People Before Profit blog

Letters - May 31, 2008

Fri, 30 May 2008 08:51:00 +0000

Fascist mayor terrorizes Rome

As of May, the new mayor of Rome pledges to incite the “immediate expulsion” of illegal immigrants in Rome. Many of these immigrants are the thousands of Roma (Gypsies) residing in 85 different settlements and camps.

Weeks after Mayor Gianni Alemanno took office, having taken in 54 percent of the vote, Roma camps were burned with flaming Molotov cocktails, destroyed by the Naples-based Camorra organized crime gang with approval of locals and the police. Government officials razed Roma settlements and 400 arrests have occurred nationwide. As if turning a blind eye to the racial violence, the Italian government plans to create a “decree law” which will make illegal immigration a criminal offense, specifically aimed toward the Roma people.

Mayor Alemanno began the Italian progression toward the right. The self-proclaimed “firebrand neo-fascist” mayor of Rome walked into city hall last week, cheered by straight-arm salutes, flags and cries of “Duce! Duce!” or “leader,” reminiscent of the previous Italian duce, Benito Mussolini, whose title was inspired by Adolf Hitler’s “Fuhrer.”

As with the numerous other ethnic purges in the past, Alemanno uses the Roma people as scapegoats for the troubles in Italian society, including crime, rape and kidnapping.

The Italian government plans to use violence, weaponry and all other traditional means of fascism to threaten, infiltrate and control the Roma settlements. Umberto Bossi, leader of the anti-immigration Northern League with whom Prime Minister Berlusconi plans to form a governmental pact, says, “We have no fear of taking things to the piazzas. We have 300,000 martyrs ready to come down from the mountains. Our rifles are always smoking.”

Ashley Waldron

Vancouver WA

Help correct injustice

In June 1981, Mark A. Clements was only 16 years old. He was taken to Area Three Violent Crimes Unit, and charges that he was tortured by Chicago Police Detective John McCann.

Clements, an African American, has been locked up for 27 years. That confession which he was forced to make and sign makes no common sense as he was beaten and tortured until he signed that false confession told to him by the detective.

No youth detective was assigned to him. Nor did they call or let him call his parents at the time. He was not allowed.

Clements is an inmate at the Pontiac Correctional Center, number N-23123, P.O. Box 99 in Pontiac, Illinois 61764.

His next court date is June 4 at 9 a.m. with Judge Jorge Alonzo at 2600 S. California Ave., Chicago, courtroom 207. For more information go to www.naarpr.org. Please, please join us, to correct injustice.

L.B. Kearney

Benton IL

Israel’s nukes

Hot on the heels of George Bush’s empty-handed tour through the Middle East, including his bathetic performance in Israel, comes Speaker Nancy Pelosi with an entourage of leading House Democrats not to be outdone with requisite demonstrations of unyielding fealty to the Zionist enterprise.

Primarily, the visiting Dems sought to emphasize their strong opposition to an imaginary Iranian nuclear weapons program with which Israeli leaders are currently obsessed, despite the fact that years of intrusive and comprehensive nuclear inspections have never revealed any shred of credible evidence that one exists.

Of course, Israel’s covert, unsanctioned atomic weapons program is hardly ever mentioned, though Bush and Pelosi claim to be exquisitely concerned about matters of nuclear proliferation. Indeed, Israel refuses to be bound by any international treaties in this connection and denies UN inspectors access to any of its sundry weapons facilities, some buried hundreds of feet underground.

Given the grave concerns so often expressed about nuke proliferation, one wonders just who, in violation of international law, initially transferred nuclear blueprints, dual-use technology and uranium stockpiles to the Israeli government. Concerned friends of Israel ought to at least be informed about these elementary issues before going off on a toot about other nations’ alleged activities in this regard.

Cord MacGuire

Boulder CO

‘Iron Man’ fan

I was glad to see a review of the new “Iron Man” film from a left perspective (PWW print 5/17-23). So far the one thing that has stopped me from going to see it was all of the CGIs (computer-generated images), which (as the reviewer stated) sends films into the world of the unreal. But hearing more about the political aspect may bring it all back to the awful truth.

One point: reviewer Eric Green wrote that the Marvel Comics’ character of Iron Man was created in “the early Reagan period.” He was correct about much of the original Cold War references in the comic, but not about the era. Iron Man was an early 1960s comic character, developed around the same period as the Hulk, the Fantastic 4 and Spider Man. Ironically, it was a time when we had a Democratic president, a student and budding antiwar movement going on and a fiery civil rights movement happening all around. Strange how we can see the connection over the 20-year period.

John Pietaro

Beacon NY

We want to hear from you!

By mail:

People’s Weekly World

3339 S. Halsted St.

Chicago IL 60608

n

e-mail:

Letters should be limited to 200 words. We reserve the right to edit stories and letters. Only signed letters with the return address of the sender will be considered for publication, but the name of the sender will be withheld on request.

Worldnotes - May 31, 2008

Fri, 30 May 2008 07:53:00 +0000

Venezuela: Solidarity = medical education

Venezuela’s Latin American School of Medicine last week welcomed 411 young people from 11 nations entering upon a free six-year medical education course. Posted to locations throughout the country, they will follow a curriculum combining study with clinical work.

Last year marked the opening for a school modeled on its counterpart in Cuba, now eight years old, which has produced some 4,500 graduates. Planning for the school followed a 2005 agreement between President Hugo Chavez and then-Cuban President Fidel Castro to prepare 200,000 new physicians for Latin America and the Caribbean over 10 years.

“We are still fulfilling our commitments for solidarity and integration,” President Chavez told the students, according to Prensa Latina.

Iraq: U.S. military jails children, report charges

In a May 21 press release, Human Rights Watch charged U.S. military forces in Iraq with imprisoning 513 children. Designated “imperative threats to security,” many had been interrogated beforehand by U.S. troops.

The report came a week before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child meets to review U.S. compliance with treaty obligations.

