People Before Profit blog

Remembering Gloria Freedman

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 09:27:00 +0000

Gloria Freedman July 1915 - Feb 2008

We honor and recognize your countless contributions to working people, the labor movement, the struggle for housing and tenants rights, for peace and more. You dedicated your life to the fight for a better world and socialism, always confident in the victory of the people over the inequality, oppression and exploitation.

We will miss your smile, your courage and your unbowed spirit.

This March 2008, Women's History Month, we remember your legacy and pledge to live up to its example.

Marilyn Bechtel Ken Besaw Rose Bilander Vinie Burrows Lance Cohn Bernice Diskin Linda Feldman Margherita Firpo Joelle Fishman Frances Gabow John Gilman Bob Greenberg Estelle Katz Jackie Lavalle Henry Marahan Julius Margolin Dan Margolis Jessica Marshall John Martin Anthony Massa Diane Mohney Elena Mora Melissa O'Rourke Matt Parker Judith Paulsen Rookie Perna Thomas Riggins Bob Rossi Brandon Slattery Erica Smiley Betty Smith Carolyn Trowbridge Jarvis Tyner Sam Webb Tim & Joyce Wheeler Terrie Albano & John Bachtell Esther Moroze & Bill Davis Jenn & Samuel Delgado Judith LeBlanc & Libero Della Piana Roberta Wood & Scott Marshall Daniel & Dorothy Rubin Young Communist League, USA

Celebrating a gold mine of Paul Robeson films

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 07:36:00 +0000

Truly a gold mine for students of film, film history and African American history, the Criterion Collection makes classic films available on the consumer market in contemporary formats. In 2007, they released a four-DVD set containing highlights of the film career of American legend Paul Robeson, divided into four categories: Icon, Outsider, Pioneer, and Citizen of the World. Also included is a high-quality booklet explaining the place of each film in the larger contexts of American film, avant-garde film, Black film, and progressive film.

Easily the best known of these is the screen adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s “The Emperor Jones” (1933, dir. Dudley Murphy), whose moral that “power corrupts” rings as true as ever. The documentary “Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist” (1979, dir. Saul J. Turrell) has its moments, but one would do better (though harder work) to read Martin Duberman’s biography of Robeson. There is not much new here. “Body and Soul” (1925, dir. Oscar Micheaux) and “Borderline” (1930, dir. Kenneth Macpherson) offer perhaps-surprising glimpses of Black and post-surrealist cinemas. “Sanders of the River” (1935, dir. Zoltán Korda) and “Jericho” (1937, dir. Thornton Freeland) come from the peak of Robeson’s commercial career as a screen actor, and represent in their ways the bitter lessons of what a marketplace can do to one’s attempts to express cherished ideals.

From the progressive point of view, the peak of Robeson’s work as it is presented here is undoubtedly “The Proud Valley” (1940, dir. Pen Tennyson) and “Native Land” (1942, dirs. Leo Hurwitz and Paul Strand). “The Proud Valley” was dear to Robeson as an expression of the close camaraderie he felt with the coal miners of Wales.

“Native Land” represents the peak product of a series of American film collectives with their common roots in the Communist Party’s “Workers Film and Photo League,” a brief attempt in 1933 and 1934 to “work collectively in an independent organization pledged to ‘conquer the film’ for the working class.” Narrated by Robeson and intended to be a searing indictment of the crypto-fascism of anti-union violence in 1930s America, it took four years to make and upon its release in 1942, it was out of step with war-driven imperatives for maximum production. Everyone came home just in time for the second “red scare,” and this film never got its fair showing to the American public. Its poetic cinematography and rhetorical flights and its stirring recreations of actual events all represent the heavy influence of the heyday of Soviet cinema on the production collective — another film legacy never properly seen in America, for having been classified “Communist propaganda” and banned for import.

Robeson’s increasing role both in producing and in artistic direction mirror his natural evolution as a committed artist and political activist. Robeson’s long bitterness eventually turned to outrage, then to action, as his rising awareness of the misrepresentations and slurs against African culture (particularly in the English-speaking world) were consistently undermined by movie-executive pandering to cultural prejudices of the time. One can clearly see the arc of this development in these seven selections from Robeson’s oeuvre. However, this development is not linear — Brutus Jones rules in full confidence; the Rev. Isaiah T. Jenkins is fully a product of unmediated African-American culture; Pete is definitely wronged by the racism he encounters, though not from everyone, in “Borderline.” Rather, one might say that Robeson’s career became affected by his activism in a dialectical manner. Faced with the contradictions of his own material success and the sometimes-harmful images of his own people that his work directly produced, he naturally sought over time situations and partnerships that would allow him to maximize his control over the final product. Naturally enough, given his politics and cultural values, this sometimes meant putting his own money where his heart was, and at least sometimes, meant collective production situations.

The booklet makes clear that Criterion’s offering leaves off just at the phase where Robeson’s work becomes most brazenly political — short films for the Marcantonio and Wallace campaigns, and other works against the dawn of the Atomic Age. Given how much of the collected material came directly from high-quality, preserved films or film negatives in the possession of the George Eastman House, the British Film Institute and so on, this does not bode well for the ready availability of the most politically articulate part of Robeson’s work — the part in which he was at full consciousness, and in which he gave that consciousness full articulation. This is also a perhaps-inevitable by-product of a production by well-meaning outsiders. Full respect is given Robeson’s Communist “sympathies,” but not full voice. “Native Land,” in particular, is a must-see tease for what remains buried in the vaults.

Therefore, while the situation is not the “fault” of a fine effort like that of the Criterion Collection, it does point the way forward for those of us interested in the retrieval and dissemination of the full range of Robeson’s voice and thought. That is perhaps the real achievement of this collection. On the one hand, there is the work to locate and to secure the actual physical remains of these efforts. On the other hand and perhaps more centrally, it points to the very sphinx at the end of the trail that Paul Robeson blazed. He and a few others left a towering legacy that was abandoned in its time and under duress, a legacy that has never been excavated fully, and has never been further developed. “Native Land,” in particular, points to a whole new branch of documentary filmmaking, one effectively shut down by the House Un-American Activities Committee’s indictments of the first “Hollywood Ten.” Yet now, it is only the rare film-student researcher (or hip film professor) that even knows of these lost masterpieces.

Each such film represents a high-impact communications weapon that was taken from the working class under the vilest of circumstances, and has been held ever since like so many Native American sacred objects in the basements of Smithsonians, whole continents and decades removed from their rightful owners, the people of the world. There is no telling what a new generation of filmmakers would make of these proud traditions, unless we find a way to deliver this artistic birthright to them.

The Criterion Collection, Catalog Number: CC1676D, ISBN: 1-934121-19-3. Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist. $99.95 at http://www.criterion.com

Shades of Green: March 29

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 09:23:00 +0000

Honoring Paul Robeson: A hero for all time.

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:53:00 +0000

April 9, 2008 will mark the 110th anniversary of the birth of Paul Robeson, a scholar, athlete, singer, actor and fighter for freedom, peace and social justice for all.

The Bay Area Paul Robeson Centennial Committee will commemorate the occasion with a major month-long exhibit on Robeson’s life and legacy at the Oakland City Hall Rotunda (located at 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza) featuring materials from their collection.

Exhibit hours: Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-5 p.m., March 31-April 30, 2008

Reception: Wed., April 9, 5-7 p.m.

The program will feature Oakland Mayor Ronald Dellums; Clarence Thomas, International Longshore and Warehouse Union; a presentation by Tayo Aluko from his musical play “Call Mr. Robeson;” and the Vukani Mawethu choir.

For more information: David Aroner, (510) 206-1786, or .

Celebrating a gold mine of Paul Robeson films

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:50:00 +0000

Truly a gold mine for film students, film history and African American history, the Criterion Collection makes classic films available on the consumer market, in contemporary formats.

In 2007, they released a four-DVD set containing highlights about the film career of American legend Paul Robeson, divided into four categories: Icon, Outsider, Pioneer and Citizen of the World. A high-quality booklet explaining the place of each film in the larger contexts of American film, avant-garde film, Black film and progressive film is also included.

