People Before Profit blog

Memories of Pete Seeger in East Berlin

Mon, 03 Feb 2014 11:05:00 +0000

BERLIN - For someone lucky enough to get to know Pete a little, in East Berlin of all places, and who admired him all my life, the words of Ralph Nader, Bruce Springsteen and many others, also the courageous words of Jacobin editor Bhaskar Sunkara, moved me to many recollections - and also to some hard thinking.

Pete wrote that after the 1950's he was no longer a Communist with a large C, but still one with a small c. As for me, a "red diaper baby" in left-leaning New York, I was already in the "small c" category by the 7th grade. About 1940, during my short stay at the exclusive Dalton School, Pete, hardly known, came to sing to us, invited by his aunt, our history teacher. In a flash he had the mostly wealthy kids joyously singing left-wing CIO songs, like audiences everywhere, with me maybe the loudest.

In 1945, every Saturday night, we sang his songs, with those of Woody, Leadbelly, Paul Robeson and Ernst Busch, at the Folksay square dance and song sessions in the Furriers' Hall - led by Irwin Silber and others from Wochica (Workers Childrens Camp).

Before long I changed that small letter to a capital C and became the kind of Communist Sunkara describes with such understanding, getting petitions signed, selling Daily Workers, joining picket lines and demonstrating against fascism in Spain. As a student I helped organize a concert for Pete at Harvard, where a happy audience may have doubted his (and my) politics but loved to sing with him. And of course I sang his songs of the Henry Wallace campaign.

After college, as one of those who "went into industry," I took a weekend off my factory job and heard Pete and then Paul Robeson sing at Peekskill - before all the windows on our bus got smashed by police-organized rock throwers.

It was then the McCarthy crowd took over. The result for me, after getting drafted and unsuccessfully concealing my past, was to land, as a fully panic-stricken deserter, in (again, of all places) East Germany, the GDR.

But who can forget such a past? After vain efforts to encourage square dancing I did have a bi-weekly radio series called "Pete Seeger sings," introducing a growing, enthusiastic East German audience (and not a few West Germans) to his songs and those of the other singers, old and then new - Baez, Dylan, Paxton, Ochs, P,P and M.

When Pete, Toshi and Tinya finally visited in 1967 (typically both West and East Berlin) I landed the job of East Berlin interpreter. Pete and Toshi, as was their wont, kept ears and eyes open, looking for what was negative and - just possibly - what might even be positive. He rejected a reception in the VIP lounge, was not happy about a failed TV session, and waited anxiously for his solo concert in the biggest theater in town. How would these East Germans react?

It was sold out - to the last seat! One of his first songs was "Schtille di Nacht" - written by a Jewish victim of the Nazis in Poland. There was complete, deeply moved silence. Then "Moorsoldaten," "Peat Bog Soldiers," the rebellious song of leftwing prisoners of the Nazis at the beginning of Hitler's rule. The entire auditorium joined in, to the last seat in the balcony! Everyone knew that song! He sang " Lisa Kalvelage," the words of the German woman who learned a lesson from the inaction of her parents against the Nazis and therefore took a stand against napalm shipments to Vietnam. The song was new, but not the sentiment; this crowd was totally opposed to Nazi fascism and fully sympathetic, sometimes very actively, to the fight of people in Vietnam, or earlier in Algeria (and later in Chile, Nicaragua, South Africa and Namibia). I know that Pete was moved - and from his words and later correspondence - I know he was aware that a country like the GDR, with all its blunders (and worse) was not one monolithic, brutal state but rather a complex mixture. Though strongly anti-fascist and pushing solidarity with many freedom struggles, it could never reach everybody with such not always simple messages. But it tried. Many of its dark sides were a result of fear in the face of immense hostile pressure from without, aimed from the start at extinguishing such an experiment. In the end, due to forces from within and without and very varied in their motives, this was successful. Stasi and the Wall are gone but now we again have Krupp, Siemens, BASF and the Deutsche Bank, all busy expanding worldwide. And now the NSA to boot! But I'm afraid I was never able to chew this over with Pete.

Of course, in East Berlin in 1967 (and again in 1986) Pete also sang jollier songs, and got a somewhat broader picture, singing to a small, young bunch from the recently-formed Hootenanny Club, whose members knew all those still new, wonderful songs like "Guantanamera", "Wimoweh" and of course "We Shall Overcome." They formed the base of a long, interesting - if complicated - renaissance of guitar-playing, singing young people. Then too, I accompanied the Seegers to the Berliner Ensemble, the "Bertolt Brecht theater", to see a play by Sean O'Casey (unfortunately in German), one of a variety of theater and opera highlights then in East Berlin. And he met the legendary singer-actor Ernst Busch.

I should mention one little, very typical incident: At supper, before his big concert, Pete found a finely-folded napkin on his plate, decorating a little note, which I translated: "Dear Mr. Seeger, I love your music. Can I get a ticket to your concert this evening?" - signed by "an apprentice waiter." The concert manager, also at the table, said, "Impossible! We have no more tickets, not even for big shots!"

But Pete looked at Toshi, she nodded, and he said, "He's coming to the concert - even if he has to carry my banjo in at the stage entrance!" Which is exactly what happened.

Photo: Pete Seeger (left). Richard Drew/AP

1948: Pete Seeger and Henry Wallace

Fri, 31 Jan 2014 16:28:00 +0000

I heard Pete Seeger many times, but the most stirring was his 1948 appearance in Buffalo, N.Y., at a rally for Henry Wallace. I described Seeger's courage in my book, "Joy in the Struggle":

In 1948, Henry Wallace agreed to run for president as a third party candidate. Progressives supported his campaign. As Curtis D. MacDougall summed it up, Wallace wanted to stop "a trend toward American imperialism in foreign affairs and destruction of the social gains of the New Deal at home."[1] The Wallace campaign on the Progressive Party ticket was the most important third-party campaign of my lifetime (to date).

A strong cultural movement was a prominent part of the Progressive Party campaign. Pete Seeger and Paul Robeson both made history when they performed at the Wallace rallies in Buffalo. Early in the campaign, Seeger sang at a rally held at Kleinhans Music Hall, near my apartment in Buffalo. It was standing room only, and we had to turn people away. Just a few months later, a second rally was held in the same location. This time, the huge auditorium was filling more slowly. Some of the earlier support had melted away because many feared the election of the Republican, Thomas Dewey. Also, Truman had changed his campaign rhetoric to give "lip service" to Progressive Party program planks.

We activists were worried sick. We did not want Wallace to come to a half empty hall. Pete Seeger was supposed to sing a song or two before Wallace spoke. But we needed to stall until the hall filled. Seeger came forward and I thought he was very brave and upbeat. He sang and he sang and he sang, until the hall was as full as it was going to get. Everyone's morale picked up as Pete belted out one after another of the people's songs. I have loved him deeply, ever since.

Photo: This Aug. 28, 1948, file photo shows Henry A. Wallace, listening to Pete Seeger, on a plane between Norfolk and Richmond, Va., campaign stops (AP Photo/File).

Richard Sherman and a changing story line

Fri, 31 Jan 2014 16:17:00 +0000

Much has been said since Richard Sherman, the outstanding African American cornerback for the Super Bowl bound Seattle Seahawks, dissed San Francisco's wide receiver 49ers Michael Crabtree in an interview immediately after the playoff game between the two teams ended. Only seconds earlier Sherman had leaped high into the air to deflect a pass away from Crabtree in the closing seconds of the game, crushing 49er hopes of going to this weekend's Super Bowl.

What Sherman said wasn't gracious to his defeated opponent, but it was by no means out of bounds, nothing that would warrant the controversy that followed. In the world of sports trash talk, it was mild stuff.

As I see it, Sherman was understandably pumped up after a great play as well as still miffed by earlier disparaging comments toward him by Crabtree. Sherman doesn't have the flat manner of Patriots coach Bill Belichick, but I can't say I'm unhappy about that; it would make for a dull world if everybody did.

Yet Sherman's words became a conversational and controversial item far beyond ESPN, sports radio, and the football community.

