People Before Profit blog

Human Rights Watch slams Bush record

Fri, 31 Jan 2003 04:46:00 +0000

In its criticism of the Bush administration, Human Rights Watch warns, “Leadership [in the field of human rights] requires more than a big stick and a thick wallet. It also requires a positive vision shared by others and conduct consistent with that vision.” The 512-page World Report for 2003, issued by the London-based organization on Jan. 14, charges that Washington “intensely opposed” enforcement of international human rights law and used “outright sabotage” in its effort to derail the International Criminal Court.

Couching the report in the language of diplomacy, its authors say this opposition reflects “a radical vision of world order” where “certain influential elements in the administration seem to view international law as an unnecessary impediment [that] might constrain the United States in unforeseeable and inconvenient ways.” They add that in fighting terrorism, Washington “has refused to be bound by human rights standards [and] seems to want an international order that places no limits on a nation’s use of power, save its own avowed good intentions.”

The report charges the U.S. government with trying to undermine important multilateral initiatives dealing with human rights, including a United Nations resolution that the war on terrorism should be fought in a manner “consistent with human rights.” All in all, it says, “Washington’s neglect of human rights was seen in its behavior in international arenas, its bilateral relations with other governments, and its own treatment of terrorist suspects.”

Pointing to the fact that the United States has refused to ratify half of the six most important international treaties dealing with human rights, the 2003 report said U.S. resistance to enforceable human rights standards “intensified” in 2002, with the U.S. government “consistently opposing” any effort to enforce human rights standards.

According to Human Rights Watch, that resistance was “on display” in several instances last year, first at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights where the U.S. opposed a resolution introduced by Mexico stressing the importance of fighting terrorism with methods consistent with human rights and again when it found itself on the wrong side of a 127-4 vote endorsing efforts to strengthen the UN Convention Against Torture.

The U.S. continued its oppositionist role during the UN General Assembly Special Session on Children where it sought to prevent any reference to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and objected to any mention of the concrete rights of children, preferring vague reference to their “well-being.” (The United States is the only country in the world not to have ratified the treaty.)

Human Rights Watch called U.S. opposition to the International Criminal Court, the “most extreme” example of U.S. opposition to enforceable human rights standards.

Human Rights Watch pointed to what it called “the numerous safeguards” that address Washington’s concern about politicized prosecutions, among them a narrow definition of the crimes that come under the court’s jurisdiction, a provision for impeachment of abusive prosecutors and oversight by independent judges.

In language seldom used when criticizing governments, World Report 2003 said the Bush administration “declared a virtual war” on the court: “It repudiated former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s signature on the ICC treaty. It threatened to shut down U.N. peacekeeping unless U.S. participants in U.N.-authorized operations were exempted from ICC jurisdiction. It threatened to cut off military aid to governments unless they agreed never to deliver American suspects to the court and President Bush signed legislation authorizing military intervention to free any American suspect held by the ICC.”

Human Rights Watch said these acts signaled that, as far as the United States is concerned, “human rights standards are at best window-dressing ... Such hypocrisy only undermines these norms. It also undermines the credibility of the United States as a proponent of human rights, whether in fighting terrorism or in combating more traditional repression and abuse.”

The report lalso isted some of the positive developments in 2002: The International Criminal Court went into effect with devastating civil wars ended in Angola (after twenty-seven years) and Sierra Leone (after a decade). Steps were also taken toward ending vicious civil wars in Sri Lanka and Sudan. The Organization of American States applied the newly created Inter-American Democratic Charter to thwart a coup attempt against a freely-elected government in Venezuela and Turkey abolished the death penalty.

The report also criticized governments of industrialized countries for continued restrictions on refugees while doing far too little to provide treatment and care for the 55 million Africans who will die prematurely of AIDS between 2000 and 2020.

The author can be reached at fgab708@aol.com

Bush policies blasted At Home

Fri, 31 Jan 2003 03:46:00 +0000

George W. Bush attempted to win backing for his agenda of tax cuts for the rich and war on Iraq in his Jan. 28 State of the Union Speech. But mayors, governors, members of Congress and leaders of mass organizations sharply rejected his policies.

Bush was somber as he admitted to the grim state of the nation while arguing that peace and prosperity will trickle down if Congress approves permanent tax cuts for the wealthy. “To boost investor confidence,” he intoned, “I ask you to end the unfair double taxation of dividends.”

Bush scorned “a nationalized health care system that dictates coverage and rations care.” He offered a prescription drug benefit for senior citizens – but only if they opt out of Medicare.

Echoing his father’s “Thousand Points of Light” cliché, Bush touted his faith-based initiative as a substitute for government action to aid the poor, calling it the “wonder-working power in the goodness and idealism and faith of the American people.”

Bush’s speech was denounced even before he delivered it. Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, said, “It is clear that President Bush intends to privatize Medicare. He’s cleverly using the promise of a meager drug benefit to push Medicare beneficiaries into second rate, low-quality health plans, putting seniors at the mercy of HMOs and the big drug companies.” Already, 2.4 million recipients lured out of Medicare by the siren song of “choice” have been dumped by HMOs.

Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell, in Washington for the annual Mayor’s Conference, said, “All this conversation about homeland security and not a dollar [for] first responders. When 911 rings it doesn’t ring at the White House or at [Homeland Security chief] Tom Ridge’s office. It rings in our local police office.” from page 1

Asked about Bush’s agenda, Columbus, Ohio, Mayor Michael B. Coleman said on National Public Radio’s Tavis Smiley show, “What we need is work, not war.” The mayors adopted a program calling for a federally financed job-creation program constructing schools, bridges, water mains and sewerage systems.

In the Democratic response to Bush’s speech, Washington State Gov. Gary Locke called the Bush plan “upside-down economics” that ignores millions of unemployed and uninsured as well as combined state and local deficits of $85 billion while giving a $674 tax cut to the rich.

“It will create huge permanent deficits that will raise interest rates and stifle growth, hinder homeownership,” Locke said. “Low and middle-income people should get the tax relief,” he said.

Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), said, “We know Bush’s war on Iraq is wrong. We also know that Bush’s economic and tax policies are inequitable and disastrous for the economy.”

She blasted the administration for attacking women’s rights, civil rights and individual rights in the name of a “war on terrorism,” concluding, “We’re not fooled and we’re fighting back.”

Sam Webb, national chair of the Communist Party USA, blasted Bush for his silence on racism. “After the Trent Lott affair,” Webb said, “it is mind boggling that Bush said nothing about the struggle for racial equality. Put it together with Bush’s attack on affirmative action at the University of Michigan and it proves they are as wedded as ever to the racist ‘Southern Strategy.’”

Webb added, “Bush provided no justification for war on Iraq. The rest of the world remains convinced that time should be given for the UN inspections to proceed, that this situation should be resolved peacefully. I’m convinced that war can be averted.”

Webb said Bush had “absolutely nothing” to offer the 10 million unemployed, or 43 million without health insurance.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney charged that Bush’s State of the Union “was long on broad promises … but short on real proposals to help working families.” He added, “America is rightfully worried about a possible war on Iraq … But working families are also worried that the 40 states facing deficits will have to go further than cancelling one day of school per week, cutting public health and slowing new spending on homeland security to balance budgets.”

Sweeney added, “President Bush’s domestic agenda from the last two years, which he endorsed again last night, has yielded a disappointing scorecard with losses on every important economic marker for working families.”

Robert MacIntyre, director of Citizens for Tax Justice, said, “It doesn’t matter what side of the bed he gets out of, Bush is always for a tax cut for the rich. His plan will do little to stimulate the economy in the short run and makes the economy perform less well in the long run by pushing up interest rates and deficits.”

MacIntyre said the $140 billion economic stimulus plan unveiled by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), “looks pretty intelligent. His plan would send money to the state governments so they don’t have to raise taxes. It cuts taxes for low-and middle-income people. It puts money in the pockets of those who need it so they can go out and spend it for things they need. That’s the best way to stimulate the economy and create jobs.”

The author can be reached at greenerpastures21212@yahoo.com

PDF version of 'Bush policies blasted At Home'

National Clips

Thu, 30 Jan 2003 11:12:00 +0000

CLEVELAND: 50th city against war

The City Council here voted in support of an anti-war resolution, Jan. 27, making Cleveland the 50th city in the nation to do so. The vote was 18 to 0.

The Council passed the resolution after a spirited rally of about 200 supporters was held on the steps of city hall in the freezing cold before the meeting. City council members invited the anti-war demonstrators to attend the council meeting inside.

Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell addressed the rally crowd, declaring that “the people of Cleveland are making their voices heard, as they must, to stop this war.” The mayor, City Council members and peace activists all decried the loss of resources desperately needed by ailing cities with budgets in crisis that a war on Iraq would bring.

AFL-CIO President Tom Frisbie, a U.S. army veteran, said Bush “hasn’t made his case to the American people. He has not shown us any smoking gun.” Frisbie told the crowd that the AFL-CIO unanimously passed a resolution against the war. “We need a war on unemployment, not a war on Iraq,” he stated.

Ohio State Representative Dale Miller also announced that he has drafted a resolution against the war which he will seek to get passed in the Ohio state legislature in the coming weeks.

JERSEY CITY, NJ: Council votes against Iraq war

The Jersey City Municipal Council voted to adopt a resolution opposing war with Iraq by a vote of 8 to 1. The overflow crowd in the council chambers interrupted those speaking for it repeatedly with waves of applause.

