People Before Profit blog

ICE-d! Dragnet raids, quotas stir outrage

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:22:00 +0000

BALTIMORE—Six-year-old Tomas Guillen underwent chemotherapy at Johns Hopkins Hospital without the comforting presence of his father. His dad, Ernesto Guillen, a janitor, was on the way to his son’s bedside when he and 23 other Latino workers and shoppers were arrested at a 7-Eleven Store here in 2007.

This week CASA de Maryland, an immigrant rights organization, released a video of the arrests. The video shows Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents zeroing in on Latinos in the convenience store parking lot in the Fells Point neighborhood of Baltimore where day laborers gather. Such racial profiling is a flagrant violation of federal law. Plainclothes ICE agents in unmarked vehicles posed as employers in order to trap their victims. One agent even crossed Broadway Avenue to arrest people waiting at a bus stop.

The Jan. 23, 2007, mass arrest was carried out to fulfill a quota, according to an internal report from the Department of Homeland Security. “Bring more bodies,” the report quotes a supervisor in the Baltimore Field Office telling his deputy. The deputy was instructed to go back out and make more arrests “as the quantity of arrests that were made that morning was unacceptable.”

ICE is allowing Guillen to remain in the United States as long as his son is undergoing cancer treatment but he is required to report regularly to ICE.

Casa de Maryland filed a Freedom of Information lawsuit to force DHS to release the

report. Every ICE team in the nation is under orders to make 1,000 arrests annually under ex-President George W. Bush’s “Operation Return to Sender.”

Yet the mission of these ICE teams is to apprehend “violent criminals who are in the country illegally.” Their instructions require them to show “probable cause” that a target is a criminal before making an arrest. Not one of the 24 people arrested met the criteria.

Gustavo Torres, executive director of CASA de Maryland said the current enforcement of immigration policy based on quotas leads to the separation of families and civil rights violations. CASA has requested a meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to appeal for an end to the dragnet raids.

June White-Dillard, president of the Prince George’s County NAACP said, “It will take time to reverse the Bush years and the abridgement of our constitutional rights but I look forward to standing with CASA de Maryland and my Latino and immigrant brothers and sisters to get it done.”

On May 22 of last year, ICE agents stormed a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, arresting 300 immigrant workers. The raid has crippled production and traumatized the little town so badly that NPR reported, “Many are wondering if the future of the town is in jeopardy.” August 27 of last year, ICE arrested 600 immigrant workers at a plant that produces electric transformers in Laurel, Miss. And on Oct. 10, 330 workers were arrested at the Columbia Poultry Farms plant in Greenville, S.C.

Lou Dobbs of CNN, Fox News, and other hate-mongers of the corporate media have whipped up a racist media frenzy scapegoating undocumented immigrants as the cause of the economic crisis.

But there is also a growing fight back. In Clallam County Washington, human rights defenders have staged vigils, and picket lines against ICE-Border Patrol checkpoints on U.S. Highway 101. More than 50 people joined a picket line Feb. 14 at Discovery Bay to protest ICE agents boarding Clallam County transit buses to arrest immigrants.

CASA brought hundreds of immigrant workers and their families to Annapolis, the Maryland state capital, Feb. 23, to oppose the anti-immigrant campaigns. They gathered in a Senate hearing room to describe widespread “wage theft” by unscrupulous employers. One worker told Senators he and other members of his crew toiled at a construction job for three days. “At the end of the three days, our wages were denied us. Many times this has happened and workers have lost thousands of dollars,” he said. The threat of being turned over to ICE is used by some employers to frighten day laborers into silence.

State Sen. Melvin Stukes told the witnesses, “You’re looking at a person who has gone through some of the same exact things you have gone through, worked in Baltimore for three dollars a day… Anyone in this room understands that struggle. I will do anything I legally can to help you in your endeavors.”

Later the crowd rallied in front of the Maryland State House holding placards that proclaimed, “Stop the Raids,” “College For All” and “Drivers Licenses for Safety.”

Guy Djoken, president of the Frederick County NAACP said, “Together we are going to win. For a long time, they have tried to divide us, Black against Hispanic. But when Dr. King fought for civil rights, everyone walked through that open door. We come together as one people, one more time.”

Solis confirmed as labor secretary

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:34:00 +0000

President Obama finally has a labor secretary, leaving his picks at commerce and health and human services still to go to complete his cabinet.

The Senate late this afternoon voted 80-17 to confirm California congresswoman Hilda Solis at labor, two months after Obama nominated her.

Her nomination was held up by Republican concerns over her pro-union activities, then by reports of tax liens against her husband's business.

Labor groups have been aggressively pushing for Solis, and immediately applauded her confirmation.

'The confirmation of Rep. Hilda Solis is a huge victory: finally Americans will have a Secretary of Labor who represents working people, not wealthy CEO’s. It is also a historic moment as Rep. Solis becomes the first Hispanic Secretary of Labor,' AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said in a statement.

'The delay of Rep. Solis’s nomination for partisan and ideological reasons was overcome by the grassroots support of millions of Americans who are struggling and desperately need a secretary of labor who will be their voice,' he added, calling her 'uniquely qualified to help struggling families through these difficult economic times because she knows firsthand what they are going through.'

'She grew up in a working class family and understands what programs our nation’s workers need the most. She will fight to improve skills development and job creation programs, including development of 'green collar' jobs,' Sweeney added. 'She will work to assure that workers get the pay they have earned and that they work in safe, healthy, and fair workplaces. She’s ready to address the retirement security crisis and will work hard to protect every worker from job discrimination, regardless of race, sex, veteran status, or disability.'

'In the midst of this economic crisis – when thousands of jobs are lost every day – it is crucial to make the economy work for working people again. Americans need a plan to help put families back to work, back in their homes, and back on the path of prosperity. In addition to bold economic recovery plan, America’s workers need a strong Department of Labor,' added Anna Burger, chairwoman of the Change to Win coalition.

“Hilda Solis is the right person to lead that charge. She has long been a champion of working families. She has fought for fair pay for women, health care for children, green jobs and the right for workers to have a voice in the workplace to improve wages, conditions and benefits. We applaud Congress for their confirmation of Hilda Solis as U.S. Secretary of Labor and look forward to working alongside her. We are confident that she will help restore the economy, rebuild the middle class and renew the American Dream for America’s workers.”

The National Council of La Raza leader Janet Murguía also praised the confirmation. With historic unemployment numbers and with workers in crisis, the appointment of a strong and capable leader to oversee the U.S. Department of Labor is critical, she said. “American workers need a leader who will stand up for them at a time when they face unprecedented challenges,” Murguía said. Tom Daschle withdrew at health and human services over tax problems, and though reports have suggested Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius is in line for the appointment, Obama has yet to announce it.

As soon as Wednesday, Obama is expected to nominate former Washington Governor Gary Locke as his third try at Commerce. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson withdrew over an investigation into state contracts, then Republican Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire jilted Obama at the political altar, saying he had too many policy differences with the new Democratic president.

Closing Guantanamo: many questions remain

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 08:40:00 +0000

Two days after taking office, President Barack Obama announced that the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, would be closed by the end of this year at the latest. This step, which was acclaimed worldwide, is only the first in what many hope is an effort to restore constitutional guarantees and the rule of law which the Bush administration had been busily dismantling under the cover of the “war on terror.

