People Before Profit blog

Obama visits storm torn Alabama, orders federal help

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 22:09:00 +0000

As people in the South continued counting their dead and rescuing the living, President Obama on April 29 rushed to towns in Alabama slammed hardest by tornadoes.

His flight to Tuscaloosa passed over many miles of destruction and when he arrived there he drove through flattened neighborhoods buried in debris. "I've never seen devastation like this," the president said. "It's heartbreaking. We're going to make sure you're not forgotten," Obama promised.

At least 300 people across six states died in the storms, 210 in Alabama alone. Many thousands are injured with tens of thousands left homeless.

The president saw the homeless as they carried their belongings in cloth and plastic bags and as they dug through piles of rubble to find any precious item they could save.

The night before he arrived the cries of trapped children could be heard coming from beneath the rubble in Tuscaloosa.

For all his talk about keeping the federal government off Alabama's back, Republican Gov. Robert Bentley had not a word of objection to the President's announcement that under his emergency declaration massive federal aid was forthcoming.

"What's amazing is when something like this happens folks forget all their petty differences," Obama said, after talking to the officials. "When we're confronted by the awesome power of nature we're reminded that all we have is each other."

The president visited an elementary school where the principle and a school nurse had lined up clothes and supplies on the floor. They were at the school since the day before, when the storms began. "Thank you for helping and I'm glad you're okay," he told the two educators, who said protecting children was their job.

Education workers in Alabama were the first workers to have their collective bargaining rights and organizing rights taken from them by GOP lawmakers.

Alabama county governments were already reeling from the economic crisis and, in Alabama's case, cutbacks carried out by state Republican lawmakers.

Many in local government are struggling to find other ways to provide cleanup and emergency services.

"There are federal emergency management funds that we will make an application for," said financially strapped Jefferson County Commissioner Joe Knight, in a phone interview. The county became eligible for those funds the moment the president signed his emergency declaration for the state.

The county has been hurting, local officials say, both because of loss of tax revenue from unemployed workers and because of state government cutbacks.

The county is also trying to get money from a disaster fund operated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Frederick Hamilton, the director of the county's community development department, said community storm shelters are lacking and need to be built.

Storm relief is also made more difficult because millions of dollars in tax revenue are owed to Alabama counties by large corporations and banks. Jefferson County officials say relief efforts could be more successful if they could tap into a $75 million reserve owed by JP Morgan.

One official, on condition of anonymity, said poverty in the region made things worse than they might otherwise have been. "If all neighborhoods had better warning systems, like the ones in wealthier areas, people would have more time to take cover. Poor people here in Alabama live in some of the most poorly constructed housing. Some of the construction materials used around here would hardly pass any kind of inspection in another part of the country."

The tornado outbreak goes down in history as one of the worse ever. Some scientists say it is another result of the global warming crisis. Warming creates wetter conditions in tornado country, they say, and wetter conditions in Tornado Alley mean bigger and more tornadoes.

Image: Cullman, Alabama, aftermath. Tabitha Kaylee Hawk // CC BY 2.0

GOP drive to recall Wisconsin Democrats fizzles

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 13:51:00 +0000

MADISON, Wis. - Republicans here have been able to file petitions to recall only three of eight Democratic state senators they are trying to unseat. And the petitions they have filed may end up being thrown out by election authorities who have been unable to verify that the GOP has submitted the required number of valid signatures.

The Republicans had less than the required number of valid signatures to recall four other senators they want to unseat, and then missed the deadline for filing valid signatures to recall them.

Republicans said they targeted the eight senators because the Democrats had fled the state to delay passage of Republican Gov. Scott Walker's bill destroying collective bargaining rights for public service workers.

Meanwhile, a broad coalition of trade union, community and Democratic Party activists filed more than 26,000 signatures by yesterday to recall a sixth Republican state senator - Robert Cowles of Green Bay - who voted for Walker's bill.

All the petitions to recall the six Republicans had well over the minimum number of required signatures. That number must equal 25 percent of the total vote for governor in November's election in each Senate district.

The 26,524 signatures submitted to recall Cowles were 166 percent of the required number in his district. A filing of 15,960 signatures is stipulated for that district under the 25-percent-of-the-gubernatorial-vote formula.

Earlier, pro-union activists filed recall petitions for Alberta Darling of River Hills, Shelia Harsdorf of River Falls, Luther Olsen of Ripon, Dan Karpanke of LaCrosse and Randy Hopper of Fond du Lac.

If Democrats can win three of the six seats, they will wrest control of the Wisconsin Senate from the Republicans.

There is seemingly no end to the woes Republicans are facing as a result of Gov. Walker's right-wing budget bill.

The latest in the long list of problems it has caused came today with the U.S. Department of Agriculture saying Wisconsin would break a federal law if it hires a private contractor to decide who is and who is not eligible for food stamps. The Walker budget removes this function from county governments and turns it over to private firms. The federal government has warned Wisconsin that privatization of state food assistance programs could cost the state $20 million federal dollars each year.

Yesterday, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack called similar privatization efforts in Indiana and Texas "complete failures marked by technical difficulties, staffing shortages and inadequate training of private call-center staff resulting in adverse impacts on the state and its people."

Must pension funds prove losses before they can sue?

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 13:01:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - Must public pension funds, or any other investors, prove they lost money before they can sue as a class against the corporations involved?

That's the problem the Supreme Court wrestled with, in a case that ironically pitted a non-profit foundation representing Catholic church workers against former GOP Vice President Dick Cheney's old company, Halliburton, on April 25.

The Erika P. John Fund, the private foundation of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, sued Halliburton for perpetrating a "fraud on the market," prompting the archdiocese to invest in the stock.

Specifically, Halliburton said its costs for asbestos-related payments in 1999-2001 would be around $60 million and it had the money to cover them. The archdiocese invested in Halliburton - and then the actual losses turned out to be at least $781 million and Halliburton stock dropped by 43%.

The archdiocese's fund said Halliburton perpetrated a fraud, but the 5^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the fund had to prove it lost money before it could file a class action suit. The fund and the Obama administration, backing it, disputed that.

The best summation of the case for the pension funds - and for class action - was from Nicole Saharsky, of the Obama administration's Justice Department.

The lower court was wrong, she said, to require "proof of loss causation" before certifying the class action suit. The lower court "is conducting an inquiry on the merits" of the case, which it isn't supposed to do yet under class action case rules. And the appellate judges were "taking a presumption and requiring plaintiffs" - the archdiocese and other investors whom Halliburton misled - "to prove it" in advance.

"It's putting an affirmative burden" on the pension funds "that they have to meet in every single case" even if Halliburton and other defendants "don't come to court with any evidence," she added. "Loss causation is the question at the end of the day."

Associate Justice Elena Kagan got Halliburton lawyer David Sterling to admit the 5^th Circuit may have been wrong in requiring proof of fraud before pension funds - or anyone else - could go ahead and sue as a class.

"If I disagree with you and think that loss causation needs to be shown at the certification stage, you agree that is not a correct statement of the law?" Kagan asked. "We do agree with that, but our opinion is...the test is simply price impact," Sterling said.

