People Before Profit blog

Canton rallies for pensions

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 07:07:00 +0000

CANTON, Ohio – This steel city reverberated with the spirit of fight-back against corporate abuse and the politicians who front for them, on March 15. One hundred fifty steelworkers, families and friends rallied in front of Canton City Council for jobs and to save their pensions. Chants of “Bush Must Go!” echoed through the streets. Council members and the mayor greeted the demonstration, then returned to council chambers to pass a resolution to save steelworker pensions and restore those that have been lost.

African American minister Rev. Walter Arrington opened the rally, expressing strong support for the steelworkers. USWA Subdistrict Director Dennis Brommer denounced spending billions of tax dollars in Iraq while jobs and benefits are being stolen from working people at home. Brommer also zeroed in on the Senate elections, pointing out that the state’s two Republican senators have done more to harm Ohio workers than any senators in Ohio’s history.

Leaders of USWA Locals 1200 and 1104 in Canton and 1124 in Massillon spoke, as well as leaders of Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees.

The author can be reached at wallyk@ncweb.com.

Cracks appearing in GOP monolith

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 06:04:00 +0000

Opinion

The other day, as I read the morning Cleveland Plain Dealer, the featured letter to the editor really struck me. The headline asked, “Is There Room in the GOP for Moderates?” Its author, Bill Libby, a prominent Republican official in nearby Hudson, a particularly well-to-do suburb of Cleveland, explained that at the Republicans’ annual Lincoln Dinner, keynote speaker Tom DeLay spoke of Bush “having divine assurance and moral truth.” Answering his own question, the author went on to state that he had “come to believe that my party (GOP) looks and feels like a right-wing, conservative religious movement.”

He isn’t alone, of course, in his disgust at the extreme ultra-right-wing fanaticism that is now in near-total control of the (formerly) “Grand Old Party.” Republicans, in control of all three branches of the federal government, have come to view that control as tantamount to a sweeping mandate, that “the people have swung to the right,” especially after 9/11. The ultra-right-wing section of that party has rushed full speed ahead to force their skewed view of the world upon the rest of the nation. Massive tax cuts for the super-rich, war without end against undefined enemies, social legislation to enact religious rule, union busting and a general rolling back of all progressive legislative gains people have made in the past century – that is the agenda of the ultra-right. This has led to mass resistance from unions, minorities, women, a new, huge peace and justice movement. We are now beginning to see resistance even within Republican ranks.

This new beginning of open resistance to the fascist direction within the Republican Party itself is an extremely important development that we ignore only at tremendous risk. There needs to be discussion within the wide-based labor-led people’s movement on how to find space for these folks.

No less than Republican Sen. John McCain reflected a further deepening of this viewpoint on Meet the Press recently, when he was asked if he’d consider the possibility of running as vice president with John Kerry on the Democratic ticket. Surprisingly, he answered that he’d like to do so and would definitely consider it. He went on to state that he had many views to the right of Kerry’s and that he didn’t expect the offer. Still, that is an earth-shaking statement for a Republican leader to make on national TV, in an election year, when the incumbent is the leader of his own party.

In many ways, however, McCain is reflecting an increasingly independent direction by some at the base of that party. A Washington Post piece on the unprecedented peace movement among military families cited a longtime conservative father from Pittsburgh who started a website called republicansforkerry.org. Scene magazine had a front-page article, “What’s a Nice Gay Man Doing in the Republican Party,” about a gay Cleveland Republican who is angry at that party’s anti-gay direction.

In some other ways we see some actual movement by moderate GOP legislators. While relatively isolated and developing from local pressure, it shows that there are ways to accommodate this motion within the wide anti-Bush tent. In the right-wing GOP-dominated Ohio Legislature, Lakewood Democrat Mike Skindell put forward a resolution calling on the state to refuse to cooperate or support any new anti-labor “free-trade” pacts. Instead of that bill dying because of lack of GOP support, Cleveland Republican leader Jim Trakas has now come forward with a similar bill. Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Ohio) has become an outspoken supporter of the steelworkers’ fight to win back their pensions, which had been stolen by Bush’s Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

This, and many other similar developments, represents the strength of the growing people’s movement to oust Bush and his right-wing cronies. We need to find ways to help these increasingly independent Republican forces join with the people’s movement to play a role in helping get rid of Bush. Doing that will help our fight to win the economic and social gains our people need so badly.

Bruce Bostick is a long-time Steelworker Union (USWA) leader and activist. He can be reached at bruce@admiral.cc.

Young women say: We will stand for choice April 25

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 05:21:00 +0000

WASHINGTON – In a time where many claim that youth in the United States are not as pro-choice as their mothers, a sizeable delegation of pro-choice young people from across the country aim to stand up and be counted at the March for Women’s Lives here April 25.

A recent Newsweek article claims that young women overwhelmingly oppose a woman’s right to choose, unlike what would have been the case more than a decade ago. But 3,000 youth and students from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Georgia, and Michigan will board six buses to join the Young People’s All-Access Contingent of Choice USA to prove them wrong.

They are partners in a coalition of national women’s rights organizations that also includes the American Civil Liberties Union, Black Women’s Health Imperative, Feminist Majority, NARAL Pro-Choice America, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, National Organization for Woman (NOW) and Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The April 25 march is expected to be the largest ever demonstration for women’s reproductive freedom. It is fired by a sense of emergecy that George W. Bush and an ultraright dominated House and Senate are waging a frontal attack on all the gains women have won in the past century. Many of the organizations are working to register voters to defeat Bush and right-wing Republican lawmakers in November. They warn that if Bush steals a second term he may well appoint one or more Supreme Court justices in the mold of Antonin Scalia who are determined to oveturn Roe v. Wade, the high court’s landmark ruling that upholds a woman’s right to an abortion.

The Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, has endorsed the march and is organizing a large contingent of union members to participate. The march will come just five days after “Equal Pay Day,” April 20, when CLUW and other women’s organizations stage nationwide protests against the fact that women earn only 76 cents for every dollar men earn.

The young people’s contingent to the March for Women’s Lives aims to put the youth voice back into the forefront of the movement for reproductive freedom and renew the fight. Even more, they hope to expand the goals and messages the general public hears around reproductive choice so more women can understand and better relate to the issue.

Ty Stacey, a bus organizer in Little Rock, Ark., puts it this way: “We have a broad definition of what reproductive choice means to women. Reproductive choice is about our right to engage or not to engage in sexual activity; our right to safe and affordable health care; and even our right to comprehensive sex education that guarantees we learn about medically accurate information that will lead us to making healthy, responsible decisions as opposed to hiding information from us.”

By working in broad-based coalitions, the young people’s contingent is successfully organizing youth to the march, even those that have not traditionally considered themselves to be a part of the pro-choice movement.

Representatives from the contingent met with the 50 Years is Enough Network, the group planning the protests of the International Monetary Fund/World Bank on April 24, the same weekend of the pro-choice march. They discussed areas of collaboration during the weekend of the events.

“We understand that globalization has an incredible impact on women worldwide. When public works are privatized, clinics, hospitals and schools are grossly affected. This hurts family planning, prenatal care, childcare, sex education, and even health care in general,” said Manish Vaidya, national march organizer for Choice USA.

