People Before Profit blog

Today in labor history: Great Hawaiian Dock Strike

Fri, 25 Oct 2013 10:30:00 +0000

Today in labor history in 1949 the Great Hawaiian Dock Strike, a six-month struggle to win wage parity with mainland dock workers, ends in victory.

University of Hawaii-based Center for Labor Education and Research writes:

The 1949 longshore strike was a pivotal event in the development of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in Hawai'i and also in the development of labor unity necessary for a modern labor movement. The 171-day strike challenged the colonial wage pattern whereby Hawai'i longshore workers received significantly lower pay than their West Coast counterparts, even though they worked for the same company and did the same work.

While wage parity was the major bargaining issue, the strike marked a last ditch attempt by the Big 5, a group of five companies that dominated Hawai'i, to break the strength of organized labor. The strike had major ramifications beyond Hawai'i and had an impact on Congressional deliberations regarding statehood.

In the years after World War II, the United States waged an undeclared "Cold War" against the Soviet Union and their socialist allies. U.S. capitalism even attacked unions and any form of solidarity as un-American and a mortal threat to private profit. Militant unions like the ILWU were singled out for attack and union leaders were branded as members of a communist conspiracy.

This "Red Baiting" reached a fever pitch with both Hawai'i and national papers accusing the ILWU of working for Joe Stalin of the Soviet Union. Hawai'i's Legislature passed the Dock Seizure Act. Wives of company executives and managers, marching as the "Broom Brigade," demonstrated against the ILWU pickets and management propaganda projected starvation for Hawai'i.

With steadfast rank and file members, brilliant leadership, and superb organization, the ILWU was able to prevail against this formidable array. To achieve victory, the ILWU attracted solid community support and a unified labor movement. Images of Jack Hall and Arthur Rutledge on the same picket line convey this sense of shared commitment. The ILWU made effective use of its own media weapons with both English language and Filipino radio programs as well as the labor and ethnic press.

The story of the 1949 dock strike will be anchored by the faces and voices of the rank and file longshoremen who were the heroes of 1949. The reality of the times will be captured through the stories of the people who made this history. Interviews with dozens of people were conducted on O'ahu, Maui and the Big Island as the CLEAR Researchers collected film, photos and visual images. Scripts from Bob McElrath's radio broadcasts will be dramatized to convey the issues and capture an authentic feel. Authentic voices from the other side of the strike will also be utilized to convey the sense of drama and conflict, which were part of the era.

In a very real way, Hawai'i's labor movement confronted the phenomenon now known as globalization, long before the word began being applied to current events. These labor pioneers showed that unity was a real weapon in the fight for dignity and fair treatment. The telling of this story can point to answers for present problems and as it showcases the ordinary men and women who were able to muster extraordinary resources to achieve victory.

CLEAR produced a documentary about the strike entitled "Rice and Roses" and copies are available for purchase.

Arrest in Virginia exposes the real voter fraud

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:34:00 +0000

The arrest in Virginia last week of a young Republican operative reveals a possible large scale GOP voter fraud scheme, and puts in perspective the Republicans' attempts to whip up hysteria about fraud by the other side.

The arrested individual, Colin Small, 23, was picked up by sheriff's police in Harrisonburg, in Rockingham County Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley, and is accused of tossing filled out voter registration cards into a dumpster.

He is being charged with destruction of voter registration materials and other crimes.

The impact of the action for which Small was arrested would be that people who thought they were registered to vote, because Small had registered them, would show up on election day and not be able to vote. It is not clear at writing if the registration forms retrieved from the dumpster will be allowed to count for the Nov.6 general election, as voter registration in Virginia closed on Oct.15, or whether the Board of Elections plans at least to inform the registrants that their registrations were sabotaged.

Irresponsible young man who just didn't want to be bothered with turning in voter registrations he had collected? Well, it turns out that Small, who is from Pennsylvania, was originally working for an election registration company that is connected to the Republican Party and that is the focus of a major voter fraud scandal in Florida.

The company, Strategic Allied Consulting, is headed by Nate Sproul. Sproul and his companies have been accused, but not convicted, in the past of various illegal stunts including getting voter registrations from people who want to vote Democratic and then disposing of the registrations without turning them in to electoral authorities.

Evidently the Republicans have relied heavily on Allied Strategic Consulting but severed their link to the outfit earlier this year when the electoral fraud scandal erupted in Florida.

However, the PinPoint company, connected with Allied Strategic, has continued to do voter registration and Small was evidently working with PinPoint. At any rate, it was not just a local issue, but one that implicates the whole Republican Party.

This is in an election cycle in which the Republican Party has promoted harsh voter identification laws which many fear will keep many poor, elderly and minority people from being able to vote. The kind of fraud Small is accused of perpetrating would not have been detected by voter ID laws. Virginia has such a law, which does not, however, require a photo ID as some other states do.

Virginia is a key swing state with 13 electoral votes. It is neck and neck between Obama and Romney right now. In addition there is an important senatorial race pitting Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican George Allen against each other, which is also neck and neck at writing. The stakes could hardly be higher. If the vote is stolen by the Republicans in Virginia, it could swing the whole presidential election to Romney plus give the Republicans a majority in the Senate.

Virginia Democrats have demanded that the right-wing Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli open an investigation of the situation. Cuccinelli first punted to the Virginia Board of Elections, which said that it is up to local authorities to begin any such investigation, and that, since this appears to be an "isolated incident", it would not ask for an investigation itself.

However, both Cuccinelli and the Board of Elections now say they will launch investigations.

Virginia's three Democratic Congresspersons (Bobby Scott, Gerry Connelly and Jim Moran) released a letter on Tuesday demanding that the federal Department of Justice open an investigation into the affair.

Meanwhile, Virginia residents who have not received their new voter registration card in the mail are requested to check their status with the Virginia State Board of Elections, which can be done online.

The name of the game seems to be selective vote suppression: To prevent whole sectors of the electorate who are more likely to vote for the Democrats from voting at all. The 26th Amendment to the US Constitution says that all citizens over 18 years of age have the right to vote. This sort of vote suppression should be considered to be serious voter fraud and a violation of the Constitution.

Frankenstorm calls to mind Romney’s opposition to federal disaster aid

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 14:55:00 +0000

An article on the Huffington Post yesterday recalled how, during a debate in the GOP primaries, Mitt Romney said FEMA should be shuttered so the states can deal with disasters individually.

"Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states," Romney declared, " that's the right direction. And if you can go even further, and send it back to the private sector, that's even better. Instead of thinking, in the federal budget, what should we cut, we should ask the opposite question, what should we keep?"

John King, the debate moderator pushed harder: "Including disaster relief?'" he asked.

Romney's response: "We cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids. It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that we'll all be dead and gone before it's paid off. It makes no sense at all."

Hurricane Sandy and the superstorm of which it is a part began tearing into the Northeast Sunday night.

The HuffPost reported that a Romney official had reaffirmed the position taken by the GOP candidate during the primaries.

