People Before Profit blog

Letters

Fri, 28 Jun 2002 01:59:00 +0000

Cuba’s gift to Uruguay On June 15 you ran an “International Note” to the effect that Cuba had donated 1.2 million units of meningitis B vaccine to Uruguay. What you failed to note was that Cuba did this after Uruguay had broken relations with the island nation.

The break came about because Uruguay had sponsored the standard U.S.-required U.N. Human Rights resolution against Cuba last April. This year the resolution actually called for Cuba to allow human rights observers to visit the island.

When Cuba rebuked the Uruguayan government for its sponsorship Uruguayan President Batlle formally broke relations on April 23, saying they would not be resumed “until the Cuban people have peace and freedom.”

The donation of meningitis vaccine had already been negotiated but, because of the break, President Batlle said that the cost of the vacines would be applied to the debt which Cuba owes Uruguay. Cuba declined this arrangement and reiterated that the vaccine was a gift from the people of Cuba.

I think you will agree the gift is even more significant, given the surrounding circumstances.

Julia LutskyWoodside NY

Urgent appeal from Nablus The Israeli army has launched a massive military operation against Nablus City, including its four refugee camps. For the fourth time in three months Israeli troops have re-invaded the city and suburbs under the pretext of fighting terrorism. However, according to the Israelis, this time the invasion will be for a longer period of time. The 150,000 residents of Nablus are forced to remain inside their homes, as a strict 24-hour military curfew has been imposed over the city.

Already Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles have vandalized the streets of the city, causing enormous physical damage to the infrastructure. Additionally, they have taken permanent positions on top of high buildings, forcing the residents to remain in one apartment of the building.

Mass arrests are taking place in most of the neighbourhoods of the city – thus far dozens of Palestinians have been seized and sent to detention centers. The whole social, educational and medical systems have come to a standstill; the end-of-year high school exam (tawjeehi) has been cancelled due to the fact that students are unable to leave their homes to attend school.

Medical teams are prevented from moving freely, ambulances are frequently stopped and medical personnel are harassed. One doctor and the driver from medical relief were detained for two hours while attempting to transport an ill two-year-old baby.

Yet again, the Israeli army is creating a situation of fear and terror among the civilian population, as well as endangering their lives. There is no justification for the attacks on civilians and collective punishment Palestinians are subjected to.

This latest Israeli aggression against Palestinians is another facet of the continuing aggression of the Israeli occupation. The international community should realize that the main cause of the current dangerous situation in the region is this occupation, and security and regional stability will not be assured until this occupation is ended.

We appeal to the international community to intervene immediately and force the Israeli government to comply with international law and to withdraw its forces immediately from the Palestinian areas.

Union of PalestinianMedical Relief Committees, Nablus City, West Bank

Jeb to appoint a terrorist-supporter? The Miami Herald reported that Raoul G. Cantero III, grandson of former dictator Fulgencio Batista, is being considered by Gov. Jeb Bush as a Florida Supreme Court justice.

Cantero was one of the lawyers for Orlando Bosch in 1989 when there was a campaign to get Bosch released from jail. That campaign succeeded. Cantero called Bosch’s extensive record of terrorism against Cuba, condemned even by the CIA and the FBI, “heroic”. Cantero has not renounced his opinion.

Please call Governor Jeb Bush, 305-348-6870, who says he has only received about ten calls on this matter.

It is important for justice toward Cuba, Florida, and for all of us in the United States that the Florida Supreme Court not have a seat for someone who has publicly defended terrorism against Cuba.

Jane Franklinvia e-mail

Editorials

Fri, 28 Jun 2002 01:42:00 +0000

The Court skirts the issue

The Supreme Court ruled June 20 that it is unconstitutional to execute mentally deficient prisoners, mentally deficient being defined at scoring less than 70 on a standard IQ test.

On June 24 the Court again ruled on the death penalty, deciding that the Sixth Amendment’s stipulation that “the accused shall have the right to trial by an impartial jury” meant that a judge could not impose death if a jury had not so recommended. Judges determine sentences in nine states, some with jury recommendations, some without; almost 800 prisoners in those states face death. Juries are far less likely to impose the death penalty than are judges.

These measures are good as far as they go, but look under the surface and the spectre of death and injustice reappears. How can you justify taking the life of a prisoner who “scored” 73 on an IQ test while sparing one who scored 69? Are the prisoners in states where judges have made the decisions mandating their deaths to receive new trials?

Are the decisions retroactive? If not – and they usually are not – it would seem unjust in the extreme to execute one whose trial and conviction occurred before the decision and pardon another whose conviction came perhaps only a few days later.

Neither of these decisions touches on the existence of the death penalty itself. They have whittled away at it, perhaps in response to increasing public discomfort and questioning of its fairness and infallibility.

It is as if they are trying to guarantee its fairness, which is an illusive goal. It remains to be seen whether these decisions are steps toward the final recognition that the death penalty is, by its very nature, hopelessly flawed, as well as an abomination to be shunned by humanity.

Or are they steps simply skirting the issue until the tide of public opinion changes. The growth of the anti-death penalty movement will certainly be a factor in that process.

******************************************************

Bush Mideast policy a non-starter

The struggle for a just peace in the Middle East suffered two setbacks last week: The first, the long-awaited speech on Mideast policy by President Bush; and second, the return of Israeli tanks and troops to Palestinian cities. Both show an arrogant disregard for world public opinion and international law.

According to his handlers, the president still supports the “two states for two peoples” concept laid out in the Oslo Accords of 1993. The speech, with its long list of what the Palestinian people must do and near total silence on the responsibilities of the Israeli government, indicates the far-right Christian and Zionist ideologues and the U.S. armaments industry won this round.

