People Before Profit blog

Tribute to Herb Kaye - 1917 - 2003

Fri, 30 May 2003 03:54:00 +0000

Herbert Kransdorf, long-time writer for the People’s Weekly World, died May 20, three days after his 86th birthday.

Kransdorf, born and raised in New York City, wrote under the name of Herb Kaye. He graduated from high school in 1933 at the height of the Great Depression and spent the summer in an unsuccessful search for work and, as he often said, “doing a lot of reading.”

His study and participation in mass meetings and demonstrations led Herb to join the Young Communist League, an experience he said he never regretted.

When the Communist Party asked its members to seek employment in basic industry to back up the CIO organizing drives of the ’30s, Kransdorf seized the opportunity to seek work on a merchant ship. “I always had the intention to sail on the deck [of a ship] where I could see and feel the sea and sky,” Kransdorf, ever the romantic, wrote in a brief biographical pamphlet.

The years that followed found Kransdorf walking picket lines during the 1936 strike of the National Maritime Union (NMU), raising money and recruits for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and holding forth as a street corner orator. “When I ran out of money, I’d ship out and take a suitcase of party literature with me. It’s a long time between ports so my shipmates and I had lots of time to read and talk politics.”

Herb’s seafaring life was interrupted when he was drafted in 1940 and served briefly in the army. Eventually he and hundreds of other seafarers were discharged and Kransdorf returned to his sea and ships, sailing the U-boat-infested North Atlantic. He was particularly proud that he had once sailed on the “Booker T. Washington,” commanded by Hugh Mulzac, the first African American skipper of an ocean-going vessel flying the U.S. flag.

After attending the 1945 NMU convention, Herb stayed in Baltimore where he worked as an NMU organizer and equally important, where he met the future Mrs. Kransdorf. As he told the story, he was standing in the back of the union hall when he “noticed this attractive young woman who I thought was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. I was determined to meet her.” Before the year ended the couple was married, establishing a team that was to weather the political gales for 51 years until Jean died in 1996.

And gales there were: The anti-communist witch hunts in the NMU; the McCarthyite attacks and arrests of Communist Party members; the Port Security Act under which Kransdorf and some 1,500 others were denied the right to sail; and the years-long separation from his wife and children – Joe and Annie, at the time – when Herb went “underground” to preserve the Party organization.

When the winds of reaction moderated, the Kransdorf family moved to Pittsburgh, then to Detroit and, finally, to Chicago in 1974. There, at age 57, Herb got a job in a large steel mill – a job that lasted only until the FBI caught up with him.

But all was not lost. Kransdorf became the Chicago correspondent for the PWW and headed up the Party’s work in the area’s steel mills.

Kransdorf took advantage of his new assignment to build ties with leaders of the rank and file upsurge that mounted an electoral challenge for the leadership of the Steelworkers union in 1977.

Ed Sadlowski, the movement’s presidential candidate, said Kransdorf had “unbelievable staying power. For Herb it was not a matter of agreement or disagreement, but a matter of living up to one’s principles.”

Roberta Wood, co-founder of the District 31 Women’s Caucus of the Steelworkers union remembers Herb as a person who gave himself “very generously” to rank and file union activists. “If you needed help on a grievance or resolution – go see Herb. He was always there to help and prod you to action.”

Kransdorf moved to Oakland in 1997, in part to be in touch with an ever-growing brood of grand children, the latest – Herbert James Corrigan Kransdorf – who Herb met on May 17 when both were in the hospital. (Herb was “Grandpa” to many toddlers who instinctively recognized him for the softie he was.)

One of Herb’s proudest possessions was a jacket given him when he was made an honorary member of Local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). “We gave the jacket in recognition of his support of our 2002 contract fight and because we knew he – and the People’s Weekly World – could be trusted to defend the integrity of our union meetings,” ILWU Local 10 Executive Board member Clarence Thomas said.

Juan Lopez, chair of the Communist Party’s Northern California District, said. “Although the life of Herbert Kransdorf – writer, organizer, agitator and dedicated Communist – has ended, his spirit, best illustrated by the final paragraphs of his 1999 autobiography, lives on:

“I have remained an active member and leader of the Communist Party, USA, because I believe in the validity of its basic program and theory, which I think offers the only … alternative to the bankruptcy, degeneration and corruption of the capitalist system.

“This I believe, and being now in my eighty-second year, have seen no alternative that offers any better solution to life’s woes. I reaffirm my youthful commitment … to the Communist Movement. Long may it live!”

Herb is survived by three children – Bill joined the family in 1958 – five grand children, four great grand children and two brothers.

Rosanne Cash: Youll want to hear her stories

Fri, 30 May 2003 02:45:00 +0000

Interview/Review

Rosanne Cash, a Grammy-winning singer with 11 number-one songs to her credit, is the daughter of country music legend Johnny Cash and a mother of five. In 1998 she lost her voice for two years and, when she got it back, turned around and released Rules of Travel to rave reviews.

A renowned songwriter, her prose – short stories, a children’s book, magazine articles – is just as impressive. She’s smart, friendly and outspoken.

As a member of Musicians United to Win Without War, Cash, 47, has been one of the most eloquent and consistent artists for peace. She’s a woman of substance, who doesn’t take herself too seriously.

I’ve been a Rosanne Cash fan for so long that I have all her albums – we’re talking vinyl! Recently I reconnected with her through Rules of Travel – her first recording in 10 years – as well as her public role as an activist.

Although others had also lost track of Cash in the last decade, it doesn’t bother her. “I seemed to spend my life trying to exceed people’s expectations,” she said in our phone interview.

She laughed but she’s serious. Another interviewer had just said to her: “I think you’re one of the best American songwriters ... but when I mention your name to people they say, ‘Oh yeah, wasn’t she that country star in the ’80s who’s related to Johnny Cash? What ever happened to her?’”

But, she explained, “I try not to [think about it] because if I did, that’s all I would be doing, is trying to overcome that, instead of being my authentic self.”

