People Before Profit blog

Remembering women's history: Lucy Parsons died

Fri, 06 Mar 2015 10:00:00 +0000

Lucy Ella Gonzales Parsons, a working-class leader and spouse of one of the Haymarket martyrs, died March 7, 1942 in Chicago.

Lucy Ella Gonzales was born in Texas in 1853 of African-American, Mexican and Native-American ancestry. She worked for the Freedmen's Bureau after the Civil War. She married Albert Parsons and both fought for African-American voting rights and against the KKK lynch terror. Threats forced them to flee Texas and they settled in Chicago in 1873 where Lucy became a dressmaker and an early organizer of the garment workers' union. Albert worked for a newspaper until his union activities led to his dismissal.

Albert Parsons was one of eight labor leaders framed and tried for the Haymarket bombing, which is generally attributed to a police provocateur. Albert Parsons wasn't even present at Haymarket, but was caring for the couple's two children while Lucy Parsons was organizing a meeting of garment workers. After the Haymarket frame-up, Lucy led the campaign to free her husband.

The late labor history scholar Bill Adelman wrote what is the definitive story of Haymarket. Read it here at the Illinois Labor History Society website.

A paragraph from his description indicates the significance of the event and the horrors that all involved endured:

"The next day martial law was declared, not just in Chicago but throughout the nation. Anti-labor governments around the world used the Chicago incident to crush local union movements. In Chicago, labor leaders were rounded up, houses were entered without search warrants and union newspapers were closed down. Eventually eight men, representing a cross section of the labor movement were selected to be tried. Among them were (Albert) Parsons and a young carpenter named Louis Lingg, who was accused of throwing the bomb. Lingg had witnesses to prove he was over a mile away at the time. The two-month-long trial ranks as one of the most notorious in American history. The Chicago Tribune even offered to pay money to the jury if it found the eight men guilty."

Albert Parson was one of eight who were convicted and one of four hanged on November 11, 1887. In June of 1893, Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld pardoned the 3 men still alive and condemned the entire judicial system that had allowed this injustice. They are honored with a monument at Waldheim Cemetery, which Lucy Parsons led the fight to erect. (Her grave is located a few feet from the monument.)

Lucy Parsons spent her life fighting for worker's rights, civil liberties and against racism while raising their children after her husband's execution. Her politics have been variously described as radical, socialist, anarchist and communist. She became involved in the International Labor Defense, fought for the freedom of Sacco and Vanzetti, Tom Mooney and the Scottsboro Nine.

She led many demonstrations of the unemployed, homeless and hungry, including a memorable 1915 Poor People's March of the Unemployed of over 15,000 people in Chicago on January 17, 1915, where "Solidarity Forever" was sung for the first time. IWW songwriter Ralph Chaplin had finished writing "Solidarity Forever" two days prior. Marchers demanded relief from hunger and high levels of unemployment.

The demonstration also persuaded the American Federation of Labor, the Jane Addams' Hull House, and the Socialist Party to participate in a subsequent, huge demonstration on February 12, 1915

For years Lucy Parsons was harassed by the Chicago Police Department, who often arrested her on phony charges to prevent her from speaking at mass meetings. Following her death in a suspicious fire at her home, the police and FBI confiscated all her personal papers and writings. But her fighting spirit and contributions to making this a better world will not be forgotten.

Photo: Lucy Parsons, 1886, public domain.

Recovery underway for Minn. oil spill, but what lessons learned?

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 16:14:00 +0000

On March 28 in western Minnesota, a mile-long train hauling oil from Canada derailed, leading to a spill of about 15,000 gallons of crude. The oil spilled over into a nearby field, and cold temperatures made cleanup efforts - which are still underway - that much harder.

The incident happened near the town of Parkers Prairie, 150 miles northwest of Minneapolis. After the Canadian Pacific Railway train crashed, three tankers ruptured, leading to the spill. The train was headed for Chicago, and was carrying several other commodities besides oil that have not yet been disclosed, but which are still secure. Out of the train's 94 cars, 14 actually left the tracks during the accident.

The thickened crude is currently being moved into a lined trench by workers, and will be taken away for disposal. However, the cleanup is expected to take another day or two. As for the derailed tanker cars, things are slightly more complicated. Canadian Pacific must use steam to heat those cars so the oil inside them can be pumped out - a process that will reportedly take a few weeks.

"Only about 1,000 gallons have been recovered" so far, said Dan Olson, spokesman for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. "The remaining oil on the ground has thickened into a heavy, tar-like consistency."

This first major U.S. spill this year occurs as the debate over the Keystone XL pipeline - which would also transport crude from Canada - continues. For those concerned about the risks involved, this latest environmental mishap serves as a harsh example of the damage oil can do.

However, despite the many anti-pipeline protests taking place nationwide, crude is already being shipped to the U.S. from Canada via train - and frequently so.

"Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian National Railway have begun using their networks to deliver crude," reported Globe and Mail. "What rail doesn't have," it added, "are good systems for handling large volumes of oil."

While this is true, there is a perhaps unforeseen consequence of the disasters caused by railway oil transportation. Pro-pipeline oil execs are using this as an opportunity to tout Keystone XL as "the safer way to transport oil."

TransCanada president Alex Pourbaix remarked, "For every mile you move a barrel of oil by rail, you emit three times the greenhouse gases that you do by moving it by pipeline [instead]. I make the point that if you're actually concerned about the environment, for long-haul movement of oil, you very much want to see that moving by pipeline."

But environmentalists have made it very clear that they don't, in fact, want to see that happen.

"The stakes couldn't be higher," said activist Isobel Arthen at a Keystone XL protest outside a TransCanada office in Boston. "The total carbon contained in Canada's tar sands exceeds all the oil burned in human history. We must stop it."

But clearly, even if the pipeline is somehow defeated, the battle is far from over. Trains continue to transport crude, and companies will likely fail to learn any lessons from the spill in Minnesota. But many experts are very much aware of the problem.

Transportation consultant Jim Hall, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, remarked, "It's good business for the rails and bad safety for the public."

Photo: Crews on the scene of the Minnesota train derailment and subsequent spill. Minnesota Pollution Control Agency/AP

Task force confronts at-risk pensions for 10 million workers

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:03:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - The 2007-08 financial crisis, spurred by Wall Street's "casino capitalism," still threatens pension plans that affect 10 million workers. A joint task force of union and employer representatives is working on ways to resolve the financial ailments affecting dozens of multi-employer pension plans (MEPPs), representatives of both groups recently told Congress.

At a House committee hearing in March, the representatives, along with the head of the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., (PBGC) asked lawmakers for needed authority in federal laws to let them make those fixes. PBGC steps in to pay a low level of benefits when a traditional "defined benefit" pension plan goes belly-up.

"The multi-employer system was designed more than a generation ago. The world has changed but the system has not. The challenges facing the multi-employer system are complex and somewhat different from those faced by single-employer defined benefit plans," said PBGC Director Joshua Gotbaum.

Solvency of MEPPs is important to more than 10 million workers. There are 819 MEPPs in construction alone. They cover 3.9 million workers, or 37 percent of workers in MEPPs nationwide, said Harold Force, president of Force Construction of Columbus, Ind., speaking for the pro-union Associated General Contractors.

