People Before Profit blog

Letters

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 07:01:00 +0000

The cost of police brutality

In the Dec. 6 PWW, Tim Wheeler lists several valid reasons why cities and states face large budget deficits. He does not mention one important reason: the huge financial settlements cities pay out to victims of police brutality and prosecutorial misconduct.

The city of Chicago has paid out many millions of dollars to settle lawsuits by victims or families of people killed by police, people wrongfully sentenced to death, etc. The police officers who carry out the brutality, and the police and prosecutors who engaged in misconduct to convict innocent people, never suffer the consequences of their actions; the hard-working taxpayers of Chicago are the ones who have to shell out the money for these settlements and suffer loss of essential city services besides.

Just recently a young African American man won a financial settlement; he had the misfortune of coming home to his apartment just as a police stake-out was occurring. For no reason, a white police officer tackled him to the ground, breaking his nose and knocking out most of his teeth. This officer already had a record of police brutality, yet was not disciplined at all.

Until police and prosecutors are called to account for their crimes and are forced to pay restitution out of their own pockets, cities and their citizens will suffer from the results of budget shortfalls.

Elise AuerbachChicago IL

Paul Robeson stamp

As a native Clevelander who now resides in Seattle, I read with joy the forwarded article from my mother about Paul Robeson. Nonetheless, I would be remiss if I did not share with you the real issue with the postal service and its claim of low demand for Black Heritage Series.

The real issue is that these are the only stamps that one must go “inside” of the post office and make a personal request for. They are not advertised in the leaflet that comes to our homes, nor are they dispensed in any machines for purchase. I have personally written them about this issue only to be ignored. Continue to do great work. Peace be with you.

J. MooreSeattle WA

All the news that fits?

Got a call from the editor of the (Gannett) Bellingham Herald today. I can’t call our President a sociopath, and I can’t say he’s on a killing spree in Iraq. I should have told the man I wasn’t being facetious.

Anybody who can smile on the deck of an aircraft carrier after a thing like “Shock and Awe” has got to have a screw loose. Anybody who can smile over a Thanksgiving turkey in Baghdad, when 17 (to my knowledge) of our soldiers have committed suicide in Iraq has got to have a psychiatric diagnosis of some kind.

Joe RandellBellingham WA

Story helped student

I am currently in 10th grade at North Allegheny High School. I am doing a term paper on cruel and inhuman punishments, and I came across the article “U.S. exporting ‘tools of torture’”by Cian Dolan (PWW, 12/13-19). This helped me out a great amount for my paper.

Bethany WilsonVia email

The road to peace The time Is now to make Your vow to work for peace We must insist, and then persist No war!

Norm RothOak Park IL

Holiday spirit

Maybe it’s a product of stress – layoffs, war, being overworked and underpaid, inequalities, family feuds, consumerism – but it’s hard to get into the holiday spirit. When I feel overwhelmed like that I try to take a deep breath and do something enjoyable and humanizing, like reading a book to my kids or taking a walk. That’s why I liked the article about dog walking by Brandi Lea Kishner (PWW, 12/13-19). It’s good to be reminded that it’s these “little things” in life that make up the bigger things.

Marie LawrenceColumbus OH

And we thank you!

My brother Jules, visiting here, gave me a check for $100 for the People’s Weekly World, enclosed. Cashing the check should be receipt enough. Thank you all for the excellent job you are doing.

L.H. Philadelphia PA

Editorials

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 06:53:00 +0000

A year of struggle

The year 2003 ended as it began with the Bush administration and Republican-controlled Congress lavishing more tax breaks and giveaways on the rich. They approved a prescription drug scam that will pour billions into the coffers of the pharmaceutical profiteers while opening the door to privatizing Medicare.

Yet Senate Democrats killed with a filibuster an energy bill loaded with $110 billion in goodies for Dick Cheney’s oil and gas buddies. And Senators blocked a unanimous consent motion that would have speeded passage of an $832 billion omnibus spending bill loaded with giveaways to the rich. Republicans had removed from the measure an amendment that would block passage of George W. Bush’s bill to deny overtime protection for eight million workers.

The rearguard action by the Senate Democrats means that a battle can be waged, starting now, to pressure senators to junk this $832 billion colossus, restore overtime protection and extend unemployment benefits, when they return to Washington Jan. 20.

This past year was marked by heroic struggle of millions against the Iraq war, a worldwide movement so powerful some called it the “second superpower.” The year also gave birth to a new movement with the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, which raised to a new high the struggle for legal status for millions of undocumented workers. There was also the “Battle of Miami” against the misnamed Free Trade Area of the Americas.

More than 70,000 grocery workers in California went on strike to defend their health care protection. Every time corporate America and the ultra-right knocked the people down, they stood up and fought again.

