People Before Profit blog

Arizona marches against hate

Mon, 31 May 2010 14:48:00 +0000

PHOENIX -- It may have been Arizona's biggest demonstration ever. The May 29 protest against SB1070 drew tens of thousands. SB 1070 is Arizona's newest racist law, allegedly aimed at undocumented immigrants, but which is sure to expose millions to racial profiling and intimidation by state and local police.

Organizers estimated the crowd at 150,000. Marchers filled all five lanes and the sidewalks of Washington Avenue as marchers arrived for a rally at the state Capitol, and an hour and a half later they were still arriving. Tens of thousands more avoided the five-mile walk in the Arizona heat and joined in at the Capitol. Many thousands "without papers" were part of the protest, carrying signs which read, "Undocumented - unafraid."

Protesters were male and female, young and old, black, brown and white. They were festive and spirited, but determined to fight back against Governor Jan Brewer and the ultra-right gang that runs the state legislature.

Thousands came from California, Texas, and every state in the union. Thousands more came from Tucson, Flagstaff, Prescott and other Arizona cities and towns. Most of the demonstrators, however, were residents of Phoenix and Maricopa County already burdened by years of racist harassment from Sheriff Joe Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas.

At the rally, one speaker after another denounced SB1070 and called on the Obama administration to intervene to protect human rights.

The program opened with a Native American ceremony with speakers pointing out that immigrants targeted by SB1070 are mostly indigenous people from Mexico and Central America and that it will subject all Mexican American and Native people to intimidation and racial profiling.

"Today we are demanding that Congress pass comprehensive immigration reform, not next week, not next month - do it now!" thundered AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

Labor leaders have written President Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano calling on the federal government to not collaborate with Arizona in implementing this law, he said, adding that the answer is a jobs bill that will put all Americans back to work at decent wages.

SEIU International Executive Vice President Elisio Medina denounced Arizona's right-wing politicians, including Senators Kyl, and McCain for backing the racist law, calling on them to, "Come back from the dark side" and noting that history will reward courage and not political expediency.

Also speaking were Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, United Farm Worker leader Dolores Huerta, Isabel Garcia from Tucson's Coalicion de Derechos Humanos, Phoenix's the Rev. Warren Stewart of the First Institutional Baptist Church, and many more public officials and community leaders.

Music was provided by Jenni Rivera and the Outer Nationals.

There were numerous calls to repeal the racist SB1070 as well as the recently passed law to outlaw ethnic studies in state schools. Speakers and signs called for defeating Governor Brewer and the racist legislators in November when Brewer and the entire legislature will be up for reelection.

The human rights organizations, which organized the rally, are now planning the next steps in the campaign against SB1070: massive voter registration and turn out the vote campaigns, coupled with keeping up the almost daily street protests and grass roots organizing.

Later the same day a rally in support of SB1070 attracted a much smaller crowd of supporters. TV coverage of that rally showed an older and almost entirely white gathering. As usual, most of the corporate media gave that relatively tiny gathering equal coverage.

Photo: Protesters take to the streets by the tens of thousands on May 1, 2010, including in Tucson, Ariz., pictured above. (PW)

C-SPAN broadcasts Communist Party USA keynote

Mon, 31 May 2010 13:56:00 +0000

Communist Party USA National Chairman Sam Webb delivers his keynote to the CPUSA convention, May 21, and C-SPAN broadcasts it on May 31. To view it, click here.

More CPUSA convention stories and videos:

CPUSA: A fighting spirit

Communist Party convention opens in New York

CPUSA delegates eye November elections

Homeless tent cities grow in the West

Highlights from CPUSA's 29th Convention

On technology, what would Lenin do?

Streamed: Keynote to convention

Texans join Arizona's anti-SB 1070 mega-march

Sat, 29 May 2010 13:24:00 +0000

SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- It was 4 a.m. May 28 when the "Liberation Caravan" left from the Southwest Workers Union hall here in San Antonio to join anti-SB 1070 protesters in Arizona. Most of the "caravanistas" were young people. But there were a few older men and women, including a woman in a wheelchair. Local TV stations had reporters and cameras at the sendoff.

SB 1070 is Arizona's recently passed state law that authorizes local law enforcement to stop "suspected" undocumented immigrants. The law has prompted a nationwide boycott of the state, lawsuits and numerous other protests. (Click here to see People's World ongoing coverage.)

Women who formed "Fuerza Unida," when they lost their jobs with the Levi jeans plant when it moved to Mexico, joined the caravan, too.

The caravan planned an 18-hour drive, stopping in El Paso for more protesters.

Everyone felt strong about protesting this law, which singles out people of color, especially Latinos, for racial profiling. A resolution and petitions against this law is being sent to the San Antonio City Council. The resolution explains not only why Arizona's state law is unconstitutional but is racist as well. All people are welcome to join in their fight, protesters said. Many other people -- including from Europe -- suffered as immigrants when they came to this country. The forces trying to divide and make workers hate each other are the only ones that gain financially, many protesters say.

People have been driven in a vast migration to the United States, especially from Mexico, as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement, an unfair trade agreement that has favored corporate profits. In the past 12 years, it has dumped corn on Mexico, driving millions off their farms into factories -- in Mexico and the United States -- where they work for the lowest of wages and under dangerous conditions. The treaties stop them from fighting for their rights or unionizing.

Photo: Vivian Weinstein/PW

Congress moves to repeal ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’

Fri, 28 May 2010 15:40:00 +0000

Gay, lesbian, civil rights groups and supporters say the move by Congress Thursday, May 27, toward ending the U.S. military's controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy was a historic step forward.

The House of Representatives voted by a 234-194 margin to repeal the 1993 law that allows gay people to serve in the armed forces as long as they conceal their sexual orientation.

Separately, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved a similar measure toward dismantling the law, which critics call discriminatory.

Supporters of ending "don't ask, don't tell" hail the two votes as a matter of basic fairness and civil rights.

The move is a big victory for President Barack Obama, who has actively supported ending the policy, and for gay rights groups who made the fight to repeal the law their top legislative policy this year.

In a statement Obama said he was pleased by the House vote and said it was an important bipartisan step toward ending the law.

"This legislation will help make our armed forces even stronger and more inclusive by allowing gay and lesbian soldiers to serve honestly and with integrity," said the president.

Before the vote and in a floor speech House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said, "On Memorial Day, America will come together and honor all who served our nation in uniform. I urge my colleagues to vote for the repeal of this discriminatory policy and make America more American." By ending this policy, "We honor the values of our nation and we close the door on a fundamental unfairness," she said.

Critics of "don't ask, don't tell" say the law does not serve the best interests of the U.S. military and does little to reflect the best values of the country's deep democratic traditions. It's unfair that thousands of service members have been pushed out of the armed forces not because they were inadequate or bad soldiers, sailors, Marines or airmen but because of their sexual orientation, they note. Of the 13,500 who have been discharged under the law more than 1,000 filled critical occupations, such as engineers and interpreters, they add.

