People Before Profit blog

LETTERS

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 06:56:00 +0000

Fight for women’s rights After reading “S. Dakota Passes Anti-Woman Law” (PWW 3/11-17), I can relate only too well. As a single woman now living barely above the federal poverty level, thanks to a job layoff that forced me into retail work, I can’t imagine being a single mom supporting a 5-year-old. I don’t have to worry about how to pay for daycare during the 50 hours I work every week, or providing food and other basic needs for a child. Six years ago I was able to make the choice that for me is the difference between barely getting by and absolute poverty. Every Friday I’m a volunteer escort at my local Planned Parenthood abortion clinic, where I see how many women’s lives are also affected by this choice. I live in a state where pro-choice advocates heaved a great sigh of relief when our State General Assembly session closed without passing proposed legislation similar to South Dakota’s. This issue is not going away, and we absolutely need to continue to stand up and fight against the endless attacks on women’s rights, for realistic sexual education, and for comprehensive and readily available health care.

Melissa O’Rourke Indianapolis IN

Divide and rule The British taught the Americans well. Divide and rule is alive and well in Iraq. In Vietnam it became so obvious. So much blood spilt. Profits in the billions. Killing and armament manufacture in the name of democracy is an “antidote” to the horrifying specter of economic depression. “Times are a changing” but are they before the world self-annihilates?

Dr. Adam Rosenblatt Melbourne, Australia

Class and immigrant rights I am very happy with your recent coverage of the immigration movement and the recent mass demonstrations. Perhaps it’s the most significant civil rights movement since the 1960s. The immigration movement raises a number of important class issues. For all the talk of GM outsourcing jobs to Mexico, one must ask: why are workers still risking crossing these borders? Perhaps all of this propaganda of jobs heading south makes little or no sense. When GM closes it plants here, laying off more than 40,000 workers, it is just another lie being promoted by CNN and Fox News. GM is laying off workers here and setting up automated plants in Mexico. There is no doubt in my mind this new social movement could spark the radicalization of the American working people, many of whom are the sons and daughters of immigrants.

Tom Siblo Shokan NY

Impeachment ignored If a national movement calling for the impeachment of the president is rapidly emerging and the corporate media are not covering it, is there really a national movement for the impeachment of the president? Impeachment advocates are widely mobilizing in the U.S. Over 1,000 letters to the editors of major newspapers have been printed in the past six months asking for impeachment. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette letter writer George Matus says, “I am still enraged over unasked questions about exit polls, touch-screen voting, Iraq, the cost of the new Medicare, who formulated our energy policy, Jack Abramoff, the Downing Street Memos, and impeachment.” William Dwyer’s letter in the Charleston Gazette says, “Congress will never have the courage to start the impeachment process without a groundswell of outrage from the people.” City councils, boards of supervisors, and local and state level Democrat central committees have voted for impeachment. As of March 16, 32 congresspersons have signed on as co-sponsors to House Resolution 635, which would create a Select Committee to look into the grounds for recommending President Bush’s impeachment. Polls show that nearly a majority of Americans favor impeachment. Despite all this advocacy and sentiment for impeachment, corporate media have yet to cover this emerging mass movement. Despite corporate media’s inability to hear the demands for impeachment, the groundswell of outrage continues to expand.

Peter Phillips Rohnert Park CA Professor of sociology at Sonoma State University and director of Project Censored, a media research organization.

Cuba’s baseball team Congratulations are in order to the national baseball team of Cuba who made it to the championship game of the inaugural World Baseball Classic. Despite the loss to Japan, the Cuban team under the managerial skills of Higinio Velez, once again showed the talent which has resulted in their winning the gold medal in three Olympics. The U.S. State Department, until early this year, attempted to deny Cuba’s entry into the tournament. Some credit should be given to Peter Ueberroth, former commissioner of baseball, who warned the Bush administration such a ban could have an effect on any U.S. efforts to host future Olympics. Politics should not be involved in international sporting events. This ploy by the Oval Office shows once more the short-sightedness of the person in the Oval Office.

Tom Downes Chicago IL

Drop charges against activistsI sent this letter to Cook County State’s Attorney Richard Devine and encourage others to do the same. I am sending this letter to express my deepest concern about the prosecution of five anti-racist activists who were arrested on October 15, 2005, at the protest of the Minutemen conference in Arlington Heights. I urge that they not be forced to suffer any more time in jail and furthermore that all charges be dropped. These young people were simply exercising their right to free speech against hate, racism and intolerance. They were participating in a peaceful symbolic demonstration in solidarity with hundreds of people from diverse backgrounds to show their support for immigrant and ultimately human rights. People should have the right to demonstrate their opposition to a hate-group like the Minutemen. The Minutemen are a racist, anti-immigrant vigilante group that takes the law into their own hands. They are an armed border patrol group, who are also involved in anti-immigrant actions across the country. The Minutemen have recently come to organize in Chicago to terrorize our large immigrant population. I support the five anti-racist defendants and I believe it would be a great injustice to convict them of such unwarranted charges. Please drop all charges against them.

