People Before Profit blog

LIFE AND DEATH

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 11:59:00 +0000

Teresa Anderson

Poet Teresa Anderson died on Jan. 8. Anderson was a newcomer from Kansas and Oklahoma when West End Press published her book of poems “Speaking in Sign” in 1978. Her lyrical voice, gentle manner, political awareness, and physical beauty came together in the strength and uncommon wisdom of her poems; she soon became a noteworthy member of the mid-western poetry scene of the late ’70s. In 1980, Terri translated Pablo Neruda’s last book of poems, “Incitation al Nixonicidio y Alabanza de la Revolucion Chilena” (A Call for the Destruction of Nixon and Praise for the Chilean Revolution) for West End Press.

At the beginning of the new millennium, Terri was struck by cancer of the spine before her 50th birthday. She survived under great pain and physical hardship, continuing to write, travel as she was able, and record her works on DVD, thanks in part to the skill and dedication of her husband, Michael Swite.

Sanora Babb

Sanora Babb, 98, passed away on Dec. 31 at her home in Hollywood. In the 1930s Babb was a journalist for The Associated Press, wrote short stories for literary magazines, and was a radio scriptwriter. She reported on the Spanish Civil War for the British journal This Week and worked as an assistant to Tom Collins, manager of the Farm Security Administration in California, during the Depression.

Later she married the film director James Wong Howe. She continued to reside in Hollywood after his death.

Babb’s best-known book, “Whose Names Are Unknown,” chronicles the life of Oklahoma Dust Bowl migrants. It was scheduled for publication by Random House in 1939 until the company received word that John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath,” which like Babb’s book used the field notes of Tom Collins as a background source, was due to be published later the same year. Random House decided as a result to withdraw Babb’s book, the more radical work of the two, from publication. Her manuscript languished until it caught the attention of Marxist scholar Alan Wald in the 1980s. It was finally published by the University of Oklahoma Press in 2005.

Al ‘Grandpa’ Lewis

Actor and lifelong left-wing political activist Al Lewis, who played “Grandpa” on the television show “The Munsters,” died on Feb. 3. He was 82.

Lewis, born Albert Meister, grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. Not sure on a career, he tried his hand at several different professions, including circus performing, sales, waiting tables and owning a poolroom. He also earned a Ph.D. in child psychology from Columbia University. After his television and movie career took off, he operated a successful restaurant in Greenwich Village, appropriately named “Grandpa’s.”

Lewis was a staunch fighter against the anticommunist witch hunts known as McCarthyism and had been involved in the struggle to save the Rosenbergs.

In 1998, Lewis ran as the Green Party candidate against New York Gov. George Pataki. Lewis campaigned against what he said were severe drug laws and the death penalty, garnering more than 52,000 votes. Lewis is survived by his wife, Karen Ingenthron-Lewis, three sons and four grandchildren.

Henry Siegel

Henry Siegel, union electrician of Cleveland, died Dec. 28 at age 86. Father, grandfather and great-grandfather, Siegel was a lifelong member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and devoted his life to the cause of human liberty, justice, peace and freedom. He was known as a caring person, putting his expertise as an electrician to work rewiring old houses and other kinds of help for friends and families in need.

“Henry believed that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as envisioned and guaranteed by our nation’s forefathers, depended on an informed citizenry, and for this, a free press,” said Wally Kaufman, chairman of the Ohio Communist Party. “His greatest passion was supporting his favorite newspaper, the People’s Weekly World, with yard sales and barbecue dinners on his front lawn.”

Siegel, who joined the Young Communist League as a teenager, devoted his life to social change and socialism. “Always a participant in struggle, workers walking picket lines fighting for union rights and contracts, and peace activists demonstrating to stop unjust wars, could always count on Henry to be there with them,” Kaufman said.

Siegel was committed to the struggle against racism and believed that freedom meant justice and equality for all people. He was a proud descendant of General Franz Siegel, a general in the Union army in the war to abolish slavery.

Katrina and voting rights

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 11:10:00 +0000

New Orleans boosters are throwing Mardi Gras celebrations that end on Fat Tuesday, Feb. 28. But there is plenty the people of the “Big Easy” are not celebrating, starting with the criminal negligence of the Bush-Cheney administration before and after the levees broke and flooded their homes last summer. They are still waiting for anything close to an adequate response to the humanitarian crisis that has cut New Orleans’ population by half, the rest scattered in a vast diaspora across the country.

The Federal Emergency Management Administration, riddled with cronyism and bungling incompetence, has just evicted 4,400 Katrina survivors from New Orleans hotels and an additional 8,000 will be evicted March 1.

FEMA estimated that 98,000 travel trailers would be needed to provide shelter for the evacuees but six months later has provided less than half. Residents of the 9th Ward, Gentilly and other working-class neighborhoods of New Orleans are waging a determined struggle to prevent the bulldozing of their homes while the federal government stalls on making block grant funds available to rebuild. Meanwhile, speculators are offering residents $15,000 to $20,000 for their properties, a key element of the plan to gentrify New Orleans, turning it into a mostly white haven for the rich.

The Corps of Engineers is rebuilding the levees but only to a “pre-Katrina” standard. The people of New Orleans hear that with alarm. It means the Bush administration is turning thumbs down on rebuilding the levees strong enough to withstand a Category Five hurricane.

Politically savvy folks in New Orleans know their vote next fall, organized and focused, can help remove from office the corporate-right-wing politicians responsible for this “man-made” disaster. That’s why they are organizing to fight for their right to vote in New Orleans even if they are now scattered.

“They allowed Iraqi citizens living in the U.S. to cast their votes in the Iraqi elections,” says one voting rights advocate. “We’re demanding that they provide the same voting rights for Katrina survivors no matter where they are living.”

We agree.

Tax breaks for the wealthy

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 10:22:00 +0000

On Jan. 1 Congress allowed two tax breaks that benefit the wealthy to become effective. The cuts eliminated current provisions of the tax code that limit the amount of personal exemptions and itemized deductions that Americans with high incomes can take. Over the course of the next five years the tax cuts will cost approximately $27 billion, according to a study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Only two weeks before the cuts took effect, Republicans in Congress voted to reduce spending on programs benefiting the poor and the middle class by $39 billion over the next five years.

Deductions for wealthy restored

The tax codes eliminated are the Pease provision and the personal exemption phase-out provision (PEP). Both were originally passed in 1990 in an effort to reduce the deficit. The Pease provision limited the amount of itemized deductions taxpayers with high incomes could claim. The tax code permits individuals to reduce their taxable income either by the standard deduction or by an amount equivalent to their total itemized deductions. In general, wealthy taxpayers use itemized deductions much more than the middle class and the poor.

The Pease provision reduced the amount of deductions for those who itemized and had incomes exceeding $145,950 last year. The total amount of itemized deductions wealthy taxpayers could claim was reduced by three percent of the amount by which their incomes exceeded $145,950. Similarly, the PEP provision of the tax code phased out personal exemptions for the wealthy. The tax code permits individuals to claim a personal exemption for each member of their household; last year it was $3,200.

