People Before Profit blog

Speech given at the official function commemorating the 52nd anniversary of the assault on the Monc

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 13:32:00 +0000

Dear people of Havana who, by your selfless, tenacious efforts and in hard-fought competition with the inhabitants of Villa Clara, Matanzas, Cienfuegos, Camagüey and Granma, won the right to hold this official function here in the capital: I congratulate you all.

Fighters of yesterday and today:

Distinguished guests:

Dearest fellow Cubans:

I thank our generous and heroic people for the privilege of commemorating this anniversary of the assault on the “Moncada” and “Carlos Manuel de Cespedes” garrisons when so much time has passed since those events took place. It could be that no one has even received such a great honor. It would be unforgivable not to keep in mind that more than 70 percent of the Cubans who today keep the Revolution alive had not even been born back then. They took the banners which, I think, they will never drop, from those who gave their lives in that action. I dare to say thank you on my behalf and on behalf of all of them, because on my conscience lies the enormous weight of having persuaded them to undertake such a bold action and yet fate has not prevented me from traveling the long, long road of revolutionary struggle down to this emotional moment 52 years later.

The Revolution today is experiencing a moment worthy of that memorable date.

The months preceding the 52nd anniversary of the beginning of our armed struggle for Cuba’s final independence have characterized by an exceptional degree of hostility directed by the Bush administration against Cuba. The Nazi-Fascist extreme right that has taken control of the Empire has not ceased to brood over its powerless hatred of our country. We should remember that May 20, 2002 when, at a meeting with the Miami terrorist mob, Bush demanded with unprecedented insolence that Cuba get a new constitution which would renounce the socialist nature of the Revolution. Those attending that meeting included Orlando Bosch Avila, a bosom friend of that family dynasty, and the main culprit behind the mid air destruction of the Cuban plane just minutes after it took off from Barbados where all of the passengers died.

Cuba’s response to the imperial demand were enormous mass demonstrations all across the country in support of a draft amendment of the constitution, finally passed unanimously by the National Assembly of People’s Power on June 26, 2002, stating that the socialist nature of the Revolution and the political and social system enshrined in the Constitution were irrevocable.

The atrocious September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on New York’s Twin Towers had already happened.

Under pressure from that mob which had helped him win the presidency through a scandalous fraud, for more than four years, Mr. George W. Bush and his cronies did not cease for one minute from adopting cruel, hate-filled measures to destabilize and pound on Cuba and to try to do away with its independence and its people’s right to a truly human and fair political system.

Hideous resolutions were passed to tighten the blockade and suffocate Cuba’s economy. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans living in the United States were forbidden to visit their relatives in Cuba; they could only get permission to do so once every three years; family aid was reduced to almost nothing; the agreements on illegal immigration were breached; proposals for cooperating in such crucial areas as drug and persons trafficking and to hinder and prevent terrorist acts were rejected. Also, slanderous allegations rained down. Cuba was labeled a terrorist country. They made up insane lies about biological weapons production, plans to use electronic warfare to interfere with US government communications and other such things, the objective being to find excuses for a genocidal attack against our country, like they one they later launched in Iraq.

It is common knowledge that Bush’s cronies set up a big committee to plan all the details of what they call “transition” in Cuba. This committee drafted a gruesome plan which included vaccination programs and literacy campaigns when the whole world knows that Cuba’s health and education plans are much better than those in the United States and any other country in the world.

I couldn’t help mentioning these things which are only a small sample of the series of attacks on Cuba by US governments and of all these governments, the Bush administration represents the incarnation of the most repugnant, evil hatred for a heroic, decent people which is not cowed nor can be intimidated by the powerful empire’s threats and attacks.

One of Bush’s most cynical measures was to use the Guantanamo naval base, which the Unites States occupies illegally against our people’s will, to set up a concentration camp where he locks up, without trial or any kind of legal process, those whom he kidnaps anywhere in the world. And to top it all, that prison was turned into an experimental center of torture, the same as those later applied in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

An article in the October 17, 2004 edition of The New York Times admitted that abuse of prisoners in the Guantanamo naval base is “generalized and not limited to isolated cases as official versions claim”. Quoting soldiers, secret agents and other officials, the newspaper described “a series of highly abusive procedures which continued over a long period of time”. The world was amazed and shocked to hear about these unbelievable facts.

Democratic senator Joseph Biden, of the Foreign Relations Committee, said that the Guantanamo naval base had become the “greatest propaganda tool that exists for recruiting of terrorists around the world”. Former president Jimmy Carter urged the Bush government to close the prison because the accusations of torture there are a “terrible embarrassment and a blow to the US reputation'.

On September 13, 2004, the British newspaper The Guardian revealed that “the highest levels of George W. Bush’s administration were informed of the bad treatment and possible war crimes at the base in the Fall of 2002”, according to an investigative report by veteran journalist Seymour Hersh included in his book Chain of Command.

When visiting this torture center, a US member of Congress of Cuban descent, known in our country as the Big Bad She-wolf, a friend and defender of Posada Carriles, told the press that “she wished the Cuban people had the rights that the detainees in Guantanamo are given”.

Another of Mr. Bush’s cynical actions is the constant, increasing radio and television attacks on our people that violate the most elementary standards regulating the use of radio and TV frequencies and is in breach of international law.

The US government has invested vast amounts of money to no avail in this crazy, failed exercise.

In addition to its actions from outside, Bush and his mob have invested in excess one hundred million dollars to promote subversion and destabilization inside Cuba. More than any other US administration it has used that country’s Interests Section in Cuba to do this. There was a time, years ago, when subversion and espionage were carried out rather discretely but in Bush Jr. truly gangster-like era, all standards have been thrown overboard. Disgusting characters like James Cason, following the instructions of Otto Reich, Roger Noriega and other unscrupulous officials, have gone beyond the limits of basic decency and carried out unprecedented provocations inside our country.

The heads of the Interests Section have assumed direct leadership of the groups of mercenaries that, by various methods and under various pretexts, are provided with high personal incomes in convertible currency which, in a country like Cuba where services such as healthcare and education are totally free and others like housing, recreational activities, medicines and a significant portion of food cost a virtually symbolic amount in Cuban pesos, means that those who have convertible currency can enjoy a living standard far higher than that of Cubans who are paid their salaries and pensions in domestic currency.

There is no country in the world where the empire’s mercenaries enjoy the privileges they do in Cuba. None of them works or does any useful service whatsoever for society. The US Interests Section offices and residence in Cuba, protected by diplomatic immunity, have become the venues for meetings to organize provocations, facilitate communications and openly give orders to mercenaries inside the country.

And none of this is done surreptitiously. The Interests Section’s diplomatic pouch is brazenly used to smuggle in computers, communications equipment, printed materials, libelous articles and all kinds of objects and goods to give to their hirelings. Never, perhaps, has any government so abused and offended its diplomatic status and immunity as the US government by writing signs and exhibiting offensive placards attacking our country.

When, for some reason or other, they don’t want to be directly involved in this type of activity, they use their Czech or some such lackeys to carry out these extremely rude acts.

Our Interests Section in Washington and our officials have never, ever, used their diplomatic immunity for such illegal and disgusting acts.

In the last few days, while our people were working tirelessly to clean up the damage caused by Hurricane Dennis —tens of thousands of homes fully or partially destroyed, breaks in the electricity transmission and distribution grid, major damage to agriculture and other branches of the economy— the US government stepped up its subversive radio and television broadcasts to Cuba by increasing the frequency of illegal, provocative flights by the EC-130J aircraft which transmits the anti-Cuban radio and television signals.

The first broadcast from a US armed forces aircraft took place on none other than May 20, 2003, a date in history singled out for imperialist interference in Cuban affairs. Later on, from August 2004 onwards, once the loathsome “Transition Plan” allocating millions of dollars for radio and television broadcasts attacking Cuba was approved, the US government began four-hour transmissions from the military aircraft every weekend. In so doing, it has not only interfered with our television broadcasts, but has grossly violated international telecommunication standards while posing a dangerous provocation because of the military nature of the aircraft which has been previously used by the United States in actions against Viet Nam, Afghanistan and Iraq.

This past July 13, less than three weeks ago, five days after the hurricane had blown through the south, central and western regions of our country with its enormous power of destruction, the US Air Force transferred two EC-130J aircraft from the 193rd Special Operations Wing in Pennsylvania to the Naval Air station in Key West, Florida. One of these planes flew consecutively on Friday July 15, Saturday 16, Monday 18, Wednesday 20, Friday 22 and Saturday 23, broadcasting counterrevolutionary broadcasts in an escalation of provocation and aggression.

It was only six days after the hurricane and information about its devastating effects was still being collected.

Thus, in less than a year, there have been 46 broadcasts from the military aircraft while the daily broadcasts on nine frequencies, from the aerostatic balloon, have continued. These, and transmissions from other counterrevolutionary stations add up to 2,425 hours and 45 minutes of anti-Cuban radio and television broadcasts.

It is significant that, prior to the current escalation, the United States carried out three exploratory flights with RC-135 aircraft on Saturday April 30 and on May 7 and 14, 2005, at the same time the EC-130 was broadcasting to our country, their possible intention being to test the effectiveness and the parameters of our response to this television attack. It had been years since RC 135s had taken any action against our country.

While the US administration, which so furiously imposes the genocidal blockade on our country, in an entirely hypocritical and shameless way “compassionately” offered Cuba 50,000 USD to alleviate the damage caused by the hurricane, the lawmakers who support the Bush government policies, introduced a bill in Congress that would allocate 37,931,000 USD for the fiscal year 2006 and 29,931,000 USD for the fiscal year 2007, for anti-Cuban broadcasts. According to the wording, the purpose of the bill is “to buy, rent, build and improve radio and television reception and transmission facilities and to buy, rent and install the necessary equipment, including aircraft, for radio and television reception and transmission”.

There has even been talk that they might purchase Boeing type aircraft that use technology similar to that of the EC-130J for future broadcasts to Cuba and they also want still more money to buy airtime on radio stations in the area close to our country.

The escalation in anti-Cuban broadcasts is happening in the midst of public disagreement between the Departments of State and Defense over whether to use military aircraft to broadcast to Cuba or to transfer them to the Middle East. The outcome shows that Condoleezza Rice’s position and the aggressive plans of the US administration, which stem from the pressure of, commitments to and influence of the Miami terrorist mob, have prevailed.

Dazed and delirious, a former spokesperson for the Cuban-American National Foundation and also one of Posada Carriles’ defenders has just brazenly announced on Miami television that Venezuela’s solidarity aid to Cuba to alleviate the effects of the hurricane “consists of a few thousand tons of masts to block US transmissions, equipment to rebuild the masts used for this type of jamming and the technology needed to establish repression”.

Such an abhorrent vision prevails in the US extreme right which is now also threatening to begin radio and television broadcasts to Venezuela, as a response to Telesur and to the Venezuelan government’s solidarity with Cuba.

According to Florida Republican Congressman Connie Mack, who introduced an amendment on this, “the Broadcasting Board of Governors could be authorized to initiate radio and television broadcasts similar to Radio and TV Martí’s current broadcasts to Cuba”.

With the same intensity as that shown by the White House in stepping up its electronic warfare, local radio and TV stations in Miami go to a lot of trouble to convey an image of crisis and chaos in Cuba where an unsustainable situation will lead to social upheaval. Whosoever listens to those media terrorists would be inevitably “convinced” that the Revolution has only a few hours left, which shows that these people never learn the lessons of history.

