People Before Profit blog

Del Valle emerges as Chicago's progressive mayoral candidate

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:50:00 +0000

This article was originally published on Chicago Examiner.

CHICAGO -- Miguel Del Valle is a modest man. Del Valle grew up in the city's near north and northwest sides working class neighborhoods after moving with his family at the age of four. He's got a certain salt-of-the-earth charisma that goes with the City of Big Shoulders immigrant upbringing.

Del Valle knows the city, county and state governments inside and out. Currently the city clerk, Del Valle was the first Latino to be elected to the Illinois Senate (he said he immediately joined the Black Caucus) and served for 20 years.

Before that he was a community organizer, education and health advocate at Association House, one of the original settlement houses, which provides services in English and Spanish to Chicago's Humboldt Park and surrounding areas.

After events in Chinatown, Little Village/ Pilsen and a candidates forum at Trinity Church (the Obamas' former church), Del Valle spoke to about 100 people at the LillStreet Art Center on the North Side.

"I'm the only candidate with perfect attendance at every candidate forum," Del Valle told the crowd, after confessing he strove for -- and achieved -- perfect attendance in elementary school. "I wanted to hear my name called at the assemblies," he said.

Del Valle, also, hasn't missed a City Council meeting since becoming City Clerk. "People asked me why are you going to the meetings, and I said, 'Isn't this part of the job?'"

Hard-working, intelligent and neighborhood-oriented, Del Valle is perhaps the least-known of the city's mayoral candidates. Often having to campaign in the shadows of front runner Rahm Emanuel, corporate lawyer and former Daley Chief of Staff Gery Chico, former Senator Carole Moseley Braun, and even the two self-described, community organizer candidates Patricia Watkins and William "Dock" Walls, the latter having run against Mayor Richard M. Daley previously, may all have better name recognition than Del Valle.

But Del Valle has what others may lack, decades-long service to the city, a working knowledge of city government, experience in getting things done and an ability to bridge divisions -- whether it be racial, neighborhood vs. downtown or charter vs. neighborhood schools.

Del Valle says people know Chicago as "The City that Works." He says he wants to make it "The City that Works Together."

He's also known as an honest official who will "promote good government, transparency and democracy" by installing checks and balances, including requiring audits by the city Inspector General of every city department.

After the last televised debate, Del Valle's campaign phones rang off the hook and volunteer canvassers doubled, said North Side Ward Coordinator Katy Hogan.

The campaign is attracting a growing number of the city's progressive and independent voters. He's been endorsed by I ndependent Voters of Illinois Independent Precinct Organization, Democracy for America, Illinois Progressive Democrats of America, and pro-choice groups, Personal PAC and Planned Parenthood in Action, along with a number of Latino elected officials. The day he was to meet with Personal PAC at a conference at the Sheraton Hotel, the city's hospitality union, Unite-Here, had a picket line in front of the hotel. Del Valle refused to cross it.

Del Valle has some innovative ideas for a 21st Century Chicago, too. He envisions a school system that will allow dual enrollment for high school students at city colleges to earn college credit while still in high school. His is also a staunch supporter of local neighborhood schools, and making sure they have the resources to be high-performing schools.

He's also been a long-time advocate for funding equity -- in the state and within the Chicago Public School system. "There are parents who want to send their kids to selective schools, magnet schools, private schools and charter schools. Neighborhood schools should also be a viable option for them," he said.

With a city deficit of of $655 million, tough times and decisions lay ahead, he says. But plans to be guided by principles of "transparency, fairness, efficiency and balance" in making these decisions. Regarding the main stimulus to economic development, the controversial "TIF funds" (Tax increment financing), Del Valle said too many TIF districts have gone to things other than its original use, community economic development and job-creation.

But many voters may just want to know his stance on parking tickets and meters, recycling and snow removal, which he also is well-versed on with an eye on how it can improve Chicagoans quality of life.

In the end, voters may need to be convinced, not so much on the issues, but that a vote for Del Valle is not a waste. One participant at the beginning of the forum said he felt like his vote is going to be wasted, even though he really likes Del Valle and his stance on the issues, he probably wouldn't vote for him.

After hearing the candidate, that same voter must have felt satisfied. "On Feb. 22, I'm voting for Miguel," he said.

Early voting starts today. To find the most convenient location for you, go to, www.chicagoelections.com

Photo: Miguel Del Valle (delvalleformayor.com)

Immigrant rights activists step up fight in Utah

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 15:30:00 +0000

A group of young people with a group called "Cuentame" has taken the fight for immigrant rights to a whole new level. The organization, whose name means, "Tell Me a Story," recently raised hundreds of thousands of dollars online to put up a billboard in Salt Lake City, Utah, last week that says, "God Doesn't Discriminate, Why Should Utah?"

The tech-savvy leaders of the group call themselves social network activists and use Twitter, email, social book-marking sites and Facebook as organizing tools to educate and activate young people. "Cuentame" is an ongoing campaign that has a small staff and many volunteers who magnify immigrant rights initiatives around the country using arts, politics and culture. Also known as the Brave New Foundation's Latino Instigators, "Cuentame" currently has more than 48,000 followers on Facebook.

Republican lawmakers dominate Utah politics. Prominent among them is State Sen. Stephen Sandstrom who is expected to introduce a copycat law similar to Arizona's draconian anti-immigrant SB 1070.

Arizona Republicans passed that bill last year granting police the authority to question people about their immigration status based on a "reasonable suspicion" that the person was undocumented. However a federal judge, acting on a lawsuit filed by the Obama administration, has stayed central provisions of the Arizona law.

Authors of the Arizona law and now the Sandstrom bill belong to the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), activists say. The Southern Poverty Law Center has branded FAIR as a hate group. "Cuentame" leaders say FAIR is indeed linked to white supremacist and nativist groups. "Cuentame" released this video exposing the connection.

Critics say the Sandstrom bill goes completely against Utah's Social Compact, which was issued by a coalition of businesses, law enforcement bodies, churches and community groups urging state leaders to use compassion on immigration issues.

Axel Caballero, 31, co-creator of "Cuentame" hopes the anti-immigrant push in Utah doesn't get to the point where bills are passed in the state legislature.

"It's a matter of social justice and equality for immigrants," he said. Bills like Arizona's law are unconstitutional and they will be stopped, said Caballero. "They go against the basic rights of ordinary working people."

Martha de Hoyos, 35, communications director of "Cuentame" added, "It's not okay to racially profile an entire community. Legalizing discrimination is not acceptable." She added, "Latinos are not going anywhere."

As Latino voters, Hoyos and Caballero say Sandstrom and some Republicans are playing with fire on immigration and that they will pay the price politically in the long run.

According to recent Census numbers Latinos are the fastest-growing minority group in the country. They are also the fastest-growing voter bloc and are becoming more of a major political force, as shown in recent elections.

"We are a growing and strong voting bloc to contend with and anti-immigrant laws will only further alienate the Latino community," said Caballero. Ultimately more Latinos will be less likely to vote Republican, he says.

Melodia Gutierrez is a student at the University of Utah. She's also an activist with a Salt Lake City multi-racial and diverse coalition called United for Social Justice that has partnered with "Cuentame."

She said there are about 20 different pieces of legislation on immigration being proposed in Utah's state legislature. But Sandstrom's bill has gained the most opposition, she said. Her group has led several rallies, demonstrations and forums against his bill.

She said the polarity between lawmakers like Sandstrom trying to implement anti-immigrant measures next to Latinos and immigrants that reside in Utah, is extremely vast.

"There is such a huge disconnect and it's becoming very difficult for the undocumented community," said Gutierrez. "Proposals targeting and criminalizing the immigrant community in Utah are creating an environment of fear and persecution."

