People Before Profit blog

We salute Joyce Wheeler

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 07:07:00 +0000

We salute Joyce Wheeler on her retirement from the Baltimore City Public Schools.

She has given 38 years of devoted service to the children of our city.

We love and admire you, Joyce, for:

• being an exemplary elementary classroom teacher for 27 years

• being a staunch BTU building rep who walked the picket lines in 1975

• toiling for 11 years to raise science literacy as Baltimore’s only elementary science specialist

• advocating for quality public education and against privatization

• actively engaging in the movement for world peace and equality

No apple is sweet enough for this teacher who truly left no child behind

We wish you many years of a peaceful, happy, active retirement!

Judy Ann Alberti, Terrie Albano & John Bachtell, Mark Almberg & Sarah Staggs, Jim & Margaret Baldridge, Les & Pam Bayless, Marilyn Bechtel, Debbie A. Bell, Dennis Barnebey, Baltimore-Matanzas Sister City Association, Dan Burdick, Marion “Honey Bee” Burns, Andrea Bowden, Winfield & Solin Coleman, Kamela Carnes & Family, Jeanette Davis, Jeanne Dresser-Silverberg, Armeta Dixon, Jenn & Sam Delgado, Helen & Garland Evans, Cindy Farquhar & Sharon Jones, Peter French, Gabe Falsetta, Joelle Fishman & Art Perlo, The Greens in Chesapeake, VA, Dr. David Gillespie & Francie Zembower, Ted Gilbert, Carl Gentile, Frances Gabow & Rookie Perna, Kae Halonen & Sam Stark, Lilo Heller, Herman Heyn, John & Karolyn Huffman, Erika Hamerquist, Leah Lurie Heyn, Susan & Mike Horton, Valency Hastings, Rosita B. Johnson, Marlene Jordan & Sam Friend, Brooke Jacobson, Estelle Katz, Linea & Mikko King, Joyce Kramer, Juan Lopez, Pepe Lozano, Rollin & Mary Morford, Diane Mohney & John Vago, Salima Siler Marriott, Caroli Mullen, Scott Marshall, Elena Mora, Barbara A. Meyers, Dan Margolis, John Neubauer, Max Obuszewski, Wayne Ostlund, Melissa O’Rourke, Dick Ochs, The Raders, Theresa Reuter, Barbara Russum, Patti Struthers, Mary L. Smith, Peggy & Ben Sears, Mike Shulman, Seymour & Carmen, Mary M. Thurlow, Rose Nyenewe Taylor, Kay & Walter Tillow, Carolyn Trowbridge, Jarvis Tyner, Steve Valencia, Steve Vause & Carlyn Syvanen, Betsy Wheeler Valle, Morgan P. Wheeler, Anita C. Wheeler, Maureen, Sean & Nick Wheeler, Tina, Chelsea, Erin Wheeler & Tion Watters, Tim Wheeler, Sam Webb, Lena & Walter White, Walker/Bennett Family, Carl Wood, Susan Webb, John Wojcik, Roberta Wood, Jill Warzer, and a group of Joyce’s co-workers.

Immigrants fight for family values

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 06:48:00 +0000

Though most observers have concluded that immigration reform is dead until after the 2008 elections, many immigrant rights activists are continuing to fight. They are especially fired up by the sharp increase in immigration raids and deportations, which are shattering families nationwide.

On July 17, several hundred U.S. citizen children and other relatives of immigrants facing deportation rallied in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., where a class action suit on their behalf has been submitted, and then marched to the White House to demand a moratorium on deportations.

The children and their adult companions also met with congressional leaders, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), chair of the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship, to call for action to protect their rights.

Among the organizers of the actions were La Familia Latina Unida/Sin Fronteras from Chicago and Families for Freedom from New York.

In 1996, Congress passed and President Clinton signed two draconian bills that have had a devastating impact on families with immigrant breadwinners: the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA) and the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.

These laws have stripped away due process protections from documented immigrants and their citizen families.

• They greatly increased the types of criminal convictions that could lead to deportation of a documented noncitizen. Some are relatively minor things which often get young people into trouble: low-level drug possession, possession of stolen property, shoplifting, charges arising from youthful fights and so forth.

• They made this retroactive, so that a crime committed, and atoned for, as much as 30 years before, which at that time would not have triggered deportation, now does. Immigration agents have been arresting and deporting people who were convicted decades ago, even if they have been pillars of the community since.

• They reduced immigrants’ ability to appeal their deportation because of legitimate fear of persecution in their country of origin, damage to their family or longstanding ties in the United States.

A recent Human Rights Watch report — “Forced Apart: Families Separated and Immigrants Harmed by United States Deportation Policy” — reveals that the number of deportations per year nearly tripled from 1997 (just after IIRAIRA came into force) to 2005, from 37, 724 to 90,426. In that period, 672,593 legal immigrants were deported.

Since IIRAIRA was passed, at least 1.6 million spouses and children of legal noncitizens have been impacted by the deportation of a family member. At least 540,000 of these spouses and children are citizens. They face a choice between leaving the U.S. with the deported relative or seeing their family broken up between two countries.

Commenting on the situation of Elvira Arellano, the Mexican undocumented immigrant who since August 2006 has taken sanctuary in a Chicago church to protect her 8-year-old U.S. citizen son, anti-immigrant commentators have breezily claimed, “After all, he can always go to Mexico with her.” But it is not so simple.

First, it is not necessarily true that the country to which a parent is deported has to accept the U.S.-born children also. Usually they don’t automatically accept a U.S. citizen spouse. In Mexico, which does accept the U.S.-born children of its emigrant citizens, the living standards are likely to be drastically lower for the children than in the U.S., with a much greater chance that the child will have to drop out of school to work and help support the family, often at dangerous marginal jobs such as street peddler or street performer.

Back in the USA, families divided by the arrest and deportation of a breadwinner usually find themselves in financial crisis. The remaining parent has to go out to work or work extra hours, and the children thus find that both parents have virtually disappeared. The family may have to move to worse housing in a worse neighborhood, with increased chances that the children will be sucked into trouble.

Far from constituting a solution to the problem of crime in this country, indiscriminate mass deportations may well exacerbate it because of the mayhem they wreak on the family and community structure.

All these things are documented in the Human Rights Watch report and in the testimony of the families who demonstrated in Washington.

Both call for the Bush administration and Congress to live up to the rhetoric about “family values,” which Bush famously said “don’t stop at the Rio Grande.” They demand passage of legislation such as HR 1176, the Child Citizen Protection Act, which would restore judges’ ability to take the impact on citizen children into account when deciding on deportations, and a moratorium on raids and deportations until this country’s immigration dilemma is fixed.

Emile Schepers is an immigrant rights activist.

CARTOON: Water privatization

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 06:41:00 +0000

LETTERS July 28

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 06:20:00 +0000

Abstinence-only flunks out

I was happy too see The New York Times headline “Abstinence education faces uncertain future.” The article discussed the numerous studies showing the ineffectiveness of abstinence-only education. It talked about how states are taking measures to replace abstinence-only programs with comprehensive sex education.

The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world by a large margin.

