People Before Profit blog

Puerto Ricans chart progressive agenda

Fri, 28 May 2004 02:57:00 +0000

BRONX, N.Y. – More than 250 Puerto Rican activists and leaders met here “to discuss the state of our communities” and to begin the development of a “progressive political agenda” for Puerto Ricans in 2004. The Boricua Roundtable met at Hostos Community College on May 21-22.

A major theme of the meeting was mobilizing the Puerto Rican vote against the ultra-right in the White House and in Congress.

New York State Assemblyman José Rivera said, “We are not going to let them rob us of another election” nor let the Supreme Court “impose” a president. “We have every intention of rescuing the White House,” he said.

The three Puerto Rican members of Congress – Reps. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.), Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) and José Serrano (D-N.Y.) – participated in a panel on key issues facing Puerto Ricans today.

Rep. Gutiérrez blasted the Bush administration’s war policies, urging the participants to discuss opposing the war in Iraq and “its impact on our community.”

“We don’t want to die in a declared or undeclared war started by a president that wasn’t elected by the people,” he said.

Gutiérrez also called on the activists to work in solidarity with all Latin Americans, including recent immigrants, as a way of affirming “our Puerto Rican-ness.”

Rep. Velázquez said the disparities in Bush’s economic policies shows the U.S. is at war not only in Iraq, but also “against the poor.”

“They need to cut Medicare and Medicaid to finance the war,” she said, noting that 44 million people have no medical insurance, “half of them Black or Latinos.” She stressed the need to fight on working-class issues, declaring, “When I fight for working families, I fight for Puerto Ricans.”

Velázquez didn’t let her own party off the hook, saying it was important to make sure that “John Kerry embraces the Puerto Rican agenda.” She publicly demanded that the Kerry campaign put a Puerto Rican or Latino deputy at its top levels to better articulate and advocate for Latino issues.

She called on everyone present to organize the Puerto Rican vote to defeat Bush, noting there are sizable populations of voting-age Puerto Ricans in key states like Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio and Arizona.

Rep. Serrano suggested organizing “freedom rides” to Orlando, Fla., to register Puerto Rican voters. The Puerto Rican population in Florida has almost doubled from 1990 to 2000, according to the U.S. Census, and much of that growth is centered in the Orlando area. Florida is now the state with the second highest Puerto Rican population in the country after New York.

Angelo Falcón, senior policy executive of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF), noted that demographic changes in Florida will “offset the conservative Cuban vote and gives the Puerto Rican vote a greater national significance.”

José García, also from PRLDEF, unveiled plans to form a progressive “Encuentro eMagazine” on the Internet that would have a Latino perspective based on the Puerto Rican experience. In a criticism of some political leaders, he called on those present to “retake the name of progressive agenda and movement” to once again have “politics of community, instead of politics of self-aggrandizement.”

Ida Castro, chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under Clinton, spoke about the strength and resiliency of Puerto Ricans, reminding people that “For 100 years they have tried to make us something we are not” through assimilation into the American nation. The rejection by Puerto Ricans of the term “Puerto Rican-American” is evidence of their self-awareness of being a separate nation.

Addressing concerns of some progressives about Kerry, Castro said, “Puerto Ricans must participate to change his thinking later.”

José López, executive director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center in Chicago, described registering Latino voters in his city based on two issues – support for Rep. Gutiérrez’ bill in favor of undocumented immigrants, and demanding the U.S. Navy clean up the toxins left over from more than 60 years of live ammunition bombing practices on the Puerto Rican island-municipality of Vieques.

The meeting adopted a resolution denouncing the war in Iraq and another demanding the U.S. Navy clean up and reconstruct Vieques.

The Boricua Roundtable ended with the singing of the anti-imperialist version of the Puerto Rican national anthem – La Borinqueña.

The author can be reached at j.a.cruz@comcast.net.click here for Spanish text

National Clips

Fri, 21 May 2004 02:43:00 +0000

PARKERSBURG, W.Va.: Hundreds protest Bush visit

The largest and loudest contingent lining the street in front of Parkersburg South High School, May 13, was made up of workers led by state AFL-CIO President Jim Bowen. “No more Bush” and “Keep our jobs at home,” roared union members who joined in the chants to end the Iraq war and for protection of the environment. Dump Bush demonstrators numbered over 500, according to police. Bush was in town to deliver a speech on education and to pick up campaign checks.

A “pig-mobile” rolled along among the enthusiastic demonstrators. Three blubbery, grunting, bright pink fiberglass pigs of three different sizes made up the pig-mobile. The largest showed the cost of Bush’s attack on Iraq, $200 billion; a much smaller pig depicted federal spending on education, $34 billion; and the tiniest pig of all displayed federal money going to reducing world hunger and poverty, $10 billion.

World War II veteran Ray Harbert said that there needed to be a “wee, wee piglet” to dramatize Bush’s spending to take care of veterans.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: 450,000 say ‘clean up toxic mercury’

After the Bush administration decided to relax mercury regulations and delay an environmental clean-up at power plants, a storm of protest broke out. By April 30, more than 450,000 U.S. residents contacted the administration demanding that regulations be strengthened and that the clean-up begin.

Mercury has been linked to learning disorders in children. It is so toxic that 45 states have warned the public not to eat fish from contaminated rivers and streams, especially around coal-fired power plants.

