People Before Profit blog

How racism sparked capitalisms financial crisis

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 10:38:00 +0000

As Congress debates an economic recovery package, it is important to keep in mind how the country got into this mess in the first place: the racially motivated lending practices of Wall Street banks and mortgage companies that targeted Black and Latino families with unfair and discriminatory loans.

With most of the congressionally approved money yet to be awarded to assist homeowners, their stories should be kept uppermost in mind.

Attention to this highly important issue was given in 2008 when the Urban League, the NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus made it the centerpiece of their annual conferences. As the fall election campaign swung into high gear, however, save for oblique references by the Republican candidate, John McCain, concerning the “mismanagement” of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and more caustic comments by demagogues like Ann Coulter blaming Black and Latino families for the meltdown, the debate largely stayed away from what may have been seen as a racially charged issue.

Still, as the main civil rights organizations charged last summer, the racist origins of the subprime mess are difficult to ignore.

An excellent study by United For a Fair Economy entitled “Foreclosed” is instructive. The report suggests several indicators, chief among them the disproportionate numbers of people of color holding such loans. Over 50 percent of all mortgages held by African Americans fall into this category. The figure is 40 percent for Latinos.

These percentages have grave economic implications. “Given that people of color are a disproportionate number of the subprime borrowers, and that this group’s assets are mostly concentrated in home ownership, the current foreclosure crisis can be considered the greatest loss of wealth for communities and individuals of color in modern U.S. history,” argue the authors of “Foreclosed.”

Consider that Blacks and Latinos will lose between $164 billion and $213 billion for loans taken during the past eight years.

Race and the housing bubble

The disproportionate numbers of Blacks and Latinos with subprime loans, while suggestive, serve as only partial explanation, however. The central question is what caused it? Were the higher relative percentages merely the casual result of ongoing poverty or was a more underlying factor at play? Bush administration policy provides important clues.

Keep in mind that subprime loans were allegedly established and encouraged as part of government and corporate efforts to provide support for struggling working-class families troubled with bad credit histories. However another factor was at work in this process.

In point of fact, the proliferation of these loans can be traced to the aftermath of the dot-com bubble. After the bubble burst, speculators turned to the housing market. As Yale economist Robert Shiller noted in 2005, “Once stocks fell, real estate became the primary outlet for the speculative frenzy that the stock market had unleashed. Where else could plungers apply their newly acquired trading talents?”

As things turned out, it wasn’t just that investors discovered a new and lucrative market, but rather that they were encouraged to do so by U.S. fiscal policy. Faced with declining rates of returns because of low long-term interest rates and buyers priced out of the market because of skyrocketing housing costs and declining wages, bankers deliberately devised loan strategies with hidden fees and ballooning interest rates that would greatly elevate their rate of return, targeting unsuspecting and ill-informed consumers. The subprime crisis was born.

Remember the ownership society

George W. Bush’s “ownership society” would be the ideological cover for this program. In it, credit would be extended to potential homeowners with low incomes and allegedly marginal or bad credit.

Former President Bush himself pushed the program, believing it would create “stakeholders” in his “ownership society” and expand meager Black and Latino support for the Republican Party. In the view of The New York Times, the Bush administration “pushed hard to expand homeownership, especially among minorities, an initiative that dovetailed with his ambition to expand the Republican tent — and with the business interests of some of his biggest donors.”

Indeed, “the business interests of some of his biggest donors” goes to heart of the matter.

While the subprime program was supposedly targeted at those with bad credit, and given that a large percentage of minorities fill this category because of poverty, it would seem disproportionality might be a normal outcome of a well-intentioned program’s attempt to redress historic wrongs.

Good intentions, however, were not the point. At stake were big business interests. A strong case can be made that banks deliberately connived to target minority buyers in order to push profit margins, knowing full well (from their own risk assessment calculations) that the loans could not be repaid. Not only were the banks betting on the defaults, but, in fact, they were pressuring prospective Black and Latino borrowers to take out such loans, leading the unwitting customers like so many sheep to a financial slaughterhouse.

Second mortgages

Homeownership, as it turns out, was not the major objective of the lenders. Despite rhetoric promoting an ownership society, only a fraction of loans were awarded to first-time homebuyers. And public officials were well aware of this even before the financial meltdown became full blown. In the summer of 2007, in a speech before the Brookings Institute as the credit markets began to seize up, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) charged:

“According to the chief national bank examiner for the Office of Comptroller of the Currency, only 11 percent of subprime loans went to first-time buyers last year. The vast majorities were refinancing that caused borrowers to owe more on their homes under the guise that they were saving money. Too many of these borrowers were talked into refinancing their homes to gain additional cash for things like medical bills.”

