People Before Profit blog

Tribeca accents cultural exchange

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 06:55:00 +0000

NEW YORK – Tribeca Film Festival co-founders Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff announced March 5 that the blockbuster festival will once again return to downtown, bringing a broad array of gala premieres, independent films, compelling panels, and a reprise of the highly successful Family Festival.

Highlights of the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival, slated to take place the first two weekends in May, will include the first look at DreamWorks’ “Shark Tale,” the New York premiere of the long awaited comedy “Coffee & Cigarettes” directed by Jim Jarmusch and starring Bill Murray, Steve Buscemi, and Cate Blanchett, as well as panels by industry leaders such as Martin Scorsese and Oscar winning composer for “The Lord of The Rings” Howard Shore.

This year the festival will hold a special celebration in honor of the 10-year anniversary of democracy in South Africa. The partnership with South Africa will continue throughout the year, in conjunction with the Tribeca Film Institute, in an ongoing cultural exchange program featuring films, art and exhibitions from South Africa.

“The people of South Africa are deeply honored to continue this journey,” said South African Tourism President Prudence Solomon. “President Nelson Mandela was extremely proud to be part of the festival’s inaugural because South Africa is a ‘miracle’ – as is the momentous contributions the Tribeca Film Festival has made to New York – and it is in this spirit that South Africa joins the Tribeca Film Festival family.”

The festival will also spotlight great Latin American filmmakers such as Academy Award nominated director Hector Babenco. Babenco’s film “Carandiru,” is based on the real life experiences of a doctor inside Brazil’s dreadful state penitentiary named Carandiru.

This year the Tribeca Film Institute will also undertake a collaboration with the Norman Lear Center, a research institute studying the social, political and economic impact of entertainment. The Lear Center will work with the Tribeca Film Institute to produce a series of panel discussions and a live poetry slam at the festival.

The festival’s program consists of more than 150 features, documentaries and shorts, screened alongside gala premieres of major studio releases. For more information go to www.tribecafilmfestival.org or call (866) 941-FEST (3378).

The Tribeca Film Festival was founded by De Niro, Rosenthal and Hatkoff to celebrate New York City as a major filmmaking capital and to contribute to the long-term recovery of lower Manhattan after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Dissecting dialectics

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 06:49:00 +0000

“One step forward, two steps back,” the old saying goes. While many – if not most – people understand the logic behind this old saying, very few of us understand the steps in Marx’s dialectic method. In fact, Marx’s dialectics method of inquiry, understanding, abstraction, generality, and vantage point has seldom been systematically broken down and explained in a concise and easily understood way.

Bertell Ollman, in his most recent book, “Dance of the Dialectic: Steps in Marx’s Method,” does just that. Ollman, a professor of politics at New York University, does an excellent job of engaging readers familiar with Marx, and those not so familiar.

Unlike other scholars, Ollman’s writing style is short and to the point. And his grasp of Marxism is impressive. In “Step 1,” Ollman explains the meaning of dialectics. According to Ollman, dialectics “restructures our thinking about reality by replacing our commonsense notion of ‘thing’ ... with notions of ‘process’ ... and ‘relation.’”

Dialectics, unlike other ways of viewing and understanding society and social development, starts from the premise that everything is in a constant state of motion and change, interconnected and related to other social phenomenon, never in isolation.

Where others incorrectly begin their process of inquiry “with some small part and through establishing its connections to other such parts tries to reconstruct the larger whole, dialectical research begins with the whole, the system, or as much of it one understands, and then proceeds to an examination of the part ... leading eventually to an understanding of the whole from which one has begun.”

In “Step 3,” the process of abstraction is discussed. Abstract comes from the Latin word abstrahere, which means “to pull from.” Ollman writes, “In one sense, the role Marx gives to abstraction is simple recognition of the fact that all thinking about reality begins by breaking it down into manageable parts.”

Marx, in his method of abstraction, only focuses on some qualities and relations. He sets up boundaries, incorporating into his method change, interaction, and internal relationships that get to the heart of capitalism.

He also projects, based on his studies of how society has actually developed, in the past and present, how society may change in its process of becoming.

For example, capital “is not simply the material means of production used to produce wealth, which is how it is abstracted in the works of most economists.

“Rather it includes ... ‘Primitive Accumulation’ ... whatever has made it possible for it to produce the kind of wealth it does in just the way that it does. ... Furthermore, as part of its becoming capital … [includes] concentration and centralization and the effect of this tendency on ... a world market and [it also includes the] eventual transition to socialism,” writes Ollman.

Ollman also explains Marx’s vantage point, “or place from which to view the elements of any particular Relation and ... the larger system to which this Relation belongs.”

For example, workers who try to make sense of their society “are likely to include ‘labor,’ ‘factory,’ and ‘machine’ – especially ‘labor,’ which puts the activity that is chiefly responsible for social change – at the front and center of their thinking.”

According to Ollman, “for capitalists, just the opposite is the case. Their lives and work incline them to start making sense of their situation with the aid of ‘price,’ ‘competition,’ ‘profit,’ and other abstractions drawn from the marketplace.”

“Dance of the Dialectic” consists of 12 chapters, broken down into five steps. While most of the chapters were first published as essays in scholarly journals or other books over the years, their subject matter, dialectics, remains as timely as ever. Anybody interested in a better understanding of Marx’s dialectical method should read “Dance of the Dialectic.”

The author can be reached at tonypec@pww.org

Feeling exploited? Its the system!