There have also been one or two foreign correspondents in Havana who have been swept up, consciously or unconsciously, by the current of provocation and treachery.

At almost the same time on July 13, only five days after the hurricane, about twenty members of the small groups I mentioned, shouted out insulting slogans as they walked outside the “Hermanos Ameijeiras” hospital. They were using the pretext of the tugboat accident that happened 11 years ago, which caused the regrettable death of a number of people including women and children, for which the Revolution was infamously blamed; the tug had been hijacked by armed persons at the dock where this type of vessel ties up. This provocation elicited an immediate, angry response from those living nearby and from hospital workers, which meant that the provocateurs had to be given protection by the authorities.

I should give a little more background. When the country was involved in a historic battle for justice with the Empire as it denounced the covert entry of Posada Carriles —he and Orlando Bosch were responsible for the deaths of 73 people in the well-known Barbados tragedy— into the United States, under the protection of the Cuban-American mob and US authorities, and demanded his arrest and extradition to Venezuela, the Interests Section was working frantically to organize a so-called Assembly to Promote a Civil Society in Cuba officially convened for none other than May 20, a shameful, ill-starred date in our history. The whole thing was cooked up and funded by the US government.

Cuba’s denunciation made on April 11 and the meeting in Havana of outstanding people from all over the hemisphere to demand the terrorist extradition to Venezuela and to denounce “Operation Condor” and the monstrous crimes committed by US soldiers with the US government’s complicity —especially when Bush Sr. was head of the CIA and later US vice president coinciding with the dirty war against Nicaragua and the Iran-Contra scandal— put the Bush government and its main accomplices in a tight spot.

Before the Barbados terrorist act, Orlando Bosch and Posada Carriles, who took part in “Operation Condor”, were given the responsibility for planning and organizing serious crimes against well-known Chileans and people from other Latin American countries.

It was obvious that the USINT (US Interests Section) and its hirelings aim was to orchestrate an act of provocation against the authorities of the Cuban Revolution in order to divert international attention from the scandalous conspiracy and complicity between Bush Jr. and the hemisphere’s biggest terrorist that Bush had taken out of jail in Panama and allowed to enter the United States.

This so-called “Assembly to Promote a Civil Society in Cuba” was graced with the presence of the head of the US Interests Section and it even received a personal message from Bush and terrorist groups in Miami. Even Posada Carriles himself, who had not been arrested yet, sent his greetings and support to the “Assembly to Promote a Civil Society in Cuba”. All information on and the impact of this grotesque meeting are on record and in due time will be made available to the public. The fact is that the Revolution’s equanimity and sang froid wrecked this ridiculous maneuver but not without a great effort to contain the anger of the people living nearby who could not understand our tolerance of this mercenary, traitorous meeting.

When, this past July 22, all efforts were focused on rebuilding the country, “civil society’s defenders” —emboldened by the seeming impunity of their adventures, cheered on by the Interests Section and greatly encouraged by the almost daily flights and broadcasts from the military aircraft with their subversive messages, plus the belief spread by the Miami mob that they were on the point of packing their bags because the Revolution was about to collapse— plucked up their courage to orchestrate a new act of provocation. But, this time the people, angrier than before over such barefaced acts of treason, intervened with patriotic fervor and didn’t allow a single mercenary to move. And this is what will happen whenever traitors and mercenaries go a millimeter beyond the point that our Revolutionary people, whose destiny and lives are at stake in this stand-off with the most voracious, most inhuman and most cruel empire in history, is willing to accept.

The much publicized dissidence or alleged opposition in Cuba does not exist except in the overheated imagination of the Cuban-American mob and White House and State Department bureaucrats. They deceive themselves or intoxicate themselves with their own lies. They pay opportunists, people divorced from all productive activity or useful service, often vagrants and frequently underclass or criminals who do not have anyone’s esteem or support. Over and over again situations arise in which the authorities have to protect them when these people try to orchestrate some act of provocation; then the first thing the Interest Section does is to invite the foreign press.

The same thing happened when they invaded the country with armed mercenaries, many of whom were former Batista backers, assuming that the people would instantly rise up against the Revolution. Nobody knows these people in Cuba, they live off publicity abroad. The terrorist mob and the US government shamelessly take advantage of the facilities which Cuba has provided so that many international press agencies and correspondents can live in and send reports from Cuba without any restrictions whatsoever so that they can move around and act with complete freedom. Some in fact do so in total complicity with the US Interests Section in order to misinform and deceive the world about what happens in Cuba. Everyone knows full well that no revolutionary process has ever had the consensus and overwhelming support and trust that the Cuban Revolution has because of its steadfastness and fidelity to its principles and because of the gallantry, internationalist spirit and solidarity of the Cuban people.

It would be much better if the Empire did not allow itself to be carried away by illusions that might lead it to more serious mistakes, because nothing that has happened elsewhere will be comparable to what would happen here to anyone who tries to take control of Cuba.

A long time ago now, more than a century ago, Maceo warned them: “They will only reap her blood-soaked soil, if they do not perish in the strife”. Today we could add: “They would not even reap the dust of her soil, and they would have to shed much more blood than anywhere else on the planet”. This we swear!

I don’t want to let this occasion pass by without raising some other issues of great importance to our people.

During the first six months of this year, the country had to face a complex situation brought about by the drought, the power shortage and, most recently, the consequences of Hurricane Dennis.

The enemies of the Revolution, as I have already explained, have jubilantly tried to use these events to show that Cuba is going through a serious economic crisis. They never learn and are once again underestimating our people’s capacity to resist and struggle.

The sound growth that our economy has started to display since last year has increased during the first half of 2005, as I can show with some irrefutable figures which confirm this and I will now read out:

During the first half of the year the Cuban economy grew by 7.3% and an increase of around 9% is expected by the end of the year, as a result of the positive tendencies that have been observed.

This performance, recorded up until June, is based on the increase of 13 of the 22 sectors of the industry, among which ferrous metallurgy stands out with 15.5%, non-ferrous metallurgy with 9.2%; printing with 21.7%; the garments industry with 7.0%; the food industry with 3.6% and the beverage and tobacco industry with 4.4%.

Construction work increased by 8.2%, the communication sector by 7.1%, commerce by 10% and the public service sector by 13.3%.

The equivalent production of national crude oil and gas turns out around one million 900 thousand tons, that is to say, four times more than what was produced at the beginning of the special period. At the moment, a significant effort is being made to drill and set underway new oil and gas wells that will put the country closer on its way to self-sufficiency in terms of the energy sector.

Crude refining increased by 9.2%, making way for a saving of 29 million 700 thousand dollars on the total amount of refined products, when compared to their international prices. Fuel consumption, on the other hand, stayed at similar levels to the year before.

The production of electricity fell by 4% due both to the breakdowns in the electricity generating plants, and to the extension of their maintenance periods, which affected production and service, as well as the population.

In order to maintain these plants, the hard currency resources to be invested until December 2005 have doubled, exceeding the sum of 100 million USD.

A program is underway to improve the country’s power supply, with an additional 50 million USD to be invested in this program, 34% of this investment has been made in the first five months.

This program will make it possible to reduce the total loss in power distribution from approximately 16.5% to 11%, and increase the quality of the service.

A profound revolution is underway with respect to the concept of production and the use of electricity. Equipment and material worth 282 million 100 thousand USD have been bought and are currently being installed, which, within a year, will provide us with a million more kilowatts of electricity.

I am using the US dollar here so that it is easier to understand the cost in convertible pesos. This aforementioned figure of new capacities of electricity production will be supplemented by 200 thousand kilowatts generated by a new combined cycle plant and a currently out of use thermoelectric plant adapted to consume accompanying gas. This new capacity, on top of the saving of no less that one million kilowatts which will be made possible by investing more than 250 million USD, will make available to production, services and family units twice the electricity they have now, starting on the second semester of 2006.

Along with the problem of electricity, it has been necessary to resolve the need for domestic fuel. Personally, as President of the Council of State and of the Government, I dedicate a significant part of my time to this problem, so what I said is not an exaggeration, as rather I speak with circumspection, keeping some things up my sleeve.

More that 3 million 100 thousand pressure cookers, 3 million 500 rice steamers, 3 million 100 thousand electric pressure cookers, 3 million 800 thousand electric hobs and one million 100 thousand 12-inch fans have also been purchased.

More than 5 million 300 thousand gaskets for refrigerators, 650 thermostats and 7 million gaskets for coffee makers have also been bought. This range of equipment and accessories, which are already being distributed in a gradual and attentive manner, will continue to be handed out during the second half of the year, as planned.

More than 100 million USD are being invested in the pharmaceutical industry. Production in this sector is steadily growing.

Work is underway to expand and remodel the factories producing soy bean yogurt, gradually increasing its production capacity to one million liters a day.

Work is being done and money invested in order to process 25 thousand tons of drinking chocolate a year. It is estimated that the level of production for the remainder of the year is 12 tons to be distributed among the population.

As part of the program of quality coffee production, 30 packaging machines, 2 new roasters and the replacement of 7 mills, which have already been ordered, are to be introduced and assembled in the plants currently functioning. In August distribution will commence in some provinces, in accordance with the established capacity.

In order to expand, guarantee and ensure the storage of cereals and legumes, the construction of capacities is underway for half a million tons of top quality metallic silos.

Work is also underway to expand the production capacity of pasta.

The current industries pertaining to the People’s Power will be expanded in order to produce noodles and 15 similar new factories will be constructed.

Two new pasta factories will be built on the sites of the former mills “Noel Fernández” in Camagüey and “Marta Abreu” in Cienfuegos. A new pasta production line will be installed in the Vita Nuova factory, producing 750 kilograms an hour, and the Buona Sera factory in Santiago de Cuba will be subject to modernization.

The total capacity will be 70 thousand tons of different varieties of pasta.

The purchase of two new cocoa processing plants is anticipated, each with a capacity of 25 thousand tons.

Besides satisfying national needs, this decision will allow us to produce high quality cocoa butter for export, as well as other cocoa derivatives.

As part of the policy to improve our people’s diet, a program is implemented to increase egg production. The aim is to reach an output of more than 2.2 billion eggs by 2006.

A series of investments has been decided upon to increase the availability of pork meat. Work is being done to recover the capacity of pork production, with a view to reaching a total production of 80 thousand tons of meat, in live animals, by 2006 and to preparing conditions to reach 100 thousand tons by 2007.

The areas of protected and semi protected crops will be considerably expanded in order to produce high quality vegetables for both national consumption and export.

During the first half of the year, nickel production reached 38 thousand 200 tons, which is an increase from the year before. This export was the most important source of income for the country in terms of the export of goods, amounting to 545 million USD in the first half of the year.

The number of people visiting the country until June 30 had increased by 8%, and it is anticipated that this year the number of bookings will reach 2 million 300 thousand.

The income from the tourist sector increased by 11.5% compared with the year before, with a linear occupation level of 66.9%.

During 2005, 4 new hotels are scheduled to begin operations, which will contribute one thousand 921 rooms to the international tourist sector.

The electronics industry is doubling its production of software and televisions.

In this half of the year, the production of cement and steel rods increased by 20.8% and 5%, respectively.

With a view to responding to the most urgent needs to increase our building capacity, investments have been approved which are now being made to the tune of 62 million USD, which will increase the production of sand by 51%, stone by 74%, blocks by 59% and floor materials by 49%.