Yet the struggles of 2003, however titanic, were but a dress rehearsal for 2004. The labor movement, African Americans, Latinos and all people of color, women, seniors and youth must unite in the one overriding task in the 2004 elections: Defeat George W. Bush! Defeat the ultra-right!

* * * * * *

New Year’s resolution

People everywhere celebrate holidays tied to the changing seasons. The winter solstice, shortest and darkest day of the year, is celebrated with dazzling lights and a faith that in the new year, spring will come, and the earth will once again produce a bountiful harvest.

At their best, these holidays express lofty ideals: sunlight over darkness, unity over hatred, peace not war, giving not taking. They are a time to rejoice, to sing and dance. But, also, they are a time to reflect on why so many people face insecurity, job loss, racism, violence, and poverty.

Certainly, this year, our thoughts turn to the 150,000 members of our armed forces, mostly working class youth, disproportionately Black and Latino, trapped in Afghanistan and Iraq by George W. Bush’s preemptive war.

Bush opened the holiday season with his secret Thanksgiving trip to the Baghdad airport where he posed for photos holding a turkey on a platter. Later we learned that hundreds of soldiers were excluded for “security” reasons, forced to eat cold C-rations to accommodate Bush’s costly election-campaign photo op.

Our hunch is that they screened the soldiers for fear that some GI might step forward and ask, “Sir, why are we here? Please bring us home.”

Bush’s Thanksgiving escapade is a fitting

accompaniment to the corruption of the holiday season by corporations that have turned it into a time of maximum profit greed, exhorting people to spend, spend, spend, money they don’t have.

We join with those who would reclaim the spirit of the season, making it truly a season of “peace on earth, good will to humankind!”

It may be too late to get all those soldiers home for the holidays this year. But let’s make a New Year’s resolution: We will struggle with all our might and main to bring them all home in 2004! And insure that every one of these youth has a GI Bill of Rights guaranteeing health care, a college education and a decent job.

Canadians question electoral system bias

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 05:44:00 +0000

VANCOUVER, Canada – With voting rates falling across Canada, there is growing public discontent with the electoral system and renewed interest in adopting some form of Proportional Representation.

In recent years Canada has been beset with falling voter turnout. In recent provincial elections in Ontario and Manitoba, voter turnout fell to around 55 percent. Voter turnout in Quebec, Novia Scotia and New Brunswick has recently fallen to the mid- to upper-60s. In the last federal election held in 2000, only 60 percent bothered to vote.

Global and Mail political analyst John Ibbitson writes, “Since these percentages only refer to registered voters, and many voters might never have made it onto the voters list, actual turnout of eligible voters in some of these elections might have dropped below 50 percent.”

Under the Canadian “first past the post” electoral system, the candidate who wins the most votes in a constituency becomes the Member of Parliament, while those who voted for the losing candidates receive no representation at all. As a result, a party’s strength in parliament depends on how many constituencies it can win, not its popular vote.

In the last federal election, the Liberal Party garnered 40.8 percent of the vote and 57.1 percent of seats in Parliament. The Progressive Conservative Party received 12.2 percent and only 4 percent of the seats. In the 2001 provincial election in British Columbia (BC), the Green Party won 13 percent of the vote but did not acquire a single seat.

Because the Canadian electoral system disenfranchises voters and distorts election results, many say it’s an important factor in discouraging people from voting.

Bill C-24, passed by Parliament in June, threatens to further contort election results. It bans corporate and union donations, caps individual donations to federal political parties, and institutes a system of public financing whereby political parties receive $1.75 for every vote they receive, creating a windfall for large, right-wing parties. In contrast, small political parties which receive under 2 percent of the vote will not receive any public funding, preventing them from competing on a level playing field with the old-line parties.

Political pundits observe that such measures will move Canada even closer to a U.S.-style system, where elections are simply bought by those with the deepest pockets.

Canada is one of the few countries in the world that does not use some form of PR. With PR, a party’s representation in parliamentary bodies is determined by the percentage of the vote it receives. For example, a party that gets 10 percent of the vote would obtain 10 percent of the seats in parliament.

The provinces of BC, Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick are considering changes that will include PR. In BC, for example, the government has formed a citizen’s assembly to discuss PR and other options. Should the assembly make specific recommendations that embrace PR, a referendum proposing the changes will be put to voters in the 2005 provincial elections. Changes could take effect by 2009.

So far the governing federal Liberal Party has rejected electoral reforms that would embrace PR, having rebuffed a pro-PR motion put forward in September by the New Democratic Party. However, a Green Party lawsuit before the Ontario Supreme Court may force the issue on a national level.

