People Before Profit blog

A mile high: Being in Denver, being part of history

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 19:14:00 +0000

DENVER — History. That’s what everyone was saying at Invesco Field. All 80,000 of us had a seat at history. Turns out at least 38 million people viewed history too — according to the Nielsen ratings — which broke all records, including more viewers than for the opening of the Beijing Olympics and final of “American Idol.”

Listening to the speeches and music, texting to 62262 (spells O-B-A-M-A), taking photos and video of people cheering or just carrying their pop and pizza to their seats, I had two thoughts: what is going on in this country, and this is a quintessential American experience.

The whole day-long rally was mass, progressive politics at its best. There was the substantive yet entertaining political stagecraft of the speakers and musicians. The giant TV screens which projected images of who was on the stage and then shots of the audience, like at baseball games when fans get on the screen. We did a dozen “waves,” probably from this time forward going to be known as the O’wave or bamawave.

You could have the sporting event experience but without the sport. Democratic politics replaced football at Invesco, yet the exuberance you experience when your hometown team wins a championship was there. And thinking about it, that’s what an American mass, progressive political movement has to embody: a mass experience for Americans. What more mass can you get than sports? Maybe rock concerts, and this had that quality too.

The only thing that was missing that you’d have at professional sports events was the constant bombardment of commercials or in your face corporate sponsorship. No corporate logos all around the stage, no announcements that “this speech is sponsored by GM.” No. The emphasis was on ordinary Americans, working class experiences and that being the embodiment of the American dream. As Republican Barney Smith from Indiana, who spoke from the stage as part of the “ordinary American voices,” said, “We need a president who puts Barney Smith before Smith Barney.”

The place exploded with laughter and cheers. Stomping feet shook the house to that great line and many a good line in Obama’s and other speeches.

The whole night what people were expressing was that for the first time in a long, long time they could be proud of their political leaders. And, thereby, proud of their country. Even the U-S-A chants took on another quality in this stadium. When you see working people of all colors, shapes and sizes chanting U-S-A, it takes you to another dimension than when young Republicans do it.

The right-wingers rile themselves up, frothing at the mouth, intimidating people who may not agree with their jingoistic chants.

But here, it was people concerned about not just themselves, but their neighbors, and the whole of society. Concerned and hungry to hear politicians talk meaningfully about real life issues like the economy, the Iraq war and health care.

Like the local union president from Wyoming who drove 350 miles to be there. “This is history. Obama is going to be a great president when we elect him,” said Harold Giberson, from Local 127 of the Utility Workers union. “Whole labor movement supports him.” Giberson said Obama would sign into law the Employee Free Choice Act that would “open doors to so many people oppressed by employers.”

Or Sean Yancy of Highland’s Ranch, Colo., who also felt the weight of history on him. “I’ve been crying all weekend. It’s so emotional to see everybody coming together.” Yancy, who came with his fraternity brothers, said he didn’t grow up in the civil rights movement era like his parents. But the unity of the people for Obama and the Democrats has moved him emotionally and politically. “This is the first time I’ve been active in grassroots politics.” He said his neighbors are supporting Obama. “They aren’t looking at his race. They are looking at the issues,” he said.

Michele Majeune, from Colorado, came with her two sons, age 16 and 19, to be part of history too. Majeune was a Hillary Clinton supporter. While disappointed that Clinton didn’t win the nomination, she is soundly backing Obama. “I don’t agree with everything the Democrats say,” but they have have made inroads in the state, she said, and their message of alternative energy development has really resonated amongst the state’s farmers and ranchers. “Alternative energy provides an economic opportunity. If a field is laying fallow, maybe the farmer can try switchback grass.” Her sons — who are white — feel totally part of what’s being called now the “Obama generation.”

“This is an important event and I’m glad to be here,” said 19-year-old Matt. “It’s pretty democratic to open the convention up to other people.”

Asked for his reaction to the argument that Obama supposedly lacks experience, Matt said the Bush administration “had Cheney and Rumsfeld who worked for previous administrations,” and look where that got us. “It’s also about character,” he said.

Riley, his brother, noted that Abraham Lincoln was in the Illinois Legislature only a few years before making his way to the presidency, an analogy that Al Gore also used in his speech later in the evening. When Gore said it we all looked at Riley and smiled.

Skip Mason, Yancy’s fraternity brother and the president-elect* of Alpha Phi Alpha, the nation’s oldest fraternity for African Americans, said he had been looking for the word to describe how he felt in the historic setting. “Blessed,” he said, to be here and to witness this “changing of the guard” in the nation’s political landscape.

“I was born in 1962, so I didn’t have to sit in the back of the bus. Somebody else did that and fought that fight,” he said. But this is a “shattering of a ceiling” too, he added. “So my children know the sky’s the limit.”

As a Black man, Mason said, Obama is rewriting the negative image of Black men that so many folks see, like being a “threat.” He said, “Here you have an intelligent, articulate, political and honest man. Not all Black men are musicians and athletes. Some have the power to change the fabric of the world.”

Mason talked about the significance of the diversity of the crowd. “Look at the rainbow of people. Being together is part of the American Dream. Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech is deeply rooted in the American Dream and amongst African Americans. From slavery we fought for the American Dream — freedom. We believe in the words ‘All men are created equal’ and the sentiment behind them.”

For the first time in this generation, he said, all Americans are having to come to grips with the ugly face of racism. “We may have a long way to go, but people are looking it square in the face.”

As the video of Obama’s life hit the big screen, there was total silence in the audience. Only the voice of the narrator could be heard. Enraptured with the story and anxious to hear their candidate, people sat at the edge of their seats. Then they erupted in a massive cheer when Obama walked on stage.

After his perfect-pitch acceptance speech, people filed out of the Mile-High Stadium. Talking in low voices with an almost subdued feel about them, they said in a thousand different ways that change for the betterment of all is coming. They looked at the future square in the eye and knew they are part of history. That is what’s going on in this country.

talbano @ pww.org

*In a previous copy of this story, Mr. Skip Mason was identified as the president of Alpha Phi Alpha. That is incorrect. Mr. Mason identified himself as the president-elect. We regret the error.

Underground Railroad museum: Beacon of hope, progress

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 07:14:00 +0000

CINCINNATI — The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, nestled between the Bengals and Reds stadiums here, is a beacon of hope and progress for working people everywhere. Open since 2004, it is a tribute to those brave people who struggled for freedom and justice against the oppressive system of slavery.

The structure itself is impressive. The design symbolizes the winding path to freedom taken by the slaves. A beautiful, south-facing glass wall overlooks the Ohio River and Kentucky. Before the Civil War, the Ohio River marked the line separating slavery from freedom.

I visited the museum with some pride since I have ancestors who served as conductors on the Underground Railroad in Missouri.

Entering the exhibition area after climbing winding stairs, two massive textile works seize your attention. Created by Aminah Brenda Lynn, they depict the struggles of the African people against the transatlantic slave trade, particularly here in Ohio.

Cincinnati and Ripley, Ohio, were two of the most important locations in the history of slavery. They were points where slaves were shipped to the South and through which the slaves passed on their journey to freedom in Canada.

The next compelling piece is a huge mural started by Tom Feelings and completed by Tyrone Geter after Feelings’ death, depicting the “confinement of an individual in the Mason County Slave Pen.” Surrounding images depict “the arrival into America, slave auction, family separation, forced coffle marches, and slave labor in the forests of Tennessee and cotton fields of Missippi.”

This leads to a reconstructed 1830s slave pen from Maysville, Ky., providing a look at the horrific conditions slaves were forced to endure. Owner John Anderson also owned a racing stable and lived a luxurious lifestyle as a result of the profits he extracted from these workers’ labor and the sale of human beings.

Throughout the museum, images of progressive figures such as Paul Robeson, W.E.B. DuBois, Pete Seeger, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison are visible and quotations from many of them stress the importance of “courage, cooperation and perseverance.”

The multiethnic nature of the struggle against slavery is a notable theme, with the contributions of African Americans, whites, Latinos and Native Americans displayed.

A film on view, “Brothers of the Borderland,” introduced by Oprah Winfrey, tells the story of how two leaders of the Underground Railroad in Ripley cooperated to help slaves escape across the Ohio River — John Parker, a former slave who was a successful metalworker and inventor, and John Rankin, a white religious leader.

Despite the progress that’s been made, slavery is still a business practice used around the world with a few individuals reaping fantastic profits. And union-busting and red-baiting are terror tactics used against working people in this country, with even more violent methods in countries such as Colombia and Guatemala, in an effort to keep workers in virtual slavery.

The fuels of progress are unity and struggle, exemplified in this marvelous museum. When in Cincinnati don’t miss the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

phill1917 @comcast.net

Obama nominated by acclamation: Historic moment in U.S. politics

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:26:00 +0000

DENVER — Hillary Clinton stopped the Democratic convention roll call vote tonight and moved to nominate Barack Obama as Democratic Party presidential candidate by acclamation. This is the first time in history that a major U.S. political party has nominated an African American as president.

