People Before Profit blog

Horn on the horn

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 08:47:00 +0000

The Thrill and the AgonyThis week in sports by Chas Walker

Horn on the horn

It is a “cell-abration” that few will forget. After his second of four touchdown receptions in Sunday’s 45-7 victory over the New York Giants, New Orleans Saints’ wide receiver Joe Horn rushed over to the goalpost and whipped out a cell phone he had planted prior to the game to make a call.

Horn claims that he called his mother and children, but a more likely scenario is that he was just calling for some media attention. Horn is one of those athletes who refer to themselves eerily in the third person during interviews and public appearances. It’s as if Joe Horn needed to constantly hear Joe Horn’s named being mentioned, and since the press does not do it, then Joe Horn must.

In all fairness, Horn is having the best season of his 8-year career, with 10 total touchdown receptions, nearly 1,000 receiving yards, and an average of 12.3 yards per catch so far, but he has complained to the press that no one pays any attention. Hmm.

Perhaps that is because the Saints are 7 and 7 and have only a remote chance of making the playoffs?

Horn’s showmanship one-ups San Francisco’s Terrell Owens, who last year kept a felt marker in his sock until he scored – then whipped it out, autographed the ball, and handed it to his financial consultant. After Owens’ stunt, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue sent a memo to all teams warning them that other such acts would be punished.

Jim Haslett, the Saints’ coach, was not pleased by Horn’s show, as it resulted in a 15-yard penalty, giving the Giants great field position. It remains to be seen how the NFL will react, but insiders are guessing that Horn will be fined tens of thousands of dollars.

And I thought that I got charged too much for using my cell phone.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org

On the picket line at Safeway

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 08:41:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. – “I’m here to fight for my benefits,” said Teresa Gonzales. Gonzales is a picket captain for the United Food and Commercial Workers union from Hawaiian Gardens in Southern California. She has been here for weeks leading a team of Southern California grocery workers who are informing shoppers of the issues in their strike.

Standing in front of the Safeway in the Rock Ridge shopping mall, Gonzales told the World, “I’m epileptic, and in 1998 I had a grand mal seizure right in the store.” The ambulance, emergency treatment and hospitalization for that single incident cost over $3,500 dollars, and her insurance covered it. Under Safeway’s new proposal, Gonzales said she would be forced to come up with half the cost. “I can’t do that,” she said. “I have to fight for my benefits.”

Ryan Morlan, another picketer, said, “If they [the grocery stores] get their way on health care, I won’t be able to pay my rent.” Morlan said the company’s proposal includes a $95 a week premium payment and increases co-pays for each doctor visit from $15 to $35.

David and Vicky Cuevas are husband and wife strikers from Laguna Niguel. Vicky pointed out that both she and her husband would be required to pay the $95 weekly health care premium even though they are both covered under the same family policy. David said one of his co-workers, a single mother, has a young daughter with failing kidneys who requires weekly dialysis, a very expensive treatment. Her current coverage pays all the costs. Under the company’s proposals, she would have to pay the total costs out of her own pocket. To make matters worse, her income ($7.55/hour) is too high to qualify for state or federal assistance for her daughter’s dialysis. “For her this is truly a life or death struggle,” he said.

The Cuevas family knew this was going to be a tough fight. “The union told us and we all knew this was going to take a hard toll on us,” they told the World. “Most of our fellow workers started saving, paying off credit cards and car payments getting ready for this strike.” David and Vicky Cuevas refused to take any money from the union strike fund for the first three weeks. Other pickets are doing the same thing. “We know what it is going to take to win, and that’s how determined we are to hold out one day longer than the company.”

The author can be reached at scott@rednet.org.

New video exposes Bushs lies

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 08:24:00 +0000

Review

“Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War” Produced and directed by Robert Greenwald, in video or DVD format, 56 minutes, $14.95.

By Todd Tollefson

Most regular readers of the People’s Weekly World probably know the lies fed to us by the Bush administration about the preemptive war on Iraq pretty well by now. However, on Dec. 7, tens of thousands of others got the chance to view the documentary “Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War” and see the lies all wrapped up together and exposed in one neat package.

The website MoveOn.org sponsored over 2,500 screenings of the film on Dec. 7 to help shed light on the tall tales that we were told about why Iraq was an “imminent threat” to the United States and the world. In fact, in Seattle alone there were more than 20 screenings to choose from!

The one I attended took place at an upscale glassblowing gallery in the downtown area and had around 40 participants. I’m quite active in Seattle politics, so I was quite pleased to see no familiar faces – preaching to the choir didn’t appear to be happening at this event! The hosts seemed quite new to politics as the opening remarks made evident. How refreshing it was to find out that people who were never active before are now doing something tangible to help get rid of Bush.

The film itself is quite remarkable. Dozens of CIA, Pentagon and foreign service experts are featured, including Ray McGovern, who worked for the CIA for over 20 years; Bradley Kiesing, who was the first person in the Bush administration to resign over the war; and Ambassador Joe Wilson, whose wife was exposed as a CIA operative (presumably by right-wing newsman Robert Novak) after Wilson exposed the Niger-Iraq uranium deal to be a lie put forward by the U.S. government.