But construction isn't the only industry with many MEPPs. For example, the United Food and Commercial Workers co-manages more than 60 with its employer partners, Secretary-Treasurer Anthony Perrone testified. Those plans cover 700,000 active workers and another 700,000 retirees. The largest of them, the $5.2 billion UFCW Industry Pension Fund, covers 92,000 workers at more than 500 employers.

The 2007-08 stock market crash and the great recession doubly slammed the MEPPs, witnesses told lawmakers. Perrone said MEPP plans' assets value dropped by 20 percent-30 percent. In some - not all - cases asset value has only now returned to 2007 levels. Expected annual returns of 7 percent-8 percent disappeared, too.

So many people became unemployed that the ratio of active to inactive workers in construction, which used to be 2-to-1 for active workers, is now 4-to-3 for inactive ones, Force said. Employer contributions, based on hours worked, dropped 40 percent.

At the same time, a new Pension Protection Act (PPA) took effect, imposing higher contribution requirements on those MEPPs, as well as on traditional single-employer pension plans, that are seriously underfunded, the witnesses said.

Some plans fold. Then the PBGC must take over payouts, which only average $13,000 yearly per worker, said Gotbaum. In others, employers who can not afford higher premiums or payments drop out, increasing the load on remaining firms, and increasing the risk of financial distress for the plan.

"Pension plan funding ratios today are more sensitive to investment risk because the plans have matured," Perrone explained. Because of an aging workforce, "the plans are now paying more in benefits than receiving in contributions, resulting in negative cash flow.

"As a result, investment returns are critical. When returns fall below expected assumptions, the impact on the funding ratio is dramatic...A significant number of plans are one bad investment year away from triggering red zone critical status."

To try to work out solutions to MEPPs' problems, the National Coordinating Committee on Multi-Employer Plans, a joint union-management group, established its own task force, Perrone and Force told lawmakers.

One task force recommendation, Force said, is "additional security" for MEPPs that weathered the crash, those "on the path to recovery" measured by rehab blueprints and for MEPPs "that, with expanded access to tools in the PPA and (in) subsequent relief legislation, will be able to achieve their statutorily mandated funding goals."

The task force also recommends "limited authority" for MEPP trustees to "partially suspend accrued benefits" for workers and retirees and "partial suspension of benefits in pay status for retirees." The trustees, under PBGC supervision, could take those moves to prevent a financially endangered plan from becoming insolvent.

And it recommends giving trustees flexibility to create new MEPP plan designs, to help prevent insolvency. Perrone said UFCW just worked out a new plan design with Kroger, to let the grocery chain merge four shaky MEPP plans into one larger whole and borrow $1 billion, at low interest, on the market, to bring it from 71 percent funding to 100 percent.

But Charles Jeszeck, director of the pension section for the non-partisan Government Accountability Office, painted a direr picture. He said not only are many MEPPs in financial trouble, but if two big ones - with liabilities totaling $26 billion-become insolvent in 2023, as current projections show, paying their covered workers would drain PBGC's MEPP insurance fund.

"A substantial number of plans, including some very large plans, are facing very severe financial difficulties," Jeszeck said. "Many reported no realistic combination of contribution increases or allowable benefit reductions - options available under current law to address their financial condition - will enable them to emerge from critical status."

Photo: When President Bush signed into law what he called "the most sweeping reform of America's pension laws in over 30 years, the Pension Protection Act of 2006," ctitics warned it could put defined-benefit pensions at risk (Wikimedia).

Today in women's history: Actor Pearl Baily was born

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 03:28:00 +0000

On this day in 1918 Pearl Baily was born. Baily, an actor and singer debuted in Philadelphia and at Harlem's Apollo theater. She performed with Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington and appeared on Broadway in the 1946 production of St. Louis Women. The young actor pioneered in securing roles in TV and film. An African American production of Hello Dolly was one of her best known performances. Baily had her own show on ABC in 1970. In 1975 she was appointed a special ambassador to the United Nations. At the age of 67, the entertainer earned a bachelor's degree in theology from Georgetown University. Baily died in 1990.

Photo: Wkikpedia

Thousands rally against school closings, vow "the fight has just begun"

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:25:00 +0000

CHICAGO - "This is just the start! No more games in Chicago!" declared Jitu Brown, of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization. "Our battle cry is, no matter what you can't have these schools. You'll have to drag us out of them kicking and screaming."

Brown was speaking to thousands of teachers, parents, students and city residents March 27 who protested the announcement by Chicago Board of Education that it will close 54 schools effecting 30,000 students.

Marchers, numbering some 7,000 circled City Hall where they directed their ire at Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who was on a ski vacation in Utah with his family when the announcement was made.

Demonstrators cheered as 150 people -- teachers, school workers, parents, clergy and community activists -- were arrested for blocking traffic.

"They are closing schools with names of African American icons (including singer Mahalia Jackson, Olympic athlete Jesse Owens and explorer Matthew Henson). But they want to open schools named after living billionaires," decried Karen Lewis, president of the CTU.

Lewis was alluding to privatization that is driving Chicago Public School policy.

"One set of schools for children who are learning how to become greeters and one set of schools for children who are being taught how to rule the world," she said.

"Let's not pretend that if you close schools on the South and West sides (predominantly African-American), the children effected won't be black," said Lewis. "Let's not pretend that's not racist."

Of the students affected by the closings, 80% are African American.

"This is not over until you say it's over. On your first day of school, you show up at your real school. We will file lawsuits and lobby our elected officials. But we can't do this without you," she said.

It is widely believed the closures will add to the destabilization of communities already racked by high poverty, unemployment and gun violence. Neighborhood schools often act as a stabilizing center. According to the map of the closings, some communities risk becoming "school deserts."

In addition to the disruption for students and communities, the closings will result in thousands of layoffs of teachers, support personnel, cafeteria workers, custodians and maintenance workers.

The demonstrators included members of the Chicago Teachers Union, Unite Here representing cafeteria workers and Service Employees International Union representing school custodians.

"The kids are the hope of Chicago's future. This city is in crisis when you can't have schools have recess because of escalating violence" said Shay Hillsman, a school cafeteria worker for 8 years.

"Students are being forced to choose between education and death. We may never acquire the wealth of the people who make the decisions. But we are Chicago," she said.

Also joining the demonstration was Rev. Jesse Jackson, several members of the City Council's Progressive Caucus and Rep. Bobby Rush

"We must look at the closings of schools for what they are which is the destabilization of our communities," said Rush in a statement. "The Department of Education reports and estimate $937.7 million allocated to CPS in 2013, a significant increase from last year's $827.5 million. Yet the Board's only solution is to close 53 schools."

Rush announced he would convene a congressional hearing into the impact of the closings on April 13.

Organizers are fighting on the legislative front and called for passage of bills that would place a moratorium on the closings.

The Board of Education's claim it is closing schools because of a $1 billion deficit and underutilization of facilities, has been sharply criticized by the labor unions, parents and community organizations.

Tom Balanoff president of SEIU Local 1 blasted the looting of schools by wealthy interests.

"They've said they have a $1 billion deficit, that's because they took $1 billion out of our property taxes to put it in a TIF and develop downtown," said Balanoff. "It's time to develop our communities, that's what we need."

More actions planned before the Board meets to approve the closings in May. Official hearings will be held at each school while neighborhood outreach meetings are being organized in an effort to block the closings.

