People Before Profit blog

BOOK REVIEW: Alaskan landscape teems with life

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 07:10:00 +0000

Author Lesley Thomas recently passed a milestone. Her first novel, “Flight of the Goose: A Story of the Far North,” has now sold over 1,000 copies, a magic number that means critics are taking notice. It is a saga set in the Bering Strait region of Alaska where she grew up in an interracial Inupiaq-white family.

Thomas self-published her book in the small Seattle-based publishing house Far Eastern Press, which she and her husband own. She has worked tirelessly to promote her novel through speaking tours in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Her efforts have paid off. The Washington Press Association awarded the book first place for fiction in 2005. The Alaska Press Women also gave the book its first prize for fiction in 2006. It is now on sale at Barnes & Noble and other chain bookstores.

Fred Bigjam, an Alaskan Inupiaq author, writes that the book is “a novel about triumph over despair, maturity gained through pain, forgiveness, reconciliation and restoration. … Her characters seem drawn from life, believable, memorable, tragic and hopeful. … ‘Flight of the Goose’ is a remarkable achievement.” Anne Hanley, former Alaska Writer Laureate, writes that Thomas is “passionately interested in shamanism and birds,” both reflected in “Flight of the Goose.”

Thomas grew up in Nome, Alaska, and uses her intimate knowledge to paint a vivid portrait of the arctic tundra and icy seas around the fictional village Itiak. Instead of being cold and bleak, her landscape teems with life, the people full of intelligence, humor and courage.

Kayuqtuk, the “Red Fox,” aka Gretchen, is an Athabascan orphan adopted by an Inupiaq family. During epileptic seizures she sees visions, and is convinced she is a shaman. She falls in love with ornithologist Leif Trygveson, who has come north in 1971 searching for a flock of endangered Tallingeese. He is also fleeing the draft and the Vietnam War. He is of mixed Norwegian-Athabascan heritage. His father was a member of the Young Communist League so Trygveson is also a “red diaper baby.” Lesley Thomas, herself, is from a Norwegian-American, left-wing background. So once again her portrait of Leif has great verisimilitude.

This story of star-crossed lovers probes the most burning issues of our day: the rights of women, especially women of color; war versus peace; magic versus science; oil company greed versus the traditional — and sustainable — society of the Alaska native peoples.

Thomas has filled her canvas with many powerful portraits and infused her writing with a sense of foreboding. This novel reminded me of O.E. Rolvaag’s saga, “Giants in the Earth,” with its doomed Norwegian homesteader, Per Hansa. It also reminded me of the Canadian film, “Snow Walker,” based on Farley Mowat’s novel about an Inuit girl, dying of tuberculosis, who saves the life of a young white pilot when his plane crashes in the tundra. I couldn’t put Thomas’ book down.

For me, the most heartrending character is Willy, a skilled hunter who is forced to trek further and further out onto the ice, hunting for seal. He, more than any other, personifies the dying out of a hunting culture based on unparalleled survival skills in the world’s most hostile habitat. He could conquer anything nature threw at him but could not survive the “invasion from the Lower Forty-Eight.” Willy is destroyed by alcohol but also by the encroachment of oil corporations, by military recruiters seeking to send him to Vietnam, and ultimately, by global warming that literally is melting the ground he stands on.

Given George W. Bush’s quest to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the looming threat to our biosphere from corporate profiteering, Thomas’s book could not be more timely.

greenerpastures21212@yahoo.com

Flight of the Goose: A Story of the Far North

By Lesley Thomas

Far Eastern Press, 2005

Softcover, 430 pp., $19.95

Fight to defend undocumented youth

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 04:29:00 +0000

BOSTON — Mario Rodas graduated from Chelsea High School last year with honors and hoped to go to college to study computer science. But that was not to happen for the 19-year-old Guatemalan youth. Immigration and Customs (ICE) agents arrested Rodas for being an undocumented immigrant.

Rodas said the ICE agents were not even looking for him. “They were looking for a man who had a prison history,” he said. But since Rodas did not have immigration papers, he was arrested.

“They want to send me to a country I hardly know. All my friends are here,” said Rodas, who came to the U.S. with his mother and sister when he was 12, to reunify the family. His youngest sibling, Kevin, was born in Massachusetts.

Rodas has not only earned the support of people who know him, but also of other immigrants as well as people and organizations fighting for the rights of immigrants, documented and undocumented.

“I have the support of my Chelsea High School teachers, my friends, and members of the Chelsea school board, and council members,” Rodas said. He is also backed by other public officials from different parts of Massachusetts.

At a June 26 “We are all Mario” picket line and press conference at Boston’s JFK Federal Building, called by the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, Irish Immigration Center, Student Immigration movement and other groups, high school teacher Deidre Collins, who taught Rodas, said, “People like Mario continue to enrich this country.”

Another of his former teachers, Karen Tompros, said the youth’s interest in her Advanced Placement government class and his civic participation showed his commitment to the U.S.

Clergy, peace and justice activists, state Sen. Jarrett Barrios and Lawrence School Committee member Martina Cruz joined Rodas’ teachers and friends from Chelsea High School on the picket line the day before he was scheduled for a hearing before an ICE administrative law judge. The hearing was postponed when Rodas showed up.

Supporters have been phoning, e-mailing and writing to Massachusetts Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, asking them to intervene to stop the deportation. They are also asking Rep. Michael Capuano, whose congressional district includes the city of Chelsea, to intervene.

After the press conference Rodas approached and thanked Kerry, who had been giving a speech on energy policy a few blocks away, for asking the Department of Homeland Security to reconsider the deportation.

Kennedy highlighted Rodas’ case during the immigration reform debates.

GOP schemes to gut Voting Rights Act

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 04:17:00 +0000

WASHINGTON — The civil rights movement has appealed for an outpouring of messages to Congress demanding that it stop far-right Republican stalling and pass HR 9, a bipartisan bill to extend the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for another 25 years.

Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, denounced as “saboteurs” a band of ultra-right Republicans who succeeded in blocking a House vote on the bill scheduled for June 21. The bill had 152 co-sponsors and the endorsement of both the Democratic and Republican leadership. The White House claims to support HR 9 but has done little to whip the renegades into line, which suggests administration operatives may be using them as stalking horses in a covert Republican-right drive to gut the Voting Rights Act, which expires in September 2007.

“Those members who held up today’s vote represent retrograde forces that America hasn’t seen at this level since the 1960s,” Henderson charged. They are demanding termination of the law’s most effective enforcement mechanisms. This includes Section 5, which requires pre-clearance from the Justice Department for changes in voting procedures in states, counties and towns with a record of impeding minority voting rights. They also seek to terminate Justice Department monitoring of these states to insure VRA compliance.

They also demand repeal of Section 203, which requires multilingual ballots and voting information. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund urged letters, e-mails and visits to lawmakers’ offices demanding HR 9 passage without weakening it.

“Many of those trying to derail this bill represent states with the most egregious records of discrimination in voting,” MALDEF charged. Providing bilingual ballots to Spanish-speaking and other non-English-speaking voters is “essential to permit all eligible voters to participate fully in the democratic process by casting informed and meaningful ballots,” the group added.

The Rev. C.T. Vivian, a close aide to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who helped organize voting rights marches in Selma in 1965, called extension of the Voting Rights Act a top priority.

“We need to preserve Section 5,” he told the World from his home in Atlanta. “Latinos are fighting for bilingual ballots. We support that. We are fighting for real inclusion, to insure voting rights for all citizens. But the Republicans want to cut out Section 5 and eliminate the bilingual ballots. The Southern states have gone Republican and I’m very concerned that our voting rights not be cut out forever.”

Ultra-rightist Rep. Charles Norwood (R-Ga.) was a kingpin in derailing the vote. “What people are really upset about is bilingual ballots,” he ranted. “The American people want this to be an English-speaking nation.” Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) said, “I don’t think we have racial bias in Texas. I simply believe you should be able to read, write and speak English to be a voter in the United States.”

But Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), nearly beaten to death by Alabama troopers while leading a voting rights march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., in 1965, said Georgia is “the last place” that should seek to relieve itself from Voting Rights Act oversight. Georgia’s new requirement that voters obtain a photo ID “is a modern day poll tax that disenfranchises rural voters, the elderly, the disabled, students and other minorities who have no government photo ID,” he said.

