People Before Profit blog

Letters

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 05:47:00 +0000

Thoughts on March 20th Peace March

Happily, there were no typical participants among the thousands who marched in New York City. Representation was so varied, so broad and so diversified that, finally, the only common denominator a body could possible find was the desire for peace and an end to war. And that is as it should be.

If so many people – so many New Yorkers (many came from nearby states) can come together in such an organized and well-coordinated manner anything is possible. The people united can never be defeated.

This writer found it especially rewarding to place her feet behind the CPUSA banner. Surely there is no more spirited, disciplined group with whom to march. Communists’ passion for peace and justice is legendary as is their name. They led a spirited and righteous contingent twice around the parade route carrying the slogan of the moment: “Drop Bush Not Bombs!” And so it was a time for all of us – young and old; all colors and all faiths to be counted. Hurrah for all of us who will never give up. Hurrah for peace and justice.

Jackie LavalleQueens NY

The French headscarf ban

In “What’s behind the French headscarf ban” (PWW 3/6-12), Cian Dolan argues that the ban is wrong. While it may be true that racism is a factor, this explanation does not do sufficient justice to the new French law or explain its near-universal support, including among French Socialists and Communists.

Dolan criticizes a French philosopher for comparing the oppression of women by the Taliban in Afghanistan with that suffered by French schoolgirls who are forced to wear clothing different from their peers. Dolan disputes the similarity.

But how is the oppression of French school children by their parents different in kind from the oppression of Afghani women by their government? Does the state not have an interest in liberating its children from all forms of oppression, even if that oppression is at the hands of misguided parents?

Second, by banning headscarves, those who would otherwise not choose to wear them are free to dress as they please. The problem is that in some neighborhoods there is a great deal of social pressure to continue these oppressive cultural practices.

Third, the law is claimed to be about integrating Muslims into French society. Does the state also not have an interest in integrating immigrants into the larger society? The issue is how one goes about encouraging that integration, and people do argue about this.

The French are more militant about their secularism, and fundamentalist religion is a threat to secularism there (and here, as witnessed by Bush’s drive to incorporate fundamentalist Christianity into our public life). France is experimenting with one approach to defending its democracy and secular traditions. We would do well to watch and learn. Besides the headscarf is just sexist and wrong.

Richard CurtisSeattle WA

Sending medicine to Iraq

I read Jose Cruz’s wonderful article in the PWW (3/20-26), which I received during the protest against the Iraq war yesterday. I was touched and moved by the story of Mr. Fernando Suárez del Solar, who is using the death of his beloved son Jesus, to help others like Sgt. Camilo Mejia and to save the lives of innocent Iraqis. Is there any way in which Mr. del Solar can be contacted? According to the article he promised to help the Iraqis with medication, and I would like to help in such a noble cause. I imagine that Mr. del Solar is accepting donations to buy the medicine, among other things.

Guadalupe JerezVia e-mail

Editor’s note: Supplies can be sent to Suárez del Solar, 1817 E. Grand Ave. #65, Escondido, CA 92027, Attn: Project Guerrero Azteca. While supplies are preferred, checks made payable to “Medicine for Iraq” can be sent to the same address.

Bush shirks responsibility

In the summer of 2001, George Bush took a vacation. In fact, it was the longest vacation ever taken by an American president. We all know what happened in September. Couldn’t he have done more to prevent our nation’s greatest tragedy? And why, after it took place, did he do everything possible to block the 9/11 commission? What does he have to hide? Do we really want a president who hides from the truth? Who wages war based on lies? Who does everything possible to shirk responsibility with negative attacks and deception? I don’t think so.

Russell JosephsBasking Ridge NJ

Kucinich and Nader

Thank you for the article on Nader (PWW, 3/20-26). ... I am the national marketing and advertising co-director for the Kucinich campaign and I will continue to promote Kucinich as the “Green Democrat” and the best solution to the current crisis.

Carlton JacksonVia e-mail

Editorials

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 05:39:00 +0000

Justice for Captain Yee

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush both must answer for the Pentagon’s attempt to frame Captain James J. Yee on phony espionage charges, an enterprise so clumsy the Pentagon dropped all charges against him March 19.

Yee was arrested last September when he returned from the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He had been serving there as the only Muslim chaplain for the 600 inmates, most of them Muslims.

The Bush administration unleashed an all-out media campaign, saying that Yee was caught smuggling classified documents and that he was part of a “spy ring” inside Guantanamo. The case was part of a broader effort to whip up racist hysteria against Muslims and Asians in order to justify Bush’s war on Iraq.

But now the Pentagon has dropped all mention of these so-called secret documents and has exonerated Yee of espionage. Instead of apologizing, they are attempting to smear him, claiming they found pornography on his computer hard drive, which they had confiscated. They also accuse him of engaging in an extramarital affair. This is nothing but a crude attempt to change the subject, reminiscent of a similar smear campaign against Iraq weapons inspector, Scott Ritter, who had debunked Bush claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

It’s time to tell it like it is. The Guantanamo Bay prison is a concentration camp. Hundreds of so-called “enemy combatants” have been held there as long as two years without being charged with a criminal offense. Great Britain raised such an outcry that five detainees who are British subjects were recently returned home. They were freed as soon as they touched British soil. This U.S. “Devil’s Island” should be closed. The detainees should be returned home. The Navy Base itself should be closed and the territory returned to Cuba. Add this atrocious Guantanamo Bay operation to the reasons to oust the Bush-Cheney gang next November.

*********

Save Hubble!

She came into the office wearing her Save Hubble T-shirt. Barb, a PWW staff member and science aficionado, joined the growing movement to save the Hubble telescope.

