People Before Profit blog

LETTERS: Oct. 27

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 05:26:00 +0000

Wildfires, climate change and Iraq

All eyes and ears have been on San Diego, Calif., in recent days as over a half million people have had to be evacuated from their homes due to the most destructive fire in this area’s history. Although there have been a small number of people injured and few deaths, billions of dollars worth of homes have been destroyed.

I believe the way the California wildfires are related to climate change puts into perspective the misplaced priorities of this administration. This neo-conservative-controlled administration is willing to spend up to a trillion dollars on a politically motivated war, but is unwilling to take care of the domestic priorities that our populace needs. This inevitably leads to things like the Katrina disaster, the regular failures of the nation’s infrastructure of roads, bridges, reservoirs, etc., and the wildfires we are currently experiencing.

When we need our National Guard the most they are on the other side of the globe. When the latest in firefighting equipment is needed, C-130s have to be shipped to California from North Carolina. When we need to protect our people against natural disasters, a great deal of our men/women and equipment are preoccupied from their real mission because they have been forced to take part in this senseless occupation/civil war in Iraq.

It behooves us to pressure our governing officials for fundamental change.

John Falchi San Diego CA

Subprime corruption

Until recently I was an underwriter for a subprime mortgage company that is about to close. It seems that most media outlets and government officials fain ignorance about the real underlying cause of the problem. There is either a tendency to blame the borrower or act as though no one in the industry or outside of it saw this coming. They fail to mention that those who gained the most financially got off scot-free while leaving the mess behind for everyone else to clean up.

In my former company, the sales managers and loan officers “held the keys to the safe” while deciding which guidelines to ignore, sometimes going so far as to bribe fellow underwriters to “look the other way.” Sales managers often overrode an underwriter’s decision they did not agree with. Other times fellow underwriters would be threatened with their job for “impeding company growth and progress” just because they refused to go along with the flagrant disregard of guidelines. I complained to the sales managers about the bribing but all I got was a formal write-up for making “inappropriate comments.”

As a result of the corrupt management of this company, I and several hundred others were laid off. I believe the federal government needs to investigate this company and bring to trial those corrupt individuals who broke the law. This would set an example for the rest of the mortgage industry.

Joe Bialek Via e-mail

Thanks from Albuquerque

The most important difference between this paper and others is what its staff chooses to cover. Recently, the Albuquerque City Council voted on a resolution to withdraw our troops from Iraq. How many of our New Mexico readers read this important news in the state’s largest newspaper, the Albuquerque Journal? None. Yet I read about it in PWW’s National Clips. What kind of coverage did the Journal have of the U.S. Social Forum held in Atlanta last summer? None. Yet our paper put John Wojcik’s excellent report of it on the front page and centerspread.

When watching TV or reading the “mainstream” media one always gets a depressing picture of police news and people taking it on the chin. This paper is about the tremendous struggles of people across the nation and the world against racism, war and economic exploitation. Its in-depth coverage of the immigration reform struggle is invaluable. It lets us know that some struggles are temporarily lost, but many are also won. It lets us know we are not alone.

However, it costs money to put out this paper — over $1 million. There are no big commercial advertisers. This is an appeal to the 400-plus readers of our paper in Albuquerque and throughout New Mexico. If you like the paper for the same reasons I do, please help us to keep the paper publishing. Our share in this effort is $2,500. We thank the readers in New Mexico who have already sent in their contributions.

We would appreciate your sending a check for whatever amount you can to: People’s Weekly World, 235 W. 23rd St., New York, NY 10011.

Rose Shaw Rio Rancho NM Rose Shaw heads up the New Mexico PWW Committee.

Nobel Prize in economics

Just heard the news that the Nobel Prize in economics went to yet another group of numerologists from the University of Chicago. This time they’ve come up with some equations that are used to determine whether markets are operating efficiently.

If I want to know whether markets are operating efficiently, all I have to do is watch the SUVs roaring down my street as the global temperature steadily rises; count the foreclosed houses in my neighborhood; contemplate the empty high-rises along the skyline of my city, or consider the 47 million Americans who don’t have health insurance.

Didn’t they also give one of these ignoble prizes to that other U of Chicago charlatan, Milton Friedman?

David Pena West Palm Beach FL

Dental decay on the rise

The New York Times ran a front page story on Oct. 11 about “Boom Times for U.S. Dentists, But Not for Americans’ Teeth.”

I’ve always said to a large extent you can judge the priorities of a society by looking at one’s teeth. This may sound peculiar but it is true.

I always noticed when tourists smiled, especially those from Western Europe, his or her teeth were not only straight but they seemed to be whiter then any of the people I knew.

What seemed odd at first became very clear to me. It was all about health care.

Dentists’ fees are rising faster than inflation while 100 million people have zero dental insurance, and those that have are woefully inadequate. I recently completed payment on a $2,200 dental bill. Fortunately I’ve been going to the same dentist for 15 years, so he accepted monthly payments, saving me credit card interest.

Many are not so fortunate. Two children died this year from infections caused by decayed teeth. What a terrible thing.

While this out of control administration squanders billions on death and destruction, it denies its most vulnerable an essential foundation to grow into healthy, socially productive citizens … health care!

Gabe Falsetta Glendale NY

LETTERS: Oct. 20

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 08:25:00 +0000

Watada’s leadership

“I refuse to be silent any longer. I refuse to be party to an illegal and immoral war against people who did nothing to deserve our aggression. My oath of office is to protect and defend America’s laws and its people. By refusing unlawful orders for an illegal war, I fulfill that oath today,” U.S. Army First Lt. Ehren Watada said.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said to the graduating Air Force Academy Class of 2007: “For a real leader, the elements of personal virtue — self-reliance, self-control, honor, truthfulness, morality — are absolute. They are absolute even when doing what is right may bring embarrassment or bad publicity to your unit or the service or to you.

“Those are the moments that will truly test the leader within you — test whether you will take the hard path or the easy path, the wrong path or the right path. The willingness always to take the right path, even if it is the hard path, is called character. In every aspect of your life, whether personal or professional, you must always maintain the courage of your convictions — your personal integrity.”

At a pre-trial press conference Watada remarked that he believed it his “duty to refuse to fight in the [Iraq] war,” and that he was “prepared to face prison time for my beliefs.”

There is a tradition in the Japanese American community to act on personal belief from volunteer 442/Nisei Linguist (while their family and friends were in camps), the NoNo Boys and the Vietnam War resisters. There are words, yet actions speak loudly. “Mission accomplished.”

T. Kyoshi Nagano Los Angeles CA

SCHIP fight

Tim Wheeler is right on the money in his most excellent article (PWW 10/13-19) explaining why working people should support the efforts of overriding President Bush’s veto of the State Children Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

Bush’s almost raging reasons for his veto were at first vague, but as the debate across the country began he then called SCHIP an example of nationalized medicine.

Working people, their unions, their elected representatives, Democratic and progressive alike, know the truth: the program lifts the burden off of working people, who are not covered by their employer and could not normally afford mainstream health insurance.

Instead, Bush continues with his Iraq war plans, getting $110 billion increase in separate funding designed to keep our troops stuck in perhaps the most barbaric modern example of imperialist war since Vietnam.

Our movement must support the children and the funding for this program. Bush talks a storm up about “no child being left behind” and fails to understand if you are sick and your family cannot afford to pay for basic medical care, then how are the children ever going to be able to learn?

This is just the beginning of the struggle for decent national health care being made available to those who work sometimes two or even three jobs to pay for medical bills.

Hats off to Tim Wheeler. I am circulating his article wherever I can.