Photo: Protesters hold bags of fake money and wear masks of David J. Lesar, CEO of Halliburton Energy Services, left, and VP Richard Cheney, right, outside the Halliburton annual shareholders meeting, May 16, 2007, in The Woodlands, Texas. The company had announced earlier it was moving it's corporate headquarters to Dubai, UAE. (Dave Einsel/AP)

Judge bans NFL lockout of players but team owners defy ruling

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:36:00 +0000

MINNEAPOLIS (PAI) - A federal judge in Minneapolis, with power over labor-management in relations in the National Football League thanks to prior court rulings, has banned the NFL's lockout of its players. But the teams defied her ruling and kept their facility gates closed.

The April 25 injunction by Judge Susan Richard Nelson said the lockout would "irreparably harm" the players by shortening their careers and their earning power.

Nelson ordered the NFL to lift the lockout, which the owners imposed when negotiations broke down March 11. The players decertified their union, the NFL Players Association, the same day, so they could sue the NFL under anti-trust laws.

The lockout affects far more people than the players: The average NFL team employs more than 3,700 people, all of whom - including the players - earn far less each than the owners. The league's 32 teams dumped those other workers, such as ticket takers, vendors and stadium ushers, too. The others were not part of the suit.

"A preliminary injunction" against the owners' lockout " is necessary to prevent irreparable harm to the players," Nelson wrote.

"The injunctive relief" the players got "does not extend to the majority of the underlying claims," she added. The players who sued, led by star New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning "are not asking this court to enjoin the NFL's player restrictions that are alleged to violate the Sherman Act." The players "only ask this court to enjoin the league's lockout."

"A preliminary injunction is an extraordinary remedy never awarded as a matter of right," Nelson warned. Whether to issue it, as she did, "depends upon a 'flexible' consideration of (1) the threat of irreparable harm to the moving party (the players) (2) balancing this harm with any injury an injunction would inflict on other interested parties (3) the probability that the moving party would succeed on the merits and (4) the effect on the public interest."

"The players demonstrated they are suffering, and will continue to suffer, irreparable harm. Even on the present preliminary record," the players "have shown not only they likely would suffer irreparable harm absent the preliminary injunction, but they are in fact suffering such harm now. Irreparable harm occurs when a party has no adequate remedy at law, typically because its injuries cannot be fully compensated. The irreparable injuries the players are incurring are significant and, in effect, established by previous litigation. The NFL's arguments to the contrary are legally based, not factually based... This Court finds the NFL's arguments unpersuasive."

Photo: Lone groundskeeper rearranges the mulch at the Atlanta Falcons training facility in front of the practice field which remains void of player activity. (John Amis)

Workers file charges over racist symbols, hostile work environment

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 10:36:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Nine workers filed charges here with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission April 28, alleging the company they work for, and it's management, has repeatedly refused to address several counts of discrimination including the use of hate symbols.

The mostly African American workers say the Kraft/Cadbury warehouse in Joliet, a suburb just west of here, and DB Schenker, the company running the warehouse, along with its supervisors and their lack of action to correct the problem has created a hostile work environment.

"There are Nazi signs on the walls," said Angela McDonald, 44, who has worked at the warehouse for the last three years. She and her co-workers have repeatedly complained about the swastika graffiti and other charges to their managers and supervisors. "But they don't want to talk to us," she said.

The workers say that when management was approached about the problem they claimed that the black and Latino workers painted the swastikas in order "to get attention." On top of the Nazi symbols the workers also say a vehicle displaying confederate flags has consistently been seen parked on the property near the warehouse entrance.

"They're discriminating against my race and it's hateful," said McDonald, adding how the swastikas have not been removed from public areas at the warehouse, including the break room and the men's rest room. "They have been up for over eight months now. Those symbols represent hate and slavery and are not just offensive to blacks but everyone. We shouldn't have to put up with that," she said.

"When I'm leaving at one in the morning, there is no security and I know there are people who are hateful and prejudiced in the building," said McDonald. "I'm afraid of someone hurting me."

McDonald and a group of her co-workers and labor activists recently met with civil rights leaders and local clergy to mobilize support against the company's failure to address the issue.

Mark Meinster with Warehouse Workers for Justice said his group has been fighting for the rights of warehouse workers in the area for years. He points to a study released by the group last year, which found nearly 40 percent of Will County warehouse workers, where the warehouse in question is located, reported being discriminated against. The report, Bad Jobs in Goods Movement, found that 63 percent of workers in Will County warehouses are employed by temp agencies, earn poverty wages and have few benefits.

"We still don't have a society where workers are free from these types of discrimination charges," said Meinster. "And we're not just seeing discrimination at one place but it's happening throughout the warehouse industry in the area." Worker injustice is being allowed all over and target Latino and immigrant workers too, he said. Too many are being denied promotions based on their race, age and immigration status. And most of them are temp workers, he said.

"That's why workers need to come together and get organized and fight back. This recent battle is just the tip of the iceberg," said Meinster. "We're calling on the company, DB Schenker, to remove the hate symbols immediately and we want the local management to be completely replaced, because they clearly don't have the capacity to respect workers' basic human rights."

After the charges are filed and if the company fails to move, Meinster said the workers and supporters will step up their campaign, which will include pressure from the community, clergy and elected officials.

"We have to speak out and let them know we don't tolerate discrimination in our community and at our workplaces," he said.

McDonald said she was born and raised in Joliet. She is the mother of three and has several grandchildren.

"A lot of people still use the N-word, but I hate that word and I never allow my children to use it," she said. "I want my grandkids to know their history and I don't ever want them to have to experience what we are going through today at the warehouse. I just want the company to treat us fairly, to stop treating us like less human because we all deserve equal rights, black, brown and white. And we're not going to stand for it. By ... saying nothing, they're really saying something. But we want some changes."

Chris Williams, an attorney with the Workers' Law Office said mostly African American workers, both male and female, and one Latino worker filed the charges. Although the majority of the workers claim racial discrimination, others include being denied promotions for complaining about it, age discrimination and sexual harassment.

The warehouse loads and distributes various candies, cough drops, gum, chocolate bars and ingredients to make such items.

Photo: During an April 28 press conference in Chicago, Angela McDonald shows a picture of swastika graffiti at the Joliet, Ill. warehouse where she works. Pepe Lozano/PW.

Mumia Abu Jamal granted new sentencing hearing

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 16:56:00 +0000

An appeals court has granted Mumia Abu Jamal a new sentencing hearing in the death row political prisoner's ongoing legal battle. The decision represents the second time the appeals court has rendered such a judgment.

Jamal was convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer in 1982.

In its new decision made on April 26, the appeals court ruled that either the hearing be held within three months or Jamal's sentence be changed from death to a life sentence.

The basis of the U.S. appeals court decision is that the jury was given improper sentencing instructions in the trial and did not consider mitigating circumstances.

Philadelphia's district attorney Seth Williams has promised to again take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

However, it will be some time before the case is settled. The philly.com writes: "So intricate is the legal wrangling that any final resolution is likely years away."

Prior to the ruling district attorney Williams "had appealed that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court handed the case back to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, which once again ruled Abu-Jamal deserves a new sentencing hearing," writes newsworks.org.

"Constitutional issues are involved," Abu-Jamal's attorney, Judith Ritter, said, "Four federal judges have now ruled that the sentencing phase of the trial was unconstitutional."

Mumia Abu Jamal is an ex-Black Panther and has written several books and articles. He has repeatedly said his innocent. His case has gained wide support in the U.S. and worldwide.