Over five years, U.S. forces have jailed 2,400 children — some only 10 years of age — for an average of 130 days, and a few for over a year. Some of those discharged end up transferred to abuse-ridden Iraqi jails. Less than a third receive educational services.

The U.S. and Somalia, alone in the world, have yet to sign the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Philippines: Activists see less role for coal

While environmental ministers discussed climate change in Kobe, Japan, May 24, the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior blocked coal shipments to the Pagbilao coal-fired power plant in Quezon Province, Philippines.

Plant expansion is seen as adding an additional 5 million tons of carbon dioxide annually to the atmosphere. The Greenpeace web site said protests were also directed at government plans to build eight new coal-fired power stations.

Joey Sarte Salceda, governor of Luzon’s Albay province, has designated his province as a coal-free zone. Analysts point out that energy transmission in the Philippines is beset with waste and that the nation’s eight coal-fueled power plants presently account for 36 percent of carbon emissions there.

Italy: Green light for persecution

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s first cabinet meeting since his re-election called for expulsion of citizens of other European Union nations, especially if their living conditions are deemed unacceptable. At the May 21 meeting, the government authorized confiscation of properties and designated child begging and irregular entry as crimes.

The week before, mobs expelled Roma people from a Naples camp, burning caravans and buildings. Police rounded up 286 alleged foreign criminals that Berlusconi likened to “an army of evil.”

“People are going to do what the political class cannot,” opined Umberto Bossi of the Northern League party, a Berlusconi ally.

The Rome Daily News reported on a recent survey showing 68 percent of Italians calling for all 150,000 Roma people — half of them citizens — to be expelled.

Niger: Report highlights disparities

Ten countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with Niger at the bottom, were shown this month by Save the Children to be the world’s most dangerous places for mothers and children. They are included among countries where “one in 21 mothers will die … from pregnancy-related causes [and] one child in six dies before her fifth birthday, and roughly one in three suffers from malnutrition.”

Five Nordic countries rank among the 10 safest places for children and their mothers. The United States dropped to 27th place.

Cuba: Energy revolution bears fruit

In a report this month to the National Assembly’s newly formed Energy and Environment Committee, Vicente de la O, an executive with Cuba’s Union Electrica power company, declared that in less than three years, Cuba has saved 961,419 tons of fuel.

Some 39 percent of the savings result from replacing inefficient refrigerators with low energy consuming models imported from China. Other factors include modernization of electrical generating plans, the use of energy-saving light bulbs, and reduced electrical transmission wastage.

The Cuban paper Periodico26 reported the official’s observation that from 224 blackout days in 2005, Cuba has progressed to none over the past 18 months.

World Notes are compiled by W.T. Whitney Jr. (atwhit@roadrunner.com)

MOVIE REVIEW Indiana Jones survives

Thu, 29 May 2008 03:33:00 +0000

MOVIE REVIEW Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Directed by Steven Spielberg Paramount Pictures, 2008 124 min., Rated PG-13

If we hadn't seen it with our own eyes, my movie buddy and I would not believe all the amazing things that happened to Indiana Jones and his friends during his big adventure with the crystal skull. Indiana was blown up, shot at and dropped from great distances, not just once or twice but for most of the entire two-hour film experience!

There have been several comments as to whether or not Harrison Ford, at his present age, should continue to play the agile and durable adventure hero, but whom else would you have? And, if you wanted a love interest, who could be better than Karen Allen, who was Indie's first love interest when he battled the Nazis in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”?

Just to handle some of the more difficult aerial stunts, why not throw in a new youthful sidekick? And what actress, of all the actresses in Hollywood, would you pick to play the insidious villainess besides Cate Blanchett?

Younger viewers, who never read the comics or saw the Saturday serials for a dime at the movies, might think 'Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull' is a little bit over the top. Another group that might not like the new movie is political progressives who would just rather not be reminded of 1957 America, when the movie takes place.

It was indeed an ugly year, when America distinguished itself with atomic bomb tests and the nastiest secret police in the world. And, if there were villains in the movies, they were Communists. Progressives also might not want to see the script preserve the lives of almost all the Caucasians while treating other races like so much Kleenex.

Lastly, it's an embarrassment to all of us to find out that Indiana Jones, archeologist and general hero of all trades, was, in 1957, a Republican!

But those who loved the earlier films, as well as other Lucas-Spielberg collaborations, especially 'Close Encounters,' are going to be glad they saw this one in the theater with the loud sound. It's reassuring to note the continuity in this series of socially empty but exciting films. Heroes can survive almost everything.

flittle7 @ yahoo.net

Letters - May 24 2008

Sat, 24 May 2008 08:42:00 +0000

Stand with veterans

Who are veterans of the United States military? They are the men and women who place their lives on the front line without asking for much in return but gratitude and appreciation from their country. So why are our rights neglected?

There is gross mishandling and inadequate treatment of veterans by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and their failure to honor their commitments to vets. I have been fighting the VA to recognize my claim for 16 years. But they don’t have my files.

I don’t even know where my VA files are today. In New York, they say the files are in Washington, D.C. In D.C., they say the files are in New York. I don’t think the VA knows where they are, which means I may have to reconstruct my claim all over again.

Do veterans need to have their records lost several times?

I say stand up for and with veterans of the United States of America. They did it for you with an arm, leg, hand and body. They gave their best for their country.

I was looking at “Walker, Texas Ranger,” and it was about this homeless veteran named “Soldier” and I started crying when he wanted to kill himself because he thought everything he tried wasn’t working.

I have felt as though my country has neglected me by allowing me to go through this war after coming home as an enlisted soldier.

Chauncey Robinson

Albany NY

The tragedy of Reading First: more than corruption

In “No Child Left Behind reading program marked ‘failure’,” author Rosita Johnson provides an accurate description of the most recent failure of Reading First and the extreme corruption connection to the program. The article, however, concludes that the goals of Reading First are “laudable” and seems to accept their claim that it is based on “scientific research.”