Tom Siblo Boiceville NY

Globalization tune

“The rich get rich and the poor get poorer,” said the old song, and that was before globalization. Now the rich get to be billionaires, thanks to Asian slave labor, and the working people get to lose any good-paying jobs they had.

Then, as the tax-base sinks and the states and cities are strapped for cash, they have to raise taxes and the workers get whacked again because as we all know “only the little people pay taxes.” Well, things could be worse, and it’s a safe bet they soon will be.

John Nolan Chicago IL

Victory

“Indian Communists win fight on Indo-U.S. nuke deal.” This is a great victory in the fight against U.S. imperialism. The deal was worked out secretly, keeping the Indian Parliament in the dark. Neither the constituents of the ruling coalition were kept informed, let alone the Communists who were extending outside support (on whose crucial support the government survives).

The government went so far ahead with the deal, that when the details came out, it defended the deal and invented all sorts of excuses to push it through as a matter of prestige.

Big business and the upper classes, who would have been the biggest beneficiaries of closer link-up with U.S., enthusiastically took over the job of defending the deal, manufacturing (or shall we say cooking-up?) popular consent in the all-too-cooperative Big Biz press.

On the U.S. side, the deal would have given great leverage to arm-twist India into serving U.S. global interests. Condoleezza Rice, taking for granted that U.S. already has India in its pocket, had started giving lessons to India on how to dump non-alignment.

Now the Indian Communists will wage a fight against the closer military links between U.S. and India.

Vijaya Kumar Marla Via e-mail

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Iraqi Communist Party Mourns Dr. Naziha al-Dulaimi

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 06:23:00 +0000

Prominent Women Leader and Patriotic Figure

The Central Committee of the Iraqi Communist Party has mourned the passing away of the prominent patriotic Iraqi woman, comrade Dr. Naziha al-Dulaimi, who died on Tuesday morning, 9 October 2007, in hospital in Germany.

The late comrade was born in Baghdad in 1923, at a time when the modern Iraqi state was still in its early days. At the age of 20, she was one of few female students at the Medical College in Baghdad. During that period, she was influenced by enlightened colleagues who were deeply concerned with the plight of the people and homeland. She joined the “Women’s Society for Combating Fascism and Nazism” and was actively involved in its work. Later on, when the society changed its name to the “Association of Iraqi Women,” she became a member of its executive committee.

While still a college student, she got to know about the Iraqi Communist Party, its ideals and objectives. In 1947 she was nominated to the party membership, and a year later she became a full member. She had by then finished her studies and graduated as a doctor.

In January 1948, Dr Naziha was actively involved in the mass popular uprising “al-Wathbah” against the colonialist Portsmouth Treaty, and in patriotic struggles that spread throughout the country. Her increasing involvement in patriotic political work, and her growing awareness of the suffering of the people, as a result of oppression by the rulers and social backwardness, convinced her of the close interconnection between the struggle for patriotic objectives and the fight for social progress.

After graduating, she was appointed in the Royal Hospital in Baghdad, and was then transferred to Karkh Hospital. Throughout that period she was subjected to harassment by the security apparatus of the monarchy, because of her sympathy for the poor and the free medical treatment she offered them at her clinic in the Shawakah district. She was then transferred to Sulaimaniyah (in Kurdistan), where her clinic once again turned into a refuge for destitute patients who received her care and support for free. From Sulaiminiyah she was transferred to other cities and provinces (Kerbala, Umarah) as punishment for the humanitarian sentiments she had expressed towards the poor, the free medical service she offered, and her patriotic political work.

But this forcible transfer allowed the young Dr. Naziha al-Dulaimi see more closely the difficult conditions under which people were living in various parts of the country, and to get acquainted with their needs. It made her especially aware of the conditions and plight of Iraqi women. This experience led her to write a booklet entitled “The Iraqi Woman.”

She attempted to revive the “Association of Iraqi Women,” and made an application, supported by dozens of women activists, to the authorities to set up the “Women’s Liberation Society.” But her application was rejected “based on public interest requirements”! In response, the signatories led by Dr, Naziha, decided to go ahead and set up this organization anyway, though clandestinely, after changing its name to the “League for Defending Iraqi Woman’s Rights.” The League thus came into being on 10 March 1952, and its program, rules and objectives were published. Among the League’s objectives were:

• Struggling for national liberation and world peace;

• Defending Iraqi women’s rights;

• Protection of Iraqi Children.

Under the leadership and active participation of Dr Naziha the League (its name was subsequently changed to “Iraqi Women’s League”) developed during the following years and turned into a mass organization after the 14 July 1958 Revolution. With its membership rising to 42,000 (out of a total population at the time of 8 million), it achieved many gains for Iraqi women, in particular the progressive Personal Status Law No. 188 (1959).

In appreciation of its role and achievements, the Iraqi Women’s League became a permanent member of the Secretariat of the International Women’s Federation. Dr Naziha was elected to the Federation’s assembly and executive, and later became a vice-president of this international organization. She became a prominent women figure on an international level, as well as in the Arab world and “Third World.”

During the 1950s, Dr Naziha was an active participant in the Iraqi Peace Movement, and was a member of the preparatory committee for the Peace Partisans conference that was held in Baghdad on 25 July 1954. She was also a member of the World Peace Council.

In 1959, Dr Naziha was chosen by the Iraqi Communist Party to represent it in government (as Minister for Municipalities), thus becoming the first woman minister in Iraq’s modern history. She was also the first woman cabinet minister in the Arab world.

As a result of her multi-faceted activities in the Communist Party and the patriotic movement, Dr Naziha suffered considerable harassment and repression at various periods. She was forced to leave the country and go into exile several times. But this did not stop her from joining her comrades in the party and patriotic movement, and her sisters in the women’s movement, in the struggle for women’s legitimate and democratic rights.

Dr. Naziha was a true communist fighter, and a dedicated and reliable party cadre. She thus occupied a leading position in the party and became a member of its Central Committee. In the late 1970s, when the ruling dictatorial clique was preparing to launch its treacherous bloody campaign against the Iraqi Communist Party, she was a member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee.

Throughout the years of her forced exile, she was totally and emotionally attached to her people and homeland and to their just cause. It is in this context that she played a prominent role in the leadership of the “Committee for the Defense of the Iraqi People,” set up after the fascist coup on 8 February 1963. The Committee was headed by the famous Iraqi poet Mohammed Mehdi al-Jawaheri. Even during the 1990s, when she was old and frail, she did not cease her work in the women’s movement, particularly in the Iraqi Women’s League. The last important event in which she was actively involved was a seminar on the situation of Iraqi women, held in 1999 in Cologne, Germany.

She participated in preparations for the 5th Congress of the Iraqi Women’s League, but before it was convened (in March 2002) she suffered a stroke that effectively paralyzed her.

The passing away of the prominent comrade, Dr Naziha al-Dulaimi, is indeed an enormous loss for Communists and all Iraqi patriots. Her memory will continue to shine in the hearts of her comrades and all our Iraqi people, women and men, forever!

Oregon labor briefs

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 12:39:00 +0000

PORTLAND, Ore. — The workers at Rosemont School for Girls here voted Oct. 10 to join SEIU Local 503 by a vote of 37-8. This was a hard-fought NLRB-sponsored election campaign, with lots of anti-union literature, unfair labor practices by management, captive audience meetings, and the termination of a union supporter.

The Rosemont School, a center for young female offenders, did everything to block the unionization effort, up to and including the hiring of union-busting lawyers. The workers, however, hung together and stayed focused on their vision of a better Rosemont School for both themselves and the school’s students and families.