According to the HuffPost the official said: Gov. Romney wants to ensure states, who are the first responders and are in the best position to aid impacted individuals and communities, have the resources and assistance they need to cope with natural disasters."

So Romney wants to dismantle FEMA, turn it over to the states, or, as he said during the primaries, privatize disaster relief altogether. There's no good fortune when it comes to being hit by a mega storm. For the millions being impacted by Sandy this week it could be worse, however. Mitt Romney could be the president.

Photo: In Hampton, Virginia, Michelle Hamor, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' chief of flood plain management, monitors water levels as the effects of Hurricane Sandy begin. Flickr

Troubled children adopted by homo/heterosexual parents flourish equally well

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 11:19:00 +0000

Anyone concerned about the anti-gay agenda of the radical Right in the U.S. will find scores of websites dedicated to the proposition that gay couples should not be allowed to adopt children. These range from commentators equating gay adoption to "sexual abuse'' to news headlines concerning Mitt Romney's flip-flops (he was for it and now is against it) and the battles going on in state legislatures to ban it: all in the name of "concern for the children."

Anyone who is really concerned for children should want them to be protected from the actions of ignorant, bigoted, religious fanatics and hypocritical political demagogues who don't give a hoot about children and families (other than their own.)

Fortunately there is some scientific evidence available to decide if children are helped or harmed by gay adoptions. Unfortunately, bigots, hate mongers, and hypocritical right-wing politicians are completely immune to being influenced by science.

For those more influenced by facts than fantasy, ScienceDaily on October 18, 2012 published the following article: "Foster Kids Do Equally Well When Adopted by Gay, Lesbian or Heterosexual Parents, Study Suggests." SD always adds "suggests," because science should not be dogmatic.

Here's the deal. UCLA psychologists studied the cases of 82 high-risk foster care children who were adopted by heterosexual parents (60), lesbian parents (7) and gay male parents (15). The children had an average age of 4 and the parents of 41.

The psychologists assessed the children three times after their adoption - at two months, one year, and two years, and also questioned the parents about any problems. What they found out was that, on average, the children had made real progress in their mental development, their behavior issues (these were high risk foster children, remember) were stable and the their IQ measurements went up an average of 10 points - "a large increase."

The lead author of the study said, "The children showed meaningful gains in heterosexual, gay, and lesbian families. Their cognitive development improved substantially, while their behavior problems and social development were stable."

If the opponents of gay adoption had had their way 22 of these children would not have been adopted and would have remained in foster care institutions (not enough heterosexuals to go around, sorry about that). Those high-risk children may have been denied the positive changes in their lives that they received by means of gay adoption. It is not the children the bigots are interested in. They are only interested in their own sleazy agenda and hope to gain their ends by creating and appealing to the prejudices of a misinformed public.

Photo: Gay-Straight Alliance members ride a school bus in the Seattle Gay Pride parade in 2008. (Jon Gilbert Leavitt/CC)

Quality care group wins “open government” award

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 10:21:00 +0000

Port Angeles, WA - The Clallam County Quality Care Coalition (CCQCC) recently won an "open government" award in recognition of the group's fight to open the books on the operation of the Olympic Medical Center (OMC), which runs the only full-service hospital on the Olympic Peninsula.

Frank Garrad, a founder of the Washington Coalition for Open Government, presented the award to Dr. William Kildall and Pat Slaten, leaders of the CCQCC during a ceremony in front of the hospital Oct. 17.

Garrad, former publisher of the Port Townsend Leader, a daily newspaper, told the crowd "It is really impressive that an effort like this one could be so successful" in persuading the OMC to be more transparent in how it manages public funds.

The award praises the CCQCC for its "outstanding effort and key contribution in promoting and defending the people's right to know in the conduct of the people's business."

Kildall told the People's World that OMC officials bowed to the demands of the CCQCC that financial records be open for public scrutiny including contracts with private vendors. OMC recently announced that a "Public Records Officer" would release those records. But in a more recent news release, the OMC Board promised, instead, that an "administrative director" would make the records available.

Port Angeles Memorial Hospital is a publicly owned hospital built on land set aside before the town was even established by President Abraham Lincoln. The hospital opened in 1951, partly the result of a grassroots campaign spearheaded by Vivian Gaboury. She mobilized the labor movement and community organizations on the North Olympic Peninsula urging that it be built. Gaboury was drawn into political activism by Edna Coventon, a leader of the Puget Sound Cooperative Colony, a utopian socialist movement credited with the founding of Port Angeles.

Until the hospital opened, loggers, millworkers, and other accident victims were untreated and sometimes died from injuries they suffered.

"We're now getting the actual vouchers list which names the organizations and the vendors they (the OMC) is dealing with and the amount," Kildall added. "We're analyzing the information on a quarterly basis to see where the money is flowing. Just like any other government agency, these expenditures should be transparent and accountable."

Kildall has led the movement in Washington State for a "single-payer" health care system twice filling to capacity the Sequim High School auditorium to demand quality, comprehensive national health care.

"Our basic health care needs are being held hostage by the giant pharma corporations, by the health insurance monopolies," Kildall said.

CCQCC supported the Service Employees International Union 1199 NW last spring in their struggle to win a fair contract. OMC refused to bargain with the workers and obtained a court order to block a strike. But the court order also stipulated that OMC and the union submit to binding arbitration. The union agreed but OMC management refused. Under mounting pressure including mass rallies and picketlines and a sharply-worded letter by State Rep. Kevin Van de Wege, OMC finally agreed to settle the dispute without going into binding arbitration. The workers won a substantial victory.

Kildall pointed out that private hospitals routinely hide billions of dollars they hand over to the pharmaceutical corporations and insurance companies. "Now increasingly we see the same behavior from public hospitals," he added.

Garred and members of the CCQCC went into the hospital to attend the scheduled meeting of the OMC Board of Directors, all seven of them elected by Clallam County voters and accountable to them. Garrad was on the list to speak during the public comment period. Yet when Garrad rose to speak, OMC Board President, John Miles, interrupted him, telling him his comments were not welcome. Garrad stepped forward and told the Board his intention was to thank OMC for announcing its plan to make all its records public. He returned to the speakers lectern and delivered a much-abbreviated speech.

Miles arrogant treatment of the founder of the Coalition for Open Government, is "disrespectful and unbecoming for an elected public official," Kildall declared.

Photo: Tim Wheeler/PW

"Vote Transit" says union!

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 18:32:00 +0000

DALLAS - A downtown rally of transit union workers and their friends Oct. 25 underlined the national union's political program. They are asking every American to vote for candidates who support mass transit, but they are particularly working on building ties between the drivers and maintenance personnel in the union and the millions of Americans who ride public transportation. They hand out leaflets that say:

"By riding public transit you are:

* Easing traffic congestion on our roads

* Reducing gas consumption and dependence on foreign oil

* Keeping our roads safer -- riding a bus is 91 times safer than car travel

* Improving our air quality by reducing car pollution

* Saving up to $820 a month, nearly $10,000 per year, on transportation costs.