Called the greatest instrument since the invention of the telescope, Hubble has brought the secrets of the universe down to earth. It has allowed scientists to gauge the age and size of the universe and confirmed the existence of black holes. It brought us images that may reveal new clues about how galaxies form and how our solar system originated. Perhaps this may seem too “out of this world” for earthlings trying to live daily existence, but the discoveries Hubble offers can advance our understanding of our place in the universe. Studying the stars is something humanity has been doing since our beginnings, even before Galileo and Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen),who laid the foundations for the development of the microscope and telescope. Scientists, astronauts, senators and science lovers around the world have petitioned NASA to change its decision to abandon Hubble. A Brazilian Hubble fan, Fernando Ribeiro, started a Save the Hubble website and petition (www.savethehubble.com).

Officials say servicing missions are too risky in the wake of the Columbia disaster. Yet George W. Bush says he wants to move forward on the most reckless and insane of all space initiatives – the so-called missile defense system known as “Star Wars.”

The struggle for peace takes place on earth and in the heavens. Space should be for peaceful exploration, not a place to sink trillions of dollars into building weapons of mass destruction. Hubble is an instrument for the advancement of science, for global peaceful cooperation between nations to unravel the mysteries of the universe.

Write your representatives in Washington, D.C. Sign a petition. Save the Hubble.

LABOR UPDATE

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 04:32:00 +0000

USWA and PACE forge ‘strategic alliance”

Formalizing cooperative activities already underway, the executive boards of United Steelworkers of America and Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy International Union (PACE) agreed to combine forces to conduct joint activities. In a joint statement, the two unions said they would build on their “strong rank-and-file programs to raise a collective voice on issues facing the labor movement – especially industrial unions.”

PACE has already enacted the Steelworkers’ Rapid Response political and education action program. Both unions intend to combine forces on key legislative races in the fall as well as the 2004 presidential election. A coordinating committee consisting of officers and key staff appointed by the presidents of both unions will meet regularly to monitor and facilitate implementation of the alliance. Both presidents agreed that the alliance provides a “real-world forum” evaluating how their unions can join forces.

PACE has over 275,000 members in the U.S. and Canada. It represents workers in the paper, oil, chemical, automobile supply, and atomic energy sectors. The USWA has over 600,000 members in the U.S. and Canada and represents workers in steel, rubber and tire, aluminum, mining and health care.

Monument to honor Black labor history”

The building of a monument honoring the contributions of African Americans to the U.S. labor movement has gained the support of the AFL-CIO and the A. Phillip Randolph Institute, APRI announced March 20. The multi-media sculpture will be cast in bronze and will feature key historical figures and events in African American labor history. It will be erected on the grounds of the A. Phillip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum, located in the historic Pullman neighborhood in Chicago.

Mushroom workers win 17-year struggle”

When mushroom workers in Ventura, Calif., won a union contract last month, they became the first farm workers in the state to benefit from the landmark 2002 state law providing for binding mediation when growers drag out negotiations. On Feb. 13, the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board adopted a report from a state mediator deciding the terms of a union contract for employees of Pictsweet, who have labored without a contract since 1987. The new contract provides complete family health care benefits paid for by the company, according the United Farm Workers Union.

Killer fumes from microwave popcorn”

The chemicals in butter flavoring permanently ruined the lungs of workers in popcorn factories in Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska, according to a report by Associated Press.

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health has linked exposure to vapors from the chemical diacetyl in butter flavoring to damaged airways and breathing problems. Thirty former workers at the Glister-Mary Lee plant in Jasper, Mo., have entered suits against the butter flavoring manufacturer. They charge the manufacturer was aware of the dangers but failed to warn them or provide adequate safety instructions. On March 15, jurors in Joplin, Mo., ordered International Flavors and Fragrances, Inc., to pay $18 million to Eric Peoples, whose case was the first to come to trial. Peoples was reported to be a candidate for a double transplant.

The Environmental Protection Agency is studying the chemicals released when microwave popcorn is prepared by consumers, according to the AP report.

Scaffolding failures add to death toll”

Was the cause of death a joist that failed, or was it enforcement of work place safety regulations that failed when Luis Mendez and William Kelly fell 40 feet to their death at a Hartford, Conn., construction site? Naek Construction Company, the general contractor, which was responsible for the scaffolding, has been cited for eight scaffolding violations since 1994, according to a report from the Hartford Courant. Last June, Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors found two scaffolding violations on a Naek site, one of which was categorized as repeat violation, but Naek’s $5,600 fine was negotiated down to $3,200. That was OSHA’s last visit to a Naek job site before the January tragedy.

Labor Update is compiled by Roberta Wood, rwood@pww.org.

Letters

Fri, 19 Mar 2004 07:05:00 +0000

No more tiers

I just got through reading “Grocery union leader assesses strike” on your website (PWW 3/13-19). This whole two-tier issue brings a few things to mind. On Dec. 10, 1948, the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Amongst those declared international human rights is: “Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.” And yet 56 years later, labor leaders are still negotiating discriminatory two-tier contracts, workers are still ratifying them, and corporations are still demanding and enforcing them! Two-tier systems have no more place on the bargaining table than chattel slavery or sex discrimination. For over a year, I have maintained a website (http://nomoretiers.org) that is entirely dedicated to this issue.

John Barker Vancouver, Canada

Nader’s decision to run

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the article by Norman Markowitz (PWW 3/6-12) regarding Ralph Nader’s latest presidential bid. I must strongly disagree with several of the author’s assertions. He initially states that a Nader has “no base of support of any kind” although at the end of the article he mentions Nader’s nearly 3 million votes in the 2000 election. Considering that Nader was not allowed to participate in the presidential debates, did not accept corporate donations and did not run television ads, I would say that his results were considerable.

