People Before Profit blog

Supreme Court allows corporations to deny birth control coverage

Mon, 30 Jun 2014 16:26:00 +0000

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that family-owned corporations can use religious objections to opt out of the Affordable Care Act requirement that they cover contraceptives for women. In a 5-4 ruling, with all liberal justices dissenting, the court said the health care law's requirement violated a federal law protecting religious freedom.

The ruling came in two cases, Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores and Conestoga Wood Specialties v. Sebelius. The court's majority ruled, for the first time, that a for-profit corporation can have religion, that a corporation can have religious feelings that can be hurt, and that, if some of its employees take a pill to prevent pregnancy, that violate the corporation's rights.

Hobby Lobby and Conestoga currently cover contraceptives in their employee health plans, but the owners do not want to cover certain types of birth control - specifically "Plan B" and similar "morning after" pills that, they claim, prevent a fertilized egg from being implanted in the womb and developing into a fetus. The Supreme Court majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, notes that "owners of the companies involved in these cases and others who believe that life begins at conception regard these four methods as causing abortions, but federal regulations, which define pregnancy as beginning at implantation ... do not so classify them." In other words, the court majority has ruled that highly debatable theological/philosophical opinions by corporate owners can trump federal laws and regulations.

Hobby Lobby is a giant hobby and craft supplies chain store with 578 stores and about 21,000 employees across the country. It brings in about $3 billion in revenue annually. Hobby Lobby was ranked 147 in Forbes' list of America's largest private corporations in 2012. Its owner, David Green, was ranked 90 in Forbes' list of the 400 richest people in America. Green makes a point of publicizing his strong Christian beliefs. The Green family also owns Mardel, a Christian bookstore chain.

Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp., a cabinet-making business, has 1,000 employees in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Washington State. Its owners, Norman Hahn and his family, are Mennonites. Unlike Hobby Lobby, Conestoga's owners do not broadcast their religious views on their website.

But both corporations challenged the Affordable Care Act's requirement that employers of more than 50 employees provide their workers with health insurance that covers basic preventative care including equal, free access to contraception. The Obama administration added an exemption for churches and nonprofit religious organizations. That did not apply to for-profit, secular corporations like Hobby Lobby or Conestoga.

Justices Alito and Kennedy suggested that the administration had other ways to ensure women get contraception if they want it. The government could pay for the birth control, they said, or could provide the same kind of accommodation made for religious-oriented nonprofits. In such cases, the insurance company or a third-party administrator takes on the responsibility of paying for birth control.

But in dissenting, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor warned that the ruling would have wider negative effects. "The court's expansive notion of corporate personhood," Justice Ginsburg wrote, "invites for-profit entities to seek religion-based exemptions from regulations they deem offensive to their faiths."

Ginsburg called the majority decision "potentially sweeping" because it minimizes the government's interest in uniform compliance with laws affecting the workplace. "And it discounts the disadvantages religion-based opt outs impose on others, in particular, employees who do not share their employer's religious beliefs," Ginsburg said.

Terry O'Neill, head of the National Organization for Women, said the high court ruling amounted to support for bigotry. "A 'belief' that works to the detriment of a specific demographic group that has historically experienced discrimination is no more than a religious mask for bigotry," she said in a statement. "The world has rejected the use of religion to justify racial and homophobic bigotry, and the same must be true for gender bigotry as well."

Planned Parenthood head Cecile Richards said in an email to supporters,"The five justices who ruled against women today are out of step with most Americans - the public overwhelmingly supports the birth control benefit by a nearly two-to-one margin."

The Hobby Lobby case and similar legal challenges to Obamacare, cases that are seemingly limited in scope, are being trumpeted by right-wing sources as a crusade for religious freedom in the face of an oppressive secular government. It meshes with the far-right campaign to discredit not only the Obama administration, but any attempt at regulating corporate power in the public interest. Hobby Lobby was represented in its lawsuit by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. Among this fund's board of directors are J. Kenneth Blackwell, the Republican former Ohio secretary of state denounced by Ohioans for obstructing and suppressing the vote in 2004; the president of the Catholic University of America; and figures connected with a range of right-wing think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, Stanford's Hoover Institution, the Manhattan Institute and the Witherspoon Institute.

In another blow to women's health advocates, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled unanimously that 35-foot protective buffer zones around clinics that provide abortions are unconstitutional. That ruling overturned a Massachusetts state law that set such buffer zones to protect clinics in the wake of murders and assaults on abortion providers and their supporters.

Photo: Planned Parenthood Action Facebook page

Children fleeing violence and poverty

Mon, 30 Jun 2014 15:45:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES -- Displaced children as young as 13 are leaving their homes in Central America in greater numbers than ever before due to violence from wars involving the cartels, gang initiations and or extortion. And for some it is the longing to be united with their parents that sets them on this journey. Nearly 21,000 from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras have travel to the US in 2013.

The great majority of these children travel unaccompanied by adults, they walk and jump on trains, some die in their attempt. They experience horrific situations such and theft, starvation, unsanitary conditions, physical and sexual abuse.

Over the course of two days, Estela Jimenez and Father Richard Estrada members of Angeles Sin Fronteras (Angels Without Borders), announce at a press conference in Los Angeles, that they will participate in "Caminata por los niños no acompañados" (Walk for the unaccompanied children"), in Mexico, by walking a portion of the route that many children take on their way to the U.S. They will stop in Tapachula, a town that borders Guatemala and Mexico, and visit with Pastor Ramon Verdugo who runs a shelter for migrant children, many times under threats by gangs and cartels.

"We are going as observers and we will return to inform you of some of the experiences that these children face and to let them know that we will take care of them when they reach Los Angeles," commented Estela Jimenez.

Some of the supporters of this pilgrimage are members of Jovenes Inc. an organization in the Los Angeles area that help homeless youth, mostly migrant, that come into this country and have no one to look after them but who have come seeking a better life free from violence and poverty. "We support this action because we know first hand what these children have experienced" stated Andrea Marchetti, Executive Director of Jovenes Inc. "We are also asking for under garments for youth, which you can donate to Jovenes Inc. This may seem like an odd request but this is what most of these children are in need of."

Gloria Saucedo of Hermandad Mexicana spoke to the press stating "We are worried about our youth who come escaping the poverty and violence in their home country and those that come to unite with their families. We need to protect them as they make their way in this long journey. "

The crisis these children are facing in their home country is a result if an economy of violence, wars, poverty extortion. Invasion by large corporations that are exploiting the towns and contaminating the water is another crisis they are facing. Townspeople are being displaced as the corporations move in to exploit the riches through mining. These corporations are treating our people as a disposable commodity.

"We are here to be the voice for these children. We will be taking this message to the children and to hear first hand what they experience and assure them that we will there to help them get the necessary assistance when they arrive," stated Estela Jimenez.

Father Estrada of La Placita Catholic Church will be one of the three observers whowill be witnesses to this exodus of children. " I will be joining Estela and take the voice of Los Angeles and assure them that we will be there to help them get the necessary assistance when they arrive. We want to hear their stories if the children from their own mouths not from the mainstream media." Continued Father Estrada. "We want to ensure that the children have protection and a lawyer when they are arrested."

As with all who appear in immigration court, the children are not provided with government-funded attorneys during their removal hearings. An immigration judge makes the final determination on whether the child will be deported or allowed to stay.

Photo: Father Estrada with Estella Jimenez speaking at the mic. Rossana Cambron/PW

No Bill of Rights on U.S.-Mexico border

Mon, 30 Jun 2014 11:27:00 +0000

Under the Fourth Amendment, the people of the United States are not supposed to be subject to random and arbitrary stops and searches. But within 100 miles of a U.S. border, these rules don't apply.

Last July, a worker phoned Alejandro Valenzuela, a young staff member at the Southside Workers Center in Tucson, Arizona. The police were at his home, the worker said, and were detaining him for deportation. Valenzuela and a friend drove over to observe - "to make sure his rights were being respected." Over the next half hour the police grew increasingly hostile, demanding identification from Valenzuela, despite the fact that he was not driving the car, which was parked at the curb. They then detained Valenzuela and the worker.

Police then drove the two to Border Patrol headquarters. Neither was ever arrested or accused of a crime. Valenzuela was detained and intensively questioned for five hours, and finally released only when he could show he qualified for Deferred Action, which allows undocumented young people (DREAMers) to apply for deferred deportation and work authorization. The worker was eventually deported.

"On the street we get stopped and questioned because of the way we look," Valenzuela charges. "It's racial profiling." On his behalf the ACLU filed the first challenge to section 2B of Arizona's infamous SB 1070 "Show me your papers" law, which went into effect in September 2012. It authorizes police to enforce immigration law, and the ACLU argues it "unconstitutionally authorizes and encourages illegal police practices ... the South Tucson police officers' actions amounted to false arrest, violated Alex's right to equal protection of the law and trampled his right to be free from unreasonable seizures."

