People Before Profit blog

Debbie Amis Bell: Memories of a Freedom Rider

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:21:00 +0000

Editor's note: This story is published in celebration of Women's History Month

"Solitary" meant an unfurnished cell with a concrete floor. No bed, no furniture; a hole in the floor for a toilet. The prison matron offered no second chances. Debbie Amis went straight to solitary confinement. Her offense was that she had refused one meal and, she says later, had decided to stop eating.

The young woman from Philadelphia had come to Atlanta to work for the recently formed Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the summer of 1961 following her graduation from West Chester (Pennsylvania) State College. She had traveled to the South earlier that spring to attend what turned out to be SNCC's first convention. She became a founding member of the organization. Following the convention she had returned north to complete her senior year and get her diploma, but, she recalls, "I couldn't stop thinking about the Civil Rights Movement. It was preying on my mind!"

But before we pick up the story in Atlanta, we should cast a look back at her early years. Debbie grew up in Philadelphia, the oldest of five children. Her parents were political activists - and communists. Her father was an experienced union organizer and the first African American District Organizer for the Communist Party. Her mother, a Jew, was a community activist. Although the family had little in the way of material things, "we had a lot of love and a lot of attention; I don't remember my parents ever quarreling about anything other than a broken hose."

After going through the Philadelphia public schools and graduating from Overbrook High (yes, Wilt Chamberlain's alma mater as well), Amis set her sights on a college degree and a career as a teacher. The traditional route for an African American woman with such goals would have been to attend Cheyney State, but this was not Debbie's route. She chose West Chester because "they had the programs I was interested in, phys ed and music." Her choice meant that her college years would not be easy. West Chester was a segregated town with recently desegregated schools. She was not allowed to room with her first choice, a white friend, but was assigned two African American roommates. She recalls that "I graduated with very harsh feelings about West Chester," and it was only years later after being persuaded that the school was making efforts to overcome its racially oppressive past that she agreed to return and visit the campus for a speaking engagement.

Following her graduation, determined to contribute to the movement she saw developing across the south, she proceeded to drive, solo, to Atlanta where she applied for a job with SNCC. She refused a desk job as secretary in the office ("I was not going to accept a traditionally female position!") and secured the job of community organizer. After two years she had participated in numerous demonstrations and sit-ins, especially at restaurants and department stores. Her experience in solitary confinement came during what she guesses was her 11th or 12th arrest. (The city's well established African American bourgeoisie, while not universally supportive of the movement's most militant tactics, could be counted on to provide bail money when necessary.) This last arrest occurred at 4:30 in the morning, early in 1964, at her apartment, when she was presented with a bench warrant for a previous "offense" that was suddenly being dusted off and reactivated.

She found out later that SNCC had had a visit from the FBI who had let her employers know that they had a communist on their staff. Debbie had earlier made the decision, at the age of 19, to join the party because of its civil rights activity. Before being sent to "solitary," Amis had been housed with the general prison population. She soon realized that, rather than being dangerous, this turned out for the better. Among the prisoners she found a reservoir of support. Upon learning she was a "freedom rider" from out of town, a female "trustee" (a prisoner who had been given some inside responsibility) looked out for her safety and gave up her own bed for Debbie to sleep in.

After her placement in solitary, support from the prisoners again proved important. She says she felt "very alone," but this time a male trustee befriended her an made sure she had some minimal writing materials; she was able to write to her family on the back of old bank statements, which to this day she keeps in a scrapbook in her possession. After learning that the two SNCC lawyers had withdrawn from her case, the party was able to find an attorney to represent her and secure her release.

No longer able to work for SNCC, Amis returned to Philadelphia where she began her career as a teacher in the city's public school system. As it turned out, her last school was Overbrook High, her alma mater, where she capped a career as a teacher union activist, serving as the elected union representative.

Amis proudly recalls her time working for SNCC, saying, "It was hard 24-hour a day work." She had a camaraderie with her roommates, one African American and two white women, during her time in Atlanta, and she recently attended the 50th reunion of the founding of the organization. She frequently lectures or participates in panel discussions about her experiences in the South half a century ago and considers it profoundly important in today's challenging environment to remember and especially to let young people know about past struggles.

Debbie and her husband Dave are the parents of two grown daughters and are expecting their fourth grandchild in October. She serves as an active member and officer of her local union's retiree chapter.

Photo: Debbie Amis Bell

Atheists also fight for religious freedom

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:55:00 +0000

The 20,000 people who showed up in Washington this past weekend for the Reason Rally were indeed patriots, fighting for the defense of a very American tradition, and should be supported not only by their fellow atheists and secularists, but by everyone interested in strengthening this country and its democratic system.

The explicit goal of the rally was secularism - freedom from religion - but the implicit goal was also religious freedom and democracy.

A small counterdemonstration by a group calling themselves "Reasonable Christians" actually showed a lack of the reasonability inscribed on that group's moniker.

The secularists demanded their rights as atheists and non-believers, or even as spiritual people unhappy with the domination of certain religious ideas over politics. The demonstrators are unhappy, for example, that no one can really become president of the United States without avowing his or her Christianity.

Is this an atheist thing only? It shouldn't be. There can be no religious freedom without freedom from religion, freedom from having to follow the precepts of any particular religious group.

Religions are almost always contradictory to one another. The ideas pushed by the rulers of one religious group often do not mesh with the ideas put forward by another group.

This by itself makes a strong argument for a secular, not a religion-based government. Any government based on religion leaves not only non-believers but every other religious group following rules alien to their beliefs, not to mention following rules that may have no basis whatsoever in either science or reality itself.

Obviously atheists don't want to follow certain Christian dictates. Nor would Muslims want to be forced to follow rules based on the teachings of Christ. In a secular state, neither group would have to obey the dictates of the Christians in power.

To strengthen the case that a country based on religious principles would by its nature discriminate against many of its citizens, one doesn't need to look just at the rift between atheists and believers, or even at the rift, let's say, between two religions like those of Jews and Muslims.

A secular state would be beneficial even if every single person proclaimed him- or herself "Christian," because among Christians themselves there are rifts over which people have long fought and even died. The Catholic Church, which claims somewhere near one in four Americans as adherents, is the largest Christian denomination in this country. However, some evangelical Protestants consider the Catholic Church to be a non-Christian institution, or worse - the phrase "whore of Babylon" has been used not infrequently in Protestant descriptions of those who follow the pope's dictates.

This division within Christianity is not without its political side. It isn't necessary to delve deep into history to find the animosity originally shown towards John F. Kennedy when he was running for president. Extreme evangelicals, of which there were many, took to drawing a red cardinal's cap over Washington's countenance on quarters. The implication was that the U.S. would, if the Catholic Kennedy were elected, come under the domination of the Vatican, that the cardinals, now the princes of the church, would become princes of America.

While Rick Santorum, a Catholic, seems to be doing well among evangelicals, and not so well among Catholics, the point still stands: the divisions between Catholics and Protestants, not to mention Orthodox and, if you consider them Christians, the Mormons, are big enough that none would want to be ruled by the other. Santorum's adherents are pleased with his adherence to the more extreme social doctrines of the Catholic Church, but would surely chafe if, as in a fantasy situation in which Santorum became president, he began to trumpet some relationship with the Vatican, or if he instituted Catholic rules on divorce, which stipulate that dissolving a marriage is only allowable with the blessing of a bishop.

That the U.S. is not now and never has been a "Christian nation" is something for which all of us, including Christians, should be thankful. Because, as we see, there can be no Christian nation anywhere; the concept is too broad. There could be a Protestant nation, an evangelical nation, a Catholic nation, a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Hindu nation - the list goes on until you reach "secular nation."

And we should keep in mind that these groups can be divided as well: there are many kinds of Protestants, and many kinds of Muslims - would there be a Shiite or a Sunni nation?

Examples abound: England is Christian in that it is Anglican, officially; Iran is Shiite, officially; and Denmark is officially Lutheran. What that means for other religious groups varies from country to country, but they are certainly disfavored - at best - at the expense of the ruling group in each of these societies.

Evangelicals want freedom from every religion aside from their own version of Christianity. Catholics would like freedom from them, and the Orthodox wish to be free of both these groups. Muslims would like to be free from Christian domination, and Jews from all of the above. Secularists desire the same thing as each of these religious groups; they only go one denomination further. (Apologies to Richard Dawkins for the adaptation of his argument on atheists only going "one god further.")

The founders of this country knew this, and didn't want the nation breaking down along sectarian lines. Jefferson, himself a Deist, and many of the other founding fathers, atheists and other Deists among them, set up the world's first secular democracy, where people are free of all religions except whichever they choose to follow, if they decide to do so.

The desire of the non-religious to be free of religion is something for which they are ready to fight, as shown at the Reason Rally. That's good, because a fight is required. Witness Rick Santorum's desire to legislate his religious beliefs; witness the Roman Catholic hierarchy's attempt to impose its view on all of the United States.

As America's fastest growing religious demographic group, the "religious nones" have a right to be heard and a right to organize - and they do, in fact, recognize that religions minorities also have the right to exist and be free of interference with their religion (so long as the religious minority groups do not violate the rights of others, as with anti-gay laws or "honor" killings).

Richard Dawkins says he wants to "ridicule" religious beliefs. So what? One simply cannot imagine Dawkins, an affable liberal scientist, ever condoning a law that limits the speech of the religious, and that's what matters: freedom of the individual - and that's what the secularists are fighting for.

The rights of atheists are bound inextricably to the rights of all people, including the most devout.

Photo: An atheist demonstrator holds a sign during a rally in Idaho. Dianne Humble/AP

Steve Cooper, trade union, civil rights activist dies at 77

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:26:00 +0000

Steve Cooper, a longtime trade union, civil rights activist and member of the Los Angeles Metro Club of the Communist Party died recently in Los Angeles. He was 77 years old.

During the course of his life, Steve was involved in many struggles. In the 1970's, he worked as a volunteer for the United Farm Workers grape boycott.

As a student at Los Angeles Trade Tech college, he led the campaign to rid the school cafeteria of non-union grapes.

He also worked on campus to fire the campus President Fred Brinkman when it was discovered that he bugged meetings of the Black Student Union.

