People Before Profit blog

The year in headlines: High hopes at start, roadblocks at end

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:07:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) — It was a year that started with such high hopes for workers and their unions — and ended in roadblocks and looming disappointment.

For unions, 2009, even with the Great Recession underway, began well.

A pro-worker Democrat, and nation's first African American president, Barack Obama, whose overwhelming electoral vote win owed a lot to organized labor and allies, took over the White House from the most evil anti-worker president in at least a century. Obama was accompanied by a large House Democratic majority and a not-quite-filibuster-proof Senate Democratic majority.

Key worker causes appeared within reach. Those included universal affordable health care -- with competition for the insurance companies and their high overhead and denial of care -- and the Employee Free Choice Act.

A raft of pro-worker measures were enacted by Congress or promulgated by Obama. They included:

passing the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act,
extending unpaid family and medical leave to flight attendants,
reinstating of Project Labor Agreements on federally funded construction,
banning federal contractors from using federal dollars either for or against union organizing,
ordering agencies to inform workers of their right to join unions,
opening talks to settle the FAA's Bush-era fight with air traffic controllers.

Obama's stimulus law, designed to help counteract Bush's Great Recession, included a "Buy American" provision inserted by the Steelworkers, though Obama got the Senate to weaken it. And pro-worker officials were named to key Labor Department slots, which in turn stepped up its enforcement of job safety and wage laws.

But even in the early glow of Obama's win -- and of his declaration in the White House that unions "are part of the solution" to economic woes -- there were signs of future problems and disappointments. And they only got worse as the year wore on.

The Senate Republicans had 40 votes, but the Democrats, for much of the year, didn't have 60. That meant the GOP could, and did, filibuster literally everything.

The threat forced Obama into compromises on the stimulus law that cut its job creation, principally by cutting its infrastructure section, while adding more business tax breaks. Constant filibusters stalled pro-worker measures and slowed Congress down.

The GOP also pushed Congress into rescuing Wall Street first -- a Bush brainstorm Obama continued -- ahead of Main Street. By year's end, with unemployment at 10%, labor and Democratic lawmakers were demanding a second, but unlikely, stimulus focused solely on creating jobs. The GOP response? What else? A filibuster threat.

Health care revision consumed Congress for the entire year, and at the end it looked far different than at the beginning. The pro-worker Senate Health Committee's bill was trashed in favor of a "moderate" compromise from the Finance Committee.

That compromise lacked the needed cost controls on the insurers, provided by the strong "public option" -- the competitor to the private insurance companies. The Finance panel also taxed workers' health insurance, an idea that survived all the way through Senate bargaining. Over in the House, a more pro-worker bill narrowly passed, after being crippled by a ban on using federal or private funds to pay for abortion.

Both bills were far from what 19 AFL-CIO and Change To Win unions, plus the independent United Electrical Workers, really wanted, especially single-payer government-run health care. That abolishes the private health insurers, their high co-pays and deductibles, dumping of subscribers, denial of care, and 44,780 people dead annually due to lack of insurance, according to Harvard Medical School.

The health care mess and the lack of 60 votes marooned the Employee Free Choice Act, designed to help level the playing field between workers and bosses in organizing and bargaining. Lead Senate sponsor Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who took over from the late and lamented labor champion Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., tried to negotiate a compromise to get the 60 votes, but got diverted by health care. The law's former lead Senate GOP sponsor, Arlen Specter, switched parties, and abandoned the bill. Obama promised to sign EFCA, but did not make it a political priority.

Popular opinion for workers got downright ugly when Obama stepped in with federal loan guarantees -- in exchange for wage and benefit cuts -- to help GM and Chrysler survive. Even then, the two car companies went through bankruptcy and thousands of workers lost their jobs. GOP senators openly rooted for the companies, and UAW, to fail. Ford did not take the guarantees, but still cut retiree health care.

There were also changes within the labor movement. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney retired, and was succeeded by Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, who promised a more-muscular response both to business and to politicians -- of both parties -- who double-cross workers. Two of Change To Win's seven unions left that federation: the Carpenters and UNITE HERE. UNITE HERE went through a bitter internal battle, which resulted in the union and most of its members and leaders rejoining the AFL-CIO. A smaller group merged into SEIU, a lead member of Change To Win.

And a year that began with high hopes ended with workers fighting fiercely to keep their health insurance from being taxed -- amid a deafening silence from the Obama administration. And it ended as it began, with an emphasis on jobs, jobs, jobs. This then, was 2009, as seen through the headlines of Press Associates Union News Service.

Photo: A family of union members from Tennessee and Georgia express the pride, hope and optimism of millions. Teresa Albano/PW

Aid urgently needed to stem Cook County health care crisis

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:37:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Stroger Hospital, is the largest public hospital in Cook County and one of the largest in the country. If there is a place where the nation's horrific health care crisis can be seen this is it.

The hospital receives over 10,000 visits each month to its emergency room alone, including from the uninsured who have no place else to go. This is a staggering 330 visits each day.

It is not uncommon for patients to wait for 10 hours to be admitted. One patient recently recounted his experience on the "Ill and Uninsured in Illinois" blog when he ultimately waited 15 hours for treatment.

"So we set out early that December morning. We pulled up at the emergency room before 8:30 a.m. The ER waiting room was already full, he wrote.

"I waited in line, holding on to the admissions desk for dear life - by that point I could barely stand, and there was nowhere to sit - and was ignored until my turn came around. I told the intake nurse I was in intense pain. She gave me a plastic bracelet and told where to wait. And wait. And wait.

"Over 11 hours went by before I saw a doctor. Meanwhile, the room got fuller and fuller and fuller."

There's no end in sight for the crisis. The economic crisis is devastating Chicago and wreaking havoc with the state, county and city budgets. Over 900 positions in the county health care system were eliminated in 2009 due to budget cuts and another 450 will lose their jobs in 2010.

This is happening during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression while the demand for services is greater than ever. Chicago's unemployment is over 10%. According to a Chicago Reporter, unemployment rate in the heart of the African American community on Chicago's South Side is 23.2 percent. This area is second in the nation only to northeast Detroit with a rate of 28.5% unemployment.

A new study released by the Sinai Urban Health Institute underscores this health care crisis especially for the city's African American community where the health disparity between African Americans and whites have lead to an additional 3.200 deaths of African Americans every year.

Sinai researchers showed the health gap is growing. The death rate from all causes for African Americans in 1990 was 36% higher than for whites. By 2005 the gap had grown to 42%.

Seventeen percent of Cook County residents are uninsured, which translates to over 780,000 residents. African Americans make up 32% of the county's uninsured population, Latinos 43% and whites 22%.

The researchers concluded the cause for this growing health gap is racism, segregation and poverty. These conditions cause greater health problems and the availability and quality of health care is less. The study looked at deaths due to infant mortality, heat disease deaths and diabetes and covers the years 1990 to 2005. It confirms trends of countless other studies conducted over the years.

If anything, the health gap has grown due to the deepening economic crisis and its special impact on the African American community combined with cuts in funding for the Cook County Health and Hospitals System.

It underscores the urgent need to pass the health care reform presently before Congress. However, many of the reforms may not take effect for several years, and part of the struggle in Congress will be to shorten the implementation time and increase health care funding in the meantime.

Another round of Federal stimulus money is urgently needed to prevent any further collapsing of the public health care system. The 2009 Cook County budget got a boost of $20 million in matching Medicaid funds from the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

A fight is being waged to restore cuts to Stroger, Oak Forest and Provident Hospitals and at outpatient community clinics across the county. It is being led by the Emergency Network to Save Cook County Health Services made up of doctors, nurses, health care providers, AFSCME, SEIU, Citizen Action and many community groups. They are demanding greater funding from local, state, and federal governments and want to ensure health care funding is not squandered by corruption.

Health Care for America Now campaigns to finish reform right

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:16:00 +0000

Even as the U.S. Senate was preparing to pass its version of health care reform, the national coalition Health Care for America Now (HCAN) launched an intensive campaign calling for public option and other measures in the final bill that will be sent back to the House and Senate in the new year.

