People Before Profit blog

NAACP: Over a century of struggle

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:47:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - Since its founding 102 years ago, the NAACP has grown steadily and although moments of fluctuation were unavoidable, the organization has always been at the forefront in the fight for civil rights and social justice, especially in communities of color.

During the 37th Annual National Membership Luncheon here recently, several NAACP leaders addressed the current obstacles and challenges facing the African American community and all working people.

Ben Todd Jealous, CEO and president of the NAACP, thanked the crowd on the groups rising membership.

"Even in the midst of all those battles, making sure that membership has continued to go up every single year for the past three years ... let's keep it going. Let's keep building the strength of this great association," Jealous said.

Hill Harper, famous actor on TV's "CSI: New York" and Harvard Law alumni, also addressed the luncheon.

"You turn on cable news right now, this second and what is the number one thing folks are talking about? They're talking about the debt ceiling, right? It's dominating the news. Yet, my friend, Jamal Simmons, pointed out to me just last night. He said, Hill, if you go across this country and you poll people [on] what's the most important issues to them, well over 50 percent of the country will tell you the economy and jobs-and just under 10 percent will tell you the national debt. However, there's a group of smaller than 10 percent of this country, that is so well organized and so vocal that they have basically taken over the government in the governmental discourse!" Harper said.

He noted that 10 percent are represented by a small group of right-wing extremists and the tea party. Harper encouraged activists to remain vigilant and active.

"Because at the end of the day, if you're just standing still and other people are moving forward, you're actually regressive," he emphasized.

In an email, President and CEO of NAACP Ben Todd Jealous urged the rest of the NAACP and its allies to put pressure on Congress to raise the debt ceiling.

"Congress will soon vote on whether or not to raise the debt ceiling. It's imperative to our country-especially to our most vulnerable populations-that our nation's line of credit is extended in order to maintain our economic strength and preserve programs like Medicaid and student loans that are crucial to working-class Americans," Jealous wrote.

A recurring theme highlighted in several workshops and speeches during NAACP's conference was the necessity for activism, on an individual member basis and on a structured higher organizational level as well-and without voting, very little of any reforms can be accomplished.

Reverend William Barber, president of the NAACP North Carolina state conference reiterated the NAACP was created in 1909 with the mission to promote civil rights, including "to secure them impartial suffrage for voting."

Barber added, "We declare today, here at the beginning of the 21st century, that the NAACP must still lead the effort to protect the power, the necessity and the potential of the Black vote. We must fight any attempt to suppress, segregate and isolate or steal this power. The reason we are here in this plenary session is that the vote directly impacts everything we fight for: equal protection of the law, educational equality, and economic justice [and] access to healthcare."

He continued, "We understand that this so called 'debt crisis' has been created by the ultra-conservative extreme right, it is not just about stopping President Obama, but it is an attempt to finalize a 40-year strategy to undermine, under fund and destroy every program since Social Security was enacted in 1935."

Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP Mississippi state conference, was a panelist in a workshop. He said the NAACP is the solution to securing proper reforms through the Obama administration by first and foremost securing the president's second term in 2012.

"We are the best positioned to do it because we have the people on the ground. Every state is at play in 2012, we need to focus on every state, and voter populations have changed," said Johnson. "We have to be more strategic in our thinking and more deliberative in our process. We need to develop the infrastructure of our organization. Our challenge is how do we get the best and the brightest in our community engaged in this process that is greater than them? That they see through the study of our history that this game is not about fairness. It's about power. If we lose these elections, we will lose our ability to have anything," he declared.

Carlos Ferns, vice president of NAACP from Carson-Torrance, said Obama's 2008 election has seen an upsurge in membership.

However Mia McNulty, a member in Ferns same district, pointed out that Obama's victory did not end major issues and problems confronting the black and brown community. She noted the NAACP was leading organizing drives prior to Obama's election.

"Our bad times didn't just start because he became president - or got better when he was president. When Obama became president I think a lot of people joined (the NAACP), maybe a 10 to 15 percent increase. But there was 20 to 30 percent of negativity and racism going on in the [black and brown] community," said McNulty.

On the one hand, it's progress and on the other hand it's not because racist hate crimes went up and continue to rise, she said. She mentioned a noose was recently sighted at Santa Monica High School about two to three weeks ago. Even two-and-half years after the country's first African American president was elected, we're still seeing the backlash, she said.

Photo: NAACP luncheon. Luis Rivas/PW.

Correction Aug. 3: An earlier posting mistakenly had the incident reported in the last paragraph as happening at Santa Monica College.

White House to boost fuel economy standards

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:39:00 +0000

The average car fuel economy will nearly double by 2025 to almost 55 miles per gallon, President Obama announced July 29 at a White House gathering that included both auto company executives and UAW representatives.

The President said that higher fuel efficiency standards are part of his energy policy, which aims to decrease dependence on oil, to help Americans save money on gas and to reduce pollution caused by auto emissions.

The rise in fuel efficiency standards will mean big savings at the pump, the president said. "Think about what this means. It means that filling up your car every two weeks instead of filling it up every week. It will save a typical family more than $8,000 in fuel costs over time."

In the subsequent 15 years, oil usage would be reduced by more than 2 million barrels per day and reduce oil imports by one-third.

Less oil usage "means we're reducing the carbon pollution that threatens our climate," he added.

President Obama explained that his goal is to combine reduced oil consumption with new incentives for renewable energy sources and an end to special tax subsidies for oil companies.

In separate remarks, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said, "American consumers are calling for cleaner cars that won't pollute their air or break their budgets at the gas pump, and our innovative American automakers are responding with plans for some of the most fuel efficient vehicles in our history."

The administration's announcement won praise from environmental groups, despite the fact that they favored an average fuel economy standard of 60 mpg.

"After decades of inaction and stagnation," said Michael Brune, Sierra Club executive director, "President Obama has ensured 15 years of continuous progress to help cut our dangerous addiction to oil, create American jobs, save families money at the pump, curb life-threatening pollution and tackle climate disruption."

"Today's announcement is a win for everyone," he said.

Brune warned, however, that the administration should avoid creating new loopholes or exceptions that weaken the standard as it is finalized this fall.

Is snail mail on its last legs?

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:26:00 +0000

The United States Postal Service has announced that it will examine 3,700 post offices for the possibility of closure. However, it will also analyze its overall retail strategy and attempt to partner with small businesses across the country.

The post office is required to cut $20 billion from its operating budget by 2015 and is "losing revenue as we speak," according to Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe.

In response to the looming crisis, said Donahoe, "We are going to make significant changes in the way our customers interact with the postal service."

Most of the post offices being reviewed were selected because they saw little foot traffic and averaged about $50 a day, while seeing less than two hours of work. In other words, many of these locations were most likely in small or rural towns, where people rely on traditional mail, even if customers overall are dwindling in those areas.

Dean Granholm, vice president of delivery and post office operations, said that because revenue is quickly declining at these locations, 4,000 to 4,500 employees could lose their jobs.

"Cutting post offices is not the solution to the problem," said Sally Davidow, spokeswoman for the American Postal Workers Union, which represents 220,000 employees.

One solution Granholm sees is the post office's plan to roll out "Village Post Offices," which would be the result of a partnership with small businesses. The offices, said the report, would give customers access to collection boxes, post office boxes and prepaid Priority Mail Flat Rate boxes and envelopes. The Village Post Offices would be staffed by the small businesses they unite with.

This move, said Donahoe, would contribute revenue to small businesses and keep those people employed, while stimulating the economy by increasing traffic and sales.

Remarked Donahoe, "It gives small businesses the opportunity to stay open and stay vibrant in the community."

The post office will release the initial series of Village offices in autumn, and 2,500 offices within a year.

In the age of email and social networking, many people have contemplated whether the relevance of snail mail is waning. But, although Canada, for instance, has seen a 17 percent drop in mail delivery in recent years, according to the Canadian Press, rumors that traditional mail is rapidly approaching its 11th hour are grossly exaggerated.

