People Before Profit blog

White House undermines women

Sat, 26 Jan 2002 09:40:00 +0000

The Bush administration’s assaults on women’s programs continued right up until the ball dropped on 2001, with a late December announcement that the 10 regional offices of the Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau will be axed this year. Of course the administration cites budget cuts, though the bureau’s offices spend less in one year than the Department of Defense spends in a couple of hours on planes the military doesn’t even want.

The Women’s Bureau has been advocating for working women for 80 years. It pressed to establish the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, eased women’s transition into the war industry during World War II, fought to establish the President’s Commission on the Status of Women and to pass the Equal Pay Act in 1963, and encouraged family-friendly polices such as the Family and Medical Leave law in 1993.

Currently the bureau has an initiative to interest more girls and young women in science, math, and technology careers, but after all, they’re only girls and probably shouldn’t aspire to such jobs anyway.

Though the decision won’t be final until the budget passes, it looks like the bureau’s regional offices will go the way of the White House Office on Women’s Issues and the President’s Interagency Council on Women, both abolished last year.

The move comes at a strange time for an administration keeping its eye on that all-important gender gap in this election year. Women fill nearly half the ranks of the work force – 65 million are in the labor force or looking for work. Full-time, year-round working women still make only 72 cents to a man’s dollar, and their benefits are woefully lacking.

While applauding administration moves like signing the Afghan Women and Children’s Relief Act, female voters – now the majority – know their own fortunes depend on actions right here at home. Mr. Bush has already said he wants to privatize their main source of retirement, Social Security, making it vulnerable to the vagaries of the stock market and manipulation by corporate crooks like his old buddies at Enron.

With administration moves like dismantling the Women’s Bureau and an economic recovery package that bails out corporations but not laid-off workers, women could get mad. Who knows, they might even decide to get even in November by turning over control of the House to the Democrats.

Martha Burk heads the Center for Advancement of Public Policy in Washington, D.C., which focusing on equal treatment of women.

11th hour on global warming

Sat, 26 Jan 2002 09:36:00 +0000

Last year was the second warmest since regular records began 120 years ago, according to the National Climatic Data Center, and scientists predict 2002 may be the warmest year yet. Global warming is here, and an international panel of scientists has determined that humans are in large part responsible.

Burning coal to generate electricity in power plants, driving cars, and heating our homes with oil are examples of activities that release carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the air. Many of these pollutants remain in our atmosphere for decades or even centuries, creating a blanket that surrounds the Earth, trapping heat and raising temperatures on the ground.

But the changes brought by global warming don’t just mean warmer temperatures. The projected shift in worldwide temperature could bring major disruptions, from coastal flooding to changes in crop production, which affect us all. Simple steps now, along with planning and adaptation strategies, can help minimize the damage without sacrificing our economy or our quality of life.

The crucial step is to reduce global warming pollution immediately. Some of the largest corporations are already doing so voluntarily. The federal government should require these reductions and develop incentives to reduce pollution from big and small businesses as well as individuals. The Bush administration also needs to restore the United States to its leadership role in the international effort to control global warming.

Here’s a glimpse at what the nation could look like in 100 years if we don’t take prudent steps now to reverse the warming trend:

It is likely that many areas will be much hotter than today. In Des Moines, Iowa, according to some models, the number of days a year with temperatures over 90 degrees could nearly double, rising from the current average of 30 days to more than 50 days – that’s nearly two months of 90-degree-plus weather. Houston could go from a handful of days above 100 degrees to more than a month.

Because warm temperatures increase smog, global warming could mean worse urban air pollution. Smog contributes to respiratory ailments like asthma and is responsible for thousands of hospital visits every year.

Steamy temperatures also could cause tropical diseases like dengue fever to move northward in the United States. Widely reported incidences of West Nile virus here could be a harbinger of more to come.

Melting glaciers and expanding oceans could cause flooding to become common in many areas. The nation’s capital, for example, built on former swampland bordering the Potomac River, is already susceptible to flooding.

In places like North Carolina and Florida, heavy downpours like those associated with 1999’s Hurricane Floyd could increase the threat of death and property damage and contaminate beaches already threatened by rising water.

On the West Coast, the climate may become increasingly variable, with more severe storms alternating with more severe droughts. An increase in El Nino-type conditions, already more common, could add to the severity of winter storms. More severe storms and a rising ocean could decimate many California beaches and harm marine animals such as sea lions. More frequent droughts and hotter temperatures also could increase the risk of wildfires.

Without proper policies to reduce pollution, the heartland will also feel the effects of climate change. A warmer climate could mean a longer growing season, but such a change would also bring massive shifts in crop production, with the growing region for the Midwest’s current staple crops shifting northward. The changes also could mean increased flooding along major rivers like the Mississippi and a greater threat of pests and diseases.

Given the severity of the potential damages predicted by scientists, it makes sense to take prudent action now to reduce the risks. Protecting the nation from global warming doesn’t have to mean our economy will suffer, as some politicians have claimed.

Leading companies are already proving they can reduce global warming pollution and still make a profit. A small expenditure now in the form of smart policies and sound planning will help us avoid paying a higher price later.

Janine Bloomfield is a senior scientist for Environmental Defense, a national nonprofit organization.

Missile defense: fools gold

Sat, 26 Jan 2002 09:33:00 +0000

When the Pentagon’s latest “kill vehicle” slammed into a mock warhead 140 miles above the Pacific Ocean, the Bush administration and defense contractors cheered: National missile defense was one step closer to fruition.

They should have held their applause. This was only the fifth out of at least 20 highly controlled tests. Realistic conditions come later. The reality is that President Bush, even if he serves two terms, will likely be retired before any missile defense system is ready to be deployed – even if it works.

But ever since the beginning of the Bush administration, the concept of missile defense has taken on an urgency that has captured the attention of Congress and the press, damaged our relations with Russia and other allies, and blinded Americans to the real threats from abroad.

Some day, maybe, if all the technological problems are overcome, missile defense may be a military weapon. Yet it is already being deployed as a political weapon.

Consider Sept. 11. The devastating attacks on our country were low-tech, planned and executed by private terrorists. No “rogue states” were involved. But before you could say, “ICBM,” missile defense proponents were crowing that the attacks proved the need for missile defense.

It was a brilliant tactic. Opponents had decided to hold their fire after Sept. 11, lest they be viewed as exploiting a national tragedy. So the field of debate was left to the hawks, whose fuzzy assertions obscured the real message of Sept. 11: namely, that attacks on the United States are unlikely to come by ballistic missile, but by more conventional means.

