People Before Profit blog

Today in women's history: Abigail Adams attacked sexism, "fomented rebellion"

Mon, 31 Mar 2014 17:19:00 +0000

On this day in March in 1776 Abigail Adams demanded the Continental Congress and her husband John Adams consider women's rights in their deliberations. Adams was the second president of the U.S.

Adams left behind a large amount of correspondence that revealed a strong dedication to the rights of both women and African Americans.

Her letter insisted the Continental Congress "remember the ladies" when writing the new laws that would govern the new nation. She warned, "If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation."

The letter proved to be a statement that latter equality movements drew inspiration from.

Photo: Wikipedia Commons.

Unions hail NLRB official's ruling that college athletes can unionize

Fri, 28 Mar 2014 16:22:00 +0000

CHICAGO (PAI) -- Unions hailed a National Labor Relations Board official's ruling on March 26 that athletes at private universities nationwide - such as Northwestern, where the case occurred - are employees of the institutions and thus can unionize.

NLRB Chicago Regional Director Peter Sung Ohr said Northwestern's football players can hold a board-sanctioned election on whether to unionize with the College Athletic Players Association (CAPA), a fledgling union whom the Steel Workers back and provide lawyers for.

If Ohr's ruling stands, it would be a landmark victory for college athletes, whose scholarships are now awarded at the whim of their institutions and who have little or no protection against on-the-job injuries or aid to help them pay their way through school and graduate when scholarships end. Ohr's ruling would let them organize and bargain for such gains.

CAPA and USW President Leo Gerard hailed Ohr's ruling for those reasons. Both said it would particularly aid football and basketball players at big Division I programs, such as Northwestern's, to demand better working conditions, especially in treating injuries on the job and medical treatment for permanent disabilities that playing football causes.

"NCAA sports is professional," CAPA President Ramogi Huma, a former UCLA player, told ABC News the week before. "The players are paid to play. They receive at Northwestern a scholarship that's worth over $60,000 per year, in return and on the condition they play football. That's an employee-employer relationship."

"People who work hard deserve fair treatment...whether it's on a playing field or anywhere else," added AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, a former college footballer.

Opinion polls show most college football fans deny players are employees. But at least one prominent sports columnist has gone to bat for the players, pointing out they're paid, through scholarships, earn money for their college and university employers, and must devote most of their time on campus to their jobs - football or basketball - and not their studies.

CAPA organized the players around several key issues, notably job-related injuries, led by concussions. It says it would bargain for guaranteed medical coverage for injury expenses and post-injury treatment, especially of traumatic brain injury, as well as injury prevention measures. It also plans to bargain over establishing trust funds to help former players pay tuition and expenses to complete their degrees after their scholarships end.

Gerard called Ohr's decision "a tremendous victory" for all college athletes, who "generate tens of millions of dollars each year for their institutions, yet still are in constant danger of being out on the street with one accident or injury." He too said negotiating medical coverage was the key issue that led to the unionization drive at Northwestern.

"These athletes have a right to expect the same fair treatment that all Americans should expect, and that when they work hard and devote years of their lives in service to an institution, they deserve certain basic protections in return. None of them should live in fear of losing their scholarships in an instant, nor should they be left without health care after debilitating injuries. Our union has been proud to support these players from day one, and we couldn't be happier with the result."

Ohr said the players satisfied key legal points: That the employer pays them for their work, and the employer profits from it. His ruling also gives an idea of the scope of big-time college athletics. Northwestern, which is known for its academics, gave full-ride scholarships to 85 of the 131 football team members, and each scholarship is worth $61,000 yearly. In return, the university earned more than $30 million during the football season and cleared a profit on football of approximately $9 million, Ohr said.

Northwestern tried several arguments to convince Ohr the football players can't unionize. He bought none of them.

When it argued the players' prime purpose is to attend class, Ohr retorted they spent more hours a week on football, and that the employer could arbitrarily fire them - though Ohr didn't use that word - by yanking their scholarships.

The university argued the players are temps, whose scholarships last at most five years. It compared them to part-time student janitors at a San Francisco art school several years ago. Ohr replied the janitors - whom the board did not allow to unionize - had high turnover due to the fact that their prime mission was studying art.

And Northwestern said players are like resident assistants and teaching assistants at private colleges. The NLRB has gone back and forth, depending on which political party has a majority of board seats, on whether RAs and TAs are employees and thus can unionize.

"Unlike the graduate assistants, the facts here show the employer never offers a scholarship to a prospective student unless they intend to provide an athletic service to the employer. In fact, the players can have their scholarships immediately canceled if they voluntarily withdraw from the football team," Ohr replied.

"Given the substantial length of the players' employment it is clear they cannot be found to be temporary employees," Ohr said.

"The employer's (Northwestern's) scholarship (football) players stand in stark contrast to those student janitors," he added.

Photo: Northwestern Wildcats quarterback Kain Colter speaking, USW President Leo Gerard seated. CAPA Twitter.

Scores arrested in Albany budget protest

Fri, 28 Mar 2014 15:09:00 +0000

The chants of hundreds of advocates, representing everything from affordable housing and the Dream Act to anti-fracking and marijuana reform, echoed throughout the Albany Capitol building as protesters jam-packed the staircase and halls leading to Governor Cuomo's office. "Hey governor 1 percent, who do you represent?" they chanted in unison.

Tax cuts for the wealthy and public school funding brought protesters out. Jessica Wisneski an organizer with Citizen Action, one of the groups coordinating the day's events, said "People came to express a more broad dissatisfaction with the governor's proposals for further tax cuts for the wealthy and well connected while starving our public schools for the funding they need."

Iris DeLutro vice president of the Professional Staff Congress was one of the protesters arrested in the Governors Hall. She explained, "I'm angry about a budget that starves education. How can legislators explain tax breaks for the 200 wealthiest New Yorkers when there is no money for hospitals, schools and universities and nothing in the budget for the NYS Dream Act? I was arrested today for standing up to inequality, I would do it again and urge everyone to do the same!"

Zakayia Ansari, Advocacy Director for the Alliance for Quality Education, recently wrote a petition calling on Gov. Cuomo to stop ignoring public schools. Within days the petition received nearly 15 thousand signatures that she delivered to Cuomo's office at the event. Ansari was joined by Natasha Capers, a parent leader also from Brownsville, Brooklyn. As Capers was being led away by officers she echoed DeLutro, "I will do this everyday for my children."

Fifty-nine leaders were arrested in the coordinated act of civil disobedience demanding a "New York that works for all".

Although different campaigns were being represented by an array of groups that included New York Communities for Change, Make the Road New York, Alliance for Quality Education, and ALIGN NY, each respective cause has the common enemy of Wall Street and big money. "When you have a collective group of people working together it amplifies the message that we're all in this together" said one advocate. She continued, "The labor and community alliance is reshaping the balance of power in this state; it is emboldening officials who are concerned with the quality of life for ordinary working people. Governor Cuomo is going to have to choose between representing millions of working families or the millions dollars of the 1percent."

Photo: AllOfUs

Today in Women's history: Birth of Effa Manley, baseball hall of famer

Thu, 27 Mar 2014 16:58:00 +0000

Effa Louise Manley, born today in 1897, was the first woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. She co-owned the Newark Eagles baseball franchise in the Negro leagues with her husband Abe Manley from 1935 to 1946 and was sole owner through 1948 after his death. Throughout that time, she served as the team's business manager and fulfilled many of her husband's duties as treasurer of the Negro National League.

Manley was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she attended school. In 1916, she graduated from Penn Central High School, completing vocational training there in cooking, oral expression and sewing. She entered the hatmaking business.

She married Abe Manley in 1935 after meeting him at a New York Yankees game, and he involved her extensively in the operation of his own club, the Newark Eagles in Newark, New Jersey. She displayed particular skill in the area of marketing and often scheduled promotions that advanced the civil rights movement. Her most noteworthy success was the Eagles' victory in the Negro League World Series in 1946. She worked to improve the condition of the players in the entire league. She advocated better scheduling, pay, and accommodations. Her players traveled in an air-conditioned Flxible Clipper bus, considered extravagant for the Negro leagues.