Photo: Widener University law professor Judith L. Ritter, attorney for Mumia Abu-Jamal, speaking to the press outside the US Courthouse in Philadelphia, Nov. 9, 2010, when a federal appeals court heard arguments concerning the sentence of Abu-Jamal. (Matt Rourke/AP)

GOP reps run from voters on Social Security, Medicare

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 15:54:00 +0000

Facing constituents angry about GOP plans to kill Medicare and slash Social Security, Republican lawmakers across the country are screening questions ahead of time at town hall meetings, holding "invitation only" gatherings, or deciding not to meet with voters at all.

Following an embarrassing meeting with constituents that was televised nationally, House budget chair Paul Ryan had to face angry voters at a second town hall in his Kenosha, Wis., district this week.

As he entered he had to make his way through a crowd of protesters chanting, "Ryan stop lying!" and then people in the capacity crowd interrupted him as he tried to defend his budget plan.

"If you're yelling, I just want you to leave," Ryan told his constituents. "We've got media here. Let's prove to them that Wisconsinites can be cordial to one another."

Reporters were unable to interview Ryan after the meeting because he slipped out a different door than the one where he had entered and drove away in a vehicle different from the one in which he had arrived.

Similar scenes are taking place at other Republican town halls, including in key states like Pennsylvania and Florida.

GOP freshman Rep. Daniel Webster's town hall meeting in Orlando, Fla., April 26 was a case in point. Webster tried to use charts and graphs to explain the Republican budget he voted for, but he could barely be heard over angry shouts about the GOP Medicare-gutting proposal.

One constituent held up a sign saying "Keep your hands off my Medicare," and another shouted that Webster voted to give corporations a tax cut "but take away Medicare from people like me."

In response to the wave of protests they are encountering, Republican legislators are pre-screening questions from constituents.

On April 26, Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., screened questioners by requiring constituents to fill out index cards which were then vetted by his staff.

Meanwhile, Republican House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio tried to distance himself from at least parts of his own House Republican budget. He said this week he was "not wedded" to Ryan's plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program.

"Paul Ryan has an idea that's certainly worth consideration," Boehner said. "I'm for it. It's our idea. It's Paul Ryan's idea. Now other people have other ideas. I'm not wedded to one single idea."

Under the Ryan plan Medicare would be destroyed and replaced with a program that would subsidize the cost of buying private insurance through an exchange.

President Obama underlined this in his April 13 speech on the deficit.

With Ryan's plan, the president said, "Ten years from now, if you're a 65 year old who's eligible for Medicare, you would have to pay $6,500 more than you would today. It says instead of guaranteed health care you will get a voucher. And if that voucher isn't worth enough to buy insurance, tough luck, you're on your own. Put simply, it ends Medicare as we know it."

The upsurge against Republican lawmakers goes well beyond the spontaneous and growing protests at town hall meetings.

In Iowa, for example, major organizations like Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, the Iowa Alliance for Retired Americans, Iowa Citizen Action Network and the Iowa Federation of Labor are working together, in overdrive, to save Social Security and Medicare.

As a result Republican lawmakers in that state are being deluged with demands that they explain their support for the Ryan budget and that they pledge to oppose any cuts to Social Security. Thousands of voters are signing pledges not to vote for them next time unless they sign on to protect Social Security.

The Alliance for Retired Americans is teaming up with Strengthen Social Security and other groups to sponsor rallies, ads and lobbying campaigns in defense of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Retirees are dressing up in work clothes and demonstrating what it means to "Work 'Til We Die."

This week New Hampshire ARA members put on hard hats and crutches to tell Republican Rep. Frank Guinta that his vote in favor of the Ryan budget would keep people working much too late in life. People using wheelchairs and walkers joined the demonstration. At StrengthenSocialSecurity.org the public can learn about ongoing demonstrations against the Republican budget proposals.

The latest Washington Post polls show Americans oppose cuts in Social Security and Medicare and that they support President Obama's call to raise taxes on the rich. In the poll, 78 percent oppose the Ryan plan to cut Medicare.

Black lawmakers fight for immigrant rights

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 14:08:00 +0000

As the Republican extreme right is pushing an anti-immigrant agenda at federal and state levels, African American legislators - most of whom are Democrats - have been increasingly prominent in upholding the rights of immigrants.

At a Congressional hearing last month, U.S. Representative Emmanuel Cleaver II, D-Mo., chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, sharply criticized Republican members of the House of Representatives for trying to "manufacture tension" between African Americans and immigrants. "It seems as though they would like for our communities to think about immigration in terms of 'us versus them,' and I reject that notion," he said in a statement.

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., who called attempts to pit African Americans against Latino immigrants "so abhorrent and repulsive," joined Cleaver in those concerns.

A number of state legislatures have also had anti-immigrant measures on their legislative agendas this year, including those modeled on Arizona's draconian SB 1070, which would make it a state crime to be without immigration documents and would give police the right to detain anyone suspected of being undocumented. In the state context, too, Black lawmakers are demanding fair treatment for immigrants.

In an article posted last week, Marcelo Ballve of New America Media pointed to a "deepening alliance between pro-immigrant lobbyists and black lawmakers" which he said "has begun to transform state-level politics around immigration."

Ballve noted this year, 19 state legislatures have considered "copycat" bills patterned on SB 1070. Ten were defeated but others are still pending in states including South Carolina, Florida, Alabama and Oklahoma.

Among examples he cited:

In Mississippi, the Black legislative caucus helped stop a 1070-like bill, and 22 other anti-immigrant measures.
In Nebraska, state Sen. Brenda Council, an African American labor lawyer representing a largely Black district in Omaha, introduced a resolution emphasizing that immigration is a federal policy issue. Though her resolution died in committee, so did a 1070 copycat bill, which she strongly opposed during a committee hearing
In Georgia, though a 1070-like bill did pass both legislative houses, Black legislators helped mobilize grassroots opposition and were able to weaken some especially harsh provisions. At rallies, civil rights leader and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., joined Black and Latino state legislators in denouncing the bill. The measure has not yet been signed into law, though Gov. Nathan Deal has indicated he will probably do so.

Early last month, in Montgomery, Ala., Black legislators joined a statehouse rally that denounced a 1070-type measure, holding signs proclaiming, "Stop Juan Crow," and "Don't Spend My Tax Dollars on Your Hate!" The legislators reminded protesters that Montgomery was a central battleground in the civil rights struggles of the 1960s and warned that the bill would promote racial profiling. House and Senate have now passed similar measures that must be reconciled. Opposition continues, including concerns about effects on the business community.

Members of the Florida Conference of Black State Legislators have been highly vocal in their opposition to similar bills before that state's legislature. Speaking before a committee hearing last month, State Sens. Arthenia Joiner and Oscar Braynon II, and Rep. Dwight Bullard - all Conference members - warned that the measures were diverting attention from the state's economic crisis, would lead to racial profiling, and would surely meet the same legal and constitutional challenges as Arizona's law.

Late last year, the National Black Caucus of State Legislators passed a resolution saying SB 1070 "is oppressive in nature and promotes racial profiling and separatism similar to the Nuremberg laws of Nazi Germany, Jim Crow laws of the former Confederate States, and the apartheid laws of South Africa." The resolution expressed support for enforcement of current federal immigration laws, and urged that police not be required to take on the role of immigration officers.

Photo: Pepe Lozano/PW.

