People Before Profit blog

Exposing Bushs assaults on Venezuela

Fri, 30 May 2008 09:40:00 +0000

BOOKREVIEW

Bush v. Chavez

Washington’s War on Venezuela

By Eva Golinger

Monthly Review Press, 2008

160 pp., $15.95, paperback

Building on her earlier book “The Chavez Code” (Olive Branch Press, 2006), Eva Golinger has written “Bush vs. Chavez, Washington’s War on Venezuela,” a riveting, comprehensive rundown on continuing U.S. assaults against the Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chavez. Golinger is a lawyer living in Venezuela who grew up and was educated in the United States.

Golinger’s new book has promise as an essential tool for anti-imperialist struggle. It covers U.S. preparations for undoing a targeted government that surface en route rather than through post mortem studies. She cites Guatemala (1954), Indonesia (1965), Chile (1973) and Haiti (2004) as examples of the latter.

With declassified documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from U.S. agencies, Golinger used her first book to document U.S. funding and facilitation of the failed April 2002 coup that briefly removed President Chavez from office. “The Chavez Code” also covered the lockout and sabotage campaign paralyzing the state oil company later that year.

Golinger this time provides an update. She notes Washington’s creation of an Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) to support the oil strike and the anti-Chavez recall referendum of 2004. Golinger records U.S. diplomatic and media offensives against Venezuela, and also internal subversion and military posturing. Again she relies upon released declassified documents, along with a variety of other sources and her own investigations.

The book follows the money trail. From 2001 on, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) distributed $1 million annually among anti-Chavez groups, dispensing $1 million more after the failed 2002 coup. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) budgeted over $2 million that year to nurture OTI support for the oil strike. Tracking money since then, Golinger shows that in 2003 the NED and the OTI gave out $1 million and $5 million respectively, the combined totals reaching $27 million by early 2005. They exceeded $10 million in 2005-2007.

“Bush vs. Chavez” elucidates shifts of U.S. strategy. On the diplomatic front, high Washington officials unleashed serious accusations against Venezuela. They condemned Venezuela’s supposed military buildup and alleged recalcitrance in confronting drug traffickers. They charged the Chavez government with ties to nations cozy with terrorists. Golinger characterizes the anti-Venezuela international media campaign and internal distribution of anti-government literature, especially to military units, as manifestations of psychological warfare.

U.S. formation of a spy network was aimed at subversion, as was exploitation of separatist tendencies in the oil-rich state of Zulia. Zulia’s governor, Manuel Rosales, closely associated with former U.S. ambassador William Brownfield, ran against Chavez in the 2006 presidential contest. In 2001, under NATO auspices, the U.S. military launched Plan Balboa, a barely fictitious military exercise carried out in Spain involving an invasion seemingly of Venezuela through Zulia by U.S. troops.

Lastly, Golinger highlights U.S. military threats against Venezuela, direct and tangential. Among them were Colombian paramilitary infiltration across the Venezuelan border, paramilitary training camps in Florida, and a major amphibian assault exercise in 2005 on the Dutch island of Curaçao, located off Venezuela’s northern coast. The following year Curaçao saw a growing presence of U.S. military personnel and U.S. companies. Renewed military exercises involved an aircraft carrier, other warships, 85 planes and 7,000 troops.

The State Department has published an essay, according to Golinger, proposing that Curaçao plus the nearby islands of Bonaire and Aruba form a new geopolitical border for the United States.

Pointing out that Venezuela is far from alone in receiving unwelcome U.S. attention, Eva Golinger reminded a Venezuelan radio audience April 24 that U.S. operatives in Bolivia have dispensed $129 million since 2005 to opponents of President Evo Morales.

One quibble regarding this useful, well-executed book is that the title, highlighting personalities, gives short shrift to broader forces engaged in the drama. For more information about Eva Golinger, see www.chavezcode.com.

atwhit@roadrunner.com

Hold on to your seats in Redbelt

Fri, 30 May 2008 09:18:00 +0000

MovieREVIEW

Redbelt

Directed by David Mamet

Sony Classics, 99 min

Rated R

By Eric Green

Don’t miss the film “Redbelt.” But, when you sit down in the theater, make sure you have a good seat belt (regardless of the color).

This is another David Mamet film that will excite you and put your nerves on edge for the entire time.

Granted, you have to like the Mamet style of filmmaking, and in this instance, you have to have some interest in the philosophy of martial arts. The emphasis on the struggle to maintain its original philosophy is what sets this film apart from other martial arts films.

Mamet dialogue is very quick, repetitive and raw. Transitions between scenes and within scenes are fast. You have to be very attentive. Some filmgoers will remember Mamet’s “House of Games” and “Spanish Prisoner” films. He is a very unique filmmaker.

Turns out that Mamet is something of a martial arts fan and participant, and that is another aspect that makes this film all the more realistic.

Another unique aspect is the Brazilian/Japanese connection. No, not the Japan on its homeland island thousands of miles away. This refers to the highest concentration of Japanese people outside of Japan itself, that being in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

“Redbelt” is held together by the amazing performance of Chiwetel Ejiofar, an English actor of African descent who demonstrates a flawless U.S. Californian accent. Ejiofar did an incredible performance in “Pretty Dirty Things,” the gripping film about the unlawful international trading in human organs.

Most of the Mamet ensemble is back together again in this one, led by Joe Mantegna, Tim Allen and Rickey Jay. Another English actor, Emily Mortimer, plays a lawyer. Alice Braga plays Ejiofar’s Brazilian wife. Braga is the niece of the talented Brazilian actor Sonia Braga.

This film will end up within the Academy Awards orbit. Just how many it receives will depend on other films. No question, Ejiofar will be high on the list.

Rebecca Pidgeon created the music for the film. The score and lyrics are an excellent mix of Brazilian lyrics and music with local sounds of California, the location of the film. Pidgeon also sings a couple of songs she wrote, including one with her husband, David Mamet.

Let the Oscar contest begin.

Whats on - May 31, 2008

Fri, 30 May 2008 09:06:00 +0000

Oakland, Calif.

June 7, Sat., 10 a.m. – noon

CPUSA Oakland/Berkeley club invites all to the Political Affairs Readers Group. This month discussing the article by Davis S. Pena entitled “Marx’s Capital and Sustainable Development,” in the February/March 2008 issue of Political Affairs. At the Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave., between Alcatraz and 66th St. Call the Library at (510) 595-7417 or visit the website for a copy of the article. We invite everyone to come and share their ideas and understanding.

New York City

June 14, Sat., 2:00-5:00 p.m.

NY Friends of the People’s Weekly World host the 2008 Better World Awards Luncheon. At 1199’s MLK Labor Center, 310 West 43rd Street (b/w 8th & 9th Aves), Manhattan

Tickets: $40, $20 low income & youth.

Honorees include Transport Workers Union Local 100, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, Brooklyn for Peace, stalwart comrade and activist Estelle Katz.

For more information, program booklet ad rates or tickets call (212) 924-0550 or email nyfriends@pww.org.

Sheboygan, Wis.