The vote was taken after its chief sponsor and Iraq war veteran Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Penn, offered it as an amendment to the House's version of the defense authorization bill. The provision was adopted and the House is expected to vote on the Pentagon policy on Friday.

Speaking from the House floor Murphy said, "When I served in Baghdad, my team did not care whether a fellow soldier was straight or gay." He continued, "Could they do their job so that everybody in our unit could come home safely? With our military fighting two wars, why on earth would we tell over 13,500 able-bodied Americans that their services are not needed," he asked.

The full Senate is expected to take up the defense bill next month, and Republicans are threatening a filibuster if the change in policy toward gays remains in the legislation.

Yet the efforts of a Republican-led filibuster are slim because the move to end the policy shares bipartisan support in Congress including from Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen.

According to both the House and Senate measures, a repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" would take effect only after the completion of a Pentagon Working Group study due Dec. 1. The nearly year-long review is expected to detail how such a repeal would be implemented and how it would affect service members.

"Lawmakers today stood on the right side of history," said Joe Solmonese, president of Human Rights Campaign, a national gay rights organization, in a statement.

"The importance of this vote cannot be overstated - this is the beginning of the end of a shameful ban on open service by lesbian and gay troops that has weakened our national security," said Solmonese. "The stars and aligning to finally restore honor and integrity to those who serve our country so selflessly."

However others say they won't be satisfied until an actual date is set for lifting the current ban and implementing a more transparent new policy.

Speaking to ABC News Lt. Dan Choi, a 29-year-old openly-gay service member whose discharge is pending said, "I don't agree that we have to accept compromises when there's complete injustice."

He adds, "As far as we're concerned, we have a responsibility to continue asking, when are you going to fully repeal discrimination, when can soldiers finally tell the truth about who they are and who they love, when is integrity going to be restored, and the question when hasn't been answered yet so no I'm not satisfied."

Child care on the chopping block

Fri, 28 May 2010 11:12:00 +0000

Among the devastating cuts Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed in his latest California budget message is an end to state-funded child care assistance. If that measure were to survive the coming budget negotiations, it would save the state general fund nearly $1.2 billion in the coming fiscal year - and wreak havoc on the families of at least 142,000 children across the state.

The governor's proposal, and other human services cuts including completely eliminating the CalWORKS state welfare-to-work program, drew immediate fire from legislative Democrats as well as families receiving help. The current proposals come on top of years of cuts to California's human needs programs.

The state's non-partisan legislative analyst, Mac Taylor, called welfare and child care "core pieces of the state's safety net," and urged the legislature to reject the proposals.

Angelina Padilla, a single mother of four, receives help with child care for her two youngest through the Oakland-based non-profit agency BANANAS. Padilla, who works for a pharmacy, said in a telephone interview that if she had to pay the full cost, "I would not be able to work, basically. There would be no point. It's like a Catch-22," she said. "If I stayed home I'd have to go on welfare. But if that's going to be cut, I and my children will be nowhere."

Padilla said for a time last year she had to pick up her now-7-year-old son from school and take him to work with her because she couldn't find care for his age group in her area.

"It catches up to people," she said. "You get to a point where you think, oh, my goodness, what do I do now? There've been times I've just cried if they've made cuts. It seems like there's no hope sometimes."

Mary Ignatius, statewide organizer for Parent Voices, a parent-led organization fighting to make quality child care affordable and accessible to all families, said the threatened cutoff of aid "puts that family's stability in total flux" as they try to figure out how to pay enormously higher costs or to find alternative care through family and friends.

While child care cuts hit low-income women of color hardest, Ignatius said, the impact is felt across all communities, and by caregivers, vendors and suppliers as well. Observers have also noted that cutting child care and other programs could cost more in federal matching funds than the cuts would save.

Low-income Californians are far from alone in fearing child care cuts. The New York Times reported earlier this week that at least nine other states have slashed their child care aid. Some have made programs less accessible or have lowered the amounts they pay, while others are putting applicants on waiting lists or lowering eligibility thresholds.

Democrats in California's legislature are fighting back. The Assembly Democrats' program includes maintaining child care programs "to ensure working parents can stay employed and over 50,000 small business child care providers can say in business." In the state Senate, Democrats propose to raise nearly $5 billion in new revenue as they try to protect social programs from further cuts.

"What we need in California is a real discussion of revenue," Ignatius said. She pointed to a series of tax breaks for the state's largest corporations, agreed by legislative leaders and the governor in closed-door meetings during last year's budget negotiations. "Those tax breaks would pay for the entire CalWORKS and child care programs in California," she said.

But, she added, though Democrats control the legislature, they lack the two-thirds majority California requires to pass a budget or to raise taxes. "So that's part of our long-term discussion also, what it's going to take to make changes to that."

Photo: Marilyn Bechtel/PW

Texas bans capitalism

Thu, 27 May 2010 17:35:00 +0000

SAN ANTONIO - Texas is only one of 11 states that has an elected state board of education. The 15 members are 10 Republicans, all white, and five Democrats. It meets every two years. In its meetings in January and May this year, it has shredded a year of work by teachers and scholars to write a social studies curriculum upon which 4 million textbooks will be produced for Texas schools.

In January, after refusing the suggestion that scholars or teachers be present at the board meetings, the board's Republican majority, largely social conservatives, began to make drastic changes to the curriculum. A huge battle ensued, led by the Texas Freedom Network (TFN), against the literal takeover of the curriculum by political ideas of the right wing and religious conservatives, often showing lack of knowledge and creating an embarrassment to the state. Some 40,000 letters and phone calls came into the board from the public and from scholars within and outside Texas.

Some of the worst examples of the changes became known as the "list of shame":

* Rejecting the word "capitalism" and substituting "free enterprise," since "capitalism" is only used by "liberal" professors in academia.

* Rejecting teaching students about constitutional protection of religious beliefs and the separation of church and state.

* Downplaying President Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, and references to enlightenment ideas.

* Removing concepts of "justice and responsibility for the common good" from the list of characteristics of good citizenship.

* Stripping out Delores Huerta, cofounder of the United Farm Workers of America, as not a model of good citizenship because she is a "socialist."

* Rehabilitating the smarmy image of the infamous Sen. Joe McCarthy and teaching students about "communist infiltration" in the Cold War.

* Removing the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" from grade 3 because the board confused its writer Bill Martin with another author Bill Martin who wrote a book on Marxism!

* Adding in right-wingers such as Phyliss Schlafly of the Heritage Foundation with no similar standard for liberal individuals or organizations.

* Minimizing the history of the Civil War and adding a comparison of Jefferson Davis' inaugural address as president of the Confederacy, which says nothing of slavery, to President Abraham Lincoln's.

* Watering down the history of the civil rights movement and decades of struggle of minorities and women, claiming that they owed thanks to men and the majority for their rights!

* Downgrading the words "democracy" and "democratic government" to "constitutional republic."

* Removing a high school standard on sex and gender as social constructs and how they interact, for fear students would learn about homosexuals, transvestites, etc.

* Requiring students to learn the "unintended bad consequences" of President Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" social programs, affirmative action, and Title lX.