This irony was on display again recently. On the very day the latest missile defense test results were reported, the press also announced that the administration was concerned that Osama bin Laden might have a “dirty bomb,” a low-tech but scary weapon combining conventional explosives and readily available nuclear waste to spread radioactive particles over a wide area. It could be delivered by truck or other conventional methods.

However, it was also reported that same day that Congress was cutting the budget of the Nunn-Lugar program, designed to prevent terrorists and others from getting their hands on nuclear weapons material that can be used to make such rudimentary devices.

Missile defense also torpedoed the summit between Presidents Bush and Putin of Russia last month, resulting in a serious setback to nuclear weapons control. The two leaders had been expected to announce deep cuts in their nuclear arsenals and a deal to allow missile defense testing without killing the ABM treaty.

Unfortunately, Mr. Bush and Putin held a love-in rather than substantive talks, in part because Bush was unwilling to give up the idea of quick deployment of missile defense and wanted a quick death for the ABM treaty. He also was loath to put any arms control agreement in writing.

Mr. Bush’s hard-line negotiating position ignored two facts: First, even under the rosiest scenario, no missile defense system will be ready before 2008 at the earliest.

Second, virtually all technical experts believe that the ABM treaty does not restrict the missile defense research and testing that the administration needs in the next several years.

Missile defense is a debate we do not need to have right now. We should keep testing while not basing our national security strategy on a pipe dream. But Washington’s most passionate debates often have a life of their own fueled by egos and politics, not sound policy or reality. So it is with missile defense.

Fortunately, the fallout from this weapon, so far, is only political.

Christopher Madison directs the missile defense project at the Council for a Livable World Education Fund.

Sixth Amendment rights denied

Sat, 26 Jan 2002 09:29:00 +0000

CHICAGO – First Defense Legal Aid, an organization which provides police station defense to thousands of low income and minority people accused the Chicago police of systematically denying Chicagoans their Sixth Amendment right to an attorney.

The organization sued in federal court here Dec. 19, charging that the Chicago police and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office have used illegal methods, including physical force, to stop lawyers from seeing clients. Two First Defense attorneys, Dawn Sheikh and Sladjana Vukovic said that they were subjected to physical force by police officials who expelled them from police stations where they had gone to see clients, dragging them down stairs in separate incidents.

Sheikh said that she received severe bruises. The suit asks for “injunctive relief” from the court and monetary damages for the two attorneys. Defendants include the City of Chicago, Chicago Police Chief Terry Hillard, Cook County State’s Attorney Richard Devine, and several police officers.

Jean McLean Snyder of the MacArthur Center for Justice, affiliated with the University of Chicago Law School, which is handling the suit, pointed out that both Illinois Law and the famous Escobedo and Miranda decisions of the Supreme Court dictate that a person who is under arrest has the right to see an attorney at the police station if he or she so desires it, and that the police must immediately stop questioning anyone who asks for an attorney. Yet in scores of recent cases, First Defense attorneys were kept from seeing their clients for hours while questioning continued.

“These police tactics are not an accident or mistake,” Snyder said. “They are conscious effort to keep people from seeing their lawyers.” Kate Walz, executive director of First Defense, said that after a recent shooting of a policeman, 11 First Defense clients, rounded up by the police, were denied the right to see an attorney while they were relentlessly questioned for hours.

Also, she stated, the attorneys trying to meet with the arrested people were harassed by the police and lied to about the specific place their clients were being held. More than 45 public interest organizations are supporting the suit.

Jakes accused the Chicago police of trying to act as “judge, jury and prosecuting attorney” in many cases, and pointed out that the need to do something about youth violence in Chicago is not served by false arrests and police abuses. Coincidentally, the First Defense suit comes when Chicago’s public attention has once again been aroused by police abuses.

Four young African-American men were just released from jail where they were serving sentences for the 1986 rape and murder of medical student Laurie Roscetti. Through DNA testing it was discovered that their DNA did not match the evidence found at the crime scene. Press reports shows the case to be one of extreme police malfeasance.

One of the released men, Calvin Ollins, 14 years old at the time, was pressured into giving a false confession and implicating the others. The false confession was the only evidence to convict the men. Chicago Tribune reporters documented ways the police pressure people, even children as young as seven years old, to “confess” to crimes they did not commit.

Albuquerque groups present Grinch award

Sat, 26 Jan 2002 09:27:00 +0000

ALBUQUERQUE – Several community and labor groups here presented Furrs Supermarkets with its first annual “corporate Grinch” award last month. New Mexico Federation of Labor Executive Director Danny Rivera was disguised as the Grinch.

More than 60 members of community and labor groups formed an informational picket in front of the Lowes Food Market in downtown Albuquerque. Furrs went into bankruptcy and Lowes took their place.

The action focused public attention on the inadequate treatment of workers by the now bankrupt Furrs Supermarkets.

Its replacement, Lowes, also exploits their workers, many of whom are former Furrs’ workers. Lowes pays their workers minimum wage with no benefits and employees complain that the store does not schedule them for enough hours to provide for their families. Similar actions will be taking place in front of Lowes throughout New Mexico. The goal is to get Lowes’ parent corporation to sign a “neutrality agreement” and allow UFCW local 1564 to organize their employees and hold an election.

A neutrality agreement means the company will not use anti-union intimidation tactics during union organizing drives. The awards ceremony and picketline was organized by local groups, including Revisioning New Mexico, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1564, the Southwest Organizing Project and Jobs with Justice.

The First Lady's message to victims of the Enron collapse

Sat, 26 Jan 2002 09:22:00 +0000

A message from Laura Bush:

Gals, wondering what to do with your worthless Enron stock certificates? Decoupage! That’s right, Decoupage – the French art of dressing up surfaces with attractive scrap paper!

It seems like a whole mess of folks out there are sitting on Enron Stock Certificates, wondering what to do with them. Well, as your First Lady and Chairlady of the Washington chapter of Bringing Integrity To Christian Homemakers, I feel as if it is my responsibility to reach out to you all and help.

There are two tips that I have come up with to help people put their Enron stock to good use. Now, if you didn’t get a call from me back in August (after I’d spent 30 minutes wide-eyed talking over cosmos with Kenneth Lay) telling you: “Sell those suckers!” then you missed out on my first tip. So, here I am with my second tip:

Decoupage!