The Bush plan puts the burden on the Palestinian people, not on the Sharon government to end the occupation, the starting point for any negotiated settlement.

How can the Palestinians be expected to carry out elections while the Israeli military confines more than 700,000 people to their homes under curfews that can last for days and that disrupt the lives of roughly two million people in the West Bank? And the answer is: they can’t.

It is the height of imperial arrogance for anyone outside the Palestinian people to choose their leader. That choice lies with the Palestinians only.

Although Bush told Israel to release frozen revenues, end building settlements and negotiate the future of Jerusalem and refugees, he set no timetable. Thus, he gave the Israeli military an opportunity to grab all they can and establish the “facts on the ground” for when peace talks eventually take place.

Bush’s vague promise of a state without territory and without protection from further Israeli incursions, all conditional on overthrowing Arafat, is a non-starter.

The demand to end the occupation of Palestinian territory, backed up by the power of the purse, by stopping the $5 billion of U.S. aid to Israel, is the starting point. The call to send international peace-keeping forces, without U.S. troops, must be heeded as well.

LETTERS

Fri, 21 Jun 2002 08:35:00 +0000

Sports page – No!

To the writer from Los Angeles who asked about the possibility of sports pages in PWW I would like to say that s/he should bear in mind that there are sports pages in all the newspapers. Some are better than others, no doubt, but there is no lack of them.

On the other hand, it is the job of PWW to cover important news about working people and their struggles throughout the world – news that is studiously avoided by the corporate press. I would therefore suggest that said reader might consider it better to look elsewhere for his/her sports news – but to stick with PWW if s/he wants the real story behind the headlines.

Julia Lutsky!Woodside NY

Questions on the Middle East!

In light of the recent bus bombings in Jerusalem, this is shaping up as public safety by repression vs. human rights debate which plays into the ultra-right agenda, using hysteria, similar to a lynch mob “justice.”

In the AP story I read online, they finally ran the fact that the death toll is way out of proportion: Three times more Palestinians have been killed by Israeli Defense Forces, 1,700, than Israelis by suicide bombings, 570, in the last 20 months.

What they do not get into, despite the fact that reporters are on site, is the “burn the village to save it” mentality. Blasting people’s homes, workplaces, schools and houses of worship does not exactly instill a sense of a future.

Monica Weiss!Pittsburgh PA

Sports page – Yes! !

I would like to support the reader from Los Angeles who believes that the PWW would be improved by a sports page. I hope you can find the resources.

Greg LaMotta!Annandale VA

Colombian Oil Workers leader assasinated!

The National Executive Committee of the Colombian Oil Workers Union (USO) sent out the following statement, June 18, abridged here:

During a day of democratic voting to elect a new USO National Executive Comittee comrade Cesar Blanco Moreno, leader of the Bucaramanga branch of USO, was assassinated as he made his way to his home.

The cowardly assassination of Cesar is testimony to the growing wave of violence against the USO, yet one more crime by the enemies of trade union activities and another irrefutable example of the permissive attitude of the State, because our comrade had received death threats before and the authorities were fully aware of this. In addition there has been the repeated declaration by the paramilitaries for more than a month threatening to assassinate trade union and popular leaders in Bucaramanga.

We oil workers refuse to bury our dead submissively. We will maintain our fierce resistance to barbarity and in response to this crime against Cesar we have called a national production strike of 48 hours.

We ask the Colombian people and the international community to express their strongest condemnation of this repressive and complicit Pastrana government.

To the relatives of comrade Cesar Blanco we send our deepest sympathy and offer our heartfelt solidarity.

Hernando Hernandez, President! Juan Ramon Rios, Secretary General

BARRANCABERMEJA Colombia !

Editor’s note: Protest messages were requested to be sent to the Colombian ambassador in the United States, Luis Alberto Moreno (as@colombiaemb.org). Copies should be sent to USO at usocol@coll.telecom.co and the Colombia Solidarity Campaign at colombia_sc

@hotmail.com.

The U.S. sends millions of tax dollars for military aid to Colombia, so protests to your Congressional delegation is key. For more information on U.S. involvement in Colombia go to School of the Americas Watch (www.soaw.org).

The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) said in a survey published June 18 that Colombia was the most dangerous country in the world for trade union activity. ICFTU said that most of the killings were carried out by paramilitary groups “which enjoy the tacit complicity of the security forces,” not from the civil war as the Colombian government claims.

Editorials

Fri, 21 Jun 2002 08:21:00 +0000

Dangerous to all

The Bush administration’s announcement of a first-strike policy is unilateralism on steroids. This “war first, negotiate never” strategy is disguised in rhetoric, exploiting real concerns and fears of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

The current object of their first-strike policy is Saddam Hussein and Iraq. Leading Democrats with presidential aspirations support this imperial and undemocratic plan.

A Bush administration report said some 150,000-200,000 American GIs would be required to invade Iraq, meaning large numbers of Iraqi and American casualties. So the rush to support such carnage needs to be condemned.

Yet with Iraq as the foil, the Bush administration is “re-writing” international “rules” to guarantee their sole superpower status for global U.S. corporate dominance.

This policy is causing splits in the ruling circles. Former Clinton operative William Galston took issue with the Bush doctrine, raising the long-term danger of unilateralism. “A global strategy based on the new Bush doctrine means the end of the system of international institutions, laws and norms that the United States has worked for more than half a century to build,” he wrote in The Washington Post.

