People Before Profit blog

The promise of stem cell research

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 08:54:00 +0000

Stem cells are relatively undifferentiated cells, that is, they have no specific tissue function. They are capable of self-renewal or of being stimulated to develop into specialized (differentiated) cells.

There are two kinds of stem cells: adult and embryonic. Adult (somatic) stem cells are found in a variety of mature tissues. They repair those tissues when stimulated by tissue damage. Even brain tissue contains stem cells that can regenerate neurons and other brain cells.

Human embryonic stem cells can be derived from a blastocyst. The blastocyst is a microscopic hollow ball of cells. It develops four to seven days after fertilization of an egg by sperm. The blastocyst is about the size of a period ending a sentence. It has no heart, no nervous system nor other adult tissues. Its “inner cell mass” of about 30 cells can be cultured in dishes to divide into millions of embryonic stem cells. If allowed to clump, they form embroid bodies that differentiate spontaneously into many different tissue cell types, e.g., muscle, nerve, skin. However, with specific stimuli, they can be trained to differentiate in vitro (outside the body) into a specific tissue. When implanted in vivo (inside the body) into a specific tissue, embryonic stem cells can differentiate into those tissue cells.

Embryonic stem cells provide important advantages over adult stem cells. First, embryonic stem cells are pluripotent, that is, they can form any adult tissue except placenta or fetus; adult stem cells can form only the parent tissue or very few others. Second, embryonic stem cells can be cultured in vitro to generate millions of stem cells needed for replacement therapy. Adult stem cells are rare in number, difficult to isolate and cannot be cultured. Finally, unlike embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells can accumulate genetic abnormalities.

However, embryonic stem cells could be rejected by the recipient’s immune system. This problem could be circumvented through therapeutic cloning in which the nuclear DNA from a patient’s cell is transferred into an egg cell which has had its nucleus removed. This process generates a perfect genetic match of the patient.

Human embryonic stem cells were only detected in 1998 and the ban on federal funding has deterred major research. Nonetheless, animal experiments have led to encouraging results. For example, Parkinson’s, which afflicts 2 percent of people over 65, is a progressively degenerative disease leading to loss of muscle control. It is caused by a deficiency in dopamine production in the brain. Embryonic stem cells can be transformed into dopamine-producing neurons.

Early studies showed that mouse embryonic stem cells could replace neurons and other cells of damaged nervous tissues and improve locomotion. Promising results with other organ systems include heart and blood vessels, kidney tubules and pancreatic islet cells which produce insulin.

Many technical hurdles must be overcome before embryonic stem cells will be available for human therapies, but the potential rewards are enormous.

— David Kennell (kennell@borcim.wustl.edu). The writer is professor emeritus of molecular microbiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo.

Weird fun

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 08:39:00 +0000

MovieREVIEW

Prairie Home Companion

Directed by Robert Altman,

written by Garrison Keillor

Rated PG-13, 105 min.

There’s pleasure on so many levels in Robert Altman’s “Prairie Home Companion,” it’s hard to know where to begin.

The movie opens with Kevin Kline leaving an empty diner that looks like Edward Hopper’s moody painting, “Nighthawks.” The narrator is his voice explaining that he’s Guy Noir, a private detective from the late 1940s who lives in 2006. But because work is a little slow, he’s making $5.15 as a security guard at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minn., where a live radio variety show called “Prairie Home Companion” is broadcast. “The show should have been retired before it ever started,”suggests Noir.

Then we meet the cast and crew of the variety show. It’s their last performance. The theater has been bought out by the “Ax Man” (Tommy Lee Jones), a Christian speaking with a cadence that makes one think he’s studying Chinese. Dusty and Lefty (Woody Harrelson and John C. Riley) are a cowboy singing duo whose act features “dirty” jokes and songs that are stupid and corny/funny at the same time.

Yolanda and Rhonda Johnson from Oshkosh, Wis., (Meryl Streep and Lilly Tomlin) are a sister singing duo of dark gospel humor. Their back and forth sick family banter is darker and funnier still.

Yolanda’s daughter, Lola (Lindsey Lohan), is 16, and she has at least an album’s worth of suicide inspired tunes. She looks nothing like the Lindsey Lohan you might be used to seeing.

Virginia Madsen, blond curls, puffy lips and white trench coat, plays an angel. Some of the cast see her, some don’t. Once we realize she ushers people “home,” it almost doesn’t matter.

Why would anyone plunk down almost $8 to see this?

Because, of course, of Garrison Keillor, known as G.K. in the movie, whose mind and wit are the fertile ground for “Prairie Home Companion,” a real radio program based in St. Paul, which has aired on NPR for the past 32 years and boasts 4 million listeners each week. Keillor sugarcoats his attack on the very white-bread culture, while the audience is clapping and laughing to let us know how much they enjoy and relate to where he’s going, just as we who listen over the airways do.

On Memorial Day this year, Keillor wrote and sang a ballad about the madness and uselessness of war. It was a tribute to those who died and a clear attack directed at warmongers. For the last six years his unapologetic attacks on Bush have felt refreshing.

In the movie, the audience is rarely noted. This is a backstage movie as imagined by Keillor. It is a fictionalized story and an imagined backdrop for a real radio show. The cast has a blast, but the story is how the always uncomfortable-looking Keillor has honed his medicine, his magic, into such a sharp weapon you realize how it cuts both ways.

Anti-Flag delivers strong politics

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 08:37:00 +0000

CDREVIEW

For Blood and Empire

Anti-Flag

2006, RCA

I remember when Joe Strummer, the late punk rock icon and member of The Clash, participated in the Boston Marathon. Speaking of the grueling training required for it, he explained nonchalantly to one reporter: “I like the insanity of getting up early in the morning to train.”

Straight edge punk rock band Anti-Flag has been engaged in the similar feat of pounding the pavement and calling on others to do likewise for 11 years. Their recently released “For Blood and Empire” gives fans and newcomers alike plenty of reason to do so.

“The Press Corpse” rails against the print media’s complicity in refusal to “talk, talk, talk about” the role the Downing Street Memo played in making “the facts fit the false charges” to initiate war with Iraq, preferring instead to “tip-toe walk around it” as it attempts to foment support for the war: “They talk it up all day/They talk it up all night? Talk until their face turns blue.”

“Émigre” draws its inspiration heavily from Pastor Martin Niemoller’s statement about the role passivity among the German intelligentsia played in the rise of Nazism in that country. Justin Sane sings: “First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out, then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out … and, then they came for meeeeeee!!!!!” Niemoller’s testimony is used here to draw parallels of silent complicity by the international community through inaction today. Connections are made between tortured prisoners at Guantanamo and Darfur refugees, chiding the United States for failing to live up to its values that would actively counter genocide and torture.

But, as with all the songs of this CD, a spirit of unmistakable resilience and outrage is expressed in the vocals that chant, “Fight forever more! …This is the second time!/We will not fall in line!”

What’s most impressive (and even a bit disconcerting) is the sustained passion throughout this CD’s 13 songs. The band hasn’t missed a beat or slowed down since recording their previous and equally scathing CD, “The Terror State,” in 2003. It’s pretty much what Anti-Flag has been delivering during the past 11 years: gut-wrenching political angst, searing and crunching guitar chords, hoarse vocals, merciless drumming and highly kinetic bass runs. And, there’s not one moment that sounds contrived.

