People Before Profit blog

Call to action: defend immigrant workers rights

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 08:47:00 +0000

The Aug. 10 declaration by the Bush administration of a more repressive immigration policy, if put into effect, will create fascist-like conditions for 12 million undocumented workers and their families. The impact of the new policy which criminalizes the undocumented will lower living standards for all working people and undermine democracy, giving a green light to greater racism, national oppression and intolerance of all kinds.

On Sept. 4, the Social Security Administration will begin to send 160,000 letters to employers with 10 or more employees with no-match Social Security numbers. This means at least 1.6 million workers could be fired in the next three months.

Hysteria against immigrants is the main tool the Bush administration is using to deepen the wedges that have meant victories for their corporate agenda in the past. We can’t let their scapegoating of immigrants hold back the labor and people’s movement.

• Call your elected officials to demand an end to the no-match sanction policy

• Write letters to the editor supporting a moratorium on raids, deportation and family unification.

• Get your unions, religious groups and more people involved in the fight for legalization of immigrant workers, not criminalization.

— To read the Communist Party statement

in Spanish click here

and in English click here .

Visit the CPUSA website at .

Remembering Karl Dennis, PWW booster extraordinaire

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 08:39:00 +0000

TUCSON, Ariz. — With the 2007 People’s Weekly World fund drive ready to start on Labor Day, Arizona PWW supporters, like supporters across the country, are gearing up, but we find it so strange to do so without the paper’s biggest booster, Karl Dennis, who passed away last February at the age of 87.

Karl loved this paper. He believed that it was not only important to contribute financially, which he generously did, but also to build and increase the paper’s circulation.

In the winter of 2001, Karl picked out a multiracial, working-class neighborhood on Tucson’s South Side. Each Sunday morning he was there with his bundle of 100 papers.

He started by leaving a paper on each doorknob. After a few weeks he started knocking on doors. His newspaper route gradually moved, leaving behind dozens of subscribers. Over four years, through cold winter mornings and blazing 100 degrees-plus summers, he sold almost 200 subscriptions, an average of about one per week. He was forced to stop by his failing health at age 85.

Karl also strove to make the PWW even better. He wrote letters to be published, and letters making suggestions on how to improve the paper. The “Ask a Communist” feature, now appearing in the PWW, was his inspiration.

Karl, named for Karl Marx, was born to a left-wing Jewish family in New York. As a young man he worked as a machinist and a jazz musician and was active in the trade union movement.

After World War II Karl and his new wife, June, moved to Tucson. They soon joined a young group of Communists who were active in civil rights and labor struggles. June spent weeks soliciting signatures on a petition to raise weekly Unemployment Insurance payments from $13 to $26.

Karl worked as a carpenter and at any odd job he could find. Tucson was a very small city back then and good jobs were scarce.

In 1950, Karl and June moved back to New York where he worked in machine shops as a toolmaker. Both Karl and June were active in their unions, in the American Labor Party, and in the campaign to free Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

One of Karl’s favorite stories was about a Labor Party meeting he chaired with a guest speaker, a very young pastor working on voting rights for African Americans in the South. The young pastor was an as yet unknown Martin Luther King Jr. The audience, made up mostly of low-paid garment workers, was so inspired by King’s oratory that they emptied their pockets to the tune of over $1,000, a huge sum in those days.

Over the years Karl had become less active politically, but that all changed after retirement and a return to Tucson when he started picking up the PWW in a local library lobby. When Salt of the Earth Labor College was founded in 1993, Karl became an eager participant.

June’s failing health kept Karl from becoming even more active, but he found ways to contribute from home. He bought a computer so he could design leaflets for events, and became Tucson’s best sign maker, making hundreds of sturdy colorful signs for demonstrations and picket lines. One of my favorites has a picture of George W. Bush behind bars with the caption, “A third term for Bush.”

We miss the old timer who would slip us a $100 bill, asking only that it would be put to good use, or show up at a labor picnic with a case of cold beer, apologizing for not being able to stay, but mostly we miss his optimistic view of a better future that can be won.

It’s a view that can best be summed up in Karl’s own words about his youth in Tucson: “We stood up for justice and equality. We were among friends who felt like we did and we were secure in the knowledge that eventually the working people of the world would understand their might and demand their rights. It’s the long view. Progress against the excesses of the establishment has always come through struggle.

He continued: “I still feel that way.”

PWW fund drive begins Labor Day

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 08:37:00 +0000

NEW YORK — Readers and supporters of the People’s Weekly World are wasting no time.

The 2007 Fund Drive kicks off on Labor Day, yet readers have already raised $44,000 — more than 20 percent of the drive’s $200,000 goal. The drive ends on Nov. 22, Thanksgiving.

All across the country Friends of the PWW are making plans to raise the money in a variety of ways: forums, phone-a-thons and more.

Why are PWW friends and readers so eager to raise money for their favorite paper?

“Because the PWW supports them,” said Tony Pecinovsky of the Missouri and Kansas Friends of the PWW.

“I was at the Veterans for Peace convention,” Pecinovsky continued. “The only national newspaper that was there to cover it was the PWW.”

Pecinovsky continued, “We cover things that even the other alternative press doesn’t cover,” particularly labor struggles and the electoral battle to defeat the ultra-right. As for the mainstream press, he said, “They’re not there because they’re controlled by big money. They aren’t concerned with reporting news that concerns working-class people. They get their money from big advertisers instead.”

“One of the key reasons why groups like the Council of Black Trade Unionists’ St. Louis chapter support us is because of the special emphasis we place on the fight against racism,” he said.

People are more than happy to give to the paper, he said, and he is in a position to know. His Friends of the PWW group has set a goal of $5,000 and has already raised nearly $2,100 of it. This is up from a goal of $1,000 a few years ago.

Other areas are reporting increased fund-raising activity as well. New Jersey, Connecticut and Southern Minnesota have each already completed about half — or more — of their goal.

The Washington, D.C., PWW friends group is planning a major event to honor Luci Murphy, well-known folk singer and local activist in the D.C. area. “Our readers have come to count on the news and insight that we deliver each week. We give a unique voice and perspective to current events,” said Editor Teresa Albano. “Readers can help drive this newspaper forward and help widen its reach and deepen its coverage by contributing to the PWW annual fund drive. We receive no corporate money. We are reader-supported.”

Readers can give via credit card, check or money order. Send all donations to: PWW, 235 W. 23rd St., New York, NY 10011. To give over the phone call: (646) 437-5363. Or you can donate via our web site: www.pww.org.

dmargolis @pww.org

Wake of the Wind a fantastic read

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 08:31:00 +0000

BOOK REVIEW

Go to the bookstore or library, get a copy of “The Wake of the Wind” by J. California Cooper, read it immediately and then pass it on. Tell the members of your community organization, church, school or union to read it too.

Do it now. Don’t wait another moment.

“The Wake of the Wind” is a novel about slavery and its immediate aftermath, but fear not. You will absolutely soar to greater heights as a result of coming to know these characters. You will fall in love and viscerally experience all that being in love means. And, you will remember. You will remember all that should never be forgotten, and you will be stronger as a result.

You will remember who we are as a people and how we came to be. You will remember that slaves were skilled toilers who were torn from Africa knowing how to raise cattle, grow crops and do all sorts of things that placed them in demand in the South’s economy with its perverted system. You will remember the pain, but you will also remember the secret and private moments of joy that were hidden from general sight.

Remembering is always important for Black people, but it seems especially so today. We have to remember what we came through to understand that we have what it takes not to succumb today. We have to remember who we were to know who we are fully capable of being.