Jon Hamilton, a spokesman for the Canadian Postal Service, commented, "There's no question the Internet is having a profound impact on the postal system, but we still have a huge letter mailing business, one of the biggest parcel businesses in Canada, and ... we can get to the mailbox of every Canadian and actually put something in their hand."

In the U.S., moreover, where mail volume has decreased by 45.1 billion pieces in the past five years, the post office still employs three times as many union members as the country's auto industry. It is vital to providing jobs to working-class Americans, regardless of the progress of email.

According to EdgeMark, it is not only possible, but important, for snail mail and electronic mail to co-exist, as each has specific benefits. President Obama's election campaign, for example, used both the Internet and direct mail to reach voters, and each method was important in its own way.

But it is traditional mail that is seeing valuable union jobs threatened, and, in addition to the danger of closing locations, the Postal Service is now looking to end mail delivery on Saturdays. But within the system itself, there is debate over whether a five-day delivery plan would actually solve anything.

The union and various other postal employee organizations have emphasized the negative impact that move would have on employment and have urged Congress to protect six-day delivery, noted Postal News Blog.

The APWU outlined important facts, one of which is that there would be a loss of 80,000 jobs or more if Saturday delivery were eliminated. Another is that residents of rural towns, or those who are disadvantaged or elderly, depend on the USPS for things like prescription drugs. Also, millions of businesses receive important parcels on Saturday, the report noted.

In order to really drive the message home about the union-mail relationship, the APWU started an organizing drive on July 25, connecting with potential members across the country and educating them on the importance of the union. The campaign highlighted the post office's ongoing financial crisis and the damage it could inflict upon workers.

"The postal service is in danger of collapse," said APWU President Cliff Guffey, "and our members' jobs are threatened. Locals and state organizations must continue the organizing campaign. Bringing in new members is essential to our survival."

Photo: The American Postal Workers Union building in Washington, D.C., via Wikipedia.

APALA fights wage theft

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 13:38:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. - Among important themes at the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance convention here July 21-24 were the importance of labor's united fight for low-wage workers' rights and the struggle for a fair immigration policy.

In opening remarks, APALA President Luisa Blue set the stage: "It will take all of us to change things in corporate America," where unions are under attack and the right is blaming workers for the current crisis, she said.

Panels featured gripping accounts of low-wage workers' problems.

Speaking in Chinese, former restaurant worker Eun Yan detailed her experiences. "We had no minimum wage, no overtime, no breaks, no benefits," she said. Kitchen prep was "difficult, dirty work," the hours were long and managers constantly yelled at the workers.

Yan highlighted the Chinese Progressive Association's report, Check Please, issued last October, which details the violations of labor rights experienced by many Chinese restaurant workers in San Francisco.

"This doesn't just happen to Chinese restaurant workers," Yan said. "It's widespread among all groups, and also affects domestic and construction workers. It hurts families, consumers and overall economic development."

Yan ended up with a workplace injury that she said makes it hard to write or to hold a glass of water.

Che Wong, now a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 6, told another wage theft story. When he came to the U.S., he said, his English was limited. He worked for NBC Contractors, a now-defunct firm that was engaged in construction projects around the San Francisco Bay Area, many of them publicly funded.

Injured on the job, he was ordered by owner Monica Ung not to report the incident. She promised to pay all of Wong's expenses. But he was fired three weeks later.

Upon joining the IBEW, Wong learned Ung had cheated the largely immigrant NBC workforce of most of their wages.

After a campaign led by the IBEW, the Alameda Labor and Building Trades Councils and APALA, Ung was convicted on two felony counts earlier this year, and sentenced to pay millions of dollars in restitution to the workers and to the State of California.

Nor is wage theft just a Bay Area issue. In an interview, APALA Fresno chapter member Bella Barela said large companies in California's Central Valley are also stealing wages, including not paying workers for time on the job beyond eight hours. Deportations are also a problem there. "We are working to share our culture, and to help people understand that these are not just Mexican-American issues," she said.

In Los Angeles, building owners are increasingly hiring workers through the underground economy, paying substandard wages, making illegal deductions from their pay, and violating federal health and safety standards, IBEW Local 11 and APALA member Tommy Faadvae said. "We're fighting against this; we want building owners to be fully accountable."

Other panels focused on the urgency of immigration reform, including stopping the deportation of immigrants and passing the DREAM Act, to open a path to citizenship for young undocumented immigrants who graduate from a four-year college or serve in the military.

In impassioned remarks, Kent Wong, APALA National Executive Board member and director of the Center for Labor Research at the University of California, Los Angeles, called the U.S. Senate's blockage of the DREAM Act "an act of racism" that has "completely shut down the aspirations and hopes for the future" of large numbers of students.

"We are here today to tell members of Congress to pass the DREAM Act, to pass immigration reform, and to call on President Obama to stop the deportations," Wong said.

Photo: Marilyn Bechtel/PW

NAACP calls for end to "war on drugs"

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 13:11:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - During its convention this week, the NAACP put forth a resolution publically calling an end to the failed 40-year drug war. In 1971, at the behest of President Nixon, the U.S. government launched a campaign against drugs, and, incidentally, an assault against the African American community.

In the resolution, NAACP President and CEO Ben Todd Jealous pointed out the failures of the war on drugs and the specific targeting of African Americans in poor and working-class communities. According to Jealous, there is an annual $40 billion funding for the war on drugs campaign. He went on to say that African Americans are 13 times more likely to go to jail for a same drug-related offense than a white person.

Alice Huffman, president of the California State Conference of the NAACP, said that this war on drugs is directly causing African Americans to be "under lock and key," and she called for it to be "exposed and eradiated."

The NAACP, through its resolution, puts forth the alternative: to focus on a more rehabilitative strategy in dealing with drug users and offenders.

Robert Rooks, criminal justice director for the NAACP, has said statistics show that the war on drugs has failed, that drug use and addiction rates have not decreased.

"The only thing we've accomplished is becoming the world's largest incarcerator, sending people with mental health and addiction issues to prison, and creating a system of racial disparities that rivals Jim Crow policies of the 1960s," Rooks said.

After the Board of Directors ratifies the resolution in October, it will call for 1,200 active NAACP units to organize campaigns to end the war on drugs.

Photo: The NAACP's Hill Harper addresses the convention. Luis Rivas/PW

Rally: Hands off big 3 - Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (video)

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 12:15:00 +0000

WOODLAWN, Md. - It was billed as a vigil, but it was clearly a thumpin' rally of 300 people saying "Hands off Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid."

Organized by the Maryland-DC AFL-CIO, the July 25 after-work rally was held at the national headquarters of Social Security in this Baltimore suburb. Featured speakers included Fred Mason, Jr., president of the Maryland-DC AFL-CIO; John Gage, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees; representatives from half a dozen local and regional unions; and regular working folks who related how the Republican and tea party-proposed cuts will affect them, their co-workers, families and children.

Strong contingents from SEIU and AFSCME were present, as well as from AFGE, whose members work in the Social Security complex in front of which the rally was held. People driving by in buses, cars, trucks, and cabs honked and waved in support. Other unions represented included OPEIU, UFCW, AFT/BTU, Seafarers, the postal workers' union, as well as the AFL-CIO State Federation, Baltimore Central Labor Council and A. Phillip Randolph Institute. Allied groups included the NAACP, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, I Can-You Can, Healthcare for the Homeless, Charm City Labor Chorus, the Communist Party and others.

In the crowd were supporters wearing colorful union T-shirts as well as shirts saying, "Senior Truth Squad" and "Support the Wisconsin Workers."

An AFGE member speaking to the crowd confirmed that she and her co-workers are instructed to say, "We don't know" when people call to question whether they will get their Social Security checks if Congress doesn't pass debt ceiling legislation. "It is unacceptable to have to say, "I don't know" to retired or disabled people," she said. "Cutting funds to run Social Security and cutbacks to seniors so millionaires can enjoy their pools and yachts is unacceptable."

