People Before Profit blog

Today in history: World War I vets demand relief

Fri, 29 May 2015 11:44:00 +0000

On this date in 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, the "Bonus Expeditionary Force," a group of 1,000 World War I veterans seeking to cash in their veterans' bonus certificates, arrived in Washington, D.C. Though Congress issued the $1000 certificates in 1924, they were not redeemable until 1945. But vets could not wait that long. In these hard times they needed that bonus now, otherwise they would starve to death years before their payout came.

By mid-June, the vets had set up a massive encampment of the homeless, a "Hooverville," named for Pres. Herbert Hoover and his cynical inaction in the face of widespread hunger and despair. By the end of the month other veteran groups made their way to Washington, hitching rides, hopping trains, and hiking, swelling the Bonus Marchers to some 20,000 strong, most of them unemployed veterans in difficult financial straits.

Pres. Hoover refused to address them, but the veterans did find an audience with a congressional delegation. Soon a debate began in the Congress over whether to meet the demonstrators' demands. As deliberation continued on Capitol Hill, the Bonus Army built a shantytown across the Potomac River in Anacostia Flats. When the Senate rejected their demands on June 17, most of the veterans dejectedly returned home. But several thousand remained in the capital with their families. Many had nowhere else to go. The Bonus Army conducted itself with decorum and spent their vigil unarmed.

However, many believed them a threat to national security. On July 28, Washington police began to clear the demonstrators out of the capital. Two men were killed as tear gas and bayonets assailed the Bonus Marchers. After the vets resisted being evicted by the police, Hoover ordered an Army regiment to clear them out. Infantry and cavalry supported by six tanks were dispatched with Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur in command. They rolled into Anacostia Flats, forcing the Bonus Army to flee. MacArthur then ordered the shanty settlements burned.

Major Dwight D. Eisenhower served as MacArthur's liaison with Washington police, and Major George Patton led the cavalry. This was a direct violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the armed forces being used against U.S. citizens.

Many Americans were outraged. How could the army treat veterans of the Great War (to end all war) with such disrespect? Hoover maintained that political agitators, anarchists, and communists dominated the mob. But facts contradicted his claims. However their political outlook had matured since 1918, nine out of ten Bonus Marchers were indeed veterans, and 20 percent were disabled. Despite the fact that the Bonus Army was the largest march on Washington up to that point in history, Hoover and MacArthur clearly exaggerated the threat posed to national security. As Hoover campaigned for reelection that summer, his actions turned an already sour public opinion of him even further to the bottom.

Hoover lost his reelection bid in November to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and a page in United States history turned.

Adapted from peacebuttons.info, ushistory.org, and other sources.

Photo: ufws.org

Nebraska lawmakers override governor’s veto and abolish death penalty

Thu, 28 May 2015 14:25:00 +0000

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Lawmakers in the deep red state of Nebraska overrode their Republican governor's veto yesterday and abolished the death penalty, making their state the first conservative state to do so since 1973.

It was clear from an earlier vote that backers of abolition of the penalty in the unicameral legislature had enough votes to override a veto if, as expected, one would be forthcoming. When the veto by Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts came they overrode it by one vote. Ricketts, a supporter of capital punishment, said the vote represented a "dark day" for public safety.

"Nebraska has a chance to step into history - the right side of history - to take a step that will be beneficial toward the advancement of a civilized society," said Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, an independent who has fought for four decades to end the death penalty.

The Nebraska vote marks a shift in the national debate because it was bolstered by conservatives who oppose the death penalty for religious reasons, cast it as a waste of taxpayer money and question whether government can be trusted to manage it. "Law-and-order" conservatives in the United States have traditionally stood among the strongest supporters of the ultimate punishment.

Nebraska hasn't executed a prisoner since 1997, when the electric chair was used. The state has never imposed the punishment under the lethal injection process now required by state law. Some lawmakers had argued that even without actual abolition of the death penalty constant legal challenges would have prevented the state from executing anyone in the future.

"It's certainly a matter of conscience, at least in part, but it's also a matter of trying to be philosophically consistent," said Sen. Laure Ebke, a conservative Republican from Crete. "If government can't be trusted to manage our health care ... then why should it be trusted to carry out the irrevocable sentence of death?"

One argument opponents of the death penalty had been making was that the lethal injection drugs required by law had not been available.

To counter that avenue of opposition, however, the governor had announced last week that the state recently spent $54,400 to buy new lethal injection drugs from a company in West Bengal, India. Nebraska lost its ability to carry out the punishment in December 2013, when its supply of one key drug expired.

Shortly after the governor's announcement about the purchase, however, the FDA announced that importation of the drug from India or from any other country, for that matter, was illegal and would not be permitted.

Ricketts argued that, unlike other death-penalty states, Nebraska has imposed the punishment judiciously. Nebraska currently has 11 men on death row.

"This is a case where the legislature is completely out of touch with the overwhelming majority of Nebraskans that I talk to," Ricketts said.

Ricketts, who is serving his first year in office, argued that the state's inability to carry out executions was a "management problem" that he was committed to fixing.

Maryland was the last state to end capital punishment, in 2013. Three other moderate-to-liberal states have done so in recent years: New Mexico in 2009, Illinois in 2011, Connecticut in 2012. But the last conservative state to do so was North Dakota in 1973. Thirty-two states and the federal government allow capital punishment.

Nebraska lawmakers passed a death-penalty repeal bill once before, in 1979, but it was vetoed by then-Gov. Charles Thone and lawmakers didn't attempt an override.

Death penalty supporters tried to prevent the vote with a legislative filibuster, arguing that capital punishment is rarely used in the state but should remain on the books for the most heinous crimes.

Republican Sen. Beau McCoy of Omaha pointed to one of the Boston Marathon bombers, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was condemned to die last week for his role in the 2013 attack.

"In America we recognize with our justice system that there are appropriate punishments and sentences and consequences for appropriate crimes," McCoy said.

Republican Attorney General Doug Peterson, a death penalty supporter, said some murders "clearly warrant" the use of capital punishment.

"Without the ability to utilize the death penalty, the state has weakened its ability to properly administer appropriate justice," he said.

The vote was a milestone for Miriam Thimm Kelle, who started lobbying Nebraska lawmakers to abolish the death penalty a decade ago. Her brother, James Thimm, was tortured and killed on a Nebraska farm in 1985 by a man who is still awaiting execution because of repeated legal challenges.

Kelle said she hopes repealing the death penalty will put the issue to rest and encourage the public to forget about the man who murdered her brother.

"It's been going on for 30 years, and nothing has changed," she said. "Just put James to rest. Thirty years is enough."

John Wojcik contributed to this story.

Photo: Neb. state Sen. Ernie Chambers, I-Omaha, left, bumps forearms with Sen. Paul Schumacher, R-Columbus, after lawmakers gave final approval to a bill abolishing the death penalty with enough votes to override a promised veto from Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts. | Nati Harnik/AP

Today in history: Maya Angelou passes one year ago

Thu, 28 May 2015 11:35:00 +0000

The multi-talented, much beloved Maya Angelou died one year ago, on May 28, 2014, at her home in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Author, poet, actress, and champion of civil rights, Dr. Maya Angelou was one of the most dynamic voices in 20th-century American literature. In her honor, the USPS released a stamp on April 7, 2015, showcasing Ross Rossin's 2013 oil-on-canvas portrait of Dr. Angelou, which is part of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery's collection. The stamp reads: "A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song." The bright red-colored sheet also includes a saying from Angelou's book Letter to My Daughter, "Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud."

Angelou was born as Marguerite Annie Johnson on April 4, 1928. (Martin Luther King, Jr., a close friend of Angelou's, was assassinated on her 40th birthday. Angelou stopped celebrating her birthday for years afterward, and sent flowers to King's widow, Coretta Scott King, for more than 30 years, until Coretta's death in 2006.)

During World War II, Angelou moved to San Francisco, where she won a scholarship to study dance and acting at the California Labor School. At that time, Angelou became the first black female cable car conductor, a job she held only briefly. Thereafter she worked a number of jobs to support herself and her son Guy. In 1952, she married a Greek sailor, Anastasios Angelopulos, from whom she derived her professional name - a blend of her childhood nickname "Maya" and a shortened version of his surname.

In the mid-1950s, Angelou's career as a performer began to take off. She landed a role in a touring production of Porgy and Bess, appeared in the 1957 off-Broadway production Calypso Heat Wave, and that year released her first album, Miss Calypso. A member of the Harlem Writers Guild and a civil rights activist, Angelou organized and starred in the musical revue Cabaret for Freedom as a benefit for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, also serving as the SCLC's northern coordinator.