We have to remember so that we can become solidly grounded in the effort to continue to bring into being the individual and collective strength we need to maintain the struggle for complete access to the full rights of citizens for ourselves and to understand how our struggle links us to the struggles of others.

“The Wake of the Wind,” originally published in 1999, is a magnificent tribute to the gems of our past. We emerge from having read it renewed, restored, refreshed and revived. You will walk with an enhanced pride erected on the foundation of the historical experience of the African American in resisting degradation. You will develop a deeper compassion for all who have been oppressed and exploited.

Let us do ourselves a favor. Let us arouse a collective resurrection of that which must be remembered about why education and the fight for real democracy are so important to us. As we struggle to find our way, there are tools we can employ to help us. “The Wake of the Wind” is an outstanding tool: it is truly uplifting, inspiring and enriching. It is a superb read for teenagers through senior citizens.

The Wake of the Wind By J. California Cooper Anchor Books Softcover, 384 pp., $14.95

Greek shipyard workers host art exhibit

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 08:25:00 +0000

ATHENS, Greece — In the summer of 2005, a group of 18 Greek artists, challenging the pervasive commercialization of art and the degradation of cultural values in today’s society, set out to ground their artwork in the daily reality and struggles of the working class.

The artists approached the metalworkers union at the Perama shipyard near the port of Pireas, adjoining Athens, and initiated a project whereby they began visiting the yard on a regular basis to witness the harsh conditions under which the workers there labor.

They had chosen the shipyard because the workers there, who build and repair large seafaring vessels, are subject to some of the sharpest forms of exploitation in the country. They also selected the yard because the workers are represented by one of the most militant labor organizations in Greece, the 7,000-member-strong metalworkers union.

In 2005, the union held a monthlong strike. With the support and mass mobilization of all the trades, it won a strong collective bargaining agreement that set a new standard for Greek unions.

Despite that victory, the workers still face great hardships. The artists learned just how difficult it still is for the shipyard workers to make a living and raise a family.

The shipowners pressure the workers to get the boats “off the docks” as soon as possible, so as not to lose their daily freight revenue for each ship, estimated at $100,000 a day.

Accidents are frequent, as even the most minimal safety requirements are not enforced. Two workers were killed in an explosion in July, bringing the total death toll at Perama since 2000 up to 15.

While the shipyard at Perama was once the hub of the shipbuilding/repair industry in Athens, cranes now stand rusty from disuse. Greek shipowners have been gradually contracting out shipbuilding to China and South Korea, and ship repairs now typically get done in Eastern Europe.

While there are orders for 300 new ships to be built, very few will be built by Greek workers. Unemployment has skyrocketed, at almost 60 percent, putting even more pressure on shipyard workers to accept the terms and conditions demanded by the shipowners.

After spending weeks on site, artists returned to their studios and started work. They produced paintings, sculpture, photos, engravings, videos and artistic installations, all inspired by what they witnessed — unemployment, accidents, death and employer greed, but above all, militant struggle and hope.

Their work culminated in the first exhibit organized jointly by the union and the artists in 2005. In 2006, 80 artists participated in the second exhibit dubbed “People, Color and Iron.” Spring 2007 marked the third exhibit, which has now become an institution down at the shipyard.

The exhibitions are held in the abandoned Nafsi shipbuilding/repair warehouse, which just three years ago employed over 500 people. Inside the warehouse, the workers’ absence is now strongly evident. The tools, gloves and even half-burnt cigarette butts which workers left behind have been incorporated into the exhibit, as the artists have taken care not to alter the worksite.

The remarkable thing about the exhibit is that the pieces of art are completely melded into the shipbuilding environment. Metalworking machines display paintings, welding machines become human faces, cranes support sculptures.

The unions and the artists work hand in hand to organize the exhibit. Union members stay up all night to guard the exhibit after ending an exhausting day on the job. Lively discussions and concerts take place every night during the weeks the works are on display. This year, speakers addressed the issues of drug abuse, unemployment, education, people’s culture and the struggle for a 35-hour workweek.

The artists and the union working together demonstrated how art belongs to all the people and what an important role it can play in daily life.

Eva Mela, a painter, engraver and one of the original 18 founding artists, told the World, “Art is a tool that can help change society. Our goal is for these exhibits to become an inspiration for the creation of art by the workers themselves.”

This year, three shipyard workers participated in the exhibit by contributing a painting, photographs and sculpture. Next year, an art studio will be established at the shipyard where artists and workers can work together to produce art by and for the people.

laurajopetricola @yahoo.com

THIS WEEK IN LABOR: Sept. 1

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 06:19:00 +0000

Workers ‘very happy’ on their jobs!

We were hoping for some good news and that’s just what we got this week from a research outfit that works for some of the nation’s biggest nonunion companies.

Just in time for Labor Day, a new survey on American workers finds that most are “very happy” on their jobs, so if you’re not whistling while you work, you better start worrying about what’s wrong with you.

The SnagAJob.com Labor Happiness Survey, commissioned by the nation’s largest online source of hourly jobs and conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs, a global market research firm, found that 61 percent of American workers are very happy in their current positions.

“At a time when the economy is giving us mixed signals, this worker happiness survey is an unambiguously positive indicator,” the survey report reads.

Latinos out West can barely contain their joy, if you believe the survey. The happiest workers, by demographic sector, are Latinos (67 percent vs. 61 percent for whites and 51 percent for others) and workers in the West (67 percent vs. 64 percent in the Midwest, 59 percent in the South and 52 percent in the Northeast).

A number of large corporate employers, concerned about the importance of getting out the word on worker happiness before Labor Day, are on the Ipsos client list. They include Wendy’s, Home Depot, Target, Boston Market, Jiffy Lube, Chick-fil-A, Michaels, T-Mobile and Bed Bath & Beyond.

The payback can be sweet

The labor movement was a key part of the electoral success of numerous Democratic governors over the past two years, including Eliot Spitzer in New York, Ted Kulongoski in Oregon, Ted Strickland in Ohio, Kathleen Sebelius in Kansas and Ed Rendell in Pennsylvania.

Since June each of these governors has signed executive orders giving a collective total of 80,000 home health care, foster care and child care workers the right to organize unions and bargain for a better life.

Grocery workers win back wages

A dozen workers at Concord Produce in northern California learned last week that they have won a $126,000 settlement in the claim they filed with the state Division of Labor Standards Enforcement because the company failed to pay them according to labor regulations, the United Food and Commercial Workers said.

Last December the workers asked UFCW Local 5 for help in improving their working conditions. They said they were not being paid the minimum wage or overtime and were not getting their meal and rest breaks. In February they won a government-supervised union election.

The owners reportedly spent more than $100,000 in legal fees as they tried to defeat the workers’ claims. Gerardo Dominguez, the local union’s organizing director, called the settlement “a great victory for mercado immigrant workers who not only received lost wages but also regained their dignity at the workplace.”

The union is working hard to organize small and medium sized Latino grocery stores known as mercados, where workers are often not paid minimum wages (or in some cases, not paid at all) and other problems include sexual harassment and abuse of women workers.

Indianapolis school workers win their union

Despite a strong campaign by the company intended to persuade people to vote “no representation,” the school bus drivers, monitors and mechanics who work for FirstStudent in Indianapolis voted overwhelmingly for AFSCME Council 62 representation in an election conducted by the NLRB on Aug. 21. The vote was 274-23 in favor of the union.

The workers, who are responsible for transporting about half the students in Indianapolis public schools, will now begin bargaining for a contract.

