People Before Profit blog

Letters

Fri, 19 Jul 2002 03:26:00 +0000

Marx and the U.S. Constitution

“...a nationwide survey recently commissioned by Columbia Law School found that almost two-thirds of all Americans think Karl Marx’s… ‘From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,’ was or may have been written by the founding fathers and was included in the Constitution.”

This appeared in the Wall Street Journal June 11 in a piece written by Bruce Cole, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, lamenting that “Americans do not know their history...” This article was excerpted from the “Urgency of Memory,” an address delivered at the conference “Art in an Age of Uncertainty,” organized by New York University.

Whatever weaknesses Americans may have of their knowledge of history, this shows that things have reached a point in the development of the productive forces, and in the class and democratic struggles of our people, that most Americans expect “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” to be the constitutionally guaranteed norm.

Juan Lopez District Organizer, Communist Party of Northern California Oakland CA

Special education under attack

The President’s Commission on Excellence in Special Education issued a report called “A New Era: Revitalizing Special Education for Children and their Families.” The Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Education Task Force (CCD) recently issued a statement on it, saying they are “very troubled” by the report’s recommendations. The CCD is a coalition of national consumer, advocacy, provider and professional organizations, so if they are very troubled that means BIG trouble.

There are lots of people, especially in this administration, who would like to do away with special education. There is a lot of misunderstanding about special education and the crucial role it can play in the life of a special needs child. Because of that, those who oppose special education and want to get rid of it make headway with their arguments. Special education costs more and the Federal government has not yet lived up to its promise to fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act at 40 percent; it still gives school districts only 15 percent. You can “thank” the GOP for being stingy with this money for the children.

I would urge your readers, especially any parents, teachers or students, to become familiar with the issues concerning special education.

Hector KingSan Diego CA

Citizen spies

All over the internet the stories are flying about the government’s efforts to recruit 1 million citizen “spies.” Unfortunately, all the stories have some reference to either the Soviet Union, China, or East Germany and supposed citizen informants in those socialist societies. What about what the FBI did right here during the Cold War and the COINTELPRO days? Or what Nazi Germany did? Why all of a sudden is this attack on civil liberties coming with an anti-communist edge? Is it a way to blunt people’s thinking about an alternative society, now with the confidence in capitalism being shaken? It’s a disturbing program to be sure, yet considering The Washington Times is going after it using the anti-communist edge, that campaign should give one pause.

Gail de YoungBuffalo NY

Far-sighted quote

I just read this quote from President Abraham Lincoln, dated Nov. 21, 1864. Your readers may like it:

“I see in the near future a crisis approaching. It unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. The money power preys upon the nation in times of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces, as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes.

“I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the financial institutions at the rear; the latter is my greatest foe. Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few, and the Republic is destroyed.”

A readerChicago IL

Editorials

Fri, 19 Jul 2002 03:19:00 +0000

Letter carriers as spies? Soldiers as cops?

The Bush administration is moving ahead so fast in its attacks on the Bill of Rights in the name of the “war on terrorism” that it is keeping the people off balance and on the defensive. The latest proposal is Bush’s new volunteer Citizen Corp called “Operation TIPS” (Terrorist Information and Prevention System), in which one million letter carriers, utility workers and others whose jobs allow them access to homes would be recruited as government informants.

The American Civil Liberties Union assails it as a scheme to turn these workers into “peeping Toms.” The plan is a threat to the 4th Amendment protection against “unreasonable search and seizure.” It promotes the use of spies and stoolpigeons, a climate of hysteria that is certain to sweep thousands of innocent people in a dragnet reminiscent of Cold War McCarthyism.

This scheme could easily be perverted by Bush & Co. to block the people from the exercise of their most fundamental rights of free speech, assembly, their right to petition for redress of grievances, to organize, including into unions.

A day or so later, the Bush administration unveiled another proposal for vast new executive-branch powers, including suggestions that the military be used for domestic law enforcement. Homeland Security Adviser, Tom Ridge, has been drafting this plan in deep secrecy for eight months. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 restricts the role of the U.S. Army in law enforcement – and for good reason. It would move our country dangerously in the direction of a garrison state with a soldier on every corner under the command of George W. Bush.

