People Before Profit blog

For equality, justice and self-determination

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 07:52:00 +0000

The following statement was made by Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque at the 62nd Session of the UN General Assembly on Sept. 26 in New York City.

Mr. President:

Never before had the real dangers menacing the human species become so evident; never before had the violations of International Law become so evident, as they increasingly jeopardize international peace and security; never before had inequality and exclusion become so evident, as they impact on over two-thirds of the population on our planet.

A key factor to the survival of humankind is to put an end to wastefulness and to the unbridled consumerism fostered by the large corporations and the power groups of a handful of developed countries, which squander at the expense of impoverishment and the perpetuation of underdevelopment in a sizable number of poor countries where billions of people scramble to make a living.

The high-level meeting of this General Assembly, held only two days ago, emphasized the danger posed by the accelerated global warming that is already affecting us and by its effect on climate change. Action must be taken, and quickly, and the developed countries have the moral duty and the historic responsibility to set the example and spearhead the effort.

On the other hand, several of our countries, always from the South, continue to fall prey to unacceptable acts of aggression by the ever-powerful — which are essentially driven by the insatiable hunger for strategic resources. The wars of conquest and the proclamation and implementation of doctrines based on pre-emptive wars, which do not exclude the use of nuclear weapons even against non-nuclear States, and the repeated use of pretexts such as the alleged war on terror, the much-trumpeted promotion of democracy or the so-called regime change in countries that are unilaterally labeled as rogue States, are today the greatest and most serious threat to peace and security in the world.

The aggression and illegal occupation of countries, military interventions against International Law and the purposes and principles enshrined in the UN Charter, the bombing of civilians and tortures continue to be daily practices. Under the false tirade of freedom and democracy, an attempt is made to write in stone the pillaging of the natural resources in the Third World and control areas of increasing geo-strategic importance. That and no other is the imperial domination plan that the mightiest military superpower ever to exist is trying to impose through all means possible.

Far from behaving in international relations according to the principles of solidarity, social and international justice, equality and development for all, there is no prudence at all in employing the practices of certifying countries, of imposing unilateral blockades, of threatening through aggressions, of blackmailing and coercing.

If a small country defends and upholds its right to independence, it is accused of being a rogue State; if a power launches an attack against a country, it is said that it “liberates” them. A fighter against foreign aggression is a terrorist; an attacking soldier is a “freedom fighter.” That is the media war, the swindle of truths, the tyranny of a one-track mind in a globalized world.

Instead of moving towards general and complete disarmament, including nuclear disarmament, which has been an ongoing demand of the Non-Aligned Movement for decades, we bear witness to the promotion of the arms race and to the squandering of wealth on new weapons and arms systems that deplete the resources required by the world in order to mitigate the effects of climate change and address the very serious problems stemming from poverty and marginalization.

An attempt is made to prevent, in a politicized and selective fashion, the implementation of the principle — already contained in the Non-Proliferation Treaty — that nations are entitled to the development of nuclear energy with peaceful purposes. Threats are imposed to launch wars against and wreak havoc on some countries, while allowing the aggressive ally to have hundreds of nuclear devices and helping them modernize such artifacts continuously.

How much more time will it have to elapse and how many new victims will have to die before the hawks of war understand that weapons are useless to resolve the critical problems of humankind?

On a day like today, it is worth recalling the words uttered by President Fidel Castro in this General Assembly in October 1979:

“Let us bid farewell to arms and let us concentrate, in a civilized manner, on the most pressing problems of our time. That is the responsibility and the most sacred duty of all Statesmen in the world. That is also the indispensable tenet of human survival.”

Mr. President:

There is no progress today towards fulfilling the Millennium Goals and the decisions of the major United Nations conferences held over the last decade.

Poverty does not decrease. Inequality among and within the countries is on the rise.

Drinking water is not accessible to 1.1 billion people; 2.6 billion lack cleaning services; over 800 million are illiterate and 115 million children do not attend primary school; 850 million starve every day. And 1 percent of the world’s richest people own 40 percent of the wealth, while 50 percent of the world’s population merely has 10 percent. All this is happening in a world that spends a trillion dollars on weapons and another one on advertising.

The nearly 1 billion people living in developed countries consume approximately half of all the energy, while 2 billion poor people are still not acquainted with electricity.

Is that the world that they want us to accept? Is that, by any chance, the future that we should settle for? Are we entitled or not to fight in order to change that state of things? Should we or should we not fight so that a better world can be possible?

Why are such colossal resources squandered on the killing industry and not used to save lives? Why are schools not built instead of nuclear submarines, and hospitals instead of “smart” bombs? Why are vaccines not produced instead of armored vehicles and more food instead of more fighter jets? Why is there no momentum given to research to fight off AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis instead of promoting the manufacture of anti-missile shields? Why is there no war waged against poverty instead of against the poor?

Despite the fact that only US$150 billion is needed to meet the Millennium Goals, we hear the hypocritical assertion that there is no source from which to obtain the necessary financial resources. That is a lie! There is money in abundance; what is lacking is the political will, ethics and the real commitment of those who have to make a choice.

If they really want money to appear:

Let the commitment of setting aside 0.7 percent of GDP as Official Development Assistance be fulfilled once and for all. That would mean an additional US$141 billion to the current amounts. At the height of deceit, the donor countries are now auditing the cancellations of a debt that they know they will not be able to collect in order to artificially inflate their contributions.

Let the foreign debt be cancelled, which our countries have already paid more than once. That would make it possible to set aside for development the over US$400 billion currently employed in servicing a debt that does not cease to grow.

Let the Doha Round for Development come to an end and let the US$300 billion in agricultural subsidies for the developed countries be removed. That would make it possible to earmark that money to fight rural poverty and food insecurity and to ensure fair prices for the export products of the underdeveloped countries.

Let our right to development be recognized. Let our right to have access to markets, patents and technologies be guaranteed, for these are now the exclusive monopoly of the powerful. Let our countries be helped in training professionals and scientists and let the brain drain stop.

The non-aligned countries need no alms; we need and demand justice.

Let our rights to cultural diversity be respected, as well as our right to the preservation of our heritage, our symbols and our idiosyncrasy. That has been the unanimous demand that the non-aligned countries have just proclaimed in Tehran, at our Ministerial Meeting on Human Rights and Cultural Diversity.

Mr. President:

The non-aligned countries want a more democratic and transparent United Nations, in which the General Assembly, its most representative and democratic body, can really implement the powers vested in it.

We need a United Nations with a reformed Security Council, acting in conformity with the mandate granted to it by the Organization’ s Charter, without infringing upon the functions and prerogatives of other organs of the system. There must be a Security Council with an expanded membership, in line with the current composition of the United Nations, where the underdeveloped countries are the majority. There must be a Security Council with a radical modification to its working methods in order to allow transparency and the access of all Member States to its deliberations.

We uphold the idea of having a United Nations where multilateralism and the solutions agreed upon in full compliance with the Charter are the only way to address and resolve the current problems.

We need a Human Rights Council that prevents the repetition of the serious mistakes made by the former Commission on Human Rights. A Council that enshrines in its practices the principle that human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent. A Council to put an end to selectivity and double standards. The non-aligned countries will firmly oppose those devilish schemes by some mighty quarters which, frustrated as they are for failing to achieve their goals, are now attempting to reopen and call into question the agreement reached in the hard and difficult process of institutional building of the Council.

The non-aligned countries will not give up on our effort to defend the precepts that incepted our Movement, similar to those of this Organization. Among the nations, we will foster relations of friendship based on the respect for the principles of sovereignty, equality of rights and the self-determination of the peoples.

We will continue to defend the right of the grief-stricken and heroic people of Palestine to have their own State with East Jerusalem as its capital. We will continue to condemn the genocide committed against it.

We will continue to proclaim the right of the people of Puerto Rico to sovereignty and to independence.

The non-aligned countries account for nearly two-thirds of the membership of the United Nations. Our demands will not be forgotten, nor our interests ignored. We will remain united and we will find support in the defense of our rights. We will make our voice heard.

Mr. President:

This was supposed to be the end of my statement as Chair of the Non-Aligned Movement. However, the shameless and gross behavior of the U.S. President in this hall, yesterday morning, now forces me to utter a few remarks on Cuba’s behalf.

With a foul language and an arrogant tone, President Bush insulted and threatened some 10 countries; he gave orders, in a firm and authoritarian fashion, to the General Assembly; and with such bossiness never ever seen in this hall, he dished out terms and judgments on a score of countries.

It was an embarrassing show. The delirium tremens of the world’s policeman. The intoxication of imperial power, sprinkled with the mediocrity and the cynicism of those who threaten to launch wars in which they know their life is not at stake.

The President of the United States has no right at all to pass judgment on any other sovereign nation on this planet. Having powerful nuclear weapons offers no right whatsoever to tread upon the rights of the peoples of the other 191 countries that are represented here.

And the determination and courage of the peoples should not be underestimated when it comes to defending their rights! After all, what prevails is not the power of cannons but the fairness of the ideas that you fight for. The bullish and menacing President should have already learned it by now.