Meanwhile the billboard is phenomenally important especially in Utah, which is a very religious state, added Gutierrez. She hopes the billboard's message will resonate with Utah residents and encourage compassion when it comes to the immigrant population.

"But we still need a lot more people to get involved," said Gutierrez.

Activists say their main goal is to inform people because that leads to change and transformation. They add it's important for voters to stay active and pressure lawmakers to listen to their needs.

Caballero said he was glad President Obama highlighted the fight for undocumented students that came to the U.S. as children and lived their whole lives here during his state of the union address last week.

"But now we want to see some action on those promises and we will be there to help guide those actions and make sure that Utah and other state's don't become the next Arizona," he said.

Photo: Courtesy www.facebook.com/cuentame

Sacramentans weigh in on governor’s budget plan

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 11:52:00 +0000

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - On a cold, rainy evening in the Meadowview neighborhood, where unemployment and poverty were widespread long before the current crisis, about 100 people turned out for a town hall meeting to discuss Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed budget. Brown has proposed a combination of more than $12 billion in cuts plus extending last years' temporary increase in income and sales taxes for several more years. This would require a June referendum.

In addition he wants to make many state-run services into county responsibilities.

If the tax extension proposition passes, Brown promised no cuts to the current funding for K-12 and higher public education. If the extension doesn't pass, he said, the necessary cuts would be "draconian."

Organized by newly elected State Assembly member Roger Dickinson, the meeting was dominated by his staff, and many people complained that they weren't given a chance to speak their minds.

But every attendee was supplied with an electronic device with which they could vote on a series of multiple-choice questions on where cuts should be made - to education, health and human services? - and where new revenue might be found. The results were immediately displayed on a large screen.

To no one's surprise, the majority voted to expand funds for public education and Medicare, and make no cuts to human services, CalWorks or SSI supplementation.

On ways to increase revenue, they voted to extend the increased income and sales taxes, and to raise income tax for upper income families and corporations, while reducing corporate tax breaks.

They also voted to impose an oil severance tax, and for regular property tax re-assessment of non-residential property. (Under California's Proposition 13, both residential and business property are reassessed only when they are sold.)

Two days later, on a sunny Saturday morning, another town hall meeting was held in a more prosperous neighborhood not far to the north, where, many of the residents are public employees.

At least 120 people came, creating a standing-room-only situation in the community room of the Belle Cooledge Library branch.

Organized by Darrell Steinberg, State Senate President Pro Tem, this meeting followed the traditional "town hall" format. After introductory remarks by Steinberg, the floor was opened for questions and comments from the audience.

Proposals ranged from raising revenue by selling advertising space on state buildings and websites, to cutting legislators' pay and perks, closing prisons and eliminating excess bureaucracy in state government.

Others proposed that corporations be required to prove that the tax credits they get actually create jobs.

Community activist Manny Gale spoke for many attendees when he said that the proposed cuts amount to "legislating that millions of Californians are expendable," and pointed out that 50 percent of California corporations pay no taxes.

Suzanne Brooks, a leader in the International Association of Women of Color Day, accused the governor's proposals of ignoring the effects of racism. "Forty percent of housing foreclosures affect women of color," she told the Assembly member.

While Steinberg asserted several times "there is no money," senior activist Nell Ranta drew applause from the audience when she told him that 45 of the richest corporations in California do not pay taxes. "Children, seniors and the disabled are dying from these cuts, while the money lines in the pockets of these sons-of-bitches," Ranta said.

Fight over Social Security is on

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 11:43:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - The 112th Congress is barely under way and a fight has already broken out - on partisan lines, of course - over Social Security and Medicare.

On one side are a group of five Senate Republicans, led by Pennsylvania's Pat Toomey and possibly including - reports differ - Florida's Marco Rubio, plus two leaders of the now-ruling House GOP. They want to privatize Social Security and turn Medicare into a voucher plan, leaving seniors to fend for themselves in bargaining with insurance companies.

On the other side are Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt., plus the labor-backed Alliance for Retired Americans, and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, among others.

The debate was launched at dueling press conferences on Jan. 27 and congressional hearings the day before. Toomey, Rubio and their Senate colleagues announced they want to privatize Social Security - a move Schumer said would kill it.

And House Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., went after Medicare.

"We know we're making promises to people in the future that cannot be kept. We're all kidding ourselves if we think the (Medicare) program can go on as is," Ryan said, opening a budget panel hearing.

Hensarling, who is also on the Budget Committee, expects the Medicare vouchers will be in the House GOP's budget plan this spring. The vouchers would effectively turn the program over to private insurers, analysts pointed out - by leaving seniors at the mercy of the insurers in direct negotiations.

Hensarling told a panel discussion that Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are "a Ponzi scheme" that robs future generations. "You can't get there from here" in budget cutting without going after those three programs, he added.

Medicare vouchers would be worth $5,900 yearly per senior, with seniors using them in any way they want to get medical care. The vouchers would be available only to seniors who turn 65 starting in 2021. And the eligibility age for Medicare would rise from its present 65 to 69 for those born in 2022 or later. The voucher plan particularly irked Schumer, who said privatization of one program and vouchers in the other equals the death of both.

"There is a voice not to preserve Social Security, but to end it, from those on the other side of the aisle. The same goes for Medicare," he added, holding up the article quoting Hensarling.

"What they've done is first create a panic" by contending the two programs for seniors are running out of money "and then use the panic to end the programs," he said.

"Their real priority is to set the clock back to the 1920s" before Social Security existed.

"You have a bunch of conservative politicians in nice suits" demanding privatization of Social Security and vouchers for Medicare, Brown said. "That's not going to happen. But if they have five senators now, it'll be a major (GOP) push later."

Those pols, Brown noted, are in jobs where retirement after age 65 can be easily put off, unlike the carpenters, sheet metal workers, restaurant servers and nurses "whose bodies give out" by that age and need to retire.

Sanders made the same points and added that privatizing Social Security is completely unnecessary, because the program is solvent and will stay so - even without any changes - for at least another 25 years.

It would stay indefinitely solvent, he added, if Congress adopted Democratic President Obama's proposal to junk the $106,800 annual cap on earnings that workers and employers pay Social Security taxes on. That would also be fairer: "Lift the cap, so that the millionaire pays the same tax rate as someone making less than $106,000."

The senators are not alone in defending Social Security and Medicare from the latest GOP attacks. Eric Kingson, a Syracuse University professor and co-director of Social Security Works, said 260 groups are already in a coalition to oppose the GOP.

And Richard J. Fiesta, government affairs director for the 4-million-member Alliance for Retired Americans, said its members would hit congressional offices about the issue during next month's legislative recess. They'll concentrate on freshmen.

"And they won't be just in ‘swing states,'" such as Brown's Ohio, Fiesta added. "Our members are in the Northeast, Midwest and the West Coast," where union members are concentrated "and in Arizona and Florida.

"In Florida, they'll visit Rubio's offices. He's clearly a priority for us," Fiesta said.

"He clearly has to understand how important Social Security is to his constituents, his state, and in the money it brings in."

Ohio poll: Don't cut people's programs

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 11:00:00 +0000

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The old adage that people may want the ox gored, but not their ox, appears to hold true in the findings of an Quinnipiac poll published last week in Ohio. The poll focused on the issue of cutting the Ohio budget, which was the central issue of conservative Republican John Kasich in his successful campaign to unseat Ohio Governor Ted Strickland in the November election. Republicans swept all statewide offices, captured the open senate seat and reclaimed three national House seats, strongly rallying around the call to “cut spending.”

Results of the first major poll after the elections show that while they may have the seats in the legislature to follow through, their constituents are not on board with those stated goals.

“Clearly, Kasich and his people have a serious selling job on their hands,” stated Peter Brown, assistant director of Quinnipiac Polling Institute.