“Who will the Bush administration listen to this time?” asked Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club. “An unprecedented number of Americans, or corporate polluters? We already know that polluting industries had a hand in writing the administration’s mercury plan. It’s time for the Bush administration to start protecting families and communities instead of polluters.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky.: School desegregation success story

Fifty years after the historic Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision that reversed the Jim Crow principle of “separate but equal,” most of the country’s schools remain as segregated as ever, if not more so, except in Kentucky.

The Harvard Civil Rights Project released a study showing that the most integrated schools in the U.S. are in Kentucky. The reason is that Jefferson County (Louisville) remained true to the original desegregation plan. Student achievement rose and racial understanding improved. Jefferson County is “one of the districts where it has really worked,” said researcher Chungmei Lee.

In 1974, as a result of suits initiated by African American parents, the Louisville School District dissolved, merging with Jefferson County’s. U.S. District Judge James Gordon ordered busing to achieve a 50-50 racial balance in all of the county’s 180 schools.

A 2000 survey of Jefferson County high school juniors found that more than 90 percent of students were comfortable working with people of other races and school district officials report that the “achievement gap” between Black and white students has significantly narrowed.

MIAMI: Bush/Ashcroft prosecuting Greenpeace

On May 17, federal prosecutors opened their case against Greenpeace, an international environmental group, invoking a law that has only been used twice in its 132-year existence. Greenpeace could be punished with five years probation and a $20,000 fine.

“Never has anything like this been done,” said American Civil Liberties Union attorney Maria Kayanan, who is helping in the group’s defense. “It’s particularly suspect in light of the mission of Greenpeace.” The case is viewed as an attempt to silence political dissent and is being closely watched.

In April 2002, six Greenpeace activists boarded the APL Jade, a ship that was allegedly carrying illegal mahogany to Miami, and unfurled a protest banner. They were arrested and served a weekend in jail. Fifteen months later, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft indicted the entire organization.

National Clips are compiled by Denise Winebrenner Edwards (dwinebr696@aol.com). Jeanne Clark and Julia Lutsky contributed to this week’s clips.

MoveOn.org hits the streets

Fri, 21 May 2004 02:25:00 +0000

Tens of thousands of Americans joined the voter rolls May 8 as Internet activists moved off their computers and onto the streets. MoveOn.org joined with a coalition of grassroots groups to mobilize 7,500 people to knock on doors to register voters. The same afternoon, 1,000 phone-banking parties generated more than 300,000 calls to swing state voters. Organizers called this a “staggering and wholly unprecedented feat.”

According to MoveOn.org, in Philadelphia, a huge crowd gathered to see speakers before fanning out across the city to register voters. From Seattle, Wash., to Lewiston, Maine, and 90 cities in between – including sites in all 17 of the key “battleground” states – MoveOn members talked to neighbors and registered voters.

Organizers say they plan to build a field campaign that will help MoveOn members across the country register and mobilize voters every day between now and Nov. 2. They cite studies showing that person-to-person contact is much more important in convincing someone to vote than advertising.

In an Internet message after the event, a participant in Philadelphia reported his experience: “A woman sitting with her two sons in a barber shop wasn’t interested in registering,” he wrote. “I talked about her sons’ future, the policies that affected their education, their potential military service when they get older. Nothing worked. Then the barber got on her. ‘Why aren’t you registered? What’s wrong with you? This is our community!’ That did it. She registered and promised to vote. Biggest success.”

The event’s organizers say that it’s good news for democracy that after decades of TV-driven campaigning, “people are beginning to talk to each other again about the issues that affect us all.” They conclude, “the power of our time and energy really is greater than Bush’s hundreds of millions of dollars.”

The author can be reached at rwood@pww.org.

Historic day arrives for same-sex couples

Fri, 21 May 2004 02:21:00 +0000

BOSTON – Wiping away tears of joy, Carolyn and Joy Beaulieu stood on the lawn in front of Cambridge’s City Hall while a justice of the peace pronounced them spouses for life, May 17. The Beaulieus were among the more than 1,000 couples who rushed to city halls and courthouses across the Bay State to apply for the first legal marriage licenses for same-sex couples in the U.S.

Some couples expressed concern that if they didn’t have the wedding right away, they might not have the opportunity again anytime soon, due to legal maneuvers by conservative groups at the state and federal level.

On Sunday, May 16, supporters gathered in front of Cambridge’s City Hall for a party leading up to the first license application. At 12:01 a.m., Marcia Hams and Susan Shepherd filed their application. City Hall remained open until 4:30 a.m. taking applications, and reopened later Monday morning for a steady stream of applicants throughout the day. As couples came out with their small slip of paper from the Clerk’s office, the crowd cheered, threw rice and blew bubbles.

In the course of the day, all seven couples who had brought the landmark case against the Massachusetts Department of Public Health were married.

Maureen Brodoff and Ellen Wade, two of the plaintiffs, were married in a service in the mayor’s office in nearby Newton. Prior to a wedding party organized by Newton Gay and Lesbian Parents and attended by hundreds, the couple stood on the steps of Newton City Hall with their daughter Kate, 12.

In a connection drawn by many, Brodoff spoke of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, which had been delivered 50 years earlier to the day.

“As you all know, it was a seminal moment in the struggle for civil rights,” she said. “Last November the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued its decision in the Goodridge case, and that also marked a new stage in the struggle for civil rights here and across the country.”