Currently, 7 thousand 300 homes have been completed in 2005. During the remaining months of this year the majority of homes partially affected by Hurricane Dennis will be repaired; no less than 10 thousand of the homes destroyed will be built again as new and the plans to finish and construct new homes to cover the most urgent requirements will continue, up to at least 30 thousand additional housing.

The material required to build a total of 100 thousand new homes in 2006 has already been or is in the process of being ordered, which will be by far the highest number in our history. This figure does not include a high number of repairs. Everything will depend on our efforts.

From 2003 until May 2005, the country was in the grip of the worst drought on record. The economic impact of this is estimated at more that 1.2 billion USD.

To deal with this, until 2004, 183 million USD were invested in hydraulic works, and this year it is calculated that an additional 60 million will be used.

It has also been necessary to invest more than 70 million USD in current expenditure, which includes 28 thousand tons of diesel and 14 thousand tons of gasoline, with the specific aim of taking water to the affected population, which exceeded 2 million 500 thousand people at the most critical times, distributing water by trucks to almost 2 million people.

In order to keep the economy healthy, it is essential to revitalize railway transport, which was seriously affected during these years of the special period. The special period and the blockade imposed by the United States dealt a harsh blow to railway transport, close to the point of collapse.

This year around 40 million USD are being urgently invested in railway freight transport. Actually, 32 freight cars have been repaired, while 18 locomotives and almost a thousand more cars should be restored to working order in the next few months to transport dry goods and cement for the works of the Battle of Ideas and the program for the construction of housing.

Presently, 12 new locomotives were bought from China that will arrive this November.

The amount cargo transported by railway rose by 47,900 tons in comparison to the first half of last year.

As for freight transport by motor vehicle, 486 trucks that were out of service have been repaired and are up and running.

In the first half of the year, the Ministry of Transport vehicle fleet transported 66 thousand 100 tons more than in the same period of 2004.

Port equipment, metal for railway tracks and equipment and spare parts for trucks have been purchased or are in the process of being purchased for 15 million USD.

One thousand modern busses for long distance transport, with fuel efficient engines have been ordered from China. 200 have already arrived in the country and are being used in areas where they are most needed. It is calculated that this year busses will transport almost 3 million more passengers than anticipated.

Inevitably, it will be imperative to review the fares, since the high cost of fuel and equipment will make it impossible to provide this service at the historically charged prices.

In the healthcare sector, investments received a significant boost during the first six months, which could never have happened in the past. The 448 rehabilitation wards that the country required were all completed.

Major repairs have been made to 123 polyclinics. Of the 444 existing polyclinics, almost all are now equipped with electrocardiographs, 396 have, for the first time, been given ultrasound equipment with three transducers, and 115 have new X-ray equipment. All of them will be equipped with endoscope facilities; every one of them now has 4 computers and a library, and 368 are connected to the Internet.

Since January 2004, 118 intensive therapy wards have been created in the municipalities that did not have it, where until February 2005, 42 thousand 561 patients had been provided care, the lives of 13,025 of whom were saved, that is to say, 92% of those who were at risk of death.

The dental clinics have been equipped with 851 new dentists’ offices.

More than 50 hospitals are currently being renovated, expanded and equipped to offer excellent services to both national and foreign patients. The program began in 2004 with an estimated cost of 835 million USD, which includes the latest equipment valued at approximately 400 million USD.

Among the high-tech equipment that we now have at our disposal, is the 27 one-slice CT equipment, with which all the provinces of the country are now equipped, 9 other 64-slice equipment, 8 of magnetic resonance imaging and 8 of three-dimensional ultrasound, which are being used for the first time in Cuba.

This program comes hand in hand with the construction of 44 buildings offering hospital accommodation, which will provide a total of 6,886 rooms. Numerous three and four-star hotels will also be used in the provision of an international health service.

The country is now able to operate and provide services in all branches of ophthalmology to hundreds of thousands of patients. One hundred thousand Venezuelan brothers and sisters will receive theses services this year, in which, until yesterday, July 25, 25,024 patients from said country and a similar number of Cubans had been operated on.

No less than 15 thousand citizens of the Caribbean community will receive this form of medical care between the second half of June 2005 and June 2006. Venezuela and Cuba have offered to provide another 100 thousand Latin Americans with this service within the same period. This is a feat of solidarity and humanity unprecedented in the history of the world.

The educational revolution that our country has been carrying out in the heat of the Battle of Ideas has brought about an increase in quality that is also unprecedented in the educational and learning process.

In this sector, major repairs have been made to 111 large schools and work continues on 56 more, as well as on 5 Pedagogical Institutes.

Major repairs also began on 25 polytechnics for computer sciences, with a capacity for 40 thousand students, as well as 15 senior high schools in the province of La Habana, of the 40 that will receive this repair work. The cost of these programs amounts to more than 120 million USD.

Additionally, 118 Youth Computer Clubs were completed in the first six months of this year, at a cost of 21 million USD.

At the end of the present academic year, 1,197 works had been completed by the program for the Battle of Ideas, which benefit 503,174 students. Major repairs are being made to 16 Special Sport Schools, at a cost of over 14 million 600 thousand USD; one has already been completed, while work is still underway in another 113.

Meanwhile, 20 more university chapters were established in prisons, with some 590 students.

As proof of the potential of our economy, in May the minimum wage went up from 100 to 225 pesos, benefiting 1,657,191 workers that account for 54% of state employees, costing an annual total of 1.06 billion Cuban pesos. At the end of the first half of the year the average wage rose to 334 pesos, from 282 at the end of 2004.

In July wages rose in the healthcare and education sectors, which benefited 857 thousand 400 workers, at an annual cost of more than 523 million Cuban pesos.

In the Social Security sector the pensions of 1,468,000 people went up, just over 97% of the total number of pensioners.

In the area of Social Assistance, 476, 512 people benefited from an increase of 50 pesos monthly. Both measures annually cost 1.19 billion Cuban pesos.

These actions have benefited 4.4 million people, which accounts for 30.9% of the population, at an annual cost of 2.78 billion Cuban pesos. Wages continue to increase gradually in other sectors.

The export of goods and services grew by 26.3% in the first six months of the year as compared to the same period in 2004.

The favorable balance in the trade of services managed to compensate for the imbalance of the exchange of goods, resulting in a modest positive balance in the trade figures, even higher than the year before.

With regard to the export of goods, nickel stands out for its importance, as do generic and biotechnological medication, tobacco and raw sugar, insofar as the services sector, medical and tourist services play a decisive role.

These results are achieved in the midst of a process of reorganizing foreign commerce, in which the number of companies authorized to import goods decreased from 192 to 89 and in which 67% of all the country’s imports are concentrated on 23 entities, also reducing the participation of middlemen by 26% over the last two years.

In response to an economic policy which ensures that social interests and the fundamental priorities of the country are met, a set of measures has been adopted in the monetary sector, aimed at strengthening the national currency. By mid 2003 the US dollar ceased being used in inter-company transactions and an exchange control system was established in the Central Bank for external operations. In November of 2004, in response to the threats made by the United States Government, the US dollar was also withdrawn from circulation in the chain of hard currency shops and a fine of 10% was applied to the exchange of this currency, a measure which was instituted offering maximum facilities to the population and without affecting their bank deposits.

At the beginning of this year, these actions were complemented by the act of revaluing the Cuban peso, with respect to the Cuban convertible peso, by 7%, with which the purchasing power of the Cuban peso increased in the chain of hard currency shops. Additionally, the Cuban convertible peso was revalued by 8% with respect to the US dollar and other hard currencies.

These measures have strengthened our monetary sovereignty and have brought about a greater equality between the social strata who receive income in different currencies. Now all currencies in circulation are issued by the Central Bank of Cuba, unlike in the past, when a part of it was issued by the monetary authority of a country that has imposed an iron blockade on Cuba.

Some practical effects of this have been: an increase in savings made in Cuban pesos of 32%, compared to September of last year, which reflects a stronger credibility of the national currency; a rise in the ratio of deposits made in Cuban convertible pesos from the total amount of hard currency savings accounts, going from 20% to 50%; and a significant increase in the hard currency received by the Central Bank.

In this way it was possible to substantially reduce the participation of the dollar in the country’s total inflow of hard currency in cash. In the past, the participation of the US dollar exceeded 90%, whereas now it maintains a rate of around 30%, which basically reduces the risk caused by threats made by the United States Government.

This year a rational centralization of decisions concerning the use of hard currency has been established. Authorization for these transactions must be obtained before obligations are contracted, which has led to a more effective process of contracting and a greater commitment to honoring the payment. Furthermore, this has contributed considerably to the fight against crime and corruption. It has also helped to make important decisions to get rid of the commercial middlemen that are not representative in international commerce, whose activity brought about a disproportioned increase in the prices of the goods and services that the country purchases abroad.

By way of this process, the State’s hard currency income was concentrated in the Central Bank, thus increasing the possibility of using it, which has notably strengthened the negotiating capacity of the socialist State, with the resulting benefits in commercial and financial management. It has also made it possible to rigorously fulfill the obligations created by the new external financial commitments and the renegotiated debt, which has allowed us to access new credit facilities in more favorable conditions.

Finally, as part of the agreements emanating from ALBA, an affiliate of a Cuban bank has been opened in Venezuela and the creation of an affiliate of a Venezuelan bank in Cuba has been given the go-ahead.

For the first time since the beginning of the special period, in 2004 the balance of day-to-day operations was surplus, due mainly to the notable increase in the services exported. A more favorable result drawing from a higher income for services rendered is anticipated for the present year.

It is calculated that by June 30, sales in hard currency shops will have reached a figure 6.1% higher than that of the year before.

The agreement between the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Republic of Cuba, signed in accordance with the principles of ALBA, means a considerable step forward on the way to unity and the true integration of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean. The Petrocaribe agreement is another extraordinary advancement and a true example of fraternal solidarity among peoples.

The commercial exchange between Venezuela and Cuba has already risen this year to no less than 3 billion USD.

Both countries will undoubtedly be the two that experience the most economic growth in the hemisphere this year.

Because of these noble, constructive and peaceful efforts, the imperialist government is accusing Venezuela and Cuba, Chávez and Castro, of destabilizing and subverting other countries in the region.

Faced with such accusations against Venezuela and Cuba, and if President Chávez agreed, a day like today would be most opportune to reply: Condemn us, it doesn’t matter, history will absolve us!

Changing the face of the labor movement

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:53:00 +0000

CHICAGO — The package of proposals adopted at the AFL-CIO Convention this week are the result of a remarkable process initiated last year by the federation’s constituency groups. The groups are: the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, A. Philip Randolph Institute, Coalition of Labor Union Women, and Pride at Work, which represents gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender workers.

The constituency groups launched a vigorous campaign to defeat a structural proposal put forward at that time by some of the unions which this week left the federation. The defeated proposal would have “streamlined” the AFL-CIO’s 51-member Executive Council by trimming it down to the 15 presidents of the largest unions. This would have eliminated all African American, Latino and women leaders. The constituency groups effectively made the case that union members had the right to see among their union’s leadership “faces that look like ours.”

The campaign culminated in a daylong “Diversity Summit” attended by hundreds of rank and filers and leaders preceding the convention. There, IBEW Human Services Director Royetta Sanford reported on a recent study that found that organizing campaigns in which the lead organizer is a person of color have dramatically higher win rates. Campaigns with African American women as lead organizer have an unprecedented 89 percent win rate, Sanford said.

In his keynote address to the convention, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney emphasized that the diversity proposals were so important that he was asking the convention for a unanimous vote.

