People Before Profit blog

Janitors, students force U of Miami to talk

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 07:31:00 +0000

MIAMI — The University of Miami main campus saw action March 28 that would have been unimaginable a few short weeks ago. More than 300 janitors, students, faculty and community supporters stopped traffic on South Dixie Highway, next to the campus, as they rallied to support the janitors’ strike against unfair labor practices by UNICCO, their service-contract employer.

Protesters called for a living wage, health care and recognition of the janitors’ card-check decision to be represented by the Service Employees International Union. The rally surged into the highway, stopping lunch-hour traffic and bringing this struggle to the attention of the wider Miami community. Drivers trapped by the action honked and waved their support.

Clergy and other community supporters sat down at an intersection in an act of civil disobedience and 17 were arrested.

Meanwhile, about 20 students moved into the admissions office in the Ashe Administration Building and occupied the premises for 14 hours. When word of their action reached the rally, everyone hurried back to campus. A number of workers, students, faculty and others were able to get into the building lobby before police blocked the doors. Hundreds outside chanted, sang and held up signs.

Why all this action? The UM janitors, contracted out to UNICCO, are among the most poorly paid university janitors in the nation, many earning as little as $6.30 an hour with no health benefits. They have been organizing with SEIU and went on strike against unfair labor practices a month ago.

UNICCO’s response has been to step up intimidation and coercion of workers. UM President Donna Shalala announced to the media (not the university community, much less the janitors themselves) a raise for all campus contract workers. But the raise does not bring them up to a living wage and Shalala did not acknowledge the union. The March 28 actions turned up the heat.

Early in the sit-in, the UM administration cut off air conditioning to the occupied locations. Students and their supporters were denied access to food, water and bathrooms. They remained undaunted. In fact, e-mails went out to the campus and progressive organizations urging supporters to call Shalala and demand humane treatment for the students (demands she ignored).

At a vigil called for 5 p.m., the hour designated for clearing the building, hundreds stood in solidarity with the students. The students held firm, using supplies they had brought in, urinating in bottles and buckets, as negotiations with Shalala dragged into the night. To limit information coming out, the university dampened the wireless signal in the building.

Shalala reportedly threatened the students with not only arrest but expulsion from the university. The students stayed. Their spirits were buoyed by chants and songs from a hardy group of scores of supporters — janitors, other students, faculty and community members.

Finally, at 2 a.m., the students emerged to announce that the university had agreed to a number of their demands. UM officials agreed to hold a meeting with UNICCO workers, students, faculty and SEIU within 48 hours. The university also agreed to release a statement saying it will not tolerate intimidation or coercion of workers.

This is the first time UM officials have sat down at the table with workers. It is seen as a major victory for the students, janitors and their supporters. You can follow this story and support the janitors at www.yeswecane.org and www.seiu11.org.

True to its history, FBI still violating civil liberties

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 07:13:00 +0000

According to a report just released by the Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation violated procedures for wiretapping and other methods of obtaining intelligence more than 100 times in the last two years. The department’s inspector general regarded some of the violations as “significant,” including wiretaps that were broader than what a court had approved, and wiretaps that were allowed to go on for weeks, even months, longer than had been authorized. Given the bureau’s history, this shouldn’t be surprising. The FBI was created for partisan political purposes, and has blatantly violated civil liberties since its inception.

In 1919 the attorney general of the United States, A. Mitchell Palmer, exacerbated public fears of communism in order to generate publicity for his candidacy in the upcoming presidential election. Coming only two years after the Russian Revolution of 1917, there was widespread hysteria in America concerning communists and other supposed radicals. Attorney General Palmer capitalized on this by creating an antiradicalism division in the Justice Department. He selected a young government attorney named J. Edgar Hoover to lead the new division.

Hoover’s division became the FBI. In 1919 the bureau staged the first of what became known as the Palmer Raids.

Agents invaded the offices of suspected radical political organizations and labor unions. These raids rounded up thousands of legal aliens who had committed no crime, but were suspect only because of their political beliefs (many were communists or socialists) or their immigrant backgrounds (many had Russian or German ancestry). Since they lacked U.S. citizenship, many were deported without indictment or even a trial.

The only evidence of domestic terrorism that the raids netted was blueprints that the bureau maintained were for a bomb, intended to be used to overthrow the government. It was eventually discovered that the blueprints were actually for a new and improved record player. Despite a lack of evidence that the suspected radicals were actually a threat, in January 1920 the FBI staged its infamous “New Year’s Raids.” This time, in addition to entering offices, the agents invaded thousands of people’s homes, largely without search warrants.

Approximately 6,000 individuals in 23 states were arrested and jailed. Most were never charged with any crime and were denied legal counsel. It’s ironic, of course, that the nation’s chief law enforcement agency was denying American citizens their constitutional rights. Arrests were made on the basis of subscribing to communist newspapers, reading Russian novels, eating in restaurants that served foreign cuisine, and simply because someone “looked like a radical,” according to published sources.

Almost 85 years later, little appears to have changed in the FBI. According to the Justice Department’s report, the inspector general identified 108 instances of violations in 2004 and 2005 regarding wiretaps and other methods of obtaining intelligence. The report also found violations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which governs how and when the federal government can eavesdrop on domestic communications. In 2004, 48 percent of the FBI violations trampled on FISA, and this figure surged to 69 percent last year.

The inspector general’s report also revealed that the duration of the violations grew over the last two years. This was the case regarding the “over-collection” of intelligence data, in which the FBI collected more evidence than a court had authorized. In one such instance, the bureau obtained the complete content of 181 telephone calls related to an intelligence investigation, but a court had only authorized the bureau to obtain billing records.

This was also the case with “overruns,” in which the FBI allowed a wiretap or other method of obtaining intelligence to run longer than a court had approved. In one instance, a wiretap lasted 373 days longer than it had been approved for. The average duration in which over-collections and overruns were permitted before the bureau stopped them was 22 days in 2004, and 32 days in 2005.

The spokesman for the FBI, John Miller, attempted to justify these violations of civil liberties by arguing that some violations are inevitable “given the scope and complexity of national security investigations.” However, it’s more likely that the bureau is simply perpetuating longstanding practices. The Justice Department would do well to view its report as a serious comment on the blatant lawlessness within the FBI, and to demand serious reforms within the bureau. It’s long overdue.

Gene C. Gerard taught history, religion and ethics and currently writes a political blog at www.orbstandard.com/GGerard.

A referendum on the Bush agenda

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 07:11:00 +0000

On the color-coded 2004 election maps, New York was blue — not a big surprise. Yet many “red” areas dot the state’s political maps, including nine Republican congressional districts, the Statehouse (held by three-term Republican Gov. George Pataki) and the Republican-controlled state Senate.

But, as Bob Dylan sang, “The times, they are a-changing.”

New Yorkers have every reason to expect a big sweep for the Democrats in November, starting with the governor’s and U.S. Senate races, on down to the state Senate.

Extremely important for the national picture are the congressional races. It looks like New York voters will contribute at least one and maybe more seats to the 15-seat change necessary to end Republican control of Congress.

Die-hard Republican Tom Reynolds in western New York will again face Jack Davis, who got 44 percent of the vote in 2004 in this 2-to-1 Republican district. On the other end of the state, Kirsten Gillebrand, an attorney, is running for the 2006 party nomination to challenge GOP incumbent John Sweeney.

In New York City, Vito Fossella may face a challenge from City Councilman Bill deBlasio. If this happens — and it’s safe to say that labor and the city’s many liberal and progressive forces would love such an opportunity — Fossella will be in trouble.

In a district that includes southern and central parts of the state, “Band of Brothers” candidate Eric Massa is challenging Republican Randy Kuhl. Massa writes about the area, “It is hard to drive more than a few miles and not see a vacant factory or abandoned farm.”