In 1961, Angelou appeared in an off-Broadway production of Jean Genet's The Blacks with James Earl Jones, Lou Gossett, Jr., and Cicely Tyson. The play earned strong reviews, but Angelou moved on, spending much of the 1960s abroad, first in Egypt and then in Ghana, working as an editor and a freelance writer. Angelou held a position at the University of Ghana for a time.

Writer James Baldwin urged her to write about her life experiences. Her efforts resulted in the enormously successful 1969 memoir about her childhood and young adult years, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which made literary history as the first nonfiction best-seller by an African-American woman. This poignant work, much of it about the Jim Crow years in the Deep South, continues to be her most popular book. Angelou also wrote later autobiographical works such as All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986) and A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002), and published several collections of poetry.

In 1995, Angelou was lauded for remaining on the New York Times paperback nonfiction best-seller list for two years - the longest-running record in the chart's history.

On the day before the stamp's big reveal, The Washington Post confirmed that the
"bird" quotation did not, in fact, originate with Maya Angelou. Rather, it was author Joan Walsh Anglund, now 89, whose 1967 children's book A Cup of Sun featured the line, only with the word "he" instead of "it." One wag named Claudzilla commented on the Internet, "I guess the budget's too tight for proofreaders." Anglund has graciously forgiven the mistake.

Click this link for Maya Angelou's recitation of the poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at Pres. Clinton's first inauguration. Angelou went on to win a Grammy Award (best spoken word album) for the audio version of the poem.

Adapted from biography.com and other sources.

Photo: AP

This week in Indigenous news: Memorial for fallen Native warriors

Wed, 27 May 2015 15:45:00 +0000

Aboriginal legends reveal ancient secrets to science

Scientists are beginning to tap into a wellspring of knowledge buried in the ancient stories of Australia's Aboriginal peoples. But the loss of indigenous languages could mean it is too late to learn from them.

The Luritja people, native to the remote deserts of central Australia, once told stories about a fire devil coming down from the Sun, crashing into Earth and killing everything in the vicinity.

The local people feared if they strayed too close to this land they might reignite some otherworldly creature.

The legend describes the landing of a meteor in Australia's Central Desert about 4,700 years ago, says University of New South Wales (UNSW) astrophysicist Duane Hamacher.

It would have been a dramatic and fiery event, with the meteor blazing across the sky. As it broke apart, large fragments of metal-rich rock would have crashed to Earth with explosive force, creating a dozen giant craters.

The Northern Territory site, which was discovered in the 1930s by white prospectors with the help of Luritja guides, is today known as the Henbury Meteorites Conservation Reserve.

Tulalip movers and shakers form Native youth council

Native youth across Indian country are assembling to make a difference in their communities. They are known as the Gen-I movers and what they say will be heard by top-level leaders in Washington D.C. The goal is to get youth involved in their communities and to remove barriers to education and health opportunities, while growing leaders for future generations.

Generation Indigenous was announced at the 2015 United National Indian Tribal Youth (UNITY) midyear conference. Issued by President Obama this call to action, "is the first step in engaging a broad network of people interested in addressing the issues facing Native youth and creating a platform through which Native youth can access information about opportunities and resources, and have their voices and positive contributions highlighted and elevated."

Tlingit-Athabascan actor Martin Sensmeier confirmed for featured role in upcoming Denzel Washington movie

I won't add too much commentary to this news piece, but one of my "Man Crush Mondays," Martin Sensmeier (Athabascan and Tlingit) recently joined the all-star ensemble cast of the remake of The Magnificent Seven. In the movie, Martin plays Red Harvest.

This is a pretty big deal-he has a featured role in a mainstream, big-budget movie featuring Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke and a pretty vicious cast. Also, the film is directed by Antoine Fuqua, the director of another Denzel classic Training Day.

In honor of Memorial Day: Memorials honoring our fallen Native warriors

Since the first arrival of Europeans onto Turtle Island and in connection to the conflicts that first arose in association, Native Americans - with the inclusion of American Indians, Alaskan Natives and Native Hawaiians - have enlisted and volunteered for the armed services at a higher rate than any other ethnicity.

According to government officials during World War II, if all other races had enlisted at the same rate as American Indians, selective service and the draft would not have been necessary.

Considering those soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen and women that have served and tragically did not return home to their families, here are some of the memorials honoring our fallen Native warriors across the country.

Indigenous rapper Frank Waln thinks Americans should know their history

Sicangu Lakota hip-hop artist Frank Waln was born and raised on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, where his experiences growing up would eventually inform his work. As both a rapper and an activist, Frank campaigns on issues including indigenous visibility, climate change, and environmental racism. Last year, he joined the cast of MTV's Rebel Music: Native America, one segment of a recurring program highlighting the stories of artists who wield the power of their work for a greater good.

When The FADER called Frank last week, he was parked on the side of the road in North Dakota, on his way to the White Earth Indian Reservation in Minnesota, where he was due to perform at a banquet for people recovering from alcohol addiction and substance abuse. You can catch him on Rebel Music, whose second season is back on the air this month.

Photo: via Fader/Matika Wilbur/CC

Spoiler Alert- The man behind the curtain is Bruce Rauner!

Tue, 26 May 2015 17:00:00 +0000

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Wizard of Oz was the theme as a conglomerate of community organizations with the Grassroots Collaborative descended upon the state capital to oppose the inaugural budget of Gov. Bruce Rauner. Rauner has made no bones about the cuts he intends to see passed by next week, cuts that just had to be made to bridge an Illinois budget shortfall of $9 billion - cuts that gave him and his wealthy friends a raise.

This writer was able to be there as a representative of the American Indian Center of Chicago. My day began with a 4:30 wake-up. My job was to get to the center early to meet 10 of our community leaders, get our bus loaded up, and head to the South Side to pick up our cohorts from the Illinois Hunger Coalition.

Next, we would be headed to Springfield, Ill. to rally with several other busloads representing communities across Chicago.

One of our leaders was Julio Cholula, an Indigenous refugee from Mexico of the Cholula Nation. He said that he was headed to Springfield because these cuts will most definitely hurt his family with two sons both in special education.

"My son has autism. If the governor takes away all the money, there will be little funding for special education. My second son too, is in special education. If they [take away] all these resources, I don't see a better future in my sons lives. My wife is also a teacher and she is very worried right now." Rauner has proposed to eliminate The Autism Project's entire $4.3 million in state funding for FY 2016, which begins July 1.

Mr. Cholula went even further, talking about his neighborhood in Elgin, witnessing neighbors lose their homes. "All these families are broken up and right now they are homeless. That is not correct. Because the government says they support families but I notice they support wars and tax breaks for the wealthy when people are in need in Illinois."

This reminds me - didn't Governor Rauner spend $65 million to win the prize of the Illinois governorship? I believe that is by far the most money ever spent on a campaign for governor in Illinois. With Rauner's attacks on working families and union busting it's not a far cry to say that this Governor is at war with working-class families with the full intention of playing the school yard bully, picking on those of us who are the most vulnerable.

When bullies show up and threaten to take away your lunch money, there's nothing else to do but unite and fight! And the only way to win a fight with someone like Rauner is to call up your friends for the big showdown and that is exactly what is happening at this point in the struggle.

With the Illinois Grassroots Coalition leading the way and training community organizers to educate Chicago's masses we could be headed on the right path. The streets may not be paved with gold but corporations have been making more money than ever. The cost of business in Illinois should not come so cheap.

Some proposals that can generate revenue include the Millionaires Tax, restoring the previous individual tax rate back to five percent, adopting a progressive tax structure, adopting a financial transaction tax, and ending bad bank deals.

We showed up in Springfield and came to deliver some 'brains' to find an alternative to cuts. Not only will they need brains but needed too are heart and courage to stand up to Rauner, the bully. It's been said that Rauner has raised $40,000,000 to go after legislators that stand in the way of his agenda.

Antonio Light Foot was with us as the Community Organizer for the Illinois Hunger Coalition and he said, "When you focus all your energy to giving tax breaks to the 1 percent of course the state is going to be short money because you are failing to go to where the money is. You say you want to nickel and dime the 99 percent to people who can't afford it, its not going to increase revenue."

According to plan, the group of 500 community activists broke into two teams. The first team was given golden slips of paper with proposals for increasing revenue. Veronica Hyde, Illinois Hunger Coalition, was front and center calling Rauner to 'Come on out'! She had about 200 friends behind her, taping the yellow brick road to Rauner's office.

Meanwhile, the second team, headed to the Stratton building to deliver needed brains, heart, and courage to all of the Illinois state representatives but had to meet with secretaries because the General Assembly was in session. The looks on their faces were priceless when they saw the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion headed their way.