The accompanying 22-page pamphlet presents in-depth and painstakingly detailed information related to the songs’ political content. It even tells AF fans how they can tell their members of Congress to sign onto the Depleted Uranium Munitions Study Act. My only complaint is that the print is at times hard to read against the background graphics.

In short, this CD is as educational as it is a work of art. It’s also an incredibly insane show of stamina.

THIS WEEK IN LABOR

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 07:43:00 +0000

IRS fires estate tax auditors

There’s more than one way to skin a cat.

National Treasury Employees Union activist Sharyn Phillips, a veteran IRS estate tax lawyer, told The New York Times that the Bush administration’s elimination of more than half the IRS workforce that audits estate and gift transfers is “a back-door way for the Bush administration to achieve what it cannot get from Congress, which is repeal of the estate tax.”

The 157 tax lawyers along with 17 support personnel will lose their jobs over the next 70 days. It can hardly be claimed that the firings are a cost-cutting move: for each hour each estate tax lawyer works they find an average of $2,200 owed to the government.

Just six years ago, the Internal Revenue Service reported that 85 percent of large taxable gifts it audited shortchanged the government, the Times reported.

Maximum rage on minimum wage

Working people are taking matters into their own hands to raise the minimum wage rates, says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. With Republicans in Congress blocking an increase to the federal minimum, activists in at least 19 states are working at that level.

In the battleground states of Missouri, Ohio and Arizona, hundreds of thousands of signatures are being collected to put measures to raise those states’ minimum wages on the ballot. Montana, Colorado and Nevada are also candidates for ballot initiatives.

In California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and North Carolina, the focus is on bills in the state legislatures to do the same.

Meanwhile, members of Congress who oppose raising the federal minimum are facing the organized wrath of their constituents. Actions this month commemorate the 10 long years since Congress last raised the standard. In Stillwater, Minn., members of Working America went to the town’s Lumberjack Days Parade on July 23 to talk to voters about Rep. Mark Kennedy (R) who voted for a pay raise for Congress, but against a raise for the country’s lowest paid workers.

In Ohio, activists gathered outside the Cincinnati office of Rep. Steve Chabot (R) and the Columbus office of Rep. Deborah Pryce (R) to dramatize how their votes against raising the minimum hurt working families. In Florida, Republican Reps. Mike Bilirakis in Tampa and Clay Shaw in West Palm Beach were confronted by activists on their party’s opposition to raising the federal minimum, while in Albuquerque, N.M., Rep Heather Wilson (R) had to answer to voters, as did Rep. Melissa Hart (R) in Alison, Pa.

JwJ urges: ‘Hang up on Verizon Wireless’

Two thousand call center workers in Maine, New York and New Jersey lost their jobs in the years from 2000 to 2004 when Verizon Wireless shut down workplaces with growing numbers of union supporters and moved them to “right to work” states, Jobs with Justice charged.

JwJ says that Verizon Wireless has refused to abide by the agreement it made with the Communication Workers to remain neutral in union organizing efforts and is instead using endless litigation to prevent employees from making use of the agreement.

On the other hand, at Cingular Wireless, which is honoring its agreement for employer neutrality and a card-check procedure, more than 17,000 workers have joined CWA in the last year, JwJ says.

Healthy progress for 676

The Paducah Labor Council in western Kentucky became the state’s fourth council to endorse HR 676, legislation proposed by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) that would establish a single-payer health care system in the U.S. “We are very strongly for this and would like to help in any way we can,” said Council President Jeff Wiggins, a member of Steelworkers Local 9447, who works at a Brazilian-owned minimill in Calvert City. The San Francisco Central Labor Council followed Paducah’s example, voting unanimously to endorse 676. Soon after, the Ohio State AFL-CIO became the fourth state federation to endorse the bill when all 589 convention delegates voted to endorse July 19.

According to the website of Health Care Now, HR 676, the U.S. National Health Insurance Act, would allow the United States to reduce its almost $2 trillion health care expenditure per year while covering all of the uninsured and everybody else for more than they are getting under their current health care plans.

This Week in Labor is compiled by Roberta Wood (rwood@pww.org).

Workers charged for chairs, pencils

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 07:25:00 +0000

I landed my first job out of college at a financial institution. What I did not realize is that I was about to receive an education of a different kind. Each employee on the floor was paid partially on commission, and under the pretense of accounting reasons, each employee was set up as a one-man department. The insidious side of this transaction was that everyone on the floor got billed for department level expenses.

I got billed $200 for my chair. I paid $10 a month for the coffee I couldn’t drink because it was only served in the main office. The guy who emptied my nonexistent trash can got $7. I ordered pencils at $5 a box. When they came, they had the logo of a long-defunct hotel chain on them. When the building was renamed with our company’s new sign, I helped pay for it every month of the year. I even got billed for the paper used to print our end-of-the-month billing sheets!

The final straw came shortly after my father died unexpectedly. The owner didn’t believe in bereavement, and we were not allowed to use sick time without a doctor’s note. I used what little vacation time we were given (five days a year) to bury my father and put his affairs in order. The company was nice enough to send flowers. Of course, they included a generic, unsigned card. The next month, my commission check was suspiciously light. $200 light, to be exact. When the billing sheets arrived the next day, my suspicions were confirmed. They billed me for the flowers they sent.

The only small bit of sweetness in this story came just before I left. We were required to pay for our own parking space below the building, at $150 a month. Every time we complained, the owner would remind us that we should be happy we HAD jobs, and to look into public transportation. By accident, we discovered that to avoid paying for his own space, the owner was parking in the handicapped spaces in the mall next door, and walking over. We had his car towed five days in a row.

Reprinted with permission from Working America’s “My Bad Boss” contest. Read other entries at www.workingamerica.org/badboss.

WORLDNOTES

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 07:20:00 +0000

Mexico: Copper giant fires 2,000 workers

The Mexican corporation Grupo Mexico has fired all 2,000 miners at its huge La Caridad copper mine. Workers there and at the company’s copper mine in Cananea and steel plant in Sicartsa went out on strike last March to protest the ouster of union leader Napoleon Gomez. Grupo Mexico had secured government approval for nullifying the workers’ contracts. Workers at the other two sites remain on strike. Reuters reported July 14 that the value of the company’s stock rose almost 3 percent in the wake of the firings. The company is securing government help in removing the picketing miners, some of them armed, from the mine site. It proposes to pay the fired workers for cancellation of their contracts. According to a bank analyst quoted, “This sets a precedent, so the workers will think more, and if they don’t have a good reason to strike, they won’t do it.”

Italy: Notables seek extradition of terrorist

In a July 19 statement on the Rebelion web site, authors Nadine Gordimer, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, José Saramago, Salim Lamrani, Noam Chomsky and Gianni Minà asked the “Italian people to require their government to seek the extradition” of Luis Posada Carriles from the U.S. (www.rebelion.org). The Nobel Prize winners and others are pushing for a trial in Italy for Posada who engineered the September1997 terrorist attack that blew apart the Copacabana Hotel in Havana, Cuba, and killed Italian citizen Fabio di Celmo. They cite, among other evidence, Posada’s 1998 acknowledgment to New York Times reporter Ann Louise Bardach that he was ultimately responsible for the attack. He told Bardach that di Celmo “found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Venezuela has sought Posada’s extradition, so far unsuccessfully.