Last week, incumbent Sherwood Boehlert announced he would not run for re-election. What had been considered a safe Republican seat may not be so safe — in 2000, Bush won this district by only 1 percentage point, and in 2004, by only 6 points. As one observer commented, “Assuming a decent candidate, any open congressional House race in New York is winnable for the Dems.”

Why? Across the state, there is growing opposition to the Republican agenda and anger at its local impact. From tax cuts for the rich, to the attack on Social Security and disastrous Medicare policy, to the deep cuts in social program spending, to the war in Iraq, New Yorkers are not happy with the direction of the country.

This unhappiness has roots in the growing economic problems facing working people struggling to heat their homes, pay some of the highest property taxes in the nation, and make ends meet as good jobs disappear and public services are drastically cut.

It has roots in those poorer, rural parts of the state that some have compared to Appalachia, but it also has roots in the suburbs, including Long Island, no longer the Republican stronghold it once was. A very important victory was the election last year to the Suffolk County Legislature of a bus driver and transit union member who ran on the Democratic and Working Families Party lines.

Unhappiness with the Bush gang also has deep roots in all parts of New York City. The attack on labor, cuts in aid to veterans and first responders, and anti-immigrant policies added to growing poverty, a public education system in crisis, skyrocketing housing costs and relentless gentrification of working-class neighborhoods — all these are big issues here and will play out in November.

The war in Iraq isn’t too popular either. Parents, and not just on the liberal Upper West Side of NYC, but in rural areas as well, are organizing against the aggressive tactics of military recruiters in high schools. A New York Times article described that opposition in small-town New York, quoting a recruiter who said, in the past, “perhaps 1 or 2 of 10 parents would hang up; now, people hang up all the time.”

Finally, there is another race which gives New Yorkers an opportunity to add strength and depth to the fight against the extreme right: the race to fill the seat of retiring progressive Congressman Major Owens. Given what’s at stake — someone once said that the right wing wants to “overthrow the 20th century” — we need someone who will be a fighter like Owens. Of the Democratic contenders, clearly Chris Owens would continue that record and build on his own as a lifelong community activist and supporter of labor, women’s rights, gay rights, public education, and very importantly for the future of Brooklyn, the right of working people to live in NYC.

The anger and dissatisfaction with the national Republican agenda will also be expressed in the state Senate elections, where the Republican majority, cut to only four seats in 2004, could shrink even further this year.

What this will add up to in November depends on many things: how fast and how low Bush’s popularity will sink; how united and focused labor and the people’s movements are; and how mobilized the people are on the issues, on what’s at stake.

This election is, plain and simple, a referendum on the Bush administration and its policies. Winning it means electing Democrats, including some who are not good on every issue. Changing the state’s congressional map — making it bluer — is a necessary part of making that referendum an unmistakable rejection of the Bush agenda.

Elena Mora (emora@cpusa.org) is state chairperson of the Communist Party of New York.

EDITORIAL: United we stand

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 06:47:00 +0000

The recent upsurge for immigrant rights is testimony to the rising working-class tide uniting under the banner of equal rights for all. Immigrant rights are fundamental to human rights, workers’ rights and civil rights. The struggle for rights for immigrants in the U.S., as well as globally, is in the interest of all workers along with all people who face racism and discrimination. The upsurge strengthens all working-class fights, especially anti-racist battles.

A fundamental bedrock of working-class progress is international solidarity, especially with workers and people who are exploited by imperialism. Farmers, workers and families in Mexico and throughout the Americas, as well as in Africa, Asia and even parts of Europe, are being thrown off their land and driven into motion by unlivable conditions due to global corporate profiteering. Forced to seek a better life in another country, many choose the U.S., seen as a beacon for the world’s tired and hungry masses.

Anti-immigrant myths are propagated by the ultra-right, reactionary forces to “divide and conquer,” to make working-class people fight among themselves for crumbs while Wall Street, the military-industrial complex and the elite gorge themselves.

One such myth is “They’re taking our jobs.” But the crisis of unemployment is not caused by immigrant workers. Immigrants contribute to our economy, pay taxes, buy things, and in fact help create jobs. Unemployment is caused by capitalism. Racist hiring practices are a deliberate ruling-class policy. It is in the self-interest of all working-class people to unite and fight for jobs for all and fair hiring practices.

Capitalism forces the working class to compete for jobs, because the transnational corporations thrive off that competition and make billions more in profit. They want to pit Peter against Maria against Jamal against Thuy to drive down wages, privatize public education, cut social programs and corporate taxes, among other profit-making schemes.

But in the last few weeks, millions of American workers and their families have spoken with their feet, and a popular multiracial and internationalist spirit has awakened. United we stand, divided we fall. Stand for immigrant rights. It’s in your interest.

Autoworkers confront uncertain future

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 05:45:00 +0000

With all the proposals being floated in auto, the one constant is GM’s and Delphi’s efforts to increase profits by cutting jobs and benefits.

A recent agreement between GM, Delphi and the United Auto Workers Union has not removed the prospect of a strike at Delphi, the auto parts maker, as the company still plans to move more operations overseas, slash wages and reduce benefits. Delphi has said it wants to eliminate two-thirds of its workers and win more concessions from those who remain.

GM offered buyouts to all of its 113,000 workers and to the 13,000 UAW members at Delphi. While the agreement with the UAW shows the strength of having a union going to bat for you (workers at nonunion shops often lose all benefits and get no or little severance pay), it raises troubling questions for many current autoworkers and their communities.

Will there be jobs available at GM for the Delphi workers who want to return? GM has agreed to accept only 5,000. The others are promised access to a job bank, but only through the life of the UAW contract, which expires next year. GM has called the job bank a “burden.”

Delphi workers with more seniority have a better chance of keeping their jobs, raising concerns the agreement may cause disunity in the union by pitting older workers against younger ones.

For workers with less than 27 years of seniority, the offer of $140,000 (which after taxes amounts to approximately $100,000), coupled with the loss of pension and health care benefits, doesn’t sound too good if don’t have another job with benefits lined up. Same goes for those with less than 10 years who are being offered $70,000 (about $50,000 after taxes).

The loss of good-paying union jobs will have a rippling effect through the economy. The growth in the U.S. of nonunion jobs at Honda, Toyota, Hyundai and Nissan creates downward pressure on everyone’s wages and benefits. Many auto jobs, of course, have moved to low-wage plants overseas.

The next round of contract negotiations will be difficult. How hard will GM press to eliminate the job bank? Will they push for a two-tier wage for new hires, which is already in place at Delphi.

Autoworkers and their families are wrestling with the positives and negatives of the buyout options and trying to sort through many other difficult questions they and their union face.

Church leader: Let us be arrested!

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 05:01:00 +0000

DALLAS — Church leaders in North Texas participated in a press conference on March 23 at the Guadalupe Cathedral here. They spoke in favor of reasonable immigration reform legislation, and strongly against the “enforcement-only” proposal of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.

Lutheran Bishop Kevin Kanouse of the Northern Texas/Northern Louisiana Synod warned against bills that would make it a felony crime to be an undocumented worker or to assist one. “It is time for us to be willing to lay ourselves on the line, even if it means jail and prison time.”

Kanouse then began listing ways that conscientious church people might help undocumented workers, such as providing food for the hungry or shelter for the homeless. The sentiment expressed was, “If our Legislature creates laws to arrest us for giving a drink to immigrants among us, then let us be arrested.”

Catholic Bishop Charles Grahmann began with the Book of Leviticus, quoting a number of biblical passages commanding all believers to welcome foreigners and to treat them fairly. He concluded by listing the qualities of immigrant legislation that would constitute fairness, including protecting workplace rights, reuniting families and providing a path to citizenship.

Gene Lantz of North Texas Jobs with Justice said the anti-immigrant proposals would lower wages for all Americans. He said, “If it lowers wages, we’re against it!” Supporters from Unite Here, which has organized hundreds of immigrants into union locals, also talked to reporters and introduced themselves to religious leaders.