Then we had some time to lobby constituents and I chose 13^th District Rep. Greg Harris. He's an Illinois progressive from the North Side of Chicago and he said: "It's a long process but there are lot of things that we can do now to bring in revenue. There are a lot of ideas. Some people are suggesting to raise the income tax back up and I support that. There's people who talk about expanding taxes on services, retirement income - I think we have to keep all those options on the table because you just can't balance the budget by cutting the people."

When asked which tax plan he supports he said, "One that gets 60 votes in the house and 30 votes in the senate and passes. So to say I'm only for this one and that one - we all have to be open to giving and taking."

Next week Grassroots Collaborative members and partner organizations will travel to Springfield with a core group of 25 leaders to set up a Raunerville encampment for a week-long series of actions to demand progressive revenue options for Illinois.

People can connect with state legislators and urge them to choose revenue by calling 1(844) 311-CUTS .

Photo: "Illinois' Legislators and Governor have a choice. Choose Revenue not Cuts!" Earchiel Johnson/People's World

Baltimore: A new generation of protestors comes into being

Tue, 26 May 2015 14:40:00 +0000

BALTIMORE - Step into the large, brightly lit, welcoming Langston Hughes Elementary School lunchroom on a crisp May afternoon and you see a beehive of activity-children drawing colorful posters with the help of teachers, parents and community activists for a 6 p.m. 2-mile walk through the Park Heights neighborhood of West Baltimore.

The march has a purpose: Langston Hughes Elementary school is closing in June, the children and teachers having already been given transfer notices to other schools, like the one, Pimlico Elem/Middle, to which the children are marching today, May 20, 2015.

Gathering the students, parents and supporters together in the Langston Hughes parking lot, Intea Deshields, a young doctoral student from the Teachers' Democracy Project, speaks briefly to the group and then courageously leads them through the community to Pimlico Elementary.

The children, some as young as five years old, and their parents and supporters leave the quiet neighborhood where Langston Hughes is located, and in a few blocks turn right, onto busy Belvedere Avenue. Very quickly they come across broken side walks; boarded up businesses; caved in houses; and a barking dog tied to a B G & E fence. This is the mile long route many of them will be asked to walk in September.

But they make the hour long trek to Pimlico and back without incident, carrying their signs and chanting as they go, "Save our school; Save Langston Hughes." Traffic stops respectfully for the group as it crosses the busy thoroughfare. A flier is distributed to pedestrians and businesses asking citizens to call the school board at 410-396-8803 and to tell the CEO, "Do not close Langston Hughes."

There are numerous ironies in the decision of the School Board to close Langston Hughes in a region of West Baltimore which is but a few miles from where Freddie Gray was killed by Baltimore City police just a month ago. In an area riddled by drugs and crime, Langston Hughes elementary is not only an oasis for the 178 children who attend, but also serves as a venue for numerous after school and community activities which take place in the "relatively new" facility. Built in 1975, the school has air conditioning, a spacious gym, bright rooms, a great principal and creative teaching staff. Pimlico Elementary/Middle School, built in 1910 has no air conditioning, portable units, large classes we are told and is .99 miles away from Langston Hughes.

The precise distance of .99 miles is important, Jamal Jones, young co-director of the Baltimore Algebra Project, explains because of a School Board regulation which states that public transportation does not have to be provided to children who live within one mile of the school they are attending. The right to free public transportation is something that Jones highlights as he speaks of a National Student Bill of Rights which the Algebra Project promotes for all students in the country. Among the other rights are: the right to a free public education, the right to physical activity and recreation, the right to high quality food, the right to free health care, the right to freedom from unwarranted search, seizure or arrest.

George Mitchell, President of the Langston Hughes Community Action Association, explains the steps that the community has already taken to keep the school open. Under the school system's "21^st Century Buildings Plan," a 10 year plan launched in 2012, the school was originally scheduled to close in 2017 because of projected under-enrollment. But the enrollment was climbing in recent years until the notice went out to disappointed parents in the fall of 2014 that they had to look elsewhere to send their children.

Mitchell and others started appearing before the Baltimore City School Board last December to advocate for Langston Hughes and the role it plays in this Park Heights community. Although all the elements are now in place for it to be closed, the Maryland State Department of Education nonetheless granted Mitchell's association a hearing before an administrative judge, set for this coming July 20.

There is precedence for a public school to be saved in this way. State Senator Lisa Gladden, also an attorney, once argued a case at this level to save a school and was successful. Gladden, along with State Delegate Jill Carter will be the attorneys for Langston Hughes Elementary in July. While the school could not be ready to open by September, parents are hoping that it could re-open in January as was the case for Edgewood Elementary which Gladden represented.

One might legitimately wonder why a school board would want to close a school which serves as a hub for community activity, is attractive and well-managed, whose test scores are above others in the area, and whose enrollment was growing before the school board put a brake on it.

George Mitchell thinks he knows why: There are 52 charter schools in Maryland, 38 of them in Baltimore. A number of charter schools have been eyeing the Park Heights community, including the Langston Hughes building, for some time.

Meanwhile Intea Deshields leads the tired marchers back to the Langston Hughes school parking lot from their two mile trek. In the shadow of the Earles Mitchell street sign, named for George Mitchell's community activist mother, the children and adults are treated to hot dogs and hamburgers, grilled by Dayvon and Adam of the newly formed coalition, Baltimore United for Change. "This is what it's all about," Jamal Jones says, "Community," ...and a new, very young generation learning how to struggle.

The public is urged to call Baltimore City Public Schools at 410-396-8803 to send the message, "Save Baltimore's Langston Hughes Elementary School."

Photo: Popular Resistance website.

Today: Origins of AAPI Heritage Month, and national activities

Thu, 21 May 2015 14:29:00 +0000

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month takes place each May, celebrating the culture, traditions, and history of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States.

In June 1977 Reps. Frank Horton (N.Y.) and Norman Y. Mineta (Calif.) introduced a resolution to proclaim the first ten days of May as Asian-Pacific Heritage Week. (During World War II the Mineta family was interned for several years in the Heart Mountain internment camp near Cody, Wy., along with thousands of other Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans.)

A similar bill was introduced in the Senate a month later by Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga, both from the state of Hawaii. (Inouye fought in World War II as part of the famous 442nd Infantry Regiment, lost his right arm to a grenade wound and received several military decorations. Matsunaga became a U.S. Army Reservist in 1941, volunteered for active duty in July that year, and was twice wounded in battle while serving with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Infantry Battalion.)

The month of May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. The majority of the workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants. President Jimmy Carter signed a joint resolution for the celebration on October 5, 1978.

In 1990, George H.W. Bush signed a bill passed by Congress to extend Asian-American Heritage Week to a month. President Barack Obama's proclamation of AAPI Month for 2015 can be found here.

During this month, communities celebrate the achievements and contributions of Asian and Pacific Americans with community festivals, government-sponsored activities, museum exhibitions and educational activities for students.

Northeast and East

Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month at the Altoona, Penn., Penn State campus, first begun 2010

Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month at the Waltham, Mass., Brandeis University campus, first became a month-long celebration in 2002

Asian Pacific American Heritage Festival in New York City, first begun 1981

Silk Screen Asian American Film Festivalin Pittsburgh, Penn., first begun 2005

National Asian Heritage Festival in Washington, D.C.

West Coast

Asian-Pacific Islander Heritage Month at the Portland, Ore., Lan Su Chinese Garden

Asian Cultural Festival of San Diego, first begun 2009

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, first begun in 1983

Pacific Rim Street Fest in Sacramento, California, first begun in 1992

Asian Pacific American Heritage Festival at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center in Chinatown, Oakland, Calif.

Asian Heritage Street Celebration in San Francisco

Asian Pacific Islander Festival in Seattle; also AAPI Month at the Wing Luke Asian Museum in Seattle

South and Southeast

Asian Kaleidoscope Monthat the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla.

Asian Awareness Month at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Fla.

Asian Festivalin Dallas, Texas, first begun 1990

Asian Pacific American Heritage Festival in Houston, Texas

Midwest

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Celebration at the University of Illinois's Urbana-Champaign campus

Cleveland Asian Festival in Cleveland, O., first begun in 2010

In addition, the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance Conference, first held in 2007, meets in Chicago this August 6-9.

Adapted from Wikipedia.

Photo: PBS SoCal

Advocates urge greater funding for human needs programs in California

Thu, 21 May 2015 12:35:00 +0000

Restoring and increasing funds for California's human needs programs tops the agenda of many legislators and public policy advocates as this year's budget negotiations move into their final weeks.

But though revenues have grown by nearly $6.7 billion since January, when Governor Jerry Brown first issued his 2015-2016 budget proposals, the governor continued to hold to his historically cautious approach to human needs spending in the revised proposals he issued May 14.