Nor was bad credit the primary factor for distributing the loans, a myth conveniently circulated and repeated to this day. Schumer again rebutted the notion, quoting none other than The Wall Street Journal:

“Based on the Journal’s analysis of borrowers’ credit scores, 55 percent of subprime borrowers had credit scores worthy of a prime, conventional mortgage in 2005. By the end of last year, that percentage rose to over 61 percent according to their study. While some will have damaged their credit in the interim, it’s clear that many subprime borrowers have the financial foundation for sustainable homeownership, but may have been tricked into unaffordable loans by unscrupulous brokers.”

Thus, working-class Black and Latino families, over half of whom were eligible for conventional loans, and burdened by several years of stagnant and falling wages during a jobless recovery, were led by mortgage companies into clear and blatant cases of predatory racially-inspired lending.

Predatory loans

The racial overtones in this swindle are evident. But what made the loans predatory? The United For a Fair Economy study provides the following criteria:

• marketing and sales to inappropriate customers

• pre-payment penalties (70 percent of subprime loans had such penalties)

• adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs), which often carry unexplained ballooning interest rates that increase payments by as much as one-third (a majority of subprimes were ARMs)

• exclusion of tax and insurance costs when estimating the monthly payment for a potential homebuyer

• encouraging ordinary borrowers to take interest-only loans, where in the initial year or two only the interest is paid, after which payment on the principal kicks in, raising the cost dramatically.

The Bush administration was not only complicit in these practices, but may have helped mastermind them. “The president also leaned on mortgage brokers and lenders to devise their own innovations,” according to The New York Times. “And corporate America, eyeing a lucrative market, delivered in ways Mr. Bush might not have expected, with a proliferation of too-good-to-be-true teaser rates and interest-only loans that were sold to investors in a loosely regulated environment.”

Might not have expected? In fact, the Bush team aggressively tore up regulations, intimidated and fired reluctant administrators, and litigated against states bucking their authority, taking cases even to the Supreme Court.

Achilles’ heel

Whether subprimes caused the great financial instability or simply triggered the deepening of an already existing problem, one thing is sure: its racist origins are undeniable. What Marxist theoreticians like Henry Winston and William L. Patterson called the “Achilles’ heel” of U.S. capitalism — racism — has once again made itself felt and sent shockwaves around the world, helping close one chapter in the class and democratic struggle and opening up another.

At the heart of the collapse of the financial system and the accompanying economic recession lies the unparalleled greed of the banks coupled with the declining wages of poor working people exacerbated by a racist social division of labor. The solution to the problem may well continue to lie in the repayment in full of a centuries-old debt. To paraphrase Martin Luther King, capitalism’s promissory note is still marked, “Insufficient Funds.”

Joe Sims (joesims@politicalaffairs.net) is the publisher of Political Affairs.

Letters February 7, 2009

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 10:35:00 +0000

About those jets

Last week I called Bank of America to cancel two credit card accounts. The only reason I had the cards was because they gave a percentage of purchases to charitable groups I supported.

When the clerk asked me for my reason, I happily stated “#1 is the interest rate that should be a crime, #2 is that I asked to stop receiving cash advance checks but they didn’t stop, and the main reason is I resent dealing with a bank that’s living off the taxpayer when it should have gone under long ago — it’s not like it saved your job or anything.”

Now that I hear Citicorp has accepted a third corporate jet while on the dole, I’ll be calling Citibank about that card — unless maybe I hear that the jet has been donated to a needy cause ... maybe such as GM?

Bruce

Wanaque NJ

Here’s wishing President Obama marches to the melody of his own populist drummer, while relegating the discordant tunes of America’s presumed “royalty” to their rightful place in Tin Pan Alley.

Such as “King Henry,” as in the caption of a news photo recently, referring to Henry Paulson, former secretary of the treasury. We have people in this country, such as his “highness,” who think, act and live as if they were members of the King George III royal court.

Like the princely auto executives traveling in private jets when coming to Washington to ask for money (our taxpayer money, mind you).

Other barons of the kingdom who get huge bonuses and then severance packages for mediocre work, worthy of a D or E on the people’s report card.

The nobility of the banking fiefdom who accept billions without having to account for its use, thanks to “King” Paulson of Wall Street — billions that should be going to create jobs and help people with their mortgages, but instead have been going for dividend payments and bonuses to other barons and nobles of the corporate realm.

There are countless other wanna-be princes and princesses out there trying to join America’s “royal” family.

With exclusive houses … the bigger the better and more private.

