People Before Profit blog

Unity march for immigration reform announced

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 10:57:00 +0000

GREELEY Colo. – Organizers of a community service group today announced a Unity March on May 2 starting at 1 p.m. here. Greeley is about 60 miles north of Denver.

Undocumented and documented Latino communities here have been under constant attack for the past 29 months, community members charged. On Dec. 12, 2006, Greeley was one of the six sites where Swift & Company meat packing plants were raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Local group, Al Frente de Lucha, said they responded immediately to the raids by providing aid to the distressed families. Many of the workers detained were from Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Three-fourths of the more than 400 children affected were United States citizens, the group said.

“Months wore on and families dealt with conditions in federal detention and family separation, while their children were faced with chaos and terror,” the group said in a press release.

In the ICE raid’s wake, local officials conducted more raids and house searches. On October 17, 2008, Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck acquired a search warrant for Amalia’s Translation and Tax Service, according to news reports. The county’s sheriff department executed the warrant, which requested records for two years: 2006 and 2007.

Instead, the sheriff’s department confiscated over six-years of tax records, amounting to over 5,000 records, according to reports.

Calling it Operation Numbers Game, the DA charged that they had over 1,338 cases of suspected identity theft. Along with the sheriff’s department law enforcement began house to house searches and arrests based on the confiscated tax records.

“The terror in the Greeley community reached new heights. Yet, we have achieved a major victory in this case, thanks in large part to the ACLU supporting Amalia Cerrillo and many of her customers in a civil lawsuit. However, our community remains polarized and tensions remain high,” Al Frente de Lucha said.

“Our communities are ready to come together and move forward in solidarity. Supporters are invited to march with us as we express our continued commitment to just and humane immigration reform and universal human rights. We unite our voices and call for an end to inhumane raids and abuse at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. We believe that this change must come from the bottom up, directly from the voices of immigrant communities. Only we understand how vital it is to stop the militarization of our border and respective communities.”

The march will start at Island Grove Park, 514 N. 14th Ave. For Denver and surrounding area participants there will be caravans and carpooling.

From Aurora: 16th and Dallas (Creative Options School) meet at 9:30 a.m.; From Denver: 12th & Mariposa (Lincoln Park) meet at 10:00 a.m.; From Longmont: Skyline High School (600 E Mountain View Ave) parking lot, meet at 11:30 a.m.; From Boulder: 3970 Broadway, Suite 105 (Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center) at 11:30 a.m.

Swine flu outbreak raises wider questions

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 03:28:00 +0000

The death of a 23-month-old toddler in Texas yesterday was the first U.S. death in the swine flu outbreak that has killed 159 people in Mexico so far. It adds to the mounting worry here and abroad about the spread of this potentially deadly virus. It also raises many questions about the sustainability of food production on the corporate model.

But predictably, the ultra-right in the U.S. is trying to hijack the issue for its racist and anti-immigrant agenda.

The first appearance of the new virus strain, with genetic elements from human, swine and avian flu varieties, was reportedly in a 5-year-old boy in the village of La Gloria near the town of Perote, in Veracruz state, Mexico, in March. Public health officials say that although many people in La Gloria at that time were suffering from flu-like symptoms, only the 5-year-old child had the new swine flu variety, among those tested.

Outsiders tend to associate Veracruz state with lush vegetation, lively harp music and steamy beaches. But the Perote area is actually inland, up on the high central plateau, and is cool and dry. Many area residents make a very long commute to Mexico City to work. So if the current outbreak started in La Gloria, it could have quickly spread to Mexico City.

The dry climate creates a problem of windblown dust, which is also a big problem in Mexico City, much of which sits on an old lakebed. This is hard on respiratory systems, weakening their defenses against infection. But it also creates a danger of viral infections when dried fecal matter mixes with the dust and is inhaled (A few years ago there were a number of deaths in the Southwestern U.S. from hantavirus, spread via dried wild rodent feces).

Smithfield, hogs and health

La Gloria is next to a major pig raising and pork production operation, consisting of 16 farms run by Granjas Carroll (Carroll Farms), which is half owned by the giant Smithfield agribusiness corporation based in Virginia. For some time, residents of the area have been protesting what they say are unsanitary conditions caused by the way that Granjas Carroll keeps its pigs and disposes of pig fecal waste. Not only are there unbearable smells, residents say, but the vast amounts of pig excrement in open, inadequately lined pits have created massive swarms of flies which bedevil the inhabitants, who blame them for health problems.

For its part, Smithfield/Granjas Carroll denies any relationship between the flu outbreak and its operations, and claims that it keeps its pigs healthy and vaccinated and follows proper rules for waste disposal. It has also sued five leaders of local protests for defamation. But the people of La Gloria are not convinced.

Many people in the U.S. can relate to the complaints about the way pork is produced, and about Smithfield specifically. In Virginia and North Carolina, where Smithfield has had major operations, and in other areas of the country where other corporations have large pig farms, complaints about odor and public health dangers have arisen time and again. In 1997, Smithfield was fined $12.6 million for water pollution caused by its methods of disposing of pig waste. In 1999, Hurricane Floyd hit Eastern North Carolina, causing massive overflows of ponds owned by Smithfield subcontractors, flushing vast amounts of dangerous waste into the waterways and killing millions of fish.

These complaints by local residents and environmentalists coincide with serious labor troubles in pork production operations, for example at the Smithfield plant in Tar Heel, N.C., where Smithfield pulled out all stops to prevent workers from being organized by the United Food and Commercial Workers union. In addition, animal rights activists denounce the brutal way in which pigs are kept practically immobile in company pens.

Industrial animal factories

Smithfield says it has cleaned up the problems, but there is a larger issue, namely the danger created by modern methods of raising pigs, chickens, turkeys and other animals for mass consumption. When you have such large animal populations crammed into relatively small spaces (with the resultant stress weakening their resistance to infection), it creates a danger of incubating viruses on a vast scale. That in turn increases the possibility of mutations dangerous to humans — the more the virus breeds and spreads, the higher the probability of mutations.

We have seen this before.

The 1919 flu epidemic which killed 50 million people probably started in poultry. The SARS scare of 2003 may have had its origin among masked palm civets, wild carnivores that are eaten in China and were being kept in large numbers in unsanitary conditions in food markets. The bird flu or avian flu virus, H5N1, is a source of serious worry to public health officials worldwide, because of its potential for mutating in domestic poultry populations and then jumping into the human population. Massive research and bird vaccination efforts have been mounted all over the world to stave off this potential disaster.

Inadequate public health systems

Another issue that the current outbreak raises is the inadequacy of public health systems in poorer countries.