Cash wrote all but three of the songs (several with her husband and producer John Leventhal) on Rules of Travel and included on it are duets with Sheryl Crow, Steve Earle and Teddy Thompson – and for the first time, Johnny Cash.

“September When It Comes,” which is the father-daughter duet, is the most moving song on the CD. It’s about mortality but also “about living with what’s unresolved in your heart.” It’s personal and yet universal.

“It’s partly a mirror, that people can bring their own lives to it, hopefully,” Cash said. “I mean, isn’t that the function of all art really?”

“44 Stories” is “a woman’s song,” which Cash started writing three years ago. “In this world, the women of our generation, we’ve kind of knocked down the obstacles in front of us and grown up together in a certain way ... and somebody should hear our stories, you know? Somebody should take the time to sit in rapt attention and listen to every year of our lives, listen to all the stories, because there’s a lot of meaning there.”

Cash does have plenty of great stories to tell – including about the flood of hate mail she received for speaking out against the war in Iraq. Unlike some, though, she didn’t back down.

When I mentioned that the Dixie Chicks had begun to go on the offensive against their attackers, Cash said, “Well, it’s about time! I thought they were going to just fold under this backlash. I was going, ‘C’mon, girls.’” Her father, she has said, opposed the war “more passionately than just about anyone I know.”

On her website April 10 Cash outlined the reasons she remains opposed to the war: because “it won’t be long before the corporations ... will start dividing up the oil fields,” and that “our grandchildren and possibly great-grandchildren will be cleaning up the mess we have created” and, finally, because “we will suffer major repercussions here at home, having inflamed the entire Middle East with our ‘doctrine of pre-emption.’”

To those who would try to silence dissent, she wrote: “I am a patriot, I am a liberal, I am a peacenik and a mother and wife, an activist, a writer and singer, and a world citizen. The reason I am not afraid to say I am all these things, is because I am also an American.”

Cash is touring the country this summer. For a full schedule, go to her website, www.rosannecash.com.

The author can be reached at crummel@pww.org

Film memorializes protesters death

Fri, 30 May 2003 02:39:00 +0000

Film review

Carlo Giuliani, A Boy airs on the Sundance Channel Monday, June 2 at 9:00 p.m. ET.

Carlo Giuliani, A Boy, directed by Francesca Comencini, tells the story of the 23-year-old protester who was shot by the police during the July 2001 demonstrations against the G8 summit in Genoa, Italy.

The film won honorable mention at this month’s Tribeca Film Festival for Best Documentary Feature.

“What first gave birth to the film was the need to give counter information about Carlo Giuliani,” Comencini said. “The way he was killed and then how he was defamed I found unbearable ... I wanted to find out who this young man really was ...”

It will soon be the anniversary of Carlo’s death. Carlo Giuliani, A Boy is a fitting tribute to the complex young man and gentle poet that he was.

Censorship through omission

Fri, 30 May 2003 02:36:00 +0000

Book review

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Truth About Corporate Cons, Globalization and High-Finance Fraudsters, by Greg Palast, Penguin Plume, 372 pp., $14.00

Greg Palast, an American investigative reporter, has, in recent years, been working for British media interests: the Guardian newspapers and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). In his work, Palast has uncovered numerous closets littered with corporate and political skeletons.

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy is a compendium of his work, most of which has been printed overseas while being ignored by the U.S. corporate-owned media. He notes: “You could call this book, What You Didn’t Read in The New York Times, and What You Didn’t See on CBS.”

Palast has written a virtual smorgasbord of accounts relating how corporate wealth and influence have corrupted the political, economic, and media institutions in the U.S. Palast’s research encompasses a wide variety of topics from Bush’s war on terror to the power deregulation scandal in California, which he views as just a small part of a much larger “multi-continental war for ownership and control of $4 trillion in public utility infrastructure – gas, water, telephone, and electricity lines.”

He also examines the wholesale private takeover of public-funded services in third world countries as part of the inhumane lending requirements of the IMF and World Bank (both are U.S.-controlled).

American readers will probably be most interested in Palast’s investigation of the 2000 election in Florida. Previously, most attention had focused on the the recount process, as did the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court decision. The Palast inquiry, however, which was sponsored by BBC Newsnight, uncovered a massive purging of thousands of legal voters from Florida voting rolls in the months before the election. The book also includes reprints Palast’s articles from Salon.com and The Nation on this subject.

The state of Florida had contracted with a private company, Database Technologies, ChoicePoint, to come up with a list of voters with criminal records that could be purged from voter lists. The first list, with 8,000 names, had a 100 percent error rate – they were former Texans with misdemeanor convictions – not a disqualifying factor.

The company then developed a list of 57,700 names on two CD-ROMS that were given to Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, who sent the names to local election supervisors with orders to purge all of them. Most on the list were African Americans (Gore received 93 percent of the African-American vote in Florida). Thousands of persons did not belong on the lists. For example, one small sample of the entire list showed 325 persons with future conviction dates – e.g., a certain Thomas Cooper was convicted on January 30, 2007.

Palast’s investigators examined numerous e-mails from nervous clerks in Harris’s office who had found many persons “convicted in the future, in the next century, in the next millennium.” Republican operatives had a simple solution to that problem – blank out the conviction dates so as to not alert local election supervisors – and over 4,000 dates were blanked out.

Over all, BBC investigators estimate that Al Gore lost over 22,000 votes from the purging process, far more than the 537 vote margin by which Bush won the state. Not one single major media source in the U.S. mentioned the BBC investigation results, which were available before the Supreme Court decision.

In addition to all of this, Governor Jeb Bush’s office barred another 40,000 voters from voting – 90 percent Democrats – because they had out-of-state convictions from states that did not bar voting due to criminal records. Bush’s disenfranchising of these voters was even done in defiance of Florida court decisions. In June of 2001, The Washington Post became the only major media source to do an article on the Florida voter purge. Even ABC television, with a film-trading agreement with BBC Newsnight, ignored the story and did its own “investigation,” which covered up the purge and insulted Black voters in Florida.

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy is an indictment of corporate power and influence in the U.S. The investigative results in Palast’s work have one characteristic in common: all have gone unreported, underreported or distorted in the American commercial media.