Ever since Muhammad Ali (who is now considered a national treasure) - and Tommy Smith, John Carlos, Jim Brown, Bill Russell, Dick Allen, and other African American athletes of their generation - there has been enormous pressures on Black athletes to conform to an image and norms created by sports owners and commissioners who grow filthy rich marketing "their" product and brand.

And when they don't conform all hell breaks loose. The "domestication police" in the media and elsewhere condemn the (mis)behavior in covert and sometimes less subtle racist language - out of control, too loud, gangsta, ghetto, etc. - and insist on an apology, not once, but repeatedly.

Which is what happened to Richard Sherman. He was on the receiving end of a gang-up and it wasn't pretty. The dogs were out and the odor of racism was unmistakably in the air.

"Thug" was a favorite characterization of him by many of his critics. But Sherman, to his credit, didn't run, but courageously and thoughtfully confronted his critics. He said the use of the term "Thug" was no more than code for the N-word.

Moreover, he was supported by a good number of athletes and sports commentators.

The vicious attack on Sherman didn't surprise me; it's all too familiar. But what did is that the narrative surrounding the incident changed somewhere between the first and second week leading up to the Super Bowl.

The attack dogs didn't give up their pursuit of him; they seldom do. But the media turned down the volume on their bark, while seamlessly introducing a new "feel good" story line, seemingly de-racialized.

In this new "color blind" accounting, Sherman was transformed from a loud, out of control young African American male - a "thug" - into an American success story who through dint of effort rose from the bottom to the top. Sherman, so the new storyline goes, escapes Compton (a poor majority African American city in Southern California) and its tangled web of social pathologies, dysfunctional institutions, and culture of dependency, enrolls at and graduates from Stanford University with a high GPA, becomes an elite player in the National Football League, and gives back to his community.

All of which, the new story line concludes, demonstrates once again that America is not only the land of opportunity, but also a post-racial society in which anyone, including people of color, can rise to the very top, if they work hard and live right.

What's wrong with this narrative? Plenty!

For one thing, what Sherman overcame isn't a dysfunctional culture, people, and city, but the persistence of racism in our social institutions, social policies and social discourse that prevents people of color from living in conditions of equality and freedom. And he didn't do it alone, but with the help, I'm sure, of people near and dear to him and the broader civil rights movement.

For another thing, it suggests that the city of Compton is nothing but a spiritual and social dead end. Now I'm not familiar with Compton, but I can speak about Detroit, another largely African American city in the news and going through a stressful time, where I once lived and which I return to frequently.

It has many of the same social problems that Compton does stemming, not from some fatal flaw in the social and individual psychology and values of Detroit's African American people, but from a system of racism that is structurally embedded in the economy, politics, and culture of our society and results in unconscionable poverty, crowded and underfunded schools, low wages, thin and disappearing public services, police harassment of the youth, mass incarceration, population flight, etc. in communities of color.

But that is only one side of Detroit. It also has - and Compton has as well - attentive and loving parents who worry about and care for their children, supportive families, hard working people, sometimes employed at not one, but two jobs, vibrant social and community sustaining institutions, pastors of the social gospel, outstanding students, unemployed people who scour the city and suburbs looking for scarce jobs, and lots of people who are proud of their community, have no desire to leave, and struggle with their allies to make it a better place to live, against very powerful corporate forces and right wing politicians who. in effect, tell such cities to "drop dead."

Finally, the notion that the U.S. is an "opportunity society" is bogus. Perhaps some evidence for this claim could be found in the early decades following World War II, but that era is now long gone. Economic stagnation, growing inequality, and hardening social immobility are the new template of U.S. capitalism, all of which have narrowed down the life possibilities of all working people, but especially people of color. They have the extra burden of enduring as well as battling - and too often with not enough allies among white people - racism every day of their lives.

Racism, as this still unfolding episode shows, is not only present and harmful, but it is also mutable and adaptive. It comes in more than one form. Sometime it's crude and barely concealed - he's a "thug." Other times it appears in color blind forms in so far as it turns the achievement of a person of color like Richard Sherman (or President Obama) into a claim that we are living in a post-racial, opportunity society, in which one's climb up the ladder of success rests alone on one's work ethic and character, while at the same time making invisible the structures and discourse of racist oppression and exploitation that people of color have to overcome to live a life worthy of their humanity.

That's what I think, and I bet Richard Sherman would agree with me.

As for the Super Bowl, go Seahawks! Shut down Peyton and shut up the Broncos' executive and right-wing Republican, John Elway.

Photo: Richard Sherman. Wikipedia

Pete’s rug ate my interview and other Seeger tales

Fri, 31 Jan 2014 16:10:00 +0000

BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Many years ago as a reporter for this publication, (I use that term because I don't remember under which of its various incarnations it was published), I was sent to Beacon, N.Y., to interview Pete. I brought along my notebook and tape recorder. I placed my recorder on the rug in Pete's living room - the pile of which resembled the hide of a polar bear. I believe we both sat on the floor when I proceeded with the interview. When I got home I played the tape, which produced nothing but "ZZZZZZZZZZZZ." It seems that the static engendered by the damn pile of the rug ate up the interview. Fortunately, I was able to cobble together enough material from my notes to write my article, which as I recall, appeared in the centerfold of the weekend magazine.

And now a ditty in his honor:

He sang it raw, he sang it rough.
It hit the air clear and tough.
It wasn't nice, it wasn't sweet.
It was the truth, its name was Pete.

- Seymour Joseph

High school & HUAC: two memories, two different concerts

NEW YORK - I loved folk music as a child and teenager, including many old Kentucky songs, where my father grew up. My parents had lots of sheet music of folk songs, which I would play on the piano and sing. However, I thought it had died out, since I never heard these songs sung anywhere. Then in 1952 the Weavers sang at my high school. What an eye-opener it was for me! Now I knew this music was alive and active. I still remember they sang "Good Night, Irene," "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena," and "Wimoweh," all of which I heard for the first time.

My two most vivid memories of Pete are that 1952 Weavers' concert, and a photograph in the newspaper of Pete testifying at the House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC), when he turned around on his chair. The back of his chair had vertical straight pieces of wood to hold one's back. Pete "strummed" on them as if he were playing his guitar.

- Peter Gale

Photo: Daily Worker archives/Tamiment Library (Permission needed to reprint this photo. Contact: editors@peoplesworld.org)

Where have all the flowers gone?

Fri, 31 Jan 2014 16:04:00 +0000

CHICAGO - I was in high school when I heard the Weavers for the first time. That was some 55 years ago. Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hayes and Fred Hellerman helped form the arc of my life over the years and no young American, then and now, could have had better mentors to grow up with.

One summer in 1977 or 78 I was at a picnic just north of New York at Arrow Park, a large private park that had long served progressive, left and liberal communities looking to find a little R&R.

Pete came down from his home to spend the day with us and, of course, work his magic in front of a microphone. Before and after his stint on the stage he hung out and you never wondered where he was because all you had to do was find the small ever-changing crowd that sought him out.

Near the end of the day I was in the big kitchen helping clean up. It had been a perfect day; the weather, the food, the camaraderie, the reminiscing of the high and low days of the 60s and 70s and Pete.

The kitchen had a screen door and I heard a voice excusing himself and wondering if he could get another one of those ice cream bars that was served at lunch before he headed home. Yeah, it was Pete and I had the pleasure of giving him that ice cream bar.

My god, wasn't that a time!

- Bill Appelhans

Summers with Pete

PHILADELPHIA - I heard about Pete Seeger's death while driving to downtown Philadelphia. If I wasn't on the expressway, I would have pulled over to wipe my eyes and clear my head.

For three summers in the late 1940s, I was a camper at Camp Woodland in Phoenicia, New York. Pete's father-in-law, Takashi Ohta, was the caretaker of the camp. Each summer Pete would spend several days performing for the campers. One of those summers, I was in the camp infirmary when Pete visited. He was kind enough to give me a private concert.

My brother, who was seven years older, also attended Woodland. Pete led the senior campers in the "The Lonesome Train," a cantata about the procession of Abraham Lincoln's funeral train.