Delegates were crying. With tears streaming down their cheeks, the overwhelming historic moment seemed to wash over the delegates en masse.

“We need change. For the kids, we can’t have four more years of what we’ve had for the last eight years,” said one delegate.

Obama accepted the nomination and will give his speech Aug. 28, the 45th anniversary of the Aug. 28, 1963, March for Jobs and Freedom.

Video: Dennis Kucinich rocks the DNC

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:36:00 +0000

NEA President Reg Weaver at pre-DNC labor rally

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:33:00 +0000

Illinois leaders speak at DNC

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:43:00 +0000

As Democrats rally for unity behind Barack Obama’s run for president at their party’s national convention in Denver, the opening day featured appearances by labor, state and city leaders from Obama’s home state, Illinois.

President of the Illinois Service Employees International Union Tom Balanoff, representing 175,000 members, addressed the convention Aug. 25, saying union households know where Obama is coming from. Balanoff said his own father was a steelworker who believed in the American dream of working hard in order to build a good life for his family. Balanoff said growing up in Chicago his family made many gains when the steel industry provided opportunities for working people. But by the early 1980s under an increasingly globalized economy the steel industry declined and many plants across the country were closing, especially in Chicago, he said.

“That’s what Barack Obama found when he moved to Chicago in 1984,” said Balanoff. “As a community organizer, he devoted his considerable gifts to helping displaced workers and their families try to rebuild their lives,” Balanoff added. “He committed himself to improving the future of hard-working people devastated by the decline of the manufacturing sector.”

Obama’s experience at the grass roots shaped his political perspective and core beliefs and helped him to understand the challenges working families face, said Balanoff. “He knows that they are the strength of this nation and he knows that in the current economic climate, many of these families struggle despite how hard they work everyday,” he said.

“Barack Obama believes that if you go to work in the United States, you should not have to live in poverty. He believes that hard work should be rewarded with a living wage, health care, and a secure retirement, and that these rewards will build stronger families and communities and a stronger America. John McCain looks to Wall Street and says the economy is OK. Barack Obama looks to Main Street and knows that it is not OK. The working families of this country cannot afford four more years of Bush-McCain economic policies,” said Balanoff.

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) said, “I’m sure Dr. King is looking down on us here in Denver, noting that this is the first political convention in history to take place within sight of his mountaintop.”

Jackson said when President Lyndon Johnson submitted the Voting Rights Act to Congress, Dr. King stated, “At times, history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man’s unending search for freedom.”

Jackson added, “So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was at Appomattox. So it was in Selma, Alabama. Tonight, I would like to add: and so it shall be in Denver, Colorado, with the nomination of Barack Obama to be President of the United States.”

Jackson said he himself grew up learning the lessons of his father’s generation with stories of struggle and sacrifice, of fear and division, and knows that America is still a place where dreams are too often deferred and opportunities too often denied.

“But here’s what I also know,” he said. “I know that while America may not be perfect, our union can always be perfected. I know what we can achieve when good people with strong convictions come together around a common purpose.”

Recalling the civil rights movement and Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous 1963 “I have a Dream” speech, Jackson said, “Forty-five years to the day after a young preacher called out, ‘Let freedom ring,’ let history show in this fourth week of August in this Mile-High City, freedom in America has never rung from a higher mountaintop than it does here today.”

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said she remembers working with Obama on the Illinois Senate floor in Springfield. “I learned why Barack is such a fierce advocate for women and their children,” said Madigan. “In his own life, he saw women struggle and sacrifice to support his family.”

Madigan stressed how a single mother who dreamed of a better future for her son raised Obama like millions of American children. And it was Obama’s grandmother who molded his mother to work hard for her family despite all the odds. “Smart, tough women sacrificed to make Barack the man he is today. And he’s never forgotten it,” said Madigan.

“But today, too many families face challenges that even the most loving and devoted parents can’t overcome on their own. We need a president who knows how to remove the obstacles that stand between parents and their dreams for their children,” said Madigan.

Chicago City Clerk Miguel Del Valle recalled how he first met Obama in 1992 doing voter registration in the city’s Latino neighborhoods. “Barack Obama made sure that the thousands of Latinos in Chicago were registered to vote. He helped empower the Latino community and ensure that we were full participants in our democracy,” said Del Valle.

Del Valle said Obama is helping to bring Latinos and all Americans nationwide into the political process and into the national conversation about the future in order to turn the page on the failed policies of Bush and McCain. “All voters need to be empowered. All voices need to be heard. And all of us must stand up for the change we need. And make no mistake: Barack Obama will deliver that change,” he said.

Del Valle added that Obama’s run for the White House is the best opportunity to unite the country and lead the nation, addressing day-to-day struggles from high gas prices to violence in the streets, to finding a good job and improving our schools.

“It’s the best chance we have to put America on a different course, a course that will restore our faith in what we can do as a people and restore our standing in the world,” said Del Valle.

Other Illinois speakers on the convention opening day included State Comptroller Dan Hynes and State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias.

plozano @ pww.org

Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Labor Day

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:23:00 +0000

CLEVELAND — While still in mourning and shock at the unexpected Aug. 20 death of Ohio Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the Greater Cleveland community will celebrate her life in an unprecedented Labor Day parade and festival, which her efforts helped bring about.

For the first time, the AFL-CIO Labor Day Parade and the 11th District Congressional Caucus Labor Day parade and picnic have merged in what is expected to be a “humongous” event, according to Andre White, caucus committee co-chair.

The joint event’s theme, adopted with the presidential election in mind, is “Communities United for Change.” Barack Obama has been invited and other dignitaries have already announced they will attend, including Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and members of the Congressional Black Caucus, White said.

Tubbs Jones would have served as the festival’s mistress of ceremonies as she has since being elected to Congress in 1998. That job will be taken over by her predecessor, former Congressman Louis Stokes.

Tubbs Jones died from a sudden brain hemorrhage. The first Black woman to serve in Congress from Ohio, she rose to chair the House Ethics Committee and become the first Black woman on the powerful Ways and Means Committee.

Her father was a skycap at Cleveland Hopkins Airport and her mother was a factory worker. She was a passionate advocate for her heavily African-American district and a fierce opponent of the Bush administration’s policies.

She voted against the 2002 resolution to authorize use of military force in Iraq and was one of only 11 House members to oppose the March 2003 resolution to send troops there. She worked closely with Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Cuyahoga County’s other representative, who called her death “an incalculable loss.”

“She worked so hard and gave everything she could,” he said. “Wherever we’d go, we’d speak of each other as brother and sister.”

Tubbs Jones opposed Bush’s tax cuts for the rich and his attempts to privatize Social Security. In 2005, she opposed certifying Bush’s re-election due to irregularities in the Ohio vote results.

Loree Soggs, president of the North Shore (Greater Cleveland) AFL-CIO, said Tubbs Jones “was always with us whenever we needed her. She had a 100 percent pro-labor voting record just like her predecessor.”

Soggs, who chairs the AFL-CIO Labor Day Parade Committee, said Tubbs Jones enthusiastically embraced merging the two previously separate events.

“Her staff has been wonderful,” he said. “We have been meeting together all summer and they have done everything possible to make this combined event a big success.”

The joining of the two events has attracted more union participation than in previous years, Soggs said. This includes unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win federation who both participate in the North Shore Federation, as well as United Auto Workers locals. Allied groups, including Cleveland Jobs With Justice and the People’s Weekly World, are also taking part.

Survey says support for No Child Left Behind Act takes a dive

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 08:02:00 +0000

In an election year, the issue of education is usually front and center, especially policy that shapes and directs the way children succeed or fail. A recent survey by Education Next and the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University reveals that people’s confidence in public schools nationwide and President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has significantly declined in 2008. And as Barack Obama and John McCain fight for the presidency, research finds that most people believe Democrats are more likely to improve the problems facing U.S. schools.

The survey reveals that half of the people support leaving NCLB as is or renewing it with minimal changes, and the other half feels the law needs a major overhaul or should be done away with. These results show a big drop among those who support renewing NCLB as is or with minimal changes, from 57 percent of those surveyed last year to only 50 percent today, with comparable declines in support among African Americans, Latinos and whites.

Especially critical of NCLB are public school teachers with only 26 percent supporting renewal as is or with minimal changes. By contrast, 33 percent feel that Congress should completely overhaul NCLB. Another 42 percent recommend Congress not renew the measure at all.

In 2007, 27 percent of African Americans graded public schools with an A or a B. This year that result fell to 20 percent. The number of African Americans grading schools with a D or an F increased from 22 percent to 31 percent.

Many feel more confident in their local police force than in their local schools, especially among Latinos and African Americans. Some 64 percent of Latinos and 55 percent of African Americans gave their police force an A or B, a comparable difference than those showing support for public schools.

Democrats are favored over Republicans to handle education issues better. Sixty-one percent of respondents say the Democrats have a better record on public schools. Some 62 percent believe Democrats are more likely to improve public education. Self-identified Democrats prefer their own party on education by margins of roughly 10 to 1. Republicans do so by just 3 to 1.