Brodoff added, “It’s my hope that all of us gathered here will commit ourselves to struggle for civil rights for all people, not just gay and lesbian people, but all people who are struggling for their civil rights and across the country and around the world.”

Wade spoke of the importance of legal marriage to same-sex couples.

“We have spent much of the last three years talking to anybody who would listen to us about our lives, about why civil marriage is so important, about the 1,425 benefits and privileges that marriage provides to couples and their families, how, as we age, we need those legal rights in place to make sure we can care for each other,” she said. “Today, as important as all of that is, it is secondary to the joy and the love of this moment.”

A number of clergy were present at Boston’s City Hall plaza, some to perform marriage ceremonies, some to lend their support as part of the crowd. Several people held signs proclaiming that they were Catholics who support gay marriage.

Susanne Bernstein brought her children, Sarah, 1, and Sam, 3, to be part of the day’s events. “I want to support gay marriage and I wanted my kids to be here for this important day,” she told the World. “I think it’s important for heterosexual couples to support gay marriage, too.”

While a small number of opponents protested the joyous day, the large crowd was almost entirely in support of those coming out of Boston City Hall. Approximately 30 protesters prayed, while one conservative group called for the removal of the four justices who had made the day possible in the Goodridge decision. This sentiment was echoed in a statement by President Bush who said, “The sacred institution of marriage should not be redefined by a few activist judges.” The statement also reiterated his call for a federal amendment banning same-sex marriage.

The author can be reached at jbarnett@pww.org.click here for Spanish text

Bushs hidden attack on public education

Fri, 14 May 2004 05:06:00 +0000

PHILADELPHIA – This year marks the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education – a historic civil rights legal case that declared Jim Crow segregated schools for African American children were a violation of the Constitution. This 1954 Supreme Court decision and the civil rights movement helped to revolutionize public education in a more democratic direction.

Fifty years later public schools face severe assault from forces of privatization, profiteering, racism and state funding formulas that help to maintain “separate and unequal” status for schools with a majority of Black, Latino and low-income families.

But no policy has helped to undermine public education more than the No Child Left Behind law (NCLB).

NCLB is the Bush administration’s national policy for education “reform.” The law is the underpinning for changing the public education system in every state. Initially bipartisan, its effects are being debated throughout the nation with a growing chorus of opponents – Democrats, independents as well as Republicans.

Two years after President George W. Bush signed NCLB and promised billions of dollars for education reform, critics of the law are calling it an “unfunded mandate” and a setup for failure that will lead to the dismantling of public education and to governmental support of private and parochial schools.

Ironically, NCLB is a reauthorization of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) passed in 1965 as the result of pressure from the civil rights movement for equal access to education for African Americans. ESEA’s Title I provided funding for special programs and support for poor children.

NCLB has formally retained the concept of the federal government’s financial responsibility and guiding role for education. For example, it mandates that the “achievement gap” – the gap between wealthy and poor students, between white and Black, between students proficient in English and those who are not, and between regular students and special education students – be closed by 2012.

NCLB mandates that 100 percent of all students in the United States be proficient in reading, mathematics and science by 2012. It also mandates that a highly qualified teacher be in every classroom by 2005 and that the rate of attendance and the high school graduation rate reach 95 percent or above.

Most Americans would support these goals. The question is, “How do we accomplish them?” It’s here where NCLB comes up short.

Under NCLB, the Department of Education requires every state to submit a plan with yearly goals and a timeline showing how it will reach the goals by 2012. The Department of Education can accept or reject the plan. The schools in each state are expected to reach the yearly goals set forth in the state plan, called Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).

Standardized tests are the only means of assessment. Federal funding is tied to AYP. However, all school districts, schools and students do not start at the same level of proficiency. How, then, can all students be expected to reach a common level at a certain time? The rate of improvement should be the primary consideration, but it is not even a factor.

In U.S. schools today, an enormous amount of money and time is devoted to testing, record-keeping and reporting. Teachers are forced to teach in a way that will help their students pass standardized tests and, therefore, make “adequate yearly progress.” If they don’t pass, then the teacher, the students and the entire school will be labeled a failure. This is NCLB’s way of holding educators “accountable.”

Because family income is the factor most related to academic achievement, school districts with large numbers of poor students will always be penalized under NCLB rules. The law says students who need help must be given after-school tutoring by the state, but the funding for this has been cut drastically.

The strange reality is that every state’s plan is different and every state’s reporting system is different. One school district can be labeled a failure while another is labeled a success, even though students in both districts are academically performing at the same levels. Schools are not credited for the improvement they make from one year to the next. Special education students and students who are not proficient in English must take the same tests that all the other students take. Secretary of Education Rod Paige has promised to make changes in this area, but even with those changes, the requirements are too rigid.

Another strange feature of NCLB is the absence of mandates for proven methods of education reform, such as smaller class size and comprehensive preschool education. Smaller schools with smaller classes provide a better learning environment for students. Smaller schools are safer because the staff personally knows every student in the school.

Funding is not provided for building new schools, nor is there adequate funding of preschool programs. Get Set (a comprehensive preschool program for low-income 3- and 4-year-olds) and Head Start (for 5-year-olds) were very successful in the 1960s and 1970s, helping to close the education achievement gap between the haves and the have-nots.

