People Before Profit blog

LETTERS

Fri, 25 May 2007 06:35:00 +0000

There goes another plant

Sometimes when you watch working people being mauled, degraded and blamed for everything from bad luck to bad weather, you have to ask yourself: when is enough enough?

Well, the owners of Hamilton Specialty Bar got a fleeting sample on May 4. These offshore vulture capitalists, bottom feeders who took possession of the old Slaters Steel plant in Hamilton, hung a sign over the door announcing “A New Beginning.” They promptly began chiseling wages and working conditions, only to get bitten in the ankle by the members of Local 4752, United Steelworkers. These 320 workers have accommodated more than trivial concessions over the last three years but guess what — the beast wants more.

The plant is scheduled to close on May 29, but the company decided to cut retiree benefits, stop vacation payments, and other nice little goodies just to get the party started early.

On May 4, the local president, Bill Baker, in a carefully planned move, initiated a plant occupation/sit-in that lasted several hours. There were close to a hundred supporters outside, including Ontario Federation of Labor President Wayne Samuelson and Steelworkers Ontario Director Wayne Fraser.

The sit-in ended when the union was able to negotiate retiree benefits, vacation pay and unpaid wages until May 29 when the plant closes. After that?

Meantime the last producer of stainless steel in Canada is going, going, gone. Liberal Premier McGuinty was in Hamilton that day but refused an invitation to talk with the workers. Tory Party leader John Tory wasn’t in Hamilton, but showed his concern by announcing that when he is elected he will punish people who break the law with illegal occupations. He coupled this attack by including the Six Nations and the Steelworkers in the same threat. Good company, brothers and sisters.

The departure of our last stainless steel producer apparently is of no interest to McGuinty or Tory. Free trade, neoliberal agenda, de-industrialism.... Perhaps our brothers and sisters in the Third World should get ready for the inclusion of a rather large land mass with a moderate population.

Sam Hammond Ontario, Canada

End the travel ban

I read Sonja de Vries’ interesting report (PWW 4/21-27) on the travel of the “Wallace Brigade” to Cuba in opposition to the Cuban travel ban, and wondered why the legislative efforts, demonstration efforts, letter-writing efforts to end that damnable ban on travel to Cuba do not have a litigation component invoked in the current context.

Currently there exists a favorable climate consisting in part of:

1. Substantial segment of Congress opposed to the ban.

2. Governors and businessmen of several farming states opposed to the ban.

3. Catholic Church opposed to the travel ban. (True to the extent that the public pronouncements of the Bishop of Orlando, Fla., expresses the sentiment of the church.)

4. South Florida Cuban American division on the travel ban according to reported opinion polls.

Wide participation in the litigation is possible:

A. Attendance at court hearings on the litigation, open to all.

B. Amicus briefs circulated for signatures (format similar to the Stockholm Peace Petition) and capable of being filed with the clerk of the court by any organization (church, union local, individuals, etc.), open to all.

C. Discussions within legal associations and law schools.

L.W. Holt Via e-mail

Iranians bike for peace

I noticed today that you had a story about two Iranians back in 2002 who were traveling the world on their bike to bring a message of peace to people around the world.

I wanted to let you know about another group of Iranians who are on another peace campaign trip.

They are going on a bike tour around Western Europe and intend to arrive in America as long as they get a visa.

During this journey, which began on May 10 from Rome, the group called “Miles For Peace” will travel city-by-city across four European countries (Italy, France, Germany and the UK) and the United States to communicate the pacifist message of Iranian people to other nations around the world.

The cyclists will also offer a handmade emblem of “Miles for Peace” as a symbol of friendship on behalf Iranian people, to the mayors of the host cities as elected representatives of European and American people.

They have an active web site, www.milesforpeace.org, with full info about their plans, their manifesto and more.

They gain moral support more than anything else, by encouraging people to sign up in their site and to host their banner.

We thought your site would be one of the best places to promote them and let their voice be heard to American people.

S. Shayan Via e-mail

Take note

Just ran across this in a “tabloid book” entitled “I Am Everyone I Meet” by James P. White:

“Last night, riding in a taxi from the airport to my apartment, I began a conversation with the driver. He had lived in Moscow during the Communist period. He told me how beautiful Moscow was, of the simplicity and pleasure of not having to buy an apartment (and Moscow is all apartments, he said), of having health and dental care paid for. He looked back on the Communist period as delightful, then spoke of the super-rich building multimillion dollar homes outside the city now. He spoke of the financial inequality that made him leave Russia. I had never heard anyone praise the communist system and was not sure what I thought of what he said. But his nostalgia was real and the way he looked back on his experience touched me. He couldn’t afford to buy an apartment or a house in L.A., so he thought of the Russia he had left.”

Betty Smith New York NY

Labor/equality alliance lives

Fri, 25 May 2007 06:32:00 +0000

It is appropriate that Chicago, where the fight for the 8-hour day began so dramatically at Haymarket Square 120 years ago, is the site of this year’s Coalition of Black Trade Unionists convention.

Chicago is also the city where Black meatpackers, who had been systematically excluded from white unions, unionized under the CIO in the 1930s, and signed up many thousands of members. The all-white craft unions were floundering under attack from the bosses. The Black workers together with many Poles, Mexicans and Lithuanians founded the United Packinghouse Workers Union, electing many African Americans to leadership. They began unified, multiracial collective bargaining for the first time. This was of enormous benefit to the entire working class.