The order to close Guantanamo was one of four signed by Obama on Jan. 22. The others forbid the CIA from running detention centers, suspend the activities of President Bush’s infamous “military commissions,” restrict methods used in interrogation of prisoners captured in war conditions to those outlined in the U.S. Army Field Manual, assure access to all prisoners by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and make sure that treatment of all prisoners accused of terrorism or illegal attacks is in conformity with U.S. law (including constitutional guarantees) or, in some cases, with the Third Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war. The fourth order requires a review of the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, who is being held at the Naval Brig in Charleston, S.C.

The president’s orders also set up review mechanisms to deal with the issue of what to do with the prisoners now held at Guantanamo, some of whom might be released and repatriated, and others put on trial in the regular U.S. court system. The orders received wide praise from U.S. and international civil libertarians. The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, which has organized much of the defense of the prisoners held at Guantanamo and elsewhere, issued a statement which began: “We welcome the beginning of the end of lawlessness. Under the previous administration, executive orders became synonymous with secrecy, torture and attempts to override the Constitution.”

///No third way///

But it went on to warn that “the government has to charge the rest of the detainees in federal criminal court. There can be no third way, no new schemes for indefinite or preventive detention or alternative national security courts.” The families of prisoners who have, in some cases, been held as long as six years at “Gitmo” without any due process filed a civil brief with the help of CCR, accusing former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and 23 other U.S. officials of violation of the prisoners’ rights. Many of these prisoners have been physically and psychologically tortured, with at least three cases in which mistreatment caused the death of the inmate. These families expressed worry that the new attorney general, Eric Holder, might have committed himself to Republican senators during the confirmation process not to prosecute U.S. officials for torture or other violations of constitutional and human rights. Holder has denied making such a pledge.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said the announced closing of the Guantanamo prison camp is a “positive, but insufficient step.” Former Cuban President Fidel Castro reminded the U.S. that Cuba will not be satisfied until the entire Guantanamo base is closed down and the land restored to Cuba.

///Guantanamo’s ugly history///

Indeed the history of Guantanamo is one of abuses of power, against nations as well as individuals. The U.S. lease of the bay was imposed on Cuba by the United States, more or less at gunpoint, in 1903. After the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro’s government repeatedly demanded that the lease be ended, and refused to cash the rent checks. But U.S. imperialism had decided that Guantanamo Bay was essential for projection of U.S. military force against potential revolutionary developments in the Latin American-Caribbean area.

The goal of the Bush administration in turning Guantanamo Bay into a prison camp for people (eventually about 800) detained around the world in the “war on terror” was quite simple: keep them from enjoying either the rights of prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions or due process rights under the U.S. Constitution. The argument was that since the Guantanamo base actually belongs to Cuba, the prisoners there are not covered by U.S. law, including constitutional guarantees of due process. However, even our federal courts would not completely go along with such an outrageous claim, and the government suffered several defeats in court.

///Questions remain///

Many questions remain. What, for example, is going to happen to people who are languishing in jails worldwide after being “rendered” by the U.S. government into the hands of foreign governments? The “military commissions” are suspended, but will they be permanently abolished? What is going to happen to the prisoners at the U.S. Bagram air base in Afghanistan? And in what devious ways will the CIA work to undermine the best intentions of Obama so as to continue on its torturing and murdering way? That the hardliners in the military and the CIA have not learned their lesson was dramatically demonstrated by two radically conflicting reports issued on Feb. 23. Vice Admiral Patrick Walsh had been ordered by President Obama to review conditions at Guantanamo for conformity to the Geneva Convention’s standards of human treatment of prisoners. Walsh blandly reported that his team had interviewed more than a hundred guards and other personnel, as well as “more than a dozen captives,” and he concluded that Guantanamo now conforms to the Geneva standards. He did add some eye-opening recommendations, among others that the prisoners be allowed to interact socially more, and that the anxiety of detainees about their future be addressed so that they don’t go on hunger strikes any more. Reading between the lines, reasonable people could conclude that some of the 240 remaining prisoners are being driven to the point of suicide and insanity by being kept in isolation without any idea of whether they will have a chance to argue in favor of being released.

///‘This has to end’///

On the same day, the Center for Constitutional Rights weighed in with a detailed report on the current conditions at Guantanamo (available at www.ccr.org) This report sharply contradicts the Walsh report, saying that “the men at Guantanamo are deteriorating at a rapid rate due to the harsh conditions that continue to this day, despite a few cosmetic changes to their routines.”

The prisoners “are caught in a vicious cycle where their isolation causes psychological damage, which causes them to act out, which brings more abuse,” said CCR attorney Pardiss Kebriaei. “If they are going to be there another year or another day, this has to end.”

The CCR report gives graphic examples of physical and mental torture of prisoners continuing into January of this year. It calls for an end to isolation and psychological and physical torture, respect for the religious needs of the prisoners, an end to forced feeding and medication, and access for all prisoners to medical and psychological help. Clearly, there is a ways to go in cleaning up the ugly legacy of the Bush administration.

Emile Schepers is a civil liberties activist

We are colonized!

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 12:19:00 +0000

(l'Humanite Translated by Amanda Cook) Surely, since the end of the Algerian War, the people of France have more or less forgotten this vocabulary, calling it a bit old fashioned, or maybe even antiquated. Colonist, colonies, colonialism. Who, in 2009, in France, still thinks of the Caribbean islands as “the last of France’s American colonies” ?

Still, when you scratch the surface, barely covered by the veneer of 64 years of “departmentalization”, what do you find ? Four centuries after the official end of slavery—in the generous shade of coconut trees, on the warm and sunny beaches, where the bluest waters come to rest—you find the brutal exploitation of colonial capitalism. The “Dom” [1], as they call Martinique, Réunion, Guyane, or Guadeloupe, are false paradises.

Two weeks ago, French Secretary of Overseas Territories Yves Jégo, a chronic liar, had a moment of honesty when he demanded to know, “Why, in the Pointe-à-Pitre supermarkets, does an ordinary toothbrush cost 4.50 Euros ?” Indeed, he had just unintentionally discovered Pandora’s box.

In the beautiful colonies’ ever-cheerful sun...for wealthy vacationers, life is harsh. Wages are desperately low. Employers are an oligarchy, having occupied these “islands” since the earliest days of slavery. After using their whips against generations of disenfranchised black men and women (thanks to Colbert’s Code Noir [3]), yesterday’s masters have simply become today’s bosses. The social relations have hardly evolved : yesterday they enforced the Code Noir with severity and rigor, and today, they are seemingly unable to conform to the Labor Code.

Thus, over the years, unions have formed and leftist parties have asserted their anti-colonialism. The Colonial State, buddy-buddy with the industrial and agricultural capitalists, has never denied its support of the rich and powerful. Far away from France—the birthplace of art, the home of human rights—the destitute worker is much less than an ordinary victim of exploitation : he is also colonized. Over there, in the Caribbean sun, a less-than-perfect life lies on the other side of the pretty “sea, sand, sun” postcard.