They can subtract personal exemptions from their adjusted gross income before calculating their taxes, thereby reducing the amount of taxes owed. In 2005 the PEP provision mandated that taxpayers lost 2 percent of their personal exemption for every $2,500 by which their income exceeded $218,950 for married couples and $145,950 for singles.

It’s not about simplifying

Congressional Republicans have frequently said that the Pease and PEP provisions made it more difficult for Americans to determine their taxes. However, it’s typically high-income taxpayers who take itemized deductions. And these are individuals who usually have their taxes prepared by accountants and other tax professionals who can easily calculate these provisions.

The Joint Committee on Taxation has estimated that over the next 13 years these tax breaks for the wealthy will deprive the country of $197 billion in revenue. And a study by the Brookings Institution determined that 97 percent of the Pease and PEP tax breaks will go to those households with incomes above $200,000. And more than half of these breaks will benefit the 0.2 percent of families with annual incomes exceeding $1 million. Once these tax cuts are fully implemented in 2010, the average millionaire will save $19,000 annually in taxes.

No cuts for vast majority

Families with yearly incomes between $100,000 and $200,000 will receive an average tax cut of only $25. And families earning less than $100,000 — the vast majority of Americans — will not benefit at all.

Shortly before these tax cuts became effective, Republicans in Congress voted to cut $11 billion over the next five years from Medicaid, the health care system that serves America’s poor. Substantial reductions made in childcare assistance will result in 255,000 children living in poverty losing federal assistance.

Congressional Republicans cut $343 million in funding for foster care programs. These reductions will make it more difficult for grandparents who are raising their grandchildren to receive assistance. Over $12 billion was cut from federal college loan programs, making it more difficult for poor and middle-class Americans to afford a college education. In fact, over the next five years these tax breaks from the Pease and PEP tax cuts exceed the savings from all of the reductions in low-income assistance programs that Congress voted to cut.

WHATS REALLY GOOD

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 07:46:00 +0000

Washington: Students lobby on tuition aid

The United States Student Association will hold its annual legislative conference March 4-7, culminating in a national student lobby day where students from around the country will make their voices heard on Capitol Hill.

This year one of the main issues will be the Bush administration’s “biggest ever” cut to student aid, which will impact tens of thousands of students. Each year, the conference focuses on issues important to college students. Those wishing to register should visit www.usstudents.org.

NATIONAL: ‘Another World in Production’

United Students Against Sweatshops is sponsoring a Feb. 6-27 U.S. tour of garment workers from Thailand, Kenya, Mexico, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic and Indonesia under the title of “Another World in Production: Garment Workers Speak Out.”

The tour highlights abuses in the garment industry, which, USAS says, “is characterized by excessive working hours, low wages, sexual harassment and discrimination, hazardous conditions and violations of freedom of association.”

“Another World” is a part of a “Sweat Free Campus Campaign” initiated by USAS to demand that colleges implement a policy of only buying apparel from companies that produce most of their products in decent working conditions.

Chicago: Catholic university offers minor in queer studies

DePaul University became the first Catholic university to offer an undergraduate minor in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Studies. This is considered a major step forward, especially in view of recent condemnations of homosexuality by the Vatican.

Already there has been a backlash by anti-gay extremists in and out of the Catholic church.

Nevertheless, program director Gary Cestaro said that the new minor is in line with DePaul’s mission of “open inquiry” and has received wide student support.

NEW YORK: YCL fundraising party draws hundreds

Members and friends of the Young Communist League threw the first fundraising event for the YCL’s upcoming National Convention, and despite the worst snowstorm in NYC’s history, close to 300 people showed up.

The party, dubbed “The Shackleton,” named after South Pole explorer Ernest Shackleton, had an “Antarctic survival beachwear” theme.

The event, which featured music spun by three well-known NYC DJs, raised hundreds of dollars and generated excitement and public awareness of the YCL.

— Dan Margolis (dmargolis@pww.org)

No raise for Californias poorest

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 07:20:00 +0000

STOCKTON, Calif. — Prize-winning poet and author Sotere Torregian, author of 14 books of poetry, has been disabled and unable to earn a living since 1989. His only income is Supplemental Security Income (SSI) — $812 a month in 2005 — and the occasional honorarium from giving a university lecture once or twice a year.

To afford a place to live, he shares a rented condominium here with his former wife, who is also disabled and dependent on SSI, and his daughter Tatyana, who has a part-time job with Sears and takes care of her wheel-chaired mother.

“The grocery bill gets larger but the income gets smaller,” Torregian told the World.

SSI is a federal benefit meant to provide a poverty-level living for blind, aged or disabled people with no other income. California, along with 44 other states, pays an additional amount called State Supplementary Payment (SSP), which is included in the monthly SSI check.

In January each year a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is supposed to bring the benefit up to poverty level again. This year, the federal COLA is 4.1 percent.

But in California, January brought the Torregians only a letter saying that they would not get the scheduled raise.

This is because Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill that not only freezes the state SSP contribution at its 2005 level, but for the first quarter lowers the state payment by exactly the amount of the federal COLA. This is part of Schwarzenegger’s attempt to balance the state budget by depriving the poorest Californians while rejecting any tax increase for the rich.

In April, the Torregians will get their 4.1 percent federal SSI increase, but there will be no increase in the state SSP amount as there has been every year to date. And in 2007, the situation will be the same.

A vegetarian, Torregian said he is “eternally grateful for soy.” Without soy, “my physical condition would be more run down than it is.”

“This country is killing its artists,” said Torregian. “It is very happy to receive the artist’s products, but he is not able to make a living in this country.”

New Yorkers battle for school funding

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 07:11:00 +0000

NEW YORK — “My kids’ school has no gym and no playground,” said a mother who sends two of her children to P.S. 51 in the Bronx. “Last year we had to add a new class, which meant we had to move the library to make space for a classroom. Next year we have to add another class.”

The situation is not uncommon. This mother describes her school as one of the “luckier ones.” In fact, the city’s schools are in such a state of disrepair that the state Supreme Court, in a lawsuit brought by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, ordered Albany to provide an additional $5.6 billion in operating expenses annually as well as another $9.2 billion for facilities. Judge Leland Degrasse gave Albany 90 days to do it, starting in March 2005.

The situation has not improved since then. A recent report showed that 2005 graduation rates statewide were 59.4 percent for boys and 69.2 percent for girls, lower than the previous year. As bad as those statistics are, New York City fared even worse: only 37.3 percent of boys graduated in four years, and 49.8 percent of girls.

Despite this and the court order, Republican Gov. George Pataki’s recently proposed budget included only $100 million in additional funding for the city, far less than what school advocates say is needed.

“It is not even enough for schools to maintain their current services,” said CFE Executive Director Geri Palast, “let alone address the dire resource deficiencies identified in the CFE case.”

The state has a huge surplus, but the governor had other plans for the money, including a $1.1 billion tax cut for big business.

Parents, teachers, elected leaders and students are planning a major fightback, including a day of lobbying on March 14.

The City Council passed a resolution Feb. 13 condemning the governor for shortchanging the city’s students.

New York City Councilmember Robert Jackson, who initiated the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, demanded at a recent press conference that Pataki reverse course on the tax cuts and use the surplus to “put a down payment” on education funding.