Capitol rally says: Get on board for health care

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 13:42:00 +0000

HARTFORD, Conn. - A cross section of Connecticut residents jammed into the Hartford train station Wednesday, April 27, to demand that the governor and state legislature "get on board" for SustiNet, the state health care program with a public option. Medical professionals, small business owners, union members, clergy and community groups from every part of the state were among the 1,000 participants. They marched from the station to the State Capitol blowing train whistles and chanting, "What do we want? Health care! When do we want it? Now!"

"We are here tonight to boldly raise our voices. We want to let the governor and the legislative leaders of our state know that we want them to keep SustiNet moving forward," said Juan A. Figueroa, president of the Universal Health Care Foundation, which initiated the effort in 2009.

In reply to media pundits who claim it is not possible to implement the plan this year, Figueroa asked the crowd, "Is SustiNet dead?" as roars of "No" filled the hall.

While Democratic Gov. Danell Malloy emphasized support for SustiNet in his election campaign, once in office he suggested that the process be slowed down. In every one of 17 town hall meetings held by Malloy around Connecticut to discuss the state budget, supporters of SustiNet came wearing their signature red t-shirts for visibility, and telling their health care stories from the floor.

"What you did made a difference," Figueroa told the rally. "There is now a compromise underway, and we are at the table."

Speaker of the House Chris Donovan was cheered when he announced, "We have in place a framework that will provide the next steps for SustiNet to move us in the direction of expanding access, improving care and achieving cost savings."

"By controlling costs, we help families and can encourage small businesses to create jobs," Donovan said. "We're going to continue to work with the supporters of health care improvements and SustiNet here in Connecticut to make reform stronger and stronger. We need to do what's in the best interests of all of Connecticut's residents."

After many conferences, rallies and hearings, SustiNet passed the state legislature in 2009, but was vetoed by Republican Gov. Jodi Rell. However, the bill became law when the legislature overrode the veto that summer. A board was put into place to develop a proposal for implementation to be presented to the legislature in 2011.

A video featuring photographs of disappointed voters, who supported Malloy for governor because he supported SustiNet, captured the message of the night, urging the governor to reclaim his promise to deliver on health care reform by clearing the way for the implementation of SustiNet's public option.

After walking across the street and through Bushnell Park to the State Capitol, participants marched around the Capitol to the sounds of drumming, and then joined hands and formed a ring around the large building. Postcards signed that night were placed into a decorated box to be delivered to the legislators and the governor in the morning.

"Our state is at an important crossroads in the health care debate," said Figueroa. SustiNet provides our governor and legislative leadership with a window of opportunity for Connecticut to show the way to making a sensible nonprofit, public health insurance option available and investing health care dollars more wisely. And there is still time to get it done," he said.

"What I liked best was when we held hands and circled the Capitol," said Delphine Clyburn, who traveled to the rally on a bus from New Haven organized by Connecticut Center for a New Economy. "The unity that represents will enable us to win."

Photo: Supporters of SustiNet, Connecticut's public-option health plan, marched to the state capitol in Hartford. Tom Connolly/PW

Expand broadband for minority communities, advocates say

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 12:02:00 +0000

Labor and civil rights groups are recommending the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) do more to expand high speed Internet and broadband services for low-income and minority communities.

In a letter to the FCC the groups, which include the American Civil Liberties Union, the Asian American Justice Center, the Communications Workers of America, the NAACP and others, say broadening the reach of telecommunications services is essential to the economic development of especially hard-hit communities during the current recession.

The letter states: "At a time when so many families are hanging by a thread, we are focused on the needs of workers and their families, along with the structural barriers that threaten to keep entire communities from sharing in the country's economic recovery for generations to come," notes the letter. "That is why we support measures to promote a broad-based economic recovery, and the provision of tools, such as broadband access, to take advantage of that recovery."

The groups note they agree with the FCC in its National Broadband Plan, where it says:

"Broadband is a platform for social and economic opportunity. It can lower geographical barriers and help minimize socioeconomic disparities - connecting people from otherwise disconnected communities to job opportunities, avenues for educational advancement and channels for communication. Broadband is a particularly important platform for historically disadvantaged communities including racial and ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and recent immigrants."

In other words broadband is the critical communications infrastructure in the 21^st century. Yet data shows vast disparities in access, the groups charge.

In their letter the coalition also points out how the Commission's Broadband Consumer Survey shows that 93 percent of households with an income under $75,000 have broadband at home, while only 40 percent of adults with an income of less than $20,000 have such access.

However such access is critically important for success in a competitive job market especially at a time when unemployment is a reality for so many. For example in March unemployment was 8.8 percent. Among Blacks it was 15.5 percent and 11.3 percent in the Latino community.

Qualifications in science, technology, engineering and math are vital for gaining entry to sectors where there is greatest job growth, notes the letter. But gaining those qualifications is almost impossible without access to broadband.

The coalition recommends the FCC:

• Move quickly to expand Lifeline and Link-Up to support broadband services that can support voice as well as other applications;

• Expand Lifeline and Link-Up to support broadband services this year, and move expediently to initiate the broadband pilot projects so that the Commission can restructure Lifeline supports by the end of 2013;

• Create a financial set-aside for competitive grants within the Lifeline program to encourage states to adopt improved program administration that will promote more consumer control, increased competition, develop public-private partnerships, enhance efficiency and protect privacy;

• Expand and simplify eligibility rules, create incentives within the program to reach target populations and reduce waste and fraud, and mandate combined outreach (and possibly administration) of this program with other similar programs;

• Increase efficiency and reduce waste by incorporating into the Lifeline program the latest and best thinking regarding federal benefit programs-particularly by expanding and simplifying eligibility rules, creating incentives within the program to reach target populations and reduce waste and fraud, combining outreach of this program with other similar programs, redefining -household,‖ and continuing to promote broadband access in Indian country;

• Postpone any consideration of a cap until the reforms proposed in the current proceeding can be implemented, especially in light of the growing need for Lifeline in these challenging economic times and the unambiguous evidence that Lifeline and Link-Up are taken up by about 32 percent of the population that is eligible to receive it; and

• Take this opportunity to reevaluate the current distribution of financial support between universal service funds to support low-income consumers and programs that support high cost areas to ensure greater economic efficiencies and value for money.

Nearly half of U.S. residents have Internet connection speeds that do not meet the Federal Communications Commission's minimum broadband standards and the U.S. ranks in the bottom half of the world in broadband speed, according to a report released in December.

Hilary Shelton, the NAACP's senior vice president for advocacy and policy, said at the time that, "Every American, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, income or geographic location should have affordable access to high-speed Internet. This is essential to economic growth and will help advance and improve our global competitiveness."

In December the FCC adopted rules for Internet and wireless providers that protect the public in various ways. But the rules have drawn criticism for allowing wireless companies to restrict their customers' Internet access.

During an April National Conference for Media Reform in Boston, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi advocated for "net neutrality" - an open Internet with equal access for everyone.

The recent letter was also signed by the National Urban League; National Coalition on Black Civic Participation; National Consumer Law Center on behalf of its low-income clients; National Disability Rights Network; National Hispanic Media Coalition; National Organization for Women Foundation; The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; and the United Church of Christ, Office of Communication, Inc.

Photo: Broadband is the critical communications infrastructure in the 21^st century. Pepe Lozano/PW

Communist Party shows new growth: Can it be sustained?

