People Before Profit blog

LETTERS

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 08:59:00 +0000

War questions

Is it true if we withdraw troops from Iraq that Iraqis supporting the U.S. would be killed? Does that mean U.S. supporters are not being killed now, and that only Iraqis against the U.S. occupation have been killed so far?

If so, doesn’t that mean there couldn’t be many Iraqis around supporting the U.S.; and why should our citizens be dying?

If not so, and Iraqis on the U.S. side are being killed, then how much worse do things have to get before the occupation is as bad as the withdrawal?

Erskine Finlayson Via e-mail

Bring them home

Protest music has been around for thousands of years. It just leaks out every so often and helps make history.

A group of young people and not-so-young people have gotten together to sing one of my songs that I wrote around 1965 about the Vietnam War. And they’ve done what I did a few years ago; they’re singing it about the situation in Iraq. “Bring ’em home!”

What they are saying is we need to send the politicians a message in a language they understand: Election Day votes. Here in New York, voting on the Working Families line is the best way to tell the politicians, bring them home, bring them home.

We’re in a very dangerous situation. The problems in the Middle East are not going away — they’re getting worse. Churchill said anybody who thinks, when they get into a war, that they know what’s going to happen, is fooling themselves. With all the power that the American military establishment has, they still cannot predict all the things that are going to happen.

To quote Martin Luther King, the weakness of violence is that it always creates more violence. Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.

Back in the sixties, I’d go from college to college to college singing songs. That’s how folk songs were shared. Sure, some person who thought it was an unpatriotic song might boo, but a few seconds later he’d be drowned out by a few thousands voices who started cheering enthusiastically. Made the poor guy start thinking.

Change comes through small organizations. You divide up the jobs: Some people sing bass, some sing soprano. Some copy the sheet music, others drive and pick up those who ride the subway. You take small steps. They all add up.

Take a small step today. Here’s your part: Tell your family and your friends about what we can do to send a message to the politicians to bring our troops home. And then vote on Election Day.

The very worst thing is for people to say: “My vote doesn’t count. So why bother to vote at all?” Our votes do count. And if we vote to bring the troops home, they count even more.

Let’s bring them home. Watch the video:

www.workingfamiliesparty.org/

bringthemhome/

In solidarity,

Pete Seeger Via e-mail

Slavery’s legacy

A large portrait of Gen. Robert E. Lee in full military gear hangs in the Lee County Commission meeting room directly over the commissioners. I have on many occasions asked them to remove this picture but they refused. The reason given is that this defender of slavery is the namesake of Lee County. Lee County has never had an African American elected to office, so it can be said that this portrait says “whites only.”

I explain to them that it was hung up directly after the Brown v. Board of Education decision and that it is not only a moral issue but a violation of the Voting Rights Act.

Mary Baldauf Fort Myers FL

Help still needed

I’m an editor and writer based in Santa Fe, N.M., and I’m researching a book on the 1951 execution of Willie McGee, to be published by HarperCollins.

McGee was an African American man from Laurel, Miss., who was convicted on a charge of raping a white woman named Willette Hawkins. He was defended, in part, by the Civil Rights Congress, and his case was covered extensively by The Daily Worker. McGee’s defense team alleged that his relationship with Mrs. Hawkins was consensual and that no rape occurred. Through three trials and numerous appeals, these and other arguments failed to save him. He was executed on May 8, 1951.

The case became an internationally famous cause in the late forties and early fifties. Progressives, socialists and communists from all over the United States — particularly in New York, Chicago and the Bay Area — got involved.

I’m writing to urge anyone who knows something about the case or the era to contact me.

I’m also searching for sons, daughters, spouses, relatives and friends of several prominent figures who worked on behalf of McGee’s defense, including Bella Abzug, Aubrey Grossman, Jessica Mitford, Vito Marcantonio, Paul Robeson, Emanuel Bloch, John Coe, Stanley Edelson, Harry Raymond, Robert F. Hall, Buddy Green, Walter Lowenfels, Norman Mailer, Ann Braden, Howard Fast, George Marshall and William and Louise Patterson.

Finally, I’m attempting to locate surviving sons or daughters of Willie McGee’s wife, Rosalee McGee. I’m reachable by e-mail: aheard@outsidemag.com; or phone: (505) 989-7100 x 120.

The first letter I wrote in the PWW in October 2004 helped a lot. Thanks.

Alex Heard Santa Fe NM

Oops, should have been Hoosiers

In the letter to the editor published in the 10/14-20 PWW my letter was titled by the paper “Labor energized in Indy races.” The term “Indy” is used for the city of Indianapolis, not the state of Indiana.

“Indy” has other references too, such as the independent news, but when using it in reference to events in the state of Indiana it means the city of Indianapolis. To call Indiana “Indy” is like calling the state of Michigan “Motown” or Pennsylvania “Philly” or closer to home, Illinois “Chi-town.” Thank you for your understanding. Peace, and keep up the good work.

“Obama in ’08” favorite son of the great state of “Chi-town.”

Paul S. Kaczocha Gary IN

NATIONAL CLIPS

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 06:07:00 +0000

TAMPA, Fla.: Students walk out on right-wing author

“I don’t think it’s appropriate to pay her [Ann Coulter, author of ‘Godless: The Church of Liberalism’] that much to come and spew hatred and ignorance,” said Allison Rhodes, a senior at South Florida University.

Rhodes led a walkout of over 150 students during Coulter’s Oct. 19 lecture here. The lecture was paid for by taking $35,275 out of the student activities fund.

Rhodes does not object to having conservative speakers brought to campus, she said. But she and others were expressing concern over Coulter’s stock-in-trade bigotry and her extreme right-wing views.