On the issue of eliminating the right of public workers to bargain collectively, a key plank in the pro-corporate GOP campaign, those polled opposed this proposal by a strong 51 percent-34 percent result. The related proposal to “lay-off public workers to balance the Ohio budget,” also got a thumbs down in the poll, 46 percent-43 percent.

A majority of Ohioans also frowned on a key Kasich proposal to eliminate the Ohio tax on estates of more than $338,000, which conservatives call the “Death Tax.”Only 36 percent expressed approval, vs. 51 percent opposed.

Privatization of public services has been central to the new Kasich regime’s goals, as they’ve brought in a new firm to begin that process immediately, to great fervor in the local media. Two areas, prisons and roads, were polled on this question, with the public firmly rejecting both. The proposal to privatize the Ohio Turnpike drew strong opposition, 51 percent-30 percent, while privatizing Ohio prisons lost 51 percent-33 percent in the poll. Only 28 percent of those polled believe that Kasich will be able to keep his campaign pledge of “No New Taxes!”

In an even more ominous sign for the incoming slate, only 30 percent of those polled approved of Kasich’s performance in office, after only a week in that office, while 22 percent disapproved. This is generally a “softball, giveaway” type of question at this point in a new term. At the same time in Strickland’s term four years ago, those approving of his performance was up 48 percent-12 percent.

In related developments, a series of polls commissioned by retiree organizations are showing strong opposition to proposals being floated to cut Social Security benefits and raise the official retirement age.

Photo by ProgressOhio, cc by 2.0

Congressman stands up for Kentucky workers

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 10:52:00 +0000

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Though HR 2, "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law" passed in the House of Representatives on January 19, Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., voted against the repeal, voicing the opinion of the Kentucky working class against the corporate interests of the Republican Party. Yarmuth, who represents Louisville and the surrounding area, stood by his earlier vote for the historic health care law passed by the 111th Congress last March.

The impact of the repeal would be devastating to Louisvillians alone. It would increase costs for almost every Louisville resident - eliminating tax credits for close to 16,000 Louisville businesses; allowing health care companies to deny coverage to over 300,000 Louisvillians with pre-existing conditions (including 40,000 children); dropping 2,600 young adults from their parents' insurance (including this writer); taking away coverage from up to 24,000 Louisvillians; increasing costs for prescription drugs for 9,500 Louisville seniors, and deny new preventive care coverage to 117,000 senior citizens in Louisville.

The repeal is not expected to pass the Senate, and if it does, it will surely be vetoed by President Obama. This will not stop the Republican Party from seeking to dismantle health care for Louisville and all Americans. The GOP will attempt to cut the health care law's funding, delay its implementation, and do whatever it takes to stop the landmark reform. According to a January 17 poll by the Associated Press-GfK, about 25 percent of Americans support the repeal, whereas 43 percent want the law changed to do more to fix the health care system in America.

Yarmuth has shown his support for other progressive causes. Before being elected to the House of Representatives in 2006, he founded the Louisville Eccentric Observer (known as the LEO), a free weekly newspaper, in 1990. He also wrote a political column that was progressive-oriented, that would often appear on the first page of the LEO.

In December, Yarmuth voted for the pro-worker Mine Safety Act, which did not pass the House, but would have put more responsibility on mine owners to protect their workers. He also voted to extend unemployment benefits for workers devastated by the recession, voted for the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," voted for the DREAM Act, and in August voted for a failed resolution directing the president to removed armed forces from Pakistan.

Supreme Court limits employer ability to retaliate in job discrimination cases

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 01:00:00 +0000

WASHINGTON -"No," the Supreme Court said Jan. 24 to companies around the country, "if a worker complains about job discrimination, you can't fire her fiancé in retaliation." Retaliation against a third-party employee is illegal under federal law, the justices ruled, 8-0.

The case arose after Miriam Regolado filed a sex discrimination complaint in 2003 against North American Stainless with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The firm knew firing her was illegal, so it fired her fiancé, Eric Thompson, instead, three weeks later. Both have since left the company and married. He sued.

Lower courts flip-flopped, ruling first against Thompson, then for him, then against him again. The justices solved the issue. They said that under the equal employment law, firing Thompson is retaliation, too - even though Thompson wasn't the worker who suffered the on-the-job discrimination.

Anti-discrimination law bans firms from discriminating against workers "for engaging in protected conduct, without specifying the employer acts that are prohibited," Associate Justice Antonin Scalia said. "Based on...our understanding of the provision's purpose, we hold the anti-retaliation provision...is not limited to discriminatory actions that 'affect the terms and conditions of employment.'"

The anti-retaliation provision, Scalia added, bans "any employer action that well might have dissuaded a reasonable worker from making or supporting a charge of discrimination. We think it obvious that a reasonable worker might be dissuaded from engaging in protected activity if she knew that her fiancé would be fired," Scalia said.

Even North American Stainless' attorney admitted Erickson's firing could be considered retaliation under another case the court decided years ago, Scalia noted. But the Kentucky firm asked where can retaliation start and stop - with fiancés, coworkers, incidental acquaintances? That puts a company "at risk any time it fires any employee who happens to have a connection to a different employee who filed a charge with the EEOC," North American Stainless claimed.

"Although we acknowledge the force of this point, we do not think it justifies a categorical rule that third-party reprisals do not violate" anti-discrimination law, Scalia responded. "We adopted a broad standard because (the) anti-retaliation provision is worded broadly. There is no basis for making an exception to it for third-party reprisals, and a preference for clear rules cannot justify departing from" the law's text.

National outrage: Akron mother jailed for putting kids in suburban school

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 17:59:00 +0000

An African American woman from Akron, Ohio, has been handed a felony conviction for allegedly fudging residency records to get her children into a better school. This news obliges us speak out on the ongoing problems of racism and residential segregation in our country.

Akron public housing resident Kelley Williams-Bolar, an African American single mother, knew that her two daughters, aged 12 and 16, were not getting a good education in the local school, so she got them into a better school in a mostly white suburban school district, Copely-Fairlawn, by claiming that she lived with her father in that area. She says she actually was living part-time with her father; local authorities beg to differ.

Copely-Fairlawn school authorities found out, and had her prosecuted for defrauding their school district. The logic was that per pupil expenditures in Copely-Fairlawn are much higher than in the slums of Akron, so outsiders should not be registered in Copely-Fairlawn unless they pony up $800 a month in tuition, impossible for poor people. A blinkered judge and jury agreed with this, and Williams-Bolar was sentenced to 10 days in jail for records tampering, and must somehow "repay" $30,000 to the Copely-Fairlawn school district. Worst of all, she now has a felony conviction which, under Ohio law, will cut short her ambition to become a schoolteacher.

Here's the scoop: Thousands and thousands of poor, mostly minority people in inner city communities have tried to do this over the years. Williams-Bolar said she was afraid for her children because of a burglary at her house. Probably millions of families in poor working class neighborhoods have the same fear, namely that their children will become victims of crime if they somehow can't be moved to another school in another community. The Ohio case is unusual because of the draconian penalty.

I would wager that extremely few wealthy white suburbanites have tried to get their kids registered in poorly performing schools in the inner city slums.

As Anatole France put it: "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread." We might add, to fudge residency papers so as to get their kids into a different school.

But why, 56 years after Brown versus Board of Education, do we still have millions of poor children studying in de-facto segregated, poorly equipped and overcrowded inner city schools, while in wealthy, overwhelmingly white suburbs, children study in brand new schools which lack nothing, in personnel, equipment or support needed for a high quality education?

Why can't people like Ms. Williams-Bolar move to the suburbs if they want their kids to go to a suburban school?