The Packinghouse union was among the first to respond to the lynching of Emmett Till. The union not only helped to buy groceries for the family but also organized an anti-lynching speaking tour for Emmett’s mother, Mamie. The Till fightback ignited the modern civil rights movement. This movement ushered in democratic rights that benefit all working-class people.

It also led to the 1983 election of Charles Hayes, former Packinghouse (United Food and Commercial Workers) union vice president, to Congress. Hayes filled the seat vacated by Harold Washington when he was elected Chicago’s first Black mayor.

Washington’s election drew on many from the civil rights and labor movements, along with younger Mexican American and progressive white activists, and overwhelming support in the African America community, fed-up with the racist and “business as usual” politics of the Daley machine.

This year, the labor, civil rights and immigrant rights movements joined hands in Chicago’s city elections, and as a result helped elect, among others, five new African American women, four of them from union backgrounds, now sit on the City Council. A living wage for Wal-Mart and other Big Box retail workers was a key issue.

The united struggle of labor and the African American people has propelled all working families and communities forward.

Today the CBTU gathers in Chicago with the announced goal of dismantling the corporate and Bush agenda. CBTU is an essential component in reversing this agenda and forging a new civil rights revolution.

Black unionists urge new social contract

Fri, 25 May 2007 05:33:00 +0000

CHICAGO — Dismantling of the corporate agenda is the big mission that the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) took on as it opened its 36th International Convention here May 23 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. The convention runs through May 28.

Invited guests include Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

The gathering takes place at a time when “never before in U.S. history has an actual decline in the economic fortunes of workers across the board been so clearly the deliberate, planned result of public policies,” said Glen Ford, executive editor of the Black Agenda Report.

“The crisis for working and unemployed Americans is general and unremitting — a steadily downward path to absolute insecurity — precisely because those are the conditions sought by the rich who control the U.S. government,” Ford said, adding, “The corporate agenda requires, not just the breaking of the unions, but the shattering of morale in society as a whole, to render the populace timid, tame and grateful for whatever breaks, good luck or corporate favor might bring.”

“For Black workers, the Bush regime’s six-year blitzkrieg ... against the last vestiges of the social contract is not a totally unfamiliar experience — African Americans have never been more than partially covered by the U.S. social contract, which has at any rate always been tissue thin and non-binding on the rich,” he said.

Statements made last week by William Lucy, a founder and president of the CBTU and secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), conveyed a sense of urgency about the current political landscape.

The main enemy is “the social, political and economic philosophy shared by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the rich, and the administration that represents their interests,” Lucy declared.

“This corporate agenda results in the average CEO earning more money on his first day on the job than the average worker makes in a year — an agenda backed to the hilt by a government that strangles the ability of employees and society as a whole from fighting back against such outrageous economic inequalities,” he said.

Lucy added, “This same corporate agenda has produced stagnant or declining incomes, double-digit unemployment for Blacks, a crisis in home foreclosures and bankruptcies, the return of rising crime and poverty rates, and prohibitive college tuitions.”

Lucy said that the labor movement has no choice but to demand a new social contract based on “essential core principles”: “Anyone who wants to work should have a job; anyone who does work should be able to live in dignity with health care and retirement security for their family; every worker should have the opportunity to form a union and bargain collectively; all workers should share equitably in the prosperity of a strong American economy.”

jwojcik @pww.org

NATIONAL CLIPS

Fri, 25 May 2007 04:43:00 +0000

PORTLAND, Maine: Impeach Bush/Cheney drive gets boost

The Woodfords Club is not a smoke-filled room. Opened in 1913, the quaint picture postcard New England private club hosted a May 19 rally of over 200 calling for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

“Whether this can happen or not, it can drive discourse,” said Dud Hendrick, founding member of maineimpeach.org. Hundreds of supporters will deliver an impeachment petition with 11,000 signatures to the Maine Legislature on May 29.

The campaign joins similar grassroots actions in 10 other states where the legislatures have debated measures calling on Congress to begin impeachment proceedings. In Vermont, the state Senate and dozens of towns approved similar resolutions.

Maine Speaker of the House Glenn Cummings attended the Portland meeting and said that legislative action was unlikely because it would strain relations between Republicans and Democrats, slowing down action on other issues. Cummings met with New Hampshire and Vermont house speakers to discuss how they as leaders of their legislatures can express their disapproval of Bush.

“Support for impeachment is growing nationally and is now the mainstream sentiment within our party,” said Tim Carpenter, director of Progressive Democrats of America. “Our message to Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill is that impeachment is not a distraction. It’s not vengeful. It’s the only way to preserve the Constitution in the face of a White House that views itself as above the law.”

LOS ANGELES: Jewish Americans petition to end Iraq war

Launched on the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war, Jews Against the War released a petition with 1,000 signatures calling on Congress to end the war. Over 250 rabbis, educators and Jewish professionals signed the petition representing every major expression of the faith including Orthodox, Conservative and Reform. Organizers of the initiative hope to galvanize the Jewish American “silent” antiwar majority. Recent polling by Gallup revealed that while 52 percent of Americans oppose the Iraq war, 77 percent of Jewish Americans oppose it and believe it was a mistake.

