People Before Profit blog

Derecha busca debilitar derecho al voto

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 07:46:00 +0000

WASHINGTON — El movimiento de derechos civiles está llamando a que inunden al Congreso con mensajes exigiendo que dejen de obstaculizar la aprobación de HR 9, un proyecto de ley bipartidista que renueva la Ley del Derecho al Voto del 1965 integralmente por 25 años más. La ley se vence se no es renovada.

Wade Henderson, director ejecutivo de la Conferencia de Liderazgo sobre Derechos Civiles, tildó de “saboteadores” a un grupo de republicanos ultraderechistas que pudieron bloquear un voto de la Cámara de Representantes que estaba programada para el 21 de junio. El proyecto tenía el respaldo de 152 congresista y el endoso de ambos el liderazgo demócrata y el republicano. La Casa Blanca dice que apoya al HR 9.

Henderson dijo que los legisladores que “retrasaron el voto hoy representan una fuerza retrógrada que América no ha visto a este nivel desde los 1960s”. Ellos están demandando terminar con los mecanismos más efectivos de la ley, incluyendo la Sección 5, que requiere que ciertos gobiernos estatales y locales, nombrados en la ley, busquen permiso del departamento de Justicia antes de cambiar ninguna ley sobre votación. La razón es que estos cambios pueden tener un impacto negativo contra los derechos al voto de minorías raciales o por idioma. Estos legisladores también buscan poner fin a que estos estados con un historial racista debe continuar siendo observados por el departamento de Justicia.

Estos legisladores también están demandando que revoquen la Sección 203, que requiere papeletas e información sobre como votar en más de un idioma en sitios donde cierto porcentaje de los votantes hablan mejor otro idioma que no sea el inglés. El grupo MALDEF emitió una declaración pidiendo que gente envíen mensajes a las oficinas de los legisladores que voten por HR 9 sin debilitando la ley.

“Muchos de los que están tratando de desviar este proyecto representan a estados con los historiales peores de discriminación en cuestiones de votación”, dijo MALDEF. Proveyendo papeletas bilingües a votantes hispanoparlantes y los de otros idiomas que no sean inglés es “esencial al permitir que todos los votantes elegibles participen plenamente en el proceso democrático” votando bien informados, dijo la declaración.

El reverendo C.T. Vivian, un cercano ayudante del doctor Martin Luther King, que ayudó organizar a las marchas en favor del derecho al voto en Selma, Alabama en el 1965, le dijo a Nuestro Mundo desde su hogar en Atlanta que la extensión de la ley es una prioridad urgente. “Necesitamos preservar la Sección 5”, él dijo. “Los latinos están luchando por las papeletas bilingüe. Nosotros apoyamos eso. Estamos luchando en favor de una inclusión verdadera, para asegurar el derecho al voto de todos los ciudadanos. Pero los republicanos quieren revocar ...[la sección] para eliminar las papeletas bilingüe. Los estados del sur se han convertido en republicanos y yo estoy muy preocupado que puedan revocar nuestro derecho al voto para siempre”.

El representante ultraderechista Charles Whitlow Norwood, republicano de Georgia, era un líder en desviar el voto. “Lo que le molesta a la gente son las papeletas bilingües”, él despotricó. “El pueblo norteamericano quiere que este sea una nación de habla inglesa”. El representante John Carter, republicano por Tejas, dijo, “Yo no creo que tenemos prejuicio racial en Tejas. Yo simplemente pienso que usted tiene que poder leer, escribir, y hablar inglés para ser un votante en Estados Unidos”.

El representante demócrata por Georgia, John Lewis, que casi murió de una paliza por la policía estatal de Alabama mientras encabezaba un marcha cruzando el Puente Edmund Pettus en Selma en 1965, dijo que Georgia “es el último sitio que debe buscar relevarse” de la Ley de Derecho al Voto.

El departamento de Justicia ha presentado más de 80 demandas contra violaciones de derecho al voto desde que la ley fue renovada en 1982 y más de mil violaciones han pasado según el departamento de Justicia, él dijo.

“Esta evidencia muestra que la discriminación en votación en Norteamérica no está muerta y que la Ley de Derechos al Voto tiene que retener el poder original para asegurar que la democracia reine en cada colina y valle”, él dijo.

Los republicanos querían aplazar cualquier sobre la Ley de Derecho al Voto hasta que el Tribunal Supremo tomaran un fallo sobre una apelación de tejanos que buscaban que el tribunal decisión sobre la división de distrito para el Congreso en Tejas. Ellos piden que revoquen el plan que del ex líder de la mayoría republicana en el Congreso, Tom DeLay. DeLay renunció su posición de congresista tras unos cargos de corupción.

El Tribunal Supremo falló, con un voto de cinco a cuatro, de aprobar la división de distrito con la excepción de un distrito donde los jueces del Supremo dijeron que la división violó el derecho de 100.000 hispanos.

Texas parties split on immigration

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 07:20:00 +0000

FORT WORTH, Texas — Democrats denounced Republicans over immigration policies as both state parties wrapped up their conventions. A high point came when 10 Latino state representatives organized “Democratas Unidas” and held their own press conference during the Democratic Convention here on June 10. In part, they were responding to a Dallas Morning News article that morning that claimed that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell had little or nothing to say about the issue. In fact, Bell had denounced the Republicans for using immigration as a “wedge issue” designed to distract from the overall crisis in the nation and abroad.

The 10 representatives represented more than 150,000 constituents from Dallas to Laredo. Rep. Roberto Alonzo opened the press conference, but credited Rep. Rafael Anchia as author of the message presented. Beginning in Spanish then switching to English, Anchia began, “What I want to talk about is the stark difference between our party and the Republicans in terms of immigrants.” He went on to blast the state Republican convention that concluded just a few days earlier in San Antonio. The Republicans talked about little other than immigration, and they adopted the most extreme right-wing version of “enforcement only” legislation as their program. Many of them denounced President Bush as too liberal!

Anchia, Alonzo and the other representatives said their program would keep families together, allow immigrants to earn citizenship, provide for health care needs and keep children in school.

Rep. Trey Martinez-Bishop of San Antonio had particularly poignant comments. He noted that the anti-Latino Republicans had met in his city’s Henry B. Gonzalez Center. Gonzalez, who stood up for civil rights and progressive causes during his long 35 years in Congress, is greatly loved in Texas. Under the Republican proposals, it is questionable whether Gonzalez could even have been a citizen, as both of his parents were from Mexico, Martinez-Bishop said. He pointed out that the Republican conventioneers had gladly used restaurant and hotel services that are provided primarily by immigrants in San Antonio. “If they really want to protest illegal immigration,” he said, “let them clean their own rooms!”