Jersey City, across the Hudson River from Manhattan, is the second largest city in New Jersey with a population of 250,000.

The Hudson County Coalition for Peace and Justice (HCCPJ), who organized the effort, hopes this victory will lead to other resolutions in cities and towns throughout the state.

Efforts are presently underway to introduce a similar resolution at the next meeting of the Newark City Council.

HCCPJ is holding a teach-in on Feb. 6, 7:00 p.m., at the Pope Hall in St. Peter’s College, Jersey City, on “Myths and Realities Behind Bush’s War Drive,” including Rutgers Prof. Stephen Bronner, who has just returned from a peace trip to Iraq. For more info: hccpj@peace-n-justice.net

PITTSBURGH: Freezin’ for peace

For two days, thousands filled the streets – curb to curb – demanding that the Bush administration “give peace a chance,” Jan. 25-26. With temperatures at single digits, 2000 marched through the city’s Southside neighborhoods. The owners of Ethnic Artz and Diva’s passed out hot chocolate to peace marchers and relatives of one of the city’s motorcycle policemen escorting the ‘parade’ were in the crowd. Standing at attention, WW II veteran Regis Schnippert, 79, Southside resident, saluted the march saying, “I think they should stand up and be counted. This is what this country is supposed to be about.”

The next day, 5000 people, amid white-out conditions, took the peace message to the university area, called Oakland. The march ended with a ‘die-in’ creating a realistic but eerie feeling. “I know what Vietnam did to my generation,” said Morgantown, W.Va. attorney Tom Rodd, 57. “It ruined American politics and a lot of families. We should have learned our lesson then that crazy unilateral wars are bad for our nation.”

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.: Nobel scientists say peace, not war

Nobel Prize winning chemists, physicists and medical doctors, responding to Bush’s State of the Union with a press conference, announced their opposition to war with Iraq. Hans Bethe, who won the Ppize in 1967 for his work in physics on building the atomic bomb, the Manhatten Project, is among the signers.

Their statement said in part, “Even with victory medical, economic, environmental, moral, spiritual, political and legal consequences of an American preventive attack on Iraq would undermine, not protect, U.S. security and standing in the world.” 41 scientists have signed so far.

UNIONTOWN, Pa.: Neighbors demand justice

African American and white neighbors of 12 year-old Michael Ellerbe protested on the courthouse steps, Jan. 27, after a Fayette County coroner’s jury found that two state police officers were “justified” in shooting the child in the back on Christmas Eve. Ellerbe died.

Holding his 10-year-old son’s hand, Donald Brown said, “Michael (Ellerbe) was my son’s friend and I’m here to support my friend. Some people don’t give a damn about what happened, but a lot do. This needs to be heard and people are getting the idea of what’s going on. There’s too many things about Michael’s death that don’t make sense.”

CAMERON, W.Va.: Mine blast kills three workers

Construction workers excavating a 940 foot deep air ventilation shaft for Consolidation Coal’s McElroy mine hit methane gas, January 22, setting off an explosion that killed Richard Mount; 37, Dave Abel; 47, and Harry Roush III, 23.

Three workers, Benny Bair; 23, Richard Brumley; 51, and Aaron Meyer, 28, were rushed to area hospitals for burn treatment.

The deadly explosion, under investigation by the West Virginia Office Miner’s Health and Safety and the federal Mine Health and Safety Administration, occurred at the bottom of the shaft.

Cameron Mayor Thomas Stern, a 29-year veteran coal miner and member of the United Mine Workers union at McElroy, described the scene as “gruesome.”

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Over the road drivers take strike vote

Beginning Jan. 20, 65,000 members of the Teamsters’ union began casting their ballots to authorize their bargaining committee to strike if an agreement is not reached with freight companies by March 31. Balloting ends Feb. 2.

“I voted to strike because the companies need to know that our negotiators represent our interests at the bargaining table and that we support our negotiators 100 percent,” said Teamsters Local 41, Kansas City, chief steward Linda Giles. Giles drives coast to coast for Yellow Freight.

National clips are compiled each week by Denise Winebrenner Edward who can be reached at dwinebr696@aol.com.

Bahman Azad contributed to this week’s clips.

Living wage hearing draws a thousand

Thu, 30 Jan 2003 10:49:00 +0000

SACRAMENTO – Over 1,000 people supporting a living wage ordinance here crowded into a marathon City Council hearing that lasted past midnight, Jan. 9. Another hearing is scheduled for March 4.

The living wage ordinance introduced by Council members Dave Jones and Lauren Hammond would require businesses that get contracts or subsidies from the city of over $25,000 to pay their employees a minimum of $10 an hour with health benefits or $12 without health benefits, and to remain neutral if the employees vote to join a union.

At this “workshop” hearing, two-thirds of the speaking time was given to opponents of the measure, while the remaining time went to representatives of the broad-based Sacramento Living Wage Coalition that spoke for the majority of the audience.

Michael Medema, Sacramento City Projects Director, introduced a spokeswoman for the Economic Research Association (ERA), a consulting firm hired by the city.

The city staff report, along with the ERA report, presented a hodgepodge of objections and alternative proposals to the Living Wage Ordinance.

These ranged from impossibly high estimates of the costs to the city and local businesses to proposing that the city establish an office to help “the working poor” take advantage of public assistance programs such as Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF), Medicare, food stamps and earned income tax credit.

They also suggested that a living wage in Sacramento should be $1.50 an hour lower than the proposal, and pointed out that 474 full-time equivalent city employees earn less than a living wage.

Councilpeople Jones and Sandy Sheedy repeatedly questioned the methodology and figures presented by ERA and the city staff and pointed out that the public assistance programs mentioned are under increasing threat of cutbacks, and do not lift workers out of poverty.

Also opposing the ordinance were representatives of the Sacramento Chambers of Commerce, who said that local small businesses could not afford to pay a living wage.

During the time allotted to the Sacramento Living Wage Coalition, speakers representing labor unions, low-income workers, research institutions, community organizations, the faith community and even local business owners criticized the ERA study and urged the Council to “do the right thing” by making sure that city tax money does not go to companies that pay poverty wages.

“All we need is a chance to live like decent human beings,” said Chris Jones, president of Sacramento Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). “You can’t pay your rent or gas bill with Medicare or food stamps.”

Jen Kern, of ACORN’s National Living Wage Center, told the council that living wage ordinances have cost very little to other cities. She cited a cost increase in Oakland of 2 percent and of 1.5 percent in Baltimore.

“No living wage ordinance has been repealed,” she said, and several cities have expanded their ordinances to cover more workers and mandate higher wages.

Several speakers pointed out that public assistance subsidies allow companies to pay their employees lower wages and amount to corporate welfare. Others said that higher wages benefit small businesses because more workers could afford to patronize them.

When the hearing was over, it appeared that four of the nine council people supported the measure, two were opposed and two undecided. One councilman, Ray Tretheway, had recused himself because his business, the Tree Conservancy, gets money from the City of Sacramento.

The author can be reached at ncalview@igc.org

Communist meet heats up Chicago

Thu, 30 Jan 2003 09:42:00 +0000

CHICAGO – “Everywhere you go someone is starting a new anti-war movement,” reported retired teacher and Philadelphia Communist Party (CPUSA) leader Debbie Bell about the upsurge of the labor movement in her hometown.

Bell and others responded to in-depth reports by CPUSA Vice Chairs Scott Marshall and Judith Le Blanc on labor and the burgeoning peace movement at an expanded meeting last weekend of the CPUSA National Board. The meeting on Chicago’s South Side proceeded with a serious, but optimistic tone, despite continual interruptions to bring in more chairs, as a steady stream of participants arriving from across the country stepped out of the arctic air into a steamy jam-packed meeting room.

Speakers were optimistic because of their experiences in recent class battles and the growing unity of labor and people’s movements.

“The contract struggle of the transit workers in New York won major victories!” stated a transit union member.

“Using street heat tactics, all of labor worked to back one candidate Raul Grijalva, in Tucson,” an Arizona AFSCME activist said. “And we won!” she added.

The crowd roared their approval when a delegate from Gary, Indiana appealed to the crowd to overlook her last name and hear her message. “The consensus of the rank and file is that it’s all about oil,” declared SEIU member, Alice Bush. “Labor group says war unjustified,” proclaimed the front page headline of the Gary Post Tribune she displayed, reporting on the recent action of the Northwest Indiana Federation of Labor in passing an anti-war resolution.

Marshall, chair of the CPUSA labor commission, called for a focus on “issues we can really make a difference on – peace, health care, the economy” and emphasized that new labor developments for peace were not limited to the leadership but were also displayed in a growing rank and file upsurge.

Le Blanc, a member of the CPUSA peace and solidarity commission, said the list of international unions taking positions against war on Iraq had two new additions, the Communications Workers of America and United Farm Workers. They join the National Council of Churches, with 140,000 congregations, MoveOn.org, over 40 U.S. cities, the Catholic Church and scores of labor, civil rights and other faith based organizations in opposing a unilateral, first-strike war against Iraq.

Le Blanc also pointed to an upsurge of Gulf war veterans and military families against this war as well as the establishment of United for Peace, a mainstream peace coalition.

“On Feb. 15 we will be in the streets, along with millions around the world to show that the American people are taking a stand against the war. Now we have to move from getting resolutions passed to getting buses on the highway to New York,” Le Blanc said.