In the year 2000, polls complied by political scientist Patrick McGuinn showed that only 44 percent of Americans thought Democrats would do a better job of improving education, compared with 41 percent who favored Republicans. But the recent survey says voters favor Democrats, returning to patterns unseen since the 1980s and 1990s, when voters consistently supported Democrats on education by margins of 20 percentage points or higher.

Other topics in the survey include issues of race- and income-based school integration; mainstream disabled students, single-sex education, home schooling and online education.

The survey was conducted by the polling firm Knowledge Networks between February and March of this year and based on a national sample of 2,500 adults and 700 schoolteachers. The survey is available online at .

Folks in Colorado battleground excited and hopeful about election

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 03:09:00 +0000

DENVER - It was a beautiful Saturday morning and afternoon Aug. 23 in the Five Point neighborhood just east and north of the downtown location here where the Democratic National Convention is happening. From many of the blocks in this ethnically and racially diverse neighborhood a glance westward rewards the viewer with breath-taking views of one or more snow-capped Rocky Mountain peaks.

Many were out shopping and some were doing what they do for a living. Almost all were willing to offer their thoughts about the 2008 elections.

This reporter bumped into Kamela Alford as she hauled her loaded shopping cart out of the Safeway supermarket. “God help us if McCain is elected,” she said. Alford works at the Veterans Administration hospital in Denver. She said, “The way Bush treats the veterans is a disgrace. They nickle and dime them out of every benefit they are entitled to and I can't understand why McCain, who was a POW, has turned into someone who now votes against benefits for veterans.”

“I'm with Obama all the way,” Alford declared. She described herself as an “Air Force brat.” Her father, now deceased, served in the U.S. Air Force for 26 years.

Alford said one of the main reasons she supports Obama is his opposition to the war in Iraq. “We're killing our economy because of this war, not to mention the needless killing of human beings that results from the war.” She said the second big reason was health care. “The private insurance companies are getting away with murder and no civilized society should have all these uninsured people.” Alford's father died several years ago from a brain tumor.

I met Beth Merschell, a home maker and mother of five, as she had lunch at a Wing Stop in the neighborhood. The kids were home with her husband while she was taking a break in her shopping trip.

Merschell, who described herself as “strongly anti-abortion,” said she could not support McCain, despite the fact that he has the same position that she has on this issue. Merschell is the daughter of a Baptist minister in South Carolina who moved here with her family less than a year ago.

“I don't go for Christians and evangelicals tying themselves to a particular political party,” she said. “I know many, many evangelicals who would love to vote for Obama. Leaders who put pressure on them over the abortion issue get them to hold off even though they think Obama is the better candidate. I've been told over and over that you can't vote for someone who supports abortion. What I like about Obama, though, is that he is a breath of fresh air. I think he has empathy for other people and we need that in a leader.”

Merschell also said, “It would be great to have an African American president after all that has happened in this country.”

I met Margie Boreck in front of her daughter's house, several blocks away from the Wing Stop. She was out for a stroll with her three grandchildren, Emilia, Finn and Reese. While Boreck didn't want to be photographed her grandchildren were anxious to be and grandma consented.

“I am really excited about this election,” Boreck said, “this is a once in a hundred year event.”

She said, pointing to her grandchildren, “I want them to have happy and secure lives. With the economy going the way it is that possibility seems like it could be endangered. Barack Obama offers solutions and good ideas so I am supporting him. He will make a great president.” Boreck is a retired teacher.

After saying goodbye to Boreck, Emilia, Finn and Reese , I crossed the street and walked into the Downing Street Wine and Liquor store. I met Suzette Riddick, the owner, who admitted to having voted for Republicans during her lifetime.

“I've got a real problem with and I'm really skeptical about McCain saying that offshore oil drilling is a solution to the energy crisis. We know that won't do a thing for a long time,” Riddick said.

Riddick, who bought the store five years ago, says that in the last six months skyrocketing fuel prices have increased her costs by over $200 per month.

“This is a small business,” she explained, “I have to order a few cases of everything at a time, unlike the big chains that make mega orders. Each shipper adds $10 or $15 a lot to my delivery costs because of fuel costs, so I really get hit with those fuel related add-on delivery costs. If I could afford huge orders I could save a bit but I am only a small business and I can't afford that.”

Riddick explained that even before delivery add-ons, the rising fuel prices reflect themselves in higher wholesale prices for the manufactured items themselves. While she hasn't yet made up her mind about who she will vote for she says that she in considering a vote for Obama. “I do think it is great that we have gotten to the point where a big political party nominates an African-American,” she said.

Next we met “Serge,” a union meat cutter on a break outside another Safeway supermarket. “Serge,” who is a member of Denver's United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 1, said, “It's very simple. If we elect Obama, we got a chance, if McCain gets in it just might happen that anyone lucky enough to get a job won't be making any more than $7.00 an hour. He's out to kill the unions. Obama supports the unions and if we can grow strong the middle class can come back, the way it did in my father's day.”

Roy Johnson, who turned 18 six months ago, was also on a break outside the Safeway. He just became a member of the meat cutters' local “Serge” belongs to. “We need a change. This is my first vote and I support Obama,” he said, adding, “I hope that he can create a lot more good paying jobs for young people.”

Lorraine Lee was outside a dry cleaning place, having just dropped off some clothing. “I'm a union gal, even though I work for a small real estate place,” she said, “because my father was a lifetime UMW Colorado miner. I'm for Obama and I'm even more for him now that he's picked Joe Biden as his running mate.”

Craig Johnson was following his two year old son across his lawn when I met him. There was a big Obama sign on the lawn. “Why are you supporting Barack,?” I asked. “It's about the future,” Craig said, “It's about him,” he added, as he picked up his son.

Schools boycott addresses inequities in state education funding

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 08:21:00 +0000

CHICAGO – The end of summer vacation is right around the corner and you know what that means. Yes, that’s right, students everywhere are gearing up here to march back to school beginning Sept. 2. But state Sen. James Meeks (D) has something else in mind for the first day of school.

Meeks who is also a pastor of a major South Side church is proposing that Chicago Public School students boycott the first day of school in order to call attention to and protest the major inequities in the states education funding. Part of the plan is to push the Illinois Legislature to pass an education bill that will provide equal funding for all public schools.

Meeks has received support from Reverend Al Sharpton and nearly 50 ministers from the city’s West and South Sides who are asking parents not to send their children to school in an effort to enroll Chicago students in the more affluent New Trier Township High School District in the north shore suburb of Winnetka, Illinois. After the first day of the boycott, a full week of action is in the works by Meek’s and supporters with expected protests at different schools and government buildings including lobbying Chicago’s downtown businesses.

Meeks and Sharpton feel immediate steps need to be made in attacking the crises in public education. After 50 years since the color barrier in education was broken with the Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. the Board of Education, Meeks and Sharpton say many changes are still required to address racial and economic divisions in education, particularly problems schools face in urban and low-income communities.

“Whether it will be funding or graduation rates, we are still separate and unequal,” said Sharpton to CBS news.

Meeks and his supporters say Chicago schools, where students are predominantly African American and Latino, lack the adequate funding needed to successfully teach and graduate it’s students compared to the high rates of graduation and amount of resources in surrounding suburbs, which are mostly white.

For example, Marshall High School in Chicago has a 46 percent graduation rate compared to New Trier’s 99.8 percent rate. Boycott supporters say the Winnetka school gets about $17,000 for each pupil, whereas a Chicago school receives about $10,000 per student. The thousands of dollars spent more on suburban students compared with city kids in poorer districts demonstrates uneven, unfair and unequal disparities, says Meeks and his supporters.

Ultimately major differences in education funding sets up the conditions for children to fail, especially when they have to grow up in poverty with scarce alternatives for a better future for themselves and their struggling communities.

Chicago Aldermen in the City’s Council’s Black Caucus could not come to consensus and are not taking a direct position on the matter after Meeks met with them for their support.

“We need to address the same thing he’s trying to address,” said Education Chairman Latasha Thomas to the Chicago Sun-Times. “Our way is pushing the Legislature for radical reform of the state funding formula,” she added.

Alderman Freddrenna Lyle told the Times, “All of us want our children in school. That’s really the bottom line,” she said.

Most agree, however, the issue is important and believe a boycott may help pressure state lawmakers to take action. At the same time many feel Meek’s approach is the wrong one and wont solve the long-term problem. Chicago Public Schools (CPS) could lose state funds if students miss school because average daily attendance helps determine the overall funding for the district. Part of the CPS funding is based on three months of its highest attendance average, which in most cases is the beginning of the school year.

Mayor Daley and Superintendent of CPS Arne Duncan both agree state officials need to act, but they do not support children missing school. According to Duncan, attendance on the first day of school has gone up by 17 percent since 2000 with 68,000 more students in classrooms. Last year the Chicago’s attendance rate on the first day of class was 93 percent.

“We’ve worked extraordinarily hard to build a culture where every single day matters,” said Duncan at recent news conference. “And that first day, that first week, does set a tone for what happens the rest of the school year.” Duncan added, “I am very grateful for the attention Meeks has brought to this issue, but I think we can fight this battle and win the battle without doing anything that puts students on a course of behavior that is self-destructive.”