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 11:19:00 +0000

NEW YORK - The First Annual Communist Party USA National Conference, held April 16-17, reflected a potential new turning point for the CPUSA and the allied Young Communist League (YCL), its relationship to the working class and key social forces and movements and its growth in size and influence.

CPUSA National Chair Sam Webb noted in his opening remarks the new level of receptivity and respect the party has gained in the labor and other mass movements, the growth in readership of its websites and the growing numbers joining, especially online.

Webb also argued that for the labor and democratic movements to continue to develop to effectively challenge corporate power a much larger left and Communist Party are essential.

Can this turning point be realized? That is the big challenge.

The party and YCL growth is bound with the current labor and people's upsurge, in what Rev. Jesse Jackson has described a "Martin Luther King or Gandhi moment."

A number of shifts have been taking place in public opinion, creating a favorable climate for growth of left and progressive movements including the CPUSA and YCL.

There is mounting anger over the brutal economic crisis, the ultra right's assault on democracy and with the contrast of obscene wealth on Wall Street amid great suffering on Main Street.

Support among Americans for the free market system (aka capitalism) has plummeted in the last year according to a GlobeScan survey.

Meanwhile class and socialist consciousness are growing, evident to anyone involved in the mass upsurge against the right wing. Pew polls show greater receptivity to socialism, especially among the youth (45 percent think socialism is a better system than capitalism) and communism (11 percent of the public thinks it's a superior moral system to capitalism)

Party activists are grappling with how to effectively respond to this new situation, the new doors opening daily and especially to those joining online.

The party doesn't yet have the organizational infrastructure to effectively absorb all the new members, especially in areas where no local organization exists. But new forms and methods are emerging, including use of web based tools for mobilization, organization, education and communication directly with the new members and many more who are interested in what the Party says and does.

In short, the challenge remains to build a modern 21st century party of socialism in the United States in this new situation, one fully rooted in the American tradition of democratic struggle and history, capable of applying and elaborating Marxism to the current challenges, able to develop strategic approaches rooted in reality, uniting key class and social forces and millions at the grassroots in sharpening class battle, and elaborating a path to win a democratic and ecologically sustainable U.S. socialism.

And all the while utilizing the most modern means of communication and organization, tools that enhance old fashion shoe leather and grassroots door-to-door work.

The initiative with the most far-reaching impact was launching new websites over the past year and a half. Over 1 million people have visited these websites over the past year, approximately 130,000 each month.

Also, nearly 100,000 readers now visit the allied People's World website monthly, or 25,000 weekly, many times more than read the final issues of the print edition.

PW editors had set a goal for achieving a base of 5,000 Facebook fans by the end of 2011. Over 8,000 have already signed up. PW articles are regularly posted on numerous labor and progressive websites, and read widely by leaders and activists in many struggles.

In addition to launching the new websites, a Southern Tour was organized, resulting in new party organizations in Kentucky, Tennessee and South Carolina, joining recent organizations in Georgia and North Carolina. The South is a place the party had not seen growth in years.

Two weekend schools held for young people, including new members of the CPUSA and YCL, were held in Los Angeles and New Haven, Conn., where almost 60 youth attended. Other weekend schools are coming up in Chicago, Florida and Texas (where more young have joined the YCL than any other state).

A national call to 1,500 new members on March 19 was an exciting experience. Of those reached, 85 percent wished to renew their membership, including some who had joined two years ago and hadn't spoken to anyone. Many paid their dues online and registered for sustainers. Regular national calls are being planned.

Typical of many joining the party is a new member from Wisconsin, who wrote, "Being public-sector working family, my sympathies have always been to stand with that portion of society. What really motivated me to sign up are the recent events in my home state. Once my state government began demonstrating the warning signs of fascism, I wanted to get involved. The party represents what I have always personally believed in, and so I would consider it an honor to become a member."

It appears a new CPUSA is emerging within the old. But to "keep the momentum" going to ensure an actual turn is made in size and mass influence, means a lot of hard work and bold initiative.

Photo: John Bachtell gives concluding remarks at the CPUSA first annual conference, April 17. (Colin Douglas Gray /PW)

Chase forced to pay back military families over foreclosures

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 16:35:00 +0000

In a small victory for working-class military families whose homes were illegally foreclosed on, JPMorgan Chase Manhattan bank agreed to pay over $56 million in damages. The settlement came as a result of public pressure and a class action suit brought by Marine Corps Capt. Jonathon Rowles. Over 6,000 troops are covered in the legal action.

Chase and several other banks, including Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank, in addition to overcharging, forced military families out of their homes during the financial meltdown.

Federal laws explicitly forbid foreclosures involving women and men in uniform.

Labor and community groups asked Chase to impose a yearlong moratorium. The banking giant, however, refused. Instead, in a public statement in February, Chase said "Going forward, if Chase ever has a wrongful foreclosure sale on an SCRA-covered customer, Chase will forgive all of their remaining mortgage debt, as well."

This week's settlement does not end an ongoing investigation by the Justice Department of the several banks included in the scandal.

While not going far enough, it does represent a small victory. Firedoglake writes, "In the final analysis, not a single military member lost their home, those that were wrongfully evicted got their home back free and clear and those ripped off got all the money back for their ripoff plus thousands more, and a reduced interest rate, and maybe a job."

In addition, the agreement "also calls for JPMorgan to cut interest rates on all mortgages held by deployed troops to 4 percent for one year," says Bloomberg News.

The deal still requires approval from a judge.

Image: Adam Fagen // CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Vermont single-payer fight lights a path

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:24:00 +0000

Vermont's state Senate on Monday spotlighted how progressives can leverage opportunities in President Obama's Affordable Health Care Act to re-introduce single-payer health care concepts and principles, in a very constructive and pragmatic way, into state politics across the country. The current Republican tactical dementia that twists every policy into a deficit debate - including Obama's health reforms - has served in Vermont to re-validate a key principle in cost control at all levels: Some private interests - especially the insurance companies - must be removed and constrained or it will not be possible to control costs.

For states, most of whom cannot constitutionally run deficits, publicly financing anything becomes a careful balancing act. Vermont happens to be a state where borrowing money is not forbidden, but they run a balanced budget anyway. However, Vermonters calculated that there was a huge savings from eliminating profiteering in insurance, as well as even bigger savings in consolidating the very burdensome administrative costs for hospitals, doctors, employers and governments with multi-payer systems. Universal health care with health insurance companies removed from the equation will find it much easier to bargain with drug companies - one of the other private interests driving health cost increases. It will also make it much easier to change the many fee-for-service arrangements with doctors that contribute to health care costs and that are not aligned with positive, measurable health outcomes.

State single-payer adaptations to preparing for the broader coverage required under the Affordable Care Act by 2014 are complicated by several factors - but all of them provide good opportunities for progressive forces to generate substantive ballot initiatives, or refreshed candidacies from the left in the primary season.

First, a single-payer approach needs a definition that makes a credible argument allowing Secretary of Health Kathleen Sibelius to grant the state approval to integrate its plan into the overall federal health care objectives. For example, in Vermont the solution will not be completely single-payer. Big self-insurers (like IBM) will be excluded. Payments to Medicaid and Medicare (both also government programs) are excluded. Payments under some older existing Vermont state programs for children, the handicapped and elderly will also be excluded. However administrative control would be uniform.