Protesting students, all wearing red T-shirts, waved peace signs as they exited the lecture in protest. Outside the auditorium, other demonstrators demanded an end to the Iraq war and justice for Wal-Mart workers.

The crowd attending the lecture included several hundred non-students, some of whom described themselves as “Coulter groupies.”

BALTIMORE: Civil rights group wants equal school funding

With the cost of college education skyrocketing, the Maryland Coalition for Equity and Excellence in High Education is suing Gov. Robert Ehrlich (R) and Higher Education Secretary Calvin Burnett for failing to adequately fund the state’s historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU).

The suit charges that the state failed to implement desegregation, including equal funding, outlined in the U.S. Supreme Court decision U.S. v. Fordice. The intent of the decision is to bring HBCUs on par with predominantly white universities.

“The coalition enthusiastically embraces this action to resolve the matter of the lack of parity and equity between historically Black colleges and universities and traditionally white institutions and is resolved in making this a launching pad for a national discussion,” said coalition President David Burton. “Previous actions to address this matter did not result in responsive action that satisfied our understanding of current law; therefore a lawsuit is in order.”

Action by the state’s Commission on Higher Education was the straw that broke the camel’s back, said Burton. Its unfair funding decisions, including its approval of duplicate Master of Business Administration programs at Towson State University and the University of Baltimore while denying Morgan State, Howard and other HBCUs appropriate money, was simply too much to bear.

Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is considering a possible federal suit.

CHICAGO: Voters to cast ballot on troop withdrawal

Voters in Chicago, suburban Cook County, Springfield, DeKalb, Aurora and Champaign-Urbana will get a chance to make their voices heard on the Iraq war when they go to the polls Nov. 7. In these jurisdictions the ballot includes the nonbinding question, “Shall the United States Government immediately begin an orderly and rapid withdrawal of all its military personnel from Iraq beginning with the National Guard and Reserves?”

Carl Davidson, co-chair of Chicagoans Against War and Injustice, a leading force in getting the initiative on the ballot, said, “Millions have demonstrated against war, hundreds of towns and cities have passed resolutions against the war, now we are giving every voter a chance to vote their opinion directly in this critical national election. This is one action among many, but they all add up.”

An antiwar ballot measure is also before voters in 139 communities in Massachusetts and in more than a dozen communities in Wisconsin. Last April, Wisconsin voters in 24 of 32 cities and towns voted for immediate withdrawal.

LAS VEGAS: Media campaign spotlights homelessness

There are about 14,000 homeless people in Las Vegas, and the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition’s Committee on Homelessness is using television ads to bring the issue into greater prominence.

“It’s hard just to survive knowing that there’s no chance of you getting a job because you can’t read or write,” says a good-looking young man in a taped street interview for one ad. “I don’t use dope. I don’t smoke crack. I don’t do speed. I don’t drink. It’s the opportunities that are few and far between.”

Shannon West, a regional homeless coordinator, said, “These are real people who are interested in telling their stories.”

The purpose of the campaign is to dispel myths about homeless people and encourage donations to the United Way to provide help.

Linda Lera-Randle El, director of Straight from the Streets, an advocacy group that is defying a city ordinance that evicts homeless people from public parks, said, “We’re getting complacent. We’re used to watching people shuffle down the street with a shopping cart, a mother dragging kids through the homeless corridor, as if it’s the way it’s supposed to be.” Citing the lack of affordable housing and rising gas prices, she added, “They don’t understand that many of the working poor are barely hanging on.”

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

LETTERS

Sat, 21 Oct 2006 06:09:00 +0000

Union addresses dropout rate

The national statistics tell a terrible story: Three out of every 10 students in America who attend a public school as a ninth grader this year will drop out before completing their senior year.

In Illinois, the news is no better. Our state’s high school graduation rate is 74 percent, but only 52 percent of Hispanic and Black students graduate.

The saddest part about these statistics is that this is a problem we can fix. The question is, “Do we have the will?”

On Oct. 3, the National Education Association unveiled a 12-point plan to effectively address the dropout crisis, including early intervention so those most likely to drop out are identified in time to help.

We must create schools that meet students’ needs and present a stimulating and relevant curriculum. We have to create educational opportunities that go well beyond the traditional idea of what a school is and how it operates.

We urge you to support NEA’s plan by becoming a partner in the fight to stop the epidemic. There is information on how to get involved at www.nea.org. You can also help by voting for candidates who support public education.

Great public schools are a basic right for every child. If we all do our part, we can ensure that every child takes full advantage of that right.

Kenneth Swanson Via e-mail Kenneth Swanson is president of the Illinois Education Association.

Fighting sickle cell stigma

There’s quite a lot of stigma toward sickle cell anemia. People can feel guilty because they carry a gene so they choose not to talk about it. But they need to talk about it to start breaking down the barriers and stigma.

Many physicians and scientists, both Black and white, have complained that restrictions against Blacks with the sickle cell trait was senseless.

The trait has been cited to keep Blacks out of the Navy’s submarine service. Blacks have also been charged more for insurance if they had the trait. Chemical industry theories have been expounded for years that sickle cell trait carriers were at special risk in the chemical workplace. Dupont Co. said in 1980 that it routinely gave a pre-employment blood test to all Blacks to determine who might be a sickle cell trait carrier. Today that would be condemned as racial profiling.

Misinformed screening programs and inadequate planning on the part of the medical profession resulted in unnecessary stigma and discrimination. From this confusion a great suspicion arose in the African American community that the sickle cell screening policy was another instrument of genocide.