*Downgrading "imperialism" to the word "expansionism."

The San Antonio Express News has criticized this effort to politicize the curriculum and make changes that are simply ignorant. These changes were made as some of the board members sat with their laptops and with little knowledge played with the education our children will receive over the next 10 years (standards are changed every 10 years). An Express News editorial called the new standards "terribly flawed and politically inspired."

Columnist Cary Clack said the board "would rather deny history than learn from it, forgetting that we are made better each time we correct a wrong or give attention to people and problems we have neglected." Other critics say that minorities have been neglected and "whited" out of the textbooks!

Since Texas is the largest purchaser of textbooks in the country, it is probable that not only Texas but also other states will be purchasing books written with these new guidelines.

Although not all the Republican members of the board vote as a block with the most conservative, the final vote on May 21 was split 9-5 (one not present) in favor of the new guidelines that include the changes mentioned above.

On May 19, hundreds of teachers, scholars and interfaith clergy as well as members of the NAACP, lawmakers including state Rep. Sylvester Turner of Houston from the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, and former U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige had 2 minutes each to speak. They were the last opposition available to the public before the final vote was taken.

Mary Berlanga, a Democratic school board member from Corpus Christi, speaking against the new guidelines, said they will mean that "Hispanics will have to wait until they reach college before learning the real truth."

TFN Communications Director Dan Quinn made it clear that the fight is not over. Efforts in the Legislature to rein in the power of the Texas State School Board of Education have been tried and failed in the past. But after this internationally publicized fight and some new electees waiting to take seats on the board, many Texans hope to get a much-needed change. Another solution proposed, abolishing the State Board of Education, would mean a very difficult change in the Texas Constitution.

Photo: Hundreds of Texans protest the right-wing politicization of the social studies curriculum, outside the building where the State Board of Education was meeting May 19, in Austin. (AP/Austin American-Statesman, Larry Kolvoord)

Obama halts offshore drilling

Thu, 27 May 2010 16:27:00 +0000

President Obama announced today that he is extending a moratorium on deepwater oil drilling permits for six more months, and canceling or delaying drilling off the Alaska and Virginia coasts.

Speaking at a mid-day White House press conference, Obama said last month's BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion underscored the need to transition to a green economy. He challenged Republicans to help pass the energy bill now before Congress that would move in that direction.

The BP oil spill has now exceeded the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident, latest estimates say. That makes it the worst oil spill in U.S. history. In the five weeks since the April 20 explosion, scientists say 19 million gallons of oil have been flooding into the Gulf of Mexico from the BP site, compared with 11 million gallons from the Exxon Valdez.

Asked by a reporter about his earlier support for offshore oil drilling, the president said he continued to believe that "it makes sense" to develop domestic oil production during the shift to a green economy.

"You've never heard me say ‘Drill baby, drill'," Obama said. "We can't drill our way out of the problem." However, he said, we are not able to transition to clean energy right away and oil has to be "part of the mix" in the meantime. But, he emphasized, "we are going to have to start moving on this transition."

The fact that oil companies now have to go 1 mile under water and another 3 miles to hit oil, Obama said, means that producing oil is increasingly more expensive and more risky.

"Where I was wrong," the president said, "was in my belief that the oil companies had their act together when it came to worst case scenarios." The companies' claims that fail-safe procedures were in place "proved to be incorrect," he said.

Obama indicated that his administration will turn away from the Bush-era deregulation that lets the oil industry monitor itself. Obama said there would be a "thorough-going scrub" of industry safety procedures. Even for a "one in a million" possible problem, he said, "we have to have confidence we can shut it down" in a matter of days.

Obama said the BP explosion has shown the "scandalously close relationship" between the oil companies and federal regulators.

He referred to a culture of corruption and cronyism in the agency that is supposed to enforce safety in oil operations, the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, during the eight years of the Bush administration - a culture "in which oil companies were able to get what they wanted," he said.

Obama acknowledged that his own officials had been slow to fully clean house, and he vowed aggressive action. Just before the news conference, the head of the Minerals Management Service, Elizabeth Birnbaum, who took office last July, submitted her resignation.

Obama emphasized that the federal government is "in charge" in the Gulf Coast cleanup operations.

Responding to criticisms that the government was letting BP call the shots, Obama noted that under the 1990 Oil Pollution Act, enacted after the Exxon Valdez spill, the oil company is responsible for paying "every dime" of the cost of the containment and cleanup work.

But, he declared, "Make no mistake: BP is operating at our direction."

The president cautioned that the work would take time, and required careful assessment of risks and options for stopping the flood of oil into the Gulf, and for protecting and cleaning up the water and shorelines. The government, he said, is leading these efforts, and has overruled BP on a number of measures. Obama said it was "at our insistence" that the company was paying compensation to those whose livelihoods have been affected.

In addition to extending the moratorium on deepwater drilling, Obama is suspending planned drilling off the Alaska coast for six months, and canceling scheduled sales of drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Virginia.

Photo: A mobile offshore drilling unit holds position directly over the damaged Deepwater Horizon blowout preventer as crews work to plug the wellhead using a technique known as "top kill," May 26. The procedure is intended to stem the flow of oil and gas and ultimately kill the well by injecting heavy drilling fluids through the blowout preventer on the seabed down into the well. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Patrick Kelley.

Single-payer health care in health care overhaul law?

Thu, 27 May 2010 12:53:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - Is single-payer government-run health care - a key cause for 21 international unions and 500 other labor organizations and a bugaboo for the health insurers and the Radical Right - in the massive health care overhaul Congress approved on party-line votes and President Barack Obama signed?

Its top senatorial proponent, Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders, says the answer is "yes," even though the words "single payer" aren't written down. And there are some conditions that must be met before single-payer systems are up and running.

Interviews with Sanders, his staff and some experts in the health care field disclose the law has a provision allowing states, under certain conditions, to establish their own alternative state-run health care systems, starting in 2017.

States would have to get federal waivers to establish their own systems. But within broad guidelines, states could set up whatever they want, including single-payer.

The state alternative systems must meet certain conditions, Sanders' top health care legislative staffers say. One condition - that all states must in 2014 establish health care "exchanges" to cover those who otherwise are not covered - may make it harder to switch to single-payer, the staffers admit.

After all, they point out, the states would in essence have to establish one system that year, and then tear it down and replace it with another, and that's heavy lifting for state legislators, the Sanders staffers admit. Sanders is trying to build a coalition to change the date for the alternative systems to 2014, too.

The key requirement states must meet, the staffers say, is that any alternative health care system, including single-payer, "must do as much or more" for health care users "as the existing program does," referring to the exchanges.

"The idea is that if a state puts together a health care plan - and it could be any type of a plan, including single-payer - as long as they could demonstrate that it would cover as many people, that the coverage would be at least as good, and that it would be at least as affordable, they'd get the waiver from operating the exchange," Sanders' top legislative aide told Press Associates Union News Service.

"Then all the tax subsidies" for health care in the overhaul bill "would go to single-payer instead - as long as individuals wouldn't have to pay more," he added.

