People Before Profit blog

covers dirty deeds

Wed, 30 Mar 2005 09:40:00 +0000

[This is a companion editorial to ]

While GOP House leader Tom DeLay, who faces his own legal and ethics problems, pontificated on saving Terri Schiavo and George W. lectured about a “culture of life,” their actions spoke louder than their hollow words.

Bush put forward a $2.6 trillion budget that would cut as much as $20 billion from Medicaid, the primary federal health program for the poor, children and disabled people. The House narrowly passed it with DeLay’s “Hammer” tactics.

These new cuts come on top of years of previous cuts, which have forced hundreds of thousands of people off the government program. States, facing severe fiscal crisis from the federal cuts, are throwing the most needy off their life-sustaining health care services. Last month this newspaper ran a front-page photo of an 8-year-old boy with cystic fibrosis who will lose the aid from a state health program that helps pay for his treatment, because of federal and state budget cuts. Some “culture of life”!

But in a noteworthy development, the Senate rejected the Bush Medicaid reduction by a 52-48 vote. Seven Republican senators joined all 44 Senate Democrats and one independent to block the cuts. Add that vote to the Republican discomfort Social Security privatization and you have what GOP big shots may call a rebellion in the ranks.

What better way to muffle a moderates’ mutiny then to mobilize your extreme right flank? Get those “terror squads” operating, orders Karl Rove. Rev up the propaganda machines, he barks, get that Schiavo case front and center.

We need to strike fear into the heart of these mutineers. Our whole agenda may be on the line, Rove snarls.

Actions do speak louder than words.

Protests around the world

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 13:14:00 +0000

On the second anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, hundreds of thousands demonstrated in some 40 countries to protest the continuing war and occupation. Following is a small sampling:

Britain: Up to 100,000 people marched through London to Trafalgar Square. Two soldiers who had resigned from the British army left a cardboard coffin outside the U.S. Embassy, inscribed with the legend, “100,000 dead.”

Italy: As many as 100,000 — among them a contingent of 75 U.S. citizens — marched in Rome to call for immediate withdrawal of Italian and other occupying forces. Demonstrations also took place in Milan, Cagliari (Sardinia), Venice, Rimini, Turin, Pisa and other cities.

Belgium: 100,000 from throughout Europe gathered in Brussels to call for jobs, free education for youth and an end to the war.

Turkey: A demonstration organized by the unions brought some 20,000 protesters to Istanbul from all over the country. Some carried signs reading: “Murderer Bush, get out.”

Denmark: Up to 1,000 mainly young people gathered at the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen before marching past Parliament to demand immediate withdrawal of Danish troops.

Cyprus: Hundreds of Greek and Turkish Cypriots joined with members of the Syrian and Palestinian communities in Nicosia’s central square for a march to the U.S. Embassy. There, they held a musical event and Turkish Cypriot activists performed street theater.

Brazil and Argentina: Thousands marched in Sao Paulo, and in Buenos Aires some 10,000 protested.

Japan: Over 4,500 demonstrated in Tokyo during a visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Marchers called for immediate withdrawal of Japan’s Self-Defense Force from Iraq and an end to the occupation.

Greece: Thousands of trade unionists, members of peace groups and students shut down the city center for about three hours as they marched to the U.S. Embassy.

Protests were also held in Nicaragua, India, Puerto Rico, Vietnam, South Korea, Pakistan, Poland, Sweden and many other countries.

Marilyn Bechtel

WHAT'S ON

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 13:10:00 +0000

WHAT'S ON listings in the print edition of the People's Weekly World newspaper are 10 lines for $20, e-mail: CHICAGO April 2, Sat., 7 p.m. Movie Night: “The Battle of Algiers.” At Chicago’s Unity Center, 3339 S Halsted St. Free, discussion afterwards. Info: (773) 446-9925.

Through May 14. “The Subject of Palestine” art exhibit, sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine. At North Gallery, DePaul Univ. Art Museum, 2350 N. Kenmore Ave. Museum is free & open to public. Hours Mon.-Thurs., 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Fri., 11 a.m.- 7 p.m.; Sat. & Sun., noon to 5 p.m. Info: mennakhalil @ gmail.com or (630) 674-1626.

HELENA, Mont. Every Friday, 4 p.m. Peace Vigil at corner of Eleventh & Montana

March 29, Tues., 6 p.m. Helena Peace Seekers meeting, 512 Logan, at Susanna Wesley Place, followed by 7 p.m. film showing followed by dialogue & treats. “Who’s Afraid of the Little Yellow School Bus,” Pastors for Peace film, & “Round Rock, Texas: Taking Back Our Schools,” from Texas Freedom Network Education Fund. Info: helenapeaceseekers @ yahoo.com.

ST. LOUIS, Mo. April 30, Sat., 9:30 a.m. Missouri/Kansas District Friends of People’s Weekly World 13th ‘Hershel Walker Peace and Justice Awards Breakfast.’ At Postal Workers Union Hall, 1717 S. Broadway. Awardees include Mo. State Rep. Jeanette Mott Oxford, Pro-Vote Organizer Margarida Jorge, & Nurses Union UFCW 655. Keynote speaker: Keren Wheeler, editor Dynamic Magazine. Ticket & adbook info: call Tony Pecinovsky, (314) 776-7732 or e-mail: moks@pww.org.

TUCSON, Ariz. Salt of the Earth Labor College upcoming courses: April 2, Sat., 2 p.m. “Chicano Power Today: Electoral & Community Struggles in Chicano Communities,” presentation & discussion with Rosalio Muñoz, S. Cal. Chair, CPUSA.

April 16, Sat., 2 p.m. “Why Do the American People Vote Against Their Own Class Interests?” Community forum: panel of local progressive leaders will explore causes and solutions. All at Salt of the Earth Labor College, 1902 E. Irene Vista. Nominal registration fees. Info: (520) 624-4789, e-mail SELC @ webtv.net.