Martinez-Bishop talked about a Mexican family now living in San Antonio. Four of their sons had joined the U.S. Army. Three were still serving while the fourth was killed in action. He concluded, “How dare they vilify our heroes, how dare they accept our services and our hard work.”

Responding to a reporter’s question on the giant border fence proposed by Republicans, Anchia replied, “We would ask two things about the fence: we want to know how much it would cost and who’s going to build it.” When laughter subsided, he added, “We would probably need more undocumented workers to build it than we currently have available in the United States.”

Marx is back

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 07:13:00 +0000

CHICAGO — The spirit of Karl Marx was revived here in a one-man play called “Marx in Soho” that ran June 8-10 at the Acme Art Works center. The mini-run was a benefit for the Near Northwest Arts Council, a nonprofit organization.

As people trickled in, one could hear the normal chatter of folks catching up with each other’s lives, in good company, on a Friday evening.

“Did you see the Al Gore movie yet?” one woman asked her friend before the play began.

Laura Weathered, director of the center, welcomed everyone to the space, saying this would be a “very intimate show,” and that “Karl Marx is going to invite you to have tea with him afterward” for a group discussion.

The play was written by historian Howard Zinn and directed by Michael Fox Kennedy, and featured Jerry Levy as Marx.

As the play begins, Marx appears from the back and tells the audience, “People say Marx is dead, well I am, and I am not — now that’s dialectics for you.”

“You could spread the word,” he announces, “Marx is back!”

The play is comical, personal and witty, not to mention humorously sarcastic, portraying Marx as a stubborn intellectual, revolutionary troublemaker, father and husband.

At one point, Marx tells the audience, laughing out loud, “I am not a Marxist!”

The play also highlights the important role and companionship of Jenny, Marx’s wife, who was his “unsparing, honest and greatest critic.”

Jenny is remembered as telling Marx to “come down to earth” and to simplify very complex ideas so as to “write to address the workers.”

Marx mentions that Jenny was a far better human being than he could ever be.

During the play the audience learns about the death, one by one, of three of Marx’s children, and what a heavy toll these losses took on him.

Marx addresses the failures of capitalism and the role of the working class, as well as his thoughts about “the dictatorship of the proletariat” and his relationship with Bakunin, an anarchist leader.

“Poverty, that is capitalism,” says Marx in the play. “Capitalism has produced great wonders, but it prepares its own death.”

“Everybody needs food, medicine, fresh air, trees, grass, some hours of work. Every human being deserves it, the root of the problem is us, get up and act,” says Marx.

For more information about the play go to www.levyarts.com.

High court refuses to review anti-abortion tag programs

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

In a move that appears to protect “government speech” while stifling individual expression, the U.S. Supreme Court June 26 announced its decision not to hear appeals from the American Civil Liberties Union and other pro-choice groups who are fighting “Choose Life” license plates initiatives.

Lawmakers in Tennessee and other states have refused to offer a specialty tag for citizens wishing to purchase plates expressing support for reproductive rights. This refusal to provide an equal opportunity for an opposing viewpoint is seen by many as an unconstitutional restriction of free speech, allowing the state to promote only one side of a political argument and institute a “limited public forum.”

Although 50 percent of the funds generated by the specialty plates program in Tennessee are earmarked for Tennessee New Life Resources, Inc, an anti-abortion organization associated with Tennessee Right to Life, the group argued that the plate’s message is neutral and not political. They claimed that the state has a right to promote a “choose life” message much as it would a “don’t use drugs” or “stay in school” sentiment.

Similar tag programs in South Carolina and Louisiana have also been denied review by the Supreme Court.

The controversial specialty tag programs officially got underway in 1999 when Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed the first such proposal into law. Since that time, anti-choice activists have promoted the program in at least a dozen states including many outside of the “Bible Belt” south, such as Hawaii, Maryland and Connecticut.

The tags sell at a premium. Their purchase price is generally about $35 higher than the standard state-issued plates. Choose Life, Inc., the organization behind the specialty tag efforts, proudly touts its fund-raising efforts on behalf of anti-abortion rights groups. “In Florida, the plate has raised over $4 million as of February 2006 and the tags continue to sell, raising over $70,000 per month,” boasts CLI Treasurer Russ Amerling.

Hedy M. Weinberg, executive director of the ACLU of Tennessee, expressed disappointment at the Supreme Court’s refusal to review the appeals, and reiterated the organization’s commitment to challenging “viewpoint discrimination.” She said that while the Tennessee case was closed, the group is reviewing other options, including legislative actions in order to protect the free speech rights of pro-choice advocates.

EDITORIAL: Questions swirl in Miami

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 06:20:00 +0000

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales poured out lurid charges against seven Haitian men June 23 after their arrest on charges of plotting to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago. An undercover FBI agent posing as an al-Qaeda operative, met with the leader of the group who asked the agent to provide boots, uniforms, machine guns, vehicles and $50,000. Gonzales and Mueller were milking the incident for all its worth as part of the Republican drive use the “war on terrorism” to divert attention from their gross incompetence, corruption and venality.

But already questions are swirling. Andrew Cohen, a CBS News legal analyst, says the indictment “is extraordinary for what it does not contain.” Not one of the men ever made actual contact with any terrorist group. They never obtained explosives, firearms or any other weapons. Not one of them actually went to Chicago to case the building. In short, the group never got beyond idle talk about actually engaging in terrorism. The FBI, itself, admitted that the group was more “aspirational than operational.”

Did the FBI lure the seven young men into a trap? Did the undercover agent promise to supply the weapons and explosives to entice them into violence? There is a long history of the FBI doing just that with its COINTELPRO dirty tricks operations. It is noteworthy that the majority of those arrested on “terrorism” charges under the Patriot Act are people of color.

The real target of these tactics is far broader than the men who were arrested. It is the broad, all-people’s movement that is fighting to end Republican majority control of the House and Senate. We can expect more provocations like this as the elections near and the Republican right grows more desperate to prevent a sweeping defeat at the ballot box. The people’s movement must be vigilant against any and all the dirty tricks dreamed up by Karl Rove to split and confuse voters.

