People Before Profit blog

The Academy Awards: A new generation comes into its own

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 11:47:00 +0000

After a 14-week strike, members of the Writers Guild of America won a significant victory in a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the 80th annual Academy Awards show went on as scheduled Feb. 24.

“The fight is over,” said comedian Jon Stewart, who hosted the show, referring to the writers’ strike. “So tonight, welcome to the makeup sex.”

Living up to expectations, Joel and Ethan Cohen’s “No Country For Old Men” won four Oscars in Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (for Javier Bardem). Many awards were given to first-time winners, indicating a new generation of film makers, writers and actors is coming into its own. The Cohen brothers are known for their quirky films that play at art houses, with “Fargo” being the most recognized by the academy.

Bardem thanked the Cohen brothers for giving him “one of the most horrible hair cuts in history” as he portrayed a psychopathic killer in the film. In his acceptance speech Bardem — the first Spanish actor to win an Oscar — dedicated his award to Spain and his mother.

“Mama, this is for you,” he said in Spanish. “This is for your grandparents and your parents. This is for the comedians of Spain who like you have brought dignity and pride to our profession.”

Perhaps reflecting an increasingly globalized Hollywood economy, all four major acting awards went to European artists. Besides Bardem, France’s Marion Cotillard won Best Actress for “La Vie en Rose,” Britain’s Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor for “There Will Be Blood” and compatriot Tilda Swinton took home Best Supporting Actress for “Michael

Clayton.”

First time screenwriter Diablo Cody won for Best Original Screenplay in the film “Juno.”

“This is for the writers,” said Cody as she hoisted the Oscar statuette on stage.

Writer-director Alex Gibney won for Best Documentary in “Taxi to the Dark Side.” The film is about a young taxi driver arrested by the American military in Afghanistan in 2002 while carrying passengers in a deserted area there. The driver, Dilawar, was taken to the Bagram Air Base. Five days later he was dead. He was savagely beaten and his injuries were compared to the damage that would have been inflicted had a truck run over him. Dilawar was never charged with any crime and was never shown to have any connection with Al Qaeda or the Taliban.

In the film Gibney, a journalist turned filmmaker, examines the torture practices of U.S. forces and the U.S. government in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay under the Bush administration.

Gibney said, “This is dedicated to two people who are no longer with us, Dilawar, the young Afghan taxi driver, and my father, a navy interrogator who urged me to make this film because of his fury about what was being done to the rule of law.”

“Let’s hope we can turn this country around, move away from the dark side and back to the light,” he said.

plozano@pww.org

Women voters, womens demands

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 11:38:00 +0000

The media has talked a lot about women voters during the course of the Democratic primaries, noting their historic chance to vote for a female nominee, and speculating on their choices.

However, even when female voters have been put in the spotlight as the determining factor in this state or that, little has been said by the media or the candidates on what issues women have at stake in the upcoming general election, or even in their choice between the Democratic candidates.

Democratic candidates are the clear choice for women over the anti-women agenda of the right wing, whose endless attacks on education, health care, reproductive health and community services have disproportionately hurt women at the most basic level. But the media and campaigns have focused almost solely on identity politics. And in a supposedly landmark election in the fight for women’s equality, little has been said to address the demands of women voters in any aspect of campaigning — debates, campaign literature or speeches (unless specifically addressing a women’s organization).

After the New Hampshire primaries, Donna Brazile, a member of the Democratic National Committe, said that Black women would be the determining factor in the upcoming South Carolina vote, questioning whether they would choose a woman or an African American candidate. Like much of the discussion around this election, the votes of African Americans and women, and in this case African American women, were reduced to a question of identity politics, while the concrete demands of that community were not addressed. Their decisions and intentions were labeled for them so broadly that their voices could not be heard.

Hillary Clinton’s fifth largest campaign donor was Emily’s List and female voters represented her margin of victory in New Hampshire and other states. Clinton has addressed women’s issues during her political career. She pushed for availability of emergency contraceptives and advocated for children, recognizing the challenges for women when enough institutional support is not available for children.

Yet she has made few promises to female voters on the issues that affect us most, like poverty wages, the defunding of social institutions, reproductive choices and health, and the high cost of child care.

John Edwards ran an anti-poverty campaign that was successful in bringing attention to the issues of poverty and the importance of unionization, but often in the debates and most publicized speeches he ignored the special demands of both women and racially and nationally oppressed peoples. Women disproportionately experience poverty in this country, with 13 percent of all women, and nearly 25 percent of African American women, living in poverty. Women also hold the majority of low-wage jobs at 59 percent.

Edwards made a strong push for women in his official platform. Yet no one knew about it because he did not address it in his most publicly viewed forums.

Edwards could easily have added a special dimension by addressing the needs of poor women, and all candidates could have fought harder for female voters by addressing women’s needs concretely — rather than leaving our stake in the primary election to symbolism (which the Clinton campaign did offer).

However, while Democratic candidates did not take these issues publicly enough to reach a broad range of female voters, they did address women’s issues when speaking to women’s organizations, showing a certain level of concern and savvy.

For example, in a speech at the National Women’s Law Center, Barack Obama hit the nail on the head, stating, “Women still earn 76 percent of what men do. They receive less in health benefits, less in pensions, less in Social Security. They receive little help for the rising cost of child care. When women go on maternity leave, America is the only country in the industrialized world to let them go unpaid. Many mothers are forced to choose between caring for their child and keeping their job.”

This needed to be brought more publicly to women voters, along with policy proposals that addressed these issues.

Candidates need to proclaim a concrete plan to address the issues of women, like equal pay for equal work, affordable child care, and increasing funding for programs like Head Start.

These issues could have been brought out in the debates.

Instead women casting their votes were reduced in the media to pondering whether or not Hilary cried, or if women could relate to her on a personal level, while no concrete policy changes for women were discussed.

This same mistake cannot be made when it comes to the general election, where women have much more at stake. Instead of counting our vote, but ignoring our demands as voters, the general election must rightfully claim women’s stake in defeating the ultra-right, no matter who the Democratic nominee turns out to be, by forcefully putting forward the needs and demands of women voters.

Docia Buffington (docia@yclusa) is membership coordinator of the Young Communist League.

Is food from cloned animals safe?

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 11:35:00 +0000

The Food and Drug Administration announced in January that meat and milk from cloned animals was as safe to eat as that from traditional animals. However, the Agriculture Department asked the cloning industry to prolong the ban on marketing such foods during an expected “transition” period of several months. Steven Sundlof of the FDA said it might be several years before widespread commercialization, since cloned animals need to mature and provide sufficient offspring.

This raises the same concerns voiced during the past two decades against genetically modified (GM) food crops. In both cases, for-profit industries are creating new life forms with unpredictable consequences. As opposed to the industry claims, it is not the same as the centuries-old methods of cross-breeding within the same species to select offspring with superior qualities, e.g., sweeter corn.

The more recent cloning uses somatic cell nuclear transfer — for example, the nucleus from a skin cell of a prize cow is introduced into a cow egg from which the original nucleus has been removed, and this egg is then implanted in the uterus of a “surrogate” mother cow to bring the embryo to term. This “reproductive” cloning (first used to produce Dolly the sheep) is very inefficient and expensive. More than 90 percent of cloning attempts fail, with over 40 percent of “successful” clones suffering from obvious debilitating health problems leading to premature death. The National Academy of Sciences concluded that hidden defects in cloned animals could pose food safety risks.

