People Before Profit blog

United Farm Workers' Huerta receives Medal of Freedom

Thu, 31 May 2012 17:02:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Dolores Huerta, co-founder with the late Cesar Chavez of the United Farm Workers and a pioneering organizer and activist for women, workers and Latinas, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a White House ceremony on May 29. Huerta was one of thirteen recipients of the nation's highest civilian honor.

The list spanned a spectrum of work, talent and backgrounds. Some like musical legend Bob Dylan, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, Israeli President Shimon Peres, author Toni Morrison, former astronaut and Ohio senator John Glenn, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stephens or University of Tennessee basketball coach Pat Summitt have more recognizable names and reputations.

Others, made their contributions in a less intense media spotlight like civil rights lawyer John Doar, epidemiologist Bill Foege, anti-discrimination fighter Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi, Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low and anti-Nazi hero Jan Karski.

"It's our job to let them know how extraordinary their impact has been on our lives," President Barack Obama said after draping medals around the honorees.

Huerta's reputation in the labor, civil, women's and immigrant rights movements is legendary. (Story continues after video.)

Huerta and Chavez co-founded the UFW in the grape fields of California 50 years ago, and the ceremony was a week after its convention, in Bakersfield. Under Huerta and Chavez, UFW gained national renown for its nonviolent grape boycotts and activism for farm laborers, many Spanish-speaking and all unprotected by labor law.

UFW learned of the Medal of Freedom for its co-founder a month before.

"Cesar Chavez once described Dolores Huerta as completely fearless, both mentally and physically," current union President Arturo Rodriguez said then.

In introducing Huerta during the medal ceremony, President Obama said, "[W]hen Cesar Chavez sat Dolores Huerta down at his kitchen table and told her they should start a union, she thought he was joking. She was a single mother of seven children, so she obviously didn't have a lot of free time. But Dolores had been an elementary school teacher and remembered seeing children come to school hungry and without shoes. So in the end, she agreed -- and workers everywhere are glad that she did. Without any negotiating experience, Dolores helped lead a worldwide grape boycott that forced growers to agree to some of the country's first farm worker contracts. And ever since, she has fought to give more people a seat at the table. 'Don't wait to be invited,' she says, 'Step in there.'"

The president then added humorously, "And on a personal note, Dolores was very gracious when I told her I had stolen her slogan, 'Si, se puede.' Yes, we can. Knowing her, I'm pleased that she let me off easy - because Dolores does not play."

Obama sketched the recipients' impressive contributions to society in often poetic and sometimes personal terms.

He recalled reading Morrison's "Song of Solomon" in his youth and "not just trying to figure out how to write, but also how to be and how to think."

In college days, Obama said, he listened to Dylan and recalled "my world opening up, because he captured something about this country that was so vital."

However impressive the recipients are, few have carried more cultural and artistic weight than Dylan, who has been described as "essential to the entire narrative of American musical tradition."

"Bob Dylan is one of the most important songwriters in music history. And that is the entire spectrum of recorded music history," said Rock and Roll Hall of Fame director Howard Kramer.

Documentaries, books and college courses all examine his role and writings. His "Blowin' in the Wind" is now synonymous with peace and justice, translated into dozens of languages. He stood alongside civil rights leaders at the height of strife in the Deep South, his songs a soundtrack of those tumultuous times.

"Bob's voice, with its weight, its unique, gravelly power was redefining not just what music sounded like, but the message it carried and how it made people feel. Today, everybody from Bruce Springsteen to U2 owes Bob a debt of gratitude. There is not a bigger giant in the history of American music. All these years later, he's still chasing that sound, still searching for a little bit of truth. And I have to say that I am a really big fan," Obama said.

Photo: President Barack Obama awards labor and rights activist Dolores Huerta the Presidential Medal of Freedom, May 29, at the White House ceremony. (AP)

Coalition steps up fight against Alabama anti-immigrant law

Thu, 31 May 2012 14:55:00 +0000

A coalition of union, civil rights and anti-poverty organizations says it is stepping up efforts to undo the harshest provisions of Alabama's anti-immigrant law, which the groups see as racist and anti-Latino.

In a phone conference today, top officials of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the United Auto Workers union, and the Southern Poverty Law Center said they will pursue litigation, a formal labor complaint, and increased efforts at public awareness.

They will, in effect, tell Alabama's governor and legislature, "If we can't appeal to your humanity, then we will appeal to your pocketbooks," said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

The groups are targeting Alabama's HB 658, which contains draconian measures aimed at undocumented immigrants and which, opponents say, would endanger the state's entire Latino community. The bill is supposed to be milder than an earlier bill that it replaced, HB 56, but the new bill is actually even harsher. It even includes a new "Scarlet Letter" provision, which calls for names and photographs of suspected undocumented immigrants to be published in local newspapers.

Cindy Estrada, vice president of the United Auto Workers, said there is no public benefit to the provision. "What is the point of publishing the names of a person who is believed but not proven to be undocumented, but not convicted of a crime? The purpose of that is ... to encourage vigilantism," she said, adding that it, like most of the rest of the law, is simply aimed at "bullying and intimidating" the Latino community overall.

Also, the law targets undocumented parents of child citizens. This drew particular ire from Estrada, herself a mother, who said she "cannot imagine what it would be like for [the children] to wonder if I as a parent was going to be home for them at the end of every day ... Children should never, ever be put in this position."

Indeed, the bill has roots in political extremism. Mary Bauer, the Southern Poverty Law Center's legal director, noted that the push for the law is led by the state's "most extreme legislator [Republican state Sen. Scott Beason], who said the [immigration] problem could be solved by 'emptying the clip.'"

As part of the newly intensified fightback, the coalition will employ three new tactics. The organizations will conduct a thorough review of all litigation options that could possibly slow down implementation of the bill. The coalition will also pursue a complaint to the International Labor Organization, which could possibly have some influence via U.S. treaty obligations.

The most direct and punishing actions, however, are aimed at the state's economy, specifically at the tourism and automotive industries.

A public education campaign aimed at tourists will have two prongs. Individuals will get the message that they should "choose another site. Alabama is not a state at this time that is worthy of your contributions and support," said Henderson. The same message will be aimed at businesses and organizations that might want to hold conferences and events in Alabama.

The UAW's Estrada announced a "bannering and information campaign against Hyundai beginning today at dealerships across the country." Hyundai is one of several automakers that have plants in Alabama. The coalition had tried to get these companies to speak out, even sending representatives to Korea to discuss the issue with Hyundai's board of directors. Hyundai, after promising to review the information, did nothing.

"By its silence, it endorses a law that hurts its large and loyal Latino base," Estrada said.

Henderson, Estrada, and Bauer emphasized repeatedly that the actions were not a boycott, and that they did not wish to do harm to the economy of the state. They argued that most people in Alabama do not support the anti-immigrant rules, and noted that the victims of the law live there too. Instead, they said, the campaign is to be seen as a demonstration of the power of the movement to overturn discriminatory laws and to get the state's leadership to rethink its position.

Bauer said the law has been terrible for Alabamans, Latino or not. It has caused such "chaos across Alabama" that neighboring Mississippi scrapped proposed similar laws.

Answering a question posed by the People's World, Estrada said, regarding working with both white and Latino UAW members in Alabama, "My experience is that people understand that these are laws that just divide us, rather than focus on the economy, and bring good jobs to the U.S. People are starting to see that our fight isn't with each other, but how to come together ... so everyone can get the American dream no matter what color or gender you are."

Photo: Immigration law protesters outside the senate chamber at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, May 16. Seven demonstrators protesting HB 56, Alabama's toughest-in-the-nation immigration law, were arrested after they tried to block entry to chambers. Mickey Welsh/Montgomery Advertiser/AP

Labor help critical to defeat Walker, "fix Wisconsin"

Thu, 31 May 2012 14:52:00 +0000

MILWAUKEE (PAI) -- With the bitter recall election against right wing Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker coming down to the wire, his foe, Democratic Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, called for outstanding labor support to win and "fix Wisconsin."