In Mexico, there are already criticisms of the speed with which the government responded. Evidently the Mexican ministry of health had to send its samples to a Canadian laboratory for analysis, which took an extra week. It boggles the mind to think of what epidemics could come out of countries that have even more ramshackle public health systems and even worse living conditions.

But we in the United States are in no position to gloat.

The Centers for Disease Control did not realize the danger until six days after Mexico began to take emergency measures. If an outbreak on the scale of the one in Mexico happens here, how will we cope? Millions of people in the United States have no health insurance and are likely to delay seeking health care when they feel sick, simply because even a short stay in the hospital may mean financial ruin.

And if everybody who got sick in such an epidemic were to seek medical attention, would there be enough doctors, nurses, clinics, hospitals and medications to go around? Moreover, Republicans in Congress demanded and got the removal of $900 million for preventing epidemics from the recently passed stimulus package, considering it a sort of “pork” (ahem!). Many Democrats went along.

Right-wing diatribes

The foaming-at-the-mouth crowed on cable TV and talk radio immediately launched into massive diatribes against Mexico and Mexican people. Some of these comments have been gathered on the useful web site of “Media Matters for America,' .

Right-wing columnist Michelle Malkin, for instance, was quick to blame the relatively small number of cases reported in the U.S. so far on “illegal immigration,” in spite of the fact that the cases in New York, which are most numerous so far, were found to have started with private school students returning from spring break in Cancun. Others called for a complete cutoff of immigration and trade with Mexico.

Commenters on Internet articles on the flu outbreak have taken up the call, calling Mexicans cockroaches that should be exterminated by atomic bombs and even rejoicing at the deaths as being so many fewer “illegal aliens” who can now try to sneak into the United States and get on welfare. This increases the danger that psychologically unbalanced people will commit acts of violence against Latino people here.

Solutions

The solution lies in a global program for sustainable and safe food production that avoids the brutal corporate model, plus the building up of public health resources worldwide and especially in the developing countries.

Every country should have up-to-date facilities for detecting and stopping pathogens the moment they appear, a capacity now blocked by the extremes of wealth and poverty among the world’s nations. This is in the interest of the people of the U.S. and other developed countries, as the present alarm clearly shows.

However, it will be fought tooth and nail by the corporate monopolies in food production, pharmaceuticals, etc., and their political flunkies.

OPINION: Cuba and Venezuela are not enemies

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 06:09:00 +0000

The Obama administration did the right thing when they ordered the closing of the Guantanemo torture prison, and restored the right of US Cubans to travel and send remittances to their relatives on the island nation.

To those who think Obama is not making important and even historic changes or who contend he’s only slightly different than Bush, you’re not paying attention.

However, the ultra right (Bush’s old base) is paying close attention and they are having a fit over what President Obama is doing.

The president’s recent effort at the 5th Summit of the Americas to extend the hand of friendship and cooperation to all the states in the hemisphere and especially to improve relations with Cuba and Venezuela is causing the Republican right no end of grief.

When Obama shook hands with Hugo Chavez and accepted the classic Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage, Newt Gingrich could hardly contain his anger alleging the president was “bolstering the enemies of America”.

I think that is like charging the president with treason. The same goes for the administration’s lowering the tensions and reaching for a more reasonable policy towards Cuba.

These changes should not be feared or condemned - they should be celebrated. Today, Mr. Gingrich, who thinks he is presidential timber, is way out of step with the US people.

For nearly 50 years our government has been trying to destroy socialist Cuba. It’s a great thing that they have failed. Ending the embargo and normalizing relations between Cuba and the US is to the benefit of both peoples and long overdue.

Over the years, the Cuban people have shown that despite many hardships caused by the embargo, they remain steadfast in their support for their socialist homeland. The Bay of Pigs invasion was supposed to militarily defeat Cuba in a matter of days. It did not. The many assassination plots against Fidel Castro failed. US ships were posed to attack Cuban during the missile crisis but a diplomatic solution was found. The collapse of Soviet aid to Cuba was thought by many people including on the left to mean the collapse of the Cuban socialism. This did not happen.

The many acts of terrorism against the Cubans and foreign tourists were attempts to destroy Cuba’s tourist industry. They failed. The Helms/Burton bill was supposed to isolate Cuba and create economic chaos and collapse - it did not

Thus, the resiliency and commitment to its brand of socialism by Cubans has made it possible for them to overcome incredible obstacles.

President Obama’s call for a “new beginning” to ease tensions and begin dialogue with Cuban leaders is a big change from the past and can open up a new era of constructive and mutually beneficial relations.

Today most Americans agree that it is time to end the hostility and disruption of Cuba and normalize relations.

The American people are ready for change. A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll showed that nearly two-thirds favor allowing travel to Cuba and 70 percent want normal diplomatic ties.

Most importantly, Cuban Americans have also grown weary of the intense right-wing, anti communist hysteria that’s been directed at them for a half a century.

A recent Bendixen Poll shows a dramatic shift in the attitudes of Cuban Americans. According to the poll, in 2003 53 percent of Cuban Americans supported the travel ban to Cuba. 41 percent opposed it. Today 67 percent oppose the ban and 29 percent are in favor of it. That’s a big shift. In 2003 61 percent of Cuban Americans supported the embargo against Cuba and only 26 percent opposed it. Today 43 percent oppose the embargo and 42 percent still support it - a dramatic 16-19 point shift away from supporting the blockade. Among 18-49 year old Cuban Americans, only 33 percent support the blockade while 54 percent are now opposed. A whopping 76 percent are for lifting the travel ban while only 22 percent want it to continue.

Obama received 47 percent of the Cuban American vote in Florida last November. Today 67 percent have a favorable or somewhat favorable opinion of his presidency. Even a stanch Republican conservative like Sen. Dick Lugar is for ending the blockade and for trade with Cuba. There are also businesspeople across the country that are pushing for the opening of normal trade relations. There are hundreds of US trade unionists who have traveled to Cuba and have been pushing their unions to open up relations with Cuban trade unions and support the release of the Cuban 5 whose only crime was to blow the whistle on terrorist plots being hatched from US shores against the island

Newt Gingrich is 100 percent wrong: Hugo Chavez is not an enemy of America. Under the guise of that thinking the Bush administration launched an illegal effort to finance the overthrow of Chavez. The coup failed when a million people took to the streets in defense of their democracy and independence. The fact Chavez had been elected by the people in fair elections didn’t matter to the Bush administration, they despised his democratic, socialist and humane policies. They could not live with his use of nationalized Venezuelan oil to help low-income people in the US and elsewhere survive harsh winters.

This is no small matter. Our government went to war in Iraq over oil. They are threatening war with Iran over oil. They support the suppression of Palestinian people by the Israeli ruling class because they are located in the heart the most oil rich region of the world.