Adan Jesus Marin, a newly elected national co-ordinator of the Young Communist League, told the crowd about the growing support for a March 5 student strike against the war, “It’s hard to find a youth movement not against the war. We know thousands of youth will go to New York and San Francisco on Feb 15 and come back to organize a student strike on March 5.”

Rookie Perna, attending the meeting from Philadelphia, urged the crowd to look for red balloons in New York, “That’s where Peoples Weekly World/

Nuestro Mundo supporters can come to pick up papers for distribution to the protesters,” she said.

“We need slogans that allow the broadest possible group to participate, mobilizing from Minnesota to Calais, Maine,” said Sam Webb, CPUA national chairman, pointing out that Calais is the nation’s easternmost point. “We need to call for no unilateral action. Let the inspections work!”

The author can be reached at rwood@pww.org

Roe v. Wade fight moves to front burner

Fri, 24 Jan 2003 09:03:00 +0000

The battle to defend a woman’s right to choose moved to the front burner this week as the NARAL Pro-Choice America, the National Organization for Women and other organizations rallied their forces to defeat right-wing efforts to undermine, and eventually overturn, the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

In her speech at a banquet attended by 1,300 supporters on Jan. 21, NARAL President Kate Michelman reminded her audience that Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackman, author of the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade, once said he feared for its future because “a chill wind blows.”

“Thirty years later that wind is blowing at gale force,” Michelman said. For the first time since Roe v. Wade, anti-choice politicians control the presidency and both houses of Congress.

Pointing to what Dr. Martin Luther King once described as the “critical urgency of now,” Michelman warned, “The Supreme Court is a vote away from allowing them to dismantle the freedom to choose,” adding that an anti-choice president and Congress were “eager to install the one justice who could take our freedom away.”

Michelman warned that various state legislatures have enacted 335 anti-choice bills since 1995, each of them designed to make it more burdensome – if not impossible – for women to exercise control over when and if to bear children.

Given that, Michelman said “fully half the states would swiftly ban or severely restrict abortion” if Roe is overturned. “If Roe is overturned, women will return to – and die in – the back alleys. If Roe is overturned, women will be forced to bear children against their will – with devastating implications for mother and child alike.”

Michelman said that in order to prevent federal restrictions on the right to choose, the movement is going to need every pro-choice American and every pro-choice member of Congress, including contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination. “Indeed when President Bush sends a Supreme Court nominee to the Senate for confirmation, I fully expect pro-choice Senators to filibuster any candidate who does not uphold a women’s constitutional right to choose.”

While admitting that the path ahead is difficult, Michelman said a women’s right to chose will be saved “the same way we won it – one person at a time, one neighborhood at a time, one community at a time, one state at a time” and that the task before NARAL and other pro-choice organizations is to build a resurgent movement.

“America’s history is woven from such moments – single points in time on which the full weight of a nation’s future turned. They have occurred in many places and taken many forms, but all share a common theme: action. Our daughters will remember this moment – for good or for ill – and they will ask: ‘Did we act?’” NARAL plans to target 20 states with their campaign.

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) told the banquet that, while the 147-member Pro-choice Congressional Caucus has won only 25 votes in the House, it has “stopped a lot of junk. Now we must mobilize as we have not mobilized for 30 years.”

All six of the announced candidates seeking the Democratic Party presidential nomination spoke, as did a number of leading personalities. In a vigil before the Supreme Court, Kim Gandy, president of NOW, said her group’s focus will be on maintaining the current Supreme Court balance and ensuring that “we will not be the generation that both won and lost reproductive rights in our lifetime.”

NOW chapters across the country are holding vigils and other events on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. NOW activists will also remind Congress of their voting power with a pro-reproductive rights postcard campaign to Senators.

“Thirty years of Roe and we’re still fighting opponents of women’s rights on this issue,” Gandy said, adding: “NOW activists nationwide are determined to ensure that abortion and birth control are safe, legal and accessible.”

NOW has drawn up what it calls the “Bush Check” a five-point check list of far-right tactics for reversing or undermining Roe v. Wade: Establishing the legal principle of fetal personhood, elimination of all federal funding for family planning, restricting access to abortion, making all abortions illegal by reversing Roe v. Wade.

The author can be reached at fgab708@aol.com

Affirmative action march in Mich.

Fri, 24 Jan 2003 08:24:00 +0000

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Despite freezing temperatures, hundreds of youth, students, community and union members marched here to defend affirmative action on Jan. 20 in honor of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Ann Arbor, home of the University of Michigan, has become the focus of sharp debate over affirmative action and the struggle for equality for people of color in America.

About 800 people took to the streets to protest George W. Bush’s intervention in the lawsuit brought against U-M to overturn its affirmative action policies. Bush has urged the court to outlaw the university’s policy of awarding a few points to applicants because of their race.

One Ann Arbor-area high school student told the World that “Bush’s policy is scary.” Many activists are questioning Bush’s stand, especially after the “Trent Lott incident.”

Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow (D) expressed her support for the U-M affirmative action policies. Referring to the Bush administration, Stabenow said, “there are a lot of voices in Washington trying to move us backwards.” Affirmative action really means “all kinds of diversity.” It means “bringing everybody together and giving everybody a chance,” she said.

The senator also urged opposition to right-wing judicial nominees promised by the Bush administration.

Detroit NAACP President Wendell Anthony revved the crowd up with his challenge to defeat Bush’s intervention. “The policies of the president stink.” He urged students and community members to organize people to attend the March on Washington in early April when the Court plans to hear the case.

Anthony exposed the hypocrisy of Bush’s King holiday speech at a Washington D.C.-area church which urged “racial tolerance.” Bush’s speech was “like the devil in the church trying to get you saved,” he said.

Ron Richardson, executive vice-president of Hotel Employees Restaurant Employees (HERE) international union, said “Bush is following the Thurmond/Lott line.”

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney sent a statement, which Richardson read to the rally. Sweeney said Bush’s decision to intervene “is outrageous and short-sighted.” It is “disingenuous, divisive and deeply troubling,” Sweeney said.

Bush is “pushing America backwards” by nominating judges with “abysmal records” on civil rights, women’s rights, and worker’s rights, the statement said.

Sweeney concluded that affirmative action “remains essential, if we are to win our longstanding fight for equality.”

Rev. Jesse Jackson urged the rally to build a strong movement to defend affirmative action, including a large presence in Washington in the spring, and keeping up the pressure on elected officials, judges and the Bush administration.

Jackson accused Bush of defending the privileges of wealth, while trying to role back the small advances that have come because of affirmative action.

Pointing to Bush’s own preferential treatment at Yale and Harvard, despite his unqualified status as a student, Jackson said, “Bush supports legacy points even for schools that receive federal grants, protecting the products of wealth, inheritance and access; but denies affirmative action for women and people of color. This hypocrisy is no different than the blatant segregationism of the Lotts and Thurmonds of Bush’s own party.”

The main theme of the march and rally, and the week of workshops and events is to build for a “new civil rights movement.”

The week of events organized by By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), a local civil rights organization is a call for building a movement against segregation and a new version of Jim Crow.

Other groups involved included the North American Indian Student Organization, the Black Law Student Association, Asian Social Workers, Wolverine Student Bar Association, Graduate Employees Organization and Michigan Federation of Teachers.

Movement organizers gathered over 50,000 signatures in 2001 to present to the 6th Circuit Court, when the case went to federal appeals in Cincinnati.

Organizer Agnes Aleobua, a University of Michigan student and intervener on behalf of the University in the lawsuit, said, “we have an unelected president who will move us back, but we will not get back.”

The author can be reached at jwendland@politicalaffairs.net

Thousands honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thu, 23 Jan 2003 10:41:00 +0000

From Houston, Des Moines, Portland, Ore., Lansing, Mich., and Montpelier, Vt., thousands of people gathered in cities and towns Jan. 18-20 weekend for peace, equality and to honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Here are a few highlights.

SAN ANTONIO, Tex.: 50,000 honor King, peace and equality

Over 50,000 people of all ages and races participated in the Martin Luther King Day march and rally. The march’s theme “struggle for peace through non-violence,” drew several contingents protesting plans for a war with Iraq, adding militancy and numbers to the annual event.

Frank Valdez, a social worker, told the World, “I’m here with my family to take a stand against war and the racist policies George Bush is using to advance his agenda.”

Mika de Leon, a high school student, said in Spanish that the march was a way for her to “struggle and support people of color.”

United Farm Workers Union organizer Jaime Martinez reminded the rally of King’s support for workers, lending his support to striking Memphis sanitation workers, shortly before he was assassinated.

DENVER, Colo.: 30,000 walk for King, protest war

Denver remembered Martin Luther King Jr. Jan. 20, recalling his historic struggle for equality and peace in a rally and march dominated by an unmistakable undercurrent – the looming war with Iraq.

The crowd, of all ages and colors, was estimated at 30,000. Parents walked with their children in strollers and wagons. A few people had their dogs in tow. They carried placards and portraits of King chanting, “Peace now” and “Human rights.”

ATLANTA, Ga.: King’s widow urges peace

King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, addressed a crowd of about 1,000 on Jan. 20 at King’s former pulpit, Ebenezer Baptist Church, calling on world leaders to settle their differences peacefully.

King told the congregation, “May [Martin’s] challenge and his example guide and inspire us to seek peaceful alternatives to a war with Iraq and military conflict in the Middle East.”