Brown's new budget calls for $115.3 billion in general fund spending, just slightly higher than the $113.3 billion he proposed in January.

"Another recession is on the way, we just don't know when," Brown said in presenting his May Revision. "That's why this budget locks billions into the Rainy Day Fund and pays down debt."

At the same time, the governor pointed out, the budget "spends more than ever on schools and creates a new tax credit to help California's poor."

Almost all the new revenue will go to a voter-approved constitutional funding guarantee for K-12 education, and to the "Rainy Day" fund approved by voters last November. (California's per pupil funding of public education is still lower than most other states.)

In a new initiative to aid the state's poorest residents, Brown proposed a state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to complement the federal EITC. Brown said some two million extremely poor Californians, with incomes less than $6,580 for individuals and $13,870 for families with three or more dependents, would benefit.

State Senate President Pro Tem Kevin De León, D-Los Angeles, said the EITC is "an important anti-poverty tool" but "no substitute for a good-paying job." Calling child care and higher education "important investments" in the state's future, De León said, "We can and will do more to ensure our budget reflects these priorities."

Reflecting the ongoing struggle by advocates and lawmakers to restore funds repeatedly slashed from human needs programs in recent years, the San Francisco-based Child Care Law Center said the current economic recovery "follows a period during which California lost over one-third of its child care and development system," and now the state provides child care and early education opportunities to about 90,000 fewer children than in 2007 - the year before the financial crisis struck.

"Notwithstanding unexpectedly high revenues, the May Revise maintains funding for California's child care and early education systems at dangerously low levels," the Center said in a statement.

The Center, which works to help economically struggling families access quality child care, is calling for increased funding for early childhood education programs, child care needed by working families transitioning from CalWORKS welfare programs, and training for child care providers.

While praising the May Revise for including MediCal (state Medicaid) funding for immigrants with deferred action status, the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network (CPEHN) said the governor's call to "lock funds away" in a rainy day fund "won't help Medi-Cal recipients who are struggling to find a doctor because of low reimbursement rates ... or those on CalWORKS whose benefits were cut so severely that they remain in deep poverty."

The Health Access Coalition of nearly 60 organizations called on the legislature "to craft a budget that includes investments needed to reduce barriers to coverage, increase access for Medi-Cal patients, and cover the remaining uninsured."

Both CPEHN and Health Access highlighted legislation introduced late last year by state Senator Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, to extend health coverage to all Californians regardless of immigration status, Lara said Gov. Brown's new proposed budget "begins to address the lack of access to health care for undocumented Californians, but it does not go far enough," and urged continuing work to pass SB 4, the Health for All Act.

Lara said Brown's proposal of $5 million to help undocumented Californians apply for deferred action status is in line with legislation he has introduced to help immigrants gain legal status.

But, he said, the governor's budget "falls short of what is necessary to adequately help over a million eligible immigrants further integrate into the fabric of our communities and economy."

While crediting Brown with helping move the state toward financial stability, the Courage Campaign's Dr. Paul Song said the nine million Californians "still struggling to make ends meet" need Brown "to make even bolder investments in California, like restoring the devastating cuts to the Health and Human Services budget and funding programs that welcome immigrants out of the shadows." Calling Brown's budget "a step in the right direction," Song added, "There is still more to do, and Courage Campaign's one million members will continue to push Gov. Brown to get it done.

Photo: Immigrant rights advocates say Gov. Brown's proposal of $5 million to help undocumented Californians apply for deferred action status, while a step in the right direction, falls short of what it really will take to enable full integration into the community of more than a million eligible immigrants. | Marilyn Bechtel/PW

Cuba travel bill advances in the Senate

Wed, 20 May 2015 15:24:00 +0000

Now that the Cuban Five are free, Cuba is all but removed from the "State Sponsors of Terrorism" list, and restoral of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba is proceeding, it is not too soon to start work to get legislation passed that will end the U.S. blockade of Cuba, and the accompanying prohibitions of travel to Cuba as well.

Of numerous progressive bills about Cuba that have been submitted in the Senate and House of Representatives, the one that appears to be moving forward most quickly is S 299, the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act of 2015, whose principal sponsors are Sens. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

So far it has accumulated 33 additional cosponsors. Most are Democrats but there are enough Republicans so far that the passage of the bill, while not necessarily easy, is not an impossible challenge.

If S 299, and its companion bill in the House of Representatives, HR 664, which has accumulated 29 cosponsors, both pass, President Obama is sure to sign them into law.

The two bills cancel existing prohibitions on travel to Cuba and prohibit the President from enacting new travel prohibitions or banking restrictions incidental to such travel. They do not dismantle other existing prohibitions on trade with Cuba; that will require much larger-scale legislation.

When, on Dec. 16, President Obama announced the complete overhaul of U.S. Cuba policy, some Republican politicians, and a couple of Democrats, started frothing at the mouth and swearing they would never let this happen. However, there are many farm and business interests who are very much in favor of normalizing trade with Cuba for the simple reason that they want in on the commerce, and profits, which are now going to businesses from other countries.

Supporters of S 299 say they want to see 50 cosponsors on the bill by the end of June. HR 664 will need many more also.

All who want to see the last of the outrageous prohibition on U.S. citizens' and residents' travel to Cuba should, therefore, start calling, writing, faxing, e-mailing and visiting their senators and representatives immediately. Senators and representatives already on board as co-sponsors should be thanked, and those who are not yet should be asked to co-sponsor and follow through with a "yes" vote.

As S 299 has been assigned to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is chaired by Senator Bob Corker, R-Tenn., special attention should also be paid to the members of that body. There are some strongly anti-Cuba members in the committee, but others who are likely to be supportive.

HR 664 will go to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Members of both committees and their contact information are easily found on the Congressional website.

To find contact information for your senators and representatives, go to the very easy-to-use Congressional website, https://www.congres.gov .

Photo: Obama and Castro. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

This week in indigenous news: protests, fashion, discrimination

Wed, 20 May 2015 13:41:00 +0000

Why descendents of Chief Seattle led protest

It was hard to miss. Draped over the boardwalk at Jack Block Park on Saturday, a 300-square-foot cutout of a solemn face looked out over the water-based protest against the Polar Pioneer, the Arctic drilling rig floating in Elliott Bay. "Chief Seattle is watching," it read.

Looking at the sign probably made some people uncomfortable. Seattle is named after the Duwamish-Suquamish Chief Seattle, and his profile is plastered all over official letterheads and various pieces of Northwest kitsch. Still, sloganizing the face of a man who helped "Seattle" exist-in that he signed a treaty in 1855 giving over 54,000 acres of land to the federal government in exchange for an unfulfilled promise of treaty rights and a reservation for his descendants-can feel like a grotesque kind of tokenism when, often, there are no native people present to explain what it means. Read more at:

http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/05/18/22234185/why-descendants-of-chief-seattle-led-the-protest-against-shell-on-saturday

Blanket given to President carries hidden message

A star blanket presented to President Barack Obama during his visit to South Dakota last week carries a hidden message.

The artist who created the quilt stitched "NO KXL" on the back. The message ensures that tribal opposition to the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline will always be present at the White House.

"What a powerful and subtle way to be a part of this movement," Dallas Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network said on Facebook, where he shared photos of the quilt and the hidden message. Read more at:

http://www.indianz.com/News/2015/017494.asp

How Native American fashion really looks

It's bigger than fashion.

That's the first thing to know about Bethany Yellowtail's work, a vibrant, elegant melding of classic style and the staples of her Native upbringing. Elk teeth line the sleeves of one gown, drawn with intricate floral beadwork, that drapes, glistening black, on the body of Jade Willoughby, an Ojibwe model from the Whitesands First Nation in Northern Ontario, Canada. All of Yellowtail's collaborators are indigenous: Thosh Collins, the photographer, is Onk Akimel O'Odham, Wah-Zah-Zi and Haudenosaunee. Martin Sensmeier, another model, is Tlingit, Koyukon and Athabascan. Promotional video director and poet Tazbah Rose Chavez, is Nüümü and Diné.

And all have converged behind Yellowtail's vision, a fashion collection that bears the unmistakable mark of Native American influence and history, but with a twist - it's actually made by a Native American.

Sanders introduces Robin Hood Tax and free education bills

Tue, 19 May 2015 17:10:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - A broad coalition of nurses, students, religious and civil rights groups, environmentalists, labor and housing advocates enthusiastically welcomed plans by Sen. Bernie Sanders to introduce two new Senate bills today that would impose a small fee on Wall Street speculation in order to pay for college education for all and other critical community needs.

Sen. Sanders unveiled the legislation at a Capitol Hill press conference.

