People Before Profit blog

Check into Hotel Rwanda

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 10:59:00 +0000

Movie Review

Paul Rusesabagina was the manager of a luxury hotel when Hutu nationalists began murdering their Tutsi countrymen during the Rwandan civil war 10 years ago. “Hotel Rwanda” focuses on Rusesabagina’s personal challenge to stay alive, protect his family, and save hundreds of refugees within the hotel. The main tool he used was love.

American Don Cheadle, in the main role, is an understated marvel. Both the director and the real-life hero praised the performances of the actors.

Although the film emphasizes the personal story, the background reality of mass genocide conducted in full view of an uncaring world cannot be ignored. At the preview in Dallas, the reality came home when a member of the audience thanked the filmmakers because he had lost his three Tutsi brothers and his father in the Rwandan carnage.

“Hotel Rwanda” opens nationwide next month. Writer-director Terry George explained that the film’s modest budget precludes a major marketing campaign. He emphasized that the movie’s success depends on recommendations from viewers. This is mine: Go see “Hotel Rwanda.”

— Jim Lane

Groups warn: Dont buy violent video games for kids

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 10:46:00 +0000

NEW YORK — About 70 percent of kids today live in a home with at least one video game player and 33 percent have one in their bedrooms. It’s a billion-dollar industry — $7 billion in 2003 — and even the most violent are marketed to kids as young as 7 or 8, according to five leading parent, church and women’s groups.

“Killing cops, beating women, and committing hate crimes are not something I want my children practicing, in living, vivid color,” says Eric Gioia, a member of the New York City Council.

Gioia joined the five groups last month to issue a “10 worst violent video game” list in the hopes of alerting unwary parents to the “blood-soaked” and anti-social content of the games that might otherwise be purchased as holiday gifts for children.

In a joint statement, the groups also urged retailers to stop selling the inappropriate games directly to children and called on the industry to come up with an improved and more widely promoted game rating system that parents can understand.

The five groups — the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), the National Council of Women’s Organizations, Mothers Against Violence in America, Center for Advancement of Public Policy, and Justice and Witness Ministries of the United Church of Christ — highlighted 10 video games as the most violent (see box). The groups also voiced their concerns about a free, web-based game, “America’s Army,” which is used to promote enlistment in the U.S. Army, but is accessible to the youngest of children.

“Many adults who have not played video games may not realize that these ‘games’ will typically force an impressionable child to kill in order to ‘win,’” said Sister Pat Wolf, ICCR executive director.

“Adults buying video games for children need to understand that the game makers and retailers are not on their side when it comes to these violent video games. This fast-buck-at-any-cost mentality is something that is a real danger to kids.”

In many of these games, minorities are represented only as violent criminals or the player scores points for killing them. The “10 worst” list was issued before the release of the “JFK Reloaded” game, in which the player reenacts the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. That game’s Scottish manufacturer is promoting it as “educational.”

The five anti-violence groups are quick to point out that they are not advocating censorship. They are not asking manufacturers to remove the games from the market, but that they be marketed according to their content.

“Corporate responsibility must mean more than meeting minimal rating standards, which presently serve the industry far more than they serve the consumer. Retailers must develop their own standards in regards to the marketing of these types of games, and disclose how they are implementing and complying with these standards,” said Dr. Martha Burk, chair of the National Council of Women’s Organizations.

“Too many newspaper ads today mix in videogames for toddlers with videogames no child should see. And on Amazon.com, when you pull up ‘Half Life 2,’ you find that a purchase will be rewarded with a stuffed Shrek 2 doll. That makes the violent video game seem like something designed for kids.”

Last year, Gioia released a report that found 97 percent of retail stores in New York City surveyed had sold M-rated (mature, 17+) video games to minors.

“Our concern about these violent video games is not guesswork,” said Dr. Bernice Powell Jackson of the Justice and Witness Ministries of the United Church of Christ. “These games are bad for kids. The rating system does not work. Retailers are making a mockery of the supposed limits on sales. All of this paints a very unattractive picture of a violent video game ‘system’ in America that just does not work at all.”

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

Q & A Ask the Communists

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 10:23:00 +0000

Q: As you know, the Soviet Union existed for 70 years and its economy could not support itself. What makes you think that socialism in the U.S. is going to work better than it did in the Soviet Union?

A: We think that the Soviet Union did support itself, though there were serious problems in its economic system. The reasons for the “fall” of the Soviet Union are complex, and we don’t think they can be reduced to any simplistic “socialism failed” theory.

Some of the factors:

• an economy that didn’t take full advantage of the scientific/technical advances, especially computers,

• an inadequately developed socialist democracy,

• the constant economic, ideological, and political attacks by the imperialist powers, especially the U.S.,

• the military threats from the imperialist powers,

• insufficient ideological and political work,

• a blurring of the lines between political and administrative functioning — where administration substituted for politically winning the support of the people,

• and the betrayal of socialism by some of the leadership.

Polls show that a majority of people in the former Soviet Union still support socialism in some form, and reality shows that while a tiny minority of people have benefited to the tune of billions from the restoration of capitalism. For most people this has been a disaster. Infant mortality is up, suicide is up, people are dying sooner on average, poverty and unemployment and malnutrition are all astronomically higher.

No doubt, there were serious problems in the former Soviet Union, but a solution that is worse than the problems is no solution at all—capitalism has been a disaster for the majority of people in all the former socialist countries.

This is just a quick response — as I said, we see the situation as extremely complex. Here are several books I recommend to explore these issues more deeply: “Heroic Struggle, Bitter Defeat” by Bhaman Azad; “Blackshirts and Reds” by Michael Parenti; “Human Rights in the USSR” by Albert Syzmanski; and “Socialism Betrayed” by Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny. While I don’t agree completely with any of these books, together they provide a much deeper, more nuanced understanding of both the accomplishments and the difficulties and challenges faced by developing socialist countries.

We invite readers to submit questions about the Communist Party USA, its basic policies, and a Marxist viewpoint on current social issues. The answers are provided by Marc Brodine, chair of the Washington State Communist Party. Questions can be sent to cpusa@cpusa.org.

Health care: beyond markets

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 10:15:00 +0000

Opinion

As the United States moves into the 21st century, nowhere are the long-term adverse consequences of its political choices during the previous century more in evidence than in health care. Today’s dysfunctional health care system is a palpable example of the lessons that come from our national obsession with markets at all costs. In the face of explosive evidence regarding the toll our choices have taken on our ability to protect citizens from the cost of illness and promote the well-being of our most vulnerable populations, our political leaders cling to them. Americans deserve better. During more than 60 years of work in public health and health policy, I have reached some conclusions about how to achieve meaningful forward movement in our seemingly unending national health reform struggle.

Health care reform is hardly the first issue over which the federal government has confronted the need to introduce a level of discipline and control over the private market to protect the public’s health and meet our desire for stability and reliability. Government has faced similar challenges in the areas of banking, industrial safety and transportation. Surely health care is as important to society.

Today’s approach to health insurance is a peculiar holdover from an earlier time, when medical care was far less valued and much less costly. As modern society moved to control and reduce more pressing public health risks, and as medical science and technology made almost inconceivable leaps, medicine’s relative social worth skyrocketed. To spur the growth of the nation’s modern medical industrial complex, Congress made a series of Faustian bargains, first through the guarantee of lucrative tax breaks and the promise of an unregulated market in the case of health insurers and, later, with the adoption of legal architecture in Medicare that was guaranteed to provide high profitability for hospitals and physicians. In 2003 this architecture of profitability was taken to new extremes through the distressingly named Medicare Modernization Act, which prohibits the government from negotiating the price of covered prescription drugs.