The best known of these is the screen adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s “The Emperor Jones” (1933, dir. Dudley Murphy), whose moral that “power corrupts,” rings as true as ever.

“Sanders of the River” (1935, dir. Zoltán Korda) and “Jericho” (1937, dir. Thornton Freeland) come from the peak of Robeson’s commercial career as a screen actor and represent in their ways the bitter lessons of what a marketplace can do to one’s attempts to express cherished ideals.

The peak of Robeson’s work, as it is presented here from the progressive point of view, is undoubtedly “The Proud Valley” (1940, dir. Pen Tennyson) and “Native Land” (1942, dirs. Leo Hurwitz and Paul Strand).

“The Proud Valley” was dear to Robeson as an expression of the close camaraderie he felt with the coal miners of Wales.

“Native Land” represents the peak product of a series of American film collectives with their common roots in the Communist Party’s “Workers Film and Photo League,” a brief attempt in 1933 and 1934 to “work collectively in an independent organization pledged to ‘conquer the film’ for the working class.” Narrated by Robeson and intended to be a searing indictment of the crypto-fascism of anti-union violence in 1930s America, it took four years to make and upon its release in 1942, it was out of step with war-driven imperatives for maximum production. Everyone came home just in time for the second “red scare,” and this film never got its fair showing to the American public. Its poetic cinematography and rhetorical flights, and its stirring recreations of actual events, all represent the heavy influence of the heyday of Soviet cinema on the production collective. This became another film legacy never properly seen in America, having been classified “Communist propaganda” and banned for import.

Robeson’s increasing role both in producing and in artistic direction mirror his natural evolution as a committed artist and political activist. Robeson’s long bitterness eventually turned to outrage, then to action, as his rising awareness of the misrepresentations and slurs against African culture (particularly in the English-speaking world) were consistently undermined by movie-executive pandering to cultural prejudices of the time. One can clearly see the arc of this development in these seven selections from Robeson’s oeuvre.

Robeson’s career became affected by his activism in a dialectical manner. Faced with the contradictions of his own material success and the sometimes-harmful images of his own people that his work directly produced, he naturally sought, over time, situations and partnerships that would allow him to maximize his control over the final product. Naturally enough, given his politics and cultural values, this sometimes meant putting his own money where his heart was. The booklet makes clear that Criterion’s offering leaves off just at the phase where Robeson’s work becomes most brazenly political — short films for the Marcantonio and Wallace campaigns, and other works against the dawn of the Atomic Age.

Given how much of the collected material came directly from high-quality, preserved films or film negatives in the possession of the George Eastman House, the British Film Institute and so on, this does not bode well for the ready availability of the most politically articulate part of Robeson’s work — the part in which he was at full consciousness and in which he gave that consciousness full articulation. This is also a perhaps-inevitable by-product of a production by well-meaning outsiders. Full respect is given Robeson’s Communist “sympathies,” but not full voice.

Therefore, while the situation is not the “fault” of a fine effort like that of the Criterion Collection, it does point the way forward for those of us interested in retrieving and disseminating the full range of Robeson’s voice and thought. That is perhaps the real achievement of this collection.

On the one hand, there is the work to locate and to secure the actual physical remains of these efforts. On the other hand and perhaps more centrally, it points to the very sphinx at the end of the trail that Paul Robeson blazed. He left a towering legacy that was abandoned in its time and, under duress, a legacy that has never been excavated fully and has never been further developed.

“Native Land,” in particular, points to a whole new branch of documentary filmmaking — one effectively shut down by the House Un-American Activities Committee’s indictments of the first “Hollywood Ten.” Yet now, it is only the rare film-student researcher (or the hip film professor) that even knows of these lost masterpieces.

Each such film represents a high-impact communications weapon that was taken from the working class under the vilest of circumstances, and has been held ever since like so many Native American sacred objects in the basements of Smithsonians, whole continents and decades removed from their rightful owners — the people of the world.

There is no telling what a new generation of filmmakers would make of these proud traditions, unless we find a way to deliver this artistic birthright to them.

The Criterion Collection

Catalog Number: CC1676D

ISBN: 1-934121-19-3.

Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist.

$99.95 at

Cuba freeze thawing

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:48:00 +0000

Do 50 years of U.S. intransigence toward Cuba mean we are stuck in a political ice age on the issue, immune from change, or is that era already ending?

President George Bush seems blind to trickles of change that are starting to appear. At a media spectacular held March 8 to castigate Cuba’s jailing of 75 government opponents five years ago, Bush declared, referring to the recent naming of a new Cuban president, “So far, all Cuba has done is replace one dictator with another.”

In fact, most of those jailed in 2003 had violated Cuban laws barring acceptance of foreign payments for domestic political activities.

Influential former Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.) suggested this month that U.S. policymakers need not wait for signals from Cuba to start ending the trade embargo and easing relations with the island nation. Hamilton said he “opts for engagement” now so as to “end one of the Cold War’s last lingering conflicts.”

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) last month demanded that Congress pass legislation ending “this flawed policy.” She called for “election of a president who will work with the Congress” on Cuba, and for re-establishment of a U.S. embassy in Cuba.

In a forthright statement March 11 before the United Nations Council on Human Rights, Jean Ziegler, head of the UN World Food Office, praised Cuba’s assurance of food security for its citizens and said that “the unnecessary costs and inconveniences” impeding Cuban food imports must be ended. In addition, Ziegler said, “Cuba must be assured free access to export markets.”

On March 8, the European Union’s Development Commissioner, Louis Michel of Belgium, became the first high-level European Union official to visit Cuba since the EU imposed sanctions five years ago in response to the imprisonment of so-called dissidents. The sanctions relate primarily to diplomatic contacts and aid projects. Suspended in 2005, they are subject to periodic reviews. Pressure is building for the EU to end the sanctions at its June ministerial meeting.

As he left Cuba, Michel told reporters, “The EU must find ways to unblock this situation and do politics.” He and Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque signed a joint communiqué emphasizing “sovereign equality [and] non-interference in internal affairs.” It identified the sanctions as “the main obstacle” to harmonious Cuba-EU relations.

But President Bush thought otherwise.

On March 8, he applauded eight Eastern European nations for being in the forefront of “the struggle for human liberty in Cuba.” Countries like France, Spain, Portugal and Italy who are seeking to restore full relations with Cuba, are somehow acting against the Cuban people, Bush suggested. “When a new day finally dawns for Cubans, they will remember the few brave nations that stood with them, and the many that did not,” he proclaimed.

But France, on behalf of the countries targeted by Bush, protested against their exclusion from meetings with Eastern European diplomats arranged by the U.S. State Department. The Spanish paper Publico reported that the purpose of the meetings, presided over by Cuban-born U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, was to press the Eastern European countries to back continuing EU anti-Cuban sanctions.

The atmosphere in Cuba suggests readiness for new developments. EU Commissioner Michel found “the spirit, the open-mindedness and the atmosphere of [his] talks” there hinted at “improvement in the dialogue process.”

In the same vein, famous Cuban crime novelist Leonardo Padura recorded signs of what he sees as new openness.

Writing for Inter Press Service, Padura pointed to the televised broadcast of a mass celebrated in Havana’s Cathedral Square last month, It followed a visit by the Vatican secretary of state, who was the first high-level representative of a foreign state received by Cuba’s new president, Raul Castro.

Padura also reminded readers of a significant development recently at the UN headquarters in New York. There, the Cuban foreign minister fulfilled government promises by signing two important UN treaties, one on economic, social and cultural rights and the other on civil and political rights.

Foreign Minister Perez Roque announced March 13, after meeting in Havana with his Mexican counterpart, that he would visit Mexico soon to deliver an invitation for Mexican President Calderon to visit the island. Mexican-Cuban relations have been frosty for several years.

atwhit @roadrunner.com

Paying for biofuels in your supermarket

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:47:00 +0000

On March 12, representatives of about 80 of America’s largest baking companies, representing more than 85 percent of our baking industry, marched in Washington to protest the dangerously low supplies of wheat, rye and other grains. The “Band of Bakers March on Washington” highlighted, among other things, that use of corn for ethanol and soybeans for biodiesel is impacting food security here and abroad. As producers turn to growing corn for the ethanol market, back-to-back yearly shortfalls in wheat production have left wheat stocks at a 30-year low.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the price of a bushel of wheat rose from $4.71 in February 2007 to $10.40 in February 2008, while durum wheat, used in pastas, rose from $5.16 to $16.40 per bushel in the same time period. The USDA predicts that U.S. wheat supplies will be lower than at any time since 1948, when our population was only 147 million. Our nation’s supply of rye is depleted and bakers now have to import rye from Germany and the Netherlands.