The House and Senate have rushed to give Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft everything they asked for in the name of fighting terrorism. It is high time that our elected representatives in Washington stop this Bush blitzkrieg. It is an election year and every candidate should be asked: What will you do to protect the Bill of Rights?

*************************************************************Greenspan gets it wrong

Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, told the Senate Banking Committee that, notwithstanding “infectious greed” on Wall Street, the country’s economic recovery was on track. But, eloquent as he might be, the numbers don’t justify Greenspan’s optimism.

As the Washington Post said, his words were not “reassuring enough” to keep stock prices from falling further. And frankly, they were not reassuring enough to satisfy concerns of working families, either.

True, there are economic indicators that are on the up side, among them industrial production, which is up for the sixth consecutive month, and factory utilization has inched upward.

But there are other numbers that are better indicators of the health of the economy.

Like the fact that 180,000 workers lost their jobs in May, bringing the total number of layoffs since January to 910,009.

Like the fact that the official – and understated – unemployment rate stands at 5.9 percent, with nearly 8.5 million workers wondering when and if they will land a job, and that the rate for minority youth is twice that.

Like the fact that the number of long-term unemployed has climbed by 50 percent over the last year, with more than a million workers exhausting their unemployment benefits.

Like the fact that the number of people applying for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families is growing in almost every state.

And Greenspan’s solution? Keep a stiff upper lip – if we do, he says, unemployment may drop to 5.5 percent by late 2003.

What’s forgotten in all of this is that the unemployment rate for May 2002 is higher than for any month in 2001 except December, when it stood at 6.0 percent.

But there is an even greater difference between then and now: Then there was a demand that Congress act to stimulate the economy and cushion the blows that come with unemployment. Today that demand is missing.

Why can’t it be renewed? What better time than now?

Letters

Fri, 12 Jul 2002 02:30:00 +0000

Labor coverage – hooray!

The recent stories on the longshoremen and Teamsters have been great. You never see this stuff anywhere else. Keep up the good work.

George HendersonMilwaukee WI

Great working-class PR

I want to congratulate the PWW for posting its articles on various Independent Media Center websites. Lots of organizations utilize the IMC coverage for their own struggles and activities. They will download articles and include them in press packets or they will link the article to their website. PWW articles will get much farther circulation when they are posted there. Anyone can do it. It is an open publishing format, so if any of your readers want to circulate one of your articles they can put it on any IMC website themselves.

The IMC websites are important tools to getting out information that the corporate- dominated mainstream media won’t touch. And I’m glad to see the PWW and Mundo part of that movement.

Kathleen McHenryBoulder CO

Editor’s note:

We encourage readers to post PWW/Mundo articles to the many IMC sites. We just want to underscore the importance of stating the article is from the People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo and the date of publication along with our website, www.pww.org

More cartoons

The Baldinger cartoons are a great addition. It would be a great if there could be more cartoons and even comic strips. Boondocks and Doonesbury are both funny political comic strips. Maybe the PWW can get rights to reprint them.

Laurie HuntAlbany NY

Mobile Chernobyl?

I read recently on tompaine.com that 77,000 tons of radioactive waste will be traveling through thousands of U.S. communities on its way to Yucca Mountain. It said that we shouldn’t worry, but the Department of Energy’s Transportation Security Division which moves nuclear weapons and radioactive materials on public highways, failed six out of seven security tests in 1998, according to the Project on Government Oversight.

That doesn’t make me feel very safe. I travel a lot by car and see accidents happen all the time. It could be very easy for one of these trucks to get into trouble and before you know it there is a radioactive spill that poisons a nearby community. What can be done about this? We are very touchy about these kinds of things here.

Paul RandallHarrisburg PA

Rant response

I found Terrie Albano’s article, “One Nation, under socialist ideals,” via a link from Internet Infidels. First rate, common sense, simple truth, all incomprehensible to the intellectual midgets of the religious right.

