People Before Profit blog

Gov’t spying on citizens? ACLU map shows Bush years full of it

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:58:00 +0000

Despite anti-Obama conspiracy theorists, tea partiers and other various anti-government groups, a new interactive map of alleged government spying posted on the American For Civil Liberties website June 28 shows the Bush years, from 2001 through 2008, were rife with surveillance on ordinary, peaceful citizens.

The Bush-Cheney federal agencies spent the most time on infiltrating, harassing or collecting data on antiwar activists protesting the Iraq invasion, according to ACLU records.

Out of the approximately 100 ACLU records posted from 33 states and the District of Columbia, 90 percent took place before Barack Obama was elected president.

There were less than 10, which seem to have take place in 2009-2010.

The ACLU says political spying has once again "come to the fore."

"A thorough search and review of news accounts" reveals that these law enforcement behaviors "have taken place in recent years," it says on its website.

The few records cited of law enforcement surveillance of "peaceful" citizens during the Obama years centers on watching mosques for "terrorist" support and organizing, or far-rightwing, Christian-identity militia groups.

The Bush administration preferred focus was on antiwar groups, leftwing organizations, pro-Palestine Muslim activists, anarchists, environmentalists and even the Florida-based Immokalee Workers during their fight for better wages with Taco Bell tomato suppliers.

The ACLU highlights Fusion Centers as one of the most troubling surveillance programs in the last year. Fusion Centers began in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, when the political push to share government intelligence across agencies gained new momentum.

One of the Sept. 11 terrorists was stopped by Maryland state police for speeding on Sept. 9, 2001. He was on the CIA watch list, Time magazine reported. So, the rationale goes, if that state trooper had that data, then the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil could have been disrupted.

Fusion centers are a hybrid of local law enforcement, various federal and state agencies, military and even private contractors. According to Time, the rise of fusion centers accelerated in the middle of the Bush-Cheney years, 2004-2005, "because the federal government placed much of the responsibility for homeland security on state governments."

But these fusion centers lack oversight, can easily violate privacy laws and are characterized by excessive secrecy, civil liberties advocates say.

But their focus and operations also vary greatly from state-to-state.

"If you've seen one fusion center - you've seen one fusion center," Jack Tomarchio, former deputy director of intelligence for the Department of Homeland Security, who oversaw the development of most of the country's state fusion centers during the Bush administration, told Time.

There are 72 fusion centers operating today, the ACLU says.

A quick look at two fusion centers' newsletters illustrates a vast difference in political focus.

In February 2009, the Texas Fusion Center reported as fact a controversial statement allegedly made by the founder of Council on American-Islamic Relations (which he has denied making) as an example of "Middle Eastern terrorist groups" and their supporters being successful in "gaining support for Islamic goals in the United States."

On the other end of the "spectrum, also in February 2009, the Missouri Fusion Center reported on the "modern militia movement" pointing out, among other things, its ties to white supremacist, anti-Semitic and nationalist organizations. It also said that militia members are "usually supporters" of third-party presidential candidates like Ron Paul and Bob Barr.

That raised such a ruckus among libertarians and anti-Obama groups, the center retracted it.

The ACLU says there is good news, though. The 2010 DHS Homeland Security Grant Program "established a requirement that fusion centers certify that privacy and civil liberties protections are in place in order to use DHS grant funds." Such a requirement is a first for DHS.

Photo: Robotclaw666/CC

NYC Pride: Celebrating and militant

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:19:00 +0000

NEW YORK- Manhattan's LGBT pride march, the largest and oldest in the nation, and one of the largest in the world, capped off a the June 19-27th Pride Week, which acted both as a celebration of the LGBT community and the fight for LGBT equality. In many ways, from signs on display to the grand marshals, to the week's theme-"Liberty and Justice for All"-Pride 2010 took on a more militant stance than in recent years.

A wide cross section of the city's LGBT community and its friends were out, from those dressed in business suits to the scantily-clad and flashy. A wide array of political leaders, Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, and celebrities were on hand.

The march's grand marshals highlighted some of the most prominent issues facing the community. Constance McMillen, the Mississippi high school honors student who came to prominence when her school refused to allow her to take her girlfriend to the prom, acted as one of the march's grand marshals.

"I never dreamed so many people would support my fight to take my girlfriend to the prom," McMillen said before the march, "much less that I'd end up being asked to be grand marshal."

Lieutenant Dan Choi, the decorated army veteran who has defied the military's notorious anti-gay Don't Ask, Don't Tell rule by coming out upon his return home from Iraq served as the was the first-ever openly gay member of the U.S. armed services to lead a pride march.

Choi carried a sign reading, "Gay by birth, soldier by choice."

The final grand marshal was Judy Shepard, founder and president of the Matthew Shepard foundation. Shepard founded the organization after her son, Matthew, was murdered in the notorious 1998 hate crime at the age of 21.

This is the first pride march held since the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama on October 28, 2009. The bill, a significant victory, finally expanded protection under current hate crime laws to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people.

Governor David Paterson, who has fought to legalize gay marriage in New York was also prominent at the front of the march.

Heritage of Pride, which organized the week of activities as well as the march, estimated that more than 350 groups, and half a million people, attended the march.

The first pride march in the city was in 1970, exactly a year after the Stonewall Riots. The riots were sparked when police attacked the Stonewall Inn, in Greenwich Village, without provocation, as was common at the time. However, this time the gay community fought back for the first time in U.S. history, marking the birth of the modern American LGBT rights movement.

Other events included a kickoff rally on June 20th, the annual LGBT street fair PrideFest, and a dance on Pier 24.

Photo: S See-ming Lee http://www.flickr.com/photos/seeminglee/694119740/

Californians feel benefits of federal health law

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 09:24:00 +0000

Californians are already beginning to feel the benefits of the new federal health care law, a newly released progress report by Health Access reveals.

While the major provisions of the three-month old Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) won't take effect until January 2014, significant portions of the law are already kicking in and others will do so over the next several months and years, the statewide health care advocacy group reported.

New benefits include help to afford coverage and additional consumer protections against the most unscrupulous insurance company practices.

An estimated 576,500 California children with pre-existing conditions can no longer be denied medical treatment or access to their parents' insurance based on previous health conditions. Under public pressure, insurers have already announced they will comply with the federal prohibition officially taking effect Sept. 23.

California seniors stand to gain more than those in other states who fall into the "donut hole," the coverage gap in the Medicare Part D prescription drug plan, because they spend a record $381,636 out-of-pocket for prescribed medicines.

California seniors who fall into the doughnut hole started receiving a $250 rebate to help with the prescription drug coverage gap last week.

The association of health insurers informed Congress earlier this year that as of May they would end the practice of rescissions, where coverage is suddenly revoked based on problems in the patient's initial health questionnaire, even if the patient had been paying premiums for months.

Because of increased media and state regulatory oversight, the insurers' group moved ahead of the September date when the new more stringent federal laws are scheduled to take effect.

For the full report and more complete information on the struggle in California for implementing and improving the federal health law, go to the Health Access website.

Photo: Marilyn Bechtel

San Antonio city council says ‘no’ to Arizona-type law

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:36:00 +0000

The San Antonio City Council sat for 3½ hours late last week to hear speakers urge passage of a controversial resolution urging the Texas state legislature to oppose an immigration law similar to the much criticized Arizona SB 1070. The resolution also urged Congress and the President to take up comprehensive legislation on immigration.

Expressing his support, Councilmember Justin Rodriguez said, "We have to be proactive and stop the state legislature."

The council chambers were crowded with organizations and individuals speaking in support of the resolution. Their size overwhelmed the small number of opponents.

Rosa Rosales, president of LULAC, and her two sons, Gabriel and Miguel, stressed the danger of Texas adopting a law similar to Arizona's when the legislature meets in January. Two legislators have already drawn up the outline of a bill.