This affects young men and women in other aspects of their lives as well. Across the nation, urban school superintendents are being replaced by Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and school boards are being stripped of their power. What is good for suburban schools is apparently too good for the city schools.

Baltimore has already experienced this shift from public to privately-run schools. Cities such as Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., have been fighting it for some time, but the threat still hovers.

“If fighting for medically accurate comprehensive sexuality education is difficult with a school board, imagine going head to head with a CEO instead,” Manish said.

Clinics and hospitals in the capital city are suffering from similar problems. Mayor Anthony Williams shut down DC General, the city’s public hospital that served many residents in southeastern D.C. However, he was forced to open an investigation of one of the city’s private hospitals when reports surfaced that former DC General patients were being turned away from other hospitals.

On Oct. 20, 2003, The GW Hatchet, a student newspaper, reported that George Washington University Hospital allegedly turned away a 97-year-old Black woman who was going into diabetic shock, solely because she was from the wrong side of town. Results from that investigation are still pending. But these and other events are mobilizing hundreds of youth from anticorporate and antiprivatization struggles to join the young people’s contingent, according to Manish.

“We held a youth preparatory event about young people and the March for Women’s Lives in Amherst, Massachusetts,” said Emily Mentin, a bus organizer from Massachusetts, “and students that were worried that they would have to choose between going to the IMF/World Bank demonstrations and the March for Women’s Lives were so relieved when they heard they could actually do both with the Young People’s All-Access Contingent.”

The 50 Years Is Enough Network may also do a workshop or panel at the “youth convergence site” the young people’s contingent will be coordinating with other groups. The 10 in 10 Gathering, a youth convergence site, is being coordinated by Choice USA, organizers of the young people’s contingent, the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program at Hampshire College, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, the Pro-Choice Public Education Project, and the Third Wave Foundation.

Their goal is to provide a space for young people to network and share skills while preparing for the Sunday women’s march. “The [10 in 10] name comes from the statistic that four in 10 women have abortions,” said Mina Trudeau of the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program. “But we believe that 10 in 10 women benefit from full reproductive health care access and all of us should be working to expand it.”

The young people’s contingent is also planning a feeder march into the March for Women’s Lives in hopes of creating a visible presence of pro-choice youth. All wearing orange T-shirts, they plan to march with signs that say “Another Young Person for Choice” and “Reproductive Healthcare for ALL People.”

“We cannot just fight for access for those that already have it,” said Manish. “We have to consider the high school student in southeastern D.C. who is not taught medically accurate sex education in her school. We have to consider the 25 year old woman who is only given the option of having a hysterectomy after experiencing severe cramps. We have to consider the young worker without health care, and the women and men worldwide who are still seeing the affects of war and occupation on their reproductive lives. We have to fight for reproductive health care for all people, and make it the norm.”

The young people’s contingent is working hard to show that young people in the United States are indeed pro-choice, and have a broader vision of what choice means. This is definitely not our mother’s pro-choice movement, they say. Still, they hope that their messages will cross generational lines and reach out to people who could not relate to previous messages, but can now.

Back in Little Rock, Ty Stacey commented, “We believe that reproductive freedom entails so much more than abortion rights. It is our basic freedom of self-determination as women. Many people worldwide demand self-determination everyday. Why not women here in Arkansas?”

For more information on the Young People’s All-Access Contingent or to buy tickets online, visit www.choiceusa.org/march.

Erica Smiley is field director for Choice USA and can be reached at esmiley@choiceusa.org. (see related story below)

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We won’t go back

Kate Michelman has been the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America for decades. But have you heard her story?

“Three years before the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, my life was shattered. I was married and the mother of three little girls when, without warning, my husband abandoned us. I had no income, no job, and not even a car. It was all I could do to provide my children with the nurturing and safe environment they needed. If that wasn’t enough, several weeks later, I discovered I was pregnant.

I wrestled long and hard with my moral and ethical values before making the difficult decision to have an abortion. It was a very hard decision for me – but in the end, it was the right one for me and my family.

But abortion was a crime. To obtain even a “therapeutic” (hospital) abortion in my community hospital, I was forced to appear before a hospital panel of male physicians, who probed the most intimate aspects of my life – about my marriage, what kind of wife I was, what kind of mother I was. The entire process was a violation.

Not only did I have to convince the all-male panel that I was unfit to be a mother – in order to get permission to have a “therapeutic” abortion – I was also forced, by law, to find my estranged husband and obtain his written permission before having the abortion. A few days later, I finally was able to terminate my pregnancy. My story is not so unusual. It’s important because it was typical of the years before Roe v. Wade. Like many others, my world and beliefs were transformed.”

If you don’t want the women in your life to have to go back to the days Michelman describes, get yourself to Washington, D.C. April 25.

– Kate Michelman

Profiteering blocks health care

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 05:01:00 +0000

Citing the cost of health care, Republican Majority leader Dr. Bill Frist conveniently set aside his Hippocratic oath to do no harm. He says that providing health care for all people in the U.S.A. is “not possible.” Without blinking an eye, Frist said, “It’s impossible to get everybody covered … It’s impossible to get to 100 percent.”

Well, Frist is right. Allowing profits to control hospital care and the manufacture and distribution of prescription drugs while cutting the taxes for the wealthy does indeed preclude a national health system in the USA.

We have a contradiction. The richest country in the world cannot do for its people what every European, Scandinavian, and most other industrial countries, even poor countries, can – provide health services to the people.

The explanation is painfully simple. The USA is the only country in the world that so ruthlessly places profits before people. While this problem is rampant in every aspect of health care (e.g. access to care, prescription drugs), hospitals are typically cited as the worst offenders.

Hospitals seek huge profits

Frist is the expert on profits in health, especially hospitals. His family runs the largest for-profit hospital system in the United States and the world, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). He is well aware that it is not possible for for-profit hospitals to charge affordable rates and still turn the huge profits he and his investors demand. They have been caught bilking Medicare and Medicaid for billions of dollars, yet they make policy.

The Columbia/HCA Medicare fraud case holds the record as the largest Medicare fraud case in history. HCA suddenly agreed to pay the biggest fines in the history of Medicare just before Frist took over his leadership position in the Senate. HCA is owned by Frist’s father and brother who were both implicated in the fraud.

Private, not-for-profit

Even the so-called not-for-profit, private hospitals maintain $500,000 to $1 million annual compensation for their CEOs. At the same time, these private hospitals are cutting back their “charity” services for those with limited or no health insurance coverage. They are laying off hospital workers, including nurses and physicians, putting all patients in jeopardy.

Public hospitals

Even public hospitals, where they still exist, are being forced to put money before patient care. Severe cutbacks in federal, state and local financial support of public hospitals are creating a crisis in these last–chance health facilities. A federal bailout of these state and local public hospitals should be on the front burner.

All these problems can be traced back to profiteering in hospital care. And it matters beyond money. The Institute of Medicine has cited the conditions of U.S, hospitals as contributing to over 100,000 unnecessary patient deaths in these facilities.