Atlanta’s annual King Day march – one of the largest in the nation – also included anti-war protests with some marchers carrying signs that read: “Drop Bush, not bombs.”

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.: 4,000 tell Bush ‘No War’

They came from all parts of New Mexico, Jan. 18, to converge with one message: “No War With Iraq!” In blazing sunshine, the crowd swelled to 4,000 the largest peace gathering since the Vietnam War. Small business owner Anna Puma said, “I have seven children, and I don’t want them to inherit a war, bloodshed and confusion. I want a world with peace. I want our leaders to be able to sit down at a table and negotiate.”

TUCSON, Ariz.: Congressman promises to carry ‘no war’ message

Over 5,000 Arizonans expressed their disgust at the Bush administration’s war plans for Iraq. Arizonans drove hundreds of miles, some from as far away as Yuma and Flagstaff. Southern Arizona’s newly elected Congressman Raul Grijalva (D) promised to carry the marchers’ message to Washington.

STANFORD U., Calif.: Campus anti-war protest

Approximately 400 anti-war demonstrators gathered to oppose George W. Bush’s plans for a war on Iraq. Sponsored by a broad coalition of student and campus organizations, it was one of the largest protests in years.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.: Heart of Silicon Valley rallies for peace

A newly-elected city council member joined more than 500 people in the first anti-war march and rally in decades. The march was organized by two high school students concerned with the increasing presence of army recruiters at their school.

ROLLA, Missouri: Honking for peace

About 80 people gathered at the main intersection, Jan. 19, holding signs that read, “Peace is patriotic,” “No war for oil” “Give peace a chance.” Children, parents, retirees, college professors, students and workers participated. Most drivers honked and gave peace signs for support. But, there were some inappropriate hand signs of disapproval.

LOUISVILLE, Ky.: No to police brutality

Dr. King was remembered with a parade and religious services. There also was a demonstration protesting a shooting here last month of a handcuffed Black man by a white police officer.

LAS VEGAS, Nev.: ‘Elvis hates war’

500 protesters gathered on the famed Strip, where one sign read, “Elvis hates war.” Sponsored by a loose coalition of organizations the demonstrators marched, Jan. 18, from the Bellagio hotel to the MGM Grand.

SOUTH BEND, Ind.: Concert for peace

More than 450 people met for a Concert for Peace, Jan. 18, at the St. Joseph’s Catholic Church to honor Dr. Martin Luther King and stand against the war. The concert featured local folk singers, church choirs and musicians including the children’s choir of St. Joseph’s Parish, the predominantly African American St. Paul’s Bethel Baptist Choir, and the Coro Celestial of the mostly Mexican American St. Steven’s Catholic Parish.

DALLAS, Tex.: Continuing MLK peace tradition

George Bush’s war drive turned the Jan. 18 Martin Luther King birthday parade into a living expression of the people’s demand for peace. The Committee for Peace in Iraq joined labor, environment, and religious groups in the Jobs with Justice contingent of the parade – some 200 strong chanted, “Dr. King said no to war – That is what we’re marching for!”

LOS ANGELES, Calif.: 150,000 honor King

150,000 joined Gov. Gray Davis and mayors of Los Angeles and San Francisco in a march to honor Dr. King.

SEATTLE, Wash.: 15,000 march: ‘Support the poor, stop the war.’

Some 15,000 people marched to the Federal Building in downtown Seattle under the slogan, “Support the poor, stop the war.” Gatherings, large and small, took place all around the state including thousands in Tacoma and Bellevue. Hundreds of small peace potlucks were held around Puget Sound. Over 70 people from the rural Roslyn/Cle Elum communities marched.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: On MLK Jr. Day 3,200 pray for peace

“We can still stop this war” was the theme at Washington’s National Cathedral. An estimated 3,200 people gathered to pray for a peaceful resolution of the Iraq crisis. Afterward, worshipers marched to the White House with “War Is Not the Answer” placards.

Thanks to Jarg Peter, Susan Delventhal, Emil Shaw, Joe Bernick, Roberto Botello, Jim Lane, John Pappademos and Marc Brodine who contributed to these stories.

National Clips

Thu, 23 Jan 2003 10:30:00 +0000

CHARLOTTE, N.C.: ‘Separate but equal’ is back

In a landmark case of the 1970s, Charlotte was the first school district to challenge de facto public school segregation through busing. In 2001, a federal court ended busing in Charlotte and now, according to a new study by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, not just Charlotte but schools across the country are more racially segregated in 2003 than they were in 1973.

Black students now typically go to schools where fewer than 31 percent of their classmates are white. That is less contact than in 1970, a year before the Supreme Court authorized the busing as a primary way of integrating schools.

Latino students, who have rarely been a focus of desegregation efforts, now attend schools where whites account for only 29 percent of all students, compared with 45 percent three decades ago, according to the study.

On average, white students, who make up about 61 percent of the nation’s public-school population, go to schools where 80 percent of their classmates are white.

“We call our schools racially isolated, but it’s really just a euphemism for being segregated,” said Mary Frances Berry, chairwoman of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. “It has to be regarded as unhealthy. At a time when the society is becoming increasingly diverse, it bodes ill to have increasingly segregated schools.”

WASHINGTON, DC: Best government money can buy

Did your cell phone rate increase the first of the year? Well, you must have missed the party at Assistant Commerce Secretary Nancy Victory’s house on Oct. 14, 2001.

Victory is the Bush adminstration’s lead policy maker on telecommunications law. She is administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and represents the administration before the Federal Communications Commission.

The catered 2001 gala at Victory’s million dollar Great Falls, Va., home was paid for by six wireless companies including Brain Fontes of Cingular, Priscilla Hill-Andoin of SBC Telecommunications and Rich Barth of Motorola, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press. Ten days later, Victory sent a letter to the FCC requesting that decade year old regulations that the three companies had complained about be abolished. Two weeks later the FCC voted eliminate regulations that guarded start up, smaller companies and protected consumer pricing. The law went into effect Jan. 1, 2003.

Before her appointment by President Bush, Victory was an attorney in a law firm that represented telecommunications corporations. Her husband continues to practice law at the firm.

AUGUSTA, Maine: Don’t like voters’ decisions? Call the Supreme Court

In May of 2000, Maine voters approved a referendum calling on the state government to act to lower drug prices in the state. The drug industry’s lobbying group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, sued to halt the implementation of a plan where the state would leverage the size of the population to buy prescription drugs in balk at wholesale prices. The program would lower the cost of prescriptions for 325,000 Maine residents who lack health insurance and another 200,000 on Medicaid and the elderly.

The state and the people won at the state lower courts level.

But the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case and arguments were presented on Jan. 22.

NEW YORK: On stage: Eligible for food stamps

With skyrocketing housing costs and rising unemployment, 75,000 workers in the entertainment industry, from actors to ticket takers, have organized into a multi-union group to survive and organize on Broadway. The New York Federation of Labor announced the formation of a 13-union group, the Coalition of Broadway Unions and Guilds. Pooling their resources and solidarity, the unions are optimistic that they will be able to improve contract protections, including wages and health care and increase their memberships.

VENTURA COUNTY, Calif.

It takes courage and confidence but 2,000 home health care workers beat the odds, the INS, isolated working conditions, harassment and joined Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 998. Health care and respect on the job and in the community were among many issues that workers, by organizing, signing a union card, hope to achieve.

Another 560 workers at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, also part of Ventura County, have just organized into SEIU.

National Clips are compiled weekly by Denise Winebrenner Edwards (dwinebr696@aol.com). Scott Marshall contributed to this week’s clips. If you have a clip, send it to pww@pww.org

Patakis budget doesnt work for New Yorkers

Thu, 23 Jan 2003 10:16:00 +0000

ALBANY, N.Y. – In a State of the State address derided by trade union and community leaders as well as Democratic state legislators, New York Governor George Pataki declared he would both cut taxes and balance the state’s budget. While promising to protect services, he revealed little about the actual budget, except that spending cuts would have to make up for the state’s nearly $10 billion projected shortfall. He went on to say that “with the exception of public security, no part of the budget will be exempt.”

Pataki called for New York to retain its place as the “tax cutting capital of America,” and made the case for special tax incentives for corporations moving to the state. He emphasized, “the budget I propose will not delay the tax cuts we’ve already passed.”

“It’s pretty clear that there’s going to be a major battle around revenue,” Assemblyman Roger L. Green (D-Brooklyn) told the World. “The major debate will come down to progressive taxation to preserve essential services versus continuing the present taxation policy which encourages a further division between rich and poor. It is irresponsible to rule out tax increases.”

Pointing out that Pataki had failed to provide any hard numbers or real ways out of the current crisis. State Democratic committee chair Herman Farrell, Jr. said, “He did not answer questions that New Yorkers desperately need to know.”

Arthur Cheliotes, president of Communications Workers of America Local 1180, argued, “Couple this [the Pataki plan] with Bush’s tax stimulus program, which will only help the rich. It will be a disaster for working families.”

State Sen. Tom Duane told the World, “Tax reductions will benefit the wealthiest people [and] cuts would hurt education, services for older people. They would take away funds for important services like AIDS treatment programs.”

Among the crowd gathered to hear the State of the State address, there was a clear divide. Republicans applauded vigorously throughout, the rest sat in silence. “The governor says he wants more bipartisanship,” said Cheliotes. “In the first sentence the governor took away the opportunity to make everyone equally share the pain, the tax increases. He said that he wanted to work in a bi-partisan way, but he presented the tax cuts as an absolute. … This doesn’t bode well for the state.”