Through October

Civil Liberties Art Exhibitions at the John Michael Kohler

Arts Center

Through Sept. 7

“Vested Interests”

June 15–October 12

“Michelle Pred: (dis)possessions”

June 29–September 28

“Under Surveillance”

The exhibitions feature garments, installation works, sculptures, performances, and videos that reflect different perspectives on concepts such as personal and public identity, labor issues, stereotyping, confiscation, and surveillance. Admission is free.

The Arts Center is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Call (920) 458-6144 for additional information, or visit the Arts Center’s Web site .

Chicago

Through June 12

“Viva L’Arte” is a community-based show featuring Latino and youth artists exploring the multi-dimensional Latin American experience.

Lotus Keep Gallery, 1017 N. Western Ave

Call (773) 252-2808 for hours and more information.

June 5

9 p.m. – 2 a.m.

Jammin’ 4 Justice series for Co-op Image.

$10 at the door with password “Co-op Image,” $15 without password.

Music by Dj’s Papa G, The Graduate and more.

Funky Buddha Lounge, 728 W. Grand Ave.

Cooperative Image Group is a non-profit arts education and social entrepreneurship organization that facilitates programs with youth ages 6-21, and is a sponsor of “Viva L’Arte.”

June 22, Sun., 3 - 7 p.m.; program at 4 p.m.

25th Anniversary: The Life of Rudy Lozano: Remembering the past, fighting for the future.

At University of Illinois at Chicago, 750 S Halsted St., Illinois Room. Suggested donation: $10.

Sponsored by 22nd Ward IPO and Rafael Cintron-Ortiz Latino Center @ UIC. Info: 773-762-4900.

What’s On listings are 10 lines for $20, e-mail: ads@pww.org

McCain and Hagee

Fri, 30 May 2008 08:47:00 +0000

After months of refusing to do so, John McCain has finally rejected the endorsement of his bid for the presidency by the ultra-right-wing “pastor” John Hagee. The so-called rejection came after media reports showed Hagee had described Hitler and the Holocaust as God’s vehicles for getting the Jews back to Israel.

But earlier reports cited numerous other outrageous pronouncements by Hagee, including calling the Catholic Church a “great whore” and speaking of God’s decision to destroy New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina because of “the level of sin” there.

McCain recently visited New Orleans — a city that has suffered as much, perhaps, from political neglect and malfeasance after the storm as it had from the natural disaster itself. He offered only the same platitudes the people have heard from the Bush administration.

McCain actively sought Hagee’s endorsement although he knew about the man’s vicious statements. It is not enough, therefore, that he simply disavow the endorsement.

The right thing to do now would be to explain to the American people where he agrees and where he disagrees with Hagee on the causes of both natural and political disasters.

The right thing to do now would be to explain to the public what he would do differently then the Bush administration both in preparing for and in the aftermath of these disasters.

We won’t hold our breath waiting for these explanations, however.

We know that the long-term political marriage of McCain, Bush and the Republicans to the Hagees and the religious right exists for a lot of reasons.

When levees fail, for example, “God’s wrath” is more convenient an explanation than Republican neglect of infrastructure. Selling acceptance of violence and war in the Middle East as part of a “divine” plan is more convenient than explaining wars of blood, American blood, for oil company profits.

McCain’s belated disavowal of the endorsement by Hagee does not explain away the continuing GOP love-fest with right-wing purveyors of hate who masquerade as “pastors.”

Stop the ICE raids now

Fri, 30 May 2008 08:45:00 +0000

The headlines say it all: “900 nabbed in state on immigration charges,” “A raid on fairness,” “Immigration raids terrify kids, House is told.”

In the last two months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have swept nightclubs and a doughnut plant in Texas, a resort in Virginia, a wood-products plant in Idaho, a taqueria chain in the San Francisco Bay Area, chicken-processing plants in Texas, Arkansas, Florida, Tennessee and West Virginia — and a growing number of homes and apartment complexes around the country.

In what ICE calls the country’s biggest “criminal worksite enforcement operation,” on May 12 agents dragged nearly 400 immigrant workers into a Waterloo, Iowa, holding pen with an eerily symbolic name — the National Cattle Congress fairgrounds.

Some say undocumented immigrants bring their troubles on themselves. But immigrants and their supporters point out that unfair international trade agreements have devastated the livelihoods of workers and farmers around the world, driving millions to undertake desperate journeys in an effort to support their families.

The toll the raids take on families and especially on children was highlighted at a May 21 hearing by the House Workforce Protections Subcommittee. “The impact of these raids has been devastating,” elementary school principal Kathryn Gibney told the subcommittee. A year after a raid on a nearby San Rafael, Calif., apartment complex, she said, absenteeism and counseling needs in her school remain higher, and test scores lower. “They left behind them a trail of fear,” she said.

Gibney said recently federal agents stopped a father walking his daughter to another San Rafael elementary school. Because the agents and the father did not share a language, the second grader had to translate. The undocumented father was taken away.

Countless families have been torn apart when undocumented parents are deported, leaving behind their children born in the United States.

As the November election draws nearer, more and more people in our country are calling for profound changes in the Bush administration’s array of failed foreign and domestic policies. Its policy toward immigrants is one of the most blatant failures.

In the name of our common humanity, stop the ICE raids now!

Wishing labors lion well

Fri, 30 May 2008 08:35:00 +0000

Senate Labor Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) is receiving millions of notes of encouragement in his battle against an inoperable brain tumor. The outpouring reflects Kennedy’s decades of championing of labor and social justice issues and numerous legislative achievements, beginning with his 1965 stewardship of a law that ended a 40-year discriminatory immigration quota system that favored those coming to the United States from northern Europe. Other accomplishments and battles he is credited with include his work with the labor movement and its allies to create the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, his fight for universal health care, the establishment of food stamps, a law to require notice of plant closings, every fight for an increase in the minimum wage since that wage was $2 an hour, federal aid to schools in poverty areas, federal loans for college students and, of course, the fight against the war in Iraq.

American Axle workers take cuts, hope to fight another day

Fri, 30 May 2008 08:26:00 +0000

Three decades of right-wing attacks on the labor and peoples movements have taken their toll ,but workers continue to fight back, winning some battles and losing others.

After three months out on the picket line, workers at American Axle voted May 22 to accept concessions and go back to work, hoping to save their jobs and their union for what they know will be more and perhaps bigger battles in the future.

American Axle CEO Dick Dauch made it known from the start that he wanted severe pay and benefit cuts in order to keep the company “competitive” and that he didn’t care if the workers had to suffer for it.

His own compensation over the last 10 years to the tune of $257 million and a 9 percent raise he received this year were apparently not seen by him as a problem. Company profits last year were $37 million.

The contract that was ratified slashes the wages of some workers by more than 50 percent, shuts down both the Detroit and Tonawanda, N.Y., forges in a layoff of 300 in Detroit and 470 in Tonowanda, and offers buyouts and buydowns.

For the 2,000 auto union members at Detroit Gear and Axle, production workers will see their wages cut from $28 an hour to $18.50 an hour and “non- production” workers will be cut to $14.35 an hour. The skilled trades will be slashed from $33 an hour to $26 an hour. There are also cuts in vacation time, holidays, shift premiums and break times, and increases in health care contributions.