Tucson is sixty miles from the Mexican border, within a 100-mile zone where immigration authorities say important due process rights can be suspended. "SB 1070 interacts with this 100-mile area to enable these rights violations," explains James Lyall, ACLU staff attorney in Tucson. "It's easy for police to stop people on a pretext, detain them longer than permitted, and turn them over to the Border Patrol." The Valenzuela suit was one of the first actions taken by the ACLU Border Litigation Project, launched to document and litigate civil and human rights cases on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Enforcing the "zone"

Outside of communities like Tucson, the existence of a 100-mile "Constitution-free zone" is not well known. "There, the longstanding view [established in court rulings] is that the normal rules do not apply," according to the ACLU. "For example, the authorities do not need a warrant or probable cause to conduct a 'routine search.'" As of 2008, the zone potentially covered a staggering 197.4 million people-two-thirds of the U.S. population, including nine of the country's 10 largest cities.

In Arizona, the impact is magnified by Federal enforcement and state legislation. Isabel Garcia, Legal Defender for Pima County (which includes Tucson), explains, "In Arizona we've become a laboratory for every kind of anti-immigrant, anti-human [rights] piece of legislation." She points to Proposition 100 that amended the state constitution in November 2006 to permit the detention without bail of any undocumented immigrant accused of a felony. Under state legislation, a felony now includes using a fictitious document or a Social Security number belonging to another person.

The Project has documented other instances of immigration-related police misconduct beyond the 100-mile zone. They include an elderly Latino citizen jailed by Mesa police after picking a bottle from a trashcan, a passenger in a car stopped for a broken taillight taken to immigration authorities by Casa Grande police, a woman interrogated about immigration status after calling Tucson police about domestic violence, and a legal resident questioned about his status by Phoenix police while picking up his impounded car.

ACLU attorney Christine Sun calls the cases "representative of policing problems throughout Arizona." Lyall testified before the Tucson City Council, noting that in May, Federal District Court Judge Murray Snow ruled that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, using policies like those in Tucson, was guilty of systematic and unconstitutional racial profiling.

The ACLU of Arizona made 20 recommendations for changes in Tucson's police practices. The most basic were to prohibit police "from questioning crime victims and witnesses about their immigration status," from "extending any stop or detention solely to await a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) or ICE response," requiring officers to contact their supervisors before questioning people about immigration status, and to document "the reasons such questioning is believed necessary." According to Arizona Public Media, the council unanimously approved council member Regina Romero's motion to ask police to put public safety above checking immigration status.

Detained and demeaned

In October, the ACLU demanded an investigation of the Border Patrol, citing five examples of unlawful stops by roving patrols within the 100-mile zone. Although U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) claims broad authority to conduct searches here, the ACLU complaint responds that "the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures extends to protect against unlawful investigatory stops." Some of the documented mistreatment clearly exceeds this standard.

In May, Clarisa Christiansen was stopped by the Border Patrol n the desert west of Tucson, 40 miles north of the border, while driving her five- and seven-year-old children home from school. All are citizens, yet she was threatened with a taser and knife, forced from her vehicle, interrogated, and left beside the road with a slashed tire.

In April, a Native American woman was tailgated by a Border Patrol vehicle, dragged from her pickup, threatened and manhandled, interrogated and ridiculed, and detained for over an hour on the Tohono O'odham reservation. Other Native Americans have told her of similar treatment.

In March, a tourist from Oregon was threatened, detained and falsely accused of drug possession after hiking at the Fort Bowie Historical Site. A drug-sniffing dog did hundreds of dollars of damage to his car, but when his insurance company sought reimbursement, the CBP claimed the Federal Tort Claims Act "bars recovery for property damaged by CBP employees while the property is under detention."

In May, a Latino citizen farmer was followed and detained on his property by Border Patrol agents holding automatic weapons. Agents trespass frequently, the family complains.

Two years ago, Suzanne Aldridge was stopped just outside of Bisbee, Arizona, 30 miles from the border, dragged from her car, handcuffed, and groped by a Border Patrol agent. Ten vans of agents, police and sheriffs searched her car with a drug-sniffing dog without her consent. She tried to file a complaint, but was given the runaround by CBP representatives.

In September, the ACLU of Washington and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project settled a lawsuit challenging CBP's roving patrols on the Olympic peninsula, which lies within the 100-mile zone. As in Arizona, the Border Patrol conducted arbitrary vehicle stops, prolonged detentions and other forms of mistreatment. Fourth Amendment protections still apply, the settlement says. "Border Patrol officially agreed to follow the Constitution and not racially profile Latinos and other minorities ... People should not have to fear that they could be stopped and questioned without reason any time they drive or are passengers in cars," said Sarah Dunne, legal director of the ACLU-WA.

The heavy price of immigration enforcement

In testimony to September's Congressional ad-hoc hearing on border security, the ACLU detailed other areas in which the Border Patrol violates constitutional rights. In Arizona ports of entry, a May ACLU complaint documented 11 cases involving "unprovoked assaults and verbal abuse, the unwarranted use of handcuffs and shackles, extended and recurring detention, invasive searches, property destruction and confiscation, and denial of food, water, and legal representation."

At the state's 11 CBP checkpoints, border residents report numerous unlawful searches, detentions, threats, and abuse. The vast majority of detentions are for petty crimes, not immigration, and Federal authorities dump those cases on local courts. Says Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada. "They tell us, 'If you don't take them, we're going to take your [Federal law enforcement] funding away.'"

Abuse in CBP custody is rampant. A recent University of Arizona report revealed that 11 percent of deportees reported physical abuse by U.S. authorities, 23 percent experienced verbal abuse, 45 percent received insufficient food, 39 percent had their possessions confiscated, and 29 percent had their identification documents taken and not returned.

The worst abuse is deadly. Since 2010, 20 people have died as a result of CBP use of force. Sixteen-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez-standing on Mexico soil-was shot seven times in the back in 2012 by an agent firing across the border at Nogales, Arizona. Nineteen-year-old Carlos LaMadrid was shot four times in the back while running toward Mexico at Douglas. Ramses Barron Torres was shot while simply standing in Mexico. The Department of Justice would not prosecute agents in the LaMadrid and Barron killings, and is still investigating the death of Elena Rodriguez.

One other product of the Constitution-free zone is the Operation Streamline courtroom, where every day 70 young people are brought before a Federal District Court judge, chained at their wrists, waists and ankles, and pressured into pleading guilty to criminal charges of illegal entry or reentry. "These proceedings offend fundamental principles of due process," the ACLU testified.

"We just closed our post office in Tucson because it cost $14 million a year to run, and lost 400 jobs," charges Garcia. "We closed eleven schools because the Tucson district had a shortfall of $17 million. Yet we pay Corrections Corporation of America $11 million a month to house these migrants."

The ACLU testimony made seven recommendations for humane reform. They include increasing CBP oversight, preventing excessive use of force, reducing the high number of border crossing deaths, increasing detention standards and inspections, discouraging local and state authorities' involvement in immigration enforcement, abolishing the Operation Streamline court, and reducing CBP's "zone of authority" from 100 miles to 25 miles from the border.

Let them go

In October, community anger in Tucson finally boiled over when police stopped a car in front of the Southside Worker Center. The ACLU and other organizations charge that, especially since passage of SB 1070, police often find pretexts to stop vehicles they believe are carrying undocumented people, and then hold them for deportation.

In this case, police called the Border Patrol after detaining the car's occupants, who then put them into a CBP truck. A local migrant family organization, Corazon de Tucson (Tucson's Heart), urged people to come protest. In an act of civil disobedience, some 60 people surrounded the vehicle carrying the two detained migrants. People from the nearby Presbyterian Church came out in support. They peacefully held hands, chanting, "Let them go!" as the Border Patrol and police responded by shoving people and using pepper spray. Eventually the two were taken to detention.

Alejandro Valenzuela says, "We're tired of being arrested for no reason. These were people we knew. We wanted to prevent them from being taken from their community and family." Three days later, in further civil disobedience, demonstrators blocked busses taking detainees into the federal courthouse, chaining themselves to their wheels. The day's session of the Operation Streamline court was cancelled, and 17 demonstrators were arrested. Similar acts of civil disobedience, blocking busses carrying people for deportation, have taken place in Phoenix, San Francisco, Chicago, San Diego and Austin, among other cities. They respond to the fact that in the last five years, two million people have been deported from the U.S.

In December, Tucson Congressman Raul Grijalva was one of 27 signing a letter to President Obama opposing mass deportations. "Criminalizing American families or giving local law enforcement the responsibility to choose who stays and who goes is not the right option," they said. Whether in court, in Congress or in the streets, the denial of rights in Arizona is being challenged and that challenge is growing.

Three facts about the Constitution-free zone

Fact 1: In the "Constitution-free zone," Border Patrol agents don't need a warrant or probable cause to conduct a "routine search." All travelers crossing a border are assigned a risk assessment score that will be retained for 40 years.

Fact 2: The Border Patrol can put a checkpoint anywhere in the Constitution-free zone (think Fifth Avenue!). "One hundred air miles is still, technically, the border," says Leslie Lawson from the Nogales Border Patrol Station. Everyone at a checkpoint must answer questions about citizenship status.

