People Before Profit blog

LETTERS

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 06:48:00 +0000

Don’t mourn, organize

Much more is needed than a lamentation about the fact that we don’t have enough votes to bring the war to an immediate end (“Tactics to end this war” PWW 4/14-20). I can remember many a time when Cesar Chavez was in the gallery of the California Legislature personally counting the votes of each member. That was a saying of his: “Count the votes.” One of my first assignments while working for the United Farm Workers was to participate in a mobilization in the district of Howard Berman, now a prominent member of Congress. In the 1970s Mr. Berman didn’t want to do the right thing for the union, so Cesar “mobilized” an army of volunteers. One afternoon, we walked his entire district! On Monday, Mr. Berman voted, and Cesar counted his vote for the union.

In 2008, there are three states where Republican senators vote with Bush. These right-wing senators can be replaced with senators that will vote to end the war and a lot more. In New Hampshire, John Sununu can be beaten. He is very unpopular. The same is true in Minnesota where Norm Coleman is the senator. He is being challenged by Al Franken. In Colorado, Sen. Allard is retiring. This means that there is no candidate of record there. It’s up for grabs! Why not start now? That is what Cesar would do.

Joe Hancock Los Angeles CA

Health care road

Although paved with good intentions, promoting the California state health care bill (“Calif. Legislature puts health care on agenda” PWW 4/7-13) or any other state program heads toward where that road leads. Yes, if we could translate California state Sen. Sheila Kuehl’s plan into a national program, sure. But there is no place for incrementalism in our fight to get a national health care plan. Health care is a national problem and demands a national solution.

No state, even California, can provide health care for its people. No state has the finances, the personnel or the machinery for such a vital and needed right. Americans need health care wherever they travel, a program that is comprehensive to include all pathologies, universal to have everyone enrolled, portable to count wherever Americans travel, accessibility to every health care provider and single payer, federally financed and administered.

An enlargement of the Kuehl bill is available to us in Rep. John Conyers’ (D-Mich.) HR 676, now hopefully working its way up to the floor of Congress.

Don Sloan New York NY

When labor smiles

In “Roger and Me” the head of the UAW says something like “You want us to sit down again?” But they don’t and Flint is shut down without a fight. In 1999 when I was in Detroit for 2 weeks, you could still feel the good vibrations from those heroic sit-downs that galvanized the whole of labor across the country 60 years before! Your story that the UAW isn’t going to make nice in these negotiations with the Big 3 and Delphi is heartening. If the UAW stands up, the whole labor movement will stand up with them. Labor will smile again, a grin of courage from ear to ear! Every working class household in the U.S. will get behind the autoworkers!

Pete Gourfain Brooklyn NY

Victims and heroes

I apologize. My response to Ken Germanson’s article, “Fervent wishes for the New Year” (PWW 1/27 – 2/7), should have been sooner. He declares most of the fallen troops in Iraq are “heroes” and justifies this by asserting that they are surrounded by hostilities.

True, young women and men are led, deceived by educational promises, and coerced by poverty, into joining the army — they are victims. Once in the Army, the reality is that they are trained to kill efficiently and proficiently — ask the Iraqis whose loved ones, tens of thousands, were killed by American planes, tanks and guns. Even the sadistic conduct by some doesn’t divert the rest from their training to kill. This is the reality of imperialist armies.

Our troops are cannon fodder and victims, not heroes. Our troops need rehabilitation not praise for survival skills. Rehabilitation starts with bringing them home, and then giving them the physical, mental and financial help they deserve. We cannot hope to build an anti-imperialist consciousness by labeling these hapless soldiers as heroes. Germanson’s genuine soldier heroes should be 1st Lt. Ehren Watada and Army Spc. Agustin Aguayo who refused to partake in the slaughter.

David Reid Daytona Beach FL

The only escalation is troop deaths

Recent press reports reveal that the Pentagon has essentially despaired of ever standing up a reliable Iraqi army by year’s end, as Bush had proclaimed, and that U.S. occupying troops would therefore not be standing down anytime soon. We know that Iraqi soldiers often flee when faced with hostile forces. The unity and initiative within their ranks are undermined by sectarian and political tensions. Since the so-called surge has been in effect, U.S. casualty rates have doubled in Baghdad. It’s now evident that U.S. forces will somehow have to quell the insurgency absent any prospect of significant Iraqi help. Until the Democratic majority in Congress is able to muster enough votes to cut off funding, the terrible price paid by U.S. troops in Iraq’s cynical maelstrom will continue to escalate.

Cord MacGuire Boulder CO

EDITORIAL: May Day

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 06:39:00 +0000

Army Sgt. Irving Taffler, stationed at a big American base in Italy after World War II, was ordered by his colonel to go out and hire 200 Italians to staff the facility. Taffler, a proud member of the Communist Party USA, went to the local Italian party office and put out the word. A week later the base was staffed by 200 Communists and supporters.

The only problem was that operations halted when May Day rolled around because not one of the Italians showed up for work. They were all at a rally in downtown Milan. When the colonel demanded an explanation, Taffler said, “Oh! This is the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, so probably everyone’s in church.” Lucky for Taffler the colonel bought his explanation because the Church had, indeed, tried to co-opt May Day by making it a “Saints’ Day.”

Years earlier, back in the U.S. where May Day originated, there had been attempts to kill the workers’ holiday by creating a new one altogether — Labor Day in September.