The Arizona law has been criticized for endangering and profiling people of color and causing immigrants to withdraw further into the shadows. The Arizona SB 1070 allows someone to be stopped for "reasonable suspicion" rather than "probable cause" – a difference widely open to unclear interpretation.

Rosales stated that the Arizona bill violates the Constitution and affects everyone negatively. She listed many cities that have passed resolutions opposing the Arizona bill SB 1070. Among them are Los Angeles, San Diego, New York, St. Paul, Brownsville, Boston, El Paso, and Boulder, Colorado. Some cities are also boycotting Arizona.

She stated bluntly, "The law is racist. Latinos and people of color are under attack and we are offended."

Chief of San Antonio Police McManus strongly opposed the Arizona law and expressed his support for the resolution. He said the Arizona Organization of Police Chiefs as well as other chiefs around the country agree. Police chiefs are concerned that such a law will impair the police relationship with the community, and people will not talk to the police. As a result crimes will go unreported. In addition, the added burden of immigration enforcement on local police could cause many serious crimes to go ignored.

A group of at least 50 activists from Communities Organized for Public Service (COPS) came forward to speak on the resolution. They represented a number of churches in the community. On their behalf, Rev. Walter D'Heedene talked about using workshops and sharing as way to "hear" each other. Of concern were issues of anger, hate and polarization of communities not caused by the resolution but by "scapegoating" of immigrants. He urged a more humane law unmotivated by fear and police enforcement.

"We need to protect the oppressed," he explained. "Some say it is not our business. But it is, since a similar law is currently being drafted for the Texas State Legislature." We need to do more than this resolution, and more to bring the conversation from fear to hope.

Christina Castro, of COPS from St. Henry's Parish, said she experienced racial profiling in California. That was when the struggle for fairness became a realization to her.

The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce supported the resolution. Texas state representatives Michael Villareal and Trey Martinez Fisher, along with U.S. Rep. Charles Gonzalez, wrote or spoke in support of the resolution.

Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg of Temple Rodfei Shalom and four other members of the Jewish-Latino Dialogue Group spoke about Jewish immigration and urged the passage of the council resolution.

Antonio Diaz, representing the Texas Indigenous Council, spoke about the need for restoration of indigenous people's rights to cross over borders. He said, "It is time to tear down law 1070."

The Inner City Advocates of Judge Albert Pena Jr spoke of the plight of 4 million orphaned children harmed after their parents were deported. He also noted the recent March in Washington D.C., demanding humane solutions that stop the ICE raids, the splitting of families and criminalizing of immigrants and those who help them.

Lydia Camarillo, who had recently come from the National Latino Conference, praised the resolution, the council and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro. "You are about to make history," she said.

The resolution passed 8-3 on June 24th, and the council agreed to have it sent to the state legislature.

Justice delayed but not denied, Jon Burge found guilty

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 14:37:00 +0000

CHICAGO - A federal jury here on Monday, June 28, found former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge guilty on all three counts of obstruction of justice and perjury for lying about torture in a civil lawsuit.

For decades Burge and his Area 2 detectives during the 1970s and 80s, referred to as the "Midnight Crew," have been accused of police abuse on over 100 African American men who were beaten to sign confessions for crimes they say they did not commit.

All of the victims are African American males and their stories tell a consistent pattern of racial discrimination by Burge and his men. Electric shock to the ears and/or genitals, burning, suffocation, and mock executions were some of the most brutal forms of torture.

Burge was eventually fired from the Police Department in 1993 for torturing a suspect. A four-year investigation by Special Cook County prosecutors concluded in 2006 that the statue of limitations on the claims of abuse had long passed.

However in 2008 federal prosecutors went after Burge as part of a 2003 civil lawsuit filed by a former death row inmate where the commander said torture was never used, contrary to mounting evidence that proved such abuse was enforced.

In 2008 the City of Chicago agreed to a $20 million settlement with four former Death Row inmates who alleged that Burge had abused them.

The convictions made by the jury this week, which included just one African American, mean that Burge, 62, faces up to 45 years in prison when he is sentenced on Nov. 5.

"This is a long, long time coming, but there's finally an official recognition of this sordid episode of Chicago history," said Rob Warden of Northwestern University's Innocence Project to the Chicago Sun-Times. "Justice was delayed, but, ultimately, not denied."

Speaking to reporters outside the courtroom Mark Clements, 45, said he was incarcerated for nearly three decades after he was brutally forced to admit to a crime after police detectives beat and tortured a confession out of him. He was sixteen at the time.

He said his life had been stolen from him and he prayed for this day to come.

"Finally, the poor people won," said Clements to the Chicago Tribune. "Hopefully Jon Burge will receive an appropriate sentence and he will have time to think about the consequences of his actions."

Others say Burge should have been convicted for torture not perjury but say nonetheless the verdict was a good one. Attorneys representing a number of Burge's alleged victims say they will continue to fight for new trials for their clients and hope the U.S. government will take swift action to charge the other detectives who were implicated in many of the torture cases.

Prosecutors have signaled they are investigating a number of detectives who worked for Burge at the time.

Meanwhile City Hall is rewriting Chicago's 28-year-old handgun ban to tighten registration requirements after the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling Monday that says cities and states must abide by the 2nd Amendment granting citizens nationwide the right to legally keep weapons in their home for protection.

Mayor Richard Daley, who has championed gun control said the ruling was a defeat and said the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision is out of touch with rampant violence due to guns on the street that cities across the nation face every day.

In dissent, Justice Stephen G. Breyer said firearms "cause well over 60,000 deaths and injuries in the United States each year. Gun regulation may save lives. Some experts have calculated, for example, that Chicago's handgun ban has saved several hundred lives, perhaps close to 1,000, since it was enacted in 1983."

Community activists argue the ruling is a bad idea especially when there are too many young people dying every week due to the easy access of guns. Having more access to such weapons will actually increase the violence, they say. Rather more funding should be allocated toward violence prevention programs and outreach workers throughout the city including job-readiness services and long-term employment opportunities for young people, they add.

Photo: Pepe Lozano/PW

Also by Pepe Lozano: Torture victim fights for freedom

Pride parade celebrates, presses for equality

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:30:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO - Thousands thronged the streets here June 26 and 27, enjoying the 40th anniversary of this city's Gay Pride celebration with brilliant rainbow-hued costumes, musical and theatrical events, and just plain fun. On Sunday, parade participants and onlookers jammed the main thoroughfare, Market St., as they danced, sang and chanted their way to a festival at Civic Center.

The celebration had a serious side, too, with many signs and banners calling for marriage equality, and proclaiming the need to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), now before both houses of Congress, to provide basic protections against workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

In a measure of how far the celebrations have come since the first march in 1970 brought out a few hundred participants, this year religious and community organizations marched alongside the floats and contingents of many corporate sponsors, and U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered her congratulations by video to the festival.

A labor contingent brought together members of many unions, including hotel, hospital, theater, government and maritime workers, nurses, teachers and more.

Unite Here! Local 2, which represents some 9,000 San Francisco hotel workers who have been without a citywide contract since last August, was out in force. The slogan of the union's joint campaign with the LGBT community, "Sleep with the right people - Support hotel workers!" was emblazoned on tee-shirts, signs, and a decorated bright red car that led the unionists down Market St.

Banners and signs proclaiming "Hyatt: Anti worker, anti gay!" focused on one of the giant hotel corporations involved in the contract struggle. All three San Francisco Hyatts are now under worker-initiated boycotts.

Local 2 spokesperson Israel Alvaran told the World that passing ENDA is essential so legislation barring employment discrimination is fully inclusive. He also emphasized the importance of marriage equality to ensure equal rights and benefits for workers.

Alvaran's views were supported by Eileen Berkun, chair of Service Employees International Union Local 1021's Lavender Solidarity Committee, who said gay and lesbian workers continue to encounter harassment in the workplace, and urgently need equality in benefits.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) is fighting a specific instance of workplace discrimination. Hornblower Cruises, which operates a ferry to the historic Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay, fired deckhand Vincent Atos last November for allegedly "acting too gay" at work.