Scott Ritter, a former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq, also charged that Bush’s public authorization of CIA operations to remove Hussein, undermines any ability to continue the U.N. inspection program. “Absent any return of weapons inspectors, no one seems willing to challenge the Bush administration’s assertions of an Iraqi threat, wrote Ritter. If Bush has a factual case against Iraq concerning weapons of mass destruction, he hasn’t made it yet. Ritter suggests that the weapons inspection program itself, not Hussein may be the real target.

In this era of globalization, international cooperation and equality of nations is necessary to solve basic problems, from war, terrorism and violence to AIDS and cancer to environmental degredation to poverty and racism. The first-strike policy places is dangerous and a cover to demolish any existing basis for international coopreration, sovereignty or rule of law.

********************************************************************************

A lot at stake in elections

According to a recent poll, for the first time since Sept. 11, less than a majority of Americans are optimistic about the country’s direction.

Clearly concerned about a downward trend in its ratings, the Bush administration, with cooperation from the corporate-controlled media, has mounted an all-out campaign to focus voter attention on fears of terrorist attacks and claimed threats from abroad, in an attempt to divert attention from its ultra-right pro-corporate domestic political agenda.

Bush and other top Republican officials are traveling constantly to states with key congressional and gubernatorial races, often at taxpayer expense, pulling out all the stops to entrench and expand the political power of the ultra-right in this November’s elections. Bush recently attended five campaign events in one day in Sioux Falls, S.D. – a key state in the Republican effort to regain control of the Senate. There, the Republicans are going all out to try to unseat Democrat Tim Johnson and replace him with an ultra-right Republican.

But protests, rallies and labor struggles in recent months show that the majority of Americans do not want the ultra-right’s anti-people policies.

Americans don’t feel safer as a result of the Bush “war on terrorism.” They don’t want a police state that throws the Bill of Rights out the window; they don’t like tax cuts for the rich; they don’t like how profit-hungry corporations, the super-rich and ultra-right ideologues are determining White House policies.

They want secure Social Security and Medicare, affordable prescription drugs and health care, quality public education, child care, worker and immigrant rights, reproductive rights, a healthy environment, and preservation of our most basic civil rights and liberties. They want peace and international cooperation.

Labor, the women’s movement, environmental groups, and others are mobilizing to defeat the ultra-right this November and win gains for a progressive, working families agenda. A lot more must be done to win. And there’s a lot at stake. We should all get involved.

Coca-Cola had a bad day

Fri, 21 Jun 2002 06:13:00 +0000

DALLAS – June 10 did not turn out to be such a good day for the Coca-Cola company here, and they had such nice plans! Coca-Cola management had decided that June 10 would mark their 100th anniversary as a Dallas bottling company. The State Historical Society had prepared a very nice historical marker at their old business site on Elm Street, and they had the local bigwig politicos lined up to praise the soft drink company at the dedication. They set up a tent with nice tables and linen for their invited guests, who were almost all white.

It was the uninvited guests that changed the nature of the day for Coca-Cola. Dallas civil rights leader Lee Alcorn led a multiracial group of about 25 supporters with picket signs that charged Coca-Cola with racial discrimination at Dallas facilities.

A few months earlier, Coca-Cola’s “minority” employees had filed a class-action lawsuit. Coca-Cola had made a halfhearted attempt at negotiations, but had broken off discussions three weeks before the event.

Silently, the picketers carried their not-so-silent signs and posters around and through the crowd while manager Rick Gillis tried to look enthusiastic about the occasion. One of the signs read, “Rick Gillis is a liar!” People began to drift away. Nobody sat down under the spacious tent to enjoy “the pause that refreshes.”

It was really a lot worse for Gillis and Coca-Cola than they may have thought. Among the picketers was Wilson Borja, a slight Colombian man on crutches. The entire crowd, including Borja, had just returned from a press conference at the Coca-Cola facilities north of downtown. Borja had completed seven news interviews, four on radio and three on television, before he came to the anniversary celebration.

The airwaves were hot with the story that the civil rights case in Dallas had been compared to another lawsuit against Coca-Cola that had been filed by the United Steelworkers of America (USWA). In it, the USWA charged the transnational corporation with complicity in harassment and murders of labor organizers at bottling and distribution facilities in Colombia.

Borja told reporters that transnational corporations may use racial discrimination in one place and horrible violence in another; but they used both for the same reason – to increase their profits by keeping the workers’ wages and benefits low.

Before Wilson Borja left North Texas the following day, he had completed 19 news interviews and had spoken to two union groups, two college classes, and a mixed audience at the Guadalupe Cathedral in downtown Dallas. Peace activists, civil rights activists, and unionists all over North Texas heard his message about the exploitation that transnational corporations visit on the people in other countries and at home.

Wilson Borja, a major trade union leader and congressman-elect in his home country, is very convincing because he knows his subject. He bears three bullet wounds from an assassination attempt in his home country.

More bad news for Coca-Cola and the transnational corporations: twice-weekly pickets are continuing in Dallas, and Borja isn’t through. From Dallas, he went to New York. Other activists in Pittsburgh and San Francisco have already invited him there.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org

Gordon F. Moir

Fri, 14 Jun 2002 05:43:00 +0000

Gordon “Brick” Moir, known to many PWW readers for his pithy comments in conversations with Hy Clymer, died May 29 in Aberdeen, Washington. He was 90 years old.

Brick – he would insist on using that name – spent more than 50 years working in the logging camps that were the economic mainstay of the “Harbor,” shorthand for the twin cities of Aberdeen and Hoquiam located on Grays Harbor in southwest Washington.

He quit school in the eighth grade to go to work in a shingle mill. After that came a hitch in the CCC. He married Leona Walden in 1935, forming a team that left its mark on many of the Harbor’s working-class struggles.