When the proposals hit the convention floor, it was white, male union leaders who were the first at the floor mikes. Brette Hulme, president of the Savannah, Ga., central labor body, argued, “Diversity is an asset.” Floyd Suggs of the Florida CLC said, “Unity is number one.” Cecil Roberts, head of the Mine Workers union, recalled the basic union values of fairness, justice and “elevating everyone.”

Celebration of the unanimous vote swept across the convention floor.

All state federations will now be required to bring in constituency groups as affiliates. The AFL-CIO General Council will add seats for each of the six constituency groups as well as the Alliance for Retired Americans. Another amendment increases from 10 to 15 the minimum number of Executive Council vice president positions that must be filled by women or people of color.

Yes! Its for us!

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:50:00 +0000

Yes Directed by Sally Potter 100 min., Rated R, June 2005

Sally Potter wrote and directed a new film, “Yes.” The few moviegoers who had seen her earlier film, “Orlando,” about a woman/man who lives for centuries, knew they weren’t likely to have an ordinary film experience. The Dallas critic gave it a “C” and said that Potter’s use of poetry for film dialogue made it all too heavy. That, and the newspaper’s emphasis on miscegenation between the two illicit lovers, probably caused people to miss the experience.

“Yes” isn’t for everyone, but it is for artists, lovers, dreamers and revolutionaries.

Diverse characters go through their range of emotions with little action and a lot of iambic pentameter (a style of poetry). Only one of the main speaking parts, a dying aunt designated “the last real communist,” understands what the story is all about. Several cleaning women, with peripheral parts, show that they have a pretty good idea.

“Yes” is an art experience about overcoming the gulfs between the dead and the living, the near and the far, the superstitious and the rational, the gulfs between people, between cultures, between classes, the gulfs between worlds, and the need for cleaning.

Fortunately, the audience understands the screenwriter’s intent after a fight sequence between the British scientist and her Middle Eastern lover. “Terrorist!” she calls him with pained scorn. “Imperialist!” he roars.

Could there possibly be a happy ending for lovers condemned to such ordinary and painful divisions? Perhaps, but only if they could find a place where divisions are allowed to blend and strengthen people, instead of tearing them apart. Cuba, perhaps? The aunt seems to think so.

Joan Allen, Simon Abkarian, Sam Neill and Shirley Henderson are fantastic! If she never works again, Allen will always be remembered in this role.

Potter’s poetic dialogue and filming are wondrous! The only sad thing about this marvelous film experience is that people may miss it. But then, maybe it wasn’t for them. “Yes” is for us!

Mission against Terror

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:49:00 +0000

Miami Herald columnist Jim DeFede recently pointed out the all too blatant hypocrisy that swirls around the Bush administration’s “war on terror” and how it is conveniently forgotten when it comes to Cuba.

In a July 10 article he wrote: “Bodies were still being pulled from the wreckage when U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) issued a statement condemning what she called the ‘barbaric’ terrorist attack in London.

“‘The targeting of innocent lives is insidious and shows the utter disrespect that perpetrators of terror have for humanity,’ the Miami Republican declared. ‘Those who committed this callous act must know that our determination to neutralize terrorism is unshaken and that we will not yield in the face of such perfidy.’

“Strong words,” the columnist writes. “But where was the congresswoman’s outrage when she came to the defense of Luis Posada Carriles, a man who bragged about masterminding a series of hotel bombings in Havana that killed an Italian tourist? A man suspected of blowing up a Cuban airliner?”

DeFede concludes that the anti-Castro gang in South Florida, who support terrorists Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, are guilty of political opportunism at the very least. “The nobility of your cause cannot be a justification for terror, because every terrorist believes that what he is doing is right.

“Which is why the only way to fight terrorism is to condemn it in all its forms and not just when it is politically convenient,” he concludes.

How to prevent terrorist attacks?

As targets of U.S.-supported terrorists bent on destroying the socialist nation, Cuba appealed to the U.S. government numerous times to clamp down on these violent individuals and groups. Yet, self-proclaimed terrorists like Bosch and now Posada Carriles find safe harbor in South Florida — the home of most of these terrorist groups and training camps.

Cuba has endured terrorist attacks for more than 40 years. They have claimed the lives of more than 3,470 people, injured more than 2,100 and caused untold damage to Cuban agriculture and economy. So what is a country like Cuba to do in order to protect itself? Cuba took matters into its own hands and decided to fight terrorism through peaceful means. It sent five of its patriotic sons to watch right-wing extremist terrorist groups in South Florida.

When they uncovered important information concerning these groups, the Cuban government shared it with the FBI at a special meeting in 1998. Instead of acting on the information, the FBI arrested the five anti-terrorists, Ramón Labaniño, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González, Gerardo Hernández, René González, collectively known now as the Cuban 5. Victims of an unfair trial, they are now serving harsh prison sentences in U.S. jails.

A powerful film

Bernie Dwyer, an Irish filmmaker and Radio Havana correspondent, toured the U.S. earlier this year promoting “Mission against Terror,” a 48-minute documentary about the Cuban 5, co-directed by Dwyer and Cuban television producer Roberto Ruiz Rebo.

Dwyer traveled to 22 U.S. cities showing the film. She “wasn’t sure” what kind of reception she would get. “I thought there would be more hostility,” Dwyer told the World. But even in Miami, the bastion of anti-Cuba terrorist groups, she was welcomed. “I was surprised by how little Americans knew about the terrorist attacks against Cuba.”

The power of “Mission against Terror” is two-fold: It documents the many terrorist attacks against Cuba which are not well known to U.S. audiences and it shows, through interviews with the families of the Cuban 5, how deeply patriotic it was for them to decide to give their lives in the fight against terrorism.

Dwyer opens the film with an elegant Afro-Cuban couple dancing to Cuban music. This is a serious topic, she said, “but there is life going on in Cuba — music, delight, love, revolution — I wanted to get that across too.”

A moving interview with Rosa Aurora Freijones, wife of Fernando, captures a heart-stopping moment when she speaks of her fear she will never have children since Fernando is in jail and her “biological clock is ticking.”

“It was a long interview, and she opened up to us,” Dwyer said.

“Mission against Terror” is available on DVD. It’s great for house parties to stimulate the fight to free the five Cuban anti-terrorists and spark discussion on how to prevent and end terrorism. To order the video contact local “Free the Five” committees listed at www.freethefive.org.

The London attacks and the war on terror

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:47:00 +0000

Wars are always easier to start than to finish, and Iraq-style wars in the name of fighting “international terrorism” have led to more terrorist attacks. The people of the United States and the world are less safe from both terrorists and the abuses of their own government, thanks to the Bush administration and its supporters.

The attacks on London subways and buses show this.

Both the attackers and the Bush and Blair governments are using arguments and advancing policies that reinforce each other, leading to a vicious and escalating cycle of more terrorist attacks and more military interventions in the name of counterterrorism.

In the past, guerillas were those who attacked primarily police and military targets in an insurgent war or against an occupying power. Terrorists attacked civilian targets in order to gain attention for their cause.

In Iraq, many of the “insurgents” are essentially guerillas fighting an occupation, with a variety of political motivations. They have attacked primarily police and military targets, but have shown little regard for the civilians whom they kill in the attacks. The political forces that they represent deserve no support from anyone on the left, but they are the creation of the war and occupation, not of any international terrorist group.

In London in recent weeks, Madrid last year, and the U.S. on September 11, groups carried out terrorist attacks that killed civilians to make a political point. Since the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, some of that is starting to happen in Iraq as well. Many point out that the Bush administration has turned Iraq into a convergence point for terrorists.

To conflate guerillas and terrorists, as the Bush administration has done since the September 11 attacks, is either out of stupidity or design to invite and instigate disaster.

The representatives of the Iraqi people, not the occupiers, have to take the lead in overcoming the guerillas through both social reconstruction and diplomatic and military means. If the guerilla war is to end, the Iraqi people have to be shown through U.S and British deeds, not empty words, that their oil will not be looted and their government will not become a puppet state. Iraqi trade unions, secular progressives, Communists and socialists, the very forces that the U.S. tried to defeat in the past by supporting the Baath Party and Saddam Hussein, are the best hope for the Iraqi people today. They are the ones that we should support as we call for an end to the occupation and a policy of international aid for economic and social reconstruction of Iraq.

Meanwhile, terrorists have to be dealt with by national and international police and intelligence action and cooperation. Treating terrorists as if they were guerillas, by invading countries that supposedly support them, makes little sense, since such military interventions usually produce guerilla wars. Also, mobile terrorist groups and leadership can relocate rapidly. And Bush’s unilateral militarist policies have alienated France, Germany, and other nations whose police and intelligence cooperation is necessary to stop terrorist attacks.

Al Qaeda and the Taliban were the Frankenstein monsters created by the Reagan and Bush I administrations out of their war to destroy the People’s Democratic party of Afghanistan and its Soviet supporters. Nothing was done against the Taliban government when it carried out terror and murder against the people of Afghanistan. Al Qaeda, led by the black sheep of the wealthiest capitalist family in the Middle East, was not taken too seriously until the September 11 attacks. Only the Communist Party, USA, of all political parties in the U.S., supported the Afghan government and its Soviet allies, when everyone else, including sections of the left, were cheering on the “freedom fighters” who later became the Taliban and Al Qaeda. No one at the time realized that the Soviet army was not only defending Afghanistan’s attempt to carry forward a social revolution, but also defending the people of New York and London.

Using terrorist attacks to justify increased military budgets and more military interventionism serves the imperialist interests of the Bush administration. Its definition of peace resembles the comment of one of the Roman Empire’s “barbarian” victims, as quoted by Roman historian Tacitus: “They make a desert and they call it peace.”

Military interventionism serves the interest of terrorist groups like Al Qaeda as they enter and recruit from war-torn societies and position themselves for new terrorist attacks.

The Bush administration’s central emphasis on military force and alliance with reactionary forces in the “war against terrorism” has boomeranged against the people of the United States. It continues to undermine our security and freedom.

Norman Markowitz is a history professor at Rutgers University.

What I learned from my customer service rep

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:45:00 +0000

The customer service representative for my credit card company is pro-life, but believes that Bush’s pro-corporate tax laws and free trade policies are destroying the U.S., starting with her own family and town.

Our conversation began with a routine call to correct a billing error. Credit card companies do make mistakes. Corrections may take an afternoon, but they do take action while we are all still young.

She asked why I didn’t go online to make the correction. “Because I didn’t want to contribute to anyone else getting laid off,” I replied. “It’s bad enough that we export more jobs than Chevys, to have technology putting another family on the street.”

After allaying my concerns she would not lose her job to the Internet — although I had to confess I wasn’t convinced — she launched into an eloquent defense of workers and a blistering critique of Bush “feed the rich, smash working families” economic policy.

“Every day, on the news or via word of mouth, I hear about thousands of families losing their jobs,” she said. “In North Dakota, where we live, our kids are leaving and towns are just boarding up and blowing away. I got laid off from the phone company after 28 years because my job went to India. My entire department got laid off. These are workers who never missed a day, knew their jobs, built the phone company and are the backbone of our towns and churches. Some neighbors just packed up their trucks, locked the door on their house and disappeared. Not even a Christmas card or wedding announcement.

“I got nothing against workers in India,” she said. “They are just like us even though we are a world away. They are just trying to feed their families, keep a roof overhead and send the kids to college. From TV shows, I see workers in India work hard and smart like we do.