Union leader arrested for talking

It’s no wonder that the battle for the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make harassment of union organizers illegal, continues to go strong.

On Aug. 14, Carmen Mayorga, president of American Federation of Teachers Local 6345 in the Aldine Independent School District in Houston, Texas, was arrested and led away in handcuffs after she tried to hand out union literature to teachers at the school. Her car was impounded and she was held 14 hours in jail before being released. Her court date is pending.

“I’ll go to jail any time to be able to talk to teachers,” Mayorga said as soon as she was released.

This Week in Labor is compiled by John Wojcik (jwojcik @pww.org).

WORLD NOTES: Sept. 1

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 06:08:00 +0000

Canada: Quebec opposes war in Afghanistan

In the next year and a half, Canada must decide on its continued deployment of 2,500 troops in Afghanistan.

On Aug. 23, two Quebec soldiers became Canada’s 68th and 69th war deaths there, highlighting the province as a focal point of opposition to Canadian involvement. Polling data this year suggests that 70 percent of Quebecois and 55 percent of all Canadians favor withdrawal.

On June 22 in Quebec City, protesters with the War on War Coalition greeted troops from nearby Valcartier participating in a farewell march prior to their deployment to Afghanistan. Quebec Premier Jean Charest told the protesters, “You are the acting arm of Quebec pacifism. You are liberators.”

Foreign policy, rarely an issue in Canadian electoral politics, reportedly will determine the outcome of a Sept. 17 parliamentary by-election in Montreal’s Outremont district, reports The Globe and Mail.

Liberal Party candidate Jocelyn Coulon, an early supporter of Canada’s intervention in Afghanistan, now wants troops out in 2009. He faces New Democratic Party challenger Tom Mulcair, who calls for Canada’s immediate withdrawal.

Mauritania: Slavery now a punishable crime

Mauritania, led since March 2007 by its first ever democratically elected government, passed a law Aug. 22 establishing jail terms for those who engage in the practice of slavery.

West Africa’s only Islamic republic banned slavery in 1981, but a report published in allAfrica.com estimates that some 500,000 people — 20 percent of the population — are still living under slave-like conditions or, in the case of ex-slave families, experiencing discrimination.

Human rights spokespersons say that provisions are still lacking for monitoring the problem, investigating complaints, awarding compensation, launching civil suits and providing economic support and education for former slaves.

Subjugation of the victims, most of whom belong to the Haratine caste, is typified by prohibitions against their right to own land, to have ready access to water or to participate in politics. They are also locked in dependency relationships for food and permission to marry.

The anniversary of the 1791 Santo Domingo slave rebellion that led to Haitian independence, Aug. 23, marks the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition established by UNESCO in 2001.

Israel: Refugees from Sudan turned back

The Israeli government deported 50 African refugees to Egypt on Aug. 19.

Over two years, some 2,500 migrants, mostly from the Darfur region of Sudan, have entered Israel, using Egypt as a way station.

Opposition Knesset member Dov Khanin condemned the Israeli attorney general’s action as a violation of international law, and pointed out that “Israel has no guarantee that Egypt will not deport these asylum seekers back to Sudan.”

In July, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Egyptian officials arranged for the return of “infiltrators” to Egypt, where discrimination, harassment and violence are said to prevail. Before crossing into Israel, the refugees endured dangerous physical obstacles and Egyptian police gunfire. Israeli border officials rejected criticism that they had denied the asylum seekers’ their legal right to a hearing, claiming they were preventing entry rather than expelling refugees.

The report by IRIN, the UN news agency, said that at the time of their return to Egypt, the migrants had been in Israel for 24 hours.

Bolivia: Constituent Assembly is halted, big struggle looms

On Aug. 23, in Bolivia’s historic capital of Sucre, Constituent Assembly President Silvia Lazarte suspended assembly deliberations indefinitely following a year of struggle over procedural questions and control of natural resources. She was responding to havoc in city streets caused by thugs linked to European-descended, well-heeled opponents of President Evo Morales’ socialist government.

The week before, an assembly majority had voted against considering an opposition proposal to move all government functions to Sucre, a campaign the government saw as an attempt to block progress toward a new constitution. Right-wing gangs reacted by threatening to enter the assembly, prompting Lazarte to act. On Aug. 24, leaders of Morales’ Movement towards Socialism party called for 100,000 indigenous people to move into Sucre on Sept. 10, enough, declared Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera, that “not even a single fly would dare to insult delegates and indigenous representatives.”

President Morales condemned U.S. financial support for the opposition, according to Bolpress.com.

India: Communists put brakes on U.S. nuclear deal

Communist allies of India’s ruling coalition have called for a projected U.S.-India nuclear cooperation treaty to be put on hold. Their concerns, voiced Aug. 19, centered on worries about undue U.S. influence over India’s foreign and nuclear policies, according to a BBC report.

The U.S. Congress approved the treaty in December 2006 and will need to do so again, together with the International Atomic Energy Agency, before nuclear material is sent to India.

Washington has signaled its refusal to renegotiate the pact, which, if ratified, would reverse its 30-year policy of refusing to give nuclear materials to India because of its failure to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Some critics suggest the change in attitude stems from a U.S. desire to offset China’s influence in the region.

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

As Greek government dithers, wildfires rage

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 06:04:00 +0000

ATHENS, Greece — Extensive forest fires continued to rage for the fifth day throughout Greece, Aug. 28, spreading death and destruction to thousands of families and their homes. At least 64 people were reported dead, with many more injured. Thousands have been made homeless.

Hundreds of villages have been completely destroyed, while hundreds of villagers remained trapped as fire lines cut off access to safety. At press time, scores of villages were being evacuated and more than 50 were under immediate threat of destruction.

An explosive mixture of tinder-dry forests and very high winds have caused new blazes to break out faster than others can be brought under control, leaving behind a landscape of blackened tree trunks, gutted houses, destroyed orchards and dead livestock.

Many Greek residents have been forced to put the fires out on their own — with garden hoses, blankets and tree branches — as the conservative New Democracy government failed to take timely and comprehensive measures to combat the fire. On the fifth day, some foreign firefighters and aircraft joined the battling of the wildfires.

The Greek government has also failed to adequately address the growing shortages of food, water and shelter.

“We have been destroyed, we have nothing left,” Katerina Andonopoulou, a 76-year-old woman, told a reporter for The Associated Press as she was trudging from the edge of Ancient Olympia to her destroyed house in the nearby village of Platano. She was laden with a massive bundle of grass for the five surviving goats from her flock of 20. “Who will help us now?”

Many believe the fires have been set by arsonists in a coordinated manner during gale force winds, which has made fire control virtually impossible. As many as 25 new fires continue to break out nightly.

In the past, unscrupulous land developers have been blamed for setting fires to try to circumvent laws that do not allow construction on forest land. Many people here accuse such ruthless land developers for setting the Greek countryside ablaze, but few arrests have been made.

State spending for forest management has been sharply cut over the past 15 years under both the social-democratic PASOK and conservative New Democracy governments, which have also collaborated to pass laws that open up vast tracts of forest land for private development.

laurajopetricola @yahoo.com

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

World figures attend Cuban 5 hearing

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 05:49:00 +0000

An international gathering of 75 jurists, attorneys and supporters was on hand in Atlanta Aug. 20 for the latest appeals hearing on behalf of Gerardo Hernández, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González.

