People Before Profit blog

Chicago will be site for Occupy's Spring

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:17:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Spring has come early here. Today, Leap Year Day, it's blue skies and 60 degrees. February. Chicago. 60 degrees.

There's another springtime swirling here: the rebirth of the Occupy movement. Organizers, "citizens of the Internet," global activists and undoubtedly the infamous Black Bloc are planning to make a journey to the city that g,ave birth to May Day and the fight for the 8-hour day beginning on International Workers Day, May 1.

Now, pledging non-violence, Occupy Chicago and Adbusters, the group that brought us Occupy Wall Street, have sent out calls far and wide via YouTube, Tumblr and Facebook for 50,000 to descend on Chicago in May. Why? That's when Chicago will be hosting meetings of G8 and NATO, two of the most powerful multilateral groups in the world, representatives of the global 1%. G8 represents the eight largest capitalist economies in the world and NATO is their military force.

Already there have been battles over the meetings. In January, activists forced Mayor Rahm Emanuel to back off his dubbed "sit down and shut up" ordinance that would have severely curtailed people's right to protest. Now local businesses and residents are concerned about the lack of information from the city about the security plan, such as whethe their businesses are going to be closed down because streets have been sealed off.

Ironically, one of the selling points Emanuel used for hosting the meets was the immediate economic benefits for Chicago businesses, plus the opportunity to "showcase" Chicago as a global city. Meanwhile the mayor has forced major cuts in education, transportation, libraries and other public services because of budget deficits. Media reports point out that despite the mayor's promise that the extra costs associated for the G8 and NATO meetings would be covered by the federal government and a public/private host committee, the city hasn't received any extra cash.

The Chicago Police Department is getting outfitted with new riot gear, including horses, in excess of their trimmed $2.7 million budget. It's expected that the city will be highly militarized during the May 19-21 meetings.

Chicago-based labor and community groups are strategizing on how to connect the meetings and protests to what's happening here in the public schools, in the city's neighborhoods and with its young people, with the economy, unemployment and budget cuts. For years, local labor and immigrant rights groups have celebrated May 1 with marches and actions (sometimes massive). Building on that, May 1this year is planned as the kickoff for the G8/NATO protests, teach ins and other actions. Labor unions, immigrant rights and community groups and Occupy Chicago are sponsoring a May Day March for the 99%.

StandUp!Chicago, a coalition of community and labor groups, is planning to tie the G8 meeting with the groups "community jobs plan," according to the coalition's communications director, Catherine Murrell.

As part of the jobs creation plan, Murrell said, StandUp!Chicago delivered a letter to the mayor proposing that for every dollar given to cover the costs of the meetings by the highly-profitable corporations that make up World Business Chicago, the G8/NATO host committee, an equal amount be given to a "community fund" that would be tasked to fund job creation and restore central services decimated in recent budget cuts.

Iraq Veterans Against the War has called on its members to protest the G8/NATO "policies of economic exploitation and militarism." A coalition of predominantly left groups, Cang8, is organizing a permitted march on May 19 and a People's Summit on May 12-13.

Adbusters called for 50,000 "redeemers, rebels and radicals" to "pack your tents, muster up your courage and prepare for a big bang in Chicago this Spring."

"With a bit of luck, we'll pull off the biggest multinational occupation of a summit meeting the world has ever seen," the call read.

Promising not to abide by any police repression reminiscent of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, the Occupy activists promised "to march and chant and sing and shout and exercise our right to tell our elected representatives what we want ... the constitution will be our guide."

What they want, for starters, includes a Robin Hood Tax (on the rich), a binding climate change accord and an all-out initiative for a nuclear free Middle East.

"And if they don't listen ... if they ignore us and put our demands on the back burner like they've done so many times before ... then, with Gandhian ferocity, we'll flashmob the streets, shut down stock exchanges, campuses, corporate headquarters and cities across the globe ... we'll make the price of doing business as usual too much to bear," they said.

Photo: chicagospring.org.

Rev. Franklin Graham apologizes to President Obama for questioning his faith

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:36:00 +0000

Rev. Franklin Graham has issued an apology for questioning President Obama's faith. The evangelist son of Billy Graham in an interview on Morning Joe , when asked about the president's faith, repeatedly said, "I don't know, ask him."

He then alleged that President Obama cares more about Muslims than "Christians who are being killed by Muslims.

The NAACP along with other civil rights groups sent an letter to Graham demanding he retract his hateful statements.

In response Graham said , "I regret any comments I have ever made which may have cast any doubt on the personal faith of our president, Mr. Obama. The president has said he is a Christian and I accept that..."

Graham went on to explain that his reason for not supporting President Obama were on moral grounds, citing abortion rights and marriage.

In the Morning Joe interview Graham quickly indicated he thought New Gingrich and Rick Santorum were Christians.

Photo: Wkikpedia

Is Ben & Jerry’s fortune cookie ice cream insulting or not?

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:11:00 +0000

Try googling "Ben & Jerry's fortune cookie ice cream" and you will see pages and pages of news items on the "Taste the Lin-Sanity" frozen yogurt flavor, which featured fortune cookies and lychee swirls in honor of Knicks basketball sensation Jeremy Lin. After complaints about the ethnic stereotyping of Lin, who is Taiwanese-American, the company replaced the fortune cookie ingredient with a waffle cookie on the side, and apologized "if anyone was offended" by the product.

An article we ran yesterday reviewing the Ben & Jerry's incident, and also mentioning racial slurs used by ESPN and other media regarding Lin, drew a number of comments on our Facebook page. Some doubted that the fortune cookie ice cream was really a problem.

Yet on Feb. 22 the Asian American Journalists Association felt impelled to issue a "Media Advisory on Jeremy Lin news coverage."

"In the past weeks, as more news outlets report on Lin, his game and his story, AAJA has noticed factual inaccuracies about Lin's background as well as an alarming number of references that rely on stereotypes about Asians or Asian Americans," the advisory says.

Among the "danger zones" the AAJA lists "Food."

"Is there a compelling reason to draw a connection between Lin and fortune cookies, takeout boxes or similar imagery?" the advisory asks. "In the majority of news coverage, the answer will be no."

In mid-February, the MSG Network featured Lin's face above a fortune cookie in a sign held by a fan, with the message "The Knicks' good fortune." Andrew Kang, senior staff attorney at the Asian-American Institute in Chicago, told USA Today that he feels it is a "tough call" whether MSG should be criticized for featuring the image.

"I would prefer maybe they didn't show that - although I could imagine people finding it humorous," said Kang. "But I think it does go to what people think when they think of Asians. They think of food. Because that is really their only point of contact, or awareness, with the Asian-American community."