New production hires will be paid $11.50 per hour and new skilled trade hires will get $22 an hour. These new workers will receive a 50 cent per hour wage hike every 26 weeks until they reach the full senior level pay.

Almost 800 workers at the Three Rivers plant in western Michigan will have their own separate contract with the lowest wages going down to $10 an hour. The company said that without the extra low wages there it would have shut down the plant.

American Axle says that through attrition and buyouts it hopes, on top of the layoffs from plant closings, to cut its union work force by an additional 2,000 before the end of the year.

“It’s not a good agreement, but at this juncture it’s the best we could do,” said UAW President Ron Gettelfinger. He said he didn’t think a longer strike would have netted a better agreement.

After 13 weeks, a slap in the face

Fri, 30 May 2008 08:19:00 +0000

Workers’

Correspondence

The writer is the wife of an American Axle striker who was on the picket line for three months.

I have written tons of letters and blogs the past few months but I have been so overwhelmed with this that I really wasn’t sure of my thoughts.

I have been quite vocal and supportive of my husband and the union employees. I have written probably a hundred letters to anybody I can think of and some influential people many times. I have gone to every rally. The wrath of Dauch [American Axle CEO Dick Dauch] can be explained as demoralizing, heartbreaking, and has put a never-ending stress on everyone associated with it.

It is discouraging to receive such a “slap in the face” after 13 weeks on strike.

I never thought that we would be in the situation that we are in right now. Fourteen years ago I felt blessed when my husband (then boyfriend) started at AAM [American Axle Manufacturing]. He was a fourth-generation employee with many uncles, cousins, aunts and even friends there. Most of them retired from this plant successfully. I thought this was the place that would always supply us with a roof over our heads, the ability to support a family and raise our girls all the way through college.

This contract is an insult. However, I believe if the men and women of AAM don’t accept it they will never see another dime. He [Dauch] has us between a rock and a hard place.

Now, on paper, we will not be able to pay all our bills. With this new contract, Dauch has taken the equivalent of one and a half house payments from us monthly. We also have to pay for benefits, further reducing our income. The buydown or buyout only compensates for three years. What do we do after that? I really don’t know what we are going to do yet. We talk about it every day and find there just isn’t enough.

What good is talking dollar amounts when we can become just another statistic and lose our home? The fact is that my husband’s pension is frozen, even if he does return. It isn’t enough for the 14 years of dedicated and backbreaking service my husband gave. When I say backbreaking I mean it. My husband has injured his back a few times. The first time was three days before our wedding when he had to be taken out of work on a stretcher. The AAM doctor has said if he does it again it will require surgery. This makes it difficult to find another job too.

I truly can’t understand how Dauch can offer these insulting buydowns and buyouts while continuing to sleep at night. How can a man that had so much compassion and good words for the American worker turn into such a heartless and vengeful man?

I find it hard to stomach that he can look at himself in the mirror every day knowing that there are more than 3,600 families fighting to stay alive out here all because of his greed and lust for power. Ideally, I would love for my husband to take the buyout and kiss AAM goodbye. I don’t want my husband to work for a man who has no compassion for his employees or their families. I don’t want to live every day wondering whether my husband is still going to have a job and at what wage. Will anything like this happen again in four years? Do we want to be around to find out? These past 13 weeks have been the most trying thing we have gone through together, and no matter what happens it is going to be a long time before we are able to get past this financial and emotional mess he has thrown us into.

I would like to say I was overwhelmed and thankful for all the support people have given to my husband and the union employees of AAM. I have seen much generosity from many UAW locals. They supplied food, money, and I even saw words of encouragement on their signs as I drove past union halls. I have had friends offer to help us financially, bring dinner over and just send e-mails or call making sure we were OK. I even received words of encouragement from strangers when they would see or hear my husband was an AAM employee. This just shows that there are still people out there who care and who have compassion. Knowing that they are there helps us along the way.

J.G., Belleville, Mich.

Indian workers stage D.C. hunger strike

Fri, 30 May 2008 08:05:00 +0000

A group of Indian “guest” workers and their supporters in the U.S. labor movement rallied at the Capitol May 20 after the workers staged a six-day “water only” hunger strike at the White House. The workers came to Washington to shed a national spotlight on their plight and that of similar workers lured to the U.S. by American companies and then ruthlessly exploited.

The workers spent the first few days of their hunger strike sitting peacefully on the grass in Lafayette Park across from the White House. They received immediate encouragement from the 10-million-member AFL-CIO. Jon Hiatt, general counsel for the federation, declared, “We are proud to support the hunger strike by these Signal International workers, and their campaign to shed light on the abuses of the U.S. government’s H-2B guest worker program.”

The five who went on the hunger strike and almost 500 other pipefitters and welders were lured from their homes in India all the way to Mississippi, where they were told high-paying jobs and permanent residency status were waiting for them. Soon after their arrival, they were promised, their families could join them. Signal International, the shipyard company that recruited and hired them with the false promises, charged them as much as $20,000 apiece for the trip to America.

They were forced to pay half their wages to rent filthy, cramped trailers in a section of the shipyard surrounded by barbed wire. Much of their remaining wage was taken to service their $20,000 debt and, with the company holding their passports, they were kept as virtual prison laborers.

When they complained about either their living or working conditions, company supervisors threatened them with firing, which means automatic deportation for a “guest worker” with an H-2B visa.

On the third day of their hunger strike, the Indian workers moved to sit in front of the Indian Embassy. One of the workers, Muruganantham Kanhasami, said in a statement issued for him by the New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice, “If we, the workers of India, can have the courage to talk to U.S. congressmen and U.S. federal authorities, then surely the Indian government can do the same, so that no other Indian worker suffers as we did.”

Standing with his fellow workers in front of the statue of Gandhi outside the embassy, Kanhasami urged the Indian government to press the U.S. for a congressional investigation and to press the U.S. to allow the workers to remain here while the matter is investigated.

Saket Soni, director of the New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice, said that so far the Indian government has offered the workers only vague statements regarding protocol. “These workers are risking their lives in the hope that the Indian government will find the courage to pressure the U.S. government to grant them dignity, and protect future workers,” he declared.

The workers are part of a class action lawsuit against Signal International and the lawyers it paid to lure them to the United States. In addition to helping pay their travel costs, the AFL-CIO helped with getting the workers legal representation. The lawsuit charges Signal International and its lawyers with human trafficking.

Among the union leaders who came out to support the workers as they sat across from the White House was Michael Wilson, United Food and Commercial Workers vice president for legislative affairs. “The H-2B visa system,” he declared, “puts workers in a situation where they have no labor rights or civil rights and they become indentured servants. These workers should not have to wait for another Emancipation Proclamation before they get justice.”

Some measure of justice might just be on the way.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), who chairs the House Education and Labor Committee, said, after the Capitol rally, that he supported both the hunger strike and the legal actions the Indian workers have taken. “All of this underscores that the U.S. guest worker program is in serious need of reform,” he declared. Miller said he will not support a guest worker program until there is a guaranteed end to the abuses.

The labor movement opposes the H-2B visa program, which it sees as rife with abuse. The program was originally designed so that employers unable to find skilled workers in the U.S. could get government permission to temporarily bring in workers from abroad. It is now used by big companies to import tens of thousands of low-wage laborers, driving down pay and working conditions for all workers in the U.S.