As he prepared to march in the parade, Peter Olney, ILWU's Director of Organizing, said that besides being openly gay, Atos was a "very out" union organizer. "He was responsible for signing up over half the bargaining unit on authorization cards," Olney said. "The company saw him as our prime organizer."

In 2005 the historically anti-union Hornblower was chosen by the National Parks Service to take over the Alcatraz run from a union company, displacing some 50 workers who belonged to the ILWU's Inlandboatmen's Association and the Masters, Mates and Pilots union.

Olney said the east-coast International Longshoremen's Association is supporting the ILWU in its efforts to organize workers on the Alcatraz run. The ILA has a labor agreement with Hornblower for its run to the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.

Most other San Francisco cruise lines are unionized.

San Francisco's celebrations were not without their note of sadness. A young partygoer was shot to death Saturday night in the Castro, the traditional center of the city's gay community, and two of his friends were injured. Police said the incident resulted from a personal dispute and was not a hate crime.

Photo: Marilyn Bechtel

Marriage equality summer

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:59:00 +0000

Marriage equality activists are refusing to let the pro-discrimination voices of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) go unanswered this summer.

According to media reports, the right-wing National Organization for Marriage is planning a tour, they call "Summer of Marriage," of portions of the country to oppose same-sex marriage. In response, activists with Freedom to Marry, a national campaign that favors marriage equality, plan to organize "rallies and other events wherever NOM is planning to push discrimination and distort the truth about gay couples and their families."

In a press statement, Freedom To Marry organizers said, "we would like to thank NOM for drawing attention this summer to the love, commitment, and the crucial safety net that marriage brings to families across the country."

NOM was founded in 2007 by right-wing religious and political groups to support virulent anti-gay political campaigns in states like California and Washington. NOM's main goal is to fight growing public sentiment in favor of marriage equality and expanded protections for same-sex couples.

In contrast, Freedom to Marry campaign, beyond countering the homophobic message of NOM, promotes the basic notion that anyone should have the freedom to choose their marriage partner and have access to the social and economic benefits of that institution. Part of the goal of the campaignis to "share our stories and demonstrate how the denial of marriage harms same-sex couples and their families, while helping no one," the campaign statement noted.

In addition, the campaign will "break the silence, spark conversations, and share personal stories about why marriage matters to same-sex couples and their families."

The campaign rejects NOM's claim that allowing marriage for everyone is some sort of attack on "the values of our Nation." Instead, the group will turn the tables: "We will continue to demonstrate that there is nothing more American then embracing the Golden Rule and celebrating love, commitment, and equal protection under the law."

Participate in the Freedom to Marry campaign here.

Too big to fail? Not this Wall Street reform bill

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 08:27:00 +0000

Congress is on the verge of passing the most sweeping banking and financial regulations since the 1930s - or so the catch phrase goes.

At the same time many say the reform bill does not go far enough to regulate Wall Street and curb the chances of another financial meltdown like the one in September 2008.

Sound like déjà vu? Such a debate sounds similar to the wrangling around health care reform.

"Well one reason it's being hailed as the most sweeping regulations since the 1930s is there hasn't been any new regulations implemented on capital for 30-plus years," charged Scott Marshall, head of the Communist Party's labor and union work. "For most of the population, we have spent our lives under the era of deregulation, which directly led to the current economic crisis."

Marshall said the fight on Wall Street reform is like the fight on health care reform. "Not enough for the people, but as much as the people could win, given the corporate and far-right's attack on the role of government and where Congress and the country is at politically."

On June 25, after 20 hours of straight negotiations, the House and Senate Joint Committee agreed on the details of a combined financial reform bill, which President Obama says has in it 90 percent of what he wanted. The joint bill goes back to each chamber for a vote, expected sometime this week.

With the death of Democrat Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, it may be tougher to pass the reconciled bill in the Senate and get it to the president's desk for a July 4 signing.

Republican Sen. Scott Brown from Massachusetts, who was one of the four Republicans who voted for the original Senate bill in May, says he won't go for the joint bill because it includes a fee on banks. The bank fee would raise $19 billion to offset the cost of the bill, pay down the national debt and guarantee no more taxpayer bailouts. Brown says it's a "tax increase."

Two Democrats, Sens. Maria Cantwell of Washington State and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, voted against the previous Senate bill since, they said, it did not go far enough. They, like other critics, say the bill doesn't break up the Big Banks, and thereby the "too big to fail" scenario can be repeated.

Some of the features of the House-Senate bill include:

A new consumer protections agency, housed under the Federal Reserve, would put new scrutiny on numerous financial institutions, including pay day lenders, check cashers; FDIC increases insurance level to $250,000; no more hidden credit card or mortgage fees, buried in pages of fine print.
Regulation and transparency of the shadowy derivatives and credit markets. Derivatives would be traded out in the open with some regulatory oversight like record-keeping and reporting; hedge funds must register with regulators.
Outlawing predatory loan practices, which led to the crash of the housing bubble, and the biggest shift of wealth out of the African American and Latino communities, and working-class communities overall, to the big banks.

Many sought to make regulatory control outside of the Federal Reserve, which is run by the bankers themselves. But the Fed maintains its regulator role over thousands of community banks and complex financial companies. However, the bill eliminates the role of bankers in picking presidents at the Fed's 12 regional banks.

Another compromise was the implementation of the so-called "Volker Rule," named after President Carter's former Treasury Secretary Paul Volker. Instead of separating commercial banks from owning and operating hedge funds and private equity - the banking industry got a concession so banks can invest up to 3 percent of their core capital in such funds. But government regulators may seize and break up troubled financial firms whose collapse whose collapse might cause widespread damage.

Marshall said a transaction tax on big banks and Wall Street firms is necessary to get the "real" economy going again and create jobs. "Part of the sweeping reforms of the 1930s was a stock transfer tax, which was repealed in the 1950s. That was the opening guns of shifting the tax burdens from the corporate and super-wealthy elite to small business, middle-class and working people. Such a wealth shift continued to this day, like in the form of the Bush tax cuts."

A coalition of U.S. unions, civil rights and community groups, called Jobs For America Now, are demanding such a tax be levied to create necessary and good-paying "green jobs," rebuild the infrastructure and prevent layoffs of teachers and other public workers.

A global transaction tax proposal was recently floated by Germany Prime Minister Angela Merkel at the recent G-8 meet, which rejected the idea. The UK instituted such a tax, three years ago. The European Union may pursue such a tax on its own.

Why Exxon Mobil is more dangerous than BP

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:01:00 +0000

BP may be getting all the bad headlines these days, but Americans should probably worry more about Exxon Mobil.

Big Oil's financial sway over Congress and even the White House has been widely reported - with the overwhelming bulk of oil money going to Republicans.

But Exxon Mobil Corp. stands out among the nation's oil giants in one big way: it is quietly spending millions of dollars to fund an enormous, interlocking network of extreme right-wing "policy" groups, foundations and think tanks - often with innocuous names - working to shape public opinion and policy. A glance at the MediaMatters Conservative Transparency project gives the picture.

For example, Exxon has given more than $1.2 million to the American Council for Capital Formation. This group's website is filled with attacks on the climate bill now before Congress. Featured items include an op ed by its senior vice president, Margo Thorning, published May 18 in the Detroit News, headlined "Climate bill will stall Michigan's manufacturing engine."

Another featured item, a recent Wall Street Journal interview with ACCP's head, Mark Bloomfield, cheerleads cutting the capital gains tax. Bloomfield boasts he is known as "Mr. Capital Gains."

According to the WSJ article, Bloomfield holds a monthly Washington dinner "for an eclectic group of members of Congress, corporate executives and journalists." The article says these gatherings "harken back to a less partisan and hurried time in Washington, when policy was often hashed out informally and off-the-record."