This approach has produced a system in which Americans face a one-in-six chance of exclusion from insurance coverage. It is a system that rests on an increasingly shaky foundation of voluntary employer and individual contributions, along with tax breaks skewed to the wealthiest members of society. The most vulnerable have Medicaid, but an equally large number — overwhelmingly workers with modest incomes — get no help other than at health centers, health agencies and public hospitals struggling against terrible odds to provide basic care.

This approach has also produced a supplier market like no other. The private forces that underwrite, organize and deliver care consist of a number of colossal private health insurers, as well as consolidated and entrepreneurial health care companies providing everything from specialty physician and laboratory services to nursing home care. These industrial giants, many of them publicly traded, have been enticed to the table by the promise of large profits and guarantees of total federal immunity from efforts to regulate their practices and businesses.

Our health care costs are astronomical compared with those of other nations. Our population health indicators rank poorly among industrialized democracies. And the cost of care means that our people get less of what they need. Millions go without coverage, and Medicare and Medicaid stagger under the weight of the system. Preventive investments are almost nonexistent.

The failed effort at national health care reform under President Bill Clinton taught us how difficult it is to try to address the crisis through a single federal approach. For this reason, I believe that the most important step we can take is enactment of legislation to give state leaders the resources and legal tools they need to begin addressing the crisis. Our nation has relied on state innovation before: Social Security Old Age Benefits grew out of a 1911 Missouri pension program for widows, and federal labor laws evolved from state efforts to demand basic accountability of the market. Other nations have also followed this incremental route. The modern Canadian health system is an outgrowth of a Saskatchewan experiment to ensure health care for everyone.

From a historical standpoint, it’s understandable that a large and heterogeneous country such as the United States — with a population 10 times as large as Canada’s — should move cautiously into a national program. This nation has considerable variations in underlying health care costs and customs that must be allowed to evolve over time. Population demographics vary enormously. Furthermore, pluralism is an important characteristic of the American political scene. We may ultimately decide to go the Canadian way, but it will only be after clear-cut decision making based on public awareness of all the facts, benefits and deficiencies of various approaches.

Congress could take steps to restore the state capability for innovation and initiative through a program that appropriates funds and asks for a few basic things in return: (1) universal coverage, (2) a single source of payment, (3) global budgeting, (4) quality-control measures and (5) guarantee of service. These ground rules, along with the power on the part of states to overcome federal preemption of their authority to meet these goals, would go far, in my view, toward giving us the models we need to move forward as a nation.

Taking this path will require concessions from all sides: professionals, patients and politicians. And it will require forsaking “sacred principles” on all sides. Wilbur Cohen, the onetime secretary of health, education and welfare, and a consummate politician, had an amusing and insightful response to arguments of procedure “on principle.” He would say, “Sometimes we have to give up our principles and do what’s right.”

George Silver is professor emeritus of public health at the Yale University School of Medicine. He was a deputy assistant secretary for health in the Johnson administration. This article originally appeared in the Washington Post and is reprinted by permission of the author.

Who wants to cut Social Security benefits?

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 10:09:00 +0000

Opinion

Sometimes the news makes me laugh out loud. Here’s a good one: “On Social Security,” reported The New York Times last week, “45 percent said a proposal to permit people to invest their Social Security withholding money in private accounts was a bad idea; 49 percent said it was a good idea.”

Get it? The NYT/CBS poll cited here asked people whether they would like to have a choice about what happens to their tax dollars. No wonder almost half said yes.

What the pollsters inadvertently left out of the question was the down side: big cuts in Social Security benefits.

That’s right, according to Reform Plan 2 of the carefully misnamed “President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security,” this partial privatization would mean a sizeable loss of benefits for most Americans.

A 20-year-old just entering the labor force would lose 34 percent of his or her expected benefits under this plan. This would amount to almost $134,000 over a lifetime of retirement. They would have a chance to gain back, on average, about $47,000 of this from an individual account — provided the stock market doesn’t tank like it did from 2000-2002, just in time for their retirement.

For the next poll, here is a more accurate question: would you like to see your Social Security retirement benefits cut by 34 percent, and have a chance at getting back a fraction of that from a private account? That’s for the young workers. The amount of the cuts decreases as you move up the age ladder, but the plan still provides a net loss for the vast majority of Americans.

How many people do you think would say yes to a deal like that? But that’s the deal that President Bush appears to be offering. His commission, which unlike other such bodies was stacked with people who favor privatization, came up with three plans. Mr. Bush hasn’t explicitly chosen one, but shortly after the November 2 election he indicated that he is talking about Reform Plan 2.

Note to journalists covering this issue: let’s get the headline news up front. Big cuts to create private accounts, and for what? So that people can invest some of their Social Security taxes in a stock index fund? We already have a number of means by which people can take their earnings tax-free and put them in the stock market, such as Individual Retirement Accounts or 401(k) accounts. Yet less than 5 percent of employees are taking full advantage of these opportunities.

It would be a good idea for the federal government to make such retirement savings accounts more universally and cheaply available. But there is no need to raid Social Security, and cut benefits, to do that.

Nor is there any reason to “fix” Social Security any time soon. According to the numbers used by everyone, including the President’s Commission, Social Security can pay all promised benefits for the next 38 years without any changes at all. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office just upped that estimate to 48 years. By either measure, Social Security is in better financial shape than it has been for most of its 69-year history. Any shortfall that might occur 40 or 50 years from now is easily manageable, and less than we have dealt with in the past, when we had much less income.

Yet Social Security “reformers” have spent the last decade and a half convincing most of the public that Social Security is in dire straits. Now they offer us a plan that will cut benefits, add untold hundreds of billions of dollars to our already oversized federal budget deficits, and increase Social Security’s administrative costs more than ten-fold.

And for what?

Mark Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Reprinted from Knight-Ridder/Tribune newspapers with permission of the author.

Hands off the NAACP

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 10:04:00 +0000

Opinion

I think that it is fair to say that most of us were taken aback by the audacity of the action. A few short weeks prior to the November presidential election, it was announced that the Internal Revenue Service was investigating the NAACP to see whether they had violated their tax exempt/tax deductible status (their 501(c)(3) designation). The reason? Allegations were raised that in his speech to the NAACP National Convention this past summer, Chairman Julian Bond had raised critical remarks regarding President Bush and his administration.

Did you get that? Raising critical remarks about President Bush!? If we are to understand this challenge, the IRS seems to be saying that during an election year, criticisms of a candidate (or perhaps, just of the administration in power) violates the tax status of non-profit organizations. I am trying to figure out what ever happened to freedom of speech. While it is true that there are restrictions on those non-profit organizations that have a 501(c)(3) tax status, those restrictions are to prevent them from engaging in partisan political activity. In other words, the NAACP cannot endorse a particular candidate, nor can it call upon the electorate to not vote for a particular candidate. It can, however, criticize policies of a candidate or an administration; at least that is the way that it is suppose to work.

The NAACP, as you probably know, has made criticisms of parties in power and parties out of power. There was nothing new under the sun with Julian Bond launching a criticism of the Bush administration.

He has been doing this on a regular basis. So, as a matter of fact, have a lot of other people. It takes no Einstein to understand what is unfolding. The Bush administration, through the IRS, was sending a very clear signal that dissent or criticism would not be tolerated, regardless of from what quarter it originates.

It matters not whether you are a member of the NAACP, or whether you disagree with the NAACP. It matters not whether you voted for President Bush or whether you voted for Senator Kerry. What matters at this critical moment is your attitude toward the Constitution and the question of democracy. If the IRS is allowed to persecute the NAACP, then there is no stopping this administration from squashing debate. There is no way that a reasonable person could conclude that Julian Bond and the NAACP violated their tax status. Had he stood before the convention and endorsed Senator Kerry or told the listeners to avoid voting for President Bush, he would have been in violation of federal regulations. This did not happen. You know it, the IRS knows it, and most especially, the Bush administration knows it. They have chosen to not let facts stand in the way of their decisions. Given this state of affairs, you and I need to stand in favor of the Constitution.