See video: www.pww.org.

jwojcik@pww.org

Governors latest budget proposals: Gambling with Californias future

Fri, 30 May 2008 07:59:00 +0000

As the implications sink in, a new poll shows a majority of Californians reject Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s latest proposals to deal with a $15.2 billion deficit in the state’s budget for the coming fiscal year. Though California’s deficit is by far the largest of any state, over half of U.S. states face similar problems.

Only 35 percent of some 2,000 California residents polled approved of the governor’s plan, while 56 percent said they disapproved, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

The governor’s budget revision, issued May 14, projects General Fund spending of just under $102 billion in 2008-09. Schwarzenegger continued to reject new taxes. Instead, he called for dealing with the deficit by combining deep cuts to human needs programs with selling $15 billion in bonds to Wall St. investors over three years, to be repaid over 32 years with increased profits from a “modernized” state lottery.

Voters would need to approve the bond sales in November. If they do not, the governor would substitute a temporary 1 percent sales tax increase.

Health care advocates sharply criticized the governor’s call to slash such programs as in-home care for seniors and the disabled, eliminate dental and other benefits for Medi-Cal (state Medicaid) recipients, tighten Medi-Cal eligibility rules to dump over 400,000 parents from the program in coming years, and cut payments to hospitals treating Medi-Cal patients.

“It’s a very ugly budget and needs to be rejected,” Anthony Wright, executive director of the Health Access coalition of over 200 organizations, told the World. Noting that the Legislature has rejected similar budget proposals in recent years, he added, “We need to be very clear about the impacts of the cuts, that they are severe and will have major impacts on society and on our economy.”

“These budget cuts will devastate access to health care for millions of poor Californians and will wreak havoc on the ability of middle class Californians to meet their health care needs,” Dr. Richard Frankenstein, president of the California Medical Association, said in a statement.

California is far from alone in facing a significant budget crunch. Though California’s shortfall is by far the largest both in absolute terms and in percentage of the previous year’s General Fund, the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says over half the states are having budget troubles.

In a report updated May 21, the center said “the bursting of the housing bubble” and weakened consumer spending have cut state sales tax and property tax revenues.

Last month the center reported that at least 13 states had made or were considering cuts affecting health care for low-income children and families. At least five states were cutting or thinking about cutting services for low-income seniors and disabled people, while at least nine were cutting or proposing to cut K-12 education and a dozen were cutting or proposing to cut higher education.

The center also points out that cuts to state programs have a ripple effect throughout the economy as workers are laid off, vendor contracts cancelled and payments reduced to businesses and service providers.

While Schwarzenegger’s latest proposal takes less from education than his original budget released in January, California educators say the cuts remain unacceptable.

The state’s nonpartisan legislative analyst, Elizabeth Hill, called the governor’s view of growing lottery proceeds “overly optimistic” and said the plan poses “significant risks.”

Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, who represents a working-class district near San Francisco, said, “The governor is gambling with California’s future by relying on a risky scheme to fix a dysfunctional system.”

Writing recently for California Progress Report’s web site, Lenny Goldberg, executive director of the California Tax Reform Association, cited potential revenue sources including a bill by Assemblywoman Loni Hancock to adjust the income tax brackets so families in the top categories would pay 10 and 11 percent, for an initial $6.3 billion. He said over $1 billion could come from instituting an oil production tax, levied by all other oil producing states, and listed a number of other potential revenue sources.

The Public Policy Institute poll showed a strong majority in favor of raising state taxes on California corporations and state income taxes paid by the wealthiest Californians, while less than 40 percent favored increasing taxes paid by all residents, such as the sales tax.

Legislators now face a June 15 deadline to pass a balanced budget by a two-thirds supermajority. While Democrats control both legislative houses, they lack the required numbers to override Republican opposition on fiscal matters.

mbechtel @pww.org

Republicans run from Bush

Fri, 30 May 2008 07:41:00 +0000

Congress overrides presidental veto

Lawmakers feeling the heat of angry voters are beginning to cast votes aimed at helping ease the crisis despite the threat of vetoes by President Bush.

Especially dramatic is the shift among Republicans who fear voter rage next November if they continue to follow Bush off the cliff. Just before they adjourned for a weeklong Memorial Day recess, the Senate voted 83-13 and the House 316-108 to override Bush’s veto of the long-stalled farm bill (the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008).

Katie Ziegler, a spokesperson for the National Farmers Union, told the World that 73 percent of the funding in the farm bill is dedicated to nutrition programs like food stamps, the nutrition program for women and infant children (WIC), the school lunch program and the surplus food commodity program. “This legislation provides an immediate $50 million infusion that helps those food banks that have empty shelves and long lines of hungry people,” Ziegler said.

The National Farmers Union, she said, prefers to call the legislation the “food bill” because it provides a vital lifeline for the rising tide of hunger across the nation. Only 16 percent of the funding in the bill goes to farm commodity programs that benefit farmers. Contrary to Bush’s claim that farmers are raking in profits, Ziegler said, most family and independent farmers have been hit hard by sharp increases in the cost of energy and other inputs they cannot pass on to consumers.

“Bush’s veto of this farm bill demonstrates just how out of touch this president is with the real America,” she said. “The economy is in the tank. We have an unpopular war. Gas prices and mortgage foreclosures are soaring out of sight. This is a president with the lowest approval rating in history.”

Then just before they adjourned, lawmakers approved a $166 billion Iraq war supplemental bill with several urgently needed benefit programs attached. Bush, furious over these add-ons has vowed to veto it.

The package includes 13 weeks of extended unemployment compensation, with an additional 13 weeks in states with highest joblessness, and increased funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program that helps senior citizens and the poor heat their homes.

Also included is the “Twenty-First Century GI Bill.” It was approved by the Senate 75-22. Twenty-five Republican senators broke with Bush and voted for the bill. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama voted for the bill. John McCain did not vote but said he opposed it as too costly and backed a cheaper, skimpier GOP alternative.

The GI Bill provides $52 billion over the next 10 years to cover tuition, room and board at a public college or university for veterans with at least three years active duty.

The House earlier approved it 256-166.

Americans United for Change spokesman Jeremy Funk told the World, “This vote shows that Bush and his clone John McCain are increasingly isolated. Across the board, the Republicans are running for cover, hiding their ties with Bush.” Nevertheless, Funk added, “We’re not going to let voters in their districts forget that the votes of these Republican senators and House members enabled Bush on everything from the economy to the war in Iraq. This is a war that has made us less safe and cost us dearly in our national priorities.”

Americans United for Change is running TV ads in four congressional districts reminding voters that the Republican incumbents, Michelle Bachman (Minn.), Steve Chabot (Ohio), Randy Kuhl (N.Y.) and Tom Feeney (Fla.), all voted against the GI Bill.

“They go home to their districts, wave the flag, talk about supporting our troops. Then they go back to Washington and vote with Bush against the troops,” Funk said.