Sovereign equality of States and not “regime change.” Respect for sovereignty and not unilateral certifications of good behavior. Respect for International Law and not illegal blockades and wars.

President Bush talked about democracy, but we all know that he is lying. He came into office through fraud and deceit. We would have been spared his presence yesterday and would have listened to President Al Gore talking about climate change and the risks to our species. We also recall how he brazenly supported the coup d’etat against the President and the Constitution of Venezuela.

He talked about peace, but we know that he is lying. We remember very well when he threatened 60 or more countries, which he called “dark corners of the world,” saying that he would wipe them off the face of the earth with pre-emptive and surprise attacks. Bush is a strange warrior who, from the rearguard, sends the young people of his country to kill and to die thousands of kilometers away.

He talked about human rights, but we know that he is lying. He is responsible for the death of 600,000 civilians in Iraq; he authorized tortures at the Guantánamo Naval Base and at Abu Ghraib, and he is an accessory to the kidnapping and disappearance of people, as well as to the secret flights and the clandestine prisons.

He talked about the fight against terrorism, but we know that he is lying. He has ensured complete impunity for the most hateful terrorist groups which, from Miami, have perpetrated heinous crimes against the Cuban people.

President Bush attacked the new Human Rights Council. He is bleeding through the wound; he is grunting his helplessness. He is haunted by the shamefulness that, during his term in office, the United States cannot even look forward to being a member because elections are through secret ballot. Cuba, in turn, was elected as a founding member of the Council with more than two-thirds of the votes.

He talked about cooperation, development and prosperity for the rest of the world, but we all know that he is lying. He has been the most selfish and reckless politician we have ever seen. In a world that this year will bear witness to the death of 10 million children under the age of 5 through preventable diseases, his self-seeking and empty proposals of yesterday are but a sick joke.

President Bush has no moral authority or credibility to judge anyone. He should be held accountable to the world for his crimes.

There are boundaries to both arrogance and hypocrisy. There are boundaries to lies and blackmail. Cuba rejects and condemns each of the devious words uttered yesterday by the President of the United States.

Mr. President:

Cuba appreciates the solidarity received from this General Assembly in its struggle against the blockade and the aggressions that it has been forced to endure for nearly five decades.

Cuba thanks all those who have supported its tenacious fight against terrorism and have raised their voice in favor of the release of five Cuban anti-terrorism fighters unjustly imprisoned in the United States.

Cuba will fight, along with all the members of the Non-Aligned Movement, in order to achieve a more just and democratic international order, in which our peoples can exercise their right to peace and development.

We may be accused of being dreamers, but we are fighting with the conviction that today’s dreams will be tomorrow’s realities.

We are fighting with the conviction that even when there are men without decorum, there are always others who have in themselves the decorum of many men and carry in them a whole nation, as well as human dignity.

Thank you very much.

The Madhesi issue in Nepal: danger of civil war?

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 03:55:00 +0000

Nepal is a small South Asian Himalayan country of about 28 million people. With the restoration of democracy (known as spring awakening) in 1990 and the dramatic protests in 2006 that caused King Gyanendra to relinquish power, Nepal has come out of its cocoon and has drawn the attention of the world.

Today’s coalition government, made up until recently of eight major political parties, has been promoting a Nov. 22 election for a constituent assembly. On Sept. 18 the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) withdrew from the government, and now the Nov. 22 election date is a bit uncertain.

Once the elections are held for the assembly are held, however, the aim of the newly constituted body would be to ensure the foundation of justice, morality and a healthy social life for all Nepalese, that is, to reduce or eliminate all types of economic, social, racial, ethnic and other disparities.

One issue that merits close attention during this period is how Nepal copes with its ethnic issues. Of particular importance in this regard is the issue of the “Madhesis,” the multi-ethnic, indigenous population in the southern plains bordering India. Nepal is only about 54,000 square miles in area, but it encompasses more than 60 ethnic groups amid myriad other socio-cultural diversities. Previously known as a splendid mosaic of all these communities, Nepal, after the 1990s, has been beset by the complexities of the ethnic paradigm.

Until recently, the ruling power of the state, be it political, bureaucratic or social, has remained in the grip of handful of the so-called upper castes, and all others, including ethnic minorities, have been marginalized. This has enraged people like the Madhesis. Now in “Madhes,” the land of Madhesis, a score of armed groups have sprung up to fight for the rights of Madhesis by liberating them from the age-old domination of “Pahadis,” the indigenous inhabitants of the uplands of Nepal, the central and northern parts, who have always enjoyed special privileges.

Madhesis are treated unfairly by the state and society. This is the population that tills in the earth and toils in the factories, yet starves to death. They have long been living as second-class citizens. They want equitable power-sharing in socio-political arena, not to remain victims of internal colonization under a feudal-like system.

In the context of Nepal’s long-standing, pro-Pahadis political policy, the problem of Madhes presents itself as a crisis of national identity. Madhesis are not Indians, but they are still not recognized as full-fledged Nepalese by the government. This has produced utter frustration among them, compelling them sometimes to adopt violent measures to bring their situation to light.

The violence and casualties these days, especially in Madhes, trumpets the possibility of a civil war. Some people opine that this is a broth boiled by the suspended king and his men; others suspect Indian extremist forces are behind it. In either case the goal, these people say, is to instigate riots to hinder the election for the constituent assembly. But hardly any evidence is produced to support these theories.

By and large, the responsibility for addressing the Madhesi problem rests with the country’s political leadership. Many who advocate a federal system of government have included in their platforms a call to uplift the Madhesis by ensuring their identity, representation and place in the national mainstream.

In the forefront of these forces is the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist), which will be fielding candidates for the constituent assembly. Other parties like the socialist Nepali Congress Party appear to be too preoccupied with their internal issues.

One can only hope that the day is not far off when all of Nepal’s workers can enjoy peace, prosperity and a better life.

Jena 6 teen released on $45,000 bail

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 03:53:00 +0000

AP — A black teenager whose prosecution in the beating of a white classmate prompted a massive civil rights protest here walked out of a courthouse Thursday after a judge ordered him freed.

Mychal Bell’s release on $45,000 bail came hours after a prosecutor confirmed he would no longer seek an adult trial for the 17-year-old. Bell, one of the teenagers known as the Jena Six, still faces trial as a juvenile in the December beating in this small central Louisiana town.

“We still have mountains to climb, but at least this is closer to an even playing field,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, who helped organize last week’s protest.

“He goes home because a lot of people left their home and stood up for him,” Sharpton said as Bell stood smiling next to him.

“There’s only one person who could have brought me through this and that’s the good Lord,” Bell told reporters later in front of his father’s house.

District Attorney Reed Walters’ decision to abandon adult charges means that Bell, who had faced a maximum of 15 years in prison on his aggravated second-degree battery conviction last month, instead could be held only until he turns 21 if he is found guilty in juvenile court.

The conviction in adult court was thrown out this month by the state 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal, which said Bell should not have been tried as an adult on that particular charge.

Walters had said he would appeal that decision. On Thursday, he said he still believes there was legal merit to trying Bell as an adult but decided it was in the best interest of the victim, Justin Barker, and his family to let the juvenile court handle the case.

“They are on board with what I decided,” Walters said at a news conference.

Bell faces juvenile court charges of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit that crime.

He is among six black Jena High School students arrested in December after a beating that left Barker unconscious and bloody, though the victim was able to attend a school function later that day. Four of the defendants were 17 at the time, which made them adults under Louisiana law.

Those four and Bell, who was 16, all were initially charged with attempted murder. Walters has said he sought to have Bell tried as an adult because he already had a criminal record, and because he believed Bell instigated the attack.

The charges have been dropped to aggravated second-degree battery in four of the cases. One defendant has yet to be arraigned. The sixth defendant’s case is sealed in juvenile court.

Bell’s lawyer, Carol Powell Lexing, said his next hearing is set for Tuesday.

Critics accuse Walters, who is white, of prosecuting blacks more harshly than whites. They note that he filed no charges against three white teens suspended from the high school over allegations they hung nooses in a tree on campus not long before fights between blacks and whites, including the attack on Barker.

An estimated 20,000 to 25,000 protesters marched in Jena last week in a scene that evoked the early years of the civil rights movement.

Walters said the demonstration had no influence on his decision not to press the adult charges, and ended his news conference by saying that only God kept the protest peaceful.

“The only way — let me stress that — the only way that I believe that me or this community has been able to endure the trauma that has been thrust upon us is through the prayers of the Christian people who have sent them up in this community,” Walters said.

“I firmly believe and am confident of the fact that had it not been for the direct intervention of the Lord Jesus Christ last Thursday, a disaster would have happened. You can quote me on that.”

The Rev. Donald Sibley, a black Jena pastor, called it a “shame” that Walters credited divine intervention for the protesters acting responsibly.

“What I’m saying is, the Lord Jesus Christ put his influence on those people, and they responded accordingly,” Walters responded.

After the news conference, Sibley told CNN that Walters had insulted the protesters by making a false separation between “his Christ and our Christ.”