“It’s the phone company.” Her voice was rising and I could feel her grip the edges of her desk. “The phone company is just part of a system, caught up in the system. The corporate stock was up. They made money here; a ton of money here. Turns out that Bush pays them to look for ‘better’ overseas. The Commerce Department paid for the company to travel to India and make the deal. The Commerce Department didn’t pay for my son, who is 22, to send out hundreds of resumes or my daughter to drive 200 miles for a $7-an-hour job. But they paid the phone company to lay us off to increase their profit margins.

“How am I supposed to teach my children a good work ethic, like the church says, when people who work hard, pay taxes, obey the law, end up out of a job when they are 48 years old? And to think my husband and I voted for Bush. (It was abortion, you know.) We believed that tax cuts for the phone company meant that we would work, get a raise. Now, it’s not even a year into his second term! I don’t think he’s coming back to North Dakota anytime soon. And I never even thought about carrying a sign in my life.

“This system is wrong, evil. It rewards greed. It sanctions lying. It encourages people to turn on each other, to hate, distrust one another. That is not the country I want to leave to my grandchildren. That is not why my family works.”

My information came up on her screen. Quickly, efficiently, my account was corrected. Before we hung up, I encouraged her to run for office, in her town or in her union, and to check out the PWW online.

There are times when I wonder if Bush and his corporate cronies live in the same country as the customer rep and I do.

Numbers usually trump anecdotes, conversations on buses or subways or over the phone. The union-sponsored Economic Policy Institute says job growth is “weak.” In June full-time employment was 117.2 million and part-time jobs provided a paycheck for 24.5 million. With Republicans controlling the government, though, it took 51 months to reach that number. Recovery from the recession that began in March 2001 has lagged behind other downturns in the business cycle. Note, this recession began in March 2001, not on September 11.

EPI bases its analysis on the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a federal agency that neither the customer rep nor I completely trust. The June numbers do not reflect the reported job slashing at GM, Alcoa, Pittsburgh National Bank, Winn-Dixie, Kodak or Hewlett Packard.

The job loss numbers are staggering, but behind them are light bills piling up, prescriptions unfilled, dentist appointments unmet and too much Hamburger Helper for supper.

Anger is brewing, simmering, sweltering across the country. Opportunity — meaningful, decent work — is disappearing. For most, reality is not the Republican/corporate vision of gated estates. It’s the Flints and Youngstowns, the Pittsburgh neighborhoods, Birmingham streets and North Dakota towns. There is a healthy anger, a thoughtful rant, a working class clarity that sees through the corporate media, the credit card buy-now pay-later schemes, skewed federal reports and lying politicians.

I look forward to seeing my customer rep and her family in Washington, carrying a sign demanding job creation at corporate expense, and trade where products, not paychecks, are loaded onto ships to make a difference in another country.

Denise Winebrenner Edwards (dwinebr696@aol.com) is a member of the Wilkinsburg, Pa., Borough Council, and is on the editorial board of the People’s Weekly World.

Remembering Hosea Hudson

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:44:00 +0000

Listening to the 28th National Convention of the Communist Party, USA, on the Internet inspired me to relive the rich and vibrant history of our party. Men and women such as Paul Robeson, Claudia Jones, W.E.B. DuBois, Benjamin Davis and Lucy Parsons have all had a great influence on me, as shining examples of political activism and revolutionary struggle. A comrade who has been a particular inspiration to me is Hosea Hudson. Although his legacy remains largely uncelebrated, his work as a Black union leader and Communist organizer was extremely important.

Hudson was born into a poor sharecropping family in Wilkes County, Ga., in 1898. Life in the Deep South was extremely difficult. Early encounters with lynch mobs and oppressive landlords left Hudson traumatized. However, his experiences gave him a keen awareness of social and economic conditions that he would draw upon later in life.

Hudson married Lucy Goosby at the age of 19, and they had a son in 1920. In 1922, a family crisis and a boll-weevil infestation that destroyed their crops prompted Hudson to seek employment in Atlanta, where he heard that he could make a staggering five dollars a day. He moved to the city temporarily to become a railroad laborer, but soon resented the long hours and exhausting conditions working the coal chutes.

He rejoined his family and relocated to Birmingham, Ala., where he became both a skilled iron molder and a successful quartet singer. As a member of the L&N quartet (named after the local L&N Railroad), he was known as one of the best bass singers around. His group was given a weekly spot on local radio, the first Black quartet broadcast in the city.

Hudson remained relatively uninvolved in politics throughout the 1920s, but as the Great Depression aggravated the already difficult living conditions of poor Blacks, his resentment for the injustices suffered by his people intensified. In 1931, Al Murphy, a young Black worker and member of the Communist Party, USA, invited Hudson and a handful of other workers from Hudson’s foundry to a meeting to discuss politics. At the end of the meeting, Hudson and his companions joined the party, and Hudson was elected unit organizer for his plant.

Within a year, Hudson was fired from his job and forced to accept odd jobs under assumed names. As the Depression worsened, Hudson worked with the party to set up unemployed committees to help secure welfare payments and protect laid-off workers against evictions.

In 1934, Hudson traveled to New York to attend a 10-week CPUSA national training school, where he studied Marxist theory and learned to read and write. Returning to Birmingham, in 1937 he founded the Right to Vote Club, which sought to educate Blacks and other poor people about voter disenfranchisement and the procedural and legal requirements of voting. The club quadrupled the number of Black voters in Jefferson County between 1938 and 1940.

Hudson also worked for the Work Progress Administration and joined the Workers Alliance, the national organization that represented WPA workers in Birmingham. He helped transform the conservative, predominantly white group into an integrated, Communist-led labor union. Hudson served for two years as vice president of the Birmingham and Jefferson county branches of the Workers Alliance.

When World War II broke out and the economy shifted to the war effort, Hudson resumed iron molding and became involved in the United Steelworkers of America. He successfully spearheaded an effort to unionize his plant, and was elected president of newly created USW Local 2815. Under his leadership, working conditions in his foundry were improved and wages more than tripled. During this time, Hudson was also a delegate to the Birmingham Industrial Union Council and vice president of the Alabama People’s Educational Association, the renamed state section of the CPUSA after it was reorganized nationally as the Communist Political Association.

Hudson’s rigorous political life and the anti-Communist hysteria of the postwar era took a toll on him. His 30-year marriage ended in 1946, and in 1947 he was fired from his job and blacklisted for being a Communist, stripped of his positions in the USW, and expelled from the Birmingham Industrial Union Council. Forced to conceal his identity until 1956, he lived in Atlanta and New York City, and eventually moved to Atlantic City where he worked as a janitor, continuing his CPUSA membership and community activism.

In 1985 Hudson moved to Gainesville, Fla., where he died three years later.

Returning briefly to the South in 1964, Hudson was impressed with the dramatic social changes that had occurred, including the slow abandonment of Jim Crow laws, the rise in economic well-being for some Blacks, and the emergence of an influential Black political leadership. Despite these achievements, Hudson noted in his memoirs, “The sufferings and oppression of the vast mass of Black, Chicano and Puerto Rican people remain at an increasingly unbearable level. Unemployment, lack of housing, ghetto misery, arrests, frame-ups, the murder of innocent men and women — all these increase, and only basic changes in the structure of society will solve these terrible conditions.”

While always striving towards the greater goal of changing the system, Hudson centered his effort on alleviating the day-to-day misery of the oppressed. He remained an active organizer and outspoken proponent of communism until the end of his life. Two autobiographies have helped him gain the recognition he deserves. The city of Birmingham proclaimed February 26, 1980, as Hosea Hudson Day, and gave him the key to the city in honor of his outstanding civil rights work. Today, as we mark the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, is a good time to draw inspiration from the life of Hosea Hudson.

Bryn Lloyd-Bollard (ballo@conncoll.edu) is a student activist.

TreasonGate What did Bush know, and when did he know it?

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:42:00 +0000

Political smears by right-wingers are nothing new. In the election of 1800, John Adams had a surrogate newspaper publisher write an article about “Dusky Sally,” the half-sister of Thomas Jefferson’s deceased wife, who was also one of the Jefferson family slaves. Jefferson succeeded in avoiding the issue, and his friends pointed out that it was merely about his personal life, not national security.

George W. Bush may not be so fortunate.

On July 22 came the revelation in The Wall Street Journal that “A key department memo discussing Joseph Wilson’s Niger trip was classified ‘Top Secret,’ and the passage about his wife’s CIA role was specially marked ‘S/NF’ — not to be shared with any foreign intelligence agencies.”

Perhaps even more damning are reports that the Top Secret-S/NF document was apparently first delivered to Air Force One when George W. Bush and Colin Powell (who had apparently requested it from analysts within the State Department) were flying to Africa in 2003.

Somehow — nobody knows at the moment — the information in this Top Secret-S/NF document (the identity of Joe Wilson’s wife) then migrated from Air Force One to George W. Bush’s assistant, Karl Rove, and Dick Cheney’s assistant, Scooter Libby. Rove and Libby then immediately began “dialing for dollars” — calling reporters with this juicy bit of Top Secret-S/NF information — in an attempt to politically assassinate Joe Wilson.

Which raises the question: “What did the president know, and when did he know it?”

It’s unlikely that Colin Powell would have called Rove and Cheney (to give instructions to Libby) with the information in the memo — that was above his pay grade. Ditto for Ari Fleischer. And it’s extremely doubtful that the pilots on the plane even knew about the explosive information they were carrying as they flew across the Atlantic.

Which leaves George W. Bush, as the only other person on that plane with the means, opportunity, and motive.

Thus, perhaps, the reports that Patrick Fitzgerald has now subpoenaed the phone logs of Air Force One.

Those of a certain age among us remember well the shocking moment when Nixon’s lawyer, John Dean, confirmed to Congress that Nixon himself was involved in the Watergate scandal.

The urgency Bush brought to deciding on and releasing the name of John Roberts coincided relatively closely with a growing press awareness that the Top Secret-S/NF memo with Plame’s identity started its long path to Bob Novak on Air Force One. Time — and an awakened press corps (and hopefully an awakened Congress) — will tell if Bush’s own fingerprints are all over this treasonous act of political revenge.

Thom Hartmann (thom@thomhartmann.com) is a Project Censored Award-winning author and host of a nationally syndicated daily progressive talk show, www.thomhartmann.com.

Editorial: Keep the vote alive!

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:39:00 +0000

On Aug. 6 we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the signing of a historic bill: the Voting Rights Act. It took years of struggle and sacrifice by the African American people, along with thousands of other democratic-minded people, many of them active in the labor and civil rights movements of that time.

Key provisions of this landmark legislation expire in 2007, and a mass renewal campaign has been launched. While some Republicans have given lip service to it, the Bush administration — the most hostile ever to civil rights and voting rights — is mum. Civil rights leaders are wise to begin the campaign now. It will take a conscious, militant struggle to win.

This administration got its start trampling voting rights. Its thugs shut down the Florida vote count during the 2000 presidential elections. Their jackbooted footprints left their mark in the Supreme Court’s infamous ‘American coup’ decision installing Bush as president. Racist vote suppression marred the 2004 elections as well.

And who was whispering advice to Gov. Jeb Bush in 2000 as he prepared to “constitutionally” overthrow voting rights through the Supreme Court? None other than George W. Bush’s Supreme Court nominee — John Roberts.

Roberts “consulted” with the governor for only 30 minutes, according to the Bush camp. But those minutes spoke volumes. Roberts was the GOP legal gun, the “company man.” He had a job to do — subvert voting rights through legal arguments.