“The outpouring of support we’ve received from Jewish religious leaders of every major denomination is unprecedented on an issue as traditionally divisive to our community as war with an Arab nation,” said Rabbi Shaul Magid. “This response has strengthened our resolve and validated our belief that a silent Jewish majority that was waiting, ready and eager to speak out is emerging. We join together and speak as one: end this disastrous war and bring our troops home.”

An excerpt from the petition reads, “We believe it is the moral responsibility of the current administration to end this war! We ask that Congress set hard and fast limits on the ability of the President to expand this war or to extend it further in a military action against Iran.”

The group continues to gather signatures at their web site, www.jewsagainstthewar.org, as well as organize “out of Iraq” teach-ins and place antiwar ads in Jewish publications.

ENDICOTT, N.Y.: IBM workers fight outsourcing

Holding a picket sign or stopping work for 15 minutes is uncharted waters for long-term high-tech workers at IBM facilities across the country, but members of Alliance@IBM/Communications Workers of America (CWA), a union organizing group, have had enough. Thousands of IBM workers stopped work at 3 p.m., Eastern time, for 15 minutes on May 15, protesting Big Blue shipping their jobs to other countries. In the name of increasing profits, IBM recently shipped out 1,300 jobs and more pink slips are expected.

IBM workers in Italy joined their U.S. counterparts in the work stoppage.

The 15-minute stoppage is part of an effort organized by the Alliance with the help of the CWA to save jobs. On May 11, Tom Midgley, a 23-year IBM veteran, was on the informational picket line in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. “We’ve got to take some kind of action.” Public visibility is one step, he said, holding his picket sign.

Praising the courage of IBM workers, Lee Conrad, Alliance leader and former Big Blue worker said, “This is kind of unique. It is new territory for most IBM employees.”

National Clips are compiled by Denise Winebrenner Edwards (dwinebr696 @aol.com).

LETTERS

Fri, 18 May 2007 05:52:00 +0000

Explaining true cost of the war by Jason Smith, Venice CA

I could not help but notice that the wire services were carrying a story a day or two ago about the Iraq war not hitting working people in their wallets. No response from readers occurred as far as I could tell. Of course, perhaps many did respond in other cities and I would have no way of knowing about it.

It occurs to me that it would be a great task, and right up your alley, if you were to make a point of proving the immense cost in loss of social services, including so many things people may not be aware of at the city and county level (not to mention state funding), so many ignored infrastructural demands going unmet, ranging from lack of troops for emergency fire fighting, tornados, hurricanes and other inevitable natural disasters, the current so-called subprime mortgage crisis (which is a crisis only because there is insufficient capital available given Washington’s huge

$3 billion a day demand for foreign money obtained in any way) where millions have and will lose their homes, and the list goes on.

The human casualty loss of this war in U.S. lives is too small for most people to care but the financial cost is driving toward a generalized collapse of the U.S. economy and the consequences of this headlong drive for disaster will be far worse than those of 1929 — for normal-sized (including big) capitalists as well the few trillionaire oligarchic families of Rockefeller et al. and their foreign equivalent allies, as Michael Moore pointed out in “Fahrenheit 9/11.”

Terrorizing communities

Not only are federal officers raiding places of work in the East and South to locate and intimidate undocumented immigrant workers, now they have reached into the remote town of Forks, Wash., population 3,200, in the far northwest corner of the state. Forks lies on Highway 101, sandwiched between the Olympic National Forest on the east and the Olympic National Park to the west.

The morning of March 15, U.S. Border Patrol agents blocked the highway on the edge of town. To quote the Seattle Times, “For over four hours every car, truck and bus driving south on Highway 101 was pulled off the road and all passengers questioned about their citizenship.” These “real” terrorists claimed they were searching for terrorists “to secure the border.” Forks is about 30 miles from the U.S.-Canada border which, at that point, is in the middle of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which is often turbulent water. Anyone coming from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, already has to pass through border inspection at Port Angeles.

Forks has about 20 percent Latino population, many of whom come to pick the ornamental plant Salal to sell to florists.

“People are feeling this is a fishing expedition for illegal immigrants,” said Mayor Nedra Reed. Seven undocumented workers were found and sent to a detention center in Tacoma. The townspeople have been working to help the new arrivals feel welcome members of the community. Now they feel that these government actions have created a setback for their efforts. Others suspect federal government efforts to interfere with union organizing efforts.

Plans of the Border Patrol are to “stop drivers at a series of random checkpoints on the Olympic Peninsula in the coming months.”

Twice before I recall similar types of raids and arrests and subsequent mistreatment — in the 1950s under the Truman-McCarthy regime and in the 1930s and ’40s in Nazi Germany.

Elizabeth Yates Seattle WA

High stakes in Abu-Jamal case

In just a few days, lawyers for journalist and political activist Mumia Abu-Jamal will present oral arguments in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia on why Mumia, who has now spent almost 25 years on death row, deserves the right to a new trial.

The court will decide after May 17 whether Mumia will be given a fair trial, life in prison, or execution. This case concerns, not only Mumia Abu-Jamal’s right to a fair trial, but the struggle against the death penalty and the racist political repression of an outspoken journalist.