“For him to use it in the sense that because his Christ, his Jesus, because he prayed, because of his police, that everything was peaceful and was decent and in order — that’s not the truth,” Sibley said.

Walters has said repeatedly that Barker’s suffering has been lost in the furor over the case, and that what happened to the teen was much more severe than a schoolyard fight.

Walters also has defended his decision not to seek charges in the hanging of the nooses, which he said was “abhorrent and stupid” but not a crime.

Philadelphia workers fight for union rights

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 03:50:00 +0000

PHILADELPHIA — The City of Brotherly Love witnessed two rallies Sept. 5 that highlighted the challenges workers face when trying to organize in today’s apparently complex, but in fact brutally simple, anti-union environment.

The security guards at Temple University held a march and rally on the campus that which drew over 100 supporters from Jobs with Justice, student groups, clergy members and local unions. The guards’ demand was simple: they want five paid sick days a year.

The guards face many challenges: they face special legal obstacles to organizing and, while they do have an organizing committee, they don’t have bargaining rights. They don’t even work for Temple. Their employer, Allied Barton Security, employs some 16,000 guards in Philadelphia and has a contract with Temple where about 250 of the guards work.

The security guards at Temple are predominantly African American.

After a spirited rally at the bell tower in the center of campus, the guards and their supporters marched the short distance to the university president’s office, where a support committee of clergy members and Jobs with Justice leaders attempted to enter the building with a petition and a letter urging the administration to talk to the guards’ representatives and agree to the demand for sick days.

Though unsuccessful on this day, the crowd, the leaders and the guards vowed to continue the fight for fair treatment.

Among the speakers at the Temple rally was Ron Blount, president of the Taxi Workers Alliance. He said he could not stay long because he had another rally to attend.

Later that day, across town in West Philadelphia, the Taxi Workers Alliance, in the midst of a 24-hour strike in coordination with New York City cab drivers, also held a rally. The issues here were the demands and onerous conditions being imposed on the drivers by the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA).

The PPA regulates, but does not own, taxicabs. The drivers say the PPA treats them like employees when it comes to establishing conditions, regulations and imposing fines. On the other hand, when it comes to footing the bill for meeting the PPA conditions, the authority then says that the drivers are independent contractors.

Some of the 1,600 drivers own their own cabs; others work for an owner of a fleet of perhaps 100 cabs. The drivers say that either way, they bear the cost of installing and maintaining expensive GPS technology, which does not always work and sometimes causes them to lose work time.

The drivers also pay the price of having to accept credit card payments, which means waiting for payment or in some cases not receiving payment at all. As driver Steve Chernenka told the rally, “If they [the PPA] want to make the business decisions, they should treat us like employees and guarantee our pay and benefits, which they don’t.”

The taxi drivers include many immigrants, many of whom have resided for years in the U.S. and are now citizens. At the rally, this reporter spoke to drivers from Ghana, Eritrea, Bangladesh and Poland, all of whom passionately described their grievances.

The drivers heard words of encouragement and solidarity from security guard activist Thomas Robinson, who had just come from the Temple rally and who told the drivers, “Solidarity does not rest. We will continue this fight until we get justice and fair treatment.”

Coming, as they did, two days after the huge Labor Day parade packed Delaware Avenue along the city’s waterfront — a parade showing labor’s numbers and potential power — these two actions provided a stark reminder of the organizing challenges many workers face here and elsewhere.

bikerbenn @aol.com

Unusual coalition wins judgeship nod in N.Y.

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 06:21:00 +0000

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — This is not a big election year here, but on Sept.18 there were primaries for two state district judgeships and for the much more important County Surrogate judgeship. Usually the Brooklyn Democratic machine, which has been notoriously corrupt for decades, picks the Surrogate candidate and there is no contest.

The Surrogate judgeship is a big source of corrupt financing for the machine, because it appoints lawyers to administer estates and adoptions. Consequently, the judge handles hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fees and estate assets.

Recently a Surrogate was forced to resign for feeding $50 million in fees to a lawyer friend. The conviction of the County Democratic chairman, Clarence Norman, was connected to the Surrogate Court operation. This time Vito Lopez, the new County chairman from the same circles, put forward ShawnDya Simpson as the candidate.

For the first time in recent Brooklyn history, there was unity among the reform and progressive forces. They were united behind Diane Johnson, who received 60 percent of the vote. Both candidates were African American judges approved by the Bar Association. Johnson is the first African American Surrogate elected.

The forces that united to produce the victory included several progressive Black political figures — retired Congressman Major Owens, his son and former congressional candidate Chris Owens, Councilpersons Tish James and Charles Barron, and Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint. Also involved were the three reform Democratic clubs, CBID, IND, and Lambda Independent Democrats.

In a scurrilous mailer, the machine candidate claimed to be the reformer and accused Johnson of being the candidate of the corrupt machine. The mailer carried a picture of a Black woman under indictment — not Johnson — giving the impression it was she. It also quoted from The New York Times endorsement of Simpson as the reformer that concluded by saying Johnson’s supporters were “disreputable political actors.”

The truth is there has been difficulty in bringing together the various Black progressive political leaders with one another and with the predominantly white Reform Democratic Clubs. In this case that unity was achieved, and given the preponderance of Democrats in the county, Judge Johnson will most likely be elected in the final on Nov. 6.

This, if sustained, could lead to greater victories in the mayoral, borough president and other elections.

Always Jewish, lately Palestinian

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:51:00 +0000

I am Jewish because the love of others made me so.

I am Jewish because I grew up on the South Side of Chicago; there even my public school was Jewish.

I am Jewish because my grandfather was oh, so Jewish, and I felt it then and feel it now.

I am Jewish because angry Irish boys felt my Jewish nose at the end of their Catholic fist.

I am Jewish because we are commanded to remember when we were slaves in Egypt and I do.

I am Jewish because we are commanded to seek justice and because I believed my teachers who said we must do so.

I am Jewish because I have never felt any other way.

I am Jewish because dissent is my faith and my chosen fate.

I am Jewish because I learned Hebrew and then forgot nearly every word of it.

I am Jewish because in my grandmother’s kitchen nothing would rise, but of everything there was plenty.

I am Jewish because the South Shore Country Club was founded by people who would not let us in.

I am Jewish because my Dad once slugged a guy at Comiskey Park who cussed a Jewish pitcher for the White Sox.

I am Jewish because the Jewish god is not diminished by my disbelief.

I am Jewish because Dad was thrilled that Grandpa lived to my Bar Mitzvah and a little beyond.

I am Jewish because I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I am Jewish because Emma Goldman was Jewish, and so was Karl Marx and so was Groucho Marx and Jesus, too, for that matter.

I am Jewish because of the Maccabees and Masada and crusader violence and Spanish inquisitors and Cossack pogroms and the ghetto and the death camps and because I also planted trees in Israel.

I am Jewish because Jewish workers fight in labor struggles and because Jewish people resist racism and because poor Jews endure.

I am Jewish because being Jewish means never using violence against another except when life, itself, is directly threatened, and that principle must never be compromised.

I am Jewish because with that claim I also claim my humanity and in my humanity

I find this:

I am Palestinian because I, too, have been homeless.

I am Palestinian because Palestinian yearning is so like Jewish yearning.

I am Palestinian because I have been uplifted by the love of Palestinians.

I am Palestinian because peace in Arabic and in Hebrew bestows the same gift.

I am Palestinian because we are all children of Abraham.

I am Palestinian because, although Sarah and Hagar are our separate birth mothers, we all live in the embrace of one mother, and will return to her.

I am Jewish because if you come for the Jews, why not me also?

I am Palestinian because if you come for the Palestinians, why not me also?

Jeff Epton is a freelance writer and political activist who is currently working on a poetry project with elementary school children in Washington, D.C.

A Canadian Reds great restlessness

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:47:00 +0000

BOOK REVIEW

A Great Restlessness:

The Life and Politics

of Dorise Nielsen

By Faith Johnston

University of Manitoba Press, 2007

Softcover, 361 pp., $24.95

Faith Johnston’s “A Great Restlessness: the Life and Politics of Dorise Nielsen” is an absorbing political biography of one of Canada’s long-forgotten Communists who fought for the rights of women and children and played a role in shaping Canada’s postwar social legislation.

Dorise Nielsen, born in 1902 in London, emigrated to Canada in 1926 and ended up working in rural Saskatchewan as a teacher. In 1929, the Great Depression descended on the capitalist world and the hunger and impoverishment that followed led many to turn to the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) for answers.

Nielsen, who saw people going hungry and babies dying because parents did not have the money to pay for medical care, became a CCF activist. She became an ardent advocate of a united front with the CPC and the Social Credit Party to defeat the business-backed Conservative and Liberal parties that dominated the political system.

In the Saskatchewan election district of North Battleford, she helped form the United Unity movement with the help of Communists, and in 1940 was elected to Parliament. Even though the Saskatchewan CCF had expelled her by this time for her willingness to cooperate with the Communists, they supported her candidacy.