A conference committee will consider the provisions of the two versions of health care reform passed by the House and Senate in the last months, and come back with one bill that must then pass both bodies. Republican leadership, which has led a vicious attack on health care reform all year, continues to oppose passage.

The message from 50 national labor, civil rights, faith based and economic justice organizations is direct: "Make good health care affordable," and "Hold insurance companies accountable." Click here: A call to "finish reform right" has been sent across the country seeking signatures of organizations and individuals around these principles.

In order to make good health care affordable, the letter states that, "low and middle income families must be able to afford health insurance if they do not get it through work, and employers must be asked to provide good health coverage for their employees so health care is affordable at work. Health reform should not be paid for by taxing our health care benefits." The letter calls for holding insurance companies accountable as its second point.

"If the insurance companies win, we lose. Insurance companies must be held accountable with strong regulations and consumer protections, and we must be given the choice of a national public health insurance option available on day one." In an e-mail message from HCAN, Levana Layendecker emphasizes that "this last chance demands unprecedented effort, so we're pulling out all the stops....We must all speak with one voice and demand quality, affordable health care for all if we're going to win."

The campaign by HCAN seeks to remedy the lack of a public option and the inclusion of taxes on health care benefits in the Senate bill. The Senate bill ends denials by insurance companies for "pre-existing conditions," and makes health insurance more affordable and extends coverage to 31 million people. However, it includes an individual mandate with no public option, and has restrictions on abortion coverage.

Following passage, the National Women's Law Center called for a "big fight to make the final health reform legislation that is signed by the president one that truly works for women." The National Immigration Law Center is asking support for inclusion of immigrants in health care reform by enabling states to "remove a harsh five-year waiting period that prevents legal immigrants from accessing Medicaid." Within Congress, members of the Progressive Caucus are speaking out against watering down the House bill, which includes public option.

The HCAN effort seeks to unite all health care advocates including those who have supported nothing less than single-payer in this "last chance" to influence the health care reform outcome in 2010 as a first step forward.

No Republicans voted for the Senate bill, even after the public option was stripped out with the threat of filibuster from Sen. Joe Lieberman and some conservative Democrats..

In the House, only one Republican voted for health care reform. A group of Democrats joined with Republicans in the House to vote no. Most are part of the Blue Dog Caucus, representing traditionally Republican districts.

The challenge the conference committee faces is evident in the House and Senate votes, which underscores the urgency of a strong united message from the grass roots to "finish reform right."

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/labor2008/ / CC BY 2.0

No Happy New Year for California’s budget

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 08:47:00 +0000

After coping with over $60 billion in budget shortfalls this year, California will face a new nearly $21 billion budget gap in 2010. Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to propose draconian new budget cuts in a message set for Jan. 8. But others propose different ways to close the looming shortfall.

The new gap was projected in a recent report by the state's non-partisan Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO). "Our forecast of California's General Fund revenues and expenditures shows that the state must address a General Fund budget problem of $20.7 billion between now and the time the Legislature enacts a 2010-11 state budget plan," the report said. The LAO said the gap includes a predicted deficit of over $6 billion in the 2009-2010 budget - partly because "fixes" attempted earlier this year didn't work - and a gap of over $14 billion between anticipated revenues and spending in 2010-11.

Most states have been hit hard by drops in revenue during the economic crisis. But California's budget gap leads the nation, both in its absolute size and the portion of the General Fund it represents. Besides the state's high foreclosure rate and soaring joblessness, a major contributing factor is the requirement of a two-thirds legislative majority to pass budgets or new taxes. This has enabled the Republican minority in the legislature to overrule the Democratic majority's efforts to boost revenues.

California's shortfall would have been even worse this year without federal stimulus funds, and the governor is expected to seek new federal funds in the coming year. The House of Representatives last week passed a jobs bill to help states pay for infrastructure projects and prevent further public worker layoffs.

But if such funds don't come through or fall short, Schwarzenegger reportedly threatens to renew his call to gut or even end the state's welfare program, CalWORKS, and the In-Home Supportive Services program to help elderly and disabled Californians remain in their homes. The governor's previous decimation of funds for these and other human needs programs brought widespread protests and in some cases, court actions.

Though Schwarzenegger and legislative Republicans - most of whom have signed a "no new taxes" pledge - are adamantly opposed to increasing revenues through new taxes, the California Tax Reform Association takes a different view. It lists 10 policies it calls "low hanging fruit in the tax system," that it says would raise $20 billion.

One is an oil severance tax that could bring $1.2 billion; California is the only oil-producing state that doesn't have such a tax. Another is reinstating top-income tax brackets that were in effect under previous Republican governors, bringing in $4 billion that could grow to $6 billion. Also: closing "secret corporate tax loopholes," ending corporate property tax loopholes, broadening the sales tax base to include entertainment-related items and digital products, increasing tobacco and alcohol taxes, and improving tax collections.

Other efforts seek to change the state's requirement of a two-thirds majority to raise taxes or pass budgets. University of California professor George Lakoff, renowned for his study of the use of language in politics, is spearheading an effort to gain signatures for a constitutional amendment stating that budgets and taxes would be decided by majority vote. Democrats in the legislature have authored bills to end the supermajority requirement. Others seek to undo the limits on corporate real estate taxes imposed by Prop. 13, passed in 1978, while keeping protections for home owners.

What is certain is that 2010 will see new protests against Republican efforts to further slash human needs programs when they are needed by more Californians than ever, along with new efforts in the community and legislature and at the ballot box to bring the state's budget process into the real world.

Senate health care vote lays the groundwork

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:49:00 +0000

WASHINGTON-Health care reformers applauded the Senate's 60 to 39 vote, Christmas Eve, for a health care reform bill, calling it "groundwork" for expanding and improving the health care system in the weeks and months ahead.

Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association (APHA) said, "Thanks to today's Senate vote, we are one step closer to bringing needed reform to our nation's health system. The bill will reduce disability and death in the United States, lays the groundwork for future strengthening of our health system and gets us closer to our goal of universal health coverage."

Andrew Stern, president of the 2.2 million member Service Employees International Union said the maneuvers to secure the 60 Senate votes needed to shut off the Republican filibuster "was disappointing," but he added, "Make no mistake about it: for working Americans, this vote signals progress."

Stern, whose union represents over a million health care workers, added, "Right now, thousands of Americans are losing their health coverage every day. Every one of us knows friends and family struggling while the insurance industry makes billions in profits and working people lose their homes, file for bankruptcy and even die - all because of the fundamental lack of affordability."

He blasted the Republicans who "sat on the sidelines jeering, rooting for America to fai l... the GOP's failure to participate in solution-seeking is a disgrace."

Stern urged labor and its allies to step up the pressure on the House-Senate conference to remove the regressive tax in the Senate version on mis-named "Cadillac" health benefit plans, many won in union contract negotiations in which workers sacrificed higher wages to win slightly improved health care benefits. The House version, by contrast would impose higher taxes on the wealthy to help pay for the sweeping reform that is expected to insure 30 million people without coverage.

National Organization for Women President, Terrie O'Neill, said, "We are not in the business of trying to ruin the prospects of health care reform. The bill's elimination of gender rating and of denial of coverage on the basis of pre-existing conditions are welcome ...On balance though, this bill harms women..." She called on the grassroots movement to mobilize to demand that the discriminatory Stupak and Nelson amendments be removed in the House-Senate conference.
Health Care for America Now (HCAN) spokesman, Richard Kirsch, said, "With passage by the Senate, the nation has moved one big step closer to comprehensive health care reform."

HCAN, he continued, "will work to get the strongest bill to the P\president's desk, one that provides good, affordable coverage to all and holds the insurance companies accountable."
Kirsch said HCAN will work to insure that the bill Obama signs requires employers "to help pay for good coverage, that premiums are affordable to families, that we do not tax benefits, that we enact tough insurance regulations, and that we offer the choice of a public health option."
Families USA, a leader in the defense of health care for low-income families hailed the Senate vote. "Happy, happy holidays!" they proclaimed on their web site. "The Senate passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act on Christmas Eve. Next step? Resolve differences between the House and Senate bills."

