People Before Profit blog

LETTERS

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 08:24:00 +0000

Taking on the hate

The following is a letter sent to media outlets in response to recent hateful comments from ultra-right talk show hosts and officials.

In recent days, Republican pundits have stepped up their personal attacks on President Obama and the First Lady. This includes stories where Burt Prelusky of Townhall called the First Lady a “bitch.” On the Laura Ingraham show, Tammy Bryce called the first family “trash.” Now a U.S. representative, Michelle Bachmann, called on people to take up arms against the government and President Obama’s budget.

We heard rhetoric similar to this during 2008 from the McCain/Palin campaign where they were throwing names at their opponent. However, the current rhetoric is meant to incite rage, violence and overthrow of our government.

I am asking that the mainstream media make this a story on your networks and find out why these people are not more concerned with the state of our economy and where our nation is heading instead of political hatemongering. Many in the GOP are not happy with President Obama’s election. However, a large majority elected him and Vice President Biden and in our democracy the majority rules.

The remarks being made by some in the GOP are going to increase violence and perhaps that is what they want. However, freedom of speech does not give a person the right to slander someone because they feel like it. Speaking on issues where there are differences of opinion is not about personal attacks.

Becky Bonnette

Via e-mail

Support Obama’s changes

Re: “Stanford: Biggest Texas scandal since Enron,” by James Thompson. The stench of all these crooks increases by the minute. Clearly, it’s not just Madoff who made off with honest folks’ money. Or were the “victims” all that honest? They flew in their private jets to Antigua to check it all out? I find that hard to be sympathetic about.

But museums and health care? Now those are real issues. Bottom line: where is the control of schemers like “Sir” Robert Allen Stanford? And is it just individuals like him? We need a thorough housecleaning of banks and financial institutions as well.

Let’s support Obama’s investigations and changes.

Jean Anderson

Via e-mail

UN declaration on sexual orientation

We applaud the Obama administration for endorsing the UN declaration calling for the decriminalization of homosexuality and condemning human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity. People should not be persecuted and targeted as criminals based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. The U.S. has finally stepped up to help right this wrong. This is long past overdue and we are encouraged by the signal it sends that the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people will now be considered human rights.

Rea Carey

Via e-mail

Rea Carey is executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

An easy way out

1. The best way to save our earth,

is trying to consume the least.

The best way to consume less,

is trying to slow down the pace

of production where surplus exists,

speed up where surplus awaits.

2. Pointing finger arrogantly to others,

won’t help solve internal problems.

Democracy cannot be exported,

so does the revolution, as expected

“Shovel snow in front of one’s doors,

don’t care for frost on others’ roofs”,

as an old Chinese saying goes.

3. This time, we are not that lucky,

as corruption and greed deepen.

The more you work the more they gain,

the more one does the more they drain.

In rich countries, roofs shield emptiness,

and health care is not for everybody.

Global crises echo globalization strategy.

4. In 300 BC Mr. Zhuang Zhou wrote:

“A skillful wren builds its nest that only occupies a spray deep in a forest.

A mole drinks water from a brook

expecting no more than a full stomach.”

These are examples we should follow suit,

as none should take more than necessities

in terms of gaining richness and fullness.

5. Learn from nature and nature’s laws,

try to respect nature and the human race,

destroy nature, we destroy our families.

Only those who dare to overcome obstacles

can climb to the highest peak of sciences;

as Karl Marx taught us before, who brought

socialism from utopia to a realistic fact.

Sen Du

Via e-mail

Pass puppy mill bill

Kudos to Illinois state Rep. John Fritchey and Sen. Dan Kotowski for sponsoring “Chloe’s Bill,” which would help improve living conditions for dogs in Illinois’ commercial breeding kennels.

The bill’s namesake, a cocker spaniel named Chloe, was rescued from a puppy mill in central Illinois. She was found crawling with fleas, covered in feces and urine, infested with roundworms and whipworms, and suffering from conjunctivitis and ear infections. Chloe’s Bill would help crack down on puppy mills — which often confine dogs in tiny, feces-filled cages without any exercise or socialization; deny them proper food and veterinary care; and kill females when they can no longer produce puppies.

Puppy mills and breeders keep on producing puppies while thousands of healthy dogs must be euthanized every year in Illinois’ shelters for lack of homes. If these operations insist on contributing to our state’s companion animal overpopulation crisis, they should at least be required to meet reasonable minimum standards of animal care.

Let’s make Illinois a state where every dog has the loving home he or she deserves. Please, adopt animals from shelters instead of supporting the cruel breeding industry, and urge your Illinois legislators to support Chloe’s Bill.

Cari Heller

Chicago IL

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Economic blackmail

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 04:39:00 +0000

Original source:

Corporate opponents of workers’ freedom to form unions repeatedly have shown they are not interested in the welfare of their employees or any of the pseudo-lofty ideals they cite while fighting the Employee Free Choice Act.

Now, they’ve made clear they will do anything–even destroy jobs, communities and harm the U.S. economy–to ensure that more American workers do not have a voice on the job. (And this just in–they’re now using Joe the Plumber as an anti-Employee Free Choice Act spokes-idiot. That guy can’t seem to keep a job.)

In Wisconsin, a local economic development official in Eau Claire County said a project was derailed because of the proposed Employee Free Choice Act. According to today’s Eau Claire Leader-Telegram, the unnamed project would have brought a

$50 million investment to Eau Claire County in the next five years, along with creating up to 800 full-time jobs, Brian Doudna, executive director of the Eau Claire Area Economic Development Corp., said in a news release Wednesday evening. Construction was expected to begin this year. The first employees were to begin work in early 2010, with about 100 new jobs being created. [snip]

‘Proposed federal and state legislation, as shown by this company’s decision, can impact location decisions and limit the private sector’s ability to create quality jobs for Eau Claire area residents. This is especially disappointing given the condition of our current national, regional and local economies.’

Yo, Brian: What’s ‘disappointing’ is the blackmail screaming out here. The threat by employers to destroy the community they theoretically are invested in just so those employers don’t have to actually talk with workers across a bargaining table about what might make for a safe workplace, what they need to support their families and retire without working until they die.

That’s bad enough. But here’s the kicker:

Doudna said if the bill is approved, the project will not occur–at least not in the U.S.

Blackmail, big time. In short, U.S. corporations are saying: Give us unlimited control over the lives of our workers, or we’ll go to another nation where ‘human rights’ is a dirty phrase and ‘workers’ rights’ even worse.

The local Chamber of Commerce’s response is to attack government.

Bob McCoy, president of the Eau Claire Area Chamber of Commerce, said the government essentially is stopping growth in the Chippewa Valley.

‘I think it’s one of those situations when the state starts trying to generate additional revenue or put certain criteria on business, it can reverse itself,’ he said. ‘There’s a potential for the Employee Free Choice Act, and (businesses) can’t afford those types of consequences.

Because the Wall Street way worked so well for us, huh, Bob?