Sanders' landmark education bill would eliminate undergraduate college tuition fees for students attending public colleges and universities, reform student loans, and expand work-study programs. The bill is a critical step to eradicating student debt, currently pegged at nearly $1.2 trillion and the fastest growing form of consumer debt, as well as expanding educational and employment opportunity.

It also puts the U.S. on a path embraced by other nations that already provide free college education including Brazil, Chile, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Slovenia, and Sweden.

The Robin Hood tax bill would help reinvest in American families and communities by providing the resources for jobs and healthcare for all, affordable housing, eradicating HIV/AIDS and fighting poverty and climate change. It parallels a House bill, HR 1464, the Inclusive Prosperity Act, introduced by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) with 25 House co-sponsors.

"We applaud Sen. Sanders for this bold and far sighted step. Free college education, as many other countries already provide, opens the door for greater economic opportunity, reducing income inequality, and a better life for all Americans," said RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United, the largest U.S. organization of nurses, and a leader of the Robin Hood tax campaign, who will be speaking at the press conference.

"Nurses see first hand the irreplaceable bond between good health and economic security and social justice," DeMoro said. The Robin Hood tax, which can raise hundreds of billions of dollars every year, paid by Wall Street speculators, "is the perfect way to fund this program, as well as providing the resources we need for other vital humanitarian needs, including healthcare and good paying jobs for all, affordable housing, eradicating poverty and environmental justice. It is the hallmark of a civilized society and a more just nation."

Both bills set a nominal tax - 50 cents on every $100 of stock trades on stock sales, and lesser amounts on transactions involving bonds, derivatives, and other financial instruments. Passage would allow the U.S. to join dozens of other nations - including every other major global financial market - in a growing system of financial transaction taxes.

In the U.S., the Robin Hood Tax embodies a widespread campaign endorsed by 172 national organizations representing millions of members in unions, student, health, clergy, civil rights, environmental and community organizations, and other consumer and activist groups.

"Income inequality is now at the center of our national political discourse, with politicians of every stripe recognizing it as a major problem of our time. What too few are willing to say is that we must demand more revenue from corporations and the 1 percent to level the playing field," said George Goehl, executive director, National People's Action.

"Experts are saying that we have the science we need to end the global AIDS crisis, yet everyone agrees that this will not be possible without a considerable increase in resources," said Jamila Headley, managing director of Health GAP (Global Action Project). NPA and Health GAP are, along with NNU, major leaders of the Robin Hood campaign.

The Robin Hood tax would also slow the growth of automated high frequency trading, which makes the stock market more dangerous. A small tax would make risky High-Frequency Trading (HFT) unprofitable, and help reduce the excess speculation on commodities like food and gas that drives up prices, which will protect the economy from computer-generated collapses and market manipulation.

Forty nations from the United Kingdom to South Korea administer or have administered a financial transaction tax. In addition, 11 nations in the European Union are finalizing details of their own financial transaction tax to be implemented on January 1, 2016.

Photo: At Sen. Sanders press conference. RobinHoodTax.org

Rolling one-day strike closes Washington state schools

Tue, 19 May 2015 12:41:00 +0000

PORT ANGELES, Wash.-Thousands of union school workers in 60 districts across the Evergreen State are staging a "rolling one-day walkout" to protest the Republican-controlled State Senate's refusal to fully fund public schools.

Hundreds of classroom teachers and para-professionals, nurses, and other school employees closed schools in Sequim and Port Angeles Monday, May 18. Wearing bright red T-shirts, they gathered for a spirited rally at the Veterans Memorial in Port Angeles at noon, waving placards that read, "On Strike Against the Legislature! WA. Senators Ignore Voters. Defy the Supreme Court. Cheat Our Kids. Get 11% Raise?"

Teachers across the state went out on strike today, joining the rolling walkout already underway by other school workers. The teachers are striking too, they say, to protest against the legislature's refusal to fully find public education.

Motorists passing the picket lines answered with a clamor of honking horns, thumbs up salutes and shouts of solidarity.

Jonathan Eekhoff, President of the Sequim Education Association, told the crowd that 12 years ago he joined other teachers in a rally in the state capital, Olympia, demanding full funding of education. Twelve years later, he said, teachers, students and communities across the state are still waiting as real funding for public education dwindles down.

He likened teachers in Washington State to a housekeeper trying to make a queen-sized sheet fit a king-sized bed. Teachers often dip into their own meager income to pay for urgently needed supplies, he said.

He castigated the State legislature for stalling once again on any steps to fully fund public education. The $1.3 billion statewide public education budget the legislature is proposing contains a pitiful 3 percent salary increase for teachers stretched over two years even as the legislators propose an 11 percent pay increase for themselves.

The Republican-controlled state senate proposes increased class size for all classes, kindergarten through grade 12, even though Washington voters last November approved I-1351, a ballot initiative requiring lower class sizes for grades K-12.

"We've waited. We've lobbied. We've written our representatives. It's time!" he said. "Today we are here to say it is time to fully fund education, time for a sheet that fits the bed."

Sarah Methner, president of the Port Angeles School Board, praised the teachers and other school employees for their dedicated service. She told the crowd she has four children in the city's public schools. "I am tired of hearing the legislature say they need more time," she said. "How long did it take the legislature to approve that $10 billion tax break for Boeing? Three days!" It is time, she said, for the legislature to quit stalling and come up with the funds to fully fund education, she said.

Kianna Miller, a seventh Grader at Sequim's Middle School, stood holding a placard that read, "I am more than a test score." Miller said she fully supports the teachers who are also striking to win reduced class size and also an end to the crazed practice of endless testing of students. "For about a month, we've been studying the same material over and over, then testing. It's just too much. I feel we should spend more time learning."

She added, "I think the legislature should try harder. I think most of the students feel it is not fair. Class sizes are ridiculous. We can't get enough help from our teachers. That is not the students fault and its not the teachers fault. Where does the blame lie? With people who are giving themselves a raise, like the legislature. If they have enough to give themselves a raise why not a raise for our teachers and for education."

Buddy Bear, a 26-year veteran social studies teacher at Port Angeles High School, told the People's World that the legislature turns its back on public schools and students, forcing hard-pressed working people in the districts to shoulder the burden, repeatedly approving tax levy's to keep the schools open.

Last fall school bond issues on the ballot in both Sequim and Port Angeles to build new high schools were voted down despite the aging, crumbling condition of the existing facilities. A major factor underlying the crisis is the extremely regressive system of taxation in Washington State, worst in the nation. Washington has no income tax and relies solely on a soak-the-poor 8.5 percent sales tax to generate tax revenues.

"Emotions are running high," he said. "This strike is not against our city, our school district. Its against the legislature," Bear said.

The legislators have been found in "contempt of court" he said, referring to the State Supreme Court's finding last year that the legislature has flagrantly violated a ruling they handed down in 2012 that the State Constitution requires the legislature to fully fund public education as a "paramount duty." Bear asked, "Who is going to go to jail?"

Photo: Teachers and supporters at a Washington Education Association rally April 25, at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. Teachers, union members, and other supporters were demonstrating for better funding of schools, cost-of-living pay increases for teachers, smaller class sizes and other issues. Ted S. Warren/AP

Democratic flip-floppers let Senate start debating fast-track

Fri, 15 May 2015 12:59:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - It was a one-day victory.

Following arm-twisting from President Obama, 10 Senate Democrats who had voted May 12 against starting debate on controversial presidential fast-track trade promotion authority - providing the key margin for that debate ban-changed their positions the next day and voted to open debate. The Senate started debating fast-track on May 14.

The Democrats also yielded to majority Republicans' demands to open debate on TPA and the so-called "free trade" pacts it would produce, especially the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Obama, big business, and GOP leaders all strongly push fast-track.

The Democrats' price: Separate legislation to aid workers who lose their jobs to imports, which Obama backs, and to declare deliberate currency manipulation is an unfair trade practice that costs jobs. That passed 78-20, but Obama plans to veto it.

In a twitter feed, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka summed up his view of Obama's arguments: "Unadulterated horse waste." He also predicted Obama's move and the Democrats' fold would cost the party politically at the polls next year and for years afterwards.

The flip-flop came after senators voted 52-45 on May 12 to start debate on fast-track. The Republicans needed 60 votes to open debate. Fast-track would let Obama and his successor jam legislation implementing job-losing so-called "free trade" agreements, without worker rights and protections, through Congress on up-or-down votes with no changes.

They failed on that vote, but mustered 65 on the rerun, including 52 of the 54 GOP'ers. Obama called the balking Dems to the White House, along with Delaware's Tom Carper, the lone Democrat who voted with the GOP before. Obama's pressure and the flip-flops angered unions and workers, who lead the mass progressive campaign against fast-track and the TPP.

"Those who want to get trade right must demand that fast-track doesn't move unless currency and other enforcement tools are in the package," Trumka said in a more-official statement. "Anything less leaves workers, domestic producers and communities behind."

