism' and the 'usurping of political power by a new class of oligarchs' they go on to commend his actions that insured that there would be no return to socialist property 'that reduced a talented and cultured people rich in natural resources to a beggar among nations.'

Hunh? A beggar among nations? The former Soviet Union? The country that defeated the three-fourths of Hitler's Army and achieved strategic military parity with the US? The country whose industrial might came prior to the collapse of equaling many developed capitalist countries?

Clearly revealed in this single phrase, is the deep class hatred of US imperialism for the former USSR, a hatred that has blinded them from all sense of objectivity and balance when considering the legacy of Yeltsin and his descendants, a hatred that has led them to elevate a hopeless drunk and manic depressive to the level of super star. No wonder then that they look over his trampling over democracy and the will of the former Soviet people in the name of free markets. It should be remember that Yeltsin defied Soviet elections and law by:

1) ignoring the national plebiscite in which a majority voted for retaining the USSR; 2) outlawing the Communist Party; 3) blowing up Parliament with rocket and tank fire with defenseless legislators inside.

This is how the Times shamelessly portray him as 'a democrat who often ruled in the manner of a czar. He showed no reluctance to use the power of the presidency to face down his opponents as he did in 1993 when he ordered tanks to fire on a Parliament dominated by openly seditious Communists.'

Oh really? Now one can see it clearly: this is the kind of thinking that led to arming of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan; the alleged support given the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, the aid rendered the late Jonas Savimbi in Angola and host of other dictators and petty tyrants. All and anything in the name of fighting communism and for free markets.

And for this Yeltsin has been bestowed a mantle of greatness.

Yeltsin's legacy lies in greatness of the betrayal of the hopes and aspirations of the Soviet people. It is he who reduced the country to a beggar among nations, raising the infant mortality rate to Third World levels, lowered the life expectancy rate, and created extreme poverty and wide scale hunger for millions. How this could have happened in a country that boasted of 'developed socialism' how it was that the working class and people sat aside and were at best neutral while these events took place remains a huge question. However that in no way excuses the legacy of Yeltsin or the opulent excesses of his followers, who romp in billions while their country men and women starve.

Joe Sims is editor of Political Affairs magazine. This article originally appeared on Politcal Affairs website .

Labor, Civil Rights Groups Praise Introduction of Anti-Discrimination Bill

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 04:20:00 +0000

A measure that would outlaw discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation and gender identity was re-introduced in Congress yesterday (4-24-07). The bipartisan bill, known as the Employment Anti-Discrimination Act (ENDA), would make it illegal to fire, refuse to hire or refuse to promote an employee based on the person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

Expressing strong support for passage of the bill, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said, 'In far too many states, it is still absolutely legal to fire someone because of their sexual orientation and gender identity or expression.'

Sweeney added that protections against job discrimination should be expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity. 'It is just plain wrong for anyone to discriminate against or fire a worker based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and this legislation gives Congress the chance to make such shocking discrimination illegal once and for all,' he stated.

Nancy Wohlforth, Co-President of Pride at Work, AFL-CIO, the LGBT voice in the labor movement, said, 'The fundamental precepts of the labor movement are centered around the recognition that workers must be assessed only on their job-related performance. Yet, all forms of workplace and employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression remain lawful in the majority of US states.'

Currently 33 states lack legal bars against discrimination based on sexual orientation, and 42 states allow discrimination in the workplace based on gender identity.

In a press statement, ACLU Legislative Counsel Christopher Anders added his organization's support for the bill. 'Too many people for too many years have lost jobs for no good reason. Congress should pass, and President Bush should sign, this bipartisan bill this year,' said Anders.

The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), a Washington DC-based civil rights organization dedicated to empowering Black same-gender-loving, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, weighed in with support for ENDA. H. Alexander Robinson, NBJC's executive director and CEO, said, 'We envision a world where all people are fully empowered to participate safely, openly, and honestly in family, faith and community, regardless of race, gender-identity or sexual orientation. ENDA is particularly important because it will provide protections in the workplace, the source of most people’s livelihoods.'

Robinson urged quick and decisive action by Congress to provide this protection. 'Discrimination is wrong and discrimination in the workplace should be illegal,' he stated.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), which first supported the original version of the bill introduced in the mid-1970s by Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY), echoed support for the bill.

NGLTF Executive Director Matt Foreman especially singled out for praise the bill's inclusion of transgender workers for protection against discrimination. 'We vowed we would not support an Employment Non-Discrimination Act that left behind the transgender members of our community,' he said.