On January 20, 49 Guadeloupian labor, cultural, and political organizations rose up as one and decided to jam the colonial machine. They say “no” to Sarko, “yes” to another life, and perhaps to another status. The fight against “pwofitasyon” or exploitation has begun, and this is not the last you will hear about it…

Danik Ibrahim Zandwonis is the editor in chief of Nouvelles Étincelles, the weekly newspaper of the Communist Party of Guadeloupe.

LETTERS February 28, 2009

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:27:00 +0000

Prediction

World peace will come when the United States goes socialist.

William Bunge

Montreal, Canada

Remembering Rose

My mother, Rose Goldberg, passed away last year April. She was a bookkeeper for the PWW and her Communist Party club. The rabbi at her funeral collected these memories:

She was a champion of bringing health to the body, justice to the world, and love to those close to her. She worked tirelessly in all these areas and did not ask anything in return. She was energetic, virtuous, nonjudgmental and eager to learn.

Rose was one of five siblings. She was born in Manhattan and moved with her family to Brooklyn. It fell to her to care for her ailing mother and with typical commitment to those in her life, she took care of her mother until her death. She met her future husband Howard at a dance, and although their marriage was not an easy one, they shared their devotion to their children Art, Paula and Steve. Rose had worked as a bookkeeper before her marriage and returned to it after raising her children.

Rose worked to elect Adlai Stevenson. She was jailed with Grace Paley protesting the draft. She campaigned against nuclear weapons and nuclear power. Her granddaughter Clara once was showing a friend from Germany around the Park Slope neighborhood and came upon Rose handing out leaflets encouraging people to vote.

She was also a revolutionary in the area of nutrition and health. Decades ahead of her time she fed her family whole grains and lots of vegetables. Paula remembers that she was embarrassed by the sandwiches her mother packed for her school lunch and tried to hide them. Rose was in the founding generation of the Flatbush Food Coop, and from early on bought food grown ethically. She brought her own bags to the store years before that became a common practice.

She lived on a block on Cortelyou Road with no trees, so she petitioned the city to plant one in front of her house. In the six-family house she inherited, she more or less adopted the others she shared it with. It was common for Rose to forego collecting the rent when they fell short.

Rose loved walking great distances. She had calves like footballs late into her life, and would walk halfway across Brooklyn to a doctor’s appointment. She gardened in her little plot— potatoes, tomatoes and peas.

She loved to play the piano and Paul inherited her skill for that instrument. Thinking of her helped Arthur to persevere and prevent his drowning. Rose was born February 17, 1919.

Steven Goldberg

Philmont NY

Editor’s note: Our condolences to you and your family. We remember her and miss her – and Howie – dearly.

Gaza war crimes

To the Nazi occupiers of Warsaw the Jewish fighters of the ghetto were terrorists. What is the proper nonviolent response to being surrounded, blockaded and starved? The people of Gaza are today’s equivalent of the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto. The blockade followed the election of Hamas in Gaza, not an extra-legal takeover by Hamas. The bombing of Gaza with white phosphorus by the Israeli military was a war crime as was the reportedly deliberate targeting of civilians and the refusal to let ambulances through to remove the wounded. The U.S. government was complicit in these crimes through its aid to Israel in money and military equipment.

Of course the Hamas rocketing of Israel was criminal, but the U.S. is not aiding Hamas and we live in the U.S. U.S. aid to Israel should be stopped until there is a peaceful solution to the Palestinian question, and U.S. Jews should be in the forefront of those demanding an end to that aid. Yes, I’m Jewish.

Eliot Kenin

Emeryville CA

Progressive change

Thank you very much for sending People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo, always well received and well read, and hoping that the long-battled USPS will soon do away with cutbacks in services and cost hikes. Perhaps under President Obama there will be some progressive changes in that regard.

There is no shortage of progressive changes, each urgently needed. How about ending the media oligopoly of Fox, Hearst and so on, in favor of a truly free and truthful press? Aiming at educating and informing the American people, rather than promoting militarism and misinforming the people?

For those of us who went to peaceful sleep after the Nov. 4 election: the right wing hasn’t gone to slumber.

Karl Rove is back as a political commentator this time. The Limbaughs and O’Reillys are still quite active. So are the Fox media ideologues. All aiming at restoring “crypto-fascism” after duly frustrating the Obama presidency.

So it is time for We the People to maintain our defenses and fight back in kind.

Ana Lucia Gelabert

Gatesville TX

Ghost of a war past

The scene is a cold wintry night in Chicago, and President-elect Barack Obama is having a fitful sleep, tossing and turning, when suddenly he is awakened by a voice calling to him.

“Who are you?” asked the young president-elect, sitting upright in bed.

“I am the voice of the past, a war past,” came the hushed reply in a Southern dialect.

“Not LBJ?” queried the incredulous Obama.

“The same,” replied the ghost of Lyndon Johnson.

‘But why have you come to see me?” asked Obama.

There was a shuffling sound as the ghost moved closer to the bed.

“What are the generals saying to you?” asked the ghost.

“They are saying they need more troops in Afghanistan,” was Obama’s reply.

“That’s what General William Westmoreland and Secretary of State McNamara told me back in ’65,” the ghost replied.

“What else did they say to you, Mr. President?”

The ghost came closer. “They also told me they hoped to turn the country’s security over to the South Vietnamese forces, but that they were not ready to assume that responsibility yet.”

There was silence in the bedroom. Obama put his hand to his head and said, “Gosh, that’s exactly what the generals and the State Department are telling me about Afghanistan.

“Beware, Mr. President-elect,” the ghost replied in his hushed voice, as he shuffled off. “Beware. Beware.” Then he was gone.

By this time Michelle was stirring, and sat up in bed. “Talking in your sleep, Barack?” she asked.

“I must have been dreaming,” replied Obama. “LBJ was just talking to me about Vietnam and the advice his generals gave to him.”

“Not THE LBJ?” she asked, eyes wide open. “The same,” he replied.

“What are you going to do?” she asked, snuggling close to him.

“I’ll sleep on it,” he said, as they fell back to sleep.

Lawrence H. Geller

Via e-mail

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Venezuela rejects term limits

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:57:00 +0000

Victory for democracy, Chavez says

With 94 percent of the votes counted, Venezuela’s National Election Council announced late Feb. 15 the results of the referendum on term limits. Some 6 million “yes” voters, 54.4 percent, approved the amendment to lift term limits. A million fewer, 45.6 percent, dissented.

Lifting term limits opens the door for President Hugo Chavez to run for a third term in 2012.

The turnout increased from the December 2007 election. Sixty-eight percent came out to vote Feb. 15 up from 56 percent in 2007 when the Chavez government sustained its only electoral defeat in ten years. At issue then was approval of a complex package of 69 constitutional amendments, including removal of term limits.

Gains achieved over the last ten years by the Chavez government account for some of its continuing strong electoral support. U.S. economist Mark Weisbrot and colleagues recently documented advances on www.cepr.net. Among them: households in poverty down 39 percent, social spending per person tripled, infant mortality down one third, and unemployment reduced from 11.3 to 7.8 percent. Over 5 years, Venezuela’s GDP grew 94.7 percent.

In a speech from the presidential offices, Chavez congratulated the Venezuelan people on the vote, including those who voted “no” saying it is a victory for Venezuela and “democratic, humanist, and Bolivarian virtues,” referring to Simon Bolivar, the Venezuelan who championed Latin American independence from colonial Spain.