The conference was organized by Dallas Area Interfaith, the region’s largest and most comprehensive umbrella group of religious organizations. Spokesperson David Ramirez said, “We will continue to press forward” for “policies that will safeguard the rights and inherent dignity of all migrants, particularly the undocumented, including their rights as workers.”

Senate panel yields to marching millions but more battles lie ahead

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 04:47:00 +0000

WASHINGTON — The surging movement for immigrant rights hit Congress like a political tsunami last week, splitting Republicans and pressuring Senate Democrats to fight back against harsh anti-immigrant measures in a hotly contested election year.

Senators returned to Capitol Hill on March 27 after a 10-day recess, during which demonstrations of tens of thousands took place in Milwaukee, Phoenix and Denver and nearly a million marched in Los Angeles to protest the Sensenbrenner bill, HR 4437, which would criminalize 12 million undocumented immigrants. (See page 3 for more coverage.)

The bill was railroaded through the House in December by Republican leaders and the White House. The protesters have demanded comprehensive reform that provides a path to citizenship.

The senators were greeted here by 2,000 clergy of many faiths and union and community leaders from over 38 states at a rally on the west lawn of the Capitol. The message was: Undocumented immigrants are workers, not criminals! The rally was majority Latino but included large numbers of African American and white protesters.

Ana Maria Archila, director of the Latin American Integration Center in New York, led the crowd chanting, “Today we march! Tomorrow we vote!”

Over 200 of the clergy left the rally and walked up to the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. They had mock handcuffs dangling from their wrists, a warning that faith leaders are prepared to engage in civil disobedience if a bill like HR 4437 is enacted.

By evening, the cumulative effect of the street protests moved Senate Judiciary members to push “immigrant friendly” amendments through the Republican-dominated committee. The amended bill passed by a 12-6 vote (8 Democrats and 4 Republicans in favor, 6 Republicans against).

Key amendments deleted measures that would have criminalized undocumented immigrants. The new draft provides for the legalization of undocumented people here since January 2004 and provides for a path to permanent residency, including for agricultural workers.

Also added were “Dream Act” provisions that would legalize undocumented students and allow them to pay lower resident tuition at state colleges.

A cheer went up when a speaker at the rally announced that Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) had introduced an amendment to remove HR 4437 language making it a crime to provide food, shelter, medical assistance or even spiritual guidance to the undocumented. The Durbin measure was incorporated in the bill approved by the Senate committee.

The Rev. Maria Castellanos of the United Church of Christ raised her arms in prayer: “O God, your law is the supreme law. ... We shall not deny a cup of water or a loaf of bread.”

Hundreds at the rally were members of the Laborers Union. Terry O'Sullivan, president of the union, said, “It is disingenuous to say it is OK for immigrant workers to build our skyscrapers ... empty our bedpans and then tell these same workers they are criminals and must leave the country. Real immigration reform must provide a path to citizenship.”

A 400,000-a-year guest worker program with a path to permanent residency was also included. The bill also significantly increases border and interior enforcement personnel, equipment and provisions.

Some of the protesters came from as far away as California. Many came from Chicago, another city where hundreds of thousands recently flooded the streets to protest HR 4437.

Reactions from most immigrant rights groups ranged from cautiously optimistic to enthusiastic. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney hailed the progressive, pro-immigrant sections of the Senate bill, while cautioning that the federation does not support any form of guest worker program.

Immigrant rights advocates vowed to keep up the heat. The Rev. Michael Harrison, pastor of Union Baptist Church in Youngstown, Ohio, told the rally that April 10 has been set for huge immigrant rights demonstrations in six major cities, including Washington, where the goal is to bring 100,000 protesters.

“Today we are starting our pledge campaign asking every senator to vote against this repressive legislation,” Harrison said. “We will take this pledge to every corner of this country. We will register and mobilize hundreds of thousands to vote in the 2006 elections. ... Now is the time for all Americans, with or without papers, to join arms with the message, ‘Let Our People Stay!’“

In the next several weeks there will be a fight on the Senate floor. Frist will try to push his repressive “enforcement only” bill, SB 2454, as a right-wing alternative to the Judiciary Committee bill. Scores of proposed pro- and anti-immigrant amendments to the committee bill are expected. The White House will likely exercise its influence to combine repression with a guest worker program, but without a path to legalization or amnesty for the undocumented.

The final result will depend on continued pressure, immigrant rights advocates said.

“Pressure must be united, broadened and kept on every member of the Senate for legalization with a path to citizenship, labor rights, family reunification, due process and no criminalization for immigrant workers, present and future,” said Joelle Fishman, chair of the Political Action Commission of the Communist Party USA.

Emile Schepers contributed to this article.

Gary meeting discusses economic agenda for Blacks

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 08:56:00 +0000

GARY, Ind. — An array of African American business, political, civic, labor and economic leaders met at Westside High School here March 9-12 for the National Black People’s Unity Convention to discuss a long-term economic empowerment plan for the Black community nationwide. The theme was “Policies for Empowerment: A Struggle for a New Economic Order.”

In 1972, more than 4,000 Black activists gathered here for the National Black Political Convention, one of the largest Black political conventions in U.S. history. It adopted a national strategy for political empowerment. At that time, only 16 African Americans were members of Congress and less than 900 were state and city officials. Today, there are more than 16,000 Black elected officials at every level, in almost every state.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson told the gathering, “This is the next stage of our struggle. The first stage was to end slavery. The second stage was to end legal Jim Crow. The third stage was the right to vote. The fourth stage is access to capital.”

Bill Lucy, president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, said in a statement, “The broad aim of this convention is to bring together the collective wisdom, creativity and resources in our community to map out a bold economic agenda that will unite us in communities of color across the nation. We must think nationally and act locally.”

Former Gary Mayor Richard Hatcher, who co-chaired the 1972 convention, was also a co-chair this year. Hatcher was the city’s first African American mayor. “The shocking disaster of Hurricane Katrina is a sobering reminder that poverty and racism still takes a deadly toll on our communities,” Hatcher said in his opening. “Political power without economic power is almost no power at all.”

A National Urban League report last year found that Black households have barely one-tenth the net worth of white households and that Black unemployment rates are more than twice those of whites.

A group of high school students was among the several hundred people in attendance. Nikita Matthews, 17, a student at Emerson High School for the Performing Arts, came with her classmates and teacher. Expressing pride in her city, she said Gary is “safe, very contrary to popular belief. A lot of people think Gary has a lot of violence but it’s really a family-oriented city.”

Lorenzo Stout, 18, wants more young people to get involved. “Go for it, start from somewhere,” he said. We need to “start with youth.”

Ragen Hatcher Matthews, 27, and Rachelle Hatcher, 22, were also there. They have a special connection to the meeting’s history: they are the daughters of former Mayor Hatcher.

Ragen Hatcher Matthews said her father “is the reason why I’m a lawyer today.”

Rachelle Hatcher told the World, “Growing up with my dad, I learned a lot about politics at a very early age.” She was a candidate for City Council in 2003 because it was “a race that needed young voices.”

Rachelle Hatcher said the convention was timely and essential. She said, “This kind of gets people thinking about the daily struggles for equality as one of the most important things, especially questions of race and economics.”

New Orleans spurns voting rights, NAACP charges

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 08:45:00 +0000

The New Orleans primary election set for April 22 violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act, NAACP President and CEO Bruce Gordon has charged.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has assailed the Justice Department for allowing New Orleans to proceed with the election and is considering filing a lawsuit to block it. “The rights of African American voters will be severely harmed if the election is held as planned and scheduled,” said Gordon.

New Orleans had a population of 485,000 in the 2000 census, two-thirds of whom were Black. Hurricane Katrina caused the displacement of nearly 300,000, the majority African American. Today the population is estimated at 190,000.

Because of its historical record of racial discrimination, under the Voting Rights Act Louisiana must receive pre-clearance from the Justice Department before making changes in any of its voting practices and procedures.