Electoral and legislative action

Bush and Frist have to be kicked out of public office. Health care activists must keep the pressure up for a comprehensive universal national health program. Seeking support of the National Health Service bill of Barbara Lee (HR 3000) and both Conyers bills (HR 676, his single-payer bill, and HR 99, a more broadly-based, unifying proposal for universal health care) is a good idea. Offering candidates for congressional office in this menu is the healthy direction.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org.

National Clips

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 03:58:00 +0000

SEATTLE: Profits vs. jobs, environment

Patrick Grennen, a 31-year veteran tankerman, was working alone transferring 23,700 barrels of oil to a 248-foot barge for Foss Maritime Company in December 2003. The amount was 300 barrels short of requiring two workers to do the job. The result, says an inquiry convened by the state Legislature, was the worst oil spill on Puget Sound in recent memory. Oil destroyed shellfish beds six miles away.

Grennen, member of the Inlandboatman’s Union, a division of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, testified that the companies have been increasing profits by cutting back jobs that require two sets of eyes and hands. “Acceptable risk” is the mantra of the industry, Grennen said. Tankermen often spend up to 15 hours on deck operating a complicated set of pipes and valves regulating the flow of thousands of gallons of fuel.

Union business agent Stuart Downer testified that increased staffing levels not only protect family income but also the ecology. Nonunion companies are on the rise, he said, representing a threat to family income and the environment.

A report from the inquiry is expected soon.

AUGUSTA, Maine: Handicapped, caregivers fight for justice

The state Legislature’s Appropriations Committee staff had to set up an additional 800 chairs and the committee had to split into two groups when over 1,500 handicapped residents, their families and support staff protested budget cuts to MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program. The Bush administration cut federal funding to Medicaid, leaving Maine with a $127 million hole in the state budget.

Cuts mean residents like Amber Pratt, who suffers brain damage, would have to move out of her family’s home to a facility in Rhode Island for rehabilitation and care.

The budget is still under debate.

LANSING, Mich.: Governor outlaws outsourcing

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed two executive orders on March 22 barring the state from doing business with companies that would do the work in foreign countries and forcing companies currently under contract with the state to reveal who is doing the work and where it is being done.

Since 2000, about 300,000 Michigan workers have lost their jobs, 170,000 in manufacturing. Although the governor offered tax breaks to Electrolux, where workers make refrigerators, the company is moving 2,700 jobs to Mexico in 2005, where the wages are $1.57 an hour.

The Republican-dominated state Legislature has only served up more tax cuts to corporations to answer the jobs crisis.

CINCINNATI: Feds make parents surrender kids for health care

“A civilized society should not do this,” thundered Michael Hogan, director of the Ohio Department of Mental Health. “We must stop trading custody for care. It’s terrible!”

An investigation by the Cincinnati Enquirer blew the lid off a silent scandal whereby federal regulations are requiring families to surrender their child in return for getting access to $1,000 payments toward their child’s psychiatric care. The report estimated that in the last three years, 1,800 severely ill children around the state had to leave their families and enter the state’s foster care program because the biological families could not longer afford mental health care.

Christy Mathews’ husband is laid off. Care for her daughter Lauren, who suffers from bi-polar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, costs thousands of dollars per month. The cost includes 16 medications over four years and eight hospitalizations. “My child has a mom and dad,” Mathews said. “Why should I put her in foster care to treat her illness?”

NEW YORK: Outcry wins battle for women’s dignity

Virgin Atlantic Airways did not want the world to know that they planned to install urinals shaped like women’s mouths in their Kennedy Airport Clubhouse. The National Organization for Women (NOW) found out and put the word out.

After receiving an “alarming” number of complaints, Virgin Vice President John Riordan called NOW to announce that the installation had been cancelled and that regular urinals would be used. He also apologized.

In thanking activists and women’s rights supporters for protesting this dehumanization of women, NOW President Kim Gandy noted that the decision is limited to Kennedy. “We hope that they do not intend to put these degrading fixtures in countries where women are less likely to stand up for themselves.” So, supporters of women’s dignity, pay attention.

National Clips are compiled by Denise Winebrenner Edwards (dwinebr696@aol.com). Barbara Russum contributed to this week’s clips.

Indiana unions support HR 676

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 03:23:00 +0000

Resolutions supporting HR 676, the “Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act,” have been unanimously passed by two labor bodies here in Northwest Indiana in the past two weeks. The first was on March 4 by a regular union meeting of over 300 members of one of the largest steelworker locals, USWA 6787. This local represents over 3,000 workers at the Burns Harbor, Ind., plant of International Steel Group (ISG). Then on March 17 the 40,000-member Northwest Indiana Federation of Labor of the AFL-CIO passed a similar resolution.

Steelworkers across the country have been hit hard in the past year by the loss of over 10,000 jobs as almost 40 companies closed or went into bankruptcy. In Northwest Indiana, which now has the largest concentration of steel-making operations in the country, the loss was particularly hard felt. Steel companies LTV, ACME, Republic, National and Bethlehem either shut down or lost thousands of workers in plant purchases that trimmed workforces. Thousands of other workers in manufacturing have also lost their jobs in this area. These job losses are accompanied by the disastrous loss of health care for the laid off workers and their families.

Worst hit by the steel industry bankruptcies are the retirees who have lost their health care insurance for themselves and their spouses. Many retired steelworkers were already finding it difficult to make ends meet because they had their pensions reduced when the pensions were taken over by the government through the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

– Paul Kaczocha, steelworker (kaczocha@netnitco.net)

Conyers spearheads health care campaign

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 03:20:00 +0000

Congressman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) will host a National Health Insurance Conference, April 16-17, to kick off a 50-state campaign for passage of national health insurance legislation, HR 676 – the “Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act.”

The bill would include everyone in the country in medical, hospital, dental, mental health, prescription, home care, physical therapy, nursing home care, rehabilitation, and vision coverage. HR 676 provides for patients to choose their own physicians and removes all co-pays and deductibles. This single-payer program saves money and lives by eliminating for-profit HMOs and insurance companies so that the $1.6 trillion the U.S. spends annually on health can all be spent for care of patients. Conyers introduced HR 676 in the House in 2003.

Dr. Quentin Young, national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program, will keynote the conference, speaking on “The State of Health Care – The Case for National Health Insurance.” Conyers will speak on “Launching a National Movement for HR 676,” followed by a session on “Getting the Message Out – Working the Media.”

Dean Baker, of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and Joel Segal, senior assistant to Conyers, will present the details of HR 676 in a session titled, “What Is It and How Do We Pay For It?” They will seek to arm the participants to take the message back to the neighborhoods. There will also be a session on strategies to promote single-payer legislation on the state level. Activists are working on state single-payer bills in a number of states, including Massachusetts, California, and Pennsylvania. The agenda includes nuts-and-bolts workshops on working with unions, faith communities, educators, and health workers.

Ron Gettelfinger, United Auto Workers president, and Leo Gerard, Steelworkers president, both advocates of single-payer health care, have been invited to address the conference. The conference has also extended invitations to Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, two of the co-sponsors of HR 676.

Conference organizers intend to establish a national health insurance citizens’ network to begin implementing a campaign to pass HR 676 or its equivalent. They also hope to open a national health insurance coordination office in Washington.