There’s a lot to be said about corporate greed fueling the opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act. But as the nation’s $4 billion annual union-busting industry shows, more than money is involved. When corporations are willing to spend far more to fight unionization than they would spend on a unionized workforce, when they are willing to rip out the economic guts of the community–then something seriously is wrong with the culture of those who call the economic shots in this nation. Because the corporate threat screaming from Eau Claire is not just blackmail. It’s anti-worker. Anti-you. Anti-me. Anti-American.

This is a crosspost from Firedoglake.

Solidarity from Brazil to Madagascar

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:39:00 +0000

If you’re in southeastern Brazil and miss the People’s Weekly World, go to the farmlands and stop by the offices of Camoneses Sem Terra, a landless peasant association. You’ll be able to read PWW articles on their classroom’s blackboard.

Of course, if you want to read the articles in Brazil, you’ll need to be familiar with the language.

“I translate the articles of your newspaper into Portuguese and affix it onto the blackboard of the training classroom,” wrote Manoel, a reader and member of CST. He said he does it “for the information of our colleagues” so that they can learn about “the international solidarity of the world working-class movement.”

But money is a problem. Manoel ordered the paper for $14.95 through our website, but he doesn’t have the money to pay the difference between that and the cost of an international subscription. He consequently asked for a break on the price.

“The written edition is very important for our group,” says Manoel. “We do not have a computer in our association and I have to use the [internet café] in the city near where we live.”

Faced with the dilemma, Jenn Delgado, the new PWW circulation manager said, “How can we say ‘no’? The paper is making a difference for him and his comrades—how can we not offer solidarity?”

The decision to offer the subsidized subscription to the CST is nothing new: subscriptions to the World are given in solidarity to organizations and movements around the world, from Madagascar to Vietnam. International subscriptions used to be far cheaper, but they were pushed up to well over $100 per year when the post office abolished the periodicals postage rate for anything outside the United States.

“We want to continue to offer these subscriptions,” said Delgado, “but given the current trends in costs, we can’t afford them unless our readers and supporters pitch in and help us out with the costs.”

“Just send a check, written to ‘PWW,’ for as much as you can to: PWW International Solidarity Fund, 235 West 23rd Street, New York City, 10011. Or you could go to www.pww.org/support.”

“I thank you very much for the time we have received the newspaper,” wrote Manoel. “We send to all the USA workers our deep solidarity for their struggle for peace and socialism.”

Israels accidental prime minister

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 04:02:00 +0000

JERUSALEM (bitterlemons.org) — Ehud Olmert would probably never have made it to the office of prime minister of Israel were it not for two events related to former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon: the creation of Kadima and Sharon's stroke and subsequent coma. Sharon created Kadima, a 'centrist' political party, at the expense of other parties, most importantly Labor and Likud, with the latter only recovering during the recent elections, providing Binyamin Netanyahu with a chance to become, once again, prime minister.

Olmert continued Sharon's policy of hafrada (apartheid in Afrikaans) that aimed at unilaterally separating Israelis from Palestinians by building a separation wall deep inside occupied Palestinian territory. This wall has devastated Palestinian life in ways that cannot be explained here but are the reasons the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion calling for it to be removed. (That ruling has been ignored, but even if it had been a UN Security Council resolution, it would still be collecting dust. Israel functions with total disregard to Palestinian rights, even when they are supported by international law.)

Olmert paid lip service to the two-state solution while, in practice and similar to other Israeli prime ministers, he allowed Jewish colonies in the West Bank, which includes East Jerusalem, to grow by confiscating more and more Palestinian land. According to B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights watchdog, 'The sharp changes Israel has made to the map of the West Bank make a viable Palestinian state impossible.' Recent statements by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' advisors indicate that at no point did Olmert present a map or a detailed plan for the implementation of a two-state solution.

As an excuse for not implementing the roadmap, Olmert used the 'Abbas is a weak leader' mantra that had been trotted out by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on numerous occasions. Yet it was Olmert who rendered Abbas weak by not being courageous enough to do what is necessary for peace. The desperate visits by the Palestinian president to Olmert's residence did not yield anything except humiliation. Future Palestinian leaders should avoid such unnecessary diplomacy. A Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza Strip is, after all, an Israeli interest. Peace should not be left to Israeli negotiations with the Palestinians. Israel should be given an ultimatum to implement the two-state solution in full, after which Palestinians are justified in subscribing to alternative models, including the one democratic state model. The Quartet should play a direct role in conducting a referendum on the solution in both societies.

During his tenure, Olmert also pursued a bellicose policy toward regional players. He waged two wars, the first on Hizballah in Lebanon and the second on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel failed in both wars to achieve the declared (deliberately vague, in the case of Gaza) political objectives, yet they both resulted in massive destruction, many massacres and thousands of civilian casualties. Richard Falk, the United Nations special rapporteur on Palestinian human rights, described Israel's actions in Gaza as 'war crimes'. Israeli media have reported, in the last couple of days, that many Israeli soldiers publically confessed that Palestinian civilians where knowingly targeted during the war on Gaza. Furthermore, the war on Gaza was planned six months in advance and was not a reaction to any specific event happening immediately before the war.

Olmert's blockade on Gaza, before and after the December 2008 war, brought the Palestinian people there to the brink of human catastrophe. The extent of collective punishment against the Gaza Strip, the epitome of suffering, is underscored by a policy that prevented pasta (as in Italian macaroni) from reaching Gaza. I am still pondering the possible double use of pasta. What is the wisdom of pasta-less 'humanitarian' aid?

In his final days as prime minister, Olmert seemed anxious to conclude a deal with Hamas for the release of Israeli POW Gilad Shalit. Suddenly, however, Olmert decided that he would not go ahead with an exchange of prisoners because there were 'red lines' that no one should cross. It is not clear what these red lines are and why they appeared now. A final peace resolution will anyway mean closing the Palestinian prisoners' file and releasing them all. Despite Olmert's position, Haaretz reported that Hamas is still seeking continued, indirect negotiations for a prisoner exchange.

Ehud Olmert resigned because of corruption charges that he will continue to face after a new government is sworn in. The annals of history, however, will level different charges at him.

----- Dr. Mustafa Abu Sway teaches at al-Quds University in Jeruslaem. This article originally appeared at bitterlemons.org.

LETTERS

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 09:42:00 +0000

Elsie Fox biography

Readers might be interested in a newly-published biography of Elsie Fox, Communist Party member and labor activist from the 1930s to the present. The book, “Elsie Fox, Portrait of an Activist” is a collaboration with Elsie by Karen Stevenson.

Elsie’s story begins with her early farm life, her coming of age, and her radicalization in the 1930s.

When Elsie moved to Seattle in the 1930s, she met my mother, life-long Communist Party member and artist Cecilia Corr, who painted a water color portrait of her. Elsie kept the portrait all her life, and Stevenson uses that image as the cover of the biography.

Elsie found Karl Marx in the public library in Seattle, and soon met a Communist, who said, “Lady, I can fix you up.” He took her to a meeting, where she joined the party in 1933. She was an activist with the Voice of Action, a left newspaper of the time, and helped distribute the Waterfront Worker, which was part of the organizing drive of the longshoremen.

After the war, Elsie moved to San Francisco, where she became office manager for the ILWU. She worked closely with ILWU President Harry Bridges until she retired from that job after 28 years in 1973.