Brick’s career as a labor leader and Communist Party member began when he became a charter member of the International Woodworkers of America, (IWA) CIO. By the time he retired, Brick had held elected positions as shop steward, camp chairman and a trustee of the local.

He was forced to resign from that office when the 1947 IWA convention buckled in the face of anti-communist hysteria and required local union officers to sign non-communist affidavits. In 1988 Brick was honored for his 50-year membership when asked to address the IWA international convention

In the late ’30s Brick became president of the Grays Harbor Industrial Union Council where, among other things, he met Harry Bridges. “I’ve seen a lot of them,” Brick would say, “but Harry was the best of them.”

Brick played a key role in the Grays Harbor Civil Rights Committee that defended CIO union activist Dick Law against accusations he had murdered his wife, Laura, in 1940, a case that pitted left against right on gritty old Grays Harbor and became a national sensation.

In 1954, he was one of the IWA members subpoenaed by the Un-American Activities Committee. None fought back with more vigor than Brick, who filled two pages of the record by refusing to answer the opening question about his place of residence. “You have my address; you served the subpoena,” he told the committee.

Asked about his organizational affiliations, Brick proudly declared that he belonged to the IWA that, with 60,000 members, “was opposed to the McCarthy Committee, the Velde Committee and the Jenner Committee.”

In the late ’50s, with anti-communist hysteria in decline, Brick once again assumed positions of responsibility in the affairs of Local 3, where he won the respect of even those who had once opposed him. Mahlon Chestnut, who held office in the local for 30 years, called Brick “the most ‘union’ union man” he had ever met. “He was a true believer. I respected the man and I honor his memory.”

Others were no less complimentary: Will Parry, a former leader of the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers, who worked with Brick in campaigns to build unity among unions representing workers in the forest products industry, described Brick as a man who was “born a worker, lived the life of a worker and died a worker. He had big calloused hands, a strong worker’s voice and a worker’s heart bigger than the woods he worked in.”

BJ Mangaoang, long-time leader of the Communist Party’s Washington district, remembers Brick as “down to earth. He was honest and reliable and spoke in words workers could understand.” Mangaoang praised Brick’s commitment to both the Party and the PWW. “He was always raising money.”

Irene Hull, a long-time activist in printing trades unions, described Brick as “very human. He loved his family, flowers and to work in his metal-working shop. He read everything he could get his hands on and gloried in his garden.”

Brick is survived by a son, Martin David, a daughter, Farol Olson, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Letters

Fri, 14 Jun 2002 05:05:00 +0000

Reader to reader response

I read Gerald Horne’s critical letter of the review of Michael Moore’s book. I know from being around various left people over the years there is always this criticism of the communists and your tactics towards Democrats and those who don’t fall into the “nice neat package” of being revolutionary.

The review did focus a lot on Nader, who is now a has-been, yet the issues that campaign was about live on. To me the issue was the Greens did not have the same priority of defeating the radical right as others like the civil rights, labor and women’s groups. And the Greens seemed to think they alone would solve the problem of Republican and Democratic Party monopoly on politics, expecting everyone to follow.

Politics, especially elections, are often very pragmatic. And given the fact that this is an important election year where the balance in Congress is at stake, Congress can be an important brake on Bush’s war on democracy and working families.

In that sense why would the Greens run a pro-war, proudly anti-communist candidate in a tight Senate race in Minnesota? For the principal of being against the Democrats? Is that really going to help stop Bush?

Francis EdmunsonMinneapolis MN

Working with politicians

It is true that some politicians will play an active role to assist labor and constituents move working-class issues forward when the trade unions are able to do the leg work and form citywide and countywide coalitions strong enough to exert political pressure on behalf of working people.

In May the mayor of Tucson and the city council went out on a limb in an attempt to railroad a transportation program that, according to the mayor and supporters, would relieve traffic congestion on the city streets.

Essentially the proposed transportation project did nothing to help those who reside within the city limits. Instead it was a program designed to push the outlying development residents to move faster to their places of employment within the city. The result was that the mayor, his developer friends and businessmen suffered a thrashing defeat at the voting booth.

This is not the only pro-worker battle won, however. Earlier in the year, unions and their coalition allies pushed through a living wage ordinance.

We could not have accomplished thse things without a long period of struggle to develop certain friendships and disscussions with a number of elected officials. We now know which are reachable, who we can talk to with good expectations of success.

It’s been a worthwhile lesson for many of us. The most important lesson is being able to count – most of the success has been achieved by a majority of one vote!

That is the lesson laid out by an article in the June issue of America@Work, the AFL-CIO’s national publication. It is a process that needs much more development and should be fully applied in the selction of candidates for the Novenber 2002 elections.

Lorenzo TorrezTucson AZ

PWW needs readers groups

I read left and progressive publications and the PWW is one but sometimes it just is not enough to read about the struggles you cover. I noticed that The Nation has ads for Nation discussion groups all around the country. Does the PWW have such a network?

A readervia e-mail

Editor’s note: Good question! We would welcome the idea of having World readers discussion groups around the country. Recently we have been having forums on the crisis in the Mideast and it has been a great way for local activists to gather discuss their experiences and new ideas for action.

But perhaps readers would like to have a more regular get together. If you or other readers are interested in starting discussion group or forum in you area please contact our offices listed on page two. If you live in an area where there is not a local office then email or write to our national office and let us know.

Worldwide economic crisis

WorldCom announced 16,000 job cuts; Hewlett-Packard cuts 15,000; IBM lays off 5,000; Nortel another 3,500. In May, European companies alone laid-off 48,000. Can the World and Mundo do more coverage on this?