Why would cloned animals have imperfections? The specific reasons are not known, but using the genome from a differentiated cell, such as a skin cell, of a mature animal to create a new embryo is using an “aged” genome that has been programmed for very specific functions. The specific genes for that program must be silenced and genes necessary for the development of a new complete individual must be turned on. This reprogramming is suspected to account for observed deformities in cloned animals, such as enlarged tongues, squashed faces, intestinal blockages, immune deficiencies, tumors and diabetes. In addition, cloned animals are given large doses of antibiotics to ward off higher rates of infections.

The surrogate mothers suffer from many pregnancy complications, for example, bearing grossly oversized offspring, and are often given massive doses of hormones which are added, along with antibiotics to the clones, into the food supply.

Michael Appleby of the London-based World Society for the Protection of Animals said: “These are animals. They’re not just economic units … They’re not just machines.” Cloned animals will add another practice to the inhumane and cruel treatment of “factory-farmed” animals.

Life has evolved during billions of years. There is a sensitive balance between species and their variants, from the bacteria that inhabit our intestines to higher primates. Rapid introduction of new manmade kinds of life will very likely have a negative impact on this long-term selection. Imagine throwing a rock into an engine: there is a very small but finite possibility that it will improve engine performance, but smart money will bet performance will be decreased by interfering with the balance of all the parts selected after years of research.

This scientific perspective has an analogous counterpart in the religious objections that regard introduction of new life forms by people to be usurping the province of God.

As with GM crops, the justification for cloned animals is to produce food products that are better for human consumption and to help feed the world’s population. However, as reported by a United Nations commission, the main problem of hunger and famine in the world has not been a result of food shortages, but rather of food distribution.

Furthermore, the real goal of factory farming of crops and animals is to lower costs and flood the markets with low-priced foods. This drives native farmers out of business. It has happened to corn farmers in Mexico and farmers in other Latin American countries, and accounts in large part for the massive influx of unemployed Latinos into the U.S. As long as the primary goal of food production is to generate profits, feeding people will remain a distant secondary, or nonexistent, goal.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) have introduced legislation to require labeling products from cloned animals and their offspring. At least, consumers would have a choice, but this would be best served if products from cloned animals were banned completely from the food supply.

David Kennell (kennell@borcim.wustl.edu) is professor emeritus of molecular microbiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Letters - March 1, 2008

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 11:12:00 +0000

Great victory in Cyprus

On Feb. 24, Dimitris Christofias, leader of the Progressive Party of the Working People of Cyprus (AKEL — Cyprus’ Communist Party) won the presidential election with 53 percent of the vote. It was a runoff election between AKEL and the candidate of the rightwing DISY party, Ioannis Kassoulides.

Christofias and AKEL pledged to work for a peaceful resolution of the “Cyprus problem” — the illegal occupation of the northern third of the country by Turkey. Christofias immediately talked by telephone with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat to initiate a dialogue towards that end. Christofias and Talat are scheduled to meet face to face within days.

Following the announcement of the results Cypriots poured into the streets of the capital city of Nicosia waving flags, blowing horns and chanting “AKEL, AKEL, AKEL.” It’s a terrific victory for Cyprus and for peace.

Gary Bono

New York NY

Editor’s note: More on this exciting development will be published in an upcoming issue. You can read more on the Cyprus election by Gary Bono at www.pww.org.

World Puzzler

I enjoy listening to NPR’s “Car Talk” program in which they have a segment called “This Week’s Puzzler.” So here is a puzzle for PWW readers.

There is a country much in the news in which a new government attempted the following reforms: elimination of usury; drastic reduction of inequalities in land ownership; cancellation of mortgage debt among the poorer people; promotion of universal education (with a focus on women) including textbooks in all the county’s languages; teacher training; hundreds of new schools, new hospitals and nurseries for orphans.

Clue #1: This government came into power

in 1978.

Sure sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Banking, health, education, land use …

Clue #2: The new progressive government in this mystery country prompted the forces of reaction into the conflicts we are in today, sometimes compared to the “Great Game.”

OK. The answer is on page 6 in a book called “The War on Truth,” by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed.

Bob Baum

St Paul MN

Great stuff

Keep up the good work. You are the real America — of Thomas Paine, Eugene Debs, Paul Robeson and William Foster

George Anthony

Via e-mail

More on Washington

Pepe Lozano did a good job on “Harold Washington wore a union label” (PWW 2/23-29). That was a very good article. It would have been even better if the article included some of the people that were involved in the Chicago Teachers Union House of Delegates. Also, it might have been good to recognize the contributions of Luis Gutierrez and other Puerto Rican leaders that worked with Rudy Lozano to establish the Latino Coalition for Washington.

It also might have been good if you could have recognized the role that the progressives, left and Communists played in helping to build the coalition forces through our involvement with the labor coalition, all of which ultimately led to the action at the teachers union meeting, which led to an early endorsement of Washington.

Lance Cohen

Chicago IL

Satellite shootdown

The planned Pentagon shoot down of the wayward U.S. military satellite is nothing more than an opportunity to test new Star Wars anti-satellite weapons (ASAT) technology.

The Bush administration is magnifying the risk to justify the testing of new, dangerous and provocative offensive space warfare technologies. At the time when we need to be constraining space-debris-creating ASAT testing, this test will throw open the door to a new arms race in space.

The U.S. aerospace industry says that Star Wars will be the largest industrial project in the history of the planet Earth.

Three U.S. Navy Aegis destroyers, outfitted with missile interceptors, fired at the satellite from positions just off Hawaii. These same Aegis ships are now being home ported by the Navy throughout the Asian-Pacific region, giving the U.S. the ability to encircle China’s coast. These Aegis ships could give the U.S. the ability to intercept China’s 20 nuclear missiles that today are capable of reaching the west coast of the continental U.S. The Pentagon has been war-gaming a U.S. first-strike attack on China, set in 2016, for the past several years. In that attack the Aegis ships would negate China’s nuclear retaliatory force by intercepting their missiles in the boost phase.

Bruce Gagnon

Brunswick ME

Bruce Gagnon is coordinator of Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, www.space4peace.org

Musical diplomacy

What a great day when the New York Philharmonic performed in Pyongyang, North Korea. I was moved to tears reading about the Korean people being moved to tears listening to the orchestra play a beloved folk song. Engagement is much better for humanity than keeping a country isolated.

Angela Brooks

Omaha NE

Bread and roses in 2008

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:47:00 +0000

We salute the history, struggles and achievements of women worldwide that will be celebrated on March 8, International Women’s Day. It’s no surprise that this holiday began in the labor movement. In 1910, at an international conference of socialist women in Copenhagen, Denmark, German socialist and women’s equality champion Clara Zetkin proposed an international day to mark the march of 15,000 women garment workers in New York two years earlier, in which they demanded better working conditions and pay, shorter hours, an end to child labor, voting rights and a needle trades union. That struggle adopted the slogan “Bread and Roses,” which later inspired the song that became one of the anthems of the women’s movement, bread symbolizing economic security and roses meaning a better life.

Zetkin’s proposal was unanimously adopted. Today March 8 has become an international celebration of women’s struggles for equality, civil and labor rights, social justice and peace.

Despite many gains, women are still paid less than men for the same or comparable work, and continue to suffer discrimination in education, health and other social measures. According to the AFL-CIO women make up 39 percent of the world’s workforce, yet account for 70 percent of the world’s population in poverty. Women continue to be victimized by gender-based violence.