Reading First is based on the report of the National Reading Panel, which has been thoroughly dismantled by a number of respected scholars. Moreover, the recent failure of Reading First is only the latest of a number of failures. It has consistently failed state, national and international tests, despite the huge cost and extra time in reading instruction. Example: The secretary of education consistently claims that reading scores on the NAEP, a national test, are at an all-time high. But nearly all the increase occurred before Reading First was implemented.

Yes, the cronyism and corruption of Reading First are a tragedy, as the article concludes. But the tragedy goes well beyond this. It is also the wrong approach to helping children learn to read. The analogy with the war in Iraq is striking: The reasons for both were wrong, the implementation didn’t work, and Friends of Bush are profiting (and continue to profit).

Stephen Krashen

Los Angeles CA

Stephen Krashen, professor emeritus at the University of Southern California read the article online. It appeared in print in this issue

Solidarity tours

I traveled to Cuba and Venezuela for two weeks with U.S. trade unionists. In Havana, our group stayed at a hotel owned by the CTC, the Cuban trade union federation. Our delegation (many UAW members from Michigan) was invited to a whole series of events that included visits to factories. At a perfume factory, 60 workers took a break to greet us, and let us visit their production line.

A highlight for all of us was our visit to the headquarters of the CTC, which is also a campus with thousands of live-in students learning the history of the Cuban labor movement.

After seven days in Havana, we flew to Caracas, Venezuela to attend a labor congress. We could feel the electric-like tingle in the air in the city of Caracas. The struggle by President Chavez and a majority of Venezuelans to advance their revolution is under attack by the usual culprits.

On the menu is socialism and the very wealthy don’t care for anything on the menu. The struggle continues.

Jesse Kern

St. Petersburg FL

Dental care is a necessity

Every day, thousands of children from Illinois’ working families are forced to forego basic dental care. Many of these children — residing in rural as well as urban regions of the state — live with painful tooth decay that results in school absences, the inability to eat, sleep or study properly, and over time, increased risk for other serious health problems such as diabetes and heart disease.

In many cases, families in rural and urban Illinois are forced to take off days from work and drive more than 300 miles to find a dentist that takes Medicaid patients.

Illinois dentists have accepted the charge to improve access to dental care throughout the state. We are among the founders of the Bridge To Healthy Smiles Coalition (www.bridgetohealthysmiles.com) currently working with the state legislature to heighten awareness of this critical health problem and ultimately break down barriers to dental access in Illinois. Our three-part plan includes increasing funding for Medicaid dental care (Illinois has one of the lowest reimbursement rates in the nation), opening 10 new dental clinics in 10 underserved areas by 2010, and forgiving a portion of student loans for those dentists who agree to practice in underserved areas.

We can’t do it alone. Government, business leaders, insurance companies, healthcare professionals, patient advocacy groups and individuals all need to work together to improve access to dental care in Illinois. Illinois families need effective solutions to solve their dental care needs.

Robyn Gabel

Chicago IL

Robyn Gabel is executive director of the Illinois Maternal and Child Health Coalition

We want to hear from you!

By mail: People’s Weekly World

3339 S. Halsted St.

Chicago IL 60608

e-mail:

Letters should be limited to 200 words. We reserve the right to edit stories and letters. Only signed letters with the return address of the sender will be considered for publication, but the name of the sender will be withheld on request.

Worldnotes - May 24, 2008

Sat, 24 May 2008 05:40:00 +0000

Cuba: International Day Against Homophobia

Spain’s La Vanguardia newspaper recently interviewed Mariela Castro, director of Cuba’s National Center for Sex Education.

Anticipating change, Castro believes that gay people’s rights will be protected under Cuba’s Family Code and will evolve through an educational and media strategy assisted by the Communist Party. A “legal union” formula will eventually guarantee the rights of homosexual couples.

All societies are patriarchal, Castro suggests, but violence against women has waned as women’s rights advanced under Cuba’s revolution. She envisions a future of reduced prohibitions, easy departures from Cuba, and expanded citizen participation in decision making. That’s the “principal objective of socialism,” she says: “the emancipation of human beings; their well-being with fairness and social justice.” To view the entire interview, go to www.walterlippmann.com/docs1800.html.

In a related development, Cuba’s gay community celebrated unprecedented openness with a government-backed campaign against homophobia on May 17.

The meeting at a convention center in Havana’s Vedado district may have been the largest gathering of openly gay activists ever on the island nation.

“This is a very important moment for us, the men and women of Cuba, because for the first time we can gather in this way and speak profoundly and with scientific basis about these topics,” said Mariela Castro.

Castro joined government leaders and hundreds of activists at the one-day conference for the International Day Against Homophobia that featured shows, lectures, panel discussions and book presentations. A station also offered blood tests for sexually transmitted diseases.

South Africa: Protecting water rights

A Johannesburg court ruled this month against a municipal pre-paid water distribution scheme operating for five years in Soweto.

Judge Moroa Tsoka cited the “fundamental right to have access to sufficient water and the right to human dignity.” Analysts see the judgment, which will be appealed, as a global precedent in favor of the poor, who in Soweto have had access to far less than the UN-recommended daily supply of 50 liters of water.

The report by the UN’s IRIN news agency explains that, according to the judge, the prepaid system set up inequalities prohibited by South Africa’s constitution.

Israel: Different health outcomes

Israeli Physicians for Human Rights issued a report last month on the health status of Arab Palestinians living in Israel, who make up 20 percent of the population.

Overall, they live five years less than do Jewish citizens, while their infant mortality — the number of infants dying in their first year out of 1,000 births — is high: 7.3 for Palestinian babies (15.5 for Bedouins) compared to 3.1 for Jewish infants.

Palestinian districts have 50 percent fewer physicians than do Jewish cities, and most have failing sewerage systems. Only two have ambulances.

Israel’s Ministry of Health attributes the discrepancies in part to poverty and social exclusion.

Brazil: Environment takes a hit

Marina Silva became an emblematic figure five years ago when she became Brazil’s environmental minister. Last week, the self-educated activist — a victim of heavy metal poisoning incurred as a child working on rubber plantations — resigned, admitting defeat at the hands of agricultural corporations engaged in cutting and burning Brazil’s rainforests, reservoir of half the world’s fresh water and a crucial depository of carbon dioxide.