Unions nationwide put out a call to their members to help the Wisconsin AFL-CIO mobilize against Walker any way they could, including by making "phone bank" calls* from their homes, offices and union halls in other states. The ground troops union efforts, especially worksite visits and phone banks, counter** the $31 million ad blitz by Walker, his big business backers and the national GOP.

In an op-ed published May 29 in the Milwaukee Labor Press and on its website, Barrett, whom most polls show is a slight underdog against Walker in the June 5 balloting, declared that "we need a new governor to move Wisconsin forward."

"Wisconsin has been torn apart by Walker's ideological civil war and his divide-and-conquer assault on our values and our workers. And we cannot fix Wisconsin and move forward as long as Walker remains governor," Barrett added.

"It was in reference to pitting one worker against another worker in unions that Walker was caught on video tape discussing his 'divide and conquer' strategy with a billionaire donor, long before the rest of the state experienced him 'dropping the bomb,' as he later described his assault on workers' collective bargaining rights."

Walker shoved his law to kill state and local government workers' collective bargaining rights through the GOP-run legislature last year. It stripped 200,000 workers of their rights. It's part of the national war on workers orchestrated by the GOP, the radical right, the American Legislative Exchange Council and parts of big business.

Walker's divide-and-conquer strategy was also exposed when a federal judge in western Wisconsin overturned other parts of the anti-union law - and in the ruling pointed out how Walker discriminated against unions that opposed him in his 2010 narrow win over Barrett, while exempting the unions that supported him.

"Walker's my-way-or-the-highway approach to governing moves us backwards on key issues like jobs, education and women's health. And it has bitterly divided co-workers, family members and friends," said Barrett, a former Teamster at Harley-Davidson.

"Perhaps the biggest difference between your choice of candidate is how we approach tough issues. Walker staunchly refuses to listen to people He would not sit down at a table, look his workers in the eye and negotiate last year," Barrett said, referring to public worker unions' willingness to concede to Walker on financial issues in return for keeping collective bargaining rights.

Walker "turned a blind eye to hundreds of thousands of people who showed up on his doorstep at the Capitol offering to sacrifice, but asking to ... keep their rights.

"These are not our shared Wisconsin values. Wisconsin now leads the nation in job loss," Barrett declared. "I am running because we can't fix Wisconsin as long as Walker remains in office. The Barrett approach will not only heal Wisconsin, respect workers and bring people together, it will focus on creating jobs, protecting education and restoring trust in government, while being fiscally responsible," he added.

After trashing worker rights, Walker also pushed through legislation with massive cuts in state aid to local schools. And he yanked the right - under state law - for women to sue when they discovered pay discrimination against them on their jobs.

A typical request came from Utility Workers President Mike Langford:

"It's absolutely critical that the Wisconsin AFL-CIO receives as much help as possible in their efforts to defeat Walker and restore the rights and dignity of the workers of Wisconsin," Langford e-mailed his members. "Defeat of Walker will send a clear message to other anti-union politicians that their days are numbered if they want to follow in Walker's footsteps.

"But if Walker is re-elected, he will be seen as a hero to powerful interests that want to destroy the middle class, and the current attack on workers will escalate," Langford warned.

"Defeating Walker will have a chilling effect on those that want to do us harm. It will once again show the middle class can stand up against powerful corporate interests and win, just like we did in Ohio by repealing" GOP-pushed legislation there that stripped almost 400,000 state and local workers - with no exceptions-of their collective bargaining rights. The law got clobbered in a referendum, 61%-39%.

"The outcome of this election will not just affect the workers of Wisconsin, it will determine the future of all middle class Americans," Langford concluded.

Photo: Wisconsin AFL-CIO facebook page.

*Readers can call into Wisconsin from home computer by signing up for the AFL-CIO FAN Tool Here

**Click here to donate online. Contributions support Wisconsin AFL-CIO member-to-member program to reach every targeted union voter in the state - it's all about turnout.

Appeals court rules Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional

Thu, 31 May 2012 13:12:00 +0000

BOSTON (AP) - A federal appeals court Thursday declared that the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutionally denies federal benefits to married gay couples, a groundbreaking ruling all but certain to wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

In its unanimous decision, the three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston said the 1996 law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman deprives gay couples of the rights and privileges granted to heterosexual couples.

The court didn't rule on the law's more politically combustible provision, which said states without same-sex marriage cannot be forced to recognize gay unions performed in states where it's legal. It also wasn't asked to address whether gay couples have a constitutional right to marry.

The law was passed at a time when it appeared Hawaii would legalize gay marriage. Since then, many states have instituted their own bans on gay marriage, while eight states have approved it, led by Massachusetts in 2004.

The court, the first federal appeals panel to deem the benefits section of the law unconstitutional, agreed with a lower level judge who ruled in 2010 that the law interferes with the right of a state to define marriage and denies married gay couples federal benefits given to heterosexual married couples, including the ability to file joint tax returns.

The 1st Circuit said its ruling wouldn't be enforced until the U.S. Supreme Court decides the case, meaning that same-sex married couples will not be eligible to receive the economic benefits denied by DOMA until the high court rules.

That's because the ruling only applies to states within the circuit, including Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire and Puerto Rico. Only the Supreme Court has the final say in deciding whether a law passed by Congress is unconstitutional.

Although most Americans live in states where the law still is that marriage can only be the union of a man and a woman, the power to define marriage had always been left to the individual states before Congress passed DOMA, the appeals court said in its ruling.

"One virtue of federalism is that it permits this diversity of governance based on local choice, but this applies as well to the states that have chosen to legalize same-sex marriage," Judge Michael Boudin wrote for the court. "Under current Supreme Court authority, Congress' denial of federal benefits to same-sex couples lawfully married in Massachusetts has not been adequately supported by any permissible federal interest."

During arguments before the court last month, a lawyer for gay married couples said the law amounts to "across-the-board disrespect." The couples argued that the power to define and regulate marriage had been left to the states for more than 200 years before Congress passed DOMA.

An attorney defending the law argued that Congress had a rational basis for passing it in 1996, when opponents worried that states would be forced to recognize gay marriages performed elsewhere. The group said Congress wanted to preserve a traditional and uniform definition of marriage and has the power to define terms used to federal statutes to distribute federal benefits.

Since DOMA was passed in 1996, many states have instituted their own bans on gay marriage, while eight states have approved it, including Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maryland, Washington state and the District of Columbia. Maryland and Washington's laws are not yet in effect and may be subject to referendums.

Last year, President Barack Obama announced the U.S. Department of Justice would no longer defend the constitutionality of the law. After that, House Speaker John Boehner convened the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group to defend it. The legal group argued the case before the appeals court.

Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, the Boston-based legal group that brought one of the lawsuits on behalf of gay married couples, said the law takes one group of legally married people and treats them as "a different class" by making them ineligible for benefits given to other married couples.

"We've been working on this issue for so many years, and for the court to acknowledge that yes, same-sex couples are legally married, just as any other couple, is fantastic and extraordinary," said Lee Swislow, GLAD's executive director.

Two of the three judges who decided the case Thursday were Republican appointees, while the other was a Democratic appointee. Boudin was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, while Judge Juan Torruella was appointed by President Ronald Reagan. Chief Judge Sandra Lynch is an appointee of President Bill Clinton.

Fukushima fallout - U.S. regulatory agency loses top safety advocate

Thu, 31 May 2012 10:09:00 +0000

Last week was bleak for public health and the environment: Gregory Jaczko, who has presided as chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission since the Fukushima Daiichi reactor disaster began in March 2011, has resigned. Dr. Jaczko, alone among his fellow Commissioners, has insisted no new nuclear power plant should be licensed unless and until the operator has committed to making safety upgrades needed to protect against the risk of severe accidents such as occurred at Fukushima. His resignation throws into question whether the NRC will have the fortitude to complete advances commenced under his leadership.