There are many dear, sweet people out there who aren’t part of Bushies’ Pioneers and, therefore, not on Bushie’s or my calling list. It just breaks my heart that they are holding trunk-fulls of now worthless Enron stock. If only you had used some of that stock when it was actually worth something to contribute to my husband, you would have been one of the people we let know to get rid of the rest of it before the bottom fell out!

How to decoupage Enron stock:

As with any craft project, you should read through and understand all directions before starting. Don’t rely on your husband – or you’ll end up stuck to the kitchen counter for two days while he finds all the places you hide your vodka!

1. If you have not prepared the surface of the item you plan to decoupage on, do so now. Make sure it is clean and paint/seal it now. If you didn’t hold much Enron stock, you may wish to decoupage a wooden tool or tackle kit. If you are one of the many Enron employees who had your entire life savings in stock, you will have enough to wallpaper several rooms of your home. Just think! The little extra time you spend giving your walls a novel, topical finish will really help your home sell after it is foreclosed on!

2. Cut out your Enron stock certificates. If you are a really bitter person, cut out letters and play smutty word games with Kenny Boy’s last name.

3. Arrange the Enron stock before you add the glue so you know where you want everything. Personally, as homemaker who loves crafts, I prefer a theme! Try adding pictures of cars or colleges you can no longer afford! Use your imagination!

4. Completely coat the back of the picture with your glue. Make sure that the room is well-ventilated and that your husband is not hovering over the glue pot as, if memory serves, he will wind up passing out on the fumes and go head-first into your unfinished decoupage!

5. Stick the Enron stock on the glue. Use your finger to gently push down the stock (don’t worry about tearing it – there is plenty more where that came from!) and push out any wrinkles and excess glue. You can also use a popsicle stick or brayer (which is what I also call my mother-in-law).

6. Continue with the last two steps until all your stock is glued on (for some of you in Houston, this could take several weeks of 24-7 decoupaging, but like those cute kitties on the poster say: Hang in there baby!) Let the glue dry.

7. Now, coat your Enron stocks completely with diluted white glue (approximately 3 parts glue to 1 part water) or decoupage medium. Let this dry completely before you let your husband rest Corona bottles or pretzels on it – or they will wind up part of your decoupage!

8. Now, you can continue to add coats of the glue or decoupage medium or use another sealer (polyurethane, acrylic spray, etc.) until you get the desired results. You will, however, want to keep adding coats until the edges of the pictures are smooth – or until you are thrown out of your house for not meeting the mortgage, whichever comes first.

– from the Internet

A Dream of Peace CD to aid hunger groups

Sat, 26 Jan 2002 09:16:00 +0000

Singer/songwriter Will Diehl has released his seventh full-length CD entitled A Dream Of Peace. Diehl’s expressive style ranges from contemporary folk to alternative and his hopeful lyrics explore the ambiguities presented by life and love.

Diehl is also donating 50 percent of the profits from sales of all of his CDs and Internet profits during the first four months of 2002 to World Hunger Year (www.worldhungeryear.org) and to Lemoyne Channels Food Rescue (www.paonline.com/channels).

Diehl has written more than 1,000 songs, dealing with love, relationships and environmental and social issues. Some of Diehl’s musical inspirations were culled in New York City performing in Greenwich Village clubs at night. He then left for Boston, where he co-wrote a children’s musical that was produced by the Boston Children’s Theatre. He and director George Giglio co-wrote The Amazing Musical Adventure of Herbert.

The production was recently adapted for video starring Boston youth. The main character discovers “it’s better to be yourself. Everyone has their own talent. You should make the most of who you are,” said Diehl.

Diehl was recently invited to play at the Millennium Music Conference in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on Feb. 15 at 10 p.m. This is an excellent opportunity to see Diehl live as well as many other artists who will be part of the conference weekend. Details are available at www.willdiehl.com.

Help, my teen wont talk to me!

Sat, 26 Jan 2002 09:09:00 +0000

If you’re a parent of a teenager, chances are excellent that more than once you’ve complained about how your teen simply refuses to talk to you. You want to communicate ... you want to know what your teen is doing, thinking, feeling ... you don’t want to face stoney silence.

It may not be much comfort, but know you’re not alone. It’s a problem many parents face, including, more likely, your own when you were growing up. Remember, for a moment, what it was like to be 14, 15, or 16 years old.

On the one hand, you wanted to be treated like an adult, yet were still dependent on your parents for money, food, housing and most other basics of living. One second you were telling your parents you didn’t need their help, the next asking them to drive you to the movies!

Teenagers typically have mixed feelings about growing up. They want to be independent, but are also frightened by all the things that independence will bring. They face complicated feelings they aren’t always willing, or able, to put into words. It’s also difficult for most parents as they try to decide how much independence their teen can handle and how much dependence is still needed.

One starting point is simply accepting that most teens are going to want to talk to their friends more than to their parents. But there are still things you can do to help guide your teen in the right direction.

• Invest in your teen:

Encourage your teen to invite friends to the house. Even if you can’t stand the noise coming from the stereo, make an effort to know their music. You don’t have to like your teen’s friends, music, or TV preferences to appreciate that he or she is trying to develop an identity separate from yours.

• Validate your teen’s feelings:

Yes, teens’ emotional reactions can seem irrational at times, but teens need to be encouragment. Instead of immediately giving advice, let your teen know you accept his or her reaction.

• Empower your teen:

Most parents don’t want to see their teenagers make the same mistakes they made growing up. That’s why it’s so tempting to solve your teens’ problems for them. Instead, say something like, “That’s tough, what are you going to do?” If they have no idea, then offer some solutions, but leave the decision up to them.

It may take some time for your teen to see that you are not going to lecture every time he or she talks to you. But your teen should begin to see you value his or her developing identity, and eventually will see you as someone to consult regarding life’s tougher decisions.

Most of all, trust that your teen will learn from his or her mistakes. Your teen is also more likely to make the right choices when feeling supported and valued by you!

Your teen is probably seeking support during these confusing times from his or her friends. Take a clue from your teen and seek out friends and co-workers who may be able to support you during this time. It can be a great relief to hear that other parents are experiencing the same struggles, and they may have other insights and strategies on how to make it.

Marci Payne is a Licensed Professional Counselor with Healing Grace Counseling Centers in Lee’s Summit, Missouri.