During the last two decades, however, political ideology has changed the focus of education reform from solving the problems caused by poverty and racial discrimination to setting formal benchmarks and demanding educator accountability.

Fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, NCLB has raised the standards/accountability focus to a higher level, and has established severe sanctions for failure, but evades coming to terms with the chronic inequities in an educational system beleaguered by class and racial injustice.

Schools that meet yearly goals and make AYP are classified as “successful.” If a school fails to meet its yearly goals and does not make adequate yearly progress, then that school receives a warning and is placed on one of the lists of failing schools – the “needs improvement” list. If a school fails to make AYP a second year it is placed on the “troubled” schools list and the school district is required to send a letter to the parents of each student informing them that the school has failed to make adequate progress and that they may apply for a transfer to a successful school in the district. It does not matter if there are not enough spaces in successful schools for all the students in the failing schools.

Paige has said, “Lack of space is not a reason for denying students entrance to successful schools.” When asked if students could be transferred from failing city schools to successful suburban schools, Paige said it was a possibility if the two school districts could work it out.

If a school fails to make AYP for five years, the school may be closed or restructured, which means the staff is fired and new staff is hired. Or the school may be turned into a charter school and become a separate entity from the school district. Another alternative would be privatization. A private educational management organization (EMO) could be hired to run the school.

Bush has declared that he wants Congress to pass a national voucher bill. At a conference of parochial school educators, Bush promised to work “as hard as I can” to get a voucher bill passed to help students have a “choice.” He was talking about helping parochial school students, not students in the failing schools.

At the end of the 2002-03 school year, large numbers of school districts and schools were labeled failures. Florida had 87 percent of its schools on a failing list. More than 52 percent of Pennsylvania’s schools failed to make AYP. In Delaware, 10 out of 12 districts were labeled failing. Even schools formerly noted for academic excellence were sanctioned if their special education students did poorly on standardized tests, which they should never have been forced to take in the first place.

The morale in thousands of schools has declined because of the publicity surrounding their failing status. There is a rebellion growing in the state legislatures against NCLB, which demands much but doesn’t provide the funds to do the job.

President Bush promised to make education reform a priority during his administration, but the cuts to the education budget for 2005 are huge. Funding for NCLB is $9.4 billion less than what Congress authorized. In the 2002-03 school year only one-third of Title I students, the very neediest, were served. Some 38 programs that serve at-risk, poor students are being eliminated. Among them are Early Start, a preschool program; drop-out prevention; drug abuse prevention; training programs for new teachers and paraprofessionals; grants to reduce class size; money for technology and media services; and money for additional counselors.

Vocational education will be cut by $316 million. Special education funding was increased but it will be only 50 percent of what is needed. Child care block grants to the states for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families remain frozen, which means many mothers in “welfare to work” programs will not have quality child care. Higher education has also been cut. Pell Grants are frozen at $4,050 maximum, 33 percent of the average college cost. An estimated 170,000 eligible needy students did not attend college this year because of lack of funds.

Even before the recent cuts, National Education Association President Reginald Weaver called NCLB the granddaddy of all under-funded federal mandates. The Ohio Legislature conducted a study to find out how much it would cost to implement NCLB. Ohio would need an additional $1.4 billion per year.

As seen by his budget, education is not a Bush administration priority. Its priorities are war, homeland security and tax cuts for the rich and the corporations. In spite of the cuts to the NCLB budget, Congress passed a $50 million “Choice Incentives Fund” and doubled funding for charter schools.

To see where NCLB is heading, we need only look at Bush’s Department of Education. Secretary Paige was the superintendent of the Houston Independent School District when Bush was governor of Texas. He was praised by Bush for the district’s apparent progress in spite of severe cuts to the school budget. Yet studies show that, under Paige, Houston high schools had among the highest dropout rates in the nation. Paige, an African American, used his education background and the language of the civil rights movement to assist Bush in getting NCLB passed in Congress. He recently slipped up and called the National Educational Association “terrorists.”

Deputy Secretary of Education Eugene Hickok, who seems to hold the real power in the department, headed the Pennsylvania Department of Education when Tom Ridge was governor. Together they planned the state takeover of the Philadelphia schools with the intention of hiring Edison Schools, Inc., to manage the entire district. Because of protests, only 40 schools were privatized, but Philadelphia schools have become the experiment for NCLB sanctions. The lowest performing schools have been reconstituted, privatized and turned into charter schools, yet the students in these schools are performing no better than similar students in regular public schools.

Hickok has been a longtime advocate of vouchers but was unable to get a voucher bill passed in Pennsylvania. He oversees the multimillion-dollar discretionary fund for his department. This budget was increased in spite of budget cuts. Hickok uses these funds as grants to right-wing organizations supporting vouchers and privatization.

From 2001 to 2003, $77.76 million was given to the following groups: Education Leaders Council, National Council on Teacher Quality, Center for Education Reform, K12 (co-founded by William Bennett, Reagan’s secretary of education), Greater Educational Opportunities Foundation, Hispanic Council for Reform and Education Options, and Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO). By diverting tax dollars allocated for public education to organizations that support private schools, vouchers and privatization of public schools, while underfunding NCLB, the Bush administration is setting up public schools to fail.

How can we expect the U.S. Department of Education to work diligently to improve education for all students when its leadership does not believe in public education?