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 04:25:00 +0000

From 1961 until his death in 1999, Victor Perlo wrote the “People Before Profits” column in the People’s Weekly World. For Perlo, this column was an opportunity to apply Marxist thought to the economic issues of the day. He was successful in making the bewildering data and sometimes opaque theories of economics accessible to all of us. Thanks to Vic, political activists could march on to the field of battle armed with an understanding of the capitalist economy and its many injustices.

With the publication of the first volume of an anthology of Perlo’s columns, “People versus Profits, Volume 1: The Home Front,” readers can sample both the breadth and depth of his weekly commentary. When the collected columns are read by theme, one is struck by the consistency of approach, a consistency that springs from Perlo’s unflinching commitment to the Marxist-Leninist method.

Where liberal and progressive economists rightly are alarmed by growing inequality and rising poverty, they write as though these are the result of ill-conceived policies or feverish greed. In contrast Perlo patiently and clearly explains how these are the normal and expected harvest of a system grounded in the exploitation of labor.

In a column published nearly 40 years ago (9/5/1965), Vic uses official government statistics to explain how workers produce the wealth of our society while they accrue half or less of the fruits of that labor. In easy-to-understand terms, Perlo shows how these figures can be used to demonstrate a growing rate of exploitation in the U.S. economy. Thus, even as some aspects of U.S. workers’ standard of living were improving – as it was then, though not today – capitalists were taking a greater share of the products of that labor!

The same point is made with a touch of humor in a column published in 1976. Perlo cites a New York Times ad, sponsored by the state of New Jersey, that shamefully lures businessmen to invest there based upon the state’s average high rate of exploitation. “Value added per dollar of wages is a hefty $3.76 vs. a national average of $3.36. That’s the only measure of labor cost that matters,” they proclaim.

As Vic points out, “Well, now the governors of leading states use the idea of surplus value in order to get capitalists into their respective bailiwicks. Contradicting the main propaganda line of their class, they boast of how much ‘their’ workers are exploited.”

In another column written over twenty years ago, Vic links the decline of U.S. workers’ wages to the “international runaway shop” and a lack of labor militancy. Where many globalization theorists believe that “outsourcing” is a new evil, Perlo shows that this process has always been a feature of capitalism. He cites British economist J.A. Hobson in 1902 describing the migration of manufacturing jobs to the poorer reaches of the world!

The predictive powers of Marxism are shown by Perlo’s words: “…you get the picture of where U.S. imperialism is moving, to the applause of the capitalists who are luxuriating on the huge profits from foreign investments and domestic racism. … Add a monstrously expanded arms industry, adding a fraction of the industrial workers displaced by the runaway shop. And add mass unemployment.”

This makes a pretty accurate snapshot of where the U.S. is some twenty years later. Clearly, Perlo did not believe that this process was either the result of an economic accident or a flawed policy decision. Instead, he correctly identified this development as the continuation of a fundamental tendency within the capitalist economy, a trend identified by Lenin.

“Lenin… made clear that this parasitic process would never be completed – the revolutionary struggles of the workers and oppressed peoples would end the system of imperialism first,” Perlo affirmed.

For those looking for a fresh drink of applied Marxism, we enthusiastically recommend this collection.

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

Irish band with huge following now on U.S. tour

Fri, 19 Mar 2004 09:17:00 +0000

Music Review

St. Patrick’s Day has come and gone but you can still celebrate by catching Ireland’s most popular rock group on their U.S. tour (with another Irish artist, Damien Rice) or buying their new CD, Set List, now in U.S. stores.

Set List, which collects The Frames’ most popular songs for their first “official” live album, quickly hit No. 1 in Ireland last year and debuted Feb. 24 in the U.S., Canada and Europe (Anti Records).

The annual Irish music awards, “The Meteors,” took place March 5 in Dublin in front of 7,000 fans and industry members. The Frames won the award for Best Irish Band, an award given to U2 on many previous occasions.

The Frames were nominated in three categories altogether (Best Irish Band, Best Irish Album and Best Irish Male Singer). The nominations come from members of the music industry and then the public casts its votes.

“For more than a decade, ... The Frames has courted a reputation as a sort of alternate-universe U2,” The Onion said in a March 4 review. “But for all the surface similarities, it thoroughly trumps U2 in the categories of warmth, modesty, fearlessness, and number of years spent touring midsize bars.”

“If there’s been one consistent element through the years that we’ve been together, it’s been that when we follow our gut instincts and do things ourselves, we get rewarded,” said violinist Colm Mac Con Iomaire.

“That’s where the people recognize something and help us out, and that’s when the wave of goodwill carries you.” We couldn’t agree more.

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

Go to www.theframes.ie for full venue and ticket information.

The Bushes: Four generations of deceit and cronyism

Fri, 19 Mar 2004 09:14:00 +0000

Book review

In recent years Kevin Phillips has written several populist studies of American society and politics.

His latest work, “American Dynasty,” gives us a view of four generations of the Bush family, their rise to power, influence, and wealth as well as the many traits that they shared in common.

Phillips notes that the Bushes were one of several major establishment families who gained power and connections from the massive mobilization of private industry and government during World War I.

He also observes that in addition to “its dynastic roots in the early years of the military-industrial complex, the Bush family and circle were quietly important in the mid-century emergence of the U.S. intelligence community.”

Phillips believes that the Bush family has come as close to a ruling aristocratic dynasty as Americans have ever seen.

Unfortunately for our country, “Four generations of building toward dynasty, however, have infused that Bush family hunger for power and practices of crony capitalism with a moral arrogance and backstage disregard of the democratic and republican traditions of the U.S. government.”

Phillipsr is critical of the media that have “tended to use kid gloves with the family.” Very few have ever described the rise of this family and “commentators have neglected the thread ... of special interests, biases, scandals (especially those related to arms dealing) and blatant business cronyism.”