South Africas Carmen

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 12:58:00 +0000

Compelling stories from the assembly line

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 12:49:00 +0000

'Autopsy of an Engine and Other Stories from the Cadillac Plant' By Lolita Hernandez Coffee House Press, 2004 Softcover, 180 pp., $14

By Armando Ramirez

During the decade of the 1980s, with the economy spiraling into a deep decline and the auto industry in a crisis of overproduction, an avalanche of plant closings began in our country.

One of the first plants designated for closing was the giant General Motors Cadillac plant, as well as its sister plant Fisher Body Fleetwood. The two Detroit plants employed about 20,000 workers. It is about these workers that Lolita Hernandez writes in her book, “Autopsy of an Engine and Other Stories from the Cadillac Plant.”

Hernandez worked in the Engine Assembly department at Cadillac. Her stories take place here. She writes about the sights, sounds and smells of the place. Mostly, she writes about the workers. She talks about their lives, their problems, their hopes and aspirations. These people are her friends, not just people she worked with for 30 years.

Assembly line work brings people together, shoulder to shoulder, more than almost any other kind of work. Every day, year after year, these workers rub elbows, sweat and hurt together, help each other and come to know each other like family. It is with this feeling of family that Hernandez writes her stories.

Other books have been written about assembly line workers. Most of them focus on the oddballs, the drunks and dope addicts, the jerks and clowns. There are these, but as Hernandez shows in her stories, most autoworkers are just ordinary people, striving to make it at a most difficult job.

We meet workers such as the “Pound Cake Lady,” so named because of the homemade desserts she brings for her co-workers. Then there’s “Garlic Baloney Joe,” who pulled off his work gloves, hurled them to the floor and shouted “F—- this s—-,” as he walked out. There is Manuel whose unrequited love for Rosario spans 20 years before he finally has some success.

One of my favorites, “Crazy Marge,” always greets her overweight foreman with “You Pillsbury Doughboy muthaf—-a you.”

Hernandez, in her introduction, asks the question “Why am I working in a factory?” There is very little that is good about working on an assembly line. Thanks to the union, the wages and benefits are the best of any manufacturing industry, but working on the line is a deadening experience. It can be physically hard and mentally tough because of the repetitive and boring nature of the work.

Hernandez answers her own question this way: “That was my real family: the living and the dead in that place.”

I knew Lolita Hernandez slightly when I lived in Detroit. I worked at the Cadillac sister plant, Fleetwood. Both the children of immigrants, we lived in the same neighborhood of southwest Detroit.

I wish that Hernandez had said something about the great struggle that Cadillac (Local 22 UAW) and Fleetwood (Local 15 UAW) workers put up to keep the plants open. Their fightback inspired a national movement in our country to stop plant closings. Nonetheless, if you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to work on the line, or if you just want some good reading, go to your nearest bookstore or order it online at .

Battle over human rights at the UN

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 12:45:00 +0000

The following is excerpted from a statement delivered at the 61st session of the UN Commission on Human Rights, March 16, in Geneva, Switzerland. Cuba has repeatedly accused the United States of manipulating the small, weak countries that are members of the commission to secure votes condemning Cuba. Efforts are being made this year to force a vote against alleged U.S. human rights violations at the Guantanamo prison in Cuba, in its prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and within the U.S. itself.

The Commission on Human Rights has lost legitimacy. We knew that it was being manipulated because the United States government and its allies have used the commission as if it were their private property. In the course of the last year, two events took place that changed the nature of our debate.

The first was the European Union’s refusal to vote in favor of the draft resolution proposing to investigate the human rights violations committed against over 500 prisoners at Guantánamo. The second event was the release of the report by a high-level group set up by the UN secretary-general. It categorically states that, “the commission cannot be credible if it is seen to be maintaining double standards in addressing human rights concerns.”

The guarantee of the enjoyment of human rights today depends on your social class and whether you live in a developed country or not. A small group of nations has already achieved the right to peace, and they are the attackers. Their peace rests on military power. They have achieved economic development from pillaging the wealth of their former colonies. In those developed countries the unemployed, the immigrants and the impoverished do not enjoy the rights guaranteed for the rich.

Can a poor person in the United States be elected senator? Do the children of the rich go to war in Iraq? None of the 1,500 American youths killed in that war was the child of a millionaire. The poor die there defending the vested interests of a minority.

In underdeveloped countries the situation is worse. The countries there have no access to markets, to new technologies; they are handcuffed by a burdensome debt. In those countries, the poor and the indigent do not even have the right to life. Every year we see the death of 11 million young, many of whom could be spared with vaccines or oral rehydration solutions — and also the death of 600,000 poor women at childbirth. They have no right to learn to read and write. It would be dangerous for the owners. They are kept in ignorance to keep them docile.

In Cuba, people strongly believe in freedom, democracy and human rights. It is a people in power. That is the difference. There cannot be democracy without social justice. There is no freedom without education and culture. Ignorance is a cumbersome shackle squeezing the poor. Being cultivated is the only way to be free!

That is what we Cubans learned and for that reason we built a different country. And we are just beginning. We have done so despite the aggressions, blockade, terrorist attacks, lies and plots to assassinate Fidel. We are a dangerous example: we are a symbol that only in a just and friendly society, that is, socialist, can there be enjoyment of all rights for all citizens.

Therefore, the government of the United States attempts to condemn us here at the Commission on Human Rights. It is afraid of our example. It is strong at the military level but weak on the moral front. And morality, not weapons, is the shield of the peoples.

Perhaps this year President Bush will find some Latin American country — of the few docile ones that are left — to present the notorious resolution against Cuba. Everybody in this hall knows that there is no reason to present a resolution against Cuba at this commission. In Cuba, there has never been a single extra-judicial execution or a “disappeared” person. Let anyone here come up with the name of a reporter killed in Cuba — and 20 of them were murdered in Latin America in 2004! Let anyone come up with the name of a prisoner abused by his keepers, a prisoner ordered down on his knees, prey to terror, in front of a dog trained to kill!