These escalations in the prices of grains and grain products (hundreds of food staples) are creating hardships for consumers’ food needs all over the world. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization reported that food prices increased 40 percent in 2007 alone. The cruel program of converting food to fuel is increasing hunger for billions of the world’s poor and is a major contributor to undocumented immigration to the U.S.

Besides diverting U.S. agricultural land to corn from other grains, biofuel production also has devastating environmental consequences. Brazil’s hundreds of miles of sugarcane plantations for ethanol have come at the expense of huge areas of the Amazon rainforest basin. Asian rainforests are being bulldozed to plant palm oil plantations for biodiesel, mainly for Europe. The loss of these “carbon sinks,” which have taken centuries to develop, contributes to global warming. Critical water supplies are also depleted since 9,000 gallons of water are needed to produce one gallon of biodiesel.

Industry apologists claim that these objections will be met in a few years when “cellulosic” biofuels can be created from non-edible plant wastes and plants, such as switchgrass. However, Iowa State University researchers reported in a recent publication that the production of cellulosic biofuels will require tax credits of $1.55 per gallon, making it unacceptably costly. Also, a recent Princeton University study concluded that production from any proposed biofuel source is far worse for the environment, including accelerating climate change, than is the current production of gasoline.

What alternative? Conservation! The 3 percent to 5 percent gain in fuel supplies that biofuels are supposed to provide could be met many times over by raising auto fuel efficiency by an easily-obtainable 20 percent, or by a major investment in public transportation and bicycle paths, or by challenging the “throw away” economy with a massive recycling industry, or by rejuvenating our urban centers and limiting the continuing destructive waste of suburban sprawl, or by major investments in renewable energy sources. These programs could even generate profits for new industries within our capitalist economy.

The biofuels industry poses no challenge to the oil industry. In fact, Big Oil openly supports biofuels. These two giant industries are dictating the world’s energy program. This program is based on one overriding consideration: maximum profits for them. They have enormous resources to dictate government policies. Only strong voices for change can set the world in a new direction for sustainable energy policies that benefit people and save the planet from ecological disaster.

David Kennell (kennell @borcim.wustl.edu) is professor emeritus of molecular microbiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The speech that moved the nation

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:44:00 +0000

Barack Obama made a magnificent contribution to the fight against racism and for unity in his March 18 speech on race.

He gave the speech after a week of racist, McCarthy-like hysteria over out-of-context snippets from sermons by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his former minister. In his sermons, Wright sharply pointed out the damage done by reactionary U.S. government policies here and abroad. His language was strong, but reflected the anger that millions of people globally and in our own country feel about the oppressive role played especially by the current administration.

The right wing and corporate mass media pulled out all stops to distort and condemn Wright’s views. The target was Wright, but the bull’s-eye was Obama.

Although Obama clearly expressed his views in hundreds of campaign speeches, interviews, press conferences and debates, the corporate/right-wing effort was to paint Obama as a far-out extremist.

Obama had to answer these attacks. He was slipping in the polls.

In his speech, delivered in Philadelphia just across the street from the hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed, Obama pointed out that the “very core” of the U.S. Constitution — “the ideal of equal citizenship under the law” — contained the answer to the problem of slavery.

Obama’s speech, entitled “A More Perfect Union,” described the gap between the promise of democracy and the reality of race relations in our country. One of the tasks of his campaign, he said, was to “continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America.”

Obama talked about his own racially diverse family and how he is committed to and confident of the possibility that unity can be built. One proof, he noted, is the fact that he has won the votes of millions of white voters even in states with almost no Black population. He pointed out that his campaign has built coalitions of Black, brown and white even in the Deep South.

He took issue with some of the statements of the Rev. Wright that have been aired. But he refused to join the feeding frenzy on his former pastor. Instead he profoundly discussed why Wright and so many others feel as they do. He spent some time frankly discussing the mass thought patterns of Blacks and whites about race, including the feelings in his own multiracial family.

He talked about Jim Crow and the continued systemic racism and segregation in our country, and how racism is holding back the nation as a whole. He called for addressing and bridging the racial divide, and disputed the idea that “your dreams have to come at the expense of my dreams.” He connected the fight for health care, decent education for all children and jobs with the necessity of rejecting racial disunity. Inherent in all of this was a call for working and middle class people to unite in the fight against the economic crisis now gripping the nation.

More than 4 million people viewed the speech live and since then many more millions have heard it — it hit number one on YouTube.

It has started a new discussion on race around the country. Churches, schools, libraries and community groups have said they are using the speech to open up discussions on racial unity. This could be the greatest national anti-racist discussion since the positive reaction to Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963.

The New York Times praised it in their lead editorial, entitled “Profile in Courage.” The Washington Post and other papers hailed it as well Many people, including prominent figures — even cynical TV commentators, said they were moved to tears by the speech. Unfortunately, a divisive approach has dominated in the mass media.

But in a CBS poll, 69 percent of the public said Obama did a good job on the speech, and 63 percent said they agreed with his views on race. Only 20 percent had a negative view.

One does not have to agree with every word he uttered — I did not agree with some points myself — but it is clear that this speech was of historic importance. Its essence was an idea whose time has come. The majority in our country was positively moved.

The Clinton campaign has been trying to win by splitting Black and white. This only hurts the country and their party. The majority seems ready for real change, including rejecting racial divisions and animosity, and this should be celebrated.

The struggle continues, but speaking in the “City of Brotherly Love,” Sen. Barack Obama moved this nation to a better place on its most sensitive question, and by doing so I think he took another step closer to the presidency of the United States.

Jarvis Tyner (jtyner @cpusa.org) is executive vice chair of the Communist Party USA.

LETTERS: March 29

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:42:00 +0000

Keeping in balance

Re “NAFTA, Obama and Clinton” (PWW 3/22-28): Good article. Sometimes I become myopic in my worldview because of the plight of Black people in America. Your articles help to keep me in world balance supporting justice for all people. Blacks and Mexicans are really fighting the same fight against the same enemy. But our leaders make us think differently. Thanks.

Phillip Via e-mail

Obama’s pastor

I am deeply distressed by the current crucifixion of the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright of Chicago. It is an attack on the Black church in the USA. But more importantly, everything I have seen, heard and read so far has been a blind and angry attack upon all prophets who dare to be faithful to the Judeo-Christian tradition ... and upon the Rev. Wright in particular.

Rev. Ted Schroeder Kansas City MO

Bush’s romance with war

Anyone aware of the ideological background of neoconservatism which came to such prominence during the Bush administration would have taken particular notice when George Bush, in televised remarks to the American troops in Afghanistan, expressed his envy for their being on the front line. He talked about the romance of war and its excitement. “You are really making history,” he told them.

This reflects a mindset flowing from neo-conservative tenets that are elitist and devalue the aspirations of ordinary people to have secure lives and experience the joys and sorrows that can, without the exhilaration of the battlefield, make life meaningful.

In the neoconservative twisted logic, the willingness to risk life and limb, and to kill whoever the current enemy happens to be, elevates the lives of otherwise mediocre subjects who really have no greater purpose in life.

Extraordinary types like George Bush and Dick Cheney naturally shun the dangerous exertions meant for lesser mortals. George Bush passed up the excitement of the Vietnam War and Dick Cheney notoriously claimed he had “more important things to do.”

George Bush and his gang of neoconservatives are consumed by insane dreams of world domination. They project a toxic brand of idealism that is neither romantic nor exciting, but criminal. One can only hope that the winds of history will sweep them away once and for all.

John Mackoviak Tucson AZ

Cuban 5

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertona asked Cuban President Raul Castro if he would consider releasing some political prisoners. President Castro replied he would be interested if the United States would be interested in an exchange of Cuban prisoners with the five Cubans being held in various prisons in the U.S.