Elsie married Ernest Fox, an organizer for the party. She spent the war years trying to free Ernest, who was jailed as a German national, enlisting the help of Bridges and other labor leaders who testified to his loyalty to the U.S. war effort.

Constant harassment by the FBI, the Smith Act Trials, and the threat of Ernie’s deportation under the McCarran Internal Security Act never stopped Elsie from her commitment to ending capitalism, a belief she holds to this day.

Elsie is still alive in Montana, over 100 years old, and still very perky. Stevenson tells the story of the left-wing movement from Elsie’s point of view, bouncing elegantly back and forth between past and the present.

Reading it would be a great way to celebrate Women’s History Month.

William Corr Waldron WA

Tazers are deadly

We are all meant to laugh at local news anchors getting a tazering to show it isn’t really dangerous. Of course the tazer prongs aren’t shot into the skin of the newscasters, just taped to them.

Tazers are the latest in an arsenal of deadly weapons promoted as non-lethal and used to pretty-up the police. We all remember how non-lethal rubber bullets were supposed to be. Eight people in the U.S. have been killed by the cops using tazers so far in 2009.

Jay Rothermel Via e-mail

Family tree

I gather that People’s Weekly World is a direct descendant of the west coast newspapers Western Worker and People’s Daily World. In view of this, I’m wondering if somewhere in the main offices of PWW there is an index to Western Worker and People’s Daily World. Thanks.

Mike Perez Via e-mail

Editor’s note: Archives of the Western Worker and People’s World are located at the Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State University, 480 Winston Dr., San Francisco 94132, phone (415) 564-4010.

Back issues and individual articles from the People’s Weekly World are available from Proquest, PO Box 1346, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346, (800) 521-0600.

For microfilm copies of the People’s Weekly World from 1992 to the present, call Lexis-Nexus at (800) 638-8380.

Tamiment Library is host to the photo collections from The Daily Worker and The Communist Party USA. The collections at the Tamiment are considered to be among the best sources of information in the U.S. on the history of radical politics. Tamiment Library is located on the campus of New York University, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, 10th Floor, 70 Washington Square South (West 4th btwn LaGuardia and Greene Streets), New York City. Visit their website: www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/index.html.

How’s he doing?

President Barack Obama’s first months as president will be marked as historically significant for its shift away from the fraudulent “trickle down” economic model begun by Ronald Reagan almost 30 years ago.

The first significant policy vote was to approve and increase the State Children’s Health Insurance Program or SCHIP, providing health insurance for 4 million more children then the old system.

The Republicans en masse voted against SCHIP with West Michigan congressman Pete Hoekstra using the specter of children of “illegal immigrants” possibly being eligible as part of his opposition to the bill. Hoekstra’s no vote was duplicated by most of the rest of the Republicans in the House, the final vote being 289 yes, 139 no.

Probably the most important and problematic area for Obama is his apparent willingness to escalate a warfare setting in South Asia. The all too frequent civilian losses and casualties in Afghanistan and most recently in drone missile attacks in Pakistan must be ended and humanitarian missions such as protecting girls schools, roads, water and agricultural projects should be our primary endeavor and concern.

We are entering a new era with Obama, hopefully a more representative Congress and an active populace.

How will things evolve? Predictions?

Brian McAfee Muskegon Heights MI

Stop torpedoing

The ultra right has launched a fierce all out counterrevolution, long before we in the U.S.A. experience even a resemblance of genuine revolution. But make no mistake, what we see from the other side, of torpedoing anyone that President Obama nominates and is progressive, with all sorts of slander and vicious attacks is a well planned and superbly executed strategy by a wounded but not dead ruling class hell-bent on turning the Obama administration, product of our own voting landslide, into a futile four years.

Bush appointed federal prosecutors have turned the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division (DOJCRD) upside sown, feverishly scanning microscope looking for tiny peccadilloes by Obama appointees while letting whale sized heinous crimes swim by.

There are more areas in need of urgent prosecution by genuinely devoted DOJCRD prosecutors, instead of nitpicking to sabotage appointees of our genuinely elected president.

Ana Lucia Gelabert Gatesville TX

Closing Guantanamo

Anyone who believes that the abuses, conditions, and denial of human rights at Guantanamo holds a candle to that of our domestic prison systems is wholly disconnected from the realities of prison life in the United States. As the ACLU and attorneys for the Guantanamo detainees fight to close the prison and have the detainees transferred to the continent, those already imprisoned in this country long for those subtler and better publicized Guantanamo abuses. Any such transferred detainees are in for the rudest of awakenings.

Martin Jordan Florence CO

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FMLN to rebuild El Salvador

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 07:29:00 +0000

San Salvador, Mar 19 (Prensa Latina) After 30 years of military and political struggle, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) won last Sunday presidential elections, paving the way for building a new El Salvador

FMLN presidential candidate Mauricio Funes´s victory has been regarded as the most important event in the history of the small Central American nation.

In spite of right-wing slanderous campaigns, fraud and threats , the FMLN managed to win with 51.32 percent of the votes. The Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (ARENA) candidate got 46.68 percent.

In an exclusive interview with Prensa Latina, FMLN general coordinator Medardo Gonzalez described the process that led his party to the presidency.

The last stage in this process dates back to December, 2006 when in a National Convention we launched a manifesto stating people was eagerly looking forward a new system, faced with the unbearable economic, political, and social situation they were going through.

“At that time, we called all longing for a change to unite, and the party expressed its willingness to become that force; it was an important starting point for us,” he recalled.

Picking the candidate was another important step, because we wanted other sectors beyond the FMLN to join the process. That process took a year, and ended in November, 2007 when Funes was nominated candidate, he added. The FMLN government program, agreed by consensus with the society, stated among its priorities to face the current international crisis which is particularly hitting El Salvador for its dependency from United States.

At this moment family remittances account for 19 percent of the country´s Gross Domestic Product, nearly one fifth of the national income, Gonzalez said.

The new government is aimed at beginning the way towards development with equity, to fulfill the peace agreements signed in 1992 and strengthen the role of the State. A new government also means changes in the foreign policy and diversification of commercial and diplomatic relations with other countries that in Gonzalez opinion has remain at standstill.

It is vital for us to re-establish relations with Cuba soon and give the corresponding level to the Venezuelan relations, he declared.

The FMLN general coordinator dedicated the victory to the historic leader of the organization Schafik Handal who died in 2006 and to all his comrades who died in this attempt that has began in the 80th.

This victory also represents a great personal satisfaction and happiness for the people. We have done it and we will start fighting to build a New Salvador, he stressed.

COMMENTARY: Communism: a viable alternative?

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 06:42:00 +0000

(Reposted from the Machester Guradian guardian.co.uk)

Let's get one thing out of the way to begin with: history is back in fashion. A generation on from Francis Fukuyama's claim that the fall of the Soviet Union marked the 'end of history', the epoch of liberal capitalism and the free market fell apart in spectacular style during a few short months last autumn. As jobs disappear and anger rises, the bare bones of ideology that prop up the present system are exposed.

