People Before Profit blog

Maria Montelibre, presente!

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:51:00 +0000

Maria Edith Freiberg, known to many in the Cuba solidarity movement as Maria Montelibre, lost her brief battle with cancer July 22 in Santa Cruz, Calif. She was 62.

A staunch fighter for peace, socialism and human rights, Montelibre published a people’s newspaper, Montelibre Monthly, for more than 20 years, distributing tens of thousands of copies, often at her own expense.

Maria Freiberg was born on July 28, 1942, in Resistencia, Argentina, the daughter of German Jewish Holocaust survivors. She received her Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of Buenos Aires in 1963. She came to the U.S. that year and spent several years in Michigan, where she earned a Master of Arts in psychology from University of Detroit in 1973. She then moved to Denver, where she lived for nearly 30 years. She spent one year in Tucson, Ariz., before settling in Santa Cruz.

Fluent in English and Spanish, Freiberg worked many years as a certified court translator. She also used her high-level skills for the progressive movement. She translated numerous Cuban texts into English, and her translations are posted on many websites. She also translated her name “Freiberg” into the Spanish “Montelibre” — “free mountain.”

An admirer of film and art, she wrote reviews, especially of Cuban films, for the PWW and other publications.

Many knew Montelibre as a feisty activist who expected others to share her strong committment to social justice. Her enormous energy and love for the working people of the world, as well as her unflagging support for the Cuban Revolution, will always be remembered by those who were fortunate enough to work with her.

Freiberg / Montelibre loved nature, was most satisfied when advocating for human rights worldwide, and found her greatest joy in her children and grandchildren.

She is survived by sons Daniel (Jennifer) and Michael, both of Michigan, and Victor of Virginia; mother Aida and loving and supportive brother Edward of San Francisco; grandchildren Sophia, Samuel and Dianna of Michigan. Maria’s father Marcos preceded her in death. Along with her family, numerous friends and comrades in the U.S. and around the world will sorely miss her.

Her family requests that in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to the LiveStrong Foundation (livestrong.org), the American Cancer Society (cancer.org), or the organization of your choice.

Memorials to celebrate Maria Freiberg / Montelibre’s life will be announced at a later date.

Letters

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:41:00 +0000

Thanks for telling the truth

I would like to thank Vivian Weinstein for her article, “Private bid threatens Texas social services” (PWW 7/23-29). I work for Texas Health and Human Services as a case manager and Ms. Weinstein’s was the most accurate article I have seen on this. I am one of the 2,500-plus employees who are about to become displaced workers.

I work and live in rural Texas. Our clients don’t have computers, and the ones that do have dial-up — there is no such thing as high-speed Internet in this area and if there was it would not be in their budget to afford it. Most of my clients don’t have telephones or transportation. I feel so sorry for these people because they have no idea what is about to happen to them. They depend on us for so much and they know they can call and if we can help, we will, if not we will refer them in the right direction.

The computer system they are implementing has already cost millions of dollars. It has been used in Austin for about two years now and still does not work. It issues too many benefits or it takes months to issue the correct benefits. The new caseworkers think its great because it is supposed to “do the work for you” but it will never replace training and knowledge of policy that we learn through each case we work.

Welfare is very personal and should be addressed as such. It seems that someone is determined to push this through no matter what the price to be paid.

We have been trying to educate our clients on what is about to change and they are furious, but like us they feel helpless. That is why I want to thank Ms. Weinstein for her article. If more journalists would really check into this, interview clients and staff, and print the truth, someone would have to do something to stop this before it gets out of control.

Mary Smith

Via e-mail

Bring the troops home now!

Forty years ago, thousands of U.S. activists united to demand an immediate end to the war in Vietnam.

They knew the U.S. disengagement would be a protracted, painful process requiring a powerful, militant peace movement to provide the backbone for spineless politicians.

It would be a decade before the war ended, but those activists could take pride in the common effort that aroused millions with that call to stop the shameful U.S. intervention in Vietnam.

The Communist Party USA 28th National Convention unanimously adopted a resolution calling for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq. It called on the U.S. government to pay reparations to the Iraqi people out of the obscene profits of war profiteers like Halliburton and Bechtel, and for George W. Bush to be tried for war crimes.

The resolve of U.S. Communists joins the growing sentiment of Americans disgusted with this bleak chapter in U.S. history. A mid-June poll by the Pew Research Center shows that 46 percent of Americans support an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

We should work to ensure that hundreds of thousands gather in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 24 for an action called by United for Peace and Justice (with similar actions in San Francisco and Los Angeles) to give voice to the coalition’s two main demands: End the war on Iraq! Bring the troops home now!

The actions that weekend will express the noblest democratic tradition of the American heritage: resistance to autocratic rule.

Once again, we rally to the slogan: Bring the troops home now!

Greg Godwin

Via e-mail

Judicial activism needed

The following are excerpts of a letter I sent to Sen. Arlen Specter:

Dear Senator,

Many judicial nominees claim that the sole source of their opinions is the U.S. Constitution. However, those “strict constructionist” and “constitutionalist” applicants are tacitly admitting to being racist as civil rights are not covered in the constitution but are guaranteed by judicial activism. There are many other rights that would be denied by “constitutionalists.” We rely on “judicial activists” for important rights that enhance our democracy.

If civil rights were guaranteed in the constitution, there would be no slave trade. If women’s rights were covered there would be equal pay for equal work, and reproductive rights would be protected. If labor rights were ensured, there would be no Haymarket executions and trade unions rights would have been the law of the land long before 1935. If the environment were constitutionally guaranteed there would be no global warming and full funding for the Superfund.

Even though the Constitution provides the basis of our democracy, many key sections are ignored by “strict constructionists.” If declaration of war were properly restricted to Congress, the lives of 1,700 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis would have been spared. The Constitution demands that we support our troops and not send them to immoral and illegal wars.

If the separation of church and state were respected, using religions to promote bigotry would be immediately prosecuted.

If the Bill of Rights were respected there would be no “Patriot Act,” an act promoted by those whose patriotism is restricted to the military-industrial complex, the institution that President Eisenhower warned us of. In true acts of patriotism, the Patriot Act is rejected by hundreds of cities and towns, including Philadelphia.

Although we are proud of our Constitution, our nation’s founders were not expected to predict the emergence of trade unions and the need to protect our environment. We would appreciate your opinion.