She took over day-to-day business operations of the team, arranged playing schedules, planned the team's travel, managed and met the payroll, bought the equipment, negotiated contracts, and handled publicity and promotions. Thanks to her rallying efforts, more than 185 VIPs-including New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, who threw out the first pitch, and Charles C. Lockwood, justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York-were on hand to watch the Eagles' inaugural game in 1935.

Among the Eagles players during her ownership were future major league stars such as Larry Doby, who in 1947 was the first player to integrate the American League, Monte Irvin, and Don Newcombe. Manley was critical of Brooklyn Dodgers executive Branch Rickey, who signed Jackie Robinson to a minor league contract in 1945. She felt Negro league teams were justified in requesting compensation for players who were signed to major league contracts. Manley was also critical of Negro league fans who supported Rickey because they felt he was integrating the major leagues due to civil rights causes rather than her summation of Rickey seeking business opportunity for his motivation. She also was critical of Robinson when he talked of the disorganization of the Negro leagues, asking him to not forget his beginnings and the contributions the Negro leagues had made to the game.

Her influence extended beyond baseball; she was active in the civil rights movement and a social activist. Before the civil rights movement, Manley supported "Don't Buy Where You Can't Work" boycotts. As part of her work for the Citizens' League for Fair Play, Manley organized a 1934 boycott of stores that refused to hire black salesclerks. After six weeks, the owners of the store (Blumstein's Department Store) gave in, and by the end of 1935 some 300 stores on 125^th Street employed blacks. Manley was the treasurer of the Newark chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and often used Eagles games to promote civic causes. In 1939 she held an "Anti-Lynching Day" at Ruppert Stadium.

At this time most blacks were barred from practicing medicine. The Booker T. Washington Community Hospital, which offered training for colored doctors and nurses, opened due in a large part to money raised from the Newark Eagles. They played numerous benefit games to raise money for new medical equipment. They also raised money for black Elks lodges, a major part of urban black social life. The Eagles worked especially hard for groups that promoted the welfare of Newark's black population. In an exhibit honoring the Negro leagues at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, there is a banner given to the team by the Newark Student Camp Fund in recognition of their efforts to help the community. Another example of the relationship Effa helped forge with the community was copying a practice of another team which allowed the city's youth to attend games for free. Some children could afford the ten cent fare for the bus ride while others jump on the back of a moving bus to take advantage of the free ballgames. Because of Effa Manley, the Newark Eagles were as important to black Newark as the Dodgers were to Brooklyn.

By the spring of 1981, her health had deteriorated to the point that she could no longer live in her apartment. She moved into a rest home run by former Negro league player Quincy Trouppe. She told Trouppe that she would go to the hospital to get checked out, even though the ambulance drivers did not think she was ill enough to go to the hospital. She had cancer of the colon, which progressed into peritonitis after surgery. She had a heart attack and died on April 16, 1981, having never returned to the rest home. She died just four days after the boxer, Joe Louis, her sports idol, who had been one of the most influential black athletes of that time. She was buried in Culver City. She was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in February 2006.

Photo: Team photo of 1946 Newark Eagles.

Panel: Immigrants’ advocates should step up efforts in the states

Thu, 27 Mar 2014 13:11:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - Immigrants' advocates should step up efforts in the states, regardless of the fate of comprehensive immigration reform in D.C., a panel discussing the issue says.

In a Mar. 24 session hosted by the Service Employees - which has a high share of immigrants - the group added there has been a turnaround in state laws dealing with immigrants since the 2012 election. But they noted positive legislation depends on political tilt.

"In 2005-10, we first started reading stories" about anti-immigrant legislation, University of California political scientist Karthick Ramakrishnan said. "When we studied why, we found there was no correlation with increases in immigration. It depended on how Republican an area was."

Panelists said the switch in legislation dealing with the undocumented followed the 2012 election. President Obama won re-election with, among other things, a 71-27 percent margin among Hispanic-named voters over GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

Obama had similar margins over Romney among other immigrant-oriented groups, including Asian-Americans, after Romney and the GOP made their extreme anti-undocumented, pro-expulsion stance - against anyone who looked "different" - clear.

The same year, federal courts started stepping in and tossing out laws that discriminated against the undocumented, panelists said.

Since 2012, repressive legislation, such as Arizona's notorious SB1070 and an even more draconian anti-immigrant Alabama law, has yielded to laws allowing undocumented people to gain drivers' licenses and giving undocumented high-school graduates in-state tuition rates at state-run colleges and universities.

Even states that once were anti-immigrant turned around, said the keynote speaker, Maryland State Delegate Ana Sol Gutierrez (D), a naturalized citizen and the first Guatemalan-American state lawmaker in the U.S.

After her first election in 2002, Gutierrez told the packed room, she had to spend her first six years in Annapolis "fighting off 30-35 bad bills" every session. The turnaround began under GOP governor Robert Ehrlich. Then, Gutierrez convinced colleagues to replace one bad bill, dealing with public safety, with a task force to study the issue.

When the task force reported criminalizing the undocumented would undermine public safety, by making people wary of cooperating with law enforcement, attitudes began to turn. "Task force" findings "trumped the immigration circus, and we could push right back."

Though the right wing has not given up, Gutierrez and the panel singled out other legislative goals on the state level that advocates of undocumented workers could push.

One would end state and local cooperation with the federal "secure communities" program. Anti-worker local police forces have abused it by using it as an excuse to round up workers, detain them and deport them.

Others include drivers' licenses laws and local Dream Acts, giving in-state tuition and job eligibility to the undocumented youth. Obama, by an executive order, told the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Service not to arrest and deport the Dreamers, whom their undocumented parents brought to the U.S. when the Dreamers were kids.

His order also lets Dreamers get work permits, but some ICE agents have defied Obama's order and sued to overturn it in federal court.

But states can only do so much, warned University of Santa Clara law professor Pratheepan Gulasekaram. They can act in areas where they are sovereign, such as in-state tuition, drivers' licenses, work permits, eligibility for aid programs, and professional licensing.

"The states can say that state troopers or teachers must be citizens" or not "or keep them (the undocumented) out of public welfare programs. So what you see" from foes of undocumented workers "is a sophisticated attempt to craft legislation in the interstices" - cracks - "where the courts haven't pronounced any judgments." Backers of the undocumented should do the same, he said.

But in areas of federal law, such as deciding who can come into the country, or in housing discrimination, Congress is still supreme, he said. That means the activists still must fight for comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented people in the U.S., in Congress, he added.

Panelist Lorella Praeli, Advocacy and Policy Director for United We Dream - the movement of undocumented young people - contended Obama should extend the ban on deportations to adults who have not been convicted of felonies.

And Gulasekaram warned against relying too much on the courts to overturn Right Wing statutes, such as SB1070. After all, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out three of its four contested provisions, but upheld the fourth - the one that lets police stop people and ask for proof of legal residence. That shows "the immigrant rights movement has too much faith that the federal courts are the place to be effective in fighting nativist strategies," he said.

Photo: Democratic Maryland State Delegate Ana Sol Gutierrez' official Twitter.

Racial discrimination leads to increased deaths of black women from breast cancer

Thu, 27 Mar 2014 11:22:00 +0000

The online journal Cancer Epidemiology on Mar. 4 reported that although breast cancer survival rates increased overall between 1990 and 2010, white women benefited far more than did black women. Over 20 years, survival rates for white women had improved 27 percent; those for black women, 13 percent. This study of data from 41 U.S. cities showed that disparities in rates of improved outcome worsened over time, moving from a 17 percent differential in 1990-1995, to a 30 percent discrepancy during the next five years, to a 35 percent difference, and during 2006-2010 to a 40 percent gap.

Cancer biologists know that black women are genetically susceptible to a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer. But results from New York, Minneapolis, Miami, Portland and Las Vegas give the lie to a genetic explanation for the discrepancy in death rates. Dr. Bijou Hunt, the study's Chicago-based lead author, told Reuters that "If genetics were responsible . . . we would not have seen the rates go from being nearly equal in most places at the first time point to being so much worse for black women than for white women at the last time point." Dr. Otis Brawley, the American Cancer Society's chief medical officer, agrees: "Black people in New York are not genetically different from black people in Chicago, but their outcomes are different."