Fact 3: The Constitution-free zone extends 100 miles from any U.S. border. Two-thirds of the U.S. population (197.4 million in 2008) lives within this zone, which includes nine of the 10 largest metropolitan areas, and the entire populations of: Connecticut, Delaware, Washington, D.C., Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Rhode Island; and over 90 percent of: California, Maryland, New York, Vermont, and Washington.

Photo: U.S. border patrols decide who lives and who dies along the U.S.-Mexico border. AP

Ellison tacks wage theft ban onto defense bill

Fri, 27 Jun 2014 14:36:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Repeating a win he first gained several weeks ago, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and the Congressional Progressive Caucus tacked a ban on federal contracts to firms that engage in wage theft onto yet another money bill. But this was a big one: The $500 billion-plus Defense Department spending plan for the year starting Oct. 1.

If Ellison's move survives the rest of the congressional gauntlet, it could aid tens of thousands of fast food workers at commissaries and in mini-malls on defense bases who now see their employers - McDonald's, KFC, Domino's Pizza and the like - underpay them.

Labor-backed Good Jobs Nation has been in the forefront of the drive to raise fast food workers' wages, especially at federal sites. The workers also demand decent benefits, regular hours and the right to organize without employer interference.

The 212-204 vote saw virtually every House Democrat and a handful of Republicans back the workers, except those few Democrats who were absent due to illness. The "no" votes came from the GOP. Ellison's prior anti-wage-theft amendment, on the spending bill for the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development departments, passed by voice vote.

Like his prior anti-wage-theft move, Ellison's ban on contractor wage theft at DOD bars the agency from using money for contractors whose own filings show they broke the Fair Labor Standards Act, the federal minimum wage law. Ellison, citing federal data, told his colleagues on June 19 that federal contractors - many of them in fast-food - commit 32 percent of all wage theft violations the Labor Department discovers.

"This is very straightforward," Ellison said. "What it says is that, if there is a federal contractor found to engage in wage theft, they may not benefit from this" money bill.

"There are many contractors who work for the Department of Defense who have employees that cook the meals for our troops, wash their uniforms, do all manner of many, many important tasks to keep fighting men and women in a position to serve.

"And they sometimes, the federal contractors who serve the government do not pay these workers," he added. Citing an Economic Policy Institute investigation, Ellison said wage theft by federal contractors costs the average worker at their firms "a stunning $2,634 per year in unpaid wages, representing 15 percent of their earned income.

"I think Democrats and Republicans can agree that if you...want to do business with the United States, you should be fair to your workers. This doesn't go out and look and we are not asking anyone to make any judgments. We are talking about people who have been found to engage in wage theft already...Don't we want to incentivize good contractors and discourage bad ones? One way we can do that is say, if you don't treat your workers right, we are going to find some contractors who will."

Photo: Rep. Ellison website.

In about-face, lawmakers uphold Saturday mail delivery

Fri, 27 Jun 2014 13:52:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - After lobbying by the nation's postal unions - and questions from non-partisan auditors about savings claims - a key GOP-run House committee reversed course and voted June 25 to uphold 6-day mail service, including Saturday service.

The voice vote in the full GOP-run House Appropriations Committee restored the 6-day mandate to the money bill for the Postal Service and several other agencies. Bowing to demands from the Postmaster General, supported by the Obama administration, the panel's GOP-run subcommittee that deals with USPS money had eliminated the Saturday service rule.

As the House Appropriations panel restored the Saturday service - pickup and delivery - requirement for the year starting Oct. 1, Democratic-run Senate subcommittee that deals with the USPS affirmed that 6-day service rule, the Letter Carriers reported.

Saturday service has been a flashpoint in the postmaster general's scheme to close a deficit by cutting service, firing 100,000 workers and letting another 100,000 go by attrition. He also wants to close hundreds of post offices, replace full-time union workers with part-time temps, sell postage in Staples stores and switch all 500,000-plus postal workers to a yet-to-be-crafted USPS-run health care plan.

But Congress can block any or all of his moves. Though the Postal Service is technically a quasi-independent corporation, Congress still can set its terms of operation, and still appropriates some money for it, for mail subsidies for the blind. That lets lawmakers decide whether to keep Saturday service.

The four postal worker unions - the Letter Carriers, the Postal Workers, the Rural Letter Carriers and the Mail Handlers/Laborers - are engaged in a joint lobbying campaign to keep Saturday service and to stop the other cuts.

They all point out that the only reason USPS runs in the red is because a GOP-run Congress, in a 2006 postal "reform" law, ordered it to pay $5.5 billion yearly to pre-fund 75 years of future retirees' health care benefits.

Keeping Saturday service "is a clear victory for Letter Carriers and other supporters of a strong Postal Service," NALC President Fredric Rolando said. He praised the "bipartisan effort" by Reps. José Serrano, D-N.Y., and Tom Latham, R-Iowa, to restore the Saturday service rule. "On behalf of the 270,000 active and retired members of the NALC, I thank all of our activists who urged representatives to support the Serrano-Latham amendment."

Besides the lobbying, both panels learned that USPS estimates of $2 billion yearly "savings" from eliminating Saturday service are questionable. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office "declared USPS would only save about $10.9 billion over 10 years," NALC reported. The billion-dollars-a-year difference, the non-partisan auditors said, is because the Postal Service used 20-year-old service data for its calculations.

"Of course, CBO accepted the Postal Service's dubious claim that eliminating Saturday delivery would not have a large effect on its revenues and volume, while NALC is convinced that ending 6-day service would lose more money than it might save," the union added.

"It should be obvious to everyone by now that ending Saturday delivery and degrading the postal network would do nothing to solve the real financial problem the Postal Service faces," that $5.5 billion yearly health care pre-payment, Rolando said. That money "is 100 percent responsible for the Postal Service's so-called "losses." Without that drain, USPS has reported a $1 billion profit so far this year, he noted.

Photo: At a rally on the Boston Common, March 24, 2013, held to save six-day mail delivery service. Hundreds turned out for the rally to listen to speakers and demand that mail continue to be delivered on Saturdays in the U.S. Steven Senne/AP

Presbyterians vote to divest from companies aiding Israeli occupation

Thu, 26 Jun 2014 15:04:00 +0000

The 1.9-million-member Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) last week narrowly approved divestment from three U.S. companies that supply Israel with equipment used to maintain its occupation of Palestinian territory.

By a vote of 310-303, the church's 221st General Assembly, meeting in Detroit, approved a measure calling for divestment from Caterpillar Inc., Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions. At the same time the assembly disapproved a proposal for a boycott of Hewlett-Packard.

The church says it has about $21 million invested in the three firms. Church leaders said they had tried for years to convey concerns to the companies over their profiting from the occupation through their sales of bulldozers, surveillance technology and other equipment to Israel.

"After a decade of corporate engagement with Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola Solutions, these companies have failed to modify their behavior and continue to profit from Israeli human rights abuses and non-peaceful pursuits," the Rev. Dr. Walt Davis, a member of the church's Israel/Palestine Mission Network and professor emeritus at the San Francisco Theological Seminary, told the Detroit News. "This is a historic vote and the culmination of a long and deliberate internal process within the church."

A similar measure, which the church calls an "overture," failed in a close 333-331 vote at the church's previous assembly in 2012.

The measure approved last week also affirms the U.S. Presbyterian Church's commitment to interfaith and ecumenical dialogue and relationships in the region, and to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A preamble was added on the floor to reinforce that, saying, "The PC(USA) has a long-standing commitment to peace in Israel and Palestine. We recognize the complexity of the issues, the decades-long struggle, the pain suffered and inflicted by policies and practices of both the Israeli government and Palestinian entities. We further acknowledge and confess our own complicity in both the historic and current suffering of Israeli and Palestinian yearning for justice and reconciliation."

Immediately after the vote, church Moderator Heath Rada emphasized, "In no way is this a reflection for our lack of love for our Jewish sisters and brothers.

Divestment was the most debated part of the measure, with the vote announcement drawing "audible gasps" from attendees, according to a church press release.

Assembly delegates opposed to divestment cited concern about damaged relationships with Jewish partners.

"Divestment has the symbolic power to humiliate our Jewish friends in this country," said Sid Batts, a teaching elder from the Salem, N.C., presbytery. Batts serves a church across the street from a Jewish temple and said he values the strong relationship between the two congregations.

But the Rev. Gradye Parsons, a church leader, told the New York Times, "We're still committed to Israel and its right to exist, but we're concerned about the occupation and think Israel can do better."

Many Jews are in favor of divestment, argued Ben Falter, a young adult advisory delegate from the Geneva, N.Y., presbytery.

"Just as we here have differing views, so too do our Jewish brothers and sisters," he said.

Others said they were concerned passage of the measure would align the PC(USA) with the international boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. The overture was amended to read: "This action on divestment is not to be construed ... as an alignment or endorsement of the global BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanctions) movement."

"Divestment will not end the conflict and bring peace. Divestment will bring dissension," argued Frank Allen, a teaching elder from central Florida. "Dialogue and relationship-building will lay the groundwork for real peace." Allen presented a minority report opposing divestment.

Andries Coetzee, a teaching elder from Muskingum Valley, Ohio, noted the PC(USA)'s divestment from companies supporting apartheid in South Africa. As a member of the oppressive white minority in South Africa, Coetzee thanked his fellow Presbyterians for divesting there and encouraged the assembly to do the same for Israelis and Palestinians.