Mumia Abu-Jamal is recognized internationally as a political prisoner whose constitutional rights have been consistently violated in the state’s mad dash to railroad him to execution. Mumia has been declared an honorary citizen of Paris, Palermo and the Central District of Copenhagen. Amnesty International has called for a new trial “on the basis that his original trial was deeply flawed.”

On May 17, activists from all over the world will assemble in Philadelphia to support Mumia Abu-Jamal’s right to a fair trial. I urge you to cover this historic event.

Evangelos Kalambokidis Fridley MN

Re: Forget the meat!

Thank you for the great article “Forget the meat! Why an animal-based diet is hazardous to your health” (PWW 5/5-11). I’ve been a vegetarian for over 20 years and vegan (no animal products, like eggs or dairy) for the majority of that time. I’ve known about the links between diseases and a meat-based diet since reading “Diet for a New America” by John Robbins, who wrote the forward to the book, “The China Study.”

It’s nice to see the PWW highlighting such an issue. Kudos to Rick Nagin for helping connect the dots between capitalism and the meat-based diet.

Todd Tollefson Seattle WA

Reader request

I am looking for an article written by my aunt, Margo Nikitas, entitled “The Silent Bomb: Racism, War and Toxic Waste” which appeared in this newspaper in March 1991. If someone has a copy of this article in their personal archives please contact me through the PWW.

Chris Nikitas Villa Park IL

EDITORIAL: Scoundrel time

Fri, 18 May 2007 05:48:00 +0000

Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee May 15 that he, as well as then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller and other senior Justice Department officials, threatened to resign en masse in 2004 to protest the National Security Agency’s domestic spying program which they viewed as illegal and unconstitutional.

Comey told a riveting story of getting a call March 10, 2004, that then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card were on their way to the hospital where Ashcroft was recuperating, half-conscious, following gall bladder surgery. Comey said he raced in a squad car with siren wailing, arriving just minutes before Gonzales and Card.

Gonzales and Card demanded that Ashcroft reverse his position and support the NSA warrantless wiretap program. According to Comey, Ashcroft, barely conscious, refused to approve the program.

But then, said Comey, President Bush stepped in. Following a White House meeting on terrorism a few days later, Comey said Bush took him aside for a 15-minute meeting in his private study. Bush also met with Mueller. The upshot was that Bush approved the NSA spy program without the advice and consent of the Justice Department. Ashcroft, Mueller and Comey kept silent and the program went forward.

Comey’s testimony throws light on an appalling abuse of power by George W. Bush, a flagrant effort to circumvent even his own right-wing Justice Department as well as congressional oversight. What it boils down to is this: Bush arrogated to himself the authority to spy on innocent people in flagrant violation of the U.S. Constitution and without Justice Department approval. Bush rewarded his hatchet man Gonzales by appointing him to replace Ashcroft as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer. Gonzales’ main qualification was his loyalty to Bush, demonstrated by his willingness to put the squeeze on a man lying in pain in a hospital bed. If Gonzales won’t resign, he should be impeached. Yet Comey’s testimony proves that it is Bush, himself, who committed impeachable offenses.

NATIONAL CLIPS

Fri, 18 May 2007 04:32:00 +0000

PITTSBURGH: Flowers of peace for Mother’s Day

Lighted candles piercing the twilight and pansies flowering despite a cool spring were symbols of compassionate determination of area moms who gathered on Mother’s Day to demand Congress only fund troop withdrawals from Iraq. The names of 165 Pennsylvanians, men and women who were killed in Iraq, rang out across Frick Park, silencing even outdoor diners across the street from the rally.

In over 50 cities, CodePink held peace rallies on Mother’s Day. The events opened with a reading of Julia Ward Howe’s 1870 Mother’s Day proclamation: “Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with 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, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.” Howe wrote the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

In some cities, like Atlanta, CodePink activists spanned bridges with peace banners; in others, like Casper, Wyo., Salina, Kan., or Wilmington, N.C., women rallied at busy intersections.

LAS VEGAS: Clergy rally to bring the troops home

“Our time to get out of Iraq is now,” the Rev. Marion Bennett, pastor of Zion Methodist Church, told a rally of clergy at the Dula Senior Center in the heart of the city, May 11. “We have a moral obligation to help restore the chaos our country has caused in Iraq.”

Bennett was joined by Rabbi Mel Hecht, Sister Rosemary Lynch and the Rev. Paul Colbert as part of a national faith- based project, America Speaks Out on the War. “Our mission is to wage peace, not war,” said Colbert. “We are reconcilers.”

Nevada Republicans Sen. John Ensign, Rep. Jon Porter and Rep. Dean Heller, all of whom have supported Bush and his war, are targets of the faith-based peace coalition.

ST. PAUL, Minn.: 3M pays $13 million for cleanup

Teflon frying pans are handy, but the chemicals used by the multinational 3M Corp. to create teflon fouled the drinking water. After two weeks of negotiations with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the company has agreed to pay $13 million to clean up a landfill and investigate other sites where the corporation dumped toxic chemicals.

The agreement also forced the corporation to reimburse the state $600,000 for water, soil and fish tissue samples that led to the discovery of the origin of the contaminated drinking water.

The tentative agreement has to be approved by a citizens’ commission before it takes effect. The commission is scheduled to meet May 22.

The full extent of health risks is under investigation by the state. In August 2006, state scientists found chemicals produced by 3M in drinking water servicing six communities. In April 2007, officials issued an advisory, warning residents not to eat bluegills and other fish from local ponds, rivers and lakes.