On Sept. 12, the Cuban Five will begin their ninth year in prison. Convicted on June 8, 2001 — after 17 months in solitary confinement — for “conspiring to commit espionage,” they are collectively serving four life sentences plus 75 years in widely separated federal jails. The Miami jury also convicted Gerardo Hernández for conspiring to murder pilots downed in an illegal Cuban American flight over Cuba.

Interviewed on Democracy Now, defense attorney Leonard Weinglass said this was the first time in U.S. history where the charge of conspiracy to commit espionage has been made against a defendant. Lawyers say that conspiracy charges open the door to hearsay and circumstantial evidence.

Prior to their arrest, the five men were in Florida to gather information on anti-Cuban, paramilitary terrorists in an effort to halt attacks that, according to the Cubans, have caused 3,478 deaths on the island over four decades.

Commenting on the appeal, Weinglass said, “The government admitted they could not prove espionage. ... There wasn’t a single page of classified document involved in this case. That never happened before in an espionage case.” He cited testimony from high U.S. officials that the accused never gained information detrimental to U.S. interests.

“This case is the first case in our collective memory that will be argued a third time on appeal,” Weinglass said. In August 2006, the full 11th Circuit Court denied an appeal based on the prisoners’ claim that a prejudicial climate in Miami had invalidated their trial. In doing so, the court reversed an earlier ruling by an appeals panel calling for a new trial.

On Aug. 20, defense lawyers were dealing with still unanswered concerns: neglect of due process, insufficient evidence for conspiracy and inappropriate sentencing.

The lawyers warned that the court’s decision may not be known for months. They were encouraged by Judge Phyllis Kravitch’s reaction to a defense report that the original trial judge sustained 28 of the 34 defense objections introduced during the prosecution’s final summary. “I find that kind of troubling,” she remarked.

Judge Stanley Birch suggested that in regard to the death of the Miami pilots and the murder-conspiracy conviction of Gerardo Hernández, “A shoot-down over sovereign airspace is not murder.” In their first appeal, in 2005, both Birch and Kravitch ruled in favor of the Cuban Five.

Giving up on close reasoning, U.S. Attorney Carolyn Miller asked the court to “plunge into the record” where documents will be found “that show the defendants’ hatred of the United States.”

She accused the defense of concocting “a good tale ... of red-baiting and McCarthyism” on the part of the government. Referring to free legal services for indigent defendants, she suggested that the five were “bent on the destruction of the United States, paid for by the American taxpayer.”

Judge Birch ordered prosecutors to produce a transcript of a meeting between the trial judge and government lawyers from which, crucially, defense lawyers had been excluded. The appeals panel required government lawyers also to submit supposedly classified documents viewed by that judge and presumably kept from the defense.

In 2005 the UN Human Rights Commission declared that the government’s reliance upon secret evidence — possibly at issue now — made the prisoners’ incarceration “arbitrary.” Birch indicated that after reviewing the material, the appeals panel could require another hearing.

Attending the Aug. 20 hearing, Chilean Judge Juan Guzman — law school dean and former prosecutor of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet — had advice for U.S. judges. “If they really seek justice,” he said, “they should make a ruling recognizing the innocence of [the Cuban Five].” He condemned political pressure on judges and jury at the hands of the Bush administration.

International support is a driving force in the political struggle for the five. Over 6,000 activists and intellectuals worldwide, including nine Nobel laureates, signed a letter in 2005 to the U.S. attorney general demanding their freedom. Earlier, Amnesty International reminded the U.S. government that restrictions on family visits to the prisoners — which remain in force to this day — were inhumane and contrary to international law.

“The system,” according to Weinglass, “is having trouble digesting this particular injustice.”

atwhit@megalink.net

Community rallies around N.Y. civil rights lawyer

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 05:46:00 +0000

NEW YORK — Two months after civil rights lawyer Michael Tarif Warren and Evelyn Warren, his wife, were beaten and then arrested for speaking up during a police brutality incident in Brooklyn, a diverse crowd of community members continues to speak out in support of the Warrens and the equality agenda they represent.

On June 21, while driving through Crown Heights, the Warrens noticed police officers beating a handcuffed African American man. When Michael Warren stopped to ask what was going on and demanded to know why officers were beating the man, the officers told him to wait by his car. The officers, Warren says, then punched him and his wife, and placed them under arrest.

The Warrens appeared in court on the morning of Aug. 16 for their arraignment. An hour before they were due to arrive in court, every seat of every row in the courtroom was full, with additional supporters crowding outside in the lobby. When the Warrens finally entered the courtroom, the crowd stood to its feet in unison and loudly applauded the pair.

For five brief minutes, the Warrens and their defense team spoke with the presiding judge while the crowd looked on in barely contained silence. Then, just as suddenly as the proceedings had begun, the judge pronounced a court date of Oct. 23 and the event was over. The Warrens left the courtroom to another standing ovation and a number of raised fists scattered throughout the crowd.

Supporters came from a diverse number of backgrounds. Nashid Sabir, a member of the grassroots-oriented People’s Organization for Progress, came from New Jersey, along with other members of his group.

The Venceremos Brigade, an organization working to overturn the U.S. economic blockade of Cuba, was also present. Bonnie Massey of the Brigade explained that the organization was there not only because “we are for justice and against racism,” but also to express solidarity with Warren, who defends the group’s activism by legally representing its members.

The majority of attendees represented the African American community in Brooklyn and other racially oppressed communities who have historically been the target of police brutality in New York.

Many activists present at the court proceedings expressed their frustration with the fact that Michael and Evelyn Warren are being charged with obstructing governmental administration, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, while police Sgt. James Talvy — the officer whose beating of a Crown Heights youth spurred the Warrens to intervene — remains unquestioned.

Supporters of the Warrens allege that the immunity being given to Talvy is indicative of the degree to which racial profiling and discrimination is entrenched in the police force.

They vowed to return to court for the trial in October, urging that all charges against the Warrens be dropped and that police responsible for racist brutality be brought to justice.

maryslosson @gmail.com

Clean up that truck pollution, coalition urges

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 05:44:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. — Environmental, labor, faith and community groups are stepping up efforts to make sure the air quality improvement plan now being drafted by the Port of Oakland does enough to clean up pollution from trucks operating there. Truck diesel pollution is five times higher in West Oakland, near the port, than in other parts of the county, and one in five youngsters has asthma.

On the eve of an Aug. 21 community meeting, the labor-community Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports wrote to Port Executive Director Omar Benjamin, pointing out that current research underestimates both the total air pollution from maritime activities and the trucks’ contributions to pollution as they traverse surrounding residential areas.

During the meeting, coalition spokesperson Doug Bloch urged port officials to emulate the Clean Air Action Plan now being discussed at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. There, truck emissions are considered from loading at the port to offloading at their destination.

“We live with the trucks in the community,” Bloch said. “Without having a good snapshot of trucking’s impact in West Oakland, we can’t get a real picture of the impact on the community.”

Earlier in the day, ACORN members from West Oakland told a Port Commission meeting how the pollution devastates their families’ lives.

Cherice Carter, who moved to West Oakland four years ago, said her husband, who had never had asthma before, suddenly suffered a life-threatening attack six months ago. Yvonne Smith, a 60-year resident of the area, told of two great-nephews who died from asthma.

“The port can play a leadership role with a real local hire and training program,” Shirley Burnell told the commissioners. Noting that the port could create “thousands of jobs,” she added, “It’s only fair that those who suffer the greatest problems from the pollution should also gain economic benefits from the port.”

After the meeting, Burnell said that in West Oakland, “there are no decent jobs. People want to work, and will work hard, but they are just standing around.”