Second, estimated costs to new and old Vermont businesses seeking to provide insurance for employees would be greatly reduced - a big jobs incentive. However use of employer versus general tax sources to finance the single-payer pool and administration must be carefully crafted - and left open for political negotiation. This will be true for every state because the process of breaking apart the health care system and rebuilding it is very complex, For example, the Vermont bill establishes important single-payer principles, but it leaves until January 2013 - after the next election - the crucial question of how the new system will be paid for. Also to be decided later: what exact health services the benefit package will cover.

Third, to comply with Affordable Care Act requirements, the plan calls itself an "exchange," even though there will be only one payer in the exchange. Many aspects of a state single-payer plan will have to make their own tactical adaptation. Good reason to dig into the details of Vermont's efforts now. Vermont is a very small state, with barely a million people. Other states, or even groups of states, could adapt single-payer plans with much greater economies of scale.

Fourth, Vermont also sets up a board of health care professionals and other stakeholder representatives - called the Green Mountain Care Board - that would review and approve designs for a publicly financed program available to all. State-appointed health care professionals and other stakeholder representatives will make up the board. In addition to design of the system details, the board will set limits on costs and promote both improved health outcomes and reduced overall per-patient costs. The Green Mountain Care Board will review proposals from executive branch agencies on how the program would work and be financed. By January 2014, it would set up the exchange, required by the federal Affordable Care Act. The exchange later would become the framework for the single-payer system.

Reactionaries call these boards "death panels." The truth is they will save and improve millions of more lives than the current real death panels - the insurance corporations that have an easy and profitable test for life versus death: the rich live, the poor die.

Opponents of the Vermont bill are issuing the usual screeds. "Three of the five doctors told us point blank that if a single-payer health care system comes to pass they will seriously consider relocating elsewhere in the U.S.," claimed state Sen. Randy Brock, R-Franklin. This is bull. Systems run on something besides the fee-for-service insurance system - like the Mayo Clinic - get better outcomes and doctors apply from all over the world to work there for good salaries and to perform real health care, not just health care for profit.

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, in a statement released by his office, sounded optimistic about meeting the challenges, and positive about the importance of having a political health care debate that addressed the real challenges of health care - not smokescreens and paid stooge arguments from the insurance companies and their paid hacks.

"Today, the Legislature took a huge step toward making Vermont the first state ... in the nation to control skyrocketing health care costs and remove the burden of providing health care coverage from small business owners," he said. "This bill is good for Vermonters and Vermont businesses."

Mississippi stuck with Haley Barbour, for now

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:32:00 +0000

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Haley Barbour, the Republican governor of Mississippi, announced yesterday that he will not be seeking his party's nomination for the presidency in 2012. A look at his record suggests he may have done the nation a favor by pulling out.

The 63-year-old former tobacco lobbyist and former leader of the Republican National Committee and Republican Governors Association explained that he didn't have the "absolute fire in the belly" required.

Fire or not, early polls haven't offered much good news to the governor. A McClatchy-Marist poll found that Barbour commanded about 1 percent support among the Republican primary electorate. The governor's announcement followed visits to the all-important primary states of New Hampshire, South Carolina and Iowa. Unfortunately for Barbour's rumored presidential ambitions, he consistently polled in the single digits among Republican primary voters.

Like most of the potential Republican nominees, Barbour has had a few recent gaffes. Granted, they haven't been nearly as controversial as Donald Trump's head-first dive into birther-ism or Michele Bachmann's string of historical fallacies, but they have made news. Barbour angered many civil rights activists when he praised the Citizens Councils (then known as the White Citizens Councils), a historically racist organization. One of this group's first actions, in 1955 in Barbour's hometown of Yazoo City, was to publish in an ad in the local newspaper the names of African Americans who signed a petition in favor of desegregation of public schools.

Additionally, Barbour has been on record as saying that he didn't believe that racism and racial tensions in Mississippi during the 1950s and '60s were that bad.

More recently Barbour has caught flack for stating, "There's nobody in Mississippi who does not have access to health care."

Contrary to the governor's statements, 18 percent of the state's populace lacks health insurance, preventing them from accessing primary medical care.

Barbour added, "One of the great problems in the conversation is the misimpression that if you don't have insurance, you don't get health care." His spokesman later said the governor was referring to hospital emergency room procedures, repeating George W. Bush's July 2007 gaffe in which Bush said that "people have access to health care ... just go to an emergency room." While Gov. Barbour may be content with the status quo, Mississippians' lack of access to adequate medical care has led to the state suffering staggering medical disparities.

Perhaps Barbour, first elected governor in 2003, was hesitant in running on his track record within the state of Mississippi.

According to the Commonwealth Fund the state ranks last in terms of health care. In addition, the state ranks as the most obese in the nation: Over 30 percent of the state's adults and 22 percent of its children qualified as obese. In teenage pregnancy, Mississippi leads the nation, with a rate 60 percent higher than the national average.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Mississippi is also the nation's poorest state, with the lowest per capita income ($26,908 in 2006) of all states, and a 10.9 percent unemployment rate that is above the national average.

During Barbour's first term, he drastically reduced health coverage for 65,000 Mississippians who qualified for a Poverty-Level Aged and Disability (PLAD) program.

Perhaps in an ode to his days as a tobacco lobbyist, Barbour cut funding for the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, a successful tobacco prevention program.

With statistics like these, it may have been too hard for Barbour to find laurels upon which to rest.

Barbour's prolific career as a lobbyist in Washington likely would not have been too helpful either. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that being a former lobbyist was seen by potential voters as the worst candidate attribute. In fact, according to that poll, being a lobbyist was seen as being worse than having multiple marriages, being a Fox News commentator, or a tea party leader.

It seems that running on a national stage, at least as president, was not to be for Barbour. Perhaps it was his poor name recognition among the all too important Republican electorate in the key first primary states that led to his decision. Maybe his résumé, which likely would have left a bad taste in too many mouths, tempered any fire in his belly. Either way, it appears that the southern governor will stay in Jackson, for now.

Image: Barbour photographed by Gage Skidmore

Instead of attacking workers, how about some jobs?

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 11:25:00 +0000

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said eliminating state workers' right to collective bargaining would solve his budget crisis. In fact, Walker used the crisis as a pretext for union busting. Some Missouri Republicans have similarly dressed up their so-called Right to Work bill, SB 1, as a job creation scheme, but it's really a naked attack on the livelihoods of Missouri workers. It won't give anyone a job, and it has nothing to do with workers' rights.

Proponents of SB 1 claim it would outlaw "compulsory union membership." There is no such thing. No worker in the U.S. can be forced to join a union. It's illegal to do so. Under federal law when a majority of employees in a workplace vote for a union to represent them to bargain with their employer, the union and management may negotiate a provision requiring that those who benefit from the contract and receive representation from the union pay for the service. SB 1 would outlaw such an agreement and thus weaken unions and lower wages.

SB 1 backers say it's about putting Missourians back to work, but if we look at the latest state to enact such a proposal - Oklahoma, which adopted it in 2001 - it just isn't true. A study issued in March by the Economic Policy Institute found that since passage Oklahoma lost one quarter of its manufacturing jobs, and contrary to what advocates promised, the number of firms relocating to Oklahoma, which had been rising before 2001, began to fall after passage.