The initial $13 million to clean up the mess is only the beginning, state officials said. They expect 3M to pay the full cost of cleaning up its environmental pollution over the past 50 years.

MARION, Ala.: Trooper indicted for 1965 shooting of civil rights activist

It has taken 42 years, but finally the family of Jimmie Lee Jackson will see former state trooper James Bonard Fowler standing in front of a judge and a jury.

“We have a very strong case,” said Perry County District Attorney Michael Jackson. “I look forward to presenting the case to jury.”

On the night of Feb. 18, 1965, African Americans in Marion held a march demanding the right to vote. Jimmie Lee Jackson, 26, was a leader in the civil rights movement.

Suddenly the streetlights went out and police attacked marchers, bystanders and news reporters. Jackson’s family says that then state trooper Fowler shot Jimmie Lee Jackson while he was protecting his grandfather and mother from the attack.

The murder of Jackson was a straw that broke the camel’s back, leading to the landmark march on Selma and passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Following an investigation that began in 2005, District Attorney Jackson (no relation) charged Fowler with one count of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder.

Fowler turned himself in on May 10. After two property owners in a neighboring county posted their land as collateral, he was released on $250,000 bail.

National Clips are compiled by Denise Winebrenner Edwards (dwinebr696 @aol.com).

LETTERS

Fri, 11 May 2007 07:24:00 +0000

This poem is dedicated to Cindy Sheehan and all the mothers, American and Iraqi, who have lost children in this immoral war.

Life and death

Words mediate between these truths and state-induced inertia to ask the imponderable question, Why? What noble cause can justify that irrevocable sacrifice of life? What heroic and transcendental reason can justify this woman’s pain of burying her “sweet and first-born son”? What greed-crazed lies will attempt to alleviate her pain and the pain of all the mothers multiplied hundreds — no, thousands of times both here and in Iraq? Of lives bright and shining promises of love and joys and sorrows and innumerable moments of happiness that is a life? Why? Why did they die? Flesh of our flesh and blood of our blood Traumatically separated from our wombs at birth. Words can only mediate between these truths of life and death. Because we cannot accept the senseless, wasteful cruelty of this and all those other deaths we seek to mediate with words. Who has conferred upon another human being this power? Or has he usurped illegally this right? The wrath of all the childless mothers shall follow him like crows to peck his eyes and ears and nose, and gnaw upon his head and mouth until he feels the irrevocable truth of Death.

Martha Pedroza Chicago IL

Name correction

Thanks for writing an article on our conference, “Immigrant Workers in Peril: Finding Solutions to the Health and Safety Crisis” (PWW 5/5-11). I just wanted to call to your attention some inaccuracies.

The conference was held at the Murphy Institute for Labor, Community, and Policy Studies, City University of New York, not “Queens College Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies” as indicated. We made a move recently and you may not be aware of it, but we are now offering labor education and worker education programs throughout the CUNY system. In addition, we have both a Worker Education Program and a Labor, Community and Policy Studies Program. Our conferences and the journal New Labor Forum come out of the Labor, Community and Policy Studies Program.

The event was co-sponsored by the Murphy Institute for Labor, Community and Policy Studies, CUNY, as well.

I look forward to your future articles on our events and hope that you will include our organizing role in the future. Thanks.

Jeannette Gabriel New York NY Jeannette Gabriel is coordinator of special projects at The Joseph S. Murphy Center for Labor, Community and Policy Studies, CUNY.

Editor’s note: We regret the error which was introduced by our Chicago editorial office. We used old information from the web site and dropped the former CUNY chancellor’s name, Joseph S. Murphy. We’ll make the correction in our online edition.

Just say ‘no’ to monarchy

I can’t wait till “the Queen” returns to her kingdom. It really bothers me that some Americans want to honor, and almost worship, her. She considers us commoners and her inferiors. Over the years her family has supported imperialism, colonialism, racism, incest, slavery and the genocidal treatment of American Indians. She is against democracy and equality. This woman does not deserve honor from the American people.

Chuck Mann Greensboro NC

Liked ‘China Study’ article

Many thanks to Rick Nagin for a wonderfully comprehensive and clearly-stated piece, “Forget the meat! Why an animal-based diet is hazardous to your health” (PWW 5/5-11). This was the essence of good journalism.

Paul Leuenberger Via e-mail

Germany not quite tops

Sorry to have to add a negative to David Kennell’s article on global warming (PWW 3/31-4/6). His assessment regarding Germany as “one of the most progressive” ecologically because they are tops in their use of wind power, I have to answer with a photo from the Neues Deutschland newspaper showing three smoke-belching chimneys with the caption, “Hardly anyone uses brown coal as intensively as does Germany.” The subtitle of the article tells us, “Pollution rights for brown coal divide ministries.”

The article quotes Rainer Baake of the organization German Ecology Help: “Climate debate amounts to hot air bandying. … One-fourth of our electricity comes from brown coal.” The last sentence lets us know that not until after Easter could we expect an agreement to be reached between the Department of Ecological Environment and the Department of Trade and Commerce.

It remains to be seen how much democracy and freedom these departments and we the people have allowed against two of the biggest capitalist enterprises of brown coal power plants in Germany, Vattenfall and RWE.