When Lorraine Hansberry wrote "A Raisin in the Sun," African American families were stopped at the borders of the suburbs by explicitly racist local laws and "covenants" which are illegal nowadays. Today, African American and Latino people trying to get out of the slums are stopped by "race neutral" local zoning and tax laws. The question of race or racism is never mentioned, but the intention is the same and the results are the same. To "maintain the unique quality of our community" local governments and zoning boards make sure that there is no affordable rental housing, and that single-family homes are expensive enough to keep the riff-raff away. Sometimes, working class families pool their funds so as to be able to buy a house in which all can contribute to the mortgage payments. Typically, zoning or fire-safety rules will then be invoked to run them out.

Suburban "bedroom" communities are often set up with the specific purpose of making it possible for better off, mostly white people to live comfortably without having to deal face to face, or through their taxes, with the problems of our society.

Sometimes, inner city families have been so eager to get their kids out of the slums and into better schools that they have overextended themselves by getting mortgages they really can't afford. Now many are about to lose their investments. In addition to this anguish, they have to listen to people who criticize them for trying to raise themselves above their station by getting out of the ghetto.

The media tell us that Ms. Williams-Bolar's plight is causing indignation all over the country. Let us hope so, and that this indignation does not turn out to be a nine-day wonder, but instead leads to action to end residential and school segregation, as well as the institutional racism that pervades our society, now!

Massachusetts aims to curb modern-day slavery

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 14:53:00 +0000

Massachusetts is one of only five states without a law aimed at ending human trafficking, but a bill introduced Jan. 20 into both the Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives aims to change that. The proposed law sponsored by Attorney General Martha Coakley, and supported a coalition of legislators, police chiefs and personnel, labor unions and advocacy groups.

While most Americans consider actual slavery to be a thing of the past, both sexual slavery and forced labor are multi-million dollar industries, made possible by the trafficking of persons. Human trafficking is, according to Coakley, the second largest - and fastest growing - illegal industry in the world. An estimated 27 million people are trafficked annually, bringing pimps and other exploiters about $32 billion per year.

The bill, said Robert J. Haynes, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, "emphatically reinforces that mistreatment, abuse and exploitation of any worker in any field is among the worst kinds of crime."

The conditions of people controlled by traffickers are horrific. "They are being tortured," said Audrey Porter of My Life My Choice. "They are being held in basements, forced to take pictures with the promise of a better life. In this area, it's usually the kids that are in the system, a lot of inner-city children, the poor kids, with the promise of 'I'll make you a star.'"

Porter was herself a victim of trafficking. She told a press conference the day the bill was filed, "I was introduced to the Combat Zone [formerly a Boston "red light district"] by a guy that I thought was my boyfriend at a very early age. Ended up not getting out until age 30. Some of the experiences I had were rapes, beatings."

Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley detailed the case of Ryan Dunton, a pimp from Avon, Mass. Conley described how Dunton lured young girls, took their money and cellphones and forced them into prostitution. Because there is no anti-trafficking law on the books, Dunton was able to get off with a slap on the wrist.

Now, Porter said, instead of women and girls picking up johns on the streets, they are advertised only. District Attorney Donley noted that Dunton used Craig's List, as well as the weekly Boston Phoenix, to advertise his sex slaves.

Weekly "alternative" newspapers like The Village Voice and The Boston Phoenix have been received international condemnation for allowing sex traffickers to advertise in their "adult section," and Coakley's office held a hearing in Oct. 2010, to learn more about how Craig's List and other websites helped modern-day slave traders.

Still, said Conley, Suffolk County, does the best it can for the victims in the absence of trafficking laws. "Our policy," he said, "is to terminate criminal charges against juveniles who are arrested and charged with sex for a fee. We refer these young girls, and to a lesser but very real extent, young boys, to social service agencies. ... We focus our enforcement efforts on the pimps who exploit these children."

While Congress passed strong anti-trafficking measures, said Commonwealth Sen. Mark Montigny, D-New Bedford, the lack of a local law makes prosecution of "johns," those who pick up trafficked women, and suppliers extremely difficult. The result, he added, is that victims are often prosecuted while the pimps go free.

Trafficking is extremely profitable. The bill's backers pointed out that when someone sells a gun or drugs, the profit is made and the product is used up. When someone sends out a sex slave, a profit is obtained, but they also still have illegal custody of the victim. Consequently, noted a supporter of the bill, gangs are becoming more and more involved in trafficking.

The bill would list trafficking as a specific crime, and would create penalties of up to 20 years in prison for those who traffic persons for sexual exploitation and 15 years for trafficking for forced labor. A second offense would bring a mandatory 10-year sentence. Those who exploit persons under 18 would receive harsher penalties.

Also, the proposed law would allow Massachusetts to seize the funds of convicted traffickers in order to pay victims restitution.

Montigny stressed that, to really end the problem of trafficking, attitude changes were necessary so that victims could be seen not as prostitutes but as "whole persons," and added, "If you look at every runaway on the streets as simply some delinquent child that made bad choices, then they continue to be exploited and, ultimately, in many cases, they die."

The senator added that this means that those arrested should be treated the same way as they are in Suffolk County. Instead of being fined or thrown in jail, they should be referred to social service agencies, they should be ensured adequate housing - and they should not be deported.

"Many of these people, if they cooperate and help put these people in jail, will be executed if they are shipped back home," he said, adding that, on a recent trip to Asia, Cambodian acquaintances argued that lax laws in the U.S. and the rest of the western world actually contributed to much of the crime in Cambodia. Belarus, the former Soviet republic, which plays a role in leading the global fight against trafficking, has argued that there needs to be more coordinated policing done between "countries of origin" of trafficked persons and "countries of destination."

The U.S., said Porter, falls into both categories. While people are brought here in servitude from around the world, the misery is no different for someone brought from the "backwoods of Maine to New York City, where they know no one."

Coakley and others argued that it was equally important to crack down on the johns who have sex with the trafficked women, supplying the pimps with their profit. She announced that she would help to form an inter-agency task force specifically aimed at ending trafficking, and that her office would form an Attorney General Strike Force.

Photo: Massachusetts Attorney General's office.

Chicago Chamber of Commerce seeks ‘business friendly' city council

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 14:32:00 +0000

CHICAGO- Looking to counter efforts by organized labor and its allies to elect a more pro-working families city council in the Feb. 22 election, the Chicago Chamber of Commerce announced it's endorsement of 35 aldermanic candidates Jan. 26.

And without regard to appearances, Chamber President Jerry Roper also announced the formation of a 20 member Jobs and Growth Caucus in the council to promote greater collaboration for a pro-business environment. Roper said this was the first time in the history of the council that such an open collaboration would exist.

"What we want from the council is to take a look at those impediments to growth for companies," explained Roper, who was surrounded by the aldermen. He cited the need for a business friendly tax and regulatory environment.

But a reporter pressed Roper to explain more of what was meant by promoting jobs and economic growth (after all who could be against that?). Did it mean opposition to an employee head tax, passage of a living wage ordinance for large retailers and other measures advocated by labor?

Roper responded, "You know where this chamber has been on the head tax. Taxes are not even a word you're allowed to use when you walk into the threshold of this Chamber. We have enough and where has it got us. We need regulatory policies that encourage businesses to come here."

Roper emphasized his unhappiness with the fiscal policies being advocated by the mayoral candidates as a reason why the Chamber has thus far declined to make an endorsement. He said collaboration between the business community and caucus was necessary to solve them. "We need to review the city pensions, and get ourselves out of this mess," he said.
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"Chicago must be open for business," said Ald. George Cardenas, owner of a check cashing store who has prospered on immigrants sending remittances to their home countries.

"We hear from New Jersey, Wisconsin, Indiana (all headed by Republican governors) - everyone's attacking this state, this city that they're better than us. And in this form I think we have a message to send to them that we will compete at every level, every detail, to get businesses here so they can stay here, and prosper in this glorious city," said Cardenas.

The Chamber announced the Jobs and Growth Caucus would be chaired by Alderman Tom Tunney, himself a restaurant owner.