Sometimes one is called upon to speak out regardless of the consequences. We should know by now that silence never stopped tyranny. It never has and it never will.

If you want to take a stand, you can write directly to the IRS, or you can use the OMB Watch site at the following URL: capwiz.com/ombwatch/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=6642526.

When is enough enough?

Bill Fletcher Jr. is president of TransAfrica Forum and co-chair of United for Peace and Justice. Reprinted from Sacramento Observer / National Newspaper Publishers Association with permission of the author.

Pete Seeger: Standing Tall at 85

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 07:13:00 +0000

Pete Seeger turned 85 last May 3 and could be forgiven if he hung up his five-string banjo and relaxed with his wife Toshi at their home up the Hudson River in Beacon, New York. But that is not Pete Seeger’s way.

During a 50-minute interview by telephone with the People’s Weekly World, the famed folksinger and fighter for peace and environmental justice enthused on his immersion in a half-dozen projects.

Seeger was on his way down to Texas for the National Assembly of the Unitarian Universalists. He is a man of restless energy and creativity.

He is completing a new edition of his songbook, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” A CD of the songs will accompany it. “People need to hear the songs so they can sing them,” Seeger said. “You have to hear the syncopation of African songs to sing them right.”

He has set up a foundation so that Third World nations will receive royalties from songs and folk tales he has popularized, such as the South African “Abiyoyo” and “Wimoweh.”

The last time this reporter spoke to Seeger in person was at the Feb. 15, 2003, demonstration a few blocks from the United Nations, protesting George W. Bush’s rush to war on Iraq. A biting wind tore up the avenues. Surly New York police were treating the freezing protesters like cattle to be herded and penned.

Pete Seeger led the crowd in “Somewhere over the Rainbow.” Over the decades he has become a familiar sight, singing and playing his banjo on behalf of every conceivable struggle for democracy and human rights. “I will come and sing again if I am asked even though my voice is 90 percent gone,” he said. “The list of songs is down to about a dozen, ‘This Land is My Land,’ ‘Over the Rainbow,’ ‘Where Have All the Flowers Gone?’”

He relies now on a time-tested strategy. “I line-out the hymn,” he said. “I recite the lines of songs everybody knows a few beats ahead of the crowd so that they can do the singing.” Getting crowds to sing along with him is part of Pete Seeger’s genius in enlisting grassroots people in the rebirth of folk music as a living art form.

He understood early the power of song as a force for social change. He said he was not surprised that singer Bruce Springsteen was a huge draw as he campaigned alongside Democrat John Kerry before the Nov. 2 election. Kerry often thanked Springsteen for turning out more people than he himself could attract. “Many movements now realize that music can bring the crowds to listen to speeches,” Seeger said.

Yet he was not surprised that George W. Bush captured a second term. “I kind of expected it, because the Bush gang had so much money they could pay for any kind of trick, big or small,” Seeger said. “On the other hand, I’m more encouraged by this election than ever before. So many people voted and 56 million voted against Bush. We had more voters than in any election in 30 years. The very worst thing is for people to say: ‘My vote doesn’t count. So why bother to vote at all?’ People rejected that and turned out. That gives us good reason for hope.”

Seeger was not alone in the movement that succeeded in reclaiming folk music. There were singers like Huddie Ledbetter, better known as “Leadbelly,” with his 12-string guitar. From his experience as a prison inmate in the jim-crow South, Leadbelly immortalized African American work songs like “Take this Hammer” and “Midnight Special.” Seeger also spoke warmly of Woody Guthrie who joined Seeger, Lee Hays, and Millard Lampell in The Almanac Singers in 1941. They were favorites at rallies of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, singing “Talking Union,” “There Once Was a Union Maid,” and “We Shall Not Be Moved.” They also sang sea chanteys like the “Greenland Whale Fisher Song” and other work songs.

“Woody was out in Oregon composing ballads for the Bonneville Power Administration such as ‘Roll on Columbia,’” Seeger said. “I called him up and invited him to join The Almanac Singers. He hitchhiked across the country. Along the way, he went into a diner and heard on a juke box Kate Smith singing ‘God Bless America.’ He started right then to pen his answer, ‘This Land is Your Land.’”

The song was never on the hit parade, Seeger said, but was spread as sheet music and 78 RPM records mainly through the nation’s public schools. “Music teachers would hear it and say, ‘That’s a good song. Children can sing it.’” Now it is so widely beloved that it has become a sort of unofficial national anthem.

“Woody showed up at Almanac House June 23, 1941, the day after Hitler invaded the Soviet Union,” Seeger continued. “I opened the door and said, ‘Woody! You got here!’ And he replied, ‘Well, we won’t be singing those peace songs.’ Three weeks later he wrote ‘The Good Reuben James’ about the Nazi torpedoing of a Liberty Ship with all hands lost.”

Seeger spoke of his ties to the Daily Worker. He remains today a reader of the People’s Weekly World. His father, an ethno-musicologist at Juilliard and later at UCLA, wrote a column for the Daily Worker under the byline Carl Sands. “Woody wrote a column called ‘Woodie Sez’ for the Worker,” Seeger noted.

Seeger was summoned to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee during the depths of Cold War McCarthyism to be questioned on his ties to the Communist Party USA. He cited the First Amendment in refusing to testify. He would not “name names.” He was cited for contempt and sentenced to a year in prison. The sentence was overturned on appeal. But Seeger endured years of blacklist.

Bobbie Rabinowitz, founder of the New York City Labor Chorus and a longtime friend of Seeger’s, spoke for many. “Pete was a major inspiration,” she told the World. “He would come to our rehearsals and teach us songs.” Now, she said, labor choruses have sprung up in Seattle, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., North Carolina and Brooklyn. “I first heard Pete sing as a teenager at Camp Kinder-land,” she said. “He was on the stage with a log and an axe. As he sang a logger’s song, he chopped and the chips flew. I caught one. I have it still. It’s like one of those home-run balls that kids catch at a baseball game.”

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, and J. Edgar Hoover have been disgraced and thrown in the “dustbin of history.” George W. Bush is likely to join them.

As for Seeger, he is a man beloved of the people and standing tall at 85.

The author can be reached at greenerpastures21212@yahoo.com. **(see related story below)

Not merely a teenage crush

By Susan E. Wheeler

PORTLAND, Ore. — When I was a 15-year-old girl with stars in her eyes I wrote a fan letter to Pete Seeger. My contemporaries were in love with Elvis Presley, but I fell in love with Pete.

Pete and my parents were fond acquaintances, sharing a history of struggle and resistance to political persecution. My father was subpoenaed numerous times. There was a strong connection between our families.

Pete had been blacklisted for years and it was difficult to find a hall for him to perform in. He sang at venues like the Rotary Club in Grand Rapids, Mich.; Osteopathic Association in New Mexico; Ethical Culture Society in New York City; Home for the Aged, Portland; and at various universities. We organized a concert in Port Angeles, Wash., in 1957, which drew 75 people.

A year later that number was doubled for a concert he did with Sonny Terry and J.C. Burris, Sonny’s nephew, who played the spoons. Pete sang two of local logger Russ Farrell’s songs, “There Shall Be Peace” and “The Scaler had a Long Thumb,” which Pete got published in Sing Out magazine. I could not believe so few people turned out, but Pete said it was a good turnout for a town without a college.