For example, few are aware of Prescott Bush’s (George W’s grandfather) work on investments in Germany that led to his “corporate directorship links with wartime Germany in 1942.”

The Bush family connection with the energy industry is another thread which runs through all four generations and is very important to the two Bush presidencies.

Both presidents had served as oil executives and George H.W. as vice president chaired the Reagan administration’s task force on deregulation and regulatory relief.

“Through it, both Bushes, during multiple years in the White House, and six years in the Texas State House, recast their political and financial relationship with the energy industry.”

Out of this “recast” relationship came a two-decade link between the Bushes and Enron Corp.

“What makes the Bush-Enron connection more significant is the dynastic aspect, the mutual support over two decades, two generations, and two presidencies,” Phillips writes.

Enron was a major contributor to Bush campaigns, and its lobbying and influence helped it to obtain legislation favorable to its own interests.

Clearly, one of the most ominous chapters of the book is Phillips’ depiction of George W. Bush’s close relationship with the extremist religious right.

The current president is the only Bush to have closely embraced religious fundamentalism. The author asserts that during the 2000 general election, the religious right was willing “to keep quiet to help Bush.”

George W. Bush was reported, following 9/11, to have “confided to friends, that he felt chosen by God to lead this nation in its response,” a response which he later referred to as a “crusade.”

Unlike previous presidents who have simply had cordial relationships with the religious right, Phillips believes that Christian extremists now recognize George W. Bush as their leader. Bush has returned their favors by giving them a large number of “top personnel and policymaking jobs.”

“After four generations of connection to foreign intrigue and the intelligence community,”

Phillips discovered, “plus three generations of immersion in the culture of secrecy (dating back to the Yale years of several men in the family) deceit and disinformation have become Bush political hallmarks.”

As we look ahead to the November elections, the book gives us a clear idea of what to expect if George W. Bush retains the presidency.

Such a victory by extremist right-wing forces and the continued rule of a person with roots immersed in secrecy, intelligence, deceit and disinformation – according to Phillips – could put several more nails in the coffin of American democratic traditions.

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

High-stakes election being held in El Salvador

Fri, 19 Mar 2004 05:46:00 +0000

SAN SALVADOR – Walking down the street it soon becomes apparent that a hotly disputed election is taking place. Election posters for either Antonio Saca, the presidential candidate of the right-wing ARENA party, or Schafik Handal, the candidate of the left-wing FMLN, can be found on every telephone pole and streetlamp in this city. The elections are set for Sunday, March 21.

Street vendors pace the main road intersections selling miniature blue and white flags of ARENA and the red flags of the FMLN to commuters. While there are four candidates in running for president, Saca and Schafik are the frontrunners. As of March 16, according to the polls, the two are running neck and neck.

Both parties are making concerted efforts to win more than 50 percent of the vote on the first ballot to avoid a runoff, which, if needed, will take place on May 2.

ARENA, the ruling party for the past 10 years, enjoys the backing of the big employers and landowners, and the tacit backing of the United States government. It is flush with money and has been saturating the media with advertising. While the FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front) lacks such money, it has conducted an extraordinary mass canvassing effort to voting households throughout the country.

Fears that ARENA will try to win the elections through fraud have prompted special measures to safeguard the results. The new voters list, as compiled by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, is transparent and has built-in safeguards. Voting lists have been compiled showing the name and photo of each voter. Voters must produce a state-issued photo ID to vote. This ensures that some people are not voting multiple times, there are no dead people on voting lists, and there are no similar abuses as in the past.

However, weaknesses in the country’s new computerized system that counts the ballots have been detected. To test the system’s reliability, the nonpartisan Committee for Electoral Vigilance (JVE) was able to hack into the computers and take control of the system for 40 minutes without being detected. The JVE was able to erase votes and alter election results.

Despite the ARENA government’s promise to fix the system with the technical assistance of the Organization of American States, the JVE’s test has put into question the reliability of the country’s new computerized voting system, as well the outcome of the elections, which are only days away.

Tensions are running high between members and supporters of ARENA and the FMLN, with outbreaks of violence being reported across the country.

The author can be reached at tpelzer@sprint.ca.

John Randolph, actor, dies at 88

Fri, 12 Mar 2004 09:05:00 +0000

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – John Randolph, actor and political activist, died here Feb. 24 at age 88. Randolph was blacklisted during the McCarthy era for refusing to cooperate with the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee.

“The hearing was like a three-ring circus. You were surrounded by this tremendous spotlight of publicity: newspapers, television cameras, radio broadcasters. And all the hate groups were there every day in the first three or four rows,” Randolph recalled in an interview.

“If you hadn’t been blacklisted by then, you knew you were going to be. I went in with this attitude: You have no right to ask me of my political opinions. And it’s none of your business who is a Communist or Socialist or a Republican or Democrat.”

He and his wife, actress Sarah Cunningham, both refused to testify and were denied work in the movies for 15 years afterward, although he did work on stage during this period and helped many of those who couldn’t find work at all. Among his many credits in the entertainment industry were a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for the 1987 Broadway comedy, Neil Simon’s “Broadway Bound,” in which he played a crotchety left-wing grandfather.

He performed in many movies throughout his career, including roles in “Serpico” with Al Pacino (1973), as Jack Nicholson’s father in “Prizzi’s Honor” (1985) and as Tom Hanks’ grandfather in “You’ve Got Mail” (1998). He also played Roseanne’s father in her television sitcom and Bob Newhart’s father-in-law in the comedian’s 1970s sitcom, “The Bob Newhart Show.” More recently, he guest-starred on “ER” and “Seinfeld.”