Dozens of health care and social justice organizations have endorsed the conference including Physicians for a National Health Program, the Gray Panthers, Jobs with Justice of Washington, D.C., the National Coalition for the Homeless, the American Medical Students Association, Universal Health Care Action Network, and the National Welfare Rights Union.

“We believe that the leadership should come from the people that do the work, and now is the time to build a serious movement for national health insurance for all in America,” assert conference organizers Michelle and Rick Tingling-Clemmons, who expect 200-300 participants. The conference will be held at Howard University Hospital and Towers Auditorium, 2041 Georgia Ave. NW, Washington, D. C.

For further information, contact National Health Insurance for All Conference, c/o Metropolitan DC Health Consortium, 7603 Georgia Av., NW, Suite #203, Washington, DC 20012; (202) 397-2277, (202) 829-9108; e-mail Mirico5@aol.com.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org.

Obama victory inspires hopes for November

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 03:00:00 +0000

CHICAGO – Barak Obama’s historic, landslide victory in the March 16 Illinois Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate is a victory for independent, grassroots, coalition politics over money and machine politics. Obama now opposes millionaire Republican Jack Ryan in a must-win race if the Democrats are to retake the Senate.

The primary victory was a vindication of Obama’s issue-oriented campaign and represents a serious blow to racism. It catapults Obama, an African American, into the national spotlight. If elected, he would be only the fifth African American elected to the U.S. Senate and the third since Reconstruction.

Obama, a three-term state senator and former civil rights attorney, won with a very broad appeal. Voter turnout was the highest for an Illinois primary in 12 years (37 percent). Obama won 66 percent in Chicago, over 90 percent in the African American community, and split the Latino vote with a Latino candidate, Gery Chico.

Obama received over 35 percent support from white voters and won nine predominantly white north side wards in Chicago. He also swept the suburban counties around Chicago, where he received more votes than Ryan. He won 23 percent of the downstate vote.

There has been a general decline in racist voting patterns in Illinois that benefited Obama. More African Americans have been elected to statewide office than in any other state. The late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington, former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun and other statewide office holders have blazed the trail for African American and Latino candidates.

The unprecedented results reflect broad shifts among the electorate who responded to the economic and health care concerns and growing opposition to the war. Voters defeated nearly half of local education funding referendums and passed by 84 percent a non-binding tax-the- rich referendum to fund public education. In addition, voters overwhelmingly passed referendums in Chicago’s 48th and 49th wards to repeal the Patriot Act, end the occupation of Iraq and for universal health care.

Obama’s unquestioned integrity sharply contrasted with millionaire Blair Hull, who tried to buy the election but was dogged by allegations of verbal and physical abuse toward his former wife, and Dan Hynes, an uninspired candidate backed by the bulk of the machine, who ran on his family name.

A clear progressive legislative record and opposition to the Iraq war and Patriot Act drew peace and justice activists to his campaign and distinguished Obama. He received endorsements from most of the big city newspapers across the state.

Obama assembled a multiracial coalition that overwhelmed the machine. Although the State AFL-CIO and Chicago Federation of Labor backed Hynes, Obama was endorsed by Service Employees, American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Chicago Teachers Union, Unite!, Hotel Employees, and Teamsters Local 705.

Obama also had strong support from the political organizations of Reps. Jackson, Davis and Schakowsky and of key independent Latino elected officials, many progressive organizations, peace activists and a brigade of youth and students. He effectively utilized an endorsement from the late liberal Sen. Paul Simon’s daughter to broadly associate himself with Simon’s legacy.

The campaign became an avenue for a growing grassroots and independent political movement. Veterans of Harold Washington’s campaigns and other battles reemerged as grassroots precinct workers. The victory heralds a new day in Illinois politics and will likely spur a greater turnout in November.

The author can be reached at jbachtell@rednet.org.

Dallas takes a stand for civil liberties

Fri, 19 Mar 2004 09:22:00 +0000

DALLAS – The Dallas City Council passed a resolution Feb. 25 condemning parts of the USA Patriot Act. The vote was the climax of more than two years of hard lobbying by Attorney Chip Pitts, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee of Dallas, the ACLU, and a coalition of community activists. Similar resolutions have passed in more than 260 cities across the country and three state legislatures.

Although the issue had been before the council twice before, the debate lasted two hours. In the end, two of the seven white council members voted with the African American and Latino members for the resolution.

One of the many speaking in favor of the resolution was Jana Zeeb, whose husband has been in prison for more than 10 months. Before Sept. 11, 2001, Zeeb, who can trace her ancestry back to one of the first British colonists, Miles Standish, and her husband operated a flight training school in Dallas. Her husband had been a private pilot for a number of prominent Americans, including George W. Bush.

But after 9/11, their business was raided solely because Mr. Zeeb was originally from the Middle East. The authorities found nothing illegal, but they did uncover a 20-year-old citation against Mr. Zeeb for drunken driving. Because of this he has been kept in an INS prison in Haskell, Texas, and has lost more than 70 pounds because of poor medical care.

Mayor Laura Miller, who was opposed to the resolution, later commented on Zeeb’s testimony. “I assure you that we will hear more about that facility,” she said, “because I, too, have friends with relatives there.”

Rev. Peter Johnson, the first organizer sent to Dallas by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., made a special plea to minority members of the council. “You are sitting on the shoulders of those who came before you,” he said. “I expect you to do your part.”

One councilman, who favored the Patriot Act, wept while proclaiming that America is at war and we owe it to our men and women in uniform to support the Patriot Act. American soldiers are serving abroad, he said, “where enemies of America are killing them for no other reason than that they represent freedom.”

But African American Councilman James Fantroy refuted arguments made in defense of the Patriot Act, including that the majority of the American people support the law. Recalling days of slavery and segregation, he said, “The majority is not always right. ... A lot of the ‘majority’ may not be concerned about the Patriot Act, but they never had water hoses put on them, never had dogs put on them!”

The chamber erupted as the monitor flashed the vote: 9-6 in favor of the resolution.

The author can be reached at flittle7@yahoo.com.

Telecoms blasted for health care takeaways

Fri, 19 Mar 2004 06:18:00 +0000

DALLAS – A week after unionists in Southern California grocery stores announced the end of their five-month fight for health care benefits, activists here took part in a nationwide day of action to defend and expand health care benefits.

North Texas Jobs with Justice targeted the SBC Corp., formerly Southwestern Bell, which has begun negotiations with the Communications Workers of America. About 75 union members at corporate headquarters flocked out the doors into One Bell Plaza to rally and picket during their lunch period on March 4.

The picket line snaked around several SBC buildings and around the surrounding downtown Dallas city blocks. They shouted, “No health care, no peace!” at first, but soon changed it to “No health care, no work!”

Activists on the line said that three big union contracts terminate simultaneously on April 3: SBC, Verizon, and PacTel. Together, communications workers in a 13-state area are covered by the contracts. None of the CWA locals is expected to settle until they all do. Another important CWA contract is being negotiated with Cingular Wireless where health care is also likely to be a major issue.

Literature at the March 4 picket laid the blame for the U.S. health care crisis on greedy corporations and the Bush administration. One leaflet quoted figures from Fortune magazine that show in 2002 the top 10 drug companies in the Fortune 500, as a group, saw $35.9 billion in profits, more than half the profits netted by the top 50 companies.