Exxon has given $1.6 million to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which calls itself "a public interest group dedicated to free enterprise and limited government." CEI, says Sourcewatch, "postures as an advocate of ‘sound science' in the development of public policy. However, CEI projects dispute the overwhelming scientific evidence that human induced greenhouse gas emissions are driving climate change. They have a program for "challenging government regulations", push property rights as a solution to environment problems, opposed U.S. vehicle fuel efficiency standards and been a booster for the drug industry."

Then there's the National Center for Policy Analysis, which Exxon has given $520,000. It says its goal is "to develop and promote private alternatives to government regulation and control, solving problems by relying on the strength of the competitive, entrepreneurial private sector." It pushes Social Security privatization and health savings accounts, rather than the dreaded "Obamacare." Its website sports blurbs from Newt Gingrich and right-wing commentator John Stossel.

According to the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, the NCPA prides itself on "aggressively targeting key political leaders and special interest groups, establishing on-going ties with members of the print and electronic media, and testifying before Congress, federal agencies, state lawmakers, and national organizations."

Exxon is one of the top funders of the National Taxpayers Union, to whom it has given $315,000. NTU calls itself a "citizen group" advocating the flat tax - tax cuts for the rich, cutting government services, "individual liberty, and free enterprise." Grover Norquist was one of NTU's executive directors.

Exxon has given $531,000 to the Heartland Institute - another "free market" group that fights efforts to curb global warming and other environmental measures, and pushes school vouchers and privatization - and $385,000 to the right-wing Heritage Foundation. And on and on. MediaMatters has an extensive listing.

And Exxon Mobil, alone among the top oil corporations, has joined forces with extreme right-wing funders like the Koch and Scaife family foundations, and others less well known but equally far-right, in this vast stealth effort.

Exxon has given $1.9 million to the well-known right-wing American Enterprise Institute. That's small potatoes compared to $17 million for the AEI from the top funder of right-wing groups, the Wisconsin-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, which got its start with the proceeds of the Allen-Bradley Company, manufacturer of rheostats. Or the $8 million for the AEI from the right-wing Smith Richardson Foundation. financed by the Vicks VapoRub fortune. Or the $6.4 million from the Scaife Foundation, financed by the Mellon industrial, oil, and banking fortune. But it shows the kind of company Exxon Mobil keeps.

Exxon has given $265,000 to the Manhattan Institute, funded by the same collection of right-wing foundations. The Manhattan Institute, frequently cited as a source in major media like The New York Times, without any mention of the extreme-right nature of its funding, trumpets "market-oriented policies" and says it is aimed at "shaping American political culture and developing ideas that foster economic choice and individual responsibility." It holds forums and conferences, and produces publications, books and a quarterly magazine "City Journal."

Its website features a June 27 article in the New York Daily News by institute fellow Diana Furchtgott-Roth attacking the effort to pass a "living wage" law in New York City. She calls a "waste of money" a law that would require new projects that receive city subsidies to pay workers $11.50 an hour or $10 an hour plus health benefits.

Over and over, for what Hillary Clinton once perceptively called the "vast right-wing conspiracy," Exxon Mobil's name pops up among the funders.

The far right in our country isn't just tea party "wackos." To get to the root, a good place to start would be Exxon Mobil.

Photo: Exxon Mobil Corp Chairman and CEO Rex W. Tillerson speaks at a news conference in Dallas last year, where he sought to defend the company's record on climate change. (AP/Mike Stone)

Guam: Proposed U.S. base expansion seen as threat

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:56:00 +0000

President Obama was supposed to drop by the U.S. island colony of Guam in his trip to the Asia-Pacific region a couple of weeks ago. The trip was postponed and there is no announcement yet of when it will be rescheduled. But whenever he arrives, residents of Guam are going to give him an earful about a planned massive expansion of the already large U.S. military presence.

Guam, called Guahan by many of its 178,000 inhabitants, is the largest of the Northern Marianas islands, in the South Pacific. It was settled by speakers of Malayo-Polynesian languages about 2,000 B.C. In the 1500's, Guam/Guahan was “discovered” by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. Subsequently, the Spanish took possession of the island, subjugating the native Polynesian Chamorro (or Chamoru) people to its rule.

In 1898, the United States seized Guam from Spain as part of the booty of the Spanish-American War. The U.S. Navy ran Guam as a supply station until, in 1941, the Japanese invaded, imposing a brutally violent military regime. The people of Guam supported the expulsion of the Japanese military by the United States. But after the war, the United States greatly intensified its presence as part of a Cold War strategy of setting up U.S. bases in areas considered strategic for projecting force against the Soviet Union, China and other adversaries. Recently, the whole Marianas group, including Guam, has begun to be seen as a good place to set up cheap labor sweatshops, although this has been somewhat slowed down by the Abramoff scandal.

As a result of the intensification of the U.S. military presence, major demographic, cultural and ecological changes have hit Guam. Today, only 37 percent of the population is indigenous Chamorro; the rest are of Filipino, United States and others. The Chamorro language is declining. The local government has very limited powers, and the people of Guam, though U.S. citizens, neither have voting representation in Congress, nor the right to vote in U.S. presidential elections. Because the U.S. military has occupied 30 percent of the land, and because of the domination of the island economy by the United States, Guam, which until World War II grew enough food to feed its own people plus the U.S. military, now imports 90 percent of its food.

So it was no huge surprise when the United States government suddenly announced, without any consultation with the locals, that its military presence in Guam was going to be massively increased. But this time, the people of Guam are fighting back.

The trouble started in Japan, where, since the end of World War II, the United States has maintained military bases. The U.S. bases on the island of Okinawa have been the focus of an increasingly powerful protest movement, sparked by sometimes violent behavior by U.S. soldiers, who are immune from prosecution by local authorities. In reaction to that movement, the government of former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, elected in August 2009, had promised to get the United States to redeploy troops from the area of greatest friction. However, he was unsuccessful and resigned this spring because of the problem. Nevertheless, the U.S. military has announced that it will be transferring 8,500 U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam. The move will involve a massive increase in support services and infrastructure. Its impact will include:

*Bringing in as many as 80,000 more people from outside, troops and civilians, thus making the Chamorros even more of a minority in the lands they have inhabited for 4,000 years (they would drop from 37 percent to 26 percent).

*Alienating even more farm and other land for military purposes.

*Severe damage to neighboring coral reefs and other natural resources for the purpose of expanding Navy facilities, including a berth for an aircraft carrier at a spot which is a principle birthing are for hammerhead sharks.

The Navy did a bogus “environmental impact study”. However, a review by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has had something very different to say. Among other things noted by the EPA is that the sudden increase in population will create a huge crisis of drinking water, “unprecedented” impacts on coral reefs, vastly increased noise pollution, among other things.

Though the people of Guam have not massively opposed the U.S. military presence up to now, the new plans, and the arrogant way they are being imposed, have sparked an increasingly strong protest movement. Meetings around the island have denounced the plans and raised demands for increasing autonomy. The demand for a face to face meeting with Obama when he finally arrives has come out of this process.

Follow the struggle of the people of Guam at http://weareguahan.com.

Texas Dems prepare for November election

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 11:48:00 +0000

CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS - Approximately 5,000 Texans attended the Democratic Party State Convention June 25-26 in this beautiful beach town. Just outside the clear waters lurked millions of gallons of sludge from the BP oil disaster and of course politically, the Democrats were surrounded by incumbent Republicans in all state offices. However, neither the oil nor the Republicans seemed to dim the delegate's optimism for November. The highly diverse, young/old, black/brown/white, male/female, straight/gay activist crowd kept smiling while they built their "big tent" all-inclusive approach to Texas politics.