State federation President Fred Mason asked the crowd to take out their cell phones. He then held up a poster with the number of the Senate switchboard and asked people then and there to "call senators Cardin and Mikulski to tell them to vote no to cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid." Mason stated, "These cuts have the potential of creating a 'killing field' for the elderly."

John Gage told the crowd, "We're not through in Wisconsin ...Right now we're standing here saying "Hands off," but maybe it's time to sit down again. We're not going back, sisters and brothers, we're not going back!"

Mason reiterated: "There's a right-wing virus going through the country, and it's up to us to stop it."

Obama calls for unity, immigration reform at La Raza meet

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:29:00 +0000

President Barack Obama was welcomed by thousands attending the National Council of La Raza's annual conference in Washington D.C. this week, where he delivered a major speech.

The national meeting brought together thousands of experts, policy makers, activists and young people to discuss several pressing issues facing the Latino community.

Obama highlighted the contributions Latinos in his administration are making on behalf of their communities and the American people.

He mentioned a recent meeting at the White House that brought together 100 Latino officials who met with Latino leaders from across the country.

At that meeting Obama recalled saying, "We need your voice. Your country needs you. Our American family will only be as strong as our growing Latino community."

Obama reiterated, "We're still climbing out of a vicious recession that has hit Latino families especially hard."

He said his number one priority is to figure out how to get businesses to hire people and create jobs with decent wages. He said there are hundreds of thousands of construction workers, many of them Latino, who recently lost their jobs. These workers, Obama said, should be helping to build roads, bridges, new schools, and airports across the country.

He assured attendees that such jobs measures would be signed into law if Congress would send them to his desk.

Obama noted the debt-ceiling debate and how it would directly impact every American if Congress cannot resolve the problem.

"Both parties have a responsibility to come together and solve this problem and make sure the American people are not hurt," he said. "We can't just close the deficit by cuts to spending. It's not fair and it doesn't make sense to put this problem on the backs of the middle class and poor families. The best way is a balanced approach - one where the wealthiest Americans and big corporations pay their fair share too."

Obama said he intends to keep his promise to ensure that America remains a place where opportunities are open to all who work, including immigrants.

We need an immigration system that holds true to our American values, he said, noting, it's not only a moral issue, but an economic imperative.

"This country has always been made stronger because of immigrants," said Obama.

He added, "We have a system that separates families, and punishes innocent young people for their parents' actions by denying them the chance to earn an education or contribute to our economy or serve in our military."

The president told the audience he understands the real pain and heartbreak that deportations are causing under his administration. As much as he'd like to change the laws by himself, he said, that's not how our democracy or our constitution works.

Five years ago, immigration reform was a bipartisan effort and Republicans helped draft the DREAM Act, said Obama. But today many of those GOP leaders are walking away from any reform, he continued.

"Feel free to keep the heat on me and on the Democrats. But you should know the Democrats and your president are with you. Don't get confused by that," said Obama.

"I need you to keep building a movement for change outside of Washington, one they cannot stop" he added. "I will be there every step of the way. I will keep up this fight."

In conclusion, Obama urged unity. "It's up to us, Latino, black, white, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled," to continue the stories of those who sacrificed in order to give their children a better future.

During the conference a straw poll was conducted in partnership with Lake Research Partners and Revolution Messaging via text message with 547 supporters and NCLR attendees.

The poll found that immigration overwhelmingly trumped both the economy and education as the most important issue facing Latinos. Almost half (45 percent) of all respondents chose immigration as the top issue, as opposed to jobs and the economy (25 percent), education (21 percent) and health care (6 percent).

Janet Murguía, NCLR president and CEO said, "This should be a wake-up call to politicians on both sides of the aisle that inaction on this issue will be a huge factor in the upcoming elections."

While nearly 80 percent of respondents said they plan on voting for Obama in the upcoming election, only 29 percent "strongly approved" of the president's job performance, whereas 44 percent "somewhat approved" and 27 percent "disapproved."

Photo: President Obama waves as he prepares to walks off stage after delivering remarks at the NCLR conference, July 25, 2011. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Gay rights are civil rights, says NAACP's Julian Bond

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:55:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - The NAACP at its convention here boldly held a public forum July 25 on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender issues, specifically dealing with homophobia and transgender prejudice within the African American community.

In the last two years the NAACP, with the leadership of Chairman Emeritus Julian Bond, put together a LGBT taskforce to help the African American community fight the challenges of homophobia and transgender discrimination.

Bond spoke on the taskforce's three-part mission:

to strengthen NAACP's knowledge of LGBT issues and policies;
to build relationships among LGBT civil rights and human rights organizations;
to advance awareness of LGBT issues "as they relate to overarching programs and interest of the NAACP."

In his opening, Bond, a veteran civil rights leader, said, "We know sexual orientation is not a choice. We know homosexuality is not a mental illness. We know you can't 'pray the gay away.'"

The event was organized as a town hall-styled meeting with audience participation and a panel that included famous gay African Americans, like comedian and actress Wanda Sykes and CNN Anchor Don Lemon who publicly came out in his memoir, "Transparent."

Bond said gay rights are another component of civil rights.

"Sexual disposition parallels race. I was born black and had no choice. I could not and will not change it if I could. Like race, our sexuality isn't preference. It is immutable, unchangeable, and the constitution protects us all from prejudices and discrimination based on immutable differences."

Many panelists and audience members spoke about the role of the church in the Black community, and the conflicts that have arisen from that relationship on the issue of LGBT rights.

Bond said although one might be a member of a church that preaches against a religious same-sex marriage that viewpoint should not be extended to same-sex marriage in city halls, as a civil right.

Sykes said her church experience pressured her from being truthful with her sexuality because of the ingrained notion that gay and lesbian relationships were fundamentally wrong. Such sermonizing can be lethal, she said, because of bullying and violence against LGBT youth and the high level of suicides.

"You just suppress everything and become this other person. You start living that life that you think that you're supposed to do. I worked it so hard I got married! It just hit me, like, wait a minute. Why aren't my relationships going further? Why can't I really open up? And I realized oh, that's right. I forgot; I'm a lesbian! That's what it is. You don't have breasts!" Sykes said to an applauding and laughing audience.

Sykes and other panelists urged the formations of social support groups, including within churches.

Halfway through the meeting, NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous joined the panelists on stage.

Jealous has been an outspoken supporter of LGBT issues and spoke briefly on his adopted brother being gay, and instances of defending him during childhood from bullies.

The discussion turned to California's anti-same-sex marriage Prop. 8 that passed in 2008. Many people blamed it on African American voters who came out in big numbers to vote for Barack Obama.

But, according to Jealous-and audience members-the bigger issue was the lack of outreach to the African American community at an early stage.

Jealous criticized LGBT groups "who come to the black community late" because it sends a message of disrespect.

"If folks really wanted to win on Prop. 8, and thought the black community was so important, then they should have been organizing" outreach a lot sooner, he said.

Bond and other panelists vowed that the NAACP will work harder, including on less-talked about transgender issues and discrimination, and organize grassroots style to include LGBT issues in a civil rights agenda.

Photo: NAACP hosts town-hall meeting on LGBT issues in Los Angeles, July 25. (Luis Rivas/PW)

Right wing leading on social media, survey suggests

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:34:00 +0000

A survey conducted by the Congressional Management Foundation has found that Republicans might be ahead of Democrats in the race to control the world of social media, The Hill reports.

The survey, conducted between October and December 2010, was of 260 congressional staffers. Of those, Democrats said their offices spent much less time online, compared to Republicans.

At one time, the GOP was not considered the most web-savvy bunch. Arizona Sen. John McCain said during the 2008 campaign that he didn't even have an email address.

Today, things are a little different.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has used Twitter not only to post hateful comments, but, some point out, to make her own commentary while sidestepping questions from reporters and voters.