Miriam Pandor Berlin, Germany

From one gun owner to another

Having owned guns and been an active hunter for over 60 years, I feel qualified to speak on the subject of guns.

Why do I own a gun in the first place? I can think of only three possible reasons: 1. To go hunting. 2. To use for target practice. 3. For self defense.

I can’t think of any other reason — can you? That being the case, why do we gun owners need an assault weapon? Is it just for kicks?

Isn’t it time we stepped up and told NRA to take the lead in calling for a ban on the manufacture of all assault weapons?

During WWII, a manufacturer had to have a D.O. (Defense Order) to produce anything for use by the armed forces. If we reissued such a requirement we could put an end to the manufacture or importation of these “toys” and put an end to multiple slayings like Virginia Tech and Columbine. NRA could expand its membership and win over many anti-gun folks by taking this lethal bull by the horns. NRA needs to hear it from us gun owners.

John Hansel Walpole NH

NATIONAL CLIPS

Fri, 11 May 2007 04:36:00 +0000

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.: Terrorist group targets Latinos

Six members of the “Free Militia,” armed with automatic weapons, 2,500 rounds of ammunition, 130 grenades, 70 improvised explosive devices, a grenade launcher and two silencers, planned to attack a group of Latino workers in rural Remlap, Blount County, but an April 26 raid by police short-circuited the plot.

According to an agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the militia was targeting Latino workers and had orders to open fire on federal employees. During a search of a group member’s home, agents found armed booby traps. ATF agents said the group had enough firepower to “outfit a small army.”

One member of the militia, Wayne Bobo, 30, was arrested in his adoptive parents’ $600,000 home.

All six were indicted by a federal grand jury, May 3. Charges against five of them include unlawful possession of guns and making grenades. They are being held without bail. Bobo, indicted for illegally possessing 10 guns and possessing illegal drugs, was granted bail.

In a recently released study, the Southern Poverty Law Center found that hate groups — organizations that promote hostility against persons based on their race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or ethnicity/national origin — expanded by 40 percent, from 602 to 844, between 2000 and 2006.

“If you look at this nationally, there are 100,000 to 200,000 people involved in a fairly direct way with these groups,” said Mark Potok, director of the center’s Intelligence Project. “The trend shows a very significant growth in hate groups and that growth is driven by immigration issues.”

With 63 hate groups, California leads the country, followed by Texas with 55, Potok said.

The Council of Conservative Citizens, which chafes at the “hate group” designation, is recruiting members at the fastest rate, with chapters in 28 states, including five in Alabama.

The center’s report said the neo-Nazi movement was splintering, with skinhead groups breaking off from the main organization. The so-called National Socialist Movement, based in Minnesota, remained the largest, with 81 chapters in 36 states.

WASHINGTON: Impeach Cheney, say lawmakers

“I believe that Mr. Cheney deliberately manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the Congress of the United States and the American people,” wrote Missouri Congressman William Lacy Clay. Clay joined House members Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and Dennis Kucinich of Ohio in introducing a resolution initiating impeachment proceedings against Vice President Dick Cheney.

Clay’s statement continued, “The arrogant abuse of power and the complete disregard for the truth needs to stop.”

JUNEAU, Alaska: Oil company buys tax breaks

For what amounts to chicken feed, VECO Corp., a multinational oil services company, bought a state legislator and two former lawmakers to gain support for a tax abatement scheme, which passed, and to obtain state contracts, which failed.

VECO executives Bill J. Allen and Rick Smith pleaded guilty May 7 to bribery, extortion and conspiracy to impede the Internal Revenue Service. If convicted, they face 10 years in prison and a fine of $150,000.

The charges stem from an investigation of state Rep. Victor Kohring and former Reps. Pete Kott and Bruce Weyhrauch, who were also in court. They are charged with bribery and extortion and each faces 55 years in jail plus a $1 million fine. All three pleaded not guilty.

Kohring allegedly accepted $2,600 from the company and a $3,000 job for a relative.

Kott is accused of selling influence for $8,993, getting another $2,750 in polling expenses, and winning a promise of a job as a prison warden in a facility the company was building in Barbados.

According to the indictment, in a phone conference, Kott told VECO officials, “You’ll get your gas line, the governor gets his bill and I’ll get my job in Barbados.”

VECO only promised Weyhrauch, an attorney, future legal work.

National Clips are compiled by Denise Winebrenner Edwards (dwinebr696 @aol.com).

Canada steelworkers occupy plant

Fri, 11 May 2007 04:22:00 +0000

When 30 Canadian steelworkers who had taken over their plant on May 3 looked out the windows, they saw hundreds of supporters cheering them on.

The United Steelworkers (USW) union, Local 4752, occupied and halted production at the Hamilton Specialty Bar plant last week because the company, which is closing the plant May 29, had announced that it would slash retiree benefits and withhold shutdown pay from the active workers.

Although the plant will still close as scheduled, the occupation ended in less than 24 hours with some major victories for the workers.

The company agreed to pay all final wages and vacation pay to active workers, including wages lost during the occupation of the plant. Dental, vision and prescription drug benefits were restored to the retirees. Although Canada has national health care, the unions still bargain for certain benefits not covered in the government system.