Yes, we do have press censorship in the United States: the deliberate exclusion by the media owners of news items harmful to their class interests. Buy this book, read it, and give it to a friend!

– Al Olson (pww@pww.org)

In Tribute to Grace Cummings

Fri, 23 May 2003 03:22:00 +0000

Grace Cummings died April 29 in Waterbury, Connecticut. She was 65 years old.

For nearly 20 years Grace was a member of the Executive Board of New England’s District 1199 of the Service Employees union and a delegate to the Waterbury Central Labor Council. At the time of her death she was chair of the State Committee of the Connecticut Communist Party and a member of the National Committee of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA).

Grace was born on May 20, 1937, in Chester, S.C. The Depression years brought the family north. Her father got a job at Waterbury Tool Co. foundry where he became an active member of the Progressive Party. Her mother was one of the first Black women hired at the Scovill Brass Mill.

Recalling those years, Grace said, “I never heard any good stories about it. It was always a thumb lost, two finger ends lost. ... My mother used to say, ‘Don’t ever go to work at Scovill’s.’ So I never worked in a brass plant.” (Quotations taken from Brass Valley, ed. by J. Brecher, et al.)

For 22 years Grace worked at U.S. Rubber where, as a union activist, she helped organize a wildcat strike. “The workers got along good,” she later recalled. “They didn’t have the Black and white friction … They helped each other out. We’re in here, one common cause – unionwise.”

Grace was one of thousands left without a job in the 1970s, as hundreds of manufacturing plants closed their doors. She got a job with the State of Connecticut as a mental retardation worker at Southbury Training School, where she helped to organize the workers into Local 1199. Her tireless efforts resulted in one of the union’s strongest units.

Grace worked as hard for the union as she did on her paid job at the Training School. She could be found talking to her co-workers after hours, filing grievances, negotiating contracts, lobbying at the State Capitol, speaking at public hearings, marching in demonstrations on any given day. Her son Samuel Cummings and daughter Joy Jones are both members of Local 1199.

In the late 1980s, Grace was appointed Waterbury’s first Human Rights Commissioner. In 1987, she visited the Soviet Union with a trade union delegation and was extremely inspired and impressed. She shared stories, gifts and photos with her family and co-workers, emphasizing the rights and benefits working people achieve with socialism, and the need for world peace.

Grace retired in 1999 when her health began to give way, but she remained an active member of the Western Connecticut Labor Council where she made hundreds of phone calls from her living room during the 2000 elections.

She was determined to make her best contribution toward a better world, and gave of herself tirelessly as a leader of the Connecticut Communist Party. She loved the slogan “People before Profits,” and participated in developing policy, teaching classes, and fundraising for the People’s Weekly World.

Grace’s gentle strength touched many people deeply. In the words of one new state committee member, “Amazing Grace. What a comrade, what a woman, what a lady. She extended her modest hospitality to us without hesitation.”

Many friends and workers from Southbury Training School attended her funeral. Speaking on behalf of the 20,000 Local 1199 members in Connecticut, President Jerry Brown gave high praise to the humanity and commitment that Grace brought to the union: “It takes a special kind of person to be a mental retardation worker, to give that love all the time. Gracie was that special kind of person and that’s what she brought to the union.”

Her daughter speaks of Grace as someone with “a great personality. She was loved, respected and admired by a lot of people. She was just a wonderful person. She did all that she could for anybody who needed her. That was her thing. She worked hard and gave us the best she could.”

At their May meeting, the Western Connecticut Central Labor Council voted to establish the Grace Cummings Tireless Worker Award as an annual award to an individual trade unionist that exemplifies the kind of dedication that Grace Cummings had for the labor movement.

A memorial hosted by the Connecticut CPUSA will be held at the New Haven People’s Center later this year. Contributions in honor of Grace Cummings can be made to the People’s Weekly World.

Joelle Fishman is the district organizer of the Communist Party of Connecticut and can be reached at joellefishman@pobox.com

Institutions offer help to Baghdad Museum

Fri, 23 May 2003 03:07:00 +0000

NEW YORK – The looting of Iraq’s National Museum in the wake of the U.S. military occupation of Baghdad provoked a worldwide outcry, especially after reports that U.S. troops “looked the other way.”Assessments of the extent of the damage continue.

Speaking at a recent press conference on the looting, Dr. John Edward Curtis, of the British Museum, said that of the items on exhibit at the museum, the small, portable items had been removed for secure storage off-site. It had yet to be determined if these items were intact. Of the larger items from the exhibit, 15 were smashed, and 30 to 40 were missing. Some smashed items could possibly be reconstructed through modern conservation methods, he said.

All of the offices and administrative areas had been trashed. Paper records, computer disks and film were all over the floor, some stacked up to be burned. It is estimated that it will take several months to get these records into a usable state.

In addition, he said, it is not known how many items are missing from a storage area that contained between 100,000 to 200,000 objects. Koichiro Matsuura, director-general of the United Nations Educational and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said a team of experts arrived in the Iraqi capital on May 17 and reported that far fewer items were missing than originally thought. The team is concentrating on questions related to the theft of objects, preparation of an inventory for the Baghdad museum and an action plan aimed at restoring the principal cultural institutions of the city, in particular, at enabling museum employees to resume their activities.

There has been concern that some of the employees had supplied inside help to looters. Reports in the media spoke of unlocked doors to storage areas. However, Curtis claimed that all the doors he saw had been forcibly entered, and had nothing but praise for the competence and integrity of the museum staff. He did support the idea that there had been planning. One missing item is the largest bronze casting of its time. Curtis said the base alone weighed 350 lbs.

Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, said that there had recently been a meeting of representatives from museums around the world who resolved to make their collective knowledge available to the Iraq museum. MacGregor said that this was the first time the international museum community has come together to help an institution in this way.

Phillipe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has approached both Kofi Annan, in his role of head of UNESCO, and Karl Rove with proposals to encourage the safe return of missing items. While there is fear that items may go on the black market, the worst scenario is that items are melted down for their gold content in order to escape criminal prosecution or recover whatever monies can be gotten if found to be unsaleable. Montebello, therefore, proposed amnesty and small rewards to create incentive to return the items.