It suggests a troubling question about what the consequences could be when social networking is misused.

On all sides of the political arena, candidates and contenders have been utilizing the Internet to rally people to their cause, aid their campaigns, and connect with people in general. Depending on who uses it, and for what reason, this could be a good thing, or a bad one.

Bradford Fitch, president and CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation, told The Hill, "In every single category of online activity, Democrats [believe] their office spends too little time on online communications.

"Other studies have shown that, in terms of volume, Republicans were certainly more active on Twitter."

He also warned, "Our research does show that when one party in online communications gets a lead or gets ahead of the other party in the chamber, it's kind of hard to catch up."

He noted, however, that the focus of the study was not to specifically target how much social networks were utilized (or by whom), but rather to examine the overall use of social media in general on Capitol Hill. As a result, the CMF did not reach a definitive conclusion as to whether Republicans have truly outnumbered Democrats on social networks. Still, Fitch called the survey results "very interesting," and said that the CMF plans to explore this further, and in greater detail.

Many congressional staffers called Facebook, Twitter and YouTube positive and significant tools for understanding constituents' views. But they also maintained that "old school methods" - like district events, town hall meetings, and phone calls, faxes, and emails from voters - were still of great importance.

Another report, by Brand React, has called social media, specifically Twitter, an "American soapbox" on which politicians can speak directly to their constituents. It cited President Obama's Twitter Town Hall event in July 2011, during which over 70,000 people tweeted questions and comments to the president, ranging from topics like jobs and housing to the legalization of marijuana.

That report concluded by noting that while government and social media have engaged in a casual alliance, people in power are still trying to determine how best to utilize these tools.

Meanwhile, unions and other working class and progressive groups are actively developing their use of online social media to organize and lobby. They will also have to keep an eye on what the right wing is doing with social media, and how to deal with it.

Photo: President Barack Obama tweets at the July 2011 Twitter Town Hall event. Pete Souza / Wikipedia

GOP launches "race to the bottom" for Michigan environment

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

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Republicans in the state legislature do not care about Michigan's people or its natural resources, charged labor and environmental activists in response to pending legislation designed to weaken the state's environmental protections.

At a July 26 press conference held on the shores of Grand River in downtown Grand Rapids, representatives of the Blue Green Alliance and We Are the People explained that the Republican-authored HB 4326 and SB 272 would prohibit state agencies and government entities from adopting rules regarding environmental policy that are stronger than current federal law.

This "no stricter than a federal bill" rule ties the state's hands, Mike Berkowitz, a chapter organizer with the Michigan Sierra Club, said. He noted that deferring to federal law means that issues unique to the Great Lakes and the state will not receive special attention.

"This legislation sends a clear message that state politicians don't think the Great Lakes are worth protecting," he added.

Sue Levy, United Auto Workers Region 1D Community Action Program coordinator, said, "State politicians need to get their priorities straight."

The law would strip the state of its authority to protect natural resources as well as to guarantee important health and safety protections in the workplace for Michigan workers, unless those rules are already mandated by Washington.

"Instead of stripping important workplace and environmental protections, our elected leaders should focus on rebuilding our economy and creating jobs for working and middle-class families," Levy said.

Past experiences where state agencies moved on their own to address phosphorous and mercury poisoning in the Great Lakes show why these unique problems can't wait for Washington to notice them.

The specific needs of this state - protections for the environment and workers - cannot be left up to bickering Washington politicians, Berkowitz said, pointing to the current impasse over the debt ceiling.

"Racing to the bottom on environmental protection and worker safety isn't a jobs plan for Michigan," added Mark Schauer, national co-chair of the BlueGreen Alliance Jobs 21! campaign.

"In fact, it's the opposite. We need a 21st century plan to spur innovation, break our dependence on foreign oil, and protect workers. These proposals don't do that," Schauer said.

"Economies are built on their assets. Michigan has two great assets: its people and its natural resources," Schauer explained. "Economies that value those resources create the right incentives to grow new jobs needed in the 21st century. Michigan's is unique in its assets." Unfortunately, the speakers made clear, Republicans in the state government have shown they do not care about protecting those assets.

"We've got the best innovators in the world, the best workers in the world. The question is do we value them?" Schauer said.

He said that after eight years of serious attention to developing Michigan's green economy with new investments in solar, wind and biomass renewable energy sources, Republican efforts to scale back this innovation are already driving job creators out of the state. Last April, he noted, a Michigan-based company chose to open a solar-power equipment operation in Ontario rather than here in Michigan.

Republican policies are already driving out green jobs, Schauer suggested.

The law will also cost Michigan taxpayers more, according to the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency. It found the law would "increase the cost of processing administrative rules by the several departments and agencies."

Photo: Joel Wendland/PW.

NAACP confronts new Jim Crow racism

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:03:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - Thousands of people gathered here July 25 to hear NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous and other speakers address the struggles of African Americans in the United States at the organization's 102^nd convention.

African Americans have made great strides since the founding, 102 years ago, of the NAACP, and especially since the modern-day civil rights movement, Jealous said, but it's not over yet.

"Ladies and gentlemen, these are the best of times and-if we are honest with ourselves, in too many places-they are the worst of times. We have our first black president. We have our first black female CEO of a fortune 500 company. Oprah owns a TV network. Tyler Perry owns movie studios. And every city has its resident black millionaires. And we are duly proud of all of them," he said.

"And yet at the same time poverty is at depression-era levels. Home ownership is down. Foreclosures are up. HIV rates among black and brown kids are way too high. And high school graduate rates are way too low."

Jealous spoke about the recent union-busting and voter suppression legislation that have plagued many states across the nation recently.

The ability to vote is of fundamental importance, Jealous said, upon which all other rights rest.

He spoke specifically on states' laws that limit early voting, eliminate same-day voter registration and implement specialized voter ID cards for people- likening these measures to a new Jim Crow poll tax.

But, he added, disenfranchising ex-felons is Jim Crow.

"All of it is under attack: the right to organize, the right to choose, the right for immigrants in this country to be treated with basic human respect, the right for people to have a fair shot at employment and business opportunities, and event the right to vote itself. And let us be very clear that that last right, the right to vote, is the right upon which all of our rights are leveraged," he said.

"In Florida this year, the Republican Governor promoted and signed a new order that requires five to seven year mandatory waiting period for formerly incarcerated persons voting rights to be restored. While voter ID and registration ID are like Jim Crow, ex-felon disenfranchisement laws are Jim Crow," Jealous said.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded in Feb. 12, 1909 as a response to the lynching of African Americans and the 1908 race riot in Springfield, Ill., the resting place of President Abraham Lincoln. Sixty people, many white liberals with abolitionist roots, signed a call for action on racial justice. Seven of the signers were African American, including Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Mary Church Terrell and W.E.B. Du Bois. The group's founding mission was to ensure "political, educational, social and economic equality of minority group citizens of United States and eliminate race prejudice."

In another powerful speech, veteran civil rights attorney Leo Branton, Jr. linked racism with political oppression and anti-communism.

Judge Greg Mathis, founder of the Prisoner Empowerment Education and Respect Initiative and NACCP board member, introduced Branton, who has been practicing law for 62 years, taking many politically and racially charged cases, including defending members of the Black Panther Party and the Communist Party. Perhaps his most famous case was successfully defending then-CPUSA member and activist Angela Davis.

Branton worked with Paul Robeson, famous African American singer, actor, activist and Communist, and joined the protests against the execution Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953.

"The [19]50s were dominated by fear created by the Un-American Activities Committee and the fear of communism throughout the United States and the attack on everyone who believed in civil liberties by calling them communist or communist sympathizers," Branton said.

"This period was known as McCarthy era: when the country was always put in fear that the Un-American Activities Committee who called people before the committee to ask them whether or not they were then or have ever been a members of the Communist Party," he said.