In 1974, Steve became involved in Chile Democratico and the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles. He served on the church's Fellowship for Social Justice and organized a campaign called "Not One More Cent for Terror in Chile."

Steve was also very active in the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

In 1978 Steve was part of the conclusion of a successful campaign to place Paul Robeson's star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Soon after, a campaign was launched to commemorate Paul Robeson with a postage stamp, which Steve joined with enthusiasm. This too was successful. The U.S. Postal Service issued a 37 cent stamp and renamed the post office in the Highland Park section of Los Angeles, the Paul Robeson station.

Steve was also a baker and member of the bakers union. He worked at several area Jewish bakeries as a pastry chef, using skills learned at Trade Tech.

He was forced to retire from baking due to a back injury that would be with him the rest of his life. He could no longer lift the 100-pound bags of sugar that bakers are required to handle.

Steve then began working as a house painter, and later as a union representative for AFSCME Local 1108. After that he worked for the CWA organizing psychiatric technicians in state hospitals. Through it all, Steve suffered from chronic stomach problems and was in constant pain.

Steve was a reporter for the People's World in Los Angeles. His stories were among the best. And he was a member of Trade Unionists for Action and Democracy.

Steve Cooper was someone that always looked out for others and did the best he could at whatever he was doing. His death was unexpected and a tremendous loss for all of us.

Rest in peace, comrade Steve.

Cameron went to the bottom of the ocean. So what?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:48:00 +0000

James Cameron made a historic solo dive in his Deepsea Challenger to the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the world's oceans, located in the western Pacific about seven miles down.

Cameron promised himself that when he got there he would really drink in how unusual it is. "There had to be a moment where I just stopped, and took it in, and said, 'This is where I am; I'm at the bottom of the ocean, the deepest place on Earth. What does that mean?"' After spending three hours at the bottom, he told reporters, "I just sat there looking out the window, looking at this barren, desolate lunar plain, appreciating."

Cameron is not a scientist, but an explorer. He has made over 70 deep-sea dives and has said that he makes films in order to finance his love of deep sea exploration. But does this actually contribute to our knowledge of the oceans?

Bloggers Al Dove and Craig McClain of Deep Sea News posed the question, is this "a scientific milestone or a rich guy's junket?" They expand on the historical significance of Cameron's dive and motivations for exploration these days, compare doing research by remotely operated vehicle instead of a human occupied vehicle, and opine on the possibly manufactured media excitement surrounding this and other planned HOV dives. They conclude, "When Cameron succeeds, we all succeed."

The ocean depths are an exciting place for exploration, discovery, and science. But in 2011, a report on the world's oceans by many of the world's top ocean scientists, they warned of mass extinction of marine life as one of the results of accumulating problems in the oceans of the world. Major industries that dump pollution, that profit from over-fertilization of agricultural lands, and that dump oil are major causes.

The beauty and wonder of the oceans cannot be isolated from these dangers.

Here in the U.S.,we must deal with the ongoing political struggle that manifests itself as an attack on science by those who are so totally driven to support the profit motive that they reject it.

Last April, a report in Science Daily cautioned, "Democrats and Republicans are increasingly divided over global warming."

Dr. Aaron M. McCright of Michigan State University stated: "Instead of a public debate about different policies to deal with global warming, a significant percentage of the American public is still debating the science. As a result, we're failing to significantly address one of the most serious problems of our time."

In 2007, International Publishers released the collection of environmental writing by Virginia Warner Brodine, titled Red Roots Green Shoots. In environmental sociologist Alan Wight's review, he pointed out the need for us to reconsider our economic and environmental practices, and highlighted the important contributions Brodine made in addressing ecological problems with her writings from 1976 to 1999.

"The healthy functioning of ecosystems is directly related to community and individual wellbeing. The author [Brodine] is clear that we can create humane jobs, provide a livable wage, and not degrade the planet."

On April 22, 1970, when the first earth day rallies took place, 20 million Americans - largely self-organized - took to the streets to protest environmental degradation. That was ten percent of the population of the country!

These days, many scientists and inventors are working hard at finding new and better ways of accomplishing energy production, manufacturing, agriculture, and transportation. Unions are organizing to fight particular health and environmental threats, and millions of us strive to make better choices for the environment in our own lives. The environmental crises we face are not primarily technical problems but require mass movements and the involvement of tens of millions of people.

A view of our planet earth whether from the depth's of the ocean or from an orbiting satellite, or a look outward at galaxies billions of light years away is inspiring. So thank you John Cameron for your contributions to inspiration, but we still have our work cut out for us to clean up our beautiful, awe-inspiring, and magnificent ocean.

Photo: Pacific Ocean as viewed from space. Image courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/photo.pl?mission=STS073&roll=E&frame=5113

Meat, money, and markets: More bad news

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:06:00 +0000

We've known for some time that having too much red meat in our diets has negative health consequences. We also know that the meat industry goes out of the way to play down these risks as it is motivated by profits and not public health. We also know that the only really effective way to protect the public from the negative consequences is to demand that the government regulate and educate. We must work towards expanding democratic control of the economy in order to achieve these ends.

New scientific evidence released by the Harvard School of Public Health, definitely shows that eating red meat increases mortality from both cancer and cardiovascular problems.

The results of the Harvard study have been reported in ScienceDaily, but it has some good news, which is that we can all lower our risks for these health problems by replacing red meat with nuts, legumes, fish, and poultry (and of course a vegetarian diet would dramatically reduce these risks).

An Pan, the main author of the report, is quoted as saying: "Our study adds more evidence to the health risks of eating high amounts of red meat, which has been associated with type two diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers in other studies."

The study followed thousands of people over two decades correlating their diets with disease incidents. The researchers found that eating processed red meat daily (e.g., two strips of bacon or a hot dog) increased your risk 20 percent (a daily serving of unprocessed red meat upped you risk 13 percent.) Cured red meat was thus seven percent more deadly than uncured.

The report also found that those who replaced the red meat serving with fish, poultry, nuts, low fat dairy, or legumes had a significant reduction in their risks of death. This led Frank Hu, a nutrition specialist and co-author of the report, to say, "This study provides clear evidence that regular consumption of red meat, especially processed meat, contributes substantially to premature death. On the other hand, choosing more healthful sources of protein in place of red meat can confer significant health benefits by reducing chronic disease morbidity and mortality."

So red meat consumption ought to be limited in the interests of public health, and especially the health of children. Processed red meats as well as red meat in general should be regulated and reduced in school lunch programs (remember the Republicans in Congress want to classify pizza as a vegetable-- which shows the influence of the junk food industry; money always comes first) and in all other government food programs.

The new USDA "food plate" simply has "protein" as one of its recommendations but no further recommendations such as less beef and more fish or other red meat substitutes. Beef should not be given equal time with chicken! In any event progressive politics goes hand in hand with progressive health advocacy and we can hope people will heed the warnings of science.

Recapturing the social identity of the Black church

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:05:00 +0000

"Come unto me, all who are labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).

In the days of the past, the clarion call and mission of the black church was two-fold: it served as a beacon of hope for the lost-soul seeking grace and mercy, and also as an oasis for all issues affecting the community. The black church served as a voice in the wilderness, crying out that equality and justice belonged to all persons, despite race, social status, or lived experience.

The church operated as a 24- hour, full-service institution, affecting change spiritually, intellectually, emtionally, and socially. People from all walks of life recognized that when resources were exhausted, the black church was a place where needs were met and issues addressed. The black minister preached a transformative message of salvation, but also served as a community representative and social activist, preaching a message of social change, equality, and unconiditonal love.

While black ministers were not formally educated in the pre-civil rights era, the message of the Declaration of Independence presented a complex challenge for the black church, reading, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Considering the liberty of the children of Israel, and the liberty of African slaves, liberty has been the crux of the black church. Consider the words of a familiar black spiritual: "And before I'll be a slave, I'll be buried in my grave, and go home to my Lord and be free."

Now, in our contemporary society that the black church has become so focused on preaching messages regarding the attainment of economic success and personal prosperity, has it begun to lose sight of its foundational calling, rooted in a message of salvation, with the promotion of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?

The black church in the days of the civil rights agenda fullfilled the words of Malcolm X (how fascinating, the use of a minister of Islam in an exposition of the black church) "by any means necessary." The black minister proclaimed a message of hope and change within all persons (regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, educational attainment, or family background) could find solace, and the people of the church served the direct human needs of the public, from meals to medicine and from housing to hope.

The black church once connected to the ills of society, and developed a sense of responsibility in fighting those troubles. Whether it required a Sunday morning message or civil disobedience, the black church accepted its role in genuine social change and community transformation.

Rev. Dr, Martin Luther King, Jr., an eminent prophetic voice in the reform of American society once wrote in his 1963 letter from a Birmingham jail, "In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churches stand on the sideline and merely mouth pious irrelevancies." Yet, in this post-modern culture, it is no longer exclusively white churches on the sideline of truth and justice, allowing the struggles of underepresented or oppressed groups to perpetuate, but it is also the churches filled with those underrepresented groups allowing the perpetuation of injustice and inequality.

The message of the cross as the changing force of all aspects in life has become silenced by the message of the dollar. The black church, a place where people came to receive whole life empowerment, has now become a wealth workshop and capital-industry. Accepting that financial opulence is a component, and some would contend a derivative of the gospel message, it should not serve as the nucleus of the message.

Furthermore, accepting that the educational, economic, and ethnic facade of our culture is changing, the essence of social problems remains the same - inequality abd non-access for oppressed populations. Thus, it is the responsibility of the black church to not compromise the message of the gospel with a message of capitalism.

Therefore, the question becomes, what can the black church do to recapture its identity as a city of refuge and a beacon of hope? Above all else, it must return to its first love, the social, compassionate, and liberating gospel of Jesus Christ. It must stand on the teachings of Jesus despite the pressure and magnetism of contemporary societal fads to mitigate the work of the cross for the influx of capital expansion.

The black church must focus on living the commission of compassion, while also continuing to preach a message of freedom, justice, equality, and hope for all persons from all walks of life.