I wrote in my diary, “I’ve met the man with the banjo the first time outside the Moore Theater in Seattle. I knew his music; I’d heard him sing and play, and I loved him for that, as did thousands of other people across the country. There, under the glaring lights of the ticket office, was the top-coated, striding Pete Seeger. I became suddenly timid, my voice failed and my knees knocked, my heart thudding uncontrollably in my throat.

“My brother rescued me. I shook hands with him, the world’s greatest banjo picker. His eyes were as warm as his handshake. He had a large nose and irregular teeth, and in one cheek was a ragged crease made because he sings with his head back and his mouth crooked to one side. He wore a red scarf about his neck, for it was November and hands-plunged-in-pockets cold.

“I felt as if I were shaking hands with every person, great and humble, Black and white, who has ever had faith in the people and hope for the future. Here was Sean O’Casey, John Keats, John Brown, Thaddeus Stevens, Karl Marx, and a multitude, and I was face to face with them.

“I’ll never forget it, not in a thousand lifetimes. Tongue-tied, all I could manage was an intelligent, ‘Golly.’”

Pete and Lee Hays organized The Weavers in 1950. They were an enormous success, selling over 4 million records. But the organized blacklist intervened. The House Un-American Act-

ivities Committee began an investigation into the entertainment industry. Pete’s FBI file was leaked by J. Edgar Hoover to the New York World Telegram.

Radio stations stopped playing the Weavers’ music, concerts were canceled, and the group was banned from television appearances. The Weavers were the first musicians in American history to be investigated for sedition.

Then Harvey Matusow named Pete as a member of the Communist Party. Pete was called before the committee, where he pled the First Amendment, not the Fifth. A photo with the caption, “Sings for people, not committees,” appeared in the left-wing press.

On July 26, 1956, the House of Representatives voted 373-9 to cite Seeger for contempt of Congress. Pete was indicted along with playwright Arthur Miller and six others for contempt. After worldwide protests, an appeals court eventually ruled Seeger’s indictment faulty and dismissed it.

But Pete was still blacklisted in many places until the late ’60s. In September 1967, Pete appeared on the Smothers Brothers TV show, where he sang “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy,” and the censors axed it. (He later appeared again and the song went on.)

Pete once said, “I’d sing for the John Birch Society or the American Legion if they asked. So far they haven’t.” But he was invited to the White House, and received the nation’s highest artistic honors at the Kennedy Center in December 1994.

The album “Pete” won a Grammy in 1996. The album includes “How Can I Keep From Singing,” with the lyrics penned by Doris Plenn during the ’50s Red Scare: “When tyrants tremble sick with fear/and hear their death knell ringing/when friends rejoice both far and near/how can I keep from singing.”

Pete can’t.

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

UN report shows effects of poverty, war on children

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 07:03:00 +0000

UNICEF’s annual State of the World’s Children report presents a grim picture for the holiday season. The United Nation Children’s Fund reports that more than half of all children face deprivation as a result of poverty, war and the HIV/AIDS crisis.

The 164-page report details the progress that has been made in past years, while making it clear that the progress is no-where near enough. In a foreword to the report, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urges nations to bear the report’s findings in mind when they meet in 2005 for a review of the Millennium Declaration. Annan writes, “With the childhood of so many under threat, our collective future is compromised.”

The report found that poverty, while worse in developing nations, is also a problem in industrialized nations such as the U.S. The proportion of children living in low-income households in 11 of the 15 “developed nations” rose over the past decade.

Additionally, the report seeks to expand the definition of poverty as a civil rights issue, saying that it is more than material deprivation and leaves children “unable to enjoy their rights, achieve their full potential or participate as full and equal members of society.”

Throughout the report, its authors emphesize that worldwide spending on defense, almost $1 trillion annually, is far higher than the amount it would take to solve many of the problems noted, estimated at $40-70 billion.

“Children do not start wars, yet they are the most vulnerable to its deadly effects,” the report states. An estimated 90 percent of all conflict-related deaths since 1990 have been civilians, 80 percent of those have been women and children.

In addition to the practices of recruitment of child soldiers, the report expresses particular concern about the lingering effects of conflict, including psychological trauma, sexual violence and lack of education.

Without making a direct comment on the U.S.-initiated wars since 2001, something UNICEF director Carol Bellamy has come under criticism for, the report cites a Human Rights Watch study that found that the cluster munitions used by coalition forces in Iraq were a major cause of civilian casualties in 2003. Additionally, the report notes that more than 100 children were recently killed in Fallujah, some on their way to school, in the conflict between Iraqis and coalition forces.

The report criticizes the political climate that leads to such conflicts. “Far from seeming safer, the world at the beginning o the 21st century appears more riven by conflict and fear — and its dominant political discourse to be one of war.”

The report also presents the stark reality of the HIV/AIDS crisis, calling on the international community to ensure access to essential services and retroviral drugs. More than just a problem of infected children, the AIDS pandemic results in children being forced to support their families as a result of the illness or death of a parent. This, the report says, plays a part in the overall poverty and deprivation of children, particularly the lack of schooling. Citing International Labor Organization assessments, the report notes that “orphaned children are much more likely than non-orphans to be working in commercial agriculture, as street vendors, in domestic service and commercial sex.”

The report’s conclusions sends what it calls an “unambiguous message” to governments: “Keep your commitments to your nation’s children.” However, the report’s findings show that “few governments have the guided by human rights principles in all of their actions towards their citizens.”

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

Nursing home closing bad for residents, workers

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 06:54:00 +0000

Workers’ Correspondence

After 35 years of service in the New Haven, Conn., community, Atrium Plaza, otherwise known as Winthrop Health Care, one of the city’s largest nursing homes with a population of 240 beds and 285 employees, has closed its doors to the public.

The home has for years served old and young residents in the New Haven area as well as other neighboring towns in Connecticut and plays a role in the local economy. Most former employees at Atrium Plaza are minorities and single parents with children in school or college and have given the best of their years to the community of New Haven. Many have 20 to 30 years of service.

Former residents had been there many years. One resident lived there for 23 years. She was admitted the same year I was employed. She was 45 years old when admitted.

Closure of the nursing home had a great impact on the residents physically and psychologically. Most residents experienced emotional stress, knowing that they had to be uprooted from a permanent accommodation, only to be placed into a far and distant unfamiliar environment away from their trusted caregiver and family members. Some faced separation anxiety by losing a familiar roommate.

Family members became apprehensive as most New Haven families use public transportation to make routine visits on a weekly basis, and to commute distances especially in the bad weather for them is very stressful.

The employees at Atrium fought long and hard to keep the residents, and to prevent closure of the home. The mayor, along with SEIU 1199 health care workers union and state elected officials, put up a hard struggle to save the home, to save residents’ choice of living and preserve jobs for employees.

But the state of Connecticut under the direction of the former governor deemed that closing the home and moving the residents to distant homes would be a better solution, instead of providing adequate staffing or funding for quality of life for residents, their families and employees.

The owner had filed for bankruptcy after the state decided not to increase bed funding for residents enough to pay for appropriate staffing that would provide adequate care. As a result, 285 employees were left without jobs and were not compensated with severance packages for their long years of dedication to the community.

At present, the majority of workers are still unemployed and other nursing homes are refusing to employ those workers from Atrium Plaza because of their affiliation with the union. Workers were told by one facility that “we don’t have a union and we don’t want one here.” I think that is an act of discrimination.

Personally, I have sent out 17 résumés. I have only had three interviews, for which I had to keep calling to remind these places. Other facilities accepted the résumé and did not even bother to reply. Of those places that interviewed me, only one replied to say the position has been filled.