"You put me on the road to gaining back my humanity," Coetzee said.

The Presbyterian Church is one of the most prestigious "mainline" Protestant denominations in the U.S. Many U.S. presidents have been Presbyterians.

The Presbyterians' move follows actions by other U.S. churches. Earlier in June the United Methodist Church pension board announced that it would sell holdings worth about $110,000 in G4S, a company that has security equipment contracts with Israel's prison system.

Last year the Mennonite Central Committee announced it would not invest in "companies that benefit from products or services used to perpetrate acts of violence against Palestinians, Israelis and other people groups." In 2012 the Quakers sold their stock in Hewlett-Packard and two other companies that sold products to Israel's military.

Americans for Peace Now, the American affiliate of Israel's Peace Now movement, said the Presbyterians' action "should serve as a resounding warning for the Israeli government. Increasingly large segments of American society - including ones that care deeply about Israel's future and invest in it - are losing patience with the nearly five decades-long occupation and with the Israeli government's refusal to act seriously to bring it to an end."

Photo: Opening worship time at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 221st General Assembly, Detroit, June 15. Spirit of GA Facebook page

It’s political: Library cards

Wed, 25 Jun 2014 15:26:00 +0000

Here's a simple way for you to help spread the ideas of an author you respect, and be a political activist at the same time: use your library card.

(If you don't have a card, it's free at your public library and fairly easy to get.)

Maybe the book is a classic, such as Capital by Karl Marx, or Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. Perhaps it's something new, such as The Price of Inequality by Joseph Stiglitz or the latest Matt Taibbi barn-burner.

It's possible that you already have copies of those titles either as a print copy or on one of your devices, or, in the case of Marx's work, know that you can find a free copy of the original online.

But are the books you consider leftist essentials available on the shelves of your local public library?

Many library catalogs can be searched online, so you can tell if the book is in the collection.

Excellent news: you've checked and a collection of essays by your favorite writer, Barbara Ehrenreich, is listed as being on the shelf.

Here's hoping the book's in good condition, it's been checked out lately, and that it's not out of print. A library tries not to carry too much dead weight on its shelves, so it weeds many low- and zero checked-out books that meet its criteria for withdrawal. Also, every day books end up permanently checked-out (lost), missing, or damaged.

Make yourself an advocate for your books. Do the same with your reading club. Ask your library to replace wrecked or missing books, ask them to add new titles, then check them out, and ask members of your reading group to do the same.

A number of public libraries offer ebook downloads that are as free as their shelf copies, so if you're a device owner who's able to use this service, make sure you're requesting those titles in an ebook format. Teen and college-aged readers often are into ebooks, so this helps them out.

If the library doesn't add the titles you asked for, it may be that the book is out of print or isn't stocked by the major bookseller the library is required to use.

So, while it's a good idea to follow up with your librarian as to why the book is still not on the shelf, don't assume it's absent because of bias. They may not have much of a book budget.

When you make your book requests to your local library, whether you do it in person or online, be kind and don't overwhelm them with too many requests at once. Space it out.

You can't guarantee that a library user who reads a copy of your favorite political book is going to agree with the author or with you-but you've helped make sure that readers have free access to your book.

I attended a tiny rural high school that had an almost closet-sized library, but it did receive regular visits from the county bookmobile. Public libraries still strive to bring books to the poor and elderly, despite budget cuts.

Many cities have public libraries within walking distance of public transport, but unfortunately, city budget cuts tend to result in less opening hours for this vital service.

If your local library happens to be a victim of government so-called "cost-cutters", consider taking part in campaigns to protect the keeper of your books and joining groups that support your library.

Not everyone has the space, money, and devices for a book collection that fits their needs. Not everyone has free access to the facts they need to better interpret the economic reality facing them.

There's a type of activism that takes place not at a large political rally, but in the quiet filling out of a request form at your local library. You'll never know if your act impacts the life of a rural teen, a money-pressed college student, or someone else who strolls down a certain aisle.

You'll never know who you help, but based on my experience, it makes a powerful difference.

Photo: Wikipedia (CC)

Mother Jones memorial ready for rehab

Wed, 25 Jun 2014 14:18:00 +0000

MT. OLIVE CEMETERY, Ill. (PAI) - The 78-year-old memorial to labor organizer and hell-raiser Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, an obelisk above her grave in Illinois' Mt. Olive Cemetery, flanked by two workers, is ready for rehabilitation, the Illinois AFL-CIO announced.

"The legacy of Mother Jones is one we treasure," state fed President Michael Carrigan said during a June 17 ceremony announcing the group had reached the $60,000 goal it set for money to repair and refurbish the memorial.

More than 100 unions and individuals from 17 states, led by the Mine Workers, donated funds for the project and St. Louis-area Bricklayers will donate time to refurbish the cemetery's entrance.

Jones' monument, dedicated in 1936, six years after her death at age 94, features a large medallion bearing her likeness, flanked by bronze statues of two standing miners, with one holding a pickax and the other a sledgehammer. A bronze plaque warns: "Let no traitor breathe o'er my grave."

Jones was buried, as she asked, among area miners killed in the 1898 "Virden Massacre." Then, 12 unionists died and 40 were injured when they tried to stop strikebreakers from crossing their picket line.

Photo: Mother Jones monument Facebook page

Another problem for Gov. Christie: lawsuit for failure to pay pensions

Tue, 24 Jun 2014 17:57:00 +0000

TRENTON, N.J. - As if GOP New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie didn't have enough political problems, he's got a new headache: The state's unions are suing him for breaking his own agreement to fund public workers' pensions.

In a case to be heard June 25 in Trenton, the Communications Workers (CWA), the Fire Fighters, the Service Employees, the Teachers, the Professional and Technical Engineers, and a police association all say Christie did not make a required $900 million payment to the state and local workers' pension plan. He wants the workers to shoulder the load, instead.

The catch, of course, is that the $900 million figure is the sum Christie negotiated with the Democratic-run legislature in 2010, saying the state couldn't afford its scheduled pension payouts to retirees. New Jersey had not paid into the workers' pensions for 17 years.

The unions seek to stop Christie "from plundering $900 million from the 2014 budget's appropriated pension payment, along with his plans to slash the legally required $2.24 billion payment for fiscal year 2015 to less than $700 million," CWA said.

"Christie has broken New Jersey's economy. Now, not only has he broken his word by failing to make promised pension payments, he's breaking the law in the process," CWA New Jersey State Director Hetty Rosenstein said in a statement.

The CWA is the largest union of New Jersey state and local workers. When the legislature debated Christie's pension plan, CWA mobilized more than 40,000 people to march through the streets of Trenton against it. "Workers have done their part and are paying more. Governor Christie needs to do his part by following the very law he touted and signed," Rosenstein said.

"Christie wants to divert the required payment to the state's pension system to fill the gaps in his troubled budget. And the governor said that if he loses the court battle, he doesn't have any other ideas on how to balance New Jersey's finances," CWA added.

"In 2010, the legislature - with the approval of Gov. Christie - committed to make pension contributions on behalf of the members of" the police and fire fighters pension fund, said state Fire Fighters President Dominick Marino on the union's web site.

"When this commitment was made, the Fire Fighters and police officers were mandated to pay more into their pensions. The Fire Fighters and police officers have paid the higher costs, faithfully since it was mandated and have ALWAYS made their required payments. Unfortunately the state hasn't.

"Instead of doing so, recently the governor declared he would cut the promised contributions in violation of the contractual and legal rights of each member of this fund. This will have the devastating effect of the loss of investment return on the required contributions," Marino added.

Faced with that ultimatum, the police and Fire Fighters' fund trustees had no choice but to sue "to protect the trust fund and the rights of members who are going to collect from it."

The pension payout controversy adds to Christie's other political ills, even as the outspoken former prosecutor readies a bid for the 2016 GOP presidential nod.

Despite his conservative policies and his clashes with public worker unions over pensions and teacher tenure, Christie is viewed with suspicion by the tea partyites and other hard right elements that dominate the Republican Party.

And then his national reputation took a nosedive after a newspaper investigation found that Christie's then-chief of staff and his appointees to a bi-state bridge and tunnel board engineered phony lane closures on the George Washington Bridge to New York City, leading to a massive and historic traffic jam.

The officials ordered the closures - without his knowledge, Christie says - because the Democratic mayor of the city at the Jersey end of the bridge refused to endorse Republican Christie for re-election.

Photo: Communication Workers of America members gather for a protest over planned cuts to pension contributions by the state, in Trenton, N.J. Dianne Spence-Brown, front center, president of CWA Local 1033, joins other in front of the statehouse. Chris Pedota , NorthJersey.com,, AP

AFGE hits plans to force "Internet only" on Social Security recipients

Tue, 24 Jun 2014 17:20:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Despite huge past problems with electronic verification of Social Security eligibility, the union representing the system's workers says the Social Security Administration (SSA) is charging ahead with a plan to force almost all recipients into Internet-only communication. And that could endanger benefits for millions of people, adds the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).