National Jobs with Justice reports that health care premiums have been increasing by 12-16 percent every year. Many employers are dropping coverage completely. JwJ says that the new Medicare law passed last November by Congress will only make things worse. This measure includes special tax breaks to companies under the pretext of encouraging employer-sponsored drug benefits. It creates Health Savings Accounts that promote the use of “high deductible” insurance. It prohibits Medicare from using its purchasing power to negotiate lower drug prices. This law will only fuel corporate profits and hurt working people.

The author can be reached at flittle7@yahoo.com.

Texans observe International Womens Day

Fri, 19 Mar 2004 06:05:00 +0000

SAN ANTONIO – Approximately 250 marchers participated in a march and rally in observance of International Women’s Day here, emphasizing themes of equality, peace, education and dignity. The march route was about two miles long, beginning at Elmendorf Park and ending at Plaza Guadalupe on the city’s west side, where a number of speakers and dance performers took their turns on stage.

Local folksinger, teacher, and city councilwoman Patti Radle began the rally by leading the crowd in a sing-along of a song she penned titled, “No People Over Profits,” in which she criticizes corporate injustices ranging from the bias of the local daily newspaper to Nike shoes. Afterwards, four of her students gave an abridged theatrical presentation of Sojourner Truth’s famous speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” which criticizes the hypocrisy of abolitionists who were against suffrage.

Speaker Sarwat Husain of the San Antonio chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations addressed a number issues, including the increase in sexual assaults by American male military personnel against women in the armed forces dating from the beginning of the war against Iraq, and the lack of official response to these reports. She added that sexual assaults by servicemen increase during wartime. Her overall tone, however, was one of hope. She urged women to seek better education, adding, “Take care of yourself. We can be more powerful, and, when we have that power, no one can hurt us. It is your duty.”

Maria Luisa, coordinator and co-founder of Austin-based Inmigrantes Latinos En Accion, encouraged women to consider leadership roles in their communities. She related her own story of how she became a leader of her immigrant rights group based in Austin. “I learned that if I could organize a birthday party for my child, then I could organize a meeting for immigrant rights,” she told participants.

Grace Botello, a health care worker, emphasized the need for better funding of programs to intervene and prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among women who are caught in the exploitative world of sex trafficking. She also said, “Ten out of ten women I’ve encountered don’t want to be in that line of work.”

Patricia Castillo, who served as emcee for the program, announced that Councilman Richard Perez of District 4 recently secured funds for the Peace Initiative, a program that earmarks money for education about violence in teen dating.

Linda Tippens of San Antonio Fighting back stressed the need for unity among women. “We’re doing this for the women of the world,” she said. She added, “I am a Black woman, and I am proud of it,” and addressed such issues as the effects of neo-colonization, abuse, and imprisonment on women.

Nadine Saliba of the Arab and International Women’s Association identified patriarchy as a common factor between the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the Israeli occupation of Palestine. She dew parallels between the two situations, pointing out that women are the group that suffer most in both cases.

The Bill of Rights Defense Coalition circulated a petition calling for a resolution to be passed by the city council against the Patriot Act. Such a resolution has already been passed in Dallas. San Marcos came one vote short of passage.

The event was organized by a coalition of peace and women’s groups, including Gemini Ink, The Peace Center, The Battered Women’s Shelter, San Antonio Fighting Back, Fuerza Unida and the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org.

Educators challenge No Child law

Fri, 19 Mar 2004 05:10:00 +0000

PHILADELPHIA – Regardless of what political party they belong to, school district officials and legislators here are challenging the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law, calling it the most underfunded mandate in U.S. history.

NCLB mandates that all students in all school districts in the U.S. reach 100 percent proficiency in reading, mathematics and science by 2014. The law professes to close the academic gap between wealthy and poor students, Black students and white, special education and regular, those with limited English and those who are fluent, and disabled students and those without disabilities. Each state had to submit a plan to the U.S. Department of Education showing how it would accomplish this feat.

On March 1, almost 140 Pennsylvania school superintendents from 14 counties met in Norristown, Pa., to declare NCLB unfair and to suggest how it should be changed. Their districts represent over one-third of the state’s 1.8 million students.

“In its current version the law is destined for failure,” said James R. Weaver, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, representing 163,000 teachers. “[It] will hinder quality education for students and will cause public schools to be unfairly perceived as failures.”

In a petition to federal officials, the superintendents, backed by their school boards, asked for changes in the NCLB law to exempt special education students from mandated reading and mathematics tests, to delay testing of students with limited English and to fully fund both NCLB and special education laws.

Lisa Andrejko, superintendent of the Norristown School District, said the federal law imposes sanctions but fails to pay for extra programs needed to boost performance of students with special needs or those living in poverty.

“All the attention is on testing,” said Andrejko. “We have moved from sound instruction to teaching to the tests.”

Amy Sichel, superintendent of the Abington schools, agreed. “The focus on testing for reading and math is distracting from elective classes and students’ interests and other education goals,” she said.

Several school districts in Vermont and Connecticut have rejected federal funds rather than comply with NCLB mandates. Seven states passed resolutions criticizing the law. The Virginia House Education Committee called the law “ludicrous” and “utopian nonsense.”

The Utah Legislature passed a law forbidding the expenditure of state funds on NCLB, and Hawaii lawmakers will delay implementation until Congress provides more money. The Republican-controlled Ohio Legislature studied the cost of implementing NCLB and found that it would need an additional $1.4 billion a year.

President Bush promised full funding for NCLB when he signed the bill Jan. 8, 2002, but more than $8 billion in promised funds have been cut.

“From Head Start and Title I to after-school programs and dropout prevention,” said Marian Wright Edelman, Children’s Defense Fund president, “the Bush administration’s budget ignores at-risk youth by failing to provide the resources that could help them make a successful transition to adulthood.”

The author can be reached at phillyrose1@earthlink.net.

Educators challenge No Child law

Fri, 19 Mar 2004 05:10:00 +0000

National Clips

Fri, 19 Mar 2004 04:55:00 +0000

RICHMOND, Va.: Cities defy Patriot Act

One hundred forty years ago, this city was the capital of slavery. On March 8, the City Council voted to protect Bill of Rights freedoms from pressures and attacks from the USA Patriot Act, Attorney General John Ashcroft’s sledgehammer attack on civil liberties in the wake of 9/11.

The city councils in Milwaukee, Washington, and Elko, Nev., joined Richmond and acted in early March to protect civil and privacy rights of their residents.

Richmond is one of a score of southern cities, including Dallas; Atlanta; Sarasota and Broward County, Fla.; Huntington, W.Va.; Austin, Texas; and Chapel Hill, N.C., to act against the Patriot Act.

Across the country, as of March 11, a total of 264 states, counties, cities, towns and municipalities representing over 46 million people have voted to curtail, reject or condemn the act. The grassroots movement started when the city council of Ann Arbor, Mich., voted to protect their residents’ rights on Jan. 7, 2002.