The Justice Department has filed more than 80 complaints of voting rights violations against Georgia since the law was last reauthorized in 1982, and nationally more than 1,000 violations have been handed down by the DOJ, Lewis noted.

“The evidence shows that voting discrimination in America is not dead and the Voting Rights Act must retain its original power to insure that democracy prevails in every hill and valley,” he said.

The Republicans wanted to postpone a Voting Rights Act extension vote until the Supreme Court ruled on an appeal from Texans asking it to throw out a redistricting plan drawn up by disgraced former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. DeLay’s scheme added five Republicans to the Texas congressional delegation. On June 28 the high court upheld most of the DeLay plan but threw out parts of it on grounds that the map failed to protect minority voting rights. At issue was the shifting of 100,000 Hispanic voters into a new, oddly drawn district. The lawsuit argued that this was an unconstitutional racial “gerrymander” outlawed by the Voting Rights Act.

In the 2000 presidential election, flagrant violation of the act was key to Bush’s theft of the White House. Florida Republicans illegally purged nearly 90,000 voters, mostly African Americans, from the voter rolls, falsely identifying them as “felons.” Most of those votes would have gone to Democrat Al Gore.

National Parks seriously compromised by cuts

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 09:27:00 +0000

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Visiting a national park this summer? If so, you should expect reduced law enforcement protection, longer emergency response times, fewer lifeguards, scaled back water and trail safety patrols, dirtier campgrounds and other visibly deteriorating facilities and resources, according to a major new report based on a 37-park review by the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees (CNPSR), an organization of more than 515 former NPS employees with an accumulated 15,000 years of national park experience.

Entitled “Reality Check: What Visitors to America’s National Parks Will Experience During Summer 2006,” the CNPSR report concludes: “Despite ‘happy talk’ assurances from political appointees at the Department of the Interior and National Park Service, all is not well this summer in America’s national parks.” The report predicts “major problems” will be evident this summer “and that the problems will only grow worse in the coming years.”

• Gettysburg National Military Park ranger patrols were cut 25 percent and historic exhibits remain in need of repair and maintenance.

• Denali National Park was force to cut emergency response personnel, even though ambulance runs are up 38 percent.

• Fort Smith National Historic Site can no longer afford a law enforcement ranger, with the superintendent working the front desk in the visitor center during the winter.

• Glen Canyon National Recreation Area was forced to reduce lake and river boat patrols.

• Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore cannot patrol remote areas and rangers are reactive only, unable to mingle with the public or to educate visitors; the water safety program as been reduced to one beach and only three lifeguards.

• Olympic National Park has longer law enforcement response times to visitor assistance calls, with an increased potential for more crimes due to lack of deterrence.

• Shenandoah National Park will shutter a visitor center and end the interpretive nature programs in a major section of the park, forcing visitors to drive 50 miles for such services.

• Acadia National Park will have less litter patrol, tree trimming, road sweeping and the park will have no repair of vehicles; trail-side restrooms will be closed during winter.

Bill Wade, the former superintendent of Shenandoah National Park and chair of the Coalition’s executive council, said, “The budget crisis in our parks is real and it will be felt keenly by park visitors this summer. Nearly all surveyed parks will have fewer law enforcement rangers on the job this summer to protect park visitors and park resources. Our intention here is not to be alarmist, but to ensure that American citizens and lawmakers know the facts. Forget about cutting the flesh or any ‘fat,’ we are now cutting deeply into the sinews and bones of our national parks. Congressional budget increases of recent years have been welcome, but these modest hikes have only succeeded in bringing some parks out of the depths of the financial abyss.”

Bill Supernaugh, the former superintendent of Badlands National Park and an executive council member, said, “Effectively, there is no meaningful preventative maintenance program today in the NPS because very few parks now have the resources to carry out such a program.”

Attacks on reproductive rights spread to 14 states

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 06:56:00 +0000

On June 13 in Columbus, Ohio, pro-choice advocates made their case to Ohio lawmakers who are considering a ban on all abortions in that state. Addressing the absence of exceptions allowing for victims of rape to terminate their pregnancies, Corinna Lohse of the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center reported that in the U.S about 32,000 women a year become pregnant as a result of sexual assault.

Emboldened by an anti-choice president and newly appointed Supreme Court justices, right-wing groups are making dramatic inroads designed to prevent women from having access to abortions. Ohio is one of 14 states that currently have abortion ban legislation pending or have passed so-called trigger laws that would ban abortion if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.

In February, South Dakota’s Legislature was successful in getting the governor’s signature on a bill that will outlaw abortion even in cases of incest and rape. That ban is scheduled to take affect July 1. The other states that have quickly followed South Dakota’s lead, in addition to Ohio, are Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Controversial “Choose Life” license plates programs have gone into effect in 13 states. Most of these state-administered projects are intended to generate funds for anti-choice programs. The ACLU is challenging one such program in Tennessee and has asked a federal court to stop the production of the plates while awaiting an appeal to the 6th Circuit Court.

Recent public opinion polls indicate that while most Americans generally support reproductive rights for women, current media exposure for extreme right-wing groups may be making headway. In promoting messages suggesting that the public and lawmakers have the right to determine if a woman’s reason for choosing abortion is sound or if the term of pregnancy is early enough, they may be tilling the soil for more restricted access.

While outlawing choice for women is on the front burner for national “right to life” groups, pro-women organizations are mobilizing. In South Dakota, the nonprofit group South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families collected more than 38,000 signatures in nine weeks demanding that the public be given the right to vote on the ban.

In a recent message to members, Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards summed up the situation: “Extremists hate it when you point out that the best way to reduce the number of abortions is to increase access to birth control. Their solution to unintended pregnancies, whether you’re single or married, is sickeningly simplistic: ignore sex and maybe it will just go away. We can’t let dangerous attitudes like that become the law of the land.”

A resource in the fight for single-payer health care

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 06:37:00 +0000

Just what is The United States National Health Insurance Act, HR 676, introduced into Congress by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.)?

The brief answer is that it is a proposed law in Congress to extend enhanced “Medicare to All,” creating — finally — a single-payer health system providing all Americans with comprehensive health care and lowering medical costs for 95 percent of households.

“It would be publicly financed health care, privately delivered, and will put patients and doctors back in control of the system,” says Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio). “Coverage will be more complete than private insurance plans; encourage prevention; and include prescription drugs, dental care, mental health care, and alternative and complementary medicine.”

If enacted, the bill would guarantee medically necessary services for everyone, at no cost. By eliminating much of the health insurance bureaucracy and profits, the national cost of health insurance would be significantly decreased. Currently, under our for-profit system, the U.S. spends more than other countries per patient, but is ranked only 37th in health care service worldwide.

While there is not enough space here to fully explain the bill, or single-payer health care in general, it is all fully explained in “Medicare For All!” a pamphlet written by B.S. Rosen, illustrated by Peggy Lipshutz, and published by this paper.

Of course, with Republican ultra-right control of the Congress, it is extremely difficult for such a bill to become law, and the only way to gain traction for it is to build a nationwide movement. This is just what labor, health care and community activists have done.

Well over 100 hundred union locals, state and central labor councils have passed resolutions of support for HR 676, which are now listed in the back of the “Medicare for All” booklet’s new edition. The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, representing 900,000 workers, recently endorsed the bill. It already has 72 backers in the House.

Across the country, union activists are pushing their locals to do the same. In addition, church groups, doctors, health care advocates and many others are becoming involved in the fight.

This newspaper is part of that fight—that’s why it recently ran a second printing of the “Medicare for All!” pamphlet.

“The People’s Weekly World,” says the introduction, “offers this booklet as part of the struggle for affordable and accessible health care for working families and all Americans.”

PWW Editor Terrie Albano said there were two reasons for the publication. Though the paper has been covering the growing movement around the bill, she said, there is not enough space each week to explain it fully. She added, “We also want to expose the profit motive behind the lack of decent, affordable health care in this country.”