Doug Freedman Prospect Heights IL

Burst Alaskan pipeline damages tundra

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 05:26:00 +0000

A leak in an Alaskan pipeline operated by BP (British Petroleum) has resulted in one of the worst oil spills to afflict the region since the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989. News reports say more than 260,000 gallons of crude oil spilled into a remote area of tundra that is home to a variety of Alaskan wildlife.

State officials said the initial spill occurred March 2 from a 34-inch pipeline near Gathering Center 2 on the North Slope. The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation said its cause was “a quarter-inch hole in the pipeline due to internal corrosion. The leak is from a hole discovered in the pipe within a buried culvert (caribou crossing).”

The agency’s report, dated March 20, identifies the party potentially responsible for the spill as British Petroleum Exploration Alaska.

The finding of internal corrosion is troubling for those who monitor the pipeline’s durability. The main pipeline, which stretches from Prudhoe Bay in the North Slope to Valdez in Prince William Sound, will be 30 years old next year.

“I think many of us are seriously concerned about the aging and the deterioration of the pipeline and the facilities,” John Devens, executive director of the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council, told The Associated Press.

Natalie Brandon, policy director for the Alaska Wilderness League, said, “This historic oil spill is a catastrophe for the environment. Tone-deaf politicians in Congress should now stop trying to push for more drilling through sneaky maneuvers.” In her statement, which was reported by the Independent (UK) newspaper, Brandon added, “The fact that the oil spill occurred in a caribou crossing area in Prudhoe Bay is a painful reminder of the reality of unchecked oil and gas development across Alaska’s North Slope.”

Oil companies like BP, which have made enormous profits in recent years, have been pushing to gain exploration and drilling rights in protected areas like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Bush administration has aggressively championed their cause, but so far Congress has generally resisted such plans. The Arctic Refuge is, like the site of the present spill, located on the North Slope.

NATIONAL CLIPS

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 05:14:00 +0000

DETROIT: 50,000 say, ‘We are not criminals’

Over 50,000 Mexican, Guatemalan, Honduran and El Salvadoran and other immigrant families, carrying their homeland flags, jammed in front of the Federal Building, March 27, chanting, “We are not criminals.”

Calling the march a pilgrimage, Father Russ Koher of Holy Trinity Catholic Church said it was outrageous that proposed legislation would make him a felon for helping someone who does not have immigration documents.

“We need help,” said Ever Valasquez, 35, who delivers furniture. “The reason we stay in this country is because our countries are so poor.” Esperanza Ramos, 68, stood with her daughter, Esther Angeles, who works the midnight shift. Both are citizens, born in the U.S. Angeles should have been sleeping, but she chose to protest because, she said, “immigrants have the right to come and work here and not be treated like prisoners or killed on their way here.”

A representative from the area’s large Arab American community was among those addressing the crowd.

DENVER: 50,000 march on State Capitol

“It’s just incredible,” said Polly Boca, a former state legislator who is executive director of Latin American Research and Service Agency. “You can see that a day without these people working would be devastating for Colorado’s economy.” As she marched with 50,000 others, March 25, Boca said farm, construction and hotel workers and their families had driven from Pueblo and Fort Collins to join the march.

PHOENIX: Largest demo ever targets Sen. Kyl

Traffic in midtown Phoenix came to a halt on March 24 as tens of thousands of demonstrators marched on the office of Arizona’s right-wing Sen. Jon Kyl. The Arizona Republic called it the “city’s biggest demonstration ever.”

Protester Elizabeth Cabezas emigrated from Ecuador three years ago. She told the World she appreciates the American people and the chance to live and work in this country, which enables her to send money home to family members for education. They won’t have to immigrate, she said. At Kyl’s office five protesters delivered a letter to the senator’s staff. Probably awed by the size of the crowd, and Kyl’s vulnerability in this year’s election, the office staff accepted the letter, something they have not done in previous protests.

Kyl is pushing for the construction of double and/or triple walls in Nogales, Douglas, Naco and Lukeville, which will lead migrants and smugglers to more desperate and deadly means to enter the U.S., cause greater environmental damage, and cost the taxpayers more than $700 million for a band-aid strategy that fails to address root causes of migration.

– Joe Bernick (pwwinaz@webtv.net)

MILWAUKEE: 30,000 flex political muscle

Businesses closed and attendance at schools was light, March 23, as 30,000 immigrant workers, families and supporters formed a human wave a mile long through downtown streets. They marched against the punitive bill proposed by Wisconsin’s own Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner and state measures denying immigrants access to driver’s licenses and even school lunches.