Right to Work backers think that it's necessary for a state to be union-free in order to grow jobs. That's code for being low wage. In the global economy, however, companies that want low wages have plenty of choices offshore in countries that pay less in a day than the U.S. minimum wage pays in an hour. Is the goal of Right to Work sponsors to turn Missouri into Mexico with its huge gap between rich and poor just to create jobs?

Indeed, Right to Work does lower wages for all workers, not just union workers. Another EPI study found that wages in states where the law was enacted are 3.2 percent less than in other states. An average full-time, full-year worker in Right to Work states makes about $1,500 less annually than a similar worker in other states and is less likely to receive health insurance and a pension.

In places where unions are strong, non-union workers also benefit because their employers are under pressure to raise wages and benefits to match their union competitors. When Right to Work laws undermine workers' ability to bargain for themselves through a union, wages and benefits end up falling for non-union workers too.

Since these laws lower wages and benefits without creating jobs, who benefits? Only corporate executives who want fatter profits by cutting employees' wages and right-wing ideologues who are willing to destroy the middle class in pursuit of their anti-union mania.

Missourians face a choice of what kind of state we want. Do we want a low wage economy with a low tax base, few state services, and depressed consumer spending, attracting employers who see us as a stopping-off place on the way to Mexico? Or do we want to invest in our infrastructure, including education and job training? Studies show these measures are why good employers choose to locate in a state. The backers of SB 1 have opted for the former. Tell them to stop offering deceptive non-solutions and start working to craft policies to create good jobs - the only basis for a prosperous economy.

Judy Ancel is the Director of the University of Missouri - Kansas City's Institute for Labor Studies. This article was originally published in the Kansas City Star and is reposted with permission from the author.

Scholars say left, including unions, needs big unifying message

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 12:11:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - The U.S. left, including unions, needs one unifying theme to both rally their own forces and to gain public backing, a panel of scholars says.

And the four scholars, two from the U.S. and two from abroad, say income inequality could be that theme. But they quickly noted the left must figure out how to get its message across to the masses, and what solutions to offer for the problem.

The lack of a message from the left, especially one that appeals to the mass of the U.S., is a persistent problem the labor movement faces. Several unions, notably the Teachers, have tried to address it. AFT has repeatedly declared that unions' theme should be that "worker rights are human rights." But other unions have not followed.

The four - Steven Kramer of the National Defense University, Georgetown University historian Michael Kazin, former senior Australian Labor Party political advisor Christopher Barrett and Italian attorney and veteran diplomat Roberto Toscano - spoke April 25 at the Woodrow Wilson International Studies Center in Washington.

And there was no shortage of their comments about the problems the left, as a movement, faces both here and abroad.

The four described leftist parties and movements in Western Europe and unions in the U.S., as outflanked in messaging by their rightist and corporatist foes, and as being effective only when great crises - such as the Depression and World War II - hit.

And in recent years, they added, the U.S. left has concentrated on gaining individual political rights rather than economic rights and equality of opportunity.

They also noted the right has consistently found one unifying theme, such as "anti-communism" or "anti-terrorism," with which to scare people. And the right succeeded in demonizing its opponents along the way, particularly by tagging all progressives as "Socialists" and linking them to abuses in the former Soviet Union.

"When the Soviet Union collapsed, it was the end of one ideology. But the other is thriving," Toscano commented.

The left, the scholars said, has developed no similar unifying theme to appeal to the mass of people. And its defenses and institutions - unions in the U.S. and Social Democratic parties in Europe - have been weakened, divided, or both, they said.

And the left underestimated what Toscano called "the protean qualities of capitalism" to adapt and feed people's immediate desires. Despite the right's denunciations of popular culture, capitalism's attitude is "Do you want sex, drugs and rock and roll? Well, I can provide them." That co-opts potential opposition, he said.

"Capitalism can thrive without democracy," he ruefully added, citing China.

Even globalization plays a role in the problems of the left, Toscano pointed out, since "it has made the nation-state much less relevant" and the left has relied on the nation-state to enact progressive programs. That includes U.S. unions.

The scholars warned that workers' rights may be too specific to unify the left and rally the rest of the U.S. Kazin noted the labor movement succeeded in big causes that united much of the U.S., such as civil rights, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. But its own cause - labor law reform - was perceived as just its own interest, and lost.

So they suggested the left, including unions, could adopt the yawning gap between the rich and the rest of us as the theme - explaining why it occurred and offering plans to close it.

"The left needs a vision. Once it was" opposition to "slavery, and the solution was freedom," Kazin said. "Once it was corporate capitalism, and the solution was industrial democracy. Today, many people point to the income gap, but it'll take a big leap" to find a solution, he admitted.

But the scholars also warned the left in general, and unions in particular, have communication problems, especially with white working class men. And the left missed an opportunity, with the Great Recession, to pin the problems of workers on those who caused them, particularly the bankers, traders and financiers, Kramer said.

That let the right step in and blame "regulations," repeating the errors of the 1920s, he added. The reaction of the country to anti-recession legislation was that the bankers got bailed out and everyone else did not, leading to the 2010 sweep, he noted. And now there's another global problem the left must deal with: The unanticipated - at least in the West - rise of industrialization in developing nations, especially China.

"That's led to calls for 'competitiveness,' used as a battering ram to smash the gains and benefits of the middle class," Kramer said.

With the right resurgent in the U.S. after the money-fueled GOP election sweep in 2010, the left finds itself, Kazin said, in an odd position: "We'll have to act as conservatives," in the true sense of the word, "conserving what was gained before, such as Medicare, Social Security and collective bargaining."

Photo: Tax day rally at Bank of America Rally, April 18, in Philadelphia. Ben Sears/PW

In Dallas, Good Friday march seeks "moral budget"

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:15:00 +0000

DALLAS -- The Dallas Area Progressive Christian Alliance took the teachings of the Bible, and the need for relief from poverty and suffering, to the streets of Dallas here on Good Friday, April 22.

Activists alternated biblical scripture placards with those demanding solutions for the nation today. "Budgets are Moral Documents" was a popular slogan. "You cannot serve God and Mammon" was carried along with "17% of Texans live in poverty!"

Along the miles-long course, the group of 50 Texans stopped three times for short five-minute messages about the important message of Good Friday as it applies to our present situation. The Reverends Gerald Britt, Jo Hudson, and Ed Middleton were the three speakers.

Middleton spoke in front of the giant Comerica Bank skyscraper. He was not in a celebratory mood. In fact, he said, he had tired of hearing preachers and politicians deliver long scholarly treatises on Jesus' simple statement "I thirst."

Middleton said Jesus was not speaking metaphorically about being thirsty. He genuinely needed relief, just as millions of downtrodden people of America need relief today.
Another popular sermon topic, which Middleton disassembled was "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."

He said that the perpetrators of injustice in America today could not hide behind their excuses of ignorance. They know what they are doing, the reverend said, and righteous anger, not forbearance, is our proper response.

Photo: Christian activists march in Dallas on Good Friday for a "moral budget" (Jim Lane/PW)

Extremist Westboro Church foiled in Mississippi

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 10:03:00 +0000

BRANDON, Miss. - Members of the far-right Westboro Baptist Church showed up here April 16 to protest the funeral of Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Jason Rogers, who was slain in Afghanistan on April 7. However, local residents caught wind of the incoming protesters, and banded together to protect the family and friends of Staff Sgt. Rogers as they mourned his loss.