Louis J. Incognito

Philadelphia PA

Recommended reading

The ad for “Tales of Wo-Chi-Ca” (PWW 7/16-22) brings up fond memories. For readers unfamiliar with this precious bit of history, this was a progressive children’s summer camp in northwestern New Jersey, which operated from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s. I was a camper there for several summers. It was a wonderful experience, inspiring as well as enjoyable. In addition to the usual camp activities, Camp W-C-C emphasized teamwork and sharing, supported labor and national liberation, and pioneered affirmative action long before the term came into use. No comparable institution has existed since then. I read the book shortly after its publication a few years ago, and wholeheartedly recommend it to PWW readers.

John Vago

Via e-mail

Canada passes marriage equality law

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:18:00 +0000

VANCOUVER, B.C. — Canada now joins Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain as the fourth country in the world to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry. On July 19, the Canadian Senate passed Bill C-38 that gives same-sex couples the same right to marry as opposite-sex couples.

Eager to get the measure passed, the Liberal government invoked closure to avert a drawn-out debate, allowing senators only 15 minutes to offer their opinion on the legislation. Liberal senators defeated amendments proposed by a Conservative Party senator that would have delayed a vote on the bill for six months. The bill passed in a 47-21 vote, with 26 senators absent and three others abstaining. The following day, a Supreme Court judge gave royal assent, allowing the legislation to become law.

Bill C-38 extends marriage rights across the country to same-sex couples. Before its passage, over 90 percent of Canadians lived in provinces that allowed same-sex unions as a result of Supreme Court victories. On July 21, the provinces of Alberta, Prince Edward Island, Nunavut and the North West Territories, where same-sex marriage had not been legalized, made marriage licenses available to gay and lesbian couples. The legislation also protects the rights of churches that refuse to marry same-sex couples. Across the country, gays and lesbians, bisexuals and equality supporters are celebrating Bill C-38’s passage into law. “In a generation, Canadians will look back on a time when lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-identified people were denied full citizenship, just as we look back on the days when women or Aboriginal people could not vote or times when Canadian citizens were interned because of ethnic origin,” said Alex Munter of Canadians for Equal Marriage. “We will talk about these days and this battle. We will be proud, as Canadians, that we rejected rejection, that we ended exclusion, that we said to LGBT people: there are no second-class Canadians, you are full members of the community, without caveat or exceptions.”

However, the Conservative Party has vowed to carry on its fight against same-sex marriage. They state that they will make same-sex marriage a key issue in the next federal election, promising that if they form the next government, they will deny gay and lesbian couples the right to marry. Instead, the Conservatives propose allowing civil unions that they claim would give same-sex couples the same rights as opposite-sex couples.

The passage of Bill C-38 is a landmark victory for the gay and lesbian community in Canada, where same-sex relations were only legalized in August 1969.

Venezuelan NGO takes US money, faces trial

Thu, 28 Jul 2005 05:51:00 +0000

Venezuelan judge Normal Sandoval ruled July 7 that four members of the Venezuelan NGO Sumate would be facing trial on at least two charges. Under Article 132 of Venezuela’s Penal Code they will be charged with “conspiracy to destroy the republican political form of the nation,” a charge approaching that of treason.

The Sumate leaders will be charged also under Article 25 of the Political Parties Act, which declares it a crime for a political party to accept money from foreign sources. Sumate is alleged to have used a $53,400 grant from the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to help fund its campaign to defeat President Hugo Chavez in the recall vote August 15, 2004.

Maria Corina Machado, co-director of Sumate and one of those appearing in court, claims that Sumate is a “non-partisan civil association.” Yet Machado and other Sumate leaders have tried for years to unseat democratically elected President Chavez. She signed the “Carmona Decree” that emanated from the failed April 2002 coup attempt. President Bush received Machado two months ago at the White House – a courtesy denied Venezuelan government leaders.

Washington is not taking the upcoming trial lightly. In November 2004, a group of academicians, think-tank politicos and NGO people affiliated with NED wrote a letter to Venezuelan leaders, demanding that they back off in their proceedings against Sumate.

Reacting to the July 7 court action, Human Rights Watch, reputed to follow the US line, placed on its website the claim that “The court has given the government a green light to persecute its opponents.”

The US State Department opined, “These judicial actions are a transparent part of the Venezuelan government’s campaign designed to intimidate members of civil society for exercising their democratic rights.”

For Venezuelan Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez, the US comments represent a “grave interference in Venezuela’s judicial process.”

“Why is the US Government so afraid of the case against Sumate,” asks Venezuelan-American lawyer Eva Golinger. “ Most likely because the case exposes the nefarious and deceitful role of the NED.” She points out that 99 percent of NED funding comes from Congress.

The NED has special ties with Venezuela. In 2001, it quadrupled its funding of opposition groups there, paying them well ever since. After the failed April 2002 coup the US State Department awarded NED a $1 million bonus.

On learning last November that Sumate would be going to court, NED president Carl Gershman and associates headed off to Caracas to lean on judicial officials there, hopeful that they would forget about Sumate. Miffed by Venezuelan intransigence, Washington went on to pressure the World Bank to tighten up on funds to Venezuela.

The US labor movement also has a stake in the outcome of the Sumate case. California Union official Fred Hirsch has long been decrying the fact that the AFL-CIO’s American Center for International Labor Solidarity, the so-called “Solidarity Center,” takes NED money in order to buy labor’s support internationally for US foreign policy objectives.

Speaking at a Labor Assembly in Geneva, Hirsch condemned the Solidarity Center’s role in propping up the CTV, a Venezuelan Labor Federation now discredited for its history of employer collaboration. He had been invited to Geneva by the UNT, Venezuela’s new labor federation, one that supports the Bolivarian Revolution.

Private bid threatens Texas social services

Fri, 22 Jul 2005 03:22:00 +0000

Commentary

SAN ANTONIO — The Texas Legislature passed HB 2292 in 2003, which, 150 amendments later, threatens to destroy vital health and human services such as food stamps, Medicaid and help for the elderly.

The bill’s initial impact took the form of the closing of many social service offices, making it extremely difficult for people to apply for these programs. The Texas State Employees Union is fighting hard to keep these offices open.