But I really liked it! Cheers.

Ron Garrettvia e-mail

NELP for SSA ‘no match’

There was a reference in the SEIU/ACORN story (7/6) to employers firing workers because of Social Security “no match” letters.

We have encountered that problem here, as well. This website is full of information that can help a worker save their job, even if not unionized: www.nelp.org/pub127.pdf

Joelle Fishman District Organizer,

Communist Party of Connecticut New Haven CT

Tennis, anyone?

There seems to be quite alot of debate in the letters column recently about having sports coverage in the PWW. But I’ve been convinced of the need for some Marxist analysis of professional sports after the Wimbleton Championship.

It was hard to take the barely disguised racism in the coverage of the women’s final between the Williams sisters. They are at the top of the game and yet the undercurrent in the coverage was the question, is it bad for tennis to have sisters competing against one another.

Was there a discussion about segregation in the sport and the role Arthur Ashe played in breaking the color line? Was there a historical recounting of how two sisters came out of Compton, Calif., and what sacrifices they have made to become world class champions?

Well, some might say it’s not that important, but whenever the corporate media stirs up racist ideology the PWW should be there to respond!

A readerFlushing NY

Editorials

Fri, 12 Jul 2002 02:10:00 +0000

A real solution

George W. Bush’s speech on corporate crime was met with widespread skepticism. And no wonder. He’s part and parcel of the crooked get-rich-quick corporate crowd he is now claiming to crack down on. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd aptly commented, “How can Mr. Bush crack the whip on Big Business when he’s a wholly owned subsidiary of it?”

As has been widely noted, Bush’s anemic proposals will have little impact on corporate fraud. They are a panicky attempt to make it look like he’s doing something about the mounting scandals, while at the same time not turning off his fat cat backers.

Amid speculation about which giant corporation will be next to fall, and commentators talking about a growing loss of confidence in capitalism, Bush will probably have to accept more stringent measures like those put forward by Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.), although there will be maneuvering to weaken even those limited restraints on corporations.

But more fundamental solutions are required.

The Bush administration is working to deregulate and privatize every area of life, from energy to schools. But the unfolding CEO crime spree makes it clear that our country has to stand up to corporate profiteering. The government must regulate essential services such as energy, healthcare and communications, and ultimately they should come under public ownership. Workers’ health care and pensions should not depend on the ups and downs of the stock market. Instead we need a national health service and expanded Social Security. And the federal government must promote investment in socially needed goods and services like public transportation, schools, housing and health clinics.

The Enrons and WorldComs are all about making quick millions without producing any social good. And why not? That’s the logic of capitalism. Capitalism is not based on the social good, it’s based on a constant striving to maximize the rate of profit, the public interest be damned. Ultimately, we need a system that puts people before profits and public ownership above private control – socialism.

************************************************************* The times they are a-changin’

President Bush and others who are laying plans to invade Iraq would do well to listen to Washington Post columnist David Broder who says a recent cross-country trip has convinced him that “the nine-month moratorium on dissent from Bush’s war on terrorism is coming to an end.”

Broder said his conclusion was based on interviews with people from Iowa to San Francisco where people challenged not just the war itself, but its effects on personal liberty and political dissent.

Broder said he was not talking about overall opinion but if he had “learned anything” in four decades of covering politics, “it is to pay heed when you hear the same questions – in almost the same phrases – popping up in different parts of the country ... if Democrats begin hearing doubts about the costs of the war – and its consequences for civil liberties – from some of their most vocal constituents, that support may not last long ... Developments in the war will slow or accerlerate this change. But you can feel it happening.”

A recent speech by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.) blasting serves to underscore Broder’s conclusions.

Byrd blasted the Bush administration for its refusal to consult with “anyone outside its own inner circle” and compared its “arrogance and secrecy” to the Nixon administration. Byrd referred to the “past tragedies” of Korea, Vietnam and Somalia , saying that “it is dangerous” to present Congress and the American people “with a fait accompli on important matters of foreign affairs.”

