People Before Profit blog

My jefito and me American Mexicanos

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 06:45:00 +0000

When my jefito (papa), Angel, was born in Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico, it was close to one year to the date after Pancho Villa won the battle of Torreon.

My jefito had the regular childhood that any impoverished child could have — lack of material possessions, but filled with dreams and hopes. But all that was shattered in one night. My abuelito (grandpa) was returning to the small house where he, my abuelita (grandma), tio (uncle) and jefito were living. Just as he was opening the gate to enter the yard, he was gunned down. My abuelita, tio and jefito were witness to this act.

Upon crossing la frontera (border), this family of three settled in Globe, Ariz. My abuelita forbade my tio or jefito to ever return to Torreon.

Many years later, when my jefito was a young man, after passing his naturalization exam and receiving his papers, he joined the U.S. Army. After boot camp, he was shipped to Europe and fought in World War II. He took part in the battle of the Rhineland, one of the bloodiest battles.

Sadly, he was wounded when the soldier in front of him stepped on a land mine and shrapnel flew in every direction. My jefito ended up in an Army hospital near Salisbury, England. It took months before my mama received word of his being wounded.

My jefito eventually returned home to Globe, but not without the memories of war buried deep in his mind. Once, when a car backfired, he took cover and hugged the earth as close to his body as he could. Time was all he had to heal himself.

In the process, my mama blessed him with children. The last child was his only son, Alexander — me.

I would now have what my jefito never had — bikes, trains and most of all, a role model. I would also have a regular childhood. But my jefito would push me to educate myself and “become something.”

One day, during my junior year in high school, I was sitting at the table in our small kitchen, and my jefito started speaking to me, but in a tone I had never heard from him before.

He said, “I want you to go to college, but I can’t help you.” For the first time in my young life, I saw this wonderful man humbled, and though I knew it was not my fault, I felt at fault. I had tried to live without getting in trouble and never wanted to see my jefito hurt or sad. So I started applying for grants and scholarships, y con el favor de Dios (and by the grace of God), I was able to attend college for two years. To this day, my most prized possession is the “Who’s Who Among Students in American Junior Colleges” award, for which I will always be indebted to my jefito and mama for pushing me to at least try.

After college, I just couldn’t find a job anywhere. So I joined the Air Force, not out of patriotism but for a bi-weekly paycheck. I served my four years and came out with an honorable discharge, just like my jefito.

Now, I finally considered myself an American. I had graduated from high school and junior college and served in the military. What else did I have to do, to prove to be an American? But then, after returning and working odd jobs, I was slapped in the face with just being “another Mexican.” I was deeply hurt. I only wanted to be treated like my fellow Americans, with respect.

My jefito passed away in a Veterans Administration hospice. Many relatives and friends were with us at this sad time. Through the broken smiles of encouragement and sympathy, I was able to cope with the loss of the man who had molded me. I was so proud to see the American flag draped over his coffin, as everyone could now see that he was an American veteran who had served his country.

Time does heal and make us stronger. Within the last couple of years, I have become active with our immigration issue. I now produce a weekly show on Access Tucson TV that is pro-G.I., pro-immigrant, pro-labor, pro-union and anti-Republican, anti-conservative and anti-special-interest-government — if anything, for my jefito and mama, for whom all I ever wanted to do was make them proud of me.

I’m 50 years old now, and though I’m “American,” in my heart, I am mexicano. So next time someone begins talking negatively about “immigrants” and “anchor babies,” tell them the story of Angel and Alexander Maldonado, the American Mexicanos.

Alexander Monarrez Maldonado (thelatinodoctrine @hotmail.com) is producer and host of the Access Tucson television program “The Latino Doctrine.”

Color-blindness in the USA

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 06:39:00 +0000

A 2001 study revealed that despite diversity efforts, the United States was becoming increasingly segregated both in housing and education. The study found that one in three Latino students were attending schools with a minority enrollment of more than 90 percent, and that 70 percent of Black students attended schools that had more than 50 percent minority enrollment. On average, white students attended schools that were more than 80 percent white. Since the study took place, the racial segregation has continued to worsen.

The implications of this segregation are many. Since minority schools tend to have higher levels of children attending who live in poverty, the level of resources and teaching suffers. On the other hand, white children suffer as they have virtually no contact with minority groups and are unprepared for what they will experience in the outside, racially diverse, world.

Perhaps the most disconcerting aspect of this study, conducted only six years ago, is what little impact it has had on our education policies. It seems that Middle America is perfectly comfortable with accepting this trend. Furthermore, there seems to be a return to the “separate but equal” mentality among decision makers. The notion that schools don’t need to be integrated as long as the schooling is strong is surprisingly prevalent. The fact that “separate but equal” never means what it implies, with minority schools and resources being dismally underfunded and lackluster in comparison with white schools, seems to be completely overlooked in our new, supposedly “color blind” politics.

The truth of the matter is that nothing will be resolved with the system as it is — with schools being funded by property taxes — therefore allowing for wealthier and predominantly white children to obtain a better education than poor children. And with the segregation of American neighborhoods and the economic disparities between minority children and white children, the playing field, as of now, has little chance of being leveled.

Besides the racial and unjust undertones of the contemporary argument on race and education, also of concern to all Americans is the burden that an unequal education system has on our society. Although parents may advocate for loosening diversity rules in schools based on day-to-day inconveniences such as longer commutes, the long-term benefits far outweigh the harms.

Researchers of the report say that racially mixed schools are better for students. Education, especially early on in development, is a crucial time to begin promoting racial diversity and acceptance. Nick Johnson, the director of policy and public sector at the Commission for Racial Equality, explains that “schools are where our children first learn how to get along with people from other cultures and backgrounds.”

Our segregated school system is one of our nation’s Achilles’ heels. It stops us from moving forward as a country and allows racist behaviors and attitudes to be passed on, unchallenged, from generation to generation. It also damages our reputation abroad, with countries that have similar ethnic backgrounds looking at our education system with dismay and disbelief. In fact, an article was published by the BBC in April, which expressed fear that “Britain is in danger of becoming a kind of ‘mini-America’ as schools become increasingly segregated and turn into ethnic and religious ghettos.”

Clare Bakota is a communications assistant at the Advancement Project. This article is reprinted with permission from the organization’s blog, .

Hot battle: childrens health care vs. Bush

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 04:18:00 +0000

The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is under attack by the White House.

Created under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, SCHIP is set to expire Sept. 30. On July 19, the Senate Finance Committee voted on a new version to bring 3.3 million more children into the program at a cost of $35 billion over five years. The administration has proposed a paltry $5 billion added funding.

Now the House of Representatives has approved an even stronger bill calling for improvements in Medicare. Both bills would raise federal tobacco taxes.

President Bush says he will veto the legislation because it is a step “down the path to government-run health care for every American.” He also objects to the cost, and has claimed on other occasions that government-financed and operated health care will lead to long lines and rationing.

SCHIP provides health insurance to families with incomes too high for Medicaid who do not have employer-provided policies. A family of four with an annual income around $36,200 would qualify for SCHIP in many states. Families with higher incomes can purchase health insurance through SCHIP for less than they would pay for private insurance. SCHIP served more than 6 million children in 2006.