The prospect of being allowed to experiment pushed several states into probing single-payer and other alternatives on their own, before the 2017 date, says Rachel Rosen DeGolia, executive director of Cleveland-based Universal Health Care Action Now, a longtime advocate of single-payer - including single-payer state by state.

Those states include California, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Connecticut:

In California, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee - now a large part of 155,000-member National Nurses United - pushed two statewide single-payer bills through the Democratic-run legislature since the start of the decade. Both were vetoed by GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Vermont extended its state-run health care system to cover 95% of state residents during the administration of former Democratic Gov. Howard Dean, a physician. Its legislature just approved a measure to study both single-payer and the "public option."

The public option, which would have put the federal government in competition with the health insurers for covering the uninsured, was dropped from the health care overhaul at the insistence of a "swing" lawmaker, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Ind.-Conn. Otherwise, he would have voted "no," killing the bill.

Ironically, Lieberman's Connecticut - which houses headquarters of several large insurers - is considering alternatives, too. Faced with threatened huge health insurance rate hikes last year, the Democratic-run legislature passed and GOP Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed a measure to extend the public option there, DeGolia says.

In Pennsylvania, a bipartisan coalition of 34 state senators signed onto a bill to explore single-payer, and is putting pressure on the state senate's health committee chairman to hold hearings. That lawmaker is from Pittsburgh, headquarters of the Steelworkers. USW, led by Canadian native Leo Gerard, whose nation got single-payer province by province, is one of the most-outspoken backers of single-payer.

Meanwhile, Ellen Shaffer, a former congressional staffer specializing in health care who now co-heads the Center for Policy Analysis, warns progressives not to sit on their hands this fall, lest the GOP win back Congress - and undo prior progress.

"While we share the long-term goal of a universal 'Medicare for all' system, too many on the left are ignoring the important improvements to access and quality of care that the new law will achieve - and the policy space that it creates to go further in the future," she writes in a recent blog. "Women in particular have important reasons to stay active, including the need to defend new laws that prohibit insurance companies from discriminating against them," Shaffer adds.

Photo: Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks to a crowd at health care rally in front of the Statehouse in Montpelier, Vt., May 1. Alden Pellett/AP

Minority, women farmers’discrimination suits nears settlement

Thu, 27 May 2010 10:54:00 +0000

U.S. government discrimination against minority farmers and women will be a thing of the past if the Obama administration has anything to say about it. This week potentially historic settlements are being negotiated between plaintiffs, lawyers and Congress.

A well publicized case involving Black farmers, the "Pigford" suit was settled in the late 1990s but the over $1 billion settlement was never paid out. Now an additional $1 billion award to farmers not in the original settlement because of late filing deadlines is to be included in a Thursday jobs legislation vote in the U.S. House of Representatives.

A claim by Native Americans - the Cobell case - against the Interior Department for mishandling individual trust accounts is to be tagged on to the bill as well. Over $1 billion will be given claimants.

In addition, the Associated Press reported that the administration is nearing agreement on suits brought by Latino and women farmers against the Department of Agriculture. According to AP, "Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has emphasized resolving the cases and closing what he calls a 'sordid' chapter in the agency's history."

Lead counsel for the Latino farmers, Steven Hill, while applauding government efforts says the case is "far from over." "While we applaud the government's beginning settlement discussions there is much more to be considered before this can be presented to those who have suffered this discrimination," Hill said.

There are over 87,000 Latino farmers according to a 2007 census.

Reportedly up to $50,000 will be offered each victim of discrimination. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, chaired by Nydia Velazquez of New York, sees settling the suit as a top political and legislative priority.

In an earlier court decision, the Latino farmers' suit was not granted class action status and efforts are being undertaken to settle it individually. "The Justice Department was able to persuade the judges hearing the case, Guadalupe L. Garcia v. Secretary of Agriculture to reject class action status for the farmers. In 2006, this decision was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit."

The suit alleging discrimination against women, Love v. Vilsack, was filed in late 2001. It, too, was directed at the USDA. According to the suit, women farmers were routinely denied farms loans by state and local officials responsible for processing loans. In 2009, Congresswomen Rosa DeLauro and Anna Eshoo introduced the Equality for Women Farmers Act, H.R. 4264, in order to provide a legislative remedy to these long standing claims.

Over 150,000 women in the United States own farms.

Photo: CC

BP oil rig disaster is big setback for Big Oil

Wed, 26 May 2010 17:20:00 +0000

The spreading BP oil rig disaster is starting to shape up as a big blow to Big Oil.

This week brought new revelations of the "cozy relationship" between the oil industry and the government officials who are supposed to be regulating it.

And a hearing heard testimony indicating that deregulation of the industry, combined with the drive for profits, likely played a big role in the April 20 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion that continues to spew oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

A report by the Interior Department's acting inspector general lays bare a culture of corruption and cronyism between federal regulators and the oil industry under the Bush administration. The report, released May 25, covers activities of the department's Minerals Management Service between 2000 and 2008. The agency is responsible for overseeing offshore oil drilling.

One confidential source told investigators that agency inspectors let the oil and gas companies fill out their own inspection forms for their own drilling rigs in pencil. Then an inspector would trace over their writing in ink and file the report.

Staff members at the agency accepted tickets to sports events, lunches and other gifts from oil and gas companies, the report says.

Indicating the anything-goes atmosphere at the agency, staffers also used government computers to view pornography, and at least one MMS inspector admitted he used crystal methamphetamine and "said he might have been under the influence of the drug the next day at work," according to an Associated Press report.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the report was "further evidence of the cozy relationship between some elements of MMS and the oil and gas industry."

The report began as a routine investigation, the acting inspector general, Mary Kendall, said in a cover letter to Salazar. "Unfortunately, given the events of April 20 of this year, this report had become anything but routine, and I feel compelled to release it now," she wrote.

She said her biggest concern is the revolving door of staff moving back and forth between the oil industry and the agency. "We discovered that the individuals involved in the fraternizing and gift exchange - both government and industry - have often known one another since childhood," Kendall said. Their relationships took precedence over their jobs, she said.

Almost two years ago, this newspaper reported on a 2008 investigation by the Interior Department inspector general that "described a 'culture of substance abuse and promiscuity'" at the MMS, involving energy company representatives and staff at the section of the agency that issues offshore drilling leases.

That investigation found that MMS employees were rigging contracts, working as private oil consultants and having sex with, using drugs with and accepting golf and ski trips, dinners and other gifts from oil and gas company employees.

At that time, New York Rep. Louise Slaughter, who chairs the House Rules Committee, summed it up this way: 'The Bush administration put an 'America for Sale' sign on the White House lawn from day one and has been courting Big Oil ever since."

The Bush administration, she commented, was "literally in bed with Big Oil. Little did we know they were such a cheap date."

Today the U.S. is paying a steep price for that cozy relationship, a hearing conducted by the Coast Guard and the MMS in Louisiana this week is revealing.

The officials heard testimony about conflicts among companies involved with the Deepwater Horizon oil rig just before the explosion.