I know that Ralph Nader has earned my vote. I cannot say the same for Mr. Kerry or President Bush.

Marc Brandes Sacramento CA

On ‘The Passion of the Christ’

I was appalled to learn of a woman who took her 8-year-old son to see the much-hyped film, “The Passion of the Christ.” It is R-rated, and parents were warned by all the reviewers, and even the director of the film, not to take children. This mother explained that she did this because it was “reality” and she wanted her son to see how Christ suffered for our sins.

I wonder if this mom would take her son to see a graphically “real” film of young Emmett Till, brutally tortured and murdered for this country’s sin of slavery and racism. I wonder if she would take her son to see a graphically “real” film of Victor Jara, young Chilean guitarist who had his hands cut off and tortured to death for this country’s obsession with destroying any semblance of independent socialism. I wonder if this woman would take her son to see a “real” film depicting the countless, nameless numbers of American Indians who were tortured for this country’s sin of genocide and conquest.

Joan Elbert Chicago IL

Coup and terror in Haiti

I was outraged when I read Mark Almberg’s recent article concerning Haiti. (PWW 3/6-12.) The U.S.’s role in Haiti is illegal and wrong and another form of Bush’s governmental “terrorism.” Refusing to let Arisitide finish his term just goes to show the Bush administration’s refusal to allow anything democratic to ensue.

The poorest country in the world is being raped by Bush’s right-wing, corporate agenda. I think the article is really important. What can we do?

Naomi Via e-mail

Transit workers’ strike

I pick your paper up at my local library in St. Paul. Thanks for making it available. I expected to find something about the ATU Local 1005 strike here in the Twin Cities. As a life-long bus rider and supporter of transit workers, I wish you’d run a story that would humiliate the State of Minnesota, Gov. Pawlenty, and his hand-picked Metropolitan Council headed by Peter Bell. What a waste of taxpayer’s money, human time, energy, and ingenuity. Utility lines moved, roads re-constructed, sacred trees felled – all to make way for a system that cannot operate because of this strike. Please help!

Joleen Schwartz St. Paul MN

Information please

I am a student at Western New Mexico University and am writing a paper regarding the Empire Zinc strike in Hanover, N.M., in 1950 – the “Salt of the Earth” strike. I’d appreciate any information you may have.

Kara Naber Silver City NM

Editor’s note: You can check out our archives at www.pww.org to access stories about the strike and the 50th anniversary of the Salt of Earth.

Editorials

Fri, 19 Mar 2004 06:46:00 +0000

A racist plot to steal the election?

Are we in the beginning phase of a repeat of Florida’s 2000 election debacle? The New York Times lead editorial March 14, headlined “Florida as the Next Florida,” warns that the Sunshine State’s new touchscreen voting machines produced a fiasco in the March 2 primaries, bringing back memories of the 2000 nightmare. The warning that hackers could tamper with electronic ballot boxes next Nov. 2 is timely.

In a letter to the Times, Howard Simon of the Florida American Civil Liberties Union wrote that even more serious is the state’s “failure to reinstate the thousands of voters illegally removed from the rolls before the 2000 election because they shared a birthday or a name with a felon or because they were convicted of a crime in another state.” He added, “A post-2000 state law authorizing the purging of felons from the voter rolls only makes matters worse.”

Simon was referring to a scheme by Gov. Jeb Bush to purge the Florida voter rolls in the months before the 2000 election. Database Technologies of Boca Raton was hired at a cost of more than $1 million to carry out this operation, in which 57,000 mostly African American, Haitian, and Latino voters were removed from Florida voter rolls. It was key to the Bush-Cheney theft of the 2000 election.

The fact that Jeb Bush has refused to restore their voting rights makes clear that the Bush-Cheney gang is still determined to disenfranchise African American, Latino, and poor voters. The deceitfully named “Help America Vote Act” actually makes it more difficult for working-class voters by requiring far stricter IDs to register.

Now is the time to fight back against these infringements on the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the principle of “one person, one vote.” Now is the time to launch voter registration drives and voter education to ensure a maximum voter turnout next Nov. 2. It we wait, it will be too late to block Bush-Cheney from stealing another election.

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Roots of corporate crime

There is something farcical in the trials of corporate executives now parading across our television screens. Attorney General John Ashcroft solemnly vows to ferret out the corporate “wrongdoers” and bring them to justice.

Sure enough, there is Enron’s Chief Financial Officer, Andrew Fastow, copping a plea and singing like a canary on the crimes of his former boss, Jeffrey Skilling.

Yet something is missing. What about Enron’s top gun, Ken Lay? What about his crony ties to George W. Bush? Why isn’t “Kenny Boy” on trial? And what about Citibank and J.P. Morgan? They gave Enron lessons on how to “cook the books” and “game” the California electricity market, fleecing their workers and the public of billions.

Don’t even get us started on Halliburton and its former CEO, Vice President Dick Cheney. He is a walking, talking conflict of interest who proves that corruption reigns supreme in Washington.

The verdict handed down against Martha Stewart is perhaps the clearest case of toiling to bring forth a mouse. She lied about an insider tip-off that her ImClone stocks were about to tank. It saved her $50,000. Bush received exactly the same kind of illegal tip-off that his Harken Energy stocks were about to implode, but the Ashcroft crimebusters are looking the other way.

These loudly trumpeted criminal cases are used to convince us that the problem is a few dishonest individuals while most corporations and their CEOs are “law-abiding.”