Governor Rod Blagojevich (D) also said Meek’s call for a boycott is the wrong way to go about addressing the matter. Blagojevich called a special session to address an education bill but after 20 minutes the house adjourned and they failed to tackle the issue.

Talking to Chicago Public Radio, Duncan said he was angered that state officials, led by Democrats who have been in a on-going two-year stalemate on many budget issues, could not address education funding more seriously. “If they can’t do the right thing legislatively – and we need to be hopeful that’ll happen – maybe we have to challenge them through the legal system. Maybe it takes a class action lawsuit,” said Duncan.

Even the 32,000 Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) said they support Meeks effort to change the way Illinois preK-12 public schools are funded by increasing the state income tax while reducing property taxes. They agree that all Illinois students, including Chicago, deserve the highest quality educational opportunities.

In a statement CTU said, “While we know first-hand that the Chicago Public Schools produce some of the finest students in the nation, we are concerned that the future of our children could be jeopardized by the unavailability of needed funds to assure that equal opportunity is extended to every one of them on a fair basis.”

CTU continued, “The failure to reform education funding lies at the feet of all elected officials, including those who represent wealthy suburban districts where residents pay high property taxes in order to provide adequate and equitable funding for their schools.”

“We understand Sen. Meeks’ frustration because we share it,” said CTU. “While we expect our students to be in classrooms with our teachers, paraprofessionals, and school-related personnel on the first day of school in September, we hope the actions Sen. Meeks has announced will be the impetus to awaken our state legislatures and the governor to do the right thing and pass an education funding reform bill.”

Meanwhile Illinois is ranked 47th out of 50 when it comes to state funding of education and a share of that school funding comes from property taxes which keeps schools in more wealthy areas better funded than those in low-income communities.

Progressive Democrats of America Illinois conference

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 22:44:00 +0000

With the revived prospects for the Democratic Party no longer apparently facing Karl Rove's permanent Republican majority a growing number of politically committed people have asked the question, 'What would or should a resurrected Democratic Party look like?' There are a variety of answers to this question, e.g., the Democratic Leadership Council's centrist conception, the Blue Dogs' Republican lite, etc.

One of the more promising visions that has emerged is represented by Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), a national organization that emerged out of the Kucinich for President 2004 campaign. PDA is still quite fragile, even with its estimated 100,000 members, but its 'inside, outside' strategy vis à vis the Democratic Party has the potential for linking together and giving voice to a large number of groups engaged in their own issues, e.g., the war and occupation, health care, the housing meltdown, etc., under the aegis of a reformed and remade national Democratic Party.

Only time and political struggle will answer the question of whether this strategy is actually viable. This short report is an account of one piece of that effort: the first state-wide PDA conference in Illinois.

The conference occurred on June 28th at the Marvel Davis Farm near Big Rock, Illinois. You can be forgiven for not being quite sure where that is, but note two things about the location: it is not in Chicago and the farm is located where Dennis Hastert's Prairie State Expressway is proposed to run. In fact, Marvel Davis, the farm's owner, offered the site for free because she had met and supported John Laesch, a PDA supported-candidate who ran against Hastert in 2006 and was narrowly beaten by centrist Democrat Bill Foster in the 2008 primary.

The theme of the conference was 'More and Better Democrats' with much emphasis on the better, especially by the end of the day. An equally important impetus for the conference was the desire to bring various groups to the same venue to explore how we could all work together. In addition to PDA, DSA, Democracy For America. MoveOn, these groups included local peace and justice groups and grass roots level Democratic Party activists. Altogether, about 75 people gathered from the northern and western portions of the state.

The opening panel, 'Progressives, Democrats, November 2008 and Beyond' included representatives from the full range of conference attendees. The panelists did a good job of talking about their own organizations and the work they were doing that fits into the progressive label, and a less thorough job of spelling out how we could all work together of course, if it were easy to answer that question there would have been no need for the conference. There were break out sessions in the both the morning and afternoon on 'Ending the Death Penalty in Illinois.' 'Winning Single Payer Health Care in Illinois,' 'Next Steps in Working against the War and Occupation,' 'Causes and Progressive Policies Responses to the Financial and Economic Crisis,' and 'Grass Roots Electoral Skills.' All were interesting and stimulated discussion among the attendees. Check the PDA web site (http://www.pdaillinois.org http://www.pdaillinois.org/ ) for outlines from the sessions.

Stephen Kinzer, formerly New York Times correspondent and author of All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror, delivered the keynote, entitled 'Advice for the Next President and the Democrats.' The final session was on working together how, when and where. Most of the discussion revolved around supporting progressive candidates at the local and state level and how to determine whether a candidate actually merited the label 'progressive.' No definitive answers, but in the short time since the conference some of the groups have initiated conversations about closer working relationships. We'll see what happens as the political year 2008 'progresses.'

Another Olympic first

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 06:46:00 +0000

Cullen Jones, only the second African American to make the U.S. Olympic Swim Team, is the first African American to win an Olympic Gold Medal for his performance in the team’s 4 x 100 freestyle relay. Amid all the well-earned acclaim for Michael Phelps’ historic accomplishments, like racking up eight gold medals in one Olympics for swimming, Jones’ historic first should be noted.

Cullen, Phelps, Jason Lezak and Garrett Weber-Gale came in a hairsbreadth ahead of the favored French team to win.

Born in New York City, Jones moved to Irvington, N.J., at the age of 5. Jones took swimming lessons after a near-drowning incident. His talent went unnoticed until he swam the freestyle for North Carolina State University. Prior to the 2008 Olympics, Jones was the first Black American ever to hold or share a swimming world record in the 4 x 100 freestyle relay.

The absence of African Americans and other people of color from certain Olympic sports has long been noted. Sports like swimming, skiing, ice skating, etc., that require expensive equipment and/or training facilities result in economic exclusion. Also, the United States has a racist history of outright exclusion of Blacks from beaches and swimming pools.

Cullen has helped to break a long-standing stereotype that African Americans are physically unsuited for swimming. This is important for a number of reasons, one of which is the encouragement and interest in the sport that will result in others, especially African Americans, learning to swim.

It is also a safety issue.

About 1,500 children drown each year in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control, African American males over the age of 5 are 1.3 times more likely to drown than white males in the same age group. American Indians and Alaskan Natives are 1.8 times more likely to drown. This higher rate of drowning is due to the lack of facilities for safe swimming and swimming instruction. Where there are facilities, they are often overcrowded, making it difficult for lifeguards to observe all swimmers safely. On a hot summer day, unsafe bodies of water — unsupervised beaches, reservoirs, and rivers and streams with strong currents — are tempting and deadly, especially for non-swimmers.

It is recommended that all children over the age of 5 be taught to swim. An adult with no distractions whatsoever (no reading, watching TV, talking with others) should always supervise non-swimmers around all bodies of water whether it is the bathtub, a kiddie pool, a backyard pool or the beach.

Municipalities were once proud of their schools and recreation facilities, constantly making improvements and expanding programs. In the past 50 years or so, cities have drastically cut back on their recreation budgets. Urban and many small-town and rural school districts have slashed all programs including physical education and swim programs have been eliminated. If there are pools in schools or recreational facilities, maintenance is often abysmal with nasty, funky locker rooms, and pools are frequently closed because there are no chemicals to clean the water or the pumps are broken. There aren’t enough programs to train the number of lifeguards and swim instructors needed.

Let’s hope that Jones’ win makes more of a splash, both for his spectacular accomplishment and for the attention it might bring to access to swimming instruction and water safety. Hopefully there will be an increased demand for up-to-date sports and recreation facilities, including swimming pools with quality instruction programs in all communities and schools. What a great way to divert money from the war in Iraq to socially useful and necessary pastimes.

Key Senate races could break GOP grip

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 06:25:00 +0000

With voter anger rising over endless war and a plummeting economy, Republicans could lose as many as 11 seats in the U.S. Senate and as many as 30 seats in the House this fall.

John Mark Gilhousen, Progressive Democrats of America’s Oregon coordinator, says the labor movement and peace and justice organizations like PDA are “solidly united” in working to defeat incumbent Republican Sen. Gordon Smith and elect in his place Democrat Jeff Merkley, speaker of the Oregon State House.

“I believe we stand at a crossroad,” Gilhousen said in a phone interview. “The damage done in the last seven years has wreaked such havoc that we must address the issues now — the environment, energy policy, the lack of health care, the decline of the middle class. We are fighting on these issues locally but they also demand a strong progressive president and a supportive Congress.”

There are 35 Senate seats at stake, 23 now held by Republicans and 12 by Democrats. Five incumbent Republicans are retiring: Wayne Allard (Colorado), Larry Craig (Idaho), Chuck Hagel (Nebraska), Pete Domenici (New Mexico) and John Warner (Virginia).

A number of states are considered key battlegrounds for ending the Republican grip on the Senate that has blocked so much progressive legislation, from ending the war to worker rights.