One of the strongest moments of the film is when experts take apart Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address line-by-line, effectively demonstrating that each “threat” Iraq supposed posed was false. We are led to the unmistakable conclusion that this war was not about weapons of mass destruction, al Qaeda or Sept. 11. One of the experts interviewed points out this war was about showing that the U.S. is the sole superpower in the world – and if any country doesn’t toe the line, it can be preemptively attacked.

The producer of this film also created “Unprecedented: The Story of the 2000 Florida Election Scandal,” and has a third subject in mind for the proposed trilogy: “Unconstitutional.”

To order a copy of the DVD or video, visit www.truthuncovered.com, or write a check for $14.95 payable to Carolinaproductions, Inc., and mail it to Uncovered, P.O. Box 988, Culver City, CA 90232.

Then watch it with someone who needs to know the whole truth about the Iraq war.

The author can be reached at commiett@yahoo.com.

Heartbeat of Buena Vista Ruben Gonzalez, 84, Cuban pianist

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 08:16:00 +0000

HAVANA (AP) – Cuban pianist Ruben Gonzalez, who found new fame in the mid-1990s playing with Compay Segundo’s Buena Vista Social Club band, died Dec. 8 in Havana. He was 84.

The Cuban Music Institute did not provide a cause of death. Gonzalez’s keyboard gymnastics provided the heartbeat of the Buena Vista Social Club’s string of traditional Cuban “son” music albums beginning in 1997.

The smallish man with grizzled hair gained global attention as the pianist on the opening album of the series, the Grammy-winning “Buena Vista Social Club.” The London Daily Telegraph quotes Ry Cooder, the U.S. guitarist, saying Gonzalez was “the greatest piano soloist I have ever heard,” defining his style as a “Cuban cross between Thelonious Monk and Felix the Cat.”

The best-known Buena Vista figure, guitarist and lead singer Compay Segundo, died in July.

Gonzalez also played on subsequent Buena Vista albums that featured fellow older artists Ibrahim Ferrer, in 1999, and Omara Portuondo, in 2000.

But most of his individual fame came with his solo “Introducing ... Ruben Gonzalez” in 1997, and an additional solo album, “Chanchullo,” three years later.

Born in the central province of Santa Clara in 1919, Gonzalez had originally wanted to be a doctor but enjoyed music so much he began studying piano at a conservatory in the eastern city of Cienfuegos in 1934.

He moved to Havana to become a musician in 1941, first recording with Arsenio Rodriguez, a pioneer in Cuban-rhythm orchestras of the time, then joining the Orquestra de Los Hermanos.

Gonzalez later traveled and worked in Panama and Argentina, finally returning to Havana and playing in clubs including the famed Tropicana night club.

He joined forces with pianist Enrique Jorrin’s band in the early 1960s, and they played together until Jorrin’s death in the mid-1980s. Gonzalez took over the band for a time, but later retired.

Gonzalez in 1996 met up in Havana with Ry Cooder, who produced the “Buena Vista Social Club” records, and his career was reborn.

The L factor: Icons of Latino art and politics

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 08:10:00 +0000

NEW YORK – Latino art in U.S. culture, like Latinos themselves, cannot be easily categorized or narrowly defined. A bold new exhibit at Exit Art provides a box-of-chocolates sampling of a new generation of Latino artists which ranges from the humorous to the eclectic to the bizarre to the sublime. It also provides a glimpse at a new way of thinking about what it means to be an “americano.”

The exhibit (which runs through February 15, 2004) features the creations of 31 Latino artists as they pay homage to an array of great Latino icons from Jennifer Lopez to Lolita Lebrón, Cantiflas to Tito Puente, Frida Kalho to Sammy Sosa, and even hip-hop MC Big Pun and the cartoon character Speedy Gonzalez.

In our media-manipulated and media-crazed culture, it is not surprising that J-Lo gets the most attention, not all of it flattering. She is represented variously as a trampoline, as cotton candy, and as an empty dress made of broken green glass collected from the sidewalks of the Bronx and the beaches of Ponce, Puerto Rico. The last piece, by Milton Rosa-Ortiz, aptly titled Fama, imitates the shimmering green designer dress Jennifer Lopez wore to the 2000 Grammy Awards. The “dress,” suspended in mid-air, evokes the mosaic reality of shattered dreams and polluted Latino barrios which are too easily obscured behind the alluring footlights of fame.

Another glimpse of this dual Latino reality is the Cesar Chavez icon created by Puerto Rican-born artist, Johnny the Whip. His image of a half-body Statue of Liberty holding a torch topped by a head of lettuce pays tribute to the millions of nearly invisible farm workers whom Chavez sought to unionize and who still struggle today for recognition and justice.