Our whole economy is negatively affected by the manipulation and out and out thievery of the oil monopolies and their record profits. Yet Hugo Chavez is the enemy? He is the president of a country that is providing CITCO discounted oil to poor folks, retirees, blacks and Latinos and Native American Indian people so that they can survive our harsh winters and he is the “enemy of America”? That’s outrageous.

The CITGO-Venezuela Heating Program will provide and estimated 112 million gallons of fuel this winter to be distributed to more than 224,000 household and 250 social service providers in 23 US states this year. I doubt those people support Gingrich’s view on Hugo Chavez. I say with so-called “enemies” like Hugo Chavez who needs friends?

I think we need friendship between the US , Cuba and Venezuela. They have a right to pick whatever social economic system they wish, including socialism.

Hands off Venezuela! The travel ban should be lifted and the Cuban 5 should be released. End the Blockade against Cuba and establish normal diplomatic and trade relations with our neighbor and natural trading partner just 90 miles away.

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Unnatural disasters: Auto crisis highlights need to save pensions

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 03:30:00 +0000

The grave situation facing the auto industry is bringing into sharp focus the sorry state in which the Bush regime left our nation’s entire retiree security structure. A recent New York Times piece () spotlights this issue, but also highlights the pro-corporate bias that has permeated the “mainstream” media’s coverage of this crisis.

The Times article says that possible bankruptcy of General Motors would “accelerate the decline of traditional pension plans,” which have “been in slow decline.” Further, if GM dumps its pension plan, “then for competitive reasons the others have to do the same thing.” This would result in “fiendishly complex” problems “calculating which workers would bear how much of the losses.”

It is, of course, beyond the thinking process of big business apologists that the millionaires who actually created this economic disaster be required to “sacrifice,” instead of those who spent their lives working for them in grueling, dangerous toil.

What nobody in the “mainstream” media is addressing is the unbelievably horrible suffering that corporate bankruptcy anytime, but especially in this time of economic depression, would mean, not only to the autoworkers and their families, but also to the industrial communities around those plants.

On this question, we need not speculate. We have a working model in the steel communities decimated by shutdowns and corporate bankruptcies during the 1980s and continuing today. Once-thriving communities like Youngstown, Lorain and Canton, Ohio; South Chicago; and Homestead and Pittsburgh, Pa., suffered what can only be called unnatural disasters. As a participant in this game of corporate monopoly, I witnessed, and was struck by, this corporate tsunami.

In Lorain and Canton alone, five workers took their own lives when Republic Steel went into bankruptcy, and workers’ pensions and health care were stolen. Epidemics of mental health problems, divorces, waves of drug use and crime, school systems collapsing, block upon block of abandoned, boarded up homes and pervasive hopelessness, anger and despair swept over these communities. And this was during times of so-called economic upsurge.

While we’ve heard corporate spokesmen speak of banks’ need to be bailed out, because they are “too big to fail,” none among them seems able to apply a similar standard to the potential massive blow that would be dealt to our already suffering economy by a loss of pensions, health care and general economic well being for 485,000 GM pensioners. The corporate flaks trumpet the notion that contracts are sacred, unless, of course they are of the union variety.

What bankruptcy really means

If GM is allowed to go into corporate bankruptcy, under the present system, the GM/United Auto Workers pension plan would be taken over by the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC), a government agency set up, under pressure from organized labor, in 1974 as part of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

PBGC/ERISA was created by Congress after Studebaker went under and those workers lost their pensions and benefits, and had nothing to fall back on. The agency’s job is to seize, then administer, the pension plan of a bankrupt company, distributing pension funds, based on an actuarial plan, to retirees. It did its job admirably from its inception until the Bush years.

However, the PBGC does not administer health care and other benefits that are part of the UAW contract. In the event of a GM bankruptcy, hundreds of thousands of UAW retirees could stand to lose their health care benefits. In any economy, that would be a massive economic blow to these workers, their families and the entire community. n today’s battered economy, it is literally a matter of life and death.

In addition, under PBGC rules, many additional benefits negotiated by the UAW to protect workers, encourage workers to retire early or enhance retirement are discarded. What makes this so unfair to workers, so infuriating, is that in many cases, including the Republic case, is that the companies came to the union, hat in hand, asking for concessions in order to improve their situation, and the union was able to negotiate these benefits in return for the concessions. Under existing bankruptcy law, this is not taken into consideration and the companies get off free!

Who’s to blame for ‘unfunded benefits’?

Here again, the corporate media are misleading. Journalists too often unthinkingly repeat the term “unfunded legacy benefits,” in many cases when referring to union-negotiated pensions.

The great majority of existing pension plans are nowhere near fully funded. But that is only the case because PBGC rules requiring pensions to be fully funded were altered during the Reagan administration, allowing as little as 15 percent funding, in some cases, to be considered “fully funded.” Unions can only negotiate the benefits — the companies are required to fund them. It was, of course, the companies who lobbied that pro-corporate Reagan administration to “relax the PBGC rules.”

Bankruptcy law puts workers at the bottom

Furthermore, existing bankruptcy law is completely one-sided, in favor of the corporations.

Under current law, companies are able to use bankruptcy to wipe out the existing union contract, citing an “unfair burden” on the company. Bankruptcy court then will set up a payment plan that requires the company to pay its debtors. However, even where the company is stopped short of discarding the union contract and the union has claims against the company for unpaid wages, benefits, etc., the order of repayment in U.S. corporate bankruptcy court places worker/union claims at the bottom. Workers will almost never see any compensation.

Under Bush, agency turns from worker friend to pension thief

If all of the above were not nightmare enough, the few agencies meant to help workers were too much for the Bush regime — FEMA, NLRB and other sectors of the federal government that in any small way aided regular working folks. Bush turned the PBGC into an agency that, rather than insuring workers’ pensions, literally stole them.

The Republic (RTI/REP) case was only one of many, but was a precedent. The Steelworkers union was able to negotiate contractual points that guaranteed immediate pensions to workers that had 70 “points” when their age and seniority were added together at the time of a bankruptcy. However, the Bush PBGC appointee in that case, Steven Kandarian, made up a new date that the PBGC recognized as the official date of bankruptcy, for the sole purpose of denying pensions to workers who’d earned them. Workers are, to this day, being denied benefits and having to pay back “debts” to the PBGC under that outright theft. Use of the PBGC to help companies dump pensions and deny workers benefits was rampant during the Bush years.

Another problem that has recently come to light is that under Bush PBGC appointee C.C. Merrill, a large portion of the pension agency funds were taken from relatively safe federal bond investments and gambled on the stock market, resulting in huge losses. While it appears that the PBGC is still solvent, unions and retiree groups are demanding that the monies lost be replaced.