Commentator Kristina Chew at care2.com says, "MSG's use of the fortune cookie in its graphic underscores how limited many people's understanding of Asian Americans is. Ben & Jerry's would have done well to take heed of the concerns."

Interestingly, fortune cookies are believed to have Japanese, not Chinese, origins.

Photo: mjpeacecorps CC 2.0

U.S. report backs Steelworker warning on oil supply

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 13:22:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - A new federal report confirms what the Steelworkers' oil workers' sector has warned of for weeks: Closure of two Philadelphia-area refineries, and the pending closure of a third which would cut in half the amount of refined petroleum products available to the Northeast.

Now, the Steelworkers say, it's up to the government to do something about it.

The Feb. 28 Energy Information Administration report shows regional refining capacity was cut by 363,000 barrels a day when ConocoPhillips shut its Trainer, Pa., refinery last September and Sunoco closed its Marcus Hook refinery in December.

The area will lose 335,000 more daily barrels if Sunoco closes its Philly refinery, EIA reports. Sunoco says if it can't find a buyer, it will close the plant by July. Together, the three refineries provided just over half of the 1.37 million barrels of daily refining capacity available to the area. Together, they also employed 2,500 Steelworkers.

The situation wasn't helped when the Hovensa refinery in the U.S. Virgin Islands, jointly owned by Amerada Hess and Venezuela's national oil company, was converted to an oil storage facility, then closed at the end of February, EIA added. It had sent products to the Northeast. Its closure cost 1,700 more Steelworker jobs, USW added.

"If Sunoco's Philadelphia refinery closes in Jul. 2012 as announced, the Northeast could be significantly impacted as the additional loss of volumes and reduced access to distribution systems may create temporary, localized shortfalls and associated price surges," EIA concludes.

"Adequate refining capacity is available outside of the East Coast to replace the lost capacity, but logistical constraints on the delivery of product to certain areas within Northeast in the short-term may present significant challenges," its report warned. Those challenges: Pipelines from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast are at capacity and there aren't enough U.S.-flagged oil tankers available - even if they could be leased right now, which they can't - to handle the bigger load.

The worst impact would be in ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel. All Philly refineries, including those that are closing, supply 60 percent of the Northeast's needs for that, along with 45 percent of its heating oil and 40 percent of its gasoline.

Loss of their jobs, plus this gloomy news, led USW to reiterate the warnings it gave when several hundred USW-represented oil workers lobbied Congress and the Obama administration in mid-February to step in.

"This report reinforces everything we have been saying for the past six months about the devastating effect the closure of the Philly oil refineries will have on oil workers, energy markets, and consumers throughout the Northeast," said Steelworkers President Leo Gerard in announcing the EIA report's release. "It is time for Congress and the administration to act. It is time for Pennsylvania to step up to the plate. It is late in the game, but if all parties work together this disaster still can be averted."

USW Local 10-234 President Denis Stephano, whose local represents the now-laid-off Trainer refinery workers, noted refinery capacity in the area has been dropping for a decade. "It has finally reached a critical point where we know enough is enough and the market cannot be properly served anymore," he commented about the report.

Local 10-1 President Jim Savage, who represents the still-open-but-threatened Philadelphia refinery workers, cited the "painful human cost in Philadelphia and the surrounding counties" of the closures. "More than 1,000 of our members have worked at these three refineries, and there are at least 1,000 more who have worked on a regular basis inside the fence on a contract basis," he explained.

And USW District Director John DeFazio said at least ten more outside jobs per each refinery job depend on the plants staying open. Those jobs run the gamut from suppliers to the refineries to tanker truck drivers to lunch counter employees who serve the refinery workers. "That's at least 20,000 decent, middle class jobs that will be gone forever, if these closures are allowed to stand," he said.

The Steelworkers and their allies marched to Pennsylvania GOP Gov. Tom Corbett's Philadelphia office in February, demanding he act. They've had no reply. The state attorney general may probe the refineries' books. The workers then hit Congress and the Energy Department. The agency told them, in the meetings, its hands are tied.

But USW has a few ideas for action. One is to have EIA take the issue over to the Obama White House and raise hell. They've already gotten a promise of a congressional hearing on the closures, on national security grounds, due to the imminent loss of jet fuel.

Another idea came from USW oil sector spokeswoman Lynne Baker. She noted the major oil companies are getting out of refining. They claim oil refineries, unlike exploration, have small profit margins or lose money. "We'll keep pushing Congress about this," Baker says. "It's difficult because the government isn't in the business of telling the private sector to keep plants open. Maybe they should give tax incentives to the refineries" rather than for drilling. "That's where we need them."

First black actor to win an Oscar: Hattie McDaniel

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 13:16:00 +0000

On a day that many would like to forget, this day in 1940 actor Hattie McDaniel won the best supporting actor Oscar for portraying Mammie in the film Gone With The Wind.

The film is based on the novel by the same name authored by Margaret Mitchell.

The role is credited as shaping stereotypical perceptions of African American women for decades. Both the film and the novel perpetuate racist 19th century views of black people.

McDaniel was a versatile performer and is credited with being the first black woman to sing on the radio.

She appeared in the 1920s in several minstrel shows and movies. In the film Showboat McDaniel sang alongside Paul Robeson.

Roles in film for African Americans at the time were almost exclusively as maids and servants. McDaniel excelled at appearing in such roles, for which she received wide criticism

Paul Robeson broke new ground in succeeding to win wider stage and screen roles.

McDaniel's appearance in Gone With The Wind became a major political event, with the NAACP campaigning to remove racist language from the movie and its celebration of the Ku Klux Klan as saviours of white women from rampaging black rapists.

The black actor herself was not allowed to appear at the film's Atlanta premier. At the Hollywood Oscar's she was forced to sit at a segregated table.

McDaniel was the only African American woman to receive an Oscar until Whoopie Goldberg's performance in Ghost in 1990.

This year actor Octavia Spencer also won best supporting actor for playing a very different type of maid in the The Help.

Notwithstanding Oscar wins in recent years by Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Mo'Nique, Morgan Freeman, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, and Jennifer Hudson, roles for black actors are still quite limited.

The same can be said for other actors of color.

The Academy has also been criticized for not awarding Oscar prizes to Latino and Asian actors.

McDaniel died in 1952. In 2006, she became the first Academy Award winner to be honored with a U.S. postage stamp.

Photo: Still from Gone with the Wind.

Black and Latino seniors face double poverty rates

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:48:00 +0000

It is well known that Black and Latino children face extraordinarily high poverty rates with more than a third living below the poverty line.