In addition, the Schools for New York’s Future Act, Bill A-100, has been reintroduced into the state Legislature. If passed, it would guarantee decent funding for the city’s schools as well as all schools in the state,

NYC’s Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who previously has been reluctant to challenge Pataki, has been pushed by growing public sentiment into lobbying for more education funding.

The city will host a lobbying day on March 28, but the Chancellor’s Parents Advisory Council, created by Bloomberg’s own school reforms, voted to boycott the action. Instead, they will join with the teachers’ union and the Alliance for Quality Education for the March 14 lobby day.

Bloomberg’s sincerity is questioned by some who recall that in his 2005 re-election campaign against Democrat Fernando Ferrer he falsely claimed that dropout rates were getting better.

Fallen soldiers families push plan to end war

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 06:44:00 +0000

CLEVELAND — Parents of a Marine killed in Iraq are building support for a plan to end the war through a negotiated political settlement with a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops. The plan is predicated on a measured reduction in violence by all involved.

“When our son died,” said Rosemary Palmer, a Cleveland high school teacher, “in a war that we had serious questions about, we were determined to do everything possible that other families would not have to suffer our grief.”

Their son, Lance Cpl. Edward “Augie” Schroeder was killed Aug. 3 along with 13 other Marines when their troop carrier was blown up by a roadside bomb on their fifth mission to “clear and secure” the town of Haditha from insurgents.

Last December she and her husband, Dr. Paul Schroeder, formed an organization, Families of the Fallen for Change, to search for a feasible plan to end the war. Together with Norman Robbins, a professor at Case Western Reserve University, who is active in the peace movement, Schroeder drew up the proposed “American Withdrawal with Measurable Benchmarks,” which is being promoted through the media, the Internet, and public forums.

Schroeder and Palmer have also met with public officials in hopes that a bipartisan bill, mandating the plan, will be introduced in Congress. According to the Plain Dealer, both Sen. George Voinovich, a Republican, and Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich have responded favorably to their ideas.

“Our plan appeals to the great majority of Americans,” Schroeder said at a recent public meeting called by the West Side Friends of the People’s Weekly World. “This majority does not support the ‘Stay the Course’ policy of President Bush but also do not agree with calls for unconditional withdrawal.”

The plan calls for the U.S. to declare its intention to withdraw and to have no permanent bases. By linking troop withdrawal to a phased reduction in both military and civilian casualties the plan imposes “an important self-enforcing element,” Schroeder said. “Those who continue violence would be held responsible by Iraqis for prolonging the American occupation.”

It also addresses economic and political sovereignty. “The United States would formally rescind economic strictures imposed during the occupation, let the Iraqi government freely choose its form of economic development and natural resource use, and allow the parties to work out their own form of co-existence,” the plan states.

Families of the Fallen has grown to 1,000 members, including families and friends of soldiers who have died, military families and personnel and a broad array of supporters.

You can read the full plan at www.fofchange.org, where membership forms are also available. Membership is free, confidential and involves no obligation, Schroeder said. “We are anxious to increase the membership,” Schroeder said. “That’s what counts with Congress.”

Honoring Susan Wheeler. Raising money for the paper she loved

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 06:42:00 +0000

PORTLAND, Ore. — A capacity crowd in the Friends Meeting House here celebrated the life of Susan Elizabeth Wheeler Feb. 11 with songs, laughter, tears and heartfelt memories of her contributions to the people’s movements.

Wheeler passed away Jan. 24 at her daughter’s home in Sequim, Wash., at age 63.

Larry Kleinman, secretary-treasurer of the Oregon farm workers and tree planters union, told the crowd that Wheeler arranged for her friend, folk singer Pete Seeger, to perform a benefit concert for the union in 1994 raising $30,000. Seeger sent a letter of regret that he could not attend the memorial but remembered Susan and the concert she organized for him at a local high school during the depths of the Cold War.

Susan’s Oregon Law Center co-workers remembered her as the calm force in defending the legal rights of poor people in the state. Brooke Jacobson, professor at Portland State University, recalled that during the 1970s, she and Susan lived together in a big house filled with single moms and their children. Susan’s home and her dining room table were always a hospitable place for both family gatherings and political meetings, Jacobson said.

Actor Nurmi Husa, the spitting image of Karl Marx, read an excerpt from Howard Zinn’s “Marx in Soho” in which Marx complains that his wife, Jenny, is pushing him to make “Das Kapital” easier for workers to understand. “Are we reaching the people we want to reach?” Jenny demands. A fitting tribute, Husa said, to Susan who lived for the class struggle.

The memorial program suggested contributions to the People’s Weekly World. Political correspondent Tim Wheeler announced that Kathleen Robel had just handed him a check for $100 honoring Susan and another for $5,000 honoring her parents, Gene and Thorun Robel. Thorun Robel was a staunch leader of Women Act for Peace in Seattle. Her husband, Gene, a shipyard worker, waged a long struggle to win back his machinist union membership after being blacklisted during the Cold War. These and other generous gifts were a final push in the PWW’s fund drive.

Wave of voter outrage could swamp Republicans

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 06:34:00 +0000

Tim Burga of the Ohio AFL-CIO says “there’s a real mood for change” in his state. Noting the impact of deaths of Ohio soldiers in Iraq, the loss of manufacturing jobs and national and local corruption scandals, Burga says Ohioans are “really frustrated” with the Bush administration and Republicans. “People feel they just don’t shoot straight — no pun intended.”

Nationally, political forecaster Charles Cook has projected a net gain of six to 14 seats for Democrats in the House of Representatives this fall — “one notch short of the 15-seat net gain necessary to win a majority.” But these projections, Cook emphasizes, “tend to understate seat changes when there is a wave.”

The challenge for the varied components of the progressive movement, looking to break the right-wing stranglehold on Congress, is to create that wave.

A number of major organizations are releasing candidate ratings and political game plans aiming to get that wave rolling. The AFL-CIO will announce its election plans at its Executive Council meeting in San Diego next week. The League of Conservation Voters just released its 2005 environmental scorecard, forming the basis for its 2006 plans.

In the Senate, Democrats need to pick up six seats to topple GOP control.

One of the nation’s key Senate races, rated a toss-up by Cook, is in Ohio, between Republican Sen. Mike DeWine and Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown. Brown has a 100 percent pro-labor and environment record and is a strong civil liberties and antiwar advocate. DeWine voted wrong on 12 of the 19 Senate votes the AFL-CIO considers vital for working families, and gets only a 45 percent rating from LCV.

DeWine’s GOP colleague in Pennsylvania, Sen. Rick Santorum, voted wrong on 18 of the 19 working family issues. His battle against State Treasurer Bob Casey is also considered a toss-up.

Santorum’s anti-working-family record is shared by Missouri GOP Sen. Jim Talent, who faces State Auditor Claire McCaskill. Talent barely won this seat in 2002. Recent polls have shown McCaskill ahead 47-44 in what is considered an extremely tight race.

Other hotly contested Senate races include open seats in Minnesota and Tennessee, now held by Democrat Mark Dayton and Republican Bill Frist, respectively, and the Rhode Island seat held by Republican Lincoln Chaffee.

