People Before Profit blog

Labor struggles erupt at Sacramento City Council

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 06:04:00 +0000

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Two important labor struggles have recently come before the City Council here.

On Nov. 9 the council put off voting on a resolution calling on Blue Diamond Almond Growers to recognize the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 17 (ILWU). It deferred action on the measure until the mayor and the council’s members have met with Blue Diamond management.

At the same meeting, Sheraton Grand Hotel employees, members of Unite Here, announced that they are inaugurating a boycott of the hotel.

The council chamber was filled with union members and supporters, wearing red Unite Here “Hotel Workers Rising” or yellow ILWU T-shirts.

Marco Hernandez, a six-year employee of the city-owned Sheraton Grand Hotel, reminded the council that it appointed the hotel’s oversight board. “Healthy jobs build healthy families and a healthy community,” he said. “If a boycott is what we need to win, we will call one.”

Unite Here has been negotiating with the hotel since June. Health care, workload and wages are the main issues.

In March 2006, the National Labor Relations Board found Blue Diamond guilty of more than 20 federal labor law violations, including firing union supporters, threatening workers with loss of their pensions and benefits, and interrogating workers about their feelings for the union. Since then the company has continued to violate the law in an “aggressive union avoidance campaign,” one organizer said.

In 1995 Blue Diamond, which produces around 70 percent of the world’s almond supply, secured a $21 million funding package from local, regional, state and utility agencies to keep its plant open in Sacramento. The company claimed it needed the money to save the plant’s 700 jobs.

“This is a two-way street,” said City Councilmember Steve Cohn, who introduced the resolution supporting the right to unionize. Cohn represents the area of the city where the Blue Diamond plant is located. “I believe Blue Diamond should make peace with labor and let the workers choose unfettered whether to be represented.”

The resolution on Blue Diamond was tabled for one month. The meeting was followed by a rousing presentation by the famed ILWU Drill Team.

LETTERS

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 09:20:00 +0000

Raytheon workers

Raytheon, the fifth largest munitions factory in the world, has a firm grip on the city of Tucson. It is the employer of nearly 11,000 people and a major contributor to our many worthy causes. We have been bought. I would like to see the workers on every level at Raytheon walk out of that chamber of horrors and lead the city of Tucson to show the world how to choose integrity over money and life over death. The world is on fire and only the workers have the power to put it out.

Gretchen Nielsen Tucson AZ

Robeson portrait

Would like your help to track down a portrait of Paul Robeson done on his visit to Panama by Panamanian Afro-Antillean artist Victor Bruce from Colon, Panama, on the Atlantic coast.

Bruce is 78 years old. He tells me he painted Robeson after seeing his picture in the Panama Tribune local newspaper announcing his visit. He read the paper in the Panama Canal Workers Local Union 700 Hall. After the Paul Robeson cultural event, Bruce and Robeson were pictured in the Panama Tribune exchanging the gift.

Would like to track that Robeson portrait. Bruce mentioned being 16 when he did the painting, so it must have been a Panama visit around 1934.

I would like to see if internationally, we can collectively track down that painting, if it exists, to show what international people’s collective research can do.

I suggest if the painting is found, it be exhibited in Cuba or Panama by the World Peace Council on Fidel’s next birthday.

Josef Ponce Via e-mail

Lame ducks

The recapture of the Senate and the House of Representatives by the Democratic Party illustrates just how much President George W. Bush disappoints the American people. After contributing to the defeat of his own party at the polls he is now asking the same Senators and members of the House of Representatives to return to Washington, D.C., to complete his old agenda as lame ducks.

Lame duck sessions are not a reflection of a healthy democracy. It permits an old political agenda to be continued.

George W. Bush under the disguise of protecting us from terrorism is spying on all Americans who are against his policies in Iraq. After he has lost at the polls he has the nerve to continue full steam ahead, lying about cooperating in the future with the new Congress while seeking continued support for John Bolton to represent the U.S. in the UN.

Bolton should never have been there to begin with. The media is now trying to positively message us concerning Bush’s replacement for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. His father’s former CIA Director Robert M. Gates is all of a sudden rehabilitated and clean as a whistle on the Iran-Contra affair.

Once again the media is spinning a web of protection for the Bush administration. This is worse than Watergate ever was. How do you make a giant stinking mess look like a place even the Queen of England would like to take a room in?

We need to tell our representatives: no to Gates, no to Bolton and no to any laws passed by lame ducks that undermine our constitutional rights to privacy by permitting the indiscriminate use of wiretaps.

Tom Siblo Shokan NY

Labor steps up in Pa.