Shelia Cochran of the Milwaukee County Labor Council called Sensenbrenner’s bill “wrong-spirited, wrongheaded and just plain wrong.”

School Board member Jennifer Morales called on the entire educational community to “oppose any law that makes criminals of children.” She gave the green light to school workers to break the law and continue to provide lunches and other services to children.

“You let us fight and die for the country, but we’re still not called American,” read one of the hundreds of banners in the march. In nearby Waukesha, Sensenbrenner held a town meeting which drew 50 while 200 rallied outside protesting “everything he stands for beginning with his attempt to rob immigrants of their democratic rights,” said Barney Gonzales.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.: Mayor addresses rally of 7,000

Norma Ramirez drove her family three hours from their home in Batesville, S.C., to join 7,000 marchers here, to defend her rights and dignity. “Our voices must be heard,” she said. “People need to see that we are united against these laws that say we’re criminals!”

Mayor Pro Tem Susan Burgess addressed the rally, saying the city must welcome people from all over the world to compete in the global economy. She called for justice for those who “cook our food, build our homes and care for our children.”

Another 700 Latino families marched behind the banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patron saint of the Americas, from Holy Cross Catholic Church to the municipal building in Kernersville, N.C.

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

Forum reports Venezuelas advances

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 04:55:00 +0000

CHICAGO — The dynamic, grassroots character of Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution under President Hugo Chávez was vividly depicted at a forum here March 16 through words, music, slides and photos.

The program featured eyewitness reports by Shelby Richardson, a trade unionist who traveled to Venezuela with the U.S.-Cuba Labor Exchange, and Jim Fennerty, president of the Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. Both visited Caracas, the country’s capital, in late January.

Big changes are under way, said Richardson. “For the first time, the Venezuelan people, particularly the 80 percent who are poor, know that the country’s natural resources are being placed in their direction. Money is being spent on health care, on education, on food subsidies,” he said. Progressive land reform is also under way.

Many experiments are taking place. For example, under a special agreement, thousands of Cuban health professionals are delivering free health care to Venezuela’s poor neighborhoods, many of which had no health care before. Cuban doctors “live with the people,” often upstairs above their clinics. Meanwhile Venezuelan youth are studying medicine in Cuba.

A feeling of newfound dignity among the country’s working and indigenous peoples is an important byproduct of the changes. Richardson said one person he met in Simon Bolivar Square, once an exclusive preserve of the rich, said with great pride, “Now anybody can walk in this square!”

Among the people he met, including labor union leaders and representatives of the Communist Party of Venezuela, “there was a lot of emphasis on building new forms of organization and structure to support the revolutionary process, and an accent on ‘participatory socialism.’” Richardson, a member of the Communist Party USA, also participated in the World Social Forum while he was there.

Richardson did see opposition to Chávez, particularly among the well-to-do. “The opposition clearly dominates the media. They certainly don’t like what’s going on,” he said.

Jim Fennerty, whose Lawyers Guild delegation met with trade unionists, community leaders, elected officials, leaders of opposition political parties, media figures and judges, also observed some opposition to Chávez, especially among the self-described “elite.”

“We met with leaders of the Primero Justicia party,” Fennerty said. “They said they didn’t like the workers’ cooperative movement and said, ‘We’re for self-sufficiency, too, but we think corporations should come in and they’d run these enterprises better.’”

It was remarkable, Fennerty said, how readily opposition groups acknowledged receiving money from abroad. In a meeting with leaders of Sumate, the group that funded and supported the recall drive to oust Chávez, he said they frankly admitted receiving money from the U.S.-backed National Endowment for Democracy.

Fennerty agreed with Richardson’s observations on the newfound dignity and feelings of self-determination for many working-class and poor Venezuelans. Many are quick to invoke their country’s new constitution to defend their rights, he said.

One resident of a working-class neighborhood said, “People are not doing what Chávez is telling them to do. Chávez is doing what the people want him to do.” Another resident said that the neighbors make the decision about what happens in their “barrio.”

Fennerty said when he visited one of the worker co-ops he asked a woman, who was working late in a shirt factory, if her life had changed much over the past few years.

“Now I don’t have to be a street vendor,” she said. “I’m taking care of my kids better and I’m going to school now.” What kind of school? “I’m getting my primary education.”

The forum was sponsored by the Workers Education Society and the People’s Weekly World.