Mali: Poor People’s Summit demands debt relief

As the G8 summit gathered in St. Petersburg, the fifth “Poor People’s Summit” was meeting, this time in Mali. Hundreds of delegates, mostly from African nations, discussed debt relief, victimization of emigrants to Europe, and privatization. Participants devoted considerable attention to genetically modified foods and the prospect of ceding control of seeds to multi-national corporations.

The conferees expressed disappointment that despite previous G8 pledges to cancel debts for the world’s 35 poorest countries, only 17 nations have benefited so far. In a final communiqué, the summit called for “the suppression of the World Bank and of the International Monetary Fund and the creation of new institutions that are democratically controlled by states and by citizens.”

Japan: 30,000 protest U.S. nuclear ship

Under an agreement signed last year with Japan, Washington is realigning U.S. troops and weaponry stationed there. A nuclear-powered aircraft carrier arrived July 9 at the U.S. base at Yokosuka. The prospect of the base becoming the ship’s homeport triggered a rally of 30,000 people who called for the ship’s departure and for Japan to disown its agreement with the U.S. Speakers called for opposition to Japan becoming a base for U.S. offensive attacks in Asia. Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo accused the two governments of lying about the safety of nuclear-powered ships. A mother told Japan Press, “I got encouraged by such a big rally held for the first time in 22 years in Yokosuka. To protect my children, I reject wars.”

Philippines: Unions under siege

Brendan Barber, the British Trades Union Congress General Secretary, sent a letter July18 to Ambassador Edgardo Espiritu of the Philippines. Citing a report that a union leader had been killed outside his home in the Philippines on July 6, Barber asked the Philippine government to take action against killings, disappearances, threats and torture directed against labor activists and human rights workers. To document his charge, Barber referred to reports from the Philippine Center for Trade Union and Human Rights, from a church-based fact finding mission and from Amnesty International. He also cited the 2006 Survey on Violations of Trade Union Rights published by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. The letter, made public on the TUC web site, concluded: “The number of labor-related killings in the Philippines now places it in a similar category to Colombia, which holds the macabre record of the highest number of assassinations of trade unionists in the world.”

World Notes are compiled by W.T. Whitney Jr. (atwhit@megalink.net).

Mercosur promotes South American unity

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 07:14:00 +0000

Closing the 30th summit of Mercosur, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the new president of the 15-year-old South American trade association, observed, “Many still don’t realize that we have changed the political profile of our America, and we are changing the social profile.” His use of Jose Marti’s expression for Latin America, “our America,” was probably not accidental. Marti, who died in 1895 fighting for Cuban independence, was a voice for Latin American unity.

The epochal nature of the four-day gathering held in Cordoba, Argentina, was signaled by the deliberations, by the popular demonstrations going on simultaneously in Cordoba, by participation of Venezuela, Mercosur’s newest member, and by the presence of Cuba’s President Fidel Castro, an invited guest. The session ended on July 21.

President Nestor Kirchner of Argentina hosted the summit, which was attended by Presidents Tabare Vazquez of Uruguay, Nicanor Duarte of Paraguay, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Michelle Bachelet of Chile and Evo Morales of Bolivia. The latter two countries are associate members of Mercosur.

Among the decisions coming out of the meeting were support for Venezuela to join the UN Security Council, plans for negotiations between Mercosur and the European Union, and condemnation of military aggression in the Middle East. The presidents agreed to expand trade with Pakistan and India, build the “Great Gas Pipeline of the South” from Venezuela to Argentina, and establish a Mercosur development bank.

They envisioned integration based on solidarity and dealt with the problem of power imbalances within Mercosur. Observers saw plans to bring Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia into a gas and oil pipeline network as an effort to address the concerns of small Mercosur countries overshadowed by Argentina and Brazil. The “South-South pipelines” would serve political and social integration.

The nations signed bilateral agreements. Argentina, for example, agreed that Pdvsa, the Venezuelan nationalized oil giant, would assume operational control of its oil company, Rhasa, in return for stepped up fuel supplies from Venezuela. Cuba signed agreements to facilitate the flow of exports from Cuba to the Mercosur nations, and vice versa. The value of Mercosur exports to Cuba increased from $161 million in 2001 to $364 million in 2005. Cuban imports increased threefold in the same period. Cuba and Venezuela also signed a customs accord.

Castro spoke to the Mercosur leaders, holding up Cuban social programs as models for a Latin America. He cited Cuba’s fight against infant mortality, mass treatment for blindness, literacy programs, energy conservation measures and international medical education.

Also in Cordoba, while Mercosur was in session, 50,000 people representing Latin American social, labor and human rights organizations were gathered at the “4th Summit of the Peoples for Sovereignty and South American Integration.” Participants discussed environmental and women’s issues, oppression of indigenous peoples, energy policies and the role of the universities.

atwhit@megalink.net

Venezuelas Communists hold party congress

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 07:06:00 +0000

CARACAS — More than 3,000 Venezuelans filled the Poliedro, the auditorium here where the Communist Party of Venezuela opened its 12th National Congress on July 20.

Venezuela’s population is very young, and the delegates to the congress were as well. At the opening event, there were hundreds of young people from the Communist youth organization, many of whom were also serving as delegates as well as staff at the congress. The energetic crowd interrupted the speakers frequently with cheers, chants and songs, including the speech of Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel, who greeted the Congress on behalf of President Hugo Chavez, who was in Argentina attending the Mercosur meeting.

Rangel spoke warmly and at length about the history and political contribution of the CPV, and said, “I am not now and never was a communist, but I believe in the Communist Party of Venezuela.”

Rangel read Chavez’s letter to the congress, which was greeted with a boisterous ovation. CPV General Secretary Oscar Figuera also addressed the gathering, as did a number of invited guests from other communist parties and the mayor of Caracas.

The Communist Party of Venezuela, founded in 1931, has grown tremendously with the opening up of democratic political space during the Chavez presidency, and especially since the attempted coup, oil strike and economic boycott in 2002, which were rebuffed by massive mobilizations of the Venezuelan people. There were more than three times the number of delegates at this congress than at the last in 2002.

Delegates from every part of the country discussed the political line of the party, how to participate in the “Bolivarian Revolution,” as the changes here are referred to, as well as the critical and unique role of Venezuelan Communists in the national discussion of what Chavez calls “21st century socialism.”

The congress unanimously and enthusiastically endorsed the proposal that the party support the candidacy of Chavez for president in the elections which will take place in early December, with a call to work for a huge voter turnout (“10 million votes!”)

Although the atmosphere in the meeting halls was one of optimism and excitement, many delegates expressed concern about the pressures and dangers that still face the people of Venezuela, given the Bush administration’s attitude toward the dramatic changes the Chavez government has initiated.

Elena Mora (emora@cpusa.org) represented the Communist Party USA at the CPV congress.