EDITORIAL: A two-state solution to violence

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 06:17:00 +0000

The Israeli military’s massive June 28 ground and air assault on the Gaza Strip, in retaliation for a raid by armed Palestinian groups in which one Israeli soldier was captured and two others killed, again highlights the urgency of a political settlement guarantee-ing an independent, viable Palestinian state.

The Israeli government had earlier closed the border crossings with Gaza, preventing entry of food, fuel and other necessities. Israeli government leaders were also said to be considering cutting off electricity and water.

In exchange for freeing 19-year-old Corporal Gilad Shalit, his captors called for the release of women and minors among the thousands of political prisoners now held in Israeli jails, a demand Israel summarily dismissed.

“We should remember that in the Gaza Strip, as in other parts of the Palestinian territories, thousands of families await the return of their loved ones from the Israeli prisons and detention camps, just as fervently as the family of the captive Corporal Gilad Shalit prays for his safe return,” the Israeli peace organization Gush Shalom said June 27. Gush Shalom pointed out that when Israel left the Gaza Strip last year, it nonetheless continued to hold all Palestinian prisoners from the area — a decision the peace organization called “a severe mistake.”

The latest military actions come in the context of repeated Israeli air attacks on the Gaza Strip that have killed innocent civilians. Most notorious was the mid-June slaughter of nine innocent civilians. Another air raid last week killed three children.

The actions also come amid reports that leaders of Palestinian political groups have reached agreement based on the so-called Prisoners’ Document, which could lead to a united approach to negotiations with Israel for establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.

If it is truly interested in lasting peace and stability in the Middle East, Washington could use the leverage of its vast aid to bring Israel to the bargaining table to work out a two-state solution according to United Nations resolutions passed over many years.

THIS WEEK IN LABOR

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 05:25:00 +0000

DOL promotes union busters

The Bush administration’s Department of Labor is playing an active role in disseminating anti-union propaganda and has developed relationships with anti-union organizations, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). On June 22, CREW released 108 pages of documents it had forced the DOL to make public. The records reveal “a close and supportive relationship” between DOL and the so-called Center for Union Facts (CUF), a new web site established to attack the labor movement.

In March this year, CREW made a request under the Freedom of Information Act for all DOL records related to the CUF and its director, Richard Berman. After DOL refused to comply with the request, CREW sued DOL for the records, compelling the department to provide them.

E-mails sent out by DOL employees include an opinion piece drafted by Berman as well as anti-union blogs and news releases. A message to DOL employees promoted CUF’s web site unionfacts.com as “dedicated to providing information on labor unions and their expenditures.”

“It is disgraceful that the very department designed to focus on improving the lives of American laborers is disseminating anti-union propaganda,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW.

Paper workers take strike vote

Workers at three paper mills owned by South Africa-based Sappi Fine Paper voted to authorize a strike June 19. The USW locals in Westbrook, Maine, Cloquet, Minn., and Muskegon, Mich., took the vote at their union meetings, while employees at Sappi’s Skowhegan, Maine, plant voted to hold off for now on strike authorization until further negotiations are pursued. USW Vice President Richard La Cosse said the strike votes represented growing dissatisfaction at the company’s “second-rate wages, benefits and working conditions.”

A tour last month of South African unionists representing that country’s paper workers resulted in a solidarity agreement pledging “strong mutual support” between the USW and the South African Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers union.

Support for global Wal-Mart campaign

“Let us know what we can do in support of your struggle,” said Change To Win Chair Anna Burger in a letter to the membership of GMB, “Britain’s General Union,” in support of their upcoming strike against Wal-Mart’s U.K. subsidiary Asda. GMB members at 20 distributions centers last week voted to strike in order to gain bargaining rights to improve pay and working conditions.

Burger accused Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott of seeking “to remake Asda and the world in its image as a low-wage and anti-union employer that squeezes working families to keep the profits climbing.” Burger pointed out that Scott’s $18 million pay last year was 1,000 times the wage of the average U.S. Wal-Mart worker.

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

Cheney to star in pro-global warming film

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 05:21:00 +0000

‘A Really Convenient Truth’ set for nationwide release

In an attempt to counteract the impact of former Vice President Al Gore’s cautionary film about global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth,” Vice President Dick Cheney is starring in a new film advocating global warming, Cheney confirmed today.

The Cheney film, entitled “A Really Convenient Truth,” will open in theaters nationwide in time for the fall 2006 midterm elections.

“I saw the Al Gore movie, and quite frankly, the whole thing was a downer from the word go,” Cheney said at a White House press briefing. “I thought it was time to tell the American people the good news about global warming.”

“The truth is, as the entire world turns into a red-hot tropical zone, it will be possible to go on vacation wherever you are,” Cheney added. “When was the last time you wanted to take a vacation on a glacier?”

The vice president added that soon it will be so hot everywhere in the country that it will no longer be necessary to go to Florida for vacation, adding, “which is a good thing, because no one can afford to drive to Florida anymore.”

Cheney said he would show his film to the U.S. Supreme Court and let the justices decide whose film is better, his or Al Gore’s.

At the Supreme Court today, the justices found in favor of

Cheney’s film by a 5-4 vote.

Elsewhere, one day after their latest album reached number one on the pop and country charts, President Bush named all three Dixie Chicks to the Axis of Evil.

Andy Borowitz writes a daily humor column at borowitzreport.com.

Nurses sue hospitals: Conspiracy to hold down pay charged

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 05:11:00 +0000

As more and more nurses are being driven from their profession due to low wages, understaffing and overwork, a group of them filed class-action lawsuits last week against hospitals in Chicago, Memphis, San Antonio and Albany, N.Y., asserting that the hospitals had violated federal antitrust laws by conspiring to hold down the wages of registered nurses. Daniel A. Small, lead attorney for the nurses, called it “a systematic, long-standing practice to circumvent” those anti-trust laws.

The lawsuits maintain that hospitals in each city conspired to depress nurses’ wages by an unlawful exchange of information about how much they were paying their nurses. Small said hospitals had their human resource employees call other hospitals, held discussions at industry meetings, conducted written surveys and shared information documenting what they were paying their nurses. Ongoing investigations may result in additional cases being filed in other cities.

“The hospitals in [these cities] have decided to increase their profits on the backs of their nurses,” said Small. “Nurse pay should be set by the market, not by a secret agreement among hospitals,” he added. Nurse pay was suppressed by tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars in these markets, Small stated.

Kathy Singer, RN, said “more and more nurses are being driven from the bedside,” and research shows this is due to low wages. More nurses leaving the profession leaves fewer behind to take on the case load. Those left often work 16-hour shifts. This situation creates additional stress on nurses who are the front line in providing patient care, Singer continued. Five thousand trained RNs now work outside their profession, Singer stated. “We don’t have an RN shortage, we have a shortage of working nurses.”