In an interview in the Sun Times reacting to the announcement, SEIU Illinois State Council President Tom Balanoff said the decision to include Cardenas and Tunney "sends the wrong message" because both incumbents have "opposed paying workers a living wage."

"Chicago's economic recovery cannot be hinged on creation of minimum wage jobs or businesses that take advantage of immigrants," said Balanoff. "That's not a gateway into the middle class. Chicago needs an economic recovery that reaches into all sections of the city and lifts up all of its residents."

Chamber of Commerce PAC vice-president John Rosales said the PAC was working in close collaboration with leading business associations, including the Building Owners and Management Association of Chicago, Hospitality Business Association of Chicago, Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association and Illinois Restaurant Association.

The announcement is part of an effort to prevent a repeat of the loss of Chamber supported candidates in the 2007 election. The endorsements include several aldermen high on labor's priority list for defeat including Bernard Stone, Danny Solis and Howard Brookins.

The effort to elect pro-business candidates follows a similar announcement Jan. 9 of the creation of the A Better Chicago PAC that has already raised $1 million to pour into council races.

"This is just a beginning, said Roper. "This is the Chamber of Commerce and Political Action Committee wellness program for advocacy in the future. This Jobs and Growth Caucus is the heft behind making this work."

Photo: John Bachtell

Filibuster curbs defeated

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 14:11:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - A campaign backed by organized labor, to curb the power of Senate minorities to halt virtually every piece of legislation by filibustering, went down in flames in the tradition-bound chamber on Jan. 27.

After eight hours of debate on rules changes, reform proposals backed by unions failed not only to get the 67 votes Senate leaders decided they needed, but didn't even get a majority of lawmakers.

Instead, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kent., promised to voluntarily limit filibusters on motions to debate bills and on presidential nominations.

Some Democrats voted to keep the talkathons going, remembering when they were in the minority - or fearing they would be again. In 2012, Dems must defend 21 Senate seats, compared to 10 for the GOP. Democrats now lead 51-47, plus two Democratic-leaning independents, who are also up in 2012.
The defeats on the filibuster votes mean a 41-person minority in the 100-member Senate can still bring business to a screeching halt, or even prevent measures a majority clearly wants - such as the Employee Free Choice Act - from being debated at all.

One proposal that went down in flames was by Senate Labor Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, that would still permit limited filibusters, but with smaller majorities needed to shut them off each time a vote was called. He lost, 84-12.

Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Tom Udall, D-N.M., changed vote requirements and said a senator who wants to filibuster must actually stand and talk against it until 60 votes shut down debate. Right now, just the threat of 41 votes for the "filibuster" is enough to keep it going - even when no one is talking. Their plan lost 51-46.

The one bright spot, however, is that the Senate agreed to eliminate the process by which an individual Senator can put a secret hold on nominees put forward by the president.

Curbing the filibusters has been a particular cause of CWA President Larry Cohen, chair of the AFL-CIO Legislative Committee. Cohen has seen filibusters and filibuster threats, block everything from the EFCA to extensions of unemployment benefits.

Not only that, but minority-bloc senators use the filibuster threat to strong-arm majorities into agreeing to minority demands. That's how McConnell combined the Bush tax cuts for the rich with the extension of unemployment benefits late last year.

"We commend Senators Harkin, Merkley and Udall for their efforts, and we and the 60 other progressive groups who worked on these changes will continue our efforts to get real reform," said CWA spokeswoman Candice Johnson.

Rabbis denounce ‘hundreds’ of Fox News Holocaust remarks

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 17:54:00 +0000

People around the world are mournfully commemorating the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, established in 2005 by the United Nations and first celebrated in 2006. The day was established to remember the Holocaust - and to ensure that its savagery is never demeaned or forgotten.

The passage of time, and the consequent diminishing number of Holocaust survivors, has slowly dimmed the world's memory of the horrors of the concentration camps, but the real cheapening of those memories comes, says a coalition of 400 rabbis, from people like Glenn Beck.

Democrats and progressives have criticized Fox News for its hosts' use of terms like "Nazi" and "Hitler" to describe President Obama and his allies. They criticize Beck, arguing that their rhetoric demonizes opponents and leads to a dangerous political atmosphere.

The rabbis and their allies, however, fear that calling people like Barack Obama a "Nazi" downplays the evils of Hitler and the slaughter of millions.

The group of rabbis took their grievances to news outlets owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which also owns Fox News. A letter to Murdoch, in the form of a full-page advertisement, was published in The Wall Street Journal, the NY Post and other publications, as well as the Jewish Forward, which is not owned by Murdoch.

"We share a belief that the Holocaust, of course, can and should be discussed appropriately in the media," reads the letter, signed by dozens of rabbis, from Reform, Conservative, Reconstruction and Orthodox synagogues. "But that is not what we have seen at Fox News. It is not appropriate to accuse a 14-year-old Jew hiding with a Christian family in Nazi-occupied Hungary of sending his people to death camps. It is not appropriate to call executives of another news agency 'Nazis.'"

Beck said of George Soros, 14-year-old boy referred to in the letter, " a Jewish boy helping send the Jews to the death camps." Beck was referring to Soros's desperate attempts to pass himself off as a non-Jew to avoid the concentration camps.

Roger Ailes said of National Public Radio's executives that they "are, of course, Nazis. They have a kind of Nazi attitude. They are the left-wing of Nazism."

When criticized for these and "literally hundreds" of other quotes, Ailes invoked "left-wing rabbis who basically don't think that anyone can use the word 'Holocaust' on the air."

Abe Foxman, of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a Nov. 11 Jewish Week article, ""For a political commentator or entertainer to have the audacity to say, there's a Jewish boy sending Jews to death camps, that's horrific. It's totally off limits and over the top."

The letter signed by the 400 rabbis and issued under the auspices of Jewish Funds for Justice, comes on the heels of a Jan. 10 demonstration by that organization and others outside of Fox News headquarters. There, organizers attempted to deliver a petition signed by 10,000 American Jews, calling for Murdoch to remove Beck from the air.

"We respectfully request," the open letter concludes, "that Glenn Beck be sanctioned by Fox News for his completely unacceptable attacks on a survivor of the Holocaust and that Roger Ailes apologize for his dismissive remarks about rabbis' sensitivity to how the Holocaust is used on the air."

Troops line up in fight to stop GOP attack on government

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:41:00 +0000

In the wake of President Obama's State of the Union assessment that the economy of the future will require strong federal government action now, the battle lines are being drawn.

Senate Democrats came out swinging Jan. 26 against a GOP budget plan they said risks the loss of 1 million jobs.

They argued that GOP plans to cut $4 billion in business loans would cost 161,000 jobs, that eliminating federal support for Amtrak would cost 160,000 jobs and that choking off funds for health care reform could slash 400,000 jobs.

In a special report the Democratic Senators issued in response to a proposal from the conservative Republican Study Committee, the lawmakers also said 4,000 FBI agents, 3,000 food safety inspectors and 6,000 nuclear safety workers would lose their jobs, endangering national security, if the GOP plan were adopted.

At a Capitol news conference Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Dick Durbin (Ill.) and Patty Murray (Wash.) said the plan would "shut down the country's economic growth."

"What I have heard from the Republicans is disconcerting," Murray said. "They want to have a fire sale. They want to sell off our country."

The fight back by the senators followed passage of a resolution by the Republican-controlled House a day earlier calling on Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) to instruct the House appropriations subcommittees to cut their budgets to 2008 levels or below.

The battle intensified just as the Congressional Budget Office provided ammunition for the President in the debate over spending and size of government.

The CBO blamed the record $1.5 trillion deficit on December's tax deal, which extended the Bush-era tax rates for two years and will add almost $400 billion to the deficit, bolstering President Obama's argument in the State of the Union address that those serious about deficit reduction would not extend tax cuts for the richest tax payers.