The action taken by the workers at the plant had the backing of both the national steel union and the Ontario Federation of Labor. Federation President Wayne Samuelson stood with Wayne Fraser, director of the USW in Ontario Province and Atlantic Canada, as Fraser praised the unity and determination of the workers and their supporters.

“The settlement to end the occupation is the least the company can do as it prepares to abandon the plant and the community of 320 workers that have depended on good-paying jobs at the plant once known as Slater Steel,” Fraser told workers and their supporters.

Workers at Hamilton Bar have been making high quality steel products since 1910. Currently, hundreds of steelworkers are laid off.

Like thousands of cities and communities across the U.S. and Canada, Hamilton is in crisis. Corporations, by closing plants, have destroyed 250,000 jobs in Ontario Province. The ruling party there, the Liberal Party, is a centrist party that has done little or nothing to prevent this from happening. With 12.1 million residents, 38.5 percent of Canada’s entire population lives in Ontario.

Plant occupations and demonstrations are “effective tactics,” Fraser told the World in a phone interview. “We have to raise public awareness and political mobilization because manufacturing jobs are the core to success for our communities, our families,” he said.

“The government has a key role to play in saving and bringing manufacturing jobs to Ontario,” Fraser said. “The people who inhabit the towers of Bay Street [the Wall Street of Canada] have no idea of the suffering their faceless corporate decisions have on working people and their families.”

The USW is supporting the New Democratic Party in the October elections in part because it proposes to form a Jobs Commission. The commission would be an independent government body, with union representatives, that would serve as a rapid response team to find alternatives to corporate padlocking of plants that are having difficulty.

dwinebr696 @aol.com

Social justice at stake in Mumia Abu-Jamal case

Fri, 04 May 2007 08:27:00 +0000

Worldwide, supporters of Mumia Abu-Jamal, on death row for 25 years now, are hopeful that the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia will grant him a new trial on May 17.

The court will hear three claims that Abu-Jamal’s 1982 trial and state appeal were tainted by constitutional violations. His lead attorney, Robert R. Bryan, will argue, first of all, that the prosecution illegally removed qualified jurors from the case because they were Black. In a city that was nearly 44 percent Black, only two members of the jury were African American.

The second claim is that the prosecutor’s summation was unconstitutional, telling the jurors “not to worry about convicting” because Abu-Jamal would have the right to appeal their verdict.

The third claim is that there was judicial bias on the part of the judge, the late Albert Sabo. Sabo was called the “hanging judge” because he had sentenced more people to death than any other Pennsylvania judge. A court stenographer came forward and testified that before the trial she heard Judge Sabo say, “I’m going to help them fry the n——r.”

But the court will also hear the prosecution’s request that the court reinstate Abu-Jamal’s death sentence. In 2001 a judge upheld his unjust conviction but challenged the sentence of death. Alternatively, the court could rule that Abu-Jamal remain in prison for life without parole.

On the night of Dec. 9, 1981, when Abu-Jamal was sitting in his cab in Center City Philadelphia, he saw his brother, William Cook, staggering in the street. Abu-Jamal ran over to see what had happened. Minutes later police found him and Officer Daniel Faulkner on the ground shot. Faulkner died and Abu-Jamal was arrested, savagely beaten and taken to a hospital in critical condition.

At his 1982 trial, Abu-Jamal pleaded innocent, saying he did not kill Faulkner and knew nothing about his murder. Abu-Jamal asked to represent himself at his trial, but Judge Sabo refused and appointed an attorney for him. Abu-Jamal was not allowed to attend most of his trial because he was accused of disrupting the proceedings.

The trial had numerous unlawful aspects — including suppressed evidence, coercion of witnesses, secret meetings of three jury members and failure to test Abu-Jamal’s registered gun or to test his hand for powder residue at the scene of the murder.

In 1995, Arnold Beverly, in prison for another murder, confessed that he and another man were hired to kill Officer Faulkner. The confession was validated by two lie detector tests administered by a prominent polygraph expert. In a 2005 state appeal, Judge Pamela Dembe threw out the confession because it lacked timeliness and dismissed Abu-Jamal’s appeal.

This case is one of the important social justice cases of our time because it is a fight against persecution for political dissent. Mumia Abu-Jamal is a political prisoner.

As a teenager, he was a founding member of the Philadelphia chapter of the Black Panther Party. During his trial, this information was presented as evidence of premeditation.

He was president of the Association of Black Journalists at the time of his arrest. He had been news director of a radio station and reported the news on several stations. He reported on police brutality, police corruption and other issues nobody else would touch such as the 1978 police assault on the MOVE organization and the trial that followed. He continues to be a renowned journalist while on death row and has reported on issues from the prison industrial complex to the Iraq war as a prolific correspondent for Prison Radio. His commentary is broadcast on 100 radio stations.

It is no wonder that the Fraternal Order of Police aided by the corporate media has organized a national campaign to prevent Abu-Jamal from receiving a new, fair trial and is working for his execution. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell was the district attorney when Abu-Jamal went on trial.

Because of the blatant injustice in this case, a broad “free Mumia Abu-Jamal” movement has developed through the years. Celebrities such as Danny Glover, Susan Sarandon and the late Ossie Davis have spoken out for a new trial. World leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Fidel Castro, Danielle Mitterand (former first lady of France) and members of the Japanese Diet, British Parliament and European Parliament support his cause. International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal is calling for a massive demonstration outside the federal building in Philadelphia on May 17. Said Danny Glover, “This is a critical moment in the fight for justice, not only for Mumia but also for ourselves.”