He went out to site the numerous repercussions caused by the Committee, how people lost their jobs through being blacklisted, went to jail, and the overall damage caused to democracy.

Branton himself was blacklisted. But it was not by an employer or government agency. The Los Angeles Chapter of the NAACP blacklisted him by denying him to a convention many years ago because of his being "too close to the Communist Party."

"The NAACP refused to accept me as a delegate to that convention. I became estranged from the NAACP-in Los Angeles-and remained estranged from them even until today," Branton said.

Immediately after his speech, Jealous apologized to Branton, and the crowd gave Branton a standing ovation.

Photo: Ben Jealous addresses the convention. Luis Rivas/PW

Finally, a new hospital rises in post-Katrina St. Bernard

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:50:00 +0000

ARABI, La. - For six years now people in St. Bernard Parish and New Orleans East have had to drive many miles, often taking an hour or more, to get to an emergency room.

Hurricane Katrina destroyed area hospitals . The slowness to rebuild the health care system served the interests of those seeking to permanently remove poor people and many working families from the area, union leaders and others here say.

"You can't come back and rebuild a life for you and your family when you can't even get basic health care services," said Chad Lauga, political action director for Local 130 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, who grew up in the area.

"For that reason," said Lauga, "unions have taken up the fight for restoring health care facilities and building new ones where they are needed. Here in St. Bernard we've had a small victory in this regard."

Lauga was referring to the St. Bernard Medical Center, a small public hospital under construction here. "Besides meeting urgent health care needs, the project is providing jobs for union workers at union wages," he said.

The new 40-bed hospital, being built with federal funds, will have an emergency room, three operating rooms, medical offices, diagnostic labs, a cardiology department and staff positions for doctors and nurses.

It will mean that people in Arabi and nearby Chalmette and New Orleans East will be able to get emergency room and other health care services in a modern facility rather than in FEMA trailers. The new hospital is rising in back of the parking lot where the trailers now sit.

Gary Skumata, 50, is one of 18 IBEW members on the hospital construction site. "People with children were afraid to come back. Now, for many of them, it will be easier to come back," he said, as he looked out at the rising frame of the new hospital from his window in the construction trailer.

"Right now, if you were seriously injured the best you could hope for in this area is some professional help in about 40 minutes," he said. "That's too long if things are really serious."

"If you have elderly family members you can't bring them back yet, not until this hospital is built."

Skumata says projections are to complete the project in a year but that there is still an urgent need for additional funds.

"Things get held up for lack of money. There are problems getting the money to bring equipment in for the MRI room and the CAT scan equipment is also on hold."

Skumata was clearly proud of the work being done so far by him and his fellow union members.

"You can push out that whole first floor," he said, pointing to the steel frame already constructed, "and the hospital will be able to function. Emergency generators and everything of critical importance will be above that level."

During Katrina rising floodwaters wiped out back up generators and other critical operations on the lower floors of hospitals, quickly turning entire facilities into death traps. "What we are building here," Skumata said, "hopefully won't allow that to happen again in the future."

He described how flood damage to emergency generators quickly killed the animals in the New Orleans Aquarium, even though most of the facility itself remained above water. "Of course, with widespread flooding, you still have to plan how to get fuel to those generators," he said. "The idea here will be to store what's needed and to make sure operating rooms, generators and everything else that is critical is on the upper floors."

Skumata was asked why he thought it has taken so long after Katrina for work to begin on a new hospital.

"There's a lot of needless spending going on in this country," he said. "Unfortunately, it's not easy to get them to stop that and put the money to more important things. Why do we have to spend all that money in Iraq? Shift that budget to more important things - like hospitals for the people."

Photo: Gary Skumata, IBEW member, in the construction trailer. Blake Deppe/PW

Jerry Brown signs Calif. Dream Act, part I

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:32:00 +0000

By signing the first phase of the California Dream Act July 25, Gov. Jerry Brown has made it possible for undocumented college students in the state to apply for privately funded scholarships administered through the University of California, California State University and community college systems.

The legislature had previously passed similar legislation, only to have it vetoed by former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

A companion bill, AB 131, is now before the state Senate Appropriations Committee. It would let undocumented students also apply for Cal Grants and other kinds of state financial aid.

State Senator Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, introduced both bills.

Unlike the federal DREAM Act now before Congress, California Dream Act legislation does not include any provisions regarding citizenship, an issue over which states do not have jurisdiction.

At the signing ceremony at Los Angeles City College, Brown said he is "favorably inclined" to sign AB 131 as well, but won't make a decision until it reaches his desk.

"I'm committed to expanding opportunity wherever I can find it, and certainly these kinds of bills promote a goal of a more inclusive California and a more educated California," he told reporters after the signing ceremony.

Brown called AB 130 "one piece of a very important mosaic, which is a California which works for everyone and a California that understands where our strength is."

Undocumented students who graduate from a California high school after attending for at least three years, and meet other requirements, are already eligible to pay in-state tuition under a 2001 measure, AB 540, but have not been eligible to receive financial aid.

Opponents claim the California Dream Act will take scholarship funds away from U.S. citizens. A spokesperson for the anti-immigrant Federation for American Immigration Reform said institutions that get tax exemptions shouldn't do things that encourage undocumented people to stay in the U.S.

That argument was countered in a statement issued by state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco. Said Yee, "The Dream Act is not only the right thing to do for the children of our state, but it is also the right thing to do for California's economic prosperity. We rightfully invest in all our kids with public K-12 education, and we should also invest in them with higher education."

"Regardless of the debate surrounding immigration, it's time to stop punishing kids for the decisions of their parents," Yee said.

Photo: A DREAM Action Day event in Orange County, Calif., May 2008. Korean Resource Center CC 2.0

On the Gulf, bipartisan backing for federal money, and unions

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:52:00 +0000

NEW ORLEANS - The labor movement here considers Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., a "champion." Richmond's district encompasses the endangered Avondale shipyard here. Greater New Orleans AFL-CIO President Robert "Tiger" Hammond singled out Richmond for praise, particularly after he recently introduced legislation to prevent the company that runs the shipyard, Northrop Grumman, from receiving more than $300 million in government funds it claims it is eligible for if it closes the yard.

David Magee, vice president of Local 3000 of the International Longshoremen's Associiation, asked specifically that our reporters mention Richmond's fight to expand the port's capabilities in time for the expansion of the Panama Canal next year.

"Because of Richmond's fight we will be able to handle the larger ships that will be going through the Canal," Magee said. " It means more jobs and more work for people in New Orleans."

The enormous tasks of rebuilding after Katrina also has at least one local Republican siding with the unions.

St. Bernard Parish, southeast of New Orleans, has been in need of a new hospital ever since Katrina destroyed its health care facility six years ago. The St. Bernard Health Care Center has been operating out of trailers in a parking lot. People have had to travel as much as 50 miles to get to an emergency room.

Among the fans of federally funded projects staffed by workers earning union wages is the Republican councilman in Chalmette, Ray Lauga Jr.

"No one does a job as well as union workers," he said. "After the storm hundreds of non-union contractors came in here and took the money and ran. Work, if it got done at all, was shoddy and incomplete. People were ripped off. Union workers are trained. They have pride. They do a good job. The higher wages they are paid are more than made up for by the fact that you get a good job."

Lauga helped guarantee that the contractor now working on the new St. Bernard Health Care Center hired union workers. Members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, for example, are doing all of the electrical work on the site. It is the first new hospital being built in the area since Katrina.

Lauga opposes those in his party who, for, "whatever reason," would block the use of federal funds to rebuild in their districts. "We are happy to have federal funds," he said. According to Lauga those funds amount to $70 million to build the hospital, $25 million for water treatment and $50 million for the sewer system.

"The new hospital will have 40 beds, a medical office, an emergency room and enable people in St. Bernard's, for the first time in six years, to receive care in a modern facility rather than in a FEMA trailer," said Lauga.