Photo: Demonstrators sit down in the street to be arrested. Earchiel Johnson/PW

Obama: “Shame on us if we’ve forgotten Newtown”

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:16:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama urged lawmakers Thursday to remember the children gunned down in America and not "get squishy" in the face of powerful forces against gun control legislation, as supporters struggle to win over moderate Democrats before a Senate vote expected next month.

Obama, flanked by mothers who have lost their children to guns, said Washington must do something after the tragic mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., three months ago. He called out to the families of four children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School sitting in his audience.

"Shame on us if we've forgotten," Obama said. "I haven't forgotten those kids."

Obama's event comes as gun control legislation faces an uncertain future, even though some 90 percent of people say in polling they support expanded background checks.

The White House said earlier in the week that the president would advocate on behalf of his gun plan in a series of public events in coming weeks. On Thursday, Organizing for Action - the political organization birthed from the president's reelection campaign - was hosting more than 100 events to support gun control efforts across the county.

Backed by a $12 million TV advertising campaign financed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, gun control groups scheduled rallies around the country Thursday aimed at pressuring senators to back the effort.

Obama said the upcoming vote is the best chance in more than a decade to reduce gun violence. He encouraged Americans, especially gun owners, to press lawmakers home from a congressional spring break to "turn that heartbreak into something real."

"Don't get squishy because time has passed and it's not on the news every single day," Obama said.

Moderate Senate Democrats like Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota are shunning Bloomberg as a meddling outsider while stressing their allegiance to their own voters' views and to gun rights. While saying they are keeping an open mind and that they support keeping guns from criminals and people with mental disorders, some moderates are avoiding specific commitments they might regret later.

Heitkamp does not face re-election next year, but Pryor and five other Senate Democrats from Republican-leaning or closely divided states do.

The heart of the Senate gun bill will be expanded requirements for federal background checks for gun buyers, the remaining primary proposal pushed by Obama and many Democrats since 20 first-graders and six women were shot to death in December at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada has said there aren't enough votes to approve a ban on assault weapons, while prospects are uncertain for a prohibition on large-capacity ammunition magazines.

Today, the background checks apply only to sales by the nation's roughly 55,000 federally licensed gun dealers. Not covered are private transactions like those at gun shows and online. The Senate measure is still evolving as Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., use Congress' two-week recess to negotiate for additional support in both parties.

Expanding background checks to include gun show sales got 84 percent support in an Associated Press-GfK poll earlier this year. Near-universal background checks have received similar or stronger support in other national polls.

Polls in some Southern states have been comparable. March surveys by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute found more than 9 in 10 people in Florida and Virginia backing expanded background checks, the same margin found by an Elon University Poll in North Carolina in February.

In his speech, the president urged Americans to find out where their member of Congress stands on background checks and other moderate changes with which 90 percent of Americans agree.

"Right now 90 percent of Americans -- 90 percent -- support background checks that will keep criminals and people who have been found to be a danger to themselves or others from buying a gun. More than 80 percent of Republicans agree. More than 80 percent of gun owners agree. Think about that," he said. "How often do 90 percent of Americans agree on anything? It never happens."

Obama continued, "Many other reforms are supported by clear majorities of Americans. And I ask every American to find out where your member of Congress stands on these ideas. If they're not part of that 90 percent who agree that we should make it harder for a criminal or somebody with a severe mental illness to buy a gun, then you should ask them, why not? Why are you part of the 10 percent?"

Analysts say people support more background checks because they consider it an extension of the existing system. That doesn't translate to unvarnished support from lawmakers, in part because the small but vocal minorities who oppose broader background checks and other gun restrictions tend to be driven voters that politicians are reluctant to alienate. That's the power of the NRA gun lobby.

"It's probably true that intense, single-issue gun voters have been more likely to turn out than folks who want common-sense gun laws," said Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the group that Bloomberg helps lead. Glaze, however, said he believes that voters favoring gun restrictions have become more motivated since Newtown and other recent mass shootings.

The problems faced by gun control supporters go beyond the challenge of winning over moderate Democrats. GOP opponents are sure to force Democrats to get 60 of the Senate's 100 votes to win, and there are only 53 Democrats plus two independents who generally support them.

Also targeted by Bloomberg's ads are 10 Republicans, including Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, home of ex-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was severely wounded in a mass shooting; the retiring Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia; and moderate Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.

In another indicator of hurdles facing gun control forces, the Senate voted 50-49 last week to require 60 votes for any legislation narrowing gun rights. The proposal lost because 60 votes in favor were required, but six Democrats voted for the proposal, offered by conservative Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.

The gun bill also increases penalties for illegal gun sales and slightly boosts aid for school safety.

More abrupt changes like an assault weapons ban generally get slight majorities in polls. Democratic leaders decided to omit it from the Senate bill because such a provision lacks enough votes.

Photo: A gun control rally takes place in Washington, D.C. Flickr (CC)

Today in women's history: National Women's Party protests workplace discrimination

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 15:33:00 +0000

On this day in 1931, governors of Florida, Virginia, New Mexico and a few other states rejected proposals from the Cotton-Textile Institute to forbid women from working factory night shifts. The appeal was a Depression era effort to pit male against female workers. Over 80 percent of the cotton industry complied with the request. This struggle against workplace discrimination was led by the National Women's Party who said the "National Woman's Party calls your attention to nationwide effort to throw women out of night work and otherwise handicap them by legislation or regulation restricting their conditions of labor but not those of their men competitors. We urge you to oppose every such effort in your own state. Women work because of necessity and should have equal opportunity with men to get and hold a job."

Earlier the Supreme Court in 1924 had ruled it was constitutional to prohibit women from working nights in restaurants because they had a "more delicate organism." The National Women's Party was formed in 1913 and fought for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Photo: Wikimedia

The children cry out: “Don’t deport our parents!”

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:17:00 +0000

CHICAGO - "My dad has a deportation order and I fear every day that they are going to take him away. This is a fear no child should have," said Liz Marquez, age nine. "My parents are not criminals and shouldn't be treated like that. That is why I am here today."

Marquez was speaking out on behalf of hundreds of youth and their families in the Children's March for Immigration Reform here March 26. Most of the children have parents being threatened with deportation, but many are undocumented themselves.

Over 1,100 undocumented immigrants are being deported daily, often splitting up families. It is estimated 100,000 children have lost parents to deportation and many end up in foster care. In Illinois alone over 56,000 children have been left without one or both parents since 2006.

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and its many allied neighborhood organizations, along with area houses of worship organized the action, one of daily protests taking place during the Easter Recess targeting Congress. The groups are urging a moratorium on deportations until legislation is passed.

The children and their parents marched to Federal Plaza where they appealed to Pres. Obama and U.S. Senators Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) for a fair immigration reform that would keep families together and provide a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country.

While Pres. Obama and Durbin are for comprehensive legislation with a path to citizenship, Kirk has been silent, saying only he looks forward to the chance to review legislation.

"I was with my mother when we were pulled over by the police," said Christian Gonzalez, the son of an undocumented immigrant. "They asked my mother for her license and when she couldn't give it they took us to the station. That day I was filled with great fear and uncertainty."

Christian said that no parent should be arrested for trying to give his or her children a better life and no child should face that extreme level of fear.

"Thirteen years ago at the age of four, I came to this country that promised liberty and justice for all," said a high school student. "Growing up, my parents and I lived with the fear of being deported to a country I was not familiar with even though it was the country I was born in."

She said she has a younger sister born in the United States and feared her sister, who has autism, would be without parents.