One would think that having three degrees, one in gerontology and two in social work (BSW, MSW) multiple skills and 23 years of working experience would merit a job. To qualify for a job these days you may have to lie about your age and consider changing the color of your skin, even though you have experience and qualifications.

The workers of Atrium Plaza were among the best caregivers in Connecticut nursing homes, as we could successfully deal with residents that other homes and hospitals had found to be difficult. Our population was multicultural, with a range of age groups and diagnoses. This is why we should be compensated by receiving a severance package by the state of Connecticut for all the hard work we have done. The employees of Atrium Plaza Health Care, now called dislocated workers, are calling on the community to speak out against nursing home closures to prevent displacement of elders, especially for those who will be placed too far apart from their families.

We are also calling on state elected officials to be more vigilant in the operation of nursing homes which are too quick to file bankruptcy for their benefit and seek to displace residents and employees out of their homes and employment. It’s time to put an end to people like nursing home operators who only use the elderly at their convenience as a profit-making object.

— Verelda Wilson

Who will pay for the falling dollar?

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 06:49:00 +0000

The declining dollar is featured on business and editorial pages from The New York Times to local newspapers, and it has even made it onto television’s “The Daily Show.” Four years ago it cost 90 cents to buy a Euro, the currency of the European Union, and a Volkswagen that sold for 20,000 Euros in Germany cost $18,000 here. A weak dollar means that each Euro now costs $1.35, and the same Volkswagen, $27,000.

An economics textbook might explain it like this: The U.S. imports more than it exports, and we are sinking deeper in debt to the rest of the world at the rate of $665 billion per year — 5.7 percent of our GDP. This causes a growing surplus of dollars in the world, so their value is dropping. With a weak dollar, the U.S. will buy less and sell more, and our trade deficit will shrink. If only China would agree to let the dollar fall against their currency, balance and harmony would be restored, and U.S. jobs will be saved.

Real life can be different when it comes to inflation, jobs and recession.

Reuters reports Dec. 9 that “import prices excluding petroleum posted the largest increase in 10 months, a possible early warning on inflation from the weaker dollar.” U.S. producers raise their own prices to take advantage of their foreign competitors’ price increases. Thus, Business Week reports Dec. 6 that “U.S. auto makers would raise their own prices in tandem with [rising] import prices to restore badly eroded profit margins.”

These price increases amount to a wage cut for U.S. consumers. And when U.S. automakers (and other businesses) raise their prices to match those of imported cars, they won’t sell any more cars, so they won’t hire any more workers.

For similar reasons, job gains from exports will be limited. A Dec. 5 New York Times story credits the declining dollar with improving profit margins from Cadillac’s European sales. It could work this way: A $50,000 Cadillac would have cost its Belgian buyer 55,600 Euros four years ago. It should sell for 37,000 Euros today, but GM keeps the Euro price high and pockets the extra profit, instead of increasing sales, production and U.S. jobs.

Of course, some imports will be cut, and some exports increased. But any job gains likely will be offset by recessionary job losses.

Morgan Stanley’s chief economist Stephen Roach foresees higher interest rates to maintain foreign investors’ confidence in the dollar. “Higher interest rates should slow domestic demand and reduce imports,” he says approvingly. In other words, the trade deficit will be reduced by provoking a recession and lowering workers’ living standards, a theme echoed by many establishment economists.

For every $1 the trade deficit is reduced, $5 will be taken out of workers’ pockets. Consumers’ reduced buying power will slow demand, causing loss of jobs. Rising interest rates could kill the high-flying housing market, costing hundreds of thousands of construction jobs and putting a big dent in mortgage-financed consuming power.

With the excuse that a balanced budget is necessary to reassure international lenders, the dollar crisis will be used to slash federal spending on housing, education and other useful programs. These cuts will be a further brake on the economy, and the resulting job losses could far exceed the gains from an improved trade balance.

The $600 billion trade gap, and the lost jobs it represents, is mainly the result of 50 years of imperialist policy that promotes foreign investment and production by U.S. corporations. It is the result of deliberate decisions by companies like Wal-Mart to promote products from low-wage contractors abroad. And it is due to the huge sums that the U.S. spends abroad to fight wars and maintain military bases around the world.

A decline in the dollar might be inevitable, but it will not be a cure for trade imbalances or the economic problems facing American workers. The situation was caused by monopoly corporations and their policies, and they should bear the consequences:

• Change the tax code to punish instead of reward companies that move or outsource overseas.

• Cover U.S. government deficits by taxing the rich, instead of borrowing money from foreign or domestic capitalists or their governments. Cut the trade deficit by reducing luxury imports, international imperialist expenditures, and oil expenditures.

• Eliminate U.S. overseas military bases and activity, while maintaining domestic social programs. Maintain workers’ living standards in the face of inflation and unemployment.

The author can be reached at economics@cpusa.org.

Mary, Joseph and the shepherds

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 06:44:00 +0000

On Dec. 16, Mary and Joseph, looking for shelter and hospitality before the birth of Jesus, will visit the offices of Sens. Michael DeWine and George Voinovich and Reps. Marcy Kaptur and Paul Gillmor in Toledo, Ohio, to ask for just U.S. immigration policies for recent immigrants.

The event is organized locally by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), Church of God of Prophesy, Good Shepherd Baptist Church, St. Peter and Paul Church, Hispanic Ministries of the Toledo Catholic Diocese, Sisters of St. Francis of Sylvania and Tiffin, Interfaith Justice and Peace Center, and Iglesia Nueva Vida Methodist Church.

The local action is part of similar events organized nationally in more than 20 communities by the National Coalition for Dignity and Amnesty. The event reenacts the story of the traditional Mexican Posada, symbolizing the obligation of hospitality towards immigrants. The Posada is a representation of Mary and Joseph, strangers in Bethlehem, looking for shelter before the birth of Jesus.

The action is a call for more just U.S. immigration policies. It emphasizes the significant contributions immigrants, often working low-wage, backbreaking jobs, make to this country. Beatriz Maya, FLOC director for immigrant rights, said, “What the American government has done so far is to suck up all their blood and sweat and give them nothing more than abuse and persecution.” Maya says that today’s immigrants — like those in the past — are here looking for a better future and are willing to contribute the best they have to the country.

Mary, Joseph and the shepherds will start the pilgrimage through the congressional offices from the FLOC office in Toledo.

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

U Penn grad students fight for their rights

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 06:34:00 +0000

PHILADELPHIA — Following the successful campaigns at universities across the country, graduate student employees at the University of Pennsylvania are working to gain union recognition. Graduate Employees Together–University of Pennsylvania is an organization formed by graduate student employees and is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers. Its primary purpose is to improve graduate student employee life through unionization.

Their efforts have also dealt with the fundamental issues that are common to each and every graduate student in the community. GET-UP membership is open to any graduate student employee, including international students. Members of GET-UP have democratic decision-making rights within the organization.

These decisions include setting demands for fair pay, better working conditions and benefits for all. The organization has continued to fight for adequate, affordable and comprehensive health coverage for all graduate students and their dependents. After extensive research and input from the graduate students, GET-UP communicated its demands for quality coverage to the university’s administration. While most of GET-UP’s requests fell on deaf ears, the university has recently granted limited health care coverage to some graduate student employees.

Unlike other universities, the University of Pennsylvania does not match graduate stipends to cost-of-living estimates. The current stipend amounts are well below the estimated minimum cost of living for a single adult in Philadelphia. GET-UP is seeking regular, publicly accountable stipend adjustments to meet changes in the costs of housing, food, course materials, child care, university fees and other necessities.