Another reason, Albano said, “is to be part of the national fight for health care. It’s a huge crisis in our country. More than 45 million people are without health insurance — many of them are children. It’s a national disgrace that we have such a situation in a country as rich as ours.”

The World encourages everyone to order the pamphlet so they may fully understand the bill and single-payer health care in general. Just as importantly, the World is encouraging its use as a tool to help get resolutions passed in support of HR 676 in unions, churches, community groups, city councils and elsewhere. For this purpose, “Medicare for All!” includes a sample resolution.

MEDICARE FOR ALL!

A lively pamphlet about the history and status of the struggle for universal health care, particularly the single-payer plan (HR 676, “Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act”) advocated by Reps. John Conyers, Dennis Kucinich, Jim McDermott and 69 others. Written by B.S. Rosen, a health care activist; illustrated by Peggy Lipschutz. Softcover, 36 pp., $1.00.

To obtain a copy, write People’s Weekly World Attn: Medicare for All 235 W. 23rd St., New York NY 10011

or call (212) 924-2523, ext. 363, or e-mail pww@pww.org.

Add $1 for shipping and handling. For bulk orders, please inquire.

Coalition urges water board to stop agribusiness pollution

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 08:21:00 +0000

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — While municipalities, industry and other water users are subject to water quality standards when they discharge waste water into rivers and streams, agribusiness in the Central Valley and other farming areas of California continue to be exempt from the same pollution controls that others must live by.

The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board in July 2003 issued waivers for waste discharges from irrigated farm land, in spite of protests by the Clean Waters/Clean Farms coalition, a wide-ranging coalition of fishing, farming and environmental justice organizations.

That waiver, adopted in July 2003 under pressure from powerful San Joaquin Valley agribusiness interests, provided for the establishment of “voluntary coalitions” comprised of farmers to establish voluntary programs to address agriculture’s massive pollution of Central Valley waterways, including the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

The board, in its meeting in Rancho Cordova on June 22-23, will vote whether or not to extend these waivers. Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Carrie McNeil, the Deltakeeper, John Beuttler, spokesman for the Allied Fishing Groups, and others are urging anglers and their supporters to oppose the granting of another waiver for five years.

“Agriculture is the greatest source of unregulated pollution in the Central Valley,” said Jennings. “Agricultural pollution has been unregulated for 40 years. Three years ago the board granted a waiver for agricultural discharge, relying upon voluntary coalitions and programs to deal with pollution. However, voluntary methods don’t work — if they did we wouldn’t need any civil or criminal codes. If we want to restore delta and Central Valley fisheries, we must bring the largest source of unregulated discharge under control.”

Agribusiness discharges a “witch’s brew” of herbicides, insecticides, rodenticides, fertilizers and all sorts of nutrients and sediments into valley waterways, without any regulation or enforcement, according to Jennings. There has been in recent years an amazing amount of “remobilization” of banned toxic chemicals like DDT into valley waterways as land laced with these pesticides is irrigated. Scientists are constantly finding new chemicals and mixtures of chemicals in agricultural wastewater.

“One thing is clear,” said Jennings. “Several years of monitoring agriculturally dominated waterways by U.C.-Davis staff and limited monitoring by the coalitions have established that the problem is far worse than we ever imagined. Virtually all of these water bodies violate numerous water quality standards and most are toxic to aquatic life.”

Anglers, commercial fishermen, Indian Tribes, environmental justice advocates must join together again with a united voice and send a strong and urgent message to the regional board that the public will not tolerate renewing this waiver that has led to continued degradation of Central Valley rivers and the Bay-Delta Estuary.

The attempt of the board to renew this waiver becomes even more alarming in the light of the current food chain/pelagic chain crash that federal and state scientists are currently documenting in the delta.

The DFG’s annual trawl net survey last fall revealed the lowest ever population of delta smelt, the second lowest-ever population of longfin smelt, the second lowest documented young-of-the-year stripers, and the tenth lowest population of threadfin shad, according to Chuck Armor, DFG biologist. The threadfin shad population decline over the past several years is particularly alarming, since the shad are considered a very hardy and adaptable fish.

The federal and state governments are currently investigating the causes of a dramatic food chain decline that includes these four species, as well as plankton species that they and other fish forage upon. The three major possible causes they are exploring are (1) changes in delta water exports (2) the proliferation of invasive species and (3) toxic chemicals, such as pesticides and herbicides found in agricultural wastewaters. The main source of the toxic chemicals implicated in the pelagic organism decline is agricultural wastewater discharge.

In a letter to the board in late May, Beuttler of Allied Fishing Groups emphasized the severe impact that toxics have had upon the delta ecosystem — and blasted the voluntary coalitions and programs as not addressing or improving the situation with the continued discharged of toxic, pesticide-laden water into Central Valley rivers.

“Today key pelagic organisms are on the verge of collapse,” Beuttler said. “Biologists point to the degraded water quality in the delta as one of the probable principal causes. Given the condition of the estuary, the numerous species of fish now listed under the state and federal Endangered Species Acts and the long the long term declines of many species, it is time to stop destroying the public fishery resources by allowing huge amounts of toxic flows to be discharged into the delta.”

Beuttler urged the board to adopt General Waste Discharge Requirements — the water quality standards that all other water users have to comply with — rather than a waiver as they provide the most effective and enforceable approach for addressing agricultural pollution.

However, if the board insists on extending the agricultural waiver, he urged it at least to adopt performance goals and yardsticks to require measurable reductions in “pollution mass loading.” All of these measures should have “enforceable timelines” also.

Jennings and McNeill, in a joint statement, detailed how the so-called “voluntary” program is a complete disaster.

“The voluntary coalitions have failed to comply with the most basic waiver requirements including submission of reports, establishment of adequate monitoring programs, or development and implementation of measures to reduce pollution,” they said. “They have even refused to provide the regional board with membership lists so that the board could determine who is in the program.”

Consequently, after three years of waiver implementation, they say that the regional board does not know who is discharging pollutants, what pollutants are being discharged, who is participating in the waiver program, or who has or has not implemented best management practices to reduce the toxic effects of agricultural discharges. The volunteer program appears to be the proverbial case of the fox guarding the henhouse.

Jennings and McNeil also criticized the regional board for failing to initiate enforcement for failure to comply with the explicit conditions of the waiver they adopted and never requiring the coalitions to develop management plans identifying how identified water quality problems will be addressed.

The regional board is proposing a five-year renewal of those waivers, but the proposed new waiver is actually weaker than the one it replaces. “It contains no accountability, no requirement to identify dischargers and provides no assurance that a single management measure to reduce pollution will be implemented or a single pound of pollutant loading will be eliminated,” according to Jennings and McNeill.

“With plummeting numbers of native fish and their food, with growing concerns about drinking water quality, and with continued impairment to the vast Central Valley watershed, we cannot afford this proposed, weaker 2006 waiver,” they concluded.

Already, the coalition has sent a letter of opposition to the regional board with 48 different organizations signed on. In the letter, doctors, teachers, students, farmworkers, birders, fishermen, environmentalists, public health advocates, cancer advocacy groups, women’s groups, legal defenders, recreational boaters, surfers, political activists, community groups and concerned citizens addressed their “strong opposition” to the proposed conditional waiver for irrigated agriculture.

Organizers say California agribusiness must not be allowed to destroy fisheries and drinking water supplies by continuing to get away with discharges of toxic, contaminated water into Central Valley rivers.

The “voluntary” program instituted by the water board has not succeeded, organizers say, and it is time that California agribusiness, with its use of many herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers and other chemicals that it discharges into waterways, be held accountable for what it is doing to the environment.

The coalition has urged maximum attendance at the hearing. Those who cannot attend are urged to write a letter to the board’s members, urging them to voice their strong opposition to the proposed conditional waiver for irrigated agribusiness.

The meeting is scheduled to take place at the Central Valley Regional Water Control Board, 11020 Sun Center Drive, Suite 200, Rancho Cordova, Calif., beginning at 9:30 a.m. on June 22.