“I am determined to do everything in my power to prevent this country from becoming involved in another Vietnam nightmare. This determination begins with Congress being fully and sufficiently informed on the undertakings of our government,” he concluded.

We couldn’t agree more. Byrd’s speech marks the sharpest Senatorial rebuke yet to Bush’s conduct of foreign policy. As such, is another arrow in the quiver of those of us who are concerned about matters of war and peace.

Letters

Thu, 04 Jul 2002 03:55:00 +0000

Billions for Star Wars

I spent a considerable part of today watching the Senate “debate” the amount of funding for “missile defense” in fiscal year 2003.

The Senate is close to approving a $393 billion Defense Authorization Bill, with the Star Wars funding question holding them up.

George W. Bush wants $7.6 billion in 2003 for research and development for a host of Star Wars systems now underway. The Democratic-controlled Senate Armed Services Committee is recommending that Bush’s request be cut by $814 million. The Republicans are angry about that and Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) has introduced an amendment to restore the full funding. Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld is saying that he will recommend that Bush veto the final bill if the Star Wars funding is not restored.

Of course, if the Democrats succeed in cutting the $814 million from Star Wars research and development the money will go toward other programs at the Pentagon, not things like Social Security, health care, child care and education.

The Congress gave the Pentagon so much money for Star Wars last year that the military could not spend all of it. Such is the state of politics in the U.S. today. Back to the streets.

If you are inclined to call your Senate delegation, you can reach them at the Congressional Switchboard: (202) 224-3121.

Bruce GagnonGainesville FL

Corporate welfare in sports

I’ve read lately some pro and con letters for a sports page in the People’s Weekly World. I’m against one because a PWW sports page would be a back-door endorsement for corporate welfare in America.

Rich major league capitalist sports team owners demand major concessions from the taxpayers and city fathers in every host city and state where their franchises are located.

In my hometown of Philadelphia, it’s costing the state and city to pay about $600 million of public money to build two new stadiums for the Phillies (baseball) and the Eagles (football), with the team owners kicking in about another $300 million ($150 million each) for new stadium construction. This, while the state of Pennsylvania had to take over Philadelphia’s public schools due to lack of money to run them. (How many Edison-for-profit articles have I read already in the PWW?)

The City of Philadelphia and the State of Pennsylvania have money to spend on sports palaces for the rich, but no money for the children’s education! What’s wrong with this picture? This goes on in almost every major city in America with a major league sports team – Phildelphia isn’t an isolated case.

So, just on the principle of supporting greedy rich team owners with a PWW sports page versus the needy and well-deserving children of all big cities with serious budget problems – I say “no” to any sports page.

Michael P. HillSwedesboro NJ

Nursing shortage?

I am a registered nurse working in the ER at our local hospital. In a recent Phil E. Benjamin column he estimated that there are 1.3 million nurses working in hospitals in the country. Left out is the fact that, according to recent figures, there is probably close to a million registered nurses on the sidelines. This is primarily due to poor working conditions, inadequate salary for the job required, and a woeful lack of co-ordinated benefits.

Mr. Benjamin’s call for “more nurses” could play into the hands of management. Why should management agree to better wages, working conditions, and benefits if there is a whole new generation of “greenies” coming out? It is the classic management response of “take it or leave it, we’ll find someone who does want to work.”

It is also inexcusable that the “professional associations,” which claim to represent nurses, do not address the issue of unified health and retirement options for nurses nationwide. The strength in numbers is there. Increased retention would result in higher quality patient care and increase patient safety.

Larry JammesElsberg WA

Republican menace

Thank you for your recent articles on the environment. I am particularly concerned about the persistent releasing of greenhouse gasses into our fragile atmosphere.

We must work against the reelection of Mr. Bush, starting right now. His stonewalling of this issue on the international level is a crime that should call for a Nuremberg-type trial. How can we ignore the creation of a death chamber on our planet as the atmosphere will become as we change the climate with global warming?

We must pull together to get rid of this Republican menace.