Cardinal Bertona summarized his February visit to Cuba by saying, “The results have far surpassed the expectations in all that I have seen of the vitality of the Cuban church in all of her components and initiatives.”

If the Vatican pursues the exchange idea with the U.S., there is the possibility, with a massive campaign this year to free the Cuban Five.

Every possibility must be attempted. The Cuban Five have suffered horribly. We must contact our congresspeople, churches, trade unions, the ACLU and everyone on our mailing lists to get the word out.

John Gilman Milwaukee WI John Gilman chairs the Milwaukee Committee to Free the Cuban Five.

The first U.S. president

Who was the first president of the United States of America? Answer: John Hanson. He was a U.S. senator from Maryland for nine terms. He was born in Baltimore, Md., in April 1715 and died in 1783. He was a farmer and an Afro-American.

The Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation elected him president unanimously. He played a monumental role in the formation of the USA.

G. Wayne Via e-mail

Legacy of shame

Our troops have now been deployed in that “sandbox” called Iraq for five years and there’s still no end in sight to this abominable imperialist misadventure. Yet, Dick Cheney has just proclaimed the mission a success and intends to fortify the U.S. occupation for years to come.

Already 4,000 soldiers have come home in caskets, while tens of thousands more have been wounded or crippled for life. The Iraqi nation has been torn asunder, with millions of its citizens ruined and displaced. The degraded conditions of life there are cited by the UN as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Our failed president recently broke into a White House tap dance while waiting to endorse his desired successor, John McCain, who opines that a hundred more years in Iraq seems just fine to him.

Whoever is elected next November will inherit a legacy of shame, indebtedness and national diminishment that may never be fully overcome. The incomprehensible George W. Bush has presided over America’s precipitous decline.

Cord MacGuire Boulder CO

Canvassing in Cleveland

I am an organizer with a health care workers union and was part of the activist army deployed to various cities on behalf of Barack Obama.

I arrived in Cleveland a week prior to the primary. Cleveland is very cold in winter, but during our stay there was unexpected snow which piled up to about two feet in most places. We were wet, cold and tired. On primary day there was also endless freezing rain. But each time we rang a doorbell and received a positive, excited response, we were revitalized. The warmth of solidarity was truly in the air. Our staging area was the hall of SEIU Local 3, a great group of Ohio building service workers.

During the canvassing, we looked into the eyes of Cleveland’s working class, poor and diminishing middle class. Many houses were standing vacant, boarded up as foreclosures swallowed up families. Most told us that they were big fans of Obama and very excited to have him in the race. Sure, we also came across some folks, both African-American and white, who were rooting for Hillary, but all agreed that this is the first time in many years that we’ve had excellent candidates in the running.

But the movement around Obama is still more unique ... and it’s amazing to be a part of it all.

John Pietaro Beacon NY

EDITORIAL: Stop scapegoating immigrants!

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:40:00 +0000

The Republican leaders in Congress and the Bush administration continue trying to score points in an election year by using undocumented immigrants as scapegoats for their owned failed policies.

The GOP House leadership, abetted by a few Democrats, is pushing the viciously anti-immigrant HR 4088, the SAVE Act. They are trying to get enough signatures on a “discharge petition” so that this ill-considered legislation can skip committee hearings and be voted on directly on the House floor.

Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced that he is going ahead with plans to use the records of the Social Security Administration as an immigration enforcement tool. He intends to require employers to fire all employees who cannot clear up discrepancies involving their Social Security numbers within 90 days.

Chertoff’s announcement came as a federal judge was getting ready to hear arguments in a suit brought by the AFL-CIO, the ACLU and others aimed at stopping the Chertoff plan. They say such a use of Social Security files is not authorized by law and will do irreparable harm to millions.

The SAVE Act and the Chertoff policy will cost the jobs of not only countless immigrant workers, but also the huge numbers of U.S. citizens who, it is already recognized, have errors in their Social Security files.

Neither the GOP congressional leadership nor Chertoff or Bush plan to add a single government worker to deal with the vast extra burden that their policies would put on the Social Security system. Could it be that the inevitable chaos will be used to “prove” that it is necessary to privatize Social Security?

The federal judge should rule in favor of the AFL-CIO suit, and the American public should contact their elected representatives and demand that they reject the SAVE Act and the 1,600-plus anti-immigrant bills that have been introduced at state and local levels. Then we need to fight for real immigration reform, based on the legalization of all undocumented workers, and oust this vicious and irresponsible GOP crowd from power in November.

Flying the frightful skies: Outsourcing and deregulation make their mark

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:35:00 +0000

The prevailing notion has been that being killed by a fall in the shower or an object falling from a tall building is more likely than dying in a plane crash.

But these days fear of flying may make sense, as the airline industry eliminates systems that have kept people safe as they hurtle 600 miles an hour 35,000 feet above the earth.

“I fly at least 30 times a year and I know that the percentage of people killed in plane crashes is low,” said Ron Battinelli as he and his wife got in line March 20 at a baggage counter at Chicago’s Midway Airport. “Even so, I’m scared. They’re grounding uninspected planes, there are near misses and God knows what else. I think this all started when Reagan was president, and Bush hasn’t helped it any.”

“For me, flying is an act of faith to begin with,” said his wife, Maria. “I don’t know how one of these things gets off the ground and stays up there but I leave that to the people who do it. Where I don’t want to make an act of faith is with safety. To grab more money these companies are playing with our lives.”

Sara Nelson, a Washington, D.C.-based flight attendant, told the World last year that she felt “awful about having to serve passengers with poor equipment in planes that are filthy and, frankly, dangerous.” Union mechanic Brian McKeever said, “They tried to fire me when I went to stop a fully loaded passenger plane from taking off with a split tire.”

Recent events are validating these concerns.

Southwest Airlines this month grounded dozens of planes because they had missed inspections. Thousands had flown on the potentially unsafe aircraft. United grounded seven Boeing 747s because cockpit instruments were out of whack. A few days later, part of a wing broke off a United jet in flight, cracking a window and forcing an emergency landing. A day after that another United jet was forced down when it developed a decompression problem in flight.

Anyone who thought the FAA is an army of inspectors making nose-to-tail checkups on planes had better think again. Under the Bush administration, the FAA has even stopped making the cursory random checks it used to make.

The FAA merely “mandates” procedures, and trusts the companies to perform the required safety checks and the maintenance work. Food safety regulations, as lax as they are, still require that food inspectors make occasional visits to production facilities. The FAA doesn’t have to show up at all. It merely reviews paperwork submitted by the airlines themselves.

If an airline fudges records or FAA officials are pals with airline executives, the public would never know. Analysts believe that this happened in the case of Southwest Airlines, which may have “voluntarily” grounded its planes, they say, to conceal FAA-airline collusion.

Airlines themselves can’t be sure that paperwork submitted to the FAA reflects inspections or maintenance actually performed. In their drive for maximum profits, they’ve outsourced more than two-thirds of required maintenance and inspection.

Calvin Scovel, inspector general of the Department of Transportation, the FAA’s oversight agency, gave damaging testimony to Congress recently. He said airlines don’t have to identify their outside contractors and work is done by mechanics and shops that are not FAA-certified. “Without some form of verification, FAA cannot be assured that air carriers have provided accurate and complete information,” Scovel warned.

Airlines run planes for 12 to 16 hours a day, more than was the norm in the past, leaving little time for on-ground repairs. Not satisfied with running equipment into the ground, they also exhaust their workforce.

A Go jet flying the 214-mile route between Honolulu and Hawaii’s “Big Island” overshot the Hilo airport by 15 miles. Air traffic controllers were unable to reach the flight crew on the radio for 25 minutes because the pilot and co-pilot had both fallen asleep. They were on forced overtime after only two hours of sleep.

In 2006 a Delta flight killed 49 people when it took off from the wrong runway in Lexington, Ky. The flight crew had outdated maps and was also on forced overtime with little rest. There was only one air traffic controller instead of the required two and he was on an hour of sleep after his previous shift.