Send your letter indicating your opposition to the waiver to: Mr. Robert Schneider, Chair Board Members Attn: Pamela Creedon, Executive Officer Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board 11020 Sun Center Dr., No. 200 Rancho Cordova CA 95670-6114

Forest Service auctions timber from national forest

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 09:54:00 +0000

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — To the dismay of environmentalists, the U.S. Forest Service auctioned off timber from a remote, burned-over section of a national forest June 9 in the first such sale since the Bush administration eased logging restrictions.

A timber company paid $300,052 for the right to log 261 acres of standing dead timber that was burned in a 2002 fire in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski said he would seek a court order blocking the harvest, based on a lawsuit that Oregon, Washington, California and Mexico have filed challenging the legality of the administration’s rules. He had earlier asked the Forest Service to delay Friday’s sale.

Environmentalists warned that the sale could set a dangerous precedent by opening the door to logging on nearly 60 million acres of national forest.

The timber industry and Forest Service said logging the area would speed the regeneration of the forest, but environmental groups said leaving things to nature would produce a healthier forest.

“The bottom line is the Bush administration is focusing on unraveling environmental protections,” said Lesley Adams of the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center.

The blaze burned through roughly 500,000 acres in the rugged Klamath Mountains of southwestern Oregon. It was the nation’s biggest wildfire in 2002.

The timber sale was on land known as an inventoried roadless area. Roadless areas are generally large tracts so remote and so rugged that logging there has long been considered uneconomical.

No new roads are to be built for the harvest, and instead helicopters will fly the logs out.

The Clinton administration severely restricted logging in roadless areas, but a federal judge in Wyoming overturned the rule in 2003. In 2004, the Bush administration adopted new rules that gave states the option of opening roadless areas to logging.

Only two bidders took part. The winner, the Silver Creek Timber Co. of Merlin, went more than $64,000 over the minimum bid.

Conservatives favor purity over cancer vaccine

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 08:34:00 +0000

On June 8 the Food and Drug Administration approved a vaccine for the human papillomavirus (HPV). The vaccine appears to be 100 percent effective at protecting against the most prevalent viruses that cause cervical cancer.

While public health professionals view the vaccine, Gardasil, as miraculous, many conservative organizations oppose it on grounds that — because some diseases caused by HPV are sexually transmitted — its use might encourage promiscuity among adolescent girls.

Cervical cancer is the second most prevalent cancer killer among women in America, striking nearly 14,000 women each year. Of those, nearly 4,000 die annually. Poor women and women of color will benefit the most from the vaccine, as Latino and Black women have the highest rates of cervical cancer. Lower-income women typically lack the funds and health insurance necessary to have regular screenings for HPV.

Despite the benefits of the vaccine, conservative organizations began to rally against it last year. One of its most vocal opponents is the Family Research Council, which describes itself as a group that “promotes the Judeo-Christian worldview as the basis for a just, free and stable society.”

Last October the FRC’s president, Tony Perkins, spoke out strongly against the vaccine. Perkins said, “Our concern is that this vaccine will be marketed to a segment of the population that should be getting a message about abstinence. It sends the wrong message.” He even stated that he would not vaccinate his 13-year-old daughter.

Another organization that promotes abstinence and opposes the vaccine is the Physicians Consortium. The head of the consortium, Dr. Hal Wallis, said, “If you don’t want to suffer these diseases, you need to abstain, and when you find a partner, stick with that partner.” The National Abstinence Clearinghouse, an organization formed “to promote the appreciation for and practice of sexual abstinence (purity) until marriage,” also opposes Gardasil.

Now that Gardasil has FDA approval, conservative organizations are strategizing to blunt its acceptance and discourage its use. Much of this effort is directed toward the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the group that advises the Centers for Disease Control about which immunizations to make mandatory and how to finance them.

In 2003 President Bush appointed Reginald Finger, M.D., to the ACIP. Until last fall, Finger was also the medical affairs analyst for Focus on the Family, the nation’s largest and most powerful evangelical Christian organization. In an effort to gain the support of this group, Merck & Co., Gardasil’s manufacturer, has been forced to aggressively lobby Focus. Merck has admitted to holding numerous meetings with Finger at Focus’ headquarters. It is troubling that a vaccine manufacturer has to be concerned with securing the backing of a conservative Christian organization.

Merck will likely have an uphill battle. Another spokesman for Perkins’ Family Research Council, testifying at an ACIP conference, said, “Because parents have an inherent right to be the primary educator and decision maker regarding their children’s health, we would oppose any measures to legally require vaccination. There is no justification for any vaccination mandate as a condition of public school attendance.” And Focus on the Family issued a formal statement declaring that it “supports widespread (universal) availability of HPV vaccines but opposes mandatory HPV vaccinations for entry to public school.”

But in most instances, parents can’t pick and choose what vaccinations they want their children to receive in order to attend public schools. Children are required to be vaccinated against measles, mumps, chicken pox and various other diseases. Public health experts recommend that the HPV vaccine be administered to children between the ages of 11 and 12, before sexual activity commences. And there’s no scientifically defensible reason that it shouldn’t be universally administered.

Of course, there’s the rub. The only objection to the HPV vaccine is based on religious principle. But religious values and beliefs shouldn’t affect FDA approval or recommendation by the ACIP. From a public health perspective, we can’t continue to allow conservatives to depict science as a cultural bogeyman.

Autoworkers want traction on jobs, health care

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 07:45:00 +0000

LAS VEGAS — The fight for jobs and national health care were uppermost on the minds of 2,000 autoworkers and retirees who gathered here for the United Auto Workers convention June 12.

In a fiery hour-long address that opened the meeting, the union’s President Ron Gettelfinger evoked the UAW’s fighting history, rallied the troops to change Congress and thwart Bush’s anti-worker agenda, renewed the union’s commitment to organizing the growing ranks of unorganized workers in U.S. plants owned by foreign automakers, and demanded a single-payer national health system.

“Everything the UAW has fought for,” said Gettelfinger, “is under attack by a number of multinational corporations who want to rip up our contracts and impose poverty-level wages on workers.”

At the same time, citing the present reality that unionized automakers account for only 58 percent of the country’s vehicle production, Gettelfinger seemed to be laying the basis for future concessions to auto’s Big Three.

“The largest U.S. automakers, GM and Ford, are losing money in their North American auto operations,” he said. Gettelfinger was explaining what he called “the most painful decision I’ve had to make” as union president, his move earlier this year to allow automakers to cut negotiated benefits. GM and Ford have announced plans to close or downsize two-dozen plants and cut 60,000 hourly workers jobs.

Gettelfinger wasn’t giving a pass, however, to GM’s spin-off, auto parts giant Delphi. Delphi’s worldwide profits haven’t prevented it from filing for bankruptcy in the U.S. Most here regard the bankruptcy as a cynical maneuver to get a judge’s OK to dump legally binding contracts. The result will be wages slashed, pensions eliminated and enormous job loss. Referring to “unscrupulous employers and their battery of bankruptcy vultures,” Gettelfinger blasted Delphi CEO Steve Miller’s proposition that, in the union president’s words, “American workers need to get over the idea of having a middle-class lifestyle and resign themselves to barely scraping by.”

Gettelfinger praised bankruptcy reform legislation introduced by Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) that would prevent “a multinational corporation like Delphi from excluding its profitable foreign operations from the bankruptcy court’s consideration.”

Scores of delegates hit the floor mikes during the four-day meet, expanding on the themes of health care, political action, and organizing, but none called for shared sacrifice.

“Health care should be on the front burner of all unions in this country,” said Local 110 Plant Shop Chair Lew Moye from St. Louis’ Chrysler assembly plant. Along those lines, the first resolution passed by the convention stated: “The best solution is a comprehensive, single-payer plan to provide quality health care to every man, woman and child in the United States.” The resolution, adopted unanimously, singles out legislation introduced by Rep. Conyers, HR 676, the U.S. National Health Insurance Act.

The convention also addressed environmental concerns, supporting improved fuel efficiency through raising Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards and government assistance to the U.S. auto industry to produce advanced technology vehicles.

UAW membership is down to 600,000 from a high point of 1.5 million in 1979, and more losses are inevitable as thousands leave GM and Delphi’s payrolls as the result of buyout offer agreements reached in the week before the convention opened.