Randolph, son of Romanian and Russian immigrants, was born Emanuel Cohen in New York City in 1915, and attended City College and Columbia University.

He began his acting career in the 1930s in the Federal Theatre Project and was an original member of the Actors Studio, which produced works that dealt with important social issues. He had a role in the documentary “Medicine Show” (1940), which concerned the need for a national health care plan in the United States.

Randolph served in the Army Air Force during World War II and afterwards appeared in the Chicago play “Native Son” directed by Orson Welles, where he met his wife. They married in 1945. She died in 1986.

Randolph was already an activist during these times. “During the depression you would have to be an idiot not to be a radical,” he once said, “with 17 million unemployed.”

Actor Ossie Davis, a longtime friend, told The New York Times, “John was a damn good actor and he brought a sense of realism and ease to whatever it was that he was doing.”

Davis, who met Randolph about 1950, also remembered his friend’s activism for a variety of causes. “It was basically the Black and white struggle, the anti-Communist struggle – all of those things, John was in the thick of it, and I certainly wasn’t too far behind.”

Randolph fought against the death sentence of Willie McGee, a Black man convicted of raping a white woman. He also was active in the campaign to save Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who, in an atmosphere of anti-Communist hysteria, were executed as spies for the Soviet Union.

He campaigned for better housing for veterans and for coal miners in Harlan County, Ky. Randolph marched with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and was involved in the civil rights movement of the ’50s and ’60s. He also opposed the war in Vietnam.

Randolph served on the board of directors of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and Actors’ Equity. His causes in the 1980s included Amnesty International, medical aid to El Salvador, TransAfrica and Athletes and Artists Against Apartheid. He also headed the Council of American-Soviet Friendship, a cultural exchange organization.

He was a supporter of the People’s Weekly World and appeared at several PWW fundraisers. The cities of New York and Los Angeles, as well as the actors unions, have honored him for his activism and dedication to world peace and civil rights.

Irelands gem: Gemma Hayes

Fri, 12 Mar 2004 07:25:00 +0000

Music review

Over the past two years Ireland and Europe have already had the pleasure of listening to Gemma Hayes. The Guardian newspaper included her as one of its “50 women to watch” last year. Voted Best Irish Female in the Hot Press Readers Poll this year, the rocker also scored in the Best Irish Live Act (10th) and Best Irish Songwriter (7th). Hot Press is the leading music magazine in Ireland.

Originally from Ballyporeen, a tiny village in county Tipperary, Hayes, the youngest of eight children, has said she first took up music to give her something to do in the evenings. After two years working in a Dublin laundromat and a brief stint in college, she decided she wanted to make music full time. The result was “Night on My Side,” which hit Irish charts at No. 8.

“People have this preconception that a female in the music industry is either going to be a sex kitten, or sing other people’s songs, or if they do write their own music, that it’s always going to be about some boy,” Hayes has said.

“It is stamped on women’s heads that they have nothing to offer except how they look, or songs about being dumped. So it was a really good feeling when it was received so well.”

Hayes is currently working on her second album. In the meantime, look for “Night on My Side” at record stores on this side of the Atlantic (Astralwerks Records).

– CR

Celebrating the Irish: In America

Fri, 12 Mar 2004 07:19:00 +0000

Movie review

Samantha Morton and Djimon Hounsou won Oscar nominations for their roles in Jim Sheridan’s “In America.” Sheridan himself and his two daughters were nominated for screenwriting. Emma Bolger didn’t get a nomination, but she stole the movie anyway.

Emma was 6 when Sheridan cast her to play the younger daughter in this story of an Irish family coming to New York City to make a better life and to try to ease the pain of their young son’s death. Emma had never acted before but she had won a poetry reading contest. That and the supreme confidence of a 6-year-old finally won her the part.

Sheridan rejected her at first because she was too good. He was worried she’d come across as too professional so he started to audition the next applicant. Suddenly, somebody pulled on his jacket. It was Emma, who asked him, “Jim, (why) is she reading my part?”

He didn’t have an answer for that. Nor did he put up much of a fight when she told him, “I have a sister down in the car. Why don’t you see her (for the older daughter’s part)?”

Sheridan had planned to cast a 14-year-old as Christy in this story that is partially based on his own life. But, as he told the audience at a Tribeca Film Festival screening last May, the one-two punch of the Bolger sisters was too much for him.

And so Emma and Sarah Bolger became Ariel and Christy, the daughters of Sarah (Morton) and Johnny (Paddy Considine). Hounsou (“Amistad”) plays a strange neighbor most people steer clear of.

Sheridan did, in fact, emigrate from Ireland to New York flat broke and he did have a brother – not a son – who died as a child, so Johnny, he has said, is partly himself, partly his father and “partly Paddy’s creation.” Sheridan’s daughters, both in the film industry themselves, contributed their own memories of coming here as children to round out the story.

“A lot of what takes place in the film really happened to us,” Sheridan said, “but I definitely changed and added a lot of things, including the time period. In fact, in some cases the truth was far too strange to work as fiction, and we wound up cutting out things that actually occurred because they seemed entirely too extraordinary.”

Academy Award nominations and winning awards is nothing new for Sheridan, whose first film, “My Left Foot,” was nominated for best picture of 1984 and won Oscars for its stars, Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Fricker.

His 1993 “In the Name of the Father,” a powerful drama that recounts the struggle for Gerry Conlan, a man wrongly persecuted and imprisoned for an IRA bombing, starred Day-Lewis and Emma Thompson. That film received numerous Academy Award nominations.