International Notes

Sat, 26 Jan 2002 09:05:00 +0000

Nigerian labor calls off general strike Last week leaders of Nigeria’s largest labor movement, the Nigeria Labor Congress, called off a two-day general strike to protest a sharp rise in fuel prices, after police arrested the NLC’s president, Adams Oshiomhole and dozens of other labor activists. The general strike had been outlawed by the Nigerian government and judiciary, and police tear-gassed a Jan. 16 demonstration in the capital city of Abuja.

The strike had broad support from the Nigerian people, whose average income is about $300 per year. Reports quoted workers and Nigerians from other social strata as backing the strike because even the former fuel prices were unaffordable for many.

ILO launches campaign vs child labor The International Labor Organization (ILO) will launch its “Red Card to Child Labor” campaign this week to coincide with the start of the 2002 African Cup of Nations that begins Jan. 19 in Bamako, Mali.

The new campaign is symbolized by the red card referees hand out for serious rule violations in soccer. The ILO is linking the campaign with the popularity of the African Cup of Nations 2002 to build the greatest public awareness of the harsh reality of child labor and to encourage support for the global movement against it. The campaign opens Jan. 25 with a signing ceremony involving Mali’s President, Alpha Oumar Konre, and co-sponsors from the Confederation Africaine de Football and the Comite d’organisation de la Coupe d’Africa des Nations 2002.

While Africa today is home to some 40 percent, or about 80 million, of the world’s child workers, the continent has in many ways led the struggle against child labor, especially in its worst forms. Of the 115 countries ratifying the ILO’s most recent labor standard, the Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention No. 182 (1999), 30 are from Africa.

China says presidential aircraft was bugged Shortly before the maiden flight of China’s new Boeing 767-300ER presidential aircraft, Chinese military communications experts reportedly discovered 27 listening devices planted inside the plane, including bugs in the headboard of the presidential bed, and in the presidential bathroom. Chinese officials have charged the bugs were planted while the plane was being refitted in the United States.

The devices are reported to be highly sophisticated, and designed to be triggered by a satellite communication. The U.S. Embassy and CIA have declined comment on the allegations. The plane was bought by the Chinese government in August 2000 and was sent to San Antonio for refitting before being flown to China later that month.

Russian leader worried about U.S. bases As the U.S. prepares to send warplanes to an airbase being built in Kyrgyzstan, the speaker of the Russian Duma (parliament) on Jan. 9 warned against letting U.S. bases become permanently established in the former republics of Soviet Central Asia.

“It is not desirable that permanent U.S. bases be established in Central Asia,” Gennady Selezynov said during a visit to Kazakhstan. Selezynov warned local officials that “as members of the collective security agreement of the Commonwealth of Independent States (a loose association of 12 former Soviet republics), we must not take a single decision without mutual consultation.”

Selezynov is a leading member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which remains the largest single party in Russia and in the Duma. Reportedly, the decision by President Vladimir Putin not to object to U.S. use of bases in the former Soviet Union has aroused concern by many Russian diplomatic and political leaders that a permanent U.S. presence would be dangerous for their country’s security and its interests in relation to oil pipeline routes from the energy-rich Caspian region.

Cypriot leaders agree to start talks Greek Cypriot leader Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash agreed last week to start intensive peace talks aimed at reuniting the island, divided for 27 years. UN special envoy Alvaro de Soto said the two had agreed to meet three times a week to work toward settling issues which have divided Cyprus since a July coup d’etat by the then-Greek dictatorship and extreme right-wing Cypriots, and the Turkish invasion that followed. Since then over one-third of the island has been occupied by Turkey.

An agreement would need to be approved in separate referendums by both Greek and Turkish Cypriots. In the past, Turkey has pressed for formal partition. There is broad support on the island for peaceful reunification of the country and its people under a federal system, with a single sovereignty and citizenship, and guarantees of fundamental rights and freedoms for all Cypriots.

On the streets of Ramallah: one woman's story

Sat, 26 Jan 2002 09:00:00 +0000

RAMALLAH, Palestine – Since the assassination of Raid Karmi in Tull Karem four days ago I got that creeping feeling again – the one I get when it obvious that the already hellish situation here in Palestine is going to escalate. The feeling I get when I see that once again Israeli policy under Sharon’s right-wing government doing everything to set this land ablaze.

“Sharon wants a bombing before Zinni returns,” we told each other, and sure enough he got it. There is a line from a Hebrew song I love – “Things that you see from there you can’t see from here” I know that outside of Palestine the thought that Israel’s policy makers knowingly provoke suicide operations must seem ludicrous. From here it is an undeniable fact.

Ariel Sharon is a master at provocation. He knows how to hit exactly where it hurts and more accurately, he knows how to humiliate a people to the point of suicidal recklessness.

Raid Karmi’s assassination, the home demolitions in Rafah and then in occupied east Jerusalem on the one hand, and pressuring President Arafat to arrest the head of the second biggest political faction in the PLO, thus losing his legitimacy as a leader of all Palestinians did the trick. The horrendous Bat-Mitzvah killing has now legitimized renewing the military offensive against the Palestinian people. Prime-Minster Sharon is back on his home turf.

I have been spending the last few days in lower Rammalah. Earlier today I met my friend Haki in the street. He lives on Al Arsal Street, which was occupied two days ago. He carried a plastic bag with his pajamas in it. He was coming to stay with us in Lower Ramallah. I was going to the Internet cafe and would see him later. Or so I thought.

With nightfall Israeli tanks entered lower Ramallha and advanced until they where five minutes from the city center. I was at the cafe, which hurriedly closed when we began to hear the shooting from the street. My friends and I found a brave taxi driver that agreed to take us home. Well, he almost took us home.

As soon as we got out of the taxi we saw that their was shooting- red balls flying across the night sky – right above our house. Immediately we where called in by the neighbors, who served us tea as their little girl huddled closer to her mother with every explosion we heard from outside.

Israeli forces are currently occupying four neighborhoods one on each side of Ramallah – Lower Ramallah, Al Irsal street and Um el-Shirayat and Al-Bireh. The Palestinian Authority has issued an order that no one should shoot at the tanks, nonetheless we hear some gunfire, which is responded to with rounds of heavy artillery from the tanks.

I collected my courage and after wishing our hosts and new found friends goodbye we held hands and walked back towards the city center. We walked close to the walls hoping to avoid sniper fire. We found an open Internet café in the city center – the owner lives in one of the occupied neighborhoods and can’t go home. Here we checked out BBC, CNN, Haaretz – someone must be mentioning this somewhere, but we found nothing. Has the reinvasion of area “A” also become non-news like the siege and the killings of unarmed youth? Now that I’ve written this report we will again venture into the streets to sleep at another friend’s house. The night has just begun ...