A former senior Coast Guard official with 15 years of drilling experience, Capt. Carl R. Smith, warned about the conflicting interests of the oil company that leases the rig - BP in this case - and the company that owns the rig, according to a New York Times report.

"You're always going to have a conflict between the people that are representing the owners of the rig and the people that are renting it," he said. "The people that are renting it want to go faster and drill, and the people that own the rig want to maintain the integrity of the rig."

The testimony underscored the fact that, as a result of deregulation, oil drilling safety relies mainly on self-regulation by the oil companies.

Now, the tide seems to be turning toward strong regulation of Big Oil. An indication of that is a May 26 column by Washington Post business writer Steven Pearlstein.

He cited the oil spill, on top of the Massey mine disaster, the financial crisis, recalls of toxic meat, toys and medicines, and "the biggest climate threat since the Ice Age," as evidence of "the glaring failure of government regulators to protect the public."

Pearlstein pinned the blame on the deregulation drive of the Bush administration, pointing to "how dramatically the regulatory agencies have been shrunken in size, stripped of talent and resources, demoralized by lousy leadership, captured by the industries they were meant to oversee and undermined by political interference and relentless attacks on their competence and purpose."

Regulation does cost the corporations money, he noted, but the benefits for society far outweigh those costs. "It's time for the business community to give up its jihad against regulation," he concluded.

President Obama is heading back to the Gulf this week and is expected to announce stricter regulations.

And humorist Andy Borowitz has suggested plugging the massive oil leak with BP executives.

Photo: Aerial view of oil being burned in the Gulf of Mexico, May 19, in an effort to reduce the amount of oil in the water from the Deepwater Horizon/BP explosion. U.S Coast Guard photo by Chief Petty Officer John Kepsimelis.

Police chiefs slam Arizona anti-immigrant law

Wed, 26 May 2010 16:13:00 +0000

Police chiefs from 10 major U.S. cities, including Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz., expressed strong disapproval of Arizona's anti-immigrant law today, May 26 in a meeting with US Attorney General Eric Holder.

After the meeting, on a teleconference with reporters hosted by the Police Executive Research Forum, the police chiefs explained they told Attorney General Holder that Arizona's immigration law (known as SB 1070) will drive a "wedge between police and the communities they serve."

Tucson Chief of Police Roberto Villaseñor discussed what he told Holder. "We have all expressed concern that this will cause a divide between our communities and our agencies," he said.

Recent declines in crime, Villaseñor explained, have resulted from hard-won close relations between the community and the police. Police are more successful in protecting communities from crime when they have good communication and close ties to the people they protect.

When those relations are disrupted, as SB 1070 will cause, policing becomes far more difficult. "What we feel will happen with this legislation is it will put a level of mistrust and will break down the relationships we have worked so hard to establish over the last several years," he said.

"We're concerned that it will increase crime as opposed to reduce crime," the 30-year Tucson police veteran added.

If people believe that they or a loved one may be deported if they report a crime to the police, they may not come forward to report crimes. Because of this, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck explained, a law like SB 1070 would be "dangerous." "It inhibits people from coming forward as victims. It inhibits people not only coming forward as a witness but also testifying and going through the extensive process that is required in the legal system," he said.

"The primary job of law enforcement is not the enforcement of immigration status," Beck stated. "The primary job of law enforcement is to protect the public and to keep us free from crime. This bill does not do that."

If people are afraid to come forward, crimes will go unsolved and "we're doomed to failure," Beck explained.

Arizona Association Chiefs of Police President John Harris pointed out the law won't change the immigration issue. "(SB 1070) when it goes into effect, it still will have not the impact that we want to have on the border."

Echoing this statement, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey noted that forcing police to divert resources to immigration enforcement will not improve border control as claimed by supporters of SB 1070. "It will not stop the flow of illegal immigrants across our borders," he predicted. "It will only strain relationships."

San Jose Chief of Police Ron Davis said the police understand people's "frustration" with the broken immigration system. He added, however, that local law enforcement agencies should not be handed immigration enforcement as a top priority. In addition to driving a "wedge" between the police and the communities they protect, local law enforcement agencies don't have the resources to enforce federal laws. "It's a matter of resources, and its a matter of trying to figure out what our priorities are," he noted.

Major city police chiefs have agreed on this point for many years, Davis added.

Chief Harris stated, "Immigration is a serious issue. It's a federal responsibility to resolve those problems."

"The immigration system is broken right now, and it it needs to be fixed. But it needs to be fixed at a federal level not a local law enforcement level," Villaseñor remarked.

Much of what drove the demand to pass a harsh immigration law in Arizona came from people who expressed concerns about illegal immigration and crime. LAPD Chief Beck pointed out that this notion was mistaken. "Crime is not on the rise in Arizona or anywhere else," he said.

Salt Lake City Chief of Police Chris Burbank described SB 1070 as "counter-productive" and added, "Our Latino population, and even the undocumented Latino population are not committing crimes at a higher rate." The law would force the police to divert attention from the "criminal element" to a "civil enforcement role" which the police should not do.

He described political pressure placed on local police agencies to enforce immigration law as "fear mongering."

Police Executive Research Forum Executive Director Chuck Wexler told reporters that Attorney General Holder asked tough questions to seek the advice of the police chiefs with whom he met, and added that he committed to studying the issue carefully.

Photo: pamhule, courtesy Flickr, cc by 2.0

Highlights from CPUSA’s 29th Convention, includes video

Wed, 26 May 2010 15:34:00 +0000

The following is an e-mail sent by People's World writer Rick Nagin to hundreds of his friends, family members and acquaintances in Ohio.

Brothers and Sisters -

I had the great pleasure of attending the 29th National Convention of the Communist Party USA this past weekend in New York. It was a very inspiring event and I want to share some highlights.

The convention reaffirmed the party's basic position of working with labor and its allies to build a broad democratic coalition to defeat the ultra-right. The party sees this as necessary to defend the rights of working people at present as well as key in the long run to weaken corporate power and move towards working class power (socialism).

The immediate challenge is to defend and, if possible, extend the gains made in 2006 and 2008 by setting back the right-wing attempt to regain power in the November midterm elections.

In addition, the convention called for helping to build mass fight back against the economic crisis, especially on the issue of jobs as well as defending the gains won in the health care reform. There was an excellent PowerPoint presentation on the economic crisis and what needs to be done to overcome it.

Defeating the right-wing's use of racism and anti-immigrant hysteria was seen as critical to success in both the electoral and economic arenas.

Workshops and plenary panels on were held on the elections, labor, African American equality, Latino equality, peace, youth, the environment, public education, women's rights, gay rights, and work in the religious community and growing the party and Young Communist League. Detailed resolutions on six broad areas were adopted.

Like all conventions there was a lot of hoop-la and fanfare. Each session opened with a cultural presentation and there was a lot of singing. There was also an evening celebration and cultural event on the Party's 90th anniversary with great live music and dancing.

The Democratic State Assemblyman representing the district where the convention was held gave a great speech welcoming the convention as did several local union presidents. We also heard from Communists holding local office in a number of states.