As a teenager who has spent time in both private and public high school, I can attest to the ineffectiveness of abstinence-only sex education. The classes feel more like propaganda sessions. The teachers don’t even attempt to give you real, unfiltered information. Contraceptive lessons were limited to failure rates and how no form of birth control would keep us “pure” for our future spouse. The courses didn’t play a significant role in our decisions concerning sex.

Discussing the issue with several European exchange students, I learned that in Europe, sex education is much more comprehensive, including frank discussion and lessons on the use of contraception. These measures have helped keep teen pregnancy rates less than half of what they are in the United States.

The rejection of abstinence-only education is a big step in the right direction. Finally science, statistics and sound reasoning, not the religious right, are setting government policy. Hopefully the steps taken by the Iowa, Colorado and Washington state legislatures and eleven other state health departments will be the beginning of a trend. My generation is being robbed of vital information we need to make informed decisions about our own bodies.

Jon Allen St. Charles IL

Sarkozy attack on labor

Details are not completely set as yet, but the French Senate has passed a new labor law that would severely curtail the rights of workers in France. This is the first step of right-wing President Nicholas Sarkozy, who has consolidated his power by attracting many right-wing socialists to his party.

Under the proposed new law, similar to the Thatcher anti-labor laws, the right to strike will be sharply limited. Unions seeking to strike must have all their members cast a vote, as if they were voting in an election, at a post office, and a strike vote must get a 50 percent plus one majority, six or so days prior to the strike date.

Then, if they strike, after the sixth day another vote is to be taken at the place of employment. Employers will be heavily involved in that vote.

All transport workers will be affected, as well as health and education workers.

The next step is a vote in the French Assembly.

Major demonstrations are planned throughout France in early September. Stay tuned.

Mike Tolochko Via e-mail

Write more letters

The New Haven Register did not publish my letter responding to their effort to justify Immigration and Custom Enforcement raids and breakup of peaceful working class immigrant families. Here are excerpts from my letter:

Is it the immigrants who are “illegal” or is it the warrantless break-in raids that are illegal?

Are these immigrant families “criminal” or are they hard-working, law-abiding, tax-paying commendable residents?

Many of the undocumented are victims of U.S. transnational corporations that have used one-sided trade and anti-union laws to drive 4 million Mexican farmers off their land. They faced a life-and-death drive to migrate to the U.S. to be able to feed, clothe and educate their families. They deserve praise and support, not condemnation.

I urge PWW readers to speak and write in support of immigrant workers’ rights. If this is done by union, church, community and family groups, letters will help each other to be published.

George Fishman New Haven CT

‘They shall build houses’

My friend Esther Cicconi and I attended an enormous gathering around the housing crisis, and Esther suggested I write this for both of us.

The organizers exceeded their expectations of turning out a thousand people to hear about the work being done to create more housing. Looking over the crowd in that large Catholic church, I saw what I love most about LA, our cultural diversity. The speakers and attendees also covered a broad spectrum of ages.

The interfaith event was organized by LA Voice – PICO, and had speakers from a variety of churches, government officials and grassroots activists telling personal stories and giving reports on their work.

The theme was printed prominently on the cover of the program: “They shall build houses and inhabit them, they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer shall they build and another inhabit, nor plant and another eat.” That’s from the prophet Isaiah speaking out in protest long ago.

Climaxing the evening, the three local officials were asked for commitments to work for specific goals outlined by the groups. All three answered “yes” to each question.

The goals are: 1) dramatically increase the Housing Department’s role in proactively educating tenants, 2) secure funding for the Housing Trust Fund, and 3) create a mixed-income housing strategy for Los Angeles.

It was exhilarating, showing the potential of faith-based communities working for good causes with their non-religious allies.

Oh, by the way, Happy 88th birthday, Esther Cicconi!

Carolfrances Likins Los Angeles CA

Good questions

Where have all the workers gone? West Coast foundry workers are told they “just pound sand and can be replaced by unemployed.”

“Service stations” are steadily being replaced by “gas stations” with no one to help drivers.

Numbers of Northwest Park Service workers have been eliminated and replaced by volunteers. As a result officials estimate it will take five years to replace trails and bridges destroyed by the 2006 floods.

Street cleaning and street garbage removal has been virtually eliminated so our streets gather dust.

Does this affect the quality of our lives?

Lonnie Nelson Seattle WA

No PWW next week

In keeping with our annual practice of skipping one issue each August, we will not publish a paper next week. Our first August issue will be dated Aug. 11-17.

We want to hear from you!

By mail: People’s Weekly World 3339 S. Halsted St. Chicago IL 60608

e-mail:

Letters should be limited to 200 words. We reserve the right to edit stories and letters. Only signed letters with the return address of the sender will be considered for publication, but the name of the sender will be withheld on request.

THIS WEEK IN LABOR July 28

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 05:19:00 +0000

New Kennedy bill would further boost minimum wage

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) announced July 24 that he has introduced a new minimum wage hike bill that would raise the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2011 and index it to inflation after that. The new bill was unveiled at a Capitol Hill celebration on the day that marked the first of the three stages in the minimum wage hike passed by Congress earlier this year, despite opposition from big business and an initial Bush veto.

The federal minimum wage is scheduled to rise to $7.25 an hour by 2009. It had been virtually frozen at $5.15 an hour for 11 years because of GOP opposition in Congress to any increase. The federal minimum was stalled for so long that 32 states hiked their own minimums above the $5.15 figure during that period. Some of them also indexed future raises to the cost of living.

Kennedy’s bill, if passed, would be historic because for the first time in 30 years it would set the minimum wage at a rate that equals 50 percent of the average hourly wage.

John Edwards, a Democratic candidate for president, has a $9.50 minimum wage by 2012 proposal written into his campaign platform.

Jack Kern, director of the Living Wage Resource Center for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, said his group will incorporate the Kennedy bill into its “Working Families Platform.” ACORN has been a leading organizer of and advocate for low-income families.

Kennedy’s initiative comes on the heels of a 10-year battle he waged for passage of the current minimum wage hike.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, another longtime advocate for the minimum wage hike, spoke at the Capitol Hill celebration where the Kennedy bill was unveiled and endorsed the measure.

Port truckers petition to be employees

Truck drivers at the Port of Oakland were joined by environmentalists and community leaders July 17 as they presented port commissioners with a petition saying they wish to become employees instead of being independent contractors.

The petition, signed by over 1,200 drivers, the great majority of drivers working regularly at the port, urged the commissioners “to ensure that all trucking companies recognize us as employees instead of independent contractors, so we can form a union with the Teamsters and improve our lives with better pay, benefits and respect.”

The petition also called on the port “to ensure that the financial burden of buying and maintaining clean trucks falls onto private industry, not the drivers or taxpayers.”

Driver Lorenzo Fernandez, flanked by fellow workers, told the commission, “We work 12 hours a day, we breathe the diesel fuel all that time. We don’t have health insurance; we can’t afford to buy new trucks or maintain the ones we have.”

Since deregulation of the industry in 1980, truckers have been classified as “independent contractors” ineligible for union membership.

It is estimated that between 1,200 and 1,500 truckers work for firms that contract with shippers like Wal-Mart and Home Depot to move goods at the Port of Oakland. They endure “sweatshop on wheels” conditions, with long hours of work and waiting time in return for low pay and no benefits.