While Nielsen had joined the CPC by this time, Johnston says, she kept her party membership secret because the federal government had banned the party for its opposition to war with Germany and was interning CPC members. Even so, Nielsen became the party’s first voice in Parliament. Coming from the prairies, she focused on the plight of farmers and rural poverty. She also advocated a national health care program, daycare, and pay equity for women and a family allowance.

As a gifted speaker and the only woman in Parliament, Nielsen increasingly became well known across the country. Prime Minister Mackenzie King tried to co-op Nielsen, offering her a job heading the YMCA if she backed the country’s Liberal government. She turned down his offer. However, according to Johnston, King would turn against her by 1941 after realizing she was a Communist. However, to King’s disappointment, the RCMP was never able to collect enough solid information to arrest her.

According to Johnston, “Nielsen had become an important issue in the Liberal caucus” and the government tried to silence her. In Parliament, where Nielsen often found the debates dreary and futile, she worked closely with the CCF and Social Credit.

In 1943, Nielsen joined the Labor Progressive Party (LPP), founded by the Communists to allow them to operate openly.

Spurred on by the CCF and LPP’s growing electoral victories, the King government in 1944 promised a comprehensive social reform package that included health insurance, unemployment insurance and a universal pension system. Nielsen and Fred Rose, the LPP’s other Member of Parliament, helped draft this new legislation that would define Canada’s postwar welfare state.

Nielsen lost her seat in the 1945 elections to the CCF. After her defeat, Nielsen went on to work for the LPP in Toronto, leading the party’s campaigns for housing and peace. In 1958, she moved to China to support the revolution there, working as an English teacher and editor.

Once in China, Nielsen became an active participant in Mao’s Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. In 1980 she passed away.

“A Great Restlessness” is not only an excellent account of Nielsen’s political career but also of her personal life and all its turmoil.

An enjoyable read, this is valuable book that helps fill in the gaps left by mainstream accounts of history that minimize or ignore the important role that Communists such as Dorise Nielsen played.

tpelzer @shaw.ca

Bolivian adversaries step back from brink

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:44:00 +0000

The Constituent Assembly, situated in Bolivia’s judicial capital of Sucre, turned 1 year old on Aug. 6, and had agreed on nothing. Street protests and racial slurs directed at delegates closed it down briefly in mid-August, and on Sept. 6 it closed for a month. An assembly had been one of socialist President Evo Morales’ key campaign demands.

Morales’ opponents forced a debate on moving the executive and legislative seat of government, currently in La Paz, to Sucre. That debate, plus another over autonomy for Bolivia’s eastern departments (states), were seen as distractions from its main mission of guaranteeing economic and political rights for Bolivia’s indigenous majority. When Morales’ supporters stopped debate on the matter on Aug. 15, violent protests erupted.

Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linares called for an indigenous mobilization in Sucre for Sept. 10. In response, the “civic committees” of six departments, representing better-off and privileged Bolivians of European descent, organized work stoppages for Aug. 28.

The strikes had an uneven impact, with rural people generally staying aloof. For the first time, however, Chuquisaca and Cochebamba joined four separatist-leaning eastern departments as centers of right-wing protest. Demonstrators circulated flyers with racist messages.

On Sept. 4, the pro-Morales governor of Chuquisaca resigned, unwilling to face expanding violence. The next day, an Assembly decision to ignore a court order to debate the issue of moving the capital triggered right-wing attacks that wounded 80. The civic committees’ new “Democratic Junta of Bolivia” organized a one-day hunger strike. Santa Cruz’s mayor called for Bolivia to become two separate nations.

A pro-Morales “Social Summit in Defense of the Constituent Assembly” took place in Sucre on Sept. 10. The call had been for 100,000 protesters, but only 10,000 showed up. Rural people held back because of fears of violence. A summit manifesto demanded “democratic unity,” equality, indigenous rights and “nationalization of natural wealth.”

Then the two sides pulled back. The Chuquisaca governor returned to his office. On Sept. 18, six political parties agreed on a “conciliation commission,” respect for “consensus,” and the necessity for a two-thirds majority in the Assembly to adopt a draft constitution to go to a national referendum. Assembly leaders and all parties promised to work toward reviving the Assembly by Dec. 14.

In Santa Cruz, civic committee head Branko Marinkovic, whose family is accused of illegally holding almost 30,000 acres of land, offered to compensate victims of marauding right-wing youth. His counterparts in Pando, Cochabamba and Chuquisaca spoke up for resuming the Assembly.

Bolivia’s military supports the government so far. Some $10 million has been allocated toward reequipping army units, which have taken roles in producing and distributing bread in an effort to counter rising prices. Military head Wilfredo Vargas told reporters, “The Armed Forces ... are always a bastion of guarantee within the framework of the political constitution of the state.”

Washington is involved, according to Eva Golinger. A recent Internet article by the U.S.-Venezuelan lawyer documented U.S. funding of 379 Bolivian organizations and political parties. Public documents revealed payments of $13.3 million for “reinforcing regional governments,” “civic education for emergent leaders” and “the spreading of information.”

Expressions of solidarity with the Morales government are multiplying. On his weekly television program, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, with Evo Morales at his side, warned, “Imperialism has a plan to knock off this Indian. ... If that occurs, we will shout with Che Guevara ... one, two, three, four, five, or 10 Vietnams [for] Latin America.”

From Argentina, journalist Luis Bilbao demanded from President Nestor Kirchner “a public pronouncement against the conspiring of the U.S., which aims to overthrow the government of Evo Morales.” Circulating widely is a statement “of defense of the Bolivian government and no to U.S. interference” signed by unionists, intellectuals, and solidarity activists of many countries.

For Vice President Garcia, “The real issue [for] the conservative elites is ownership of land ... of forests, of water, of mining wealth and hydrocarbons.” But “no matter what happens to the Constituent Assembly, the process of change will continue.”

atwhit @megalink.net

Psychologists equivocate on torture

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:35:00 +0000

I am a psychologist and I’m mad as hell about the recent decision by the American Psychological Association (APA) to continue to let psychologists collaborate with the CIA and the military in their torture of detainees at Guantanamo and other U.S. facilities.

The APA, representing 148,000 psychologists, held its annual convention in San Francisco in August. The organization voted on Aug. 19 to ban psychologists’ participation in torture, but rejected a measure to ban participation in interrogations.

The resolution against torture specifies techniques that the APA opposes, including mock executions, water-boarding, sexual humiliation, induced hypothermia, hooding, using dogs to threaten and intimidate suspects, and sleep deprivation. This is the first time on record that the association has been specific about which techniques are banned.

However, some argue that the resolution mirrors language in the Military Commissions Act that creates a loophole permitting the CIA to continue abusive techniques which could include inducing hallucinations in normal people. They also point out that psychologists are providing “medical supervision” during these interrogation techniques, thus giving them legitimacy in the public eye. One could say psychologists’ participation is essentially a kind of scab labor.

The American Medical Association and American Psychiatric Association have barred their members from participating in these interrogations.

Mary Pipher, psychologist and bestselling author, decided to return her APA Presidential Citation award in protest. She wrote in her letter to the APA, “I have struggled for many months with this decision and I make it with pain and sorrow. … I do not want an award from an organization that sanctions its members’ participation in the enhanced interrogations at CIA ‘black sites’ and at Guantanamo.”

The Houston Chronicle editorialized, “Psychologists have no place assisting interrogations at places such as Guantanano Bay.”

Why would the world’s largest organization of psychologists allow its members to participate in interrogations involving techniques that any person who was subjected to them would readily identify as torture? If these psychologists were brought before an international court on human rights, would they defend themselves by saying, “I was just following orders”?

The CIA and U.S. military employ a large number of psychologists. In fact, psychology got its start as a profession in this country during World War II, when psychologists were trained to treat soldiers with “battle fatigue,” now known as post-traumatic stress disorder. The VA system has been one of the largest employers of psychologists and has provided the most training sites in this country. The CIA also contracts with psychologists, including a past president of the APA, Joseph Matarazzo. The CIA and military have been the source of extraordinary funds for psychology research in universities over the years.

As is usually the case, if you follow the money you find out why psychologists are collaborating in these Nazi-like techniques.

I became a psychologist for the same reason I think most psychologists do who endure the rigorous training and poverty involved in graduate school education — I wanted to help people suffering from mental problems. For this reason, I find it disgusting that some members of my profession are collaborating with the CIA and military in activities that create mental problems in normal people.

It is no secret that torture was widely practiced during the Nazi Reich. Torture is terrorism practiced on an individual level. The Bush administration has so perverted our society that evidence of creeping fascism can be detected even among psychologists.

Let this be the red flag that alerts all of us that a united effort is needed to oppose the Bush administration authorization and promotion of terrorist interrogation methods. Religious leaders, progressive organizations, human rights organizations, organized labor and yes, even psychologists should come together to lead this struggle.

Paul Hill (phill1917 @comcast.net) is a psychologist and activist in the Houston area.

LETTERS: Deptember 29

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:26:00 +0000

Mad as hell

This is a copy of a comment sent to JP Morgan Chase’s Global Media Relations department.