Cletis BeegleTucson AZ

Editorials

Thu, 04 Jul 2002 03:42:00 +0000

Make the polluters pay

President Bush’s decision to cut funding for the cleanup of several toxic waste dumps is a severe blow to working-class communities across the country. And it is, in all likelihood, a sentence of death to many who are going to have to continue to live with the carcinogens and other toxics that have polluted the water, ground and air from hundreds of these dumps.

Bush says his decision is mandated by the fact that the Superfund program, established in 1980 to partially finance the cleanup of these sites, is running out of money. And he is right – the fund that once had a surplus of more than $3.6 billion will be exhausted in 2004.

But there’s a reason the fund is running out of money: Congress has not renewed the tax on the chemical industry – about a billion dollars annually – to pay for the cleanup of toxic dumps left by companies that have gone out of business since the program expired in 1995. As a result the cost of the cleanup has increasingly come from general revenue, so that today industry pays less than half the cost of the cleanup, compared to more than 80 percent in 1995.

And there is a solution to the problem: reinstate the tax. It’s that simple – and that difficult. Congress, then under the leadership of Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott, rejected President Clinton’s request for renewal of the tax. And, as his budget for fiscal year 2003 makes clear, Bush has no intention of asking Congress to reauthorize the tax.

All of which means that the fight to continue the Superfund cleanup has to start at ground zero, with a grass roots movement in support of legislation already introduced in Congress calling for reauthorization of the tax.

The slogan “Make the polluters pay” is as valid today as ever. Come to think about it, it will make a good election-year slogan!

*************************************************************

Sinking to the lowest level

The international impact of the Bush administration’s decision last May not to even acknowledge the existence of the International Criminal Court (ICC) moved from the realm of threat to reality on July 1, the date the court became a functioning institution, now ratified by 74 countries.

In a dramatic escalation of the Bush administration’s effort to place the U.S. above and beyond the reach of the court, the United States vetoed a six-month extension of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Bosnia because the Security Council refused to grant U.S. citizens serving on the mission immunity from the jurisdiction of the ICC.

The U.S. action, seen by most observers as another example of the “we’re above the law” philosophy of the Bush administration, infuriated court supporters. Both Britain and France characterized the U.S. veto – the 75th cast since the founding of the U.N. – as an extraordinary attempt to use the Security Council to undermine the ICC.

In an effort to give the U.S. a way out, France suggested that the U.S withdraw its 46 police officers rather than shut down the Bosnia mission. Some 712 U.S. citizens are assigned to the U.N.’s 15 peacekeeping missions. All enjoy immunity from arrest and prosecution by local authorities.

In an unusual move, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan came to the Security Council to appeal for a solution that would not compromise the future of U.N. peacekeeping operations. “The world cannot afford a situation in which the Security Council is deeply divided on such an important issue, and which may have implications for all U.N. peace operations,” he said.

William Pace, a spokesperson for the Coalition for the Criminal Court, who is not restricted by the niceties of diplomacy, was more blunt when he said: “The United States is pitting international law against international peacekeeping. The U.S. has sunk to its lowest level in its moral and political leadership at the U.N.”

We couldn’t agree more.

Labor solidarity backs West Coast dockers

Thu, 04 Jul 2002 01:12:00 +0000

OAKLAND – Leaders of unions representing transport workers from around the world locked arms at a Solidarity Day rally here on June 27 in support of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). The ILWU is in the battle of its life, faced with a threatened lockout by the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) – and the danger that President Bush will invoke the Taft-Hartley Act in the event of a strike or slowdown.

The ILWU was joined by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) and the East Coast International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) in rallies at West Coast ports and at several East and Gulf Coast ports.

This alliance, backed by the 5-million-member International Transportation Workers Federation (ITF), the 30,000-member International Dockworkers Council (IDC), leaders of the AFL-CIO and community organizations, pledged that they will not allow the ploys of “national security” and a “weakened economy” to be used to destroy the ILWU.

In the days that followed, that message resonated in the halls of Congress, with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and seven other senators from California, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii sending a letter to Bush not to intervene in the ILWU contract negotiations. “We urge you not to intervene in this ongoing labor negotiation,” the letter says. “We believe that any such intervention would be harmful to the swift resolution of this negotiation.”