Soon, 2,900 social workers will be laid off, and the only way a person can be certified or recertified to receive such services will be via the Internet (as we know, most poor people do not have computers) or by accessing a complicated telephone call-in system which will certify eligibility via computer, without human interaction.

Some no doubt believe the new methods will save money because people will become so discouraged they will not apply!

The purported purpose of this bill, according to its backers, was “to save the state money and not raise taxes.” It’s clear they want this to be done on the backs of the poorest and most vulnerable citizens, the disabled and the elderly.

Bids were accepted to set up the call center and it appears that an offshore company is about to be given the $899 million contract. The Bermuda-based company is called Accenture, formerly known as Arthur Anderson Consulting of Enron scandal fame.

Texas supporters of social services for working and poor people should call their state legislators and urge them to not allow Accenture to steal $899 million from the people of our state. Tell them to stop the layoff of 2,900 social workers and to preserve a human touch in our social service system.

You can reach your legislators by going to www.capitol.state.tx.us and clicking on “Who represents me?” Phone and other contact information will be found easily.

Letters

Fri, 22 Jul 2005 03:08:00 +0000

Lunchroom talk

The lunchroom at work is often the site of great discussions. Though it is not a daily topic, choice and the right to an abortion is not an infrequent topic among women. In my experience, there are always one or more women who say they could never have an abortion themselves, but they feel that abortion has to be an alternative for those who choose. I have never encountered a single woman in these discussions who would impose their beliefs on others and totally outlaw abortion.

Several years ago, a scientific study to determine whether or not life starts at conception was headlined in the local and national press. The topic came up at lunch one day. One woman in the group I was having lunch with made the following insightful comment, which I felt spoke to the issue as much as any other. She said, “It’s a baby when the woman says it’s a baby.” Her statement reflects a respect for an individual woman’s religious views, as well as a woman’s intellect. I enjoyed the article by Emile Schepers, “The soul of the antiabortion stance” (PWW 7/9-15). It was insightful, thought provoking and respectful of a woman’s right to choose.

Diane Mohney

Philadelphia PA

A global culture of peace

Cheers to Terrie Albano for her recent commentary, “Can war end terrorism?” (PWW 7/16-22). It was great to finally see some concrete alternatives to the so-called “war on terrorism.” These not only lend credibility to the peace and justice movement, they also help develop our collective vision for a more humane and democratic society.

I would like to add to her list the demand for a U.S. Department of Peace (www.dopcampaign.org) and the building of grassroots societies worldwide dedicated to fostering a global culture of peace as defined by the United Nations (www.cpnn-usa.org). With the advance of a culture of peace, the ruling-class tactics of fear, war and chauvinism will lose their credibility and all kinds of terrorism will be thwarted.

Joe Yannielli

Via e-mail

Investigate Karl Rove

I believe there is a legitimate controversy regarding Karl Rove’s leak of confidential information. Mr. Rove is an un-elected official with a large degree of power and government-approved access to information. There is some evidence that Mr. Rove has acted in similar ways in the past. This needs to be investigated in depth.

Good reporting would also warrant the investigation of Rove’s background and history. Did you know he was fired from the Reagan administration for leaking sensitive information? Did you also know he may also have been involved in a break-in to a politician’s office and forged a letter written on his letterhead? This information is in the movie “Bush’s Brain.”

Lou Segade

Via e-mail

Follow the money

The Valerie Plame/Karl Rove story is another piece of evidence that the war in Iraq was started pre-emptively for a Byzantine agenda and passively supported by the corporate-controlled mainstream media, and not to defend the U.S. from terrorists and weapons of mass destruction. It complements and affirms many other pieces of evidence such as the Downing Street Memo. It is incredible that respected individuals like Ambassador Joseph Wilson, Richard Clarke and Paul O’Neill are attacked, lied about and discredited when they refute the lies used to justify the war.

Over 1,700 Americans have died and thousands have permanent physical and mental injuries as a result of these lies. These people did their job as they were told. And when they died or were maimed doing that job, their families were told an increasingly insulting and hurtful set of lies as to the circumstances that led to their death. That is hurtful and immoral.

Those families deserve to know the truthful circumstances that led them to be called to serve in Iraq. Years ago, when the Watergate story was being investigated, the reporters were told by Deep Throat to “follow the money.” If that advice is now taken as the Karl Rove story unravels, the truth of who is benefiting from this war may be revealed. It certainly will not be the grieving relatives of those fallen soldiers.

Dr. Donna Puleio Spadaro

Franklin PA

Massacre in Haiti

I was disappointed with the PWW’s lack of coverage of the July 6 UN massacre in Haiti. It was really the story of the week, but both the corporate press and the PWW hardly touched it.

Including it in the World Notes section (PWW 7/16-22) made it seem like a peripheral story. I doubt that was the intent, but it was a terrible error.

As a side note, I would point out that some on the U.S. left have been advocating for a UN occupation of Iraq. If people had a better understanding of the crimes that UN “peacekeepers” have committed against the Haitian people, they might think twice before advocating such a ridiculous “solution.”

For more information on the situation in Haiti, PWW writers and readers should check out the Haiti Action Committee online at www.haitiaction.net

Shane Brinton

Arcata CA

Great to see e-PWW

It’s wonderful to see PWW online. Do you have archives from the 1960s-70s? At that time it was the Daily World, if memory serves. I have been disabled since 1984 and have lost track of nearly everyone from my past. There was a Sunday supplement edited by a truly great writer, editor, and progressive thinker ... as well as a tough boss, which was good for me. His name was Joseph North. I worked there doing paste-up (in those days it was an X-Acto knife and rubber cement), some photography, and even a few articles. Would it be possible to check the morgue, or wherever old issues might be kept? No one could have imagined, in the old days, that we would be able to sit down at our computer at home, and read the People’s Weekly World. Keep up the great work.

Donna-Lee Phillips

Via e-mail

Editorial: Solidarity makes us strong

Fri, 22 Jul 2005 03:06:00 +0000

As our nation’s labor movement convenes in Chicago, the crisis facing working families is in sharp relief.

With Kodak axing 10,000 jobs, GM cleaving 25,000 families from paychecks, another 14,000 receiving pink slips from Hewlett-Packard and even Pittsburgh National Bank (because billions in profit are never enough) slicing 3,000 from their ability to make a living, anxiety has replaced gossip of the day around the kitchen table.