This win came while the Oregon AFL-CIO was in a session that will be remembered for the applause given to John Edwards when he pledged that there will be no scabs if he is elected president.

Alice Dale, now executive director of Local 49 of the Service Employees International Union, is likely to gain labor support in her run for attorney general of Oregon. Her candidacy gives Oregonians an opportunity to vote for a labor leader who has been deeply involved in reforming the workers’ compensation system, fighting for living wages and keeping the public employees retirement system intact.

Oregon construction workers recently saw passage of a new prevailing wage law on controversial public-private partnership construction jobs. The Oregon building trades unions have also blocked several legislative bills that would have weakened safety standards. These victories come as construction worker deaths on the job reach into the double digits for the first time since 1997.

Jose Cobian, a Carpenters’ union organizer active in Oregon, has been deported to Mexico after a long legal battle. While his deportation case moved through the courts he and his family survived through donations received from union co-workers. Turning the tide on ending construction site fatalities will depend on an aggressive union organizing and legislative strategy and organizing among Oregon’s growing number of Spanish-speaking construction workers, say many union building trades workers.

Higher education workers in Oregon’s American Federation of Teachers union have been struggling for many years against the overuse and exploitation of part-time college faculty. The AFT recently won an executive order creating a commission to study how part-time faculty are used in the state’s universities and community colleges. An earlier effort to cap the use of part-time faculty at 25 percent failed in Oregon’s Legislature. AFT members in Oregon are gearing up for the 2009 legislative sessions.

Members of he American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees working for the state of Oregon are considering a “me-too” agreement covering 4,000 AFSCME members. This contract essentially mirrors the agreement recently reached between the state and SEIU Local 503. That deal created new social policy in Oregon by instituting a wage floor based on food stamp eligibility for a family of three. It also signaled union strength in Oregon by forcing the state’s governor to change positions in union contract bargaining and attempt to make up for a previous wage freeze and an attack on the public employees retirement system. As a result of the AFSCME “me-too” agreement, some members of SEIU Local 503/OPEU have already received special additional wage increases. Some AFSCME units are rejecting the agreement because state managers have been given raises by the governor well beyond what union workers have won. Both AFSCME and SEIU have expressed worker anger over these increases and both unions are now seeking higher wages or additional guarantees.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees units working for the state of Oregon have ratified a “me-too” agreement covering 4,000 AFSCME members. This contract essentially mirrors the agreement recently reached between the state and SEIU Local 503. That deal created new social policy in Oregon by instituting a wage floor based on food stamp eligibility for a family of three. It also signaled union strength in Oregon by forcing the state’s governor to change positions in union contract bargaining and attempt to make up for a previous wage freeze and an attack on the public employees retirement system. As a result of the AFSCME “me-too” agreement, some members of SEIU Local 503/OPEU will also receive special additional wage increases.

Oregon’s Department of Human Services (DHS) will soon make available a list of employers whose workers are receiving food stamps. An attempt by pro-worker forces in the Oregon Legislature to pass legislation mandating this failed, but pressure on DHS forced agency heads to comply with the intent of the legislation.

Finally, Portland’s City Council recently passed a resolution to develop a sweat-free procurement policy that will shine the light on the city’s uniform and apparel vendors who sell sweatshop-produced garments and other goods. Leadership in this struggle came from AFSCME, Laborers Local 483 and Portland Jobs with Justice.

For more information on these and other Oregon developments, visit http://willamettereds.blogspot.com/.

Elah questions war

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 07:15:00 +0000

MovieREVIEW

In the Valley of Elah

Directed by Paul Haggis

Warner Independent Pictures, 2007

120 min., Rated R

“In the Valley of Elah,” directed by Paul Haggis, is a refreshingly open and frank look at the harsh realities the war in Iraq has caused and its impact on U.S. military families.

Tommy Lee Jones plays Hank. He’s married and lives in a small town in Tennessee. He is also a Vietnam veteran and a career military police officer. The audience quickly sees that Hank is in deep self-denial about dealing with his own post-traumatic stress disorder. His oldest son died in the first Gulf War.

His second son, nicknamed “Doc” (which he earned in Iraq), has just returned from the Middle East. Suddenly Hank gets a call saying his son is missing and will be considered AWOL if he doesn’t return to his base in New Mexico.

Hank takes off in search of his son. At the military base, Hank is taken to his son’s quarters, and as he sorts through Doc’s belongings, he takes his son’s cell phone. Hank also meets Doc’s squad — all polite, sympathetic and very professional.

Meanwhile, a decomposed body, chopped up and animal-eaten, is found in the desert on military property. It’s Doc.

The movie becomes a police procedural mystery. On Doc’s cell phone we watch over and over the grainy video and pictures recorded by him while in Iraq. Hank and those of us in the audience are trying to make sense of what we are seeing and hearing at times. The visuals are compelling. In some scenes, for example, when squad members are seen in an armored vehicle, you feel claustrophobic.

The soundtrack for the film is the white noise of a speech by President Bush, who has single-handedly led the unpopular war in Iraq, now going on its sixth year.

Detective Sanders (Charlize Theron) is a single mother of a 5-year-old son. She works for the local police. A dispute breaks out over whether the military or the local police will handle the case. Sanders fights for it and wins.

Hank and Sanders become allies for very different reasons. Hank criticizes the very sloppy investigation of the crime scene, and he relies on Sanders. She, in turn, doesn’t hesitate a moment to utilize his findings and analysis.

Joan (Susan Sarandon) is Hank’s wife. She blames Hank for cloning their two sons into soldiers, now lost to wars in the Middle East.

At one point Hank tells Sanders’ son the story of David and Goliath, which took place in the Valley of Elah. And at that point the movie reveals its strongest theme — the tragic realities of the Iraq war and occupation. Director Haggis is, in effect, asking us: who is David and who is Goliath?

This film is deliciously wicked. Haggis and Jones have created a film that powerfully depicts the contradictions of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, contradictions that will only be resolved when our heads are out of the sand and we’ve decided to shut down the Bush death machine that’s at our very doorsteps.

Solidarity talks, phonies squawk

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 07:13:00 +0000

Workers’ Correspondence

As soon as aspects of the proposed contract with General Motors were revealed, activists’ e-mail boxes began to fill up with the opinions of armchair socialists. “Sellout” and “backroom deal” were the usual characterizations. All of them blasted the union; none of them criticized GM. All of them were full of shrieking condemnation; none of them had any positive suggestions as to how we could help.

In Arlington, Texas, one could hardly photograph the GM picket lines because of all the cars and pickups stopping to deliver water, cookies and encouragement. While I was focusing my camera, an entire car caravan made several noisy passes along Abrams Street to wave and honk encouragement to the strikers. Handmade signs in the car windows said, “Retirees for UAW.” The union hall at Local 276 was pretty well packed with well-wishers. Their parking lot was inadequate to the overwhelming solidarity coming in.

But the know-it-alls on the Internet weren’t there. They were too busy blasting the union and criticizing to actually stop and try to help. The big question about the settlement isn’t, “Is this contract a setback?” The question is, “Could they have done better?” Those of us who aren’t GM employees don’t even get to ask either question. The only legitimate question we can ask is, “Could we have done something to make it better?”

The thing that sets me off about the people burning up the Internet with their high-and-mighty pronouncements is that it’s all criticism and no positive action. Were they out on the picket line? Did they go to the union hall and ask how they could help? More important than anything, did they focus their wrathful denunciations on General Motors management?