Interpol met with museum representatives in Lyon, France, May 5, in order to start compiling a photographic database of the missing items. This can be seen at www.interpol.com/Public/WorkOfArt/Iraq/Gallery.asp

While about 700 artifacts have been recovered, either by being caught at the borders or voluntarily returned, there is continued looting at sites. There are more than 10,000 archaeological sites in Iraq. Hanna A. Khaliq, general director of excavations, was quoted in The New York Times as saying, “Before the war, we had 1,600 guards protecting various sites. Now we have nothing, no cars, no people. The sites are not safe. The looting will continue.”

While there are major collections in other museums around the world, the Iraq National Museum, MacGregor told the World, was the only one to have a comprehensive representation of all the sites.

An official from the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance for postwar Iraq told the London Observer, “It’s a tragedy and disaster for our image and for rebuilding Iraq.”

The author can be reached at kmoy@pww.org

Salt of the Earth continues to inspire

Fri, 23 May 2003 03:03:00 +0000

Originally released in 1953, Salt of the Earth, a movie about a New Mexico zinc miners strike, continues to inspire, educate and help build working-class solidarity today. While the influence of Salt of the Earth in labor and trade union circles is unquestioned, it has also brought together diverse sections of the cultural and artistic world as well.

At the height of the Cold War, when House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings were a daily occurrence, a group of blacklisted Hollywood directors came together to challenge the industry’s anti-communism. They formed the Independent Productions Corporation (IPC), with Salt of the Earth as their first film.

While Hollywood was purging itself of “Communists,” the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was also purging Communist- and left-led unions. The International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (MMSW) was one of the unions purged.

In 1950 MMSW Local 890 went on strike against the Empire Zinc Corporation, demanding higher wages. “We also wanted to break the method of control, the use of the local police to break strikes and enforce segregation,” said Lorenzo Torrez, one of the strikers.

Shortly after the strike had begun, an injunction prohibited men from walking the picket lines. Women soon replaced their brothers, sons, husbands and fathers – an action of major significance, especially since corporate America had little tolerance for people of color, especially women of color, standing up for their rights.

Anita Torrez, one of the women who held the picket line, said, that professional strikebreakers were hired to “create violence,” adding that the strikebreakers “carried guns, used tear gas and attacked strikers and their wives.”

The film, troubled from the start, ran into roadblock after roadblock. Rosaura Revueltas, the lead actress, was deported to Mexico during production. The film’s director, Herbert Biberman, spent six months in jail for refusing to testify before HUAC. Several key personnel on the film were found in contempt of Congress when they refused HUAC’s badgering as well. The film crew was barred from laboratories, sound studios, and other facilities normally used by filmmakers. No Hollywood labs would process the film and the projectionist’s union refused to show it.

While the film was shot on location, with a budget of $250,000, the Hollywood Reporter claimed that the “commie” film was being made under “direct orders from the Kremlin.” California Republican Congressman Donald Jackson promised from the floor of the House of Representatives that he would do everything in his power to “prevent the showing of this Communist-made film in the theaters of America.”

Even though every attempt was made to keep the movie from being viewed, it did find a receptive audience. It won the International Grand Prize from the Academie du Cinema de Paris in 1955. During the radical upsurge of the 60s and 70s the film found an audience among America’s New Left, at labor rallies, campus film clubs, and radical art galleries.

Fifty years later Salt of the Earth continues to inspire. A special edition DVD, Salt of the Earth and The Hollywood Ten, which includes interviews with some of the miners, footage of the HUAC hearings, and information about the blacklisting of the movie, has been issued.

A CD-ROM with the movie and extra footage won the 1995 EMMA award for best Media Transfer Interactive Movie. Salt of the Earth was also the basis for an opera, “Esperanza,” which premiered in Madison, Wis., in August 2000. And recently the college of Santa Fe hosted a national conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of the production of the film, which it called “one of the most important and controversial films in American cinema history.”

According to Lorenzo Torrez, Salt of the Earth “challenged the control of the movie industry. And, unlike other movies, the heroes were the workers, focused and militant, building a strong union.”

Salt of the Earth is the story of ordinary people fighting for social and economic justice, and so much more. It is a story about racism, sexism, chauvinism, red-baiting, union busting, censorship and courage; the courage of ordinary people, workers and filmmakers, standing together in solidarity.

The author can be reached at tonypec@pww.org

Drivers license bills attack immigrants

Thu, 22 May 2003 08:15:00 +0000

News Analysis

Under the guise of fighting terrorism, a wide-ranging attack on immigrants has been launched nation wide. Spearheading this attack is state legislation denying driver’s licenses to immigrants. This emotionally charged issue has become a major battle in the current legislative session in Connecticut.

Hundreds of protesters turned out last year when the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) proposed tying eligibility for driver’s licenses to immigration status. At a public hearing in Waterbury, two busloads of immigrant workers, many members of SEIU, were barred from entering the building and sprayed with tear gas in front of television cameras.

The scandal resulted in a quickly-called, packed evening hearing at the state capitol in Hartford. A wide range of testimony, from immigrant workers to labor leaders and elected officials, argued that the DMV is not trained in complex immigration laws. They called on the State Legislature to limit the DMV’s authority to determining driver’s license eligibility on the basis of the driving test.

However, in February, under cover of an intensive state budget battle and the war on Iraq, the Legislature’s transportation committee voted to send Senate Bill 926 forward, allowing the DMV to revoke immigrants’ driver’s licenses the day their visas expire. Immigration attorneys have testified that it often takes months of paperwork before visa extensions are completed.

In response, a coalition including the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union (CCLU), United Church of Christ, Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs Commission, SEIU, ACORN and the NAACP formed to strongly oppose SB-926 and any amendments to it on the basis that “one’s immigration status bears no rational relationship to whether one is qualified to drive.”