Real solutions

It is the so-called trickle-down “solutions” over the previous years of right-wing rule that have been the cause of today’s economic depression. Union-busting by corporations, aided by the federal government, has pushed the level of union organization to less than 12 percent of the non-public workforce. Real, defined-benefit, pension plans have been decimated from over 120,000 plans in 1980 to under 17,000 such plans still in existence last year. Real wages, adjusted for inflation, are at 1972 levels today.

Our economy, with working people doing all the work and all the “sacrificing,” has reached the breaking point where people can no longer buy what is produced, with massive economic crisis as the result.

With new, more positive majorities in Congress and the new Obama administration, organized labor, retiree organizations and allies must demand new solutions that actually solve problems and help, rather than hurt, working families. In truth, an Obama administration, based on the votes and support of working people, cannot politically survive a federal rape of auto communities.

Demands for change that can really meet the needs of the auto crisis include, but aren’t limited to:

* The PBGC must be fully funded. Monies lost by stock market gambles must be fully replaced and enough federal funds put into the PBGC to meet any upcoming crisis. The USW retiree organization, SOAR, is launching a public campaign on this issue.

* Bush-era attacks on workers, unions and pensions must be reversed. Money taken from pensioners due to these outright thefts must be returned.

* Health care for all, with a fully funded federal program, must be passed now, on an emergency basis. Our society cannot allow autoworkers and their families to lose health care protection. This blow would drag the entire economy into disaster.

* Pass the ‘Protect Employees & Retirees in Business Bankruptcy Act’ — S 2092 in the previous Congress, sponsored by Democrats Dick Durbin (Ill.) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio) in the Senate and John Conyers (Mich.) and Betty Sutton (Ohio) in the House. It would bar companies from ending union contracts and would boost workers’ claims against companies to the highest level in bankruptcy.

* A call must go out for a fully funded real federal portable pension plan for all Americans. This is the only real long-term solution.

These gains are winnable, but only with a fight! It calls for a massive mobilization of organized labor and its allies. Progressives and union activists must do all possible to help bring this about. Resolutions by your local union, district council or central labor body can call for mobilization. Retiree organizations, community groups and churches can be encouraged to join in. We need to make this crisis the one that jars things loose. Future generations are depending on us!

Bruce Bostick is a retired steelworker and union activist.

Pledge week begins

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:05:00 +0000

Over the past few years, we’ve raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in “PWW Fund Drives” that lasted several months. This year, in keeping with the idea of “change” and “hope,” we’re trying something new.

We’re making a change we hope will work.

Instead of spending September through December asking for money, we believe we can get $175,000 pledged within two highly organized “pledge weeks,” one in the first week of May, and the other in October.

Taking a page from PBS, the People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo is hosting two pledge weeks this year to raise money for what many have called “America’s best labor newspaper.”

We don’t have any corporate sponsors. But that’s to be expected. What kind of corporation would sponsor a newspaper that tells the story of labor? That reports on, as well as campaigns for, the Employee Free Choice Act? That always takes working people’s side in struggle?

The PWW relies on the generosity of our readers and friends to keep us going. The pledge week will take place across the county and will include many different activities: from phone banking to some public gatherings.

In short, you can expect a call, a visit or a house party in your area. Check out our pledge week progress, get highlights from activities around the country and more at our website www.pww.org.

Even better, you could make a call, a visit, or host a house party in your area. If you want to make your pledge early, or to help us in another way, e-mailor call us at 212-924-2523.

Jenn Delgado is the People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo business manager.

Angela Davis: Not another prison

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 06:35:00 +0000

CHICAGO – Under the theme “Imagine Justice For All in 2009” the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR) held its 36th anniversary and annual Human Rights Awards benefit here April 18. The event was held at the Lutheran School of Theology on the city’s south side in the Hyde Park area.

Dr. Barbara Ransby, a professor in the African American Studies Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, emceed the event.

“As activists we’re always protesting what we’re against, but tonight we are celebrating people who are long distance runners in this struggle,” said Ransby. “Tonight we’re here to seek inspiration and highlight the fight to forge lasting change,” she said. Ransby also noted the historic election of President Barack Obama last November was a detrimental blow to racism in this country.

Legendary African American activist Angela Davis, a civil rights leader against the racist U.S. prison system and staunch advocate of ending the death penalty, was the program's keynote speaker.

“The election of Obama was a millennium transformation, and we’re in a new historical conjunction in 2009,” noted Davis. “In a short period of time so much has changed,” she said.

Given the current economy there is a very serious crisis erupting in the capitalist system, said Davis. “Many assume Obama is going to save capitalism, but a lot of us here have other ideas about changing the system,” said Davis.

Davis talked about the prison industrial complex and the role President Thomas Jefferson played in constructing the first penitentiary in Virginia.

“Penitentiaries were considered at that time the solution to barbaric forms of punishment,” she said. Founders of the prison system felt correction facilities were an outlet where people could reflect on their crimes, develop a relationship with God and become new, changed and reformed citizens in democratic life, said Davis.

“It’s obvious those hopes were not truly reflected,” noted Davis. “Instead we were given the institutions of prisons as an alternative to death and capital punishment,” she said.

Today the fight against the prison system is the same fight abolitionist's fought for against slavery 200 years ago, said Davis. “And there is reason why we still have the prison industrial complex and its called racism,” she added.

Davis said slaves would receive the death penalty for 71 different counts compared to one (murder) for whites.

“Today many whites are also victims of the racist reality of capital punishment,” said Davis.

She noted that one-out-of 33 U.S. adults are under the direct control of the criminal justice system.

“Racism is directly responsible for the fact that the U.S. has become the great incarcerator and more people are incarcerated here than anywhere in the entire world,” said Davis. “And there is a vast over-representation of Blacks in the system.”

Davis acknowledged that President Obama identifies with Black freedom struggles, and that rightfully excites many activists. She said that legacy of Black radicalism has always been a struggle in some form against the state dating back to slavery.

“So what happens when you have a Black person at the head of that state?” she asked. “It’s almost a contradiction although we have to recognize the new terrain,” said Davis.

Davis said people cannot sit back and think Obama is going to do all the work. Those who voted for him have to play an important role, especially young people, she said.

“As much as we are told today that racism has receded and that Obama’s election was the last major blow to the racial barrier, that simply isn’t true,” said Davis. “We cannot pretend to talk about racism today like it was back the 1950s or 1960s,” she said.

“The institutions of racism have very long memories and even Blacks and Latinos continue to practice various forms of prejudice,” said Davis.