NGLTF withdrew its support for ENDA in the late 1990s when its leading proponents failed to include gender identity as a protected category. Supporters of the more inclusive version of the bill won their case in 2005 when the bill was revised.

A spokesperson for the Business Coalition for Workplace Fairness, a coalition of companies that support passage of the bill, cited legal protections from discrimination as the best way to promote diversity, a key to productivity and the recruitment of qualified and talented workers.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), one of the bill's original co-sponsors, rejected criticism leveled by anti-gay opponents of the bill. In the few states where similar measures have been adopted, Frank asserted, “it has caused none of the problems that opponents inaccurately claimed it would and it has provided job protection for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people who ask simply to be allowed do their jobs and be judged on their job performance.”

Responding to anti-gay critics of the bill, ENDA supporters point out that the bill excludes small businesses from its scope, has nothing to do with legalizing gay marriage, and would not require companies to create new employee benefits.

Joel Wendland is Managing Editor of Political Affairs magazine. This article originally appeared on the Political Affairs website .

WHAT'S ON

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 03:48:00 +0000

BERKELEY, CA July 4, Wed., 1 – 5 p.m Annual PWW Barbeque presents: ¡Que Viva Cuba! Great food (including Cuban dishes), music, video, firsthand report on Cuban healthcare facilities, & original Cuban posters for sale. Proceeds benefit PWW. At 2232 Derby St. (between Fulton & Ellsworth). $10. Info: (510) 548-8764.

CHICAGO July 12, Thurs., 7 p.m. Is a just peace possible between Israel & Palestine? Hear Susan Webb, PWW Editorial Board member, who represented the CPUSA at recent Communist Party of Israeli Congress & a Jerusalem Peace Conference jointly sponsored by CPI & the Palestinian People’s Party. At Unity Center, 3339 S Halsted St. Refreshments. Free. Sponsor: PWW. Info: (773) 446-9932

OAKLAND, CA July 7, Sat., 10 a.m. - noon Political Affairs Readers Group discussing: “War and Crisis” by Rémy Herrera (April 2007 PA) Come and share your thoughts & hear others. At Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library for Social Research, 6501 Telegraph Ave (bet. Alcatraz and 66th). Sponsored by CPUSA (Oakland/Berkeley) Copies of articles available at NPML & politicalaffairs.net. Info: (510) 595-7417 or at www.marxistlibr.org.

ST. PETERSBURG, FL July 14, Sat., 6 p.m. - 10 p.m. The Tampa Bay club CPUSA annual summer social event: Joining together for peace, justice & democracy. Join us for good company & good conversation. Refreshments. Small donation requested at door, but no one turned away. Proceeds benefit People’s Weekly World. Info including location & directions, call (727) 823-8346 or email:

10 lines for $20

Deadline for July 14 edition, Thursday July 5

Send greetings to Pomeroys

Sat, 21 Apr 2007 10:35:00 +0000

We have received word that William and Celia Pomeroy, both in their 90s, are now in a nursing home in England where they receive 24-hour care. William Pomeroy covered many international stories for the People’s Weekly World and its predecessors. He wrote several books, including “The Forest, A Personal Record of the Huk Guerrilla Struggle in the Philippines.” It was during this struggle in the 1940s that William met Celia, who became his lifelong comrade and spouse. Pomeroy was a U.S. citizen, but he and Celia were forced to live in exile by the U.S. government because they were Communists and participants in the Huk struggle.

Messages can be sent to the Pomeroys at this address:

William and Celia Pomeroy Ashton Lodge Nursing Home Spelthorne Grove Sunbury on Thames Middlesex TW16 7DA England

PBS to add Latino history in World War II film

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 09:11:00 +0000

On April 11, after pressure from Latino leaders with the Defend the Honor Campaign, the Public Broadcasting System said it had reversed its original decision and plans to include the Latino experience in Ken Burns’ new World War II documentary, “The War.”

PBS President Paula Kerger said, “PBS, Ken Burns and his co-director/producer Lynn Novick have decided to create additional content that focuses on stories of Latino and Native American veterans of the Second World War.”

The features will be integrated into the documentary, the DVD, the website and PBS’ educational outreach materials. Burns’ production company, Florentine Films, has agreed to hire a Latino producer, in consultation with PBS, to join the production teams and help create the new content.

The film premieres next September, during Hispanic Heritage Month, when national programming will be aired on WWII including the contributions of Latinos to the war.