As attorneys who represent environmental groups, civic groups, and neighbors of proposed nuclear power plants in NRC licensing cases, we have watched the NRC’s response to the Fukushima Daiichi accident with concern. From the outset of the accident, Dr. Jaczko took actions that were unpopular with the nuclear industry and his fellow Commissioners but showed a strong commitment to protecting public health and safety. In the first hours of the accident, he prudently recommended the evacuation of all U.S. citizens living within 50 miles of Fukushima, even though U.S. regulations call for evacuation within only 10 miles. His judgment later proved sound.

After the NRC appointed a high-level task force to study implications of the Fukushima accident for the regulation of U.S. reactors, Dr. Jaczko exercised his authority as chairman to ensure that the task force could conduct its review independently, without interference by fellow commissioners or non-task-force staff members. As a result, the task force issued a forceful report that called on the agency to make safety upgrades that had been delayed since the post-Three Mile Island safety review 30 years before. Under Dr. Jaczko’s leadership, the agency adopted many of the task force’s recommendations for improvements to the NRC’s regulatory system for providing a basic level of protection to public health, safety and the environment.

Recently, when the commission was presented with requests for approval of new reactor licenses at the Vogtle site in Georgia and the Summer site in South Carolina, Chairman Jaczko asserted construction and operation of new reactors should not be allowed unless their licenses incorporated firm commitments to implement the Task Force recommendations for post-Fukushima safety upgrades. He was overridden by his fellow commissioners. The new reactors were licensed and are now under construction. As Dr. Jaczko stated in his dissent from the licensing decision, postponing implementation of safety upgrades until after reactor licensing is fraught with difficulty and uncertainty. Once construction is under way or completed, future commissioners may lack the resolve to order expensive design changes that require the ripping out of completed reactor parts. And without Dr. Jaczko, the commission could lack even a dissenting voice.

Although the NRC is an independent federal agency, it has earned the reputation of being “captive” to the nuclear industry. Congress rarely nominates to the commission any individual who lacks industry approval. And it is commonplace for commissioners to land comfortable industry jobs after leaving the agency. In the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, we saw the devastating consequences of such a cozy relationship between the Japanese regulatory agency and the industry it oversees when the government complacently ignored explicit warnings about the seismic risks to the Fukushima reactors. Here, the effectiveness of the NRC’s continuing response to the Fukushima accident could be seriously set back by the loss of Dr. Jaczko’s independent and outspoken advocacy for the prompt and effective adoption of Fukushima-related reforms.

We have a chance to look at the Fukushima disaster, be humbled and learn. Having delayed adoption of safety reforms that were proposed 30 years ago after the Three Mile Island accident, we cannot afford to postpone them any longer.

The Obama administration has nominated a promising candidate for that task, Allison Macfarlane. Dr. Macfarlane, a geologist, has shown she is willing to take unpopular but principled positions by opposing the Yucca Mountain Repository on scientific grounds. She has also co-authored a ground-breaking study on the public health and environmental risks of pool storage of spent reactor fuel. She wisely advocates deep disposal rather than reprocessing of spent fuel on economic and nonproliferation grounds. And she has promoted public participation in the deliberations of the President’s Blue Ribbon Commission on the future of nuclear power in the U.S. She should be appointed chair if she demonstrates a commitment to protecting public safety on a par with Gregory Jaczko.

Diane Curran is an attorney in Washington, D.C. who for 30 years has represented citizen and environmental groups in NRC licensing and enforcement cases. Mindy Goldstein is director of the Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University Law School. They represent nine civic and environmental organizations in a court appeal of the NRC’s decision to license the new Vogtle reactors. This article was distributed by American Forum. It previously appeared in The Hill. © American Forum Photo: Bill Liao // CC 2.0

Community members stand up for soldiers’ right to heal

Wed, 30 May 2012 15:14:00 +0000

A May 24 demonstration outside the Fort Hood main gate in Killeen, Texas, honored soldiers who have committed suicide due to trauma inflicted in combat, and asked General Campbell, the Commanding General of III Corps at Fort Hood, to enforce policies which would improve service members' access to behavioral healthcare.

A group of veterans and civilian supporters identifying as Operation Recovery passed out flyers for a memorial day BBQ along with copies of command policies MEDCEN01 and SURG1 to vehicles entering and exiting the gate.

MEDCEN01 and SURG1 were enacted on Fort Hood to give soldiers' treatment plans the weight of law over operational readiness and allow them to seek care without fear of retaliation from their unit. They are not always enforced at company or battalion level for the sake of expediency and also due to a culture of silence around these issues.

"This action is to shine a light on the fact that those two policies are in place but are not being enforced, and the general needs to take steps to ensure that the policies he put down on the books aren't just merely words but that those words carry meaning." said Jason Matherne, member of Iraq Veterans Against The War (IVAW) and Resident Organizer at Under The Hood, a GI outreach center and café in Killeen through which the Operation Recovery campaign is conducted. Matherne deployed to Qatar in 2008 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Neglect of soldier care has led to a host of appalling consequences over the course of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. General Chiarelli, who compiled a report on the effects of the wars on military personnel entitled Generating Health and Discipline In The Force, told the New York Times in January that 164 active duty service members took their lives in 2011. This sets a record high and can be credited to multiple deployments and a general lack of treatment for conditions like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injury and Military Sexual Trauma.

In spite of these costs, education about MECEN01 and SURG1 has not been a priority on Fort Hood. Operation Recovery is determined to change that. Not only are they working to get these policies into the hands of active duty service members, but they are also pressuring General Campbell to hold a post-wide Safety Stand-down in lieu of these policies.

Post-wide enforcement and knowledge of MEDCEN01 and SURG1 could conceivably force a change in the culture at Fort Hood, giving service members' a basic dignity which has already been denied to too many in the military: that of seeking care for themselves when they are most in need of it.

Overall, the message seemed to resonate with the passing motorists. Matherne said, "There was a little bit of negativity, as there always will be. There was some indifference, but there were a lot of thank-you's from soldiers when we gave them flyers. There was a lot of horn-honking, and there was some genuine interest in it. So, yeah, it was really positive."

Under The Hood is carrying on the legacy of Vietnam-era war resistance coffee houses like The Oleo Strut, whose doors were open in Killeen from 1968 to 1972. The café is run by members of IVAW, active duty service members, and the Civilian-Soldier Alliance (a group of civilian activists working closely with IVAW). As well as being a hub of war resistance culture and action, Under The Hood is a place that champions the rights of service members and their families.

You can send General Campbell an e-mail telling him to hold a Safety Stand-down around MEDCEN01 and SURG1 by clicking here. To find out more about Under The Hood and how to get involved, check out the website.

If you are an active duty soldier and need counseling, medical or legal referral, or just want to know what your rights as a service member are, call the GI Rights Hotline at 877-447-4487.

Photo: Preparing the wounded for transport at Fort Hood. U.S. Army // CC 2.0

There is HOPE for Memphis homeless

Fri, 25 May 2012 17:06:00 +0000

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - On May 21, the Shelby County Commission, in a 9 to 1 vote, agreed to provide $450,000 to help fund programs and housing for people currently experiencing homelessness. This victory for the people of Memphis is due to the hard work of HOPE, Homeless Organizing for Power and Equality. Unlike other organizations that advocate for the homeless, HOPE is made up of and led by people who are experiencing homelessness or who have experienced homelessness in the past.

On May 24, HOPE held a potluck at Manna House, a sanctuary established by Catholic Workers, to celebrate their victory.

John was at the potluck with his young son, August (Auggie) in part because no shelter in the Memphis area will take a single father with a child. John and Auggie lived in his car until it was impounded weeks ago. Since then they've been forced to live in vacant houses, where John worries about Auggie's safety. "You never know what he could step on in a place like that or who could come in," John said.

Thankfully for John and Auggie, $200,000 of the funds HOPE won this week will go to provide permanent supportive housing for families with disabilities and low-income families.

Between dances, Marian Bacon, an Independent Living Specialist at Memphis Center for Independent Living who once experienced homelessness herself, found time to talk.