On March 7 state Sen. Cleo Fields asked the department to deny pre-clearance for the April 22 election, saying illegal changes in voting procedures have been made. Of the city’s list of 442 voting precincts for the April 22 election, 300 in mostly Black neighborhoods have been demolished or are uninhabitable. The secretary of state has not informed registered voters where they are to vote or what the voting procedures are, though he has promised to do so.

The state opened and closed the candidate qualification period without properly informing all New Orleans citizens, Fields charged. The secretary of state refuses to provide any group, individual or elected official contact information for displaced New Orleanians, said Fields. He said he has been unable to contact his displaced constituents, nor can any candidates.

Displaced New Orleans voters have less than 60 days to request an absentee ballot, receive it, fill it out and mail it back. There is no procedure for displaced new voters to register. The state has refused to set up satellite voting sites outside of Louisiana. There are 10 satellite sites in Louisiana, but tens of thousands of New Orleans citizens are in Texas, Georgia, Mississippi, Colorado and other states. The Metropolitan Organization, a Houston community advocacy group, says there are 45,000 New Orleans registered voters in Houston.

Fields estimated that 50 percent of African American voters will be disenfranchised unless satellite sites are in place. Noting that the federal government set up satellite voting sites so that Iraqi citizens living in the U.S. could vote in the recent Iraqi election, he said the same should be done for displaced New Orleans voters.

Fields called for postponing the election until Sept. 30, the date scheduled for statewide elections, allowing more time to remove the obstacles facing African American voters and all New Orleans voters.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson will lead an April 1 march in New Orleans to call attention to concerns about marginalization of its Black communities.

In the April 22 primary 24 candidates are running for mayor. Only two are Black — Mayor Ray Nagin and the Rev. Tom Watson. The white candidates include Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, whose father was mayor years ago and whose sister is U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu.

Senators pass Bush steal from poor budget

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 07:31:00 +0000

WASHINGTON — The Senate rushed through a measure March 16 to increase the nation’s debt ceiling to just under $9 trillion, approved a $2.8 trillion 2007 fiscal year budget resolution and went home to try to explain to angry voters why they approved President Bush’s “steal from the poor” budget.

Senate Democrats voted against raising the debt ceiling, forcing Republicans who have hammered them as “tax and spend liberals” to take the heat for Bush policies that have created the nation’s largest federal deficits with trillions in tax cuts for the rich, a bloody war in Iraq and Pentagon boondoggling. The debt ceiling bill squeaked through on a 52-48 party-line vote. The House Republicans slipped a similar bill through in the dead of night hoping to avoid voter anger in an election year.

In the budget resolution, senators sought to placate the public by approving with wide margins a series of bills that partially restored home heating assistance for the poor and funds for education and for veterans and families of Iraq war dead and wounded — all programs slashed to the bone in Bush’s budget.

The Bush budget includes $700 billion to privatize Social Security and $6.3 billion in immediate Social Security benefit cuts, $13.7 billion in cuts to Medicaid, the largest cuts in federal aid to education in history, and termination of child care benefits for 400,000 children. It contains $900 billion in tax cuts for the richest 1 percent of taxpayers over the next 10 years.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that Bush’s tax cuts will cost $3.3 trillion over the next decade and saddle taxpayers with $492 billion in interest payments, mostly to wealthy banks.

The Senate also approved Bush’s $72 billion supplemental request for the Iraq war on top of his request for $439.3 billion for the Pentagon, a 7 percent increase over last year’s defense budget.

Simon Harak, anti-militarism coordinator of the War Resisters League, charged that the Bush budget hides hundreds of billions in military spending, including 50 percent of NASA’s budget and 80 percent of the Energy Department budget earmarked for military tasks. If those expenditures were added to the Pentagon budget the total would be about $563 billion, he said. “Not only do we have an enormous war department budget,” he said, “they keep asking for these supplemental spending bills to fight the wars.”

The real cost of Bush’s global militarism is pushing toward $700 billion each year, the main reason “we don’t have enough money to help the Katrina victims,” Harak said. “A sure way to stop these wars is to stop funding them.” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) has introduced a bill to do just that: terminate all funding for Iraq except for the funds needed to bring U.S. troops home.

Louisiana’s Sen. Mary Landrieu was the sole Democrat to vote for the final budget resolution based on a promise of $2 billion a year for levee repair and reconstruction in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, funded by revenues from drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Some call this giving with one hand and stealing with the other.

The House Republican leadership will try to strip the added spending for human needs out of the budget when they return from spring recess.

Grassroots groups like MoveOn.org are mobilizing to fight what the online group calls Bush’s “reverse-Robin Hood budget disaster that robs from the poor, gives to the rich and explodes the deficit.”

MoveOn points out that when the House returns from recess and takes up the budget, “the final decision will come down to just a handful of swing Republicans.” The group is targeting voters in these swing districts, urging a flood of messages to the lawmakers demanding that they vote against the Bush budget. “Opposing this budget is also key to victory in 2006,” the message continues. “The reverse-Robin Hood approach is deeply unpopular once it is understood.”

The Republicans and the Black clergy

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 13:07:00 +0000

In the early months of 2004 I read the Black Commentator’s analysis of the corporate-Republican campaign to create the perception of an alternative, conservative Black leadership. At first I thought this laughable. But such a campaign was taking place in my own hometown, Philadelphia.

Suddenly I began reading op-ed articles in the Black newspapers expressing a right-wing ideological view on every subject from public education to Social Security. The authors were largely unknown in the African American communities. On one Black radio talk show a young, articulate minister joined the staff as a co-host. His purpose was to “promote balance.” He prided himself as a conservative promoting the welfare and uplift of Black people. At the same time he supported the Iraq war, denounced the Democratic Party and spoke against abortion and same-sex marriage. He was the first in a long line of Black clergy that I would hear endorse Bush for re-election in the Democratic city of Philadelphia.

Then there was the new leadership of the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity. Bishop Ernest Morris, the new president of the organization representing over 400 African American Christian congregations, was leading the group in a new direction — “faith-based initiatives.” Pennsylvania’s Republican Sens. Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum offered the organization a $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor for a two-year job training program. At the formal presentation of the grant, Specter told the audience how he and Santorum had “gone to the wall” to obtain the grant. He added that there could be a second $4 million grant in the future if both senators were re-elected. Specter was later endorsed by the organization and narrowly defeated his Democratic challenger Joe Hoffel. There were growing complaints from members that the entire scenario was not in accordance with the bylaws.

In 2000, the Rev. Herb Lusk, former football star and presently pastor of Greater Exodus Baptist Church, gave the invocation at the Republican Convention in Philadelphia. The church received a $1 million grant in 2002 to help low-income Philadelphians pay their mortgages. In 2004 Lusk invited Bush to speak at a spiritual rally at the church and gave Bush a bear hug on stage as well as his endorsement. While some members applauded, others were visibly uncomfortable.

In 2005, on the eve of the Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, Greater Exodus Baptist Church hosted “Justice Sunday III.” It was broadcast on all the Christian television channels, telling viewers to contact their senators and ask them to support Alito. There was the Rev. Lusk on stage, right in the middle of the Christian Right leadership. Said Jerry Falwell, “We’re looking at what we started 30 years ago, a restructuring of a court system gone awry.”

Facing criticism from other Black clergy, Lusk said, “I will not apologize for having a relationship with the most powerful man in the world [Bush].” And I thought their relationship was based on their mutual abhorrence of abortion and same-sex marriage, not power! I guess more grants “to help the poor” are on the way.

In 2003, $1.2 billion in federal funds was given to faith-based organizations from five federal departments: Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Labor and Education. Most of these funds went to African American and Latino faith-based groups. Programs in the battleground states received the most money. Bush denies that the faith-based initiative is being used as a political tool. But in 2001 he promised to “end discrimination against church-connected social service providers.” Whatever happened to the separation of church and state as written in the U.S. Constitution?

In the mid-1990s the Bradley Foundation, a right-wing Milwaukee think tank, came up with a two-part plan to break the historical unity of African Americans: vouchers and faith-based initiatives. The plan was conceived by Bradley Foundation CEO Michael Joyce and later adopted by the Republican Party leadership. The plan is now being executed.