Newly released documents show that Roberts wasn’t just a Reagan deputy counsel, but part of the drive to push the country to the right. If anything, he was more reactionary than the Reagan administration.

He worked to strip the Supreme Court of jurisdiction over cases that would protect abortion, civil rights and church-state separation. He opposed affirmative action, writing that it “required the recruiting of inadequately prepared candidates.” He sought to limit enforcement of Title IX, which bars gender discrimination in universities.

The facts seeping out are revealing Roberts as an ultra-right ideologue opposed to the democratic rights that the Supreme Court should uphold. Defeating the Roberts nomination is part of the struggle to renew the Voting Rights Act and defend democracy.

Editorial: Labors bump in the road

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:38:00 +0000

The big business media has gotten the story on the AFL-CIO’s convention all wrong. Yes, four unions, SEIU, the Teamsters, Unite Here and the UFCW, decided to boycott the convention. Yes then SEIU and the Teamsters left the federation, with the other two unions likely to follow. And yes, this is a serious blow to labor unity and to the working class.

Our take is clear: the split is a serious mistake that may haunt labor for some time to come.

But what few in the corporate media seem to get is that already, in the face of this serious setback, the seeds of a stronger, more united labor movement are being sown. The press feeding frenzy about the split has totally drowned out important changes the AFL-CIO is making.

Labor faces the most ferocious economic and political attack in years. After months of serious debate, some historic innovations are being adopted by the AFL-CIO to meet these challenges. Bold proposals on diversity will train and bring many more women and people of color into leadership at all levels of the federation. New industry coordinating committees will unite unions in strategic organizing plans and goals. And the federation is taking vital steps to help and strengthen central labor councils and state federations.

The most startling change came last Tuesday. The AFL-CIO convention overwhelmingly passed a resolution demanding a rapid withdrawal from Iraq. Speaker after speaker denounced the lies of the Bush administration and the war profiteering of his corporate friends. Delegates condemned the terrible loss of life (American and Iraqi) and the waste of money. Not a single delegate spoke against the resolution.

These are signs labor is already shaking off the shock of the split and preparing to grow and rebuild labor unity. We salute these changes. There are no good unions and bad unions here. Unions are about workers and their families. We have every confidence that union members on all sides of the split will fight to rebuild unity and labor solidarity. The AFL-CIO convention bears out our conviction.

On the 60th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Nuclear disarmament: An urgent peace movement is

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:37:00 +0000

Sixty years ago, on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945, the world changed forever, with the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

For the first time, human beings could end life on earth. The struggle to prevent this unimaginably destructive power from ever being used again, and finally to achieve complete nuclear disarmament, has been a constant theme in the history of the past six decades.

This 60th anniversary year has seen a worldwide upsurge of people’s movements demanding the abolition of nuclear weapons. Among them are the Mayors for Peace Emergency Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons, initiated by the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which brought mayors from around the world to the United Nations for the massive May 1 “No Nukes! No Wars!” peace demonstration, and the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference.

As part of the mayors’ campaign, over 1,000 cities worldwide have enrolled in Mayors for Peace. Mayors of 456 cities including at least 70 from the U.S. have so far signed the International Mayoral Statement, based on the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ resolution urging President Bush to support starting nuclear disarmament talks. Hundreds more cities worldwide are giving other support to the campaign to start talks this year and achieve complete disarmament by 2020.

Many commemorations are planned around the world on the August anniversaries (see box for some U.S. actions.)

Bush administration ups the ante

The United States has always led in development of new weapons and ways to deliver them. The failure of the U.S., with the largest, most sophisticated nuclear arsenal in the world, to take meaningful disarmament steps has set the stage for Britain, France, Russia, China and others to keep them as well.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the original Cold War pretext for the U.S. nuclear weapons build-up vanished. But contrary to the hopes of people around the world, the threat of nuclear annihilation has not receded as a result.

The Bush administration has broadened the circumstances under which it might use nuclear weapons. Its 2001 Nuclear Posture Review refers to using nuclear arms against “targets able to withstand non-nuclear attack,” “surprising military developments” and “unexpected contingencies.” It is seeking funds for a “robust nuclear earth penetrator” and new “mini-nukes.” An Energy Department task force urges a complete overhaul of nuclear weapons production facilities, to facilitate the design and production of new more flexible types of warheads, while the Air Force presses for a “Global Strike” capability to deliver conventional or nuclear weapons quickly to targets anywhere on earth.

A survivor’s story

Sixty years after the bombings, the aging survivors are speaking out. One is retired Prof. Satoru Konishi, assistant secretary general of Nihon Hidankyo, the Japan Confederation of A- and H-bomb Sufferers Organizations.

In the following passage translated by Joseph Gerson of the American Friends Service Committee, Prof. Konishi tells what he saw as a 16-year-old, that day in Hiroshima:

“The sky was very clear. As we sat at our desks, a flash of lightning ran in front of our eyes, so bright as if a large number of flashbulbs set off at once. I felt strong heat on my head … A little later, a huge blast came with a roaring sound, and window panes fell all over the desks and were smashed into pieces. …

“On the next day I went into the city with two of my schoolmates. When I stood at the west end of the city, oh, the city was totally disappeared. … I could not realize the fact that no marks of the city were left to see…

“All of a sudden, I heard a voice saying, ‘Give me water!’ I looked and saw it, it was a face like a lump of tofu, so white, swollen and soft, with its eyes, nose and mouth getting out of shape. It looked totally different from a human face. I cannot remember what I did and saw after that. One thing is sure, that I went away without giving him some water.”

It is not surprising that Prof. Konishi, in an interview during the United For Peace and Justice National Assembly last February, called the U.S. use of the atomic bomb “the biggest crime against humanity” and said “the responsibility for nuclear abolition is on the U.S. government.” He warned against the Bush administration’s drive to develop “usable” nuclear weapons, saying another use of the bomb would be “the end of the world.”

What’s next?

Leaders of U.S. and international organizations emphasize the need for grassroots involvement of cities, organizations and individuals, and integrating nuclear disarmament issues with ending the war and occupation of Iraq and preventing other U.S. initiated wars of aggression.

“The way forward, in my view, is a massive mobilization of civil society at every level,” said Ibrahim Ramey, director of the disarmament program of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). “The abolition of nuclear weapons has to become a major recurring and persistent demand of all sectors of civil society — religious, civic associations, labor unions, professional organizations,” he added.

“People in the U.S. need to recognize that the major impediment to nonproliferation and abolition has been the expansion of the nuclear reality by the U.S., including the tactical shift in the possibility of nuclear weapons that has now become part of the Bush administration’s war plan,” Ramey said.

He said nuclear arms cause great environmental disruption and pollution at every stage of their manufacture and transport, with indigenous peoples in the U.S. and around the world bearing most of the burden.

As an African American growing up in a highly militarized area, he said, “I know first-hand that production and management of nuclear weapons has always had a very serious effect on the health of poor people and people of color.”

The antiwar struggle including nuclear disarmament “needs to be more a working-class and people of color-led struggle,” he said. “We need to democratize the nature of the ‘peace movement’ and recognize the work for peace and justice that unions and other formations in our own community circles are doing.”

“In this past period the anti-nuclear-weapons movement has found new life and has reinvigorated itself” based on realization of the dangers and on the mayors’ campaign to ban nuclear weapons, said Alfred L. Marder, president of the International Association of Peace Messenger Cities. He pointed to the success of the mayors’ campaign around the world, the call by both houses of the Belgian legislature for U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to be removed from Europe and other disarmament measures, and the May 1 demonstration in New York City that integrated the demand to end the war in Iraq with the abolition of nuclear arms.

Marder called the May 1 demonstration a major milestone in awakening people to the danger of nuclear weapons. He believes a divestment campaign would be an effective way to build a grassroots citizens’ movement. “Especially in the U.S.,” he said, the peace and anti-nuclear-weapons movement should reach back in memory to the anti-apartheid movement” and the divestment campaign “which forced us to go to every institution in American life, and say take out the money we have invested — it forced us to knock on every door and create that outrage.”

‘Encourage negotiations’ about

the Korean peninsula

Responding to the Bush administration’s threats and refusal to honor past U.S. commitments, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has withdrawn from the NPT and announced it possesses nuclear weapons.

An organization with a special concern about the situation on the Korean peninsula is Young Koreans United, USA.

YKU President Cliff Lee said his organization believes it is urgent to encourage the U.S. government to always continue any negotiations, especially with the DPRK. Lee, who is on the Steering Committee of United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), highlighted the importance of results of the six-party talks involving North and South Korea, the U.S., Russia, Japan and China, slated to resume July 25. “We hope both sides can come to an agreement regarding nuclear proliferation, especially on the Korean peninsula,” and establish a genuine dialogue, he said.

Though the organization has not made specific proposals pending the outcome of the six-party talks, he said, his own view is that “we need to bring the nuclear issue more to the local level, and involve local leaders” who can bring their concerns and influence to higher levels.

Nuclear abolition &

the antiwar movement

“I’m sorry to say that all signs point to a more entrenched U.S. nuclear policy,” said Jacqueline Cabasso, executive director of the Western States Legal Foundation, member of UFPJ’s Steering Committee and head of its nuclear disarmament campaign. She called the administration’s talk of a new complex to build nuclear weapons far into the future “illegal, immoral, insane and self-destructive.”

The UN Development program calculates that $40 billion — the amount the U.S. spends annually on nuclear arms — would fund basic food, shelter, health care, clean water and sanitary sewer systems for everyone on earth, she said.

The U.S. must take the first step to disarm, Cabasso said. “I continue to think that incorporating a demand for global nuclear disarmament in the antiwar movement is the most promising way forward,” because the antiwar movement has momentum and a stated commitment to linking peace and justice movements and upholding civil rights and civil liberties. “Nuclear weapons are the ultimate form of violence, threatening all people everywhere. Their production and testing destroys the environment, subverts the economy, and undermines democracy,” she added.

“I am very moved right now by the hibakusha, who are increasingly concerned that nuclear weapons will be used again,” Cabasso said. “The signs are there – the U.S. relentlessly determined to fully integrate nuclear arms into its global war-fighting strategies, modernizing its weapons – all these things legitimize nuclear weapons and make their eventual use more likely.”

The hibakushas’ concerns inspired the mayors’ campaign’s “2020 vision” program to start disarmament talks this year and complete them by 2010, with all nuclear weapons dismantled by 2020, Cabasso said. “There is a lot of potential for people to get involved at the local level. The mayors have committed themselves to a 15-year program, which is long-term planning for progressives. I think the challenge for the rest of us is to commit ourselves to a 15-year plan.”

*******

Some U.S. actions

on Aug. 6 & 9

Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab,

California

“Seeds of Change” – Celebrate the vision of a nuclear-free world with music, a dinner/rally and candlelight march.

Saturday, Aug. 6, 5:00 p.m.

William Payne Park, 5800 Patterson Pass Rd., Livermore

Car pools, BART shuttle available

Information: Tara Dorabji, Tri-Valley CAREs, tara@trivalleycares.org, (925) 443-7148,

www.trivalleycares.org

Los Alamos Nuclear Weapons Lab, New Mexico

“Hiroshima, 60 years: It started here – Let’s stop it here!” Teach-in, sunflower pageant, workshops, music, candle ritual, meditation and more.

Saturday, Aug. 6, 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Ashley Pond Park, Los Alamos

Information: Los Alamos Study Group,

(505) 265-1200, www.lasg.org

Nevada Test Site

“Many stories, one vision for a nuclear-free world” conference. Speakers and public witness including storytelling, nonviolence trainings, liturgy, music, performance, workshops and nonviolent direct action.