"Most of the disparities are actually due to access to care and access to quality care," Brawley suggests. According to Hunt, "The advancements in screening tools and treatment which occurred in the 1990's were largely available to white women, while black women, who were more likely to be uninsured, did not gain equal access to these life-saving technologies."

Writing in the Mar. 14 New York Times, Harold Freeman, former Harlem Hospital physician and past president of the American Cancer Society, reported that "in 1990, we pioneered the patient navigation program, which provided one-on-one support to patients with abnormal findings.... Applying the two interventions in Harlem - breast cancer screening and patient navigation - [we] raised the five-year breast cancer survival rate from 39 percent to 70 percent in 2000."

For the present writer, who worked as a physician, this report is shocking, but does not surprise. On March 12, 2010 Amnesty International released a devastating document titled "Deadly Delivery, The Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA." Between 1987 and 2006, the report says, death rates for U.S. mothers during pregnancy and childbirth doubled, from 6.6 deaths per 100,000 births to 13.3 deaths. "African-American women are nearly four times more likely to die of pregnancy-related complications than white women."

According to Amnesty International, "[W]omen face barriers to care, especially women of color, those living in poverty, Native American and immigrant women." As of 2011, 48 other nations claimed maternal mortality rates more favorable than the United States.

It's an old story: African American women are almost twice as likely to die from cervical cancer as white women. Black males are more than twice as likely to die of prostate cancer as white counterparts. In 2010, the infant death rate for black babies was 11.6 first-year deaths per 1000 births; the rate for white infants was 5.2.

Fractured U.S. health care tolerates discrimination. Recommendations for practitioners are in order. First, if and when practitioners find themselves shouldering increased responsibilities for the public's health, they would do well to rely upon tried and true clinical methods, which will retain their usefulness. So, practitioners would continue to prioritize the discovery of causes of people's illnesses in order to know what to do. They would leave no stone unturned in their search. And they would, as always, offer diagnoses and correct treatments to anyone appearing for help. Training, apprenticeship experience, and ongoing peer review undoubtedly will continue to reinforce such precepts.

In the situation presented here, practitioners would find investigation of cause to be no great chore. Demographic and epidemiological data have established the role of race discrimination. Recall of earlier instances of poor health outcomes from the same cause bolster the conclusion. The sticking point, however, is the matter of "anyone." Comfortable in an artisanal mindset, many practitioners say, "I see patients one by one. That's all I can do."

Practitioners ought, therefore, to prepare themselves for extending notions of who they care for. They would think about people away from their hospital or on the other side of their office doors. To broaden their horizons, a push will be required beyond that provided by universalized access to insurance, providers, and facilities. Persisting problems include discriminatory attitudes of some physicians and low quality hospitals serving African Americans. Presumably societal consensus will grow as to meeting the needs of all. If so, an environment may materialize in which practitioners are encouraged to build new capacities, taking on roles, for example, of planning, advocacy, and collaboration,

They ought to know that this prescription is no wild dream. There is a basis in reality. In one way or another, all industrialized nations do offer universal health care - all of them, that is, except for the United States. International health investigator Vicente Navarro has documented how social democratic political parties and labor unions, working in tandem, fought for and achieved such health care systems.

U.S. circumstances are different: "[I]t is the weakness of the working class .., with the absence of a mass-based socialist party and with very low levels of unionization, together with the strength of the capitalist class ... that explains the absence of a comprehensive universal health program in the United States."

Struggle on a broad front for human decency and human rights would set a new stage allowing individual health care practitioners to respond to societal expectations. Class dynamics play a role. According to Navarro, we are to "help to strengthen the labor movement in the United States, and in doing so we should also capitalize on the diversity of the social movements, helping those movements to see the basic commonality of their struggles to unite rather than divide working people. This is, indeed, the best thing you can do to improve the health of our people."

Photo: Center for Disease Control.gov

New Mexican miners commemorate "Salt of the Earth"

Wed, 26 Mar 2014 12:01:00 +0000

GRANT COUNTY, N.M. - "Where is Anita Torrez?" growled the sheriff's deputy at the young pregnant woman sitting at a table stuffing envelopes inside the union hall's doorway.

"I really have no idea," answered Anita Torrez with a good show of calm. The deputy had come on the sheriff's orders to round up those on a "wanted list" of union wives. The frustrated deputy finally went on his way and the women laughed heartily. But it didn't take away the fear.

More than 60 years later, Torrez is still iron-willed but soft-spoken, so she is reluctant to talk about herself and didn't tell that story when she spoke on Mar. 15 at the University of Western New Mexico on a panel titled "From Women's Auxiliary to Women of Steel." But she did eagerly share it with family and comrades over a plate of carne asada, beans, rice, and plate-sized flour tortillas. The meal preceded the panel and was prepared by brothers from a steelworker local in nearby Tucson using a portable grill outside the same local hall where Torrez outwitted the sheriff's deputy.

The confrontation took place in 1951 during a miners strike here. The strike was marked by government and company intimidation and violence and a new role for women. The story of the courage of the women led to the making of a unique movie, "Salt of the Earth" whose 60th anniversary was commemorated last weekend..

The movie depicts how wives, sisters, and mothers from miner families stepped up with women supporters from surrounding communities to take over the miners' picket line after the Empire Zinc Company's lawyers got a judge to issue an injunction barring the striking miners from picketing. Both management and the workers knew that it was only a strong picket line that could keep strikebreakers from defeating the strike; the purpose of such Taft Hartley injunctions was to defeat strikes.

Torrez shared more details. The sheriff deputized 25 thugs whose wages were paid by Empire Zinc. There was no semblance of impartiality: they cursed and beat, tear gassed, arrested, and even ran over the pickets - men, women, and children.

"Bob Hollowwa had warned me that they would probably be coming for me so I was ready," she related. Hollowwa, a grizzly-bear-sized foundry worker was an organizer from the International Mine Mill and Smelters Workers Union who had come to help out the strike. Off the frontlines, Hollowwa was a gentle and intelligent organizer, and a master of strike tactics. He was a veteran of Mine Mill, as the union was known. Mine Mill was the successor of the militant Western Federation of Miners. It was a rank and file controlled union in the tradition of the IWW, representing "hard rock miners" in the mountain states of Idaho, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.

Bob was there to share the lessons from a lifetime of struggle. A member of the Communist Party, which had been the backbone of Mine Mill, Hollowwa paid special attention to young comrades Anita Torrez and her husband Lorenzo, as well as to Virginia and Juan Chacon. Organizers Clint and Virginia Jencks were also part of the group that included the two young couples and many more at their club meetings. There they discussed how to build unity and solidarity for the union and community.

In a 2003 interview, Lorenzo Torrez explained joining the Party at the height of the Red Scare: "Anita and I joined the Party just when McCarthyism was strongest. Many others got scared and tried to hide. But there's no hiding place."

Knowing the sheriff was out to arrest Torrez, Hollowwa advised her not to go home, so, she recalled with a laugh, she and Lorenzo just drove around till late into the night .

Hadn't lived there long

The young couple hadn't lived in the mining town too long. They both grew up in a tiny village in a rural part of this county along the Gila River. After Lorenzo returned from a stint in the army, they married in 1948. He got a job at the Empire Zinc mine in nearby Hanover, one of a cluster of towns including Bayard, Hurley, Fierro, Vanadium and Santa Rita, built around copper, zinc, and lead mines and smelters. The miners were unionized, but their bargaining position suffered because each mine had its own contract, and each expired at a different time. The various mines were owned by some of America's richest companies: Asarco, Kennecott, and U.S. Smelting, Mining, and Refining Company.

Empire Zinc mine had one of the smallest work forces, and its workforce was almost entirely Mexican American, according to retired miner and local historian Terry Humble. Wages there were 15 cents an hour lower than at the other mines, there was no paid lunch, no paid vacation, and workers did not get the same "collar to collar pay." Workers in the other mines got paid from the time they arrived to work at the mine "collar." At Empire Zinc, you didn't get paid for lunch even though you spent that half hour underground in the mine. Safety conditions also suffered. And there was neither equality nor dignity when it came to company housing for the Chicano workers' families. Unlike the homes of the Anglo miners, those of the Chicanos had neither indoor plumbing nor hot water.