The Defend the Honor Campaign was organized last February to pressure PBS and Burns to include Latino history in the film. Dr. Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, a leader of the campaign and journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin, met with Kerger in March at PBS headquarters in Virginia. At that time, Kerger said PBS would not make any changes to the film because it was completed and did not want to interfere with Burns’ artistic independence.

“This is a great victory for the Latino community and for our veterans and their families who have sacrificed so much for the defense of this nation,” stated Rivas-Rodriguez, who leads the Latino and Latina WWII Oral History Project at the University of Texas.

“The unity in the Latino community on this issue was unprecedented,” said Gus Chavez, a retired university administrator and a veteran. “We were part of a movement that demonstrated how powerful our Latino community could be when we work together in common cause. We were also deeply moved to see that this struggle by the Latino community also resulted in the inclusion of Native Americans in this documentary,” Chavez said. “It makes the point that, as Latinos, we are also fighting for a broader agenda of inclusion.”

Campaign leaders sent Kerger a letter with other concerns about how the Latino experience will be treated in the film and what role the Latino community will be playing in the development of the film itself, the educational materials and PBS’ community outreach efforts. Marta Garcia, chair and founder of the New York Chapter of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, said the group plans a follow-up meeting with Kerger. Garcia hopes to discuss developing an ongoing mechanism by which the Latino community can have input and can act as a resource for PBS. “We also need to make sure that this problem does not occur again, and media advocates like the National Latino Media Council will be following up to make sure PBS in general better incorporates Latinos in its programming, staff and in other ways,” Garcia said.

“As a longtime journalist, I can attest to the impact this decision by PBS and the Burns film can have on how Americans will view the Latino community and its contributions to this country,” observed Iván Román, executive director of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

“We think that this will make the documentary a more accurate and enduring work on an important part of this country’s, and the world’s, history,” said Roman.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the American GI Forum, the National Latino Media Council, the National Council of La Raza and many others came together in support of the campaign.

Miners unity wins contract

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 08:12:00 +0000

PITTSBURGH — At a time when strikes are measured in months, concessions are the beginning of negotiations, and it takes years for new union members to get the company to talk to them, coal miners at Foundation Coal Co. look like they will beat the odds. It was Pennsylvania and Illinois miners’ rock solid unity that forced Foundation to sign what has been called, a national non-give-back contract with the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) in just eight days.

“The strength and solidarity displayed by our members over this past week has been simply outstanding,” said UMWA President Cecil Roberts. “It was clear to all concerned that they were sticking together and were not going to back down. I commend them, their families and their communities for their tremendous unity and sense of common purpose.”

Miners returned to work April 13. Details of the new contract have not been released until the UMWA has an opportunity to discuss the agreement with miners. Miners will then vote on the contract.

In a press release, Roberts said the contract brings UMWA members at Foundation into the national agreement signed earlier with the Bituminous Coal Operators Association. That five-year agreement provides for a 4 percent raise per year, maintains health care with no reductions of benefits or co-pays, and secures retiree benefits and health care.

The day 1,800 miners rallied in Waynesburg, Pa., Foundation Coal announced it was closing its Wabash Mine in Illinois. While no collective bargaining anywhere has been able to halt a closing, keeping Wabash miners in the UMWA family enabled the union to cushion the blow.

“We have also negotiated a significant severance package in terms of pay and future retiree benefits for the miners at the Wabash mine,” Roberts said. “One very important part of the agreement with Wabash will give those miners rights to jobs at Cumberland and Emerald (in Pennsylvania) as positions come open, which is likely to happen very rapidly. If Wabash or any other company comes in and mines that block of coal, they will do it with UMWA members, with the 2007 national agreement in place.”

Known as successorship, the part of the contract mandating that Wabash coal will be mined by union miners is key. Since the 1980s, then-President Ronald Reagan’s National Labor Relations Board decision allowing coal companies to close mines and re-open them nonunion has created havoc in the coal fields. Some observers charge that the government attack on the UMWA’s rights has contributed to the decline in mine safety, while production and profits have skyrocketed.