Ed Morgan, lawyer for the Greens, contends that the current system discriminates against minor parties and their supporters. Colin Feasby, a lawyer specializing in electoral law, says, “not only may the court’s reasoning provide a basis for challenging the newly acted campaign finance legislation, it may also increase the success of a constitutional challenge to our entire first past the post voting system.”

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court – addressing a court challenge launched by the Communist Party of Canada – ruled that sections of the Elections Act denying small political parties the right to appear on the ballot and receive tax receipts was unconstitutional and ordered the Federal Government to rewrite the legislation within a year.

The author can be reached at tpelzer@sprint.ca.

Group sounds alarm on judicial nominees

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 05:15:00 +0000

MILWAUKEE – On Dec. 3 the law office of Alex Flynn and Associates hosted a reception to welcome Nan Aron, founder and president of the Alliance for Justice, which is fighting to oppose unqualified, right-wing judicial nominees.

Guests here viewed “Packing the Courts,” an 11-minute documentary produced for AFJ last month and hosted by “Providence” and “MASH” star Mike Farrell, examining the records of George Bush’s choices for the federal bench. In the documentary, Farrell warns of “extremist nominees” who “favor the powerful over the weak.” At one point, it shows Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) calling Bush’s picks “out of the mainstream” and warning that if confirmed, “they’re going to be doing things that most people find outrageous.”

AFJ has evaluated judicial nominations since 1985, but Aron says the scope of the work has exploded with Bush’s packing of the courts. Groups traditionally involved in the issue, like lawyers and pro-choice groups, have been joined by virtually every national progressive movement. “It’s amazing,” said Aron. “There has never been a broader coalition organized around opposing these right-wing judicial candidates.”

The U.S. Senate, now Republican-controlled, reviews presidential judicial appointments. During the Bush administration, the Senate eliminated anonymous “holds” which were used to block dozens of Clinton judicial appointees. While President Bush has complained of the Senate dragging its heels on confirmations, it has actually approved 168 of his nominees, even working through the anthrax scare to hasten the process. The ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), notes that the judicial vacancy rate is the lowest in 13 years. Most of the vacancies arose during Clinton’s term, some as early as 1994 and 1995.

But the Democrats appear to have drawn the line. In May, they blocked the confirmation of ultra- right Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen to a seat on the Court of Appeals. They’ve since filibustered Alabama Attorney General William Pryor and Judges Charles Pickering, Carolyn Kuhl, and Janice Rogers Brown. Another nominee, Miguel Estrada, withdrew from consideration.

“If someone had said to me, you’ll have six judicial nominees filibustered by the Democrats in the Senate, I would have said, you’re crazy,” said Aron.

Judges matter, the AFJ says. In its documentary, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) questions Judge Kuhl on a case of a woman who disrobed for a medical exam and later discovered that a man observing was not a physician but a drug salesman. Her privacy lawsuit was blocked when Kuhl decided that she was at most “socially” uncomfortable and that “no reasonable person” could find the saleman’s observation highly offensive.

Charles Pickering, a one-time segregationist also known for “toughness” against criminal defendants, tried to reduce the sentence of a convicted cross-burner, calling his crime a “prank.” Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) says this shows him willing to “violate the clear provisions in the law.”

AFJ’s reports bristle with damning revelations. Pryor used his position of Alabama attorney general to file friend of the court briefs in cases nationwide to advance conservative causes like weakening the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, Civil Rights Act of 1964, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, Family and Medical Leave Act, and Violence Against Women Act. He urged partial repeal of the Voting Rights Act, and tried to escape a promise to help disabled foster children. He fought gay rights and reproductive freedom, defended state-sponsored prayer and all-male schools, and worked to cut off access to attorneys and DNA tests that could prove accused criminals innocent.

AFJ Field Operations Director Kendra Sue Derby said that when Pryor was nominated, “We all said, ‘It can’t get worse than this.’”

“But then we got Janice Rogers Brown,” she said, noting that future nominations may be worse still.

Further information can be found at the AFJ website, www.independentjudiciary.com.

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

Letters

Fri, 12 Dec 2003 06:55:00 +0000

“Patriot Act II” sneaking in

There has been a great deal of coverage to generate resistance against the Patriot Act II and protect our privacy against its further encroachment. However, we must refocus our attention.

David Brancaccio reported in a Nov. 14 “Bill Moyers Now” program that “the White House has come up with a new legislative tactic. Patriot Act II has been broken into small bites, which are appearing as attachments to other appropriation bills.”

He continues, “Buried deep inside the 77-page Senate Intelligence Authorization bill, parts of which are classified, comes a one paragraph provision titled … ‘Modification to Definition of Financial Institution in the Right to Financial Privacy Act.’

“Many lawmakers, when they voted to pass the measure this summer, didn’t realize the tiny provision would significantly expand government powers.