Mine Mill had been working on a strategy for equality and to increase bargaining power by bringing together the scattered work forces of the various mines, aligning their contract expiration dates, and ending discrimination. Mine Mill was a progressive union, and its leadership consciously worked to build understanding that the differential was hurting all the miners. They brought the locals together and the other miners agreed to support the Empire Zinc strikers. The strikers knew they would face a tough battle, but many were recently returned World War II veterans and they were determined to be treated with dignity.

"I knew nothing about unions, and lo and behold, we went on strike!" Torrez told the panel at UWNM. Strikers had no paychecks and could no longer buy groceries at the company store in Hurley. But sacks of rice and beans came in by the truckload along with donations to the strike fund from workers across the country in a campaign organized by Mine Mill which put all its resources into the struggle. "If it hadn't been for them, we would have lost ," Torrez said.

Then, eight months into the strike came the Taft Hartley injunction. "There were meetings, more meetings, discussions, and more meetings," recalled Torrez. "The idea came up for women to take over," she continued. Technically, it was Empire Zinc employees, the miners, who were covered by the injunction, but not the women. "Some men said no," Torrez continued. "But the women raised their hands."

At first many of the men resisted the idea of the women standing in for them on the picket lines. It was dangerous and an affront to their position as head of the household. But the injunction left no alternative. It was the insistence of a few very strong women that turned the tide, Anita said. "They said 'Are you going to give up? This will be the end of it.'" She recalled. Then, "as word spread out, more and more women wanted to go. They said 'I want to go if my sister could go.'" And so the movement spread.

As for herself, Torrez recalled, "Lorenzo didn't object to me being there, but he didn't go so far as to do anything to make it possible for me to go either. Anita Torrez pointed out that at that time she had a 1 year old at home. "It was up to me to figure it out. Because Lorenzo wanted to spend every minute of the day at the picket line."

The women continued the picket line for another seven months, 'till Empire Zinc finally came to an agreement with the union. Torrez described the struggle to the audience at the UWNM. "We were striking against discrimination. For dignity." And "for socialism," she added.

The workers did not win paid vacations or lunch, but they got a 50 cent an hour pay raise. Not a total victory, but a step toward it.

Went on to become president

Juan Chacon went on to become a long time president of Local 890. Lorenzo Torrez served as chair of the local's grievance committee for a decade. After a shutdown in the 60s, he was laid off from Empire Zinc and even though he had years of experience as a highly skilled mine mechanic, no other mine would hire him.

The Torrez family left New Mexico in the early 70s for Lorenzo to head the Communist Party's Chicano Liberation commission based in Los Angeles. He then served 30 years as chair of the party's Arizona district until his passing in 2012. In Tucson Lorenzo and Anita Torrez helped found the Salt of the Earth Labor College. He authored several pamphlets including: Short History of Chicano Workers, Part 1 and Part 2; "Juan Chacon," and Sindicalismo Hacia Adelante. Anita worked for 18 years in a garment factory in Tucson where she chaired the shop committee of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.

Despite its dramatic and timely story, few Americans have seen "Salt of the Earth." Made by blacklisted Hollywood producers with a cast of of miners and their families in addition to renowned Mexican actress Rosaura Revueltas, the movie itself was blacklisted and banned from American theaters for decades.

It wasn't coincidental that the impetus for the 60^th anniversary celebration came from the union that now represents the Sheriff's Department employees, according to American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 18 Communications Director Miles Conway. The union members, upon learning of the dastardly role played by deputies during the strike, were eager to put themselves on the better side of history, Conway explained.

International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, IATSE, the union representing movie projectionists, also wholeheartedly pitched in. They wanted to atone, said their president Jon Hendry, for the role that union played, succumbing to anti-communism, in suppressing the film. Hendry, who is also head of the New Mexico AFL-CIO, recalled how the FBI successfully pressured the union to order its members to refuse to screen the movie.

AFSCME and IATSE joined with the Steelworkers Union, into which Mine Mill merged in the late 50's, in sponsoring the weekend's activities. Hundreds of Grant County residents attended, including many veterans of the strike and film making and their proud descendants.

Organizers of the event put together a caravan of buses to visit some of the film's locations. The first stop, Hurley, brought to mind images of the Jim Crow South. Representative Rudy Martinez, from New Mexico's 39th legislative district described the situation in the 1950s. Mexicans lived on the north side of the railroad tracks, he said, Anglos on the south. The only connection was an underpass beneath the railroad tracks, and access to that tunnel was controlled by a security guard at the north entrance. Schools were segregated. Next to the south side exit of the tunnel stood the company store. In town, Chicano children were barred from the swimming pool and bowling alley. The theater had separate seating, "The Anglos had comfortable theater seats, but Chicanos had to sit on wooden benches," Martinez said. This mirrored the workplace division in Hurley, where Chicanos and Anglos were assigned separate facilities to shower and change after leaving the mine.

The crowd also heard from the Grant County Sheriff, Raul Villanueva. He was eager to distance himself from his villainous predecessor. In those days "they were on management's side," he told the People's World. "Now we try to work things out." That change didn't come about without struggle. In 1965, Steve Aguirre, a worker at Kennecott Copper, was elected the first Latino sheriff of Grant County, It was Juan Chacon who urged me to run," he told the People's World. "Juan was president of Local 890, and they helped get me elected."

Steelworkers District 12 Director Robert LaVenture, another panelist at the WNMU program, connected the New Mexico miners' history to the present moment. "We're in for one hell of a fight with Asarco," he predicted. That anti-union, multi-national mining company, with more than 1000 workers in an open pit mine in nearby Tucson, is now owned by Grupo Mexico and is expected to fiercely oppose Steelworkers in upcoming contract negotiations early this summer.

Responding to Anita Torrez's presentation, LaVenture pointed out that workers today face the same kind of struggles, "voter suppression, discrimination against people of color." He continued, "If supporting Salt of the Earth means you're considered a socialist or a communist, I guess I'm a goddamn communist!" he said defiantly.

"What have we learned?" concluded Anita. "Women have the right to have their place. We are as strong as men. We need cooperation, we need unity. And we are brothers and sisters. We look out for each other. We want to be equal."

Photo: Scott Marshall/PW

Today in women's history: Civil rights leader and suffragist Ida B. Wells died

Tue, 25 Mar 2014 17:47:00 +0000

On this day in 1931 Ida B Wells, died.

Wells was an outstanding civil rights activist and journalist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Born in slavery, she campaigned against the reign of terror in the U.S. South that accompanied the betrayal of Reconstruction, focusing in particular on lynching. She was a fierce advocate of women's voting rights and was one of the co-founders of the NAACP. Wells was proficient editor and orator and traveled abroad to bring to light the atrocity of lynching.

Photo: Ida B. Wells. Wikipedia.

"America Needs A Raise" bus rolls into Maine

Tue, 25 Mar 2014 15:09:00 +0000

PORTLAND, Me. - As the America Needs a Raise bus pulled into Portland for its second stop on a ten state tour, Mayor Michael Brennan stood at City Hall, flanked by local business owner Anne Rand and minimum wage earner Tabitha Weyland, to welcome the effort.

"I believe the people of Portland need a wage increase to make sure the people who are going to work here can live here," he said. Nearby, one woman held a sign, "Can't Survive on $7.25."

The 18-city tour began in Bangor that morning where Rep. Michael Michaud spoke on behalf of the raise exclaiming that hard working Mainers "should be able to make ends meet."

According to a recent study, a family in Portland needs $56,643 to be self sufficient. Full time workers earning the state minimum wage of $7.50 an hour only bring home $15,600.