President Bush has a plan for Cuba, but we Cubans have a plan of a different sort. We Cubans have a clear idea about our course. And nobody will move us away from it. We will build an even more just, more democratic, more free, and a more cultivated society — in brief, more socialist.

And we will do so although President Bush threatens to return us to colonized Cuba, to oust Cubans from their homes, their land and their schools to turn them over to the former Batista-style owners who would come back from the United States. We will do so despite his plan to privatize health and education and make them accessible only to the elite. We will do so despite the plan to auction off our wealth and the heritage of all the people to U.S. transnational corporations.

We will not cooperate with the Representative of the High Commissioner or with her spurious resolution. Why is she not appointed Representative of the High Commissioner to the Guantánamo Naval Base? Why is she not asked to investigate the flagrant violations of the rights of five courageous Cuban young men imprisoned in the United States? Because it is about the human rights violations committed by the United States and they are untouchable.

The Commission on Human Rights illustrates the unjust and unequal world in which we live. Therefore, the Cuban delegation will not insist that we transform the commission. What we have to change is the world, go to the roots. A Commission on Human Rights without selectivity, politicization, double standards, blackmail, and hypocrisy will only be possible in a different world.

Felipe Pérez Roque is Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Immigrants tragedy and death penalty injustice

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 12:43:00 +0000

In a highly sensationalized trial here in Houston, Jamaican-born Tyrone Williams, the truck driver on trial for the horrid deaths of 19 Latino immigrants, is the only defendant out of 14 indicted who faces capital punishment. Williams is one of two African Americans indicted in the murder case in which 19 people, including one child, suffocated in his truck trailer on their way to Houston. The other 12 defendants are Latinos.

Williams was recruited by a human smuggling operation to transport 75 people from Harlingen (near the border with Mexico) to Houston. The people were packed into Williams’ trailer, which had no ventilation or cooling. According to survivors, the immigrants screamed for help and tore through insulation in order to punch out the taillights to get air. A 5-year-old-boy was the first to die. Williams abandoned the trailer and people near Victoria, Texas, and drove to Houston where he sought admission to Twelve Oaks Hospital for depression. He was arrested there later. A videotape reportedly shows Williams, with his companion, buying more than 50 bottles of water, although the people died of suffocation, not dehydration.

Government prosecutors have dehumanized Williams, calling him “the most evil, cruel, and heartless member of that enterprise,” referring to the smuggling operation. Many others are asking, though, “Why did the government single out an African American for the death penalty when 12 others were eligible for that penalty?” U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore asked then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to explain in writing why the government sought the death penalty “on the only Black guy.” Prosecutors are refusing to explain their rationale.

Federal Death Penalty Resource Council statistics indicate that of the 68 previous defendants prosecuted for smuggling humans that resulted in deaths, none had been charged with capital murder. Studies have shown that the vast majority of federal offenders charged with capital murder have been African American, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

This tragic, horrible case points to the need to radically change immigration policy in this country, and to abolish the death penalty. Economic and social conditions are severe in Mexico. Workers are propelled to this country to make enough money to support their families. Tens of thousands of small farmers and peasants have been thrown off the land because of “free trade” deals. Smugglers and employers collaborate in an organized fashion to maximize the exploitation of immigrant workers.

Changes in our immigration policies and improvement in economic conditions in Mexico will prevent future tragedies such as this from recurring. The labor movement and social justice groups advocate organizing immigrant workers and providing a path to citizenship or legal status, since an estimated 10 million undocumented workers live and work in the U.S. It’s obvious that employers, especially in construction, agriculture and meatpacking, are hiring and profiting from immigrant workers. Every effort should be made to help them attain citizenship. Laws need to be changed to reflect that reality. If the process of integrating immigrant workers into the work force were more rational and humane, there would be no need for human smuggling.

A quick calculation indicates that if 75 workers paid roughly $2,000 each to be transported from Harlingen to Houston, that put roughly $150,000 into the hands of the smugglers. The ringleaders paid Williams $7,500, which leaves a great deal of profit for the people primarily responsible for the crime.

Williams and the others should be held responsible for whatever crime they are found guilty of, but the fact that Williams is facing the death penalty points to systemic problems embedded in the death penalty itself. The only way to change that is to abolish the death penalty.

Paul Hill (phill2 @ houston.rr.com) is a contributing writer from Texas.

What really happened in Ohio?

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 12:40:00 +0000

The Communist Party USA will hold its 28th National Convention July 1-3, with the theme, “The people can win! Defeat the Bush agenda! Build the CPUSA!” We encourage our readers to participate in the preconvention discussion. For publication in the PWW, we invite comments, 50-800 words, on the challenges facing the labor/left/progressive movement. Send to . Please include a brief author identification. We will consider submissions that meet these guidelines, but cannot guarantee that every submission will be published.There are some things we can say for certain happened in Ohio and the U.S. in November 2004.

One, as everyone knows, Ohio’s electoral votes handed George W. Bush the number necessary to clinch the Electoral College vote and secure a second term as president of the United States.

Two, the election didn’t pass the “smell test.” That is, there were so many flaws in the election process — from registration through recount — that many have concluded that democracy lost in Ohio. Vote suppression was most frequent in communities of color, where the longest lines occurred and the greatest number of machines malfunctioned.

Three, the lack of uniform national and statewide standards for how we conduct elections became grossly apparent throughout the state. The need for electoral reform in Ohio and elsewhere is both urgent and compelling, so that future elections will be honest and secure, and the outcome will without doubt reflect the will of the voters.

Four, the labor movement conducted its most extensive effort in history to influence its members and their families to vote and to vote for the Democratic candidate. The results were impressive. Official figures from the AFL-CIO state that 65 percent of voters from union households voted for John Kerry, compared to 49 percent of the rest of the electorate. Had the rest of the country followed labor’s lead, the outcome of the election would have been different.