"No shelter is free, which is discrimination in itself," Marian pointed out. Furthermore, there is "only one shelter for women in Memphis but four or five for men."

Marian went on to discuss how the local shelters discriminate in ways beyond demands for payment. "80 percent are faith-based and if you don't follow their rules, you're out." Equally distressing is the fact that at "Union Mission, if you have a visible physical disability they won't admit you."

If you have a cane, or a walker you are turned away, if you have a wheelchair you literally cannot even make it in the front door. Union Mission does not have a wheelchair ramp or any way for someone in a wheelchair to navigate their front steps. Sadly, many of these faith-based shelters require families to be broken up before they will offer assistance. According to Marian, "If you have a boy over 5-6 years old they'll not admit you unless you put your son in foster care."

Hopefully, some of the prejudice experienced by someone who is currently homeless and physically disabled will be alleviated by the allocation of $250,000 to provide 100 units of housing for "the most vulnerable people on the streets."

There are those who oppose these additions to the county budget. Wyatt Buckner is reported to have said, "Its not the government's job to give people a handout."

Mar'Quella Scott pointed out that he said this "to veterans, to pregnant women, to his constituents." In Mar'Quella's opinion, "the government office is the place for these people to go." As Steve Mullroy, Shelby County Commissioner, said, "It's a question of priorities, do we think it is important to help out the homeless."

Between putting out food, answering phone calls, and making sure people had places to stay, Brad Watkins, an Organizing Director at Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, spoke about HOPE's four core values: "Dignity, Mutual Emotional Support, Solidarity, and Self-Determination."

Since 2009, Brad, with the help of many other people, has been working to organize HOPE into what it is today - a highly effective advocacy and direct action organization made of and led by the community it represents.

As the evening's celebration came to a close, Terrance, a retired Marine who lost two of the fingers on his left hand due to an injury he suffered when his caravan was bombed in Iraq during his third tour, his tenth year at war, put it clearly. "We're good enough to fight for this country, but we're not good enough to get the services we need when we get home." Terrance says, "HOPE gives us hope for a better tomorrow, [it lets us] speak peace in a world of violence."

Photo: John and Auggie. James Raines/PW

Plastic bags to be banned in LA

Fri, 25 May 2012 14:40:00 +0000

In what seems to be part of a steadily increasing effort in the U.S. to find green alternatives to unhealthy materials, Los Angeles, California will, this year, become the largest city to ban plastic bags at grocery stores.

On May 23, the City Council voted 13-1 for the approval of a policy that will ban single-use plastic bags before the end of the year, after an environmental impact report is finished and an ordinance is adopted. This development follows previous plastic bag bans in 48 Californian cities that encourage customers to use reusable bags - which won't litter and clog waterways and landfills.

One of the more recent examples occurred in Solana Beach, California, in April. "We recognize the harm that plastic bags do to our environments," City Councilwoman Lesa Heebner had remarked. "It harms wildlife, and we're small enough to institute something like this and see the difference that it makes."

LA residents will soon see the difference, as well: After the ordinance is adopted there, major stores will be required to phase out plastic bags over a six-month period, during which they will be expected to provide free paper bags. Smaller retail outlets, moreover, would be given a year's time to do away with plastic. Later, retailers will be allowed to charge 10 cents per paper bag if they choose. Residents receiving government assistance would be exempt from that fee, however.

Enrique Zaldivar, director of the city's Bureau of Sanitation, saw this as a major step forward, particularly for a city - population approximately 4 million - that uses about 2.7 billion single-use bags a year. "It's important to conserve the environment," Zaldivar stressed. "The reusable bag will do that."

The decision to move forward with the ban came after previous protests against the use of plastic bags, where environmental activists presented recyclable bags that held thousands of pro-ban petition signatures.

"Today, the Los Angeles City Council took a prudent step to protect the environment and bolster our economy," said Kirsten James, with environmental group Heal the Bay. James, who is the group's director of water quality, added, "The vote further emphasizes that the days are numbered for single-use bags in California."

Actress and Seinfeld alumni Julia Louis-Dreyfus - a board member of Heal the Bay - agreed that it was important for the city to terminate plastic bag usage. "What is hideously ugly, gigantically dangerous and outrageously expensive, and yet we still use it every single day in Los Angeles?" she asked. "No, it's not the 405 [freeway]. It's plastic bags. And unlike most other ugly, dangerous, and expensive things, we can actually get rid of these things overnight."

'Overnight' may be an exaggeration - note again the six-month allowance period for large retailers - but Los Angeles will, indeed, soon say "good riddance" to plastic bags.

Though some manufacturers and union employees voice a legitimate concern that phasing out plastic bags could cost some people jobs, many activists feel it needs to be done, and that, ultimately, it is in workers' best interest.

A large portion of ocean pollution, said Dreyfus, is plastic, and the pollution damages ocean life and, in turn, the jobs that depend on it.

Many now hope that LA will follow the example of San Francisco, which successfully moved to ban plastic bags at major stores in 2007. At such stores, "the public has gotten used to bringing their own bags," said David Assmann, a manager in San Francisco's environment department. "I think it's become a part of the culture here."

Photo: Margie La Bouff of Long Beach, Calif. loads groceries in reusable bags into her vehicle. Steve McCrank/AP & The Daily Breeze

Mariela Castro in San Francisco: Cuba moving toward LGBT equality

Fri, 25 May 2012 12:09:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO - In remarks greeted with vigorous, repeated applause, Mariela Castro Espin, director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education, told a standing-room-only crowd here of the progress Cuba has made toward equal rights for its LGBT community, and the great amount of work that lies ahead to win full equality.

Her May 23 presentation at the S.F. Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center was among several Bay Area appearances this week. On May 24 Castro, who is among dozens of Cuban scholars participating in the Latin American Studies Association's annual meeting, chaired a panel there on sexual politics. Earlier in the week she met with medical professionals and transgender advocates at S.F. General Hospital.

Speaking in Spanish, Castro told the audience that a resolution the Cuban Communist Party passed at its conference in January, to fight against all forms of discrimination including that based on sexual orientation and sexual identity, "opens the door to begin to create public policy."

She called the resolution "a beginning, but an important beginning."

Castro has also reintroduced a bill for civil unions in the National Assembly.

She said the Federation of Cuban Women and the Federation of Cuban Jurists are calling for giving same-sex couples the same rights as opposite-sex couples. Married and unmarried opposite-sex couples already have the same rights.

"We first proposed marriage," she said, "but legal scholars, and some Communist Party members, were up in arms. So as not to lose the fight, we proposed equal recognition of same-sex couples."

A proposal on adoption was also postponed. "So we have to go step by step," she said, "but the important thing is to win rights."

Mariela Castro, the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro and the late Vilma Espin, and niece of former President Fidel Castro, is married, with three children. She said her longstanding concern for lesbian and gay rights grew both from "the sense of social justice that we grow up with in Cuba," and from her mother's work for gay and transgender rights.

Castro also said her mother, as president of the Federation of Cuban Women, had long ago proposed that marriage be defined "as the union between two people"- a concept that has yet to catch on.

Asked her reaction to President Obama's recent statement supporting same-sex marriage, Castro said she is "heartened" by the president's decision. Marriage equality can be a political issue in elections, she said, "I think he speaks from his heart, it is something he really believes in."

She said Cubans "celebrate" Obama's loosening of some restrictions including travel, but observed that the president hasn't been able to return U.S.-Cuba relations to the level during the Carter administration.

To great applause, Castro urged Americans to fight for normalization because the current situation violates not only international law but also the rights of the U.S. people.

"All over the world, people have to continue to fight for different expressions of democracy. This is one of them," she said.

If she had the chance to meet with Obama, Castro said, she would say, "Give me Five! And that's the five political prisoners who infiltrated groups in the U.S. planning terrorist attacks against Cuba."

Anti-Cuba activists have protested the State Department's issuance of a visa to Mariela Castro, in view of restrictions barring visitor visas to Cuban government or Communist Party officials. One such protest, by U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee, came despite Ros-Lehtinen's strong support for gay and transgender rights.