Increasing the federal minimum wage to $10.10 would give a raise to 121.000 workers in Maine - the majority of them women - would generate over $97.3 million in economic activity according to a new report released to coincide with the bus tour by the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

The report includes extensive research on the economic impact of raising the minimum wage, It shows that the increase would benefit the entire Maine economy by putting more money in the pockets of workers, who would spend it locally and create a greater demand resulting in businesses hiring more workers.

The Maine Restaurant Association disagrees, claiming that the wage increase, which includes an increase in wages for tipped workers, would lose thousands of jobs because owners would hire fewer people.

But the manager at Miguel's Mexican Restaurant in Bangor, who raised the minimum wage for workers there to $10.10 after President Obama's State of the Union address, refuted that claim. "Our doors are still open," said Sean Garceau. "We feel it's up to small businesses like us to not wait and to act now."

"For decades now, America's middle class and working poor have lost tremendous ground due to a lopsided economy that works for the wealthy few," said Lori Lodes, in issuing the Center for American Progress Action Fund report. "Raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour is a critical first step to giving hardworking Americans a better opportunity to get ahead while giving the economy a much-needed boost."

A report released earlier this month by the Center for American Progress found that raising the minimum wage will not only benefit workers and the local economy, but also will reduce taxpayer costs. It is projected that raising the minimum wage to $10.10 will save the federal government $46 billion in 10 years by reducing participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). A state-by-state analysis in the report found that 14,323 to 16,567 Mainers would no longer need SNAP if the minimum wage were increased, saving the federal government an estimated $24.6 million.

The "Give America A Raise" bus tour will end in Washington, D.C., at an event outside the U.S. Capitol on April 3, after visiting New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia. The U.S. Senate is expected to vote soon on the Fair Minimum Wage Act introduced by Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa with a companion bill introduced in the House by Rep. George Miller, both of which the bus tour is supporting.

Photo: Outside city hall, Mayor Michael Brennan listens to minimum wage earner Tabitha Weyland with the America Needs a Raise bus tour. Eric Blumrich,

Cuban Americans talk about normalizing Cuba relations

Tue, 25 Mar 2014 13:55:00 +0000

MIAMI -- In a city known for its hostility toward Cuba's socialist government, Cuban Americans met March 15 to talk about normalizing U.S. relations with the island. It was a noteworthy development.

David Adams of Reuters reported that the meeting was led by Cuban Americans for Engagement, which was founded to counteract the many Cuban exile groups that still support the U.S. embargo against Cuba. The one-day meeting included speakers from Cuba and had about 125 attendees. It was not protested by anti-Castro groups like many such meetings have been in the past.

One of the attendees, Hugo Cancio, is quoted as saying, "This is a historic event that unites different organizations that are willing to sit down and discuss ways to stimulate the normalization of relations." Cancio, who is the publisher of OnCuba, a Miami-based magazine with an office in Cuba, continued, "We want to tell the U.S. and the Cuban governments to find a way to better the lives of the Cuban people, and to let us participate in the economic transformation of Cuba."

This meeting in Miami comes on the heels of a historic visit to Cuba from one of the island's most critical exiles. Alfonso Fanjul, who has been one of the most "influential and steadfast supporters of Florida's anti-revolutionary community," announced that he was looking into future investments in Cuba "under the right circumstances" and that he had been to Cuba twice in the recent past, according to a report by Keith Bolender, guest scholar at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. Fanjul also spoke of ending the differences between the two nations in order to "reunite the Cuban family."

According to Bolender, Fanjul and his family fled Cuba when he was a young man, leaving behind the family's sugar business and the family mansion, which is now an art museum. Upon arriving in Miami, the Fanjul family quickly "re-established their sugar empire and now are among the wealthiest families in the state. The holdings of the parent company Fanjul Corp. include Domino Sugar, Florida Crystals, La Romana International Airport, and the luxury private resort known as Casa de Campo." Bolender notes that on Fanjul's recent visit to Cuba, "he toured Havana, visited his old mansion and was able to tour state-run farms and sugar mills after meeting with Cuban agricultural officials and the country's foreign minister."

Fanjul has been widely known as a long-time opponent of Castro and backed "Washington's right-wing initiatives against Cuba through heavy donations to the Cuban-American members of Congress," Bolender says. Fanjul has "been the face of America's policy of regime change" and is "connected to many high ranking politicians."

When Fanjul made the announcement about his trips to Cuba and meeting with Cuban government officials in 2012 and 2013, many hard-right Cuban Americans were shocked, including Florida Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Ros-Lehtinen attacked Fanjul's new position, saying it was a "pathetic idea of investing in the Castro regime while Cubans suffer." South Florida Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart is also quoted as saying, "I am outraged by reports that a fellow Cuban-American, who has witnessed the atrocities inflicted by the Castro regime, has apparently chosen short-term profit over standing with the Cuban people."

On the other hand, Florida Democratic Rep. Joe Garcia, the son of Cuban exiles, said that Fanjul is realizing that there is considerable movement within the Cuban-American community to normalize relations with Havana.

With this shift in thinking within the Cuban-American community and Alfonso Fanjul's public stance toward opening up relations with the Cuban state, as Bolender put it, perhaps the U.S. policy toward Cuba will become more pragmatic and replace "long outmoded-ideological intransigence."

Photo: Cuban flag. Giacomo Bartalesi CC

Debt, climate change, immigration top student agenda

Tue, 25 Mar 2014 13:26:00 +0000

WASHINGTON -- The recent gathering of 328 college and graduate students from across the nation here at the 45^th annual "Grassroots Legislative Conference," hosted by the United States Student Association (USSA), which has strong ties with the labor movement, could be called nothing short of a "tour de force" in youth activism. "LegCon" is designed to train students in congressional lobbying. Determined, organized, thoughtful, and unafraid, the students present at this year's LegCon were very clear about a guiding principle: students must lead their own organization and strategize together if the fight for accessible higher education in this country is to be won.

LegCon was intentionally held at Washington Court Hotel, where the employees are represented by UNITE HERE service workers union. Workshop titles included "Union 101," "Beyond Yes Means Yes: Preventing Sexual Assault on Campus," and "Fighting the Attack on the Youth Vote!"

A quality college education should be a right for all, but for millions of students college is still either just a dream or a sentence to a lifetime of debt that never disappears, even if the student dies. National student debt has topped $1.2 trillion, which is greater than all national credit card and housing debt combined. There are college campuses in Miami, Milwaukee, and the Bronx where over 40 percent of the student population is homeless, and hundreds of college-campus food pantries are cropping up, according to Associate Professor Sara Goldrick-Rab of Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison.

Data from the Department of Education website says that only nine percent of the lowest quartile income students who enter college complete their degrees.

In one random group meeting of 29 students at LegCon, the combined debt of the students sitting around the circle was $1,645,000.00.

Goliath of student loans, the Sallie Mae Corporation holds $162.5 billion of student debt over the nation's head. In 2010 and 2011 the corporation spent $6.8 million of their profit on lobbying activities, pressing their agenda of making student loans predatory. The federal government also currently is making a larger profit from student loans than ever before.

USSA is aggressive about recruiting students to their conferences whose voices are often marginalized. Sophia Zaman, current president of the USSA, said she was proud that this year LegCon included the largest representation of community college students in the organization's history, and that a broad diversity of states were represented as well. "We are engaging a community of students that are deeply affected by current [higher education] policies, turning them into leaders, decision makers."

Community college students, LGBTQ students, students of color, first generation college students, undocumented students, and women made up the overwhelming majority of the conference participants.

Guest keynote speaker Robert Samuels, president of the American Federation of Teachers for the University of California System, shared his arguments with the assembled students for why USSA's goal of accessible education would be completely possible if national funding priorities were altered. Samuels estimates that it would cost the country $195 billion to provide a free college education for all students. In 2011, federal and state governments spent an estimated $201 billion on higher education, including $40 billion in tax breaks for wealthy 'college trust fund' investors.

In the immediate term, the USSA is asking legislators to support President Obama's requests to increase Federal Work Study funding by $225 million, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (FSEOG) by $242 million, increase the Pell Grant maximum award to $5,830, and expand the Pay As You Earn Program (PAYE) for all borrowers. In addition, the USSA is asking Congress to increase funding to the TRIO program by $52 million, which is designed to uplift low-income students, veterans, and students with disabilities.