Rising commodity prices have propelled expansion of cattle ranching, soybean production and mining, along with attendant highway networks.

“She was the environment’s guardian angel,” said Greenpeace spokesperson Frank Guggenheim. “Now Brazil’s environment is orphaned.”

Silva was unable to overcome the political influence of corporations, according to Independent.co.uk.

Canada: Victims confront multinational giant

Indigenous leaders from Australia, Chile, Papua New Guinea and the United States attended a Barrick Gold stockholders meeting in Toronto May 6 to protest operations carried out on five continents by the world’s largest gold mining corporation.

The visitors later presented their accusations to parliamentarians in Ottawa and public meetings in Montreal, including violation of ancestral lands, spurning of indigenous self-determination, poisoning of the environment and destruction of local economies.

Canadian governmental support for Barrick Gold came under attack, according to rebelion.org, especially free rein for prosecutors over protesters under so-called free trade treaties.

In 2006 the corporation took in $2.3 billion.

Australia: Coal mine canary dies

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology attributes the closing recently of a giant Australian rice mill to drought “without historical precedent” and to climate change.

In response, environmentalist Bill McKibben cites NASA climatologist Jim Hanson: “If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed,” Carbon dioxide concentrations need to drop from 385 parts per million currently to 350 ppm. But carbon dioxide rose 2.4 ppm last year after decades of increases averaging 1.5 ppm annually.

Scientist Rajendra Pachauri of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns, “If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late.”

“All of a sudden it isn’t morning in America,” worries McKibben on tomdispatch.com; “it’s dusk on planet Earth.”

World Notes are compiled by W.T. Whitney Jr. (atwhit@roadrunner.com)

Editorial: Hypocrisy on veterans

Fri, 23 May 2008 00:43:00 +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.

Iron Man exposes U.S. arms race

Sat, 17 May 2008 09:53:00 +0000

MovieREVIEW

Iron Man

Directed by Jon Favreau

Paramount, 129 min,

Rated PG-13

If moviegoers get past the “Hollywoodisms” and the other distractions, they will learn something about the military industrial complex in the new film “Iron Man.”

Directed and produced by John Favreau, “Iron Man” is a major success. Fortunately, the message of the film is a direct response to out-of-control U.S. arms merchants.

The special effects, lighting, coloring and general computerization of characters in this film are almost bewildering, but just inside the realm of disbelief.

Jeff Bridges plays the role of the profit-thirsty corporate executive who has no redeeming qualities. He does a great acting job.

Robert Downey, Jr., in an Academy award-worthy role in my opinion, plays the role of Tony Stark, the heir to an arms merchant, with all the accompanying playboy failings. Downing the actor is far older than the actual character. But, he makes it work.

After an inspection of his corporation’s weaponry in Afghanistan Stark uncovers a dark side of his business, Stark Industries, that he was unaware of. He is captured and tortured, and goes through a transformation that moviegoers will find very interesting. It is all sort of predictable, but enjoyable.

Actor Terrence Howard plays the decorated Air Force general and the military advisor to Stark and does a fine acting job.

Gwyneth Paltrow does an admirable job playing Stark’s assistant and close confidante.

The movie is a simple moralist film, but has a strong message and hopefully most moviegoers get it because it’s an important one.

Marvel Studios, which produced “Spiderman” and other major productions, is also behind “Iron Man.” The gist of the film comes from a Marvel comic book series.

In the series, which started in the early Reagan period around 1980, the original writer described Iron Man as an anti-communist fighter. But over time that image has changed.

I never was a comic book reader, but delving into an Internet search, you’ll find the whole history of Iron Man and his sequels.

It was good to see Downey back at the top of his acting game especially after his heart rending personal struggles. I believe we have a lot to look forward to from him. We can only hope that he is offered acting roles like his performance as Charlie Chaplin.

Letters - May 17, 2008

Sat, 17 May 2008 09:24:00 +0000

Letters

More on food security

As a long-time reader of PWW, I am wondering why the paper is not taking a stronger position on food security? Clearly the U.S. government and its capitalist supporters are the prime “bad guys” in this deplorable mess. Everything from the new farm bill, to legislation pushing ethanol generation from food crops, to supports by the U.S.-supported World Bank and International Monetary Fund for “free trade” for developing nations is causing havoc and death across the globe. Here is an issue that everyone can understand, defuse and redirect.

Michael Dollard

Salem NY

Editor’s note: We appreciate the urgency of your letter. The PWW has been covering this issue for more than a year, especially through the lens of using food for fuel. This is an issue with many factors, which we will be writing about going forward. For past articles go to pww.org.

Tibet

Marilyn Bechtel’s article on Tibet (PWW 4/19-25) gives some good background and analysis on a complex subject. The current furor in the commercial news media is no doubt part of the deluge of China-bashing that has gone on for some time now, and appears to be particularly aimed at detracting from the upcoming Olympics.

In a visit to Mongolia in 1975, I learned that prior to that country’s 1921 revolution, it lived under a system of Lamaism which was extremely oppressive and kept that country in a severely undeveloped and impoverished condition.

John Vago

Philadelphia PA

Prisoner’s thank you

I would like to thank you for running a story on me in the PWW March 15-21. A friend sent me a copy of it, and I was very pleased reading it and knowing that it’s people like you and your readers who do care.

I just received a letter from the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, stating that my petition from Oct. 18, 2005, was denied! It took them more than 28 months to deny it. I had many people calling and being concerned about it. I will still keep the fight going, because I am allowed to file again within one year from the date of denial.

I’ll never give up knowing that this is the most wrongful sentence in the state of Illinois, and that someday I will be free.

Charles Solo Harris

Pontiac IL

Stop ‘Runner Initiative’

I do hope there is someone who is interested in justice! Please find below a summary of a special initiative that will be on the November ballot in California. This initiative is only interested in putting our youth in prison. I hope you will agree with me that this is horrible. Notice that there is nothing said in this inititative about prevention or intervention programs to keep our youth out of prison.