Curtis Macklin, a Pittsburgh small businessman, hailed the agreement. “This is a great day. Those coal companies oughta give the miners anything they want. Think about what they do. Those men should never have to strike to get what’s coming to them. Corporate greed — that’s a terrible, terrible thing. But sounds like the miners won this round,” he said. Macklin’s family worked in the mines near Pittsburgh.

dwinebr696 @ aol.com

THIS WEEK IN LABOR

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 08:10:00 +0000

Injustice doesn’t taste right

Fifty people picketed the Harris Teeter grocery store in Greensboro, N.C., March 31 to protest the sale there of items “packaged with abuse” at Smithfield Packing’s Tar Heel plant. The plant, the world’s largest hog slaughterhouse, has been cited by Human Rights Watch for illegal activity to thwart a 14-year drive by workers to unionize, and for creating an environment of intimidation, racial tension and violence for workers who want a voice on the job.

The protest was one of 22 demonstrations held that day at Harris Teeter supermarkets in eight Southern states. “If necessary we will escalate this fight for a boycott until we get whatever we need to bring justice to the workers at Smithfield,” said the Rev. William Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP.

Carolyn Coleman, a Greensboro county commisioner who joined the protest, said, “I just think I don’t want to eat any more Smithfield products. You know, its something about injustice that just doesn’t make the meat taste right.”

In case you guys forgot, that’s illegal

Showing contempt for workers and customers, the management of three huge West Coast supermarket chains joined together April 4 in a “mutual aid pact” designed to beat back employee demands for a fair contract. The move, according to the union representing the workers, violates federal labor and antitrust laws. Under the agreement, rather than agree to a fair deal for workers, the three big chains could shut down simultaneously, lock out all their employees and eliminate options for their customers at the same time.

The California Attorney General’s Office is pressing a lawsuit against Ralphs, Albertsons and Vons supermarkets for breaking antitrust laws with the “mutual aid pact” they made in 2003.

“It appears they may not have learned their lesson,” said Rick Icaza, president of United Food and Commercial Workers union Local 770. “Back in 2003 and 2004 we were negotiating a joint contract with all three employers. This year we are negotiating with Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons individually, which makes the agreement even more outrageous.”

Chrysler buyout will trigger new concession push

In the current bidding by the transnational giants that want to swallow up the Chrysler group, the proverb “let the buyer beware” could well be replaced with one that reads “let the workers beware.”

Las Vegas billionaire Kirk Kerkorian’s $4.5 billion bid to acquire Chrysler is less than bids by Magna International Inc., Cerbeus Capital Management LP and Blackstone Group, but Kerkorian is trying to sweeten his bid with appeals to workers.

He has offered the unions a 10 percent equity share in Chrysler and a seat on the board in exchange, of course, for concessions on workers’ benefits. He wants the unions to take over responsibility for paying out health insurance benefits and is offering to put $10 billion into a fund to kick off that process.

Chrysler and all its potential buyers believe that any deal has to include major concessions from the union. sixty-five thousand Chrysler workers are, of course, skeptical and want to see that their jobs and benefits will be protected.

The United Auto Workers contracts with Chrysler, GM and Ford all expire Sept. 14. Workers are keeping a close eye on the Chrysler deal. If the UAW agrees to take over payment of health insurance benefits for Chrysler workers, it is not difficult to guess what GM and Ford are going to be demanding in September.

‘A two-tiered society is not the America we want’

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney issued a statement April 3 blasting the Bush White House proposal for immigration reform, a plan that calls for massive expansion of guest worker programs.

“The Bush plan will put into law a two-tier society in America, with immigrant workers perpetually stuck on the bottom rung,” Sweeney said. He added that “the AFL-CIO has long opposed guest worker programs because they create a secondary class of workers with no enforeable rights. “Guest worker programs force workers to labor in temporary status while doing permanent jobs. Their most basic rights are often violated by the very employers who have the power to send them home if they ever complain.”

The nation should provide a path to citizenship for immigrants who are already working here, paying their taxes and enriching our communities, Sweeney concluded.

jwojcik @ pww.org

WORLD NOTES

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 07:52:00 +0000

Argentina: Killing of teacher sparks national protests

In response to the death April 5 of chemistry teacher Carlos Fuentealba, whose head was struck the day before by a police tear gas canister, demonstrations broke out in 300 places across Argentina on April 9. Fuentealba and other teachers in Neuquén province were demonstrating for salary increases, according to redvoltaire.org. The independent union federation CTA called a general strike joined by the Peronista CGT federation. In Buenos Aires, 30,000 marched with Argentina’s teachers union, CTERA. Protesters held Governor Jorge Sobisch responsible. Sobisch is positioning himself as a 2008 presidential candidate. A teachers union leader declared there must be no return to “assassination as a response to social demands or struggle for wages.”