"About a month ago I received my DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals which began under executive order of Pres. Obama on August, 15, 2012). But that's not enough. I want a fair immigration reform for my parents and all the other undocumented immigrants," she said.

"I don't want my parents to be scared of being deported and being separated from me and my brothers," said Nicole Txtlilco. "I want them to live in peace."

Photo: Winona Albano-Bachtell/PW

U.S. Supreme Court hears Calif. marriage equality case

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:06:00 +0000

Another milestone was crossed March 26 in Californians' years-long quest for marriage equality, as the U.S. Supreme Court considered two couples' challenge to the state's Prop. 8, which bars same-sex marriage.

The court is expected to announce its decision on the California case, and on a separately-heard case involving the federal Defense of Marriage Act, in June.

Issues during nearly an hour and a half of arguments included whether Prop. 8's defenders have standing to appeal a lower court's decision striking down the measure, passed by voters in 2008. California officials had earlier declined to defend Prop. 8, leaving appeals up to the proposition's initiators.

Some justices referred to the speed with which the marriage equality issue has emerged, with Justice Samuel Alito Jr. calling the issue "newer than cell phones or the Internet," and Justice Anthony Kennedy citing "five years of information to weigh against 2,000 years of history or more."

Obama appointee Justice Sonia Sotomayor also questioned the timing of the case.

But Kennedy - regarded as the "swing vote" in cases decided by 5-4 votes - also spoke movingly of the situation of children of same-sex couples, noting that the 40,000 California children of same-sex couples want their parents to have full recognition and full status. "The voice of those children is important in this case," he said.

An exchange that drew laughter from those in attendance concerned whether same-sex marriage would harm couples in traditional relationships. Prop. 8's defender, Attorney Charles Cooper, admitted the government couldn't bar couples who can't have children, including those over 55, from marrying, but contended that even then, "it is very rare that both parties ... are infertile."

That drew Justice Elena Kagan's response that when both are over 55, "there are not a lot of children coming out of that marriage," as well as some joking references to former Senator Strom Thurmond's fathering of children in his 70s.

Theodore Olson, who represented the two couples challenging Prop. 8, emphasized that the measure bars same-sex couples "from the most important relation in life," stigmatizing a class of Californians by calling their "most cherished relationships" second-rate and unequal.

If the Supreme Court justices decide the appeal has no standing, or that the court should not have taken up the issue in the first place, same-sex marriage would become legal in California.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris said after the hearing, "The Supreme Court has described marriage as a fundamental right 14 times since 1888. The time has come for this right to be afforded to every citizen."

Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, called on the court "to stand for all families, to stand for fairness, and to stand on the right side of history," and strike down Prop. 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act "once and for all."

In May 2008, the California Supreme Court overturned an earlier state ballot proposition barring same-sex marriage.

That November, voters approved Prop. 8.

Prop. 8 was then challenged by Kristin Perry and Sandy Stier of Berkeley and Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo of Burbank, the plaintiffs in the current case, which reached the U.S. Supreme Court after a series of lower court rulings.

Same-sex marriage is currently legal in nine states and the District of Columbia. Thirty states ban same-sex marriage in their constitutions and ten do so by state law. Only New Mexico has no state law on the issue.

Polls have shown that support for marriage equality is growing rapidly, with a mid-March Pew Research Center poll showing 49 percent of U.S. respondents in favor and 44 percent opposed.

Photo: June 2010 demonstration for marriage equality in San Francisco. Marilyn Bechtel/PW

Petraeus apologizes for infidelity, but not Iraq death squads

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 14:41:00 +0000

It has been ten years since the Bush administration let slip the dogs of war in Iraq. Millions of lost and broken lives - and estimated trillions of dollars later - Americans still have no idea how much damage the illegal war has done to others and us.

It all started when the government picked up - as my father had called it - deception's hammer, smashing reality and burying the truth under toxic rubble of official lies; all done to protect an indefensible illegal foreign policy along with unconstitutional domestic laws. How far and hard we've fallen to break democracy's bones.

Truth's burial continues, even 10 years later. Just weeks before former CIA Director and retired Gen. David Petraeus made his March 26 public apology for the extramarital affair that stripped him of his CIA directorship, a new BBC documentary links the general to torture and death squads in Iraq. It was a policy referred to as the "El Salvador option." Petraeus, a student of the demonic handiwork of the Reagan administration's dirty and illegal wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua, worked with his onetime mentor, ret. Col. James Steele in Iraq to bury democracy's bones in shallow graves or simply leave them on the streets.

Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld, architects and survivors of Watergate and Iran-Contra, unleashed United Nations Ambassador John Negroponte and Steele to build an infrastructure of torture, detention and death squads in Iraq. Under the command of Petraeus, these bone crushers set in motion a cycle of death and destruction with impunity.

This Iraq impunity helped lead to indefinite detention and Gitmo still being open, constant surveillance, the Patriot Act renewal and the National Defense Authorization Act; it led to treason charges against whistleblower Bradley Manning.

This is a bleak trajectory. But the arc of the universe bends towards justice, because the fulcrum upon which it rests is a moral balance inescapable mutuality. We are bound to each other and our actions by universal laws of cause and effect. A nation of jailers and occupiers loses its soul. It's the moral equivalent of dumping mercury into our public discourse. The Obama administration and Congress have the power to clean up with a "look back," which is how every criminal justice system rooted in law works. Illegality and violence are degenerative cancer in a democracy's bones.

Petraeus apologizes for cheating on his wife, but not for unleashing death squads. He apologizes for breaking his wife's trust, but not for deploying American troops in failed surges, which left more American soldiers dead and maimed.

He asks the nation to forgive him for a human failing and not for the unforgivable failing of the public trust. To call this man an expert in counterinsurgency is like calling a fat man an expert in food. Both go together, but not in healthy ways. This is a man without conscience who seeks absolution so that he can return to the business - and positions of power - to destroy lives.

The beginning of Petraeus' comeback accompanies more evidence of the dirty war in Iraq. If truth is the first casualty of war, one of the last is trust.

Don Washington does public policy research and political and media strategy on issues of civil, human and labor rights and the keeper of one large and mischievous cat.

Photo: Petraeus apologized for his marital infidelity, but said nothing about his role in designing a program of murder and torture in Afghanistan and Iraq. AP

Today in women's history: Mother Jones ordered to stop "stirring up" miners

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 14:19:00 +0000

On March 27, 1904, Mother Jones was ordered to leave Colorado, where state authorities accuse her of "stirring up" striking coal miners.

Mary Harris "Mother" Jones (1837-1930) was an Irish-American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a labor and community organizer. A fiery orator, brave and determined heroine to millions of workers, she was active from the end of the Civil War till shortly before her death. In June 1897, after Mary addressed the railway union convention, she began to be referred to as "Mother" by the men of the union. The name stuck. She helped coordinate major strikes and co-founded the Industrial Workers of the World. She is known for this quote "I'm not a lady, I'm a hell-raiser!"

Because of her agitation, Mother Jones was barred from several states, and more than once was in prison for extended periods of time. She was banished from more towns and was held incommunicado in more jails in more states than any other union leader of the time. At times she was held in military camps for months on end, and once was held in a rat-filled cellar for 26 days.

Although her name is most often associated with the coal and steel unions, she was also on the forefront against the exploitation of children in the textile mills and coal mills and to bring education to those children.