Scenarios marking earlier elections resurfaced: right wing student demonstrations trumpeted by the mostly opposition media, arrests of a few soldiers in contact allegedly with a U.S. agent, Colombian paramilitaries seized on Venezuelan soil and discovery of an arms cache.

One big twist was youth reporter Pedro Carvajalino’s airport confrontation Jan. 9 with Globovisión director Federico Ravell. Carvajalino, a reporter for government-supported youth channel Ávila-TV, confronted the media bigwig who was alongside opposition party leaders, returning from an anti-Chavez strategy meeting in Puerto Rico. With cameras rolling Carvajalino accused Ravell and opposition leaders of meeting with U.S. officials to fine tune anti-referendum strategies and receiving $3 million in U.S. funds. The explosive news story bolstered Chavez supporters claims that the U.S. will do anything to undermine the Chavez administration.

The opposition cause also took a hit also when police found 100 Molotov cocktails in a truck of anti-Chavez students engaged in a rock throwing, tear gas melee.

Just before the Feb. 15 vote, Venezuela’s expulsion of rightist Spanish politician Luis Herrero, who had called Chavez a dictator and criticized the National Election Council for adding two hours to the Feb.15 voting made headlines.

Perhaps the most disturbing pre-election act was the ransacking and vandalism of a Caracas synagogue. Charges that the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador from Venezuela during the war on Gaza led to the anti-Semitic act waned after Jewish leaders commended officials for the quick arrests of eleven suspects, including eight policemen. The government pledged to fully investigate the attack.

Term limits for a U.S. president were added to the constitution after Franklin Roosevelt won four consecutive elections, restructuring the U.S. economy more favorably for working people through the New Deal programs. But no term limits exist for senators and congressmen. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has twice sought to overcome constitutional term limits in that country, yet has not been painted as a “dictator” for those efforts.

During the campaign, President Chavez traveled throughout the country engaging large crowds almost daily. Venezuela’s new Unified Venezuelan Socialist Party (PSUV) sent activists door to door to explain the significance of the upcoming vote.

Venezuela rejects term limits

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 08:21:00 +0000

With 94 percent of the votes counted, Venezuela’s National Election Council announced late Feb. 15 the results of the referendum on term limits. Some 6 million “yes” voters, 54.4 percent, approved the amendment to lift term limits. A million fewer, 45.6 percent, dissented.

Lifting term limits opens the door for President Hugo Chavez to run for a third term in 2012.

The turnout increased from the December 2007 election. Sixty-eight percent came out to vote Feb. 15 up from 56 percent in 2007 when the Chavez government sustained its only electoral defeat in ten years. At issue then was approval of a complex package of 69 constitutional amendments, including removal of term limits.

Gains achieved over the last ten years by the Chavez government account for some of its continuing strong electoral support. U.S. economist Mark Weisbrot and colleagues recently documented advances on www.cepr.net. Among them: households in poverty down 39 percent, social spending per person tripled, infant mortality down one third, and unemployment reduced from 11.3 to 7.8 percent. Over 5 years, Venezuela’s GDP grew 94.7 percent.

In an interview shortly before official results were released, Jesse Chacón, communication and information minister, said all Venezuelans should feel proud because they are living in a participatory democracy. “We are on the path of participatory democracy. In all of Europe and Latin America, an amendment like this one would not be approved by the people, but by congress,” he said.

In a speech from the presidential offices, Chavez congratulated the Venezuelan people on the vote, including those who voted “no” saying it is a victory for Venezuela and “democratic, humanist, and Bolivarian virtues,” referring to Simon Bolivar the Venezuelan who championed Latin American independence from colonial Spain. Scenarios marking earlier elections resurfaced: right wing student demonstrations trumpeted by the mostly opposition media, arrests of a few soldiers in contact allegedly with a U.S. agent, Colombian paramilitaries seized on Venezuelan soil and discovery of an arms cache.

One big twist was youth reporter Pedro Carvajalino’s airport confrontation Jan. 9 with Globovisión director Federico Ravell. Carvajalino, a reporter for government-supported youth channel Ávila-TV, confronted the media bigwig who was alongside opposition party leaders, returning from an anti-Chavez strategy meeting in Puerto Rico. With cameras rolling Carvajalino accused Ravell and opposition leaders of meeting with U.S. officials to fine tune anti-referendum strategies and receiving $3 million in U.S. funds. The explosive news story bolstered Chavez supporters claims that the U.S. will do anything to undermine the Chavez administration.

The opposition cause also took a hit also when police found 100 Molotov cocktails in a truck of anti-Chavez students engaged in a rock throwing, tear gas melee. Just before the Feb. 15 vote the digital universe was dominated by Venezuela’s expulsion of rightist Spanish politician Luis Herrero, who had called Chavez a dictator and criticized the National Election Council for adding two hours to the Feb.15 voting. Even former Polish President Lech Walesa, an anti-communist hero, tried to get into the act of provocations by trying to campaign on behalf of the opposition under the cover of private meetings with individuals and institutions “interested in the history of democratic changes in Poland.” When the government warned Walesa that his trip would be watched, Walesa cancelled the trip.

Perhaps the most disturbing pre-election act was the ransacking and vandalism of a Caracas synagogue. Charges that the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador from Venezuela during the war on Gaza led to the anti-Semitic act waned after Jewish leaders commended officials for the quick arrests of eleven suspects, including eight policemen. The government pledged to fully investigate the attack.

Term limits for U.S. president was added to the constitution after Franklin Roosevelt won four consecutive elections, restructuring the U.S. economy more favorably for working people through the New Deal programs. But no term limits exist for senators and congressmen. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has twice sought to overcome constitutional term limits in that country, yet has not been painted as a “dictator” for those efforts.

During the campaign, President Chavez traveled throughout the country engaging large crowds almost daily. Venezuela’s new Unified Venezuelan Socialist Party (PSUV) sent activists door to door to explain the significance of the upcoming vote. Disciplined PSUV youth groups maintained a street presence to counter young right-wing brawlers.

Confirm Hilda Solis now!

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 06:38:00 +0000

Congresswoman Hilda Solis' confirmation to be our new Secretary of Labor is now scheduled for a 'test' vote on Tuesday, Feb. 24, in the Senate. This means that she must get 60 votes to stop a filibuster before she can be confirmed.

The Republicans are fully mobilized by big business and the far right to try and prevent her confirmation. Her husband's taxes have nothing to do with it. They are determined to stop her nomination as a way of fighting against the Employee Free Choice Act. She, like President Obama, strongly supports the bill.

This is fully in keeping with the Republican's unsuccessful efforts to derail the economic stimulus package. In fact it is a continuation of the same Republican bankruptcy that pushes tax breaks for the rich and rejects public works and people helping spending. The ultra right in the Republican Party and big business fear Employee Free Choice because of the crucial role the legislation will play in economic recovery. It will mean they and the rich will have to settle for less to promote recovery. After all it was the profiteering of the Banks and big business that got us into this economic crisis.

Hilda Solis and passage of Employee Free Choice will spur economic recovery by raising wages and working conditions for millions of working families. This means good jobs/green jobs from the economic stimulus that get money circulating by creating demand for goods and services. The combination of a Secretary of Labor that actually represents the interests of labor and passage of Employee Free Choice are the best counterbalance to the greed and power of Wall Street and big business. They are our country's best bet for economic recovery.