If Democrats win these six toss-up races, the GOP lock on the Senate ends.

In the House of Representatives, the Republicans have to worry about holding onto 44 seats considered competitive or that “have the potential” to become competitive, while the Democrats will have to fight to keep 20, in addition to picking up 15 seats from the Republicans.

In Ohio’s 18th Congressional District, Republican Robert Ney, believed to be under investigation because of his Abramoff bribery links, says he is running for re-election. Ney had to give up his chairmanship of the House Administration Committee because of the scandals. His Democratic opponent will be decided in the May 2 primary.

Anti-worker GOP Rep. Deborah Pryce, in the nearby 15th CD, faces her first serious challenge since she was elected in 1992 — Mary Jo Kilroy, president of the Franklin County Board of Commissioners.

Democrats must hold onto Ohio’s 6th District seat held by Tim Strickland. Strickland, with a strong progressive record, is running for governor against right-wing Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell who helped manipulate Ohio’s voting process to produce a Bush win in 2004.

In Texas, the GOP sleaze factor has made the 22nd CD race between notorious Tom DeLay and Democrat Nick Lampson a toss-up. In California’s 50th CD, where Republican Randy Cunningham resigned in disgrace over his Abramoff involvement, the race is rated competitive.

A big race in Illinois is for the 6th CD seat being vacated by far-right Henry Hyde. Christine Cegelis, who almost beat Hyde two years ago, and Iraq war vet Tammy Duckworth are competing for the Democratic nomination in the March 21 primary.

In the 8th CD, Democratic Rep. Melissa Bean angered many in labor with her pro-CAFTA vote. Six Republicans are vying to unseat Bean, including investment banker David McSweeney who has “lent” his campaign nearly $1 million.

A key toss-up race is in southeastern Pennsylvania’s 6th District, where GOP Rep. Jim Gerlach is being challenged for a second time by Lois Murphy. In 2004 she lost by only 2 percentage points. Murphy was associate legal counsel for NARAL Pro-Choice America and is a trustee of the Women’s Law Project.

New Mexico’s 1st CD race is another hot one. Republican Heather Wilson, who voted right on only three of the 16 working families issues, faces state Attorney General Patricia Madrid, who would be the district’s first Latina representative.

In Indiana, GOP Reps. John Hostetter and Mike Sodrel, with anti-working-families records, are seen as highly vulnerable.

Democrats have a good chance to take the open Republican seat in Minnesota’s 6th CD.

Other tight races are in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut and Iowa, and more could emerge in the coming months.

UnionFacts from corporate hacks?

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 06:25:00 +0000

Illustration by David Baldinger.

Little Red Riding Hood knew to stay clear of the Big Bad Wolf. To get close enough to gobble her up, the wolf had to dress up in Red’s grandmother’s clothes.

Last week, apparently taking a page from the Big Bad Wolf’s playbook, corporate America pulled overalls and hard hats over its custom-tailored suits to launch a new web site called unionfacts.com. Full-page ads in The New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal evoke working-class sympathy with a photo of a padlocked factory gate. The text reads: “Brought to you by the union ‘leaders’ who helped bankrupt steel, auto and airline companies.”

But on the web site itself, the wolf reveals his pointy teeth. Detailed instructions tell how to decertify a union, including a downloadable decert form. There’s an exhaustive list of every alleged instance of union corruption in the last 30 years and details about union leaders’ salaries.

UnionFacts doesn’t stop with trying to drive a wedge between union members and their leaders. It seeks to separate them from their hard-won wages and benefits too. The site puts the blame for steel, auto and airline bankruptcies on “out of control” wages and benefits.

The executive director of the Center for Union Facts is Rick Berman, according to Allison, a bubbly receptionist who answers the phone at the organization’s Washington office. But questions about the group’s funding were “above my pay grade,” she told this reporter. Berman runs a tight ship; designated spokesperson Sarah Longwell returned a reporter’s phone call but said she wasn’t authorized to speak or be interviewed.

The New York Times reported that the cost of the ads was $240,000, and that Berman projected a $5 million annual budget for the group although he refused to name his funding sources. “Not surprising,” said Electrical Workers Union spokesperson Jim Spillane. “It’s pretty transparent who they’re working for.”

The AFL-CIO says that confidential sources have told them that Berman made a big appeal for funding at a January meeting of the Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber, which calls itself the world’s largest business organization, says its mission is to “fight for the interests of business and free enterprise before Congress, the White House, regulatory agencies, courts, the court of public opinion and governments around the world.”

Its goals seem to parallel those of the Center for Union Facts. Both groups are on a tear about card check campaigns that have been achieving remarkable success in signing up new union members. AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stuart Acuff says the NLRB that 80 percent of recent organizing victories come outside its card procedures. Card check bypasses the NLRB process which activists say allows employers to derail workers’ organizing attempts by intimidating and firing union supporters. Community campaigns and collective bargaining agreements have pressured employers to agree to card check and neutrality.

Legislation to make card check available to all American workers, the Employee Free Choice Act, has gained support from 210 members of the House of Representatives and 42 senators, including even some Republicans.

Card check allows for union recognition when a majority of workers sign cards saying they want a union, but UnionFacts calls the process “undemocratic.” Along the same lines, the Chamber is promoting its own legislation to outlaw union recognition via card check.

Berman, who heads a public relations firm in Washington, has a history well-documented on several public interest web sites. ConsumerDeception.com reports that Berman “runs a trio of shadowy tax-exempt food, tobacco, and beverage industry front groups: The Center for Consumer Freedom, which attacks Mothers Against Drunk Driving and anyone who criticizes smoking or drinking; the American Beverage Institute, which fights drunk driving laws; and the Employment Policy Institute, which opposed raising the minimum wage. That institute argued that such an increase would drive the poor out of the job market. Berman received nearly $3 million for his work from Philip Morris. His resume includes no stints as a union member, but employment as an attorney for Bethlehem Steel and Dana Corp., a Toledo auto parts company.

Sourcewatch.com, a project of the Center for Media and Democracy, quotes Berman as saying that the way to defeat activist groups is to wage a hard counter-campaign “to de-legitimize them in the eyes of the public.”

Other actions by Berman’s new group include picketing the AFL-CIO headquarters accompanied by an inflatable dinosaur, an apparent reference to labor’s beloved inflatable rat, and a second full-page ad attack, this one targeting Unite Here as it launches its nationwide “hotel workers rising” campaign.

Will the workers buy the wolf’s tickets? IBEW’s Spillane sees the campaign as a sign of weakness. “They know that unions are becoming more effective,” he says, and reversing declines. Still, he warns, “We have to take this seriously.”

Cardinal calls for immigrant rights

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 10:18:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES — A leading member of the Catholic Church has condemned a congressional resolution that, he said, further victimizes immigrants. He also took the occasion to initiate a campaign for immigrant rights.

Cardinal Roger Mahony, head of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, attacked House Resolution 4437 as “a new attack on immigrants [and} a very malicious bill that imposes restrictions and penalties on immigrants [and also] those who offer them any kind of assistance.” The resolution was introduced by Reps. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Peter King (R-Calif.) who chair, respectively, the House committees on the Judiciary and Homeland Security. The House passed the resolution Dec. 17.