* Stimulating our economy - Every $1 invested in public transportation generates $4 in economic returns.

Congress has attempted to slash public transportation even as transit systems across the country raise fares and cut services. That's why this election, riders need to VOTE to support candidates who support public transportation."

Their program is outlined on www.votetransit.org. It includes an opportunity for everyone to pledge to "vote transit" in 2012.

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, the only Democrat that North Texas sends to Washington, told the rally participants that mass transit is the bedrock of the American economy. Everyone, she said, should support mass transit with their votes. She is on the Transportation Committee in Congress.

Johnson was joined by State Rep. Marc Veasey, who won the Democratic nomination in U.S. Congressional District 33. Because District 33 residents vote overwhelmingly Democratic, he is expected to join Congresswoman Johnson in January. She told the rally crowd what a great relief she expects to gain when Veasey brings a second Democratic vote into Congress next year.

Photo: Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson. Jim Lane/PW

Court jails six scientists over quake report

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Scientists around the world today condemned an Italian court's decision to convict six scientists on manslaughter charges for failing to predict an earthquake that devastated the city of L'Aquila in 2009.

Seismologists slammed the "ridiculous" trial as there is no reliable way to predict earthquakes.

But the court in L'Aquila jailed the scientists and a government official for six years, ruling that they didn't accurately communicate the risk of the 2009 earthquake that killed more than 300 people.

The trial centred on a meeting a week before the 6.3-magnitude quake struck.

The experts had determined that a major quake was "unlikely" but not impossible.

Prosecutors said the defendants provided "inaccurate, incomplete and contradictory information about the dangers" facing L'Aquila.

The court agreed, convicting the six scientists from the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology and a member of the Civil Protection Agency.

It also told the government to pay £6.3 million in damages.

But scientists worldwide were aghast at the decision because earthquakes are still impossible to predict with any kind of accuracy.

"To predict a large quake on the basis of a relatively commonplace sequence of small earthquakes and to advise the local population to flee" would be "both bad science and bad public policy," said Professor David Oglesby of the earth sciences faculty at the University of California.

British Geological Survey seismic hazard chief Roger Musson agreed.

"It's chilling that people can be jailed for giving a scientific opinion," he said.

Among those convicted were some of Italy's most well-known and internationally respected geological experts, including Enzo Boschi, former head of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.

"I'm dejected, despairing. I still don't understand what I'm accused of," Mr Boschi said.

But relatives of some people killed in the quake said justice had been done.

Ilaria Carosi, whose sister died, said that officials must be held responsible "for taking their job lightly.

This article originally appeared in Britain's Morning Star newspaper.

Which Mitt Romney is the real Mitt Romney?

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 11:40:00 +0000

We ask that question because the Republican presidential nominee has apparently drawn even with incumbent Democrat Barack Obama in the race for the White House. And off his 4-year record, we know that what we hear from Obama - even if we don't always like it - is what we get. Not so with his challenger.

There's the Mitt Romney of the presidential debate stage with Obama, who projected a "moderate" image. There's the Mitt Romney of his tenure as Massachusetts governor, when he worked across the aisle with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and the Democratic legislature to enact a statewide health insurance reform plan that looks suspiciously like the "Obamacare" Romney now denounces on the campaign trail.

And there's the Mitt Romney of behind closed doors, who also tried to kill collective bargaining rights for Massachusetts public safety workers, six years before Wisconsin's Right Wing GOP Gov. Scott Walker carried out the same scheme. Romney failed; Walker didn't.

There's the Mitt Romney of the infamous fundraiser in ritzy Boca Raton, Fla. That Romney told his rich pals and donors that 47% of the country views itself as "victims," who depend on government and that he doesn't care about them.

And there's the Mitt Romney of yet another closed-door speech to his corporate cronies, in this case the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC). His speech, which the Utility Workers posted on their website, is so full of anti-worker anti-union promises that it makes clear that Romney lives in a different world from the rest of us.

Among his schemes, Romney would cut workers' wages by dumping project labor agreements and repealing the Davis-Bacon Act, which prevents shady contractors from undercutting honest builders when both seek government-paid work. The corporate crooks would win by paying rock-bottom wages, not Davis-Bacon's prevailing area wages, with no benefits.

No wonder the ABC, a right wing front group, applauded Romney, endorsed him and is dumping tens of thousands of dollars into his campaign.

Sure, Obama has had his closed-door "real" moments too, particularly the one in 2008 where he said bitter rural voters cling to guns and God rather than voting their pocketbooks. Indeed, it's Obama's statement, and what he learned from it after it was revealed, that lead us to conclude the closed-door Romney is the real Romney.

After all, like Obama, Romney was speaking to his big givers - and big givers matter more to Mitt. They're his class and his backers. They're the corrupt financiers of Wall Street and Boca Raton who plunged the nation and the world into the Great Recession, smashing the rest of us while they walked, and still walk, away with millions.

They're the ABC and the rest of the radical right who scheme to impose their anti-worker ideology on the U.S. and the world, reducing us all to their serfs and slaves.

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" says the fake wizard when Dorothy pulls back the drapery in The Wizard Of Oz. "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" say apologists for Romney. Dorothy didn't. Neither should we.

Photo: In this video framegrab from a May 17, Mitt Romney speaks at a $50,000-a-plate Florida fundraiser. Romney told donors that 47 percent of Americans don't pay taxes and believe they are entitled to extensive government support. "My job is not to worry about those people," he said. Mother Jones Video/AP

Angela Davis speaks to 2,000 at Michigan rally

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 13:14:00 +0000

A standing room only crowd of nearly 2,000 people welcomed renowned activist and scholar Angela Davis to Detroit to celebrate the 40th anniversary of her acquittal on trumped up charges of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy. They were black, white, brown, young, old, gay and straight. The event, held last night at Fellowship Chapel on the city's northwest side, was a powerful demonstration of the respect and affection Detroiters have for Professor Davis and her history of struggle for economic, racial and gender justice.

The program included a who's who of Detroiters including Fellowship Pastor Wendell Anthony, Congressman John Conyers, Detroit City Councilperson Jo Ann Watson, Metro Detroit AFL-CIO President Chris (Christos) Michalakis, Retired Wayne County Circuit Court Judge and civil rights activist Claudia Morcom, Metro AFL-CIO Civil Rights Committee Chair Michele Artt and UAW Vice-President Cindy Estrada.

In his opening remarks, Rev. Anthony described the outpouring as "an expression of Detroiters' love for activism and historical correctness." Councilperson Watson called Prof. Davis "the queen mother of the movement" and brought a testimonial resolution from the Detroit City Council honoring her.

A common thread running through the remarks of all speakers was the importance of the November 6 election. Alluding to the fact that Prof. Davis had come to Detroit thirteen days before the election, Congressman Conyers said it was a "night where we not only remember history but plan how we're going to make history...Dr. Davis, you're right on time!"