Ernest Hemingway, an American writer and scholar, once penned, "Never mistake motion for action." In the same essence, the black church must never mistake the Sunday morning motions as the spiritual, intellectual, emtional, physical, and social actions that must be taken Monday through Saturaday for the full-service of all humankind.

The mere act of preaching motivates the soul and the melodies of song enlivens the emotion, yet motivation and enlivening are not enough for debt to be eliminated, graduation rates to rise, and affordable housing and healthcare to be attained - all parts of the present social crisis. As part of the black church - parishoners must recapture its identity in this society; only then will it be able to serve as a collective utility of social transformation and positive change.

Rev. Pierre Williams is the former national secretary of the Religion Commisison and holds degrees from Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida and Virginia Union University, Richmond, Virginia.

Photo: Young men play piano in the Mason Temple in Memphis, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech one day before his assassination. Brandon Dill/AP

A wake up call to vote

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:08:00 +0000

Nothing can bring 17-year-old Trayvon Martin back to life for his family and the nation. But Trayvon lives in the remarkable outpouring of sorrow and outrage demanding justice in the case.

The image and horror of this young African American man's murder while walking peacefully home from the store in Sanford, Fla., is galvanizing a new anti-racist movement in the country.

In days, a million and a half people signed the petition by his parents, and students demonstrated on campuses in Florida calling for arrest of the gunman and a federal investigation. The federal Department of Justice has stepped in.

This shooting did not take place in a vacuum. The escalation of racism and bigotry throughout the Republican presidential primaries has created a dangerous climate. Right-wing talk show hosts are fanning the flames. Glen Beck calls Trayvon Martin "the aggressor," just as Rush Limbaugh called Sandra Fluke "a slut" when she testified to congress on behalf of the right to contraception, also being met by large scale protests.

In East Haven, Conn., it was an Obama appointee to the Civil Rights division of the Justice Department whose investigation into racial profiling of Latino immigrants resulted in the arrest of four police officers and the resignation of the chief. The investigation is ongoing.

Republicans have blocked Obama's judicial nominees just as they have rammed through new laws in many states making it more difficult to vote in an attempt to disenfranchise those most likely to vote for Barack Obama.

Justice for Trayvon Martin is interconnected with the presidential, congressional and state elections.

The appeal by the NAACP to the United Nations Human Rights Council for oversight of the elections in our country follows in the steps of the "We Cry Genocide" petition presented to the United Nations in 1951 by the Civil Rights Congress, which exposed the lynch terror in the South.

It took the massive organizing and marching of the multiracial civil rights movement in the 1960s to break through and win the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. These victories came with strong support from the unions, which recognized that the enemies of Civil Rights in Congress also voted consistently against the rights of working people.

This labor-civil rights alliance is even stronger today, as seen in the recent re-enactment of the Civil Rights March from Selma to Montgomery, which was a dramatic call for a new civil rights movement to organize and get out the vote to preserve and expand those rights that have been won.

The racist and anti-woman ideological offensive is a major challenge to unity and the outcome of this election. The Republican program to end Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and even public education and reverse the gains of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts would hurt all working people.

There are some who dismiss corporate tea party extremism as too far over the top to win election. It would be shortsighted to take the outcome of November's vote for President and Congress and State Houses for granted. Huge sums of money and shameless distortions and lies can prevail unless there is a groundswell voter turnout.

The shooting of Traynor Martin is a wake up call for justice.

Justice for Trayvon Martin begins with an investigation of the role of the police and the prosecution of his killer. Beyond that, in the name of Trayvon Martin, a crusade to break through undemocratic barriers to voting and to bring out the largest voter turnout ever can be the most powerful answer to the engrained racism and anti-woman policies of the extreme right-wing that give rise to such tragedies.

The combination of 4 million union members being mobilized to speak with their co-workers and neighbors, alongside similar efforts by the NAACP, Planned Parenthood, Youth Vote and many others can set the stage for rejecting a racist, anti-woman program and opening the door for government to play its role on behalf of human rights and people's needs.

Photo: Roberto Gonzalez/AP

We are all Trayvon Martin

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 13:57:00 +0000

We are all Trayvon Martin, even those of us who have never been trapped alone on a dark street on the thin line between life and death.

Throw in the effects of hundreds of years of racism in the United States and you have the situation last month in which a 250 pound self-appointed white vigilante hunts down an unarmed Black child who is screaming "help." After the vigilante's bullet rips open the child's chest, he lies on the ground, gasping for air until he dies.

And thus the streets of a majority-white gated community near Orlando, Fla.,, on February 26, 2012, became a killing field for a Black young man who, despite his high marks in school will never go to college because his chance at life is over. All because he chose the wrong time to visit his father and the wrong time to walk to a store to buy a can of iced tea and a bag of candy.

This is what racism means to children like Trayvon, to mothers and fathers who have, for hundreds of years, lost children like Trayvon and to millions of African American, Latino and Asian people today. Countless people of color have had, in the history of this nation, no chance at all when an individual or group acting as if they were judge and jury, took it upon themselves to hunt, confront, tackle, kick, or beat them into submission or, worse yet, snuff out their lives altogether.

Racism is also why George Zimmermann, the killer, still has not been arrested. It is why the police have failed to carry out this basic response to the crime even though they told Zimmermann to cease his pursuit of Trayvon when the vigilante called them for the 46^th time this month about having spotted someone "suspicious."

Racism is the reason why local police ignored Zimmermann's own arrest in 2005 for violence and battery against a police officer.

Racism is the reason police ignored complaints from neighbors that Zimmermann was "fixated" on accusing young black males of criminality and it is the reason they ignored complaints from neighbors that he was regularly overly aggressive towards other people.

Racism is the reason that the officer in charge of the crime scene failed in 2010 to arrest a police lietenant's son who was videotaped as he savagely beat a homeless man.

Racism is the reason police ignored Zimmermann's violation of the rules of his neigborhood "watch" group - that clearly state members have no police powers, that members should not carry weapons and that they should not engage in their own pursuit of "suspects."

Racism is the reason police ignored the fact that Zimmermann was not actually a registered member of the community's official "watch" group.

Racism is the reason police failed to test Zimmermann for drugs or alcohol but did indeed test the lifeless body of Trayvon for the same and it is the reason they kept that body for days before informing the child's parents of his death. It is the reason they never visited his parents to help ease the shock of that death - something decent police officers always do in cases where murder victims have families.

Racism is the reason someone like Zimmermann gets away with carrying a gun in the first place and it is the reason someone like him can lean on Florida's "stand your ground" law to claim self defense. How long until the next murderer uses the same law to shield himself from the consequences of his acts? How long before the next group of drunken patrons in a bar somewhere decide to go out and hunt down some more victims, using the same law as a pretext for more murders?

Racism, beyond this case, allows us to denounce the alleged atrocities of Kony in far away Africa but to overlook the Trayvon Martins.

But there is hope because from one end of the nation to the other great majorities of the people, Black and white, Latino and Asian, are rising up in outrage against what has happened. Witness the demonstrations and the marches. Witness the belated, but welcome intervention by the Justice Department.

Witness the fight against the outrageous right wing laws against immigrants and witness the outpouring against discriminatory voter ID laws.

Witness the revival and strengthening of the historic and great civil rights-labor alliance that resulted in the smashing of Jim Crow laws in the 20^th century and that promises to build and is building a united movement for civil rights and workers rights in the 21^st century.

The country that has seen the election three years ago of its first African American president and the formation since then of a growing and united movement for economic and social justice is a country capable of putting an end to the pervasive poison of racism.

Much progress has been made: much more needs to be done. The anti-racist majority that elected Barack Obama in 2008 and a Democratic majority still exits; its power must be felt in demanding that Zimmerman be arrested and the police chief removed. It must challenge the Fox News-fed tea party atmosphere that promotes and feeds on racism fear and intolerance. And needless to say, it must defeat these elements in November.

Trayvon Martin can never be brought back to life. There is no way to ever make right what has happened to him. But building a powerful movement that rejects racism and that rejects the right wing extremists and their horrible disregard of what makes us all human will lay the groundwork for a better society in the future. People in that society will look back at this murder as a horrific part of a past history that will have been put to rest forever.

Photo: Associated Press

Fracking: health, environmental impact greater than claimed

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 10:09:00 +0000

The natural gas industry defends hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, as safe and efficient. Thomas J. Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, a pro-industry non-profit organization, claims fracking has been "a widely deployed as safe extraction technique," dating back to 1949. What he doesn't say is that until recently energy companies had used low-pressure methods to extract natural gas from fields closer to the surface than the current high-pressure technology that extracts more gas, but uses significantly more water, chemicals, and elements.

The industry claims well drilling in the Marcellus Shale will bring several hundred thousand jobs, and has minimal health and environmental risk. President Barack Obama in his January 2012 State of the Union, said he believes the development of natural gas as an energy source to replace fossil fuels could generate 600,000 jobs.

However, research studies by economists Dr. Jannette M. Barth, Dr. Deborah Rogers, and others debunk the idea of significant job creation.

Barry Russell, president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, says "no evidence directly connects injection of fracking fluid into shale with aquifer contamination." Fracking "has never been found to contaminate a water well," says Christine Cronkright, communications director for the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Research studies and numerous incidents of water contamination prove otherwise.

In late 2010, equipment failure may have led to toxic levels of chemicals in the well water of at least a dozen families in Conoquenessing Twp. in Butler County. Township officials and Rex Energy, although acknowledging that two of the drilling wells had problems with the casings, claimed there were pollutants in the drinking water before Rex moved into the area. John Fair disagrees. "Everybody had good water a year ago," Fair told environmental writer and activist Iris Marie Bloom in February 2012. Bloom says residents told her the color of water changed (to red, orange, and gray) after Rex began drilling. Among chemicals detected in the well water, in addition to methane gas, were ammonia, arsenic, chloromethane, iron, manganese, t-butyl alcohol, and toluene. While not acknowledging that its actions could have caused the pollution, Rex did provide fresh water to the residents, but then stopped doing so on Feb. 29, 2012, after the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said the well water was safe. The residents vigorously disagreed and staged protests against Rex; environmental activists and other residents trucked in portable water jugs to help the affected families. Joseph P. McMurry of the Marcellus Outreach Butler blog (MOB) declared that residents' "lives have been severely disrupted and their health has been severely impacted. To unceremoniously 'close the book' on investigations into their troubles when so many indicators point to the culpability of the gas industry for the disruption of their lives is unconscionable."