Secessionists roil waters in Bolivia

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 06:37:00 +0000

As it prepares for the Constituent Assembly that begins on Aug. 6, Bolivian President Evo Morales’ government faces divisions and the prospect of protracted struggle. The issue of autonomy for states and regions came to a head on July 2 when four states in Bolivia’s east — Pando, Beni, Tarija and Santa Cruz — opted for autonomy by 70 percent majorities. The vote nationwide went 57.6 percent against autonomy.

Whether secession will take place and how to define autonomy are questions that the Constituent Assembly will decide. The Morales forces will have to negotiate with competing parties there because on July 2 they did not secure the two-thirds majority of delegates that would have afforded them automatic control of the assembly.

On July 4 in Santa Cruz, the hub of separatist agitation, conflict over autonomy turned violent. Local separatists fought with Morales supporters for control of an indigenous workers’ center. Fifty people were injured and troops were called in. The pro-separatist police chief who refused to remove local rowdies from the building was sacked.

Separatist leanings correlate with wealth, at least in Bolivia’s lowland east, the so-called “half moon” area that includes the four autonomist states. According to a UN study, 100 families own 25 million hectares (62 million acres) of land there. Nationwide, 90 percent of the population own only 7 percent of the food-producing land. On July 3, in Santa Cruz, Morales signed a land reform program, most of it targeting the “half moon” states.

Santa Cruz itself accounts for 90 percent of the nation’s industry, 60 percent of its oil wells, 50 percent of the GDP, and almost half of the nation’s agricultural production.

In late May representatives of the landowners’ federation walked out on talks with government leaders. They announced they would be forming “self-defense” groups for the protection of property rights.

Juan Carlos Urenda, lawyer for the Santa Cruz Civic Committee, hinted at the disruptive potential of separatism. He said, “We are coming to the point when we are not going to look any more for legal arguments. … If the Constituent Assembly does not respect the law and the popular will of 72 percent of voters in Santa Cruz, the country is going to split.”

atwhit@megalink.net.

Mexican media works overtime for Calderon

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 06:34:00 +0000

MEXICO CITY — While evidence of election irregularities and fraud mounts, it is hard to find news of this in Mexico’s mass media, especially television. On the contrary, the media here, with few exceptions, is downplaying or ignoring evidence of electoral wrongdoing and is trying to persuade the population that the July 2 elections were fair.

The leftist Coalition for the Good of All has found widespread irregularities, including many polling-place-based vote tallies (“acts”) that did not match the numbers that the Electoral Institute (IFE) has, and instances where coalition presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s votes were not counted while National Action Party (PAN) candidate Felipe Calderon’s votes were inflated.

On July 24, the coalition presented more evidence to the Federal Electoral Tribunal that 40,000 more “acts” had glaring defects. On July 16, Lopez Obrador said that 1.5 million more votes were counted than people who voted. The coalition is asking the federal tribunal to order a vote recount. PAN is also challenging election results in some electoral districts, but only supports a vote recount in some polls.

Scientists from the Autonomous University of Mexico suggest that Calderon won the elections through computer fraud. Election observers from U.S.-based Global Exchange and Mexican-based Civic Alliance also found widespread irregularities during the elections and are calling on authorities to recount the vote. Only the European Union’s observer group has judged the elections to be fair.

Last week, a source in Mexico’s military intelligence services told the World that there was a plot by big business, the media, PAN and the Party of the Institutional Revolution (PRI) to ensure through fraud that Lopez Obrador did not win the elections. He said that PAN and PRI stuffed ballot boxes, manipulated vote counts and bribed coalition representatives at some polls to turn the other way while election fraud was committed. IFE then used software provided by Calderon’s brother-in-law to produce a false win for Calderon.

Even some PAN supporters who voted for Calderon such as Robert Bustamante, 56, believe that PAN stole the elections through fraud. Bustamante, who witnessed irregularities at the polling station where he voted, said that Mexico’s ruling parties, PRI and PAN, have always retained power through fraud. However, Mexico’s two principal television networks, TV Azteca and Televisa, are refusing to investigate election fraud and are trying to convince people that Calderon is the rightful winner.

Most of the news commentators are hostile and dismissive of anything Lopez Obrador says. Julio Hernandez Lopez, a columnist for the daily newspaper La Jornada, writes, “The mass media without modesty has closed ranks to try and impose Felipe Calderon by way of perception.” PAN, IFE and the employers’ confederation, the Coordinating Business Council (CCE), are also running frequent television advertisements to convince people that the elections were fair.

The media is taking advantage of every opportunity to portray Lopez Obrador and his left coalition in a negative light. On July 19, seven demonstrators — with TV cameras present — confronted Calderon as he was leaving Mexico City’s press club in his car. While yelling slogans condemning election fraud, three young males among them struck Calderon’s car with their fists. One of the demonstrators gave him the finger. The news media seized on this as being proof that Lopez Obrador was intent on organizing violent demonstrations and assaults against Calderon and his family. It was also “evidence” that the Coalition for the Good of All — which denied organizing the demonstration — did not respect law and order.

As part of nonviolent civil disobedience campaigns to force authorities to recount the vote, Lopez Obrador’s supporters are organizing boycotts of the two main television networks, asking people to cancel subscriptions to TV Azteca and Televisa.

In the past week, hundreds of members and supporters of the leftist coalition peacefully occupied the Mexico City offices of pro-Calderon corporations like Aviation Mexico, paralyzing operations for the day. More actions are planned to pressure authorities to recount the vote, including another demonstration here on July 30, which organizers hope will exceed the 1.5 million who attended the July 16 demonstration.

tpelzer@shaw.ca

Latinos, marchers energized from struggle, studies say

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 05:08:00 +0000

Two important new studies show that this year’s dramatic events have created heightened consciousness, unity and mobilization among immigrants — especially among both immigrant and U.S.-born Latinos. The results put some force behind the slogan, “Today we march, tomorrow we vote.”

The first study was carried out by a team from the University of Illinois-Chicago, headed by professors Nilda Flores-Gonzalez and Amalia Pallares, who interviewed 410 participants in the May 1 march for immigrants’ rights in Chicago.

Though both supporters and opponents of immigrants thought most marchers were undocumented or at least non-citizens, a surprisingly large proportion of the marchers (73 percent) said they were U.S. citizens and 43 percent said they were U.S.-born (children were not interviewed). Eighty-six percent reported speaking some English.

Giving the lie to the idea that the marchers were illiterates mobilized by demagogues, the marchers reported a relatively high level of education. Only 29 percent had less than a high school education, while 26 percent were college graduates. But their occupations were solidly working class. Of those working outside the home, 48 percent were in unskilled jobs, 21 percent in skilled jobs, and 31 percent in white collar occupations. Seventy-four percent had incomes below $50,000 per year.

Self-reported political activity was high, with 62 percent of citizens saying they voted in the last elections. Fifty-five percent of all marchers attended public meetings, 37 percent wrote letters to officials or signed petitions, 32 percent put campaign posters or stickers on their homes or cars, 39 percent attended political rallies, and 23 percent gave money to political causes.