Meanwhile, neighborhoods near the port suffer diesel pollution five times higher than surrounding areas.

The Port of Oakland is drafting a truck management plan as part of its Maritime Air Quality Improvement Program. The Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports, representing environmental, labor, faith, community and business organizations promoting sustainable economic development at West Coast ports, is calling on the Oakland port to establish a relationship with the trucking industry under which the drivers will become employees, the company will take responsibility to maintain the trucks, and a local hire program will focus on West Oakland residents.

Congress hears calls for single-payer national health care

Health care activists, including one woman whose family went broke because of high medical bills, used a congressional hearing on bankruptcy resulting from medical bills to push for government-run national health care.

A subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee gathered information on July 17 about the causes of bankruptcy and particularly about how many are caused by huge medical bills. More than 1 million people declare bankruptcy every year, and data released at the congressional hearing showed that medical bills account for as much as 46 percent of bankruptcies.

A common scenario was sketched out by Aurora, Colo., resident Donna Smith, who appeared briefly in the Michael Moore film “Sicko.” Smith’s husband was diagnosed with coronary artery disease and a hereditary arterial ailment. The coronary ailments required multiple surgeries.

Smith worked to support both of them, and the couple struggled to pay medical bills and premiums, until she was diagnosed with uterine cancer. They ran through their savings and sold the house. Still, the bills kept piling up and medical creditors started garnishing her paychecks, Smith testified.

“Bankruptcy was the only way to stop the garnishment,” but it didn’t stop the bills, she said. “Our problems with extreme medical costs and the resulting bankruptcy hurt a wide variety of businesses and individuals. We’re collateral damage of the national health care crisis, I guess.”

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), committee chair, lobbied for his own universal government-run single-payer health care bill (HR 676) and said it would prevent future bankruptcies. He said problems like the Smiths’ would occur less with it because his bill would cut costs by eliminating the huge profits made by insurers and by eliminating their “administrative” costs.

“It’s particularly difficult to separate the health care crisis from medical bankruptcy,” the veteran Democrat from Detroit said. “They’re tied together.”

“You are in a system of structural violence, where the statistics are so bad that the outcome will be bad too,” he said. “You’re trapped in a system of bad statistics on health care, longevity, death rates and birth rates — and all come in on you. Medical bankruptcy is one of the consequences of health care in America.”

Alluding to the auto industry, which is pushing to cut workers’ pay and retirees’ health care benefits, Conyers said: “Michigan people used to tell me that ‘Oh, HR 676 is fine, but I’m with the UAW and Ford, so I’m covered.’ They’re not telling me that anymore.”

AFL-CIO’s LGBT group urges marriage equality

Pride at Work, in mid-July, deplored the unfair denial of health benefits to same-sex partners of union-represented United Parcel Service employees in New Jersey and their families, and said the primary responsibility lies with the New Jersey Legislature, which failed to grant full marriage status to same-sex couples last year.

Pride at Work, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) constituency group of the AFL-CIO, is writing to New Jersey Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts and Senate President Richard Codey to ask them to scrap the civil union system and give same-sex couples the status of married couples.

“We know that the Teamsters Union and its LGBT members are working hard to rectify this situation,” said Nancy Wohlforth, Pride at Work’s co-president. “Nevertheless, it is the state Legislature that could quickly remedy the problem by changing the separate and unequal civil union status that it created for same-sex couples last December to full marriage equality.”

UPS denied health benefits to the families of two Teamster-represented drivers, claiming that drivers’ partners are not “spouses” under the civil union law. Pride at Work characterized this as hair splitting that is an unfortunate consequence of the Legislature’s failure to do the right thing last year when the state Supreme Court ordered that same-sex couples be afforded all rights and responsibilities granted to heterosexual couples.

“When the Legislature opted for civil union instead of marriage, it invited private parties to try to find ways to continue discriminating against same-sex couples,” said T Santora, co-president of Pride at Work. “It’s unfortunately all too predictable that the result would be this kind of unfair denial of vital health benefits to working families in New Jersey.”

This situation arose even as the Teamsters and UPS are negotiating a new national contract that will go into effect next year. Pride at Work has urged UPS to be fair on all outstanding issues, including benefits, wages, pensions and health care, but takes the position that the ball is in the New Jersey Legislature’s court. Last year, the group notes, when the civil union law was enacted, legislative leaders promised to revisit the issue if civil unions failed to deliver the promise of equality. “The verdict is in now,” Wohlforth declared.

“Now is the time for the Legislature to rectify the mistake it made last year, and give same-sex couples the only status that will prevent employers from discriminating against them,” said Wohlforth, adding, “That status is marriage, and nothing else will do.”

This Week in Labor is compiled by John Wojcik (jwojcik@pww.org). Marilyn Bechtel and Press Associates Inc. contributed.

Corn, chickens and capitalism

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 05:16:00 +0000

The economic driving force of production in capitalist society is profits. This usually leads to multiple contradictions between conflicting forces of capital.

Take the current energy crisis.

It has at least two related origins. First is the dramatic increase in global warming, which threatens to radically change life on the planet. The second is the rapid depletion of stores of fossil fuel, whose combustion is mainly responsible for global warming.

U.S. capitalism has reacted to both challenges.

It responded to the latter challenge with the tragic war in Iraq and the establishment of permanent military bases to control the dwindling sources of petroleum.

It is responding to both challenges by diverting food supplies like corn and sugarcane to “feed” the world’s 800 million vehicles. This diversion includes destruction of forests, wetlands and rainforests to plant more crops for fuel. This in turn adds to global warming by eliminating trees, which act as “sinks” by absorbing carbon dioxide.

Brazil is the world’s leader in ethanol-for-energy with hundreds of miles of sugarcane plantations, much of them created by destroying vast areas of the Amazon rainforest.

The U.S. relies on corn. Corn only yields 354 gallons of ethanol per acre, compared to 662 gallons per acre for sugarcane. In 2006, 17 percent of the U.S. corn crop was converted to ethanol to provide only 3 percent of our fuel needs. To protect U.S. corn agribusiness, refiners in the U.S. get a 51-cent credit for every gallon of ethanol blended into gasoline, while a 54-cent tariff is levied on Brazilian ethanol.

In political maneuvering, Democratic Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Joe Biden (Del.) joined Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, another Democrat, to sponsor legislation requiring the production of 30 billion gallons of ethanol and biodiesel per year by 2020 and 60 billion by 2030.

In his State of the Union address, President Bush upped the ante to 35 billion gallons by 2017, optimistically predicting it will supply 15 percent of our fuel needs by then. The Senate passed an energy bill that boosts that to 36 billion — six times the current level.

However, it is not all clear sailing for the ethanol industry. The prices of both corn and sugar have doubled since the recent ethanol boom.

Corn is a major ingredient in processed foods and is the main livestock feed. The Agriculture Department recently reported that corn for ethanol is driving up the cost of animal feed. Meat prices are expected to rise dramatically.

The USDA projects that 90.5 million acres of corn have been planted this year, 15 percent more than 2006. This surge drives up prices of other crops such as soybeans and cotton by decreasing their acreage planted, not to mention destroying forests and wetlands.