Working women face particular threats, the AFL-CIO notes. Most women throughout the world are relegated to low-skilled, low-wage jobs, where the work is often dangerous. They also face discrimination, sexual harassment and physical abuse from employers.

Karl Marx noted that social progress could be measured by the social position of the female worker. The fight for workers anywhere is the fight for women everywhere. That fight must begin with core rights such as the right to organize and bargain collectively and to work free from discrimination.

Women are more and more taking their future into their own hands, joining unions and women’s groups that advocate for their rights. The AFL-CIO reports that two of three new union members are women.

Let’s keep this going. While we celebrate women’s achievements, there’s more to be done. Let’s make sure that the future for every woman and girl is bright. And let’s make every day International Women’s Day.

Foreclosing on the American dream

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:30:00 +0000

A sticker attached to the Baltimore Sun last week announced, “Foreclosed home auction … March 8-11 … Over 500 homes must be sold!”

What a world of trouble in those words: 500 homes, once shelter to families who toiled to keep up with mortgages, utility bills, car payments, food and gasoline. Now they are losing everything. These folks are doubtless searching frantically for an affordable apartment or, worse, live in shelters or on the streets.

Once homeownership was seen as key to economic security. Equity and steady appreciation in the value of a home was collateral working people used to obtain loans for their children to go to college. It paid for home improvements, a new car, travel, health care. The only “nest egg” many seniors have to insure a comfortable old age is their home.

Now the bottom has dropped out of new and old house sales, and real estate values are plummeting. Banks are tightening credit, making it impossible for buyers to purchase a new home. The U.S. Conference of Mayors predicts that foreclosed homeowners will lose a combined $1.2 trillion in equity this year.

Real estate billionaire Donald Trump sees opportunity in this tragedy. He is running full-page newspaper ads under the headline, “The time is now to profit from foreclosure.” He offers “free” seminars on how you too can make a fortune on human misery.

We can do better.

During the Great Depression, farmers, often led by members of the Communist Party, organized “penny auctions” to save farmers facing foreclosure. Unemployed Councils, again led by the Communist Party, organized teams to carry furniture back into the homes of evicted tenants. Massive public housing construction projects created more than a million affordable rental units.

Today we have a crisis that also calls for far-reaching measures to protect people from economic ruin. Sen. Hillary Clinton has proposed a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures of subprime loans. Sen. Barack Obama has proposed a $10 billion emergency fund to provide financial assistance so homeowners keep their property. These and even more far-reaching measures will be needed to prevent another crisis that could be as deep and prolonged as the Great Depression.

Teamsters, Kucinich team up vs. union-busting

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:28:00 +0000

CLEVELAND — Congressman Dennis Kucinich has gotten behind embattled truck drivers and warehouse workers fighting to recover jobs from a union-busting beer distributor.

When Superior Beverage took over the delivery contracts in the Cleveland area for Coors, Great Lakes, Iron City, Molson, Fosters and some smaller brands on Jan. 7, it refused to hire all but six of the 42 workers, members of Teamsters Local 293, who had worked for the previous company, many for 30 years or more.

This marked the first time in 75 years that any nonunion beer has been distributed to bars, restaurants and stores in Cuyahoga County. The union called for a boycott of the brands handled by Superior and invited Kucinich to attend its Feb. 21 meeting.

Kucinich, whose father was a truck driver and member of a Teamsters local for 35 years told the workers that he had “Teamster blood flowing” in his heart and understood well from his own life experience the pride that drivers take in their work, the struggle they face and the need for unions to protect the well-being of workers and their families.

“I am proud to stand with you in this fight,” he said. “I have written to Superior about this situation and am ready to do whatever it takes to win back your jobs.”

Kucinich said that he is also the target of an anti-labor corporate campaign seeking to defeat him in the March 4 Democratic primary.

“The seat I hold in Congress is not my seat. I only hold it in trust. This seat belongs to you, to the Teamsters, to the labor movement, to the working men and women of the 10th Congressional District and the whole country.”

Kucinich appealed for the Teamsters’ help to stop the effort to silence his voice on behalf of labor in Congress and received a standing ovation. Afterwards Max Zemla, the local’s principal officer read from the list of corporations that have donated nearly $500,000 to Kucinich’s main opponent, Cleveland Councilman Joseph Cimperman.

In letters and meetings of area unions and the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor, Zemla has appealed for support for the boycott, especially of the notoriously anti-union Coors and Great Lakes, a popular local brewery.

The list of boycotted products is spreading throughout the county and already 250 bars and restaurants have removed tap handles of the targeted brands, Zemla said. When a beer is not on tap, sales decline sharply.

“These knowledgeable and experienced warehousemen, drivers and salespersons have lost their jobs and had their lives and their families’ lives disrupted, apparently solely because of their union membership,” Zemla stated in a letter to the Cleveland labor movement.

The danger of nonunion deliveries is serious, Zemla said, adding that Superior is searching for a location to build a “mega-warehouse” to provide beer to all of northern Ohio. It is expanding operations as far south as Columbus and has tried to break Teamster Local 377 representing its workers in Youngstown.

Zemla said Kucinich had always stood up for workers and needed to be re-elected to work for repeal of the striker-replacement law allowing companies to issue permanent lay-offs to workers forced on strike and to replace them with scabs. The Teamsters are asking unions to send letters to Joe McHenry, executive vice president of Superior, 425 Victoria Rd., Youngstown, OH 44515.

Black History celebration looks to future

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:22:00 +0000

OAKLAND. Calif. — Beneath a bright cluster of black, red, gold and green balloons, history was coming to life.

His mostly youthful audience sat spellbound as civil rights movement veteran and retired attorney Jim McWilliams told of his drive through the 1960s south with a young white fellow student, at a time when it could be deadly for Blacks and whites to travel together there.

McWilliams recalled their encounters with movement activists and leaders including the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, a top aide to Dr. Martin Luther King, and white activists Carl and Ann Braden. One of the most dangerous moments of the journey, McWilliams said, was the time the white student infiltrated a regional Ku Klux Klan meeting, bringing back valuable information about the violent segregationist organization’s plans.

“Dr. King and those early civil rights workers didn’t know what the outcome was going to be, but they were prepared to put their energies and their very lives on the line to make lives better,” McWilliams said.

This African American History Month program, with the theme, “African Americans: Champions of Democracy,” also looked to the future. Community activist Cassandra Lopez addressed the urgent need to solve current problems including the violence increasingly taking the lives of African American and other youth.

Ending the Iraq war and bringing the troops home is vital to restoring communities, Lopez said, adding that faced with “a violent nation and a violent government, people want to take things in a different direction,” joining together to solve problems such as housing, infrastructure, jobs with a future and environmental challenges.

Recalling his own experiences in the civil rights movement, Northern California Communist Party chair Juan Lopez called for “a broad united front of labor, people of color, women, youth and other democratic sectors of the people” to end the far right domination of the administration and further strengthen the composition of the Congress.

“More than any other group in our country, African Americans understand this challenge,” Juan Lopez said. “That is why they voted against Bush by over 90 percent in 2000, again in 2004, and in comparable numbers in the 2006 congressional elections.”

All three speakers emphasized the broad movement building around the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, and the importance of that movement continuing to guide the work of the new administration.