Lauga, who by profession is an architect, seemed to enjoy talking about the features that will be included in the new hospital.

He was asked why he has taken positions that seem to vary so much from the cut-at-all-costs and anti-union approach taken by so many Republicans nationally. "I believe in a lot of the things that Republicans believe in," he said, "but I believe first that we are all people in a common struggle. We have to pull together to overcome a big tragedy. We can't leave things up to politicians who offer no solutions or to contractors who rip everyone off. I have an 11-year-old daughter and an 84-year-old grandmother. They are more important to me than politics."

Photo: The St. Bernard Health Care Center has been operating out of trailers in a parking lot ever since Hurricane Katrina. It is finally being rebuilt, with union workers and federal funding.

Photo: Unions have worked with a local Republican council member to replace FEMA health care trailers with a new modern facility. Blake Deppe/PW

Chicago rally: Hands off Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:43:00 +0000

CHICAGO - It was 101 degrees in the shade July 21, and the humidity made it feel much worse. But that did not stop 200 white-haired retirees, disabled people in wheelchairs and younger supporters from rallying against cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Standing in front of the Social Security Offices in downtown Chicago, their shouts could be heard across the street in the offices of Republican Sen. Mark Kirk and Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin. Protesters pledged to call the senators with the message.

A message from Eleanor Roosevelt was read to the crowd by a look-alike dressed to fit the part. She scolded the heartless Congressmembers and Senators who want to cut the deficit on the backs of seniors, disabled and children. Without Social Security, she said, they would be plunged into deep poverty.

"Tax corporations and the rich" was the rally's answer to the phony budget crisis. "It's not a budget crisis," a speaker pointed out. "It's a revenue crisis." Make Wall Street and the banks pay," the protestors added.

The rally flyer stated that 43 percent of Americans use Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. The average Social Security benefit is only $1,158, but the CEO of Morgan Chase was paid $21 million last year.

The coalition that organized the rally is planning their next event. Members include the Jane Adams Senior Caucus; Illinois Association for Retired Americans; Access Illinois; SEIU health care workers; Citizen Action of Illinois; Lakeview Action Coalition; Northside People Organized to Work, Educate and Restore; and Southsiders Organizing for Unity and Liberation.

If you're in Illinois, organizers ask that you call your senators and tell them not to allow cuts to programs that benefit working people. For Sen. Kirk, dial 312-886-3506, and for Sen. Durbin, dial 312-353-4952.

1,000 demand “Good Jobs Now” at Progressive Caucus speakout

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 20:31:00 +0000

SEATTLE - People lined up at microphones at a July 23 "speak out" here to demand that Congress stop kowtowing to the corporations and do what voters elected them to do: create good jobs at a living wage.

More than 1,000 people, men and women, young and old, of many races and nationalities, packed the Brockey Center on the campus of South Seattle Community College for the "Speak Out for Good Jobs Now." It is one of a series of hearings across the nation sponsored by the 81-member House Progressive Caucus.

Listening to the often angry testimony was Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., a leading member of the Progressive Caucus who told the crowd, "What is needed is citizen action....You have the power to organize," he said.

Deborah Osborn, wearing her purple SEIU T-shirt told the hearing she has two college degrees and is a certified nursing assistant. Her husband, also a college graduate, has been unemployed for a year. Yet the longstanding "social contract" promises that a college degree is the path to "financial success."

She added, "The wage I am currently receiving is a little more than the minimum wage. Every waking moment we worry about every dollar and every mortgage payment. We kept our part of the contract. Where are the good jobs?"

Jonathan Bernal Garcia, a senior at Chief Sealth High School decried the lack of good jobs for youth when they graduate from high school or college. "Please stand with us by enacting laws that are just, humane, and fair," said Garcia, a member of "One America." The crowd erupted in applause.

Jazmin Santacruz, Eastern Washington organizer of "One America," filled a bus with 53 immigrant workers from Yakima, Walla Walla, and Pasco, Washington to attend the speakout.

"Stop passing anti-immigrant laws that punish immigrant workers," she declared. "All these workers want to do is support their families and in the process they bring money into the economy." She urged enactment of the Dream Act to allow undocumented immigrant youth to attend college in the U.S. She led the crowd in chanting "si se puede."

Khayah Brookes, a senior physics student at the University of Washington, a member of the Academic Student Employees organized by the United Auto Workers said she was forced twice to drop out of school because she ran out of money.

"Without 'Husky Promise' a program which covers our tuition and fees for low income students, I would be forced to drop out again," she said. Many other low-income students are forced to work "four or five little part time minimum wage jobs" to pay for college

Meanwhile, the Washington State University system just rammed through a 20 percent tuition hike and the Republican majority House has passed a federal budget with draconian cuts in student aid programs.

"This will put a college education out of reach for many low income youth," she said. "We need an increase in Pell Grants and subsidized loans for low income students."

Michael Woo, a veteran Chinese American labor and community organizer, who chaired the meeting urged the crowd to take time to fill out the Progressive Caucus postcard addressed to lawmakers headlined, "Get Congress on Track...Rebuild the American Dream."

"We have 1,000 people in this room and we want to get the message back to Washington, D.C." he said. "We want to tell Congress to rebuild the American dream. We need good jobs."

Martin Luther King County Executive Dow Constantine thanked the crowd for the testimony. "This is so powerful," he said. "It is hard to listen to the stories told today. We need to get the message to Congress that they were elected to create an economy that serves the people, not the corporations and the wealthy."

Mia Franklin, a caregiver for her disabled daughter and an employee of ARC of King County, a non-profit that serves developmentally disabled people, drew cheers, telling the crowd, "I don't believe there is a budget crisis. They find the money for whatever the banks and corporations want but when it comes to the people's needs, they have no money. But it is our money. Use our money to create jobs. I love to fight. It's my second, unpaid job: fighting. I'm proud to have all you people here to fight with me!"

Photo: One thousand people from Washington State told their stories of economic distress to elected officials as part of the Progressive Caucus's speakout tour for good jobs, Seattle, July 23. (Teresa Albano/PW)

Fight against privatization roils a Maryland county

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:39:00 +0000

FREDERICK, Md. - Hundreds of Frederick County workers packed the county hearing room to speak to the five county commissioners two days in a row this week. They were deeply concerned about a hasty effort to privatize all core county services. This would call for cuts of over 500 county human resource and public works jobs based on a faulty $25,000 consultant report submitted in June by PPP Associates of Georgia.

The report, written by one Oliver Porter, was not impartial, according to Bonnie Bailey-Baker, co-president of the League of Women Voters. It favors privatization. The report indicates all county government services and departments could be open to outsourcing.

"It would resemble a company town," stated one observer.

The Porter report was evaluated by Professor Donald Kettl of the University of Maryland after many employees and the League of Women Women Voters questioned its validity. Kettl found it lacking in facts, particularly as to how its authors arrived at an estimate of $84-$109 million dollar savings for the county and how oversight would be accomplished.

Kettl said this put up "red flags" for him. He said in an interview that no county in the country has shifted to private contracting on as large a scale as quickly as being proposed.

In an initial closed-door hearing, 30 workers, one by one, got up to speak and vigorously oppose the report. At a later public meeting, a stream of county residents came before the commissioners to oppose the outsourcing proposals based on the negative impact it would have on families in the county.

County workers and division directors representing the departments of Aging, Human Services, Family Partnerships, Highway, Construction, Parks, Technical and Workforce Services stood to speak before the packed room to defend their jobs, give suggestions, and discuss the danger of losing long time skilled employees.

"Experience," they repeatedly stated, "is irreplaceable."

Fear of losing the jobs and security has already caused some experienced employees to leave county employment to look for work elsewhere, noted one person.

Outside the building, community supporters carried signs to express their concern for the county which has had better services than most in the country. Many feared this was an attempt to eliminate benefits through the "back door," and that privatization would dismantle county services.