Neta Golan posted this report on the Gush Shalom Internet bulletin board.

Celebrating King holiday

Sat, 26 Jan 2002 08:56:00 +0000

BALTIMORE – “I think Dr. King would have been very upset about this Enron scandal,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) as he joined thousands in the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. parade along the avenue named for the martyred civil rights leader.

Cummings, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, is one of a handful of lawmakers on Capitol Hill who received no campaign contributions from Enron, the Houston-based energy giant that went bankrupt last November.

“King was a leader who constantly warned us against allowing big business to dominate government overriding the will of the people,” Cummings told the World. “This march is symbolic of the fact that Dr. King’s dream is still alive. We haven’t reached all the goals he fought for but this march reminds us that it is a daily struggle to achieve equality.”

Maryland Attorney General Joe Curran also joined the march. “I don’t know how Dr. King would have reacted to the Enron debacle,” Curran said. “But I know how I feel about it. I’m not happy. A lot of people got hurt. This is an important day. We honor Washington and Lincoln but Rev. Martin Luther King is the only leader in my lifetime who achieved such greatness that he deserves this national holiday.”

Thousands of school children, marching bands and labor and community groups turned out. The newly founded Baltimore Anti-War Coalition (BAWC) marched beneath colorful papier mache puppets depicting the multiracial unity that King struggled for. One marcher carried a placard with an incisive quote from King: “We have guided missiles and misguided men.”

“Some folks like to look at Dr. King’s legacy as a civil rights leader,” BAWC leader Max Obuszewski said. “But Dr. King broadened the struggle when he came out against the Vietnam war in his Riverside Church speech. He was working to organize the Poor People’s March on Washington for economic justice when he was assassinated.”

Amber Amundsen, whose husband died in the terrorist attack on the Pentagon, spoke at a peace movement Jan. 19 news conference in Raleigh, N.C., which Obuszewski attended.

“She said the victims of Sept. 11 do not want vengeance. They want justice,” Obuszewski said. “Some are in Afghanistan right now meeting with families who lost loved ones in the U.S. bombing. Afghanistan is ‘ground zero’ too.”

Tina Wheeler, head of the Maryland Communist Party, said, “It is important to keep the dream alive and to stand up against the very thing that poisons our country, which is war. If Dr. King were alive today, he would be marching for peace, against racism and militarism.”

Baltimore Women in Black, modeled on the Israeli-Palestinian women’s group, marched with signs in English, Arabic and Hebrew: “Peace,” “Shalom” and “Salaam.”

Said Betsy Cunningham, a spokesperson for the group, “The situation in Palestine and Israel is horrific. Every day more and more innocent people are dying. Dr. King worked for peace among all peoples and nations. It is going to take women like us working from the grassroots to reach out and end the cycle of violence.”

– Special to the World

SEATTLE – With over 1,500 participants, the teach-ins, rally and march commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday here was second only in size to the one held in Atlanta, Georgia. This year’s theme was, “Jobs, Justice, Peace in the aftermath of 9/11.”

Jeff Siddiqui, a Muslim-American, spoke about what he felt he needed to say to his wife and children after 9/11. “Your friends and neighbors may treat you differently and call you names now,” he told his children. “Some night, I may not be coming home,” he told his wife, referring to the fact that he could be detained by FBI agents. He went on to say how this is the first time he has really felt targeted due to his race. Siddiqui, after being targeted for the first time because of his race, said he now understands what is like to be Black in the United States

Arelene Oki, a vice president of the Seattle Chapter of the Japanese-American Citizens League, spoke on the similarity of internment for Japanese-Americans during WWII and the rounding up of over 1,000 men of Arab and Muslim background. “It wasn’t right to do it then, and it sure isn’t right to do it now,” she said.

– – Todd Tollefson

ST. LOUIS – The Annual Martin Luther King Day Parade got a jumpstart this year. A coalition of over 30 organizations held a “spirited” pre-rally on the steps of the Old Courthouse. The need for a Civilian Review Board in the police department was a major concern. About 400 people chanted, “Pass Board Bill 71,” legislation calling for a civilian review board.

Dorothy Gillis, of the Farm Labor organizing Committee (FLOC), reminded the demonstrators of the 3,000 North Carolina farm workers struggling for union representation and the boycott of Mt. Olive pickles. Many speakers called for a stop to the war being waged on the people of Afghanistan. One speaker said, “Dropping bombs does not create peace!”

Erin Quick, of the Community for Non-violent Social Action, said she was protesting “because Dr. King advocated non-violence. And we are dedicated to non-violence. If Dr. King was alive today he would not support the war on Afghanistan.”

– – Tony Pecinovsky

Vigil held for Muslim in Michigan

Sat, 26 Jan 2002 07:53:00 +0000

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Nearly 300 students, community activists, Muslim community members, and Christian church-goers attended a candlelight vigil outside the federal building here last month. Sponsored by the Ann Arbor Ad Hoc Committee for Peace and the Muslim Community Association of Ann Arbor and Vicinity, the vigil called for the release of Rabih Haddad, an imam at the Islamic Center of Ann Arbor and community activist. Haddad was recently arrested for an allegedly expired visa but is held without specific charges which, according to one report, is “unprecedented.”

Haddad’s supporters said his application for permanent residency through employment sponsorship was still pending when the INS had him arrested.

A pending application is legal and customary. The vigil was an expression of solidarity with Haddad and his family, to urge his release pending his hearing, and to have the charges against him, if any, made public.

Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Justice Department refused to divulge any information concerning the case, except that he is being “held indefinitely.”

Government officials refused permission for Haddad’s wife and family, including his four young children, to see him.

Taurus Colvin, from Islamic Center of Ann Arbor, challenged people to stand up for Haddad and to recognize him as a “symbol of all the people [who] have disappeared.” He said, “All people, regardless of religion or ethnicity” should be free of special targeting and racial profiling by the U.S. government.

“U.S. laws ought to protect all of us Americans,” Colvin said. Haddad’s children held a hand -made sign that read: “We love our Dad. We want him to come home.”

Rep. Lynn Rivers (D-Mich.) said the U.S. Constitution protects the rights of all citizens and persons within its borders. She also expressed her opposition to both anti-terror laws, 2001 and 1996, calling them severe attacks on the civil liberties of citizens and residents because they give too much unchecked power to federal law enforcement officials.