“The question of race is so essential to the history of this country,” she noted. “And working against the prison industrial complex and the death penalty will help us to understand the markings and history of U.S. slavery,” she added.

“The fight for justice today is indivisible. Justice for one always means justice for all and it transcends all national and ethnic groups,” said Davis.

The issue of decriminalizing drugs and the question of violent acts especially when it comes to sentencing people to prison deserves more attention and analysis, noted Davis.

“Not another prison should be constructed in this country,” said Davis. “Because the solution is not putting perpetrators behind bars. Sending people to jail does not help heal societies problems.”

Davis added, “We need a system based on healing not one that focuses on revenge.”

“If we are ever going to abolish the prison industrial complex then we need to begin to abolish the social and racial injustices of our educational system,” said Davis.

Davis came to national attention in 1969 when she was removed from her teaching position at UCLA as a result of her social activism and her membership in the Communist Party USA. In 1970, she was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List on false charges of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy. During her 16-month incarceration, a massive international “Free Angela Davis” campaign was organized, leading to her acquittal in 1972.

Soon after Davis became a tenured professor in the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In 1994 she was appointed Presidential Chair in African American and Feminist Studies at the University of California. She has since retired from the University of California, Santa Cruz but continues to teach classes, working with graduate students and helping to build an activist presence on campus.

Human Rights awards were granted to honorees at the event whose work includes ending the death penalty, overturning wrongful convictions, the fight against racism and efforts to help victims of the prison industrial complex. The honorees included: Patricia Hill, executive director of the African American Police League; Jane Raley, senior staff attorney with the Northwestern Law School; Judith Stuart, an anti-prison activist, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, retired Pastor with the Trinity United Church of Christ; and Karen Yarbrough, Illinois state representative.

The NAARPR works to fundamentally change the prison industrial complex including the mass executions of those on death row throughout the U.S. Fifty-three prisoners were executed in 12 states in 2006. There are more than 3,500 people on death row in the U.S., all of them poor and most of them African American or Latino, according to the NAARPR. Most countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice, NAARPR leaders charge. The NAARPR has active chapters in Nevada, Kentucky and Illinois. For more information go to: www.naarpr.org.

New website highlights labors art heritage

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:38:00 +0000

Original source:

For nearly 30 years, the Labor Heritage Foundation has worked to preserve and promote knowledge of the cultural heritage of the American worker through the arts, including music, poetry, written works, theater and artistic works.

Labor Heritage’s creative, user-friendly new website opens up the world of labor arts for labor activists and art lovers alike with the power to draw a new generation of artists.

At www.laborheritage.org, you’ll find many of the familiar services and some new ones. The main feature is a slide show with information about such popular events as the Great Labor Arts Exchange and Conference on Creative Organizing, the Joe Hill Award and a new Shades of Youth in Labor, where young people speak out on issues such as poverty and injustice.

Labor Heritage Foundation Chairwoman Elise Bryant says the website reflects the important role that art plays in the union movement.

Art displays the heart, soul and passion for equality and justice in the union movement. Union members learned long ago that life is more than work. We not only need bread, we need roses, too. Every successful progressive movement in the United States has been led by song. But we’re not just focusing on the past; we’re also introducing the new artists who are producing art for the union, peace and justice movements.

Also on the site, you’ll find quick links to the Labor Heritage Hall of Fame and an inventory of American labor landmarks. You can check out videos of recent events and a calendar of upcoming happenings.

India gets ready for 'Third Front' in polls

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 03:36:00 +0000

Indian voters cast their ballots in round one of parliamentary elections on Thursday amid Maoist violence that left at least 17 dead.

In the first of five phases, over 140 million people voted in large swathes of northern and eastern India, including impoverished rural areas affected by violent insurgencies.

In Jharkhand state, rebels ambushed a bus carrying security forces for duty at polling stations, killing seven soldiers and two civilians.

In neighbouring Chattisgarh state, Maoist commandos blew up a jeep carrying election officials, killing five, while several serious gun battles were also reported to be raging in two Chattisgarh districts.

And in Bihar state, two security personnel were shot dead and another wounded by Maoists in Gaya district.

Results of the massive election, which will use more than 1.3 million electronic voting machines in 828,804 polling stations, are expected to be announced on May 16.

Polls indicate that neither the governing Congress party nor the Hindu chauvinist BJP will win enough seats in the 543-seat lower house of parliament to rule on their own.

Congress, which is ending a five-year stint in power, has seen its main achievement - India's economic growth, which has averaged more than 8 per cent in recent years - hit by the global economic crisis.

It has also faced severe criticism for its handling of the Mumbai terror attack in November, when 10 gunmen rampaged through the city for three days, killing 164 people.

The BJP is in disarray. Its leadership is fragmented, its anti-terror line was criticised as too harsh after the Mumbai attacks and it has been blamed for stoking tensions between India's Hindu and Muslim communities.

A new progressive grouping of left-wing and regional parties running under the Third Front banner is widely seen as the only viable alternative.

The powerful Communist Party of India (Marxist), which helped forge the Third Front, has ruled out any alliance with Congress after the elections and was optimistic that the progressive coalition will emerge as a decisive force.

CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said: 'We expect a realignment of political forces in the post-poll scenario.

'The Third Front will emerge as the largest combination and there is no question of having any understanding or alliance with the Congress party.'

The Third Front is negotiating with Mayawati Kumari, a self-styled champion of the lower castes who hopes to become India's first prime minister from the 'untouchable' Dalit caste.

Guantanamo inmate 'beaten with batons'

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 03:07:00 +0000

Original source:

A detainee at the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay phoned a global TV network on Tuesday to say that he was severely beaten for refusing to leave his cell.

Chadian Mohammed el-Gharani told al-Jazeera that guards beat him with batons and sprayed him with tear gas.

The US has never allowed journalists to interview Guantanamo prisoners and al-Jazeera did not say how it had managed to speak to Mr Gharani.

US army spokesman Brook DeWalt suggested that Mr Gharani may have used one of his weekly phone calls to his family to speak to al-Jazeera.

Mr Gharani did not give the date of the alleged abuse but said it had occurred after the election of US President Barack Obama.

The prisoner says he refused to leave his cell because he was not being permitted to interact with other detainees and was denied 'normal food.'

He said that a group of six soldiers in protective gear had forcibly removed him from the cell and beat him, breaking one of his front teeth.

A US judge ruled in January that Mr Gharani should be freed, dismissing the military's allegations that he was part of al-Qaida and had worked for the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Mr Gharani is being held in a section of the camp where prisoners are permitted 'privileges' while he awaits release

Protesters hold second day's march on Wall Street

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 15:13:00 +0000

Reposted from MichaelMoore.com

Thousands of protesters marched in Manhattan for the second day in a row on Wall Street today, to call for an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and for more government aid for struggling working people.