Leadership was elected including Sam Webb as national chairman, Jarvis Tyner as vice chairman and Roberta Wood as secretary-treasurer.

The convention was united and enthusiastic and delegates left with renewed confidence and determination to work to consolidate the defeat of the ultra-right and move forward to repair the damage they have caused to democracy and the rights of working people.

The main reports, resolutions the PowerPoint presentation will soon be available at the cpusa.org website where there is also a video of the opening session. Reports on the convention are on the peoplesworld.org website. Ohio delegates are anxious to meet with groups to discuss the convention and how to move ahead. Let me know if you would like to set up a meeting.

Photo: Delegate from Southern California, Rossana Cambron, shares her experiences on building the Communist Party and YCL at the grassroots. (Pepe Lozano/PW)

Homeless tent cities grow in the West

Wed, 26 May 2010 13:22:00 +0000

Ira Birkenfeld works with homeless people in Reno, Nevada. At last week's 29^th Convention of the Communist Party USA, Birkenfeld spoke passionately about their survival struggles. In the short video below he describes his work and outlines the severe crisis of everyday living the that the homeless face.

As the economic crisis continues to throw thousands into the streets, it seems that some major "relief" efforts are aimed at hiding the homeless from the world. Many of the homeless are people who continue to work but have lost their homes or apartments. Ira and many other homeless advocates believe that it's time to unite and mobilize a national network of the unemployed and the homeless to fight for jobs and decent housing for all.

New Haven leaders say, “Show us good jobs!”

Wed, 26 May 2010 12:37:00 +0000

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- The need for good jobs brought New Haven community and union leaders to Mayor John DeStefano's office on May 19. Bearing petitions signed by 500 residents, the group called for enforcement of Yale New Haven Hospital's promise to hire into full time positions at least 100 people a year for five years from the surrounding community.

The Community Benefits Agreement signed on June 6, 2006, by the hospital and the city was won during a long campaign leading up to construction of the Smilow Cancer Center which involved removal of several homes in the impoverished Hill neighborhood.

Pastor Abraham Hernandez and Helen Martin of CORD, Communities Organized for Responsible Development, said their requests to meet with the president of Yale New Haven Hospital have been turned down.

The group asked the mayor and Board of Aldermen to get by June 1, 2010, a list of New Haven residents hired to confirm the hospital's hiring from surrounding neighborhoods, along with the job titles and whether they are still employed. Also requested is documentation of a comprehensive training program.

In a prepared statement they emphasized, "As the city and the members of our community struggle with the job losses of recent years, and work to tackle the staggering unemployment levels in our neighborhoods, we look to the city and the hospital to show proof of a similar commitment to city resident hiring."

On April 28, a rally of 500 was held on the steps of City Hall calling for the creation of good jobs. Similar rallies have been held across the country in the struggle to get Congress to pass legislation to address the emergency jobs crisis. National priorities include provisions for federal funds to stop the layoff of 300,000 teachers, for summer jobs for youth, for budget relief for hard pressed states, and to extend unemployment compensation benefits.

Photo: Melissa Bailey/New Haven Independent

Calif. Assembly honors Japanese American civil liberties fighter

Wed, 26 May 2010 10:22:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. - Almost seven decades after young Fred Korematsu was arrested for defying orders to relocate to an internment camp during World War II, the California Assembly last week passed a bill to recognize his Jan. 30 birthday as "Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties." The measure introduced by Assemblyman Warren Furutani, D-Los Angeles, passed by a 63-0 vote. It now goes to the state Senate.

Korematsu, the U.S.-born son of Japanese immigrants, was a young welder living in Oakland when the war erupted following Japan's Dec. 7, 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor. In the following months, the Army rounded up some 120,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast and forced them into internment camps in some of the country's most desolate areas.

Refusing to obey the relocation orders, Korematsu went into hiding. Arrested and jailed in 1942, he appealed to the Supreme Court, on grounds it was unconstitutional for Japanese Americans to be incarcerated without charges, evidence or trial.

In a 1944 decision that constitutional law scholars have called a "civil liberties disaster," the court upheld his conviction, 6-3, on the basis of the military's claims that Japanese Americans were aiding the enemy. In a dissent, Justice Robert Jackson challenged the evidence and said the court "for all time has validated the principle of racial discrimination."

President Franklin Roosevelt rescinded the internment order in 1944, and the last camp closed in 1945.

And so things stood, until in the early 1980s, University of California political science professor Peter Irons and researcher Aiko Herzig Yoshinaga discovered that the U.S. Solicitor General who argued the government's case had intentionally suppressed evidence, including statements from the FBI and the Office of Naval Intelligence, that Japanese Americans had committed no wrongs against their country.

When a U.S. District Court in San Francisco formally erased his conviction in 1983, Korematsu said, "As long as my record stands in federal court, any American citizen can be held in prison or concentration camps without a trial or a hearing. Therefore, I would like to see the government admit that they were wrong and do something about it so this will never happen again to any American citizen of any race, creed or color."

In her decision, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel wrote that the case "stands as a constant caution that in times of war or declared military necessity our institutions must be vigilant in protecting our constitutional guarantees," and that "national security must not be used to protect governmental actions from close scrutiny and accountability."

In 1988, after an investigation by a presidential commission, Congress apologized and granted each internment survivor $20,000 personal compensation. In 1998, President Bill Clinton awarded Korematsu the country's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

After Sept. 11, 2001, Korematsu spoke out against racial profiling of people of Middle Eastern descent, and filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court over the prolonged internment of prisoners at Guantanamo.

Fred Korematsu died in 2005, at the age of 86.

Korematsu's daughter, Karen Korematsu Haigh, told the Los Angeles-based Rafu Shimpo that her father's personal experience and the suffering of the entire community had been so painful that he did not speak about it for many years. She said she was in high school before she learned of his conviction.

"Honoring my father on Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution on his birthday keeps his legacy alive," she said.

Photo: Fred Korematsu (Lia Chan/CC)

Bluegrass or Blue Dog State? 2010 Kentucky primaries

Tue, 25 May 2010 17:36:00 +0000

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- On May 18, the U.S. Senate primary elections took place in Kentucky. There was a reported "low turnout" for both the Republican or Democratic parties. Nevertheless, millions voted for who would represent the two parties in the upcoming November elections to replace Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) in the U.S. Senate.

Bunning, the Republican Senator serving as Mitch McConnell's junior since 1999, decided to retire from his position, citing an apparent difficulty raising campaign funds, meaning that the Republican spot would be open to a fresh candidate.

Out of the Republican candidates, Trey Grayson, Rand Paul, Jon Scribner, John Stephenson, Gurley Martin, and Bill Johnson (who dropped out of the race before the primary, but was still on the ballot), it had become a simple race between Rand Paul and Trey Grayson.

Rand Paul (the son of Ron Paul, Republican Representative from the 14th Texas Congressional District) supports the extreme capitalist values of the GOP, such as a "free market" solution to health care. He also opposes government bailouts, is for trying suspected terrorists with military tribunals instead of civil courts, and would keep Guantanamo Bay open. Paul believes that the healthcare system is over-regulated. It's no surprise that he is backed by the tea party movement.