Photo: Castro with program MC Liam Mayclem. Marilyn Bechtel/PW

Wrong turn could kill economic recovery

Fri, 25 May 2012 11:37:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - A top international economic group, representing the world's leading industrial nations, calls the world economic recovery "fragile." And it says the recovery - which other analysts say millions of workers worldwide have yet to see - could reverse into a new recession due to misguided, wrong economic policies.

The May 22 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development adds the U.S. is at risk of that U-turn, in so many words.

Five years after the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market "sparked off the most dramatic financial and economic crisis in several decades...we cannot yet say the crisis is behind us. More than once, signs of recovery have disappointed," said Pier Carlo Padoan, OECD's chief economist.

"Policy mistakes have been made, sometimes reflecting inaccurate reading of events, at other times reflecting policy and political failures. Is it different this time? As long as confidence is not rebuilt on a solid basis with the right policy choices, downside risks will prevail."

OECD forecasts the U.S. jobless rate will keep slowly declining, to 7.9 percent by the fourth quarter of this year. It says Europe is in a tailspin, with joblessness above 10 percent there, and that its problems could drag the rest of the world down. But the U.S. also could hit the skids, OECD says, if its pro-growth measures suddenly get shut off.

"In the United States, growth should continue to strengthen as confidence is picking up in both businesses and households," the report says. "More generally, growth seems to be increasingly driven by private-sector demand rather than by policy. Fiscal consolidation is dragging growth, but only at a moderate pace.

"However, the risk of excessive fiscal tightening in 2013 remains to be addressed. Long-term fiscal sustainability remains to be achieved, and a credible fiscal plan is needed to ensure it. Given the still-weak recovery and sluggish job creation," the Federal Reserve should keep interest rates low to make money available, "conditional upon developments."

The report's reference to "excessive fiscal tightening" is financial language for what may well be a "train wreck" during the lame-duck session of Congress later this year: Payroll tax cuts expire, mandatory budget cuts - half from domestic programs and half from defense - start in January, and Congress will again have to vote on raising the debt ceiling. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has threatened to use that vote to demand more budget cuts, but no tax cuts for the rich.

The combo could kill U.S. demand and throw the U.S. back into an official recession, OECD warns.

Pay your share! Community members crash Chicago Mercantile Exchange

Fri, 25 May 2012 11:24:00 +0000

CHICAGO - The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is Chicago's most profitable corporation and the world's largest futures trading company. Last year it raked in $1.9 billion in profits.

Who would have guessed the Mercantile Exchange needed help from Illinois taxpayers? But when the state legislature passed a corporate tax increase last year CME balked and threatened to leave the state.

So the legislature carved out an $85 million yearly tax break for the Exchange that will total nearly $1 billion over 10 years.

Meanwhile the state has a $5 billion budget deficit and owes another $9 billion in unpaid bills. Gov. Pat Quinn is proposing a budget that will gut health care, education and other vital services.

While the Mercantile Exchange celebrated its gains at its annual shareholders meeting May 23, thousands protested all day demanding that CME pay its taxes and prevent the cuts and massive layoffs.

Before the meeting started, 15 protesters were arrested blocking the Board of Trade.

"CME needs to pay their taxes," said Annette Jones, a home health worker whose job is threatened by state spending cuts. "If CME paid its 'fair share' those cuts might not be necessary."

Then 60 shareholders representing Chicago's neighborhoods, clergy, child care and home care workers, teachers, seniors and the unemployed crashed the CME party.

Janet Edberg, who has been unemployed for two years, bought shares with other community activists so they could attend the meeting and speak out.

"CME made $1.9 billion in profit last year while benefiting from millions of public dollars. That makes every taxpayer a shareholder in CME," said Edberg. "As an official shareholder in CME, I went to the meeting to say enough is enough. Give back our tax dollars to the people and communities that desperately need help."

The proposed budget cuts will devastate home child care programs. Katrina Jefferson runs her own in-home pre-school and afterschool program in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago. She is like thousands of other providers across the state.

In addition to providing care for nine children she is their teacher. "I'm also the driver, psychologist, cook, dietician, and potty trainer. I do it all," said Jefferson.

"I'm here for the parents, because if they don't receive these child care benefits they won't be able to work or go to school. 99% are single mothers."

Jefferson says if the program is slashed or parents are forced to pay higher co-pays, it will make it impossible for her to do her job.

"I don't want to shut down. What are the parents going to do?"

The cuts will have a devastating impact on senior citizens too. "My wife is 88 years old and is afraid of being shipped to a nursing home if we lose our home care if they make these cuts," said Abraham Bassford with the Jane Adams Senior Caucus. "She has no Medicaid."

Another CME shareholder was Alejandro Villatoro, a two-time Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran with 12 years of service. On May 20, Villatoro was one of nearly 50 veterans who returned their service medals during the NATO Summit to protest the wars and military spending.

"In the midst of war, everyone pays a price for our men and women in the armed forces," he said. "We pay 30% in taxes to keep the country safe. Is CME paying its fair share?"

Villatoro said he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The local Veterans Administration hospital is so overwhelmed and understaffed that each caseworker is seeing 20-30 veterans per shift and there is no separate facility for women vets.

"Why would CME require a tax break during a time of war? Shouldn't they be making a sacrifice like I did?" he asked.

"How do you fix the budget deficit?" the crowd yelled. "Tax, tax, tax the rich!"

Thousands protest Philly school closings, layoffs

Fri, 25 May 2012 11:16:00 +0000

PHILADELPHIA - Responding to a call by the Service Employees' International Union, more than a thousand people marched through downtown here and rallied in front of the School Reform Commission offices May 23, protesting the commission's latest consultant-supplied plan for mass closings of public schools, layoffs of staff in all categories, union-busting, and privatization of schools.

The latest scheme comes after a decade of mismanagement by the commission, which was imposed on Philadelphia by the state government in place of the previous Board of Education. This decade has included the conversion of numerous public schools to charter (semi-private) schools, with no overall improvement in results. It has also included a revolving door of superintendents, reliance on the recommendations of private consultants, layoffs, and increased workloads for school workers, among other problems.

Most recently, Republican Gov. Tom Corbett's latest budget starves Philadelphia's public schools, but includes three new prisons.

The May 23 action was seen by its organizers and participants as a response to a national attack on public education and on unions, with Philadelphia as the present prime target.

While most who participated were from SEIU (school bus drivers, maintenance workers, etc.), other unions and of community and school groups were also present. At least one busload of supporters came from New York City, and support rallies occurred in several other cities in Pennsylvania.

The Philadelphia action had a strong spirit of unity and determination in support of public schools, shown by T-shirts, signs, and chants. Speakers included Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, who indicated the PFT's support for the SEIU school workers.

Repeated calls were made for a big turnout at another rally in front of the SRC offices at 440 North Broad Street on Thursday May 31 starting at 4:30 p.m. That is when the SRC is to vote on its current plan. The rally is to demand a vote of "No."

Photo: May 23 Philadelphia march slams plan for school closings, layoffs, privatization, via SEIU 32BJ

NATO protest reflections: Winning tactics vs. dead ends

Thu, 24 May 2012 16:00:00 +0000

CHICAGO - One by one, they threw their medals toward the generals and statesmen behind the high barricades surrounding the NATO Summit in Chicago last week. Nearly 50 veterans made history, rejecting the lies of the 1% that justified shipping them to war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It was one of the most profoundly moving events I have ever witnessed.

Unfortunately, their story of courage and heroism, and the largely peaceful nature of the May 20 protest and week of protests leading up to it, was buried behind headlines of violent clashes between some protesters and police.

There were in fact two protests that day: the organized mass peaceful expression - which ended with the veterans asking people to disperse peacefully - and then the confrontation with police afterward.

No one, certainly not the coalition that organized the main ceremony and march, sanctioned the confrontation and the desire by some to march through police barricades to the site of the NATO Summit.

