Connecticut readers honor newsmakers
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — “The people can win” was the theme of this year’s May Day celebration here, held a week early on April 24 to allow for the participation of New Haven activists in the huge May 1 march in New York City against nuclear weapons and the war in Iraq.
Unity is heart and soul of labor power
Not since the dismal Cold War days of the 1950s has labor been under such attack from capital in our country. Capitalist globalization is pressing hard on labor from all sides. The far right, with control of both the Congress and the White House, sees its best opportunity in decades to greatly weaken labor. The Department of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board have been turned into total tools of big business, abandoning even the appearance of neutrality and impartiality. click here for Spanish text
Pensions hijacked: Bankruptcy scam rips off 119,000 United workers
CHICAGO — “You might see me coming down the aisle 20 years from now with my walker,” said flight attendant Melissa Madden. Faced with the slashing of their pensions to the tune of $6.6 billion, she and other United Airlines flight attendants here warn that if United gets away with using bankruptcy to dump its pension obligations, the nation’s entire defined-benefit pension system — and the futures of the 44 million workers it covers — could come tumbling down. Retirement for American workers could become a thing of the past. click here for related story
A dangerous precedent...
Refuse a medical procedure or undergo one? Matters of life or death. These are difficult, painful and deeply personal issues, which individuals and families confront daily. Who makes such stressful decisions? If not the individual, then the closest family member empowered by law? Or should it be the U.S. Congress?
800 towns and cities say: Enough!
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Cindy Sheehan, a founding member of Gold Star Parents for Peace, moved many to tears as she told 4,800 antiwar protesters here March 19 about the death in Iraq of her son, Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, last April 4.
Bushs working retirement: Work till you drop
“First there was the working lunch, then the working vacation. Now, thanks to George Bush, we are threatened with the working retirement.” That’s the opening of a dramatic new television ad from Moveon.org, opposing the administration’s plans to cut future Social Security benefits by up to 46 percent. You can see the ad at www.moveon.org. It shows senior citizens loading industrial washing machines, carrying heavy cartons, mopping floors in a hospital, and cleaning up a construction site. You can also see the reality in communities across the country.
Sinn Fein leader meets with NYC transit workers
NEW YORK — Gerry Adams, member of parliament from Northern Ireland and the president of Sinn Fein, the political party of the Irish republican movement, addressed a capacity crowd of trade unionists and guests at a local union hall here March 14. Having been escorted into the hall by the kilted pipers of Transit Workers Union Local 100’s “Transit Pride” band, Adams was greeted by a thunderous ovation.
Students hungry for justice for campus workers
WASHINGTON — Georgetown University is the new battleground for social justice in our nation. Twenty-two student activists, members of the Living Wage Coalition, took the heroic step of declaring a hunger strike here March 15. They vowed to continue their protest until the university president, John DeGioia, agrees to a “living wage” for all workers on campus.
Grassroots defense of Social Security deepens
Bush got a rocky welcome to Denver, March 21, in the 17th stop on his 60-city, election-style campaign to sell the privatization of Social Security.
Ex-soldier says he was asked to kill Haitian leader
Anel Belizaire, an ex-soldier in Haiti who recently escaped from the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince, says that someone from interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue’s office asked him last month to murder fellow inmate Yvon Neptune. Neptune is the deposed prime minister who served under exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. He has been jailed for nearly a year without trial.