The Center for Creative Democracy of Ann Arbor reported that Haddad had spoken at a number of community forums and town hall meetings raising questions about Bush’s war on Afghanistan, including one sponsored by Rivers.

A spokesperson for the Michigan ACLU said Haddad’s arrest was part of the Bush administration’s plans to “detain” several hundred Muslims in the greater Detroit area. She encouraged people to send protest messages to their Congressional representatives.

Edison needs Philadelphia schools to make profit

Sat, 26 Jan 2002 07:48:00 +0000

The state takeover of the schools here has been called a state/city partnership because the governor and mayor reached accord while negotiating on a plan presented by Edison Schools Inc.

Last August, then-Gov. Thomas Ridge hired Edison Schools, Inc. for $2.7 million to do a 60 day assessment of the Philadelphia schools and then present a plan for reform.

Ridge and his successor, Gov. Mark Schweiker, have publicly praised Edison and spoken about its possible role in improving the Philadelphia schools. They have ignored criticism of Edison’s poor track record and inexperience managing high schools.

The original plan called for the central administration to be replaced with Edison Schools Inc. personnel. Insiders said the plan called for the outsourcing (read non-union) of custodial, transportation and cafeteria services as a cost-cutting measure. Presently these workers are represented by unions.

Some 96 percent of them have children and grandchildren in the schools. Mayor John Street refused to accept this and growing protest against Edison forced Schweiker to back down.

Edison needs Philadelphia schools desperately. Edison has never made a profit and its losses for 2001 were $38 million. Edison told its stockholders it needs more schools in order to become profitable.

If it can be successful in Phila., then other school districts will hire Edison to run their low-performing schools. Edison promises to improve schools with the same amount of money a district uses, but its track record does not live up to its promises.

Racial discrimination is a basic factor for the lack of quality education in Philadelphia schools. Judge Doris Smith’s Education Team pointed this out in a 1994 report.

The Philadelphia school district had filed a lawsuit against the state charging racial discrimination in funding. The suit was withdrawn at the request of Gov. Ridge, in exchange for state funds to keep the district solvent.

A coalition of school employee unions and community groups filed suit in Commonwealth and Superior Courts seeking an injunction against Edison for participating in and profiting from any contract with the state to manage any Philadelphia school, calling it a conflict of interest under the state’s Adverse Interest Act.

But a judge ruled that the School Reform Commission is not a state agency but rather an “instrument of the school district” and not subject to that law. The coalition will appeal. It has also challenged Act 46, the state takeover law which applies only to Philadelphia, but the Supreme Court has not ruled on the case.

Workers comp needs change

Sat, 26 Jan 2002 07:44:00 +0000

A Jan. 9 Wall Street Journal article warned: “Workers’ Comp Insurance Now Harder to Get.” Coupled with the ongoing coal operators’ attempt to gut coal miners’ Black Lung benefits, this highlights the failure of this crucial social insurance system.

A little less than 100 years ago, workers were forced to trade in their right to sue their employers for negligence in return for workers’ compensation laws which pay all medical bills stemming from the injury or illness with a wage replacement that should reflect their normal wage.

This promise does take place in most European countries, but not in the United States. The trade-off here has become a fiasco.

World Trade Center aftermath The WSJ article refers to the workers’ comp claims that might be filed stemming from the World Trade Center disaster. They report that workers’ comp insurance companies might insert into their already high rates the cost of future terrorist attacks. Rather than making sure that all workers and their families receive their legal and financial (including death benefit) rights, the carriers are looking for ways to avoid their responsibilities.

Workers’ compensation laws were established precisely to take care of these kinds of disasters without the need for further legal actions. Some comp carriers are looking to exclude terrorism from workers’ compensation coverage. Some already do. You can imagine employers and their carriers trying to pin regular work-related accidents and illness on a “terrorist” attack.

Black Lung benefits The struggle by coal miners for their Black Lung benefits stems from the successful efforts, over 30 years ago, of the United Mine Workers of America in attaining federal benefits. Benefits are based on the “presumption” that after 15 years of working in the coal mines, the coal miner is presumed to have Black Lung disease and deserving of benefits. State workers’ comp for Black Lung benefits complied with this “presumption.”

But, the mere thought of a “presumption” has always been a bone in the throat of coal operators, other scofflaw employers and their politicians. They feared that other workers who face similar work hazards, i.e., asbestos insulations workers; workers who perform repetitive motions activities and contract carpel tunnel injuries would be granted this right.

The governor of Kentucky is attempting to reverse his anti-miner actions of 1996 when he authored anti-Black Lung that struck down important aspects of this presumption. Right-wing legislators, meaning pro-coal operators and politicians, oppose any improvements. They say it straight out: “Is this something that is going to compensate injured workers for injuries on the job or is it going to be an entitlement program?”

Miners and their unions are applying the kind of pressure to force the governor to change his opinion. Now, they will have to do the same with the state legislature.

“Out of the box” thinking There is a lot of talk these days about legislative thinking that is “Out-of-the-Box.” It usually means something different or new reforms. Too often the out-of-the-box is a backward, pro-employer measure. This out-of-the-box recommendation is to make “Presumption” the central feature of a federal and state system of workers’ comp. That was the original idea around workers’ compensation.

A simple schedule can be created, based on the Black Lung experience. The schedule would list the occupational disease and the length of experience needed to qualify for workers’ comp. Most respiratory/pulmonary diseases are “latent,” meaning it takes a few years from the initial exposure for the disease to become active. The 15-year period is a good place to start.

Of course, if the exposure is excessive, the time limit might be shorter. One thing is for sure, radical pro-worker changes in workers’ compensation laws, federal and state, are needed before the other side, the employers get their way.

WHO acknowledges Infact

Sat, 26 Jan 2002 07:40:00 +0000

GENEVA, Switzerland – In an important step by the World Health Organization (WHO), the international health body is granting official WHO relations status to Infact, the U.S.-based corporate accountability organization.

In approving the admission of Infact and the International Non-Governmental Coalition Against Tobacco, the WHO’s governing board noted both organizations’ advocacy work in support of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). With a 25-year history of challenging life-threatening abuses of giant corporations, Infact will bring its corporate accountability expertise into its formalized relationship with WHO.

The WHO’s recognition of Infact comes at a time of growing concern about the impact of transnational corporations like Philip Morris on public health.