In April 2011, near Towanda, Pa., seven families were evacuated after about 10,000 gallons of wastewater contaminated an agricultural field and a stream that flows into the Susquehanna River, the result of an equipment failure, according to the Bradford County Emergency Management Agency.

The following month, DEP fined Chesapeake Energy $900,000, the largest amount in the state's history, for allowing methane gas to pollute the drinking water of 16 families in Bradford County during the previous year. The DEP noted there may have been toxic methane emissions from as many as six wells in five towns. The DEP also fined Chesapeake $188,000 for a fire at a well in Washington County that injured three workers.

In January 2012, an equipment failure at a drill site in Susquehanna County led to a spill of several thousand gallons of fluid for almost a half-hour, causing "potential pollution," according to the DEP. In its citation to Carizzo Oil and Gas, the DEP "strongly" recommended that the company cease drilling at all 67 wells "until the cause of this problem and a solution are identified."

In December 2011, the federal Environmental Protection Agency concluded that fracking operations could be responsible for groundwater pollution.

"Today's methods make gas drilling a filthy business. You know it's bad when nearby residents can light the water coming out of their tap on fire," says Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation. What's causing the fire is the methane from the drilling operations. A ProPublica investigation in 2009 revealed methane contamination was widespread in drinking water in areas around fracking operations in Colorado, Texas, Wyoming, and Pennsylvania. The presence of methane in drinking water in Dimock, Pa., had become the focal point for Josh Fox's investigative documentary, Gasland, which received an Academy Award nomination in 2011 for Outstanding Documentary; Fox also received an Emmy for non-fiction directing. Fox's interest in fracking intensified when a natural gas company offered $100,000 for mineral rights on property his family owned in Milanville, in the extreme northeast part of Pennsylvania, about 60 miles east of Dimock.

"Some of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing-or liberated by it-are carcinogens," Dr. Sandra Steingraber told members of the Environmental Conservation and Health committee of the New York State Assembly. Dr. Steingraber, a biologist and distinguished scholar in residence at Ithaca College, pointed out that some of the chemicals "are neurological poisons with suspected links to learning deficits in children," while others "are asthma triggers. Some, especially the radioactive ones, are known to bioaccumulate in milk. Others are reproductive toxicants that can contribute to pregnancy loss."

An investigation by New York Times reporter Ian Urbina, based upon thousands of unreported EPA documents and a confidential study by the natural gas industry, concluded, "Radioactivity in drilling waste cannot be fully diluted in rivers and other waterways." Urbina learned that wastewater from fracking operations was about 100 times more toxic than federal drinking water standards; 15 wells had readings about 1,000 times higher than standards.

Research by Dr. Ronald Bishop, a biochemist at SUNY/Oneonta, suggests that fracking to extract methane gas "is highly likely to degrade air, surface water and ground-water quality, to harm humans, and to negatively impact aquatic and forest ecosystems." He notes that "potential exposure effects for humans will include poisoning of susceptible tissues, endocrine disruption syndromes, and elevated risk for certain cancers." Every well, says Dr. Bishop, "will generate a sediment discharge of approximately eight tons per year into local waterways, further threatening federally endangered mollusks and other aquatic organisms." In addition to the environmental pollution by the fracking process, Dr. Bishop believes "intensive use of diesel-fuel equipment will degrade air quality [that could affect] humans, livestock, and crops."

Equally important are questions about the impact of as many as 200 diesel-fueled trucks each day bringing water to the site and then removing the waste water. "We need to know how diesel fuel got into some people's water supply," says Diane Siegmund, a clinical psychologist from Towanda, Pa. "It wasn't there before the companies drilled wells; it's here now," she says. Siegmund is also concerned about contaminated dust and mud. "There is no oversight on these," she says, "but those trucks are muddy when they leave the well sites, and dust may have impact miles from the well sites."

In addition to the normal diesel emissions of trucks, there are several incidents of leaks, some of several thousand gallons, much of which spills onto roadways and into creeks, from highway accidents of tractor-trailer trucks carrying wastewater.

Research "strongly implicates exposure to gas drilling operations in serious health effects on humans, companion animals, livestock, horses, and wildlife," according to Dr. Michelle Bamberger, a veterinarian, and Dr. Robert E. Oswald,a biochemist and professor of molecular medicine at Cornell University. Their study, published in New Solutions, an academic journal in environmental health, documents evidence of milk contamination, breeding problems, and cow mortality in areas near fracking operations as higher than in areas where no fracking occurred. Drs. Bamberger and Oswald noted that some of the symptoms present in humans from what may be polluted water from fracking operations include rashes, headaches, dizziness, vomiting, and severe irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat. For animals, the symptoms often led to reproductive problems and death.

Significant impact upon wildlife is also noted in a 900-page Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) conducted by New York's Department of Environmental Conservation, and filed in September 2011. According to the EIS, "In addition to loss of habitat, other potential direct impacts on wildlife from drilling in the Marcellus Shale include increased mortality . . . altered microclimates, and increased traffic, noise, lighting, and well flares." The impact, according to the report, "may include a loss of genetic diversity, species isolation, population declines . . . increased predation, and an increase of invasive species." The report concludes that because of fracking, there is "little to no place in the study areas where wildlife would not be impacted, [leading to] serious cascading ecological consequences." The impact, of course, affects the quality of milk and meat production as animals drink and graze near areas that have been taken over by the natural gas industry.

Research by a team of scientists from Duke University revealed "methane contamination of shallow drinking water systems [that is] associated with shale-gas extraction." The data and conclusions, published in the May 2011 issue of the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, noted that not only did most drinking wells near drilling sites have methane, but those closest to the drilling wells, about a half-mile, had an average of 17 times the methane of those of other wells.

Before a Congressional hearing, Michael Krancer, Gov. Tom Corbett's DEP secretary, claimed studies that showed toxic methane gas in drinking water were "bogus," and specifically cited as "statistically and technically biased" the Duke University study. Two of the study's researchers fired back. In an OpEd article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Robert Jackson and Avner Vengosh suggested, "Rather than working to discredit any science that challenges his views, the secretary and his agency should be working to get to the bottom of the science with an open mind."

As if water pollution wasn't bad enough, fracking operations may also impact the air and increase greenhouse gas levels. A team of researchers from Cornell University determined that the leaking of methane gas into the air from fracking operations could have a greater negative impact upon the environment than either oil or coal. In the May 2011 issue of the peer-reviewed Climatic Change Letters, environmental biologist Dr. Robert Howarth, engineer Dr. Tony Ingraffea, and ecology researcher Renee Santoro, conclude, "The footprint for shale gas is greater than that for conventional gas or oil when viewed on any time horizon, but particularly so over 20 years. Compared to coal, the footprint of shale gas is at least 20% greater and perhaps more than twice as great on the 20-year horizon and is comparable when compared over 100 years."

The response by the industry and its political allies to the scientific studies of the health and environmental effects of fracking "has approached the issue in a manner similar to the tobacco industry that for many years rejected the link between smoking and cancer," say Drs. Bamberger and Oswald. Not only do they call for "full disclosure and testing of air, water, soil, animals, and humans," but point out that with lax oversight, "the gas drilling boom . . . will remain an uncontrolled health experiment on an enormous scale."

Dr. Helen Podgainy, a pediatrician in Coraopolis, Pa., says she doesn't want her patients "to be guinea pigs who provide the next generation the statistical proof of health problems as in what happened with those exposed to asbestos or to cigarette smoke."

[Assisting on this series, in addition to those quoted within the articles, were Rosemary R. Brasch, Eileen Fay, Dr. Bernard Goldstein, and Dr. Wendy Lynne Lee. Dr. Walter Brasch's current book is Before the First Snow, a critically-acclaimed novel that looks at what happens when government and energy companies form a symbiotic relationship, using "cheaper, cleaner" fuel and the lure of jobs in a depressed economy but at the expense of significant health and environmental impact. The book is available at amazon.com and from the publisher, Greeley & Stone.] Photo: bill baker // CC 2.0

Celebrating the life of Mary McLeod Bethune

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:37:00 +0000

Editor's note: This article is published in commemoration of Women's History Month.

Many women in our history, Black women in particular, through their determination and keen sense of the struggle for women's equality, have pushed forward despite the intensity of opposition. Among these women is Mary McLeod Bethune.

Bethune was the 15th of 17 children. She was born in Mayesville, South Carolina in 1875. Her parents were former slaves. When they were offered a scholarship for one of their children to attend Scotia Seminary, they decided to send Mary, as she showed the most enthusiasm for learning.

From Scotia Seminary, Bethune attended Moody Bible Institute, and upon completing her studies returned to teach at Scotia and various other schools.

As a Black woman, the pioneering educator saw her role as moving women's struggle forward and always encouraged African American women to take an extra step. "Go to the front and take our right place: fight our battle and claim our victories," she would say.

Although threatened by the Ku Klux Klan when she attempted to organize women to pay a poll tax on election day, the young organizer did not relent and the ballots were successfully cast.

When she was appointed Director of the Negro Division of the National Youth Administration during the Roosevelt presidency, she became the first Black woman to hold this specially created post.

The Negro Division of the National Youth Administration was setup to find employment for young people between the ages of 15 and 24 in private industry, work relief and vocational training projects.

Bethune saw the potential of this position and used it to fashion a strong network. These connections in the White House and beyond served her well in future years.

Working with organizations such as Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching, she understood that racial harmony was a motivating force for many. This understanding was behind her founding of the National Council of Negro Women.

Bethune's vision for this organization was to increase awareness of the contributions that black women had made, thus pushing forward the idea that it was time women to be included in impacting public policy.

On one occasion, she organized a conference, which brought 67 Black women to the White House. "I was glad to sit aside them and see them stand on their feet fearlessly preparing themselves and their thoughts, not coming as beggars, but coming as women wanting to participate in the administration of a human problem," she commented at a NCNW meeting.