In a statement to the Legislature they emphasized, “Instead of addressing terrorism, the restrictive measures prevent families from driving to work, school, or the doctor. This regulation change is discriminatory to non-citizens and seems to equate ‘immigrant’ with ‘terrorist.’ This is irrational, inaccurate, and morally wrong.”

As a result of the coalition’s efforts, SB-926 was killed in the Legislature’s finance committee. But the original sponsors immediately attached the language as amendments to at least four other bills now scheduled for vote.

Defeat of this effort would have special significance. Peter Gadiel of Kent, Connecticut, who lost his son on Sept. 11, has been traveling from state to state, urging laws that would limit the rights of immigrants to have driver’s licenses.

Gadiel speaks for 9/11 Families for a Secure America (FSA), which describes itself as a “multi-ethnic coalition of Americans both native born and naturalized,” but is linked to the corporate-based Coalition for a Secure Driver’s License, and is funded by the multi-million dollar anti-immigrant organization Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). FSA is mobilizing throughout the greater New York area to pressure the Connecticut Legislature.

The issue of limiting driver’s licenses for immigrants is part of FAIR’s 12-page backward legislative agenda, including such items as opposition to any amnesty programs, increase of the Border Patrol, allowing use of the military at the border, and “witholding federal reimbursement to state and local governments that do not bar illegal aliens from non-emergency programs and services.”

Addressing a recent conference on the Bill of Rights and the USA Patriot Act, John Wilhelm, international president of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union (HERE), warned against “confusing immigration issues with national security issues.” He stressed that the struggle for immigrant rights cannot be separated from the overall struggle for civil liberties.

Wilhelm has been in the forefront of the labor movement’s support for the rights of immigrant workers, who constitute one of the fastest growing sections of union members. HERE lost scores of members in the Sept. 11 attack, most of whom were new immigrants, busy at work in the early morning hours at low-wage jobs cooking and cleaning.

Wilhelm’s speech was an effective answer to FSA’s main argument, that the hijackers used driver’s licenses to buy airline tickets. “The Sept. 11 attack was not committed by immigrants,” said Wilhelm. “Sept. 11 was committed by criminals.”

He pointed out that at the time of the terrorist bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City by two native-born white males, there was no effort to discriminate against that group as a class of people.

Restricting driver’s licenses to immigrants, he said, will not deter terrorism. Rather, it will discriminate against thousands of immigrants who are an important part of our nation’s economy and well-being, and will make our roads and communities less safe.

“Repressive techniques against immigrants today will be used on everyone tomorrow,” he concluded, urging participation in the Immigrant Workers’ Freedom Ride final rally on Saturday, Oct. 4 in Flushing Meadows Park, New York.

In the name of all those who were killed on Sept. 11, native born and immigrant alike, restrictive driver’s license and other measures do a great disservice. Calls, meetings, postcards and e-mails are being organized to send that message to the State Legislature. All those who are democratic-minded are urged to make their voices heard.

Joelle Fishman is the district organizer of the Communist Party of Connecticut and can be reached at joelle.fishman@pobox.com

Texas YCL launches new website

Fri, 16 May 2003 07:12:00 +0000

The Young Communist League of Texas (TX-YCL) has recently launched a new website at www.texasycl.org. The website boasts several interactive features: users may vote in online polls, place events on the TX-YCL web calendar, and even submit articles for publishing.

Users may register with the site and create online profiles. Registered users can access several hidden features, including theme management and comments configurations. They may also post comments with their username.

Matt Parker, University of North Texas YCL club chair, stated, “The Texas YCL created the web site to facilitate better inter-organizational communication. We also needed a way for interested but cautious people to contact us.”

Since the site’s emergence on the web, it has received over 35,000 hits. The site was built using the open source content management system, “Post-Nuke.”

The Texas YCL Organizing Committee can be reached at

Music Review: Enjoy two new CDs with flair

Fri, 16 May 2003 07:07:00 +0000

“Tenderly,” Oscar Peterson with Herb Ellis & Ray Brown, Just-in-Time Records

“Tenderly” reminds us why Canadian born Oscar Peterson is considered one of the most talented jazz pianists in the world. “Tenderly” is a live recording of Peterson in concert with Herb Ellis on guitar and Ray Brown on bass in Vancouver, Canada, in 1958.

As tracks such as the upbeat “How about you” and the whimsical “My funny Valentine” demonstrate, Peterson’s compositions are elegant and cool yet never conventional.

Brown’s moaning bass sparkles, providing a marvelous form to Peterson’s piano. Ellis’s guitar work is lively and entertaining but not overwhelming.

Due to the limitations of the recording technology of the time, the CD’s sound is not as crisp as it could be, but still manages to demonstrate Peterson’s, Ellis’s and Brown’s deep reservoir of talent.

“Cover the World – World Music Versions of Classic Pop Hits,” Various Artists, Putumayo“

American and British pop songs have sunk deep

into the cultural fabric of the world. This reality hit me in the face last year when l went to a small club in Mexico City and watched, to my astonishment, a Mexican rock band perform sizzling covers of American and British heavy metal classics in Spanish and English.

Exploring this theme, “Cover the World – World Music Versions of Classic Pop Hits” is a unique compilation of famous western pop songs performed by artists across the globe.

Most of the acts on “Cover the World” do not merely deliver bland imitations of famous western pop hits but impart their own rythms.

German group Mo’ Horizon does a spirited samba-hip hop version of the Ray Charles song “Hit the Road Jack,” sung beautifully by Brazilian singer Leila Pantel. Creating a moving and moody rendition of “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)” Benin-born singer Angelique Kidjo adds funk and Afro-pop to this Jimi Hendrix classic. African trio Les Go takes the Hall and Oates classic, “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)” and artfully infuses it with an Afro-pop edge.

That said, there is material that is not up to par. Toure Kunda’s version of the Phil Collins hit “Nobel” and Desiree’s cover of Ladysmith’s “Ain’t No Sunshine” are bland and colorless. But on the whole, “Cover the World” is an engaging exploration of western pop’s impact on the rest of the world.

