People Before Profit blog

Lee Cain, auto worker, Communist

Fri, 30 Jan 2004 10:52:00 +0000

Lee Cain, auto worker and UAW organizer, fighter for civil rights, and champion of the People’s Weekly World, died Jan. 13 at the age of 86. Lee was a relentless fighter for bettering the life of the working class, and constantly immersed in struggle and activity.

Lee was born in Mississippi in 1917. For a time he worked on the railroad. He came to the Detroit auto plants in 1942. After six months of work at Dodge Main Plant in Hamtramck, his wife and two children followed. He and his wife, Bernice, would have three more children.

His introduction to the civil rights struggle was the Scottsboro Nine case. He met Carl Winter and Rev. Charles Hill at a local Detroit demonstration protesting the murder of an African American youth by the Detroit police. His sense of justice brought him to join the Communist Party.

Lee was tireless in his fight for the union and workers through the UAW Dodge Local 3. From picket captain to grievance person, he was described as a “hell-raiser” whose work allowed others to gain benefits in succeeding generations. He was chairman of the FEPC and Civil Rights Committee for 14 years and Chief Steward for eleven. His work helped bring about the anti-discrimination clause in the Chrysler contract in 1961.

Incidents involving threats to his life and police dog attacks did not deter his commitment. His activities embraced community issues of racism in restaurants and city hiring practices, leading to the city of Hamtramck passing an ordinance in 1954 prohibiting racial discrimination in city employment. His work also resulted in Local 3 donating $10,000 to Black-owned Tri State Bank in Memphis to counter the discrimination of Black farmers who could not get loans in the South.

Lee headed a local labor committee to Free Angela Davis in the early ’70s. He continued work through the UAW Black Caucus, National Negro Labor Council, NAACP and DRUM (Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement). He was involved in numerous local city political campaigns throughout his life. When he spoke, Lee’s favorite reference was to the Declaration of Independence, and “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness … and how can you have these things when you don’t have a job?”

Lee’s vision of a better life through socialism was always his guiding motivation.

In his senior years, when Lee was well into his 70s, he committed himself to a neighborhood route to distribute 300 copies of the People’s Weekly World, maintaining it for several years. His door-to-door contact with the paper led to his election as precinct delegate in his east side Detroit neighborhood. Despite his ill health, his colleagues allowed him to maintain that post until his death.

Lee is survived by his wife, Bernice, five children, 12 grandchildren and 17 great-grand children.

Book Review People vs. Profits

Fri, 30 Jan 2004 10:42:00 +0000

A must read for today

People vs. Profits Columns of Victor Perlo: 1961-1999 Volume 1: The Home Front Edited by Ellen Perlo, Stanley Perlo and Art Perlo International Publishers, 2003 Softcover, 372 pp., $9.95

While reading “People vs. Profits” by Victor Perlo the old saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same,” kept cropping up in the back of my mind. Capitalism has changed quite a bit in these last 40 years, and Perlo’s writings faithfully reflect many of these changes. Even more impressive, however, is how these columns about the basic laws of capitalist production and crises retain so much relevance for today.

Perlo, for many years the chief economist for the Communist Party USA and a world-renowned Marxist, wrote a weekly column for the World and its predecessors from the 1960s through the late 1990s – totaling over 3,000 columns. He also wrote 13 books over his lifetime and delivered numerous lectures, reports and conference papers, creating a substantial body of political economic analysis before his death in 1999.

Here, as in all his writings, Perlo takes very complex economic and political dynamics and makes them user-friendly to non-economists.

The first chapter, “Economic Situation,” starts with a column written in April 1961 entitled “What Kind of Recovery?” While the political situation was very different than today, including the leadership of the labor movement, the bottom line that Perlo points out is relevant to the current discussion and struggle around the idea of a so-called “jobless recovery.”

“Not everybody wants the same kind of recovery. For capitalists, recovery means the increase in profits above all. For workers recovery means jobs for the unemployed, higher real incomes, more paid leisure, and social security. The propaganda that the fates of labor and capital are automatically joined economically is a fiction.”

George W. Bush trumpeted his tax cuts to the rich for starting a so-called economic recovery, but that talk is exactly about recovery of profits for his ruling-class cohorts. The “jobless recovery” leaves working-class families, women and the racially oppressed wondering, “What recovery?”

Perlo focused a good portion of his writing on exposing racism. Using Marxist methodology, Perlo combines economic statistics with the historical and political situation and the people’s mass struggle to expose racism in the economic, political, and social life of the United States. In the process he demonstrates a committed partisanship to the struggles of the African Americans, Latinos and all victims of discrimination.

Other areas of thought, analysis and struggle Perlo covers include Marxism, labor and industry, big business and profiteering, militarism, taxes, Social Security, corporate corruption, agriculture, role of the CIA and FBI, education and problems faced by cities, states and regions.

“People vs. Profits” is illustrated with biting political art by notable cartoonists such as Bill Andrews, Fred Ellis, Ollie Harrington, Huck and Konopacki, Seymour Joseph, Peggy Lipschutz and Fred Wright.

Given Perlo’s prolific writing, compiling his columns was a daunting project for the editors, his wife and partner Ellen Perlo, and his two sons, Art and Stanley. They managed it with skill.

As former People’s Weekly World editor Tim Wheeler wrote in the forward: “The contradictions [Perlo] exposed are now hitting with devastating force: Enron thievery, a war for oil against Iraq, global corporations and the ultra-right running amok. I often wish Vic were still with us, hammering away at these greedy corporations.”