Because of SCHIP, covered children can see a doctor regularly, receive immunizations, be hospitalized if necessary and receive emergency room care as needed.

Children who do not have insurance are less likely to receive preventive care. The Campaign for Children’s Health Care, a national advocacy group, says uninsured children are more likely to have untreated chronic health problems, potentially resulting in lifelong disabilities. For example, ear infections can cause permanent hearing loss.

A 2007 study by Brigham Young and Arizona State Universities found that children who drop out of SCHIP end up costing states more money. Parents of uninsured children rely on emergency rooms, where care can cost thousands of dollars more than in a doctor’s office. Often, by the time a child reaches an emergency room, complications have developed, increasing pain, suffering and costs. ER staffs are only obliged to stabilize the patient, usually meaning no ongoing care.

SCHIP is a lifesaver for children with chronic medical conditions such as asthma, sickle cell disease or cystic fibrosis. SCHIP lets them get the treatments, diagnostic tests, medications and care they need. In addition, it offers stability to family life and peace of mind for parents. With this program, parents do not have to choose between medical care for one child and housing and feeding the rest of the family.

Health care advocates are campaigning to save and expand SCHIP.

MoveOn told its supporters this week, “More and more Republicans are talking about overriding President Bush’s threatened veto of health care for kids.” MoveOn added, “This would be the first time Bush has suffered such a major defeat from his own party. And if Congress can beat back Bush’s veto, we’ll take a huge step forward in the fight for health care.”

Online petitions and further information are featured on MoveOn.org, and on the website of the Campaign for Children’s Health Care, www.childrenshealthcampaign.org.

The Medicare changes included in the House bill would cut payments to private health plans and raise direct payments to doctors. Originally, Medicare funded health care provided to seniors by private doctors on a fee-for-service basis. Later, health maintenance organizations (HMOs) were allowed to take over the care of some of those on Medicare. HMOs have been accused of “cherry picking” the healthiest patients, thus cutting their own costs and increasing profits. An HMO’s primary allegiance is to its stockholders; thus, the more care it denies, the happier the stockholders.

Increasingly, many say the real solution to the health care crisis is single-payer universal health care, paid for by the federal government, much like Medicare. HR 676, also known as “Improved Medicare for All,” introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), would enact such a plan to cover all Americans, much as Medicare now does for those age 65 and over. There would be no private insurers to skim off profits, and administrative costs will be cut to a minimum. For more information on universal single-payer health care, see www.healthcare-now.org.

In addition to the online petitions, individuals are encouraged to phone or write their congressional representatives and demand that they override any Bush veto of SCHIP, and sign onto and pass HR 676.

Diane Mohney is a nurse and health care activist in Philadelphia.

The battle of Waukegan

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 04:40:00 +0000

WAUKEGAN, Ill. — To thousands of protesters here July 16, the city administration turned itself into an alien body maintained by helicopters, snipers, swat teams and dogs. Undeterred by the show of military force, more than 6,000 immigrant rights supporters filled Martin Luther Jr. Ave., spilling onto the steps of City Hall.

Inside, the City Council, joined by the mayor, voted 8-2 to convert police here into “polimigra,” or immigration agents, in a town where Latinos comprise up to 80 percent of the population. The July 16 vote confirmed an earlier decision to sign up for a federal program, provision 287(g), that turns local police into enforcers of federal immigration law with authority to arrest and detain immigrants and start deportation proceedings against them.

Outside, united indignation clamored from thousands of voices. The battle of Waukegan, some are calling it.

“We built these buildings, we made these streets!” said Waukegan resident Juan Carlos, deep in the midst of the crowd. “Ten years ago I got here only to find Waukegan was vacant lots, closed stores, dirty and dying.”

A once thriving industrial port on Lake Michigan, about 30 miles north of Chicago, Waukegan struggled to survive the death of industry in the 1980s as government and big business savagely fought to reinvent the U.S. into a de-unionized, service-sector economy.

It’s been Latino-powered labor that has brought new life to the city, swelling its tax base with new construction, infrastructure repair and a wave of vibrant new Latino businesses.

But like a cornered animal, fearing displacement, the old white oligarchy is waging war to hold onto its power.

Only now, the muted majority is in motion across Waukegan and will not be muted for long.

“Eighty percent of Waukegan will not let 20 percent show them what their rights are,” declared José Gudino of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA). LCLAA has joined a growing number of local Latino groups, including Tonatico Social Club, Asociación Latina del Condado de Lake (Latino Association of Lake County), Hondureños Unidos, Club La Luz and Comercios Latinos (Latino Businesses) of Waukegan, that have united against the measure.

From this coalition, calls have risen to boycott the city of Waukegan. Resident sympathizers say they will patronize only those businesses displaying orange flyers expressing their opposition to proposition 287(g).

Immigrant rights supporters say voter registration campaigns, labor alliances and independent political activity in future elections will be part of a relentless opposition, both locally and nationally, to 287(g).

Though locked out of the city they’ve built, the Latino workers of Waukegan are seeing this struggle as their weapon against the forces of violence and silence. For them, the battle is a victory in itself.

juanycueva @aol.com Benjamin Cline contributed to this story.

Teachers lend a hand in New Orleans

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 04:34:00 +0000

Eighty teachers and other school worker members of the American Federation of Teachers are spending two weeks in New Orleans this summer, helping fix up damaged homes and schools, and tutor students in the hard hit Ninth Ward. The volunteers, part of AFT’s “Lend A Hand” program, worked with ACORN, Habitat for Humanity and the Children’s Defense Fund. The first group of AFT volunteers finished their stint July 7, and a second group arrived to continue the work. They say they want New Orleans residents to know they are not forgotten.

Linda Olsen, a special education teacher’s aide in Pacifica, Calif., found her volunteer experience “life changing.”

“The people here have suffered and lost everything, but they handle it with dignity,” she said. She told the AFL-CIO Now blog that, like many others around the country, she had thought everything in New Orleans was back to normal because of the images displayed in the corporate media — tourists in the French Quarter, the Saints playing in a renovated Superdome.

“The main thing we are taking back is the message that things are not fine,” said Olsen. “These people need help. I wish everybody in the country could come here and see for themselves the extent of the destruction and the spirit of the people.”

The AFT volunteers worked side by side with residents. They learned that only half the schools are open. Most of these have been turned into privately run charter schools. The others are part of the state-run Recovery School District. These school employees have no union representation.

Shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit the city and the levees broke, 4,900 public school teachers and 1,900 support staff, members of the United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO/AFT), were fired or forced to retire. Local officials were able to bust the largest union in the city. Now, two years later, there is a teacher shortage and many children have no schools to attend. Many have no transportation to get to the schools that are operating.

The AFT and its members have been involved in this Gulf Coast tragedy since it began. The AFT has been collecting funds from members to assist their union sisters and brothers in New Orleans. The Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professions, part of the AFT’s health care division, sent 50 of its members to help the hurricane survivors.