“In America” didn’t win in any of its categories this time, but the Sheridan trio and Hounsou did win numerous other awards for their work in what is Sheridan’s fifth film as writer, director and producer. Hounsou won an Independent Spirit Award for his role and the Screen Actors Guild nominated the entire cast, including those charming Bolger sisters, for Outstanding Performance.

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

Of Exile and Return: The art of Zahi Khamis

Fri, 12 Mar 2004 07:16:00 +0000

Review

WASHINGTON – Nearly 200 people packed the Palestine Center here Feb. 19 for an evening of Arab music and dance and to view the paintings of the gifted Palestinian artist, Zahi Khamis, on the theme “Of Exile and Return.”

The event was jointly sponsored by the Cultural Committee of the Jerusalem Fund and Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.

Zeina Azzam Seikaly, outreach coordinator for the Georgetown Center, told the World, “It’s important to appreciate the culture of the Middle East and not always show it as a region of conflict. We are here to celebrate the richness of Arab culture.”

Khamis’ art is a passionate appeal for justice and peace in that war-torn region. One of his most powerful images in the exhibit is “Deir Yassin.” Two figures stare out with huge, sorrowful eyes. Flames lick up between them and blue arches circle their heads like halos.

Deir Yassin was a Palestinian village attacked by Irgun terrorists under the command of Menachem Begin on April 9, 1948. At least 254 people – including children – were slain. The houses were razed and the village removed from maps. It has been a symbol ever since of Palestinian exile.

Khamis was born near Nazareth in 1959. His art is certainly inspired by his own exile. He emigrated to Europe and then to the U.S. in his early 20s. He earned a degree in mathematics at San Diego State University. He discovered his artistic gift during a visit home to Nazareth a few years ago.

“I found myself drawn to Picasso not only because of his technique but also because of his strong political beliefs, by the fact that he was a lifelong Communist,” Khamis said. He was especially inspired by “Guernica,” Picasso’s mural depicting the German fascist bombing of a Basque village during the Spanish Civil war.

“My art is about all people who are neglected, of people who are in struggle,” he says. “I think of it as a way of defining myself as a Palestinian.”

The exhibition continues through March 30 at the Palestine Center, 2425 Virginia Ave. NW, Washington D.C. Telephone (202) 338-1958; www.palestinianart.com.

The author can be reached at greenerpastures21212@yahoo.com.

Elect our own

Fri, 12 Mar 2004 07:10:00 +0000

Opinion

We complain, we kvetch, we carry on with no end: we are disappointed in our elected officials because they let us down time and time again, because they do not truly represent the constituents that elect them despite their promises. But wait. It is possible to elect candidates that will represent us.

On the federal level there have been notable examples in the past. One was Vito Marcantonio, elected to congress in the late ’40s. Despite being hounded because of his progressive politics he served his constituency so effectively that there is a public school named after him on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Adam Clayton Powell of Harlem, Parren Mitchell of Baltimore and more recently Ronald Dellums of Berkeley, Calif., were all effective representatives of their mainly Black communities but also the public at large. Or there is Peter Rodino, ex-congressman, who represented a district in Newark, N.J., and who chaired the House committee that impeached Nixon. He was continually elected from his district even when Black voters became the majority of residents.

These and other legislators were able to resist the pressures of the establishment because they had the support of their voters, and while they too had to raise money for election campaigns they could turn their backs on the corporate lobbyists. But equally important they “kept the faith.” They couldn’t be bought and, needless to say, they were under the microscope. They all had the FBI sniffing around trying to dig up dirt.

The lesson for us is: elect representatives from our ranks. The ranks of labor and of community organizations are a source of dedicated and determined rank and filers who already are leading struggles. One of the groundbreaking programs in recent years was the Legislative Electoral Action Program (LEAP) movement in Connecticut in the mid-’90s that elected at least one statewide official. That program was duplicated around the country with some success.

More recently the AFL-CIO set a goal for the election of union members and activists of 2,000 in the year 2000 elections. The goal was more than fulfilled with 2,500 elected, and the bar is being raised for the 2004 elections with a goal of 5,000. This is realizable.

It is very common to hear stories in the trade union movement of shop floor activists who become staunch fighters for rank and file members who were fighting grievances. Many of these activists go on to study labor law, to better defend the interests of their fellow workers. In addition, the thousands of union members that accept leading positions in the union movement demonstrate the smarts, abilities and devotion to the movement that are qualities needed for elected positions in the public arena.

When a union representative knows the contract inside and out, can quote labor law, knows workers comp, and can face an employer across the bargaining table, that representative has the ability to sit on a town council and even run for the House of Representatives. Getting these members to step forward can be done because it is the logical next step for the protection of workers and their communities.

To help in recruiting and retention, central labor bodies, or federations in each state, could set up support committees for union legislators elected to all levels. These committees would offer the expertise on the myriad of legislative problems that newly elected officials are faced with the second they take office.

Such support would help a newly elected legislator get a running jump on the issues that they will be faced with. On the local level such issues would be residential and business zoning, sewage, garbage collection, all the nitty-gritty questions that a town or city council member will be expected to give leadership on. The availability of this type of support would help recruit and train members to be good legislators right from the git-go.

Finally, on the question of independence from the corporate forces that are corrupting our democratic political system. As with the legislators mentioned above, these unionists would come to the halls of public service with a solid constituency. As long as the voters are represented, the voters will raise the money needed from their own pockets and their own organizations. In addition, as is being demonstrated in electoral victories on all levels, these voters will invest the most important thing of all: shoe leather. The sign on these legislators’ doors will read “NOT FOR SALE.”