With “People vs. Profits, Volume 1,” Perlo is in many ways “still with us, hammering away” at the ills, evils and corruption of capitalism. We look forward to Volume 2, which will cover international affairs.

The book can be purchased directly from International Publishers by calling them at (212) 366-9816 or by ordering the book from your local bookstore.

The author can be reached at talbano@pww.org.

Movie Review Who is the real Monster?

Fri, 30 Jan 2004 10:34:00 +0000

Charlize Theron as Aileen “Lee” Wuornos is stunning and unrecognizable in “Monster,” written and directed by Patty Jenkins. When you see Lee, you don’t recognize Theron. Lee is big, has a false swagger, full of testosteronic tendencies. But most of all, she has a class stamp all over her. With a slight change in the angle of her front upper teeth, she’d be a very close Gary Busey twin.

“Monster” is based on the notorious Florida state execution of Wuornos in 2002, with Jeb Bush as governor. Only one of 10 women executed in the U.S. since the death penalty was reinstated, Wuornos received her penalty after being convicted of murder. The men she killed were johns who picked her up based on the commerce of the body business.

But the class stamp is the key. That stamp has “one of the unemployable” all over it, and if we were in India, that class would be called “untouchable.” That most exploited class gets an extra squeeze on the Jerry Springer Show. In fact, “trailer trash” is now part of the English language, as though it’s forbidden to refer to poor, white people.

The movie opens as Lee goes into a gay bar after a very bad day turning tricks on Interstate 95 around Daytona Beach, Fla., and getting soaked in the rain. She meets Shelby Wall (Christina Ricci), 18, who has been sent to Florida by her parents to get the gayness out of her. Proclaiming straightness and homelessness, she spends the night with Shelby.

Both are ill at ease and are making accommodations. Batting deliciously doe eyes and manipulating her way into Lee’s heart, Shelby finds her way out of a Pat Robertson, Christian-style homophobic and racist household. Lee finds redemption in the rejection of prostitution with men who want her to function without feeling. Her swagger sweeps Shelby along as she convinces herself a new life will be had.

Reality sets in as Lee, feeling the pressure to provide and perform for Shelby, goes back to the interstate. Her next john viciously beats her unconscious and ties her up. When she reawakes, she takes a gun and kills him. She takes his money and car, but isn’t quite ready to share what happened with her new lover.

There are 25 scenes that speak to the wonder of Theron’s performance. One involves a john in his first encounter with a hooker. The 24th is the phone conversation between Lee and Shelby after Lee is picked up and jailed.

But it must be said that the film cheats Lee and Shelby. The camera lingers too long on the kissing scenes – enough so you’re thinking the scenes are about Theron and Ricci, not Lee and Shelby. In fact, the audience could just know they are lovers without all the extra flesh. It takes the movie over the edge to Hollywood manipulation of skin and forced drama, instead of a searing indictment of the manipulation of real people.

I’m reminded of the Brandon Teena documentary, and of “Boys Don’t Cry.” In these movies, the stories took their time to develop. Here, the story is set up as skin and high drama.

The monster I see filter through this film might be the state of Florida, which is known for its frequency of executions. The prosecution that constructed the “serial killer” argument worked in a state that wasn’t interested in providing a minimum wage, let alone a living one.

No, Florida is the monster that created this “Monster” that we might want to sink our teeth and soul into, so we’re not in line with a tabloid under our arm every week at the supermarket, reading about death.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org.

Discurso Bush

Fri, 23 Jan 2004 10:36:00 +0000

Normalmente los presidentes de este país usan su Discurso sobre el Estado de la Unión norteamericana para hacer público las nuevas iniciativas que busca. La gente espera que sean unas propuestas que breguen con los problemas más grave de la nación.

Sin embargo, el discurso de presidente de turno George W. Bush no fue así.

Bush empezó su discurso alabando sus aventuras imperialistas, su guerra contra Irak, y criticando a los que se oponen a la ocupación de ese país por EEUU. Con demagoguería el nombró varios países que enviaron tropas a Irak para contrarrestar a los que quieren que la ONU se encargue de llevar a ese país a la normalización con un gobierno transición a la democracia. Lo que Bush no dijo era que él envió a más de 130.000 soldados y los otros 26 países tienen menos de 24 mil.

Mientras Bush se jactó de la captura de Saddam Hussein, no dijo nada de los más de 500 soldados estadounidense que han muerto en Irak y siguen muriendo a pesar de la derrota y captura de Hussein.

Bush habla de la educación. Cuando hizo campaña electoral él dijo que quería ser conocido como el presidente de la educación. Mientras habló de su ley de “reforma educativa” Ningún Niño quede Rezagado – una ley que muchos educadores dice no hace nada para mejorar la educación pública, sino que la destruye – no dijo ni una palabra sobre su falta de poner suficiente fondos para su propia ley educativa.

En vez de un plan para poner fin a desempleo, habló de hacer permanente los recortes de impuestos para los ricos.

En vez de hablar de la necesidad de seguro médico para todos, habló de su plan de recetas médicas para ancianos que obliga a muchos de ellos pagar más.

En vez de hablar de la aministía para los indocumentados, habló de su plan para permitir que inmigrantes vengan a trabajar en EEUU, pero sin derechos ni ninguna esperanza de ser parte de este país.

En su discurso, ambos en lo que dijo y lo que calló, Bush dio suficiente razones para sacarlo el próximo noviembre.