Senior controllers, most of whom were hired after President Reagan fired striking workers in 1981, are rushing to retire because they are angry about recently imposed unilateral pay cuts. Pilot pay has been cut so severely that airlines are having trouble finding people to fill entry level jobs flying commuter aircraft. For the first month, they pay only $12 an hour. The companies have slashed from 1,000 to 500 the number of flight hours required for a starting pilot.

jwojcik @pww.org

THIS WEEK IN LABOR: March 29

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:33:00 +0000

Modern-day slavery

Modern-day slavery in the Pascagoula, Miss., shipyards has drawn protests from the International Trade Union Confederation. The ITUC, to which the AFL-CIO belongs, demanded March 18 that the U.S. take action on behalf of 500 dockworkers from India who have filed suit against Signal International. They accuse the marine construction company of subjecting them to forced labor, trafficking, fraud and civil rights violations.

Enticed by deceptive advertisements promising legal and permanent work-based immigration to the U.S. for them and their families, the workers borrowed up to $20,000 to pay recruitment fees. It got them only a 10-month residence permit, their families were not included and their salaries were barely enough to repay the loans. They live in labor camps monitored round the clock by armed security forces. For the privilege of being jammed 24 people per small trailer, $1,000 per month is deducted from their pay.

Unions: no deal with murderers!

Labor is geared up for a major fight in Congress, March 31, when President Bush says he will submit the Colombia Free Trade Agreement for approval. Unions oppose the deal, saying it hurts workers here and in Colombia.

Under pressure, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe agreed earlier this year to insert pro-labor provisions into the text of the pact, but unions and Democratic lawmakers say the changes don’t address stopping right-wing paramilitaries that have murdered over 2,000 trade unionists and organizers.

Polls show a majority of Americans oppose passage of so-called free trade agreements that don’t protect U.S. jobs and don’t encourage good labor standards overseas.

Oregon AFSCME backs Obama

The Oregon state council of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has announced its endorsement of Barack Obama in the state’s coming Democratic primary. AFSCME nationally has backed Hillary Clinton. The Oregon council is the second AFSCME state organization — after Obama’s home state, Illinois — to endorse Obama.

Laborers rejoin AFL-CIO Trades Department

By unanimous vote of the department’s executive council, the Laborers rejoined the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department this month, Laborers President Terry O’Sullivan and new Building Trades President Mark Ayers said. The Laborers are members of Change to Win, as is another former Building Trades Department union, the Carpenters.

Justices hear key labor case

In a case that could have ramifications for all workers, the Supreme Court on March 19 began tackling whether a state can use its power of the purse to guarantee company neutrality in union organizing drives.

At issue is a California law, enacted in 2000 but never enforced, that says any firm that receives state funds cannot use those funds to thwart a union organizing drive.

The California Labor Federation and the AFL-CIO submitted briefs on California’s side. Several trade associations and the radical right National Right to Work Committee, along with the Bush administration, are siding with the Chamber of Commerce, against the state of California.

Warehouse workers win one

After a two-year struggle, workers at Rite Aid’s distribution center in Lancaster, Calif., have won their fight to join International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 26.

The workers began organizing in March 2006. Among issues were mandatory overtime, punishing production quotas and lack of job security.

Rite Aid responded with an all-out anti-union campaign. After months of investigation, the National Labor Relations Board found evidence to try the company on 49 labor law violations, including disciplining, demoting, suspending and firing union supporters.

The company settled last May rather than face an NLRB judge. Earlier this month, with most eligible workers participating, the warehouse workers voted 283 to 261, with 18 challenged ballots, to join the union.

Compiled by John Wojcik. Marilyn Bechtel contributed.

Protests mark 5th anniversary of Iraq war, 4,000th U.S. troop death

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:23:00 +0000

WASHINGTON — “How many more must die in vain for a lie?” That was the question asked by Joan Kosloff, whose stepson, Sgt. Sherwood Baker of the Pennsylvania National Guard, died in Iraq in 2003.

“Congress should not appropriate a penny more except to bring our troops home and provide reparations for the people of Iraq,” she said.

Kosloff was reacting to news that the toll of U.S. war dead in Iraq has now surpassed 4,000. The grim milestone was reached when a bomb blast in Baghdad killed four more soldiers over the weekend, pushing to 38 the death toll for March.

It coincided with the fifth anniversary of the war observed by tens of thousands who marched, rallied and stood vigil for peace across the nation March 19.

Nearly two hundred tourists stood in line outside the National Archive Building here, waiting to view the founding documents of American democracy: the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution.

Protesting military veterans interrupted their quiet and cool morning, climbing the steps waving an inverted U.S. flag, a signal of distress. Security guards moved to block the protestors, but three Iraq vets and a Vietnam veteran jumped a tall fence and climbed onto a ledge 40 feet above the crowd. “We love our country,” one of the vets shouted as he waved the flag.

“Stop the war! Stop the war!” chanted hundreds of members of Veterans for Peace (VFP), Iraq Veterans against the War (IVAW) and Military Families Speak Out gathered below.

“We took an oath to protect the Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic,” said Tarak Kauf of VFP via bullhorn from the ledge. “Especially domestic.”

The vets presented a citizen’s warrant calling for the arrest of George W. Bush, Richard Cheney and Condoleezza Rice for war crimes and violation of constitutional rights. Other veterans handcuffed themselves to the flagpole on the archive lawn, risking arrest.

On the ledge, former Marine Adam Kokesh, a decorated Iraq war veteran, began reading the Declaration of Independence, bringing tears to the eyes of many in the assembled crowd. “You are here to view the U.S. Constitution,” said Kokesh. “We are here to defend and protect it.” He went on to detail the torture, extrajudicial “renditions,” loss of habeas corpus and other violations of international and domestic law committed by the current administration.

Police raced to the scene. When police attempted to lure the protestors off the ledge into the hands of officers with handcuffs in hand, the crowd chanted, “Arrest Bush, not them!” After negotiations, Archive officials granted the vets safe passage away from the building. After nearly an hour of defiance, the protestors came down off the ledge to triumphant applause.

The assembled crowd continued marching its way to the White House and the Veterans Administration to join Grannies for Peace, who knitted socks for wounded soldiers there.

Scores were arrested when they sat down, blocking the doors to the IRS in Washington to protest the squandering of $500 billion in tax dollars in Iraq. Hundreds dressed in black and wearing white masks staged a “march of the dead” past the Pentagon.

United for Peace and Justice reported anti-war protests in 1,000 cities, towns, colleges and universities in every state in the nation in observance of the anniversary.

“I think people are energized by the elections,” said UFPJ National Organizing Coordinator Judith LeBlanc. “People really think we can bring this war to an end. They want to make a statement.”

Baltimore United for Peace and Justice and Vets for Peace sponsored a rally at a church the night of March 19. City Councilmember Bill Henry spoke of his unanimously adopted council resolution calling for an end to the war. Baltimore schools and water mains each need $1 billion to rebuild, he said. “It turns out there is a pot of money to do that. It’s being spent in Iraq.”

In Tucson, Ariz., 600 rallied outside the Federal Building to protest the “Bush-McCain War.” Hundreds marched outside the Phoenix office of Arizona Sen. John McCain, the GOP presidential candidate, to protest his plan to stay in Iraq “a hundred, a thousand years.”

MoveOn.org staged hundreds of vigils and rallies across the country.

San Francisco Bay Area protesters staged a “surge for peace” March 15 at Walnut Creek’s Civic Park. Others rallied outside a huge Chevron refinery in Richmond, Calif., to protest Chevron’s war profiteering and befouling of the environment. Many thousands marched in a “World Without War” procession through downtown Portland, Ore. March 15, chanting, “Bring the troops home.”

WORLD NOTES: March 29

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:21:00 +0000

Canada: Troops stay in Afghanistan

Canada’s Parliament voted 198-77 on March 13 to back an “Independent Panel” recommendation to continue deployment of 2,500 troops in Afghanistan until 2011.

Parliament also demanded that 1,000 additional NATO soldiers be sent to the Kandahar area to back up Canadian troops, although one expert suggests 16,000 more are needed.

Opposing the motion in Parliament were the New Democratic Party and Bloc Quebecois. Anti-war demonstrations erupted in 20 Canadian cities marking the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Defense Minister has suggested that Australian troops would be leaving Afghanistan soon, unless manpower burdens are equalized.