A web site was set up to keep UTNO/AFT members informed about their schools, and help them find jobs and housing and retirement information. Many lost everything and were living with relatives far away. All were concerned about their students and schools.

To many, the Bush administration seemed more interested in giving out no-bid contracts to its corporate friends and eliminating the prevailing wage than rebuilding the neighborhoods and businesses. Said AFT President Edward J. McElroy, “It’s unconscionable that our national government would act to hurt those most in need while delivering a windfall to wealthy contractors.”

A year after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf Coast, the worst hit areas such as the Ninth Ward lay vacant and in ruins. Thousands of residents who had evacuated could not return because of the lack of housing, jobs and schools. Because of the absence of meaningful help from the government, the AFL-CIO came forth with its $1 billion Gulf Coast Revitalization program.

In June 2006, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney announced investments by the labor federation’s Housing Investment Trust (HIT), Building Investment Trust (BIT) and Investment Trust Corporation (ITC) in four areas: affordable housing, economic development, home ownership and hospital and health care facilities.

The Mobilization for Young Men of Color program, announced by the AFL-CIO this spring, will be centered on workforce training, helping young minority males qualify for jobs on projects financed by HIT, BIT and ITC.

The ITC is spearheading an effort to establish two unionized plants in or near New Orleans to manufacture factory-built housing.

Sweeney said, “Housing, good jobs, good public schools, health care and a stable transportation system are as essential to this city as the dikes and levees, and we will work until they are all restored.”

phillyrose623 @verizon.net

House moves to cut college costs

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 04:22:00 +0000

Student loan debt has more than doubled over the past 10 years. The average college graduate will leave school this year owing $19,200, according to the nonprofit Project on Student Debt.

However, the House of Representatives approved the College Cost Reduction Act on July 11, which would lower interest rates on student loans and increase aid to low-income students who want to go to college.

The bill, HR 2669, passed 273-149, with 47 Republicans and 226 Democrats in favor, but fell short of a margin needed to override a possible veto by President Bush.

The measure follows the “100-hour” promise made by Democratic lawmakers during the last congressional elections to help relieve financial pressure on lower- and middle-class families facing soaring college tuition.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi linked the cost of the Iraq war to tuition-help programs. “For six weeks in Iraq, we can expand higher education to all who wish to achieve it,” she said.

Financial barriers will prevent 4.4 million high school graduates from attending a four-year public college over the next decade, and prevent another 2 million high school graduates from attending any college at all, Pelosi added.

United States Student Association President Jennifer Pae welcomed the House action. “Students are victorious today,” said Pae in a press statement. “This bill is a step in the right direction towards ensuring that every qualified individual has access to higher education.”

The new bill would boost college financial aid by about $18 billion over the next five years. Pell Grants would increase by $500, and interest rates on federally backed loans would be cut in half.

In addition, if the bill is enacted into law, annual loan repayments would be capped at a percentage of a student’s income. The bill also provides for investment in colleges that serve a high percentage of African American, American Indian, Latino and other minority students, guaranteeing $500 million over the five-year period.

The bill would also provide loan forgiveness in the amount of $5,000 for students who become employees in the public service sector. And public servants would be granted a complete release from student loans after 10 years, and, in cases of economic hardship, complete forgiveness of federal student loans after 20 years.

Meanwhile, a similar bill is pending in the Senate. If that bill passes, then a joint House and Senate conference on a combined bill would begin.

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, told reporters that the House bill “is a big victory for students and families across America who are facing rising college costs.”

“The time to put the needs of students ahead of the profits of the banks is long overdue,” Kennedy said. “I look forward to passage of similar legislation in the Senate this month.”

President Bush has threatened a veto because, among other things, the bill cuts government subsidies to private lenders. But Republicans would have to face the political fallout if the popular measure doesn’t pass.

College Democrats of America President Lauren Wolfe said the president would be irresponsible if he were to veto the measure. “Considering how important the youth vote will be in 2008, Republicans who stand in the way of college opportunity for young people should expect to pay a heavy price in 2008,” she said.

plozano @pww.org

Demons of racism roam free: The case of the Jena 6

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 04:55:00 +0000

In a small still mostly segregated section of rural Louisiana, an all-white jury heard a series of white witnesses called by a white prosecutor testify in a courtroom overseen by a white judge in a trial about a fight at the local high school where a white student who had been making racial taunts was hit by Black students.

The fight was the culmination of a series of racial incidents starting when whites responded to Black students sitting under the “white tree” at their school by hanging three nooses from the tree. The white jury and white prosecutor and all white supporters of the white victim were all on one side of the courtroom. The Black defendant, 17-year-old Mychal Bell, and his supporters were on the other.

The jury quickly convicted Mychal Bell of two felonies — aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery. Bell, who was a 16-year-old sophomore football star at the time he was arrested, faces up to 22 years in prison. Five other Black youths await similar trials on attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy charges.

Yes, you read that correctly. The rest of the story, which is being reported across the world in papers in China, France and England, is just as chilling.

Nooses hung on ‘white tree’

The trouble started under “the white tree” in front of Jena High School. The “white tree” is where the white students, 80 percent of the student body, would always sit during school breaks.

In September 2006, a Black student at Jena High School asked permission from school administrators to sit under the “white tree.” School officials advised them to sit wherever they wanted. They did.

The next day, three nooses, in the school colors, were hanging from the “white tree.” The message was clear. “Those nooses meant the KKK, they meant ‘ … we’re going to kill you, we’re going to hang you till you die,’” Casteptla Bailey, mom of one of the students, told the London Observer.

The Jena High School principal found that three white students were responsible and recommended expulsion. The white superintendent of schools overruled the principal and gave the students a three day suspension saying that the nooses were just a youthful stunt. “Adolescents play pranks,” the superintendent told the Chicago Tribune. “I don’t think it was a threat against anybody.”

The African American community was hurt and upset. “Hanging those nooses was a hate crime, plain and simple,” according to Tracy Bowens, mother of students at Jena High.

Throwback to 1950s

But Blacks in this area of Louisiana have little political power. The 10-person all-male government of the parish has one African American member. The nine member all-male school board has one African American member. (A phone caller to the local school board trying to find out the racial makeup of the school board was told there was one “colored” member of the board.) There is one Black police officer in Jena and two Black public school teachers.

Jena, with a population of less than 3,000, is the largest town in and parish (county) seat of LaSalle Parish, La. There are about 350 African Americans in the town. LaSalle has a population of just over 14,000 people — 12 percent African American.

This is solid Bush and David Duke Country — GWB won LaSalle Parish 4 to 1 in the last two elections; Duke carried a majority of the white vote when he ran for governor of Louisiana. Families earn about 60 percent of the national average. The Census Bureau reports that less than 10 percent of the businesses in LaSalle Parish are Black-owned.

Jena is the site of the infamous Juvenile Correctional Center for Youth that was forced to close its doors in 2000, only two years after opening, due to widespread brutality and racism, including the choking of juveniles by guards after the youths met with a lawyer. The U.S. Department of Justice sued the private prison amid complaints that guards paid inmates to fight each other and laughed when teens tried to commit suicide.