Alaska’s Republican Sen. Ted Stevens has just been indicted on influence-peddling stemming from his longstanding crony ties to Big Oil. His Democratic opponent is Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich.

Al Franken is running hard to oust Republican Norm Coleman in Minnesota. The race between former Mississippi Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove and Republican Roger Wicker for the Senate seat vacated by Trent Lott is considered a toss-up. In Maine, Democratic Rep. Tom Allen is challenging Republican incumbent Susan Collins. In neighboring New Hampshire, former Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen could oust GOP Sen. John Sununu. In New Mexico, Democrat Tom Udall is ahead in the polls in the race to fill Domenici’s seat. His cousin Mark Udall is in a tight race for Allard’s seat in Colorado. In Virginia, former Democratic Gov. Mark Warner looks likely to replace Republican John Warner. In Nebraska, Democrat Scott Kleeb is making a strong bid to take Hagel’s seat. In North Carolina, Democrat Kay Hagan is giving incumbent Republican Elizabeth Dole a run for her money. And in Texas, Republican John Cornyn is facing a strong challenge from Democratic former state legislator and Afghanistan veteran Rick Noriega.

Gilhousen pointed out that Oregon has a reputation for progressive Republicans like Sen. Mark Hatfield, an opponent of the Vietnam war. “Gordon Smith is trying to pass himself off in that mold. He poses as a moderate and then goes back to Washington and votes 90 percent of the time for the Bush agenda.”

Smith voted to authorize the Iraq war. He even voted against a bill to provide body armor for the troops. The AFL-CIO slams him for voting for a “thinly disguised amendment to repeal the minimum wage.” Smith also voted to sustain a GOP filibuster that killed Senate passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.

By contrast, Merkley has a consistent pro-labor, pro-environment record, Gilhousen continued. “I’m expecting a squeeker in the election,” he said. “Smith has an enormous war chest, mostly money from insurance companies, big pharma and the oil companies.”

Yet Merkley, who grew up in a small Oregon sawmill town, is a strong challenger. “Jeff just completed a 100-city tour bringing a strong progressive message to both big cities and small towns,” Gilhousen said. “I’ve supported Jeff from day one because he can break through the rural-urban divide in Oregon.”

In Virginia, PDA’s state coordinator Howard Jennings says Democrat Mark Warner is “the hands-down favorite” against Republican former Gov. John Gilmore, who “left Virginia with a $6 billion deficit.”

Warner, who inherited that deficit when he became governor, had “a very effective, bipartisan approach,” Jennings said. During his tenure, for example, Virginia became recognized as “the best state for a child to be born in, in terms of educational opportunities.”

Progressive Democrats are also working hard to elect Gerry Connolly to replace retiring Republican Tom Davis to represent Fairfax County in the U.S. House of Representatives. “With a very strong voter registration and get-out-the-vote effort, we fully expect to pick up that seat,” he said. PDA is also working to elect Bill Day in Virginia’s 1st CD, Andrea Miller in the 4th CD and Sam Rasul in the 6th CD, districts currently held by Republicans.

“It’s an uphill race for us but the strategic importance is that our candidates will create a lot of excitement and increase the Democratic turnout for both Barack Obama and Warner,” Jennings continued. It was the strategy that gave Democrat Jim Webb victory in Virginia’s Senate race in 2006, he said. “It ran contrary to the Democrats’ strategy of running candidates only in ‘contestable’ districts. It was a terrible strategy because you got much lower voter turnout and no voices challenging the Republicans in much of the state.” PDA’s strategy dovetails with Obama’s “50 state strategy” of ceding nothing to the Republicans without a fight, he said.

greenerpastures21212 @yahoo.com

The price of empire worries even some on Wall Street

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:33:00 +0000

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hope of its children.”

These were not the words of any of the liberal Democrats who sought the presidential nomination of their party this year but rather the words of Republican President Dwight Eisenhower 50 years ago, reprinted last week in an article on a popular website for Wall Street stock brokers. The appearance of the article by University of Pennsylvania Wharton School’s James Quinn on the Seeking Alpha website shows that a section of big business is actually hurt by the neo-con strategy of military spending like there’s no tomorrow and that some believe, if it isn’t curbed, there actually may be no tomorrow.

The United States, Quinn said, currently spends more on the military than the next 45 highest spending countries in the world combined, “Where did the peace dividend from winning the Cold War go,?” Quinn asks.

The U.S. spends on weapons 5.8 times more than China, 10.2 times more than Russia and 98.6 times more than Iran. “The Cold War has been over for 20 years, but we are spending like World War III is on the near time horizon. There is no country on earth that can challenge the U.S. militarily.”

The report notes that with America spending as if it is preparing for a major conflict the conclusion naturally drawn by much of the world is that we have aggressive intentions.

Iran provides a good example. President Bush says Iran is a threat to our security.

Quinn counters, “Iran spends $7.2 billion annually on their military. We could make a parking lot out of their cities in any conflict. Does anyone really believe that they would make a nuclear weapon and use it on Israel? Their country would be obliterated.”

Military spending was just under $400 billion per year in 2000. Since 9/11 it has more than doubled.

The Wall Street stock analyst goes on to say, “The natural response of the U.S. should have been to increase spending on border protection, upgrading the CIA, and increasing our ability to gather intelligence. Defeating the Taliban in Afghanistan and cornering Bin Laden in the mountains was more than enough to deter other countries from allowing terrorists to operate within their borders.”

Quinn points out that instead of stopping there the U.S. spent billions on weapons, aircraft, tanks and missiles. “The neo-cons, led by Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz, saw the 9/11 attack as their opportunity to change the world. They’ve gotten their wish.”

As the Bush administration closes out its last full year in office, the U.S. has troops stationed in 70 percent of the world’s countries. The Pentagon says it has troops in 147 countries and 10 territories.

If there were no aggressive intentions behind this policing of the world it would be particularly difficult to explain current U.S. troop deployments in Germany and Japan where the Pentagon has 57,000 and 33,000 troops, respectively. Quinn asks: “Germany and Japan each spend $40 billion on their military. Can’t they defend themselves at this point? We defeated them 60 years ago. It is time to leave.”

He warns, in the report, “This is a prelude to decades of occupation in Iraq. Don’t believe the blather about withdrawal. The military has no intention of withdrawing.”

Quinn said that part of what angers him about military spending is the effect it has on his home state, Pennsylvania:

“Taxpayers in Pennsylvania have paid $20 billion for our share of the Iraq War, so far. This amount of money would pay for 1,650,000 scholarships for University Students for one year. Does a $20 billion investment in rebuilding Iraqi bridges that we blew up with $1 million cruise missiles make more sense than investing in our best and brightest young people? $20 billion would provide 24,000,000 homes with renewable electricity for one year. That is 20 percent of all the homes in the United States.”

The greed of the defense contractors is what prevents us from making the choice Quinn says should be made. They resist sharing their profits not just with their own workers but with the many corporations whose wealth comes from a whole range of other types of investment – like the renewable energy projects Quinn would like to see in Pennsylvania.

The top five defense contractors generated almost $129 billion in revenues and $8 billion in profits in 2006, double their revenue and profits in 2000 when Bush became president.

“The War on Terror,” Quinn says, “has been a windfall for the defense industry and their shareholders. They contribute tremendous amounts of money to Congressional candidates and have thousands of lobbyists pushing for still more defense contracts. It appears,” he adds, “that the biggest winners of the War on Terror are the CEO’s of the defense contractors. I wonder if they realized how rich they would become as they watched the Twin Towers crumble to the ground.”

Video $500 Shoes and Million Dollar Homes: McCain's the Elitist in this Race

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:18:00 +0000

Registering voters at barber shops and beauty salons

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:58:00 +0000

Barack Obama’s historic run for the White House recently announced a strategic and ongoing effort to maximize the African American electorate throughout the country in places where Blacks congregate often: barbershops and beauty salons.

The Obama campaign has initiated the Barber Shop and Beauty Salon National Voter Registration effort to register new African American voters in traditional locations where national politics and other related topics are regularly discussed.

The campaign says there are some 56 million unregistered voters in the U.S., making up 32 percent of the total eligible voter ranks. Among them are some eight million African Americans, or about 32 percent of Black voters.

Taking a lesson from the past, Democrats hope to reverse the shortfall of African American voters in the 2004 presidential elections, especially in key battleground states like Ohio, Virginia and Florida where they lost to Republicans by single digits. Democrats say those states were lost due to the high number of unregistered voters.

By registering new voters, particularly in the Black community, the Obama campaign hopes to correct that problem and to make a significant difference in states like North Carolina, which has a Democratic state legislature and governor but has not succeeded in winning voters to side with a Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter in 1976.

To shift North Carolina from a red Republican state to a blue Democratic one, the campaign plans to focus on voter education, particularly in the African American community, that highlights important issues to propel a massive surge of voters to the polls.

The campaign says mobilizing the African American vote nationwide, as never before, will be a major factor in winning on Nov. 4.