Most of these phony leftists, and these guys are phony leftists, wouldn’t know ideology if it bit them. A few have a system of thought that, at least, has some internal consistency, though it’s at odds with all the reality around us. The true believers sincerely think that the American working class is completely ready for revolution, raring to go, and has been since Trotsky was alive. They believe that only “sellout” leadership stands in the way. That’s why they spend all their time and energy criticizing and none of their time fighting on the side of the working class. I had quite a bit of experience with that line of thinking when I was a newcomer to class struggle, and I have very little patience with it now. Neither do the other honest soldiers in the day-to-day class struggle.

— Jim Lane, UAW retiree in Dallas

LETTERS: Oct. 13

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 07:09:00 +0000

No Blackwater

It was an anti-Blackwater weekend in the San Diego backcountry as hundreds of people gathered in the town of Potrero, Calif., (pop. 850), to protest a proposal by Blackwater USA to build a paramilitary training facility along the U.S.-Mexican border. The two day event featured campground seminars on Immigrant Rights and War Profiteering, wilderness walking tours and wildlife seminars by the Sierra Club, a concert of music and spoken word by local talent and a Sunday rally and march to the gate of the proposed facility.

There’s a political story here that involves not only international and national politics but California, San Diego County, and the politics of the community of Potrero, which is about two miles from the border. Community activist Jan Hedlun is spearheading an unprecedented recall campaign of Potrero Planning Board members who voted to approve Blackwater’s proposed expansion.

It’s becoming apparent that this is as much about the militarizing of the border and the privatization of the Border Patrol as anything else. There’s a lot of work to be done if an effective campaign to stop Blackwater is to be successful but Blackwater’s proposed expansion along the border is galvanizing the opposition amongst center/left forces in San Diego County.

Danny Morales

San Diego CA

‘The Brother’

Sue Webb’s review of “The Brother” calls it a “powerful play” (PWW 9/15-21). I agree that the acting was masterful and the play kept me on the edge of my seat. But in the end, the truth about the frame-up of the Rosenbergs does not come out.

As Webb wrote in the review, “The play centers around Greenglass’ self-serving version of events, depicting Julius Rosenberg as having recruited Greenglass to help pass atomic secrets to the Russians.” And that is what is wrong with the play. The lies that David Greenglass told to save his neck are never refuted.

The Rosenberg case was part of the McCarthy repression and the so-called Cold War. It was the Cold War against the Soviet Union and the working people of the world that caused the deaths of millions in Korea, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Angola, El Salvador and more. The Rosenberg case was used to increase the McCarthy attacks on labor and all progressive organizations.

The Rosenbergs could never have given anybody the atom bomb because they never had it. The science was never secret and the Rosenbergs never had access to the technology. In fact, neither did their machinist brother, David Greenglass. The “diagram” he supplied in the trial is admitted to be a joke in the play.

As one writer said, “It was the time of the toad.” I will add the name of the toad was David Greenglass (at least one of the toads.) So this play is his story. Why expect it to be true? Not if you let Greenglass tell it.

Since the performance was so good, I would like to see the play brought closer to historical truth.

Beatrice Lumpkin

Chicago IL

Gun violence

Though I am a loyal supporter of PWW, the article “22 cities rally against gun violence” (PWW 9/8-1/14) was somewhat disheartening. While our nation and subsequently Philadelphia suffer from a high rate of murder, it is the cultural and material basis for these unfortunate killings that must be targeted for change. If the statistic of 90 guns per 100 people applies to Philly, a city with a population of approximately 1,448,394, it could be implied that there are approximately 1,303,555 guns within the city. Against this figure, 271 murders and 800 shootings, even when combined with previous statistics, show that the majority of gun owners in Philadelphia are actually law-abiding citizens. Besides this, other tools of violence will likely be substituted. Restricting firearm availability is a cheap quick fix to symptoms of a deeper, economically based problem — one that is obviously too hurtful to private profit for the capitalist class to fix.

John Sanchez

Sierra Vista AZ

The author, Ben Sears, responds: The writer raises serious and relevant issues. The availability of guns was only one target of the demonstrations. Many speakers mentioned the urgent need for jobs at decent pay in the first place. Many speakers also made the connection between the resources being squandered on the Iraq war (and the war budget generally) and the continuing lack of “political will” of leaders to fund even basic social programs. At the same time, the arms manufacturers profit wildly by flooding our country with guns. So, while it is the “gun issue” that has moved many relatives of young men, especially African American, cut down in the prime of life to take action, this is certainly seen as more than a single issue struggle.

Daily Worker request

I am very much interested in reading about the Indian revolution movement. I generally collect articles about freedom fighters who gave their lives for their country. One of them whom I praise most was Bhagat Singh, who was hanged by British government on March 23, 1931. I recently heard that the Daily Worker had published an article on that on March 25, 1931. May I request you to send me a copy of this news from that paper, if you still have got the paper with you? And also, if you have any other news published on these freedom fighters before their death, could you please send me a copy of those as well? I shall be very thankful to you.

Kamaljit Singh

Canberra, Australia

Editor’s note: Our past editions are bound and archived at New York University’s Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. The hard-working archivists are busy cataloging them. You can contact the library at: Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, 10th Floor, 70 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012 or e-mail the library’s director, Dr. Michael Nash, at michael.nash @nyu.edu for more information.

Port unveils clean truck proposal

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 05:59:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. — Truck pollution, now contributing to soaring rates of asthma, cancer and heart disease in the West Oakland community, may be heading downward under a new plan announced by Port of Oakland officials here. At an Oct. 6 town hall meeting in the community, which borders the port, officials unveiled a preliminary proposal to cut back on pollution emitted by trucks serving the port.

It is part of an overall program being developed by a task force of business, labor, environmental, health and community representatives to reduce air pollution at the port, which is expected to be finalized in the coming months.

The draft Clean Truck Program calls for shifting to a “concession” model, under which the port would set requirements for trucking services, including a shift over time to clean-emission trucks. A majority of drivers would transition from their present status as “independent owner operators,” becoming employees of trucking companies.

Supporters say this would shift the responsibility to buy and maintain trucks from the drivers, many of whom average about $30,000 a year with no benefits, to the trucking industry and to shippers, who can better afford the cost. They say the drivers would gain benefits and better working conditions.

The port already uses such a system for many other functions including shuttle buses, taxis and food vendors.

Last summer, 1,250 of the 1,500 drivers working at the port signed a petition saying they wanted to shift to employee status.

Brian Beveridge of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project told the town hall meeting audience that previously neither the city of Oakland nor the port had concerned itself with the transport of goods, leaving the issue “in a vacuum.” He commended the port for its leadership in bringing together the various groups concerned with port operations.

Port official Ray King said in presenting the draft, “We’re trying to look at a very complex system, and develop a comprehensive solution that benefits all the players in that system.” He added, “Our goal is to help truckers become more competitive, to recognize that there are negative impacts in the community that we need to address, and fundamentally to improve the competitiveness of the Port of Oakland.”

The agenda consisted largely of presentations by port officials. Other speakers represented the city council district, trucking firms, the California Air Resources Board and the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports. One West Oakland resident was a panelist. No public comment period was scheduled.

As the meeting progressed, several audience members — trade unionists, port truck drivers and neighborhood residents — insisted that the agenda be opened to their concerns.

Responding to a trucking firm representative’s remarks extolling independent operator status as a path to “the American dream,” Teamster union leader Chuck Mack called it “a nightmare” for many drivers, who lack health care, sick days or vacations. Expressing appreciation to the port for the discussion process, Mack emphasized that the community’s urgent environmental concerns can’t be addressed effectively without changing the system, starting with the drivers.