In a Dec. 17 letter to Senate Majority Leader, Reid, Families USA President, Ron Pollack, wrote, "We believe that families across America will benefit enormously from the bill's extensive improvements to our nation's health care system. By contrast, the failure to enact health insurance reform would have disastrous consequences for America's families and businesses."
Pollack lays out in detail the positive gains, including extension of coverage to "tens of millions of people" giving "peace of mind for working families who will no longer lose health coverage when a parent is laid or needs to switch jobs."

Other gains he lists:
• It would end insurance company denial of coverage for so-called "pre-existing conditions" and prohibit "unaffordable, discriminatory premiums" to those with serious illness or injury;
• It outlaws charging "discriminatory premiums" to women;
• It provides new and substantial premium subsidies to moderate income families so they can afford health insurance;
• It protects against "high out-of-pocket costs" by prohibiting annual or lifetime limits on how much an insurance plan covers;
• It extends to age 26 how long children can be covered by a family's plan.
• It provides subsidies to small business to enable them to provide coverage for their workers;
• The Senate leadership has promised the House-Senate conference will take steps to close the so-called "doughnut hole" in the Medicare prescription drug plan;
• The bill reduces the "wasteful, windfall payments to private insurance companies in the Medicare Advantage plan. "In the absence of this legislation, taxpayers will continue to be fleeced...and the Medicare program will increasingly privatized," Pollack wrote.

Pollack concluded that Families USA will continue to work "so that the conference committee bill strengthens premium subsidies" and provides more protection against unaffordable "out-of-pocket" costs "especially for people and families in greatest need." He warned that the people will judge the outcome through a "personal pocketbook test" adding, "We need to ensure that we Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association said, "Thanks to today's Senate, we are one step closer to bringing needed reform to our nation's health system. The bill will reduce disability and death in the United States, lays the groundwork for future strengthening of our health system and gets us closer to our goal of universal health coverage." meet this affordability test."

Photo: whitehouse.gov
President Obama comments on Senate vote.

Bronx community takes on the real estate industry

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 11:09:00 +0000

NEW YORK - Who said you can't beat City Hall? In the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx, a predominantly Hispanic working-class neighborhood, people are feeling good these days about what they accomplished when they organized against powerful business interests allied with City Hall's current occupant, billionaire media mogul Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Bloomberg and the Related Companies, a real estate corporation with nationwide investments, were planning to retrofit the landmark Kingsbridge Armory, no longer in use, with a mammoth shopping mall in one of New York's most densely populated and impoverished neighborhoods.

The community needed decent jobs at living wages, not the part-time, minimum wage, no-benefit version of employment for which shopping malls, housing national chain stores, are notorious and which Related, the Bloomberg administration and its defenders insisted was better than nothing at all. In fact, nothing is better, the community reasoned, because the race-to-the-bottom model meant working more than one job just to be able to pay the rent, and because the volume of trade the developers were hoping to generate would inevitably mean more traffic, more congestion, and more pollution. If the jobs produced paid only the minimum wage, then instead of prosperity all around, the community agreed, the future would bring more poverty as well. And as everyone knows, the Bronx has more than enough of that.

But first, some of the history. The Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA), a coalition of community residents, churches, and labor unions, led by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), was formed in 2005, after the Bloomberg administration launched the latest in a series of redevelopment plans for the armory. KARA struggled for the better part of this year just to get the developer to meet with it to negotiate a binding settlement involving jobs at living wages, preferential hiring for Bronx residents, non-interference in unionization, recreation space for families and other community benefits, under what has come to be known among grassroots organizers as a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA).

The demand by KARA for a living wage of $10 per hour with benefits and $11.50 per hour without benefits for all workers hired by the developer or any of its retail tenants became the centerpiece of its proposed CBA. As community residents see it, a living wage agreement means escaping poverty without having to work multiple jobs and without having to double up in order to keep a roof over their heads. For Related, the living wage was a non-starter. The developer, in lockstep with the Bloomberg administration, stubbornly refused to discuss the subject.

Related, confident that it had the backing of City Hall, arrogantly refused to talk directly with the community regarding the living wage or any other subject. So KARA lobbied its elected representatives in the City Council to vote down the proposal, hoping that the threat of a red light would bring Related to the table. Related hardly budged. In the end, with the very vocal and steadfast support of Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., the Bronx delegation led by the Working Family Party's Anibal Palma, and the rest of the City Council sided with the community in rejecting the armory redevelopment 45 to 1 during a highly publicized City Hall vote on Dec. 14. It sided with the community again on Dec. 21 when it voted, this time by 48 to 1, to override Bloomberg's veto.

"We applaud all our elected officials for taking a stand against powerful developers who want to take public subsidies without giving anything in return," was the reaction of Ava Farkas, lead organizer for KARA, to the original vote. "The council vote was a victory for community organizing, for democracy, and for the dignity of the people of the Bronx," she added.

The vote was, to many observers, a truly game-changing development. Never before, in the eight years of the corporate-friendly and seemingly invincible Bloomberg administration, had the New York City Council dared to vote "no" to a redevelopment proposal bearing Mayor Bloomberg's seal of approval. It was a major defeat not only for the administration, but also for the lopsided, unsustainable economic development that makes millions for corporations with access to public subsidies and tax abatements, but does nothing good for the communities it claims to serve. Helping to change the balance of power in favor of the City Council that made the reversal possible was the very narrow margin by which Bloomberg was reelected in November despite his having outspent his Democratic/Working Family Party rival, Bill Thompson, by 14 to 1.

"It is no longer an acceptable business model to allow billionaire companies to take major tax breaks to do business in our borough while they create little more than part-time, low wage jobs without benefits or much chance for advancement," said Diaz regarding the significance of the City Council vote. "What we wanted all along was to have the armory developed in such a way that not only the developer and the tenants benefit, but also the people of the Bronx. What today's vote confirms is that we can no longer support any project that only ensures profits for the developer while leaving the people of the Bronx in poverty."

"This is a bittersweet victory," said Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter, KARA leader and community resident. "We want the armory developed. Unfortunately, the Bloomberg administration chose to kill the project rather than require the developer to sign a binding Community Benefits Agreement that guaranteed living wages and other benefits for the community. Our billionaire mayor pulled the plug on the redevelopment to prevent a publically subsidized development from including living wage jobs, the right to join a union, community and recreation space and the exclusion of a big box grocery store. He believes government has no role in setting mandatory wage requirements. According to him, there should be no minimum wage law, no child labor law, and no protections for working people. He is on the wrong side of history."

KARA's forceful advocacy of the living wage during City Council hearings produced even more dividends. The arguments garnered such widespread and partisan support for the living wage among the progressive, predominantly Hispanic and African American City Council members that they rushed to introduce living wage legislation during the same week as the Dec. 14 vote. The bill's sponsors, with KARA's enthusiastic support, hope to make New York one of over 200 cities across the countries that have now adopted living wage ordinances.

KARA and the working families it represents have put New York's real estate developers on notice: our communities reject one-sided, unsustainable economic development by corporate fiat. Redevelopment projects paid for with our tax dollars must make life better for working families, not worse, for our communities will unite in opposition to them. RWDSU president and KARA co-convener Stuart Appelbaum summed it up, "It's time for developers to live up to their responsibilities to the community. New York needs a development strategy that puts people first, and that begins with the developers guaranteeing the rights of workers to a living wage."

Photo: The Kingsbridge Armory. http://www.flickr.com/photos/8272478@N04/ / CC BY 2.0

Health care activists vow to continue struggle

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:04:00 +0000

PHILADELPHIA - Pennsylvania congressman and senatorial candidate Joe Sestak told a Dec. 21 gathering of 75 health care activists here that his Navy experience with government-run health care had persuaded him that a public option is a crucial part of any reform. In America today 94 percent of insurance markets are non-competitive, he said, and "with a public option you break that monopoly. The public option would restore fairness for the working class in the health care market."