Historically, African American voters have supported the most progressive and advanced candidates and issues presented to them regardless of political party. That is why African Americans changed en masse from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party when Franklin Roosevelt came along with the New Deal.

With the takeover of the Republican Party by the ultra-right in 1980 and its attack on affirmative action, public education, voting rights and all entitlements, life for most Black people became more difficult. Seeing little to gain from Republicans, they became part of its opposition. The ultra-right would have to find a way to break the unity of the Black electorate at the ballot box if it intended to hold absolute political power. By using Bible scripture as the appeal and faith-based dollars as the incentive, today’s Republican Party could form an alliance with the most conservative section of the Black religious community.

The leadership of the Pentecostals was the most enthusiastic about supporting Bush in 2004. Church members were directed on how to vote “in order to be saved.” Bush was referred to as a “man of God.” In service after service, using the most explicit terms, abortion and homosexuality, rather than abandonment by the government, were blamed for the deterioration of the Black family and community.

Was the ultra-right Republican Party successful in breaking the unity of the Black electorate in 2004? Is there a perception of a new, conservative Black leadership?

The results of the 2004 election say, “No way.” Yes, Bush received more Black votes in 2004 and his percentage of Black votes increased by 2 percent. But in spite of many obstacles — organized suppression of the Black vote, widespread election fraud, John Kerry’s lack of interest in the plight of African Americans and a lackluster Democratic campaign — 89 percent of Black voters said “no” to Bush and the Bush agenda. The new Black conservatives can’t be called leaders, because they have few followers. Even Black Republicans know their party is making no real effort to recruit Blacks to promote racial diversity. It wants only to promote the illusion of racial diversity. Dixiecrats like Trent Lott did not switch to the Republican Party to be with Black people.

Shamelessly, the Republican Party has used religious faith to confuse and exploit people for political gain. It has manipulated voters through their religious faith to vote against their best interests. It has used our tax monies for its political payoffs. This is disgraceful and illegal. But the fightback has begun.

The Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity just voted out its conservative leadership and elected the Rev. James Moore as its new president. Said the Rev. Shine, a past president, “Rev. Moore’s election means restoring the organization to its former status as a formidable advocate for social justice and civil rights.”

At a convention of 10,000 Black Baptists, opposition to the Iraq war was declared and a call was made for a higher minimum wage, universal health care, investment in public education and aid for Africa.

It would be wrong to write off African American churchgoers as political conservatives. Most are part of the working class and will support their interests if approached with the truth. We need an all-people’s coalition to “throw the bums out,” and religious people must be a part of that coalition along with labor, the peace movement, the environmentalists, African Americans and all oppressed people. Let us begin now with the 2006 elections.

Rosita Johnson (phillyrose623@verizon.net) is a member of the PWW editorial board.

THISWEEKINLABOR

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 11:36:00 +0000

Oakland teachers rally

As the teachers union prepared to resume contract talks in its 20-month dispute with the Oakland Unified School District, parents, community supporters and San Francisco educators rallied with over 500 Oakland teachers and other school workers in front of school district headquarters March 8.

Teachers and the district are at loggerheads over the district’s refusal to accept a neutral fact-finder’s report showing the district can afford to raise salaries in addition to restoring cuts taken when the district declared bankruptcy in 2003. Other demands include maintenance and restoration of district-paid health benefits for all OUSD employees, and no layoffs.

Teacher Toni Morozumi told the crowd that after taking pay cuts three years ago, “We were amazed to find ourselves the targets of [state-imposed administrator] Randolph Ward’s attempts to scapegoat teachers for the district’s financial woes.”

To enthusiastic applause, leaders of United Educators of San Francisco and the Oakland School Employees Association, also embroiled in long contract battles, pledged solidarity with the Oakland teachers.

This really happened!

A Cincinnati-based video surveillance company recently had microchip radio frequency transmitter devices implanted into the arms of two employees, the BNA Labor Letter reported. Now special scanners will be able to read these “Verichips” and detect when the workers approach the access points of certain “secure” rooms at the facilities of CityWatcher.com, a video surveillance company.

Sean Darks, CityWatcher’s CEO, told BNA that the two employees volunteered to accept the devices, which are the size of a grain of rice and are injected via needle in a doctor’s office.

Janitors picket to save jobs from ‘security check’

Justice for Janitors, SEIU Local 1877, is calling on union health plan trust funds to support janitors who were fired from their jobs at Vision Service Plan (VSP) in Sacramento, Calif., in violation of their union contract at a health plan service provider.

PRIDE Industries, VSP’s new cleaning company, instituted a “security check” to see if the janitors, who have worked at VSP for years, were a security threat. Then PRIDE fired 10 of the 13 janitors, using the excuse that they could find no security history for them.

The firings are a violation of the union contract, said Andrew Gross-Gaitan, vice-president of the local, which has already filed a grievance. “But we are also asking the trust funds that use VSP to tell them that they need to fulfill the contract,” he added.

Toxic map web site

A new web site sponsored by the Steelworkers union features an interactive “Toxic Map” that pinpoints where DuPont Corp. may be putting communities at risk of chemical exposure. The union, which represents 1,800 DuPont workers in six plants, accuses the chemical giant of “an atrocious and shocking record of pollution, community sickness and worker hazards.”

The Toxic Map, found at www.DuPontSafetyRevealed.org, allows anyone to see which DuPont plant is in their area and what hazard their families and communities may encounter, says the union.

More signers for EFCA

Several members of Congress, including four Republicans, recently became co-sponsors of the Employee Free Choice Act. The Republicans are Reps. Chris Shays (Conn.), Curt Weldon (Pa.), John Sweeney (N.Y.) and Mike Fitzpatrick (Pa.). The new Democrats include Sen. Herb Kohl (Wis.) and Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.). This brings the co-sponsor total to 212 in the House, six short of a majority. In the Senate, the number is 42. The EFCA would allow workers to form unions when a majority sign cards. It will short-circuit the employer intimidation fostered by the current NLRB process.

Chopper pilots unionize

Emergency medical service helicopter pilots have reached a first union contract, a 40-month agreement with Air Methods Corporation, which employs 647 pilots in 38 states. The agreement establishes a grievance procedure and major gains in standardized pay rates. Professional Helicopter Pilots Association Local 109 of the OPEIU currently has 4,000 helicopter pilots, according to the union’s director of organizing, Kevin Kestler.

Indiana defeats right to work

“It’s pretty bad when elected officials have to try to sneak things through on the last day of amending bills,” wrote Mike Pace from Fairland, Ind., in a letter to the editor of the Indianapolis Star March 10. Pace was writing to publicly thank the 65 members of the Indiana Legislature who voted against an amendment to a tobacco bill that would have made Indiana a right-to-work state. “I support good-paying jobs for working people who can retire with dignity,” wrote Pace.

Download USLAW flier

U.S. Labor Against the War, a coalition of more than 125 labor organizations representing millions of working people, now has a brochure activists can download listing its activities, program and how to affiliate. Go to www.uslaboragainstwar.org.

Unbecoming conduct by military contractors

Uniforms for our country’s enlisted men and women are often sewn in sweatshops right here in the United States, according to a report uncovering poverty wages and unsafe working conditions imposed by government contractors in an industry that employs 20,000 workers. The report titled “Conduct Unbecoming: Sweatshops and the U.S. Military Uniform Industry” was released March 14 at a press conference by Unite Here and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.).

Multiple support for single-payer

“We are part of a national movement ... to pass universal single-payer health insurance as embodied in HR 676,” declared Steelworker Local 675 with 3,000 members working in refineries and pharmaceuticals in Southern California and Nevada.