Police violence at the demonstration and during the week, the 45 arrests and ongoing detentions, the holding at gunpoint of independent journalists who were "live streaming" the events, the alleged entrapment of several young activists on terrorism charges - all these must and are being widely condemned.

However, neither can they excuse or justify in any way the provocations that emanated from some protesters.

These incidents overshadowed the largely nonviolent nature of the protests and drowned out the main message: End the wars and militarization and reallocate desperately needed funds to create jobs and fund education, health care and affordable housing.

They especially overshadowed the veterans' message, which has wide and deep resonance among the American people.

They also overshadowed the struggle waged for the right to protest, for free speech and assembly, and the fight against Mayor Rahm Emanuel's "Sit Down and Shut Up" ordinances.

These experiences provide important tactical lessons for the peace and justice and Occupy movements to reflect on, especially for the many young, deeply committed activists who possess a fervent hatred of capitalism, gross inequality and injustice, and who are gaining valuable experiences in this upsurge.

Among the Occupy (and earlier anti-globalization) movements, a problematic trend has developed. That trend has a political expression, which sees confrontation with police, vandalism and hyper-aggressive tactics as its central tenets.

This trend usually manifests itself in the self-proclaimed "Black Bloc." Its tactics here at the NATO protests, which included bullying peaceful protesters, alienated the overwhelming majority of us who marched.

Why can a small yet disruptive grouping wreak so much havoc on a majority peaceful movement? Because there is a trend among the left that also sees confrontation with the police as a viable revolutionary and anti-capitalist tactic, and therefore accommodates groups like the Black Bloc in the name of "diversity of tactics."

It is said in the name of "inclusiveness" that those who profess confrontational tactics have a right to do so, that tactics of nonviolence and confrontation can co-exist in one movement.

Unfortunately, march organizers decided not to publicly renounce violence on the grounds of preserving unity. Instead they only spoke out against the violence the emanates from NATO and police.

Such tactics and talk may sound militant and even appear to be delivering a blow against capitalism. But, on the contrary, they play into the hands of the 1%.

Let's be real. In order to confront ruling class power, a broad-based unified, diverse and mobilized movement among wide sections of the American people is necessary. Tactics - from the forms of protest to the kinds of demands and slogans - play a major part in mobilizing, unifying and winning over broad sections of the public.

The American people understand the use of nonviolent civil disobedience in pursuit of a great cause and high moral purpose. It is an indelible part of our multi-racial, working-class history of struggle.

But they are equally turned off when violence is perpetrated or advocated by those who profess change.

Such tactics do nothing to expand the coalition or build the movement for immediate or long-term change.

They do damage by feeding into ruling class crackdowns, including anti-democratic laws and statutes.

It was the specter of violence that Chicago Mayor Emanuel used effectively to gain passage of restrictions on First Amendment rights.

Certainly, there should be no illusions about the role of the police as an institution, let alone the history of brutality of the Chicago Police Department.

But neither should one ignore how ruling circles and authorities have exploited a permissive attitude toward violence to infiltrate and entrap, to provoke violent acts that split groups or narrow movements, driving away the broader political allies needed for victory.

Such tactics ultimately spell doom for any movement. The upsurge of the 1960s is replete with examples including the destruction of groups and tragic death of many young activists like Black Panther Fred Hampton.

The most powerful mass movements effecting historic change have been based on nonviolent civil disobedience: the civil rights movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King; the anti-Vietnam War movement; the U.S. anti-apartheid struggle and the organization of industrial unions, to name a few.

More recently, nonviolent civil disobedience has effectively won public support for workers and immigrant rights and saving the environment. It forced the racist murder of Trayvon Martin into the national spotlight.

The aim of any tactic must be to build a majority movement of the most powerful class and social forces capable of winning. The value of a tactic can be determined in how well it achieves this.

Any tolerance for violence, provocation or confrontation is a political dead end.

Did Dharun Ravi verdict bring justice for Tyler Clementi?

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:22:00 +0000

In September 2010, Tyler Clementi, a freshman at Rutgers University, where I have taught for 41 years, committed suicide. Soon it was discovered that Clementi, who was gay, had been harassed by his roommate, Dharun Ravi, who used a computer web camera to both film and send to other students Clementi's sexual liaison with an older man.

As a member of the Rutgers Faculty Senate I called for a policy of expelling students who commit such acts against fellow students, faculty, or staff members. The response of the administration was to do nothing and wait for the incident to blow over. Quietly, the administration did enact a few mild dormitory reforms, permitting LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) students to opt out of difficult room situations, but it did little to address either the issue of homophobia or the most elemental right to privacy. The New Jersey state legislature responded with strong anti-bullying legislation.

Ravi refused to admit that his actions were motivated by anti-gay bigotry, claiming they were merely a prank. There was much disbelief of that claim in the Rutgers community.

At the same time, Ravi apparently feared taking the plea bargain offered him (a guilty plea and no jail time) because he would be subject to deportation, which some people felt was unfair. Ravi, who is from India, is a member of a U.S. minority group which has faced hate crimes and violence in New Jersey.
Ravi was subsequently tried and convicted. Potentially, he faced up to 10 years in prison. Most observers believed that a prison sentence was necessary under New Jersey law, but some felt that sending him to prison would only enhance the tragedy.

This week the sentence was handed down: 30 days in jail, plus community service and an $11,000 fine. Gay activists and others across the political spectrum expressed anger because of the perceived trivial nature of the sentence.

Rutgers students were not on campus when the sentence was announced. However, the outgoing university administration, busy with its refusal to sign a collective bargaining agreement with part-time lecturers (the most vulnerable group of faculty members), said nothing.

How can we make sense of this tragic and complicated case? Conservatives, broadly defined, usually believe in punishment as the solution to bad actions, although they are selective about who is to be punished. Progressives, broadly defined, usually believe that punishment in itself without rehabilitation leads to further bad acts.

In this case, punishment, given the New Jersey hate crime law, was clearly merited. One can say that the mild sentence in itself undermines the purpose and effectiveness of the statute. But treatment and rehabilitation for Ravi, as an individual, and prevention of such acts should be the primary responsibility of government.

His actions led directly to the death of Clementi and he needed to atone for his crime. Ravi should not have had to fear deportation for his plea bargain. But he should, as part of any plea bargain or trial sentencing, have been made to admit and understand why he did what he did.

For example, he could have been ordered to work with both gay rights activists and public officials to help high school and college students understand why the targeting of gay men and lesbians for intimidation and humiliation violates elemental human rights. In effect, he should have been given the choice of becoming a spokesman against homophobia.

If he refused to engage in that course of conduct, then he should have been given a major prison sentence under the law. That would have constituted justice for Tyler Clementi.

As for the outgoing Rutgers University administration, which for years has engaged in self-congratulations about the diversity of its student body, it is too late now to use this tragedy to develop a required course of anti-discrimination education for all incoming students, and too late for it to confront the consequences of its policies.

High tuition costs, threats from financial loan services, poor conditions in dormitories and classrooms - these are the subtext for undergraduate students' lives at Rutgers today.

These policies, which are the national trend in public universities, follow the example of private corporations and contribute to the anti-social acts that a small number commit.

I will recommend such a required course next year in the Rutgers University Faculty Senate. Hopefully, the incoming administration will be open to such ideas and listen seriously to the undergraduate students whose education, both professional and citizenship, is the foundation and future of Rutgers University and all U.S. public universities.

Photo: Dharun Ravi arrives at court for his sentencing hearing in New Brunswick, N.J., May 21. (AP/Mel Evans)

Florida’s Orange County OKs domestic partnerships

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:11:00 +0000

ORLANDO, Fla. - Orange County, Fla., home of Walt Disney World, became the second county in Central Florida to pass a domestic partnership ordinance May 22. That day would have been the 82nd birthday of LGBTQ rights pioneer Harvey Milk.