JP Morgan Chase just tried to take my little house through foreclosure after only a few months, even though I consistently let my mortgage company know what kind of trouble I was having. Then JP Morgan sent my case to a lawyer who I could never get ahold of or even leave a message with. I was fortunate enough to declare bankruptcy, I guess, and stop the foreclosure, but I’ve got to pay this bastard a few thousand now with my $7 an hour job that it took me months to get. Here’s my point:

I’m studying to be a social studies teacher and I’m going to make it my personal mission to show the truth to my students about J.P. Morgan, Carnegie, and that murdering bastard Rockefeller (Ludlow Massacre). J.P. Morgan was a nasty, greedy capitalist regarded as some kind of philanthropic hero when actually he stood on the backs of the starving and abused workers.

JP Morgan and the rest of the creepy capitalist corporations are ruining our society, or do you all even go beyond your frickin’ gated communities to notice what’s going on? Probably not.

J.P. Morgan’s heirs have nothing to be proud of when it comes to his legacy. I don’t care how much money they have, they don’t deserve it because they got it off the backs of the downtrodden — and still are! JP Morgan doesn’t care what it does to people or to communities. Our society is headed for a serious depression and guess what then? Long live the revolution! I hope we won’t need you bastards then.

Catherine Burns Springfield LA

Astounded

I was astounded by W.T. Whitney’s article on Chile (PWW 9/22-28). I don’t claim to be as well-informed as Whitney on current events in Chile, but the analysis by the Chilean Communist Party seems to be off the wall.

It’s one thing to be critical of a government from which its people, as well as the international community, expected more. In fact, such criticism may not only be justified but constructive. But how can the Communist Party state, as quoted in the article, that “The regime today has fostered repressive political powers at a level never seen in Chile’s history”? Did the party forget Pinochet?

Seymour Joseph Brooklyn NY

Tom Whitney responds:

Seymour Joseph raises a good question. The quote from the Chilean Communist Party statement as it appears does indeed seem to exaggerate. Some of the problem, I suggest, lies in the translation. I should have translated “fuerzas represivas policiales” as “repressive police forces,” not as, unthinkingly, “repressive political powers.” But even so, I now wonder, in company with Mr. Joseph, about exaggeration. Yet the writer(s) of the statement are on the scene and further, they surely have not forgotten Pinochet and would not frivolously have described a “level never seen” without knowing specifics about police in today’s Chile that are beyond us. The police detained over 700 protesters during a general strike in Chile on Aug. 29. I thank Mr. Joseph for his attentive reading.

Jena 6 struggle continues

Melissa Gordon, a 27-year-old social work student at the University of Tennessee, reported two white men appearing in a truck with a noose in their hands. They had a shotgun on them and were arrested for trying to incite a race riot. Unfortunately, Melissa experienced this while maintaining a presence to attempt to stop racial hate crimes. We traveled together with people from across the country to support the Jena Six, young men imprisoned for defending themselves against a hate crime.

This rally is historic. I heard about it when I attended church with my mother on a Sunday morning.

This situation will only get better when all unite against the face of racism, when students are taught the whole of history and our schools become places where all students are respected and free. As the country continues to mobilize to support the Jena Six, we also need to connect it to the broader struggle for peace and equality.

Gregory King Nashville TN

The elephant in the room

The following letter was sent to the local papers. One of them printed it.

What will it take to get our politicians, legislators and presidential candidates to acknowledge that the health care system in the United States needs a major makeover? The latest news that New Mexico’s most prestigious health plan of the Public Employees Retirement Association is in trouble and underfunded is only the latest evidence of this.

No one wishes to recognize the elephant in the room — the health insurance organizations and pharmaceutical companies that eat up a huge percentage of the health care dollars with their profits, payments to stockholders, and obscene salaries of CEOs.

Health care should not be for profit! All the developed countries in the world now operate successfully on a single-payer universal health care system. Everyone is covered, there is no paperwork, no one is turned down for legitimate health care, and it is affordable. The insurance companies can try to scare us by calling it “socialized medicine,” but the capitalist countries of England, France and so many others wouldn’t give it up to go back to our regressive system.

Let’s force our legislators to recognize that elephant in the room, and opt for a better system. In Congress, that’s HR 676, nicknamed “Medicare for All.” It’s got 78 sponsors, including John Conyers and Dennis Kucinich. Rep. Tom Udall is one of the signers. In New Mexico, it’s the NM Health Security Act. Get that elephant out of the room!

Rose Shaw Albuquerque NM

This Week In Labor: September 29

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:05:00 +0000

Labor takes aim at key 2008 races

The AFL-CIO executive council has approved a political budget of more than $53 million to educate, mobilize and turn out voters this year and next. The resources will be spent entirely on grassroots mobilization through an ambitious, sophisticated political program.

The federation says it will activate and deploy more than 200,000 volunteers in 2008. Volunteers will reach out to members and neighbors by going door to door, making phone calls, talking to co-workers at their worksites and communicating online with union voters about the issues they’re concerned with: health care, retirement security, good jobs, economic equality, trade policy and the freedom to form and join unions.

The number of union voters the AFL-CIO will turn out is expected to increase sharply in 2008. Working America, a community affiliate of the AFL-CIO, plans to increase its membership from 1.6 million to 2.5 million by next summer. In 2006, labor’s massive union voter mobilization proved pivotal to shifting the balance of power in Congress. The AFL-CIO mobilized more than 13.6 million voters in 32 states.

In addition to electing a pro-worker president, the federation plans to help gain as many as six pro-worker seats in the Senate and add five in the House by focusing on specific districts.

Labor’s efforts are also expected to expand the ranks of worker-friendly state legislators and governors. The AFL-CIO has identified 23 priority states for these purposes in the 2008 elections.

Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin have been identified as “top tier” states. In Ohio alone, the AFL-CIO expects to bring in 1.4 million new pro-union voters. The union vote in Ohio in 2006, without these projected new voters, was already 28 percent of the total vote in that state.

Unions and lawmakers fight corporate bankruptcy dodge

Key congressional and union leaders announced Sept. 25 new legislation to change corporate bankruptcy laws to ensure that workers and retirees are not last in line, behind businesses and banks, if their employer files for bankruptcy.

The “Protecting Employees and Retirees in Business Bankruptcies Act of 2007” also makes it more difficult for businesses to use the bankruptcy process as a back-door way of gutting their workers’ wages and benefits.

The legislation was introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), assistant majority leader.

Workers, including airline pilots, steelworkers and others who have seen their health insurance evaporate or have had to take deep pay cuts when their employers filed for bankruptcy, participated in the press conference announcing the bill.

“Workers have been bearing more than their share of the pain when their companies file for bankruptcy,” said Richard Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO. “This legislation restores balance to the bankruptcy process, moving workers up on the line of who gets what they’re owed, and it ensures that outrageous CEO packages don’t trump things like pensions, living wages and workers’ rights.”

House panel overturns NLRB rulings

By a 26-20 vote, 11 months after the rulings were issued, the Democratic-run House Education and Labor Committee voted Sept. 19 to overturn all of the National Labor Relations Board decisions that allow workers to be arbitrarily reclassified as supervisors.

If, as expected, Congress approves the measure, it would have to be signed into law by President Bush. No one expects him to do so.

The bill is important, however, because it not only bars companies from arbitrarily calling workers “supervisors,” but prevents them from using reclassification to harass and fire workers or to force them into participating in anti-union organizing campaigns. Labor fully expects the bill to become law after the 2008 elections.

Four senators go after ‘independent contractor’ loophole

Four U.S. senators have introduced a bill to kill the “independent contractor” loophole companies use to cheat workers out of overtime pay and to cheat the state and federal governments out of taxes.

Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and presidential hopeful Barack Obama are the co-sponsors. Their bill would close the tax code loophole firms now use to evade paying federal, Medicare and Social Security taxes for workers.

The bill is backed by both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win.

Supreme Court to tackle on-the-job issues this fall

Labor is getting out the word that when the Supreme Court goes into session Oct. 1 it will have before it two key questions that can impact workers’ rights in a major way.

The first question is a challenge by the American Federation of Government Employees to the Bush administration’s decision, in the name of “national security,” to strip 700,000 Defense Department workers of all bargaining rights and whistle-blower protections.

The second question is an attempt by the Bush administration to stop California from forcing companies to remain neutral during union organizing drives.

Four years ago, the Democratic-run California Legislature passed a law saying that any enterprise that got state money in contracts or grants could not use the funds to campaign against union organizing drives. The bill was signed into law by then-Gov. Gray Davis.

By going to the Supreme Court on this issue, Bush is, in effect, acting as a free lawyer for the Chamber of Commerce, which has been fighting the California law since it came into existence.

Labor welcomes first African American to top AFL-CIO post

The AFL-CIO executive council Sept. 21 unanimously elected Arlene Holt-Baker as the group’s executive vice president, making her the first African American ever to serve in one of the top three executive offices of the 12-million-member federation.

Holt-Baker fills the unexpired term of Linda Chavez-Thompson, retiring executive vice president.