In his speech the President pushed hard for modernizing the nation's infrastructure, including the construction of high-speed rail transportation networks.

Almost immediately, supporters of high-speed rail projects cautioned that the inspiring vision of a modernized transportation network laid out by the president is threatened by proposals to freeze or cut federal spending.

"High speed rail networks do not materialize with the snap of a finger," wrote Tom Philpot for the Grist. "They cost money. Public money."

By 2035 the high-speed rail project the president mentioned, linking San Francisco and Los Angeles could take 41 million people out of cars and generate $3 billion annually in income for the government. Under the president's stimulus plan the government is kicking in $2.3 billion and California voters approved a $10 billion bond issue. "So that's $12.3 billion of the $42 billion necessary" to build the project, Philpot noted

In an unusual move in support of the president's call for infrastructure spending, the AFL-CIO, the nations largest labor federation, joined with the pro-business U.S. Chamber of Commerce in releasing a joint statement.

"America's working families and business community stand united in applauding President Obama's call to create jobs and grow our economy through investment in our nation's infrastructure," the statement read. It was issued Jan. 26 from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland where both AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Chamber President and CEO Thomas Donahue are attending.

"Whether it is building roads, bridges, high-speed broadband, energy systems and schools, these projects not only create jobs and demand for businesses, they are an investment in building the modern infrastructure our country needs to compete in a global economy.

"With the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO standing together to support job creation, we hope that Democrats and Republicans in Congress will also join together to build America's infrastructure."

Photo: Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin of Ill., speaking out against a GOP budget plan they said risks the loss of 1 million jobs, Jan. 26, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Charles Dharapak/AP)

Lawmaker panel faults “reckless” banks as causing great recession

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 12:05:00 +0000

A report prepared by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) on the causes of the Great Recession due for release today faults "reckless" banks and faulty regulators as the chief source of the recent crisis.

The FCIC was created by President Obama and Congress in 2009 to investigate the near collapse of the banking industry and make recommendations for action.

The commission has referred banks and individuals to the Justice Department and state attorneys general for possible prosecution, but, "It couldn't be learned which financial executives and companies were subject of the referrals," writes McClatchy news.

The crisis is widely viewed as having been sparked by speculation in sub-prime mortgages targeted at African Americans, Latinos and senior citizens.

The FCIC is split along partisan lines, including Democratic and Republican lawmakers, who issued their own separate reports. The GOP report was published in December. Democrats singled out the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Reserve and "former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan for backing '30 years of deregulation.'"

Republicans cited more long-term economic trends, including the housing bubble and the policies of both the Clinton and Bush administrations. In the 1990s, during the Clinton presidency, Citicorp, under the leadership of Robert Rubin, encouraged working-class families to take out second mortgages with the "Live Richly" campaign. The Bush administration actively encouraged the selling of sub-prime mortgages and ignored repeated warnings of the impending crisis.

"This crisis was the result of human action and inaction, not of Mother Nature or computer models gone haywire," said Democratic lawmakers on the panel.

Testimony given to the commission notably identified the drive for maximum profits - corporate greed - as the chief factor motivating banker's policies during the crisis. "Stock-option bonuses motivated financial firms to use leverage to boost returns, and traders were given "aggressive incentives" to dissuade them from defecting," writes Bloomberg.com.

"These pay structures had the unintended consequence of creating incentives to increase both risk and leverage, which could lead to larger jumps in a company's stock price," wrote the FCIC. Salaries at U.S. banks topped $137 billion in 2007, says Bloomberg.

In testimony before the committee, Mary Shapiro, head of the Securities and Exchange Commission said, "Many major financial institutions created asymmetric compensation packages that paid employees enormous sums for short-term success, even if these same decisions result in significant long-term losses or failure for investors and taxpayers."

The sub-prime crisis resulted in the greatest wealth loss in black and Latino history in the U.S. In addition, over 11 millions jobs were lost during the Great Recession. Two years after the recession's official end, economic growth remains sluggish with the Federal Reserve seeing little chance for significant job growth in the short-term.

The House Financial Services Commission will hold a hearing on the FCIC report on February 16th.

Photo: Flickr Code Pink

Is Rahm Emanuel the right choice for Chicago?

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:51:00 +0000

CHICAGO - In the end a decision by the Illinois Supreme Court to keep Rahm Emanuel on or off the mayoral ballot for this city's Feb. 22 election, will be a "political decision," say longtime independent activists.

In a whirlwind of events here this week, the state's Supreme Court granted a reprieve to Emanuel's attorneys Tuesday, to keep his name on the mayoral ballot for now.

Meanwhile the seven-member state Supreme Court will decide whether his name should stay there permanently. A decision could come fairly quickly, which will be the final word, experts note.

On Monday, the Appellate Court issued a stunning ruling booting Emanuel off the ballot.

However the state's high court chose to intervene in a case that has challenged Emanuel's residency requirement. Emanuel decided to run for mayor after leaving the Obama administration in October where he served as the president's chief of staff.

He was immediately challenged on whether he met the one-year city residency requirement to run for mayor and he eventually won at both the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners' office and at the Cook County Circuit Court.

Then Emanuel suffered a major setback with the Appellate Court's ruling earlier this week, which stated he did not meet the requirement.

"It was always going to end up in the Supreme Court," said Don Rose, an independent political consultant and longtime Chicago activist. "There's a case on either side," he said. "It was two political judges that voted against him," in the Appellate Court, "but they don't define the law."

Rose notes there are seven different justices on the state's Supreme Court and "their decision will be political too." He added, "It's going to be a political decision made by political judges and ultimately the politics will define this."

One of the high court justices' is Anne Burke, wife of Chicago Alderman Edward Burke who belongs to one of the most powerfully connected machine families in the state. Mr. Burke chaired the committee that "slated" the two judges who voted against Emanuel being on the ballot in the Appellate Court. Mr. Burke has openly supported one of Emanuel's leading opponents, Gery Chico, for mayor and Anne Burke is refusing to recuse herself from the Emanuel case on the high court.

Many say this is all just an intriguing refresher course for how the game of politics is played in the Windy City and in Illinois where judges are elected.

If Emanuel wins his case he will likely become Chicago's next mayor. He would replace Richard M. Daley, who recently announced his retirement after becoming the longest serving mayor here since 1989.

Emanuel's lawyers say he should be exempted from the residency challenge because he was living in Washington in service to the country. Emanuel is leading in the polls by double digits and in campaign fund-raising. He would become Chicago's first Jewish mayor. Emanuel says becoming mayor should be up to the voters and they deserve the right to decide.

Rose notes whether or not Emanuel ends up on the ballot, it's not a question of democracy or fairness. "Should he be on the ballot," asked Rose. "Unequivocally, yes," he said. "Is he the right man for Chicago, well I have very serious doubts about that. Defending his right to be on the ballot has nothing to do with my opinion about his politics," said Rose.

But others think it's not very democratic that Emanuel has 100 times more money than the other community-based candidates. The Supreme Court justices are ultimately making a choice about what section of the Democratic machine is going to end up on top, independent activists claim. They note the irony of a residency ordeal that has actually helped Emanuel's campaign gain momentum, making him appear as a sympathetic figure.

"What's decided in the courts won't really be a game changer because Emanuel has enough money to argue his case and keep his name on the ballot," said Rudy Lozano Jr., an educator and community organizer (and this author's brother).

Lozano came within some 400 votes of an upset victory in a 2010 Illinois Democratic primary for state representative against incumbent Daniel Burke, Edward Burke's brother.

"From the start Emanuel's campaign has been one based on bullying, intimidation and abuse of financial resources," said Lozano. "We need to elect a new kind of mayor that truly represents the working people and minority communities of Chicago." Emanuel on the other hand has major contributions from some of the wealthiest sectors of society, which do not adequately represent Chicago's diverse and majority residents, he said.