Whenever Pete was in or near Philadelphia, my wife Debbie and I made it a point to see him. He was without question one of a kind. His cultural contributions to the peoples' struggles are a testament to the role and importance of song.

He will be missed.

- David S. Bell

Photo: Daily Worker archives/Tamiment Library (Permission needed to reprint this photo. Contact: editors@peoplesworld.org)

State of the Union should move us to action

Wed, 29 Jan 2014 16:06:00 +0000

In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Obama strongly argued for progressive and pro-worker initiatives in the face of a wall of obstruction by the Republican-dominated Congress. As he noted, the Republican/tea-party bloc has stymied even the most basic human measure - extending unemployment benefits for the nation's long-term jobless. It has blocked another essential humanitarian move - comprehensive immigration reform, stonewalled pay equity for women, killed legislation to curb fossil fuel use and move against climate change ... and on and on.

In the face of this grim political reality, Obama in his speech focused on executive actions he will take to combat the soaring income inequality in our country and address some of the nation's other pressing economic and social problems. Most notably he announced he will issue an executive order raising the minimum wage for federal contract workers going forward. And he announced some initiatives to repair our roads, bridges and, creating much-needed, good jobs. He made a compelling case for equality for women, in life and on the job, drawing cheers and laughter when he said, ""It is time to do away with workplace policies that belong in a 'Mad Men' episode" - surely a pointed message to Republicans who seem stuck in the worst aspects of the "Mad Men" era.

But the president also repeatedly appealed for action at state and local levels to do what the Republicans in Congress are preventing the federal government from doing.

There are plenty of things Obama did not say that we and others wish he had. For example, he made no mention of defending Social Security and Medicare from cuts advocated by right-wingers and even some centrists. He did not say what he'll do about the Keystone XL pipeline that poses dangers to the environment, farmland and Native lands. He did not say he will fully stop deportations that divide families.

And there are things he said that we and others don't agree with, for example, his praise of Race to the Top, the administration's very problematic education program.

But his speech as a whole amounted to a clear advocacy for the working class side of the battle now under way between America's working families and the super-rich fronted by their Republican/tea party mouthpieces. In addition to making a strong case for social and economic equality in the face of right-wing assault on these basics, he also argued strongly for a demilitarized foreign policy that emphasizes diplomacy - an important break with right-wing militarism.

Make no mistake: One can parse the president's rhetoric for shortcomings, but how does that advance the people's struggle? Obama has set forward some major progressive tasks that have to be fought for. In our political system with its division of powers, big advances must come through legislation and money appropriations enacted by Congress. Examples are the New Deal legislation of the 1930s, and the civil rights and social legislation of the 1960s.

Obama's State of the Union speech amounts to a warning bell to progressive and left-thinking Americans: If we want serious, deep-going progressive action, we must prioritize ending the Republican lock on Congress in this fall's elections. It's time to organize for that.

Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Pete Seeger and the revolutionary power of song

Wed, 29 Jan 2014 14:41:00 +0000

The world is mourning the death of Pete Seeger, the lanky folksinger with a banjo, who proved in his 94 years the awesome power of song as a force for revolutionary change. His life and his art were interwoven with all the mass struggles of the people over 80 years.

Pete was a troubadour of the sweeping mass organization of workers by the CIO during the Great Depression. He composed a premature rap, "Talkin Union" filled with humor and defiance, that surely warmed the hearts of struggling workers everywhere.

At the same time, he and his close friend, Woody Guthrie, sang for the defeat of racist Jim Crow at home and fascism abroad in Spain and Hitler Germany.

During the Cold War of the 1950s, witch hunters targeted Pete and fellow artists like Paul Robeson for their associations with the Communist Party USA. Pete endured decades of a blacklist that attempted to silence him and the mass movements.

His refusal to buckle to the climate of fear and intimidation, his principled defense of his pro-working class values, made Pete Seeger a hero to millions including modern-day troubadours like Bruce Springsteen, who admired Seeger so deeply that he called him the "Father of Folk Music." Many called it a watershed moment when Seeger performed "This Land Is Your Land" with Springsteen at the Obama inaugural celebration at the Lincoln Memorial.

When the Civil Rights Revolution of the 1950s and 1960s erupted, Pete was ready. He composed and sang songs like, "If You Miss Me At the Back of the Bus." He arranged "We Shall Overcome" so that it became the anthem of the movement.

When the movement against the Vietnam War escalated, Pete, his banjo, and his voice became a constant at the huge mass demonstrations in Washington D.C., New York and elsewhere, stirring the millions with defiant songs like "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy." The antiwar movement revived the song after President George W. Bush invaded Iraq in 2003.

Songs, reflecting the values of those powerful mass movements, welled out of his fertile imagination: "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "Turn, Turn, Turn," "Guantanamera," and a thousand more. Yet no one was more collegial, embracing other great singers and their songs, sharing the stage with them. He founded or co-founded The Almanac Singers and the Weavers. His closest friends included the great African American blues singers, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, and Leadbelly, a genius of African American song.

Pete Seeger saved folk music from being buried by corporate culture vultures.

His drive to clean up the Hudson River was typical of Seeger's mass politics. Only the millions marching---and singing---can make rivers safe for sturgeon. Or planet earth for humans. Pete Seeger, presente!

Photo: Pete Seeger at age 88 performs at the 2007 Clearwater Festival in New York (Anthony Pepitone/CC)

Pastors for Peace under attack by IRS

Tue, 28 Jan 2014 15:20:00 +0000

Pastors for Peace, a strategic ally in the struggle to end the criminal U.S. blockade of Cuba, is under fierce attack by the Internal Revenue Service, which is trying to revoke their tax exempt, not-for-profit status. The initiative to build a future for the poor and disadvantaged based on solidarity, peace and cooperation between peoples is in jeopardy.

The Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, Inc. (IFCO/Pastors for Peace) is a membership corporation chartered by the New York State Department of State/Division of Corporations. It is not an action organization that attempts to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities or engage in electoral campaigns for political purposes.

IFCO reviews and responds to requests for grants from local organizations involved in community organization and development. Its international work includes sponsoring U.S. students who apply to the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Havana for careers in medicine. It also arranges numerous Friendshipment caravans to deliver items to Cuba such as computers, school and medical supplies and equipment, blankets, and office furniture, as part of a humanitarian and educational program, developed according to the original purpose stated in the group's application on file, September 1967, with New York State.

IFCO personnel do not receive kickbacks or benefit from "its earnings" as a 501©(3) corporation. Through innuendo, the IRS alleges that diversion of charitable assets may have occurred thereby resulting in conflict of interest and potential injury to unknown individuals. Presumption of guilt does not justify using undemocratic methods to undermine solidarity with Cuba. Cuba does not support state terrorism, and U.S. blockade policy is not in the public interest of U.S. society.

Programs and activities expressing the freedom of religious, faith-based individuals unconcerned with political ideology to act on their beliefs is part of the American tradition. IRS "Information Document Requests" (IDR) served on IFCO/Pastors for Peace may not be legally binding if they contravene constitutionally protected activity concerning education, social interchange and improvement of relations or violate areas such as separation of church and state.

The IRS five-part report on the matter is a continuation of the same Cold War mentality characterized by anti-communist content that has isolated U.S. policy from world opinion. It seeks to divide and confuse the U.S. movement in solidarity with Cuba. At a time when the European Union is considering the re-establishment of bilateral relations with Cuba, it behooves us to close ranks around IFCO. Here are a few things you can do to help. An injury to one is an injury to all.

Photo: IFCO/Pastors for Peace Facebook page

Petition campaign launched to halt South Dakota genocide of Native people

Tue, 28 Jan 2014 15:11:00 +0000

As part of a new campaign to stop the genocide of Native American people in South Dakota, the Lakota People's Law Project has initiated the Campaign to Free Lakota Children with a national petition. The petition calls on President Obama to authorize federal grants from the Departments of the Interior, Justice and Health and Human Services to start tribal foster care programs, in order to stop the kidnapping of Lakota children by South Dakota and to bring those held in state-mandated captivity home.