The county commission passed the Health, Education, and Life Protections and Domestic Partnership Registry ordinance by a 6-1 vote. The measure, which goes into effect July 6, will allow unmarried individuals to gain legal recognition and some legal rights for their relationships.

"I'm really excited that two years of work came to fruition today," said Joe Saunders, state field director of Equality Florida, which along with the Orlando Anti-Discrimination Ordinance Committee (OADO) spearheaded the campaign for passage.

Provisions that allowed punitive damages and attorney's fees to be awarded to those who won lawsuits brought for ordinance violations came under fire from commissioners. They voted to strike the punitive damages, citing the potential expense to county government if its agencies were sued, and the fact that only plaintiffs' attorneys would have been awarded fees if they prevailed.

"Removing the punitive damages makes it a little bit weaker than it could have been, but it's still a powerful law that's going to help a lot of people," said Saunders.

Commissioners, in response to activists' concerns, also added "Domestic Partnership Registry" to the ordinance title in order to clarify that it, in effect, creates domestic partnerships although it uses the terms "designating person" and "support person" in place of "domestic partner."

Orlando and Orange County will now give those who are registered identical rights: health-care facility and jail visitations, and the ability to make emergency medical, funeral and burial decisions for each other and to designate each other as a pre-need guardian, and to participate in making decisions about the education of minor children in the household. Notification of partners is also required in emergencies.

Around 20 people spoke in favor of the measure with only three speakers expressing opposition. Many audience members wore red to signify their support.

Orlando civil rights attorney Mary Meeks, of OADO, said the measure would benefit more than 100,000 Orange County residents in unmarried partnerships.

Meeks told commissioners about two friends who "literally went through living hell" when one of them became seriously ill and then died.

"Although they had the recommended legal documents [to try to establish their rights as partners], they did not have the rights you are granting here today," said Meeks.

"It was heartbreaking to witness what they went through, and this ordinance will prevent future tragedies," she said.

Vicki Nantz made a documentary about Ryan Skipper, a 25-year-old Florida man who died in 2007 after being stabbed 19 times. His murderers, two unemployed methamphetamine addicts with criminal pasts, targeted him simply because he was gay.

"Our culture was complicit in Ryan's murder because it taught his killers that Ryan's life was less valuable than theirs. That he was less deserving of respect, dignity, equality and life itself," said Nantz.

She said passage of the ordinance would tell the world that the county doesn't condone discrimination or exclusion. (Article continues below video)

The Rev. Brad Rice, a minister at Orlando's Joy Metropolitan Community Church, said his faith tradition calls for compassion and fairness for all families.

Rice, who wore a red T-shirt emblazoned with "Would Jesus Discriminate?," spoke about a man from a neighboring county who was counseled by the church after the death of his longtime partner. The lack of legal rights for unmarried partners allowed the dead man's biological family to bar the surviving partner from assisting with or attending his memorial service.

"To add insult to injury, the volunteer chaplain sent by rescue personnel told this hurting and grieving widow that his partner was already in hell, and that he would be going there, too," said Rice.

"We need for all families, no matter how they're configured, to be recognized legally, so that in times of crisis pain is not added to pain," he said.

Orlando's registry has become a model for other local governments around the state, according to Equality Florida. Tampa, Gulfport, Volusia County, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Sarasota, Pinellas County and Belle Isle now have or may adopt similar measures. Volusia became the first Central Florida county to do so on May 17.

Photo via Equality Florida.

The new health care law and you – Ask a doc!

Thu, 24 May 2012 11:49:00 +0000

CLEVELAND - A group of physicians here has formed a speakers bureau dubbed, "The New Healthcare Law and You - Ask a Doc!" With the help of staff from the Universal Health Care Action Network (UHCAN), the doctors began fanning out across the region this spring speaking to audiences of all kinds to inform people about the changes under way and new benefits from national health reform.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), referred to by some as "Obamacare," is being implemented over several years. Although the law was enacted in March 2010 and millions of people are already experiencing some of the benefits, most people are either unaware or misinformed as to its actual provisions.

At a recent meeting of AFSCME retirees, Drs. Rochele and Nathan Beachy, husband-and-wife family practitioners, shared their view of how the ACA is a big step toward transforming "our sick care system to a health care system." They described their personal "health care horror story" about their son who developed a brain tumor in his teens and who is now able to be on their insurance policy until age 26, thanks to the ACA.

The Beachys described the positive changes the ACA is bringing about in "care, costs and quality." They said, "No one should die for lack of insurance, no one should go bankrupt for getting sick, and payments will be tied to actual improvements in health."

Attendees at the AFSCME meeting were especially interested in learning about the 24 preventive services now available with no co-pay for Medicare beneficiaries under the ACA. They were very glad to get a checklist of these services, downloaded from www.healthcare.gov, so they could make sure their insurance companies and doctors abided by these new consumer protections that are also helping keep people healthy.

Photo: Bernard Pollack // CC 2.0

Activists abuzz over Bayer’s bee killing

Wed, 23 May 2012 16:40:00 +0000

Pharmaceutical corporation Bayer's pesticides has been a huge contributor to the decline of the bee population, and on May 16, some 90+ activists gathered in San Pablo Park in West Berkeley, California, near where one of the Bayer facilities was located, to protest the company's insect-killing. Many of the demonstrators were dressed up as bees.

The goal of what was called the "Bee-in at Bayer" was to draw attention to the fact that Bayer's chemicals are directly linked to Colony Collapse Disorder - the syndrome that leaves once-full bee hives empty and devoid of life.

"All we're saying is, 'give bees a chance'!" declared one protester. "Bees for our nation, not your corporation!" cried another. And yet another demonstrator held a sign that read, "Honk if You Like Bees." Many passersby did, indeed, honk. In fact, the protest reportedly received an enthusiastic and appreciative response. Finally, some of the activists also outlined the oft-ignored fact that Bayer once played a role as a chemical weapons manufacturer for Nazi Germany.

"Ninety percent of our food crops are pollinated by bees," noted a leaflet handed out by the organizers. "Our entire ecological system depends on them."

Many beekeepers attended the demonstration, including Kathryn Gilje, co-director of the Pesticide Action Network, an international grassroots coalition fighting for environmentally sound alternatives to pesticide. She commented that while, in the hive in her backyard, "the bees are doing just great; producing lots of honey," not all are so fortunate:

Another bee host said that her community of backyard bees slowly started to dwindle in numbers, and as she researched the situation, she realized that the culprits were two pesticides (Imidacloprid and Clothianidin), which are currently some of Bayer's best-selling products.

According to the Coalition Against Bayer network, one third of honeybees in the U.S. continue to die off per year.

And although Bayer promised to suspend production of Class 1 chemicals that immediately threaten human health, it has neither said nor done anything about the ones that affect insects, plants, and animals.

The activists eventually made a "beeline" for the nearby Bayer plant, where they were instructed to "swarm!" When no one working at the plant offered to meet with, talk, or listen to the protesters, a few organizers delivered a speech, culminating in the group symbolically presenting Bayer with the sarcastic 'Poisoned Heart Award.' That award was little more than a giant, lumpy sack dripping with a thick coating of Hershey's chocolate sauce.

In conclusion, the demonstrators dressed in yellow-and-black bee attire really drove the point home by shaking, stumbling, and collapsing onto the ground. "But I don't want to die!" cried a female would-be bee as she went down. "My honey!" cried another. "I haven't finished making my honey!"

Finally, if that hadn't been clear enough, two protesters raised a banner with a simple message: "Mystery Solved! Bayer is Killing Bees."

Photo: The Coalition Against Bayer Network.

Immigrant rights activists say keep families together

Wed, 23 May 2012 16:32:00 +0000

DETROIT - Pressure is growing on immigration authorities to release Gustavo Vargas.

Vargas, the father of four U.S. citizen children, has led a crime free life but now sits in a Monroe County jail. In his 23 years in the U.S., his only brush with law enforcement has been his immigration status.

"The Vargas family shows how desperately we need immigration reform now. Gustavo is a small business owner, he employs people, he's not stealing anyone's job, he's creating jobs" declared Chris Michalakis, President of the Metro Detroit AFL-CIO.