The usually united farm lobby is not so united now. With the threat of increased costs, the beef, chicken, poultry and pork industries formed the Coalition for Balanced Food and Fuel. Groups such as the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association blame the ethanol industry for raising the price of corn.

Also, a coalition of 12 environmental groups lobbied Congress, saying that our lands and forests are endangered. They won a committee’s approval for an amendment that prohibits the Environmental Protection Agency from relaxing air quality standards for ethanol plants.

The House is drafting its version of an energy bill. The ethanol industry doesn’t expect strong support from the House and is relying on a Senate and House conference later this year.

The diversion of food crops to provide increasing demands for fuel will have dire consequences, especially for the billions of people who live in chronic hunger and for the ecology of the planet. The only winners will be the multinational agrichemical corporations.

Lost in the scramble for profits is a realistic analysis of possible solutions. The 5 percent or so gain in fuel supplies using ethanol could be met many times over by raising auto fuel efficiency by an easily obtainable 20 percent, or by a major investment in public transportation and bicycle paths, or by challenging the “throw-away” economy with a massive recycling industry, or by rejuvenating our urban centers while limiting the destructive suburban sprawl, or by major investments in renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.

These alternatives are not included in the agenda of the ethanol or oil industries, which have enormous resources to direct public perceptions and influence government. Real solutions will only occur by programs of education and political action by the peoples of the world.

David Kennell (kennell @borcim.wustl.edu) is professor emeritus of molecular microbiology at the Washington University School of Medicine.

WORLD NOTES July 28

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 05:10:00 +0000

Germany: Nuclear plant shutdowns renew debate

Two nuclear plants near Hamburg, Germany, closed down in early July following a short-circuit and fire at the Brunsbuettel plant, Germany’s oldest, and an automatic shutdown at the Kreummel facility. The incidents had state officials demanding that the Swedish company Vattenfall be removed as operator of the plants.

Government leaders and power generating companies recently met to determine the nuclear industry’s potential contribution to a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gases ordered by the European Union. Industry leaders are pressuring the government to reverse a 1998 decision by the Social Democratic and Green government to phase out nuclear energy.

In response, environmental and energy groups contend that nuclear plants are inefficient, accident prone, environmentally dangerous and prey to eventual uranium shortages.

Worldwide, minimal reduction of greenhouse gases would require 3,000 new plants, according to radiation expert Wilhelm Koenig, quoted by Inter Press Service. Nuclear energy accounts for 12.5 percent of Germany’s electricity use.

Iraq: Anti-sectarian activist murdered

On July 4, U.S. and Iraqi forces killed Abdel-Hussein Saddam in his home. Saddam was a leader of the Iraqi Freedom Congress, which joins trade unionists, community leaders, and women’s and children’s rights activists in work toward “a democratic, secular and progressive alternative both to the U.S. occupation and political Islam in Iraq,” according to its web site.

The Freedom Congress’ so-called safety force, headed by Saddam and staffed by volunteers, has tried to protect Sunnis and Shiites alike from sectarian violence utilizing mediation, humanitarian support and cooperatives. Its SANA TV inaugurated its first broadcast the day before the killing by reporting on the Iraqi oil law being pushed by Washington. SANA receives funding support from throughout the world, including U.S. Labor Against the War. That group communicated with U.S. Secretaries Robert Gates and Condoleezza Rice: “Words are inadequate to describe our outrage at this heinous criminal assassination at the hands of U.S. and Iraqi military forces.”

India: U.S. military ties criticized

In a July 13 press statement, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) expressed concern about a five-day joint naval exercise in September hosted by India in the Bay of Bengal and joined by the United States, Japan, Australia and Singapore. The CPI(M) suggested that India is on the verge of joining with Japan and Australia as U.S. military allies without public debate.

The exercises will involve 20 warships, including nuclear submarines and three aircraft carriers, plus shore-based Indian aircraft, according to India-Defense.com. The Chinese government condemned similar maneuvers off Japan in June.

Uganda: UN demands rebels release children

The UN Security Council’s Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict last week called on the anti-government Lord’s Resistance Army to unconditionally release children used in its ranks, the UN’s IRIN news agency said.

“The LRA has ignored the repeated calls from the international community for too long, and we hope they will now immediately undertake actions for the sake of these children,” said UN Special Representative Radhika Coomasawamy.

The Working Group also appealed to all parties in Somalia to stop recruiting children and to demobilize those serving as soldiers.

Meanwhile, in the Republic of the Congo, the government, UNICEF and the Catholic Church’s Justice and Peace Diocesan Commission agreed at a meeting in Brazzaville to work to end child trafficking in the country. Their joint project will focus on rehabilitation, reintegration and education.

A UNICEF and Congolese government report published earlier this month said child trafficking occurred in neighboring countries as well, with traffickers bringing children into the country with promises of easy visas for Europe or South Africa.

El Salvador: Privatization protest attacked

Public Services International is urging support for its affiliate in El Salvador after the union and community allies were attacked by national police July 2 as they held a public meeting in Suchitoto to protest government plans to privatize the water industry.

The police brutally attacked protesters and passers-by with gunfire and tear gas. Some 16 people were arbitrarily detained and over 50 injured, PSI said. Two people were taken by helicopter and suspended in the air over the River Lempa. The police threatened to drop them into the water unless they stated that the FMLN had planned to organize the protests.

“These acts of persecution, the arbitrary arrests, and the use of helicopters are reminiscent of the grim days of military dictatorship and repression in Central America,” PSI said.

The United Front for a New Country has officially complained to the Legislative Assembly, demanding immediate release of all prisoners and a special commission to investigate the police violence.

World Notes are compiled by W.T. Whitney Jr. (atwhit @megalink.net). Marilyn Bechtel contributed to this week’s notes.

IAEA to inspect quake-struck Japanese plant

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 05:07:00 +0000

After initially refusing the International Atomic Energy Agency’s offer of assistance, the Japanese government said July 22 that it would permit IAEA inspectors to visit the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, damaged last week by an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale.

Japanese chief cabinet secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said the government would cooperate with the IAEA inspectors. “It will be important for Japan and the IAEA to work together and to analyze the results carefully,” he told journalists. “We will cooperate with the inspectors and will probably be making the inspections together.”

The IAEA inspection was requested by the governor of Niigata prefecture, Hirohiko Izumida. IAEA personnel are expected to arrive in early August.

The July 16 quake killed 10 people, injured more than 1,800, and forced thousands more to leave their homes for makeshift shelters. Nearly 1,000 homes were destroyed and over 700 more severely damaged.

When seismic data from the quake was analyzed, it was revealed that the plant, which was built to withstand a quake of 6.5 on the Richter scale, sits on a previously unknown fault line.

The quake caused a fire, leakage of water containing radioactive material into the sea, and a spill of low-level radioactive waste. The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., was widely criticized for issuing initial reports minimizing the quake’s effect, which it later had to correct.

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant is the world’s largest nuclear power facility in terms of output. Japan’s nuclear power plants provide 30 percent of the country’s electric power.

The plants have been plagued with safety problems. In 2005, a Tokyo court dismissed a lawsuit filed by 33 people living near the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility, who alleged the government had not conducted sufficient safety reviews when the plant was built in the 1970s.