North, south, east and west, labor support is bursting out all over for the legislation. Labor councils in Gainsville, Fla., Greensburg, Pa., and Ashtabula County, Ohio, all passed resolutions endorsing the bill introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.). Then the legislative and social action arm of the United Autoworkers in Massachusetts, its CAP council, joined the Southern Indiana and Kentucky 3rd and 4th Area CAP Councils in supporting the bill.

HR 676 would cover everyone in the U.S. for all necessary medical care including dental, mental, drugs, physical therapy, substance abuse, nursing home, etc., without co-pays or other fees. It would eliminate the high overhead and profits of the private health insurance industry and HMOs, supporters say.

This Week in Labor is compiled by Roberta Wood (rwood@pww.org). Gail Ryall and Marilyn Bechtel contributed.

Texas holds best secret election money can buy

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 09:20:00 +0000

HOUSTON — Texas held its March 7 primary election in virtual secrecy. Only 5.3 percent of the electorate voted in the Republican primary and 4.1 percent in the Democratic primary.

Pundits marveled over how much money was spent on so few voters. There was virtually no mainstream media coverage before the election other than political ads featuring Tom DeLay’s grinning face. Most people on the street, when asked about the election, were surprised to hear there was one.

Indicted Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Sugar Land) won the Republican nomination with 62 percent, down from over 80 percent in the 2004 primary. Democrats relish the coming match-up between DeLay — mired in corruption and a record of consistently fighting for the interests of the wealthy — and labor-backed Nick Lampson, who has a record of fighting for working people.

It appears many Democrats may have voted for DeLay. Some observers speculate that without a significant crossover vote, DeLay would have faced a primary runoff. In 2004 about 16,000 votes were cast in the Republican primary in DeLay’s district and over 10,000 in the Democratic primary. This time over 33,000 voted in the Republican primary and just over 2,000 in the Democratic primary, with DeLay getting over 20,000 votes. In Texas it is legal to cross over to the opposing party from one primary to the next.

In any case, the primary was costly for DeLay in time and energy, while Lampson is well funded, rested and has a bone to pick as a victim of DeLay’s notorious redistricting scheme. Lampson is campaigning on supporting working families over multinational corporations, and has strongly opposed tax breaks for corporations that ship jobs overseas.

In 16 contested state races that drew AFL-CIO COPE endorsements, nine of the labor-backed candidates won. Three more are hoping to win runoff elections on April 11.

The most disappointing race for progressives was the Democratic primary contest between Henry Cuellar and Ciro Rodriguez in San Antonio. Cuellar, who narrowly avoided a runoff with Rodriguez, will run unopposed in November. Rodriguez had strong support from labor, but Cuellar got the first-ever endorsement of a Democrat by the right-wing Republican Club for Growth, a free-market advocacy group with over 34,000 members.

Cuellar has repeatedly enraged Democrats by his collaborative relationship with Republicans. He supported George Bush in 2000, although he backed Kerry in 2004. Cuellar supported CAFTA and is viewed as pro-globalization, but voted for labor issues nine out of 16 times.

In a highly unusual move, 15 Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives contributed to Rodriguez. Many suspect that Republicans redrew the district to benefit Cuellar, who served as secretary of state under Bush’s successor, Republican Gov. Rick Perry.

In one display of Texas extravagance (and megalomania), school voucher zealot billionaire Dr. James Leininger of San Antonio spent $3 million targeting Republican representatives who had voted against tax-paid private school vouchers. It appears Leininger’s candidates won two out of five races.

One incumbent, Carter Casteel, lost her bid for re-election by 44 votes. Though Casteel raised nearly $400,000 for her campaign, Leininger spent $800,000 on her opponent, hiring professionals who ran slick attack-ad campaigns filled with distorted information.

Casteel, who has decided to ask for a recount, said after initially conceding, “What this means is that no representative can take an independent vote because someone with money might take issue with it. … I want to make sure a schoolteacher’s $10 donation means as much as the millions someone else has to spend. Let me tell you, the Republican Party is in trouble. And we’ve got to do what we can to save it.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Carlos Uresti defeated Sen. Frank Medla in a Democratic primary in San Antonio Senate District 19. Uresti pounded Medla on his voting record, which supported privatization and cuts in benefits to the working poor. Uresti is recognized as a champion of a social services system to help the working poor and those with mental illness and mental retardation.

Progressives in Texas are anxiously awaiting the outcome of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Tom DeLay’s congressional redistricting shenanigans. The ruling is expected before July 1 and could result in boosting progressives in the November election.

Vermont city elects Progressive mayor

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 08:59:00 +0000

BURLINGTON, Vt. — Bob Kiss, the Progressive Party candidate for mayor, swept to a surprise victory here March 7. Running against a Democrat, Republican and two independents, Kiss, a state representative, confounded pundits and pulled an upset. His election was also the first mayoral race in the country to be conducted under the rules of instant runoff voting.

Kiss, who only entered the race five weeks ago, was not expected to win. The Democratic candidate, state Sen. Hinda Miller, spent over $50,000 on her campaign to Kiss’ $10,000. Miller was endorsed by big-name Democrats, including former Gov. Howard Dean, Sen. Patrick Leahy and incumbent Mayor Peter Clavelle. Clavelle left the Progressive Party two years ago to run for governor as a Democrat.

Many observers thought the 24-year reign of Progressive leadership, begun when Bernie Sanders was first elected mayor in 1981, would come to an end this year.

However, Miller is a founder of the Jogbra Company of Burlington, and the fact that she recently sold it to owners who promptly moved it (and its 200 jobs) to North Carolina became an issue in the campaign.

Miller had the full support of the Chamber of Commerce and the de facto support of the Republican Party. The GOP’s candidate, City Councilor Kevin Curley, ran a campaign addressing some of the needs of working-class people, although his emphasis was on market-oriented solutions.

The Progressive Party took a long time to find a candidate because most people associated with the incumbent administration had lined up with Clavelle when he defected to the Democrats. Kiss, the current city chair of the Progressives, was persuaded to run at the last moment.

Before he was elected to the Vermont House of Representatives, Kiss had been director of the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity for 12 years, creating many programs that benefited working and poor people in Burlington.

Another factor that made this election of special interest was that it was the first time a mayor was elected in this country using instant runoff voting.

Kiss was the top vote-getter after the first round of the hotly contested election, getting almost 40 percent of the vote to Miller’s 31 percent and Curley’s 27 percent. With instant runoff voting, voters rank the candidates according to their preference. If no one gets 50 percent plus one in the first round, the number two choice on the ballots of candidates who have no mathematical chance to get a majority are distributed to the leaders. In the second round, Bob Kiss increased his vote to 54 percent of the total.

The mayoral campaign focused on the issue of whose interests city government should serve. Kiss spoke frequently of the need to create housing that working people could afford. Another major issue was maintaining neighborhood schools in the city’s Old North End, a part of town inhabited by immigrants and low-income people, and the need to create jobs that provided more than the minimum wage.

Miller, on the other hand, emphasized the “creative” economy, cutting the city budget by laying off city workers, and opening the door to privatization of the publicly owned lakefront.

In an interesting development, Republican candidate Curley urged his supporters to vote second on their ballots for Progressive Bob Kiss. He warned that a Miller victory would turn City Hall over to the big developers and corporations. “Bob Kiss,” he said, “would be good for the working people of Burlington.” In the runoff, most of Curley’s second place votes went for Kiss.

“This election was about class,” said Martha Abbott, chair of the Vermont Progressive Party. “The people of Burlington have learned over the past 25 years who is on their side.”

Katrina homeless march on White House

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 08:21:00 +0000

WASHINGTON — Hurricane Katrina survivors marched from Capitol Hill to the White House, March 14, stopping at FEMA along the way, to demand that President Bush reverse FEMA’s decision to evict 10,000 hurricane evacuees from hotels and motels that day.

Led by New Orleans evacuees scattered to cities across the nation, the crowd marched with signs reading, “Build homes, not bombs,” “Stop the evictions” and “Bush, step down.” They demanded enactment of the Congressional Black Caucus bill, HR 4197, to provide billions in direct assistance to the million or more people displaced by Katrina and to rebuild New Orleans.