Whether the collar is blue, pink or white, trade policies are closely related to job retention and creation. The Bush administration’s militarist policies aim to make the world safe for U.S. corporate profits, leaving a Wal-Mart economy in their wake. Raising families, maintaining communities, all the glue that binds us together making life livable, are threatened by massive layoffs, job exportation and stagnant wages.

Joining the union to live and work better has been a dream for millions of working families. In Congress, awaiting a strong, united grassroots movement, is the Employee Free Choice Act, which addresses many of the blatant, antidemocratic corporate attacks on workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively.

Recently, miners in Arizona and steelworkers in Ohio have seen worker delegations from other countries join their picket lines and demonstrations. More of this solidarity is needed to save jobs and communities from the iron grip of corporate globalization.

Visits to congressional offices, marching, letter writing, county fair tabling and every creative tactic under the sun have forced the Republican Social Security privateers into retreat. Workers and retirees have been at it tirelessly, no matter what union they are from. They just want Congress to feel their power.

Now Bush is trying to pack the Supreme Court with right-wing ideologues bent on driving working families back to Jim Crow, no union, and barefoot and pregnant, in the name of protecting private property.

It doesn’t take a consultant, focus group or Ivy League study to figure out that solidarity works. It is what makes corporate America tremble and it is all we’ve got when they’ve got all the money and the high-priced lawyers.

Editorial: Criminals at large

Fri, 22 Jul 2005 03:04:00 +0000

Our page 3 story highlights the longstanding slimy, criminal tactics of Bush-Cheney mastermind Karl Rove. It points out how Rove’s lying, cheating, backstabbing methods, dating back to the Nixon days, helped the ultra-right seize the pinnacles of political power in our country.

But, as in the past, so too today, Rove is a minor figure in a major crime syndicate.

Nearly 2,000 American soldiers are dead and thousands more seriously injured, many scarred for life in body and spirit, from a war based on lies. Many thousands of Iraqi people have been killed and maimed, and their country lies in ruins. Today’s Karl Rove scandal is not just about the CIA operative he “outed.” And it’s not just about Rove putting himself above the law. As the Downing Street Memo made clear, it’s about the ruthless, orchestrated fraud at the highest level of our government that sent those soldiers to die and be mangled, that rained death and destruction on the “cradle of civilization.” And it’s about the cold-blooded scheming to cover up that crime of the century!

Rove is simply the schemer and hatchet man for the president and vice president. They are the chief criminals.

New York Times columnist Frank Rich was one of the few to make this point, in a scathing July 17 op-ed. In trying to untangle the complexities of this case, he wrote, don’t get “hung up” on Rove, or reporters Matt Cooper or Judith Miller, right-wing columnist Bob Novak, or former ambassador Joseph Wilson and his CIA-agent wife Valerie Plame.

“This scandal is not about them in the end, any more than Watergate was about [Nixon operatives] Dwight Chapin and Donald Segretti or Woodward and Bernstein,” Rich wrote. “It is about the president of the United States. It is about a plot that was hatched at the top of the administration and in which everyone else, Mr. Rove included, are at most secondary players.”

Bush’s announcement of his Supreme Court nominee conveniently pushed this unfolding scandal out of the headlines. We cannot allow a cover-up of the high crimes and misdemeanors committed by this president and his top officers.

Labor Update

Fri, 22 Jul 2005 02:43:00 +0000

Tune in to AFL-CIO convention

Even if you’re not in town, you can tune in via the web to the AFL-CIO convention, which runs July 25-28 in Chicago. An Internet alert from the Working Families e-Activist Network promises to send out updates — as the votes are taken — on how the union movement will “fight for good jobs with health care and retirement benefits, enable more workers to organize unions, end the Wal-Marting of America’s jobs,” and more. Over 900 delegates will attend the convention, which marks the 50th anniversary of the merger of the AFL and the CIO. It will be preceded by pre-convention conferences on how to strengthen diversity in union leadership, organizing, building grassroots strength and global labor solidarity. Use this link to receive e-mail updates and information about listening in via webcast: www.unionvoice.org/campaign/convention2005.

Global solidarity — the real thing

The Coca-Cola Corp. is the target of a growing boycott as a result of charges of human rights violations in Colombia, South America and India. Coke is already banned on 16 college and high school campuses, including New Jersey’s Rutgers University, Carleton College in Minnesota, and the College of DuPage and Lake Forest College in Illinois, according to Jessica Rutter, a national organizer for Students Against Sweatshops.

On July 7, administrator and student representatives from many more campuses, including University of Michigan, University of Indiana and DePaul University met at the DePaul campus in Chicago to establish a working group to investigate the death of nine Colombian trade unionists at the hands of Coca-Cola-backed death squads. Though present at the meeting, company reps will not be part of the investigating committee, which student reps insisted should be independent. The group will also look into charges of pollution of groundwater in India by Coca-Cola bottling plants there. A follow up meeting was called for Aug. 9 and will include representatives from the Colombian beverage workers union SINALTRAINAL and affected Indian communities.

PWW Labor Editor Roberta Wood (rwood@pww.org) compiles Labor Update.

Letters

Fri, 15 Jul 2005 05:24:00 +0000

Bring troops home now

As I go knocking door-to-door talking about public education issues, including military recruitment in the schools, I meet a lot of parents that have sons or daughters in Afghanistan or Iraq. They are worried about their kids and angry with George Bush for sending them there with his lies. As a candidate for public office they ask me to help them. They want me to talk about their concerns. They don’t care about setting the date or negotiations. All they have is one demand: Bring them home now.

Martina M. Cruz

Lawrence MA

Martina Cruz is a candidate for the Lawrence School Committee.

Message from London

The following is an e-mail message received by the People’s Weekly World from the socialist, London-based Morning Star newspaper in response to the PWW’s message of solidarity.

Thanks for your best wishes and for enclosing the statement by our U.S. sister party [“Communist Party USA condemns London bombings”].

Fortunately, none of our staff was either directly or indirectly affected, although there were a couple of close calls — a couple of minutes before or after an attack.

As you say, it’s a gift to Bush and the ultra-right. It was sickening to see Bush and Blair lecturing the world on the sanctity of human life and the need to pursue a path of nonviolence, after their crimes in Iraq alone have killed 100,000 civilians.