The day after the Nov. 7 election, when our job was finished, Lindsay Patterson, president and civil rights chair of United Steel Workers Local 404-38, representing workers in Philadelphia and south Jersey, reflected on the experience. He told me that his local had put over 100 volunteers on the street over the course of the campaign and that the election results showed that people were ready for a change. He added, “Unions built this country and it’s time for unions to take it back. Labor stepped up and did a great job.”

Ben Sears Philadelphia PA

Medicare in Canada

I just read your mail-out about worker journalists. My job is working as an organizer with the Ontario Health Coalition, Canada’s largest provincial health coalition. We are currently running the Ontario leg of a national tour to save Canada’s single-tier public Medicare system. The reason I am writing is to get “on message.”

Whenever I read U.S. material about the Canadian system it seems to be used as an inspirational example. On the other hand, our single-tier Medicare system is actually under major attack. Almost 100 doctors have opted out of Medicare in Quebec alone, open and illegal two-tiering is going on in Quebec and British Colombia, and the new head of the professional association for Canadian doctors is an ardent proponent of privatization, as well as the owner of one of Canada’s largest private hospitals. You get the picture — emergency! Not a super-inspiring model, other than inspiring to fight back.

Johan Boyden Via e-mail

Ken Loach

Referring to Bill Meyer’s recent column (“Some personal favorites at Toronto film fest, PWW 11/11-17), Ken Loach’s new film may be good, but his film “Land and Freedom” was a trotskyite slander of the Popular Front.

Sean Mulligan Via e-mail

Elvira Arellano

Your article (“Immigrant mother defends son’s future,” PWW 11/4-10) mentioned that Elvira Arellano has her computer. Is there any way to e-mail her my support? Thank you for your good work. Mil gracias.

Marianna Fay Via e-mail

Editor’s note: If readers would like to send support messages to Arellano, or ask how to help her cause, you can e-mail Pueblo Sin Fronteras: psf@somosunpueblo.com. Send handwritten letters to Elvira Arellano, c/o 2716 W. Division St., Chicago IL 60622.

NATIONAL CLIPS

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 07:51:00 +0000

FORT BENNING, Ga.: ‘Close torture school,’ thousands demand

Judy Cumbee marched over 150 mileswith scores of peace activists from Montgomery, Ala., to Fort Benning, joining over 20,000 from around the country demanding that the former School of the Americas be closed. “Our tax money needs to go to serve human needs, not militarism,” said Cumbee.

In the face of growing pressure, the Army changed the name of the infamous training center to Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation a few years ago.

The annual protest is held on the date of the 1989 murder in El Salvador of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter by graduates of the “school.”

Ten years ago, SOA/WHINSEC made headlines when the Pentagon released training manuals used at the school that advocated torture, extortion and execution. No independent investigation has yet occurred.

Father Ray Bourgeois, founder of SOA Watch, the organization dedicated to closing the school, helped convince Venezuela, Argentina and Uruguay to stop sending “students” there. Bolivia pledged to withdraw all its soldiers by the end of next year. “A school without students must close,” said the Maryknoll priest.

Over the Nov. 17-19 weekend simultaneous demonstrations against the school were scheduled in Ecuador, El Salvador, Paraguay, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Bolivia and the states of Arizona and California.

RALEIGH, N.C.: Voters elect women to top courts

When Gov. Mike Easley appointed Justice Sarah Parker to become chief justice of the state’s highest court and Patricia Timmons-Goodson to fill Parker’s seat, he selected two winners. Last week Timmons-Goodson became the first African American woman elected to a statewide judicial seat. She won handily, receiving strong support even in heavily Republican districts. Chief Justice Parker defeated a conservative judge who was endorsed by Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

Meanwhile, Alabama voters elected the first woman chief justice of that state’s Supreme Court. Sue Bell Cobb defeated incumbent Drayton Nabors Jr., beating him by 12,000 votes on his home turf of Jefferson County. A top Alabama Republican insider, Nabors was former finance director for Republican Gov. Bob Riley, who was re-elected.

During her campaign, Cobb told voters, “I would be proud to be the first woman elected chief justice. But more important, I would be the first chief justice in at least 66 years with at least 25 years of judicial experience and a background as both a trial and appellate judge.”

ASHLAND, Ala.: Tyson settles discrimination suit

Throughout the hot summer of 2003, African-American workers at the Tyson chicken processing plant here endured locked restrooms, some with a “whites only” sign posted on the door, and Klan-like racist abuse. In 2005, 13 workers had had enough and filed suit with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. On Nov. 7, workers reached a settlement with the corporation. Racism will cost the company $871,000. Further, plant and maintenance managers were replaced and Tyson has to report to the EEOC on progress in creating a safe, equitable workplace.