Last week’s quake also raised broader concerns about increasing reliance on nuclear power in Japan and other countries.

Hideaki Ban, director of the Tokyo-based Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center, told Inter Press Service that the accident showed poor planning and illustrated the government’s determination to expand nuclear power in tandem with leading electric power firms.

“There have been several accidents in nuclear plants across Japan but officials toe the same line — revisions rather than holding Japanese operators of nuclear reactors responsible by stopping the plants,” he said. “The target is money rather than safety.”

Greenpeace International’s Jan Beranek told IPS, “Nuclear power undermines real solutions to climate change, by diverting resources away from the massive development of clean energy the world urgently needs. What’s more,” he added, “climate change will increase natural disasters, in turn posing a greater risk to nuclear power plants, and to our safety.”

The nationwide newspaper Asahi Shimbun this week cited a government probe following the July 16 quake and fire, that found 10 of Japan’s 11 companies operating nuclear power plants are not equipped to fight a fire at their nuclear facilities.

Although the 10 other utilities maintained in-house fire squads, only a spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant operated by Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. had fulltime firefighters on duty around the clock. The newspaper noted that since the quake damaged water pipes used by the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant’s fire-extinguishing system, not enough water was available to put out the fire. The blaze was finally doused by firefighters two hours later.

mbechtel @pww.org

Iraqi children suffering psychological damage

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 05:05:00 +0000

BAGHDAD (IRIN) — For two months, Obeid Jaafar Khalifa, 52, has been worrying about how he will cope with looking after his deceased brother’s four children. Obeid already has six of his own children to look after.

“In total, I have to feed 10 children in addition to my wife and me,” said Khalifa, an employee at Iraq’s Agriculture Ministry. He took over responsibility for the children when a car bomb killed their parents five months ago.

The example of Khalifa’s taking in his brother’s children highlights the plight of children orphaned by the violence in Iraq. The UN Children’s Agency (UNICEF) said in its update earlier this month on the plight of Iraqi children that the number of war orphans was rising because of the high civilian death toll.

UNICEF is increasingly concerned that the number of vulnerable children in Iraq has outstripped the country’s capacity to care for them.

“Families left to care for children who have lost one or both parents are already stressed to the limit, unable to cope with extra burdens. Many of Iraq’s skilled social workers have been leaving the country,” the report said.

Citing the UN’s civilian casualty figures for 2006 which indicate up to 100 civilian deaths per day, UNICEF said: “Thousands, if not tens of thousands, of children will have lost at least one parent. And if violence continues at current levels, even more will lose a parent in 2007.”

“Such children will be automatically deprived of their rights and are likely to fall into potentially harmful forms of labor,” said Kholoud Nasser Muhssin, a researcher on family and children’s affairs affiliated with the University of Baghdad.

“Some 60-70 percent of Iraqi children in Iraq are suffering from psychological problems and their future is not bright,” Muhssin said.

“Some lost their parents or one of their family members or relatives; others witnessed traumatic events or were subjected to sexual harassment,” Muhssin added.

“Iraq’s conflict is taking an immense and unnoticed psychological toll on children and youth that will have long-term consequences,” said Bilal Youssif Hamid, a Baghdad-based child psychiatrist.

“The lack of resources means the social impact will be very bad and the coming generations, especially this one, will be aggressive,” Hamid added.

According to UNICEF, half of Iraq’s 4 million people who have fled their homes since 2003 are children. Many were killed inside their schools or playgrounds, and gangs routinely kidnap children for ransom.

Since the beginning of this year, Hamid has treated 310 children and teenagers for psychological problems, most ranging in age from 6 to 16. In the past year he has seen about 750 cases.

Last year the World Health Organization conducted a survey of 600 children aged 3-10 in Baghdad. Forty-seven percent were found to have been exposed to a major traumatic event over the past two years.

Of this group, 14 percent showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. In a second study of 1,090 adolescents in the northern city of Mosul, 30 percent showed symptoms of the disorder.

Many of the children Hamid treats have witnessed killings. They have anxiety problems and suffer from depression. Some have recurring nightmares and wet their beds. Others have problems learning at school.

NATIONAL CLIPS July 28

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 04:28:00 +0000

DES MOINES, Iowa: Voters ratchet up pressure for Iraq withdrawal

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley probably thought coming home meant family picnics with sweet corn, instead of scores of constituents outside his home office windows, July 18, protesting his recent vote to continue funding for the Iraq war.

“Senator Grassley’s vote for endless war is an insult to Iowans who overwhelmingly oppose President Bush’s policy of endless war,” said Sue Dinsdale, whose son served in Iraq. “Sen. Grassley chose obstructionist party loyalty over his constituents and the security of this country and the people of Iowa are not going to take this lying down.”

Dinsdale is one of nearly 100 organizers in 15 states and about 30 congressional districts working on the “Iraq Summer” campaign initiated by Americans Against Escalation in Iraq. Modeled after the historic Freedom Summer of the civil rights movement, the 10-week project is targeting Republican members of Congress who voted against setting a date certain to bring the troops home and to cut war funding.

Over 150 similar events were held nationwide.

When GOP Sen. Norm Coleman pulled onto his street in St. Paul, Minn., 20 of his neighbors had yard signs up reading “Support the troops. End the war.”

Lisa Switzer had her group ready at Sen. John Warner’s office in Annadale, Va. “It’s time Sen. Warner and his fellow Republicans … stopped playing these petty games and started representing their constituents by voting to bring this war to a safe and responsible end,” she said. “If Sen. Warner thought he could escape public retribution … he’s sadly mistaken. We’ll be knocking on more doors, holding more rallies outside his office, continuing our ‘call Congress’ campaigns and placing more and more signs on lawns across this state.”

HOUSTON: BP fined for safety hazards, again

On July 20, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined oil giant BP Plc $92,000, citing the company for safety violations discovered in January at its Texas City, Texas, plant.

Federal inspectors found conditions at the plant were similar to those that preceded a March 2005 explosion that resulted in the deaths of 15 workers and injured scores more. Last September, in connection with that blast, BP was cited for 300 willful violations of safety regulations and was fined $21.3 million.

In the current case, OSHA cited BP with allegedly failing to ensure that a pressure relief system at the plant conforms to industry codes. It said BP failed to ensure that a special “fractionator” processing unit was functioning properly, that piping and instrument diagrams were accurate, that the correct type of valves were being used, and that adequate safety measures were being taken with electrical equipment near flammable liquids and gases.

The Houston Chronicle quoted Lynn Baker, a spokeswoman for the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union, as saying, “Hopefully this will be the last time there are such fines.”

JACKSON, Miss.: Teenage girls sue to halt prison abuse

“Our state must stop sponsoring child abuse,” said Sheila Bedi, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mississippi Youth Justice Project (SPLC). “Girls at the Columbia Training School [a juvenile prison] not only are being routinely abused, humiliated and injured, they are being denied the most basic services that the law requires.”

SPLC and Mississippi Protection and Advocacy, Inc., a congressionally authorized nonprofit agency that enforces civil rights of people with disabilities, recently filed suit against the state in federal court on behalf of six girls, ages 13-17, who are being held in the Columbia, Miss., facility. All were sentenced to prison for nonviolent offenses, and all suffer mental illness and are victims of past physical or sexual abuse.