Hasten to Houston

Fri, 23 Jan 2004 10:21:00 +0000

Hasten to Houston

And then there were two. The New England Patriots and the Carolina Panthers each won their conference titles on Jan. 18, sending them on to Super Bowl XXXVIII. The NFL championship game is scheduled for Feb. 1 in Houston.

The Patriots are heavily favored to win, but the same was said of all of Carolina’s playoff opponents – Dallas, St. Louis, and Philadelphia – and Panthers plowed through each team. Carolina is making its first Super Bowl appearance in team history. For their part, New England is making its second Bowl appearance in three years, the closest thing to a modern-day NFL dynasty.

The AFC Championship game was held in Foxboro, Mass., and the cold and snow were enough to help New England freeze Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts, 24-14. Manning, who had seemed to have left his difficult playoff past behind him, threw four interceptions, three of them to Ty Law. The Patriots defense truly turned the tide in this game, forcing the Colts’ first punt in 10 quarters of postseason football and scoring a safety when the ball was badly snapped.

New England’s offense was not so shabby either. Tom Brady set the pace from the beginning with a touchdown pass to David Givens on the Patriots opening drive. The team has scored on its opening drives in five straight games. Antowain Smith carried for more than 100 yards on 22 carries, and kicker Adam Vinateri put in five field goals and an extra point – enough to beat the Colts on his own.

At the NFC Championship in Philadelphia, the hometown crowd was treated to a lackluster Eagles performance, as the visiting Panthers took the title by a score of 14-3.

Ricky Manning, the Panthers rookie cornerback, grabbed three interceptions to help keep the Eagles at bay. It helped, too, that Eagles QB Donovan McNabb suffered a rib injury and had to be replaced by Koy Detmer. Together, the Eagles quarterbacks were sacked five times.

The Carolina offense also held up its end of the bargain. Quarterback Jake Delhomme proved that he is contender – throwing 9 of 14 for 101 yards and one touchdown, a 24-yarder to Mushin Muhammad. Stephen Davis, despite a strained leg muscle, rushed for 76 yards on 19 carries and pulled in 21-yard reception. He was supported on the ground by DeShaun Foster, who ran for 60 yards and one touchdown on 14 carries.

Who knows what will happen on Super Bowl Sunday? We can be assured of one thing, however: it will be a memorable match-up.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org.

Bill Hogan, peace and justice activist

Fri, 23 Jan 2004 10:16:00 +0000

Political, religious and community leaders were among friends who paid tribute at a memorial for Bill Hogan held at Chicago’s St. Bride’s Catholic Church, Jan. 9.

Hogan, 76, was a long-time activist in civil rights, peace and justice issues and a member of the Communist Party. For many years he was a Catholic priest, and even after he left the priesthood he widely known as “Father Bill Hogan.” He died here of a heart attack on New Year’s Eve.

Well over 100 people attended the memorial, including a group of co-workers from the Cook County Adult Probation Department, where he worked for the past 13 years. Each co-worker who spoke said that they had never heard Hogan say a bad word about anyone.

Rev. Willie Barrow, chairperson emeritus of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, read a resolution noting that Father Hogan had attended the first meeting of Operation Breadbasket, the forerunner Rainbow/PUSH, in the 1960s. Rev. Jesse Jackson, speaking at the Rainbow/PUSH meeting on Jan. 10, also praised Hogan’s work and noted that for years they had marched and demonstrated together in the fight for social justice.

John Bachtell, district organizer of the Communist Party of Illinois, said that Hogan saw the present political system as flawed and that the only possible solution was socialism. “He never saw his belief in socialism or membership in the Party as a contradiction to his religious beliefs,” Bachtell said.

In 1961, Hogan organized a “wade-in” at beaches along the city’s Lake Michigan waterfront where African Americans were traditionally barred from swimming.

Hogan marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. against Chicago’s segregated housing and with Dick Gregory and others in anti-Vietnam war demonstrations. He was arrested with others in 1971 for pouring red dye in the Chicago River to protest U.S. conduct of the Vietnam War.

The causes Hogan supported often were not supported by the Chicago Archdiocese, and his actions riled his superiors. In 1971 he was suspended from diocesan duties for several years and sometimes lived at home with his mother. He had to find employment to support himself, often driving a taxi. He made a point of picking up passengers for any part of the city. Later reinstated to the priesthood, he voluntarily left it in the early 1980s.

Hogan and other South Side peace activists were on the street every week against the Iraq war, speaking to thousands.

At the memorial Rev. William Flaherty, a classmate of Hogan’s, said Hogan garnered a reputation that “his struggles were causes that we should be in.”

“If we saw Bill in a demonstration we knew it was a good thing and we should be involved,” said Flaherty. Father Flaherty mentioned Hogan’s passionate and lifelong love of the Chicago White Sox – a fact known by any friend or acquaintance of Hogan’s.

Hogan was quoted by a 1973 Tribune article as saying, “I thought the peace movement was a proper activity for a priest.”

U.S. empire exposed by caustic cartoons

Fri, 23 Jan 2004 10:03:00 +0000

Review

Addicted to War By Joel Andreas AK Press Softcover, 64 pp., $8

Joel Andreas has given us a valuable tool titled “Addicted To War.” This cartoon-illustrated primer depicts the ruthless history of the United States’ ruling class and its imperialist ambitions from the “Manifest Destiny” doctrine to the events shortly after Sept. 11.

With this large-format, colorful book, we can begin to fill in the gaps left by standard American history textbooks. This is not the glowing timeline of heroic exploration and battles with the enemies of freedom and democracy most are familiar with. Here, we learn how the capitalist interests twisted public sentiment and patriotism to suit their growing desire for resources. Corporate interests are shown again and again as the impetus for bloody battles around the world where America’s youth die and the poor receive no benefit.