The speedy panic with which our governments agreed to throw billions of pounds away to restore 'confidence' suggests that the dream is over and we are awakening to a strange new socialism, in which an increasingly authoritarian government has taken public control of financial capitalism in order to save it from itself. We read today that equal pay reviews no longer matter. Migrants are left to starve on the streets as the government heads off the far right by pandering to it. And so it's precisely now that the question of an alternative must be re-opened.

Against this backdrop, Birkbeck College this weekend hosted a symposium on the idea of communism. Originally planned as a meeting of philosophers and those who enjoy hearing their debates, the unexpected material circumstances of history instead gave the event a genuine sense of urgency. Even the BBC came to hear Slavoj Zizek, Alain Badiou, Jacques Ranciere, Michael Hardt, Toni Negri, and others speaking on the possibilities and challenges of reinventing the communist ideal today.

The conference was happily free of dogmatism. No one on the stage was there to represent a particular party or doctrine. There were disagreements, but at heart was a simple proposition. Communism is an idea that has been with us in different forms for thousands of years, as Terry Eagleton pointed out. The task is now to think what the concepts of egalitarian voluntarism, self-organisation, common ownership of common means of production, abolition of class-structured society, and freedom from state power can mean today.

It's a bold statement, declaring oneself a communist. The cultural revolutions of 1968 were the beginning of the end of the party-state, when programmatic communism was replaced by a more postmodern, abstract idea of 'the left'. Freedom of thought and nomadic thought undid the old certainties of Marxist political knowledge. No one has quite figured out how to replace them, and this perhaps more than anything else can account for the current weakness of the left, even as capitalism is in crisis: what is to be done?

First, the question of the role of the state and the economy remains open. While Judith Balso, Toni Negri and Alain Badiou insist on creating new political movements at a distance from the state, Zizek and Bruno Bosteels point to the experiences of Bolivia and Venezuela as contemporary proof that by taking power, a progressive radical movement can survive even against overwhelming reactionary forces. For Zizek, to reject the idea of a revolutionary state in the absence of a clear alternative is a cop-out.

However, such considerations all seem to beg the question of how to organise. It is difficult to imagine a new Communist party, but without one, the idea of communism remains just that: a quasi-religious article of faith. This was perhaps Eagleton's point when he observed that it is not so difficult to imagine a communism of scarcity, foisted upon us by disaster rather than rapture.

Perhaps the true question is: why communism? It does no harm to remember that for Marx, communism was not something anachronistic and programmatic. Marx insisted on the simple idea that we and no one else are responsible for remaking the world. Communism can only be enacted from what really exists. The party-states attempted to bend society to match some abstract idea. A true philosophy of communism cannot provide all the answers, because it has not yet encountered the problems.

Separating the promise of communism from the disasters of the 20th century is no easy task. But it feels necessary. Already we know that choices will have to be made and sides taken. Impending ecological disaster suggests that this could be our last chance to do so. If another world is possible, it will happen in action, not abstract theory. The first choice is very simple: to begin.

Drug cartel violence has political, economic roots

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:02:00 +0000

CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico -- Recent media reports about Mexico picture a country near collapse, with police and army outgunned by well-armed and organized drug cartels. U.S. government travel warnings speak of “small unit combat” taking place against cartel units equipped with uniforms, heavy automatic weapons and even grenades.

In several locations, Mexican Army troops have fought pitched battles for control of municipal police stations, with casualties on both sides and prisoners dragged away in Abu Ghraib-style hoods and blindfolds to parts unknown.

The uncontested facts of the situation are that between 5,000-6,000 people died during 2008 in Mexico’s current domestic conflict, and more than a thousand have been killed or “disappeared” so far this year. Victims have been tortured, mutilated or even beheaded.

In Ciudad Juárez, a border city of about 1.7 million on the front lines of the conflict, Mexican Army reinforcements this week brought the total official military presence to 8,500, roughly one soldier for every 200 residents. Yet the killing continues. If one is to believe official figures, Ciudad Juárez is now, on a per-capita basis, more dangerous than Baghdad or Kabul.

However, trustworthy information about the conflict in Mexico is surprisingly scarce, most probably because of the great variety of interests at stake.

The right-wing Mexican government has consistently, and perhaps unsurprisingly, tried to minimize the situation, reassuring domestic and foreign media that it is in firm control of every square centimeter of its territory, that the cartels are on the run and that in tourist centers like Acapulco or Cancún, it’s Spring break party time as usual.

In stark contrast, interventionist forces in the United States paint Mexico as a “failed state” teetering near collapse, even though the current conflict is largely limited to the northern border states and parts of the Pacific Coast, while in vast swaths of the country’s interior life goes on in relative normalcy.

Still other forces do nothing but muddy the water. A few self-styled anarchists and first-world supporters of the indigenous Zapatista rebellion in southern Mexico regard the conflict as glad tidings, heralding the imminent collapse of the “dis-government” in Mexico and the death of the state.

In the United States, both “Drug Warriors” and supporters of drug legalization are using the conflict as a convenient platform upon which to preach their particular viewpoints.

In Mexico itself, a fantasy “Citizens’ Commando” vigilante group in Ciudad Juárez threatened in December to begin executing one “criminal” a day, while a previously unknown “guerrilla” group of uncertain political orientation, the Armed Movement of the North, or MAN, issued a Jan. 1 online “Declaration of War” against the Mexican government and later claimed responsibility for the Feb.28 downing of an unarmed Federal Water Commission helicopter.

Even the cartels themselves have been adept in their use of propaganda, organizing paid “demonstrations” against the militarization of northern cities, jamming police and military communication frequencies with “narco-corridas” (pro-cartel musical ballads) and hanging “narcomantas” (giant, professional-quality pro-cartel banners) over streets and on the sides of major buildings in cities across northern Mexico. And in case this fails to make the point, cartel gunmen have been murdering reporters in record numbers, making Mexico one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalism.

According to Mexican left and working-class sources, a great part of the blame for the current crisis lies with the Mexican government itself, which has for the last eight years been controlled by the right-wing National Action Party (PAN). In Mexico, NAFTA (grotesquely known in Mexico as TLC, for “Tratado de Libre Comercio”), extreme neoliberal policies and the global economic crisis have brought about a collapse of government social services and food subsidies, along with growing poverty and joblessness, leaving a social vacuum that the criminal cartels are happy to fill.

According to a report by the independent Mexican Electrical Workers’ Union (Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas, SME), the average wage for Mexican workers even before the current crisis, was less than $2.50 per hour (U.S.). Since 1982, Mexican workers’ real purchasing power has fallen by over 48% when adjusted for inflation, while the value of the country’s minimum wage has fallen by more than 70 percent in the same period. According to the SME, in 2005, over three-quarters of the Mexican population lived in poverty, including one-third of all teachers, half of all technicians and skilled workers, 77 percent of industrial machinists, 79 percent of service employees and 96 percent of domestic workers.

And, since 2005, while wages have largely stagnated, the value of the Mexican peso has fallen by a further 25 percent in relationship to the dollar, much of the fall occurring in recent months since the outbreak of the financial crisis in the United States.