Richard Riley, secretary of education under President Bill Clinton, has pointed out that there has been much progress in education in the last two decades. Twenty percent more students graduated from high school in 2002 than in 1982. The increase was greatest for African American and Latino students. In 1979, about 49 percent of high school graduates went to college but 63 percent went to college in 2000.

Public school students score higher in math and science than do private school students. Twice as many students are taking advanced math and science classes. “The real improvement has come from the states,” said Riley.

Still, the National Urban League’s report, “The State of Black America,” says the gap between poor Blacks and “middle class” Blacks is widening at an alarming rate. Unemployment in the Black community is more than twice that of the national average. The cuts in the NCLB budget eliminate or cut educational programs for all poor children. The ones who have the least need the most in order to close the gaps in achievement.

NCLB needs many changes. The first change should be full funding for quality education for all students. There cannot be democracy without an educated citizenry.

Rosita Johnson is a retired teacher and an activist in the struggle to save public education in Philadelphia. She can be reached at phillyrose1@earthlink.net.

Privatization a mortal threat to humanity

Fri, 14 May 2004 04:44:00 +0000

In his 2004 State of the Union address, President Bush defended the Republican Party’s fundamental aims when it comes to health care: privatization and profit.

Bush said, “A government-run health care system is the wrong prescription. By keeping costs under control, expanding access, and helping more Americans afford coverage, we will preserve the system of private medicine that makes America’s health care the best in the world.”

Never mind that over 43 million people in the U.S. lack any health insurance, and if it were not for Medicare, Medicaid, publicly-owned county hospitals, VA hospitals, and other government-run services, millions would lack any health care whatsoever. Yet these are the very programs in Bush’s crosshairs.

Bush’s hostility to anything that even hints of publicly-financed or socialized health care delivery is driven by two forces: greed and right-wing ideology.

On the greed side, Bush’s moves to privatize the multi-billion-dollar Medicare program, for example, keep the insurance companies, the for-profit health care providers, and the pharmaceutical giants happy, and guarantee their continuing contributions to GOP campaign coffers.

On the ideological side, Bush’s attack on publicly-funded health care programs reflects the GOP’s more general attack on all government programs that benefit working people. It was Grover Norquist, an ideological guru of the Reaganite revolution, who said, “My goal is to cut government in half in 25 years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”

Needless to say, Norquist wasn’t talking about slashing the Pentagon’s budget or trimming government handouts to big corporations. He was taking aim at programs like welfare, Medicare and Social Security.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern European socialist countries – along with their free, socialized health care services – in the early 1990s emboldened these right-wing ideologues and has spurred their war on all public services in the U.S. and elsewhere.

However, it is instructive to look at the actual result of the changeover from socialist to capitalist health care. One word describes that result: catastrophe.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal (Feb. 13) sheds light on Russia’s health. Soviet health care, once free and of good quality, has been replaced by a barely-funded Russian health care setup that is failing the vast majority. Only the newly rich, who can afford to buy insurance and private health services, have anything close to adequate care.

The article quotes a Russian physician, Galina Zuikova: “Earlier [meaning during the Soviet period], women who gave birth were healthy, but now every other woman has some sort of pathology.” Zuikova said heightened stress, unemployment and poor nutrition have contributed to an increase in hypertension, kidney disease and infections for her patients. Newborns are at much greater risk.

Living standards for Russia’s workers and farmers have sharply dropped under capitalism, and health problems have correspondingly skyrocketed. The article says that national health care spending is falling, Russians are dying younger and birth rates are declining.

Other studies have noted the re-emergence in the former USSR of epidemics of antique diseases like diphtheria, polio, typhoid, cholera, and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. In 2000, UNICEF declared Russia was undergoing “a societal crisis of unexpected proportions and unknown implications.” The average life expectancy for Russian males, for example, has plummeted from 64 years in 1990 to 58.5 years today, the lowest in the developed world.

The WSJ article states, “Every year nearly a million more Russians die than are born” – an astounding population decline for any industrial or near-industrial country. An earlier WSJ article (Feb. 4) says that demographic experts predict Russia’s population will drop by an incredible 30 percent over the next decades.

Conditions in the other former Soviet republics are much, much worse, leading to a surge of emigration to already problem-wracked Russia.

The fight to preserve publicly owned national health services and systems is being fought on all continents. The Bush administration with its IMF and WTO surrogates is demanding that governments privatize their health systems, even though the evidence points to the disastrous consequences of doing so.

Defeating this drive to privatize health care is literally a matter of life and death.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org.

National Clips

Fri, 14 May 2004 03:42:00 +0000

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.: Vote stealers are at it again

The infamous Florida Board of Elections, now an agency under control of President Bush’s brother Jeb, Florida’s governor, ordered 40,000 potential voters purged from the registration rolls, May 6. The reason, says Jenny Nash, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Glenda Hood who administers elections, is that it is mandatory under state law. Unlike many states, Florida disenfranchises people who have served time in jail.

On the eve of the 2000 election, where Bush “won” Florida, then-Secretary of State Kathleen Harris presided over the often arbitrary purging of 173,000 voters from the rolls, many of them in predominantly Democratic and African American counties.

SOUTH LIVINGSTON, Texas: State to execute mentally ill man

Letters, e-mails and faxes from around Texas, the country and the world are pouring into Gov. Rick Perry’s office demanding a halt to the execution of Kelsey Patterson scheduled for May 17. Patterson is so disabled he does not know he is about to be killed.