The bill’s provisions include changing undocumented presence in the U.S. from a civil to a felony offense; broadly expanding the definition of smuggling immigrants to include the provision of services to the undocumented; eliminating many due process rights for documented and undocumented; involving state and local police in enforcement of immigration laws; erecting 700 miles of wall along the border with Mexico; and adding many new military surveillance systems for border patrol.

Mahony announced that “the Catholic Church and many other organizations and immigrants rights advocates ... are banding together to protect the rights of all ... to see that it [HR 4437] does not go beyond the Senate,” and that the Senate passes measures to increase legalization rights for immigrants.

“2006 will be a great year of struggle for the rights and dignity of immigrants ... and the Church is going to step forward front and center,” Mahony said. The cardinal’s remarks came during a special mass on Jan. 14 celebrating National Migrants Week.

During the ceremony, which was attended by several hundred people, responsive prayers were presented in Thai, Filipino, Chinese, Indonesian, Arabic, Italian, Lithuanian, Anglo and Korean with the response in Spanish and English.

The United States Catholic Conference of Bishops is participating in the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, which includes hundred of labor, civil rights, faith, community and business groups. It opposes HR 4437 and supports legislation that would provide legalization of undocumented workers.

The Feminine Mystique of Betty Friedan

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 10:10:00 +0000

Betty Friedan, known as the mother of modern feminism, said she was once characterized as “more of a threat to the United States than the Russians.” Friedan died of congestive heart failure on her 85th birthday, Feb. 4, in Washington.

Friedan was born Bettye Naomi Goldstein on Feb. 4, 1921, in Peoria, Ill, to Jewish immigrant parents. Her father was a jeweler and her mother was the society page editor of a local newspaper. Upon marriage, her mother quit her job at her father’s insistence.

In 1963, Friedan wrote “The Feminine Mystique,” a book that planted seeds of revolution in the struggle for equal rights, opportunity and autonomy, and greater legal protection for women. She pushed for equal pay, maternity leave, child-care centers for working parents, legal abortion, an end to sexual discrimination and many other issues considered radical in the 1960s and 1970s.

Friedan was a founder and president of the National Organization for Women (NOW). NOW was the first national organization to endorse the legalization of abortion. She led a 500,000-person Women’s Strike for Equality in New York in 1970 and was a founder of the National Women’s Political Caucus and the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws.

Kim Gandy president of NOW, said Friedan “sparked a movement that is larger and stronger than ever, made up of women who expect equality and equal opportunity for ourselves and our daughters, and the men who stand with us.”

Friedan and Coretta Scott King were both at the Progressive Party’s convention in Philadelphia in 1948, according to Daniel Horowitz, a professor at Smith College. The two, along with Rosa Parks, “have their political roots in the struggles for social justice, for African Americans, for women and for working people in the 1940s,” he said. “Friedan was deeply embedded in and engaged with issues raised on the left in the labor union movement.”

Friedan said women must enter the workforce on an equal footing with men, and then men would do housework and parenting on an equal footing in the home. Progress in the women’s movement has made some advances, but many working women continue to find the bulk of household chores, including child rearing, their sole responsibility.

The vision Friedan fought for and the gains she helped win are all under threat by a conservative Supreme Court, the Bush administration and the ultra-right. Young women continue to debate whether to take off work to raise children or to try to balance holding a job and parenting. Many agree that society as a whole needs to provide more support for women to fulfill their aspirations.

“Girls can be anything,” Friedan once said. “They can take risks. They should be able to make mistakes in ways we couldn’t. And I hope they will have families. Families are a great thing.”

Katrina lays bare issues of race and class

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 09:56:00 +0000

NEW OREANS — Recently released documents show the federal government knew as early as July 2004 that if a Category 3 hurricane were to hit this region, widespread devastation would ensue. Yet when Hurricane Katrina, a Category 4 storm, made landfall on Aug. 29, the government’s response was flatfooted and negligent.

A catastrophe simulation exercise called “Hurricane Pam,” conducted by the Department of Homeland Security last summer, predicted a Category 3 storm would create floodwaters that would surge over levees, creating “a catastrophic mass casualty/mass evacuation.” A Category 4 storm would likely “leave the New Orleans metro area submerged for weeks or months.”

But these and similar warnings, some going back years, went unheeded. No effective emergency plans had been put in place. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), despite President Bush’s praise for then-director Michael D. Brown, failed miserably. The results are well known.

Besides exposing government negligence and bungling, Hurricane Katrina awakened the nation and the world to the centuries of endemic racism and callous treatment of the poor and dispossessed in the United States. Storm victims were stranded for days on end. Many were treated like criminals.

The myth that the U.S. is a country where milk and honey flows in the streets, where everyone has an opportunity to lead a prosperous life, was starkly exposed as the world saw thousands of desperate, mainly Black and poor, residents of New Orleans scrambling to survive in the wake of the storm.

Scene of devastation

Today, six months after the disaster, 2 million people are still displaced. Over 3,200 are still missing.

During my December visit, conditions in New Orleans were disheartening to see. Mile after mile of curbsides were strewn with refrigerators, television sets, water heaters and debris piled several feet high. Thousands of waterlogged cars still sat in the driveways of homes.

Whole neighborhoods were (and still are) without electricity. Houses, apartment buildings and businesses were mold-infested. There were no supermarkets or gas stations open. A few mom and pop stores with inflated prices served the small population that remained. Price gouging was (and still is) rampant in rental properties.

Rip-offs and degradation

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has beseeched residents to return to the city, despite the fact there are no places to live and no services.

Thousands of trailers that were purchased for temporary housing are sitting in storage in Tennessee, undistributed because the local politicians and special interests groups are refusing permits for their placement in and around the city. This housing would enable some of the displaced to return to oversee the cleanup of their property and begin to resettle their lives.

Opportunistic cleanup, construction and mold-removal companies have peppered most of the open spaces with advertising signs, hoping to take advantage of beleaguered homeowners. Some of these contractors, most of whom are based outside the city, have looted personal belongings and stolen precious glass and woodwork from the properties they are working on.

The environment has been severely compromised. Arsenic, diesel fuel, pesticides, lead and other contaminants pollute the soil in many of the city’s wards. The health and safety of the returning residents has been a little-discussed question.

Nagin’s administration laid off all of the public school system’s employees and declared that the only future schools in New Orleans would be charter or private schools. Only one charter school is open, six months after the flood.

Skewed priorities

George W. Bush continues to spend billions on the imperialist occupation of Iraq, yet he won’t support legislation that would bring desperately needed relief to the Gulf Coast. One such bill is the Congressional Black Caucus’ HR 4197, which would fully restore the Gulf Coast region through employment, education and housing programs, and reunite the dislocated families.

Another is a bill introduced by Rep. Richard H. Baker (R-La.) to create a “federally financed reconstruction program … that will bail out home owners and mortgage owners in New Orleans.” At the White House, such proposals fall on deaf ears.