It seems their grandparents are facing similar straights. A new report by the Berkley Center for Labor Research and Education says, "19.4 percent of Black seniors (age 65 and older) and 19.0 percent of Latino seniors have incomes below the federal poverty line, compared to 9.4 percent for the senior population as a whole."

African American and Latino poverty rates "are twice as high among these groups compared to the U.S. population as a whole," writes thegrio.com in an article on the study.

With less retirement benefits and access to health care both groups face increasing insecurity as they age. "Less than half of employed Blacks and less than a third of employed Latinos in full-time jobs are covered by an employer sponsored retirement plan," argues the study.

The problem extends to all minority groups.

Asian and Native-American, along with Black and Latino seniors, are in "the bottom 25 percent income group." Forty six percent of Latino seniors are stuck here while Native Americans and Indians make up 38 percent of those living at the bottom. Blacks amount to 31 percent.

Providing good paying jobs is central to overcoming poverty in retirement, particularly for African Americans. Because Black people face higher unemployment, receive less hourly wages, own fewer homes and have less home equity than the population as a whole "improved access to jobs, especially quality jobs with good wages and benefits, alongside a strengthened Social Security system is necessary in order for more Black workers to be able to retire with dignity," says the report's author Dr. Nari Rhee.

President Obama's American Jobs Act has been blocked by Republicans in both the House and Senate. The president's budget however, contains stimulus measures that would reduce unemployment.

Photo: Honor the elderly, Nansemond tribe. Tony Alter, CC by 2.0.

At UAW legislative conference, Obama defends auto bailout

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 14:49:00 +0000

In a rousing speech to a legislative conference of the United Auto Workers, President Obama defended his administration's bailout of the auto industry and credited UAW workers as the real saviors of the big Detroit companies.

Without naming Mitt Romney, a feisty President Obama derided his opposition to the bailout.

"It's been funny to watch some of these folks completely try to rewrite history, now that you're back on your feet," Obama said. At first, the president said, the GOP opposed the bailout on grounds it would mark the end of the American auto industry. Then, Obama said, after the bailout succeeded, they said his administration did it to bail out the union.

The chief executive blasted "those trying to say the UAW made out like bandits" and he listed what he said were the "harsh sacrifices" workers made to save the auto companies, including retiree pension cuts and cuts in salaries and benefits for active workers.

Blasting Republicans who claim unions are "special interests," the President, in an angry tone, demanded to know, "Since when, in America, are its working men and women a special interest?" The crowd rose to its feet in sustained applause.

The bailout of the auto industry is back in the news, in part, because of the Michigan primary today. Trying to take advantage of support Michiganders give President Obama on the issue, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum started running a robocall campaign that attacks Romney for opposing the auto bailout. This is despite the fact that Santorum himself was opposed to the bailout.

"I placed my bet on the American worker and I'll make that bet any day of the week," the president declared to the UAW delegates.

He praised the union, saying it was a major factor in making American history, including enabling the country to "defeat fascism" in World War II and the creation thereafter of the middle class itself.

He also slammed the Republicans for their concentration on so-called "value" issues.

"I keep hearing these same folks talk about values all the time," he said. "You want to talk about values? Hard work - that's a value. Looking out for one another, that's a value. The idea that we're all in it together and I am my brother's keeper and sister's keeper that's a value.

"They're out there talking about you like you're some kind of special interest that needs to be beaten down," Obama declared. "They are wrong. That's the philosophy that got us into this mess. We can't afford to go back to it. Not now."

Photo: Pres. Barack Obama and Vice Pres. Joe Biden are given a tour of Chrysler's Indiana Transmission Plant II in Kokomo, Ind. J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Teachers stand up and fight

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 13:11:00 +0000

DALLAS -- The Dallas Independent School District board is cutting teachers' jobs and closing schools. They also added another 45 minutes of administrative work to every teacher's workday. The Dallas City Council, which has nothing to do with education, has decided to back a private company's plans to open more charter schools in the area.

The Dallas newspaper recently revealed a study showing that almost half the workers in North Texas are only a paycheck or two away from poverty. So it would not be surprising if the public school teachers felt intimidated.

But they aren't. They are crusading for teachers' rights with pickets, press conferences, and a new program to develop more community allies. Teachers with Alliance/AFT (American Federation of Teachers) of Dallas picketed outside the administration office of the Dallas Independent School district before the board meeting on Feb. 23.

News reporters were all over the union officers and the picketers themselves. A group from Occupy Dallas joined in. People driving by in cars honked their approval.

The teachers recently won a battle to save a teacher's job. Joseph Drake was put on administrative leave in an attempt to intimidate the teachers. The excuse given to the reporters was that Drake had written an email to a school board member criticizing their decisions. "Nonsense!" said the teachers in an emergency press conference that got Drake's job back in just a few hours. Next day, Drake received an apology from the school board member.

Photo: Jim Lane/PW.

Ben & Jerry's apologizes for "Taste the Lin-sanity" ice cream

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 12:41:00 +0000

First it was ESPN apologizing for use of an ugly ethnic slur in a headline about basketball's hottest new star Jeremy Lin. Now it's Ben & Jerry's. It seems too many "clever" media and advertisers think the way to respond to Asian Americans is with a joke, an ethnic stereotype or a plain old slur.

As ColorLines reports, Boston Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shop has apologized for its "Taste the Lin-sanity" frozen yogurt flavor featuring lychee honey swirls and crumbled fortune cookies.

"There seemed to be a bit of an initial backlash about it," Ryan Midden, Ben & Jerry's general manager for Boston and Cambridge, told Boston.com, "but we obviously weren't looking to offend anybody and the majority of the feedback about it has been positive."

The company issued an apology, saying:

"On behalf of Ben & Jerry's Boston Scoop Shops we offer a heartfelt apology if anyone was offended by our handmade Linsanity flavor that we offered at our Harvard Square location. We are proud and honored to have Jeremy Lin hail from one of our fine, local universities and we are huge sports fans," Ben & Jerry's officials posted on the company's local Twitter and Facebook pages. "We were swept up in the nationwide Linsanity momentum. Our intention was to create a flavor to honor Jeremy Lin's accomplishments and his meteoric rise in the NBA, and recognize that he was a local Harvard graduate. We try demonstrate our commitment as a Boston-based, valued-led business and if we failed in this instance we offer our sincere apologies."

After the outcry, the company replaced the lychee and fortune cookies with a waffle cookie.