ACORN members also support efforts of port truck drivers who last month brought the Port Commission petitions signed by some 1,200 drivers — a large majority of those working at the port — who want to become employees of the trucking firms instead of “independent contractors” as at present. Trucking firms would be responsible maintenance of the drivers’ aging vehicles, and the drivers would gain the right to union representation.

mbechtel @pww.org

Wiretapping fight: its not over

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 08:25:00 +0000

Civil libertarians are demanding that Congress use its September session to undo damage it did to Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights.

On Aug. 3-4, the ill-named Protect America Act zoomed through Congress by votes of 60 to 28, in the Senate, and 227 to 183, in the House of Representatives. This bill puts Congress’ stamp on approval on one of the most outrageous abuses of power by the Bush administration, namely its bypassing of the required oversight of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court.

The Bush administration has been the most secretive and controlling of any executive branch since Nixon. The Bush administration explained the illegal wiretapping in terms of the speed needed to get authority to spy on possible terrorists and other people threatening national security, but the FISA court members responded that they can turn around legitimate warrant requests within hours.

Earlier, it was revealed that the National Security Agency, in cahoots with private telecommunications companies including AT&T, Verizon and Bellsouth, had been spying on massive numbers of communications between people in the U.S., including U.S. citizens, and persons overseas, without a warrant and without any judicial oversight.

The director of the ACLU Legislative Office, Caroline Frederickson, said the law constitutes a “get out of jail free card” for major telecommunications companies that had knowingly and illegally connived with the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontiers Foundation and the Center for Constitutional Rights have gone to court to challenge the constitutionality of the program and the legality of the participation of private telecommunications companies.

The Democratic-led Congress put out subpoenas to force the government to reveal the details of the spying. But then Republicans in Congress went to work to create legislation that would make the illegal practice legal.

The result was the Protect America Act, which allows the government to spy on telephone and e-mail communications without a warrant if one party in the communication is outside of the United States, and if there is some threat to U.S. national security, as defined by whoever is in power in Washington.

The bill has a 180-day sunsetting clause, but abusive investigations could continue for up to one year more if authorized by the Attorney General or the Director of National Intelligence.

In a display of arrogant contempt, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell said in a newspaper interview that people who are trying to find the details of the NSA program are causing Americans to die in terrorist attacks. He also claimed that fewer than 100 people in the U.S. had been targeted for this surveillance, which many are taking with a grain of salt. McConnell also annoyed Congresspersons by revealing secret decisions of the FISA court, including its determination that the original NSA spying program was illegal!

Civil libertarians have mounted a strong campaign to amend or repeal the bill in September. The word is that many Democrats, after feeling the fire from their constituents, are now willing to do just that. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has threatened White House officials with a contempt citation if they (including the office of Vice President Cheney) continue to sandbag the subpoenas for documents on the spying program. A motion to censure the administration, submitted by Senator Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) in the Senate and Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) in the House, encompasses the warrantless wiretapping as well as many other abuses.

In addition to the ACLU (www.aclu.org), the National Lawyers Guild (www.nlg.org) and the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (www.bordc.org) and others are participating in this effort and have developed materials for the average person to use in lobbying their congresspersons.

A Call to Action in Defense of Immigrant Workers Rights

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 07:11:00 +0000

A Call to Action in Defense of Immigrant Workers’ Rights Issued by the Communist Party USA on August 27, 2007

The August 10 declaration by the Bush administration of a more repressive immigration policy, if put into effect, will create fascist-like conditions for 12 million undocumented workers and their families. The impact of the new policy which criminalizes the undocumented will lower living standards for working people and undermine the democracy giving a green light to greater racism, national oppression and intolerance of all kinds.

The brunt of this attack is aimed at the poorest, most powerless and socially isolated people in the nation, undocumented workers and their children. Of these, the vast majority are Latino, Asian/Pacific, Afro Caribbean, Middle Eastern and African, but they include significant numbers from all the people of the globe. The ripple effects of the new wave of repressive measures will impact immensely on large metropolitan areas and spread to every corner of the land.

Economic impacts

The most dangerous policy is the conversion of social security system functions and employers into tools of law enforcement. Employers will be required to fire workers whose social security numbers do not match their names in the system. This will result in the firings of millions of immigrant workers as well as many citizens. Many employers will use these rules to undermine union activism. Job discrimination will grow. Workers will be pushed into jobs with lower wages and working conditions, with a ripple effect undermining working conditions generally. Working families and their neighborhoods will suffer the most. Individual businesses will suffer but giant financial firms and investors will profit from lower wage rates. The integrity of the Social Security system which draws from, and benefits, the largest number of our people will be compromised by punitive policies

Machinery of repression

The new Bush policy comes on top of twice as many raids and deportations since the mega-marches. I t includes increased militarization of the border, with Boeing and Halliburton corporations receiving huge contracts for surveillance and detention systems. Stepped up deportations and other sanctions stripped of basic due process, court review, and civil rights will have a terrorizing effect on the millions in danger of deportation, their families, communities and workplaces. Local police agencies are being drawn into immigration enforcement to increase the repression and abuse. The crackdown also gives the green light to greater anti immigrant state and local initiatives. Stricter policies of naturalization and tougher regulations for permanent residents extend the crackdown further into the immigrant community and the broader populace including the labor movement.

Political purposes

The Bush administration’s timing of the crackdown came when the Democratic-led Congress had just started a recess and while the 2008 Presidential candidates began focusing on the January primaries. It signaled that right wing Republicans had united in making immigration their key wedge issue in the 2008 election cycle. “Law and order” and “national security” is the cover for scapegoating the powerless, blaming and criminalizing the victims.

The special arrest tactics and expedited deportation of immigrant rights advocate Elvira Arellano is in line with the heavy handed playing up to the worst anti immigrant elements as a means of consolidating the Republican base. The rabid radical right wing anti immigrant movement is now a mainstream of the Republican political program. What the Minutemen say one day is repeated by Republican Congressmen the next. The unjust, unwinnable war in Iraq, falling living standards, economic instability, increasing inequality, crises at the state and city level and other national ills make for a dismal prospect for Republican candidates. Hysteria against immigrants is the main tool they are using to deepen the wedges that have won for them in the past.

Complicit media defamation

This anti-immigrant offensive is bolstered by an incredibly blatant and vicious campaign in the mass media which influences all sectors of our society. It is spearheaded by TV and radio programs such as the Lou Dobbs hour on CNN and innumerable right wing talk shows and publications, blogs and websites. Academic apologists, corporate backed think tanks, right wing pundits, and Republican Presidential debaters fill the airwaves, newsprint and virtual space with misinformation, disinformation and hostility directed at the immigrants and their supporters. The mass media gives credence to right wing spokespeople including some Latino and African American with little base except their right wing sponsors. The Spanish-language media and local media where there are established immigrant communities are much more balanced. The mega corporate media have given the right wing the initiative on this issue, which with the full force of executive power creates a crisis not only for the persecuted immigrants, but our nation as a whole.

United we stand divided we fall

Our nation is on the threshold of a dramatic shift in a progressive direction. The mega corporate interests behind the Bush/Rove right wing realignment will not surrender the profitable prerogatives they have gained with the Bush foreign and domestic agendas. Only a determined and united alignment of democratic forces, starting with the labor movement, African American, Latino and other oppressed groups, women, youth, peace, civil liberties and immigrant rights organizations can move our country forward by decisively defeating the right wing in the 2008 elections.