Nothing less than first-class seats ever, or better yet their own private jets.

After all, there have to be symbols to separate “royalty” from the rest of us.

But more and more Americans are heeding the other national anthem of our nation, “This land is your land, this land is my land, this land (and all that’s in it) belongs to you and me.”

Lawrence H. Geller

Via e-mail

‘The Wrestler’

Bill Meyer’s “Introducing 2008 Progie nominees” is a great display of progressive films (PWW 1/17-23).

The list would be complete had a strong, tough working-class film been added: “The Wrestler.”

By omitting this film, also omitted is the strongest acting performance of the year, on the same level as Sean Penn in “Milk” — Mickey Rourke. Also, Marisa Tomei’s supporting actress role is quite amazing. Darren Ornofsky’s direction is the best.

This was low-budget film where the actors worked at well below scale.

Maybe it is Ornofsky and Tomei growing up in working-class Brooklyn and attending Edward R. Murrow High School that gave them the insight for this film. They and others understood why a film on cruel, raw wrestling is not out of bounds.

It is not your normal working-class film, not by a long shot. But, it is one.

Phil E. Benjamin

New York NY

Nepal

I’m a high school student and a loyal reader of the PWW. I have also been watching the people’s movement in Nepal and am rather excited by it. I hope the PWW continues and expands its coverage on the first socialist revolution of the 21st century and the work of the CPN(M). Thank you!

Michael Z. Ladson

Radnor PA

Ink & paper vs. web

I think the move to first-class postage is wrong-headed and will work to your detriment.

Ink and paper newspapers are a thing of the past. The PWW should follow the lead of the Christian Science Monitor: an online newspaper supplemented, if necessary, by a periodic, limited-circulation ink and paper edition.

I recommend something like the New York Times: a daily free e-mail headline service linked to a web-based newspaper. Unlike the Times, the “full story” paper would carry a nominal cost, something like an automatic resubscription via credit card for a couple of dollars a month. (Back copies could be maintained in a free-of-cost archive for public use.)

A package like this wrapped in an intelligent reader should make it possible to reach more people at less cost, and provide better and more comprehensive coverage. Here I would definitely not follow the lead of the Christian Science Monitor, which will use a PDF format for a print-like newspaper; it’s too difficult to read and follow. I would use something like the Times’ “Today’s paper” which provides a single-page index (slightly annotated as to content) linked to whole articles (which would permit local copying/printing, change of font size/type, etc.)

Michael J. Dollard

Salem NY

O Canada

Obama’s inauguration has been met with enthusiasm by many Canadians. Nor has the fact that this isn’t the first time that African Americans and their leaders have dramatically inserted themselves at critical junctures in U.S. history to expand democracy been lost on Canadian Blacks. Black Canadians still face persistent social and economic racism in housing, employment and education.

As Nova Scotian Black Sen. Donald Oliver wrote in an open statement on Obama’s election, “Most Canadians also don’t know that segregation remained the order of the day for Blacks in Canada during much of the 20th century. During the First World War, Black men were denied the opportunity of serving their country in the regular army. They were instead relegated to a special construction battalion.

“Black women were not allowed to train as nurses alongside white women until the Toronto Negro Veterans Association and the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Colored People put pressure on nursing schools in the late 1940s.

In bitter irony, three buses carrying young black Canadians on their way to see Obama sworn into office were detained for seven hours at the U.S. border as their passports were checked and rechecked. Trip organizer Tyrone Edwards, who is with the cultural youth program The Remix Project, pointed to religious and racial stereotyping. “There was no legitimate reason to hold us up,” he told the Toronto Star. The buses were eventually let through.

Johan Boyden

Toronto, Canada

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Brazil hosts World Social Forum

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:52:00 +0000

Brasilia, Jan 27 (Prensa Latina) The ninth edition of the World Social Forum (WSF), to be run until February 1, is to start Tuesday with a long walk by more than 100,000 participants through Belen streets.

The opening ceremony includes cultural actions with African and indigenous songs, solidarity marches with Palestine and condemnation of Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip.

Also on the list is a cultural presentation from the South American continent's different indigenous groups, and over 2,400 activities in the federal universities of Para and Rural de Amazonia.

The WSF is an alternative position to the World Economic Forum to be run in Davos, but unlike the Swiss meeting that will analyze the economic crisis, the Brazilian forum will deal with world environmental crisis and food security.

Presidents Luis Inacio Lula da Silva (Brazil), Hugo Chavez (Venezuela), Evo Morales (Bolivia), Fernando Lugo (Paraguay) and Michele Bachelet (Chile) have already so far confirmed their attendance to this meeting.