“We filed this suit reluctantly and after several failed attempts to negotiate with the state,” said Bedi. “We would much rather see the state’s resources go toward caring for our children than defending the indefensible.”

The suit alleges that five of the girls were shackled for 12 hours a day for periods ranging from eight days to a month because prison authorities thought they were planning an escape. One girl was assaulted by a male guard while confined to an isolated area. Three of the girls cut themselves while on suicide watch and were denied psychological attention during solitary confinement.

In 2003, a U.S. Justice Department investigation of the Columbia prison revealed that guards routinely pole-shackled and hogtied girls with chains. The department took the state to court and a consent decree was reached in 2005. Follow-up reports show that the state failed to implement reforms mandated by the court.

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

NYC steam explosion seen as warning

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 04:25:00 +0000

NEW YORK (AP) — With a blast that made skyscrapers tremble, an 83-year-old steam pipe sent a powerful message that the miles of tubes, wires and iron beneath New York and other U.S. cities are getting older and could become dangerously unstable.

The steam conduit that exploded beneath a Manhattan street at the height of rush hour July 18, just a block from Grand Central Terminal, was laid when Calvin Coolidge was president, and was part of a system that began providing energy to city buildings in 1882.

The explosion killed one person and injured dozens, some seriously.

Investigators are still trying to determine the explosion’s cause, but some experts said the age of the city’s infrastructure was a possible factor.

“This may be a warning sign for this very old network of pipes that we have,” said Anil Agrawal, a professor of civil engineering at the City College of New York. “We should not be looking at this incident as an isolated one.”

From Boston to Los Angeles, a number of American cities are entering a middle age of sorts, and the infrastructure propping them up is showing signs of strain.

The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates it will take $1.6 trillion over the next five years to get the nation’s roads, bridges, dams, water systems and airports into good condition.

But replacing old parts in a labyrinth of cables, tunnels and piping, often extending hundreds of feet down, is rarely easy.

“The fact that all of this stuff is crowded together in a very small space can also make accidents worse,” said Rae Zimmerman, director of the Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems at New York University.

“When one thing goes, other things go. When you have a water main break, it will wash out a street and break a gas line,” she said.

In New York City, home to the largest steam system in the world, steam is pumped through more than 100 miles of mains and service pipes to customers such as the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center. It is also widely used by dry cleaners and hospitals.

Consolidated Edison, the utility that operates the steam system, insisted its equipment is in good shape. The company said it is spending $20 million this year on upgrades, and has been removing older cast-iron components, eliminating asbestos from manholes and installing improved joints less likely to fail.

A dozen air samples showed the explosion did not leave asbestos in the air, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

Still, officials were asking residents to be cautious and to turn in their dust-covered clothes to emergency crews. A yellow tape blocked off a zone of several square blocks surrounding the site.

Some speculate that rainwater or water from a main break somehow seeped onto the pipe, and the sudden interaction between cold water and super-hot steam burst the conduit.

Con Ed said some components of the system are examined about every six weeks, but steam mains underground are generally not inspected because doing so often requires digging up the street.

That is something that should change immediately, Agrawal said. Robotic probes can detect corrosion or damage to steam pipes from within, without having to dig them up, he said.

We need your photos!

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 04:16:00 +0000

When I was younger, I walked into the Columbus, Ohio, Associated Press office inquiring about a job in photography. The manager asked me the same question he asked all the other young hopefuls who showed up every day looking for a job: “How many photographers do you think I have here in this city?” I’ve forgotten what I said, but not what he said. He told me, “I only have two. In the entire state!”

Any good newspaper needs photos — and we can’t rely on The Associated Press — they tend to ignore the people’s movements and struggles that we cover. We also don’t have enough staff to photograph everything.

And that is where you and your camera come in.

When something takes place in your neck of the woods, take your camera along.

Here are some pointers:

• Crowd shots: While showing crowd size is important, we also want close-up photos of families, organizations and individuals. We want to show humanity.

• Sometimes, when taking pictures, we are standard and repetitive in our approach. When workers are on strike, we take numerous photos of the picket line, trying to get it all in. But when it comes to a strike or demonstrations, there are many possibilities for good, strong photos. What about a close up of parents with their kid, or a picture — and a quote — of someone who refuses to cross a picket line? Pictures can be taken of people preparing or passing out signs, setting up the picket line, talking with the public, etc. The best picture may not even be on the picket line.

• When photographing children, it can help to get close to them and down to their level. Otherwise we are looking down on them in the final print.

• We publish in Spanish and English — photos with signs in Spanish are just as needed as photos with English signs.

• The photo editor needs a variety of pictures to choose from, so take a number of shots.

• Photograph subjects from different locations when possible, taking vertical and horizontal shots from both sides and front. Most photos are taken as horizontals because that’s the way we hold our cameras. Don’t forget the verticals. When we are taking pictures we have no way of knowing in advance if the page layout will call for a vertical or horizontal picture or what side of the page it will be going on. If all the pictures of a march show the people walking to the left, and the picture has to go on the left side of the page, then we have a picture showing the people marching off the page.

And if you see the PWW being passed out or someone reading an issue, be sure to get a picture!

Your photo can wind up in the People’s Weekly World.

kbesaw @pww.org

Remember Soweto

Sat, 21 Jul 2007 05:33:00 +0000

For many years, on June 16/Soweto Day, protesters confronted the apartheid South African government at embassies and consulates around the world. The day commemorates the 15,000 school children of Soweto who marched peacefully to protest apartheid education in 1976. At least 60 students were killed, 200 wounded, and others jailed when the racist South African police force attacked them.

This year, Chicago protesters were invited by the South African Consulate for the 31st anniversary of Soweto. Chicago’s Consulate General Yusuf Omar was one of those students in Soweto. Now he’s inviting the protesters into the offices that we so regularly confronted. It’s good to remember and celebrate some victories.

Huge protests in Peru against profiteering

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 07:45:00 +0000

Social upheaval in Peru culminated July 13 with President Alan Garcia calling upon the armed forces to join 15,000 national police in attempting to quell nationwide protests organized by the General Confederation of Peruvian Workers.

Teachers protesting low pay and school privatization closed 70 percent of the schools. Mineworkers, coca growers, construction workers and small farmers carried out strikes, highway blockades and mass rallies in opposition to lax labor law enforcement, the U.S free trade agreement, the privatization of pensions and high mining profits.

Garcia’s approval ratings have dropped from 63 percent to 42 percent over the first year of his presidency. Peru’s poverty rate is 50 percent.

Quoted by the Mercosur news service, Mario Huamán, general secretary of the labor federation, condemned the army’s involvement as “a sign of authoritarianism, to keep control through repression, in conformity to what [Garcia’s] political allies require of him, the political right and the economically powerful.”

Texans grapple with pollution, chemical hazards

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 07:43:00 +0000

TEXAS CITY, Texas — Members from at least 10 unions convened at United Steelworkers Local 13-1 here July 10 to discuss how air pollutants affect health and safety. They met with Dr. Jonathan B. Ward Jr., a national authority on environmental toxicology at the University of Texas.