The celebration, sponsored by the Communist Party’s African-American Equality Commission, also featured cultural presentations and a delicious home-cooked soul food dinner.

mbechtel@pww.org

Health care union kicks off united bargaining

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:10:00 +0000

Goal: better care for patients, conditions for workers

OAKLAND, Calif. — Health care workers represented by United Healthcare Workers-West (UHW) kicked off their campaign to renegotiate nearly 200 hospital and nursing home contracts covering over 75,000 workers with a spirited march and rally Feb. 20 at the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center campus here.

It’s the first time so many contracts in the health care industry have expired in the same year, an achievement the union says stems from a decade of work to build bargaining power by lining up expiration dates. The contracts, about evenly divided between hospitals and nursing homes, cover facilities throughout California, with a few more in five other states.

UHW represents every health care occupation except that of physician, including nursing, and professional, technical and service classifications.

The union emphasizes that its demands are aimed at raising standards to deliver health care in hospitals and nursing homes as well as improving conditions for workers. Major goals include better staffing levels as well as equal pay for equal work, whether done in a hospital or a nursing home.

“Our goal is one standard of care for health care workers throughout the state, with expanded training opportunities, increased job security and significantly improved wages and benefits for workers across the industry,” UHW President Sal Rosselli said in a statement.

The kickoff brought together hundreds of workers from hospitals and nursing homes around California for a lively two-hour informational picket in front of the Summit complex’ main building, followed by a rally at a nearby skilled nursing facility.

As they picketed, workers shared their particular goals. “Our biggest concern is staffing levels,” said one certified nursing assistant at a nursing home. “At night we have only four nurses to care for 72 patients. I have to explain to patients why I can’t help them as soon as I’d like.”

Tami Luttrell, a dietary worker in Sacramento, said wages and working conditions had improved significantly since her workplace was unionized in 2002. “But,” she added, “our workload and schedules could definitely be better.”

Hospital environmental services worker Andrew Jaa, who participated in the kick-off with his wife, also a health care worker, topped his list with the need for management to respect workers and include them in decision-making. “I think we should have an equal role with management in making decisions about how we do our work,” he said.

Both Jaa and housekeeping worker Willie Bates also cited the need for better retiree benefits, with Bates pointing out that his contract lacks medical benefits for retirees.

A highlight of the rally was the appearance of former state Assembly member Wilma Chan, now a candidate for the state Senate, who together with other local elected officials pledged her full support to the bargaining campaign.

The first hospital bargaining sessions were slated for the end of February, with nursing home talks scheduled to start in March.

United Healthcare Workers-West, with some 150,000 members, is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union.

mbechtel@ pww.org

Warning: SAVE Act goes wrong way on immigration

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:56:00 +0000

WASHINGTON — The Secure America Through Verification and Enforcement Act (SAVE) is an enforcement only, anti-immigrant bill that will make life worse for immigrants and their families while doing nothing to solve our country’s undocumented immigration problem.

It was introduced in the House by North Carolina Democrat Heath Schuler and currently has 136 co-sponsors, 46 Democrats and 90 Republicans.

The SAVE Act would do as follows.

• Compel all employers to fire all workers for whom they receive a Social Security “No-Match” letter if the employee cannot clear up the problem within 10 days. “No Match” letters are sent to employers by the Social Security Administration when the information submitted on the W-2 form for an employee does not match the government’s records. The Social Security Administration’s data base is estimated to have as many as 17 million files with errors, so this would also lead to massive firings not only of undocumented immigrants, but of legal residents and citizens also.

• Compel all employers to use the Basic Pilot Verification System to check on their employees’ immigration status. This is a deeply flawed system and its obligatory use is likely to cost the jobs not only of undocumented immigrants, but also of legal residents and U.S. citizens for whom the government has erroneous information.

• Require all workers, immigrant or citizen, who are working at two or more jobs to provide documentation to the government that they have valid Social Security Numbers and are working at multiple jobs. This will put a huge burden on millions of workers and swamp the Social Security Administration with extra work.

• Provide all information on unresolved Social Security No-Match letters and cases of workers having one or more jobs to the Department of Homeland Security, swamping Homeland Security and threatening civil liberties.

• Greatly increase pressure on local police departments to undertake immigration enforcement work, thereby endangering civil liberties, increasing racial profiling and harming police-community relations.

• Crack down on religious workers who are helping immigrant communities, putting clergy and laity in danger of being prosecuted for “immigrant smuggling” while doing their pastoral duty.

• Vastly increase the cost to the taxpayers of border and internal immigration “enforcement” measures that will not solve the problem.

• Seriously damage the economy and the interests of US workers by its massively disruptive effects.

Bill sponsors are trying to get enough co-sponsors to force a vote directly on the House floor very soon, avoiding committees. Immigrant and labor rights activists urge quick action to defeat HR 4088. Please contact your congressperson and Senators right away to ask them to withdraw their names as co-sponsors of the bill, and to vote against it. The only solution to the current problem of undocumented immigration is a comprehensive immigration reform that:

• legalizes the 12 million undocumented immigrants and protects them from exploitation in the workplace and community;

• changes U.S. immigration policies so that people can come in legally with full rights on the job and in the community;

• changes U.S. trade policies so that people in poorer countries can advance economically and are not forced to uproot themselves to find work.

Castros retirement sparks worldwide reaction

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:52:00 +0000

Cuba has a new president. Voting on Feb. 24, Cuba’s National Assembly elected former First Vice President Raul Castro as President of the Council of State, the official whom Cuba’s constitution designates as President of the Republic.

While remaining president, Castro had relinquished duties of the office to Vice President Raul Castro on July 31, 2006 because of illness.

Prime Minister for 18 years, then president for 31 years, Fidel Castro had taken pains, he wrote, “to avoid raising expectations.” Writing for the Granma newspaper on Feb. 19, he announced, “I will neither aspire to nor accept the positions of President of the State Council and Commander in Chief.”

He had endeavored “to prepare our people both politically and psychologically for my absence after so many years of struggle.” Castro expressed appreciation on being elected to parliament. The news spread worldwide, creating quite a firestorm in the United States.

Analysts pointed out that change on Castro’s own terms represented a defeat for Washington. Former British Minister of Energy Brian Wilson wrote, for example, “By going quietly, Castro has again confounded the U.S. and its 50-year obsession.”

Ireland’s Communist Party joined other observers in noting Castro’s “central role” in the Cubans’ struggle to “secure national independence and begin the long journey of revolutionary transformation.”

The observation was commonplace that youthful and collective leadership was on the way. Julia Sweig of the Council on Foreign Relations emphasized Castro’s particular role in pushing younger leaders into positions of power.

Peter Kornbluh of the National Security Archives in Washington commended Castro for “creating the political space for an internal debate about how to preserve the legacy of the revolution, strengthen the legitimacy of the Communist Party, and address the bread and butter issues.”

Castro’s pre-eminent historical role was highlighted by many, also his personification of hard, unending work. For Brazilian President Lula da Silva, “Fidel Castro is one of the great legends in the history of humanity.” Havana history professor Natacha Santiago holds that the Cuban Revolution has become “the project of an entire nation and not just one man.”

But “people like Fidel never retire,” asserted Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

That’s because “a Communist has to dedicate one hundred percent of his or her energies, work and life,” declared a Granma writer.

Castro hopes to continue making a contribution to the revolution he helped spark almost 50 years ago. “My only wish,” wrote Castro, “is to fight as a soldier in the battle of ideas.” He will continue writing his “Reflections by Comrade Fidel,” – 87 of them since March 2007.