U.S. workers "lost millions of jobs and billions in wages over the last two decades as a result of currency manipulation, all with little to no response other than talk from various administrations, regardless of party," he added. "If Congress is serious about 'trade done right,' enforceable currency provisions, both in U.S. law and in our trade deals, are needed. Currency legislation, and indeed the entire enforcement bill, cannot be left behind as Senate Republicans attempt to advance fast-track."

His official comment was one of the milder reactions.

"This is not free trade; it's fake trade. We have fake trade," said Amalgamated Transit Union President Larry Hanley.

"These elected officials are turning their backs on their constituents," said Teamsters President Jim Hoffa. "A simple up-or-down vote on a trade deal of this magnitude" - the TPP - "is not in the best interest" of the middle class. Workers and families "have seen firsthand the real impact of unfair, unbalanced trade agreements over the past 20 years." He urged lawmakers to beat fast- track and "protect our country from another bad trade agreement."

"Our coalition will continue to call out senators who support fast-track for giving away their right to amend this trade deal - that has been negotiated in secrecy - and any other trade deal negotiated through 2021," the Communications Workers said in a statement. "We'll step up our work focusing on House members who are the real key to winning this battle, and make sure that they hear us loud and clear: No fast-track for the TPP!!"
The earlier vote cheered union leaders, as it appeared to push the Senate debate into June, giving workers and their allies more time to lobby lawmakers. That prospect vanished.

"It's like David and Goliath. We're David and we have a slingshot," CWA President Larry Cohen told Press Associates Union News Service in a walk-and-talk after a rally to unveil a progressive agenda. "We get at least two more weeks to mobilize."

Despite the flip-flops, a heavy majority of congressional Democrats, in both the House and the Senate, oppose fast-track. "The TPP threatens jobs," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., its leading House foe. The House vote, so far, is too close to call.

"I challenge any member of Congress to show us a trade deal that gave us a net increase in jobs and a net increase in wages," Steelworkers President Leo Gerard declared at the progressive agenda rally on May 12. "They can't find it."

The TPP is the worst of three trade pacts Obama wants to implement before he leaves office. Another is with Europe, while the third opens trade in services - including government services - to foreign firms. Fast-track would let Obama and his successor push pacts through.

The TPP doesn't write worker rights into its text. And it lets multinationals export U.S. jobs to nations with extremely low wages and massive worker repression.

"We shouldn't engage in trade agreements that put our manufacturing workers in direct competition with workers earning 60 cents an hour," Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., told the progressive agenda rally. The agenda includes opposition to fast track. Merkley didn't flip-flop, but his Democratic colleague, Ron Wyden, co-author of the Senate fast-track bill, did.

"It is time to change the country's playbook on trade," Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain stated on the state fed's website. "Fast-track does nothing to protect working people or keep jobs" in the U.S.

The TPP also includes a secret trade court, called Investor State Dispute Settlement, to let corporations challenge federal, state and local laws that might harm present or future

profits. ISDS would threaten everything from Buy American laws to job safety and health laws.

Labor mobilized its members to sidetrack fast-track in the Senate and to continue its lobbying in the House. The Steelworkers have activated their Rapid Response network for weeks, and Cohen predicted that if CWA had 10,000 activists working against fast-track before the Senate balloting, it'll have 20,000 now.

"Working families are tired of Washington politicians telling them what's economically best. We are all living today's reality of trade policies that have accelerated offshoring and outsourcing of good jobs. Working Americans don't want their elected leaders using a rubber stamp for a trade deal that is hidden behind a veil of secrecy," Gerard said in a statement, separate from his speech at the rally.

Before the Senate votes, Trumka made it clear that labor isn't reflexively opposed to trade - but that it is opposed to trade pacts that hurt workers. In an op-ed piece in the Washington Post, entitled "Let's see a TPP that respects workers' rights," he said unions and workers had, for five years, submitted and lobbied for pro-worker changes to the TPP.

"The AFL-CIO, working with union federations from the other TPP countries" sought to improve the pact's labor chapter "and address the failures of prior trade deals," he explained.

It proposed the right to submit "a single egregious violation" of worker rights - such as a mass firing - to the trade courts, "clear rules and deadlines for action on meritorious cases," a ban on child labor, protection for migrant workers and new standards for labor inspections and decent work. All would be enforced by "an independent secretariat."

The administration's response: Silence. "We don't know" the fate of labor's proposals, Trumka said. Therefore, workers cannot support the TPP - or fast-track to permit it.

Photo: United Steelworkers (USW) Facebook

Republicans lying about train safety funding

Thu, 14 May 2015 14:42:00 +0000

CHICAGO - By mid-day Thursday, at least seven people were dead with more than 200 injured, in the wake of Tuesday's Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia.

Perhaps the least-publicized part of the first findings announced yesterday by Robert Sumwalt, the lead investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, was where he told national media that he was certain the tragedy would have been avoided had Positive Train Control been in place along the stretch of track from which the train had derailed.

"Based on what we know right now," Sumwalt told reporters, cameramen and women, and television anchors from all across America, "we feel that had such a system been installed on this section of the track, this accident would not have occurred." Yet the focus of media coverage for the rest of the day was on the 106-mile-per-hour speed that the train was traveling, and on whether the engineer was responsible for the tragedy.

Positive Train Control (PTC), which is in place along other parts of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, involves using GPS to slow a train for any reason that causes it to breach a particular speed limit on a particular stretch of track, including a driver emergency, a driver mistake, a switch left in the wrong position, hijacking, or a major storm. The PTC system was not in place along the track in Philadelphia.

Seven years ago, the U.S. Congress passed the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, requiring railroad operators to have PTC in place everywhere by December 2015. Already existing budget cuts have slowed Amtrak's ability to comply with that mandate, the company says, and just hours after the tragedy, Republicans in Congress voted to slash yet another $250 million from Amtrak's funding.

The House Appropriations Committee voted entirely along party lines to cut 20 percent of Amtrak's budget. House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan lied when, after that, he said that Congress had already funded implementing the safety system it had mandated in 2008.

He went on Fox TV saying that Congress should not "rush to judgement and try doubling the size of government programs" in response to what he said was human error.

When asked by Fox News whether Congress had actually provided the money for PTC he lied by saying, "Yes!" He then hedged a bit, saying, "Yeah, we already passed an Amtrak funding, an authorization bill earlier this year. And the appropriations process is working its way through right now."

In addition to finally admitting that the funds had not been made available to Amtrak, Ryan also did not mention that the funds that are still in the pipeline do not include money that Amtrak had requested precisely for installation of the PTC system. Further underlining the falsehood of Ryan's claims is the filing only two weeks ago of a bill in the Senate, delaying the PTC implementation deadline from December, 2015 to 2020. Were Ryan's claims true, such a filing would have been entirely unnecessary.

Photo: Patrick Semansky/AP

Protesters set up “Raunerville” outside Illinois governor’s penthouse

Thu, 14 May 2015 13:22:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Nearly 200 Chicagoans rallied in front of the building where Governor Bruce Rauner owns a lakefront penthouse. More than a dozen people concerned about the draconian budget cuts proposed by the governor brought tents and sleeping bags to camp out.

"I've already experienced what it's like to have my Medicaid cut," said Victor McWilliams a board member of the Jane Addams Senior Caucus. "I didn't know if I would have to live on the streets and how I would pay for food. It's ridiculous that Governor Rauner thinks he can balance the budget by cutting programs for seniors and other vulnerable people in Illinois. What he needs to do is tax corporations and the One Percent."

People set up props and rolled out their sleeping bags to mimic the depression-era Hoovervilles. The possible cuts would lead to more homelessness, more people going without medical attention, and unable to meet their basic needs. The Raunerville settlement shows the governor the future he wants to lead us down.

"Governor Bruce Rauner would rather put his wealthy friends ahead of the hard-working families of Illinois, said Annie Harris, a member of Action Now. "He would rather side with billionaire Ken Griffin instead of someone like me."

Other sources of revenue for the state are within reach if the Governor would side with working families instead of his wealthy friends. Illinois can utilize a millionaire's tax, a progressive income tax system, closing corporate tax loopholes, among others.

"Cuts to mental health services will cause instability in people's lives across the board, said Marnee Koob, a leader with ONE Northside who is formerly homeless. "It will create homelessness and cost the state more money for hospitalizations and incarceration. It's time to raise revenue by taxing LaSalle Street trading."