The most important task before us now is maximize popular unity so that the handful of anti-Muslim attacks that have taken place do not mushroom into a pogrom. Fortunately, most people realize that al-Qaida and other extremist groups have nothing in common with most Muslims.

On Thursday, London Mayor Ken Livingstone, in concert with the trade unions and the various faith groups, has called for a London United demonstration.

At noon, millions of Londoners will observe two minutes of silence. Every bus in the city will stop, businesses will stop and many people will come out of their workplaces and homes onto the streets of London to remember those who died and to show their complete defiance of the terrorists.

At 1 p.m., books of condolences will be opened in Trafalgar Square for all Londoners and visitors to the city to sign throughout the day. Following that, at 6 p.m., there will be a vigil in Trafalgar Square to remember those who died, to show that London will not be moved from our goal of building an open, tolerant, multiracial and multicultural society.

The vigil will also pay tribute to the heroes of the transport and emergency services who responded immediately and saved many lives last Thursday.

On Saturday, the mayor’s Rise annual anti-racist music festival will have an even greater relevance than normal.

The Morning Star will, of course, be supporting these expressions of support for people’s unity, diversity, mutual respect, together with a refusal to surrender to the forces of reaction, of either obscurantism or imperialist domination.

Once again, thanks for your warm greetings of solidarity.

John Haylett

Editor, Morning Star

London England

Helpful addition to abortion debate

I appreciated reading Emile Schepers’ column “The soul of the anti-abortion stance” (PWW 7/9-15). He introduced a new idea in the abortion law debate, which I feel is quite persuasive.

Richard Winger

Via e-mail

Cuba’s organic gardening

The article titled “In the war on Cuba, truth dies first” by Martin Hooper (PWW 6/4-10) mentions the U.S. travel ban and the embargo, Cuba’s biotech and immunization research and Cuba’s excellent education system. However, Hooper omits one of the most wonderful recent Cuban revolutions, the organic gardening movement.

Since the U.S. trade embargo and collapse of the Soviet Union, petrochemical pesticides stopped arriving in Cuba. Instead of despair, the people of Cuba responded by researching organic gardening methods and now Havana and the surrounding countryside are packed full of small, organic gardens with crop diversity. Rooftops and abandoned fields become “huertos intensivos” with small dense plots of non-toxic crops being tended by the neighborhood.

This shows the resilience of the Cuban people and the possibility of an eco-friendly communist country. Since the pesticides stopped, Cuban scientists have recorded a recovery of “insectos beneficios,” the beneficial predator insects including dragonflies, ladybugs and mantises. Having these insects present in the gardens is the least expensive and non-toxic method of pest control, and currently Cuba is one of the world’s most advanced organic farmers!

Please include the success of Cuba’s organic revolution in one of your future editions. It is important for organic farmers in the U.S. to be able to witness the Cuban farms firsthand. For this and other reasons the travel ban to Cuba needs to be lifted.

Marc Mueller

Arcata CA

Miller is no heroine

I fully agree with the PWW that there are plenty of reasons to be concerned about freedom of the press and freedom of speech under the Bush regime (PWW editorial “Media chill” 7/9-15). There has been plenty of harassment of journalists who actually did their job and questioned the administration line.

I don’t think, however, that the case of New York Times reporter Judith Miller is the right one to make an example of.

Miller was an administration hack and apologist for war, who has refused to reveal the Bush administration’s source for the illegal outing of former ambassador Joseph Wilson’s wife Valerie Plame, as a CIA agent (who happened to be investigating WMDs at the time). Plame was outed, destroying possible leads and literally putting her life in danger, as retaliation for Wilson’s refusal to toe the Bush line on the fake “yellow cake uranium” story.

This is no “whistleblower” that Miller is protecting; it is a Bush administration lawbreaker. The retaliatory outing of Plame as a CIA agent is a felony offense. If there is any whistleblower in the case, it is Wilson. I agree with Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) that Miller should reveal the source of this outrageous and illegal government dirty trick against Wilson and Plame.

Brad Janzen

Norman OK

Labor Update

Fri, 15 Jul 2005 05:17:00 +0000

CP convention endorses Employee Free Choice Act

CHICAGO — Delegates to the Communist Party’s 28th Convention, held here over the Fourth of July weekend, voted unanimously with a storm of applause to endorse the Employee Free Choice Act, now before Congress. One delegate, Alicia, explained that her enthusiastic support is more than academic. She is a health care professional at one of the eight local hospitals in the Resurrection Health Care system, and an activist in the drive by AFSCME Council 31 to organize the chain’s 8,000 workers.

The EFCA would require employers to recognize a union after a majority of workers sign cards authorizing union representation. It would also authorize stronger penalties when employers violate the law by harassing and firing union supporters.

For Alicia, the convention resolution in support of EFCA was right on time. She said she hoped it would spur those in attendance into increased action in support of the bill. “Currently Resurrection management is harassing union supporters left and right,” she charged, citing examples ranging from denials of vacation requests to threats to immigrants. “They even had the nerve to tell people what to do in their own homes,” she related, warning them not to open their doors when a union organizer knocks. “When I heard about that, my blood pressure went through the roof,” she said.

What difference would passage of the EFCA make?

“Are you kidding?” she shot back. “That would make a big difference. People would feel they could make a choice.”

Motown mayor’s DoWop proposal out of harmony

DETROIT — Protesting unpaid days off (known as DOWOP — Days Off With Out Pay), impending layoffs and cuts in health care benefits, 150 city of Detroit workers picketed the municipal center here July 9. The cut in health care benefits would amount to a 10 percent wage cut, protesters said.

The rally, called by a coalition of city unions including AFSCME Locals 2920 and 207, Operating Engineers 547 and UAW Local 2342, also protested the drastic cut in city services that will result from the cutbacks. “I don’t see how our government can spend $85 billion on the war in Iraq instead of on schools, medical care and city services,” one angry worker told the World.

AFL-CIO proposes Industry Coordinating Councils

The establishment of Industry Coordinating Councils within the AFL-CIO could address one longstanding obstacle to the success of union organizing campaigns, lack of inter-union cooperation, according to the federation’s officers who will bring a set of proposals to establish the new bodies before its convention later this month.

The ICCs will be “a new, powerful tool” to take on corporate America, said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

AFL-CIO spokesperson Lane Windham added, “In today’s economy, with super-mega corporations, it’s important for unions to organize industry-wide, not just employer by employer.”