Buenos Aires Professor Néstor Kohan sees the battle of ideas as Castro’s signature historical contribution, pointing out that Castro sees Marxism as elevating ethics, values and culture over “the development of productive forces.”

Revolutionaries, attentive to “duty,” apply concrete notions of “justice, anti-capitalist rebellion…, patriotism, internationalism, anti-imperialism, and popular self-esteem” to struggles that in the words of martyred Cuban Communist leader Julio Antonio Mella, “haven’t even begun yet.”

The big news seemed to cause few ripples. Telephoning friends in Havana, Canadian author Arnold August learned that “basically everything is normal – a normal day.” Asked about changing U.S policies toward Cuba, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte in Washington couldn’t “imagine that happening anytime soon.”

According to the New York Times, reaction in Miami “ranged from scattered jubilation to widespread indifference.” In Cuban sections, reporters outnumbered people willing to talk about Fidel Castro.

Meanwhile, U.S. happenings caused Castro to abandon an earlier resolve to put off writing any “reflections” for ten days following his momentous announcement. Discovering that U.S. presidential aspirants were united in “exacting urgent demands from Cuba to avoid the risk of losing a single vote,” he wrote Feb. 21 that “we need to open ideological fire against them.”

He noted they all sought the release of alleged political prisoners in Cuba and were adamant on progress toward “democracy.” They back economic sanctions and the Bush administration’s stepped-up travel ban.

But Illinois Senator Barack Obama has called for easing restrictions on Cuban Americans seeking to support and visit relatives in Cuba. And alone among his rivals, Obama indicated that as president he would meet with Cuban counterpart Raul Castro “without preconditions.” He called upon Washington to “take steps to normalize relations” in response to favorable signs from Cuba.

Edwards joins new antiwar campaign

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:41:00 +0000

Former presidential candidate John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth joined MoveOn.org, the Service Employees union, VoteVets.org and other groups Feb. 25 in launching a $20 million Iraq/Recession Campaign that will target war hawk Republican presidential candidate John McCain and congressional Republicans.

In a Feb. 25 conference call, MoveOn Executive Director Eli Pariser said the campaign would “make the rising costs of the war” and its toll on the nation’s economy “a central issue of this election.”

The cost of the war is now at $10 billion a month, according to new Congressional Research Service figures.

Speaking from his home in North Carolina, Edwards said fellow Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are making it “clear they will end the war in Iraq.” Edwards said, “The American people are going to have a very clear choice this fall — a Democrat who will bring this thing to an end ... and Senator John McCain who will continue the war.”

“If the economy is your No. 1 issue when you’re voting, the war is also your No. 1 issue because there is a connection between the two,” Elizabeth Edwards said.

USAction, Americans United for Change and the Center for American Progress are also part of the campaign, which will involve advertising and grassroots get-out-the-vote activity.

VoteVets has announced a new cable TV ad featuring Iraq veteran Rose Forrest with her infant son, challenging McCain’s comments about staying in Iraq for 100 years. She says, “This is my little boy. He was born a year after I came back from Iraq. What kind of commitment are you making to him? How about a thousand years of affordable health care, or a thousand years of keeping America safe? Can we afford that for my child, Senator McCain? Or have you already promised to spend trillions — in Baghdad?”

Meanwhile, Iraq Veterans Against the War and other peace groups are planning a four-day antiwar event in Washington, D.C., March 13-16, to mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war. “Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan” will feature testimony from veterans of the two wars, including video and photographic evidence, the group says. In addition, panels of scholars, veterans and others will discuss the fight for veterans’ health care, the history of GI resistance and other topics.

The name “Winter Soldier” recalls the dramatic 1971 Winter Soldier veterans’ encampment in Washington, D.C., and their powerful testimony before Congress.

“In 1971, a courageous group of veterans exposed the criminal nature of the Vietnam War,” Iraq Veterans Against the War says on its web site. “Once again, we will demand that the voices of veterans are heard.

“Once again, we are fighting for the soul of our country. We will demonstrate our patriotism by speaking out with honor and integrity instead of blindly following failed policy.”

The veterans group urges the public to organize gatherings to listen to the hearings, which will be streamed on its web site, ivaw.org, and carried on cable TV March 14 and 15.

The United for Peace and Justice coalition is also calling for local antiwar actions around the country on March 19, the war’s fifth anniversary, and urges those who can to join a nonviolent direct action in Washington, D.C., that day.

suewebb@pww.org

Ohioans say its all about jobs

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:38:00 +0000

In Toledo, Ohio, a 100-year-old plant that makes plumbing fixtures is closing. Two hundred men and women who make $19 an hour at the American Standard plant will be out on the streets.

In the same city, Johnson Controls, which made seats for the vehicles at the Jeep plant, lost its contract to a company in India.

The Ford stamping plant in Toledo’s suburbs, where workers make fenders and dash panels, will close soon.

It is much the same throughout Ohio, which has lost over 200,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000. A capacity crowd at Cleveland State University Feb. 26 heard the two Democratic presidential candidates, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, vow to renegotiate trade deals that labor believes eliminated 200,000 Ohio jobs since 2000.

Clinton was put on the spot when the moderator reminded her that she had often said, on balance, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), had been good for America. During the debate she said, for the first time, that she would take back her 2002 Senate vote to authorize the Iraq war.

While both candidates have union support, labor is united on issues and is expected to support the eventual nominee.

Infrastructure investment supported by the AFL-CIO could create hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Many in Ohio see their state, with a huge reserve of skilled workers, as the perfect place to build an economy based on renewable energy technology.

Toledo itself is a historic center for the glass industry, which could benefit from government-backed efforts to increase the use of solar energy.

The 6-million-member Change to Win federation has endorsed Obama because he says he would renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Unions see NAFTA, with its lack of decent labor and environmental standards, as responsible for the loss of millions of U.S. jobs.

The 10-million-member AFL-CIO has not made an endorsement. Some AFL-CIO unions, including the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the American Federation of Teachers and the Machinists, are backing Clinton.

Unions have jumped into the Obama and Clinton campaigns because each has called for significant infrastructure investment, development of alternative energy and other green collar jobs and strengthening labor standards for both existing and any future trade agreements.

The AFL-CIO has called for repeal of Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy, extension of tax cuts to working people and tax credits to help working families pay for college.

Obama and Clinton both support these positions and say government has a responsibility to protect workers who are struggling.

All the unions in Ohio are concerned about the mortgage crisis. In the Toledo area home prices average $100,000, yet the city is among the top 20 in the nation in number of foreclosures.

Obama calls for $10 billion in bonds to help workers avoid foreclosure. He would also give a tax credit to struggling homeowners to cover 10 percent of the interest on their mortgages each year. Clinton would temporarily freeze foreclosures and interest rates on adjustable rate mortgages

John Anklam, 39, is a recently laid off autoworker enrolled in a Teamster-endorsed truck driver training program in Toledo.

“His stand against NAFTA and his inspiring style is why I’m for Obama,” he said. “We need a fair shake and we can’t get it if they can dump us for cheaper labor somewhere else.”

Asked what he would do if Clinton becomes the nominee, Anklam said, “McCain would be a disaster. I’ll support her if that happens. She may not be as exciting but she’s got brains and she’d fight for the jobs.”

Karen Ackerman, AFL-CIO political department director, said, “Labor will be united for the election of a pro-worker president in November. The unions will be mobilized on the issues that unite most Americans: an economy that works for all, universal health care, support for the Employee Free Choice Act so that everyone can exercise their right to form a union and an end to the war in Iraq so that money will be available to rebuild our country.”