Witold Skwiercznyski, President of AFGE's National Council of Social Security Field Operations Locals, told the Senate Special Committee on Aging on June 18 that SSA had the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) develop the Internet-heavy scheme, and that wants to impose NAPA's "Vision 2025" plan in the coming decade - without input.

By then, he added, there will be at least 11 million more Social Security recipients, many of whom, like current recipients, are not computer-savvy and who could be victims of identity theft. He noted tens of thousands of people already reported unjustified denials of benefits and identity verification problems with Irish-based Experian Company, operator of MySSA, the cranky Internet-only verification system Social Security now urges or orders recipients to use.

"Forcing, coercing or offering" Social Security recipients "a computer option when they came to the office for face-to-face service is frustrating to the customer and certainly does not constitute good public service," Skwiercznyski said.

The union's warning comes as both the Democratic Obama administration and Congress' ruling Republicans consider plans to reduce future Social Security benefit increases, by raising the retirement age to 67, imposing smaller yearly cost-of-living benefit hikes, or both.

That huge battle - which has drawn the ire of unions, the Alliance for Retired Americans and others-overshadows the problems of managing the system itself.

Social Security officials justify pushing clients towards an electronic, Internet-heavy system by saying it will reduce administrative costs. Going electronic, they say, will let them close dozens of Social Security field offices - on top of the 80 shut since 2010 - and let another 30,000 workers leave. SSA has already cut 11,000. AFGE represents the workers.

Skwiercznyski retorted that SSA, partially due to "unintentional" past budget cuts, is already short-staffed. And those who get hurt by the pro-Internet drive will be Social Security recipients, millions of whom depend on their monthly payments as their top or sole income.

Skwiercznyski painted a bleak picture of a Social Security Administration already straining under a workload of 43 million yearly face-to-face visits and more than 68 million phone calls. The number of face-to-face meetings has not declined since 2005, despite closure of the field offices, elimination of 11,000 jobs and all 500 rural contact stations, a 28 percent cut in office hours, and Social Security's push to get recipients to use the web.

"SSA is at a crossroads with one path leading to an Internet portal and the other maintaining personal service to millions of Social Security beneficiaries," he told senators.

"While the union believes SSA must move down both paths simultaneously, it is clear the agency sees only one way forward: Americans in the next 10 years will use the Internet alone to access SSA benefits and services.

"Does this strategy make sense? The union says no, the SSA managers association says no, but to date, the policy remains unexamined by Congress and unexplained by SSA.

"In fact, until the recent release of the draft report by the National Association of Public Administration, neither the Congress nor the public was even aware of SSA's vision for the program over the next 11 years. SSA has chosen not to involve either the public or the employee union in any meaningful dialogue regarding a fundamental change in the way it plans to deliver services to its customers."

Skwiercznyski urged senators to halt Social Security's closures in their tracks, and he offered a 25-point plan to help the agency operate. Key points included:

Eliminating unneeded management layers, with those workers transferred back to processing claims and helping customers. SSA's 42 area offices should top the list, he said.

Ban closing Social Security field offices without 30-180 days advance notice and public hearings. Skwiercznyski noted the Postal Service must give months of advance notice about closing local post offices, and asked why SSA can't do that, too. Post office closings are controversial. AFGE supports legislation by Reps. John Duncan Jr., R-Tenn., and Brian Higgins, D-N.Y., for a moratorium on SSA office closings. SSA has 1,200 field offices.

"Many closures result in effectively eliminating a face-to-face option for seniors, disabled individuals and the poor who have no ability to travel to the different office in another community," said Skwiercznyski. "Many closures left customers with no public transportation to travel to another office. If driving is not an option, face-to-face SSA service stops being an option."

Reconsider using Experian. "In October 2013, Experian was caught selling U.S. data, more than 200 million accounts, from their Identify Proofing Services to an Identity theft ring. Experian is being investigated by the Secret Service and FBI. It has since been reported the ring operated throughout New York and New Jersey." More than a dozen states are suing Experian for permitting identity theft. "As details from testimony are made known, it becomes clear that five out of six U.S. adults are at risk," Skwiercznyski warned.

"SSA should not embrace a business model of 'acceptable risk' with regards to (Social Security) number holders and beneficiary's personal identifiable information housed on SSA's data base," or whether it agrees with Experian's data, he added.

Reconsider making the Internet the lead way Social Security recipients communicate with the system. One-fifth of U.S. adults do not know how to use it, one-fourth of white Americans and more than 40 percent of African-Americans lack access to it, he said. "In our most recent survey of employees, over 55 percent of Internet claims filed require re-contact due to erroneous or missing information. Often, these errors are never corrected...SSA should not dictate what kind of service the public should receive," Skwiercznyski said.

Photo: Alliance for Retired Americans Facebook page.

Obama continues to expand rights for LGBT Americans

Tue, 24 Jun 2014 13:14:00 +0000

In the latest move by Barack Obama that would expand the rights of LGBT workers, the president directed the Labor Department to draft rules that clarify that the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) applies to LGBT couples, even in states where same-sex marriage is not legal. FMLA allows employees to take unpaid leave to care for a sick spouse, but states that don't recognize same-sex marriage previously have been able to refuse FMLA for LGBT families.

Three years ago, the Obama administration stopped defending the legality of the Defense of Marriage Act. His Justice Department is also on the verge of announcing the completion of a review of federal law to determine what legal benefits can be extended to LGBTQ families. The administration already has acted and moved toward equal application of laws relating to health insurance, immigration privileges and tax law for same-sex couples. The White House said some benefits can't be extended to LGBTQ families because federal law prohibits it. Obama is calling on Congress to eliminate those provisions from law.

But there is still one big problem: in most states is is NOT illegal to fire someone for being gay.

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is the bill that would have offered federal protection for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees. Although it passed the Senate last year it is unlikely to make it through the tea party dominated house.

The ACLU-issued a report urging Congress to pass ENDA, using the stories of workers from across the country who have experienced workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity to make the case for passage of the bill.

Click here to download the PDF.

Only 21 states and the District of Columbia bar firing employees for their sexual orientation. Of those, 18 states and D.C also ban firing transgender employees.

The only way workers can have protection is when they have a union contract that specifies protection for ALL workers.

Barbara Russum contributed to this article.

Photo: Pride at Work Facebook page.

Income inequality comes to Supreme Court, courtesy Justice Sotomayor

Mon, 23 Jun 2014 14:42:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Income inequality has come to the U.S. Supreme Court, at least in an informal way, courtesy of Justice Sonia Sotomayor. And she's worried about its negative impact not only on the U.S. now, but on future generations.

The justice's thoughts came during a "living room chat" as the featured dinner speaker during the June 19 American Constitution Society convention in D.C. ACS, a group of progressive - and pro-worker - lawyers and law students, sat Sotomayor down for the "chat," before 500 or so people, with her old Bronx friend/high-school classmate, Ted Shaw.

The easy back-and-forth started with them telling stories of how they grew up poor in public housing projects in the Bronx, and how that shaped their lives. Sotomayor set the tone by holding up their Cardinal Spellman High School senior yearbook - with pictures of both Shaw and her on the same page.

And Sotomayor said "her epiphany" about the law came when she watched Perry Mason on TV: "I want to be him," she said, pointing to the judge who ruled on Mason's cases. The crowd laughed. "Law is a way of dealing with each other as a society," she explained.

But their banter occasionally veered into specific subjects, though not pending Supreme Court decisions, since Sotomayor couldn't talk about them. One was income inequality. Shaw, a top New York NAACP attorney who will head a civil rights institute at the University of North Carolina, started it. "We're losing class mobility," he told his old classmate.

"We're going backwards," Sotomayor replied. The education that she received, at Cardinal Spellman, then an undergraduate degree at Princeton and at Yale Law School - on scholarships - will be unavailable to elementary and high school kids she meets now, she said.

"With the rising costs of education, there are a lot of kids across the spectrum who no longer have any hope of attending the schools we did," she told Shaw, a Columbia graduate.

That's because the kids and their families can't afford it due to increasing income inequality.

And the lack of opportunity for such high-value education "is affecting their future income opportunities," she added. "There are plenty" of kids with the talent she had, she said.

Both present and future income inequality is "absolutely" a problem, Sotomayor responded to another Shaw observation on the issue. "And as the wealth difference grows, we're going to have the problems other countries have."

Sotomayor added it's sometimes difficult to get her points across about the impact of growing up poor to people who did not. She says she connects when she speaks to the kids, as she remembers her hopes, questions and fears at that age and puts herself in their shoes. And she urged the crowd to remember that and be true to their principles and ideals.

Photo: Sonia Sotomayor. AP

With Iraq under threat, questions emerge

Fri, 20 Jun 2014 16:13:00 +0000

Right-wingers like Dick Cheney have lost no time in using Iraq's crisis to attack President Obama's effort to move away from militarism. Cheney, Sen. John McCain, and other architects and advocates of the disastrous U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, are calling for U.S. military intervention, not only in Iraq but in Syria and elsewhere. They claim such "U.S. leadership" is indispensable around the world.