The workers of the world, of course, have held onto both May Day and the struggles connected with it. What started as a strike demanding an eight-hour day in Chicago in 1886 is now the most widely celebrated holiday and day of struggle on earth.

Rightly so, because workers in today’s global economy face challenges bigger than ever. Transnational monopolies exploit the cheapest labor they can find, creating misery in the developing world, slashing jobs and wages in the developed countries and, in their insane drive for profits above even life itself, endangering the very existence of our planet.

But workers aren’t giving up — not on May Day and not on the struggles it represents. Unions are forming global organizations. Labor and its allies in the U.S., including many in Congress, are pushing to curb the U.S.-based transnationals and to protect the rights of immigrant workers victimized by corporate globalization.

This May Day, more than ever, workers will join hands with their brothers and sisters all over the world, marching, rallying and celebrating. This united action is the ingredient that, as sure as the sun comes up May 1, will bring to birth a better world.

NATIONAL CLIPS

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 05:07:00 +0000

ORONO, Maine: Earth Day zooms in on global warming

Tree and flower plantings, bike giveaways, community clean-ups, picnics and fairs have been part of Earth Day since its beginning in 1970, but this year, showings of the film “An Inconvenient Truth” in hundreds of towns marked the first time global warming received significant attention. The full day of events here, April 22, mirroring hundreds of others from Houston to Seattle, combined booths and traditional bike rides across the U of Maine campus but ended with a showing of the film followed by a discussion led by scientists from the university’s Climate Change Institute.

In Rockford, Ill., nearly 3,000 flowed through Rock Valley College for the Earth Day celebration, which, in addition to providing 600 free trees, featured continuous showings of “An Inconvenient Truth” plus scientific presentations on global warming.

In Birmingham, Ala., “Auntie Litter” led an Earth Day parade of tens of thousands of public school students with skits and student projects on climate change.

The Orlando, Fla., Catholic Diocese kicked off Earth Day with a community hearing on the impact of global warming on low-wage workers. Deborah Stafford Shearer, director of the diocese Respect Life Office, said, “We can no longer as the Catholic community or any other church community deny that this [global warming] is an issue.”

Paramount Studios announced that free DVDs of “An Inconvenient Truth” are available to high schools: www.paramount.com/aitschools.

ASHBURN, Ga.: High school holds first integrated prom

When the school year started, four senior class officers, two African American and two white, asked principal Chad Stone to break with the school’s segregated tradition of separate proms for white and Black students and hold an all-school prom. Stone agreed and on April 21, horse-drawn carriages and stretch limousines chauffeured Black and white students to the town auditorium for the “Breakaway” prom.

“Everybody says that’s just how it’s always been,” said Turner County High School senior class president James Hall, 17. “It’s just the way of this very small town [population, 4,000]. But it’s time for a change.” Hall is African-American.

The weekend before the prom some white students still held their own party, but nearly 70 percent of students danced together at the official prom.

“Last weekend was more like tradition,” said Calvin Catom, a white senior on his way into the all-school prom. “It wasn’t racist or prejudice. This weekend is about the whole school getting together and having a party.”

The Class of 2007 broke another barrier earlier in the year when they elected a solo homecoming queen. Previously two queens, one African-American and one white, had been elected.

A candy packaging factory and peanut farming sustains Turner County.

ORLANDO, Fla.: Man arrested for feeding the hungry

The city that supports Disney World and Universal Studios amusement parks, has decided that feeding the growing number of homeless families in a public park is a crime. Police arrested Eric Montanez, 21, April 4, after undercover cops filmed him ladling out stew to about 30 homeless men and women in downtown Lake Eola Park. Police handcuffed Montanez and took him to jail, setting bail at $250. They confiscated the stew pot as evidence.

“This has been a truly disgusting day,” said George Crossley, local American Civil Liberties Union chapter president. The ACLU has filed suit challenging a city ordinance restricting public feeding to 25 people or less.

Police have photographed volunteers from Food Not Bombs, CodePink and the Young Communist League providing stew, rice, salad and bread pudding to hungry people, and have ticketed volunteers’ cars. The arrest was the first.

Jonathan Giralt, 16, a volunteer who was standing next to Montanez when he was arrested, said, “I was like OK, this guy is going to be arrested for absolutely nothing. It makes me feel unsafe.”

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

Film examines questions about socialism

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 09:36:00 +0000

The first five minutes of “The Lives of Others” prepared me for another assault on socialism, and in particular, the German Democratic Republic (GDR). What appears to be a one-sided film quickly reveals there is much more to the story.

The film is somewhat narrowly focused, but the character of artist Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) embodies what we think of as a socialist human being. He writes plays about comradery and worker control about the workplace and believes in the worth of the individual, who can only improve the entire society.

The film takes place in the GDR in 1984 and begins with a young man being interrogated by Capt. Gert Wiesler (Ulrich Muehe), a domestic surveillance specialist and interrogation expert. Wiesler works for the Ministry for State Security (the Stasi), and is an honest man who believes in socialism and protecting it. After hours, the captain succeeds in breaking down his suspect. As we witness the interrogation, our sympathy lies with the young man who is accused of helping a friend cross over to the West.

Wiesler is assigned to bug Dreyman’s apartment on orders from the Minister of Culture who is attracted to Dreyman’s actress partner. Wiesler realizes there is much to be learned from the surveillance of the playwright’s private life.