During breaks and after the meeting, participants expressed guarded optimism over the port’s proposal. Commenting on a provision in the draft that as many as 30 to 40 percent of drivers might remain owner-operators, Kulwinder, a port truck driver for three years, said many drivers he knows will quit if employee status is not approved. Drivers preferring independent status are likely to be relatives of trucking company owners, he said.

The proposal “is a good starting point and there’s lots of work to be done,” said Trinette Grant, a former port driver now working for a union trucking firm. She emphasized the importance of reducing to a minimum the trucks’ current long periods of idling in line.

“The devil is in the details,” said Doug Bloch of the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports, adding, “I’m cautiously optimistic about what we saw today.” Bloch said more input from drivers and the West Oakland community is needed at future meetings. “The port is showing leadership,” he said. “It needs to hear from the community with support for its efforts.”

mbechtel @pww.org

NATIONAL CLIPS: Oct. 13

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 05:51:00 +0000

TACOMA, Wash.: Watada trial postponed

U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle granted an emergency stay of new court-martial proceedings Oct. 5 against First Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq.

The trial, which had been slated to open Oct. 9, is now postponed at least until Oct. 26. It is unusual for a civilian judge to act in a case under military jurisdiction.

Watada’s first court-martial ended when the military judge declared a mistrial over the objections of Watada and his lawyers. After earlier appeals to higher military courts were dismissed, Watada appealed to the military’s highest court. Hearing nothing as the trial date approached, his attorneys approached the federal court for a stay.

In granting the stay, Settle wrote, “The court concludes as a preliminary matter, that it has jurisdiction over the petition and the petitioner’s double jeopardy claim is not frivolous.”

Settle, who served as a military lawyer in the 1970s and was recently named a federal judge by President Bush, emphasized that the issues raised in Watada’s habeas corpus petition were not related to the charges or defense in the earlier court-martial trial.

Another hearing is set for Oct. 19.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which has followed Watada’s case closely, urged in an editorial last week that the lieutenant be allowed to “leave the Army without further ado.” The newspaper added, “At a minimum, many of those who oppose the Iraq war would welcome the leniency for someone they view as a person of conscience.”

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.: Front page sparks fight for equality

Scores of members from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the civil rights organization founded by the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., rallied here on Oct. 4, condemning attacks on African American political and labor leaders by this city’s largest daily newspaper.

Holding up the Sept. 16 front page of the Birmingham News, Bishop Calvin Woods, Birmingham SCLC president, pointed to negative stories on three Black leaders: Rep. Artur Davis, mayoral candidate Larry Langford, and Joe Reed, executive director of the Alabama Education Association.

“Birmingham News coverage of Black leaders appears to be racist and unfair,” Woods said. “The entire front page is attacking Black leaders.” Woods charged the newspaper “has an agenda in mind.”

Responding to reporters’ questions that attempted to defend the newspaper’s editorial decisions, Woods said that while criticisms of Davis are similar to those printed about Gov. Bob Riley, a white Republican, facts in the stories about Black leaders were “whitewashed” and buried in a mountain of text.

An unpublished editorial cartoon, which did show up online, also drew Woods’ fire. Woods charged that editorial cartoonist injected racism into the hotly contested Oct. 9 mayor’s race. “Somebody had to approve this race baiting,” Woods said.

WINFIELD, W.Va.: Cancer victims sue Monsanto

Over 70 residents of Nitro, W.Va. (population 6,800), charged that Monsanto released deadly carcinogen dioxin into the air, resulting in cancer for longtime neighbors of the plant. Nitro is formerly home to the corporation’s chemical plant that used to make a component of Agent Orange. Residents are seeking $300 million in punitive damages plus $5 million in compensatory damages covering medical bills, lost wages and other injuries.

Attorney Stuart Calwell said residents are trying to obtain class action certification. In legal papers filed Oct. 5, Calwell wrote that between 1949 and 2000, Monsanto released 3,000 pounds of dioxin into the air in high enough concentrations to substantially increase the cancer risk.

JENA, La.: Rocker’s song invokes mayor’s protest

Murphy McMillin, mayor of Jena, La., has been silent for over a year while six Black high school students faced racist discrimination. In a letter faxed to The Associated Press and picked up by hundreds of news outlets, McMillin broke his silence — not to condemn injustice or praise the peaceful march of over 50,000 last month, but to condemn rock star John Mellencamp and his song “Jena.”

Mellencamp is on tour, but wrote at his web site, “The song was not written as an indictment of the people of Jena, but rather a condemnation of racism, a problem I’ve reflected in many songs, a problem that still plagues our country today.”

The song is available online at www.mellancamp.com.

At McMillin’s request, the Jena Town Council voted, Oct. 2, to establish an interracial committee to study race relations and propose solutions.

National Clips are compiled by Denise Winebrenner Edwards (dwinebr696 @aol.com). Marilyn Bechtel contributed to this week’s clips.

By slim margin, Costa Rica passes free trade pact

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 05:22:00 +0000

In an unprecedented referendum, Costa Rican voters Oct. 7 ratified a “free trade” treaty with the United States, putting their nation on track with neighboring Panama, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala — plus the Dominican Republic — to join the U.S.-sponsored Central American Free Trade Agreement. Under CAFTA, tariffs and quotas will phase out over 10 years.

According to the Supreme Election Tribunal, 51.6 percent of voters favored the treaty and 48.4 percent opposed it. Predictions two days before the vote, based on polling data, gave a 12 percentage-point victory to the treaty’s opponents.

Bemoaning the prospect of “collective suicide,” President Oscar Arias quarterbacked a coalition of exporters, businesspersons and media interests to carry out a well-funded campaign to win the treaty’s passage. The campaign, which was outlined in a memo written in July by Second Vice President Kevin Casas, involved promoting fears that the treaty’s rejection would result in “loss of employment,” “an attack on democratic institutions” or an increase in “foreign influences.”

Workers at maquiladoras, U.S.-owned assembly plants, were told that employers would be leaving the country after a “no” vote. A mass meeting at a factory was staged to disseminate government propaganda. Companies allegedly paid employees to vote in favor of the treaty.

Casas’ memorandum eventually came to light and in mid-September he was forced to resign, although observers pegged him as a scapegoat, because fear tactics had had an almost two-month run. Reports circulated that Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and Central American media moguls helped finance the government’s campaign.

The U.S. government chimed in on Oct. 4 with trade representative Susan Schwab warning that the treaty would not be renegotiated if Costa Rica spurned it, and that the country would lose out on benefits from the Caribbean Basin Initiative. One day before the vote, Bush spokesperson Dana Perino reiterated those messages, which U.S. Ambassador Mark Langdale personally conveyed to Costa Rican export companies.

At a mass rally in San Jose after the vote tally was announced, Eugenio Trejos, leader of a group opposed to the treaty, called for a recount. Ottón Solís, head of the center-left Citizens Action Party, accused proponents of illegally broadcasting pro-treaty messages during the two days prior to the voting when campaigning is banned. Treaty supporters allegedly used government funds and took government housing vouchers to marginalized communities to sway voters.

Opposition leaders, however, took comfort from a popular alliance involving students, teachers, unionists and small farmers that flourished during the referendum campaign. Working people and peasants articulated long-standing concerns about the inadequacy of health and educational services, and the insufficient availability of telephone service. Indigenous people expressed worries that traditional medicines would be commandeered by multinational drug companies.

Voter turnout of almost 60 percent of eligible adults was high for Costa Rica.

On the immediate agenda is a legislative battle about how to put the free trade treaty into effect and, in the process, how to protect government finances, the environment, intellectual property and social resources serving people’s needs.