Probably the largest caucus was that of labor. AFL-CIO President Becky Moeller presided while statewide candidates lined the wall for an opportunity to ask the big labor delegation for help. Former AFL-CIO leader Linda Chavez-Thompson stole the show, as she does everywhere politicians gather, but others were also outstanding as well. Jeff Weems, Democratic candidate for Railroad Commissioner, pointed out that the mis-named agency actually regulates the state's oil and gas industry. He blasted the Republicans for failing to regulate the oil companies. He said, "I am running against a potted plant!"

Barbara Radnofsky, candidate for Attorney General, urged the crowd to back her call for a Texas lawsuit against Wall Street for ruining the economy. She said that such a suit would bring billions of deserved dollars back into the Texas economy. Her web site is www.suewallstreet.com!

One of the most popular topics for the Democrats was the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE). The first workshop scheduled on the topic overfilled its designated room and had to be moved. The second one, conducted by the Texas Freedom Network, filled 220 seats and left three rows of people standing in the back and jammed into the doorway. State Senator Wendy Davis, the principal speaker, could hardly put together a complete sentence without being interrupted by wild applause. The organization's president, Kathy Miller, hardly spoke at all, but just showed actual videos of the reactionary incumbent board members' statements against union leader Dolores Huerta, martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero, and U.S. President Thomas Jefferson. The board's ignorance and political bias has become, Miller said, "a national laughing stock." "INTERNATIONAL!" the crowd yelled back in chorus.

Another topic that came up often during the convention was the Green Party of Texas. Just before the Corpus Christi meeting, the state's newspapers revealed that one of the party's former officers had testified that the former Chief of Staff for Governor Rick Perry had been heavily involved in the Republican effort to fund the Greens and make sure they were on the ballot in 2010. Texas is a difficult state for ballot status, so Republicans operatives had come up with $532,000 to pay for the professional petitioning program.

The Democrats sued, of course, charging that the only possible reason that the Republicans would finance the environmentalist Greens, with whom they bitterly disagree, was to draw votes away from Democrats. Republicans supplied powerful attorneys on behalf of the Greens, but the judge ruled, just before the convention, that the giant campaign "gift" conflicted with a Texas law against accepting political donations from corporations.

The lavish lifestyle of incumbent Republican Governor Rick Perry was a popular topic. The Texas AFL-CIO pulled their trailer house to the convention to repeat their offer to let Governor Perry live in it, practically rent-free, instead of the expensive mansion in the Austin hills that the taxpayers are affording him.

Almost the only discordant note at the Democrats' convention, had to do with the way that primary elections select the party's candidates. A minor percentage of the votes come from delegated precinct meetings rather than directly from the popular vote in a process laughingly called the "Texas Two-Step." Party officials say the process tends to energize activists and build their volunteer base. Opponents argued the basic democracy of adhering to popular vote, but observers say that the fuss was really just an echo of hurt feelings because Hillary Clinton won the 2008 popular vote but lost the Texas nomination to the more numerous and enthusiastic Barack Obama activists. In a lop-sided vote, the convention decided to keep on two-stepping.

After putting together a 38-page progressive platform, the conventioneers returned to their home districts with determined optimism for November, 2010.

Photo: Jim Lane

Disabled protest Calif. budget cuts

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 10:14:00 +0000

BERKELEY, Calif. - For the second time in five weeks, dozens of men and women with disabilities and their caregivers camped out for days on a grassy traffic island here last week, protesting Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to slash funding for human services, including the program they say enables them to live at home instead of in nursing homes.

They called their little cluster of tents "Arnieville," after the Hooverville shantytowns built by homeless people during the Great Depression.

"We're here because we're sick and tired of a budget process that treats us as expendable," spokesperson Jean Stewart told a June 24 press conference. "Every year our governor and legislators look for items they can cut from the budget, and every year they single out In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) and Medi-Cal (California's Medicaid) along with other programs that elderly, disabled and poor people depend on, like CalWORKS, Adult Day Health Care and mental health rehab."

California faces a $19.1 billion budget gap. It's the only state requiring a two-thirds supermajority both to pass a budget and to raise taxes. Democrats in the legislature fall short of that level, and virtually all Republican legislators have signed a no-new-taxes pledge. As in most recent years, the legislature missed the June 15 budget deadline to pass a budget, and negotiations will likely drag on for many weeks.

Stewart, who uses a wheelchair, spoke of the "terror" she and other users of IHSS services, and the caregivers whose jobs are also at stake, experience every year as the budget process wears on. Calling IHSS "a model program," she described its role in helping low income seniors and the disabled with essential daily activities so they can remain independent in their own homes.

She and others have formed Communities United in Defense of Olmstead (CUIDO), which takes its name from a U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that unnecessary segregation of people with disabilities in institutions constitutes discrimination based on disability.

Also speaking was Berkeley City Councilmember Max Anderson, who told the crowd the state's budget troubles stem from "the way the system is organized. There's not an effort to go to where the money is and get the money to provide resources for those who need them."

Anderson called the cuts and the state's constant raiding of county and city budgets "an unconscionable attack on the quality of life and the very existence of life for many people."

The Berkeley City Council last week resolved to write to Gov. Schwarzenegger strongly opposing the cuts. Organizers called on other city councils to do likewise.

Arnieville protesters also targeted the governor's proposal for unannounced visits to IHSS recipients' homes, supposedly to counter fraud, which IHSS supporters say is virtually nonexistent.

In a conversation after the press conference, Stephanie Miyashiro, a wheelchair user who says her income is "just a bit too high" to qualify for IHSS, said independent movements run by people with disabilities are vital to uphold their civil rights and ability to live independently. "We outnumber the billionaires," she said. "If we all get together we can take our state back."

Sheela Gunn-Cushman, blind herself, teaches other blind people how to use computers. A registered Republican, she disagrees with the governor's approach. She also has mixed feelings about the Afghanistan war and its cost: "We need to focus on the home front - I think we should solve our problems and not think we can solve everyone else's."

IHSS now serves over 450,000 Californians. The livelihoods of some 350,000 caregivers are also at stake. Organizers warned of the devastating economic consequences of forcing hundreds of thousands into far more costly nursing homes which may not have capacity for them, while further boosting the state's already soaring 12.4 percent unemployment.

Photo: Marilyn Bechtel

White House announces plan to end homelessness

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 15:03:00 +0000

A dramatic new plan to end homelessness within a decade was announced by the Obama administration this week. The initiative calls for ending homelessness among veterans in five years and eliminating it among children and families within 10 years. The Obama plan, "Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness," marks the first time the federal government has undertaken such a comprehensive effort.

According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), over 1.6 million people were homeless in 2009.

Commenting on the new proposal, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan called homelessness "a preventable tragedy, a tragedy we can solve."

During the Great Recession homelessness is on the rise.

"The number of families in homeless shelters jumped 7 percent by nearly 11,000 families from 2008 to 2009. Overall, family homelessness was up 30 percent in 2009 from 2007," writes the Miami Herald.

Earlier in the decade, the Bush administration undertook a plan to wipe out the problem among specific populations of "chronically homeless," defined as people who spend large amounts of time in shelters or hospitals. While showing some abatement, the Bush plan failed, leaving a big percentage in the same condition. Says the Herald, "Under the Bush initiative, the nation's chronic homeless population fell to 111,000 in 2009 from nearly 156,000 in 2006, after 42,000 permanent supportive housing slots were added."

The new call to action to aid the country's poorest has several key elements: increasing leadership, collaboration, and civic engagement; increasing access to stable and affordable housing; increasing economic security; improving health and stability; and retooling the homeless response system.

Regarding economic security, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said the homeless need help in preparing for meaningful jobs. The department would use more than $24 million as part of stimulus money to provide job training to about 14,000 homeless veterans, she said, with 97 grants going to 31 states.

Bills in the House and Senate to provide jobs and unemployment benefits have stalled because of Republican opposition.