Although not sufficient to make up for these losses, 66,000 new members organized in recent years, including 11,000 in the South, gave some cause for optimism. So did the determination of the delegates, scores of who took to the floor to weigh in on the issues.

“Protecting jobs” was the number one priority for David Edgar from Local 869 in Warren, Mich. How to do it? “Start with taking back the House in November,” he said.

Russell Reynolds, president of Local 651 representing 2,500 workers at Delphi’s East Flint plant, the former AC spark plug facility, says he personally takes some of the blame for what’s happening at Delphi. “I haven’t stood up enough to protest,” he explained. But Reynolds is all about changing that. “The biggest problem I see is George Bush,” he said. “We’ve got to have a president who believes in the American people and the Constitution.”

The gathering was anything but somber, and in its second day of meeting, delegates collectively jeered a reference to a New York Times headline to that effect. Later the same day, Vice President Bob King made a moving presentation featuring newly organized rank-and-file delegates speaking on their experiences of fighting for a voice at work. Then the entire delegation engaged in an exuberant on-the-spot “practice” demonstration, complete with signs, music, chants, arm-in-arm marching and dancing, in preparation for taking to the streets in support of workers’ right to organize and the Employee Free Choice Act.

Progressives set sights to Take back America

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 07:32:00 +0000

WASHINGTON — Ask Steve Robinson, a local Democratic committeeman from Lawrence, Kan., if his state is posed to help reverse right-wing rule in Congress, and he looks you straight in the eye and answers a firm “yes.”

Robinson’s friend, Republican state Rep. Dale Swenson, a laid off Boeing worker from Wichita, says its time to “galvanize progressive ideas. Both parties should take on the causes of working-class Americans. Put country ahead of party.”

Robinson and Swenson were both at Campaign for America’s Future “Take Back America” conference here June 13.

In its fourth year, the annual Take Back America conference opened with 2,000 attendees. Representatives from progressive, liberal and labor movements, like Biko Baker, organizer for the National Hip-Hop Convention, rubbed shoulders with Lynn Williams, president of the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees.

Senate Democrat Minority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) surprised the conference with a call to start the troop withdrawal from Iraq. “Iraq is not a matter for future presidents, as President Bush has said,” he charged. “It’s his war and it’s his responsibility.” He warned attendees of the Bush administration’s campaign of “distort, distract, divide” to continue their right-wing stranglehold on power as the November state and congressional elections inch closer.

Former presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry drew numerous standing ovations after beginning his speech with, “I was wrong to vote for this war.” He called for renewed courage and dissent from Bush policies in the halls of Congress and in the streets, saying, “It is our right and obligation to stand up to the president. It is immoral to be silent.” He announced that he was starting a floor fight in the Senate next week to set a date to bring the troops home.

Showing differences within the Democratic Party, the next day, Sen. Hillary Clinton received a notably cooler reception, including some boos, when she spoke about her opposition to a “date certain” for withdrawal from Iraq. Robinson welcomed Kerry’s and others’ condemnation of the war. “They [conference organizers] finally condemned the war. It had been the 800-pound gorilla sitting on the sofa.” Robinson, who had been to last year’s conference, said he saw greater confidence and excitement this year because “people are more focused on Katrina and global warming.”

Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, told the conference that the country is at a “tipping point” but warned that doesn’t necessarily translate into changing the occupants of Congress.

CFA polling indicated the majority of voters want national security based on building allies; that the government should regulate corporations, free scientific and medical research from right-wing religious restrictions, guarantee national health care, develop energy independence and invest in public education.

But polling also shows Americans continuing to be wary of whether government can do anything successfully. “This provides an opening, not necessarily for a Democratic tsunami this fall,” he said. “But for a long-term movement that challenges the conservative ideology of our day, a bold progressive reform movement that revives the sense of common purpose and the public good.”

Frankie Robinson flew in with fellow ACORN members from Saginaw, Mich. Robinson said the conference is a big help to activists and the “little people” to “get ’em out to vote. What we are doing everyday, coming here and learning, we are powerful. We got a shot to make changes, but we gotta fight and not back down, slide around or whine.”

The conference launched a drive for energy independence through clean, renewable sources. Actor Robert Redford joined Jerome Ringo of the Apollo Alliance to advocate for a pro-labor environmental program.

“It’s not the environment or jobs,” Ringo said. “It’s the environment and jobs.”

Redford said that he had been an outdoorsman since his youth. In the early 1980s his Sundance Institute hosted a meeting of U.S. and Soviet scientists who convinced him, and scores of other activists, that global warming was the product of fossil fuels, like oil, and threatened the existence of the planet.

“Their prediction came true,” Redford told reporters.

Borrowing its name from the 1960s space program, the Apollo Project, the Apollo Alliance plan calls for a federal $300 billion investment in energy efficiency over 10 years that would create 3.3 million jobs.

The conference highlighted the initiative by presenting their annual “Right Stuff” award to United Steelworker President Leo Gerard. The USW is a member of the Apollo Alliance’s national steering committee and recently forged a new coalition with the Sierra Club and National Wildlife Federation.

Gerard condemned efforts by Republicans to answer soaring gas prices by opening the last wilderness in North America to oil corporation drilling. “We would save more energy in one year by retrofitting all our schools than we ever would by drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge,” he said. “We can have — and deserve — a clean environment for us and our grandchildren and jobs.”

Joelle Fishman, chairwoman of the political action commission of the Communist Party, who has attended previous “Take Back America” conferences, said this year’s conference made some breakthroughs.

“The conference is breaking through on terrorism and war, Bush’s trump card in the past few election cycles. The attendees are issuing a battle cry for democracy, peace and justice in our own country.”

EPA proposes no regulation of polluted water transfers

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 08:42:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency said June 1 it will not regulate transfers of water from one place to another — no matter how polluted the water is at the start.

The EPA proposal would let water transfer authorities, corporate farmers and other businesses skip having to obtain a Clean Water Act permit in certain cases.

The exemption would apply to water, even if it contains pollution, that is moved in tunnels, channels or natural streams and isn’t put to industrial, municipal or commercial uses.

A permit would still be required if the process of the water transfer itself might introduce pollutants.

EPA sped up its rule-making process in an effort to outflank pending court action and side with Florida’s sugar industry.

In 2004, the Supreme Court heard a case in which the Miccosukee Indian tribe and Friends of the Everglades argued that the South Florida Water Management District violated the Clean Water Act by pumping phosphorous-laden water into the Everglades without a federal permit.

The court didn’t rule directly on the issue, sending it back to the lower district court for trial on the issue of whether one or two water bodies were involved.

Before it went to trial, however, EPA reversed earlier legal opinions by saying Congress intended state and local water resource managers to oversee water transfers. EPA also joined with the sugar industry and the water district to defend against the claims.

Environmentalists say EPA would allow an entire class of water polluters to be exempt from the Clean Water Act — and authorize contaminants to be dumped into drinking water sources, lakes and streams.

Managing Attorney David Guest of the Earthjustice law firm’s Florida office said EPA’s proposed regulation would directly affect the 2004 case involving unhealthy flows of pollution into Lake Okeechobee, Florida’s largest freshwater lake.

“Transfers of contaminated water are a public health threat,” Guest said. “The EPA is supposed to be protecting us, not legalizing dangerous pollution.”

Inconvenient for whom?

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 08:34:00 +0000

Former presidential candidate Al Gore’s new documentary makes him look really good and global warming look really bad. Both concepts seem really credible, thanks to the director’s skill and Gore’s years of dedication to explaining this vital issue.

The online activists at MoveOn.org were so enthusiastic about the film that they launched a nationwide campaign to get people to buy advance tickets and see the film early. They also provided a web link exposing another campaign that pooh-poohs the dangers of global warming. Funding for that campaign apparently came from Exxon Mobil.

Our group of activist friends agreed that everyone should see this movie because it dramatically exposes the unarguable truth of impending global disaster. At the same time, we weren’t happy with the explanation of the cause of the problem, nor with the recommended solutions.

At a nearby restaurant, I asked folks what they thought.

College professor

“I went in expecting it to be depressing because of what I think we’re doing to the environment. But it’s become clear through the movie that we humans created this problem and we have some technologies and some possibilities to solve the problem. As Al Gore says, what’s missing is the political will to use what we already know to solve the problem.