But corporate crime is so pervasive (most of it legal) that many see it as inherent to the system of monopoly capitalism. It is an illusion to think these corporations can be “reformed.” Public ownership is once again being debated as a possible solution. It places on the agenda the need for a forthright discussion of socialism, a system in which the means of production, the factories, energy, banks, are owned by the working class and operated to meet human need rather than corporate greed.

Labor knocks on voters doors

Fri, 19 Mar 2004 04:12:00 +0000

BAL HARBOUR, Fla. – America’s workplaces and working class neighborhoods are the front lines of the 2004 battle to rid this country of what many describe as the most anti-worker president anyone can remember, according to labor leaders gathered at the March 9-11 meeting of the AFL-CIO Executive Council here.

U.S. unions have rolled out their most well-funded and scientifically targeted campaign ever, eight months earlier than in the 2000 election cycle. “The program is in full swing,” AFL-CIO Political Director Karen Ackerman told reporters.

Despite media buzz about NASCAR dads and soccer moms, “Union households are the key to the 2004 elections,” said federation President John Sweeney.

What’s new this year is the strategic targeting of “swing voters” among union membership. By overlaying up-to-date membership lists with selected demographic data, union numbers crunchers can identify where to concentrate their efforts. The swing voters are getting special attention with information on issues that have been identified as important to them.

Miami-based Flight Attendants/CWA Local 2 has identified 63 swing voters among its 481 members, Local President Patrice Anderson told the council. Those voters have already gotten union brochures on two key issues: Bush’s plan to cut eligibility for overtime pay, and workers’ collective bargaining rights, according to a report from Press Associates, Inc.

Labor’s election plans for 2004 start with building on the achievements of 2000 when 26 percent of voters came from union households, more than double the fraction of union members in the electorate. Sixty-three percent of these voted for union-endorsed candidate Al Gore, according to election night polling by Hart Research Associates.

Plans are to significantly increase both Election Day turnout of union members and the percentage of union voters marking their ballots for the union-endorsed candidate.

A live video from St. Louis of an up-and-running union phone bank brought a beehive of activity into the Council meeting. A succession of volunteers put aside their phones to report to the Council on their sophisticated operation, which combines worksite distribution of fliers, home visits, and petitions with the phone calls. Further, “Every time Bush or Cheney come to town, we’re there to meet them,” said Grant Williams of SEIU 2000. “We’re feeling good about beating Bush,” he added.

Another initiative of the AFL-CIO is the launching of Working Families, the federation’s newest affiliate. Working Families’ membership is open to working people who do not have the benefit of a union on the job, says its executive director, Karen Nussbaum. Neighborhood-based, with local offices in Cincinnati, Cleveland, St. Louis, Kansas City, Tampa, and Seattle, Working America already has 100,000 members, reports Nussbaum, and aims for one million by Election Day.

Dozens of youthful canvassers for the Miami project of Voices for Working Families traveled across town to greet the Executive Council meeting. Working seven days a week in the Liberty City section of Miami, these door-to-door canvassers are registering hundreds of voters a day, Dorothy Townsend, the Miami project’s dynamic director told the World. Voices for Working Families is one of an array of labor-initiated voter registration, mobilization and education projects that are up and running in “battleground states” such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and Missouri. Voices for Working Families has created programs tailored to reach African American and Hispanic communities as well as the women’s community, where registration is down, said Arlene Holt Baker, the group’s national president. Each program is headed and run by respected and experienced people who come from the targeted communities.

Organized labor’s multifaceted education-mobilization network is already flexing its muscles, deluging President Bush with half a million letters and e-mails protesting his administration’s attack on overtime pay.

At its meeting, the AFL-CIO Executive Council unanimously approved a 48 cent per member contribution to mobilize union members this election cycle, bringing its total financial commitment up to $44 million. Nevertheless, they expect to be outspent by big business even more heavily than the 12 to 1 ratio registered in 2000, according to Sweeney. But “early grassroots activities indicate we are well on our way to a steady and victorious march to the White House this fall,” Sweeney predicted. “People are fed up with this administration’s inability to create good jobs and get our country back on track,” he added.

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

Letters

Fri, 12 Mar 2004 06:43:00 +0000

Patriotism & the left reloaded

While I enjoyed reading both Emil Shaw’s article “Patriotism and the left” (PWW 1/31-2/6) and Adam Minsky’s Letter to the Editor regarding it (PWW 2/14-20), I’m afraid I must register an opposing viewpoint.

I agree with Shaw wholeheartedly that the majority of the working class in America is indeed patriotic, and it is necessary to be sensitive to such deeply held feelings in order to build unity. But it is also necessary to gently prod our patriotic friends in the direction of truly international consciousness. The international solidarity of the working class is absolutely essential for the advancement of all people’s movements. Emotional ties that bind a worker to one nation at the expense of all others can only serve to undermine that solidarity.

Deb WilmerTucson AZ

Bush’s marriage amendment

Thank you for your article “Bush’s marriage amendment an attack on democracy” (PWW 3/6-12). At a time when the extremist right is out with their propaganda, I am glad that people are standing up to them. Indeed, I am a very devout Christian myself, and it is precisely because of that that I hate how people use Christ to justify their “codified”/ “traditionalized” discrimination. This is just a random note, but really thank you. I know many [gay] persons out there who are too afraid to come out and voice their support, lest they be “outed.” God bless, and really thanks.

Bob Via e-mail

Proud to support Kucinich

Dennis Kucinich is the most under reported story and under rated candidate. (PWW 2/28-3/5) He is one of the finest politicians this country has had in many years and running in the back of the race thanks to media (corporate) blackout, and lack of support from the Democratic National Committee. It’s sad testimony to our democratic election process.