The film depicts the complex circumstances that led to the breakup of the Soviet Union and its allies. It examines the human elements that shaped policy and brought to bear subjective forces that undermined socialism.

Early on, one figures out which direction Wiesler will go. Experiencing petty corruption and opportunism, he begins to look at the multisided human expectations of his society. The film examines the characters in depth and helps us understand the shortcomings of early socialism, and I think this is what makes “The Lives of Others” an important film worth seeing. Each character challenges the system. For me, both Dreyman and Wiesler are right.

At the end of the film, the camera scans a neighborhood, which is gray, drab and marred with graffiti, several years after the Berlin wall came down. Can people change? Can we be true believers for a better world? What are the ingredients to advance socialism? This film examines some essential parts of these questions.

gfalsetta @ cpusa.org

The Lives of Others

(Das Leben der Anderen)

Germany, 2006, 137min.

Rated R

LETTERS

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 08:53:00 +0000

‘You have struck a rock’

When I watched the press conference of the 10 women basketball players from Rutgers University who are Black and white, scholars and athletes, and their coach, in response to the vicious attacks by Don Imus, it brought me to tears.

In the first place I was moved by their eloquence, their strength and their dignity. And I too felt as many have said over the airwaves, “That could have been my daughter.”

I have two beautiful African American/Puerto Rican daughters, one 17 and one 20, one at Howard University and one who has just received letters of acceptance to Brown, Colgate, Antioch, Oberlin, Occidental and more. I, too, a single mother, who was once on welfare for 20 years, have struggled, sacrificed and worked hard to get where we are today. So when I watched the Rutgers press conference I, along with my daughters, could identify and the anger welled up! I don’t have to imagine what it took for those young women to get there. I know what it takes. It takes hard work on their part. Late night hours of studying, sacrificing and doing without, to be there. It takes the family, to work harder and give more, and sacrifice to pay the loans that keep increasing with the soaring tuition costs in order for our children to go to the schools that historically had rejected us as women of color, as academicians and athletes.

So when you heard this Imus comment it was like a punch to the stomach, forcing you to gasp for air, and when you recover, you want to recoil and punch back with all your might.

I have a T-shirt from the Free South Africa, Free Winnie and Nelson Mandela, Down with Apartheid days. The slogan on the shirt reads, “Now you have touched the women. You have struck a rock. You have dislodged a boulder. You will be crushed.”

I believe these words today speak to Imus and his racist-sexist remarks. I believe, with the unity of all people’s forces coming together at this time demanding the FCC set standards that oppose racism and sexism, that this statement holds true today, that racism and sexism can and will be crushed.

Maria Ortiz Brooklyn NY

Class angle

This issue may be fading, but the class angle to the whole Imus story should be written about. We need a story that points the finger directly at corporate America. The mainstream press and even the Black press that I have read, so far, have not approached the problem in this way.

Black popular music didn’t used to be about denigrating women or the other lousy images portrayed. The hundreds of Black music labels that put out the tens of thousands of sweet tunes of the past were swallowed up years ago by big corporate labels that in turn have become huge entertainment conglomerates. In order to put music out in a mass way you have to have the money to pay the artists, the production process for the media (CDs or whatever), video production, radio and TV air time, etc. Even the biggest Black artists in the business, like Quincy Jones and MJ, don’t have all that.

It is the white-owned and -controlled entertainment industry that makes all that “entertainment” crap, including Imus, possible.

Paul S. Kaczocha Gary IN

Source help

Does any PWW reader know the source of the saying, “Communism replaces dreams with science”? I have already checked the standard library web sites and quote books. Maybe I have it wrong. I was told Lenin said it.

Although “sloganeering” is frowned upon, recording it is as important as folk, labor and other poetry or songs documenting our history of struggle. All the more so, in the time of the sound byte.

Also does anyone know if the collected works of Marx, Engels and Lenin are on computer disc? the Internet?

Erskine Finlayson Via e-mail

Mugabe

The Movement for Democratic Change wants to halt the land reform program and submit Zimbabwe to neoliberal shock treatments. The MDC is trying to violently overthrow the government and the elections in Zimbabwe have been judged to be free and fair by international observers so I don’t know how you can refer to Robert Mugabe’s government as authoritarian. (“Zimbabwe strife fueled by competing interests” PWW 4/14-20).

From what I have read Zimbabwe’s inflation is mainly due to foreign sanctions by the United States and Britain.

Sean Mulligan Via e-mail

Our growing meanness

I applaud the networks for firing Don Imus after he made blatant racist, sexist remarks on air. I suggest they continue this process by firing all who continue making similar remarks.

However, I see this as part of a larger problem, our growing meanness. Bad enough the ruling class, through its perpetual, phony (but profitable) wars, is making the world hate the U.S. Much worse, their corporate-controlled media is making U.S. residents hate one another.

From kindergarten through graduate school, our capitalist education system promotes competition as our primary patriotic duty. We “need” winners and losers. The “free market” media augment this divisiveness through trivialized “news” articles, shouting “talk” shows, viciously artificial “reality” programs, advertisements for “fashionable” junk and gutter-language “popular” music.

Though I continue to hope our progressive activities will eventually awaken us from this fascist nightmare, I must paraphrase Bush by asking, “What is our children learning?”