The nearly mythical Communist painter Frida Kahlo is represented by Andrea Arroyo as a continuous eyebrow, made of Mexican rebozo fabric, which resembles a bird in flight. Another conceptual artist, Tamara Kostianovsky of Argentina, uses her own hair to render a portrait of Frida on plexiglass, which is only appears as an eerie shadow on the wall.

But the most disturbing symbol of the exhibit is the work of Nicaraguan artist Ricardo Miranda Zuñiga. In “Vagamundo: A Migrant’s Tale,” Zuñiga educates his audience about the U.S. government-sponsored terrorism at the Mexican border through an interactive video game shaped as a paletera, a street-vendor’s cart. The game’s Latino icon, Cantiflas, must then dodge beer bottles and other obstacles to the social and economic success of the “American Dream.”

In January and February, the second part of “L factor” will feature film, video, musical and spoken word presentations, including a discussion on Jan. 14 with Ernesto Quiñonez, author of “Bodega Dreams,” and Edgardo Vega Yunqué, author of “No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent, You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain’t Never Coming Home Again.”

Exit Art is located at 475 Tenth Avenue at 36th Street in New York City. Suggested donation: $5. For information call: (212) 966-7745 or visit www.exitart.org.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org.

Wheres Santa?

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 08:00:00 +0000

Review

Children at Risk: Protecting New York City’s Youths, 1653-2003 The New-York Historical Society 2 West 77th Street New York City Through April 4, 2004

’Tis the season for giving – not only to loved ones, but also to those in need. New York City has quite a few children in need.

The New-York Historical Society is presenting “Children at Risk: Protecting New York City’s Youths, 1653-2003,” a timely exhibit, with the sponsorship of The New York Times, which is currently conducting its annual Neediest Cases drive.

The exhibit opens with a startling fact: “In 2003, three out of every 10 city children under age 18 are living below the federal poverty line (defined as an annual income of $18,000 or less for a family of four). ... Taken together, the 1.6 million New Yorkers of all ages living in poverty would, if given their own municipality, constitute the fifth largest city in the United States.” Things are rough.

Things have always been rough and the exhibit consists of material that witnesses that fact. Unfortunately, as Dr. Steven H. Jaffe commented to the World, while there were likely many grass-roots efforts to help impoverished and abused children, little physical evidence of these efforts survived. What records and memorabilia survived were mainly from philanthropic, religious, reform movement and government efforts to help children. The exhibit very objectively states the results of these efforts were mixed.

Merchant Cornelis Steenwyck was one of New Amsterdam’s “orphan masters.” Wealthy himself (he traded in sugar, tobacco and slaves), he later became mayor. New Amsterdam distinguished between deserving and undeserving impoverished by making people wear red or blue badges on their clothes. The deserving received alms, the undeserving, punishment.

In 1735, an almshouse was built on what is currently the site of City Hall. There was an infirmary, a workroom, and a cellar reserved for “the unruly and obstinate.” When it opened in 1736, it housed 12 adults and at least seven children. By 1795, it sheltered 622 people – four out of 10 were immigrants. Children were supposedly taught a trade, and some were indentured.

The early half of the 19th century saw a great increase in the city’s population from impoverished immigrants. Only affluent parents could afford tutors or private schools to educate their children. Other children served apprenticeships. Two wealthy Quakers founded the Free School Society, which later became the New York public school system.

James McCune Smith, born of a slave mother and a white father, was able to attend the African Free School, a charity sponsored by the New York Manumission Society. He was emancipated in 1827 by a state law abolishing slavery. He was refused admittance to American medical schools because of his race, so he studied in Glasgow, Scotland. He opened an interracial medical practice on West Broadway in 1837, becoming the first professionally trained Black physician in the U.S. Frederick Douglass would say that Smith was the most important Black influence in his life.

A group of wealthy New York women established the first orphanage in New York City in 1806. This was followed by religion-sponsored orphanages, a Catholic one serving immigrant Irish, German and Italian children, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum serving Jewish children.

Racism kept African American children out of the existing orphanages, so in 1836, a Quaker, Anna M. Shotwell, and other women, founded the Colored Orphan Asylum. Many of the children there were not orphans, but had mothers in domestic service, or fathers out to sea, and so needed a temporary home. Today, the Harlem Dowling-West Side Center is the successor to the Colored Orphan Asylum.

Of course, no exhibit of impoverished children would be complete without some of the incredible photographs taken by Jacob Riis of the horrors of tenement life. Several examples of his work are shown, including a picture of homeless “street arabs.”

The exhibit covers the initiation of several major current institutions – the New York Foundling Hospital, still providing services for special needs children, the Fresh Air Fund and The Children’s Aid Society.

The Children’s Aid Society was founded in 1853 by Charles Loring Brace. He believed that children should be taken out of bad environments – the streets and asylums of New York – and be allowed to grow up in rural settings. In one of his efforts that definitely had mixed results, over 100,000 children were sent by the Children’s Aid Society on “orphan trains” to western states where they were fostered with farm families. Many of these children were not orphans, but removed from their families and became free farm labor. Some children found loving environments, others, abusive ones. The program ended in 1929 as western states passed laws against taking in non-resident children.