The epidemic of state-sanctioned kidnappings of Native children by South Dakota's Department of Social Services (DSS) to placements in white foster homes is ongoing. Thousands of children have been removed from their homes. The children often are removed for alleged "neglect." They are taken sometimes at gunpoint, sometimes from school, sometimes in the middle of the night, and sometimes the parents are tasered. In the minds of DSS workers Native American poverty is the same as "neglect." White children in similar economic circumstances are not removed from their homes.

The Lakota People's Law Project has just released a new 12-minute video entitled "Hearts on the Ground," depicting the heart-rending story of South Dakota DSS illegally denying Lakota grandmothers their right to custody of their own grandchildren. The DSS rejects the grandmothers for such contrived, specious reasons as the house is too small, the grandmother is too old, decades-old alleged crimes and unsubstantiated rumors.

In South Dakota (this has been my experience from reporting there and also the opinion of the Lakota People's Law Project), Native people are not regarded as human beings with human feelings. Native mothers and grandmothers are regularly told by DSS workers that they should just "move on" and have other children. There has to be a national campaign to change South Dakota just as there was a national campaign to change Mississippi in the 1960s.

Please sign the petition and tell President Obama to take action to bring the Lakota children home!

Photo: Lakota People's Law Project Facebook page

Spanish Civil War vet still struggling at 98

Tue, 28 Jan 2014 13:23:00 +0000

As I painstakingly guided my car up the steep and narrow driveway to Del Berg's house in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California, I couldn't spare a sideways glance to take in the canyon vista opening up beneath me.

Not until I got into his house, which he'd built himself some decades ago, did I catch a glimpse of the impressive landscape spread beneath us.

But scenery was least of the broad vistas I took in on my visit. What really moved me was the vista of Del's life, more than 70 years of struggle for justice for the working class.

I and my friend Juan had scheduled this visit with the idea of interviewing Del about his service in the famed Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a battalion of U.S. volunteers who went to Spain in 1937-38 to help the Spanish people in their fight against a Fascist takeover of their country. Tragically, Franco's fascist forces, aided both by weapons and troops from Nazi Germany and fascist Italy and by a hypocritical "non-intervention" policy by the Western capitalist powers, prevailed in 1939; but the "Lincolns" and the rest of the International Brigades won themselves an immortal place in history.

At last report, Del is one of only two surviving veterans of the Lincoln Brigade.

When we started to converse, however, Del proved to be far more interested in current struggles. He insisted that Juan, who is chairperson of the California district of the Communist Party USA, fill him in on what the Party is doing and on the situation of labor nationally.

He particularly wanted to know what had happened at the last AFL-CIO convention.

His was no academic interest. Del's not on the sidelines; although he can no longer drive, he writes letters and keeps in touch with a network of progressive friends that he's built up in his corner of California. On his wall hangs a plaque from the Tuolumne County Citizens for Peace that reads, "Recognizing 70 years of dedication to peace and justice issues." In addition to his labor contacts, he helped organize and remains in touch with the Alliance of Retired Americans in Stockton.

Del worked with Delores Huerta to organize farmworkers in his area. He recounted with pride how just a few days before, at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration in Sonora, the legendary labor leader had stepped down from the stage to embrace him.

And now Del is looking forward to circulating the discussion documents for the upcoming National Convention of the CPUSA among his progressive friends. Juan and I urged him to contribute his insights to the convention discussion.

Del's involvement with the Communist movement goes back to before his time in Spain. After a brief stint in the Oregon National Guard, where he got military experience that served him as a Brigadista, he became involved with the Young Communist League in Los Angeles-in part because the YCL could help him get to Spain. "Everybody was concerned about Spain," Del says to explain his decision. "I had a feeling that I was as responsible as anyone else, I should go." He still bears bits of shrapnel in his body that he received from fascist bombs near Valencia.

Del served in the U.S. military in World War II but was discharged early because of his injuries from Spain. Immediately on returning to the U.S., he joined the Communist Party. He has remained an activist ever since and has built a network of friends and supporters throughout a part of the state not known for progressive activism.

We made our way back down his driveway knowing that Del would remain in the thick of the struggle. No mountain is too tough for a person with a fighting spirit like his.

Photo: Del Berg at the 2012 Bay Area ALBA (Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives) event. Photo Richard Bermack. The Volunteer.

Stand in support of women and girls, against misogyny

Tue, 28 Jan 2014 12:32:00 +0000

There have been similar stories before, but the one that came from India in December 2012 of a 23-year-old medical student who, after getting on a bus with her male friend, was attacked, raped and tortured by a gang of men, garnered worldwide attention. Despite the obvious evil nature of this kind of conduct, it appears to have had little impact in reducing the numbers or nature of attacks against women and girls in India and around the world.

While the attack outraged millions, less than a month ago, another took place with equally despicable, if not worse, characteristics. On Dec. 31, 2013, a 16-year-old girl was gang raped twice and then set on fire. This happened in Calcutta. Asia News reports that this, sadly, had not been her first victimization.

Another story, this one from the Hindustan Times, reports on an eight-year-old girl being raped and killed in Greater Noida, India. And, as if competing for most despicable case out of India, The New York Times reported last year of a four-year-old who had been lured by an adult male who offered to buy her a banana, he kidnapped and raped her. Her doctor reported, "She suffered severe brain injury and severe injury to her vagina - her heart and lungs stopped functioning" and added, "It is very inhuman that such a young girl was subjected to sexual abuse."

In the United States misogyny - or the hatred of women - is also alive and well. In a nationally-known case from Steubenville, Ohio, a 16-year-old girl was raped by two boys from the high school football team. The girl's family tried to report the rape but the police did nothing. They - and the whole town - sided with their "star" players, in an unfortunate exemplar of how skewed some Americans' priorities and values are. A very similar case occurred in Missouri. Daisy Coleman, who was a cheerleader at Maryville High School, was raped, after which she endured bullying and was run out of town. Her rapist, Mathew Barnett, received a four-year suspended sentence and two years probation.

Perhaps the saddest of examples of what misogyny does in America, is that of Saratoga High School student Audrie Pott. Three football players, from the California school, had raped Pott, who was only 15 when she died. They had encouraged her to drink alcohol and after she passed out they raped her and videotaped her being assaulted, which they posted on the Internet. Pott committed suicide eight days later. Her attackers received light sentences: 30 days to be served in juvenile hall on weekends for two, 45 days for the third attacker.

My concern for these issues began at an early age. When I was six my father died leaving my mother with four kids to take care of, of which I was the youngest. Shortly after my dad had passed away, I had a brain tumor and surgery to have it removed, and at the time, very emotionally dependent on my mother. My mom needed emotional support from her family, which she did not get. Instead, another thing began to occur. A close male relative would do something unforgivable - at least to me. He would beat up my mother. He was bigger and she was still heartbroken over the death of my dad. When this happened I was confused and scared, too, but I would go between them and miraculously this would usually make him stop. I was always relieved that it made him stop and kind of shocked too. I must have looked quite silly with my baldhead and everything.

My mom, I remember vividly, would knock on these relatives' doors, wanting to talk, wanting some emotional support and I would see them peeking from behind the drapes. She would come back to the car crying.

But, it all came to an end one day. My mother shot herself. I was seven and completely heartbroken. I cried myself to sleep for six months.

My mom's emotional turmoil and her abandonment by her family when she needed them most, and her eventual suicide, is, at least in part, why I have always empathized and sympathized with women and girls. I could not save my mom, but I do feel that all the women and girls of the world are part of my family too. I strongly encourage you all to reach out and help all our mothers, sisters and daughters to make sure they are all safe and free.

Photo: From a 2012 march against rape culture and gender inequality (Chase Carter/CC/Flickr)

What should Jamie Dimon do with his $8.5 million raise?

Tue, 28 Jan 2014 11:58:00 +0000

I was really worried about Jamie Dimon. The JPMorgan Chase CEO had his pay cut in half for 2012 - from $23 million to only $11.5 million. How did he manage? One shudders to think.