Indeed, the GOP-imposed blockade on programs to help the poor may make it unlikely that Congress will appropriate money to support the plan. Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, said, "The big question is whether preventing children and families in the U.S. from becoming homeless is important enough for Congress" to increase homeless-program funding, "and I don't think they'll do that without enough pressure and leadership from the White House."

However, President Obama is seeking financial support. The Associated Press reports that funding for the effort includes some of the $2 billion in stimulus money allocated last year to the 19 federal agencies in the council. The money, used for a variety of services related to the homeless, is in addition to $3.79 billion budgeted for such services in 2010.

The Obama administration is seeking $4.2 billion for the federal Interagency Council on Homelessnes in the 2011 fiscal year, including money specific to the new plan's initiatives, said Jason Kravitz, a spokesman for the council.

Importantly, LGBT groups applauded the comprehensiveness of the program, noting it targeted young people of different sexual orientations for help. HUD Secretary Donovan said, "While some are scarred by war, others are families who have recently lost their home; still, others are youth aging out of foster care or are perhaps unable to stay with families [that are] hostile to their sexual orientation or gender identity."

Economic stimulus monies have helped over 350,000 people move from shelters to apartments this year.

Photo: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

You can change the world: young people today

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 14:20:00 +0000

Today's younger generation is playing a tremendous role in advancing the struggle for peace, democratic rights; economies and social justice. The opinions of U.S. youth are trending to the left. In the face of crisis ridden capitalism many US youth are also drawn to examine the socialist alternative.

On July 17-18, in the city of Chicago, the Communist Party and the Young Communist League will hold a two day conference followed by a four day school on young people today. It's a chance to discuss and examine the main characteristics of today's young generation, and what economic-social- political have influenced them most. What's new and emerging? What adjustments does the party have to make in organizing among young people? Why do young people need their own organization?

This conference/school follows on the heels of the very successful convention of the CPUSA, where many young people participated, sharing their experiences, helping to craft party policy and to build the YCL.

Youth played an extraordinary role in the 2008 elections. The vast majority supported change over the rightwing dominated status quo. The Obama campaign/movement ignited a new spirit of youth activism and brought record numbers of youth to the polls. The desire for change and the spirit of activism among youth continues today with the worsening conditions of life brought on by the economic crisis.

According to the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee's recent report, 16 -24 year olds are facing the highest unemployment rate (19.6%) for that age group since the government began tracking the data in 1947. With the drastic cuts in education and the effects of the economic crisis, millions of U.S. youth have little prospect of securing an education, a decent job and therefore a stable future.

The struggle for change continues. The fight for jobs is particularly crucial. A new movement is being organized by some key forces in the labor movement, religious and civil rights organizations. They are demanding jobs and especially, jobs for youth. A prominent national labor leader recently called for the building of a united "youth crusade for jobs."

Such a movement will help counter the poverty draft and all the attempts to militarize young people. It will also help to counter the criminalization of youth and the effort of the right wing to spread the poison of racist and anti-immigrant hysteria. They are out to divide youth and divert them from a united, multi-racial struggle against the real causes of the crisis.

A jobs movement will help to bring to light the hypocrisy, the racist, anti working class policies of the tea party movement and the extreme right.

The sprouts of a new mass youth movement are starting to show. Young workers and students are fighting the cut backs and organizing for the government and Wall Street to do something about the mass unemployment they face. They are looking for ways to end joblessness and hopelessness. They want unity with labor and civil rights forces to build a new economy - especially a massive public works based on green jobs. Expanding democracy - from ending the war and ending poverty and the high homicide rate in inner cities to winning marriage equality (the right to marry the person you love) to student grants and lower tuition to guaranteeing quality public education for all - are on the agenda for today's youth.

The slogan, "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs," is becoming a rallying cry that is activating a lot of working people, including teenagers, young men and young women. The momentum is building towards a mass jobs march in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 2, initiated by the NAACP and SEIU Local 1199. The AFL-CIO labor federation and the UAW have now endorsed the march.

The banks and the financial sector are making big profits again but the jobless rate remains high especially for people of color and youth. Many are asking "if the government doesn't act where will the jobs come from"?

The movement for jobs has to also focus on the November midterm elections. The extreme right is trying to reverse the results won in the 2008 election. They want a Republican rightwing majority in the U.S. House and Senate. They want to set the stage for a defeat of Obama in 2012.

The CPUSA/YCL conference and school will examine how both organizations can work to defeat this extremely dangerous right wing counter offensive.

Discussion topics at the school will include political economy, objective assessment of the Obama administration, the political balance of forces, the socialist perspective and the U.S., building unity and organizing at the grassroots for jobs and equality. There will be a $50 registration fee, which will cover food and housing. The conference/school promises to be an exciting and enlightening experience.

All those interested in attending please contact: jtyner@cpusa.org, John Bachtell, jbachtell@cpusa.org or ycl@yclusa.org.

Photo: Celebrating graduation from a previous school. (PW)

Tale of two cities: Toronto and Detroit

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 14:16:00 +0000

DETROIT - Twenty thousand people attending the second U.S. Social Forum here this week have staged a peaceful takeover of a city in crisis. Leaders of people's movements, together with thousands from across the nation and this city, are in charge of the streets, where they are staging colorful marches and rallies that give voice to movements for jobs, health, education, the environment and respect for human rights.

"There's a tale of two cities going on right now," said Karlos Gauna Schmieder, communications chair for the Social Forum, as he talked about this event that has temporarily transformed the downtown section of the nation's biggest rustbelt city into a neighborhood teeming with people full of ideas.

"There's another city that has brought together, not this kind of crowd, but international leaders - many of whom are isolated from their people, to discuss free market solutions to the current free market crisis," Schmieder said, "and you can see the difference in the streets of these two cities.".

He was referring to Toronto where, at a gathering of leaders of the G-20 nations, a reported $1 billion has been spent on security and police out of fear of demonstrators opposed to measures being enacted there to deal with the world economic crisis.

Here in Detroit, right-wing commentators in some of the local press had warned that the thousands of "assorted leftists" arriving for the Social Forum could disrupt life in Detroit. One claimed that the attendees would provide no benefit to the local economy and that "Obama would be among them as a community organizer were he not in the White House."

The reality is far different. One of the few policemen visible anywhere Thursday was directing traffic in and out of a downtown garage to allow marchers to pass. "We're glad everyone's here," he said, "having a good time and helping boost the economy."

Demonstrators in Toronto, including labor leaders who have also gathered in that city, are concerned about what global leaders will do regarding bank taxes, trade balances, budget cuts and austerity measures.The heavy police presence in Toronto has already been visible at dozens of protests there against what the protesters see as policies that make the rich wealthier at the expense of women, children and working class people around the world.

Here, many of the participants in U.S. Social Forum opening march Tuesday carried banners and signs echoing the concerns of the Toronto marchers. The message was that what happens in Detroit, the "ground zero" of a failed economy in the U.S., is connected to what happens around the world.

Alejandro Villamar, a Mexican participant at the Social Forum, said, "The G-20's empty promises have exhausted their credibility and moral authority before the people of the world. The global crisis requires real, just and timely solutions. Their rhetoric does not stop the climate crisis, it does not stop the voracity of financial speculators, and it does not stop the hunger of millions of people. Instead, we need immediate solutions that meet our demands for social justice."

"Our fight in Mexico is part of the same fight you have here in Detroit," he said.

The thousands gathered here are struggling to hammer out some of the immediate solutions Villamar said are needed.

There are over 1,000 workshops, 50 People's Movements Assemblies, art galleries and a youth space full of young people grappling with the business of transforming the world.

Participation from the labor movement is much greater than at the first U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta in 2007. "This is important," Schmeider said, "because labor and the groups represented here are natural allies - we succeed if we work together." The AFL-CIO, the United Auto Workers, the Steelworkers, the Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and others are here in an official capacity.

Among the huge variety of organizations present are the Communist Party USA and the Young Communist League, both of which held several public events and maintained one of the hundreds of tables set up by different organizations.