One of seven children of a domestic worker and a laborer in Fort Worth, Texas, Holt-Baker got her first job in high school through the anti-poverty program launched in the 1960s. Working after school at the program’s designated minimum wage of $1.40 an hour, she earned higher hourly pay than her mother did working full time.

She was an organizer for AFSCME in the 1980s and 1990s, and fought for unionization of public sector workers in California. During those years she mobilized union workers in national, statewide, county and municipal elections.

In 2004 she led Voices for Working People, which registered thousands of people of color in under-registered communities.

In 2006 she became leader of the AFL-CIO’s Gulf Coast recovery effort.

A lesson learned about sticking together

Robert McEllrath, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Workers Union (ILWU), wrote recently about the workers’ victory in the battle with Waste Management, the California company that locked out its workers and began an incredible effort to destroy their union only one day after their contract expired. Following is a small excerpt:

“My point is that there were plenty of chances for divisions to break out between the workers. It could have been between the lower-paid or higher-paid workers, between the men and the women, between different racial groups, between groups of folks who spoke different languages, or between all the different unions that were involved — the Teamsters, ILWU and Machinists. But in the end, everyone realized that sticking together was the only way to make progress.”

Cooling-off period at Farmer Joe’s

At a Sept. 19 rally in the Dimond neighborhood of Oakland, Calif., the United Food and Commercial Workers union announced it is accepting Mayor Ronald Dellums’ proposal for a cooling-off period in union leafleting and boycott activities at Farmer Joe’s organic market. The letter, also signed by Rep. Barbara Lee, Assemblymember Sandre Swanson and area City Councilwoman Jean Quan, urges the two sides to hold “a productive dialogue,” and calls on the market’s owners to meet with the elected officials to discuss the conflict.

The dispute over the rights of the market’s workers to organize a union began in August 2006.

Union officials say the main issue is the company’s refusal to enter into a card-check neutrality agreement to allow for union organizing. The union says it is ready to meet with the company and elected officials “at any mutually agreeable time or location.” Local 5 President Ron Lind said the union was suspending leafleting and boycott activities “as a sign of good faith,” and cautioned that should its overture be rejected, the union would revisit its options.

This Week in Labor is compiled by John Wojcik (jwojcik@pww.org). Marilyn Bechtel and Press Associates Inc. contributed.

Housing activists urge end to rent-hike loophole

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:01:00 +0000

NEW YORK — The state Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) held three simultaneous hearings this week in Manhattan, White Plains and Mineola on Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s proposal to close a loophole in the housing laws that allowed landlords to raise rents drastically when they leave the Mitchell-Lama affordable housing program. Mitchell-Lama tenants, housing activists and elected officials testified in support of the proposed regulation.

Jenny Laurie, testifying on behalf of the Metropolitan Council on Housing, said, “I have come to the conclusion that the only landlords who use the ‘unique and peculiar’ provisions in the law are those who are trying to pry long-term lower-income tenants out of their affordable apartments so that the apartments can be rented at deregulated rent levels.”

Shannon Flarity, aide to Assemblymember Richard Gottfried, told the hearing, “The ‘unique or peculiar circumstance’ provision of the Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974 was not written to allow entire buildings in the Mitchell-Lama program to be brought up to market rate when a landlord decides to leave the program.”

Flarity said the provision was meant to deal with “truly unique” circumstances resulting in an apartment having an artificially and unreasonably low rent, such as an apartment being brought back into the housing market after having been rented to a superintendent or family member.

“Being part of a state housing program such as Mitchell-Lama is plainly not a ‘unique or peculiar circumstance,’” she said. “The proposed regulatory change will bring practice back in line with the original intent of the law.”

Eva Rippeteau, aide to state Sen. Martin Connor, said 24 buildings with about 5,000 units are currently applying to raise rents significantly under the “unique and peculiar” loophole.

Closing the loophole means thousands of affordable houses will remain affordable, allowing many families to stay in homes they have been living in for decades.

New York City Councilwoman Gail Brewer pointed to Assembly Bill A7811 and Senate Bill S5284, both currently in committee, “which would place all buildings into rent stabilization without ‘unique and peculiar’ increases.” She added, “I certainly support a moratorium on all buyouts until an affordable housing preservation is in effect.”

jdelgado @cpusa.org

WORLD NOTES: September 29

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 04:50:00 +0000

Nepal: Maoists leave government

Elections in Nepal for a constituent assembly, scheduled for Nov. 22, were uncertain after the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) withdrew Sept. 18 from an interim government set up last year when the Maoist guerrilla insurgency ended.

Party spokespersons identified two conditions for the party to rejoin the eight-party governing coalition. They demanded that Nepal be declared a republic — no longer a monarchy — immediately, and that proportional rather than mixed systems be used in elections.

Maoist party chairperson Prachandra called for elections to be postponed until next spring, also for nationwide protests to begin Sept. 22 and a general strike on Oct. 4. At press time, talks among the parties were continuing, and the Maoists had yet to announce an election boycott.

The Indian ambassador, regarded by many with suspicion because he has met with Nepal’s king and because of New Delhi’s ties with the United States, called for the elections to proceed, according to Asia Times online.

Paraguay: Youth demand social change

Paraguayan young people took over Democracy Plaza in the country’s capital, Asunción, Sept. 18-20 for a Youth Parliament. The gathering, which was organized by social movements, hosted mini-conferences covering five areas: education; work and migration; health and environment; culture, diversity and inclusion; and “sovereignty” — referring to agrarian reform, food security and the economy.

An organizer asserted, “What we lack is the actual political will to solve concrete, structural problems of the majority of the population,” noting the high rate of migration, poverty and social exclusion of the nation’s youth.

Speakers emphasized the government’s disinterest in people’s daily lives alongside an inadequate level of youth organization and decision-making power. But the Adital web site quoted one participant as saying, “We are capable of demanding and living in a country different from the one we have now.”

Syria: Israeli incursion meets resistance

Speculation in the media has continued for two weeks following a Sept. 6 announcement in Damascus that Syrian defense forces had fired on Israeli aircraft flying over northern Syria and that the aircraft had been “dropping ammunition.”

There was no further elaboration from the Syrian side, and the Israeli government initially neither denied nor confirmed the announcement. Lending credence to the report was an Israeli poll Sept. 17 that gave Prime Minister Ehud Olmert a 20-point boost in approval ratings from the military action, according to the China People’s Daily.

London’s Sunday Times alleged Sept. 16 that Israeli planes and ground troops had targeted a nuclear facility supplied recently with a nuclear device from North Korea, but offered no proof. Egypt accused Israel of fueling tensions in the region, and the Arab League said the action showed Israel’s bad faith on peace talks.

Nigeria: South Korea, China buy oil rights

Over the past four years, Nigeria’s government has generated $2.3 billion from selling oil drilling rights to foreign companies. In August, oil officials met with representatives of the (South) Korean National Oil Corp. to firm up the latter’s commitments, made in 2005, to build a natural gas pipeline and power generating plant. The projects, valued at $6 billion, were part of a deal allowing the company’s to drill in two oil-rich areas, according to Allafrica.com.

Another report highlights China’s determination to sign production-sharing contracts with Nigeria that include promises by China to build a railway line and another power plant. The China National Oil Corp. agreed recently to pay $2.3 billion for a 45 percent stake in a 500-square-mile, undersea oil tract owned by a former Nigerian defense minister. Company head Fu Chengyu looks forward to access to “an oil and gas field of huge interest and upside potential, located in one of the world’s largest oil and gas basins.”

Hungary: Communist leaders go on trial

Seven leaders of the Hungarian Communist Workers Party went (HCWP) on trial in Szekesfehervar, Hungary, on Sept. 21 for “libel made in public.”

In 2005, the Budapest City Court nullified the proceedings of the party’s 21st Congress, where a proposed alliance with the ruling Socialist Party was rejected.

The HCWP leadership claimed the court ruling was payback for its campaign against privatization. Prosecutors characterized that statement as libelous.

The defendants contend that constitutional guarantees of free expression are being violated, along with their party’s right to conduct its own internal affairs.

The Communist Party of Britain, together with other left parties, picketed the Hungarian Embassy in London. Robert Griffiths, the party’s general secretary, condemned the trial as an “attack on civil liberties of concern to all progressive people across Europe.”

World Notes are compiled by W.T. Whitney Jr. (atwhit @megalink.net).

Puerto Ricans unite at pro-independence rally

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 04:44:00 +0000

“We are united with the same end in common — the independence of our motherland,” Elma Beatriz Rosado told several thousand people who gathered on Sept. 23 in the Plaza of the Revolution in Lares, Puerto Rico, to commemorate the 139th anniversary of the island’s rebellion against Spanish rule. The annual observance, known as El Grito de Lares, drew people from across the island.

The various forces that favor an independent Puerto Rico celebrated the event in unity despite the ideological and tactical differences that have kept them apart in the past. They had heeded the words of Rosado’s late husband, Filiberto Ojeda, who had called for the unity of Puerto Rico’s patriotic forces to move the national liberation struggle forward. Ojeda, an underground pro-independence leader, was killed by FBI agents in a house raid on Sept. 23, 2005.