Anger at FEMA

The survivors feel neglected and besieged by incompetent and callous policies that have been initiated at all levels of government as well as by many of the organizations that are purporting to assist the displaced. They are particularly furious with the incompetent, insensitive and unprofessional treatment they received from FEMA.

The agency has declared that Feb. 28 will be the last day it will fund any hotel rooms for those still displaced, regardless of whether they have a place to move to.

Jumping ahead of this deadline, some hotels in New Orleans have begun evicting residents to prepare for Mardi Gras season.

FEMA mismanaged the distribution of funds, food and materials. Those survivors who were the neediest were underserved or never served. FEMA has issued a string of inconsistent directives and policies that become impossible to follow and tend to destabilize the survivors by keeping them on an emotional roller coaster.

And it’s not only FEMA. The American Red Cross has also fallen short, survivors say. Its approach has been all too similar to FEMA’s: providing aid to areas that were not so hard-hit, while ignoring or under serving those most in need.

A gentrified New Orleans?

For decades, various politicians and big land developers have had a vision to gentrify New Orleans by expanding the French Quarter, developing a corridor for the wealthy and introducing gambling casinos. In this predominantly African American city, such a plan would mean displacing tens of thousands of Black households.

The Katrina catastrophe provided convenient circumstances for this plan to be implemented. To further this scheme, communities that had minimum water damage were declared uninhabitable. Whole neighborhoods were designated for demolition, with or without the owner being notified. Insurance companies have refused to honor some homeowner and flood insurance policies. Mortgage companies insisted on payments for homes that were totally ravaged.

There has been a concerted effort on the part of land developers and investors to pressure the residents to sell cheaply so they can gobble up massive amounts of land and property. As a consequence, professor John R. Logan of Brown University estimates that 80 percent of the African American population of New Orleans may never return. This would dramatically change the racial and class character of the city from Black and working-class to white and well-to-do. It would also likely change its political character from predominantly Democratic to Republican.

Organizing for justice

The displaced community has had some limited successes in fighting for their rights. They won the right to be notified, with the right to appeal, before their home is demolished. They were able to get a brief extension, from December to February, on their FEMA-paid housing.

The People’s Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition (PHRF) convened a conference of survivors and their supporters Dec. 8-10 to discuss the racist approach the government and its agencies took toward survivors, and how the lackadaisical response led to days of misery, starvation and death.

Approximately 500 people attended the gathering. About one-third were evacuees who were returning to New Orleans for the first time since the hurricane. Some were victims of the devastation in Mississippi.

The PHRF adopted the following program:

• Provide funds for all displaced families to be united.

• Allocate the $50 billion for reconstruction to the victims of the hurricane in the form of a Victims Compensation Fund.

• Accept representation of survivors on all boards that are making decisions on spending public dollars for relief and reconstruction.

• Place displaced workers and residents in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in public works jobs, offering union wages.

• Publicly account for and show the entire reconstruction progress.

In addition to backing the PHRF proposals, supporters should write and lobby their congresspersons to extend the FEMA housing allotment, to support the Congressional Black Caucus’ proposals, and above all to support the right of residents to return. Letters to the editor will help keep this issue of survival before the whole country.

Debbie A. Bell is chair of the Communist Party USA’s African American Equality Commission. Bill Davis and Sheltreese McCoy contributed to this story.

Band-Aids not enough: Health care system needs a profit-ectomy

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 09:12:00 +0000

Recently a young family celebrated the birth of their child but soon received the sad news that the baby needed heart surgery. Their concern escalated when their health insurance company refused to pay for the surgery. Why? Because the heart problem was a “pre-existing condition.” Read on.

“Tracy Pierce, 37, lived a full life. He grew up with family and faith. He went to a Catholic school, got married, had a son, and he even had the car of his dreams. It was the perfect life,” reported the Frankfort Indiana Times. But then Pierce was diagnosed with kidney cancer. For 15 months he suffered, while every treatment his doctors sought for him was denied by his insurance provider. First-Health Coventry deemed the treatments were either “not a medical necessity” or experimental. Even at the last stages of his life, he went without oral morphine for more than a week, because his insurance would not cover it.

Today the insured of America are joining the one in six Americans who are uninsured in suffering — and even dying — from substandard care. Perhaps this fact explains why the longstanding demands of health care and union activists for universal health care and a single-payer system have achieved a new level of acceptance.

A national single-payer movement is gaining momentum, fueled by the persistence of Physicians for a National Health Program. PNHP hammers away at the need for a national solution where “everyone is in and no one is out.” PNHP worked with Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) to craft HR 676, the National Health Insurance Act, a single-payer plan.

Single-payer defined

Single-payer describes a type of financing system for health care. One entity, a government body, would act as administrator or “payer.” This government body would collect all health care fees and pay out all health care costs. Private insurance plans would be forbidden. Premiums, co-pays and deductibles would be eliminated. Under HR 676, employers would pay a 3.3 percent payroll tax, employees less.

Healthcare-NOW! (HCN), co-chaired by leaders of the Steelworkers Union, United Methodist Church and PNHP, formed in 2003 to spearhead initiatives to build an effective national movement to support single-payer. HCN launched an Internet campaign to hold Citizen-Congressional hearings. A campaign was initiated to win resolutions of support from unions.

Ninety communities signed up to hold local hearings highlighting the problem and the solution. Sixty-five co-sponsors signed on in the House of Representatives.

Fueling this movement is the fact that a substantial majority of American people want “a government guarantee of health insurance for all Americans.” A May 2005 study by the Pew Research Center found 70 percent favored such a plan.

Rx – Take the profit out

“The last two decades have seen a corporate takeover of our health care system,” Healthcare – Now! coordinator Marilyn Clement said in a phone interview.

Our nation’s hospitals, clinics and HMOs have been turned into investor-owned companies, driven by the concerns of the market. Healing the sick is giving way to cutting jobs and reducing costs. Revenue down? Cut back on supplies and personnel. Heart surgeries proving to be lucrative? Perform more operations, whether people need them or not. These incidents are documented in countless books, articles, studies and reports.

The plight of the more than 45 million uninsured Americans is tragic. About 18,000 people die each year due to lack of insurance, but, Clement, noted the movement for single-payer also addresses the crisis of the insured as well as the uninsured. The profit system is the basis of the problem. Until profit is taken out of the system, costs will continue to skyrocket and more people will find themselves sick and broke.

Employers that up to now have provided affordable health care are forcing costs onto their employees. And even those who still have good, affordable insurance are caught up in the craziness of a system driven by market forces and privatization that shortchanges care, drives good medical personnel out and makes more and more mistakes.

Impact on unions

Contract negotiations confront the 800-pound gorilla of health care at every bargaining table. Wage increases are given up in favor of maintaining health benefits. Upwards of 70 separate union bodies, ranging from small and large locals to county labor councils and state federations, have passed resolutions in support of HR 676.

Kay Tillow, of the Nurses Professional Organization, based in Kentucky, heads this effort. She explains the avalanche of support: “People just found out how easy it was to get these passed.”

Addressing racial disparities

While this crisis affects all Americans, the sharpest edge lies in enormous disparities by race and ethnicity in access to medical care. Figures from the 1995-2004 Public Health Report in King County, Wash., for example, show that Latinos suffer the greatest rate of non-coverage at 36 percent; while a massive 22 percent of African Americans lack coverage; and 13 percent of Asian Pacific Islanders are without.