Patterson was convicted in 1992 for the murders of Louis Oates and Dorothy Harris.

In 1981, Patterson was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and since then has been bounced around the Texas mental health system. Fifth Circuit Court Judge Fortunato Benavides blames the tragedy firmly on the state’s mental health system and cuts by the Legislature, which resulted in Patterson being placed back onto the streets. In fact, just two days before the murders, Patterson’s brother tried to have him committed to a state mental hospital.

The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and other groups are pressuring the governor to stay the execution. For more information, visit www.ncadp.org.

DAYTON, Tenn.: First ‘Gay Day’ celebration

“If you can do it in Dayton, you can do it everywhere,” said a smiling Bob Kunst, 61, as he set up his stand selling anti-Bush bumper stickers and buttons. There is a history in this town of 6,800. In the 1920s it was the site of the famous Scopes Trial, challenging a law outlawing the teaching of evolution in the public schools.

Nearly 80 years later, over 400 rallied, May 8, fighting for tolerance and safety for gays and lesbians in Rhea County. “This is the buckle of the Bible Belt,” said Kunst.

In March 2004, the eight county commissioners voted unanimously to outlaw homosexuality. A public firestorm broke out and two days later they reversed their decision.

“I thought we were fighting for freedom,” said Gulf War II veteran Chris Cruz, who is gay, “but people are still being suppressed.”

Ilaeka Villa is circulating a petition calling for an apology from the commissioners and their resignation. She has garnered 175 signatures in two weeks. “It’s not a large number,” she said, “but in a county where people are really fearful about putting their name in print, I am really heartened.”

PITTSBURGH: Steel city a civil liberties zone

Pressure came from the cops and from U.S. District Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, but the City Council voted 9-0, April 26, to oppose provisions of the Bush administration’s Patriot Act and a variety of executive orders. The unanimous vote resulted from a year-long lobbying effort.

Pittsburgh joins 310 states, counties and municipalities, representing over 51 million people, which have protested the assault on civil liberties.

EAST CHICAGO, Ind.: Steelworkers may strike to save jobs

Steel corporations are making profits, and tariffs and the price hike has sweetened their take. Steelworkers at Ispat Inland here believe that since they all made all the sacrifices to keep the industry rolling, they have earned job security and a host of other improvements in the standard of living for their families. The contract between the union and the company expires in July.

In a statement released May 3, local union officers from the three USWA locals at Ispat Inland outlined steelworker’s demands, with health care and job security ranking high on the agenda. Union officers said that they will make every effort to reach an agreement with Ispat Inland, but if the company adopts a “take it or leave it” attitude, steelworkers might consider striking to achieve their just due.

WASHINGTON: Moms march to ban assault guns

While families across the country celebrated Mother’s Day, originally a day calling for peace in the world, an estimated 2,500 moms prayed, rallied and marched on the Capitol to control gun violence in the United States.

This year’s march (the first was held four years ago) demanded a ban on assault weapons, a background check and five-day waiting period to purchase firearms. Marchers also called for companies to be held legally liable for mayhem committed with their products. Guns have been involved in the deaths of 120,000 people, 13,000 of them children or teens, in the last four years.

National Clips are compiled by Denise Winebrenner Edwards (dwinebr696@aol.com). Julia Lutsky contributed to this week’s clips.

Health illiteracy a serious threat

Fri, 07 May 2004 04:34:00 +0000

How many times have you heard, “Once they start talking about health care, after a few sentences, my eyes glaze over”? That is one kind of illiteracy in health care. That one is largely voluntary, in that the issues surrounding health policy can be complicated and difficult to understand. And sometimes health policy people are not as clear as they should be.

However, for 90 million Americans – just about half of all adults – who cannot understand the simplest health-related problem, their “health illiteracy” could actually kill or disable them for life. A new study by the prestigious Institute of Medicine (IOM) has determined that such illiteracy is no joke.

Doctor-patient relationship

The IOM cited the case of a woman who misread the instructions for an oral antibiotic. She tried to insert the liquid into her kid’s ear, rather than have her kid swallow it. A male patient thought that he was being diagnosed as being “hyper, can’t sit still,” when he was actually being diagnosed as having hypertension. Sounds a little crazy, but it isn’t. In cases involving children, these mistakes are too often blamed on the mother. The IOM isn’t doing that.

The report cites many studies that show that patients with limited literacy are more likely to be hospitalized, have poor health habits and are less likely to use preventive services.

Patient-insurance carrier relationship

The IOM did not report on the almost impossible task that everyone has in understanding his or her insurance policy. For people with limited literacy, the problem becomes even greater. When right-wing health ideologues talk about the importance of choices for patients to make, as if that was more democratic, what they are actually doing is introducing more impossible alternatives to choose from. It is truly a phony use of the term “democracy” that only serves the profit goals of insurance carriers and drug companies.

Unfortunately, even some liberal politicians fall into this trap. For example, the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, which is heralded as a truly democratic insurance program, is so complicated that anyone can be confused by the options, let alone people who are suffering from this kind of illiteracy.

National health policy

Promoters of even progressive national health legislative proposals are also confronted with “the glazed eyes syndrome.” Practically every person, regardless of their political stripe, uses the terms “universal” and “high quality” to describe their ideas. Striking back against health illiteracy is a good place to start.