Black students organize, face severe reaction

Black students decided to resist and organized a sit-in under the “white tree” at the school to protest the light suspensions given to the noose-hanging white students.

The white district attorney then came to Jena High with law enforcement officers to address a school assembly. According to testimony in a later motion in court, the DA reportedly threatened the Black protesting students saying that if they didn’t stop making a fuss about this “innocent prank… I can be your best friend or your worst enemy. I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen.” The school was put on lockdown for the rest of the week.

Unfolding of events

Racial tensions remained high throughout the fall.

On the night of Thursday, Nov. 30, 2006, a still unsolved fire burned down the main academic building of Jena High School.

On Friday night, Dec. 1, a Black student who showed up at a white party was beaten by whites. On Saturday, Dec. 2, a young white man pulled out a shotgun in a confrontation with young Black men at the Gotta Go convenience store outside Jena before the men wrestled it away from him. The Black men who took the shotgun away were later arrested. No charges were filed against the white man.

On Monday, Dec. 4, at Jena High, a white student — who allegedly had been making racial taunts, including calling African American students “n———” while supporting the students who hung the nooses and who beat up the Black student at the off-campus party — was knocked down, punched and kicked by Black students. The white victim was taken to the hospital treated and released. He attended a social function that evening.

The Jena 6

Six Black Jena students were arrested and charged with attempted second degree murder. All six were expelled from school.

The six charged were: 17-year-old Robert Bailey Jr., whose bail was set at $138,000; 17-year-old Theo Shaw — bail $130,000; 18-year-old Carwin Jones — bail $100,000; 17-year-old Bryant Purvis — bail $70,000; Mychal Bell, a sophomore in high school who was charged as an adult and for whom bail was set at $90,000; and a still unidentified minor.

Many of the young men, who came to be known as the Jena 6, stayed in jail for months. Few families could afford bond or private attorneys.

Mychal Bell remained in jail from December 2006 until his trial because his family was unable to post the $90,000 bond. Theo Shaw has also remained in jail. Several of the other defendants remained in jail for months until their families could raise sufficient money to put up bonds.

News stories spotlight racism

The Chicago Tribune wrote a powerful story headlined “Racial Demons Rear Heads.” The London Observer wrote: “Jena is gaining national notoriety as an example of the new ‘stealth’ racism, showing how lightly sleep the demons of racial prejudice in America’s Deep South, even in the year that a black man, Barack Obama, is a serious candidate for the White House.” The British Broadcasting Company aired a TV special report, “Race Hate in Louisiana 2007.”

The Jena 6 and their families were put under substantial pressure to plead guilty. Mychal Bell was reported to have been leaning towards pleading guilty right up until his trial when he decided he would not plead guilty to a felony.

When it finally came, the trial of Mychal Bell was swift. Bell was represented by an appointed public defender.

Bell goes to (kangaroo) court

On the morning of the trial, the DA reduced the charges from attempted second-degree murder to second-degree aggravated battery and conspiracy. Aggravated battery in Louisiana law demands the attack be with a dangerous weapon. The dangerous weapon? The prosecutor was allowed to argue to the jury that the tennis shoes worn by Bell could be considered a dangerous weapon used by “the gang of Black boys” who beat the white victim.

Most shocking of all, when the pool of potential jurors was summoned, 50 people appeared — every single one of them white.

The LaSalle Parish clerk defended the all-white group to the Alexandria Louisiana Town Talk newspaper, saying that the jury pool was selected by computer. “The venire [panel of prospective jurors] is color blind. The idea is for the list to truly reflect the racial makeup of the community, but the system does not take race into factor.” Officials said they had summoned 150 people, but these were the only people who showed up.

The all-white jury which was finally chosen included two people friendly with the district attorney, a relative of one of the witnesses and several others who were friends of prosecution witnesses.

‘All about the nooses’

Bell’s parents, Melissa Bell and Marcus Jones, were not even allowed to attend the trial despite their objections, because they were listed as potential witnesses. The white victim, though a witness, was allowed to stay in the courtroom. The parents, who had been widely quoted in the media as critics of the process, were also told they could no longer speak to the media as long as the trial was in session. Marcus Jones had told the media “It’s all about those nooses” and declared the charges racially motivated.

Other supporters who planned a demonstration in support of Bell were ordered by the court not to do so near the courthouse or anywhere the judge would see them.

The prosecutor called 17 witnesses — 11 white students, three white teachers and two white nurses. Some said they saw Bell kick the victim; others said they did not see him do anything. The white victim testified that he did not know if Bell hit him or not.

Public defender did nothing

The Chicago Tribune reported the public defender did not challenge the all-white jury pool, put on no evidence and called no witnesses. The public defender told the Alexandria Town Talk after resting his case without calling any witnesses that he knew he would be second-guessed by many but was confident that the jury would return a verdict of not guilty. “I don’t believe race is an issue in this trial. … I think I have a fair and impartial jury.”

The jury deliberated for less than three hours and found Mychal Bell guilty on the maximum possible charges of aggravated second- degree battery and conspiracy. He faces up to a maximum of 22 years in prison.

The public defender told the press afterwards, “I feel I put on the best defense that I could.” Responding to criticism of not putting on any witnesses, the attorney said, “Why open the door for further accusations? I did the best I could for my client, Mychal Bell.”

Unequal treatment

At a rally in front of the courthouse the next day, Alan Bean, a Texas minister and leader of the Friends of Justice, said, “I have seen a lot of trials in my time. And I have never seen a more distressing miscarriage of justice than what happened in LaSalle Parish yesterday.” Khadijah Rashad of Lafayette Louisiana described the trial as a “modern-day lynching.”

Tory Pegram with the Louisiana ACLU has been working with the parents for months. “People know if they don’t demand equal treatment now, they will never get it. People’s jobs and livelihoods have been threatened for attending Jena 6 Defense meetings, but people are willing to risk that. One person told me: ‘We have to convince more people to come

rally with us. …What’s the worst that could happen? They fire us from our jobs? We have the worst jobs in the town anyway. They burn a cross on our lawns or burn down my house? All of that has happened to us before. We have to keep speaking out to make sure it doesn’t happen to us again, or our children will never be safe.’”

Denial is more than a river

Whites in the community were adamant that there is no racism. “We don’t have a problem,” according to one. Other locals told the media “We all get along,” and “most blacks are happy with the way things are.” One person even said “We don’t have many problems with our Blacks.”

Melvin Worthington, the lone African American school board member in LaSalle Parish, said it all could have been avoided. “There’s no doubt about it,” he told the Chicago Tribune, “whites and Blacks are treated differently here. The white kids should have gotten more punishment for hanging those nooses. If they had, all the stuff that followed could have been avoided.”

Hebert McCoy, a relative of one of the youths who has been trying to raise money for bail and lawyers, challenged people everywhere at the end of the rally when he said “You better get out of your houses. You better come out and defend your children…because they are incarcerating them by the thousands. Jena’s not the beginning, but Jena has crossed the line. Justice is not right when you put on the wrong charges and then convict. I believe in justice. I believe in the point of law. I believe in accepting the punishment if I’m guilty. If I’m guilty, convict me and punishment, but if I’m innocent, no justice…” and the crowd joined with him and shouted “No peace!”