Sudan: Pressure from China on peace efforts

In Khartoum, China’s Deputy Foreign Minister Zhai Jun told Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir last week that improvements in Sudan’s security situation are imperative, the BBC reported. The initiative came in response to persisting Sudanese resistance to United Nations attempts to introduce peacekeeping measures. Over 200,000 people have been killed and 2 million displaced during four years of conflict between Sudanese government forces and rebel groups. The Bashir government has blocked a UN proposal originally made by Kofi Annan to deploy a contingent of combined UN and African Union troops in Sudan. Analysts give Chinese pressure on Sudan considerable weight because of billions of dollars China has invested in Sudan’s oil industry. Sudan, tied with Equatorial Guinea as Africa’s third largest oil producer, exports most of its crude oil to China, which also provides Sudan with military equipment. Chinese workers are engaged in major improvements in Sudan’s transportation infrastructure.

Nepal: Maoists take cabinet posts

After a decade of guerrilla war, Maoists entered the governing cabinet in Nepal, April 1, filling five ministerial positions. In Nepal’s current Parliament, which convened in January, the Maoist delegation occupies 83 of 329 seats. One-third are women and several represent the so-called “untouchable” caste. UN officials simultaneously began collecting weapons turned in by Maoist combatants. The UN also collected weapons from government troops who will be confined to barracks.

Peace agreements signed in November 2006 call for elections to a constituent assembly scheduled for June 20. According to Agence France Press, the Maoists are focused on removing Nepal’s king who has been shorn of power. Critics charge the former guerrillas with obstructing rival party activities in small villages and the countryside. A splinter Maoist group representing Indian-descended inhabitants is active in Nepal’s southeastern lowlands. Observers see movement in Nepal toward federalist modes of power distribution.

Afghanistan: Farmers turning to Taliban

A random survey released in March by the Brussels-based Senlis Council indicates that Taliban forces are gaining support from Afghan men at the expense of NATO troops in three southeastern provinces. Most of those surveyed said foreign troops are not helping improve their lives and will not be able to defeat the Taliban. Poverty is having disastrous effects, with 80 percent saying they had trouble feeding their families. The survey, according to Toronto’s Globe and Mail, says, “Afghanis in southern Afghanistan are increasingly prepared to admit their support for the Taliban,” which protects against forced eradication of poppy crops by Western troops. Taliban fighters’ pay for two months is equivalent to the average annual income in the region, $747. Only 19 percent said they benefit from the presence of international troops, and only 6.5 percent in U.S.-controlled areas.

Britain: Communist Party sees threat to human life

“The transnational corporations of the developed countries, together with parasitical finance-capital, are driving the world into a century of resource wars,” activist Geoffrey Bottoms told an April 11 meeting of the Communist Party of Britain’s Political Committee. It followed publication by the Oxford Research Group of “Beyond Terror: The Truth About the Real Threats to Our World.” The report charges that the so-called war on terrorism diverts attention from climate change, competition over resources, militarization and mass impoverishment. In a statement, the British Communists urged action by labor and popular movements in response to threats to human survival posed by global warming, outlined recently by a UN panel on climate change. Bottoms contrasted annual U.S. military spending of $650 billion with aid to Africa totaling $4 billion.

World Notes are compiled by W.T. Whitney Jr. (atwhit @ megalink.net)

Bolivian president faces rocky road

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 07:34:00 +0000

Bolivian President Evo Morales based his 2005 candidacy on two promises: first, his government would nationalize natural resources, crucially natural gas and oil, and second, he would return the government to the country’s indigenous majority through a constituent assembly and new constitution.

Fifteen months into his presidency, his nationalization program, announced nearly a year ago on May Day, is in trouble.

Morales’ 54 percent winning plurality testified to his support among the poor and indigenous populations. Both had been mobilized in earlier struggles over oil.

Former President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, during his first term, 1993-97, sold off components of the state petroleum company YPFB. As a consequence, the contribution of natural gas sales to government revenues fell from between 40 and 60 percent of the state’s budget to well under 7 percent by 2002.

In 2003, during Sánchez de Lozada’s second term, Bolivians fought government troops in the streets to block his scheme to hand over the nation’s natural gas to foreign companies. The protesters suffered 40 dead and hundreds wounded. El Alto resident Nestor Salinas said at the time, “They died to defend our oil and gas.”

Morales’ nationalization decree called for negotiations with foreign companies to be completed in six months. With time running out, 44 contracts were signed with 12 foreign companies on Oct. 28, 2006.