Outside the gubernatorial address, a number of organizations held informational pickets in protest of Pataki.

Mothers of the Disappeared protested the Rockefeller Drug Laws. Although the governor did pledge to reform the state’s notorious laws, which require mandatory sentencing for drug offenders, a spokeswoman from the group said Pataki said the same thing last year, but failed to follow through.

Others were disappointed that the governor’s speech didn’t mention the issue of rent control. One of the most important issues in the New York State legislative session will certainly be rent control, according to Friends & Neighbors, a statewide tenants’ rights organization. The state’s rent control and stabilization law expires on June 15, and the state legislature must decide whether or not to renew it.

“It is almost incomprehensible that the governor would say absolutely nothing about the preservation of 1.2 million units of affordable housing,” said Diane Kline, a member of the group. “In an economic crisis, with taxes going up and incomes either static or going down, New Yorkers need to know that are homes are going to remain affordable.”

Housing Works, an AIDS service organization, distributed literature showing its version of a solution for the problems facing New York State. Their program calls for investing in education, health care, environmental care, transportation, and public services in general. The organization calls for a temporary tax on the rich and a closure of loopholes for corporations.

The author can be reached at dmargolis@cpusa.org

9/11 health crisis lingers

Thu, 23 Jan 2003 09:46:00 +0000

Two recent articles downplaying the dangers to physical and mental health stemming from the World Trade Center disaster are being widely publicized in the mass media and “scientific” journals.

In the first, Dr. Paul Lioy, a chemist from Rutgers University, claims that the dusts and soot coming from the collapse of the WTC are far less dangerous than previously feared because the particles from the WTC were too large to create a problem. Lioy’s paper will be published by the American Chemical Society, a group not known for a pro-people, pro-worker bias.

Lioy’s report flies in the face of most findings that the asbestos, silica and other dusts were unusually small because of the crushing effect of the towers’ collapse. It only stands to reason that the smaller the size, the greater the possibility of reaching deeper in the lungs and airways.

The Environmental Protection Agency also got into the “less danger than previously thought” act with a report stating that the dangers presented to the environment and workplace are not as great as once feared.

Here again, the report seemed to have a self-serving effect. Ever since the events Sept. 11, 2001, the EPA has tried to downplay any acute or long-term health effects resulting from the attack on the center and that, if there were, they affected very few people, be they community residents or those who worked in the clean up. However, both reports reluctantly admit rescue and relief workers who were in and around the WTC immediately following the collapse could have lasting health problems.

Meanwhile, residents of the neighborhood and cleanup workers are demanding maximum protections. Residents who live in and around the WTC have won their demand that the EPA clean up their apartments. In addition, labor unions are demanding that the EPA clean up commercial sites so that workers who are working in and around the WTC are protected.

And, finally, responding to massive labor and community demands, the federal government and the New York City Health Department have announced a $20 million program to establish a registry to follow up on the 200,000 residents and workers who were exposed to WTC dangers.

The problem with this registry is that it will only establish a list of exposed people since no medical follow up was provided for. The Bush administration vetoed the $90 million requested by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and approved by both Senate and House last year to provide support for diagnostic care to those affected. However, neither the original $12 million given Mt. Sinai Hospital to screen victims or Sen. Clinton’s $90 million would cover the cost of any treatment for disabilities suffered by workers or community residents

There is still time for Congress to force the Bush administration to appropriate all necessary monies to protect WTC residents and workers. This is the other side of the anti-war message that the movement must make as part of its demands.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org

Bostons first Latino City Councilor sworn in

Thu, 23 Jan 2003 09:41:00 +0000

BOSTON – History was made in this New England city with the coming of the new year. Felix Arroyo, the first Latino member of the City Council was sworn into office on Jan. 6. Arroyo is originally from Puerto Rico and works as the Deputy Director of the Hispanic Office of Planning and Evaluation, a multi-service agency affiliated with the National Council of La Raza.

Arroyo ran for one of the four at-large seats on the City Council and came in fifth. For those not winning a seat on the Council the fifth position is a coveted spot because if any of the at-large members leave their positions the next in number of votes gets the seat. Rob Consalvo, who came in sixth, asked for a recount after that election.

Arroyo received support from organizations such as Boston National Organization for Women, the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Political Alliance of Massachusetts, as well as parents and Latino groups.

The new Councilor has a long history of over 25 years as a parent-activist for public education. Arroyo ran for a seat on the School Committee twice before without any success. After the School Committee became an appointed body, the then mayor Ray Flynn put Arroyo on it. Even though there was no requirement to do so, Arroyo left his paid position as Flynn’s personnel director to serve as the unpaid head of the School Committee. Arroyo explained that he wanted to be able to be independent of the mayor.

Arroyo was reappointed by the current mayor, Thomas Menino, but was not reappointed after he opposed Menino and School Superintendent Thomas Payzant for “race-neutral school assignments.” Race was considered in assigning students to the different schools as a result of the federal court judge Arthur Garrity’s desegregation order of 1974.

Even though Menino refused to reappoint Arroyo to the School Committee, the new City Councilor will be supportive of the mayor in his attempt to get some type of rent control reintroduced in the city.

Arroyo has been active in other issues affecting the Latino and other communities in Boston. Last October he was one of a number of elected officials that joined with labor, religious and other leaders in support of the striking janitors.

Arroyo joins a growing number of Latinos in elected positions throughout Massachusetts including, for the first time, four state legislators serving together for the first time. This also includes the first state senator.

Nevertheless, Latinos, as well as other minorities, are underrepresented in the halls of power in this state and the city of Boston.

If Boston had minority representation in line with its population ratio, six of the thirteen members would be from minority groups.

Massachusetts African Americans, Latinos and Asians make up 18 percent of its population but only 1.4 percent of its elected officials are members of minority groups.

The author can be reached at jacruz@attbi.com

Sacramento fights school privatization

Thu, 23 Jan 2003 08:52:00 +0000

SACRAMENTO – Sacramento High School, which has been in operation since 1856 and is the second-oldest high school west of the Mississippi, is in danger of being closed by the Sacramento City School Board, paving the way for takeover by a private corporation. Kevin Johnson, former pro basketball star and Sac High graduate, has formed the St. Hope Corporation to operate Sac High as a charter school.

St. Hope Corporation has said it cannot afford to continue employee’s union contracts and benefits. Teachers, classified employees and janitors would no longer be covered by any collective bargaining agreements.

Sac High is not the lowest-performing school in the district or the region, but while some other schools have raised their achievement test scores, Sac High has dropped in scoring the last two years. This triggers the threat of sanction and possible takeover by the State of California. About 1,300 interested community members, teachers and students filled the high school auditorium on the evening of Jan. 9 to express their opinions as the School Board met to make its decision on closing Sac High.

Anger and concern were the major emotions expressed as people came to the mike to speak. Ruth Holbrook, a labor leader representing school employees, said, “Why are you in such a hurry to dump Sac High? You, the board, are giving up your responsibility.”

Many teachers spoke. One told the board, “We teachers are held accountable, why isn’t the board held accountable?”

Concerned citizens, parents, teachers gave a long list of the boards mismanagement of Sac High. One speaker said, “We’re eternally planning and then changing plans.” Another noted that “Classes totaling 300 at-risk students are without books for ten weeks.”

“Three principals in four years,” complained one speaker. Some speakers voiced their opinion plainly telling the board, “You are proposing a simple solution to a complicated problem – will you give away our schools one by one because you can’t do your job?”

Also called for was an audit of how Sac High has come to this state of affairs and an accounting of the money received from the state as aid to under-performing schools.

By the end of the spirited meeting at 1:30 a.m., those opposed to closing Sac High claimed a temporary victory. The board had intended to vote right after the meeting. Instead, they proposed to vote on the issue on Jan. 21.

Perhaps the most important message of all from this situation is the danger of privatization of our country’s once great public education system. Obviously the struggle to save it will reach unheard of heights in the years of right-wing control ahead of us. Everywhere privatization shows itself it must be fought.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org

Lessons from the Lott expos

Fri, 17 Jan 2003 04:25:00 +0000

The Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) scandal did more than expose the racist underbelly of the former Senate majority leader and the Republican Party. It also showed the growing importance of the struggle for equality and against racism in the political life of the nation. It also showed that we still need a strong viable and active civil rights movement to fight racism in all its continued manifestations.

Lott publicly longed for the days when another racist senator – Strom Thurmond – ran for president on a vicious segregationist platform in 1948. He made these statements at Thurmond’s 100th birthday celebration.

It was significant that no one defended Lott’s “right” to make his statement, which was a tribute to the system of Jim Crow and racial segregation. There is an anti-racist consensus in the country that all public figures had better respect and dare not openly defy.

In the public sphere these views are fortunately no longer considered respectable. That kind of racism is on the defensive in the public life of the nation – thanks to the efforts of the civil rights movement. As the struggle against racism continues, openly racist public figures will eventually become extinct.

However, the hidden racism – the racism by innuendo, through scapegoating and the use of demagoguery – continues to poison the atmosphere.

The main concern of the Republicans who spoke out against Lott was not that racism is wrong and should be condemned, it was that his statements would hurt the GOP’s ability to push its agenda. The racist underbelly is still there and the new GOP Senate Majority leader, Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has the same record as Lott on civil rights.