The prospect for legislative victories in the pre-election period is underlined by the 402-9 House vote on May 21 to extend Family and Medical Leave Act benefits to flight attendants at a time when Bush seeks to repeal that law. Likewise, the Senate stopped a filibuster aimed at blocking a bill that extends collective bargaining rights to firefighters and other emergency first responders.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) has just pushed through committee S 1792, which requires employers of 25 workers to give 90 days advance notice of a plant shutdown. It also doubles the back pay employers are required to pay employees for violation of the law.

In a maneuver aimed at embarrassing the Democratic leadership, dozens of GOP House lawmakers voted “present” on the $166 billion Iraq war supplemental. It went down to defeat May 15 by a 149-141 vote with the antiwar movement pressing the demand for termination of funding for the war. But a week later, the Senate added the funds back in and defeated, 34-63, language calling for troop withdrawals from Iraq.

However, the antiwar forces fight on. On May 22, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and the Progressive Caucus scored a win, when the House passed 243-183 a bill requiring the president to obtain congressional approval for any agreement for permanent or extended U.S. occupation of Iraq. Bush has already signed a “friendship” declaration with Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, aimed at locking in a permanent U.S. occupation of Iraq after he leaves office.

greenerpastures21212@yahoo.com

Republicans run from Bush

Fri, 30 May 2008 04:38:00 +0000

Congress overrides presidential veto

Lawmakers feeling the heat of angry voters are beginning to cast votes aimed at helping ease the crisis despite the threat of vetoes by President Bush.

Especially dramatic is the shift among Republicans who fear voter rage next November if they continue to follow Bush off the cliff. Just before they adjourned for a weeklong Memorial Day recess, the Senate voted 83-13 and the House 316-108 to override Bush’s veto of the long-stalled farm bill (the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008).

Katie Ziegler, a spokesperson for the National Farmers Union, told the World that 73 percent of the funding in the farm bill is dedicated to nutrition programs like food stamps, the nutrition program for women and infant children (WIC), the school lunch program and the surplus food commodity program. “This legislation provides an immediate $50 million infusion that helps those food banks that have empty shelves and long lines of hungry people,” Ziegler said.

The National Farmers Union, she said, prefers to call the legislation the “food bill” because it provides a vital lifeline for the rising tide of hunger across the nation. Only 16 percent of the funding in the bill goes to farm commodity programs that benefit farmers. Contrary to Bush’s claim that farmers are raking in profits, Ziegler said, most family and independent farmers have been hit hard by sharp increases in the cost of energy and other inputs they cannot pass on to consumers.

“Bush’s veto of this farm bill demonstrates just how out of touch this president is with the real America,” she said. “The economy is in the tank. We have an unpopular war. Gas prices and mortgage foreclosures are soaring out of sight. This is a president with the lowest approval rating in history.”

Then just before they adjourned, lawmakers approved a $166 billion Iraq war supplemental bill with several urgently needed benefit programs attached. Bush, furious over these add-ons has vowed to veto it.

The package includes 13 weeks of extended unemployment compensation, with an additional 13 weeks in states with highest joblessness, and increased funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program that helps senior citizens and the poor heat their homes.

Also included is the “Twenty-First Century GI Bill.” It was approved by the Senate 75-22. Twenty-five Republican senators broke with Bush and voted for the bill. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama voted for the bill. John McCain did not vote but said he opposed it as too costly and backed a cheaper, skimpier GOP alternative.

The GI Bill provides $52 billion over the next 10 years to cover tuition, room and board at a public college or university for veterans with at least three years active duty.

The House earlier approved it 256-166.

Americans United for Change spokesman Jeremy Funk told the World, “This vote shows that Bush and his clone John McCain are increasingly isolated. Across the board, the Republicans are running for cover, hiding their ties with Bush.”

Nevertheless, Funk added, “We’re not going to let voters in their districts forget that the votes of these Republican senators and House members enabled Bush on everything from the economy to the war in Iraq. This is a war that has made us less safe and cost us dearly in our national priorities.”

Americans United for Change is running TV ads in four congressional districts reminding voters that the Republican incumbents, Michelle Bachman (Minn.), Steve Chabot (Ohio), Randy Kuhl (N.Y.) and Tom Feeney (Fla.), all voted against the GI Bill. “They go home to their districts, wave the flag, talk about supporting our troops. Then they go back to Washington and vote with Bush against the troops,” Funk said.

The prospect for legislative victories in the pre-election period is underlined by the 402-9 House vote on May 21 to extend Family and Medical Leave Act benefits to flight attendants at a time when Bush seeks to repeal that law. Likewise, the Senate stopped a filibuster aimed at blocking a bill that extends collective bargaining rights to firefighters and other emergency first responders.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) has just pushed through committee S 1792, which requires employers of 25 workers to give 90 days advance notice of a plant shutdown. It also doubles the back pay employers are required to pay employees for violation of the law.

In a maneuver aimed at embarrassing the Democratic leadership, dozens of GOP House lawmakers voted “present” on the $166 billion Iraq war supplemental. It went down to defeat May 15 by a 149-141 vote with the antiwar movement pressing the demand for termination of funding for the war. But a week later, the Senate added the funds back in and defeated, 34-63, language calling for troop withdrawals from Iraq.

However, the antiwar forces fight on. On May 22, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and the Progressive Caucus scored a win, when the House passed 243-183 a bill requiring the president to obtain congressional approval for any agreement for permanent or extended U.S. occupation of Iraq. Bush has already signed a “friendship” declaration with Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, aimed at locking in a permanent U.S. occupation of Iraq after he leaves office.

Former Interior Secretary urges support for National Trails Day

Thu, 29 May 2008 13:27:00 +0000

Eighty years ago, when I was growing up on a ranch near St. Johns, Arizona, trails formed the contours of my world. I'd take a trail to get to a neighbor's house or follow one along the river if I were looking for stray cattle. Trails were the most practical way of getting around. They were also irresistible to me. I'd walk a trail just to see where it led.

Since 1968, unbeknownst to many Americans, a unique partnership of volunteers and government has quietly blazed a vast, still unfinished, system of national trails–laying down a foundation for the next generation of curious adventurers. Just as in the 20th century when we preserved remote wildernesses as national parks, the 21st century may well be devoted to connecting our communities and precious natural landscapes via this 40,000-mile national historic and scenic trail network. It is a worthy effort, one you might want to explore this June 7, National Trails Day.

From my home I look out on a footpath leading into the mountains and think about the age-old pull of America's trails–the ones through Cumberland Gap and over the Continental Divide, across the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada. One of the greatest overland migrations in history followed a trail: During the mid-1800s nearly 400,000 emigrants walked or rode over the Platte River Road, the dusty thoroughfare formed by the convergence of the Oregon, California and Mormon trails. Early drafts of American history are recorded in the diaries of people who followed frontier trails.

Much of that history would have passed into oblivion, ploughed under or paved over, were it not for National Trails legislation signed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1968, just forty years ago. Those of us who endorsed the legislation wanted to make it possible for Americans to share some of the adventure, the toil and even a bit of the danger experienced by our forebears–native people, explorers and settlers.