President Michalakis emphasized the importance of the election to the "future of our democracy." He called attention to three statewide ballot proposals. He called for a no vote on Prop. 1 which would allow the governor to impose emergency ﬁnancial managers on municipalities and school districts that he determines to be in ﬁnancial difficulty. These ﬁnancial dictators could usurp the powers of local elected ofﬁcials and unilaterally void collective bargaining agreements. He called for yes votes on Prop. 2 and 4. Prop. 2 would amend the state constitution to guarantee collective bargaining rights and prevent enactment of "right-to-work" legislation. Prop. 4 would create a home care worker registry for seniors and guarantee collective bargaining rights for home care workers.

Claudia Morcom introduced Prof. Davis. Forty years ago, Judge Morcom was a chairperson of the Detroit Free Angela Committee and recalled helping to organize a celebration of Prof. Davis' acquittal at the state fairgrounds in Detroit which drew 10,000 people. She described Prof. Davis as "one who has never forgotten the idea that unless we're united as a community of people - black, white, brown, yellow, we can never really accomplish anything, but if we do, we can accomplish anything."

Prof. Davis rose to speak to a standing ovation from the audience. She recalled the rally at the fairgrounds and coming to Detroit many times in her role as a co-chairperson of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and for events such as the rally to save the Dodge Main plant in 1979. Her address was wide-ranging but emphasized the importance of the upcoming election. "As we go to the polls, she said, "let us recall that no one thought it was possible to elect a black president," and while some are disappointed in the pace of change she cautioned that we should put that disappointment "into context."

She challenged the audience to imagine what it would be like following President Obama's election if we had taken to the streets the day after inauguration both to celebrate and to pressure him on the issues that we all care about." She cautioned that "we should never expect to elect a president to lead us to the Promised Land...we have to do it for ourselves."

Emphasizing the relationship between electoral politics and mass movement politics, Prof. Davis outlined a number of "issues that progressives have to force onto the national political agenda" including an end to all of the union busting strategies, the rights of undocumented workers and students, women's reproductive rights, prisoners' rights, the rights of the LGBT communities, and combating anti-communism and the growing "Islamophobia" brought on by the so-called "war on terror."

As regards, the issue of "Islamophobia," Prof. Davis spoke at length about centrality of the Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people to the discontent in the Muslim world. She challenged the audience to see themselves as "world citizens" and recognize "that Israeli apartheid...is just as bad" as that of South African apartheid. "It's about time we stood up and recognized that an injustice anywhere...is an injustice everywhere." She then concluded her address by saying that "we need peace, justice, equality, and socialism for us all."

Following Prof. Davis' address, Michele Artt spoke on behalf of the committee which organized the event, "Detroit Welcomes Angela Davis," and asked for contributions to help defray expenses.

The last speaker, UAW Vice-President Cindy Estrada spoke of the importance of collective bargaining to Michigan workers and small business people. She related her father's experience as a small businessperson whose success was dependent on the incomes his customers derived from their unions' collective bargaining efforts. She made an impassioned plea for members of the audience to get involved in get-out-the vote activities in support of Prop. 2 and other union backed proposals and candidates.

NLRB to probe overly broad employee handbooks

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 13:02:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - The National Labor Relations Board's top lawyer is turning his attention to overly broad "employee handbooks" that curb or violate workers' rights, and especially their "at will" employment clauses, legal blogs reported in October.

The blogs add that NLRB's Acting General Counsel, Lafe Solomon, discussed his handbook scrutiny in a speech to the Connecticut Bar Association and that he bases it on a settlement signed on May 22 with Hyatt Hotels Corp. by NLRB's Phoenix office.

The curbs on workers, which Hyatt agreed to drop, were part of that settlement, its text shows. And Hyatt agreed to remove a key paragraph where all employees agreed they are "at will" workers - i.e. non-union - unless they get top management permission to change their status.

So far two such at will disclaimers have been struck as a violation of the National Labor Relations Act, employment law attorney Deanne Katz wrote in an Oct. 23 Findlaw blog. "Both have had a similar problem: They've been excluded because they discourage collective bargaining." Other blogs issued similar analyses.

"Both the at-will disclaimers the NLRB challenged involve statements that an employee's at-will status cannot be altered with the written signature of a high-level executive. That limitation is what the NLRB has focused on," Katz wrote.

"Telling employees they can't alter their status without this specific approval makes it appear unlikely that collective bargaining through a union could have a positive effect on employee status. That in turn discourages employees from joining unions, in the view of the NLRB, and that is what they object to."

The Hyatt settlement is also important to other workers as it shows what type of employer curbs on worker rights, through handbooks, are not kosher as far as the NLRB is concerned. Hyatt agreed to drop the handbook language even though it denied, in the settlement that the language broke labor law.

Besides tossing the at-will section, Hyatt also agreed to evict many other statements from its handbook. Violations would lead to discipline. They included:

Overbroad bans of "disclosure of confidential information," along with overbroad definitions of confidential info. Training manuals were one example.
A ban on participation in "civic or professional organizations" which might result in disclosure of Hyatt's confidential information, including its finances.
Banning "derogatory, unfounded" or disparaging statements about Hyatt, its directors, managers, officers or workers.
Wearing only Hyatt "approved or authorized" union pins on the job.

Photo: Hyatt workers at 2010 sit-in in the streets of Chicago. Photo courtesy of Local 1 UNITE HERE. This story was distributed by Press Associates International.

Latino voter numbers to rise 25 percent

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 12:56:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - The number of Latino voters will rise by 25 percent in the 2012 election, to 12.6 million, compared to 2008, and they'll hold the key votes in more states than ever before, a panel of experts on the Latino population predicts.

The panel included Jason Leon of Project New America, a former Western regional political operative for the AFL-CIO. Panelists, speaking at the Center for National Policy, added the Latino electorate, while not monolithic, is focused on three top issues: Jobs and the economy, education and immigration rights.

"Romney and the Republicans have turned off a lot of Latino voters on that" third issue, said David Ferreira of the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators. Latinos view anti-immigration views "not as just opposition to immigration, but as views about race," added Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens. "Four in ten (Latinos) felt personally targeted" recently, another panelist said.

The findings, from a 6,000-person survey of Latinos by Leon's group, are important because Hispanics are the nation's largest and fastest-growing minority group. The 25 percent hike in numbers, the panel says, comes from a combination of legal immigration and citizenship and coming of age of youngsters born in the U.S.

Leon's survey showed Hispanic voter registration is 50 percent Democratic, 21 percent Republican and 26 percent independent, though the proportion of independents is higher among younger Hispanics. But opinion polls show Democratic President Barack Obama has a virtual 3-to-1 lead over GOP nominee Mitt Romney among Hispanics.

Unless Romney can get the percentage up to 35 percent-38 percent, Leon added, he faces a tough road to the White House. Romney's road would be particularly tough, the panel noted, because the Latino vote is branching out from its traditional centers in California, New Mexico, Illinois, New York and Florida. Leon noted, for example, that 2.5 percent of the electorate in both the key swing state of Ohio and in next-door Pennsylvania are Latino.