August 4-7

University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and the Nevada (Nuclear) Test Site

Information: Nevada Desert Experience, (702) 646-4814, nde_youth@peacenet.org,

www.nevadadesertexperience.org

Y-12 National Security Complex,

Tennessee

“Stop the Bombs!” remembrance/names ceremony; peace march, rally and direct actions; and peace lantern ceremony.

Saturday, Aug. 6, all day

Oak Ridge

Information: Ralph Hutchison, Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, (865) 483-8202, orep@earthlink.net, www.stopthebombs.org

Nationwide on August 9 : Remember the bombing of Nagasaki!

Candlelight vigils at city halls across the country. Also, readings, lantern lighting ceremonies and more. In support of Mayors for Peace, local groups are encouraged to invite their mayors to participate in the vigils and read out proclamations.

Contact: Jackie Cabasso, Western States

Legal Foundation, (510) 839-5877,

wslf@earthlink.net, www.wslfweb.org

JwJ joins miners picket

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:35:00 +0000

TUCSON — Bosses driving home from work at Asarco, Inc.’s Silverbell copper mine north of here witnessed solidarity in action July 22, as some 20 Jobs with Justice members walked the picket line with striking miners. Most of the strikers are represented by the United Steelworkers.

“Jobs with Justice supports the United Steelworkers in their global struggle against Asarco, and we will continue to support the Steelworkers until we win,” said Steve Valencia, chair of the Tucson Coalition of Jobs with Justice. The Tucson Coalition walks the picket line with the strikers at the Silverbell Mine every Friday.

Workers at Silverbell and five other sites in Arizona and Texas have been striking over Asarco’s unfair labor practices since the week of July 4th. Hayden and nearby Kearny, Ariz., where a majority of the 1,500 strikers are picketing three of Asarco’s properties, are old mining towns. Community support for the workers is strong, said a local resident.

The company returned to the bargaining table for the Ray Mine contract on July 22, but continued to insist on unfair and unnecessary concessions from its hourly employees, according to the Steelworkers.

“Asarco management keeps saying it wants a contract, but then they refuse to bargain in good faith with the unions that represent their employees,” said Terry Bonds, USW District 12 director. “They insist that the company needs to save money to keep operating, but then they refuse to provide the information we need to address operational efficiencies.”

Talks are set to resume August 2.

Strike Assistance Centers providing information and education about mortgages, food and utility assistance and debt counseling have been established in Tucson and Kearny. Call (520) 628-1562 for more information. Donations can be made out to “USW Emergency Strike Fund” and mailed to USW, 2123 E. Grant Rd., Tucson AZ 85719.

Californias single-payer bill passes milestone

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:34:00 +0000

California’s single-payer bill, SB 840, the California Health Insurance Reliability Act (CHIRA), introduced by state Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), passed key milestones during the current legislative session and is headed for the second phase of its consideration by the state Senate and Assembly early next year.

The measure, introduced by Kuehl last February, passed the Senate, 24-14, on May 31. The Assembly Health Committee approved it, 9-4, on July 6. The bill now passes to the Assembly Rules Committee. Kuehl will introduce a companion measure on funding in January 2006.

SB 840 would cover all Californians under a single-payer plan, based on residency rather than employment or income, while cutting overall health care costs. No deductibles or co-payments would be charged. Patients could choose their own doctor, and no one would be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition.

Coverage would include hospital, medical, surgical and mental health; dental and vision; prescription drugs and medical equipment such as glasses and hearing aids; emergency care including ambulance; skilled nursing care after hospitalization; substance abuse recovery programs; health education and translation services; transportation to covered services, diagnostic testing and hospice care.

“SB 840 eliminates the insurance companies’ role as we know it in health coverage, except for a small market for services such as cosmetic procedures which the state wouldn’t fund,” Andrew McGuire, executive director of the Health Care for All-California coalition, said in a telephone interview. He said many workers now employed in the health care industry would continue to be needed in their present jobs, but would work for the state instead.

McGuire said he anticipates a “big negative propaganda campaign by the insurance and pharmaceutical industries” when the financing is made public.

“Privatization of health insurance leads to more people being uninsured,” McGuire said. “The only way risk can be minimized is to expand the risk pool as much as possible. HMOs on the other hand constantly try to shrink the pool and cut out those needing the most services.”

Despite their growing health coverage burden, support from employers both small and large has yet to surface, McGuire said. Though they, too, will ultimately have to think about saving money, he said, a deep distrust of government funding stands in the way. However, he noted, “the two most successful health programs — Medicare and veterans health services — are government-funded.”

McGuire said a major grassroots campaign to get mayors and city councils to support SB 840, with events in 365 cities, will be waged in the coming year. The Los Angeles City Council voted earlier this month to support Kuehl’s measure.

While the details of funding are still being worked out, the outlines are clear. SB 840 is to be paid for through funds already being spent on health care by federal, state and county governments, and by affordable, means-tested insurance premiums replacing all current payments by both employers and consumers. It is estimated that the bill would cut California’s total health care spending by some $20 billion in its first year of operation.

Teamsters defend port truckers

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:33:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES — The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has begun a campaign to guarantee labor and safety protections for 10,000 independent truckers here.

A new program extends the hours that containers can enter and leave the marine terminals for the publicly owned Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbors. The terminals handle over 40 percent of the nation’s import. The union is pressing local and federal officials to add essential labor and safety provisions to the program. It is also promoting legislation to enable union organization of the so-called independent truckers.

Last year a coalition of corporate operators who lease the terminals was granted federal exemption from antitrust laws to jointly develop a fee system to cover their additional labor and related costs in extending the hours into night and weekend shifts. The system began July 25.

The Teamsters point out that the new system does not include provisions for additional costs and burdens on the truckers, trucking companies, small businesses and local communities.

Teamster Port Division Representative Miguel Lopez, who handles the Southern California ports, says the complicated fee system “benefits the terminal operators and

big shipping interests” like Wal-Mart, Target and Home Depot.

A container handled in “peak” day hours will be liable to a fee. A container handled in “off” hours will have no fee and will also cancel the fee for a container handled in peak hours for the same company. A company that can ship equally well in “peak” and “off” hours is not affected much and can benefit from greater flexibility. The big companies operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but many smaller businesses operate in the peak hours only and will bear the fee burden, says Lopez.

The smallest operators are the truckers themselves. They are legally considered “independent” subcontractors since the federal deregulation of transportation in the 1980s. As a result, they currently do not benefit from federal labor laws.

The truckers are generally paid per haul by trucking companies, not per hours or work done. The new system means they will work longer hours; both days and nights, for the same pay, Lopez says.

The truckers are not paid for time spent or work done in the terminals loading and unloading. Since the terminal operators don’t pay these costs, there is not so much incentive for them to reduce the truckers’ waiting times and resultant congestion as well, the Teamster rep adds.

Economic globalization also means increasing port traffic, Lopez says, pointing out that will also increase congestion, pollution and exploitation if labor and community concerns are not built into the system.

Overworked truckers with less resources for equipment upkeep means increased vulnerability to health and safety danger for themselves, other terminal workers and the greater community, he notes.

At a July 22 rally of 100 truckers and Teamster, longshore and other union and community supporters, Lopez called for “registry verification of hours worked by truckers by all trucking companies.” In addition, he said, “terminal operators should have to compensate for duties done by truckers in the terminals, and ‘staging areas’ should be established where containers can be organized for rapid handling.”

The mayors and city councils of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which lease the facilities to the terminal operators, should use their leverage and influence for such additions to the new extended hours program, the Teamster leader said.

Another part of the solution is the unionization of the “independent truckers,” Lopez said after the rally. The Teamsters are working with State Assemblyman Joe Dunn (D) to get legislation enabling labor organization of the truckers in California.

“It’s something like the state’s farm labor legislation that helped the United Farm Workers union organize in the 1970s,” he said.

Sweet-sounding phrases

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:32:00 +0000

Workers’ Correspondence

Is anyone familiar with the term “reverse mortgage”? The pitch goes something like this:

• Cash now! Take cash in a lump sum. Or: Cash as you go! A line of credit or monthly income for life.

• It’s always yours! You always retain the title to your home. When your home is sold, the reverse mortgage comes due. As the value goes up, it’s yours!

Sounds good, but the reality is, this scheme is part and parcel of the race to the bottom. These proclamations are based on the assumption that real estate values will continue to rise unabated. But if so, won’t everything else follow upward? So the longer one lives, the less real equity remains.

Back in the ’60s, when I was an apprentice in Local 6 of the NY Typographical Union, I first heard the words “sweet-sounding phrases.”

It was during a time of transition and decline when much of Local 6’s work was moving south. Newspapers were automating and looking for ways to cut staff. The method they came up with and used was called attrition. International President Elmer Brown reminded us that attrition meant that upon retirement, death or leaving the industry, the vacated position would not be filled. Hence President Brown’s words — “sweet-sounding phrases.”

Today, a college degree does not guarantee upward mobility for our children. We have entered an economy of minimum- and low-wage service jobs, and many retirees may find the reverse mortgage the only option to stay in their homes and live out their lives. Today, while pensions are stolen or lost in bad investments, and the tax burden continues to shift to the working class, a reverse mortgage is offered as a way of preventing the elderly from becoming homeless.

It’s my opinion that the American people would not tolerate a large segment of the elderly living on the streets. However, one must admit, the capitalist class continues to come up with the cleverest schemes to extract our money and perpetuate the system.

Our working lives are spent creating surplus value that winds up in fewer hands. For many retirees a home is the only equity they have acquired, with the hope of leaving their children something to build on — a piece of the American pie.

Our hope and our children’s best hope — socialism! Now that’s a sweet sounding phrase!

China, India and class

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:28:00 +0000

China and India are often equated. Both have populations in excess of one billion, both graduate large numbers of scientists and engineers. A recent survey by the Economist depicted India and China as “two tigers.”

The equation is superficial. Politically, and consequently socially and economically, the Chinese and Indian states are species of a different class. The first was created by a socialist revolution. The latter is still capitalist. India’s workers, unions and workers’ parties, however, have the same class interests as China’s workers and unions, and the Chinese state itself.

Economic differences between China and India are startling. Buried between paragraphs, for instance, without comment, the Economist reported that income per person in India was $619 in1950 less than $410 in 2003 (all in 1990 dollars) — a drop of one-third!

The 1995 U.S. Army area handbook on India reported that the number below the official poverty line had leaped from 26 percent to 38 percent in the prior six years, afflicting 130 million additional people. The Indian government’s response was to lower its poverty standards! Now “only” 25 percent of the current population, or 260 million people, ostensibly live below the new poverty line. But the World Bank contradicts this assessment. It places 35 percent of India’s current population below “absolute poverty” standards.

By contrast, income per person more than doubled in China since 1950. And 400 million people have emerged out of extreme poverty in China, with less than 10 percent now below the line.

And there is more to life than income. There is public health, nutrition, conditions of employment, housing, education, environment, transport infrastructure, electric grid, general conditions in the countryside, and so on. Experts in these fields are in broad agreement that these are generally declining in India, indeed in most of the capitalist world, the U.S. included. In China, however, they are generally although not uniformly rising. (The Economist rejected a letter pointing out these differences.)