Lin is the New York Knicks guard who burst into prominence this month by leading a winning streak for the Knicks. He is a Harvard graduate who is the first American-born NBA player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent. He was born in Los Angeles to parents who emigrated from Taiwan in the 1970s. His maternal grandmother moved to Taiwan from mainland China in the 1940s.

Earlier this month, ESPN apologized for using an ethnic slur in a headline on a story about Lin. According to the Washington Post, however, the sports network used the offensive term at other times. "And the same headline appeared on the site during the Beijing Olympics," the Post reported. "It's a slur that Lin said he heard during his playing days at Harvard."

Fox reporter Jason Whitlock and the New York Post also drew criticism for ethnically insulting comments and headlines about Lin.

Are apologies enough? You decide.

Photo: Jeremy Lin, by nikk_la. CC by 2.0.

Republican Party: back to the future

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:28:00 +0000

In 1964, TIME magazine reported that Mitt Romney's father George, then-Governor of Michigan, felt that the brief civil rights plank of the Republican platform should have been stronger.

One could ask whether the Republican Party has made any progress since the days when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said of their nominee for President, "I am compelled to urge all people of goodwill to vote against him...his election would be a tragedy and certainly suicidal almost for the nation and the world."

Today, George Romney's son, Former Massachusetts Governor and 2008 Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, entered the Republican contest as this years presumptive front runner to secure the GOP nomination. Since the balloting began, however, he has discovered that being a conservative is no longer enough to secure the nomination; now you have to be a card carrying reactionary.

Also significant is that for the first time, use of proportional allocation of delegates in many state primary and caucus contests are allowing the possibility that the Republican contest of 2012 could mirror the Democratic contest of 2008 when each state was contested bitterly and two distinct camps entered the convention city. This has led to an unusual number of candidate debates and forums and allowed the true ultra-right voice of the Party to be heard, and the candidates are eager to add their voice to the chorus in exchange for votes.

A promise to gut the NLRB is no longer enough to win the hearts and minds of the faithful; now, like Speaker Newt Gingrich, you have to pledge a return to child labor. Advocating an extension of the Bush tax-cuts will no longer clear your path to victory. Now, you have to sign an oath that you will never, under any circumstances, raise taxes. And opposing time lines for a withdraw from Afghanistan is so inefficient to convince the ultra-right constituency of the GOP that imperialism will be safe in your hands, Texas Gov. Rick Perry felt it necessary to advocate the re-invasion of Iraq. It is also no longer enough to claim to be 'pro-life' - you now have to rally the public against birth control and support so-called 'personhood' proposals so preposterous that even the voters of such reliable red states as Mississippi have rebuked them with resounding defeats by referendum.

Mitt tried to regain his momentum with the conservative movement by throwing red-meat rhetoric to the most ravenous of the ultra-right gathered together under the banner of this year's Conservative Political Action Conference. This came on the heels of Mitt's triple state loss to Rick Santorum on a single evening in primaries and caucuses stretching from the Great Lakes to the Rocky Mountains.

Who attends such shindigs as CPAC? Among others were a disreputable band of bigots, who now style themselves, 'white nationalists' enjoying a pep-talk from Iowa GOP Congressman Steve King at their workshop.

Also on the scene was the author of the notorious Arizona immigration law, bragging up his expanded role in the Romney campaign.

Just as interesting as who attends is who pays the bills for this crazy confab. In addition to the usual suspects as 'Koch Industries' and 'The American Petroleum Institute,' the sponsorship list also includes such moldy oldies as Phyliss Schafly's 'Eagle Forum;' feel free to visit the Eagle Forum website if you want to read a screed by Phyliss against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

Will pandering to bigots and religious extremists be enough to save the Romney campaign? With the Republican candidates using both hands to turn back the clock, it may prove to be a long hard slog to Tampa.

Romney comes to Michigan, bashing unions

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:57:00 +0000

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney came to Michigan the day after Valentine's Day, but he wasn't showing any love for the state's union members.

Romney received national headlines as he kicked off his Michigan campaign. The state, which will hold its primary Feb. 28, is a key link in the GOP election process.

Instead of laying out an optimistic plan for the nation's future, Romney is going negative, and unions and President Obama are his primary targets. "In the eighteen minutes he spoke to supporters here," said MIRS News Service, "Romney spent twelve on red meat rhetoric against Obama and organized labor. The other six were spent making local references to county fairs and pointing out people he went to high school with."

Romney came out swinging at unions and their "bosses," and doubled down on his theory that General Motors and Chrysler would have been better off guiding their financial futures through a managed bankruptcy, rather than with an infusion of government cash.

"There's something else that's been very frustrating," Romney told a rally. "I call it crony capitalism. And that's the path that [Obama] has taken. He's gotten hundreds of millions of dollars from labor bosses for his campaign.

"And so he's paying them back in every way he knows how. One way of course was giving General Motors and Chrysler to the [United Auto Workers]. I saw that [UAW President] Bob King said that I don't care about the auto industry. I'm sorry, Mr. King, I care very deeply about the auto industry. I want to make sure we have good jobs not just for a few weeks but for many, many years. I want Michigan to come back in a big way.

"I've taken on union bosses before and I'm happy to take them on again, because I happen to believe that you can protect the interests of the American taxpayers and protect a great industry like automobiles without having to give into the UAW, and I sure won't."

The impetus for King's remark that Romney doesn't care about the auto industry came in the form of an article written by the former Massachusetts governor. Just two weeks before Obama was elected president in 2008, an op-ed piece penned by Romney appeared in the New York Times under the headline, "Let Detroit go bankrupt."

Romney urged a managed bankruptcy for General Motors and Chrysler that would allow the financially moribund auto companies to restructure, but with the use of private equity dollars - not federal money.

There is wide agreement among economists that with the ongoing financial chaos at the time on Wall Street, Romney's plan to utilize private equity money to restructure the automakers was nearly impossible, because the investment cash was simply not available in 2008-2009.

Republican President George Bush and then President Obama took the course of government intervention, making $81 billion in federal loans available to GM and Chrysler. Many economists said if the two had been allowed to go bankrupt, Ford would likely have followed, and the vast domestic auto supplier network would likely have gone down with them, pushing the entire U.S. economy into a depression. All three domestic automakers enjoyed profitable years in 2011 - for GM, a record profit.