Hector Pesquera, a leader of the Hostos National Independence Movement, welcomed the united action, noting that pressure from rank-and-file Puerto Ricans also contributed to its success. Pesquera said the unity of those who favor independence should be extended to include all Puerto Ricans who identify with the country’s nationhood.

Senator María de Lourdes Santiago spoke for the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) at the event. She said Puerto Rico is closer to gaining its freedom. She noted that a U.S. presidential task force that was formed to deal with the question of Puerto Rico has admitted that this Caribbean nation is a colony and that its status must change.

Santiago also pointed out that in recent congressional hearings on the status of Puerto Rico, Ruben Berríos, chairman of the PIP, told the U.S. lawmakers, “You are not going to give us statehood.” Representatives of the pro-statehood and autonomist political parties agreed with that assessment.

Under the U.S. Constitution, only Congress can admit Puerto Rico as a state. No Congress, whether controlled by Democrats or Republicans, has shown any inclination to do so.

Santiago said that the U.S. does not want Puerto Rico because the U.S. federal system “is incompatible with the annexation of a Latin American and Caribbean nation.” However, she said, “the real wall against statehood is the existence of a strong, organized independence movement which answers to no one and has not let itself be seduced by confusion.”

Pro-statehood forces in Puerto Rico have recently suffered some setbacks.

For example, although pro-statehood forces have been courting the Republican Party, and Luis Fortuño, the island’s non-voting delegate to the Congress who meets with the GOP caucus, introduced the “Puerto Rico Democracy” bill aimed at making Puerto Rico a state, an editorial in the conservative, pro-GOP Washington Times last week came out squarely against statehood.

Moreover, polls in the U.S., including recent ones, have never shown majority support for Puerto Rican statehood.

On the international front, last year leaders from Latin American political parties — five of them leading their governments — met in Panama to declare their support for a sovereign Puerto Rico. This year the UN Decolonization Committee agreed, once again, to send the colonial case of Puerto Rico to the General Assembly.

Because of factors such as these, Santiago said, the agenda for Puerto Rican national liberation is in a position to advance.

Santiago also criticized recent efforts to destroy the PIP, including an attempt to have it decertified as an electoral party by the Puerto Ricans for Puerto Rico Party (PPR), an ecological “green” party.

The PPR’s legal attack on the PIP has failed in every Puerto Rican court, but the PPR has now filed suit in the U.S. federal courts, knowing that the PIP does not recognize the authority of the federal courts in Puerto Rico and won’t appear before it or give up any documents. Under these circumstances, the PIP stands to lose by default.

If the PIP were to be decertified, the PPR would get office space, money for staff and other benefits under Puerto Rico’s electoral system.

Santiago defiantly vowed to defend her party’s legality and standing in Puerto Rican politics, saying, “They know where our National Committee is — let them come and arrest us.”

The other organizations that took part in the Sept. 23 event, which was also dedicated to Puerto Rican political prisoners and the Cuban Five, were the Nationalist Party, Caribbean and Latin American Coordinating Committee of Puerto Rico, and the Socialist Front, a coalition of pro-socialist forces that includes Communist Refoundation.

jacruz @pww.org

Controversy on Iran as UN Assembly opens

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 04:41:00 +0000

UNITED NATIONS — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and President Bush both arrived in New York last week to speak at the opening of the UN’s 62nd General Assembly, bringing with them a storm of controversy.

While Bush was largely silent about plans for Iran in his speech to the Assembly, his administration has continued its saber-rattling. Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security adviser, compared Bush’s rumblings around Iran’s nuclear power program and his allegations that Iran is aiding Iraq’s insurgents to statements that Bush and Vice President Cheney made during their run-up to the Iraq war.

A recent report by AFP, the French news agency, said Cheney had considered pushing Israel to bomb Iran, thus provoking a war and allowing the U.S. to intervene in the conflict.

Regarding the nuclear issue, Ahmadinejad said, “All our nuclear activities have been completely peaceful and transparent.” He added that, contrary to Bush administration claims, “Iran has fulfilled all of its obligations” under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and noted that the treaty enshrines the right of all nations to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

A few days after the speeches by Bush and Ahmadinejad, the Tudeh (Communist) Party of Iran issued a statement expressing “grave concern with the heightening tensions in the Persian Gulf region emanating from the U.S.’s militaristic and hegemonic stance in its conflict with Iran.”

The statement, signed by dozens of communist and workers parties from around the world, said the U.S.-led campaign “against Iran on the question of Iran’s expressed wish to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes is only a cover for U.S. attempts to secure its control over an area of the Middle East that is best situated to control the production and export of energy resources from this part of the world.”

At the same time, the parties, including the Communist Party USA, stressed that they did not see Ahmadinejad as an agent of progress.

“We also express our concern over the provocative and unacceptable statements from the Iranian president,” which “have provided the U.S. and its allies, in particular the Israeli government, with the excuse to continue their provocations against Iran,” the parties said.

The parties said they would “support all genuine efforts directed at the resolution of the current differences between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic of Iran through peaceful and diplomatic means.”

The day before he spoke at the UN, Ahmadinejad addressed a highly controversial forum at Columbia University. There was some vocal criticism of Columbia for extending an invitation to Ahmadinejad to speak, but it was widely seen as a freedom of speech issue.

While the media reported that thousands protested outside, most came to protest Ahmadinejad himself, not the university’s decision to allow him to speak. Many also made it clear that though they opposed the Iranian president, they did not support Bush’s hostile attitude toward Iran.

One protester held a sign saying that he refused to be caught between U.S. imperialism and the Iranian dictatorship.

Ahmadinejad’s speech drew both derision and applause from the students, sometimes the very same students. When he spoke of the plight of the Palestinian people and Bush’s hostility toward Iran for its efforts to develop nuclear energy, the audience cheered.

However, he outraged many by insisting that more research is necessary to determine what happened during the Holocaust, and he drew ridicule when he told the audience, “We have no homosexuals in Iran like in your country.”

The Tudeh Party and other communist and workers parties made clear that the absolute rejection of imperialist intervention in Iran on its nuclear program or any other grounds does not mean that Communists and other democratic-minded people hold back on expressing “our full solidarity with the people and progressive forces of Iran, with trade unions, women, youth and student movements that are campaigning for peace, democracy and social progress. We call for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners, particularly the trade unionist leaders, student movement activists and women’s right campaigners who have been arrested and tortured in recent months.”

dmargolis @pww.org

20,000 to attend Black Caucus meet

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 04:26:00 +0000

Against the background of the historic Jena Six march in Louisiana, deepening poverty in African American neighborhoods, a raging war in Iraq and a growing prison population, over 20,000 political activists, students and clergy will converge on Washington for the annual Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Legislative Conference.

Recognizing that there are a record 43 African American members of Congress and that CBC members hold key leadership positions, conference organizers say that they will challenge legislators and citizens to use their collective power to level the playing field for African Americans.

“African Americans must address the countless disparities that affect our quality of life,” said Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), conference co-chair. “Coming out of the conference, we must harness our power and renew our commitment toward strengthening our families and communities.”

Donna Christensen of the U.S. Virgin Islands, also a co-chair, added, “We want this conference to bring generations of leaders together to reflect on conditions in our communities, share ideas and solutions and enliven our desire for change.”

The conference features expert-led forums on education, health care, the environment, economic development, criminal justice, transportation and international affairs.

Oscar winning actor Louis Gossett Jr. and actress Gabrielle Union will co-host the awards dinner honoring outstanding grassroots individuals from across the country.

Kucinich excluded from Iowa debates

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 04:24:00 +0000

CLEVELAND — It would seem that front-running candidates for president in the Democratic primaries should have nothing to fear from Rep. Dennis Kucinich. Although he claims growing support and leads three other candidates, the Ohio legislator’s poll numbers are still only at 3 percent.

Nonetheless, Kucinich was excluded from two major events in Iowa last week. And in a highly publicized incident in July, candidates Hillary Clinton and John Edwards were caught on tape discussing how to eliminate Kucinich and other Democratic candidates from the debates.

The frontrunners are evidently uncomfortable that audiences continually voice strong support for Kucinich’s positions even if they are not ready to support his candidacy. The suspicion is that the frontrunners also do not like his repeated charges that they are unwilling to take on corporate interests.

This became evident in Iowa last week when Kucinich was not invited to the Democratic Steak Fry in Indianola and was excluded from the debate in Davenport on health care sponsored by the AARP and broadcast on Iowa Public Radio.

Kucinich charged that the Iowa Democratic Party and “other groups aligned with the entrenched political power structure” are “rigging the game.”

“The whole purpose of the primary and caucus season is to provide voters with opportunities, not to enable a carnival of interest groups to subvert the process,” Kucinich said.

The five Democratic candidates permitted in the AARP debate, including Sens. Joe Biden and Christopher Dodd, who have less support than Kucinich, all opposed a single-payer national health plan, such as the Medicare for All bill, HR 676, which Kucinch co-authored with Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.).