Today's National Trails System draws uncounted millions of Americans annually–many times more than took to the trails in pioneer days. Our national trails extend from Maine's Mount Katahdin, where the Appalachian National Scenic Trail begins, to Nome, Alaska where the Iditarod Trail ends. Wisconsin's Ice Age Trail traces the southern reaches of the last glacier to push down over North America. The Trail of Tears National Historic Trail follows the route taken by 16,000 Cherokee when they were driven from their home in southern Appalachia in 1838 and forcibly relocated to Oklahoma's Indian Territory.

Some of our most magnificent trails celebrate the American outdoors. The 2,150-mile Appalachian Trail was the first, blazed by 1938. Next came the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, running from Canada to Mexico; and more recently, the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail, winding 3,100 miles from Montana's Glacier National Park to New Mexico's Hatchet Mountains. These trails offer a grand but intimate link to the American wild.

Unfortunately, the National Trails System Act didn't provide money to complete the trails or fully preserve their historic environs. The system has relied heavily on the contributions and hard work of volunteers who donate more than a half-million hours every year building, maintaining and protecting the trails. Congress has appropriated some funds, but there is so much more to do.

Supporting our national trails is more than an exercise in nostalgia. Think of how much richer a child's knowledge of history might be after days spent along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. Imagine how a student's grasp of our constitutional liberties might benefit from a trek along the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail, where civil rights marchers braved billy clubs and tear gas in 1965 campaigning for African American voting rights.

A national trail is a gateway into nature's secret beauties, a portal to the past, a way into solitude and community. It is also an inroad to our national character. Our trails are both irresistible and indispensable. And while at age 88, I may not be hiking the Continental Divide Trail any time soon, I am doing everything I can to help with the monumental task of preserving it for future journeyers. Saturday, June 7 is National Trails Day, celebrated by walkers, cyclists, and equestrians in every state. I suggest you trek to http://www.americanhiking.org/NTD.aspx, the American Hiking Society website. You may find an unexpected treasure there, a trail event worth exploring, close to home. You may even find a previously unknown place so special to you that you'll want to help conserve it.

It's up to all of us who care deeply for the future of this great country to join in this uniquely American undertaking of building, maintaining and protecting these unique natural and historic riches. I hope you'll join me, for the sake of the generations to come.

(c) 2008 Blue Ridge Press

Stewart Udall was U.S. Secretary of the Interior, 1961-1969, and represented Arizona's 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1955-1961.

Ex-White House press secretary slams Iraq war run up

Thu, 29 May 2008 04:00:00 +0000

In a scathing memoir due to be published next week, former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan accuses President George H.W. Bush of being out of touch, misled, and taking a propaganda approach to issues that would have been better served by candor and openness.

The memoir, entitled 'What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception' is set to come out next week. An advance copy was secured by Politico.com and disclosures about the book appeared in an article on the site written by Mike Allen.

In his article, Allen states the following:

• 'McClellan charges that Bush relied on “propaganda” to sell the war.

• He says the White House press corps was too easy on the administration during the run-up to the war.

• He admits that some of his own assertions from the briefing room podium turned out to be “badly misguided.”

• The longtime Bush loyalist also suggests that two top aides held a secret West Wing meeting to get their story straight about the CIA leak case at a time when federal prosecutors were after them — and McClellan was continuing to defend them despite mounting evidence they had not given him all the facts.

• McClellan asserts that the aides — Karl Rove, the president’s senior adviser, and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff — “had at best misled” him about their role in the disclosure of former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.

None of these revelations are surprising to anyone who has paid attention to the activities of the Bush administration for the past seven years. For instance, the allegation purportedly contained in McClellan's book that Bush relied on 'propaganda' to sell the Iraq war to the people of the United States is not news for anyone who has read the now infamous 'Downing Street memo' in its entirety.

And the allegation that Karl Rove and former Vice Presidential I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby conferred to get their stories straight with respect to leaking the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame is totally believable. Nothing is more natural than seeking to cover one's hind quarters when you start to feel a cold breeze.

And of course McClellan, who had been a close Bush aide from 1999-2006, now admits he was 'badly misled.' And by being responsible for press briefings, he 'badly misled' the media; the media he says was 'too easy' on the administration during the period up to the Iraq war.

One of the more interesting assertions in the book, according to McClellan, is that President Bush was also often misled. Perhaps so, but there are also those who believe Hitler was unaware of the Holocaust.

It would have been nice had McClellan chosen an earlier time to bless the public with his openness. But let's hope that the book is an eye-opener for anyone who remains unconvinced that any connection between the Bush administration, truth and democracy is purely coincidental.

Body of War before and after

Sat, 24 May 2008 09:01:00 +0000

MovieREVIEW

Body of War

2007

Directed by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro

Mobilus Media, 87 min.

Shot in the collarbone on his fourth day of duty in Iraq, Tomas Young is the focus of this documentary by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro.

“Body of War” also follows the October 2003 vote in Congress that authorized President Bush to conduct a war in Iraq.

The editing often gives the film an extra kick.

For example, in October 2002 Bush spoke to the nation, and we see him make his case, one sentence at a time, to topple the partially-U.S.-armed Saddam Hussein regime. The film shifts to members of Congress debating the war. With the exception of a few who oppose it, the congressmen seem ridiculous. They’re excellent at repeating Bush’s lies verbatim. Sometimes they paraphrase and sometimes they embellish the original lie. We are unsure if we should laugh or cry. Layered with this is a voiceover of each vote of all the congressmen and senators.

Much of the footage focuses on Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia. His hands are shaky, his eyes failing, but his focus on the danger of handing the war authorization to the president is completely impressive. Quoting Nazi leader Herman Goering in 1934 Nazi Germany, Byrd shows the sordid history of lying as a recruitment tactic so a nation can have cannon fodder and recruit more bodies for war.

But the heart of the film lies in two years of the day-to-day world of Tomas Young and the emotional and physical aftermath of his injury in Iraq. A few days after 9/11, Young watched Bush’s speech at the crumbled heap of the World Trade Center. He decided to enlist in the U.S. military and ended up in Sadr City, Iraq, in an unprotected truck.

Young’s wounds left him paralyzed from the waist down. After minimum rehab at the VA he returned home. The film details his daily urinary tract infection threat, his penis dysfunction, the necessity of wearing a special vest with cold packs in it, and blood pressure that swings from 230/170 to 80/60. All this makes a powerful impact on the audience. Young and his family — his wife, mom, stepfather and brother — are featured in the film.

Young’s handsome face is freckled, with an accessible smile, red hair and a twinkle in his eye. He gets married, becomes active in Iraqi Veterans Against the War and spends his honeymoon at Camp Casey with Cindy Sheehan in Crawford, Texas, hounding Bush during his month-long vacation. He goes to antiwar protests in Washington, D.C., and appears on CBS’s “60 Minutes.”

After Young’s brother volunteers to go fight in Iraq, Young and his mother go to Fort Campbell, Ky., to see his brother off. During the film Young’s marriage disintegrates, while Young’s mother, in her own right a warrior for peace, is married to a man who has bought deeply into Bush’s fear propaganda. It is quite a set of contradictions.

Young tells us that it was clear from the beginning that he and his fellow troops were a truck full of soldiers with no cover and armor protection, just sitting ducks waiting for a sniper on a roof. He is a returning soldier wounded in war and barely receiving any VA care. It causes us to wonder, will this haunt the people of this country for years to come? Or will we sign up for a second tour of duty when the next great dictator lies well enough, for a new generation to become another group of the walking wounded and wheelchair-bound?