Michalakis made his appeal Friday while speaking at an Alliance for Immigration Reform (AIR) rally outside the Detroit offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Immigrant rights activists are demanding the Department of Homeland Security stick to its professed priorities of only deporting dangerous criminals and focus on people who pose a safety risk.

Vargas is an active member of Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Southwest Detroit, where his wife Rogelia serves as a deacon. Petitions and letters demanding his release have been signed by congregants and community supporters and were given to ICE officials at the rally.

Mary Turner, who works in the office of State Representative Rashida Tlaib, D - Mich., told the crowd "we need more people like Mr. Vargas. He's paying taxes to the city of Detroit that so desperately needs money."

She worried what will happen to the family left behind as his wife and children will have to fend for themselves, possibly forced to go on welfare. "Does it make any sense?" she asked.

Turner spoke from the experience of her own family who also were once "immigrants without documentation." Many years previously, her father came north from Mexico following the footsteps of his great grandfather.

In contrast to today, her father was welcomed by immigration authorities when they arrived in Detroit and her parents and siblings all made many contributions to the new community that became their home.

"I hate the word illegal, nobody is illegal," she added.

Rogelia Vargas, Gustavo's wife, thanked AIR, the churches, and the labor unions for working to keep families united. "We are learning to get together to tell our stories, to not fear. We will continue to struggle until we win," she said.

Michalakis called on Congress and President Obama's administration to do more to keep families like the Vargas's together saying, "We cannot deport our way to prosperity."

Photo: Senator Coleman Young Jr., father of Leo Reilly of St. Anne's Church, AIR organizer Roxanne Rodriguez, President of the Detroit AFL-CIO Christos Michalakis, and Rogelia Vargas (with son) spouse to Gustavo. Alliance for Immigration Reform

In the “other Chicago,” mental health patients out of options

Wed, 23 May 2012 14:11:00 +0000

CHICAGO - This past weekend, millions gathered in the Windy City for the NATO summit. But over in the "other Chicago" - the inner city, Latino and African American-majority neighborhoods, people are suffering. People's World toured the Back of the Yards community, where a mental health clinic was recently shut down, and got a very different picture of reality than the one tourists saw downtown.

N'dana Carter, organizer with South Side Together Organized for Power, underscored the severity of the issue, in which Mayor Rahm Emanuel decided to move forward with the termination of six out of 12 of the city's mental health clinics.

"We've had 18 people from [the Back of the Yards facility] hospitalized since it closed," Carter explained. "They've had anxiety; fear; attempted suicide. The [city's] decision has been to ignore the needs of the people."

To add insult to injury, the shutdown of a half-dozen clinics came while the city raised more than $36 million for the NATO conference. $14 million of that paid for wine and caviar parties for diplomats and heads of state. "It would take ony 2.3 million of that to fund the clinics for one year," said Margaret Sullivan, who overcame suicidal depression under the care of another clinic in Chicago's Beverly/Morgan Park area. "They say there's no money, but look how they found $36.5 million for this summit so quick."

Gesturing at the needy Back of the Yards community, Carter remarked, "This clinic was the heartbeat of this community. And many of the people there were undocumented. The city has chosen to sweep all this under the rug."

So, she said, now patients are forced to see private therapists, while those who worked at the clinics are now out of jobs. "They fired all the Black male therapists, and half of the Hispanic male therapists. Many of them had no other jobs to take, and went on to work at kennels, euthanizing animals." In the meantime, "A lot of private providers are closing. It's important that public health services stay public."

Indeed, Debbie Delgado, a woman whose son was shot to death in street violence in Nov. 2006, had been receiving therapy sessions to deal with her resultant depression. Her two sons had been shot, she said, and her older one (21), died in the arms of his younger brother (19), who survived the attack.

Now, she said, her youngest son is slipping away too, and the news that the clinic was closing had come as a blow to him. "He refuses to take medication now," she stressed. "He doesn't want to be in society. He wants to be with his brother. With the closing of these clinics, people are losing hope.

"When I found out how much money goes to wars and just for this summit, I got so upset. We have nowhere else to go."

Another patient, Marti Luckett, said, "14 years ago, I had a mental breakdown. I was alone, and I felt that I had nowhere to turn." But this clinic, she said, was a place in which she got better. She declared that the city ought to "be practical: It only makes sense to have these facilities available to the people who need them."

One patient, who had been suicidal, actually took a turn for the better in her health after she got involved in the fight to maintain mental health care services. "When I realized that with the cuts the city was trying to kill me," she said, "I decided to stay alive just for spite."

The tour through the neighborhood was headed up by the Grassroots Collaborative coalition, whose member Amisha Patel said, "Long after NATO is done, there will still be struggle. That's the reality of the situation. Community residents have a voice, too, and it should be listened to.

"But there's a disconnect between the priorities of local folks and those at the top."

"There are a lot of patients right now," said Delgado, "who are slowly dying. We only ask for $2.3 million to keep six clinics open, but the city would rather spend it on wining and dining, and planting flower boxes downtown." Meanwhile, she concluded, "Our community is dying."

Photo: Debbie Delgado talks with reporters about the wrongs being done to former patients of the shut down clinics, who need help. Blake Deppe/PW

Massachusetts: job creation up, unemployment down

Wed, 23 May 2012 12:32:00 +0000

Massachusetts must be doing something right.

Perhaps the nation's most Democratic and liberal state, Massachusetts has experienced months of declining unemployment rates. The most recent data released by the state's Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development shows that the Massachusetts unemployment rate declined again in April.

The seasonally adjusted rate was 6.3 percent. Just over a year ago, the figure was 7.5 percent, and the national figure stands at 8.1 percent.

Unemployment in Massachusetts has not been so low since before October 2008, when it was at 6.1 percent.

The administration of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, a Democrat, has focused on job creation, especially in the high tech and life sciences in sector.

"Massachusetts is leading the world in the life sciences thanks to our growth strategy of investing in education, innovation and infrastructure," Patrick said May 16 at a groundbreaking ceremony for a new facility. "I am proud of this investment and I look forward to seeing the Massachusetts Accelerator for Biomanufacturing create jobs and further strengthen our leadership in the life sciences."

The MAB is described as the "only facility in the United States where startups will be able to test their biomanufacturing methods and bioproducts at every stage of development and access full-service support from business and marketing to pure science support - all under one roof. The MAB is designed to serve researchers and entrepreneurs as they develop products and methods that will reshape the fields of biotherapeutics, biomedicine and green chemistry."

The MAB, a new facility at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, is projected to create 120 construction jobs immediately and ten permanent jobs once it is built. Beyond that, the administrations hopes it will "strengthen Massachusetts' standing as a world leader in the life sciences industry." In so doing, it is hoped, the MAB will attract more high-tech jobs to the area.

The state labor office released May 22 employment data for the city, town, and metropolitan levels. This information portrayed an increase in employment in most areas. Unemployment was down in each of the state's statistical employment areas except for one, Amherst.

The figures also showed that the decline in unemployment was not simply due only to people having given up searching for jobs and dropping out of the labor force The state's count of jobs is measured in twelve different areas, and 11 of them saw seasonal increases in jobs. Eight of these twelve regions saw an increase in jobs over the year ending in April.

More than 10,000 jobs were created in the Massachusetts section of the Boston metropolitan area alone. Other areas also saw big increases, including Worcester, Mass., where nearly 4,000 jobs were created.

Patrick supporters argue that the state's success in job creation has been strengthened by an administration that works in partnership with the federal government, especially the Obama administration. For example, money from the Obama stimulus program was used to build a highway off-ramp leading directly to the park.

Governor Patrick's popularity extends beyond Massachusetts. Touring the country in support of his friend President Barack Obama's reelection campaign, Patrick has drawn huge crowds, especially in the South.

Photo: Gov. Deval Patrick, right of red jacket, pitches in at MAB groundbreaking. Office of Governor Patrick // CC 2.0