“It is the intent of this Act,” the legislation states, “to reduce disparities by race, ethnicity, income and geographic region and to provide high quality, cost-effective, culturally appropriate care to all individuals regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or language.”

Can we afford it?

There are billions and billions of dollars in the system. Much of this is spent on administrative costs, which are estimated to take up a full third of our health care dollar. Even more is wasted on excessive corporate salaries and perks. Profits from the sales and re-sales of hospitals and clinics line the pockets of investors. For a sustainable solution to this crisis, profit must be taken out of the health care system, say health care activists.

HCN is helping to show how a single-payer program will work. Armed with the facts, advocates are rallying behind what New York Times columnist Paul Krugman argues for: “A straightforward single-payer plan” with maximum overall savings “that is easily explained.”

Proponents of HR 676 believe that the simplicity of the bill, including the straightforward approach of enacting it into law by using Medicare as the foundation, makes it an ideal tool to help people understand single-payer.

Will lesser solutions work?

Many proponents of less comprehensive solutions also support single-payer. And as they mobilize to shore up this or that government program or employer-based plan, the debate intensifies. Clement referred to the “Fair Share” campaigns which fight for state legislation to require corporations to provide health care or to pay into a state fund. Perhaps, she noted, these campaigns might drive employers to embrace single-payer. By eliminating the profit and wasteful administrative costs, these businesses would pay less for employees’ health care under single-payer.

While these activists bring more forces into the struggle and build momentum for solutions, perhaps they will consolidate their forces with single-payer activities in the near future. If in fact they do, we just may have the strength we need to finally win quality health care for every American.

Today the parents of the baby with the heart condition are scrambling to find a way to pay for the surgery. But there’s a new wind blowing and maybe soon the only pre-existing condition a newborn in America will have will be access to the best medical care our country has to offer.

Chris Lindberg (clindberg360@msn.com) is coordinator of United for National Health Care in Bellingham, Wash. She pays her own health care premium, has too many medical bills, no savings, a toothache and no dental plan.

Elements of Single-Payer as embodied in HR 676:

• Universal – All individuals residing in the U.S. would be covered. • Comprehensive – All medically necessary services are covered, including primary care, dental, vision care, mental health, prescription drugs, rehab, including substance abuse, and long-term care. • Portable – If you leave a job, end a marriage, or move, you’re still covered. • Affordable – Administration costs would be slashed under this government program. Most activists agree that a system could be implemented without spending any more money than we do now. • Publicly financed, privately delivered.

TAKEACTION

Go to www.healthcare-now.org, sign the petition, find out if a Citizen-Congressional hearing is happening near you! To read HR 676 and the official summary: http://thomas.loc.gov/ Healthcare-NOW!: www.healthcare-now.org Physicians for a National Health Program: www.pnhp.org Sample resolution or list of endorsers: contact nurseNPO@aol.com.

Grannies rage against recruitment

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 07:26:00 +0000

Hundreds of grandmothers and their supporters gathered at noon Feb. 14 for a Valentine’s Day demonstration in front of Oakland’s U.S. Army Recruiting Station, blocking the sidewalk and spilling out into the street. They planned to offer themselves for induction, to replace soldiers now serving in Iraq. Though their intentions were foiled when the recruiters failed to appear, the group marked the occasion with songs, choral readings, chants and a spirited picketline. Organizers said similar demonstrations took place at 13 other locations around the country.

Thousands march for immigrant rights

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 07:22:00 +0000

MINNEAPOLIS — Thousands of people marched through south Minneapolis Feb. 12 in support of immigrants and immigrant rights.

Organizers — including faith communities, labor unions, student organizations, civil rights groups and others — called for overhauling immigration laws in a way that treats immigrant workers and their families humanely, not as outcasts.

Homemade signs called for civil rights, workers’ rights, access to education and the reunification of families. Others declared, “Immigrant rights are human rights,” “No human being is illegal,” “Immigration is the American way” and “We are workers, not criminals.” A giant banner with the image of Martin Luther King Jr. asked, “Whatever happened to the American dream?” One sign, with an American Indian motif, brought smiles with the question, “Who’s the illegal alien, Pilgrim?”

The noisy, colorful, upbeat march lasted for more than an hour as it wound its way through the city before ending with a boisterous gathering at Holy Rosary Catholic Church. Marchers stretched almost curb-to-curb for two long city blocks — banging makeshift drums, watching an Aztec dance group, waving flags, chanting and soaking in the sunny day, despite temperatures in the teens.

A backlash to attacks

The march was the most visible response yet to recent attacks by Gov. Tim Pawlenty and others that denigrated the contributions immigrant workers make to their communities. Several signs criticized Pawlenty’s appeal to fear. One said simply, “We pay taxes, too.”

In Washington, President George W. Bush has proposed a guest-worker program that labor unions criticize as being a form of legalized slavery because it leaves immigrant workers at the mercy of employers, with no chance to gain citizenship. Bush’s approach, says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, sends the message to immigrant workers that although “their hard work is essential to the prosperity of our nation, they deserve no better than a perennial second-class status.”

That message is reinforced by legislation from the likes of Colorado Congressman Thomas Tancredo, who wants to deny citizenship to children born in the United States if their parents lack proper documentation.

Fighting the shadow economy

Labor unions generally agree that current immigration policy is broken, but place blame on its failure to allow the vast majority of immigrants to work legally. Companies hire immigrants anyway, they say — creating a shadow economy that leaves companies free to deny workers their rights, to deny them the pay and benefits they’re entitled to, and to create abusive working conditions. That shadow economy drives down wages for all workers, unions say, and promotes the use of false identification, which threatens the nation’s security.

Unions instead prefer legislation similar to proposals by Sens. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Charles Hagel (R-Neb.). Those bills, while tightening border security, expand work permits in a way that guarantees workers their rights on the job and allows them, over time, to gain citizenship — not get shipped back after three years, as Bush has proposed.

Unions also are in line with the other reforms highlighted in the Feb. 12 march — a path to legalization for workers currently in the country, equal educational access for children of immigrants, and clearing the bureaucratic logjams that prevent reunification of families.

Michael Kuchta edits the Union Advocate, the official publication of the St. Paul Trades & Labor Assembly. Reprinted with permission from Workday Minnesota

Inhuman immigrant treatment protested

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 07:18:00 +0000

NEW YORK — Federal anti-immigrant policies have left a Chinese woman, Jiang Zhenxing, recovering from a miscarriage after being denied medical treatment while she was awaiting deportation.

Jiang came to the U.S. nearly 10 years ago, marrying Tien Xiaozhang two years later. The two opened a Chinese restaurant in Philadelphia.

Jiang had been regularly reporting to the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement office in Philadelphia until Feb. 7, when ICE officials discovered she was three months pregnant. She was then separated from her husband, placed into a car and taken to New York’s JFK airport for immediate deportation.

Jiang was reportedly pushed and hit in the stomach twice by ICE officials, and began to experience severe stomach pain at the airport. The officials refused to allow medical treatment, telling her she would have to go back to China to deliver the twins she was expecting.