This insightful movie will likely follow the path of at least a dozen documentaries about Bush’s war policies in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo: It will hardly last a week at a few select theaters, while “Iron Man,” a summer blockbuster about a superhero involved with creating weapons of war, can gross over $100 million in the first weekend.

We are all Sean Bell

Sat, 24 May 2008 08:45:00 +0000

I was arrested this month.

It was one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had.

I was not alone.

At six locations around New York City, thousands of people of all races gathered to protest the innocent verdict in the police killing of Sean Bell and to call attention to the larger issue of reforming the New York Police Department.

Dozens of us then peacefully moved to block key transportation hubs in a well-orchestrated “pray-in,” to force the city to listen to community demands.

The Rev. Al Sharpton and Bell’s family and friends led a group to the nearby entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge.

Police blocked our way. News trucks swarmed. Commuters stopped to watch. A young white office worker in a necktie and button-down shirt approached me and asked if it was too late to get arrested.

We knelt in prayer, were warned several times of our impending arrest, and were eventually segregated by gender and carted off in buses to Central Booking.

We were Muslim, Christian, Jewish, atheist, union members, mothers, grandparents, students, clergy, veterans, journalists, business people and professionals. Members of SEIU Local 32BJ, Transport Workers Union Local 100 and other trade unions were in our number, as were members of the NAACP, Sharpton’s National Action League and United for Peace & Justice and City Councilman Charles Barron of Brooklyn.

Hours ticked off as we were photographed and cataloged. The men around me began chanting: “We are all Sean Bell!” The women somewhere distant chanted back: “We are all Sean Bell!” Someone would begin: “Count it off!” and we screamed: “1, 2, 3, 4, 5 …” up to 50, the number of shots fired into Bell and his friends Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, all unarmed. Bell died just hours from his planned wedding. “50 shots means murder!”

My name was called. I was brought to a large room, circled in bulletproof glass. Inside, nearly 100 men were holding a spontaneous rally. The crowd welcomed me like a hero.

As an African American man, there is something counter-intuitive to voluntarily risking arrest. So it was powerful that, among the interracial crowd, African American men made up a majority. Many talked of their experiences in prison, their negative interactions with the police and their identification with Bell. One brave man said he was an ex-con, currently on parole, but was so angered by the Bell case that he asked permission from his parole officer to participate in the civil disobedience. While police violence affects everyone, Black men face a particular threat.

Even Benefield and Guzman, who had everything to fear from the police, were in the cell that day, both bearing bullet wounds that may never heal. Guzman addressed the men around him, saying, “I want to shake every one of your hands before I leave.”

Racist policing is so pervasive that it is hard to find an African American man who has not encountered the criminal justice system. But instead of fearing jail, dozens of Black men made a statement by getting arrested that day.

Numbers the NYPD released the week of our arrest prove the racial bias in city policing. Of the sobering half-million arrests made in the city in 2006, an indefensible 50.8 percent were of Blacks. Stops in the first quarter of 2008, in fact, were the highest ever. The police claim that their stop-and-frisk policies are based on actual complaints or suspect descriptions, but very few of those stopped were even arrested, let alone charged.

Just last week, police officers harassed and detained an African American who happened to be an off-duty police chief.

Yet almost everyone who spoke in the holding cell noted that the police killing of Bell, and all police violence, is a universal human rights issue. It is everyone’s business to solve.

One young man said, “This room looks like New York. We have Black and white, Latino and Asian.” He pointed out that everyone is at risk when the police can act with impunity — any New Yorker could have been killed that night, shot on the nearby train platform or in a neighboring apartment.

One by one we began being released. I was issued a ticket for disorderly conduct. But we had won the day. We had become galvanized, unified and dedicated to making the city fulfill the demand of justice for Sean Bell and real changes to policing.

We pledged to spread the word, to ensure that there is never another crime like those experienced by Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo or Abner Louima. We are all Sean Bell.

Libero Della Piana (ldellapiana@cpusa.org) is a resident of Harlem, N.Y., and chairperson of the New York State Communist Party.

Hypocrisy on veterans

Sat, 24 May 2008 08:38:00 +0000

This Memorial Day, we think about the more than 4,000 U.S. soldiers dead and the tens of thousands wounded in body and mind in a war based on lies, pushed by a clique of right-wing militarists and their corporate backers.

After 9/11, many Americans signed up for military service, wanting to serve their country and defend it from terrorism. Instead, they were sent to invade Iraq, to serve a right-wing/corporate agenda.

So it’s shocking to look at the congressional vote May 15 on a “Post-9/11 GI Bill” — a World War II-style GI Bill for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. The Republicans pushed the Iraq war and now refuse to end it. Yet only 32 of them voted for the GI Bill. One hundred and fifty-nine GOP House members, including their entire leadership, voted against the bill, which would substantially increase educational benefits for post-9/11 veterans. The bill is backed by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and every leading veterans organization.

Perhaps the Republicans objected to the fact that the bill also extends unemployment benefits for jobless workers who have used up their current benefits? Or maybe the warhawks didn’t like funding New Orleans levees? We’d like to point out that most veterans are workers, and many are jobless too. And building and repairing levees, and other parts of our nation’s crumbling infrastructure, would provide a lot of good jobs.

President Bush has threatened to veto the bill, especially complaining that the GI benefits would be funded by a tiny tax hike for the rich.

Despite the Republicans, the measure passed the House and is now before the Senate. Veterans are demanding that veteran Sen. John McCain vote for the new GI Bill. McCain, who hopes his military service will propel him into the White House, has wrapped himself in Bush’s disastrous war and economic policies.

A good way to mark Memorial Day would be to get this bill passed and signed into law.

Look whos talking about the working class

Sat, 24 May 2008 08:33:00 +0000

If Marx and Engels were around today, listening to the corporate media pundits on cable and in print, they might have started their Manifesto with, “A specter is haunting the U.S. 2008 elections — the specter of communism.” All of a sudden these folks have discovered the working class. Talk about the disappearing middle class.

Problem is though, the corporate media has only discovered a caricature of the working class. Since punditry depends so much on “slice and dice” analysis, their “working class” seems to be only a very narrow section that they define as “blue-collar, white male workers.”

In fact working class describes the overwhelming majority in this country. Class is not determined mainly by income. Sure, poor people are mostly working class, but so are most people who have “middle” incomes. Union jobs, skilled jobs and most white collar jobs are also working class. Middle-income people don’t live off the profits of other people’s work. If you are employed by a company that makes profits from your work then you are working class.

But the more worrisome problem with the pundits’ new discovery of the working class is an obvious racist bent. Implicitly African Americans and Latinos are poor people who supposedly don’t work, and only white blue-collar workers are working class. As in “candidate X is getting the ‘working class’ vote.”

In this “discovered” world Black, Brown and white workers seem to occupy parallel universes. In reality, almost every workplace, factory or office is a multiracial, multinational beehive of interaction. One of the most important characteristics of “working class” is the social interaction and cooperation that it takes to get most work done — you have to work together.