A coordinating council for a given industry, such as airlines or health care, would be formed to develop a strategic organizing plan for that industry at the request of a union affiliated with the AFL-CIO. The plan could include political and legislative components. An important part of the plan would be the establishment of contract standards.

In the past, in return for short-term membership gains, some unscrupulous unions have allowed themselves to be used by employers to thwart industry-wide campaigns of other unions. By signing “sweetheart” contracts they have undercut the interests of the workers.

Under the new proposals, Articles 20 and 21 of the AFL-CIO constitution would be amended to impose strong sanctions for such unethical actions, including removing their protection from “raiding” by other unions.

The proposals are a result of many months of discussion within the federation of ideas to strengthen the labor movement, said Windham. She added that the industry coordination and contract standards issues were a major concern of the Change to Win group. Change to Win is a grouping of five unions within the AFL-CIO, some of which have threatened to break away if their demands for structural change are not met. They say these changes are needed for membership growth.

“Articles 20 and 21 are the only real power the federation has over its affiliates,” Windham said. “To make changes here means these are really huge changes.”

Labor Update is compiled by Roberta Wood (rwood@pww.org). Jim Gallo contributed to this week’s update.

Hurricane Dennis lashes Cuba

Fri, 15 Jul 2005 05:03:00 +0000

July hurricanes are rare — Cuba has faced only three in the past 205 years. Dennis hit Cuba July 8 along the island’s southern coast, with rains up to 30 inches in some places and winds averaging 135 mph. It cut a wide swath across Cuba’s territory, posing serious difficulties for the country’s civil defense forces.

In the afternoon, Dennis headed north across central Cuba, exiting late in the evening over Matanzas Province, east of Havana. Serious flooding occurred in low-lying areas west of Santiago and east of Havana. Crops, houses, power lines, and radio and television transmission towers sustained heavy damage.

Hurricane Dennis killed 16 people in eastern Cuba, despite the evacuation of more than 200,000 people to 800 shelters. Hurricane-related deaths in Cuba are unusual.

At a special Round Table television presentation, July 7, chief meteorologist Jose Rubiera suggested that higher than normal water temperatures in the western Caribbean Sea, caused by global warming, account for the unusually early onset of the hurricane season this year.

The cooperative, collective approach of the Cuban people is of inestimable value in the wholesale removal of people to safe areas during such storms. They move into schools and the homes of relatives or strangers. Local authorities store people’s possessions in protected facilities and move farm animals away from the storm’s path. Provincial officials install power generators in hospitals, homes for the elderly and bakeries.

The record levels of rain provided by Dennis had a bright side. They helped replenish 235 reservoirs that supply Cuba’s water needs. As of May, the reservoirs held only 27 percent of their potential capacity. Increased rain during May and June brought them up to 35 percent of capacity. Dennis brought even more rain, good news for a country suffering its worst drought in 103 years.

Moral pharmacists

Sun, 10 Jul 2005 05:11:00 +0000

In the year 2005, it’s outrageous to see women’s reproductive freedom would be in such grave danger. With a Supreme Court resignation and Republicans threatening to use the “nuclear option” to railroad extremist judicial nominees through the Senate, the future of Roe v. Wade looks shaky.

In April, the House passed anti-abortion legislation that endangers young women’s health. In many states, that legislation would restrict the ability of a young woman to obtain an abortion outside of her home state (even if that’s where the nearest clinic is located) by jailing any non-parent who helps her — even her sister or grandmother.

And the conservative attack on reproductive freedom doesn’t stop with abortion. The Food and Drug Administration still hasn’t made emergency contraception (EC) available over the counter, despite near-unanimous recommendations from two expert panels.

Furthermore, legislation in many states allows pharmacists to refuse to fill birth control and/or EC prescriptions if they say it goes against their “moral” convictions. Some pharmacists not only refuse to fill the prescription, but also confiscate their prescription slip, which prevents women from obtaining birth control from any other pharmacist.

There’s something fishy about these pharmacists’ so-called moral convictions. And once you begin to scratch the surface, you see it has nothing to do with morality, but something quite the opposite. Let’s dig in and see what this “morality” banter is really all about.

In essence, condoms are a form of birth control, just not the kind designed for women’s use that requires a doctor’s prescription.

So why aren’t these pharmacists with moral convictions up in arms over the sale of condoms? Condoms do essentially the same thing the birth control pill does. A condom stops sperm from fertilizing an egg. The birth control pill stops a woman from ovulating, leaving no egg to be fertilized. When you look at it that way, it’s hard to see why these moral pharmacists have a problem with birth control pills, but not condoms. It’s because this has nothing to do with morality, but everything to do with sexism and controlling women.

The anti-choice agenda really has nothing to do with moral convictions over the sanctity of life. I’ve come to think that the so-called pro-life movement’s concerns end at birth, since most “pro-lifers” don’t advocate for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, universal health care or raising the minimum wage — all of which could help improve the quality of life for millions of people in the U.S. The pro-life agenda is less about preserving the sanctity of life and more about oppressing women.

So we, the women’s movement, must continue to do our part each and every day to debunk the morality myth and expose their agenda for what it is — discrimination against women. Use the comparison above about condoms and the pill. It’s so simple that any rational person will understand. Yet somehow the simplicity of the discussion has been lost in the “culture of life” rhetoric conservative leaders promote, but it’s time for us to take the rhetoric back.

Let’s give this country a wake-up call. We, the women’s movement, are committed to preserving a culture of life for every woman in this world and we won’t let them forget it.

Leanne Libert is managing editor of NOW Times (www.now.org/nnt), where this article originally appeared.

Letters

Fri, 08 Jul 2005 06:24:00 +0000

Reflections on CPUSA convention

I have never, at any time in my life, experienced anything as engaging, rewarding and beautiful as the 28th National Convention of the Communist Party USA. From the reports and lively debates to the picket line, from the amazing stories of struggle to the comrades I met, I have nothing but deep-felt gratitude and renewed commitment to the working class in my heart.

Comrade Sal and I returned to the airport together on Sunday to catch our flight. While we waited for the train, we chatted about various progressive and communist movies we’d seen or wanted to see.