It seems like there is worldwide capitalist economic crisis, not only in Japan and Asia, Argentina and South America but an economic crisis that includes the United States and Europe, as well.

Corporate stocks go up when they announce layoffs. To me that shows the exact opposite interests of those who need those jobs and those who get to announce they are cutting them and profiting off the cuts.

Margaret LenoxBoulder CO

Editorials

Fri, 14 Jun 2002 04:56:00 +0000

A real plan for homeland security

The Office of Homeland Security is the latest in the Bush administration’s rapid-fire initiatives in the name of combating terrorism. It would combine 22 federal agencies into one but neither the FBI nor the CIA would be drawn under the umbrella. Bush hastily announced the sweeping reorganization on the same day that Coleen Rowley, chief of the Minneapolis FBI, was delivering damning testimony that FBI headquarters had stonewalled warnings of a terrorist threat her office had sent in before Sept. 11.

Rep. John Conyers, ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, accused the administration of rushing out the Homeland Security scheme to “divert attention” from evidence that it ignored specific warnings that the terrorist attack was imminent. Conyers also warned, the Office of Homeland Security is another step by the Bush administration to sharply increase its law enforcement powers while trampling civil liberties and the Bill of Rights, especially the rights of immigrants.

Unfortunately, the Democrats have fallen over themselves to embrace Bush’s plan.

We ought to pause to consider what we mean by “security.” Bush broke his promise to push through a prescription drug benefit under Medicare. He stonewalled on providing health care coverage for 48 million uninsured. His welfare reauthorization will push millions of mothers and their children deeper into poverty. Finally, his Attorney General holds hundreds of people in detention without a shred of evidence that they are terrorists.

These policies make the rest of us less secure. Franklin Delano Roosevelt once spoke of “four freedoms”: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Bush is riding roughshod over all four. In this election year, it is time to ask every candidate: Will you stand in defense of these freedoms?

************************************************

Hate crimes are terrorist acts

Senate Republicans showed their sexist, anti-gay, anti-people and anti-democratic colors when they blocked action June 11 on a bill that would define violent attacks based on gender, sexual orientation, or disability as federal hate crimes.

The bill was supported by a majority of the Senate – 55 senators, including four Republicans – but 60 votes were needed to cut off debate and allow the bill to be voted on.

“By not allowing a vote, they denied victims of hate crimes their day in court,” National Organization for Women (NOW) Action Vice President Olga Vives said.

The Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act (S-625) would strengthen the 1968 federal hate crimes law, which only covers crimes based on race, religion or national origin and/or color, and then only when the victim is engaged in a federally protected activity.

The Republicans cynically cited the “war on terrorism” in preventing a vote on this bill. But, as Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) said, Senate Republicans “made clear that they will not take action to fight terrorism at home.”

Kennedy said it well: “In the war on terrorism, Americans are fighting abroad to not only protect this nation from future terrorist attacks, but to protect the fundamental freedoms upon which this great nation was built. But here in the United States each year thousands of Americans are attacked out of hatred for their religion, the color of their skin or their sexual orientation. And these senseless acts of violence are also terrorist acts, and we must do all we can to end them.”

Hate crimes are acts of terror against the American people. We urge the bill’s supporters in the Senate to continue the fight for this legislation.

The Republicans’ anti-democratic action in blocking this bill is part and parcel of a vicious onslaught against civil rights and liberties, reminiscent of the darkest days of the McCarthy/spy scare period of the 1950s. All the more reason to gear up to elect progressive, pro-worker, pro-people representatives to Congress this November.

Protect Social Security

Fri, 14 Jun 2002 04:31:00 +0000

In the week of July 4 and beyond, the AFL-CIO and other groups will stage events across the country to demand that members of Congress “declare their independence” from President Bush’s dangerous plans to privatize Social Security and cut guaranteed benefits.

In announcing the protests, the AFL-CIO said, “Together we can call the nation’s attention to these dangerous privatization plans and the politicians who support them – before, not after, Election Day.

We will join together to hold town meetings and press events to explain how much damage the Bush privatization plans will do to Social Security – and to all of us who depend on this vital program. And we will challenge politicians to Sign the Pledge to Protect Social Security – and to support a real prescription drug plan under Medicare.”

Castro scorns Bushs hypocrisy in Miami

Fri, 14 Jun 2002 03:45:00 +0000

In a stinging response to George W. Bush’s speech in Miami on May 20, Cuban President Fidel Castro last Saturday contrasted the island nation’s social and economic achievements with the grinding poverty and oppression that earlier dominated the lives of most Cubans.

“On May 20, it was ironic to listen to Mr. W. claim strongly for independence and freedom – not for Puerto Rico but for Cuba; and to talk much about democracy – not for Florida but for Cuba,” Castro said as he addressed some 400,000 Cubans at a protest rally against Washington’s blockade and threats against the island nation, in Holguin Province. Bush “made a special point of defending private property, as if it did not exist in Cuba,” Castro said, but “the socialist revolution has created in Cuba more property owners than all those created by capitalism throughout centuries.”

“The only property right known by most Cubans before 1959 was the right of the big foreign companies and their allies in the national oligarchy to own enormous amounts of farmland in our country,” the Cuban leader added. These same forces owned the country’s natural resources, biggest factories, crucial public services, banks, hospitals and other economic and social facilities.

During his childhood and youth, Castro said, “I never saw hospitals or schools for ordinary people and their children. I did not see brigades of doctors and teachers. I only saw extreme poverty, injustice and hopelessness everywhere. The Cuban people had been ... stripped of any property.”