Thankfully, he has the most loyal, hard-working, devoted followers in the country. I am proud to be one of them.

Mira Talbott-PopeChico CA

Stories that must be told

The story on grocery worker Lee Hamilton with the United Food and Commercial Workers was moving, sad, yet inspiring. (PWW 3/8-12) These are the stories of American workers that must be told.

I usually buy my metro pass on Mondays and give the attendant a paper. It took a little time but as the weeks went by I sensed she appreciated it. Sure enough, when I handed her the paper yesterday, she said “you know, this paper is very informative.” It’s really a matter of getting people to read the PWW. But that’s a lot harder than it sounds. People barely have time to take care of their personal needs.

Gabe FalsettaNew York NY

Arnold and Enron

If Schwarzenegger is really serious about “getting California’s fiscal house in order,” then why has he been silent on the issue of reclaiming the approximately $9 billion stolen from California by the energy robber barons during the state’s “energy crises” of 1999-2000? Could it be that Schwarzenegger is in bed with these energy companies? He did have a meeting with Enron’s Kenneth Lay during the spring of 2001 in a Los Angeles hotel room. Perhaps the real reason Schwarzenegger ran for governor was to be able to sweep under the rug this $9 billion theft.

I don’t trust this governor, and neither should you.

Chris Scoffield Menlo Park CA

Everyone is talking

Everyone is talking about the latest attack on Social Security, and about when will U.S. troops in Iraq ever come home, and about a movie made by a millionaire (billionaire?) that he intends to be a religious experience for the viewers. I don’t know whether any leaders of the various Christian denominations asked him to make the movie. I don’t think he bothered to consult with the rank-and-file people of faith at whom the film is aimed. But he and his publicity apparatus are certainly working overtime to organize people to pay to see the film and to buy the usual assorted tie-in paraphernalia.

Why should one guy, just because he is rich and has power in the film industry, get to make a supposedly religious movie? Why does he get to tell only a portion of the story, in horrifically bloody detail, based not on the Gospels but on the pathetic dreams of a German nun who lived hundreds of years later?

Personally, I think this is one more example of how capitalism warps and distorts all that can be bright, beautiful and true, such as the arts and sciences, to not only satisfy the individual desires of a handful of super-wealthy people and their ilk, but to make a lot of money on top of it.

Barbara RussumChicago IL

Editorials

Fri, 12 Mar 2004 06:29:00 +0000

White House lies won’t wash

George W. Bush is running as a “war president” but his credibility is being tested. Bush agreed to only an hour of questioning from the 9/11 Commission set up to investigate why U.S. intelligence agencies under his command failed to follow up on clear warnings that a terrorist attack was imminent. Families of the nearly 3,000 dead blasted Bush for “stonewalling.” Now his press secretary is beating a retreat, claiming Bush will answer all the commission’s questions. Democrat John Kerry responded, “It’s good to see that the president has finally found time in his schedule to spend more than an hour with the 9/11 Commission.”

Bush justified his war on Iraq with dire warnings that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, that he was harboring al-Qaeda terrorists. All have been exposed as brazen lies. And the lies keep surfacing, no matter how hard Bush and Vice President Cheney try to tamp them down.

CIA Director George Tenet told the Senate Armed Services Committee this week that he tried repeatedly to “correct” the false claims Bush and Cheney used in their rush to war. For example, Tenet said he complained to Bush that he used false information in his State of the Union Address claiming that Iraq was attempting to obtain weapons-grade uranium from Niger. Bush has since admitted the claim was false, after it was exposed by Ambassador Joseph Wilson. Tenet told the senators he also complained to Cheney that he is still using a baseless briefing by neo-conservative Douglas Feith, endorsed by Cheney aide Lewis Libby, to bolster his claims of a pre-war link between Iraq and al-Qaeda. Tenet said the CIA has no proof of such a link. Yet Tenet hastened to defend Bush from charges that he lied to lure the nation into a bloody occupation in Iraq.

Like Lady MacBeth, Bush may wash his hands and cry, “Out! Out, damned spot!” But the lies won’t wash away.

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Stop the Bush-Cheney energy rip-off

Senate Democrats succeeded in blocking the Bush-Cheney energy bill with a filibuster last November. But Bush’s minions are back, vowing to ram through this huge giveaway to energy monopolies in the next couple of weeks.

The environmental movement has mobilized all its resources to stop it. Actor Robert Redford wrote an open letter to the 550,000 members of the Natural Resources Defense Council, urging a flood of messages to senators demanding they block the bill. “Estimates of the bill’s corporate tax breaks range from $23 billion to well over $100 billion with loan guarantees included,” Redford wrote. “No surprise there. Big energy companies cooked up this raid on the federal treasury during hundreds of secret meetings with Vice President Cheney’s task force and their allies on Capitol Hill. … To claim this rip-off is in the national interest, as the White House would have us believe, is a slap in the face to every working American.”

The environmental group Greenwatch points out that the bill exempts from Safe Water Act regulations a method of extracting crude oil called “hydraulic fracturing,” a technique invented by Cheney’s old company, Halliburton. The technique involves injecting diesel fuel, hydrochloric acid, and other toxic chemicals into wells. Besides despoiling the environment, Greenwatch estimates this juicy plum could enhance Halliburton’s profits by $600 million.