LETTERS

Sat, 25 Mar 2006 04:23:00 +0000

Immigrant rights goals David Bacon’s centerspread article on temporary worker programs (PWW 3/18-24) is an important contribution to the debate on immigration policy. It sharply raises the dangers of “temporary” or “guest worker” programs for their impact on the immigrant workers themselves and on all workers in the country, in the name of business interests. The article could have spoken more to the reality that “for too long our immigration laws have already created a two-tiered society and have perpetuated racial and ethnic discrimination,” as eloquently put by Dr. Dorothy Height, chairperson of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. The increasing repression of the existing lower tier of undocumented workers is the reason that virtually all groups working for immigrant rights support a transitional program that has a “path” to permanent residency as a goal for legislative action in the current political climate. The AFL-CIO, one of the strongest supporters of permanent residency over temporary worker programs, supports the transitional path approach embodied in the McCain Kennedy bill’s section on legalization for undocumented workers. In fact the AFL-CIO does not see this transitional status as a “temporary” worker program in the traditional sense because the workers have the ability to change employers. There are differences among democratic-minded groups over other aspects of immigration policy, primarily over what concessions if any might be acceptable in exchange for an acceptable legalization for the 11 million or more undocumented immigrants the country today. What is most important, however, is the unity of all the democratic forces in opposition to the persecutionary provisions in the Sensenbrenner, Specter and now Frist proposals, which threaten police-state policies for immigrants and citizens.

Rosalio Muñoz Los Angeles

Port issues Dan Margolis’ article on port security (PWW 3/4-10) failed to mention a number of issues, such as the claim by the State Department that Dubai’s labor practices are below a reasonable standard. Much of the blue-collar work in Dubai is done by foreign guest workers who are deprived of basic civil rights by Dubai’s government. DP World is an agency of that government. Our dockworkers and other port personnel would be much better served by any private entity that has not got so poor a record on labor. Another issue is what level of foreign imports would come through the ports, including foreign oil. Most U.S. workers would like to see the U.S. become less dependent on foreign oil, which would possibly be increased under Dubai management. Also, the U.S. has too frequently been the target of sweatshop products coming from the Indian subcontinent, where Dubai does a large amount of business. Do we have any assurance that Dubai won’t increase the imports produced in sweatshops? Such issues are very much related to national security, if the safety of blue-collar jobs and the health of the economy are security issues — and how could they not be? Like all wars the current one has everything to do with international economic competition. If we want peace, then we want out of any situation that fosters rather than reduces international economic competition. For the above reasons, among others, we should oppose outsourcing port management to Dubai.

Matthew Buchwald Woodside NY

Dan Margolis replies: I believe port operators are only responsible for managing the ports and cargo, not deciding what comes in. Dubai’s record is bad, and should be opposed — but so should the record of Wal-Mart and the Carlyle Group, which may take over the ports now that DP World is out. We need to demand that public facilities’ management not be outsourced at all.

France In February I was in Nice, France, where I saw televised debates over the new labor law and posters urging protests. Like many workers in the U.S., I’m used to minimal (or often zero) paid vacation time and constant job insecurity. In contrast, the French working class has won much more paid vacation time, a 35-hour workweek and more job security. Young workers in the U.S. must think that the French youth are from Mars when they demand good compensation and the right to not be fired without good cause! Young workers and students in the U.S. have much to learn from the youth of France! Right-wingers want the French youth to say, “Any job is better than nothing” and accept job insecurity.

Drew Chebuhar Chicago IL

Labor and nature Contrary to the letter in last week’s PWW (3/18-24), Marx criticized the statement that all wealth is created by labor. In his 1875 “Critique of the Gotha Programme,” he wrote, “Labor is not the source of all wealth. Nature is just as much the source … as is labor.” Marx stressed that nature is the primary source of the instruments and other objects on which labor is performed. Through this interaction between workers and nature, labor is also the source of wealth. According to Marx, capitalists make the fanciful assertion that only labor is the source of wealth in order to claim that the worker “must be the slave of other men who have made themselves the owners of the material conditions of labor,” so that the worker “can only work with their permission, and hence only live with their permission.” Marx’s point is especially important today because he is stressing the symbiotic relationship between people and nature. By the capitalists’ rapacious destruction of the environment as they seek maximum profits, they are not only destroying our inheritance of nature’s wealth, but are also endangering the material basis for the creation of wealth by labor.

Erwin Marquit Minneapolis MN

Peggy Lipschutz The recent welcome profile of Peggy Lipschutz (PWW 3/4-10) reminded me of a 1978 cultural conference in Kansas City, which she attended. I vividly recall how she observed that in the 1930s, under the arts programs of the WPA, all that was necessary for an artist to receive benefits was to have professional experience. The benefits weren’t much, but one could survive on them. She went on to say that nowadays, no one thinks of artists being entitled to support as a result of their craft. Instead, they crawl to corporate foundations, competing for handouts. The Federal Writers Project similarly supported hundreds, perhaps thousands, of previously unemployed teachers, journalists and scholars who otherwise would have starved to death.

Fred Whitehead Kansas City KS

LETTERS

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 04:14:00 +0000

Danger to Iran

I was glad to see the article “U.S. readying military attack on Iran” by Mark Almberg (PWW 3/11-17) underscoring the danger of a U.S. attack or perhaps U.S./Israeli attack on Iran. Having just returned from a week in Italy, I can report that the European media and public are taking the saber rattling of Bush and his henchmen far more seriously than public opinion here. It seems to me our peace movement could make a big mistake if it underestimated the danger of American aggression against Iran.