Five, in Ohio, questions like the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and the abortion issue played a larger than expected role in the elections.

Six, in Ohio like elsewhere, fear and the aftermath of 9/11 were played on by the Bush camp and had an influence on voters that overshadowed the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs and the economic decline suffered in Ohio.

Seven, the labor movement, ACT, MoveOn and others tried to substitute for a poorly organized and ineffective Democratic Party. It appears that the traditional base of the Democratic Party among working people, minorities and large urban areas has eroded.

Finally, we can say for certain that, for the overwhelmingly majority of activists, the elections are over. Many people are now involved in other urgent struggles — some to prevent privatization of Social Security, some in election reform efforts, some in the struggle for health care and pension rights, some in the fight for quality education and some around Ohio’s budget crisis. While doubts linger about the honesty of the outcome, few persist in arguing that the elections should be overturned and conducted again. Political realities are such that most activists agree this will not happen.

What we cannot say for certain, yet, is what really happened in Ohio, and we may never be able to.

We don’t know how many people registered to vote properly and in good faith but were never entered onto the voting rolls, or were entered incorrectly. We know that many people became discouraged or had other responsibilities and had to leave long lines, after standing and waiting for hours to vote, but we don’t know how many. We know some ballots were already marked for Bush before voters got them, and that some Kerry supporters voted on these ballots for Kerry and their ballots were then rejected as “overvotes.” We know some votes cast on touch-screen machines “hopped over” to Bush after the voter voted for Kerry, but again, we can’t say how many. We don’t know how many African American and Latino voters stayed away from the polls because of intimidating rumors of the possibility of arrest or deportation. We don’t know how many people were misdirected by poll workers to the wrong polling location, and then had their votes thrown out because of a ruling by Ohio’s very partisan Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell. We don’t know how many vote counts were manipulated and how many votes were stolen. What we can say is that all of these things happened, and thousands of Kerry votes were “lost” in Ohio. How many will probably never be known for sure.

What we also cannot say for certain is that the reforms necessary to protect democracy in Ohio and elsewhere will happen. The call for reform has been issued by the heroic Reps. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio and John Conyers of Michigan. Conyers has issued a statement of reforms that he will fight for at the federal level. (For his complete report on the elections and the reforms he has singled out for attention, see his web site at www.house.gov/conyers.) If won, these reforms will go a long way toward improving the democratic process. Statewide and local reforms are needed as well.

Many organizations and individuals have begun the process of identifying what reforms are needed and what it will take to win them. This is a vital process, and needs to be completed as speedily as possible so that 2006 and 2008 are not repeats of the debacle that happened in 2004 in Ohio and many other states.

Judy Johnson is an Ohio election activist.

Schiavo case and separation of powers

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 12:37:00 +0000

The following is a response to the Republican ramrodding of a bill giving a federal court jurisdiction over the case of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo. The Senate, operating under unanimous-consent rules, passed the legislation March 19 with no debate and with only three members present. The House voted 203-58 at 12:42 a.m. March 20 to approve the measure, and rushed it to President Bush. He signed the bill into law at 1:11 a.m.

By passing this bill, in this form, we will be intruding in the most sensitive possible family decision at the most ill-opportune time. It will be hard for this member to envision a case or circumstance that Congress will not be willing to involve itself in under this precedent.

By passing legislation which takes sides in an ongoing legal dispute, we will be casting aside the principle of separation of powers. We will be abandoning our role as a serious legislative branch, and take on the role not only of Judge, but of Doctor, Priest, Parent and Spouse.

By passing legislation which wrests jurisdiction away from a state judge and sends it to a single preselected federal court, we will abandon any pretense of federalism. The concept of a Jeffersonian Democracy as envisioned by the founders, and the states as “laboratories of democracy” as articulated by Justice Brandeis, will lie in tatters.

By passing this legislation, in the complete absence of hearings or a committee markup, and with no opportunity for amendments, in complete violation of what we used to call “regular order,” we will send a signal that the usual rules of conduct and procedure no longer apply when they are inconvenient to the Majority Party.

By passing this legislation, and taking this sensitive decision away from a spouse and giving it to a federal court, we will make it abundantly clear that all the talk last year about marriage being a “sacred trust between a man and a woman” was just that — talk.

My friends on the other side of the aisle will declare that this legislation is about principle, and morals and values.

But if this legislation was only about principle, why would the Majority Party be distributing talking points in the other body declaring that “this is a great political issue” and that by passing this bill, “the pro-life base will be excited”?

If the president really cared about the issue of the removal of feeding tubes, why would he have signed a bill in Texas that allows hospitals to save money by removing feeding tubes over a family’s objection?

If we really cared about saving lives, why would the Congress sit idly by while 40 million Americans have no health insurance, or while the president tries to cut billions of dollars from Medicaid — a virtual lifeline for millions of our citizens?

When all is said and done, this bill is about taking sides in a legal dispute. Last year, the Majority passed two bills stripping the federal courts of their power to review cases involving the Defense of Marriage Act and the Pledge of Allegiance because they feared they would read the Constitution too broadly. Last month, the Majority passed a class action bill that took jurisdiction away from state courts because they feared they would treat corporate wrongdoers too harshly. Today we are sending a case from the state courts to the federal courts even though it is the most extensively litigated “right to die” case in our nation’s history.

There is only one principle at stake here — manipulating the court system to achieve pre-determined substantive outcomes. By passing this law, it should be obvious to all that we are no longer a nation of laws, but have been reduced to a nation of men. By passing this law, we will be telling our friends abroad that even though we expect them to live by the rule of law, Congress can ignore it when it doesn’t suit our needs. By passing this law we diminish our nation as a democracy and ourselves as legislators.

John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) is minority leader of the House Committee on the Judiciary, a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, and the second most senior member of the House. This statement was originally published by truthout.org.