But not to worry. JPMorgan has now raised his pay for 2013 by 74 percent, bringing it up to $20 million. We can all breathe a sigh of relief for Jamie.

I know I will as I check my bank balance and try to figure out how to pay my heating bill, my rent, and a few other things and not have the checks bounce.

In 2012, when poor Jamie had to make do with $11.5 million, the median wage in the U.S. was $27,519 ((that means half of Americans earned more than that and half earned less!). That was down $980 from 2007. And median household income was $51,017. That was down 8.3 percent from 2007.

2007 was just before the economic crash, in which the subprime mortgage bubble created a flood of "underwater" homes and people losing their homes to foreclosure. I do seem to recall that Dimon's JPMorgan was one of the prime architects of the subprime mortgage thing.

Oh yes, in fact, JP just reached a record settlement with the U.S. Justice Department over this - agreeing to pay $13 billion in fines for selling those deceptive mortgages. That follows a series of other settlements over JP's misdeeds. The New York Daily News commented:

"On Dimon's watch, JPMorgan has paid out an unprecedented $20 billion in legal settlement and penalties for banking violations that stretched from improperly gorging on the sub-prime mortgage crisis to abetting Bernie Madoff's vast thievery."

I guess JP has plenty of money left over to bump up Jamie's pay by $8.5 million. Do you have suggestions for Jamie on what to do with it? Post them in "Comments" below (no vulgarity, please), or email us at contact@peoplesworld.org.

Photo: Jamie Dimon's 2013 Christmas card, showing him and his family cavorting in their luxurious home, got a lot of flak on the Internet. Via Twitter

Carter Camp, warrior for Native rights, dies at 72

Wed, 22 Jan 2014 16:32:00 +0000

As a fighter for Native American rights for the last 40 plus years, Carter Camp stood tall to all who knew him or knew of him. In Indian Country his name was a household word to all those committed to "The Cause. " His role in the movement for American Indian rights was truly selfless and heroic.

After decades of struggle, Camp died Dec. 27, 2013 on tribal land in White Eagle, Okla. He was 72.

Carter Camp was a Ponca tribal member and a national leader of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the late 1960s. The movement, which began in order to protest the ongoing disgraceful treatment of American Indians and federal government refusal to honor its treaties with Native nations, took direct action to focus national attention on Native American issues. Camp joined AIM when it was founded in 1968 and organized over 30 AIM chapters in Oklahoma and Texas.

Camp took a leading part in the protests of the time, including the Trail of Broken Treaties in 1972 to demand enforcement of the treaties by the U.S. government. This resulted in a takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affair in Washington, D.C. The very next year Camp and fellow AIM leaders Russell Means and Dennis Banks were involved in organizing the Wounded Knee occupation in South Dakota. Camp led the first group of warriors into Wounded Knee. This was an honor in itself - the honor of being chosen to go first. The Native freedom fighters were besieged for 71 days by federal forces - the FBI, federal marshals - and by government-organized paramilitary gangs, armed to the teeth, including the use of armored personnel carriers ( APCs). This protest resulted in loss of life on both sides, both Native and non-Native. Camp was chosen war chief in charge of defenses for the movement.

After the tumultuous AIM years Camp remained involved in Native issues and environmental justice causes. In 2009 he was a participant in the highly praised PBS series "American Experience: We Shall Remain - Wounded Knee."

About a year ago Camp was told he had only a few months to live because he had cancer that had metastasized to his lungs, kidney and liver. But, a warrior to the end, he led the opening ceremony in March 2013 of the first Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance Camp near Ponca City, Okla. This was in opposition to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which he vehemently opposed. The Keystone project would transport toxic Canadian tar sands oil through the Great Plains to Oklahoma and on to the Gulf Coast. Camp also led protests against waste dumps on Indian lands.

For over 20 years he was an organizer and active participant in the yearly sacred Sun Dance on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, with Leonard Crow Dog, also a Wounded Knee veteran. Camp also organized protests against the Lewis and Clark re-enactment in 2004. He said the re-enactment of the Lewis and Clark Discovery Expedition was re-enacting the genocide of native American people. The protest charged that Lewis and Clark opened the door to the slaughter of Native people. Camp called the re-enactment part of the "American Lie." Protesters gave the Expedition a symbolic smallpox blanket. Camp also led protests in 2006 against a proposed biker bar at Bear Butte, a sacred site near Sturgis, S.D.

Camp came from a working class background. His father, Woodrow Camp, was a staunch trade union activist. Following in his footsteps, Carter worked as an electrician in a factory in Los Angeles and served as a shop steward for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). He was later elected business agent for IBEW.

His lifelong struggle was as an uncompromising advocate for peace, freedom and social progress and in particular for the rights of his beloved and long oppressed Indian people.

Although I never met Carter personally, some years ago I received an email from him asking if he could use an article I had written on the inaccurate theatrical portrayal of a monstrous historic arch-enemy of Native people. I of course immediately replied he could use the column in any way he saw fit. I felt greatly humbled and honored at his request. He was one of my heroes.

Carter Camp let the world know that the spirit of Native American people was "unconquered." He walked on as valiant warrior and an elder statesman of the Native American Liberation Movement. His work must be carried on.

Photo: Carter Camp speaks to a group of American Indians and others protesting a proposed biker bar near Bear Butte, rear, a sacred site near Sturgis, S.D., April 4, 2006. AP/Doug Dreyer

Going postal: when tragedy becomes a business

Fri, 17 Jan 2014 11:43:00 +0000

"I was doing my usual daily routine, you know, putting the letters and magazines into their respective slots so that they would be in order for delivery that day. Then I hear it. Pop Pop Pop. I look over to a hunter buddy of mine working across from me. We both knew that sound.

I began to look for an escape route; I had anticipated that this might happen someday. As I heard more gunshots in my vicinity I ran from my work station. I passed an exit sign; I don't know why. It would have led me to safety out the front door. Panic I guess. I saw the shooter coming towards me so I ran into the nearest hallway and into the office at the end of the hallway. I tried to open the window in that office but it was sealed shut for security. I tugged so hard to escape through that window the aluminum frame broke off in my hands. But the window still would not open.

I ran out of the office to look for more exit strategies but I did not get far. Coming towards me was a stark figure slinging a rifle from his hip. He began to shoot and bullets flew through the air. I felt a sharp blow to the head and I reeled back and fell to the ground. I found out later that a ricocheted bullet had hit the wall and a piece of mortar had blasted into my head. Lucky, I guess.

As I lay on my back recovering from the shrapnel I rolled over onto my stomach to see a pair of boots walking towards me. I hear a gun click a round into its barrel. I sense the searing metal pointed inches from my head. I plead for my life without looking up. 'Don't do this. I'm your friend; look at my face before you shoot.' I can do nothing but look at the two boots, one on either side of my head. As I am snorting the fear emanating from the cold floor of the Royal Oak Post Office I hear these words: 'I didn't come here for you.' The two boots walk away from the sides of my head. I laid there for just a moment. Then I ran like hell for my life."

The date was Nov. 14, 1991. I heard this story for the first time in the summer of 2013. I have worked in the Royal Oak, Mich., Post Office since October of 2000 and have known this coworker for just as long. I really can't remember what started this conversation, but as he told the story he pointed around the workroom floor and walked me through the hallways and rooms where he begged for his life. He was spared, but five people lost their lives that day and many more were wounded, both physically and spiritually. I was amazed that he wanted to recount that day, to share it with me. I wanted to cry, but tears were not appropriate. His catharsis, the cleansing of his emotions, was more important than my tears. And I could tell by the wild look in his eyes as he told this tale that even he could not believe he was alive to share it.

Royal Oak was not the first, nor the last, post office in the United States to experience this type of workplace violence. Between 1986 and 1997, more than 40 people were gunned down in at least 20 incidents of workplace rage related to postal workers. A certain term emerged from this wave of violence: "going postal." Its origins are argued about by linguistic historians. For years I thought it came directly after the Royal Oak shootings, but some research shows its earliest citation was in the St. Petersburg Times (of Florida) on Dec. 17, 1993. Again on Dec. 31, 1993 the Los Angeles Times ran this: "Unlike the more deadly mass shootings around the nation, which have lent a new term to the language, referring to shooting up the office as "going postal ..." Simply put, "going postal," in American slang, means becoming extremely and uncontrollably angry, often to the point of violence, and usually in a workplace environment.