In fact the policies of the Bush White House, the Republican majority in the House, Senate and Supreme Court are racist to the core. Their policies are sugar coated with tokenism, democratic sounding phases like school choice, reverse discrimination and fake talk about wanting a color-blind nation, but their ideological essence is a defense of the racist status quo.

Everything the Bush administration is presently pushing – the war in Iraq, “Leave no child behind” education bill, their stand on affirmative action, the repressive PATRIOT Act and Homeland Security, the death penalty, their position on the environment, their opposition to immigrant rights, their stand against abortion rights, on public housing, against the homeless and heatless – will all hit non-white communities with a devastating impact.

So will the social services cuts they are proposing in order to carry out war and implement their new massive tax giveaway to the rich, their opposition to unions, their persecution of immigrants, their refusal to help the unemployed, the impoverished former welfare families, the victims of hunger, the elderly and those enslaved in the nation’s dungeon like prisons; all of this will have horrible consequences in the communities of color. Their new foreign policy doctrine of world conquest cannot be carried out without the “poverty draft,” and eventually the reintroduction of the conscription. None of this can be defeated without a fight against racism.

Former CPUSA Chairman Henry Winston used to say racism is the Achilles heel of U.S. imperialism. There cannot be an effective peace movement in the U.S. that does not fight racism, too.

Global capitalist profits thrive on the super exploitation and suffering of people of color in a special way. Nearly half of the world’s population, mainly non-white peoples, lives on less than $2.00 a day; 40,000 children die every day from preventable disease for lack of access to needed medicines. These and other horrible conditions of life are rooted in the system of global capitalism.

Racism plays a critical role in rationalizing the exploitation and oppression that has brought about mass poverty and deprivation to the world’s peoples of color. Imperialist wars are not possible without the use of racism to cover up and rationalize the heinous war crimes. You cannot fight for world peace and against capitalist globalization-imperialism without fighting racism.

We are living through a very dangerous period. The Bush administration and the Republicans in the Congress are pushing our nation towards constant war. This administration is using McCarthyite and COINTELPRO methods to promote a witch-hunt like repression, especially towards Arab and Muslim peoples. They want to silence all dissent in the name of fighting terrorism. An important part of this is an acceleration of the Bush administration’s racist offensive. That new offensive is directly linked to the push towards war, the terrible state of the economy.

In the name of Homeland Security, under the direction of Attorney General John Ashcroft, who has a long history of opposition to racial justice, the racist policies of Bush administration have been escalated.

NAACP Chairman Julian Bond described the situation well when he told the 2002 NAACP convention, “We must understand that when wars are fought to save democracy, the first casualty is usually democracy itself.”

While Lott and the far-right Bush administration want to take us back to a time of legal segregation, our population is moving in another direction. We live in a nation of 281 million people that includes almost every race and nationality and ethnic group on the planet. The U.S. is perhaps the most multiracial country in the world, especially our working class. This is a beautiful feature of the United States. While the right wing considers this a weakness, it is in fact one of our nation’s greatest strengths.

Racial minorities live and work in every region, in every state and in every major city. They are majority working class and generally occupy the lowest paying, most exploitative jobs. Among the national minorities there are large numbers of immigrant workers, the largest groups coming from Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America.

The total non-white population numbers about 81 million today. By the year 2005, the Latino population is projected to reach over 38.1 million. African Americans are projected to reach over 37.6 million. Asian and Pacific islanders will reach 13.2 million. American Indians, Eskimos and Aleuts will reach over 2.6 million. Sometime around the middle of this century the U.S. will become a majority non-white nation. This is not a reason for racial division, conflict and chaos, it a reason to fight to end racism.

Lott – who was, no doubt, drunk with the success of the Republican’s recent electoral showing – did not misspeak, as he claimed, but spoke from the heart at Thurmond’s farewell party. Most importantly and despite all denials, what he said was not out of step with the basic policies of his party and the current occupant in the White House. Lott thought he could utter those infamous words and get away with it. But, he created big problems for the entire Republican, right-wing establishment.

The question is why was this whole situation such a big problem for the Republicans?

First of all, the Republicans cannot maintain their dominant position in the Congress and in most State and local offices if the true racist nature of their program and many of their top personalities are exposed. They go to great lengths to disguise the racism because if it is exposed, they cannot win.

The current number of Blacks and Latinos in top positions in the administration is part of perpetuating the myth that they are anti-racist. Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice are part of an administration with a racist program. They are not fighting that program, they are advocating it. In light of Lott it should be clear to the doubters that Harry Belafonte was right in his criticism of Powell.

In this administration Black and Brown faces in high places are just a façade used to hide racism.

Despite the Lott debacle, they have not reversed their positions on any of these issues. They have reintroduced the nomination of a known racist – Charles Pickering – for the 5th Circuit Court.

Their world outlook does not embrace the idea of racial and class equality. Their policies are based on defense of capitalism above everything else. And racism is part of the lifeblood of U.S. capitalism. For them, racial and class justice are obstacles to capitalist maximum profits and do not compute. Their claims of morality and Christian piety ring hollow in light of their real policies on race.

In November 2004 Bush faces a big re-election battle – a battle he lost last time by 500,000 votes and stole in Florida, with the Supreme Court help, largely by racism.

The problem the Republicans have is that they can’t hold their electoral coalition together if it is tainted with open racism. They need every vote they can get. The reality is that the solid extreme ultra-right ideological block of voters they have is not enough to win the presidency. Many of the mostly white voters whose votes they must win across the country will not vote Republican if the GOP is tainted with open racism. These voters like the conservative economic policies, but do not want to be stained with the political stigma of supporting racism. The Republicans must therefore appear to be for racial inclusion.

Those Republicans who don’t agree with Lott and promoting the racist status quo should break ranks or go down in defeat. Those Democrats who equivocate on equality deserve rejection as well. The issues of war, racism and the economy could defeat the Republicans in 2004.

The Democrats better take heed, because if the Democratic Leadership Council line prevails in 2004, and they do not offer an alternative on race, war and the economy, they will not win back the Congress and the White House.

Those independents that know what’s at stake should reject sectarian tactics in the coming election and join the broad left and center forces fighting to prevent racism and war from consuming our nation and the world. The Republicans can be defeated.

Immediately, the Pickering nomination and any others of his political stripe should be defeated, and Lott should be censured and removed from the Senate alltogether. A new movement is developing in support of affirmative action, which is now before the Supreme Court. All those who believe in racial equality, justice and reparations need to become active on this issue.

In order to hold on to the White House and their majority position in Congress the Republicans must come off as supporting racial equality. If they come off as openly racist, they will face even a greater number of anti-racist voters. If they are exposed for what they are Black, Latino, Asian and Native American voters along with great numbers of white voters will be even more motivated to vote against them. That would spell sure defeat.

In short, racism threatened the whole Republican program, because there is a lot of concern in the country about racial justice.

As we approach the holiday of the great Rev. Martin Luther King, we must remember that the struggle for peace and justice – a struggle King led – is far from being over. We must still struggle for a brighter, more peaceful future. The economic racism that is holding back our nation’s development must be done away with. We are not going back to Jim Crow/Apartheid. U.S. population trends are moving in the other direction.

The civil rights movement is not passé, it’s the views of Lott that are. To defeat them we need a stronger, more active, multi-racial, civil rights and peace movement today. To bring that brighter day, organized labor has a major role to play in helping to build greater unity of Black, Brown, Red, Yellow and White in the struggle for peace, equality and justice.

That’s the response to the Trent Lott scandal that we need to have.

Jarvis Tyner is the executive vice chairman of the Communist Party and can be reached at jtyner@cpusa.org

Coalition to fight judicial nominees

Fri, 17 Jan 2003 04:14:00 +0000

A coalition of civil rights and women’s equality organizations has promised a fight to block Senate confirmation of Judge Charles W. Pickering, Sr. and Judge Priscilla R. Owen to seats on the federal appeals court. They welcomed Sen. Charles Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) vow to filibuster the Pickering re-nomination if it reaches the Senate floor.

George W. Bush re-nominated Pickering and Owen, who had been rejected in the last session of the Senate. It was a deliberate slap at the broad movement that forced Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) to give up his leadership post because of pro-segregationist comments he made at a birthday party for retiring Sen. Strom Thurmond.

Wade Henderson, executive director of the labor-backed Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), blasted Bush for his hypocrisy. “How can President Bush one day criticize Sen. Lott but the next day send to the U.S. Senate judicial nominees who have demonstrated even less sensitivity than the former Majority Leader? With these re-nominations, it is clear that President Bush’s compassion for civil rights takes second place to his compassion for the so-called ‘state’s rights’ movement.”

Henderson said LCCR and its allies will fight the Pickering and Owen nominations. “In the days, weeks and months ahead, we plan to mobilize our communities to send our own message to Bush and the Senate: that hostility toward the protection of civil and human rights is at odds with our country’s fundamental principles …”

Bush re-nominated Pickering even though in 1994 he had intervened to plead for a lower sentence against a Klansman convicted of burning a cross in the front yard of an interracial couple in Mississippi. Pickering, a close crony of Lott, advised Mississippi on how to strengthen the state’s law against interracial marriages and supported Constitutional Amendments to ban school desegregation and abortions. He is a foe of the Voting Rights Act.