Jorge Arguedas Mora, president of an electrical and telephone workers union, told reporters, “Tomorrow begins the fight against ... laws implementing the agreement,” adding, “We will continue to fight against delivering our fundamental institutions to multinational corporations.”

For Tom Loudon, an election observer for the U.S.-based Alliance for Responsible Trade, the vote was “about stopping CAFTA, but it was also about a 20-year struggle to preserve publicly run electrical, phone and health care systems.”

atwhit @megalink.net

Latino Congreso sets 2008 agenda

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 05:16:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES — Some 2,000 Latino leaders and activists from throughout the United States met here Oct. 5-9 to map an action plan and social justice program for the 2008 elections. Their goal is to bring out 10 million Latino voters who can play a decisive role in the presidential and congressional elections.

Latinos can determine the presidential race in the key battleground states of Florida, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada, as well as congressional races in 20 states that can change the political direction of the country, said Antonio Gonzalez, president of the Southwest Voter Registration Project, in opening the 2nd National Latino Congreso.

The gathering was convened by 10 national Latino organizations and hundreds of state and local groups from 22 states.

“We are going to mobilize massively to reach record levels of the Latino vote” on the key issues of immigration reform, the war, greening cities, health care and climate change, declared Gonzalez. “We have big issues not only as Latinos but as citizens of the world,” he said.

Over 50 workshops reviewed about 100 policy resolutions.

Helping prepare positions on the Iraq war were Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who chairs the congressional Out of Iraq Caucus, former California state Sen. Tom Hayden, United for Peace and Justice organizer Judith Le Blanc and Lydia Lopez of Latinos for Peace.

“America: not another nickel, not another dime, not another soldier, not this time,” Waters declared to a standing ovation. She drew another ovation when she called for African American and Latino unity.

Peace activist Fernando Suarez del Solar, whose immigrant son Jesus was among the first casualties in Iraq, drew tears and standing cheers when he asked, “What are we doing to stop the dying of the children in Iraq?” He added, “Stand up for housing and jobs, but even more important, stand up for life!” The delegates endorsed his call to remove a military service option from the Dream Act, which provides college access for undocumented students.

The Congreso unanimously called for complete withdrawal from Iraq starting immediately, no invasion of Iran, and support for Oct. 27 regional demonstrations against the war and Iraq Moratorium activities the third Friday of each month.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Latinos should take a leading role to end the war, as “we are 14 percent of the population with 20 percent of the casualties.”

“It is time to bring the troops home,” he said.

Villaraigosa also called for a broad coalition to win just immigration reform, saying, “No group can do it alone,” and a national campaign to combat poverty.

Heading workshops on immigration reform were leaders of the League of United Latin American Citizens, MALDEF, the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, the Mexican American Political Association, the Laborers International Union and the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities.

The Congreso called for legalization with a path to citizenship for all undocumented immigrants, no guest worker programs and a moratorium on deportations, factory raids and “no-match” sanctions. It condemned candidates who “vilify immigrants, divide communities, break up families and/or incite fears of or violence against immigrants.”

Delegates backed HR 676 for universal single-payer health care and called for overriding Bush’s veto of children’s health care (SCHIP). They supported labor rights and the Employee Free Choice Act, Election Day voter registration, publicly financed elections and a national Cesar Chavez holiday. Resolutions also opposed nuclear and coal-fired energy and polluting power plants in low-income and minority communities. Delegates opposed expansion of CAFTA and NAFTA and called for ending restrictions on family travel to Cuba, freedom for the Cuban Five, closing the School of the Americas and no U.S. intervention in Latin America.

Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich drew several ovations, including one when he said, “It is time to have a president who stands up for workers, for immigrants, for human beings. There is no such thing as an illegal human being.” He called for stopping immigration raids and canceling NAFTA. Fellow Democratic candidate Mike Gravel stressed the urgency of opposing an attack on Iran. Representatives for Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson also spoke. No Republican candidates responded to invitations to be represented.

Ecuadorian vote keeps left course on track

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 09:37:00 +0000

One of the main priorities of Ecuador’s constituent assembly, set to convene Oct. 30, will be to counteract the “barbarism that prevails in the economy” and to dismantle the economic model that exists today so as to benefit “the most dispossessed sectors in the country,” according to President Rafael Correa.

The president spoke to reporters the day after his Alliance for the Country movement apparently won up to 80 of the 130 available seats in the assembly, which is charged with devising the nation’s 20th constitution. Some 9.3 million Ecuadorians sifted through 3,229 candidates on Sept. 30 to choose 100 delegates representing provincial districts, 24 delegates from a national list, and six representing citizens living abroad.

A full count will take over 20 days. A day after the voting, Correa’s forces seem to have taken 62.5 percent of the votes, the remainder divided among at least eight other parties. Estimates of the extent of Correa’s victory are based on exit polls and early vote counting. Since his election in January 2007, Correa has consistently enjoyed 75 percent approval ratings in public opinion polls.

The constituent assembly will meet in Montecristi, birthplace of Ecuador’s revolutionary hero Eloy Alfaro, and will take six months to complete its work. It will be allowed a 60-day extension, if needed. A two-thirds majority is required to approve a constitution.

Last April 15, Ecuadorians voted to create the assembly by an 82.5 percent majority. Part of the process included a ban on buying votes through gifts and donations, an action directed at banana tycoon Alvaro Noboa, a three-time presidential candidate. A $30 million public financing fund was created to enable all candidates to purchase media time.

At his press conference, Correa declared, “The victory of the people is unquestionable.” He predicted installation of the assembly would bring “profound changes in the country for the good of all.”

Observers place Correa in the same category as Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela as proponents of “socialism of the 21st century.” Partly as a result of this, he has been attacked by his opponents for emulating “foreign models,” a charge he denies.

Observers said four right-wing political parties will share 23-25 of the assembly seats, with three small left-wing parties taking seven seats. The latter groups back the president in rejecting the U.S. Manta military base, the so-called free trade agreement with the U.S., and the International Monetary Fund. However, they criticize Correa for vacillating in his support of Ecuadorian miners.

One of the assembly’s first actions will probably be to dissolve the present Parliament and to setting up a parliamentary commission to collaborate with the president in creating social support systems for Ecuador’s poor. Correa supporters see Ecuador’s Parliament as the stronghold of the traditional party system which, they say, is tied in with moneyed interests.

The constituent assembly is expected to authorize nationalization of natural resources, establish health care as a right, create conditions for a “pluri-national,” or multi-ethnic democracy, and do away with term limits for president.

atwhit @megalink.net

A unique and progressive U.S. travelogue

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 09:33:00 +0000

BOOK REVIEW Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate: An Economist’s Travelogue By Michael D. Yates Monthly Review Press, 2007 Softcover, 207 pp., $15.95

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac’s now classic novel “On the Road.” I vividly remember my uncle passing a copy along to me as the latest, most hip expression of the Beat movement.

Yet such literature has a long tradition in America, from Cooper’s frontier novels, on through the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” in which after many adventures on and around the Mississippi River, Huck decides at the end to “light out for the Territory.” Our country is large, and our people have always been restless.

In 2001, Michael Yates decided to retire early from teaching economics at the University of Pittsburgh in Johnstown, Pa. With his wife Karen, he carefully planned a travel route through the United States, living as cheaply as possible. They packed a Dodge van with necessities, and prepared to survive as itinerant laborers.