Barbara Arnwine, executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, who represented workers, called the settlement “a significant advancement” for the 300-plus workers at Tyson’s Ashland plant, saying it will “ensure a fair and better work environment for employees of all races.”

BOONVILLE, Ind.: Miners sue Alcoa for toxic dumping

Around the country, workers, their families and communities are paying the price for corporate dumping of toxic waste. Now 41 miners, members of United Mine Workers Local 1189, are fighting back. They have filed suit against Alcoa in Warrick County Circuit Court charging the company with disposal of deadly substances in at least 12 open pits which had been used for strip mining.

Peter Racher, the miners’ attorney, said, “These are folks for whom honorable work at the mine was their livelihood. They expected that through hard work they would enjoy good lives. Instead, through hard work they got sick, and with illnesses that are life-threatening. Every one of these people, their lives have been completely upended.”

The UMWA estimates that Alcoa dumped 71 million cubic feet of chromium sludge and 69 million gallons of tar pitch, known toxins. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management has called the site a health hazard.

WASHINGTON: ‘Dream’ honored with King memorial groundbreaking

On four acres on the Capitol Mall near memorials to Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt, 5,000 Americans joined politicians, civil rights leaders, and artists at the groundbreaking for a memorial honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It will be the first in the nation’s capital honoring an African American and the “dream” of the civil rights movement.

In 1997, President Clinton authorized the use of federal land for the $100 million project. To date, $65 million has been raised and the new Congress will consider an appropriation for construction, expected to be completed in 2008.

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

Red states say America needs a raise

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 07:43:00 +0000

Voters in six states that helped send Bush back to the White House for a second term in 2004 sent a different message this year, approving ballot measures that increase the minimum wage in their states.

Congress has frozen the federal minimum wage at $5.15 an hour since 1997. But more than half of the states — 29 plus the District of Columbia — have taken action, either through referendum or legislatively, to raise the state minimum.

On Nov. 7, voters in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and Ohio cast their ballots to raise their own wages or give their neighbors a raise. That increased the number of states who have raised the minimum to 35, the same number required for a constitutional amendment.

“This provides additional momentum for us to move the minimum wage forward at the federal level and in additional states,” said the Rev. Paul Sherry, coordinator of Let Justice Roll, the national coalition spearheading the campaign.

“Let Justice Roll and our partners succeeded in making minimum wage the values issue of the 2006 electoral campaign,” he said. “It’s an issue that brings people together across all lines. We believe — and people responded to this — a job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it.”

Sherry, LJR organizers from five states, business leaders and the Rev. Bob Edgar, executive director of the National Council of Churches, spoke to reporters Nov. 13 via teleconference.

Building on the momentum from the Nov. 7 victories, they said, the campaign is moving to turn up the heat. Sherry and Edgar said religious leaders from a wide variety of faiths plan to meet immediately with Congress and the White House to push increasing the federal minimum wage onto the front burner of the agenda for the 110th Congress. Within days of the election, LJR received calls from labor, community and faith-based activists in Kansas, New Hampshire and Oklahoma inviting them into their states to work on raising the minimum wage there.

Despite the much-ballyhooed increase in jobs, Ohio workers are poor, said Katie Heins, LJR lead organizer in Ohio. Official unemployment rates in the state are low, but Cincinnati and Cleveland are two of the poorest cities in the country, she said. In rural areas like Athens County, folks are working, but the poverty rate has skyrocketed.

A yardstick of support for increasing the minimum wage came early in Ohio’s two-year campaign when the state’s labor-based LJR coalition collected 750,000 signatures of registered voters from around the state just to place the issue on the ballot. It was noteworthy that on Election Day, CNN exit polling showed that a majority of all churchgoers in Ohio including many evangelicals voted for the minimum wage hike, Heins noted.

Adnan Durrani, president of Condor Ventures, told reporters, “From the point of view of a venture capitalist, especially in Ohio [where] we’ve invested in over 120 companies, the economic case for minimum wage is closed and shut. It is a sound business decision to increase the minimum wage.” Durrani pointed out that “90 percent of each $1 increase in the minimum wage directly impacts the economy,” making it “a direct lever” triggering broad positive results. He said, “It increases employment. It increases retail sales. It increases the distribution of income.”

In Montana, 65 percent of voters cast their ballots for Bush in 2004. But this year, said Doug Mitchell, campaign manager for Raise Montana, 73 percent approved raising the minimum wage. It is “a strong bipartisan statement that is going to send a very clear message to Washington, D.C., that even ‘red states’ like Montana stand firmly behind workers.” he said.

dwinebr696 @ aol.com

Lizard lickin good!