People are sensitive about screening but you now can be enrolled in a program and start to care for your baby with sickle cell anemia.

J.R. Perry III J.R. Perry III is a sickle cell anemia activist and works for a cure. He has a son who was born with this disease.

Gordon Monroe, 87

It has been my intent for some time to get the word out regarding my father’s death to his Internet community. I know you represent a vast array of organizations, publications and individuals. In his later years, those he knew through Internet correspondence, readers of his numerous editorials and “Thin Book” publications, became the primary source of his intellectual community of teachers and learners, contributing to his spirit of health, wisdom, and will to live. He was a great father, husband, son, orator, writer and world idealist. I am grateful to you all for being a part of his community and contributing to his fruitful and joyful life. If you wish to honor his name and memory make a contribution to the local civil rights group “Kansas Equality Coalition.” Please contact me for the address: monroemsw@kc.rr.com.

With vision for peace and justice,

Megan Monroe Westwood KS

Forever in Iraq

Let’s face it: U.S. troops will be staying in Iraq for a long time, no matter which party controls Congress. Both parties are effectively managed by corporate America, and this brazen Iraq adventure has proven a bonanza for the military-industrial complex, that central expression of corporate political power.

We already know that any serious talk of leaving Iraq is impatiently dismissed by mainline Democrats. And neither party seems to care much that the overwhelming majority of Iraqis express a strong desire for the swift departure of U.S. forces, whom they blame for the ongoing carnage.

Reportedly now, the White House is considering whether to depose the impotent Maliki-led Iraqi government in favor of an emergency “salvation” junta, which would establish martial law backed by U.S. troops. The fact of a December deadline imposed by the International Monetary Fund requiring that new laws be enacted governing ownership of Iraq’s oil riches provides an exquisite urgency to this task.

No elected Iraqi leader would survive signing away his nation’s supreme resource to foreign interests. Thus the need to arrange for an unelected strongman, such as the cat-like Amed Chalabi, who was after all the Pentagon’s original choice for that unsavory role.

Colin Powell once famously cautioned about invading Iraq. “If you break it, you own it,” he opined. But, the loyal general probably wasn’t told that this was exactly Bush’s plan all along.

Cord MacGuire Boulder CO

FDR’s government

Regarding Brian Hokanson’s “Take back Congress” letter (PWW 8/19-25): During the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, personally more conservative than Herbert Hoover, adopted the liberal policies of his wife, Eleanor. From it came the New Deal: Social Security, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Works Projects Administration (WPA), Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and other “alphabet” programs, some of which were rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Wagner Act put the federal government on the side of labor rather than an adversary. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 requiring a 40 hour week, eight-hour day, plus time-and-a-half for overtime pulled us out of the Depression and made recessions since then relatively mild: overtime pay kick-starts the economy.

Joseph J. Kuciejczyk St. Louis MO

More on Chile

Hi. I’m from Chile, Latin America’s most neoliberal country, and I want to know how you see our situation here.

Pablo Ernesto Vera Lisperguer Via email

Cuba prepares for UN vote on blockade

Sat, 21 Oct 2006 05:28:00 +0000

On Nov. 8 the United Nations General Assembly will vote on a Cuban resolution calling for an end to the U.S. economic blockade against Cuba. In preparation for the vote, Deputy Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez held a press conference in Havana, Oct. 2, where he released Cuba’s annual report on the blockade’s impact.

This will be the 15th year for a UN vote on Cuba’s resolution. In the process, support for Cuba has turned into huge majorities. The vote last year was 182 against the blockade, and only four (the U.S., Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau) in support of it.

Speaking Oct. 3 at a neighborhood meeting in San Miguel de Padron, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said that over the past five decades Cuba’s losses from the blockade have amounted to $86.1 billion. Last year they were $4.1 billion.

The report underscores the effects of U.S. policies on other nations. For example, a Brazilian subsidiary of the U.S. Dresser Rand Group bought raw materials from a Cuban-Canadian joint venture. Under U.S. pressure, the turbine manufacturer was recently forced to close the subsidiary down and pay the Treasury Department $171,300.

Japan’s giant Nikon Corp. also falls under embargo rules.

Raydel Sosa Rojas, a 14-year-old Cuban boy, was a guest June 5 in Algiers on World Environment Day. The event at which he was honored was the culmination of a UN-sponsored competition for artwork among young people on environmental themes. Raydel’s painting had been chosen as representative of the art of Latin America and Caribbean youth.

Afflicted with hemophilia, the Cuban student received the plaque and artist supplies given to all of the young honorees. However, the others were each given a Nikon digital camera. A tearful Raydel did not receive one. Nikon chose to comply with U.S. legislation that bans entry into Cuba of foreign products that contain at least 10 percent U.S.-made components.

According to a report on www.cubavsbloqueo.cu, the blockade deprives sick North Americans of life-extending medications. Anti-cancer agents developed by U.S. companies in collaboration with Cuba’s Molecular Immunology Center have, with one recent and notable exception, been blocked from clinical trials in the U.S. (See related story, page 9.)

The Cuban Foreign Ministry report cites Citoprot P as another valuable Cuban drug unavailable to U.S. patients. Apparently effective in healing foot ulcers in people with diabetes, the preparation reduces the incidence of amputations.

Losses to the U.S. travel industry from the blockade are estimated at $996 million last year. U.S. visitors to Cuba, including Cuban Americans, fell from 203,000 in 2003 to 101,000 in 2005. However, Cuba’s overall tourism is thriving, with 2.5 million tourists last year, up from 1.9 million visitors in 1999.