WORLD NOTES

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 04:54:00 +0000

Afghanistan: U.S. air strikes rise sharply

As part of a major military offensive against revived Taliban resistance in southern Afghanistan, as of mid-June U.S. forces had launched 240 air strikes there over a three-month period, more than double those in Iraq in the same period.

The campaign coincides with U.S. preparations to hand over military responsibilities in southern Afghanistan to a NATO-led force including over 3,300 British troops. Most U.S. troops will have left the area by the end of July, Agence France Presse said.

Taliban forces killed 32 friends and close relatives of a member of the Afghan Parliament in attacks on June 18. More than 40 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year — 30 of them U.S. soldiers. Observers agree that fighting in Afghanistan is more intense now than at any time since the U.S. invasion in late 2001.

S. Africa: AIDS conferees praise, criticize U.S. program

Mixed reports emerged from a meeting of organizations receiving HIV/AIDS treatment funds under the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) held June 12-16 in Durban, www.health-e.org.za reported.

Proponents say the U.S. initiative to provide $15 billion worth of anti-retroviral drugs to 15 African countries over five years has brought treatment to 561,000 patients in the last three years.

Speakers cited Malawi’s success in treating 50,000 patients, up from 4,000 two years ago. They predicted that in four years treatment would be extended to 250,000 people there, half of the anticipated need.

“Sustainability lies in the extent to which countries can build and maintain health systems,” said South African Health Minister Tshabalala-Msimang, adding, “It is only when funders support efforts to build well-functioning health systems that we can truly speak of sustainability.”

Critics point out that PEPFAR preferentially funds programs emphasizing abstinence and faithfulness to a single partner over the use of condoms. One-fifth of PEPFAR’s beneficiaries are religious organizations.

Chile: Gold mine faces growing opposition

For over 10 years the world’s largest gold mining company, Canadian-based Barrick Gold, has sought to open and operate the Pascua Lama mine. In mid-June the Chilean National Environment Commission approved the $1.5 billion project to begin this year.

Local farmers, their supporters and Chilean environmentalists are seeking delays through the courts, and petitions to stop the mine are being circulated worldwide. Opponents say that for the operation to proceed, glaciers would be destroyed and an immense hole created to receive mine refuse. They say cyanide and sulfates will contaminate water and soil in the remote area for generations.

Indigenous rights groups have filed lawsuits contesting Barrick’s ownership of the land. They plan to bring the case before the Inter-American Human Rights Court. Barrick claims the construction process will create 5,500 jobs and that mining operations will require 1,600 workers for 20 years. With three-fourths of the ore lying in Chile and the remainder in Argentina, the project would be the world’s only binational gold mine.

China: Int’l meeting highlights mutual security and development

At a mid-June summit marking the Shanghai Cooperation Association’s fifth anniversary, member states renewed their commitment to mutual security and peaceful development, and pledged not to let their territories be used to undermine the sovereignty, security or territorial integrity of other member states.

The SCO’s six member states — China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — also said they will consider developing a regional conflict prevention mechanism.

Last year, after the SCO urged the U.S. to set a deadline for closing its bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, Uzbek President Islam Karimov ordered the Pentagon to get out.

At the summit, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — present as an observer along with leaders of India, Pakistan and Mongolia — met privately with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Vladimir Putin, both of whom have opposed the U.S. drive for severe measures against Iran’s nuclear program.

World Notes are compiled by W.T. Whitney (atwhit@megalink.net). Marilyn Bechtel contributed.

WHAT'S REALLY GOOD

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 04:38:00 +0000

Youth rally against big tobacco

On June 21, in Sacramento, Calif., kids came from all over the northern part of the state to rally outside the downtown offices of Altria, the parent company of cigarette giant Philip Morris. The protest called attention to “big tobacco” that continues to market to kids. So they are fighting back by supporting a coalition of health care groups who are sponsoring the Tobacco Tax Initiative of 2006 and exposing big tobacco’s predatory marketing tactics.

“We are tomorrow’s voters, not tomorrow’s smokers,” said Janet Del Real of Modesto at the rally. Altria is the leading opposition to the tobacco tax initiative, which qualified for the November ballot, that seeks to reduce youth smoking in California by increasing the tax on smokes by $2.60. A report released by the California Department of Health services says the initiative would prompt 120,000 high school, and 30,000 middle school students to quit or not start because of the price increase.

CFM40 meets to fulfill the dream

Forty years after Martin Luther King Jr. and others pioneered one of the nation’s first large-scale movements to end racial segregation in the North, veterans of the Chicago Freedom Movement, current civil rights activists, youth and students, educators, clergy, community members and historians are planning a “Fulfilling the Dream 40th Commemoration Conference,” to be held July 23-25, in Chicago, at the Harold Washington Cultural Center. The conference will discuss challenges to the continued discrimination in housing, education, and jobs. A “Night of Arts and Social Change” is also scheduled with performances by socially conscious musicians, vocalists and poets. The conference will share experiences of the CFM, strengthen a new generation of activists, and develop a revitalized economic and social justice agenda for greater Chicago. Go to www.cfm40.org or call (312) 915-8602 for more info.

‘2 moms. 2 dads. Too cool’

Hundreds of thousands nationwide took to the streets on June 25, for the annual gay pride celebrations. The theme of NYC’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride March was “The Fight for Love and Life.” The NYC parade marked the triumphant return of singer Kevin Aviance, who was beaten by four young men as they shouted anti-gay slurs at him. “A few hateful homophobes will not set us back,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who is openly gay and marched in the parade.

Roberto Hermosilla of Miami, at his ninth parade said, “Everyone else has a chance to express their affection freely, and for one day in New York, you can be free and not feel ashamed or embarrassed.”

Thousands lined Market Street in San Francisco’s 36th annual event and thousands gathered for the 25th Stonewall Columbus parade in Ohio. One boy carried a sign that read: “2 Moms. 2 Dads. Too Cool.” Many parades commemorated the Stonewall uprising of 1969, where gay patrons resisted a police raid.

— Pepe Lozano (plozano@pww.org)

N.J. public workers stand up to looting

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 04:35:00 +0000

TRENTON, N.J. — Thousands strong, they swarmed across the New Jersey Capitol Complex. Public workers from all corners of the state came to voice their concerns and demands. They came by chartered buses, trains and cars, or they walked from their workplaces.