The marchers were primarily Latino and a majority were of Mexican heritage. Many said they had learned of the protest via Spanish-language media. In other communities, such as Los Angeles, Spanish-language disc jockeys also played a major mobilizing role. This points up the validity of using Spanish and other languages for political education and organizing, even with populations speaking some English.

Though most marchers were Catholic, few said churches had actually mobilized for the march. This suggests work is still needed to get religious denominations fully behind the immigrants’ struggle. Results reported so far do not tell us about the role of unions and other grassroots groups.

In June, the Pew Hispanic Center interviewed 2,000 Latinos nationwide by telephone. Results reinforce the impression that the Latino community, especially, has been galvanized by the debate on immigration, suggesting a high level of Latino participation in the coming November elections. The study reveals that 54 percent of Latinos think the debate on immigration has worsened discrimination against Latinos but nearly two-thirds see the marches as a breakthrough. Not surprisingly, they blame the Republican Party for this. A drop of Latino Republican-registered voters from 25 percent in 2004 to 16 percent this year is not yet reflected in a similar gain for the Democrats.

These studies show that Latino and immigrant communities are angry about the anti-immigrant campaign, positive about the marches and other immigrants’ rights mobilizations, and ready to vote in November to punish those politicians who have subjected them to vicious racist attacks. However, Democrats need to make sure they are taking positions clearly opposed to the anti-immigrant blitzkrieg, such as supporting legalization for the undocumented and opposing harsh anti-immigrant actions of all kinds.

San Francisco moves to cover its uninsured

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 04:58:00 +0000

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors last week unanimously gave initial approval to a bold new plan to provide health coverage for the city’s uninsured. After the supervisors vote on the San Francisco Health Care Security Ordinance a second time, the plan, which merges separate proposals by Supervisor Tom Ammiano and Mayor Gavin Newsom, will be on the mayor’s desk for his expected signature.

All uninsured city residents — an estimated 82,000, or about 11 percent of the population — will be able to join the Health Access Program, without reference to employment, immigration status or any pre-existing conditions. The program will provide primary and specialty care, hospitalization and prescription drugs. Participants will be assigned a primary care physician, and will be cared for at medical facilities and hospitals already treating patients receiving Medi-Cal (California’s Medicare).

Emphasis will be on preventive care, managing chronic conditions, and treating illnesses early rather than through emergency care later.

Rather than offering traditional insurance, the plan expands access to the city’s public health system.

Calling the new program “a great step forward,” Martin Martinez, policy director for the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, said if it can be carried out successfully, it can show the role government can play in health care. Martinez pointed out that significant gaps remain, including lack of coverage for any services outside San Francisco.

The ordinance combines two proposals — one introduced last November by Supervisor Ammiano, and another last month by Mayor Newsom. After 17 separate hearings and a number of amendments, the two approaches were brought together earlier this month.

Uninsured people can join either by paying an individual premium based on income, or employers could pay premiums for their workers as a group. The ordinance also sets a “minimum spending requirement” for medium and large businesses, to discourage companies from dumping workers into the publicly funded health system. Small employers with fewer than 20 workers are exempt.

To pay for the program — estimated to cost about $200 million a year — the city will put in the $104 million it now spends on care for the uninsured, while premiums and co-payments mostly from higher-income participants will bring in about $60 million. Business premiums, initially pegged at $1.06/worker/hour from medium-sized businesses and $1.60 from large firms, will bring in some $30-40 million. Another $10 million is expected through greater federal cost-sharing.

If approved, the program’s first phase will go into effect July 1, 2007.

Martinez said he was not aware of other comparable city plans, although since incoming Oakland Mayor Ronald Dellums emphasized health care in his campaign, “Oakland is being inspired to consider the possibility.”

Luella Penserga, project director at Oakland-based Community Voices: Health Care for the Underserved, said her organization is considering what can be done at the Oakland and Alameda County levels.

“We also need to look at other key issues, such as affordable housing and the lack of mental health services,” she added.

Both Martinez and Penserga highlighted the importance of state Sen. Sheila Kuehl’s bill, SB 840, for a single-payer system in California. The measure, which passed the state Senate last year, is now going through the Assembly’s committee process.

Predictably, representatives of San Francisco’s business community have voiced their opposition to the San Francisco program, claiming it will drive some of them away.

Ammiano spokesperson Zack Tuller called their concerns “overblown — the same people who objected to the Living Wage ordinance are now opposing the Health Security ordinance.” But, he noted, “they’re still here, despite their earlier threats to leave.”

NEWS IN BRIEF

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 04:55:00 +0000

Cool reception at NAACP

July 20 marked a first for George W. Bush: For the first time since taking office in 2001, he spoke at the NAACP Convention, having refused the invitation for the past five years. His speech, which some reporters noted was nearly identical to the one he gave to the group in 2000, was received with a polite quiet, though the crowd booed the president at a few points. One such moment came when Bush spoke of his support for charter schools and voucher programs.

Congress passes Voting Rights Act renewal

Timed to coincide with Bush’s speech at the NAACP convention, the Senate passed a renewal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, 98-0, on July 20. The 25-year renewal was approved by the House on its second try July 13 with a vote of 390-33. The renewal act was named in honor of civil rights pioneers Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King and Fannie Lou Hamer. Bush has said he intends to sign it into law.

Mixed signals on phone spying suits

Federal Judge Vaughn Walker refused to dismiss the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s class-action suit against telecom giant AT&T, July 20. The federal government and AT&T had both filed motions hoping to stop the case, in which AT&T is charged with illegally aiding the National Security Agency in its collection of customers’ telephone information.

On July 25, another class-action lawsuit against AT&T over NSA phone spying was dismissed in Chicago by Federal Judge Matthew Kennelly.

Court rules in favor of Wal-Mart

A federal judge ruled July 19 that a Maryland law, which would have required large employers to spend at least 8 percent of payroll on health care, violated federal law. Applying only to nongovernmental employers with 10,000 or more employees, the law directly targeted Wal-Mart, the only company in the state that fits that bill. Other states are considering similar laws.

Army rebids Halliburton contract

The Army was preparing to solicit bids July 28 on the contract it awarded Halliburton subsidiary KBR in 2001 to provide services to U.S. soldiers. Since then KBR has gotten over $17 billion in orders — over $15 billion in Iraq.

Halliburton used to be run by Vice President Dick Cheney.

Auditors, congressional Democrats and the Justice Department have sharply criticized the quality and cost of Halliburton’s work in Iraq. The Pentagon said earlier this month it would not renew the contract, though KBR could bid again.

“Taxpayers can breathe easier knowing that the days of $45 cases of soda and $100 bags of laundry are coming to a close,” said Calif. Rep. Henry Waxman, top Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee.

—Jennifer Barnett

Legal panel hits Bushs signing statements

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 04:48:00 +0000

WASHINGTON — A panel of the American Bar Association struck a blow for democracy and the rule of law July 23 when it came out strongly against President George W. Bush’s use of “signing statements” to nullify laws passed by Congress, legal experts said this week.

These signing statements, issued when Bush signs a statute into law, “assert Bush’s authority to disregard or decline to enforce laws adopted by Congress,” an ABA blue-ribbon task force report states. These sweeping claims of unilateral presidential power “undermine the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers,” the report adds.