“It’s not just about registration, but we have to make sure that people understand why their vote matters, and what’s at stake in this election,” Michelle Obama told the Wilmington Journal. “We need people to understand the disparities not just at the economic level, but also in health and education … you name it. And I can guarantee you that our efforts aren’t just limited to registration,” she added.

The Obama campaign also plans to increase the involvement of African Americans throughout the Democratic National Convention with a host of speakers and participation of many Black young people.

For the past 40 years African Americans have overwhelmingly favored Democratic presidential candidates by ratios of up to 9 to 1. Other minority groups such as Latinos and Asian Americans have also historically voted Democrat. Overall, registered Democrats are about 35 percent non-white and 65 percent white, whereas 90 percent of registered voters in the Republican Party are white.

Meanwhile, a recent Census Bureau report projects that by the year 2042 non-whites or minority groups will make up more than half the U.S. population.

Obama will stand by us, say vets

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:09:00 +0000

John McCain has developed a veterans problem.

In late May, McCain aided a Republican filibuster of the 21st Century GI Bill by refusing to return to the Senate to for a key vote. In fact, McCain claimed the bill's generous provisions to aid veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan — additional health care, educational opportunities, and other resources — were bad because they would give incentives for troops to leave the military.

In fact, Time magazine reported that McCain has voted favorably on veterans issues only 30 percent of the time, while Barack Obama has supported them 90 percent of the time.

The battle over the GI Bill spurred veterans like Purple Heart recipient Christopher McGurk, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, to join the Obama campaign.

Last week, he was part of a media teleconference showcasing the 'Next Greatest Generation of Veterans for Obama.'

McGurk told reporters, 'I support Sen. Obama because he's supporting us.'

He cited Obama's work on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and his support for new funding for veterans health care and the GI Bill.

'Thanks to the new GI Bill, I now have opportunities I did not have before,' the former infantry staff sergeant added.

Veterans also say McCain's poor judgment on the Middle East has caused them to back Obama.

In a TV ad released by VoteVets.org, Iraq veteran Brandon Woods reminds viewers that McCain told the public that he would support troop withdrawal if the Iraqis asked us to leave, but once the Iraqi prime minister called for a withdrawal timetable McCain changed his tune. 'Sen. McCain would occupy Iraq indefinitely against their wishes,” the former Army captain says. “That's not what freedom means; that's not what we fought for.'

Former Army Ranger Collin McMahon of Savannah, Ga., a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, told reporters during the teleconference that his endorsement of Obama was based on the Illinois senator’s “strategic clarity and good judgment,' qualities which he said McCain lacks.

McMahon, a former sergeant, saw Obama's promise to combine economic aid, multilateral alliances and military action focused on the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks as a better choice than what McCain offers.

Drew Sloan, a former infantry officer and Afghanistan and Iraq veteran from Aspen, Colo., said, 'The threats that face us today are diverse and complex, and a Cold War mentality is not the place to look for the answers.”

'I am supporting Sen. Obama because I think he gets it,' Sloan added. 'He understands that in the 21st century, it requires two plans: one to win the war, and one to win the peace.'

John McCary, a former Army intelligence specialist in Iraq, said he thinks Obama “understands the kind of strategic vision we need to be successful in places like Iraq and Afghanistan where we have an ongoing counterinsurgency.”

'The tools we need to be successful there,' McCary noted, based on his personal experience, 'are not those of greater force implements or larger guns, but marshaling tools like cultural understanding, alliance building, marshaling resources like civilian reconstruction.'

McCary highlighted his personal struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder and Obama's support for him. 'This draws me completely, naturally to the senator, because I think he's the kind of leader we need to support these sorts of efforts,” McCary said. “And I believe he will stand by us.”

Other veterans say that while they respect McCain's military record, it is not a good basis for deciding who should get your vote for president.

'This election is not just about Senator McCain's veteran record,” said McGurk. 'The election is about health care, energy, a wide spectrum of different issues.'

In an ad by the newly formed AFL-CIO Union Veterans Council, electrician and Navy veteran Jim Wasser says, 'Every vet respects John McCain's war record. It's his record in the Senate I have a problem with.'

Wasser, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, points to McCain's agenda of big tax breaks for corporations, job-draining free trade agreements and other anti-worker policies.

AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Council President Mark Ayers, a former Navy pilot who is chairing the federation’s veterans group, said in announcing the initiative, 'Not only has McCain voted the wrong way on veterans issues — such as opposing increased funding for veterans' health care the last four years in a row — but he also doesn't support middle class people's issues.'

Among other things, McCain favors taxing workers’ health benefits, Ayers noted.

In addition to the national Union Veterans Council, state councils have been launched in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, Ohio and West Virginia. Pennsylvania, Virginia, Michigan and other states are expected to form councils shortly.

Bring back the Tree Army

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:27:00 +0000

Celebrating 75th anniversary of Civilian Conservation Corps points to job, education possibilities for today

DECEPTION PASS STATE PARK, Wash. — The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) put millions of jobless youth to work planting trees, fighting forest fires, building parks, roads and trails during the Great Depression. CCC alumni are now observing the 75th anniversary of the program founded by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Many say the CCC should be brought back to provide jobs and educational opportunities for millions of unemployed youth today.

Roosevelt signed the bill creating the program 17 days after taking office in 1933. Within a month 300,000 jobless young men had enrolled. By the time the CCC was terminated in 1942 over three million men between the ages of 17 and 23 had served. They were housed in hundreds of CCC camps across the nation. It included 250,000 African American men.

Some of the camps were integrated but racists demanded segregation and in 1935, Black enrollees were housed in 150 all-Black camps. The NAACP and other anti-racist groups protested this racist discrimination.

The young workers were assigned to a multitude of tasks mostly in the forests of the west. The U.S. Army requisitioned trains that brought hundreds of thousands of CCC enrollees west. The CCC workers planted two billion trees on land decimated by timber company clear-cutting. The CCC earned the nickname “Roosevelt’s Tree Army.”

They also fought forest fires, erected thousands of fire lookout towers, built thousands of miles of roads and bridges and helped in soil conservation and reclamation. The CCC workers cleared hiking trails and built state parks like the dramatic Deception Pass State Park on Whidbey Island, still enjoyed by thousands of campers, picnickers, and sightseers today.

The park here hosts a CCC Interpretive Center established by CCC Alumni Chapter 78 in Everett, Washington. The centerpiece is a heroic bronze statue of a bare-chested youth, “The CCC Worker.” An exhibit of photos, tools, mess kit, uniform, documents and other memorabilia of the CCC is in a stone and timber bathhouse built by CCC workers. It features a video titled “The Best Time of My Life” in which CCC alumni recount the profound influence the CCC exerted on their lives.

Visitors are invited to write their comments in a log book as they leave the center. “Let’s bring back the CCC,” wrote a couple from Seabeck, Wash. It is one of many entries with that same message.

Duane Fuehr of Centralia, Wash., volunteer host at the park, told this reporter that both his father and uncle were CCC workers. His father was a skilled logger and was placed in charge of a CCC crew at a camp near Centralia, he said.

“It would be good to bring back the CCC,” Fuehr told the World. “Some of the young people who graduate from high school are going on to college. Others will join the military like I did. But a lot of these kids don’t know what they are going to do with their lives. It would be good for them to give a year for the country.”

A spokesman for the CCC Alumni Association in St. Louis, MO. confirmed that “a lot of the alumni feel that way. They know what the CCC did for them. Many learned the trade that carried them through the the rest of their lives in the CCC. It definitely worked back then. A lot of people have contacted Congress urging that the CCC be reestablished. But the lawmakers have rejected the idea.”

Many local chapters of the CCC Alumni Association have already held events celebrating the 75th Anniversary and more celebrations will take place at the association’s annual convention Sept. 25-28 at Prince William Forest Park where Camp Roosevelt, the first CCC camp was established in 1933. The convention will recess and visit the Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorial in Washington, D.C.

The Interpretive Center records the memories of many of the CCC workers. “Food for the many hungry men was measured by the train-load,” reads the explanatory text on one exhibit. One enrollee, Ed Devine, wrote, “Half of what we ate came from nearby suppliers. These large purchases helped the local economy. Plentiful food helped the young enrollees too. I went from 128 pounds up to 155 in nothing flat and none of it was fat.”

John Tursi writes, “We came from very poverty-ridden circumstances. For many, many days, maybe a little bowl of soup a day would be it. We just didn’t eat. But the food out here was just fantastic. To wake up and go into all the hotcakes you could eat and all the butter you wanted and milk and eggs!”

An estimated 50 percent of CCC enrollees were high school dropouts, and an estimated three percent were illiterate. The CCC established an educational program, providing classes in a wide range of academic subjects as well as vocational training. Some even learned to read and write in the CCC or earned their high school diplomas.

I ran into a CCC veteran, Jim Cassidy of Puyallup, Wash., at a PWW picnic in Seattle. He told me he joined the CCC in 1933 in Bucoda, a tiny sawmill town in Thurston, County, Washington. “My dad hadn’t worked for two years,” Cassidy explained. “CCC workers were paid $30 a month. Five dollars was pocket money for us, the rest was sent home. When my $25 a month started coming home, it was a lifeline for the family.”