Workers in every occupation made it clear they no longer are willing to carry the financial burden of the looted state coffers, emptied by former Republican Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, her party and her class.

“Raise wages now,” they shouted. “Fund our pension plans, restore them and keep them safe,” they demanded.

The pension funds were drained by under-funding caused by a 30 percent tax cut for the rich during the infamous years of the Whitman Republican administration. They did to New Jersey public workers pension funds what the federal government has been doing to Social Security funding and what private industry has done to workers in steel and elsewhere.

“Save higher education, save Rutgers,” they chanted as others called for more funds for public schools.

Joining the massive Statehouse rally were firefighters, police, health care workers, highway workers, and workers from the building trades, among others.

While demands and concerns were on everyone’s mind and openly stated, still, the rally was festive, bright and good humored. It called for full pension funding and education funding for public schools and universities.

The New Jersey District of the Communist Party USA issued a statement in support of the workers, their demands and their unions. The statement said in part: “The rich and corporations must pay for an end to the deficit crisis and raids that have weakened the pension funds. This should be done through ‘givebacks’ of their own in the form of progressive tax reform. It is estimated that the present $2 billion deficit would be a surplus were it not for the Whitman tax giveaways. That is the extent of the crisis that has made the rich richer.” The statement also pointed out that that the war against Iraq has already cost New Jersey taxpayers $14.5 billion.

Four thousand leaflets with the statement were distributed.

Mayor-elect Dellums: Oakland can be a great city

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

OAKLAND, Calif. — Calling his election “a mighty victory to take Oakland in a very, very different direction,” Mayor-elect Ronald V. Dellums joined hundreds of supporters for a June 19 victory celebration at the downtown Marriott City Center hotel.

“I accept this responsibility with honor, humility, optimism and idealism,” Dellums said. “We can solve the problems of Oakland. We can be a great city.”

During his campaign, Dellums emphasized the urgency of bringing all parts of the community together to address the city’s problems, including poverty, education, health care, environment and violence. He has said his first task will be to build a transition team and task forces on key issues facing the city, and that the first six months of his administration would focus on an expedited planning process for a vision of Oakland as a “21st-century model city.”

“You’re going to awaken one morning and brilliant ideas are going to come forward, ideas about crime and youth violence, the city and school relationship, poverty and health care,” Dellums said. “Oakland going forward together is what’s going to be the hallmark of the next several years.”

During his campaign, Dellums stressed development that includes housing “affordable to families of all income levels.” He called for what he termed “true” community policing, with officers building relations of respect and trust with the community.

Dellums has highlighted the importance of keeping education public, ending the state takeover of the city’s schools and developing “wrap-around” services at schools to help remove barriers to learning. He also called for expanding access to basic health care, as well as cutting pollution and creating “green collar” employment through developing alternative energy and “green” building construction.

Ten days of suspense while mail ballots were counted ended late last week when it was established that Dellums had won 50.18 percent of the vote, thus avoiding a November runoff. His closest competitor, City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, took 32.99 percent, while City Councilmember Nancy Nadel took just over 13 percent.

After serving on Berkeley’s City Council for four years, Dellums represented Oakland, Berkeley and neighboring communities in Congress for 28 years. While in Congress he was instrumental in stopping production of the expensive, destabilizing MX missile and helped end South African apartheid. He also assured funding for area projects such as the economically vital deep dredging of the Port of Oakland, and locating a new federal building and the nationally known Chabot Science Center in the city.

Dellums, now 70, grew up in West Oakland, attending Oakland Tech and McClymonds high schools. His father, Verney Dellums, was a longshoreman, and his uncle, C.L. Dellums, was co-founder with A. Philip Randolph of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

Dellums will take office in January. Outgoing Mayor Jerry Brown, termed-out after eight years in office, is the Democratic Party’s candidate for state attorney general in the November election.

Mayor-elect Ron Dellums: Oakland can be a great city

Sat, 24 Jun 2006 17:17:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. – Calling his election “a mighty victory to take Oakland in a very, very different direction,” Mayor-elect Ron Dellums joined hundreds of supporters for a June 19 victory celebration at the downtown Marriott City Center hotel.

“I accept this responsibility with honor, humility, optimism and idealism,” Dellums said. “We can solve the problems of Oakland. We can be a great city.”

During his campaign, Dellums emphasized the urgency of bringing all parts of the community together to address the city’s problems, including poverty, education, health care, environment and violence. He has said his first task will be to build a transition team and task forces on key issues facing the city, and that the first six months of his administration would focus on an expedited planning process for a vision of Oakland as a “21st-century model city.”

“You’re going to awaken one morning and brilliant ideas are going to come forward, ideas about crime and youth violence, the city and school relationship, poverty and health care,” Dellums said. “Oakland going forward together is what’s going to be the hallmark of the next several years.”

During his campaign, Dellums stressed development that includes housing “affordable to families of all income levels.” He called for what he termed “true” community policing, with officers building relations of respect and trust with the community.

Dellums has highlighted the importance of keeping education public, ending the state takeover of the city’s schools and developing “wrap-around” services at schools to help remove barriers to learning. He also called for expanding access to basic health care, as well as cutting pollution and creating “green collar” employment through developing alternative energy and “green” building construction.

Ten days of suspense while mail ballots were counted ended late last week when it was established that Dellums had won 50.18 percent of the vote, thus avoiding a November runoff. His closest competitor, City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, took 32.99 percent, while City Councilmember Nancy Nadel took just over 13 percent.

After serving on Berkeley’s City Council for four years, Dellums represented Oakland, Berkeley and neighboring communities in Congress for 27 years before resigning in 1998. While in Congress he was instrumental in stopping production of the expensive, destabilizing MX missile and helped end South African apartheid. He also assured funding for area projects such as the economically vital deep dredging of the Port of Oakland, and locating a new federal building and the nationally known Chabot Science Center in the city.

Dellums, now 70, grew up in West Oakland, attending Oakland Tech and McClymonds high schools. His father was a longshoreman, and his uncle, C.L. Dellums, was co-founder with A. Philip Randolph of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

Dellums will take office in January. Outgoing Mayor Jerry Brown, termed out after eight years in office, is the Democratic Party’s candidate for state attorney general in the November election.

Bush faces dilemma on anti-Cuba terrorist

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 09:19:00 +0000

The Wall Street Journal ran an article on May 22 questioning Bush administration ties to the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), an Iranian group based in Iraq dedicated to destabilizing the Iranian government. The MEK is on the U.S. government’s list of terrorist organizations.