The Westboro Baptist Church, led by its pastor Fred Phelps, has protested at military funerals, funerals of victims of gay-bashing, concerts and countless other events, for years. By their own count, they have participated in over 30,000 pickets. They say that God hates America for its tolerance of the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender (LGBT) community and that dead soldiers, terrorist attacks and natural disasters - among a myriad of other tragedies - are divine retribution for this tolerance. These protests often include signs such as "God hates fags," and "Thank God for dead soldiers," as well as flag desecration.

They are not affiliated with any Baptist organizations, and are extremely critical of Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims and Hindus. Needless to say this group, consisting mostly of one large family, has faced much opposition in its self-proclaimed message of hate.

However, in Brandon, Mississippi, it appears as if they may have been outmaneuvered by members of the local community, and they did not show up at the funeral itself. Thankfully for the Rogers family, Staff Sgt. Rogers was buried in peace.

The Supreme Court recently ruled that these "protests" at military funerals, while tasteless and hurtful, fall under the First Amendment's free-speech protections. However, a West Virginia court acquitted a man of assault after he spit tobacco juice at Shirley Phelps-Roper (one of the leaders of the church) as the church protested the deaths of miners in West Virginia.

So, it may be legal for the Phelps group to protest at funerals, but it is also legal to spit in their faces.

Corrected 4/25/11: An earlier version of this article cited reports of incidents involving the Brandon police, but those reports could not be confirmed.

Photo: Westboro Baptist Church protests at a funeral in Chalco, Neb., in June 2008. anyofne CC 2.0

Housing crisis, with a New York twist

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 13:01:00 +0000

NEW YORK - The foreclosure crisis which continues to ravage communities across the country is also harming working people in New York City, even though 64% of the city's 8 million residents live in rental apartments.

Here's how.

Between 2003 and 2008, hundreds of apartment buildings in the city were purchased at inflated prices by real-estate investors and private equity firms, who got their financing from banks (sometimes up to 80% of the capital). Many of these purchases were intended either to flip (quickly re-sell at a profit), or to use as collateral for even bigger investments. Needless to say, in these situations maintenance and repairs were neglected.

Congressman Jose Serrano, who represents New York's 16th Congressional District, said in a recent letter to the FDIC, that there are "hundreds of distressed properties across the city whose mortgages are held by banks."

One of the worst offenders is NY Community Bank (NYCB), which has 34 properties in foreclosure across the city, with a combined total of almost 5,000 code violations. 16 of these buildings are in the Bronx.

Code violations range from broken boilers to vermin, to holes in walls and ceilings, and worse.

The number of tenants affected is in the hundreds of thousands. According to New York City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), there are now more than 110,000 occupied apartments in multifamily buildings that may be over-leveraged and at serious risk of disinvestment and/or foreclosure.

Serrano wants the FDIC to investigate the mortgage lending practice, because of the following scenario: "if a property is facing foreclosure, in many cases, the bank simply seeks to sell the loans as quickly as possible, with seemingly little regard for the buyer's intention for the properties."

Unfortunately, the banks that hold these mortgages do not take into account dilapidated conditions when they sell them, and such buildings are still being sold at prices "far in excess of their true value."

This then means that new owners have little interest in doing significant repairs, and risks tenants' health and safety as well as putting enormous financial strain on the city, which ends up having to bear the cost of major rehabilitation work.

Serrano said he is concerned about "how banks are valuing the mortgages they hold for severely distressed multifamily buildings, and whether those valuations honestly reflect the physical condition of the properties." The key change, according to Serrano, would be for the property's value to "reflect the cost associated with making that property livable and non-hazardous again."

In other words, banks shouldn't be able to sell a loan on a building that's valued at 10 million dollars for that amount, if it needs $5 million in repairs.

In his letter he asks the FDIC to develop safeguards to ensure that multifamily buildings are more closely scrutinized for possible decreases in value when landlords let the conditions deteriorate, as so many do.

In his position statement on the housing issue, he says that he is working to prevent New York City from becoming a place where only the super rich can afford to live. One of the proposals he puts forth is the "establishment of a National Housing Trust Fund, which would create a permanent, ongoing source of money ... to build, rehabilitate and preserve affordable housing."

Photo: CC BY 2.0

We Are One on May Day

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 11:38:00 +0000

International Worker's Day has come home. Out of the depths of the raging class war against public workers, their unions and all working people, has arisen a call by the labor movement from Wisconsin to Connecticut to rally on May Day.

The resurgence in our country of May Day, International Workers Day, sparked by the mega marches for immigrant rights five years ago, reflects a growing understanding of the power and necessity of worker solidarity.

In Connecticut, a full day of marches, rallies and activities will be capped off with the annual People's World Newsmaker Awards in New Haven, honoring state workers, their unions and the services they provide.

At 1 p.m. on May 1 in Hartford's Bushnell Park, thousands of workers are expected to gather for a massive labor rally. State elected officials and members of Congress are scheduled to be on hand.

"May Day will be workers' day at the Connecticut state capitol when 26 building trades councils and state-wide unions gather under the banner Enough is Enough! say rally organizers.

Charles LeConche, business manager of Connecticut Laborers' District Council which initiated the rally, emphasizes, "We intend to send a very strong message to the public, media and industry leaders that workers' rights need to be preserved. However, the way trends are going now, we are seeing the decline of these rights and the disintegration of the American family."

May Day has been side lined by red-baiting and anti-Communism in our country since the anti-labor political repression of the 1950's. But in the 1930's, at the time New Deal legislation was being fought for and won, giant May Day marches brought working women and men together across trade, profession, race, nationality and age lines. The songs, banners and unity raised sights and gave strength for the battles ahead.

Immigrants from Latin America who had celebrated May Day in their home countries knew that the workers' holiday was born in the USA, initiated worldwide to show solidarity with workers attacked and in Haymarket Square in Chicago 125 years ago, and later executed, while demanding an eight hour work day.

The significance of labor's embrace of May Day as an occasion to rally for workers' rights and immigrant rights is accentuated by the union-led We Are One rallies held on April 4, the date Martin Luther King was assassinated while in Memphis to support striking sanitation workers.

This joining together of the labor movement with the civil rights, immigrant rights and international worker movements is essential to stop the destruction of every gain ever won in the past century.

"We Are One - Workers Rights Are Human Rights," is the theme of the People's World event on Sunday, May 1 at 4 p.m. at 37 Howe Street, New Haven, where newsmaker awards will be presented to the coalition of state worker unions, SEBAC, for leadership on behalf of the needs of Connecticut's working people; and to Communications Workers CWA Local 1298 for standing up to AT&T in negotiations, and building worker solidarity. A solidarity recognition will be presented to 1199 health care workers at Spectrum, now on strike for one year.

A panel discussion will address the assault on workers and on democracy, and project how the labor movement and community can turn the tide and move forward.

Videos of rallies in Wisconsin and Connecticut for workers rights will be shown. Performances will be offered by Puerto Rican singer Fernando Ferrer, rap group The UNION, and poet Sabir Abdussabur. A home made buffet will be served. Suggested donation is $5 or what you can afford. Contributions will be accepted for the 2011 People's World fund drive.

Photo: Part of youth contingent in 3,000-strong "We are one" rally in New Haven, CT, March 30, 2011 Art Perlo/PW