U.S. importers of nickel and cobalt have lost out to world competitors by not having the ability to buy these minerals from nearby Cuba, which has substantial deposits of both. In fact, the Bush administration has recently created “an inter-agency task force on Cuban nickel,” aimed at identifying imports of alloys laced with Cuban nickel.

The U.S. government opened up Cuba to food exports in 2000, and revenues over the next four years amounted to $1 billion. In 2005, however, restrictions were tightened, and sales dropped to $474 million from an anticipated $750 million. U.S. farmers and workers were certainly hurt by these measures.

Speaking in Miami on Oct. 10, U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta announced a task force aimed at tightening blockade enforcement mechanisms. Acosta warned of criminal prosecutions, jail terms and heavy fines. Critics suggest the Miami press conference was an election year maneuver.

Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba’s National Assembly, recently commented on a 1960 State Department memo advocating the denial “of money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.”

Writing in Counterpunch, Alarcon said the U.S. blockade of Cuba is “probably the most prolonged act of genocide in history.” He added, “It began before the majority of Cubans alive today were born.”

GULF COAST UPDATE

Sat, 21 Oct 2006 05:12:00 +0000

Black colleges fight to recover

Southern University at New Orleans, Xavier University and Dillard University make up. New Orleans’ three historically Black colleges, and all three are still struggling in Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath.

SUNO is the only one of the schools where students, faculty and staff are still located in temporary facilities, unable to return to campus. But all three are coping with debt, reduced enrollments and millions of dollars in losses as well as limited resources. Yet administrators at the schools are guardedly optimistic about making a comeback.

The colleges have made technological improvements. SUNO now offers classes and degree programs via the Internet. Xavier, meanwhile, is expanding its renowned pharmacy program after receiving a $12.5 million grant from the nation of Qatar.

Qatar may have been more generous to the colleges than the U.S. government, according to the federal board that oversees the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities. Board consultant William “Bud” Blakey said the Gulf colleges “didn’t get the kind of a share that they needed given the damage that was inflicted.”

SUNO remains particularly vulnerable, Blakey said. “And the question of its survivability as an independent entity and as a baccalaureate-degree institution is open right now.”

All three schools are recognized for producing thousands of pharmacists, musicians and business leaders in a city that was largely Black and mostly poor. Such colleges play an important role in guaranteeing access to higher education for African Americans who have faced and continue to face racist barriers in college admissions.

Black/Brown unity meeting

Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference are hosting a joint training conference and “Black/Brown Unity” banquet on Nov. 10-11 in Jackson, Miss. Concerned about treatment of Latino immigrants, African Americans and others in the wake of the hurricane, the two groups are joining forces for human rights, workers rights and civil rights throughout the South and especially in the Gulf Coast states.

Rents skyrocket

Thousands of former residents cannot move back to New Orleans because of a metro-wide shortage of low-cost apartments. Before Katrina, a third of renters paid $500 or less for their dwelling each month. Post-Katrina, the average advertised rate for apartments in Orleans Parish has skyrocketed 70 percent, from slightly under $800 to $1,357 a month. Rents also have shot up in the suburbs.

The Brookings Institution reports that a lack of affordable housing is one of the biggest impediments to the rebirth of New Orleans.

One of the largest suppliers of low-priced apartments was the Housing Authority of New Orleans, which typically charged residents $85 a month for an apartment at one of the city’s public housing developments. But HANO has brought back just 1,100 of the 5,100 public housing units that were occupied before Katrina, and it plans to demolish the rest. HANO favors a privatized housing market.

Sewage may save wetlands

Tens of millions of gallons of treated sewage from New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish would be pumped into severely eroded coastal marshes to the east of the city under a plan to revitalize 10,000 of acres of wetlands.

The $40 million project would create the largest “wetlands treatment” system of its kind in the world, according to local officials and state scientists.

The project, which is still being refined, calls for diverting sewage plant discharge that now ends up in the Mississippi River and instead pumping it into wetlands. Backers of the plan compare piping in treated wastewater to delivering a steady stream of liquid fertilizer. They say it would accelerate plant growth and, eventually, reverse decades of erosion.

“This is a viable resource that should be utilized. To put it in the river is a miscarriage if the marsh could benefit,” environmental affairs chief Gordon Austin said.

Before the treated sewage is piped out to the marshes, Austin said, it would go through the same two-stage treatment process as currently used: a mechanical treatment to remove most solids, followed by a biological treatment to kill off potentially harmful bacteria.

Gulf Coast Update is compiled by Terrie Albano (talbano@pww.org). Sources include Black College Wire, DiverseEducation.com, MIRA! Action!, and The Times Picayune.

NATIONAL CLIPS

Sat, 21 Oct 2006 05:02:00 +0000

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.: Fighting to preserve desegregated schools

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference has joined with hundreds of African American parents and others in the Vestavia Hills School District, just south of here, to halt school board efforts to overturn longstanding, court-ordered school desegregation.

“The long journey to desegregation has been too slow and too arduous for there to be a change,” said the Rev. Jonathan McPherson, chairman of the local chapter of the SCLC, at a press conference where he was surrounded by other civil rights leaders and activists.

The school board spent taxpayer dollars to go into court to rescind the desegregation order. The case will be heard in federal court Oct. 25.

The SCLC has also demanded that the district’s sports teams drop their name of “Rebels” and bar the use of Confederate flags during athletic events.

DETROIT: Voting to defend affirmative action

Michigan is ground zero in the fight to preserve affirmative action. On Nov. 7, voters will decide whether to amend the state constitution to bar any consideration of race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin in state contracting, education and employment.

The language is deceptive because the effect of the measure would be to gut affirmative action measures aimed at promoting equality.