The “Runner Initiative” was introduced by Senate Republican Caucus Chairperson George Runner and was written by the author of the “three strikes” law, Mike Reynolds. This initiative would, among other things:

• target youth for adult incarceration, deeming any youth 14 years or older who is convicted of a “gang-related” felony as unfit for trial in a juvenile court or housing in a youth prison;

• remove community and mental health input from Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council;

• require that Youthful Offender Block Grant funds be distributed to county probation offices and prohibit them from being provided directly to county drug treatment, mental health or other county departments.

Keith Morgan

Los Angeles CA

Keith Morgan is a board member of Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes.

School cuts

The following letter is just one of many sent to New York City Board of Education Chancellor Joel Klein protesting the whopping $180 million (1.75 percent) cuts this year, and an additional cut of as much $823 million (8 percent) is in the works. We delivered a giant envelope full of kids’ protest letters to the chancellor. The cuts will mean even larger class sizes, fewer teachers and support staff, shortages of books and classroom supplies, and downsizing after-school programs and arts, science and music education.

“Dear Chancellor Klein, Hello. My name is James. I go to P.S. 87. I just heard that you’re cutting the school’s budget. I don’t want to be mean, but next year I’m going to be in the 4th grade, and I want it to be even better than last year, but it won’t be if you lower my and other schools’ budgets. There won’t be enough money for books (and I’m crazy over books) and chairs for sitting on, and pencils to last us through September to June, and a lot more reasons that I don’t want to talk about! So, please, stop cutting my and other schools’ budgets, so that I will have a wonderful 4th grade. Sincerely, James.”

Gale Brewer

New York NY

Gale Brewer is a member of the New York City Council.

Working families deserve better

California Legislative Republicans have yet again introduced non-budget items into budget negotiations. Their proposals to roll back the eight-hour day, undo meal period protections and loosen prevailing wage requirements are merely distractions from tough budget negotiations that must continue.

It’s time for these legislators to take their responsibility seriously and do the job they were elected to do — balance our state budget.

These distractions blame workers for our budget gap. As gas prices, food prices and housing prices threaten the economic security of working families, Republican legislators want to take away overtime pay, lunch breaks and prevailing wage standards.

It is further evidence of how California’s Republican legislators are simply out of touch with California’s workers.

Art Pulaski

Sacramento CA

Art Pulaski is executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation. This press statement was released on May 13.

We want to hear from you!

By mail:

People’s Weekly World

3339 S. Halsted St.

Chicago IL 60608

e-mail:

Letters should be limited to 200 words. We reserve the right to edit stories and letters. Only signed letters with the return address of the sender will be considered for publication, but the name of the sender will be withheld on request.

Worldnotes - May 17, 2008

Sat, 17 May 2008 06:06:00 +0000

Nicaragua: Emergency food summit

At a food summit in Managua May 7-8, representatives of 16 Latin American and Caribbean nations, including six heads of state, began planning for local food production and price reduction through cooperation.

Cuban spokesperson Esteban Lazo Hernández diagnosed the world food crisis as “very dangerous.”

Having established a $100 million implementation fund, Venezuela proposed that oil profits be used to assure availability of agricultural supplies and investment capital.

Costa Rican President Óscar Arias berated Washington for offering $1 billion for world food aid while spending that amount on “half a week” of war in Iraq.

Last month Central American nations gathered in Panama and ALBA countries (the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America) in Caracas to discuss the food crisis, Inter Press Service reported.

India: Food protests planned

Against a background of rising prices, the governing center-left United Progressive Alliance has come under attack from left forces essential to its governing parliamentary majority, headed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Food costs now consume half the income of India’s poor.

According to The Hindu News Service, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat told reporters that road and rail blockades and picketing would be staged throughout most of India starting May 15.

Ganashakti.com said the party is demanding equitable food distribution to states, restraints on private purchases of grain from farmers, a ban on agricultural futures trading, reduced fuel prices and measures against hoarding.

Turkey: May Day police violence

Three labor confederations have appealed to the International Labor Organization and the European Court on Human Rights to condemn repression by the Istanbul police on International Workers Day.

The police action was directed at preparations for a march to Taksim Square to commemorate the killing of 37 workers there on May Day 1977. For several hours, police blockaded the headquarters of the Labor Union Confederation, preventing 1,500 people from leaving. In the melee 38 people were injured and 530 arrested.

Eventually the march was called off, although imfmetal.org reported that confederation president Süleyman Çelebi declared, “Now every square, the whole of Turkey, has become Taksim. Our struggle will continue.”

Somalia: U.S. and Ethiopia blamed

Not only have high food prices and drought led to a recent 40 percent increase in Somalians needing food assistance, but civilians have also been victimized by war between Ethiopian invaders backed by Washington and Islamic forces, successors to the Islamic Courts regime dislodged in 2007.

In another direct U.S. military intervention, planes bombed and killed eight civilians on May 1. Three days later, according to Gara.com, Ethiopians killed 14 civilians in Baidoa, prompting the Red Cross to suggest that “the population has reached the limit of its endurance.”

In a recent report, Amnesty International cited “war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.” Food riots and anti-U.S. protests are common.

Cuba: Cuban Five remembered

Ten years after Cuban intelligence provided the FBI with documentation of Luis Posada Carriles’ role in Havana hotel bombings, and one year after the U.S. government freed him on May 8, 2007, Ricardo Alarcón, President of the Cuban Parliament, told 1,500 international labor activists meeting in Havana that an international campaign on behalf of the Cuban Five would begin Sept. 12.

On that date in 1998 the FBI arrested five men who had unearthed intelligence relating to Posada.

At a press conference held by the Committee of Relatives of Victims of the 1976 airliner bombing Posada engineered, Margarita Gonzalez demanded his extradition to Venezuela for court proceedings on his role in the airliner tragedy.

World Notes are compiled by W.T. Whitney Jr. (atwhit@roadrunner.com). For more international news go to pww.org.