A young man sitting nearby, roughly the same age as we, overheard our conversation and asked, “Have you ever seen ‘Ten Days That Shook The World’ or ‘The Battleship Potemkin’ by Sergei Eisenstein?” We confessed that we hadn’t.

The young man continued, “I ask because I am a communist.”

I replied, “Awesome, we are too. We’re on our way home from the 28th National Convention of the Communist Party USA.”

Sal added, “Are you in any of the Chicago clubs?”

“I’m a Trotskyite and a member of the Spartacist League,” the young man replied.

Sal said, “I read about that organization just the other day on Wikipedia. Can I ask what made you join the Spartacist League?”

“I joined because it’s the only party capable of smashing capitalism,” the young man replied.

Later, on the plane, we reflected on the young man’s comments. His belief that the Spartacist League was the only party capable of “smashing capitalism” forced us to consider the relationship between a political party and the mass movements. We concluded, that in fact, the Spartacist League could not “smash capitalism.” And neither could the CPUSA, for that matter. Only the working class can do that, and we counted our lucky lone stars that we belonged to a party that operated on that basis.

Matt Parker

Dallas TX

The Ugly Warrior

We are struggling for survival on the “home front” while “The Ugly Warrior” continues to engage in domestic terrorism on the citizens of the United States. Twenty-six percent cuts in Medicare are in Bush’s hopper for activation, privatizing Social Security and any other public institutions he can get away with.

Ignoring children in his bogus “Leave No Child Behind” law by the well utilized underfunding, stacking the courts with justices bent on taking away our gained liberties, human rights and human dignity.

Indeed, this “Ugly Warrior” is devastating the home front, while leading our boys, girls, men and women into a falsely contrived war with a cavalier “Whatever it takes.” We have already lost 1,700-plus lives of U.S. military personnel as well as the “wholly innocent” casualties of war.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt is long gone, but he was “The Happy Warrior” who created the public benefits that the cronies of the “Ugly Warrior” are out to destroy. We will need someone with the intestinal fortitude of Roosevelt, to update and improve those programs and get America rolling forward again.

Rohn Webb

Melba ID

Science conversations

I enjoyed reading Emile Schepers’ article on intelligent design (“Intelligent design? Stupid idea!” PWW 7/2-8). I agree that the attack on the teaching of evolution is a serious subject. The issue really is the right of working class students to study modern science.

Unfortunately, the headline didn’t quite get it. Schepers wrote that intelligent design was “one more mystical or religious explanation of human origins.” He did not call it a “stupid idea.”

The article did surprise me with “every chain of scientific reasoning must be rooted in unproved assumptions at some point.” That’s not what I learned in my science classes. I thought the natural sciences must be rooted in nature, in the real world.

Beatrice Lumpkin

Chicago IL

Emile Schepers responds:

Science is indeed rooted in material reality, or should be if it is any good. Yet some unproven, or inadequately proven, assumptions have to be utilized almost always — due to limited knowledge or instruments — or we would have to conclude that science is perfect and its work is finished. That’s all I meant to say.

Meat is OK

I enjoyed the article by Gene Gordon titled “Marxism without meat” (PWW 6/4-10) and the letters that followed.

Education, lack of stewardship and industrialization have harmed Americans’ health more than the slaughter of animals. The word slaughter has a negative presumption that killing of animals is “wasteful and destructive to themselves and the species with whom they share the planet.”

Not all of this is true. Early people were centered in warm climates that produced abundant fruits, vegetables, cereals, roots and fibers such as hemp for clothing. There would have been no migration of man without killing animals for food and hides. Of the traditional foods, staples of Indian tribes — wild game, salmon, berries, roots, teas and indigenous vegetables — no one portion could sustain a population that migrated to seasonal climates; all were needed. If we wanted to live longer, the traditional Native American diet would save us.

Saying all that, I believe processed foods will be the death of us all.

In closing I quote Loretta Barrett Oden, a Potawatamie chef and food historian: “There’s no better way to know a people than through their food.” And I want a meat sandwich (a grass feed, sustainable herd with no hormones roast beef if possible.)

Mike Kidney

Via e-mail

Eminent domain

I was pleased to see your paper on the mark on the eminent domain decision (“High court rules on ‘taking’ doctrine” PWW 7/2-8). The left must not alienate the lower middle class in my opinion. They are the ones who get screwed by these decisions.

Ned Price

Framingham MA

Gulf of Tonkin, not Watergate

I understand why you would say “Iraq: Bush’s Watergate?” (PWW 6/18-24), but I don’t recall so many people dying because of Watergate as died because of the Gulf of Tonkin set up. I would prefer to think of the Downing Street Memo as Bush’s Gulf of Tonkin.

Glenn Avery

Via e-mail

Letters

Fri, 01 Jul 2005 02:24:00 +0000

Health care for all

I am very interested in reading the PWW pamphlet “Medicare For All.” Recently my employer dropped our health insurance and offered a Health Savings Account policy. Supposedly this is for all, but you have to meet basic criteria. Many of my co-workers, who earn on average $9 an hour, could not afford the policy. I am outraged that this happened.

Candace Lint

Via e-mail

Shameless effrontery

The audacity of Bush’s cohorts never ceases to amaze me. I was watching TV when Sen. Edward Kennedy asked Defense Secretary Rumsfeld to resign “after many grave errors committed under your watchful eyes.” His answer was: “I submitted my resignation to the president, but he rejected it.”

Such shameless effrontery is beyond my understanding. Do these people think that the American public, the citizens of this country, don’t know the truth?

I teach English as a Second Language to foreign students. What am I supposed to tell them when they ask me to explain the foolish policy of this mad administration? Believe me, most people overseas see the double standards of this country. Thanks to this president, many American tourists traveling overseas are forced to carry Canadian flags. What an embarrassment!

I think the time is right for us to change this foolishness of the ones running the show, so to speak. What has happened to the America both my parents believed in when they emigrated to this land of plenty?

Better days are on the horizon!

Jad A. Ghanem

Tucson AZ

TMDs

Bruce Gagnon in “Planetary War?” (PWW 6/4-10) fails to note that Theatre Missile Defense (TMD), which attacks missiles in their boost phase, cannot distinguish between a research missile and a nuclear missile until that missile is out of the boost phase and its ultimate direction determined. Thus TMD is no alternative to the “unworkable national missile defense system” as Gagnon says.