Now what if you change the term to "goin' postal"? You know, shorten the "going" to "goin'" and slap on a smiling cartoon character delivering a package with a big American flag in the background. Then you decide to use "Goin' Postal" as a name for your new store that sells delivery products to the American public. You open up one store in Florida, and then decide to franchise this nifty idea all across the country. You even have the cojones to partner up with the Postal Service as an allied business. You become so successful that now there are 300 Goin' Postal stores across the country. But yet, here is the feather in your cap; you open a Goin' Postal store in Royal Oak, Mich., the hometown of the 1991 post office shootings. Sound like a twisted fairytale? I wish it was.

Goin' Postal opened up in Royal Oak, my hometown, in December 2013. The company is based in Zephyrhills, Fla., and has been in business since 2002. They sell all shipping services including USPS, FedEx, and UPS as well as offering mailbox rentals and office supplies. Their website says the company "bases its business ideals around the American family, and the American dream that those families are working toward." The website emphasizes the "family" and "American Dream" theme over and over in their franchise pitch. The Price family, owners of the company, thinks there is nothing wrong with the moniker "Goin' Postal." James Hall, COO at Goin' Postal, simply stated this in a recent interview: "I am sorry that some people have taken the name negatively. That was never our intention. We mean no malice. The post office is a huge ally of ours."

Since this store opened in my town I began to ask myself if maybe I am missing something here. Has "going postal" ever meant anything other than violent outbreaks at the workplace that lead to death? Does changing the "going" to "goin'" bring it down a notch? Is this just a form of gallows humor that is now acceptable since it has been 22 years since the tragedy at the Royal Oak Post Office where five people lost their lives?

The Goin' Postal Facebook page answered some of these questions for me. Apparently, other folks are as aghast as I am about the name. The comments section was filled with words like "sick," "disgusting" and "insensitive." Our local online community daily newsletter, the Royal Oak Patch, ran a very neutral story on the store's opening. Its comments section was filled for days with overwhelmingly negative comments about the store's name. One that stands out was "Goin' Postal is as inappropriate for a business name as the Sandy Hook Target Range". Or maybe a gun shop called the Columbine Stop N Shoot built right next to the Royal Oak High School.

Turns out Goin' Postal is listed as one of the worst franchises to buy (according to UnhappyFranchisee.com). One opened up in a neighboring town and lasted about a year before it shut its doors. This one in Royal Oak opened up about a block north of a well-established UPS store that offers basically the same services. There has been talk of picketing the store but that would only bring some undeserved attention in my mind. I truly believe the good citizens of this town will make the right decision and spend their money where it is deserved to be spent. They did so after the tragedy of Nov. 14, 1991. Our post office patrons returned two days after the shooting to buy their stamps and send their packages. It helped to heal the wound and bring our town back to sanity. That, in a perfect world, would be the true meaning of "going postal."

Photo: Flickr (CC)

Snowden and our civil liberties

Mon, 13 Jan 2014 11:40:00 +0000

We add our voice to the many - including the New York Times and the UK Guardian - calling for clemency for Edward Snowden, the whistle-blower who exposed the National Security Agency's massive domestic spying program. The NSA's unprecedented invasion of Americans' privacy included collecting phone and email records and other personal information of millions of ordinary citizens.

Snowden, a contractor with the NSA, says he first attempted to raise his concerns with his superiors over this unconstitutional activity, but was ignored. So he made the information public. The result has been unprecedented nationwide outrage and debate, and a welcome renewed attention to the need to protect our essential civil liberties.

Along with landmark struggles for freedom and democracy, this nation also has an unfortunate history of repression and attacks on civil liberties, carried out in the name of protecting the country from "threats." The Palmer Raids of 1919-1920 and the McCarthy witch-hunts of the 1950s are only two examples. So Americans have good reason to be concerned about the NSA program that Snowden revealed.

The NSA mass surveillance operation is a continuation of a renewed undermining of civil liberties launched with the misnamed USA PATRIOT Act, enacted in 2001 following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Among other things, the PATRIOT Act authorized warrantless government searches of phone, email and financial records. Starting in 2002 the Bush administration ordered the NSA to conduct widespread wiretapping of Americans' phone calls without any court orders. In 2008, additional legislation provided immunity to telecommunications companies who cooperate with such government programs.

Unfortunately, the Obama administration has continued these kinds of unconstitutional actions.

Those who are demanding Snowden's head have set up a false opposition between protecting safety and protecting civil liberties. As many experts have pointed out, the NSA's massive domestic surveillance program is not making us safer. It did not prevent last year's Boston Marathon massacre, for example, even though the bombers used cell phones extensively. To truly seek out actual terrorists, the experts point out, law enforcement agencies can pursue targeted information-gathering without violating our constitutional rights. Instead, the NSA program, scooping up random massive amounts of personal data without warrant, has compromised our national security by undermining the values that have encouraged generations to rally to this nation's defense - whenever it actually was in danger. "Our values have been our best national security asset - in times of war and in times of peace and in eras of upheaval," said President Obama in a speech in 2009.

In the wake of Snowden's revelations and the furor that they have unleashed, President Obama appears to be having second thoughts. He is reportedly preparing to announce reforms that would curb the NSA abuses. That is welcome. But it would not have come about if Snowden had not made the NSA's unconstitutional spying program public.

Those who argue that Snowden should be severely punished for breaking the law miss the point. The information that he exposed is vital to the preservation of our democracy. For his service and his bravery he deserves thanks and a normal life - not a life in prison or having to run from prosecution.

We urge the administration to recognize this fact by offering leniency or clemency to Edward Snowden.

Furthermore, we urge the administration and Congress to take prompt executive and legislative action to end warrantless spying on Americans and other government violations of our essential civil liberties.

Photo: Edward Snowden. AP

Ape personhood is step in right direction

Fri, 10 Jan 2014 15:22:00 +0000

Last month, an organization called the Nonhuman Rights Project filed a lawsuit in New York seeking the recognition of chimpanzees as legal persons. If successful, the case would represent a blow to the artificial legal barrier between humans and animals that allows for the exploitation of the latter by the former. As the law currently stands, animals - chimpanzees included -are regarded as little more than human property.

The legal action filed by the Nonhuman Rights Project centers on Tommy, a captive chimpanzee living at Circle L Trailer Sales in Gloversville, N. Y. According to the New York Times, the lawsuit seeks to place Tommy in one of the eight sanctuaries that make up the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance. "This petition asks this court to issue a writ recognizing that Tommy is not a legal thing to be possessed by respondents, but rather is a cognitively complex autonomous legal person with the fundamental legal right not to be imprisoned," the court filing states.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of a decision this summer by the National Institutes of Health to significantly reduce its use of chimpanzees in biomedical research.

Steven M. Wise, an animal rights lawyer who leads the organization, took quite some time deciding where to file the legal action. "We spent five years looking at all 50 states to determine which states might have the most favorable laws for us," Wise told the International Business Times. "We had to run several thousand evaluations and write some very long memos, and through that we slowly narrowed it down to several states."

Ultimately, the Nonhuman Rights Project settled on New York for its maiden legal venture because of the state's strength with common law writ of habeas corpus. "A writ of habeas corpus requires that a person under arrest be brought before a judge," according to the International Business Times. "This procedural maneuver is one of the few cases where a third party has standing to ask for it, and has historically been used by black slaves to challenge their status as property. New York has affirmed that the availability of a common law habeas corpus writ cannot be taken away by legislation, and also allows petitioners to appeal a habeas corpus decision that doesn't go their way."

The Nonhuman Rights Project will soon be petitioning for the freedom of three more apes. According to the New York Times, "Two of the chimpanzees are believed to be owned by the New Iberia Research Center, at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, but are housed at Stony Brook University for a study of locomotion. The fourth, according to the rights project, is owned by Carmen Presti of Niagara Falls, who runs the Primate Sanctuary, a nonprofit organization that has monkeys and the one chimpanzee."