Romney, ignoring the saving of thousands of jobs made possible by the federal loans - as well as the saving of Michigan's economy for years to come - blasted what he called the "bailout" of the UAW, which along with other unions he said has supported Obama with big contributions. "It shouldn't come as a surprise that the president has received hundreds of millions from unions, and he's been doing their bidding ever since," Romney told 11 business owners before the Kentwood rally, according to politicswires.com. In Romney's other references to organized labor:

Romney continued to express support for Right to Work legislation and cutting the corporate tax rate as part of his first initiatives if elected. "Unions ask for too much and you end up killing the company," Romney said.
"I'll fight for right-to-work laws, and I'm going to make sure we don't force unions on people," he said in Michigan, according to the Miami Herald.
"Between the rally speech and previous meeting with business owners, Romney touted his support of right-to-work legislation, opposition to union dues going to political activity and support for ending a practice of federal contract work going to union labor," The Detroit News reported.
Responding to a South Carolina voter before that state's primary, which he lost to Newt Gingrich, Romney declared: "I think what you're seeing with the president is extra-constitutional action, where he is taking his friends and putting them in positions of power. I think perhaps the most egregious example of that is what has happened with the National Labor Relations Board. [Obama] is basically paying back organized union labor, by taking union stooges and putting them in the National Labor Relations Board so they will do his bidding and follow his policies."

Marty Mulcahy is editor of The Building Tradesman. Photo: AP Photo

Virginia Republicans go berserk with far-right bills

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:46:00 +0000

RICHMOND, Va. - Virginia progressives are going to have to work overtime to prevent this state, which went for Obama in 2008, from becoming another Wisconsin on labor issues, another Arizona on immigrant rights, another Indiana on voting rights, and another Mississippi on women's reproductive rights.

In last November's elections, the Republican Party gained an effective majority in the Virginia State Senate, adding this to their existing overwhelming majority in the House of Delegates (the lower house of the General Assembly) as well as the offices of governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general. The party breakdown in the Senate is 20 Republicans and 20 Democrats, but Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling has declared that he has the tiebreaking vote except on appropriations matters.

The Republicans have hit the ground running, with an extremist program of anti-labor, anti-immigrant and anti-choice bills.

Here is a sample of the bills:

*HB 33 and SB 242, based on a model promoted nationwide by Koch Brothers Industries and their spinoff organization ALEC, would reinforce Virginia's existing "right to work" laws by prohibiting state agencies from giving preference to unionized contractors. Despite strenuous union opposition, this bill has passed House and Senate. In the Senate it passed with a tiebreaking vote by Lt. Gov. Bolling.

*HB 567 would have stripped public school teachers of tenure protections, bringing their individual work contracts up for review every three years, at which point their supervisors could fire them for any cause, or no cause at all. This passed the House of Delegates but was defeated in the Senate by a vote of 20 to 18, when two Republican senators refrained from voting on the measure. However, labor activists warn that the bill could be revived.

*HB 1060 and HB 958 would begin the process of turning Virginia into another Arizona or Alabama by deputizing police officers to become immigration enforcement agents. Police would be required to inquire into the citizenship status of everybody they detain, even if the person is not jailed. Bail could be refused if there is "probable cause" to think that the person is not in the United States legally. This approach was already pioneered by Prince William County, a Washington exurb. Although Prince William's anti-immigrant policies, directed at the many working class migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and other places who have settled there, have not gone uncontested, the Republican right in Richmond would like to see these policies implemented statewide. This bill passed the House.

*SB 1 and HB 9 would change voting procedures so that a person who shows up to vote without adequate identification could vote on an affidavit, but this vote would not be counted unless the voter came back with adequate ID. Prior to this, it was not required that the voter return to have the vote counted. Passed both House and Senate.

*HB 1 would have defined "personhood" as beginning at conception, in line with the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy and some other religious groups. This is the first step toward entirely prohibiting abortion, but cannot be followed up fully unless Roe v. Wade is overturned at the federal level. Opponents warned that this law could affect some legal forms of birth control, and the use of fetal stem cells, not just abortion.

It passed the House, but stalled in the Senate after women's and pro-choice groups and their allies mobilized massively in opposition, and after some people in government realized that the term "person" is mentioned hundreds of times in Virginia laws, and that defining blastocysts (the first stage of fetal development) as "persons" might have much wider implications than originally thought. The Democratic and Republican leadership in the Senate agreed to defer action on the bill until 2013, so as to permit "further study."

*HB 462 and SB 484 would have forced all women seeking abortions to undergo ultrasound imaging probes, to show the imagery of the fetus with the purpose of unnerving the women and getting them to forgo the procedure. This would include abortions at the very beginning of a pregnancy, no exceptions. This bill passed both House and Senate, but a huge outcry that included lampooning of the bill on TV comedy and talk shows forced a concession. Now, instead of the ultrasound including a vaginal probe, it will just involve an abdominal scan. This was changed in the bill after the first vote, apparently after Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell, who has vice-presidential aspirations, realized that the vaginal probe requirement sounded like a kind of rape. The bill went through without that requirement.

* HB 62 would refuse public funding for abortions. It is a bill targeted at lower income women who have to rely on public sources for all their medical needs. The rationale is, of course, that people who disagree in principle with abortions "should not have to pay for them" for other people, an echo of the current national debate. The bill passed the House.

Each house had until the end of last week to act on legislation introduced in its own house. Now the focus will shift on action on bills already passed in the other house - the Senate considering bills passed in the House, and vice versa. All this legislation passed by the General Assembly will probably be approved by Gov. McDonnell, judging from his past statements and actions.

Many organizations in Virginia, from the Virginia AFL-CIO to local community organizations, have moved into action against some or all of these bills. The defection of the two Republican senators from their party's line on teacher tenure can be seen as the product of this mobilization, as was the abandonment of the personhood bill and the modification of the ultrasound bill.

Photo: On Wednesday, Virginia's Republican governor, Bob McDonnell, backed down on his support for a House bill mandating vaginal ultrasound before a woman has an abortion. Later that day the Senate version was withdrawn by its sponsor. Both moves are seen as the direct results of a mass outcry and mobilization by women, seen here in protest at the sate capital. Bob Brown/Richmond Times-Dispatch/AP

Angela Davis headlines tribute for CPUSA’s Henry Winston

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:02:00 +0000

NEW YORK - A standing room only crowd gathered here in Winston Unity Center on the occasion of Henry Winston's centenary celebration. Winston, who was born in 1912, was the national chairman of the Communist Party for two decades until his death in 1986.

The multi-media celebration of this great African American leader included speeches, music, slideshow and greetings from former coworkers and friends - including one from New York Congressman Charles Rangel. It was streamed live to a national audience and hosted by Judith Leblanc, the national field director of Peace Action.