Commenting on the decision, Infact Executive Director Kathryn Mulvey said, “There is great debate over whether and how the WHO and other public bodies can interact with private institutions without sacrificing the public interest to commercial interests. Infact’s record of standing up to global economic powers sparked some controversy, so we commend WHO for this bold action that creates new opportunities for ordinary people to share their perspectives on the root causes of and solutions to the most pressing health issues of our time.”

Since 1977 Infact has been working internationally to advance public health in the face of opposition from powerful corporate interests. From the aggressive marketing of infant formula to the production and promotion of nuclear weapons to the spread of an industry-driven global tobacco epidemic, Infact has brought about significant changes in corporate practices that threaten human life globally.

In 1981, Infact contributed to the passage of the WHO’s International Code on Marketing Breast Milk Substitutes. In more recent years, Infact founded and helps coordinate the Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT), a network of NGOs from more than 50 countries working toward a tough FCTC.

“Through the launch of the NATT, Infact helped facilitate the involvement of NGOs from the Global South in the FCTC process. By opening the door to expanded participation by NATT members, Infact’s official relations status with WHO will strengthen the voice of the Global South in health issues like the tobacco epidemic that are projected to hit the world’s poorest countries hardest,” said Bejon Misra of VOICE (India), the NATT regional coordinator for Asia and the Middle East.

Steelworkers meet on LTV bankruptcy

Sat, 26 Jan 2002 07:37:00 +0000

Worker’s Correspondence

EAST CHICAGO, Ind. – Over 2,000 steelworkers poured into Central High School Jan. 12 to hear United Steel Workers of America (USWA) pension experts report on the status of the LTV bankruptcy.

USWA Indiana/Illinois District Director Jim Robinson opened the meeting with an emotional plea to keep fighting for retiree health care. He praised the workers for what has been done so far but warned that the battle has only begun. Robinson said victory can be achieved if steelworkers stick together, stick with the union and keep fighting.

Pensioners were told that there was enough money for health care for a few months but then the Voluntary Employee Benefit Agreement (VEBA) fund would be depleted. VEBA is an agreement between LTV and USWA.

Currently the USWA is lobbying for the federal government to step in and guarantee the health-care benefits. Steelworkers are also concerned about how long LTV will be paying pensions and when the company will be dumping the pension plan on the federal government’s Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC).

The union expert on pensions wouldn’t speculate on when the company would dump the pension on the PBGC but that it will happen. The union invited the PBGC to send a representative to the meeting but they declined.

Union lawyer Paul Whitehead and Ohio District Director Dave McCall explained why the union gave up the “successor clause,” which is a part of the union contract that says if anyone buys LTV the new owner would have to honor the current contract. Simply stated, the union got the opportunity for over 2,000 steelworkers to retire, which would not have been possible otherwise.

McCall stated that somebody will buy the plants and they will have to recognize the union and that we will be working again. This shocked many in the audience and caused many to speculate on what U.S. Steel was up to. It’s been rumored that U.S. Steel is looking to buy parts of LTV’s operations.

– an LTV steelworker

Roofers file lawsuit

Sat, 26 Jan 2002 07:33:00 +0000

TUCSON, Ariz. – Roofers here have filed a class action lawsuit against Metric Roofing, alleging illegal wage withholding and misrepresentation, as well as demands for illegal kickbacks from workers.

On Jan. 10 Metric workers called a press conference to announce the lawsuit. They were joined by state and local union representatives and community supporters. The rally was held in front of a site where KB Home is building a subdivision. Los Angeles-based KB Homes is the number-two homebuilder in Tucson and subcontracts with Metric.

“Metric Roofing is one of the biggest residential companies in the country with millions of dollars in revenues,” said John Martini, executive vice president of the International Roofers Union, which has been supporting the workers’ effort. “It’s shocking that a company as big and rich as Metric doesn’t pay its workers what they’re owed. This is outrageous, against the law, and has to be stopped.”

Pima County Supervisor Raul Grijalva pointed out that the county had just passed a Living Wage ordinance to guarantee county workers a fair wage. He said that developers come before the county every week for zoning changes claiming that they are doing it to keep people working.

“We have people working,” he said, “but they don’t have the rights other workers have to freely associate and enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Metric is the third major roofing subcontractor of KB Homes to be sued for wage-cheating and other violations.

Over 500 residential roofers, at three different contractors in the Phoenix area, are now under the protection of a collective bargaining agreement with the Roofers Union. The union has been aggressively organizing in Arizona and across the West, having committed well over 40 percent of their budget to organizing the unorganized.

What would honor 9/11 firefighters?

Sat, 26 Jan 2002 07:27:00 +0000

When the terrorist attack hit the World Trade Center on the 11th of September, rescue workers and ordinary people reached out to help their fellow human beings without regard to race, nationality, or economic standing. They saved those who could be saved, and many died trying to save others.

The horrible events of 9/11 brought people together. But now there is an effort to destroy that unity. The statue planned to commemorate firefighters lost at the World Trade Center has generated much controversy and some thoughtful discussion.

Should the monument depict a team, made up of an African American, a Latino, and a white firefighter raising the U.S. flag, as proposed by the artists? Or should it show three white firefighters, as in the news photograph of the World Trade Center flag-raising which suggested it?

In our society this is a serious question, and its importance has been multiplied by the right wing’s use of the issue to open new attacks on equality, unity, and anti-racist ideas.

Radio talk shows are filled with their venom. This is another attempt to divide us into whites (who presumably sacrificed and suffered) vs. the “others” (immigrants, Blacks, Moslems, etc.), who are presumably dangerous and certainly no help.

It also leads directly to another serious question: Why are the percentages of African American (2.7 to 3.0) and Latino (3.0) firefighters in New York City so far behind their proportion of the city’s population and so far behind those of firefighters in other large U.S. cities?

Why have the numbers of Black and Latino firefighters even fallen below the levels of the 1970s? Why has every city administration allowed this corruption to infect a whole department, one that is often in the public eye?

First, the statue. The three firemen did not raise the flag to themselves nor does the monument honor them. They were honoring the 343 firefighters, including 12 who were Black and about 12 Latino, who lost their lives that day.

By extension, the statue memorializes all rescuers who were killed or put themselves at risk and the victims, men and women of practically every race, religion, and nationality, they were attempting to save.

Those who attack the proposed statue as not being historically accurate conveniently forget that most sculptured monuments try to represent ideas and emotions rather than depict “frozen in time” reality.

Statues of generals and kings, often for no good reason, are far from exact representations. Ellis Henican’s thoughtful column (Newsday, Jan. 18, ’02) on this controversy considered how journalism and art, both fruits of human creation, go by different rules. He is right when he says that, for the artist, “Reality is for building into higher levels of truth.”