She organized the Black Cabinet, comprised of Black men, appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, into the Federal Council on Negro Affairs, whose main purpose was to present a united front on policy.

Bethune recognized that more and more Blacks were earning wages that gave them potential power as consumers. With this in mind, she consistently advocated to name Blacks in policy-making positions on all state committees. Among her accomplishments, in this regard, were 27 blacks appointed to state commissions, which also included representatives in every southern state except Mississippi - no small feat.

Her many accomplishments are illustrations of her keen sense of recognizing opportunities to push forward women's equality, racial equality, and the right to a decent education.

It is women such as herself whose shoulders we now stand. They in turn stood on the shoulders of their mothers who were determined to do what they could to educate their daughters and instill in them a sense of their self-worth.

Mary McLeod Bethune's commitment to the advancement of black women and indeed all women, along with her stress on educating the country's youth, makes her a true American hero.

Photo: Wikipedia

Irish debt and the heart of Saint O'Toole

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:15:00 +0000

Someone has pinched the heart of St. Lawrence O'Toole, and thereby hangs a typical Irish tale filled with metaphors, parallels, and some pretty serious weirdness.

Who done it? The suspects are many and varied.

Could the heist from Dublin's Christ Church Cathedral have been engineered by the infamous "troika" of the European Commission, the European Bank, and the International Monetary Fund? Seems like a stretch, but consider the following: O'Toole-patron saint of Dublin-was, according to the Catholic Church, famous for practicing "the greatest austerity." Lawrence liked to wear a hair shirt underneath his Episcopal gowns and spent 40 days in a cave each year.

That is a point of view the troika can respect. They have overseen a massive austerity program in Ireland that has strangled the economy, cut wages 22 percent, slashed education, health care, and public transport, raised taxes and fees, and driven the jobless rate up to 15 percent - 30 percent if you are young. At this rate many Irish will soon be living in caves, and while hair shirts may be uncomfortable, they are warm.

There are other suspects as well. For instance, St. O'Toole was friendly with the Norman/English King Henry II, who conquered the island in 1171. The Irish are not enamored of Henry II, indeed most of them did their level best to drive the bastard into the sea. Not Lawrence. He welcomed Henry to Dublin and, according to the Church, "Paid him due deference."

So "deference" establishes yet another suspect: the current Fine Gael/Labor ruling coalition. Fine Gael leader and Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Edna Kenny has already signed the new European Treaty, but was forced to put it up for a public referendum at home (no other EU county is being allowed to vote "yea" or "nay"). Kenny is pressing for a "yes" vote, and Labor's Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore argues that a "yes" vote would be a "vote for economic stability and a vote for economic recovery."

The Treaty will not only continue the austerity program, it will move decision-making to EU headquarters in Brussels. This means that governments will be powerless when it comes to the economy. Think "Model United Nations" and lots of earnest high school students.

Who will make these decisions? Good question. Well, it turns out that a committee of the German Bundestag debated the Irish austerity proposals before the Dublin government even got a chance to look at them. How did that happen? Again, good question, but no answer yet.

Maybe German Chancellor Andrea Merkel lifted O'Toole's heart. She certainly has a motive: Merkel is leading the "austerity is good for you" charge, a stance that has battered economies from Spain to Greece. In any case, the Irish are already suspicious of the German chancellor. An anti-austerity demonstration outside the Dail, Ireland's parliament, featured a poster calling government ministers "Angela's Asses."

Much of the economic crisis in Europe-and virtually all of it in Ireland- is due to the out-of-control speculation by German banks, along with the Dutch, Austrian, and French financial institutions. "Yet it is the working people of Ireland and Europe who are being asked to pay the price," argues Des Dalton of Sinn Fein. It appears that the Germans have discovered that one does not need Panzer divisions to conquer Europe, just bankers and compliant governments.

"Compliant," however, has run into some difficulties in Ireland, a place where "difficulty" is a very common noun. On Mar. 2, Sinn Fein President Jerry Adams trekked out to Castlebar in the west of Ireland to resurrect the ghost of Michael Davitt, founder of the Land League and leader of the 1878 Land War (there was an earlier one from 1761 to 1784, but more on that later). Adams told the Mayo County crowd "The Irish people cannot afford this treaty."

The Castlebar symbolism was about as heavy as you can get. Davitt, along with the great Irish Parliamentarian Charles Stewart Parnell, launched the land war from that city, calling up the words of the great revolutionary, James Fintan Lalor: "I hold and maintain that the entire soil of a country belongs by right to the entire people of that country."

These days that is not a popular sentiment in most European capitals, where governments are shedding public ownership in everything from airlines to energy production. The Irish government is trying to sell off several lucrative holdings, including Aer Lingus, Ireland's natural gas company, and parts of its Electricity Supply Board. The state's forestry will be sold as well. "It is the depth of treachery to sell billions of Euros worth of State assets to pay bad gambling debts," Socialist Party member Joe Higgins said in the Dail.

The land wars were a reaction to efforts by the English to apply to Ireland the Enclosure Acts, a policy that sold "common land" to private landowners and forced the rural population of England, Scotland and Wales into the hellishness of industrial Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Liverpool.

As Laura Nader and Ugo Mattei maintain in their book "Plunder: When the rule of law is illegal," what is currently happening in Ireland (and all over Europe) is a 21^st century version of the Enclosure Acts. The last vestiges of public ownership are being systematically auctioned to the highest bidder, and the concept of "the common good" is fading like the ghost of providence.

But not without a fight.

While Adams was resurrecting the spirit of Michael Davitt, demonstrators were besieging Parliaments in Greece, Spain and Romania.

Ireland rejected two previous European treaties, only to pass them in a second round of voting. However, under the new rules, it no longer has veto power. If 12 out of the 17 Euro Zone countries endorse-pretty much considered a slam-dunk-then the new treaty goes into effect.

A number of commentators are saying that the 12 country threshold makes the Irish referendum irrelevant, but a "no" vote will be a blow to the Euro currency, and it might eventually encourage similar "no" votes in other countries. In that sense, the Irish tail could end up wagging the European dog.

Since Irish stories always include parallels, there is certainly one to be made between the first land war and the current debt crisis. The 1761 effort by English landlords to apply the Enclosure Acts to Ireland ignited resistance, first in Limerick, then spreading to Munster, Connacht and Leinster. Crowds of Irish tenants dressed in linen masks and coats-hence their generic name, the" Whiteboys"- burned hayricks, knocked down enclosure walls, and hamstrung cattle. On occasion they pitched land agents into the local bog.

The Irish resistance to the Enclosure Acts was not unique, but a very odd thing happened in Ireland: they won. A combination of population growth and war had driven up the price of food, so even the small-scale agriculture practiced by the Irish was profitable. Plus the rent capital skimmed off the Irish peasantry was playing an important role in helping to capitalize the English industrial revolution. Add to this the resistance, and the English decided that it was in their best interests to back off.

The average Irish tenant knew nothing about international finance or capital accumulation, but they got the idea that if you dug in your heels and went toe-to-toe with the buggers, you could beat them. It was a momentous experience, and a collective memory that would help fuel more than 150 years of rebellion.

Can the current Irish resistance movement turn the tide against the austerity madness that has gripped the European continent? Well, the Left is on the rise (in some places, so is the Right). Sinn Fein's support in the most recent opinion polls shows a 25 percent approval ratting, up 4 percent. In comparison, Fianna Fail-the party that ushered in the current crisis-has dropped from 20 percent to 16 percent. Labor has fallen to 10 percent, and Fine Gael is at 32 percent. Other Left parties are also doing well.

Indeed, the Left seems to be resurging in other countries as well. A center-left party in Slovakia ousted a right-wing government, and France seems posted to vote socialist. The Greek Left is fractious, but its various stripes now make up a majority.

Weirdness. Remember weirdness? For starters, an 832-year-old heart is pretty strange. And it wasn't just the heart that was snatched. Someone also stole a splinter of the "true cross" (if one added up all the splinters in all the Cathedrals of Europe you end up with a fair size forest). And then there is the matter of the cheekbone of St. Brigid that just missed getting lifted from a church in North Dublin.

In the end, saints will not preserve Ireland from an invasion of the austerity snakes. The Irish people will have to do that. But they sport an impressive track record of overturning imperial designs, and they have long memories: put enough people into the streets of Castlebar (Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Galway, Limerick, etc) and the bastards will back off.

As Adams said in Castlebar, "Stand together, stand united, and there is nothing we cannot achieve."

Read Conn Hallinan at Dispatches from the Edge and middleempireseries.wordpress.com.

Sugar: the toxic spoonful

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:09:00 +0000

A new scientific study has concluded that sugar is as much of a threat to human health as tobacco and alcohol. Tony the Tiger may look benign, but he may be a merchant of death. The people who make Sugar Frosted Flakes were on to something when they dropped "sugar" from the name of their product.

The scientists who conducted the study at UCSF are blaming sugar for killing 35 million people a year worldwide due to cancer, diabetes and heart disease, in addition to causing "a global obesity pandemic." Of course, it's not sugar per se that is solely responsible. It's the profits before people mentality of the big food and agricultural conglomerates that are pouring sugar down the throats of a trusting public in order to puff up their bottom lines. While they profit, 75 percent of health care spending in the U.S. is related to care and cure of people suffering from these sugar related illnesses.

All of these cases cannot be blamed on sugar, but the UCSF scientists think it is "a primary culprit of this worldwide health crisis." Their report points out that too much sugar does more than make you fat: it brings about metabolic changes that raises blood pressure and causes hormonal changes and liver damage. These are the same kinds of health damages that come about from alcohol (distilled sugar) abuse. They propose that government "regulate" [sort of] the sugar industry. It seems as if the last barrier to the exploitation of the public from private enterprise is the government - in a real democracy it would be the first.

Robert Lustig, MD, one of the scientists involved in the study said, "As long as the public thinks that sugar is just 'empty calories' we have no chance of solving this"- i.e., the health problems caused by sugar. "There are good calories and bad calories," he continued, "just as there are good fats and bad fats, good amino acids and bad amino acids, good carbohydrates and bad carbohydrates. But sugar is toxic beyond its calories."