“I would say that the movie is an hour-and-a-half science lesson, so I think it would be helpful if it were shown in small segments with the people who are viewing the movie having discussion. I think it would be helpful to have scientists and environmentalists there to react to different pieces in the movie. I think it’s very useful for people to find out about global warming. But I think you should go into it knowing that you’re going to hear an hour and a half of facts, scientific facts. Just be prepared for that.

“In terms of the information that’s there, I’d give it four or four-and-a-half stars, but in terms of the way it’s put together, you have to want to go see it.”

Technical worker

“It was funny that he called it ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ because he spent so little time talking about why it was inconvenient and for whom. He wanted to shock people into working on the environment, but that movie was not shocking in any way. It was very cool and measured. It was as if he was trying to be the ‘anti-Michael Moore,’ in my opinion. I don’t think he is going to get the kind of impact that he talked about and that he wants.

“If he had talked about profit, if he had talked about who is actually profiting from the destruction of the environment, then it might have been effective. But Al Gore is not interested in talking about those kinds of things.

“Look at how he grew up! He grew up on a farm that grew tobacco. He made a lot of money off that. His life is so disconnected from what ordinary working people go through.

“Working people are not going to identify with anything in that film. He showed two flashes of Katrina. He could have made a whole movie about Katrina and that would have been a lot more interesting. I’d still give it three stars because it’s a whole lot better than nothing, and nothing is what’s been out there on this so far.”

Bilingual teacher

“I would give it two or three stars. I would recommend it because some people don’t know the facts, and there are a lot of facts. People should go and see the effects of global warming. I don’t expect my life to change a lot. I’m already trying to recycle and save energy.”

Math teacher

“I thought it was very effective in presenting the incontrovertible facts of global warming. Very effective. So, the truth part of the movie was well done. Unfortunately, I kept asking myself ‘inconvenient for whom?’ He never really explained. The closest he got was that some people were ignoring it because they were being paid to ignore it. But who was paying them? We never got into that, and I think it would have been a much more powerful treatment of the problem.

“Clearly, most people who have thought about global warming at all know that it’s happening. That’s not the issue.

“The issue is: how do we take enough control of our economy to change direction? In my opinion, that’s what’s going to have to happen. He avoided that subject at all costs. I give it three stars because, even though it didn’t really lead us anywhere, it gave us a good grasp of the facts.”

College student

“It was good at giving us possible solutions, but not solutions that everyone can actually do. They are suggesting that we go out and buy more energy-efficient products and cars, and recycle, and if we can’t convince our senators and representatives, then we should run for office. Like everyone can do that!

“People have to work and have to spend their hard-earned money on these things. It’s not really a possibility to go buy a new car just because you think you should. We are going to have to go on driving old clunkers that can’t pass emission standards. That’s not our fault, that’s what we have to do. Until the rich and the corporations and the politicians step up and make those real viable options for people, global warming will not improve on a wide scale.”

Retired factory worker

“We used to be hippies. Didn’t work. And now Al Gore wants us to be hippies again!”

Social worker

“Five stars! I would give the movie five stars because I think this is the movie that put all the facts together and made it all interesting. It sealed up all the holes! There’s no way to argue against that whole case for global warming, and I have to give Gore credit for that. I’m recommending it to everybody.”

Torturing national parks

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 08:31:00 +0000

Whenever an administration comes to power that possesses a philosophy totally at odds with an agency’s purpose, mission and traditions, you can expect fireworks. Since January 2001, the Interior Department has been transformed from a department of professionals concerned about the long-term preservation and sustained use of our nation’s resources to a cadre of politically-driven corporate puppets whose mission is to turn over America’s resources to the private business interests and the “wreckreation” movement.

Across the spectrum of government, we have seen the dramatic affect of this not-so-subtle transition from good stewardship to destructive policies affecting the environment. The administration has gutted the Clean Water Act, has crippled laws that were designed to reduce air pollution, and is moving rapidly toward dire changes in the Endangered Species Act that destroy its effectiveness. The administration is pushing current efforts to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil interests. Why, you ask? It’s really simple. In all these moves, private business interests benefit; the public suffers.

In the case of the National Park Service, it was clearly evident that the parks were under siege shortly after the Bush administration took office. Appointments were made to positions having responsibility to guard the people’s resources and health, with candidates having a belief that private industry should exploit the nation’s resources. This is only another form of “trickle-down” economic theory that simply does not work. Economists, political science majors, lobbyists, and spokespersons from the mining and oil industry and organizations supporting privatization were filling important resource positions in the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service. Formerly, resource-based individuals filled these positions.

Need convincing? Here are some examples:

• NPS set policy reducing ability to have air pollution controls in national parks.

• NPS overrode two decades of scientific study to allow the reintroduction of snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park.

• NPS proposed policy that would permit advertising in national parks.

• NPS began outsourcing of public protection jobs (lifeguards) at seashores.

• NPS rewrote policies and directives that once put protection of resources first, so that protection and use would be equal. This paved the way for more “wreckreational” use by motorized vehicles.

• The administration’s leadership introduced legislation to sell off 10 national park areas.

As a result of this enormous change in park administration and the obvious threats to the continued welfare of the National Park Service, a new organization was born: the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees. Numbering over 500 retired park employees, including directors, regional directors, park superintendents and other supervisors, this group has proven to be the watchdog for responsible park stewardship. The coalition has created the fireworks. Every time the administration has put forward a foul policy that endangers the cultural or natural resources of the parks, this group has quickly responded through letters to the media, to the legislators and to the NPS officials. Simply bringing the administration’s flawed policies to the public’s attention has resulted in substantial victories for protection of our natural and cultural resources.

So there you have it, the gauntlet has been laid down. Which side are you on? I have always looked upon the national parks as the American equivalent to Europe’s ancient cathedrals and magnificent castles. Europeans have always accepted the burden of preserving and protecting their timeworn icons. For over 90 years those who govern have supported the national parks with adequate funding and philosophical support. Now the parks are in dire straits — they need your support. Speak out to your legislators, write letters to the editors and join conservation groups. Whatever you do, just remember these are your parks and your resources; let’s help ensure they will still be around for your descendants.

Art Allen retired as assistant superintendent of Blue Ridge Parkway in 1990, after serving as a park ranger, naturalist and numerous administrative capacities in the national parks. This article is reprinted from the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility web site, www.peer.org, with the author’s permission.

Who is Dick DeVos?

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 08:29:00 +0000

Dick DeVos is the presumed Republican candidate for governor in Michigan, and he has a lot to hide. To win the Republican nomination, he has spent millions of his personal fortune on a glitzy television attack ad campaign. But when it comes to the issues that concern real people in Michigan, DeVos’ record reveals the truth about his agenda, his character and the danger he poses to working families.

DeVos pretends he cares about working families, but the truth is that he has never had to work a day in his life. Born into a family fortune worth over $3 billion as owner of the Amway Corp., DeVos has held various odd jobs. In 1990, he won election to the Michigan State Board of Education, quitting after only two years of an eight-year term. He then founded and directed an ultra-right, pro-corporate Republican political action committee.

In 1996, DeVos was appointed to the Grand Valley State University Board of Control. There, he won recognition for the poorest attendance at board meetings of all the appointees. He quit that job before his term ended in 2000. Between 1993 and 2000 he headed Amway. After this brief tenure, he spent a couple of years of doing little other than promoting right-wing politics, and has now taken on his campaign for governor as a full-time position.

Between 1991 and 1997, public disclosure documents show, he and his family gave more than $4 million to various Republican Party causes, organizations and campaign committees. This investment paid off in 1997 when congressional Republican leaders inserted a provision into the 1997 federal budget to give tax breaks that benefited DeVos’ company by over $300 million.

When Tom DeLay rose to power in the Republican Party in the late 1990s, DeVos began a personal and financial relationship with him. Thousands of dollars were swapped back and forth between DeLay-controlled political action committees (PACs) and DeVos.