David W. Mallisk Wappingers Falls NY

NATIONAL CLIPS

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 07:09:00 +0000

HOMESTEAD, Pa.: Thousands ‘step it up’ vs. global warming & for jobs

In over 1,400 cities, towns, villages, national parks and beaches across the country, tens of thousands united April 14 to demand that Congress “step it up” against global warming, reducing carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050.

In Western Pennsylvania, where once environmentalists and blue collar workers could not talk to each other, steelworkers and the Sierra Club joined together for the first time in the Blue/Green Alliance for good jobs, a clean environment and efforts to reverse global warming. Over burgers and tofu sandwiches, 130 steelworkers and environmentalists, including scores of students, traded stories and jokes and agreed that clean energy could create at least 42,600 desperately needed jobs across the state, including 2,300 in Allegheny County. The mayors of Homestead and Braddock — the latter home to U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson steel mill — signed onto the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Blues and Greens formed teams to deliver energy efficient light bulbs and information door to door to Homestead residents.

There were more firsts in the Step It Up campaign, the largest ever grassroots day of action in response to global warming. In Boise, Idaho, over 1,000 residents heard Mayor David Beiter pledge city efforts to reduce dependence on gasoline and other fuels.

A Festival of Rappers in Lenox, Mass., captured the energy of “street rhyme” calling for action.

The Community Christian Church in Kansas City, Mo., was jammed with 500 people of faith and scientists discussing effective stewardship of “God’s creation, the planet.”

A bald eagle flew over 250 people in Kalispell, Mont., (population 14,000) as they heard Steve Thompson, associate regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association, describe the impact of global warming on Glacier National Park.

Al Gore’s film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” drew hundreds in Columbus, Ohio; Oxford, Miss., and Fairbanks, Alaska.

Marchers filled the streets of Barrow, Ark.; Fredericksburg, Va.; Arlington, Mass.; Salina, Kans. and Big Stone City, S.D., to name a few. In Athens, Ga., environmentalists marched and rallied at an Exxon station, calling for fuels other than gasoline to control gases fouling the atmosphere.

Step It Up, the online coalition initiating the events, has a full plan of action. Joining with MoveOn.org, they are circulating an online petition. And they are organizing Climate Voter in time for the 2008 elections. For more info: stepitup2007.org

CHICAGO: Gas prices skyrocket

At $3.19 a gallon, the Citgo at South Lafayette and 79th St. is one of the cheapest places for city motorists to fill up. Suburban Oak Forest gas stations are averaging $2.88 a gallon.

For the past 11 weeks, federal Energy Information Administration (EIA) numbers show, motorists have been experiencing sticker shock at the pump as prices surged an average of 71.1 cents per gallon. That is an increase of 33 percent, from a national average of $2.17 on Jan. 29.

With an average of $3.20 per gallon, West Coast gas stations lead the country in the cost of driving to work.

Oil industry spokesmen are stuttering, trying to explain the sharp spike. In April 2006, a barrel of crude oil sold for $75, but in April 2007, the same barrel is $63.61.

The EIA says that after unplanned breakdowns, U.S. refineries are running at 87 percent of capacity, and claims that increasing international tensions contributed to the price increases at the pump.

MONTGOMERY, Ala.: Legislature debates apology for slavery

Birmingham Rep. Mary Moore has introduced a two-page resolution that says lawmakers “apologize for the wrongs inflicted by slavery and its aftereffects in the United States of America.” If the measure passes, Alabama will join Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland which enacted similar resolutions earlier this year.

Rep. Moore’s resolution does not relegate the impact of slavery to the history books. One of the resolution’s first clauses says, “the Legislature and citizens of Alabama are deeply concerned about the persistent and growing racial discrimination, related intolerance and acts of violence.”

“The intent is for us in this state to begin to address the problems that are racial that exist,” said Moore.

Moore said racial discrimination is across the board and rising against workers of color trying to get jobs, small business owners applying for loans, Black children striving to get an education, and African Americans working to move up the corporate ladder.

Speaker of the House Seth Hammett believes the lower body will pass the resolution after it returns to work on April 24.

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

LETTERS

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 06:48:00 +0000

Vital information

The whole paper is great! Well explained, clear and easy to grasp. Keep up the articles on privatization. Let’s see, here’s my list of what is privatized: utilities, prisons, health care, pharmaceuticals, school bus transportation, now hospitals, mercenary armies, oil companies, corporations, and NYC Mayor Bloomberg wants to privatize the bridges and schools (charter). Changing public control to private control is it in a nutshell. I was speaking with a neighbor who told me she thought privatized schools meant like going to a “private” school. Shows how much we need the information — many people are not even aware of what the word means.

A retired teacher Boston MA

Alienation is torture

Re: Letter to the editor concerning torture in U.S. jails by David Tyler (PWW 2/17-23).

One of the most effective forms of torture is alienation: to isolate the prisoner and convince him or her that nobody cares. This causes the prisoner to become paranoid and extremely depressed.

I’m speaking from experience. This psychological form of torture was carried out against me by withholding my mail while I was in isolation. This caused me to question the love and loyalty of my family and friends. At the time, I was new to the system and didn’t know how to handle it. So I would write my loved ones complaining of their neglect, not knowing that my mail was being withheld by the guards.

And even though opportunistic prisoners often manipulate the system by providing false information against other prisoners, some prison officials condone this kind of treachery from prisoners in exchange for favors, thus empowering the convict-informers with immunity to slander and harm politically aware prisoners as was done to David Tyler.