ATLANTA: No jobs here

Despite the hype, metro Atlanta officials announced that what is being touted as a job growth area of the country in fact lost 84,700 jobs in 2003. How could the initial numbers have been so wrong? According to John Lawrence of the state’s Labor Department, officials did not count the number of businesses that failed.

That only provoked tears from Lisha Naylor, 29. She’s been unemployed since the summer when the restaurant where she worked went belly up. “There is not only a line (at the unemployment office),” she said. “But each week it is just longer and longer; people more and more sad.”

SAN FRANCISCO: Earth Day call for ‘Green investing’

On the heels of a victory where the mega-bank Citigroup agreed to consider environmental impacts before deciding to invest in oil, gas and coal companies, along with a report from the Pentagon and the World Bank that concedes global warming is as “serious as terrorism,” the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) announced that it has sent letters to 10 multinational U.S.-based banks demanding they phase out funding for fossil fuel projects. The campaign calls for letters to the banks and an online petition, www.ran.org. The deadline for the drive is Earth Day, April 22.

“The jury is no longer out on the effects of global warming and deforestation,” said Michael Brune, RAN’s executive director. “The Earth’s ancient forests and their indigenous communities are victims of the vicious cycle of devastation caused by the global dependence on fossil fuels. Destroying pristine old-growth forests for a few weeks’ supply of dirty energy is a barbaric practice and key catalyst in the rapid destabilization of our global climate. The time has come to redefine capital and redirect its flow away from environmentally fatal projects. The era of investments that reap short-term profits while bankrupting our environmental is over.”

WASHINGTON: Health care conference set for April 16

More than a score of sponsors have organized an April 16-17 national conference in Washington, D.C., to build a movement for House Bill 676, the National Health Insurance Act. This legislation, introduced by Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), would establish a universal, single-payer health care system called “Expanded and Improved Medicare for All.” Conyers and Dr. Quentin Young, national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program, will speak at the conference at Howard University Hospital & Towers, 2041 Georgia Avenue, NW.

This “How-to Organizers Conference” will include a Capitol Hill briefing, skills and strategy sessions, and workshops. The American Medical Students Association, Gray Panthers, National Welfare Rights Union, National Coalition of the Homeless, Jobs with Justice of Washington, D.C., Health Care for All San Francisco Chapter, and Push-NOW of Pennsylvania are among the conference endorsers.

Registration is free for seniors, $15 for students, $35 for healthcare advocates, $50 for doctors and other health professionals. Further details on the conference are available from Rick Tingling-Clemmons (Mirico5@aol.com) or Joel Segal, (202) 225-5126 (joel.segal@mail.house.gov). Further information on the HR 676 can be found at www.pnhp.org.

National Clips are compiled by Denise Winebrenner Edwards (dwinebr696@aol.com). Roberta Wood contributed to this week’s clips.

Naderites still say: Ralph, dont run!

Fri, 19 Mar 2004 04:48:00 +0000

News Analysis

Jim Carpenter spearheaded the petition drive to place Ralph Nader on the Wisconsin ballot as the Green Party’s presidential nominee in 2000.

This year Carpenter is flatly opposed to Nader’s decision to run for president as an independent, a race that is certain to be seen as “Nader’s Folly.”

Carpenter, a teacher of economics at a Milwaukee community college, is active in the presidential campaign of Dennis Kucinich, the progressive Ohio lawmaker.

“The best way to advance a progressive agenda is to support Dennis Kucinich,” Carpenter told the World. “Kucinich does not create the problem of splitting the vote in November. The focus has to be on removing George W. Bush from the White House. He turns out to be a lot more dangerous than we realized in 2000. We can have a debate on where we need to go as a nation and still unite around the goal of defeating Bush in November.”

Jim Baldridge, a Baltimore health care worker, agreed with that view of Kucinich’s positive role. Baldridge received 2,351 votes running as a Kucinich delegate in Maryland’s Super Tuesday Democratic primary. He told the World, “I was attracted by Kucinich’s stand against the Iraq war starting with his vote in Congress against the war resolution and his 10-point plan to end the occupation, to bring the UN in, and bring U.S. troops home.”

Kucinich and Vermont Gov. Howard Dean campaigned for eight months as peace candidates, arguably the main arena for peace activity since the end of the huge peace demonstrations a year ago. Nader has never placed opposition to the Bush preemptive war at the heart of his program.

Mark Green, a former “Nader Raider” who ran as a Democratic mayoral candidate in New York, said he is “very disappointed” at Nader’s decision, adding, “I believe that the risk of him helping re-elect the most reactionary president in our lifetime greatly exceeds the possible benefits.”

Tens of thousands of voters logged onto a web site, “Ralph, Don’t Run,” and sent him e-mails urging him not to enter the race. Now that web site, www.ralphdontrun.net, carries the appeal, “Don’t vote Ralph.”

The Nation magazine, a longstanding Nader supporter, sent him an open letter dated Feb. 16, that said, “Ralph, this is the wrong year for you to run: 2004 is not 2000. … George W. Bush has led us into an illegal preemptive war, and his defeat is critical. … The overwhelming mass of voters with progressive values – who are essential to all efforts to build a force that can change the direction of the country – have only one focus this year: to beat Bush.”

Nader captured 97,000 votes in Florida in 2000. If he had not been on the Florida ballot, it is virtually certain that Democrat Al Gore would have garnered most of those votes and Bush would not be in the White House. That is the basis for charges that Nader was a spoiler who helped Bush-Cheney steal the 2000 election.

In 2000, Nader’s secretive links to billionaire textile magnate Roger Milliken, “sugar-Daddy of the New Right,” surfaced. Milliken also bankrolled the ultra-right, racist Pat Buchanan presidential campaign that year.

This year, too, Nader has been caught with some strange bedfellows. Nader spoke at a conference in Bedford, N.H., sponsored by Fred Newman and Lenora Fulani, gurus of the cultist, ultra-right New Alliance Party. The title of the conference was “Choosing an Independent President, 2004.”

Nader is not running as the Green Party nominee this year and faces a daunting challenge to collect the 1.5 million signatures to put his name on the ballot in 50 states. One question is who will sign his petitions. A clue came in Nader’s appearance on ABC’s Meet the Press where he said his “outreach” will be to “conservatives and liberal Republicans.”

Leaders of the surging movement to oust Bush-Cheney cite polls showing Nader receiving 6 percent of the vote, leaving Democrat John Kerry running neck and neck with Bush. But with Nader out of the race, Kerry is several points ahead of Bush. Nader could once again be the spoiler who helps Bush steal a second term.

Tim Wheeler is the PWW Washington correspondent and can be reached at greenerpastures21212@yahoo.com.

New York City upholds lead law

Fri, 12 Mar 2004 06:02:00 +0000

By a vote of 44-5, the New York City Council recently overturned Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s veto of lead legislation that has been debated for over a decade. The voice of the New York City Council was clear.

“Today we give the children in the row houses of our city the same health protection as those who live in the townhouses in Manhattan,” said Councilman Bill Perkins of Manhattan, the chief architect of the legislation.

For well over two decades, the city’s real estate interests have pressured New York City mayors to set aside medical and scientific studies that conclusively prove that children’s exposure to lead is a neurological and mortality threat. Lead paint chips on window sills are often eaten by small children. The smell and taste of the lead chips is sweet. The only way to remove this danger is to eliminate the lead paint itself.