The right wing created anti immigrant crisis is a dangerous threat to the unity of these forces. The destabilization of the immigrant community with punitive policies cannot be allowed to discourage the immigrant rights movement and its allies. Greater solidarity, consciousness raising, and inclusion of immigrant rights in the priorities and actions of the democratic forces on humane and common political grounds are necessary to preserve democracy.

Elvira and Saul Arellano have selflessly challenged our nation to respond concretely to the crisis being enforced on the undocumented immigrants and their families. In response to the crackdown of the Bush Administration she came totally out of the shadows to call for continued struggle in congress to halt and reverse the policy of criminalization. She is right. The struggle for justice must be unrelenting. The right wing initiative must be stood up to in Congress.

Effort is needed to fight the no-match letters and other repressive measures on an emergency basis as well as fighting for interim legalization measures to protect immigrants. Such an emergency program can open up greater unity to defend immigrants in this crisis and help unify and deepen the growing efforts to decisively defeat the ultra-right in the coming elections. Such a victory will open the way for just comprehensive immigration reform including legalization with a path to citizenship for all immigrant workers, family reunification, due process, and greater support for the integration of immigrants and their families into all aspects of society. It will also lead to the creation of a political climate for changes in foreign and trade policies that deepen global economic inequalities and fuel mass migration of hundreds of millions of workers to better provide for their families worldwide.

An injury to one is an injury to all!

For more information on the Communist Party, visit .

WHAT'S ON

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 10:11:00 +0000

BERKELEY May 3, Sat., café 7 p.m., cabaret 8 p.m. The Bolshevik Café: Music, stand-up comedy, & spoken word plus display: 50 years of political posters, t-shirts & other left memorabilia. Put the social in socialism, the comic in communism & pizza in the proletariat! Sliding scale admission $5 - $15, food sold separately. At Finn Hall, 1819 10th St. Sponsored by Billie Holiday Collective. Info: (415) 863-6637 or staff@ncalofc.org.

CHICAGO NOTE CHANGE OF DATE April 23, Wed., 7 p.m. The 2008 elections & creating a green economy that works for all. With Lillie Molina (Little Village Environmental Justice Org.), Chicago Sierra Club, & PWW labor editor John Wojcik. Plus short video on global warming & exhibits on home recycling, composting & urban ag. At 3339 S Halsted St. Free. Sponsors: PWW/NM, Dynamic magazine & Workers Education Society. Info: 773-446-9932.

DETROIT Through April 12 Celebrating Paul Robeson: athlete, artist & activist for justice & world peace

Exhibition from collection of James L. Wheeler: including posters, playbills, books, videotapes & other materials with special section on Robeson in Detroit. At Swords into Plowshares Peace Center & Gallery, 33 E. Adams. Info (313) 963-7575.

Paul Robeson Tribute Concert, April 12 (Sat.) 8 p.m. With entertainers William Broyles & sons. Concert at Central United Methodist Church. Special afterglow with entertainers at the Peace Center. Tickets $25 for concert, $40 for concert & afterglow. Reservations & info: (313) 963-7575.

MICHIGAN May 3, Sat., 1 - 4 p.m. Annual May Day picnic. Food, fun, & activities. At 19178 Collinson, Eastpointe (north of Vernier, east of Kelly Rd). Donation: $8. Sponsored by Michigan Friends of the PWW. Info: (313) 262-7294.

ST LOUIS May 3, Sat. 9:30 a.m. 16th Annual Hershel Walker Peace & Justice Awards Breakfast. Awardees include Fatemeh Keshavarz, author of Jasmine & Stars: Reading More Than Lolita on Tehran; Robin Wright Jones, State Rep. 63rd Dist.; Roosevelt Braudnax, UNITE-HERE. Keynote speaker, Judith LeBlanc, national organizing coordinator of United for Peace & Justice, on the continuing war on Iraq & the importance of the 2008 elections. At Postal Workers Union Hall, 1717 S. Broadway. Tickets $15 in advance, $20 at the door. Tables are $100. Hosted by MO/KS Friends of the People’s Weekly World. Info, tickets, & program book ad rates contact Tony Pecinovsky at (314) 776-7732 or tonypec@cpusa.org.

TUCSON Spring Semester – 2008 Salt of the Earth Labor College 1902 E. Irene Vista For more information e-mail

April 12, Sat., 2 p.m. ARIZONA’S TOURISM WORKERS: EXPLOITATION & EXASPERATION, Presentation & Discussion with Catherine Rourke, labor journalist & Editor of The Sedona Observer. Arizona’s tourism industry generates billions of dollars in profits for hotels, restaurants, resorts & other corporate interests while the workforce includes some of the most underpaid workers who often earn less than minimum wage. What can be done to improve working & living conditions for these workers? Find out the hard facts from someone who once worked in the industry & now writes about it. ______________________________ April 26, Sat., 2 p.m. MAY DAY - THE REAL LABOR DAY, Presentation & Discussion with Joe Bernick, Dir.Salt of the Earth Labor College. Did you know that this holiday was born out of the struggle of American workers for the eight-hour day? Learn how the holiday was born, why we lost this holiday, & some ideas on how we can return this holiday to its country of birth.

What's On listings in the print edition appear online at no additional charge; 10 lines for $20

e-mail:

Deadline for listing in the April 26 (May Day) issue is Thurs., April 17

Texas Set to Execute Innocent Man on August 30

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 09:24:00 +0000

SAN ANTONIO, Tex.—Kenneth Foster, Jr., whose adopted name is Haramia KiNassor, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on August 30 for a crime he did not commit.

Foster grew up here in San Antonio, where he lived with his grandparents. On August 14, 1996, 19-year-old Foster was driving a car with three other passengers who were involved in a series of robberies. Foster did not rob anyone, but he was the driver. Later in the evening the men found themselves behind another car. That car parked, a woman, Mary Patrick, got out and waived them to the side of the road. Mauriceo Brown got out of the car Foster was driving, got into a discussion with Patrick and ended up shooting and killing her boyfriend, Michael T. LaHood, Jr. There is no evidence that Foster or the other passengers participated or knew that a murder would be committed.

Foster was tried along with Brown, and both were found guilty of capital murder. The judge told the jury they could find Foster guilty of capital murder even though he had no intent to commit the offense. On May 5, 1997, Foster was found guilty of capital murder and he remains on death row.

Texas’ “Law of Parties” is being used in this case, but this is a gross misuse of the Law of Parties.

On March 3, 2005 San Antonio Federal District Judge Royal Fergeson overturned Foster’s death sentence, but the sentence was reinstated by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review the case.

Foster has a beautiful and talented daughter, Nydesha, 11 years old, who lives with her mother. Tasha Narez, Dutch hip hop artist from Rotterdam who goes by the name Jav’lin, began corresponding with Foster by email several years ago and recently married him by radio. She has been able to talk to him on death row, separated by glass, but she has never been able to touch him. On August 18, at the Concert to Stop the Execution of Kenneth Foster, Jr., held at the Carver Community Center, she spoke of her pride in bearing the name Foster but also of her sadness because he is on death row.

In his 10 years on death row Foster has educated himself and become an eloquent poet and fighter for social justice.

The death of LaHood was a tragedy. The killer of LaHood has already been executed. If Foster, who was 80 feet away in a car with the windows rolled up and the radio on, unaware of what had happened, is also executed, the tragedy is multiplied. In that case we all lose a fighter for social justice, Nydesha loses a father and Jav’lin loses a husband.

There is an urgent need for phone calls and faxes to Texas Governor Rick Perry, asking him to grant clemency to Kenneth Foster, Jr. (TDC #999232). Don’t let Texas execute Kenneth Foster for driving a car.