GET-UP seeks to ensure tolerable and equitable conditions for the teaching and research assistants that support university faculty. The graduate student employees are often given unreasonably high workloads and inadequate office space. GET-UP seeks enforcement of existing caps on workloads, compensation for teaching-related costs, adequate workspace and the restriction of teaching and research responsibility to activities commensurate with preparation for a life of scholarship and leadership.

For more information about GET-UP and their struggles, consult their web site at www.getuponline.org.

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

International notes

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 06:21:00 +0000

Korea: U.S. manipulated intelligence

A task force chaired by foreign policy expert Selig Harrison said in a report released Dec. 10 that the Bush administration distorted intelligence about North Korea’s nuclear program, in much the way it used allegations of weapons of mass destruction to justify invading Iraq.

The Task Force on Korean Policy — composed of former senior U.S. military officers, diplomats and specialists on Korea — urged Washington to stop insisting the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) provide data on an alleged program to enrich uranium. “No evidence has yet been presented publicly to justify the conclusion that facilities capable of producing high-enriched, weapons-grade uranium exist in North Korea,” the Task Force said.

Instead, the group proposed a four-step program for complete denuclearization starting with a freeze on the country’s plutonium program and including “substantial multilateral and bilateral programs of assistance” to the DPRK. The task force urged full U.S. diplomatic recognition of the DPRK and tripartite talks including South Korea for a peace treaty in the over 50-year-old Korean War.

Nigeria: Huge port layoffs threatened

The leadership of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has called on the government to reconsider its plan to lay off at least 10,000 of the Nigerian Ports Authority’s 13,000 workers under a plan to reform the country’s port operations. The MWUN warned that it could not guarantee industrial peace in the ports unless the government changes its position.

Calling the planned job cuts a World Bank agenda, MWUN head Onikoalese Irabor said the government had repeatedly assured the union and the workers that the reform would not involve job cuts. However, he said, the government is moving to sell the ports.

“The World Bank is not our employer,” he said, “and we will not allow them to destroy this country.”

Switzerland: Demand affordable health care

Supporters handed federal authorities over 113,000 signatures Dec. 9 calling for a nationwide vote on a single, non-profit health insurance system with income-related premiums, Swissinfo reported Dec. 9. The proposal would set up a system run by health care professionals, the government and policyholders. Now, over 90 private health insurance companies operate in Switzerland.

Social Democrat member of Parliament Jean-Claude Rennwald said the proposed changes would not solve all the problems. But he called them the only alternative to a two-tier health system, one for the rich and one for the poor.

Voters will ultimately have the final say; in May 2003 they overwhelmingly rejected a plan to link premiums to incomes and savings.

The country’s health care system relies on individual contributions and taxes. It is the only European country where premiums are not income-related. Both health care costs and quality of care are among the highest in the world.

Mexico: Workers’ rights at risk

Human Rights Watch said last week that labor reform proposals by President Vicente Fox would seriously jeopardize workers’ rights. “Workers in Mexico already face unacceptable obstacles to exercising their rights to join independent unions, bargain collectively, and strike,” Jose Miguel Vivanco, HRW’s Americas director, said Dec. 9. “President Fox’s reforms would make it next to impossible.”

Fox’s proposals would require workers to have a variety of documents certifying union registration before they could strike, force employers to bargain collectively or call a vote to gain representational rights and replace an existing union. But such papers can usually only be obtained from federal or local government agencies and boards of conciliation and arbitration.

“This is like requiring that a defendant give a plaintiff permission before his case goes forward,” said Vivanco. “It makes a mockery of workers’ rights to freedom of association and their ability to defend their interests.”

International Notes are compiled by Marilyn Bechtel (mbechtel@pww.org).

U.S. spends millions in Ukraine politics

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 06:15:00 +0000

While the Cold War officially ended over a decade ago, the current political crisis in Ukraine suggests that Washington is still in a Cold War mode, trying to “encircle” Russia and helping to install governments that are subservient to U.S. corporate interests in the former republics of the USSR.

The Bush administration and Western Europe’s ruling interests want to open up these markets and end any socialist programs left over from the USSR. The U.S. also aims to increase its military presence in the area.

The crisis arises from the battle for the Ukrainian presidency between Viktor Yuschenko, who says that he will bring Ukraine into NATO and institute a wider opening of markets, and current Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych is seen as maintaining the status quo and has been backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Yuschenko and Yanukovych stood in a runoff election Nov. 21, with Yanukovych being declared the winner by about 3 percentage points. According to the U.K. Guardian, Yanukovych’s campaign released an exit poll showing himself to be ahead by 1.4 percent, with a margin of error of 5 percent points. However, Yuschenko’s exit polls, financed by Western embassies, showed him to be ahead by 11 points, and he quickly declared the election results to be invalid.

This led to the standoff.

There were days-long demonstrations in the nation’s capital, Kiev, by a number of different groups united around Yuschenko, calling for an “Orange Revolution.” The demonstrations were well planned and included well-organized distribution of food and necessities to the crowd, and festivities such as rock concerts. The demonstrations appeared to be an open manifestation of “people’s power.”

However, there is good reason to believe that while most of the participants in the demonstrations thought they were fighting for democracy, the protests were organized to serve U.S. imperialist interests. The Dec. 11 New York Times reported that the Bush administration had spent over $65 million in Ukraine, and had paid to bring Yuschenko to meet with American leaders and to aid political organizations. While some of that money was given to organizations whose stated aim is to promote and teach democracy, millions of dollars went to partisan political organizations and parties supporting Yuschenko. It is worth noting that in the United States, federal election laws make it illegal for political parties to receive foreign funding.

There most likely were attempts at election fraud — from both sides. The Western-financed exit polls, showing Yuschenko as the winner, may have been skewed. According to the Times, one of the U.S. government agencies funding the polls was the National Endowment for Democracy — the same organization that helped fund the anti-Chavez coup in Venezuela and used such tactics there.

“It is clear that a significant amount of U.S. taxpayer dollars went to support one candidate in Ukraine,” said U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). It is unclear, he said, “how many other efforts, overt or covert, have been made” to support that candidate.

Taking President Bush to task for his hypocritical criticism of Russia’s involvement in the situation in Ukraine, Rep. Paul said, “President Bush is absolutely correct: elections in Ukraine should be free of foreign influence. It is our job here and now to discover just how far we have violated this very important principle, and to cease any funding of political candidates or campaigns henceforth.”

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation issued a statement denouncing Yuschenko as an ally of U.S. imperialism. At the same time, the leader of the Communist Party of the Ukraine, Peter Simonenko, acknowledged that there have been problems of vote rigging by both sides in the election, and questioned the role a president of the Ukraine should have. “Taking into account massive vote rigging,” he said, “I propose declaring the 2004 elections to be invalid, raising the problem of political reform in Parliament and amending the constitution. All power must be passed over to Parliament. The current president’s tenure must be suspended and the cabinet must be obliged to exclusively fulfill Parliament’s decisions.”

The election results were thrown out, and a compromise plan was reached between the two sides, which included anti-electoral-fraud measures enacted by the Rada (Parliament), and a new election on Dec. 26. The powers of the president will also be scaled down.

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

Wash. governors race margin razor-thin

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 06:00:00 +0000

SEATTLE — It’s already one for the record books: the Washington state governor’s race is the closest in the history of the United States. The battle over a second recount is one front of the national struggle to have every voted counted fairly.

Following the November election, Republican Dino Rossi was declared the winner by less than 300 votes out of nearly 3 million. Under state law, a margin this close required an automatic machine recount. As a result of the recount, Rossi’s margin shrunk to 42 votes.

The state Democratic Party and its gubernatorial candidate, Christine Gregoire, then raised over $750,000 to pay for a second, hand recount in all counties. As of Dec. 14, Rossi had gained another 190 votes and Gregoire 144, increasing Rossi’s lead.