There was a general feeling, however, that the commissioners had already made up their minds. When the general public met with the commissioners in a hearing on Thursday, community residents were concerned that the county was rushing to dismantle services with no idea how to replace them. A speaker suggested that the commissioners read the many available NACo (National Association of Counties) studies on privatization experiences that show them mainly to be failures.

A county employee from the building inspectors department noted that they were already working with a 40 percent cut in staffing. Other departments have dealt with they general economic crisis by reducing the work week to four days and reducing sick time, pay and benefits. Yet, they added, they have kept quality of service high and continue to take pride in their work.

An instructor from Workforce Services visually demonstrated by holding up a $1 dollar bill the yield from that investment spent on her department. The yield was $27.84. She counted each dollar out on the table to great applause.

Another speaker submitted a report, "backed by facts," showing that the county could save $67 million between 2012-2016 by keeping current levels of experienced employees intact without privatizing. With some sarcasm, she detailed her facts unlike the questionable estimates in the Porter report.

Oscar Shenkel of the Highway Department said he had not had a raise in five years. "Savings of materials for later use and in house training to do jobs without calling in expensive contractors were already being done. All this has saved taxpayer money. We have the experience and know what suggestions to make. Ask us," he said.

"The fact that we have had to come here today to defend our jobs is a travesty!" Rick Little from the technology department said. "We are members of the community not just employees. We have an interest in the county not just profit!"

The general conclusion of employees and residents was that the Porter report was not properly researched, that it was biased in favor of privatization and ended being a $25,000 waste of the taxpayer's money.

At the end of the four-hour public hearing, after much controversy and discussion, the five commissioners threw out the pro-privatization Porter report.

Family needs in the county must be prioritized. Privatizing core county services would dismantle the current system based on the excuse to have "less government." The system should not benefit only some of the people.

The fight in Frederick County reflects similar efforts in many states and localities and on the federal level to dismantle government-provided services regardless of their successes. It is based on the right-wing ideology of making government smaller, decreasing representation of the people, and further siphoning taxpayer money from the government to the private sector.

As labor and its allies showed in Frederick County, however, when working families stand up to right-wing policies, they can win.

Photo: Frederick County, Md. residents packed public hearings this week in protest against plans to privatize public services. (PW/Vivian Weinstein)

Wisconsin recall victories clarify voter mood, next steps

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:12:00 +0000

After sweeping away the Republican effort that ran fake Dems against them July 12, the recall fever got an enormous boost July 19 in state Senate District 30 when Democrat incumbent Dave Hansen easily crushed a legally challenged Republican challenger. David VanderLeest, 66 percent to 34 percent, with two-thirds of the nearly 31,000 turnout (early numbers).

That contrasted remarkably with the feebler numbers in Republican primaries that same day. The showing was best in neighboring Senate District 12, where the GOP launched an advertising blitz even before the polls closed, anticipating the edge for Kim Simac, a Vilas County tea party activist and riding club owner who has been working on Palin-like Twitter simplicities. Sure enough her modest 11,000 votes were several thousand ahead of traditional Republican Robert Lussow.

It's a victory that says more about today's confused Republican Party than about her chances August 16 against Democrat incumbent Jim Holperin, at one time thought to be the most threatened Democrat. It's time for the pundits to rethink, given the indifference of the Republican voters, given Simac's strange track record and measuring the Democrat enthusiasm in a nearby district for Hansen, who won't face the voters again until 2012. Granted, Hansen had a weak opponent, and Holperin will face a Northwoods Patriot whose mouth is her worst enemy, but it also says something about the scrambled eggs the GOP has whipped up these days.

The same date and the same positive feeling among the liberal activists surround incumbent Robert Wirch, the Democrat senator from Kenosha in District 22, who is also prepared for Aug. 16 with a mighty war chest. The Republican primary July 19 leaves him to face a Club for Growth funded conservative and Chicago corporate lawyer, Robert Sietz, rather than home-grown Republican Fred Ekornaas.

But the next really big game date is Aug. 9 when all six of the genuine Democrat challengers take on Republican incumbents.

That Election Day is already making news for the amount of advertising money pouring into Wisconsin's summer elections. Only out-of-state travelers will avoid them, and given the new voter bill they will also have to rush to figure out absentee balloting.

The intensity of all this ad money and the Madison Avenue thinking at work will take a separate column to explore. So for here and now, let's shape the battlefield and core strategies.

It will take only three Democrat wins to change the majority in the Senate - if the remaining two Democrats facing recall survive Aug. 16 - but organizers are aiming to advance all six Democrats.

They're not just relying on public feeling or even the truth that the wind is at they're back. They are actively engaging in "relational campaigning."

That means asking supporters of the recalls who may not live in these Republican incumbents' districts to reach out to those who do - friends, colleagues, family members and retirees, a potent source of votes given Wisconsin's affinity for enjoying the home state for summer homes, trips, vacations and family gatherings. Everyone knows someone who lives in a recall district.

The "Wisconsin Idea" progressive are also talking up the state's tradition of fair play and emphasizing how their candidates are more in keeping with the tenor and values of these districts than the Republican incumbents have demonstrated. If that sounds like a hard sell, just examine the personalities and backgrounds of the candidates.

For the Milwaukee area, Senate District 8, the Democrats have reasons to expect victory for Rep. Sandy Pasch, a Whitefish Bay mother, nurse, teacher of nurses and policy expert who turned to political office only after raising a family. Her resume alone deflects one of the major sharp knives the GOP is trying to put into play - dismissing all the Democrats as "tax and spend" power-grabbers, when the public knows where the power-grab has been.

It's a common tactic of the GOP and its allies in all the contests - what I described in an earlier column as the "vain attempt to paint all the Democrats as somewhere to the left of Sacco and Vanzetti."

But it's particularly ineffective this time. Pasch, for instance, may be progressive but she is also the a healthier mirror of the ever fuzzier Alberta Darling, the incumbent who abandoned the basic values of her constituents and is now ducking the debates that would reveal the opponent as pragmatic and sensible, not extreme.

Pasch not only fits the district like a glove, in Madison she gained a reputation as a conciliator, introducing bills in such areas as mental health that both sides have honored. The power of her ideas comes as much from the civil manner as the light needle, and the practical toughness behind her diminutive appearance recalls how she first campaigned in 2008 from a wheelchair and on crutches when she slipped on the ice. The less Darling has to face her, the more she hopes the GOP ads will sell a fabrication.

Senate District 8 - Democrat Pasch vs. incumbent Darling - includes Assembly Districts 22, 23 and 24, (a few wards of) the city of Milwaukee, then Shorewood, Whitefish Bay, Fox Point, River Hills, Bayside, Mequon, Brown Deer, Menomonee Falls, Thiensville, Germantown, Butler and portions of Richfield.

Senate District 2 - Incumbent Rob Cowles, R-Allouez, faces a veteran who actually first ran as a Republican and then served the nonpartisan role of Brown County executive. She is the highly regarded Nancy Nusbaum, who soundly whipped a fake Democrat July 12. Nusbaum's experience in handling budgets and government debts runs rings around her opponent. The district includes Assembly Districts 4, 5, 6, Oconto, Shawano, Brown and Outagamie counties.

Senate District 10 - Incumbent Sheila Harsdorf, R-River Falls, first expected to blow away a political newcomer, but teacher Shelly Moore is actually given the edge in polls, has a professional campaign team and a message of honesty and integrity while now Harsdorf keeps changing stripes to avoid defeat. Moore's experience with children and families and practical approach not only speaks to voters, but Harsdorf's willingness to play footsie to stay in office has hurt her badly. District includes Assembly Districts 28, 29, 30, Pierce, St. Croix, Polk and Burnett counties.

Senate District 14 Incumbent Luther Olsen, R-Ripon, also can't demean his opponent, because the community knows Rep. Fred Clark is in nobody's pocket. He ran a business, is a noted outdoorsman and is famous for speaking his mind and sticking to his guns. District includes Assembly Districts 40 41, 42, Waupaca, Waushara, Marquette and Green Lake counties.