South Korea: Business in the saddle

New South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s class allegiance was never a secret. His prosecutors have imposed large fines, $300 to $3,000, against workers who strike, demonstrate or sit in to advance labor demands — an attempt “to shackle the labor movement,” a labor lawyer told the Korea Times.

Earlier this month, the president’s office announced a list of 100 favored business owners who enjoy direct cell phone access to the former entrepreneur for advice “to enhance corporate investment and competitiveness.”

Lee Myung-bak favors investment rather than aid to build ties with North Korea. In his campaign, he called for a 7 percent annual rise in GDP, a $40,000 per capita income and South Korea to become the world’s seventh largest economy.

Somalia: UN considers intervention

Following a UN task force visit to Somalia, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has issued a report on the humanitarian and human rights disaster that engulfed the country in 2007 after invading Ethiopian troops and the Transitional Federal Government ousted rulers representing the Union of Islamic Courts. (Washington designated the latter’s military wing as a terrorist organization on March 18.)

The report, which the UN’s IRIN news agency said is headed for discussion by the Security Council, suggests the possibility of a 27,000-strong UN peacekeeping contingent to supplement current efforts of 2,400 African Union troops. Requirements for beefed up UN support include: dialogue leading to a cease-fire, withdrawal by Ethiopian troops, safety guarantees for foreign aid workers and security for humanitarian aid material.

Iraq: Sunnis, unpaid, abandon ship

Reduced violence in Iraq is widely attributed to Sunni support for U.S. military objectives over the past year. Some 80,000 Sunnis, organized into “Awakening Councils,” agreed to participate in return for job promises and $10 weekly payments.

Now U.S. payments are late, and six of 49 councils have backed out. The U.K. Guardian reported March 21 on a telephone survey showing that 38 more may soon join them.

One council near Baghdad is discouraged because Shia officials have turned down all 2,000 of its applicants for police and military jobs. A Sunni leader pointed out that “when the situation began to get better, the Americans really cooled to us.”

Brazil: Land hogging and slavery

Twenty human rights groups demonstrated March 12 in the capital, Brasilia, urging the Chamber of Deputies to pass a constitutional amendment originally proposed in 2004 to expropriate land from owners who all but enslave workers.

The measure failed to pass again this year, despite earlier Senate approval.

In 2003, the government launched a “National Plan” to eradicate slave-like conditions. The effort mostly targeted large landowners who recruit workers to clear forests for soy or cattle production.

The following year the International Labor Organization estimated that over 25,000 Brazilian workers received almost no pay and were subjected to rotten food, contaminated water and pesticide exposure.

Cuba: Meeting of Cubans living abroad

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque welcomed Cubans living abroad “who have an unshakeable commitment to the defense of their homeland” to a three-day meeting held in Havana. Discussions attended by 129 Cubans from 34 countries centered on topics relating to Cuban culture and national identity.

Pérez Roque paid tribute to the Miami-based Antonio Maceo Brigade, now 30 years old, as “the seed and inspiration” for international solidarity with Cuba, a movement now rooted in 40 countries.

Andres Gomez, a Brigade founder, emphasized ongoing work and paid homage to members killed or injured by terrorist violence. According to a new Foreign Ministry web site, www.nacionyemigracion.com, 193,000 Cubans living abroad visited the island in 2007, a new yearly high.

The meeting, which ended March 21, issued demands: lift the U.S. blockade, eliminate restrictions on Cuban Americans visiting the island, stop anti-Cuban terrorism, free “our five brothers, unjustly held in U.S. jails” and end the European Union’s anti-Cuba sanctions.

World Notes are compiled by W.T. Whitney Jr. (atwhit @roadrunner.com)

Cyprus new president moves to reunify divided nation

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:17:00 +0000

The stunning election of a Communist president in Cyprus last month promised a new direction for the divided country. Now, newly elected president Demetris Christofias has taken a historic step toward the long-sought reunification of Cyprus.

On March 21, Christofias met with Turkish Cypriot Leader Mehmet Ali Talat and UN Chief of Mission Michael Moller at the UN compound in the capital city, Nicosia, to hammer out a path towards settlement of what Cypriots call the, 'Cyprus problem.'

The 'problem' dates back to 1974, when right-wing elements in Cyprus, supported by a Greek military dictatorship, staged a coup, briefly taking power. The right-wingers sought to annex the island nation to Greece. Turkey used the coup and the pending annexation as a pretense to invade Cyprus, ostensibly to protect the ethnic Turkish minority there. As a consequence of these events, Turkey continues to occupy the northern third of the island to this day.

Christofias, a historian who previously served as president of the Cypriot House of Representatives, the country’s Parliament, is the leader of AKEL (Progressive Party of Working People), Cyprus’ Communist Party. It is the island’s biggest party with deep roots among the people. During his election campaign Christofias pledged to make reunification his first order of business.

Thousands of people, including both Greek and Turkish Cypriots, turned out to cheer the announcement of his Feb. 24 electoral victory. Christofias told them, “As president of the Republic of Cyprus I have the responsibility of uniting and representing all the citizens.'' He added, ''We have a clear vision, a vision to reunite our Cyprus, rid the country of the Turkish occupation and its consequences, turn it into a happy homeland for all its children, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.''

''We are pursuing a just settlement, a solution based on UN resolutions and decisions, the high-level agreements of 1977 and 1979, the European and international law,'' Christofias said.

He wasted no time in moving to make good on this pledge.

At the March 21 meeting, Christofias and Talat agreed to open up two crossing points along the “Green Line,” the UN-patrolled barrier that separates the Cypriot and Turkish sectors of the island, and to set up committees and working groups to prepare for full-fledged negotiations within three months.

As an initial conciliatory measure, military checkpoints on Nicosia’s Ledra Street were dismantled by order of Nicosia Mayor Eleni Mavrou months before the presidential election. Mavrou is a leading member of AKEL. Now, following up on February's presidential victory, Christofias has brought this initial peace initiative to a qualitatively higher level — Ledra Street is one of the two crossing points opened in the new talks.

It took over 30 years, but Cyprus' new AKEL government is working to turn the negative developments of the past around.

In his victory speech, Christofias told Cypriots that ''our vision is a fairer society with economic development, coupled with more social justice, a modern state that will stand by its citizens in need.''

He said he would put special emphasis on ''all that unites us.''

''I am president from the people and will be president for the people,'' he concluded.

gbono @ cpusa.org

The speech that moved the nation

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 04:32:00 +0000

Barack Obama made a magnificent contribution to the fight against racism and for unity in his March 18 speech on race.

He gave the speech after a week of racist, McCarthy-like hysteria over out-of-context snippets from sermons by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his former minister. In his sermons, Wright sharply pointed out the damage done by reactionary U.S. government policies here and abroad. His language was strong, but reflected the anger that millions of people globally and in our own country feel about the oppressive role played especially by the current administration.

The right wing and corporate mass media pulled out all stops to distort and condemn Wright’s views. The target was Wright, but the bull’s-eye was Obama.

Although Obama clearly expressed his views in hundreds of campaign speeches, interviews, press conferences and debates, the corporate/right-wing effort was to paint Obama as a far-out extremist.

Obama had to answer these attacks. He was slipping in the polls.

In his speech, delivered in Philadelphia just across the street from the hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed, Obama pointed out that the “very core” of the U.S. Constitution — “the ideal of equal citizenship under the law” — contained the answer to the problem of slavery.

Obama’s speech, entitled “A More Perfect Union,” described the gap between the promise of democracy and the reality of race relations in our country. One of the tasks of his campaign, he said, was to “continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America.”

Obama talked about his own racially diverse family and how he is committed to and confident of the possibility that unity can be built. One proof, he noted, is the fact that he has won the votes of millions of white voters even in states with almost no Black population. He pointed out that his campaign has built coalitions of Black, brown and white even in the Deep South.

He took issue with some of the statements of the Rev. Wright that have been aired. But he refused to join the feeding frenzy on his former pastor. Instead he profoundly discussed why Wright and so many others feel as they do. He spent some time frankly discussing the mass thought patterns of Blacks and whites about race, including the feelings in his own multiracial family.