But high-level worries about cooperation with terrorists do not extend to terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, now in U.S. custody. Posada has all but admitted bombing a Cuban airliner in 1976, killing all 73 aboard, and trying to assassinate Fidel Castro in Panama in 2000, but the only U.S. charge against him is for illegal entry.

The Bush administration, apparently uncomfortable about keeping Posada in jail for a year on a minor charge, recently issued a statement admitting he is indeed dangerous.

Since then Washington has faced an increasing dilemma in refusing to extradite Posada to Venezuela. Venezuela wants Posada so that court proceedings in the airplane bombing case can resume, proceedings that were interrupted by his escape from jail in 1985.

“This is an airtight case,” writes Jose Pertierra, Venezuela’s U.S. attorney, in a recent article in Counterpunch. “Only the Bush administration’s desire to shelter this international terrorist impedes his extradition, but the law is clear.”

Pertierra specifies three legal grounds for Posada’s extradition or prosecution: the Venezuela-U.S. extradition treaty of 1922, an International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, and the 1973 Civil Aviation Convention. The last states that the “contracting state in the territory of which the alleged offender is found shall, if it does not extradite him, be obliged, without exception,” to prosecute him.

Posada’s defense team, however, is undeterred by international law. They have threatened to call Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and retired Lt. Col. Oliver North, prosecutor and accused, respectively, in the Iran-Contra hearings, as witnesses in a future Posada trial. The two could verify Posada’s loyal U.S. government service during the Contra war in Nicaragua and the Vietnam War. For Posada’s lawyers, that is a basis for their client being released and gaining citizenship.

Meanwhile, at hearings preparatory to an upcoming trial for illegal weapons possession, the lawyer for Santiago Alvarez, another anti-Cuba terrorist and one of Posada’s minions, introduced testimony refuting the story about Posada’s arrival to the U.S. in March 2005. Immigration officials had accepted Posada’s claims that he arrived by bus from Mexico. However, the testimony showed he actually traveled to Miami on Alvarez’s yacht.

Two witnesses at grand jury hearings in Texas reportedly corroborated the testimony. Pertierra comments, “It is a serious felony to smuggle anyone into the United States, but if the person smuggled is a terrorist, the penalties could include as much as 35 years in prison.”

Finally, the Panamanian government is investigating charges that immigration, police and prison officials were bribed to enable Posada and three others to leave Panama on Aug. 26, 2004. Outgoing President Mireya Moscoso pardoned them, nullifying their convictions for plotting to kill Fidel Castro. Panama’s Supreme Court is also reviewing the constitutionality of the presidential pardons.

The U.S government is accused of facilitating arrangements that began with right-wing Cubans raising $4 million to pay off Moscoso, plus giving her a $125,000 Cadillac. Moscoso now lives in Miami.

Raul Gomez, writing at rebelion.org, describes ongoing contacts between Panamanian officials and U.S. ambassadors relating to the pardons. Colin Powell, visiting in December 2003 as secretary of state, is said to have told Moscoso that George W. Bush wanted the four men to be acquitted, or to be pardoned and released. On Jan. 20, 2004, Under Secretary of State Otto Reich conferred with Moscoso, and the word got back to Miami that Reich had “arranged everything.”

Gomez has new information that human smugglers provided $6 million for 500 young Chinese immigrants to be allowed to enter Panama illegally. Some of that sum was used to bribe officials arranging for the four men’s departure. The operation was allegedly coordinated in the U.S. Embassy in Panama City.

Meanwhile, a possible Posada clone has been unearthed in Upland, Calif. As of May 19, Robert Ferro is being held on five counts of possessing illegal weapons. He had accumulated 1,571 rifles, machine guns and grenades in preparation for an attack on Cuba. Ferro claimed membership in the Florida-based paramilitary group Alpha 66.

Nacho Libre provides glimpse of Mexican popular culture

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 09:12:00 +0000

MEXICO CITY — Hollywood funny man Jack Black’s new movie, “Nacho Libre,” which portrays the wild world of Mexican wrestling, was shot on location in Mexico’s Pacific coastal state of Oaxaca (pronounced “Wah-HA-Ca”). As audiences enjoy the comedic adventures of Nacho, the main character, they will also learn about Mexican popular culture and take in the breathtaking views of Oaxaca.

Nacho Libre’s storyline revolves around lucha libre, as Mexican wrestling is called. Black plays a monastery cook who, seeking to provide better-quality food for the children in the monastery-run orphanage, defies rules and becomes a luchador, a wrestler.

In Mexico, lucha libre is a community event that transcends generations. Old women, children and strong men unite to cheer on their favorite luchador, whose identity is always hidden by a mask and character-driven costume. The luchadors are divided into two camps: the tecnicos (good guys) and rudos (bad guys), adding drama and moral lessons to the acrobatic flips that entertain the loyal followers.

Among the many handicrafts found in Oaxaca, the black clay pottery (barro negro) is one of the most popular, representing a tradition that dates back to pre-Hispanic times and spans generations. Another popular handicraft in Oaxaca is the colorful alebrije, creatively hand-carved or papier-mâché figures, usually depicting monsters.

The regional cuisine is also an important aspect of Oaxacan life, as the state is famous for its mole (a sauce containing over 20 different spices) and the native types of chiles.

“Oaxaca is gorgeous,” Black says on the movie’s web site. “It has ancient pyramids, amazing architecture, and a rich flavor that adds to the whole experience. I don’t think there’s ever been a comedy with as many beautiful backdrops before as we have in this film.” Oaxaca City is the state’s capital and is one of the largest cities in Mexico’s southern region. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

The truth hurts and helps, a review of 'White Metropolis'

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 09:06:00 +0000

BOOK REVIEW

Honest Texas history, when you can find it, tends to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. So it is with Michael Phillips’ new history of Dallas, which pours salty truth into long-ignored wounds.

Almost any “official” history of Dallas, like almost all Texas history, misrepresents or ignores what really happened to hard-working Texans. Dallas, we are told over and over, is “a city with no reason for being” because it lies in an open prairie with no navigable river. The official story is that farseeing businessmen created the city from nothing and guided it through the happy decades to its present prosperous and peaceful bliss. Slavery was never important here. The Civil War and the Reconstruction period were almost unnoticed.

The only part of this myth that is true is that the business leaders, in 1870, did indeed bribe the railroad to divert its path through the city, and, in 1935, they raised enough money to get the state fair moved here. Michael Phillips shows that the rest of the Dallas creation myth is hogwash.