In Austin or from out of state the number is (512) 463-1782.

Fax: (512) 463-1849.

Calls from Texas: (800) 252-9600.

Email messages can be sent from the website: .

juanchostanford @yahoo.com

WORLD NOTES: August 25

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 07:45:00 +0000

Myanmar: Red Cross condemns human rights abuses

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) issued a report recently criticizing the military government of Myanmar (Burma) for abusing civilians and detainees and violating international humanitarian laws. “The exceptional step of making its concerns public” was necessary, according to an ICRC spokesperson, because Myanmar has ignored recommendations and blocked humanitarian access to detainees.

Before 2005, when there was monitoring of detainees’ treatment, mortality rates fell, yet remained twice that of the general population. Now, tuberculosis and malaria are rampant, 25,000 new cases of HIV/AIDS appear annually, and one-third of the children are malnourished. Health care consumes 3 percent of the nation’s budget and education 10 percent, while the military takes 40 percent, the Lancet medical journal reports. Every year 106 of every 1,000 children age 5 or younger die — the rate is 21 per 1,000 in Thailand. In conflict situations, the army often detains and kills medical workers, the report charges.

Iraq: Unions to launch new federation

Iraqi trade unions have announced they will hold the founding congress of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW), which unites the three major Iraqi national trade union centers, next month in Baghdad.

In preparation, the GFIW (www.iraqitradeunions.org/en/) held a series of public seminars for unions in Baghdad in July, which included discussions with heads of union committees on issues such as pay and working conditions, and labor and social welfare codes.

The decision to hold the congress in the capital is itself an act of defiance and bravery, notes LabourStart. Many Iraqi trade unionists have lost their lives in recent years. Today, the unions are battling the revival of Saddam Hussein’s anti-union laws. At their congress, they aim to create Iraq’s first democratic national trade union movement to address the burning economic and social issues facing the country.

GFIW international representative Abdullah Muhsin has urged unions around the world to send messages of greeting to the congress. Messages from unions should be sent to abdullahmuhsin@iraqitradeunions.org.

South Africa: Communist Party head lambastes AFRICOM

Critical of African silence toward U.S. plans for AFRICOM, the new U.S. military command structure for Africa, Blade Nzimande, general secretary of the South African Communist Party, issued a statement Aug. 14 calling upon progressives to study, discuss and oppose the “brazenly unilateralist” project.

AFRICOM, he suggested, is emblematic of U.S. militarization of its foreign policies and a trend toward merging development assistance and imperial strategies. AFRICOM represents colonial intrusion into African multilateral initiatives, in his view. Nzimande dismissed Senate testimony Aug. 1 by Assistant Defense Secretary Theresa Whelan justifying AFRICOM on grounds of efficiency. More relevant, he asserted, is a 2006 State Department report on “National Security Strategy” that “positions the U. S. as the custodian of human civilization.”

Calling for “autonomous development” and use of African resources for Africans, Nzimande connected the fight against AFRICOM with “a strong continental peace movement.” He condemned U.S. “hegemonic intentions” to station troops “in practically all parts of the world.”

Chile: Striking copper miners gain victory

On Aug. 1, Chile’s Confederation of Copper Workers (CTC) ended a 37-day strike by 13,000 contract workers against the state-owned Codelco Corp., source of 11 percent of the world’s copper production. The settlement called for salary increases, bonuses, a ban on firing strikers and pay for eight days on strike. The terms will presumably extend to the company’s 14,300 other contract workers. In addition, CTC leader Cristian Cuevas indicated his union would be organizing subcontracted workers in Chile’s private copper mines.

Analysts say current high world prices for minerals, especially copper, enourage strikes against companies focused on quick settlements and early resumption of operations.

On Aug. 7 in Mexico, federal authorities designated as a wildcat strike a weeklong walkout against mining giant Grupo Mexico. The next day the company fired over 2,000 striking miners. Some 13 U.S. and Canadian union leaders arrived at the company’s Cananea, Sonora, copper mine Aug. 11 to support the striking workers.

Sweden: Conference warns of world water crisis

At the 17th World Water Week held Aug. 12-18 in Stockholm, United Nations official Anna Tibaijuka told an assembly of 2,500 water experts from 140 countries that “water is going to be the dominant world issue far into the current century” and the “social stability of the world” is at stake, Inter Press Service reported.

The gathering featured hundreds of reports, briefs and position papers on subjects like climate change effects, urban migration, sustainable sanitation, land tenure, technological innovations, research development, health implications and competing water needs between ecosystems and food production. The outline of presentations appearing at www.worldwaterweek.org did not list discussions of financial aspects of the issues, although, according to the Asian Development Bank, $6 in benefits are returned for every dollar invested in improved access.

The UN reports that 1 billion people lack drinkable water and 2 billion lack sanitation facilities. Presently 20 percent of the world’s population in 30 countries faces water shortages.

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

CARE assails U.S. food program

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 07:42:00 +0000

The charity organization CARE has announced that after 2009 it will no longer accept U.S.-donated food aid to Africa. The announcement has caused a stir among food aid agencies and spotlighted a festering controversy, especially in recipient countries.

According to CARE and other aid organizations, the U.S. government — provider of half the world’s donated food — should send money to African nations to buy food from local farmers, thereby supporting the development of those countries’ agricultural skills, production and marketing capabilities.

Instead the U.S. government buys surplus corn and other products from big U.S. farmers — agribusinesses — already well off from federal subsidies on top of their sales receipts. This food is shipped overseas at inflated prices in U.S. ships and donated to aid agencies, who sell it abroad to raise funds to pay for their programs. In the process, says CARE, they undercut local producers.

The U.S., accused by critics of subservience to agribusiness interests, has refused to follow the lead of Canada, Australia and European countries in sending needy developing nations cash instead of food. In May 2006, Eritrea stunned the food-donating community by locking its door to donated food stocks. The Eritrean government of Isaias Afewerki indicated that 10 years of dependency and paralysis of the country’s own productive capacities were enough, and cash assistance would be a much preferred alternative.

In Malawi, World Food Program officials estimate that the yearly cost, including overhead expenses, of buying 8,800 tons of U.S. products used in a “corn soybean blend” for food for school children amounts to about $737 per ton. By contrast, the cost of corn bought from Malawi farmers, who had unsold surpluses on their hands last year, would have been $280 per ton. The upshot is that if U.S. monetary aid had been available in place of food, the program could have fed over twice as many children.

An article in the UK Observer May 27 headlined “How America is betraying the hungry children of Africa” quotes Malawian food security analyst Charles Rethman about the U.S. food program: “It’s very short-sighted — it doesn’t make any sense. It’s going to short-circuit the effort to improve nutrition here, it undermines farmers, households. It’s not sustainable and it won’t bring about any long-term change to malnutrition rates.”

A front-page New York Times story Aug. 16 cited former President Jimmy Carter’s opinion that “it was a flawed system that had survived partly because the charities that received money defended it.” He was speaking for the Carter Center, which donates money to African farmers to improve their productive capabilities.

Faith-based charity World Vision and 14 other groups protested CARE’s action, claiming “the system works,” according to the Times.

But other large charity groups, including Catholic Relief Services and Save the Children, and the Government Accountability Office agreed with CARE that the U.S. food donation system is inefficient. However, the Times reported, “they will not stop converting American food into money unless Congress replaces the lost revenues with cash.”

That is an unlikely prospect in view of the money-fueled relationship between well-fed congresspersons and agribusiness power.