Claire Brindis, DPH, also involved in the study, said that to limit sugar intake we can't just rely on giving out public information and hope that people will change their behavior. She thinks the same kind of broadly based public programs that were developed to fight alcohol abuse and tobacco use have to be enlisted.

Another scientist, Laura Schmidt, PhD, stated an obvious, if disheartening, truth, that "There is an enormous gap between what we know from science and what we practice in reality. In order to move the health needle, this issue needs to be recognized as a fundamental concern at the global level."

So, what is to be done? Should the government set limits to the amount of sugar that can be added to food? Should sugary snacks be banned in schools? Capitalists won't like this. And they certainly will howl at some of the suggestions put forth - such as "levying special sales taxes ["No new taxes"], controlling access ["Keep the government out of my mouth"], tightening licensing requirements on vending machines and snack bars in schools and workplaces ["We need less not more regulations"]."

The conservatives and the right, especially Republicans, won't go for any of these measures. It is just not possible to do any progressive advance, in health or science, as long as these groups command political power in the U.S.; defeating them decisively is the sine qua non for real democratic advance. They won't be mollified by Dr. Schmidt's timid stance: "We're not talking prohibition. We're not advocating a major imposition of the government into people's lives. We're talking about gentle ways to make sugar consumption slightly less convenient, thereby moving people away from the concentrated dose. What we want is to actually increase people's choices by making foods that aren't loaded with sugar comparatively easier and cheaper to get."

A pandemic killing 35 million people each year and the suggestion is "to make sugar consumption slightly less convenient." And why don't we fight malaria by making it slightly less convenient for the mosquitos to suck human blood? Maybe they will choose to bite something else.

Path to victory in 2012

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 17:01:00 +0000

It's easy to underestimate the election chances of the Republican Party this fall. Its antics in recent months make people wonder if the GOP has a secret death wish.

A recent article in the New Yorker is subtitled, "Can the GOP save itself?" A fair question for a party that seems to be shooting itself in the foot at every opportunity.

Just consider the track record of the Grand Old Party over the last few months:

Its opposition to a working-class payroll tax cut played poorly in Main Street America, so poorly in fact that Republican Party leaders in the Senate and House did an about face.

Its war on the labor movement alienated the GOP from millions of working families.

Its hostility to the use of contraceptives turned off large sections of women irrespective of party affiliation.

Its muted reactions to the misogynistic comments of radio host Rush Limbaugh directed at college student Sandra Fluke left people of various political persuasions upset and anger.

Its unconcealed appeals to racist sentiments among white voters met a chorus of criticism.

Its closing of space between the religious and secular spheres didn't sit well with many Americans - nor does its eagerness to go to war against Iran.

And, and by no means least, its presidential hopefuls have turned the Republican primary into a political circus, leaving tens of millions - Republican, Independent and Democrat alike - shaking their heads in disbelief.

No candidate, including Mitt Romney, has been able to win anything close to a majority, and with each state primary - and we still have many to go - each candidate seems to grow smaller in stature.

I could go on, but I think that I have made my point: The GOP, through its own doing, has hurts its chances in the November elections.

And yet it would be a mistake to think that a rout of the Republican right is all but guaranteed.

Why do I say this?

First, money can't necessarily buy an election, but it can make a difference in the outcome. And the Republicans are well endowed. The New York Times reported that Republican super political action committees are out raising Democratic super PACs by a wide margin.

According to the article, American Crossroads, the leading Republican super PAC took in $51 million in 2011 and plans to raise $240 million this year. Charles and David Koch, the billionaire conservative oilmen, the article goes on to say, expect to raise an additional $200 million for other groups opposing President Obama.

Meanwhile the Democratic super PACS, Priorities USA and a related group, raised only $6.1 million through the end of 2011.

Second, it is unclear how voters will react to the fusillade of negative campaigning that will come from the mouths of the Republican candidates and their PACS.

Lacking a positive political message, the GOP will employ large doses of racism, male supremacy and other backward ideas in the hope of winning white workers - the so called Reagan Democrats - to their column in November.

Third, the Republican Party hopes to disenfranchise enough voters, especially youth, people of color and seniors to turn the election in its favor. Its campaign, which must be resisted, is hitting full stride.

Finally, the trajectory of the economy as well the unfolding of events in the Middle East introduces a large element of uncertainty into the elections. If the positive trends in economic growth and employment continue, then President Obama and the Democrats' election prospects improve considerably; a sweep becomes possible.

If on the other hand, the upward advance peters out then it's anybody's election.

As for Iran, the situation remains volatile with considerable pressure on the president from various quarters, including Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, to take military action. So far he has wisely resisted as well as counseled Israel's Netanyahu government to do the same.

If war breaks out, however, all bets on the outcome of the fall election are off.

So no one who hopes to move the country in a progressive direction should relax until the polls are close on Election Day. The Republican right will not bow out of politics without a struggle.

The American people can win in November, but only if we take nothing for granted.

Photo: A view of the White House from the Washington Monument. (HarshLight/CC)

Senate leader Mitch McConnell: Marijuana use risks death

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:27:00 +0000

Has Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell been watching too many reruns of Reefer Madness?

The conservative Republican believes marijuana and "other narcotics" can lead to death.

In a letter to a constituent who had inquired about the Senator's position on medical marijuana, the Kentucky politican said ""Because of the harm that substances like marijuana and other narcotics pose to our society, I have concerns about this legislation. The detrimental effects of drugs have been well documented: short-term memory loss, loss of core motor functions, heightened risk of lung disease, and even death."

The active ingredient in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol, is not considered to belong to the class of drugs known as narcotics, which include cocaine in its various forms and opiates like heroin, codeine, and morphine.

The senator said he had "serious concerns" even about legalizing marijuana for medical purposes. The drug is widely used to treat glaucoma and other illnesses.

Death from marijuana is extremely rare. According to New York Magazine, "To overdose on marijuana, according to a 1988 DEA report, you would "theoretically have to consume nearly 1,500 pounds of marijuana" - this much - "within about fifteen minutes."

That's a whole heap of smoking or ingesting cookies.

Photo: An activist demonstrates his position on marijuana. Flickr

"Levitated Mass": Art or environmental crime?

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 14:42:00 +0000

The main component of Michael Heizer's (quite literally) monolithic art piece, "Levitated Mass" rolled through Southern California last week on its way to the L.A. County Museum of Art.

The 340-ton granite rock took 11 days to travel from a quarry in Riverside to its final destination on LACMA's campus. Museum visitors will be able to view the piece from the perspective of a 456-foot-long "slot" dug in the Earth, from which the megalith appears to rise. The installation is planned to be completed by this summer.

Trundling along a circuitous route of side streets at about 8 mph, the shrouded boulder on its specially built 196-wheeled transport intrigued locals and was accompanied down Wilshire Boulevard by a sizable entourage. The final effect was, as LACMA Director Michael Govan describes it, "a big public spectacle." To a much wider audience than most contemporary art reaches, the 21 feet tall stone again posed the eternal question, "what is art?"

It's not really fair to judge a work of art before its completion, but that didn't stop most critics in this case. The sheer grandiosity of the project - the engineering and administrative logistics, the nightly slow motion parade through 22 cities, the $10-to-$20 million price tag - provoked new conversations about the validity and significance of Earth Art, an art tendency that has been around since the late sixties. Earth Art, as practiced by artists such as Robert Smithson, James Turrell, and Andy Goldsworthy, involves the artist making a monumental aesthetic impact on the landscape by moving, removing, or changing parts of it.

L.A. painter Mark Vallen lampooned the excess of "Levitated Mass" on his blog, "Art for a Change," by offering up his own smaller version, a 100-ton boulder, for just $1 million. With the $9 million in "savings," LACMA can "... help create a critically needed first-rate arts curriculum for Los Angeles school children, put into action an expanded artist residency program, and have enough left over for the purchase of artworks from contemporary artists having a hard time due to the economic downturn." The title of Vallen's lesser rock? "Alleviated Masses."

Vallen definitely has a point about the dire situation of arts education in L.A.; the Los Angeles Unified School District has threatened to eliminate all funding for elementary school arts education this year. The state of the State's arts funding isn't much better. The California Arts Council - the public arts organization for a state with over 38 million people - has a budget of just $5.6 million, about half the cost of "Levitated Mass."

LACMA sounds defensive when answering the FAQ "How can LACMA Justify This Expensive Project When the Economy is suffering?" They argue, "A great deal of the privately raised funds for Levitated Mass has gone directly into the local economy," through hiring construction crews, transportation workers, and fees to local governments. In other words, a sort of public (art) works project funded by the one percent. But why be so proud of an arts patronage system that is really an expression of the noblesse oblige of the well heeled? Shouldn't a democratic society have public art that is (gasp) publicly funded? How about letting the rich "give back to the community" by paying their taxes?

When you step back and look at LACMA's corporate sponsors, you can see that the museum is, in a sense, publicly funded. Among the donors are TARP fund recipients Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Chase Bank.

Kevin Drum, a blogger on the Mother Jones website, reveals unprogressive views on art when he dismisses "Levitated Mass" with the familiar refrain of the art crank: "at this point, I think all these guys are just laughing at us." In other words, all this crazy new art is just a scam to make money and make us regular folks look stupid. A self-described "ordinary schlub," Drum repeatedly defends his blinkered opinion by declaiming his ignorance of art ("I don't know about art and I don't pretend to")!

Yet, he isn't "an ordinary schlub," he's a writer for a major liberal publication, being paid to give his opinions. He says, "I don't expect anyone to take me seriously," yet here he is, offering up his thoughts, which we have to presume he thinks are valuable - or maybe he's just laughing at us. It's as if someone who knew nothing about baseball watched a game, and then wrote a column complaining about how the players just ran around mindlessly in circles.

He says, "Installations like this [divorce] the art world from the vast majority of modern-day audiences." But can he name an art piece from the past decade that's gotten this much attention? Drum's arguments boil down to the philistine cliché, "I don't know about art, but I know what I like." But it is precisely the art that begs the question, "Is it art?" that is frequently the most interesting and challenging.