They headed to Yellowstone National Park first, where they got menial jobs and learned that there, as elsewhere in “tourist” America, those who do the service work to accommodate well-off visitors, are lodged in cramped, isolated barracks-type housing. Most of the tourists are preoccupied with trivial comforts, and scarcely notice or appreciate “the help.”

So two of the themes of this book appear early on: inequality and labor.

The book is filled with detailed information about the towns and natural sites they visited, and in this regard, it’s a kind of “progressive” travelogue. There are all sorts of tips about where to get good deals on food and housing, and correspondingly, warnings about how not to get ripped off or cheated. Everything is carefully documented, including descriptive bibliographies for each chapter.

A third theme is the devastation of the environment. For example, here’s the Florida Panhandle: “As we sat hot and frustrated in endless traffic jams, we observed countless strip malls, condominiums blocking the view of the water. … Everything seemed built pell-mell and on the cheap, lining the pockets of the developers and realtors while fleecing the buyers.” Even in remote Big Bend Park in west Texas, there is a gray haze of pollution, which, we’re told, can drift in from as far away as Ohio.

Everywhere the American workforce “at the bottom” is largely multiracial and international. Immigrants from Eastern Europe are particularly vulnerable, because they lack any kind of support system. Sometimes there’s a sense of solidarity, of helping each other, but just as often, there is isolation and alienation.

Even a seemingly “liberal” city like Portland, Ore., has legions of homeless people, often afflicted with alcoholism or drug addiction. Powell’s Bookstore in Portland, a legendary place that occupies an entire city block, is run by a selfish business owner who for several years resisted his employees when they sought to organize. (It’s now a union shop.)

Yates is concerned about good nutrition, and he tends to avoid restaurants, favoring use of a two-burner electric hot plate that proves effective and useful in preparing nightly dinners. He and his spouse shop at organic markets, if possible, for good deals on fresh fruits and vegetables. In this regard, Yates has produced a kind of “survival manual” for displaced workers.

In spite of the frequently grim nature of life in this “Land of the Free,” a claim contradicted by the incessant exploitation and humiliation of the poor, I think the enduring effect of the book is: “Don’t give up — you can make it.” Fifty years from now, people will be reading Yates’ travelogue as an authentic and realistic picture of America at the outset of the 21st century.

LETTERS: Oct. 6

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 08:58:00 +0000

Terrible UAW contract

I just read my PWW and your coverage of the negative aspects of the new UAW contract was bad. You did not report on how retirees will not get their health benefits from GM anymore but from the VEBA account, and you did not report on how the UAW administrators, who are in charge of the VEBA, will see their stock portfolios rise if they do not give retirees the health benefits they need. This is a travesty. I am very, very interested in this because I have a father who is aged and sick and was in the UAW for 31 years. He will be drastically affected.

The contract also specifies that new hires will not be placed in a “defined” pension but a 401(k). This will causes problems for current retirees and people soon to retire because money will not longer be flowing into the defined pension account for them. The result: there will no longer be enough money to pay for current retirees and soon to be retirees. It is exactly the same thing that will happen to current Social Security beneficiaries and soon-to-become Social Security beneficiaries, i.e., there will not be enough money flowing into the Social Security Trust Fund, if President Bush has his way. This is what is happening in New Jersey for state government workers. My sister put in over 30 years with the state government, but Gov. Corzine’s plan to take new state employees out of the defined state pension plan and place them into 401(k)s will lead to a gigantic shortfall of monies for current retirees in the near future.

If I can’t count on you to report what working people should now for the “fight back,” I was thinking that perhaps I should cancel my subscription to the paper. Please report thoroughly, in your next issue, the negative aspects of the UAW contract.

Gary De Santis Hamilton Township NJ

As a relatively new subscriber I have to say that I am disappointed in your coverage of the recent and extremely brief UAW strike. While your coverage is very perky and positive, I would rather hear the truth about the strike and its outcome. Frankly, the strike was showboating, and the resolution far from a win for labor. Have you people “drunk the Kool-Aid?” While I know that to come out against this outcome could cost you politically with the UAW, have you thought about the cost to your credibility by covering this event as a win for labor when it so clearly was not? I didn’t subscribe so that you could be added to the list of news outlets that I do not trust.

Michael Moriconi South Bend IN

SCHIP action

MoveOn.org asked its members to write letters to the editor about Republicans cutting child health insurance for low-income children. MoveOn sent my letter to the New York Times, yet somehow I doubt that it will get printed. But there is one newspaper that prints what’s really on people’s minds: the People’s Weekly World!

I remember stories growing up about the evil empire, the so-called “red menace.” My parents were, of course, referring to the Soviet Union.

Little did they know there was a red menace right here in America — and they’re called Republicans.

I can’t believe that the Republicans would seriously entertain cutting children’s health insurance for low-income needy children. And I can’t believe any honest American would support them in this endeavor. Has everyone gone mad? Why is it so hard for people to care for each other? What have we come to as a nation?

Matt Parker New York NY

Cutting Medicaid to pay for war?

I just found something in USA Today that deserves the attention of PWW. A flaw laced in a $120 billion spending bill for the imperialist war and occupation in Iraq threatens to cause many poor and/or disabled Medicaid recipients to be unable to obtain prescription drugs in the month of October. This means that people in need of pain medication will have to make do with their pain. People who have mental disorders could also fall off their meds, relapse and land right back in a mental hospital. The list of effects goes on.

Patrick McColloch Allen TX

Free the Jena 6

I’m urging this in my e-mails. Please protest to your Members of Parliament and the U.S. ambassador in London to free the Jena 6. Racism wherever it takes place is a threat to freedom everywhere.

William Herbert Ronksley London, UK

Good memories

I would like to thank you for the write-up on Moe Fishman (PWW 8/17-24). He was one of my mentors in the late 1940s at the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee, as a young Black woman starting out in the world and trying to become a “secretary” when that was unheard of at the time. He recruited me as his assistant when he was an accountant there. I was out of touch with him because I thought he left New York. Again, thank you for the article and the wonderful memories it brought back.

Bess Lumpkin Slifkin Mesa AZ

ARA: anyone can join

In her otherwise excellent report on the Alliance for Retired Americans legislative conference (PWW 9/15-21), Denise Winebrenner Edwards left the mistaken impression that the ARA membership is limited to union retirees.

Although it is true that the ARA is proudly pro-union, and that union retirees make up the bulk of the membership, the organization includes thousands of activists whose background has been in community struggles against racism, for democratic rights, and around issues ranging from affordable bus fares to affordable housing, from better garbage collection to adequate funding for the public schools.

The ARA has consciously reserved slots in its national leadership for community activists, and is reaching out to the community in many ways, building coalitions, lending support to community struggles, and actively seeking to expand its community-based membership.

Any man or woman, retired or not, from labor or the community, can find a rewarding political home in the Alliance for Retired Americans. And by the way, people of any age can join.

Will Parry Seattle WA Will Parry is president of the Puget Sound Alliance of Retired Americans.

Critics call Cuban blockade genocide

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 08:26:00 +0000

Cuba plans soon to introduce its annual resolution before the UN General Assembly against the U.S. blockade of Cuba. Nations siding with Cuba have gone from 59 in 1992 to 183 last year.

At a press conference Sept. 18, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque released a report summarizing the blockade’s recent impact on the island.

Washington’s actions last year are consistent with the blockade’s purpose set out in 1960. Undersecretary of State Lestor Mallory authored a memorandum in April that year for a meeting called by President Dwight Eisenhower just before the blockade began. U.S. goals, outlined by Mallory, were clear.