Her tactics set her apart from other organizers. She welcomed African-American workers and involved women and children in strikes. She organized miners' wives into teams armed with mops and brooms to guard the mines against scabs. She staged parades with children carrying signs that read, "We Want to Go to School and Not to the Mines."

The book Mother Jones Speaks: Speeches and Writings, edited by Philip S. Foner, is a comprehensive collection of her speeches, letters, articles, interviews and testimony before Congressional committees. In her own words, she explains her life, her mission and her passion on behalf of working people.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Thousands in Harlem rally against gun violence

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:21:00 +0000

NEW YORK - More than 2,000 predominantly Black and Latino working people gathered March 21 on Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. in Harlem in a militant protest against gun violence.

Organized by a broad coalition of labor and people's organizations, it was a powerful grassroots protest against the National Riffle Association and a warning to Congress that it must pass strong gun control legislation, including a ban on assault weapons.

George Gresham, president of Local 1199 of the Service Workers, captured the fighting spirit of the rally. In a message to all elected officials, Gresham said, "We are the people; do the right thing and we got your back. Do the wrong thing, we got your job."

MSNBC commentator, the Rev. Al Sharpton, addressing the NRA, declared: "We have the right to bear arms but we do not have the right to kill babies. The second amendment does not give you the right to have guns that can hold 30 rounds. We have to take back our streets here in New York and beyond."

When I asked a retired New York State Superior Court Judge-turned- community-organizer why she was attending the rally, she said, "The failure to pass a bill against gun violence is an acceptance of a policy of genocide against Blacks and Latinos by the authorities."

Leslie Cagan, who was part of the organizing team for the rally, said that the demonstration was particularly important in light of the Senate leadership having announced that day that the assault weapons ban would be left out of the legislative package. "We need Congress to find the backbone to stand up for communities and families here in Harlem and all over the country," Cagan declared.

The gathering took place in the shadow of the Adam Clayton Powell Harlem State office building and across the street from the historic Teresa Hotel where, in 1960, Fidel Castro stayed after having been offended by downtown hotels. Hundreds of workers representing many of the key unions in New York, were represented.

Among them were Local 1199, 32BJ of the SEIU. There was a contingent from Local 1180 of the Communications Workers of America. The Transport Workers Union, the United Federation of Teachers and the Professional Staff Congress were also there.

There were signs from "Nurses and Caregivers United to Stop Gun Violence. Other signs included, "Moms demand action to protect our kids," and a contingent of youth wearing t-shirts emblazoned with "I Am a Peace Movement" and "Youth Against Gun Violence."

Jackie Rowe Adams from Harlem Mothers S.A.V.E spoke with great passion about losing two of her children to gun violence. "I am in pain," she said tearfully. "Put the guns down and pick up the peace sign." There were several mothers who told heartfelt stories of how they lost their sons to gun violence.

There was also Darren Wagner, from Newton, Conn. expressing his community's full support to the people of New York in their fight for gun control.

Hazel Dukes, president of New York State's NAACP, spoke and called for the unity of black, brown and white, Jews, Gentiles, Protestants, and Muslims. "We all have to get ready for a real fight."

Shannon Watts, the founder of "Moms Demand Action," a national group of 80,000 advocating strong gun control, talked about her activities.

Michael Mulgrew, president of New York's UFT, told the crowd that his union was divesting from any stocks that have anything to do with guns.

An emergency room doctor from Harlem Hospital, Dr. Vanessa Gorospe, said, "Gun violence is second only to auto accidents as a cause of death. The number of children below five years old killed by guns are four times the number of police killed by guns."

Refusing to buy into attempts by the NRA and some other groups to scapegoat the mentally ill, she declared: "The mentally ill are four times more likely to be victims of violence rather than purveyors of violence."

The surprise guest at the rally who received a warm welcome was legendary jazz singer Tony Bennett. He spoke of how Harry Belafonte had convinced him to march in Selma and how it had a big impact on him. Bennett is now an outspoken advocate of an assault weapons ban.

The chair of the rally. the Rev. Jacque De Graff of the Cannan Baptist Church, aroused the crowd as he introduced speakers. He emphasized, as did many other speakers, that it was necessary to keep pushing to pass Gov. Cuomo's gun control bill and that it is necessary to carry the fight to Washington. "We are going to change America, starting right here in Harlem," he declared.

There were many elected officials at the rally including two running for mayor. None were allowed to speak but their names were mentioned, John Liu, the first Chinese American to run for mayor, received the loudest applause.

In a related development, Mayor Bloomberg has announced that he is prepared to spend millions to run ads against those running for office who are opposed to gun control. One person at the rally told me that, in addition to controlling guns, Bloomberg needs to control the New York Police Department.

The department has come under heavy criticism for carrying out a notorious "stop and frisk" program which critics note singles out Blacks and Latinos but does nothing to control crime.

Estevan Nembhard, Manhattan organizer for the Communist Party, pointed out that "it is common knowledge in Harlem and in ghettos and barrios across the country; when the unemployment rate and drop-out rate goes up, so does desperation and violence. This rally is very important and will help but not enough was said about the root causes of violence; the lack of jobs, education, the presence of drugs and the absence of a real future for our youth."

Nembhard agreed that "Mayor Bloomberg is doing a good thing placing ads against the anti-gun control politicians across the country." But he took issue with the mayor on a host of what he considers related issues: "His (Bloomberg's) cut backs and policy of economic austerity for the working class, along with 'stop and frisk' and his sanction of brutality and high incarceration for youth instead of jobs and education, will continue to get the same negative results."

People at the rally like most New Yorkers, seemed to agree that good jobs and good quality education for all are necessary steps to ending gun violence on the streets.

Photo: The rally in Harlem. Mintpress

Today in women's history: Mary Joyce ends thousand-mile sled dog trip

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:38:00 +0000

Mary Joyce, a pioneer Alaskan adventurer and the first female radio operator in the Territory of Alaska, completed a thousand-mile sled dog trip from Juneau to Fairbanks on this day in 1936. She was awarded a silver cup by the mayor of Fairbanks and received an "honorary member" title from the Pioneers of Alaska, an organization formed in 1907 to preserve early Alaskan history.

Joyce later became an accomplished hunting guide, pilot, flight attendant, nurse, and candidate for Alaska Territorial Representative. During her thousand-mile trek, she endured -60º temperatures, primitive terrain, and minimal communication, making the journey a harrowing one. She later said of the trip, "I wanted to see the country. And I just wanted to see if I could do it."

She went on to become one of Juneau's first female pilots, spent two years as a flight attendant for Pacific Alaska Airways, and in the 1940's became a nurse at Juneau's St. Ann's hospital. She also purchased two nearby saloons, the Top Hat and the Lucky Lady.

Joyce remained in Jueanu until her death in 1976, and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery there today.

Photo: jun-cdn

“Stop breaking up families, immigration reform now,” demand protests

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 15:24:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Frustrated over failure of a bi-partisan group of US senators to craft immigration reform legislation before the Easter recess, 17 clergy, elected officials and representatives of grassroots community organizations were arrested after blocking traffic here.

The civil disobedience at Federal Plaza was one of 10 actions that took place around the country organized by the Fair Immigration Reform Movement.

Organizers are demanding passage of comprehensive legislation that would keep families together and include a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently in the country.

"Inaction has consequences. Nearly 20,000 families will be separated during these 18 days that Congress is in recess," said Lawrence Benito, Director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

Over 1,100 undocumented immigrants are being deported each day and over 400,000 were deported in 2012.