Other "asks" include:

*Eliminating "box 23" from FAFSA forms, which requires students to disclose any conviction related to possession or sale of illegal drugs while receiving federal student aid. USSA argues that this barrier targets low income and students of color, going against the very reason FAFSA was created.

*Making federal student aid available to undocumented students with Deferred Action status.

*Recognizing same-sex civil unions on the FAFSA application.

*Supporting the Voting Rights Amendment Act, designed to reverse the Supreme Court's ruling last year, which invalidated Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2014 would restore the integrity of the original law, which required that districts with a history of racial discrimination obtain federal permission before changing their voting policies.

The students at LegCon have taken charge of their social movement like it is the fight of their lives, and indeed it is. Andrea Perkins is one such student at University of Oregon, completing her studies off campus in Chicago. Perkins is an indigenous youth leader and activist, representing the Idle No More movement and the Young Communist League, USA.

Perkins says that her home community of the Chinook Nation of Oregon and Washington has "had it up to here" with capitalist profiteering at the expense of human health and well-being. The Keystone XL pipeline is slated to run straight through the backyards, and even the houses, of thousands of first nations peoples living on reservations.

Perkins made a presentation explaining as much at LegCon. Already the damage done by tar sands extraction and fracking have rendered indigenous lands, in square miles larger than the size of England, uninhabitable across the U.S. and Canada (though indigenous children and families without other options continue to live in these toxic environments).

Jose Caceres, member of the Dreamers of Virginia, is a community college student in Arlington, VA. "When I graduated high school in 2011, I found out that I had to pay out-of-state tuition due to my legal status. I have a younger sister who was five years old when we came to this country, and I don't want her to face the same obstacles I've had to face. I also fight for my parents."

Caceres reports that at a recent National Congress of the Dreamers in Arizona, the organization chose to highlight two campaigns: Tuition equity for undocumented students, and ending deportations. "Basically, we want DACA for all," Caceres said. "I like that here at LegCon they're being inclusive of Dreamers, I wasn't expecting that. Also I like meeting students from other parts of the movement, from around the country."

Skylar from New Jersey is organizing around a bill that would allow transgendered people in the state to change their gender on their birth certificates. "Once you can change the birth certificate, it's a lot easier to change your gender on the other documents like driver's license, etc," Skylar explains. Chris Christie vetoed the bill in January, however students continue to push for the legislation as part of the set of bills known as the Higher Education Legislative Package or "HELP." How does this bill affect students especially? Skylar explains. "With this bill, students wouldn't have to disclose their past personal history, and wouldn't be outed as transgendered to their peers. Violence aimed at transgendered people on college campuses would really go down."

Conference organizers were dealt an unexpected turn of events when two inches of snow from the night before shut the federal government down, making it impossible to lobby as planned. Quickly, USSA staff rearranged the day's activities to include a morning of phone banking to legislators and a social media blitz. "When Congress comes into their offices tomorrow," declared Zaman, "they'll have so many phone messages from us they won't know what to do."

Photo: Sophia Zaman, current president of USSA.

Despite snow, students lobby for #DebtFreeFuture

Mon, 24 Mar 2014 12:59:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - College students face many issues today, including raising tuition rates and cuts to programs. Student loan debt topped $1 trillion and is expected to reach (and even surpass) $1.3 trillion. The average loan debt of a student graduating with a bachelor's degree is $29,400. The high debt burden affects 70 percent of all students who graduate with a bachelor's degree.

That is what the 300 students attending this past weekend's United States Student Association Legislative Conference learned as they also spent the three days planning a day of action on Capitol Hill for Monday morning, Mar. 17, to demand lawmakers do something to fix it. Yet, Sunday evening it began to snow, shutting down congressional offices.

This didn't stop student from taking action, making them more determined to share their stories and reach legislators. Students began a media blast that would last all day. Tweeting, Tumbling, and Facebooking with the hashtags, #DebtFreeFuture, #EndStudentDebt and #EducationIsARight, students sent pictures and wrote posts. They also called lawmakers, leaving voicemails on their answering machines.

The hard work done during the weekend's all nighters- from practicing chants and songs to reviewing each lobbying topic - would not go to waste either. Actions in home districts on student debt are planned for later this spring.

While student debt is one of the biggest issues students face, cuts to assistance in paying for college tuition, books, room and board are related. This includes programs like TRIO and Pell Grants. TRIO is a federal program that serves and supports high school and college students from "disadvantaged backgrounds." Through its eight programs, TRIO assists "low-income individuals, first-generation college students, and individuals with disabilities to progress through the academic pipeline from middle school to post baccalaureate programs."

In addition, students are also facing stricter voters registration laws that make holding registration drives on campuses more difficult. Students pledged to help pass the Voting Rights Amendment Act that would insure the voting rights of all people and hold states accountable for voter suppression.

Photo: Earchiel Johnson and Lisa Bergmann of the YCL participate in USSA's lobby day March 17. (via Twitter)

Michigan same-sex marriage ban overturned, but not for long

Mon, 24 Mar 2014 12:52:00 +0000

PONTIAC, Mich. - We were "excited, nervous, just like everyone else would feel," said Kim Hettinger and MaryAnn Northcote of Waterford.

Who could blame them? Although they had a church wedding 33 years ago, they had just picked up their marriage license at the county clerk's office here and were about to be "really married." Northcote said their pastor observed, "We're putting the icing on the cake."

Their "real marriage" came after Friday's ruling in Detroit by U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman striking down Michigan's ban on same-sex marriages. In his groundbreaking ruling Friedman said the ban was unconstitutional. The views of those opposing same-sex marriage cannot "strip other citizens of the guarantees of equal protection under the law," the judge said.

At the Oakland County Clerk's Office, hundreds rushed to get marriage licenses.

"We've been here since 10:30 and the line has been long the whole time," said Northcote.

Hettinger and Northcote acted quickly because they feared the stay requested by Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette might be granted.

Those fears were confirmed later Saturday when the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati temporarily suspended marriages among Michigan's gay couples until at least Wednesday.

Zack and Greg of Lathrup Village, who have been partners for 13 years, also came to pick up their license at the Oakland County office.

Zack called it a "historic date." Reflecting on Michigan's natural beauty, he noted that "We all live in a state that we love. It's important that these types of things that stop others from seeing and enjoying the beauty of the state can now be overlooked. It's a step in our history that's passed and now we can get on and enjoy the rest of it."

Expressing what many others were thinking Greg said, "I can't believe the day is finally here. I kept saying that the whole ride here."

Now, the hundreds of couples married that day are wondering if their marriages will be declared illegal by the Republican-controlled state government.

Photo: Greg and Zack await their license at the Oakland County Clerk's Office on Friday. John Rummel/PW

Today in women's history: Coalition of Labor Union Women founded

Mon, 24 Mar 2014 12:08:00 +0000

On March 24, 1974, the Coalition of Labor Union Women was founded by some 3,000 women trade unionists from 58 labor organizations at a meeting in Chicago.

The coalition was forged to promote equal rights and better wages and working conditions for women workers.

Today there are tens of thousands of CLUW members in 40 chapters throughout the United States and Canada.

CLUW is a constituency group of the AFL-CIO.

Follow CLUW on Twitter.

Workday Minnesota

Photo: CLUW

Illinois working families face major threat with Rauner primary win

Mon, 24 Mar 2014 11:31:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Working families, organized labor, progressives, and other democratic forces face a major threat from the right with billionaire venture capitalist Bruce Rauner winning the Republican contest for governor in the Mar. 18 primaries.

Rauner's victory ensures an all-out battle to reelect Democratic governor Pat Quinn and defend the Democratic legislative majority in the November general elections, making Illinois a national battleground.

Loaded with cash and enjoying the support of major sections of finance capital, Rauner poses the same danger as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker or Florida Gov. Rick Scott who dealt major blows to worker's rights, public education, and voting rights.

Unfortunately, Rauner is capable of appealing to working-class voters who are frustrated by economic stagnation, fed up with Democratic machine politics and corruption, years of budget crises and the public worker pension crisis.