David Buxenbaum is a trade unionist. This column originally appeared in the Nov.-Dec. issue of the AFSCME District Council 1707 Voice.

Tentacles of the International Republican Institute

Fri, 12 Mar 2004 06:57:00 +0000

Opinion

There can no longer be any doubt: the United States government, under the leadership of the Bush administration, is behind the current coup against Haiti and the kidnapping of that nation’s rightful president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The Bush cadre are no longer content to simply use Jim Crow tactics to steal elections here at home (Florida, 2000); they have exported their racism by overthrowing the democratically elected president of a nation observing the bicentennial of its successful revolt against slavery. Bush and his Republican cronies are certainly ready to wage class oppression – but they ain’t got one shred of class.

One organization in particular has played a vital role in this illegal aggression: the International Republican Institute, chaired by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and including on its board rightist luminaries such as Reps. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) and David Dreier (R-Calif.), Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), Lawrence Eagleburger, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, and Brent Scowcroft. Funded by Congress through the National Endowment for Democracy, the IRI is the convener and one of the major funders of the Haitian opposition umbrella group, the Democratic Convergence.

As Paul Farmer notes in his book, “Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights and the New War on the Poor,” “Although the Democratic Convergence has scant popular support within Haiti, it clearly has support in Washington.” In the Haiti Action Committee booklet “Hidden in the Headlines: The U.S. War Against Haiti,” Laura Flynn, Pierre Labossiere and Robert Roth write that “the U.S. has spent millions to fund the ‘Democratic Convergence.’”

What do the Republicans and U.S. ruling class so despise in Haiti? The gains that have been made under Aristide on behalf of the Haitian people – despite the U.S.-sponsored embargo (begun under the Democrat Clinton) and its ongoing campaign of subterfuge – seem of no import to them whatsoever. No matter that Aristide won the first and third democratic elections in Haiti, by a landslide each time; no matter that under Aristide the Haitian military was dismantled, more schools were built than in the entire previous century, and the minimum wage was doubled. Democracy and the security and welfare of the Haitian people simply do not matter to Bush, McCain, the IRI, the Republicans, the power-hungry wealthy elite of our country.

Through the International Republican Institute and the National Endowment for Democracy’s other core grantees, the U.S. ruling class carries out a global agenda in the shadows, with taxpayer funding. The IRI represents the far right wing of these grantees.

The NED was initiated by the Reagan administration and funded by an act of Congress, yet was designated a “private” institution. This means that it and its core groups carry out foreign initiatives with public funds, free of meaningful or official oversight. Allen Weinstein, the NED’s theoretical planner, noted in a 1991 Washington Post interview, “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” The fact is, in many respects, the NED-sponsored groups are even freer of congressional monitoring then those of their CIA predecessors.

These organizations work in the shadows to support and direct assaults on democracy and people’s movements around the world. The IRI, for example, boasted about its support of elements behind the failed coup attempt against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. It actively funds and coordinates organizations working to destabilize the government of Cuba, even bragging about the increasing number of illegal disruptions it has supported there. It has provided resources to anti-democratic, extremist organizations throughout Eastern Europe. It aids and abets reactionary movements in Ecuador, Brazil, Palestine, Afghanistan, the Baltics, ad nauseum – for example, it coordinated a Conference of the Central and Eastern European Centre-Right Political Parties. Wherever and whenever any nation or people’s movement stands in the way of right-wing lust for profits and power, the IRI is there.

We must recognize the NED, the IRI, and their initiatives for what they are: right-wing shadow foreign policy institutions funded by taxpayers, yet subject to no meaningful oversight whatsoever. Certainly, they should be abolished altogether. But short of that, we must demand that they be de-privatized and that their activities be made public and subject to congressional review.

And we must demand that our senators and representatives join the Congressional Black Caucus in calling for an investigation into U.S. involvement in the illegal coup against Haitian President Aristide. Especially, we must investigate the role played by the Bush administration and the IRI. And we must hold George W. Bush, John McCain, and other “shadow operatives” personally responsible for any wrongdoing by the anti-democratic thugs whom they have organized, armed and funded. If a bloodbath occurs in Haiti, these are the persons and the institutions behind it.

That should matter dearly to anyone who cares about democracy.

James Jordan is a member of Turnwind and the Tucson Peace Action Coalition. He can be reached at turnwind@fastmail.fm.

Testing: the false god

Fri, 12 Mar 2004 06:50:00 +0000

Opinion

Recently the superintendent of schools for our state dropped in to have educators in our region take our new state graduation test. The intent, we are told, was to “demystify the tests.” While she was at it, I wish she had taken the mystery out of a few more things about the high-stakes tests our kids must pass.

For example, why have we come to rely on just one test to tell us everything we should know about our children? For decades parents, employers, and colleges have relied on multiple measures of each child’s school achievement. Report cards, grades, resumes, portfolios, performances, and letters of recommendation – they all add up to a profile of a child. Even colleges ask for more than a test score, requesting transcripts of grades, a school profile, letters of recommendation, and often an essay to help them choose students who will succeed.

Here’s another mystery: Why do we rely only on these test scores to judge our schools? The new federal legislation known as “No Child Left Behind” relies only on test scores to see if anyone is left behind. States like ours are then forced to test kids at various grade levels. If the kids don’t do well enough, the school is judged to be failing. Is this all our schools are about – having kids pass standardized tests? What about all the other things our schools do and teach, including the arts, character, athletics, community involvement, physical fitness, and the rest? Presumably we should no longer bother with them, as the only thing that counts are test scores in reading, math, and science.