The Energy Justice Network lists 37 reasons to stop the bill. It will force energy deregulation, clearing the way for more “Enrons,” with ratepayers fleeced of many billions in power overcharges. It will subsidize new nuclear reactors and will open the floodgates for reprocessed nuclear fuel, “facilitating the stealing of nuclear bomb materials.” It also opens the door to a vast expansion of drilling and mining for oil, gas, and coal in federal lands.

Unless we all speak out, Redford warns, the Bush-Cheney energy bill will mean a future of “blighted wilderness, poisonous air pollution, devastating climate change and endless wars over fossil fuels.” Contact your senators. Ask them to filibuster and defeat the Bush-Cheney rip-off bill.

Gay marriage debate rages in states

Fri, 12 Mar 2004 04:11:00 +0000

While same-sex couples line up at city halls across the country in hopes of being married, sometimes defending their right to do so by demonstrating in the streets, the debate over gay marriage rages on in state legislatures.

In Maryland, that state’s House Judiciary Committee this week defeated two bills that sought to legally prohibit the recognition of same-sex marriages. One of the bills would have amended the state’s constitution to define marriage as only between a man and a woman, while the other would have prohibited recognition of gay marriages performed in other states.

The defeat of the bills was hailed as a victory for fairness by Equality Maryland, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights group.

The Georgia Legislature is considering two proposals seeking to ban gay marriage, including one that would ban recognition of same-sex marriages performed in other states. While the Democrat-majority state House continues to debate the measures, it is still unclear as to whether either measure will be able to gather enough support to pass.

State Rep. Karla Drenner (D-Atlanta), the state’s only openly gay legislator, has become the center of the political firestorm. “When it gets real bad, I think about the 24th mile, the come-to-Jesus mile, when you’ve got blisters on your feet and your whole body aches,” Drenner told reporters. “For me, the finish line here is when this country doesn’t care who you love.”

Massachusetts lawmakers were set to reconvene their constitutional convention on March 11 to consider a “compromise” proposal that would ban same-sex marriage but allow “civil unions.” The convention suspended its session on Feb. 12 after defeating three attempts to pass a ban on gay marriage.

In New Paltz, N.Y., a village a few hours north of New York City, Mayor Jason West began performing marriages of same-sex couples. Though conservatives have brought charges against West, New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has said that same-sex marriages performed elsewhere will be recognized in New York State.

In Chicago, about 300 advocates of same-sex marriage rights rallied outside the Cook County Clerk’s Office on March 4, demanding that gay couples be issued marriage licenses.

Over a dozen states are currently debating measures that would ban same-sex marriages. In Idaho the measure was also defeated in committee. However, in Wisconsin and Kansas such measures received House approval and are headed for those states’ senates. Utah voters are set to decide on a constitutional ban in November.

The debate has also continued on the federal level, with a Senate subcommittee hearing held in the days following Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s outspoken defense of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP’s Washington bureau, testified, saying, “The NAACP is greatly disappointed that President George Bush and others have decided to enter this election cycle by endorsing an amendment that would forever write discrimination into the U.S. Constitution, rather than focusing on the crucial problems and challenges that affect the lives of all of us.”

Pointing to the economic problems of unemployment and deficit, he stated, “This discriminatory constitutional amendment appears to be nothing more than a highly divisive political ploy to distract the country from focusing on our overabundance of real problems and our tremendous lack of creative and effective solutions.”

Cheryl Jacques, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said, “Our elected officials should heed the testimony of one of our nation’s foremost civil rights organizations – denying rights to Americans has no place in our nation’s Constitution.” The HRC subbmitted written testimony to the subcommittee.

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

Leftist seeks Salvadoran presidency

Thu, 11 Mar 2004 11:26:00 +0000

As El Salvador’s March 21 presidential election draws closer, recent polls indicate that Schafik Handal, the candidate of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), has a chance of winning the presidency.

Handal, 73, is the former head of El Salvador’s Communist Party. A February poll conducted by the Universidad Francisco Gavidia showed Handal trailing his main rival, the ARENA party’s Antonio Saca, 38, by only 3 percentage points.

The FMLN is the largest political force in the country. The party is a coalition of different left-wing groups and socialist parties, including the Communist Party, which merged into the FMLN in 1992. It has 31 deputies in the 84-seat National Assembly. In addition, it governs all the large and medium sized municipalities.

For over 10 years, the ruling right-wing ARENA party has pursued free market policies, such as “free trade” with the U.S. and privatization, which have led to greater poverty, unemployment, social inequality and economic underdevelopment. This trade has damaged agriculture, forcing many farmers to leave the land because they cannot compete with government-subsidized U.S. agricultural products entering the country tariff-free. Many remain unemployed. Such unequal trade has also led to the growth of a maquiladora economy where transnational companies come to El Salvador because wages are low.

As a result, many young people must leave the country to find work. Many a family’s survival is dependent on money that they receive from family members working in the U.S. Wealth concentration is so extreme in El Salvador that, according to the United Nations, the wealthiest 20 percent of the population earns 56 percent of total income while the poorest 20 percent takes 4 percent.

The FMLN promises to immediately reverse ARENA’s disastrous policies and implement measures to ameliorate the country’s suffering. They promise, among other things, to end unfair trade with the U.S., support small farmers, redirect funds for social programs and prosecute former and current members of the military who committed atrocities against civilians during the 1980s.

ARENA is doing everything possible to prevent the FMLN from winning the presidential elections. The ARENA-dominated government has denied the FMLN the state funds that the party is entitled to under the country’s election law.

ARENA has unlimited funds from Big Business and is trying to buy the elections. The media, owned by ARENA supporters, is providing sympathetic coverage to ARENA presidential candidate Antonio Saca, while covering Handal’s campaign in negative manner.