The group United for Peace and Justice organized the event, which started at noon at the corner of Broadway and Leonard Street. The marching protesters carried signs and puppets and chanted as they went down Broadway, walked past the New York Stock Exchange, and ended up in Battery Park.

'We're protesting the lack of jobs, the war in Iraq, we're protesting just about everything that's going wrong,' said marcher Beloved Purville.

They also walked past companies that took federal money, including American International Group, which drew controversy for giving company executives bonuses after it received federal bailout money.

'The people at the top are getting money and the people at the bottom, our bills keep going sky high,' said marcher Gwen Debrow. 'My electric bill is sky high, the MTA [transit] fare is going up when it should be at a standstill. People are really hurting in this country. We need a bailout.'

Protesters were also expressing concerns about President Barack Obama's plan to remove troops from Iraq and relocate them to Afghanistan.

'I personally am concerned that Obama is not a peace president,' said protester John Schwen. 'He is only taking a few troops out of Iraq and sending those off to Afghanistan. He's escalating a war in Afghanistan that has historically been a lost cause for many other countries that have tried to invade.'

'I'm not saying it's a simple solution and I think Obama's doing a lot of things right,' said protester Donnie Rotkin.

Everyone who attended agreed that they were very concerned about the current state of the country.

While protesters gathered for several different issues...everyone could agree they're very concerned about the current state of the country.

'I'm concerned, I think, like everyone else, except for those who are working in the banks and given those huge bonuses,' said protester Tim Sutton.

Demonstrators also gathered on Wall Street on Friday to denounce the federal economic bailouts.

Four people were arrested Friday for disorderly conduct.

Mexican literature at the crossroads of three cultures

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 00:55:00 +0000

Translated by Karen Grimwade

('Humanite) Mexican literature, guest of honour at the 2009 Paris Book Fair, feeds on indigenous, Latin American, and international influences, presenting a literary production that could make one appreciate globalisation.

As far as French readers have been concerned, Mexican literature has long been summed up by reference to two authors : Octavio Paz and Carlos Fuentes. One could, and still can, qualify them as literary giants. And giants have always overshadowed those who preceded and followed them, as well as their contemporaries.

Naturally this was very unfair to the great modern writers from the thirties to the fifties, Revueltas, Reyes and of course Juan Rulfo, who are being enthusiastically rediscovered today. It also meant ignoring the way post-1968 generations, from Sergio Pitol to Jorge Volpi and Paco Ignacio Taibo II, broke with convention. It meant ignoring all whom the Book Fair will showcase : the 37 attending authors and the equally interesting absentees.

Cortès and his successors

Above all, it meant forgetting that the conquistadors did not arrive in a land devoid of its own literature. Their efforts to wipe out all written expressions of the Nahuatl or Mayan languages are sufficient proof of that. The “codices” that survive today include religious works, calendars, annals, or prophecies such as the famous Books of Chilam Balam, which have been revealed to French readers through the translations of Benjamin Péret and later by JMG Le Clézio. Yet alongside these texts, a diverse and vibrant poetry developed over hundreds of years.

Thus Cortès and his successors exploited the intellectuals within their colony whilst simultaneously imposing Castilian Spanish on them. At the same time, the Spaniards put an end to any cultural exchange between their possessions and the outside world. The novel was even prohibited at the exact same moment that Cervantès reinvented it back in mainland Spain.

But the colonial period cannot be reduced to “dark centuries”. Juana Inés de Asbaje, better known by her religious name of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651-1695), is a figure that dominates the “Golden Age” with her poems, essays and plays. A companion to the vicereine, her writing bears witness to a learned court and despite her run-ins with religious authorities, she remained famous and admired. Her biography, written by Octavio Paz in 1982, popularised Mexico’s “tenth muse”. As for the playwright Alarcon, who was the inspiration for Corneille’s “Le Menteur” (The Liar), he is such an integral part of Spain’s classical corpus that people often forget that, despite his frequent transatlantic crossings, he was Mexican.

Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata

However, the true awakening of Mexican literature didn’t come about until the end of the 19th century : a century marked by the fight for independence beginning in 1810, the loss of 40% of the land – from Texas to California – which was annexed by the United States, and the attempt to become Mexican Emperor by Maximilian of Habsburg, with the support French troops.

The thirty-five-year long “porfiriato” during which Porfirio Diaz was continuously, and more or less fraudulently, re-elected President, was a tranquil period of time during which Mexico steeped itself in a romantic, then realist, literature under the influence of Spain and France. The poet Lopez Velarde and the novelist Federico Gamboa used these bases to build the foundations for a native Mexican literature.

In 1910, Mexico experienced a kind of reformation with the revolution which put an end to Porfirio’s “electoral dictatorship” and saw the emergence of figures such as Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. Despite an ambiguous end to the conflict in 1916-17 and the assassination of their leaders, the cavalrymen of the north and peasants of the south profoundly changed their country. A social and cultural reformation took place, with radical social reforms being carried out.

It was at this time that the revolutionary novel came to be, with Martin Guzman, an opponent of Diaz and then fighter under Pancho Villa. He was the author of “La sombra del caudillo” (The Leader’s Shadow) and “El águila y la serpiente” (The Eagle and the Serpent), written in 1920, titles which refer to the two emblems at the centre of the Mexican flag. Despite presenting typical aspects of the “epic fresco”, these novels nonetheless employ narrative practices that were daring for their time.

The other literary great of this period, Mariano Azuela, published “Los de abajo” (The Underdogs” in 1916, a novel full of committed social realism. A tradition was born, along with the risk of becoming fossilised that success brings. However, the vitality of Mexican culture during the twenties and thirties, the opening up to European arts and literature, and the setting up of trade guilds with other Latin American writers from Argentina, of course, as well as Nicaragua, Cuba and Guatemala, were to hasten the revival process.

Juan Rulfo, born in 1917, has long been overshadowed by his contemporary Octavio Paz (1914) and the younger Carlos Fuentes (1928). His importance has today been re-evaluated. It is true that his oeuvre contains only two titles, a collection of short stories “Contes du llano en flammes” (The Burning Plain) and his one novel Pedro Paramo (1955), which is said to have been influenced by Faulkner, but in which certain patterns, such as the reappearance of deceased characters, bring to mind “magical realism” at its peak. Arreola, with La feria (The Fair), Agustin Yanez, with Al filo del agua (The Edge of the Storm), and Jose Revueltas, with Los días terrenales (The Mundane Days) and Dormir en tierra (To Sleep on the Ground), were also part of this movement.