Rosita Johnson (phillyrose 623@verizon.net) is a member of the People’s Weekly World editorial board and lives in Philadelphia.

LETTERS

Fri, 04 May 2007 08:05:00 +0000

Greetings from France

The first round of the French elections saw 80 percent of the eligible voters turn out, the highest percentage since 1965. Since 2002, every person turning 18 years old is automatically registered to vote. Amazing.

With right-wing Nicolas Sarkozy heading into the second and last round with about 30 percent of the vote, and Ségolène Royal, a right-of-center Socialist, being his opponent, progressive people in France are very worried about, for example, their world-class health system. Sarkozy has said he will privatize it and Royal is mostly silent on the matter.

The left will be supporting Royal. The 11 percent of the voters who cast ballots for the far-right Jean-Marie Le Pen will largely be supporting Sarkozy.

Another right-wing candidate, Francois Bayrou, who got about 18 percent, is holding out on any endorsement of either finalist. Some fear that Royal may move further to the right to win support from Bayrou’s constituency.

Parliamentary elections are slated for June, and municipal elections will take place in 2008. Bayrou reportedly wants to build his base in those elections and then run for president again in 2012.

One theory for why the election between Sarkozy and Royal has narrowed to an almost draw is that Bayrou would sooner see Royal win than Sarkozy, on the theory that Royal would be easier to beat. This reasoning would suggest that Bayrou’s votes would largely go to Royal.

On the far-right, fascist side, the thinking is that Le Pen’s 11 percent may not vote for Sarkozy, since the far-right voters who were willing to compromise by voting have already done so.

These fascist elements might cast a “white ballot,” a blank ballot in protest of both candidates. That might also happen with some left voters who are angry that Royal might end up just like Mitterand.

The left’s vote totaled about 12 percent. When combined with Royal’s vote tally, her campaign can count on at most 40 percent of the voters going into the May 6 runoff.

The French Communist Party and all other left groups were meeting this week to plan actions and strategies to defeat Sarkozy. The FCP presidential candidate got about 2 percent of the vote in the first round, its lowest ever.

Sarkozy is an open admirer of Bush and is opposed to raising the minimum wage. He is against the 35 hour work week. He wants to severely cut back the right to strike.

Royal supports the 35-hour workweek, the current health system and lifting the minimum wage, but the pressure from the right will be great.

Mike Tolochko Via e-mail

Allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices

Ohio Sen. George Voinovich has done a great disservice to seniors.

So charged Senior Voice!, a coalition of 60 senior organizations, senior service agencies, union retiree groups and other advocates for senior issues in northeast Ohio. Voinovich and 40 other senators blocked debate and voted against a bill that would allow the federal government (secretary of health and human services) to negotiate lower prices with drug companies under Medicare Part D.

Unlike the bill passed earlier by the House, which mandates the government to negotiate for lower drug prices, the Senate version merely allows Medicare to negotiate. The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 actually prohibits Medicare from offering a drug benefit directly and negotiating for the lowest prices possible for seniors. Sen. Voinovich voted to “stay the course” and keep prices high.

The Veterans Administration successfully negotiates lower drug prices for veterans. Medicare, with a much larger population, could easily get lower priced drugs for Medicare recipients. According to a January report by Families USA, for many commonly prescribed drugs, VA prices are half as much or less than the prices available under Part D plans.

The report adds, “Drug prices set by private Part D plans significantly affect premiums and how much beneficiaries end up paying out of pocket overall. These drug prices also have a direct effect on the burden borne by taxpayers, who pay approximately three-fourths of the costs of the Part D program.”

In a more recent report, the Medicare Rights Center reported that the VA actually has more drugs (4,778) on its formulary than are potentially covered under Medicare Part D (4,300). Furthermore, not all private plans cover all these drugs.

What we are asking of Sen. Voinovich is for him to support the seniors he claims to understand and care about. He prides himself as being “fiscally responsible.” This was a clear opportunity to prove it. But he failed.

Senior Voice! supports the efforts of Congress to mandate negotiations for less expensive prescription drugs. To meet the needs of seniors, today and in the future, Medicare as a whole and Part D need significant changes. But, allowing Medicare to negotiate for lower prices is an important first step.

John Gallo Cleveland OH

Responses to our weekly e-mail blasts

Re April 28 headlines: May Day greetings! And I grew up right by the steel mill that began it all!

Donna Wojcik Via e-mail

Re May Day editorial (4/28-May 4): Well said. Best wishes in your life and your work

Peter Hall-Jones Via e-mail

Electronic Marx

Re letter writer Erskine Finlayson’s two questions (PWW 4/21-27) about a quotation and an online source for the writings of Marx, Engels and Lenin: I believe that the ultimate source of the quote “Communism replaces dreams with science” is Frederick Engels who wrote in a book entitled “Socialism: Utopian and Scientific” that with Karl Marx’s discoveries of historical materialism and surplus value “socialism became a science.”

The collected works of Marx, Engels and Lenin are available online through the Marxists Internet Archive at www.marxists.org. Beware of the pro-Trotskyist slant of the web site.

Michael Wood Minneapolis MN