The most trenchant critique of "Levitated Mass" comes from KCET.org's Char Miller on the "The Back Forty" blog. Miller calls the piece "the prostitution of nature," and basically accuses Heizer of defiling the landscape with his art for the past forty years.

Miller points out that one of the original purposes of Earth Art was an attempt to de-commodify art by making art that couldn't be housed in a gallery or museum. It wasn't bought and sold; it was to be free and open to those who took the time and effort to view it. However, since the sixties and seventies, thinking around the environment has changed. The negative human impact on the environment to the point of crisis has caused many to question the appropriateness of Earth Art's intrusion on, and possible disruption of natural systems.

For Miller, Heizer's art represents a throwback to the "chest thumping" drive to conquer nature: "his maximalist impulse is paired with an imperial reach," combining patriarchal egotism with state of the art technology and engineering to create "a world in suspension." Miller illustrates the dark implications of Heizer's work with this ominous quote from the artist: "In the desert, I can find that kind of unraped, peaceful, religious space artists have always tried to put in their work. "

Maybe "Levitated Mass" really is the ultimate monument to our times. A threateningly colossal megalith with no visible means of support is a perfect metaphor for the end times of capitalism. Hanging over our heads, the oppressive power of capital, impending environmental catastrophe, and the peril of economic collapse represented as an immense pyramidal mass.

Like the stone monuments of the obsolete civilizations it references, "Levitated Mass" is an instant relic of a profligate regime, a suitable headstone for a dying culture.

Photo: "Levitated Mass" rolls through Lakewood, Calif.

The new assault on affirmative action

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:26:00 +0000

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear Fisher v. the University of Texas, which challenges affirmative action policies that seek to establish or sustain racial, cultural, and gender diversity in college admissions.

The case will be heard in the fall at the height of the election campaign.

Many fear - with justification - that the present court will reverse previous court decisions that upheld by narrow votes affirmative action. While reactionaries have since the 1950s denounced "judicial activism" when it pertains to progressive civil rights and civil liberties Supreme Court decisions, they strongly support this example of judicial intervention aimed at destroying the remnants of a major progressive civil rights program.

Readers may be unaware that Communist trade unionists were pioneers in developing practical programs to integrate minorities and women into employment and leadership positions after generations of institutional and ideological discrimination. The term affirmative action did not exist then, but the policy did when communists leading the United Election Workers Union negotiated a contract shortly before World War II providing for a higher wage increase for women than for men because women workers had been subject to systematic discrimination.

For the leadership of the union, this was necessary to advance the principle of equal pay for equal work, which employers had long flouted. When communists in CIO unions fought to integrate leadership by promoting African-American activists, they took the position that the only way to unify the working class was to have leadership at all levels that was truly representative of membership. For Communists policies, which were later called affirmative action, were always first and foremost about ending discrimination within the working class so as it empower workers to win greater trade union and political victories.

These pioneering stands blossomed into the demands of civil rights activists in the 1950s and 1960s for positive or affirmative action by government to overcome generations if not centuries of discrimination in employment, education, etc.

Without such policies, discrimination would in reality continue in fact after it had been outlawed in law. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination against minorities in public accommodations and employment and established an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as a regulatory commission to enforce the legislation.

The purpose of the legislation was clearly to advance greater economic integration and social justice. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed an executive order calling upon the EEOC to advance affirmative action policies in the employment of minorities. Two years later, Johnson issued a similar executive order calling apron the Commission to advance affirmative policies in regard to women.

The next decade saw affirmative action policies advance substantially in spite of a massive counterattack by reactionaries against "quotas." and "reverse racism," i.e., policies to take away jobs, admission to schools, and promotions from whites and males and give them to minorities and women.

Although affirmative action had not been advanced by the courts, a sharply divided Supreme Court, in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) reached a compromise decision that barred affirmative policies aimed consciously at opening up opportunities for "previously discriminated minorities" but permitted affirmative policies aimed at either developing or sustaining "diversity" in student bodies. The case specifically involved a student who sued the University of California /Davis because he had been denied admission to its medical school, which had set aside 16 admissions out of 100 for "previously discriminated against minorities."

Diversity in itself is a very positive thing. It makes social interactions more interesting and promotes greater social understanding. But it is far weaker and has been a far less successful foundation for affirmative action then the original principles, which sought to overcome in fact long-term t institutional discrimination against minorities and women.

This more conservative approach to affirmative action has been in place since 1978. surviving various assaults in legislatures, in referenda and in the courts. For progressives, its defense is necessary but we should not see it as sufficient as either ideology or policy.

We must denounce any court decision that ends this form of affirmative action while at the same time calling for a national affirmative action policy based on economic integration and social justice.

In this regard, a crucial "consent" decree negotiated by the EEOC in 1974 with the major steel companies and the United Steelworkers Union is perhaps the best example we have of what affirmative action was supposed to be.

The decree established both guidelines and timetables for hiring African Americans, Latinos, and women, especially in supervisory, skilled technical, and management training programs. It also replaced department seniority with general factory seniority, thus preventing managerial units from using seniority limit the promotion of discriminated against minorities. This is exactly the sort of affirmative action that we should fight for as we fight against this rightist maneuver to eliminate all forms of affirmative action.

Photo: MDGovpics // CC 2.0

Foxconn and socialism in China

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:01:00 +0000

Recent stories coming out of China have exposed a dark underside to its export-driven industrialization program. Apple and many other electronic device companies rely upon extremely labor-intensive production provided at a number of manufacturing clusters, the largest of which is Foxconn, a Taiwan based multinational corporation.

Foxconn has 13 factories in nine Chinese cities, more than in any other country. Its largest factory worldwide is in Longhua, Shenzhen, where up to 450,000 workers are employed at the Longhua Science and Technology Park, a walled campus sometimes referred to as "iPod City." It covers about 1.16 square miles, includes 15 factories, worker dormitories, a swimming pool, a fire brigade, its own television network (Foxconn TV) and a downtown complete with a grocery store, bank, restaurants, bookstore and hospital. While some workers live in surrounding towns and villages, most live and work inside the complex. A quarter of the employees live in the dormitories, and many of them work 12-hour days for 6 days each week.

The Foxconn manufacturing complex became the focus of worldwide attention when it was reported that between January and November 2010, eighteen Foxconn employees attempted suicide with eighteen deaths. The suicides prompted 20 Chinese universities to compile a report on Foxconn, which they decried as a labor camp. Long working hours, discrimination against mainland Chinese workers by their Taiwanese coworkers, and a lack of working relationships have all been cited as potential causes.

The studies also suggested that the Foxconn deaths may have been a product of economic conditions external to the Foxconn complex itself. In China in 2010, there were several strikes at other high-profile manufacturers in China. The Chinese university studies note that a fundamental decline in the surplus Chinese labor supply that has powered its labor-intensive "factory of the world" development strategy, especially in export products, is the underlying cause of labor market distortions and abuses.

China at the turning point

In developing countries where the excess labor in the subsistence agricultural sector is fully absorbed into the modern sector, further capital accumulation cannot find labor unless it begins to increase wages. This point is called the "Lewisian turning point," after Nobel Laureate Arthur Lewis. Of course, the history of capitalism does not witness corporations reacting wisely to these changes. Rather, their impulse is to intensify the work process with longer hours and speedup. What results instead is an intensification of the class struggle - waves of strike actions and political upheaval as workers reject the increasingly inhumane conditions.

The class struggle hit Foxconn management like a hammer in the head. Chinese manufacturing now must confront moving away from labor-intensive strategies toward automation and higher skilled occupations to match the emerging demographics. In response to the suicides and strikes, Foxconn increased wages for its Shenzhen factory workforce by 25 percent. However, in typical corporate narcissistic culture, Foxconn also absurdly demanded that employees sign no-suicide pledges, as well as documents promising that they and their descendants would not sue the company as a result of death, self-injury or suicide.

Class struggle under socialism?

Some readers may ask, "How can there be such abuses, and class conflicts, under socialism? Doesn't socialism promise and end to class conflict, and create a classless society?" Among the many misconceptions regarding socialism is the notion that social and economic classes can be willed into existence or non-existence by just wishing, or voting, or legislating, that it be just so, without regard to objective conditions of technology, natural and labor resources, and many other factors.

The Chinese revolution overthrew a putrid and corrupt regime headed by feudal lords and early capitalists. The revolution of 1949 was led by mass movements of the working and peasant classes. They took over the leadership of society when the ancient regime collapsed in the chaos and aftermath of World War II, and did indeed set forth to bring into being a classless society. Capitalist and feudal rights were denied any franchise and most industrial and agricultural property was confiscated by the state for redistribution. There was initial success and rapid growth, but soon the country ran headlong into the reality of the great economic, technological and cultural chasms between backwardness and the conditions of relative abundance Karl Marx outlined as the requirement of sustaining classless social relations. The "Great Leap Forward" under Mao Zedong collapsed under the weight of these contradictions with very difficult consequences and suffering for China.

But the Chinese socialist experiment did not collapse. Instead it retreated, economically, to a position advocated by Vladimir Lenin as early as 1920, where the working class and peasant coalition would retain political power and the "commanding heights" of the economy while re-introducing capitalist relations and advanced firm management techniques in the developing parts of the economy. The consequence for China has been the fastest and most sustained development rate of any large country in the history of the world - a staggering effort that has single-handedly reversed world poverty rates, even in the global depression.

But you can't have capitalism, and social progress for working people, without class struggle. That struggle will propel the Chinese working class by the multitudes of millions to the full realization of the promise of their revolution - as it will for all those who do the work of the world.

The Vanishing City: a movie review

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:27:00 +0000

Early on in The Vanishing City, we hear the voice of Mayor Michael Bloomberg saying, "Over the past five years we have re-zoned over 4,000 city blocks in dozens of neighborhoods to allow for growth, and preserve community character where appropriate."

The Lower East Side, Harlem, Downtown Brooklyn, Gramercy Park, south and east Village: All of these communities have felt the impact and hardships of the city's re-zoning and development laws.