Judge Owen is likewise an enemy of equal employment rights and abortion rights protected by Roe v. Wade. Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, said, “The women’s rights and civil rights communities will fight this political déjà vu with the same determinations we did last year. It has been only a short time since the egregious statements of Sen. Trent Lott and Rep. Cass Ballenger and already the White House has abandoned its brief embrace of civil rights by re-nominating Charles Pickering.”

NAACP Board Chairman Julian Bond said Bush is sending a “clear signal” that the “party of Lott has no intention of becoming the party of Lincoln and that they will continue to play the race card and to practice the politics of racial division. They have no shame.” He called on the Senate to reject Pickering and Owen.

The author can be reached at greenerpastures21212@yahoo.com

Illinois commutes death sentences

Fri, 17 Jan 2003 03:51:00 +0000

CHICAGO – Illinois Governor George Ryan struck a blow against the death penalty worldwide when he pardoned four men on Illinois Death Row, Jan. 10, and commuted all 167 other death sentences to life imprisonment, Jan. 11. In three of those 167 cases, the term was shortened to 40 years. This was Ryan’s final act as governor.

Speaking at the DePaul University Law School here, Ryan stunned and gratified his audience by announcing pardons for four African-American men, who have maintained they were convicted on the basis of bogus confessions extracted by torture at the hands of former Chicago Police lieutenant Jon Burge. A special prosecutor is now investigating these cases.

The next day, Ryan addressed an overflow crowd at the Law School at Northwestern University, whose Center for Wrongful Convictions and Medill School of Journalism have done Herculean work documenting police and prosecutorial misconduct leading innocent people to Death Row.

When Ryan announced he was emptying death row completely, he received a standing ovation.

In his amazing one hour-plus speech, Ryan pointed out that since the death penalty was restored in Illinois, over half the men on death row, 13, were exonerated. Ryan, a former pharmacist, said he that if a druggist made that many mistakes he or she would “soon be out of business.”

Ryan, who entered the governor’s office four years ago as an ardent supporter of the death penalty, presented a careful, detailed review of the factors that led to his decision:

* Half of the nearly 300 capital cases in Illinois have been reversed.

* Thirty-three of the Death Row prisoners were represented at trial by an attorney who had later been disbarred or suspended.

* More than two thirds of the prisoners on Death Row are African American, 35 of whom were convicted and condemned to die by all-white juries.

* 46 prisoners were convicted on the basis of testimony from jailhouse informants.

“I ask myself,” Ryan said, “how does that happen? How in God’s name does that happen?”

In January 2000, Ryan issued a moratorium and appointed a bipartisan commission to study the death penalty. The commission concluded that the system was seriously flawed, and there was a real danger of executing innocent people. They proposed 82 changes to prevent this from happening.

However, the Illinois General Assembly did not pass a single one of the commission’s recommendations, a fact that Ryan highlighted in his speech.

In it he concluded, “the Illinois death penalty is arbitrary and capricious – and therefore immoral. I shall no longer tinker with the machinery of death. ... it has taken innocent men to a hairbreadth escape from their unjust execution.”

To family members of murder victims, with whom he had met, Ryan expressed sympathy and offered something more than revenge for their pain. “They pleaded with me to allow the state to kill an inmate ... to provide families with closure. But is that the purpose of capital punishment? To soothe the families? And is that what the families truly experience?” he asked.

He proposed the money spent on capital cases should go to a victim’s fund to pay for health care and other expenses families face. Ryan said his wife was not happy with his decision. A long-time family friend was brutally murdered and his killer also sat on death row.

Most prosecutors were quick in reacting with venomous anger. Cook County State’s Attorney Richard Devine, a Democrat, denied that there was anything fundamentally wrong with the criminal justice system until now, when Ryan “broke” it with his pardons and commutations. Devine was a high official in the office of then State’s Attorney (and now Chicago Mayor) Richard Daley when the Burge torture cases occurred.

Even those who support the moratorium looked for political cover on this decision. Newly elected Gov. Rod Blagojevich criticized Ryan, saying he did not believe in a “one size fits all” solution.

But the decision drew praise from human rights activists, both at home and abroad, and from government officials in a number of countries.

Walter Schwimmer, general secretary of the Council of Europe, the region’s number one human rights watchdog, said he “sincerely hoped” Ryan’s act was a “step toward the abolition of the death penalty in the whole United States.” He added that the death penalty had “no place in a civilized society.” The United States and Japan are the only industrialized countries in which the death penalty is still used.

Mexican President Vicente Fox telephoned Ryan “to express his profound recognition for the historic measure,” that commuted the sentences of three men of Mexican nationals, an issue before the International Court of Justice.

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu spokesman called Ryan’s action “fantastic news,” adding that Tutu feels the death penalty “is vengeance, rather than justice.” Earlier Nelson Mandela had urged Ryan to issue a blanket commutation.

Jane Bohman told the World Ryan’s decisions “put the death penalty on the forefront of the state’s agenda.” Bohman, executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty said that while the entire criminal justice system was in need of reform, “the death penalty must simply be ended.”

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org

National Clips

Thu, 16 Jan 2003 08:40:00 +0000

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.: Street peace heat blunts winds of war

Bundled against Artic cold, 2400 residents took their opposition to the Bush war against Iraq to the streets, Jan. 12.

“We are coming out to say no to the threat of war against Iraq,” said Jessica Sundin, a member of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee. “We are calling on our government to change course and instead to work for peace.”

“It was more than we expected in our highest hopes,” Sundin said. “People’s energy was really high.”

The organizing coalition included Nurses Against War.

Chris Baird said, “I think that we would end up killing a lot of innocent Iraqis and an action like that would not separate us very much from the terrorists.”

Chris Kujawa added, “I think the sanctions are working. I think the war is about oil and not about the weapons inspections.”

Jessica Miranti, a 40-year veteran pacifist, said she was out on the street again because, “I cannot imagine sending my grandsons into battle for purely economic reason.”

GARY, Ind.: Steel city says no to war

In the heart of the nation’s basic steel industry, Gary became the 24th city to pass a resolution demanding peace with Iraq. In an 8–0 vote Jan. 7, council members approved the call for negotiations with Iraq and transferring the war budget to the cities.

The city of Chicago is considering a similar resolution.

WASHINGTON, DC: Defend the right to safe and legal abortion

The National Organization for Women (NOW) has launched an online petition campaign to garner 30,000 signatures defending women’s rights to make reproductive decisions. The petition is available at the NOW web site, www.now.org. Calling on senators to reject Bush nominations to the Supreme Court who are hostile to abortion, NOW plans continued scrutiny of nominations to all levels of the federal judiciary.

The NOW Action staff will deliver the petitions Jan. 22, the 30th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion.

NOW’s Action Team notes that the mid-term elections have given Bush a “blank check to move forward its intolerant, regressive right wing agenda.”

DECATUR, Ala.: 60 Steelworker jobs, 1,500 workers apply on first day

News of work travels at lighting speed through the vast working-class network, as Abott Wood, office manager at the state unemployment office here, discovered on Jan. 6. He had to open the doors a half hour early, 7:30 am, because already 175 workers were lined up to apply for 60 jobs at the Nucor steel mill. By the end of the first day the corporation was accepting applications, 1,500 working families turned in their hope for a decent pay day.

Applications were being accepted through Jan. 17.

At one point the unemployment office ran out of applications and called Nucor for more.

Nucor is non-union. Steelworkers work 12 hours a day rotating four days on and four days off. The mill currently employs 275 people.

Decatur has the second-highest jobless rate in the state among metropolitan areas at 6.4 percent.

CONSHOHOCKEN, Penn.: Steelworker killed in Bethlehem mill

On Jan. 3, John C. Weikert, married and father of three children under 18, went to work on the 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift. He was not home when his children got off the school bus.

Weikert was crushed between a crane and the building 20 minutes into his shift. He would have had 10 years service on March 22.

The United Steelworkers of America and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are investigating the incident.

Just before Christmas, a steelworker at Bethlehem Steel’s Burns Harbor mill was killed on the job. Bethlehem Steel is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich.: GM defect threatens lives

A General Motors Corp. employee has sued the world’s No. 1 automaker under Michigan’s Whistleblowers’ Protection Act, saying he was blackballed after he threatened to report vehicle safety defects.

Courtland T. Kelley said in the lawsuit that as manager of an internal auditing program to test vehicle safety, he found problems with fuel-line systems.

In court papers, Kelley said he believes the problems could cause cars to spew out fuel and kill or injure drivers, passengers and pedestrians.

“His primary objective is to get defective vehicles off the road and protect public safety,” said Kelley’s attorney, Rose Goff.

Kelley, who filed the lawsuit Jan. 9, said he repeatedly notified higher management of the problem but was ignored. GM denies knowledge of the lawsuit.

Kelley reported his findings to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in December, Goff said. NHTSA spokeswoman Liz Neblett said it was unclear whether the agency will investigate.

National Clips are compiled by

Denise Winebrenner Edwards

(dwinebr696@aol.com).

Terrie Albano, Paul Kaczocha and Elena Mora

contributed to this week’s clips.

If you have a clip, send it to pww@pww.org

Protest call: No cuts, tax the rich!

Thu, 16 Jan 2003 08:17:00 +0000

HARTFORD, Conn. – Traffic here ground to a halt on the morning of Jan. 8, as several thousand marched on the state capitol in the cold and snow to protest the inhumane layoffs and cuts in services proposed by Republican Gov. John Rowland to close the state’s $2 billion budget deficit.