At a workshop run by the party, Sam Webb, its national chair, discussed the importance of all groups coming together to fight the extreme right and he discussed the need to strengthen and build upon the coalition that elected President Obama. For the long range, Webb said, socialism is in the cards and is necessary for the building of the new world sought by the thousands gathered in Detroit.

Photo: The U.S. Social Forum opening march, Detroit, June 22. (PW/Libero Della Piana)

Big Coal: damaging communities from Appalachia to Colombia

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:16:00 +0000

DETROIT -- There are over 1,000 workshops, panels, plenaries and assemblies as part of the U.S. Social Forum here in Detroit this week, June 22-26. They cover every social, political and economic issue faced by the people and communities of North America and world.

Many of these workshops are small intimate presentations by groups like Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. KFTC's workshop titled, "The Struggle for Justice in the Coalfields of Central Appalachia and Colombia," highlighted the dire economic and ecological consequences of mountaintop-removal coal mining.

Vanessa Hall, a member of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth spoke with People's World following the workshop (See video below).

Mountaintop removal replaced deep mining across Appalachia, resulting in huge reductions in mining-related employment, devastation of the United Mineworkers Union, and the near total destruction of the natural habitat that the miners and former miners live in the coal fields of Eastern Kentucky and surrounding areas. Big coal corporations decided it was cheaper and more profitable for them to take off the mountains' tops to get to the coal.

Creeks, ponds and forests that once provided water, fish and produce to help sustain families for generations are now clogged with silt and polluted with coal tailings, iron and sulfur. Mining families already devastated by the los of industry jobs now face the destruction of their homes, land, health and even their culture.

Hall said that one lesson they learned from the Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities struggling against displacement from their lands due to coal extraction is the "use of cultural traditions to protect community."

KFTC took the initiative along with Witness for Peace to take people from Appalachia to visit the communities in the coal-rich areas of the South American country of Colombia who are facing similar conditions often created by the same mining corporations that plague Appalachia.

KFTC has also hosted Colombian mineworkers and people displaced by coal mining in Kentucky to share experiences, strategies and culture.

The health and environmental impact of coal is not just in the coal fields, but also in the urban centers of the U.S. where coal is burned for electricity. Workshop presenters called on participants and the public to visit ilovemountains.org to enter your zip code to see if your electricity comes from coal that is ripping apart mountains and communities in Appalachia or elsewhere.

The solution to the problems in Colombia and Kentucky require dramatic economic alternatives, said Hall. "It all boils down to people being able to live and live sustainably."

You can visit Kentuckians for the Commonwealth at KFTC.org.

Photo: quinn.anya/cc

Supreme Court ruling seen as threat to Bill of Rights

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:43:00 +0000

A ruling by the Supreme Court on June 21 is worrying civil liberties activists. They say it appears to threaten rights of speech and association that had been considered firm since the failed prosecution of Communist Party members during the McCarthy era.

At stake was the interpretation by the Bush and Obama administrations of a 1996 law which authorizes the State Department to officially "designate" foreign organizations as terrorist entities, and the USA Patriot Act which criminalizes all material aid to such organizations, including providing them with vaguely defined "services" and "expert advice."

The case is Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, and all its major documents can be read on the website of the Center for Constitutional Rights. http://ccrjustice.org

The current State Department list of "Foreign Terrorist Organizations" (FTOs) can be read here. http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/other/des/123085.htm "Terrorism" is defined in a vague and highly politicized manner. For example, terrorists based in the United States who attack countries like Cuba are not covered.

The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, representing the Humanitarian Law Project and others, had challenged the "services" and "expert advice" aspect of the legislation as violating constitutional freedoms. The plaintiffs had won in lower courts but the government appealed to the Supreme Court, where its position was argued by Solicitor-General Kagan, now nominated to the court by President Obama.

The plaintiffs had alleged that the phrasing of the USA Patriot Act on the issue of material aid to terrorists was unconstitutional because of the vagueness of the definition of "material aid" and because it presents a danger of violations of free speech and due process guarantees. The definition of "material aid" could, for example, criminalize efforts by nongovernmental organizations to train groups like the Kurdish Workers' Party, PKK, to take their disputes with the Turkish government to the United Nations or other international bodies, thereby reducing or eliminating their reliance on violence.

Other real and hypothetical examples were given in the plaintiffs' briefs and in amicus curiae ("friend of the court") briefs submitted by the ACLU, former President Jimmy Carter and others. Carter has worked to bring about peaceful resolutions to conflicts in southern Lebanon. The former president argued that achieving peaceful solutions to Lebanon's problems would be impossible without involving Hezbollah, a designated FTO. According to the Supreme Court's decision, Carter could be prosecuted and face up to life imprisonment for doing this, in a worst-case scenario

The government argued that freedom of speech is not at risk because the law does not penalize independent advocacy in favor of groups like Hezbollah or PKK, only actions that coordinate with them in providing them with expert advice. The court majority, however, said that what is at stake is indeed speech, but that it was legitimate to prohibit this kind of speech.

A big part of the case revolved around precedents set in the 1950s and 1960s by court rulings on efforts of the federal government to criminalize membership in the Communist Party USA. In that era of Cold War and McCarthy hysteria, the government had waged a campaign claiming that the CPUSA had violent aims and was involved in illegal acts. The federal courts nevertheless ruled that it was unconstitutional to prosecute individual Communists for mere membership in the party or for either advocacy or material support of the part of its program that the courts considered "legal." And to be convicted, a person would have to be shown to have consciously contributed to the (mostly imaginary) illegal aspect of the Party's activities.

At the time, this was seen as a major triumph for constitutional rights.

In this month's decision, Chief Justice John Roberts, in the majority opinion (supported by Justices Alito, Thomas, Stevens, Kennedy and Scalia), ruled that even if U.S. persons thought their advice was helping to turn a designated foreign terrorist organization toward peaceful means of attaining its ends, that is, away from terrorism, this would be considered illegal under the statute because the foreign organization could be lying, or might change its mind later. Further, the majority opinion argued that by steering terrorist groups away from violent methods, one would be "legitimizing" them and that would clash with legitimate U.S. foreign policy objectives.

Justice Breyer's dissent (supported by Justices Sotomayor and Ginsburg) was particularly caustic:

"What is one to say about these arguments - arguments that would deny First Amendment protection to the peaceful teaching of human rights law on the ground that a little knowledge about the "international legal system" is too dangerous a thing, that an opponent's subsequent willingness to negotiate might be faked, so let's not teach him how to try?"

The ruling remands the case back to the lower courts for reconsideration.

In reaction to the ruling, David Cole, cooperating attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights in the litigation, said, "We are deeply disappointed. The Supreme Court has ruled that human rights advocates, providing training and assistance in nonviolent resolution of disputes, can be prosecuted as terrorists. In the name of fighting terrorism, the Court has said that the First Amendment permits Congress to make human rights advocacy and peacemaking a crime."

Texas poor say “No more!”

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:15:00 +0000

DALLAS -- Local activists with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Dallas Peace Center and others called a "Poor People's Rally" outside City Hall here, June 23. About 100 people were able to get downtown at the noon rally in 100-degree heat. It was a scorcher.

Faced with city, state and national campaigns to get people to accept more cuts in our living standards, the crowd was ready to dig in their heels.

Here in Dallas, a $130 million budget shortfall has brought proposals of closing more libraries and swimming pools while laying-off hundreds of skilled city workers. But, it hasn't stopped city-subsidized construction on a new "designer" bridge across the Trinity River. The city does plan to convert the old bridge into a park. Another big park is under construction in the arts district, near the new symphony hall.

The State of Texas says they need $18 billion to break even in the legislative session that begins in January. Their proposals, so far, are to introduce more gambling and to crowd public school students into classrooms. The Texas AFL-CIO has demanded that they start spending the state's "Rainy Day Fund" before starting layoffs, but the Republican governor and top state politicians are not responding.