Another mystery to me is our state superintendent’s claim that passing these tests “is what our business and higher education communities want.” Really? I thought businesses wanted people who would work hard, contribute new ideas, and do quality work. The last college professors I spoke to wanted kids who could think and use their minds well. As far as I can tell, the tests we are giving kids have little to do with any of these characteristics.

Even more mysterious is the superintendent’s claim that “we are not promoting teaching to the test.” If that is the case, why are the tests so high-stakes? When parents and children know that graduation depends on passing a test, they have every right to pressure teachers to teach to the test. When schools and school districts are judged by test scores, we should expect them to focus on raising those scores. Here’s the mystery to me: Whom do we think we are fooling when we act like we are not teaching to the test?

One last mystery I’d like cleared up – whose idea was this focus on testing anyway? I have yet to meet a single parent or student who thinks it’s a good idea. In over a decade as a high school principal, I have yet to have a prospective employer or university admissions office call to discuss test scores. And I don’t know of any research or study that says high-stakes testing helps kids learn or schools improve.

So why do it? Why conduct this social experiment on our children? Why does the Bush administration push so hard for testing our kids over, and over, and over again?

Could it be that testing is cheaper than addressing the real issues in our schools – issues that have to do with decaying buildings, overcrowded classrooms, or too few teachers? Could it be that focusing on testing takes our attention away from other issues, such as inadequate health care for our youth, childhood poverty and malnutrition, and the stress on families as the ranks of the jobless and underemployed grow daily?

One or more of these may be the clue to understanding the mystery of the current administration’s fascination with high-stakes testing. But I’d like to think that ordinary people, with real kids in real schools, want something more than just a number on a score sheet to reflect their children’s school experience.

I know I do.

George Wood is principal of Federal Hocking High School in Stewart, Ohio, and director of the Forum for Education and Democracy. He wrote this for The Advancement Project, www.advancementproject.org.

Mercury risk rising

Fri, 12 Mar 2004 06:47:00 +0000

Opinions

I’d like you to meet a young family: Angela, Jerry, and their little girl Becky. Angela cares about her family’s health and tries to provide them with a healthy diet, including fresh fish a couple times a week. Jerry loves the outdoors and fishing. Becky was born and developed normally, and was a happy baby.

Things seemed to be on the right track until about Becky’s 16th month, when things mysteriously started to go wrong. By 18 months, she had entirely lost the six or seven spoken words she had started using earlier. She started avoiding eye contact with her mom, and became uncoordinated, inattentive, irritable, and withdrawn. Angela and Jerry would often find Becky staring vacantly into space and biting her hands.

Nobody knew what to make of this. Becky’s doctor was perplexed, and ran Becky through some tests. The results confirmed autism and revealed the likely culprit: mercury.

Becky’s not alone. The number of children with mercury-caused problems is growing. According to new estimates from the Environmental Protection Agency, 16 percent of women of childbearing age have dangerous levels of mercury in their bodies, putting more than 600,000 children at risk each year.

Where is this stuff coming from? Coal-burning power plants are the single largest source of mercury pollution. They release over 100,000 pounds (50 tons) of mercury into the environment annually in the U.S. Once released into the atmosphere, it soon gets into streams, lakes, and the sea, where it forms methyl mercury – a potent neurotoxin. It targets the developing fetal brain and nervous system. Even tiny amounts can cause serious developmental problems, reflected in humans as difficulties in walking, talking, hearing, and writing. Fish are often found with high levels of mercury in their tissue.

President Bush’s “Clear Skies Initiative” will allow power plants to increase mercury emissions by 520 percent by 2010. In December, Mike Leavitt, Bush’s new EPA administrator, said that it is “not feasible” to determine how much mercury the chemical and power plants are emitting, nor to enforce tougher standards. (Power corporations’ generous contributions to Bush and lobbying efforts to avoid installing improved emission control equipment have apparently succeeded.) The EPA proposed allowing power plants to spew more mercury into the air longer. Leavitt’s favored “free market” approach includes “emissions trading” that will likely create toxic “hot spots.” Environmentalists fear this will delay substantial mercury reductions by a decade.

At the same time, the EPA is planning on exempting coal combustion waste from regulation as hazardous waste, ensuring that more than 100 million tons of mercury-laden waste will be dumped into the environment each year.

The federal Food and Drug Administration currently recommends that all women of childbearing age, especially pregnant and nursing women, avoid eating swordfish, pollock, mackerel, tilefish, or shark. Four ounces of white canned tuna maxes out EPA guidelines for a 120-pound person.

Forty-three states have issued warnings against eating fish species that tend to have high mercury concentrations, including bass, trout, and other fish caught in over a thousand lakes and streams across the country. And any vaccines containing thimerosal, a preservative containing mercury, should be avoided by pregnant and nursing women and young children.

Persistent toxic bio-accumulative chemicals (PBTs) like mercury are a serious problem in many parts of the country. To address this threat to our health and the environment, the Washington State Department of Ecology developed a plan to phase out PBTs, which build up in the food chain and are known even in trace amounts to cause birth defects, cancer, and mental retardation. Faced with a budgetary shortfall created by tax exemptions and cuts for the corporations and wealthy, the Washington State Legislature eliminated funding for vital public health programs like the PBT phase-out plan.

Environmental and public health, our food supply – is nothing safe from capitalism?

Dave Zink is a trade union and environmental activist from Washington State. He can be reached at zacd1@juno.com.

OutKast: Call it South Side Story

Fri, 05 Mar 2004 06:43:00 +0000

Review

Andre 3000’s The Love Below gang and Big Boi’s Speakerboxxx crew – a hip-hop version of the Jets and Sharks – will square off in a contemporary retelling of the classic musical “West Side Story.” Their battle is the centerpiece of OutKast’s new video, “Roses.”