Their relationship was so tight that DeLay held the first Republican Majority Issues Committee fundraiser on DeVos’ private yacht, a party which was attended by no less a personage than “Casino Jack” Abramoff, according to the Washington Post. Ultimately, in September 2005 DeLay was indicted in Texas for laundering illegal campaign funds through PACs not unlike DeVos’.

DeVos’ hot-button issues are helping the rich avoid their fair share of the tax burden, promoting outsourcing and “free trade,” and gutting public schools. Aside from the 1997 Amway tax giveaway scheme, DeVos also supports a dishonest campaign, secretly funded to the tune of $490 million since 1998 by the 18 wealthiest families in the country, to repeal the estate tax. This campaign misleadingly claims that the estate tax affects ordinary working families, small business owners and family farmers. The truth, however, is that it really only affects billionaire families like DeVos’. Its repeal would gut $1 trillion from the federal treasury in 10 years, according to Public Citizen.

While he was the head of Amway in 2000, DeVos ordered the cutting of 1,400 jobs. Three years later, the company announced a $220 million increase in its investments in its overseas facilities. DeVos has aggressively used his wealth to influence Republican Party support for free trade deals like NAFTA, which, the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute estimates, has cost Michigan about 63,000 jobs.

DeVos is a fanatical devotee of the failed Republican concept of deregulation of industry and tax cuts. He claims that they create jobs. The truth is that Republican governors and state legislatures in Michigan have passed tax cut after tax cut, deregulation bill after deregulation bill, for the last 16 years, according to the Detroit News. And still, unemployment in Michigan is almost 50 percent higher than the national average and Michigan’s manufacturing sector has been in steady decline.

Throughout the 1990s, DeVos and his family spent hundreds of thousands of dollars promoting a school privatization ballot initiative, which failed in 2000, and other campaigns to shift public resources to private schools. DeVos recently told the ultra-right Heritage Foundation that he would bring his anti-public-school fight back to Michigan “when the time is right.”

DeVos’ real record shows that he would make any misleading claim, spend any amount of cash and use any means to advance his personal agenda. And the record shows that his agenda is about increasing his personal fortune at the expense of Michigan workers and their families.

Some observers have called the 2006 gubernatorial election in Michigan a referendum on Republican ideas and policy as well as a bellwether for the 2008 presidential race. Let’s make it so by going all out to stop dangerous DeVos. It’s a powerful argument for re-electing Jennifer Granholm.

Joel Wendland (jwendland@politicalaffairs.net) lives in Michigan and is managing editor of Political Affairs.

USA Today calls retiree benefits monster

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 08:20:00 +0000

The lead headline in “McNewspaper” (USA Today) for May 25 referred to retiree benefits as a “monster.” The article goes on to compile gross statistics on the total amount of retiree benefits compiled by American workers through lifetimes of work and struggle. Instead of blessings to American families, these commitments are branded “burdens”!

What clearer signal could a major capitalist newspaper send? Pensions, health care and Social Security are being painted with a bright blue bull’s-eye and targeted for destruction.

Even though a gigantic outcry prevented the radicals in government from shearing away parts of Social Security during the past year, the butchers are only holding back until the November elections pass. If the same people are running Congress after November, Social Security is sure to be wounded or murdered.

Pensions and health care are already being dismembered. In cases where no union could restrain them, giant corporations ripped them apart. Even unionized workers have felt the sharp blades of capitalism. Bankruptcy judges have cooperated with bloodthirsty corporations to set aside provisions that protected retirees in union contracts.

When the mighty United Auto Workers agreed in December, in mid-contract, to cut the current retirees from Big Three automobile companies, it was clear that no American worker was safe. Those automobile contracts had been the pearl of all American union contracts, particularly for retiree benefits. Never before in its proud history had the UAW agreed to cuts for current retirees!

Hopes for a national health care program are punctured by union concessions and takeaways. Why should corporations want a national health care program when they can get all the savings they want by shredding their contracts and commitments?

American workers’ retirement benefits lie bleeding on the gory killing floors of corporations. USA Today clearly shows capitalism’s intention to finish them off completely. Only the united force of the working class can staunch the blood flow.

Jim Lane (flittle7@yahoo.com) is a labor activist in North Texas.

CBTU calls for re-uniting labor

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 06:48:00 +0000

ORLANDO, Fla. (PAI) — Re-uniting the U.S. labor movement after last year’s AFL-CIO-Change to Win split is critical to “ending the madness” of the GOP government of George W. Bush, declared Coalition of Black Trade Unionists President William Lucy at CBTU’s May 25 annual convention here. Lucy blasted the Bush administration for everything from the racism shown in responding to Hurricane Katrina to the deaths in the Iraq war.

The convention voted to demand talks start on “a process to identify critical issues around which discussions can take place about reconstitution of the [labor] movement.” That would let labor unify its campaign on the ground to take back the country, and the government, from Bush and his allies, Lucy said after the measure passed.

“All of labor’s resources need to be focused on better coordination on the ground of campaigns to organize workers and to mobilize our communities on issues like better schools, affordable housing and health care facilities,” said Lucy, who is also secretary-treasurer of AFSCME, now the largest AFL-CIO union. “We cannot credibly ask community leaders and our allies around the world to stand with us if we have diluted our own strength,” he added.

Making economic justice a top theme, not just in this fall’s campaign but afterwards, is also critical, Lucy said.

“Something is wrong when companies cut loyal, productive workers from their payrolls to fatten their profit margins in low-wage countries. Something is wrong when the gap between a CEO’s salary and a worker’s paycheck is wider than the Mississippi River. Something is wrong when the standard of living of American families is stagnant when the productivity of workers is increasing.

“We don’t need fickle reforms or neoliberal Band-Aids. We need a new economic order, and Black folks must lead the way,” Lucy declared. Such a new order, he added, would try to end what he called “the global and national disgrace” of “rampant inequality concealed in neighborhoods and countries marginalized by race, wealth and social power.”

Lucy took aim at Bush and his allies for incompetence and corruption. “This administration and their corrupt allies in Congress have looted the federal treasury, treating it like their personal ATM machine,” he declared.

“From refueling aircraft at the Pentagon to body armor, from war material to hot dogs in the cafeteria, they have found a way to steal from the American taxpayer. Their level of corruption is only exceeded by their level of incompetence and dishonesty.

“And no place was Bush’s incompetence, racism and hypocrisy more visible than with the federal response to the hurricane disaster in Mississippi and New Orleans. The whole world, and especially people from the Gulf region, will never forget the incredible incompetence, indifference and cronyism shown by this administration in the aftermath of one of the greatest natural disasters of our time,” Lucy said.

“This government, this superpower, this military goliath with the greatest might in the world, could not get its citizens off of bridges and rooftops, could not move people from a convention center to a place of safety, could not get water to thousands of thirsty men, women and children. Millions saw horrifying images of innocent people — mostly Black or poor or elderly — dying or suffering because their own national government had abandoned them,” Lucy stated. The Bush government, he said, “could not find its behind with both hands.”

Massachusetts gubernatorial race heats up

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 06:14:00 +0000

WORCESTER, Mass. — Massachusetts may be well on its way to getting its first African American governor after the state Democratic Party convention endorsed Deval Patrick, with 58 percent of the delegates’ votes, on June 3. Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Riley received 27 percent while venture capitalist Christopher Gabrielli squeezed through with slightly over 15 percent, the minimum needed to qualify for the Sept. 19 primary election ballot.

Whoever wins the primary will face Republican Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey in November. Last December, GOP Gov. Mitt Romney announced he would not seek re-election.

This will be the first electoral run for Patrick, former assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Clinton administration. He was considered a long shot when he started meeting with the more liberal and progressive grassroots Democrats last year. At that time Riley was considered to be the front-runner.

Prior to the convention, Patrick picked up endorsements from liberal members of Congress Jim McGovern, Michael Capuano, John Olver and Barney Frank. He also has the support of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and two former U.S. secretaries of labor, Alexis Herman and Robert Reich.