What happened to the white guys? The white victim of the beating was later arrested for bringing a hunting rifle loaded with 13 bullets onto the high school campus and released on $5,000 bond. The white man who beat up the Black youth at the off-campus party was arrested and charged with simple battery. The white students who hung up the nooses in the “white tree” were never charged.

Fighting for justice

The people in Jena are fighting for justice and they need legal and financial help. Since the arrests, a group of family members have been holding well-attended meetings, and have created a defense fund — the Jena 6 Defense Committee. They have received support from the NAACP, the Louisiana ACLU and Friends of Justice. People interested in supporting can contact the Jena 6 Defense Committee, PO Box 2798, Jena LA 71342, or at jena6defense@gmail.com; or Friends of Justice, 507 N. Donley Ave., Tulia TX 79088, or at www.fojtulia.org; or the ACLU of Louisiana, PO Box 56157, New Orleans LA 70156, or at www.laaclu.org or (417) 350-0536.

What is next? The rest of the Jena 6 await similar trials. Theodore Shaw is due to go on trial shortly. Mychal Bell is scheduled to be sentenced July 31. If he gets the maximum sentence, he will not be out of prison until he is nearly 40. Meanwhile, the “white tree” outside Jena High sits quietly in the hot sun.

Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University – New Orleans. You can reach him at quigley @loyno.edu. Audrey Stewart contributed to this article.

This decision will not stand

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 03:49:00 +0000

NEA vows fight for integrated schools

PHILADELPHIA — Some 9,000 National Education Association delegates wrapped up their four-day national assembly here in an upbeat mood, determined to continue their active opposition to the Bush education agenda.

Among the meeting’s many highlights, none was more stirring than the adoption of a resolution condemning the Supreme Court’s June 28 decision overturning school desegregation plans in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle.

Branding the decision a “major setback” that showed “how out of touch the court is with the will of the people,” the 3.2-million-member union declared its support for “efforts by local and state affiliates, community and civil rights groups to defend school integration plans to ensure that this decision will not stand.”

Referring to notorious 19th-century Supreme Court pro-slavery and pro-segregation rulings, the NEA declared, “Like Dred Scott and Plessy v. Ferguson, this decision is not set in stone and can be reversed.” As if to underscore the association’s commitment to school integration, the delegates earlier gave a warm welcome to six of the “Little Rock Nine,” who, as teenagers in Arkansas, had desegregated Little Rock’s Central High School in 1957.

The delegates addressed other important issues as well. A resolution on the Iraq war committed the NEA to “participate in coalitions and otherwise support efforts to implement an exit strategy to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq” and to make sure that returning troops are supported “in regard to education, employment and health care.”

Another resolution dealt with the immigration issue and stated the NEA’s commitment to protect the “human and civil rights of undocumented immigrants” and “the integrity of the family unit.” It said it aims to assure that every child, regardless of immigration status or that of his or her parents, “has the right to a free public education in a safe and supportive environment.”

The meeting featured speeches by eight presidential candidates and visits from other dignitaries, including actor Richard Dreyfuss, a prominent advocate of civics education.

A theme running throughout the week was the delegates’ determination to work for major changes in the Bush administration’s education policies.

Brent McKim, president of the Jefferson County (Ky.) Teachers’ Association, told the World that the administration’s No Child Left Behind law (NCLB) “flies in the face of what we know about how children learn best, and it places schools and teachers in the position of having to focus on virtually meaningless test scores instead of authentic learning.”

In a pamphlet for delegates that is available to the public, entitled “It’s Time for a Change,” the union explains the problems with the current law and the needed changes. It says, for example, that the federal government’s $4.1 billion class-size reduction program was eliminated under NCLB and should be restored.

The pamphlet notes that NCLB is actually a drastic revision of the original Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which established the federal role in supporting public education. The NEA is involved in a major effort to overhaul the current version of the law and restore and expand its original supportive character.

As part of what the NEA calls “a multifaceted lobbying strategy,” President Reg Weaver at one point urged the delegates to get out their cell phones and become “instant lobbyists” by calling their legislators to urge comprehensive NCLB reform. The delegates readily complied.

bikerbenn @aol.com

Editorial: Let the eater beware!

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 07:02:00 +0000

Millions from coast to coast relaxed at barbecues this week, enjoying burgers, franks, salads and fresh fruits. Many of us, with good reason, had second thoughts as we flipped those burgers and bit into those franks because we’ve been hearing and reading a lot about dangerous foods that are imported from China.

The source of the problems with our food is not China. Our food safety problems have been growing out of control for the last six years. During that time the Bush administration has gutted the agencies that are supposed to regulate our food safety, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Agriculture. People beholden to the corporations they are supposed to regulate have been put in charge of those agencies, and the number of inspections has been cut by 70 percent. Not since Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” was written early in the last century has the food industry in the United States been so unregulated.

It’s worth nothing that more than 60 percent of all imports from China (80 percent of our food imports) were produced in China by U.S.-based transnational corporations. These companies pay as little attention to food safety regulations in China as they do to regulations in the United States.

Many Americans were sickened and some even died last year when they ate poisoned peanut butter. The deadly peanut butter came from a plant in Georgia owned by a subsidiary of Smithfield Packing. The plant had not had an FDA inspection for three years.

People got sick and died last year from eating poisoned spinach traced to a California farm that had not been inspected by the Agriculture Department for five years.

What can be done? Fire all the Bush appointees in each of the regulatory agencies involved. Make it illegal for anyone who profits from food production to sit on these regulatory boards. Restore all the cuts in inspectors and increase the quantity and quality of inspections. Put representatives of the workers and their unions on the boards. The public has a right to affordable, healthy food!

Editorial: Justice turned upside down

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 07:00:00 +0000

President George W. Bush’s choice of July 2 — right before Independence Day — to commute former White House aide “Scooter” Libby’s prison sentence for lying and obstruction of justice carries a special irony.

One of the basic tenets of our legal system, which underlies the Founding Fathers’ objections to the arbitrary rule of King George III, is that all people are supposed to stand as equals before the law.

Unfortunately, this has often been violated, as shown by the millions of Americans, many of them working-class people and people of color, who have served far longer prison terms than Libby’s for far less grievous offenses.

Take, for example, the case of Mychal Bell. The 16-year-old African American high school student in Louisiana, was tried as an adult for aggravated battery after a white student who had joined in and supported shocking racist conduct on campus, including the display of nooses, was roughed up by Black students. The white student attended a social function that evening; Bell stayed in jail until his trial because his parents couldn’t come up with the $90,000 bail. When he is sentenced at the end of this month he faces a possible 22-year prison term. Bush should commute his sentence, not Libby’s!

Or consider Bush’s own record while governor of Texas. During his tenure, 150 men and two women were executed in the state. In each case Bush had the opportunity to grant clemency, but he did so only once.

It is also worth noting that Libby’s sentence for lying was commuted by a president who has involved our country in an enormously destructive and completely unjustified war in Iraq on the basis of serial lies, including that Saddam Hussein and al Qaida were in league and that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction.