According to a study conducted by the National Autonomous University of Mexico, in 1996 some 50 percent of the entire Mexican population was suffering from malnutrition. By 1999, the rate of malnutrition among the working population alone had risen to an estimated at 79.6 percent.

Writing in the March 14 El Diario de Juárez, political analyst Rafael Loret de Mola points out that the current wave of violence cannot be explained without reference to this deadly “social distortion,” particularly on the border, where “the comfortable are accustomed to gazing out from what has been consistently rated as one of the ‘safest’ cities in the United States [El Paso, Texas], into the biting poverty of the wretched Juárez ‘colonias’ [shantytowns].” Loret de Mola, whose best friend, attorney Julián Sosa González was gunned down in downtown Juárez only days ago, calls sensationalistic worldwide reporting of the murder of hundreds of women in Juárez during the first part of the decade a “smoke screen” to conceal the gradual “Colombianization” of Mexico, where during the same period some seven men were also being killed for each woman murdered.

Breathtaking levels of corruption and ineptness on the part of law enforcement agencies, a deep-rooted bureaucratic culture of bribe-taking and “compadrismo,” (favoritism), and neoliberal economic policies have all led in the border area to a profound de-legitimization of the Mexican state itself.

Added to this, the decline of the “maquiladora” (so-called “twin plant”) industry, rising unemployment and the closing of the emigration “safety valve” due to the crisis in the United States have created an explosive mixture of lawlessness, extreme poverty, hunger and despair that the cartels have been happy to detonate.

Mexican media reports suggest that while the political left in Mexico is in near-total disarray, the cartels have bought a degree of mass popular support by passing out food, medications and backpacks full of school supplies in impoverished neighborhoods, offering social services that the government cannot or will not provide. Meanwhile, cartel agents recruit gunmen and smugglers with promises of easy money, protection for one’s family, immunity from prosecution and free access to drugs.

Nor is the United States exempt from the violence currently lashing Mexico. Already, a number of kidnappings and killings in Arizona have been blamed on the Mexican drug war, and some Mexican media reports allege that the cartels are even now in the process of recruiting and training unemployed and marginalized young people in the United States as “sicarios” (gunmen).

A cruel irony is that right-wing Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s recent self-serving statements blaming U.S. drug consumption and corruption for Mexico’s drug war are objectively correct. One need only remember Iran-Contra to realize that the international and domestic drug trade is neither victimless nor politically neutral. The contention that an ongoing billion-dollar, multi-ton drug trade can be carried on “invisibly” from Mexico to Boston, Chicago and New York without the knowledge of the same U.S. authorities who claim to detect every gram of “terrorist” explosives before it enters the country is more than absurd.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to visit Mexico on March 25 and 26. Americans need be ready to resist calls for more U.S. “aid” for the dysfunctional and corrupt Mexican government (which many Mexicans, Loret de Mola among them, suspect is now actually in league with one of the cartels against the rest).

Any call for direct intervention or militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border must be firmly resisted, solidarity activists urge. Poverty, hunger, inequality and exploitation are not solved by sending in the Marines. Abundant, well-paying union jobs, universal education and health care, affordable food and decent housing on both sides of the border (along with courteous, incorruptible and –people-oriented law enforcement) are more deadly to organized crime than any quantity of bombs and bullets.

Ultimately, perhaps the only way to finally smash the power of the cartels is to curb Americans’ own raging appetite for drugs. In stark terms, Americans taste for a “wee toke of the gentle herb” (and drug profits) is tearing Mexico to pieces. Communists on both sides of the border have historically condemned substance trafficking and abuse.

The U.S. Congress could devote resources to directly attacking the inequality, hunger, discrimination and poverty that lead marginalized young people on either side of the border to deal drugs and risk their own precious lives for the drug-lords.

A capitalist society is by definition a “war of each one against everyone else” that naturally breeds organized crime. The way to fight organized criminality at home or abroad is not with military aid, “advisors,” militarized borders or armed intervention. Responsible, progressive and popular action to clean up America’s own house, plus people- to-people demands for justice for our neighbors and relatives across the border would be the best possible international solidarity we can offer to the suffering people of northern Mexico.

Brazils president, Sweeney discuss global economy

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:26:00 +0000

Original source:

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney met with Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva this past weekend, prior to Lula’s White House meeting with President Obama.

Lula, a metalworker and internationally recognized trade union leader before he was elected Brazil’s president in 2002, was re-elected in 2006. He has met frequently with the AFL-CIO on his visits to the United States since his election.

During their meeting Saturday, Lula and Sweeney discussed ways the international union movement and coordinated economic recovery policies can benefit workers in Brazil, the United States and around the globe.

Sweeney emphasized that strengthening the collective bargaining rights of U.S. workers by enacting the Employee Free Choice Act will benefit workers internationally by contributing to demand-driven growth in the global economy.

During the meeting, Lula emphasized the need for the International Trade Union Confederation and the international union movement to make sure their call for a real economic recovery and the creation of decent jobs is heard at the upcoming G-20 summit in London. He also said he supports and will reinforce that message at the summit, including a push for the International Labor Organization to be involved in talks about the recovery.

Lula recently showed he still honors his trade union roots. While most of the world’s heads of state preferred to attend the annual economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, in late January, Lula and several leaders of major Latin American countries participated in this year’s World Social Forum. In fact, Lula convened a meeting with three other Latin American presidents—Evo Morales of Bolivia, Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela—during the social forum.

El Salvador's FMLN candidate wins presidency, calls for unity

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 02:37:00 +0000

SAN SALVADOR March 16 (Prensa Latina) In his first message to the nation, El Salvador's President-Elect Mauricio Funes of the Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN), called for reconciliation and national unity.

After counting 91.7 percent of votes, Funes got 51.26 percent, against 48.74 percent from the governing Nationalist Republican Alliance candidate, in results considered irreversible.

Funes invited different social and political forces to jointly build unity based on tolerance, as to differences and identification of common objectives.

'My government will be motivated by the spirit of national unity, against confrontation and the politics of revenge,' he stated.

The president-elect was grateful to the FMLN, its leadership and members, the Mauricio's Friends Movement, and all political forces that opted for change.

'Charade' shames Texas

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 01:47:00 +0000

In the middle of the worst crisis of our lifetimes, the Texas Senate has thrown its full energies into solving a problem that doesn’t exist! Even the Dallas daily paper, usually as anti-worker as any mainstream press, ended their lead editorial with “Someone should end this charade.”

They referred to the “Voter-ID” bill that was passed by Republicans in the Texas Senate on March 11 with a precise partisan vote. If it is also passed by the state House, it will require all Texas voters to present a state-provided picture identification card in addition to their registration card. Thousands of blind, disabled, and older voters would thus be required to buy these cards or quit voting. The Republican Lieutenant Governor, David Dewhurst, maneuvered to suspend Senate rules specifically to pass this particular bill.

Union spokespersons say that the Republicans are trying to impose a new poll tax to restrict voting rights. The Republicans say that they are trying to stop “massive voter fraud” when imposters, specifically Latino immigrants, illegally impersonate voters. The problem with their argument is that, despite years of effort entailing millions of dollars, Republicans haven’t been able to find a single incident of any imposter voting in any Texas election!

Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott, who has already been shamed by his failure to find any of his highly-touted “massive voter fraud,” was conspicuously absent from the Senate discussions, according to the Texas AFL-CIO.

One of the many people who traveled to the state capitol in Austin was Texas Alliance for Retired Americans President Annie Banks, a retired teacher. According to the Texas AFL-CIO, Banks traveled from Houston, then waited 23 hours in the capitol, though the night of March 11, to give her testimony.

On the day after the Senate’s action, the Ft Worth newspaper ran the story of a 97-year old African American woman who had already made three separate attempts to get a picture-id from the state, and had been turned down every time!

The worst part of the debacle isn’t in most reports: the state’s unemployment trust fund, doling out unprecedented amounts in recent months, is running out of money while the legislature dawdles! Last year, despite gathering economic storm clouds, Governor Perry pushed through a cut in the employers’ tax for the fund. This year, it is clear that the legislature will have to borrow money, and pay interest, to keep the fund going. Texas cannot qualify for the $555 million in federal stimulus money for the unemployed unless the state legislature acts to update its rigid anti-worker qualifications. Presently, an unemployed Texas worker has less chance of actually receiving any unemployment benefits than workers in any other state. Several politicians, including Perry, have made it clear that they want to keep it that way!

Why would Governor Perry, Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst, and Attorney General Abbott disgrace themselves and the state so thoroughly? A good answer came from Austin political expert Harvey Kronberg during the Texas AFL-CIO Legislative Conference on January 28. He said that right wingers are positioning themselves to win the Texas Republican primary elections in 2010. He expects U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson to resign her seat in order to run for Governor against Perry. Dewhurst, Abbott, and others are likely preparing themselves to run for Hutchinson’s Senate seat. The Texas Republican primary is a small election, with usually fewer than 600,000 voters in a state of over 20 million people. Republican candidates do not care what the general public, or the world, thinks of them as long as they can win that small race – and the key is to be the most right wing of all the candidates!

By pushing the nonsensical “voter-ID” legislation and ignoring the suffering of the unemployed, Texas Republicans are grasping for power!

--Jim Lane,

Opinion: Lou Dobbs goes loco

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 14:30:00 +0000

CNN Host Claims Hispanic Business Group Interested in “Mexico’s Export of Drugs and Illegal Aliens to the United States”

Washington, DC — Is anti-immigrant rabble-rouser and CNN loudmouth Lou Dobbs losing his marbles? At a minimum, he is losing whatever last shreds of credibility he used to possess. In response to President Obama’s major address on education in front of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Dobbs criticized the President in his Tuesday night broadcast for “making a decision to talk about a national initiative on education from the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which is effectively an organization that is interested in the export of American capital and production to Mexico and Mexico’s export of drugs and illegal aliens to the United States. This is crazy stuff.”

The following is a response by Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice.

“Lou Dobbs is right about one thing. This is crazy stuff. Apparently when Lou saw the word ‘Hispanic’ in the name of the organization hosting the event, he went loco.”

“The U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is hardly a controversial group. It represents over 2.5 million Hispanic-owned businesses in the United States, including many small enterprises that are the backbone of our economy. I have worked with them over the years. It is a mainstream organization whose members are patriotic Americans — some born here, some born in Latin America — who love this nation. Linking these hardworking business owners, who are Americans of Hispanic descent, to the Mexican drug trade and illegal immigration is both ridiculous and deplorable.”

“The comments seem to betray a disturbing insight into the Dobbs view of the world. He seems to think it inconceivable that any organization with the word ‘Hispanic’ in it could care about education, or be anything more than a front group for illegal activity.”

“Tuesday’s remarks are just the latest in a series of incendiary and anti-Hispanic statements made by Dobbs. A 2008 report from Media Matters catalogued the long history Dobbs has in advancing virulently anti-immigrant and anti-Latino sentiments. In 2007 the New York Times wrote a scathing piece taking Dobbs to task for his blatantly inaccurate claim that illegal immigration led to an increase of 7,000 cases of leprosy over the previous three years (only a handful of new cases had indeed been reported for that period). The medical doctor cited by Dobbs turned out to be a doctor of education, a Renaissance studies scholar, whose claim to fame was not her expertise on leprosy but her ties to the white supremacy movement. Despite clear evidence of the inaccuracy of the claim and the background of the source Dobbs, to this day, has refused to make an on-air correction.”

“The most remarkable aspect of this is that CNN, which calls itself ‘the most trusted name in news,’ gives this leader of the anti-immigrant movement an hour a night to promote racial hostility and front for an extremist agenda.”

America's Voice -- Harnessing the power of American voices and American values to win common sense immigration reform.

Cuba studies stem cells, stroke cure

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 01:44:00 +0000

Havana, Mar 12 (Prensa Latina) Important studies of neural transplants with stem cells for the treatment of brain infarctions were presented in the 2009 International Conference of Neurological Restoration meeting in this capital.

One of the speakers, Klaus G. Reymann of the Liebniz Neurobiology Institute in Germany explained that although the investigations are in the clinical phase, there is confidence that this technique may improve recovery in patients.

The specialists consider that an infusion of stem cells of the patient, about five or nine days after the brain infarction will contribute to recover part of the area affected and increase quality of life.

Cuba also develops research protocols on the procedure, explained doctor Emilio Villa Acosta, deputy director of the International Center of Neurological Restoration (CIREN) and member of the organizing committee of the event.

The scientist explained that these modified stem cells that become neurons are implanted in areas of the brain through precise surgery that allows exact access to place the cells without causing lesions in the patient.

The Wednesday session of the conference also included presentations on the Cuban program of surgery in epilepsy for patients who reject conventional treatment. This procedure eliminates crises and, in very complicated cases, reduces them to a minimum that improves their way of life, noted doctor Lilia Morales Chacon, head of the program.

She also informed that more than 100 persons have been evaluated and of these 25 received surgery, while most are free of crises.

The procedure is very complex since it requires a deep pre-surgical study that is very costly and included a clinical, psychological, psychiatric examination and diagnosis is made through imagery and electroencephalogram, she added.

Republican racism runs rampant

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 09:13:00 +0000

Recently the pro-Republican, Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post ran a scurrilous racist cartoon comparing Obama to the Connecticut chimpanzee that was shot dead by the police. The headline read, “Who’s going to write the stimulus package now?” a more than a sub-textual suggestion that assassinating President Obama is an option to those who disagree with him. I think that is against the law.

Recently, the newly elected first Black chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, proclaimed, what should have been obvious, that he, not radio provocateur Rush Limbaugh, was the head of the GOP. Steele called Limbaugh an “entertainer” whose show is “incendiary and ugly.”

Limbaugh, who apparently does think he is now the party’s head, went on a tirade against Steele telling him to “go behind the scenes and do your job” instead of trying to be some kind of “media star.” Was this not a typical racist act: telling a Black person who thinks he’s a leader to “stay in your place?”

And as if to confirm that relationship, the next day, Steele made an embarrassing apology. This has happened before. When Washington Post columnist William Raspberry criticized Limbaugh for “gay bashing and his racial putdowns” and called Limbaugh a bigot, 11 days later he apologized too. In Republican circles, Blacks dare not criticize racism.