Jeb Bushs cuts target disabled

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 12:23:00 +0000

Drug industry desecrates public interest

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 12:22:00 +0000

'The Truth about the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It' By Marcia Angell, M.D. Random House, 2004 Hardcover, 336 pp., $24.95The U.S. health care system means misery for many, abundance for others. Parts of the story are easily told: low life expectancy and high infant mortality for the poor and racially oppressed, and millions who are uninsured or have poor coverage. But to categorize the system’s benefits and gains takes some effort, because wealth, profiteering, and privilege often skulk behind closed doors. The pharmaceutical industry, however, is an exception. Its desecration of the public interest is writ large.

In her recent book “The Truth about the Drug Companies,” Marcia Angell lays the whole story out in a clear, easily read fashion. Her achievement is to have breathed new life into the muckraker tradition pioneered by Upton Sinclair (“The Jungle,” 1906). Her book is essential reading for anyone engaged in, or thinking about, the fight for universal health care.

She brings authority to her task. As editor of the New England Journal of Medicine for 20 years, Angell monitored changes in medical practice, research developments, and drug company inroads into the nation’s political, scientific, and huckstering discourse. In her book, she covers these areas.

To justify high prices, the drug industry exaggerates both its research innovations and risks. Of the 78 drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2002, only 17 contained new ingredients. Only seven represented therapeutic advances, and major U.S. corporations produced none of them. U.S. companies specialize in “me-too” drugs for replacing those drugs that are about to lose patent protection.

• In 2002, 13 percent of the industry’s income went for research, much of it to pay physician “thought leaders” who perform fake research aimed at recruiting patients and who push for unapproved uses for approved drugs.

• The Bayh-Dole law of 1980 enabled universities, scientists, and corporations to patent discoveries emanating from publicly funded research. Drug companies gained exclusive marketing rights in return for royalty payments. Universities now are dependent upon drug company largesse, and moonlighting academicians grow rich.

• A lot of the research produced by drug companies is unreliable. The conclusions too often favor company products. Negative results go unpublished. Adverse drug reactions remain secret. Violating standard research methods, the companies often compare “me-too” drugs with placebo (“sugar pills”) rather than with other drugs already in use.

• Behind the façade of education, drug companies spend much of their $54 billion marketing outlay on physicians, paying for their continuing education and bestowing “food, flattery, and friendship” upon doctors.

Angell highlights monstrous contradictions. Drug sales rose from $40 billion in 1990 to $205 billion in 2004. In 2003 health care costs consumed 15.3 percent of the U.S. GNP; in Canada, 9.5 percent of its GNP. Yet health statistics continue their downward trajectory.

Profits consumed 17 percent of the industry’s revenue in 2002 and 10 drug corporations on the Fortune 500 list took in $35.9 billion, while 490 others divided up $33.7 billion. And the costs of health insurance are astronomical. Twenty-five percent of U.S. older people cannot afford to fill prescriptions. Supplies of childhood vaccines fall short because company resources are directed towards drugs that are likely to be profitable.

Angell concludes with a few remedial suggestions, new regulatory measures, for example, and changes in medical education. But she relies mainly on the persuasiveness of aroused individual citizens. “This is where you come in,” she declares. “Your representatives will not deviate much from the industry script unless you force them to.”

She notes that “what finally matters most is concerted public pressure.” The author is short, however, on specific strategies, and her good intentions seem to fall into the realm of wishful thinking. In contrast, Victor Navarro (“Dangerous to your Health: Capitalism in Health Care,” Monthly Review Press) looked at the experience of rich, industrialized nations and found that for a universal health care plan to materialize, the ground must be prepared by a working people’s party and strong labor movement.

It’s the job of united popular forces to turn the health care system around, and in the process bring the drug companies to heel. Marcia Angell’s contribution stops at having provided activists with a useful tool: “I have tried to arm you with the facts.”

Missourians fight to blunt health cuts

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 12:20:00 +0000

ST. LOUIS — “Hurting Missouri’s most vulnerable citizens is not the way to fix our state’s budget problems,” said Cathy Martarella at a March 21 press conference announcing the formation of Missourians for Health. The new coalition includes health care providers, mental health advocates, Medicaid recipients, trade unionists and parents of children in the state’s First Steps program, which serves developmentally disabled toddlers.

Missourians for Health formed in response to Republican Gov. Matt Blunt’s proposed cuts to Medicaid, mental health and First Steps services.

“Just because the funding goes away doesn’t mean that the need has also disappeared,” Martarella told the World. She said cutting Medicaid and mental health services will make budget problems worse. “Patients still need to be cared for. Instead of mental health professionals providing services to our most vulnerable citizens, many citizens may become incarcerated, hospitalized, homeless or unemployed.” All of which, she said, will cost taxpayers more than the services currently provided by Medicaid or other health care programs.

Gov. Blunt had told the parents of Missouri’s disabled toddlers that he could “save” the First Steps program by allocating $14.5 million from the Medicaid savings he proposed. Malinda Terreri, of the Save First Steps Coalition, responded, “We refuse to be pitted against one another in the budget battle.”

“I wish I didn’t have to use Medicaid,” said Norzora Block who suffers from diabetes, severe arthritis and hypertension. “But if I can’t pay for my medications or see my doctor regularly, I can get very sick. I could lose the use of my feet. I could go blind. I could even die.” To learn more, go to www.missourihealth.org.

tonypec @ pww.org

Union rights for North Carolina farm workers

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 12:19:00 +0000

Mexican workers headed to the fields of North Carolina under the H-2A visa program can now stop by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee’s office in Monterrey, Mexico, to find out about their newly won rights. Opening the office was the first concrete step in implementing a groundbreaking agreement signed last fall between FLOC and the North Carolina Growers Association. The agreement covers 7,500 Mexican guest workers who cultivate and harvest cucumbers and other crops in North Carolina. This is the first time immigrant farm workers in the U.S. government’s existing H-2A guest worker program have been unionized.