Photo: Aaron Krager

Today: Celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Thu, 14 May 2015 13:10:00 +0000

On April 30, President Obama released a proclamation for the AAPI Heritage month of May that bears reading. Most of it is published here. Readers need hardly be reminded that although Obama is identified as African-American, he was born and raised in Hawaii, and briefly also in Indonesia, making him culturally knowledgable and sensitive to AAPI concerns. The President's emphasis on immigration rights, racial and religious harassment, and role in our nation's labor history is worthy of note.

"The rich heritage of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders spans the world and the depths of America's history. Generation after generation, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have forged a proud legacy that reflects the spirit of our Nation - a country that values the contributions of everyone who calls America home. During Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, we honor the perseverance of those who courageously reached for their hopes and dreams in a new land, and we celebrate the important impact the AAPI community has made on our Nation's progress.

"From the more than one million immigrants who journeyed across the Pacific and arrived on Angel Island to the Chinese-American laborers who risked their lives to link our coasts by rail, the determination of this vibrant community represents the best of our national character. In each chapter of our country's story - in places like Selma and the grape fields of Delano, during the moments where our Nation's destiny has been decided - AAPIs of all backgrounds have set inspiring examples as leaders and trailblazers, united by a common hope for civil rights, equal treatment, and a better tomorrow for all Americans.

"Through times of hardship and in the face of enduring prejudice, these women and men have persisted and forged ahead to help strengthen our Union. Native Hawaiians have fought to protect their treasured traditions, language, and lands. And AAPI patriots have defended the beliefs for which we stand. Seventy years ago, the United States and our allies secured a lasting peace throughout the Asia Pacific region and much of the world - a victory achieved in part by thousands of Filipino Americans who fought valiantly but were denied compensation, and also by Japanese Americans who served this country even as the freedom of their loved ones was denied.

"Fifty years ago, the United States opened new doors of opportunity to more Asian and Pacific Islander immigrants through the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, ending the arbitrary and outdated policies that unfairly limited the potential of entire regions. This year also marks the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, which brought new Vietnamese, Cambodian, Hmong, and Laotian communities to this country. But as we recognize the enormous progress America has made, we must also acknowledge the many struggles AAPIs continue to experience in the face of persistent inequality and bigotry, including barriers to equal access to education, employment, and health care. South Asian Americans - especially those who are Muslim, Hindu, or Sikh - too often face senseless violence and harassment due only to the color of their skin or the tenets of their faith. And to this day, many AAPIs continue to live in the shadows and are separated from their families due to our broken immigration system.

"My Administration is committed to addressing these unmet needs and the ugly discrimination that still exists. I was proud to re-establish the White House Initiative on AAPIs soon after I took office, to foster opportunities for increased access to and involvement in Federal programs. As part of that effort, my Administration is expanding its regional network of Federal leaders and hosting community meetings across the country to better understand the needs of the diverse AAPI community. Last year, I announced my intent to take actions that would allow more high-skilled immigrants, graduates, and entrepreneurs to stay and contribute to our economy, and I continue to call on the Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform. To highlight the tremendous growth of the AAPI community and my Administration's commitment to increasing opportunity for AAPIs everywhere, this month we will host the White House Summit on AAPIs - an unprecedented and historic all-day convening of senior Federal officials and community leaders from across the country.

"As we commemorate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we pay tribute to all those in the AAPI community who have striven for a brighter future for the next generation. Together, let us recommit to embracing the diversity that enriches our Nation and to ensuring all our people have an equal chance to succeed in the country we love."

Photo: A young Obama in 1979 during his high school graduation in Hawaii; with him here is his grandmother. | AP

Baltimore United for Change takes root

Wed, 13 May 2015 14:13:00 +0000

BALTIMORE - As Freddie Gray lay dying in Maryland Shock Trauma Center in late April, before news of his eventual death was made known to the media, a group of activists was planning their next steps to curb police brutality in Baltimore.

Earlier in the spring, the young activists had suffered defeat at the hands of the Maryland State Legislature where seventeen bills concerning police accountability and voting rights for ex-felons had been introduced in the wake of the Ferguson, Mo., killing of Michael Brown. Only one of the 17 bills passed. It has yet to be signed into law by the Republican governor.

Naming themselves Baltimore United for Change (BUC), the new group was composed of labor and grass roots organizations such as SEIU 32BJ and 1199 SEIU, the Algebra Project, CASA, AFSC Peace by Piece Project, Jews United for Justice, Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, and others.

When news of Gray's death hit the streets, the new coalition went into action, building their social media network, organizing and participating in street marches, providing a place for youth to go when the schools shut down, calling a mass planning meeting the first night of Baltimore's curfew, mobilizing resources to provide food for thousands in areas affected by the unrest, and raising bail money for arrested protesters.

On May 1, the day State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced charges against the six police officers involved in Gray's arrest and death, BUC organized a boisterous, celebratory march of several hundreds, winding through downtown Baltimore from Mosby's office to a rally at City Hall where the State's Attorney's decision was applauded. The speakers and artists from Baltimore's African American, Latino, white and faith-based communities called for unity and for further peaceful actions.

Then this past Monday, May 11, BUC organized a mass meeting at historic Metropolitan United Methodist Church in West Baltimore, not far from where Gray was arrested and fatally injured. The more than 800 people who jammed into this "house of resistance" as it was described by the Rev. Dr. Heber Brown, pastor of Pleasant Hope Baptist Church in East Baltimore, spent several hours being encouraged to keep up the pressure for change.

"We are an immense tent as broad as the City of Baltimore, with the purpose of making a better city, state, country and world," Pastor Brown said. "Ella Baker's spirit is alive tonight and strong in Baltimore. When Ella met with someone she would ask, 'Who are your people? What's your granny's name? What line did you come from?'" Brown then told the crowd to turn to someone in the next pew and to find out something about them.

Brown explained that the BUC coalition partners have a strong track record, rooted in struggle: They were instrumental in stopping construction of a $104 million youth jail in Baltimore city several years ago; they have been involved in the fight for low-wage workers; during the current protest they found food and shelter for thousands of people in mosques, churches and barber shops when local stores closed down, and they raised over $100,000 to help get hundreds of protesters out of jail on bond. Contributions for bail are still needed.

Delegate Jill Carter, "one of the lone voices" fighting for police accountability bills in the 2015 session of the Maryland General Assembly, was introduced by Dayvon Love, researcher and public policy director of Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, a moving force behind BUC.

Carter explained that amending the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights (LEOBOR) which, among other things, allows police 10 days after an incident to make their statement, must become a priority of the movement. Ninety-nine percent of the time there are no charges brought against the police, she said, even though in recent years 2,600 people here, injured in a confrontation with police, have had to be taken to the hospital before being taken to Central Booking. "We need to put people before police," she said.

Speaking on behalf of the Tyrone West family, Tyrone's sister told the crowd that his family has been working for 662 days to get justice for her brother, who was beaten to death by police on a Baltimore sidewalk July 18, 2013. "People don't see what the families go through," she said. "This system we're fighting is real ugly."

Then the featured speaker of the evening, philosophy professor and activist, Dr. Cornel West, was introduced. "Any time people are catching hell and give me a call, I am willing to be there," West said. "When my brothers in Palestine give me a call, I am willing to be there. When I got a call from Bmoreunited, I came. Rev. Heber Brown, he's my kind of Baptist revolutionary pastor."

"In America rich kids get taught, poor kids get tested," West said. "As the country privatizes education, as we militarize police departments and as massive amounts of money get shifted to the wealthy."

Weaving musical references into his speech in an evening that included song and spoken word, West admonished the crowd, "Don't allow the corporate media to distort what's going on in the city that produced Billie Holiday. As the Isley Brothers sang, we're a 'Caravan of Love.' That's what the Black freedom movement has always been." And, speaking of the hard coalition work to come, he stated, "This is not a military band. This is a jazz orchestra. We have to learn how to sustain this movement by disagreeing amiably and then coming together in unity of purpose."

People left the Metropolitan United Methodist Church with an invitation to come back for the church's next session of nonviolent civil disobedience training. It was a busy day in Baltimore. In another part of the city people were rallying to urge Governor Hogan to sign that one bill of 17 that passed the state legislature-the bill allowing 40,000 former felons in Maryland to vote upon completion of their incarceration.

Photo: via Baltimore United for Change/Facebook

This week in Indigenous news: May 6-13

Wed, 13 May 2015 13:06:00 +0000

Clam gardens call into question hunter-gatherer past of B.C. First Nations

The discovery of an expansive system of historic clam gardens along the Pacific Northwest coast is contributing to a growing body of work that's busting long-held beliefs about First Nations as heedless hunter-gatherers.

A team of researchers at Simon Fraser University has revealed that First Nations from Alaska to Washington state were marine farmers using sophisticated cultivation techniques to intensify clam production.