Benito said it was an injustice that parents being separated from their children wouldn't be able to offer them comfort and protection.

Congressional Republicans continue to obstruct a fair immigration reform despite polls showing a vast majority of Americans favor it.

"These Republicans, including our own Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) need to get on board," said Alderman Proco "Joe" Moreno. "We are going to continue to fight for a comprehensive immigration bill that includes a path to citizenship and keeps families together."

On March 25, President Obama urged swift action by Congress at a citizenship ceremony at the White House. "We've known for years that our immigration system is broken. After avoiding the problem for years, the time has come to fix it once and for all," he said.

Clergy from Catholic, Evangelical, Jewish and Muslim faiths all expressed their support. "In this time of spring recess there is no recess in homes divided," said Father Brendan Curran of St. Pius Church. "Let Congress act and protect those who have built these buildings, these cities and our proud country."

The movement embraces a diversity of immigrant communities including from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

"I'm doing this for my family and all those affected by this issue," said Kristina Tendilla of Alliance of Filipinos for Immigrant Rights and Empowerment. "It's a small price to pay to keep families together and to get immigration reform legislation passed that is inclusive."

Immigration reform activists also warned against proposals being advanced by Republicans that would eliminate family and diversity visas. This would have a particular impact on immigrants from Asia and Africa.

This included the proposal of Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) one of the so-called "Gang of 8" negotiating the outlines of reform legislation, who called for removing siblings and adult sons and daughters of US citizens from visa eligibility in the name of prioritizing high-skilled workers.

Other members of the Gang of 8 members who are negotiating in secret include Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Marco Rubio (R-FL), John McCain (R-AZ) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ).

Photo: John Bachtell/PW

Today in women’s history: Triangle sweatshop fire kills 146

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 13:33:00 +0000

A total of 146 workers - almost all of them immigrant women - are killed in a fire at New York's Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, March 25, 1911, a disaster that would launch a national movement for safer working conditions.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Co., a clothing maker - one of hundreds in lower Manhattan - employed young, mostly Jewish and Italian immigrant women. Almost half were under 20. Women brought their children to the factory's "kindergarten," where the kids would snip thread. Triangle was located on the top three floors of the Asch Building on Greene Street. It was actually one of the "better" sweatshops in the city - thanks to a citywide strike by 20,000 female garment workers 18 months before - but it wasn't unionized.

When the blaze began, there was one exit. Triangle's two owners deliberately padlocked it to prevent theft. There was flammable debris - cuttings and scraps - everywhere. The fire escapes were flimsy and ended far above street level. Stairwells quickly filled with smoke and flames. The elevator stalled, though one woman slid down its cable.

The fire department ladders weren't tall enough to reach them. Hoses were of little use.

Others faced a gruesome choice: Burning to death or jumping. Most jumped. The 18-minute blaze left workers with two horrific alternatives: burn to death or jump. Many burned. The rest jumped.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's pick for labor secretary, Frances Perkins, was a social worker at the time and witnessed the deaths at Triangle from across the street. She used its lessons to help draft and push through New Deal pro-labor legislation when she became labor secretary.

Triangle Fire and its aftermath, including acquittal of the company owners of manslaughter charges, led both to the growth of unions - in particular the pioneering International Ladies Garment Workers - and to campaign successfully for reforms to health and safety laws, fire code improvement and enforcement and institution of workers comp. The struggle continues today both in the United States and globally to enforce and improve health and safety regulations.

Garment workers unions had tried to organize Triangle and other garment makers the year before. The citywide strike won raises for the workers, but not unions at Triangle.

"If the union had won, we would have been safe," said strike leader Rose Safran, who survived the fire. "Two of our demands were for adequate fire escapes and for open doors from the factories to the street. But the bosses defeated us and so we didn't get the open doors or the better fire escapes. So our friends are dead."

Photo: In this 1911 file photograph from the National Archives, labor union members gather to protest and mourn the loss of life in the March 25, 1911, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York. (National Archives/AP)

Bus tour solicits New Yorkers' priorities for schools

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 16:12:00 +0000

NEW YORK - After more than a decade of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's corporate restructuring of public education, a coalition of community groups hit the streets to ask New Yorkers, especially parents, what their priorities really were.

"When there is more collaboration, our school system is that much better," said New York City Comptroller John Liu, a progressive candidate for the 2013 mayor's race, during a recent press conference launch of the PS 2013 A+ Bus tour.

The press conference and bus tour were organized by A+ NYC, a diverse coalition united by their belief that a new direction is urgently needed at the New York City Department of Education.

Bill Thompson, also a mayoral candidate and former president of the New York Board of Education, said, "A+ NYC is showing how it needs to be done. For the last 12 years now, no one has reached out, no one wanted to hear. Those at City Hall, the mayor, and those at the Board of Education don't really care what you have to say!"

The bus went to all five boroughs and made over 25 stops speaking to parents like Minerva Morales of the Bronx who said, "Co-location at my son's school means that his class has lunch at 10:30 in the morning. That might make sense to a businessman but not a mother."

Morales is a member of Coalition for Educational Justice and likes the direction the movement is headed in. "The PS 2013 Bus tour gave a chance for parents to say what's important to them and be connected to people and organizations that are fighting for it."

Although to some it may seem like a laundry list of concerns Morales contends they are "common sense approaches" with overwhelming support in Black, Latino and working-class communities throughout the city. "Engaging education not standardized tests preparation, in-school alternatives to suspensions, curriculum that includes sports, arts creativity. It's not rocket science!"

The coalition is comprised of nearly 50 community organizations like the New Settlement Parent Action Committee, La Fuente, the Brotherhood Sister Sol, New York Communities for Change and Make the Road NY to name a few. Each have memberships that include parents, students and/or employees from New York's public schools.

A+ NYC was formed this past fall and began a series of "visioning" workshops throughout the city, allowing for ideas to be collected from over 1,000 New Yorkers. Eric Perez, a youth leader at Make the Road New York, described the process, "A+ New York set out to do something that has never been done before or at least not done often enough, which is to simply ask people what they want from their schools?"

With parent and student leaders alongside community allies, A+NYC coalition is poised to be a leading voice for working families in the 2013 mayoral elections, where the question of public education will be high on voter's lists. A May conference is being planned as the next action for the coalition.

Until then don't expect to see parent Natasha Capers waiting for Bloomberg to solicit her opinion. "The DOE says there is no parent involvement: that is untrue! There are parents involved. Parent voices are out there and we want to be heard."

Photo: Students at PS 132-Juan Pablo Duarte School pose in front of A+ NYC bus, March 13, with theater props (A+ NYC via Facebook).

GOP plans to litter budget with anti-environment amendments

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 15:30:00 +0000

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., wants to attach an amendment to the Senate Democrats' budget plan that would prevent federal agencies from monitoring greenhouse gas emissions from exported goods produced outside the U.S. And Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., is seeking to put forward an amendment that would require a 60-vote threshold for any laws that impose a federal carbon tax. These amendments would be significant roadblocks in the fight against global warming. Of course, for the anti-environment, pro-fossil fuel Republican Party, it's just business as usual

The proposed amendments are only two of about 110 anti-environment amendments offered by Republicans to the Senate budget. All this is being attempted not merely in the interest of climate change denial, but as a way of giving gifts to big corporations.