“We talked to the American Civil Liberties Union and they told us the legislation allows the FBI to secretly sift through our financial transactions with car dealers, travel agencies, post offices, casinos, pawnbrokers, as well as currency exchanges, all without a judge’s approval.”

So to some extent, activists have been successful in sending a message to the White House that the Patriot Act II is not wanted. Now we have to watch our government even more closely.

Carolyn PlummerNew York NY

Struggles in Georgia

It is my sincere hope that with all the exciting changes and developments occurring both in our nation and internationally the People’s Weekly World doesn’t neglect to write about recent events in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Ex-Soviet Foreign Minister and Gorbachev acolyte Eduard Shevardnadze has been forced to relinquish the presidency in the face of mass actions and charges of electoral fraud. He is leaving behind a collapsed economy and hungry citizenry.

In the important book, “Heroic Struggle, Bitter Defeat: Factors Contributing to the Dismantling of the Socialist State in the USSR,” Marxist author Bahman Azad writes the following: “Less than a decade after the dismantling of the socialist states, it is becoming quite clear who is being discarded by history. … All we need to do is ask: where has history placed the likes of Gorbachev, Yakovlev, Shevardnadze, and Yeltsin? … [A] decade … was all it took for history to pass its judgment on those who betrayed socialism and turned their backs on the future of mankind.”

It would seem that current happening in Georgia stand as a powerful confirmation of Azad’s perspective.

Surely this is a subject worthy of comprehensive and sustained coverage in the pages of PWW.

Adam Minsky

Brookline MA

Unfair to Mother Teresa

It strikes me as ridiculous and offensive to say Mother Teresa should not be made a saint because she lived in celibacy, was friendly with the Duvalier family, and failed to eliminate poverty. (Letters, PWW 11/22-28)

She took some of the ill-gotten gains of the Duvaliers and other rich people to feed the hungry and tend the sick. Should she have spurned the money and let the hungry remain hungry and the sick remain sick?

Whose life is more worthy to emulate, the one devoted to actively alleviating the pain of the sick and needy or the political dogmatist condemning those who do good in the world as politically incorrect?

Personally I prefer the politically incorrect do-gooder to the politically correct caviling do-nothing.

Michael QuirkPortland ME

Mother Teresa had it wrong

I think the dear lady went about it the wrong way in fighting hunger among the poor. In the U.S. the people collect cans of food for the hungry despite the fact this is the richest county in the world.

The American people should take their cans to the polling booth and vote out the Bible-toting right wing that are causing it. If there was a leak in your roof, would you collect cans to catch the rain water or would you fix the roof?

John BorowskiVia email

Holiday wishes

The People’s Weekly World is a source of lots of information and happenings. I also enjoy the culture pages. I wish us all peace and justice – here and in the world. Have a healthy and productive New Year.

Diana WitkusKingston NY

Editorials

Fri, 12 Dec 2003 06:44:00 +0000

Remove Dr. Death

Despite the Republicans’ highly touted jobless recovery and last month’s pathetically small uptick in employment figures, this holiday season 15 million unemployed and underemployed Americans are preoccupied with sending out resumes, not Christmas cards. They’re poring over the newspaper want ads instead of toy sales, and they’re sitting down with pen and notepad not for optimistic New Year’s resolutions, but to draw up plans to scrape by – filing for bankruptcy, selling off homes and cars, pulling kids out of college, and putting off urgent medical treatment.

To normal people the phrase “jobless recovery” may seem like an oxymoron, but to big business economists “recovery” refers only to rising spending and productivity, and fattened profits, while jobs for workers are barely a footnote.

In fact, in 2003, the “recovery” and surge of corporate profits was actually based on a host of Bush-sponsored job-killing initiatives – everything from “free trade” agreements that facilitate the export of manufacturing and service jobs, to the severe curtailment of overtime pay which provides big incentives to employers to overwork their present employees instead of hiring new ones.

This administration’s “jobless recovery” brings to mind the bitter joke: “The operation was a success. Unfortunately the patient died.” If the operation is saving jobs, and the patient is the U.S. working class, then George Bush is the personification of Dr. Death.

Starting Dec. 21, about 90,000 workers a week will lose unemployment benefits. The first order of business for Congress when it returns after the holidays is to address this human emergency by at least putting in place a 26-week extension of unemployment benefits.

And for working families, the best recovery we can hope for in 2004 is to put this job-killing Dr. Death out of business.

* * * * * *

Grassroots power and the 2004 elections

The emergence of a powerful peace sentiment against war in Iraq has left its mark on all the Democratic Party presidential candidates. The 2004 elections are a major battle ground for the peace, labor, civil rights and all people’s movements. Defeating Bush and his far-right corporate apologists can only be accomplished by a highly organized, grassroots movement that keeps the pressure on all the candidates in the Democratic primary to stay focused on people’s needs and concerns. Grassroots organizing, mobilizing and education are all necessary tools to make it so.