Rauner vows to bring a "business approach" to state governance, slashing taxes on corporations to "make Illinois business friendly." He once called for reducing the state minimum wage, but retreated in the face of public opinion and even his Republican opponents.

A major charter school investor, Rauner advocates privatization of public education, union busting and slashing public worker pensions. A Rauner victory could conceivably move sections of the Democratic Party dominated by corporate interests to the right, especially on school privatization.

Defeating Rauner will require the broadest unity of an energized labor movement, communities of color, women, immigrants, the LGTBQ community, students and others with the Democratic Party establishment.

Electoral unity is necessary even while public sector unions are fighting Quinn and Democratic Party legislative leaders who backed a public worker pension reform that labor opposed and while the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), parents and community organizations wage a bitter fight against Mayor Rahm Emanuel and sections of the Democratic Party pushing school privatization and union busting.

Clearly understanding the threat posed by Rauner, some unions urged their members to crossover and vote for a more moderate Republican candidate in the primary. The tactic nearly worked.

Democratic legislative leaders wasted no time in framing the general election debate. On Mar. 21, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan called for placing an amendment to the state constitution on the November ballot to raise taxes on millionaires to generate an estimated $1 billion in additional funding for education.

Illinois Senate Democrats are advancing legislation to raise the state minimum wage from $8.25 an hour to $10.65 an hour over two years.

Republicans are crying the initiatives are "driving a wedge between rich and poor."

Madigan and legislators are responding to broad public support for a progressive income tax and higher minimum wage and the growing movements organizing this sentiment.

A referendum calling for a minimum wage of $15 an hour, garnered 87 percent of the vote in wards across the Chicago. Tens of thousands of signatures have been gathered to demand a progressive tax.

Madigan may also be trying to get ahead of these movements, short-circuiting even more radical reforms. Nevertheless it reflects the interplay between grassroots movements, labor-community coalition building and legislative action and its potential to influence public discussion and election outcomes.

The initiatives lay out the stark differences between Quinn and Rauner and should help mobilize the vote in an off year election and raise the possibility they can be passed in the legislature.

The election tactics illustrate the complex interpenetration between advancing labor's agenda and winning progressive political independence from the Democratic establishment and corporate class forces while fighting the right danger and the reactionary corporate forces promoting it.

These are inevitable contradictions present within multi-class alliances geared around the attainment of immediate interests. Few have illusions the corporate wing of the Democratic Party will not hesitate to defend the interests of the corporations and wealthy.

The question is who will emerge from these battles and temporary alliances strengthened and on more favorable ground to fight - machine and corporate forces or labor and its allies?

The challenge for democratic forces is to strengthen political independence and building independent structures within and outside the context of Democratic Party politics.

The primaries illustrate the difficulties advancing against entrenched and still powerful machine interests given the current strength of labor, progressive and other democratic forces. But it also showed the possibilities for making advances where broad coalition unity is combined with progressive grassroots activism.

Much was gained during the election mobilization, especially those races that featured activist candidates who were leaders of various grassroots movements.

CTU president Karen Lewis said of her union's experience, "The CTU expressed people power this electoral cycle. We were most successful in creating a platform of educational justice and retirement security that was expressed by our endorsed candidates."

The CTU is transforming itself into an electoral power, building independent structures, energizing and mobilizing its membership and building alliances with other union and community forces.

The biggest victory on March 18 was that of Will Guzzardi in the 39^th House District who defeated incumbent State Rep. Toni Berrios by a wide margin. Berrios is the daughter of machine boss and Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios.

This race was seen as a major battle between machine elements and a coalition of some of labor, including the CTU and progressive community forces.

Guzzardi's victory extends the center of progressive independent politics in a number of Chicago's northside wards and reflects a steady weakening of machine elements.

This growing movement builds on the gains of the 22nd Ward Independent Political Organization in Little Village and Pilsen that elected Cook County Board member Jesus Garcia and the victory of Board President Toni Preckwinkle, both of whom were elected in 2010.

Community organizer Jay Travis backed by a coalition of the CTU, IFT, SEIU, and community organizations opposing school privatization and closings and supporting an elected school board nearly defeated incumbent state rep Christian Mitchell backed by education privatization companies and the Democratic establishment.

Other election setbacks included the defeat of incumbent Cook County Board member Edwin Reyes, a prime target of machine forces and Josina Morita for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation Board, who would have been the first Asian American elected to a countywide seat and a staunch opponent of privatization.

Elections continue to grow as an arena of contested power. The fight against the right wing and corporate domination of governance and for a people's agenda and political independence go hand in hand.

Photo: Bruce Rauner. Seth Perlman/AP

Virginia lawmaker uses "tar baby" slur to attack Obamacare

Fri, 21 Mar 2014 15:40:00 +0000

DANVILLE, Va. - Southside Virginia has been in the news because of a catastrophic coal ash spill into the Dan River, and now, racist comments by a legislator comparing Obamacare to tar babies.

Virginia state Sen. Frank Ruff compared "reliance on promised funds to provide health insurance for thousands of low-income Virginians to a 'tar baby'," as reported by news media. The statement was made during a Danville-Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce legislative breakfast on Tuesday. Adding tens of thousands of Virginians to Medicaid would be a disaster for the state, he said.

Republican Ruff's comments appeared in the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, on the other side of the state, not in the right-wing Danville Register & Bee, which covered the event.

Danville's African-American mayor, Sherman Saunders, left the breakfast after Ruff's remark. Later, Ruff called Saunders to apologize for what he said. Ruff said his term "tar baby" had no racial connotation, but instead referred to "a sticky situation."

Saunders said today he accepted Ruff's apology, but did not want to talk about the comments. Ruff said the statement was off the cuff and he didn't use prepared remarks at the breakfast.

The term "tar baby" comes from the "Uncle Remus" stories written, in the post-Reconstruction South, in an African American dialect by a white author. The term is considered racist by many African Americans.

Danville Councilman John Gilstrap was upset with the comment and said it was offensive to African Americans attending the breakfast. None of Ruff's Republican legislative colleagues rebuked his statement.

Ruff has been vehement in his opposition to expanding Medicare eligibility to about 400,000 people in the state.
Photo: Virginia Republican state Sen. Frank Ruff. Virginia Guard Public Affairs

"Truthful Tuesday": Moral Monday movement spreads to South Carolina

Fri, 21 Mar 2014 12:14:00 +0000

COLUMBIA, S.C. - With all the attention being given to the Moral Monday movements in North Carolina and Georgia, the Truthful Tuesday coalition in South Carolina has been almost entirely overlooked. Nevertheless, a broad grassroots coalition of labor and progressive groups, including the South Carolina AFL-CIO, the state NAACP, the S.C. Legislative Black Caucus, and the S.C. Christian Action Council, has come together to fight the regressive tea party agenda. And even in this deepest-red of red states, it is having an impact.

"A goal of our Truthful Tuesday protests was to get people talking, change the dialogue, and reduce the tea party influence on Republicans. That is happening," said Brett Bursey, director of the South Carolina Progressive Network.

Community activist Anastasia Moore echoed the need for action. "I hear so many people saying they are embarrassed by our state," she said. "Instead of hiding we need to stand together to fix it!"

The coalition's demands are as diverse as its members. Among its primary concerns are the expansion of Medicaid, ending cuts to public education and social services, and stopping voter-suppression efforts.

The movement kicked off with a rally on the steps of the statehouse to coincide with the first day of the legislative calendar on Jan. 14, which was attended by a raucous crowd of hundreds of activists from across the Palmetto State. This has been followed by gatherings every week since. The coalition's methods have thus far included teach-ins outside Senate chambers, in-person lobbying efforts, and acts of nonviolent civil disobedience that have resulted in the arrests of dozens of activists, including a number of ministers.

The pressure has been having an impact. H 3101, the blatantly unconstitutional "Nullify Obamacare" bill, died in the state Senate on March 19^th on a lopsided 33-9 vote. Nineteen Republicans joined the 14 Democrats in rejecting it, a result hailed by Bursey as "a rare victory for rational thought."