Of course, the aspects of these cases that make them more likely to succeed are also those that will limit their influence. Granting personhood to chimpanzees is far less financially threatening than it would be to grant personhood to, say, chickens, because the former are exploited on a much smaller scale than the latter. Similarly, since chimpanzees are humans' closest living relatives, granting them personhood would require less of a break with our anthropocentric value system.

Still, like it or not, change is incremental. And as the saying goes, those who demand all-or-nothing typically get nothing. Let's hope these suits by the Nonhuman Rights Project are successful and can open the door to broader challenges to animal exploitation.

Photo:Young members of a chimpanzee family wrestle with each other. CC/ShinyThings

Seattle’s socialist councilmember delivers inaugural address

Thu, 09 Jan 2014 12:30:00 +0000

The following is the Jan. 6 inaugural speech by Seattle City Councilor Kshama Sawant. Sawant made national - and international - news after winning the seat Nov. 5, 2013, becoming the first socialist elected to the city council.

My brothers and sisters,

Thank you for your presence here today.

This city has made glittering fortunes for the super wealthy and for the major corporations that dominate Seattle's landscape. At the same time, the lives of working people, the unemployed and the poor grow more difficult by the day. The cost of housing skyrockets, and education and healthcare become inaccessible.

This is not unique to Seattle. Shamefully, in this, the richest country in human history, fifty million of our people - one in six - live in poverty. Around the world, billions do not have access to clean water and basic sanitation and children die every day from malnutrition.

This is the reality of international capitalism. This is the product of the gigantic casino of speculation created by the highway robbers on Wall Street. In this system the market is God, and everything is sacrificed on the altar of profit. Capitalism has failed the 99%.

Despite recent talk of economic growth, it has only been a recovery for the richest 1%, while the rest of us are falling ever farther behind.

In our country, Democratic and Republican politicians alike primarily serve the interests of big business. A completely dysfunctional Congress DOES manage to agree on one thing - regular increases in their already bloated salaries - yet at the same time allows the federal minimum wage to stagnate and fall farther and farther behind inflation. We have the obscene spectacle of the average corporate CEO getting seven thousand dollars an hour, while the lowest-paid workers are called presumptuous in their demand for just fifteen.

To begin to change all of this, we need organized mass movements of workers and young people, relying on their own independent strength. That is how we won unions, civil rights and LGBTQ rights.

Again, throughout the length and breadth of this land, working people are mobilizing for a decent and dignified life for themselves and their children. Look at the fast food workers movement, the campaigns of Walmart workers, and the heroic activism to stop the Keystone XL pipeline!

Right here in SeaTac, we have just witnessed the tremendous and victorious campaign for fifteen dollars an hour. At the same time, in Lorain County, Ohio, twenty-four candidates ran, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as 'Independent Labor' and were elected to their City Councils.

I will do my utmost to represent the disenfranchised and the excluded, the poor and the oppressed - by fighting for a $15/hour minimum wage, affordable housing, and taxing the super-rich for a massive expansion of public transit and education. But my voice will be heard by those in power only if workers themselves shout their demands from the rooftops and organize en masse.

My colleagues and I in Socialist Alternative will stand shoulder to shoulder with all those who want to fight for a better world. But working people need a new political party, a mass organization of the working class, run by - and accountable to - themselves. A party that will struggle and campaign in their interest, and that will boldly advocate for alternatives to this crisis-ridden system.

Here in Seattle, political pundits are asking about me: will she compromise? Can she work with others? Of course, I will meet and discuss with representatives of the establishment. But when I do, I will bring the needs and aspirations of working-class people to every table I sit at, no matter who is seated across from me. And let me make one thing absolutely clear: There will be no backroom deals with corporations or their political servants. There will be no rotten sell-out of the people I represent.

I wear the badge of socialist with honor. To the nearly hundred thousand who voted for me, and to the hundreds of you who worked tirelessly on our campaign, I thank you. Let us continue.
The election of a socialist to the Council of a major city in the heartland of global capitalism has made waves around the world. We know because we have received messages of support from Europe, Latin America, Africa and from Asia. Those struggling for change have told us they have been inspired by our victory.

To all those prepared to resist the agenda of big business - in Seattle and nationwide - I appeal to you: get organized. Join with us in building a mass movement for economic and social justice, for democratic socialist change, whereby the resources of society can be harnessed, not for the greed of a small minority, but for the benefit of all people. Solidarity.

Photo: New Seattle Councilmember Kshama Sawant, left, holds up a clenched fist as she stands with Nicole Grant, who assisted in a ceremonial swearing-in, at an inaugural event Jan. 6 in Seattle. AP/ Elaine Thompson

Toni Harp sworn in as mayor of New Haven

Wed, 08 Jan 2014 14:47:00 +0000

NEW HAVEN, CONN. -- The auditorium and overflow room at New Haven's Career High School were packed on Jan. 1 as Toni Harp was sworn in as the 50th mayor of New Haven, the City's first woman and second African American mayor. Along with Harp, the Board of Alders and new city/town clerk Michael Smart were sworn in to office. The diversity and the remarks were inspiring with an invitation for all ideas to be considered toward job creation, improved public education and youth opportunities, and an end to violence in every neighborhood, for every resident.

Like the inauguration taking place at the same time in New York City, where Mayor Bill de Blasio took office vowing to take immediate steps toward ending inequality and injustice, the historic moment in New Haven was filled with possibilities.

Spirits were high in an atmosphere reflecting consistent, dedicated grass roots organizing over many years, resulting in a Board of Alders whose values come from their roots as clerical, service, health care and education workers. In 2011 history was made when voters elected union members and allies, many African American women, to two-thirds of the 30 Aldermanic seats.

In their first two years the Alders created a jobs pipeline, New Haven Works, undertook rebuilding a youth center, the Dixwell Community House, and re-instated community policing.

During the 2013 election campaign, opposition to Toni Harp pivoted on an anti-union message: the claim was made that she was beholden to the unions and not the people of the city. The same claim was made in opposition to those Alders who were supported by an alliance of union and community activists. They were dismissed by a small grouping called Take Back New Haven as a "union machine" and labeled equally as bad as the previous "Democratic Party machine."

These claims were clearly meant to create confusion and division. "Union" and "machine" are two opposites. A "machine" is a few elite people making decisions behind closed doors. The "union" members and community allies went out into the neighborhoods with scores of volunteers knocking on doors day after day and bringing the message of the people back into the Board of Alders to create their agenda.

It has been said that New Haven is a company town where the company is Yale University. New Haven has deep poverty in the midst of Yale's wealth. The population is majority African American and Latino.

Companies are expert at creating confusion and division in order to maintain their power and control. The workers at Yale, many of whom live in New Haven, have learned how to stand up for their rights and win gains through many strikes and contract battles. They have learned how to mobilize members, how to analyze proposals, how to develop strategy and tactics to win back more of the value they create for the University. In their recent contract they pushed for and won a mandate that the University hire 1,000 New Haven residents over four years.

That is why these New Haveners, these union workers, make New Haven stronger for everyone by serving on the Board of Alders. They bring their knowledge and experience and commitment to their neighborhoods, to the residents, and to the City as a whole. Along with union members from other workplaces serving on the Board, they are making steady progress. Much more is needed.

Whenever working and poor people gain some power, they know they will face many challenges from the boss, most often in the form of racism and other divisions to break the unity.

Even before their first meeting several Alders formed a new caucus to separate themselves from the "union machine." This action weakens the chances of the mayor and the Board of Alders to come together and represent the needs of those neighborhoods that have been left behind. It is a huge diversion from the critical tasks at hand.

The Harp administration reflects many different forces in the city. The anti-union caucus undermines the labor community movement and its representatives on the Board of Alders as well as the mayor in their efforts to keep the needs of the people front and center.

Now is exactly the time to refuse to be divided by anti-union rhetoric or racism. Now is the time to stick together and celebrate the alliance of union and community. That is what will help Mayor Harp move the city forward to address inequalities and include every resident and neighborhood.