He talked about Jim Crow and the continued systemic racism and segregation in our country, and how racism is holding back the nation as a whole. He called for addressing and bridging the racial divide, and disputed the idea that “your dreams have to come at the expense of my dreams.” He connected the fight for health care, decent education for all children and jobs with the necessity of rejecting racial disunity. Inherent in all of this was a call for working and middle class people to unite in the fight against the economic crisis now gripping the nation.

More than 4 million people viewed the speech live and since then many more millions have heard it — it hit number one on YouTube.

It has started a new discussion on race around the country. Churches, schools, libraries and community groups have said they are using the speech to open up discussions on racial unity. This could be the greatest national anti-racist discussion since the positive reaction to Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963.

The New York Times praised it in their lead editorial, entitled “Profile in Courage.” The Washington Post and other papers hailed it as well Many people, including prominent figures — even cynical TV commentators, said they were moved to tears by the speech. Unfortunately, a divisive approach has dominated in the mass media.

But in a CBS poll, 69 percent of the public said Obama did a good job on the speech, and 63 percent said they agreed with his views on race. Only 20 percent had a negative view.

One does not have to agree with every word he uttered — I did not agree with some points myself — but it is clear that this speech was of historic importance. Its essence was an idea whose time has come. The majority in our country was positively moved.

The Clinton campaign has been trying to win by splitting Black and white. This only hurts the country and their party. The majority seems ready for real change, including rejecting racial divisions and animosity, and this should be celebrated.

The struggle continues, but speaking in the “City of Brotherly Love,” Sen. Barack Obama moved this nation to a better place on its most sensitive question, and by doing so I think he took another step closer to the presidency of the United States.

Jarvis Tyner (jtyner@cpusa.org) is executive vice chair of the Communist Party USA.

Paying for biofuels in your supermarket

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 04:29:00 +0000

On March 12, representatives of about 80 of America's largest baking companies, representing more than 85 percent of our baking industry, marched in Washington to protest the dangerously low supplies of wheat, rye and other grains. The 'Band of Bakers March on Washington' highlighted, among other things, that use of corn for ethanol and soybeans for biodiesel is impacting food security here and abroad. As producers turn to growing corn for the ethanol market, back-to-back yearly shortfalls in wheat production have left wheat stocks at a 30-year low.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the price of a bushel of wheat rose from $4.71 in February 2007 to $10.40 in February 2008, while durum wheat, used in pastas, rose from $5.16 to $16.40 per bushel in the same time period. The USDA predicts that U.S. wheat supplies will be lower than at any time since 1948, when our population was only 147 million. Our nation's supply of rye is depleted and bakers now have to import rye from Germany and the Netherlands.

These escalations in the prices of grains and grain products (hundreds of food staples) are creating hardships for consumers’ food needs all over the world. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization reported that food prices increased 40 percent in 2007 alone. The cruel program of converting food to fuel is increasing hunger for billions of the world's poor and is a major contributor to undocumented immigration to the U.S.

Besides diverting U.S. agricultural land to corn from other grains, biofuel production also has devastating environmental consequences. Brazil's hundreds of miles of sugarcane plantations for ethanol have come at the expense of huge areas of the Amazon rainforest basin. Asian rainforests are being bulldozed to plant palm oil plantations for biodiesel, mainly for Europe. The loss of these 'carbon sinks,' which have taken centuries to develop, contributes to global warming. Critical water supplies are also depleted since 9,000 gallons of water are needed to produce one gallon of biodiesel.

Industry apologists claim that these objections will be met in a few years when 'cellulosic' biofuels can be created from non-edible plant wastes and plants, such as switchgrass. However, Iowa State University researchers reported in a recent publication that the production of cellulosic biofuels will require tax credits of $1.55 per gallon, making it unacceptably costly. Also, a recent Princeton University study concluded that production from any proposed biofuel source is far worse for the environment, including accelerating climate change, than is the current production of gasoline.

What alternative? Conservation! The 3 percent to 5 percent gain in fuel supplies that biofuels are supposed to provide could be met many times over by raising auto fuel efficiency by an easily-obtainable 20 percent, or by a major investment in public transportation and bicycle paths, or by challenging the ''throw away'' economy with a massive recycling industry, or by rejuvenating our urban centers and limiting the continuing destructive waste of suburban sprawl, or by major investments in renewable energy sources. These programs could even generate profits for new industries within our capitalist economy.

The biofuels industry poses no challenge to the oil industry. In fact, Big Oil openly supports biofuels. These two giant industries are dictating the world's energy program. This program is based on one overriding consideration: maximum profits for them. They have enormous resources to dictate government policies. Only strong voices for change can set the world in a new direction for sustainable energy policies that benefit people and save the planet from ecological disaster.

David Kennell (kennell@borcim.wustl.edu) is professor emeritus of molecular microbiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

World Notes: Voting for War...

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 04:27:00 +0000

Canada: Troops stay in Afghanistan

Canada’s Parliament voted 198-77 on March 13 to back an “Independent Panel” recommendation to continue deployment of 2,500 troops in Afghanistan until 2011.

Parliament also demanded that 1,000 additional NATO soldiers be sent to the Kandahar area to back up Canadian troops, although one expert suggests 16,000 more are needed.

Opposing the motion in Parliament were the New Democratic Party and Bloc Quebecois. Anti-war demonstrations erupted in 20 Canadian cities marking the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war. Meanwhile, Australia’s Defense Minister has suggested that Australian troops would be leaving Afghanistan soon, unless manpower burdens are equalized.

Brazil: Land hogging and slavery

Twenty human rights groups demonstrated March 12 in the capital, Brasilia, urging the Chamber of Deputies to pass a constitutional amendment originally proposed in 2004 to expropriate land from owners who all but enslave workers.

The measure failed to pass again this year, despite earlier Senate approval.

In 2003, the government launched a “National Plan” to eradicate slave-like conditions. The effort mostly targeted large landowners who recruit workers to clear forests for soy or cattle production.

The following year the International Labor Organization estimated that over 25,000 Brazilian workers received almost no pay and were subjected to rotten food, contaminated water and pesticide exposure.

South Korea: Business in the saddle

New South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s class allegiance was never a secret. His prosecutors have imposed large fines, $300 to $3,000, against workers who strike, demonstrate and sit in to advance labor demands — an attempt “to shackle the labor movement,” a labor lawyer told the Korea Times.

Earlier this month, the President’s office announced a list of 100 favored business owners who enjoy direct cell phone access to the former entrepreneur for advice “to enhance corporate investment and competitiveness.”

Lee Myung-bak favors investment rather than aid to build ties with North Korea. In his campaign, he called for a 7 percent annual rise in GDP, a $40,000 per capita income, and South Korea to become the world’s seventh largest economy.

Somalia: UN considers intervention

Following a UN task force visit to Somalia, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has issued a report on the humanitarian and human rights disaster that engulfed the country in 2007 after invading Ethiopian troops and the Transitional Federal Government ousted rulers representing the Union of Islamic Courts. (Washington designated the latter’s military wing as a terrorist organization on March 18.)

The report, which the UN’s IRIN news agency said is headed for discussion by the Security Council, suggests the possibility of a 27,000-strong UN peacekeeping contingent to supplement current efforts of 2,400 African Union troops. Requirements for beefed up UN support include: dialogue leading to a cease-fire, withdrawal by Ethiopian troops, safety guarantees for foreign aid workers, and security for humanitarian aid material.

Iraq: Sunnis, unpaid, abandon ship

Reduced violence in Iraq is widely attributed to Sunni support for U.S. military objectives over the past year. Some 80,000 Sunnis, organized into “Awakening Councils,” agreed to participate in return for job promises and $10 weekly payments.

Now U.S. payments are late, and six of 49 councils have backed out. The U.K. Guardian reported March 21 on a telephone survey showing that 38 more may soon join them.

One council near Baghdad is discouraged because Shia officials have turned down all 2,000 of its applicants for police and military jobs. A Sunni leader pointed out that “When the situation began to get better, the Americans really cooled to us.” Cuba: Residents living abroad meet

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque welcomed Cubans living abroad “who have an unshakeable commitment to the defense of their homeland” to a three-day meeting held in Havana. Discussions attended by 129 Cubans from 34 countries centered on topics relating to Cuban culture and national identity.