Of course, not only George Bush but his entire administration is guilty of mass deception involving not only the Iraq war but the wholesale curtailing of liberties at home, including the Patriot Act. Congress needs to take action to restore the rule of law and its equal application to all and it should be on the minds of voters next year.

Single-payer universal health care can be a reality!

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 06:57:00 +0000

Workers’ Correspondence

”Of all the forms of inequality, the injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

All of us have encountered one problem or another with our health care plan. I know of a colleague who died from cancer due to her HMO’s refusing to pay for her treatment when the cancer was in its early stage.

For far too many of us there is no health care plan. Depending on the county hospital system can be an all day/night test of our patience and we still have not resolved our health problem. Unfortunately, many county hospital districts have ceased to serve the poor and uninsured. Today many are run like a system whose top priority is generating revenues.

For those of us who are 65 and/or disabled, the so-called Medicare prescription program has proven to be one of the most confusing, misleading and frustrating programs ever devised by the federal government. The problem that stands out with Medicare Part D is the fact that the private carriers of this program can delete medications they deem too expensive at will, without recourse. The other major flaw is that the Bush administration allows the pharmaceutical corporations to set the cost of these medications with no negotiation with Medicare. Once again our government has sold us out to the interests of the pharmaceutical corporations.

The United States is the only major industrialized nation without a national health plan. Nations as wealthy as Japan, Germany and France have national health care programs. Nations as poor as Cuba, Mexico and Vietnam also have such programs. Only in the U.S. do the health care bosses consider health care a privilege and a commodity. Thus we have the chaos, disparities and gross injustices in our health care.

In April last year, I attended a community meeting in San Antonio mandated by the president and Congress on health care. One hundred seventy-five individuals from all walks of life voted that we need/want a national health plan. A large percentage of us also voted to cut the war budget to help finance this. Similar results were recorded across the nation, yet the government does nothing. In fact, the commission assigned to facilitate these nationwide surveys has watered down the results in order to appease the wishes of Bush.

All is not lost! There is an excellent piece of legislation pending before Congress. This bill; House Resolution 676 was introduced four years ago by Michigan Congressman John Conyers and is just now gaining support as our health care crisis worsens. It has the endorsement of over 275 labor organizations, Physicians for a National Health Program, Progressive Democrats of America, the Board of Church & Society of the United Methodist Church, Latinos For National Health Insurance and 77 members of Congress. Michael Moore, who recently released “Sicko,” has also endorsed HR 676.

Conyers’ bill would improve and expand Medicare coverage to all residents of the U.S. and its territories. Services would include chiropractic, dental, mental health, long-term care, hearing, vision and prescription drugs. It would cost a person earning $40,000 a year about $1,300 annually. (At present many of us are spending as high as $6,000 for health care and we are getting very little in return.) There would be no deductibles. The for-profit health insurance corporations would basically dry up and cease to exist. HR 676 would make health care a nonprofit entity with the sole purpose of providing health care for all.

Single-payer, universal health care can become a reality in this country. People must begin pressuring their members of Congress to become co-sponsors of this legislation. The time for waffling and excuses is gone!

Medicare for all is ours, only if we are willing to struggle for it!

10 facts about U.S. health care

• Every year about 18,000 Americans die needlessly due to inability to access adequate health care services. (Institute of Medicine)

• Approximately 46.6 million Americans have no health insurance! (U.S. Census Bureau)

• Texas leads the nation for people without health insurance, about 5 million individuals. (Census Bureau)

• Consumers in England spend about $2,800 annually for health care. In the U.S. we spend about $6,000 annually for far less coverage! (Physicians for a National Health Plan)

• Of all the major industrialized nations, only the United States has no universal health care. The rest of the world considers health care a basic human right as outlined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948.

• Today the U.S. health care system is rated #37 in the world. France has the highest-rated health care system. (World Health Organization)

• When surveyed, most Americans said their first concern about our health care system is the price and deteriorating quality of services. (Citizen Healthcare Working Group).

• From 2001 to 2006, the cost of health care in the U.S. rose 73 percent. (Citizen Healthcare Working Group)

• There are 11.2 million children in the U.S. without any health insurance — an increase of 361,000 from the year 2000. (Census Bureau)

• House Resolution 676, introduced by Michigan Democrat John Conyers, is the only legislation that will adequately address these problems.

Frank Valdez (pancho1251@yahoo.com), an activist for over 40 years in the civil rights, labor and peace movements, currently an active member of LULAC Concilio Zapatista in San Antonio.

A little health education for FOX and CBS

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 06:49:00 +0000

FOX Broadcasting and CBS reached new lows of hypocrisy and pandering to the ultra-right on reproductive rights, sex and contraception when they recently refused to air ads for condoms. Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards has offered to educate FOX and CBS about reproductive health. Here’s her letter to FOX, reprinted from www.plannedparenthood.org. In case readers would like to send letters of their own, the FOX address is below. Letters to CBS can be sent to Leslie Moonves, President and CEO, CBS Corporation, 51 W. 52nd St., New York NY 10019-6188.

Mr. Peter Liguori FOX Broadcasting Company President of Entertainment 10201 West Pico Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90064-2606

Dear Mr. Liguori,

On behalf of the nearly 5 million women, men and teens who rely on Planned Parenthood’s trusted reproductive health care information and services each year, I’m writing to express serious concern about FOX Broadcasting Company’s refusal to air condom advertisements — and to offer Planned Parenthood’s top medical experts to educate FOX executives, so that you’ll make better, more informed decisions in the future.

According to a FOX spokesperson quoted in the June 18 New York Times, the network rejected the condom ads because “contraceptive advertising must stress health-related uses rather than the prevention of pregnancy.” In fact, preventing unintended pregnancy — and planning and spacing healthy, wanted pregnancies — is a major public health issue and undoubtedly hits home for the majority of your viewers. In the United States, approximately half of all pregnancies are unintended, and teen pregnancy is a national health epidemic. This year, an estimated 750,000 teens will become pregnant and 4 million will contract a sexually transmitted infection.

It’s doubly troubling that FOX refuses to air condom ads, yet routinely broadcasts ads for drugs like Viagra and showcases sex-saturated, primetime programming like “Temptation Island” and “The O.C.,” which included an average of 6.7 sex scenes per hour.

We have encouraged Planned Parenthood’s 4 million supporters to express their concerns to you directly, in hope that you will reverse this decision. And as the nation’s leading advocate and provider of reproductive health care, we offer to educate FOX’s top brass about reproductive health and the basics of preventing unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection. The vast public health benefits of the correct and consistent use of condoms cannot be overstated.

As a major television network, FOX has a responsibility to viewers to provide accurate health information and promote responsible decision making — and should take every opportunity to do more, not less, to help people stay safe and healthy.

Sincerely, Cecile Richards President Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Big cheers for Family and Medical Leave Act

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 06:43:00 +0000

AFL-CIO blogger Mike Hall writes, “When the Department of Labor in December asked workers and employers to comment on their experiences with regulations that implement the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), many observers believed it was the first step by the Bush administration to revise the rules to restrict access to family leave — as big business has clamored for since it was enacted in 1993.”