Take Action Now:

Number 1: pick up the telephone and call 202-224-3121 (or use the toll-free service at 866-544-7573). Ask the Capitol operator to transfer you to one of your state's U.S. senators. When you're connected, say you're calling to urge your senator to urge her/him to vote to confirm Hilda Solis on Feb. 24.

Japanese electronics giant set to slash 10,000 jobs

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:44:00 +0000

Original source: Japanese electronics firm Pioneer announced on Thursday that it will slash 10,000 jobs worldwide to cope with sinking sales of car audio equipment and flat-screen TVs.

It will also withdraw from its money-losing plasma display business.

The massive job cuts are the latest in a slew of lay-offs by Japanese corporate giants, which are shedding workers, reducing production and forecasting annual losses.

Eight thousand workers at Sony face the chop, while Nissan and NEC are each cutting 20,000.

Pioneer spokeswoman Michiko Kadoi said: 'Since the US financial crisis and ensuing global downturn, our sales of car electronics products and flat-screen TVs plunged worldwide. We were severely hit by battered consumer sentiment.'

Pioneer also said that it has decided to close down two plasma display assembly plants, one in California and the other in Britain, by April.

Pakistan comes clean on Mumbai attack

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:14:00 +0000

Original source: Pakistan acknowledged for the first time on Thursday that the Mumbai terrorist attacks were launched from its shores and at least partly plotted on its soil.

Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik confirmed that Pakistan had arrested most of the main suspects and initiated criminal proceedings.

'Some part of the conspiracy has taken place in Pakistan and , according to the available information, most of the suspects are in our custody,' he said.

Mr Malik said that criminal cases had been opened against eight suspects on charges of 'abetting, conspiracy and facilitation' of a terrorist act and that six of them were already in custody.

He reported that investigators had traced a boat engine that was used by the attackers to sail from Pakistan to India and had busted two hideouts of the suspects near Karachi.

Other leads pointed to Europe and the US, Mr Malik said, adding that Pakistan would ask the FBI for help.

He also reported that the pieces of evidence that had been collected 'connect to' the leadership of Lashkar-e-Taiba, including Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarrar Shah, who India says masterminded the attacks.

But he said that Pakistan needed more assistance from India if it was to bring a successful criminal prosecution.

India and the US have urged Pakistan to crack down on Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group that has been widely blamed for the bloodshed.

Pakistan has already arrested several of the group's leaders.

New Delhi says that all 10 gunmen, only one of whom was captured alive, were Pakistanis and that their handlers in Pakistan had kept in touch with them by phone during the three-day assault.

Pakistani investigators have not yet identified the nine gunmen killed in the attack.

But they have confirmed that Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, the gunman who was caught alive, is a Pakistani.

Mr Malik's statement indicates that Pakistan is serious about punishing the people behind the November attacks which killed at least 173 people and stirred fears that the nuclear-armed neighbours could slide towards war.

Senior Indian ministers have accused Pakistani security agencies of some involvement in the attacks.

Senate panel approves Solis as labor secretary

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:11:00 +0000

(AFL-CIO Blog) One week after postponing a confirmation vote on Hilda Soli as secretary of labor, the Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee today approved on a voice vote President’s Obama’s choice to lead the Labor Department and sent the nomination to the full Senate for confirmation. That vote could come tomorrow.

The Solis nomination was announced in December, and her confirmation hearing took place Jan. 9. But Big Business groups and a number of Republican senators have loudly, and at times almost hysterically, complained about Solis’ long record of support for working families and unions.

Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) has called Solis “a tireless champion for working families.”

After eight years of the Bush administration’s Department of Labor under Elaine Chao—trashing workers’ rights, weakening workplace safety rules, ignoring wage and hour violations and siding with Big Business at about every juncture—the idea of a labor secretary siding with workers must be terrifying to some.

Most of the criticism centers on Solis’ support of the Employee Free Choice Act, which she has co-sponsored in the House. Republican senators have even suggested that if confirmed, Solis should be barred from advocating for the restoration of workers’ rights to form a union and bargain for a better life, as the bill provides.

Says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney:

'Senate Republicans can’t just oppose a secretary of labor because she supports working Americans and favors curbing excessive corporate power.'

US Senate oks Obama plan

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 14:20:00 +0000

Washington, (Prensa Latina) The US Senate voted 61 to 37 to approve a federal anti-crisis rescue plan Tuesday, proposed by President Barack Obama valued at $838 million.

In the final vote, three moderate Republicans joined the Dems to defeat an attempt of the opposition minority to stop the proposal of the US president.

Now the bill goes to the House of Representatives where delegations of both sides will reconcile a version to be presented to the Executive.

The decision of the Senate was completed an hour after US Treasure Secretary Timothy Geithner underlined the great problems affecting the national financial system and the urgency to fix them.

Senators Susan Collins, Arlen Specter and Olympia Snowe were the only Republican legislators who did not boycott the program designed by Obama.

The US lost almost 600,000 jobs last month and the national unemployment went up to 7.6 percent, the highest in 16 years.

This is another of the many consequences of the recession that started a little more than a year ago.

Obama started a tour to defend his economic plan, in states such as Indiana and Florida, both strongly affected by massive layoffs.

Declassified U.S. documents recall Cuba contacts

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:55:00 +0000

George Washington University’s National Security Archives has released classified government documents shedding light on U.S. relations with Cuba. On the National Archives website (gwu.edu), Senior Analyst Peter Kornbluh notes, “This rich declassified record of the past provides a road map for the new administration to follow in the future.”

His message is that any Cuba negotiations undertaken by the Barack Obama administration will hardly occur in a vacuum. Precedents are in place from the Kennedy through Clinton administrations. And reasoning and rationale that informed leaders then carry weight now. Likely as not, their ideas on negotiation methods are still relevant.

The administration of George W. Bush was alone in shying away from contacts with Cuban leaders. He was the only president who used executive orders to intensify restrictions imposed under the U.S. blockade, in force since 1961.

The elder President Bush did sign the onerous Cuba Democracy Act of 1992, which barred foreign-based subsidiaries of U.S. companies from trading with Cuba and blocked ships that visited Cuba from docking at U.S. ports for six months afterwards. President Clinton eased travel restrictions, but joined with Congress in 1996 to enact the Helms-Burton Law, which encouraged U.s. courts to target foreign business owners in Cuba and shifted responsibility for changing embargo rules from the Executive Branch to Congress.

The National Security Archives put eight documents relating to U.S.-Cuba relations on display on its web site on Jan. 22. A brief summary testifies to their significance.

In a secret memo, Kennedy aide Richard Goodwin reports on meeting with Che Guevara in Uruguay on Aug. 17, 1961. This first instance of talks between officials of both countries is remarkable for Guevara’s suggestion that negotiations should begin, and focus on secondary issues “as a cover for more serious conversation.” Responding later to a memo from the U.S. negotiator on releasing Bay of Pigs prisoners, Kennedy expressed interest in pursuing dialogue with Fidel Castro.

Two weeks before his assassination, recordings preserved a Kennedy conversation with McGeorge Bundy demonstrating active participation in deciding on methods to achieve secrecy during an upcoming visit to Cuba for talks by U.S. diplomat William Attwood.