Trey Grayson (Kentucky Secretary of State) supports the more "traditional" values of the GOP. He is "pro-life," seeking to ban abortions under any circumstance. Grayson wants more than 700 miles of border fencing equipped with the "latest technologies", while deporting undocumented immigrants and taking away the birthright of children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants. He has an A+ rating from the NRA.

The Democratic candidates, in similar fashion to the Republican race, had 5 candidates, with two of them having the best chance of winning. Of Jack Conway, Daniel Mongiardo, James Buckmaster, Darlene Fitzgerald Price, and Maurice Sweeny, it had come down to Conway and Mongiardo.

Daniel Mongiardo, lieutenant governor of Kentucky and son of Italian immigrants, supports further healthcare reform. Mongiardo sees the bill passed in March as merely the first step towards affordable healthcare for all. Mongiardo actually has a medical degree. Mongiardo wants to create jobs in Kentucky, and promotes the cleaner liquid coal fuel from America than the foreign petroleum currently being used in fuel. He plans on cutting CO2 emissions even more than any of the proposed "Cap & Trade" bills currently in Congress.

Jack Conway, who is the current attorney general, has a plan to create jobs by proposing a 20% tax credit to businesses who expand their payroll and hire more workers, but doesn't apply to government workers. He also supports more lending to small businesses and "cutting red tape" in the paperwork for small business owners. Jack Conway states that he will save the U.S. $430 billion in ten years, partly by closing corporate tax loopholes on overseas interest and shutting down offshore tax shelters. He is opposed to privatizing Social Security and refused to sign on to Republican and tea party lawsuits against the healthcare reform bill. He is against bailouts, will challenge McConnell to stop defending Wall Street, and is for Wall Street reform that puts consumers first.

For working class families, Mongiardo seemed to be the best candidate. Most progressive groups supported him. However, in 2004 Mongiardo made a campaign promise to vote in favor of the anti-LGBT Federal Marriage Amendment. Kentucky Heartwood, an organization that preserves forests in the state, chose not to endorse any particular candidate.

In the end, Jack Conway won the Democratic Primary, beating Mongiardo by 1%. Conway got 44% of the vote, to Mongiardo's 43%. It brings back memories of 2004, where Mongiardo lost in the general election to Jim Bunning. In 2004, Mongiardo had 49.3%, and Bunning had 50.7%.

As for the Republican Party, the tea party backed candidate, Rand Paul, won by a wide margin to Trey Grayson, Paul's 59% to Grayson's 35%. Paul's victory is being considered a "tremendous mandate for the tea party." Paul had never run for office, using his inexperience in a way that reflected a candidate who had not been "corrupted by Washington," or in the Bluegrass State sense, Frankfort.

Photo: County results of the 2004 Kentucky Senate race. (Public Domain)

Austin Is Doing Something about AIDS

Tue, 25 May 2010 17:00:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Residents, business owners and politicians gathered at the northeast corner of Chicago and Mayfield avenues on the city's Westside neighborhood of Austin, May 22, for a ceremony to dedicate a recently unveiled 15 x 30 feet community mural entitled "Austin is Doing Something (A.I.D.S.)." The mural is designed by another Pilsen (another Westside neighborhood) artist Carla Carr.

More than 150 people turned out for the event which featured food, music, giveaways, health information, a PSA film festival and an iTunes gift card raffle.

The mural, which has the message "We have the power to heal our community," was inspired by With Me Comes A Cure, an awareness campaign of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago designed primarily to address the growing HIV epidemic among African Americans and stress the importance of developing an AIDS vaccine.

"I'm proud to have partnered with all of you to put up this fantastic mural to raise awareness about HIV and STDs," said Ald. Deborah Graham of the 29^th Ward, a project sponsor who spoke during the ceremony. "This mural is getting people talking, and that's what we need to do."

Among Chicago neighborhoods Austin has the highest number of STD cases among youth ages 13 to 24, and the second-highest number of HIV infections among that age group, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.

"Austin is Doing Something" will be the centerpiece of a planned community garden honoring longtime activists Ed Bailey and Leola Spann that Austin residents are planning with assistance from NeighborSpace, a public land trust.

Click here to see event photos.

Photo: http://twitpic.com/1htlzb

New Jersey stands up to Gov. Christie

Tue, 25 May 2010 16:26:00 +0000

TRENTON -- Tens of thousands of New Jersey citizens marched here in Trenton on May 22 to protest the unprecedented attack that the Republican Christie administration has launched against communities, low income people, senior citizens, public employees and basic social services, including police, fire and education.

As all of the press reported, it was the largest rally in New Jersey in history. State police figures placed the crowd at 35,000 and some rally organizers put the figure as high as 50,000.

And the rally used new media brilliantly. On large TV screens the rally speakers were interspersed with interviews of people in the crowd. Community organizations, trade unions, ordinary people, raised their angry voices and were heard.

Christie has assaulted the New Jersey body politic in both form and substance. No governor in anyone's memory has acted in such a heavy-handed, bullying manner. No governor has treated the legislature and the judiciary with such visible contempt.

Words like "bully," "arrogant," even "thug" are used widely to describe his hate-filled attacks on anyone who opposes him. He has referred to the National Education Association as the "National Extortion Association," for example. His public statements and governing style are more reminiscent of a "junta chief" than an elected governor. Although, he doesn't have the power of junta chiefs to cancel elections, he ignores and threatens to cutoff state aid to bully elected officials who refuse to kowtow to him.

Speaker after speaker recounted Christie's blitzkrieg against the people. The governor has cut over $800 million in state aid to education and over $500 million in state aid to communities

But it is more than just the money. He is threatening communities which do not cap property taxes and negotiated salary increases with public employees with a cutoff in state aid. He is, in effect, demanding union contracts be renegotiated, salaries either frozen or reduced, and employees laid off. State parks are being threatened with closing. Rebates to low-income renters are being taken away. State support for a wide variety of after-school, adult education and community recreation programs are being threatened with elimination.

Even moderates who work in Trenton, and are knowledgeable about Christie, say his goal is to divide public and private employees, and, if he is successful, in implementing these policies, turn New Jersey into a de facto anti-union, right-to-work (for less) state.

The slogan of the rally was "Stand Up" and that was its spirit.

"If our legislators remain silent, they are his accomplices," NJEA President Barbara Keshishian said "they will share in the blame."

William McNary, president of USAAction, who served as the rally's master of ceremonies, called its message, "SOS, Save Our Schools, Save Our Students, Save Our State."

Many spoke angrily about a governor who sends his children to private schools and attacks public education, and the fourth highest paid governor in the nation vetoing the continuation of a surcharge on incomes above $400,000.

Christie's comments on the rally were predictable. He sneered that he hoped that the participants "had fun" and that their spending would help the Trenton economy.