Mayor Bloomberg openly condemns the council’s vote. City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden, who on most issues has been a beacon of public health, has turned his head and supports the real estate interests. Both Bloomberg and Frieden mouth the cries of real estate ideologues that the new law is too complicated. “It cannot be enforced,” say Frieden and Bloomberg.

The legislation’s complexity is due to the intense lobbying by the real estate interests to make any law impossible to administer. Advocates of the NYC lead law, like advocates of federal ergonomic regulations, were compelled to make legislative adjustments to win over weaker legislators from the corporate arguments.

Lead poisoning affects everyone. Industrial lead poisoning affects both men’s and women’s reproductive functioning. Lead poisoning attacks the nervous system of growing children, in the worst cases resulting in permanent mental disability. The behavior of a lead-poisoned child presents an intense problem for parents, who agonize over their child’s disability and often feel guilt for not preventing the poisoning. Any program of lead removal must have a psychological component to help parents.

Each year at least 4,000 new lead poisoning victims are identified in New York City. According to the council, these victims come from the poorest communities. It is time to stop the filibustering of the law and enforce the law. The influence of political contributions from the real estate interests, who give money to both Republicans and Democrats, is profound. In this case, however, the almost totally Democratic Party-led City Council did the right thing.

The passage of the NYC Lead Law can become a catalyst for other cities across the country. A federal ban on lead paint in all homes is an important national goal.

It is expensive to implement a comprehensive lead paint prohibition law. It must include removal of the lead paint; a safe place for the residents to live while their home is being de-leaded; medical and mental health care for lead victims, including parents of lead-poisoned children. Federal support to complete this job is necessary.

Please e-mail this column (pww@pww.org) if you have local experiences that can be used to galvanize a national movement against lead poisoning.

New hope for saving Philly hospital

Fri, 12 Mar 2004 05:58:00 +0000

PHILADELPHIA – Gov. Ed Rendell and the for-profit Tenet Healthcare Corp. reached an agreement Feb. 20 to keep Medical College of Pennsylvania (MCP) Hospital open until June 30, while a buyer is being sought. Temple University Health System, Albert Einstein Health System and Drexel University Medical School have shown interest in the hospital.

In December 2003, just as Tenet had reached an agreement with its striking nurses, it announced that it would close MCP Hospital on March 31. The announcement prompted community anger and public hearings. MCP Hospital employees, elected officials and community groups formed the Association to Save MCP Hospital coalition, while neighbors formed the Residents Coalition. The two groups have held meetings, rallies and candlelight vigils to save the 154-year-old hospital, the first to train women to become physicians.

The Save MCP Coalition filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction to stop the closing. After the Pennsylvania Department of Health said Tenet must give 90 days’ notice after a court ruling, Tenet began negotiations with the governor.

Coalition leaders, Ralph Wynder, a ward leader and community activist, and Ginny Holzworth, a registered nurse at MCP, said the coalition wants to be part of the negotiations in the sale/purchase of MCP Hospital.

“The interests of those served by the hospital and those who work here must be considered,” said Wynder. Holzworth added, “Tenet has transferred MCP staff and equipment to some of its other five hospitals in Philadelphia. Ambulances have been diverted to other hospitals, causing the loss of at least one life. This must stop.”

Meanwhile Tenet is facing severe financial problems stemming from its mismanagement and poor quality control.

Tenet Shareholder Committee Chairman M. Lee Pearce said, “We warned the board against the practice of ‘Wall Street medicine.’ We said, as forcefully as possible, that at Tenet quality health care takes a backseat to the almighty dollar. Unfortunately, senior management and the board either ignored us or attacked us or both.”

MCP Hospital’s emergency room served 27,500 patients in 2002. It also cared for an additional 10,000 patients during the year. Were it to close, hundreds of employees, particularly blue-collar workers, would have difficulty finding employment.

Twelve hospitals in the Philadelphia area have closed since 1994.

Dr. Walter Tsou, former city health commissioner and a representative of the Philadelphia Area Committee to Defend Health Care, testified at the city council hearings about the exploding uninsured population. Tsou said, “MCP Hospital is the latest victim of a health care system out of control.”

The author can be reached at phillyrose1@earthlink.net.

Chicago energy scheme called murder

Fri, 12 Mar 2004 05:54:00 +0000

Chicago – The exposé of a $300 million rip-off by Peoples Gas and Enron of residential heating customers has created a storm of anger here. In response, consumer advocates are demanding immediate restoration of gas to 13,000 residents who suffered this winter without heat. At least 13 people have frozen to death.

Researchers for the Citizen’s Utility Board (CUB) discovered the massive looting scheme that occurred during the winter of 2000-2001 when consumers were hit with skyrocketing bills. The Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) had sought to end a two-year investigation and let Peoples Gas off the hook. But CUB discovered documents on a federal web site that busted the scheme wide open. The city of Chicago, ICC and Attorney General Lisa Madigan have since joined the investigation while Peoples Gas has stonewalled. There is a growing demand to refund customers between $100 million and $330 million and to impose stiff corporate fines.

Bridgeport resident Charles Dirks, 74, has been shut off three times since 2000. “Many have suffered and been made to feel bad. Now we find out it was the gas company behind it. It’s criminal!” said Dirks.

The corporate grand theft, like other Enron rip-offs, occurred through a secret, profit-sharing agreement between the Peoples Energy, the parent of Peoples Gas, and Enron Corp. Peoples Gas deliberately refused to buy natural gas at lower prices in anticipation of winter needs. It then sold its natural gas stocks at low prices to a dummy corporation set up between Peoples Energy and Enron. These stocks were then resold and profits were funneled to Peoples Energy.

Meanwhile Peoples Gas restocked its supplies at radically inflated prices dictated by Enron and Peoples Energy. According to Dave Kolata, CUB director of Policy and Government Affairs, 85 percent of the new stocks were bought from Enron.

“In many cases the gas stocks were never physically moved, just swapped with Enron and then sold back,” sometimes at double the rate, Kolata told the World.

Peoples Energy has now been nailed for lying to the public after claiming they didn’t profit off the transactions. The documents prove Peoples Energy and Enron agreed to divvy up the profits for at least four years. The arrangement was secret because it involved an unregulated affiliate of Peoples Energy, a blatant conflict of interest, said Kolata.

“When Bush said he opposed unholy, illegal marriage, I thought he was talking about the marriage between Enron and Peoples Gas,” said Curly Cohen, director of Affordable Power to the People (APP). The group spearheaded citywide protests in 2000 and has fought for state emergency assistance and to restore service to thousands of residents. “This is murder. People died because they couldn’t pay those bills,” said Cohen. APP is demanding a moratorium on the projected 100,000 shutoffs expected after April 1.

“Corporate profits and public utilities don’t mix,” said Cohen, “We need public ownership of utilities. Heat in the winter and cool in the summer are a right.”

The author can be reached at jbachtell@rednet.org.

Great Game for oil & power

Fri, 12 Mar 2004 05:49:00 +0000

In March 2001 Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham told the National Energy Security Summit that “America faces a major energy supply crisis over the next two decades. The failure to meet this challenge will threaten our nation’s economic prosperity, compromise our national security and likely alter the way we lead our lives.”