In the latest development, after the chair of the King County Council discovered that his own valid vote had been disqualified, the county found a total of 561 improperly disqualified ballots. Since Gregoire was leading by 60 percent in the county, this bodes well for her campaign. However, state Republican Chair Chris Vance is objecting at the top of his lungs, alleging fraud and vowing more court challenges.

The Democratic Party had already gone directly to the state Supreme Court to ask that all ballots, especially absentee and provisional ballots, be treated the same in the hand recount. Now, each county election board determines which votes are valid. As a result some counties — including the largest, King County — have provisional ballots rejected at a much higher rate than other counties.

Rossi, a former state legislator, worked hard during the general election to distance himself from his very conservative record on issues that in Washington are unpopular, such as abortion rights. He positioned himself as an agent for change in a state that hasn’t had a Republican governor since 1980. Gregoire, the former state attorney general, ran on her record successfully negotiating a massive settlement from the tobacco companies and promising to “blow past the bureaucracy” to get things done.

Neither seriously addressed the state’s budget crisis, the looming sharp cuts to the state’s Basic Health Plan, the corporate giveaways to Boeing engineered by Democratic Gov. Gary Locke, or many other burning issues facing the state’s working people.

In Washington, politics change radically from county to county. Kerry won the state, based on large victories in only 10 of 39 counties. Those 10 include the most populous, mainly in western Washington. Bush carried the other 29 counties, mainly on the eastern side of the Cascade Mountains. The governor’s race reflects a similar split, though it appears that Rossi was able to convince more swing voters than did Bush.

Secretary of State Sam Reed has said the final results will be certified by Dec. 23, barring court challenges. But if the results change due to the recount, it may be many months before the race is ultimately settled.

The author can be reached at marcbrodine@comcast.net.

National Clips

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 05:47:00 +0000

PHILADELPHIA: A decent job is a human right

Hundreds marched through a driving rain here on Human Rights Day, Dec. 10, demanding that the proposed layoff of city workers be halted, public transportation be fully funded, and all homes be adequately heated.

Marchers began in front of the Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) company which is threatening to shut off heat during the winter. “Someone will die this winter because of this new policy,” said Service Employees International Union Local 668 President Ray Martinez. “PGW We say no rate hikes; no shut-offs.” PGW has raised rates 60 percent in four years.

Marchers were mindful of the costs of the Iraq war. “All the resources in this country are being put into this war and are not being put into our cities,” said Michael Berg, father of slain U.S. contract worker Nicholas Berg. “It’s the poor people who are suffering.” The Center for American Progress estimates that the Iraq war has stripped $592 million in federal funds from Philadelphia.

Facing a $62 million budget deficit, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, (SEPTA), announced that it was laying off 1,400 workers, slashing service and raising fares to $3. Marchers demonstrated on the front steps of SEPTA’s office building, demanding full funding. City Hall was next where marchers protested the proposed city budget, which involves layoffs of some 1,300 city workers.

LOS ANGELES: Janitors win against supermarket chains

Albertsons, Ralphs and Safeway grocery stores tried to pull a slick one on 2,000 janitors and it will cost the corporations $24 million under a tentative settlement.

From 1994 to 2001, immigrant workers, most from Mexico, worked “off the clock,” never had a day off and got short paychecks. Working with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Legal Fund (MALDEF), the workers sued and won. They stand to receive between $4,500 to $9,300 in back pay.

MALDEF lawyers proved in court that the contractor who employed the janitors, Building One Solutions, puffed up their profits by not paying the workers. The judge agreed that the grocery corporations knew about the flagrant abuse and ordered them to pay up.

HARLAN, Ky.: Miners sue to improve safety

For coal miners, safety equipment is not just a flowery paragraph in a corporation’s mission statement. It is life-and-death.

Twelve coal miners, all suffering from Black Lung, a disease caused by breathing coal dust, went into court Dec. 9, charging that the 3M Corp. sold defective dust masks and respirators. They are looking to have the devices pulled from the market and are seeking compensation for medical costs and punitive damages for endangering their lives.

“I think we should be compensated, but that still doesn’t help any,” said 30-year veteran miner Joe Day. “The money just won’t buy health.”

The miners’ lawyer, Eric Jacobi, said that Black Lung disease kills 1,000 miners each year.

BALTIMORE: Free Eddie Conway

Thirty-five years ago, Eddie Conway was a Black Panther. At the time, the Black Panther Party was in the crosshairs of the notorious COINTELPRO, the FBI’s counter-intelligence program. COINTELPRO trashed the Bill of Rights, ultimately forcing the first congressional oversight of the intelligence community. (See the recent PWW article on Conway, 10/30.)

Conway is still in jail but not forgotten. On Nov. 6, scores of people jammed the University of Baltimore demanding Conway’s freedom and drawing attention to the escalating assault on democratic rights and the growing rates of imprisonment.

Speakers recalled the COINTELPRO terror on African American communities and called for a renewed fight to free political prisoners and protect civil rights. For more information on Conway’s case, visit www.freeeddieconway.com.

NORTH POLE: Vote for Grinch

Voters throughout the world have been lining up at the polls to cast their ballot for the Grinch of the Year. Santa Claus and members of Elves Local 1219 are tallying the vote. Polls are open 24/7 and close on Dec. 25 at midnight.

This year’s nominees include Wal-Mart, Comcast, Angelica, Continental General Tire and Cintas. “We are counting every write-in vote, one by one, as well,” said Claus, who has been designing toys and delivering them into private living rooms for generations.

Voting takes place at the Jobs with Justice web site, www.jwj.org. “Vote early; vote often,” urges Rudolf R. Reindeer, Claus’ director of transportation.

National Clips are compiled by Denise Winebrenner Edwards (dwinebr696@aol.com). Rah-ed Ghuma, Rosita Johnson, Julia Lutsky and Kelly McConnell contributed to this week’s clips.

Working Families Party reshapes N.Y. politics

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 05:22:00 +0000

NEW YORK — As 2004 comes to a close, New York’s Working Families Party has a lot to celebrate. Through effective grassroots organizing, the party has helped shatter the right-wing myth that you can’t gain victories around progressive working-class politics.

The WFP scored significant electoral successes in the Nov. 2 election, and recently chalked up gains in its campaigns to raise the minimum wage and to reform New York’s notorious Rockefeller drug laws. This is in addition to its important breakthrough in 2003 when it elected the first third-party candidate to the New York City Council in decades.

Commentators agree that the Nov. 2 election of David Soares, the WFP’s candidate for district attorney of Albany County, was attributable to the grassroots, door-to-door work done by the party in both the Democratic primary and the general election.

While most people running for district attorney campaign on a “get-tough-on-crime” platform, Soares emphasized opposition to the state’s hated Rockefeller drug laws, which provide draconian penalties, up to life imprisonment, for nonviolent drug offenders. The governor and Legislature have finally agreed to slightly soften the laws. Though practically none of the groups involved in the anti-Rockefeller drug laws coalition consider the change to be nearly enough, many say it is a crucial step forward. Sheldon Silver, the speaker of the New York State Assembly, credited Soares’ victory as a primary reason why Pataki felt forced to agree to changes in the law.

Another of the WFP’s recent victories was the culmination of a six-year struggle it initiated to raise the state’s minimum wage, when the Legislature overruled Gov. George Pataki’s (R-N.Y.) veto of an increase Dec. 6. As it stands now, the minimum wage is the lowest allowed by federal law, $5.15 an hour. Now the wage is scheduled to go up in three annual increments to $7.15 an hour. The hike will benefit over a million New Yorkers, increasing their annual full-time pay from just over $10,000 per year to $14,900.