Phillips, like his University of Texas mentor Neil Foley (“White Scourge”), makes civil rights the axis of Texas history. Texas was, after all, taken from Mexico primarily in order to legalize slavery. Dallas was just as fanatically devoted to racial oppression as any city in the Confederacy. That racism persists to this day.

The murders and beatings in Dallas parallel those in Houston or any other part of Texas. The Ku Klux Klan’s national revival in the 1920s had its center and its largest Klavern in Dallas, where mayors, sheriffs and a university president showered it with favors. In the 1950s, the John Birch Society, Sen. Joe McCarthy and other extreme anticommunists were funded from Dallas. Democratic Party leaders Adlai Stevenson, Lyndon Baines Johnson and John Kennedy were physically attacked here. The rabid fundamentalists taking over American churches have a strong base downtown.

Native Americans, who were driven out or exterminated in Texas, and Mexican Americans suffered the same in Dallas as they did elsewhere. To a large extent, they still do.

Our side of the story, that of resistance and hard-won civil rights victories, is well told in “White Metropolis.” For example, the Dallas NAACP, after a very difficult period of repressive police supervision, became the pride of the state’s civil rights movement. The big legal fights in Austin, El Paso and Mansfield drew their strength from the Dallas organization. Desegregation in education and the right to vote were won from field headquarters in this city. The League of United Latin American Citizens and the GI Forum had strong chapters in Dallas. The progressive movement, which shook the electoral world on behalf of poor farmers in 1894, had its headquarters downtown. The “Deep Ellum” section of Elm Street made an enduring contribution to jazz, soul and folk music.

“White Metropolis” is a core necessity for every Dallasite who hopes to go beyond omissions, distortions and lies in their city’s history. It is a fundamental tool for everyone who would make Texas better.

White Metropolis: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion in Dallas, 1841–2001 By Michael Phillips University of Texas Press, 2006 Softcover, 296 pp., $19.95

Heinrich Heine, poet and communist?

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 09:02:00 +0000

Was he the greatest German poet, the greatest poet of his century? I won’t argue, but I love him the most! Heinrich Heine died 150 years ago — February 17, 1856 — and is still as up-to-date, relevant and wonderful as ever!

I am admittedly prejudiced. Like him I’m a Jew, an apostate, and an exile — he fled reactionary Germany for revolutionary France, I fled a McCarthyite USA for a socialist German state. We both looked to a communist future.

Halt! Heinrich Heine a communist? We should not oversimplify a life so full of contradictions — but judge for yourself.

Born in 1797, Heine grew up when Düsseldorf and the Rhineland were ruled by Napoleon, who brought progressive elements from the French Revolution to much of Europe, including the emancipation of Jews from their forced ghettoes. For years Napoleon spelled progress to Heine, until he came to believe that despite what good he brought, Napoleon had meant tyrannical subjugation.

As poor nephew of a wealthy uncle, Heine suffered greatly. He failed at the commercial career his uncle planned for him but fell head over heels in love with the uncle’s daughter, his beautiful if vapid cousin. This unrequited love caused extreme agony but inspired early bittersweet poems that became the delight of intellectual women in all Germany.

He then studied law. The results were a stupid duel, most probably a venereal disease that agonized and shortened his life, a doctor’s degree and the decision not to practice law. This was the era of the Holy Alliance, a viciously reactionary reversal of revolutionary improvements. Seeing that being Jewish would block almost every career, he had himself baptized in 1825, which caused lifelong self-recrimination and contradictions about religion, especially when he found that proof of baptism was no safeguard against anti-Semitism.

In the years that followed, he vainly sought a job while increasingly colliding with the governments of his day, especially the mighty state of Prussia, which finally forbade all sales of his works. In 1830, hearing of the revolution in France, he migrated to Paris where he spent the rest of his life. He was strongly influenced by the socialist theories of St. Simon, but then became a close friend of young Karl Marx and his wife Jenny, also exiles in Paris, who loved his poetry and exerted a strong influence on him.

Heine was no working-class poet. He was uncomfortable with the pipe-smoking, beer-guzzling German workmen exiled in Paris who were the main carriers of the new communist ideas. He remained torn in many views; he could be aggressive, even spiteful, but he made it increasingly clear that he was committed to the downtrodden and to a future of genuine social justice. In the foreword to “Lutetia,” written a year before his death, he bowed to the censors by insisting he was not for communism, but then continued in his canny way:

“Nevertheless I freely admit that this very Communism, so inimical to all my leanings and all my interests, has an attraction for my soul which I cannot withstand. Two voices speak for it in my heart, two voices which cannot be silenced. They may indeed only be whisperings of the Devil, but whatever they are I am possessed by them and no power of exorcism can drive them out.

“For the first of these is the voice of logic. ... if I cannot disprove the premise that ‘every man has the right to eat,’ I am forced to submit to all its consequences ... and I cry out: This old society has long been judged and condemned. Let justice take its course! Let this old world collapse in which innocence has perished and egoism prospered, in which man was exploited by man. Let these whited sepulchres filled with lies and corruption be utterly destroyed ...

“The second of these imperious voices which holds me enchained is even more compelling and more infernal, for it is the voice of hatred — the hatred which I feel for a party whose most terrible antagonist is Communism and which is therefore our common enemy. I mean the party ... of those false patriots whose love for their country is nothing more than an idiotic aversion to foreigners and neighboring peoples, and who daily spew up their bitterness, especially against France ... and now that the sword is slipping from their moribund hands I draw some comfort from the conviction that Communism, which will find this party its first obstacle, will deal it its death blow.”

Overly optimistic? Who knows? But it is clear, Heine was one of us — and one of the greatest. His own epitaph was:

“I have never laid great store by poetic glory, and whether my songs are praised or blamed matters little to me. But lay a sword on my bier, for I have been a good soldier in the wars of human liberation.”

Victor Grossman is a writer who has lived in (East) Berlin since the McCarthy years.

An American worker goes to Venezuela

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

Like you, I am very concerned about the direction the Bush administration is leading our country and the impact of its policies on world developments.

I was fortunate to be a participant at the 6th World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela, this January.

Choosing among the forum’s many events, the group I was a part of — U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange — focused on labor’s role as a change agent. At the first session I attended, a speaker asked: What have these forums accomplished, or are we simply debating? Someone responded that the forum’s role has not been to take definitive positions in its own name — instead, various points of view from nongovernmental organizations, labor, environment and community groups are debated and analyzed, and through this process anti-neoliberal and anti-imperialist positions have emerged.