Photo: Rahm Emanuel smiles during a Jan. 4th news conference in Chicago. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Push to regulate firearms gains steam

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:57:00 +0000

NEW YORK - Daniel Hernandez, the intern who rushed to aid Rep. Gabriel Giffords, D-Ariz., after during the Jan. 8 Arizona shootings, traveled here today to offer his assistance to Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which has ramped up activities aimed at keeping weapons out of the hands of criminals and the mentally imbalanced.

Hernandez said the he hopes "President Obama and Congress will work together right away to reform our gun background check system so that all records of dangerous people are in the system and all gun buyers will have to pass a thorough background check."

After the assassinations of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, Congress passed laws banning handgun ownership by criminals, drug addicts and the mentally ill. A national system of background checks was enacted in 1983 with the passage of the Brady Bill, named for the presidential press secretary who was shot when the President Regan was nearly assassinated in the early 1980s.

Still, gun violence has persisted, as was tragically shown in the Tucson shootings. Gun control advocates argue that the background check system is not up to par, and are urging Congress and President Obama to work to close loopholes.

"The time has clearly come to finally fulfill the intent of the common sense gun law passed after the 1968 assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy by creating a loophole-free background check system for the sale of firearms," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who founded the mayoral anti-illegal gun coalition, yesterday," adding that, each day, 34 Americans are murdered with guns, the vast majority of which were obtained illegally.

Some of the those involved with the push by the mayoral group and its allies made clear that they are not against the ownership of guns by average Americans and have no intention of stripping that right.

"As Governor of Vermont, I received an A-rating from the [National Rifle Association], and I strongly support the right of law-abiding Americans to own a gun," said former presidential candidate and founder of Democracy for America Howard Dean. "I also believe with equal strength that felons, drug abusers, and the mentally ill have no right to guns. In fact, that's been the law in our country for 43 years since the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy."

Hernandez agreed, saying that he wants the tightening up of background checks made in a way "that does not infringe on Second Amendment rights, so that responsible citizens may exercise their right to bear arms."

The problem, the anti-violence advocates say, is that the background check system is not working. As evidence, they point to the most recent extremely-high profile shootings: the killer students of Columbine bought guns at a gun show from an unlicensed seller; the Virginia Tech murderer was able to buy a gun because his mental health records were never reported to the FBI's check system; and the Tucson shooter also was able to buy a gun because his records weren't in the database, and because "lax federal regulations frustrated the intent of the law."

The bipartisan coalition advocates two simple fixes: they want to ensure that all mental health and other pertinent records are part of the FBI's gun database and, secondly, they argue for closing loopholes that allow the mentally ill to go around regulations by purchasing guns at gun shows and other unregulated markets.

To accomplish the first goal, the mayors say, the FBI database "should contain all the records of felony convictions, domestic violence incidents, drug history, and determinations of mental illness that would prevent those categories of troubled people from buying guns. The new Congress should set a goal of getting this job finished within three years."

The second suggestion could be fulfilled by requiring that all gun sellers check backgrounds. Right now, regular sellers must do background checks, but "occasional" sellers - people who sell only at gun shows, or through classified ads, for example - do not.

"The 34 Americans whose lives are cut short by a gun each day may not be presidents or senators, but each life is a future cut short, a life of accomplishments left undone, and a family torn apart," said Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy. "We owe a duty to each victim to make their life, and their sacrifice, a part of the national movement to fix our gun background check system so it is thorough, complete and comprehensive."

Martin Luther King III added, "We must enforce our public safety laws to keep the angry and dangerous few from destroying the peace and harmony of the many."

The group released an open letter to Obama and the Congress, and has also asked that people sign on to their petition.

Photo: "Occasional" sellers, like those at the Houston gun show, are not required to perform background checks. Photo by M Glasgow // CC BY 2.0

A New Generation of Dreamers: Freedom Rides yesterday and today

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:12:00 +0000

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - A month-long celebration linking the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides that desegregated interstate transportation in the South with today's movements to address racism, violence and unemployment was kicked off here on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday.

In response to the shocking fact that many teen students don't expect to live to be 18 because they have lost so many classmates to street violence, the local club of the Young Communist League, made up of high school students, decided to ask young children to draw what they would like to be when they grow up. At the annual King Day celebration at the Peabody Museum, the children enjoyed doing just that.

"This is great!" said one of the event coordinators. "You are asking them to dream big and set positive goals for themselves for the future."

The pictures of teachers, doctors, veterinarians, astronauts, truck drivers, scientists and dancers will be exhibited on Sunday, Feb. 27 at 4 p.m. at the New Haven Peoples Center, 37 Howe Street, during the 37th annual African American History Month celebration. Presented by the People's World, the theme will be, "A New Generation of Dreamers - Freedom Rides Yesterday - Freedom Rides Today."

While the children were busy coloring, their parents were asked to sign petitions calling on Congress to prioritize job creation, funding to cities and states and extension of unemployment compensation.

The official unemployment rate in Connecticut is just over nine percent, but in the cities and in African American and Latino communities it is three times higher. Over 30,000 Connecticut workers who were laid off at the beginning of the economic downturn and have been receiving unemployment compensation for 99 weeks are now losing all benefits, creating an even greater crisis situation.

In May 1961, when young people from the North traveled south to break down racist segregation utilizing the principles of non-violence, they were beaten and jailed. They were subjected to many harms and indignities, but they stood firm and made a lasting contribution to the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts.

Among the Freedom Riders was Lula White, a New Havener who was going to college in Chicago at the time. That experience helped to shape her life when she returned to New Haven and taught history.

Now retired, Lula White will be featured on a panel at the Feb. 27 event with high school student Kendra Streater and Ricardo Henriquez, a labor and immigrant rights activist.

The panel discussion will also be presented in Hartford on Saturday, Feb. 26 at 6 p.m., including high school student Vyctoria Viera.

The New Haven event will also feature prizes and certificates of recognition to participants in the high school arts and writing competition, "How can we build on The Dream for ourselves and the next generation?" Students are asked to express in artwork, poetry, essay or song what young people today can do to further Dr. King's dream and achieve new hopes and aspirations. Submissions must be received no later than 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 18, 2011. For specific requirements call 203-624-8664.

Also on the event program is drumming by Brian Jarawa Gray and a light buffet. Tickets are $5 or what you can afford.

Image: Children enjoying the Peoples World table at MLK celebration at New Haven's Peabody Museum. Photo: Montell Wright/PW

Class battle lines drawn in Chicago council elections

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 13:17:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Marina Yolanda Faz-Huppert is a non stop bundle of energy. As UFCW Local 881 legislative and political director she has become ceaseless advocate for working families, and is well known in City Hall for helping lead the fight against Wal-Mart and passage of the Sweet Home Chicago Ordinance that would redirect money from the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds to build affordable housing.

Faz-Huppert is the "pride of Local 881" as one union member told me.

Now Faz-Huppert is running for city council from the 45^th ward at the urging of retiring Alderman Patrick Levar, himself a trade union member. The municipal elections are Feb. 22. Her experience, says Faz-Huppert, means she will not need any on the job training.

Faz-Huppert's campaign, and that of 43^rd ward aldermanic candidate Carmen Olmetti, 26 year-old Business Representative for Teamsters 727 and others typify the battle lines being drawn over the direction of the city and who will bear the brunt of the current economic and budget crisis.

It's a battle that pits organized labor, the many racially and ethnically diverse communities, their organizations and small businesses against the big financial and corporate interests in the city.

With as a sizeable block of the 50 seat council up for grabs, the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) termed these elections "the most important in two decades for Chicago's working families."

Big business interests appear to hold the same view. On January 9, Greg Goldner, a former campaign manager to Mayor Daley and Rahm Emanuel announced the formation of A Better Chicago PAC to fund pro-business aldermanic candidates. It has already raised $1 million.