“They all decry the plight of the American people and then they turn around and promote the very system which is driving people towards ill physical and economic health, bankruptcy and death: the for-profit health insurance system,” Kucinich said. “They do not believe they can get a consensus for change in Congress, yet there was no demonstration of any intention to change the system, despite the fact the 47 million Americans have no health insurance and another 50 million are underinsured.”

Kucinich charged that the AARP had a special interest in keeping him out of the debate. Recently, he said, it “signed a sales and marketing agreement with Aetna and United Health which would bring AARP $4.4 billion over seven years.”

HR 676, on the other hand, “means the beginning of an honest, accessible and cost-effective system of health care for the American people and American businesses. It is the end of for-profit health insurance,” he said. “No more premiums, co-pays or deductibles. America already pays twice per capita what other nations pay for health care, but Americans are still not covered. Americans aren’t getting the care they are rightfully entitled to because the debate is controlled by private insurance companies.”

NATIONAL CLIPS: September 29

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 04:18:00 +0000

RICHMOND, Va.: Insurance cos. tell amputees: ‘Legs a luxury’

When members of the state Legislature’s insurance commission convened their fall meeting, they did not expect the more than 30 people who had suffered amputations, including Iraq veterans, would get to Richmond urging lawmakers to force insurance companies to pay for prosthetics.

“Legs are a luxury,” Lisa Riiber told legislators, describing how the insurance company denied her husband a $100,000 pair of C-Leg prostheses following a double amputation a year ago. The insurance industry believes the C-Leg, a computerized prosthetic, is experimental.

Dr. Fred Duckworth lost his leg to cancer at 15. He had to sue his insurance company for a prosthetic. He won, but is back in court to get a replacement.

J. Douglas Call owns Virginia Prosthetics, a company making replacement legs. He testified that over the past seven years, more and more insurance are denying or limiting coverage.

Sen. Patricia Dicer has introduced a bill that would force insurance companies to pay for prosthetics. In October, the insurance commission will decide whether or not to send the legislation up to the full Legislature.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.: Council votes to bring troops home

On a 5-2 vote, city councilors here enacted the “Raging Grannies” resolution calling for “the orderly withdrawal of American troops from Iraq to commence immediately,” to fully fund the troops’ benefits and to re-appropriate funding for cities’, towns’ and communities’ needs. The local Raging Grannies are part of a loose national group of grandmothers who have rallied, sung their protests and offered to serve the military in place of their grandchildren. Albuquerque grannies lobbied the City Council to pass the peace resolution.

To facilitate discussion of the resolution, the City Council extended their meeting twice. An amendment watering down the language was rejected 5-2.

Arguments for the resolution pointed out that New Mexican Guard members serving in Task Force Cobra were victims of racial profiling, prompting the state’s congressional delegation to call for an investigation.

The state’s ability to address local disasters and emergencies has been compromised because half of its Guard is expected to remain in Iraq until 2010, the resolution said. The National Priorities Project estimates that the war and occupation has drained nearly $400 million from the state, money that is needed for infrastructure, public safety, housing and other human needs.

HOMER CITY, Alaska: Down with the king, impeach!

The honks of support far out numbered the signs of anger as 30 members of Homer Citizens for Impeachment lined the main street of the 5,300-resident town. The event was a demonstration and a petition campaign, with over 60 people signing on the dotted line, calling for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

“Homer Citizens for Impeachment does not seek revenge for the wrongs of Bush and Cheney,” said the group’s chairwoman, Amy Bollenbach. “Instead, we want to remove Bush and Cheney from their jobs as a lesson to future presidents: we citizens of this country will not tolerate an executive branch that acts like royalty.” They plan to present the petitions to City Council and ask for a resolution of support.

COLLEGE PARK, Md.: U of M investigates noose

In early September, a noose was hung from a tree in front of the Nyumburu Cultural Center, home to the Black Faculty and Staff Association, several African American student organizations and other institutions at the University of Maryland.

University President C.D. Mote immediately initiated an investigation of the incident, calling it a hate crime. In a letter to the campus, he wrote, “The University of Maryland will not tolerate discrimination, harassment or acts of hate. The possibility that this act appears intended to bring to mind the horrific crime of lynching, which is a terrible and tragic part of our nation’s past, is particularly abhorrent.”

Within a week, hundreds of students, African American, Asian, Latino and white, attended a “speak out” on the incident organized by the Black Student Union.

Bonnie Thornton Dill, head of Women’s Studies, said the issue was of concern to all students, and that “students wanted to find ways to build more unity, solidarity between the races.”

In 2006, of the 25,000 students at U of M, 3,250, or 13 percent, were African American.

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

San Francisco to consider city ID card

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 04:11:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO — If Supervisor Tom Ammiano has his way, San Francisco will become the second U.S. city, after New Haven, Conn., to offer its residents a city identification card.

Speaking to journalists and supporters on the steps of City Hall Sept. 18, Ammiano said legislation for a San Francisco municipal ID card would to be introduced at the Board of Supervisors that afternoon, with public hearings to follow. The cards would give people access to basic services, including homeless aid and libraries, as well as making it easier to apply for a job or sign up for the new city health care program.

The measure is backed by seven of the 11 supervisors, and Ammiano said Mayor Gavin Newsom has also expressed support. Under the proposal, all city departments and entities receiving city funds would have to accept the cards as valid identification, while the city would also encourage local banks to honor them.

Ammiano said that besides immigrant communities, groups benefiting would include homeless people, seniors without driver’s licenses, transgender people, and youth, groups he said are often treated unfairly because they can’t prove their identity.

“There is nothing more disrespectful than rendering invisible people you would rather not see,” Ammiano said, adding, “We are changing that in San Francisco in so many ways, and I think this municipal ID card will allow people the access and participation they deserve.”

Immigrant rights leaders, including Lillian Castillo of Young Workers United and Maria Poblet of St. Peter’s Housing Committee, told of the many problems and indignities immigrants experience because they lack identification, including being forced to carry large amounts of cash because they cannot open bank accounts and being unable to report a crime because they themselves would be subject to arrest.

Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval, co-author of the ordinance, spoke of the vacuum left by the federal and state governments concerning immigrant rights, including Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s repeated vetoes of driver’s license legislation. “We want to tell immigrant workers that we appreciate who they are and we appreciate their contributions,” he said.

“This card will legitimize everyone in San Francisco,” said San Francisco Labor Council head Tim Paulson. “We are for making sure all city residents have access to city services and protections.” In a brief conversation, Paulson said a city ID card, like a union card, “is a symbol that the same rights extend to everyone. As an act of solidarity, we want everyone in San Francisco to get a card.”

In New Haven, the first ID cards were issued July 24, and 3,348 cards were issued during the first five weeks.

At least 20 other cities, including New York City and Los Angeles, are reportedly considering establishing similar IDs.

mbechtel@pww.org

Grassroots rising: Communists to hold October regional meets

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 04:02:00 +0000

NEW YORK — Hundreds of Communist Party USA activists will be gathering this October in a series of three regional conferences as part of the CPUSA’s campaign to broaden and deepen party building.

Members on the East Coast and parts of the South will be meeting in New York City Oct. 13. Midwest members will be meeting in Chicago, Oct. 13-14, and members from the Southwest and West Coast will be meeting in Oakland, Calif., Oct. 20.

Members will attend workshops after each meeting’s keynote speech. District organizers from New York, Chicago and Oakland will deliver the opening presentation. Members will get a chance to network with one another.

The conferences will develop a course of action for further membership growth, building the Communist press and how this helps to strengthen and build movements such as those for peace and immigrant rights. Building the Young Communist League and among young workers will also be featured.

The Communist Party aims to better facilitate and support the work of its members and party organizations at the grass roots through these regional conferences.

“The Republican right is on the defensive, and everyone is gearing up for the 2008 elections,” Elena Mora, CPUSA organizational secretary, told the World. “That’s the setting for all of the issues — labor rights, peace, equality, health care, immigrant rights — that are changing the way millions of people think, and bringing them into political struggle.”

Mora added, “We’ll be talking about the current situation from our unique perspective as Communists, and figuring out what we can do better to grow our organization and press as part of that bigger movement for social change, especially at the club level.” A club is the local, grassroots organization of the Communist Party.

Leaders of the CPUSA’s various districts are also enthusiastic about an opportunity to strengthen regional ties and build the grass roots of the Party.

“It will be a great opportunity for members to share experiences about the success and frustrations of building the party at the grass roots,” said New York State Communist Party chair Libero Della Piana.

“Our club has gained a lot of experience in the past few years,” said Dan Margolis, chair of the Flatbush/Park Slope, Brooklyn, club. “We’ve developed a lot of ties in Brooklyn, through our work in electoral campaigns, the anti-Iraq-war movement and the struggle for better housing. So we hope we can help other clubs by sharing our experiences, and I think we can learn a lot from what other clubs are doing as well.”

The Communist Party is embarking on a new period of change and evaluation of its work, Mora said, adding that these conferences “mark a new resurgence of the party at the grassroots level.”

sdelgado @cpusa.org