“Addicted To War” is currently in use by hundreds of colleges and schools as a textbook, which is a testament to how well-researched this book is. Andreas, an assistant professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University, doesn’t just relate his opinions, but carefully documents each fact and quote. The book is thus a skillful combination of research and artistry.

Andreas’ drawing style is clean and simple, which is perfect for this type of book. Hard to classify, this isn’t really a comic book or a graphic novel. This is more in the “factoid” style that anyone familiar with the great Mexican cartoonist, Ruis (Eduardo del Rio), would recognize.

Originally published in 1992 shortly after the first Gulf War, in a limited press run, “Addicted To War” was republished in 2002 by Frank Dorrel and AK Press. Since then, over 100,000 copies have been distributed. Over 70,000 have been distributed in Japan in a new Japanese-language edition. The book is also available in India in English and Korea. Soon there will be Spanish, French, German and Thai editions. A new English edition is set to be released this year.

“Addicted To War” should be on everyone’s must-have book list and should be made available anywhere rallies are held. It is sure to incite debate and even arguments with those who refuse to acknowledge the hidden truths revealed here. Luckily, it is readily available through most online booksellers or directly from AK Press (www.akpress.org) and Frank Dorrel (www.addictedtowar.com.).

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org.

The full-grown shrub is not a pretty sight

Fri, 23 Jan 2004 09:47:00 +0000

Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush’s America By Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose Random House, 2003 Hardcover, 347 pp., $24.95

First Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose looked at George W. Bush’s disastrous impact on Texas when he served as governor there in their bestseller, “Shrub: The Short But Happy Political Life of George W. Bush.” Now they’re back to describe what happens when George the Younger has an entire nation at his disposal (sometimes literally) in “Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush’s America.”

With much justification the authors can today declare, “Don’t say we didn’t warn you when he was in Texas.” They traveled all over the U.S. to observe the results of the extremist right-wing policies of the Bush administration and the Republican Party. Ivins and Dubose found that “the government no longer works for most of the people of the country.” And they also explain how “people are not only getting screwed – losing their life savings, their pensions, their health insurance, their jobs, and unemployment comp – they’re also getting sick and even dying because the people’s interest now takes second place to that of big-money contributors.”

The authors attack the Bush administration because it is being driven by an extreme rightist ideology combined with the power and influence of large corporate interests. They observe that “All this abstract, ideological, the free-market is God, Ayn Rand piffle is doing cruel things to real people. This book is about them.”

Ivins and Dubose look at a wide variety of situations in contemporary American life. For example, ergonomics, which is “the shop floor science that aims to make heavy and repetitive production-line work less destructive to workers bodies.” For many years, private, anti-labor attorney Eugene Scalia has waged a campaign against ergonomics, claiming what’s wrong with workers is in their heads. Eugene’s father, Antonin, cast one of five Supreme Court votes that gave away the presidency to George W. Bush.

Now, Eugene is in a position where he can really wage war against ergonomics. He is the labor solicitor in the Labor Department who is in charge of the attorneys who enforce labor laws. Scalia’s appointment to this position has dashed the hopes of Mississippi delta catfish workers for adequate workplace protections. The authors interviewed the Mississippi workers who each must skin fifty to sixty thousand catfish every week at the cost of substantial physical harm to themselves.

The authors looked at other areas of American life, as well. For example:

Chemical pollution – They visited a chemical dumpsite in New Jersey that has been responsible for substantial health hazards to residents, the deaths of many cattle, and also changed the color of local rabbits’ skin and fur to green. Of course, federal funds to clean up such sites are no longer available – they were killed off by Newt Gingrich’s Congress back in the 1990s.

Unemployment – The Bush administration has fought a hard, vicious struggle against extending unemployment benefits to the long-term unemployed. Late in 2003, the administration succeeded in choking off the funds. Ivins and Dubose interview victims of long-term unemployment.

Religious-Right extremism – The writers examine the role and strong influence of right-wing religious extremists in the Bush administration. They also look at the extremism of Bush’s judicial nominees, one of whom actually ruled against a death-row inmate whose attorney had slept during the trial.

Food Safety – In terms of recent headlines concerning food safety, the chapter entitled “Ready to Eat” is very relevant. Ivins and Dubose charge that the Republican Party “is the party of unregulated meat and poultry.” The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) undersecretary for food safety, former Texas A&M professor, Elsa Murano, does not believe in testing food products. She also helped to kill off the Clinton administration regulations that dealt with the deadly bacterial form of food poisoning, listeria. The authors accuse the Republicans of paying off their wealthy contributors from the cattle- and chicken-processing states with the lax enforcement of USDA regulations.

Ivins and Dubose are alarmed: “The programs that are helping people are being dismantled by ideological zealots. The programs that help corporations at the expense of taxpayers are being left in place.”

What is to be done? Unfortunately, Ivins and Dubose suggest modest liberal reforms that do not fundamentally alter the power relationship between the wealthy and working people. They suggest public financing of campaigns; free media airtime for candidates-the public owns the airwaves; rescinding Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy; ending corporate welfare; outlawing off-shore tax havens; enacting a program of energy conservation; establishing a national health insurance program; large-scale voter registration; and several reforms for corporations.

Their conclusion is scary and offers serious food for thought. Ivins and Dubose believe a “creepy” situation exists here in the U.S. and “the creepiest thing about it is that no one is talking about it. Mussolini said ‘Fascism should be more properly called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power.’ That’s pretty much what we’re looking at here, and the results are not good for the people of this country, no matter what it is called.”