These practices are most effective against prisoners who don’t have support or have lost ties with society.

Some of the dead in their graves receive more visits from the living than some of us prisoners who are alive and alienated behind these walls.

So writing letters to the editor to share my experience is to assert my humanity by showing that I’m relevant. And hopefully I might be able to connect with politically aware people who do care about prisoners.

Edgar Pitts Florence CO

Failed attempt?

The front-page article on Iraq by Susan Webb, whom I deeply respect, and the editorial (PWW 3/17-23) were both a failed attempt to escape a dilemma — the iron-clad straitjacket dilemma of praising the Democrats as peace advocates while at the same time watching these scoundrels vote $100 billion for Dubya’s war, resulting, most certainly, in more slaughter, destruction and agony, with the Iraqi people suffering the brunt of it.

The American bourgeoisie, in solid control of both the Republicans and Democrats, will not leave Iraq in peace, even if a Democrat were to be elected president in 2008. In the meantime the slaughter continues.

Hazzim Yousif Detroit MI

Disagrees with ‘sharp rebuff’

I was very disappointed to read in the PWW 3/31-4/6 issue that the U.S. Senate has voted to wait for a year (March 2008) before withdrawing troops. In the meantime, American and Iraqi lives will continue to be lost including civilians. This is not to mention continued contamination of Iraq’s population and land with cancerous depleted uranium, which is used with U.S. projectiles. I feel it is an overstatement to characterize the legislation as a “sharp rebuff” to the president’s campaign of death and imperial domination.

Roberto Botello San Antonio TX

Much behind the firings

Thank you for a clear and concise review of the Department of Justice firings (“Behind the firings” by Emil Shaw, PWW 3/24-30).

The mainstream press has never been clear as to what motivations were possibly behind this unusual event. We know it was not benign. But then again, this administration and its henchpeople have been so duplicitous, the public should not be surprised. It seems that “xx-gates” happen daily. But there is something in the big picture that Shaw did not mention. It goes beyond the one person, one vote, habeas corpus concerns.

What happened in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004 was not done to be wasted on just eight years of control. The GOP gangsters who are in charge were orchestrating a much longer-range plan.

I sense this is the start of a blueprint being put into motion to control the 2008 presidential elections. Another state or two will be selected for voter manipulations and the proper attorneys whose loyalty has been assured will be needed to either attest to whatever is being planned or just be quiet like good little boys and girls.

Don Sloan New York NY

Good start

I would like to commend the North Carolina state Senate for passing a resolution that “apologizes” for our state’s involvement in slavery and Jim Crow laws. But to be official, the state’s House must approve the measure. I would also like to encourage other state, national and local governments to do the same. Also our federal government should take a stand against the slave trade, which still exists on our planet today.

Chuck Mann Greensboro NC

Don’t forget to visit

With reference to Jim Lane’s recent column about the radical heritage of Texas (PWW 3/24-30), it would be wonderful if people there could make occasional pilgrimages to such sites as the True to the Union monument in the little town of Comfort, west of San Antonio, or to the grave of the great Knights of Labor hero Martin Irons in the cemetery of Bruceville, right next to the railroad tracks off Interstate 35.

Mother Jones made the conductor of a train she was riding on stop there so she could pay her respects! At that time there was no marker, but now there is a fine monument erected by the Missouri Federation of Labor many decades ago.

Fred Whitehead Kansas City KS

EDITORIAL: No racism, no sexism, no Imus

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 06:42:00 +0000

“We fought, we persevered, and most of all, we believed in ourselves. … But all of our accomplishments were lost. Our moment was taken away,” said Heather Zurich, a sophomore on the Rutgers University women’s basketball team. Zurich, one of the team’s white players, was referring to a racist, sexist comment by radio host Don Imus about the team. Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer called Imus’ remark “deplorable, despicable and abominable and unconscionable.”

The team, the Scarlet Knights, has eight African American and two white players. The young women began the season with little hope of making it far but ended up at the NCAA championship, losing to Tennessee in a near-Cinderella story.

At an April 10 press conference, all 10 players wore identical black pants and red Rutgers windbreakers in a show of mutual solidarity. Team captain Essence Carson said, “We can finally speak up for women. Not just African American women, but all women.”

“These young ladies are the best this nation has to offer, and we are so very fortunate to have them at Rutgers,” said Stringer. “They are young ladies of class, distinction.” She pointed a finger at the profit-hungry corporate media that give forums to offensive media personalities like Imus. It’s not just an issue of Black or white, she said. “The color is green.”

Linking the incident to persistent societal inequality, Stringer asked, “How could anyone not have been personally hurt when there is no equality for all or when equality is denied?”

Three years ago, Bush’s Federal Communications Commission rushed into action and fined CBS $550,000 over Janet Jackson’s 2004 Super Bowl “wardrobe malfunction” in which her breast was briefly shown on TV. So far, the FCC has been silent on Imus.

NBC and CBS have suspended him for two weeks — a slap on the wrist.

This was not just a private remark by Imus. It was broadcast throughout our country, spewing racist and sexist poison into our public airwaves. It is far more damaging to our society than any “wardrobe malfunction.” Both networks should fire Imus. And the FCC should hit them where it counts, in the pocketbook.