This week, Cheney and his daughter Liz announced formation of an Alliance for a Strong America to "advocate for the policies needed to restore American power and preeminence."

(Note: At the time Cheney left office, just 30 percent of Americans in ABC/Post polling approved of his job performance as vice president. Twice as many, 60 percent, disapproved.)

Some influential centrists are also using the occasion to push for U.S. military action in both Iraq and Syria. For example, Anne-Marie Slaughter, head of the neo-liberal New America Foundation, says "we should attack ... in both Iraq and Syria." Slaughter was director of policy planning at the State Department from 2009 to 2011. The U.S., she says, should "simultaneously" take action against the extremists terrorizing Iraq under the name of ISIS, "and the [Syrian] government." She declares, "We must use force as part of a larger political strategy," which in her view includes bypassing the United Nations in the name of "humanitarian" intervention.

On Thursday, Obama announced he was sending "a small number - up to 300" military advisers to Iraq, and beefing up U.S. intelligence operations there. He also said he "will be prepared to take targeted and precise military action if and when we determine that the situation on the ground requires it."

The term "advisers" immediately evoked a negative response among Americans who recall how U.S. "advisers" morphed into the all-out U.S. war in Vietnam, costing more than 50,000 U.S. lives, not to mention hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese. Polls show the U.S. public overwhelmingly opposes U.S. intervention in Iraq, especially sending in ground troops, with more support for air or drone strikes if requested by Iraq's government. Pentagon Joint Chiefs of Staff chair Gen. Martin Dempsey warned this week that air strikes would be very difficult to target and would risk incurring civilian casualties.

Obama emphasized Thursday that there would be no U.S. "boots on the ground" in Iraq. In an echo of his argument for a less militarized foreign policy - stated recently in his West Point commencement address - he said, "What's clear from the last decade is the need for the United States to ask hard questions before we take action abroad, particularly military action."

Among those hard questions, many Iraqis believe, should be a serious re-think of the damaging U.S. policy of manipulating ethnic and sectarian blocs in Iraq.

It was the U.S., under the Bush occupation, that set up a sectarian power-sharing system that installed power-hungry elites who have used religious or ethnic identity and strife as a cover for enriching themselves and staying in office. In the process, long-standing, well-respected Iraqi non-sectarian groups which had opposed Saddam Hussein for decades, including moderate and left political organizations, trade unions, women's organizations, and the like, were sidelined and even attacked.

That system continues today with the government headed by Nouri al-Maliki, of the Shia Islamic Dawa Party. Now there are calls in Washington for replacing Maliki, and for a more inclusive government in order to ease the crisis. But it appears that U.S. policymakers are continuing to view Iraqi politics as a religious/ethnic sectarian chess game based on simplistic "Sunni-Shia" divisions, in which U.S. advisers can be kingmakers.

This policy not only led to suppression of democracy in Iraq, but also gave former Baathists, leftovers from the Saddam Hussein dictatorship, an excuse and opportunity to re-mobilize to retake Iraq. It is now increasingly recognized, even in U.S. media like the New York Times, that behind the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, or ISIL for Levant in some versions) are highly funded and trained forces of the Saddam dictatorship. U.S. ally Saudi Arabia is believed to be among their backers.

A wide range of Iraqi groups have been calling for national unity to defeat this combination of religious fanatics and reactionary political elements. Civil society organizations as well as respected Shia cleric Ali al-Sistani have called for "reconciliation and non-sectarian national policies to solve the crisis."

The Iraqi Communist Party has issued a call for an urgent, widely representative, national conference to set up "a temporary consultative body that enjoys effective popular support to defeat terrorism."

"Active political parties and forces that are keen to achieve peace, security and stability, and strengthen democracy and build its institutions, and ensure public and personal freedoms, should be invited to attend this conference," the Iraqi Communists say.

Photo: An Iraqi family. tpsdave CC

Prosecutors: Wisconsin governor in criminal scheme

Fri, 20 Jun 2014 14:28:00 +0000

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate, took part in a nationwide criminal scheme to coordinate fundraising with conservative groups, prosecutors said in court documents unsealed June 19.

No charges have been filed against Walker or any member of his staff. And both sides are arguing in court over whether election laws cover the activities. The documents, some written in December as prosecutors defended their investigation, for the first time publicly put Walker himself at the center of the examination of campaigns in 2011 and 2012.

The investigation into fundraising involving Walker and his campaign, the Wisconsin Club for Growth, the state Chamber of Commerce and other groups began in 2012. Walker, who rose to fame by passing a law that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers, was facing a recall election. But the probe has been on hold since May, when a federal judge ruled it was a breach of Wisconsin Club for Growth's free-speech rights and temporarily halted it.

State prosecutors said in the December filing that Walker, former chief of staff Keith Gilkes, top adviser R.J. Johnson and campaign operative Deborah Jordahl discussed illegal fundraising and coordination with national political groups and prominent Republican figures, including GOP strategist Karl Rove.

"The scope of the criminal scheme under investigation is expansive," lead prosecutor Francis Schmitz wrote in a Dec. 9 court filing objecting to an attempt by Walker's campaign and other conservative groups to quash subpoenas. "It includes criminal violations of multiple elections laws" including filing false campaign-finance reports, Schmitz wrote.

Walker suggested that the documents mean little or nothing, given that his campaign's position has already prevailed twice in court.

"I'm not asking people to take my word for it, or political allies," the governor said. "I'm saying look at two independent judges, at both the state and federal level, who did not buy those arguments and were rather aggressive in telling those folks to stop proceeding with that because they didn't think it was right."

The uproar over the collective-bargaining law led to the recall, which Walker won, making him the first governor in U.S. history to defeat a recall.

"The evidence shows an extensive coordination scheme that pervaded nearly every aspect of the campaign activities" during 2011 elections that decided control of the state Senate and the 2012 recall election, Schmitz said in the December filing.

Under Wisconsin law, third-party political groups are allowed to work together on campaign activity, but they are barred from coordinating that work with actual candidates. The Wisconsin Club for Growth has argued the prohibition does not apply to it because it does not specifically tell people how to vote, or run ads with phrases like "vote for" a certain candidate. The federal judge who halted the investigation and the judge overseeing it both agreed with that argument.

Prosecutors, including Schmitz and Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, have appealed the matter to the 7^th Circuit Court of Appeals. Chisholm is a Democrat, and Schmitz has described himself as a Republican who voted for Walker.

Both men have declined to comment about the probe, which is sanctioned under a law that allows prosecutors to compel people to testify and turn over documents, but bars them from discussing the matter publicly.

Prosecutors say the national Club for Growth raised concerns about potential illegal coordination with the Wisconsin group and Walker's campaign as early as 2009. A spokesman for the national group declined to comment.

Johnson, in addition to being Walker's top campaign strategist, was also an adviser for the Wisconsin Club for Growth.

He, Gilkes and Jordahl did not immediately return messages seeking comment left by The Associated Press.

While Walker eyes a run for president in 2016, he's seeking re-election this year against likely Democratic nominee Mary Burke. Both Gilkes and Johnson are working on his re-election campaign.

Prosecutors had sought the release of the documents, and the Wisconsin Club for Growth did not object.

It's been known for months that the investigation focused on allegations of illegal coordination between the Wisconsin club, Walker's campaign and other conservative groups. But until Thursday, it was not clear that prosecutors saw Walker as having a central role.

Wisconsin Club for Growth attorney Andrew Grossman said the public has the right to see the documents.

The papers show how prosecutors "adopted a blatantly unconstitutional interpretation of Wisconsin law that they used to launch a secret criminal investigation targeting conservatives throughout Wisconsin," Grossman said Thursday in an email. "Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and this is a story that needs to be told to prevent more abuses and to hold ... prosecutors accountable for violating the rights of Wisconsinites."

Prosecutors have defended the investigation as a legitimate probe into whether Wisconsin's campaign-finance laws were violated and denied that they were on a partisan witch hunt.

An attorney for prosecutors, Sam Leib, said the filings show that prosecutors were legally justified in their actions and "the process continues."

Associated Press writer Dinesh Ramde contributed to this report from Brookfield, Wisconsin.

Photo: Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker speaks in Milwaukee, May 3. AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps

Arriving without their parents: Child refugees being warehoused on the U.S. border

Thu, 19 Jun 2014 14:54:00 +0000

Thousands of unaccompanied child refugees from Central America, making their way through Mexico and into the U.S., are ending up in locked, fenced warehouses in Texas and Arizona.

To make matters worse the plight of these children ,who are sleeping on plastic boards and are often hungry and ill-clothed, is being cynically used by the right wing to further stymie any hope of immigration reform.

The anti-immigrant right is accusing the children, who by any reasonable standard are refugees from -horrific conditions in their home countries, of being nothing more than immigrants trying to "game" the system. The right wingers are saying the children want to take advantage of President Obama's supposed "leniency" toward young immigrants and they're saying no relief whatsoever should be given to any category of undocumented immigrants, including children.

The government is reporting a sharp increase in undocumented immigration on the U.S.-Mexican border, with a particularly large number of unaccompanied minor children crossing over. Most of the children are not from Mexico originally but from the poorer countries of Central America: Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Often, they are allowing themselves to be picked up by U.S. authorities. In spite of what the anti-immigrant right says, these children are not given a "free pass" to stay and are subject to deportation.