But while he endorses the proposed statue for honoring all who gave their lives, he misses the most important part of the “higher truth.” He misses the need for justice.

Others say let the Fire Department go ahead and put up a statue of white-only firefighters. It is a fitting and historically accurate monument to the department’s failures to fight racism and end discrimination in hiring, they say. I cannot agree.

Such a monument may be used to justify racism rather than condemn it. What will be its message when the hiring pattern is corrected (and it will be) and the complexion of the Fire Department reflects that of New York City (and it will)? It will be as out of date as the statues of slave-owning Confederate generals. Let us build a monument to last and let it be a demand for justice.

Bill Davis is head of the Communist Party of New York State. He can be contacted at BDavisCPNY@aol.com.

Military spending doesnt mean jobs

Sat, 26 Jan 2002 07:21:00 +0000

When the cold war “ended” at the beginning of the 1990s, there was a slowdown in military spending. But the “defense transition policy,” which was intended to ease the plight of hundreds of thousands of permanently laid off defense workers, got sidetracked into wholesale consolidation and restructuring of the military industry.

This process of concentration of ownership treated defense-related manufacturing employees largely as obstacles to more profitable weapons production. It forced workers to shoulder nearly all the economic pain of downsizing.

The Clinton administration used both covert negotiation and overt subsidies to encourage a merger frenzy that reduced the number of large, specialized Pentagon contractors from 17 to eight.

At the same time the remaining military contractors cut payrolls by outsourcing to both domestic and foreign subcontractors. Not surprisingly, these actions raised profits for management and investors – the stock prices of large defense firms outperformed the S&P 500 Index during the first seven years of the 1990s

Finally, the pressure to consolidate overrode any incentives these companies might otherwise have had to diversify beyond military production or to convert entirely to nonmilitary production.

Consequently, a key result of the extensive consolidation of the industry was massive and unrestrained layoffs. The case of United Technologies Corp. (UTC) is an example of outsourcing that continues to result in defense industry layoffs even with stable defense department procurement funding.

UTC, a $25 billion company, makes Sikorsky helicopters and Pratt & Whitney engines, which together account for 42 percent of its annual sales. Other divisions in the UTC conglomerate are also involved in both military and civilian production. Half of UTC’s annual sales are foreign.

The fact that former Defense Secretary William Perry sits on the company’s board certainly accounts for some of this international success. Another reason for UTC’s success in global sales is the corporation’s willingness to negotiate joint ventures with potential buyers.

Such was the case in the August 1998 $500 million deal with Turkey. That country’s defense industry executive committee agreed to purchase 50 S-70 Black Hawks on the condition that a joint venture would be part of the final agreement so that the new helicopters would be co-produced by Ankara-based Tusas Aerospace Industries.

Tusas is jointly owned by Turkish and American shareholders. No information has been made public documenting how many hundreds or thousands of jobs were lost in UTC divisions due to the outsourcing of military helicopter production.

Tusas has also had a long-standing joint-venture agreement with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company to build F-16 combat aircraft. In 1983 the government of Turkey announced plans to buy 160 F-16s.

All but the first eight of these aircraft were assembled in Turkey during the 1980s. Since then Tusas has been awarded a contract to build wings, center and aft fuselages for U.S. Air Force F-16s. They have also been awarded a contract to build 46 F-16s for the Egyptian Air Force. In March 1992, a follow-up order for 80 additional F-16s was placed. These aircraft were built in Turkey and delivered from 1996 to 1999.

Levels of spending (adjusted for inflation) by the Department of Defense decreased from the late 1980s through 1998. These decreases eventually brought spending back to the levels that existed before the Reagan build-up of the 1980s. But spending increased starting in 1999, and even before Sept. 11, Bush requested a further increase to $329 billion for the Defense Department.

At close to 9 percent, this is the largest percentage increase since 1982 – and a lot more has been added since Sept. 11. But don’t look for a bulge of good paying jobs with benefits to follow.

Corporate profits will most certainly reach new heights, but you’ll find many of the new jobs in non-union job shops, or in Turkey, Taiwan, Indonesia, Mexico or wherever defense contractors believe they can make the most money.

Child labor in the shadows of World Cup

Sat, 26 Jan 2002 07:18:00 +0000

NEW DELHI – With only five months left until the 2002 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup kicks off in Japan and Korea, activists from around the world are putting increasing pressure on FIFA and national teams to make this championship the first international sporting event free of child labor and in compliance with fair labor standards.

India and Pakistan are the largest producers for the world soccer championship.

According to a recent report by the India Committee of the Netherlands and the All-Pakistan Federation of Labor (APFL), thousands of children in Pakistan and India are involved in the production of soccerballs.

Moreover, workers in both countries are earning wages much lower than the legal minimum wage and many basic labor rights are routinely neglected. Their life of exploitation is shared by another 250 million working children around the world and many of their families.

“I have been stitching footballs for as long as I can remember,” confided Geeta, a young girl from Jalandhar, India who estimated her age to be between 10 and 12 years old told a representative from Global March Against Child Labor. “My hands are constantly in pain. It feels like they are burning. There is nothing I can do – I have to help my older sister complete the order.”

Most children are forced into labor to help their families earn enough money to survive.

Hence, football stitching becomes home-based family work where a middleman, who acts on behalf of a sporting goods manufacturer, provides the soccer pieces for in-home production. A normal working day does not often provide the workers with even the legal minimum wage.

While helping their families, many of the children miss out on education, creating a vicious circle of poverty and uneducated labor.

Mohan Lal, a local stitcher, said that his own children and neighbors’ children were involved in stitching footballs for the 2002 World Cup. He maintained, however, that children were not involved in the production of sporting gloves.

In 1998 FIFA established a Code of Conduct to prohibit the use of child labor and to require decent working conditions and wages for adult workers in all FIFA-licensed products. However, available evidence points to routine violations of the code by the manufacturers.

“In India, an industry-led monitoring system exists, however it lacks transparency as there is no public information about its functioning or results,” said Gerard Oonk, author of “The Dark Side of Football” report on labor conditions in the football industry in Punjab, India published in 2001.

None of the current monitoring systems enforces key labor rights for adult workers, most notably wages.

“A game that is supposed to inspire youth and entertain the world,” said Kailash Satyarthi, chairperson of the Global March “must not be played with footballs sewn with the sweat of children.”