Michael S. Greco, president of the ABA, said the task force’s creation was prompted by a news article in the Boston Globe that exposed Bush’s practice of using signing statements to nullify part or all of a law he disagrees with instead of vetoing it. Bush’s veto last week of the stem cell research bill was the first of his presidency.

“This report raises serious concerns crucial to the survival of our democracy,” Greco said. “If left unchecked, the president’s practice does grave harm to the separation of powers doctrine and the system of checks and balances that have sustained our democracy for more than two centuries.”

He added, “Immediate action is required to address this threat to the Constitution and to the rule of law in our country.”

The report will be submitted to the ABA’s upcoming convention in Hawaii.

Bush has used signing statements at least 800 times, more than all his predecessors combined. From the dawn of the Republic, presidents have understood, in the words of George Washington, a president must “approve all the parts of a bill or reject it” with a veto. However, in the words of Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), Bush seems to think he can “cherry-pick the provisions he likes and exclude the ones he doesn’t like.”

The report is especially noteworthy because the task force includes several conservatives, including Bruce Fein, a Justice Department official in the Reagan administration, and former FBI Director William Sessions. It was chaired by Miami lawyer Neal Sonnett, who said, “Abuse of presidential signing statements poses a threat to the rule of law.”

Sonnett continued, “The American Bar Association has a profound responsibility to speak out forcefully to protect these linchpins of democracy.”

Marjorie Cohn, president-elect of the National Lawyers Guild, told the World in an e-mail message that two of Bush’s signing statements stand out as especially dangerous: “his statements of intent not to follow the McCain ‘anti-torture’ amendment” and a signing statement in which he vowed “not to report to Congress the use of the Patriot Act to secretly search homes and seize private papers.” Sen. John McCain’s anti-torture amendment was approved by a 90-9 Senate vote, yet Bush proclaimed in the signing statement that he would “construe” the law to permit him to continue to authorize torture in violation of U.S. and international law.

Cohn added, “Bush’s use of signing statements represents a potent threat to the doctrine of separation of powers.” She pointed out that even Sen. Specter, a Bush loyalist, favors legislation requiring the president to submit all signing statements to Congress for review and also to make signing statements subject to judicial review. “This would represent a clear break with Specter’s prior tendencies to submit to Bush’s will,” she wrote.

Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the ACLU opposed Bush’s nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court because Alito was an adherent of the so-called “unitary executive theory” and urged an “aggressive expansion” of presidential powers, including “increased use of presidential signing statements … in order to trump congressional intent and legislative history.”

Alito recommended use of signing statements, in his own words, “to increase the power of the executive to shape the law.”

Romero said, “This claim of sweeping presidential power is the basis of Bush’s claim that he can authorize torture, the jailing of U.S. citizens as ‘enemy combatants’ without charging them.”

NOW conference highlights beating the far-right

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 04:46:00 +0000

ALBANY, N.Y. — Ensuring voting rights and defeating the extreme right were themes of many speakers at the National Organization for Women’s “Young Feminist Summit” and annual national conference held here July 21-23.

The conference’s 700 attendees celebrated NOW’s 40th anniversary and paid tribute to NOW’s past presidents starting with Betty Friedan, who died earlier this year.

Conferees endorsed HR 676, the single payer health care bill introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.).

“Threats to reproductive freedom are constant,” NOW President Kim Gandy told the gathering. “And this organization is not going to stop until every woman’s rights … are guaranteed.” Noting that in 1971 NOW became the first national organization to demand lesbian rights, Gandy said that today the fight for unity and the rights of all is intertwined with the fight for women’s rights.

“If you win only for the majority,” she added, “no one’s going to go back for the people who are left out.”

Participants included several elected officials and candidates, who stressed the need to defeat the ultra-right in Congress.

“We have to make a difference to win a Democratic majority, thereby making Nancy Pelosi the first female Speaker of the House,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.). Maloney called the current Congress the “most hostile Congress we have seen … constantly beating back our rights.”

Kirsten Gillibrand, running in New York’s 20th CD and considered one of the likeliest 20 candidates to beat a Republican in 2006, told the delegates the extreme right has undermined the U.S. government’s checks-and-balances system, threatening democratic rights in general and women’s rights in particular.

“No one,” Gillibrand said, “is holding the president accountable. What we need to do is to take back the House.” Gillibrand said she is for a fight against terrorism, but also for the Iraqi people’s right of self-determination, setting a withdrawal date and ensuring no U.S. bases are left behind.

The conference resolved to step up NOW’s international activity by working more closely with the United Nations, supporting women’s rights movements in other countries and examining more closely how U.S. policy affects women in other countries.

Among the many workshops was one called “Beware of Dirty Tricks,” which taught young activists about poll-watching and urged them to watch out for far-right attempts to steal elections.

“In some precincts,” said Janice Rocco, of NOW’s PAC, “the number of votes for [Bush] was higher than the actual number of votes.”

An award for “Women of Action” was accepted by teenagers Emma Blackman-Mathis and Jettie Fields of the Women and Girls Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania. Their organization of 24 high school students successfully pressured the multimillion dollar corporation Abercrombie & Fitch to retract sexist and racist T-shirts.

The conference also featured a demonstration in front of the state Capitol for marriage equality — recently ruled against by the NY State Supreme Court.

“I joined NOW today actually,” said a young woman from Massachusetts. “I had to; I found this conference so invigorating. I feel empowered. Everything seemed so bleak, but now I feel like I’m part of a movement that agrees with what I believe in.”

Linda Feldman and Polina Volfovich contributed to this article.

Roberto Clemente honored

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 07:36:00 +0000

Major League Baseball paid tribute to Puerto Rican hero Roberto Clemente with the commissioner’s historic achievement award at the 2006 All-Star Game in Pittsburgh, July 11.

The players wore gold wristbands with Clemente’s initials and the wall in right field was 21 feet high for the jersey number he wore.

The award was presented to Clemente’s widow, Vera, who said, “I want you to know that Roberto still loves you from heaven.”

American League manager Ozzie Guillen was touched during the ceremony and said that Clemente is his hero.

“He was a Latino that opened doors for the rest,” Guillen told reporters. “A lot of people remember Roberto for the way he played the game,” he said, especially how he “gave to the community, day in and day out, that’s the way people should be: taking the steps in life, not just in baseball. His life was unbelievable, outstanding. I always admired him.”

Clemente perished in a plane crash on New Year’s Eve 1972 while delivering medical, food and clothing supplies to earthquake-stricken Nicaragua. He championed the cause of Latino players and was frequently involved in charitable activities and baseball clinics, especially in Pittsburgh and Puerto Rico as well as all over Latin America.

Every year MLB issues an award in Clemente’s name to the player who best combines on-field performance with humanitarian work. A special day is dedicated to his life at every ballpark in September.

Some Latino activists want MLB to go a step further and have been lobbying to retire Clemente’s jersey number 21 from all teams, a distinction only accorded to Jackie Robinson in 1997.

Luis Roberto, Clemente’s second-eldest son said that the family is not involved in the campaign but is pleased with the renewed efforts to retire his father’s number.