In truth, the war against Iran has already begun. The Financial Times of London on Feb. 24 reported that U.S. Marine commandos are probing the border regions of Iran to see whether hostility to the central government among minority nationalities and religions can be exploited in the event of invasion. I have not seen this story in the U.S. media. With Bush’s approval ratings sinking, armed actions might be just the thing Karl Rove needs to pump up jingoism and keep his majorities in the Senate and House. Rove “ran on the war” in 2002, too, and it worked.

There are countless eerie similarities between the build-up to war in Iraq and the build-up to war in Iran. The corporate media, even those that profess indignation at being bamboozled by Bush in 2002-2003, are falling hook, line and sinker for the same deceptions now with respect to Iran. So are all too many congressional Democrats, brainless and spineless as usual. Only the peace movement and other independent forces can change the debate. Our slogan must be not only “Out now” from Iraq, but “Hands off Iran!” I am grateful to the PWW for giving the peace movement a lead on this.

Thomas Kenny

New York NY

Budget needs to keep pace with inflation

Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s proposed budget to care for abused and neglected children and youth refuses to keep pace with inflation for a sixth year in a row, and is putting quality programs on a starvation diet.

Illinois nonprofit child welfare agencies and our foster parents have helped reduce the number of abused and neglected children in state care from 53,000 to 17,000, but that progress is at risk because the state is backsliding on its commitment to maintaining quality care for abused and neglected children.

Where can foster parents purchase gas at $1.42 a gallon to drive a foster child to school, the doctor, or court? That’s the 2001 price at which the state currently reimburses them.

Fortunately, Illinois House lawmakers overwhelmingly support a cost-of-doing-business increase for child welfare and youth service agencies and foster parents. A bipartisan group of 80 lawmakers from around the state is sponsoring House Bill 4543 — legislation that authorizes a 3 percent budget increase for the care of abused and neglected children this year.

Illinois residents must be equally as steadfast in their support for abused and neglected children and communicate to the governor’s office that they oppose financially starving care for these kids and that they, too, support House Bill 4543.

Jimmie Smith

Executive Director,Kids Hope United

Lake Villa IL

Rejoice!

I received my first copy of my PWW subscription March 9! It was the February 25 - March 3 issue. I liked reading the centerfold feature: “Embracing the African presence in Mexico” and the culture page item “Einstein in the hood.”

The photo of pitchers and catchers for the Texas Rangers on that page reminded me of the 1985 Youth and Students Festival in Moscow where a group of Pakistani youth were shouting in the streets marching with all the delegates : “Up! Socialism ! Down ! Capitalism!” It was a great moment in my life.

André Cloudier

Montréal, Canada

Labor creates all wealth, and pays all taxes too!

Karl Marx said that all wealth is created by labor. I’d like to add something to that. All taxation is paid by working people. If a person has so little income he doesn’t have to pay any tax to the government he still pays tax. Suppose he goes to see a doctor and is charged $100 for the visit. The doctor pays $30 or $40 in income tax out of that $100. So who is really paying that tax?

The only other thing I know about economics is this: Money goes from the poor to the rich. That’s why the rich get richer and the poor stay poor.

John Nolan

Via e-mail

Disagrees on ‘Munich’

I’m a Brazilian communist and I live in Rio de Janeiro. I like very much the People’s Weekly World.

I read Susan Webb’s article about the movie “Munich” (PWW 2/18-24). I didn’t like the movie and I don’t agree that “it is an unflinching call for a fundamental change in U.S. and Israeli policies, to make possible a real peace that gives both peoples a homeland,” as Webb wrote. In my opinion, the movie is pro-Israel and a superficial Hollywood production.

I recently saw a movie that really helps enlighten us about the situation in Palestine and Israel, “Paradise Now.” This film, made in 2003, is now in Brazil. If “Paradise Now” is playing in the United States, I would like to see an article about it in the PWW.

António Augusto

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Hideous fashion

Please note the article in The New York Times, “Style or Statement,” on new fashions of covering women’s faces. Then go celebrate International Women’s Day.

Paris is pushing a negative aspect for women, hidden and silent. Another backward step. We will not go backwards, give up our rights, or our bodies and hide our beauty and who we are! And we will help and encourage our sisters who live in countries where they are forced to cover themselves at penalty of death to continue to fight for women’s rights, freedom and human rights.

We will not accept fashions that take us back to the times when women were chattel, had no rights and were owned by their husbands. How shameful that fashion houses see something beautiful, not horrifying, in the sad state of women by imitating burkas and even symbols of the covered face of the tortured. Is this the message we want to encourage?