The party has had great success with its “fusion” strategy in recent elections. New York is one of only seven states in the country to allow fusion, where a minor political party can cross-endorse the candidates of another party, allowing candidates to run on multiple lines. The candidate gets credit for votes on all the lines on which he or she runs.

The WFP, for the most part, endorses Democratic candidates and campaigns to get voters to select the Democrat on the WFP line. This strategy allows people to “vote their conscience” by sending a message that they support progressive politics, while not endangering the movement to defeat the most right-wing candidates. It also gives the party a greater degree of power, because a politician can see when a third party has influenced their vote tally. An example of this success is that a total of 120,000 people voted for John Kerry on the WFP line, and 150,000 for Sen. Charles Schumer.

At the same time, the WFP occasionally runs its own candidates. In 2003 it did precisely that, running and electing Letitia James as the first third-party candidate in decades to the New York City Council. She has been a staunch voice for working people since taking office.

Founded in 1998, the WFP was formed by a group of labor unions and community organizations in New York State, including the Communication Workers, the United Auto Workers, and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). Today, its member organizations number more than 70, and it is also working to set up grassroots chapters in different communities. These chapters allow WFP activists to come together to work on issues in their city or community on the elections, but also during non-election periods as well.

Send greetings to the Cuban 5

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 05:02:00 +0000

Five Cuban men are in U.S. jails, three of them for the rest of their lives. Their “crime” was defending their country from terrorism by monitoring the activities of violent, right-wing, anti-Cuba groups based in Miami.

The Cuban Five have been kept from home and family. Their spouses and other family members have been denied visas to visit them. Five years of jail and abuse have gone by, but their spirits remain unbroken.

Send them your greetings over the holidays. Michael, a neighbor of mine here in rural Maine, has been writing to them regularly and says the following:

“For almost two years I have been writing to the five Cuban heroes, and my life has changed. I urge others to write them, especially now when holidays are here and families are together.

“A seemingly insignificant act, writing letters, has brought about long sought after rewards — rewards in patience, tolerance, solidarity, friendship, compassion, learning, living, understanding, humility, and love. The simple act of writing to the five Cuban Heroes has given me all this and more.

“In the beginning, I sent a card to each one of them in solidarity. They responded with letters, pictures, and hope.

“So give it a try. Go back to a time in your life when something other than instant gratification was the norm, when anticipation and waiting had meaning. Make that time now. Don’t wait until there’s no one around to speak for you.”

Here are the prisoners’ addresses:

René González, Reg. #58738-004, FCI Edgefield, PO Box 725, Edgefield SC 29824.

Gerardo Hernández #58739-004, USP Victorville, PO Box 5500, Adelanto CA 92301.

Antonio Guerrero, #58741-004, USP Florence, PO Box 7500, Florence CO 81226.

[For Ramón Labañino] Luis Medina, #58734-004, USP Beaumont, PO Box 26035, Beaumont TX 77720-6035.

[For Fernando González] Ruben Campa #58733-004, FCI Oxford, PO Box 500, Oxford WI 53952-0500.

Weve just begun to fight

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 04:51:00 +0000

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — About 100 labor and progressive activists packed the New Haven People’s Center Dec. 5 to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the Communist Party USA at a reception hosted by the Connecticut Bureau of the People’s Weekly World.

Several state leaders in the movement for social change were honored, including Sharon Palmer, president of the American Federation of Teachers in Connecticut, Americo Santiago, program and policy director of DemocracyWorks, and the Rev. Scott Marks, New Haven director of the Connecticut Center for a New Economy.

Palmer, who coordinated labor’s activity in the 2nd Congressional district, spoke of being depressed at first after election results came in, then becoming angry and finally determined to continue the fight against the anti-labor, anti-people policies of the right-wing. Santiago, who initiated a successful campaign to restore voting rights to ex-felons, said grassroots activism has never been more vital than it is today. Rev. Marks delivered a powerful call to continue organizing door-to-door and developing new leaders to bring about change.

Sam Webb, national chairman of the Communist Party USA, emphasized the need for unity to continue to fight against the Bush administration’s greedy schemes to strip working people of their hard-won Social Security benefits.

Recognizing the ongoing contributions of several persons who were present with over 50 years of membership in the CPUSA, Joelle Fishman, chair of the Connecticut Communist Party, reminded the gathering of the proud history and beginnings of the organization. She said the party was formed by working men and women who “refused to accept segregation and racism, refused to accept imperialist wars of domination, refused to accept exploitation of labor, hunger and homelessness. They had a vision of a society based on equality, dignity, justice and peace.”

The spirited celebration was a reminder that “We, the People,” will not sit still and let the ultra-right roll over us and try to take our dignity and respect away. It included calls for educating, organizing, and mobilizing others to save Social Security, to win health care for all, and to end the war in Iraq.

The event included a program and greetings book that raised nearly $3,000 for the People’s Weekly World, putting Connecticut over the top for its goal in this year’s fund drive.

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

Teenagers teach each other truth about AIDS

Fri, 10 Dec 2004 09:16:00 +0000

NEW YORK — Two people between the ages of 13 and 24 are infected with HIV every hour in the United States. It’s no wonder then that Willie Hernandez of MTV’s “Real World Philadelphia” says, “I’m smart enough to be scared of this disease.”

Hernandez, 25, wants all young people to have that same fear — and the facts about HIV/AIDS — which is why he spoke at a Living Beyond Belief (LBL) press conference here on World AIDS Day, Dec. 1. LBL was premiering its series of public service announcements created by high school students for cable television.

“It’s important for teenagers to be aware — and scared,” Hernandez said. “Awareness is a big part of the solution.”

When Hernandez was in school “AIDS was taboo to talk about … frank discussion was taboo.” But it’s the details, Hernandez believes, that will save lives. “You have to get to the nitty-gritty.”

Getting into the nitty-gritty was what New York City high school teacher Wayne Fischer was trying to do when in 1990 he became the first teacher in the city to publicly disclose his HIV status.

Fischer launched a campaign to encourage young people to protect themselves and those they love from the heartbreak he and his family were enduring. He created an age-appropriate curriculum for New York City kids and a cable television show about his struggle with the disease. He also made an unsuccessful run for City Council, which featured “the condom campaign.” He was fearless —for a reason.

Fischer said he became a teacher because he “wanted to make a difference in other people’s lives.” With his campaign to get the facts about AIDS into the hands of teenagers, he was continuing that goal. He died in 1997.

His show, “AIDS: A Journal of Hope,” was, in essence, “the first reality TV show,” Fischer’s niece, Bari Zahn, told the press conference. Zahn co-founded LBL in 2002 to continue her uncle’s work. Its mission is to saves lives by fostering HIV/AIDS prevention education, raising awareness among youth and motivating public high school students to be HIV/AIDS peer educators and activists. It does this by providing them with college grants and recognition for their life-saving work.

Jose Luis Irizarry, a 2003 “Butterfly Award” grant winner and now head of LBL’s youth advisory board, said, “I want people to be empowered,” which he defines as different than educated. Empowering is helping teenagers learn that they can make a difference.

“They can be educated,” Irizarry said, “but if they don’t believe they matter and don’t protect themselves, we’ve failed.”

Young people often think they’re invincible — “it can’t happen to me.” Or “by the time I get it, there’ll be a cure.” Neither attitude is realistic. AIDS is on the rise in the Black and Latino communities and is the leading cause of death among women 25–34 in New York City. Although medication is helping to prolong the lives of people with AIDS, the reality of what they go through “is not pretty,” Zahn said.

However, another important fact to take note of is this: AIDS is a preventable disease.

To learn more about LBL and the grants it provides, go to www.livingbeyondbelief.org.

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