Meanwhile, the law requires that within 72 hours of being apprehended by the Border Patrol, the children have to be turned over to the Office of Refugee Resettlement to be placed either with their parents (if the latter live in the United States), or in a care facility until their immigration case is dealt with. But all facilities are now overwhelmed, and the federal government, in trying to open new ones, is running into "NIMBY" ("Not in my Back Yard") opposition locally.

According to reports, the Border Patrol apprehended 162,000 immigrants from Mexico and Central America who tried to cross into South Texas without papers in the last 8 months. Forty seven thousand of these were unaccompanied minor children, some as young as four. The corresponding figure for the whole of 2009 was 3,304 children.

The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBO) suggested that because President Obama, with the Deferred Action for Childhood Apprehensions (DACA) program, suspended the deportation of young people who would be eligible for legalization under the DREAM Act, the United States is now being invaded by children hoping to "get on the gravy train." However, this surge began before the announcement of DACA in June of 2012.

People who know Central America and who have interviewed the immigrant children assert that they should be seen as refugees rather than migrants, and that the crisis is a humanitarian and not an immigration one. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights representatives in the area say that 58 percent of the children certainly would qualify for relief under international law governing refugees.

The driving factors include, for some, a desire to rejoin parents who live in the United States. But more important is a sharp increase in violence and poverty in the Central American area.

Honduras and Guatemala have right wing governments who have cut back on basic services and under whom unemployment and poverty have increased. Honduras now has the world's highest murder rate.

El Salvador just moved to the left with the election of Salvador Sanchez Ceren as president. However, it has been plagued for a long time by violent gangs or "maras" whose ultimate origin is in the United States: During the Salvadoran civil war of the 1980s, many people fled the violence and ended up in the poor barrios of Los Angeles and other U.S. cities. Some youths got sucked into gang activities which led to their being deported back to El Salvador. This jump-started the development of gangs there, which the Salvadoran government has had trouble controlling.

Mexican-based drug cartels have battled over turf with gangs in Central America or created links with them, creating a hyper violent situation in which the safety of ordinary working class or farming families has suffered greatly. There is an increase in kidnapping, extortion and violent robberies. This has contributed to an increase in the number of people of all ages who ride on top of "la Bestia," not one but actually several freight trains which go from Mexico's Southern border with Guatemala to its Northern border with the United States.

On the train they are no means safe; criminal gangs now frequently board to demand money . When they don't receive it they often shoot people or throw them off the train, sometimes to their deaths. Women and girls are raped as a matter of routine.

Mexico, Belize, Nicaragua and Costa Rica also report increases in the number of Guatemalan, Honduran and Salvadoran unaccompanied minors who are crossing their borders. Mexico and Costa Rica are somewhat richer than the Central American countries. Nicaragua was for a long time one of the poorest countries in the region but has been doing better since hitching up with the "Bolivarian" group of left led countries led by Venezuela, through which it receives substantial aid.

In response to the crisis, Congress is working on providing more funds and President Obama has mobilized FEMA resources.

At writing, Vice President Joe Biden was headed for Central America to meet with the presidents of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to "coordinate responses" and to explain to local people why it is dangerous for children to make the trek North, where they can be trafficked and otherwise preyed on.

What is needed is for U.S. politicians to ponder why it is so dangerous for them to stay.

Photo: Two young girls watch TV from a holding area where hundreds of immigrant children are being processed and held. Ross D. Franklin/AP

CPUSA’s 30th National Convention examines challenges facing the nation

Wed, 18 Jun 2014 16:39:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Civil rights activists during the 1960's, Vietnam War opponents busy during the 1970's, anti-nuke demonstrators from the 1980's, opponents of the first war in Iraq in the 1990's and fast food workers of today were among those sitting side by side for three days at the 30^th National Convention of the CPUSA here June 13-15.

What they were all doing, however, is what the delegates said was the most important thing: Turning the attention of the party to the movements it sees as critical to changing U.S. politics, economics and popular thinking.

"We are looking ahead," said the party's outgoing chairman Sam Webb during his keynote speech, "but not so far ahead that we miss the challenge of this fall's elections. And of course, our attention will turn to the many-sided building of a 21^st century party. Such a party, which we are building, should be modern, mature, militant and mass - or in my word a 4M party."

John Bachtell, the party's newly-elected national chair, said there is a "huge upsurge going on and this presents a challenge and great opportunity for our party. We want to be a major part of shaping and building this upsurge. Every day we see another protest - immigrants, Walmart workers, fast food workers, the fight for a higher minimum wage, Moral Mondays, resistance to voter suppression, the fight against mass incarceration, the Keystone XL Pipeline, the fight for women's reproductive health, students struggling over debt, the AFL-CIO opening itself up to all kinds of allied movements, the election of anti-corporate mayors in New York and Newark - the list goes on."

Bachtell was, prior to his election, chair of the Illinois District of the CPUSA. He has a long history as a party, labor and community activist.

Webb said in his keynote address that while the upsurge doesn't have the capacity to resolve the crisis of capitalism it does have transformative potential, containing seeds that could, if properly nourished, sprout a new burst of freedom, economic security and peace.

The convention was arguably the most open and broadly attended in the party's history. Events were live streamed and open to the press.

There were international guests from Communist and worker parties around the world including from Vietnam, the United Kingdom, Iraq, Iran, Germany, Brazil and Japan.

Convention delegates, who came from every part of the nation, unanimously agreed that the struggles to raise wages at Walmart and other low wage retailers should become a strategic focal point for the CPUSA in the coming period.

"Walmart and other low wage retailers, as they rake in huge profits, are meeting resistance to their practices," said Bachtell. "The movement we support and are helping to build here includes workers, community members, elected officials, unions and more. We've been a part of this fight since it began but we have decided at this convention to officially make it a key part of our strategic focus.

The People's World sponsored a panel discussion June 13 on the fight being waged by low wage workers in which workers themselves and leaders of the labor and allied movements participated. There was a panel discussion the following day on the role of the media in building progressive movements. A variety of labor and independent media outlets participated.

Panelists were excited about the breadth and liveliness they witnessed at the gathering. Bhaskar Sunkara, editor of Jacobin Magazine and a participant in the media panel tweeted regarding the convention: "Really large, vibrant Communist Party USA convention today. But I couldn't help make a joke about the long lines for lunch!"

At various times during the convention the crowds rocked to the music of Buya, a group of drummers. And they enjoyed performances by Jonita Lattimore and Tim Hickey Trio. Kelly Sinclair thrilled the crowds with her songs.

While recognizing that the labor movement has sunk to its lowest membership since World War II, that it is under attack and that the left within it is "too small," the party reaffirmed at the convention what it has long said is the "key role of organized labor" in the struggles of the day. The party sees as its task joining those sections of the labor movement that are breaking new ground - which in turn lays the basis for increasing labor in size, capacity and allied relationships, for turning labor into a powerful force multiplier for economic justice, equality, peace and solidarity.

Also discussed in a big way at the convention was the 2014 mid-term elections.

"Whichever side wins will have the wind in its sails over the final two years of the Obama presidency and a leg up going into the 2016 presidential race," said Rossana Cambron, newly-elected vice chair of the party. Cambron is the leader of the party's Southern California District.

She warned that a GOP victory could "flood" Congress with a whole series of reactionary initiatives and bills. "And they won't stop there," she added, saying the goal of the GOP, the extreme right and the tea party is to undo all New Deal legislation.

Convention delegates say the right wing opposition to President Obama goes "beyond the normal," revealing a barely concealed and deeply felt racist animus toward a Black president who in their eyes symbolizes the imminent demise of the old order that is white, male, and well-to-do.

On climate change the call at the convention was for the party to wholeheartedly join the movement to save the planet. The party is mapping plans to help build fall mass mobilizations at the United Nations to demand action from world leaders. "While climate change is the result of human activity," said Webb, "it is activity in the context of a particular system - capitalism. And its logic is endless capital/profit accumulation, endless and compound growth, massive waste in a multitude of forms, rampant consumerism - all of which put stress on, unravel and eventually undermine the natural systems that sustain life, as they are now doing."

There was also strong support at the convention for a policy of turning away from militarism and war. The party position is "hands off" Venezuela, no war with Iraq and a normalization of relations with Cuba and freedom for the Cuban 5. The party calls for a peace budget rather than a war budget and a peace economy rather than a militarized one.

Photo: PW

Patent Office cancels Washington’s disparaging trademark

Wed, 18 Jun 2014 13:36:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. Patent Office ruled Wednesday that the Washington Redskins nickname is "disparaging of Native Americans" and that the team's federal trademarks for the name must be canceled.

The 2-1 ruling comes after a campaign to change the name gained momentum over the past year. The team doesn't immediately lose trademark protection and is allowed to retain it during an appeal, which is likely.

Redskins owner Dan Snyder has refused to change the team's name, citing tradition, but there has been growing pressure including statements in recent months from President Barack Obama, lawmakers of both parties and civil rights groups.