Activists are fighting back. "Giant corporations are hoping to sneak provisions into the rushed Senate budget bill to undermine the core regulatory protections on which Americans rely to make our country stronger, safer, cleaner, healthier, and more fair and just," said Robert Weissman, president of nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen. But "the American people aren't so easily tricked, and they demand Senators vote down these corporate-gift amendments."

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., promised "lots of amendments" to the budget, all of them equally disturbing. They would reportedly include further efforts to block EPA greenhouse gas regulation, and "reform" the Endangered Species Act to disallow the federal listing of a species until the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service "determines that efforts led by state governments are unable to conserve the species." Such an action would circumvent federal protection for the animals and add a needless 'middle man' (the Fish and Wildlife Service) to the equation. Inhofe is a known climate change denier, and has also claimed that Endangered Species protections interfere with energy development.

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., also remarked that an amendment that would address the controversial Keystone XL pipeline "was being worked on," though he did not elaborate. Hoeven is a leading supporter of the pipeline project, which the Obama administration has criticized, and which both environmentalists and Native Americans have outright denounced.

What this amounts to is an all-out attack by House Republicans on the fight against climate change; the struggle to reduce pollution including carbon output; and the ongoing efforts to save animals which are put in danger by the very global warming that the right wing turns a blind eye toward.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., added, "Republicans have made an assault on all environmental issues. This is, without a doubt, the most anti-environment Congress in history."

Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said that the Obama administration had fortunately been able to begin turning the tide in terms of poisonous output from coal plants, for example, but the Republican amendments would undo that progress. Federal environmental protection, in general, he said, is very vulnerable. But "I think it will backfire," said Cardin, "because Americans want clean water and clean air, and they think that clean water and clean air are important for our economy."

Votes on these amendments are expected to take place this evening. All amendments will be subject to a 50-vote minimum in order to be passed.

Katherine McFate, president of nonprofit research organization the Center for Effective Government, noted, "The last thing we need are damaging budget amendments that would throw up more roadblocks to protecting American families and communities."

Photo: Activists in Chicago protest the concentrated effort by Republicans and corporations to deny the existence of climate change, a denial that fuels the GOP's attempt to ram through amendments to the Senate budget that would strip important environmental protections. Blake Deppe/PW

Today in women's history: Anne Hutchinson banned from Bay Colony

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 15:03:00 +0000

A big fuss is frequently made about the contributions of founding "fathers" to the freedoms we enjoy today, but far less is said about the role of women in formulating the basic beliefs we have today regarding individual freedom.

On March 22, 1682 Anne Hutchinson, perhaps the first widely followed spokesperson for religious freedom in what was to become the United States, was banned from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Hutchinson, the daughter of an English minister, was well versed in the Bible and was a follower of the popular preacher, John Cotton.

Her husband built a home located directly across the road from the famous three-time governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop.

Hutchinson, who was also a midwife and a nurse, attracted quite a crowd when she began to hold meetings in her home to discuss the sermons of John Cotton. As many as 60 people came to each of her meetings, often held twice a week to accommodate those who wanted to attend.

Needless to say, the idea of a woman running a regular theological discussion group didn't go over too well among certain circles in the colony.

John Winthrop, the neighbor, described Hutchinson as "a woman of haughty and fierce carriage, of a nimble wit and active spirit, and a very voluble tongue, more bold than a man."

Some of her real troubles began in 1636 when she accused Puritan ministers of making salvation dependent on an individual's good works rather than on divine grace, which was contrary to Puritan teaching. The ministers denied this charge, arguing that good works are evidence of conversion and salvation, not the grounds of salvation. They argued that they were therefore not teaching a Covenant of Works rather than a Covenant of Grace, as she was claiming.

Hutchinson would not give up, insisting that assurance of salvation came from mystical experience of grace - "an inward conviction of the coming of the Spirit." She said that by teaching that good works were evidence of true conversion and salvation, ministers were still preaching a Covenant of Works rather than a Covenant of Grace.

Hutchinson raised the bar even further by claiming that God had communicated to her by direct revelations and by claiming that she was capable of interpreting the Scriptures on her own.

All of this may seem to us today like quibbling over questions as critical as how many angels can fit on the head of a pin. But in the context of her place and times, Hutchinson's charges amounted to a full frontal attack on the spiritual authority of both the church and the state. For Puritans, the ultimate source of authority was the Bible as duly authorized ministers interpreted it. Hutchinson saying she possessed the authority to interpret the Bible challenged this basic principle.

Even more of a dagger to the heart of state power in those days was her claim that she was getting immediate revelations directly from God. How dare she get such revelations? Her claims, the authorities realized, had the potential to tear apart the entire Massachusetts Bay Colony. If the state loses its monopoly over revelations from God there is no telling what else it might lose!

In November of 1637 then, Hutchinson was hauled before the General Court, the colony's chief governing body, on charges of sedition. Winthrop questioned her relentlessly but she avoided all of his traps and the court adjourned with no ruling.

The following day she changed her position and freely acknowledged that God had spoken to her directly. The new move on her part met the ruling male definition of blasphemy and the court voted to banish her from the colony.

Anne and her husband settled in Roger Williams' colony of Rhode Island, which was founded on principles of religious tolerance. In 1642 she moved with her family to New York where, in 1643 she and most of her family died in a Native American uprising. The Puritan ministers back in Massachusetts, upon hearing of her death, organized public celebrations. The minister Thomas Weld declared: "Thus the Lord heard our groans to heaven and freed us from this great and sore affliction."

Image: "Anne Hutchinson on Trial" by Edwin Austin Abbey, made in 1901. Wikimedia Commons

Minimum wage workers press Senate for hike

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 12:47:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - For seven years, Carolle Fleurio has been a cook at a family restaurant in Stockbridge, Ga. It's a nice place, she says, where people come in to enjoy the atmosphere and the meals she cooks.

But one thing wrong with her job, Fleurio adds, is the pay. She makes $8 an hour. That's only slightly more than the U.S. minimum wage and only slightly more than the $6.85 she earned hourly when she began - and it's not enough to raise a family on.

She can't stay home from work when sick, as the restaurant has no paid sick leave.

Fleurio is one of the millions of workers nationwide who would benefit from current proposals to raise the federal minimum wage from its current $7.25 an hour to at least $9, in three installments from now through early 2016, and then index it to inflation.

And though she makes more than the minimum, both those workers and workers like her - earning just above the minimum - would benefit from a minimum wage hike, she told senators on March 14 as lawmakers opened hearings on the raise.

"Although I enjoy my job, it's difficult to support a family on $8 an hour," she told the Senate Labor Committee here. Like a majority of low-wage and minimum-wage workers, Fleurio is her family's breadwinner. Her husband is retired and disabled.

"My paycheck has to pay for everything," except car insurance and her husband's medical bills, Fleurio explained. Her pay, as little as it is, covers the home mortgage, utilities, garbage disposal fees, food and household bills for Fleurio, her husband, two daughters, her granddaughter and a niece. .

"I have gotten several small raises. However, the cost of milk and gas keeps going up. Even though I'm not getting ahead, these raises keep me and my family from falling too far behind the cost of living. Many people I know don't even get those small raises. That just doesn't seem right," she said. (Article continues after video.)

Fleurio was one of four witnesses telling lawmakers why they should raise the minimum wage, but it quickly became clear that President Barack Obama, the workers and their allies, organized labor and Democratic senators - all of whom favor the raise and the indexing - face a partisan fight, as usual, from the GOP.