This taken-for-granted imperial outlook was subsequently spelled out in Dick Cheney’s National Energy Policy statement and George W. Bush’s national security pronouncements. But an energy policy that rests upon controlling the world’s oil, seeking permanent military superiority over all potential rivals, and, in the words of political analyst Tom Barry, pursuing a policy of global “warlordism,” can only be a recipe for disaster.

In no other part of the world is this pursuit of dominion more volatile than in the Caspian Sea Basin, which takes in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Russia.

Speaking to oil industrialists in 1998, then-Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney remarked, “I cannot think of a time when we had a region emerge as suddenly to become strategically significant as the Caspian.”

Under the cover of its “war on terrorism” the Bush administration has initiated what British Guardian writer Lutz Kelveman refers to as “The New Great Game,” a rerun of the 19th Century imperial rivalry between Czarist Russia and the British Empire. Only now it is the United States that “seeks to control the Caspian oil resources.”

For now Georgia is the epicenter of the new great game. It represents the bridge carrying Caspian oil on its journey to the port destination of Ceyhan, Turkey. The U.S. has invested substantial political-economic resources in Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline venture.

Recently a U.S.-friendly candidate, Mikhail Saakashvili, was elected president of Georgia. Saakashvili received considerable outside support for his campaign, including from George Soros’ Open Society Institute, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the American Center for International Labor.

Subsequently, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has shuttled back and forth, offering military “assistance” and a pledge to police the Caspian Sea. The IMF and World Bank are on their way to Georgia.

Secretary of State Colin Powell has warned Russia about supporting three breakaway Georgian provinces, Adjara, Abkhahzia (which currently houses a Russian military base) and South Osettia. The leaders of these self-governing regions recently met with top Russian officials in Moscow, with the leader of South Osettia, Edward Kokoity, exploring, according to a BBC report, “ways to become part of Russia.”

According to the BBC, President Putin has “recommended to the Russian parliament that the several thousand Russian troops in Abkhahzia should remain there in a peacekeeping role until a settlement is achieved between its leaders and Tbilisi.”

Sergei Blagov, a correspondent for cnsnewscom, writes about the deepening “rift between Russia and U.S.-backed Georgian government.” Blagov quotes Colin Powell warning an unnamed country at a recent Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe meeting in the Netherlands that “no support should be given to breakaway elements seeking to weaken the territorial integrity of Georgia.”

Akbar Aslanbek, writing in Infoshop News, reports that there is mounting evidence that the U.S. would support military operations by the new Georgian government “against the Moscow-backed breakaway provinces of Abkhahzai, South Osettia and Adjara.”

On Nov. 30 Eric Margolis of the Toronto Sun wrote that the Russians “will try to limit U.S. influence in Georgia and extend its own influence by stirring the pot and finding new Georgian allies. Washington will shore up its man in Tbilisi, Saakashvili, and may send Special Forces troops under the pretext of faux war on terrorism.”

Margolis warns, “The entire Caucasus is near a boil. The sharply increasing rivalry between the U.S. and Russia for political and economic influence over this vital land bridge between Europe and the oil-rich Caspian Basin promises a lot more intrigue, skullduggery and drama.”

In their article entitled “Georgia’s ‘Rose Revolution’: a Made in American Coup,” Barry Grey and Vladmir Volkov write: “Not only is U.S. policy in the Caucasus predatory, it is reckless in the extreme. The Bush administration is challenging Russian interests in a highly provocative manner, openly working to split away the former Soviet republics from Moscow and virtually surrounding Russia with American military installations.”

A new, very dangerous “great game” has begun.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org.

National Clips

Fri, 12 Mar 2004 04:28:00 +0000

ATLANTA: Marchers say ‘Set Marcus free’

Busloads of students from Savannah, Augusta, Columbus and Valdosta joined marchers from Atlanta University and linked arms with 200 residents from Marcus Dixon’s hometown of Rome, Ga., to demand that the young African American man be set free. Over 1,000 people marched.

Dixon, now 19, is serving a 15-year prison sentence, 10 without possibility of parole, for having had consensual sex with a white girl just a few months shy of her 16th birthday. Although a jury cleared Dixon of rape last May, he was convicted of misdemeanor statutory rape and aggravated child molestation, the latter charge carrying a mandatory 10-year sentence in Georgia.

Kweisi Mfume, president of the national NAACP, and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin addressed the March 1 rally. “We call out to the Supreme Court of Georgia: Do the right thing and set Marcus free,” Mfume thundered. “Mandatory minimums, they are wrong and they are evil.”

Dixon’s lawyers have appealed the sentence to the state Supreme Court, which is expected to rule soon.

For more information, visit www.act4justice.com. To write Marcus Dixon: Marcus Dixon, 1137365-525128, BCTC, PO Box 5849, Forsyth GA 31029.

PHILADELPHIA: Transit workers set to strike

Come March 15, 4,700 members of Transport Workers Union Local 234, who drive the buses and operate the trolleys and trains for the Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA) could shut down Philadelphia.

Calling the contract offer from SEPTA the “worst in history,” union president Jean Alexander told workers, “The trend is that employees pay for health care. But Local 234 does not follow the trends. We set trends.” Workers voted to strike.

To plug a $70 million hole in its $875 million budget, SEPTA is demanding that workers take not only a wage freeze, but pay 20 percent of annual health care costs and 50 percent of any increase in those costs. Workers estimate that it would cost them $50 a week to meet SEPTA’s proposal. SEPTA also wants to cut back on retiree prescription drug benefits.

“Most of us are here for the benefits,” said Anita Booker, 36, a bus driver and mother of two sons. “In these jobs you work 12 or 15 hours a day. I stay in it for the health care for me and my children.”

LUBBOCK, Texas: Clergy protest mosque vandalism

For the 700 Muslims who worship at the Islamic Center of the South Plains, the attack on their mosque March 6 was a hate crime. A number of Lubbock clergy, Christian and Jewish, united to support the Muslims at a press conference, March 8.

Mohamed El-Moctar, the mosque’s prayer leader, discovered anti-Muslim slogans written on the walls and on his computer, with extensive damage to the building. “The material damage is not very serious or expensive,” said El-Moctar. “The problem is the action itself. This is the action of someone angry, very angry.” Pointing to a dangling ceiling fan, El-Moctar added that robbers would not have gone to all that trouble for money.

BOOK CLIFFS, Utah: Environmentalists, residents unite

In courtrooms and on the wilderness sites, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Wilderness Society, Natural Resources Defense Council and Sierra Club are battling the Bush administration to halt the giveaway of Utah and Colorado public lands to gas and oil corporations for exploitation.

“The federal data show that concerned Utahans are right to be outraged by what can only be described as a taxpayer funded land rush on the most sensitive land in the state,” said Environmental Working Group analyst Dusty Horwitt. “This giveaway overrides the judgement of experienced scientists who identified these lands as wilderness and the public is the loser in this process.”

There are 36,000 acres on the chopping block including public lands near Dinosaur National Monument and Desolation Canyon. For more information, visit www.ewg.org.

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