Viviana Weinstein

San Antonio TX

LETTERS

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 09:06:00 +0000

Asbestos puts Montana children at risk

I don’t know if you’ve heard of my town (Libby, Mont.) but we have the highest asbestos levels in the nation thanks to W.R. Grace’s mines.

Over half the people here have some sort of asbestos-caused disease. Right now our governor is in Washington trying to get the Senate to allow a certain type of test so that the state of Montana can find out who is eligible for compensation from W.R. Grace.

Bush’s party is trying to shut him down on every aspect, saying that the entire nation has been affected the same. But our local newspaper said it best: “We aren’t talking about a factory here, an entire town is affected.” It’s not only in the air we breathe but in the houses we live in.

I’ve only lived here for seven years but I have two small children who were born here and will probably spend the rest of their lives here. The last thing I want for them is the fear of dying from a problem that happened before their time.

If I remember correctly didn’t Bush say that we needed to look out for our nation’s children for they were the future? Well what about the children and people of Libby, Montana? We are a part of this nation, so isn’t time we’re treated like it?

Sam Darby Libby MT

Ports for the people

Dan Margolis’s article on the Dubai Ports World controversy (PWW 3/4-10) is useful and clarifies much, but I would like to add a further comment, which is that I would not be any happier to have Halliburton, Bechtel or Wal-Mart running the ports than the United Arab Emirates entity. Ever greater multilateral corporate control of ports, railways, airports and other key communication and transportation links is something that affects not only the United States but other countries as well, especially poorer nations who are in a subordinate position in the vast imperialistic set-up of corporate globalization. U.S. corporations are a far greater threat to the national sovereignty and thus security of such countries than Dubai Ports is to U.S. security. We should steer clear of the opportunistic Arab-bashing that the controversy has generated, and take a stand for democratic, public control over such entities and functions worldwide.

Emile Schepers Northern Virginia

Bush and horses

I enjoyed Paul Hill’s article about Tom DeLay (“DeLay lashes out as support plummets,” PWW 1/21-27). Is no one making a stink about DeLay being on the subcommittee overseeing the Abramoff investigation?

Democrats and Republicans (Demopublicans and Republicrats) are like the World Wrestling Federation: they argue and fight like hell while on stage and then they party backstage like buddies.

Does the PWW have a paper edition that can be distributed? I live in a small town in Texas and many folks don’t have Internet access. This paper could open some eyes especially those that think Baby Bush is a rancher and cowboy. The guy is afraid of horses! I know that for a fact.

Thanks for all your hard work.

James Whitworth Blanco TX

Duckworth and abortion

I would like to make a correction to the article on the 6th Congressional race in Illinois (PWW 3/4-10). The article stated that “both Cegelis and Duckworth are strongly pro-choice, defend privacy rights of women and oppose parental consent for teenagers seeking abortions.”

That is not true. Duckworth has made equivocating statements on abortion rights and has waffled on parental notification.

According to Nation columnist Katha Pollitt, “Duckworth told the Washington Post she thinks abortion shouldn’t be a federal issue. That’s not exactly a ringing defense of abortion rights, since unfortunately it is a federal issue.”

In addition, Duckworth has waffled on the question of parental notification. In November, she said she was against it. But in February she said might be able to support it if it included a judicial bypass for cases of rape and incest. When pressed on this, she said, “I really don’t know.” Later she “clarified” her position, once again saying she opposed parental notification.

These equivocating and waffling statements do not indicate a “strong pro-choice” position. On the contrary. As Katha Pollitt said, “I would trust Cegelis a thousand times over Duckworth to take progressive stands once elected, including on women’s rights and abortion rights.”

A resident of the 6th Congressional District Via e-mail

The author, John Bachtell, responds: Both Tammy Duckworth and Christine Cegelis were endorsed by Planned Parenthood of Illinois because “they are candidates that support choice, family planning and quality sex education.” Emily’s List, also an organization dedicated to electing pro-choice candidates, also endorsed Duckworth. David Moberg in a Feb. 22 article in “In These Times” says, “Both Duckworth and Cegelis identify themselves as pro-choice, but Duckworth in particular tries to encompass abortion within broader privacy rights.” A call to the Duckworth campaign office also elicited the response that, “Of course, she’s pro-choice.” It’s safe to say that if voters nominate either Cegelis or Duckworth, the Democrats will field a pro-choice candidate in the 6th CD.

‘Honk against the war’

Throughout weekly peace vigils, which began Dec. 7, those who participated were amazed at how many cars honked, waved, and shouted support. Vigils will continue in front of the Unitarian Society of Germantown, Philadelphia, from 5-6 p.m. every Wednesday. Powerful signs invite cars to honk if they opposed war and want the U.S. out of Iraq.