Towards the end of the 19th century, the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NYSPCC) was founded to investigate and intervene in cases of child abuse. Children were not only abused by parents in stressed situations, they were also abused by people who “sheltered” them and “slave-masters” who had children working on the streets. The NYSPCC raided the “Shepherds Fold,” an orphanage on East 16th Street run by a Rev. Cowley and removed 24 children “sick, emaciated and nearly starved to death.”

Thousands of working-class children contributed to their family income, or survived on their own. They hawked newspapers, scavenged, or worked in home-industries sewing and rolling cigars. Some begged, stole or were sold as prostitutes.

The 1903 Street Trades Bill required newsboys to be at least 10 years old, have parental permission, and be in good standing at school, whereupon the boy would be issued a badge. Lewis Hines photographed some of these “Newsies,” many without badges – some very much younger than 10.

Progressives collected social data and started pushing for reforms. Settlement houses, such as the Henry Street Settlement and Greenwich House were founded. Social work became a new profession. Metropolitan Life, which had sold millions of low-cost “industrial” life insurance policies, was convinced to start a visiting nurse service to try to reduce the mortality of tuberculosis, diphtheria and other illnesses found in disease-ridden tenements.

Alongside settlement houses and the beginnings of social work, immigrants tried to be self-sufficient, relying on their own churches, ethnic societies and labor unions to help families in crisis.

Then the Great Depression struck. As part of the New Deal, Aid to Dependent Children was enacted in 1935. It became the foundation for welfare.

The exhibit closes with current problems and successes. Reagan started the reduction of government spending on social programs, culminating in Guiliani’s Work Experience Program, which tried to replace welfare with “workfare.” Drugs, AIDS and homelessness are major threats to children. Racism still exists, education budgets are constantly being cut, and abuse cases leap out in the news to horrify us.

Head Start programs have helped, Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City has come on the scene, and Sept. 11 initiated Operation Giveback.

After Sept. 11, Public School 234 was evacuated along with much of lower Manhattan close to the World Trade Center. In response, the world sent gifts of money, books, supplies, teddy bears and letters of support for the children. The principal, teachers and parents felt this was the very opportunity to teach their children about giving and receiving. In Operation Giveback, the students collected $9,000 for the homeless and other charities. A fifth-grader, Ashlee Gibbs, is quoted, “Giving can make all sorts of things happen.”

The author can be reached at kmoy@pww.org.

How much for that dog?

Fri, 12 Dec 2003 08:49:00 +0000

Every so often, while I’m out walking my dogs, someone offers me money for my well-behaved beauties. Sometimes it’s just a playful and friendly joke – people are often inspired to say friendly words at the sight of such happy dogs. But every now and then someone with experience recognizes the two trained and healthy dogs as worth something more than money.

The truth is that my dogs are worth the money I spend on their food, toys, and occasional vets visits. And I’m not just talking about their help in the usual way, guarding the house, and protecting me when I’m out on a walk, although they certainly do that.

But by far their greatest value is that they get me out into my neighborhood, walking the streets, meeting people who I would otherwise be too busy to notice. In fact, since I, like most other working-class people, work all day away from home, I don’t really have the time to spend with my neighbors. If it wasn’t for Adam and Evie, I would not regularly go for walks. And if I did, I’d walk like most people do in Chicago – fast, head down, and on a mission to get where I’m going.

But when I’m walking the dogs, it’s like playtime for me too. I look at the beautiful houses, take time to breathe deeply and smile at the people I see. Every day, for a few hours, I don’t have to work, or clean, or think, or be otherwise engaged in doing anything other than being myself. I try to use the time wisely. Sometimes I play my lute, sometimes I skip, sometimes I chase and play with the dogs. I sing sometimes too. But most of all I try to take the time to talk to people, people who are my neighbors, but yet unknown to me.

The dogs are an instant excuse for conversation. “What kind of dogs are those?” a new acquaintance might ask. “Good dogs,” is my usual answer, as I introduce them and myself. I meet a lot of great people that way. I meet kids, their hard-working parents, other dog owners, city workers, and all sorts of people who for whatever reason smile at the sight my dogs.

The truth is we are all so rushed nowadays that any excuse to stop and smile is worth its weight in gold. That and enough bread to eat are what everyone deserves to have in their life, and I’m glad to be a small part of the fight for both.

The author can be reached at bkishner@pww.org.

Phil who? Ochs legacy continues today

Fri, 12 Dec 2003 08:37:00 +0000

For those not fortunate enough to recall, Phil Ochs was one of our nation’s most profound folk singers in the period that bridged the Civil Rights, antiwar and feminist movements. His songs called for peace and an equitable society. His songs called for equal rights and celebrated an egalitarian philosophy. His songs damned the establishment that accepted the murder of leaders such as Medgar Evers and allowed organized labor to abandon its true cause.