In 1974, Henry Kissinger, then President Ford’s National Security Council head, is seen to approve a subordinate’s memo calling for openings toward Cuba. They were responding to Latin American demands for trade and diplomatic relations with Cuba. Kornbluh says Kissinger initiated secret contacts with the Cubans himself.

The next year, Kissinger aides met with Cuban representatives in a cafeteria at New York’s La Guardia Airport. One of them delivered a document approved by Kissinger that said, “We are meeting here to explore the possibilities for a more normal relationship between our two countries.”

Also in 1975, as Latin American nations were preparing to resume relations with Cuba, Harry Shlaudeman, a deputy assistant Secretary of State for Latin America, prepared a memo sketching out the process toward normal diplomatic relations. “Our interest is in getting the Cuba issue behind us, not in prolonging it indefinitely,” the memo states. It speaks of getting Cuba “off the domestic and inter-American agendas.”

On March 15, 1977, President Carter ordered normalization of U.S. relations with Cuba. The directive appearing on the Archives web site instructs Carter’s foreign policy experts to “set in motion a process which will lead to the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba.” U.S. pressure on Cuba to withdraw troops from Southern Africa derailed the effort.

President Obama has signaled his administration’s desire to restore the U.S. image before the world. The effect of its Cuba policies on world opinion surely weighs upon Obama no less than on his predecessors. Obama likely takes Latin American condemnation seriously, especially as the movement gains there for integration, mutual support and independence from U.S. hegemony.

The well-oiled device of approaching “secondary issues” first probably still makes sense, if only because there are so many of them. The agenda includes easing of travel restrictions, freeing the Cuban Five, dealing with immigration, firming up cooperative drug interdiction strategies, and facilitating agricultural sales to Cuba.

Pressures brought by powerful interests deflected assays by previous presidents — Jimmy Carter in particular — to shed the blockade against Cuba. Obama, fresh off a powerful electoral victory and enjoying remarkable public approval, is not lacking in strength of his own — enough, one assumes, to move beyond old ways on Cuba. In any event, he will not have invented openings to Cuba. “We don’t start from zero,” Danielle Bleitrach writes on rebelion.org.

UnionBook: A social network for labor

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 04:15:00 +0000

Original source: Union activists are, well, active. Sometimes that’s a problem on social network sites like FaceBook, MySpace and others that tend to limit an individual’s activity if it exceeds their arbitrary limits.

Our friends at LabourStart have an answer—UnionBook, the just-launched social networking website for trade unionists. Already with some 1,300 members, UnionBookis free of advertising—unlike other sites—and specifically designed for trade unionists around the world. Now, that’s a heck of community.

Says LabourStart Editor Eric Lee:

If you’re too active doing the kind of networking that we trade unionists do all the time—recruiting friends, sending out messages, and so on—FaceBook can blacklist you and close your account. This has already happened to a number of union activists.

We’re not telling anyone to stop using other social networks. If you are active in Facebook or any of the others, that’s fine. But use UnionBook for your trade union activities and see how easy it is to build and form groups, and to publish content online.

UnionBook offers many features that you and your union will find useful. Among these are:

* Blogs—build your own blog today, free, with no ads. * Groups—create a group to support your union and your campaigns. Groups can have discussion forums and shared documents. They can be public or closed. They’re a very powerful tool. * Profiles—post your profile and sign up your friends.

Lee is modest about LabourStart’s accomplishment.

We know that UnionBook will never be as big as the giant commercial networks like FaceBook, but once we have several thousand trade unionists using it, I’m confident that it will become a powerful tool for our movement worldwide.

Networking knows no bounds, and it just expanded with UnionBook. Check it out and get (even more) active.

Israel navy captures Gaza Strip aid vessel

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 05:30:00 +0000

Reposted from Morning Star ISRAEL'S navy attacked and seized international aid ship the Tali that was heading for the besieged Gaza Strip on Thursday.

Al-Jadeed and al-Jazeera journalists who were aboard the Tali said that the Israelis had fired at the ship before boarding it and beating those on board.

Gunfire could be heard in the background of the telephoned reports aired by the two stations.

The Tali was attempting to deliver 60 tons of desperately needed aid to the devastated Palestinian territory. The Israeli navy claimed that no gunshots had been fired at the ship while it had boarded and seized the vessel. The navy said that it was towing the ship, which set sail on Tuesday from Lebanon, into an Israeli port.

Lebanon's prime minister condemned the 'blatant attack' and one of the organisers of the voyage called it a kidnapping.

Israel claimed that the ship had tried to slip past its navy after agreeing to sail to Egypt instead.

The Israeli military said that those on board the ship would be handed over to Israeli immigration authorities and that the aid would be transferred to Gaza by land.

The coalition of Lebanese political and human rights activists who organised the mercy mission said that 18 people were on board. The cargo was comprised of medicine, food, toys and basic humanitarian supplies such as mattresses and blankets.

Among the passengers was Greek Catholic priest Hilarion Capucci, who, while serving as an archbishop in Jerusalem in 1974, was convicted by an Israeli court for using his diplomatic status to smuggle arms to Palestinian liberation fighters. He was later released from jail at the intervention of the Vatican and deported.

The Free Gaza Movement, which did not organise the Lebanese voyage but which has successfully sent several boatloads of activists to Gaza in the past, said that one of its British volunteers, Theresa McDermott from Edinburgh, was also on board the Tali.

Israel has imposed a suffocating blockade of Gaza since June 2007, when the elected Hamas government defeated an attempted coup by security forces loyal to the opposition party Fatah.

The siege led to shortages of food, medicine, fuel and electricity in Gaza.

Israel claims that smuggling tunnels between Gaza and neighbouring Egypt are being used to bring in weapons, but the majority of such traffic is food, fuel and medicine. Closing the tunnels was a condition of Israel's temporary halt to its 22-day onslaught on Gaza, which killed over 1,300 people.

LETTERS February 14, 2009

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 09:54:00 +0000

Print edition needed

I must respectfully disagree with the letter of Michael Dollard (PWW 2/7-13) calling for the People’s Weekly World to abandon a print edition in favor of an expanded online edition. The PWW is a newspaper rich in tradition dating back to its 1924 founding as The Daily Worker.

The print edition must be accessible to the poor who may not have a computer at home. The print edition must be available for distribution to workers in an effort to get out the message to them.

Mainstream media ignore progressive issues, so much more the reason for the print edition of the PWW. When speaking with friends or co-workers one can pull out the print edition and show an article or issue not covered by corporate media. That’s why it is imperative the print edition of the PWW must continue.

The PWW staff should be applauded for their hard work. They are carrying out a fine tradition and it is appreciated.

Tom Downes

Chicago IL

No compromise on war crimes

John Case’s People Before Profits column on the proposed bailout (“Obama’s stimulus plan must be passed now,” PWW 1/31-2/6) contained a major error. While it was a good piece, calling for passage of the bailout, the last paragraph was a real problem. After calling for passage of the bailout, then speaking of Obama’s attempts to reach out to Republicans on this issue (all good points), he states that a compromise on this issue may require Obama to agree to give up any future possible prosecution of Bush or his appointees in regard to torture, lies in taking the nation to illegal wars, etc. There is absolutely no factual basis for this statement. We need to assure that speculation is not allowed to appear, in place of factual reporting.