Citing the lack of “effective political opposition” to Cuba’s 3-month-old revolutionary government, Mallory wanted to “shrink the internal support for the revolution through disenchantment and discouragement.” His plan was to “deny money and supplies for Cuba [so as] to reduce wages and monetary inflow and ... provoke hunger, desperation and the overthrow of the government.”

That amounts to genocide, according to analyst Salim Lamrani, writing for rebelion.org on Sept. 28. He referred to Article 11 of the 1948 Geneva Convention, which identifies genocide with “acts committed with the intention of destroying completely or partially a national, ethnic, racial or religious group” and “the intentional submission of a group to conditions of existence that could occasion its total or partial destruction.”

Perez Roque claimed that the U.S. blockade has caused Cuba $89 billion in monetary losses, including $4 billion last year. Is there evidence, however, for genocide? Data on the one-year period ending in July taken from the Cuban web sites www.cubaminrex.cu and www.cubavsbloqueo.cu suggest the answer is yes.

Important products produced only by U.S. companies or foreign affiliates became unavailable to Cuban physicians. They included diagnostic equipment for retina studies, drugs for macular degeneration, an important pediatric anesthetic agent, artificial heart valves, catheters for cardiac diagnostic studies, and pacemakers for pediatric heart patients.

Cuba had to spend $30 million extra for purchases of emergency, intensive care and maternity supplies. Hospitals lost their main source of anesthetic equipment when General Electric bought a Finnish manufacturer. The U.S. Treasury Department compiled a list of “hospitals denied” — those off limits for cardiac diagnostic equipment made by U.S. companies or foreign partners. Visas were denied for 37 Cuban medical specialists wanting to attend scientific meetings in the United States.

Washington interfered with food production and imports. Forced to use third-country banks to pay for legal U.S. food shipments, Cuba paid out an extra $62.8 million. U.S. interference with food shipments and shipping company payments added $258 million to Cuba’s food costs. That amount, say Cuban authorities, could have purchased 827,000 metric tons of soybeans, soy oil, maize and wheat.

The blockade added costs, but also interfered with people’s daily lives. Examples of shortages and extra replacement costs include the following: Oil refinery gaskets, $264,000; 40 Wilden pumps for soy yogurt manufacture, $711,000; construction supplies for refurbishing schools, $870,370; spare parts for locomotives, $500,000 (plus 6,892 cancelled departures affecting 197,000 passengers); and spare parts for passenger bus tractors, $671,000 (plus added delays each day for 45,000 passengers).

Currently 205 water-pumping facilities are idle due to lack of U.S.-made replacement parts. Extra repair costs have totaled $1.65 million, 40 percent due to additional freight charges. Blockade-related costs borne by the construction sector last year came to $14.1 million. Construction of new housing and repairs called for the outlay of $4.3 million to pay for expensive, distant supplies.

U.S. enforcers also ordered Internet search companies to cut contacts with Cuba. They blocked U.S. attendance at Cuban scientific events, Cuban performers from entering the United States, and Cubans from staying at foreign hotels affiliated with U.S. corporations. Costly restrictions on foreign banks handling Cuban accounts involving dollars were part of the picture. Non-Cuban corporations stole the brand names of Cuba’s Cohiba cigars and its world renowned rum, Havana Club.

Democratic presidential candidates have spoken out. Barack Obama would “normalize relations and ease the embargo.” Christopher Dodd called U.S. policy toward Cuba an “abject failure.” He too pledged to end the blockade. Others opt for the status quo.

Concepts like cruelty, illegality, and genocide remain unexplored. Two-thirds of all Cubans have lived their entire lives under blockade.

atwhit @megalink.net

NATIONAL CLIPS: Oct. 6

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 07:59:00 +0000

BOULDER, Colo.: Students walk out protesting pledge

Objecting to the phrase “one nation under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, over 100 students at Boulder High School walked out Sept. 27 and read their own pledge. “We don’t object to pledging to our country,” said Ashley Guesman, 17, “but we do object to pledging to a religion.”

Students said their own pledge: “I pledge allegiance to the flag and my constitutional rights with which it comes. And to the diversity with which our nation stands. One nation, part of one planet, with liberty, freedom, choice and justice for all.”

Boulder High broadcasts the Pledge of Allegiance every morning in accordance with state law. Students want that discontinued or replaced by an alternative. If no change occurs, they are planning another action.

Principal Bud Jenkins said the walkout was not disruptive and participants would not be disciplined.

The phrase “one nation under God” was inserted during the 1950s McCarthy anti-communist hysteria.

KANSAS CITY, Mo.: Churches offer shelter to undocumented workers

Inspired by the fight of Elvira Arellano, an undocumented worker who was deported and thereby separated from her U.S.-born son after she left a church in Chicago, several area churches announced they would provide sanctuary to immigrants facing deportation.

“It is the very soul of our nation that is at stake in how we treat families in which one or both parents are illegal immigrants but the children are American citizens,” said the Rev. Rick Behrens of Grandview Park Presbyterian Church. “We are losing our soul as we separate children from parents.”

Church leaders and their supporters have formed the New Sanctuary Movement. In a statement, they said churches would offer sanctuary if seekers have U.S.-born children, no criminal record and have worked in the United States.

MILWAUKEE: March celebrates struggle to desegregate housing

For over 200 consecutive days in 1967, the late Father James Groppi led a march every day to a bridge that now bears his name. The bridge was the entryway to “no man’s land,” barring African Americans from moving into the white community on the other side. African Americans and progressive whites demanded that all Milwaukeeans be free to live wherever they chose, regardless of race.

Pamela Jo Sargent was 13 when she received her badge of honor during those marches. Pulling back her hair, she showed reporters a scar a few inches above her left eyebrow that runs all the way to the back of her head. “I was hit in the head by a brick,” she said.

Every day, mobs lined the streets leading to the bridge and were on the bridge itself, hurling rocks and bricks, screaming curses and spitting on marchers.

Sargent, who now lives in Mississippi, brought seven of her grandchildren to Milwaukee for the celebration so they would know the history.

Peggy Rozga, Groppi’s widow (Groppi left the priesthood in 1976 and died in 1985), along with social justice activist Dick Gregory and other marchers from those historic days, led the march across the 16th Street Viaduct, renamed James E. Groppi Unity Bridge. Latinos who were among the marchers chanted, “Sí se puede!”

“There is nothing in America that equals what happened here in Milwaukee,” said Gregory. “When the rest of the country saw what was going on in Milwaukee, it realized that equality was not an Alabama problem, was not a Mississippi problem. This is an American problem.”

The City Council enacted an open housing ordinance in April 1968.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.: Republicans abandon ‘stealth’ election trick

Republican big-leaguers, including Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign, are running as fast as they can from the scene of a proposed California ballot measure to change the state’s winner-take-all Electoral College presidential vote system.

On Sept. 28, billionaire hedge fund executive Paul Singer, a policy adviser and major fund-raiser for Giuliani, revealed he was the mystery donor who gave $175,000 to a Missouri-based tax-exempt group “Take Initiative America.” The goal was to place a question on the ballot that would have apportioned 53 of the state’s 55 electoral votes according to the top vote getter in each congressional district, instead of the current winner-take-all system.

Had the proposed referendum’s provisions been law in 2004, President Bush would have won 22 electoral votes in California instead of zero.

Just 24 hours before Singer’s acknowledgement, California Republicans began jumping ship. Thomas Hiltachk, an attorney who has represented the California Republican Party, and other backers withdrew their support for the effort, saying there was not sufficient interest or financial support to continue.

National Clips are compiled by Denise Winebrenner Edwards (dwinebr696 @aol.com). Marilyn Bechtel contributed to this week’s clips.