At its executive council meeting in San Diego, March 4 – 6, the AFL-CIO’s leaders are expected to authorize $54 million for grassroots organizing around the elections. Total spending on 528 races, including presidential, senatorial, congressional and state legislative races and ballot initiatives, is expected to reach $200 million, according to Ackerman.

jwojcik@pww.org

World notes: March 1, 2008

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:35:00 +0000

Germany: For immigrants, class rules

A day after attending Feb. 7 funeral services in Germany for victims of a fire possibly set by racists, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and German and Turkish students.

He called upon Germany to establish schools that teach in Turkish. Responding en masse, conservative critics warned of Turkish “ghettoes” and advocated German language instruction as a prime tool for integrating 2.7 million resident Turks.

But immigrant life is precarious and ghettos already exist, defenders pointed out. Besides, schools teaching in French and English are commonplace. So “it’s less a question of language or culture than rejection of the lower classes,” Thomas Steinfeld suggested, writing in Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Sri Lanka: Civil war intensifies

The Red Cross reported Feb. 13 that civilian deaths have risen recently to “appalling levels.” Over 70 victims have died in attacks on buses since Jan. 16, when the Sri Lankan government abandoned a five year old cease fire agreement with Tamil Tiger insurgents. While most attacks occur in rural areas controlled by the government, cities are also under siege.

The UN’s IRIN news agency cited government figures showing that in the first six weeks of the year, 1,238 Tamil Tiger troops and 105 government soldiers have died.

UN Assistant Secretary General Angela Kane arrived in Colombo Feb. 20 for talks aimed at ending a conflict that has killed over 5,000 people since 2005.

South Africa: Social support builds

President Thabo Mbeki’s recently announced “War on Poverty” materialized Feb. 21 when Finance Minister Trevor Manuel announced the addition by April of a monthly 70 rands ($9.10) to pensions and disability grants received by 12 million people. By October, child support grants will be augmented by $5.19. Monthly totals will reach $122 and $28.55, respectively.

Children’s eligibility was extended to age 15, although Manuel cautioned that school absenteeism and lack of immunizations would become criteria for disqualification.

By 2010 men will start receiving pensions when they are 60, the age when women already receive benefits. Inflation and price increases were factored into the payment increases, according to BuaNews.

Israel: Land occupied illegally

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported Feb. 12 that 44 of 122 Israeli West Bank settlements were built on land confiscated from Palestinian landowners. In 1979, Israel’s Supreme Court rejected the justification of military security, especially because seized land was turned over to private settlers.

Attorney Michael Sfard, representing former Palestinian landowners, claims that closely guarded military data “prove that systematic land theft for the purpose of establishing settlements was carried out via a fictitious and completely illegal use of the term ‘military necessity.’”

Presently some 270,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank.

Venezuela: Poverty drops

President Hugo Chavez announced Feb. 20 that poverty in Venezuela fell 40 percentage points between 1997 and 2007, a period when unemployment dropped from 15 percent to 7 percent. Analyst Okrim Al Qasal (okrimopina.blogspot.com) documents poverty reduced from 50.4 percent in 1998 to 45 percent in 2001, but rising to 62 percent in 2003 because of right-wing sabotage and slowdown affecting state oil company revenues.

Victory in that struggle and burgeoning of social missions brought rates down to 43.7 percent in 2005, and 33 percent last year. Corresponding rates for extreme poverty were 20.3 percent in 1998, 16.9 percent in 2001, and 29.8 percent in 2003, followed by 17.8 percent in 2005 and 9.4 percent last year.

Cuba: A globalized economy

New data testify to Cuban success in overcoming U.S.-imposed economic isolation. Canadian, European, Chinese and Brazilian oil companies are exploring for or producing oil and natural gas from reserves in the Gulf of Mexico estimated at two-thirds those in Alaska.

Fidel Castro’s decision no longer to serve as Cuba’s president triggered an 8 percent rise in share prices for Sherritt Corporation of Canada that, according to energyandcapital.com, is extracting 60,000 barrels daily from Cuban deposits.

Last year Cuba imported $437.5 million worth of food products from the United States, now Cuba’s leading foreign food supplier with sales totaling $1.99 billion since 2001.

World Notes are compiled by W.T. Whitney (atwhit@roadrunner.com)

On March 4 Texans do two-step

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:29:00 +0000

HOUSTON — Early voting started in Texas last week for the March 4 primary, and votes in the Democratic primaries here in Harris County have already surpassed the total during the early voting period in 2004, according to Beverly Kaufman, Harris County clerk.

Harris County is the third largest county in the country. Houston is the adopted home of former President George H.W. Bush and has been considered a Republican stronghold.

Yet, by Feb. 23, some 38,200 people had voted in the Democratic primary, topping the total 35,381 who voted early in 2004, including Democrats and Republicans. Meanwhile, fewer than 13,000 Republicans have voted early so far this year.

Texas two-step

Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are pushing early voting. Texas has both a primary and a caucus. In the primary, voters elect two-thirds of the state’s 228 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. The caucus, held after the primary polls close, selects the remaining one-third. It’s called the Texas Two-Step. Campaigns are hoping voters will go to the primary polls early, cast their ballots — and then focus on going to the caucus.

Obama has closed Clinton’s lead in the polls here. All polls now show them virtually tied. Despite Clinton’s relationships with the Latino communities in Texas, Obama has made significant inroads among Mexican American and Latino voters, who make up close to 40 percent of the state’s population.

In addition, Obama’s campaign has proved skilled at turning out its voters for caucuses, something the Clinton camp reportedly worries about.

Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont all go to the polls on March 4. Clinton has to win both Texas and Ohio to remain viable, commentators say.

But that may prove to be too great a feat. Obama came into Texas from a huge victory in Wisconsin, part of a streak of 11 primary/caucus wins in a row. (“Americans abroad” primary gave him his eleventh victory.)

Workers issues

Economic issues, immigration, health care and foreign policy, including the Iraq war, are dominating the debate in Texas.

Voters here may have corporate greed on their minds as they consider their primary choices. Last week the Houston Chronicle ran a story on the British Petroleum refinery in Texas City, which has killed more workers than any other in the nation.

Following the catastrophic disaster that killed 15 workers in March 2005 at the Texas City refinery, five more have been killed in BP refineries around the country. Three of those were also at the Texas City facility.

Brent Coon, a Beaumont attorney who has represented dozens of families of killed and injured refinery workers, told the Chronicle, “None of these plants are re-investing like they should — production is at an all-time high. They’re pushing the operating envelope at all of these plants, and that makes all of them to some degree time bombs.”

While oil companies put profits before people’s lives, working people and their families are outraged by these unnecessary deaths. That feeling may be spurring the huge voter turnout, analysts say.

Struggle continues on voting rights

Also last week some 2,000 people marched more than seven miles from historically Black Prairie View A&M University to the Waller County Courthouse to demand the right to vote.

Members of the university community were outraged that officials planned for only one polling place in Waller County for early voting. Originally the county planned to have six polling places. Protesters saw it as a blatant attempt to suppress the vote of students who make up a significant portion of the eligible voters in the county. They complained that students at Prairie View A&M have had their voting rights suppressed for decades by Waller County.

Waller County officials were forced under pressure from the U.S. Department of Justice to add three polling places.

Prairie View Mayor Frank Johnson said, “These are wonderful kids. They are making a statement. Until they spoke up there was only one early voting place in the entire county. They spoke up but everyone is benefiting from what they are doing.”