He was sent to Leavenworth, Washington, a town on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains, he said. His first job was helping build a road up the Icicle River to Lake Wenatchee. It is still in use today.

“That meant cutting down some trees,” Cassidy said. “In some stretches, we had to blast our way through solid granite. The road was for fire protection. During the same year, there was a big forest fire over in Skykomish on the Beckler River. We went over there and put it out.”

Being a CCC worker was not the only benefit Cassidy won from Roosevelt’s New Deal. The Wagner Act was passed and signed by Roosevelt recognizing workers’ right to join a union, bargain collectively, and go on strike to win higher wages and benefits.

“I had heard my dad talking about the Wobblies (The Industrial Workers of the World) and their idea of ‘One Big Union.’ My dad would go to union meetings. We were trying to organize the loggers and sawmill workers. It started out as the Carpenters & Joiners but they were like all the other craft unions. So we started to organize the Congress of Industrial Organizations and the International Woodworkers of America, one union for all the mill workers and loggers.”

Cassidy said the nation needs a program like the CCC, today, to provide jobs and training for millions of jobless youth. “We need the camps but we don’t need the military to run it,” he said. “They put military officers in charge.” The result was strict military discipline. The CCC workers were awakened by a bugle playing reveille in the morning and went to sleep with taps at night. There were regular military-style inspections of the barracks.

But a program that restores the CCC with an accent on “civilian,” that abolishes the CCC’s racially segregated camps, and opens it, this time, to young women as well as men, is an idea that should be “high on the agenda” of a new administration in Washington, Cassidy said.

Back in 1996, James C. Ronning, then president of the National Association of CCC Alumni, pledged to fight to “bring back the CCC.” He called the CCC “the greatest national youth program ever seen in the United States” arguing that the CCC’s goals are still as urgent as ever. “The final one, to bring together people from all backgrounds teaches people to tolerate, and even appreciate, each other and work together in a spirit of cooperation,” he wrote. “This is one goal that, if anything, seems even more relevant as we face new divisiveness in our country today.”

Torture victim fights for freedom

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:42:00 +0000

CHICAGO – Every day Mark Clements prays to God in his prison cell that one day he will be a free man. He has been incarcerated since 1981–27 years–for a crime he says he did not commit. A crime that Clements was brutally forced to admit to after Chicago police detectives beat and tortured a confession out of him. He was 16 at the time.

On June 17, 1981, at 2:00 a.m. a fire broke out in a south side building. Four people died as a result. Fire investigators determined it was arson. On June 25 police arrested Clements who was taken to a Violent Crimes Unit in what was then an Area Three Police Station where Clements says he was periodically chained to a wall and interrogated over 10 hours by four Chicago detectives who never contacted his parents.

Legally any minor under age 18 being interviewed by police must have a youth officer present. During his interrogation Clements says none were present until after he signed a confession. The law also requires that the parent or legal guardian of a juvenile be notified buy police when a youth is held. According to Clements the police never called his parents.

Clements affirms he was verbally abused with racial insults and suffered numerous beatings including to the genitals after which he made a false “confession” stating he set the fire.

During his trial Clements pleaded with the judge and said he was beaten and coerced into confessing and proclaimed his innocence. He told the judge that he signed the confession in order to stop the torture. At age 16, Clements was functionally illiterate.

At his trial Clements was assigned two public defendants who argued that Clements IQ was very low and that he did not understand his rights by signing a confession statement. Clements himself testified that he was tortured and although his lawyers tried to use his statements Clements and his supporters feel his lawyers at the time lacked the resources to press for a fair trial. His attorneys felt they could not corroborate his testimony on torture and the police would deny it.

There were no witnesses and no material evidence presented linking Clements to the fire throughout his trial. He was tried as an adult and sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years.

The Burge connection

According to supporters of Clements and others like him the Chicago police under Commander Jon Burge from 1973-1991 brutalized most of at least 135 torture victims.

All the victims are African American males and their stories tell a consistent pattern of racial discrimination by the city’s police force. Electric shock to the ears and/or genitals, burning, suffocation, and mock executions were some of the most brutal forms of torture on these men who were beaten to sign confessions for crimes they say they did not commit.

Current Mayor of Chicago Richard M. Daley served as Cook County States Attorney from 1980-1989 during the years Burge is being accused of leading such abuses as well as when Clements was tortured.

The Office of Professional Standards and the Police Federation issued reports recommending a thorough investigation on Burge and those under him in the early 1990’s. Burge was eventually fired in 1993 and till this day neither he nor any of the officers working under him accused of torture have faced criminal charges. Burge continues to receive a pension from the Chicago Police Department.

Edward Egan, a special prosecutor was appointed in 2002 to investigate the Burge accusations but after four years and seven million public dollars later he finally released a 292-page report confirming torture was evident. Two of the detectives who interrogated Clements have been named as people involved in torture under Burge in Egan’s report. Yet Egan refused to bring charges against Burge and others. Some feel Egan was biased because it was later revealed his nephew was a police officer under Burge.

Last year, the Cook County Board of Commissioners called for hearings of all the Burge victims including a federal prosecution of Burge and the determination that torture is a federal crime without a statue of limitations. The Illinois House of Representatives recently passed legislation to set up an innocence commission to review torture claims. The measure is currently in the Senate.

Meanwhile federal prosecutors led by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald are calling ten retired police officers before a grand jury to testify as to whether Burge and those under him obstructed justice by stating under oath that the Chicago Police did not use torture. If it is confirmed that such practices occurred, they and Burge could still be prosecuted on the federal level.

Before leaving office in 2003, former Governor George Ryan pardoned four of the Death Row 10, who said they were tortured under Burge, on the basis of innocence. Ryan commuted the sentences of the others to Life without Parole. All originally received death sentences and said confessions were beaten out of them, crimes they say they did not do.

In 2002 Attorney General Lisa Madigan was appointed as the lead prosecutor in the Burge torture cases. According to the Campaign To End The Death Penalty in Chicago at least 30 victims of torture remain behind bars based on false confessions. Madigan, they say, has the power to grant evidentiary hearings so that victims can present evidence of torture but she has not budged.

Clements side of the story

With the help of the prison library staff that noticed Clements was eager to be taught he learned how to read and write in prison. Very few prisoners have such opportunities today according to Clements supporters who say staff and collections at prison libraries have been slashed.

Today Clements continues to work tirelessly in seeking religious, community and legal support for a new trial in order to prove his innocence. Although Clements case has no direct relation to the Burge beatings, his case is currently on appeal in the Cook County Criminal Court and a legal team led by Timothy A. Nelsen is in his corner.

“I did not commit this crime,” said Clements in a written letter to this reporter. “I was not allowed to see a youth officer nor call my parents. I was beaten and tortured in my genitals twice inside a closet sized interrogation room. During the beatings I was called racist names,” said Clements.

“During the second beating and torture,” one detective said ‘since you like telling, tell this,’ as he beat me in my chest and stomach with his fist. He beat me in the thighs and shoulders and smacked me. He grabbed my private area and I cried and he squeezed really hard until I agreed to say what he wanted me to say to the states attorney.”

Clements said he told the states attorney what the detective told him to say because he was “scared he would return and beat and torture me.” Clements told the states attorney that he was abused but the states attorney “came in the room, took the confession and acted like I never told him what occurred to me.”

In his letter Clements adds, “It is very important to share this story and my fight for freedom. Why? I am one of the first Chicago police torture victims, but I had poor legal representation on the trial level and my lawyers did not interview one witness connected with this crime nor did they investigate the confession.”

“I was also found guilty because I was poor and did not understand the seriousness of the charges against me whatsoever. I believe had this been a teenager whose family had money he would not be in prison. I did no crime and I shake my head each day at how easy I was railroaded by a judge who is supposed to be honorable and fair. Where is the justice for the poor?” he asked.

“I do believe the criminal justice system discriminates when it comes to applying equal justice to the poor, African American and Latino men and women all over this country. I feel racism plays a role in over 60 percent of all cases in wrongful convictions and torture involving criminal suspects.”

Ted Pearson with the Chicago National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression is a friend and supporter of Clements and has been following his case closely.

Pearson said Clements legal appeal is moving forward and that his lawyers are making gains including doing a new and improved finger print analysis on the crime evidence. Recent court orders were also granted to Clements legal team in getting access to all documents of the case including information on the whereabouts of alleged witnesses who spoke with detectives at the time.

Clements story “indicates that these torture methods and beatings shows it was an on-going practice in the police department at the time and some argue it still happens today,” said Pearson.

“If police can beat a confession out of you then you don’t have any rights at all and nobody is safe when they can do this,” added Pearson. “It’s really a violation of our rights and they continue to get away with it.”

Meanwhile victims of police torture are behind bars, most of them innocent and African American, while police officers receive pensions collecting retirement, said Pearson.

In low-income communities where financial resources are poor and recreational programs for youth are limited including the lack of jobs, many residents throughout the city see the police as another form of oppression at times. Stories of torture and police brutality cases make many communities fear their presence and unfortunately taints the entire police department as community-wide suspicion grows. In the end as more and more police abuse cases emerge it makes it even harder for the police to work with and gain the trust of communities in order to confront crime.