The recent endorsements of Howard Dean by two major unions – AFSCME and SEIU – and by former Vice President Al Gore and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) are a reflection of the way many at the grassroots see this upcoming, titanic battle against the multi-millionaire forces of the fanatical far right. In order to beat George W. Bush, a winning candidate needs to inspire peopleand take a fighting stance, not an accommodating one.

What is driving the sentiment at the grass roots? People are worried about the economy, health care, and how the Bushites are destabilizing the country and the world. Dean, in the midst of the war drive, took a public stand against it. And he has been skillful in tapping grassroots energy.

People want someone to stand up and fight for what’s right. But to beat George W. Bush it’s going to take a coalition even bigger than the forces now lining up behind Dean. It’s going to take a big tent approach and attitude. Important, key forces have chosen other candidates, or have yet to choose any candidate at all.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio got it right when he said at the recent presidential debate, “To begin this kind of forum with a question about an endorsement, no matter by who, I think actually trivializes the issues that are before us.”

The key to victory is combining grassroots voter education and registration with mass mobilization on the issues.

Philadelphia Nurses reject contract

Fri, 12 Dec 2003 05:54:00 +0000

PHILADELPHIA – Nurses at the Medical College of Pennsylvania Hospital (MCP), on strike for nearly a month, rejected Tenet Health Care Corporation’s latest contract offer on Dec. 1. The issue, nurses say, is mandatory overtime. They are fed up with being forced to work overtime without notice after finishing their shift.

The basic cause for overtime work, and the nurses’ other pressing issues, is inadequate staffing. OPEIU Local 112 President Patricia Donohue says 25 percent of the nursing positions at MCP have been unfilled for a long time. This may be one of Tenet’s ways to cut back expenses in order to make a higher profit. The most recent contract presented to the nurses called for limiting the mandatory overtime but did not even mention adequate staffing. The ratio of nurses to patients at MCP is the lowest of any hospital in the area.

Research shows the nurse-patient ratio can mean the difference between life and death. The odds of a hospital patient dying rises by 7 percent for every patient added to the average nurse’s workload. If those nurses are already tired, surveys show their chances of making medical errors increases. Susan McCullough, a MCP Intensive-Care Unit nurse, said she was asked to look after a critically ill patient in one room at the same time a manager asked her to go to another room to keep a patient from climbing out of bed. “You can’t be in one room trying to keep someone’s heart rate and blood pressure going and be in another room trying to keep another patient from climbing out of bed and injuring himself,” said McCullough. The critically ill patient died the next day.

Many nurses do not wish to work in hospitals because of the working conditions. According to the American Nursing Association, of the 2.7 million licensed registered nurses in the U.S., only 2.2 million are employed in the profession. The association believes that many of those 500,000 nurses would return to bedside care in hospitals if hospitals were committed to hiring large enough staffs to keep nurse-to-patient ratios at a safe level.

Since the MCP nurses have been on strike, the hospital has had to close its trauma unit. The number of inpatients being treated has dropped from an average of 120-150 to an average of 60-80. Morale at MCP is low due to rumors that Tenet Health Corporation may sell or close the hospital. Tenet owns six other hospitals in the Philadelphia area.

The city of Philadelphia is a medical center and nurses are in demand. Some of the MCP nurses are working part time in other hospitals while on strike. But the community suffers when nurses can’t have the working conditions to do the excellent job they want to do. OPEIU Local 112 is looking into many options. One is binding federal arbitration to resolve the dispute.

The author can be reached at phillyrose1@earthlink.com.

U.S. military attacks Iraqi trade unions

Fri, 12 Dec 2003 03:43:00 +0000

A U.S. occupation force involving 10 armored vehicles and dozens of soldiers attacked the headquarters of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions in Baghdad, Dec. 6. They arrested eight of its leaders and members, who were handcuffed and taken away to an unknown destination. The eight were released the next day with no explanation.

Without giving any reason, the U.S. troops ransacked and destroyed the IFTU’s possessions, removing documents including minutes of union meetings. They tore down union banners and posters that condemned acts of terror. They smashed windows on the front of the building and smeared black paint over the name of the IFTU and that of the General Union of Transport Workers, which provides temporary office space to Iraq’s new national labor federation.

“This is an attack not only on our headquarters but on Iraq’s working people,” Abdullah Muhsin, the IFTU’s international representative, told the World in a Dec. 9 phone interview from London.

“Our building was just a shell. We had absolutely nothing, not even a computer. For them to destroy it is absolutely outrageous,” Muhsin said. “They tore down our posters against terrorism that they are supposed to oppose – why did they have to do that?”