The county has been notorious for African American voter suppression and has faced numerous lawsuits over the past decades.

A Supreme Court decision as a result of a Prairie View protest more than 30 years ago allows college students to register and vote in communities where they attend school.

November

Texans are looking forward to the November battle as well, where the country will have a chance to deliver a final blow to the far-right Bush administration and its clones.

At a recent Obama speech, Texans in the crowd erupted with cheers and laughter when he said, “No matter what, the name George W. Bush will not be on the ballot. I love Texas, but I want y’all to take him back.”

phill2@houston.rr.com

Physicians criticize Massachusetts health insurance plan

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 02:44:00 +0000

Over 250 Massachusetts doctors have signed an open letter to the country warning that the health reform model enacted by Massachusetts is failing and that a single payer program is the only alternative.

An Open Letter to the Nation from Massachusetts Physicians: Early Outcomes from Massachusetts' Health Care Reform

We write to alert colleagues and the nation to the disturbing early outcomes of Massachusetts' widely-heralded approach to health care reform. Although we wish that the current reform could secure health insurance for all, its failings reinforce our conviction that only a single payer program can assure patients the care they need.

In 2006, our state enacted a law designed to extend health coverage to virtually all state residents. Political leaders in other states as well as several Democratic presidential candidates have embraced this model - Massachusetts' law mandates that uninsured individuals must purchase private insurance or pay a fine. The law established a new state agency to ensure that affordable plans were available; offered low income residents subsidies to help them buy coverage; and expanded Medicaid coverage for the very poor. (Immigrants are mostly excluded from these subsidized programs.) Moneys that previously funded free care for the uninsured were shifted to the new insurance program, along with revenues from new fines on employers who fail to offer health benefits to their workers. In addition, the federal government provided extra funds for the program's first two years.

Starting January 1, 2008 Massachusetts residents face fines if they cannot offer proof of insurance. Yet as of December 1, 2007 only 37% of the 657,000 uninsured had gained coverage under the new program. These individuals often feel well served by the reform in that they now have health insurance. However, 79% of these newly insured individuals are very poor people enrolled in Medicaid or similar free plans. Virtually all of them were previously eligible for completely free care funded by the state, but face co-payments under the new plan. In effect, public funds for care of the poor that previously flowed directly to hospitals and clinics now flow through insurers with their higher administrative costs.

Among the near poor uninsured (who are eligible for partial premium subsidies) only 16% had enrolled in the new coverage. And barely 7% of the uninsured individuals with incomes too high to qualify for subsidies had enrolled according to the official state figures. Few can afford premiums for even the skimpiest coverage; the lowest cost plan offered for a couple in their fifties costs $8,200 annually, and carries a $2,000 per person deductible.

Moreover, the state's cost for subsidies is running $147 million over the $472 million budgeted for fiscal year 2007. Meanwhile, collections from fines on employers who fail to provide coverage are 80% below the original projections. The funding gap will widen in future years as health care costs escalate and insurers raise premiums. Already, state officials speak of making up the shortfall by forcing patients to pay sharply higher co-pays and deductibles, and by slashing funds promised to safety net hospitals.

While patients, the state and safety net providers struggle, private insurers have prospered under the new law, and the costs of bureaucracy have risen. Blue Cross, the state's largest insurer, is reaping a surplus of more than $1 million each day, and awarded its chairman a $16.4 million retirement bonus even as he continues to draw a $3 million salary. All of the major insurers in our state continue to charge overhead costs five times higher than Medicare and eleven-fold higher than Canada's single payer system. Moreover, the new state agency that brokers private coverage adds its own surcharge of 4.5% to each policy it sells.

A single payer program could save Massachusetts more than $9 billion annually on health care bureaucracy, making universal coverage affordable. But because the 2006 law deepened our dependence on private insurance, it can only add coverage by adding costs. Though politically feasible, this approach is already proving fiscally unsustainable. The next economic downturn will push up the number of uninsured just as the tax revenues needed to fund subsidies fall. The lesson from Massachusetts is that we still need real health care reform: single payer, non-profit national health insurance.

CONTACT: Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) Dr. Rachel Nardin, 617.667.4382 Dr. David Himmelstein, 617.665.1032 Todd Main, 312.782.6006

Texans do two-step on March 4

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:28:00 +0000

HOUSTON — Early voting started in Texas last week for the March 4 primary, and votes in the Democratic primaries here in Harris County have already surpassed the total during the early voting period in 2004, according to Beverly Kaufman, Harris County clerk.

Harris County is the third largest county in the country. Houston is the adopted home of former President George H.W. Bush and has been considered a Republican stronghold.

Yet, by Feb. 23, some 38,200 people had voted in the Democratic primary, topping the total 35,381 who voted early in 2004, including Democrats and Republicans. Meanwhile, fewer than 13,000 Republicans have voted early so far this year.

Texas two-step

Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are pushing early voting. Texas has both a primary and a caucus. In the primary, voters elect two-thirds of the state’s 228 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. The caucus, held after the primary polls close, selects the remaining one-third. It’s called the Texas Two-Step. Campaigns are hoping voters will go to the primary polls early, cast their ballots — and then focus on going to the caucus.

Obama has closed Clinton’s lead in the polls here. All polls now show them virtually tied. Despite Clinton’s relationships with the Latino communities in Texas, Obama has made significant inroads among Mexican American and Latino voters, who make up close to 40 percent of the state’s population.

In addition, Obama’s campaign has proved skilled at turning out its voters for caucuses, something the Clinton camp reportedly worries about.

Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont all go to the polls on March 4. Clinton has to win both Texas and Ohio to remain viable, commentators say.

But that may prove to be too great a feat. Obama came into Texas from a huge victory in Wisconsin, part of a streak of 11 primary/caucus wins in a row. (Americans abroad gave him his eleventh victory.)

Workers issues

Economic issues, immigration, health care and foreign policy, including the Iraq war, are dominating the debate in Texas.

Voters here may have corporate greed on their minds as they consider their primary choices. Last week the Houston Chronicle ran a story on the British Petroleum refinery in Texas City, which has killed more workers than any other in the nation.

Following the catastrophic disaster that killed 15 workers in March 2005 at the Texas City refinery, five more have been killed in BP refineries around the country. Three of those were at the Texas City facility.

Brent Coon, a Beaumont attorney who has represented dozens of families of killed and injured refinery workers, told the Chronicle, “None of these plants are re-investing like they should — production is at an all-time high. They’re pushing the operating envelope at all of these plants, and that makes all of them to some degree time bombs.”

While oil companies put profits before people’s lives, working people and their families are outraged by these unnecessary deaths. That feeling may be spurring the huge voter turnout, analysts say.

Struggle continues on voting rights

Also last week some 2,000 people marched more than seven miles from historically Black Prairie View A&M University to the Waller County Courthouse to demand the right to vote. Members of the university community were outraged that officials planned for only one polling place in Waller County for early voting. Originally the county planned to have six polling places. Protesters saw it as a blatant attempt to suppress the vote of students who make up a significant portion of the eligible voters in the county. They complained that students at Prairie View A&M have had their voting rights suppressed for decades by Waller County.

Waller County officials were forced under pressure from the U.S. Department of Justice to add three polling places.

Prairie View Mayor Frank Johnson said, “These are wonderful kids. They are making a statement. Until they spoke up there was only one early voting place in the entire county. They spoke up but everyone is benefiting from what they are doing.”