Peru earthquake uncovers government failings

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 07:33:00 +0000

On arrival in Pisco, Aug. 16, to set up a command post, Peruvian President Alan Garcia announced, “No one is going to die of hunger, that I can guarantee.” The day before, Peru’s worst earthquake in 37 years had leveled 80 percent of Pisco’s houses. Estimates five days after the earthquake hit are that over 500 people were killed and over 2,000 were wounded, also that 45,000 houses were destroyed and 250,000 damaged.

The Pan American Highway was rendered impassable in many locations, and according to observers, telephone, radio and television service was lost within two minutes on Aug. 15. A helicopter survey over a 200-mile swath across southern coastal Peru reported damage severe enough to suggest that the extent of suffering and death is not yet fully recognized.

In the aftermath, chaos ensued in the hardest hit cities together with advancing hunger and thirst. Trucks loaded with supplies proceeding along damaged highways have been attacked and storage warehouses and stores emptied out while police stood by. By Aug. 19, the government sent in 1,000 troops.

Observers reported huge amounts of supplies arriving from international donors, with 19 planes being unloaded simultaneously Aug. 18 at the Pisco airport.

Aftershocks have hampered relief efforts, yet, the main failing apparently relates to inadequate distribution of materials. Analysts see exaggerated reliance by the government on central bureaucracies, bypassing local administrative structures — to the extent that they exist. That local service facilities may be wanting is seen by the evacuation of 500 wounded from Pisco to hospitals in Lima, 150 miles away.

Cuba flew in two field hospitals staffed by 42 physicians, including generalists, surgeons, orthopedists, anesthesiologists, intensive care doctors and radiologists, along with nurses and technicians.

The Peruvian government has made $97 million available to relief, augmented by $2.7 million from the European Union. The U.S. government, through USAID, dispatched a mere $300,000.

North Korea devastated by floods

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 07:31:00 +0000

Torrential rains and heavy flooding have resulted in a national disaster for the North Korea, killing hundreds, destroying homes and crippling production. But the government says it is determined to quickly minimize the effects, with help from international aid institutions.

The scale of the damage is staggering, according to news reports. “The continued heavy rainfalls across the country have done a huge damage to people’s living and the national economy,” reported the official Korea Central News Agency.

The rainfall in three provinces during seven days beginning Aug. 7 was equal to the entire rainfall of an entire year, the news agency said.

An estimated 300 people were killed in the flooding. Nearly 47,000 homes were either partially or totally flooded, leaving 88,400 families — more than 300,000 people — homeless. More than 11 percent of farmland was destroyed, and more than 400 factories were submerged. Severe damage to railroads, North Korea’s main form of transportation, caused the entire system to be shut down.

In Pyongyang, the capital, many low-lying streets were submerged under more than six feet of water, “suspending traffic and breaking the supply of electricity and communication networks.”

In addition the coal mining, fisheries and construction industries were severely disrupted.

UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Margareta Wahlström, speaking to reporters in New York on Aug. 17, called the situation a “serious disaster.” The UN is coordinating international aid through the World Health Organization, the World Food Program, UNICEF, the United Nations Population Fund, the UN Development Program and other agencies.

The WHO is working with Korea’s Ministry of Public Health, the UN reported, to distribute 80,000 water purification tablets and medical emergency kits.

According to Wahlström, the North Korean government has been working in full cooperation with UN relief agencies. North Korea had initiated the effort by inviting UN agencies to help.

An important meeting between Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun was rescheduled until October because of the priority of relief work.

North Korean authorities said they have mobilized all state agencies, the military and ordinary citizens to help rebuild. KCNA reported that the public is going “all out” to help afflicted areas. More than 13,400 Red Cross volunteers have helped distribute emergency relief goods and evacuate victims, the agency said.

China and South Korea, among other nations, have also offered assistance.

dmargolis @pww.org

Venezuela to debate constitutional changes

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 07:29:00 +0000

August 15 is important in Venezuela. It’s the day Simon Bolivar dedicated himself to Venezuelan independence in 1805, the day President Hugo Chavez won a presidential recall vote by a 59 percent majority in 2004, and the day this year Chavez submitted proposed constitutional changes to Venezuela’s National Assembly.

U.S. and European criticism has centered on a proposal that presidents serve seven, not six, years and be allowed to run for re-election, opening the door, according to the Washington Post, to a “president for life.” Venezuelan Cardinal Castillo Lara called Chavez a “paranoid dictator.”

The possible changes would affect only 33 of the 350 articles in Venezuela’s 1999 constitution. National Assembly passage of the reform package is seen as certain because all legislators are Chavez supporters, the result of right-wing parliamentary candidates having withdrawn from the 2005 elections.

The Chavez government has called for nationwide debate following the assembly’s approval of the changes, after which they will be returned for assembly reconsideration. Repeat approval will lead to further public debate, then final assembly action and a national referendum on Dec. 9.

Chavez announced plans for constitutional change a year ago, designating the reform project as the second of five “motors” propelling Venezuelan socialism. Venezuelans are engaged simultaneously in forming “socialist battalions” in preparation for the founding congress of the Unified Socialist Party.

The potential changes, far-reaching in scope, fall into three categories: those aimed at recasting democracy, others at building socialism and the rest at preserving gains.

Political theorizing in Venezuela has called for participatory democracy to replace representative democracy. A revised article 16 would bring about a new “geometry of power,” with states giving way to municipalities formed by cities and surrounding areas. The geographic extensions would comprise “communes” composed of “communities” which, under the new article 16, are designated as the “basic and indivisible nucleus of the Venezuelan socialist state.”

Communal councils, including worker, student and peasant councils, would operate in municipalities and communities as expressions of direct democracy and “popular power.” More than 25,000 communal councils already exist, and 50,000 are anticipated.

Changes under article 141 would incorporate social missions, formed to address massive health care and educational deficits, into existing government structures, the better to compete with and eventually replace them. Popular participation in mission functioning, especially at the local level, has served as a laboratory for participatory democracy.

Constitutional reforms are directed also at promoting Venezuelan-style socialism. Under a revised article 158, “The state will promote as national politics protagonist participation of the people, transferring power to the people and creating better conditions for construction of a socialist democracy.”

To that end, property is re-categorized (article 115) as public, social, communal, collective, mixed or private. Other proposals reaffirm hydrocarbon exploitation as the exclusive province of the state, prohibit monopolies and giant land holdings, and allow for land expropriation in the name of food security. National law would enable “businesses or regional entities to promote the economic activities of a socialist economy” (article 300).

A revised constitution would call for a six-hour workday (a 34-hour workweek), forbid compulsory overtime work and create a “fund for social stability” for independent workers. A model of economic production is proposed with “humanistic values” leading to “collective and cooperative construction of a socialist economy” (article 112). A revised article 100 would promote and protect ethnic diversity among Venezuelans.

The rest of the agenda relates to defending the state and implementing basic changes, one item being the removal of presidential term limits. The Venezuelan army would become the Bolivarian (rather than “national”) Armed Forces. The army is defined as “essentially patriotic, popular and anti-imperialist” (article 328), no longer as “essentially professional.” A reformed article 67 bars foreign funding of elections.

Other revisions, perhaps directed at separatists, would authorize designation of areas as “military territories” or creation of new federal provinces and cities. Added regional vice-presidents would administer popular power directives.

Deirée Santos Amaral, first vice president of the National Assembly, called upon Venezuelans to “study, publicize, discuss and clarify every doubt arising in whatever sector.” She said, “This proposed reform is more social democracy, more political democracy and more economic democracy. It’s socialism and socialism means more democracy.”

atwhit @megalink.net