Sestak noted that he, as well as all the men and women who served under him in the Navy and their families, had health coverage. He continued, "Imagine a workforce that had the security of that coverage." Sestak's daughter, who was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor at the age of 4, received the treatment she needed, he said, and she is now "8 going on 22 ... you all in this room gave me my daughter!"

The rally was organized by Health Care for America Now (HCAN) and was called to make the point that health care activists well understand that the Senate's health care bill is not the end of the struggle. Mark Stier, Pennsylvania director of HCAN, said, "We may not get everything we want now, but we will get it sooner rather than later because of all the work we've done."

In addition to Rep. Sestak, the gathering heard a lineup of speakers representing labor and women's rights groups as well as representatives of other Pennsylvania legislators. Several speakers argued that, while the Senate bill was in many ways disappointing, the fight is not over. Wendell Young IV, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776, told the spirited crowd, "We need a bill that is going to cover every American and we are going to keep fighting until we get it!"

Liz McElroy of the Philadelphia AFL-CIO Central Labor Council said, "It's been a real fight on the ground ... we want and will continue to fight for the best in both (the House and the Senate) bills. We are confident that the Pennsylvania delegation will do the right thing, and we need to continue to remind them."

Two speakers stressed the importance of fighting to protect women's right to choice and reproductive health. Kati Sipp, political director of SEIU Healthcare PA, said her union represents many home care workers who themselves have had no health insurance for decades. "Reform must protect the working class and the rights of women," she emphasized. Susan Schewel, executive director of the Women's Medical Fund, also stressed the need for health care reform to protect women's reproductive rights. The WMF is a member of Raising Women's Voices of Southeastern PA, a coalition of 26 organizations working to insure that the voices of women are heard during the debate on health care reform.

Photo: Rep. Joe Sestak addresses the rally. Behind him is UFCW Local 1776 President Wendell Young. (PW/Ben Sears)

Trucks spew deadly pollution at nation’s ports, new reports show

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:01:00 +0000

Two reports published earlier this month, one on the East Coast and one on the West Coast, underscore the importance of cleaning up the air around the nation's ports, with emphasis on emissions from thousands of trucks that shuttle to and from the docks.

One is a study by the New York-New Jersey-based Coalition for Healthy Ports, titled "Hazardous to Our Health: The human impact of port truck pollution on truck drivers and residents in New York and New Jersey."

"Exposure to diesel particulate matter causes hypertension, asthma, heart disease, lung cancer and a host of other respiratory illnesses, and can often be deadly," the environment-labor-community group said. Citing studies showing daily emissions from the ports equaling that from over 400,000 cars, it said evidence increasingly points to port truck pollution in soaring illness rates among drivers and residents of nearby communities.

More than one of every four schoolchildren in Newark, N.J., suffers from asthma, and the death rate from asthma is twice the rate found in suburban and rural areas of the same county, the report said. Port communities also have cancer risks hundreds of times greater than the Environmental Protection Agency's "acceptable cancer level" of one in a million. Port truckdrivers are especially hard hit, since most also live near the ports.

Since the trucking industry was deregulated in 1980, most port drivers are so-called independent contractors, shouldering all costs for their rigs, and barred from organizing to better their conditions. As a result, the coalition says, the average New York and New Jersey driver earns less than $10/hour and has no health insurance. Because drivers can only afford old, dirty trucks, the Port Authority estimates that nearly all trucks now serving the ports fail to meet 2007 EPA engine standards.

The mayors of New York, Newark, Oakland, Los Angeles and other cities recently joined together to urge Congress to help local authorities overcome the roadblocks, including outdated laws, holding back cleanup efforts.

On the opposite coast, Contra Costa Times reporters Sandy Kleffman and Suzanne Bohan launched a series of articles drawing on data specially compiled by the Alameda County Health Department, which serves communities across the bay from San Francisco.

"Examining asthma rates reveals a stunning pattern," the reporters found. "By far, the most hospitalizations occur in low-income communities near the Port of Oakland, along busy Interstate 880 in East and West Oakland, and the convergence of freeways near North Oakland and Emeryville." Significant truck traffic on those freeways is linked to the Port of Oakland, and trucks often pass through and park in nearby residential neighborhoods.

The reporters also cited a cancer risk three times higher in West Oakland neighborhoods near the port than in the Bay Area as a whole.

Oakland, too, has been developing a Clean Trucks Program as part of its overall Maritime Air Quality Improvement Plan. The Oakland Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports has been encouraging the port there to follow in the footsteps of the programs that have cut port truck air emissions by about 70 percent in the last 15 months at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

LA would also require trucking firms to have "concession" status with the port and to hire drivers as employees, making the firms responsible for their trucks. Those plans and a similar proposal for Oakland are now in limbo pending the outcome of the American Trucking Association's lawsuit against the concession requirement.

Progress also brings contradictions. Earlier this year the Port of Oakland said, starting Jan. 1, pre-1994 trucks would be banned and filters would be required on those built between 1994 and 2003. In either case, costs in the tens of thousands are far beyond the reach of most independent drivers, and subsidies offered by the port have run out, leaving many drivers stranded.

One of these is Manuel Rivas, 56, a single father of three who has been a port driver for 21 years. His 1989 truck broke down months ago, and Rivas can't afford a new truck, or even a newer used one which would quickly become obsolete.

"I've lost my job," he told the People's World in a phone interview. "My situation is terrible - I don't know what will happen after Jan. 1. Because I'm an independent driver, I have no unemployment insurance, and at 56, I'm too old to find another job."

Rivas, who describes damage to his own health from years of breathing fumes, continues to support efforts to cut diesel pollution at the port. But he says the drivers need more consideration.

Meanwhile, he continues to work with other drivers in the same plight, with support of the Oakland Clean and Safe Ports Coalition, which is working on ways to help drivers find new jobs or get retraining.

Photo: PW/Marilyn Bechtel

Health care inspires 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' remix

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:32:00 +0000

On the Senate floor Dec. 22, Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., delivered a health care inspired version of the classic Christmas poem, "Twas the Night Before Christmas."

Immigrant rights groups call for new reform campaign

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:58:00 +0000

Immigrant rights organizations around the San Francisco Bay Area last week called for a renewed and intensified campaign for immigration reform. As they commemorated International Migrants' Day, Dec. 18, the groups welcomed introduction of immigration reform legislation by Illinois Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez.

At an International Migrants' Day town hall meeting, the San Francisco Immigrant Legal and Education Network, a coalition of organizations representing African, Arab, Asian Pacific Islander and Latino immigrants joined with faith and other community organizations to launch a new 100-day campaign. The organizations are asking supporters to make 100 phone calls to national leaders in the next 100 days, urging achievement of immigration reform early in 2010. They highlighted calls to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and California's two senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.

Immigrants telling their stories at the town hall meeting included a young Korean student who called for legalizing undocumented youth, including passing the DREAM Act to provide a path to citizenship for immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. A worker told how she and others were targeted by their Bay Area employer after workers stood up for their rights under a local living wage law.

Calling Rep. Gutierrez' legislation, HR 4321, "welcomed and long overdue," event organizer Eric Quezada of the Dolores Street Community Services predicted that "the forces of intolerance will seek to disrupt the debate coming in 2010. We must fight to ensure that regressive measures which fail to reflect our values of equality and opportunity for all are not part of the final package presented to the president."

The Berkeley City Council, at its meeting last week, last week, officially recognized International Migrants' Day and called on the U.S. government to ratify the United Nations Migrants' Rights Convention. Supporting the resolution were members of area immigrant rights groups. Berkeley resident Maricruz Manzanarez, a member of AFSCME Local 3299, said a long-time member of her union had been among many Berkeley community members deported. She also noted that during recent university anti-fee-hike protests, a student had expressed fear that the heightened police activity could put her at risk for deportation.

The Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 - CIR ASAP, or HR 4321 - would legalize the vast majority of the approximately 12 million undocumented immigrants thought to be in the U.S. now. A provisional visa could be followed after six years by a green card; a $500 fee would be required. Immigration judges could stop deportation of parents of minor U.S.-born children. State and local police could no longer perform immigration enforcement. New border and internal controls would include a modified E-verify program. The measure has 91 original co-sponsors including members of the Hispanic, Black and Asian-Pacific Caucuses.

The Oakland-based National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights also commended Gutierrez for introducing the landmark legislation, while highlighting some concerns. Calling attention to the "intense policing" and detention of tens of thousands of immigrants whose due process rights are ignored, NNIRR Executive Director Catherine Tactaquin said, "While Rep. Gutierrez' legislation includes some needed protections for our vulnerable communities, it continues to treat immigration as a national security issue and stops short of doing away with the most egregious aspects of our flawed immigration system."

Nativo Lopez, head of the Los Angeles-based Mexican American Political Association, called the bill "a very good beginning of the debate about the character of immigration reform that is good for immigrants and good for America."

He said, "We find much more to support in this legislation than to recommend for improvements and call on all immigrant communities to review it closely, draw your own conclusions and make your voices heard."

"Now the really tough fight begins" to pass it, secure a comparable Senate bill and bring the legislation to the president in 2010, Lopez said.

Photo: Jonathan McIntosh CC-BY-2.5

Senate clears the way for health reform vote

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:00:00 +0000

WASHINGTON— In the wee hours of a snowbound Monday morning the U.S. Senate voted 60 to 40 to terminate debate and move toward a final vote on health care reform legislation before they adjourn for Christmas.

All 58 Democrats and the Senate's two independents joined in voting for the cloture motion while the Republicans were unanimous in voting no. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell could barely contain his rage denouncing the massive bill as a "legislative train wreck" that the Democrats were railroading through while people's minds were occupied with the holidays.

But just before the vote, Iowa Senator Tom Harkin told his colleagues, "Today we are closer than we've ever been to making Sen. Ted Kennedy's dream of universal health insurance coverage a reality." He urged the senators to "vote your hopes, not your fears. Seize the moment."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, told reporters at a briefing in the Capitol that "This bill will do so many good things for so many people," and cited a letter he received from a grieving parent last week that his 26 year old son has developed Addison's Disease because he did not have insurance to cover treatment of his diabetes.

"This broken system cannot continue and will not continue," Reid said. He also acknowledged the bitter disappointment of millions that the Senate bill does not contain a public option which he had strongly supported.

But the broad labor-led movement for basic health care reform was not resting on its laurels.

Labor-supported health reform groups like Health Care for America Now said the House-Senate conference presents "an opportunity" to stand up for a public insurance option and other measures that could strengthen the bill.

Likewise, the National Immigration Law Center demanded that the Senate bill include an amendment by Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey that "helps restore fairness to our health care system" by removing a harsh five year waiting period before legal immigrants are eligible for Medicaid coverage.

Left-wing groups like the Communist Party USA also urged its members to stay engaged. In its recent action e-mail, "Health Care: The Time for United Push is NOW!" the CPUSA said, "Don't be fooled by rumors and news clips that the health care fight is over. Once the Senate votes on the bill, it goes to a conference committee along with the bill the House-passed earlier." And the Senate bill could be improved, the memo said.

The memo calls for an all-out mobilization to demand that the House-Senate conferees approve "a bill that is affordable, covers everyone, regulates the insurance companies and taxes the wealthy, not individuals with health care benefits."

The aim, the memo says, must "up the ante and make our voices heard with phone calls, letters and public statements from community health centers, from worksites, from neighborhood gatherings, from schools" delivered to both Congress and the White House "to counter the high financed blitz by insurance and the pharma corporations."

It urges special efforts to mobilize in defense of women and oppressed racial and national minorities who have suffered double exploitation at the hands of the insurance monopolies. The health care movement is demanding removal of language that imposes repressive curbs on abortion rights. Support for the public option and universal coverage "must be more and more united and visible to get the strongest bill passed," the statement continues.

It adds, "What happens in this fight sets the stage for the 2010 elections and the huge battle to shift the balance of forces more toward working people, creating the conditions to improve what is won now."

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/toddmecklem/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

U.S., Russia readying pact to slash nuclear weapons

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:30:00 +0000

The U.S. and Russia are close to an agreement that will make major cuts in their nuclear stockpiles, President Obama said last week. It is seen as a step in the direction of complete nuclear disarmament, a goal Obama has strongly advocated.

Obama made the announcement Dec. 16 after meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Copenhagen during the United Nations climate conference. The two leaders both said they expected to reach an agreement soon. Talks are expected to continue in January.

The new pact would take the place of the original Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, START, which was signed in 1991 and expired Dec. 5. That treaty, by the time it was fully implemented in 2001, resulted in the removal of about 80 percent of all strategic nuclear weapons then in existence.

The new treaty, known as New START, is expected to reduce deployed long-range nuclear warheads from 2,200 to between 1,500 and 1,675 for each country. It is also expected to slash the number of aircraft, submarines and intercontinental ballistic missiles that can carry such long-range nuclear warheads or bombs, from 1,600 to about 700 or 800.

This is seen as a significant step toward eliminating the two countries' roughly 20,000 nuclear bombs and warheads. The Obama administration says it wants New START to lead to talks on further reducing nuclear weapons.

The election of Obama "has provided an opportunity for unprecedented progress on nuclear weapons," John Isaacs, head of the Council for a Livable World, said in a speech to the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs earlier this month. In addition to Obama's personal commitment to the goal of a nuclear-weapons-free world, said Isaacs, the president "has also surrounded himself at the highest levels with experts on nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear weapons policy."

But ratification of the new treaty can expect to face stiff opposition from Senate Republicans. They are already making a big fuss about verification. Ratification of a treaty requires a two-thirds vote - 67 votes in the 100-member Senate.

A new START agreement will give momentum to an international conference in May that will review the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and consider ways to strengthen it. Under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, 189 countries have agreed not to develop nuclear weapons in exchange for gradual disarmament by the nine countries that have nuclear weapons.

The U.S. and Russia possess more than 90 percent of the world's existing nuclear weapons. But proliferation poses a serious threat, experts say. There is enough nuclear material across the globe to enable the creation of hundreds of thousands of additional nuclear weapons, Isaacs warned. That presents "the risk of catastrophic accidents, errors or unauthorized use," he said.

A new arms reduction agreement with Russia will also give impetus to Obama's vow to press for Senate ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, possibly in the next several months. Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1996, the treaty was defeated by the Republican-controlled Senate in 1999.

It bans all nuclear explosions, whether on the earth's surface, underground, in the atmosphere or underwater. That would make it difficult for countries to develop new or more advanced nuclear weapons.

To date, 182 countries have signed the treaty and 150 have ratified it. Nine major countries that must ratify the treaty, according to its provisions, have not done so: the U.S., China, Pakistan, India, North Korea, Israel, Egypt, Indonesia and Iran. If the U.S. ratifies it, it is expected that others will follow suit.

Republican warhawks will likely fight this ratification as well. Winning Senate approval of the test ban treaty "will take skillful work by the Obama administration," Isaacs said.

Photo: www.kremlin.ru. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported

Farmers vs. USDA in bias lawsuits

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:19:00 +0000

For farmers, when disaster strikes, they could go to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to get an emergency loan to save a crop or a herd of cattle.

But not if you are a woman, or Hispanic, or Native American, or Black it seems.

Native American rancher Pete Fredericks said he still hasn't recovered from a brutal winter nearly 30 years ago that wiped out half his cattle, reports the Associated Press. His ranch is on the Fort Berthold Reservation. White ranchers in the region fared better because they got financial help from the federal government, he says.

Larry and Robert Chavarria were third-generation farmers in California's San Joaquin Valley, who said their family had never sought a loan until 1994 winter storms decimated their crops, reports the Washington Post. They sought USDA loans but were repeatedly denied. They eventually were forced to sell the farm.

These are just two stories of farmers who faced alleged discrimination by the USDA.