This is the ninth edition of the WSF, a movement that emerged in Porto Alegre, in Rio Grande do Sul in 2001 under the theme 'A better world is possible' and has had a great international repercussion.

The second, third and fifth Brazilian editions of this forum took place in 2002, 2003 and 2005, respectively, the fourth meeting was held in Mumbai, India in 2004, the sixth event was run in three countries, Venezuela, Mali and Pakistan, in 2006, the seventh forum was in Kenya in 2007, and the eighth one, in 2008, in over 80 countries, undergoing as the Global Call for Action.

AFL-CIO sends 'to-do' ideas to Obama team

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 07:00:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Gathering ideas from unions, analyses and experts, the AFL-CIO sent a 16-page 'to do list' memo to the new Obama administration. The list submitted before the Democrat's inauguration, outlined a wide range of legislative and administrative moves the federation contended would help workers. But at least one of the recommendations – appointing a U.S. Trade Representative with 'demonstrated commitment to addressing the destabilizing influences in trade policy and who is committed to ensuring trade policies provide broadly shared benefits for working people' – may already have been bounced.

That's because Obama nominated former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, who in that office pushed the benefits of the controversial jobs-losing North American Free Trade Agreement. Kirk was 'not our first choice,' federation policy director Thea Lee told the Dallas Morning News. 'We have some concerns.'

On the other hand, the AFL-CIO's recommendation that Obama send the Federal Aviation Administration back to the bargaining table to negotiate a new union contract with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association tracks one of Obama's major legislative initiatives as U.S. senator.

The new pact, the federation said, should be based on the pact NATCA and the FAA reached in the closing days of the Clinton administration, which Bush dumped. After six years of talks and some progress, Bush's FAA declared an 'impasse' and imposed its last offer on NATCA, slashing the pay of the most-experienced controllers and freezing the salaries of the rest. Controllers have been retiring early in droves, NATCA notes.

Create jobs and help homeowners Topping the AFL-CIO's list is dealing with the Bush economic crash through passing the stimulus bill and sending its dollars to homeowners facing foreclosure and to aid states, auto workers and manufacturers.

But right after that, the federation says Obama should use the 'bully pulpit' of the presidency to campaign for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, designed to help level the playing field between workers and bosses in organizing and bargaining. The bill is expected to pass the Democratic-run House, but business is mounting a strenuous multi-million-dollar ad campaign to force 41 senators to keep a GOP-led filibuster going against it, talking it to death. There are also some shaky Democrats, AFL-CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel said. That's where Obama can have impact.

'President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said if he went to work in a factory, the first thing he would do is join a union,' the AFL-CIO said. 'Forty years later, President Ronald Reagan sent exactly the opposite message when he fired striking air traffic controllers.' That led, the federation said, to employer anti-union 'tactics at a level not seen in decades.'

'The new administration can make a tremendous difference by publicly sending the message that the administration believes in, and supports, workers' rights to form and join unions, and the importance of a thriving labor movement to our nation's economic health and well-being,' the AFL-CIO stated.

By 'speaking positively about unions and workers' rights to organize,' by promising to 'stand with and protect' workers' rights and 'by criticizing employers who interfere' with unionization, Obama's administration 'can set a new tone and put our nation's labor-relations system back on the right track,' the AFL-CIO concluded.

Laundry list of reforms The federation also listed a wide range of administrative measures Obama could take to help workers. Some top ones include:

Restoring project labor agreements for federally funded construction, raising workers' pay while insuring projects got done on time and with worker protections. One of Bush's first moves in 2001 was to dump PLAs. The federation also wants Obama to order federal agencies to follow prevailing wage determinations reached under the Davis-Bacon and Service Contract Acts, preventing low-balling contractors from winning.

Reversing Bush orders that harmed workers who toil for the executive branch or private firms it hires. One is a 2001 order that said building service firms that take over cleaning contracts did not have to give current workers right of first refusal of jobs. Another would restore and improve federal labor-management partnerships Democratic President Clinton established and Bush abolished. A third would replace a Bush order that federal agencies post notices that they have the right not to join unions with notices that spell out all their rights – including protection from retaliation for pro-union stands.

Restoring bargaining rights Bush stripped from Justice Department workers and from the nation's 14,000 airport screeners on 'national security' grounds. That's a key cause for the AFGE, which wants to unionize them.