Arrogantly disregarding the diverse outcry from nursing home workers, social service providers, students, teachers and maintenance workers, the governor used his State of the State address to blame unions for not accepting takebacks in wages and benefits, leaving the corporations and wealthy off the hook.

At a time when homeless shelters and soup kitchens are filled beyond capacity, with an 80 percent increase in the last year, and when layoffs in the private sector have been steadily increasing, the governor’s proposals for laying off at least 3,000 state workers and the elimination of the services they provide is especially callous. The governor would also slash funding to towns and cities, causing more layoffs and steep property tax increases.

An alternative budget focusing on the untapped wealth in the state has been drawn up by a powerful coalition of the state workers’ unions, over 100 social service organizations and mayors of the state’s major cities. It would end the deficit by increasing taxes on incomes above $200,000 a year and by closing corporate tax loopholes.

“A Fair Share Budget will solve all the problems and will serve all of Connecticut’s citizens,” declared Lynn Ide, representing One Connecticut. To cheers she concluded, “It’s not a spending problem, it’s a revenue problem.” Many of those opposing the cuts also support calling on the president and Congress to cut military spending and increase revenue sharing to states and cities.

Those at the rally have been protesting for the last month. Social workers and economic rights activists rallied at the sites of four offices of the Department of Social Services slated to be shut down.

Health care workers, members of Service Employees International Union Local 1199, turned out in large numbers at the Capitol wearing signs saying “Patient Care is OUR Bottom Line.” Cutbacks to health care for children and seniors have caused great concern throughout the state.

Referring to the huge tax cuts for corporations in the last decade, Dan Mills of the Bureau for Education Services for the Blind charged that the governor “wants pennies from the corporations and billions from working people.”

Students who attend LEAP, an after-school mentoring program, staged a read-in at New Haven City Hall to protest the layoff of counselors and high school mentors. Counselor Gwen Forrest moved the Jan. 8 crowd when she said, “Something is terribly wrong when rich taxpayers won’t pay taxes on their luxury boats and 7-year-olds are told ‘you don’t have the right to learn how to read.’“

State college students joined their professors at the rally. A senior from Central Connecticut State University emphasized that rising tuition will eliminate the chance for a higher education. “We are being asked to pay more in tuition than corporations do in taxes. Tell Rowland ‘No,’” he told the rally

Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez, speaking on behalf of mayors of large cities, charged Rowland with utilizing the budget crisis to create divisions instead of bringing people together. Hartford, the second poorest city in the nation, stands to lose $18 million, which would cause layoffs of teachers, police and fire fighters. “This is our state capitol, and it should be our budget!” he declared.

“This is about building a great movement,” said John Olsen, president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, to loud applause and chants of “Impeach Rowland,” “We have to stand strong for raising the living standards of all people. The 225,000 union members in Connecticut are with you. We will win because we are right.”

The author can be reached at joelle.fishman@pobox.com

Profits come first with Frist

Thu, 16 Jan 2003 06:32:00 +0000

Some have said that switching from U.S. Senate leader Trent Lott (R-S.C.) to Dr. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) is like going from the frying pan into the fire. Well, that isn’t entirely true, but analyzing voting records and families’ businesses, that would certainly seem to be the case.

Be clear, there is no doubt that Lott had to go. Such an open appeal to racism had to result in Lott’s dismissal from Senate leadership; he should have been forced to resign from the Senate. He had become an embarrassment to the anti-people strategies of the Bush administration.

Frist has extensive medical credentials. But the problem is that for people in need of medical coverage those credentials will provide little help. In fact, they will be the opposite. Why?

Frist is a member of the family that owns and runs the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), the largest for-profit hospital system in the United States, and thus represents everything that is wrong with medical professionals. It was HCA that was caught fraudulently handling Medicare monies, resulting in indictments and millions of dollars in fines. Frist should be serving time, rendering treatment to fellow inmates in some federal prison.

Frist ran his form of a populist campaign, which included stating that he would limit his tenure to just two terms. Although this seemed to be a humble thing to say, nothing could be further from the reality. Frist wanted to develop the impression that he sought no power for himself or his family. He is bright enough to know that his thin veneer of a humane cardiologist will surely wear thin when his voting record against the public interest and for profits in health care became evident.

That process is happening now as outlined in a recent New York Times article titled, “Bush seeks sweeping changes in Medicare.” Frist’s aim is to take the failed privatization of Medicare (the Medicare Plus/HMO fiasco) and make the system even more profitable for insurance companies and for-profit hospitals.

As most policy advocates know, the privatization of federal Medicare program started from the very outset of Medicare in the 1960s. Shortly before his death, Wilber Mills, the architect of Medicare, said that the biggest mistake he and his colleagues made at that time was to make it possible for private insurance carriers to substitute for the federal Medicare program, which he and others saw as the next step toward national health legislation.

But it wasn’t until the failure to enact national health legislation in the 1970s and again in the 1990s, that the insurance carriers set their sights on Medicare and the billions of tax dollars that flow into the program. Thus the lie that the Medicare program would be less costly in the hands of private insurance companies.

Since then every Medicare privatization experiment has failed. But, failure has not stopped them and they now have a new “solution” – complete privatization, prettified with a privatized prescription drug plan.

Frist’s major goal during his stewardship of the U.S. Senate will be to use his medical credentials to make Medicare a profit windfall for the profiteers.

He can and must be stopped. What better issue to serve as the glue of a labor/community fight for a national health plan?

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org

4,500 Mainers rebuff racists from away

Thu, 16 Jan 2003 06:26:00 +0000

LEWISTON, Maine – Thousands of Maine residents gathered here Jan. 11 to support recent Somali immigrants who have been targeted by the hate group “World Church of the Creator.”

Last November, the hate organization announced its intention to hold an anti-Somali rally in Lewiston to recruit new members. The announcement of the racist event came after Lewiston Mayor Larry Raymond publicly urged the Somali community, the vast majority of whom are American citizens, to stop their relatives and friends from moving to Maine from other parts of the country. In a heavy-handed letter to the elders of the Somali community last October, Mayor Raymond blamed the recent influx of Somalis for stresses on his city’s municipal budget, saying that the Somalis’ increased presence had “maxed-out” Lewiston’s resources “financially, physically and emotionally.”

An estimated 1,100 Somalis have moved to Maine since February 2001.

Immediately after the announcement by the World Church, a group of community, religious, labor and civil rights advocacy organizations formed the Many and One Coalition to counter the World Church’s attempts to recruit members in Maine. The coalition decided to hold a pro-immigrant counter-rally on a separate site, on the same day and at the same time as the World Church of the Creator’s event. The organizers chose the Merrill Gymnasium at Bates College, in Lewiston. “When we first decided to have the counter rally, we thought we might get 300 to 500 people, max,” said Leslie Manning, a trade unionist, civil rights activist and member of the Many and One organizing committee.

In addition, another group of pro-immigrant anti-racists planned a more confrontational rally to be held outside of the Lewiston National Guard Armory, where the World Church of the Creator planned to hold its meeting.

Despite freezing temperatures, over 4,000 people turned out to the Bates Gymnasium, which can only legally hold 3,000 people. Several hundred people who could not get into the building stood outside for hours, singing, chanting and cheering for speakers and performers from the rally who came outside to address them as well.

Inside the building, the standing-room-only crowd included delegations from a broad array of organizations, including labor groups, religious organizations, human rights groups, community organizations, student organizations and social service providers.

Representatives of the Micmac Nation of Native Americans, the NAACP, the Maine Rural Workers Coalition, the American Muslim Society of Maine and the Somali Justice Center addressed the lively and festive crowd, as did Maine’s Governor John Baldacci and two former Lewiston mayors. Maine Speaker of the House Pat Colwell read from a resolution passed unanimously by the state legislature, which says in part: “Hate and bigotry have no place in the great state of Maine.”

Also in attendance were Maine’s Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both Republicans, its two Congressmen, Tom Allen and Michael Michaud, Democrats, and many other political luminaries. Lewiston Mayor Larry Raymond declined to attend. He is vacationing in Florida.

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali sent a letter saying the battle in Maine is “between those who embrace bigotry and those who embrace freedom.” Ali recalled his 1965 bout in Lewiston, in which he knocked out Sonny Liston. He blamed Mayor Raymond’s “irresponsible,” “insensitive” and “inflammatory” letter for opening the door to hate groups to descend upon Lewiston. “The Many and One Coalition has my full support” in standing against racism and for freedom, Ali said.

Nikki McLean of the Maine People’s Alliance told the World she came to the rally because “I don’t want my grandchildren to live in a world that can’t accept them for the way that they are.” McLean’s grandchildren are half Sudanese. She continued: “If everyone was blind, what would [the bigots] base their hate on then?”

Tom Sturtevant, a member of the Maine chapter of Veterans for Peace, told the World his organization was there “because we realize that wars begin in the hearts of people. We must get rid of the hate in people’s hearts.”

Across town, an estimated 500 additional pro-immigrant, anti-fascist demonstrators confronted members of the World Church of the Creator at the National Guard Armory.

Only about 25 World Church supporters showed up, only eight of whom was from the local area. According to Steve Burke, a participant in the adjacent pro-immigrant rally, the police secretly shuttled the racists away at the end of their event, without the counter-demonstrators’ knowledge. “They went out the back door and headed for the hills,” he said.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org