Ochs’ songs unashamedly pointed out our faults and tried to demonstrate the means to repair them. His songs were brash calls to the youthful protesters and Ochs was a presence – not only in song, but in person – at such historic events as the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention. Some of his music was heard at campuses and rallies as commonly as those of his contemporaries, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

Many of Ochs’ songs remain in the common vocabulary and surely the repertoire of today’s folk singers. So, how is it then, that this vital, powerful, gifted songwriter of sonorous voice and darkly handsome features could be but a fading image to the general society? Phil who??

From the comfort zone of the New York Greenwich Village folk scene to the national stage, Ochs sang his protests. Albums such as “All the News That’s Fit To Sing” and “I Ain’t Marchin’ Anymore” spoke volumes. Though the songs kept coming, he seemed unmarketable. Somehow the corporate media kept missing – or trying to dismantle – the point. Ochs’ move to California allowed him more breathing space but little solace. He toyed with audiences by titling an album “Rehearsals for Retirement,” the cover of which offered his own gravestone.

Continually plagued by demons, inner and outer, Ochs’ performances often became arguments with the audience, best documented by the concert album, “Gunfight at Carnegie Hall,” in which he can be heard berating a taunting audience with statements like, “Don’t be like Spiro Agnew.”

And through all of the pain, including a much-documented battle with depression, Ochs maintained contact with the issues that mattered most. For a while at least, he was beating the power elite’s offensive. Into the early 1970s he organized large-scale benefit concerts that would serve as the model for the later No Nukes and Live Aid events. He traveled to South America and met with songwriter-activist Victor Jara. The terrible murder of Jara at the behest of the right-wing dictator Pinochet was an awful blow to the already faltering Ochs. By the mid-seventies, unable to prevail in the battle on every front, he would die by his own hand.

Phil Ochs dared to speak back to the criminal Nixon administration through his music, uncovering and exposing with anger and wry humor. He alerted his audience to police brutality and corruption and the manipulation of “the American dream.” Wisely, he warned us that a protest song was “something you won’t hear on the radio.” He dared us to care, at the expense of himself. But some of us will never forget.

The author can be reached at leftmus@earthlink.net.

A must-see film on the great theft of 2000

Fri, 12 Dec 2003 08:30:00 +0000

Review

Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election Directed by Joan Sekler and Richard Ray Perez L.A. Independent Media Center Film Produced by Robert Greenwald Productions 50 minutes, $14.98

Imagine being an African American pastor never arrested for anything in your life. You show up at the polls on election day and are told you can’t vote because you’re a convicted felon. Why? Because your name happens to be the same as the name of someone who is a convicted felon, and the law says that convicted felons can’t vote in Florida. Never mind whether or not the date of birth matches. You can’t vote, period.

Sound far-fetched? This is in fact what happened in Florida in the 2000 presidential election. Not just to one person, but to thousands of people, mostly African Americans, who were effectively denied their right to vote in that election. Since African Americans vote 90 percent Democratic, it’s easy to conclude that Bush won the election because of voting irregularities in the state of Florida.

This is in fact the conclusion drawn by the directors of a film that is a “must see” for everyone in the U.S. “Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election” documents the astonishing story of how the election was stolen.

We learn how the Republican-controlled state Legislature passed a bill calling for a private firm to cross-match registered voters against a list of convicted felons, and to remove all “matches” from the rolls. The firm, Data Base Technologies, was told to use loose parameters. As a result, if the name or date of birth weren’t an exact match, the company was told not to worry about it.

When the company advised state officials that this would result in many “false positives” they were told, “We want to capture more names that possibly aren’t matches,” by a Board of Elections attorney.

The film takes us through the battles over undervotes, overvotes, dimpled chads, and overseas absentee ballots in a riveting presentation that brings back all of the nail-biting drama.

More than that, the film reveals the political maneuvering and plainly illegal tactics engaged in by the Bush camp. While the harshest condemnation is of George Bush, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Secretary of State Kathryn Harris, Al Gore and the Democratic Party do not escape criticism. Gore and the Democratic Party challenged the vote in only four Florida counties which they thought had voted heavily Democratic. In all likelihood, had the recount taken place in every county, as required by Florida law, Gore would have won.

We all know the outcome: “George W. Bush stole the presidency of the United States … and got away with it,” states Elaine Dutka, Los Angeles Times writer quoted on the jacket of the film.

But the film does not leave the audience in despair. It does just the opposite, making the viewer want to do everything possible to make sure that our democratic right to vote and have our vote counted is protected, not just in the next election, but for future generations.

In one of the most stirring moments in the film, Kweisi Mfume, president of the NAACP, says that we are called upon to be the stewards of our democracy. It is what we make it, and it is our responsibility to improve upon it and leave a democracy to future generations that they can be proud of.

The film is receiving wide interest in light of revelations about how easy it is to commit voter fraud with the new computerized voting machines now being introduced in many states.