'Restore air traffic services as an ‘inherently governmental function.'' Bush's budget office said such services could be contracted out, again over union protests on safety grounds. More broadly, the AFL-CIO wants a three-year moratorium on all federal contracting out and outsourcing, pending a complete 'audit and review' of the idea. And it says the Agriculture Department should stop a Bush experiment, by Gov. Mitch Daniels, R-Ind. -- formerly Bush's budget chief -- to privatize food stamps.

Suspend bargaining on all new trade and investment pacts, and review all past pacts, as Obama promised during the election campaign. 'Any new agreements must assure balance between the interests of companies and those of workers,' the fed said. As part of that review, the AFL-CIO also called for 'new administration priorities and benchmarks' for the last three pacts Bush negotiated, with South Korea, Colombia and Panama and said Obama should 'lay out a new template for future trade agreements.' The federation strongly backs the TRADE Act, which would restore congressional primacy in setting standards U.S. bargainers in trade deals, and which would order them to write enforceable labor rights into the texts of such pacts.

Have the U.S. take the federation's extensively documented trade case against China –which has the largest trade surplus with the U.S. – to the World Trade Organ-ization. The fed's case, which Bush's USTR rejected without reading it, showed China's rampant 'violation of workers' rights is an unfair trade practice,' the AFL-CIO said.

Identify and nominate federal judges 'who have a demonstrated commitment to equal rights,' including understanding the courts' role in protecting those rights, including workers' rights. Obama has already said he wants to name judges who are more attuned to the wider society and to the needs of all citizens. Bush's nominees were virtually uniformly from the pro-prosecution side or the Right Wing, or both.

Appoint pro-worker members and chair of the NLRB and restore the Labor Department, its Wage and Hour Administration, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Mine Safety and Health Administration to their 'historic roles' as 'advocating for and protecting the interests of workers.'

Formalize the Clinton-era ban – which Bush's agency has violated – on wage-and-hour investigators sharing information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. It would also require ICE to get a high-level OK before raiding worksites during union organizing drives – a common tactic anti-union employers have used.

LETTERS January 31, 2009

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 07:13:00 +0000

Quotes of the week

Hallelujah! In his inaugural speech (albeit without attribution) President Obama quoted from Thomas Paine’s American Crisis No. 1.

“Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive ... that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it].”

I think in these dangerous times of increasing world competition for energy and markets the following quote from Ben Franklin could be of equal benefit.

Benjamin Franklin, Reply to Lord Howe, Philadelphia, July 20, 1776:

“Her [Britain’s] fondness for conquest, as a warlike nation, her lust of dominion as an ambitious one, and her thirst for a gainful monopoly as a commercial one (none of them legitimate causes of war) will all join to hide from her eyes every view of her true interests and continually goad her on in those ruinous distant expeditions, so destructive both of lives and treasure, that must prove as pernicious to her in the end as the crusades formerly were to most of the nations of Europe.

“To me it seems that neither the obtaining or retaining of any trade, how valuable soever, is an object for which men may justly spill each other’s blood; that the true and sure means of extending and securing commerce is the goodness and cheapness of commodities; and that the profit of no trade can ever be equal to the expense of compelling it, and of holding it, by fleets and armies.”

Allan Stoehr Via e-mail

Now is the time

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

— James Baldwin, author, civil rights activist, gay rights activist, poet

The victory of Barack Obama is indeed historic and pleasing. Just 40-plus years ago African Americans were struggling to acquire the right to vote. Today an African American has been elected president of the United States.

In order to fully appreciate Obama’s victory one must first acknowledge the conditions under which the people elected him. The last eight years under George W. Bush have probably been the worst ever seen in the history of this nation!

Not since the Great Depression of the late 1920s, early 1930s, has this nation experienced such a horrendous economic crisis.

Our precious rights under the Constitution were also affected. The people’s right to assemble and express their opinions have been limited. The FBI and other governmental entities wiretapped our telephone conversations and spied on us through our computers.

Workers’ right to organize unions was grossly impacted as were occupational safety regulations. Without a strong labor movement the working class has no chance to survive in a society dominated by corporate greed and corruption.

Our environment was also targeted. Regulations and laws protecting our air, land and water were severely weakened as Bush did all he could to enhance maximum profits for the chemical, mining, petroleum and other corporations known for producing toxins that affect our health.

The Bush regime was tarnished with numerous instances of corruption and cronyism. Corporate bandits such as Enron, Halliburton, and Blackwater were allowed to profit while the rights of Americans and Iraqis alike were crushed.

Knowing this should encourage progressive activists to continue organizing and mobilizing on vital issues. Some folks through naiveté have fallen into the illusion that Obama is our savior. Granted Obama will undoubtedly do better than John McCain could ever have done, but it would be a serious mistake to put all of our money on him doing the right thing without our input/action!