NATIONAL CLIPS

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 05:44:00 +0000

SALT LAKE CITY: Campaign to save public schools

Participants in a grassroots campaign to overturn the “charter school law,” a state law that allows taxpayer dollars to be used for private schools, have collected 131,000 signatures — about 40,000 more than needed — to put the issue on the ballot.

“The people of Utah, our citizens, have spoken,” said Carmen Snow, president of the Utah PTA and co-leader of Utahans for Public Schools, which includes the 18,000-member Utah Education Association.

Signature-gathering requirements stipulate that a minimum number be collected in a specific number of counties. “We do believe there will be legal challenges,” said Rusk. “We’re expecting roadblocks to be thrown up.”

County clerks have until April 24 to certify or reject the petitions. The final decision rests with Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, who has to rule by April 30 whether or not to place the issue before the voters. Herbert strongly supports private school vouchers.

ANNAPOLIS, Md.: Lawmakers pass living wage bill

When the state Senate voted 31-16 to approve a law requiring all contractors doing business with the state to pay workers $11.30 an hour, Maryland became the first state to enact living wage legislation. The state raised the minimum wage to $6.15 in 2004.

Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democrat, is expected to sign the bill. Similar legislation was vetoed by Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich in 2004.

“This vote is important for all workers,” said Maryland AFL-CIO President Fred Mason. “The union movement is a voice for all workers. We look out for workers, whether they are union members or not. And we don’t think the state should ever have been in the business of creating poverty-level jobs.”

Sen. Thomas Middleton, a Charles County Democrat, was blunt. “It doesn’t make them rich,” he said. “We’re just lifting them a little bit more out of the deep guts of poverty.”

Stiff opposition by the Maryland Chamber of Commerce and Republicans forced the Legislature to compromise. The new law sets up a two-tier wage structure in which contract workers living in the Baltimore-Washington corridor must be paid at least $11.30 an hour. But for contract workers living in rural counties, the minimum is $8.50 an hour.

BURLINGTON, Vt.: ‘Step it up’ against greenhouse gases

In over 1,300 cities, towns and villages in all 50 states, environmental activists will rally April 14 to demand Congress enact legislation to cut carbon emissions, a leading cause of global warming, by 80 percent by 2050. “Step It Up” (stepitup2007.org), the sponsoring coalition that is headquartered here, will send photos of the actions to each state’s congressional delegation.

“The groundswell of support for this effort is incredible,” said organizer Bill McKibben. “From melting glaciers to unseasonable and erratic weather patterns, we are already feeling the impact of global warming. But … it is only by uniting across the lines that too often divide us — geography, partisanship, economic and racial boundaries — that we will be able to address this crisis.”

Numerous rallies are taking place in coal-producing states, including Wyoming, West Virginia, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.: Voting rights restored to former felons

Since 1868, Florida residents convicted of a felony have been routinely stripped of their right to vote. That changed April 5 when the state’s clemency board voted 3-1 to restore the right to vote to 80 percent of the estimated 950,000 Floridians, mostly African Americans, who have paid their debt to society.

The board’s ruling still requires ex-offenders convicted of certain serious crimes to undergo an investigation and seek a hearing to get back their right to vote.

“This is Holy Week, a week that is all about forgiveness,” said Republican Gov. Charlie Crist. “Restoring civil rights is the right thing to do.” Crist is a member of the clemency board.

Since the controversial 2000 presidential election, when nonpartisan investigations revealed that many legal voters were removed from Florida registration lists after being misidentified as felons, residents have organized to defend the right to vote. One suit made it to the Supreme Court in 2005, but the court refused to hear the case.

Only Virginia and Kentucky still completely bar ex-offenders from voting. Although most states have recently repealed such bans, there are an estimated 5 million citizens still barred from voting because they served time in jail.

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

Academia opposes Bush

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 11:27:00 +0000

Probably no other administration has been more closely identified with anti-academic positions than that of President George W. Bush. His infamous quote to KYW News Radio in 2003, “I don’t read newspapers,” angered, but did not surprise, most educators in the country. Now Bush seems determined to leave a legacy that threatens intellectual honesty, academic freedom and public access to government information. Scholastic communities are fighting mad and fighting back.

Academic freedom under attack

For months, professors, clergy and students have been vehemently protesting the selection of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, as the site for the planned Bush Presidential Library and Bush Foundation Think Tank. SMU faculty members have drafted an open letter to the president and trustees. They are collecting signatures from current and former faculty members, researchers and administrators. As of early April, they have collected 120 signatures with more being added each day.

University President Gerald Turner said Bush officials had presented the project as a “package deal.” The acquisition includes a library, museum and the “Bush Foundation Institute.”

It is the foundation piece of the project that is causing the greatest concern. According to the open letter, “Bush publicly has stated that his institute will address and promote policy initiatives begun during his White House years. Because the director of the institute would, therefore, necessarily need to hire fellows on the basis of their willingness to support a partisan research agenda, open inquiry and academic integrity could very well be compromised.”

Foundation organizers have also insisted that the partisan think-tank would be autonomous and unanswerable to the university, strengthening the opposition’s position that the institute seriously violates SMU’s academic mission.

What would Jenna want you to know?