In contrast, the FMLN’s only source of funds is from its individual members and supporters, most of whom are lucky to earn the U.S. equivalent of $30 to $40 per month. As a result, the FMLN does not have sufficient funds to buy television advertising. To compensate for the party’s scarce financial resources, its 95,000 members are currently trying to canvass every household in El Salvador, from the congested barrios of San Salvador to the most remote households in the countryside.

ARENA has threatened FMLN candidates and campaign workers with violence. Recently, the FMLN thwarted an assassination attempt against Handal. Hired assassins from Guatemala planned to shoot Handal at an election rally in the city of Llopango, about six miles east of San Salvador.

The FMLN also fears that ARENA will try to steal the elections by manipulating the newly computerized voting system.

The U.S. government has expressed unease with the prospect of an FMLN victory. In a subtle threat of economic and political retaliation, Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega suggested Feb. 6 that, in view of Handal’s opposition to NAFTA-like trade agreements, “the Salvadoran people [should] consider what type of relations a new government could have with us.”

In addition to ARENA’s Saca and the FMLN’s Handal, two other candidates with much smaller followings are in the presidential race. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote on March 21, a runoff will be held on May 2.

The FMLN needs the moral support and solidarity of the left, before and after the elections. An FMLN win would not only be a big victory for the Salvadoran people, but a victory for the left in Latin America and internationally.

Tim Pelzer is working in El Salvador as an election observer. He can be reached at tpelzer@sprint.ca.

Letters

Fri, 05 Mar 2004 05:42:00 +0000

The importance of reparations

The importance of building a new Civil Rights Movement in 21st century America should not be overlooked. We should learn from the African American liberation movements of the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s and acknowledge their successes, but we should also look at what these movements strived to accomplish but, ultimately, couldn’t.

In my mind, the central issue of the new movement we must build should be the attainment of reparations for the descendants of slaves. The logic of reparations is simple: African Americans were never given a fair opportunity to gain control over their communities’ resources, they have been discriminated against and degraded in every aspect of society, and their basic road to freedom has been halted by the capitalist system in general.

We see this manifested in the disproportionate number of Blacks in U.S. penitentiaries, the number living in poverty, the discrimination they face in getting quality health care and other benefits, and the way they are portrayed in general by the white, ruling class media. In this new age of struggle, hope, and opportunity, all of us who align ourselves with progressive and revolutionary struggle should embrace the idea of fighting for reparations for the African American people.

Marcel CartierVia e-mail

Undermining democracy

It’s no secret that the intelligence gathering activities of the CIA needs at times financial resources, especially when the task has something to do with throwing off balance or undermining other governments. It doesn’t matter if it is a government that is democratically elected.

Such is the case of President Hugo Chavez’s government of Venezuela, which is suffering the direct and indirect attacks from the Bully-Bush-administration. In Venezuela, with the advising of the CIA, an organization was created known as Sumate with resources coming from the “National Endowment for Democracy.”

So far the activities of Sumate could be summarized in few words: conspiracy, sabotage, and dirty manipulation of information. Its main goal is to undermine a government that has pretty close to 78 percent of the population’s support. The only “bad” and “anti-democratic” thing that government is doing is helping the poor people and trying to distribute the wealth of Venezuela in a fair way, one that could benefit all its members and not a privileged few as in the past.

So, the question is: Are the funds of this Endowment truly helping to stimulate and foster Democracy in other Nations?

Joe FloresWest Haven CT

Likes Kucinich coverage

Thanks for the great article on Kucinich! (“Dennis Kucinich: The most under-reported story in 2004,” PWW, 2/28-3/5). Thanks for being a real journalist and telling the truth! This is an awesome man that would change the course of history. If the media told his story, he would be the next president hands down. Thanks for doing your part to get this important message out. Blessings!

Sherry ThompsonJefferson NC

Haiti: Bush’s latest atrocity

The coup against Haiti’s democracy is the latest atrocity. Once again Bush has chosen violence instead of democracy. The world has long recognized Aristide as the legitimate president of Haiti. He was elected fair-and-square (which is more than can be said of Bush). But Bush is complicit in the current coup against Haiti’s democracy, just the Bush regime was fully complicit in the violent 2002 coup that briefly overthrew Venezuela’s democracy. That coup was short-lived because other nations and the Venezuelan people refused to let Bush and Venezuela’s business elite get away with their coup.

If Bush really believed in democracy, he would have issued clear public statements supporting Aristide. Instead, Bush let armed thugs stage a coup. Then he told Aristide to resign. Now after overthrowing Aristide, Bush is invading with Marines to provide “stability” to lock the coup into place.

While paying lip service to democracy in Iraq, behind the scenes he overthrows democracies that elect leaders he doesn’t like. Bush’s arrogance and belligerence have repeatedly angered the rest of the world. He has turned world public opinion – even our usual allies – against us. Bush is jeopardizing our national security. Vote that loose cannon out!

Glen AndersonLacey WA

Editorials

Fri, 05 Mar 2004 05:32:00 +0000

Women of the world, unite!

International Women’s Day is March 8. Recognized throughout the world, International Women’s Day gave birth to Women’s History Month, a more widely celebrated event here in the U.S.

Like May Day, International Women’s Day was inspired by the righteous struggles of the working class. Its origins include a militant demonstration by the mostly female needle trade workers in New York City on March 8, 1857, and another on March 8, 1908. Both were for better wages and working conditions.

In 1910, at the Socialist Women’s International Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, German Socialist leader Clara Zetkin proposed March 8 as International Women’s Day. The following year demonstrations took place across Europe demanding women’s right to vote.