Pictures from May Day 2008

Wed, 14 May 2008 04:58:00 +0000

Terrorist Posada parties in Miami

Tue, 13 May 2008 07:01:00 +0000

Friends of Luis Posada Carriles held a banquet May 2 at the Big Five Club in West Miami-Dade in honor of the 80-year old Cuban exile. Pedro Peñaranda, president of Municipalities of Cuba in Exile, the group organizing the event, told the Miami Herald that supporters wanted to “recognize Posada as a great Cuban, a man of dignity and decency and as a great patriot.”

While a band played, a “beaming” Posada circulated among the tables greeting acquaintances, many of them fellow combatants at the Bay of Pigs, members of the so-called Brigade 2506. Well over 500 guests were on hand, including Ernesto Diaz, leader of the paramilitary Alpha 66 organization. Posada is no stranger to the Big Five. Its lobby last year became a gallery for display and sale of 30 Posada paintings

In the early 1970s, Posada ran Venezuela’s intelligence service as a torture shop. He helped direct a worldwide campaign of anti-Cuban sabotage and slaughter. He engineered a 1976 bomb attack on a Cuban Airliner killing 73 passengers. He supplied arms to “contra” rebels in Nicaragua under CIA auspices. He organized bombings of Havana hotels in 1997. One explosion killed an Italian tourist. Posada staged an assassination attempt against Cuban President Fidel Castro in 2000. He was honored for these “contributions.”

Luis Posada, having entered the United States in 2005, was released pre-trial from jail on May 8, 2007 by federal judge Kathleen Cardone, who rejected a prosecutors’ case charging him with lying to immigration officials. Since then Posada had been spotted in public only rarely in Miami prior to the Big Five gala.

Venezuela has sought Posada’s extradition in order to finish with court proceedings related to the airliner bombing. Asked to comment on the event honoring Posada, Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuelan ambassador in Washington, said the United States “instead of complying with its treaty obligations, has provided protection for him ... It is once again a demonstration of the double standard on terrorism issues.”

For over two years, a New Jersey grand jury has been exploring an indictment against Posada for taking Cuban exile money to pay for the hotel bombing attacks.

atwhit@ roadrunner.com

Letters - May 10, 2008

Sat, 10 May 2008 08:04:00 +0000

McCain is the enemy

In the editorial “Pain at the pump” (PWW 5/3-9), “It appears the McCain-Clinton idea is more an illusion to garner votes than a solution since such savings is minimal and the cuts to roads and construction jobs would be considerable.”

I was very troubled by this statement, as it seems to indicate that both McCain and Clinton have the same plan. Before you start categorizing Clinton as the same enemy as McCain, please consider that they are two different proposals.

Clinton’s would replace lost highway construction revenues with a tax on oil company profits. Unlikely as it may be to successfully pass the legislation necessary to make this happen, it’s just as unlikely as many ideas and platforms both Democrats are standing on during this election. Is it pandering to populism and votes? Of course. But since when do we oppose a tax on oil company profits?

McCain has no plan for replacing the lost revenue.

Why is it that in the PWW I see no criticism of any Democrat but Clinton? Would you refer to something as the, say, Obama-Clinton plan to end the war? Or the Obama-McCain health care plan? In both cases the candidates have plans to address the specific issue, and Obama and Clinton are both calling for the withdrawal of troops, and in similar ways. And both Obama and McCain are not mandating health care.

I just want to remind everyone that McCain is the enemy, not Hillary Clinton.

Melissa O’Rourke

Chicago IL

New Deal for people, not Wall Street

Say, folks, the Federal Reserve dusted off some provisions of the New Deal from the Great Depression and forked out $230 billion to the Wall Street rich that swindled our workers and poor into housing debt they couldn’t afford. Of course Sen. Baucus tells the people it’s their own fault that they couldn’t afford their housing. I protest. Say, Sen. Baucus, where is the $230 billion for public housing and mortgage relief for these 2 million households. Tent cities like the Hoovervilles of the Great Depression are springing up all over our country. Poverty and hunger are on the rise. How about dusting off the other provisions of the New Deal and restoring relief of social welfare cash payments to poor families, without sanctions or penalties.

Daniel Gawain Waters

Troy MT

Prison spending stats

Thanks for sending the PWW/NM. I always read it thoroughly and it’s a great newspaper.

I perceive a deep and sudden change in the media from supporting Obama not too long ago to stopping Obama at whatever cost. Why the sudden rightist panic with respect to “middle of the roader Obama?” I do not know.

Here are some “quick and dirty stats” for your readers’ perusal, and a call to action to be thrown into this year’s political cauldron.

If Texans got smart on crime instead of the law and order nonsense that benefits prisoncrats, a few demagogues, a bunch of lawyers and their cronies, and downsized the Texas Department of Criminal Justice “grossly overcrowded” prison population, Texans would benefit by saving $13.2 billion per year, which could pay for the following and more:

• $800 per year for renewable energy to 1 million homes,

• $2,000 per year for day care to 250,000 toddlers,

• $8,300 per year crop insurance to 100,000 small and medium farmers,

• $18,000 per year to 35,000 downsized prisoncrats in vocational-technical seminars,

• $4,600 per year for insurance or foreclosure aid to 100,000 homeowners,

• 8,000 sports, dance, drama, music, art teachers who would earn $54,000 per year.

These are the benefits of ending excess imprisonment in the United States. The current system is a failure!

Ana Lucia Gelabert

Gatesville TX

McCain, wrong again

On April 24, in a vain attempt to distance himself from the Bush regime’s criminal neglect during its Hurricane Katrina debacle, the Republican Party’s paleolithic presidential candidate, John McCain, uttered theses witless words: “Never again will we experience such mishandling of a natural disaster and the suffering that ensued from it. That will never happen again.”

Perhaps the research department at the racist Republican National Committee should remind the 71-year-old senator that thousands of our fellow American citizens died needlessly in New Orleans, while Bush and Cheney purposefully and maliciously refused to act, and while carefree Condoleezza Rice was simultaneously spending several thousand dollars on shoes at the Ferragamo on 5th Avenue in Manhattan!