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 11:35:00 +0000

Workers’ Correspondence

Country living can surpass city lifestyle

One week ago I changed my status from a lifelong Chicago suburbanite to the newest resident of the small town of Zebulon, N.C.

Although I find myself with the minor annoyance of being about the only person in town who still uses the grammatically correct salutation of “you” vs. “you all,” country living still has its benefits.

One such perk is the unbridled free-flowing fun of small town signature events, such as the annual Lizard Lick Olympics that I had the pleasure of attending Oct. 28 in beautiful downtown Lizard Lick, N.C., formerly population 14, although I was told it has grown some recently.

In addition to the usual country music, dancing and the obligatory hush puppy culinary treats, the grand finale of the town festival was their annual Lizard Race, conducted by the consummately cordial honorary mayor, Charles Wood. I still haven’t been given a straight answer as to whether Mr. Wood is an official mayor of a real town or merely a friendly figurehead.

Nonetheless, when “hizzoner” gave the “On your mark, get set, go!” an uncanny reverence fell over the country crowd as the lizards did their slip and slide up the incline, racing their way to the winner’s circle.

I really don’t recall which of the small lizards won the lightweight race but in the large lizard category, it was the bearded dragon “Spike” of Wendell who took top spoils.

I’m still asking myself about the trade-off I’ve made. I no longer have a CompUSA and Best Buy around the corner. I don’t have 10 or more world-class entertainment groups at my beck and call any weekend in Chicago. But now that I’ve experienced the Lizard Lick Olympics, I’ve concluded that I’m glad I made the move. There simply are some things that money can’t buy: sheer pure country fun that’s “Lizard Lickin’ good”… y’all!

LETTERS

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 07:43:00 +0000

Beat ’em at their own game

With regard to your recent article on the NLRB decision that nurses are supervisors (PWW 10/7-13), I have this story to tell.

In the early fifties my father, who headed the Philadelphia office of a national fundraising organization, organized a union of all the professional employees of that organization.

Management told them they couldn’t be in a union because they were supervisors. Their answer was, “OK. We’re an association.”

They didn’t go to the NLRB. They struck for recognition and won. The last I heard, their union, the Association of Professional Personnel, still exists as an affiliate of the SEIU and is bigger than it was then.

Go thou and do likewise.

Eliot Kenin Emeryville CA

The writer is a member of the American Musicians Union and a retired member of the Service Employees union.

What’s going on in Russia?

I am an avid reader of your newspaper and Political Affairs, but I do not see many articles on what is going on in Russia and what the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is doing. I know of the two books available through International Publishers, “Socialism Betrayed” and “Heroic Struggle, Bitter Defeat,” which cover the collapse of socialism in Russia and which I intend to buy, but I sure wish someone at the PWW would cover what is going on in Russia more in depth and also what were the problems that caused the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to collapse.

G. De Santis Via e-mail

Rocket fuel poisoning water, food

The National Academy of Sciences has released its long anticipated report on the human health effects of perchlorates, a byproduct of rocket fuel. Perchlorates, which are a common pollutant near military sites, have recently been found in drinking water in 35 states as well as in 93 percent of lettuce and milk.

Along with the report, the Environmental Protection Agency has set drinking water standards indicating that perchlorates are roughly 10 time more toxic to humans than the Department of Defense has been claiming. Perchlorates can inhibit thyroid function, cause birth defects and lower IQs, and are considered particularly dangerous to children. Monitoring wells across the U.S. are now finding perchlorate levels as high as 30,000 times what the EPA indicates would be safe exposure.

To avoid liability, the Pentagon is currently pressuring Congress to pass a new bill that states the military does not have to adhere to any environmental regulations (as a matter of national security).

Please take 30 seconds to send a quick online letter urging your congressperson to protect the nation’s food and water by reducing perchlorate pollution. Take action and learn more about this issue here: . Please also forward this message to interested friends and colleagues.

Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space Brunswick ME

Useful news on Latinos

Hello, my name is Alexander Monarrez Maldonado. I recently started a show on public access television in Tucson, Ariz. The show is entitled “The Latino Doctrine” and is seen weekly on Access Tucson. The show airs every Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. on Comcast channel 73 or Cox channel 98 and every Thursday night/Friday morning at 1 a.m. on Comcast channel 72 or Cox channel 97.

The show focuses on Latino-related news from immigration to voting issues. Being a reader of your newspaper, I find the articles very interesting and more to the point that I am trying to reach to my viewers, as compared to national and local newspapers. I have found myself using many of your articles along with the byline of the writer. Just thought you would like to know that your newspaper is very important and that people are interested in hearing this news. Comments and opinions are always welcome.