Today, he said, hundreds of thousands of peasant families own their land, for which they do not even pay taxes. Others have the use of the land, free of charge, and work it either individually or in cooperatives, owning the machinery, workshops, livestock and other goods.

“But most of all,” Castro added, “the Revolution gave the people the property of their own country.” What the Revolution eliminated, he said, was the ownership of basic means of production, financial institutions and other crucial services by the rich and privileged, leaving the poor and Black people out.

Citing the many enormous social advances made by the Cuban people since 1959, Castro pointed out that every Cuban child has high quality health services and education, absolutely free of charge.

No other Latin American country even comes close, he added. In Cuba, he said, no child begs in the streets or works to make a living instead of attending school.

“For Mr. W., democracy only exists where money solves everything and where those who can afford a $25,000-a-plate dinner ... are the ones called on to solve the problems of society and the world,” he said.

“Don’t be a fool, Mr. W. Show some respect for the minds of people who are capable of thinking,” the Cuban leader concluded. “Show some respect for others and for yourself.”

Letters

Fri, 07 Jun 2002 08:47:00 +0000

Score one for peace

Baseball players Jimmy Carter and Fidel Castro stepped up to the plate and scored some winning runs for peace and international cooperation. Meanwhile George W. is hitting fouls and threatening to blow up the world’s ball park if the game doesn’t go his way. W and his team should be benched.

Luke MoodyWeld ME

Crimes of capitalism

Last week The New York Times had an article about the growth in white collar crime. And the truth is that every day corporate stealing and power grabs are in the news. But every time the subject comes up I think it might be too simplistic to say that capitalism breeds “crime in the suites.”

The mantra of Wall Street in the 1980s was “Greed is good.” Well the truth is that greed is the driving force behind the Enron scandal but it also is what is just below the surface in the policy debates on Capital Hill. I hear more people that I work with say the rich and the corporations are greedy and that’s just how capitalism works. But a lot of times they also add it always has and always will.

We need more in the PWW that keeps making the point that yes, capitalism is at the heart of the many crises we are seeing, but we need more debate on what could replace this system. Can there be another system that works in the interests of the majority of working people is not only a good question, but one that we should have a chance to debate the possibilities in the pages of the PWW.

Nadia ClarkQueens NY

Urgent Call from Palestine

I am writing this letter, with overwhelming pain, sadness and despair. It has been 19 days since the re-occupation of Nablus. We have had this time to heal our wounds from the destruction done by Israeli tanks and the helicopters to our homes, schools, churches, mosques and many other buildings during the reoccupation.

We thought it was over and people here started to recover ... but unfortunately the hope was demolished when 100 tanks and more than 1,000 soldiers, with the coverage of aircrafts, invaded Nablus again. The Israeli soldiers are going house to house, searching homes with police dogs. Just this morning, soldiers awoke us at 5:00 a.m. and announced in my neighborhood that all young men, aged 15-50 years were to come to the central square for interrogation.

People are living in poverty since there is no work and no jobs. Even those who still work receive only half of their wages and some have gone on unpaid vacation. It is important to note here that St. Luke’s Hospital is one of very few institutions that still pay the salaries and wages of its employees in full.

Many people don’t have enough food; others are sick and cannot reach the doctor, and there are many other stories we don’t hear of. The water and electricity have been cut. We were unable to gather to worship on Sunday.

Rev. Hosam NaoumNablus Palestine

Uncovering the real nuke danger

With all the trumpeting by the Bush administration about the breakthrough on signing of the U.S.-Russia arms treaty, it was refreshing to read Sue Webb’s front page (6/1) take on what really happened between Bush and Putin. Having the people who represent the movement to save the planet from mass destruction give their analysis was great. Keep up the good work of uncovering the real story.

S. SanchezAustin TX

PWW needs a sports page

Ever since the NCAA basketball tournament in March, when I saw the picture of Coach Tarkanian retiring from his job, that you carried, I’ve been wondering why you don’t have a sports page or at least regular articles on sports.

The first section I turn to in the daily newspaper is the sports section. I think that if your writers turned their analysis on sports we would have yet another reason to get new people subscribing to the PWW. (And it’s not just because the LA Lakers are going to win the NBA championships either!)

A ReaderLos Angeles CA

VH1s Military Diaries not all pro-war

Fri, 07 Jun 2002 08:18:00 +0000

Ever wondered what it’s like to be a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan? VH1’s new show, “Military Diaries,” can give you a little peek into the life of a U.S. soldier in the “war on terrorism.”

There are no journalists; all the shows are taped by the soldiers. The show gives viewers a chance to see what it’s like for these men and women, and it also gives the soldiers a chance to say what they think of what’s going on.

The show is definitely worth seeing. Most of the people are young and they range from GI to lower-level officers, from all branches of the military. Some are stationed in Afghanistan, others on ships nearby and others in neighboring countries.

Each episode is different but the focus seems to be on what each person does, why they joined the military and what they think of Sept. 11 and the “war on terrorism.” While the show is not outright political the stories and sentiments of these young working-class people leave a definite impression on the viewer.

In one episode a young woman told about her reasons for joining the military. In her third year at Duke University her scholarship was cut off and she had to either quit school or join the military, and have them pay her remaining tuition. In another episode, another young Black woman spoke of how she was looking for a job and the only decent one she could find was in the military.

Surprisingly, the show is not as pro-war as one might think. Parts are downright anti-war to the point of one young man saying war was always bad. More common than an anti-war sentiment, though, is a doubt many expressed in the good they were doing. A large part of one show was devoted to a young woman who said she wanted to help the children she saw everyday in Afghanistan. This woman had her family send over clothes and shoes to pass out to the Afghan children.