As pathologically politically disingenuous as he may be, even McCain must realize that his coveted 100-year colonial occupation of Iraq will only open the door to future catastrophes here at home.

Instead of securing “the Homeland,” our active duty military personnel, National Guard and reserves are being forced into repeated and extended traumatic tours of duty overseas through Bush and Cheney’s implementation of a backdoor military draft, otherwise known as “stop-loss.”

Jake Pickering

Eureka CA

We want to hear from you!

By mail:

People’s Weekly World

3339 S. Halsted St.

Chicago IL 60608

n

e-mail:

Letters should be limited to 200 words. We reserve the right to edit stories and letters. Only signed letters with the return address of the sender will be considered for publication, but the name of the sender will be withheld on request.

Worldnotes - May 10, 2008

Sat, 10 May 2008 05:46:00 +0000

UN: World hunger is top priority

Concluding a meeting in Bern, Switzerland of 26 United Nations’ agencies, the World Bank and IMF, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced plans April 29 for a high-level UN task force to deal with mounting world food shortages. He called for closing of a $755 million funding shortfall for the World Food Program and for reversing recently imposed food export restrictions.

Ban identified climate change, prolonged droughts, biofuel production and increased consumption among developing nations as together raising the “specter of widespread hunger, malnutrition and social unrest.” Experts cited by Inter Press Service explained that food shortages disproportionally target women and children, and that food prices worldwide have almost doubled over three years.

Afghanistan: U.S. troops tortured prisoners

Documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union in April under the Freedom of Information Act — accessible on its web site — confirm the U.S. military’s use of unlawful interrogation methods on detainees held in U.S. custody in Afghanistan.

The ACLU news release charges that early during the U.S. occupation there “special Forces beat, burned, and doused eight prisoners with cold water before sending them into freezing weather conditions.” One died. Sodomy is also alleged.

Criminal investigation undertaken by the military in late 2004 absolved the alleged perpetrators. Rather than ending “systemic abuses, senior officials appear to have turned a blind eye to them,” declared ACLU lawyer Amrit Singh.

Chile: Strike riles copper giant

The strike launched April 15 by Chile’s Confederation of Copper Workers, representing 30,000 contract workers, forced state-owned Codelco Corporation to close three mines. Output dropped 41 percent and $100 million in potential income was lost.

By May 3, Codelco’s huge Teniente operation had resumed operations and settlement seemed imminent. Demands, timed with a 22 percent rise in copper prices over one year, centered on compliance with agreements reached after a strike last year.

According to Reuters, Arturo Martinez, head of the CUT labor federation, told 80,000 International Workers Day celebrants that “subcontracting has been converted into one of the most perverse forms of exploitation.”

Codelco produces ten percent of the world’s copper. Profits approached $18 billion over two years.

Morocco: Factory fire kills workers

A fire April 26 that destroyed the Rosamor mattress factory in Casablanca killed 55 workers, 35 of them women. This was “inevitable mass murder arising from employer greed and official negligence,” according to Neil Kearney, general secretary of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation.

Kearney called for murder charges against those responsible — the factory owner and manager were arrested — and said this “could have occurred at hundreds of locations in Morocco and tens of thousands across the world.”

The French news agency AFP said the victims, earning less than Morocco’s minimum wage and not registered for social security, were trapped behind locked doors and barred windows. Fire extinguishers were empty.

Japan: Court rejects military role in Iraq

The Nagoya High court ruled April 17 that involvement of Japan’s air force with U.S.-British military activities in Iraq violates Japan’s constitution.

Article Nine states that “the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation.” The court was responding to a suit brought by 1,122 residents of Aichi Prefecture demanding that Japanese forces be withdrawn from Iraq.

Ten other courts considering similar law suits have yet to hand down judgments.

The Japan Press Service said the court rejected government allegations that the air force was engaging in humanitarian assistance.

Cuba: Wages and benefits rise

Cuba’s government announced that starting May 1, virtually all pensioners will receive increased monthly social security payments of up to 40 pesos and that families with reduced income due to sickness, death, maternity, or disability will experience a 20 percent benefit hike.

Juventude Rebelde also reported that almost 10,000 court and prosecutorial workers will receive monthly pay increases ranging from 211 to 425 pesos.

In 2005, pay was upped for more than five million workers, retirees, and other social security recipients. The government emphasized that future pay increases will depend upon overall economic conditions, identification of prioritized work sectors and trends in aging of the population as affected by advancing life expectancy and decreased births.

World Notes are compiled by W.T. Whitney (atwhit@ roadrunner.com).

RSS

Thu, 08 May 2008 04:07:00 +0000

Check out our RSS

May Day Photo Essay

Wed, 07 May 2008 11:36:00 +0000

NEW YORK-- A large and militant demonstration gathered at Washington Square Park in New York City to celebrate May Day. Many organizations and individuals took part in the rally which later marched to Foley Square. in front of City Hall. The theme of the march and rally was Immigrant Rights. Numerous rallies took place in the U.S. and in other countries around the world. May Day which has been portrayed as a communist holiday originated in the U.S A. over 100 years ago after the Hay Market killings in Chicago.

Letters - May 2, 2008

Sat, 03 May 2008 06:17:00 +0000

The price of invasion

He wrote a story.

About three kids he met while he was over there.

Over there on a tower...

On a tower guarding a place.

A terrible place where they kept prisoners.

And he remembers those three kids...

Not the names.

Kids he gave candy to.

And he can’t remember how he came across it.

But he had some cash,

in a place with no ATMs.

And he gave it to the kids...

And watched them through binoculars

as they ran and gave their farmer parents the money.

He watched them pack up for the day.

And didn’t see them for a week...

Or ever.

There was a day, when he remembers seeing one kid.

And he didn’t want candy.

He just wanted to look.

Maybe at the guns.

Maybe at the Americans...

Where were the other two he thought.

But he enjoyed the kids so much.

One was better then none.

But then later that night.

No, the next day... Maybe.

Someone had died.

Someone he knew.

To be precise... More then one.

Two people and a boy.