The decision means that the team can continue to use the Redskins name, but it would lose a significant portion of its ability to protect the financial interests connected to its use. If others printed the name on sweatshirts, apparel, or other team material, it becomes more difficult to go after groups who use it without permission.

The case involves six registered trademarks that involve the use of the word Redskins, but it does not apply to the team's logo.

The decision by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board is similar to one it issued in 1999. That ruling was overturned in 2003 in large part on a technicality after the courts decided that the plaintiffs should have filed their complaint soon after the Redskins registered their nickname in 1967.

The new case was launched in 2006 by a younger group of Native Americans, and was heard by the board in March of last year.

The group argued that the Redskins should lose their federal trademark protection based on a law that prohibits registered names that are disparaging, scandalous, contemptuous or disreputable.

Suzan Shown Harjo, one of the plaintiffs who testified at last year's hearing, said she was "thrilled and delighted" with the decision. Snyder declined to speak to reporters as he walked off the practice field, but the team said it planned to release a statement later in the day.

In Washington, lawmakers who have pushed for a name change applauded the decision. In May, half of the Senate wrote letters to the NFL urging the team to change its name.

"Daniel Snyder may be the last person in the world to realize this, but it's just a matter of time until he is forced to do the right thing and change the name," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has said previously he will not attend home games until the team changes its name.

Photo: Native Americans protest the Washington football team's name before a game in Minnesota. AP

Retirees gather, organize for social justice

Tue, 17 Jun 2014 16:55:00 +0000

LAS VEGAS - More than 500 retiree activists from across the country gathered in Las Vegas last month to discuss issues of social and economic justice at the annual membership convention of the Alliance for Retired Americans (ARA). The ARA has over 4.3 million members including retired union members and other retirees.

Themed "Building Retiree Power," the convention focused on wealth and income inequality and preserving Americans' right to a secure retirement. Attendees connected with other activists, heard from leaders in the labor movement and elected officials, attended action-focused workshops, and adopted resolutions on issues important to current and future retirees.

Secretary-Treasurer Ruben Burks focused on the widening income gap in America and reminded attendees about the critical role the labor movement played in expanding retirement security. "If it were not for the labor movement, there would be no Social Security or Medicare," said Burks. "It was only through our collective bargaining rights and our political strength that we were able to make these things happen."

American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) President Lee Saunders called attention to continuing attacks on worker pensions and called for a fight to expand pension coverage to more Americans. "Together we must continue to stand up for the idea that after a lifetime of working hard and playing by the rules, we all deserve to live out our years with the dignity and respect that comes from financial independence." He said, "The question is not, 'Why do you still have pensions?' but 'Why don't all workers have pensions?'"

Retired activists discussed how to stop efforts to cut Medicare and Social Security, raise the minimum wage, and fight back against destructive trade deals like the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Of keen interest was information involving the secretive American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a shadowy organization that connects corporations with state lawmakers to quietly push an anti-worker agenda at the state and local level. ALEC brings together corporations and their lobbyists and legislators to vote as equals on "model bills" that protect profits at the expense of retirees and workers. Legislators who are wined and dined with corporate money introduce identical model bills in their state legislatures and too often are successful at passing legislation that harms working families and retirees.

Delegates adopted resolutions to improve and expand Social Security benefits; for Wall Street to pay its fair share of taxes; against corporate attacks on post-retirement healthcare; to oppose ALEC's corrupt agenda and to support a campaigns to inform the public about ALEC and ALEC politicians.

The Alliance also launched its "Medicare Turns 50" campaign, calling attention to Medicare's 50^th anniversary next year - July 30^th 2015 - as an ideal opportunity to educate Americans on the merits and successes of the Medicare program. The Alliance will celebrate Medicare as America's most successful health care program and emphasize its 50-year history of giving seniors the ability to see a doctor and fill a prescription - benefits that keep millions of Americans out of poverty. As members of Congress like Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) hone in on dismantling the Medicare program and giving more power to Big Pharma and health care corporations, retiree activists will spend the next year organizing grassroots events nationwide, placing letters in their local papers, and calling attention to Medicare's successful track record.

Retiree leaders in the Alliance have seen over their lifetimes the rise in income inequality and its stronghold on the middle class. They have seen the increasing difficulty Americans have saving for retirement, to the point where many are simply not doing it. Making the problem worse, out-of-touch politicians continue to back proposals to break down the Medicare and Social Security systems - changes Alliance members say will only make the retirement security crisis worse.

In a tough political environment, the Alliance's active retirees are preparing to utilize their experience and willpower to continue the fight for retirement security. Their plan of action to educate voters and reverse restrictive voter ID laws that hurt retirees and minority populations is geared to mobilize retirees for a higher minimum wage, protecting pensions, and transforming the dangerous efforts to dismantle Medicare and Social Security into successful campaigns to expand the programs.

Photo: Hawaii Alliance for Retired Americans leaders Al Hamai and Jean Dobashi in Las Vegas, NV.

Today in labor history: Cherokee Nation begins Trail of Tears

Tue, 17 Jun 2014 16:14:00 +0000

On this day in 1838 the Cherokee Native American nation began the infamous "Trail of Tears" the name given to genocidal forced removal from their lands.

The Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson in 1830, authorizing the president to grant unsettled lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders. Many resisted the relocation policy.

Jackson was arrogant, violent tempered and pro-slavery. His detractors called him "King Andrew I." But the worst national memory of Jackson is his brutal expulsion of the "Five Civilized Tribes" from their homeland in the southeastern U.S., a traumatic migration in which thousands died from exhaustion, exposure and hunger. These tribes - the Cherokee, Muskogee, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Seminole - had done nothing to merit this rough treatment except that they possessed land which some white people, Jackson's people, wanted. So Jackson drove them out, to Oklahoma.

In 1835, gold had been discovered on Georgia Cherokee land; the state demanded they cede land; they refused. When the Supreme Court declared the State of Georgia's initial expulsion of the Cherokees to be unconstitutional, Jackson shouted "[Chief Justice] John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it!" Then he used his federal authority to kick out all five tribes.

It is estimated that nearly one third - ten to 30 percent - died in the course of U.S. government's ethnic cleansing.

Photo: Trail of tears sign, Yam Nahar. Public Domain,

Fight for $15: CPUSA Convention highlights fight for a living wage

Tue, 17 Jun 2014 12:07:00 +0000

CHICAGO - A highlight of the opening of the 30^th National Convention of the Communist Party USA was a Peoples World panel on June 13, a public event called "Working for a Living: New Challenges." took place. Workers who have been part of the Fight for 15 campaign to raise fast food wages made their voices heard. They discussed their experiences leading strikes and campaigns, and spoke about how important the Fight for 15 battle has become.

Naquasia LeGrande, a worker at KFC in New York, remarked, "I'm employed to be a cashier but I end up doing more than what my manager can do, and I do it for only $8 an hour. New York City is a billion dollar city, and you're telling me that with all I do, I'm only worth $8? I was going to school and I didn't get to finish, because of financial problems. At that time, I wasn't even thinking about making a change - just getting out of KFC. But then I started hearing about changing the conditions of my own workplace. It occurred to me that I could make my life as a worker better right then and there. The family that struggles together is the family that stays together."

Domino's pizza worker Michael Leone, from Houston, Texas, added, "If you work at a fast food restaurant, you really don't have the option to call in sick. I called in one day, maybe naively, shaking and sick and unable to drive a car and deliver pizzas. And I couldn't be handling food in that condition." Leone's manager was unmoved. "They said if I can't work, I have to find somebody to cover my shift. So I have to drive myself down there anyway - at which point I promptly head to the restroom to throw up - and then my manager gives me everyone's numbers, and I have to go through them one by one. Eventually I found someone to cover my shift. If I hadn't, I would have been fired." The point, he said, is "they just see us all as some sort of expendable livestock. Well, it's time we start managing the farm."

There was also a former fast food worker present, who was not so lucky to be able to keep his job. Rasheen Aldridge was an employee at a Jimmy John's in St. Louis for two and a half years - until it was decided he could be replaced. "I worked hard there for nothing. I came into work day in and day out for little to no pay, and got treated like crap. Then I started organizing for a $15 an hour wage - as opposed to $7.35. Well, my manager approached me one day and declared that I was fired for being in four minutes late." In reality, Aldridge was let go due to his union activity. "It's not just about the money," he said. "We don't only need the money. We need the union for protection, because these jobs are the new-day slavery."

Leone agreed. "We have to keep fighting to unionize," he noted, "because what good is winning the Fight for 15 if we don't have a union? They could take those $15 wages away the next day."

"Workers in Denmark are making $21 an hour and they also have a union," said LeGrande. "So these workers on the other side of the world are saying, 'What's going on in the U.S.?' They're standing with us, but they can't believe that we're only making $8 an hour over here."

Aldridge agreed with the absurdity of the situation, adding, "We're supposed to be the 'super country.' We're America. So how are countries like Denmark, Australia, and Germany paying their workers more money than us? People in countries that, in some instances, don't even have the same resources or economies as us, still have major worker rights and freedoms that we don't. There's something wrong here."

Photo: Immediate left: LeGrande and Leone. Second from right: Aldridge. PW