The film “Unprecedented” is ideal for house parties and for meetings of all kinds of organizations – unions, civil liberties groups, places of worship, college campuses, and more. No doubt, after viewers finish watching the film, they will want to form a committee to protect voters in their state against voter fraud.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org

The perfect gift for the holidays

Fri, 12 Dec 2003 04:07:00 +0000

Each year it seems the holidays come a little earlier. Before you’ve put away your bathing suits and sunscreen, bells are jingling and kids are lined up to see Santa.

As this winter creeps up on us – or, for those of us on the East Coast, has us digging out after an early blizzard – we all go in search of the elusive perfect gift. We want to give something meaningful, something that makes us feel good and that our friends and loved ones will appreciate, something that won’t be tossed aside by Jan. 2.

Well, there’s an easy solution that maybe you haven’t thought of. Give the People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo. Give somebody – or everybody! – 50 issues of news they won’t see anywhere else. To make it an even better gift, we’ll give you a special discount for multiple gift subscriptions.

And when you give the People’s Weekly World, you’re really giving two gifts at once. You’ll also be giving the gift of support to the PWW. We count on our subscribers to help us grow. Gift subs are a great way to help.

You can also give the PWW a gift by contributing to the 2003 Fund Drive. We’re still working toward our $200,000 goal, and your gift will help us achieve it. Any donation helps move us forward, no matter how big or how small.

Because we’re in the holiday spirit, too, we’ll give you a gift back for your donation of $100 or more. When you give $100 or more to the Fund Drive, you can have your choice of a gift subscription for a friend or a set of 10 colorful note cards. (Please specify which you’d prefer.)

The gift subscription is a great way of letting people in on what has been called the best labor and people’s paper around. The cards, illustrated with a message of “Bush out 2004,” are a great way of keeping in touch with your friends or relatives until Election Day.

To send a gift subscription, send in the recipient’s address along with $30 for the first gift subscription and $20 for each additional gift subscription.

Make your check or money order payable to Long View Publishing Co., and mail it to 235 W. 23rd St., New York, NY 10011.

We’ll do the rest!

The author can be reached at jbarnett@pww.org

The Thrill and the Agony This week in sports by Chas Walker

Fri, 05 Dec 2003 09:38:00 +0000

Giving thanks for touchdowns

In many households, football is as much a part of the Thanksgiving tradition as is turkey. Sitting down to watch Thursday’s games gives us the chance to bond with (or in some cases, escape from) our families and to cheer on our favorite team. Here is how the games panned out.

Detroit sends Green Bay packing

Hanson has five field goals in 22-14 victory

Detroit’s defense sure was hungry this Thanksgiving. They ate up the Packers’ running game, the best in the NFL, holding the normally stellar Ahman Green to 57 yards on 13 attempts. They literally feasted on Green Bay QB Brett Favre, sacking him four times, and forcing him to fumble once and to throw three interceptions.

And yet the Lions’ offense did not rack up huge numbers. Their only touchdown came in the first half on a short scooting run by Shawn Bryson; the remainder of their points were scored by kicker Jason Hanson – from significant distances (42, 28, 49, 46, and 32 yards).

Entering the fourth quarter, the Packers held on to a slim lead, 14-13. But Detroit cornerback Dre Bly, who grabbed two of the interceptions, short-circuited another Packers’ drive early in the quarter. Bly knocked the ball loose from Javon Walker’s hands, which set up the Lions’ go-ahead scoring situation – Hanson’s longest field goal of the day.

“I can’t remember the last time I kicked a field goal where it felt like ‘well, this one really doesn’t matter,’” he said. “Every kick it feels like it’s to get us in it, it’s to put us up by a couple, it’s to extend the lead just enough.”

Despite their losing record, Detroit showed a national audience that they still know how to win.

Dolphins knock Cowboys off their horse

Fielder throws three touchdowns for Miami in 40-21 win

In Thursday’s second game, the Miami Dolphins made a turkey of the Dallas Cowboys, demolishing them with nearly double their total points. The Cowboys’ number one ranked defense played as if it were hung over, allowing Ricky Williams to become just the second player this season to rush for more than 100 yards. It was the Cowboys’ first game this year in which they allowed more than 40 points, and their third loss in six games.

The Dolphins were on the attack from the get-go. In their first drive of the game, they marched 67 yards in 7 plays – down to the 1 yard line. Quarterback Jay Fielder, in top form after missing several weeks with a sprained knee and returning triumphantly for a mid-game comeback against Washington last week, took the ball into the end zone himself.

In the second quarter, the Dolphins scored a field goal, and the Cowboys struck back with a touchdown, a 4-yard run by Richie Anderson. On their next possession, Miami drove 72 yards in 4 plays, and Fielder connected with receiver Chris Chambers for a 39-yard TD pass to finish the drive. The two would team up for touchdowns twice more in the game, from 6 yards and 35 yards, respectively.

Richie Anderson added another touchdown for the Cowboys on a 27-yard pass from Quincy Carter, as did Antonio Bryant later in the game from 18 yards. But these points hardly mattered, as a fumble recovery in the third quarter by Dolphins defender Jason Taylor was returned for a touchdown. Kicker Olindo Mare padded the Dolphins’ scoreboard with a pair of field goals.