Senate District 18 - Beyond his votes with Walker, incumbent Randy Hopper (R-Fond du Lac) has to combat his tax record, favoritism to rich friends and curious domestic situation, when his wife revealed during the recall petitioning that he was living in Madison with his young girl friend.

Worse for Randy, his opponent almost took him out in 2008, losing by only a few votes, and she is the highly regarded, knowledgeable deputy mayor of Oshkosh, Jessica King, who recently scored devastating points off Hopper in a League of Women Voters debate carried on the Internet. The region includes Assembly Districts 52, 53, 54, Fond du Lac County and such cities as Oshkosh, Algoma, Friendship, Taycheedah and Fond du Lac.

Senate District 32 - Well behind in the polls, incumbent Dan Kapanke, R-La Crosse, said aloud that he hoped all the public workers in his district would go to sleep Aug. 9. It's his voting record that keeps them awake plus the contrasting strong reputation for public service and open debate of his experienced opponent, Rep. Jennifer Shilling. Region includes Assembly Districts 94, 95, 96 counties Trempealeeau, La Crosse, Vernon and Crawford.

Dominique Paul Noth is editor of the Milwaukee Labor Press. This article was originally published on the website of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council. Photo via WisPolitics.com // CC 2.0

Louisiana workers say union jobs break down barriers

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 11:08:00 +0000

AVONDALE, La. - Billy Marks, 50, a union electrician at the massive Avondale shipyare near here, described last year's Christmas party at the yard: "The Latinos were there with salsa and roast pork, the Puerto Ricans came in with their food, the Jamaicans with their cod fish cakes, African Americans with soul food. The Irish came in with corned beef and cabbage and the Haitian and Creole soups and gumbos were out of this world. My favorite was the Dominican rice dishes. We had a blast like you wouldn't believe.

"You had to see those women welders walking around wearing T shirts that said: 'I am a woman. I am a shipbuilder.'"

No one says it more eloquently than the workers themselves: The powers that be don't want big projects with lots of union workers because they tend to break down the racial divide that has slowed progress in this part of the country ever since the end of the Civil War.

Marks and 5,000 others stand to lose their jobs if the yard is closed. Northrop Grumman, the parent company, has been planning to shut it down in exchange for a $330 million payoff from the Navy.

"It's obvious that profits are far more important than human beings," said Marks, interviewed this week at the Electrical Workers union hall here. "What we made at Avondale helped win World War II," he said. "We might have no democracy left in this country if it were not for what the workers here have done. A company gets so big it has a responsibility to the community." (Story continues after video.)

A broad coalition of unions, community groups and churches in the region has mounted a campaign to save the shipyard.

Marks said that fairness is not the only issue that concerns him.

"I have never worked at a place where the workforce is so diverse," he said. "At Avondale, groups that you think would have nothing in common with one another have come together as a family."

Marks, a white worker who is married to a Dominican woman, said he is convinced that if workplaces like his could be created all over the region, racism could be severely weakened. "It would be a lot harder for them to use that plantation tactic of divide and conquer," he said.

A little later, on the other side of the Mississippi in Chalmette, La., two young men walked together into Today's Ketch, a seafood restaurant.

Michael Johnson, 34, African American, and Giuseppe Todaro, 22, white, sat down to share a table. Both are union workers on a federally funded playground construction project in town. Johnson is helping train Todaro, who is in IBEW's apprenticeship program.

"I am glad I joined the union," Todaro said. "It's the chance of a lifetime for me. Mike and other guys are training me so good that by the time they're done with me I'll have skills I could never get anywhere else."

"When you have a union," Todaro said, "you get training that lasts your lifetime and you get protection and good benefits."

Todaro said that, based on his experience, "all those politicians attacking unions and pushing for cuts don't make sense to me. This town was destroyed by Katrina when I was a teenager. Federal dollars are building the playground we need and giving me the job."

Two tables away, three other union workers were having lunch. They were working on another federally funded operation in Chalmette, a sewer restoration project.

"Without the federal funds and without the unions none of us would have a chance at entering the so-called middle class," said Johnson, the African American worker who is helping train Todaro.

"To me it's all really very simple," Johnson said. "Give us good paying jobs, give us rights on the job and we'll take care of rebuilding this place just fine. It would be bigger and better than it ever was."

Jeff Pohlmann, the restaurant owner, was getting soft drinks out of the machine near Johnson's table, and overheard that part of the conversation. "After all we've gone through," he said, "they're the reason I'm still in business down here."

Photo: Giuseppe Todaro, 22, apprentice electrical worker at federally funded playground construction site in Chalmette, La. Blake Deppe/PW

New Orleans diary: Seafood, hospitality, an appeal for help

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 12:29:00 +0000

NEW ORLEANS - Reginald Johnson, 47, is a 20-year dockworker and father of four. When Hurricane Katrina struck, he played a major part in rescuing people in devastated neighborhoods that looked like war zones.

"We housed people, we fed people, we transported people to dry land," said Johnson.

Katrina was the first in what would become a series of tragedies for the Big Easy, the next being the 2010 BP oil spill.

Jeff Pohlmann, owner of Today's Ketch, a seafood restaurant in Chalmette, La., remarked that, when that oil began to taint the Gulf Coast, he was "concerned for the health of everybody," and worried about the oil's effect on the shrimp and other seafood.

"We had to make sure it was okay to eat!" he said. "A lot of people who come here like to get local seafood. Once we assured the public that it was safe to eat, they started coming back."

Local fisherman and bayou resident Chet Held commented, "We don't know what kind of long-term effects the oil spill is going to have."

But Pohlmann said that the seafood he sells is fine, and that experienced bayou fishermen like Held know how to check for tainted products and dispose of them.

So, said Pohlmann, "what I would say to everybody looking for seafood is - come on back."

Despite the haunting memories of the twin disasters, Pohlmann chatted pleasantly with Held about times old and new. For many years, Held would go out on the water, get the shrimp, and bring it to Pohlmann's restaurant.

Eighty percent of New Orleans is still damaged from Katrina. But the two men pointed out all the silver linings in the cloud of uncertainty, like the building of new schools and partial revival of local seafood markets. In short, they stayed optimistic, and they didn't let the events of the past keep their spirits down.

From the bayou to the French Quarter, New Orleans residents show that they are a pleasant and resilient community - not ones to complain and give up. After all, this city proved itself remarkably upbeat for an area that has endured so much. A casual stroll down Bourbon Street is proof of this.

Johnson described just what it is about the city's people that makes them so friendly and hopeful.

"It's that good old southern hospitality," he said as he sat at Lil' Dizzy's soulfood restaurant having lunch with People's World reporters. "People will help you here. That's just the way we are."

New Orleans is also an example for racial equality and respect, Johnson believes. "New Orleans is one big melting pot of different people and cultures. There is no city in the country more diverse than New Orleans."

But the people of New Orleans, ever so willing to treat everyone fairly and with generosity, need help themselves.

"They tell you that the city's back and the economy's up, but that's only partial," Johnson said. "People are still suffering."

Johnson realized that "it takes time, it takes money." But, he said, "Why can't the bigwigs in New York help? I would love to see a corporate executive come down here and help these decent working people. I'm not asking for a lot. I don't need a vacation in the Hamptons - but I do need a place to sleep."

As he drove through the city's Ninth Ward amidst blighted, eerily quiet streets, he was visibly upset. However, he smiled good-naturedly, waving and saying "Hello" to the few homeowners there who had managed to piece their lives back together.

"We need help," he said. "This was all people had. Where do they go? What do they do?"

Looking uncertainly at the troubled city, Johnson said, "This is the Big Easy. But right now? Things ain't so easy."

Photo: Reginald Johnson, dockworker and longtime New Orleans resident, voices his concerns about the city not getting the help it needs. Colin Gray/PW