“– Tim Pelzer (tpelzer@sprint.ca) “

Peoples journalism

Fri, 16 May 2003 06:40:00 +0000

Grassroots Journalism: A Practical Manual for Doing the Kind of News Writing That Doesn’t Just Get People Angry, But Active – That Doesn’t Just Inform, But Inspires, by Eesha Williams, Apex Press, 185 pp., $22.95

Ever wonder if the mainstream media isn’t telling it like it is? Ever wonder if wealthy individuals and giant corporations have too much control over what we read, over what information, in what context, is printed? Ever wonder if the company that owns The New York Times is also the same company that owns USA Today and a hundred other newspapers? Well, you’re not alone!

Many of us used to think of journalism as something left to professionals, something done with objectivity and something free of special interests. Over the past few years those perceptions have changed.

And with this change of perception we have also seen an upsurge of Independent Media Centers (IMCs), community and labor publications and the forming of media associations, like the Independent Press Association (IPA), all seeking, to some degree or another, to make media more participatory and democratic, free of corporate interest.

Along with the growth of an independent media movement has come the growth of the independent, grassroots journalist. This is the subject of Eesha Williams’ Grassroots Journalism.

According to Williams the mass media has a profound effect on the everyday views and perspectives of ordinary people. It is used to shape and mold public opinion. In fact, official Bush policy is to use media to gain support for its policies, including the war in Iraq.

Grassroots journalism, contrary to corporate journalism, says Williams, is “newswriting written for ordinary working people who … are mostly affected by large-scale economic and political decisions. At its best, grassroots journalism demonstrates that readers will have a better chance of improving their own lives if they band together and fight for their common interests, than if they remain isolated ...”

Like a good manual or textbook, Williams goes into the details of grassroots journalism in chapter five, “The Nuts and Bolts of Writing a Grassroots News Story.” In that chapter Williams lays down some basic guidelines for writing news articles.

Some key points of technique are: keep it short; tell the reader in as few of words as possible why the particular article should be of interest to them; don’t use weird grammatical structures; keep to smooth transitions.

But, according to Williams, grassroots journalism is more than technique. The grassroots journalist should also convey a feeling of hope; they should give readers the historical context; and grassroots journalists should always welcome feedback.

In chapter nine, “What about the Workers?: A Look at Media Coverage of Strikes,” Williams says, “With 13 million members and a history of workplace and legislative victories … unions make up the nation’s largest active social movement.” But they, like the peace movement today, are also one of the most neglected in the media.

“When labor does receive coverage,” he adds, “the resulting news stories are almost always blatant examples of media bias.”

With a war mongering, anti-labor president sitting in the White House very little objectivity can be expected from the corporate media. So it is up to us to follow Williams’ advice and become our own grassroots journalists.

If we don’t tell it like it is, who will?

– Tony Pecinovsky (tonypec@pww.org)

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Fri, 16 May 2003 03:04:00 +0000

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McCarthyisms stench

Fri, 09 May 2003 05:32:00 +0000

Editorial

McCarthyism’s stench

The lid was pried opened this week on the Joe McCarthy archives. The files contain the transcripts of the secret proceedings conducted by Sen. Joseph McCarthy during his notorious anti-communist witch hunt in the 1950s. They were sealed for 50 years.

The files show McCarthy to be a sneering, vicious, manipulative, browbeating, and racist bully. He grilled those hauled before him about their personal beliefs and affiliations like the Grand Inquisitor. He treated them with contempt. He then dragged many into public hearings for even more intimidation and abuse.

The hearings were a part of McCarthy’s hysterical anti-communist crusade, a crusade that created fear throughout the country about alleged Communist spies in and out of government. The crusade’s real purpose, however, was quite different.

McCarthyism created an ideological fog that allowed big business to unleash a violent wave of intimidation against all militant, left-wing trade unionists and progressive community activists in the post-World War II era. It facilitated the break-up of progressive unions, weakened all unions, and undermined all forces that were struggling at the time for better wages, working conditions, and an end to racism and inequality.

McCarthyism also created an atmosphere of panic and fear among the public that facilitated the U.S. government’s waging of wars, both hot and Cold.

People’s lives were destroyed. Many lost their jobs. Families were broken up. Some people were beaten up or killed, including Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Some committed suicide, and at least one suicide note can be found among these files.

Some politicians and pundits remarked piously this week about how horrible McCarthyism was and how it can’t be allowed to happen again.

But what about Bush’s “War on Terrorism”? What about this new crusade that is being used to curtail civil liberties, to bust labor unions, to victimize immigrants and racial minorities, and to mobilize support for unending war? Isn’t this cut from the same cloth?

A foul stench indeed.

Mothers Day Proclamation

Fri, 09 May 2003 04:36:00 +0000

Each year the president issues a Mother’s Day Proclamation. The original Mother’s Day Proclamation was made in 1870. Written by Julia Ward Howe, perhaps best known today for having written the words to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” in 1862 when she was an antislavery activist, the original Proclamation was an impassioned call for peace and disarmament. In the years following the Civil War her political activism increased, as did her condemnation of war. Here are the words to the original Mother’s Day Proclamation:

“Arise then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be of water or of tears!

“Say firmly: ‘We will not have questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us reeking of carnage for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy, and patience. We women of one country will be too tender to those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own, it says “Disarm! Disarm!” The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.’

“As men have forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his time the sacred impress not of Caesar, but of God.

“In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.”

Bebel Gilberto sings

Fri, 09 May 2003 04:31:00 +0000

Music review:

Bebel Gilberto sings

De Tarde, Vendo O Mar, The Sound of Brazil (Evolver)

Bebel Gilberto fans will find this new re-release a real gem. Long before her smash hit debut CD “Tanto Tiempo,” Gilberto appeared on “De Tarde, Vendo O Mar” as lead vocalist, recorded in 1991 in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. However, this CD was unavailable in North America until recently.

In “De Tarde, Vendo O Mar”, producer Neil Oda successfully readapts famous Japanese pop star/songwriter Yumi Matsutoya’s songs to a Bossa Nova beat. The music, serene, cool and sophisticated, is imbued with a lingering Japanese pop sensibility that adds a pleasant edge to it.