The fiscal crisis is real, but its solution lies in rebuilding state and local infrastructures and social services, which have been undermined for 30 years, not pursuing policies that create islands of privilege for the wealthy and a wasteland for the people in states like New Jersey.

Its solution lies in reviving not destroying the public sector at the national, state, and local level, in policies that restructure, absorb, ameliorate the debt burden on states, communities and individuals.

Christie's policies, like those associated with Herbert Hoover and Andrew Mellon in the great depression, intensify a downward spiral of less income, less jobs, less possibility of recovery from the crisis

In the months ahead, we will struggle to bring the "stand up" rally spirit inside the state legislature to make the Democratic majority stand up for the people.

Click here to see a video of this historic rally.

Photo: New Jersey AFL-CIO/http://www.njaflcio.org/flickr_gallery.php

Arizona’s anti-immigrant law highlights need for reform

Tue, 25 May 2010 14:06:00 +0000

Most Americans want immediate action on comprehensive immigration reform, new polling data revealed this week. A poll conducted by Lake Research Partners and Public Opinion Strategies found that more than three in four Americans from both major parties and in all geographic regions of the country support immigration reform.

After passage of Arizona's immigration law, which experts believe will promote racial profiling and overwhelm local police forces, many commentators have insisted that Americans are not in the mood for comprehensive immigration reform.

The results of this survey, however, showed that most people view the Arizona law as an unfortunate reaction to federal inaction on reform. Instead of a punitive or enforcement-only response to immigration on the state or local level, Americans, including a significant majority of Latinos, want comprehensive federal action with four basic parts:

1) Increased security at the border;

2) Crack down on employers who knowingly hire unauthorized workers;

3) Require unauthorized workers to register, undergo background checks and learn English;

4) Unauthorized immigrants should get in line for citizenship.

The poll found that of the people who support the Arizona law, most were likely to be white, male, Republican and supporters of the tea party. Others, however, who did not fit these categories say they support the law only out of frustration with the lack of federal action on comprehensive reform.

Opponents of the Arizona law said they believe the law will promote racial profiling and other un-Constitutional police measures, the survey found.

David Mermin, a pollster with Lake Research, explained "the sense that the system is out of control and that there isn't a legal orderly process by which people are immigrating" drives most attitudes about immigration reform.

"The vast majority of Americans think we should still be welcoming immigrants," he said, "but they want that done in a legal way."

"Folks don't want some sort of draconian enforcement effort where you try to round up millions of people," Mermin added, "they want people to register, to get in line, to pay taxes, to learn English, to become American."

"You see enormous support for that approach to dealing with immigrants," he explained.

According to recent analysis published by the Immigration Policy Center, the economic contributions of undocumented immigrants far outweigh perceived costs of illegal immigration. According to that pro-immigration reform group, in the state of Arizona alone, unauthorized immigrants add some $26.4 billion each year to the state's economy annually, including tax revenues and job-creating business activity.

Economists also believe that claims that immigrants "steal" jobs in America from citizens remain unsubstantiated.

Frank Sharry, executive director of the pro-immigration reform group America's Voice, added that the polling data proves that "people aren't angry at immigrants as much as they are frustrated that the government hasn't solved the problem."

He warned that Congress should not use the fallout from the Arizona immigration law as an excuse not to tackle comprehensive immigration reform. The polling data indicates that most people much prefer immediate action on comprehensive immigration reform over the kinds of steps taken by Arizona.

The labor movement has explicitly rejected the Arizona anti-immigrant law. Describing the law as a violation of civil rights and the legalization of racial profiling, the AFL-CIO and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights earlier this month jointly called on the Obama administration to terminate federal aid to Arizona's law enforcement agencies for immigration enforcement.

In a joint statement last year, the country's leading labor federations, the AFL-CIO and Change to Win, outlined a comprehensive reform agenda that emphasized keeping working families together, avoiding enforcement-only practices, prioritizing workers' rights and workplace protections, and adjusting the legal status of unauthorized immigrants to help them "come out of the shadows."

Photo: CC/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/45976898@N02/4575184210/

News in brief: Matthews says nationalize BP

Tue, 25 May 2010 12:35:00 +0000

MSNBC Matthews plays hardball with BP: Nationalize 'em

MSNBC news commentator Chris Matthews called on the Obama administration to do its best for the people and nationalize the oil industry. On his show, Hardball, Matthews said, "I don't think there's-the government is doing its best. Why doesn't the president go in there and nationalize that industry and get the job done for the people?

Washington hears testimony on job creation

Monthly unemployment numbers and other economic statistics only tell part of the story of the economic crisis. At a congressional forum today, May 25, in Washington, people like Charles Jenkins from Chicago, a 55 year old African-American man temporarily employed, will offer compelling testimony for why the Local Jobs for America Act (HR 4812) is necessary to put significant numbers of people back to work immediately. The forum is co-sponsored by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

Jury selection begins for police torture trial

Jury selection is under way in the trial of former Chicago Police Lt. Jon Burge, who is accused of lying about the long-ago torture of suspects. Burge has pleaded not guilty to obstruction of justice and perjury. He's accused of lying when he denied in a civil lawsuit that he and his officers tortured suspects in the 1970s and 80s. He faces a maximum of 45 years in prison if convicted of all charges. Burge's trial in front of U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow is expected to last six weeks.

North Korea says it will sever all ties with South as tensions mount

Relations between North and South Korea, already strained over the sinking of a South Korean warship, deteriorated to their worst point in years today, May 25, as the South Korean president redesignated the North as its archenemy, and the North said it would sever its few remaining ties with the South.

Colombia mining interests displace communities

In Colombia, the Afro-Colombian community is being displaced and targeted by paramilitary groups, due to the fact that there land was taken for mining concessions. Please send letters to the officials listed!

U.S.-Cuba talks on Gulf oil disaster

U.S and Cuban officials are holding "working level" talks on how to respond to the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill that is believed to be dumping thousands and thousands of barrels of crude a day into the Gulf of Mexico, two State Department officials told The Associated Press.

Solidarity results in tentative pact for Rio Tinto miners

The combination of worker solidarity and the strong support of their neighbors helped workers at Rio Tinto's borax mine in Borax, Calif., take on one of the world's largest mining companies. They won a tentative agreement on a new six-year contract that protects their jobs, calls for raises and maintains protections against discrimination and favoritism.

Shameless profit-making by health industry, new report shows

While the country debated health care reform in the first quarter of 2010, the nation's five biggest insurance companies saw their profits soar, raised consumers' premiums, offered fewer benefits and lost 2.8 million customers, mostly because consumers could no longer afford their plans, according to a new report from Health Care for America Now.

DHS should end Arizona immigration enforcement program

Arizona's new anti-immigration law (S.B. 1070) would make the federal government complicit in racial profiling, unless the Department of Homeland Security rescinds agreements with Arizona law enforcement under an immigration training and enforcement program, according to civil rights and labor leaders.

Photo: An absorbent boom is seen amidst encroaching oil at a land bridge built by the Louisiana National Guard to hold back oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in Grand Isle, La., May 21. (Gerald Herbert/AP)