Carletha Claiborne, a lab technician from East New Orleans, told the World she and her husband, a welder, are now living in Tucson, Ariz. Both are unemployed. The Bush administration has terminated their Medicaid and Food Stamps and on April 30 the voucher that covers their rent will end.

“Our house was under five feet of water,” she said, displaying photos of her devastated one-story home. “We went back and gutted the house. It cost us $4,000 out of pocket because the insurance company said it was flood damage and we had no flood insurance.” But FEMA rejected their applications for funds to rebuild, saying they must seek relief from their insurance company, she said, even though the federal government is liable for failing to strengthen the levees.

The march was co-sponsored by the Hip Hop Caucus, the Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign, the D.C. branch of the NAACP, Service Employees International Union and other groups. The Rev. Lennox Yearwood, a social justice organizer, led the crowd in prayer outside FEMA offices. “It is this organization, right here, FEMA, that has made a disaster out of disaster relief,” he said. “You, FEMA, are planning to put people out in the streets while trailers are parked in Hope, Arkansas. Right now we are demanding that you not put those 10,000 families out on the streets.”

Lorraine Miller, president of the D.C. NAACP, told the World, “This is a shame, what happened to those folks. There was a lack of caring from this administration. We don’t get the truth from them. These people are scattered everywhere and we have to insure that their right to vote is protected.”

Bill Fletcher Jr., president of TransAfrica Forum, called the administration’s priorities “completely skewed.”

“They’ve been sucking the resources out of the public sector for years,” he said. “They knew the Corps of Engineers wanted to strengthen the levees, but they could never get around to allocating the money.”

He said a mighty national movement is needed “to demand a redirection of resources to the Gulf Coast. That means in the first place, getting the hell out of Iraq. Congress could start by voting down Bush’s latest request for the occupation.”

WHATSREALLYGOOD

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 07:42:00 +0000

Campus antiwar group fights spying

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of University of California–Santa Cruz Students Against the War, demanding that the Department of Defense immediately release information related to its spying on student antiwar groups.

The DOD recently said, in response to a request filed by several students under the Freedom of Information Act, that it will not release surveillance information any time soon, though it had previously indicated it would do so.

The ACLU also raised a concern that students’ names may not have been removed from government records, though it is official Pentagon policy to do so.

Student tutors lead strike

The peer tutor group Baltimore Algebra Project led a three-day student strike demanding adequate funding for Baltimore’s public schools. The strike included three demonstrations, averaging 300 students each, in front of the state and city school boards and City Hall.

The students are furious with city and state officials for shortchanging city students. Authorities plan to close five Baltimore schools; the students demand smaller class sizes and more arts courses.

In October, students attempted a citizen’s arrest of Maryland schools Superintendent Nancy Grasmick for failing to comply with a court ruling ordering $30-$45 million more in additional funding.

Blacklisting 101

Notorious right-wing author David Horowitz has come under fire for his book, “The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America.” The book is seen as part of an ongoing campaign to silence freedom of speech and academic inquiry while targeting left, progressive and liberal professors. Historian Eric Foner and African American studies professor Manning Marable are on the list. A coalition of teachers’ unions, student organizations and others has come together to fight this and other ultra-right attacks on campus.

Sex education article censored

Students angrily denounced the decision of School Superintendent Lynn Lehman in Noblesville, Ind., to ban an article on oral sex that would have appeared in the local high school’s newspaper Mill Stream.

The article, which would have focused on attitudes and trends towards oral sex, as well as its psychological and medical risks, had been approved by the principal and the newspaper’s adviser and had already gone to print before the superintendent intervened.

Mill Stream editor Jill Gingery and the rest of the editorial staff were upset by the decision and plan to fight for the article’s publication.

(dmargolis@pww.org)

WHATSREALLYGOOD

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 06:48:00 +0000

H.S. students honor International Women’s Day

As a protest against growing attacks on women’s rights, students in Shrewsbury High School in Massachusetts have built an exhibit to honor International Women’s Day, and to shine a spotlight on the fight for women’s equality.

“I don’t know why, but the U.S. chooses not to acknowledge the day,” said Polina Volfovich, who organized the exhibit.

The exhibit features women leaders, such as NOW President Kim Gandy and union leaders, and an explanation of the holiday’s origins. The theme of the exhibit coincides with the UN’s theme for this year’s Women’s Day: “Women in Decision-Making.”

Volfovich said she is especially fearful of attacks on abortion rights. “My body is the only thing I own, and somebody else controlling that, it’s like Big Brother.”

Czech youth fight ‘thought control’

The Communist Youth Union of the Czech Republic (KSM) has been in a fight for its legal existence since Czech authorities announced that it would be banned because the KSM has refused to renounce Marxism-Leninism. “Talk about thought control!” one outraged observer said. The youth group is also charged with “interfering” in politics, though youth organizations of other Czech political parties operate in the same way, and have not been threatened. A Feb. 27 day of solidarity kicked off a campaign to support KSM. For more information, visit www.wfdy.org.

Campus far-right warps freedom of speech

Under the guise of defending freedom of speech, the right-wing Alliance Defense Fund has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Penn State student, demanding that the university weaken its rules against harassment and discrimination. The current policy bans hate speech and harassment, and aims to stop people from making the life of minority students “a living hell.” College Republicans President Vicky Cangelosi told the student newspaper that policies against intolerance hamper their organizing. “I don’t even know how many events we would consider doing if we weren’t going to be labeled as intolerant.” Defenders of the current policy say that this is part of a national ADF campaign to overturn hard-won rights protection for minority students.

New York event raises $14,000

The Young Communist League held a fundraiser March 4 for its upcoming national convention in Brooklyn. The program highlighted activities in electoral, peace and solidarity work and raised some $14,000 in pledges. With a goal of $65,000 in the month of March, the league had raised $21,000 four days into the month. YCL leader Jessica Marshall said, “That we raised so much was a testament to how much people value the YCL. But we still have another $45,000 to raise.”

The event was part of the Communist Party’s national committee meeting in New York.

— Dan Margolis (dmargolis@pww.org)

CPUSA call: Oust the GOP in 2006!

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 06:37:00 +0000

NEW YORK — Leaders of the Communist Party USA, meeting here March 4-5, warned that the Bush administration, aided and abetted by the Republican-majority Congress, has plunged the nation into the “worst constitutional crisis since the Civil War.”

The meeting of the party’s national committee at Winston Unity Center issued a “Call to Action” to mobilize a mighty people’s upsurge at the polls next Nov. 7 to oust the Republicans from majority control of the House and Senate.

Sam Webb, CPUSA national chair, cited one disaster after another for the Bush-Cheney regime as Bush’s standing in the polls has plunged to 34 percent. Webb spoke of the growing anger at home and abroad over the bloody war in Iraq. “Not in a century has U.S. imperialism’s standing in the world been at such a low ebb,” he said. “Not even during the height of the Vietnam War has the U.S. been so isolated.”

Yet faced by revulsion at home and abroad, the administration shows no signs of retreat. Instead Bush grows more “reckless,” believing that sheer “political will and control of the state apparatus” is enough to crush the opposition. “We are looking at a constitutional crisis,” Webb said. Bush remains fixated on “full spectrum dominance” at home and abroad. He quoted former Vice President Al Gore’s warning that Bush is arrogating to himself the absolute powers of a “king.” He called for a full “independent investigation” of Bush and Cheney for these abuses of power that warrant impeachment.

A victory over the Republicans next November, he said, will be a “decisive turning point” in the struggle to defend democracy, helping to restore Congress as a counter to Bush’s power grab. And the sharp shift in public opinion against Bush-Cheney and the ultra-right means the Republicans “go into the election with a disadvantage.”

“This fight is winnable,” Webb said. “The all-people’s front is becoming energized. New forces are being drawn into the struggle. It has put a new bounce in our step.”