The ballot initiative, known as Proposal 2, is a clone of California’s Prop. 209, which narrowly passed in 1996. Prop. 2’s backers include many of the same people who backed the California measure, including Ward Connerly of the Sacramento-based American Civil Rights Institute.

One United Michigan, a large coalition of groups, is working to convince voters to say “no” to Prop. 2.

On Sept. 15, One United Michigan convened the Michigan Women’s Summit to educate and mobilize women to oppose Prop. 2. Through a satellite hook-up from the Shriner’s Auditorium in Southfield, over 600 women in Grand Rapids, Flint, Lansing and Marquette participated in discussions on affirmative action and its impact.

Dr. Dorothy Height, a civil rights icon, addressed the summit, as did Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Sen. Debbie Stabenow – both Democrats, Republican state Sen. Laura Toy and columnist Desiree Cooper.

“The passage of Proposal 2 asks us to turn our backs on the proud history of diversity in Michigan and in this country,” said Granholm. “There is no question that the elimination of affirmative action programs in our state would be a devastating blow for Michigan women.”

NEW YORK: Civil rights lawyer gets 28 months

So many people showed up in U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl’s courtroom Oct. 16 that reporters had to watch the proceedings on closed-circuit television in a room nearby.

Koeltl was about to sentence attorney Lynne Stewart, 67, whose career has included defending Black Panthers, antiwar activists and hundreds of poor people. She was convicted in 2005 for helping her client, Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind Muslim cleric, communicate with his followers. Abdel-Rahman is serving time for conspiring to blow up several New York landmarks and to assassinate Egypt’s president.

Bush administration lawyers, citing federal guidelines in terrorism cases, demanded she be sentenced to 30 years in prison. Defying the guidelines, Koeltl imposed a sentence of 28 months.

While condemning Stewart’s conduct in this case, Koeltl cited her 30 years of defending poor, disadvantaged and unpopular clients, saying, “Ms. Stewart performed a public service, not only for her clients but to the nation.”

The case provoked widespread concern that the administration is trying to intimidate lawyers who defend terrorism suspects. Al Dorfman, a retired lawyer, said, “It’s not just Lynne Stewart who is a victim; it’s the Bill of Rights — that’s the victim.”

Stewart, who has been diagnosed with breast cancer, remains out on bail during her appeal. Mohamed Yousry, an Arabic interpreter who assisted Stewart, was sentenced to 20 months, and Ahmed Abdel Sattar, who was charged with working with militants overseas, received 24 years.

GRAND HAVEN, Mich.: U.S. guns to ‘light up’ Great Lakes

Normally, the only sounds that punctuate this small community are the salmon jumping in Lake Michigan. That is about to change. In the name of fighting terrorism, the Bush administration has ordered the Coast Guard to arm its boats, used primarily for rescue operations, with machine guns and use a stretch of water at least five miles offshore as a live fire shooting zone. The order applies to 33 Great Lakes ports, including Cleveland, Rochester, Milwaukee, Duluth and Gary.

“You know exactly what’s going to happen with this,” said Grand Haven resident Bob Foster. “Some boater is going to inadvertently drive through the live fire zone and get blown out of the water.”

Serious environmental concerns about the program have also been raised.

LAKE WORTH, Fla.: Green Party focuses on local races

While the U.S. Senate and House races are garnering headlines, the Green Party has focused primarily on running for local office, often successfully. A case in point: the June election of Cara Jennings, 29, to a seat on the Lake Worth City Council.

Jennings, who received the endorsement of the AFL-CIO, Sierra Club and NOW, received 61.7 percent of the vote, even though her Republican opponent, the head of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, outspent her 3-1.

The Greens are running about 390 candidates nationwide, including many in the South. In the 2002 midterm elections, they were successful in 81 races for 80 types of offices.

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

LETTERS

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 08:24:00 +0000

Not so sweet The following are excerpts of a letter sent to President Bush by New Mexico state Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino and 10 other members of the state the Health and Human Services Legislative Committee: We request that you order FDA commissioner nominee Andrew Von Eschenbach to rescind the FDA approval for the artificial sweetener Aspartame. Its approval was forced through the FDA in 1981, and the USA has had 25 years to observe the incontrovertible medical effects. Aspartame is now found in 6,000 USA food products and more than 500 medications. There is excellent precedent for this: Richard Nixon in 1969 ordered that the FDA rescind approval for another proven carcinogenic artificial sweetener, cyclamates. Given the evidence that has accrued thus far concerning Aspartame’s harm, its effects as a teratogen, causing birth defects and chromosomal damage, its being the most complained about chemical on the market, according to FDA statistics (FDA stopped taking complaints on Aspartame in 1995), and because of our concern for protecting the health of Americans, as well as the health of the many nations which subsequently approved it for general use as a result of the FDA approval, we ask that you order Aspartame rescinded by the FDA as soon as possible. As you know, the Institute of Medicine has completed a recent report sharply critical of the FDA regarding the FDA’s inability to ensure the safe and effective use of prescription drugs. Our concerns in this letter are not with drugs, but with the obvious need to overhaul the entire process of the FDA granting approval for food additives in general, which are often forced through the approval process based only on the strength of industry-paid-for studies. Your concerns should not be with corporate objections and continued allegations that their products are “safe.”