Enforcement of seniority rights and grievances concerning discrimination against those who have spoken up for the union will be a priority in the new office, said FLOC organizer Leticia Zavala. The union will also help arrange overnight housing for workers waiting for the approval of their H-2A visas at the U.S. consulate in Monterrey. Workers pay the consulate a $100 “interview fee” in addition to a $100 visa charge. Also, they typically pay $140 to a “recruiter.” The union will seek to protect workers from being overcharged by recruiters, Zavala said.

In all, 35,000 agriculture laborers work under the H-2A program, but the new FLOC members are the only ones entitled to file complaints through a grievance procedure.

The president of the Toledo, Ohio-based FLOC, Baldemar Velasquez, was joined by California-based United Farm Workers of America President Arturo Rodriguez, March 17, in opening the new office. FLOC and the UFW are chief proponents of the AgJobs bill now in Congress, which would allow undocumented farm workers to earn the right to permanently stay in the U.S. by continuing to work in agriculture, according to a statement by FLOC. Sens. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) reintroduced the bill in the Senate Feb. 10. Last year’s AgJobs measure was co-sponsored by 63 senators, including many Republicans.

Rwood @ pww.org

Protesting 12-hour days

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 12:16:00 +0000

African American laundry womens strike of 1881

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 12:12:00 +0000

With slavery less than two decades behind them, thousands of African American home laundry workers went on strike for higher wages, respect for their work and control over how their work was organized. In the summer of 1881, the home laundry workers took on Atlanta’s business and political establishment, and gained so much support that they threatened to call a general strike, which would have shut the city down.

Life as a laundry worker in 1880s Atlanta

Almost all (98 percent) of these African American working women were household workers. On average, women began working as domestics between ages 10 and 16 and worked until 65 or older. In the 1880s, more African American women worked as home laundry workers than any other type of domestic work. The city had more home laundry workers than male common laborers. In contrast, only a small portion of white women worked for pay, and in fact, the average white family could afford the services of at least a home laundry worker.

Home laundry workers worked long, tiring hours and their wages ranged from $4 to $8 a month. These wages changed little over time, and home laundry workers would increase their earnings by adding on clients or getting help from their children. Home laundry workers worked mostly in their own homes or in their neighborhoods with other women. They worked outside in the shade when weather permitted, or inside their homes, hanging clothes all over the house to dry.

They made their own soap from lye, starch from wheat bran and washtubs from beer barrels cut in half. Their work began on Monday mornings and continued throughout the week until the clean clothes were delivered on Saturday. Throughout the week, they would carry gallons of water from wells, pumps or hydrants for washing, boiling and rinsing clothes. Then, after hanging the clothes to dry, the women would iron, alternately using several heavy irons at a time.

The summer of 1881

In July of 1881, 20 home laundry workers met to form a trade organization, the Washing Society. They were seeking higher pay, respect and autonomy over their work, and established a uniform rate at a dollar per dozen pounds of wash. With the help of African American ministers throughout the city, they held a mass meeting and called a strike to achieve higher pay at the uniform rate.

The Washing Society established door-to-door canvassing to widen its membership, urging home laundry worker all over the city to join or honor the strike. They also involved white home laundry workers who were less than 2 percent of home laundry workers in the city — an extraordinary sign of interracial solidarity for the time.

In three weeks, the Washing Society grew from 20 to 3,000 strikers.

By August, municipal authorities were taking direct action, arresting strikers and fining members who were making house visits. The home laundry workers were not deterred. But the white establishment was so agitated that city politicians got involved. The City Council proposed that members of any home laundry workers’ organization had to pay an annual fee of $25, and then offered nonprofit tax status to businesses that wanted to start commercial laundries. Even though the $25 fee would mean several months of wages, the strikers were not discouraged. They responded with a letter to the mayor, agreeing to pay the fees rather than be defeated. “We mean business ... or no washing,” the letter stated.

The resolve of the striking home laundry workers despite the arrests, fines and proposed fees inspired other domestic workers. Cooks, maids and nurses began demanding higher wages. Hotel workers were going on strike. Unlike strikes in the past, employers — aware of the magnitude of the African American labor unrest — weren’t confident that they could find replacement workers. So the following week, the City Council rejected the proposed fees. The home laundry workers had prevailed.

Adapted by Beatrice Lumpkin from Working Women Network. Join the network at .

WORLD NOTES

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 12:08:00 +0000

Greek students support strike

Japan: Peace committee says, ban the Marines. The Japan Peace Committee on March 4 demanded that the government oppose the planned return to Okinawa of U.S. Marines from Iraq where they were involved in the massacre of civilians in Fallujah, Japan Press Weekly reported.

About 2,200 personnel from the Okinawa-based U.S. 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit are expected to return to Okinawa this month, along with about 20 helicopters from the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station.

During visits to the Foreign Ministry and Defense Agency, JPC Representative Director Sato Mitsuo and Secretary General Chisaka Jun also demanded that the Futenma base be returned to Japan immediately and unconditionally, and plans for a state-of-the-art sea airport off Nago City be withdrawn.

The JPC representatives told Foreign Ministry officials that under international law, the Marines cannot be allowed to return, and that this is necessary to ensure safety of citizens living near the bases.

Colombia: Reveal plot to kill unionists Domingo Tovar Arrieta, director of the Human Rights Department of the CUT national trade union federation, last week revealed “a macabre plot to assassinate union leaders” because they have criticized the way talks are being conducted between the government and the right-wing AUC paramilitaries.

Saying he has presented the information to key government officials, Tovar called for international solidarity with Colombian trade unionists.

“We were informed by a trustworthy source that from Realito [location of the talks] a list has been organized of people considered to be an obstacle to the talks,” Tovar said.

The plan was to be carried out by Colombian army personnel, and included a list of specific unionists headed by Tovar, who was identified as “the principal problem.”