Examples: Opposition to the World Economic Forum attended by the developed countries in Davos, Switzerland, in 2001 and broad opposition to the World Trade Organization (WTO) by labor and others in Seattle in 1999, reflected the impact of the World Social Forum. It has become more difficult to implement stealth austerity policies without the world knowing and condemning them.

This year, in addition to Venezuela, forums were held in Mali and Pakistan. Previous forums were held in Brazil and India. These countries are confronted with enormous social and economic problems that require significant change to be alleviated.

The World Social Forums are not about any particular country, but the countries hosting them, thus far, give strong evidence of the need to end inequality and poverty. The rejecting of the status quo and the searching for answers give power to the forums’ slogan: Another World Is Possible.

The Venezuela forum was set in a country whose president, Hugo Chavez, was briefly deposed in a coup in 2002. Within 48 hours he was arrested and released, due in large part to the support of the people who took to the streets in his defense. Venezuela is a country of immense oil wealth that the Chavez government is using, as never before, for its people’s well being. Rich oligarchs and professionals resent the spreading of the wealth.

Venezuela’s contribution to building a new world is through participatory democracy. The people are armed with a new constitution that they helped to draft. The indigenous people, long thought of as invisible, now participate in the building of this democracy. Information now is produced in their languages. In a population of 24 million a campaign is under way to win Chavez 10 million votes in the upcoming election.

In a country where 80 percent of the people live in poverty, missions such as Barrio Adentro deliver free health care. Cuba has provided 20,000 doctors towards helping to meet Venezuela’s health needs.

Urban land cooperatives are being established that work together to benefit each other. I visited adult education classes where proud students relished being educated for the first time. I was told Venezuela is recognized by the United Nations as having overcome illiteracy. Its goal now is to achieve a sixth-grade educational level among its population. I also visited a university where working-class students are receiving a college education.

I saw a textile shop where the supervisors are selected by the workers and are paid the same wages as the workers. I asked if equal pay might cause problems in the future and was told they did not know. Much is new to them; they are experimenting.

Venezuela is a dynamic country. The people can see and feel the changes in their lives. But do not be deceived. The opposition is there. Just as they attempted to throw the country in chaos following the unsuccessful coup by withholding technical skills necessary to produce oil, it’s a safe bet they would do so again, if the opportunity presented itself and regaining power seemed possible.

But with the continued support of the people and the major labor federation, the UNT, the Bolivarian revolution appears confident of succeeding.

We in the U.S. continue to face job losses from the likes of General Motors and Ford, failing pension plans and inadequate health care, while at the same time we are told by the Bush administration and its mouthpieces that the economy is on the upswing. It becomes clearer each day that working people’s interest is not the interest of this administration.

We would do well to study the Venezuelan experiment. I think we will find the people’s needs are truly being given top priority there, and as long as they are, the people will participate in and defend the process that is unfolding.

Much of what has crystallized in the World Social Forum — anti-imperialism, anti-neoliberalism and progressive social and regional integration — is being experimented with in Venezuela. It has every right to do so especially with the results already accomplished by the people.

It is our responsibility, as conscious human beings, to do all we can to ensure our government does not intervene to destroy the Venezuelan people’s revolution.

Shelby Richardson is a public worker and trade unionist in Chicago.

My father's victory in the Pacific

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 08:57:00 +0000

In 1995, in Chicago, veterans of Silver Post No. 282 celebrated the 50th anniversary of their victory over Japan, marching around a catering hall wearing their old service caps, pins, ribbons and medals. My father sat at his table, silent. He did not wear his medals.

He had given them to me 30 years earlier. I can figure it exactly: March 8, 1965. That day, like every other, we walked to the newsstand near the dime store to get the L.A. Times. He was a Times man. Never read the Examiner. He looked at the headline: U.S. Marines had landed on the beach at Danang, Vietnam.

As a kid, I was fascinated by my dad’s medals. One, embossed with an eagle and soldiers under a palm tree, said “Asiatic Pacific Campaign.” It had three bronze stars and an arrowhead. My father always found flag-wavers a bit suspect. But he was a patriot, nurturing this deep and intelligent patriotism. To him, America stood for Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Four Freedoms. My father’s army had liberated Hitler’s concentration camps and later protected Martin Luther King’s marchers on the road to Birmingham. His America put its strong arm around the world’s shoulder as protector. On the back of the medal, it read “Freedom from Want and Fear.” His victory over Japan was a victory of principles over imperial power, of freedom over tyranny, of right over Japan’s raw military might.

A song he taught me from the early days of the war, when Japan had the guns and we had only ideals, went:

We have no bombers to attack with … But Eagles, American Eagles, fight for the rights we adore!

“That’s it,” he said that day in 1965, and folded the newspaper. The politicians had ordered his army, with its fierce postwar industrial killing machines, to set upon Asia’s poor. Too well read in history and too experienced in battle, he knew what was coming. He could see right then what it would take other Americans 10 years of that war in Vietnam to see: American bombers dropping napalm on straw huts, burning the same villages Hirohito’s invaders had burned 20 years earlier. Lyndon Johnson and the politicians had taken away his victory over Japan. They stole his victory over tyranny. When we returned home, he dropped his medals into my 12-year-old hands to play with and to lose among my toys.

A few years ago, my wife Linda and I went to Vietnam to help out rural credit unions lending a few dollars to farmers so they could buy pigs and chickens. On March 8, 1995, while in Danang, I walked up a long stone stairway from the beach to a shrine where Vietnamese honor their parents and ancestors.

Halfway up, a man about my age had stopped to rest, exhausted from his difficult, hot climb on one leg and crutches. I sat next to him, but he turned his head away, ashamed of his ragged clothes, parts of an old, dirty uniform.

The two of us watched the fishermen at work on the boats below. I put one of my father’s medals down next to him. I don’t know what he thought I was doing. I don’t know myself. In ’45, on the battleship Missouri, Douglas MacArthur accepted the surrender of Imperial Japan. I never thought much of General MacArthur, but he said something that stuck with me. “It is for us, both victors and vanquished, to rise to that higher dignity which alone benefits the sacred purposes we are about to serve.”

Greg Palast (palast@gregpalast.com) is the author of the bestseller “Armed Madhouse” — dedicated to his parents, Gil Palast (716th Tank Battalion, Philippines) and Gladys Palast (U.S. Coast Guard, Boston).