International Women’s Day has also been linked to the 1911 New York City’s Triangle Shirt Waist Factory fire, where dozens of mostly immigrant women died at the hands of the bosses’ greed.

This year International Women’s Day can be a catalyst for U.S. women to organize en masse for the March 20 demonstrations for peace and justice in Iraq and the Middle East. It can also be a launching pad for the April 25 March for Women’s Lives in Washington, D.C., to defend reproductive rights.

This year the women of the U.S. – Black, Latino, white, Asian, American Indian, and others – will be a leading force in the fight to rid, not only the U.S., but also the world, of an administration that ruthlessly pushes its militaristic, reckless policies in the interests of the transnational corporations. The Bush administration is the world’s biggest threat to women’s interests and authentic family values.

The women’s vote in 2004 can be a powerful factor in defeating Bush and his ilk. Such a defeat can begin to reverse the right-wing agenda, and put in place a positive program of providing jobs, equal pay, quality public education, health care and an end to racism, poverty and war.

* * * * * *

Free the Cuban Five

For 40 years Miami has been a base for overt and covert warfare against Cuba, including the infamous “Bay of Pigs” invasion, plots to assassinate President Fidel Castro, and germ warfare attacks on Cuban crops and livestock. Orlando Bosch, who masterminded the 1976 bombing of a Cubana Airliner, killing more than 70 people, walks a free man in Miami because President George Bush (senior) pardoned him. At least 3,500 Cubans have died from anti-Cuba terrorism launched from Miami.

Cuba appealed many times to the U.S. government to shut down terrorist operations in South Florida, but nothing was ever done. Cuba then was forced to send a group of men to Florida to monitor terror groups in order to protect Cuban and American lives. The information these men collected was even shared with the FBI. But instead of apprehending the terrorists, the FBI arrested five young men: Gerardo Hernández, René González, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labaniño, and Fernando González, now known collectively as the Cuban Five. They were unjustly convicted in a Miami court and now sit in federal prisons serving sentences ranging from 15 years to double life. This case shows how phony Bush’s “war on terrorism” really is.

March 10 is the date for an appeal on behalf of the Cuban Five before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. The National Committee to Free the Cuban Five ran a full page ad in the March 3 New York Times with a headline, “Free the Cuban Five.” It is endorsed by authors Alice Walker, Noam Chomsky, former Rep. Cynthia McKinney, union leader Dolores Huerta, Detroit Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, and others. The ad calls for a new trial for the defendants and urges people to sign a petition to George W. Bush demanding their freedom (www.freethefive.org). It also calls on Attorney General John Ashcroft to allow the defendants’ wives and children to enter the U.S. and visit them in prison.

We join in the call to “Free the Cuban Five.”

Corporate rule hammers Buffalo

Thu, 04 Mar 2004 11:12:00 +0000

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Like many other cities, crumbling under the weight of job loss and a shrinking manufacturing tax base, Buffalo faces massive budget deficits.

With no federal or state help in sight, Buffalo has been under the thumb of a control board since July 2003. The Buffalo Fiscal Stability authority, a New York State Public Benefit Corporation, was created with the sole purpose of absolute oversight and control of city budget, finance, and services. Which begs the question, in whose interest does it operate?

The control board is comprised of nine appointees, most representing corporate and banking interests. The members include Alair Townsend, publisher of Crain’s New York Business, a weekly business publication; Robert G. Wilmers, president and CEO of M&T Bank; Robert M. Pirtle, president of Delphi Harrison Thermal System and vice president of Delphi Corp.; Thomas Baker, executive director of the John R. Oishei Foundation (closely linked to the Trico Products Corp.); and Joel Giambra, Erie County executive.

Giambra is well known for merging city and county services, privatizing, union busting, and blatant racism. His schemes have faced opposition from city residents, and the city’s Common Council. At the time of the board’s initial formation, representation from organized labor was rebuffed, creating concern early on about the nature of the board.

The budget deficits are enormous, and projected to grow higher in coming years. The combined deficit stands at $24.1 million, and is projected to grow to $96.3 million in 2004-2005, $151.9 million in 2005-2006, and as high as $198.4 million in 2007-2008.

The control board has ultimate decision-making power in all budgetary matters. Its powers include authority over police and fire departments, schools, city contracts and collective bargaining agreements. The board has the power to impose hiring and wage freezes, salary, and benefit caps. This has meant an unprecedented attack on teachers, firefighters, police, city workers, and the services they provide.

The city’s school district has already seen layoffs, school closures, and consolidation of needed services such as academic intervention and special education. According to the control board’s reports, this trend will continue.

This year 218 teachers, 62 aides, 20 clerical workers, and 17 administrative positions will be lost. Four schools will be closed, along with one “partial shut-down.” Layoffs and closures are projected to continue through the next two years, totaling a 28 percent reduction of school workers. Class size will increase and a child’s right to quality public education is further diluted.

In addition to cuts in education, the control board is pushing forward with cuts and consolidations in other vital city services. About 140 city firefighters will face layoffs, and three station houses will be closed by 2006. City firefighters have been without a contract since July 2002. The police department moved to one-person patrol cars; towing and storage will be privatized.

Trash collection fees will be raised by more than 9 percent. Water rates will also see an increase of approximately 10 percent. Other city services will be merged with the county, including assessment, collections, audit, purchasing, and parks and recreation.

President of Buffalo Professional Firefighters Local 282 Joe Foley recently helped to answer the question – in whose interest – when he said, “The purpose of the Control Board is very clear: secure the money for the banking industry and the crumbs that are left over can be given to the people.”

The author can be reached at smitgl40@mail.buffalostate.edu.