“This must have been sanctioned by a higher level. I’d love to know why,” he said, adding that Iraq’s labor movement will continue its activities defending the interests of workers throughout the country. “We shall not bow our heads. Democracy will not be deterred by guns.”

“We do not initiate violence,” Muhsin said. “At the same time, if someone tries to slap you, you stop it.”

The IFTU is appealing for international solidarity. In Britain, the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union issued a statement condemning the attack, and Labor members of parliament are introducing a motion in the House of Commons demanding a Foreign Office investigation. The Congress of South African Trade Unions called on the U.S. to stop any further attacks on trade union offices and leaders and demanded that the U.S. pay compensation for the damage.

The Bush administration has escalated aggressive “counterinsurgency” and covert Special Forces operations in Iraq as well as Afghanistan, major U.S. and British news media report.

These operations include assassination teams targeting individuals said by the U.S. military to be guerilla leaders. A Special Forces assassination air strike in Afghanistan Dec. 6 killed nine Afghan children playing in a field; another U.S. air and ground assault Dec. 5 led to the deaths of six children and two adults. Neither attack killed or captured the targeted individuals.

Citing U.S. military and intelligence officials and former officials, Guardian (UK) Washington correspondent Julian Borger and veteran U.S. journalist Seymour Hersh report that Israeli military commandos and intelligence units specializing in urban warfare are secretly helping train U.S. Special Forces at Fort Bragg, N.C., and in Israel. Israeli military “consultants” have also visited Iraq, two U.S. sources told Borger.

Special Forces teams are operating inside Syria attempting to preemptively kill what they call foreign “jihadists” before they cross the border, and a group focused on “neutralization” of guerrilla leaders is being set up, writes Borger. A Pentagon adviser interviewed by Hersh called the concept “preemptive manhunting.”

“This is basically an assassination program. … This is a hunter-killer team,” a former senior U.S. intelligence official told Borger. The official worried that the new tactics and Israeli involvement would only inflame the volatile situation in the Middle East.

In addition to assassination squads, U.S. forces in Iraq have begun using other tactics like those the Israeli army uses in Palestinian villages and camps in the occupied territories: encasing entire villages in barbed wire; demolishing buildings, including homes, based on suspicions that they are used by guerrillas; jailing relatives of suspected guerrillas.

Hersh writes in the Dec. 15 New Yorker, “An American who has advised the civilian [occupation] authority in Baghdad said, ‘The only way we can win is to go unconventional. … Guerrilla versus guerrilla. Terrorism versus terrorism. We’ve got to scare the Iraqis into submission.’”

In Abu Hishma, north of Baghdad, Lt. Col. Nathan Sassaman told New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins, “With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot of money for projects, I think we can convince these people that we are here to help them.”

But so far, Filkins observed, that approach appears to be alienating many of the people the U.S. occupation is trying to win over. “Abu Hishma is quiet now, but it is angry, too,” he wrote.

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

click here for Spanish text

Corporate Americas dirty secret

Fri, 05 Dec 2003 09:04:00 +0000

“Keeping up with the Dow Joneses: Debt, Prison, Workfare,” By Vijay Prashad. South End Press, 2003, Softcover, 214 pp., $17.00.

Over the years, Vijay Prashad, a professor at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., has established himself as one of this nation’s leading writers and intellectuals.

His previous book, “Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth of Cultural Purity,” was a revelation, deeply researched and argued persuasively, bringing to life a multicultural history forgotten by all too many.

His latest book maintains his high standards as it adds crucial insight on a number of contemporary matters of pressing concern. He begins by explaining the ubiquitous Dow Jones stock index, a barometer of the health of Wall Street, and how playing in this “fixed” casino has led to the immiseration of so many. Certainly the latest revelations about mutual funds, which have vacuumed up the funds from millions, as they have looted “small fish” on behalf of “big fish,” confirms further Prashad’s insight.

Prashad also pays close attention to what he terms the “sweatshop economy,” i.e., “unskilled work, deskilled labor, low wages, poor working conditions, and an intensified supervision regime to extract the maximum labor for the minimum expenditure.” Wal-Mart, the retailer, is the symbol of this new economy. It has made the Walton family of Arkansas fabulously wealthy, as it has busted union drives, paid skimpy wages and benefited handsomely from cheap labor abroad.

This assault on the working class has plunged all too many into deep pools of debt. This is particularly true of the “reserve army of labor” which “in the contemporary U.S. is maintained at high levels of readiness in the prisons (where incarcerated workers toil for private corporations, such as the Corrections Corporation of America) and in the low-end service sector (either in desperation, as part of the workfare packet or else as legal and illegal immigrants, unable to find better occupations).”

In short, in a brilliant tour-de-force Prashad “connects the dots,” linking “debt, prison and workfare.”