I base this opinion on my personal experiences in the movement as well as history. The much-needed legislative changes that came about from the labor and civil rights movements did not come out of the goodness of either President Roosevelt’s or President Johnson’s hearts. Laws changed because people organized and engaged in mass rallies, strikes, boycotts and civil disobedience.

Some were beaten, jailed, even murdered. The bottom line is that change does not come about by itself! REAL change comes about ONLY when the people make it happen.

I encourage readers to contact their congressional representatives and urge them to support the Employee Free Choice Act along with House Resolution 676, which will grant all of us single-payer health care.

Frank Valdez San Antonio, TX

Spidey rules

From the webheads in Denver, a no prize goes out to Keeper of the Flame Pepe Lozano!

John H. Shippey Denver, CO

Marching for King, Obama

Encouraged by Barack Obama’s electoral victory and imminent inauguration the following day, an estimated record of 100,000 people participated in this city’s four-mile Martin Luther King march. A number of union locals, nonprofit organizations and religious and peace groups were represented. Amidst the euphoria, there were also expressions of urgency regarding action to end the continuing bombing between Gaza and Israel in which mostly Palestinian civilians were being killed. Some marchers chanted “Obama, Obama can’t you see! We don’t want a killing spree!”

There were also chants challenging the city’s year-old ordinance placing restrictions on what groups may schedule marches and putting in place a bulky bureaucratic process by which to do so, including fees.

Roberto Botello San Antonio, TX

On the passing of William Pomeroy

I came to know Bill Pomeroy through his many PWW communiqués. I saw more in him than a journalist and that is why I sought him out on my travels to Great Britain over the years. He was not a disappointment. We talked for hours over wine and snacks during my visits and we made a tour through Twickenham, the London suburb where he and wife Cecelia settled down. They were both very gracious hosts.

I chatted with them about politics, his Philippine experiences in the bush, their relationship, his defection to avoid legal hassles in the States and all of my personal and political happenings. Later on, we became constant and frequent penpals. We exchanged many letters, articles and books. His were welcome treats and I treasure and have guarded them all.

Along with the movement, Bill was my own pal, guru and comrade. One of his most special lessons to me was that I stay angry and keep up the good fight against our common political enemies. When there is a world of socialism, as we both have predicted, he will then rest in peace.

Don Sloan New York, NY

Editor’s note: An obituary for William Pomeroy, long-time PWW correspondent who died Jan. 12 at age 92, will appear in an upcoming issue.

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Letters - January 24, 2009

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 07:33:00 +0000

Solidarity biscotti

Thank you for your article “Forget Stella D’Oro cookies! Support striking workers,” by Terrie Albano (PWW 12/20-1/16). I have been a fan of Stella D’Oro for many years. I too will make my own Italian biscotti (and NOT buy Stella D’Oro) until the strike is settled with justice for the workers. To eat these cookies while workers are on strike would be nothing short of “bittersweet” instead of just plain sweet.

I would like to submit my own calorie-conscious recipe for all of those people with 2009 resolutions to become thinner and trimmer. I developed it just for People’s Weekly World readers and I call it “Solidarity Italian Anise 32Biscotti.” Avanti Popolo!!

Jackie Lavalle

Via e-mail

Solidarity Italian Anise Biscotti

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I use 1 cup whole wheat and 1 1/2 cups white flour)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3 eggs lightly beaten

2 tablespoons safflower oil

1 1/2 tablespoons anise seeds

1 teaspoon vanilla

Finely grated zest of one orange

1 cup chopped almonds (optional)

Sift flour and baking powder. Put oil in large bowl and add eggs, anise seed, vanilla and orange zest. Beat mixture. Add flour a little at a time. Stir in nuts if using.

Chill dough until firm (about 1 1/2 hours) (do not put dough in wax paper). After dough is chilled, divide dough into thirds. Shape each third on a lightly floured surface into a flat loaf about 2 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick.

Place on a baking sheet. Bake in pre-heated oven (350 degrees) and cool 5 minutes.

Cut loaves into diagonal slices, 1/2 inch thick. Place slices, flat sides down, close together on baking sheet. Return to oven and bake 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly toasted or golden. (Check after 10 minutes)

Holidays and hard times

We’ve just come through the most unusual holiday times. People are being laid off from work all over the country. In my state, 600 mine workers in Silver City, N.M., were out of work at holiday time. Chrysler Corp. shut its doors for the next few weeks — no Xmas bonuses for the workers. Banks were given billions of dollars by the U.S. government which they cannot account for. Yet the papers reported that bank executives were still being given their holiday bonuses.