Black farmers won a 1997 civil rights settlement because of discriminatory loan practices by the USDA. During the George W. Bush presidency, though, the government's aggressive legal undermined the settlement by withholding and denying the compensation to almost nine out of the 10 Black farmers in the class action suit.

But with the new Obama administration and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, minority and women farmers are cautiously hopeful they will get redress.

In the 2008 farm bill there are provisions to extend the deadline for Black farmers to file claims, and for pending discrimination lawsuits against the USDA be resolved in "an expeditious and just manner." The bill also calls for increased outreach and reporting requirements for minority participation in the USDA loan programs, according to the Washington Post.

Agriculture Department spokesman Caleb Weaver told the Post, "USDA is committed to ending all forms of discrimination and addressing past allegations in a timely and fair manner."

He also said the department is reviewing civil rights complaints and "for the first time since 1997, we will have investigators on staff to do the field work needed to investigate complaints."

USDA's civil rights office was abolished during the Reagan administration in the 1980s. Under the Clinton administration it was re-established, but seemingly ignored during the Bush administration.

According to the news reports, Native American farmers, like their African American counterparts, are legally considered a "class." Their lawsuit, Keepseagle v. Vilsack (formerly Veneman, Bush's agriculture secretary, Ann Veneman), is a class-action suit. But Hispanic and women farmers were denied such status. So these farmers have to bring suit individually. The class status decisions are being appealed.

Garcia v. Vilsack is the name of the case that is on appeal to the Supreme Court to become a class action suit. According to a petition issued by Justice for Hispanic Farmers, Lupe Garcia is a third generation Hispanic farmer who has been fighting since 2000 for equality, accountability and transparency with the USDA loan program.

Besides needing loans in disaster situations, farmers often need operating loans to stay in business, whether it's for an irrigation system or other necessary equipment.

The New Mexico-based Garcia family repeatedly applied for operating loans. Despite positive cash flow, profitability and sufficient collateral, they charge, they were repeatedly denied loans eventually forcing the Garcias to lose their farms.

Other Hispanic farmers have similar stories.

In a recent letter to the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Colorado Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennett, urged the senate leader to continue efforts in pressing the administration to negotiate with the farmers. According to the letter, the USDA has been "reluctant" to negotiate since they lack a class action certification and farmers may run up against the statute of limitations. Currently there are just over one hundred suits being brought against the USDA, but with class action status it could grow to 80,000.

For women, a bill was introduced Dec. 10 by House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., which could bring a settlement of their discrimination lawsuits filed in 2000, according to AgWeek.

Farmers Rosemary Love, of Montana, Gail Lennon of California and Lind Weaver of Florida, greeted the bill.

In 1981, Love applied for and initially was denied a farm operating loan, and later when she did get a loan, it was half the requested amount, with liquidation of her farm as a requirement of the loan, according to AgWeek.

"In 1983, when she was undergoing surgery for cancer, a county Farmers Home supervisor came to the hospital and demanded payment of the loan, she said. Love managed to hold on to her farm, and in 1987, filed a gender discrimination case against USDA. In 1998, a government investigator found that Love had been subject to unfair treatment, but USDA has never resolved the case," AgWeek writes.

Weaver was subjected to overtly sexual harassment from her loan officer. And Lennon was flat out told that she couldn't get a loan because she was a woman and pregnant.

Lennon said trying to hold back tears that discrimination "hurts, it wounds, it has broken many spirits. Discrimination has gone on too long," AgWeek writes.

Photo: OrganicNation http://www.flickr.com/photos/organicnation/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Dallas residents celebrate Day of the Immigrants

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:09:00 +0000

DALLAS - Every day, immigrants are leaving behind their homelands in search for the American dream. Their stories of struggle and hardships may never be heard. In a Dec. 18 Day of the Immigrants celebration, however, for an audience of 65 or so, six immigrants from all corners of our planet told their stories at the Northaven Methodist Church. It was inspiring to hear how these brave men and women faced impossible odds in search of a better life here.

For example, Antonio Herrera emigrated 20 years ago from El Salvador due to the violent civil war raging. He was tortured by the oppressive U.S.-backed government for suspicion of involvement with the rebel guerrilla. He escaped as a refugee to Honduras and hid from the right-wing military death squads. Herrera was caught on the U.S. border and was sent to a camp in Fresno, California, where he was finally granted asylum as a refugee.

There is cold irony in cases like Antonio's. He was forced to flee to the very government that supported the oppression in his country. This is not an isolated case, as Haidar Al Zuheiri, who left Iraq during the current occupation, testified. Haidar, who worked for the United Nations helping refugees, had never imagined that he would become like the people he was helping. In his own words, "Everyone could be a refugee one day." Many of the immigrants were denied visas even when all their paperwork was in order. They proved that there is a desperate need for immigration reform. The argument continues as more and more people are pouring in every day due to the lack of resources and stable economies in developing countries.

It was really amazing to see so many cultures working together in one occasion, all working in solidarity and singing in unison. Kalaba Chali, from Zimbabwe, gave some very encouraging words of wisdom that certainly put smiles on the faces of everyone in the audience: "Don't be ashamed to be an immigrant, it is beautiful ... learn the language of the new land, but do not forget your language."

The event concluded with everyone singing "Feliz Navidad" and a feast followed with ballet folklorico. Events like this one show that mankind is not meant to have barriers between races, or borders between nations. We as a human race are meant to live as one people.

Photo: PW/Jim Lane

Afghan war hurts domestic agenda, Mich. peace leader says

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 11:52:00 +0000

DETROIT - "War is subverting the domestic agenda," Dr. Prasad Venugopal told peace activists here. "There is no room for despair in the peace movement because a lot of lives depend on it."

Venugopal is a leading member of the Detroit Area Peace and Justice Network, and served two terms on the national steering committee of United for Peace and Justice. He is an associate professor of physics at the University of Detroit Mercy.

Speaking at a People's World forum here, Venugopal said it is "very, very important to have two conversations. One, we do need long-term changes in U.S. foreign policy. At the same time, we need to win victories now. We have to find ways to broaden the conversation and link the fight for health care, the Employee Free Choice Act and jobs to the spending on war."

U.S. military action in Afghanistan is doomed from the get-go because of the ongoing corruption and economic crisis there and the instability in neighboring Pakistan, said Venugopal, who has written numerous articles and spoken widely on foreign policy issues, including Iraq, Afghanistan, India-Pakistan and global nuclearization. "Stability needs to come from surrounding neighbors, not U.S. troops," he said.

The recent Afghan election did nothing to change the situation as election fraud was widespread and it has left the country fractured, Venugopal said.

He also noted the corrupting influence of the drug trade. Drug money fuels the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan and Pakistan and its reach extends to the highest levels of government including President Karzai's brother.

Further dooming a military response, the people in Afghanistan are facing a dire economic situation with a high rate of poverty and lack of food. To survive, ordinary farmers are growing poppy which the Taliban and corrupt leaders convert to heroin. Venugopal said 90 percent of all heroin in Europe, a little less in the United States, comes from Afghanistan.

Finally there is the insurgency. Of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, Venugopal said the Taliban have a visible presence or more - including outright control - in 33. He indicated that in the short term, there may be no solution to the Afghan situation. "It is possible to withdraw now," which Venugopal supports, "and find the Taliban back in power, or withdraw in four years and find them back in power," he said.

"I have tremendous faith in the ability of the Afghan people to solve problems themselves," he said. He noted that terrorism and the Taliban are not Afghan creations but grew because of outside forces from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and, yes, the United States.

But the U.S. policy of sending in private contractors will prevent ordinary Afghans from having jobs and learning skills. "Afghans need to be in charge of rebuilding, not outside contractors from the U.S," he said.

Venugopal expressed concern that since the president's announcement of a troop exit beginning in the summer of 2011, there has been backpedaling on that plan. Republicans are accusing Obama of "cut and run." Both his national security advisor, Gen. Jim Jones, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have said the U.S. will be there for a long time.