“My family has been threatened several times,” he said. “Nearly every day I am followed by cars and motorcycles without license plates and several people surround my residence, asking for me.”

Messages can be sent to: Ambassador Luis Alberto Moreno, Embassy of Colombia to the U.S., (202) 387-8338, fax: (202) 232-8643, emwas@colombiaemb.org.

Tanzania: Teachers need respect, support Low wages, heavy workloads, social disrespect, and HIV/AIDS have helped to diminish a profession once glorified by Tanzania’s first President, Julius Nyerere when he chose the Kiswahili word, mwalimu (teacher) as his title, the UN’s IRIN news service said.

Hakielimu, a local NGO specializing in education, said last month that “Many teachers have minimal material or intellectual support and their salary is often insufficient to maintain them and their families.”

Though all children are expected to be enrolled in school by 2006, Hakielimu said that in many schools, learning is greatly undermined by difficult working conditions for teachers. The NGO called for government action to increase educational services as a priority in the country’s plan to reduce poverty.

Over 140,000 teachers have died of AIDS-related diseases in the last 20 years, resulting in heavier workloads and soaring class sizes for other teachers.

Britain: Union wins historic equal pay award

The UNISON public workers union has won the biggest-ever equal pay award with North Cumbria Acute NHS Trust, for 1,500 women working at Cumberland Infirmary and at West Cumbria Hospital. Awards to each worker will range from $66,500 to $380,000.

The union waged an eight-year legal struggle. Equal value claims were filed in August 1997 for 14 job classifications, using five different male comparisons. Workers ranging from nurses to office workers and domestics compared their pay and benefits with craftsmen and craft supervisors, laborers and maintenance assistants.

Some women will receive up to 14 years’ difference in pay, and interest of 50 to 60 percent will also be paid.

Afghanistan: Bitter winter kills children

Over 1,000 children may have died last month in a remote, mountainous province of western Afghanistan — felled by respiratory diseases made worse by grave food shortages and extreme cold weather, the London Daily Telegraph said March 2.

A reporter accompanied three Catholic Relief Service (CRS) workers, the first international aid workers to gain access to the Tulak region in Ghor province, which had been completely cut off from the outside world during the harsh winter.

“I have treated 160 patients in just two villages where 14 have died,” said Dr. Wahidullah Habibi, an Afghan doctor with CRS. “They have no food. Several people have frozen to death trying to borrow food from other villages. In another community of 75 families near the 9,000-ft. Janak Pass, villagers said seven children and six adults had died in the past month.

Area leaders and aid workers attributed the tragedy to 25 years of war, seven years of drought, poverty, and lack of medical facilities.

World Notes are compiled by Marilyn Bechtel

(mbechtel @ pww.org).

Israeli land grab continues in West Bank

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 12:00:00 +0000

On March 21 the Israeli government confirmed its approval of plans to build 3,500 new housing units in two new neighborhoods in Ma’ale Adumim, an illegal West Bank settlement. The construction would significantly expand the settlement toward the northeast and around east Jerusalem, a move that will tighten the Israeli stranglehold on Jerusalem and its Palestinian residents even further.

Israel’s decision reveals that it has no true intention of solving its decades-old conflict with the Palestinians by pursuing a peaceful solution, but rather regards a Palestinian defeat as a fait accompli.Regional and international attention over the past few months has focused on Israel’s decision to withdraw its troops from and dismantle settlements in Gaza. This issue has served as a distraction from an even bigger Israeli strategic move, which is to increase its presence in the West Bank and implement its “Greater Israel” plan.

Israel’s decision to construct more housing units in the West Bank makes it clear to the international community that by pulling out of some Palestinian territories, it considers itself as having the right to step up its presence in other parts. By securing a stronghold in and around Jerusalem, Israel crushes any hopes of Palestinians gaining full control of the West Bank for a future state with east Jerusalem as its capital.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat summed up the situation eloquently in a report by the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz: “If this project is carried out, it means shutting the door for negotiations and peace ... [t]his project intends to determine the future of Jerusalem by settlements and not negotiations.”

However, the expansion of Ma’ale Adumim, as well as of other settlements, aggravates several problems, including boxing in Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem and leaving them with no room to grow or connect with the rest of the West Bank. The construction also widens the wedge between the northern and southern parts of the West Bank, preventing Palestinian mobility within their own territories.

Furthermore, Israel argues that its settlement expansion remains within the ‘Israeli’ side of the illegal Separation Wall, which further demonstrates Israel’s real intentions to grab as much land as possible and strengthen its control of the settlement blocs slated for Israeli annexation under a final-status agreement.

According to the Middle East roadmap for peace, Israel agreed to suspend all settlement activity in the Occupied Territories. As usual, Israel twisted the language and applied its own interpretation of the agreement, saying it can build within existing settlements under the argument of natural growth. Israel took its excuses even further, arguing that the peace plan is not currently being implemented and blaming the Palestinian National Authority for not carrying out its promises to stop violence by Palestinian factions. Israel conveniently ignores its own violations and responsibility to adhere to its promises.

Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal under international law, as is stated in the Geneva Conventions, Hague Regulations, Oslo Accords, the internationally-backed roadmap, U.N. Security Council Resolutions 446 and 465, as well as General Assembly Resolutions 3005 XXVII and 3525A. Israel’s blatant disregard for each of these pillars of international law contradicts basic principles of human rights.

It is time the international community opens its eyes to Israel’s strategic moves to expand its territory and, subsequently, to shrink Palestinian control of Palestinian territories. The pressure on Israel to adhere to its numerous agreements and promises must increase. With an illegal wall, destruction of Palestinian homes, construction and expansion of Israeli settlements, what more is required to realize Israel’s true objectives?

Reprinted from Miftah.org, the Jerusalem-based Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy.

New initiatives to end U.S. travel ban to Cuba

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 09:56:00 +0000

The U.S. ban on travel to Cuba has become a focus for people of all shades of opinion working to reverse U.S. policy toward Cuba. Announcements are now out for a conference and several trips this year are planned as direct challenges to the travel restrictions.