But the outpouring of support for FMLA — from more than 15,000 workers and groups — seems to have slowed the drive to water it down, at least for now.

Victoria Lipnic, assistant secretary of labor, says the department has no imminent plans to issue changes to the regulations. In the forward to a report recently issue by the department summarizing the comments, she says: “There is a broad consensus that family and medical leave is good for workers and their families, is in the public interest and is good workplace policy. … There are no proposals for regulatory changes being put forward by the department with this report.”

But she also told BNA’s Daily Labor Report, “There are clearly areas that need to be cleaned up.”

Sure, there are challenges, says Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families. “We know that it can be challenging to manage employees with illnesses that require unplanned absences, but that is a challenge all employers must meet,” she said. “It is simply a part of doing business. With our inadequate health care system and aging workforce, and with chronic illness on the rise, this will become more of an issue in years to come. The best answers may lie in increased access to preventive health care and establishing a minimum federal standard of paid sick days.”

According to the Labor Department report, more than 76 million workers are eligible to take family and medical leave, and in 2005 between 6.1 million and 13 million workers took leave.

Comments on the FMLA included ways to improve it. Many urged that the act could be improved by providing paid leave. Nearly half of private-sector workers and 79 percent of low-income workers have no paid sick leave. Recently, working families won paid sick leave in San Francisco and family leave in Washington state.

— AFL-CIO Now Blog News

July 7 THIS WEEK IN LABOR

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 06:37:00 +0000

Moldy food found at Farmer Joe’s

Farmer Joe’s Marketplace, the Oakland, Calif., organic grocery whose workers say they have been harassed and intimidated for seeking to unionize, has been selling the public outdated products.

That was the account given by consumers and the California Healthy Communities Network at a June 27 press conference outside Environmental Health Department offices in Alameda. The Network, a nonprofit, had worked with Farmer Joe’s customers over five weeks to collect some 39 outdated items.

“On May 31, I sent my daughter to Farmer Joe’s to buy pupusas [a Salvadoran filled tortilla delicacy],” said customer Francisco Ramirez. “What she brought home had been expired for 11 days, and mold was visible,” he told reporters. Ramirez said a different shopping trip had netted coconut water, a favorite of his 5-year-old son, which was 75 days beyond its expiration date.

Another customer, Juana Garcia, told how when she confronted a clerk with an outdated falafel wrap, a clerk told her, “It’s OK, you can eat it like that.”

The Network presented reporters with receipts confirming all purchases, and provided a display of outdated products it said had been bought at the store.

The Alameda County Health Agency said it would investigate the matter.

The California Labor Federation has urged consumers to boycott the store until owners Joe and Diana Tam agree to recognize the union by a card-check procedure.

How about American Vulture?

American Eagle Outfitters says it cares about workers — its Code of Conduct requires contractors to respect the right of employees to form a union. Yet workers at the warehouse contracted to ship AEO clothing in Canada faced harassment and intimidation when they tried to improve conditions by forming a union. And American Eagle hasn’t lifted a finger to enforce its Code of Conduct.

National Logistics Services distributes merchandise to American Eagle stores throughout Canada. In late April, a majority of workers at National Logistics Services in Mississauga, outside of Toronto, applied to the Ontario Labor Relations Board to have Unite Here certified as their union in order to improve their working conditions, including stagnating wages and a lack of job security. NLS hired a U.S.-based firm that orchestrated an anti-union campaign of harassment and intimidation against the 180 workers. After this campaign of misinformation, workers lost the vote for a union despite expressing a desire to form a union just one week before.

Readers can sign a petition of support at www.AmericanVulture.org. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never shopped there. You can still sign. And pass the word on.

Farm workers toil in extreme heat

Imagine picking carrots in 100-degree heat without a break or clean water. That’s what California farm workers face, according to the United Farm Workers union.

Jairo Luque told the UFW about laboring in the carrot fields: “The water runs out and they do not bring any more. Being without water is dangerous. We are not camels that can be working without water.”

Margarita Mendez said working in extreme heat is rough. “I can’t even understand how we managed to make it through, but it all came down the necessity of having and needing a job,” she said.

Grape workers say the pressure is on not to take breaks or get shade. Alfredo Alvarenga said, “There is no way to feel fatigued and take a break; you just have to keep going. They [the supervisors] cannot find you resting.”

Martin Zavala, who labors in the Mecca grape vineyards, said the temperature can climb to a mind-numbing 108-110 degrees. “The company provides umbrellas for shade — very little umbrellas. Sometimes the umbrellas are broken and the company takes three or four days to replace them.”

Growers are ignoring California’s new heat regulations, according to UFW, which is urging people to e-mail or call Cal OSHA through www.ufwaction.org/.

Fast track dies

Fast track died last week and no one from labor shed a tear. Fast track allows the president to push through trade deals with no amendments from Congress.

Fast track has been a major anti-labor/anti-environment weapon in President Bush’s trade arsenal.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, along with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), vowed to not renew fast track and oppose two key free trade deals currently on the table.

According to many, fast track has sped up all the worst aspects of globalization, including job loss, global race to the bottom for wages, privatization and erosion of environmental standards.

“But now fast track is dead. Long live the public will over fast track deals,” writes AFL-CIO blogger Tula Connell.

We’d deliver, but our bosses won’t let us

Florida and New Jersey letter carriers warned U.S. Postal Service customers that their mail delivery is being outsourced to private, nonunion carriers. At informational pickets in June, union members said these carriers hire workers at low wages and offer no benefits.

The USPS privatization policies are seen as one of the main culprits for diminishing services and hurting the whole postal system. NALC is working with allies in Congress to fight the privatization of mail delivery. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa has introduced The Mail Delivery Protection Act of 2007 (S 1457) to outlaw most contracting out. In the House, Rep. Albio Sires (D-N.J.) has authored HR 282, which would condemn the practice and urge the Postal Service to halt the practice immediately.

Teresa Albano compiled This Week in Labor with Marilyn Bechtel contributing.

July 7 NATIONAL CLIPS

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 06:13:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES: Mayors stand up for cities: U.S. out of Iraq

Providence, R.I., Mayor David Cicilline introduced a resolution before the 224 mayors attending the U.S. Conference of Mayor’s annual meeting saying, “We support the troops 110 percent,” but “we call for the administration to begin planning immediately for the swift and prudent redeployment of the U.S. armed forces.” Despite opposition from the conference president, Trenton Mayor Douglas Palmer, the motion passed 51-47.

The resolution called for full funding for services for all veterans, accelerated training of Iraqi forces and the promotion of stability in the region.

Tom Cochran, executive director of the national mayors’ group, told the online magazine American Chronicle that the conference had passed a similar resolution opposing the Vietnam War. “We’re told ‘just empty the trash and don’t bother with issues like wars,’” he said. “But we have to deal with the funding that is taken from the cities for wars like this. I was proud of this resolution. We have made videos of defining moments in the 75-year history of our organization and this will be included.”