Most of those voters, especially in Ohio, are of Puerto Rican ancestry, he added, and are concerned about measures to aid "underwater" homeowners - Latinos were hit harder by foreclosures than other groups - and create jobs.

The Latinos also view government as having a positive role in job creation, and "in a bit of good news for my union colleagues, 86 percent back the right to organize and bargain collectively," Leon said. They view that as a pathway to decent jobs.

The panel also called the Republicans extremely shortsighted for not reconsidering their approach to and positions concerning the Latino community. They noted that former GOP President George W. Bush, who had a good working relationship with Latinos as Texas governor, pushed comprehensive immigration reform. He also got more than 40 percent of the Latino vote in 2004.

Bush's immigration reform plan, crafted with a bipartisan coalition that included the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., died in a GOP Senate filibuster. Latinos remember that, the panel said. "Bush had the right strategy, but Romney hasn't gotten the message," Wilkes said. Romney took a hard anti-immigrant line in GOP primaries.

But Democrats and Obama cannot take the Latino vote for granted, the panel advised. Some 35 percent of Latinos, a plurality, call themselves as socially conservative," with almost an equal share calling themselves moderates, Leon's survey says. And the top Hispanic newscaster in the U.S. has constantly criticized Obama for breaking his 2008 promise to push comprehensive immigration reform.

And at least one more GOP Latino, from Texas, will be in the U.S. Senate next year. A Democratic Latino has a 50-50 shot at an open GOP-held Senate seat from Arizona, the panel said.

The one problem on the horizon is voter suppression efforts, many of them aimed at Latinos, the panelists added. Their groups are being pro-active in already holding state officials' feet to the fire to ensure fairness at the polls. In the latest example, they sat down with Arizona's Secretary of State to demand correction of two state mailers, in Spanish, with the wrong date - Nov. 8 - for Election Day.

The mailers were distributed in Maricopa County (Phoenix).

Hispanic groups are also encouraging Latino voters to cast ballots wherever early voting is allowed. That will allow time for challenges to residency and voting status to be resolved before Nov. 6. "And the whole controversy over voter ID appears to have backfired" on its GOP backers, one panelist said. It raised the issue's visibility so much that more Latinos than ever rushed to register - and make sure they were.

Other evidence of the spreading influence of Latino voters includes:

Latinos are a growing bloc in Connecticut, which has an unexpectedly tight U.S. Senate race in a heavily Democratic state. Hartford, the state capital, is 40 Latino, Ferreira said.

There are more than 200 Latino state legislators nationwide, with other Latinos stepping up civic participation by seeking lower-level elected office.

Photo: Americas Voice online

Early vote begins in Texas

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 12:02:00 +0000

DALLAS - Early voting runs from Oct. 22 to Nov. 2 in Texas. Almost all of the efforts at voter suppression passed by the last legislature were stopped by federal courts; consequently a large percentage of Texas's 13 million voters are expected at the polls. If past trends continue, a significant part of the vote will take place before Nov. 6. Seniors, disabled people, and people who will not be in their home area during the voting period are allowed to vote by mail. Many of them already have.

To emphasize the importance of early voting, Communications Workers of America Local 6215 sent around 40 people to the most central polling place, the Dallas Records Building downtown, to carry out a highly visible rally. They were joined by the handfuls of activists from Jobs with Justice, MoveOn, Texas Alliance for Retired Americans and Texas Organizing Project. Media coverage of the enthusiastic noontime rally was extensive. A short video is available.

Hardly any political scientists expect President Obama to carry Texas this year. There are nevertheless many important decisions to be made on Nov. 6. Polls indicate that tea party favorite Ted Cruz will defeat Democrat Paul Sadler for the open Senate seat. There are two, and possibly four, U.S. Representative seats that Democrats might add to their minority delegation. There is one extremely critical race for State Senate where Fort Worth native Wendy Davis is trying desperately to remain in the Senate despite Republican-engineered redistricting. The local newspaper estimates that as many as 15 state representative seats might be won by Democrats. In none of these cases would the Democrats have a majority anywhere in Texas.

At the same time, Democrats have been doing very well in metropolitan areas. Dallas counts itself as the only "fully blue" county, but the other big urban counties have increasingly Democratic representation.

In Texas, the political scientists agree that all outcomes depend on turnout.

Photo: Jim Lane/PW

In final debate, voters say Obama won decisively

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 16:46:00 +0000

The CBS instant poll came almost instantly. Of the more than 500 uncommitted voters polled after viewing last night's presidential debate, 53% said President Barack Obama won, while only 23% gave it to GOP opponent Mitt Romney - a decisive 2 to 1 victory for the president. Twenty-four percent said it was a draw.

The final debate theme was on foreign policy where the president, after four years of commander-in-chief experience, excelled over Romney who seemed out of his depth - often repeating the same policies as the president's on Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and Iran. Romney's parroting prompted the president to say, "You say you would do the same things we did, but you would just say them louder."

Gone was the saber-rattling over Iran and Syria, as heard in previous Romney statements or by his running mate, Paul Ryan, in the vice presidential debate.

The president easily pinned his opponent as being "all over the map," and Romney didn't seem to help his case with his sometime incoherent answers and made-for-TV slogans.

Despite the foreign policy theme, both candidates used the final debate to pivot towards more domestic issues. Voters are war-weary and anxious for action on the economy. Both candidates addressed that in two distinct ways.

Romney vowed to keep in tact an overly bloated military budget that is full of pork for big corporate contractors. Incredibly, Romney told debate moderator Bob Schieffer to look at his website for the details after being questioned as to whether he could avoid military cuts, give tax cuts to wealthy and balance the budget.

Obama focused on "nation building" at home.

"[W]hat I think the American people recognize is after a decade of war it's time to do some nation building here at home. And what we can now do is free up some resources, to, for example, put Americans back to work, especially our veterans, rebuilding our roads, our bridges, our schools, making sure that, you know, our veterans are getting the care that they need when it comes to post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, making sure that the certifications that they need for good jobs of the future are in place," he said.

Obama criticized Romney for wanting to throw money at the Pentagon - at least another $2 trillion - "that our military is not asking for."

In the most "tweeted" phrase of the night, Obama answered Romney's charge of supposedly starving the military budget. Responding to the assertion that the Navy's ship capacity was the same as in 1917, Obama said sharply, "Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military's changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines. And so the question is not a game of Battleship, where we're counting ships. It's what are our capabilities."

After the debate, the far right went into overdrive, attacking the president on that statement.

However, union leaders representing Navy shipyard workers in Norfolk and Newport News, Va., said they agreed with the president's emphasis on the Navy's capabilities.

"I am proud to represent the world best shipbuilders and the very best ship repair/maintenance workforce. I took no insult from our president's remarks nor did I see any reason for anyone in the shipbuilding or ship repair industry to," said Ron Ault, president of AFL-CIO Metal Trades Department. "He simply spoke the truth."