Proving herself a worthy interpretator of Matsutoya’s songs, Gilberto’s delivery is delicate, sensual and beautiful, like ripples flowing across a tranquil lake. Songs such as “De Tarde, Vendo O Mar,” “Amor Unilateral,” “Feche Os Olhos,” “No Escuro Do Quarto” and “Quando O Ceu Nao Estava Azul” are gorgeous, breezy bossas. It is no wonder that Gilberto is considered one of Rio De Janeiro’s top singers.

– Tim Pelzer (tpelzer@sprint.ca)

King Coal: Revisited

Fri, 09 May 2003 04:26:00 +0000

BOOK REVIEW

Coal: A Human History, By Barbara Freese, Perseus Publishing, 308 pages

Coal is an absorbing and well-written book. Most of us don’t think of coal as a mover and shaker of history. This is not the story of the coal robber barons, but the story of how coal shaped masses of people’s lives. It is a story of coal developing modern industrial society – its impact on coal miners and the millions who use coal to keep warm, to cook and to bathe. It is very much in the “people’s history” vein popularized by Howard Zinn.

Interestingly enough the book concentrates on three countries with huge coal deposits – Britain, the United States, and China. The inclusion of China helps round out things by dealing with coal in a developing country. Tracing coal’s role in China also reveals some things out of the ordinary history for most Americans. (PWW readers in particular will be intrigued by Barbara Freese’s take on Frederick Engels and the writing of the Communist Manifesto.)

Many know the key role the Miners Union played in developing militant industrial unionism in Britain and the U.S., for example. But many of us have probably never stopped to consider why it is that the workers from that particular industry should have been so centrally placed in the early labor movement. Freese shows that the miners were strategically placed because of the role that coal played in making steam energy effective for both railroads and mass production energy needs. These in turn were central developments in creating modern industrial production. Coal then became the main energy source for vast industrial expansion and development.

The author spent time in China, visiting mines and talking to coal miners and officials in researching the book and it shows. She presents a fair and balanced view of the problems and the accomplishments in China built around coal.

She also tells some history of China long neglected and forgotten outside of China. China was the first country to develop a vast coal and iron industry. In the eleventh century China boasted blast furnaces, owned by private industrialists, employing hundreds of thousands of coal miners and iron furnace workers, producing thousands of tons of cheap iron a year. While Europe was still in the Dark Ages, China’s famed Northern Song dynasty flourished around it’s iron industry. Its capital was Kaifeng, a “multi-functional” metropolis of close to a million people.

Coal is also a basic primer on coal’s big drawback as an energy source: air pollution and greenhouse gases. She covers a wide range of coal burning’s negative impact on people and our environment, from acid rain, to cancers, to mercury poisoning of children. There is a lot of basic science in the book. If anything she seems determined that if she should err, she err on the side of conservative estimates of the dangers. Never-theless, she raises alarm at the Bush administration’s backwards steps in supporting the coal industry and weakening environmental standards. She is critical of Bush’s refusal to ratify the Kyoto Treaty on global warming. She is very understanding of developing nations’ problems and maintains that a global solution that binds all nations is essential.

Regrettably Freese’s last “what is to be done” chapter is quite weak. She appears stuck on finding a “free market” solution with deregulation as a major tool. Unfortunately she seems to think that deregulation is a way to break up monopoly control of the energy industries. She does, however, promote the search for renewable technologies and energy sources.

I really wish the author had included an extra chapter on how she came to write Coal. The dust jacket blurb notes, “An Assistant Attorney General of Minnesota for more than 12 years, Barbara Freese helped enforce her state’s air pollution laws and along the way became fascinated by coal and the larger story behind the smoke.” What a great story it must be, going from an important legal career to a “sustained obsession over a single topic.”

– Scott Marshall (scott@rednet.org)

Extended unemployment benefits to expire May 31

Fri, 09 May 2003 03:24:00 +0000

Sad to say, the fact that the official unemployment rate jumped from 5.8 percent in March to 6.0 percent in April is not the most troubling statistic in the Labor Department’s April unemployment report. Even more troubling is the fact that nearly 22 percent – some 1.9 million – of unemployed workers have been without a job for at least 26 weeks.

Nor is that the end of trouble: The Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) program that provides up to 13 weeks of extended benefits to workers who exhaust their state benefits, is set to expire on May 31. Unless Congress acts, and acts soon, unemployed workers who exhaust their state benefits after that date will be up the proverbial creek.

A study by Economy.com, an independent financial research group, found that each dollar dedicated to extending the TEUC program would boost the economy by $1.73 while the same dollar connected with reducing the taxation of dividends would boost the economy by just nine cents.

The urgency of the situation is underlined by a recent report by the Center for Budget Policy and Priorities showing that six key labor market indicators are worse now than when the TEUC program was enacted in March 2002 and extended in January 2003.

* The official count of the unemployed (8.79 million) is at the highest level in nearly a decade.

* The number of jobs is at the lowest level in 41 months; that is, at a lower point than at any other time during the current slowdown.

* The rate at which people are exhausting their regular unemployment benefits before they find a new job is at its highest level since data was first collected in 1973.

* The official count of unemployed rose to 8.79 million in April – up by 570,000 from March 2002, and the highest number since July 1993.

* In April the number of payroll jobs fell for the third straight month, hitting its lowest level since November 1999.

* Not only has employment fallen since the TEUC program was enacted, it is now 2.1 million below its level when the downturn began.

“For the last two years, stubbornly high long term unemployment has been the most consistent feature of the weak economy. Workers continue to bear the brunt of the prolonged slowdown, as the clock runs out on their unemployment benefits,” said Maurice Emsellem, Director of Public Policy at the National Employment Law Project (NELP).

According to Emsellem, there are 580,000 more long-term unemployed Americans than when Congress passed TEUC. Since then, he said, the program has helped more than 4.6 million get by in the persistently beleaguered labor market and that over 2.8 million workers have completely run out of federal jobless benefits.