All of these sections are valuable, but readers are likely to find what the author says about prisons particularly enlightening. Right now there are prisoners who “do data entry for Chevron, make telephone reservations for TWA, raise hogs, shovel manure, make circuit boards, limousines, waterbeds, and lingerie for Victoria’s Secret.” The “list of companies that hire prison labor includes American Airlines, Boeing, Compaq, Dell, Eddie Bauer, Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, IBM, J.C. Penney, McDonalds, Microsoft, Motorola, Nordstrom, Pierre Cardin, Revlon, Sony, Texas Instruments and Toys ‘R’ Us. The top dogs of the corporate world are well represented behind the walls of Uncle Sam’s pens.” This does not include juvenile detention centers, immigrant detention centers and other institutions that routinely deprive persons in this nation of liberty.

In other words, this book is a “must read.” It is valuable ammunition in the ongoing struggle to transform the nation by beating back the right wing and their corporate patrons.

The author can be reached at gchorne@email.unc.edu.

Letters

Fri, 05 Dec 2003 06:47:00 +0000

Not always farce

In the Nov. 12 issue of the PWW letters section, Ken Bailey quotes Karl Marx thusly, “History repeats itself; the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” Ken Bailey’s points about the Iraq war are well-taken, but this much-quoted comment by Marx is always given without the historical context in which it was written, leading to a serious misconception of Marx’s view of history.

Marx wrote these words in regard to Louis Napoleon, the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte. Marx regarded Louis Napoleon as a joke. To quote this remark without mentioning that it was a reference to Louis Napoleon and his regime is to give the impression that Marx was saying that every historical event repeats as tragedy and farce.

Ernest FieldCleveland OH

Compassionate science

Bea Lumpkin’s article “Vietnam Today” (PWW 11/28-12/5) was both scientific and compassionate. It nearly brought me to tears. Well done.

The information is strikingly relevant to a Western civilization, which has been forced to forget the devastation caused by our political and business leaders. I hope that this brilliantly presented perspective can reach a wider audience of people beyond the frequent PWW readers. Thanks. In solidarity,

Cole WeintraubMoscow, Russia

Called but no one answers

I called the White House phone number from your editorial “That all may eat,” (PWW 11/28-12/5), but no one answered. It is a pitiful time in our country. I have never seen anything like it. My kids and grandkids don’t have food in their refrigerator. I have to go help them out and bring them some food. This administration doesn’t want to hear from us.

Gretchen LaugierNewtown PA

Outrageous GOP campaign ad

When the corrupt 1920s-era Chicago Mayor Big Bill Thompson explained his campaign slogan of “100 percent Americanism” as a trick to make his opponents look less “American” than he was, television didn’t exist.

Today the Republican Party is going Big Bill one better by running an outrageous campaign ad accusing critics of its Iraq war as aiding terrorists. Never mind that the Al Queda terrorists were the creation of the Reagan administration’s war against the Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan in the 1980s and that Osama bin Laden worked directly with the CIA for many years.

The PWW consistently supported the Afghan revolution, whose victory, had it been achieved, would have made the Sept. 11 attacks impossible. The PWW should be proud of its brave stand two decades ago. By supporting the interests of both the American people and the people of the world, the PWW must continue to expose the arrogant lies of an administration which uses Big Lies to reap political rewards.

Norman MarkowitzNew Brunswick NJ

Don’t privatize Social Security!

I hope the PWW gives coverage to the attempt to privatize Social Security with a bill introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called “Social Security Solvency and Modernization Act of 2003” (S-1878), which was introduced to the Senate on Nov. 18. This bill is very dangerous. It calls for “the creation of personal retirement accounts.” That’s just another name for privatization and corporate thievery. With all Bush’s military spending and tax cuts for the rich you’d think Wall Street would be satisfied. But they still want to go after Social Security, too.

Gary DeSantisTrenton NJ

Response to police attack

The outrageous attacks against peaceful protest demands a greater response from organized labor than the filing of lawsuits against the police chief, the city of Miami, or whoever. Those well-protected Nazi-like police had a free hand in their abuse of our youth, and our retired union members.

We had and continue to have the right to demonstrate – for whatever reason – wherever and whenever “We the People” so choose. We must not let that right be taken away from us!

It seems to me we need a campaign that combines street heat and union organizing, right now, in Miami. I would serve as a volunteer in this union drive.

Jesse KernSt. Petersburg FL

The author is a retired member of Transport Workers Union Local 1790.

Editorials

Fri, 05 Dec 2003 06:40:00 +0000

Dec. 10: International Human Rights Day

“Workers’ Rights are Human Rights.” That is the slogan for AFL-CIO rallies, marches, and candlelight vigils across the nation Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day. It marks the 55th anniversary of the signing of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Dec. 10, 1948.