Predictably, much of the foreign policy focused on Iran's nuclear program and defense of Israel, which experts say, there was virtually no distinction between the two. There were no questions about a negotiated settlement between the Israelis and Palestinians and nothing on the Occupied Territories and settlements.

Not mentioned at all by moderator or candidates were climate change and poverty.

"Climate change remained the threat-that-must-not-be-named in the final presidential debate. Even the center-right Politico mocked the candidates for ignoring 'a global climate crisis that could result in unprecedented sea-level rise, drought and food shortages,'" wrote Think Progress blogger Joe Romm.

The Nonprofit Quarterly suggested "Schieffer might also have asked a question about the World Bank's commitment to eradicate world poverty, given that 1.3 billion people live on the equivalent of $1.25 a day or less ..." but that didn't seem to rank high among debate concerns.

Even with the shortcomings, commentators saw clear choices between the president and the Republican.

Writing in Salon, author Joan Walsh said, "Obama's best line came when he told Romney, 'You seem to want to import the foreign policies of the 1980s, just like the social policies of the 1950s and the economic policies of the 1920s.' That wasn't just a good zinger, it's a great summary of what's at stake in this election. I hope voters ignore the supposedly savvy horse race coverage of this crucial debate, and pay attention to Romney's lack of core convictions on foreign policy or anything else."

Photo: This graph shows the amount of money spent in millions of dollars on military budgets with the United States dwarfing the rest of the world combined. President Obama said in the debate, "Now, keep in mind that our military spending has gone up every single year that I've been in office. We spend more on our military than the next 10 countries combined: China, Russia, France, the United Kingdom, you name it." (PBS/wide angle)

Sam Webb delivers message of unity in Wisconsin

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 15:02:00 +0000

MADISON, Wisc. -- Sam Webb, National Chair of the CPUSA arrived in the battleground state of Wisconsin and proceeded to take to the airwaves and to the public podium with his Party's message on Democracy at the Crossroads and the how the class struggle fits into the 2012 election.

Webb first spoke before the Unemployed Workers Council of Madison where he hammered home the message of unity to defeat the ultra-right and challenge corporate power, saying, "Small movements don't make big changes."

In this University town, Webb also addressed the issue of the student debt crisis, pointing out that U.S. student debt now tops one trillion dollars, threatening the future of the entire nation. After the meeting a group of attendees presented Webb with a copy of the book, "Foot soldier for Peace and Justice: The story of John Gilman," autobiography of the late, great Wisconsin activist.

Later that evening Webb arrived in Milwaukee where he spoke before a gathering at The People's Books Cooperative and took a wide range of questions regarding the class struggle and the 2012 elections.

Again Webb stressed the urgency of building a broad based peoples movement to counter the ultra-right and their allies. He encouraged progressives involved in all areas of struggle -- women's rights, immigrant justice and movements for racial and LGBT equality -- to go to the polls en masse.

Sam Webb got the word out on the radio as well. He spoke live on WSUM 91.7FM, the student radio station of the University of Wisconsin - Madison, where he was a guest on the TMI program hosted by Aldous Tyler. During the program Webb provided students with an introduction to the basics of Marxism.

Webb also spoke on Books and Beats hosted by Stu Levitan at 92.1 the Mic, which bills itself as "Madison's Progressive talk radio." [listen to podcast here.]

Stu asked about the state of the Communist Party today and Sam said while the Party itself is steadily growing it also works with as broad a coalition as possible, similar to the sort of peoples movements of the 1930's and 1960's that lead to progressive legislation that families now count on in their daily lives.

Sam went on to say that it is this very legislation and social safety net that is in danger from attack by the extreme right. Sam warned that a tea party congress, acting in conjunction with a Romney/Ryan White House, could undo 60 years of gains in as little as 90 days, since "once the right gets their hands on power, they use it!"

While one might assume Wisconsin activists are beleaguered after the unsuccessful attempt to recall tea party Governor Scott Walker, Webb said he found the opposite to be true: "Even though the setbacks were deeply felt, the workers of Wisconsin impressed me as energized, organized and preparing a fight-back that I believe will resonate on election day; and the message will be clear" continued Webb, "The American working class is going forward, not back."

Photo: 2011 Wisconsin solidarity. Peoples World

Across the U.S., anti-fracking groups speak out

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 15:01:00 +0000

From the western U.S. to the East Coast, new grassroots coalitions are forming to protest one of today's most significant environmental hazards - the natural gas extraction process known as fracking. The nonprofit group Frack Free Colorado is protesting the practice today in Denver, Colorado's Civic Park. And in New York, musician Sean Lennon has formed Artists Against Fracking in order to better get the message out to the public that fracking needs to stop.

Positively linked by experts to both earthquakes and water poisoning, fracking involves drilling into the ground - and pumping harmful chemicals into the earth - to obtain natural gas. From environmentalists, to celebrities, to EPA officials, people across the board have highlighted the threat this practice poses.

Frack Free Colorado will today be making their voices heard; they will call for an end to fracking and demand that the state move farther away from fossil fuels, and closer toward renewable energy. "As Coloradoans, we feel that it's imperative to assess the environmental and health impacts of the fracking process," said group co-organizer Allison Wolff. "The collective goal of everyone involved in Frack Free Colorado is to open up a dialogue regarding the effects of fracking on our communities, families, and environment. We want to educate the public on the dangers of this process and discuss clean energy alternatives."

"The natural gas industry is polluting our rivers, aquifers, wildlife, and citizens," said Tara Sheahan, founder of organization Conscious Global Leadership. "In addition, oil and gas companies estimate that they will use approximately 6.5 billion gallons of water in Colorado this year. Our state does not have enough water to support this growing industry.

"Frack Free Colorado's goal is to take action to help people lessen their dependence on natural gas. We need to start living like First Nation people, who view the earth as a relative, [as opposed to] a resource to exploit."

The Colorado event is reportedly inspired by - and modeled after - a previous New York event called Songs Against Drilling, in which local musicians entertained and educated audiences on the matter of natural gas drilling and its negative effects.

This summer in New York, musician John Lennon's son, Sean Lennon, and mother Yoko Ono, formed Artists Against Fracking, and in August gathered a coalition of activists at the city's Paley Center to discuss the pursuit and development of renewable alternatives to fracking. Joined by actor Mark Ruffalo, they also urged New York governor Andrew Cuomo not to reverse the state's fracking ban.

Lennon was raised on a farm with his parents near the Marcellus Shale - an area that the natural gas industry is itching to tamper with. Lennon remarked that the local people in such areas would be the ones who paid the price.

"I feel like the end result of wanting to make profits through fossil fuels, and drilling for oil and gas, is that you overlook individual people and small-town farmers," he said. "That's what's happening in New York right now; they're promising they won't drill near the reservoirs that supply Manhattan," but what about the small towns in New York?