A member of the audience noted that although the Cold War is over, our economy has seen no "peace dividend." He asked, "Can we still make the argument that money for a domestic agenda can come from cutting military spending?"

Venugopal said such a peace dividend will not happen without a struggle. "But when you look at the people who have elected Obama and many Democrats you find a progressive grouping," he said. "Grassroots movements exerting their power through the democratic process can force change."

Another participant noted that the struggle today is taking place on a much higher political level. "Look at the proliferation of peace and health care movements," she said. "The potential is there to be a force."

Another member of the audience commented on the critical role of women in Afghanistan. "If you want to improve a country you need to support its women," she said. Venugopal noted that when Communists were part of Afghanistan's leadership, and even under the earlier monarchy, women had indeed played an important role and held positions of importance in government and society, in contrast to the current situation.

A labor activist challenged the notion that our soldiers have volunteered to go and fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. "It is an actual draft of young working class people who have no choice," she said. "It is a class issue," she said, highlighting the importance of connecting the war to domestic issues.

Photo: Prasad Venugopal. (PW/John Rummel)

Health care reform movement fights for last minute changes

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 15:08:00 +0000

WASHINGTON—The Democratic Senate leadership claimed victory in securing 60 votes to end the Republican filibuster of a health care reform bill Dec. 18 but organizations representing millions of voters said basic changes must be made to the bill to win their support.

The issue is crucial because the Senate has scheduled a so-called cloture vote for 1 a.m. Tuesday morning to terminate the debate and move to a final vote before they recess for Christmas.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, told reporters at a briefing in the Capitol that Senator Ben Nelson's decision to vote to end the Republican filibuster has cleared the way for a final vote this week.

Reid acknowledged the bitter disappointment of millions that the Senate bill does not contain a public option which he had strongly supported. "This bill will do so many good things for so many people," he said, citing a letter he received from a grieving parent last week that his 26 year old son has developed Addison's Disease because he did not have insurance to cover treatment of his diabetes. "This broken system cannot continue and will not continue," Reid said.

Sen. Chris Dodd, Connecticut Democrat, said the bill is a step toward fulfilling Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms" including freedom from fear. "It makes access to adequate health care a right and not a benefit for the privileged few," Dodd said. No longer will people fear losing their jobs, homes, and life savings because they have fallen ill and lack insurance.

Sen. Tom Harkin, chair of the Senate Health Committee said his "progressive friends" are upset that the public option was stripped out as well as an amendment to allow people to buy in to Medicare at age 55.

"What we are building here is not a mansion. It's a starter-home," Harkin said. "But it has a great foundation, a great roof protecting people from abuses from insurance companies. It has room for expansion in the future. But if we don't get started with a starter home, we'll never get there. This is not the end of health care reform, it's the beginning of health care reform."

The Democratic leadership bowed to Nelson's demand for stringent curbs on abortion coverage to win his vote even though the Nebraska Democrat's amendment had been defeated in a Senate floor vote 10 days ago. It would require women to write a separate check each month to pay for abortion coverage on top of their regular premium.

Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said her organization, together with other defenders of women's equality, will fight to delete the Nelson amendment before the final Senate vote and will also fight the Stupak-Pitts anti-abortion rider in the House version when the House-Senate conferees meet to reconcile the two bills. The Nelson amendment, she said. "creates an unworkable system whereby individuals are required to write two separate checks each month, one for abortion care and one for everything else." The only purpose of this discrimination, she charged is to "shame" women and "draw attention to their abortion coverage....There is no policy reason for this. It is simply a political maneuver. We understand that leaders in the Senate and the White House want to move the process forward but given this provision, we have no choice but to oppose the Senate bill. Planned Parenthood will now work with leaders to fix the abortion language in conference."

Levana Layendecker, an organizer for Health Care for America NOW, issued a statement listing "what needs to be fixed" in the Senate bill.

"The Senate bill does not make health care more affordable at work and would encourage employers to hire part-time workers and offer bare-bones benefits," she charged.

She added, "We need the final legislation to do what the House bill does-require all but the smallest employers to contribute a fair amount to good coverage for their workers....The Senate bill doesn't do enough to make coverage affordable for low and moderate income families and the House falls short for middle-income families. The final bill should combine the best of both."

HCAN also demanded that the final bill include stronger measures to force more "accountability" by the health insurance monopolies to both their enrollees and the government.

Nor does HCAN yield on its demand for a public option, a measure pending in the House-passed bill: "The final bill should also give us the choice of a national public health insurance option that's available on day one," Layendecker said.

HCAN blasts the Senate bill for proposing heavy taxes on millions of workers' health plans. "By contrast, the House bill asks those who can most afford to pay their fair share to finance reform, as President Obama promised during his campaign. The final bill should ask the richest to pay their fair share for reform instead of taxing our health care benefits."

HCAN urges the grassroots health care reform movement to bombard Senators with demands that they fix these weaknesses before a final Senate vote. Then comes the House-Senate conference, "an opportunity to stand up for the three priorities...and make sure the final bill guarantees us quality affordable health care, with the choice of a public insurance option."

She concludes, "This past week has been painful and difficult...As long as you're fighting with us, we've got a chance to win this and finish reform right."

Photo: Health Care for America NOW rallies in Chicago. John Bachtell/PW

Kenneth J. BeSaw, photojournalist and Communist

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:26:00 +0000

Kenneth J. BeSaw, longtime photographer for People's World, died at the end of November while recovering from back surgery. Further details were not available at press time.

BeSaw, 58, was born in Worthington, Ohio, near Columbus, and graduated in 1970 from Worthington High School. Early on he showed a passion and talent for shooting - cameras and guns.

He was a marksman on the shooting range, and a member of the National Rifle Association.

But it was his passion for photography and social justice that propelled him into the working-class movement for equality, democracy, peace and socialism.

"Forty years ago I was on welfare in Ohio, the result of physical disabilities," BeSaw recently wrote on his Flickr profile, entitled "Working Class Photos."

"The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation canceled my college grant after I switched my major to photography. They said that I would never be able to get a job as a photojournalist. For the past 30 years I have been the chief photographer for a national daily [and weekly]. Photographically I am into sports, people and architecture."

BeSaw joined the Communist Party USA and moved to Cleveland. In 1979, he moved to New York City and began work as a photographer for the People's World's predecessor, the Daily World, where in the era before digital photography, he developed photographs for the newspaper in a darkroom.

BeSaw had epilepsy and underwent experimental surgery some 10 years ago to relieve the seizures he had been plagued by his whole life. It was successful in stopping the seizures but he endured years of recovery, which he battled through heroically.

He found joy in the CPUSA and this newspaper, the movement, people and photography. He also found love in the 1990s when he met Susan Shifrin, also a long-time People's World staff member. They married in 1996. Shifrin-BeSaw died of cancer Jan. 5, 2001.

"Ken was the heart and soul of the World's photography," said editor Teresa Albano. "He had a unique eye, seeing how to capture the best about people, their hopes and dreams, in a picture. He also knew how to capture the dastardly conditions of capitalism, be it homelessness or hunger."

BeSaw also worked to get others involved in photography, coordinating the "Photo of the Week" feature, and writing a photography handbook.

He also took fundraising for the People's World very seriously. He was a staunch supporter of the rights of disabled people, and was a member of an epilepsy group. That's where he first raised money with a "bowl-a-thon." He applied the bowl-a-thon to the PW, saying you have to have fun while you raise money.

Other years he would collect "change" for "change." BeSaw raised hundreds of dollars singlehandedly for his favorite newspaper.

"Ken was a profound humanist," People's World website editor Joe Sims said. "He taught me and all his colleagues a lot about bringing out the best of people, and portraying all aspects of the human condition in the newspaper. He would say, 'We need more sports photos' and then he would go out and take them. Or he would say, 'People are interested in history and architecture. I have shots of the Brooklyn Bridge that would make a good feature.'"

While BeSaw had expressed some bittersweet feelings about ending the newsprint edition, he fully embraced going online and becoming a part of social networking, especially on Facebook and Flickr. Plus, he joined photo contests online and won an honorable mention from a Sigma "summer dreams" contest with his entry, "We Are America," taken at an immigrant rights rally.