Ward told the group that ozone has regularly reached high levels at Scholes International Airport in nearby Galveston, and that “we’re badly out of compliance and in violation of ozone standards.” He said the greater Houston area has long been out of compliance with standards set by the federal Clean Air Act.

Galveston is a resort area on the Gulf of Mexico. Texas City, home of a number of chemical plants, including the infamous BP plant where 15 workers were killed in an explosion in 2005, is only 15 miles to the north.

Chemical plants and diesel vehicles produce high levels of nitrogen oxide and volatile air compounds which result in ozone when exposed to sunlight. Ward noted that federal clean air regulations prohibit an area from exceeding pollution by more than 85 parts per billion more than three times in a three-year period.

The Houston area, about 50 miles to the northwest, “typically has 30 to 35 noncompliance days per year,” Ward said. People with health problems are hit hard by ozone toxicity. “High levels of ozone are followed by a day or so of increased doctor or emergency room visits, mainly from respiratory disease. … People who have pre-existing bronchitis or asthma are the first to see the effects.”

Lee Medley, president of the Galveston County AFL-CIO, told the audience that his daughter has asthma, and this may be a result of her involvement in outdoor sports such as soccer and track in high school. “We want to work to ensure safety and health for our families and workers,” he said. “We want to live in a safe community.”

In a related development, Linda Hunnings, the widow of a contract worker killed in the BP explosion in Texas City, testified before a U.S. Senate panel on July 10. She demanded that the federal government do more to address industrial safety problems.

Her husband, Jim Hunnings, was a quality control inspector with the Fluor Corp. and was killed along with 14 others in the BP blast. She questioned the purpose of agencies such as Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, since they have not prevented a number of major industrial accidents.

The Houston Chronicle reviewed OSHA records from 2002 through 2006 and found that “regulators hadn’t conducted unplanned inspections at most area refineries in those five years, instead inspecting mostly in response to complaints or accidents.”

Hunnings said her husband had called the BP plant “an accident waiting to happen” prior to his death.

“I can remember that when his supervisor called to ask him to go to Texas City, he was sure he was going to ask him to go to Iraq, as he had many times before,” Hunnings testified. “Jim made the statement ‘Iraq-BP — what a choice.’”

Several months ago, the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board found that BP management lacked commitment to safety and noted there was lax regulatory oversight at the plant prior to the disaster. The chairperson of the board, Carolyn Merritt, concluded, “The accident was predictable as well as preventable.”

Hunnings voiced support for legislation sponsored by Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) which would make willful company violations of safety standards that result in the death of a contract employee subject to criminal prosecution. She also supported a bill introduced by Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) that would require employers to report contract workers’ injuries or deaths to OSHA in the same manner as they do for their own employees. Such reports are not currently required.

Hunnings, who was a petrochemical industry worker in the past, stated, “I will do whatever is necessary to advocate change in the petrochemical industry.”

phill1917 @comcast.net

Baseball honors the Say-Hey Kid

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 07:39:00 +0000

Hall of Famer and baseball legend Willie “the Say-Hey Kid” Mays was honored at the 2007 Major League Baseball All Star game on July 10, at the San Francisco Giants’ waterfront ballpark.

Before the game the 76-year-old Mays, wearing a Giants cap and jacket with his No. 24, made a ceremonial first throw from center field, his old stomping grounds. His godson Barry Bonds and Yankees captain Derek Jeter escorted Mays on the field, where he gave his jacket to Ken Griffey Jr.

Mays then got into a shiny 1958 Cadillac Eldorado that took him on a pre-game lap around the field where he threw baseballs to fans inside the park. “I would love to hit in this ballpark,” Mays told The Associate Press.

As a player with the New York Giants in 1954, Mays is remembered as making a legendary over-the-shoulder basket catch with his back to the plate and then gunning the ball home in the opening game of the World Series match against Cleveland.

After beginning his career in New York, Mays moved to San Francisco with the Giants in 1958 where he played for 15 seasons. He hit 660 homers during his career, and played in 24 All Star games. He earned first-ballot election to the Hall of Fame in 1979.

In the July 10 All Star game, the American League won 5-4, due to Ichiro Suzuki who hit the first inside-the-park home run in the history of the midseason event. Suzuki plays centerfield for the Seattle Mariners. He went 3-for-3 and was named the MVP.

plozano @pww.org

Grab a book and read: PWW summer reading picks

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 07:35:00 +0000

PWW readers and correspondents sent in their favorite summer reading suggestions to share with you. Enjoy!

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez (Penguin). A great novel set in the Dominican Republic, based on the true story of three sisters who join the underground resistance to the Trujillo dictatorship. Clara Webb

A Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (Knopf). A very moving elegy describing the frailty of being after losing those closest. While critics might point out that her external circumstantial choices were mitigated by class privilege, the interior map of anguish is universal. Marguerite Horberg

Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr., M.D. (Avery). The story of the first successful reversal of heart disease — a 20-year study of 24 patients the Cleveland Clinic Cardiology Department had given up on. Also has more than 150 vegan recipes. Rick Nagin

Cronies: How Texas Business Became American Policy and Brought Bush to Power by Robert Bryce (Public Affairs/Perseus Books Group). If you think that you know everything bad about George Bush, his background and his financial friends, read Robert Bryce’s very readable work of progressive journalism. Norman Markowitz

Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran (Knopf). Cord MacGuire

Palestine: Peace not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter (Simon & Schuster). Judith Le Blanc

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon (Picador). This book is elegant in its use of language and stirring in its accounts of the struggles of Jews in World War II. It follows the “rise” of two fictional comic book writers and their “amazing adventures” in New York. Joel Wendland

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (Atlantic Monthly Press). A beautiful novel whose theme is the lingering effects of colonialism. Susan Webb

Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill (Nation Books). It won’t make you feel warm and fuzzy but this is an important book. Jeremy Scahill has done the research and presents in a very readable fashion the story of Blackwater mercenaries, who showed up on the streets of New Orleans after Katrina, and who are involved big-time in Iraq and elsewhere. Nick Bart

Freshwater Road by Denise Nicholas (Agate Publishers). A 2005 novel of the Civil Rights Summer of 1964 by former SNCC worker and actress (“Room 222,” “In the Heat of the Night”) Denise Nicholas. Nicholas left the Univ. of Michigan as an undergraduate to register voters in Mississippi that fateful and fatal summer, and she captures the mood — the bravery in the face of terror and hate — that the young Black and white volunteers showed in the segregated South. This book has been recognized as one of the finest ever written about the modern civil rights movement, and it ought to be assigned in as many American classrooms as such novels as “Silas Marner” or “Great Expectations” have been. John Woodford

Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America’s Energy Future by Jeff Goodell (Houghton Mifflin). It is not a tome, but is highly accessible and reads like a thriller. Denise Winebrenner Edwards

Revolution in Texas by Dr. Benjamin Heber Johnson (Yale University Press). Tells how big corporations managed to get all the Rio Grande Valley away from the rancheros. Jim Lane

Push by Sapphire (Random House). It’s a shocking read, but might be for those who want to become familiar with a dark depth of human pain and the struggle to become literate and whole. The language is very explicit and in some instances it took my breath away. Dee Myles

The Devil’s Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea (Back Bay Books). Through this tragic story of a group of immigrants who become lost in an unforgiving stretch of desert on the U.S./Mexico border, the reader gains insights into the realities that have characterized the mix of poverty, immigration, politics and bureaucracy. It’s a very human story. Roberto Botello

Marvelous World, Book 1: The Marvelous Effect by Troy Cle (Simon & Schuster). Set in East Orange, N.J., this fantasy-adventure features young protagonist Louis Proof who listens to hip-hop, races radio-controlled cars, and spends time poking around the local junkyard. Barbara Russum

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling (Scholastic). No summer reading list would be complete without this suggestion. Teresa Albano

Why they migrate

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 07:33:00 +0000

It appears that none of the Republican presidential candidates have respect for the words on the Statue of Liberty, as all would take harsh measures against immigrants. It also seems that they are willing to ignore the damaging effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement, despite the defeat of nearly every Republican candidate in races last fall in which free trade and fair trade were issues.