IOM recommendations

The IOM report recommends four steps to address such problems:

• The federal government must pay for research on ways to improve health literacy. As simple as that sounds, this kind of education program would strike at the greedy hearts of corporate executives now making billions off of the illiteracy rampant in our country.

• Organizations that accredit medical, public heath and health related schools must require those schools to follow national health education standards, from elementary schools through college. This is a very important recommendation and would reestablish the federal government as the leading political body on health care.

• Health organizations and medical-public health schools should teach health literacy and how to communicate with patients. If this is taken seriously, then teaching methods must be developed with those who will be receiving the education, e.g., community and labor groups.

• Federal Medicare, Medicaid, and other health groups should develop creative ways to communicate clear health information. It would be totally naïve to think that those who profit and benefit from the illiteracy in the health system, that is, the insurance carriers and drug companies, would honestly conduct this kind of program. The federal government must promulgate and directly fund community based and labor programs that will be able to fight against being ripped off by these interests.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org.

CALIFORNIA Health care bill under fire

Fri, 07 May 2004 04:27:00 +0000

The health care crisis faced by California’s workers has legislators and even some businesses seeking a solution.

Nearly 7 million Californians are uninsured – 80 percent of them from working families. The passage of SB 2, “Health Care for Working Families,” initiated by state Sen. John Burton and signed into law by then-Gov. Gray Davis last year, was a historic victory for labor. That took place, however, before October’s recall vote, in which Davis, a Democrat, was replaced by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Now, with Schwarzenegger’s encouragement, the California Chamber of Commerce has joined with the retailer, restaurant, taxpayer and business property associations in a coalition, Californians against Government Run Healthcare, to overturn the bill. Their paid petitioners collected enough signatures to put an anti-SB 2 initiative on the ballot. Though the measure did not appear on the March primary ballot because a Superior Court judge ruled the petitions had misled voters and violated state election law, that ruling was overturned by the First District Court of Appeals, and the referendum will appear on the November ballot.

The California Labor Federation is making the upholding of SB 2 a major element in its campaign activity this year. The CLF says that the loss of SB 2 “would give businesses in California and across the nation the confidence to continue attacking and repealing health care for working families at bargaining tables across the country.”

If implemented, SB 2 would offer coverage for some 1 to 1.5 million workers and family members over the next two to three years. The employer would pay at least 80 percent of premiums, and possibly 100 percent. Low-wage workers would pay no more than 5 percent of their wages for coverage. The state would also set limits on total co-pays and deductibles. Collective bargaining agreements would be exempt from SB 2.

Single workers now pay an average of $3,000 a year, and workers with families as much as $8,000 – a situation that’s becoming unaffordable for workers and many small businesses. The average employer covered under SB 2 would face increased costs of only 0.2 percent of overall operating costs, while the state of California would save $620 million to $900 million per year in costs paid out.

Another piece of legislation, SB 921, authored by state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, would provide a much-needed single-payer program for all Californians. The only other state to have implemented such a measure was Hawaii in 1974. Some 400 organizations have already endorsed the bill now going through the State Assembly Health Committee. Among those opposing both SB 2 and SB 921 are such notable retailers as Wal-Mart and fast-food chains like McDonalds that don’t provide any health coverage for workers.

For more information on SB 2, see www.calaborfed.org, and SB 921, see www.sb921campaign.org.

The author can be reached at kelsdrumr@webtv.net.

National Clips

Fri, 07 May 2004 03:45:00 +0000

ATLANTA: Court of public opinion frees Marcus Dixon

Victories are few and far between, which made the pictures of Marcus Dixon, 19, walking out of prison, May 3, all the more beautiful.

In a 4-3 decision, the Georgia Supreme Court overturned the child molestation conviction of the young African American scholar/athlete. A lower court in Dixon’s hometown of Rome had sentenced him to 15 years in prison last year, stemming from an incident that involved consensual sex with a young white woman.

A national movement led by Dixon’s guardians, Ken and Peri Jones, who are white, and Rev. Terrell Shields of the Rome NAACP, organized rallies in Atlanta and Rome, letter-writing and fundraising events and an Internet petition drive, which garnered over 186,000 signatures.

“I’m thankful to be out,” Dixon told a crowd of supporters who greeted him with cheers and tears. “I’m thankful to all the people who helped me. And I’m just glad to be home.”

More information: www.act4justice.com.

WOODVILLE, Miss.: Land dispute = lynching?

In the southwest corner of Mississippi, near the Louisiana border, lies this tiny hamlet, hometown of U.S. slavery’s president, Jefferson Davis, who led the Confederate States of America over 140 years ago. On April 24, the body of Washington State resident Roy Veal, 55, an African American, was discovered by two hunters. He was hanging from a tree, a hood over his head.

Veal had returned to the family home to resolve a suit filed by a white man over ownership of the 40 acres where Veal’s mother, 79, still lives.

“It’s awful,” Veal’s sister, Doris Gordon, told the Associated Press. “We don’t know who did it. There are people trying to take part of our land because they apparently think there is oil on the land.” There is oil production in the area.