Ken is survived by his brother and sister, nephew and cousins. A memorial is being planned for January in New York City at Unity Center.

Photo: Ken BeSaw at a Daily World fundraiser in Arrow Park, N.Y., circa 1984. Thomas Good/www.nextleftnotes.net.

Pa. single-payer health plan draws bipartisan support

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:28:00 +0000

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Republicans as well as Democrats testified for a single-payer health plan for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, embodied in Senate Bill 400, at a meeting of the state Senate Business and Industry Committee here on Dec. 16. Republican Don White, who chairs the committee, said he believed the issue is an important one that deserves further attention.

Sen. Jim Ferlo, the lead sponsor of the bill, explained that the private insurance model is a failed one. He said a single-payer system would, in addition to providing health coverage for all Pennsylvanians, free businesses from having to devote time and money to research plans and coverage for their employees. Further, he noted, businesses often play a game of musical chairs, by having to constantly change to more affordable plans. This results in employees having to change doctors frequently, and interferes with continuity of care.

Two Democrats and two Republicans spoke for passage of the single-payer plan. The proponents of the bill argued for the humanity of health care for all, as well as the fiscal responsibility it represents. The political diversity of the panel demonstrated the potentially broad appeal of state single-payer health care.

Chuck Pennacchio, executive director of Healthcare for All Pennsylvania, and a tireless worker for SB 400, emphasized how a single-payer plan would benefit business, and that it is consistent with good business practices.

Patricia Eakin, a nurse, gave moving testimony about her experiences working in one of the busiest emergency rooms in Philadelphia, located in one of its poorest neighborhoods. She spoke of patients who come to the ER with far-advanced complications of chronic illnesses - illnesses which, if treated early, can be managed without complications. One patient she described came to the ER with very high blood pressure and was found to be in kidney failure. If he had been covered by insurance, and if his high blood pressure had been cared for earlier and properly with medication, he would not have to face the future of pain and suffering that comes with dialysis three times a week. In addition, millions will be spent on his dialysis. The cost of managing his high blood pressure would have been miniscule in comparison, Eakin pointed out. Ironically, she said, his dialysis will be paid for with public money.

A Republican doctor, Dwight Michaels of Gettysburg, began his remarks stating that he had always thought he lived in a country that cared about people. He went on to speak about the bureaucratic nightmare the members of his practice face when dealing with insurance companies while trying to provide quality health care to their patients.

Another Republican who is a former state legislator, small-business owner David Steil, directed his remarks to the positive effect a single-payer plan would have on businesses. He spoke about how the cost of providing insurance has made competition in a world market a near impossibility for him.

Those opposing the bill represented industry groups like the Pennsylvania Medical Society, Capitol Blue Cross, the Hospital Association and the Insurance Federation. Some of their testimony was inaccurate, comparing SB 400 to the health reform bills now before the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. They cited the specter of government control of health care and rationing (ignoring the fact that thousands of Pennsylvanians unable to go to the doctor due to lack of insurance have been completely rationed out of the system), and a claimed increased cost to taxpayers if SB 400 is passed.

In fact, the state bill would increase taxes, but individuals and employers would no longer have to pay insurance premiums, and it is projected that this would result in huge savings.

There was a call for funding a feasibility study to determine the benefits as well as the shortcomings of SB 400.

Many single-payer advocates feel Pennsylvania is closer than other states to achieving a single-payer health care system. The present governor, Democrat Ed Rendell, has said he will sign the bill, and organizers have garnered bipartisan support for the bill, as the Dec. 16 testimony showed.

Photo: (left to right) State Sen. Jim Ferlo, Chuck Pennacchio of Healthcare for All Pennsylvania and nurse Patricia Eakin at the Dec. 16 hearing. (www.healthcare4allpa.org)

In Irving Texas Latino students have no voice

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 08:29:00 +0000

IRVING Texas -- The Latino community continues to grow all over North Texas, with immigrants coming from all corners of Latin America, and they face a growing problem: no one to speak for or represent them. For example, in the Irving Independent School District, right outside Dallas, there are no Hispanic members on the school board to represent the increasing population of Latino students. The Dallas paper reports that 69% of the students in the district are Hispanic

Manuel Benavidez is a case in point. He ran for the board and lost twice. Benavidez won a voting rights lawsuit last July, and had to launch another one in mid-December. The present school board is saying that the census data is wrong, and that most of the Hispanics in the district are undocumented and ineligible to vote.

Students are affected by decisions that are made by people who cannot understand or comprehend the needs of a different culture. The lawsuit that is being placed on the district could be very beneficial to the community because it can help reduce the barriers for minorities to have representatives on these boards and councils.

Photo: Brandon Berrios Latino students in Irving School District work hard, but have no representation.

60 organizations demand gov’t create millions of jobs

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:39:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Warning that the economic recovery, so far, has been "jobless," a coalition of 60 labor, civil rights and community organizations launched a campaign Dec. 16 to pressure Congress to "put America back to work" by passing legislation that creates millions of living-wage jobs.

The coalition, Jobs for America Now, announced it will launch grassroots actions in all 50 states starting immediately. Speaking at a Washington news conference, coalition leaders unveiled a five-point jobs plan including expansion of unemployment benefits, COBRA and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Another demand is fiscal relief to state and local governments, as well as jobs programs "that put people to work helping communities that face severe unemployment."

The plan also demands funding to build or repair "schools, transportation, and energy efficiency, thus providing jobs in the short run and productivity enhancements in the longer run."

The coalition is also pushing for federal assistance to small and medium-sized businesses for "private-sector job growth."

Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future, said, "Joblessness is a scourge. It destroys families, demeans its victims. A jobless recovery is an oxymoron - there can be no recovery without people going back to work. This must be the first priority of the administration and the Congress."

Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, said, "With a double-digit unemployment rate and nearly 16 million Americans looking for work, we should take decisive action as quickly as possible to create jobs."

As if anticipating the coalition's demands, the House by a razor-thin margin of 217 to 212 approved a $154 billion jobs bill Dec. 16 that includes $27.5 billion for highway construction and repair and $39.5 billion for infrastructure and repair. Half the cost is covered from TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Project) bailout funds that banks are paying back to the federal government.

More than 30 Democrats joined Republicans in voting against the jobs package. They apparently were panicked by Republican fearmongering on federal deficits in an election year.

The measure now goes to the Senate, where the lawmakers are even more fearful of Republican scare tactics on the deficits.

But Borosage had a sharp rejoinder. "Budget deficits should not stand in the way," he said. "In fact, there is no way to get to a balanced budget without putting people back to work. There is work to be done and people in need of work. It is time for the Congress to step up."

Thea Lee, deputy chief of staff of the AFL-CIO, warned that the federal programs "must be on a scale to match this crisis." This reflects the widespread belief that President Obama's first economic stimulus package, $787 billion, while a step in the right direction, was far too small to stop unemployment from skyrocketing. The official unemployment rate is now 10.2 percent and rising.

Benjamin Todd Jealous, NAACP president and CEO, said, "When America gets a cold, African Americans get pneumonia. Our communities are disproportionately suffering from this recession. Job creation has got to be the number one job of Congress right now."

Janet Murguia, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights group, said Latino workers "are ready to work hard out of this recession. But without a specific plan to address the jobs crisis in communities of color, the administration's response will be insufficient to bring about the economic recovery. The president and Congress must put equity and fairness at the center of any new jobs initiative."

Nancy Duff Campbell, co-president of the National Women's Law Center, said single mothers are the hardest hit. "More than one in every three female-headed families with children was living in poverty last year ... the highest number in a decade." Any economic recovery program must provide jobs and income for these women and their children, she said.

Alan Charney, program director of USAction, and the interim campaign manager of the new Jobs for America Now coalition, said, "The progressive community is uniting behind a broad jobs program ... to create a strong campaign for 2010."

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/labor2008/ / CC BY 2.0