Alexander Monarrez Maldonado Via e-mail

On ‘tree huggers’

Thanks for the article on Latina environmental activists. Mujeres de La Tierra and earlier women’s groups like the Mothers of East L.A. have been leaders in bringing together quality of life and standard of living issues as our communities’ clout has grown. It’s been great working with them on the Latino Congreso and on the many issues.

I think most of them are “tree huggers” too, as I am, and that would support protecting endangered species in our backyards as well as hundreds of miles away. We need more trees, more open space; we need to preserve agaves (but not hug them) and black walnut trees; and even welcome the sight of coyotes in the hills of Northeast L.A.

Rosalio Muñoz Los Angeles CA

Shut down Guantanamo!

The following is the text of a letter I recently sent to Vice President Dick Cheney:

I demand that Congress act now to immediately close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center which has been declared by the United Nations to be a torture facility. Officials in the Bush administration and other government agencies must be held accountable for the deliberate and systematic violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

I also demand the immediate closing of all secret prisons and torture facilities set up in countries around the world by the CIA, Pentagon and other U.S. government entities and an immediate end to the policy of so-called extraordinary renditions whereby the United States is engaging in bilateral agreements with foreign governments to engage in torture of persons who are in the custody of U.S. military and law enforcement agencies.

This is to all you wealthy and powerful. All the lies, manipulation, exploitation, destruction, torture and inhuman treatment towards your fellow humans will come back to haunt you.

Joel Lamkins Enfield CT

NATIONAL CLIPS

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 06:57:00 +0000

SPRINGFIELD, Va.: Military newspapers say Rumsfeld must go ... and then he does

A Nov. 4 editorial published simultaneously by Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times and Marine Corps Times argues that the situation in Iraq has devolved into “chaos” and declares “Donald Rumsfeld must go.”

On Nov. 8, as the World went to press, President Bush announced that Rumsfeld was stepping down, no doubt in response to these and other voices calling for Rumsfeld’s removal.

The editorial observes, “One rosy assurance after another has been handed down by President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld: ‘mission accomplished,’ the insurgency is ‘in its last throes’ and ‘back off, we know what we’re doing,’ are a few choice examples.”

Noting that retired military leaders have previously criticized the Bush administration’s handling of the Iraq war, it says now active-duty officers in all branches are voicing their “misgivings about the war’s planning, execution and dimming prospects for success.”

The editorial continues, “Regardless of which party wins Nov. 7, the time has come, Mr. President, to face the hard bruising truth: Donald Rumsfeld must go.”

The four newspapers are sold to military personnel and are published by Gannett, a multinational media corporation with 90 daily newspapers, including USA Today, and 23 television stations in the U.S.

ATLANTA: Suit seeks to protect Latinos’ civil rights

When Marie Justeen Mancha, 15, was dressing for school in September, she suddenly heard men yelling “Mexican” and “illegals” in her living room. She went to investigate and found five armed men in her home, one with his hand on his gun holster. “My heart just dropped,” she said. Then, nearly two dozen armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents roamed through the house without presenting a search warrant.

Mancha’s family had become victims of a massive raid targeting allegedly undocumented workers who worked at the Crider Corp. poultry plant in Stillmore, Ga. Over 125 people were arrested.

The Southern Poverty Law Center filed suit Nov. 1, charging Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and ICE administrators and agents used “Gestapo-like” tactics against people in three southern Georgia counties, breaking into homes and stopping motorists “because they looked Mexican.”

“This was a widespread sweep, based largely on racial and ethnic profiling, in violation of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the United States Constitution,” said Mary Bauer, a lawyer representing the victims. “Agents saw brown skin and made a presumption of illegality.”

“We want to send out a strong message that if they do this in other communities, they are going to be sued,” Bauer said.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.: Anti-gay religious leader resigns in scandal

Rev. Ted Haggard, 50, pastor of the 14,000 member New Life Church and president of the National Association of Evangelicals, representing 30 million evangelical Christians, was used to participating in White House conference calls, advising foreign leaders and meeting with senators about Supreme Court nominations. Time Magazine named him one of the country’s top 25 influential evangelicals. Colorado’s Nov. 7 ballot featured a gay marriage ban spearheaded by Haggard.

But on Nov. 2, Michael Jones, 49, went on local talk radio and said that he had sex with Haggard, monthly, over the past three years and sold him metamphetamine. Haggard had responded to an ad Jones placed in a gay newspaper and on the web site Rentboy.com.

On Nov. 5, in a letter read to the congregation, Haggard wrote, “The fact is I am guilty of sexual immorality. And I take responsibility for the entire problem. I am a deceiver and a liar. There’s a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it for all of my adult life.”