“Our position is if a person was convicted based on a confession obtained through violence, torture or the threat of violence, they should have a new trial,” said Pearson. “Such confessions should never be allowed into evidence. In many of these cases there is no other evidence, and the victims of such abuse will be exonerated. The state would not try them again,” added Pearson.

Pearson hopes Congress will continue to issue federal restrictions on local police torture and hold such actions in legal contempt. Police accountability is extremely important and we need to restore confidence in the police who work in our communities, said Pearson.

The toll on all

Dozens of activists, community leaders and family members of prisoners who say they were tortured into making false confessions rallied in front of Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s downtown office, July 18, urging her to issue new trials for the wrongfully convicted including Mark Clements.

Exonerated Illinois death row inmate and leader with the Campaign to End the Death Penalty Darby Tillis addressed the crowd. “I know what it is to linger in a cell,” he said. “I spent 19 years on death roll and it’s a living hell.” Tillis added, “I’ve been beaten by police, kicked, knocked down and hit with a 357 magnum. These victims are human beings and like anyone else it’s time we get some justice.”

It is hard to say how many families in all throughout Chicago suffer the realities of police abuse especially with new cases everyday. But it is certain that dozens of families are fighting for their loved ones freedom including Clements’ mother. She is known as his biggest supporter and a long time activist who continues to fight for his innocence. Even despite her personal and bitter struggle against cancer she hopes to see the day where her son will be released. And in the end over time the physical and mental fight for freedom takes a heavy toll on the entire family of torture victims. Mary L. Johnson was also at the rally representing her son Michael Johnson who has been in prison for 10 years “I’m doing time right along with my son, and I don’t want to see another mother go through what I have been going through,” said Johnson to the crowd. “As long as there is injustice we will be struggling and we will continue to fight,” she said.

In the meantime behind bars is Mark Clements who enjoys reading and says he stays busy working on civil rights and community issues and attends wrongful conviction meetings. He also leads a 30-minute segment on a Christian AM radio program hosted by his church.

“Change is coming,” says Clements. “I have suffered and I have paid my dues.”

Clements says he wants troubled kids in low-income urban neighborhoods to know about his story and his struggle.

“I want them to know the system will lock them up innocent or guilty, they don’t care,” said Clements.

Clements, who has spent his whole adult life in prison, hopes one day he will be a free man and get his life back.

Pearson and his group are encouraging supporters of Clements to write or call the office of Richard A. Devine who is the Cook County States Attorney at 2650 S. California, Chicago IL, 60608 (11th floor) or (773) 869-6209 and demand that he stop opposing the possibility for a new trial for Clements and other torture victims.

John Rujevcic Gerlach, 1915-2008

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 11:00:00 +0000

At the ripe age of 93, John R. Gerlach, the former Intelligence Officer of the Legendary 15th Brigade that included the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, passed away on August 12th, in Camarillo, California—having lived a very long and full life, capped by hearing of the March 30, 2008 San Francisco unveiling ceremony of the National Monument to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade of Veterans of the Spanish Civil War.

Born Ivan Rujevcic in Vurota, Croatia, where he lived until the age of 13—John R. Gerlach came to the U.S. in 1928 aboard the Leviathan, the largest cruise liner of its time. In Detroit, he reunited with his mother Maritza Rujevcic and step-Father, Anthony Gerlach, then a labor union organizer and national Croatian political leader as well Secretary of the I.W.O. Under the guidance of his step-father, and while attending union rallies and watching his step-father give speeches to Detroit automobile workers and other union workers, John quickly rose up from the ranks. John became a union organizer himself at twenty, and he organized the restaurant workers on Greek Street in Detroit. Soon thereafter, he traveled to Moscow under a scholarship to study for 2 years at Moscow’s University of the National Minorities of the West in 1935 and 1936, where he gained skills in engineering and political science, encompassing Marxism and Leninism—skills which would permanently and dramatically inform and alter his life.

In December 1936, back in New York City, Gerlach was recruited by his former Moscow professor, Mirko Markovic, to serve in the International Brigades of Volunteers defending the Spanish Democratic Republic during the Spanish Civil War—the Spanish Democracy's war of resistance fighting against the brutal forces of the Spanish Rebel army under fascist General Francisco Franco and his allies, Nazi German and fascist Mussolini's Italy. Arriving in Spain, John Gerlach was immediately named Lieutenant and Intelligence Officer responsible for English-speaking and South-Slav-speaking affairs working at the International Brigade Base in Albacete. Using the nom de guerre of “Ivan,” John Gerlach later served as 15th Brigade Staff Officer and Head of Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence at the Front—where he personally brought Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn and Herbert Matthews in his staff car and took them to the front lines: the first of John's three dramatic encounters with Hemingway.

Gerlach is listed and pictured in American history books alongside prominent Lincoln Brigade American officers Major Robert Merriman and Commissar Dave Doran. John is cited in many books for his heroic role in leading a column of some one hundred top Americans out of a fascist blitzkrieg encirclement, guiding that column of men for two harrowing days and nights days eastward toward their hope of safety across the Ebro River—which many of them lived to cross, his later good friend Milton Wolff among them. John Gerlach at that time also guided two American comrades to the banks of the Ebro where he spotted a canoe and rowed them across the swollen Ebro at dawn—only to be greeted by foreign correspondents Ernest Hemingway and Vincent Sheean.

Hemingway recorded John's account of the fates of those present and missing among the Abraham Lincoln Battalion. Hemingway's April 3, 1938, dispatch was printed in the New York Times, and quotes the 'Scout Officer Ivan' as his source of information. John Gerlach was to meet with Hemingway one last time in Barcelona, prior to being repatriated.

Gerlach subsequently worked as a mechanical engineer for Kwikset Locks Corporation in California, where he became their top designer of locks and stylish door handles still in production. His superb war memoir piece, 'Behind Enemy Lines', was published in the Alvah Bessie Edited Anthology, 'Our Fight', a collection of selected writings by Lincoln Brigade Veterans.

Gerlach's experiences in Spain were subsequently researched by his son Quentin Guerlain to incorporate his father's unique role and perspective into an all-inclusive historical novel entitled WHEN FREEDOM CALLED—An American Intelligence Officer in the Spanish Civil War. As of April, 2008 this historical novel has become championed by none other than Spain's Ambassador to the United States—Ambassador Carlos Westendorp, who pledged to 'do my best to try to find some potentially interested publisher in Spain'—a remarkable final tribute to the measure of John's life and his service as an Intelligence Officer in Spain, among notable heroic comrades.

John Rujevic Gerlach is also described and pictured as a Croatian Hero in a historical work by the Croatian historian Juro Gajdek. Gadjek interviewed John for his role as one of the prominent Croatian and Yugoslav National Heroes—so honored for their parts in their resistance against fascism and as defenders of liberty at the first phase of World War Two, fought on the battlefields of Spain.

In 1986, Gerlach was awarded an Honorary Spanish Citizenship of Spain from Spain's legislative body the Cortes, such recognition accorded to all the survivors of the International Brigades. With his passing, John leaves only 34 living American Veterans of the legendary Abraham Lincoln Brigade out of some 2800 who served in Spain.

John leaves behind his wife Sonya Gerlach of some 47 years, of Oxnard Shores and formerly the Director of Social Services of all of Los Angeles County, as well as many dear relatives from her side of the family in Southern California. He also leaves behind four sons and their respective families: Stephen Nicholas (AKA Jesse Kincaid of Mill Valley, California), daughter-in-law Linda Longstreet and granddaughter Katherine Kincaid; Quentin Guerlain and daughter-in-law Maree J. Wong-Guerlain of Novato from John's first marriage to Madelyne Benjamin, also of Detroit. And from his marriage to Sonya, John leaves behind sons: Evan Gerlach of Oxnard Shores, and Dan Gerlach of Cheviot Hills, and grandson Dan Gerlach, Jr. John also leaves behind his Croatian great-niece Melita Zak currently of Oxnard; also his brother Fred Gerlach, sister-in-law Barbara Gerlach, and nephew David Gerlach—all of San Diego; John also leaves many relatives in Croatia.

John will be dearly remembered for his satirical wit, his earthy charm, winning smile and zesty passion for friends and family—as well as for his wide love of world literature. He spoke fluent Russian, Serbo-Croatian and English, as well as Spanish. He was of another time and era, but he also merged into the hip Sixties and Seventies and survived well into the transformative twenty-first century—most lately devoting his lucid mental faculties toward working in the ongoing research into his fascinating role and unique perspective serving in the International Brigades for two years in Spain. Throughout his long life he never for a moment forgot his purpose and friends in Spain; and he lived just long enough to see the unveiling of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Monument in San Francisco.

His life stands as a heroic example of bold and informed American activism inspiring young and old to constantly move bravely forward—'Adelante!'—in the continuing struggle for human rights and for universal liberty. Long live the Fifteenth Brigade! Viva La Quince Brigada!