Cowboys coach Bill Parcells was not pleased. “We had no chance to win today. ... We played poorly all around. We were just awful. It’s just embarrassing to come out here on Thanksgiving, on a national broadcast and play like that. It was a wakeup call for our defense. They were riding pretty high. But everyone played poorly.”

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org

John Donahue, fighter for the homeless

Fri, 05 Dec 2003 09:17:00 +0000

John Donahue, the executive director of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, died on Nov. 17. Donahue – known to his many friends as Juancho – was hospitalized at Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he was recently diagnosed with lung cancer. He was 64.

Donahue served as executive director of the CCH since 1990. Under his leadership, the coalition’s work focused on finding ways to prevent and end homelessness, pushing for workable solutions that create more affordable housing and living wage jobs.

Prior to joining CCH, Donahue worked three years in Panama as project director for Agro Bia Mundi Yala. Fluent in Spanish, he organized indigenous tribes to protect their habitat and crops in the Panamanian rainforest.

From 1982-87, Donahue was a founder and executive director of Comité Latino, organizing for jobs, housing and fair immigration policies among families and religious groups in Chicago’s Uptown and Rogers Park communities. As a division director at The Association House of Chicago (1979-82), Donahue oversaw youth employment and employment training programs.

A former Catholic priest, Donahue was vicar of the Archdiocese of Panama from 1971 to 1979. In those years he lived in a squatters community, San Miguelito, near Panama City. He organized and developed a national preschool project, a credit union, a housing project, and various cooperatives.

Donahue held volunteer leadership posts at the National Coalition for the Homeless, the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support, Jobs with Justice, the Foundation for Self-Sufficiency in Central America, Service for Popular Education in Latin America, and the Chicago Grassroots Collaborative. He was a consistent sponsor of the annual Chicago’s People’s Weekly World banquet, and a recipient of the banquet’s Rudy Lozano/

Chris Hani award in 1993.

Emile Schepers, program director at the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights, said, “John Donahue was a giant who had a global understanding of the interplay between class oppression and the struggle for justice. He knew that an injustice anywhere in the world had to be fought everywhere in the world, and he put this knowledge into practice every day of his life.”

Survivors include his wife of 24 years, Icela, and their five children, Belen, Maricela, Lisa, Daniel and Megan.

Memorial contributions may be sent to the John A. Donahue Family Education Trust Fund, care of O’Keefe Lyons & Hynes, LLC, 30 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 4100, Chicago, IL 60602; and/or Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, Juancho Esperanza Fund, 1325 S. Wabash Ave., #205, Chicago, IL 60605.

Documentaries speak truth to power

Fri, 05 Dec 2003 08:53:00 +0000

Toronto Film Festival 2003 – part 3

As mentioned in my last column, the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival provided a wealth of excellent documentaries for progressive film enthusiasts.

While this reviewer was unable to see all the films of significance, and intentionally avoided some of those that will be shown in local theaters, the following highlights offer an amazing visual feast and mind-altering experience.

“The Corporation” (Canada) – Subtitled “The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power,” this 165-minute probing Canadian examination of the development of corporations is so well done it could have continued for two hours longer. Loaded with facts seldom known about the rise of this popular institution into the most powerful force in the world economy, the film covers every aspect of its growth. Since laws interpret a corporation as “an individual,” this film analyses the patient and discovers that it has every characteristic of a psychopath. Extremely well edited and engrossing, this film won a runners-up People’s Award at the festival. Carefully documenting the 150-year history of the institution, with intriguing interviews and visual support, the film is a “must see” for all serious advocates of social change.

“The Fog of War” (USA) – The enigmatic intellectual presence of former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara questioning the morality of his political decisions is a rare sight. It takes a director like Errol Morris (“Brief History of Time,” “Thin Blue Line,” “Mr. Death”) to capture the contradictions and ambiguity of people’s actions. This is history told by a politician who was deeply involved in major events. Intelligent, insightful and philosophical, this movie grabs the viewer from the beginning and only lets you go after you’ve believed several times that there couldn’t be any more coming from one person. All of Morris’s films are available on video, and watch for this on cable television soon.

“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” (Ireland) – Quite possibly the most amazing true-life events ever captured on film. An Irish film team was in Venezuela to make a documentary about the charismatic President Hugo Chavez. Much to everyone’s surprise, while the cameras were rolling, a military coup took place. The president was removed from office and an interim government was installed immediately. But that’s not the end of the story. Chavez’s supporters take to the street to demand their leader’s return. Well, you know what happens next, and it’s all on film! The shady dealings with U.S. intelligence, interviews from both sides, disruption of the economy, oil production for ransom – all are covered by this film, which eventually captures the power of the people like it must have been during “Ten Days That Shook the World.” Except this only took two days. Exceptional film coverage, nail-biting excitement and history like you’ve never seen it!

“Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine” (Canada) – We all remember the Soviet domination of chess as a sport. Garry Kasparov, considered by many to be the greatest exponent in chess history, decided to take on the challenge from IBM’s notorious computer, Deep Blue. Eventually beaten by Deep Blue, Kasparov loses his chance of a rematch and becomes one of the most sullen losers in chess history. This film examines his uncanny intelligence and the political climate throughout his life in the former Soviet Union. Fascinating and compelling, the film is structured as a chess game itself, and the viewer never knows what will happen next.

“Yes Men” (USA) – How can two guys take on one of the most powerful groups in the world, the World Trade Organization? How about creating a website in the likeness of the real WTO website and putting out press releases announcing the disbandment of the organization? By fooling a lot of people, the Yes Men actually get invited to speak at conferences as representatives of the WTO. By carefully avoiding libelous actions, they carry on in a manner that exposes the organization for its insensitive and cruel policies. This document of some of their public appearances is downright hilarious, while being politically astute. Nothing wrong with trying to have a little fun while changing the world.

The author can be reached at bmeyer@macgroup.org.

Protest, police, tear gas then and now

Fri, 05 Dec 2003 06:58:00 +0000

Opinion

Two weeks ago in Miami I got a face full of tear gas or pepper spray in the demonstrations against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The last time I was gassed by police was in October 1967 at “Stop the Draft Week” in Oakland, Calif.

I don’t remember the gas being that strong in ’67, but, hey, I was a lot younger then. This time the gas almost knocked me down. A woman near me kept me from falling until my head cleared. My eyes, throat and nasal passages stung like the dickens. An hour later, after washing my eyes out with water several times, they still burned.

I couldn’t figure out what had happened at first. We were a block and a half away from the police lines, in a group of trade unionists, AFL-CIO “peacekeepers” in bright orange vests, and some seniors from the Alliance of Retired Americans. Later, we heard on TV that an “overzealous” squad from the Miami sheriff’s department had sprayed the entrance to the amphitheater because they wanted to stop union members from joining the young protesters facing the police lines. A preemptive strike.

Let me be clear. There were no “good” demonstrators versus “bad” demonstrators. The Miami city administration and police tried to split the demonstrators that way all week. But union leaders and members refused to accept such a split. At the Steelworkers’ Rapid Response conference early in the week it was made clear that the slogan “an injury to one is an injury to all” applied in full force to all FTAA protesters. The labor folks, the AFL-CIO, did not accept “red” baiting or “radical” baiting of the young protesters.

Then the stories began to come in. Gassing and worse all over the place. Seniors thrown to the ground. Unionists shot with rubber bullets. Arbitrary arrests, clubbing, gassing, slapping and shoving even blocks away from the police lines. All without provocation and without any real violence from the protesters’ side. The AFL-CIO and protest organizers had worked for weeks, in good faith, to reach agreement with the police – all shattered by the police in clouds of tear gas and swinging batons.

So, protesters got gassed and beaten in the ’60s and protesters still get the same today. So what else is new?

True, the police are more high tech in their Darth Vader space suits. The gas canisters are bigger and spray with greater force and volume. And rubber bullets are relatively new in domestic repression. (The Kent State antiwar protesters were shot with real bullets.)

But there is a deep similarity. In the ’60s, the violent overreaction of the police at civil rights and antiwar demonstrations was symptomatic of coming deep changes in American society. Masses of people in motion terrified the powers that be. Folks my age remember the dogs and the water cannons in Montgomery, Ala., the bullets at Kent State and Jackson State, and the beatings and tear gas in D.C. and Oakland. We also remember that in a matter of months following these instances of state-sponsored violence the back of Jim Crow segregation was broken, the Civil Rights Act was passed and the Vietnam War was ended.

Once again, I think the overreaction from the halls of power in this country indicate fear of change. The irrational and over the top response to peaceful protest against both the anti-globalization movement and the peace movement point toward deeper transformations under way.

But there is also something different in today’s overreaction. George Bush represents a much greater ultra-right threat to democracy than we faced in the ’60s. It’s not just the escalation of the violence and the greater willingness to use it preemptively against anyone and everyone who happens to be in the way. It’s also the whole climate of fear the Bush administration is creating.

The campaign of fear and intimidation is probably greater than at any time since the McCarthy era of the 1950s. And now the laws (Patriot Act) are much more draconian. Part of the intimidation comes also from just watching the brutal use of shock and awe force in Iraq and Afghanistan. An administration that is prepared to lie and to recklessly use military power, costing lives and limbs of one or more soldiers a day, is also prepared to go to extremes at home.

Nevertheless, the feeling of solidarity and movement felt strong in Miami. “Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me round, turn me round. I’m gonna keep on marching …” – that powerful old civil rights anthem kept running through my head.

Seeing labor on the march, seeing new labor/community alliances and coalitions grow and develop, you can’t help feeling that something new is brewing.

Bottom line: Most people left Miami feeling like the FTAA could be defeated and George Bush could be sent back to Texas.

Scott Marshall is a vice chair of the Communist Party USA and chair of its Labor Department. He can be reached at scott@rednet.org.