In a slideshow presentation, Joelle Fishman, chair of the CPUSA Political Action Commission, laid out the challenge for the people’s movement of securing a net loss for the Republicans of 15 seats in the House and six seats in the Senate, giving the Democrats majority control of Congress.

She warned that Bush’s top political strategist Karl Rove is scheming again.

“The question is,” Fishman said, “can the fear-factor smokescreen associated with the ‘war on terrorism’ create a thick enough cover to maintain the corrupt Republican majority in the House and Senate?” She cited a recent poll showing that 50 percent of voters now disapprove of Bush’s handling of terrorism while 65 percent disapprove of Bush on Iraq, 60 percent on the economy and 60 percent on energy.

The crisis, she added, “calls for mass tactics that will bring all the separate majorities together with the core constituencies of the all-peoples’ front — labor, African Americans, Latinos, women and youth.” She warned that “a higher level of unity” is needed that is “strong enough to deliver a vote so large that it cannot be split or stolen, and so broad that it will deliver the independent vote, especially in swing congressional districts.”

Jarvis Tyner, CPUSA executive vice chair, told the crowd, “We must talk not only about registering voters and getting them to the polls. We must talk about vote protection. If we don’t, the Republicans will steal this election as they did the last two elections.”

Tyner charged that the humanitarian crisis in the Gulf Coast, and especially in New Orleans, “has exposed the deep-seated racism of this administration.”

CPUSA Labor Secretary Scott Marshall, just back from North Carolina, reported on a “workers’ center” protecting the rights of immigrant workers, injured workers and others at a pork processing plant that employs 5,500 workers. The struggle for workers’ rights in North Carolina “can be a model for how the South can be won” for progressive politics, he said.

Emphasizing the importance of labor unity, he said, “What we do in our party clubs and districts is most important because the Central Labor Council level and state level is where the impetus to labor unity is strongest.”

The Young Communist League served dinner to the meeting Saturday night, a fundraiser for the YCL’s convention in Brooklyn on Memorial Day weekend. Jessica Marshall, YCL national coordinator, drew strong applause with a report on the inspiring work of the league, including its leadership, in helping to send over 800 U.S. delegates to the World Youth Festival in Venezuela. Thousands of dollars were raised at the dinner to defray convention costs.

Libero Della Piana, the party’s national organization secretary, delivered a finance report that included a 2006 budget aimed at greater accountability, transparency and cost-savings in the work of the party.

Among the resolutions adopted by the meeting was a call to support antiwar actions set for March 15-22 around the country and April 29 in New York City.

S. Dakota passes anti-woman law: Anti-abortion bill hurts poor, part of wider attack on women

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 06:14:00 +0000

South Dakota’s Republican Gov. Mike Rounds set the stage for an epic women’s rights battle when he signed a state law March 6 making all abortions a crime, including in cases of rape, incest and situations endangering the mother’s health. It would only permit abortion to save the woman’s life.

Doctors who perform abortions would be charged with a felony and could get up to five years in jail.

The law is supposed to take effect July 1, but legal challenges are expected to delay implementation, possibly for years, as the case heads to the Supreme Court. There the bill’s right-wing backers are banking on Bush appointees Roberts and Alito to uphold the measure, overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.

In an open letter, Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the organization is “committed to using all available legal means” to prevent the bill from ever taking effect and to “protect the health and safety of women.” Her statement was echoed by other national women’s groups.

Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota said the law “violates the right of women and families to make private, personal decisions about whether and when to have a family.” By signing it, “Gov. Rounds criminalized health care for women in South Dakota,” Sarah Stoesz, the group’s president, said.

South Dakota has only one abortion provider — the Planned Parenthood clinic in Sioux Falls, on the eastern side of the state.

The clinic serves about 2,000 patients a year, and provides about 800 abortions. Two-thirds of its patients are near or below the federal poverty level ($14,000 for a single person), and three-fourths are uninsured.

In South Dakota, one in six women aged 15-44 have incomes under the federal poverty level and one in seven have no health insurance.

According to a 2005 Rural School and Community Trust report, South Dakota’s rural communities have the eighth lowest rural per capita income in the nation, ninth highest child poverty rates and sixth highest percentage of rural households headed by women with pre-school age children living in poverty.

Native Americans, 8.3 percent of South Dakota’s population, are among the state’s poorest.

Charon Asetoyer, executive director of the Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center on the Yankton Sioux Indian Reservation, told the World, “This bill hurts the poorest of the poor. In this state, a lot of us fit into that category.” Because of federal downsizing and privatization of Indian health care, she said, Native Americans increasingly have to travel to the Planned Parenthood clinic for reproductive complications and abortions.

Along with criminalizing abortion, “the religious right-wing is trying very hard to limit women’s access to family planning,” putting women “at high risk of conceiving an unwanted child,” Asetoyer said.

“I don’t appreciate state politicians making decisions over my reproductive health. They have no idea what it’s like to have an unwanted pregnancy — they have no idea what it’s like to be pregnant!” she said of the mostly male legislators.

Noting that the state will incur huge expenses defending the law in court, the Rapid City, S.D., Journal editorialized March 7, “South Dakota could better use that money on a variety of underfunded needs in the state, such as education, women’s health and children’s welfare.”

“Women who want an abortion will find a way to get one,” the Journal said. “Women who can afford it will travel to a state where abortion is legal, and those who don’t have the money will find underground sources that aren’t necessarily safe.” In a Houston Chronicle commentary, Asetoyer and Lynn Paltrow, executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women, wrote, “Rather than admit that this law will hurt pregnant women and mothers, South Dakota’s legislators pretend it protects them. Indeed, the authors of this bill call it ‘The Women’s Health and Human Life Protection Act.’ In another age we might expect that legislation so-named would address such urgent women’s health problems as breast and cervical cancer, the fact that 88,350 South Dakotans are without health insurance, the equivalent of 12 percent of the state’s population, or the fact that South Dakota guarantees no paid maternity leave for the many mothers who must continue working in order to feed their families.”

Similar bills are being proposed in several states.

En español:

St. Louis protesters challenge anti-gay conference

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 11:57:00 +0000

ST. LOUIS — Over 350 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activists, community allies and friends protested outside of an anti-gay conference here Feb. 25.

The conference, called “Love Won Out,” was sponsored by Focus on the Family (FOF) and Exodus International (EI). Both organizations claim that homosexuality is a curable disorder and use what’s called “reparative therapy” on young adults and people questioning their sexuality. FOF and EI have held similar conferences across the country.

According to the American Psychological Association, reparative therapy can cause depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior and can be especially damaging to young adults.

“Every major medical organization says that homosexuality is not something that requires a cure,” Dr. Ken Haller, a professor of pediatrics at St. Louis University, told the World. “If they were only preaching that homosexuality were bad, that is one thing, but they claim that they can cure homosexuality.”

Haller added that for the religious LGBT community, being told you are denied God’s love because of your sexual preference is a big deal. As a doctor he recognizes the relationship between having strong faith and good health.

Scott Emanuel from the ACLU believes that reparative therapy can damage young peoples’ sense of self. He volunteers with Growing American Youth, an organization that encourages teens to explore their feelings and be true to themselves. He sees kids struggling with questions of sexuality everyday.

“Unfortunately, with closed-minded family members, kids don’t have many positive images of homosexuality available to them,” said Emanuel. “They need to understand that believing in God and being gay is OK.”

“Many LGBT people are carrying a lot of negative baggage,” said protester Gail Elble. “The lack of acceptance in their own lives, and the idea that young people are being dragged to this conference by their parents, has brought a lot of people here to show their support for LGBT rights.”

FOF and EI aren’t just anti-gay, they are anti-union and are funded by right-wing organizations and individuals.

Sandra Telep of Pride At Work, an AFL-CIO constituency group for LGBT union members, told the World, “FOF and EI are anti-union and use the ‘gay issue’ as a wedge. It’s divide and conquer. The LGBT rights movement and the labor movement have a common enemy. We need to fight on a common front.”