The significance of maintaining focus and unity from the grass roots goes far beyond New Haven. Progress in cities like New Haven, New York and others around the country can pave the way to elect a Congress that prioritizes ending inequality on a national scale.

Photo: Inauguration of New Haven Mayor Toni Harp, Jan. 1. 2014. New Haven Independent.

An unhappy anniversary of Citizens United

Wed, 08 Jan 2014 11:50:00 +0000

Mid-January of 2014 marks the unhappy fourth anniversary of one of the defining moments in U.S. politics. No, not an election, but a court ruling.

That's because four years ago, the GOP-named 5-man majority on the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Citizens United, the infamous court case.

There, the justices declared, "money is speech," in so many words, and unleashed corporations and the rich to flood our political system with a tsunami of almost untraceable campaign cash.

To (unintentionally) mark that anniversary and shine a spotlight on the enormous impact of that ruling, the public interest group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and the Washington Post teamed up in a major expose to trace the cascade of cash from just one set of big donors, to show its impact on the system.

They chose the Kochs. And what they found was horrifying.

Though constant money trading through a series of allegedly "non-profit" front groups and donations to other radical right organizations, the two extremist oilmen from Kansas City funneled a minimum of $407 million into the last 2-year political cycle.

To put that in perspective, the Kochs' documented tidal wave alone equaled - actually it slightly exceeded - all the political spending from every single union campaign finance committee in the country, combined.

Stop and think about that for a minute. Think about what the U.S. Supreme Court majority let loose upon us.

One of every eight workers in the U.S. is a union member. A slightly higher share is union members or non-members represented by unions, combined. Unionists' contributions to their campaign finance committees are all voluntary.

Non-members whom union contracts cover must get the right to opt out of funding any union spending for anything other than administering contracts, another Supreme Court ruling (Beck) says. And in so-called "Right to Work" states, they don't even need to pay for that task, leaving unions high and dry.

As a result of the fact that political giving is voluntary, not all union members donate to politics. Those who do anted up $400 million, the Post reported.

David and Charles Koch, two of the leaders of the extremist anti-worker, anti-union, anti-freedom crusade in the U.S., outdid that all by themselves.

The Kochs aren't the only right-wingers who have drowned our democracy under their cascade of money, manipulating the political system and forcing policy solutions that benefit themselves and bury us. They're just the biggest of the bunch.

Another such outfit, Crossroads, organized by anti-worker GOP President George W. Bush's former evil eminence, Karl Rove, threw in another $325 million, CREW and the Post reported.

The results show up in your lives. One example: A U.S. House of UnRepresentatives, where the tea party GOP runs the show, denying unemployment benefits, killing jobs bills and more. Another: State legislatures gerrymandered so badly they give constant tax cuts to the rich while outlawing union dues, abolishing teacher tenure, gutting your pensions and banning you from voting, among other actions.

Throw in a right wing GOP governor in Michigan who first yanked most state funds for Detroit and then forced the majority-minority city into bankruptcy. And a right wing GOP governor in Wisconsin who blasted public workers to kingdom come (unless they backed him in 2010).

The net of what you have from this cascade of corporate cash - from the Kochs and their ilk - that funded these politicians is a lot of pain and suffering by you and me.

All thanks to the 5-man GOP majority on the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. political system was already tilted heavily in favor of big business, the rich and the Radical Right. Citizens United only made it more so, by letting them do their damnedest to shut the rest of us out, completely. And they did.

That's why mid-January is an unhappy anniversary. Because it's the anniversary of a ruling that took our rights - our civil rights and our economic rights - away.

Photo: Activists with Health Care for America Now and other groups "rename" the Supreme Court the "U.S. Supreme Koch" with a giant 30-foot banner, Jan. 19, 2012.

New York's tale of two cities extends to America

Fri, 03 Jan 2014 15:11:00 +0000

During his Jan. 1 inauguration speech New York City's new mayor, Bill de Blasio, pledged to take "dead aim" at the Big Apple's obscene wealth gap. He had called it a "tale of two cities" throughout his campaign yet reaffirmed in his speech that ending the "economic and social inequalities that threaten to unravel the city we love" wasn't just cheap talk to get elected, but the central tenet of his administration's agenda.

The city's other new top officials, Public Advocate Leticia James and Comptroller Scott Stringer, also made similar, if not more far-reaching, vows. James, the first woman of color to be elected to a New York citywide office, blasted the pro-Wall Street policies of outgoing Mayor Michael Bloomberg that have led to "a gilded age of inequality, where decrepit homeless shelters and housing developments stand in the neglected shadow of gleaming, multi-million-dollar condos."

Stringer said he would pursue a progressive and "fiscally responsible" agenda that can "lift up every New Yorker," making the point that the two are not mutually exclusive.

New York is an exceptional city, but its problems are not unique. What de Blasio described as the "quiet crisis" of wealth disparities plagues every city in America. Indeed it is a runaway train that threatens havoc not only for urban America, but for town and suburb, reservation and village alike. For this writer, coming from Chicago, where the current mayor has earned the title of "Mayor One Percent," the promise to change policies that favor the super-wealthy is music to my ears.

But the crisis doesn't look the same in every place. Detroit - a city that could also be described as singular - confronts bankruptcy brought on by years of class and racial inequalities, economic and social conditions that in fine and medium grain detail differ greatly from New York's. As different as Cadillac is from credit default swaps. Yet, all cities struggle, in one way or another, over public services, especially public education, pensions, taxes, jobs and wages, affordable housing and racial bias in law enforcement and criminal justice policies.

Residents of cities large and small see their public schools starved for funding, while corporate reforms such as private EMOs (education maintenance organizations) and charter schools siphon public monies. Low-wage jobs in food and retail sectors hold back urban economies. Mass transit systems languish and police policies that target black and brown young men for harassment continue to feed the younger generation into the "prison-industrial complex."

The unfortunate list could continue, and with each problem class and racial inequities increase and intensify. Some call this "neoliberal urbanism," in which capital markets have free reign over the local economy and with it comes social, political and ideological rule. To put it another way, the crisis of the cities is rooted in capitalism.

The struggle forward takes on many forms and takes place in many arenas with different coalitions and movements. The de Blasio victory has offered new hope that a national progressive shift on tackling the wealth and racial inequities plaguing our country's cities is in the making.

In early December, de Blasio and more than a dozen other mayors-elect were invited to the White House to meet with President Obama. Afterward, de Blasio described a commonality of interests among the mayors that could be the basis of a national movement.

"Something is going on here" when you have mayors nationwide telling the president the same thing regarding poverty and early childhood education, de Blasio said after the meeting.

"Fighting inequality is the mission of our times," he said.

Such a movement - one that combines struggles against class and racial inequities - has the corporate titans and their champions worried. De Blasio, like Obama, will be challenged by events and a fierce opposition, the far-right in the first place. Wall Street will make sure of that. Giant corporations have been feeding off the taxpayer trough for decades whether through privatization of public resources or tax subsidies and credits for the promise of jobs.

An example: recently the Chicago Mercantile Exchange - one of the largest financial institutions in the world - was awarded $15 million by the city of Chicago to pay for bathroom renovations in exchange for a few hundred jobs and a promise to stay in Chicago until 2017. In other words, the city was willing to pay the ransom after the exchange threatened to move. After public protest, the exchange rejected the money.

The progressive movement, too, will be challenged to break out of its comfort zone and build coalitions with allies, starting with the labor movement, and to go beyond its current reach. Basic to addressing the problems of inequality is to implement a new green industrial policy that is based on union wages. Rebuilding bridges, factories and providing affordable housing is unavoidable. That means national and state solutions. The 2014 midterm elections are certain to be part of the challenge. If the tea party Republicans succeed in continuing their rule in Congress and statehouses, then the renewed impetus for a national progressive movement to end poverty and racial inequities will face a much bigger mountain to climb.

Photo: Homeless man sleeps on a New York City subway train. There are some 22,000 homeless children in NYC. (Vinh-Luan Luu/CC)