The county has been notorious for African American voter suppression and has faced numerous lawsuits over the past decades.

A Supreme Court decision as a result of a Prairie View protest more than 30 years ago allows college students to register and vote in communities where they attend school.

November

Texans are looking forward to the November battle as well, where the country will have a chance to deliver a final blow to the far-right Bush administration and clones.

At a recent Obama speech, Texans in the crowd erupted with cheers and laughter when he said, “No matter what, the name George W. Bush will not be on the ballot. I love Texas, but I want y’all to take him back.”

Jumper lands flat!

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:10:00 +0000

Movie Review Jumper Directed By Doug Liman Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation 88 min., PG-13

The new sci-fi Action flick “Jumper,” leaves much to be desired. However; on the plus side, there are a lot of cool effects and alluring locations thrown up onto the screen. The Pyramids, the Coliseum, Down-town Tokyo, and the beaches of Fiji are cool and the heroes of this film run, jump, speed and slide their way through glamorous location after glamorous location. The problem is that the amount of time and care spent on, oh, simple things, like character, motivation, plot and narrative arc, are disproportionately small.

Well, that is how you do it I guess, you teleport right though all the boring stuff like character and background. Hey, who needs all that when you can jump a stolen car through a dealership window without breaking it – wormholes, you know – and take it on the coolest joyride ever through the crowded streets of Tokyo, during which you don’t even have to worry about hitting other cars or pedestrians, you can just teleport right through them.

Still, there is no denying that Jumper features some of the most original and most clever action scenes I’ve seen on film, which is exactly what we should expect from director Doug Liman, who seemingly re-imagined action as a serious business with “The Bourne Identity.”

If someone is going to do something new with the action movie, it’s going to be him. The possibilities here are myriad, and nicely surprising.

A guy named David Rice (Hayden Christensen), can jump himself from one spot to another, three feet away, without any tedious walking involved. It opens up all sorts of possibilities that you probably hadn’t even thought of (I hadn’t). Like, how would two guys who could fight each other, simply teleport themselves out of the path of a flying fist? It’s not like one of them could just jump to Paris or Antarctica or somewhere to escape. Jumpers can follow one another’s “jump scars,” there is no running away from another jumper who wants to get you. When people can move themselves instantaneously to anywhere on the planet without any of that tedious mucking about in airports and eating bags of airline peanuts, the possibilities for adventure certainly seem intriguing.

Unfortunately, Jumper; based on a young adult novel by Steven Gould, feels like half a movie. It’s a real shame because the basic concept was cool. Evil Paladins, who think only God should have that kind of power, are hunting down jumpers. As far as I can tell, though, there are no other jumpers in the world except for the two guys who appear to be almost the same age, and we only get the Paladin perspective from the character named Griffin.

It would have been nice to hear from a Paladin himself, particularly since Samuel L. Jackson is playing Roland, the Paladin leader. Who is he? How did he get into this business? Why does he care what jumpers do? It’s too cheap and easy to foist off the war as a religious issue.

One of the main problems, in the first place, is that Samuel L. Jackson leads the Paladins in a draft blonde dye-job that totally subverts his ability to look scary and threatening.

Another problem is the lame attempt to inject a bigger story. Yet Christiansen comes across as whiny and self-obsessed. There is never a suggestion that David will use his powers to save others. Indeed, the only thing he uses them for is to get with his childhood sweetheart, Rachel Bilson (Millie) who is similarly weak in her performance.

Thank goodness for Jamie Bell who is a marvel of contradictory rage and “leave-me-aloneness” as Griffin. The film brightens up every time he’s on camera. I could have gone without the cool FX of displaced air and exploding potential energy and crackling jump scares if the rest of the movie could have risen to meet the flair he brings.

I would also like to observe the two children playing the younger version of David and his sweetheart; Annasphia Robb and Max Thieriot, are infinitely stronger performers than their grown-up counter parts.

So, if we must have a sequel, might it not be better as a more fully developed prequel?

Poems of life, love, work and solidarity

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:02:00 +0000

A Life in Poems By William C. Wright Bird Dog Publishing, 2007 Softcover, 152 pp, $10.00

“Whoever touches this book, touches a man,” wrote the poet Walt Whitman, in his epic book Leaves of Grass. That is how I feel about the poetry book, A Life in Poems, by 93-year-old William C. Wright, just out from the Midwestern press Bird Dog Publishing.

Peace activist, labor organizer, family man, for over 70 years Wright has participated in all the major struggles of his time. Luckily for us, all this time he has also been writing poems about it.

Poems of him growing up in a farm family in northern Ohio, his radicalization during the Depression, and his participation in the organizing drives of the CIO in heavy industry are all included in Wright’s book.

Tender love poems to his wife and lifelong comrade, Cris, are also featured. More often than not, his political poems reflect the viewpoint of a rank and file activist directly involved in the various struggles that are illustrated throughout the book.

Wright has an eye for detail and attention to poetic technique that make situations come to life, as in the short poem where he writes, “Last night in our furnace we burned a thousand years of sun and a quart of miners’ sweat to keep us warm.”

In the poem “Ashes,” Wright reflects his experience organizing industrial workers as a member of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee. The ending line, “Arise, arise build your union strong,” might have been a didactic exercise in the hands of a lesser poet. But Wright’s skilled use of language and metaphor enables the reader to see the miners’ struggle as virtually arising out of the bowels of the earth itself. In the landscape of this poem, “mine owners rule empires, make the laws” but “evolution’s product, oxygen, escaped in air not subject to claim — free gives life breath and birth to warming flame.”

Several poems cast the struggle for social justice in the imagery of Wright’s church upbringing. The powerful anti-war, “For God speaks in every language ever spoken to every man in every land and color,” reflects not only Wright’s activism in veterans’ organizations, but also his longstanding work within the Ohio religious community around the issue of peace. Wright’s “spirit” is not “a god of greed, of hate, of fear,” but embraces every “sister and brother, in every church and land and color.”

The beautiful, “For Cris, Love of My Life, A Rose,” derives its power from its use of rhyme and rhythm, as well as the many decades in which Wright and his comrade fought side by side for social justice.

In a biographical profile, Wright says he began writing poetry as a young adult after reading poets like Walter Lowenfels, Pablo Neruda and Walt Whitman in the Daily Worker. With the publication of “A Life in Poems,” it is clear that William C. Wright must be viewed as one of the most important working class poets of his generation.

Poem: To Stand On A Street Corner

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 01:59:00 +0000

To Stand On A Street Corner (For Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz)

To stand on a street corner for just a few minutes, Perhaps to dream about smoking a cigar, Look at the girls as they walk by, To lift up a soccer ball with his knees and kick it back to a friend, To think back to when he was a boy, living on a sugar plantation with his parents, brothers, and sisters, or those good times in Havana at El Colegio de Belén, Where he threw baseball pitches in the Havana heat, and dreamed about playing for the major leagues… Other things called him in those years, He fought with his comrades at Moncada Barracks, many dying there on a summer day, And then later in the mountains they made up for all that, The Revolution came; there was lots of work to do, There was no time to stand on street corners. At the Bay of Pigs they settled old scores, Now the years of victories, small but important are better than great defeats. So, let him say good-bye to being President and all the gracious and boring stuff that goes with it, Now, what Fidel Alejandro Castro wants to do is to stand on a street corner, And think about the simple things in life…

— Luis Lázaro Tijerina