The show is on every Monday night (8/7 Central) on VH1. Everyone should try and see at least one show. It is very well put together and worth the half hour it takes to watch.

– Cori Marshall

PWW correspondent gives Mideast report

Fri, 07 Jun 2002 08:03:00 +0000

BALTIMORE – Judith Le Blanc, correspondent of the People’s Weekly World and vice chair of the Communist Party USA, spoke about her April visit to Israel and the Occupied Territories at Stony Run Friends Meeting House here May 31. About 45 attended the discussion sponsored by the Communist Party of Maryland and the Baltimore Peace Action Network.

Le Blanc was part of a 16-person delegation sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation. The delegation met with representatives of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Israeli Knesset members, trade unionists and peace activists in Israel and Palestine. They visited Bethlehem, Gaza City, Jenin refugee camp and Israel. She also joined the International Solidarity Movement to deliver food and medicine to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, which was under siege by Israeli Defense Forces.

Le Blanc discussed the devastation in Palestine caused by Israeli military actions during the past 20 months – $361 million of damage to infrastructure has acerbated already serious economic conditions.

Le Blanc noted that the economic consequences in Israel have also been severe. Unemployment is high, factories have shut down, new investments are constrained by the military situation and privatization damaged the public sector. According to Le Blanc, the cost of the past two months of military incursions, along with the long-term costs of maintaining the Israeli settlements in Palestine, have sunk the Israeli economy “deeper and deeper into recession.”

However, there is resistance in both Israel and Palestine to the policies of the government of Ariel Sharon. Le Blanc reported that families in Ramallah had set up “mini-schools” so that children could continue to learn during the curfews.

Le Blanc visited the Beach refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. A family invited the delegation into their hoime and said, “We are not terrorists. We are fighting for a homeland ... we will not give up without a fight.”

In Israel, resistance to the policies of Sharon takes various forms. But, according to Le Blanc, “we do not hear these voices in the U.S.” Twenty percent of the Israeli Knesset oppose the Sharon military policies. Hundreds of Israeli soldiers have refused to take part in the military incursions in the Palestinian Territories.

Le Blanc emphasized the important role of activists in the U.S. She said it is important for U.S. activists to support the recent efforts of the AFL-CIO and the National Council of Churches calling for a peaceful solution. It is also important to make elected officials accountable. Le Blanc emphasized the need for a “grassroots movement for a democratic foreign policy in the United States.”

Editorials

Fri, 07 Jun 2002 07:22:00 +0000

Bush’s first-strike policy

George W. Bush let the cat out of the bag last week. In a garbled commencement speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Bush openly proclaimed that his war on terrorism is a unilateral war of aggression and first-strike.

“The war on terrorism will not be won on the defensive,” he said. “We must take the battle to the enemy, disrupt his plans and confront the worst threats before they materialize.”

Rejecting tactics of deterrence and diplomacy on the world scene, and throwing civil liberties and rights out the window, he proclaimed an iron-fist domestic and foreign policy “ready to strike at a moment’s notice in any dark corner of the world.”

Americans must be “ready for preemptive action when necessary,” Bush said.

His speech, like other recent administration pronouncements, sought to build a new cold war hysteria with generalized talk of “danger” and “threats.” He trumpeted Star Wars “missile defense,” widely seen here and abroad as dangerous nuclear escalation. Taking advantage of the American people’s legitimate concerns about safety and security, he called for beefing up domestic and foreign spying, saying the FBI must be “prepared to act and act quickly against danger.” What is this if not a first-strike policy that can and will be used to crush dissent and progressive movements both at home and abroad?

The West Point speech shows clearly that this ultra-right administration is hell-bent on using an undefined and unlimited fake war on terrorism to enforce the rule of its tiny grouping of ultra-right corporate backers.

Although Bush did not specifically mention Iraq, The New York Times said the speech “seemed aimed at preparing Americans for a potential war on Iraq.”

Unfortunately, three days later, House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt volunteered his support for such a war.

All the more reason why we the people must speak out, mobilize and act to defeat the Bush administration war drive.

*************************************************************

Save the planet

In a report sent to the United Nations on May 31, the Bush administration’s Environmental Protection Agency has grudgingly admitted that global warming is a serious problem caused by “human activity.” It says the main culprit is the burning of fossil fuels and that unless steps are taken, the planet will be substantially – and irreversibly – changed.

“Some of the goods and services lost through the disappearance … of natural ecosystems are likely to be … impossible to replace,” the report says, adding that the United States will be substantially changed by the end of the century: disruption of snow-fed water supplies, stifling heat waves and the permanent disappearance of mountain meadows and coastal marshes, as ocean levels rise 19 inches.

We welcome the EPA’s hesitant emergence from the dark ages. But that’s the best we can say. Despite the scenario laid out in the report, Bush dismissed it as a product of government “bureaucracy” and reiterated his determination to reject the Kyoto accord on climate change that has been signed by every other industrial nation. Bush said we should adapt to inevitable change. Inevitable change? Should we adapt to the change that another United Nations report said could leave the earth looking like a “desert-strewn wasteland”?

Corporate-driven “human activity” runs counter to environmentally sustainable development. News reports noted the EPA’s report is at odds with major monopoly corporations like car manufacturers and fossil fuel producers.

Do we rely on old technologies that condemn us to the future outlined by the U.N., because they are profitable or redesign our energy system to deal with known hazards?

The U.N. reports that “fundamental changes” are required and are possible. A step to that change is to build a movement to force Congress to override the White House. Another reason to vote out the ultra-right this November.