Being a dabbler in 19th century literature, I am reminded of a literary work that reflects the hard times then.

Dickens’ famous “Christmas Carol” is a symbolic tale of miser Ebenezer Scrooge being cajoled by his various spirits to repent and reform. It didn’t work in 19th century England and it is not working in the United States. Large banks are being given bailout money, but their CEOs are pocketing it rather than spending it on the people.

Finally, that 19th century ballad “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” comes to mind:

“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,

He is trampling out the vintage,

Where the grapes of wrath are stored.

He has loosed the fateful lightning

Of His terrible swift sword.

His Truth is marching on.”

There might yet be a solution to 21st century capitalism’s greed, for “His Truth is marching on!”

Emil Shaw

Albuquerque NM

Comments from pww.org

Melvin Rothenberg re: “Time to build a new mass movement for a peace economy”

I like the article and agree with its emphasis on the need to cut the military budget. I think the argument could be strengthened in two respects.

The first is to note the long-term structural crises in the failure of the private sector to generate sufficient living-wage jobs to meet population growth and thus the steady decline in labor force participation rates. This predated by a decade the current recession which will only aggravate the long-term trend. There is a desperate need for a national jobs program which the incoming administration must address.

Second, it is not only far-left critics of Obama that are disturbed by his choice of Cabinet appointments and top aides. If these appointments are a sign of where he is heading, all progressives should be concerned. I agree that it is wrong to attack, undermine or split the coalition that has evolved around the election but this does not mean leaving our critical faculties and judgment at the door. Coalitions involve unity and contradictions and work when these are acknowledged.

Ashley re: “Consumer groups demand Congress pass Employee Free Choice Act”

The Card Check Act is ludicrous. I hope everyone does their homework and learns what it is, what it does and how it will affect this nation in already fragile times. This website does a stellar job of laying it out in no uncertain terms. Definitely check it out: friendsoftheuschamber.com/.

Louie re: Ashley and EFCA

It’s obvious “in no uncertain terms” that “Friends of the U.S. Chamber” are NOT friends of U.S. workers.

Ashley should do her own homework and see the EFCA is a safeguard against those anti-union employers and high-dollar “union-avoidance” firms. Many of these employers have been repeatedly found by the National Labor Relations Board to be guilty of: intimidation, harassment, firing and spying on pro-union employees during organizing drives.

Google “union avoidance” or “union free”: these groups profit from crushing organizing drives, not from respecting the wishes of workers at all.

“Card check” does not take away the right to a secret ballot election.

What it does do: If the majority of the employees sign a card authorizing a union to represent them as their collective bargaining agent, this decision would go to the employees.

If 30 percent or more of those employees wish to have a secret ballot election, this decision would go to the employees.

As it stands now, the employer decides to have an election even if every single employee signs a union authorization card. The EFCA will put the balance back in favor of the workers and make exploiting employers more accountable when they do violate labor laws.

Like “Ashley” said, do your homework. I recommend checking out both sides.

www.Americanrightsatwork.org is an excellent resource. Be sure to read the “anti-union network” information too.

www.Unionfacts.com “The Center for Union Facts” is a

corporate-funded propaganda

machine.

Cord re: “Gaza crisis: challenge and opportunity for Obama to turn the page toward peace”

Kudos on a very thoughtful and fine analysis by Susan Webb. I’ve forwarded it as widely as I can and recommend we all do the same. While the corporate media obscure, distort and misrepresent the facts and history surrounding the tragedy in Gaza, communist writers like Ms. Webb are needed as never before to help clarify and inform our thinking in these critical transitional times.

LETTERS: January 17

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:21:00 +0000

Macabre Arpaio

He’s national, he’s international, he’s notorious. Live from Maricopa County Jail, the inverted story of local boy makes good, on the TV “variety” show Late Night

with Conan the barbarian (www.nbc.com/Schedule/) featured the coward of Maricopa County, the Joke, the Payaso, the macabre, the ghastly, Joseph M. Arpaio.

Here’s a definition suited to Arpaio:

macabre (m-käbr, m-käb, -käbr) adj.

1. Suggesting the horror of death and decay; gruesome: macabre tales of war and plague in the Middle Ages. See synonyms at ghastly

2. Constituting or including a representation of death, macabrely adv.

Robert McElwain Via e-mail

Capitalism’s last dance?

Take heart, all! The collapse of the stock market and the disproportionality of Israel’s recent response bears out what I have long believed. To paraphrase the “Great Communicator”: capitalism is another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are even now being written. I believe this because the source of its strength in its quest for economic freedom is material, not humane. And because it knows no limitation, it must terrify and ultimately massacre those who would free their fellow humans.