Section 23, Article 4 of the Declaration states, “Everyone has the right to form and to join unions for the protection of his [or her] interests.” The AFL-CIO cites surveys that 40 million workers in the U.S. want to join unions but are blocked by employer intimidation, harassment, and coercion.

Born in the victory over Hitler fascism, the Human Rights Declaration is expansive in its vision of a just, humane, and peaceful world. While embracing civil liberties such as freedom of assembly and speech and the right to petition, it also upholds economic and social rights like the right to a job, education, medical care, food and shelter.

We should not be surprised that the Bush administration, which seized office in a virtual coup, says nothing about the UN Declaration of Human Rights. With its doctrine of unilateral, preemptive war, this administration has run roughshod over the United Nations. It also tramples on the Declaration with domestic policies that benefit the rich at the expense of the poor. The Declaration upholds the “inherent dignity” and “equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family.” The Bush-Cheney gang, in its ruthless exercise of total power, defiles and insults the very declaration to which the U.S. is a signatory.

Section 21, Article 3 states: “The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote.” On Nov. 2, 2004, millions of voters can strike a blow for human rights by removing George W. Bush from office.

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Good riddance

The Department of Homeland Security announced Dec. 1 that it will terminate most of its draconian registration program, which requires male Arab and Muslim immigrants to submit to interrogation, fingerprinting, and photographing in the name of the “war on terrorism.”

Since Attorney General John Ashcroft unveiled the program in June 2002, 83,000 immigrant men were forced to re-register with INS and other federal law enforcement agencies. Not a single person was charged with any terrorist crime as a result of this dragnet. The ultra-right hatchet man, Asa Hutchinson, Homeland Security’s undersecretary for border and transportation security, applauded the Justice Department for initiating the program, but admitted that leads on terrorism “were minimal in number.”

More than 14,000 people were fingered for “overstaying their visas” and thousands have been detained incommunicado for months or were deported without the right of legal representation or a hearing. Many of those deported have jobs and families here in the U.S.

Fred Tsao of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights put it best. “We’re glad that the Department of Homeland Security has seen the wisdom of suspending the program,” he said. “However, feeling glad about this is like being thankful to a bully after he has stopped hitting us. Much of the damage has already been done.”

This Ashcroft program was racial profiling on an enormous scale, singling people out because of their skin color, accent, or manner of dress. Deeply racist, anti-immigrant, and anti-Muslim, it has inflicted terrible injustice on the victims as well as on the Bill of Rights.

According to the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee, which welcomed the termination announcement, there are still 13,000 foreign nationals in the United States affected by the program. ADC president and former Congresswoman Mary Rose Oakar urged the government to continue to “correct problems associated with Special Registration” and stop plans to deport thousands more.

The democratic movements have to remain vigilant against the Bush administration policies of divide and conquer.

Miami protesters decry police violence

Fri, 05 Dec 2003 05:45:00 +0000

MILWAUKEE – Most of the 30 or so people filling the Green Dragon Freedom Café here Nov. 26 had been participants in the protests surrounding the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit in Miami.

Seated at one table was John Heckenlively, a local labor reporter who frequently covers the same events as the World’s Milwaukee correspondents. Heckenlively was arrested while attempting to cover the summit and spent most of three days in police custody, more than half of that in solitary confinement. More precisely, he said, he was arrested while trying to get away from the “scene of mass panic created by rampaging Miami police.” The charging papers in his case claim he became violent, which he called “a fairy tale.”

Heckenlively had a clearly displayed press pass when he was arrested, he said. Reporters were ordered away from the protest or asked to declare themselves on the side of police. He said some of his fellow arrestees were bystanders who had never even heard of the FTAA.

“If there was one legitimate arrest in that whole situation, it would really surprise me,” said Heckenlively. He displayed a rubber bullet he kept as a souvenir, a black cylinder about two inches wide and across. He said that a local unionist who was arrested alongside him, Gerry Gunderson, had been struck at least six times by such bullets.

Seated next to Heckenlively in the café was Erik Sperling, a high school activist who also demonstrated in Miami. Earlier that day, Sperling had met with a group of local attorneys, including the legal director of the Wisconsin American Civil Liberties Union, to relate his experience.

Sperling described seeing his friend Maria in Miami: “Her face was covered with blood and her friend was taking her to the hospital. She’d been hit on the top of the head with a billy club. Another guy was about three feet away from me when I heard a noise and looked over and blood was running down his face from a rubber bullet. This was 200 feet from the front.” Heckenlively and Sperling both described people screaming and running and attending to visible wounds.

No accounts of local activists’ participation in the protests appeared in the local press, but at the Green Dragon, photocopies of the Miami Herald were passed about which bore the headline, “Police credit planning for lack of chaos.”

“There was nothing but chaos,” said Heckenlively.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org