Noted scholar and political activist Angela Davis brought the multi-racial audience to its feet in her moving tribute to Winston

Davis, who was once a political prisoner said, " [Winston] was a constant inspiration to me, especially when it came to garnering the courage to stand up to attacks I had never imagined would be directed individually at me."

Winston was also a political prisoner, unjustly imprisoned in the McCarthy era where he lost his fight due to poor medical care while there.

Davis went on to speak of Winston's "enduring opposition to corporate capitalism, militarism and racism."

While the Obama administration, she noted, wasn't immune from criticism, the election of the president had created a political climate for labor and social justice activism since 2008.

In another poignant tribute, Charlene Mitchell, the national chair of the Committees for Democracy and Socialism and close co-worker of Winston's, pointed out that "Winston's life was intertwined with the two social forces that would mark his future life - a member of the working class, viciously exploited by the capitalist system and an African American, subjected to the base degradations of national oppression."

Mitchell also said the forces that are poised to reelect President Obama in the November election are the very same forces that can bring about "the fundamental transformation of this society."

Jarvis Tyner, the executive vice chair of the Communist Party, in his tribute remarked that the Winston's thinking "built unity and confidence in the possibility of winning masses of white working people away from the self-defeating ideologies of racism and anticommunism."

Saying that this year's election could turn on the issue of race, Tyner argued "the Republican racist campaign must be solidly defeated at the polls next November."

He added that the Republicans "aim to divert mass anger from millionaires to minorities and immigrants; from Wall Street hustlers to the hungry and the homeless."

Danny Rubin, national board member of Communist Party and co worker of Winston for nearly thirty years, said in his tribute that what Winston "taught us stands in great stead today when the people of our country face so sharp a choice of direction, when they face an extreme right that wants to take everything severely backward ..."

Like the other speakers, he emphasized the importance of the fall elections.

The celebration ended with a wine and cheese reception giving everybody in attendance a chance to talk, look at the visual displays, and pick up a commemoration brochure that includes a biography of Winston's life, excerpts from his writings, and the full speeches of Davis, Mitchell, Tyner and Rubin.

(Brochures can be purchased for $10. Email cpusa@cpusa.org for details.)

Photo: Henry Winston (PoliticalAffairs.net)

Drones in the U.S. - helpful or harmful?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:39:00 +0000

Sometime soon, Big Brother may be watching. That's because the pilotless aircraft known as drones could soon fill U.S. skies. The FAA proposed new rules for domestic drones, with up to 30,000 estimated to be in operation by 2020. Policemen have already started using them, and for many U.S. citizens, privacy concerns will soon abound.

With two wars winding down, the FAA has reportedly come under pressure from the Pentagon to make stateside use of the robotic aircraft. One of their largest implementations will most likely be security and surveillance. According to a recent report, contemporary U.S. privacy law can't do much to counteract what could - if misused - soon devolve into oppressive policing.

And that policing, reports indicate, could entail discrimination. In the interest of 'border patrol,' U.S. Customs and Border Protection has expressed a strong desire to have access to a fleet of drones; one was already deployed to Arizona in December, and another in Texas two months prior. Officials anticipate a third hitting Florida this summer.

A provision in a 2005 Customs and Border budget request to Congress stipulated that drones could be used for "interior law enforcement support," meaning they would be made available to police without scrutiny or debate, and without appropriate new laws to regulate them.

The threat that police force drones could pose to undocumented citizens - particularly considering the abusive actions taken against them already in states like Arizona - is a vital issue.

One recent example of drone intervention involves an incident in North Dakota last summer, when police arrested U.S. citizens with the help of a Predator spy drone. The aircraft had circled a 3,000-acre plot of land, eventually tracking down the suspects and leading to their arrest.

There are also, however, important safety concerns involving the issue of drones using the same airspace as commercial vehicles.

Such a prospect concerns Lee Moak, the head of the Air Line Pilots Association, the largest pilots' union in North America. "There's no system that allows operators of unmanned flights to spot and steer clear of helicopters and planes, and there aren't training requirements or standards" for the ground-based 'pilots' who guide drones, he said. Unmanned aircraft need to demonstrate that they won't crash into other planes, he urged, before sharing airspace with them. "We have a long way to go," he concluded.

On the other hand, used responsibly, and not left entirely in the hands of the government and Big Business, drones could also be beneficial. In particular, they could help farmers across the country, say researchers from the University of Nebraska.

One of the researchers, Dr. Richard Ferguson, noted, "There's commerical applications [for this.] Anything that lets you look down on a crop during growing season can be very useful." Aerial images, he said, could help farmers know when to fertilize and irrigate. "Technically, commercial use of drones is not allowed by the FAA." However, the FAA is revising that policy, he added.

Lon Bohn, a Nebraskan farmer, remarked, "It will need to be worked out, and there are concerns with privacy, regarding who's flying over who's property. Satellites are nice, but data isn't always available, and it's not always high resolution." Drones could be an answer to that problem, he suggested.

The University of Nebraska is also experimenting with drones' potential use by journalists, to get aerial footage of tornado damage or crowded protests.

Ultimately, it looks like the U.S. will need to adapt to the coming exodus of drones from overseas, one way or another.

"Drones raise the prospect of a much more pervasive surveillance," said Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy, and Technology project. "We are not against them. They can be valuable tools in certain kinds of operations. But what we don't want to see is their pervasive use to watch over the American people."

Photo: Associated Press

Pennsylvania attorney general race could play “keystone” role for 2012

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:29:00 +0000

Pennsylvania's attorney general contest could be key to how the crucial Keystone State goes in November.

Patrick Murphy is running for state attorney general. As congressman from Pennsylvania's 8th district he was the point person for the Democrats' successful drive to repeal "don't ask, don't tell." Murphy was the first Iraq war veteran to be elected to Congress, having been a paratrooper and a Judge Advocate General (JAG) lawyer. In 2008 he became an early supporter of Barack Obama. In the 2010 defeat suffered by Democrats, Murphy lost his bid for reelection.

Murphy's history is important to Pennsylvania's voters as he works to build a broad base of support statewide. Pennsylvania, like many rustbelt states, has had a bumpy relationship with with candidates. One could say there is a definite deficit of trust. Voters are unhappy with the condition of the economy, high unemployment, the continuing crisis of home ownership and foreclosure, as well as an industrial and public infrastructure lying idle and in decay. These are the top concerns for the nation's voters as the 2012 campaign opens to a clear choice - will the election license the Republican/tea party to continue its obstructionist, Wall-Street-serving posture preventing the government from playing an important role to create jobs to move the economy in a better direction - or not?

How will Pennsylvanians vote in 2012? This election is in some ways a rematch of 2010, with higher stakes. 2010 was a bitter pill; now is the time to set the stage for a better outcome.