“Cuba Action Day,” a one-day conference April 27 in Washington, kicks off a campaign to lobby Congress on the travel issue. Participants will include Cuban families on both sides of the Florida Straits, business and agricultural interests, church groups, and teachers, students and artists associated with schools and colleges. For more information, visit www.cubaactionday.org.

In addition, both Pastors for Peace, part of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO), and the Venceremos Brigade will go back to Cuba this summer in defiance of U.S. travel regulations. The 16th Pastors for Peace Friendshipment caravan will bring medical and other humanitarian supplies to Cuba, and the 35th Venceremos Brigade will work on construction or agricultural projects to express solidarity with the Cuban people. The dates are July 21, when the Friendshipment crosses into Mexico on its way to Cuba, and July 17, when the Brigade leaves for Cuba. Both groups return Aug. 1. (For more information, e-mail IFCO at cucaravan @ igc.org or the Venceremos Brigade at vbrigade @ yahoo.com.)

World recoils at Wolfowitz nomination

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 09:49:00 +0000

Coming on the heels of his nomination of extreme right-winger John Bolton as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, President Bush has delivered another slap in the face to the international community with the appointment of Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank.

Wolfowitz, who would replace James D. Wolfensohn on May 31, was instrumental in promoting Bush’s rush to war and is seen around the world as a key figure in American unilateralism and the doctrine of pre-emptive war.

“Paul Wolfowitz has a serious credibility problem,” William Hartung of the World Policy Institute at New School University said. “He understated the cost of the Iraq war, while promoting vast distortions about Baghdad’s weapons capabilities as a way to sell the conflict to the American public.”

The World Bank, with its purported policy of reducing poverty and fostering economic growth among developing countries, has come under heavy fire from the justice movements around the world. The bank is dominated mainly by the United States and other Western powers. As a prerequisite for making the loans, the big powers have demanded that developing nations submit to “structural adjustment policies,” which require severe austerity measures and, critics say, undermine national sovereignty.

While European allies and members of the World Bank — most notably the Netherlands — have recoiled at the nomination, and while much of the world public has reacted with outrage, Wolfowitz’s appointment is a virtual sure bet. Historically, the United States, as the bank’s largest financier, has always picked its president.

Neil Watkins, coordinator of the Jubilee USA Network, a coalition of more than 70 churches, unions, and environmental groups dedicated to erasing developing nations’ debt, said, “If the World Bank is a development organization of more than 180 member nations, as it claims, it is unacceptable for one nation to unilaterally select its leader.”

According to experts, Europeans could possibly block the nomination, but this is not likely. The three other major powers — Britain, France, and Germany — are worried about retaliation by a vengeful Bush administration.

Soren Ambrose, senior policy analyst at Fifty Years is Enough, a network for global economic justice, told the World that the president of the World Bank has a tremendous amount of power over its activities and is often treated as a “roving ambassador of development.”

Previous U.S. presidents have tended to have a more multilateral approach, said Ambrose. In essence, Wolfowitz’s administration of the bank might have the same effect there as the Bush administration has had on international politics.

“The Europeans tend to be very zealous about preserving the idea of multilateralism. For them that means having some voice in these decisions, usually under more cooperative diplomatic presidents,” Ambrose said.

The World Bank president “has a big platform to talk about international development and economics and it would, under Wolfowitz, be someone talking about it from the neoconservative, pro-Bush kind of angle, rather than a more conventional development-first angle.”

Ambrose said that most likely there would be no radical changes at the World Bank, but an intensification of current policies. However, taken together with the recent promotion of Bolton as UN ambassador, Ambrose added, a pattern emerges.

“It is entirely possible, Ambrose said, “that some of the conservative commentators are correct in saying that this signals that Bush is trying to use his nominations to multilateral institutions as a way of both dominating them and using them for U.S. purposes as opposed to the kind of benign or malign neglect that went on in his first term.”

Dmargolis @ pww.org

Cesar Chavez to be honored

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 09:42:00 +0000

Celebrations of the life and work of the great Mexican American labor and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez, founder of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), are being held throughout the country between now and April 3.

The year 2005 marks the 40th anniversary of the five-year-long strike against Delano-area grape growers, initiated by mostly Filipino American members of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO, and joined by Chavez’ National Farm Workers’ Association (the UFW’s predecessor).

The UFW’s web site, , lists many events. Call local UFW offices for more information.

Following are a few highlights:

Chicago: March 30, 8:30–10:30 a.m., Second annual breakfast, Cesar Chavez Day of Service and Learning, Curie Metropolitan High School. Special guests: Paul F. Chavez, Paul R. Chavez and Julie Chavez Rodriguez (Cesar’s son and grandchildren). Information: (312) 814-1940.

Tallahassee, Fla.: March 30, 9:30 a.m. March to the Capitol and rally in Waller Park. Special guest speaker: UFW President Arturo Rodriguez. Information: (850) 627-2028.

San Francisco: April 3, Cesar E. Chavez Holiday Parade and Festival. Gather at 11 a.m. at the foot of Market St. for a parade at 12 noon followed by a program and festival at Civic Center at 1 p.m. Information: (415) 552-2911.

Los Angeles: March 31, 10 a.m., Fifth annual Archdiocesan Mass in Memory of Cesar Chavez, L.A. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Information: (213) 381-5611, x23.

April 2, 8 a.m., Seventh annual Cesar Chavez Benefit Walk, 1301 Avenida Cesar Chavez (in the soccer field), followed at noon by a festival and cultural program featuring UFW President Arturo Rodriguez and Chavez family members. Information: (323) 722-0118.

Chavez’ birthday, March 31, is a holiday in seven states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Michigan, New Mexico, Texas and Utah, as well as dozens of cities and counties throughout the nation.

Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.) has introduced a bill for a national holiday.

Mbechtel @ pww.org