The difference is that China had a socialist revolution in 1949. Socialist revolution remains in India’s future, as it does in the U.S.’s. The difference is that the Chinese state is a product of this historic revolution, for all of the enormous changes it has undergone. The difference is that China can overcome challenges — from poverty, unemployment and inequality to public health and ecological problems — that world capitalism can only try to hide.

It also means that to protect their power and profits, capitalists and their states have a class antagonism towards China, as they did towards the Soviet Union, as they do towards unions and workers’ parties everywhere.

With Wall Street/Washington’s problems mounting, this antagonism towards China grows. The extortionate oil prices set by Wall Street monopolies and speculators not only plunder China, but also throw its planning into disarray and spread uncertainty and social instability. (China became a significant oil importer in 1993.) The same applies to speculation in other commodities China needs, from soybeans to nickel.

Imperialism’s unrelenting challenges of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), also created by a socialist revolution, are ultimately directed against the Chinese state. So are Washington’s arming of Taiwan, its establishment of military bases across central Asia, its growing military treaties with Japan, its efforts to build similar ties with India, all directed against China as against workers and their organizations everywhere. The Soviet Union faced similar challenges prior to and in World War II, a war impelled by capitalist crisis.

In the 1970s and 1980s, a new wave of capitalist problems led to ever more comprehensive economic, political and military challenges against the USSR and its allies, including Cuba. Analogous challenges aimed to weaken and cheapen labor inside capitalist countries, such as drives against PATCO and other unions in the U.S., the coal miners’ and other unions in Britain, and so on. One profound lesson from the Cuban state’s survival of this capitalist “hurricane” is the importance of a strong, class-conscious party and union movement and leadership, deeply united with and ultimately controlled by its worker base.

China is increasingly facing a similar comprehensive challenge from world capitalism. It is capable of overcoming this challenge, with the support of the workers of China, India and the world.

Arnold in trouble

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:27:00 +0000

More troubles piled up for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week, as one of his key measures for the Nov. 8 special election was thrown out, and state Democrats filed an ethics suit over money paid him by Muscle & Fitness and Flex magazines.

On June 21, a Sacramento County Superior Court judge disqualified Proposition 77 to shift redistricting powers from the state Legislature to a panel of retired judges. Attorney General Bill Lockyer had sued to remove the measure because its supporters submitted one version to his office, and another to voters. Prop. 77’s backers said they would appeal.

Calling Prop. 77 “the latest in a list of serious political blunders” by the governor, California Labor Federation head Art Pulaski said in a statement that “Schwarzenegger has tried to pass off one half-baked scheme after the other on Californians since he was elected.”

Pulaski cited the governor’s withdrawal of initiatives to privatize public workers’ pensions and to base teachers’ pay on merit, as well as his abandoning of efforts to eliminate many state regulatory bodies.

“Arnold Schwarzenegger’s political schemes have been rejected by the court of law and by the court of public opinion,” Pulaski said. “He has gotten it wrong again with his redistricting scheme and with this entire costly, unnecessary special election” that “serves the interest of no one but the governor’s corporate contributors.”

Following the scandal that broke earlier this month over Schwarzenegger’s multi-million-dollar deal with two fitness magazines that heavily feature advertisements for performance-enhancing supplements, Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres filed a complaint July 19 with the Fair Political Practices Commission, calling the payments illegal honoraria and unlawful gifts to a public official. The complaint also said Schwarzenegger violated conflict of interest rules when he vetoed state Sen. Jackie Speier’s bill to cut supplement use by high school athletes.

Still on the ballot are the governor’s measures to cap spending if it exceeds revenue and to extend to five years the time for teachers to achieve tenure. Also on the ballot are a measure by the governor’s backers to force public worker unions to get annual permission from every member to use dues funds for political action, an initiative to notify parents when minors seek an abortion, and two measures for prescription drug benefits — one by the pharmaceutical industry and the other by the broad Health Access coalition.

The continuing setbacks have led some to speculate whether Schwarzenegger would be wise to cancel the special election. The Los Angeles Times quoted several Republican consultants who counseled cancellation, while others pointed to the political price he would pay for doing so.

In a setback for the labor-community coalition that has been opposing the right-wing ballot initiatives, Prop. 80 to reregulate California’s electricity market was also ruled off the ballot. On July 22, the 3rd Appellate District Court of Appeal ruled that the measure would have impinged on the Legislature’s authority over the state Public Utilities Commission.

TeleSUR goes on the air

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:25:00 +0000

TeleSUR, a new television outlet, transmitted its signal throughout Latin America by satellite for the first time, July 24. The inaugural broadcast coincided with the 222nd birthday of liberator Simón Bolívar, dreamer of a united Americas and inspiration for the Bolivarian revolution shaking Latin America.

Co-founded by Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba and Uruguay, TeleSUR’s intent is to provide news and cultural programming from a Latin American perspective and to help the process of regional integration.

Most important, according to the TeleSUR mission statement, is to “allow all the inhabitants of this vast region to spread its own values, to disclose its own image, to debate its own ideas and to transmit its own content.”

As an alternative to corporate-controlled media, TeleSUR promises to represent the principles of authentic journalism: veracity, justice, respect and solidarity. TeleSUR says it seeks active viewers, stimulating participation and fomenting critical attitudes.

The central offices are located in Venezuela with news bureaus in Colombia, Bolivia and Brazil. News bureaus are also planned for Argentina, Cuba, Mexico City, and Washington, D.C. Once fully operational, TeleSUR will also be available to viewers in Western Europe and North Africa as well as across the Americas.

World Notes

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:24:00 +0000

India: CPs respond to U.S.-India pact

Last week President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed that a ban on civilian nuclear technology sales to India could be lifted in return for international inspections of its civilian nuclear program and a ban on testing nuclear weapons or transferring weapons technology to others. The U.S. Congress and acknowledged nuclear nations Britain, Russia, China and France must okay the deal.

While welcoming the test ban and inspections, the Communist Party of India said these should be worked out with the International Atomic Energy Agency, “not through a bilateral agreement with the U.S. which itself has been guilty of nuclear proliferation in the past to South Africa and Israel … Nor has there been any reference whatsoever to nuclear disarmament to which India has long been committed in contrast to the U.S. administration which has completely abandoned policies of nuclear disarmament or restraint.”

Noting that it had always opposed the former right-wing government’s nuclear weapons program and does not agree with those who say India needs nuclear arms to be a “great power,” the Communist Party of India (Marxist) warned that the new pact “marks an end” to India’s historic policy for nuclear disarmament.

India has not signed the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It conducted weapons tests in 1974 and 1998.

Canada: Telus workers locked out

Workers at Telus, Canada’s second largest telecommunications firm, set up picket lines July 21 as the company prepared to unilaterally impose new conditions of employment the next day, the Canadian Broadcasting Company reported. Telus said the workers were on strike; the union said it was locked out, since workers showing up July 22 would essentially be agreeing to Telus’ conditions.

Telus and the Telecommunications Workers Union have been bargaining for a new contract for nearly five years.

Job security is the top issue, with the company determined to contract out “non-core” jobs and the union concerned over such provisions and over the potential transfer of work to a call center Telus owns in the Philippines.

S. Africa: Airlines workers strike

South Africa’s airline SSA suspended all international and domestic flights July 24 as a strike by cabin and ground crew staff entered a second day, Reuters said. The workers struck July 21 after unions and management failed to agree on wages. The union is demanding 8 percent and the company proposes 5 percent.

The two unions representing the workers point out that SSA can afford an 8 percent wage hike after it turned a $145 million profit in its just-completed fiscal year, reversing a previous loss.

Guatemala: Bishops urge development aid

Catholic bishops from Europe and Canada visiting rural areas here last week called on industrialized countries to honor their commitments to development aid to Guatemala and other developing countries, Prensa Latina reported. The bishops, members of the International Consortium of Catholic Organizations for Development and Solidarity, blamed “neoliberal policies” for the worsening of poverty.

These policies, involving cuts and privatization of social services, are often imposed by U.S.-controlled international lending institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Bishop Francois Lapierre of Canada’s San Jacinto diocese said that while the industrialized countries had pledged to devote 0.7 percent of their gross domestic product to development aid for the poorest nations, most of the pledges are not being carried out.

Lapierre pointed out that many Guatemalans leave the country because of hunger, and called migration “a survival strategy for farmers and indigenous people.” The bishops said part of their mission was to investigate ill treatment many Guatemalans suffer in the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

World Notes are compiled by Marilyn Bechtel (mbechtel@pww.org).

Brazilians protest assassination, demand arrests

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:21:00 +0000

Friends and family of Jean Charles de Menezes, the young Brazilian shot dead July 22 by British police acting under a shoot-to-kill policy, marched in protest Monday in Menezes’ hometown of Gonzaga in central Brazil.

Hundreds of demonstrators demanded the arrest of the British police marksman who killed Menezes after undercover police chased him into the London subway, the UK Guardian said.

Responding with outrage to inquest reports showing Menezes had been shot eight times at close range, Gonzaga’s mayor, Julio de Souza, called the killing “an assassination.”

Referring to a statement by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the mayor said, “It’s easy for Blair to apologize, but it doesn’t mean very much. What happened to English justice and England, a place where police patrol unarmed?”

Dozens of Brazilians also protested Sunday outside police headquarters in London. At Menezes’ apartment, his cousin, Alex Pereira, said, “I believe my cousin’s death was the result of police incompetence.”

Menezes had lived in Britain for three years, working as an electrician, in hopes of returning to Brazil and starting a cattle ranch.

Brazil’s Foreign Minister Celso Amorim met with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw July 25 to follow up on the Brazilian government’s call for an inquiry and the Menezes family’s threat to sue the British police.

The Brazilian government said in a July 23 statement that it “was shocked and perplexed” by the killing, and said Menezes was “apparently the victim of a deeply regrettable mistake.” The statement reiterated Brazil’s commitment to eradicating terrorism “in accordance with international law, including human rights legislation,” and called for “an explanation from the British authorities regarding the circumstances that led to this tragedy.”

Top British police official Ian Blair said the “shoot-to-kill-to-protect” policy in place throughout the country would not change, though he acknowledged Menezes’ death was a “tragedy,” the British newspaper Morning Star reported. In an editorial, the paper pointed out that the young Brazilian was “given no hearing, no trial and no chance” before he was brutally killed in what the paper called an execution. “Mr. de Menezes has paid the ultimate price for a lawless and irresponsible policy which should never have been implemented and must be withdrawn immediately,” the paper said.

Statements that the police “did what they thought was necessary to protect the public” or that police are in an “impossible situation” miss the point that Menezes was “a member of the public, no more, no less,” Morning Star said.

Ian Blair said undercover police conducting surveillance of a south London apartment block in the wake of the July 7 terrorist attack and the July 21 failed bombings were suspicious of the bulky coat Menezes wore on a July morning. However, Brazilians noted that the young man would have found the climate chilly. They also said he had lived for a while in a part of Sao Paolo where gun crime was common. The police have not said whether they identified themselves to Menezes or explained why he wasn’t surrounded and challenged during the two-mile trip from the apartment complex to the subway station where he was shot.

Muslim leaders reacted sharply to the killing. The Morning Star quoted Sir Iqbal Sacranie, head of the Muslim Council of Britain, as saying, “While we accept that the police are under tremendous pressure to apprehend the criminals who are attempting to cause carnage on the streets of London, it’s absolutely vital that the utmost care is taken to ensure that innocent people are not killed due to overzealousness.”

“I would like a revision of policy,” said Muslim Association of Britain spokesman Azzam Tamimi. “I think this shoot to-kill policy is very dangerous.”