People who work together influence and learn from each other in many ways. African Americans and Latinos are overwhelmingly working class as are whites. Sure some are influenced by racist ideas, but in today’s world what binds workers together is much stronger than the negative influence of racism. Workers are bound together by declining incomes and a bad economy, by lack of health care, by high gas and food prices, and by rejection of a brutal and unnecessary war.

Barack Obama is getting a larger percentage of the total working class vote than any other Democratic Party presidential candidate since the 1960s. And that vote, united, scares the hell out of right-wing Republicans and corporate America.

House votes challenge Bush on war

Sat, 24 May 2008 08:25:00 +0000

Peace advocates are calling May 15 a historic day — when the House of Representatives voted “no confidence” in President Bush’s Iraq war policy passing a series of antiwar and domestic-needs measures and defeating, temporarily, additional war funding.

By a vote of 227-196, with the support of 94 percent of House Democrats and 8 Republicans, the House voted for a timetable for withdrawing troops starting within 30 days and ending within 18 months.

The measure bars Bush from binding the next administration to keeping troops in Iraq. Bush has been trying to bypass Congress to get a signed agreement by July, locking in U.S. military presence there. Any agreement between the United States and the Iraqi government committing U.S. forces, the measure specifies, must be authorized by Congress.

The House-passed amendment also requires that troops have rest periods of more than a year between rotations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It bars permanent U.S. bases in Iraq and bans torture, prohibiting interrogation techniques not authorized in the Army Field Manual.

David Cohen of the Council for a Livable World sees the House action as laying the groundwork for ending the war with a new administration. “This amendment established significant ground rules limiting the president’s authority to wage an unrestrained war” by “sharply drawing the line with Bush policies,” Cohen wrote on the group’s web site. The withdrawal timetable provision, he said, establishes “a framework for a supportive president to begin a process of orderly troop withdrawal that protects our troops.”

By a vote of 256-166, the House also approved another amendment expanding the GI Bill, to be paid for by taxing the rich, as well as extending unemployment insurance. It also puts a hold on Bush Medicare cuts and provides funding for New Orleans levees.

The amendment was supported by 97 percent of House Democrats. They were joined by 32 Republicans — 17 percent of House Republicans — who voted for the measure in defiance of Bush and the GOP leadership.

The measure expands veterans’ education benefits for 10 years at an investment of $52 billion dollars. It extends the program to National Guard members who presently do not receive GI education benefits. Funding is provided by a 0.5 percent surtax on couples earning more than $1 million or individuals earning more than $500,000. The White House singled out this provision in its threat to veto the measure.

The amendment extends unemployment benefits by up to 13 weeks in every state for workers who have exhausted their benefits, and adds an additional 13 weeks in states with high unemployment.

In the most paradoxical action, the House voted 149-141 against additional funding for the Iraq war, with 132 Republicans voting “present.” The unexpected GOP maneuver was seen as an effort to come up with new tactics to put Democrats on the spot, spurred by what Cohen described as “the panic House Republicans have in losing three straight by-elections in rock-ribbed Republican House districts.”

Sixty-three percent of House Democrats voted against the war funding. Those voting for it largely represent conservative districts that voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004.

The Bush administration has made a practice of funding the Iraq and Afghanistan wars through “emergency” supplemental funding requests outside the regular budget process. Bush’s current supplemental funding request was for $100 billion for fiscal 2008, which runs through September, and $66 billion for the first half of fiscal 2009, up to March 2009.

The House Democratic leadership structured the war funding bill as three separate amendments to allow lawmakers a range of options for challenging the war. Those antiwar Democrats who wanted to vote against more funds were able to do so, while others from more conservative districts who worried about being accused of not supporting the troops could vote for troop pullout and other measures challenging Bush without going on record for cutting off funding.

The leadership also combined the two funding requests for a vote now to avoid handing the Republicans a platform for “support the troops” campaign demagoguery during the fall election campaign.

The Senate was expected to approve the supplemental war funding through March 2009 and remove most of the other measures. A House-Senate committee will negotiate final legislation.

But the Senate Appropriations Committee retained the prohibition on any long-term agreement committing troops without prior congressional approval. Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), who was among those pushing Congress to stand up to Bush on the issue, applauded the committee action.

“For more than six years, the administration has been less than open with the American public or Congress about its long-term intentions in Iraq,” he said in a statement. “It is a constitutional duty of the Congress to guard against allowing this administration to position the next president into a situation where the United States has agreed to support a long-term military presence in Iraq.”

suewebb@pww.org

Peace activist runs for Congress in New Jersey

Sat, 24 May 2008 08:15:00 +0000

As the June 3 state primary approaches, all eyes are on New Jersey’s First Congressional District, in the south part of the state. Last December Mahdi Ibn-Ziyad, a peace activist, declared his candidacy to run against the incumbent, Democratic Rep. Rob Andrews. Andrews, who has served for 18 years, is a long time supporter of the Iraq war and occupation.

Ibn-Ziyad, a high school social studies teacher in Camden, also teaches philosophy at Rutgers University there. A Vietnam veteran, he has worked with United for Peace and Justice in the area for several years. He is also active in his community and in his union.

Identifying himself as “a progressive Democrat,” Ibn-Ziyad says he is concerned with immediately ending the war, promoting universal health care, cleaning up environmental toxic wastes, dealing with economic justice problems and extending full benefits to veterans. His priorities also include a pro-union stance for organized labor, reinforcing civil rights for all people, establishing fair trade policies and replacing the No Child Left Behind Act with an education policy that supports full funding and is fair to students, parents and teachers. His grassroots campaign wants to focus on issues affecting the First District.

But in February everything changed when Andrews announced he would challenge U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) in the primary. Andrews said his wife, Camille Andrews, would replace him on the primary ballot but promises to step aside in the November general election so Democratic Party leaders can run their chosen candidate.

Ibn-Ziyad told a press conference that such a process would disenfranchise Democratic primary voters. “I am an ardent supporter of an open, fair and transparent election process in the First District,” he said. “I am shocked and saddened by the fact that the South Jersey Democratic Party machine seems to be more interested in perpetuating its power than in allowing voters to fairly choose a qualified candidate in the June 3 primary.”

John Caramanna, a young public relations worker, will also be on the ballot. Another Democratic candidate dropped out.

In a televised interview last week, Ibn-Ziyad called on Caramanna and Camille Andrews to join him in a forum to discuss the issues.

New Jersey’s First Congressional District is composed of 51 municipalities in Burlington, Gloucester and Camden counties, including the city of Camden.

The district’s population of more than a million residents is very diverse. Incomes vary from Voorhees, where the median is $68,000, to Camden, where a third of the population lives below the poverty line. African Americans are about 11 percent of the population in the three counties, but compose 53 percent of Camden’s population. Latinos are less than 4 percent in the three counties, but 40 percent in Camden. Unemployment and home foreclosures are rising in the district.

Once a manufacturing center, Camden’s unemployment has been at crisis levels for two decades, and its crime rate has soared as the illegal drug trade increased.

Ibn-Ziyad believes his city of Camden can flourish again if a progressive Congress is elected in November. He wants to be part of that change.

phillyrose623@ verizon.net