Eventually an ambulance did arrive, but too late: she had miscarried. It was only at that point that immigration officials contacted Jiang’s husband, who had no idea of his wife’s whereabouts.

New York City Councilmember John Liu (D-Queens) called the ICE actions “cruel and atrocious,” saying, “This is a horrific example of a system that castigates and dehumanizes human beings.”

In its official response to complaints, the ICE said Jiang’s “arranged departure to China” was “delayed for medical reasons” that were “immediately addressed.” The department said, “Once she is cleared medically, efforts to effectuate her repatriation will resume.”

The statement “pours salt on the wounds,” Liu said. “This inhuman and callous bureaucratic response is almost as bad as the initial treatment inflicted on Ms. Jiang by the ICE officers who detained her.”

Community fights to save schools

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 07:10:00 +0000

CHICAGO — “Save our schools,” someone shouted from the crowd of more than 100 legislators, teachers, students, parents, and religious and community activists during a public hearing Feb. 9 at the Chicago Public Schools administration building.

The nation’s third-largest school district announced late last month that it plans to close four schools that fall short of federal standards because of “academic deficiency” under the No Child Left Behind Act. Three “low performing” elementary schools are to close at the end of the school year and one high school will be phased out, school officials said.

The proposed closures, supported by Mayor Richard Daley, would affect 1,065 of the district’s 426,000 students and displace 270 employees. The four schools are among 185 Chicago public schools classified as “in need of restructuring,” with the district threatening to fire teachers and slash programs to balance the budget.

Chicago Teachers Union President Marilyn Stewart criticized the district’s decision, saying the union was not consulted about the closings until the last minute. “Our children are more than a number,” she said at the hearing.

Referring to the proposed mass privatization of public schools under Daley’s Renaissance 2010 school reform plan, and the district’s promotion of military academies, Stewart said, “Public schools should remain public. We don’t need military academies, we need vocational schools.”

Under Renaissance 2010 the lowest-performing schools are to be closed and replaced with smaller schools free from many district controls. Three or four schools are expected to close every year. The district has been closing schools for the last three years, but it has slowed the pace since 2004 when the closing of 12 schools created massive community upheaval.

State Sen. Ricky Hendon made his opposition to the school closings clear during the hearing. “I know these students can learn,” he said. “There’s no such thing as a dumb child. It’s just dumb administrators that don’t want to educate these children for a variety of reasons, and to blame it on the children is ridiculous.” Hendon says he hasn’t seen evidence of necessary additional resources being provided to the schools and their communities. He promised to fight the closings.

The schools slated for closure are concentrated in predominantly African American communities that lack adequate affordable housing, recreational and alternative arts programs for youth, community centers and jobs.

Chicago remains one of the nation’s most segregated cities, which is in turn reflected in the population of its public schools. Poor African American and Latino neighborhoods face problems of gangs, drugs, racism and police brutality that spill over into school problems that under-funded, under-staffed schools are ill equipped to handle.

Many community activists and legislators believe these schools are being targeted for other reasons.

“Many of my constituents believe that this is about gentrification, and I feel like they’re right this time,” 24th Ward Alderman Michael Chandler said at the hearing.

Tatiana Coleman, a freshman at Collins High School, one of the schools slated for closing, told the school officials, “You don’t tear down a school to put up a new one. You make it better.”

Near the end of the hearing, the mostly African American crowd that packed the room sang softly, “We shall overcome, some day.”

Young Communists map fight-back

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 07:01:00 +0000

With the slogan, “Our Future, Our Fight: Youth Beat Back the Ultra-Right,” the Young Communist League USA has issued a ringing call for its 8th National Convention, May 27-29, in New York City.

“Our generation is at a crossroads,” the YCL says, challenging young people not to “sit back and allow the ultra-right to destroy our future.”

The convention is expected to bring hundreds of young activists together to share strategies and tactics, set direction for the next period, elect leadership, and enjoy social and cultural activities that reflect the fighting spirit and joy of today’s youth movement.

The Bush administration continues to wreak havoc on everything people have fought and died for in the cause of peace, justice and equality, says the YCL. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the human disaster of Hurricane Katrina, racism, police brutality, criminalization and unemployment are just some of the issues that especially affect young people today.

With the 2006 elections around the corner, “this is the struggle of our lifetime, and we must demand a future,” declares the YCL convention call. “We must unite with the larger people’s movement to defeat the ultra-right and win a world of equality and peace, a socialist future.”

The YCL convention is open to all members, friends and allies. More information is available by phone or e-mail — (646) 437-5349,— or at www.yclusa.org/convention.

Corruption poster boy DeLay faces challenger

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 06:58:00 +0000

HOUSTON - Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) may be in trouble in his re-election bid this fall. If he loses, it could help end GOP control of the House.

The former House Majority Leader has been dubbed the “poster boy for corruption in Washington” by his Democratic challenger, Nick Lampson. Lampson is one of several Texas congressional Democrats who were pushed out two years ago as a result of DeLay’s notorious redistricting plan.

DeLay faces several Republican challengers in the March 7 primaries, whereas Lampson, who has labor firmly behind him, is running unopposed.

This is but the tip of the iceberg of DeLay’s troubles. He is fighting an indictment on charges of illegal fundraising in Texas. He is also under scrutiny by federal prosecutors for his dealings with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The Houston Chronicle reports DeLay’s defense fund is now in the red. He raised $590,520 in 2005, but his legal expenses were more than $1 million.

DeLay’s contributors are a who’s who of the wealthy elite in Texas. They include Robert McNair, an oil and gas billionaire who owns the Houston Texans; Robert J. Allison Jr., chairman emeritus of Anadarko Petroleum Co.; Nina Hendee, co-owner of the Taste of Texas restaurants, and her husband Edd Hendee, a conservative Houston radio talk show host; and Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., a chicken processor.

Public Citizen, which monitors money in politics, notes that DeLay’s support is falling. Less than 15 percent of Republicans in the House have contributed to his defense fund, signaling that many of his own party members “want a break with the ethically challenged leadership of the party,” a researcher for the group said.

DeLay has been claiming that he was in no way close to Abramoff. But local newspapers have run earlier DeLay quotes calling Abramoff a “close and dear friend.”

On Feb. 8, Republican House leaders rewarded DeLay with a seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee. He will also be on the subcommittee overseeing the Justice Department, which is investigating Abramoff and his role in an influence-peddling scandal involving members of Congress. Many see DeLay as the fox guarding the henhouse on this committee.

Lampson’s web site makes the point that DeLay continues to embarrass Texas with his shenanigans. He notes that DeLay voted against a Republican-sponsored lobbying reform bill. The measure passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.

DeLay told Chamber of Commerce members the ethics reform effort is “driven by the left-wing groups like Common Cause, Democracy 21, ACLU and others.”

Gerry Birnberg, Harris County Democratic Party chairman, speaking on Texas Southern University radio station KTSU, pointed out that the large number of people from New Orleans who resettled in DeLay’s district following Hurricane Katrina could determine the election’s outcome. They are not likely to vote for “the poster boy of corruption in Washington.”