The group from the Casa del Lago

Octavio Paz, without a doubt Mexico’s best known writer (see the article by Virginie Gatti), should also be cited in order to remind people of the importance of poetry in a literature which is not uniquely composed of novels. Along with Carlos Fuentes, who is considered to be the father of the Mexican novel, one might say they shared the work load. They were close friends for a long time, were both politically committed, and defended each other against the Far Right until a huge disagreement towards the end of the eighties saw them fall out. The two diplomats both resigned for political reasons but remained the ambassadors of Mexican literature, particularly in France.

The student massacre of October 1968 at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco heralded the turning of a page. Literature opened up progressively to the outside world, began playing with codes and genre, exploring popular languages and figures of speech. Sergio Pitol – yet another ambassador – leader of the group from the Casa del Lago, skilfully plays with literature within literature and will surely exert an influence over many Hispanic writers outside Mexico. The new generation, born after 1968, shows a freedom which goes hand in hand with a lack of reference points and which renders a speech that is close to our present concerns. It is this literature which dominates at the Book Fair. Disturbing or stimulating, it is diverse enough for everyone to find something with which to while away a few pleasurable hours

South Africa: New ideas at 4th national AIDS conference

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 22:15:00 +0000

DURBAN, 1 April 2009 (PlusNews) - South Africa's fourth national AIDS conference opened in the east-coast city of Durban this week with calls to scale up AIDS programming in a country that still has a long way to go in reversing the epidemic.

Conference chair and deputy director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, Professor Linda-Gail Bekker, told the over 4,000 delegates that South Africa was still in the 'red zone' on maps reflecting the severity of the virus, 'always seeming to have more numbers of HIV-positive people and TB patients'.

The reasons why the southern Africa region has been worst hit by the epidemic were explored by Dr John Hargrove, director of the Centre of Excellence in Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (SACEMA) at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Hargrove found that 'the problem is not so much roads [along which the disease can spread] as [Cecil John] Rhodes', the 19th century mining magnate, because recruiting men from all over southern Africa to work in South African mines had led to disastrous consequences for families, and created a breeding ground for the spread of HIV.

Countries such as Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi had started registering lower rates of HIV prevalence, but there was 'little evidence' of any major decline in South Africa. Hargrove suggested that antiretroviral (ARV) treatment could be used to end the epidemic: 'Use ARVs as an offensive weapon to kill the epidemic, not just as a defensive [weapon].'

Once patients started taking ARVs, their viral load (the amount of HIV in the blood) was significantly reduced and they became much less likely to transmit the virus, he noted. Also, by introducing universal HIV testing once a year and then starting people on treatment immediately, HIV could be eliminated.

Hargrove was echoing findings from a recent study published in the British medical journal, The Lancet, which suggested that immediate treatment - regardless of CD4 count (which measures the strength of the immune system) - could significantly reduce new infections.

Only half in need on treatment

South African Deputy President Baleka Mbete told the conference that, 'By January 2009, 695,293 people were on antiretroviral treatment. But we are only treating about half the people who need treatment.'

She acknowledged that the country's plans to curb the spread of HIV would not succeed without 'political will and financial support' from government.

Unlike previous conferences in South Africa, this year's meeting takes place in a less politically charged atmosphere. In the past, relations between the government, researchers and AIDS activists have been marked by tension and conflict.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu noted that the country had moved on, and 'now at least we have orthodox views on HIV and AIDS'.

Tutu delivered the Nkosi Johnson Memorial Lecture with Luyanda Ngcobo, 16, who was born HIV positive. He told delegates his biggest challenge was that he would have to take his medication every day at the same time 'for the rest of my life'.

In 2000, 11-year-old Nkosi Johnson spoke to thousands of delegates at the International AIDS Conference about being HIV positive. He died later that year, and the lecture has since been named in his honour.

EDITORIAL: May Day—a great day to support the workers newspaper

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 08:51:00 +0000

May 1 — May Day — International Workers’ Holiday, and now, increasingly, a day to march for immigrant rights. This important world celebration, which was born right here in Chicago, USA, is being reclaimed by the labor and immigrant rights movements in this country, after years of being buried under Cold War, anti-communist debris.

What better way to celebrate than making a donation to the newspaper that has celebrated May Day since our first issue in 1924 with an editorial mission of “Workers and oppressed of the world, unite!”

And there are a few ways to do it.

The People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo will run three weeks of May Day ads. You can take out an ad — or get your union or neighborhood block club to take out an ad — to celebrate and publicize people’s causes like the Employee Free Choice Act.

Large ads: $300 — maximum size is 6”x 5”

Medium ads: $150 — maximum size is 5”x3.5”

Small ads: $25 — maximum size is 2.5”x1.5”

Deadlines for ads are: April 13, April 20, April 27 for the three issues dated April 25-May 1, May 2-8, May 9-15, respectively.

You can also celebrate Cinco de Mayo (May 5) — an important holiday among many Mexican Americans that honors Mexican culture and heritage — along with the May Day ads.

Plus, the first two weeks of May are PWW pledge weeks: Time to make a pledge for as generous a donation as you can to help keep this voice of the labor and people’s movements going. Expect calls and letters from our staff and volunteers about making a pledge.

Contact Barb Russum (773) 446-9920 x.205 or e-mailfor ad space and to learn how you can become involved in the May Day pledges.

New study highlights cruelty of US immigration policy to child

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:12:00 +0000

A newly released study by the law firm of Dorsey and Whitney, LLP for the Urban Institute should be required reading for anyone who thinks that reform of our immigration laws and procedures is something that can be put off indefinitely.

The study, “Severing a Lifeline: The Neglect of Citizen Children in America’s Immigration Enforcement Policy”, whose principal authors are James D. Kremer, Kathleen A. Moccio and Joseph W. Hammell, focuses on the impact of the Bush-initiated wave of factory and home raids on the US citizen children of undocumented immigrants, as well as of documented immigrants subjected to deportation proceedings.

During George W. Bush’s first term, the number of immigration raids was relatively low. But after the big immigrants’ rights of the spring of 2006, Bush, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and I.C.E. chief Julie Myers announced a new crackdown which quickly escalated into a near doubling of deportations over previous years. Starting with a series of raids on operations of the IFCO company in April 2006, the government hit workplaces all over the country, while also organizing around 100 “Fugitive Operations Teams” to go to houses and apartments, supposedly to arrest specific people, but often to pick up anyone they run into who appears to be an undocumented immigrant.

This study examines some of the human results of this new “enforcement only” policy. It also provides much useful contextual material on the overall immigration situation in this country. The authors estimate that the between 11 and 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States today have about 5 million children, 3.1 million of whom are U.S. citizens. They further estimate that in recent years, at least several tens of thousands, and possibly well over a hundred thousand, US citizen children have been directly affected by the arrest and/or deportation of a parent.