Critics of the present program point to the fact that during the last recession when President George H.W. Bush was in office, the TEUC program provided 26 weeks of extended benefits, with workers in many states receiving 33 weeks. “With long-term unemployment now just as severe as it was during the last recession the 13 weeks of benefits available today are just not enough,” a statement issued by NELP says.

“The time has come for Congress and the President to expand the current program to provide no less in aid than what was available during the previous recession.” Emsellem and others point out that the federal unemployment trust funds currently have a $21 billon surplus and thus it would cost no additional money to extend the TEUC program.

The National Employment Law Project has launched a new initiative calling attention to plight of the long-term jobless with its “Laid Off & Left Out” initiative. Results of an NELP survey of unemployed can be viewed at www.unemployedworkers.org.

The author can be reached at fgab708@aol.com

Texas House takes aim at worker benefits

Fri, 09 May 2003 03:13:00 +0000

AUSTIN – When the Texas House of Representatives passed HB 2292 on April 25, the stark vision of what compassionate conservatism looks like came more sharply into focus: fewer social services that are more difficult for working people to gain access to, wholesale privatization of these services, and the loss of thousands of public service jobs.

House Bill 2292, which claims to be a government re-organization bill aimed at streamlining government and reducing costs, is actually a huge government giveaway to corporations that finance the campaigns of Texas’s right-wingers. It also represents an unprecedented downsizing of the state’s threadbare social safety net.

As passed by the House, the bill consolidates the eligibility determination function of a number of diverse programs. Eligibility for food stamps, long-term nursing home care, Temporary Aid to Needy Families, Supplemental Security Income, Medicaid, and other programs would all be overseen by the Eligibility Services Division of the Health and Human Services Commission.

Consolidating the diverse programs will make it easier to privatize the process of eligibility determination, a favorite goal of the right-wingers since George W. Bush was governor. The bill contains a section directing the commissioner to privatize these services.

Consolidation and privatization of eligibility services will make them more difficult to access and will hurt working-class and poor communities, especially those in rural areas. Eligibility offices would be closed and replaced with phone centers, with no face-to-face interaction between applicants and eligibility workers. Instead, applicants will talk to phone center operators who will be under tremendous pressure to make the calls as short as possible.

Jobs will be lost too. In some rural areas these eligibility office jobs are among the few with health insurance and pension benefits.

If all this isn’t bad enough, the bill will make deep cuts in the Children’s Health Insurance Program and will require Medicaid applicants to be fingerprinted in order to be eligible.

Advocates for social services and the Texas State Employee Union fought hard to defeat passage in the House, but to no avail. Their attention now turns to the Senate. Their success will depend on how well they can mobilize a mass movement against the bill.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org

Support the World/Mundo

Fri, 09 May 2003 02:02:00 +0000

During these difficult times of war, rising poverty and inequality, and attacks on basic hard-won democratic rights, the independent press – a press independent of the monopoly corporate and far right wing control – is a key part of struggling for a better society. And the People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo makes its contribution every week – bringing the stories of regular, everyday people working together to make the world a better place, often times against all odds.

Our newspaper is run with a small staff and a lot of dedicated volunteers around the country and needs to always expand the number of supporters, especially more distributors and financial contributors.

Sign up today to become a “World builder” – in your neighborhood or on the internet. We need you, because the struggle is big and everyone is needed. Fill out the subscription form below and write across it – “World builder.”

Anti-war actors get apology from Hall of Fame

Wed, 07 May 2003 07:32:00 +0000

After 28,000 people protested, Dale Petroskey, head of the Baseball Hall Of Fame, apologized for his cancellation of a celebration marking the 25th anniversary of Bull Durham.

The event was originally scheduled for this weekend to commemorate the baseball movie’s release, with Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon appearing at the showing in Cooperstown, N.Y. In early April, the two actors, who both had roles in the film, were notified that the event had been cancelled, due to their vocal stand against the Iraq war. The notification letter they received contained Petroskey’s idea that their anti-war comments “ultimately could put our troops in danger.”

Petroskey’s actions were immediately met with phone calls, faxes and e-mails to the Hall of Fame, protesting his move. In addition, author Roger Kahn, whose Boys of Summer is considered among the best baseball books ever, called off his scheduled August appearance to speak at the Hall in protest.

Petroskey claimed his concern was over “politicizing” baseball, though he himself has a very political background. Petroskey was a White House assistant press secretary under Ronald Reagan. Last year, he invited Ari Fleischer, President Bush’s press secretary, to give a non-baseball speech at the Hall.

In a release promoting Fleisher’s visit, Petroskey wrote: “We are thrilled to welcome him to Cooperstown and hear his perspective on life in the White House and the current political scene which, of course, includes the war on terrorism.”

In a letter responding to Petroskey’s original letter, Robbins and Sarandon expressed their outrage over his hypocritcal act. “You belong with the cowards and ideologues in a hall of infamy and shame,” they wrote.

“It’s interesting that we’re liberating Iraq and trying to give that country a democracy,” Sarandon said in an interview. “But in America, some would try to silence those who hold opposing views.”

In interviews, Robbins has said that they had planned on avoiding political remarks at the event. On April 15, in a speech at the National Press Club, he joked about Petroskey’s fears, saying, “I had originally been asked here to talk about the war and our current political situation, but I have instead chosen to hijack this opportunity and talk about baseball and show business.”

“I love the Hall of Fame and I love baseball,” Robbins said. “Our two boys wanted to tour the Hall, and visit the baseball card and memorabilia shops. It’s such a wonderful atmosphere. We wanted to watch the movie again, and reminisce. I didn’t want to talk about war and politics. I wanted to talk about baseball. It’s a beautiful film about a beautiful game.”

Petroskey’s letter of apology, in which he said, “I inadvertently did exactly what I was trying to avoid,” was released April 18. There was no word on any plans to reschedule the event.

“I appreciate Petroskey’s non-apology apology and his realization of the perils of paper trails,” Robbins said in a statement.

Robbins also noted that the debate over the action can be seen as a positive coming out of the flap. “Because Petroskey’s actions resulted in a bipartisan, nationwide affirmation of free speech and the First Amendment, he has inadvertently done us all a favor.”