Bruce Bostick

Columbus OH

Although John Case’s “People Before Profits” had many excellent points, I strongly disagree with the last section dealing with compromise with the Republicans and the crimes of the last administration. Firstly, to suggest now that compromise might be necessary is very premature and runs the risk of a repeat of the Clinton shift to the right. As we learned after the article was written, no sense of compromise or bipartisanship convinced one Republican in the House to vote yes on the stimulus plan. Any estimate of the need for compromise at any particular moment should only be made after an objective reading of the people who comprise the largest lobby responsible for the victory of democracy. There should be no compromise for crimes that have endangered our democracy and the world.

If the crimes of the Bush administration are not brought to trial, then we will certainly repeat them. Keith Olbermann was correct to say that prosecuting the criminals is not looking back but indeed looking forward. Also, one cannot separate the state of the economy or its recovery from these crimes. It was the atmosphere of the last eight years that allowed a situation that worsened and perhaps hastened the slide into a depression. With the economies of the world so intertwined, recovery will also depend on our international credibility. How will we be regarded if we do not conduct our version of the Nuremberg Trials?

The administration and Congress will have to make the time to quickly restore a sense of justice and security.

David S. Bell

Philadelphia PA

John Case replies: I expected this criticism, which may well be justified. But I think speed is of the essence in the recovery. The very real possibility that the initial stimulus may not get the job done means that some compromise with the Republicans must take place. A governing majority capable of repeated, bold, experimental actions must be sustained. I am inclined to cut Obama some slack on his political judgment, which has so far, in the main, been justified.

Off mark

A doctrinaire response to politics or culture can send a critic wide of the mark. Your reviewer of the film “Cadillac Records” (PWW 1/31-2/6) provides an example. First, James Thompson describes the African American blues singers’ relationships with record producer Leonard Chess as “subservient.” In including Howlin’ Wolf in the group, he ignores the fact that Wolf is shown as independent and self-reliant. He is a contrast to Muddy Waters, and shows that Waters and others who blew their earnings were not simply mindless victims but agents of their careers and fates.

Second, why does the reviewer describe producer Leonard Chess as an “Anglo boss,” when Chess’s Jewishness is part of the film’s treatment of Chess?

Lastly, in noting Willie Dixon’s successful suit against Led Zeppelin for using Dixon’s music without attribution, the reviewer states that this incident was an instance of the “theft of Black music” that other white performers such as “Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys and the Rolling Stones” committed. This “politically correct” accusation betrays a deafness to music’s dynamic, democratic traditions. All adaptations, imitations and “covers” of other musical traditions are not theft. There was and is no basis for accusing Presley, the Beach Boys or the Stones of theft. Was Ray Charles a thief when he sang country western music? Are Black jazz musicians thieves when they create their own versions of Tin Pan Alley tunes?

In writing criticism, one helps readers best by responding to what is actually in a work, rather than projecting upon a work one’s own prejudices and fantasies.

John Woodford

Ann Arbor MI

No to sacrifice, yes to solutions

The economic crisis can be solved in favor of “Main Street” only if the people who live on “Main Street” make it happen. There is no other way. Relying on our government to “do the right thing” will not work; it will take the organized struggle of the people to realize any benefit.

Sacrifice? There is no need to “sacrifice.” That notion must be confronted head on. Main Street has been sacrificing for more than 30 years on the downward economic spiral while the folks who caused the crisis were bagging the upward concentration of wealth. There’s plenty of money and resources. If we want to see real change that will benefit Main Street, then Main Street must first demand: a drastic cut in the military budget and militarism while shifting that spending to domestic programs. Secondly, along with enacting strong regulation of the financial sector, we need nationalization of the banks and other large industries such as the automobile industry. Thirdly, we need to enact single-payer national health care for all, getting everyone covered, saving billions and creating jobs. The key to any economic recovery that is going to help Main Street in the long run is how well the people are organized and how effective we are in getting these key demands acted upon by our government.

Michael Scheinberg

Via e-mail

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Posada, Cuban Five: Now in Obamas court

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:37:00 +0000

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez last month asked the Obama administration to extradite Luis Posada to Venezuela, in accordance with treaty obligations. Venezuela wants him to finish judicial proceedings there, cut short in 1985 when he escaped from jail. Posada, a citizen of Cuba and Venezuela, had been jailed because of his central role in organizing the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976 that killed all 73 people aboard. The Bush administration refused to extradite Posada after his illegal arrival in Florida in 2005.

Last October, Panama filed its own extradition request after its Supreme Court ruled that Posada’s release from jail there in 2004 was illegal. He and three other Miami-based Cuban-American desperados had been freed prematurely by outgoing President Mireya Moscoso. They had been in jail since 2000 when their assassination attempt against Fidel Castro, who was visiting, went awry. Washington had prompted Moscoso’s action, and sponsors in Miami reportedly bribed her.

Three days after the Panamanian Court decision, an appeals court judge in New Orleans instructed U.S. prosecutors to resume proceedings against Posada for immigration fraud. These had languished in May 2007 when a judge called the trial off due to prosecutors’ shoddy preparations — purposefully flawed, say observers, to cause delay. The elderly Posada has lived in Miami since then.

There is the matter, however, of a costly grand jury investigation in New Jersey that for three years has been looking into alleged stateside financing of Posada’s El Salvador operations in the 1990s. In a 1998 New York Times interview with Ann Louise Bardach, Posada boasted of monetary support from New Jersey and Miami friends and a blind eye from the CIA, a former employer. Posada’s Central American operatives bombed hotels in Havana in 1997, killing an Italian tourist. According to Bardach, Posada’s dossier in the Miami FBI office was destroyed in 2003.

In 2006, Venezuela’s U.S. lawyer Jose Pertierra accused the Bush administration of using immigration charges “to delay the [extradition] process as much as possible to try to hide the protection Washington is giving the terrorist.” A prolonged grand jury investigation serves the same purpose. Pending court proceedings are regularly used to rationalize extradition delays. Bardach claims the Justice Department also delayed the grand jury investigation to spare Republicans from adverse publicity during an election year. Further delay would result if Posada’s lawyer Arturo Hernández makes good on his threat last week eventually to seek Supreme Court judgment on Posada.

Jean-Guy Allard pointed out in Cuba’s Granma newspaper last week that the Posada case is now up to new Attorney General Eric Holder. For Posada again to receive favorable treatment at the immigration court level or from the federal judiciary would invite unflattering comparisons with convictions and sentencing handed out to the Cuban Five. Contradictions, already stark, would mount if the Justice Department gave in to pressures to let Posada off the hook while leaving in jail men who tried to block terrorists’ crimes.

Bardach, no friend of the Cuban revolution, suggests Washington need no longer bow to a Cuban-American conglomerate fast losing its appeal, due in part to recent revelations. She reports that only 17 percent of U.S. funding for regime change in Cuba — $45 million last year alone — actually arrived on the island (bardachreports@aol.com).

Florida groups serving as conduits kept the rest. Former Bush aide Felipe Sixto admitted last year to stealing over $600,000 in U.S. grants while heading the Center for a Free Cuba, recipient of $7.2 million since 2005. Opinion polling in December 2008 showed 55 percent of Cuban Americans as calling for an end to the U. S. blockade.