Stephen Fox Santa Fe NM

Segregation in Alabama Re: Jim Crow hangs on in Alabama (PWW 2/12/05): The Jim Crow article was appalling. I think there needs to be more attention and pressure put on Alabama. We are Americans and we have come so far. We should not sit back and let a state dehumanize anyone. I am from Ohio and will be moving to Alabama and have no idea how I will handle segregation, if at all. I would love to find a place there that does not practice segregation. What about poll taxes — isn’t that against the law? What can we fellow Americans do to help? I have taken many African American studies classes at Ohio State University; I may not be an expert but I sure can do my part in helping.

Amanda Price Via e-mail

Across the pond Most of my friends in Bradford (England) think that the Americans are all right-wing religious warmongers. I like to let them read my copies of the People’s Weekly World and then they realize that vast numbers of the American people oppose the Bush-Blair war in Iraq and demand an end to this fiasco.

Donald Sandwell Bradford, W. Yorkshire, England

Solidarity with Iraqi people Thanks to all who came and those who supported our vigil for the International Day of Peace, Sept. 21 in London. We were expressing solidarity with people inside Iraq who are asking for an end to the violence, an end to sectarianism, the right to life and to an independent and safe country.

Nadje Al-Ali Act Together: Women’s Action for Iraq London, England

Labor energized in Indy races For the first time in many election cycles Indiana is awash in races that the Democrats can win in local, state and national levels with the help of the energized labor movement here. Two years ago the Democrats lost the governor seat and control of the Indiana House and also lost ground in the Republican-controlled Senate. Now the labor movement is talking about regaining the Statehouse and, possibly for the first time since 1995, a majority of Indiana’s U.S. House seats. There are three and possibly four Republican seats in play. The Democratic candidate in the 2nd district, Joe Donnelly, has a double-digit led in the polls over incumbent Chocola. In Northwest Indiana, an SEIU-organized busload of SEIU workers, a teacher and steelworker from Gary traveled to LaPorte and campaigned member-to-member on a beautiful Saturday afternoon for Donnelly and Andrea Renner, who is running for a state House seat. That seat came into play because of the widespread dissatisfaction with the Republican governor, former Bush budget director Mitch Daniels, over his selling of the Indiana Toll Road and other issues. Labor activists have a choice from a potpourri of candidates to campaign for in the area. There are other U.S. House races, and in one city three council seats are being challenged by labor union members including a USW president who is running against the head manager of the local Wal-Mart store. The labor movement is already in a fevered pitch of activity.

Paul Kaczocha Gary IN

Forgiving Although I had lived in many places, particularly in the City of New York for 10 years, I am a native Pennsylvanian. My father e-mailed me and mentioned a radio program to which he listened. They were speaking about the senseless deaths in that Amish community in Lancaster. What struck my father, and surely most listeners, was that the Amish community forgave the shooter, went to the shooter’s funeral, consoled the family, and took up a collection for them. The host of the talk show ascribed it to their core beliefs. My father expressed to me that what the Amish did makes a profound statement in that “It is in forgiveness that we are forgiven…”

Michael Adam Reale Owensboro KY Michael Adam Reale is pastor at New Hope United Church of Christ.

EDITORIAL: Modern day poll tax

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 08:20:00 +0000

Last month, before congressional Republicans headed home to try to hold onto their seats, the GOP leadership pushed through the House the hypocritically labeled “Federal Election Integrity Act of 2006,” HR 4844.

Sponsored by right-wing Illinois Rep. Henry Hyde, the bill would require every voter, in elections for federal office, to provide a government-issued photo ID in order to vote. Going further, by 2010 the only kind of photo ID that would allow you to vote is one for which you had to provide proof of U.S. citizenship.

Individuals without such ID could cast a provisional ballot, but they would have to come up with the required ID within 48 hours in order for their vote to count.

If individuals can’t afford the state fee to obtain the ID, the measure says they can get the fee waived by providing “an attestation” that they are too poor to pay.

Theodore Shaw, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, called the measure “un-American” and “a modern day poll tax,” noting that it requires all eligible voters “to engage in a bureaucratic process to obtain a citizen ID that includes swearing poverty.”

HR 4844 passed the House 228-196 with Republicans overwhelmingly voting yes and Democrats overwhelmingly voting no. So far no companion bill has been introduced in the Senate. But several states have passed their own photo ID bills and other voting restrictions. Many have been blocked by the courts, but the danger to democracy continues.

The U.S. has one of the lowest voter participation rates in the world, ranking 139 out of 172 countries. Noting this, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said, “We should be doing everything we can to remove the barriers to voting.”

Lee continued, “We should have been debating legislation to fix the real problems with the 2002 and 2004 elections — long voting lines, voter intimidation, faulty machines, poor training of poll workers, discriminatory voter registration laws, or, for example, making Election Day a federal holiday so that everyone can exercise their right to vote.”

We agree.

Urgent action is needed to protect our right to vote, this Nov. 7 and beyond.

Left-wing candidate leading in Ecuadors polls

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 06:27:00 +0000

Commentary

An Oct. 7 poll by the Cedatos/Gallup group shows Rafael Correa, a left-wing economist who opposes Washington’s “free trade” policies, is leading in the country’s presidential race with 37 percent of the electorate’s support.

Correa’s closest competitors are former vice president Leon Roldos, with 21 percent, and the pro-business, two-time congresswoman Cynthia Viteri, with 19 percent.

No one is likely to win outright in the first round of voting on Oct. 15, but if Correa gets to the runoff and ultimately wins, Latin America will have another leftward-leaning head of state, joining Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and Bolivia’s Evo Morales.

The Ecuadorean people have high expectations that Correa, unlike his predecessors, will defend the nation’s sovereignty and keep his pledges. These pledges include his vow to close the U.S. military base at Manta, to restructure the foreign debt, to reject any so-called free trade agreements, to renegotiate contracts with foreign oil companies on more favorable terms and to convene a constituent assembly.