Gathering people's input to resolve the national budget crisis is the ostensible purpose of a number of linked "town hall" meetings across the country on June 26. But, according to economist Dean Baker, the proceedings are apparently rigged to turn out no "solutions" other than more cuts for working people and retirees. Baker wrote the meetings will be "...another milestone in the drive to cut Social Security and Medicare."

The Dallas newspaper encouraged people to attend, but also revealed that the Chamber of Commerce, one of working peoples' worst enemies, was helping organize the event!

Photo: Jim Lane/PW

GOP says no to jobless benefits, groups plan D.C. march

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 12:07:00 +0000

How do you trim a bill to provide unemployment benefits to laid-off workers in the millionaires' club of the U.S. Senate? First, you take food out of the mouths of the hungry by cutting food stamps by $6 billion. Then you reduce health care for the poor by cutting state aid for Medicaid by $8 billion. And finally you enforce the racial and rural digital divide by refusing funds for broadband projects to the tune of another $2 billion.

And still it isn't enough for the Republican Party. Sadly, negotiations broke down again Wednesday on the long-delayed effort to extend unemployment compensation. Citing fears of increasing the deficit, GOP senators continue to say no to anything proposed by the Obama administration and the Democratic majority in Congress.

With a procedural vote scheduled for Thursday, supporters of working-class families seem two votes shy. The Washington Post writes: "Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) set the procedural wheels in motion for a climactic vote on the legislation as soon as Thursday. Despite days of talks, a senior Democratic aide said Reid had been unable to persuade any Republicans to support the measure, leaving him at least two votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a GOP filibuster."

The AFL-CIO and civil rights groups have pushed for support of the bill. The trade union federation said, "It's time to tell Republican senators we've had it with their jobless aid blockade. So far this month, their refusal to extend unemployment insurance has caused nearly 1 million jobless workers to lose the little they have to survive on."

Labor is urging phone calls to 1-877-442-6801 to demand the Senate pass the bill.

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights has also joined the fight. It is urging the Senate to support the legislation and extend jobless benefits through the end of the year, stating that doing so "will help the economy recover while providing badly needed assistance in today's historic economic crisis."

The civil rights leaders go on to point out that over 1.2 million workers have lost benefits by the end of last week.

Will the GOP listen? Only if forced to.

Frustrated by the ongoing stalemate in Congress, civil rights and labor groups have called for a national march for jobs and justice in Washington on Oct. 2. The march will be held under the theme of One Nation, One Dream.

The march has the support of the NAACP, SEIU, the United Auto Workers and the AFL-CIO.

Commenting on the need for the march, George Gresham, president of 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, told The New York Times, ""It's very annoying to see the tea party folks on television all the time as if they're speaking for working people, while all they're doing is divide working people and push our agenda back, both racially and economically."

The announcement of the march comes as a pleasant surprise. Huge efforts are also being mounted by the very same democratic coalition to get out the vote and defeat Republicans this fall. Rarely are such marches organized during an election year. Conventional wisdom might suggest election struggles are best served by concentration of efforts. Conventional wisdom in this case might be wrong.

One might recall the conventionalists doubted the electability of President Obama and pooh-poohed the notion that youth, Blacks and Latino first-time voters would show up at the ballot box. Some even heaped scorn on the use of the Internet and social networking as an organizing tool, a technique that was at the center of the Obama election strategy.

The Obama election coalition, it appears, will seek to reenergize these same voters in the mid-term elections. Novel organizing techniques, including rallies, sit-ins and marches, combined with social networking, may well make, and not break, Democratic chances this fall.

Photo: PW/Marilyn Bechtel

America Speaks back: Derailing the drive to cut Social Security and Medicare

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:53:00 +0000

Next weekend will feature another milestone in the drive to cut Social Security and Medicare. The organization America Speaks will be hosting a series of 20 meetings in cities across the country. They will ask the people at these meetings, a cross section of the nation, to come up with proposals for dealing with the country's projected long-term budget deficit.

The way the problem is outlined for these meetings virtually guarantees that most of the participants will opt for big cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The results of this song and dance exercise will then be presented to President Obama's fiscal responsibility commission on June 30^th, which will use it as further ammunition for plans by its co-chairs to gut these programs.

The rigged deck approach should come as no surprise. America Speaks is largely funded by Peter G. Peterson, the investment banker billionaire who has been on a decades-long crusade to gut these programs. In recent years Peterson has redoubled his efforts, committing more than a billion dollars to a wide variety of groups in addition to America Speaks. To advance his agenda Peterson has even set up a fake news service, The Fiscal Times. To fill the staff, Peterson's son hired a number of reputable reporters who were displaced by the collapse of the newspaper industry.

The "Federal Budget 101," the guidebook for the discussion, follows a predictably shoddy path. The book discusses the budget in almost complete isolation from any larger discussion of the economy. There is virtually no discussion of the ways in which the budget fosters growth, for example by funding education, research and infrastructure; nor the way in which the pattern of growth affects the budget.

For example, the booklet never discusses the extent to which the economic mismanagement that allowed the unchecked growth of an $8 trillion housing bubble contributed to the debt that is its central concern. The downturn caused by the resulting economic collapse will eventually add more than $3 trillion to the country's debt according to the Congressional Budget Office's projections.

The booklet also neglects to point out the extent to which the long-term budget disaster story is driven by our broken health care system. If per person health care costs in the United States were the same as in any other wealthy country, we would be looking at enormous budget surpluses in the long-term, not deficits [http://www.cepr.net/calculators/hc/hc-calculator.html].

Incredibly, the booklet does not even point out the fact that income is projected [http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/102xx/doc10297/AppendixA.9.2.shtml#1091396] to grow over time. The average hourly wage is projected to buy 20 percent more in 2025 (the year for which participants are supposed to design a budget) than it does today. This knowledge might affect how people view things such as tax increases. For example, if we know that people will be on average 20 percent richer, we might be less concerned if their tax rate were to rise by 1-2 percentage points.

The booklet also never mentions the plunge in wealth that older workers have suffered as a result of the collapse of the housing bubble and plunge in the stock market. This has left the bulk of near retirees (those in their late 40s and 50s) facing retirement with almost nothing other than their Social Security and Medicare [http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/the-wealth-of-the-baby-boom-cohorts-after-the-collapse-of-the-housing-bubble/].

The booklet even gets its basic economics wrong, warning participants at the very beginning that rising deficits can lead to a weaker dollar. In the real econ 101, students learn just the opposite-that budget deficits can jack up interest rates leading to a stronger dollar. This is how a budget deficit can be tied to a trade deficit - by raising the value of the dollar. A higher dollar makes U.S. exports more expensive to foreigners and imports cheaper for people living in the United States.

People who want to see our trade deficit fall want a lower dollar. Getting the value of the dollar down (not up) is an argument that more serious people would give for a smaller budget deficit. Peterson should have been able to get a better product for his millions.

Finally, it is striking that not a single person connected with this project was among those who warned of the housing bubble before its collapse wrecked the economy. Ostensibly, America Speaks tried to include a diverse range of economists and policy analysts. Yet, in the category of people who recognized the biggest economic disaster of the last 80 years, America Speaks came up completely empty.

To put this in perspective, suppose Peter Peterson had funded this exercise back in 2004, when the housing bubble was already huge, but still at a point where it could have been deflated without devastating the economy. This group would have given us a great discussion of the 2020 deficit, but said nothing about the tsunami that was about to wreck the economy (and send the deficit skyrocketing).

Unfortunately, there is no reason to assume that the America Speaks crew's understanding of the economy is any better today than it was in 2004. We need more serious analysis than this propaganda exercise as a basis for deciding the fate of essential programs like Social Security and Medicare.

Dean Baker is co-director of The Center for Economic and Policy Research, an independent, nonpartisan think tank.

Photo: CC