That's because Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., not known as a right-wing radical, trotted out the business community's usual bleats that raising the minimum wage would cost low-wage workers - such as Fleurio - their jobs. Employers would not be able to afford to hire those workers or pay them more, Alexander claimed.

Other witnesses, however, presented studies disproving the business' argument.

Lew Prince of St. Louis, CEO of Vintage Vinyl, the largest independent CD-DVD record store in the Midwest, had a retort for Alexander. Raising the minimum wage helps increase business, he said. Vintage Vinyl, founded in 1979, has always paid more than the minimum "and the return on that investment has been huge," he added. "Good wages are a good business strategy," Prince declared.

"For this small extra investment, I get loyal, long-term employees devoted to my company, employees whose ongoing relationships with my customers have built my business," he explained. "Higher wages made us more competitive."

When Prince and a partner started Vintage Vinyl, the minimum wage was $2.90, or $9.20 now after adjustments for inflation. "Even back then, it had eroded from 1968, which would be $10.59 in today's dollars. We never would have believed that 34 years later the buying power of minimum wage workers would actually be lower," he said.

"That's terrible for small business, terrible for our economy and terrible for our country. If we had indexed the minimum wage to inflation back then, we wouldn't have this problem now. If we had indexed back then, my business would have benefited from the buying power of my customers being steady and predictable for the last 34 years."

Missouri indexed its minimum wage, which is higher than the federal wage, since 2007.

Their testimony, and more, convinced the Democrats. "If you work hard and play by the rules, you should be able to support your family, join the middle class, and build a brighter future for your children," Labor Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said.

Obama wants to raise the minimum wage to $9 hourly, then index it. Harkin and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., top Democrat on the hyper-partisan GOP-run House Education and the Workforce Committee, want to raise it to $10.10 hourly, then index it. That would put another $1,000 yearly in a minimum wage worker's pocket.

House Democrats forced a vote on the minimum wage hike to $10.10 on March 15. They lost on a party-line 223-184 tally, drawing the ire of the Service Employees. No Republicans voted for the increase.

"The rich are doing just fine," SEIU President Mary Kay Henry said sarcastically after the vote. "It is ordinary, working families who need their elected officials to stand up for them...The recovery is not widely shared. Too many families are struggling to get by. Lawmakers who steadfastly oppose increasing the minimum wage should be pre-pared to tell their constituents why they voted against a raise for hardworking people."

"Today, tens of millions of hardworking Americans who are earning at or near the minimum wage can't even aspire to live a middle class life," Harkin said. "A critical first step is to ensure they earn a fair day's pay for a hard day's work."

Photo: Wisconsin Jobs Now went out with Occupy Riverwest and the Overpass Light Brigade to raise awareness about the need to raise the minimum wage. CC BY-NC 2.0

Chained CPI equals benefit cuts for retirees, veterans

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 10:32:00 +0000

The billionaire-funded campaign against Social Security has gone into high gear. The cuts would be disguised as a technical fix in the way cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) are calculated. The new formula, called chained CPI, would apply to all programs that are adjusted for inflation, including veterans' benefits.

There's some bait-and-switch going on here. Chained CPI is introduced as a more accurate way to calculate COLA. (It's not. See this explanation of chained CPI.) But it is presented in the context of a "grand bargain" to reduce the deficit. This shows that chained CPI is not about accurate COLA. It is a fig leaf for stealing from seniors to protect tax breaks for the 1 percent.

President Barack Obama and Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi have both said they are open to accepting chained CPI, as part of an overall deficit-reduction package. AFL-CIO Policy Director Damon Silvers responds, "America elected President Obama to protect us from bad Washington ideas like chained CPI, not to advocate for them."

Chained CPI equals benefits cuts

Silver explains, "Chained CPI is a Social Security benefit cut, plain and simple... [It] is a Washington trick to cut the COLA by changing the way inflation is calculated."

Under chained CPI, initial benefits would be unchanged, but each year the cost-of-living adjustment would be reduced by 0.3 percent. That doesn't sound like much. But according to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, "If a chained CPI goes into effect, seniors who are 65 now will receive $650 less a year at 75 and would get $1,000 less a year at age 85."

Not only retirees will be affected. A disabled veteran who begins collecting benefits at age 30 would see their check cut by over $3,000 a year by the time they reach the age of 65.

Social Security's importance in the lives of senior citizens is actually growing. Barely half of all workers have access to retirement plans at work, and few of those are adequate.

Social Security provides only minimum benefits. The average retired worker receives only $1,230 per month from Social Security. This princely sum is the main source of income for most retirees.

Putting it all in context: class war

The excuse used for the chained CPI proposal is that it is a necessary part of a grand bargain to resolve the various budget battles underway in Congress.

We don't need a grand bargain because the deficit crisis is phony. The large federal deficit is mainly due to the ongoing economic depression and high unemployment, as well as past and present military spending. The best cure is putting America back to work, as outlined in the "Back to Work" budget of the Progressive Caucus.

Social Security does not add a single penny to the budget deficit, now or in the future. It is entirely funded by past and present payroll taxes. Any future shortfalls can be met by making millionaires pay the same payroll taxes as the rest of us.

The essence of the chained CPI and other schemes to cut Social Security is class war, waged by the 1 percent against the rest of us. They want to get their hands on some of the $700 billion per year collected in payroll taxes, instead of wasting it on so-called entitlements for retired workers. The immediate effect of any cuts in Social Security is to make seniors, many of whom barely get by, pay for continuing tax breaks for oil companies, hedge fund managers and other super-rich corporations and individuals.

What are the alternatives?

It is not necessary to do anything about Social Security right now. The Social Security Trust Fund will be able to pay full benefits for another 20 years. The immediate economic emergency is jobs - preferably good paying jobs that meet the country's long-term needs. The long term economic challenge is rebuilding infrastructure, developing and deploying renewable energy, providing quality education for all, and narrowing the giant wealth gap between the super-rich and everyone else. These measures can provide for a productive economy in the future, able to maintain Social Security while improving life for the great majority.

Sanders, an independent, and Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., have introduced legislation to eliminate the cap on the payroll tax on income above $250,000 so millionaires and billionaires pay the same share as everyone else. They point out that President Obama made a similar proposal during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Others go further. The AFL-CIO says, "To compensate for the decline of traditional pensions and the loss of retirement savings, Social Security retirement benefits must be increased across the board." Campaign for America's Future Senior Fellow Richard Eskow lists a number of individuals and organizations also calling for an increase in benefits.

Politics and action

When he opens the door to cutting Social Security through the chained CPI, Obama is playing with fire. Overwhelming majorities - including Republican voters - oppose cutting Social Security.

Congressional Republicans, no doubt, would be thrilled to have the president sign off on the chained CPI swindle. As soon as the president signs the bill, they will be running ads telling seniors, "Obama cut your Social Security."

Attempts to privatize and undermine Social Security during the Clinton and Bush administrations were stopped by organization and mobilization. Chained CPI can also be stopped. Tell President Obama that this is not why we elected him. Tell your senator and representative to support the Sanders-Defazio bill. You can calculate how much in benefits you stand to lose at the AARP website. The younger you are the bigger the cut!

Photo: Demonstrators in Hartford, Conn., protest a "grand bargain" that cuts Social Security, Medicare and other programs, December 2012 (PW/Art Perlo).