Also not addressed is the U.S. ability to set cities on fire with space-based lasers, creating firestorms similar to Dresden, Germany, in World War II. This is the real danger of U.S. militarization of space from an engineering or technical perspective. At present, no peace group has recognized this danger and opposed the U.S. space militarization program on that basis.

Finally, stopping the U.S. militarization of space can only be done in the context of a much larger program to convert the military part of our economy to nonmilitary production, generally referred to as economic conversion. The way this has to be accomplished, i.e. maintaining the overall spending to preserve jobs, can actually be expanded to eliminate the unemployment problem altogether. However, that’s a separate subject for another day.

Sheldon C. Plotkin

Southern California

Federation of Scientists

Los Angeles CA

On ‘Stalinism’

Kelly McConnell (Letters, PWW 6/25-7/1) makes important and excellent points concerning the question of the Soviet Union and the Stalin period in history.

There were both enormous achievements and great disasters in both, but we must always remember that the capitalist world used the concept of “Stalinism” to divide and demonize the Communist movement globally. In capitalist propaganda, there are “tolerated Communists,” those who attack the Soviets and collaborate with their own capitalist class, and “bad Communists,” “Stalinists,” who defend the Soviet Union and socialist countries and revolutionary movements in an unqualified way, taking the heat that ruling classes dish out to them.

It is important for us to study both the achievements and the failures of the Soviet Union and learn from them. But we must do it with a Marxist framework, not the static framework of our class enemies, for whom “Stalinism” is a propaganda category and a synonym for anticommunism and whose only real criticism of the Stalin leadership was that it won so many victories against them on the world scene.

Norman Markowitz

Via e-mail

Don’t want to look at him

I was disturbed to see a photograph of George W. Bush dominating the front page of last week’s paper (“Iraq: Bush’s Watergate?” PWW 6/18-24). This monumental image comes close to glorifying the very man whose goal is to end the limited freedoms we still enjoy in this country.

Some might describe Bush’s facial expression as unflattering. After all, the jaw is clenched and the mouth pursed in anger. But others might interpret this as the look of a true “leader.”

Perhaps it would have been better to offer portraits of key government officials who are taking issue with the “Downing Street Memo,” both Democrats and Republicans. Clearly, the faces of these and other protesters deserve recognition. I already know what George W. looks like, and I don’t need to be reminded on such a grand scale. The mainstream media bombards us with Bush’s face and voice on a daily basis.

A far better choice would have featured Bush and Tony Blair shaking hands around the time of the “Downing Street Memo.” What might have originally read as a friendly photo-op now represents a clandestine meeting between co-conspirators. Secret plans to invade Iraq were already in place. Clearly these two politicians made a choice without soliciting input from the very people they were “elected” to serve.

Jane Sinclair

Albuquerque NM

Danger of fascism

The U.S. is slipping toward collectivism of the Right and away from peace and happy democracy — a sure sign of the times, a sign of the decay of capitalism and rise of an American fascism. We see the barbarous Nazi war pattern of beating back the surging of the masses who are trying to get a truly new social order. Bush initiated pre-emptive war under the influence of Wall Street, who are fascists at heart.

America can come through, though, to better times again as the U.S. is very sensible and a truly great democracy. Your newspaper, the People’s Weekly World, is helping. Here is my donation to the press fund.

George T. Gaylord Jr.

Tustin CA

Still relevant

Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador, who was assassinated by a right-wing death squad 25 years go, once remarked, “In many instances the ideology of National Security has helped intensify the totalitarian or authoritarian character of governments based on the use of force, leading to the abuse of power and the violation of human rights. In some instances they presume to justify their position with a subjective profession of Christian faith.”

His words ring true today.

Michael Adam Reale

Jersey City NJ

Global solidarity day for miners

Fri, 01 Jul 2005 02:16:00 +0000

TUCSON, Ariz. — “Let the corporation tremble with our solidarity!” thundered Mexican Miners Union leader Juan Linares to hundreds of cheering copper miners, retirees and supporters rallying in De Anza Park here June 21.

The Tucson rally was one of three Global Solidarity Day protests taking place simultaneously in the U.S., Mexico and Peru against giant mining conglomerate Grupo Mexico.

Many of the rallying miners work for Grupo’s wholly owned subsidiary, Asarco. The contract covering approximately 750 miners in the Tucson area expired on July 1, 2004. Members of the United Steelworkers, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Operating Engineers and Teamsters have been working without a contract since then.

Asarco is also refusing to negotiate in good faith with workers in El Paso and Amarillo, Texas. The contract covering another 800 workers at Asarco’s Ray Mine in Hayden, Ariz., expired July 1. According to the unions, Asarco has slashed health care coverage for its retirees.

In Mexico, the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers of Mexico (STMMRM) has accused Grupo Mexico of trying to destroy the union by promoting “independent” company unions. In Peru, Grupo Mexico is refusing to insure job security or to provide promised quality health care to its miners.

Terry Bonds, regional director of the United Steelworkers, pointed out that “despite soaring copper prices, Asarco has demanded its unions agree to cuts in wages, health care, overtime and vacation payments, reduced pension benefits, and dramatic increases in monthly employee health care premiums.” Bonds thanked the Mexican miners for their solidarity, and expressed disappointment that representatives of the Federation of Workers of the Mines and Metal Industries of Peru (FETIMAP) were refused visas to enter the U.S. to participate in the solidarity rally.

Global Solidarity Day was created to give life to the principle that workers must organize globally to struggle against global corporations. The three unions joined in demanding that, in the U.S., Asarco restore retirees’ health care and bargain fairly with the mine unions. They are demanding an end to interference in the internal affairs of STMMRM in Mexico. And in Peru, they are demanding respect for the workers, job security, health care and an end to discrimination against contract employees.

Ruben Reyes, assistant to Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), expressed the congressman’s solidarity with the copper workers in Arizona and across the world. Also speaking were USW Subdistrict Director Manny Armenta, Arizona AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Michael McGrath and Tucson City Council member Steve Leal.

The rally ended with over 200 participants braving the searing desert sun and 100-degree-plus heat for a spirited two-block march to Asarco headquarters, where they chanted slogans and sang solidarity songs.

The rally included many supporters from sister unions and dozens of community supporters mobilized by Tucson’s Jobs with Justice coalition.