Ruffalo, also part of Artists Against Fracking, noted that not only is fracking dangerous to people and to the environment, but that it is also wasting precious time amidst the looming threat of climate change.

"Natural gas will not save us from climate change," he said. "And time is not on our side. A recent International Energy Agency report estimates we have five years before the chance to reverse climate change closes. We have the technology to do so; what we lack is the collective will. The biggest industry hoax is that the U.S. can't move to renewable energy now. It's a lie."

The lies and corruption of the fracking industry will be further shown to the public in December, when the film Promised Land is released. The movie stars Matt Damon (another vocal opponent of fracking) as a corporate salesman who visits a rural town to buy drilling rights from residents, but encounters resistance along the way from a grassroots coalition formed by a school teacher.

The film is to have a limited theatrical release on December 28, followed by an expanded release in January 2013, and will perhaps deliver one of the sharpest critiques of fracking yet.

Though the establishment of more anti-fracking outlets is a positive advancement, Lennon notes that the natural gas industry's lies (which tout fracking as one of the strongest job creators) will have to be continuously exposed. "This is not going to bring jobs to America and save our economy," he said. "And once they destroy one community, they'll move on to the next."

Photo: EcoWatch.org, courtesy of Frack Free Colorado

Voter suppression billboards coming down

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 12:56:00 +0000

Some 140 billboards in Ohio and Wisconsin warning of jail sentences for "voter fraud" began coming down yesterday after the anonymous sponsor said it would take them down rather than reveal its identity, Clear Channel, the billboards' owner said.

The infamous billboards, lit up at night, showed a gavel and the words, "Voter Fraud is a felony - up to 3 years in jail and a $10,000 fine." They were set up in African-American, Latino and low-income neighborhoods early this month and caused a firestorm of opposition from human rights, voting rights, labor and community activists.

Voting rights activists charge that the anonymously-placed ads were an attempt to scare people away from voting.

Clear Channel, which is owned by Mitt Romney's Bain Capital, has a long history of participating in voter suppression efforts, having allowed similar billboards to run anonymously in 2010.

"We are pleased that Clear Channel has decided to remove the billboards that started popping up in Black and Latino neighborhoods in Cleveland, Columbus and Milwaukee," said ColorOfChange in a press release today. "We are pleased that after hearing from more than 100,000 people across the country, Clear Channel has finally decided to stop enabling this attack on Black and Latino voters by an anonymous group."

ColorOfChange, a large on-line civil rights organization, worked with numerous individuals and groups to gather the signatures including Cleveland City Councilwoman Phyllis Cleveland, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law, CREDO Action, SumOfUs.org, Change.org and SignOn.org.

The anonymous group responsible for the voter suppression billboards, when given the choice by Clear Channel, decided to cancel the ads and "continue hiding in the shadows rather than publicly stand by the ads," said ColorOfChange. "These billboards are part of a massive right wing effort to suppress the votes of African Americans, Latinos and other people of color for political gain."

While the decision by Clear Channel is seen as a victory for voting rights, activists note that the same ads are being hosted by another outdoor ad company, Norton Outdoor, in Cincinnati.

"Norton's continued refusal to pull down these anonymous voter suppression ads speaks to their values," said the statement by ColorOfChange. The group pledged to continue applying pressure until all the ads are removed.

Councilwoman Cleveland said: "Needless to say I'm happy that they (the ads on the Clear Channel billboards) will be taken down but I want to know who was behind this in the first place."

Embarrassed by the firestorm around the ads, Clear Channel said it is donating 10 billboards around the Cleveland area that read: "Voting is a Right. Not a Crime."

Community protests grocery chain's cooperation with ICE

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 11:06:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. - Over 200 labor and community protesters filled the sidewalk around the Mi Pueblo Food Center here Oct. 20, calling on the store to stop collaborating with the Department of Homeland Security and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

The supermarket is located in Oakland's Fruitvale neighborhood, home to a large Latino community.

The protesters also urged prospective customers to join a boycott of all Mi Pueblo stores - some 21 in northern California - launched Oct. 8 to protest the company's announcement that it was cooperating with the government's online E-Verify program to determine workers' immigration status. Participation in E-Verify is voluntary in California.

Daniel Vasquez carried a sign with the legend, "Christ would never e-verify anyone!"

Asked why he had come all the way from his home in San Jose for the action, he said, "We are brothers, we are all on the same earth. We need to be together against any injustice."

Vasquez said a friend who worked for Mi Pueblo was fired because he wanted to organize a union there. "That's not right," he said. "I'm here for him."

Emiliano Bourgois-Chacon, director of the San Francisco Day Labor Program, was there with members of the program including several from its Women's Collective. The program has seen E-Verify's impact on the community, he said, with a number of people joining after having lost their former jobs as a result.

Bringing more energy to an already lively picket line were dozens of young people bearing signs, "Sin papeles y sin miedo, Undocumented and unafraid!" "We are not illegal," and "We all have a dream!"

They had been among protesters who gathered near the store's front entrance and successfully challenged Mi Pueblo's lack of a sound permit for the music blaring from its loudspeakers.

Mi Pueblo announced in August that following a recommendation from the federal government, it had joined the E-verify program. Earlier this month the company said it is undergoing an I-9 immigration status audit.

The labor- community Justice for Mercado Workers Campaign is meeting with immigration authorities, urging them to follow their policy of suspending audits when a labor dispute is in progress. For several years, Mi Pueblo workers have been seeking to organize with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5.

Actions supporting the Mi Pueblo workers have also taken place in Salinas and San Jose, and community pressure is growing for actions in more cities, Gerardo Dominguez, the UFCW's director of strategic programs, said in a telephone interview.

Dominguez said people are "slowly but surely" coming together around workers' issues, at many different markets in addition to the Mi Pueblo chain.

The Justice for Mercado Workers Campaign was formally launched nearly three years ago.

It brings together labor and community organizations including UFCW Local 5, the California League of United Latin American Citizens, the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, the California Healthy Communities Network and others, to advocate for all workers at the ethnic grocery stores which number many recent immigrants among both workers and customers.

Dominguez said similar, but unrelated, developments are taking place elsewhere in the country.

The campaign estimates that some 30,000 California workers, many of them in the San Francisco Bay Area, are employed by mercados.

The Justice for Mercado Workers Campaign seeks to convince mercado owners to sign a code of conduct calling for observance of basic labor laws, timely and full payment of wages, paid sick and vacation days, recognition of workers' right to organize, and compliance with federal and state nondiscrimination laws.

Photo: Marilyn Bechtel/PW

Today in history: 200,000 students boycotted Chicago public schools

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 16:11:00 +0000

On October 22, 1963, a coalition of civil rights groups organized Freedom Day, a mass boycott and demonstration against segregated schools and inadequate resources for black students. Almost half of Chicago's public school students skipped class, leaving many schools on the predominantly black South and West Sides virtually empty.