“We support the cause because it’s a worthwhile honor, not because my dad was another player with great records, but because of what he taught us as a human being, not tolerating any social discrimination, supporting the working class, the needy,” he said.

Clemente was one of many Latino and African American professional athletes who was refused service at hotels and restaurants, suffered racial slurs, taunts and physical threats, as well as ridicule in the media during the 1950s and ’60s.

Clemente was outspoken and protested against racial discrimination. His principled stance is cited as a reason why waves of other Latino players who followed him found more acceptance.

Baseball fans remember Clemente as someone who played like a man possessed, chasing down fly balls as an outfielder and unleashing great throws at every opportunity with speed and a rifle arm, perhaps the best the game has ever seen.

In his 18 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates he won four batting titles, hit 240 home runs, and had a lifetime .317 batting average producing 3,000 hits. Winning 12 Gold Glove awards, Clemente was the Most Valuable Player in 1966. He played in two World Series, helping the Pirates win in 1960, and was an All-Star player 14 times.

Three months after his death at age 38, Clemente became the first Latino elected to the Hall of Fame, through a special ballot after the mandatory five-year waiting period was waived.

A mega-development looms in Brooklyn

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 06:35:00 +0000

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — An estimated 4,000 people gathered here July 16 to protest a $3.5 billion development deal that critics charge would lead to “instant gentrification” and radically alter the political landscape of this borough.

The project, Atlantic Yards, would be built by mega-developer Forest City Ratner. It would put 16 residential towers and an arena in downtown Brooklyn. The proposed residential units are mostly luxury apartments. Residents fear their presence would drive rental prices in the area sky-high.

Chris Owens, Democratic Party primary candidate for Congress in Brooklyn’s 11th District, recalled that three years ago, when the project was first announced, hardly anyone was against it. “It was very lonely,” he said. Now, though, there is a growing movement to stop Atlantic Yards, despite Ratner’s claims that the project is a “done deal.”

Local entrepreneur and activist Bob Law said the project has had no real community input. The developer bypased the “white, Black and Brown” City Council, preferring to work with the Republican mayor and governor. “This fight is not just about development,” Law said, but also about “power for the people.”

NYC Councilmember Charles Barron noted that much of the development would be done through use of eminent domain, or the threat of it. Ratner has been threatening residents that if they do not sell their property to the developer, their homes will simply be taken through eminent domain for less.

Ratner has implied that the project will benefit African Americans in the area by providing jobs and affordable housing, but “their attempt at what amounts to a hostile takeover of our community will not win in its efforts to divide us racially,” said Councilmember Letitia James.

Ratner claims that the project will deliver affordable housing. However, the definition of “affordable” is up for grabs: 2,250 units will be set aside for this purpose, representing 32.8 percent of new housing. However, only 225 of those apartments will be available to families earning less than $28,000 per year — while 900 will be given to families earning more than $70,000.

The demographic change that would accompany this project would likely undermine a long history of progressive African American elected officials, many say. They note that Ratner dollars have been given to opponents of progressive candidates such as James, Owens and State Senator Velmanette Montgomery.

“The community should not have to stand at the gate,” said Montgomery, “while the rich developer” pours money into the campaign of a “puppet candidate” running against her.

Ratner claims that Atlantic Yards will create thousands of jobs. But developers made that promise before, and, according to Councilmember James, each time the promises have proven empty.

If the project is approved, the public will pay $2 billion of the total $3.5 billion cost. Bill Batson, candidate for N.Y. State Assembly in Brooklyn’s 57th District, said, “The commitment of these substantial public funds without a substantial public review is an affront to the blessing of democracy.”

Daniel Goldstein, leader of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, the main organizer of the rally, expressed confidence the project could be defeated.

WORLDNOTES

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 06:16:00 +0000

Guatemala: Small farmers occupy large estates

An estimated 800 gun- and machete-wielding “employees” and private security guards moved in to eject some 230 families from an estate called Finca Mocca in northern Guatemala on July 7, killing nine people in the process. Daniel Pascual, leader of the Campesino Unity Committee, charged that the landowner had provided the guards and “employees” with arms. This was the fourth time that families had occupied the land and been driven away. The Weekly News Update on the Americas reported also that, from June 29 to July 2, landless peasants seized six government-owned estates in protests against the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement. They are currently occupying a total of 20 private estates and 10 government-owned estates as a means of pressuring the government to distribute land. In Guatemala, fewer than 2 percent of the population own 60 percent of the land.

Indonesia: International support grows for striking security workers

In Jakarta, workers reoccupied offices of the Indonesian subsidiary of Group 4 Securicor, the world’s largest private security firm on July 4. The conglomerate fired 235 workers last year after a strike over working conditions. Indonesia’s Supreme Court ruled the firing illegal. The security workers’ union is fighting for back pay and full reinstatement, including for union leaders.

Unionists are camped full-time outside company offices in Jakarta. Parliamentary delegations have been visiting the workers. Police interrogation of union President Dedy Toisutta on company-inspired charges resumed on July 11.

The London-based Group 4 Securicor employs 400,000 people in 100 countries. It is known as Wackenhut in the U.S.

Labor activists from Indonesia, India, Uganda and the U.S., including former Rep. David Bonior among them, interrupted the company’s annual general meeting in London on June 29 to demand rights for Securicor workers. Thousands of letters supporting the Indonesian workers have descended on corporation headquarters according to Labourstart.org.

Caribbean: Caricom nations choose Venezuela

Caribbean Community of Nations (CARICOM) officials meeting in St. Kitts chose Venezuela to replace Argentina on the UN Security Council in October. The U.S. campaigned hard for Guatemala over Venezuela. A July 6 CARICOM statement said that Venezuela had received unanimous support to fill the two-year rotating slot. Caribbean leaders were unhappy about Guatemala’s reliance upon U.S. promotion rather than on its own efforts.

A report appearing on Vheadlines.com referred to countries’ displeasure with Guatemala’s opposition, within the World Trade Organization, to preferential access for Caribbean bananas in European markets. They also objected to Guatemala’s claims in a border dispute with neighboring Belize as exaggerated.

Angola: Famine, disease hit despite economic growth

According to a national crop assessment published last week by the UN’s World Food Program (WFP), more than 800,000 people in Angola — population 16 million — will require food aid for one year. Four years after the end of a civil war lasting 27 years, farmland remains uncultivated due to inadequate roads and transportation services, residual land mines, and now drought. Donor support has waned “to the extent that we will not be able to distribute food from next month” on, according to a WFP spokesperson. For the past four months, the Angolan people have also confronted a cholera epidemic that has killed over 2,000 people and infected 49,000. Contradictions are not lost upon analysts who note worsening hunger and spread of preventable disease in a country expected to benefit from $16.8 billion in oil revenues this year — double that of 2004 — and an 18 percent economic growth rate in 2005.

Global health: Cuba serves South Africa, East Timor

After five years of no-cost medical study in Cuba, the first group of South African students graduated July 10 in Pretoria. Twenty-two of them had returned to complete internships and take final examinations. A Health Ministry spokesperson told the Cuban newspaper Granma that the new physicians “are committed to work in the public health sector for at least five years.”