There is some concern if Emanuel wins a majority vote and avoids an April runoff, he will use some of his enormous $8 million campaign fund to back anti-labor council candidates.

While most of labor has declined for the moment to make an endorsement for mayor, labor leaders envision a stronger city council, with a larger block of progressive, independent minded aldermen who won't be a rubber stamp for the new mayor.

The question is will the new mayor and council continue the Daley policies of downtown development at the expense of working-class neighborhoods and services, diversion of funds from public education, mass transit and parks to subsidize corporations, privatization of public assets, and scapegoating of public employees to solve the city budget crisis?

Faz-Huppert and other candidates backed by the city's labor movement and advocacy organizations oppose this direction. They would represent a stronger voice for working families and small businesses and as a firewall against the influence of the city's big moneyed interests.

"True prosperity will not return to Chicago unless the city council has strong advocates for working families," said Tom Balanoff, President of the SEIU Illinois State Council, which represents 170,000 workers. "City Council must be an active participant in shaping Chicago's future, not a rubber stamp. These (labor-backed) candidates understand that."

The labor movement hopes to build on its unprecedented electoral work in 2007 which resulted in the election of 9 labor backed candidates, including several trade union activists. As one source told me, labor's influence was evident when labor and its allies forced Wal-Mart to sit down to discuss wages, benefits and their treatment of workers before they opened any new stores in the city.

Labor will be fighting hard to re-elect several aldermen who won in 2007 and its staunchest veteran allies including Pat Dowell, Toni Foulkes, Joanne Thompson, Freddrenna Lyle, Joe Moore and Ricardo Munoz.

"There is an incredible opportunity to elect additional thoughtful leaders to serve on the City Council who understand job growth isn't just about the number of available jobs. Creation of quality, living wage jobs must be an essential component to job growth and economic recovery, said UFCW Local 881 President Ronald Powell.

"We are especially proud of 15^th Ward Alderman Toni Foulkes, a 19-year Local 881 member and Marina Faz-Huppert," he said.

SEIU is targeting for defeat some of the most anti-labor aldermen including Bernard Stone, Howard Brookings and Daniel Solis.

The new mayor and city council will inherit huge municipal crises including what some are calling a "public pension time bomb." Four city worker pensions are short $14 billion. Emanuel has already thrown down the gauntlet insisting on cuts in pension payments.

"I would ensure that any new pension benefit structure, including any dedicated revenue stream, is the result of negotiations and dialogue with organized labor to ensure municipal employees are entitled to their pensions and that the City meets its obligations," says Faz-Huppert.

Photo: Jobs with Justice lobbies the Chicago City Council for the Big Box Wage Ordinance in 2004.( Sara Brodzinsky)

Cuba Five prisoner paintings on exhibit in Maine

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 12:45:00 +0000

PORTLAND, Maine - Noted actress and dedicated political activist Vinie Burrows helped open an exhibition of paintings by Cuban Five political prisoner Antonio Guerrero on January 19 at the University of Southern Maine Library. Ms. Burrows was the featured speaker at the opening event organized by the Maine group Let Cuba Live . The paintings are on display here through Feb. 18.

In her remarks, Ms. Burrows called for freedom for the Cuban Five prisoners and denounced the U.S. government's cruelty in preventing two of their wives, Adriana Perez and Olga Salanueva, from visiting their husbands in jail. Burrows also reminded listeners of Cuba's exemplary contribution to international solidarity.

At the beginning her presentation, Ms. Burrows asked for a moment of silence to honor the late Rev. Lucius Walker, who died this past September. Walker, who founded and led IFCO/Pastors for Peace , was a strong campaigner for solidarity with the people of Cuba.

The story of the Cuban Five political prisoners began in the 1990's, when Antonio Guerrero, along with Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González were monitoring private paramilitary groups in Florida. They were attempting to provide advance notice on preparations there for terrorist attacks against their home country of Cuba. For this they were arrested 12 years ago, subjected to a biased trial, convicted on conspiracy charges, and received cruelly long sentences. At their trial, expert witnesses demonstrated that the prisoners posed no threat to U.S. secrecy, properties, and interests.

Mr. Guerrero became a painter in the penitentiary at Florence, Colorado. His account of the story of his artistic development can be found here. Citing the words of Cuban national hero Jose Marti (1853-1895) "Truth needs art," Mr. Guerrero maintains, "Truth reigns in our hearts, forged with love and commitment to the just cause of our heroic people: That is my motivation for each work of art!"

The exhibition of 30 of his paintings has toured the U.S. for almost a year. They will next be on display in late February at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, then in March, in Lexington, Kentucky.

Vinie Burrows read from Mr. Guerrero's book "From my Altitude," with poems in both Spanish and English. "They say I am a spy," she read, but "I am a simple man / dedicated in his life / to serve and to create." She also read: "Walker of peace take my hand / Only together will we make the planet alive. / The river born of the mountains will swell / When in its way, a brother joins."

Maine poet Gary Lawless was on hand to read other Guerrero poems. One, "Song of the Full Moon," speaks of longing: "In the midst of solitude and a verse / Gusts of silence awaken me. / Flashes of love becalmed pierce/ her mystery, her light and her universe."

Those attending the event had the opportunity to sign a new change.org petition to President Obama urging him to release the Cuban Five..

Ms. Burrows concluded her remarks honoring Antonio Guerrero and his paintings by reading the poem "Reign of the Peoples," written by the late Haitian poet and revolutionary Paul Laraque.

The Glickman Library at the University of Southern Maine is located at 314 Forest Avenue in Portland, Maine. The exhibit is on the fifth floor of the library.

For more information on the lives of the Cuban Five, their families, their beliefs, and the status of the legal cases, visit these web sites:

http://www.thecuban5.org/

http://www.freethefive.org/

http://www.antiterroristas.cu/

And search the People's World website for "the Cuban Five" to find many news articles and editorials.

Justice finally served for nurse whistleblowers

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 14:59:00 +0000

ODESSA, Texas - It looks like justice is finally being served against the real criminals in the Winkler County Nurses Case, according to a Jan. 13 report from the Odessa American.

Dr. Arafiles, the physician whom the nurses reported, was arrested in Dec. 2010, and indicted on the same charges previously used against the nurses. Stan Wiley, the hospital administrator who fired them, resigned and has also been indicted. Sheriff Roberts and Attorney Scott Tidwell, who filed the charges against the nurses, have now been indicted on felony charges of misuse of official information. A county prosecutor has not been charged, though it has been suggested that he had to have known the original charges against the nurses were false.

Nurses Anne Mitchell and Vicki Galle were fired and arrested in 2009 after they reported questionable practices by Dr. Arafiles at Winkler Memorial Hospital. Sheriff Roberts was a friend and business associate of the doctor.

The nurses reported Arafiles after making many complaints about improper medical procedures within the hospital. They documented his selling questionable supplements to patients in a business the doctor ran with the county sheriff.

The State of Texas substantiated the nurses' charges against Dr. Arafiles. Winkler County Hospital has been fined $15,850 for improper supervision of the physician.

As whistleblowers, identities of the nurses were supposed to be kept anonymous and protected by nurse reporting laws. In a separate civil suit, the nurses won $750,000 in damages. But ever since the nurses were tried and vindicated in 2009 they have been without work.

The Texas National Nurses organization and other national nurses organizations have been supportive in this case because, among other things, punishment for whistle blowing would have a chilling effect on the reporting of medical misconduct.

Now this case upholds the right as well as duty of a nurse to advocate for patient care. But laws protecting nurses who try to advocate for patient care need to be much stronger.

As a registered nurse, I admire the courage of Anne Mitchell and Vicki Galle. I too want to see stronger laws to protect from retaliation nurses who protect patients.