Steele and Raspberry told the truth. Limbaugh is a racist. He is the radio personality that said that Martin Luther King’s assassin James Earl Ray should get the Medal of Honor! He criticized the Democrats for standing behind Nelson Mandela and getting rid of the “white government of South Africa.” He calls Feminists “Feminazis” and once told a Black women caller to “take the bone out of your nose and call me back.”

And of course it was on his show that aired the racist song “Barack the Magic Negro.” For many years now he has been blurting out this poison while under the influence of illegally gotten prescription drugs.

Limbaugh’s long record of vile racism, anti-women and anti-gay bigotry is undeniable. Apparently now his voice is more powerful then the chairman of the Republican Party. That a voice of racism and hatred is now dominating the GOP is apparently ok with them.

Of course this is all done using humor — but it’s not funny. Racism is not funny. Racism, male chauvinism and homophobia are virulent and deadly ideologies.

It’s important to note that the extreme right has for too long used bigotry to rationalize its disastrous policies in defense of neo-conservative capitalism and pro-war imperialist policies.

The voters have spoken. The Republicans refused to listen. They would rather see the country go down the tubes than see President Obama’s agenda succeed. Imagine, not one vote in the House for the stimulus package! The Democrats need to keep pushing and push harder and stronger.

In today’s political climate as opposed to before 2006, the Republican Party is headed down the road to oblivion. And I say good riddance.

Jarvis Tyner is executive vice chair of the Communist Party.

LETTERS

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 09:06:00 +0000

Glad to read it

I was startled and so happy to see two pictures of Marvel Cooke and a full-page spread about her by my former colleague, Marilyn Bechtel (PWW 3/7-13).

I too was a very old friend of Marvel’s and was with her in her apartment not long before the end. Marilyn’s account is very full, but I would like to add a few notes on Marvel’s very rich life.

She told me that Richard Wright wrote “Black Boy” on her kitchen table. She visited him later in Paris.

I once mentioned to her that Ossie Davis was in a play on Broadway. I took her to it and persuaded her to go backstage afterwards. As we walked down the corridor I heard his deep voice call out “Marvel!”

I suppose at the insistence of Dr. Du Bois, she was one of the group of four who went to Branch Rickey to persuade him to hire Jackie Robinson for the Dodgers.

Roger Wilkins, formerly with the Justice Department and now teaching at George Mason University, is her nephew. He helped out when someone stole the contents of her bank account.

Her husband, who died before I met her, was one of three Black members of his class at Syracuse University. He was an athlete and so was one of his classmates, Jesse Owens. He and the Cookes remained friends.

I am so happy the World ran the article, and especially thanks to Marilyn.

Alan Thomson

Flushing NY

Robert Smalls: great American

Robert Smalls is remembered, in parts of South Carolina, as an incredible hero of the Civil War. But there are many Americans who never heard of him.

He was a slave with a vast knowledge of ship navigation, who planned, with other slaves, to steer through Charleston harbor to the Union navy a Confederate ship, The Planter, while the white officers went ashore. On board were his wife and others who knew that if they were discovered, they would be killed.

After he made contact with the Union navy he and his fellow slaves were welcomed.

Within a few short weeks, this humble hero met with President Lincoln and was later authorized to organize 5,000 African American as the 1st and 2nd South Carolina Volunteers. By Christmas, the Commander-in-Chief promoted Smalls to captain his own vessel.

After the Civil War, he became active in Reconstruction, first as congressman and then senator.

Many books have been written about Robert Smalls. He deserves to be honored and remembered by all Americans.

Dorothy Greene Pita

Teaneck NJ

More on single-payer

I enjoyed Flávio Casoy’s article (PWW 2/28-3/6) on fighting for a single-payer health plan. His emphasis on avoiding a sectarian approach to the fight is critical. The tendency of my-way-or-the-highway has always been devastating to moving major issues forward.

Seymour Joseph

Brooklyn NY

Flávio Casoy’s opinion piece was disappointing on several fronts. It did not accurately characterize the single-payer movement, it did not describe the Health Care for America Now (HCAN) principles, and it uses labels such as “sectarian” and “labor-backed” to justify a position.

Although as in most progressive movements there are those who may be sectarian or divisive, to even mention this with regard to the broad movement for single-payer is divisive, marginalizes single-payer, and is frankly a red herring.

It should have been noted that HCAN hit the scene in mid-2008 during the election campaign, perhaps not so coincidentally when single payer was gaining momentum. Many single-payer advocates, myself included, viewed this as a deliberate attempt to derail the single-payer movement and pour millions of dollars into a campaign based on an assumption that single-payer did not have a chance, quite an assumption in the middle of an unprecedented all peoples’ campaign.

It may be true as debate and hearings go through Congress that health care reform in the form of HR 676 (often called the Conyers bill) may not pass and that adjustments in demands will be necessary, adjustments that most single-payer advocates recognize as a possibility. With HCAN prematurely throwing in the towel and assuming that negotiations must start with preserving the insurance companies, where is there room to maneuver?

However, if HR 676 is the starting point for debate, there is room to come out with reform that lays the groundwork for single-payer if it does not fully succeed in the immediate future.

It is premature to assume that single-payer cannot pass and that fighting for it is divisive or sectarian. Single-payer has HR 676. HCAN, at the moment, only has speculation.

David S. Bell

Philadelphia PA

Flávio Casoy replies: Mr. Bell’s comments demonstrate an incomplete understanding of my arguments. I strongly believe that in order for us to win a real, single-payer health care reform victory — a victory that I believe is possible — we must engage with the broad labor movement and other progressive organizations in order to build support for it. By joining HCAN, progressives are not giving up on real health care reform, but creating new opportunities for engagement with organizations that are our natural allies. Furthermore, I did not state that supporting a single-payer solution or HR676 is sectarian, but that the pro- single-payer organizations that do behave in divisive ways are harmful not only to the single-payer movement, but to the progressive agenda as a whole.

There are many strong single-payer organizations that engage productively with non-single-payer organizations without weakening our advocacy or our position. In fact, non-sectarian single-payer activists create a voice for us in the national reform debate.

Prisoner request

I’m a Hispanic person, deprived of my liberty, and I never have any money in my account. I would like to know if you could help me to receive your paper. I’d be grateful to all of you.

Juan Pérez Gómez

Iowa Park TX

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Editorial: Democracy hypocrisy

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 09:00:00 +0000

The architects of the biggest job-killing operation in U.S. history — one that has chewed up and spit out the jobs of more than 1.8 million human beings during the last three months — are now emoting about job loss in this country.

The billionaire crowd and the CEOs whose greed and arrogance pushed our economy off the cliff, and their right-wing GOP backers, are using this ploy to try to kill the Employee Free Choice Act.

Masquerading as “EmployeeFreedom.org” and similar fronts, these folks, who claim that workers regaining their rights will cause job loss, are the same people who opposed a jobs/stimulus program.

They are the same people who are saying “no” to affordable universal health care, which would save billions of dollars and create many new jobs.