ILWU President James Spinosa defended union right, saying, “When we exercise our rights to collectively bargain new contracts with better wages and conditions, when we enforce those rights the only way we can by collectively withdrawing our labor in a strike, they claim we are unpatriotic. But these are our legal rights. There is nothing unpatriotic about American workers insisting on their rights under American law.”

Referring to PMA charges that job action by ILWU members is a threat to national security, IBT President James Hoffa, Jr., said, “How dare anyone question whether American workers are patriotic. [The PMA] cannot hide behind patriotism to steal our jobs.”

Standing with Spinosa, Hoffa told the cheering rally in Oakland, “I walked into the negotiating room today and told the PMA that the ILWU does not stand alone, the 1.4-million-member Teamsters union are with them! If you lock out the ILWU, you lock out the Teamsters!”

Ken Riley, president of ILA Local 1422 in Charleston, S.C., thanked the ILWU for their generous support in the case of the Charleston Five, dockers who were recently cleared of trumped up felony charges. “This time,” Riley said, “we are here to reciprocate. We are standing ready. We are on high alert. If they take on the ILWU, they will take on the ILA on the East Coast.”

In addition to the letter circulating in the Senate, 45 Democratic members of the House have signed a letter urging PMA President Joseph Miniace and ILWU President James Spinosa to negotiate in good faith.

The letter, clearly directed at the PMA, emphasizes that post-Sept. 11 fears should not be used as leverage to convince the Bush administration to intervene in the negotiations. The letter also expresses concerns that the PMA is “manufacturing a labor crisis” to secure government intervention.

Tom Ridge, the head of Homeland Security, recently phoned the ILWU to discourage a strike, and to let the union know that the White House is watching the negotiations closely. President Bush could use the Taft-Hartley Act to force longshore workers to go back to work in the event of a strike by imposing an 80-day cooling-off period.

The West Coast Waterfront Coalition, representing importers and exporters, including corporate giants like Wal-Mart, Target and Toyota, has joined the PMA in lobbying for government intervention. At the same time, Robin Lanier, president of the Waterfront Coalition, has publicly told the PMA to play hardball in negotiations and not to back off of their anti-union demands of the ILWU. “Don’t roll over like last time,” Lanier has said.

At the negotiation table, the PMA is demanding major concessions, including cutbacks in health care, no increases in pensions, and bringing in new technology to outsource jobs. That precedent could affect other transport workers in the nation and worldwide.

This week the PMA announced that they will impose a “defensive” lock out if the ILWU conducts a slow down.

ILWU Communications Director Steve Stallone told the press, “The only people who have numbers on the production is the PMA and they can call it a slowdown whenever they want. We are not striking but if PMA wants to destroy the world’s economy ‘in a defensive action’ they can go ahead and take the responsibility.”

At the Oakland rally, Kees Marges, ITF dockers section secretary, said that employers are exploiting Sept. 11 to push their agenda. “They are playing with fire by misusing this disaster and won’t get the port security they want and need by doing that,” Marges said.

Marges reported that the ITF held a meeting two weeks ago with delegates from around the world pledging to do “everything necessary” to support the ILWU. “If you go on strike, we will try to stop ships,” said Marges.

Julian Garcia, general coordinator of the IDC, joined that call by saying that the IDC affiliates are ready to do whatever is needed to guarantee a victory for the ILWU.

California Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, also joined the host of rally speakers to express their solidarity with the ILWU.

In addition to the 1,000 at the Oakland port, close to 4,000 port workers rallied in Los Angeles, the nation’s largest port, and hundreds more rallied in Seattle, Tacoma and Portland. Rallies were also held at the ports of Charleston, Philadelphia, Jacksonville, Fla., and Savannah, Ga., where hundreds of ILA members and Teamsters demonstrated in solidarity with the ILWU.

Evelina Alarcon can be reached at evnalarcon@aol.com; Juan Lopez can be reached at ncalview@igc.org