An autopsy has been ordered to determine the cause of death.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Harassment of U.S. Muslims skyrockets

In a report released at the National Press Club, May 4, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said that attacks, verbal or physical, against Muslims nearly doubled in 2003. The Council received 1,019 reports from U.S. Muslims of verbal or physical harassment, discrimination at work and racial profiling by law enforcement. In 2002, that number was 602.

The Council pointed to rhetoric that demeaned Islam and portrayed Muslims as the enemy in the wake of Bush’s Iraq War as a contributing cause of the dramatic increase.

LEBANON, Tenn.: Racism around the Cracker Barrel

African American diners and workers forced the Justice Department (DOJ) to act on a pattern of racist acts by Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, a chain of 497 restaurants headquartered here. Based on evidence from African Americans from over 50 of the restaurants, mostly in seven southern states, the DOJ filed suit against Cracker Barrel. Rather than face public embarrassment and lengthy litigation, Cracker Barrel settled. The chain agreed to a six-point program of affirmative action, in both service and employee relations. Suits involving money are still outstanding.

One Black waitress in Mississippi told the DOJ that white waitresses would pay her $3 if she would wait on their African American customers. A Black patron testified that when he complained to Cracker Barrel management that white customers received better treatment, he was told to go to Burger King.

Attorney Heidi Doerhoff, who represented plaintiffs from Arkansas and Mississippi, said, “It’s shocking that something like this still happens 40 years after the passage of civil rights legislation.”

KALAMAZOO, Mich.: Workers, peace activists line I-94 to protest Bush

In a picket line stretching along Interstate 94, workers and residents in this Republican stronghold demanded jobs and an end to the Iraq War, as George W. Bush arrived for a scripted campaign stop at Wings Stadium.

Inside, Bush declared the economy alive and well in Michigan, although the state has the third worst economy in the country, having lost over 200,000 jobs since Bush seized office.

Hundreds of workers used the padlocked 2.2 million square foot General Motors plant to make their statement on Bush’s performance. The plant once provided jobs for 3,000 families. “Look at the jobs that left and look at the ones that are coming in,” said auto worker Doug Waggoner. “McDonald’s jobs ain’t gonna fill that up.”

National Clips are compiled by Denise Winebrenner Edwards (dwinebr696@aol.com). Terrie Albano, Mark Almberg and Julia Lutsky contributed to this week’s clips.

Fight for voter paper trail heats up

Fri, 07 May 2004 03:31:00 +0000

CLEVELAND – Ohio voters are becoming increasingly concerned about the security of some of the new electronic voting machines (EVMs), especially those manufactured by the Diebold company. The CEO of Diebold is a heavy contributor to the Bush-Cheney campaign who has vowed to do all in his power to carry Ohio for Bush.

Democratic State Sen. Teresa Fedor and State Rep. Peter Ujvagi are leading a campaign to demand a voter-verified paper trail for all EVMs in Ohio. U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) strongly supports the campaign.

About 125 people attended a public awareness meeting April 23 called by the Greater Cleveland Voter Registration Coalition. At the meeting, State Sen. Fedor called upon those in attendance to pressure their state legislators to support a bill she has introduced, SB 262, which would require a voter-verifiable paper record of each vote cast. A petition campaign has been launched in support of the bill, which states that such a paper trail is the only way to assure a true recount in cases in which fraud or human or machine error are suspected.

Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell has been pressuring all Ohio counties to purchase EVMs now from vendors chosen by Blackwell’s office, even though many security problems exist with those machines. About one-third of the counties have complied with Blackwell’s request. Others are on hold.

Cleveland is in Cuyahoga County, one of the state’s largest, which has not yet purchased its machines. County Board of Elections Director Michael Vu said at the public meeting that his office would wait to assess the use of EVMs elsewhere in the November elections before introducing such machines in Cuyahoga County. A joint bipartisan committee has been set up in the state Legislature to consider the matter.

Millions of dollars in contracts are at stake. Diebold, one of the leading contenders for such contracts, was recently decertified in California because of gross inaccuracies in election results in that state when Diebold machines were used. California election officials also ruled that no voting machines that lack a verifiable paper trail will be permitted in the state.

“What’s the rush?” Fedor demanded to know at the meeting. According to Kaptur, the state has until 2006 to comply with the requirements of HAVA (Help America Vote Act) that all states use electronic voting machines.

The demand for a voter-verifiable paper trail in Ohio is part of a growing national movement. Many states have already experienced serious inaccuracies and flaws in EVMs, which in some cases have changed the outcome of elections.

“How can we be sure our vote is counted, and counted accurately,” people in the Cleveland audience asked, “if there is no paper trail and no possibility of a recount? Are we going to see what happened in Florida in 2000 all over again?”

Fedor told the audience, “We must be able to verify the results of any vote.” She said, “Not blind trust, but ‘trust, and verify’ should be our slogan.”

In Washington, Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) has introduced the Voter Confidence and Increased Accountability Act (HR 2239) to require all voting machines to provide a paper trail and to mandate surprise recounts and software that can be audited. Sens. Bob Graham and Bill Nelson, both Democrats of Florida, have introduced companion legislation in the Senate. Common Cause and an online group, VerifiedVoting.org, have launched a grassroots movement in support of the Rush-Graham legislation. The critical issue is to insure that the election process is in the hands of public officials fully accountable to the people and that the process of counting the votes is transparent.

More information on the potential errors and fraud linked with electronic voting machines is available at www.BlackBoxVoting.org.