These contracts represented a major renegotiation of terms, but not an expropriation. A Morales majority in Congress ratified them immediately. The opposition-controlled Senate followed suit on Nov. 28 when all but three opposition senators were absent.

Tax income from oil companies has increased almost fourfold, yet today the contracts are on hold.

Energy Minister Andrés Soliz Rada resigned in September, charging the government with giving up too much to Petrobras of Brazil, purchaser of half of Bolivia’s gas exports. Two YPFB leaders also left amid corruption charges.

On Feb. 12 the government submitted an amendment to correct contract errors like incorrect company names, misplaced gas fields, and a secret agreement with Petrobras. Carlos Villegas, Soliz Rada’s replacement, resigned but later changed his mind. Blame fell upon inexperienced YPFB head Manuel Morales Olivera, who was fired on March 24.

Two days earlier Soliz Rada had joined opposition politicians in calling for a repeat of contract negotiations.

Right-wing forces claimed to be protecting national interests against incompetence. The struggle reflects the nation’s racial, geographic and class-based divisions. The eastern region, epicenter of opposition to President Morales, holds much agricultural land and most of the nation’s gas and oil deposits. Foreign corporations operate there, the majority population is of European descent, and separatism is rampant.

Soliz Rada criticized the October agreements as granting foreign companies tax deductions for operating costs and relieving them of financial risk. He charged that negotiations took place behind closed doors, that U.S. advisers were involved and that YPFB directors were left out.

The contracts call for Bolivia to sell gas cheaply to Brazil and Argentina to augment revenues, and to pay high international prices for hydrocarbon products sent back for domestic use.

Bolivia, he pointed out, signed shared-production contracts instead of so-called operating contracts. Under operating contracts, foreign companies take on financial risk. Shared-production contracts hand significant control to foreign companies, allowing them to count Bolivia’s oil reserves as their own assets, improving their stock market status and borrowing capabilities. Meanwhile Bolivia, less creditworthy, will have difficulties building facilities for processing hydrocarbon products and buying back refineries it lost.

Observers say the Morales team may yet put hydrocarbon nationalization back on track. The president is adept at responding to changing circumstances and his approval ratings are high.

Last week Morales said that if in another week Congress did not approve the petroleum company contracts, he would begin a hunger strike.

The Constituent Assembly concludes its one-year session Aug. 6, and the nation will vote on a new constitution in December, with new elections expected in 2008. Morales’ present term is up in 2011, but under a new constitution he will run again next year, spokespersons say, as long as social organizations nominate him.

The Bolivian Workers Central and Bolivian Social Democratic Party are already charting independent courses for elections in 2008. The latter group has invited Soliz Rada to join its deliberations.

atwhit @ megalink.net

New York Citys 2007 Better World Awards

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 05:51:00 +0000

NEW YORK — Communist Party Labor Chair Scott Marshall will be the keynote speaker for the annual Better World Awards, sponsored by the New York Friends of the People’s Weekly World. Honorees for the May 6 event include NYC Councilman Robert Jackson and long-time labor and political activist Adolfo Faña.

Marshall recently returned from a fact-finding visit to China and Vietnam to explore ways of building more international working class solidarity. Marshall sees the trip in the context of the changing economic landscape and the unfolding of capitalist globalization, which, he says, “requires Communist and left parties to explore joint practical solidarity initiatives.”

Marshall said, “Today’s transnational capitalism demands that the world’s workers and oppressed peoples organize and unite in new practical ways. ‘Workers of the World Unite’ has to be transformed from a slogan into a concrete strategy.”

Marshall’s keynote will reflect on his meetings with leaders of the All China Federation of Trade Unions, including union leaders of Wal-Mart workers. He will discuss socialist construction in China, and the role of unions there.

“For the U.S. working class and for our party, relations with China are of great strategic importance because solidarity between the working classes of China and the United States is critical to progress. To have any chance of success, any plan to fight for the future of U.S. autoworkers, for example, must also include autoworkers in China.”

Commenting on his trip to Vietnam, Marshall cited the economic progress that has been made there despite the devastation wrought by the U.S. war in the 1960s and 70s.

Marshall sees his trip as a prelude to broader “worker-to-worker exchanges which will be of tremendous benefit to U.S. workers.”

To hear Marshall and make a reservation for the Better World Awards, May 6, in New York, call (646) 437-5355 or e-mail nyfriends @ pww.org.