We understand there was no “war” with Iraq, it was a U.S. invasion. Are Iraqis better off now than they were before the May 2003 invasion? According to Dexter Filkins, New York Times Baghdad correspondent, they are not. He claims that the rights of secular, educated women have been diminished. He also states that the only commonality of the 100 very diverse insurgents is that they all want the U.S. out of Iraq. There are surrounding countries that could be called upon for aid — Iraq does not need the U.S.

Does the U.S. need Iraq? During times of “war” the government can claim a need for support of its policies and claim as unpatriotic those who want their tax dollars to provide jobs, health care, education, housing, and a clean environment.

June Krebs Philadelphia PA

EDITORIAL: Republican hypocrisy

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 09:01:00 +0000

Republican senators bowed to the White House March 7, dropping their opposition to warrantless wiretapping by the National Security Agency in exchange for a fig-leaf concession by President Bush.

The deal, concocted by Vice President Dick Cheney, permits eavesdropping on Americans’ phone conversations without a warrant for 45 days. It creates a new seven-member Senate “terrorist surveillance subcommittee” that critics charge will be controlled by Bush.

Among those who caved in were “moderate” Republican Senators Olympia Snowe (Maine) and Chuck Hagel (Neb.) who earlier had threatened to support the Democrats’ demand for a full Senate investigation of the spying scandal. Trying to put a positive spin on their green light for spying on Americans, the GOP “moderates” claimed, “We are reasserting congressional responsibility of oversight.”

It came on the same day that the House voted 280-138 to extend the repressive USA Patriot Act, which had been stalled for months by disclosure that Bush had ordered the massive warrantless spying. The vote makes permanent repressive measures such as FBI spying on people’s medical records and the books they check out of public libraries. Four Senate Republicans negotiated with the House Republican leadership to clear the way for final passage.

Taken together, the NSA spy deal and the Patriot Act extension add up to an effort to legalize Bush-Cheney spying in flagrant violation of the Fourth Amendment. These deals expose the cowardice and treachery of House and Senate Republicans, including those “moderates” who pose as champions of the Bill of Rights. In the end they cave in and give Bush what he wants.

Another example of hypocritical GOP grandstanding is the congressional Republicans vowing to enact legislation barring the Dubai ports deal, in the name of “protecting national security.” It is a case of worried incumbents distancing themselves from Bush by hitting him from the right. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) wondered aloud if this is shadowboxing with the “acquiescence” of the White House.

These demagogues should be ousted from office next Nov. 7. It would give us the chance to repeal the Patriot Act and terminate spying on Americans.

EDITORIAL: Whos corrupt?

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 08:58:00 +0000

In February 2003 Bush’s Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao issued an undisguised threat to the elected union leaders representing millions of Americans.

At a meeting of the executive council of the AFL-CIO, to which Chao had been invited, Machinist Union President Tom Buffenbarger expressed labor’s objections to her department’s new financial reporting rules that would bury unions in red tape.

Chao responded by whipping out a thick dossier on Buffenbarger’s union. The file detailed every instance of supposed “corruption” in the entire 750,000-member organization. The report didn’t mention that most of the incidents had been uncovered, and dealt with, by the union itself. Chao made it clear that her department had a similar file on any union that might object to her department’s policies.

Three years later, it’s not hard to pick up the threads of an all-out campaign to create a public perception of rampant corruption in the ranks of labor.

Just last week 20 FBI agents raided the offices of the New York Central Labor Council, claiming “corruption” by its dynamic and effective leader Brian McLaughlin, who is also a member of the New York State Assembly. Only weeks earlier, the head of the Los Angeles County Labor Council, Martin Ludlow, was indicted on charges related to union contributions to his successful campaign for City Council.

Both central labor council leaders have been trailblazers in defining an independent political role for labor. They were elected to office by winning broad public support for working family policies.

Meanwhile, secret funders have launched a new web site, “UnionFacts,” to paint a picture of a labor movement awash in corruption and led by the mob. In Boston, UnionFacts attacked the leadership of Unite Here just as the union was launching its national contract campaign for hotel workers there.

Look for things to heat up as the 2006 election campaign gets under way. Labor is the organizational and financial backbone of the resistance to the corporation-loving neo-cons who now control the executive branch, Congress, the courts and many state governments. Neither labor nor its allies can afford to let these attacks go unanswered.

LETTERS

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 11:23:00 +0000

Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner

I read your article about “Three who gave their lives: Remembering the martyrs of Mississippi Freedom Summer, 1964” (PWW 5/25/96), and I wanted to invite you to see their sculpture: www.yoyita.com/civilrights.htm.

Yoyita

Via e-mail

Big Bang correction

In response to an e-mailed criticism by a reader, I wish to correct a mistaken formulation in my review of Stephen Hawking’s book, “A Briefer History of Time” (PWW 1/21-27). In referring to what some have said of the Big Bang or the Big Crunch theories of the origin and end of the universe, that the universe either arose from nothing or would eventually collapse into nothing, I made the statement: “For the Marxists, both possibilities must be ruled out.”