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org.

Build unity to take back our country in 2004

Fri, 23 Jan 2004 09:19:00 +0000

Opinion

A consensus is forming that progress in meeting human needs in our country is impossible as long as George W. Bush remains in the White House and the extremist Republicans control all three branches of government.

It underlines the enormous stakes in the 2004 elections. Bush-Cheney, Tom DeLay and their ilk will resort to every dirty trick to steal this election.

Their aim is to shift the burden of capitalism’s economic crisis to the backs of working people, destroying jobs, cutting wages, terminating health care and pensions, privatizing Medicare, Social Security and public education.

They would nullify affirmative action and rollback the gains of African American, Latino and all racially oppressed people.

Women’s rights are under brutal assault. The doctrine of preemptive war, using even nuclear weapons, threatens humanity for the sake of U.S. empire.

The quagmire in Iraq is costing thousands of U.S. and Iraqi lives and billions of dollars to fatten U.S. corporate coffers and enforce U.S. global domination.

A grassroots movement to stop the ultra-right offensive is springing up, led by the AFL-CIO and its 14 million members. They are committing their brains and muscle power and millions of dollars to defeat Bush and the ultra right at the ballot box.

African Americans, Latinos and other people of color, the women’s equality movement, civil liberties groups, environmentalists and peace organizations, youth, seniors, family farmers, GLBT groups – all are part of the coalition against the right in the 2004 elections, as is the Communist Party USA.

Our party’s strategic vision of an “all-people’s front” against the corporate ultra-right resonates in slogans like “Tax the rich” and “Cut the Pentagon budget.” We say use those billions to create jobs, universal health care, and quality public schools.

As part of that effort, we are holding a day-long conference on the theme, “Build Unity to Take Back Our Country in 2004! Defeat Bush and the Ultra Right!” in New York City on Jan. 31.

We will examine the task before us to defeat Bush and the ultra-right in Congress and to build the CPUSA as a unique contribution toward strengthening the broad people’s movement.

In roundtable discussions with our members and representatives from organized labor, the African American and Latino peoples’ movements, and from women’s, youth, environmental, and peace groups, we will discuss and plan:

• How can we work more effectively in the grassroots movements to engage them in the elections?

• Can we help organize voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts?

• How can we inject more advanced, anti-monopoly demands that help promote the forces of political independence?

• Can we help push forward better candidates, including trade unionists, people of color, and women?

• What about using the 2004 elections to lay the basis for local CPUSA candidates in 2005?

• How can we build the Party and recruit many new members in this election campaign, which will help strengthen the people’s movements?

Among the many exciting initiatives we will discuss is a concentration project in the battleground states of the Midwest, where many believe the outcome will be decided.

The ultra-right has unlimited corporate cash and control of the news media. They are skilled demagogues who hide their real agenda under a mask of moderation. They use racism to divide and conquer.

The challenge is to expose their reactionary, anti-people agenda, as the voters of Philadelphia did in the landslide reelection of Mayor John Street in the face of FBI dirty tricks.

We must enter this battle united and filled with a fighting spirit, confident in our cause. A decisive victory over the right in 2004 would open the way for the forces of political independence to go on the offensive for more advanced demands.

For more information about Communist Party’s electoral conference, visit www.cpusa.org or call (212) 989-4994.

Arnold Becchetti, CPUSA leader

Fri, 16 Jan 2004 09:48:00 +0000

Arnold Becchetti, former national organization secretary and national treasurer of the Communist Party USA, died suddenly Dec. 27 while visiting family. He was 78 years old.

Arnold Becchetti served as CPUSA national organization secretary from 1974 through 1987, working closely with Gus Hall and Henry Winston. He was national treasurer in the 1990s until he moved to Oakland, Calif., in 1994. At the time of his death he was a member of the CPUSA’s National Committee, and a member of the District Board and District Committee in Northern California.

While a national leader, Arnold traveled extensively for both organizing and educational work. He is widely remembered as a dedicated and skillful teacher with a knack for engaging his students, as well as for his great personal warmth and irrepressible, pun-filled sense of humor.

“We will greatly miss Arnold’s leadership abilities and human warmth,” said CPUSA National Chairman Sam Webb. “For more than three decades he was a national leader of our party. It is a great loss, but we will take inspiration from his example and keep his memory alive.”

Arnold Becchetti was born in Needham, Mass., on Nov. 13, 1925. He grew up in Tampa, Fla., in the midst of the economic and political struggles of the day. He was greatly inspired by his mother, a shop worker, labor and community organizer from an early age, who was a family friend and a devoted defender of the framed labor martyrs Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti.

His own political life took root in the Progressive Party campaign of 1948, and the associated struggles over integrated audiences in the South for presidential candidate Henry Wallace and the legendary Paul Robeson. Faced with the draft during the Korean war, he elected to serve in the military rather than leave the country, because, he said, he wanted to be able to come home afterward and fight for peace, economic and social justice. He joined the CPUSA in 1961.

An accomplished pianist, Arnold Becchetti performed and taught in the Tampa area and later around Chicago. In the 1960s he and his wife, Marilyn, a cellist, performed to raise funds for peace and civil rights. He enjoyed playing the piano all his life.

In the late ’60s and early ’70s Arnold Becchetti served the Illinois District in several ways before being elected district organizer. Active in many community struggles, he was instrumental in developing the Evanston, Ill., Human Relations Council into a leading force in area civil rights struggles including the equal housing movement. He helped found a Veterans for Peace organization in the ’60s. In 1972 he ran for U.S. senator from Illinois on the Communist Party ticket.