“It’s about a rivalry between two high school crews,” Andre told MTV on the video’s set recently.

“We’re pretty much after the same girl, Caroline, and she’s in a girl group called Roses, with pink jackets.”

“We’re battling for her attention,” Big Boi continued. “I sent Caroline a love letter asking her to be my valentine and she puts ‘Maybe.’ So I get enraged and me and the fellas come across town to (Andre’s) school to wreak havoc.”

Big Boi confronts his rival in the school auditorium, where Andre’s gang is putting on a play.

“We’re performing onstage, trying to win over Caroline,” Dre said. “And Speakerboxxx, they bust into the auditorium and disrupt things and we get to fighting.”

Andre and Big Boi were originally supposed to release separate singles to follow up their Speakerboxxx/The Love Below smashes, “Hey Ya!” and “The Way You Move,” but were only budgeted enough money for one video.

“We were supposed to do ‘Prototype’ and ‘Church,’ but it fell into place for us to do ‘Roses.’ It seemed like the right thing to do since it’s one of the only records with us together, and the fans want to see us together again,” Big Boi told MTV last month. “And the song jams.”

OutKast is already working on the follow-up to Speakerboxxx/The Love Below as well as a movie for HBO.

In a probably inadvertent but unfortunate move at the Feb. 8 Grammy ceremony – where OutKast won three major awards – the drumming of a sacred Navajo prayer played as an intro to a performance by Andre.

Then he and several members of a dance troupe swirled wildly around a green teepee as he sang the hit, “Hey Ya!” Costumes included war paint, feathers and fringe.

“I like OutKast. I like their music,” said Tom Bee, an Albuquerque record producer and musician who was nominated for this year’s Native American Music Grammy.

“But I thought the show was not correct. It was degrading.”

Many Indian groups were upset by the performance, which they say was disrespectful to their culture and a perpetuation of tomahawk-and-teepee stereotypes.

After the opening chant, they went to teepee and feathers, which belong to another tribe, and the costumes, while clearly “show biz,” evoked bad feelings about how Indians have been stereotyped.

Undoubtedly, OutKast planned the performance with good intentions. However, if they were more informed about what they were trying to support, they wouldn’t have equated two very different cultures as simply “Indian” or have used sacred material without showing it the respect it deserves.

Many who expressed their feelings on Native American websites agreed with a petition signer named Megan Jones who wrote, “I don’t think you meant to offend, but you hurt us.”

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

Bertoluccis The Dreamers Paris 1968, NYC 2004

Fri, 05 Mar 2004 06:39:00 +0000

Movie review

Italian film director Bernardo Bertolucci’s new film, “The Dreamers,” is an amazing film that every generation of moviegoer and political activist can enjoy and learn from. This world-renowned director combines intense interpersonal relations with contemporary and urgent political themes.

It would be easy to just review the political aspects of Bertolucci’s take on the Paris Summer of 1968 and the uprising of students and workers. Although we live in different times, the film’s arguments and discussions are contemporary.

In interviews, the director draws attention to the current World Trade Organization demonstrations, starting with Seattle as one reason for his film. We can apply this also to the upcoming Republican National Convention in New York City this August.

The intense discussions of the three young characters on film, culture and politics include, for example, Buster Keaton vs. Charlie Chaplin, Eric Clapton vs. Jimi Hendricks, and Molotov cocktails or a peaceful demonstration.

The discussions between the two men on the Vietnam War is particularly poignant. Pratt, clearly a draft evader from San Diego going to school in Paris, defends the soldiers – “They were drafted and really are powerless” – while the French student accuses them of murder.

The film not only portrays the 1960s, but also previous generations through its flashbacks of old movies and music, which are skillfully interwoven.

Although Bertolucci’s films are usually in Italian with subtitles, “The Dreamers” is mostly in English. Don’t miss this movie. It is being heralded as Bertolucci’s best movie in years, if not his best ever.

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

Oscar party for artistic freedom

Fri, 05 Mar 2004 06:35:00 +0000

An Oscar night celebration and benefit in West Hollywood, Calif., focused on promoting artistic freedom and other basic human and civil rights, while honoring the creative excellence of the artistic community.

The 350-person charity dinner featured Oscar-nominated director Fernando Meirelles, Stephen Gyllenhaal, Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal (parents of actors Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal), Camryn Manheim (“The Practice”) and singer Ruben Blades, among others.

A presentation of the 2004 Artist of Conscience Award to Meirelles for his groundbreaking film “City of God” followed the dinner. The party’s theme, Artistic Freedom, was a strong draw among both artists and the community alike.

“There’s no doubt that celebrating artistic excellence is the focus on Oscar night, but with so many concerns about issues like the Patriot Act, enemy combatants, and the FBI accessing our library records,” said Bonnie Abaunza, director of Artists for Amnesty, “there is broad support in the creative community for ensuring our freedoms and liberties while we celebrate our finest artistic achievements.”

“Producing a party like this is both an honor and a challenge,” said David Strasberg, creative director and CEO of the Lee Strasberg Institute, “but when I thought about the real issues here – protecting freedom of artistic expression, and other basic rights and liberties – I knew this was something we had to do.”

The choice to honor the Oscar-nominated film “City of God” and its director was also an easy decision. “At its heart, the film is about people in marginalized and disenfranchised communities being victimized by cycles of violence and neglect,” Abaunza said.

“Although it chronicles a very Brazilian experience, it is also emblematic of too many human rights tragedies around the world, and even some civil rights nightmares here at home.”