And sometimes things get old when relived.

Or maybe it was just a dream?

Soldier Sal

Texas

Soldier Sal served in Iraq and wrote a number of dispatches for the People’s Weekly World.

$4 saved

I just did the calculations on how much money my family would save if Clinton/McCain’s federal tax holiday on gas happens. We’d get to save $4.14. I am so excited. That’s like 4 hours of rent! Yeah!

You can use the calculator here:

www.jabberwonk.com/flinker.cfm?cliid=13lkzo

Joel Wendland

Ypsilanti MI

Map error

While reading Marilyn Bechtel’s article online entitled “Some background about Tibet,” I noticed something misleading about the map. While Beijing, Shenzhen and Tibet are correctly located, the dot labeled “Xinjiang” indicates not the largest and western most province in China, but an insignificant county in Shanxi Province whose Romanized name is also Xinjiang. Because of Xinjiang Province’s relevance to the article, and Xinjiang County’s total unimportance, I believe this map is in error.

Kannan Puthuval

Via e-mail

What is a good salary?

Real wages have dropped in the U.S. since 1975. The proof lies in the correlation between the minimum wage and the price of the average home in the United States. The price of housing usually takes up a good portion of the average workers earning during her or his lifetime. The minimum wage is the minimum salary paid to a working person in the U.S. In 1975, the minimum wage was $2.00 an hour. The average price of a home in that same year was $42,600. If a person worked a 40-hour work week at the minimum wage then he or she earned $4,160 a year or approximately 10 percent of the average cost of a home in 1975. A person in 2008 earning minimum wage earns $6.55 an hour or approximately $13,624 per year. The average price of a home now is $313,600. The minimum salary is approximately 4.3 percent of the price of the average home in the United States. This is a sharp drop from the 10 percent in 1975. If the minimum wage would have remained 10 percent of the average home price it would be $31,360, which is $13,029 less than the U.S. median salary of $44,389 in 2005.

We are earning less and less money as the cost of housing and other commodities necessary for our daily lining continues to rise. As gas prices continue to soar towards $4.00 a gallon and beyond one wonders if there is any hope in sight for the average U.S. working person.

Irving Jones

Philadelphia PA

We want to hear from you!

By mail:

People’s Weekly World

3339 S. Halsted St.

Chicago IL 60608

e-mail:

Letters should be limited to 200 words. We reserve the right to edit stories and letters. Only signed letters with the return address of the sender will be considered for publication, but the name of the sender will be withheld on request.

Worldnotes - May 2, 2008

Sat, 03 May 2008 04:25:00 +0000

Honduras: General strike reflects discontent

A “march against neoliberalism” called by labor federations, peasant organizations and teachers’ groups resulted April 17 in 2 million no-show workers throughout Honduras. Tens of thousands filled the streets and 15 cities were paralyzed.

For leftist legislator Marvin Ponce, “the serious problem is hunger.” He told journalist Dick Emanuelsson, writing for Rebelion.org, that almost half the population either has no work or only informal employment and 15 percent of the peasants lack land.

The list of 12 strike demands included wage hikes to meet rising costs, agrarian reform, independent unions, free education and no water privatization. Police repression left dozens wounded, according to laprensahn.com.

At the same time, tens of thousands marched for land reform in Guatemala and Costa Rica.

Gaza: No fuel, mass suffering

Fuel deliveries to Gaza, restricted for 10 months, stopped after April 9 when two Israeli soldiers were killed. By April 22, Palestine’s only electricity generating plant was set to close. UN aid authorities announced imminent cessation of relief efforts, essential for the survival of 80 percent of Gaza’s population. The next day, Israel relented, announcing pipeline oil deliveries from Egypt, enough for three days of power generation.

As Hamas was preparing protest marches directed at Egyptian border stations, the Mizan Center for Human Rights appealed for international intervention to avert “a serious humanitarian disaster.” The Center noted 59 Palestinians killed by the Israeli military so far in April, 310 during 2008.

Africa: Zimbabwe arms stay on ship

Angola announced April 26 that a Chinese ship could dock at Luanda to unload cargo destined for that country, but not weapons it carried for Zimbabwe’s military.

Chinese ship An Yue Jiang had first sought to offload its cargo at Durban, South Africa, for overland shipment to Zimbabwe, which reportedly ordered the weapons last fall. Human rights and labor organizations feared Zimbabwe’s government would use the arms in the turmoil following the country’s contested election.

South Africa’s government OK’d the land journey but the Transport and Allied Workers Union refused to unload the vessel, and the country’s High Court barred the shipment.

The vessel was expected to return with the weapons to China.

Hungary: Crisis over cuts

Controversy over cuts to social services, particularly health care, is causing the breakup of Hungary’s coalition government, leaving the ruling Socialist Party in a minority position after April 30.

A March 9 referendum vote initiated by conservatives rejected medical and education fees. That prompted the socialists to withhold privatization reform measures they had introduced previously. Faithful to the cuts and angered by the socialists’ firing of a like-minded health minister, the Alliance of Free Democrats opted to no longer serve as junior coalition partner.

The socialists, with a 20 percent popular following, reject early elections. Inter Press Service reported that some of them are demanding restoration of the welfare state, as do, ironically enough, left-leaning elements within the center right Hungarian Civic Party.

Cuba: Health care changes seen

The Cuban government recently announced changes to a primary care health system credited with preventative care achievements but now criticized for physician unavailability.

Over two decades, Cuba’s family doctor program grew to almost 30,000 doctor-nurse teams. But with 36,578 health professionals serving in 81 countries — 15,000 physicians in Venezuela alone — many offices are open only briefly, or not at all.

Health Minister Jose Ramon Balaguer has outlined plans, reported by Reuters, to close offices, keep others open full time and encourage Cubans to seek care at multi-specialty polyclinics, strengthened over recent years.

At a press conference April 14, Balaguer promised improved distribution of pharmaceuticals and said studies would be done to identify special health vulnerabilities within local areas.

World Notes are compiled by W.T. Whitney Jr. (atwhit@ roadrunner.com).