Arnold Becchetti is survived by his wife of 45 years, Marilyn Bechtel, and daughters Linda, Gina (Kevin) and Lisa, as well as his sister Iris, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. A celebration of his life will be held in Oakland on March 21, with details to be announced.

Book review: Speaking of wars

Fri, 16 Jan 2004 09:43:00 +0000

War Talk By Arundhati Roy Published by South End Press 2003 Softcover, 142 pages, $12

Even after I first heard Arundhati Roy speak I wasn’t sure what her politics were. I knew she had leftist perspectives; she is well known and respected in the anti-globalization movement. Her novel “The God of Small Things” has been read widely and was awarded the Booker Prize in 1997.

So it was with excitement that I began to read “War Talk,” Roy’s most recent book. “War Talk,” a collection of six short essays, demonstrates Roy’s literary style, her ability to paint vivid pictures depicting many of the underlying human costs of modern day militarization and globalization, and her personal feelings on these subjects.

Roy is probably most eloquent and convincing when she writes about India, her home. In the first chapter, “War Talk: Summer Games With Nuclear Bombs,” Roy discusses the very real possibility of nuclear war between Pakistan and India, the regular cross-border skirmishes that each nation manipulates for its own purpose, and the civilians on both sides stuck in the middle of this deadly game – confronted with the prospect of becoming a “radioactive stain on a staircase.”

Roy includes a essay about Noam Chomsky, praising him for his volumes on U.S. foreign policy and media manipulation. I agree that Chomsky has made contributions to the struggle for peace and social justice by helping to expose the United States’ role in clandestine wars in Central and South America. However, Roy’s account of the “lonely” intellectual mistakenly gives the impression that Chomsky “and his fellow media analysts” did all of this with out much help, in a vacuum, divorced from mass mobilizations and protests involving hundreds of thousands of activists trying to expose the lies of U.S. power.

While much of “War Talk” describes Roy’s personal experiences and feelings towards militarization and globalization, in other parts Roy seems to have run away with herself, taking the reader for a shallow ride by forgetting other social forces in the world challenging war, poverty, exploitation, globalization, racism, sexism, media manipulation, and unbridled power. She rarely mentions organized labor, community and student organizations.

In many parts of the book Roy also fails to provide historical perspective and a consistent analysis of militarization and globalization. For example, in a chapter called “Come September” Roy says, “The theme of much of what I write, fiction as well as nonfiction, is the relationship between power and powerlessness and the endless, circular conflict they are engaged in.” While addressing power Roy is great at description, but she fails to analyze the organizational and structural ways of actually challenging power. And by labeling the struggle between the powerful and the powerless as endless, Roy confuses more than she clarifies.

Roy’s emotion, sarcasm and style, while useful in moderation, also wear thin after a while.

While “War Talk” doesn’t answer any new questions, it provides some useful information on the militarization of India and globalization in general. To the reader interested in personal reflections on the militarization of India, “War Talk” will be informative.

The author can be reached at tonypec@pww.org.

Cold Mountain and my summer vacation (a review)

Fri, 16 Jan 2004 09:33:00 +0000

Cold Mountain is a good movie, based on a good book by Charles Frazier. I think most reviewers missed the most important thing about the movie – it is movingly anti-war at a time when the Bush administration has the country bogged down in brutal occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. When we saw the movie, the audience, in a multiracial suburb of Chicago, left in a quiet and thoughtful mood.

The story is about Inman, a Confederate soldier from the mountains of western North Carolina. He is a reluctant recruit who is skeptical about the war and the Confederate cause, but nevertheless feels obligated to fight. His experiences with the brutality and senseless violence of the war convince him to desert and walk back over 400 miles from Petersburg, Virginia, to Cold Mountain, N.C. The book/movie is the story of his walk home.

What does this have to do with my summer vacation? One intriguing aspect of this story is the antiwar and anti-slavery sentiments attributed to some of the main characters from the village of Cold Mountain in both the book and the movie. Just so happens that this past summer we spent two weeks vacation in the mountains of western North Carolina.

A friend of mine told me that Don West, the famous poet, civil rights and Southern labor activist, once said that there were more abolitionists in western North Carolina than in Boston. I don’t know if that’s true, but we did find some evidence to support it very near Cold Mountain. Cades Cove, N.C., is an interesting area that was once a thriving mountain farming community and is now preserved as part of the Great Smokey Mountain National Park.

Without knowing much about the history of the area, we stopped in the park to see the Cades Cove Primitive Baptist Church, one of the oldest buildings in the park. A volunteer ranger told us an interesting aspect of the church’s history.

The church was firmly anti-slavery and anti-Confederacy, as were several other churches in the area. He said the congregation prayed over the matter and consulted their Bibles and decided that “slavery was an abomination and the Confederacy an offense to God’s law.” The church had to shut down for the duration of the war because of harassment by the Confederate “Home Guard,” a kind of vigilante militia that terrorized anyone suspected of supporting the Union. As portrayed in Cold Mountain one of the Home Guard’s main functions was to capture and often murder run-away slaves and Confederate deserters.

The ranger pointed us to the gravestone of Russell Gregory in the church cemetery. Gregory was one of the founders of the church and one of the first white settlers in Cades Cove. He was murdered by Confederate irregulars because he had organized an ambush against Confederate raiders who constantly looted and harassed folks suspected of Union sympathies in Cades Cove. His headstone reads, “Founder of Gregory’s Bald about 1830, Murdered by North Carolina Rebels.” Records indicate that 21 young men from Cades Cove fought for the Union and 12 with the Confederates.