Correa, 43, candidate of the Alianza País (Country Alliance) party, served briefly as Ecuador’s finance minister, where he won popular support for his outspoken opposition to the onerous terms of international lending institutions and exploitative foreign oil contracts.

Correa believes foreign investment is beneficial as long as it contributes to the country’s development, instead of being a source of looting and despoliation. He is widely perceived as defending Ecuador’s national interests in contrast to the behavior of the country’s wealthy oligarchy, which typically cedes power to foreign companies.

In recent years many Latin America nations have seen their sovereignty undermined by various “free trade” agreements backed by the U.S. These pacts have devastated domestic agriculture, for example, and have left the continent’s farmers with virtually no means to legally challenge the unfair trade practices of their big competitors to the north.

Ecuadoreans have noticed that the U.S. rejects the role of the United Nations to settle international disputes and that it works to undermine the legitimacy of that body. They see how the U.S. has sought to exempt itself from prosecution in the International Court of Justice.

At the same time, the traditional liberal and conservative parties of Ecuador have largely been discredited. The people no longer believe in them.

A similar process has also been quite evident in Venezuela, where the role of traditional parties has been eclipsed by mass support for Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution. The face of politics has radically changed there.

The people of oil-rich Ecuador ask the question: With all of our oil and other natural resources, why do we see an impoverished population living on the hillsides? Where did all the money go? If it is not in the bank accounts of the oligarchy, it must be in the hands of the big oil corporations. It certainly isn’t in the hands of the people, who could use it to build housing and to provide health care and education.

Today over 70 percent of the population in Ecuador lives below the poverty line. Young people of working-class background are being forced to emigrate to find work to feed their families. A series of governments supported by the wealthy oligarchy has created only poverty and misery.

But today there is also new hope in the air. The people are placing their confidence in Rafael Correa, a self-described Bolivarian. This time they may get it right. They have certainly waited long enough.

NATIONAL CLIPS

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 06:06:00 +0000

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.: Coach fights for equality for girls team

In 2005, Ensley High School girls’ basketball coach Roderick Jackson drew national attention when he took his case charging the Birmingham School District with gender discrimination, specifically, violations of Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, to the U.S. Supreme Court and won. The high court was asked to rule whether or not a coach could sue on behalf of his team. In a 5-4 decision, the court said yes and sent the rest of the case back to the federal district court.

The case cleared another hurdle Oct. 6, when District Judge Karon Bowdre rejected an effort by the school district to dismiss the case. After six years, Coach Jackson will finally get chance to plead his case for equality before a jury.

Jackson was hired to teach in 1999 and agreed to coach the girls’ basketball team. He found continued unequal treatment of the team, including having to practice in an unheated 100-year-old gym, denial of gate and concession revenue and no funding from the school district. The boys’ team, by contrast, practiced in a new facility, kept all their gate and concession stand funds and received money from the school district.

“As in this case, it takes a coach to say, ‘I’m going to protest this for you even if you don’t understand that your rights are being violated,’” said Jackson. “Coaches are often in the position to stick up for girls. It’s unrealistic to expect 14- or 16-year-olds to fight discrimination on their own.”

A new school board has made some changes since the Supreme Court decision, but, says Coach Jackson, there is still a long way to go to protect Title IX. “I want to get my team on track. I want to help them to be the best they can be, not only on the court but in their everyday lives. I want to continue working to see that they are treated equally by this school district.”

SIOUX FALLS, S.D.: Fight to restore abortion rights tightens

In February, the state Legislature banned abortion except to save a woman’s life, period. A doctor performing an abortion in cases of rape or incest, for instance, faces five years in prison. Women’s rights groups have zeroed in to restore South Dakota women’s reproductive rights. They petitioned and an issue overturning the legislature’s action is on the Nov. 7 ballot.

“Life isn’t always black and white,” said Evelyn Bradley after listening to a discussion group in a neighbor’s home debating the abortion ban. “There are situations where it would be really difficult to have another child and I’d resent the law saying you have to have it. Should I be allowed to make that choice?”

Anti-women’s-rights forces have also mobilized. A recent poll commissioned by an anti-abortion group indicated that opposition to the ban had remained steady at 47 percent while support for it had grown from 39 percent in June to 44 percent in September, with 14 percent undecided. In a summer primary, four Republican state senators who opposed the ban lost their seats.

If voters uphold the abortion ban, Planned Parenthood, one of the organizations leading the women’s rights fight, says it will sue the state.

The outcome could impact Ohio, Indiana, Georgia, Missouri and Rhode Island, which also have outlawing abortion on their agendas.

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

LETTERS

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 09:16:00 +0000

Drug prices

I would like to see some organization or publication compare the price of drugs the way we price other familiar items such as steak, vegetables or fruit. For example what would Mobic cost per pound? I think people would be even more shocked if drugs were compared in this way. I am 65 and don’t have to take many drugs yet, but for those who do have to take a variety of drugs it must be scary.

Tommy Thompson Via e-mail

No response is injustice

We (Yvonne and I) have asked Senator Baucus, Senator Burns, Representative Rehberg and Governor Schweitzer for two years to provide cheap heating oil to Montana’s poor families through Citgo, an oil company in the United States but owned by Venezuela. We have received no response at all.

The callous disregard of our congressmen and governor last year towards the heating needs of our poor families is a social injustice to the people of Montana.

Daniel Gawain Waters Troy MT

Military privatization

I’m doing a research project and found Moe Radd’s article “The military privatization scam” (PWW 8/2/03) as supporting my position. What qualifies Mr. Radd as an authority about military privatization? Are there other military privatization issues he’s seen since he wrote the article?