In Pennsylvania the 2010 election was won by Republicans. They won a U.S. Senate seat for right-winger Patrick Toomey, a governorship for Tom Corbett, and majorities in both the state House and Senate. That has produced two successive state budgets that punish public and higher education, freezing or reducing most spending.

The effect is so severe that one school district, Chester-Upland, has teachers and support staff volunteering to work without pay. The district and union are pleading with the state for emergency money. The Pennsylvania State Education Association has said that Chester-Upland is one of a number of school districts at the brink. At the same time, at the governor's behest the legislature has been working to bring vouchers to fund private education with public money.

In addition, two different proposals to restrict voter access and impact election results are before the legislature. One would require photo identification. It would reduce turnout primarily among low-income voters, seniors, and communities of color. The effect would be to reduce the numbers for Democrats. The other measure would reapportion how electoral votes are counted, doing it by congressional district. This would dilute one-person one-vote.

Also, the legislature has passed a bill that provides cover for the drilling and natural gas industry. It eliminates local ability to enforce restrictions on drilling. Fracking , the process of extracting gas from rock formation, has become a national issue as companies seek to extract the gas at low cost with little or no regard for the impact on water and other resources.

Dealing with budget cuts, fracking, voter suppression, attempted restriction of food stamps, school vouchers, efforts to restrict unemployment compensation, and more have occupied the time and energy of thousands of Pennsylvania's citizens.

Buses going to Harrisburg, the state capital, continue to carry teachers, construction workers, seniors and students to protest. Hundreds of online letters and petitions to legislators have been initiated. The state AFL-CIO has been active online and in person all over the state in support of job actions, organizing drives, and legislative issues.

In the last half dozen electoral cycles the Republican suburbs, a five-county region with a population now over 4 million, have often gone Democratic. The demographics of these counties has changed. Bucks, with a population near 650,000, once farm country, is now the nation's second biotechnology center. Today Bucks is 90% urban, with increasing numbers of immigrant, African American, Asian and Latino workers. This county went for Barack Obama by 53.7% in 2008. And for most of the past six years Patrick Murphy was the congressman.

At stake in the 2012 election is Pennsylvania's other Senate seat, held by Democrat Robert Casey. It's a must-win for Democrats to held onto the Senate. And Pennsylvania's Electoral College votes are a must-win for Barack Obama to beat whichever Republican is selected.

Murphy has received key statewide endorsements, including Philadelphia Mayor Tom Nutter, former Gov. Ed Rendell, and Allegheny County (Pittsburgh area) labor leaders. Still he is in an uphill battle. Many think Murphy, with good roots in Democratic politics, suburban and urban, is just the ticket for 2012 to rebuild Democrats' winning power in the state.

Women's leader warns that everyone's health care is under attack

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:53:00 +0000

ST. LOUIS - Pamela Sumners, a national leader in the fight for the reproductive rights of women has warned here that right-wingers are waging an assault on the rights not just of women, but of all workers.

"Some People want to use religion to bully instead of embrace," Sumners, executive director of the NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri, told 150 protesters as they rallied outside U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt's office here Feb. 22.

Last week the Republican senator proposed an amendment to President Obama's new Health and Human Services rules, which would give employers and insurance companies the right to exclude any health care service from coverage based on undefined "religious beliefs or moral convictions."

According to Sumners, "This is a war cloaked in religion on birth control, on women's rights and on worker's rights."

Sen. Blunt's amendment, the "Respect for Rights of Conscience Act," is part of a right-wing Republican strategy to dismantle the Affordable Care Act (ACA) piece by piece. The right wing measure aims to weaken provisions in the new law that standardize services covered by all health care plans. The ACA is currently lowering health care costs for customers, while promoting preventative care.

"Sen. Blunt's amendment could have dire consequences for women all over Missouri," said Julie Terbrock, from the Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition.

"The Senator should protect guaranteed access to preventive health care, including birth control, for his constituencies instead of leading the charge to give insurance companies and employers power to interfere in decisions that should stay between a women and her physician."

Sumners added, "They want to shrink government small enough to fit into your uterus."

Richard Von Glahn, organizing director for the Missouri State Workers' Union (CWA-MSWU) Local 6355, said, "Health decisions should be made by a patient and their doctor, not by the patient's employer or insurance company."

"Sen. Blunt's amendment would endanger Missourian's access to basic, quality, affordable health care - taking important health decisions out of the hands of the person and putting them in the hands of their boss."

According to Von Glahn, "This isn't just a women's rights issue. This is a workers' rights issue. This amendment is a concerted effort to give bosses more and more power over the lives of working people."

The Rev. Rebecca Turner, executive director of Faith Aloud, said, "These politicians seem obsessed with women's bodies. They are abusing their elected powers to enforce state mandated pregnancy and discrimination."

The rally was organized by the Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition and NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri.

Photo: Tony Pecinofsky

Apple's iPod, iPhone, Macs made in inhuman working conditions

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 04:03:00 +0000

Apple computer made over $14 billion in the fourth quarter of last year alone - yet workers in companies that supply its products overseas, particularly in China are paid low wages and suffer from horrible working conditions. Some have resorted to suicide in protest.

A petition drive directed at Apple's CEO Tim Cook has been launched demanding the computer giant treat its workers fairly. The petition is being circulated by the AFL-CIO. It can be signed here.

Apple - which makes Mac computers and iPhones - has been accused by China's Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs of practices that sharply differ from its highly polished corporate image. "Behind their stylish image Apple products have a side that many do not know about - pollution and poison. This side is hidden deep within the company's secretive supply chain, out of view from the public."

Apple has responded to these charges by appearing to raise wages and conduct an investigation. These measures, however, seem to be just another corporate maneuver.

The AFL-CIO writes: "According to Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior:
The new basic wage...only applies to the workers in Shenzhen. In inland provinces, where two-thirds of production workers are based, basic salary remains meager. Given that the inflation in China is high, Foxconn is just following the trend of wage increase in the electronics industry in China."

As for the inspections: "These inspections will not expose-or begin to solve-Apple's problems. The FLA is funded and controlled by the multinational corporations it oversees, which means it is not at all independent."

Write to Apple's CEO and demand workers receive fair treatment working conditions and wages.

Photo: Creative Commons 2.0

100,000 demand Clarence Thomas stay out of health care hearing

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:17:00 +0000

Over 100,000 signatures demanding Justice Clarence Thomas recuse himself from upcoming March hearings on the Affordable Care Act were presented to the Supreme Court on Friday.