Interviews with Bettina Damiani, Good Jobs New York; Tom Agnotli, former city planner; and Julian Bresh, author of The Bloomberg Way, all give testimony to the lopsided, unequal housing laws in the city and state that favor development of luxury housing over good planning that would preserve the essence of what makes New York a great city.

City Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito, who represents East Harlem and part of the Upper West Side, testifying before the city planning commission, sites a recent development in her district: "An international British company bought up 50 rent stabilized buildings for $250 million. The company considered this a solid investment. Why? Because the housing codes in the U.S. are so lax that they see turning a profit very soon down the road." The council woman gives passionate and moral testimony as to why the city and state must change the housing laws so people young and old are not displaced from their homes of many years.

Nellie Hester Bailey founder Harlem Tenants Council talks about rezoning in Harlem. "In Harlem, 71 businesses on 125th Street are being evicted. 2,500 unites of luxury housing is part of the 'redevelopment' plan. Where will these people and their businesses go?"

The documentary is a wakeup call to all New Yorkers. Imagine, if you will, a bill that allows a developer to build luxury real estate on a property - but pay only property taxes on the original property, not on the new, more valuable, structure. That is Senate Bill 421.

City Council Member Brad Lander of Brooklyn explains why this bill was passed and made law in the 1970s. There were 45,530 such units in New York City. I found Mr. Lander's explanation of this bill and its consequences astonishing.

Willets Point in Queens has been targeted for redevelopment. Willets Point currently has no sidewalks or sewers. In times of heavy rain, flooding is common. The area is very industrial and is filled with auto repair shops, scrap yards, waste processing sites, and similar small businesses that employ hundreds of people. This has been a viable revenue source for the city for years. "The area has denied city services for years" as Joe Bono a small business owner for over 40 years explains. "And now they [city] want to come in here like the savior and take away our livelihoods."

Council Member Margaret Chin, who represents Chinatown in Manhattan, comments on the importance of preserving these original ethnic neighborhoods like her district, which also includes Little Italy. People have settled here for many generations and feel connected here. They are also favorite tourist stops, brining in revenue to the City's treasury.

If present city housing policy continues, only 8 percent of new housing units will be allocated for non-luxury housing. That means only 40,000 to 80,000 units will be considered "affordable" housing in NYC.

There is much to be learned from this 55-minute documentary, including on the issue of eminent domain. Most important is the fight back, which has emerged due to, as State Senator Deborah Glick says, "There are [in this administration] lawyers being paid lots of money to take apart the remaining housing and Rent Regulation laws."

It's going to take communities coming together to elect representatives who will fight the likes of the Bloombergs.

Movie review
The Vanishing City
Directed by Fiore Derosa and Jen Senko
2009, 54 minutes, Unrated

Is it time to nationalize oil?

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:07:00 +0000

I paid $4.00 per gallon this morning to fill up my car in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Yikes. Despite the expected Republican 'who-cares-about-the-truth' talking points, the recent price hikes in oil and gas have nothing to do with President Obama.

They are the consequence of world crude oil prices -- not reliance on foreign oil. The much ballyhooed increases in domestic oil production that began under Bush and have been accelerated since Obama came to office have had virtually no effect on prices, because U.S. oil reserves are only two percent of the world's known reserves (while we consume over 25 percent of oil production).

Like me, millions of Americans take immediate and sharp notice of gas prices since, due to the paucity of public transport in the country, there is no other way except the internal combustion automobile to get to work, get the kids, get the groceries, get supplies -- in other words -- to live!

Now -- that is not exactly true in the scientific or technical sense since -- as my truck driving neighbor can demonstrate -- its been possible for 60 years to build a car that gets 60 miles per gallon of diesel fuel and lasts for 20 years. But -- the business model of auto corporations won't allow that: they can't maximize profits unless they produce "durable" goods that fall apart in five years, or less.

One thing is for sure -- all kinds of folks who normally do not like to think at all about politics get very political when gas rises. It is, of course, the equivalent of a direct pay cut, and there is nothing like a pay cut to make you want to find out who to blame!

So why are world crude oil prices rising? Because, 1.) demand is rising faster than supply; and 2.) the conflict with (and sanctions on) Iran -- the worlds second biggest supplier of highest grade oil is stimulating market speculation and hedging. Long-term, there is no solution to the rising cost of oil.

National energy and transportation policy must more aggressively develop alternatives, as well as green economic development programs that sharply reduce wasteful and inefficient consumption. Short term, lowering the temperature in the Middle East would provide some relief. But the disaster of Iraq, the utter failure to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, and the confrontational policy towards Iran -- all make this a very difficult challenge.

A big -- perhaps the biggest -- factor blocking both long- and short-term progress is the oil lobby -- Exxon, BP, Chevron, etc -- who are spending millions upon millions to obstruct any loss of privilege and power, and to divert any energy diversification efforts away from initiatives solely under their private control. In the last presidential cycle the oil and gas industries (not counting coal and nuclear power) spent $212 million on contributions and lobbying efforts (according to Open Secrets) and promise to spend even more in the current cycle.

I do not know if outright nationalization of the oil industry giants is the exact correct course -- but bringing their actions under strict public control -- like almost all states have done with public utilities -- is an absolute necessity. This included outlawing their criminal -- in my view -- political corruption on the political process. In other words, the ability of today's oil barons to buy their way through Congress.

Will Arizona move left in 2012?

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:18:00 +0000

The 2012 elections are an opportunity to turn things around here in Arizona.

The state's working people are sick and tired of the right-wing extremists who misgovern Arizona. Gov. Jan Brewer and the overwhelmingly Republican legislature are at war against the people of Arizona.

There's the all-out attack against public education by slashing school funding and pushing charter schools and vouchers to shift funding to private schools, legislation to intimidate school boards, and endless attacks on teachers and students. Thousands of poor Arizonans are losing health care benefits, city streets are full of growing pot holes, public universities are defunded, and tuition will soon be out of reach for most families.

The attack against labor unions is now in full swing. There's an unending barrage of racial assaults on immigrant workers and their families, which also target anybody who might look like an immigrant. And to top it all Arizona has some of the worst voter suppression laws requiring submission of proof of citizenship when registering to vote and showing a picture ID at the polls, all of which is exasperated by massive unemployment and poverty, which prevents many youth from acquiring driver's licenses.

But the attacks have generated a fightback, which already resulted in the historic recall of state Senate Majority Leader Russell Pearce last spring. The organizers of that recall are now targeting notorious racist Sheriff Joe Arpaio who is up for election this year in Maricopa County, where 70 percent of Arizonans reside.

The Obama campaign, which bypassed Arizona in 2008, feels that Arizona is in play and can be won in 2012. This should help invigorate Democratic Party campaigns.

While some local Democratic Party leaders are advising Democratic candidates to move to the right, few seem to be listening. Working class voters are demanding candidates who will represent the 99 percent. One of the most exciting candidates to emerge is Wenona Bennali Baldenegro, who stands a chance to become the first Native American Indian woman in Congress. Baldanegro, who must first defeat conservative former congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick, is building a strong grassroots organization across a large district that includes reservations, mining towns, the city of Flagstaff, and even some suburban areas of Tucson.

Progressive State Senator Kyrsten Sinema resigned from the legislature to run for Congress in Phoenix's 9th Congressional District, Arizona's new district. She will be opposed in the Democratic primary by Senate Minority Leader Schapira, another liberal, and by conservative Democratic Party leader Andrei Cherny. Sinema was chosen as best state legislator in the country in 2010 by the Nation magazine.

Congressman Raul Grijalva, who co-chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, is facing challengers in both the primary and general elections. Grijalva had a bit of a scare in the 2010 election when he was suddenly targeted by the right wing. He still managed to win by a 6 percent margin, and is building a formidable campaign with hundreds of volunteers that should also help turn out votes for other progressive candidates as well as the presidential and Senate races.

Progressive Mexican American Congressman Ed Pastor is expected to keep his Phoenix seat. Grijalva and Pastor are the only Chicanos ever elected to Congress from Arizona.
And in southeastern Arizona, including parts of Tucson, the race to succeed Congresswoman Gabby Giffords is already in full swing. Four Republicans are facing off to see who will face Giffords' aide Ron Barber to finish the last few months of her term.

Several Democratic state legislators are waiting in the wings to step in if Barber decides not to run for a full term in November. None of these Democrats are expected to run a particularly progressive campaign in this district, where Republicans outnumber them.

In the race for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, former Democratic Party chairman Don Bivens, a centrist, will face Richard Carmona in the Democratic primary. Carmona, who served as U.S. Surgeon General under George W. Bush, is surprising many with a reasonably progressive campaign. According to his web site he is supporting the DREAM Act, and is promising to strongly defend Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and reproductive rights for women.

The winner of the Democratic primary will likely face Republican right-wing Congressman Jeff Flake.

The races for the state legislature are not as clear yet. The Democrats took a beating in the 2010 elections, followed by redistricting that strongly favors the Republicans. There's also a massive game of musical chairs taking place with numerous legislators quitting to run for Congress, or being redistricted out of their current districts. Working class Arizonans are hoping that this huge shift can result in some big changes.

As usual, Arizonans will be under attack from a whole slew of propositions placed on the ballot by the ultra-right legislature.

One proposition is aimed at doing away with Arizona's public financing of candidates' campaigns for state offices.

And in Tucson, there will be a race for school board where three incumbents are accused of caving in to the racist attack on their Mexican American Studies program.

Much of the struggle will take place in Phoenix, where huge demographic changes have taken place over the last two decades. Most of the thousands of high and middle school students who walked out of schools in 2006 to protest racist immigration policies are now old enough to vote, and they are citizens, even if their parents may not be. The movements of immigrants and Chicano people against racist oppression has brought forward a new generation of activists who have already swept Russell Pearce out of office and stand a good chance to repeat it with Sheriff Arpaio.

These struggles have brought forth some new progressive, grassroots Chicano candidates running for local offices all across the Valley. This can only result in progress.

Photo: A protester in Phoenix demonstrates in opposition to the banning of a recent Mexican-American studies program in a school. Protests like these show that Arizonans have had enough of the right wing's attack on people. Matt York/AP