Haggard is married with five children. “My intent was never to destroy his family,” Jones told the Denver Post. “My intent was to expose a hypocrite.”

HARRISBURG, Pa.: Seniors pay more, insurance companies get richer

Preliminary results of a study by the Pennsylvania Alliance of Retired Americans indicates that seniors who relied solely on Medicare Part D, the Bush prescription drug plan, paid more in co-pays and monthly premiums, had coverage gaps and saw the number of their medications available under the plan shrink. The big winners, according to an August Wall Street Journal report, are insurance companies, whose second-quarter profits skyrocketed.

The study, commissioned to track 62 seniors across the state, will end January 2007. The data only reflects the first six months of research.

“Based on Pennsylvania seniors enrolled in this study, Medicare Part D has not produced any significant or tangible financial savings for seniors in need of a comprehensive prescription drug benefit,” the preliminary report said. “Furthermore, this legislation has potentially significant deleterious effects on health-related outcomes for Pennsylvania seniors.”

WellPoint, Inc., one of the largest insurance companies covering senior health care, told the Wall Street Journal that its profits shot up by 34 percent, while Humana reported a 52 percent increase with the implementation of Medicare Part D. UnitedHealth, another major insurance player, had a 26 percent jump.

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

A Palestinian view Meltdown looms

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 10:24:00 +0000

In spite of all the differences between the Palestinian and Israeli situations, they have one thing in common: both sides are suffering government crises causing internal instability.

On the Palestinian side, where the situation is much more serious, there is almost complete paralysis. The crisis started with the election victory of Hamas that created the present government and was aggravated when this government reached a deadlock in its relations with the Palestinian Authority presidency on the one hand and with the international community, on which the PA is financially dependent, on the other.

Armed with two factors, the Hamas government has been trying to change the rules of the game vis-a-vis Israel and the international community. One is the complete failure of the peace approach of all previous governments. The second is the legitimacy bestowed upon the government by the fair and transparent elections through which it came to power.

Fatah, meanwhile, has found itself in an awkward position. On the one hand, it is the main opposition as the largest minority party in parliament. At the same time, it holds power because Fatah’s head, Mahmoud Abbas, is also president. The Palestinian constitution — which was amended as a result of internal and external pressure on the previous parliament in order to reduce the powers of the late President Yasser Arafat by shifting some of his responsibilities to the prime minister — ensures that government and presidency have comparable levels of power. In the current climate, that has meant stalemate.

Fatah, which had never been out of power since the modern national Palestinian liberation movement began in the early 1960s, is not adapting easily to a spell in opposition. In particular, the movement seems to have no patience with the constitutional stipulation that the only way to regain power is through elections after four years. Since the January elections, Fatah has been looking to change the situation in ways that are either unconstitutional or for which it lacks the necessary power.

The current attempt at dissolving the government is unrealistic because any new government would still need a vote of confidence from the Hamas majority in parliament. If an emergency government is installed, it can stay in office no longer than a month according to the constitution. That allows no time for improving conditions on the ground. Finally, the option of early elections for both parliament and the presidency is risky because the balance of power between Fatah and Hamas has not changed enough to ensure significantly different results.

Meanwhile, the donor community, which also wants an end to the Hamas government, has imposed financial sanctions of a kind that have been punishing the Palestinian people collectively and is pushing the PA toward collapse without significantly reducing the strength and popularity of Hamas as a political movement.

Instead, the sanctions have brought the Palestinian government and other institutions of Palestinian authority close to collapse. Since the general strike of civil servants started, government has been unable to provide any services, including vital education and health services. Five weeks after the beginning of the school year, there has been no teaching except in the United Nations Relief and Works Agency schools, and due to internal tensions, the Palestinian security services have completely stopped functioning except when engaging in sporadic internal fighting, this mostly in Gaza.

In fact, the situation in Gaza is drifting gradually toward anarchy and more internal clashes, as the combination of growing poverty and government paralysis takes deeper hold. In the West Bank, the state of paralysis is encouraging Israel to expand its presence, whether in terms of settlement building, the separation wall or, on a security level, even reviving the role of the Israeli civil administration.

The absence of any political prospects, combined with the continuing unilateral Israeli practices — whether political or military — the economic deterioration, and the unstable internal Palestinian situation have three consequences: a complete separation of Gaza from the West Bank, anarchy and internal violence in Gaza, and further Israeli reoccupation in the West Bank.

Such scenarios are neither conducive to stability in the Palestinian-Israeli context nor in the regional context, especially when we take into consideration that the leading power in Palestine has a regional dimension of a kind that has been deeply worrying to many players in the region and internationally.