Steve Brady Watsonville, CA

Buckeye State greeting

Brothers and Sisters, I am a third-generation trade unionist and member of Ironworkers Local 17, Cleveland. Keep up the good work. In solidarity,

Michael Kilbane Fairview Park OH

No benefit cuts for autoworkers

The American auto industry problems are not due to the wages, health benefits and pensions that union autoworkers have fought for through the UAW for many years. These benefits helped to create a broad, diversified and healthy working and middle class. They enabled millions of workers to raise and educate their families, unlike the benefits provided by the newer foreign-owned companies.

To enable the American-owned manufacturers to compete in the future, government assistance must include two major items:

1. The government should take over the automakers’ future payments to the auto industry health benefit plans, with no cuts in benefits or increased cost to present and future autoworkers. The plan should be governed by a board made up of UAW and government representatives. This would also be a big step towards health care for all.

In addition, foreign-owned automakers must immediately be required to either provide equivalent health benefits to their workers, or pay into the UAW-sponsored fund to provide benefits for their workers. The workers in the home countries of these automakers receive health benefits through social insurance paid for by general tax revenues; their U.S. workers should have the same benefits!

2. The pension liability of the U.S. auto companies should also be taken over by a government-assisted fund, again governed by a joint union and government board.

There must be no cuts in benefits earned by these workers.

Bill Morico Connecticut

Where are the FBI files?

In 1976, American Indian Movement (AIM) activist Leonard Peltier was extradited from Canada to the United States to stand trial for the shooting deaths of FBI Special Agents Jack R. Coler and Ronald A. Williams that occurred at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota on June 26, 1975.

Peltier was extradited back to the U.S. based in large part on the affidavits of Myrtle Poor Bear. On Oct. 25, 2000, in Toronto, Canada, Poor Bear testified under oath before former Quebec Court of Appeal Judge Fred Kaufman that she agreed to implicate Peltier in the shooting deaths of the two FBI agents only after she had endured months of unrelenting harassment and threats from other FBI agents. Among other things, FBI agents told Poor Bear that they would take her child away from her and that she would be charged with conspiracy and face 15 years in prison if she did not cooperate. FBI agents coerced Poor Bear into signing affidavits which indicated that she was Peltier’s girlfriend and that she saw him shoot Agents Coler and Williams.

In 1978, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit noted that, “The use of the affidavits of Myrtle Poor Bear in the extradition proceeding was, to say the least, a clear abuse of the investigative process by the FBI. This was conceded by government counsel on the hearing in this court.”

Myrtle Poor Bear passed away on Sept. 15, 2005, in Rapid City, S.D. On Nov. 14, 2006, I submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to FBI Headquarters for all records pertaining to her.

I was advised that the Minneapolis Field Office of the FBI might have records responsive to my FOIA request and I should submit a new FOIA request to that office if I hadn’t already done so. A FOIA request was submitted to that office on April 20, 2007.

In a letter dated Nov. 21, 2008, Mr. Hardy from the FBI claimed that, “A search of the indices to our central records system at FBI Headquarters reflected there were documents potentially responsive to your request. This office has attempted to obtain this material so that it could be reviewed for responsiveness. We were advised the records were not in their expected location and could not be located. Following a reasonable waiting period, another attempt was made to obtain this material. This also was met with unsuccessful results. Therefore, we are closing your request administratively.”

The question now is, where are these FBI files? Who has them? If they are no longer in the possession of the FBI, when and under what authority were they transferred to another agency or individual? Perhaps the records have been destroyed? If so, by whom and under what authority?

The public has a right to know what is in the FBI files relating to Myrtle Poor Bear. It should be noted that this is not the first time that the FBI allegedly has not been able to find records that could prove to be helpful to Leonard Peltier.

What is the FBI afraid of? Why does the FBI continue to fight to prevent the full release of documents that are over one-third of a century old? Could it be that these documents would reveal how FBI personnel as well as its informants and provocateurs set into motion the events that culminated in the deaths of Joe Stuntz Killsright, Jack R. Coler and Ronald A. Williams on that tragic day in June of 1975?

Michael Kuzma Buffalo, NY Michael Kuzma is the attorney for Leonard Peltier.

Help needed

For a biography of William Patterson, leading Communist during the era of the Scottsboro 9 and head of the Civil Rights Congress, I would appreciate hearing from readers with relevant memories, documents, correspondence and the like: please contact me at gchorne@email.unc.edu.

Thank you.

Dr. Gerald Horne Via e-mail