Although the inclusion of the Bush Foundation is drawing the hottest attention on campus, professional librarians and historians are voicing loud opposition to the proposed presidential library as well. As the result of an under-reported executive order, EO 13233, issued by Bush just two months after the 9/11 attacks, presidential papers are now sealed for as long as a former president, or his or her //heirs// wish to keep them private. In other words, Jenna Bush may now legally prevent the public’s right to have open access to historical documents! The immediate effect of the order prevented the release of former president Reagan’s papers.

The National Archives and Records Association administer presidential libraries. Presumably the attraction of having a former president’s library on a university campus is the renowned, visiting researchers that depend on access to these historical documents. Executive records sealed in perpetuity violate our public’s right to a transparent and democratic government.

A bill reversing Bush’s order has passed in the house and is now being considered in the Senate. He has already announced his intention to veto the bill.

Dick Cheney – Bad role model for graduates

At what is arguably one of the most conservative if not “well-behaved” campuses in the country, Brigham Young University students in Salt Lake City are also voicing opposition to a future visit by Vice President Cheney. BYU business professor Warner Woodworth is supporting student protesters and has posted an online petition.

Cheney actually contacted the university himself requesting that he be allowed to give the 2007 commencement address on April 26. Many on campus were appalled when the BYU board of trustees accepted his offer.

Citing Cheney’s misleading statements about the war in Iraq, his use of profanity on the Senate floor, perjury scandals and awards of no-bid contracts to friends, the petition goes on to state, “Mr. Cheney is simply not the type of role model to whom we wish to bestow the responsibility of addressing our best and brightest as they “go forth to serve.”

Student activists hit the streets

In yet one more example of scholastic ire, on April 4 American University students lay in the street, in an attempt to detain presidential adviser Karl Rove. He had just finished delivering a speech to a select Republican group on campus. About 20 students had to be pulled away before his driver was able to get through the activists’ blockade.

Student protestors indicated that they were there to confront Rove and make a citizen’s arrest for his violation of the Presidential Records Act of 1978 by using an unaccountable e-mail address to conduct the nation’s business. Though there were reports of objects being thrown, no injuries or arrests were reported.

perry5 @ swbell.net

Related links: SMU Petitions: , BYU Petition:

LETTERS

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 07:30:00 +0000

Baby animals and spring

Spring has sprung, and baby animals are exploring their big new world. Here’s what to do if you spot a baby animal:

Wait and watch. Most baby birds, rabbits, squirrels, deer and other animals don’t need humans’ help — their parents are usually nearby.

Baby birds with a half-inch or more of tail feathers are good to go. Unless they’re in obvious danger, don’t put them back in the nest — they will only hop out again. If necessary, place the bird on the lowest limb of a small tree or shrub.

If the baby is featherless, gently put him back in his nest (your scent won’t keep his parents away). Can’t reach the nest? Make one from a berry basket, kitchen strainer, or small plastic container with holes punched in the bottom. Line it with shredded tissue and hang it in a sheltered spot near the original nest.

Never try to tame baby animals or keep them as “pets.” It’s against the law in most places and unfair to the animal, who needs to be with and learn from others of his own kind.

If you see any baby animal whose mother has been killed, call a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. For more tips on living with wildlife, visit www.HelpingWildlife.com.

Stephanie Boyles Norfolk VA Stephanie Boyles is a wildlife biologist with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

No more cuts

This comment appeared online in response to a Detroit Free Press poll on whether autoworkers should accept concessions. It is reprinted with the author’s permission.

Anyone who doesn’t need a decent wage and benefits from their work to live on and raise a family, please raise your hand.

No, I don’t expect those who holler for UAW workers to take bigger cuts will offer to take less or volunteer to put their jobs on the chopping block. We ALL need benefits to raise our families and have decent communities, don’t we?

No amount of spin can hide that basic fact as we are told to make do and do without. But the more we give, the more the companies come for and we, our kids and our neighbors face dimmer futures. So why would we accept MORE cuts after 25 years of cutbacks and social decline?

We struggle with growing bills and debt loads while the rich and global live high and cry poor, about how they need even more from us. What should we in the middle and the poor do when we are pushed and squeezed too much?

We can and should figure out how to say, “No, no more cuts.” We can push back and put the squeeze on this vicious game. We can win support for our own demands and more justice. We can respect our lives, our work and our kids’ futures enough to stand up for ourselves. The rich and their fast-living corporate guys can afford to make concessions way more than we can.

Judy Christensen Detroit MI

Stop the shut-offs

With 57,000 Illinois households facing imminent disconnection of their heat, hot water and ability to cook, and 10,000 households facing electricity shut-offs, the coalition fighting for affordable energy reform is demanding that Gov. Rod Blagojevich declare an emergency and order People’s Gas, ComEd and Ameren to stop shut-offs based on inability to pay.

Consumers face an illegal 26 percent (ComEd) or 55 percent (Ameren) rate increase and a request for an increase by People’s Gas. The Illinois speaker of the House, Michael Madigan, has introduced legislation to create an Illinois Power Authority, which could generate and sell energy in the state to counteract utility monopolies that are out of control.