Public schools in black neighborhoods were often outdated and always overcrowded. The Chicago Board of Education's answer to overcrowding was to have double-shifts at some schools. Double-shifts meant that students in affected schools attended less than a full day of class. In another measure, at some schools the Board sanctioned the construction of mobile classroom units.

In addition to overcrowding, CPS faculty was segregated, and the history curriculum then did not mention African Americans.

The climax of Freedom Day was the march by students, parents, teachers and supporters to the downtown office of the Chicago Board of Education. Thousands took to the streets, carrying signs that voiced their frustrations. Police met the nearly 10,000 protestors and prevented them from entering the Chicago Board of Education building.

One group organizing Freedom Day was the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations They helped black parents stage sit-ins against overcrowded schools and pursued legal action against school segregation. In 1964 Al Raby, a black schoolteacher, was elected convener of CCCO.

Another group involved in Freedom Day was the Congress of Racial Equality or CORE, founded in Chicago in 1942.

CORE sought to apply the principles of nonviolence as a tactic against segregation. The group's inspiration was Mahatma Gandhi. Employing non-violent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for non-violence, civil rights and freedom across the world.

Gandhi had, in turn, been influenced by the writings of 19th century American writer Henry David Thoreau, author of Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to government in moral opposition to an unjust state.

In the South, CORE's nonviolent direct action campaigns opposed "Jim Crow" segregation and job discrimination, and fought for voting rights. Outside the South, CORE focused on discrimination in employment and housing, and also in de facto school segregation.

In 1960, the Chicago chapter of CORE began to challenge racial segregation in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS).

The massive Freedom Day protest ignited more demonstrations, each demanding an end to segregation in Chicago. Change occurred slowly, but this activism led to increasing support for integration and a fairer chare of resources, while it revealed that racial segregation extended beyond the south.

In September of 2012, the attack on public education in Chicago led to a strike of nearly 30,000 teachers, nurses, librarians, counselors, social workers, aides and paraprofessionals.

The Chicago Teachers Union was fighting for a collaborative voice in any education reform and sought quality, fully funded public education, with smaller class sizes, fully staffed schools and a curriculum rich in art, music, physical education and language at every school.

Teachers saw their fight as bettering not only their pay and benefits, but more importantly working and learning conditions benefiting the students.

Contributing to this story: Chicago History Museum's Facing Freedom website (with photos and newsreel footage), The Encyclopedia of Chicago, Wikipedia

Photo: Crowd fills LaSalle Street between City Hall and building housing Board of Education as thousands of demonstrators marched in Chicago on Oct. 22, 1963, protesting school segregation. Paul Cannon/AP

Romney's entitlement and the 2012 elections

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 12:18:00 +0000

ESTERO, Fla. - Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and far-right Republicans love to throw around the word "entitlement." They always call Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other people helping programs "entitlements." What breathtaking hypocrisy!

The underlying idea of such hypocrisy is these programs are "freebees," which "takers" feel they are "owed." The use of the word is designed to reinforce the notion of dependency. Or as Romney so blatantly put it in a speech to his multi-millionaire friends about 47 percent of Americans, they are people "who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it; that that's an entitlement, and the government should give it to them."

Of course working people pay taxes all their lives to support Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Working families' taxes support all the other "people helping" programs, too. As has been pointed out numerous times in this election cycle, secretaries often pay a higher tax rate to build and support these programs than their CEO bosses and billionaires pay.

There is really nothing new in the far right's use of coded language to muddle and confuse. For example, there are "right-to-work" laws. They are, in fact, anti-union laws used to steal collective bargaining rights and drive down wages for working people.

Still there is something about the word "entitlement" that does ring true in this election cycle. Just watch Romney in a debate or on the stump. You see real entitlement in action. It's not just his imperial CEO-in-the-boardroom manner. He interrupts, he showers a know-it-all contempt on his audience. And watch the pained expression on his face when the president, or the moderator, or anyone else is speaking. Romney's impatience does real battle with his shaky self-control. You almost expect that snarky smile to crack wide open on his face.

Romney is clearly driven by his fierce belief that he is entitled to the presidency.

This explains his obvious disdain for the 47 percent he described. His whole attitude cries out, "how can such riffraff stand between me and my true birthright?" His first statement about the 47 percent was that they were people who would not vote for him. That was what really bothered Romney about the 47 percent. How can such people stand between him and his true destiny? He gives not one whit about Social Security, or Medicare. No, what really bothers him is the idea that anyone would not recognize his divine right to rule.

So it's no big surprise that Romney was caught in a June 6 conference call, hosted by the anti-union National Federation of Independent Business, instructing employers on how to tell their employees to vote on Nov. 6. How about that for entitlement? By lying to workers about losing their jobs if the president is reelected, Romney is sure they will vote his way. King Romney meets with the Lords to instruct them on how to hand down edicts from above. Feudal lord entitlement was based on a whole series of relationships, based on rulers and the ruled understanding clearly to what positions birthright and divine right entitled them. Monarchy was true entitlement.

But, sorry, Romney. Those days of wealthy entitlement are over. Whole armies of working people are gathering their voting rights "pitch forks" and marching on polling places all over this country to end your long-discredited notions of entitlement.

Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr

Union says Romney did not seek women for top posts

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 10:03:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was wrong when he said that, as Massachusetts governor, he sought information about qualified working women for his Cabinet, a leader of the nation's top public workers union says.

In his second debate with incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama, on Oct. 16, Romney burnished his record on woman workers by, he said, demanding his staff present him with a binder of resumes of women qualified for top posts.

That's not what happened, says Laura Reyes, AFSCME's new Secretary-Treasurer, its top-ranking woman and - more to the point - speaker for the union that represents tens of thousands of Massachusetts local and state workers.

Romney told a debate questioner he made the demand after his staff gave him resumes only from men. After getting the "binder full of women," the GOP'er added, he then hired so many women for top posts that Massachusetts was first^t in the nation in that area.

His debate story turned out to be false, Reyes said. "Romney never asked for the binders." They were given to him by a non-partisan alliance of state women's organizations. Romney is more concerned about American women getting dinner on the table than he is about them getting paid equal pay for equal work," Reyes said.

Referring to another Romney accommodation - adjusting the schedule of his female chief of staff so she could tend to her two elementary-school-aged children-Reyes added: "Cook your own dinner, Gov. Romney."

Both Romney and Obama are working hard to win female voters. Women are estimated to be at least 52 perecent of the electorate this year, and there has been a persistent pro-Democratic gender gap among woman voters for decades.

In the debate, Romney tried to appeal to woman voters by claiming the Great Recession hurt working women more than it hurt men - and thus they would benefit from his pro-entrepreneurial, pro-business policies.

Obama shot back that not only were Romney's facts wrong - proportionally far more men lost their jobs, federal data show - but that GOP policies which Romney wants to restore caused the crash in the first place. He's spent his time in the Oval Office trying to repair the wreckage, Obama said.

Obama added he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act, restoring a female or minority worker's right to sue an employer for pay discrimination. Romney ducked that.

Photo: Tony Pecinovsky/PW