The Affordable Health Care Act was sponsored by the Obama administration and approved by Congress. USA Today writes that "The core of the law is a requirement that most people buy health insurance by 2014 or face a tax penalty."

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on this part of the law on March 26th.

The petition argues that Thomas cannot hear the case objectively.

Thomas's wife, Virginia Thomas, is a tea party critic of the legislation and has extensively lobbied against it. Virginia Thomas also heads the hard right Liberty Central.

The petition campaign was organized by Health Care for America Now (HCAN) and the Other 98 Percent. The Other 98 Percent is an organization attempting to end the influence of big money in U.S. politics.

""If Justice Thomas fails to recuse himself, it will threaten the integrity of the entire Supreme Court," said HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome. "Justice Thomas personally has aligned himself with conservative zealots and extremist organizations dedicated to throwing out the law."

In 2011 over 70 members of the House of Representatives asked Justice Thomas to remove himself from the Supreme Court's hearing of the case.

HCAN is circulating letters to members of Congress signaling support for the Affordable Health Care Act. It can be signed here.

Demonstrators to Temple U.: Practice some diversity; union jobs for all

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:56:00 +0000

PHILADELPHIA - A group of about 50 demonstrators gathered here Feb. 20 for the second week in a row to protest what they say is an obvious lack of diversity in the construction workforce hired by Temple University. The crowd included Temple students, union members, community residents and other supporters. The demonstrators' message was clear and aimed at the university and the big contractors it employs. They called on Temple to hire a workforce that is diverse in terms of both race and gender and that includes significant numbers of "minority" workers including workers from the communities near the campus.

Temple University is a big state-related institution with a diverse student body sitting in the heart of North Philadelphia. Its men's basketball team is, at this writing, nationally ranked in both major polls. The university is currently engaged in an ambitious multi-million dollar building program including highly visible projects along Broad Street, the main thoroughfare cutting through the campus.

Demonstrators carried signs and chanted slogans urging "Women in the Trades" and "Union Jobs for All." They said their intention is to return every week and to bring out more people until they see progress being made.

Several speakers made the point that skilled union members, women and African American, were available and ready to work on the projects. Kevin Gregory, a 23-year member of Operating Engineers Local 542, told the crowd that contractors should be told "If you don't hire us in Philadelphia, we will not honor you as a contractor in Philadelphia. Temple has to say, 'We're not going to allow this anymore.'"

The surrounding community is predominantly African American and Hispanic.

Maria Padin, a member of Carpenters Local 8, said, "I live in North Philadelphia, and I want to work here. And we don't just want to be hired for minimum wage jobs after the buildings are up. We want to work on the buildings and get paid union rates."

There were indications that the protests were beginning to have an effect. A spokesperson for Temple's Public Relations Office said in an interview the university is concerned about the diversity of the workforce and of the subcontractors it hires and that over the last three years 22 percent of the work had gone to minority business enterprises and trade workers. He said the current project is in its "very early stages."

A source at the Union of Operating Engineers Local 542 said, however, that, while he was optimistic that progress would be made, it was needed now, and that of 17 crane operators currently working at Temple, only one was minority. He said that Temple had a stated goal of 35 percent minorities and women workers and that the university had committed to being "zip code friendly" in its hiring.

Temple's building program is going forward despite cuts in the share of its operating budget coming from the state. Gov. Tom Corbett recently unveiled his annual budget, which included steep cuts of approximately 30 percent for the three large state related universities.

Photo: Margarita Padin of the Capenters and John Graves of the Operating Engineers speak to the media at the recent demonstration. Ben Sears/PW

Florida's Orange County joins statewide trend to recognize domestic partners

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:32:00 +0000

ORLANDO, Fla. - Orange County, home to Walt Disney World, now is poised to become the latest county in Florida to adopt a law setting up a domestic partners registry that would allow unmarried individuals to gain legal recognition and some legal rights for their relationships. The County Commission voted Tuesday, Feb. 21, 6-1, to instruct county staff to draft such an ordinance that may be similar to the one adopted by the city of Orlando in December 2011.

Orlando's ordinance allows domestic partners to visit each other in the hospital and jail, to make emergency medical decisions for each other, to participate in making decisions about the education of minor children in the household, and to designate each other as a pre-need guardian. It also requires notification of domestic partners in an emergency.

Many activists from the LGBTQ community, who spent months building support for the measure and convincing sometimes reluctant Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs of the need for it, hope that what is passed will mirror Orlando's ordinance. However, Jacobs, who only announced her support for the measure late last week, wants to go beyond what Orlando allows by making the registry available to individuals who don't live together. This along with issues involving cremation and religious and private schools and technical issues will have to be worked out before the measure is voted on some time over the next several months.

Other areas in Florida with domestic partnership registries include Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, and the cities of Gainesville, Miami Beach and Key West.

Unlike years past when other local government measures dealing with rights for LGBTQ individuals have attracted vociferous opposition from socially conservative Christians, no one spoke against the ordinance. More than a dozen individuals spoke in favor and the almost packed meeting room included more than 30 people wearing red as a sign of support.

"I think we've demonstrated that we have a progressive, inclusive community that is respectful of others," said Commissioner Ted Edwards, who supports the ordinance.

Joe Saunders, state field director of Equality Florida, a LGBTQ civil rights organization, said, "There really is a broad coalition of support from the private sector, from community organizations like mine, [and] from advocates in the community who think it's beyond time to do this." Equality Florida and the Orlando Anti-Discrimination Ordinance Committee have played leading roles in the campaigns for the Orlando and Orange County registries.

"There's numerous reasons why you should pass the domestic partnership," said Randy Stephens, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center of Central Florida and a member of OADO. "There is the matter of equality, there is the matter of economics," he said, referring to support the measure has gotten from some in the business community, who feel it would make the area more attractive to corporations, "but, basically, it is the right thing to do." Stephens noted that the ordinance benefits not only gay and lesbian families but all non-traditional families.

Local political activist Suzannah Randolph, wife of state Rep. Scott Randolph, D-Orlando, read a letter to the commission from her husband, who is in Tallahassee at this year's legislative session.

"These rights are important to all families...including gay and lesbian couples as well as seniors who may not want to marry again after the death of a spouse," wrote Scott Randolph. "By passing the human rights [anti-discrimination] ordinance in 2010 and last year extending equal benefits to county employees['] [partners] Orange County has already demonstrated its commitment to equality for all. I urge you to continue on this path by implementing the ... registry." Randolph has in the past sponsored legislation to create a statewide domestic partners registry.

Photo: Commission during discussion of ordinance. Via OADO Facebook page.