Meanwhile on Jan. 30, lawyers for the Cuban Five submitted a Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking that tribunal to reject rulings by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. A change of venue for the original trial was indeed warranted, they argued, because of bias in Miami. They claimed also that Gerardo Hernandez’ conviction on conspiracy to commit murder is invalid because of lack of evidence. Whether or not the court will consider the case will be known in several months.

Star Tribune bankruptcy imperils 1,400 Minnesota jobs

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:47:00 +0000

Reposted from Workday Minnesota MINNEAPOLIS - The Star Tribune's move to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy puts 1,400 local workers' jobs in limbo. About two-thirds of the workers at the state's largest newspaper are union members.

The eight unions at the Star Tribune face the likely prospect that the newspaper will use bankruptcy proceedings, filed on Jan. 15, to persuade a judge to impose concessionary contracts, union leaders fear.

The newspaper remains profitable, but has been unable to keep up with debt payments taken on when New York's Avista Capital Partners bought the newspaper two years ago in a highly leveraged deal — borrowing 80 percent of $530 million purchase price.

'The debt's dragging them down, not us,' said Mike Bucsko, executive officer of the Minnesota Newspaper Guild, whose just under 300 members are the largest bargaining unit at the newspaper.

Three different Teamsters locals represent the newspaper's mailers, drivers and pressmen while four additional unions also represent smaller groups of workers.

'We're trying to work together as much as possible,' Bucsko reported.

The eight unions' contracts have staggered expiration dates, one factor that's hampered united efforts in the past. The Newspaper Guild settled a three-year contract last summer, yielding $2.4 million a year in concessions.

Weeks before filing for bankruptcy, the newspaper sought additional concessions that would bring the total to $10-12 million, Bucsko said.

Buskso faulted Avista. 'They borrowed all this money to make the purchase… We have to pay the price for it.'

Buckso added: 'The community is in danger of perhaps losing the biggest newspaper in the state.'

'Newspapers are too much of a community asset to allow companies to come in like this and destroy them,' he said.

'Our goal is to make sure the Star Tribune survives and the community continues to be served by the newspaper,' Bucsko emphasized.

Despite falling circulation, the Star Tribune Sunday edition is the 10th largest newspaper in the U.S. and the newspaper's daily circulation makes it the 15th largest.

Like newspapers across the country, however, the Star Tribune has experienced a precipitous drop in advertising sales, driven in part by the recession and in part by the era of the internet.

'What's important to recognize is that like many other industries across America, newspapers have gone through wrenching dislocations through the years,' said Graydon Royce, who co-chairs the Newspaper Guild's Star Tribune unit.

Royce, who grew up in Minneapolis, is a 29-year veteran at the Star Tribune and currently works as fine arts writer and theatre critic.

'We're in a generational change in how people use newspapers,' he noted. 'The newspaper unions are caught in that.'

'The nature of a newspaper, the way a newspaper is made, whether it's even going to be on paper, is all up for grabs in the next five years,' he said. 'This is going to bring enormous pressure on newspaper unions.'

For the Star Tribune's Newspaper Guild members, the pressure already has been enormous. The unit has lost 100 jobs in the past two years — that's about 25 percent of its membership.

Reporters and photographers are being asked to do more. Instead of meeting a daily deadline, they're now driven by the 24-7 deadlines possible on the internet. 'As the product moves onto the web, we're expanding into webcasts, podcasts and video features,' Royce reported. 'We're doing a lot more for no more pay.'

'All that goes back to the idea that we're really committed to the survival of the newspaper,' Royce said. 'We've lost jobs, we've made concessions, we're working harder to try to keep the newspaper alive.'

The traditional big city daily newspaper now faces a host of on-line competition from new, sometimes highly-opinionated sources. 'That's the battle,' Royce said. 'What we bring is credibility, a long tradition and the fact that we believe we are the best journalists and the best news-gatherers in the area.'

'That credibility should count for something when people consider a news source,' he said.

Some people see a bleak future for newspapers but Royce views the challenges differently. 'There's a future — in a different way,' he observed. The newspaper, he maintained, has the opportunity to respond to change and move into a new era. 'We're still a news provider. We've got to keep our eye on the ball.'

In the short run, in the meantime, all eyes will be on the Star Tribune's bankruptcy proceedings, how the newspaper will pay its bills, how its debt might be restructured, and whether union contracts will be honored or rewritten by the bankruptcy court.

One interesting development in the story: Wayzata Investment Partners — a private equity investment firm based in Wayzata, Minnesota — has been revealed as Avista's largest creditor in documents disclosed as part of the bankruptcy filing.

Labor Review and Workday Minnesota readers may remember learning about Wayzata Investment Partners last fall, when the Twin Cities labor community rallied outside Wayzata's offices to support visiting Steelworkers from Oregon. Wayzata had purchased Cascade Pacific Pulp, a longtime union paper mill in Halsey, Oregon, and sought to impose dramatic concessions in workers' wages and benefits (See story on Workday). The workers later settled a better contract.

The Star Tribune, however, did not cover that story.

Steve Share is editor of the Minneapolis Labor Review and a Minnesota Newspaper Guild member.

Iraqs Communists run lively campaign

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 07:54:00 +0000

On the final day of campaigning for Iraq’s provincial elections, a Communist Party motorcade waving banners and with loudspeakers blaring drove through Baghdad’s impoverished Sadr City district, known to many Iraqis as Thawra (revolution) City, Jan 29.

More than 30 cars took part, distributing leaflets and calling on people to vote for the democratic coalition list, Madaniyoun, in which the party is participating. The flyers included an appeal issued by Iraqi Communist Party leader Hamid Majeed Mousa, calling on all Iraqis to participate actively in the Jan. 31 provincial elections. National and local Communist Party leaders joined the motorcade.

The party held motorcades in neighborhoods throughout Baghdad, including Karradah, Palestine Street, Waziriyyah, Adhhamiyyah, Husseiniyya, Yousifiyya, Jihad, Mansour, Hurriya, Kadhimiyyah, Alawi and others. The day before, the ICP held an outdoor ceremony in Baghdad winding up its campaign The event attended by hundreds of members and supporters, took place in the courtyard of the party headquarters at Andulus Square in central Baghdad. Along with political speeches, it featured readings by well-known Iraqi poets.

Mousa, secretary of the party’s Central Committee, told the crowd that the provincial elections would be 'a memorable day in the history of Iraq and in your lives.'

Comparing it to problem-filled previous elections, he said, 'We hope that this experience will be different. It is an opportunity for the masses of our people to freely express their hopes and ambitions and to elect those deemed eligible for expressing these hopes and aspirations and defending them.'

'We have presented to the people an alliance of Communists, democrats, honest nationalists and genuine independent figures,” Mousa said. “This alliance, which has taken the name of Madaniyoun in Baghdad and other names depending on the circumstances of each province, is a bouquet of roses, that promote hope, love and tolerance in the hearts of the people, and promise them, in word and deed, a better life.'

Mousa stressed that, regardless of the ongoing controversy over the division of powers between Iraq’s central government and the provinces and regions, the provincial governments will play a bigger role in the life of each province, and in decision-making at all levels.