In an article published recently in the journal American Antiquity, lead author Dana Lepofsky argued that the findings counter the perception of First Nations living passively as foragers in wild, untended environments

Native history: 71-Day Wounded Knee occupation ends

This week in Native history: On May 8, 1973, members of the American Indian Movement surrendered to federal authorities on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation, ending their legendary 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee.

Set in the same impoverished village as the 1890 massacre, the siege began February 27 and is hailed as one of AIM's greatest successes. About 200 Sioux Indians participated in the occupation, which attracted supporters from dozens of other tribes and called global attention to generations of mistreatment from federal and local agencies.

"Who is killing our people?"': Hundreds march in MMIW Mother's Day walk

Hundreds of people marched in memory of Canada's missing and murdered indigenous women (MMIW) in downtown Winnipeg on a day most moms spent with their families.

The 11th annual Sisters in Spirit Mother's Day walk started at the St. Regis Hotel Sunday afternoon, the site where 16-year-old Sunshine Wood disappeared in February of 2004.

Stanford's 44th annual Mother's Day Weekend Powwow draws thousands

STANFORD, Calif. - Mothers are being honored this weekend at the 44th Annual Stanford Powwow on the campus of Stanford University. The popular powwow draws thousands of visitors each May as American Indian dancers and drummers from various parts of Indian Country come to celebrate American Indian culture.

How Indian status figures Into unsolved case of murdered Aboriginal woman

In the summer of 1998, Mag Cywink, her husband Tom, and a medicine man from Pine Ridge, South Dakota, travelled to southern Ontario. The purpose of their trip was to release two spirits: the spirit of Mag's sister Sonya and the spirit of Sonya's unborn child.

Hundreds of friends and family had gathered amid the greenery of Southwold Earthworks, a 40-minute drive southwest of London, Ont. Four years earlier, Sonya's body had been found in that exact spot. They were about to perform the ancient ceremony when the medicine man, Floyd Looks for Buffalo Hand, turned to Mag and asked, "What is her Indian name? Does she have an Indian name?"

Idle No More movement was like "bacteria," says internal RCMP document

The Idle No More movement was like "bacteria" that spread across the country carrying with it the potential for an outbreak of violence, according to an internal RCMP document shared by senior officers.

The internal document was a site report from Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence's camp which was set up during her liquids-only fast on Victoria Island in the Ottawa River within sight of Parliament Hill and the Supreme Court of Canada. The camp became a hub of activity during the height of the Idle No More movement between December 2012 and January 2013.

The site report was written by RCMP Cpl. Wayne Russett, the Aboriginal liaison for the national capital region, and sent to Insp. Mike LeSage, the acting director general for National Aboriginal Policing. LeSage passed it on to Carrie Ann McPherson, a senior analyst with the RCMP's Operations Intelligence Analysis Section.

Activist use tripod to block Shell's Seattle operations

Days after the Foss Maritime announced that they intended to defy Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, and illegally host Shell's Arctic drilling fleet, Seattle activists have blockaded Shell's Seattle fuel transfer station by erecting a tripod.

Seattle resident Annie Lukins, who is suspended from the top of the tripod, says she made the decision to block the facility because like everyone who lives near the shore, she has a stake in stopping Shell. "Shell already knows the impacts of drilling in the arctic. They are placing themselves in defiance of climate science, in defiance of the treaty subsistence rights of the Inupiat, and in defiance of our elected official here in Seattle. I'm here because I'm not the only young person who wants to raise her children near the shore. Whether they are my kids or the kids of the Inupiat people of the arctic, I want the next generation to be able to to eat fish from the ocean whose flesh doesn't carry the killing toxins of crude oil. Shell has already proven they cannot safely operate in the arctic, and the niger delta has shown us that they don't clean up after themselves. We need to ban arctic drilling now."

Photo: In this 2013 photo, members of the Nipissing First Nation from southern Ontario and local non-Aboriginal supporters in Ottawa march behind the Idle No More banner (Moxy - Own work Michelle Caron).

Today in history: Philadelphia police bomb MOVE 30 years ago

Wed, 13 May 2015 11:32:00 +0000

On this date in 1985, Philadelphia police dropped a bomb containing the powerful military plastic explosive C-4 on a residential building, resulting in a massive fire that left 11 persons dead (including 5 children) and destroyed approximately 65 nearby houses.

Founded by John Africa in 1972 as the Christian Movement for Life in 1972, but almost from the start known as the MOVE Organization, MOVE is a Philadelphia-based African American group that preached revolution and advocated a return to a natural lifestyle. They lived communally and vowed to lead a life unimpeded by the government, police or technology. Passionate supporters of animal rights, members adopted vegan diets. They also adopted the surname "Africa."

Often times MOVE members would engage in public demonstrations related to issues they deemed important. Their "confrontation units" faced the system in courts and in front of police precincts, to try and tie up the system with mass arrests and jailings. They were especially active during the era of openly racist Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo, who at one point tried to starve MOVE out in an expensive, 14-month standoff with both sides heavily armed, which only gained more community support for MOVE. In 1978 Rizzo sent the police in, and one officer was killed.

In 1981 MOVE moved to a row house at 6221 Osage Ave. On May 13, 1985, after complaints from neighbors, as well as indictments of numerous MOVE members for parole violation, contempt of court, illegal possession of firearms, and making threats, the Philadelphia Police Department attempted to clear the MOVE house and arrest the indicted MOVE members. This led to an armed standoff. Police lobbed tear gas canisters at the building. MOVE members fired at the police, and the police returned fire with semiautomatic weapons.

By order of Philadelphia Police Commissioner George Sambor, a Pennsylvania State Police helicopter then dropped two one-pound bombs made of FBI-supplied water gel explosive, a dynamite substitute, on the roof of the house. Ramona Africa, one of two survivors, claimed that police fired at those trying to escape the burning house, while the police stated that MOVE members had been firing at police.

Mayor W. Wilson Goode appointed an investigative commission which issued its report on March 6, 1986. The report denounced the actions of the city government, stating that "Dropping a bomb on an occupied row house was unconscionable." No one from the city government was ever charged criminally. This incident goes down in the annals of post-Vietnam War militarization of urban policing, particularly as directed against poor people of color.

In 1996, a federal jury ordered the city to pay a $1.5 million civil suit judgment to survivor Ramona Africa and relatives of two people killed in the bombing. The jury had found that the city used excessive force and violated the members' constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure. Philadelphia was nicknamed the "The City that Bombed Itself."

Adapted from Chase's Calendar of Events and other sources. An hour-long documentary of the 1985 incident can be foundhere.

NY Governor Cuomo announces support for raising minimum wage

Tue, 12 May 2015 16:51:00 +0000

NEW YORK -- Union Square, the historic site for mass rallies for labor and progressive causes, resonated with the clarion call for a living wage in New York City last week.

One of the city's largest municipal unions, SEIU 32BJ, along with the Hotel Trades Council, called on the NY state legislature to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Many progressive organizations including New York Communities for Change, Make the Road, La Fuente, and the Communist Party joined in the rally to bring justice to low wage workers. "Together we can win" the crowd chanted throughout the afternoon.

In a surprise appearance, Governor Andrew Cuomo told the crowd, "It's a question of simple math. You cannot support a family in New York for $18,000 a year." The governor went on to say that the working families of New York are subsidizing the CEOs of corporations like McDonald's: because they do not receive living wages, workers for such corporations cannot afford food or health care for their families, requiring the city and state to foot the bill.

President of 32BJ, Hector Figueroa spoke eloquently of the extreme inequality in the city and the importance of the growing people's fight back. "This is big," he said. "After all the work we've done to come this far we need to make sure that the wage board recommends $15 per hour and that Governor Cuomo implements that recommendation."

He applauded the governor for taking an "important step " and "offering hope and a path forward for the 200,000 fast food works in NY, along with the millions of others in our country making too little for too long."

In an effort to sidestep the State Senate that has balked at considering a raise in the minimum wage, Cuomo has called for the state labor commission to convene a panel to consider hiking the minimum.

With the Republican leadership of the NY State Senate in shambles in light of the indictment of Dean Skelos, the current majority leader, and the likely indictment of the Number 2 Republican, Thomas Libousm progressive legislation may stand a better chance of passing.

Responding to a nearly decade long on-the- ground organizing by groups like OurWalmart and Fastfood Forward for a $15 minimum Mayor De Blasio has called for raising the to $13.13.

The results of that ongoing unity and activism was apparent in the celebratory mood in Union Square. When fast food worker Ralph was asked about the day, he said, "I am feeling hopeful that I will be able to make a living wage." Ralph, who has worked at his job for 12 years, agreed with the crowd that "Together we can win."

Photo: Hundreds participated in a die-in in New York City because economic justice IS racial justice, April 15, 2015. Fight for $15, Facebook.