The report does not go into the ultimate causes of undocumented immigration, but does make one crucially important point: The idea that undocumented immigrants have “butted in line” ahead of other people who have applied for visas the legal way is completely wrong. In fact, the United States only provides about 5,000 visas per year for people with the kinds of education and skills most undocumented workers typically have. This means that such people have been effectively excluded from any “line”. If they applied for a visa they would either be rejected outright or would have to wait decades to receive it. Since most undocumented immigrants are fleeing from immediate situations of privation or danger, and have an equally immediate need to find jobs so as to support their families, they simply can not come legally. The U.S. government provides no way to do that, no “line” to get into.

The authors examine what happens to children when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (the branch of Homeland Security that carries out immigration actions) either raids a factory or barges into family homes to arrest immigrant workers. They interviewed families, social service people, unions and clergy in a number of places, most specifically New Bedford, Massachusetts, Postville Iowa and several cities affected by raids on Swift Corporation facilities. After the raid against the Swift Plant in Worthington, Minnesota, a local religious leader described the situation:

'Families have been torn apart. Children were left behind; some of them came back after school to find themselves locked out because both of their parents were detained. The most serious case we saw is the case of a 4-month-old baby who was brought by a desperate babysitter and [sic] asked us to look after her because she feared to be detained. This is a very tough situation for them. Most of them are citizens and now they are helpless. We still don’t know how many of them are out there all by themselves waiting for someone to come help them”.

*Educational damage to children. US citizen children whose parents have been arrested and/or deported, or have been forced to relocate from the United States to Mexico or other countries to whom their parents are deported, seriously lose ground in their education, and in the case that they are forced to accompany their parent or parents into exile, may find themselves unable to complete school and even being forced into what amounts to child labor by economic conditions in the other country. Though most countries to which US citizen children end up being exiled have some sort of compulsory school attendance law, the fact is that millions of their own citizen children drop out of school and even are forced to go to work before even completing the elementary grades. This is the situation into which these US citizen children are sent.

*Damage to children’s mental and physical health. The fact that armed police agents can barge into a family’s home without a warrant, line up mother, father and minor children, sometimes at gun point and while yelling obscenities, and then haul one or both parents away to some unknown destination, is shown by the study to be severely traumatic for the children. Likewise, situations that happened in the last couple of years in New Bedford, Massachusetts; Postville Iowa and numerous other places, in which children returned home for school only to find their parents gone, and in which local churches, schools and social service agencies suddenly found themselves overwhelmed with a large number of parentless children (who did not even know where their parents were or what was going to become of them), are similarly traumatic and cause many children to become anxious, depressed, withdrawn and unable to sleep because of nightmares about losing their parents. A National Council of La Raza report cited in the study elaborates:

“Some children said things to parents, other caregivers or teachers which revealed how they had begun to personalize the cause of the separation. Especially among very young children, who could not understand the concept of parents not having ‘papers’, sudden separation was considered personal abandonment. In some cases, separation triggered sadness; in others, it led to anger toward the parent who left or the one who remained…Psychologists were concerned that [statements made by the children in the aftermath of the raids and family separation] could indicate the onset of depression and other mental health changes..”

*Erosion of due process. Most people in this country do not know that normal constitutional protections of “due process” do not apply in immigration raids, arrests and deportation proceedings. For example, while persons accused of murder are provided a lawyer by the government if they can not afford one themselves, people in immigration proceedings have no such right, leading to situations such as that produced by the Postville raid in which, according to a government interpreter, Dr. Erik Camayd-Frexias, who was outraged by what he saw, the right to any kind of due process is simply steamrollered out of existence.

*No protection for children. Since the passage of the “Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act” of 1996, immigration judges have been stripped of most of their power to take the interests of minor children, including those who are US citizens, into account when determining whether a parent should be deported or not. (Legislation in Congress sponsored by Rep. Jose Serrano, D-NY, HR 182 would correct this). This put the US seriously out of kilter with practices accepted internationally, as well as with US law covering other situations in which children may be harmed by legal action against parents. The norm in other circumstances is to always take into consideration “the best interests of the child” in any judicial decision; but this does not apply to children of immigrants undergoing deportation. This same law created a situation in which undocumented immigrant parents of US citizen children, once deported, can not return to the US even to visit for a period of 3 to 10 years, depending on how long they had resided illegally in the United States. This virtually forces thousands of minor US citizen children to be, effectively, “deported”, the alternative often being to be put in foster or institutional care in the United States. Finally, this law has mandated detention, lasting months or years, for many detained immigrants, which has further endangered their minor children.

There is some positive movement in Washington. President Obama has reiterated his commitment to a reform that would legalize most undocumented immigrants on several occasions. One immigration raid has taken place since Obama took power (Bellingham, Washington, with 28 arrests), but Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has expressed disquiet that she was not informed in advance about it. There is talk about changing the focus away from factory raids.

And perhaps the best news of all, the labor movement (including both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win) has developed a united plan of legislative action that has good chances of success – if we push for it.

But we can not be certain that there will be no more raids, or that the doors of no more families will be broken down in the middle of the night. For this reason, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has been holding “Family Unity” rallies with immigrant families around the country, in which US citizen relatives of people who have been deported or who face deportation have been giving testimony on the impact of immigration law on their families. Several thousand petition signatures collected at these events were recently delivered to President Obama at a meeting with the Hispanic Caucus.

But very troubling is the fact that new rules on Social Security No-Match letters, created under the Bush administration, are only being held up by a suit filed by the AFL-CIO and others. No Match letters are letters sent to employers by the Social Security Administration when Social Security Numbers submitted by employers for their employees do not match the government’s records. This can be caused by clerical errors, but it is probable that a large number of these numbers belong to undocumented immigrants. Under the new Bush-Chertoff rules, every employer would be forced to fire any employee for which he/she received a No-Match letter if the employee could not clear up the discrepancy in 90 days. The scale of this problem is enormous, involving several million people, and it is to be doubted even that mistakes could be corrected in the time frame given, especially as the government has not hired more workers to deal with this new task. Even more troubling is the fact that the Bush administration had begun to treat the use of a fake or borrowed Social Security number as a felony, resulting in the jailing of hundreds of immigrants after the Postville raid for 5 month terms in a kangaroo court setup in which due process was a cruel joke.

The administration needs to be pressured to WITHDRAW the Bush-Chertoff rule changes rather than letting them go ahead and cause chaos at thousands of workplaces and for millions of workers and their families, as well as to hold off on workplace and neighborhood raids until a comprehensive reform can be passed and implemented.