The mayors also followed up on their initiative of a year ago to curtail global warming, which has been signed onto by over 600 cities and municipalities.

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine: Rally calls for Iraq pullout, impeachment

President Bush and Russian President Putin listed building alliances on their agenda, but thousands of activists marched on their meeting site demanding U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and impeachment of Bush and Cheney.

“This nation is in distress because of its leadership,” said Ted Goodnight, an Afghanistan war veteran from Providence, R.I., as he led the demonstration down Ocean Avenue from the town’s village green.

Last year, a similar demonstration when the Bushes gathered at the family compound drew 600, said Kenne-bunkport Police Chief Joseph Bruni.

Charging Bush and Cheney with “criminal behavior,” Mike Miles, 55, told reporters, “I’m sick of the war.” As he marched, he chanted, “Impeach W, Impeach Cheney, too.”

Police arrested two people when they attempted to breach a barricade a half a mile from the site of the presidents’ meeting.

MADISON, Wis.: State universal health care passes Senate

“We have a historic opportunity to give our businesses, our families, our farmers what they’ve been asking for for years. … What they have been asking for are the same health benefits as their state legislators,” said state Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson of Beloit.

On June 29 the Senate approved Health Wisconsin in the state’s biannual budget, a measure that provides full health insurance for nearly every resident. Under the bill, the number of residents who do not have health insurance would drop from 472,000 to 15,000. A worker who earns $42,333 a year would pay $140 a month while the boss would pay $370 a month, for the same package enjoyed by state legislators and the governor. According to the bill’s author, Sen. Jon Erpenbach, businesses would spend less than they currently shell out for health insurance premiums. The plan, if passed by the Assembly, would go into effect in 2009.

“The current system is not sustainable. It’s got to be changed,” said state AFL-CIO President David Newby. Unions and a host of organizations have been campaigning for years for state health care reform.

Republicans condemned the bill. They hold a slim five-vote majority in the Assembly.

WASHINGTON: FBI gives Wall St. and Main St. criminals a break

9/11 Commission Vice Chair Lee Hamilton and Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden, chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs, are upset. “I don’t pick up the business section every day of the week that I don’t see some kind of shenanigans going on in the business sector,” said Hamilton. “There’s an awful lot of malfeasance in this country at high levels. You’ve got drug dealers and ordinary criminals and all the rest and they need to be prosecuted.”

The numbers from the Justice Department are stunning. In the decades preceding 9/11, crime on both Wall Street and Main Street declined. In 2001, the FBI prosecuted 19,000 cases, but in 2006 that number dropped 30 percent, to 12,700, according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University. In the same five-year period, though, FBI investigations into alleged terrorist activity increased by 26 percent.

During a hearing by his subcommittee, Biden noted that cities across the country are reporting an increase in murder and other violent crimes, while FBI investigations into these categories declined by 60 percent.

In 2000, the FBI brought 5,014 cases. By 2006, that number plummeted by half to 2,380 prosecutions.

The biggest winner was organized crime, a 73 percent drop in investigations from 606 in 2000 to 163 in 2006.

While FBI investigations into corporate crime took a 62.5 percent nosedive, their investigations into pornography doubled.

“The federal government has taken its focus off street crime since 9/11, asking law enforcement to do more with less,” said Biden. “It’s a false choice between fighting terrorism and fighting crime.”

National Clips are compiled by Denise Winebrenner Edwards (dwinebr696 @aol.com).

Great public schools, a basic right for every child

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 05:09:00 +0000

Educators slam pro-segregation ruling

PHILADELPHIA — The No Child Left Behind Act and the Supreme Court rejection of school desegregation programs drew harsh criticism July 3 as 9,000 teachers and other school workers opened the National Education Association’s Representative Assembly here. The four-day conference met under the slogan “Great public schools, a basic right for every child.”

The NEA calls its assembly the largest democratically elected deliberative body in the United States and one of the largest in the world.

The delegates heard NEA President Reg Weaver and candidates for U.S. president blast the Bush administration’s education policies and call for increased funding for public schools.

In his keynote Weaver proposed an “economic Bill of Rights for the nation’s children including universal early childhood education, reduced class size, well paid educators, equal educational opportunities for all, including English language learners, and multiple measures of student learning instead of the increasing reliance on ‘one size fits all’ multiple choice tests.”

He said the Supreme Court ruling “will make it even harder to reach the goal of equal educational opportunity” for all children. The NEA should “put a call out” to concerned organizations to develop a response to the court’s action.

Delegates from Louisville, Ky., and Seattle, the cities whose school integration plans were overturned by the Supreme Court, called the ruling “sad” and “mind-boggling.”

Brent McKim, president of the Jefferson County, Ky., Education Association (which includes Louisville) told the World, “It’s a sad day for public education. It’s a tremendous setback for school districts that seek to integrate their schools so all students can succeed.” The Jefferson County district, he said, hopefully would have the “wherewithal” to move to an income-based assignment plan that could promote integration, but he said even that would face major political obstacles.

Wendy Kimball, Seattle Education Association president, said she found it “mind-boggling” that the court would take a position that essentially says “separate but equal is appropriate.”

The June 28 Supreme Court ruling struck at the essence of the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, which found “separate but equal” schools unconstitutional. Kimball said the issues of inequality and separation that led to the Brown decision have not yet been resolved in many urban school districts. Seattle’s limited a program was based on a simple premise: that a student’s race could be a “tiebreaker” when deciding who got the last slots available at some high schools. This policy, she said, while it may not have addressed the basis of unequal resources, did make it possible for young people to attend schools with a diverse student population.

The 3.2-million member NEA is not part of the AFL-CIO. Kimball told the World that her local was moving to work more closely with the state labor federation through the labor solidarity process — the result of an agreement at the national level that enables NEA locals to work directly with the AFL-CIO. She said her local felt that the support that labor could provide was necessary in order to change the funding structure for public education in Washington state. Currently the state has no income tax, and public education is funded entirely through the sales tax and a “regressive business tax.”

The NEA assembly was scheduled to hear from eight presidential candidates. On the opening day, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards echoed many of the themes that Weaver emphasized.

Clinton struck a responsive chord when she asked the teacher delegates how many of them had spent their own money for classroom supplies. She said the national average is $450 per teacher per year. Referring to high teacher burnout and turnover rates, especially among new teachers, Clinton said, “If you don’t pay people what they deserve, they get the idea pretty quickly, don’t they?”

The delegates also responded enthusiastically when Edwards called for creating a single equitable public school system in the U.S. instead of the two he said we have now — “one for the wealthy and one for everybody else.” Edwards gave credit to the labor movement as the “greatest anti-poverty program in American history.” He told the delegates, “If somebody can join the Republican Party by signing a card, any worker in America should be able to join a union by doing just that.” He said that, if elected, he intended to push for a minimum wage of $9.50 an hour.

In his keynote address, Weaver roused the delegates with a brief history of the struggle for universal education and the role played by the NEA during its 150 years. The organization was founded here by 43 teachers in August 1857.

His vigorous call for resistance to the current threats to that legacy brought the delegates to their feet when he said, “It’s time for action — we’ve had enough studies.”

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