The only way to reverse this deterioration is to change Israeli policy so that it pursues negotiations to seek an end to the occupation. The only way for this to happen is for policy makers in Washington to once and for all recognize that the Israeli occupation is the ultimate cause of the current deterioration not only in Palestine-Israel, but, as a result of related causes, in the region.

Ghassan Khatib is the former Palestinian Authority minister of planning, representing the Palestinian People’s Party. This article is reprinted from www.bitterlemons.org, a Palestinian-Israeli web site of which Khatib is co-editor.

LETTERS

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 09:55:00 +0000

It’s that simple

The Associated Press reported on Oct. 27 that former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, one of the most listened-to economists of all time, lightly dismissed the Republican furor over the Social Security “crisis.” Greenspan is quoted as saying that an assembled group could solve any Social Security problems: “It would take them 15 minutes. It would take them 15 minutes only because 10 minutes was used for pleasantries.”

Throughout his political career, George W. Bush has tried to panic the American people over an imagined “crisis” in Social Security. His stated solution, like almost all capitalist “solutions” to government programs throughout the world, is to privatize it. The unstated solution, and the one that Bush and his ilk have demanded since Social Security was created by the Roosevelt administration in 1935, is to destroy Social Security.

Jim Lane Dallas TX

From Scotland: vision and country music

I am unsure whether or not my small contribution would be of any use. I live in Scotland and have been an avid fan of American country music all my life. This is where I feel the working-class roots are buried and thanks to the huge conglomerates is now no longer related to the working classes. In fact traditional country music is no longer played on the radio in America.

I am also a totally blind person about to embark on a three-year BA in social science at Bell College in Hamilton, Scotland.

I use a program called window-eyes, www.gwmicro.com. This program transfers text to speech and like other screen reading programs on the market has changed the lives of visually impaired people worldwide.

We have a long way to go to become halfway equal to our sighted counterparts, however these types of program have helped long-term blind people gain employment for the first time in their lives.

I enjoyed journalism very much and would have loved to continue further, but I have a genuine caring for people and could never become hard-faced like a majority of tabloid journalists are.

If there is any way I could contribute to your newspaper please let me know, as I am working class and always will be. My credentials are steeped in the coal mining industry and in my love of country music through my Mom’s influence.

John Duff Via e-mail

Country music in the fight!

Having lived in Nashville for several years, I really appreciated Tim Wheeler’s story “Labor spearheads fight for southern Senate seats” in the Oct. 28 edition. There is an interesting footnote to the tremendous efforts in Tennessee to elect Harold Ford. I’m also a country music fan and I was delighted to learn about an organization called Music Row Democrats in Nashville. (Music Row is the heart of the country music scene in Nashville.)

They are in full mobilization mode raising money and getting country music fans involved in the Ford campaign. They were actually formed before the 2004 elections and campaigned for progressive southern candidates and John Kerry in those elections, along with producing some really sharp country and western anti-Bush songs and distributing them to raise money for candidates. In their own words the Music Row Democrats “are the producers, songwriters, musicians, managers, agents, promoters, publicists, video directors and producers, editors, journalists and countless others that built and maintained the careers of some of Americas biggest stars.”

They say on their web site, “We maintain the proud tradition of country music, and all music that speaks to the lives of ordinary working people.”

That the group is working so hard to elect the first African American senator from Tennessee since Reconstruction speaks volumes. These are people dedicated to rescuing country music from right-wing corporate clutches and returning it to its pro-working-class roots. Check out their web site: musicrowdemocrats.com.

Scott Marshall Chicago IL

Korea

Thanks for two fine articles about Korea.

I have followed world events since my childhood in the 1950s and I’ve always been aware that the DPRK (North Korea) has consistently made two demands: The first has been for bilateral talks to finally end the Korean War by signing a peace treaty with the U.S. The second is for a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.

U.S imperialism insists on multi-party talks instead of one-on-one talks so as to avoid making peace with the DPRK. Worse yet, imperialism has always opposed a nuclear-free Korean peninsula because it would mean that the U.S. military would have to stop bringing nuclear weapons into Korean ports.

In spite of the fact that the DPRK has repeated these very reasonable demands for 50 years, the big-business-owned press never mentions them, which allows a Bush administration spokesperson to have the audacity to say, “We don’t know what the North Koreans want.”

Joe Bernick Tucson AZ

Surviving prison

Greetings from Los Angeles. I enjoy reading PWW!

I would like to see articles on prison survival techniques. I wanna see articles on how to make shoes, clothing, food, medicine, electronics and toys ... It would be good to know how to deal with abusive guards and cops. I wanna know how to file complaints or deal with the red tape of the prison system or social workers.