Brendan Epps Via e-mail

Moe Radd responds: I don’t claim any authority on military privatization issues. I’m a decorated Navy veteran, a union shipyard worker and a member of Veterans for Peace. I’ve observed the corporate policies of privatization in the public sector, particularly regarding the building of Navy ships. After writing the article and observing the actions of companies like Titan and Khaki regarding torture in Abu Ghraib, I began to get the larger picture. I hope you can further enlighten and update the public to this very dangerous and sinister development in public policy.

No money for doc? Eat more vitamins

I just got my medical/dental insurance renewal notice in the mail. And like most Americans I see my premiums are going up. But I have a choice: either I can pay a 50 percent higher deductible, more out-of-pocket expenses, and pay a small premium increase, or I can bite the bullet and take a whopping 13 percent premium hike.

I suppose my other choice is to not seek treatment for what ails me at all. My insurance company was even kind of enough to send me a brochure on how to avoid going to the doctor — eating more vitamins and doing breathing exercises to reduce stress. Thanks guys!

Thanks to the free market (for most of us it costs an arm and a leg) there is no end in sight for skyrocketing insurance premiums. Thanks to George W. Bush and the do-nothing Republicans, there is no plan on the legislative agenda to aid working families with their health care needs.

Interestingly, Democrats tried to make the common sense idea of giving Medicare the power to bargain for better prices part of the Medicare Part D prescription drug program, but the Republicans blocked it four times this year alone.

So when you are at your polling place this Nov. 7 thinking about how your Republican congressperson or senator isn’t so bad or crazy like some of those extremists in Washington, ask yourself, can I afford another two years with this person who has blocked efforts to provide me affordable health care coverage? I know I can’t.

Jake Wickham Via e-mail

Point of information

Congratulations on a great editorial “Sept. 11th – 5 years later” (PWW 9/9-15). You are absolutely right about Bush and Cheney not following through with a worldwide coalition to catch Bin Laden (from a wealthy Saudi family) and the rest of the people involved in the attack on our country. They used this as an excuse to invade Iraq to control the Middle East and of course the oil. Now we are sure enough in a mess. Bush and Cheney have a lot of nerve to compare this to World War II. If they had been running World War II we would have lost the war.

Just as a point of information the U.S. and our allies (including the Soviet Union whose role you portrayed very accurately) fought fascists from Italy and Japan also, not just Germany.

Jim Gallo Detroit MI

Big mistake

I am an inmate currently on Illinois’ death row. I have been a reader of your newspaper now for about two years. I am also a subscriber. In an article by Pepe Lozano titled “Rally seeks justice for victims of police torture” (PWW 4/29-5/5) you quote Mrs. Gloria Johnson Ester, the mother of a former death row inmate, as saying that there are currently 196 inmates on Illinois’ death row, of which 155 are Black, 25 Latino and 16 white.

For the record, there are now nine inmates here on death row, of which four are white, three Black and two Hispanic. All of them, with the exceptions of myself and another inmate, are here for the very first time.

Since the article appeared I waited for someone to write in to correct this error, and to my bitter disappointment, no one has. In all the rallies, demonstrations and marches done in our name, it seems too often that we have been taken for granted and forgotten. We are not here because our crimes were “heinous” in nature, or we are the worst of the worst. We are here due to ineffective counsel, biased juries, cops that lie on the stand or zealous state’s attorneys and judges determined to refill the condemned units at all costs.

While I enjoy reading your paper, I was disappointed to see the story, in my opinion, misrepresent the facts. Please be sure to have all facts straight before going to press as to avoid any future errors.

Andrew Urdiales Pontiac IL

Editor’s note: Thank you. There are 196 cases where the state is seeking the death penalty. We corrected our online version.

Global unions: Release Colombian lawyer

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 07:51:00 +0000

Public Services International, a trade union federation of 640 public sector unions in 155 countries, including the U.S., demanded the release of Dr. Alberto Carvajal Salcedo, 70, a Colombian labor and human rights lawyer imprisoned recently.

In a strongly worded letter to Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, PSI General Secretary Hans Engelberts said Carvajal is a “victim of an organized harassment campaign in order to prevent him from doing his work.” He said ensuring democracy in Colombia “means more than words.”

PSI demanded the immediate release of Carvajal so he can be “free to continue his commendable work.” The letter also asked that the Uribe government “as a matter of urgency also put in place all necessary measures to ensure that labor and human rights lawyers be guaranteed the safety and integrity they deserve and need to promote a just and democratic society for all.”

After winning a financial settlement for 47 university professors who lost their jobs in 1999, the government charged Carvajal for misappropriation of state funds. Although there was a yearlong investigation that exonerated Carvajal from any wrongdoing, the case was reopened. Many human rights and labor activists charge that both the order to reopen the case and the jailing of Carvajal are politically motivated, intended to send a chilling message to anyone willing to stand up for workers rights and dignity in Colombia.

Colombia has been called the most dangerous place on earth for trade unionists. Some 4,000 trade unionists have been murdered over the past 20 years.

Meanwhile, President George W. Bush said in a Sept. 25 letter to the House and Senate that he intends to sign a “free trade” agreement with Colombia. Free trade agreements have been disasters for workers, indigenous people and the environment in the U.S. and other “free-trade partners.”

The AFL-CIO opposes the agreement, saying that even though thousands of unionists have been murdered in Colombia, “this hasn’t stopped the Bush administration from pushing for a trade deal. Given such a ghastly record, members of Congress might want to ask whether they really want yet another pact that fails to protect workers’ rights.”