The ranger also played for us a recording of shape note or “Sacred Harp” singing, a beautiful kind of a cappella style hymnal music featured in the movie.

The movie does have flaws. A major one is that while its true that there were not a lot of large plantations exploiting hundreds of slaves in the mountains of western North Carolina, there were slaves there. That doesn’t come through at all. And the real role of Black Union troops in the Siege of Petersburg, the battle Inman deserts after, is not told.

A minor flaw is that, born and raised in the South, I just couldn’t believe Nicole Kidman as a Southern Belle. Renee Zellweger on the other hand gives one of her best performances ever.

The author can be reached at scott@rednet.org.

Wild Card Weekend

Fri, 09 Jan 2004 09:44:00 +0000

Wild Card Weekend

The NFL playoff picture came rapidly into focus last weekend, as four battles between wild-card teams determined who would advance to face the league’s leaders.

Panthers 29 Cowboys 10

Two years after finishing 1 and 15, the Carolina Panthers have moved beyond the wild-card round of the playoffs. Carolina stepped up in an unexpected fashion, eliminating the Cowboys from further contention. Quarterback Jake Delhomme threw for 273 yards, and Stephen Davis rushed for 104. Kicker John Kasay tied a postseason record with five field goals, scoring more than Dallas itself. The Panthers were near perfect: they had no penalties and no turnovers. Though coach Bill Parcells has certainly turned the Cowboys around, the team is still too up-and-down; they gained no offensive yards in the third quarter. Carolina moves on to confront the St. Louis Rams this weekend.

Titans 20 Ravens 17

Despite Steve McNair’s three interceptions and hurt ankle, Tennessee managed to beat Baltimore. Its defense held record-setting rusher Jamal Lewis to 35 yards on 14 carries, his worst performance of the year. Titans’ running back Eddie George ran for 88 yards on 25 carries – with a dislocated shoulder! And McNair vindicated his turnovers by organizing a late drive that set up the go-ahead field goal late in the fourth quarter. The NFL’s oldest player, 44-year-old Gary Anderson, kicked it through the uprights with 29 seconds remaining to advance the Titans. They will pay a visit the New England Patriots on Saturday.

Packers 33 Seahawks 27

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselback had it coming – at least, according to Green Bay fans. With the game tied at 27 and heading into overtime, Seattle won the coin toss. Hasselback’s amplified voice echoed throughout Wisconsin’s Lambeau Field, “We want the ball, and we’re going to score.” The Cheeseheads couldn’t have disagreed more, and after each side went three-and-out, Seattle began its fateful second drive. Nervous at the sight of an impending blitz, Hasselback decided to audible – and had some difficulty communicating because of the crowd noise. Al Harris, Green Bay’s cornerback, intercepted the ensuing pass and returned it 52 yards for a touchdown, right past the outstretched arms of a diving Hasselback. Sunday, Green Bay makes its way to Philadelphia for a game against the Eagles.

Colts 41 Broncos 10

The Indianapolis Colts turned the tables when it counted. Two weeks after losing to the Denver Broncos in a regular season match-up, the energized Colts took off at a gallop on Sunday. Peyton Manning threw for 377 yards and five touchdown passes, four alone in the first half. For their part, the Broncos barely bucked. A play late in the first quarter exemplifies their lackluster game: Colts receiver Marvin Harrison caught a pass and lay on the field at the Denver 30 yard-line. While the Broncos secondary argued over who should have covered him, Harrison rolled over, stood up, and ran for a touchdown, having never been touched by a Denver defender. Indianapolis advances to face Kansas City.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org.

Father ODonnells life celebrated

Fri, 09 Jan 2004 09:35:00 +0000

Over two thousand people gathered in Berkeley’s Community Theater Dec. 14 to celebrate the life of Father Bill O’Donnell, beloved Roman Catholic priest whose 47 years of service in the Bay Area enriched virtually every progressive movement for peace, and for the rights of workers and oppressed people at home and abroad.

Father O’Donnell, retired pastor at St. Joseph the Worker Church, died suddenly of an apparent heart attack while working at his desk Dec. 8. He was 73. He is survived by his sister, Mary, and brothers Edward and James.

Known to all as “Father Bill,” Father O’Donnell was a sparkplug at picket lines and demonstrations, with his politically pointed invocations and his determination to uphold people’s rights regardless of consequences. He is thought to have been arrested during protests over 300 times.

“Bill dreamed of a world without fear, where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the sands of habit,” his friend and co-worker, actor Martin Sheen, said at the celebration.

Elected officials, union leaders, Catholic clergy, and fellow peace and justice activists told story after story about Father Bill’s outspoken courage and lively good humor.

California Labor Federation head Art Pulaski recalled a janitors’ picket line where police, anticipating a “notorious activist,” appeared in full riot gear and assumed the wedge formation. Father Bill, arms linked with Pulaski and janitors, began challenging the police. To Pulaski’s words of caution, Father Bill responded, “We’re already in trouble; might as well enjoy it!” As the police charged, Father Bill called out, “That was ragged. I want you to go back and try again” – throwing the cops into disarray and greatly heartening the janitors, many of them first-time demonstrators.

Perhaps the strongest of Father Bill’s many union identifications was with the United Farm Workers. “Year after year he stood consistently against injustice,” said UFW President Arturo Rodriguez. UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta recalled how Father Bill upheld the rights of women, and defied church authorities by urging their ordination. “He said his life of crime began when he met up with the UFW,” Huerta recalled.