In Mexico, farm crises, sweatshop wages and police repression drive workers and farmers to leave family, friends and country in search of jobs to support their families. The Republicans alternately offer silence and demagogy, neither of which will solve the problems caused by unjust trade agreements and corporate exploitation of immigrants.

In the National Catholic Reporter (November 2005), Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini, president of the Bishop’s Secretariat of Central America, wrote, “People who wonder why there is such passionate opposition to the Central America Free Trade Agreement — an expansion of the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement to six more nations — need look no further than the results of NAFTA in Mexico during the last decade. NAFTA displaced 1.5 million Mexican peasant farmers. Many of these displaced farmers sought industrial jobs, causing Mexican wages to drop by 20 percent. Communities and families were torn asunder as those who lost their livelihoods undertook the perilous journey to the United States in hopes of finding some way to support their family.”

In 2002 alone, 600 Mexican farmers per day were forced off the land due to NAFTA, by U.S. agribusiness dumping subsidized food exports on Mexico. Even though Mexico produces corn cheaper, U.S. corporate agriculture is able to price its corn lower because of subsidies of billions paid for by our tax dollars. In the past five years, more than 1,600 Mexican migrants have lost their lives in their attempts to find jobs in the U.S.

Conditions are similar in other nations. Brazil and Guatemala can grow and harvest sugar cheaper than the U.S. African nations produce cotton at one-fifth the U.S. cost. Yet U.S. agribusiness subsidies ruin honest work. Even U.S. small farmers suffer when subsidies go to agribusiness rather than to family farms.

Journalist David Bacon writes of the impact of NAFTA on Mexico: “Privatization increased prices of necessities and reduced real wages to disastrous levels. Mexican salaries were a third of those in the U.S. in the 1970s. They are now less than an eighth. It is this disparity which both impoverishes Mexican workers and acts as an immigration magnet. Over the last two decades, the income of Mexican workers has lost 76 percent of its purchasing power. Under pressure from foreign lenders, the Mexican government has ended subsidies on the prices of basic necessities, including gasoline, electricity, bus fares, tortillas and milk, which have risen dramatically.” In Mexico, according to government estimates, 40 million people live in poverty and 25 million in extreme poverty.

Repression in Latin America has brought immense corporate profits for more than a century. Under NAFTA repression continues and according to many reports has worsened. A 1997 report of a veterans’ delegation to southern Mexico by Bill Motto VFW Post 5888 in Santa Cruz, Calif., cites increased U.S. involvement in Mexico’s militarization and the repression of Mexico’s poor and indigenous. The VFW post adopted a resolution calling for an end to all U.S. military and security assistance to Mexico, and supporting genuine democratization and self-determination for the people of Mexico. The report charged that the “vast majority of equipment, used by the Mexican military and the various security forces of police and paramilitary units, is made and supplied by the United States. One could argue that the only thing Mexican about the Mexican army and security forces is the soldier/policeman himself.” The “war on drugs” has been the pretext.

Since NAFTA went into effect in 1994, 19 million Mexican workers and farmers fell into poverty, and some 10 million came to the U.S. in search of work. If, instead, an agreement was reached that lifted the 19 million out of poverty, there would be very few willing to risk life and limb to migrate. Those immigrants who are now working in the U.S. — and their families — should be given a path to citizenship, and NAFTA should be replaced by a fair trade policy.

Lou Incognito is a retiree and social justice activist in Philadelphia.

CARTOON: Chertoff's gut

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 07:13:00 +0000

JULY 21: Ask the Communists

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 07:10:00 +0000

Q: After 1929, in the midst of the Great Depression, America still retained a capitalist system. Although certain socialist-type policies such as welfare were implemented, no sweeping changes were made in an economic system that could have easily been seen at the time as a total failure. Why do you think radical changes advocated by socialists and communists failed to come about during this period?

A: Some of the radical changes advocated by our party and other left-wingers did come about during the 1930s, and resulted in some lasting improvements for workers, and society as a whole — Social Security, unemployment insurance, organizing of mass production workers into unions, increased social welfare programs, some government funding for the arts, and many others. All are now under attack by right-wing politicians.

These were reforms, not revolutionary changes. Some on the left pose these as mutually exclusive alternatives. Our party feels that the only way to get to revolutionary change is by involving workers and their allies in struggles for immediate needs and for social reform. That experience can lead to a consciousness of their own power and an awareness of the limits the capitalist system places on real solutions. So, at the same time as we seek to educate people about the need for a fundamental change in the system, our party fights to involve workers in struggle for reforms and to bring them immediate tangible improvements.

Why didn’t the U.S. have a revolution in the 1930s? My father thought in the early ’30s that capitalism couldn’t survive another 10 years. Many capitalists feared an imminent socialist revolution. Many workers concluded that a revolutionary transformation of the system was necessary. But never a majority. Some concluded that change was needed and found adequate change in the New Deal. Many more were overwhelmed by the crises and expended all their energies on survival, never turning to politics, struggle or organization.

If communists and socialists had found better ways to cooperate, if the system hadn’t successfully made important concessions, if racism and anti-communism hadn’t blocked the development of greater unity, if more people had felt that they had exhausted all the political openings in the system, if … if … if …

We can say in hindsight that more people “should” have perceived capitalism as a total failure, but millions of people have to come to that conclusion themselves. A party can teach, participate, lead, organize, but it can’t make people ready for something they are not ready for.

While an economic crisis leads more people to conclude that changing the economic system is necessary, that doesn’t automatically create a revolutionary situation. We don’t think that “the worse the better,” that the worse a crisis, the quicker people get radicalized. Desperation, crisis, even social collapse, aren’t the path. Workers have the power to transform society only if a majority of workers and their allies are conscious of that power, only if the struggle and the organizations of workers have matured.

A revolution is a fundamentally democratic process, requiring in our country the active participation of millions. A revolution can’t be the act of a conspiracy or a coup, the way right-wing counterrevolutions can be.

We invite readers to submit questions about the Communist Party USA, its basic policies and a Marxist viewpoint on current social issues. The answers are provided by Marc Brodine, chair of the Washington State Communist Party. Questions can be sent to cpusa@cpusa.org.