A lot of people get sent to prison for false or unfair reasons. Prison survival techniques are important. It would be nice to understand group psychology and sociology. A lot of people cannot cope with being under stress and go nuts. I especially want to know how to deal with group situations where one person may put down others or make stuff up just as a means to impress people or promote themselves. I wanna know any and all info!

Amy Jakoby Via e-mail

NATIONAL CLIPS

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 07:32:00 +0000

WASHINGTON: Troops tell Congress ‘Bring them home’

Active duty military personnel are telling their members of Congress, “As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American forces and bases from Iraq. Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home.” Called “An Appeal for Redress from the War in Iraq,” the statement is an initiative by Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace and Military Families Speak Out.

“We are not urging any form of civil disobedience or anything that would be illegal,” said Navy Seaman Jonathan Hutto. “We are saying to our active duty family that you have a right to send an appeal to a Congress member without reprisal.”

Marine Sgt. Liam Madden, one of the organizers, said he opposes the war because of the absence of weapons of mass destruction and lack of a link to al-Qaeda.

The campaign has already generated hundreds of e-mails to Congress since its launch earlier this month. The groups plan to deliver the messages to the new Congress on Martin Luther King Day in 2007.

NEW ORLEANS: Immigrant workers fight for wages

“When we weren’t paid, we didn’t have money for food,” said Sergio de Leon, who is working in this city’s St. Bernard Parish, cleaning toxic mud and mold from schools. According to the Advancement Project, there are 30,000-100,000 immigrant workers in the Gulf region. A study by Tulane University and University of California-Berkeley said 25 percent of construction and restoration workers are undocumented — a situation ripe for super-exploitation. The Southern Poverty Law Center filed three lawsuits and sent a letter to Bush signed by 20,528 people, demanding full enforcement of federal wage and job safety standards.

The first of the lawsuits has been settled. Belfor USA Group Inc., a German corporation operating in 20 countries on disaster recovery, was sued on behalf of thousands of immigrant workers who said they were denied overtime pay. The corporation settled in September for $223,000 and agreed to pay overtime.

“Lawsuits alone won’t stop the widespread exploitation of workers that’s going on in New Orleans,” said J.J. Rosenbaum, a lawyer with the center’s Immigrant Justice Project. “The people working in New Orleans to rebuild its schools, hospitals and university buildings need and deserve the protection of the federal government.”

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.: Voting rights upheld

It might be hard to imagine that a drunk driving conviction resulted in the loss of a person’s right to vote, but that was the case here until Oct. 26, when a 5-4 decision by the state Supreme Court confirmed the rights of people convicted of some felonies to vote. While the decision came just the day before the last day to register for the Nov. 7 election, it is still hailed as a victory for democracy.

The ruling applies to an estimated 250,000 Alabamans who had lost their right to vote because of DUI, trespass, liquor violations or attempted burglary. People convicted of violent crimes, like murder, did not have their right to vote restored.

According to a new Sentencing Project study, “A Decade of Reform: Felony Disenfranchisement Policy in the U.S.,” 5.3 million Americans cannot vote because they were convicted of a felony, even though they have served their time.

African Americans are the hardest hit, the report says, noting, “One in 12 African Americans is disenfranchised because of convictions — five times the rate of non-African-Americans.”

The trend, though, is restoration of voting rights. In the past 10 years, 600,000 people in 16 states have regained their right to vote. Florida, Kentucky and Virginia remain states with most restrictive voting laws.

CHARLESTON, W.Va.: More deaths on the job

Another coal miner died at work Oct. 30, bringing this year’s death toll to 43.

The miner, whose name had not been released at press time, was a member of the United Mine Workers union working in Bluestone Coal’s Double Bonus No. 65 mine on Pinnacle Creek. He was crushed between a shuttle car, used to transport coal, and the wall of the mine. His co-worker sustained shoulder and chest injuries.

About 70 miners at Double Bonus have produced 193,397 tons of coal so far this year. In 2004, the state cited the owner, James C. Justice, for 152 violations.

Explosions and crushing hazards are not limited to mining. On Oct. 25, three steelworkers at Mittal Steel’s Burns Harbor, Ind., mill were severely burned when a pipe that funneled hot air to the blast furnace burst.

Robert Oberle, 60, and Otto Barrios, 49, are out of the hospital but David “Harry” Lowe, 48, remains in intensive care.

“When people downsize, I think safety is compromised,” said Oberle. “It’s getting to be where there’s a lot of close calls.”

The furnace, used to make iron, is out of production while an investigation is under way.

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