In addition, 286 Cuban doctors are responding to immediate health needs throughout East Timor, where they are engaged in building a health care system. Dr. Francisco Medina told an Australian interviewer on July 4 that he anticipates a six-year stay in East Timor, where problems “are very similar to all the poor nations … malaria, tuberculosis, infant mortality.” He added, “We are just some of the 27,000 Cuban doctors working in 69 countries.” Cuba is funding a new medical facility for East Timor, and 300 East Timorese medical students are studying in Cuba.

World Notes are compiled by W.T. Whitney Jr. (atwhit@megalink.net).

Mexico: Over 1 million rally, demand vote recount

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 06:13:00 +0000

MEXICO CITY — In the wake of growing public protest to force authorities to recount the vote, including a rally last week of over 1.5 million people in this city’s central square, more evidence of electoral wrongdoing during the July 2 elections continues to surface.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, presidential candidate of the leftist coalition For the Good of All, told a rally here July 16 that they have discovered that 60 percent of “acts” (voting results of each poll) have some sort of falsification, up from 30 percent reported last week.

The common defects found were: votes exceed the reported results; votes cast for Lopez Obrador were not counted, while votes for Felipe Calderon, presidential candidate of the National Action Party (PAN), were inflated; and votes cast for Lopez Obrador did not equal the number of votes cast for his running mates for the Senate and Chamber of Deputies. Lopez Obrador also said there are a million and a half more votes counted than people who actually voted.

Lopez Obrador, who maintains that he won the presidential race, said that big business and PAN do not have the right to impose their own presidential candidate through fraud. He vowed to continue organizing peaceful protests to force the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) to recount the vote. Only then will he accept any official results, he said.

The July 16 protest here was the biggest so far. A million and a half people marched from the Museum of Anthropology to the Zocalo, where President Vicente Fox has his office. Smaller protest marches took place across the country.

Academics from the physics, chemistry and mathematics institutes and the faculty of sciences of the National Autonomous University of Mexico released a report indicating that computer fraud took place, producing a false victory for Calderon. The report urges the Federal Electoral Tribunal to recount the vote using a computer system different from that of IFE.

Lopez Obrador and his coalition are also protesting that IFE has illegally opened 40 percent of the ballot boxes. They say that IFE did not get approval from the Federal Electoral Tribunal to open the ballot boxes and that there were no representatives from the parties to oversee the process, as the law requires. IFE said that it had received permission from the federal tribunal to open the boxes. The left-wing coalition is fearful that IFE could alter the voting results in order to cover up election fraud.

A source in Mexico’s military intelligence services told the World in an interview that there was “a plot on July 2 to commit electoral fraud in order to prevent Lopez Obrador from winning the presidency.”

“A network of interests were involved that included businessmen, the media, PAN, the Institutional Revolutionary Party [PRI] and their friends,” the source said. To cover their tracks, they left no paper trail.

The first level of fraud began in the 50,000 polling places (out of 130,000) where Lopez Obrador’s coalition For the Good of All had no representatives to oversee voting, allowing PAN and PRI to manipulate vote counts and stuff ballot boxes. In some cases, PAN and PRI officials paid bribes to Good of All coalition representatives to “look the other way” while they committed fraud. In other cases, defects with the voting results were honest mistakes made by staff who were not given proper training by IFE.

The second level of fraud occurred within IFE, which is dominated by PAN and PRI officials, the source said. Software supplied by Calderon’s brother-in-law’s firm Hildebrando produced a victory for Calderon, erasing votes that Lopez Obrador recieved.

Calderon is the favored candidate of the Bush administration. PAN is asking the Federal Electoral Tribunal “to not give into the blackmail and personal whims” of Lopez Obrador. Lopez Obrador and his coalition are challenging the election results before the tribunal, which has until Sept. 6 to resolve the dispute and declare a presidential winner. PAN is also challenging some polls where its leftist rival won.

PAN Secretary Arturo Garcia Portillo said Lopez Obrador’s call for a vote recount is a “pretext” to hide his intent to never recognize Calderon’s electoral victory. PAN opposes a vote recount, maintaining that the July 2 elections were fair. However, Calderon said recently he would support a recount in some polls.

tpelzer@shaw.ca

Angie Lebowitz: Fighting for better world with PWW

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 04:59:00 +0000

The PWW has a tremendous team of distributors of all ages, races and ethnicities. As our distributors are part of the battles for a better world, they all have stories to tell. With this article, we begin a series spotlighting PWW builders.

NEW YORK — “I remember,” says Angie Lebowitz, “giving the paper out in Jamaica, Queens, when it was still the Daily Worker.” This was decades ago. Today, Lebowitz still distributes the People’s Weekly World every week like clockwork.

Lebowitz has a route around her neighborhood in Chelsea, Manhattan, where she drops papers off at local newsstands, that sell the papers. The newsstands keep 50 percent of the proceeds and Angie takes 50 percent — which she either uses to buy more PWWs or donates to the Fund Drive.

But there’s more. “We do street distributions once a week,” Lebowitz says, noting that “sometimes it gets so unbearably hot, it’s hard.” She mentions this in off-the-cuff way, without a hint of complaint. Complaints would be understandable though —Angie is now 87 years old.

“We always ask for money and have a can,” Lebowitz adds. The money is always enough that Lebowitz and her fellow distributors in Chelsea are able to pay for the PWWs that they sell, and, additionally, to buy extra to distribute for free. “People give us money, because they’re glad that we’ve stayed around all these years.”

Angie has led an eventful life. Her earliest memory was when she, as a toddler, discovered her mother’s suicide. The woman had taken her life over misplaced feelings of guilt: Angie’s sister, the first-born, was mentally handicapped. Angie’s mother went to heroic lengths to care for the child, but, after leaving for a moment to get a cup of sugar, Angie’s mother returned to find her first born, who had gotten too close to the stove, engulfed in flames.

Angie’s mother was traumatized, and “they didn’t have programs in those days to help.” Her suicide, says Lebowitz, “could have been prevented.”

Angie decided to spend her life helping others. After becoming a nurse, she worked at Bellevue Hospital, where, at the age of 19, she was in charge of a ward of 60 patients — in the infectious disease unit.

“I’ll never forget the patient that died on me,” Lebowitz recalls. “It was a Chinese man who didn’t speak English — all he did was look at me, that pathetic look saying ‘Help me.’ I’ll never forget that man.” Lebowitz condemns the efforts to curb multilingual care, noting how hard it was to help a desperate man simply because no one spoke his language.

In 1942, Lebowitz joined the Army, where she served in Africa as a nurse. “I read all the stories about the Holocaust, and how the government was turning away refugees from Eastern Europe — many of them died as a result in Eastern Europe — which was a terrible thing.”

Lebowitz has endured the pains of McCarthyism — FBI agents would check on her home and she was questioned by government officials at work — and witnessed most of the 20th century. However, she never stopped her involvement with the World.

One of Angie’s heroes, Howie Goldberg, distributed the paper for many years.

“He always collected money,” Lebowitz recalled, saying that he knew the value of the paper. “He was well-known, and very well liked. I’d like, somehow, to contact his wife, and tell her that we still remember Howie.”