The planet we save could be our own.

Mega-oil company protested

Fri, 07 Jun 2002 06:53:00 +0000

DALLAS – ExxonMobil oil company held its annual shareholders’ meeting May 29 in one of the poshest settings here, the Meyerson Symphony Hall, but they didn’t get to ignore the furor they have created around the world. Protesters included spokespersons from as far away as Colombia, Tibet, Indonesia and Russia.

With songs, signs, chants and visual arts, the protesters accused the giant transnational of economic and environmental devastation throughout the globe. Inside the Meyerson, minority stockholders forced votes on environmental issues and employment practices.

Leading up to the event, Dallas-area environmentalist and protest organizations held several public meetings, including mock trials. Their announcements prepared people for a well-orchestrated “counter-protest” staged by right-wing organizations with ties to the company.

In many ways, the pro-company demonstrators were more of a public embarrassment to ExxonMobil than the protests. Their signs ranged from obviously ridiculous to completely vulgar. The most numerous signs were professionally printed and included the comical phrase, “Thanks, ExxonMobil, for being a good corporate neighbor!” Individual statements included, “I love the smell of crude in the morning,” “Greens hate America,” “Greens suck” and the bizarre “Martian power plants caused the ice age.”

Their chants and slogans were heavily pro-capitalist and anti-communist. They made several attempts to provoke physical responses from the protesters and thus gain the help of police standing by, but they failed. Their chant, “U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A.,” dwindled to an embarrassed silence when the environmentalists joined in. When the protesters began a moment of silence for ExxonMobil’s worldwide victims, the company supporters jeered.

Protesters handed out fliers with the slogan, “Our Planet, Their Profit.” They asked people to check out www.stopexxonmobil.org for complete information about the mega-oil company’s role in the world.

They also handed out a flier revealing the financial sources of their opposition. It said that in 1998 Citizens for a Sound Economy received $13.9 million in donations, nearly all of it from major U.S. corporations. The oil and gas industry contributed $2.2 million; ExxonMobil gave more than $200,000.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org

Undocumented immigrant victory: LA City Council votes to honor Mexican IDs

Fri, 07 Jun 2002 05:47:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES – Supporters of immigrant rights won an important victory last month when the Los Angeles City Council voted 13-1 in favor a six-month trial plan to honor identification cards issued by the Mexican Consulate as valid identification for undocumented immigrants.

The ID card, known as the matricula consular or consular registry, will contain the holder’s place and date of birth and current address, with a photo identification. During the six-month period, the ID will help provide immigrants who are ineligible for Social Security cards, drivers’ licenses or other official U.S. identification, with access to many of the same city services as other residents.

Being able to prove ID will also make everyday life much easier for immigrant workers and their families, who have experienced increased discrimination, violations of civil liberties and undue suspicion in the aftermath of Sept. 11.

“These workers basically live in the shadow of our city,” said Victor Narro, a project director with the Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). Narro hailed the decision, saying it will help hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers, such as day laborers, restaurant workers and domestics, who are key to the region’s economy.

In addition to CHIRLA, the decision received the broad support of a unique alliance between immigrant rights groups, police, sheriffs and banks who all applauded the City Council’s action as a necessary measure for dignity, economic well-being and community security.

The Los Angeles Police Department strongly supported this measure because, they testified, it will help safeguard neighborhoods from slumlords and other criminals who prey on undocumented residents who are afraid to call police.

The city now joins a number of municipalities in the state that recognize the Mexican Consulate ID, including San Francisco, Oakland, Anaheim and Santa Ana. Phoenix, Ariz., Albuquerque, N.M., Austin, Texas, and other cities across the nation also accept the ID.

Many banks and credit unions now accept the matricula consular to open accounts. Wells Fargo has signed up 25,000 new customers since it began to accept the ID last November.

The Mexican government is encouraging its 48 consulates within the U.S. to promote the ID cards. As a result, they expect more than 850,000 people to sign up for the cards this year, a 30 percent increase over last year.

While the acceptance of the card does not prevent deportation or establish legalization – a primary goal of immigrant rights groups and the labor movement today – it is seen as an important step for democratic rights for undocumented workers. It is a recognition that immigrants are hard-working and crucial contributors to our nation, who deserve access to the basic services that all families require for normal living.

The author can be reached at evnalarcon@aol.com

Vieques activists go to trial

Fri, 07 Jun 2002 05:42:00 +0000

NEW YORK – The case against 42 activists who were arrested outside the United Nations while protesting the bombing of the island municipality of Vieques, Puerto Rico, by the U.S. Navy started June 3 in the Manhattan Criminal Court before Judge Robert M. Stolz.

The protestors demonstrated peacefully in front of the U.N. on May 15 and 31, and on August 2 of last year to demand that this international organization “fulfill its stated mission and respond to the serious human rights violations.”

Vicente Alba, coordinator of the David Sanes Rodiguez Brigade, named for the civilian security guard who was killed by an errant bomb, said, “These peaceful acts of civil disobedience were performed to heighten the consciousness of the American people that the presence of the U.S. Navy on the island produced an extraordinarily high cancer rate and has destroyed the island’s resources.”

Judge Stolz ruled that the defense cannot bring up the issue of Vieques in the trial to explain its acts of civil disobedience.

The prosecution is trying to introduce the treaty between the United Nations and the United States as host country. They claim the treaty is relevant because it gives the U.N. the right to call in local law enforcement to assist with “distubances” on U.N. grounds.

The defense is arguing that the treaty has nothing to do with the case because the activists were arrested on the public sidewalk outside and not on U.N. grounds.