Curly Cohen and Molly Rose Chicago IL

No sympathy for Alberto Gonzales

Texas is to Mexicans as Mississippi is to African Americans. In Mississippi, African Americans have suffered lynching, racism, discrimination and super-exploitation for centuries. So too, Mexicans have suffered lynching, racism, discrimination and super-exploitation in Texas.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales grew up in Texas. Gonzales was a smart youth. He went to Harvard and became a lawyer. He could have used his talents and skills to defend his Mexican community from the ravages of racism and discrimination. Instead, Gonzales chose the quick path to fame and fortune. He became a flunky for George Bush and his gang of right-wing fat cats. These are the same people that continue to exploit the Mexican community using racism and discrimination. Working with this bunch, Gonzales learned to lie and cheat, something these right-wingers do with regularity. Now, he has been caught in a web of lies.

When Gonzales was first appointed as attorney general, his appointment was supported by only a few Mexicans and by a few Latino organizations. Their rationale for supporting him was that even though he was an extreme conservative, he was achieving the highest position ever achieved by a Mexican person in government. Now that the demand for his resignation is being heard, these former supporters have been very silent. No one is defending him now. His guilt of having lied to congressional investigators is obvious to all. Gonzales has brought shame upon himself.

There is no sympathy for Gonzales in the Mexican community. Gonzales never spoke out against the attacks on immigrants. He never spoke out against the proposed border wall. He never said a word about the unconstitutional anti-immigrant laws being passed in cities all over our country.

While immigrants were being arrested in raids on factories and plants, Gonzales was silent. These raids left families torn apart and left children without parents. Gonzales is no hero in the Mexican community. He made his choice of which side he was on. The shame is all his alone.

Armando Ramirez El Cajon CA

NATIONAL CLIPS

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 05:36:00 +0000

SAN ANTONIO: 20,000 honor César Chávez

Electrical workers, post office employees, firefighters and bus drivers locked arms with the League of United Latin American Citizens, immigrant rights activists and civil rights activists in a sea of over 20,000 people who marched to the Alamo March 31 in honor of César Chávez’s birthday.

Chávez, co-founder of the United Farm Workers union, died in 1993. He would have been 80 on March 31.

Chanting “Sí se puede” (Yes, we can!), “Viva Chávez,” “Support the troops, bring them home now” and “Raza sí, Migra no,” a group of garment workers, 1,100 strong, joined the march. The Latino workers, members of Fuerza Unida, lost their jobs in 1991 when Levi Strauss shut down their plant and moved production to Costa Rica.

In Tucson, Ariz., Dolores Huerta, also a UFW co-founder, spoke to hundreds who rallied in a tribute to Chávez, the state’s most beloved native son. She called for an April 29 children’s march for immigrant rights and urged the many young activists to step into Chávez’s shoes to struggle for justice and to put an end to repression on the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Let’s keep the message simple,” Huerta said. “We want legalization of all immigrants.”

SEATTLE: City ordered to compensate WTO protesters

In the 1999 “Battle of Seattle,” a watershed demonstration against the World Trade Organization’s policies of unbridled attacks on worker and environmental rights, up to 50,000 people, including many trade unionists, marched in the streets. Despite the overwhelmingly peaceful character of the demonstration, police declared the entire downtown area a “no protest zone.” On Dec. 1, 1999, they rounded up 175 people who were singing in a downtown park.

The police held many of the protesters in jail, without probable cause, for four days. Mayor Paul Schell called out the SWAT team to “protect businesses.” Some said it looked like the Constitution had been suspended.

Last week, on March 30, a Seattle civil court ordered the city to pay $1 million in damages to the protesters, seal their arrest records and improve police training to prevent future unconstitutional mass arrests. The settlement awaits approval by a federal judge.

“It’s a shame when justice is delayed any length of time, especially seven years,” said Kenneth Hankin, a Boeing fuel systems engineer who was one of those arrested. “The verdict and this settlement not only vindicate the rights of people who peacefully and lawfully protested in 1999, but will help insure that future dissent is treated as intended in a free society.”

PITTSBURGH: Sleepless night protests transit cuts

Huddled in sleeping bags on a downtown street, scores of bus and trolley riders, members of the union-community coalition Save Our Transit (SOT), staged an all-night vigil March 29 on the eve of the Port Authority’s vote to slash services, lay off workers and raise fares.

“One more sleepless night won’t hurt us if it keeps the pressure on the board to vote no on these service cuts,” said rider Majorie DeAngelis.

For more than four years, SOT has struggled to convince the State Assembly to create a designated fund for Pennsylvania’s public transit system. Corporate lobbying and legislative paralysis, however, have blocked such a move.

In Pittsburgh, the Port Authority faces an $80 million shortfall. Despite public protests, on March 30 its board passed a 15 percent service cut in which 29 weekday bus routes will vanish. Service will be reduced on 104 others. The plan eliminates 300 jobs and scales back management benefits. Trolley service for 240,000 daily riders will be curtailed.

The transit system in Luzerne County (Wilkes Barre) is expected to completely shut down.

If the State Assembly does not act, the cuts will take effect June 17 and are expected to plug $45 million of the $80 million hole.

The board also announced that it would attempt to reopen its contract with the 2,600-member Amalgamated Transit Union Local 85.

“Nobody wants to hear it, but when we negotiated the last contract, it was concessionary, and saved them a ton of money,” said ATU President Pat McMahon. “We did our part already.” The union contract does not expire until 2008.

Senior citizens and disabled people were hit with a fare increase. The Port Authority board raised their ACCESS fare 21 percent, from $1.83 to $2.25.

National Clips are compiled by Denise Winebrenner Edwards (dwinebr696 @ aol.com). Frank Valdez and Joe Bernick contributed to this week’s clips.