“Let us continue his work in a way that would make him proud,” said Rep.Barbara Lee, as she announced that she and Rep. Nancy Pelosi would place his life story in the Congressional Record.

Two years ago, as Father Bill protested at Fort Benning, demanding the notorious School of the Americas be closed forever, he was arrested and later served six months in federal prison. He was honored in absentia at the 2002 Northern California People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo Banquet. At this year’s banquet, he was introduced to tumultuous applause.

Documenting working class struggles

Fri, 09 Jan 2004 09:31:00 +0000

Toronto International Film Festival 2003 – part 4

Here are some more outstanding documentaries shown at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The Agronomist (USA)

Jonathan Demme, known for blockbusters like “Silence of the Lambs,” “Philadelphia” and “Beloved,” has had a longtime interest in the struggle for democracy in Haiti. In his fourth documentary about Haiti, Demme focuses on the journalist/radio personality, Jean Dominique, who revolutionized communications in this small island. Giving voice to the disenfranchised by introducing the Haitian Creole language in broadcasts, Dominique started a democratic movement that resulted in his assassination. The film dramatically charts the course of this captivating revolutionary and the history of this troubled island. When a skilled craftsman uses his art for social change, the quality can’t be surpassed.

Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (UK)

Here’s a real life drama that challenges the role of the documentarist. Aileen Wuornos, the serial killer on Death Row in Florida, develops a fondness for Nick Broomfield, a charismatic British documentarist known for his celebrity docs about Margaret Thatcher, Biggie and Tupac, and Kurt and Courtney to name a few. Having made a film about Aileen in 1992, Broomfield gets subpoenaed to appear at her new trial. Enamored by his treatment of her in his first film, she manages to offer enough startling information to warrant a remake. With his social consciousness and personal style, Broomfield becomes a major character in the trial and subsequent execution. His concerns about the death penalty, the tragic upbringing of this Michigan girl and his probing style of using film to get at the truth make this one of the most fascinating studies in years.

Dying at Grace (Canada)

Allan King (“Warrendale”) was the featured Canadian director at last year’s Toronto Festival. This is his newest, and once again, the compassion and humanism of the filmmaker is evident. Simply constructed from five personal interviews with dying patients at the Salvation Army’s Grace Hospital in Toronto, the film offers the viewer the rare opportunity to witness people in the last days of their life, making the choice on how to die. An extremely rewarding experience that raises the value of living while addressing the mortality of us all.

Bus 174 (Brazil)

A harrowing experience about a bus hijacking in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This drama unfolded live on Brazilian television while millions saw the desperation of the young man holding a gun to the heads of the hostages. But what separates this film from other real-life docs is the research the film crew made into the life of the hijacker. Discovering that Sandro de Nascimento became a street child from a young age when he watched the tragic murder of his mother, the director sought friends and family members to help paint a picture of what led to this fatal hijacking. This edge-of-your-seat thriller is a compassionate and insightful examination of a society with extreme poverty and brutal police oppression, and challenges the question, “Who is the victim?”

Twenty Years Later (Brazil)

Prominent world directors are asked to bring a film to introduce that they consider vital to film history. Brazilian director Hector Babenco (“Ironweed,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman”) brought this rare documentary about the killing of the leader of the Peasant Leagues in 1962. While researching the event, the film crew was thwarted by the 1964 military coup. Twenty years later they returned to the region to piece together what had happened to the peasants involved. What they discover about the families involved, and the resultant political struggles between workers and landowners, is not only fascinating but also amazingly relevant to the current political scene in Brazil. This early film from the politically charged Cinema Novo movement of the 60s was long considered forgotten, but with Babenco’s help, is available to a new audience.

The Story of the Weeping Camel (Germany)

Let’s travel to the vast Gobi desert of Mongolia, where we can be witness to a lifestyle so different that it’s hard to believe people still live this way. In this community of nomadic shepherds, camels provide the means of transportation. The plot is simple; the film is crisp and real, as we feel the heat of the desert sun. Families function on daily routines and ancient rituals. Camels are their means of subsistence, and the birth of a new calf is joy and hope to the people. This story focuses on a camel that gave birth to a rare white calf, and she rejects it, failing to offer the little one her mother’s milk. There is only one solution, and it’s the final outcome that is one of the most amazing scenes ever recorded on film. (This next part is a spoiler.) They summon an ancient ritual and call for a musician from a distant village. He sets up his stool next to the mother camel and plays his stringed instrument until the sad music makes the camel cry. And then in an astonishing scene that depicts the indescribable power of music, the mother gradually inches toward her young calf to offer life’s milk, which inevitably is linked to the existence of this remote community.

Go Further (USA)

Woody Harrelson has been lending his name to good causes lately. Boldly risking his film career, Harrelson has gone on record against the U.S. invasion of Iraq and other criminal acts in the name of American freedom and democracy. This film chronicles his interest in living a simpler life, what he calls, “leaving a smaller footprint.” Similar to the Ken Kesey excursions of the 60s, Woody gathers a crew, a bus, hemp goods and plenty of healthy food, and travels across California to help inspire others to live a simpler life. Yoga, health food, great music and progressive politics are found along the way. Along the road trip, named the Simple Organic Living Tour, focus is placed on how corporations are destroying the environment, and polluting our minds and bodies. The Canadian filmmaker, Ron Mann (“Grass,” “Twist”) along with Woody and part of the crew drove up to their film premiere on bicycles.

The author can be reached at bmeyer@macgroup.org.