Pérez Roque paid tribute to the Miami-based Antonio Maceo Brigade, now 30 years old, as “the seed and inspiration” for international solidarity with Cuba, a movement now rooted in 40 countries.

Andres Gomez, a Brigade founder, emphasized ongoing work and paid homage to members killed or injured by terrorist violence. According to a new Foreign Ministry web site, HYPERLINK 'http://www.nacionyemigracion.com' www.nacionyemigracion.com, 193,000 Cubans living abroad visited the island in 2007, a new yearly high.

The meeting, which ended March 21, issued demands: lift the U.S. blockade, eliminate restrictions on Cuban Americans visiting the island, stop anti-Cuban terrorism, free “our five brothers, unjustly held in U.S. jails,” and end the European Union’s anti-Cuba sanctions.

World Notes are compiled by W.T. Whitney Jr. (atwhit@roadrunner.com)

Millions greet Obama call for 'perfect union'

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 04:20:00 +0000

Barack Obama’s appeal to the people to join in building a “more perfect union” touched a deep chord among the American people weary of the politics of division and hate as practiced by the corporate ultra-right and their mainly Republican agents in Washington.

His 37 minute speech March 18, at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia has already been hailed as “a speech for the ages” compared to the greatest of Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt. It is likened to John F. Kennedy’s defense of “separation of church and state” when his candidacy was threatened by anti-Catholic bigotry. Obama’s speech rings with the prophetic power of Dr. Martin Luther King’s orations against segregation, war, and poverty.

With the media whipping up hysteria over the inflammatory sermons of Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the speech was seen as a life or death challenge for the viability off his campaign. It was heard live by millions who stopped work to listen on cable and network TV. The overwhelmingly positive response proved that Obama turned a threat into another stirring victory, reaching once again across racial and partisan divides to build a grassroots movement for change.

Obama delivered the speech quietly, with few rhetorical flourishes. But it was also a seamless speech, difficult to reduce to a few sound bytes. Thus, the entire speech has been posted on thousands of web sites and is the topic in millions of emails. YouTube reports their podcast of the speech has been viewed by more than two million. MoveOn.org has posted the video urging anyone who opens their site to forward it to family and friends. The New York Times reports that it is already being incorporated into classroom and Sunday school lessons.

Obama warned that the corporate media may broadcast Wright’s sermons “on every channel, every day” until the November election. “We can do that. But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And nothing will change.”

The other choice, he said, is to focus on the real issues: crumbling schools and the neglect of children of all races, a broken health care system, and a war in Iraq that never should have been authorized and never fought. He calls for common ground against the “real culprits” that impoverish working people of all races, “a corporate culture rife with insider dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many.”

Obama expressed a deep understanding of the anger and frustration of tens of millions of African Americans still fighting poverty and discrimination 60 years after the Civil Rights revolution. Yet he also displays a keen sensitivity to the plight of white workers who “don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race.” He adds, “They’ve worked hard all their lives only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pensions dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures and see their dreams slipping away.” That insecurity and declining income breeds resentment, he said.

Obama decries a “racial stalemate” decades in the making that will not be broken by a single election cycle or a single candidacy.

“But I have asserted a firm conviction, a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people, that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.”

No one seems to have understood Obama’s message more clearly than New Mexico Governor, Bill Richardson, the nation’s only Latino governor.

Richardson announced his endorsement of Obama to a cheering crowd at Memorial Coliseum in Portland Oregon. Obama, he said, “showed us again what kind of leader he is. He spoke to us as adults. He asked us to ponder the weight of our racially divided past, to rise above it and seize the opportunity to carry forward the work of many patriots of all races who struggled and died to bring us together.”

Richardson added, “As a Hispanic, I was particularly touched by his words. I have been troubled by the demonization of immigrants – specifically Hispanics – by too many in this country. Hate crimes against Hispanics are rising as a direct result and now in tough economic times, people are looking for scapegoats. I fear people will continue to exploit our racial differences and place blame on others not like them. We all know the real culprit – the disastrous economic policies of the Bush Administration.” The crowd erupted in cheers.

Obama he continued, “rejects the policies of pitting race against race” and argues that “only by bringing people together, bridging our differences can we all succeed as Americans.”

Richardson also rebutted snide insinuations by McCain and the Clintons that they, but not Obama, are equipped to lead the U.S. in foreign and military affairs. He hailed Obama for understanding “the security challenges of the 21st Century” adding, “you will be an outstanding commander in chief.”

Richardson, who served in the Clinton Administration, also spoke of his admiration for Bill and Hillary Clinton. It is time however, for a “new generation of leaders,” he said, and also “time for Democrats to stop fighting amongst themselves and to prepare for the tough fight we will face against John McCain in the fall.”

Crucified to be resurrected: the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Jr.

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 09:09:00 +0000

The experience of Dr. King encourages us to develop some appreciation for the role of the preaching of the social gospel and the Black church in the spirit of resistance within the African American community. The cultural traditions of the African American people are deeply rooted in the protective collective tradition of resistance emanating from the Black church, going all the way back to slavery. 'Don't let them destroy your spirit; don't let them take away your joy' are just two of the pillars of internal resistance cultivated in the progressive Black church to encourage parishioners to hold on and keep moving forward against all odds.

Witness the truth in context of what the much-maligned Rev. Wright said. Go to and to listen to the sermons from which the remarks characterized as being most incendiary were extracted. I believe that, in an attempt to upset the Obama campaign, a wrong has been done to the people of the USA by the spread of a big lie about Wright, who so passionately preaches the social gospel. Share these web links far and wide so that all can hear for themselves.

These sermons prove that the Rev. Wright is not a man of hate; he is a man of passion. He is a man who loves his God and his people – the downtrodden of the world, not just African Americans – and his country, the USA, with all his heart and soul, based on the concept that to dissent is patriotic. He is a highly educated man fluent in liberation theology, the preaching of the social gospel, psychology, musicology, history, political science, sociology and more. He uses his education and intellectual capacity to provide his congregation each week with relief and a way to understand the society in which we live, from a revolutionary Black nationalist point of view, coaching them in how to continue on through the pain and suffering of lives lived under multifaceted forms of oppression, discrimination and exploitation.

When you listen to these sermons yourself, you will see that a big lie was constructed to bring down the Obama campaign. Wright was painted to be a hate-mongerer. Nothing could be further from the truth, but you have to listen and hear for yourself.

Just days after 9/11, Wright was quoting someone else – in fact a former Reagan ambassador – as having said the 'chickens were coming home to roost,' and he was letting his congregation know that a white man in a prominent position had said those words. You have to listen to the sermon to hear for yourself his compassion for all of us as victims of the 9/11 horror.

In what has come to be known as the 'God damn America' sermon, Wright described a dichotomy between the America of the tormenters, those who will do anything to satisfy their greed including steal the presidential election and wage unnecessary war, and the America of the tormented. His point was simply that when we are called upon to sing 'God Bless America,' more appropriate would be God damn the America of the tormenters who walk around Earth as if they were God and supreme. But again, you have to listen for yourself to hear the distinction as preached by Wright.

What is hard to believe is that the media would promote such a big lie, and anyone who does not gain access to the full context of the sermons will never know the truth. You may still not agree with what Wright said, but in context you will know that his comments were not what they are being made out to be.

Resurrecting the truth is important because masses of people in this country now have the impression that the preaching of the social gospel is akin to the cult preaching of hate. This is yet another attempt to diminish part of the great contribution of the African American people to the culture of our country. It is yet another attempt to distort our history and our very being.

The point is not that those who preach the social gospel are right on every question. Many are wrong on the role of women, wrong on the issue of homosexuality, imbalanced in their view on the Middle East, and the list could go on and on. Yet, Wright is among the most advanced thinkers and has fought for the rejection of backwardness on many questions.

The vilification of Wright is wrong. You have to listen for yourself to develop a righteous anger against the big lie. It can embolden you to contribute even more to the movement for change which deserves to reach fruition.

Denice Miles is a Chicago educator and social activist.