This statement smacks of dogmatism. The philosophy of Marxism does not stand above science, but instead is derived from science. What I was trying to say was that the statement that the universe arose from nothing or would collapse into nothing was a philosophical statement, and as such could be challenged on philosophical grounds. Physics has nothing to say about what happened before the Big Bang or after the Big Crunch. But thousands of years of science have shown us that nothing happens without a material cause, and this principle of causality has been incorporated into the philosophy of Marxism.

John Pappademos

Ferguson MO

Anti-worker attitude

Joseph Donnelly’s letter (“Wal-Mart and health care” PWW 2/18 -2/24) could not possibly have made me any angrier, with his contention that “Those 1,000 workers and jobs that are being threatened in Annapolis are not real jobs if they are working for Wal-Mart.”

So we shouldn’t fight for health care benefits for Wal-Mart workers, because Wal-Mart isn’t a “real job?” And what does constitute a “real job” in Mr. Donnelly’s haughty estimation, particularly when the 1,000 prospective workers in question on the Eastern Shore of Maryland have few, if any, other options?

I think that this statement betrays a distinct anti-worker attitude on his part. This, coupled with the blatant proselytizing on behalf of his bourgeois-oriented Eastern religious philosophy, does not belong in a working-class publication, particularly one with a Marxist-Leninist analysis such as People’s Weekly World, and should not go unchallenged. I don’t believe that PWW should be in the business of giving a forum to such crap, at least without offering some sort of rebuttal.

Ed Jensen

South Bend IN

It’s still a jungle

How are ordinary Americans doing? To read The Wall Street Journal of Feb. 23, the harsh retrospective review by John J. Miller of Upton Sinclair’s monumental “The Jungle,” whose 100th publishing anniversary is at hand, says that “capitalism has served the huddled masses rather well.”

Then I pick up my hometown Star Tribune of Feb. 23 and read the glaring headline “Hunger is becoming more chronic” and that more and more people — working poor as well as homeless — now are forced to rely on food shelves/banks for daily sustenance. If that is not a blatant and long-standing failure of capitalism, what is it?

With the unique brand of “Compassionate Conservatism” displayed for five years now by the Bush administration, which has spent us into oblivion with its illegal, immoral war in Iraq and its serve-the-rich first domestic policies, we all will be in the breadlines and the poorhouse before this crew either is impeached or finishes its term as the worst administration in our not-so-great nation’s history. Bottom line: It’s still a jungle out there.

Willard B. Shapira

Minneapolis MN

Health care here & overseas

The local hospital in Berkeley, Calif., is a paragon of glass windows, crisp uniforms, indoor plants, top-of-the-line computers and all that kind of stuff. But does it deliver the goods?

If you get sick in the U.S. and you are poor, you are screwed. Want to spend 10 hours in the waiting room of an ER? Then America is the country for you! Our health care system is really, really pretty — and it costs an arm and a leg. But does it deliver the goods?

A friend of mine just got back from a Third World country. Here is her report:

“I got desperately sick three weeks ago and went to the local hospital with grave hesitation. From the outside it looked like Abu Ghraib and on the inside it looked like a seedy version of the most run-down office building in Detroit.”

But did it deliver the goods?

“I was processed through reception and triage in less than five minutes. That would be a record in any U.S. hospital. I was diagnosed with bronchitis (not bird flu!) 10 minutes later. Five minutes after that, I had my prescription in hand and was out the door.”

Fine. But how much did it cost?

“It was free! The next week I went back and got free dental care. And when my cough didn’t go away, they sent me to a specialist and I got a chest X-ray and they even had a podiatrist look at my foot. All that and I was in and out in 45 minutes. I swear!”

The place looked like a slum, but looks aren’t everything. American hospitals rate a 10 for appearance. This place rated a 2. American hospitals rate a 5 for service, cost and effectiveness. This place rated a 10.

Moral? Next time you’re sick, move to a Third World country? No. Demand that America provide proper health care here.

Jane Stillwater

Via e-mail

Unconstitutional

It’s remarkable how far George Bush has gotten with defending his warrantless wiretaps on American citizens. He seems to be asserting that, because U.S. troops are in harm’s way (ostensibly defending our constitutional freedoms), he gets to pick and choose which laws to follow.

But when haven’t U.S. troops been in harm’s way somewhere in the world? For decades, this nation has been in a virtually continuous state of armed conflict. Yet no president has heretofore tried to assume such sweepingly unconstitutional powers. Nor has it ever been suggested before that our inalienable rights are, in fact, alienable — on the unchecked whim of the president, no less.

The president’s argument is preposterous. But too many citizens seem to accept the idea that perhaps the president really is above the law.

Cord MacGuire

Boulder CO