Some progressive forces within the Democratic Party have expressed some concerns over Patrick’s role as corporate counsel for Coca-Cola. In that position he defended the company against charges that its franchised bottling company in Colombia used ultra-rightist paramilitary forces to clamp down on union organizing by murdering leaders of the food workers union there. Patrick claimed that there was no direct evidence linking Coca-Cola to the paramilitaries, and he supported the company’s proposal to finance an independent investigation. Patrick says that the subsequent refusal of Coca-Cola’s CEO to finance the investigation led to Patrick’s resignation.

Martina Cruz, a school board member from Lawrence and a Patrick delegate to the convention, said, “He’s not perfect, but we need a change from years of Republican governors who cut services to poor cities like Lawrence. Deval’s positions on a number of issues have become better.” That sentiment was echoed by various labor and community leaders who said that Patrick’s positions have changed after some discussions.

Nevertheless, some unions are split on whether to support him or not. For example, some Service Employee locals are supporting Patrick, while others are supporting Riley.

If elected, Patrick would become the second African American governor ever elected in the history of the United States and the second African American elected statewide in Massachusetts. The first was Sen. Edward Brooke, a liberal Republican who clashed with then-president Richard Nixon on a number of issues, the most famous being Nixon’s nomination of Harold Carswell to the Supreme Court. Carswell had made racist speeches when he ran for office in his home state of Georgia years earlier.

Minimum wage to loom large in Ohio vote

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 06:04:00 +0000

A variety of progressive, issue-oriented forces are at work in the Ohio elections, trying to build a political movement capable of ousting the ultra-right from control of state government in November.

Industrial unions, for example, are focusing on health care, trade and pensions; peace groups on the Iraq war; retirees on Social Security, pensions and Medicare; civil rights groups on issues of equality, fairness and immigrant rights; and farmers on trade, price supports and an end to corporate farming. Several groups are focusing on ensuring an accurate and protected vote count, particularly in the wake of voting problems in 2004 and in last month’s primary.

In one of the most significant issue-oriented projects, the AFL-CIO and Ohioans for a Fair Minimum Wage are campaigning for a Nov. 7 ballot initiative that would raise the minimum wage to $6.85 an hour with an annual cost-of-living escalator.

For 16 years Ohio’s minimum wage languished at $4.25 an hour, and only this January, when the Republican-controlled Legislature began to feel the heat of the current campaign, did the lawmakers raise it to the federal minimum, $5.15. While the GOP may have hoped to blunt the drive with this maneuver, it failed to do so. Petitioners have already gathered about 250,000 signatures, half of their goal. The filing deadline is Aug. 9.

Supporters point out that raising the minimum wage is something that would benefit all workers, union and nonunion. An increase would boost economic activity by increasing the purchasing power of millions of workers, as evidenced in the states that have already done so. This benefits small business and farmers, and creates more jobs, they say.

The minimum-wage coalition is circulating petitions in every part of the state, gathering signatures door-to-door and at shopping centers, county fairs, campaign rallies and town meetings. In addition to the AFL-CIO, groups like ACORN and America Votes are deeply involved.

The Ohio Democratic Party has urged its county organizations to help in the petition drive. The minimum wage issue has been mentioned in most campaign rallies and town hall meetings held for Democratic candidates.

Rep. Ted Strickland, the Democratic candidate for governor, supports raising the minimum wage, saying, “It’s the right thing to do.”

“When people work,” he said, “they should be compensated for that work.”

By contrast, Ken Blackwell, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, opposes the plan. “I think the … initiative is an ill conceived idea,” he told reporters. “It would probably drive out capital investment and job creation.”

Blackwell, an arch-conservative African American, has been going around the state meeting with leaders of the religious right, preaching the evils of abortion and gay marriage. With support of right-wing anti-tax organizations, he campaigned for a ballot initiative to freeze state spending. This was too much for his business backers, who forced him to accept a “modified” plan with plenty of loopholes for corporate welfare.

Labor is supporting a full slate of candidates, including Strickland. Rep. Sherrod Brown is running for U.S. Senate, emphasizing the issues of trade and jobs. Both he and Strickland have very favorable voting records on worker issues in Congress.

Several Democratic candidates for Congress are running with labor’s support, including Betty Sutton in the 13th District (Lorain), Mary Joy Kilroy in the 15th CD (Columbus) and Charlie Wilson in the 6th CD (Steubenville). Marc Dann, who is running for Ohio attorney general, has denounced corruption in state government. These and other labor-backed campaigns, many of them for local office, are getting into full swing.

This is the first time in the memory of many veterans of Ohio’s election campaigns that there has been such a high level of labor and constituent groups unity around a set of candidates, including unity within the Democratic Party. This bodes well for the outcome in November, they say.

Right to organize gains ground in Congress

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 06:02:00 +0000

Fifty-seven million Americans say they’d join a union if they had a chance. And due to a hard-fought, close to the ground campaign, legislation to give them that right is now within striking distance of victory.

Going against the tide and all conventional wisdom in a Republican-dominated Congress, the Employee Free Choice Act, HR 1696, first introduced in November 2003, now is just two representatives shy of an outright majority in the U.S. House of Representatives with 215 co-sponsors in addition to its sponsor Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.). In the Senate, as S 842, it has 43 supporters.

To put the campaign over the top, representatives from 20 AFL-CIO unions gathered in Washington June 6 to map out a plan to deploy a massive army of workplace shop stewards, according to Stuart Acuff, organizing director of the federation.

The centerpiece of the EFCA is a streamlined process for workers to attain union recognition. Using a “card check” procedure, workers gather signatures of a majority of their co-workers on union authorization cards, the National Labor Relations Board certifies the signatures, and bargaining for a first contract begins.

Current law allows employers to insist on an additional stage — an election and a drawn out campaign leading up to it. While an election sounds democratic, the realities of the U.S. workplace turn this employer option into a coercive tool according to American Rights at Work. A boss can not only fire you and deprive you of your livelihood, he can make your life at work a living hell.

Even if 100 percent of workers sign cards, under the present law, the employer can still insist on an election. Since the Reagan administration assault on air traffic controllers opened the floodgates on union busting in 1981, U.S. employers have been using the election option to drag out the certification process for years. The stalling pays off for the employer: every day of delay in holding the union election results in a .29 percent loss of union support, according to a study by Paul Weiler that appeared in the Harvard Law Review. Meanwhile, workers are threatened with images of violent strikes and plant shutdowns during “captive audience” meetings. In more than half of organizing campaigns involving immigrants, management threatens to call in the immigration authorities.

On top of that, at least one-quarter of employers illegally fire union activists. A recent poll showed 79 percent of workers believe that a worker is likely to be fired for trying to organize a union. Thirty-six percent of employees who voted no said they did so as a result of their boss’s pressure.

“We’re telling the story,” says Acuff, “and whenever someone knows what the truth is, they’re outraged.” Today, in nearly every ongoing organizing effort, the union is exposing the employers’ underhanded anti-union campaign to the public, Acuff said. He cited the example of Comcast, the nation’s largest cable provider, where public hearings and demonstrations across the nation have exposed the company’s illegal firings and refusal to bargain. “We are engaged in nearly 10 national or regional campaigns where this is an issue,” he said, adding that almost every union in the AFL-CIO has done something on it.

The Steelworkers have made EFCA their legislative priority, Acuff said. He pointed to that union’s Rapid Response team as a model for what the proposed stewards network could do: mobilizing at work to make phone calls and visits to individual representatives. Last year, grassroots activists turned out 60,000 supporters on Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, demanding the right to organize for American workers.

The EFCA also contains provisions mandating mediation and binding arbitration to get a first contract after union recognition. With virtually no penalty for failing to bargain in good faith, employers currently wear down union support even when union supporters do win an election. On the south side of Chicago, after cable installers and customer service reps voted in the IBEW, Comcast dragged out contract negotiations for five years to turn the workers against the union. The act also substantially stiffens penalties for violating labor law.

Acuff predicted that the fight for EFCA will be a key issue in 2006 races for congressional seats. “We’ve got a lot of work in front of us. We’ll eventually have to get this through two houses, overcome a Senate filibuster and eventually get a president to sign it.”

The secret to the remarkable success of the EFCA campaign is “how close to the ground and how grassroots it is,” Acuff says. And, he adds confidently, “that’s how we revitalize and rebuild our labor movement. That’s the fundamental power of the labor movement.”