The fight is far from over, but as longtime South Carolina activist Becci Robbins is fond of saying, "The South is rising, y'all!"

For more information on the Truthful Tuesday movement, or to donate or get involved, go to the coalition's website.

Truthful Tuesday, March 18, 2014, South Carolina Senate lobby:

Photo: Truthful Tuesday, March 11, 2014, Columbia S.C. Becci Robbins/Progressive Network

Nationwide spring bus tours to culminate in marches on Washington

Fri, 21 Mar 2014 12:07:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Spring officially arrived on March 21, but even before that, unionists and their allies were on the road in two big bus tours, with their ultimate destination Washington, D.C., for mass marches there.

The campaigns, for legalizing undocumented people - thus bringing them under labor law protection, among other things - and for raising the minimum wage, show labor's determination to get out in the streets, make unionists' voices heard and raise consciousness of key national issues.

The Fast4Families tour started first, in California. It developed out of the fast that leaders of the immigrant rights movement, including former SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Eliseo Medina, led on Capitol Hill for months. The buses have moved through California, Texas, Minnesota and elsewhere, heading eastwards and targeting districts of House Republicans.

Its object is both to get the GOP-run House to approve comprehensive immigration reform and to stop the 1,100 daily deportations of people who would eventually be eligible for "green cards" and citizenship, should reform pass. The deportations split families nationwide.

"Every stop is a moment to organize and empower the voices of constituents," Medina said as one bus rolled towards Texas. A second bus took a northern route.

"While the House delays, families endure the devastating impacts of inaction. We won't let them forget or ignore the voices and prayers of families within their own district who are calling on them to take leadership and move immigration reform forward. It's time for a permanent solution to this moral crisis," Medina added.

With SEIU's encouragement, and participation by other groups, some 4,000 women began their own 24-hour fasts as the fast4families tour bus rolled through congressional districts in heavily Republican Texas. That tour will culminate in a national day of action in D.C. on April 5, and a 48-hour fast by women on April 7-9.

The second tour, "Give America A Raise," started March 24 in Bangor, Maine, and will end on April 3. Stops include Philadelphia, Cleveland and Chicago.

Backers include the AFL-CIO, the Service Employees, AFSCME and the Auto Workers. During its 18 stops, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Obama administration Labor Secretary Thomas Perez will join, organizers say. That tour demands lawmakers raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by 2016. It's now $7.25. Again, GOP lawmakers, and their refusal to approve the hike, will be the targets.

"Several stops will take place outside the offices of Republicans more interested in helping big corporations avoid paying taxes than helping hard working Americans climb out of poverty and one rung closer to the middle class," said Americans United For Change, the umbrella group organizing the tour. "At each stop, Republicans will be confronted with stories from low-wage workers pressing the need to raise the minimum wage."

Photo: The raise the wage bus gets ready for its nationwide tour on the way to Washington, D.C., part of one of two big nationwide bus campaigns unionists are heavily involved in, leading to marches in D.C. in early April. The other campaign is for immigration reform. Photo courtesy Americans United for Change via PAI Photo Service.

Today in women's history: Suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage dies

Tue, 18 Mar 2014 13:44:00 +0000

Matilda Joslyn Gage was born on March 24, 1826, in Cicero, New York. An only child, she was raised in a household dedicated to putting an end to slavery. Her father, Dr. Hezekiah Joslyn, was a nationally known abolitionist, and the Joslyn home was a station on the Underground Railway.

In 1845 she married merchant Henry Hill Gage, with whom she would have four children. They eventually settled in Fayetteville, New York, and their home also became a station on the Underground Railroad. Although occupied with both family and antislavery activities, Gage was drawn to a new cause: the woman's suffrage movement. Her life's work would become the struggle for the liberation of women.

Unable to attend the first Woman's Rights Convention held in Seneca Falls in 1848, Gage attended and addressed the third national convention in Syracuse in 1852. She became a noted speaker and writer on woman's suffrage.

During the Civil War, Gage was an enthusiastic organizer of hospital supplies for Union soldiers. In 1862 she predicted the failure of the Union to win the Civil War unless there was a plan in place to successfully emancipate the slaves.

Gage, along with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was a founding member of the National Woman Suffrage Association and served in various offices of that organization (1869-1889). She helped organize the Virginia and New York state suffrage associations, and was an officer in the New York association for twenty years. From 1878 to 1881 she published the National Citizen and Ballot Box, the official newspaper of the NWSA.

In 1871 Gage was one of the many women nationwide who unsuccessfully tried to test the law by attempting to vote. When Susan B. Anthony successfully voted in the 1872 presidential election and was arrested, Gage came to her aid and supported her during her trial. In 1880 Gage led 102 Fayetteville women to the polls in 1880 when New York State allowed women to vote in school districts where they paid their taxes.

During the 1870s Gage spoke out against the brutal and unfair treatment of Native Americans. She was adopted into the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk nation and given the name Ka-ron-ien-ha-wi (Sky Carrier). Inspired by the Six Nation Iroquois Confederacy's form of government, where "the power between the sexes was nearly equal," this indigenous practice of woman's rights became her vision.

Gage coedited with Stanton and Anthony the first three volumes of the six-volume The History of Woman Suffrage (1881-1887). She also authored the influential pamphlets Woman as Inventor (1870), Woman's Rights Catechism (1871), and Who Planned the Tennessee Campaign of 1862? (1880).

Discouraged with the slow pace of suffrage efforts in the 1880s, and alarmed by the conservative religious movement that had as its goal the establishment of a Christian state, Gage formed the Women's National Liberal Union in 1890, to fight moves to unite church and state.

Gage remained a supporter of woman's rights throughout her life.

She died in Chicago, Illinois, on March 18, 1898. Her lifelong motto appears on her gravestone in Fayetteville: "There is a word sweeter than Mother, Home or Heaven; that word is Liberty."

Photo: Engraving by J. C. Buttre, after photo of Matilda Joslyn Gage by Napoleon Sarony. Wikipedia.

Right wingers besiege Dallas

Tue, 18 Mar 2014 12:38:00 +0000

Imagine living in a city where unseen powers that be are striving to win the 2016 Republican Convention, have already accepted a convention for the worst anti-worker political organizers in America, and are trying to privatize their entire school district. You are in Dallas.

Mayor Mike Rawlings is hustling support to get the party of racism to convention here. He argues that they nominated Ronald Reagan here, put the "moral majority" together here, and send all their leading spokespersons here to raise money.

To his credit, millionaire sportsman Mark Cuban almost immediately announced that he isn't moving any Maverick basketball games so the GOP can use the main sports arena.

State leaders of the American Federation of Teachers found out recently that the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has already scheduled their national convention in Dallas July 30-August 1.

As always, they will bring right-wing legislators together with the richest corporate backers to cook up anti-worker legislation and strategies that will spread through every state that Republicans control. Local activists are studying ALEC and sounding the alarm.

They are calling on the entire nation to join Dallas protests.

On March 2, investigative reporters at the Dallas newspaper revealed that there were moves afoot to remake the Dallas Independent School district by making it a home rule district free from state regulations.

They explained that a billionaire Houston hedge fund manager and former Enron executive, John Arnold, was implementing a plan to privatize the entire Dallas school district and all 160,000 children in it!

Arnold had been known over the last decade for his attempts to privatize public employees' pensions. Local activists are certain that ALEC, which has made taking people's pensions and undermining public education a priority, was involved.

Arnold's scheme begins with a petitioning campaign, and then proceeds (through some steps laid out in an obscure and forgotten 1995 law) toward placing privatization on the ballot in November.

Although the public was caught completely unawares, one school board trustee, Mayor Rawlings, and former Mayor Ron Kirk almost immediately endorsed the idea. Pressed for details as to how the privatized district would help students, they say they need a "blank page" to go forward.

Dallas activists question whether or not "forward" is actually the direction they intend. At a community meeting on March 11, leaders in education, civil rights, and labor planned an opposition strategy and lambasted the conspiracy against the schools. Reverend Holsey Hickman said that the school takeover scheme "subverts the entire notion of democracy!"

Photo: Don't cut funding for public education! Texas AFT Facebook page.