They are the same people who say “no” to caps on CEO salaries, which in one day amount to $10,000 more than the average worker makes in a year.

All the things they say “no” to would save jobs and boost the economy — including the Employee Free Choice Act.

Unions are a job-creator by giving working families more buying power.

Unions are a small business (and jobs) saver. A U.S. Small Business Administration report says small business bankruptcy rates are lower in states with high unionization rates.

The corporate bosses claim they are concerned about “democracy” and “preserving the secret ballot.”

The opposite is true. The Employee Free Choice Act would restore democratic rights put in place by the Wagner Act during the Great Depression. It removes from employers — and restores to workers — the choice of whether to form a union by majority sign-up or election.

Majority sign-up (also called card-check) was the law of the land under the Wagner Act. Corporate bosses gutted card-check via the Cold War Taft-Hartley law.

Free choice will help pull our economy out of the abyss by strengthening the labor movement and giving workers a bigger, fairer share of the wealth they produce. What could be more democratic than that?

Goodbye "trickle-down" economics

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 05:37:00 +0000

Obama budget offers ambitious change agenda

Fresh from winning passage of a $787 billion economic stimulus package, the Obama administration has outlined its $3.6 trillion budget for the coming year. Its priorities represent a sharp break with longstanding Republican “trickle down” economics, which have focused on tax cuts for the super-wealthy and corporations at the expense of people-oriented programs.

Just last year, then-President Bush presented a $3.1 trillion budget (which did not count Iraq and Afghanistan military spending) that expanded tax cuts for the rich, slashed Social Security and Medicare and racked up an additional $407 billion deficit for fiscal 2009.

In contrast, Obama’s budget invests in areas critical for economic growth that will also help struggling working and middle-class people, small businesses, family farms and students: alternative energy, health care and education.

The new administration faces an unprecedented global economic crisis and inherits a $2 trillion deficit. But its budget reflects an ambitious agenda and offers a sweeping change especially from the last eight years.

“This crisis is neither the result of a normal turn of the business cycle nor an accident of history,” Obama noted in the budget’s introduction. “We arrived at this point as a result of an era of profound irresponsibility that engulfed both private and public institutions from some of our largest companies’ executive suites to the seats of power in Washington, D.C.”

The budget marks an end to the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans (returning the tax code to pre-2001 levels for families making over $250,000 a year), an end to corporate loopholes for international transactions and a scale-back on tax breaks for oil companies.

The Obama budget foresees a total of $662.1 billion for military spending in 2009, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is almost $4 billion less than what was spent in 2008. 2010 will see only a relatively small bump of about $1 billion over 2009.

One of the most important areas of savings will come by bringing the Iraq war to an end. Obama, last week, set two timetables for withdrawal. Most U.S. troops will be pulled out by August 2010, and by the end of the following year a residual force of 35,000 to 50,000 troops will be brought home. The U.S. currently spends roughly $10 billion per month on the Iraq war.

The budget also projects savings by putting the Pentagon on a diet. In his speech to Congress earlier in the week, Obama proposed the elimination of wasteful Pentagon spending and “Cold War-era weapons programs we no longer need.”

While the short-term deficit will increase, the investments in health care, education, energy and infrastructure, along with tax fairness will, the administration argues, in the long run reduce the deficit.

All new initiatives are pay-as-you-go, Obama’s budget director Peter Orszag told the House Budget Committee.

He argued that the “path of fiscal responsibility must run directly through health care.”

The budget creates a $634 billion fund over the next 10 years to promote affordable access to health care and control the cost of skyrocketing prescription drug prices.

It does not create or promote a model for health care reform, however. Administration officials have hinted that they would like to leave those details to Congress and the legislative process.

In a teleconference with reporters, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget Rob Nabors said the $634 billion is a “significant down payment” on the biggest issue that “affects the fiscal future of this country.”

According to the new OMB blog, curbing Medicare overpayments to insurance companies ($176 billion) created under the Bush Medicare privatization plan and eliminating Bush’s tax cuts for the richest Americans and corporate tax loopholes ($300-$400 billion) will produce savings that will be shifted to the health care fund.

More money will be found by capping Social Security benefits for the wealthy ($8 billion) and eliminating tax breaks for major oil companies ($50 billion) implemented by the Bush administration.

The Alliance for Retired Americans reports that privatized Medicare Advantage plans cost between 12 percent and 19 percent more than traditional Medicare for the same services, draining the Medicare Trust Fund and hiking out-of-pocket expenses for retirees.

The ARA, labor and health care advocacy groups welcomed the “down payment” on health care reform. A statement released by the Center for American Progress praised the proposals, but added that “comprehensive reform legislation” must follow. Such legislation would need to make care affordable and available to all and “reorient the health care system so it offers quality care geared towards prevention and wellness, not just treating us when we are sick,” the progressive group urged.

Obama announced the nominations of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to the post of Health and Human Services secretary and health care expert Nancy-Ann DeParle to serve as his counselor and director of the new White House Office for Health Reform. At the same time, he released $155 million from the economic stimulus package to expand health clinics across the country.

Scientists use 'piggyback' technique for stem cells

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 02:30:00 +0000

(China Daily/AFP) Pioneering work by Japanese stem-cell researchers two years ago has taken a major step forward, helping the quest for versatile, grow-in-a-dish transplant tissue, according to papers published yesterday.

Two teams have combined ideas to devise a safer technique for reprogramming skin cells so that they become 'pluripotent' stem cells - fundamental cells that then grow into specialized organs.

Their effort builds on an award-winning breakthrough in 2007 by Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University. He and his team introduced four genes into skin cells, reprogramming them so that they became indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells.

That achievement conjured the distant vision of an almost limitless source of transplant material that would be free of controversy, as it would entail no cells derived from embryos.

But the downside of the technique for creating these so-called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) is that the genes are delivered by a 'Trojan horse' virus.

Reprogramming cells using a virus modifies their DNA in such a way that they cannot be given to patients without boosting the risk of cancer.

In the new studies, published by the journal Nature, two squads of researchers from Britain and Canada recount a method by which the four genes are delivered into the cell without using a virus - and then are removed after the reprogramming is done.

The insertion is carried out using 'piggyback', a tried-and-tested technique in genetically-modified crops in which mobile genetic sequences called transposons are slotted into the genome.

In the iPS work, it has been tested successfully on mouse and human skin cells. Tests on the reprogrammed cells lines show they faithfully reproduce the behavior of embryonic stem cells.

'I was very excited when I found stem cell-like cells in my culture dishes. Nobody, including me, thought it was really possible,' said Keisuke Kaji from the Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

In a press statement issued by Britain's Medical Research Council, Ian Wilmut - the 'father' of Dolly the cloned sheep - stressed that the new iPS cells would have to be tested thoroughly for safety before being used in any human trials.

And, 'crucially,' scientists were still hunting for a way of coaxing pluripotent cells into the specialized tissues that could be used in transplants, said Wilmut, who heads the unit where Kaji works.

Even so, 'there is hope that the promise of regenerative medicine could soon be met,' he said.

Stem cells have excited huge interest over the past decade. Promoters say this material could reverse cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's and other regenerative diseases.